ensuring that i will never learn.

so my procrastination was rewarded, as my 10:00 class was cancelled yet again. for those who are keeping score, that's 3 times in 2 weeks. with yom kippur on monday.

anyway, i am pretty stoked on this song.

priorities.

WHOA. A MUST-READ. via julianne shepherd, who correctly notes that analyzing dick cheney is like deconstructing a russian doll; every insight ultimately leads to another enigma. even if you have read 15 books on the subject and the iran-contra report. even if you are one of the most incisive essayists on the planet.

cons and pros of procrastination:

cons: um, class? tomorrow?
pros: reading something that good, and talking to poorani.

i think we know which side wins.

ave maria

wow! tonight ended up being pretty great. everything that was contingent on good timing worked out flawlessly. today, like a lot of the past few saturdays, i somehow managed to waste far too many hours, before getting remotely productive (productive being watching nick1 put together my coffee table and going grocery shopping). then rushed home through the rain to turn around and go to rachael and dominic's surprise engagement party. yes, rachael, as in my best law school friend first year. who i really haven't seen since then, due to our mutual crazy schedules. i forgot how much i missed her. even though their engagement is really no surprise (after 9 years?), i am so, so excited for those kids. and rachael was really, really surprised.

the party was thrown by her two best high school friends + amy hornbeck. it was martha stewart-tastic, and i intend that as high praise. everything was beautiful and tasty. and amy? so fun and so genuine. she went to my high school and then later to my law school, and then transferred to loyola at the same time as rachael. and while she seemed pleasant enough, i am embarrassed to say that i kind of wrote her off. to be fair, i didn't really interact with her that often, but i sort of assumed that she was just an upscale sorority chick. but after hanging out with her this evening, i saw that she is really enthusiastic and open-minded and kind. i know that i am generally a nice person, but this evening was a reminder of how judgmental i can be and how hypocritical that is. life lesson #1.

everybody else there kind of conked out early, so, after waiting forever for a cab, i finally made it back to my apartment. my initial plan had been to hit the party and then see the life and times, but after the cab debacle, i wasn't sure if i had missed most of the show, or if i should stay out anyway. enter life lesson #2: trust my instincts more often. after thinking about it for a minute, i bolted to subterranean, where the band had just started playing. i was still hopped up on raspberry buttercream cupcakes, and my kansas city blood just wouldn't let me do otherwise. and wow. you know i love this band, but last time i saw them, i felt like i had to .defend them to my companions ("they're kind of messing with the song tonight, but on the album...") but god, that was such a warped night anyway, i should not speak of it more than i have to. anyway, tonight, they were so on. i think i have seen them 4 times now, and this was far and away the best. (i gather that a lot of other people there felt the same way). the rock was heavier, the shoegaze gauzier, the rhythm tighter. the crowd demanded a second encore, and the band obliged admirably, despite the fact that they were obviously grasping for songs to play. yay for focused kansas citians!

a nice end to a nice week. my dad was in town again. after hearing more about his current business endeavor, i am so, so proud of him. he is so fucking smart and tenacious. and i was given a really great assignment at work yesterday. so hopefully things are looking up for the o'connor clan.

post-blah.

wow, i can't believe i am up right now. lately when i get home, i can't be bothered to turn on the computer, or the tv (except for the beeb). generally in favor of talking to the roommate and reading. at any rate, i have been getting to bed consistently early. i think i have actually been getting the prescribed eight hours a night! insane.

these weeks are starting to speed up, and i can feel the noose tightening as far as school is concerned. but it's good. clearly i need the pressure to keep me interested. and it's not unenjoyable either. i mean, today in trial ad i conducted two direct examinations, a cross, and was a witness, and, momentarily, a judge. (while being decidedly not on my a-game.) but i also laughed out loud at several points during the evening. norgle, he's a funny dude.

