currently listening: Fiona Apple covers Cy Coleman April 4, 2009

Fiona Apple :: Why Try to Change Me Now

 

from

 

Then was Then and Now is Now: A Tribute to Cy Coleman

 

still trying to find a copy of this CD for sale…

currently listening: foxboro hot tubs December 9, 2007

 

supposedly a Green Day reincarnation (it’s hard to miss Billie Joe’s distinct voice) with a retro 50s-60s vibe.

download the 6-song album for free from their website.

 UPDATE:  hmm, it looks like they’ve stopped offering the album on their website.  you can still listen at http://www.myspace.com/foxborohottubs

currently listening: rosie thomas and sufjan stevens December 8, 2007

i first heard Rosie Thomas in a collection of songs featured on every single Grey’s Anatomy episode of the first two seasons that some crazy fan put together (a pretty good collection, btw).  my sister sent me this song a few weeks ago, and until now, i didn’t even realize the other singer was Sufjan Stevens.

Rosie Thomas and Sufjan Stevens - Say Hello

 if you click here, it looks like you can even download the mp3, though it has a couple second odeo ad with it.

sing to you October 18, 2007

my brother sent me this video the other day.  [as his big sister, i'd like to take some credit for helping him develop good taste in music ].

to me, it sounds jack johnson-ish with violin.  when i listen to it, i invariably close my eyes.  not sure if it’s from the beauty of the music or my subconscious following the lyrics’ directions…

 Sing To You

It’s almost late, I hate to tell you that
it’s my time to go
I’ve stayed as long as mama let me, she’s
sad I’ve found a new place to call my
Home is where you find your dreams,
but you’re staring at the sun
So close your eyes, forget I’m leaving,
and let me lay beside you while I

Chorus:
Sing to you
It won’t be long before I’m with you
And not without another song to
Sing to you
So close your eyes forget I’m leaving,
let me lay beside you while I

Find the words to paint the pictures of
where we’re gonna be…
A thousand days anticipation will
keep us on our toes until my knee doth hit the ground will shake when I ask you for your hand
I’ll stand behind you,
don’t be unkind, you know I’ll
keep my promise to you when I

Chorus

Bridge
Violin solo

I’ll hold you to my heart
is beating with every breath you take
A flower blooms and it fills the room
with the morning glory erasing all
The mistakes I made before we made it
and left it all behind
I’ll bow my head, kiss you gently
I know you understand the words I

Sing to you
It was not long, and now I’m with you
And not without the same old song to
Sing to you
So close your eyes forget I’m leaving,
let me lay beside you while I
Sing to you

© 2007 Alain de Courtenay, LLC

talent August 21, 2007

i meant to post this a long time ago.

you may know imogen heap for her solo work, or more likely as part of frou frou.  the music’s ok, sometimes too mellow for me. 

but i saw this youtube video of imogen singing “just for now” a capella (sort of) and i was so impressed by her ability to create such a full and rich performance with her voice, her hands, and a mixer.  all those layers took quite some coordination.  who needs a band or backup singers when you’ve got a mixer?

a summer in a post August 15, 2007

yes, it’s been a long time.  not that i’ve been any busier than the always-busy feeling that i will never be rid of as a medical student…  i guess i just haven’t been feeling as inspired, or, as is usually is the case when i blog, i haven’t felt as desperate to put off some studying.  but i decided i might as well start somewhere or else i’ll never get back in the swing of posting.

so some random updates of the last few months:

may :: we saw bright eyes at the Greek in berkeley, and ben gibbard (of death cab for cutie) at the Fillmore.  bright eyes was a fun show, but i LOVED the ben gibbard show - it was him and a guitar, and also a surprise appearance by jenny lewis for backup vocals on a couple songs.  i’ve previously posted my love for DCFC, and this show only augmented that love and especially for ben and his geeky glasses and charming performance.  the link above takes you to the NPR live concert series, where you can listen to ben’s show.  i loved that he opened with donovan’s “sing a song for you, that’s what i’m here to do, sing for you…”  ::  josh graduated, not once, but four times.  because of my schedule, i only had to go to one of these ceremonies, which his family later told me was the best one anyway  ::  one reason i could only make it to one ceremony was that i had to sit through a mock medical malpractice trial, which was the most boring thing ever (poor volunteer judge) and cemented my absolute lack of interest in being a lawyer.  it was interesting to hear the fake jurors’ rationale for their decisions, and at the same time disheartening to realize how little medicine can be taught during the course of a trial, and how much their decisions were based upon preconceived notions.

june ::  josh and i saw Jersey Boys in SF (think dreamgirls with less girl drama and more humor and italian mob).  josh knew i loved the music, though it looked like the two of us comprised 20% of the under-40 yo audience  ::   i went home for a week, whereupon i began my obsession with pinkberry frozen yogurt (more on that next time).

