HAHAHAHA - oh, wait

Tonight I wasted about an hour and a half of my time watching "100 Greatest Comedies" on Bravo. I was somewhat offended by some of their choices. Meet the Fockers over Meet the Parents? HELLO? Few sequels are better than their precedents and Meet the Fockers suuuuuucked. Legally Blonde? Highly debatable as to whether it should even be in the top 100, but it was in the 20s! And Shrek was #3. I'm not even going to comment on that.

elvis costello & friends, trump taj mahal, 05/19/06

Friday night was the Elvis Costello concert at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. It was completely worth the $100+ and 5-or-so hours spent driving there and back. I wouldn't say it was the most fun concert I've ever been to but it was definitely the coolest. Elvis Costello, Death Cab for Cutie, Fiona Apple, Billie Joe Armstrong; all of them singing Elvis' songs, and Elvis singing their songs, and everyone doing duets, it was fucking AMAZING. The whole thing was being produced for a VH1 Decades Rock Live tv special. Unfortunately it won't be played on normal VH1, just VH1 Classic, but thanks to digital cable I get VH1 Classic so I'll be able to watch it when it airs (in July, I think.)

The weird thing was how many Green Day fans were there. It wasn't his show, so Lord knows why so many people were willing to spend $50+ to come see BJA sing like, 3 songs. There were all these 14-year-old girls running around in Green Day shirts; it was kind of disturbing.

The show started a little after 9 pm when a few of the producers came out and explained that the show would be on tv and then said they needed an audience reaction shot and tried to get everyone screaming and yelling. The women was all, "Pretend I'm a famous songwriter! Yeah!" Well, there were four famous songwriters backstage who everyone was waiting for so I don't see why they didn't just trot one of them out; I guess everyone needs a little ego boost.

So finally Elvis came out with Death Cab for Cutie, who also happen to be my favorite band, basically. They started off with "Accidents May Happen," then DCFC did "The New Year" solo. Then some chairs and microphones were set up closer to the audience and Elvis & Ben Gibbard did 2 acoustic songs, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" and "The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes". That was one of the highlights definitely. I LOVE "IWFYITD" and seeing not only Ben but ELVIS perform it? Crazy. DCFC also did "Crooked Teeth" and "Kinder Murder" and I think that was it for them.

The problem with this first section of the show was that it was really obvious they were doing the concert for a taping. There were pauses between songs that were just long enough so that they kind of killed the energy. After DCFC's set there was a 20-minute break that was annoying, but at least it gave me a chance to use the bathroom.

The Imposters were the band for the rest of the show, and Fiona Apple was next. I'm not a big fan of her but her voice is fantastic and the absolute best song of the entire show was her singing "I Want You." I mean...whoa. That song is so intense in the first place and she did it beautifully. If VH1 cuts out part of the concert and they don't include that song, I will FREAK. OUT. They also did "Shabby Doll" and "Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)" and one or two others I didn't recognize. She was a little awkward to watch, she kept flailing her arms around, but I guess that's because she's normally playing a piano, not just standing there singing.

Then Elvis & the Imposters did a few songs - "Man Out of Time," "When I Was Cruel," "Clubland." They were excellent of course. And then: Billie Joe Armstrong. The guy got more applause than Elvis even did. It was crazy. And I do like Green Day, but I think BJA was by far the least talented musician performing that night. He opened with "No Action" but I guess he messed up a verse because after a few other songs they did it again. But together he & Elvis did "Wake Me Up When September Ends," "Alison," "Good Riddance," "Radio Radio," "Basket Case," and "Pump It Up." The best was "Alison." Partly because it's one of my favorites, partly because they had the audience sing the chorus and I love it when that happens at concerts.

Finally everyone came out on stage and they did the Beatles' "You Really Got a Hold On Me" and then "(What's So Funny Bout) Peace Love and Understanding." I KNEW they'd do that last one together; when I saw Springsteen/REM/Bright Eyes they all did that one at the end. I guess it's the big everybody-sing-together song.

Overall it was really a once-in-a-lifetime thing and SO awesome. I don't think BJA is that great but he definitely brought the energy up and everyone was up and dancing once he came out so I can't really fault him. Like I said, everything was totally worth the price.

tv finale death count

Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas (Veronica Mars): thumbs down
Denny "Pervy Heart Patient" Duckett (Grey's Anatomy): thumbs up
Marissa "Teh Robot" Cooper (The OC): GIGANTIC THUMBS UP

don't make me come to vegas

Lansdale? I'm so over you.

Nothing of note has happened since I got home. Today my dad and I drove to Atlantic City, because on Friday SK, CS, and I are going to see Elvis Costello (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) at the Taj Mahal. I've never driven to Atlantic City so basically it was a 4-hour practice run. From what I've seen of it, Atlantic City is pretty ugly-tacky. I've only been to Vegas once but from what I remember it was fun-tacky. Atlantic City...nah. But maybe I just need to see it at night.

I saw M:I:III (possibly the stupidest-looking movie title abbreviation ever) the other night. It was dumb but entertaining enough. The thing that really got me was the end when (SPOILER ALERT...not that you'll doubt the outcome if you do see the movie) Tom Cruise is lying dead on the floor because his heart stopped, and his wife has to bring him back to life. She's giving him CPR and it's not working. So eventually she gives that up and just uses her fist to pound his chest really hard. And it works, and he sits up gasping for breath.

Uh, let me think. Where did I see this exact situation before? On LOST, perhaps? The show created by J.J. Abrams? Who also happened to direct M:I:III? It's pretty bad when you're already ripping yourself off, J.J.

the final countdown

I had an awesome last weekend. It mostly involved these pimps and hos:



Plus a few others.

Saturday I lunched at Chef Geoff's with AV & SK; dinner'd with the people above; and drunk'd with the same. Sunday I studied for a final, had dinner with JK & her parents (YEAH free food!), and went to Kramer's for pie with a bunch of people. And I just got back about 30 minutes ago and am suddenly exhausted even though I didn't wake up today until 12:30 p.m.

So, three finals down, two to go. The only final I think went particularly well was my Writing for Mass Comm one 'cause...that was easy. Tomorrow is Women in America which shouldn't be too bad, but Tuesday is Visual Literacy, and I haven't done shit in that class. Great.

proof that your grandpa is facebook-stalking you?

They're advertising this on facebook.

Probably not the best use of their marketing funds.

and the living is EASY. fine.

Who schedules a French final for 9:30 Saturday morning? Seriously?

summertime, and the living is fine?

I really really really don't know how I feel about this semester coming to an end.

A few weeks ago I was all hyped for it. I was like, "Yeah man, I get to go home, see my family [even though I know they'll be annoying after 3 days or so], see my dogs [same], see my friends, chill out, not have to worry about anything, earn some money, blah blah blah."

And then it got to be last week or so and suddenly I was like, hold on a second there.

I do miss friends from home. Some of them I miss very badly. But to be honest? I think I'd be okay just staying here all summer. I miss less people badly than I thought I would. And some of them aren't even coming home all summer. Add to that the fact that I lost one of my best friends this year (entirely my fault, by the way) and I just don't see summer being tons of fun.

But mostly I am going to miss the people I know here like hell. How am I supposed to go from seeing them all multiple times every day, all day to nothing? All I have to do is walk down the hall, or down the stairs, and they're there. Now most of them won't even be in the same state. I guess this is what every freshman finishing up their first year of college goes through. It basically sucks.

Also, there may be a boy-thing going on and I don't know what to do with it because I'm shy. So I feel like I've already ruined it.

A final note: summer tv is all reruns. I don't even have that to look forward to!