although it started with me being bored and writing overcaffeinated record reviews into the void, last thursday ended up being a great day. and a housing-law-centric one. in the afternoon, my predatory lending class went out to, like, 63rd and kedzie for an orientation with the greater southwest development corporation and neighborhood housing services. great people, and it was nice to get to know a neighborhood with which i wasn't that familiar. was fortunate to get a ride back from professor seng, who astounds me more every day, and hustled over to jenner for the lawyers' committee awards ceremony/fundraiser. every year i attend, and every year i write something effusively sentimental. and this year is not going to be any different. the organization is just growing so well and the event is always such a bighearted gathering. the keynote speaker/winner this year was alex polikoff (he litigated that gautreaux case, maybe you've heard of it?), who was utterly sobering. on the eve of the 4oth anniversary of martin luther king's arrival in chicago, he reflected on the progress of king's objectives since then...or the lack thereof. in contrast, the kid who won the "attorney of the day" award, an IP attorney at some big firm, was funny and heartfelt and almost made me cry. his speech totally went on too long, oscars-long, but nobody could be mad at him: he won a giant award for this family who was locked out of its apartment and had much of its property destroyed. $70,000, that's almost unheard of in the universe of eviction law.

i spoke at length with chief judge evans, who seems like he genuinely cares about his work, and the larger system he's a part of. and saw joe, and ceci, and professor stark, and professor hammond (who's surprisingly lucid when she's not teaching property). even better, i got to meet some of the members of the better housing action network and their families. these are former clients of the organization, who on top of managing their housing and jobs and families, have gone to springfield to participate in advocacy for laws that support safe and decent housing. and i got an lcbh t-shirt: so hot right now.

the quote of the night, or maybe the year, came from this guy from the uptown people's law center: "i don't think eviction court is any different from iraq or guantanamo bay. i think it all comes down to the same issue--the rule of law, and whether we decide to honor it." say word, son.

speaking of which, what are you doing october 5? me too.

(related: casey kasem?????!!! omg.)

pretty bombs.

um, so, professor green cancelled class again. last time was a pleasant surprise, now it's a little bit alarming. we're going to be so behind, especially since yom kippur is on a monday this year, too. might as well blog about records.

'cause a lot of good ones have come out recently. the most notable, to me, is the new one by channels. if you worship at the altar of j. robbins (and i really really do, although that feeling does not extend to the crappy dude bands he sometimes produces), this will be a revelation. i felt like the second burning airlines record was a little slick, and a little scattered. ditto the first channels e.p., though both had their share of amazing songs as well. but this album is an excellent return. clenched-teeth crooning? check. eviscerating sentiments? check.* tricky guitar lines, pummelling drums, incongruously catchy melodies? check, check, and check, augmented and improved upon by the silvery vocals of robbins' wife, janet. 12 pop songs with a serious case of claustrophobia. so awesome.

speaking of same, the new thermals record is really great too. probably their strongest album yet. the thermals' songs are structurally simple, but they stand out because they didn't forget that you're supposed to have hooks AND melodies...and, oh yeah, genuine feeling. i think people sometimes overlook the fact that hutch harris is capable of some pretty clever turns of phrase, as well (not that he chooses to exercise that skill in every song...). and don't worry about the "concept album" talk--there's definitely some consistent themes running through the lyrics, along with a pervasive feeling of uncertainty and anxiety--but it's not distracting or oppressive. and "test pattern" is just a love song, and a really sweet one at that. i once read an article that described the thermals' sound as a cross between gbv and the buzzcocks, and i can't get more accurate than that. does that mean that harris is in the same league as shelley or pollard? no. does that mean that this is a good album? yes.

finally, i heartily endorse jennifer o'connor's latest. no relation, unfortunately. i guess i kind of echo my sentiments about the thermals album here. superficially, her sound could be lumped in with lame coffeehouse folkies who can't let go of lilith fair....but her songs are SO MUCH BETTER. better melodies, better lyrics, better vocals. her voice is great, low-key yet pure. and the songs, while dealing with some pretty wrenching subject matter (bad break-ups, the death of a sibiling), are ultimately strong and forward looking. like a female, less fragile, elliott smith.

you're welcome.


