Finally… anthems done right.

We’ve all witnessed some pretty bad renditions of the National Anthem.  The people lucky enough to be at the Yankees game last week (or the Orioles game a few days later) actually heard both the Canadian anthem and our National anthem sung well.

Because they were sung by none other than Ramin Karimloo.  You know, the guy with the amazing voice that I can’t stop posting about?

Well, here you go.  (Try to ignore that lady at the beginning who seems to just be realizing the Yankees are playing the Blue Jays).

 

Oh, and you know how I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was checking Ramin’s tour dates to make sure he wasn’t sneaking a Nashville date in there without me knowing?  He had a gap of time and I was just sure that he was going to be in my backyard. (well, not literally)

Sure enough, one night he tweeted that he was in Nashville.  That’s the downside of living in this beautiful city… artists occasionally pop in to meet with producers, record, or just simply enjoy music themselves.  So they’re in your city… but you can’t exactly just wander around the city looking for them, can you?  That’s a bit creepy.  And I have a job, anyway.

It appears from his Twitter feed that he hung out in one of the parks a few miles away from where I work and played some music one afternoon.  And I just had to read about it. Oh well.

Tonight I enjoyed a free concert that included The Time Jumpers, Mikky Ekko, and Sheryl Crow.  So I can’t complain too much.

Although I’d rather hear Ramin sing the alphabet than an hour long concert of pretty much anyone else.

 

Empty Chairs with a Bluegrass twist

I promised myself I would get more done tonight.  So after this, I’m out and off to plan some lessons.

But I had to post this first.  See why I keep checking Ramin Karimloo‘s tour dates?!

(I had to put my earphones on because the audio is kind of soft.)

It’s different, but I’m pretty sure I love it.

Things to do & Things I am doing

Things I should be doing

1. Laundry

2. Mopping my concrete floors

3. Working on the class I start teaching in 12 days

4. Looking over the Bible study training I’m helping present in 10 days

5. Grading papers

6. Exercising

7. Writing the meaningful blog post that’s in my head

8. Reading the book that was chosen for book club that meets in 8 days

9. Sleeping

 

Things I’m doing

1. Driving all the way over to World Market to take advantage of their Nutella sale (no joke. Nutella was 40% off there today) only to find out that they are sold out of Nutella.

2. Reading tweets

3. Checking Ramin Karimloo’s tour dates every other day to make sure he hasn’t snuck Nashville in there when I wasn’t looking

4. Eating ice cream

5. Listening to my lovely neighbor play the piano (this happens every other night and I love it.)

6. Watching this video on YouTube and laughing hysterically.  Why am I just now seeing this?

(You’re welcome.)

5 things

Awhile back, my friend Jenny ”tagged” me on this “5 Things” bit, and even though I don’t really know what it is or where it came from, I’m assuming it’s the chance for me to talk about 5 things.  I think it started as five favorites?

Anyway, in an attempt to be creative, I decided to change it to “5 random YouTube videos” instead of subjecting you to 5 things actually about me.

But…  I’ve also been nominated for the Liebster award, so you’ll hear about me in the coming days, too.

If I’m in a funk, all it takes is looking through my list of “Favorites” on YouTube.  Sometimes I’ll come to one I had completely forgotten about, and it will often take me back to another time and place.

1. Like this one:

2. Or on a similar note, this one (which could be quite depressing, if we wanted to reflect on this vs reality, if we wanted to make some obvious comparisons, etc … but instead, lets just watch and laugh):

3. This one always makes me laugh and never gets old:

 
4. This one is the opposite of “timely,” but it’s a classic for me. Right up there with Save a pretzel for the gas jets.
 

5. And you can never go wrong with the Muppets.

Pope Squared

(That subject line is in jest, of course.  I really don’t think we have two Popes.  So put down the phone you were dialing – you don’t need to call the Bishop about me.)

I wanted to come on my blog and publicly admit I was wrong.  (I’m getting good at this, after the whole resignation vs abdication thing.)

I thought we would never see Pope Benedict again. In fact, I was kind of a wreck after watching him go to Castel Gandolfo because I missed him turning away from the balcony and I thought that was my last chance to ever see him, except in archived video.

Well, speaking of video, we had the chance to see him yesterday. I was really surprised when they released pictures and video of Pope Francis meeting with his predecessor.  But here it is.

 
Some notes:

1) I feel like it’s been much longer than 24 days since we last saw Benedict.  It was almost jarring to see him after the sede vacante, the conclave, and the election.  Part of me wishes I didn’t have the chance to see this meeting, because it reminded me how much I miss him.  But more of me is glad I got to see him again and glad to see him with Pope Francis.

2) What is up with the guys in mylar suits?  They made me crack up during the poignant arrival at Castel Gandolfo, and now they’re back.  I suppose I can see the need for firemen in case something goes wrong, but standing at the door of the helicopter?  Really?  And why do they look like something out of a Mystery Science Theatre film?

