Thing I Love: Mumford & Sons

Last night I needed to cheer myself up. I have lots of ridiculous ways that I go about this (a lot of them involve Cheetos and Days of Our Lives or Emmerdale clips on YouTube.) But sometimes there is nothing that will break me out of a funk, other than listening to the Mumford & Sons album Sigh No More from beginning to end.

Since it is not 3 years ago, and Mumford is no longer a secret thing that my friend Julia and I can use as a litmus test on people. (“If they’ve heard of Mumford they must be cool.”) I don’t think I need to spend anytime explaining who the band are. (As was mentioned on a recent episode of Emmerdale in fact “that Mumford and his sons” are “big time” now. I promise that’s the last soap opera reference – for this entry anyway.)

So instead I will just share a couple of reasons why their, often slow and melancholy-sounding, album always lifts my spirits:

1. It was the soundtrack to one of the best nights of my life. Their concert with King Charles and Cadillac Sky, Halloween night 2010 at The Riv here in Chicago, was unforgettable. I buzzed with happiness for 3 straight days afterwards.

This is the only non-blurry picture, my crappy camera took that night.

 2. They, in addition to being talented muscians and very attractive men, are smart and have a sense of humour about themselves. I mean their album title is a quote from Much Ado About Nothing. Yes, this is potentially pretentious, but when he was asked about it on MTV, Marcus Mumford replied that Shakespeare was great because his works were in the common domain and he didn’t have to pay copyright on it. 

3. They have a bookclub on their blog. (I don’t think I need to explain how much I love that.) 

4. They have a banjo. Now I am not particularly into bluegrass as a genre, though I do love country music, but there is a certain type of modern folk band, many of whom tour and collaborate with Mumford, that has made me fall in love with the Banjo as an instrument. It just makes me happy. 

5. Their songs sound likethisfor God’s sake:  

Also they wear suits a lot, which I think is cool. And one time in Austin two buskers saw Julia’s Mumford & Son’s bag and played an impromptu song for us:

Classics from the Queue: Annie Hall

I love movies – and I love things that are delivered to my apartment. So I naturally love Netflix. I also love lists, so I have over the course of 5 years managed to fill my queue (that means there are 500 DVDs on it for those of you that don’t use Netflix.) I fully acknowledge that this is ridiculous, but it has allowed me to start to work through the list of movies I have been lying about having seen for years.

I love movies and I love talking with people about movies, but I get really frustrated the way that those conversations always derail if you haven’t seen the movie. So if I’m remotely familiar with a well-known movie I’ll generally just say that I’ve seen it. Yes this creates awkward situations sometimes, but generally it works well for me.

The latest catch up classic that arrived in my mailbox was Annie Hall. Which I could tell from the opening scene I was going to love:

I had high expectations from this movie, not only because it’s one of the few comedies to ever win the Best Picture Oscar, and because I basically want to grow up to be Diane Keaton.

It took me a long time to give Woody Allen a chance, because by the time I was old enough to really be aware of him, he had already left Mia Farrow (whom I adore) for her daughter (which is still probably the creepiest tabloid story I’ve ever had to force myself to get over.) But whenever I heard a quote from Annie Hall (which was often it gets quoted a lot) I felt like I was going to love it.

And I was right…there is something incredibly charming about Allen’s neuroses and the universe he has created which makes them seem utterly justified. There’s a great blending of honest emotion and craziness. I especially love the scene towards the end where he starts talking to random people on the street about how much he loves and misses Annie and they all just know what’s going on. It’s absurd of course, but it also fits so well with the worldview Allen has put forth; for him everything revolves around his own personal problems so naturally the passerby know where Annie is.

It also is chock full of amazing cameos. Definitely worth the classic distinction!

Weekly Adventure: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater

I love Shakespeare. (In fact my only other semi-successful attempt at blogging was structured loosely around my attempt to read all of Shakespeare – I’m still working on it. I’ll be writing about it here from now on, but if you’re interested here’s the first entry about All’s Well That Ends Well.) Sometimes I wonder if this is because I think I’m supposed to love Shakespeare. As an English major with an interest in theater it is practically prescribed, but then I return to a play like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I remember that I genuinely love him.

