everything but the girl

jlh and I just walked out of an astronomically amazing Crowded House concert.

I've seen Crowded House live. Finally and for the first time.

The opening act - a Kiwi named Doug McGlashan - wasn't the best songwriter but he played a lovely euphonium and later on gave nifty musical support for the band.

There was a second opening act - the choir from PS22 performed on their own, then did Throw Your Arms Around Me and Private Universe with the band - Neil introduced them an dthey were adorable and I hope someone has photos or even a few seconds of audio of them as they were just terrific.

It segued perfectly into CH I and within their set, they did four songs from their upcoming album - and when No Way To Go But Forward actually comes out, I will vid to it because yet again, it's a perfect SPN song.

Among other songs, they did Locked Out, Mean To Me, Something So Strong, Fingers of Love, Don't Dream It's Over, Weather With You, She Goes On and - with Matthais the Fan, they did Better Be Home Soon.

I couldn't have wished for better songs.

I couldn't have dreamed of a better concert.

But now I've been up for nearly 20 hours and it's Supernatural Day and I need to get up in a few hours to pick up pie (and perhaps get a manicure) so I'll just hope everyone had as lovely a night as jlh and I did.

Well, other than the very tall woman behind me who kept clipping the back of my head with her elbow.

(Oh! And CryBaby was adorable! Longer review of that, tomorrow.)

ETA: More reviews and a set list are up here.

technosage gave me the letter "S", so here are ten things that are important to me that begin with that letter...

1. Split Enz! I discovered SPlit Enz about 25 years ago this month, when I came home from camp, turned on Mtv, and saw my first music videos. One was One Step Ahead by Split Enz, and within fifteen seconds, I was desperately, hopelessly, endlessly in love with Neil Finn. I didn't manage to get the album that the song was on, though, until 1987, which was about a year after I discovered Crowded House, which Neil went on to form after Split Enz disbanded circa 1984, but I always remembered the song, and when CH's fame inspired Chrysalis to reissue a lot of SE stuff, I started collecting it like mad - I have all the albums on LP and cassette, as well as various videos on VHS. I'm a lifetime member of Frenz of the Enz, and have been on the Tongue in the Mail email list since 1993 or 1994. (Also must mention Squeeze, whose Black Coffee in Bed I also discovered in that first week of Mtv; I adore their music but not to the degree that I love Spliz Enz or anything else Finn-ish.)

2. Strawberries! When I was pregnant with Harrison, I had to have at least a pint of strawberries each day. Midway through my pregnancy, I made my husband drive me to this Mennonite farm about an hour from our house, where they sell strawberries by the flat. I got 20 pints on that lovely Saturday, and the only reason there was still a pint left for my breakfast on Thursday morning is because I refused to let myself enjoy it the night before. (Also must mention Snozzberries, from Willy Wonka.)

3. Star Wars! We owned it on Betamax back in 1978 or maybe 1979. I'm not sure it was even really commercially available, but back then at-home video players were still unusual enough that most people got stuff to play by trading it from friends. I must've seen that film twenty times by the time Empire came out, and I saw ROTJ three times the first weekend it was in theaters. I can still tell you exactly where I saw each film, and where I sat in the theaters. When the 20th Anniversary releases hit theaters, I was living in NYC, and I saw SW the night it came out on the upper east side, then saw the next two on Saturday afternoons at the Ziegfeld. I own the originals on VHS and DVD, and when Episode 1 was about to hit theaters, I was six months pregnant and not using any vacation days because I was stockpiling for maternity leave, so I bought tickets for the 5:15 show and went with my husband and a few of our colleagues and I almost *wept* with the WTF-ness of the film. Yes, I saw the other two in theaters as well, and I actually do own them on DVD, but I can't bear to re-watch them all the way through. (Also must mention Star Tours: The Ride, at Disney:MGM in Orlando.)

4. Sirius Black! Back in 2001, JKR was asked if he was meant to be "dead sexy". She said yes. We didn't realise, at the time, that she meant both words equally truthfully. I'm not sure I ever really dealt with Sirius's death, and had copperbadge not started Stealing Harry shortly thereafter, I'm not sure I would've continued reading any fanfic at all. (Also must mention Severus Snape, who I do not actually love, but really respect and occasionally admire.)

5. Sabrina. I like the Audrey Hepburn movie - I really do. But I have this weird and bizarre love for the Greg Kinnear + Harrison Ford version, and my husband and I rewatch it regularly. It came out when we were in the throes of our wedding planning, and my husband has about 100+ first and second cousins, so we were inviting over 600 people, so when one of the characters, in talking about the wedding they were planning for David and his fiancee Elizabeth, says, "that's not a wedding, that's a town," it became our signature line for the rest of the planning process. (Also must mention Sebrina, Paste & Plato, which is a song by Jellyfish)

6. Schnoogle! It was supposed to be a site for fan "buttons" - which are now basically known as icons or avatars. Jana (aka GeorgeWeasley'sGirlfriend) made a bunch of them with fanfic-inspired ships like Ron/Pansy, Ron/Lavender (from AliciaSue's fics), Harry/Allegra, etc., and that's where we put them, and people took them and put them on their Geocities sites. Back then, domain names were "pricey" - 30-40 dollars - so when we decided to start what would become FictionAlley, we wanted to save the cash and re-use the domain name we already hance. And that's how Schnoogle.com became a place for novel-length fics. (Also must mention "squee" as one of my favorite fandom words. I just did a search for "squee" in the LJ section of my gmail to see how many times I've used the word since I got my gmail account in 2004, and it's so many times that it can't even count. It just says "hundreds".)

