I’ve been listening to Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast for the past seven hours. Doing my taxes has never been so enjoyable. Whoa – as I typed that sentence he sang “So procreate and pay your taxes” – that’s pretty cool. The entire month of January was dedicated to creating, filled with dark and light and silence and song – including Andrew’s triumphant show at Carnegie Hall at the end of the month. Witnessing the fulfillment of someone’s dream is such a powerful gift. I still feel that energy whirling in me, and the urge to pass it on… which is perhaps the greatest gift of all.
The artwork for the Noble Beast/Useless Creatures 2-disc edition is stunning – holding it is like opening a present from that distant relative who always seems to carry magic in a coat pocket. (Like that book about the uncle who brings an egg from his travels and a dinosaur-lizard-creature hatches out of it and lives in the bathtub and eventually the town swimming pool – can anyone help me remember the name of this? Noble Beast/Useless Creatures is just like that except it fits in your iPod. By the way, if you want to treat your four-legged friend like a noble beast check out Noble Beast Natural Market for Pets – Phoenix, AZ).
Last month I was also moved by Pipilotti Rist’s “Pour Your Body Out” at the MoMA. Its primordial hum lured me back four times in a week to soak up and pour out – an ideal cocoon for my liquid creative state, especially when it looked like this outside:
Anders Guggisberg composed the music and I’ve searched Google, but I can’t find any information on whether it’s obtainable. If you have any ideas please let me know – I’d like to find this even more than the name of that dinosaur book. It reminded me of the background drone in “Whiskeyclone” – that’s such a good album too.
Other music I love – a couple weeks ago I got to open for Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root. Above you can see the very green green room (complete with Mountain Dew – remember last time?) I had so much fun playing MVCC, and then to get to see Michael perform was cake on top of cake (I’ve never been a big fan of icing) It looked like this…
… but it felt like this:
Caleb Hawley also opened for Michael – he’s a fellow New Yorker and a fantastic performer. We got to stay at the beautiful Hotel Utica:
What I liked best about the hotel is that my room was REALLY WARM! Oh, to go to bed without a hat and cold toes… such a luxury. Kind of gave me a taste for touring again… hmmm…
January ended at the same place it started for me – Bowery Ballroom. After a week of seclusion and some seventy-plus hours of writing I went to see STS9 with a very wise friend who said “Cabin fever is a very real thing” as I was emerging from my word-binge. There’s nothing like STS9 when it comes to dancing your way back to earth (except for Phish, of course – but I couldn’t get summer tour tickets! Ok – this takes priority over the dinosaur story and finding Anders’ music online – if anyone has extra tickets to any of the summer shows please send me an email! Thank you!)
Now it’s after midnight and I’m turning into a pumpkin – time for dreaming. My dreams are going to be good tonight because I’ve been uploading tour pictures while doing my taxes. So many happy memories…. I’m trying to keep on top of my resolutions – so far, so good. Sorting through words, music, and pictures. No swearing and I haven’t read one book… though yesterday I caved and read for an hour or so. Otherwise I’ve been picking up a pen instead. No movies, either. It’s kind of happened on its own, really… the mind takes us to so many interesting places… like sleep….
Sweet dreams.
