Melanie's Blurty Entries [entries|friends|calendar] Melanie [ website | My Website ] [ userinfo | blurty userinfo ] [ calendar | blurty calendar ]

myspace [08 Jun 2005|08:57pm] i am going to be keeping my blog at myspace from now on. for all my new blog entries, check out http://www.myspace.com/auntiemel also, my live music schedule is at http://www.blurty.com/users/melanieconcerts post comment

Cult of Personality [30 May 2005|05:50pm] I took this personality test online and I thought the results were pretty interesting, therefore I decided to post them. “Your personality type is INTP. Introverted (I) 100% Extraverted (E) 0% (BTW - 100% Introverted explains a LOT!!!!) Intuitive (N) 86% Sensing (S) 14% Thinking (T) 51% Feeling (F) 49% Perceiving (P) 77% Judging (J) 23% Note that if some of your results are near 50%, then you may not fall 100% into one personality type. For example, if you are an ENFJ but your Feeling and Thinking are almost 50/50, then you would more accurately be an ENxJ." Therefore, that makes me an INxP. Here are the breakdowns they gave for how much of the population each personality type comprises: INTJ 1% INTP 1% ENTP 5% ENTJ 5% INFJ 1% INFP 1% ENFP 5% ENFJ 5% ISFJ 6% ISFP 5% ESFP 13% ESFJ 13% ISTJ 6% ISTP 7% ESTP 13% ESTJ 13% Here are the explanations of the two personality types that I am pretty much evenly split between: INTP – “The Thinker” As an INTP, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you deal with things rationally and logically. Your secondary mode is external, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. INTPs live in the world of theoretical possibilities. They see everything in terms of how it could be improved, or what it could be turned into. They live primarily inside their own minds, having the ability to analyze difficult problems, identify patterns, and come up with logical explanations. They seek clarity in everything, and are therefore driven to build knowledge. They are the "absent-minded professors", who highly value intelligence and the ability to apply logic to theories to find solutions. They typically are so strongly driven to turn problems into logical explanations, that they live much of their lives within their own heads, and may not place as much importance or value on the external world. Their natural drive to turn theories into concrete understanding may turn into a feeling of personal responsibility to solve theoretical problems, and help society move towards a higher understanding. INTPs value knowledge above all else. Their minds are constantly working to generate new theories, or to prove or disprove existing theories. They approach problems and theories with enthusiasm and skepticism, ignoring existing rules and opinions and defining their own approach to the resolution. They seek patterns and logical explanations for anything that interests them. They're usually extremely bright, and able to be objectively critical in their analysis. They love new ideas, and become very excited over abstractions and theories. They love to discuss these concepts with others. They may seem "dreamy" and distant to others, because they spend a lot of time inside their minds musing over theories. They hate to work on routine things - they would much prefer to build complex theoretical solutions, and leave the implementation of the system to others. They are intensely interested in theory, and will put forth tremendous amounts of time and energy into finding a solution to a problem with has piqued their interest. INTPs do not like to lead or control people. They're very tolerant and flexible in most situations, unless one of their firmly held beliefs has been violated or challenged, in which case they may take a very rigid stance. The INTP is likely to be very shy when it comes to meeting new people. On the other hand, the INTP is very self-confident and gregarious around people they know well, or when discussing theories which they fully understand. The INTP has no understanding or value for decisions made on the basis of personal subjectivity or feelings. They strive constantly to achieve logical conclusions to problems, and don't understand the importance or relevance of applying subjective emotional considerations to decisions. For this reason, INTPs are usually not in-tune with how people are feeling, and are not naturally well-equiped to meet the emotional needs of others. The INTP may have a problem with self-aggrandizement and social rebellion, which will interfere with their creative potential. Since their Feeling side is their least developed trait, the INTP may have difficulty giving the warmth and support that is sometimes necessary in intimate relationships. If the INTP doesn't realize the value of attending to other people's feelings, he or she may become overly critical and sarcastic with others. If the INTP is not able to find a place for themself which supports the use of their strongest abilities, they may become generally negative and cynical. If the INTP has not developed their Sensing side sufficiently, they may become unaware of their environment, and exhibit weakness in performing maintenance-type tasks, such as bill-paying and dressing appropriately. For the INTP, it is extremely important that ideas and facts are expressed correctly and succinctly. They are likely to express themselves in what they believe to be absolute truths. Sometimes, their well thought-out understanding of an idea is not easily understandable by others, but the INTP is not naturally likely to tailor the truth so as to explain it in an understandable way to others. The INTP may be prone to abandoning a project once they have figured it out, moving on to the next thing. It's important that the INTP place importance on expressing their developed theories in understandable ways. In the end, an amazing discovery means nothing if you are the only person who understands it. The INTP is usually very independent, unconventional, and original. They are not likely to place much value on traditional goals such as popularity and security. They usually have complex characters, and may tend to be restless and temperamental. They are strongly ingenious, and have unconventional thought patterns which allows them to analyze ideas in new ways. Consequently, a lot of scientific breakthroughs in the world have been made by the INTP. The INTP is at his best when he can work on his theories independently. When given an environment which supports his creative genius and possible eccentricity, the INTP can accomplish truly remarkable things. These are the pioneers of new thoughts in our society. INFP - The Idealist As an INFP, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system. Your secondary mode is external, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. INFPs, more than other iNtuitive Feeling types, are focused on making the world a better place for people. Their primary goal is to find out their meaning in life. What is their purpose? How can they best serve humanity in their lives? They are idealists and perfectionists, who drive themselves hard in their quest for achieving the goals they have identified for themselves INFPs are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value in life. They are on a continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through the INFP's value system, and is evaluated to see if it has any potential to help the INFP define or refine their own path in life. The goal at the end of the path is always the same - the INFP is driven to help people and make the world a better place. Generally thoughtful and considerate, INFPs are good listeners and put people at ease. Although they may be reserved in expressing emotion, they have a very deep well of caring and are genuinely interested in understanding people. This sincerity is sensed by others, making the INFP a valued friend and confidante. An INFP can be quite warm with people he or she knows well. INFPs do not like conflict, and go to great lengths to avoid it. If they must face it, they will always approach it from the perspective of their feelings. In conflict situations, INFPs place little importance on who is right and who is wrong. They focus on the way that the conflict makes them feel, and indeed don't really care whether or not they're right. They don't want to feel badly. This trait sometimes makes them appear irrational and illogical in conflict situations. On the other hand, INFPs make very good mediators, and are typically good at solving other people's conflicts, because they intuitively understand people's perspectives and feelings, and genuinely want to help them. INFPs are flexible and laid-back, until one of their values is violated. In the face of their value system being threatened, INFPs can become aggressive defenders, fighting passionately for their cause. When an INFP has adopted a project or job which they're interested in, it usually becomes a "cause" for them. Although they are not detail-oriented individuals, they will cover every possible detail with determination and vigor when working for their "cause". When it comes to the mundane details of life maintenance, INFPs are typically completely unaware of such things. They might go for long periods without noticing a stain on the carpet, but carefully and meticulously brush a speck of dust off of their project booklet. INFPs do not like to deal with hard facts and logic. Their focus on their feelings and the Human Condition makes it difficult for them to deal with impersonal judgment. They don't understand or believe in the validity of impersonal judgment, which makes them naturally rather ineffective at using it. Most INFPs will avoid impersonal analysis, although some have developed this ability and are able to be quite logical. Under stress, it's not uncommon for INFPs to mis-use hard logic in the heat of anger, throwing out fact after (often inaccurate) fact in an emotional outburst. INFPs have very high standards and are perfectionists. Consequently, they are usually hard on themselves, and don't give themselves enough credit. INFPs may have problems working on a project in a group, because their standards are likely to be higher than other members' of the group. In group situations, they may have a "control" problem. The INFP needs to work on balancing their high ideals with the requirements of every day living. Without resolving this conflict, they will never be happy with themselves, and they may become confused and paralyzed about what to do with their lives. INFPs are usually talented writers. They may be awkard and uncomfortable with expressing themselves verbally, but have a wonderful ability to define and express what they're feeling on paper. INFPs also appear frequently in social service professions, such as counselling or teaching. They are at their best in situations where they're working towards the public good, and in which they don't need to use hard logic. INFPs who function in their well-developed sides can accomplish great and wonderful things, which they will rarely give themselves credit for. Some of the great, humanistic catalysts in the world have been INFPs. post comment

