anonymouse

I had the last final of my undergraduate career yesterday. Afterwards, I went out with Lolly, Beta, Vida, and Darling for pancakes at IHoP. And yes, those are all their real names. Don't ask. I had chocolate chip pancakes with a whip cream smiley. I hadn't had that since I passed my driver license test at 17.

But on Monday! On Monday, I saw Kimya Dawson perform with Italian Dave. I have so many Daves in my life that I have to differentiate them or I'll get confused. And I have a lot of Italians in my life, too. Maybe I should call him Italian-American Dave with Impossible-to-Spell-Complicated-Italian-Last-Name? I don't know. Anyway, we went together. It was awesome. She's touring with her friends The Pharmacy and Matty Pop Chart (can't find his website ). Matty Pop Chart kicked off the show. It took place at Sweat Records, which is a very dangerous place for me to be because my credit card gets itchy and needs to be swiped through the charging machine that makes me pay money later and sometimes cry. I'm pretty responsible with my plastic, though. I did buy a James Chance, record, though, the one with "Contort Yourself" that gets stuck in my head all the time.. Um. Yes. And some Tiger Lillies CDs. And I found an old Sonics record, so I bought that, too.

Wow. Tangents! It's like the early entries! Anyway, Matty kicked off the show, and we were all sort of tentative about leaving the record's antechamber because we weren't sure how loud it was going to be and if our eardrums would survive and stupid us didn't bring earplugs because Kimya's folk, right? That's unplugged and acoustic. Yeah. Well, Matty was folky, too. He told all of us not to be shy and to come in and listen to some -- surveying the crowd -- punk rock ukelele, and then he said, "Okay, it's not really punk rock, but this" -- gesturing with his uke -- "is a ukelele." And he told us we don't have to stand, we could sit on the floor "in a horseshoe. Because horses are pretty cool." He's a charming little fellow. He had an old Ninja Turtles tee shirt on, and I felt a little sad that I couldn't remember which color coordinated with which turtle. Purple was... Donatello? No, that's not right. How sad. Anyway, he sings really pretty songs. And Kimya was around in the store and was there before the show started, and I had to work up the nerve to talk to her which wasn't all worked up 'til a little later, okay, and she did back up singing, like she did on his CD. I like the song "Jimmy Jam II." The song on the radio goes doo doo doo doodoo. Aww. I like that song. I bought the CD. He plays the toy piano, too. It's really lovely sounding. Yeah, it's like that thing in that movie with Adam Sandler that doesn't suck that reminds me of my brother when he's feeling ragey. I like this Matty fellow, though. He said he kept looking at the mirror on the partition wall, thinking it was just a hole in the wall and seeing everyone's backs and thought they were all turning their backs on him and saying, "No, I will not listen to him." Also, he said, during the guitar solo of this one song while looking at this little long-haired chihuahua, that if anyone wanted to do a dog solo, that would be cool. Kimya did. Others did. Someone baa'd. Matty said, "Hey, that's not a dog! Well, maybe a sick dog." I like him, I do. I want to shrink him 'til he's pocket-sized and carry him around in my pocket.

Then the Pharmacy played. I wound up buying their CD, too. They play dancey-rock with a Korg synthesizer. There was also MORE COWBELL. Kimya and a friend that is traveling with them did some odd dancing during one song that included toe touches and jumping jacks. I don't know. It made me giggle. I shook my bootie, too. It was a regular dance party.

Then a local band played, and they kind of sucked. Let's move on.

TO KIMYA. YAY! WHAT I CAME FOR! She ruled. Matty and the friend that was touring with them played along with the uke, xylophone, toy piano, and violin, and the Pharmacy sang along on some songs. She opened with "It's Been Raining" and sang other songs, too. Let me see what I can remember.

-Fire
-Rocks with Holes
-The Beer
-I Will Never Forget
-Singing Machine
-Moving On
-Wandering Daughter (I think)

And others. And not necessarily in that order. She also sang this incredible song that she has up on her website called I Like Giants. Go listen to it. Now. You can finish pretending you've read my whole entry when you come back, okay?

Back? Wasn't it pretty? It... makes me feel good and sad at the same time, which is how all of her songs are. "All girls feel too big sometimes regardless of their size." Oh... And the part where the girl giant and lemmings wish they were dead, so she told the lemmings all the reasons they should live and it made her "reconsider all the sad thoughts in her head." It made me cry, but I didn't sob like I do when I listen to "Hold My Hand," the song about how bad the CPA (or DCF, as it's known in Florida is) and how "it sucks when for a little kid living means lying / and the only place you feel safe is pretending your flying."

She sang another song that I really liked about being on the road with her friends Matty and the Pharmacy boys and listening to soft rock radio on scan. And the chorus was all these snippets of songs, like when you're listening to the radio on scan. Best part? When she sang part of that retarded Edwin McCain song, the part with the lyric "I'll be your love suicide," like what does that mean? And there were other songs that I could place but could not name. Which is probably a good thing.

And she closed out the show with "Parade." Everyone was loving it, but tired, and she said, "Hey, I want a dance party! Everyone else got a dance party!" And she said, "You're all, 'Fuck you, it's hot.'" And we laughed. And we all clapped along with the song, because the song demands hand-clap accompaniment. And she said, halfway through, "Hold on, I just want to bring it down a little." And the Pharmacy went to their instruments and started playing... And Kimya started singing, and she was singing "The Greatest Love of All," yes she was. Oh my god. How awesome. Heeeeeeeee. Hee. Heh. I... Yes. How awesome. It ruled. And she riffed on melisma, doing that vocal acrobatics thing very badly in the most awesome way, kind of like the Lady of the Lake in Monty Python's SPAMALOT. It was funny. And then, they finished up with "Parade," and she made us all get up and danced, and I clapped and danced and shook my bootie, and it was fun. After the show, she offered free hugs. I got one and told her I love her music. Oh, and I showed the drummer for the Pharmacy my bag because he was wearing a tee shirt with a psycho bird cut out from a Nature Conservancy bag. I had a different psycho Nature Conservancy bird bag. Mine had an emu on it. His had a... screaming bird thing. He was pretty excited about it. He also liked my Secret Pizza Party tee shirt. I think I probably could've had sex with him. He had been staring at me during the show. Or maybe that was just in my head.

Did you guys know Kimya makes tee shirts? She does. She takes a plane white tee shirt and draws on them. She made me a robot kitty tee shirt. I said she could draw either a robot kitty or an astronaut kitty, I was okay with either. She was pretty excited about the robot kitty, because she'd never drawn one before. It turns out she's drawn an astro kitty before. On the back, she drew a heart and wrote the words "go love yourself." ❤♥

I had a great time.