No Turning Back

Take Me Back To Paradise

Oh it's a busy couple of weeks for me right now. Between the Lost finale last night, the big wine tour tomorrow, and a big event at work next week, I'm just trying to stay out of trouble lately! But it has been a while since I posted, and I wanted to make sure you haven't forgotten me. And today, I give you two Friday Five lists today. Why? It's my prerogative. Don't be cruel.

Spoiler alert!

Just in case any of you Losties haven't seen the finale yet, click here to jump down to my second Friday Five list.

My first Friday Five are my favorite parts from last night's finale. This list could go on and on and on because the episode was so dang good. Period.
1. Ben saying "Hello Jack" at the funeral home

2.  Desmond. And. Penny. Period.

3.  Sun crying & screaming & wailing.

4. "You mean time traveling bunnies? Yeah."

5. Sawyer swimming miles in the ocean (in jeans) and not being that tired when he gets to shore. This wasn't one of my favorite moments because of the eye candy, but because it was actually unrealistic and I said Oh what the heck. Sure, let's believe that one and not scrutinize!

What did you think of the finale? If you leave a comment with a spoiler, please label it appropriately!

Flashback Friday Five

Tomorrow is the big '80s themed wine tour. I'm so excited about this that I almost could care less if there's any wine drinking. Well, wait, no. I do want the wine. But I'm much more excited about the '80s theme than the actual wine touring. And we're traveling in a pimped out bus. We'll be riding in style just like Bon Jovi! Now who's wanted dead or alive, hair boy?

The timing of this wine tour along with the economic spending incentive check and the end of my car payments enabled me to purchase some totally radical things for my outfit!

So here are 5 components of my outfit for tomorrow. Since I don't want to spoile the awesomeness of what will be my outfit, I'm only going to tell you some of the components of my outfit. I will let your imagination gnaw on how all of these will actually come together. The rest? My lips are sealed.

1. mesh

2. jelly/ rubber bangles

3. Vans

4. day glo

5. Duran Duran (natch)

Fingers crossed I win the costume contest tomorrow!

Five Answers

I decided today's post would be in answer to Julia's question "What are your top 5 websites and why?"

Well there were many ways I could go with this question. Top 5 in terms of:
- most frequent?
- all-time favorite?
- blogs?

I'll go with my top 5 most frequently visited websites. So aside from intranet pages at work, here are the five sites I visit the most on a daily basis:

1. My bank. For the last 2 years or so I've been on a tight budget. And got burned way too many times with bouncing checks/debit transactions so I have become super-balanced-account woman lately. It's almost an obsession. It's become much easier to track finances since I've had no credit cards for the past year. But that's a story for a different day.

2. The website of the volleyball place where I play and work. (I prefer not to list the URL for this one.... trying to keep some anonymity!) Though I haven't been playing lately, nor working, I still check out the league standings, schedules for friends, tournament schedules, photos, etc.

3. Google reader. This is where I can track all of my favorite blogs (Except you PnF! Or have I missed the RSS feed?) It's quite a handy little tool. Though I'm sure Google is gathering information about me that I wish they didn't. But yes, I check it periodically throughout the day to find nuggets of wisdom. And the latest news on Britney & DWTS.  And lolcats.

4. The Rochester daily paper. I've just gotten into the habit of checking out the news throughout the day. But don't get me wrong - when the finances pick up again, I will resubscribe to newspaper delivery. Nothing better than a Sunday morning with the newspaper and a warm cup of coffee.

5. Stuck in the '80s. Yes, I admit I'm stuck in the '80s. Hopefully my style isn't anymore, but my music taste is, for sure. I'm a little too excited for an upcoming wine tour I'm attending mostly because it has an '80s theme. That's happening at the end of the month. I'm sure I'll share some bitchin pictures from the event.

5 1/2. And when in season, Lost Pop Candy. Not only do I read all the comments of the recent Lost episode, but she posts some other cool tidbits in there too. It's killing me that I can't look at it today because I didn't watch last night's episode yet. I was SO excited to see it because last week's was so good. WTF is up with Claire??? Anyways, I fell asleep last night before the show started, so I am running home after work to watch it on Tivo.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Yin and the Yang

This morning I received great news and some sad news. On the shallow, selfish side, I was jumping for joy to see my Economic Stimulus tax rebate thingy deposited into my bank account. I didn't expect it for a few more weeks. Wheee!