*(that said, the album contains a newer, rawer version of standout song "chivaree" in which robbins rejects anger for its own sake in favor of unabashedly loving the ones closest to you, despite all the craziness and despair in the world. i know, right?)

oh.....

my god. east coast friends take heed. i'm not sure if i can afford to miss trial ad that late in the semester (or afford it, generally), but this is mightily tempting. i guess i'd better figure it out quickly since tickets go on sale tomorrow.

blah.

so my ten o'clock class was cancelled today, and i'm really a loss for what to do with my time. there's nothing pressing that i have to do for school or work, and LRAP stuff is best left to the weekend. this whole semester is really throwing me off by being so damn manageable. it's like i don't know what to do with myself unless i'm maniacally busy. it's like how nick1 has been saying that even with seventeen credit hours, he's not feeling challenged. (although that's easily enough explained by the fact that four of those hours are with wangerin.) i guess it's just the third-year, pre-bar, senioritis blues.

i'm loving the new roommate. she's very genuine and eclectic and just easy to talk to. i was impressed when on her, like, second day in the apartment, she had dinner with my father and i and was able to roll with it gracefully. (i love my dad, but he can come on kind of strong if you've never met him before.) also, she subscribes to the new yorker. now i can catch up on my seymour hirsch and sasha frere-jones without even leaving the house!

last weekend, i hit the third day of the hideout/touch and go fest with stef and tyler. it was raining and legitimately cold, but fun. seam played the best set by a thousand miles, as far as i'm concerned. their genius lies in their ability to be both understated and intense at the same time; i'm tempted to use the word "elegant," but that sounds too stuffy. anyway, they were tight and rocking and their songs gained a certain heft in the live setting. at the end, it felt a lot like broken social scene at lollapalooza: there was an electricity in the air and nobody was willing to accept that it was over.

well, i'm either going to read estates and trusts or go shoe shopping, but before i do, a question: have you forgotten to read the guardian lately? me too. here are two reasons why we should tie a string around our fingers:

1. whoa. like a 21st-century u.k. studs terkel. yay for cool namesakes. i am going to have to read this column every week.

2. well done. i agree with the writer's points of emphasis.

i'm going to go see catfish haven on saturday, you should come too.

my mistake.

so one of the attorneys asked me into his office to talk to me about something. as we were discussing the assignment, he pulled whatever he was eating out of his mouth WHILE talking and without excusing himself. i involuntarily winced, thinking he didn't see me. of course he totally did. by way of response, he stared at me and said, somewhat pointedly, "it's a lozenge." i guess that's supposed to make it less gross.

i'm confused.

my horoscope yesterday said that someone from my past would unexpectedly reappear. wow, they sure fucking nailed it.

three-day weekend

this weekend was all over the place, yet unified by two themes: 1. not doing schoolwork and 2. having a good time. friday hung out with christine and finally saw some episodes of "veronica mars." whoa. this is possibly the coolest show currently on television. it is dark. not "edgy," but legitimately dark. noir. lauren captured it best by characterizing it as twin-peaks-meets-buffy. for reals.

saturday did a whole lot of nothing--slept in, went running, ran errands--then headed out for loren's 30th/ben's brother's 21st. good times. it was a fun mix of people. a couple fellow law students, but mainly their peeps from indy and ben's brother's friends from loyola. i was particularly impressed by loren's sister, who is obviously extremely smart and ambitious but not remotely conceited about it, as well as her boyfriend, who just got back from iraq, poor kid. (jason, don't start.) had a really rewarding conversation with both of them about bullshit we have dealt with as women in litigation-related jobs: she had come up against some of the same stuff as i (and some of my classmates) have in recent months. but that's so definitely another post that i don't feel like writing just now. at the stroke of 12, the party left casa loren y ben to go to a cute bar on damen. ben was in rare form; it's cute when he's in "special occasion mode," but it tends to mean that he foists free alcohol on me that i may or may not need. pretty much everyone there was laidback, smart, and funny, and i could tell loren had a ball. it was nice.