3) I love Benedict at 0:40, rushing over to tell Francis to kneel at the special prie-dieu.  We rarely get a chance to see him doing something so unscripted. “Hey- I put this prie-dieu out for you, because you’re the Pope, remember?!” And Francis is like, “Let’s kneel over here together, okay?”  (He actually said, “We are brothers.”)

3) At 1:56-2:02, you can see Archbishop Ganswein plotting an elaborate practical joke with someone else in the room – apparently they are going to convince the Popes to swap for a day and throw everyone for a loop.

Sheytoons

I posted about a band my brother-in-law discovered for us. Then I posted about Les Mis.

Now I will reveal the connection between the two.

Remember I casually mentioned I wasn’t crazy about the Javert casting?  And that the wonderful fellow who was cast as an army officer with five measly lines should have been cast as Javert?  Mmm, yes.  

Meet Hadley Fraser, half of the duo that makes up Sheytoons.

The other half is his good friend and fellow Les Miserables/Phantom of the Opera veteran, Ramin Karimloo.  I would have cast Ramin as Jean Valjean and Hadley as Javert.  Oh, maybe because they’ve played those roles before… and maybe because they’re just plain awesome.

Both of them have played different roles that made them more famous — neither is known for Javert or Valjean– but they would have sung the pants off Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman.  Okay, weird mental image.

Ramin (we’re on a first name basis) was Enjolras in the 25th Anniversary of Les Mis and Hadley was his drunk sidekick Grantaire.  A minor role, but not quite as minor as army officer.  (not that I’m bitter…)

Just fast-forward to 0:40 and listen.  (Oh, and stop watching at 1:50, unless you want to be thankful that Tom Hooper didn’t mis-cast Marius like they did for the 25th Anniversary.)

Come on, is Hadley even trying!? : )

These two were also in the 25th Anniversary of Phantom of the Opera, which is the best cast for POTO, and if you are a POTO fan, you should go to Netflix right now and watch it.  Ramin is the Phantom and Hadley is Raoul. (or you can watch parts on Youtube: Music of the Night (brilliant) – All I Ask of You (swoon) — and them together in the final lair)

So that’s the story behind Sheytoons.  These guys have incredible voices, have great careers on stage, and they write bluegrass music for fun.  Now I just need them to come to America on tour.

 

More Music

I spent a lovely Music City evening listening to an adorable duo, Jenny and Tyler, at a concert that was part of East Side Storytellin’, an evening of book readings, musical performances, and author/musician interviews, sponsored by East Side Story, an all-local bookstore.

It was one of those evenings that makes this city unique.  It reminded me of another event I attended in the Fall, which reminded me that I haven’t blogged about it yet, which reminded me of five other things I haven’t blogged about yet…

So until I get around to blogging about all those other things, I thought I would provide some musical entertainment for you, courtesy of a band my brother-in-law found and nicely shared with my sister and me.  We mustn’t overlook how charitable and selfless this act was… because he surely knew we would immediately become smitten (more smitten then we already were; but more about that later).

I won’t say any more — I’m saving it for a future post– but be prepared to love these guys. And make note to remember this when I blog about Les Mis (most likely my next post).

Please meet… Sheytoons:

 

 

Enjoy. I’ll be back.

 

Al Smith Dinner

Say what you what about the invite… you should watch this.  Because it’s darn funny.

(Did Dennis Miller write his speech?)

He was also serious and poignant at the end, thanking the Church for her work in service to the poor, the sick, and the unborn.  It was a great balance to the wit (and the slams on Obama).

zero tolerance for misinformation

I could see myself living in Ireland some day.  Anyone?

Pray for them!

more live music

You’re probably all thinking, “All Joannie does is eat and listen to music.”  And you’d be right.

Kidding.

I wanted to post about last night not because 99% of you would care, but for my friend Lori, who couldn’t be there.  Here you go Lori – you’re the 1%.

Gaelic Storm was playing in town last night, and after not seeing them for several years, I found myself at my third GS storm concert in eight months.  Since Lori couldn’t join me, I went with her parents, her boyfriend, and another good friend of hers.  (All of whom are friends of mine, of course.)  Her absence was felt and we spent most of the night talking about how much we love her. : )

The opening band was actually really good — a rarity for opening bands.  (I really dislike most opening bands.)  They were a Canadian bluegrass band — two brothers and a cousin  who are fourth-generation traveling musicians.

Gaelic Storm was great, of course, although the show seemed a bit different than usual.  The night was live on the radio, which meant after about an hour they stopped playing and the radio host acted like it was over, and then they kept playing once off air.  I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or not, but they didn’t play their usual instrumentals and the concert seemed shorter, even though it wasn’t.  They played a lot of stuff off their new album, which is to be expected, and I missed a lot of their old stuff.

Their newish fiddler player (new as in she wasn’t playing with them when I was obsessed with them in college) is 7 months pregnant and is oh-so-cute.  Before the show I was telling everyone how I saw Ellery fiddle pregnant… and then Jessie came up on stage pregnant!

Just water for the new mom! : )

All in all, a fun evening!