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Speaking of babies, we had a surprise baby shower for Robyn during the October mixer. (Hmm, I guess you can’t really call it a mixer since no cd’s were exchanged!) We went back to the Magician, since it worked so well for the surprise shower they gave me back in January 2007. I was so glad that Robyn was surprised! Whew! Such pressure to keep it a surprise. Of course, we also bought a dozen cupcakes from Sugar Sweet Sunshine. Robyn and Eric both loved all the gifts, the cupcakes and the surprise (well, just Robyn since Eric knew about it!) It only took 2.5 years for another CDMOMer to get pregnant, who’s next?!!!

I met up with Brenda before the mixer for dinner. I suppose I should keep that post separate and will write about it next.

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The mixer was a couple of weeks ago on the 18th. We had it at Common Ground, a really nice loungy feel bar in the East Village. I liked it so much, we are having the September mixer there on trivia night on a Wednesday! And Robyn is pregnant! Woohoo!! She’s due December 30th.

For my mix this month I did a tribute to John Hughes as he passed away earlier this month. I hunted for a bunch of quotes from his movies and was really happy with the way the mix turned out. I did so much work on the actual mix that I got lazy to do the cover so here is just a screen shot of the playlist:

I have the mix uploaded so if you are interested in downloading it, leave me a comment and I’ll send you the link and password.

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I can’t believe I forgot to post about seeing Doves at Terminal 5 on the 4th with Joy and Pete! My photos came out on the darker side and at the time was lazy to fix them, which is probably why I forgot about it. The show was good. They have a new album out, that none of us have, so the majority of the show were new songs we weren’t familiar with. Of course the band and the crowd really picked up at the encore when they played a bunch of familiar songs. We got there around 9:15 and they were already playing. I’m pretty sure they just started. We walked out of there at about 10:45.

Prior to the show, we met up for dinner at a Mexican place called Tulcingo del Valle. It’s a small little place but their menu was pretty large. I got overwhelmed and ended up ordering mixed fajitas to get a little bit of everything. It was just ok. Paled in comparison to Joy’s and Pete’s dishes! Joy got tripe soup and chicken molé and Pete got fried pork skin in a green sauce. We also got an order of Texan style nachos that included delicious pickled carrots that were hotter than the jalapenos! (I forgot to take a photo of that!) Would definitely go back there and this time not order the fajitas! And you know it’s authentic when there is no sign of sour cream!

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Sunday I went to see Dark Was The Night at Radio City with Joy. She first lured me to go by saying that Ben Harper was supposed to play it. He didn’t - DOY! (I think he was at the Pete Seeger celebration at the Garden) but it was a great show anyway! It started around 8:15, had a 20 minute intermission and ended about 11:115ish. We had pretty good seats, first mezz in row C. Alison was there with Josh in the orchestra. ;-p~

Dark Was The Night is a compilation that benefits the Red Hot Charity Organization and all the benefits go to prevent Aids and for Aids research (I believe). You might  remember past compilations such as Red, Hot and Blue or Red, Hot and Rio.

Stand outs for me were David Byrne (I was surprised at how good his voice sounded as I’ve only seen him live with Talking Heads), My Brightest Diamond, Feist, Bon Iver, and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. Honestly, I really enjoyed everyone!Here is the setlist taken from brooklynvegan.

Dark Was The Night @ Radio City Music Hall 5/3/09 - Setlist (started by Happy Genius Heroes)
1. Dirty Projectors - “useful chamber” and ’stillness”
2. Dirty Projectors - “Stillness Is the Move”
3. Dirty Projectors - “Ambulance Man” w/ David Byrne
4. Dirty Projectors - “Knotty Pine” w/ David Byrne
5. My Brightest Diamond - “Feeling Good”
6. The National - “Slow Show”
7. The National - “England”
8. The National - “So Far Around The Bend”
9. The National - “Vanderlylle Cry Baby” w/ My Brightest Diamond
10. Dave Sitek - “With A Girl Like You”
11. David Byrne - “Don’t Fence Me In”
12. David Byrne - “Dreamworld: Marco de Canavezes” w/ Justin Vernon
13. David Byrne - “Waters Of March” w/ Leslie Feist
14. Bon Iver - “Brackett, WI”
15. Bon Iver - “Blood Bank”
16. Bon Iver - “Big Red Machine” w/ Matt Berninger
17. Bon Iver - “Flume” w/ My Brightest Diamond
18. Feist - “The Wagoner’s Lad”
19. Feist - “Look At What the Light Did Now”
20. Feist - “Train Song” w/ Justin Vernon
21. Feist - “Someday Baby”
22. Sharon Jones - “Not Gonna Cry”
23. Sharon Jones - “When I Come Home”
24. Sharon Jones - “Inspiration Information”
25. Sharon Jones - “100 Days, 100 Nights”
Encore
All - “This Land Is Our Land”
(they were playing the song rather mellow and then Sharon Jones came out to show them how to really sing it!)

