musically yours, Agent99

spent the weekend in the music machine. i really do enjoy the live concert, but at times feel that the shows don't quite hold up to the recorded standard i'm anticipating. yeah, i know the sound is different in the venue than a mixed and engineered product. yeah, i know that because i myself am a performer and have been recorded with bands and recognize that there are different nuances in my live sound then that which is captured on the CD at the end of the editing process. i understand. however, if a recorded song is moving and awe-inspiring, i'm expecting alot of the same in the venue. there is much that just isn't lost in the translation from stage to recording or swallowed up within the pools of beer on the floor of the venue. in fact, i should be even more awestruck to see these songs i love with live concert footage in my face. this isn't always the scenario, though. we caught neko case at metro on friday night. her backing band, the sadies, opened for her and they were phenom. energetic and bouncy alt-country flavor. unfortunately, her set wasn't nearly as entrancing. i really love miss case, really do, but her live schtick between songs came off as kinda whiney and unsure this particular evening and there was zero momentum between each number. as in, she'd stop singing and we'd fall into the dead zone for a few minutes while she consistantly tuned her guitar after nearly each song, then took alot of time to begin a new number. seriously, girlfriend can sing, but this live show needed some work because it felt like a stretched out recording session, when i know that was not the case for miss case. (i've been to a live recording for her, so i know what's up.) per usual, we did get to encounter some of chicago's finest drunkies in the audience and it always warms my heart to be surrounded by people who obviously could care less about the show and are there just to drunkenly yap and stumble on me. i came this close to kindly schooling some silly young thing who kept squealing, "it's my birthday weekend!" about four inches from my ears throughout the show. i toyed with the notion of creating a free birthday drink offer that she'd have to go to the bar to retrieve with proof of her natal day to get her off my feet for awhile, but never got around to it. be as drunk as you like in any bar you like, just stay away from the shows, if you don't mind. there's really no reason for the audience to be stumbling intoxicated if you're there to listen. a hoosiey bar's cover band is fine for the drunk bellowing, but if i'm shelling more than 15 bones for a night of music, i'm not paying to have your fucked up ass bellow in my face (not about the music or delight of the show, of course, but more likely your plans for the rest of the evening, how fucked up you were last night, that hoe in the corner who totally wants you or how fokkking awesome the fokkkking cubbies are this fockkkking year, dude!) we journeyed down to the south side's harold washington cultural center to hear the queens of blues, lady koko taylor and mavis staples on saturday. koko can definitely still kick it, but i was unsure how often mavis had been performing with her band. she was out of breath and noticeably struggling to sing many numbers and didn't seem to be completely on the same page as the sidemen. if you're ending a song with a command like this: "hey! hey! stop now! i'm done, okay? cut it off!" while waving your hands around wildly, then i'm guessing you're either a. not in the habit of leading your backing musicians, or b. just don't know how to do so. lady gets her props and all because she's part of a musical dynasty, but i was expecting a bit more control during her act during a planned performance. still good to see the legends, though.

had a kind day of lounging yesterday in between domestic chores. i was a regular sally homemaker, i tell you. did some organizational revamp on our cd collection, multiple loads of laundry and kitchen maintainance. got some reading in and watched "monster" which was just amazing. those saucy girls played them low-brow womens real good. i'm officially caught up on all my borrowed dvd's, so i guess i can go back to reading for entertainment again.

today is the beginning of a very busy week. i'm attending my first meeting of women and children first's young feminist book club. this month's selection is "push", which i found to be a phenominal little novel chock full of tragedy and hope. the author was really solid at showing the metamorphis of this young heroine's journey to learn to read and communicate verbally; she was perfect at creating her vernacular in all forms. i'm really interested in seeing what kind of women are in to this group and looking forward to picking up february's book. after, i'll shag back downtown to catch a few hours of BigBluesMama's video shoot at the house of blues. i'm supposed to meet up with LadyCabaret to see some of the show then trot over to VoiceCoach's gig at the seneca hotel. methinks i have too many stops scheduled into this evening, but we'll see if i can hit them all by 11:00, after which i will certainly shrivel into a pumpkin-tinted state.

i need to get the cheetah scheduled back into my week. Miss has inspired me and i know i can fit five visits in weekly. can't waste time at 30 with procrastination on ye olde health. there's lots of work to be done still. perhaps if i use my gathering of the gurls as my initial goal, i can make some headway in the next five weeks before i see them. could five or 10 lbs. release in that time?