19 Questions (and a bitch ain't one!) [22 May 2005|07:56pm] 19 Questions about your Myspace! Stephanie posted this bulletin and I thought it would be fun to fill out. :-) I am posting a slightly altered version of this to my blog than went out in my bulletin, because more people have access to my blog than my myspace bulletins! haha. But if you are one of the few, the proud, the myspacers...check out the unedited version on your bulletin board. 1. What does your myspace quote mean? Pretty self-explanatory. "The coolest bitch you'll ever meet." Wait. I guess this kind of negates the promise I made in the title. :) 2. Elaborate on your primary photo? That picture was taken at my nephew's birthday party and i was having a good hair day...therefore, it's my primary photo. Can't have the masses being introduced to me via a ponytail picture. :-D 3. Who introduced myspace to you? I can't remember, but I'm guessing that it was MSM. 4. How many friends do you have? One hundred and eighty something. I don't have the heart to turn down musicians, I approve them all. :-) 5. What's your current status? I assume this means relationship status? Well, while technically it's "single" I don't think that this word fully expresses the true situation, which is "several situations that are calm but uninteresting, one situation that is both calm and interesting, and one situation that is chaotic and headed for a trainwreck" 6. What are you wearing right now? a tshirt - my usual pajama uniform 7. What is life to you? Oh, jesus...that's WAY too deep for one in the morning.8. What are you doing now?typing this, feeling groggy from my long nap, listening to matt nathanson, considering trying to go back to sleep since i have to be up in 5 hours. 9. What do you hate most? being dismissed out of hand, or treated like i don't exist or don't matter. 10. What do you love most? that drink of cold water when you wake up parched in the middle of the night, stepping out of the shower feeling fresh and clean after you've been sweaty, dirty, sticky, etc., getting laid after a long dry spell, the first bite of delicious food when you're STARVING...the sensation of an urge being satisfied is one of the sweetest aspects of the human experience, IMO. 11. What makes you happy? connecting, whether it's with people, with a book, with music or art...I just like the feeling of community. 12. Are you musically inclined? i sang in a gospel choir for six years. a really, really awesome gospel choir. :-) ( http://www.jubilee.org ) i have a pretty good voice - more specifically, i have a decent sense of pitch and (if i do say so myself) a fairly kickass belt. :-) but i don't play anything or read music and whatnot, so...yeah. that would be the long way of saying, "No, but I can sing." haha. Which actually brings up one of my pet peeves. Let me explain...I hate it when people who do something like sing in choir make statements such as, "Well, I'm a musician, so..." and that just frosts me, because...um...NO, YOU'RE NOT! You sing. In a choir. Maybe it's a good choir. Maybe you're a good singer. BUT YOU'RE NOT A MUSICIAN! I think unless you're making a living singing, it's even a stretch to call yourself a "singer" in anything but the strictly grammatical sense. It's another facet of the same thing that bothers me about groups like The Backstreet Boys or O-Town or whoever calling themselves "a band." You're not a band! You're a singing group AT BEST! Bands play their own music, bands write their own songs. Bands usually form on their own, and not through a television show titled with the misnomer "Making the Band." I think that's the problem with this whole wave of karaoke/American Idol bullshit that's been growing for the last ten years or so. Everybody thinks they're a star now, everybody thinks they know ALL about music because they saw it on TV. NO! If you want to call yourself a musician (in good consience, anyway) then study. Learn an instrument. Hone your craft. I don't call myself a carpenter because I built my fucking bookcase, don't call yourself a "musician" because you sing a goddamn choir.:-D PS - Nothing against Jubilee, this goes on everywhere. I was just giving some background. LOL. 13. What would you do if you woke up one morning and found that the person you love most doesn't exist? Since I love myself the most, that is a philosophical conundrum. LOLSeriously, though....not sure if i could go on w/o my nephew joey. :-( 14. If you could go back in time, and change something, what would it be? There is someone who completely fucked up my childhood by being a sadistic asshole, among other things. I never told him what a totally worthless loser human being he was to his face. He died last year, now I'll never get the chance. It's my biggest regret. 16. Ever had a near death experience? Yes, a car accident...my tire blew out on the freeway and my car spun out, hitting the center divide. No other cars were involved, THANK GOD! 17. Name ONE obvious quality you have. Although it's not really apparent from this survey LOL, I actually have quite a decent sense of humor! :-D 18. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? Bitches Ain't Shit - Ben Folds 19. Are you happy today? Yeah, I was until I started taking this survey! LOL Now I'm all mired down in my booty call boys situations, poser-musician pet peeve, childhood-ruiner confrontation blueballs, and car accident memories. DAMN! Thanks, Stephanie. Thanks a lot. :-D post comment

FAQ - Read before you myspace message me [07 May 2005|03:27am] When strangers message me on myspace (always male) (usually VERY young or VERY old), I have noticed that several questions tend to come up again and again. Therefore, I have compiled an FAQ of Melanie. If any of the things you were experiencing burning curiosity about are contained below, you will have been saved the trouble of messaging me. And I will have been saved the torture of having to read yet another of your tedious and sometimes disturbing messages. Also, each of these was taken from ACTUAL messages I have recieved from people I did not know, and many I have recieved numerous variations of. So, if you sent a message and didn't get an answer...well, here ya go! QUESTION: How big are your tits? I can't tell from your pictures. ANSWER: There's a reason for that. Also, you're gross. QUESTION: I notice that I live close to you. Do you want to get together and (insert creative sexual act of your choosing) tonight? ANSWER: No. QUESTION: Hey, baby... ANSWER: No. Anything that starts with "Hey, baby" from a stranger is an automatic NO. QUESTION: Do you like (insert ethnicity) men? ANSWER: Yes. That doesn't mean I'll like you, though. QUESTION: Hey, you're a cancer. Cancers are passionate lovers. ANSWER: That's not even a question. QUESTION: Are you clean? STDs? ANSWER: There will never be an occasion where that information is relevant to you. QUESTION: Are you sure you don't want to get together tonight? ANSWER: I'm sure. I'm going to be busy throwing up. What I want to know is, how do these people find me on myspace? I use myspace for 1) finding new music and 2) hanging out with my buddies. What on my profile is attracting them? Under "Things I Like" I didn't list "Pervs." GGRRRRRR!!!!!!! I love myspace. Seriously. Beyond all reason, even. But this particular aspect is getting old. So, in conclusion, this post has been a roundabout way of saying that if you are a stranger to me, DO NOT email me about sex. I will find out what your fucking email address is and sign you up for every spam list known to man. It's my new hobby. Don't test me! :-D post comment

Wheels Are Turnin' [05 May 2005|12:47pm] so, i was looking at REO Speedwagon's website to get myself excited about maybe going to see them play in June (I spent the summer I was 13 OBSESSED with REO Speedwagon...and I don'tuse the word obsessed lightly...can you say "memorized the liner notes to Hi-Infedelity?"), and when I saw their group photo, I thought to myself (and this is an exact transcript, btw),"Well, damn. Kevin Cronin's not even touring with them anymore...I'm not gonna haul ass down to Del Mar for....wait a second. What the fuck? What the FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK?????" kevin cronin has short blonde hair now. short. blonde. hair. That is just 32 flavors of ALL KINDS OF FUCKING WRONG! *shudder* i guess i gotta just shake it off. but, this: is what I remember him looking like. That's what he's SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE. THIS: fuck! why did he have to shit peroxide all over my childhood memories??? I mean it's not like he was ever really attractive, but DAMN. at least he used to resemble a rocker. not hilary clinton. *SOB* Rollin' With the Changes, Melanie PS-I tried *so hard* to work in a "Variety Tonight" joke...but it just didn't fit. LOL post comment

Ben Folds has the (un)coolest fans :-) [29 Apr 2005|01:00am] When I went to the Ben Folds instore at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset today, I had a realization about why I love going to his shows. His fans are dorks. As I looked around at the gathering crowd this afternoon, I saw not a speck of glitter on eyelids or lips and nary a halter top or lowrider jeans in the bunch. There was one dude in a trucker hat, but it was old and I got the impression that it might have once been worn by an actual trucker, so I'll forgive him his attempt at trendiness. What I did see were dorks. Unapologetic, self-celebratory dorks. This may seem on the surface like an insult, but remember, this descriptor is coming from a girl who owns not one, but TWO "I <3 Dorks" t-shirts. I saw chubby girls and lanky guys and vice versa. I saw piercings and tattoos and clothespins holding jeans together. I saw thick-frame glasses and lots of Doc Martens. When I show up to concerts early with a book to keep me occupied, I am generally alone in a sea of giggly, drunk Generation Yers yakking with each other or text messaging on their cells. Not this time. In the 30-40 people immediately surrounding me, there were 3 people reading novels, 2 people reading scripts (gotta love LA), and a girl doing her calculus homework. Ben's fans are thinkers. They're smarter than the average bear. They also voted unanimously to let a girl in a wheelchair move to the front even though it meant they all had to move back a little. How kickass is that? They are, lastly, the friendliest concert crowd you will ever encounter, including anyone sitting around them in their conversation. I freely admit being a dork and I even more freely admit loving them. This is why I love Ben's shows so much. It's because these are my people, and when I'm with them, I'm home. post comment

Ramblings [27 Apr 2005|06:06pm] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: The lyrics to The Last Five Years, in an effort to make production notes on what is sure to be the SPLENDIFEROUS debut of Silver Street Productions this fall. If we can ever come up with a Jamie. :-D WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Songs for Silverman, the oh-so-genius latest effort by the oh-so-genius Ben Folds. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: I wrote the below email (myspace message, whatever) as part of a convo with (a musician whose name used to be here, and which I subsequently edited out because I realized that including it made me a stalker-enabler)and thought I'd post it in my blog, since I already had it written out and that would be an expeditious way to update this sucker. LOL THE EMAIL - Yeah, I've let my hair go natural the past couple months. I've kind of gotten into organic foods and shampoos and things lately. So, basically: Then = blondie, Now = hippie. Oh, and I will most DEFINITELY be there on the 10th. To not only get to see Marc Broussard but my boy David Ryan Harris as well? No question. My cousin is coming out from Palm Springs to go with me, and I'm meeting up with a bunch of my concert-buddy friends, too. In fact, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to hook up with us at some point, because I could introduce you around, and these are SERIOUS music-lovin' concert people. Like, they routinely drop shocking amounts of bank on music and concerts. So it wouldn't be a bad little networking opportunity! haha. I bought a ticket for the night before in San Francisco, too, so I'll be knocked out from all that driving. But I will still enjoy every second. :-D I did this for 2 reasons: 1) The Great American Music Hall is soooo bee-yoo-tee-ful 2) I could NOT pass up the opportunity to see miss Trizzy P open up Incidentally, if you want to jump on the pre-fame bandwagon of someone that is about to be HUGE, Tristan Prettyman wouldn't be a bad place to go. She is signed with Virgin and her CD drops in August. I have a feeling that the label is going to pimp the shit out of her, too, because she is gorgeous squared. Not to mention the fact that she's Jason Mraz's girlfriend, which, when that little development came to light, must have made the marketing execs over at Virgin drop to their knees and declare, "There is a God!" :-) Additionally, I am having a kick-ass week because Songs for Silverman dropped on Tuesday and it is SO wonderful. I bought it at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset so that I could get a wristband for the instore and signing tomorrow. HELLS yeah! I am so fucking stoked about that, I cannot even express it. This excitement is probably why I'm babbling, in fact. Damn, this has been long. I think I'll copy it into my blog so I can kill 2 birds. haha. 25.5 hours until I meet Ben Folds, Melanie post comment

