That's Entertainment!

So I actually have finished not one, but TWO projects this week. The gloomy skies and occasional torrential rain have made photographs impossible, however, so you'll have to content yourself with your imaginations today. Instead I'll write about a few entertaining things I've been into lately.

First off, I'm VERY VERY late to the podcast-listening party, but I have arrived. In the last few weeks I've discovered podcasts with a vengeance. Consequently I've spent most of my days listening to the following podcasts:

1. Cast On by Brenda Dane - The quirky and fun knitting tales of an American living in Wales. This podcast features some of the most interesting tidbits of music I've heard and some wonderful stories of knitting mishaps. All of her podcasts are accessible from her website.


2. Lime n Violet - I wasn't sure what to expect out of this podcast. It's a little less polished than Cast On but I think it might actually be my favorite knitting podcast so far. From listening to the show, and following the show notes and links I've found some great fiber artists! And I love hearing about what the girls are knitting. You can find this podcast on iTunes and subscribe!


3. Stash and Burn - This is the podcast of two girls desperately fighting to conquer and knit from their stashes. I aspire to knit from my stash... I think I could learn a few things listening to them. You can listen to this podcast on the site linked above!

4. Sticks & String by David Reidy - David is an "Australian bloke" who chats about what it's like to be a male knitter in Australia. His charming accent is a boon to his amusing anecdotes and discussions of knitting.

Now I know the ones I listed above were a little knitting centric (who me?). However, I've also found that I can follow my favorite NPR shows on iTunes as well. Never more do I have to miss Car Talk and Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me again.

Finally I've been trying to get back into reading. Currently in progress: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley and The Know it All by A.J. Jacobs, gifted to me by the l'il sis' man this past Christmas. Stay tuned for book reports!

Things that make me happy:

• Listening to this song on repeat.
  
• Wearing my new work appropriate Madden Girl shoes to work and being able to wear handknit socks with them. (And the fact that Wes suggested I buy them a little big specifically so that I could do this!)
  
  
• That Wednesday night is knit night EVERY WHERE I like to hang.
  
• Last but MOST DEFINITELY not least, I'm getting married to my favorite person in the whole world one month from today. YIPPEE!
  

Stuck in my head all night long.

Mairsy doats and dosey doats and liddle lamsy divy.
Kiddley divy do, wouldn't you, wouldn'nt you?

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear,
A little bit jumpy jivey, sing:
Mares eat oats and does eat oats, and
Little lambs eat i-ivy, oh...

Mairsy doats and dosey doats and liddle lamsy divy.
Kiddley divy do, wouldn't you, wouldn't you?

Let it Rock.

Last night we all gathered at Blenda's house to party a bit before I leave. Everyone came out in full force. The cooking was AMAZING. Blenda from Oz made sausage rolls, risotto balls, zucchini quiche, and veggie wraps. Blogless Will made his cooking debut with bacon wrapped dates and walnuts - I can't believe he's been hiding his talents on us. Knitmeister S made appetizers and some tasty cookies. Some had really sweet messages:


Others did not:


I warned Knitmeister S that if the FU cookie made me sick, I would return his hostility a la the black and white cookie.

Johnny Cache livened up the party by bringing his brand new Rock Band. After my disastrous turn at Guitar Hero this was definitely up my alley. We formed a mean rock band, Let it Rock.


Our band featured the stylings of Todd (on left) on bass and Betty White on guitar:


Mr. Pants2tite on drums:


And Raven on vocals:


Many thanks to Blenda for being our groupie and taking lots of pics!

The 12 Day of Christmas

Beware that this is not the typical Christmas carol... just watch for a few seconds and things really get going! This reminds me of a little ditty from the show "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." Thanks to Blenda from Oz and a few others for pointing it out.

The Bear Went over the Mountain

To see what he could see.

The other side of the mountain was all that he could see.

The Bear Song by Green Jelly. Hopefully I'll have a better sound clip posted soon.

