You Can't Have Your Pudding if you Don't Eat Your Meat!!!

Last weekend I had the extraordinary pleasure of seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall live! Thank god I have an awesome cousin that jumped on me months ago and informed me that I was going :) Seriously, THANK GOD.  I've been to a lot of shows in my day and thoroughly enjoyed them all, but this was unlike any show I've ever been to before.  Generally, I go to smaller shows - more along the lines of 500-3000 people. This wasn't a huge show by any means, but it was the biggest I've been to, with about 18,000 people at The Garden and it was more of a stage production than a concert.

The first half of the show revolved around the wall being built up between the band and the audience, the original inspiration of the movie. Stage hands would walk out one by one carrying bricks and piling them up as the band performed. They left small window holes in place so that you could see the band until the last song of the first half. The engineer in me thoroughly enjoyed seeing the construction. As the bricks were put in place, they became screens on which various images were projected onto, in addition to a giant circle above the stage. Sometimes it was sections from the movie and other times they were just provocative images. Waters had fans send in images and stories of family members who had died in war to bring some of the themes into current times. Their images were projected onto the circular screen and then transferred onto the individual bricks, starting with his father. It was quite epic.

The Wall being built, rally scene, 13 channels of shit, the Teacher in puppet form, the marching hammers and a giant floating pig - in the flesh.

It was a most excellent time. The crowd was quite the mix of people. We had a group of 40 year old stoners making up the rest of our row. They lovingly nicknamed me "Number 5" for my seat and commented on my every movement in and out of the aisle. One was smoking next to me and did eventually offer me a hit with 5 minutes left. Just a few hours too late buddy. Then we had the family in front of us - mom, dad and daughter. Mom was clearly there because it was a "family thing," but daddy and daughter were rocking out together, quite adorably. It had my roomie and I talking - what the heck music that's come out any time recently could someone our age enjoy with their child? Nothing. Just nothing. Definitely some stuff from more of the 90's, but anything past y2k is generally just crap and certainly not classic.



A small glimpse into the show.

It was an epic night and much fun had by all. Of course we needed something for bragging rights in the future to say "I was there!!"  We both decided to commemorate the night with some wonderfully inappropriate flower t-shirts from some of the animated sequences. There were some really cool dark t-shirts, but this one screamed "buy me!!"

I'm so glad I went and got to experience this for probably the last tour ever. For an almost 70yo dude, Mr. Waters can still put on quite the show. And there was only one "old man moment" - when he was exciting the stage at the end of the show, gripping that stair railing like his life - or probably his knees - depended on it. Everyone loves a silver fox. 

TIME OUT! for a tribute to my man.

Sooooooo.... I'm sitting around last night trying to just have a nice relaxing evening.  I read some Bridget Jones (working on that reading list baby), took a lil nap, had some dinner, made some more roasted chick peas, played the piano for a bit, did the dishes and then settled down to do some more reading.  I decided, why not turn to TV on. BJD is easy enough to read that something fun in the background wouldn't be awful.  So I turn it on...scrolling channels....not much on.... maybe I'll watch the Sing-Off.  So I turn it on, look up....AND TIME the F*CK OUT ZACK MORRIS!!!!!

 

 On the TV in front of me is my one, my only, my idol, Benjamin Scott Folds. Apparently he's one of the judges (with a girl from the Pussycat dolls and a guy from Boys2Men) on the show.

!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!??!!

How in the world did I not know this? And how all of my friends fail to inform me of this.  A little history... as much as I would love to say I was there from the start, I got hooked back in the day in 7th grade with Brick, just like everyone else. But from there it was instant love.

I dragged my Uncle and my cousin up to upstate bumblefuck NY (Buffalo i think) to go see him and picked up my sis on the way. He played with the Flaming Lips and Train, and he was them (Ben Folds Five) then.  It was just love, pure love. I was hooked (like I hadn't been before).

Since then... I've seen him, oh, I don't know... every chance I get?

• NYC Ben Folds and a Piano (release tour of first solo album) with my sister
• Worcester with my college friends
• Lupos in RI with my sister
• Bank of America Pavilion in Boston on the Odd Man Out Tour (with Rufus Wainwright and Guster) with my ex James
• Orpheum in Boston with my ex Steve for the release of Way to Normal
• TD Bank North (ugh, opening for John Mayer) with the ex - Steve
• With the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the BSO with my friend Danielle (cause ex-steve f*ed up bigtime) - FRONT ROW CENTER, maybe 5 feet away - I have amazing video.
• With the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the BSO with random Craigslist girl- probably the BEST performance of his I've ever seen. TRIPLE encore
• With the Providence Performing Arts Symphony at PPAC with a bunch of co-workers

And I know there's at least one or two more times that I'm brain farting on right now.... so that's a minimum of 10 times either way.  If you couldn't tell by now, I kinda like him just a bit. Especially back in the day when he was adorable freaking Ben.