sunday was the most schizophrenic. i was miraculously only hungover for a highly sleepoffable hour or two (underdogg, thank you once again), then read a bunch of magazines and talked to my mom. and did a small amount of homework. on a whim, thinking it would be a quiet night, i went to the siskel center and saw "old boy" (part of the "vengeance trilogy" by chan-wook park), which i'd been meaning to see for years. holy mother of god. it was amazing, funny even. and beautifully shot. but if i scoured the darkest, most perverse corners of my psyche, i don't think i could imagine anything that even remotely approaches some of the events that take place in this movie. by the end you realize that it's definitely a moral fable of sorts, albeit a visceral, hugely fucked-up one. i was seriously traumatized afterwards. on my way to grab a bite to eat, got a text from tar-bear, who, after a sojourn to ny, is now back in the 773 for the duration. she was going out with a couple people, and while i had planned on staying in, i knew that i needed to get outside of my head after seeing that movie. the "bar" i met her at turned out to be more like a half-assed club in gold coast, SO not my scene and so undeserving of a cover charge, but it was good to see tara again. the crowd was so annoying (let's just say that none of the guys had necks and all of them were bald), but i eventually managed to get into the spirit of things and get down a little bit. bailed pretty early though. i have my limits.

then today, bbq #1 was canceled due to rain, but bbq #2, at kastrup's, was still on. we enjoyed beer, ribs, sweet corn and homemade ice cream. can you think of a better labor day meal? it's not possible. and even better, scott offered free furniture for my now-barren apartment! and even better than that, it wasn't ghetto! this kid ran was there, from nu, that i hadn't seen in 4 years. it was interesting to catch up. (no, jess, he's not fat...i'm kind of disappointed.) tommorrow should be fairly low-key, i'm skipping my evening class to go hang out with with my dad, who's in schaumburg for business. i convinced him to drive me to target. yes! hopefully he will have a new crop of politically-incorrect jokes to share; he 's been on quite a roll lately.

personal to lp: i'm so glad that you called--hang in there.

trial ad is fun.

this evening i used the phrase "pee break" while addressing the honorable charles r. norgle of the northern district of illinois, in class, in his courtroom. don't worry, i actually had a reason, and it wasn't that i needed to avail myself of one. related: in his chambers, there is a big brass plaque with an hawk on it that says, "eagles don't hunt flies."

fuck you, motherfucker.

aaargh! i am sitting here, doing some long-overdue balancing of the checkbook, and watching jimmy kimmel, which was mainly amusing. and then the musical guest came on. pat green or tim green, or something, some douchebag with a soul patch. i'm open-minded, but he lost me about 0.000001 seconds in, when he TOTALLY LIFTED THE HOOK from "passionate kisses" by mary chapin-carpenter, with nary a syncopation or a chord or ANYTHING to make it distinguishable from the original. man, the sheer unoriginality alone might well have killed it for me, but the audacity of taking so brazenly from what is indisputably an awesome song* sealed the deal. i won't go into the details of why it's an awesome song (hopefully you already know), but, suffice to say, it galls me. and towards the end, just when i was kind of starting to calm down, he totes stole the riff from "summer of '69" for the coda. what a dick.


*(as well as one from his advertised genre of "country," i.e. he should have known better.)

nyc redux

gaaah. my trip to new york was amazing. amazing weather, amazing food, amazing shopping, and even more amazing friends and family. just the booster shot of amazingness that i needed before school, and its attendant responsibilities, start up again in earnest. the quality time with jess, lauren, loren, tar-bear, wayne, mimi, thomas, and my little cousin ellis was invaluable. that said, i think i went home at the right time. not only did i pick a seriously bad time to leave work (which makes me that much more badass), but i think i was starting to miss the atmosphere of chicago. the streets of new york are always teeming with people--it's like rush hour every hour--which can be either energizing or enervating depending on how it hits you. after four straight days, i found it was starting to tend towards the latter. that said, from soho to long island, from economy candy to the chinatown ice cream factory, good times abounded. big thanks to LZP and chrissy the wonder dog for hosting me!

here are my photos from the trip; hopefully my uncle will send cute cousin-pics posthaste.

this is the short version.

man, it's just my dumb luck that this terrorism threat/toothpaste ban would coincide with the one week in which i have to travel from one of the nation's largest airports to one of the nation's other largest airports. i really hope that i don't have to deal with any major delays. i'm still not entirely convinced that this isn't all just some covert plot by proctor and gamble to increase sales. that's a crass joke, i know, but seriously: rebuying all of my toiletries at duane reade would NOT be a good look this weekend.

