i couldn't care more about harry potter if hogwarts was my alma mater
Seven Things.
1) Last weekend was the family festivities in Fishville. Good times were had and there was much fawning over my adorable nephew. :)
2) Wednesday night I saw She & Him at the 9:30 Club. The show itself? AMAZING. The rest of the audience? ENTITLED JERKFACES. When the band left the stage after the 'last song,' I'd say 2/3 of the audience just.. tuned out. They picked up their cell phones, started chatting, and just WAITED for the band to come back out for an encore, as though the show had a commercial break that they could tune out, rather than there being a SACRED COVENANT between band and audience. Yes, everyone knows the band will come back out and play another song or two after they leave. But they do so because the audience is ASKING FOR MORE, and that asking has a specific form: cheering and clapping and whooping like a maniac for HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES. Wednesday night, the audience was PATHETIC and you could TELL and you know what? It took a LONG DAMN TIME before the band came back out. If you don't do your duty and cheer and clap and whoop, THEY MIGHT GET PISSED OFF AND NOT COME OUT AT ALL. Because THEM'S THE RULES. It might seem like a formality, but it's based on the very real fact that putting together a full set takes TIME and WORK and a HELL of a lot of energy and the band deserves recognition for that. After the show, I went up to the front and tried to see if I could get a set list or a picture of one, but I left after five minutes because the FANS WERE ASSHOLES. The roadies made it very clear that they weren't going to touch the set lists until they were done putting away the equipment, but people KEPT ASKING and KEPT BOTHERING THEM and were just so rude about the whole thing that I walked away rather than have anything to do with them. It's possible that I am overreacting to this, but you know what? It was over 90 degrees at 11PM and I was hot and tired, too, but I DIDN'T ACT LIKE AN ASSHOLE.
3) To say something more about the show, Zooey Deschanel was SO ADORABLE. She is TINY and SO BEAUTIFUL that it's hard to believe. When she sings or plays an instrument, she gets the most adorable look of concentration because she's totally focused on the music. When she has a tambourine, HOWEVER, she has the BEST TIME EVER, jumping up and down and holding the tambourine over her head as she plays it. It's adorable and infectious.
4) Thursday was my workshop! After tutoring, I headed over to the UMD campus and jumped around and sang and made a fool of myself in front of 20 middle school kids. You know- just like most days. ;) We talked about music in Shakespeare's plays and the music in Twelfth Night and the way that every production has to make decisions about what to do with the songs in the play. We listened to lots of different versions of 'Come Away, Death' and talked about how they used the same words but showed VASTLY different emotions and revealed a lot about the setting of each production. Then we talked about what THEIR version would have: 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' in place of 'O Mistress, Mine', a 'Come Away, Death' set to 'Hey Jude,' and the setting of the final song from the back of the Arden TN. :) It went really well and I had a lot of fun. :)
5) Today I got to hang out with Sister and Frank after tutoring, which is always fun. My nephew is pretty damn adorable at 14 weeks old (AND SEEMS TO BE STARTING TEETHING, JEEZY CREEZY), and at 29 years, my sister is also pretty great. :) I discovered at Fishville that S has still not seen the finale of S7 Project Runway because she went into labor right around the time that it aired and hasn't gotten around to watching it yet. MADNESS. Sweet girl still doesn't know who won, so I guess newborns are a good way to avoid spoilers.
6) I got a Wii Fit this week and have become VERY CATTY when it judges me. Don't get me wrong- it's already a lot of fun, but talking back to the trainer is already a favorite hobby.
