Nerd Pride Radio

After the kids were born, I didn't go to a show for years. That streak ended when I saw Midnight Oil in 2017. Nothing in 2018. but 3 this year--Jawbox, Frank Turner, and Sleater-Kinney.

I'm not sure when we'll let the kids go to concerts. I keep thinking that if Midnight Oil tours again, maybe it'll be that. Of course there's a good chance that they won't come back to the U.S.

What was Frank Turner like in person???

Sounds good! I like it when people do some unpredictable things in the live show like that. I'm not usually into the whole individual guy singer-songwriter but he is unusually good. This reminds me I also want to see Andrew Bird live and might be able to pull that off, because I can slink in alone to an orchestra venue to see him. One of those other guys who does his thing with a band and I like it!

Ooooh, recent concerts sound-off:

2011: Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
2012: <first child born>
2014: Neutral Milk Hotel
2015: <second child born>
2017: Chicago
2019: Weird Al

Is it unintentional joke: went to the milk hotel with babies?% okay yeah, was life for many periods, "night manager at the milk hotel", but nothing neutral about it. Only the best milks!

2019 - Weird Al
2019 - Paul McCartney

Other than this recent spate, we don't go to many concerts.

The people are seeing Weird Al this year! Nice. I have seen some musicals, which I'm happy to count, but no live music just for music's sake. Hope springs eternal; we still have two months of 2019 left.

Major error; stopped to do something while Bitch Better Have my Money was playing on radio (Rihanna) and was exposed without brain shielding for a few minutes. Aaaagh, Pay me what you owe me ughhhhh ahhhh it's so dumb and gets in your head! I am headed out in the car where am sure to hear my Wish Wish song and will work hard to rearrange things properly.

Don't act like you forgot, I call the shot shot shots!

I reached a point of mental exhaustion that caused me to purchase fake flowers as an ineffective "self-care" tactic. Now why anyone would want fake flowers is beyond me, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. Likewise, I feel sure that someday my love for Cardi B in general and this Wish Wish song in particular will make no sense, but right now it feels like the thing to do. Maybe her general misanthropy touches my own, I don't know, but Fish Sticks! Lol, not very nice sentiment but is it wrong? Okay, I have two friends now, so, take that, world! Two! At minimum. Two that are here in real life that I get to hang out with once a month. So, I'm getting WAY too much information right now about the dating life of my niece who is at least a year too young to be dating, so, I have to stop here and maybe leave this vehicle.

I was listening to some songs off an old Joni Mitchell album this morning, or maybe last night and this morning, and then I discovered something hilarious that I had not known when I started listening, although I had just "planted" fake plastic flowers because everything else died in the cold, and then I put some indoors too, in a big pot. Plastic flowers are terrible x10 and I don't know what seized me but I just had to have some kind of brightly colored flower. Unlike me to settle for fake flowers when I can get some kind of dried greenery. Anyway, here's what Joni has to say by way of explanation of a song I was listening to:

"I woke up one day and looked out my window down into the street and they’d put plastic plants in my planter. That was sort of the last straw so… being very romantic I said “well then I guess I’m just going to have to leave this city with its plastic plants and its dust on the window ledge. Maybe I’ll go off into the woods and become a hermit and be very independent and live off the land and eat wild raspberries and strawberries and Saskatoon berries, and be as free as a proverbial bird.”

Basically plastic flowers are what happens when dreams die! But it's just a little cold weather, right? Soon enough I will have pussywillow branches and after that back to pansies.

Pete, I found a partial explanation of your enjoyment of Old Town Road:



I have been in a very Michael McDonald mode today!

Mendelssohn for Violin in D minor with Strings and Piano, not sure of official wording. Makes D minor so joyful! Okay, well, I guess it whips around into a number of major keys as well, but anyway, the whole thing joyful AND HE WAS 14 when he wrote it which... wow!

Also listening to Beethoven's second for some reason.

Lizzo has risen up to help fill the space left painfully empty by Prince.

Current Lizzo obsession! Also anything live show with flute!

Lizzo + Prince hath existed.

This is a really great acoustic Lizzo plus interview, the songs pop in at 9:25 and 26:00 if you just want to hear those. I LOVE HER!

My kid and I were eating asparagus and for some reason I popped out with a "this is the dawning of the Age of Asparagus", and without ever hearing the actual song, the kid completely picked this up and ran with it, complete with dance moves that would have been fully appropriate for the musical/movie, and now... he won't stop.

Doesn't really start until 30 sec in...
I CAN'T EXPRESS THE LOVE FOR THIS.

Grammy noms are out.
https://pitchfork.com/news/grammy-nomin ... nees-here/

Best New Artist is wild
Black Pumas
Billie Eilish
Lil Nas X
Lizzo
Maggie Rogers
Rosalía
Tank and the Bangas
Yola

It's always a weird category, and no different this year, since Lizzo, Tank, and Maggie Rogers have been around and popular-in-their-own-way for years. It will almost surely go to one of these three:

Lizzo - but she's been out and about for six years. I like her best of those listed, but I think her winning this doesn't seem right. I'm glad she's popular now, but this has been a woman honing her craft over multiple albums and four straight years of critically acclaimed singles.
Lil Nas X - For his contributions this year only, from nowhere to (by some measures) the most successful song ever, I'd give him the award. BUT...
Billie Eilish - I think she will win this, because part of the goal of "Best New Artist" is to predict who to bet on moving forward, and Billie is young and (hopefully) just getting started on a long career.

So if it's about 2019, Lil Nas X, if it's about the future it's Billie, if it's about the best on the list, it's Lizzo. Fun!