Ra Ra Riot

was GREAT! I showed up really early because I was worried about getting tickets, but it turns out Allie put me on the list, so I got Remo to come down for the concert too (it was great to see him). I have never been on the list. It will probably be a while before I'm ever on a list again. People on the list get free tickets. Allie took me backstage. I like being on lists. Except for those years when I was on the government watch list and got automatically searched on every plane I tried to board. That list was really unpleasant.

Not a single one of these photos is in focus, but I'd say they're pretty reflective of the experience.













Each year at the fall



















Silhouettes in a window frame!





















Death?o baby i
















It all goes slow-mo















Can you tell? I can't even explain.

Turns out Ra Ra Riot was actually headed to New Bedford the following week! So Tuesday, Mathieu and Allie came over and made a huge Italian dinner that I'm still recovering from.


















I'll close with this one:
















Oh la!

Money for Books

"Dear Evan,

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that you are the 2008-9 Dana Prize winner. Professor Kane and I found your reflections on your revised summer reading project both thoughtful and evolved. It is clear that you began with quite a general idea of what line of inquiry you would pursue and found a thread even among books of an ostensibly varied character: science fiction, proper, and Christian fiction.

I will submit your name to the proper office in the Spring when prizes are announced and awarded. You will be receiving a financial award in June.

Congratulations,
Wendy Graham"

Scha-wing!
This week has been nuts. Here's a comic.

Ra Ra Riot @ The Bowery Ballroom

This Thursday I’m headed to NYC to see Ra Ra Riot, my favorite, college startup, kids-my-age, kick-ass-and-take-names band. My friend Allie plays the cello, which is pretty neat to know someone in a popular band.

Generally, when your friend is a band or whatever, of course you go and support them and listen to their stuff regardless of how good it is. But this is not the case with Ra Ra Riot. I love them. They are incredibly talented, incorporating cello and violin seamlessly with guitar and bass, along with clever lyrics and a dynamic stage presence (particularly when Mathieu Santos rocks out too hard and clobbers his bandmates with his bass).

My favorite song by them is Dying is Fine, a song that brings the following E.E. Cummins poem to life:

dying is fine)but Death
?o
baby
i

wouldn't like

Death if Death
were
good:for

when(instead of stopping to think)you

begin to feel of it,dying
's miraculous
why?be

cause dying is

perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but

Death

is strictly
scientific
& artificial &

evil & legal)

we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death

And, in case you missed it, here is the basis for the music video.

And here is another music video.

Another Sarah Silverman link

Her lines are the real gems:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832128