That was 90% gravity [11 Mar 2005|05:52am] MUSIC I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: I have a cool story. It’s been so long since I updated my blog, that I can’t believe I haven’t posted it here yet, but I haven’t, so HERE GOES!!!!! In 1998, I bought a brilliant CD by a girl named Rebekah called "Remember to Breathe." It never left my player for more than a day for over a year, to this day I still listen to it at least once a month. The problem is, she never put out anything new and I could never find out anything about her aside from the fact that she did some acting (she played Sylvia in Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights). Years of googling and asking around on message boards, etc. yielded nothing. Then, in December I went to see David Ryan Harris at the Temple Bar in Santa Monica. I picked up all the postcards of the upcoming artists like I always do. One was for a girl named Rebekah Jordan. When I went to her website and listened to her songs, I realized her voice was very familiar. It was Rebekah, who I'd spent so long trying to look up! I’ve seen her twice now, at Room 5 and at Little Temple. I talked to her briefly at Room 5, but got a chance to talk to her more extensively at Little Temple. Brandy snapped a picture of us, but it came out very dark because I was too nervous to remember which button is the flash on my own damn camera! LOL Anyway, CHECK HER OUT, she’s amazing: http://www.rebekahjordanmusic.com BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION, WHICH IS ABOUT TO GET CANCELLED BECAUSE IT'S TOO SMART FOR NETWORK TV: Arrested Development. If you don’t watch Arrested Development, please start immediately. Particularly if you are a Nielson family. This show is so clever, so smart, so subtle yet simultaneously broad (yeah, I know, I wouldn’t have said it was possible either) that I honestly believe that if you don’t love it it’s only because you don’t get it. LOL. If you miss the boat now, and the show gets cancelled before you have a chance to become a rabid fan (as I know anyone who is smart enough to be reading my blog certainly would *smile*), then you will definitely be saying to yourself later, in true Gob style, “I think I've made a huge mistake.” In fact, it’s gotten to the point where it scares me to bring up Arrested Development to new people. I know that if they don't like it, I will lose all respect for them, not to mention any interest in pursuing the relationship further. Case in point, the following exerpt from an IM conversation between myself and a guy from myspace.com that was trying to chat me up: BTW, the screenames have been changed to protect the innocent (me) and the idiot (him). GUY: what are you up to? ME: i'm watching the second season of arrested development on my computer again. god, i love that show GUY: never seen it ME: are you serious? you need to. it's the smartest show on TV. GUY: i watch joey ME: yeah....they're not really comparable GUY: i like it ME: ok LATER IN THE EXCHANGE: GUY: so what do you look for in a guy? tall? ME: i'm not a very externally-focused person. looks are not very interesting to me. i'm more excited by ideas and passion than looks. i suppose i'm somewhat of a neo-hippie in that way. GUY: oh, cool. yeah. me too. (FIVE MINUTE PAUSE) GUY: so what do you look like? ME: was that subtle irony? GUY: was that what? ME: subtle irony. GUY: i guess i don't know what that is. ME: which explains why you prefer Joey to AD. GUY: AD? ME: Nevermind. Needless to say, he's getting nowhere with me. :-) WORST DAMN MOVIE IN RECENT HISTORY: Abandon. Katie Holmes elects to play the exact same character as she played in Dawson’s Creek, except this time she’s a killer. I mean, come on…she’s “smart” (whatever), studious, comes from a disadvantaged background, guys are drawn to her, she has Daddy issues…damn, people. That is Joey Potter. Joey Potter with a big damn rock. Not to mention the fact that the male lead looks exactly like Cabrera and it distracted me. FUNNIEST BLOOPER IN A CHRISTIAN PSUEDO-NEWS PROFILE: My mom and I were watching the 700 Club the other night (shut up!) and they did an expose…er…I mean, a profile on this youth ministry in Connecticut called “Frontline Ministries.” So when the founder is camera-talking about the origin of the name, he says (with a completely straight face), “When David wanted to get rid of Uriah, he sent him out to the frontline of the battle, where the most intense fighting was.” Um…???? WTF? Yes, that’s the way that David ASSASSINATED Uriah, you moron! What does that have to do with your youth ministry? So unless your motto is: “Frontline Ministries – Killing Kids for Christ since 1987,” you may wanna rethink that, turbo. But the most intensely frightening aspect of this whole anecdote, for me at least, is how many people must have seen that segment and approved it before it made air. YIKES! BEST FREEWARE AVAILABLE TO LOAD ONTO A TREO 600: Verichat, a Trillian-like program for handhelds. The upshot? I can now IM from anywhere, my friends. Look out. Particularly ATBers, as I believe it has chat room capabilities. What what! WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON: Oh, hell, I’m sick of typing. LOL I’ll check in again with real news about my life, as opposed to random pop culture observations. Like anyone cares. :-) post comment

Bye Bye, Matty :*-( [16 Dec 2004|12:29pm] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner. I'm only on the second page. I love only being on the second page of a book. It's such a feeling of anticipation. :-) WHO I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: I heard Todd Martin opening up for Matt a couple of weeks ago in Massachusetts and I thought that he was good stuff. He's very muscular, too. Like...the guitar looked small when he held it. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: Well, I flew out to Mass to see Matt Nathanson play and visit my crazy friend Mark a couple of weeks ago. He is one funny kid! I had so much fun. Mark picked me up at the airport (JFK) with his friend Lou and we went and and picked up Zuzana and got on the road. A few hours, a diner meal, and a staunch refusal to listen to Barenaked Ladies later...we arrived in Shelburne Falls. We ran into Sherilyn and chatted for a while, then went and talked with Megan and Emily at Megan's restaurant. We checked into a hotel, chilled, got ready, ate, and got in line for the concert. It was a CCCOOLLLDDD couple of hours, but it was broken up by a lively discussion of mark's sexuality which random people jumped into with interesting results. :-) The show was THE SHIT! People were so quiet and respectful. I gave Matt the second part of my Christmas gift, the cast recording of The Last Five Years (the first part having been an inscribed copy of Marc Acito's How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater). Then last weekend, I drove to San Francisco for Matt's final show for a while. The length of the "while" has not been specified by Matt's team, so I am assuming it is a long while. I am preparing for the eventuality that I might not get to see Matty play again until The Rock Boat. So sad. Not for Matt, of course, I'm sure he's doing a happy dance. But sad for me. Happy, also, for my bank balance, as I am not a sucker for throwing down cash for a cross-country trip for anyone but Matt. :-D The show in San Francisco was SSSOOO good. I am going to copy and paste my reviews from Matt's board: FIRST ONE: awwww...what a great show! i loved it. so cool running into friends i haven't seen since april. noreen, sarita and ro...and noreen and i went to this very cool 24 hour diner after the show and had eats. so, on the subject of "age ain't nothin' but a number" noreen was telling matt that her birthday was on tuesday. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) naturally, he asked how old she was going to be. she told him. he couldn't believe it. (without getting into specifics, let's just say that noreen is VERY young and hottie looking for her age ). matt was like, "no way. there is NO WAY." and noreen says, "it's true. ask mel." i confirmed, and matt says, "yeah, but melanie lies..." so, i was telling my mom this story this morning (i took the opportunity of being in norcal anyway to come visit the fam), and at the point in the story where matt says that i lie, she says, "yeah, but how does *he* know that?" HAHA! God. I'm like, "MOM! He was joking! And I *don't* lie!" So my mom starts cracking up, and she says, "oh, no, that's hilarious...i just thought...you know...you WILL lie to people to make a joke funnier, you'll go along with a joke. that's all i meant. not like you're some pathological liar." haha. and since i had, just previous to noreen chatting matt up, been trying to convince her to use her new haircut to fool him by adopting the persona of a stripper named regina...well, i guess i can't really argue with that. NEXT ONE: oh, i also wanted to point out how incredibly cool the crowd was at this show...they were very quiet and respectful during the solemn, emotional songs, but at the rowdy parts, they were so rambunctious and funny! my favorite part was this: a girl in the front row had requested "new coats & new hats" and matt said he would play it, but that it had to wait a few songs. a little bit later, this guy in the back with a growly voice yelled loudly, "VANDALIZED!" and matt stepped back from the mic with this startled look on his face like it scared him. then he says, pointing out the girl in the front row, "I was supposed to play a song for you. but you're not as angry as he is." people laughed and as it was dying down, she says, "I can be," in this semi-threatening/semi-seductive tone of voice that was just HILARIOUS if you heard it. And matt starts cracking up, and he's all, "that's kinda hot. i won't lie to you and say that didn't turn me on." We love you, Matty Nay! Enjoy your rest but know we miss you. post comment

HATE! [01 Dec 2004|10:33am] I hate men. Life sucks. HHHHHAAAAATTTTEEEEE!!!!!!!!! post comment

Maybe I Should Drive :-) [11 Nov 2004|10:14am] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Next week, on the CRUISE (YAY YAY YAY!!!!!) I will be reading a LOT of books. :-) God, I love to read. WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Soulstice by David Ryan Harris. Oh my sweet lord, his voice is like honey. Every song on Soulstice is perfectly balanced. It has some of my favorite songs on it, too, like Pretty Girl, Good Thing, Get Your Way, and the heart-melting Sweetest Berry. AMUSING POP CULTURE OCCURANCE: OK...was I right or was I right about Asslee Simpson? For the uninitiated, scroll down and see my earlier entry. I'd look it up, but I'm kinda fucking lazy right now. :-) The most hilarious part of the whole Milli Vanilli/SNL snafu is how, just one month earlier, she was quoted as saying (regarding lipsynching), "I'm totally against it and offended by it. I'm going out to let my real talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I'd never lip-synch. It's just not me." Really, Asslee? Is that right, now? Excellent. Irony and I will be over here in the corner just laughing our asses off at you. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: I have been driving. A LOT. My car is my second home. First of all, my Joey turned 9! :-) So I drove home for a few days to celebrate with him and take him to the Exploratorium. He and AuntieMel had a very special day together. :-) On Friday, I wanted to get down to Palm Springs to see Marc Acito read from his book "How I Paid For College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater." I LOVE that book. You would think that leaving Tracy at 9 am would provide enought of a window to compl,ete a (normally) 7 hour drive by 7 pm. Well, you would be wrong. Dead wrong. The traffic was SO HORRIBLE that I didn't make it. Not even close. I didn't even get home to Woodland Hills until almost 9 pm. 12 hours in the car for nothing! I didn't even make the damn reading! I was PISSED OFF to say the least. Fucking LA Traffic! The very next day (Saturday) I took off for San Diego to see my friend Chris playing Scoop in The Heidi Chronicles. What a fabulous play! I read it in college but had never seen it before. Chris and the actor that played Susan were the standouts, IMO. I crashed at Chris' in San Diego, but I knew that on Sunday Marc Acito would be signing books in Palm Springs from 1:30 to 3 pm. I decided: DAMMIT!!!! TRAFFIC WILL NOT DEFEAT ME! Ev and I decided to meet up in San Bernadino and drive the rest of the way out together. A few weeks ago, I bought her a copy of Marc's book and she loved it as well, so she was excited to meet him, too. We made it out to Palm Springs and (after a bit of searching) located the festival (http://www.pspride.org). How spectacular!!! Drag queens, leather, costumes of all sorts.....fan-fucking-tabulous! We found the Q Trading booth and introduced ourselves. As Marc was hugging me and I was telling him my name, he said, "Not the Melanie that's been emailing me?" :-) I said, "Yes, I'm the girl that's been cyber-stalking you." He gave me another hug and his tone totally changed - it was like we were old buddies. I think that either he must be a genuinely nice person or he's a PR genuis, because I definitely felt special after talking with him. He joked around about how it felt so nice to hug soft breasts after hugging hard chests all day. I think that, personally, I could get used to hugging hard chests all day. Also, he was so impressed that we drove all the way out just to meet him that he actually left his post at the signing table to walk us to the drink tent and buy us margaritas. Woo! We took pictures and hung out for a while. Man...what a sweetheart! Believe me, I was completely committed to pimping the book before, on the strength of the book itself, but now I am ten times MORE committed knowing that, via the pimping, I will be helping out such a truly wonderful, as well as talented, person. Anyway, BUY THE BOOK! :-) post comment

