Virtually Home

This is just a stub of a post to say: I went to see The Decemberists with a recently-opened venue in Saint Paul. Gaelynn Lea opened with her violin playing, loop pedal, and intriguing vocals. Chris Funk came out to play a song with her. I thought her set was captivating. The Decemberists continue to impress me with their technical precision on stage, even though they tend to play a predictable set and use the same gimmicks over and over. Their new whale featured in their Mariner's Revenge encore was beautiful, and I had a blast at the show. I have now seen them a bunch of times, in Texas, Washington, Maryland, Minnesota, and England. Even the tours supporting albums I'm not as crazy about have been really fun.

Arriving in Australia was a surreal experience. If you have never moved to a foreign country to which you have never been, I'm not sure I can relate the experience. It's like diving off a 10-meter board into a pool of unknown temperature, in which there may be saltwater crocodiles. We touched down in Sydney after a 17-hour red-eye from Houston. Getting through biocontrol and customs took us our entire layover. I had just watched six movies and was exhausted. Ever since getting a blood clot on a plane, I can't sleep in a chair. I just watched a bunch of not-so-memorable movies and stood up obsessively to stretch my calf muscles. And all that was between crying jags, since I had received news of a close friend's death immediately before getting on a plane. We ran through the airport and got on another plane, across the Australian continent. I had an aisle seat, so no view out the window, no access to movies, and insufficient bandwidth to read, by that point. It was a lo...

Jacob and Jessie on NYE 2018 was kind of a whirlwind. There were a lot of highs and lows, but mostly highs. I had some wonderful adventures this year. Here are some highlights. January Oberst with Taylor Hollingsworth of MVB We kicked off the New Year in the best way possible: by seeing a Conor Oberst concert in a California. Jacob and I flew out to Los Angeles and met up with friends from all over the country to see Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band play their first show in years. We caught up in line all day in the gloriously warm (by comparison with Minnesota) weather. We ate amazing Mexican food. And the show was brilliant -- the new venue in Silverlake was really cool and made custom cockatils for the show. Miwi La Lupa played a fabulous solo acoustic set to open. At midnight, the band played "Auld Lang Syne". The New Year couldn't have begun in a better way. That day turned out to be the last time I hung out with my friend Christina outside a ...