Anyway I went last night to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, which is awesome for many reasons, not the least of which the fact that they used to employ my friend Julia (and when you do an image search for them you still come up with two pictures of her in publicity shots for a past show.) They also have a really cool modern theater on the end of Navy Pier, which means it has this view:

Gray skies - just like last night (though I took this last spring)

 and that you have to fight through crowds of screaming tourists to get to the shows, but once you get there – there’s a really cool mini-pub in the back corner of the lobby. On to the actual show. Full disclosure: Midsummer is one of my favorite plays, so I both was delighted to hear the words aloud, and had unreasonable expectation for certain characters. Overall, though, I really enjoyed the production. I had cheap “Under-35” seats, so was naturally sitting in a corner where most of the set was blocked from view, but I could see all the actors, and for the most part they were fabulous. I’m really glad I read the director‘s note before it started, so that I was a little prepared for the Freudian interpretation of the show. I’m not a huge fan of Freud, but with the exception of the strange choice to disguise Puck as the doctor during the Athens scenes, it really didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the show at all. I have to admit, that usually for me this play is about the fairies. (When I was in 4th or 5th grade I played a baby fairy in high school production, and for the longest time though that Titania and Oberon were the A-plot.) But last night I really had the opposite experience. The actors playing Puck, and the fairy King and Queen, did an admirable job, but they were accompanied by an odd soundtrack of over-dramatic “swshhs” and “booms” that took me out the scenes. Also the fairies (Cobweb, Mustardseed, etc.) were played by men in striped pajamas with flower headresses and I really just couldn’t wrap my brain around that, but I think that may have been the point.

 But if I was a little disappointed by the fairyland sections, the lovers and the players more than made up for it. The farce of the Helena-Lysander-Hermia-Demetrius quadrangle was played to perfection and the women avoided sounding shrill and grating (a major pitfall I think for a lot of the women in the comedies). I know the plot, and lot of the dialogue, of this show inside and out but they still managed to surprise me with their choices, and at a couple of moments I even laughed out loud.

Thing I Love: Calumet 412

 I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m a big nerd, or that I love Chicago. So I’m sure it’s no surprise that I follow Dan Sinker (the author of the hilarious @MayorEmanuel saga) on Twitter. Yesterday he linked to my new obsession. Calumet 412 is a Tumblr of “forgotten Chicago ephemera” or in other words, awesome vintage photos, menus, crime reports, maps, etc. of Chicago. It’s updated frequently and combines two of my favorite things Chicago and archival materials. I particularly love the posts where he contrasts what a location looked like in 1906 (for instance) vs. what it looks like now. Sometimes these contrasts are incredibly depressing, with blight or ugly modernization, but sometimes it’s cool to see that the buildings are the same with different tenants and uses.Here are a couple of my favorites–but you really, really need to go to the blog. I spent HOURS on it yesterday.

Rock Hudson when he was a sophomore at New Trier. I didn't even know he was from here!

This is the "lovers walk" that used to be at Lawrence and Damen - aka the busy intersection 3 blocks away from my apartment.

The Beats! Allen Ginsberg with Peter Orlovsky (and someone else who I should know probably – but I promise the guy at Calumet does)

The name Calumet 412, if you’re curious, comes from the phone number of one of the world’s most famous, and fanciest brothels, the Everleigh Club, which used to be located right here in Chicago. He has a couple of good posts about it.

The other great thing about the blog is the community it has created. When he doesn’t have specific information about a photo he’ll often ask readers to help him figure it out, and it leads to really cool discoveries.

Seriously check it out.

Thing I Love: Happy Endings

I hope you’re all recovering from your St. Patrick’s Day adventures. I’ve managed to come out of mine mostly unscathed – the worst damage is an odd necklace shaped sunburn line that I hope will fade quickly.