And here comes Monday.

This weekend provided a much needed respite after the long week last week (and in anticipation of this upcoming week). Saturday was a relaxing day at home with the family, working on the wedding Save the Date cards (thanks to Frogpod Letterpress for the printing!), and discussing wedding plans. I now have a whole new to-do list.

Saturday evening Mom, Dad and I went over to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Then Dad and I headed up to UCLA's Royce Hall to see The Tiger Lillies. I'd never heard of them before, but they have a huge cult following. The Tiger Lillies is a group of 3 musicians who are crude, absurd and inflammatory. The director of Royce Hall introduced the group as "the performance garnering the fastest complaints in Royce's 77 year history." And they did not disappoint! There were a few moments that were intensely uncomfortable (there's nothing like lust and hag, prostitute songs when you're sitting next to your father....) but it was an utterly enjoyable evening. My Scrine post sums it up perfectly:

One should not attend The Tiger Lillies concert if one is offended by crude comical opuses (opi?) on religion, bully boys and quite possibly kicking babies, and old ladies, down the stairs.

I actually did get quite a bit of knitting done this weekend, but most of it was on gifts for the holidays so I have very few pictures to share. I have included up top however, my contributions for week two of the San Diego 8" Fire Squares project. Now it's back to knitting and tv and praying to whomever can help me end this week as soon as possible.

From my playlist to yours.

So in the past few weeks I've gotten really into music. Part of it is that Blenda from Oz keeps taking me to some great concerts. Part of it is that my whole group of friends are trading and borrowing cd's as we hear great stuff and want to share. (Don't even start with me about sharing music - we're all attending more concerts, and buying more cd's so clearly the artists and those darn music companies are coming out ahead here!)

The byproduct of all this fun is that I now have a great music stash at work and can groove all day long, never listening to the same song twice (of course sometimes I just listen to a song on repeat cause that's how I roll!)

On my playlist right now:

A Fine Frenzy, One Cell in the Sea
Across the Universe Soundtrack
Lee Coulter - check out Voodoo Booty, it's my favorite track!
Anna Nalick, Wreck of the Day
Brandi Carlile, Brandi Carlile and The Story
Ingrid Michaelson, Girls and Boys
Missy Higgins, The Sound of White
Feist, The Reminder

Things that make me happy.

1. All the bosses being out today. Lots of reading and catching up to do in peace and quiet.

2. A Fine Frenzy's One Cell in the Sea. Beautiful songs that keep me chair dancing all day long.

3. Guess what I gave in and got? Showing off my monkies in my crocs as we speak.

A taste of OZ

Tonight my friend Blenda from Oz took a group of us to see Oz City Song Circle perform at The Mint. Basically it's a night where Australian artists living in Southern California perform. Tonight it was 4 talented artists up on the stage, and they sang in turn. There were two in particular that were amazing: Lee Coulter and Chantelle Barry. Lee Coulter displayed such an amazing variety of music tonight - of the three songs he sang all were different genres.

As a side note, I love that B and I have become such good friends and that she's been taking me all these places! All these years I lived here largely ignorant of the music scene and now it's like a whole world opening up. I'll keep ya posted on my new tunes.

Hugh Laurie Trivia

"When Hugh Laurie, Jamie Denton, Greg Grunberg, Bob Guiney, and Bonnie Somerville performed at the TV Guide Emmy Party, they asked for, and received, $200,000 that was split equally and donated to charity. The band, called Band From TV, will now be making special appearances. Hugh will donate most of his share to the Save The Children organization."

Heard on the Tonight Show, found here.

And the music wars escalate...

From Slashdot:

A few months ago, Trent Reznor (frontman of the band Nine Inch Nails), was in Australia doing an interview when he commented on the outrageous prices of CDs there. Apparently now his label, Universal Media Group is angry at him for having said that. During a concert last night, he told fans, '...Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that's not right.'"

Tonight was...

in a word AMAZING. (And I'm pretty hard to please!)

