I have many pictures to post from last weekend's trip to FINALLY meet my friend Shelly and visit The Mall of America while I was at it, but not enough time tonight - stay tuned for that later this week. In the meantime, here are 2 things that both made me announce, "Yes, please," this weekend:
1. THIS:
There really is nothing more to say to that. Yes, please, INDEED. Damn.
2. Billie Joe looking fine-as-wine in the new Green Day video. As a bonus, I love this song as well:
Oh, those DeGraw boys - how I love them so. Gavin's spring tour made a stop in Boston on Friday night and we were one of the lucky select cities to also have the bonus of Joey as one of the opening acts. I always say, the only thing better than one DeGraw is two. Lucy, Paul and David joined me at the show, but seriously people - I get in THE ZONE and pay very little attention to anything/anyone else. THE ZONE!
Anyhoo, we were lucky enough to be in the 21+ group so we could wait inside the lounge part of the concert hall before the doors opened while the 18-20s waited in line outside. This meant we also got to go in to the club first, so I scored a sweet front row position. And the thing I love most about this club is that there is no security pit, so I was leaning up against the stage. I actually sat my purse on it for most of the show. I loved it so much. See? Being an old lady does pay off sometimes. Just wait until I can start getting senior discounts and shit - watch out world!
ANYway - Joey opened the show with an acoustic set. I've never seen him do an acoustic show and I loved it. It was just Joey and his pal Andy Clayburn (who you may remember from my trip to the National Underground in February) on guitars and it was really cool. Joey sounded incredible, and it was a great way to start the show. Here are some pictures I grabbed:
And my favorite, the Joey smirking at me picture:
Here's a short clip from 2 songs that I took a little bit of video of (you can totally hear Joey's A&E voice coming out when he sings all low):
I had run into Joey in the bar before the show and we talked about him coming back to Boston as a headliner in a few weeks, so I'll get more/better pics and video then.
After Joey's set, the "official" opening act came on, a band called honeyhoney. I had never heard of them before, but I fell in love immediately. It's just a girl and a guy, and she plays the banjo and fiddle and he plays guitar and bass drum. They were fantastic. Lucy and I were laughing during the set because the guy in the band was literally 2 feet in front of us. It was so awkward. We couldn't look at him! In any case, you should totally check them out. I bought their album immediately when I got home. Here's Suzanne, the lead singer:
I didn't really get video of them because I was loving it so much that I didn't even think to, but here's their video of my favorite song from them at the moment:
After honeyhoney, it was time for Gavin. This tour is a bit different to go along with the feel of his new album. It's very stripped down with a lot of acoustic stuff going on. It was a whole new feel and I loved every single minute of it. Here's a little video taste of what went down:
I love him looking at my camera at the 1:49 mark. Anyway, here are some pictures I took during the show:
This next one is my favorite from this show:
LOVE that.
Here's a few more from the encore:
Now, onto my favorite song and picture from the night. First, I have been waiting to hear Gavin perform his song Glass for years now. He finally recorded it for this album, so I figured it was finally time for me to hear it live. I hadn't even prepared properly when he just busted right into it for the second song of the night, hence me not having my camera ready and not getting part of the first verse on video. In any case, here is the rest of it:
Man, I love that song.
Now onto my favorite picture from the whole night, me and Gavin:
He teased me a little for seeing me getting down during the show, but he loved that I was having such a great time. Oh Gavin, I always do, I always do.
Last Friday Lucy Woodward came up to do a show in Boston, which is always a fun treat for me since her NYC shows are usually so crazy that I don't get a chance to talk to her for very long. Boston shows give us more of a chance to hang. This time around we battled with Red Sox traffic, which is always a good time. I may have been calling many, many people jackasses. And Massholes. Anyhoo, we still made it to the show on time and Lucy was rocking as usual. Sadly, because of the traffic situation for everyone, the show started late so Lucy had to cut a couple of songs from her set. Even so, she sang one of her fun new songs that we requested, so we were thrilled. Paul and I took turns manning the merch table during the show so we could go up front for some songs. Joining Lucy on the bill that night were the lovely and talented Rachel Platten and Toby Lightman. Here's a shot of Toby from the show:
I've seen Lucy play with both ladies before and they are really good. I didn't get a picture of Rachel, but she's a cute little thing, as you can see from this picture of The Professor blatantly checking her out as she walked by mid-pose:
Hee! Love it.
