Daily moment

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Since I was standing transfixed, sending little prayers up to the heavens to remember the finale moment for all my days, I’d say this is my daily moment from yesterday.

Local natives & the national was simply the best show I’ve witnessed in a long time. I’ve seen both many times but there was something magical about last night. Anyone who was there will agree.

We barely let the national boys leave the stage. They lined up along the front of the stage and sang an a capella version of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks with the crowd in accompaniment as their final farewell. There is something about hundreds of humans raising their voices in song together. It really got me in a special place to see so many folks I know singing along and enjoying the moment. I cried. That’s not saying much since I cry all the time but it’s been a while since I’ve been moved to tears at a show. Moved by tears of happiness at that.

If you were there I hope you’ll remember it all your days with me. If you weren’t, we’ll just pretend you were.

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catchup & mustardiness

well, hello, it’s been a while. we’ve been living in a hotel for over a week (our house is having some major plumbing work done) and it’s kinda thrown our schedules out of whack. momjeanz hasn’t had very much of my attention. and that’s ok. it’s been good to put more effort and attention towards personal relationships. we’ve been as busy as always and our staycation has had some perks that life in our own house doesn’t provide: no cooking or cleaning!

here’s what we’ve been up to:

darla came with us to see deep sea diver + antlers + the shins. she had a good time rolling down the lawn. after the first antlers song darla ran forward, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted “I RESPECT YOU” at the stage. it was pretty awesome.

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the complimentary breakfast here is cray cray! every day is a delicate dance of bargaining with darla to eat more fruit and yogurt so she can earn a donut. it’s been working. i love breakfast buffets!

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i had a ladydate to see feist, who is currently being backed by mountain man. oh my word, it was an amazing show. AND everyone on stage was in prairie costume sooooo i pretended, in my head, that they were all a part of a covered wagon caravan making their way across the country and had stopped to give an impromptu performance. take me with you to oregon!!

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we took in a free performance of Robin Hood at schiller park. darla made friends with anyone who had a dog that was in our immediate vicinity.

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we took a bike ride up to whetstone and rode through the rose gardens.

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for the weekend we hit up the park street festival which helped us spend almost the entire day outside on saturday. bounce castles, food trucks, live music and snow cones = hours of entertainment.

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some daddy-led art projects on old ocean charts.

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…and just a few more mommy + daughter shots at the park of roses

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any other moment of last week not pictured you can just assume was spent at the pool – either hotel or grandview – or at one of the two restaurants adjacent to the hotel.

hopefully, we’ll be back in our house by the week’s end. we’ll keep ya posted.

pun. blog pun!

Columbus loves Mikey McD

Darla saw Michael McDonald last night. Her life is now complete at the ripe age of 3.5!

So, columbus loves them some Michael McDonald, or at least some free Michael McDonald. Darla just loved the free food and carousel rides – free to her. We still had to pay for it.

We also invented groove ball at the show. It simply involves tossing the ball back and forth but each player has to do a groove before they throw. If you forget to groove You. Are. Out.

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“hey band, you want an olive?”

i knew there was a reason i bought that sheep coat.

it’s a conversation starter. people like it, comment on it, and touch it. and sometimes… those people are famous. ok, well this one time…monday night.

mike and i have been jonny corndawg fans since we saw him open for deer tick in bloomington, IN almost 3 years ago. so much so that mike donated to his latest kickstarter campaign and that’s how i found myself at rumba cafe to see jonny corndawg and the almond brothers on monday night.

let me just say, it was a real musical treat. i was not previously privy to the sweet sounds of robert ellis‘ music or the boot stompers of shovels and rope but both paired excellently with corndawg.

one of the many reasons i love rumba cafe is that it is small and the performers are pretty much forced to interact with their audience members. this works out well for a girl in a sheepskin coat. i think across the board musicians like fur. so…note to self…

after speaking with several members of said bands throughout the night, i just decided to go for broke. jonny had already agreed to sign a copy of the limited edition 7″ with dawes that i was picking up for michael, so while that was going on i handed my cards out like christmas presents. i simply offered that if they wanted a pancake breakfast i’d be more than happy to provide.

and they took me up on it. geek out! geek out!! geek out!!! so far we know that musicians like fur and pancakes. this is good information people.

so tuesday morning/early afternoon darla and i hosted 6 lovely gentlemen before they took off to pittsburgh. it was one of those intricate dances of gratitude where the fan is thankful for the band and the band is thankful for the fan. i think that can be lost sometimes but music is always at its best when those gratitudes are in harmony, no?

darla was in heaven i.e. hanging on legs, showing people her room and her dance moves, playing dress up. she even asked momma’s help to draw them a heart and cut it out. she colored inside of it and presented it to jonny saying “it’s for all of you to share.” i’ll never forget that pretty much the first thing she said when they came in was “hey band……you want an olive?”  she was eating olives.

i’m going to have some of these pictures printed and kept in my back pocket so that when she is a teenager and claims i am “uncool” i can whip it out and say “no, i let you dress like a flower with bands. i am a cool mom.”

these guys were wonderful guests and are very, VERY deserving of your time and attention. if they are coming through your town please go and see them (and tell them i sentcha.) I really could not express enough how much of a pleasure it was to have them in our home.

Robert Ellis, Jonny Corndawg and the Almond Brothers, thank you for cleaning your plates after you cleaned your plates.

from an adoring fan, we’ll see ya again soon. love from ohio.