7) I'm a huge fan of Tom and Lorenzo, who've been 'the Project Rungay guys' for several years, but who actually talk about a lot more than just PR. They cover a lot of fashion-related material (runway! red carpet! trends!) but also just talk about the TV they watch. They've lately been running a series that looks at the fashion of the female characters of Mad Men. Now, here is my confession- I started watching as S1 aired but never actually finished it. It kind of hurt my soul a little- SO well done, but just not a place I actually liked spending time inhabiting. But TLo (along with half of America) love the show, and when I saw that they were going to take a close look at the way that the costuming comments on the characters, I knew I had to take a look at those posts. WARNING- they are spoiler heavy through everything that's aired, but it's FASCINATING. Take a look here
1) Last weekend was the family festivities in Fishville. Good times were had and there was much fawning over my adorable nephew. :)
2) Wednesday night I saw She & Him at the 9:30 Club. The show itself? AMAZING. The rest of the audience? ENTITLED JERKFACES. When the band left the stage after the 'last song,' I'd say 2/3 of the audience just.. tuned out. They picked up their cell phones, started chatting, and just WAITED for the band to come back out for an encore, as though the show had a commercial break that they could tune out, rather than there being a SACRED COVENANT between band and audience. Yes, everyone knows the band will come back out and play another song or two after they leave. But they do so because the audience is ASKING FOR MORE, and that asking has a specific form: cheering and clapping and whooping like a maniac for HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES. Wednesday night, the audience was PATHETIC and you could TELL and you know what? It took a LONG DAMN TIME before the band came back out. If you don't do your duty and cheer and clap and whoop, THEY MIGHT GET PISSED OFF AND NOT COME OUT AT ALL. Because THEM'S THE RULES. It might seem like a formality, but it's based on the very real fact that putting together a full set takes TIME and WORK and a HELL of a lot of energy and the band deserves recognition for that. After the show, I went up to the front and tried to see if I could get a set list or a picture of one, but I left after five minutes because the FANS WERE ASSHOLES. The roadies made it very clear that they weren't going to touch the set lists until they were done putting away the equipment, but people KEPT ASKING and KEPT BOTHERING THEM and were just so rude about the whole thing that I walked away rather than have anything to do with them. It's possible that I am overreacting to this, but you know what? It was over 90 degrees at 11PM and I was hot and tired, too, but I DIDN'T ACT LIKE AN ASSHOLE.
3) To say something more about the show, Zooey Deschanel was SO ADORABLE. She is TINY and SO BEAUTIFUL that it's hard to believe. When she sings or plays an instrument, she gets the most adorable look of concentration because she's totally focused on the music. When she has a tambourine, HOWEVER, she has the BEST TIME EVER, jumping up and down and holding the tambourine over her head as she plays it. It's adorable and infectious.
4) Thursday was my workshop! After tutoring, I headed over to the UMD campus and jumped around and sang and made a fool of myself in front of 20 middle school kids. You know- just like most days. ;) We talked about music in Shakespeare's plays and the music in Twelfth Night and the way that every production has to make decisions about what to do with the songs in the play. We listened to lots of different versions of 'Come Away, Death' and talked about how they used the same words but showed VASTLY different emotions and revealed a lot about the setting of each production. Then we talked about what THEIR version would have: 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' in place of 'O Mistress, Mine', a 'Come Away, Death' set to 'Hey Jude,' and the setting of the final song from the back of the Arden TN. :) It went really well and I had a lot of fun. :)
5) Today I got to hang out with Sister and Frank after tutoring, which is always fun. My nephew is pretty damn adorable at 14 weeks old (AND SEEMS TO BE STARTING TEETHING, JEEZY CREEZY), and at 29 years, my sister is also pretty great. :) I discovered at Fishville that S has still not seen the finale of S7 Project Runway because she went into labor right around the time that it aired and hasn't gotten around to watching it yet. MADNESS. Sweet girl still doesn't know who won, so I guess newborns are a good way to avoid spoilers.
6) I got a Wii Fit this week and have become VERY CATTY when it judges me. Don't get me wrong- it's already a lot of fun, but talking back to the trainer is already a favorite hobby.
7) I'm a huge fan of Tom and Lorenzo, who've been 'the Project Rungay guys' for several years, but who actually talk about a lot more than just PR. They cover a lot of fashion-related material (runway! red carpet! trends!) but also just talk about the TV they watch. They've lately been running a series that looks at the fashion of the female characters of Mad Men. Now, here is my confession- I started watching as S1 aired but never actually finished it. It kind of hurt my soul a little- SO well done, but just not a place I actually liked spending time inhabiting. But TLo (along with half of America) love the show, and when I saw that they were going to take a close look at the way that the costuming comments on the characters, I knew I had to take a look at those posts. WARNING- they are spoiler heavy through everything that's aired, but it's FASCINATING. Take a look here