Since this was a Lucy Woodward show, I donned some kicking shoes for the occasion:
Lucy rocked some black boots, but I won the battle this time. After the show, we went across the hall to a bar and grabbed a drink with La Lucy. It was so much fun - she dished about what Randy Jackson is really like and performed the Single Ladies dance after Paul told her that he hurt his back from doing it the night before at karaoke. Paul turned to me at that moment and whispered, "I'm obsessed." It was awesome. After a while, it was time to make our way home so we said our goodbyes and took some pictures before we went, which led to The Greatest Picture I Have Seen In a Long, Long Time. But first, here are the others:
And then this happened:
LOVE it. A classy singer who is also super-fun and drops f-bombs left and right and poses for silly pictures like that? That is my kind of girl. Lucy rocks, y'all.
Two weeks ago (I KNOW, I am such a bad updater lately) I went on a NYC jaunt with Lucy, Paul, David and Joe to go see Lucy Woodward play her last NYC show before she moves to L.A. in May. I knew I was in for a trip when we were reuniting the crew from a crazy trip last summer, and adding Lucy to the mix just made it sound even better. As is custom with us, our trip started off classy as always with this being the first picture that I took:
Yep, that's Joe peeing in the shadow of a building in a random office park that we found right off the highway. "I can't wait anymore!" Oh, Joe. As you can see, this was shaping up to be quite the trip. I'm actually going to make this pretty much a picture and video diary of the trip because there are many, many pictures and some fun videos from it all, including me getting thrown off a mechanical bull. Oh, yes. Click below to see them all after the jump.
I don't know, but here I am!! Where the hell have I been? Sorry, sorry! I've got an extended post coming, but no time tonight, so I'll just leave you with this:
That's the first single and video for Tinted Windows, the "supergroup" with James Iha, a guy from Cheap Trick, someone from Fountains of Wayne and Mr. Taylor Hanson on lead vocals. That still makes no sense to me. Anyway, as you can see, Taylor is clearly dressing for me now. Good boy. Also? Very catchy tune.
Their album came out today and I gave it a listen on my way to and from work and aside from about 2 bum songs, it's pretty good. Very power-poppy and different. At first, I was looking at the album from the standpoint of the Taylor Hanson scholar that I am, so I was all, "Hmmm. He clearly didn't have a big hand in writing these songs because he's not playing to all of his vocal strengths." (People, I could write a dissertation on him - remember when he called me? Oh my God.) But once I got all of that out of my system, I just started listening to the tunes from an unbiased standpoint and most of them were quite catchy and fun. The album isn't going to change anyone's life, but it's a fun listen. I'm missing the patented Taylor moans and shouts of "come on!" that pepper most Hanson records, but in return I do get him dressing for me and singing a song called Cha Cha. It's no moaning, but I'll take it.
You know, sometimes it gets sad when I'm hanging out with my younger friends and I find out that they have never heard songs like Photograph by Def Leppard or Home Sweet Home by Motley Crue. (Paul: "I only know the Carrie Underwood version.") What makes these things even worse is that this means that my friends have never seen the music videos for these songs, and that's just not right. Photograph with the whole Marilyn Monroe thing and the 2-armed drummer? Classic. Then there is the girl who almost shows her boobs in the Home Sweet Home video until it cuts to Tommy Lee's mock expression of shock. Ah, youth and growing up watching MTV non-stop. Anyway, in honor of my young friends, here's a good way to kill a few minutes on a lazy Sunday:
It's very stripped down and mellow, quite different from the first two albums with a whole new vibe. Of course, it's still fantastic and you can really hear Gavin's voice shine through. Plus, it's my favorite album cover of his so far because it reminds me of one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken of him:
Just a boy and his instrument and his love of music. I love it.
