a FABULOUS time was had by all

Last night I went to the Hollywood Bowl to see this. Basically Rufus Wainwright recreated a 1961 Judy Garland performance song for song. Now, a few notes. One, I sort of vaguely knew that Rufus was gay but I don't know that much about him so I had never thought about it. Two, Rufus is not just homosexual, he is a flaming fabulous gay. Maybe it was because he was with his people (I'd say 90% of the audience was gay men) but he was on fire. It was fantastic. His banter was bitchy and catty and funny as hell. And man, that guy's voice is just so...interesting. I don't know how to describe it but the tone is really unique I think. Perhaps the highlight (aside from him kissing Debbie Reynolds and then having Lorna Luft join him on stage), was the two songs that his sister sang. Apparently Martha Wainwright is also a singer and goddamn was she good. Absolutely blew me away when she sang "Stormy Weather" and "Someone to Watch Over Me". Rufus better watch his ass.

For the encore he come out in Liza's definitive outfit of only heels, nylons, a black dinner jacket and a black hat and he sang "Come On Get Happy". We were happy indeed.

a sure sign

Santa Fe
Are you there?
Do you swear you won't forget me?
If I found you would you let me come and stay?

Do you know that the above words are lyrics? Do you know from which song? In which movie? Are you male? Are you straight? BAM! That's where I catch you in a lie.

You see, there is this certain person who may or may not work with me. And this male may claim that he is heterosexual when I believe he is homosexual. There was the fact that he talks WAY too much about hot girls when he clearly has no game. How he knows "Rent" cast members by name from various national tours. How he loves a good manicure/pedicure. Fine. I let this all slide and tried to believe him when he said he just really wanted a girlfriend. But then this morning he started going off about how he loves "Newsies". That's right. The amazing Disney musical starring the very hot Christian Bale and about 20 other 17 year old boys. Uh huh. Then he proceeded to sing some songs. I guess this wouldn't bother me if this guy didn't annoy me so much. But just come out and be gay so we can sing "Newsies" songs at the top of our lungs. But you can't tell me that there is one straight man who loves that movie and who knows the lyrics to the songs. If you know one, please point me in that direction because I may need to get a divorce and spend the rest of my life with him.

god bless this country

*edited to add - i just read this again and realized my stream of consciousness is not only difficult to read but extremely uninteresting. sorry. *

wow. words can not describe the 2 hour spectacle that i was lucky enough to see last night. and i'm not talking about 'lost' because, sadly, it's really not worth talking about. no, i am speaking of america's national treasure, THE "american idol". what a show they put on. i mean, it was so bad and so wonderful that words can't describe it. i was prepared to fast forward through an hour and 45 minutes but there was no need. each segment was more ridiculous and awe inspiring than the next. let me briefly walk you through it...

first we got to cut to each finalist's home town rally. it looked like there were about 100,000 taylor fans in alabama and they panned the crowd over and over again. then we cut to katharine's home town of los angeles. well, i mean to say they cut to a very tight shot of a crowd of about 50 at universal studios. so sad. this city is not wowed by celebrity.

next chris the rocker sang on stage with the band live whose lead singer looks just like him. then we got some pre-taped segments with dumb kellie pickler eating "crazy" food like lobster with wolfgang puck. quality.

next up was possibly the most frightening portion of the evening and that's when katharine sang with meatloaf. have you seen meatloaf lately? it's not good. and i think he was trying to act out the song which made it even more frightening. i think katharine was scared.

taylor sang with the boys in a medley which included some harmonica playing. awesome. i love that kid. katharine sang with the women and we were all reminded again of how big mandisa is. truly. i hate to say it but it can not be avoided.

little nice elliott yamin sang U2's "One" with Mary J. Blige and man was that a spectacle. kind of rad if i'm forced to admit it. but i loved elliott because the whole time his facial expression was screaming "damn! i can't believe i'm hear singing U2 with mary j. blige in front of 200 million viewers!" i can't believe it either elliott.

