Hodie

I'll let the fangirl who actually lives in California give you the details, because I can say only that it's in LA, on Fairfax across the street from Canter's and two doors down from a spacey pizza place. Did we remember to mention that Nels was full-on singing throughout the night? It was ridiculously cool. I'm still pretty blissed out. Judy, we were SO thinking about you...

JON FUCKING BRION is RIGHT! I can't add much more, because I'm preparing to go to bed soon, only, I'm sure, to stare wide-eyed and grinning at the ceiling for hours. But GEEZE, how lucky can two fangirls be? Nels was just absolutely fantatsic -- besides the covers, he did some very melodic jazz, some very mayhem-oriented avant jazz, and some sitar-sounding wonderfulness. And then his entire concept of doing an entire set of Neil songs was just inspired. But to pile on top of that goodness, we got to see the guy we've been missing for a very long time. I feel amazingly lucky, and it

Yay, I'm so glad we got it out in the world at last! Thanks, Chandler, for taking the time to make it sound as beautiful as it was in real life.

We were much less "thirsty" this year than last year, and consequently our singing sounds more like singing and less like nails on chalkboard. Jeff also did many fewer covers this year than last, and so we didn't have so much of the muttering-during-the-verses-plus-compensatory-belting/hollering-during-the-chorus. Everyone should be grateful that the hours-long post-show singalong wasn't recorded, though. I think that was a good deal more holler-y. Except for Stardog, whose castrato-style soprano singing rings out like a church bell in the wilderness.

Oh, I should also mention that our own Martin Rivas (Twisted Acres) and Dave Mirabella (MeDave) each played an opening set for Jeff, both of which were taped. They sound gorgeous as well, and those will be included, too.

Evonne, was that you who answered "1985" as an example of things that disappeared? That was FUNNY.

Honestly, I'm thoroughly impressed with what he did in recording that -- I think the phrase "crystal clear" must've been invented for this. You'd think it was taped in some acoustically perfect theater instead of in a basement.

No, no, that's not true. We're happy to make it available, and Jeff was perfectly fine with that when we asked him. It's going to take a little while -- we haven't even got it out to all the attendees yet. It'll be more like sometime in the next 1-2 months. By the way, it sounds freakin' wonderful, so it will be worth the wait! Oh, and in keeping with the charitable spirit of the whole thing, we're going to encourage that donations be made to assorted favorite Tweedy causes, but I think gogo is doing the legwork on that one, so look for her post once things actually get moving.

Bellissimo! Bevi molto caff

Quando vai?

I forgot to mention how much I loved the opening act, Morricone Youth. They do music composed for film and television, sometimes different arrangements, and sometimes straight-up covers. Their cd was perfect driving music for the trip to Virginia the next day (well, supplemented by a whole lot of Jon Brion). They've got an "everything we've ever played" list in the music section of their site, and it really makes me wish I had some bootlegs of theirs. Mothra's Song, yay!

Nope, nope, I was at the show with bbop, but I wasn't in the parking line. I bet you're thinking of someone named Sarah. I did stand by Paul during the show, though. I don't think I even know what you look like, so if I saw you, I didn't know it.

It was magnificent, I was feeling literally swoony. It was the highlight of the night for me.

Ha, you caught a little bit of Nels' silliness in there, too. He's been very giddy/friendly lately. Playing as well as he does, he could stand there like a frozen soldier and I'd still be crazy about him. But his willingness to let his inner child prance around on the stage makes me even more impressed. I loved the show, and had a really great time. If we had idiots near us, they weren't idiot enough for me to even remember, so I'll consider myself lucky, and really glad I went.

Yeah, besides just acquiring the rug, there's all that follow-up...

ha!

I think I was completely blinded by the beauty of his glasses, so I missed any other fashionistical items.

Oooo, thanks for the info, Patti is very handy. Any way she can confirm whether or not the dog actually took a turn on the phone? I didn't eat any brownies (or wite-out either, for that matter), so I was just passing on bogus advice, as one does. I can confirm, though, that if you're really nearsighted, taking your glasses off helps quite a bit.

His parents called to make a request (or Susan called them, I'm not sure which). They Cleo, their dog, also made a request, though I'm not absolutely certain he played it. There seems to be a bit of sibling rivalry there. Eat some brownies and look again -- I'm sure you'll see it's a six!

You should've had a talk with Susan, Wendy, because apparently she talked with Kande about whether or not SHE was the oldest person there. Kande tried to insist that I'm older (I sure as hell LOOK older than she does), but apparently Susan has seniority on me by a few months. In terms of random photographs: Goat Head Decor: Dessert: "Actually, I'm standing in front of a bunch of people right now, and they're all looking at me...":

Even as I was watching that one being taken, I knew it was probably going to be my favorite of the whole weekend. I'll have more pictures to add one of these moments, and I'm pretty sure some of them include Amelia (aka, "that gigantic awesome dog").

I'm finally awake again, and would like to most heartily thank Jeff for indulging our whims for a second year in a row, because it was fantastic. I think the work-in-progress Walken makes me even happier every time I hear it, and You Were Wrong made me cry only a little. And the new glasses are killer. And I'm also extremely grateful to Mart and Dave and Chandler for picking up where Jeff left off in the indulgent department, and leading the whole gang of us in singing our hearts out until who-knows-when in the morning. That kind of stuff is pretty much what I live for. I imagine a det

Yeah, true! Mike looks like a model in this one:

OMG, that's hilarious! I love it. Paolo did mention that he thought Flight of the Conchords were terrific, U., though he didn't give me any details like yvonalina just did.