Download These Fo Sho': Glass, Lover Be Strong, Free & Indian Summer
Wow, I seriously have not had the time to update this page in a while. I'm finally getting to blog about a trip I took a couple of weeks ago - let's hope I remember anything that happened. Actually, I have lots of pictures, so that will make up the bulk of the post.
Anyhoo, a couple of weeks ago The Professor and I took a trip to NYC so that I could hit the bar on a Tuesday night and so he could go and explore the city with his camera. When we arrived in the afternoon, The Professor set out on his adventures and I went on a few of my own. I had always wanted to visit a certain establishment during one of my various trips to the city, but I never had the time to make it happen until this trip. Y'all - I went to Mood!
Of course, only those who watch Project Runway will understand the excitement of going to a fabric store, but it was awesome. I came up from the subway stop and stared up at the opening credits shot of the "7th Ave/Fashion Avenue" street signs and got all giddy. Mood itself is crazy. You get pointed into an elevator to head up to the store and have to wait until there are enough people in the elevator before the operator will take you up. Then the door opens and you see the infamous notions wall that Tim Gunn is always standing in front of, warning the contestants about the dwindling time limit. There was also a bulldog in there running around, which I found to be quite odd. But the place is jamming - it's organized by fabrics, with aisles for "silk organza" and "cotton jersey," etc. I actually needed some fabric, so it was fun to carry my bolts around. Oh Mood, you did not disappoint. Well, except for the high prices. I don't know how they make things with the small budgets they get on the show.
Anyway, after my trip to Mood, I headed back to the lower east side and did some shopping around the hotel. My girl Lucy Woodward had recommended some stores to me, so I checked out some of the goods and then bought some AMAZING shoes at a Steve Madden Steven store. I'm SO going to win the shoe-off with Lucy when I see her in April. After some shopping, I made my way over to teany, which is Moby's tea cafe. All of the food is vegan or vegetarian, which is normally a turn-off for me, but I was going there for the tea anyway. However, the menu listed a vegan red velvet cake dessert on there, so I had to see what that was all about. It ended up being really good. You go, Moby! But really, I need to talk about the tea. People, the tea menu is ridiculous. They have 98 different flavors. 98!!! As soon as I saw this one, I knew I had to get it. Who cares if a pot of the tea was $7.50? The leaves were hand-picked by monkeys, people! MONKEYS! And I'm not just saying this because of my monkey bias - that was the best tea I have ever had in my life. I had to buy some to take home and I plan to buy another container when I go back in April. Those monkeys know what they're doing. They don't mess around!
After that, I headed back to the hotel to watch some TV while I got ready to hit the National Underground. I had heard that Tuesdays were going to be the new fun night at the bar because a bunch of Joey and Gavin's friends play, and the rumors turned out to be 100% correct. I had made plans to meet up with my pal Karyn, who had been a few Tuesdays recently and declared them to be quite fun, so she was happy to join me for the evening. I got all duded up in my little shirt and tie:
I got halfway into the bar before I heard, "SOCK GIRLLLLLL!!!" It was my pal Sasha, who I decided to surprise this time and not tell him that I was coming in advance. He was happy to see me as always, and the feeling was mutual:
He's so much fun.
I got there a little before the band started so I got to catch up with some folks who work there. They were both off for the night, but were there for the bands. Sadly, Joey was in Florida, so it was my first trip to the bar without Joey being there, which was too bad since he always makes me laugh. Up first on the stage were Chris Barron & The Time Bandits, who are doing a month-long "Exile on Houston" gig at the bar on Tuesdays. For those who don't recognize the name, Chris Barron is the lead singer from the Spin Doctors. I've met him at the bar a few times before, but this was the first time that I got to see his band play and they were really good.
It's a fun atmosphere because the guys in the band are just there to play and have a good time. They're all kind of musician's musicians so they enjoy it as much as the crowd does, which makes it that much more fun to watch. So much fun for some people that they creep into your picture out of nowhere and kiss you on the cheek:
I still have no idea who that guy is, but he told me that I was "dead sexy," so he is clearly my new best friend. After Chris's set was over, the crowd thinned and we could relax more and talk to everybody. Karyn knows most of the guys who were playing that night, so we got to chat with everybody between sets. Speaking of Karyn, here we are:
And here are some pictures of us hanging with the boys:
I loved him.