David Byrne with the Dirty Projectors

My Brightest Diamond

The National and My Brightest Diamond

Feist

David Sitek of TV on the Radio

I loved these drummers that came out with David Byrne and I loved that he played 2 songs from past compilations that were never heard live!

Bon Iver and My Brightest Diamond

Sharon Jones

The Finale

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Last night I went to see Morrissey at  Carnegie Hall with Alison. I’m so glad she had an extra ticket because I probably wouldn’t have gone to see him on this tour. The tickets were kind of expensive and I was going back and forth as to whether I wanted to go, tickets went on sale, I hemmed and hawed and then I regretted not getting tickets. But anyway, I got to go! This was his third show in NYC on this tour (he played Bowery and Webster Hall before Carnegie). It was a pretty subdued show as far as Morrissey shows go but that shouldn’t be surprising since it was at Carnegie Hall and we were seated waaaay up in the balcony (the sound was pretty good tho!). What made this way exciting for me was the fact that I was able to sneak in some photo taking! Every Moz show I ever went to did not allow cameras and they checked pretty thoroughly. I used to sneak in a camera in my skirt back in th early 90’s (such a rebel I was back then! HA!) but since I always went up front, dealing with the mosh of people while trying to take pictures did not produce very good photos (imagine a tiny lopsided image of Morrissey in the corner of a shot or a photo of Morrissey’s chest - no head - just chest) . No photo or video taking is allowed at CH but they didn’t check my bag at all! But because we were far up in the balcony, the images weren’t as sharp as I would have liked. But better than nothing!! I also bought a tour shirt.

I didn’t document the set list because I’m sure someone did and could be easily found on the internet. I do remember he opened with This Charming Man and encored with First of the Gang to Die, played a lot from his current album, Years of Refusal, played How Soon is Now and Death of a Disco Dancer…I wished he played some early Morrissey stuff! I was hankering to hear Last of the Famous or Everyday is Like Sunday. Oh well. He came out in a tuxedo (it was Carnegie Hall after all!), he changed his shirt several times and took off his shirt several times! At one point, he came onto the stage with a baby/toddler in his arms (like on the cover of his new album). I joked that Sienna could have played that role perfectly and why didn’t I know about the casting call? The boy’s name was Sebastian too! I didn’t get a photo of that because it happened too fast.

Ok so before these next photos, I want to state for the record that I’ve never been sexually attracted to Morrissey (although I do think he’s become quite handsome as he has gotten older - not bad for someone turning 50 in May!). My fantasy relationship with him was always me being a close confidante of his. He does have a certain charisma, which is what got me obsessed with him after seeing him for the very first time in the early 90’s at Jones Beach - and I was far away at that show too! Anyway, this next photo he took off his shirt and I was so taken by surprise that I snapped so fast and the camera didn’t have time to focus. I thought it was funny!

He’s looking at me!!!

The full band (I think)

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Thursday night was the CD mixer and it was the best turnout we had in a long time! Woohoo! With 2 newbies too! We went to Jake’s Saloon on 23rd street and even exchanged CDs! (Granted I only made 6 copies and there were about 13 people but some people had uploaded their mix.) I kind of cheated with my mix and used one I made recently for a swap on swap-bot. Here’s my mix:

1. Play Your Part (Pt. 1)    Girl Talk
2. Paper Planes (Starters Remix)    M.I.A.
3. We Want Your Kids (Starters Mash-Up)     MGMT vs. Adam Freeland
4. Lights Out    Santogold
5. 5 Years Time (Sun Sun Sun)    Noah and the Whale
6. Beware Our Nubile Miscreants    Of Montreal
7. Valerie Plame    The Decemberists
8. Let’s Call It Off (Girl Talk Remix)    Peter Bjorn and John
9. Hiphopopotamus Vs. Rhymenocerous  Flight Of The Conchords
10. Singer Songwriter    Okkervil River
11. Campus    Vampire Weekend
12. Acid Tongue    Jenny Lewis
13. Black Hole    She & Him
14. Every Valley Is Not A Lake    Cold War Kids
15. Fix It    Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
16. Suspended In Gaffa    Ra Ra Riot

Hopefully the CDMOM momentum will keep up! I uploaded my mix online as well so if you are interested in downloading it, leave me a comment!

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I went to a concert Tuesday night! Woohooo!! My last one was in November for Girl Talk. I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since seeing a live show (Elmo Makes Music DOES NOT COUNT!) I went to see Relentless 7. I’m not sure if it’s Ben Harper’s side band or just another project. It was at Highline Ballroom, the first time at the venue. It was a pretty decent venue, although the entrance area is a little bit cramped. But no bag check! And the venue was cool throughout the whole night! I was actually a little chilly! That never happens! It was pretty small, I would say roughly the same size as Mercury Lounge but with the stage on the long side of a rectangle instead of the short end. We haven’t been that close to Ben since I got kicked out of his show at Bowery Ballroom. Anyway, it was LOUD!! I was resisting putting some tissue in my ears and then Joy told me to put my headphones in. I truly think that saved my hearing! Thank you Joy! The band went on aroun 9:15 after an introduction by Matt Pinfield and Leslie Frann from RXP (a station I love, BTW!) They played until about 10:30 and came out for 1 encore where they sang Under Pressure. It was an awesome show!!