The evening began when A Fine Frenzy opened. Though I hadn't heard them before, they were quite good. The lead singer, Alison Sudol, has a really great voice and the instrumentation with drums and various synthesizers was really cool.

But Brandi Carlile was AMAZING. I can't even remember all of her set but it was really well put together. I've been listening to her albums for the past few days, and I have to say that not too much jumped out at me. Live, however, I was riveted. Her music style is pretty unique; she mixes bluegrass, country, and rock.

She performed her older stuff (even admitting she got her start as the opening act for Hanson - MMMBOP!), and peppered the set with new material. She switched back and forth among her acoustic guitar, a second amped acoustic, and her electric guitar. AND she opened playing the piano. She rocked the house, along with her two fellow guitarists ("the twins"), her cellist, her keyboardist and her drummer. After over an hour and a half of playing, she closed her concert with "The Story," which is my favorite song. Let me tell you - if you enjoy the recording, the live version is 200% more emotional and charged.

THEN she came back for a curtain call. She did what I've not seen any other band do - she played Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. The sound isn't great on that clip, but she and the band were just incredible. They took a big instrumental break in the middle and brought the house down. She followed up with one more older song, then a new one - an incredibly amazing heart-wrenching ballad which she performed by herself with her un-mic'd acoustic. I HOPE HOPE HOPE it's going to make her next album. Finally she closed with "Hallelujah".

Tonight was a definite don't miss - I'm glad we didn't!

I'd love to stay and chat BUT...

I have tickets to the Brandi Carlile concert at House of Blues tonight. We're leaving work at 5:30 and heading up there for a good southern/cajun dinner and then a night of entertainment. I'll be hanging with Knitmeister S and Bel and hopefully it will go better than that last concert I tried to attend there.

If you don't know who I'm talking about give this a listen. Hope y'all have a good night!

What I'm Listening To.

Just in case any of y'all are curious, this is what I've been listening to at work today. No rhyme or reason to why these songs were selected other than that they're my favorites to groove to right now. And oh I need to go (pole) dancing again soon!

The Concert

O'RIORDAN'S DRUMMER 'COLLAPSES ON STAGE'

Former THE CRANBERRIES singer DOLORES O'RIORDAN's U.S. solo tour is in doubt after her drummer reportedly collapsed on stage on Thursday (19Jul07). Sticksman Graham Hopkins suffered a seizure on stage at the gig at Los Angeles' House of Blues, according to audience members, who discussed the horrific incident on a Cranberries fansite. ZombieGuide.com user 'New Zombie' reports, "The drummer had a seizure right on stage during the third song. They killed the lights and lowered a screen. He had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital after what seemed like 20 minutes of medical treatment while he was laying on stage." The website claims O'Riordan's tour has been cancelled because the band do not have a replacement drummer.

As I mentioned a few posts down, I was in the audience for this last night. It was terribly sad and a little scary, but the band and the House of Blues staff handled it well. Except for a few bad apples in the audience, everyone was sympathetic and behaved appropriately. My best to the band and a speedy recovery for the drummer.

UPDATE: From Hotpress

Graham Hopkins was admitted to hospital after suffering an on stage collapse at a Dolores O’Riordan gig in Los Angeles’ House Of Blues.

Posting on the Zombieguide.com fan site, a member of the crowd reports: “They killed the lights and lowered a screen. He had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital after what seemed like 20 minutes of medical treatment while he was laying on stage.”

Having been hospitalised in the initial aftermath, we're very pleased to report that Graham has now been discharged.

It’s not the first time that the Kilkenny drummer has suffered an onstage incident, with his former band Halite having to be put on ‘hold’ while he underwent medical tests that proved to be inconclusive.

An official statement on the continuation of the tour is to be released shortly, as Dolores & her team assess the situation.

Concert!

One of the things I love about Wes coming and staying with me is that we always find things to do and see when he's in LA. I do go to the theatre and concerts when he's not here, but it's just so much better when I can share things with him.

