Crunchy ‘Nanas

So, I’ve been catching up on blogs lately. I just found a recent post on U2-3D on I Am Fuel, You Are Friends. Which I had to show Crunchy husband, even though it’s supposed to be off-line time…Because I’m so excited. And now, after reading this, bitter. Forget what I said earlier. I want to see it now. February 22nd? What the heck?

When I turned the screen his way, the first thing he says is “Who’s Captain E.O.?” What? Not only does he live for the shipping forecast (not kidding, that’s his favorite thing to listen for now that we have the DAB radio), he doesn’t know who Captain E.O. is. He actually had to click on the wikipedia link. Ah, he’s cute. Brits, eh?

He keeps walking around saying, well it didn’t come out in England.

Well, of course it didn’t! England doesn’t have a Disneyland!!

My gym stole my iPod. And I’m not sad.

I’ll spare you the skimpy details, but I was in the locker room, sitting on the bench, drying my feet and noticed the music was pretty chill, Finley Quaye’s “Even After All”. Not one I usually hear anywhere but my iPod, thanks to the Thicker Than Water soundtrack. I thought hey, that’s cool. It makes a nice change from the Rockwell “Somebody’s Watching Me” I used to get at the other gym. (Kind of funky in the locker room when it’s playing while you ARE in the shower.) Then I heard it. Comb stroke, part to shoulder. Hesitate. I wasn’t sure it could be possible, they keep the level pretty soft in the changing room, but yes indeed-y. The Thievery Corporation remix of Sarah McLachlan’s “Dirty Little Secret”. Yeah baby! It’s cool, seductive and lounge-y. I love it. Maybe somebody IS watching me and knows just what I want to hear. I combed and re-combed my hair, just so I could hear the drum beat drop toward the end. I’m fairly sure I was swaying, but no one was looking at me funny, so I must have contained myself pretty well. All right, I don’t have much shame, but I don’t tend to bust a move in the locker room. Usually.

It was like the time I popped into Somerfield and as soon as I stepped through the double doors “Solsbury Hill” started up. It was as if they saw me coming. Or, iris recognition lasers triggered the music. Hey, now there’s a thought. Big brother me any time if it means no more James Blunt. (Okay, Christa, I just threw that in there to rile you up so you’ll slam me some more country music dedications on Facebook. Yee-haw!*) I grabbed my milk, bounced a little in line (subtly restraining myself from initiating a dance party), and handed over my fiver. As I held myself back from saying as enthusiastically Californian as possible “I luuuuuuhhhhve this song”, Talking Heads “Once in a Lifetime” kicked in to the Hill’s fade, and the lady shouted over her shoulder “Could you turn the music down, puh-lease?”. I checked my shimmy, picked my chin off the floor, and slunk out of the store. Don’t let the iPod hit you on the way out, ya know?

While we’re on the subject of music (yeah, yeah I swam and yoga-ed today, check the log if you’re really that interested), who’s excited? Who is EXCITED? U2-3D! I can’t hear you. Yeah okay, not quite as excited as if the boys were to play in my living room. Or, even Wembley Stadium for that matter. But, I’m pretty excited. (And not even too bitter that it’s already out in California.) I can’t wait to see my man up close and personal. Funk it up, dawg!

*For those who don’t know me, not a big fan of the country…

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Now playing: U2 – Mysterious Ways
via FoxyTunes

On our way back to San Jose from Monterey a few weeks ago (yes, I know the race report is still outstanding), the front seat, or more specifically, the driver requested my iPod. Now, I love, love, love having 30 GBs of storage. But, it makes it difficult to just press play, turn on shuffle and go. Not for me, necessarily (though I have to admit sometimes it’s hard to go from Vivaldi to Color Me Badd to Depeche Mode to George Winston to Jack Johnson to Usher to Buena Vista Social Club and back again). But, not everyone appreciates the range of music I have on this thing.

So, before handing it up, I slipped it onto my training mix, which I thought offered a better concentration of what the front seat might be looking for. Silly me.

“Don’t you like any women musicians?”

Um, yeah! And yet, no front women were popping up. iPod, why do you fail me now? (Note to self: training mix is in great need of an update.) Maddie stepped up at one point, but I got the impression she wasn’t really what they were looking for.