the worst duet of the night / most amazing was taylor and toni braxton. yeah, remember her? they sang a duet and she was either a) drunk, b) high, c) extremely horny. she dressed and danced a bit on the whorish side for american idol, then she kept trying to rub up against taylor and make him put his arms around her. taylor totally resisted making it awkward and awesome. someone get that woman a man.

clay aiken made his first public appearance since his whole gay hotel encounter. i thought with his crazy new mop of red hair and weird expressions that he looked like a child molestor. but maybe that's just me. dionne warwick came out after that and did a little medley which i found boring but passable.

then as seacrest does what he does best, he is interrupted by a "surprise" guest...Prince. man, that guy is small but he can rock. have you ever seen such dance moves on a 5 foot man clad in purple?

at this point i was just over the moon with the spectacle of it all. i was sitting next to john on the couch telling him what he had been missing when taylor and katharine walk out and start singing "I've Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing. it was then that i turned to my dear husband and said "could this get ANY better?" the answer is no people.

taylor won and in a cloud of fireworks and smoke and a 25 person choir, he sang his terrible/wonderful single, "do i make you proud". hell yeah. god bless the usa.

the post where i combine various unrelated and overdue topics

i am lazy. that is for sure. lazy in lots of aspects in life. getting up early to go running, making the bed, doing my laundry, etc. it seems that this laziness extends to blogging. i'll think of things to write and then just be too lazy to log on and write about them. i only tell you this because the end result is usually one post with tons of unrelated topics. a medley of sorts. a compilation. but, now that i think about it, i LOVE that. song medleys. compilation cds. "best of" clips shows. who doesn't? man, maybe my rambling posts are awesome.

i walked to the grove on saturday. i made the 2 mile walk with my beloved ipod. i started on pop music but then decided, "what the hell, it's time" and switched over to my christmas playlist. it was awesome.

saw the new "pride and prejudice" movie this weekend. i am a HUGE fan of the story. but i adore the A&E mini-series with colin firth so i wasn't expecting much. but this one was very pleasant and entertaining. sure, they had to cut a lot of stuff out to get it down to 2 hours...and sure, keira knightley has this weird way of smiling where you can see her whole bottom row of teeth, and sure she's as flat as a board which is a little disturbing...but still....any movie that ends with a big romantic music-swelling scene is okay by me.

my office mate has the crappiest taste in music. it seems that her itunes playlist only includes shitty rock like incubus, blur, perfect circle, bush, or prodigy. who listens to that stuff? my god. i can't hear myself think.

i need another thai massage. i got one two months ago and this small asian woman who didn't really speak english walked all over my back and stretched me every which way. i loved it, it was cheap, and i want another one.

sometimes things are so good that you don't even want them to arrive because then the anticipation will be over and that's the best part. okay, so you have no idea what i'm talking about. but i'll give you an example from last weekend. and any males reading this, feel free stop reading now. okay, good, we're all alone girls. how good is "grey's anatomy"? it's my favorite show on television and there's been this great interaction between these two characters izzy and cute sarcastic dude. no, neither of them are patrick dempsey or scarily anorexic girl from 'old school'. anyways, these two characters are rad and i love their flirting and sexual tension. it's been going on for a while now (since last season) but last week, halfway through the episode, i could tell that they were finally going to kiss at the end of the episode. and i was a little sad. sure, i knew it would be rad, but then what? there's only one awesome first kiss scene between two characters and i was about to witness it. so the end of the episode came and there was the amazing scene with the first kiss. it was lovely and enjoyable but now that part of the show will never happen again. do you know what i mean or do i just sound like an idiotic 13 year old? both?

mark it

kost 103.5 has officially started playing christmas music. all christmas music, all the time. happy friday indeed.

okay, i'll admit it

in the mornings when i go jogging, i bring along my glorious ipod so i can listen to some really inspirational tunes (ie "you're the best around", "glory of love", etc). i keep the ipod on shuffle so i never know what will pop up next from my library of 1,000 songs. in the past six months, when a christmas song has come on, i've immediately fast forwarded it. the time just wasn't right. this morning, "rockin' around the christmas tree" came on....and i listened to the whole song.

