listomania: top 10 concerts of 2010

Once again a year where I saw a LOT of great shows. I don't even remember them all. 2011 should be interesting as I'm not allowed to pay to see bands I've already seen (local bands excepted). 

Honorable Mentions:
Concert that would have been #2-3 if that dude hadn't fallen on us: Hold Steady, Riverside, December

Seriously. Bummer. They were rocking all the hits!!

Concert I was Most Surprised I Loved: Muse, Bradley Center, October

I was mildly interested and went as a concert buddy to my friend Kristen. Came away a definite fan.

Most Disappointing Concert: Free Energy, Turner Hall, April

LOVED the album, but was really turned off by the live show. The good thing is it was part of the Daytrotter Tour, and I got introduced to the AMAZING Delta Spirit this way (even though I had to leave mid-set thanks to the unfortunate closing of Hegarty's).

Most Sad I Slept Through Half of It: Dirty Projectors, The Pabst, Milwaukee, September

Was totally amazing. Really wish I hadn't passed out after Bloody Mary Festing and Tomato Romping. Glad I made the last 45 minutes after sleeping through my nap alarm. Definitely one where I wish I'd had a concert buddy.


Best Concert that turned from Suck to Awesome Midway: Girls with Dum Dum Girls, The Pabst, Milwaukee, April (even if the AV Club Milwaukee Disagrees)

Best New Festival: Verge - hopefully it won't monsoon in 2011

Without further honorable mentions, here's my Top 10:

10.  Avett Brothers with Low Anthem, Riverside, Milwaukee, March

Probably would have made it higher up the list if my back injury incurred after a bike vs. ice fall that day hadn't prevented me from making it to the Low Anthem. Also, I went solo, having bought my ticket when it was scheduled at Turner, but had to awkwardly squeeze into the Riverside single seats. The Avetts made up for it with an incredible show though. Wow.

9. LCD Soundsystem with Hot Chip, The Rave, Milwaukee, October



This show should be in the upper half of my "of the year" list. Not just LCD, but HOT CHIP too?!? Too bad the venue had to fuck this up in every way possible. I'd really been trying to give them a second chance in 2010 after taking an over two year hiatus from seeing shows there. But when we missed half of Hot Chip while they dug will call tickets out of SHOEBOXES, left early because we knew it would take an hour to get out (FIRE HAZARD), and brushed the CIGARETTE SMOKE out of our airspace (this was October - post smoking ban), the venue pretty much ruined this for me. I was also a bit disappointed with how long it took for the Milwaukee audience to get into it. C'mon! Who doesn't do call and response to "Yr City's a Sucker." My city is a sucker :( Good thing I had wonderful company and danced my butt off.

8. Flaming Lips, The Riverside, Milwaukee, April

Uh, Flaming Lips. Enough said.

7. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings with The Heavy, The Pabst, Milwaukee, May

I want to be Sharon Jones, so this was a no-brainer. You can always expect a killer show from her. The great surprise here (besides actually getting asked out as a result of this show), was The Heavy. They super kick-ass'd and it was excellent to catch them again at Summerfest in July. A huge thanks to Wren who was my last minute date to the show. After about 5 minutes she realized she'd made the right decision.

6. Movits! with Fresh Cut Collective, Stonefly, Milwaukee, January

Do you ever have those concerts that you go to on a total whim and they turn out being freaking awesome? This was that. We'd caught a pretty forgettable Jay Farrar/Ben Gibbard show and were persuaded to make it up to Riverwest. Well worth it, I got to finally catch some Milwaukee hip hop and then dance dance dance to Swedish insanity.

5. Scissor Sisters, The Rave, Milwaukee, September

More dancing. And band that made me most wish I was a gay man. Damn, Jake Shears is HAWT.

4. Dr. Dog with Growlers, Turner Hall, Milwaukee, February

Hippie goodness. Growlers were another surprise killer opening act of the year. They had a dude in a coonskin hat who just sat on the ground and played a tambourine or something. And Dr. Dog always brings it.

3. Lady Gaga, Bradley Center, Milwaukee, September

Look what I got to wear! Of course this show is in the top three. Also, Lady Gaga is fucking amazing and I love her. Count me in as a little monster.

2. Pavement with No Age, Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, September

Uh, Pavement. Kinda like when I saw The Pixies reunion. All is right with the world. Enough said. Related: Megan B. and I may one day create a shrine to Stephen Malkmus.

Also, No Age is brilliant as well.

1. LCD Soundsystem, Roseland Theater, Portland, OR, May

Went with my best friend in the universe. We ended up in incredible balcony seats. I had my own dance party while Kat clapped for me. Then I ended up in a dance party with these two awesome flamboyant dudes who actually did the interlaced finger jump up and down screaming like a little girl before the encore. Portland's audience was TOTALLY into it. I also may have lost 20 pounds in sweat. A perfect show.

DIVING into 31!

Isn't Scaffidi's amazing? Don't you want to go there and to its divey brethren? Also, I will be dressed seasonally appropriate on Saturday.

I'm desperately fighting off my superbug, with hopes to be able to handle super fun party time that will usher in the fact that I'm REALLY in my 30s now!