Slightly related to this incident, this weekend, while up at 2 am– too awake to sleep, not coherent enough to do anything useful– and scanning my music bookmarks websites, I caught this little tidbit on Tony Levin’s list of recent played on credits: “Paula Cole: Courage”.

Paula Cole, what?

Yippee! Paula Cole’s got a new album. I do like me some Paula Cole. How did I not know this? It might even be close enough to Christmas to put it on my list and wait. Maybe. I’m not sure. We’ll have to see if I can put up with just listening on MySpace until then.

Did I just say that?

Wow, in one post I’ve managed to divulge I have Color Me Badd on my iPod and a MySpace page. (No, Tom is NOT my friend.) World, I have nothing left to hide! In a quick attempt to salvage any faith you might have in my style and good taste, might I say that on the aforementioned MySpace page, I’ve posted a strange and quirky video to Andrew Bird’s “Imitosis”. (Hint to lurking Santas: another album on the Christmas list.) Not only does the song make me dance (another point the front seat would differ on), but someone in the video’s got stripey socks. Kind of makes me wish I hadn’t given up the violin in my pre-teen years. Except well, I wasn’t good.

But, back to the women!

1. Hooray for Love- Ella Fitzgerald
2. Peace Tonight- Indigo Girls
3. Hard to Make a Stand- Sheryl Crow
4. I Feel it All- Feist
5. Taxi Ride- Tori Amos
6. Kissing the Day- Mandalay
7. In Our Lifetime- Texas
8. Music (Groove Armada 12″ Mix)- Madonna
9. Dirty Little Secret (Thievery Corporation Mix)- Sarah McLachlan
10. Here with Me (Chillin’ with the Family Mix)- Dido
11. My Head is Only House Unless It Rains- Everything But The Girl
12. I Am So Ordinary- Paula Cole
13. Devotion- Tracy Chapman
14. The Song of Solomon- Kate Bush
15. The Magdalene Laundries- The Chieftains with Joni Mitchell
16. At This Point in My Life- Tracy Chapman
17. All That We Let In- Indigo Girls
18. True Colors- Eva Cassidy
19. Perfect Girl (Live)- Sarah McLachlan
20. Me- Paula Cole

“So am I. But, I can do the merengue.”

“They’re not playing the merengue.”

“They will.”

I wasn’t allowed to watch “Dirty Dancing” when it was first released. And when I finally remembered to watch it when I was an adult, I was kind of like, um yeah, okay whatever. I haven’t seen it since. However, I’ve probably seen “My Blue Heaven” 1,564 times. Just a guess. It was on the other night, and I am proud to say I’ve still got it. All the lines. Memorized. Right here. I can’t remember my age half the time. But, yes. I’ve still got “I don’t know, the pressure of Halloween. You never know what to go as!” all right here. Hot!

Tonight was taco salad night. We love taco salad night. And burrito night. We have a lot of those too. We buy Corona that was brewed in Belgium, probably (better than food miles from Mexico, right?) and avocados. I love avocados. And then we turn up the music really loud. Probably none of which is technically merengue, but well, we do it anyway. (And truth be told, what we do is not strictly merengue, but a mish-mash of latin freestyling with some shimmies, kicks, and a few strums on the air guitar thrown in because they’re fun. We feel it works. But, we don’t do it in public either. And when I say we, I actually think it’s just me.)

And then I yell at Crunchy husband for the thousandth time, “Ozomatli might very well shop at Safeway, but that’s NOT WHAT THEY’RE SAYING!!”

1. Chango- Ozomatli
2. La Sonidera- Los de Abajo
3. Lola, Lola- Ricky Martin (oh come on, when you’re getting down in the kitchen, everyone loves Ricky)
4. Tímido- Ozomatli
5. Oye Mamacita- Los Lonely Boys
6. Mi Candela- Los de Abajo
7. Miss America- David Byrne
8. 3 Cool Cats- Ry Cooder
9. I Will Be Free- Nil Lara
10. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For- Coco Freeman featuring U2

Yeah, I know it’s not Monday here yet. But it’s Monday in Australia. So that’s my story.

And I promise the next post I submit will not start with a quote. Or a series of quotes.