"there are places i remember"

music is really an incredibly powerful thing. i am constantly amazed at the ability of one song to take me back to a specific moment in my life. and not just hazy feelings and emotions and memories. i mean that i'm literally transported and i feel like i'm 16 again, in a moving car crowded with friends. it's so incredible. there are songs i'll always always equate with a certain time in my life...

"500 Miles", the Proclaimers - riding in Puddle's SUV with Ocean and Lefty as she drove way too fast on windy Cuyamaca roads and we all sang along at the top of our lungs....

"Send Me On My Way", Rusted Root - leaving the Disney parking structure after my internship interview in 1998 knowing that I fricking nailed the interview and had the job....

"I Will Remember You", Sarah McLachlan - sitting in a circle with my fellow Mt. Carmel soon-to-be-graduates at Mr. Mosher's last candlelight ceremony and crying....

"Bizarre Love Triangle", New Order - freshmen year at stanford, at a party/dance at serra, my date on the dance floor singing to me as we busted a move....

"All Right Now", The Stanford Band - February, Maples Pavillion, Stanford basketball wins and the 6th Man Club rushes the court as the band plays the school song and we all jump at the appropriate place....

"Chapel of Love" - the wedding montage from Father of the Bride...okay, i know that's not MY life, per se, but i've seen it so many times that i feel like it is.

she likes it neat...and he makes a mess!

take a vote...

as i'm driving home yesterday, i turn on the radio and begin to sing very loudly to "opposites attract" by paula abdul. it was at this moment that the following question came to me:

what is the most lame? the fact that i,

a) know all the words to a paula abdul song.

b) thought to myself, wow, i'd love to do this as a karaoke duet with a guy.

or

c) made a mental note that i had to blog about this later.

it has begun!

it's official. KOST 103.5 has switched over to all christmas music! tune in, eat, drink, and be merry!

"finish him johnny!!!"

so yesterday i was cruising back to LA from San Diego and just enjoying the drive. with the window open, the radio blaring, and traffic moving on the 405, i was happy. that's when the song came on. bananarama's 'cruel summer'. great song. but it always, always, ALWAYS, reminds me of something. and you know what that something is? well, if you're brian soika, you probably do. yup, it's a little recent masterpiece that you may have seen called "The Karate Kid". and that song is in that movie. hence, the song and the movie rule. if you haven't watched the movie recently, check it out. it has so many layers of greatness that i've lost count. BUT, with the help of a website that brian discovered, i can think about them all at great lengths. check it out.

"follow the day and reach for the SUN!"

the funny thing about the strangers surrounding you in public places, is that they can’t hear what’s going on inside my head. for instance, at the airport this last weekend, i really really thought that i was going to throw up. i don’t know what it was, maybe the tons of alcohol i drank, maybe the enormous amount of cigarette smoke i inhaled, maybe the sleep deprivation, or maybe, just maybe, the turbulence on the flight. either way, i felt like puking. so clutching my little white complimentary barf bag in one hand, i knew that i had to fight the urge and the only way to do so was to listen to polyphonic spree. that is, scream/sing along to polyphonic’s ‘light and day’ in my head. and it’s so funny because i was really belting it. the volume in my head was turned to 11, if ya know what i mean. but the people around me had no idea. they were probably just appalled at the dirty-haired, glasses-wearing, no makeup, pale, sick, frowning girl with a blanket sitting next to them on a plane. they had no idea that a rad-ass stereo was kicking it on high volume in my head. i guess it’s their loss. but if i’m screaming along to polyphonic spree in my head, what’s going on in theirs?