Then within the hour, I learned of the untimely death of someone close to my cousin. Although I didn't know this man, my heart is still just weighed down with sadness for this situation.

I was going to recap the weekend for you, but I really just feel shallow trying to detail my night at Mulletude, my long Saturday full of volleyball (congrats PSU!) and friends and drinks, another Sunday sucked into ANTM, and then my joy over receiving my economic stimulus money.

It's one of those things that just puts things in perspective. My heart goes out to the family and friends of the fallen officer.

5 and the Ragged Tiger Just Doesn't Sound Right

Lately this merry band of 5 has been making the news everywhere you turn. But today's Five is in honor of my all time favorite band of 5.

1. Simon LeBon
2. Nick Rhodes
3. Andy Taylor
4. Roger Taylor
5. John Taylor

I have never seen Duran Duran live in concert. Sad but true. And although they have been touring off and on in the past 10 years, I don't think I'd go see them. I only want to see them if I can get into a time machine and journey back to 1985-1986. Sorry boys. I have such high expectations for you that I think I'd be disappointed. That's just life.

Although, I think I'd make an exception to see them in current times if I was able to actually meet them too. Ah. Sigh.

Here's to Duran Duran, NKOTB, NSync, Backstreet Boys, and all you other bands that helped some of us tweens survive puberty.

Legendary

Phew! Well if you are still standing after the long comment debate on Friday's post between two of my most brilliant readers, thanks!  Seriously guys, no hard feelings on either end here. Thanks for the intellectual & socio-economic debate.

On to more important things, like Madonna!

Tonight Madge is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with another long-time favorite of mine, John Mellencamp. Check here to see how you can watch the ceremony live tonight. I'm gonna try the live web feed on bestbuy.com. If that craps out, I'll splurge for the upgrade to my DirecTV programming to get VH1 Classic just for this occasion. (Gosh I've missed that channel since I downgraded for budgetary reasons). Or I think VH1 will replay the ceremony in the upcoming weeks, but you never know what they might cut out for time constraints.

For those nay-sayers on Madonna, check out this one fact about the Material Girl: Madonna's self-titled first album spent more than three years on the charts.

Not. Bad. At. All.

Update 3/11/2008: Here's a photo from last night's ceremony. And yes, I splurged and upgraded my DirecTV so I could watch. Now I have VH1 Classic (among other cool channels) for another month. Yay!

Review: Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt

The Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt concert Friday was fantastic. Amazing. Wonderful. Entertaining. Humorous. Great.

It was sort of a storyteller format; Hiatt would play a song, the two musicians would talk about ... whatever ..., then Lovett would play. The back-and-forth went on all night. Occasionally one would accompany the other, either musically or vocally, but mostly each artist performed his work.

I think the review in the Buffalo newspaper says it better than I can, so I will reprint it here (in case their link goes away). 

From the Buffalo News:

Made in songwriters’ heaven

By Jeff Miers NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
Updated: 02/23/08 6:47 AM

Well, it made an awful lot of sense, in the end.

I’m not sure how much of a shared audience Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt can claim, though I’ve long loved and admired the work of both.

Perhaps quality songwriting provides common ground for the listener. That certainly seemed to be the case Friday, as Lovett and Hiatt shared the stage for a two-hour performance of deeply affecting, articulate, funny, sometimes sardonic songs.

The two share certain traits. Both play acoustic guitars, write instantly lovable tunes with brilliant lyrics, favor the strange and the starkly confessional.

Lovett and Hiatt sharing the same stage, sitting a few feet apart with no band to hide behind, seemingly deeply content to take turns playing and listening to each other — to witness as much suggests some sort of benevolence.

The show worked incredibly well, because it was obvious that Lovett and Hiatt like each other and each other’s work. On occasion, they’d join in together, Hiatt picking along with Lovett and adding soulful vocal harmony, Lovett timidly adding a background chorus vocal and the like. But mostly, they played their own songs and basked in an easy-going hilarious dialogue in between.