If you’re looking for something to distract yourself from your headache today I can’t think of anything better than a couple of episodes of Happy Endings. I love this show so much that I can repeat some of the episodes by heart. (As people who were walking around yesterday with me can attest.) Although sometimes it can be a bit formulaic, the cast is so talented and funny that they make up for the sometimes ludicrous situations. I especially love Adam Pally, who plays the “straightest gay man” Max and Casey Wilson who plays the flamboyantly awesome Penny.

If you haven’t watched the show here’s my list to get you started.

1. Mein Coming Out

2. Penny gets “the gay of her dreams”

3. Brad’s dress

4. Brad and Dave recreate Cocktail

5. Last but most certainly not least…Penny learns to be a hipster

 

And I literally had to cross like 8 more clips off this list.

Enjoy! (But if you’re in Chicago – also step away from Hulu for awhile to enjoy this random summer in March.)

 

Weekly Adventure: Gaelic Storm’s Chicago St. Patty’s show

So, I’m actually kind of surprised that it took a couple of weeks for me to mention on this blog how obsessed I am with all things Irish. (If you don’t count the fact that the header photo is the floor of an Irish cathedral that is.) I’m technically only a quarter Irish, but if any of my typically American mix of ethnic identity means anything to me it’s that I get to claim a tenuous connection to “the land of whiskey and love.” (If you get that reference, congratulations, you are officially my favorite person.)

As you can imagine that means that this weekend is a pretty big one for me. And the most exciting part, beyond the excuse – no, expectation – to drink a ridiculous amount of delicious Irish alcohol, is that it is time for my annual Gaelic Storm adventure.

For those of you who don’t know, Gaelic Storm is a traditional Irish band that’s based here in the States, but plays Irish instruments on a mix of Irish folk songs and original music that ranges from the awesome to the awesomely cheesy. They are probably best known (outside the enthusiastic Irish-American community that is) as the band that plays when Jack takes Rose slumming to Third Class in Titanic.

My love affair with Ireland started young, with that scene and many trips to Riverdance and its various knock-offs as they toured through Connecticut. My parents took my brother and I driving around Ireland in a little rental car when I was in 5th grade and I don’t think I’ve been the same since. By the time Gaelic Storm started touring, sort of inexplicably, through Wallingford, CT every year I had been taking Irish dance classes for about a year. My family went to see them play every year, and then last year I revived the tradition for myself. Except now there’s a lot more beer involved. Below are my unfortunately blurry photos of their set at the House of Blues that Julia and I attended last year:

 

Tonight I’m dragging along Madison to their show at The Riviera. And the Trinity Irish dancers are opening for them, which will make it even more stereotypical and amazing.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! May the road always rise to meet you, etc.

Help Me Help: Wounded Soldiers

Or more accurately, help my friend Ana help wounded soliders. She has embarked on a really great project to raise money for wounded veterans through the World T.E.A.M. Sports and Walter Reed National Medical Center. This April she’s going to be biking (a hobby she just picked up this past fall) from the Pentagon to Gettysburg over the course of two days.

And this event is so much more than a fundraiser. World T.E.A.M. is an orgaization that organizes athletic events for both disabled and able-bodied athletes. (They are really inspirational as this shows.) So she will be riding along with veterans. She says she sees the ride as an opporunity to “share stories and build camaraderie with America’s wounded warrors. It’s a way to honor their service and celebrate the American spirit.”

I’m incredibly proud of her and the commitment that she has made to helping these men and women who have sacrificed so much for our country. As she said in her, really quite beautiful, fundraising letter:

“Throughout my life I have been keenly aware of the great sacrifice our troops make to help protect our country and me. I live fifteen minutes away from the Walter Reed Medical Center and thirty minutes from Washington D.C. Politics and and a sense of dutiful service have surrounded me for over twenty years and now is the time for me to help serve those who are selflessly serving others. The military service my family has committed further solidifies my conviction to ensure that active and wounded soldiers know that the sacrifice they so bravely make is not in vain.”

Now come on, don’t you want to help her? She’s set a goal of $750 dollars and you can donate here.

Like many people in this country I have a tendency to push the fact that we are at war out of my mind. Or to only pay attention to the news of tragedies like the one dominating the news coverage this week. I’m really moved by Ana’s decision not only to raise money for a great cause, but to really commit to connecting with the soldiers on the ride with her. Please join in me in helping her!