july ::  we watched Transformers, which was entertaining, but had some way too cheesy lines  (e.g. Sam making demands of some agent, and doing what any hero would do for the love of his life: “I want my car, my parents. Maybe you should write that down. Oh and her juvie record. That’s gotta be gone. Like: Forever.”)   ::  otherwise, i was in the hospital.  a lot.

august ::  i chopped off over 7 inches of hair and josh got a buzzcut (we should’ve taken before and after pictures)  ::  we finally watched harry potter #5  ::  josh left for europe.  as i helped him prepare for his trip, which included shopping (yay) and convincing him to bring more than two pairs of underwear (the tagline on the package was something like: 17 countries, 3 weeks… 1 pair of underwear) i decided i wasn’t really that sad that i would not be joining him on his backpacking trip  ::  this past friday, i finished hospital work, and to ease the hospital withdrawal, the next day i spied on my patients via EMR because i hate signing off when there are still acute issues, and also, i am a hospital junkie  ::  to celebrate having enough time to sleep more than 4 hrs a night, i proceeded to stay up til nearly 5 am reading harry potter #7, which was both wonderful and bittersweet at the same time.  i woke up sunday morning in harry potter withdrawal, and decided i had to re-read the last few chapters.

and now, i am desperately trying to put off studying.  i’ve already paid bills, done laundry, and even re-organized some of my mp3s.  i guess it’s time to study…

something to look forward to March 6, 2007

on sunday night, instead of doing some extra badly needed reading in preparation for the next day, i was contemplating my lack of a life and current anhedonia.  so i decided to mosey on over to Live 105’s and KFOG’s sites to check out the concert scene and was happily surprised to find out that Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie would be doing a solo show at the Fillmore in May.  tix had just gone on sale that morning, and i was lucky enough to score a pair as the show now appears to be sold out.  good music, good venue, good price – yay!

i LOVE dcfc and was lucky enough to see them in concert last March with another fave band, franz ferdinand.  not sure if ben is doing a solo project, but based on his work with the postal service and dcfc, i’m sure i’ll love the solo show.

here’s one of my all-time favorite songs:

wish i could upload my own files to the site, as there’re so many dcfc songs to share, e.g. a great cover of “Earth Angel”….  yes, i’m also a big fan of oldies music, and of course, the especially sappy songs.

p.s.  please excuse my limited vocabulary and repetitive word choice as 1) i’m post-call; 2) the goal of medical language is to use as many acronyms as possible; and 3) i read an average of 2 non-medical books a year.

a fun/drama-filled weekend October 30, 2006

Saturday, we went to a Halloween party where there were at least 4 people wearing scrubs, which is 4 too many even though there were 100 other people with pretty nice costumes.  i think that having to wear scrubs on a regular basis makes the doctor costume very uncool to me, even though i realize these people have nothing to do with the medical field and are probably just fans of Grey’s Anatomy.  still, how much effort did that take?  put on some scrubs and now you’re a “doctor”.  at the least you could get a cane and call yourself House.

———-

Sunday morning we woke up at 10 am and panicked because we were supposed to be in SF in an hour.  we quickly showered and were out the door in 30 minutes, at which point we realized that it was only 9:30 am because daylight saving time had ended. [see?  didn't i tell you that i would totally not know?]

we got to SF on time for josh’s meeting with his group members to check out their site for their next project.  after walking around the neigborhood for an hour and splitting up the work, we headed back to my car, at which point i realized i didn’t have my car keys and the drama began.

of all the things that i forget or lose (i.e. glasses), i’ve never actually lost my keys.  i’m also not one to lock my keys in the car, especially since i usually use the clicky thing to lock the doors.  we peered into the windows, hoping that i’d left the keys inside rather than dropping it somewhere along the 5 city blocks we had walked.  unfortunately my keys were nowhere to be seen.  and the spare key was 2 hrs away in Sacramento.  and josh didn’t have a functioning car, which was why i had accompanied him for his group project work.  and my roommate was working in the hospital that day, so i couldn’t have asked her for the huge favor of rescuing us in SF even if i’d wanted to.  and josh was supposed to pick something up in Oakland that afternoon.  and he’d made plans for us for that evening as well.

so we retraced our steps, heads tilted down, scanning the ground for keys.  strangely enough we did find a set of keys (not mine) on one block.  we asked the people at Trader Joe’s (the only business i had walked into) if anyone had turned in any keys.  they did have a set, but not mine.  we borrowed their phone book to look up locksmiths and i left my cell phone number in case anything turned up.

we called one locksmith who informed us that cars after 1998 were likely to have transponder chips in the keys, so they referred us to another locksmith that would be able to handle the transponder chips.  the second locksmith told us it would cost $650 to create the key for a car with the transponder chip system.  i’d been prepared to spend some money for this emergency, but not $650 (!!!).  we asked the locksmith if there was a way to know for sure that my car had a transponder, but all he could tell us was that a lot of the new cars did have transponders.  we tried calling a Toyota dealership to see if they knew about the transponder, and the guy (salesman?) told us that XLE but not LE models (my car is an LE) had transponders. 