With Sasha and Travis DeGraw, the bar manager.
Kris (Man With a Van), Matty and Andy Clayburn.
Love the munching on the Underground hot dogs.
It was boot night at the Underground.
Here we are with Jill, my favorite NU bartender. Karyn brought her black wig so we could be the Ravenheads again, and Jill completed our trio quite nicely. We're totally starting a Ravenhead Gang. Looking to join the gang? The Professor, who made a late-night appearance at the bar and tried his best to join the gang, but just ended up looking like comic-strip character Nancy:
He does much better without the wig:
Speaking of The Professor, we now interrupt this entry to bring you some of the cool pictures that he took while he was off exploring Brooklyn and other places. I got him this little box-head guy for Valentine's Day, and he just makes such an adorable little subject:
Awww. Okay, back to the bar, where in what I guess has now become tradition, Sasha and I had to pose for a licking picture:
Soon after that, Andy Clayburn took the stage and he was really good. Andy usually plays guitar in Joey's band, so it was cool to see him doing his solo thing. The guy playing piano with him was sick on the keys and various people jumped in and did songs with him throughout the night, including Kris, Sasha, and Chris Barron. It was just like sitting around and having a jam session with your pals, singing songs like You've Got To Have Friends - I loved every minute of it.
Man, what a fun night.
Even though it was dark in there, I did grab a little bit of video footage. The first part is from Chris Barron's set - he busted out three Spin Doctors songs at the end, and the second part is Andy getting mellow:
Happily, the next time I'm going to be in NYC is in a few weeks and it falls on a Tuesday, so I'm going to have to stop by the bar at some point because that was some crazy fun.
The next morning, The Professor and I met up for coffee with my internet friend Rich, who runs Orangutan Outreach, the charity that I want to give all of my money to. That's where I adopted my "daughter" Kesi, who is growing up to be quite the orangutan. She had a cameo on Orangutan Island a couple of weeks ago and I was yelling at the TV, "that's my daughter!" I try my best to get as many people as I can to watch the show and give to the cause because the money all goes to the rescue center for the orphan orangutans in Borneo. Rich was lucky enough to go and visit the center (for the third time - I am SO jealous) in December, and his pictures from the trip are AMAZING. It was really great to finally meet up with him and chat - he had some great stories and really interesting info about all kinds of things. The Professor was loving hearing about the advances being made in terms of the possibility of creating rainforests and climate change and whatnot. That stuff was a little out of my depth, but it was fascinating to hear about. Rich invited us back to his office, where I picked up my new friend Harlan:
I also got a book about the creator of the center, which I have been passing around work. It was all really wonderful, so I thank Rich for taking the time out of his busy day to meet up with us. You rock, Rich!
After that, we finally headed home, but not before making a stop along the way at our favorite place, where I found Paul's new car:
I NEED a Duchessmobile in my life. I also found out this time that the Duchess restaurants are only located in Connecticut, which saddens me. Now everyone has to book a trip to good ol' CT so you can go to a fast food place and order chicken parmesan. Seriously.
So thus ends another NYC adventure and another fantastic time. I do love that city and that bar. Thanks to Karyn and Rich for meeting up with me, and to all of the musicians - I'll see you in a few weeks. And next time? Oh lord. I'll be there with Paul, David, Lucy and Joe - THIS ought to be interesting. Stay tuned!
But as Paul and I proved recently, you still can't take us anywhere. But we'll get to that.
First - sorry I am so late with these posts. There have been Things to update about, but there has not been Time. My bad. The Idol thoughts and NYC adventures will be coming, but first, let's do this one.
