My Ears Are Still a Little Foggy

Finding babysitters on short notice (tip of the hat, Mom and Dad) and a quick stop at the ATM made it possible for Kevin and me to have a night out. If you're up to date on Nothing Fancy then you will have guessed, Dear Reader, that we went to check out Brighton, MA last night.

We actually saw Brighton, MA way back when, in the pre-Harry days, when they opened a show for Mason Jennings in Ann Arbor. It was the first show I'd ever gone to where didn't want the opening band's set to end, and when we did the awkward shake-hands-with-the-band-on-the-way-out thing I think I told them as much.

So there Kevin and I are last night, wrists stamped, sitting around listening to a local band, when two members of Brighton, MA drop a suitcase on the table behind ours and start spreading out T-shirts, CDs, and the mailing-list sign up sheet, which we actually signed, lo those many years ago. After a minute's debate, I turned around and introduced myself, told them we'd been at the show in Ann Arbor and really enjoyed it, and were really excited that they were in Kalamazoo. They were very gracious, introduced themselves, asked us about the live music scene in Kalamazoo, etc. All in all, a pleasant five-minute exchange.

Apparently being a friendly face in a sea of 50 people who may not have known about Brighton, MA gets a person some extra attention. Like, for instance, when the lead singer pointed at us towards the end of the show and asked, "Is there anything you guys want to hear?" Pretty cool.

Night Out

WARNING: This post is link heavy. Prepare your mouse for a workout.

Kevin and I went to a concert this weekend, our first in almost a year: Andrew Bird with special guest St. Vincent at the Kalamazoo State Theatre. I went into this totally unfamiliar with St. Vincent, knowing only that the singer was a woman and there would probably be some expiremental jazz involved.

Andrew Bird, who Kevin has been fairly obsessed with lately, primarily plays violin and whistles. I know: Weird, right? Every time he opened his mouth to whistle last night, I thought about the episode of 10 Items or Less in which Leslie releases a CD of himself whistling well-known songs, and then plays it in a loop over the store's PA system.

Anywho. . . Andrew Bird played 80% of the show solo. He records loops of himself singing, whistling, clapping, and playing violin. He has this elaborate system of foot pedals that he taps, once he's pulled off his shoes and is comfortable in red socks. Once all this is done, and it only takes a minute or two, he plays along live, either with his violin or a guitar. He's (dare I say it?) a one-man band. See for yourself:





This song, "Sweet Matter," was probably my favorite of the night. It's a combination of two songs, "Sweet Breads" and "Dark Matter," and pretty much any song that mentions neurons is going to be a hit with me.

Good Week, Right?

Last week was amazing. It saw the return of Harry sleeping through the night in his own crib, the beginning of baby food beyond rice cereal, a visit from Kevin's cousin's family after three years in Japan, and, if that wasn't enough, a Bob Dylan concert.

After cutting his first two teeth in mid-October, Harry got a little too used to sleeping in bed with me and Kevin. Moving him back was almost as bad as the teething. We could get him down for the first and last hours of his night but always ended up letting him come back with us between, say, 10 and 5 just so we could get some sleep. Since Monday we've had excellent luck. Harry's going to bed, waking up once after an hour or two just to make sure we're still around, and then sleeps until at least 6.

Maybe he's finally over the pain of his initial teething, or maybe feeding him more solid food really does help. I was never inclined to believe that solid food would help a baby sleep better, and I've seen plenty of medical professionals deny that claim, but Harry's been having two meals a day this week. I'm excited that he's moving on to different foods, but I'm also going to brag here and tell you that I've been making his baby food with the exception of cereal.

I found a great website while I was pregnant and printed off a dozen recipes each for vegetables and fruit. Harry had homemade sweet potatoes for the first time last weekend and moved on to acorn squash a few days ago. I attempted to make green peas this morning while Harry took a nap, but my little food processor, which handled earlier foods like a champ, cannot stand up to pea skins. I was warned that this would probably happen, but the baby was asleep, the laundry was under control, and I had no transcription waiting, so I gave it a shot.

Finally, Bob Dylan. What can I say? We got there early, staked out our spot in front of the stage, and stood around for an hour. Maybe I'm old, but my back already hurt by the time the concert started. I got over it when he started the show with "Maggie's Farm." I also felt old when the trio of guys next to me were trying to figure out how they could get beer without IDs, but the incredible number of gray- and even white-haired people in the (more expensive) seats helped me feel like maybe I wasn't quite ready for prescription shoes and support hose.

Road Trip!

Last night Mason Jennings was playing an early show in Chicago, which meant that Kevin and I didn't have to fight Friday after-work traffic. He took the day off and I hurried home from my anatomy lab so we could be in Chicago with enough time to find decent parking, grab an early dinner, and do a little sightseeing.

We got there way too early, and as a result walked at least five miles, up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline, around the neighborhood where the show was to scout for a light dinner, and between the lake and the theater to find an independent (read: not Starbucks) coffee shop. We ended up at a place called Cafe Latakia on Broadway, which had a pretty good specialty drinks menu and absolutely no crowd, so we ended up staying for about an hour, reading a copy of The Onion that I'd picked up and playing checkers.

Dinner was nothing to write home about, and we actually ended up at the Lakeshore Theater around 6. I was overjoyed that we could go right inside, since the show wasn't scheduled until 7. A huge improvement over last time we saw Mason, which was at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor: those tickets clearly stated "Show starts at 8:00," yet the door didn't open until 8:45 and the opening band didn't start until 9:30.

I was equally thrilled to get front-row seats on the left side of the theater, just off of center. Pieta Brown opened, playing about five songs, including a Muddy Waters cover. She has a beautiful voice, but all of her original songs sounded the same to me.

There were about 15 or 20 minutes after her set until Mason came out. It was a solo show, primarily acoustic guitar, but two or three songs on the piano, including "Sorry Signs on Cash Machines," and a few with the harmonica. He also covered Neil Young's "Out on the Weekend," which was gorgeous.

Two encores meant that the show ended around 9, so after waiting almost a half an hour to retrieve our car from the Park 1 garage and accounting for the time change, we were home just after 1. Love those early shows!