he IS bigger than his body gives him credit for...

john mayer


Set list:
Belief
Vultures
Crossroads
Daughters '74
Neon
Free Falling <~~~ gonna need to buy this one.
Another You
Stitched Up
Waiting on the World to Change
Ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do
Good Love is On the Way
No Such Thing
Gravity
Say

Encore:
My Sweet Lord
Bigger Than My Body

words are sorely inadequate to describe the joy that is the JM concert. he is so fun... and if he wasn't so skinny i would want him all over. wait no, i still do. cough.

total chills count: perhaps 7
times i caught myself with my jaw on the floor: 10
the number of people that i had to call and gloat to: 3
the number of entire-song music messages I left: like 4.

some of his dialogue "between the lines" just got us all laughing at is stupid humor and lovable personality. he really loves what he does and happens to be brilliant at it. 20x better live than in studio- and who is surprised by that?! (the answer: no one.)

"man, it's a good feeling when after the first song in the set you can already feel the show is going to be a knockout..."

"when you don't like a song one way you just change it... fix it until you like it again. ya know- like Body is a Wonderland... you squeeze everything out of it that you can until it is a disgusting mess of pulp and skin... and rind..."

"it is amazing the power that comes with a microphone and speakers. i can say anything that it will get a rise out of you. here, let's try: i am almost out of clean socks!" (Audience erupts...)

"right here is why i shouldn't shop at GAP. (points at pants) these are great for working out in cause they make you go (makes a 'stuff getting sucked in' noise) and if you don't have pants that go (makes a 'stuff getting sucked in' noise) it is going to be a short workout!" (then he re-tied his drawstring)

"this is a fun show. i am really having a good time!"

...and yes, he skipped off stage. apparently he DID have a great time. john, i am glad you enjoyed yourself in the exclamatory state of utah... cause we sure did...

Colbie Caillat...

was stunning. another great artist that is fun to hear live cause she makes it new and present. i she is so cute i just sat and beamed for a good solid hour and loved every moment. she also loved her job and gave us a lot of behind-the-scenes info into some of the songs... i love that. she isn't much of a mover though, so when she asked us to "get up and dance with her" we all started tapping our thigh and looking at each other, "...like this?..."

Brett Dennen

the perfect opener. i wish his set could have been longer so more could see and enjoy the greatness that is brett- in live form. he kind of mumbles more when he's live, but his music is crisp and fun and created a great atmosphere we decided. i new i liked him before... and that will only grow...

oh- and i am going to be in california next week... and so is john. i think i might see him again... that's all i'm sayin...

I am Jo March... there, I've said it.

I hate to post so soon after Dark Knight because it would appear that there is a lack of respect there, but alas.
Must take time out for all forms of media-- that would include theatre.

Last night I saw Little Women at the Hale and I was very pleased. Why does this show always induce tears? I think it is partially because of how indulgently female the story is: family of girls live in a time where being outspoken or un-feminine in any way is abhorred, female writers are much harder to get published, and sibling issues/events with an already emotional/hormonal family of females can get pretty insane. I also just feel like I am Jo March at times. I have too many dreams at times about just publishing something great or feeling "Astonishing" in the world... or at anything. And I would just love to play that part. I sing those songs in my car at the top of my lungs and it reminds we why theatre is so great.

I also love the love stories that evolve in the show. They are so subtle, and my favorite song is at the end as the professor (whom she has a very platonic relationship with at the time) says, Hey we are two different people, but you make me laugh and smile and I feel pain when you aren't there...etc. So sweet and real. And yes, were it not a live, theatre piece, it would be a cheesy girlish movie that you might sit and mock because it couldn't be more cheddar. But this one will always be a favorite. I loved BYU's production of it when they did it this past year, but I think I even liked this one more because of the ability to attend to detail and reality emotion wise. Plus, the other show was far too long and had random dancers in it because they are political BYU and had to give people something to do so they can feel important about themselves. Whatevs.

adrenaline in pure form------ New Movie Review #5

Without allowing any previous knowledge from any outside source I scurried into my assigned seat at the 12:15am show. (Yes, we anxiously sat in out seats, with giddy fingers rocking back and forth with childish excitement)

I had heard things like, "his performance is Oscar-worthy" and "best work either of them (& Bale) have done..."

I caught myself with my jaw dropped on more than one occasion. Why?
1) I honestly had to remind myself that the man behind that brilliant make-up job really was Heath Ledger. It has been a long while since I have fallen in love with a villain because he is simply so brilliant at being one. But he is. I am convinced that his ratio of brilliant moments that were directed vs the moments that he invented on intuition were 90:10. What a loveable hated man. And it is such a contrast to his previous work that it does in fact stand out. I honestly believe that were he to live longer, he would've had been able to show us more of this side of him. The side that can morph into unsuspecting characters in the way that only Johnny Depp has been able to.


2) The FX in this film laugh at the first, less because they are finely crafted and real-looking CGI and more because they are just so unexpected. My small bladder could honestly barely take it.

3) Christian Bale, I think it goes without saying: you ARE Batman. The reality of all of the facets of his life unfold and the character is so much deeper now. Also a favorite is Commissioner Gordon whom you will eat up from the start. Maggie Gyllenhaal on the other hand, is a sketchy cast for me, (what with the saggy cheeks and awkward mouth movements and all) but she serves her purpose well enough so as not to distract from the angry men that we are so invested in. I mean, better than Katie Holmes, but this ain't no Star Wars III- no excuses for under-par performance.