rock show entities

the following letters are directed towards some of the people lucky enough to be in the crooked fingers audience in san diego and los angeles....

dear sketchy nasty guy with no shirt on,
what in the HELL makes you think that anyone in the club wants to see you with your shirt off? and for god sakes, if you feel the need to cool off or whatever by taking off your shirt, PLEASE don't feel obligated to walk back and forth through the crowd and give the girls sleazy stares. you disgust me.

to the trio of convulsing, somewhat homosexual young men in front of the stage,
i realize that you came to the crooked fingers show hoping to rock out. and i realize that you may have been disappointed when eric bachmann decided that, for this show, he was going to play the piano and be pretty mellow. i realize all that. but it's bachmann's choice. no amount of so-called "dancing" (aka convulsing), hand clapping, screaming, or hugging, was going to change his mind. i'm not sure what beat your were hearing in your bald little heads, but your dancing was hysterical. you are crazy, you are weird, i laughed at you through the whole show...but i admire your enthusiasm.

dear 50 year old bald, extremely overweight man with glasses in a grubby t-shirt, nasty shorts, and pageboy hat,
rock on. crooked fingers rules.

and dear eric bachmann,
we love you. oh, we love you so much. would you have talked to us if we would have sat down next to you in the bar after the show and bought you a beer? god, we'll never know. ahhh, the regrets.

guilty pleasure of the moment.....
Pink - "Just Like a Pill"

I’ve been spree’ed

I think I can define “spree’ed” as this incredible happy, high feeling that you get when you go see The Polyphonic Spree in concert. I first saw them in November at this small little place called the Derby. I wish I could say that I was really hip and had gone to see them on purpose, but, no, I’m not that cool. Especially with music. So it was an accident, but, nonetheless, we were there when they made their LA debut at the Derby. John and I were totally blown away by them. Probably the best live performance I’ve ever seen. But I guess 25 crazy hyper youngsters in robes will do that. There weren’t that many people there but everyone got totally into it. At that Derby show in November I would say that there were only about 3 or 4 people in the audience who were singing along and were clearly very familiar with Polyphonic. They were so awesome that John and I immediately went to their second show the next night at the Troubadour. It was again awesome.
So now fast forward to July 30th, 2003. They’re back in LA but now their show at a much bigger venue is 25 bucks. 25 bucks. Pretty expensive but I knew Polyphonic would totally be worth it. AND IT WAS! The place sold out and after two incredibly awful opening bands, they finally went on and rocked. The lead singer of this band is just amazing. He sings and dances around like he was born to be a rock star. So so charismatic...you can't take your eyes off of him. The most amazing part of the show? The fact that in the short 8 months since I first saw this obscure band at the Derby they had become a huge hit in the US. They’re selling tons of albums, their show sold out, and hundreds of people last night were singing along to every song they sang last night. Quite a change. And I couldn’t be happier for such an awesome band. Between that show and the upcoming Crooked Fingers show in San Diego, I couldn’t be happier.

Moral of the story, get your ass to the store and buy the Polyphonic Spree CD!

i'm poor

so it's no secret that i'm poor. it's probably from being unemployed for so long. so in an effort to scrape up a few dollars for my cable bill, i thought i'd sell some of my old cd's that i never listen to anymore. some of the cd's that had built up dust for the past 6 or so years that i took to amoeba....
en vogue, cyndi lauper, power dances of 1995, salt n pepa, pretty in pink soundtrack, elvis christmas classics, and tlc among many others. i think i brought in like 30 cds and the snobs at amoeba records would only take like 8 of them. damn them. but i did make a cool 25 dollars. yup. you know it's huge. at least i'm not like one of my poor friends from my last movie. he said that he just sold his guitar for rent money. in his words, "i picked it up, played it one last time, cried, then took it to the store to sell." goddamn this LA place. it's destroying people one at a time.