Gay Guys [14 Oct 2004|08:49pm] I was rereading my blurty entries the other day, to feel the nostalgia :-), and I noticed that in my post from last March about Matt's show at Slim's, I had made a comment about the guy that came up and talked to me, saying, "I need more gay friends." I wanted to clarify what I meant by that, because I think it could be misconstrued. I think it's great how gay culture is getting more acceptance, at least in more enlightened areas of society. It's now cool to think gay people are cool...and that's great. Here's what I don't like, though. In post Will and Grace era pop culture, there is this idea floating around that gay men exist solely to be "every girl's best friend." Think Rupert Everett from My Best Friend's Wedding. And while that idea is kind of funny to toss around onscreen, in real life I think it translates as being somewhat nauseatingly demeaning. I mean...way to classify a whole segment of the population as nothing more than cute little puppy dogs, you know? LAME! And I'd hate to come across as one of those self centered little giggly bitches who would be all, "I need more guys to be Will to my Grace..." as in "I need more guys to adore me without expecting anything and go shoe shopping with me!" EEWWW.... So, let me tell the story of the guy that talked with me at Slim's to illustrate what I actually DID mean. First off, let me explain what happens when straight guys talk to a girl at a party or a club. And it doesn't matter whether he is 16 or 96, whether he is hideous and she is Julia Roberts, whether he is married, or whether he's a priest or monk. This is what happens. He immediately puts her into one of two categories: "I want to fuck her" or "I don't want to fuck her." And in either case, as he converses with said girl, a sort of glaze comes over his eyes and his demeanor which colors the entire exchange. If he wants to fuck her, the glaze results from the fact that he is devoting 2% of his brain to keeping just enough track of the conversation to be able to respond if asked a question, and the rest is consumed with trying to figure out how to get her panties around her ankles. If he does NOT want to fuck her, the glaze results from the utter boredom and revulsion of being forced to interact with a female that he does not want to fuck. Either way...newsflash, gentlemen! WE ARE AWARE OF IT! You are not that damn slick. No guy is. So, when this guy at Slim's started up a convo with me, I got neither one of those vibes from him. He was completely interested in what I was saying, but not in a sexual way at all. Almost like he was talking with a fellow human being or something! Imagine! As refreshing as it was, it was a little disconcerting because I didn't know how to read him. Then, about 5 minutes in, he refered to his "partner" and from the way the crinkles around his eyes and mouth got all soft and his eyes went sweet and happy when he said it, it was clear he wasn't talking about the guy he started his investment banking firm with, you know? And then it hit me. I need more gay guy friends. It would be so utterly relaxing and incredible to be able to associate with guys, to really be myself, to have that awesome masculine energy and influence in my life, without having to constantly wonder if I was on their "fuckable" list or not. If I was making the grade. If I was good enough. Because, in my experience anyway, straight guys can't really work up the motivation to even be friends with girls that they don't have, at the very least, just a slight little bit of interest in banging. And if you slide off their "fuckable" list you can be pretty sure you're off their roster of friends as well. Nothing dramatic, no big blow out or anything, just don't expect return phone calls anytime soon. (oh, hi, hello TAYLOR) It would be such a relief just to be myself. So, maybe that's still shallow and self-centered, but not (I don't think) as shallow as just wanting to be surrounded by a bunch of adoring guys that make me the center of attention, which is how i fear the comment came off before. This whole train of thought makes me consider, though, that if only straight guys could master the skill of real interaction, to be able to view women as fellow human beings, to put their sex drives aside long enough to have a decent conversation without just nodding intently to *show* how much they are interested and listening, but actually to BE interested and listening....GOD. That would be awesome. And the irony is that the first guy who actually figures out how to do that will get laid more than he knows how to handle. :-) post comment