argh. i just spent the last several hours doing last-minute clerkship app/lawyer's commitee/pilc/work stuff/correspondence all the while plowing my way, mouthbreathing and saucer-eyed, through the random, sneaky sinus attack that has befallen me over the last couple of days. however, i feel that last weekend needs to be encapsulated better than my last post allowed for.

so, i give you lollapallooza lists:

best stage banter

1. new pornographers. carl newman is always good for it, and you know how i love a sarcastic nerd: (after a spontaneous audience clap-along at the close of "the bleeding heart show") "we've got more fucked-up time signatures than, like, coheed and cambria. little known fact. so if you're going to try and clap, good luck to you." (and subsequently) "this one is a crowd-pleaser. so i can talk shit beforehand." "we're the new pornographers. from denmark."
2. the hold steady. specifically, craig finn's erudite youth-slang retelling of the history of saint barbara: "see, being a christian then wasn't like being a christian now. being a christian 300 years after christ's death was like...having a face tattoo." "so when he got back, the king was like, "let's execute barbara." and her dad was like, 'yeah, sounds awesome.'" seriously, the kids were rapt. as was i.
3. feist. well, duh. even if you don't like her album (which i can understand, even though i think it's mostly awesome), you've got to love her performances. she picks up the intensity of her songs accordingly, and she's engaged with the audience the whole time. i love how she is so warm, and open, and playful--goofy, even--yet still conveys that she is a woman and not some girl-child naif.

spooky-good musical moments

1. broken social scene. all of it. hands down, the best set of the festival, and that's saying something. so the basic setup of the event was that there were eight stages of varying sizes, the largest two at either end of the park. the music was scheduled such that no band (theoretically) was ever playing on top of another band at a neighboring stage. most bands played for an hour, a few for 45 minutes; friday and saturday there were two headliners for an hour and a half (8:30-10) at both of the big stages. sunday, there was only one headliner: the red hot chili peppers. who for some reason got an extra 15 minutes, meaning that their set began at 8:15. blues traveler, playing at the opposite end from where the chili peppers would be, got a full hour (and i would argue one hour too many), but broken social only got 45 minutes as they were near the headline stage. so when they took the stage, to a large and appreciative crowd, you could tell they were going to try to really bring it. i wasn't sure who was going to be playing with them, but i was hoping that some of the members who had already appeared with their own bands would show. well, it turned out to be EVERY SINGLE MEMBER, including emily haines. like, 15 or 16 people, counting the violin and horn players. it was spectacularly beautiful. and what happened at the end was unlike anything i've ever experienced at a concert. as they ended with the stomping, screeching "ibi dreams of pavement," kevin drew brought everyone on stage and led the audience in cathartically yelling and cheering along with the band. it was a great moment, and there was a certain electricity in the air. and then they had to stop, the 45-minute mark having arrived. the audience kept clapping and cheering and calling for an encore, and for a minute or two it looked like there might be one. but even as it became apparent that the band was taking its equipment down, the crowd kept on cheering. as much or more out of appreciation for the performance than as a request for an encore. this went on for over 15 minutes. i've never seen anything like it. whenever a band member made it on stage to take down an amp or wave at the crowd, they looked legtimately humbled and sad that they couldn't continue playing. the crowd did not dissipate until the chili peppers came on, the jumbotron displaying flea in some disturbing multicolored bodysuit. at that point, everyone near us booed. which may not have been totally fair to the chili peppers, but was an understandable reaction. the crowd was so galvanized by the performance they had just witnessed. it's hard to explain, but it was special.
2. sleater-kinney. as most of you probably know, lollapalooza marked one of their last concerts for the foreseeable future. i actually hadn't even seen them live in a couple of years, despite the fact that 'one beat' has emerged as a solid favorite of mine, and despite the fact that their weakest moments are still more distinctive than most bands' flashes of genius. i have mixed feelings about "the woods". i think it was, to use the adjective again, a distinctive album, and definitely gritty and intense and real. it's just, some of the guitar jams are too much for my attention span. that's one of the main reasons why i'm sad they're breaking up--"the woods" felt to me like a textbook "transitional album", and i would have liked to have heard what was to follow. being their most recent, and final album, s-k's set leaned heavily on its songs. and there were a couple moments where, dare i say it, i zoned out a bit (mainly during "what's mine is yours." why they dumped such a sprawling coda in the midst of such a hooky song is truly beyond me.). but those moments were obliterated by the intense, intense rendering of "let's call it love" (yes, the longest of the long ones). the guitar solo led into several minutes of free form, i guess you'd HAVE to call it, "jamming", but it never got boring. they kept pushing the sound into different directions, yet it all made perfect sense, effortlessly bleeding into an especially cathartic version of "entertain" which was jaw-dropping. there will definitely be a void in sleater-kinney's absence. not just in terms of gender, but in terms of power.
3. the hold steady. specifically when the sun parted the heavy clouds hovering over the park at the EXACT moment when holly gets born again in "multitude of casualties." it was uncanny to say the least. the whole set was great. i fear that their new songs may be borrowing less selectively from classic rock, may be pushing the conceit too far. it's hard to tell. regardless, their set was so much fucking fun. they are so reverent of their fans, and rock and roll. and given that i listen to "banging camp" about twice a day on average, it was nice to hear it live again for a change.
4. catfish haven. unfortunately i missed their first few songs, but their set was one of the gems of the festival. i will admit that i am a little late to the catfish party. i distinctly remember their lead singer approaching me at a pig roast in pilsen 3 or 4 years ago, coming off like a VERY drunk, cherubic hell's angel, so i got a weird first impression before i ever heard their music. i saw them at schuba's not long after, and while his voice impressed me, stunned me even, their songs at the time did not. but they've clearly tightened their shit up. i love their recent e.p. so much, it's like gbv meets van morrison at his peak. but, on sunday, i was still surprised to see that they've turned into a full-on soul machine, complete with horns and keyboards and backup singers. (black women! on stage! at lollapalooza! not in the go! team!) oh man. while there was one new song that seemed to veer a little too perilously into white-boy funk, the rest was next-level. this is the real deal.

