I just got a very excited phone call from my dear friend Beth who was not only at the Supreme Court this morning when the verdict was read… her enthusiasm made the cover of the NY Times.
When my children, and their children, learn about the gay rights movement in their history classes I will be honored to tell them I have been lucky to know some of the people who made a difference.
I wish I hadn’t been at the doctor this morning and instead gone downtown for this unbelievable announcement… on an unusually hot day here in the city by the bay.
An on vacation WALL•E crew member sent me this via SMS last night…
For more of my favorite little robot, check out “A Hero’s Journey” featured this week on Yahoo! For about a minute and a half Andrew introduces WALL•E and his adventure.
As expected, the Jane’s World Volume 8 release party was super fun. There were about 300 people in attendance, the largest crowd ever for the Charles Schultz Museum. We mingled, we drank, we listened to Paige read highlights of her new book… and then we sat in the first row for the Girlyman concert. I tried to act cool and not completely embarrass myself in front of my favorite band. Paige, less nervous now that her reading was over, couldn’t contain her giddyness.
A few songs in, friends of mine shouted for “James Dean” and a slightly sick Ty obliged. She explained that she wasn’t going to do it tonight because of her cold, but since they had asked… I asked if that meant they would sing me Father Figure and Ty responded with: “Don’t push your luck.” It was worth a try.
The set was short, due to Museum curfew, but stellar. I’ve seen them over the years in lots of different venues and this was by far one of the best shows. About half way through the set Nate started talking about the election and said that the band wrote songs for each of the remaining presidential candidates. I was really trying to resist the urge to record some of the performances, but I just couldn’t pass up the chance to grab this little electoral ditty.
After the show, a bunch of us were milling about the “stage” and I realized that this was my best chance of fulfilling my fan boy dream of getting a set list. I asked Doris if I could take one and she told me to take them both… one for me and one for Paige, which I got signed for her as a late-birthday present/souvenir of the evening.
Thank you to Jean Schultz and Paige for an amazing party… and Doris, Ty and Nate for continuing to be my favorite band.
Tomorrow night my friend and cartoonist extraordinaire, Paige Braddock, is launching her new book, Jane’s World Vol. 8, up north at the Charles Schultz Museum. That alone would be pretty damn exciting, but it a fit of whimsy she asked Girlyman to come play at her book launch and they agreed. I remembered she called and asked me if I was sitting down before she told me the news.
The fanboy in me can, from time to time, completely geek out about bands… For a decade or so I was a total Indigo Girls geek. (Still am…) But the last few years I’ve been spreading the gospel of Girlyman. (Which, came by way of IG when I saw Nate, Ty and Doris open for Amy & Emily. Incidently, that show is captured in Wordplay.)
So needless to say, I’m pretty excited about seeing the band in a teeny venue with less than 300 people. In an effort to catch some friends up before the show I did some digging on YouTube. Finding badly recorded concert videos online is the more modern day version of all the bootleg tape trading I did in high school. Apologies to my family to making them suffer through endless hours of raspy concert recordings.
So for those of you who have never seen Girlyman live, I offer three clips.
a. Young James Dean, not horribly recorded, with a wee bit of banter.
b. Son of a Preacher Man, preceded by their benediction, not perfect, but fun.
c. and finally, this was completely new to me, the girlygrass cover of Father Figure. If I get any requests tomorrow night, this is going to be it.
Le and I headed down to the Maker Faire today with every other techie-DIY-kid-or-kid-at-heart in the Bay Area. Now my head is spinning with projects and I can’t wait to jump in and start working in my newly organized and cleaned out studio area.
Tonight, doing some post-Maker Faire internet stumbling landed me on the Extreme Craft blog, which focuses on that blurry line between art and craft. (Reminds me of the YKnit podcast I listened to the other day where they were debating whether or not knitting is art or craft.) Anyhow, I have to share this amazing video I found on EC which pretty much speaks for itself.
