Twilight Concerts and A Little Known Tidbit

We are in the final week of true summer, next week September starts and fall. So here we are ushering in fall by ending the week full of end of season fun. Last night I dragged Ryan to She & Him at the Twilight Concerts. She & Him is the musical duo M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer, Elf, Failure To Launch). I heart her and think she is cute as a button.

The concert was good and at the end a crowd chanting variations of “Zooey!” and “She & Him!” the duo came back out and treated the audience to a pretty awesome encore.
Ryan was even impressed by their cover of Chuck Barry’s “Roll Over Beethoven". We got to the concert after 9 and parked under the gateway, tredged through the leaving groups of people and finally made it to arrive in time to hear my favorite She & Him numbers. Zooey was bouncing around on stage donned in a classy vintage blue plaid dress and M. Ward was sporting the traditional M. Ward uniform.

I guess I should confess that I don’t go to a super lot of outdoor concerts (free or not) anymore but I used to and my concert must do’s and do not’s are as follows.

1. Take someone taller with you because they will make it a lot harder for other tall people to block your view.
2. If you can’t see the stage very well, have fun in the crowd anyway with the people you are their with.
3. Do not wear heavy clothing because lots of people means you will be quite hot.
4. Wear comfortable shoes that you can stand in for long periods of time, dance in, but built well enough that strewn garbage will not get all over your feet.
5. Wear clothes that will be easy to clean, because concerts mean smoke in your face, behind you, wherever and you still can’t figure out how to find a spot where it isn’t. And drunk people are not really bright and do a lot of crazy things.
6. Minimal accessories because its bulky and unless you don’t mind smacking the people around you with your purse in their face, a small bag will do.
7. Most people will play encores, so wait around for at least 10 minutes post show with the others who are crazily chanting things like “Zooey!” not only that, but typically this means less crowd to fight and much easier to get closer to the stage.
8. If you don’t like massive crowds, going late is a good bet, because most bands play their new stuff at the beginning to promote new albums and the classic and better known stuff at the end.
9. Outdoor concerts mean overall better ‘after concert’ smell but attract things like strewn garbage and probably cigarette smoke.
10. Have fun, be careful, be mindful of others around you, and respectful though you may not see eye to eye with those surrounding, you obviously have something in common, because obviously you are at the same concert be you dragged or attending completely voluntarily.

On the docket for tonight is The Antics improv show in Logan where some of our good friends are fighting to keep their slot at the Logan Arthouse venue. Should you be in the area, a fun dose of improv costs less than a movie or play and involves the audience in all the fun and games. The imagination and improvisational skill of some of these people is quite incredible.

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An Apology

I’m in the middle of a reading cleanse to try and figure out my own passions and what I really want to read. Its weird. Although after Finnegan’s Wake, Mina Loy and Stein it was the only way to regain reading sanity. So with my reading cleanse, I have a heartfelt apology to anyone I ever slammed for reading something I deemed too juvenile. I had no right to and while at the time I was formulating large arguments against light reading based on what my classmates and Professors were talking about. Anyway, let me try to make it up to you and talk a little about why any reading is good.

Despite my various slams on Twilight and the large dismissal of one of my favorite bands selling out I have this to say to them. Good for them. Expanding the imagination of what is categorized as a certain entity and doing it successfully enough that the whole world buys into it. Well despite my large defense mechanism on not messing with folklore and myth, if that’s what makes it successful then kudos to the creator. And to Muse, well exploring their sound and style based upon books despite largely not loving the music is gutsy and successfully gathering a new audience, well good for them.

My Twilight anger was because I couldn’t read it super closely and have all these awesome connections pour out, but that’s because I was reading it wrong. Having been spoiled with J. K. Rowling’s genius (all the spells were in the right Latin mood, tense conjugation and declensions, hero’s cycle implemented,) I thought that despite calling something adolescent or young adult, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t incredibly deep. So I expected a lot from Twilight. I read the first 3 books and had a theory formulated, could Meier be pulling off a Hugo? Why all these references to the Moon and the Sun? Red and Blue, Stone and Fire? And my expectations for the fourth book were built and consequently dropped on its head. My time and theories spoiled I was of course hurt by the books, much like being stabbed in the back. My precious time that I whined I did not have enough on had been partially spent on something that would not reward me for added research and queries.

So my bitterness at being so incredibly wrong made me resent all things attached to the book series. All a long there had been refutes that I was expecting far too much, and I was. I’m sorry to anyone that felt I was slamming their interests by going into a literary snob rant, I’m sorry. Really, I’m just glad people are reading. It does so much for you to be able to connect with literature and enriches your life. So kudos to readers of all genre styles and here’s to tearing down these literary snob walls I’ve learned so well to defend.

Hi my name is Angie Meeks and I am a recovering literary snob. Its been several days since I have attacked someone for their reading selections and I hope I can mend any relationship that I maimed by lambasting anyone’s leisure reading choices. Please forgive me.

A

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