Went to see She & Him on Saturday night. I thought the crowd would be pretty relaxed considering who was playing, but I was surprised by the gaggles of girls screaming "I LOVE YOU ZOOOOOOEEEEEY!" Please, this is not a Britney concert circa 2000. Two girls behind me were about to start something during a very quiet, mellow number. ("JUST STOP TALKING. STOP TALKING." Something unintelligible, murmur murmur. "OH, THAT'S REALLY CLASSY. REALLY." "JUST WATCH THE SHOW AND STOP TALKING!!!")
Girls will be girls.
They put on a good show, playing songs from both albums along with a few additional covers like "Fools Rush In" and "I Put A Spell On You." It was hard to hear what ZD was saying in between songs. Kind of mumbly. She looked really pretty, though. Double encore, which was nice. I like that they do covers of songs that most of our generation would probably overlook, because hopefully it pushes people to discover the source material. But wouldn't it be hilariously ironic if ZD covered Katy Perry?!!
And I'd like M. Ward to sing me a lullaby.
A blurry pic because I'm short and have zero camera skills.
Over the weekend I dusted off my record player (which looks as if it's made by Fisher-Price) and put on Simon & Garkfunkel's Greatest Hits while I crammed for my design 101 midterm (which I probably did fine on, fingers crossed). Naturally I felt the urge to rewatch The Graduate* so I put it on as background noise.
I love this film so much. I'm sure everyone's felt a little bit like Benjamin Braddock in the last few months. I didn't think much of it after my first viewing since I had to watch it for my histoire du cinéma class and I could only get my hands on a VHS copy of Le Lauréat. Dubbed Dustin Hoffman = no fun. My professor prefaced his lecture on the film by pointing out that DH was not "très beau" (direct quote!), and I found myself outraged. Since my French comprehension at the time was considerably low compared to now, I didn't really understand all the dialogue in the film, but I sure wasn't blind! DH was so beautiful, a perfect embodiment of youthful apathy. I can't imagine any other actor pulling off that empty, glazed look that he has in 80% of the movie. And he sure did look fit in all those pool/bedroom scenes...
The cinematography, of course, is also stunning, but that's pretty obvious. Ha, every time I'm at the airport I find myself staring blankly off into space on the moving walkways (easiest way to set up a tracking shot, no?!) then I start to hum "The Sound of Silence" quietly to myself. (I have a similar ritual at train stations, I whistle "I Will Wait For You" from Les parapluies de Cherbourg as I sob on the platform!)
Here's my favorite S&G tune from the film, a somewhat lesser-known track called "April Come She Will." (I love songs with references to months. "June in January," anyone? John Mayer's "St. Patrick's Day"?)
April come she will When streams are ripe and swelled with rain; May, she will stay, Resting in my arms again
June, she'll change her tune, In restless walks she'll prowl the night; July, she will fly And give no warning to her flight.
August, die she must, The autumn winds blow chilly and cold; September I'll remember. A love once new has now grown old.
Sigh. Love it.
*I dedicate this post to Bernie because she insisted the film was amazing and was patient with me when I kept stopping the movie to take notes!
Yesterday in my ad class someone brought up how CD sales are still down and no one actually buys them anymore. Errr...I do? :( You can't hold an mp3 in your hand with excitement, it's not the same.
March 23 - She & Him, Volume Two (Got tix for their May 29th show at the Fox Theater!)
April 13 - MGMT, Congratulations
April 20 - Rufus Wainwright, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu (SOOOO excited for this!)
May 10 - Foals, Total Life Forever Keane, Night Train
The first time I heard "Hanging By A Moment" was sometime in the winter of 2001. I used to watch the music videos on VH1 in the mornings while getting ready for school, and if you tuned in consistently (basically, if you watched every morning), you'd always see the same videos. There was something so comforting about hearing those first two purring guitar notes (notes? I don't know any guitar terminology) at the beginning of the song. It also didn't hurt that Jason Wade was easy on the eyes (and he still is, but I'm going to forget his new hair exists)!
I was sold.
Soon after I picked up their debut album No Name Face, wore it out from too many spins on my Discman, told all my friends about my new discovery, went to their shows, bought their T-shirts, bought the tab book (and I don't play guitar...obsession overboard), and purchased every subsequent CD...
Their fourth album Who We Are was released during the summer of 2007, right before I left for my year abroad in France. I was a bit torn--I wasn't impressed with their first single (it was too radio-friendly and shouty) and wasn't sure I liked the sound direction they were heading in. What was perfect about their debut was this sense of rawness and honesty in the songwriting. Their new stuff didn't have that same...oomph, for lack of a better sound. I caved and bought it anyway, out of loyalty or something, not that they would have been aware of my betrayal, listened to it once, frowned, then fled to the land of Gauls and adopted Justice as my new patron saint.
It took about two years for the songs on album four to really grow on me, but it made me a little sad that I no longer proclaimed Lifehouse as my favorite band because they had evolved, and my tastes had changed, too. (In case you're curious, Beirut is my current favorite band.)
Whoosh, 2010. Their latest effort Smoke and Mirrors was released just this past Tuesday. I had heard "Halfway Gone" a few months ago and again found it too mainstream for my tastes. Sure it's catchy, but it's not the Lifehouse I fell in love with. Instead of impulse-buying the CD (I'm on a very tight budget at the moment), I streamed it off their MySpace and opened a TextEdit file to geekily take note of which songs I actually liked. Admittedly, a good handful (Check out "Had Enough"...how sad that I like all the break-uppy tunes!), but I'm not sure if I'm ready for purchase commitment. Yet I have this lingering guilt!!
While I'm no longer their biggest fan and probably won't line up at noon for an 8pm show again anytime soon like I had done many a time in my youth, I still have this fondness for them. I check their Twitter page, peek at their website from time to time. I'll watch them if they're on TV....and I wish I had a good boyfriend metaphor to end this post...
My LJ username's namesake is featured in this video! :)
