saturday looks good to me

yesterday was one of those joyous days. it was the kind of day you dream will pop its head into new york. sunny. breezy. smiley. it was also a day of creeping out of hibernation. i saw so many people i hadn't seen in a while, and even met a few incredibly nice new ones. it was pretty awesome all around!

first, mike and i stopped by the loose record bbq at union pool but got there too late to enjoy any food. however, there were tons of people out there enjoying the company of the affable jay good times, who referred to my sunglasses as the future. it's true. my sunglasses are pretty funny, but i haven't had any time or money to shop - c'est la vie. mental note: get a new pair of sunglasses.

then we ran off to wish audrey of melody nelson a happy birthday. it was so nice out. the wind was rushing through everyone's hair, people were wearing their superstar shades and audrey looked brilliant in royal purple. happy birthday!! laura took some photos on the modern age...

afterwards, we went to town hall to see cat power. we got there a little too early... in other words, we ended up catching the opening act who was this older gent with a proclivity towards wild and fast jerry lee lewis and the serious and brooding sinatra. it was quite strange. the sinatra-like songs were better than the jerry lee lewis-like songs.

cat power's band, the memphis rhythm band, was quite large - taking up the entire stage at town hall. she had two backup singers, a string section, a horn section, a pianist, guitarist, bassist and drummer. they were introduced as "the memphis rhythm band and cat power." but of course for the first song there was no sign of chan marshall. the band played an instrumental that made me feel like i was in a bar in the french quarter or something. i wondered if cat power was ever going to come out and sing. eventually she did... strangely hopping barefoot and flapping her arms like she was a chicken.

ok, so she's kooky. once she started singing though, i found her voice simply magical. but i kept getting distracted by her fidgeting on stage. i think it would have been less invasive to her performance if the fidgeting jived with the lush beauty of her music. but it didn't. she just seemed so friggin' uncomfortable performing. i also didn't like her backup singers. they sang like the fake backup singers on a parody of a kids game show. they also sang louder than cat power in a way that wasn't complementing her delicate, soft voice. at several points she used jazz hands (sparkle motion!) and even did the milli vanilli dance (blame it on the sunshine). perhaps that's her charm. i don't know. i was starting to fall asleep and ended up leaving the show before the end.