Get Down in Chi-town. (I'm Lame) [09 Oct 2004|04:18am] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater by Marc Acito. It is fantastic! It's funny, as the title may lead you to believe, but it is also very touching. It's the only book I've ever read about Play People (or "dramies" as we called them in my neck of the woods). I can NOT recommend this book highly enough. It is absolutely wonderful. WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Jason Adamo. http://www.jasonadamomusic.com I missed his show tonight at the Cat Club, but I will be hitting up his set in Trudy's backyard next spring. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: I had the best weekend last weekend! I flew out to Chicago (from here in LA) to 1) visit my friend michelle and 2) let matt nathanson rock my fucking socks off! I don't know that i can tell the story better than michelle did in her blurty (http://www.blurty.com/users/shellyjanuary) but i am going to do my best to tell my side of it! Haha I will warn you ahead of time, it is going to be LLLOOONNGGG so you may wanna read it in shifts. My flight left at midnight and got in at 6:20. I had breakfast at Chili's in the airport to let michelle sleep in a little bit more. They serve regular, denny's-style breakfasts at the airport Chili's. Weird. But good. I had lots of coffee. At 8 am, michelle came and picked me up and we went back to her house. We hung out with her mom and walked her dog. Her mom made us more coffee and of course i partook. :-) It was very domestic! We went and saw her library and talked to the people that she works with. I got to meet this sweet high school kid that works in the kids section that is totally into theater. I love theater people, or "dramies" as I affectionately term them. We went to Kmart and got some last minute things and while we were there i started to feel REALLY strange. The combination of being up for more than 24 hours at that point and all that coffee made me feel really lightheaded and shaky. We had an hour and a half before we could go check into the motel and i asked if michelle would be totally offended if i spent that hour and a half taking a nap. :-) I curled up on Michelle's bed with her lovey-dovey kitty and tried to make myself fall asleep. I never really was able to nod off completely, but i did get some awesome alpha-state rest, and got up at 2:30 feeling great. Michelle and I got dressed and went over and checked into the lovely La Quinta Inn. We got our things and headed over to the train. When we got off the train downtown, we stopped and had a bite at Mickey D's. Grilled Chicken Sandwich. Yummy! We crossed the river and got in line at the House of Blues. As fate would have it, who should be in line in front of us but my friend Mark from Matt's board! (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=pottyboomy) We hung out and talked in line, the three of us. One cool thing that happened was that at one point, four or five fire trucks pulled up, with their lights on and some sirens, but we never did find out what was going on. We go inside the venue, which is security-nazi central. I managed to sneak in my digital camera, though, by sticking down in between my boobs. Yeah, i got skillz. Or, you know...big boobs, at least. :-) We ran into Emily (etscore) waiting for her friends. She joined us and we proceeded upstairs. We managed to grab (thank you, mark) what i truly believe were the sweetest seats in the house...the four barstools closest to the stage, Aben side. I got to meet Connor from Matt's board (ccronks). Dude is 6 foot 10!!!! Being only 5 foot 2 myself, I could not help but be fascinated. I asked him if I could come stand next to him, and he graciously agreed. Standing next to him was so incredibly cool! I only came to just above his waist. AWESOME! I really, REALLY wanted to ask him if we could take a picture together, but, yeah. That shit must get real old. :-) So I refrained. I felt really bad asking him all these questions about what it's like to be that tall, but I just couldn't stop. And he was such a sweetheart about it, even though he must get sick to DEATH of all anyone wanting to talk about being his height. Later in the show, between sets, we got a chance to chat about other things, like his major in school and the fact that he tapes live shows. I think live tapers are so fantastic, they provide such an incredible service to the music community and they invest a lot of their own money in it. So, thanks, everyone that does that! :-) Anyway, as it turns out, Connor is only 20 years old! He struck me as someone much older. He has a very confident and down-to-earth demeanor. Anyway, I bought him a coke (well, he paid, i just walked to the bar and got it) because he couldn't come to the bar area and I felt SSSOOO OOOLLLLLDDDD. Arg. I actually felt sick to my stomach thinking about how long it's been since I couldn't go up by the bar. :-) Anyway, I really enjoyed meeting and talking to connor, he's one of those people that you chat with for a while and you feel like you want to chat with more, because they just have really good things to say. I hope i see him again, maybe at other shows. Emily's friend, singer/songwriter Matt Hoffer (http://www.matthoffer.com) showed up with his girlfriend and they hung out and seemed to enjoy the show. The opener was Kyle Riabko, 16 year old blues playin’ hottie kid. Mid-Riabko, Michelle leans over to me and says, “Is that Frans over there?” (http://www.scottfrans.com) As it turns out, it was. :-) I have to explain who Scott Frans is. He posts on MSM, that is how Michelle and I were aware of him. He is aware of Michelle. He, however, has no fucking clue who I am. Ironically, I have (for many months now) harbored a celebrity-crush on him, although he is not technically famous, only internet-famous. I can’t help it. He’s just so damn cute! And he says clever things. I mean, like the title of his website…”Can’t We All Just Be Frans?” That’s clever. Hell, I don’t know. Pheremones. That’s my new explanation for everything. Anyway, Michelle and I decide to go over and pay homage to the cuteness that is Scott Frans (Michelle would probably have called it something more like “Say Hello” but that’s boring). On the way over, who should we run into but another SoCal kid vacationing in Chicago for the weekend…Chandler! He was with his new friend from work, Jen. He has not been signed on to AIM at ALL this week so I have not gotten the opportunity to grill him about whether or not she is his girlfriend, but if she is not, he should definitely try to get all over that action. She was a TOTAL cutie and a complete sweetheart. You know how with some people, you just get an immediate vibe from them that makes you feel comfortable with them, makes you feel like they are a good person? Jen was like that. Also, she complimented me on my new black knit poncho. So the girl is in. :-) I have to say about Chandler that, after meeting him, I really do get why all the chicas from MSM are wanting to date him (or wanting to have him marry their daughters LOL). That kid radiates a certain charisma. He’s a sweetie, but it’s more than that. He makes you feel important when he talks to you. He’s got game, is basically what I’m trying to say! haha We told Chandler that we were on our way to go see Frans, and (much like woodland animals in a children’s story) we all decided to proceed together. We got over to where Scott was standing and introduced ourselves. Um, can I just say that I don’t know what I thought Scott’s accent might sound like, being that he’s from North Carolina, but I did not envision anything quite as lovely as reality. We stood and chatted with him and Chikako for a few minutes, then headed back to our places because Mark was saving our seats for us. I must be honest (considering the chances of Scott reading this are slim) and say that I was all a-flutter. My face was hot. I had butterflies. I’ve had sex that wasn’t actually quite as good as meeting Scott Frans. :-) Damn, what is the matter with me? Haha I’ve got such the “internet celebrity crush” goin’ for this kid. Graham Colton Band came on. They were cool. A bit loud for me, but I liked “Jessica” and “Cigarette”. Then Matt came on. (http://www.mattnathanson.com) Oh, man. Matt rocks me so hard. Full band is so great. I have to be a bit blasphemous and say that, to be honest, I DO miss it just being matt and fish. But acoustic, intimate music is my taste. So nothing against the band. They do, indeed, RAWK. Best part of the night? “Amazing Again” I love this song from the depths of my soul. I don’t know exactly why. Matt has songs that showcase his lyrical genius to better advantage than this one. He has songs that, objectively, I would have to say rock just as hard or harder than this one. But something about this one just gets me for some reason. “And all the wan, hip, full-lipped lovers, they’re locked against one another and I waiver, uncomfortable in my skin.” AW. Awesome. Matt had Jason come up and sing some heavy metal song I didn’t recognize (sorry, Bert, just not into that kinda thing!). Emily leaned over and said, “Oh, man, the one night no one’s taping! The one night no one could bring a camera!” So I confessed that I had used the twins to smuggle in a camera and she borrowed it to take some pics. I was really paranoid about getting my camera taken away, and finally snatched it back. They are completely fucking serious about security there, to a point beyond all reason. The photos are posted at matt’s board, when I get a chance, I’ll link them here. When the set ended (without encore, I might add, HOB nazi bastards!) Matt did not come out to the merch table. That was the one disappointment of the night. I mean, I know you go to a concert for the music and all, but I REALLY want to get a poster signed for my student that wrote matt a letter, and I didn’t get to do it at the Greek (he was pissed off and walked straight out LOL) and then didn’t get to do it when I flew out to chicago, either. It’s just disappointing. Although, apparently some people did wait out in the cold by his van for two hours to meet him. STALKERS! Haha. I’m kidding. Except that I’m totally not. Well, Mark is going to try his hardest to get a poster signed for me so I can send it to my student. Although he forgot about me at the TLA tonight (thanks a LOT, buddy!) there is still the 12th. :-) Speaking of Mark, this is when the interesting part of the evening begins. :-) Mark’s stoner friend had bailed on coming to the concert and Mark was supposed to stay with him that night. So, of course, not wanting to see him sleeping on the street, I invited him to come stay at the lovely La Quinta with us. We hiked for a freakin’ MILE or more back to his car (there is a difference between North and South, sweetie) and got underway, finally, after only one small incident where Mark scared the living daylights out of a guy trying to get some cash from an ATM. OK, can I just say that Mark is clinically insane? And when I say clinically, I mean that I have used my professional judgement to make that diagnosis. And I have based it on his driving. The swerving. The singing. The stopping to talk to random people. The fooling around on his laptop while trying to drive. The more swerving. Michelle feels that most of this was a show he was putting on to get a rise out of me, and, well, it worked! I’ve been in car accidents (too many for my liking…although, how many would be to my liking? So that makes no sense. Point is…more than one) Even if it’s wussy, the crazy driving freaks me out. Have I mentioned that Mark was making his Matt-following pilgrimage across the midwest in a “stolen” rental car? (In the sense that he wasn’t supposed to take it out of NY and here we were in Illinois) A rental car he was using because he crashed his other car. Yes. Anyway, we made it to the train station parking lot in one piece (respectively) and picked up michelle’s car. We spent the next hour or so searching for an open coffeeshop and finally got some grub at Denny’s. After that, we went to Wal-Green’s to get some throat spray for Mark and did not come out for 45 minutes due to Mark’s total OCD and not being able to find a Matt live show CD he wanted to give to the clerk so he had the need to shuffle through his CD case not once, not twice, but one hundred and thirty seven times. :-) (Just an aside...Mark to me as we are headed up to the front of the store with cold medication, “What’s your feeling on stealing?” haha) We get back to the hotel, and I have to admit, Michelle is right, Mark and I got into a little argument (or rather, I just got pissed off at Mark. Haha) because it took so long to get back to the hotel when I had been saying all night that I wanted to go back and drink and hang out and he kept finding other shit for us to do. But that all got smoothed over, and I wasn’t pissed at him anymore. It ended up being a moot point, anyway, because he and I wound up staying up until about 10 or 10:30 in the morning talking. At about 6 or 7, we had said that, okay, it was late, we would lay down and try to go to sleep. But then we were laying there, all snuggled up and cozy, and it just felt really nice to lay there and talk. (at this point I had had two bacardi silvers and the driving incident was a distant memory LOL) So, the point being, no sleep was had until about 10:30 am. It was so cool, because Michelle would wake up for little 5 or 10 minute intervals and participate in the conversation, then fall asleep again. Very fun. Mark is just such an interesting, entertaining guy. He's different from anyone I've ever met, and his perspective fascinates me. I told him he needs to come visit me in LA. I would absolutely love to show him all the sights and get his take on them. I guaratee it would be a fresh perspective. The nicest thing about Mark, though, is like Michelle said, under all those quirks there is an indefinable likability about him that you just can't put your finger on. He's a sweetie, I'm glad we're friends. At 12:15, Michelle wakes me up. At 12:40, I woke Mark up. At 1:00, we BARELY made the checkout time. We head to IHOP for breakfast (although it is 1:30 pm, dammit, we just woke up, it’s BREAKFAST!). I got to have my Harvest Grain N’ Nut Pancakes. So Good!!!! Michelle and I wanted to go to the movies then and see The Forgotten. Mark decided it wasn’t really his kinda movie and he wanted to go off in search of his stoner friend anyway, so we left each other then. Michelle and I went back to her house and got on the internet. That’s right. She was on her computer, I was on my handheld. It doesn’t get any better than that, babe. :-) We’ve known each other through posting for a year. I flew 2000 miles to visit her, and we sit across the room posting to each other. Internet Geeks Unite!!!!! (About the Internet Geek club…if you have a blog, you’ll be considered…if you have a webpage, you’re in. If you have more than 5000 posts on any one message board, you are DEFINITELY in!) We saw The Forgotten (kinda good but mainly weak. The best thing about the movie was definitely the company!) and then we went and ate really good ice cream at a local chain. Then (sob!) time to go back to the airport. Michelle and I parted ways, until her California trip at least (AKA - Melanie acts as an enabler to help Michelle stalk Orlando and Iaon). It seemed longer than a weekend. Possibly because I made the decision to forgo sleep. :-) Nice introduction to Chicago! post comment

A PLETHORA OF CONCERT LOVIN' [27 Sep 2004|05:05am] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: Portofino by Frank Schaeffer. This book is so great. It's a coming-of-age story about this kid, Calvin, who is vacationing with his fundamentalist christian missionary parents in Portofino, Italy. The seminal quote is "Most kids told lies to be special. I told lies to be normal." It's funny and poignant...I love it. MOVIE I'VE RECENTLY SEEN: Shaun of the Dead. Oh my God, hilarious! I love British humor and this had the added benefit of some truly jump-worthy scares as well. CD I HAVE BEEN SPINNING: Marc Broussard. http://www.marcbroussard.com Marc Broussard is pure sex. Pure. Sex. I think that straight guys should not even be allowed to listen to Carencro because the pure sex in their ears when those sounds start pouring out of their battery-deficient ipods just might turn them. And that would mean less boys for me. And that's not OK. Because it's all about me. (I know, I know...they solved the battery issue in the 5th generation. Whatever.) GUILTY PLEASURE: Ashlee Simpson. Damn. I hate to even admit that. I mean, don't get me wrong, her songs are catchy. Whatever. But she did not, in point of fact, write them. Sure she has a writing credit on every song, but hell, the songwriting team Geffen hired to spruce her shit up could probably turn my blog into a hit song. It doesn't mean I wrote said song! She doesn't play any instruments. That's a problem for me in her genre of music, even if maybe it shouldn't be. But while I don't EXPECT pop airheads to be musicians, I DO expect rockers to be actual musicians, dammit! Is that so wrong???? She never had to pay any dues...she never had to convince a club to book her. She never had to do load in/load out. She never had to stand in front of a hostile audience that's just waiting for the next guy and try to win them over. She never had to do any of a hundred things that people who have fought through and become seasoned have had to do, and therefore I will never admire her the way I admire the musicians I *DO* respect. But, hell...was I playing my sister's copy of "Autobiography" on the way to work this morning and guiltily enjoying it? Fuck me, yes I was! I hate myself a little right now. LOL WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON LATELY: Well, one major event was the David Ryan Harris show at Little Temple here in LA. Oh, man, what a night. http://www.davidryanharris.com or http://www.ifihadadime.com (lots of good downloads at that last one) First off, I got to meet a bunch of MSMers that I've never met in person before. Brandy, Trudy, Cy, Pearl, Michelle, Chandler, and Richard Young (the founder of MSM, also http://www.ifihadadime.com and http://www.firstlisten.org). It was such a small, intimate show. Maybe 50 or 60 people there. The club is incredible! I thought of Cat, because I felt as if I were in the movie Love Jones. It felt, also, like being inside a Genie's bottle. A very cool Genie who has a Vern-influenced decorating sensibility. :-) Also, on the celebrity front, Scotty Crowe (Mayer's merch manager...er...tour journal writer...er...ok, let's just call it like it is. Mayer's bitch. :-) was there. God, I used to have such the crush on him. He was standing about 5 feet from where I was sitting. It made it someowhat difficult to concentrate on the show. Haha. Apparently DRH is his next big project. He's propelled Mayer to stardom and next DRH. Awesome. Randy Jackson was there. Or should I say, Randy Jackson was there, dawg. :-) Last, but SO not least...Adrian Zmed was there. Oh, yeah, baby. TJ Hooker 4 lyfe!!!!! I concert-called Shawna for Pretty Girl. I figured since that song is about her (in our minds, anyway! haha) she should get to hear it. The show was just great. My favorite number was "Good Thing" at the end, because it was audience participation...we got to sing and clap and sway and I felt like I was back in Tongues of Fire! :-) "We had a gggooooodddd thing, don't get me wrong..." FUN!!!!!! Last Thursday, I drove down to San Diego (well, Solana Beach, technically) to see Tristan Prettyman http://www.tristanprettyman.com and OH MY GOD she is even more beautiful in person than in her photos, which I would not have thought humanly possible. Opening for her were Pete Thurston http://www.petethurston.com and Saba http://www.sabamusic.com. They were great as well. But Mizz Trizzy blew me the fuck away. She was incredible. Between everyone's sets, it was about 3 1/2 hours in by the time she finished and I did NOT want it to be over, even though I was tired. I wanted it to keep going on and on and on and on. WOW! Last thing to talk about, roomie Evelyn http://www.angelfire.com/va/downeasteralexa and I had a housewarming 'do. Well...mainly Evelyn, let's be real. haha. Evie cooked Chicken Cacciatore with Polenta and made a fabulous Mocha Almond Torte for desert. MMMMM..... I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while. Amy Crego was there, she is about to leave for bootcamp in a month, she joined the MARINES if you can believe it! WOW! My summer 2002 roomie Tessa was there, and I haven't seen her for two years. I love, love, LOVE that girl. She is an incredible human. Evie's friend Carrie came, as well as Cliff and Cerene. Chris bailed, and you can BELIEVE there is going to be hell to pay the next time EVT sees him. She denies it, but...come on. Stacie and Pat (friends of Evelyn) dropped by after the party and we did not end up getting to bed until 4. :-) All in all....it's been a GREAT week, y'all!!!!! post comment

