live2009liveevil9002evil

I was compiling this list with great sadness....Looking at my list from 2005 (when I saw over 50 concerts in one year), this is paltry and mainstream by comparison. I didn't travel as much this year as I normally do, which adds to the problem. Norfolk doesn't really get enough good touring bands to make me inspired, thus I foresee one of my New Year's Resolutions to be more trips to the 930. So here goes, again, with the disclaimer that my resources were severely limited this year...

My Top Ten Shows of 2009

photo co: wwpv.flies.wordpress.com

1. The Decemberists at The Norva (Fall 2009):   The Hazards of Love definitively BLOWS MY MIND!! I love it and listen to it a lot...They played it in its entirety and track for track. It would swoop from indie-rock noise headbopping to WTF?!? lookatthatgirlonstagecrazycrazy!! The encore was a cover of Heart's Crazy on You. I'm crazy on them.

2. Muse at UVA (Fall 2009): They opened for U2. We paid nada surf for tickets and got there way early. We asked the security guard if we could walk to the front and he let us! I was so close to Bono I could see the buttons on his pants. However, Muse was the music. U2 was one of those bucket-list bands...Muse put on a fucking rock show. Saw Marcus from VB, whom I only see randomly and accidentally at large concerts in far away towns.

3. Roadside Graves at Taphouse (Summer 2009): We were sitting outside on a random Thursday. Bands don't normally play Thursdays at Taphouse. They started inside and we didn't go in. It started to rain after their first set. We asked the bouncer if we could go in without paying a cover because we were there to drink, not see this band. He said $1 and we agreed. And we regretted not going in the second they started playing. The Graves are in my top three newly-discovered bands of 2009...well worth more than that dollar.

4. Ralph Stanley at Roper Theater (Spring 2009): Dr. Ralph is a legend in my family. He runs in the same circles as my grandparents (apparently, anyway--I've heard this my whole life, but have never met the man). He's from where I'm from--an Appalachia so removed, it makes its urban expatriates cling together in weird fraternity knowing something mystic and desparate no one from the outside really understands. His voice is haunting and he is NOT simply the guy from O Brother Where Art Thou? My friend Matt Scruggs tagged  along. He is distantly related to Dr. Ralph's sometimes collaborator Earl Scruggs and has a similar family folktale situation. It was fun to compare stories. We sat in the front and were the youngest people there. He is in his 80's, so didn't perform the entire time...but it was great to finally see him for myself.

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5. Kings of Leon at The Ted (Spring 2009): This wasn't my first KOL show, but it was my favorite so far. My Party felt like indie-rave rock and I DANCED and DANCED and DANCED. Hope to see them at the Norva sometime....the smaller the venue the better...

6. Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun at The Boot (Fall 2009): I'd heard of this Atlanta skuzz band from my friends at Hells Kitchen. They'd seen them once or twice already...I spent 2-6 at Bier Garten, 6-10 at book (ie: wine) club, and showed up at The Boot to find the best whiskey sour in the 757, friends from Richmond I hadn't seen in years, and another of my top 2009 music discoveries...and I ended up writing about them for altdaily.com their next time in town.

7. One at Mt. Trashmore's Earth Day (Summer 2009): This was bliss. My good friends Chris Ebarb and Ivan King have been messing around w/ Garage Band for years. They are two of the most talented people I know, but they never play out. Somehow they got the headlining gig for this. I'd spent the day at OBX and rushed back to Mt. Trashmore to see them...and they were SO GOOD! Very proud of my boys.

8. David Sedaris at Chrysler Hall (Fall 2009): I just started reading David Sedaris last year. I was already a fan of his sister, Amy, and my friend Liz gave me some books to check out. They were good/funny/etc. My friend Mo was getting married in October and we went to this as the bachelorette...He was super sweet to me and gave my bachelorette a condom from his pocket??

9. No Doubt at Va Beach Ampitheater (Summer 2009): Eh. I'm running low on culture at this point and dipping into the nostalgia bucket. I took my husband to this and yes, he was man enough to go without complaint (unlike douchebag boyfriend two rows behind us who complained to his girlfriend the entire time). It was a fun summer night...especially watching all the 7 year old girls on their mom's shoulders, both singing Just A Girl as loud as they could. Awww...rock-n-roll bonding mother-daughter bonding.

10. Coldplay at Va Beach Ampitheater (Summer 2009): Wish it had been Radiohead. But...it was nice of them to play a mini-set on the lawn. Most big bands don't cater to those of us who paid $10 and Coldplay did. This was still my least favorite show last year. They were cheesy and made mistakes...yet they were really good to their fans. It was worth $10. I wouldn't pay $20.

Never Say Plastic

The above images are from the Paper-Cut project. Check out http://www.paper-cut-project.com/ for an introduction to the art of Amy Flurry and Nikki Salk (who has her own blog: The Fashion Gatherer). The website looks to still be under construction, but I'd love to see an exhibit of origami of this magnitude....Maybe wear one to a party at some point...

Holidays

Off

Heading home for a few days, so probably no new posts until Monday. Merry Christmas to all!

mademoiselle

image from 1.bp.blogspot.com

I'm starting a new section of the blog called mademoiselle. It's mainly a place for me to store info on all the interesting bios I run across. I have a million I want to add: Frida Kahlo, Marian Davies, Courtney Love...

I just saw Coco Before Chanel. So my inaugural mademoiselle is Ms. Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.  Chanel's been my favorite brand I can't afford for a long time and I have a big interest in fashion as a means of expression or art and consider it to be a valuable piece of popular culture.