Hiatt kicked things off with the soulful R&B/folk of “Just Like Your Dad Did,” a smart introduction of his enduring ability to tell honest truths.

Lovett countered with one of his deepest and most biblically imagistic songs in “I Will Rise Up,” and then they were off.

“Walk On,” the title song from a mid-’90s Hiatt album, displayed the man’s ability to make like Ray Charles singing a campfire folk piece, while Lovett’s “Private Conversation” made the most of its three chords and insanely catchy repeated hook. Hiatt then broke out “Perfectly Good Guitar,” and I’ll be dog-gone if the tune didn’t sound equally great minus the electric squalor that originally enveloped it.

Lovett and Hiatt shared vocal and guitar duties for the former’s boisterous “Up in Indiana,” before the evening reached its emotional peak with a pair of songs about death.

Hiatt was first with the tune that gets my vote for his finest, the prayerlike lament “Crossin’ Muddy Waters,” a gorgeous bit of writing with wonderfully updated blues images. The song hurts, simply put.

Lovett simply said, “That’s a beautiful song, John,” and launched into a beautiful song of his own, the funny but emotionally murky “Family Reserve.”

This was a treat. Lovett and Hiatt should think of writing and recording together. That’d be an even bigger treat.

Musical Geniuses (or Just Really Good Stuff)

Phew, after my long blog entry last night, I didn't think I'd have it in me for creativity for a Fives list today.  So I'm using a cliche end-of-the-year idea.

Top 5 CDs for 2007
CDs purchased, not necessarily released, in 2007.
In no particular order.

1. This is Somewhere
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
See recap of her show here.

2. It's Not Big It's Large
Lyle Lovett
Someday I'll blog about my feelings about Lyle Lovett. Not like that. It's just damn good music.
Update 01/07: Just found out Lyle & John Hiatt are coming to Buffalo next month! I already got my presale tickets today. Yay! Yay!

3. This is Ryan Shaw
Ryan Shaw
I heard so much about this guy from Brother Wease. I missed seeing Shaw at the RIJF this summer because of sucky weather. But I finally saw him when he opened for the Derek Trucks Band in November. He blew me away. If you happened to have see the Ellen DeGeneres comedy show on TBS last month, Ryan Shaw performed there too, in the first hour. And oh yeah, Lyle Lovett was the house band.

4. Seven Angels on a Bicycle
Carrie Rodriguez
I saw her open for Lucinda Williams. A great, great surprise. I had no information about her before seeing the show, and now I'm quite a fan.

5. Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship
India.Arie
This was released last year, but I just got into listening during the past few months. Something about these songs are in sync with where my head & heart are at right now.

Bonus:
6. A Year And A Night With G. Love And Special Sauce
If you're a fan of G. Love, check out this DVD/CD. Besides the great live clips on the CD, the DVD is a great behind-the-scenes of the band.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sing, Sing a Song

Today's post lives up to the description on my blog. Something I'm thinking, something I've learned, something I want to share. I know some of you have experienced this too.

We all know that some songs hold memories for us. They can remind us of a time in our lives, a particular event, or even a person in your life.

Maybe you had a significant other and it was your song. Then you break up and now that song makes you cry. This is not the situation that I'm about to describe, but you catch my drift.

So there's a popular song out there today that used to make me happy, joyful, and even put a smile on my face. Then I learned some information that was very, very loosely associated to this song/artist, and since then, that song conjures up not-so-happy feelings. [I know this is vague... stay with me....]

Because the song made me sad, I started changing the station whenever this song came on the radio. Typical avoidance coping mechanism. I'm human. I know you do it too.

The song came on the radio this morning. And in an unplanned moment of greatness, I decided to face my fears discomfort and just let the damn song play. Get through the sh!t and move on. It's a new year. Time for a new attitude and to leave the past in the past.

Phew. I'm feeling a little better already.

So this is my nugget of wisdom for today: avoiding uncomfortable stuff doesn't make anything easier. It just makes the pile of sh!t that you have to tiptoe around bigger and bigger and isn't helping anyone.