at this point we were wholly confused about the transponder issue and stressed about the extreme cost.  and of course, there’s the fact that we may have simply locked ourselves out which would make the whole replacement key thing a moot point.  so we called a third locksmith to try to confirm that my car did or did not have a transponder, and he told us that keys with the big plastic top part were keys with transponder chips.  however, he quoted us a much much lower price of $225 (whew).

with a plan in motion, we grabbed some lunch as we waited for locksmith #3 to arrive and work his magic.  he arrived in a black SUV and wore black sunglasses and skinny jeans.  with his Russian accent and fancy gadgets, he reminded more of a spy on Alias than the plumber-type i’d somehow been expecting.  he unlocked the car and our suspicions were confirmed - my keys were not inside. 

as he  started working on his laptop and fancy gadgets to make a new key, i sat in the car to escape the cold cold wind and josh headed off to finish some more of his neighborhood assessment for his project.  10 minutes later, my cell phone rang, and i picked it up to hear josh saying “abort! abort!” (i’m not kidding).  turns out he had decided to stop by the diner next to Trader Joe’s and inquire if anyone had happened to turn in a set of keys.  someone had.  and they were mine!

meanwhile, mr. spy/locksmith had been working diligently on my new key with his hi-tech equipment.  i walked over to his SUV to tell him that the keys had been found, and unfortunately we would not be needing a new key.  he told me he’d finish making the door key (without the transponder chip) anyway, since this was his first time using this particular machine and he wanted to check it out.

so in the end, i got my keys back (yay!), we only paid $125, and i had an extra door key which could be used for lock-outs or if necessary to make a transponder key at a discounted cost. of course, the whole car key drama had taken up 3 hours and much energy and we still had lots to do.  by now, josh had already confessed what the mysterious item to be picked up in oakland and our surprise plans for the evening were – tickets to the sold out Regina Spektor concert!

we rushed back to oakland, picked up the tickets, picked up some socks, gloves, and a long-sleeved tee at Target (i was seriously not prepared for the cold), changed into warmer clothes, and headed across the bay bridge for the third time that day. [aside: at one point, the manager from Trader Joe's called me back to let me know a set of keys similar to mine had been found.  i gleefully told her they weren't mine.]

the concert was awesome, and even josh was pleasantly surprised.  i was blown away by her opening song, an a capella jazz/blues number called “ain’t no cover” (which can be found on her Live at Bull Moose album).  the picture to the left is of her tapping into the microphone as she sings the song a capella (the version on the album doesn’t sound quite as good because the tapping heartbeat sound is very faint).  i was also thoroughly impressed by (and jealous of) her piano skillz.  she’s quite the storyteller in her songs, and i could see her composing for a musical or a movie, though it would be quite off-the-wall and non-disney.

———

morals of the story?

1. don’t lose your keys
2. more people lose their keys than i expected
3. if you do lose your keys, call Available Locksmith because they are nice and don’t charge insane prices
4. it helps to have a boyfriend who manages to stay calm and comforting and has the random stroke of genius to check a diner that we hadn’t even visited for my lost keys.
5. good music performed live is even better.

regina spektor in SF October 13, 2006

i previously posted about regina spektor as a “currently listening” selection.  and while i was checking out some concert calendars in anticipation of my upcoming family vacation practice rotation, i discovered that she’ll be performing at the Fillmore on Sun Oct 29.  good thing i was too busy to remember to buy david sedaris tickets [sorry david, but i've always been more of a music person than a comedy person.  plus, the concert tix are cheaper.]

p.s. jenny lewis will be playing at the Fillmore on Oct 30 but that’s a Monday, so no go.

currently listening: matt costa October 11, 2006

     

Matt Costa :: Songs We Sing 

 i first heard matt costa when he opened for jack johnson two summers ago.  like jack’s music, matt’s songs are the kind you find yourself humming in your head.  i knew immediately that matt costa would be a name i would find as a headliner in the not too distant future.  the only thing i thought might keep him from being a big star would be the folksiness of his pop.

so i was super-excited to hear one of my fave matt costa songs, “cold december,” on the radio today just as i was lamenting the seeming lack of any good music on the radio lately.  i only caught the end of the song, and i hope he hasn’t toned down the folksy sound for this re-release of Songs We Sing.  still, it’s exciting to see a lesser known artist with a unique sound on mainstream radio.  [goodness knows i've had enough of 3 doors down and the pussycat dolls.]

my fave tracks from the album (the 2005 release anyway)
[1] Cold December
[2] Astair
[7] My Sweet Rose

darn, this 2006 release has a bunch of different songs, which means i’ll have to go and buy it…