Revel in the Randomness [17 Sep 2004|12:56am] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: Nothing. Isn't that HORRIBLE? I'm gonna pick up a book tomorrow. WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Matt Hoffer. http://www.matthoffer.com Emily (etscore) from Matt Nathanson's board recommended him. His music is great. He's pretty easy on the eyes, too, and I can't lie and say that's not a plus. :-) WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: OK, this is a random collection of things...I make no promises of cohesiveness. But, like the subject line says, revel in the randomness. 1) I took the okcupid.com slut test and it determined that I am 75% slut. My roomate took it and only scored 49%. WHOOPS! 2) I saw Ernie Halter http://www.erniehalter.com at Highland Grounds the other night, and it was so good! It was a little odd, i must admit, after having listened to mp3s of his songs for about a year, to see that familiar voice coming out of a live human. Strange. :-) 3) Evie and I saw a screening of Wimbledon at the Arclight the other night. I thought it was Meh. The tennis scenes were somewhat engaging, but the love story was completely chemistry-less, IMO. 4) I made a blurty for my concert schedule. It's http://www.blurty.com/users/melanieconcerts 5) I'm flying out to Chicago at the beginning of October to see Matty Nay Nay in concert and hang with Michelle (ShellyJanuary) and XXXtine. Woo Hoo! 6) My crappy old phone died, and I got the coolest phone/camera/pda/internet EVER!!! The Treo 600 http://www.handspring.co.uk/products/treo600/index.asp 7) All this music talk and seeing live music lately has inspired me to tell one of my classic music stories. :-) Probably my best concert story ever. Here goes: The one concert that I went to at Pepperdine that was HILARIOUS (albeit unintentionally) was Tait, a solo project of one of the guys from DC Talk. Picture this: audience full of uptight, repressed Pepperdine Church of Christ kids who express enthusiasm by politely tapping their fingertips against their palms. These kids think drums are controversial. Michael Tait runs out on stage, grabs the mic in the mic stand, bends it all the way to the floor, Aerosmith-style, and screams into it, "MALIBU!!!!!!! ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?????" To which he was answered with silence. Utter. Stunned. Silence. My friend Ryan leaned over to me and whispered, "Umm...I think possibly they're *not* ready to rock." :-) The lesson there? Anytime you begin the question, "Are you ready to rock?" with the word "Malibu"...the answer is going to be "No." post comment

I live in SoCal now!!!! [05 Sep 2004|06:11pm] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: The DaVinci Code. I know I hopped on that train kinda late, but there you have it. AMAZING MOVIE I'VE RECENTLY SEEN: Garden State. SEE IT! I will not speak to you again until you see it. Kickass soundtrack, too. WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Justin Hopkins. Great singer/songwriter. http://www.justinhopkinsmusic.com I discovered him on soundclick. Soundclick is great, a lot like the old mp3.com. You have to sort through a lot of crap on there to discover someone truly quality, but when you do, it's worth it. Justin proves that. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: Well, there's the whole moving drama, which I will update later on. But, in the meantime, I'll just do a concert review to tide everyone over. I went and saw Matty Nay (WOO!, of course!) , Howie Day (whatever), Guster (WOO!), and O.A.R. last Thursday at the Greek in LA. Beautiful outdoor venue, right in Griffith Park. I was really there to see Matt, but LOVED seeing Guster as well. Here's the review I posted on Matt's official board: the set was rockin' and funny...the security guard that was stationed near me was bobbing his head and laughed a few times. and when matt's set was over, he asked me, 'what's his name again?' so, new convert for sure. lemme think...i know i had things i wanted to say, let me organize my thoughts here. * I really dug the intro to "I Saw" * Matt's facial expression during the bit before "Curve of the Earth" was funny...as well as the fact that he had his middle finger up during the whole pseudo phone conversation. That was a funny visual. * I liked the lyric, "I wasn't lyin' when I told you all that you could be, but it was no use 'cause you were fucking everyone else but me." during Lost Myself. * Matt was awesome, but the (relatively small) crowd was just NOT into it. FUCKERS. Here's a sort of funny realization I had at the concert, although not during matt's set. I had front row tickets, and the hippyish kids sitting on either side of me were each pretty rabid OAR fans. They were very unruly dancers, as well. The guy on the one side kept stepping on my foot, and about the sixth time, he turns and concert-yells in my ear, "Did that hurt?" No, moron. The laws of physics are suspended for you and it actually *doesn't* hurt when my sandle-clad foot gets stepped on by your doc martins. several times. and then the girl on the other side of me kept trying to convince me to "get more into it." Her campaign eventually resulted in it apparently being necessary for her to grab my wrists and try to make me dance. and, yeah...i'm not so much into the stranger-touching. As I was walking to my car i found myself thinking "damn hippies!" Then I realized that since I am not, in fact, an old man circa 1967...that's probably not the correct phrase for me. LOL I think the problem is that I may need to admit to myself that I'm getting too old for the front row. Or maybe just stay away from OAR concerts, I don't know. Their fans might be a bit much for me. New shows are on the horizon, as well: 9/11 - Ernie Halter, Highland Grounds, LA 9/18 - David Ryan Harris, Little Temple, LA 9/29 - Joss Stone, Tower Records on Sunset 10/20 - Gavin deGraw, Coach House, San Juan Capistrano (maybe) 10/22 - Gavin deGraw, HOB, Hollywood 10/26 - Ari Hest, Roxy on Sunset post comment

