November 2003

I’m such a sucker for a well crafted collection of words. Gregor’s pal Tobias wrote an excellent entry recently that makes it impossible to know his native language isn’t even English. And the same is true for Sondre Lerche’s latest journal entry on his website. Speaking of my favorite singer/songwriter from Norway, Mr. Lerche is in Cambridge tonight at TT The Bear’s Place to kick-off his U.S. headlining tour. I’ve noticed the show has received lots of press this week so he’ll probably have a full house. Festivities start at 9:30pm with local rocker Thalia Zedek and Chicago songstress Rachel Yamagata.

I set up the Rock & Roll Library weblog a few days ago at TypePad. I’m searching for artist/musician/band websites so if you have any suggestions, let me know. Contributions are welcome, too!

Sometimes I wish I were more skilled at describing why music is so important to me. And then I find myself in a room like tonight, seeing Rose Polenzani. It was the first time I’ve seen her joined by a full band in two years. She had everyone downstairs at The Lizard Lounge wrapped around her finger by way of her songs. And that voice. And did I mention a full band? It was magical! Fortunately for those who missed it, she’ll be at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge for two more Tuesdays in November.

The Rock & Roll Library has a couple benefit concerts coming up to fundraise for its projects and programs including the music archive database. The database is a project to create an extensive, unbiased online repository for all things rock and roll. The first concert is Wednesday, November 19th at Harper’s Ferry in Allston at 8:30pm with The Medea Connection, The Anti-Love Project, Grubstake, The Goodbyes, and Damian David. Tickets cost $8 and it’s a 21+ show. The second concert is on Monday, December 1st upstairs at Charlie’s Kitchen in Harvard Square with Suspect Device, Stray Bullets and Rock City Crimewave. Tickets are $6 and the show starts at 9:30pm.

See you there?

Wandering around my referrer logs I found a link here from Frozen Rothko Sky. He (?) linked to one of my photos of the Antiquarian bookstore in Omaha’s Old Market. Which is one of my favorite spots on the planet. (Nevermind how much of the planet I have not actually seen.) He mentioned that he was listening to the CD of a prominent Omahan. Inquiring minds want to know who that is but there’s no contact info or email address on his website.

Sometimes it is good to be easily amused and entirely behind the curve on meme adoption.

Josh took these photos of Gregor, Susan and I during our recent adventure in New York City a couple weeks ago. If he’d put his website back up he could post them himself! There was a photo shoot going on at Florent at the window behind us which provided an amusing background for photo #2. Click on each image to see a slightly larger photograph.

I stopped by Toscanini’s earlier for a hot vanilla (one of few tasty hot beverages) and overheard an interaction that was a mix of disturbing and funny. A twentysomething woman and her mother were not pleased with the service so they decided to let the guy behind the counter know by making passive aggressive comments. And they went on and on. And on. It inspired a few very amusing reactions and bonding moments among the other customers. One guy put a few dollars in the tip jar and said: “I’ll give you three bucks for being rude to those people.” I tried to remain an innocent bystander but it was a difficult task. While putting a lid on my beverage a young woman started talking to me about what happened and we agreed it was very weird and uncomfortable. But I’m almost grateful for the people being such idiots, it gave the rest of us an opportunity to talk and share a few laughs.