I submit these photos as evidence that I married the right man:
Happy Valentine’s Day, Evan. I love you!
Category Archives: music
Happy Christmas.
Filed under friends and family, health, inspiration, music
HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM DOOR SIXTEEN.
Get well soon, Morrissey.
Filed under music
Psychedelic Furs at Roseland Ballroom.
Filed under music
The Psychedelic Furs at Roseland Ballroom, NYC on Friday night. You can see the full set here. (Yes, the Happy Mondays were there too!)
A little Anna-side-project trivia: I’m a big Furs fan. I started Burned Down Days almost 10 years ago, when they reunited after a nearly decade-long break.
Happy birthday, MJ.
Filed under health, inspiration, music
Today should have been Michael Jackson’s 51st birthday.
In a few hours, I’ll be in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, celebrating with Spike Lee, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and tens of thousands of people who love Michael Jackson just as much as I do. As wonderful a time as I’m sure we’ll all have, though, the sad fact is that MJ should be celebrating with us.
In the words of Spike Lee:
It’s going to be a joyous, festive, celebratory party. At the end, we’ll all sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Michael, We’re going to make sure he hears us, too. All over the world, people are going to be celebrating his birthday. But he’s going to hear Brooklyn; Brooklyn is going to be in the house. Deep.
There are (at least) two kinds of Michael Jackson fans: There’s the kind that loves a lot of his music and gets down to the ground when “Billie Jean” comes on at a party. And then there’s the kind who, yes, loves his music (even the stuff that went virtually unheard in the U.S. in the past 15 years), but perhaps more importantly, loves the man. I fall squarely in the latter group. For me, it isn’t possible to separate the life from the career—and frankly, it wasn’t possible for Michael, either.
This was a brilliant, kind, beautiful (and I mean that in every sense, and from birth to death) generous and truly loving man who literally gave everything he had to the world, and left nothing for himself in the end. This is the most misunderstood and hideously violated artist of our time, and his death has brought with it what will surely be many, many years of continued tabloid fodder based only slightly in truth, and primarily in sensationalist profiteering.
Yes, I am angry, and I am very, very sad.
Today, however, I will celebrate. I will dance and I will sing and I will forget to be afraid of how I look doing it. Can you feel it? Happy birthday, Michael. I hope you’ll hear us in Brooklyn.
Recommended Reading: Top Ten Questions Everyone SHOULD Be Asking About Michael Jackson, by Brenna Chase
(Photos by Albert Watson, 1999)
p.s. Yes, it’s been a while, I know. Tonight I read through some of the comments that were left on my last post over the last couple of weeks, and all I can really say is that I’m sorry I’ve disappointed those of you who have come to expect something from me here on a regular basis. I can’t promise that, though, because I’m a human being with human distractions (like what you’ve read about in this post) that devour my attention completely, often for long stretches of time. This isn’t a job, it’s an extension of myself. I hope you can understand that.
Michael Jackson.
Filed under music
(Photo by Chris Walter, 1983)
I don’t normally post things like this, but I am feeling so sad right now that I don’t know what else to do. Bear with me.
I’m part of the generation that’s old enough to remember Michael Jackson from before he became a punch line, but young enough to not think of him as a child prodigy. When Thriller came out in 1982, I was in second grade. Michael Jackson was 24, and he was a sex symbol like no other. He was mysterious. He was cute. He didn’t look, sound, act, or dance like anyone else—he had moves, he was magic.
The only things I remember about second grade are that my teacher was Mrs. Loeber, and that Thriller was HUGE. It’s impossible to overstate how infatuated the entire world seemed to be with Michael Jackson in the early and mid-’80s, and he deserved every accolade he received (and then some).
If you’ve ever tried to have a conversation with me about Michael Jackson, you know that I am one of those people who will defend him to no end. It kills me that his so-called “weirdness” has overshadowed his truly stunning talent for so many years, but I’ve always been able to look beyond that and keep an intense appreciation for all that he contributed to music and entertainment and dance and fashion. I’ve never stopped thinking that he’s magic.
Morrissey is FIFTY today.
Filed under music
—Morrissey (1984)
Well, Morrissey! You truly are the wit of a generation, and judging by the state of your hair over the years, you’ve certainly managed to live a fabulous life thus far. Here’s to 50 more years of fantastic haircuts!
Since I’m sure you read my blog (right?), allow me to be one of many to wish you a very (un)HAPPY birthday! Maybe later we can go out for drinks and talk about old times. What do you say? Oh, and wear that suit and tie. You’ll match my rug and chair perfectly.