I’ve always harbored a secret desire to be one of the screamers on a live album. And now, I believe, my wish has come true. I got my recording from Peter Gabriel at Hyde Park, and I swear to you, I hear me. For real. The one yelling “Steeeaaaaammmm!” a fraction of a second before everyone else? That’s totally me. (I’m fast, really fast! And loud, really loud!) And during the pause in Family Snapshot? Me too. I swear to you. I know my concert scream. And I hear it. You’re skeptical, I can tell. But, it’s not hard to believe. Did I mention we were standing second row? BA-BY! (The proof is on Tony Levin’s website. You can see us best in the eleventh picture down, just behind the girl playing with her camera near the yellow rain jacket on the rail.) So, I think it’s very possible I hear me. And yeah, I’ll admit it, I sound good.

Rock and roll! Ah, another one of life’s goals ticked off the list.

In other exciting news, I officially registered myself and Crunchy husband for the Paris-Versailles 2007. So we are finally in training for something, as opposed to in training for something obscure and undetermined. We’ve been warned about the hill to Versailles, but how can you pass up the opportunity to start a run under the Eiffel Tower? Freddy the French Cat’s owner nearly joined Team Crunchy ‘Nanas in this 10 mile endeavor, but dodged this year’s run right before registrations went in by conveniently remembering he has tickets to go watch his Welshmen group hug and bite each other’s ears off in Nantes. Lucky escape, if you ask me.

There was way less trash on the path than I expected on my run today from Minnis Bay to Reculver. (I kept to the path. There is no way I could collect all the trash washed up on the beach.) Most people just kind of stared at me as I ran by, but one man yelled “hey, what about all this over here?” as he rode past me on his bike. He seemed jovial and friendly, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt and take that as thanks rather than him “taking the piss”. The run felt really good, which is to be expected since it is flat and I’ve been running hills mostly and today is a beautiful day. I ran regular tempo on the way out and eco-run tempo on the way back. I’m getting slightly better at grabbing trash without breaking my running motion, but I still need to slow/stop sometimes.

And then there’s the fact that summer has decided to grace England with its presence. There are many who still do not have clean water supplies to their homes, but at least (for now) the rains seem to have eased. I hope it gives it a chance for things to dry out a bit and allows people to go back to their homes.

And in final news that may be good or may be not so good, I will know by tomorrow I think, I’ve taken a bold step and submitted some coastal photography into a local art exhibition. Please keep your fingers crossed on something making the cut. It could go either way.

A wordy post to come, but here are some shots (click image for larger image on flickr) from Peter Gabriel at Hyde Park Calling on Saturday night. (Flippin’ rockin’ diggity downtown bustin-a-move awesome!) Please be forgiving, both camera and operator need some help at image capture in low/different light situations. I’m practicing!!

Okay and a couple for “Oral Bedraggle” (who may be too busy in her new fancy pants job to look at them for a while, congrats!!) from The Feeling’s performance:

Now, I go swimming. Swimming in the pool, swimming is cool. Ha ha ha. But really, I am, check the log in a few hours. (I fear a Crunchy husband-imposed ban on anything PG is imminent…)

[For Crunchy husband. I promise not to go to see Peter Gabriel at the Eden Project without you. I can wait for Hyde Park. You just might want to take the car keys and all means of getting money to work with you on Wednesday. Just to be safe.]

1. The Feeling Begins
2. I Have the Touch (Mix from “Phenomenon” soundtrack)
3. Burn You Up, Burn You Down
4. Down The Dolce Vita
5. Growing Up
6. Steam (Oh, Oh Let Off Steam mix 12″)
7. Exposure
8. Running to the Rain
9. Secret World
10. In Your Eyes (Live, for you, with Paula Cole backing)

“You’re not excited about Travis?”
“Well, it’s not that I am not excited. It’s just I probably wouldn’t be going if you didn’t want to go. Lately, I have a hard time listening to the albums. A lot of the songs sound the same to me. They sound a bit, I don’t know, too Coldplay-ish to me.”
“You mean miserable and whiny??”
“Well, yeah. Sorry. I hate saying that because I do like them, but…”