This time he found the Dolores O'Riordan concert at the House of Blues. If you don't recognize her - she used to be the lead singer for the Cranberries, and is now moving on to a solo career. Not only do I love her voice, but I've also never been to the House of Blues for a concert. So it seemed like a perfect outing!

I'm looking forward to a good dinner and some great music with my sweetie.

All Hail Hell Monday

Well, it's Monday again. I had a great weekend, but I can't believe I'm back at work. What's up with that?

Friday night was a R&R night. I called Wes shortly after work and found out he had left a day early to join me here in LA! He spent most of the next 36 hours driving, but I spent it doing some stuff to prepare for him. The rest of the night was spent watching HBO's Elizabeth with Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons. It was really excellent. I also cleaned the bathroom and kitchen and living room.

Saturday I got up around 10am and watched another DVD (Big Love) and finished cleaning. I knitted a little bit and then I MIGHT have taken a nap. I woke up, showered, read a little more of Wild Trees and then headed out to meet my friend. We headed up to the Beverly Center for shopping and some dinner and then went to a concert in Hollywood. After a bumpy start (I forgot the tickets, she forgot her jacket) we ended up shopping for a bit. I found a few new tank tops in some great colors. Then we had a yummy dinner at P.F. Chang's (I love that place!) and headed out to Hollywood. We ended up at The Gig watching a great "new to us" band, Natives of the New Dawn. They were having a CD release party and were great! Afterwards we hung out for while with the band... never underestimate the weird things that happen on the sidewalk outside the club (on Melrose) at 1am.

Sunday was final prep for Wes arriving - getting him fresh sheets and towels. He showed up at noon! We mostly hung out yesterday as he was still tired from driving cross country. We watched a few movies and some tv, had a good dinner of leftovers, and went to bed early.

Today it's back to the work grind. Then tonight we're having dinner with my cousin, the one I mentioned here that I haven't seen in forever. I'm a little nervous and excited. Can't wait for the work day to be over!

Slow News Day

Today wasn't so much a slow news day, as a long day with not much free time for me. Hence, no news to report. Mostly I spent the day in meetings, taking minutes, and trying to make sense of the conversation going on around me. (The conversation was, for the most part, academic and not very familiar to me.)

I don't know what it is about taking minutes at all day meetings, but I am always mentally fried by 4pm. Maybe it's the long day with unrelenting concentration, but I just feel totally wiped even though I've barely moved all day long.

I finished with the meeting around 4:30, finished up a bit of paperwork and got out of there. Ran over to pick up my friend and we headed up to House of Blues for a concert tonight. We had a great (and even reasonably priced!) dinner, but the concert wasn't to be. The singer in the band who was supposed to leave us tickets at will call never came through. It was kind of a buzzkill to have driven all the way up there to then head home again, but dinner was great and I'm pretty happy just hanging on the couch, so I guess it was ok.

Ducky!

Well I won't say that this day has been totally ducky, but things are looking a bit better. Some payments cleared on my work credit card overnight, so it should be reactivated shortly. We had a meeting of the work book club today. The discussion on our first book, Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, was interesting and we picked one I'd really been wanting to read for our next book - Wild Trees by Richard Preston. Can't wait to dive in!

I had pole dancing last night and danced to Pain by Three Days Grace. It's a great song, and I had a great time. Even my very uncoordinated self was ok on the pole last night. Then I had a wonderful sushi dinner with my pole partner in crime.

I got home about 10pm and worked a bit on the sweater for Tadpole who is going to be a beautiful little girl!!! (Just found out today via Mommy's ultrasound.) I should be done with the garment shortly, but I just LOVE the ducky buttons.

Today I'm leaving work shortly to go to some doctor appointments and to complete my parents' anniversary surprise (they will be married 32 years on Friday!) Then it's home to KNIT KNIT KNIT.

Thank goodness it's hump day. Is it weekend yet?