Bonus Adventure: Bring It On: The Musical

Yeah you read that right, but before you start rolling your eyes it was actually kind of legit. The score and lyrics are by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights) who if you know even a little bit about recent musical theater you know are incredibly talented. For evidence I give you this and this.  (The lyrics are also written by Amanda Green who I have to admit I don’t know anything about.)

Anyway I got tickets to this because my friend Justin has season tickets to Broadway in Chicago which he got for Christmas, but he’s on tour and so I got to go in his place. The show itself follows the plot not of the original, and most awesome Bring It On movie (which I watched an obscene amount of times in middle school so that my friend Faith and I could recreate this scene in her living room), but more a mashup of the the sequel that Hayden Pentierre is in and an original story.

The most important thing about this show is it’s clearly not meant to be anything more than fun and in that it really succeeds. You can tell that a group of creators who, based on their previous work and Twitter feeds, can be called incredibly smart and funny, took on this project with a sense of absurdity (I mean there is a whole dance with Campbell – the white cheerleading captain – dancing almost inexplicably in a Leprechaun costume.) No one is taking themselves too seriously here, and as long as you don’t as an audience member it leads to a good night at the theater.

My night was made even more awesome by the people who were sitting around me. Now ususally I get really pissed off at people who don’t know how to be audience members, especially those that talk at full volume. As far as I’m concerned that kind of behaviour is only marginally acceptable in action movies, let alone at a live theater event, but because this was essentially a play built around watching incredibly talented gymnasts and dancers tumble across the stage, the running commentary I got on the action from the sassy woman behind me really added to the experience. Also, there was an adorable group of dressed up middle school kids (I mean 12 year old boys in suits at Bring It On: The Musical) who were clearly on some sort of field trip and their reactions were priceless. The show has a heartwarming storyline about acceptance and the cruelty of cliques and while it seemed a little trite to me, these kids cheered, literally stopping the show at a couple of points, when the bitches got taken down. Honestly I remember how much I hated being middle school girl and I think I would have cheered too (and OK maybe I did a little, especially for La Cienega (Gregory Haney) who was fierce.)

Also Campbell’s preppy boyfriend she starts the show with was played by Neill Haskell whom I have loved since he was on So You Think You Can Dance the first time. And while getting ready to write this I found so many links about him that I wanted to share that I think he deserves his own post.

Anyway here’s the show’s trailer – check it out if you can get cheap tickets if the tour comes by you:

jbIVauVw5iI

Weekly Adventure: The Interrupters at Fourth Pres

Hi all!

So far so good on the whole blogging thing. (Though I’m still working out how to actually get pictures into the body of the posts, but I’ll work it out eventually.)

Anyway this week, tomorrow actually, I’m going to a screening of the absolutely amazing documentary The Interrupters  at Fourth Presbyterian, which is a large, gorgeous (especially for a low church Protestant congregation) church in downtown Chicago.

The movie, which I saw the first half of when it was streaming through PBS, is about a group of violence interrupters that work with a really inspiring non-profit CeaseFire which describe themselves as “the campaign to stop the shooting” on the streets of Chicago.

Cheery, I know, but it’s a really important movie, and I’m actually going with a group from my church (All Saint’s Episcopal in Ravenswood) who have committed this Lent to working against the epidemic of gun violence related deaths of young people in Chicago. It’s one of those things that every week I go to church and wish there was something I could do to change it, and supporting this film and Ceasefire is a tangible thing I think I can do.

Also on a way more shallow note, one of the producers, who will be at the screening tomorrow too, is Alex Kotlowitz, who was my professor at Northwestern so it will be cool just to see him speak again.

Last Week’s Adventure: Was awesome – I avoided embarrassing myself by pretending to have hurt my ankle and had a lot of fun watching the really talented dancers that were there swing, twist, and dip around the room. I did take pictures, but I can’t find my camera cord – so instead here’s a video of the awesome hipster bluegrass band that played.