jeff tweedy

I love Wilco! Late to the game, I didn't really listen until Yankee Foxtrot Hotel, and my favorite record of theirs is Sky Blue Sky, which may not be the critical choice, but it is the album that works for me. It's lyrical, honest, and at times, incredibly poignant. And the cadence of it makes me want to ... move or fly or something into a blue sky. There is a subtly to it that borders on the sublime. As soon as I hear, "Maybe the sun will shine today, the clouds will go away," I'm transported to a level of ... groove.

Plus, Jeff Tweedy has a good sense of humor. A few months ago, a friend sent me a YouTube video of him at a concert. Well, here it is:

He's one artist who pays attention to his audience. I get that. One may think that an artist always connects, but I've seen enough live performances to know that is not always the case. At the same time that I received this, I was in a new school year and my students weren't paying attention to me. Now, not all teachers mind that, or acknowledge that, or care. But I want that connection. I pleaded my case to no response. I pulled out my cart and pulled up this video! That certainly got their attention. My students aren't likely to know who Wilco is, let alone Jeff Tweedy, but they got the point. And it was one of those moments that came up every once in a while ... remember that time Miss Moran when you played that video of that guy who asked his audience to be quiet? uh, yeah! Let's practice it. He became our zen.

In this month's Chicago Magazine, Tweedy is featured. The section here tells of how he ended up giving a private performance in a home of a group who donated $28,000 to Second City's annual Letters to Santa benefit to host it. He encountered more of the same naughty, disengaged, behavior:

I've heard Tweedy speak enough to hear this in his voice ... "do you want me to wait?" I can't even imagine. The man is in my living room and I'm so ... spoiled that I'm not stuck tight to the space he's taking me.

Mr. Tweedy, you can come hang out with me anytime. I'm a good walk down Western avenue for you. I'll get a cooler, and you can just go. I may float, won't cry, but I'd love every moment of you giving something ... different from what I heard before.

sunday bloody sunday

U2.com

Just a random check of what my boys are up to, and came across this wonderful moment ...

wouldn't I have liked to have been a fly on the wall for this ONE.

yoko ono

Rolling Stone June 6, 2013

Yoko has it over Mick Jagger by ten years. I believe that Mick is 70 about now, and here she is with a number one dance hit at 80!

John was my Beatle. Not being of the generation, I didn't live the break-up. And it wasn't until I began following them in my teens that I read about the whole "Yoko broke the band up." I didn't see it. It's clear that two men couldn't hold to what they had together ... together as they moved in different directions.

When John was shot and killed, I was a freshman in college. I was grief stricken. He was someone whose songs quieted the fear in my heart, or kept me busy while doing ordinary things, or let me fall in love over and over again. I can't imagine what it was like for her to live without him. But this I can say for her, and it is what I respect and admire her for most, she, probably more than John, is a constant creative tour de force, who continues to contribute to this world what it needs most: in her words, "smiles."

I hope that when I'm 80, I am as fierce.

jake bugg

Cute as a bug ... this guy young man from across the pond. I his song on the radio, and it made me happy. Check him out, he may be all of the things that they are saying, I won't say what those things are here, just take a listen and see for yourself. Where is a rug, cause he's as cute as one in it.

vivre sa vie

"Vivre Sa Vie," directed by Jean Luc Godard, was captivating. Told in tableau, each a bang on a bass drum that measured out the life of the protagonist, a silly, young, directionless woman, who, looking to climb up, falls down ... and as far down as one would hope to not.

At one point, she writes to a Madame for a place in her brothel. Her hand is shaky and unfamiliar, it would seem, to putting words to paper. Her self-value is her 'jolie' and her height. It's no wonder that our girl gets herself into the predicament that she does, but the film is exquisite. The story is cinematically told ... gorgeous screen shots filled the screen of her face that has not yet been colored by a life of experience.

Her face will never change for what becomes of her, but that wasn't as sad as for the fact that the film was over. No, the story arced and resolved, no more was necessary to be said ... but it isn't every film that is as provocative for the craft with which it was produced.

Honestly, I don't have the words in this southside mouth of mine to do justice to this film. What I can say is that this is only the second film that I've seen of Godard's, and as soon as I'm finished here, I'm going to sign in to Netflix and put every one of his films in the queue. I can't wait to see what else that he has in store for me.

before midnight

Elle May 2013

Years ago, I read a review of "Before Sunset," and was surprised by it. I knew that "Before Sunrise" had been made and was in theaters, but I wasn't really interested. I wasn't a big fan of Ethan Hawke ... I kind of classified it before seeing it as silly.

Well, I was wrong. I decided to give Sunset a shot, so I had to watch Sunrise first. And I was besotted. Having at the time been in a relationship that relied A LOT on talk for a reason not worth mentioning here, but I totally got it. I was so enthralled by the movies that I had my sister sit down with me to watch them ... she didn't care for all of the talking at all. She's more of an action girl, but I loved it.

First, I've been to Europe many times. Some times with more coins in my pocket than others, but for the times when I was broke, what was there to do but walk the cities and talk. I had a consistent traveling companion at the time, my boyfriend for lack of a better description of our relationship, and we could have been these two characters. Plus, my guy didn't live in my city; he lived on the other side of the country, so there was always a very finite feeling to the festivities of the time spent carousing European cities; and later, more distant locales. Because the time was so definite, we had to put all of our living into those weeks that we spent together.

I liked Sunrise, but Sunset more ... probably because I watched with eyes that were more the age of the characters. Sunrise was about the lives of twenty somethings, and anyone out of that age knows that for all of the pain and suffering and drama that those years might entail, out of them, it's a relief. I liked how the conversation picked up even after seven years. With my companion, it didn't matter how many years passed, we could always go right into a natural rhythm of being together. I found that to be true of someone else recently. And though we do not have a relationship anymore, it made me feel like what it was that we had was real because we were able to go right back into what was best about what we were. In Sunset, my favorite scene, of course, is the last when Jesse realizes that he ain't gonna catch that plane home. Oh! the number of times that I've missed a flight because we had just one more conversation left to consider. Although now with the exorbitant ticket change fees, I wonder if that would have made a difference. That $100 or more in some cases is killing romance. But just one more night ...

I will see the new film ... "Before Midnight." It will be sad for me because I won't get the next ten years with my faithful friend ... he has gone on beyond living years. I wonder at what I will miss for each of the coming decades not having him in my life. In the article, the plot is revealed that these two will be in Greece and they meet a writer who has lost the love of her life. The reviewer writes, "as her memory of her husband dims before her undiminished love does, feels as if she's losing him all over again." That line sort of made me wince ... I expect a life time of that ... to some degree. But I imagine that is the same for any grief that we must learn to live with in our lifetimes.

What I like best about these films is that they aren't imaginary. I think that they capture what can be real conversation between two people ... something that I'm always very drawn to. And in the end, like the reviewer says, "marriage isn't for sissies, and neither is love." True that. I've known it for love ... marriage, no. But I'm hopeful that I can find a man that wants to talk to me as much as I do him.