Unless Scott Walker repeals the smoking ban tomorrow, we'll be all clear not to stink while drinking really cheap beer!

Yes, my birthday party is open to the public, but if you're a random stalker, please don't come. BUT if you're a fun person who would like to plan an awesome Milwaukee night out sometime -- here's a good roadmap.

Tentative Agenda is as follows:

6:30 PM-7:45 PM: Buffalo-style dinner at Points East Pub
8 PM-8:45 PM: Y-Not II
9:15 PM-9:45 PM: Roman Coin
10 PM-10:30 PM: Scaffidi's (yeah, I was shocked they have a website too!)
10:45 PM-11:15 PM: Circa
11:30 PM-midnight: Bruno's/Listwan's (bigger shocker)
12 AM-12:45 AM : Jamo's
1 AM-close: Wolski's (don't watch that flash video if you've actually been drinking)

I also made this handy-dandy map!

View DIVING into 31 in a larger map

See you Saturday!

january sniffles

The flurry of activity lately has landed me with my first set of sniffles and sore throat of 2011. If anyone is looking for a business idea, delivering homemade soup and hot teafor single people would be a handy one.

What are your favorite cold remedies?

listomania: top 5 covers of 2010

Apologies that this article isn't linked beyond the first couple entries. It will be when my computer has more memory and isn't running like me in November 2009 (read:snail's pace).

Without a doubt, my favorite cover album of the past year (and possibly of all time) was The Bird and the Bee's brilliant Interpreting the Masters, Vol. 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates

I picked one for the top five, so as not to overwhelm. There were plenty of other great covers (you can Google 'em) and here they are:

5. Juniper Tar covering "Via Chicago" on the excellent MuzzleofBees.com compilation Wisco: A Tribute to Wilco

4. Robert Plant covering Low's "Monkey"

3. The Bird & The Bee covering Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl"

2. Cee-Lo Green covering Band of Horses' "No One's Gonna Love You"

1. Bon Iver covering Peter Gabriel's "Come Talk to Me"

blogspiration: congratulations kat, or how to be friends with a junkie

Proving you don't have to use substances to have a ridiculous amount of fun. (Although neither of us is really over our cheese addiction).

This morning I groggily complained about having to crawl out of bed on a Monday.

Only halfway through the day did I realize that it was January 3rd, the day I'm annually reminded how lucky I am that my best friend, Kathleen, is still crawling out of bed herself.

Today is her fourth anniversary of sobriety. I have written about her before and truly I could not be more proud of her. She is my biggest cheerleader, my spiritual guide, and my court jester. I love her more than anyone else on the planet (since Jon Hamm took out that restraining order on me -- kidding!) and I'm so glad that she is on the path to health and happiness.

It's funny that many of my Midwestern friends view Portland as this utopia. True, there isn't the segregation, the extreme poverty, or the horrible winters (sarcasm) that Milwaukee has, but Oregon has its own set of social ills. Drug abuse is a HUGE one. Drugs are seemingly divided down socioeconomic lines, and if you live in Portland and haven't been acquainted with someone who is a junkie or tweaker, you're probably blissfully unaware of your surroundings.

That's why I am so proud of Kathleen for blogging all day today about her journey through addiction. I have sobbed tears of sadness and of joy reading these posts that make A Million Little Pieces seem like Eat, Pray, Love (read: disingenuous, oversimplified).

She is brutally honest:

I've heard so many times, "You have to WANT recovery!" and that's bullshit. I wanted to get high, planned to get high, and was very pleased that my tolerance would be lower. Since I was going to leave in better condition, I could go out to bars again with my friends and escape into a whirlwind social life where I still felt alone, but not after I drank enough.

She is admirably unashamed:

Please understand- I'm not writing any of this so that you feel any kind of pity for me. When people find out my past, they often say, "Heroin? That was stupid." I'm hoping that you'll see what kind of pain drives someone to take such a heavy painkiller.

She is spiritually wise and simultaneously adorable:

And who says animals don't go to "heaven"? There were animals in eden, right? There will be animals in paradise- mark my words!

And stay tuned to her story, because she is beyond triumphant.

I want to evangelize her gospel, because I feel more people need to be prepared to support the addicts in their lives. And trust me, you know one. (Could even be the same person as your gay "confirmed bachelor" cousin...who knows!)

Addiction happens in Milwaukee too, but the reaction of people here is different then the West Coast - perhaps because people keep these things "behind closed doors." I also think it's because people tend to associate really bad addictions with poverty. Or they just *wish* they stuck on those lines. Maybe it's just because this is a city of functioning alcoholics that drugs get overlooked, but I digress.

One problem with our DARE-focused society is that we stigmatize users so much, that when we inevitably encounter them, we don't know how to react.

When Kat confessed her relapse to me, I was fucking angry. But she was my best friend and I was going to stay on her to get help. No matter what. While it was hard leaving her to deal with recovery alone, it was possibly a blessing for me to not have to watch her go through all that. Also, it was only within a week's vacation that I found out how bad it was, walked through the recovery gameplan with her, and got on a plane to go back to my life. I got the periodic check in, putting my faith in the universe that it would all work out.

