I love it when you read to me

My boss is obsessed with mp3 blogs and yesterday turned me on to one called Kofi's Hat. This post is pretty exciting for two reasons:

1. Because it includes a Magnetic Fields song I heard on KEXP a couple of weeks ago and fell in love with. I meant to search for it, but I got lazy -- it's from 69 Love Songs and I couldn't remember the title. Sixty-nine love songs are too many to sort through. Anyway, check it out! It's number 25 on the list and it's pretty.

2. Because it includes a song by The Outer Loop, my friend Matt's band! I had no idea anyone outside of my hometown knew about these kids. They play a sort of jangly, poppy folk-punk. Matt is quite possibly the nicest person I've ever met, and he married my best friend from high school. His song is number 22 on the list. Too bad the band is no longer around. Keep an eye out for his new project, Uglyography, though. Right now he's busy making his own CD cases out of wood. No joke. He's burning the album art/title into each one with one of those summer camp woodburning kits.

Anyway, get em while they're hot, folks, because I don't think this guy leaves songs up for that long!

And now, the news

Okay, as promised, an outline of my eventful week.

SATURDAY:
I met up with Brokrobi and another of his comic book geek friends at the National Book Festival to see this guy. I haven't read much of Gaiman's stuff lately, but I was obsessed with him in high school. After his talk (he read from his new novel, Anansi Boys, which looks pretty interesting) we stood in line with the goths to get him to scribble on some stuff. I chatted with him a bit and he was incredibly nice. Hooray for Neil Gaiman!

Next up: Teaism with Dan, Jen, and Rachel, after which Dan and Rachel split for the Nats game and Jen and I hiked over to the Washington Monument for the peace rally/concert. Someone handed me a button with a picture of George Bush as a vampire, biting the neck of the statue of liberty. The highlights of the concert were The Coup, Ted Leo, and Thievery Corporation, I thought, and the most effective between-sets speaker was a woman who served in Iraq and now belongs to Iraq Veterans Against the War. The usual suspects were there, but I was happy to see lots of old folks, babies, soccer moms ... seeing folks of all shapes and sizes and colors and ages was pretty inspiring. Jen and I were chatted up by a few friendly pothead kids from Maryland. One was marginally cute except for an unfortunate choice of facial hair, and we all arranged to meet up at the Son Volt show in October, but upon inspection of his Myspace page last night I concluded that he is a creepy troll-the-internet-for-sex type. So I will not be going.

SUNDAY SUNDAY
More adventures with Jen. We lucked into free tickets to the Green Festival, where we signed up for lots of junk mail, drank our body weight in HonesTea, and bought "Pirates for Peace" t-shirts.

MONDAY
Tap danced til I could tap dance no more.

TUESDAY
Met up with Brokrobi and his wife for the White Stripes / Shins show at Merriweather. I thought it was excellent. Brokrobi got us great seats and the White Stripes played some stuff from their first album, which was cool. They also played a Loretta Lynn song, a Dolly Parton song, and an old blues cover called "Boll Weevil." I surprised myself by finding Meg to be a lot less useless than I imagined. Stream the show and check out photos here.

WEDNESDAY
Swanky W&M alumni event with Rachel, who knew everyone there, and Jen, who stood in the corner with me drinking the free alcohol and eating the free spanokopita. Actually, that's not quite true -- we did run into Jen, my suitemate from sophomore year; Ali, an APO brother who was a senior when I was a freshman; and Jon, a boy from my freshman dorm I was always fond of. It was funny to be in a crowd of networking-types who work in consulting or on the Hill. I really like the new president of the College (the point of this whole thing was to meet him) and we all got nostalgic when we sang the alma mater after his speech (my first time singing it since graduation). Afterwards I rushed right home so I wouldn't miss Lost.

TONIGHT, THURSDAY
Tonight I'm working. But this weekend there are walking tours, arts fairs, underground films, and dance festivals to attend. Boy howdy!

Nobody's little weasel?

Dan came over on Friday night and we watched Amelie. There is one part, near the beginning, where the narrator describes young Amelie's vivid fantasy life. One of the things she imagines is that her neighbor's comatose wife has simply decided to get all her life's sleep in one go. When she wakes, she'll be able to stay up day and night.

I've been feeling that way lately about my life here in DC. It's like I got all my sleep during the first 25 years of my life and now I'm up and running around day and night. I typically have plans every night and weekend and I feel like I'm rarely home -- I have to schedule time to cook and do laundry and dust, and more often than not I wind up postponing that stuff anyway.

It's really strange and I'm not used to it. I'm used to staying at home every night and weekend, crocheting and watching DVDs and being alone. In high school my social life was pretty much limited to the time I spent within the school walls. It's true that I had great friends in college, but I was also pretty studious and Williamsburg wasn't really a happening town. When I worked at Jamestown I probably did something social once every 3-4 weeks, ditto my time in Knoxville and Greenville.