best non-musical aspects

1. sweet leaf iced tea, especially mint-honey. simply put, it's liquid crack.
2. andrew bird on the jumbotron
3. the skyline of downtown chicago

anyway, i have some half-assed photos of the whole thing on flickr.

ok, i seriously need to sleep. see you tomorrow, new york city!

post-palooza

things i don't have after this weekend:
--money
--my voice
--my tolerance for stupid people
--my tolerance for text messaging

things i do have:
--my tan (i'm totally not joking!)
--my hearing (surprisingly)
--the afterglow resulting from having a blast for three solid days

and in three more days, i'm going to have an even better time in new york. it's almost scary.

nerd alert/john darnielle gave me a hug!

first off: taqueria super burrito? at 10 pm? on a sunday? manna from god's own heaven. that's why i have their number in my cell phone, no joke.

second: no, that's not a typo! pitchfork day one was ridiculously hot, but well organized, all things considered. met up with christine and her friends just in time for the mountain goats. since the goats weren't their thing, i thereupon promptly ditched said group, but i feel entitled. dudes opened with "jenny," which for whatever subjective reason had been pretty much the one song i really wanted to hear from anyone all day, and which obviously made me happy. "dance music," "cubs in five," "the fall of the star high-school runningback," and an excellent franklin bruno cover ("houseguest") were also played. not everything translated in the space and the heat, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless. later on, up close for art brut (who for whatever subjective reason make christine very happy), we found ourselves near some of the musician and writer intelligentia. i had a very pleasant exchange with jim derogatis about how awesome his lester bangs book was and why he's not on tv anymore, and stood next to the aforementioned mr. bruno, whose take on "armed forces" for the 33 1/3 series was one of my favorite books of last year and whose old band made me very, very happy many years ago. i think i saw the divine ms. jessica hopper too.

anyway, at that time, john darnielle and friends moved past us, and i was compelled to pat him on the shoulder and give a quick "great job today!" because, you know, i really felt that way. he said thanks, prepared to move on, then paused, smiled at me, and gave me a hug. it really meant a lot. not in the thirteen-year-old-omg-i'm-never-washing-this-dress-AGAIN! sense (although, shhhyeah, i definitely felt that way for at least five minutes afterward), but more profoundly. i realized, once again, that if someone does or says something nice for you, you can either give a cursory, if acceptable, thanks, or take a second to do it one better. if you choose the latter, then it will probably make both of you feel that much better.