Let's See If This Works

Something funny from Comedy Central & Rolling Stone:

Oh, and there are still a few days left in my contest. I'm a little sad that more people haven't entered. Please boost my self-image and at least pretend like you want to win a prize!

Review: Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

So for a couple weeks, I knew of an upcoming show at a local club for a musician that I've wanted to see - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They've played free shows in Rochester and Buffalo the last two summers  but I missed seeing them every time.  Up until last week, I had planned to go to the show because even though I need to carefully watch every dollar I spend,
- tickets were only $15 (compared to the $55 for Elvis Costello & Bob Dylan last night too)
- I actually don't work on Tuesday nights,
- it's at a venue I don't mind going to alone if I can't get someone to go with.
So I decided to splurge on myself and go.

Then after paying bills & planning for paying bills with this week's paychecks, I realized that money will be much tighter the next few weeks than I expected.  And I'm also late for an oil/filter change and I really can't put it off any longer. So driving into work I decided that I couldn't go to the concert. I really need to spend the $15 on an oil change, not the concert. Life sucks. Blah blah blah. But this is the price I pay for the financial situation I got myself into.

So the radio station I listen to in the morning announced they were giving away tickets. And I've rarely called into a radio station for anything but decided that, Hey, if I can WIN tickets and go for free, I'll go. As you can guess by now, I won tickets! I got through the phone line, and then had to answer a couple questions, and so I won! Yeah!  So now I will have $$ for an oil change AND go to the concert.

I'm afraid to jinx myself and say how lucky I am that good things like this keep happening to me, but they do. Now it's not winning the lottery, but it sure did lift my spirits for the day.

The other fortunate thing is that the first person I asked to go with me actually said Yes. I have a complex about planning social gatherings. In the last year or so, whenever I send out an email invite to folks saying "Hey this great thing is going on.... if you want to go, let me know" and I get zero response. I mean zero. Deafening silence. I gave up after a while because I figured (a) no one gets the emails, (2) no one is interested in the same things as I am, and I thought they were, or (C) no one likes me.  In any case, I say F 'em and I'll do whatever I want. I've tried enough times to spread the word about concerts, events, festivals, etc. So I was pretty psyched that my friend Mary wanted to go with me last night, and could go on a few hours notice.

In a word, the show was awesome. I know I use that word a lot, but it really was. I wasn't impressed by the opening act, so nothing to report there. But with GP&TN, they really were fantastic. I wasn't sure what to expect with GP&TN; I knew they would put on a good show, which is all I can ask for. Even if you don't like the music itself, a good show is a good show. I feared they'd be too much of a jam band, since they play with the likes of Gov't Mule, Bonnaroo festivals, etc. That didn't happen last night.

Right after Mary & I get our drinks, I turn around and see an old friend. I should have known he'd be at the show, since we have such similar music tastes: Lyle, Lucinda, and now Grace.

And that Grace is quite a performer. And storyteller. And BS-er between songs. For a Tuesday night crowd, it wasn't that bad. Maybe 100 to 150 people? I'm bad at estimating that. Anyhoo, the band was pretty psyched about their first tour bus (you couldn't miss it if you were anywhere near East & Scio St. last night). She asked for a Jack & Coke after the first few songs. This girl doesn't mess around. The band was even more fantastic. They can all seriously rock out. The highlight of the show for me was one particular jam where all four band members gathered round the drumset and all played parts of the drum. I think GP was on the floor playing the front of the bass drum. Cool.

Since I got the tickets for free, I brought $ to buy a CD at the show too. I've been listening to it all morning, and it doesn't disappoint. With such a strong live presence, I was afraid the CD would be bland. Not so much. It also came with a short DVD of about 5 live songs from a few years ago. Thumbs up.

So with all this raving about GP&TN, does she replace Susan as my top must-see? No. But pretty dang close. Better than Fiona? Not better, but different, for sure.

So here's my photo from my cell phone last night. Not a great shot. I forgot to bring my camera this time, so my cell phone pic will have to suffice.

They are playing tonight in Buffalo, opening for Government Mule, who they are touring with for several more dates.  GP&TN seem to play that "free summer concert" series, so if they come to your hometown next summer, check them out and let me know what you think!