In the mean time, let us reminisce about the old days by watching a great stage rush moment from Dallas in 1991, back when you were younger than I am now and the security guards weren’t complete thugs. VIVA MORRISSEY!
Today is also the perfect excuse to post THIS gem from 1984:
(photo by Fabio Lovino)
At the 1975 Grammy Awards.
Filed under music
From the Completely Unrelated to Anything department, I bring you this fantastic clip from the 1975 Grammy Awards!
I don’t even know where to start with the awesomeness. Beyond the cast of characters onstage, how about those rainbow-colored heads awkwardly pushed in to announce the nominees? And O.N.J.’s name dropping down from the ceiling! We’ve gotten so used to everything being digitized that this almost feels like a high school production of Oklahoma.
I think I said, “What? Seriously?” about 15 times while watching this 4 1/2-minute clip. So great.
Tonight.
Filed under music, new york city
In 1994, I slept on the sidewalk outside of Carnegie Hall for two nights* (see, kids, this is what we had to suffer through before we had the internet) to get tickets to see Morrissey there. I got great seats (9th row center, if I recall correctly). The show was initially “postponed”, so I waited patiently for the new date to roll around six months later. Then, in true Morrissey form, he cancelled. And didn’t reschedule. HEARTBREAK. I still haven’t gotten over it.
15 years later, I am FINALLY going to see Morrissey at Carnegie Hall. This will be my 26th Morrissey concert, but I still feel nervous and excited every single time I see him.
(*Those were a craaaaazy couple of nights. MTV and the NY Times were there to film and interview us, and a radio station brought us breakfast in the mornings. The guy up at the front of the line had been there for days. I could never do something like that now, but I’m glad I was so ridiculous and silly once upon a time! Even though the concert was cancelled, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.)
Glamorous Grout.
Filed under food, friends and family, house, music
First off, I’d like to thank the people who were courteous enough to either comment about or email me the above photo. The fact that there are at least 17 people in the world who immediately think of ME when they see a nearly-naked Morrissey (posing with his band for the inner sleeve of “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”) warms the cockles of my heart. Seriously.
Moving along, a few notes from the weekend:
I finished tiling the bathroom floor at 2:00 AM Saturday night. Or does that count as Sunday morning? Either way, I was totally out of my mind with exhaustion by the time I finished. Aside from some imperfections resulting from my lack of experience with tiny, round, mosaic tiles (or lack of experience with tiling, period), I think it looks great—and it’s going to look even better once it’s grouted. The tiles are matte-black pennyrounds, and I’ll be using black grout. (Photos soon, hold your horses!)
We’re pretty sure we’re going to use the white room as a bedroom. It’s the perfect size, it’s far away from the street, and it will free up the two larger bedrooms for other uses. I’m itching to buy the MANDAL bed from IKEA. I think it would look amazing on the white floor, and those drawers could easily hold all of our extra sheets and blankets (I suspect they could make nice “sidecar” pullout beds for the dogs, too!).
Last night we had friends over for dinner, which was lovely. I’ve said this before, but it’s really nice to have gotten to a point where we have a semblance of a social life in Newburgh. I made Ina Garten’s Macaroni & Cheese, which was completely delicious and immediately became my favorite new recipe. I also made broccoli rabe, which to my surprise was enjoyed by all six guests! Usually there’s at least one person who doesn’t like bitter veggies, but that was not the case last night. I love broccoli rabe as a complement to rich, sweet foods. (Speaking of rich and sweet, one of my friends brought dessert—crème brûlée—and a blowtorch to caramelize the sugar! Maybe I’m just easily impressed by fire, but I thought it was all very exciting.)
My local Target now has some of the Orla Kiely collection in stock. This weekend, I picked up a couple of closet organizers and the laundry bag. Very cute! I’m crossing my fingers that my store ultimately gets in the entire collection. (EDIT: The full collection will hit stores on February 15th. Thanks, Holly!)
How was your weekend?
It was really nothing.
Filed under inspiration, music
“Entire coachloads of off-duty gas fitters from Bolton will risk death to get on the stage to try to either shake his hand, or to hug him, or to kiss him, or whatever. Almost as though they feel that, you know, some kind of ritual communion with Morrissey will enable them to contact a part of their emotions that they normally feel distanced from.”
—Michael Bracewell
Does anyone know who that is in the video giving the above quote? Thanks, Suzanne!
I’ve watched this mini-doc a number of times now, and it never fails to get me choked up.
p.s. Classic Morrissey moment at 2:55.
Morrissey on Craig Ferguson.
Filed under inspiration, music
In an American Idol shirt, no less! Hysterical. I definitely think this is worthy of closing out the week. Have an excellent weekend!