I'm finally a liberated woman, 30 years after the fact [07 May 2004|06:22pm] WHAT I'VE BEEN READING: Fear of Flying, Erica Jong. Discussed in more detail below. WHAT I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Well, usually I use this space to tell about an artist or CD I've been spinning a lot. But, for the past couple of weeks I've been pumping three particular songs. Over and over. Three very HOTT songs. I like to call them the "Wet Panty Trifecta." :-) They are Gavin deGraw's cover of "Let's Get It On" (um...hi...hello...could you tickle ME like you tickle those ivories, baby?), Usher's "Burn" and Jordan Knight's "Give It to You." And...not to venture too deeply into the realm of TMI, but suffice to say I have gone through my share of said undergarments. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: OK, like I said, I've just finished reading Fear of Flying. How is it possible that I've never read this before? I feel liberated! I feel absolutely set FREE! FOF was released in 1973, how is it possible that I am still dealing with the issues that were exposed by this book? One of the main issues is how to strike a balance between being a fully realized artist or intellectual while also being a fully realized woman. Society tells us (YES, *still* tells us) that a desire for the emotional or the sexual in a woman negates a desire for the intellectual or artistic. This is not true for men, why is it even STILL true for women? Why must women either be "the girl you marry" OR "the girl you screw"....why can't they be both? Why can't a woman embrace both romanticism AND carnality, like a man can? Why can't a woman fully experience, as part of her humanity, both love AND lust (and not necessarily for the same person)? Reading this novel, I honestly felt as if Jong were writing about me. There are so many passages in it that made me say out loud, "YES!", drawing puzzled stares from people as I sat alone reading. I didn't even care. This book made me dig a pencil and a highlighter out of my bag so I could start marking it up, an urge I haven't had since college. For the first time in SO LONG I feel like I've really read something that's challenged me, changed me. That's a feeling I've missed so desperately! I started crying when I closed the last page of this book, because until that moment I hadn't even realized that sensation was gone from my life. I didn't feel the pain of its absence, oddly enough, until it came back - and then I was struck by the full effect. Literature is so important to me, but these past years it doesn't seem to affect me deeply the way it once did. I don't know if it's because the quality of the prose I expose myself to has declined or because I've become jaded. I suspect a combination of the two. I want to share some parts that were particularly meaningful to me: 1) The concept of the Zipless Fuck. The Zipless Fuck is the ultimate fantasy casual sex encounter...no fuss, no muss, you never even learn the ZF's name. "The zipless fuck was more than a fuck. It was a platonic ideal. Zipless because when you came together, zippers fell away like rose petals, underwear blew off in one breath like dandelion fluff. Tongues intertwined and turned liquid. Your whole soul flowed out through your tongue and into the mouth of your lover. For the true, ultimate A-1 fuck, it was necessary that you never get to know the man very well." When Jong introduced the Zipless Fuck, she introduced the idea that women can, and DO, want and have sex simply for sex's sake just like men do. 2) A perfect explanation of the exact trap I fall into EVERY time I fall in love. "I would become servile, cloying, saccharinely sweet: the whole package of lies that passes in the world as feminity." Damn. I do that! My true self, my honest personality, is: sarcastic, intelligent, sassy, cutting, bright, witty, and bold. Why do I transform into this blob of super-sweet dependant jelly every time I love someone? I need to really heavily examine why I do that, and subsequently STOP doing that. Possibly it's because I've been socialized to believe that men only love servile, sweet women who don't challenge them? That's not, in point of fact, true...so maybe all I need is to have a meeting between my subconscious beliefs and my consiously-known reality in order to change my behavior. I don't know. I need to let that marinate for a while. 3) Finally, someone putting words to why I ALWAYS fall for literary or artistic men, and diefy them far more than they deserve...far more than ANYONE deserves, for that matter. This quote could be about Melanie, not Isadora. It's THAT on point. "I've always set a high value on words and have often made the mistake of believing in words far more than in actions. My heart (and my cunt) can be had for a pithy phrase, a good one-liner, a neat couplet, or a sensational simile." I feel like this book should be on the curriculum of every women's study course in every college in the nation, if not the world. I feel like Erica Jong should be respected as a feminist on the level of Gloria Steinhem or Germaine Greer (although I do realize that, to academics, Steinhem represents a brand of "telefeminism" that bears little resemblance to the TRUE ideals of feminism, she is a well known name and it is for that purpose that I use her as an example here). She was the first woman to proclaim, through her writing, that women deserve to be sexually liberated! It doesn't make us "sluts" if we want sex on OUR terms and not a man's! It doesn't make us "whores" if we want to fully embrace our humanity, including celebrating our sexuality! The puritanical ideals that this country was founded on and largely continue to operate on socialize women to believe that we must legally sell ourselves to men in marriage before we can express ourselves sexually. People who subscribe to this philosophy would argue that those restrictions (no sex before marriage) are placed on men as well, but this is only in theory, not in practice. What's the male equivalent of the word "slut" again? Of "whore"? Oh, right, there isn't one. Also, this same Judeo-Christian philosophy espouses the idea that Men are supposed to be the Head of relationships, and that women are supposed to Submit themselves to Men's authority. Women give away their freedom, their individuality, their very PERSONHOOD by binding themselves to men in the state of servitude known as marriage. (Not legally, not anymore THANK GOD, but in the "faith") Men do not give up any of these things to get married. Why is that surprising, however, when the entire faith is based on a book WRITTEN BY MEN?! There are friends of mine that would be extremely shocked to read my thoughts on this matter. Maybe they will read it and maybe they will be shocked. After all, I am supposed to be a "Christian." But what does that mean? What does "being a Christian" mean, in reality? Does it mean I can't also be an intellectual? That I can't also be an artist? That I should blindly accept the beliefs of others without internally struggling with them myself? Because that goes against everything that I believe and feel most deeply, and I simply can't do that. And lately, truthfully, I've been having some real problems with Christianity as a faith (if you couldn't intuit that LOL). In the Bible, there are stories about men with multiple wives. Stories about men having mistresses and it being OK. NO stories about women being able to engage in these practices. There are stories about men RAPING women, and the *women* being shunned and shamed for it. Christianity is a misogynistic religion, it is. And I am a liberated feminist to my very core. How can I reconcile those two things? My old friends that would be the MOST shocked to read this, in fact, belong to a denomination where women are not even allowed to be in leadership or speak in public. *I* don't belong to that denomination, but it's merely a different facet of the same religion that I have assigned myself to for many years. How can I, as a woman, continue to support that? I haven't drawn any conclusions about any of these questions yet, but I absolutely LOVE that I read a book that's forcing me to examine them! :-) Socrates was correct, I believe, in saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. So bring on the microscope, baby, and..."Let's Get It On." post comment

Updates NOT about a Matty Nay concert!!! Shocked, ain't ya? [20 Apr 2004|07:33pm] WHAT I'M READING: The Magician's Tale by David Hunt. I *LOVE* books set in San Francisco. WHAT I'M LISTENING TO: Tristan Prettyman. (http://www.tristanprettyman.com) I saw so many people pimping her on so many different message boards that I had to check her out. She's so fucking badass! I can't get her tunes out of my head...not to mention that her journal entries and board postings are clever and witty, she's fucking gorgeous...AND she surfs. I think I have a full-on girl-crush on her. :-) I gotta add her to the music page on my website. ROCKER UPDATE: I just saw that hometown rocker chick Megan Slankard (oh, hi, hello...Tracy, CA) (http://www.meganslankard.com) is going to be on What Not to Wear in May. Haha...cool. Bye bye hippie chick, hello hottie. I assume, anyway, I haven't seen the show yet. WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON: Wow, if someone were to read this blog, they may think I have no life outside of Nathanson concerts. LOL That’s not true. It’s just easier to motivate myself to write up my concert stories because I know that I’m going to be talking about them with my friends on message boards and linking to them and talking about the pictures and whatnot. “Girl, did you see yourself in my picture?” etc. :-) (hi, Sarita!) But, since I do, in fact, HAVE a real non-concert life that I probably will want to recall at some point in the future, I need to get off my lazy bootie and write about that as well. So here goes. Easter weekend, my Spring Break of sorts, I went down to Southern California with Shawna and the fam. Shawna and I drove down together and I dropped her off at Tony’s place in Hollywood while the kids and the dog went with Mom and Dad. I then drove out to Karin’s house in Yucca Valley and we went karaoke singing at the Castle Inn. It was so much fun! I sang “You Were Meant for Me” by Jewel and “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. It was sweet because the karaoke guy remembered me, and I haven’t been there for I don’t know how long. A year at least, possibly more. Which was even more impressive considering that the last time I was out there, the waitress not only remembered me but remembered what I had ordered at least a year before. WOW. Those high desert people have minds like steel traps. When I sang my first song (You Were Meant for Me), it was such a rush. People were clapping, singing along, cheering. It felt so good! Mike, the karaoke DJ, said, “Melanie, girl, you’ve been gone too long!” It was great! At one point in the evening, there was a bar fight. And not just the subtle little kind of bar fight you see in movies where it happens in a corner and the bouncer tosses people out and then it’s business as usual. No. This was broken glass, people arguing...the lights came up, the whole bar stopped. Everyone was either over there helping or standing there staring. The music stopped because Mike went over to help with the fight. Well, after all this was over and people were standing around, just chatting and waiting to see what was going to happen…Mike goes up and says, “Next we have…Melanie!” I thought I would pee my pants. How am I supposed to top the entertainment value of a all out bar fight by singing a No Doubt tune? Well, the music started. Karin and Bert started cheering and clapping. (My cousins love me!) The lights came down. People were still milling around and talking. I was petrified. But then as I started singing, people started paying attention! They sat down, they started singing along…OH MY GOD! It was actually going well! So then I started relaxing and totally rocking out. Especially at the end, you can really belt that song out, it’s a fun one. People were dancing, even. Some people were doing the rock-head-bang thing like Wayne’s World. NICE! When it was over, people were standing up, cheering, whistling…it felt awesome! Mike says, “You are two for two, girl!” Man, I miss singing. I miss being in the choir for that reason. There are enough things about it I DON’T miss that I would not join again, particularly without Twana there. But I so miss that feeling of being up there on Sunday, with all the people in the congregation (about 3,000 people) singing along, standing there rocking with the rest of the choir, being right in the middle of that powerful three part harmony that no other style of music has even come close to utilizing as well as gospel music…and just opening my mouth as wide as I can, throwing my head back, and belting it out. And then that moment of silence as the last note fades in the air, right before the applause breaks out (but you know it’s going to). That’s a magic moment. Then when the applause DOES break out, THAT feels great. And, of course, the whole choir is clapping, too (because it’s not the congregation clapping for the choir, per se...it’s all of us clapping for God, you know *smile*). It’s just this incredibly emotional shared experience. I loved that. The thing I loved the MOST about being in the choir, though, was singing out at different places: different churches, different events. We were a racially mixed choir (um...yeah...I was in it, so that would be an “OBVIOUSLY”), and at many places we went, you could tell that they were skeptical about whether we would have an authentic gospel sound. Until we started singing, that is. :-) It was incredibly satisfying to stand there and watch the astonishment on their faces as we did our first couple of songs and then just see them smiling and singing along as we did the rest. WE WON THEM OVER! WOO HOO! What a sense of validation. Man….all this reminiscing almost makes me want to go back. But…then I think of all the politics and bs…and I remember why I’m not there anymore. Why can’t it just all be about the music (well…and worshiping God, of course)? Why does it have to be so much about people’s fragile little egos and manipulative little power plays? And that’s why I think I’ll be sticking to karaoke. :-) post comment

