it's cold in here, and i wish it was hot

This weekend I drove to Austin for my second Ryan Adams concert of the year. (See review of first show here)

The drive was ridiculous - 12 hours each way. Yeah, I know. Next time I will fly. But it was totally worth it. It was a seated acoustic show, and totally different than the HOB show earlier this year.





Set list:

1. Please Do Not Let Me Go
2. Blue Sky Blues
3. Blue Hotel
4. The Sun Also Sets
5. Cold Roses
6. Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
7. Easy Plateau
8. Elizabeth, You Were Born To Play That Part
9. Starlite Diner
10. Let It Ride
11. I Taught Myself How To Grow Old
12. Goodnight Rose
13. Dear Chicago
14. Goodnight Hollywood Blvd.
15. Nightbirds

**intermission so venue could sell more beer**

16. Dear John
17. Wildflowers
18. Off Broadway
19. Two
20. The End
21. Peaceful Valley
22. What Sin Replaces Love
23. Magnolia Mountain
24. I See Monsters



Ryan stayed seated for the entire show except for when he came to the microphone at the edge of the set to deliver a howling version of "Goodnight Hollywood Blvd."



Will I still go see Ryan every chance I get? Hell yes.

5 awesome things for the week

yeah, it's only wednesday. so what?

1. the cupcake shop up the road has strawberries that are stuffed with cheesecake, then dipped in chocolate. yeah, i said it. cheesecake-stuffed chocolate-dipped strawberries.

2. the lady at the sandwich shop who wondered aloud if they would make her sandwich in a bowl, with no bread. nothing like carb-fear to ruin a genius sandwich.

3. my dyson. i vacuum every day now just to see what will go flying around its crazy cyclone.

4. making mix cds. it brings me joy to impose my musical taste on other people.

5. the incredibly fit, handsome, muscular man who jogs shirtless down my road every morning. thank you.

i need to stop objectifying ryan adams. and his ass

sally*sTV vs. Ryan Adams. Alles will er selber machen...



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big blue sky

for memorial day weekend, we decided to take a drive up to durango, co to see shawn mullins play at the iron horse bicycle classic. if i were a cyclist, i might have partaken in this cool event that has been going for 35 years, but let's be realistic - a 48 mile bike ride through the snow-capped mountains of colorado sounds awesome, but i think a 5700 ft vertical climb would kill me. literally.

instead, we loaded the munchkins in the car with bags full of snacks and set off through northern nm. i loaded the cd changer with a bunch of shawn mullins cds to warm up for the show. i tried to take pictures from the moving car, but there's only so much you can do through a bug-splattered windshield. at one point, the opening track on "big blue sky" came on and it was like serendipity.

"on a mantle made of oak wood,
there's a photograph from my childhood
it was taken in the desert early light...
there are canyons there are caverns
there are border roadside taverns
and i am held captive by the big blue sky above me..."





it's like these songs were made for this roadtrip.

"two lanes of highway stretched in front of me as far as i can see
the grass here's greener than most grass i've seen
the sky's a big gray hazy canopy up over me
nothing much here to do just keep my hands on the wheel and my mind on you..."




we pulled into town with time to spare and had dinner at the old tymer's cafe. all you can eat ribs? yes, please. durango has changed a lot since the last time i was there over 15 years ago. the main street is lined with locally owned shops filled with hip artwork and hippie shoes. sierra found a purple 1/2 size taylor guitar at a music shop, but i can't see spending $300 on a guitar for a 6 year old. maybe when she's older. we were lucky enough to see the durango & silverton narrow gauge railroad train coming back from silverton. it has been in continuous operation for 126 years. i couldn't pull my camera out fast enough to snap a picture, but it was something to see a genuine steam locomotive pulling up with the mountains in the background. i guess someone else's photo will have to do.


the stage for the concert was set up in the middle of main street and some people (ourselves included) were wise enough to bring lawn chairs to watch the show. everyone sat listening to the music for the first few songs, but once shawn started in on "beautiful wreck", people gathered at the front of the stage and started dancing with each other. it was beautiful and surreal.









