i’d rather be invisible
some days i am a ghost, walking through. people look at me on the street, straight in the eye, and they look a bit confused. like they are seeing someone without a soul, and it scares them. at first i thought it was just my projection but it happens all the time.
(how to disappear completely.)
(i’m not here.)
this is what you get
last night we went to see Radiohead for the first time since 2001. i got the tix from a friend as a birthday gift for Jay. Radiohead has been a part of our relationship the whole time! we listened to it while staring out the windows of the train in the Andes on the way to Machu Picchu in 2010 and i don’t think i will ever forget that soundtrack+that place+that time.
i’m not too hot on the HP Pavilion in San Jose as a venue – it’s just never gonna sound good in a hockey arena – and our seats were pretty far away so Thom Yorke looked like this weird little dancing seahorse way down there on the stage, but i have no complaints about Radiohead. they are stellar. they don’t phone it in. they are not resting on their laurels. i think it’s hard for some people to interpret when you say that music like that – hard rock music – is beautiful. but i think it is so beautiful. the music pushes all the right buttons for me in terms of what’s in the soundscape and how it’s composed together, and the lyrics. oh, thom yorke. such unapologetically romantic levity and despair.
the visual set-up was also pretty amazing, with a waterfall of programmed LEDs and moving projection screens that made for intense but beautiful designs. so kudos to whoever the lighting/visuals team is.
i realized somewhere in the middle of it that it’s been a pretty long time since i went to a concert and actually didn’t care at all what they played. they could play any of it. they could play things i’ve never heard before. didn’t care. all of it good.
but i got pretty excited when they played There There (“just because you feel it doesn’t mean it’s there” – which i’ve quoted many times), and when they played The Amazing Sounds of Orgy (“i want to see you smile again the day the banks collapse“, which I still have on an old t-shirt from 2001).
i was looking back through my old blog posts about radiohead, and laughed when i saw the post from 2007 about In Rainbows, complaining that it was getting too electronic. i wasn’t sure about that move – it has failed for so many other bands. but oh, they made it beautiful and now some of my favorite tracks are the most electronic ones. Idioteque was a the final encore and that was pretty intense.
in short: great show. i love radiohead. 4evar.
(setlist) (photos+review from SFBG)
Filed in music | Tagged with radiohead | Comments (2)i had a really good title in mind but now it’s gone
(it’s National Blog Posting Month aka NaBloPoMo again, and so i will be posting all kinds of things, polished and unpolished, long and short, meaningful and silly, every day for the next 30 days.)
moving through
slowly
sometimes my bike commute takes forever in a bad way: headwinds, cold rain, traffic lights. sometimes it takes forever in a good way: floating through sunshine, out of time. i forget where i am as i pedal into the day
taking time
give in to
give into
fake plastic trees
it wears her out
musical interlude
i am back. i will post…something. soon.
in the meantime, i have this song in my head, and feel the need to dig out my 2000 radiohead tshirt….
Filed in music | Tagged with radiohead | Comment (1)I want to see you smile again
Like diamonds in the dust
The amazing sound of the killing hordes
The day the banks collapse on usCease this endless chattering
Like everything is fine
When sorry is not good enough
Sit in the back while no-one drivesSo glad you’re mine
sardines
song of the day:
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box – Radiohead – listen
After years of waiting
After years of waiting nothing came
And you realize you’re looking,
Looking in the wrong place
I’m a reasonable man
Get off my case
M.O.L.T. and rainbows
as my alarm clock is set to the radio, i woke up this morning listening to Terry Gross interview Thom Yorke on NPR’s “Fresh Air” replayed interview from 2006).
then i got to my computer and read that a friend of a friend just started an electronic music blog, and today on it you can listen to most of radiohead’s new album, “in rainbows”
omg i love radiohead, but since when is it electronic music? i guess, like NIN, now they’ve moved from alt-rock to alt-IDM. or something like that. i guess thom yorke’s solo album released last year definitely leaned in the electronic direction, so it makes sense that new radiohead also would. i love bands that bend genres.
also awesome: In Rainbows is a sliding scale internet release: you pay whatever price you think is fair to download the MP3s. i guess if you know it’s going to be spread all around the internet anyway, might as well at least try to get a few handfuls of change in the bucket. or, as electrohound thinks, make a statement:
…this is a major statement by the world’s leading rock band about the power of the Web to free art from corporations and to unlock the door to a bright new age of music.
Filed in music | Tagged with radiohead | Comment (1)all hail the ice queen
check out this great review of bjork from salon.com. via strangechord.
“In my experience, no other active musician inspires as much respect in other musicians. A forthcoming documentary titled “Inside Bjork” features testimonials from artists as diverse as Thom Yorke, Missy Elliott, Elton John and religious composer John Taverner.
But for all that, Bjork remains curiously isolated, her music more loved than influential. Radiohead, probably her closest rival in the intersection of popularity and critical acclaim that makes up at least one definition of greatness, has spawned countless baby Radioheads. Bjork has no copycats, no one feeding so obviously off her achievements, because those achievements are so alien. Radiohead is very much of our time, the musical zeitgeist for the millennium, but Bjork and her music come from a different time and place. There are two options in placing Bjork: Either she is an anomaly, brilliant but finally irrelevant, or she is the most important and forward-looking musician of her generation.”