All I knew of Coco Chanel was that she invented the little black dress and she was a workaholic until her death in the 1970s. I also love those Coco perfume ads in Vogue or Vanity Fair. I started wearing Chanel perfume based off of those ads.

It starts with her being dumped at an orphanage at the age of 9 and traces her steps from lounge singer in low-class cabarets to the (sometimes mistreated) mistress of a French aristocrat. It ends with her hat-making shop just beginning to take off.

When she finally has the ability to change her life permanently and for the better, the choices she makes are unique and life-altering. She is offered a marriage proposal by the aristocrat, but she is in love with a married Englishman who supports her sense of style and thinks she should pursue it in Paris. She chooses Paris over marriage.

She's no saint, however. She is most definitely someone who slept her way to the top. Alternately, she's no whore. If the talent didn't exist, and these men didn't see it in her, she may have stayed a lowly cabaret singer her whole life. I would call her resourceful, using what she had and making the best of it until she eventually managed everything on her own.

I sat there and thought about it for a long time. What would I have done if I'd been Coco? Would I have been that brave? Would I have taken the easy way out? Would I have married? Would I have even slept my way into those circles to start with? Or would I have wasted away in the basement of a dress shop, mending hems for the rich and sharing a bedsit with my spinster sister?

I do not have an answer, which is why Coco gets a place on my muse list.

If you don't see the movie at all, but are a House of Chanel fan, the last scene is worth watching on youtube. You can trace the fashion seen in the movie, through the black dress with beads phase, through the tweed an quilted suits, all the way through today's Karl Lagerfeld creations...It was like watching a child age into adulthood via fashion and it was delicious!

Finally saw it...

Thoughts are on AltDaily: http://www.24sevencities.com/blogs/entertainment-blogs/film-blogs/local-review-a-christmas-story-at-the-naro.html

Rabbits

I am almost finished with my collage. It's largely a tribute to one of my favorite artists, Maggie Taylor, and features some of her characters, as well as other nymph or rabbit-like creatures.

Yesterday was Today Tomorrow

I saw Atlanta's Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun at Hells Kitchen on Thursday night. I'm hoping they keep up their trips to Norfolk in 2010. It was better than all but two NorVa shows I saw this year. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/todaythemoontomorrowthesun

Check out Jeremy's face. I love a good drummer.

A clock entitled "Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun" my friend Mike made. He's the one who introduced me to the band.

Also, I wrote an article about it for altdaily. Check it out at: http://www.24sevencities.com/features/music/music-reviews/why-does-this-band-love-norfolk-so-much.html There are better pics there (ie: ones I didn't take, hehe).

An Education

image: www.rottentomatoes.com

image: www.londonist.com

image: www.reverseshot.com

An Education is a coming of age story taking place in early 1960s London between schoolgirl Jenny (Carey Mulligan) and older man David (the always charming Peter Sarsgaard).

First reaction upon leaving the theater: Predictable. You know David is up to no good right away and the challenge is not deciphering if, but rather when, the bottom will fall out on Jenny's fantasy. When it finally happens, the big reveal wasn't shocking...merely acceptable.

I say this. However, throughout the film, other patrons were gasping and cursing under their breath. The movie has great reviews in mainstream media. So perhaps I'm too big a snob to immerse myself. Last week on NPR, Matt Damon said (I'm paraphrasing) "If the audience is watching Matt Damon instead of the character I'm portraying, I'm not doing my job as an actor." During the scenes that were supposed to make me cry, all I could think was "he's acting."

That said, there is a reason the only Golden Globe nomination this film received was for Carey Mulligan. She's a delight--portraying youth and sophistication's rivalry with great subtlety and nuance.  Peter Sarsgaard does a great job as well. He's like a sleazy, slightly less attractive Jude Law.

My favorite part of the movie was the costumes and set decorations. I'm a vintage freak anyway, so all the little knickknacks and wall hangings were the most fun visually. The dresses the girls wore were also a feast for my eyes.

Final thoughts: This film isn't for everyone. It's for those of you who are either into vintage, or into melodrama light on the meat.

Decades

So I listened. Listened to four hours of Jeff Buckley and nearly cried at work. Learned "Through the Yard of Blonde Girls" is actually a cover song by The Nymphs. Then I watched Dig, which I haven't seen since Bonnaroo 2004. And I feel old. I still love the Dandy Warhols as much as day one. Nice to see them so young and scruffy...I would have MARRIED Courtney Taylor-Taylor when I was younger...But the film is correct in its point...The Dandies are wonderful but in the end Brian Jonestown Massacre will be forever remembered...and not for pop hits or handsome frontmen. Courtney is pop and Anton is art...Would be lovely to hear them play together, though....with Jeff Buckley on vocals perhaps? :)

Heather's House

I went to my friend Heather's house in Charlottesville, VA this weekend and took some pics of her house:

We remember helping our grandmothers can green beans when we were little. And picking wild blackberries.

We have crushes on James Franco.

We listened to "Slow Down Ghandi" by Sage Francis and drank Charlottesville wines.

Watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Savages, Secretary, Vice Guide to Travel, The Dancing Outlaw, Anthony Bourdain, Nirvana 1992 Reading Festival Set, Queen videos, & Arrested Development

I was introduced to The Dancing Outlaw. Reminisced on how we actually know people like him.

Finished my trip with Mudhouse coffee and a trip to Sugar Hollow.