Anyhoodle - Paul and I recently attended a charity event to benefit the American Heart Association's Wear Red campaign for heart health awareness for women. We were asked to dress semi-formal and to try to wear something red, even if it was just an accessory (Check us out on the red carpet!) . The event was sponsored by our local country music station and it featured 4 acoustic sets by country singers Dean Brody, Jason Michael Carroll, Jamie O'Neal and Jessica Andrews. I wasn't familiar with the guys, but I love both of those ladies so we decided to get ourselves some tickets. The tickets for the concert itself were only $9.85, but they were also offering a pre-show VIP reception for $35 a ticket with free champagne and appetizers as well as meet-and-greets with all of the singers. All of the proceeds were going to the charity, and you KNOW Paul and I love to roll VIP, so we were so in for that reception. Yay, classy Pam and Paul:
As soon as we got there, Paul headed straight for the bar, but moments later the singers all came into the room. Most of the guests hadn't arrived yet, so Paul and I made a beeline over to the two ladies so I could meet them and then we could focus on the free champagne and eats. We ended up second in line to meet Jamie O'Neal and if you guys have never heard her song There Is No Arizona, you should give it a listen. It was her first single and made me a fan instantly. Anyway, she was nice and looked very much like a country singer:
After that, we headed over to see Jessica, who ranks as one of my favorite country singers. She hasn't had an album in quite some time, so I was excited to hear that one should be released this summer. Some of you may know her from Who I Am, which was her big hit, among a number of others. (Sing it with me now, country fans: "I am Rosemary's granddaughter....") Pop culture people may know her from the song Show Me Heaven, which was on one of the Dawson's Creek soundtracks. In any case, she was super-cute and really nice and tore it up during the concert. Here we are with Miss Andrews:
After that, the room started to fill and Paul and I decided to kick back and enjoy the free champagne and the FANTASTIC people watching. We especially enjoyed this gentleman's tapestry vest/tie combo:
There were some hot messes there, especially this older couple who decided to stand right near me and Paul and start dry humping against the wall. Paul swears he was trying to eat her face off. It was disgusting. Throughout all of this, Paul and I were also watching that Jason Michael Carroll character because he was a quite fascinating fellow. He looked quite grungy and not really country. Also? He looked shady. That's when I announced to Paul, "Well, now we have to go have our picture taken with him because he looks like such a creep." Paul agreed so we got in line and decided to introduce ourselves as Bart and Stella. We also both secretly threw up the pointers just as the photo was about to be taken:
After the picture, he chatted us up while he was signing an autograph and he was SUPER nice and really cool. Paul and I then felt bad for being assholes for about 15 seconds, but it passed. Since we waited in line for him, we decided to just go and meet the other guy as well. This decision also may have had something to do with the fact that Dean Brody is hot as HELL, people. You can't tell it from the picture we got with him, but this guy has got ice blue eyes, dark hair and a kickass body. Mama liked. Here he is from a promo shot I found:
Mmmm.... And here we are with him:
As with the other folks, he was also really nice, especially when he stopped mid-autograph and asked if it was okay that he was making it out to both of us. I said, "That's fine, it's going to be under my pillow tonight anyway." Paul's response? A horrified, "You're a creep." Dean Brody's response? A goofy, "Awesome." Awesome, indeed. Paul was still reeling from me petting the head of the Marine who was standing in front of us in line anyway. What was I to do? It was so fuzzy and inviting!
After the reception, we made our way to the room where the concert was going to be, where I just chilled:
And Paul went straight to the place where he would be found multiple times throughout the night:
We watched both of the ladies perform and a little bit of Dean Brody's set, but our feet hurt and we were hungry so we went off in search of food during Jason's set. On our way back, we noticed some fun things around the hotel where the event was being held and thought they would make perfect props for an impromptu photo shoot. Of course, as with us, things started off relatively normal:
...but then veered very quickly into inappropriate:
You can see how classy we are in the rest of the photo shoot as well as a new Paul & Pam Show from the event after the jump!
People, I still don't know what to think of this a week after hearing about it. Tinted Windows is a new band formed by James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins and it also has someone from Cheap Trick, someone from Fountains of Wayne, and TAYLOR HANSON as the lead singer. I am so confused. Now there is this video teaser:
Taylor is dressing for me, but I still don't know what to make of all of this. What say you?