Thank God it did.

Isn't it funny how the universe works though? Because it was damn convenient that I had a recovering addict on speed dial (ooh, bad pun...unintended) when a couple of years later I went through witnessing the entire spiral of addiction -- from watching a dear friend who "liked to party" become the friend who never showed up to our movie date because he was in detox after his friends left him for dead on a curb after an OD.

About two years ago this Milwaukee friend was struggling with heroin and other addictions and the reaction of most of our mutual friends was to choose one of two routes 1) just ignore it or 2) just drop him completely.

Neither of those sounded like a fair shake for me. I knew his behavior wasn't him, it was his drug cocktail du jour. The misconception about junkies is that they're constantly zombies, ready to eat your brains or steal your wallet. However, in moments of clarity, you still can converse with the friends you knew before the drugs. You have to shift through the haze, the fog, and find them in there, but their light is there -- the connection between the two of you. I could still see this in my friend, event though I often wanted to punch him in the face to get him back to reality. With Kathleen's help, I was able to maintain my friendship with this person and she gave me the best advice. I made no secret when I hung out with him about my distain for his addiction, but unlike others I *acknowledged* that he had one (even when he didn't). I'd make sure to ask him what he was on each time we hung out ("I just want to be prepared if you're going to pass out on me (heroin) or run around like a flipping idiot (coke)"). I offered him the opportunity to talk to Kathleen. (He never did, but they finally met in person this summer). Finally, with the support of his family, he did get help. I'm very pleased that this person is now clean for almost 18 months.

There's no way I could have had the strength to handle this if it weren't for Kathleen. No way.

Something else I learned for Kat though is to not take someone's drug-free streak for granted. I make sure to ask him how "that" is doing each time we hang out and to tell him how proud I am of him. I can't imagine overcoming something like that (losing weight was hard enough!) -- it's really damn impressive to suppress a psychological and physiological dependency. For Kathleen to have done this for FOUR YEARS, she's like an ultra-marathoner.

When Kat and I were 18, she decided to get an elaborate, multicolored tattoo. My fear of needles prevented me from desiring one, but I sat through the several hour ordeal with her, cracking jokes and holding her hand, because that's what best friends do. The process was painful, but the result was a beautiful work of art. When were were 26, and she was resolved to finally go to detox/rehab, I took her a final bottle of wine, a pint of ice cream, and watched TV while she went and shot up (something my fear of needles had always kept off the table), then I hugged her until I couldn't any longer, because that's what best friends do. The process was painful, but four years later, the result is a beautiful work of art, a living example of God's love, and my best friend, who still struggles, but whose warmth envelopes all who are privileged to know her.

I love you Kat. Congratulations.

rolling out the resolutions: finance and fitness

New Year's Resolutions are not the "be all end all" for me, but I certainly do make them.

This year, thanks to my love of Google Docs, I've created an accountability spreadsheet so I can keep better track of my personal progress. I don't beat myself up over failure, and allow myself plenty of re-dos. I have several categories as well, so maybe I'll suck at financial (as always), but rock at fitness/health.

There are definitely two types of resolutions: Restrictions and Accomplishments. I include both. I try to shy away from restrictions as those certainly get you to resent the resolution sooner.

While my resolutions are a work in progress (and my birthday is January 11, so I can add a whole new set then!)...here are the ones I feel comfortable sharing with the blogosphere in two of my categories. Please feel free to share your feedback!

Financial:

• No purchasing concert tickets to bands I've already seen, no matter how awesome they are. (If you'd like to give me a Decemeberists ticket I'll be in your debt forever).
• No more than one paid fitness event per month.
• Refrain from using credit cards, except on travel and technology.
• Pay off one credit card this year.
• Put 1/2 of what's left at end of pay period toward CCs.
• Don't make any life-changing decisions without a way to finance them.

Fitness/Health:

• Run a 10k in under an hour
• Have a #streak of some sort each month
• Run two half marathons
• Maintain current weight
• Go to Yoga once per week
• Swim once per week
• Take one hike a month
• Do a minimum of 10 pushups and 10 situps each day
• For every glass of alcohol consumed, consume one glass of water

What are your resolutions for finances and fitness?

Hello 2011!

Hard to stick to blogging resolutions when your roadrunner is out and you have to type on your iPhone. But I wanted to wish everyone a safe, healthy, and happy new year.

The past 24 hours have been nothing short of bizarre. Our group experienced a very traumatic event last night, which is affecting each of us in different ways. (I will write more about that when I have a keyboard). My reaction to the event has been "carpe diem." I am opening myself up to new challenges and opportunities this year and eschewing sticking with the status quo. Essentially, if I fell off a balcony tomorrow---would I be regretting that I didn't spend more time with a friend because I had to go to a networking event? Would I be sad I didn't travel to meet up with family because I was blowing money on another music festival? Would I be kicking myself for not having a great adventure because I had to get up early?

In 2010 I made huge leaps in "finding myself," now I need to focus on making sure I "find" the wonderful people who are already in my life and stay open to connecting with the incredible ones I've yet to meet.