"Car parts, bottles, and cutlery... or whatever I find lying around."

Bjork! Tonight at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

She is part panda, part butterfly. She dances like a child listening to her favorite song. Waves her hands palms out, skips and marches at the same time, her arms pierce the air replicating the exact sounds of the percussion. Every note from her lips, throat is perfect, true, whole. She wrestles with space then breaks free from invisible chains in an explosion. She is supported by an Icelandic brass orchestra made up of young women in tribal wear while the men in her band weave complicated tapestries of electronic sound. She charges controls masters the stage, the space. In the audience boyz dance widely with abandon and girlz clasp their hands near their lips in anticipation. Green beams of light and silver confetti fill the air above our heads. She utters "thank you, thank you." quickly quietly adorably.

Thank you, thank you William for taking me! Here's some shaky video of Bjork performing Hyperballad. The boyz kept dancing in front of me and my camera- not that I'm complaining. They were beautiful and the sound is what's important. Keep watching, at about 2:30 she dances like a beautiful crazy person and the lights start sweeping.

Possibly Maybe

Tonight in Atlanta! Bjork! I can't wait! More later after the show.

Friday Night on Mead Street

There's a homeless man who has lived on my street for many more years than I have. He goes by the name Carwash. He rides his bicycle up and down the street and gets by doing odd jobs for my neighbors and I plus the help of the church down the street. Sometimes in the very early morning he whistles eerie but beautiful symphonies as he cycles. His song has come to feel like the soundtrack of Mead Street in my head.

On Friday night, as my friend and I were pulling out of my street to go to dinner, I saw Carwash sitting in his usual plastic chair on the sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house. To my surprise, he had a barbeque going in front of him. He was hanging out and cooking sausages! He was alone and clearly enjoying himself. My friend and I laughed heartily; this sort of scene is exactly why I love Atlanta so.

When I got home later that night I chatted with him for a minute. He commented on the beautiful night sky and the stars we rarely get to see through our thick city smog. I couldn't help but think of Oscar Wilde writing:

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

When I asked Carwash how he was doing and how his night was, he simply replied, "Blessed."

New Blah Girl in Town

Thank you Blah Girl Creator...

...for bringing joy, surprise, and beauty to our city.

xoxo

La Shana Tovah: for a good year

I've been told many times that I make a good Jew- I swear it's true! Having grown up on the north side of Chicago I know the holiday songs better than some my Jewish friends. Not to mention that after going to 20+ bar and bat mitzvahs, I can baruch-atah-adonai with the best of 'em.

In true good Jew fashion, tonight I made Rosh Hashanah dinner for my favorite Jew, Ms. Twinkle. We dined on matzo ball soup and dipped apples in honey to bring in sweetness with the New Year. We hung in the craft room, drank red wine bearing a black cat and burned mixes for the monthly CD Club. Twink crafted a cute altered t-shirt from the Generation T book

The best part of the New Year festivities though was my first-ever attempt at kugel. Farfel kugel, not noodle. I'd never used farfel before- its pretty much crumbled nuggets of matzah. I substituted cranberries for the more traditional raisins and the results were delicious- and it wasn't hard at all to make. The only problem is that I don't know that it will last till tomorrow night's continuation of the New Year celebration- I have to keep talking myself out of ducking into the kitchen and cutting another "sliver".

Cranberry Farfel Kugel

• 2 cups farfel
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 9x9 inch baking dish.
2. Soak farfel in water 10 minutes. Drain.
3. Add beaten eggs into the bowl of farfel, and let stand 10 minutes.
4. Stir in cranberries, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and butter.
5. Transfer mixture to prepared dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes.

Oh you were a vampire...

I'm so excited for this Thursday night's brilliance from the 10 High: A tribute night to one of my all-time favorite bands: Concrete Blonde!

A handful of bands/artists will play a few songs each by the Blonde for our reminiscing pleasure. And I want to see you lovelies there too! If you ever:

• wore fake vampire teeth to high school- and it wasn't Halloween;


• watched and re-watched Concrete Blonde videos to determine and replicate the exact way Johnette applied her eyeliner, bleached streaks in her hair and/or cut her bangs


• created art projects of newspaper roses growing out of shattered mirrors to visually display the lyrics to "Roses Grow";


• sat in your dark basement burning candles and maybe your arms as you contemplated the depth of "Tomorrow Wendy" and the global AIDS epidemic;
  
• wrapped your naked self in Christmas lights to do your own version of the Walking In London cover shoot...

then YOU should be at the 10 High on Thursday night! Have a drink, walk around, and meet me at 816 N. Highland Ave., 9pm $5 cover. This is the latest in a series of tributes being brought to us by the 10 High- next week is Cash/Hendrix which I will also harass you about.

Post script: Check out Holy Shit We're Gettin' Hitched's LOVELY post about this beautiful night. Yay fishnets!

Dip, Dive, Socialize

I'm SO excited to see Ozomatli tonight at the Tabernacle!



In far less important news, reading of yet another arrest of 80s pop "star" El Debarge -- yes feel-the-beat-of-the-rhythm-of-the-night El Debarge-- is most disturbing due to learning that his birthname is ELDRA.