we couldn't pull the girls away from the stage from the rest of the show. they had found a group of about a dozen kids and they were all swinging each other around and dancing. if durango is this cool all the time, i might need to visit more often.

i was hoping you'd call

I Live – for other people's happiness

I Work – hard for my sanity

I Talk – if someone is listening

I Wish – I could finance my wishes

I Enjoy – planting things and watching them grow

I Look – younger than my age

I Find – comfort in music

I Smell – clean

I Hide – my sadness

I Pray – no, not really

I Walk – with my own feet

I Write – words without a tune

I See – monsters

I Sing – always

I Can – remember everything but your name

I Watch – birds cock their head to the side looking for worms in the ground

I Yearn – for a full nights sleep

I Daydream – about travel

I Want – to eat fantastic food while gazing at the mediterranean sea

I Cry – at television shows

I Read – too many magazines

I Love – my kids

I Wonder – how many people are happy with their lives

I Touch – fabrics to feel their texture

I Hurt – in my right shoulder almost constantly

I Fear – being boring

I Hope – that my children grow up to be decent people

I Eat – poorly

I Quit – almost everything

I Bathe – every day

I Drink – water like a fish

I Stop – abruptly

I Save – junk

I Hug – people i genuinely like

I Play – like i'm a pirate

I Miss – my best friends

I Hold – on too tightly to the steering wheel while driving

I Forgive – rarely

I Drive – a gas guzzler

I Learn – all the time

I Have – stinky feet

I Don't – trust most people

I Made – choices that i live with

I Kiss – sparingly

I Believe – in evolution

I Wait – until everyone stops talking before saying something

I Dance – like nobody is watching

I Need – a concert

I Feel – sun on my skin

I Know – lots of random things

I Am – trying to change

the best country singers die in the back of classic cars

a few things about bright eyes' new cd, cassadaga.

1. best cd packaging, ever. every cd should come with a spectral decoder. i feel like a kid with a new happy meal toy. holy crap.

2. the music is quality. it doesn't even remotely feel like oberst has multiple personalities. hooray!

go get it.

solving for x

Writerscafe.org put forth this challenge: Write a story or poem containing 26 sentences (or lines) the first one starting with the letter A, then B, C, and so on until you've reached the letter Z. Be warned, X is the tricky one. I'm looking for the most complete story or poem AND the most creative solution for X. Happy writing!


Albuquerque is beautiful in the springtime. Bluer skies than you had ever imagined hang overhead. Clouds only punctuate the clear blue of the skies. Dusk brings glorious sunsets of orange, purple and pink. Every color in the crayon box crawling across the landscape. Forests of pine and tumbleweeds dot the mountainsides. Gravel crunches underfoot as you walk towards the base of the mountains. Hikers and bikers wave at you and nod hello. In fact, everyone seems a little more friendly here, like maybe they know you from somewhere. Juniper grows in almost every yard. Kiva fireplaces stand as a reminder of native traditions.

Leaving this place made it fresh again. Maybe if I hadn't left I wouldn't see it through the same eyes. New experiences and places provide a contrast with which to compare these things. Only by leaving could I finally see the colors. Perhaps I could have returned sooner, but I'm not certain it would be the same.

Quirkiness seems to fit here better than it does in other places. Route 66 runs through the heart of this town and the retro kitsch still permeates the area. Strange people abound here, like the naked guy who protests outside the military base. Tribes of Native Americans own the land surrounding the city, stopping it from sprawling too far. Usually, you can find little shops on the edge of the reservations that still sell bread baked in their round mud ovens fueled by firewood.

Visitors to this town might not understand the homes here; stucco squares in every imaginable shade of brown, looking like ancient adobe huts. Water is scarce in these high country deserts, so the people have grown to adapt. Xeriscaped yards dominate the neighborhoods with gravel covered lawns instead of water thirsty grass. Yucca, cactus, and agave with their spiky, spiny leaves defend their alien landscape. Zealots for the lush green lawns of suburban America might not love it here, but I think that I do.