Matty by the Sea :-) [08 Apr 2004|11:21pm] OK, so apparently this is going to be the new trend. I update my blog every time I attend a Matt Nathanson concert. :-) Today was such an incredible day. Awesome time hanging out with my Mom, awesome set by The Matts (even if it *was* rated PG), AWESOME conversation with Matt Nathanson after the concert. OK, now, I'm not going to be able to remember the conversation word for word, but I'm going to do my best, because...yeah...I'm going to want to remember this years from now. :-) But, in order to understand the conversation, you need to understand what happened before, so let me put on my post from the Matt Nathanson thread on MSM: "I teach second grade and I use music and poetry in my classroom. I don't use Barney and kid music crap. I use good music. Kids are never too young for quality tunes. We sing the Beatles and Billie and Ella and all kinds of cool stuff. So, I wanted to teach the kids one of Matt's songs, but my choices were somewhat limited due to the fact that the public school system somewhat frowns upon the use of profanity and blatant sexual references in the classroom. Go figure! At any rate, I finally settled on Wings, thinking that even though the kids (at age 7) are not old enough to grasp the true meaning of the song, at least they can absorb some of the poetic language. Also, it's fast paced and fun to sing along with, which is a plus in a room full of 20 short-attention-span seven-year-olds. So, I taught them the song today (they loved it...of course), and during journal time I saw one of my girls poring over the lyric sheet and writing in her journal with this absolutely intense look of concentration on her face. And keep in mind, this is one of my struggling reader/writers as well as an English Language Learner. She's NEVER on task and concentrating that hard! The following is what she wrote (and I didn't correct any of the spelling or grammar, because I wanted to keep the original impact): 'I really, REALLY (underlined) like the new song we laerned its named Wings. It is fun. It is good and fun to sing. It is kind of wired (weird) because they can fly and people can not fly but it is like DragonballZ. The girl falled in the water and and the boy gets her. The boy can fly. I think it is the boy. I hope the girl did not drownded but she prollaby did because he says im gone and that means dead. When my mom had CANCR!!!! my auntie said gone and that means dead. But maybe the boy flied her and she is still alive and i like to singing that song named Wings.' The other reason this just blew me away is that I have never been able to get her to open up, verbally or in writing, about her mom's death. So...in the interest of milking this for all it is worth, and since we're working on learning how to write "friendly letters" right now, when we come back on track I'm going to have the kids write fan letters and mail them off. That will be a fun project. :-)" And then Michelle printed out that post and gave it to him at House of Blues in Chicago. Now for my conversation with Matt today: When I was at the front of the merch line, I put down my poster to have it signed and told him my name was Melanie. I said, "Matt, I had my second grade class write you fan letters and sent them in the mail. I was wondering if you got them?" He stopped signing, and looked up and said, "Dude that was you? YES! That was so awesome! I got them literally the day before I left on tour, but they are on my nightstand right now and I can't wait to read them! Now...you originally gave me the main letter after a show, right?" I said, "My friend Michelle gave it to you after a show in Chicago." (ShellyJanuary...HOLLA!) He said, "That's right, that's how it worked. And I was reading that letter, and it was just so awesome...like, seriously, I was reading it to my wife and it was just so rad, like seriously heartbreakingly rad. And then when I got home...my management company picks up my mail when I'm gone, and they gave it to me. I was all, 'what's this?' And then I pulled it out, and I was like, 'oh, yeah...that's awesome!' But then I left on tour the next day. But they are seriously on my nightstand right now." PICTURE OF MATT TELLING ME ALL THIS: I must have said, "Oh, Matt, that's so awesome!" and "Wow, Matt, thank you so much!" about twenty times interspersed in this conversation, by the way. Also, at two different points in the conversation, he stopped and gave me the two most awesome, huge bear hugs ever! I read a thread on the expectedmiracles.com board one time that talked about how incredible hugs from The Matts are, and I have to say I concur. :-) PICTURE OF ME AND MATT STARTING TO HUG: So, while he continued to sign my poster, I said, "Well, you know...since they were meaningful to you, it would be so great if you could write them back even a short note...they would be so excited." And he said, "Oh, Dude, no, that's totally my plan! I'm home for, like, 8 days at this point, and I was totally gonna sit down and read them and then write back after I've read them." And I said, "Oh my God, Matt, that would be so cool! They will be *so* excited about writing after that!" (Umm...how much of a teacher am I? I'm having this incredible conversation with my favorite rock star, and the first thing that pops into my head is how him emailing will get my kids fired up about writing LOL) And he said, "Dude, that rocks, totally...that's awesome." I also told him that I was really happy that I was able to give him something that actually meant something to him because his music has meant so much to me. And it has, too. On a total sidenote, these past few months of heartache and pain over being dropped like yesterday's garbage by Shithead (you know who you are, asshole...your initials are the same as an infectious disease! GGGRRR!!!!) have been so heartrending...but listening to downloads of Matt concerts and singing along and laughing at his stories have been a really needed outlet for me, and I'm grateful for that. PICTURE OF MATT SIGNING MY POSTER: Then as he was finishing up signing my poster, I told him, "When you do get a chance to go through them, you'll notice that a lot of the pictures they drew are of people drowning and someone flying in to save them." He started cracking up and said, "That's fantastic!" He finished signing my poster and I got a pic with him. And before I left, he even stopped to reiterate that he would be reading the letters and getting in touch with me on email. ME WITH MATT Oh, my God. If I thought that Matt was a cool and genuine person before, that opinion has been multiplied tenfold. What a talented, creative musician as well as a completely and sincerely kind person...WOW. If there was any doubt before (there wasn't, but still) that I would be a Matt fan for life, that has been totally erased. That conversation was one of those incredible, special memories that I will keep with me forever. F'real. Then....I got to meet Fish!!!!!!!!!!!! I had been too nervous to go up to him at the Sweetwater show. He just seemed so busy, and I felt as if I would be interrupting him. But today, we got to talk for a quick minute, just about how great I thought the set was. Can I just say that I am going to be SO SAD when Fish is not touring with Matt anymore? When I first read about it, I got tears in my eyes, no shit. It feels like the end of an era. Anyway, today, I took a picture with him, and the sun was shining really bright in our eyes. After the pic was snapped, he said, "Wait, I think I blinked. The sun is...wow." So, we turned, which ended up being better anyway, because then the ocean was in the background. Pretty! But I thought that was so nice...his being concerned that the picture turned out OK, even though it wasn't his picture, and even though it took extra time to turn and take it again. What a sweetheart! ME WITH FISH!!!! Anyway, like I said, what an incredible day! And three Matt concerts in one month...damn, why can't all months be like this? :-) post comment

Sweetwater: AWWW....SHIT! [09 Mar 2004|10:02am] Seeing Matt Nathanson last night at the Sweetwater was the best concert I have ever been to. Bar NONE! And I have been going to concerts since I was 11, when Dad took me to see Steppenwolf (sp?) and The Guess Who? That is 18 years of concert-going experience, motherfucker! :-) (To use a little Matt phrasing, there LOL) So, lemme try to gather my excited thoughts and tell the story somewhat cohesively. First of all, I went to the concert by myself. Mill Valley is a hell of a long way away (three hours to get there), and on a Monday night, and I just couldn't interest any of my friends in tagging along. But I figured...what the hell? Am I going to wait to live my life until I convince someone to do it with me? NO! If I wanna go, I'm just gonna go. And it totally wasn't bad at all. Of course, I did feel a bit like a dork when there were all these groups of people sitting around talking with their friends and I was sitting by myself reading a book LOL. But then I reminded myself that I'm not in high school anymore and I got over it. :-) Since the restaurant is open all day and there was no "door time", we got to sit through the soundcheck. Which was cool. It was like a mini-show with only 25 or 30 people there. :-) And apparently the sound guy was being an ass, because at one point Matt said, "Why does it have to be all combatative, dude? If you could just treat me like a human being...that would rock." And then the guy said something back, and Matt was like, "That's awesome. I'll fuck you hard later. Promise." Which was...I don't know...possibly the coolest exchange ever. Haha. The opening act was Noe Venable. She was a cute little hippie chick. It wasn't exactly my style of music, but I thought she was sweet. One of her between-songs things she said was that her first crush was Aslan from the Narnia Chronicles. So I was definitely feeling her on the "literature seems more real than real life" childhood thing. :-) People were being rude asses and talking really loud, though! I felt bad for her. It brought out my teacher instinct. I wanted to jump up there and say, "Excuse me! Ladies and gentlemen, you need to show our guest some respect. If her mouth is moving, YOURS ISN'T!" Haha! I could probably think of two or more teacher-phrases to throw in there. Then Matt came out. Oh, SHIT, son! It rocked. Like I said in my last post, a setlist would be beyond me. I was so caught up in the moment. The thing that surprised me most was that when he thanked people for coming out, he seemed GENUINELY grateful for it...not like he was just going through the motions of saying it because that's what you say. I mean, IMO, the crowd should be (and, in fact, WAS) grateful to HIM for coming out and doing a small show. It was the coolest venue to see him in because of its small size. Although, I personally would LOVE to see him at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. That would rock. But, this was so small, that he definitely made eye contact...not just with me, either, or the other people close to the front. It was that kind of show. It was an everybody-eye-contact show. :-) For an encore, he played Wide Eyed and Full. Oh damn. It was HOTT. How can he make an acoustic guitar sound like a whole fucking band? So, now for the coolest part...AFTER the show. I hung out. Again, sitting alone...which seemed very obvious, I was SO uncomfortable. But, that's good, you know? I need to get over my high school insecurities. I mean, damn...I'm gonna be thirty in a couple months! It's time to get over them. And I was actually really nervous to meet Matt. I strongly considered bouncing a couple of times. But then I thought I wouldn't forgive myself if I just drove away and didn't even get a picture because I was afraid. Fear sucks! Push through! :-) Well, there was no formal meeting-type situation set up. He just came out and was packing up his shit and a few people went up and were talking to him. I went up. I met Noreen and Caligirly from PWT. That was the shit. NICE GIRLS! So, then when I met Matt, I said, "Dude I drove three hours to get here and I have to be at work at seven and I don't even care....IT WAS SO AWESOME!" He looked like he actually felt bad about that, which wasn't my intention at all...I just wanted him to know how much people thought it was worth to go through to see him play. Because he is the shit. :-) And he was all concerned, like, "Well...did you enjoy the show? Was it cool?" It was sweet! At which point I don't even remember what I said, but I do remember it was in the arena of inane gushing. :-) I told him my second graders wrote him fan letters and they were in the mail, and he seemed like he really got excited. He said, "Dude! I am SO down with that! That is awesome!" I said, "Cool! Well, they're on their way...they're in the mail right now." He was like, "That's awesome, I can't wait to get those." Goddamn, what a genuinely nice guy. He totally seems like someone that you would hang out with if you knew them in college, you know? I was so high driving home...I was just singing at the top of my lungs, and laughing for no reason, and then every once in a while I'd stop and just do that little screaming-slapping-the-steering-wheel thing you do when you're excited. It rocked. I actually think it was partly because of the fact that I made myself do it, in addition to the coolness of meeting him. Lastly...the picture. All the way over there...three hours in the car...I was practicing my "good smile." This is the sort of half smile (not too teethy) that trial and error has proven is the only way that my face turns out good in pictures. Because I thought...this is going to be an important picture! I'm gonna put it on my website, post it on message boards, show it to my friends...I don't want to look like shit in it! Well, when the time came to take the picture, the practice smile went out the window. I was just so excited, I couldn't even think! So if I look a little manic in the pic, that's why. LOL post comment

navigation [ viewing | most recent entries ] [ go | earlier ]