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I went to see Girl Talk at Terminal 5 last night with Pete and Joy. Talk about feeling super old! More on that in a bit. We ended up having dinner at Ariana Afghan Kebab Restaurant upon Pete’s suggestion.  Not only was the food excellent but the service was super and friendly! We ordered the fried pumpkin and chicken wings for appetizers (the wings were a late addition via Joy and I can’t find it on the menu) and for entrees to share, we got homemade noodles (Aushe Burida), okra with lamb (Barniya Chalow) and Kebab CombinationII (lamp chop, kofta, chicken and lamb tikka). ALL delicious!! And of course the bread was so good!

Photo by Joy

We got to the venue a little before 9. Right away we all felt like old farts! I swear I’m pretty sure there were only a handful of people there that were probably the same age as us. The majority of them were probably born when I graduated high school. HA! I guess it’s only to be expected since GT is a guy born in 1981! We made it for the end of the 2nd opener, Grand Buffet. They made us laugh because they were so bizarre, corny and terrible. It was entertaining. Girl Talk came out right at 9:30. It was cool that he was mashing live but his set in the beginning bored me a little bit. I was trying to get into it. It got really good 45 minutes into it and I really was starting to rock it out. LOL. That’s around the time Joy took some funny pictures of me. He sampled Kelly Clarkson’s Since You’ve Been Gone and I went wild on that song for Yves. LOL. The crowd had been slowing pushing us back the whole time until we finally all went into the corner. It sounded like his set was ending soon so made our way closer to the front door by 10:45. We left shortly after that and got a taxi to the subway (hey, it was cold and windy!) And no joke, when we walked out of the venue, it looked like there were cars with parents waiting inside to pick up their kid! Oy!

As usual, it was fun going with Pete and Joy. Even if I got teased for trying to coordinate a specific time to leave beforehand! And for not having enough money on me. And for packing them individual slices of pumpkin bread I baked. And for rocking out to Kelly Clarkson.

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I am sick. blah. I felt something coming on Sunday and 2 reasons I seriously wanted to nip it in the bud! 1. I didn’t want Sienna to get sick 2. Davíd’s last Monday night Living Room show was the next night! So I took a nyquil and actually didn’t feel bad on Monday. Then Sienna sneezed. And sneezed some more. And her nose was running. Groan. She’s sick! So I gave her tylenol before her nap. Her nose was still stuffy and runny when I was leaving and it was so hard to leave her. She kept calling for me. But I knew she was going to be ok with yves. So off to see Davíd! I got there a little before 8 and I’m glad I did! He started early! So I got about a full hour of him! I really enjoyed the show (the place was packed!) but honestly, I liked last week’s set better as they were mostly his songs. This time he played a lot of covers (Dreaming by Blondie and Burning Down the House by TH) and they were great but I really wanted to hear his stuff. Well, he promised to be back again. I did bring my camera but since I was sitting near the back, I knew it would be a waste to take any photos especially after he told them to dim the lights. I know other people took photos and did a google search but only found one here. I was sitting right behind this person! While searching with google, I found this cool blog post about davíd that gives some background in case you are interested here.

After the show I headed over to meet Nuno, Brenda, Alison and Josh for the delayed September mixer at Stanton Public. It was good to have Josh back! He shaved his beard! And it was a nice time and Brenda baked brownies (not from a mix!).

Anyway, I am feeling a bit better today and the worst of it was yesterday where I kept sneezing and blowing my nose. The doctor gave me some antibiotics for my throat so I don’t pass it on to Sienna. Of course, she is all better now. She seems to get over sickness pretty quickly. Thank goodness! Now I just wish someone can take care of me all day! Now I have to wait to pick up my parents from the airport after 11 (a 2 hour delay!) Groan!

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Davíd at Mercury Lounge August 2004

It’s funny how things happen! An old friend, René, started a new venture out in Los Angeles called Gourmet on Wheels. He kindly put me on the top of his links page and I reciprocated by putting him in my blog links and my website links. While doing so I decided to update the links, get rid of some and make sure the ones there are working. So when I clicked on Davíd’s link, I was surprised and delighted to find that he’s doing a Monday night stint in September at the Living Room! (I was also perturbed that I only found out this way!) I finally made it over there last night after a free seminar at Noble Desktop. I’m so glad I went! Now I only wish I went the first 2 Mondays as well! It felt so good to see one of my favorite singers in an intimate setting like the Living Room. Felt just like old times! He played lots of old songs like Core, Isis And Osiris, Why Spy?, Soul Custody and a few others. He started at 8:20 because the band before him started late. Unfortunately, he only could play until 9 so I was bummed. Next Monday is his last show there and he promises it will be crazy. I’ll be there for sure!!

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