Filed in music | Tagged with bjork, radiohead | Comments (2)old blog posts august 2001
8.28.01
5 days until Madonna!!!!!!!! I’m so excited!!!!
me today 1
me today 2
me today 3 [there, gram, i smiled]
8.23.01
Here is me in my Antibalas t-shirt, just for you, dug 
New Favorite Website: Explodingdog.com. Click it! It’s funny!
8.21.01
Well, Trees-n-Beats was a great trip this past weekend – i wasn’t expecting such a beautiful organic farm with all the wood-fired hot tubs, massage tables, etcetera. The music, well, IMO, sucked. I didn’t like any of the dj’s and i thought the music was wayyyyy to harsh for the environment. i mean, 7:00 a.m. on a beautiful sunny morning, birds chirping in the trees all around, and the DJ is still over there making some monstrous techno racket. it was hard hard hard music – and i wanted to RELAX. the farm was *amazing* and beautiful – see pictures here[warning: large file]. I’ll definately head up there again, just to visit the farm
8.15.01
From scraps of paper in my purse:
the shady damp calm of a redwood forest
sunlight peeking through but not enough to warm the cold air
loud echo of humans through the dry grass of the berkeley hillsides
i can hear the freeway and the sounds of car alarms
bright air clear of fog
the Golden Gate in the distance looks big even from here
the stretch across the wild straight with nothing but sky behind it
as tall as the headlands
as still as the earth
the course red gravel of lake tahoe beaches
windy dry trails of marin headlands
the reminder of ocean in the air and glistening on the horizon
[sunday morning redefined]
i would like to redefine my religion:
walking into the eucalyptus grove this sunday morning
the slight tinge of scent air tickles the nose pervades the air, lightly
realizing my place and time
the warm sun and sweet air
zakir warms his hands on the tablas
it echos through the trees
this eclectic crowd of searchers
the ones who come to experience
who come for nothing else but to feel the rhythms of the earth
moving dancing praying to the music gods
these are my fellow worshipers
of any nation or color, age or sex
my spirit is lifted
i can feel divinity
my body cannot but move
as the clouds break and the air fills with sun and music
i realize that this
here now
is my church.
8.12.01
A heart that’s full up like a landfill A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won’t heal You look so tired and unhappy
Bring down the government
They don’t, they don’t speak for us
I’ll take a quiet life A handshake of carbon monoxide
No alarms and no surprisesN o alarms and no surprises No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent This is my final fit, my final bellyache with
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please
Such a pretty house, such a pretty garden
No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises please (let me out of here) [radiohead]
8.10.01
It’s Friday and I want to go home!
8.9.01
ooooo such a good year for concerts!!! [hopefully] i’m going to get to see Billy Idol, Madonna, and the Black Crowes all in the same week the first week of September!!!!! can you beat that? i don’t think so. Well, if Phish was also playing that week, it would beat that, but they’re not. so you can’t beat that.
8.8.01
For my Fans [aka mom and jay].
8.7.01
According to TheSpark.com’s Gay Test, i’m 46% gay. interesting. i would’ve thought higher. And, I’m 41% bitch. i also would have thought that one higher. does that mean my self-perception is that i’m a gay bitch? Well, according to the personality test, i am a:
(Dominant Extrovert Abstract Feeler )
Like just 6% of the population you are a PERFORMER (DEAF)–personable, self-assured, and excellent under pressure. You are extroverted and strong-willed, which, in combination means you are
good with people and aren’t willing to let opportunity pass you by. Congratulations. I’m sure all the peons you’ve stepped on never saw it coming and didn’t feel a thing [hey i resent that remark].
You like being naked.
Anyhow, you have formidable creative talents, and you often following what your heart tells you instead of your logical mind. Your exuberance
can earn you many friends and admirers, despite your ambition, or it can intimidate the less confident into keeping their distance. It’s also possible you’re Madonna.
woo hoo!!!i took all the other spark.com tests too, so in case you are wondering what the rest of my personality traits are, you can just look them up there by inputting my email address after YOU take the tests.
8.6.01
yesterday, snuggled warm in my bed in the afternoon sun, mahalia jackson appeared on t.v., and listening, i started to cry, slow, silent tears, as though something inside me had been released, softly; it was not her sadness, but her joy that moved me so.
listen
0oh yeah BRAD PITT was on Jackass last night, dressed up like a gorilla with the rest of the bunch, pushing eachother around in shopping carts and throwing bananas at people. man those guys are cool.
8.3.01
Me Today. The Mad Amy face is because I just found out Madonna is cancelling tour dates because of laryngitis – I swear – if my Vegas show gets cancelled, I’m gonna lose it!!! I’ve been waiting since 1984 to see Madonna!!!!
8.1.01
I got a new Guestbook. Sign it!
old blog posts june 2001
6.28.01
Jaime, this one is for you:
6.28.01
1:: Radiohead Rocks – the show last night was great!:::
2::ok – so popcultureslut linked me to this GREAT personality test… hahah it’s fun!! here a few of my answers for ya….
“iceland”-You don’t have patience for those you feel are ignorant or idiotic and are unafraid to tell them so
“whatever”-You don’t mind letting it be known that you are proud of yourself even if it means being bold and possibly mean, you don’t take shit from anyone
“bankrupt”- You like things unique but not obscure, stylish but not remote
Take the test yourself!!
6.12.01
For those of you who always thought there was something wrong with my brain, according to the “doctors”, you were right Click Here for a description of my recent experience and here for my questionable “diagnosis”. It’s freaking me out. If you happen to know anything about this condition, please e-mail me.