Now I remember why I thought I liked Travis. I like the band’s stage presence, its energy. The crowd last night was pretty docile. Like totally and completely chill. I don’t usually have a problem with chill, but this was CHILL. We found it amusing how low key the atmosphere was. At one point, walking back from a drinks run, a man in front of me let slip a moderate belch. I barely noticed. When he realized I was right behind him, he immediately apologized, saying “oh my that wasn’t very polite of me, I am so sorry!,” with absolutely no sarcasm implied. For a while, it felt like we’d bought tickets for Kenny G in the park (though we wouldn’t really know, maybe Kenny G packs a rockin’ party?), picnic baskets and wine out of plastic wine glasses everywhere, but Travis whipped it up a bit. Kudos for the Rocky entrance from the back. Inventive. It was refreshing to see the guys run around the stage and get into their music. Much better than sitting at home listening to the albums. I left with a smile and boogie in my step singing, “wow, look at us now, flowers in the window. It’s such a lovely day and I’m glad you feel the same.” I’m sure everyone on the night hike back to the parking lot loved that.

As well as (re) liking Travis last night, I am getting the feeling I am a very tall man at concerts magnet. A trend is emerging. Last night, a very tall man stood just front-left of me. He was a stationary very tall man, for which I am thankful. (Except with the bouncing en masse during “Why Does It Always Rain on Me?” [awesome!] in which 7 foot very tall man became 8 foot very tall man.) Let this be a warning to very tall men everywhere. If you are going to Hyde Park Calling, watch out. If you find yourself being climbed upon like an ancient oak tree by a woman waving her fist in the air, shouting “Intruder! Steam! Waiting for the BIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGG ONNNNEEEEE!,” that would be me, trying to get an unimpeded view. I apologize ahead of time. Crunchy husband, he can’t take me anywhere. (Note to readers: I’ve been given the official nod that now that we’ve seen Travis, it is acceptable for me to get excited about Peter Gabriel. I will try to contain myself. But, I do feel a monday mixtape coming on.)

New(ish) music I really (and really, really) like

[For Moose, who spends way too much of her paltry salary catapulting cookies through space, but cookies that are very much appreciated and gobbled down all the same!]

1. After Party- Ozomatli
2. Salala- Angélique Kidjo
3. Bibou- Daby Touré
4. La Temperatura- Ozomatli
5. Dancing Shoes- Arctic Monkeys & Buena Vista Social Club
6. Raise the Roof- Tracey Thorn
7. Dirty Little Secret (Thievery Corporation Mix)- Sarah McLachlan
8. Collarbone- Fujiya & Miyagi
9. See You on the Moon!- Great Lake Swimmers
10. Bouncing Off Clouds- Tori Amos

Ya se flippin’ fue, baby!

From LA via Australia, the boys from SoCal made it to Shepherd’s Bush Empire for an action-packed, sold-out show on Friday night. Despite serious sound issues, the group’s energy carried through to the crowd and we were all bouncing. I was there on the floor, standing three rows back, holding my own between two REALLY tall guys, one of which was not there before me, thank you very much. I knew what he was up to. He kept trying to get an edge on me. To shimmy his way in straight in front of me. I felt like Monica in the Friends episode where she’s taken Rachel and Phoebe to the bargain barn for her wedding dress (minus the whistles, unfortunately!). When you find the dress, hold on to it and don’t give it up for your life! That’s kind of how I felt about my spot. We dance sparred for our prime location for a few songs until my annoyance level hit near breaking point. The night could have progressed in two ways: me kneeing the guy in the groin, or me giving up front center gracefully.

He’s probably still in the hospital, and his chances for progeny are slim.

Kidding, kidding! I’m not about violence, Ozomatli aren’t about violence, and I wondered how it would look getting thrown out of the venue for starting a fight, wearing my “people are still for peace” T-shirt. We moved it back a bit and two things happened. The sound improved and I had more room to dance. We also ended up in good position to join the Ozo conga line at the end of the show. Ha, ha. I win!

I must give props to Crunchy husband for his patience with my excitement for this evening. Though, I think he ended up enjoying the show as much as I did. He keeps chanting Ozomatli shop at Safeway. He thinks he’s so funny.

Check out my snaps from the show:

Ozomatli