otherwise, it was obviously great people-watching and a very mixed crowd. there were folks in breathtakingly weather-inappropriate attire, and others who could stand to cover up a bit. there were hipsters and fratsters (one dude, returning from the beer tent, notably exclaimed, "dude! this is the one song i've recognized all day!" when "the rat" came on....but if yr gonna know a song, i guess that's not a bad one!) and in-betweeners like me, who really shouldn't judge.

it was a great day, but even above and beyond the hug, the silver jews were the highlight. oh my. gorgeous, completely gorgeous, and that's not really an adjective i would have thought to apply to them before now. cassie berman is probably the most elegant woman i have ever seen in real life. (one of the most beautiful too, but i mean to refer to something beyond that.) and obviously, she totally wails. best stage banter of the night, bar none, including but not limited to berman's thoughts on his recent trip to the middle east and his issues with brian wilson as musical inspiration. the languid guitar, the lush keyboards, the backdrop of the moon and a beautiful church cast against the night sky, and most importantly, the amazing songs: it was lovely.

today?

mission of burma. oh my g-g-g-g-g-g-g-o-d-d-d. they opened with "that's how i escaped my certain fate," in my opinion, the best punk song ever written, and one of my favorite songs, generally. their sound, especially circa 2006, is so relentless, yet so nuanced. i defy you to find a more relevant, rocking and tuneful band right now, especially as compared to some of their past contemporaries orchestrating lame "reunions" these days. it was a little weird how many teenagers were in the audience. i mean, kids who absolutely had to be eight to ten years younger than me, but who recognized and responded to most of the songs, even from "vs." did it make me feel old? sure, yeah, briefly. but if the high-schoolers are listening to burma, then maybe we're not so fucked after all.

then i spent an hour on the phone talking with my brother and with jess, both to catch up with them and to avoid devendra banhart's set. what little i heard made me shudder.

then there was yo la tengo, perenially cute, pop historians, masters of the rock song in all its forms. who else could go from a garage-rock frug to an extended noise jam to a positively yacht rock lite-funk groove without missing a beat? they leaned a little heavy on the jamz at the end, but it all sounded good. several new songs were played. from what i heard, their album really ISN'T afraid of you and it WILL beat your ass.

other highlights:

• quasi-celebrity sightings: aziz ansari, fred armisen (twice), mark greenberg of the late lamented coctails walking with his wife and kids (so cute), the dude from the m's wearing a questionable sombrero (not so cute), the kid who works at jmls bookstore.
• the FUNNEL CAKES. oh, man. i've had some good ones, and i've had some horrible, rubbery ones, at fuck, i don't know, worlds of fun or wherever, but these were amazing. the one i had saturday was so good i had to buy one on sunday. am i a tool for spending five dollars on a piece of fried dough? probably. do i care? not really. i am a slave to the carbs, what can i say?
• the kids that gave me a free cab ride on saturday.
• seeing the aforementioned mr. darnielle pumping his fist and singing along to "that's when i reach for my revolver" and several other burma songs, not five feet away from me. does somebody have a crush? yeah, probably, kinda. as if his writing hadn't already accomplished that.
• finding out that the aforementioned aforementioned mr. bruno has a new musical concern! while wandering the indie-rock flea-market tent, i came upon the tight ship records booth. i guess it's a new label, run by barry phipps, ALSO of the late lamented coctails, that puts out rare/exclusive/left-of-center recordings by chicago musicians. they had bbc sessions from archer prewitt, something or other from the like young, and then they had...the human hearts. franklin bruno, jean cook (now of the beauty pill), mark greenberg, and some other guy. of course i totally bought it. i've listened to about half of it and it's totally nothing painted blue v. 2.0 in the best way, i.e. hyper-literate power pop. love it love it.

yeah, so, and, there was also ted leo (who debuted "army bound," a new, chisel-esque song that excited me in that the melody was more sophisticated than most of the last album, and the drumming was killer too , the walkmen, spoon (who also debuted a cool, promising new song), etc. etc. and the futureheads, who i'd never heard before now, but whose singer distinctly resembles paul weller. well done all around.

what the hell is going on?