My hands were tightly secured in my armpits for most of the duration of the film and when they weren't there, they were checking the underside of my seat-- I was sure it was hydraulicized. Honestly it was a ride, a never-ending-and-wished-it-wouldn't ride that was beautifully underscored by a sub woofer embedded in my seat. Lets put it this way: do not bring your 12-year-old boy to see Dark Knight unless you want to hear girlish squealing... it is called "dark" for a reason. You find yourself giddy and squirmy at every explosion and every bad guy that gets blown up... sure it's real good for teenagers. Here's me-- not caring.

My commitment I made this morning at 3:00am: I will see this film 3 more times in theaters, and any time following will be in an equally stunning, sound-infused/large screen environment... or forget it. It just wouldn't be fair-- even to the key grip.

In my humble, yet correct opinion: 5/5

Raising Arizona ----- Old School Movie Review #8

i love movies. there-- said it.


i can't help myself when they tell me that they are going to show fun movies-- outdoors-- at sundance-- for free.


thanks- i will be there.


last night i went and saw "Raising Arizona" and i have to say that the Coen brothers continue to entertain me. i love the humor in the over-dramatic stereotype of southwestern hicks. cage is so brilliantly white trash and the dialogue could be comprable at times to my Diablo Cody's wit. i enjoyed it thoroughly and will be attending many more of these films.

i thank you.

[Evelle is buying diapers]
Evelle: You know how to put these things on?
Grocer: Well, around the butt and up over the groin area.
Evelle: I know WHERE they go, old timer. I just want to know if I need pins or fasteners.
Grocer: Well, no, they got them tape-ettes already on there. It's self-contained and fairly explanatory.

Policeman: Do you have any disgruntled employees?
Nathan Arizona Sr: Hell, they're all disgruntled. I ain't running no damn daisy farm. My motto is "Do it my way or watch your butt!"
Policeman: Well, do you think any of them could've done it?
Nathan Arizona Sr: Oh, don't make me laugh. Without my say-so they wouldn't piss with their pants on fire.

Prison Counsellor: Why do you say you feel "trapped" in a man's body?
"Trapped" Convict: Well, sometimes I get them menstrual cramps real hard.

the last line of the film (as he is dreaming about tons of kids and grandkids all around)
H.I: [thinking] If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable. And all children are happy and beloved. I don't know. Maybe it was Utah.

...for an audience of Utans (this one raised in AZ)... brilliant.

the greatest thing to happen to me

i sometimes have a bit of a problem at work.
it is known as inevitable boredom/ lack of motivation.
i wont lie, having one month left at an already
uneventful get-by campus job is finally catching up to me.

between answering entertaining phone calls from
incompetent mothers of incompetent children generally
of the area of georgia with thick fast southern drawls
and strings of awkward endearments,
i sit and attempt to be productive at life.

things i should be doing:
-reading one of the books on my "currently reading list"
so i can actually move on to the 25ish on my "want-to-read-right-now-but-can't-yet-because-i-have-3-i-am-currently-reading" list...
-working on my 2 Independent Study classes so i can
be an official graduate instead of a fake one.

what am i doing?

hulu.com

watching all of the seasons of LOST that i have missed...
even though i know the show is a never-ending string of
loose ends and character development rather than a plot driven drama,


i can't help myself...
but i take breaks to watch all of Arrested Development (Season 3- cause I don't know it as well) and other awesome shows that i have missed because i have been a lame college student for the past few years...

...perfect anecdote to a work-induced boredom disease...

music connoisseur of sorts

ya know when you are on a first date and the guy says, "so uh... what kind of music do you like to listen to?" i usually freeze. not because i am not a music person but because i know that means that they probably have more music that i will eventually need in my life.

well, date, it's going to be hard to narrow... and i hope it doesn't make you think less of me that i am 90% acoustic/mellow/soul and love mostly male musicians that can write lyrics...

i have a need in my life to always acquire new, good music. i like most genres, save maybe thrashing crap metal or most rap. or like opera... bloody q-tips... but i am not entirely against rap though... i just think most of it is crap-- like bad hip hop. looking at this list of music that i have fallen in love with this year makes me wish i understood how all of the millions of random subgenres work so i could tell you what "kind" of music happens around here... all i know is if i can sing to it (which usually requires a talented vocalist) or if it rocks just a bit, or both, or if it involves black artists- which probably does have both of these things... then i generally like it.

that makes it sound like i am easy to please- alas, i am not.

artists i have growing music crushes on as of this past year (not comprehensive, but close):

Joshua Radin

Brett Dennen
Eric Hutchinson

Sara Bareillas

Death Cab for Cutie

Colbie Caillat

Joshua James

Flight of the Conchords

Regina Spektor

All American Rejects

Amy Winehouse

Raul Midon

Billy Porter

Secondhand Serenade

Ingrid Michaelson

Ferras

Amos Lee

and those that i had but continue to love, especially as they have released (or i have discovered) new awesome things:

Damien Rice (live stuff is pretty bril... and this video is captivating)

Coldplay (Viva la Vida is the best)

John Mayer (live stuff is best...) speaking of... JULY 21st, 2008 SLC baby!!!!

Rascal Flatts (all of it. and i may or may not want to tear one away from his wife...)

Foo Fighters (why am i just discovering how great they are? don't answer that)

Celine Dion (new cd is actually kinda fun)

Gavin Degraw (his new album is killer- a car staple)

Lifehouse (who were they before this one? really...)

Jason Mraz (always love you, always will...)

8 up from the average illiterate... good to know...

Here's how it works:

The Big Read says that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Make the ones you loved obnoxiously larger than life
4) Reprint this list so we can try and track down these people who've read only 6 or less and make them read.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now..... THE BIG READ TOP 100

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (I own this but have yet to read it)
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh .
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen .
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan .
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry .
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Read : 14

Want to read: 13

(truth be told my list of to-read grows as I hear more... some of these are on my current one, and some of them are on the "in my lifetime" list... so...)