7. Supernatural! I'm not a fan of the horror genre. And I really didn't watch much TV between 2000 and 2006, so I wasn't really *looking* for another series to watch. But reading discussion of the series on my flist, and seeing some writers who I adored doing fic for SPN, I was intrigued enough to watch one episode. So I watched Playthings. And then I bought S! on DVD and watched all of it over about 2 weeks. And I fell completely in love with the series, and the mytharc, and the brothers and the whole damned thing. And the fanfic/fanart/vidding output in the fandom is perpetually, unrelentingly brilliant! (Also must mention Sylar, Simone and Suresh, as that's the only way I can figure to slow Heroes into this meme in any way. I <3 Heroes so, so much, and cannot wait for S2!!!!!)

8. Stephen Duffy! The original singer and guitarist for Duran Duran, but he left very early on, and was replaced by Simon. He went on to have a few major UK hits including Kiss Me (shown here acoustic-style a few years ago in Japan), then formed a band called The Lilac Time, who had terrific critical success, and not much commercial success. At various times, he's worked with Stephen Page of the Barenaked Ladies (he's the co-writer on Jane) and Robbie Williams (he's the co-writer on Radio, and produced some of Robbie's stuff), and eventually Nick Rhodes - Stephen found their original DD demos from 1979, and they rerecorded them as The Devils. (Specific mention to She Belongs to All, which always makes me think of Princess Diana, who died ten years ago today.)

9. Sidekick! I love my sidekick! It keeps me connected to the world and all of you! It gives me my email, most of the time, and lets me YM and AIM and read my flists and read fics and text people and take photos and stay in touch. I've owned Sidekicks since 2003 when the first colour one came out, and this SK3 is the first one I've had that's lasted more than a year; I've had battery and keyboard and screen issues before that with the other ones I've owned. It's like carrying a mini-laptop around, and it's perfectly suited for me, apart from the 6MB limit on the mailbox, which is frustrating beyond belief. (Also must mention Sanyo, who made my pretty pink cellphone, which I also like and use, but don't *need* in the same way that I need my sidekick.)

10. Soarin', Space: Mission, Splash Mountain and Small World. Three of my favorite rides at Walt Disney World. Soarin' is a virtual reality-esque "flight" over California, Mission: Space (which I wrote backwards here to make it S-compliant) is a centerfuge-based simulation of a flight from Earth to Mars, Splash Mountain is a water-flume ride, and you probably know that Small World (aka It's a Small World) is a boat-based ride through all the countries of the world, as depicted by little dolls. I love Disney, but these three rides are among my top ten favorite things to do at Disney. Yes, even Small World. I love watching it through the eyes of my kids, but I also just love the nostalgia trip I go on every time I take that ride. (Also must specifically mention the Swan Hotel, which holds so many terrific memories of Nimbus 2003, which was the first time that I got to meet hundreds of other fandomers at once; Nimbus 2003 changed my life, and was such a phenomenal weekend of wonderfulness!)



If you'd like a letter, leave a comment and I'll give you one!

Dear Crowded House:

Oh, boys.

Welcome back.



I just explained to my oldest that the first time I heard the guy who's singing on my computer, I was about nine years old. And the song was I Got You. And it's 27 years later and he's still singing and I'm still listening and what will Harry listen to for the first time in 2008 that he'll still be listening to in 27 or 30 years?



(But? Oh, Paul. I do miss you.)

If anyone wants to catch the end of the webcast, it's at this page and will supposedly be up thereafter, at least for a while, which is good because my connection dropped out during a bit of Love You Til The Day I Die, alas.

I just interviewed Jenna from DanRadcliffe.com regarding their Demelza House fundraisers & projects (Pimp! Pimp!) for Dan Radcliffe's birthday next month, so we can put it into the next FictionAlley SpellCast podcast, and took a glance at the ( image at the top of their page )

Further to my last post, I decided when I got in the car to go to the bank that I should bite the bullet and listen to my newly downloaded from itunes Finn Bros songs from the Everyone Is Here EP...

I've had then for a bit of time, now, but I haven't played them because I've been terrified. I've lost faith in bands before - everything but the girl broke my heart in 1998 when they went techno and abandoned the acousitcs and orchestrals I fell in love with, and I admit that I did not love Neil Finn's last album, One Nil.

But I am in love, again. In love with it all and crying stupidly and desperately with love for their voices and their music and their wonderfulness, and my God it's been 22 years since I fell for Neil Finn and he still makes my head spin.

---

So that's the question of the moment. Has a band ever broken your heart by not living up to their prior brilliance? Have you fallen out of love with a musician or even been too afraid to listen to something new? What did you do? And when you listened, did you swoon? Did you cry out of love or misery?