And especially before he had 5 million wives and left them all one by one... Kind of hard to love his love songs as much after quite so many failures, but that's ok. I love him anyways, and The Luckiest will still most definitely be played at my wedding at some point.

So what's new in the works for Mr Folds besides this random judging shtick you ask?  Well actually, his next album coming out will be with auther Nick Hornsby.  Hornsby is writing the lyrics and Folds is putting them to music and performing them.  Between the PPAC show and the last BSO show, I got to see three of these demos performed live. And let me tell you, this album is going to be FANTASTIC.  First, a really sad but incredibly moving song called Picture Window (this is my favorite - total ben folds emotional style - chokes me up every time). A hilarious song about a washed up musician singing his one-hit-wonder about his ex-wife, Belinda (this is the actual performance I saw btw). And finally, an absolutely freaking hysterical song about Palin's daughter's baby-daddy, Levi Johnston and his tough tough life, called, The Levi Johnston Blues.

Alrighty, now that I've gotten that all out there and paid my respects, I feel loads better. Time-in.

Musical Motivation

As much as I love hitting the iron, some days I just don't feel like it. Really who doesn't? So what does one do in this situation?  What helps me the most is having a mental image that really fires me up. Might be something positive like the future fit you, or it might be something that gets you angry- like an ex or the office bitch or if you're me, your f*ing pig of a sexual harasser.  Usually I like to save these extra-motivating images for the really tough moments (like the last few reps of a set of the evil bulgarian splits squats). So for the remaining 98% of the time, it's usually just some good tunes for me.

"So Katie, what kind of tunes pump you up?" you ask.  Well, here is a random sample of some of my gym favorites - motivating, fun, and embarrassing - and some hopefully entertaining explainations of why.

Lunchlady Land - Adam Sandler "Sloppy joes....sloppy sloppy joes." This is usually when I get stared at for chuckling to myself for no apparent reason.

Punk Rock Academy - Atom and His Package You just need to hear it.

Brass Monkey - Beastie Boys  No 'splanation needed.  But I will say, this always makes me think of the boys at our middle school dances.

Bitches Ain't Shit - As covered by Ben Folds I can't think of a more perfect song to be covered by a man and a piano.

Mortal Kombat - Techno Remix "Test your might..... Test your might." Probably my most embarrassing but also probably the most motivating.  How can you not try to push yourself that extra bit when you have Kano and Johnny Cage by your side?

What Would Jay-Z Do? - Ben Lee Because the lyrics are just amazing and the tune is just so damn catchy.

Gimme More - Britney Spears I can't help but think of Billy Tank Guns when I hear this one.  Again, people staring as I chuckle at myself.

Machinehead - Bush This is one of those motivational ones. It was used at most every championship meet I swam at, and a few times it was the song I got to walk to the blocks to. Just one that really gets me in the zone.  I know, I know, kind of cheesey nostalgia, but it just reminds me of how empowered I felt walking up there, KNOWING that I was pretty good at this and I was going to do well and kick some ass. I don't miss 5AM practices, but I do miss that feeling.

You Gotta Be - Des'ree This one is the girl in me coming out. Again, really the lyrics on this one are honestly kind of touching? Wow, i'm such a sap.

Change - The Lightning Seeds This is an obscure one, but from one of my favorite movies of all time - Clueless- which I think it's just the most perfect representation of the 90's ever... but anyways, the cheeseball lyrics (specifically "Don't ever chaaaaange") of this one just make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and I get that mental dialogue going where I'm telling myself "You're great! You're wonderful! Don't ever change!!!!"  Yes, embarrassing, girly, but true. This usually gets the speed up another 0.3 mph for me. (hey, i'm a swimmer, remember????).

Popular - Nada Surf  Just a classic that I actually didn't know when it was popular (hahaha pun intended). I got into them through some list of "If you like Ben Folds, you'll like...." and then discovered the song several years after it was cool.

Fuckin' In the Bushes - Oasis Besides Brad Pitt making it incredibly famous with this scene from Snatch, this song just f*ing rocks.  Cause kids are running around naked fucking in the bushes and that makes me want to move some serious weight.

Peaches - The President of the USA Millions of them. 'Nough said.

Wannabe - Spice Girls No, I'm not joking.   I'm finally comfortable enough with my masculinity to enjoy hot pink, Dawson's Creek and the Spice Girls.

I Wish - Skee Lo LOVE LOVE LOVE this 90's classic. Brings back memories of sneaking into my grandparent's basement to watch MTV. Who doesn't want a rabbit in a hat and a bat and 64 impala? And recently I just found this kinda wonderful remake:

The Sunscreen Song - Baz Luhrman OK OK, it was so overplayed and I hated it at the time... but again, the lyrics.... kinda poignant if you really listen.  Another tear-jerker moment for me on the treadmill. ::sniff sniff::

So that's my embarrassing list, or part of it. Hopefully you got a chuckle out of it or maybe some ideas for your next playlist. And I'm counting on seeing some ridiculous songs of your own. Don't let me down :)