Lifted

The day did not get off to the best of starts. Late last night I was convinced that my apartment was blowing cool air when the heat was on. Someone came out from the apartment complex and claims to find no problems. For heat, it sure doesn't feel very warm, but it seems to be moving the thermostat up.

But that's a problem for which any possible repairs are not being paid directly out of my pocket. Which means that, you guessed it, my car has manifested another problem. The front passenger door will not unlock and cannot be opened manually. (Believe me, I've tried.) When pressing the unlock button on the remote and in the car, the lock will move like it's supposed to but immediately bounces back into a partially locked position. It's as though something's in there blocking it's path to an unlocked state.

Obviously this automotive development does not please me one bit. The saving grace is that it could be related to when my car was broken into three weeks ago. If it's related to broken glass getting into the door, then insurance ought to take care of it. That's what my hope hinges on.

Luckily my day ended with seeing Andrew Bird and St. Vincent in concert. Talk about a relaxing night of music. It wasn't as intimate or mellow as the five-song set in the video I've posted below, but the show was a terrific demonstration of two fine artists in peak form. I highly recommend checking out the video.



All but the final song ("Your Lips are Red") of St. Vincent's 45-minute set were drawn from her second (and current) album. Annie Clark and band put together a smoother sounding show than what I saw from them in Newport, KY in June. There were a few noisy flourishes, particularly on the last song, but it seemed like some of the roughness was toned down to jibe with the headliner and the Southern Theatre, a great and gorgeous venue that's the polar opposite of the typical rock club.

Although Clark joined Bird for three songs, including a cover of Bob Dylan's "Oh, Sister" for the encore, and the rest of her band came on stage for a couple songs, the stage was Bird's and Bird's alone for most of his set. He's essentially a one man band who records and loops various violin, guitar, and whistling parts as the layered accompaniment to his singing and live instrument playing. He builds the songs on stage by recording each part there and then adding another and another. It probably shouldn't work as well as it does, but the effect is seeing how songs come to life and hearing the different parts within the collective sound.

All in all, it was about two and a half hours of music wonderfully performed and sung. As poorly as the day began, it concluded quite pleasantly thanks to these talented musicians.

Now, now

I felt like a truck ran over me when I got up this morning, but a prescription of knitting, napping, and live music went a long way in curing what ailed me and steeling me for the hectic week to come.

I ripped out everything I knitted on the project I started Friday. I'm not sure how the item I'm knitting in the round got twisted, but had a Mobius strip twist where I split the stitches for magic loop. After seven rounds I'm beginning to think I've done the same thing again. GRR! For now I think I'll just knit for awhile and see if everything is fine once I have more to show for my effort.

I decided that today was going to be hopeless for getting any work done at home, so I gave in and rested. I didn't feel like going out this evening, but I had a ticket to see St. Vincent, which I was looking forward to.

Multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark, who performs under the name St. Vincent, was joined on stage by a violinist, bassist/keyboardist, and drummer to play songs from her debut album Marry Me. It's an eclectic and detailed record, one that doesn't necessarily translate to live, small-scale performance, but I was really impressed with the expansive sound they generated and recreation of the songs' complexity without relying extensively on pre-recorded loops.

The 70-minute set saw Clark doing some interesting reworkings of her songs as well as covers of "Dig a Pony" and Nico's "These Days". She was the only one on stage as she ripped through the fuzzed-up Beatles song and cooed the quiet song written by Jackson Browne, which served as a fitting encore. I'm a fan of American Idol, but one thing I wish the show's singers (and producers) understood is that you don't have to bludgeon a song to death to sing it well. It was such a pleasure to hear Clark sing well technically without overdoing it. Her singing of "These Days" was like a whisper, yet it was absolutely riveting.

Ah, live music... For as rotten as I felt at the day's start, this concert did its part in restoring my energy.