But in DC, I've been going to shows and events and people's houses like crazy. And it makes me feel a little guilty, like I should be spending my free time volunteering or being useful in some other way. But then I also think, "hey, I didn't have any fun in high school and I was busy with schoolwork in college and grad school, now's my chance to enjoy myself for a change." I don't know.

Anyway, this week has been eventful as usual. I'll outline it later on, maybe tomorrow.

Break out the champagne

Tom DeLay's been indicted.

So long I'll see ya

It is damn pretty outside today. Finally. Goodbye summer, I would not have you back again.

Briefly

The good news:
The 13 & God show last night was excellent. Charitable folks are welcome to purchase their album and give it to me.

The bad news:
My car's engine light came on again on the way home. After a new battery and alternator three weeks ago and a new radiator on Monday. God damn car.

7 Lists of 7 Things

Peer pressure from Dan and Stickles.

(Hi Stickles! I don't know ever stop by here, but I totally blogstalk you.)


7 Things To Do Before I Die

1. Become financially stable.
2. Various travel-y things: Canada, Wales, Denmark, New Zealand, China. Go back to Sweden. See more of the United States. See the Pacific Ocean.
3. Perform again in some sort of recital or show.
4. Work in a museum (i.e. actually use my degree).
5. Have some sort of successful long-term relationship.
6. Get a cat.
7. Own a house, maybe.
   

7 Things I Can Do

1. Crochet.
2. Tap dance.
3. Decorate a house almost exclusively from thrift store finds and hand-me-downs without it looking shabby.
4. Recite every nursery rhyme I learned as a child.
5. Catalog a museum collection.
6. Speak passable German.
7. Fold origami cranes.
   

7 Things I Can't Do

1. Whistle.
2. Get to know people easily. It takes a long time before I feel truly at ease around people.
3. Like my housemate.
4. Seem to get on my feet -- every time I think I'm getting on top of things, I get another medical bill or something else goes wrong with my car.
5. Keep my jade plant alive and healthy.
6. Tan.
7. Drink milk.

7 Things That Attract Me to a Partner

1. Humor. If you can make me laugh, you're in there, mate.
2. Intelligence without pretension.
3. A good soul. Someone who is sincerely nice, genuinely friendly, and really cares about other people.
4. An interest that fascinates or excites him. And/or some sort of talent (music, art, fixing things, etc).
5. When his shirt hangs off his frame (those closest to me claim I'm not interested in anyone if he weighs more than 95 pounds, but that's not really true. For the most part.)
6. Stubble / fiveoclock shadow.
7. Glasses.
   

7 Things I Say Most Often

1. "He-ey!" -- blame Nickity Block
2. "Jesus god!" -- blame Danny Miller
3. "SAIS Library, this is Emily..."
4. "Okay, it's due back at [time]."
5. "So's your face."
6. Umm... I don't really know what I say most often. If you ever listen when I talk, you can let me know.
   

7 Celebrity Crushes

1. Johnny Depp. I know, it's an indie/alterna-girl cliche. Extra points for swashbuckling.
2. Okay, I'm editing this one... goodbye Seth Cohen, hello Matt James, City Gardener! He needs to come over to my house.
3. Billy Boyd. My hot hobbit. Extra points for being in a boat movie and having a Glaswegian accent.
4. Ira Glass. My favorite radio show host (KEXP's John in the Morning is number two).
5. Crispin Glover. I'm pretty sure he's either a robot or a space alien (seriously, has the man aged a day since he played McFly?), but there's something very compelling about him.
6. Sir Walter Raleigh. He sailed across the Atlantic and seduced the Queen of England in the 16th century. And have you read his poetry? Damn. He is a charmer.
7. Tony Perkins. Cuddly psycho.
   

It bothers me that there are only SIX lists of seven things instead of SEVEN lists of seven things (I take medication for this). So here are...

7 Songs I'm Into Right Now

1. Factory Belt - Uncle Tupelo
2. Graveyard Shift - Uncle Tupelo
3. No Depression - Uncle Tupelo
4. Rake at the Gates of Hell - The Pogues
5. Stop Foolin' - Dressy Bessy
6. Pickin' it Up - Hot Hot Heat
7. One With the Freaks - The Notwist (still)

(Can you guess which album Yourmusic.com sent me this month?)

We HATE them

So I started using Haloscan to host my comments because I was getting comment spam with Blogger. When I made the switch, though, the new program deleted all the old comments. When I get some time I'll see if I can make them reappear. I just don't want y'all to think I deleted your comments because I hate you.

I haven't posted in awhile because I'm working on one of those "7 Lists of 7 Things" posts that all the kids are doing these days. Stay tuned.