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ps. check out that glow in the dark t-shirt. pretty rad piece of merch right there. that’s all you, mike wright.

weekending 3.0

we had a really good weekend here despite someone throwing up in her carseat and having a bit of a bug. not too many pictures because i was too busy running a house and cuddling a girl.

1. lots of fun things in the saturday post

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2. you wanna take your umbrella in the shower? sure thang. let’s do this.

lots of other good goings-on this weekend. girlfriend dinner dates, mommy + daughter movie morning to see The Secret World of Arietty, vidyo skype from salty sailor man, kids-eat-free night with family – although this one resulted in a pretty nice shiner for darla when she ran into a table cause she wasn’t looking where she was going – ladyfriend scoring a pair of tix for us to go see the Black Keys in a coupla weekends, darla requesting to watch The Triplets of Belleville umpteen times.

yes, there is a lot in life to be happy about.

white rabbits

this is a band that deserves more attention.

they put on an excellent show at the newport music hall here in columbus last night. hubster and i got to enjoy our second concert in as many days. oooooohhhh i just love grandparents.

but i miss our girl and i’m glad we are reuniting in only a couple hours. not before i share some music, though.

I was hearing shades of Menomena on a few songs and hubby thinks they are perfectly complimentary to The Walkmen. their percussionist Matthew Clark is one intense, rad dude. i have made an internal promise to go about more things in life with the passion he displays while hittin’ on some toms. he busted some sticks in the process.

mike and i actually met the drummer, Jamie Levinson, after pitchfork two years ago. it was a few weeks before jamie’s wedding and we were like “hey! we’re getting married too!! whooooaaaa!!!” marriage brings so many people together. i’m sure he thought we were nuts. quite right. quite right.

the important thing about the evening is i got several comments on my outfit. yes!!!!!  i think they were sincere too. people love them some olivia newton john. people love my legs in shiny pants. AAANNNDDD people also love the sheep i now wear and call a coat.

anyway, here’s a few viddies:

and my favorite song from last night because it’s about dancing and oh i was dancing:

black angels descend blanketing columbus in flannel

this won’t be a real concert review b/c i can’t tell you the names of the songs they sang or the intricacies of the music they played. i can only tell you there was flannel. seas of flannel.

i really only dig music for one reason alone: to shake my hair and my booty. sometimes in the same direction. sometimes in opposing directions. ahhhhwwww shake it momma.

ok, there is another reason. i like to sing along but that applies to only a certain subset of bands. i sing along in the crowd very loudly and tell myself that i’m actually better than the artist on stage. the black angels does not, however, fall into that category. neither does the dead meadow – the opening band wednesday night. both bands relied heavily on reverb and vocal echoes so i can’t even pretend that i understood any of their songs. very little of the words penetrated the aforementioned shaking of the hair. the black angels did play a song with the words “surf city” in the chorus though. i dug it. really, i enjoyed both bands quite immensely. i’ve seen the black angels at least twice before and had forgotten how good they are. i left feeling like i should follow them and every other band in the world more closely. i need to get back into my music lovership.

for the lack of detail and any actual structure, i can’t really say that i’m writing this for any real music journalist street cred. what i’m really accomplishing is publishing that “HEY, I’M A MOM AND I STILL DO COOL THINGS. I’M A PERSON TOO!” i’m sure some might be out there saying “but, Your Momness, (in my brain you all refer to me as this combination of mom and highness) you just took a 5 day jaunt to california why would you need another reprieve so soon?” well, it’s not my fault that they scheduled this tubular $5 show mere days after my return. sometimes you have to just jump at the opportunities and the offers for babysitting from friends unversed in your child’s demonic behavior. i’ve found that, at least for moi, i really need to keep up with some of my own hobbies and loves and have time out for myself to be a good mom. i’m inferior in the fact that i’m still really selfish with my time and i can’t give it all up to be devoted solely to darla. sometimes i wish i could but truthfully i think it will be in her favor in the end. I want darla to know that she can be a mom and not lose her whole, entire identity. i want her to grow up and say “my mom was an art lover, an avid reader, a music enthusiast and one hell of a booty shaker.”

so i just want to put it out there that if you are a new mom or a seasoned mom, you should know that you can still shake it if you wanna.

this segues into another recent story from my world. on our one night out in california, i was approached by a tall, handsome* **, englishman at a famous dischotheque. he offered to buy me a drink to which i immediately declined politely and told him i am married. his official response was (cue hugh grant accent) “why are you shaking your hair, then.” my response, “i’m married not dead” and excused myself from his presence. soooo, i’m also in favor of the ladies who are nuptually bound to continue shaking it.

i’m just a fan of shaking it! woooo hoooo! yeah! pretty much always have been and always will be. seriously, i was semi-famous for hair shaking in high school. this is my official disclaimer – no matter what other parameters involved in my life i will always and forever be shaking something.

what was this supposed to be about? how did i get onto this soapbox? i need to go focus on a dot on the wall and recenter. thanks for reading.

bye!

*dearest michael, he wasn’t really that handsome and the discotheque wasn’t famous. it wasn’t even a discotheque. i have my doubts as to whether he was actually english. maybe welsh. anyways, i was just trying to make you jealous so you’d remember how much you love me all the way over there. awwwwwwww. so sweet.

** he was tall.