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.

When I go outside, my face stings, until it goes numb. My lungs burn, and that never abates. Inside, static electricity infuses everything and makes the cat distrust being touched. My skin gets dry. I get to choose between cracking hands and constantly applying a layer of grease to my entire body. My nose bleeds. I am disgusted by the smell of the blood, and the trickle of it in my throat. Everything outside is colorless, except where it's dirty. The filth cakes everything and gets tracked into every building. It's so cold that liquid freezes on the ground and never thaws. You can see every shiny patch where someone has spat, or vomited, or discarded their cold cup of gas station coffee. You can see every place a dog has pissed, yellow on white, for months. The streets are dangerous and the sidewalks are worse. I can't walk without risking falling down. Every time I encounter a staircase I envision ways in which I can fall down and break my bones or shatter my teeth...

Nils of RAA I found out Rural Alberta Advantage was playing pretty last minute, through an online ad. I bought a ticket the day of and went solo. The band was incredibly nice, and expressed gratitude toward Minneapolis for being the most supportive US city on their tour the last couple of years. They stopped through the Twin Cities and played at a sold-out Cedar Cultural Center to try out some new tunes in November of last year, which was a great show. They since recorded their album and promoted it all over North America and Europe, and last night was their last American show before heading back to Canada to wrap up the tour. Paul of RAA Yukon Blonde, another Canadian band, opened. Their music was at times sort of soul-inspired, but mostly really enjoyable and catchy rock. It's a five-piece band that features three people who seem to share the songwriting (or at least the singing) duties. I'm not sure it's the kind of thing I would listen to on my own, but I enjo...

Female cricket at my field site. January started in the back lot of a Lutheran Church in Hilo, Hawaii. I recorded and captured crickets with my colleagues, counted invasive cane toads, and collapsed into bed sometime after midnight Hawaii time (hours after my friends in Europe and the continental US had finished celebrating). I spent as much time as possible on that trip snorkeling and reveling in the warm weather. Grand Canyon is Grand February was pretty quiet, but we saw the Wild play the Islanders in Saint Paul, and the Gopher men's gymnastics team take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Minneapolis. I caught Josh Ritter and Guster on tour. I tried not to freeze to death. My life as a lab rat in the spring In March, Jacob and I took a massive trip to Arizona. We visited his family in Phoenix, camped for three nights on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and roadtripped to Canyon de Chelly, Walnut Canyon, and other places. We saw a lot of amazing Pueblo dwe...