which i guess just signifies more of the same. i just got back from walgreens, where i purchased two mousetraps. yep, that's right, somewhere in the last 24 hours, ali and i discovered a little grey stowaway. it's tiny, and cute (or would be, under any other circumstances) and seems way more terrified of us than the other way around. but fuck. i love how this little situation coincides with my several upcoming appointments to show the apartment in the next several days. "really, i love this place. i've had no problems....what? mouse? oh, that wasn't a mouse, that was a...shadow. yeah, a shadow. that's the ticket."

and in the last several days, i've experienced two bouts of relative paranoia, about my job, and a friend, respectively. maybe i really *am* turning into my mom. oh, well. i enjoyed an extremely decadent meal and cathartic conversation with kelley and friend the other night, in advance of k.'s impending london internship adventure. i'm so excited for her; no one deserves such an opportunity more than she does. and, in a matter of hours, i will be seeing ted leo, the walkmen, THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, and THE SILVER JEWS. that oughta help too.

yeah, it's oven-hot outside, but i'm thinking that it doesn't seem as humid as it could be...or maybe i'm just delirious already.

distracted.

my sales final is tommorrow. and while i still have plenty of work ahead of me today, my main concern at this point is the fact that i completely forgot to sign up to take my exam by computer. with respect to my handwriting, friends have recently commented: "you really should have gone to med school instead," and, less politely, "you write like a serial killer." whatever. at least i don't have Big Puffy Girl Handwriting. it's a completely irrational pet peeve, i know, but i feel strongly nonetheless.

work has been ok, but a little slow. except for the remarkably dramatic circumstances surrounding the sudden departure of gonzo (i.e. the eccentric, socially inept, vaguely creepy attorney). seriously, in the context of our little firm, it was practically "trapped in the closet." i really hope that guy can work out his issues, because he's got some. long-term, his departure is a very good thing. short-term, it meant that nick2 and i had to excavate his office to locate and salvage his case files. (one word: YUCK. if i had a nickel for every document with a mystery food stain on it, law school would be paid off. seriously, there should have been a hazmat crew up in that bitch.) the upside was that nick and i had free reign to listen to the mountain goats and bullshit like third graders while doing so. which was well-timed, as i have been one giant hormone this week.

otherwise, i have been running around looking for a new roommate since ali decided to leave. i'm sad, but i can't begrudge her since her current commute is pretty bad. based on the responses i've gotten so far, i'm pretty confident i'll find someone responsible and low-key. it's just one more thing to do. but if i can just keep my head down and take care of everything i need to do in these next couple weeks (roommate stuff, clerkship apps, any number of other little things) i know i will be richly rewarded by the pitchforkfest/lollapalooza/NYC!!! trifecta that is my next three weekends. in spirit, that is. financially, of course, i'll be cashed, but you know it's so worth it.

finally....

mac maccaughan blogging? very cool. mac maccaughan blogging about an elaborately snarky takedown of "the butterscotch stallion" by the members of steedily d? AWESOME.

equally awesome? this band, and that album title.

alright, i should have been at jmls yesterday. wish me luck!

my job is better than your job.

so my boss just came by and asked nick2 and i if we wanted to go to the cubs game. he has season tickets and was still recovering from the game last night. work was not an issue: he said he would "hide us". i'm more of a sox fan, personally, but who am i to argue with the boss? see you suckers later.

the soundtrack to summer*

so lately, i've been kind of obsessed with this band, human television. totally excellent throwback to the heyday of slumberland records (a.k.a., claire's soundtrack 1992-1996ish). think: the wedding present, the lilys, the ropers (!), the smiths (marr only), and ride. goes down easier than a diet dr. pepper. see you at schubas on friday.







* (aside from the new phoenix album. don't believe all the hype--it's pretty awesome. yes, the new guitar sound is superficially reminsicent of the strokes. however, it's still the phoenix. which means that it's way more interesting, and, perhaps more importantly, NOT as blase or cynical, than that band. is there anything as revelatory as "if i ever feel better"? of course not. but it bears remembering that, on the earlier albums, for every "too young" or "i'm an actor", there was a "funky squaredance" or nu-jazz splooge. this one is totally consistent, totally catchy, and totally smart.)