Not forever, just for now

This is a long shot, as these are things that probably only I am interested in, but does anyone want to join me for either of the following?

1. Savion Glover -- Strathmore -- Friday, October 14th -- $20-25

2. Son Volt -- 9:30 Club -- Friday, October 21st -- $20

Hoofin'

My rhythm tap class (taught by this woman) started on Monday and it is fucking awesome. I wish I could go every day. Nothing makes me happy quite the way tap does. And we're doing improv at the end of every class, which is scary and exciting and new.

Here's a good intro to tap from The Guardian.
And another, much more geeked-out article from Dancing Times Magazine.

Boats

This Overheard in New York made me laugh out loud at my desk.

This is weird

So I was looking through the Flickr photos from the review I just posted about below, and I came across this picture. It's my office. The building with the green lawn and the flag pole in front of it. Right next to the Embassy of Uzbekistan.

Review

Click here for DCist's review of last night's Idlewild show.

Ekrobi lies over the ocean, Ekrobi lies over the sea

On Saturday I accompanied the lovely Cameron to a party celebrating Meghann's birthday. Guess who else was there? Steve-o! The man, the legend. Steve-o is always contemplating the big important social and political questions ("Ekrobi, how much do your boobs weigh? What do you mean you've never weighed them?"), but he did manage to stray from philosophy for a few minutes during our conversations to inform me of his blog. Check it out. And join his gang.

So it was friends from Scotland on Saturday night and a band from Scotland on Sunday night. I didn't see any Scottish bands while I was actually living there, oddly. Gabriel and I attempted to see Mull Historical Society at a coffee shop but he didn't show up, the Beta Band was supposed to play right before I left but they broke up, the Delgados were always in Glasgow which was a pain in the ass to get to, etc etc etc. But Idlewild came to the Black Cat last night and I had my first Scottish Rock Experience. Anecdotes, in bullet point form:

• I did not buy a t-shirt, but they had one with a boat on it and one with a book on it. Which are only like my two favorite things ever. True story.
  
• The opening act, Inara George, was pretty good, but I honestly don't remember much about what they sounded like. I do remember that the drummer made some good faces. I always like to watch drummers because they make the best faces, but she seriously had some of the best all-time drummer faces in the history of drummer faces.
• There were some annoying people to my right. One was this guy about three people over from me who seemed to think he was at a Motley Crue concert. When he wasn't standing there screaming with his fist thrust in the air, he was doing some sort of violent seizure dancing. One of his buddies kept giving weird robotic complements to the band: "That was a good song." "You rock very much."
  
• There were some annoying people to my left. One girl just Would. Not. Shut. Up. "I want to bite his ass!" "Roddy, take off your clothes!" Plus much, much more. I'm sure Dan will give a full account in his blog, since this girl jumped onto his back at one point during the show. Anyway, this girl had an nine-foot-tall companion who kept shouting "Robby! ROBBY!" Except that the lead singer's name is Roddy. It reminded me of that time on The O.C. when they bring Luke the water polo player to the Rooney concert. Remember that? When he's all, "Which one's Rooney?" And then later he's all, "ROOOONNNNEY!" No? Okay.
  
• They played a Neil Young song that I've always liked, so that was nice.
• VEST SIGHTING #3 of the 2005 concert season! Yes, wee Roddy Woomble was wearing a vest. Except he calls it a waistcoat.
  

Next up? Dressy Bessy with Dapper Dan, Jen, and possibly others. Wait. That's Dressy Bessy with Dapper Dan, Jen, and possibly others. Yes.

My nightmare

Yesterday I was busy doing Very Important Things (i.e. laundry and watching the season one Degrassi: The Next Generation dvds that Beth lent me) in my living room. The dryer buzzer went off, so I paused my dvd and ran upstairs with my laundry. When I came back, the couch was piled with odd-shaped bubblewrapped packages. Dick was there. I found a free corner of couch and tried to get back to my well-scrubbed Canadian children.

Dick got some scissors and cut open one of the packages. There was a violin inside.

He cut open a second package. Another violin.

Ekrobi: How many violins did you buy?
Dick: Seven.

Seven. Seven violins.

Later he told me I could touch them if I wanted. "Do you want to... handle one? You can touch one if you want. They're not as fragile as they look. No? Are you sure? Go ahead. Handle one. Touch it."

It's like Natalie Dee lives at my house

Check it.

My new favorite song

"He fell asleep and the hogs eat 'im; now Paw's gone forever"

- heard on one of those Sunday morning bluegrass shows on NPR

Listen

to the New Pornographers' August 23rd show in Seattle.

When you gonna ring it?

The boss describes the White Stripes' new single, "My Doorbell":

"This song is cute! Cute, cute, cute! I could eat it!"

He later enters our office singing said song. He has the full-page picture of Jack White's face from the new Rolling Stone held up to his own face like a mask.