JOY

As I recover from my annual knock-me-on-my-ass cold and finish thank-you notes from the holidays, I've been reflecting on the holiday season that was actually packed with lovely things...

On Christmas Eve I got to have brunch with Mami, liquor shop with my Dad, and see my original nugget, home from teaching and selling cheese in NOLA.  On Christmas my parents and I went to a really good movie, did some decorating, and opened some presents.  That evening we hung out with our second immediate family and their extended family for lots of food and gab.  Later I went to a bar two blocks away for a major high school flashback (plus more drinking legally minus making out in bathrooms).  Even later that night  I came as close to fulfilling a freshman fantasy as you can without ruining it.

The next day we had our 3rd annual party and it was a doozy.  I felt a little extra pressure to make sure it was one people talked about until next year because Megan is overseas and I wanted to make her proud, plus some lovely sisters even came down from Minny just for the occasion.  I think I succeeded; the number of people that tell me they look forward to the party more than the actual holiday supports this, as well as the number of people that slept on various surfaces around my parents house that night after playing games until 5am that are always a bad idea except for when you're drunk enough.  (We were.)

I stuck around town a few extra days to hang out with some snowed in East-Coasters, and it meant more quality time all around, especially with my parents and miniature people.  (See below.)

To top it all off, I got to go to New York for one of my besties 30th birthday party a couple of weeks later, thanks to the generosity and airline miles of a dear friend.  It was, as Tommy put it, one of the "Top 5 epic weekends".  Truly.  Complete with margaritas and whiskey all over Brooklyn, speeding cabs in the snow, making friends with Australian strangers, karaoke in more than one private room, discovering that bar time isn't until almost dawn (with the drawback that you can't get pizza in Brooklyn at almost dawn), one cousin, one favorite musician, one really Bad Kitty, some of the best friends that the universe has ever beheld, and last but certainly not least a big Packer win celebrated with a bunch of fellow cheeseheads plus my new future ex-husband who doesn't know it yet.

Some select moments that make me happy all over:

Which one is my mother?  Sometimes we can't tell:

Another Big and Mini that I love:

 

Epic Morning After brunch:

 

2nd Day of Recovery Lunch:

 

In this picture there are two of the best friends anyone could ask for (who also happen to be sisters), three glasses of wine (out of the shot), one baby whom I love, and one puffer fish bath toy:

"I will buy you beer one day...":

Rachel's favorite French beer to start NYE:

New Year's Day Roses and Champagne:

Somebody's afraid of heights...

Bad Kitty...

"And maybe be your baby tonight...":

"Maybe be my baby tonight..." from Caitlin Scanlon on Vimeo.



I sort of want to live in Tommy's video of his trip to WI:

Horray Wisconsin! from thomas schwenn on Vimeo.

Dig It

A delicious video from my favorite...


http://www.alwaysneverhome.com/

I'm a Fan

I love music.
I am not even close to being any kind of music expert or aficionado, but I think there are almost zero situations that music can't improve upon.
(I have a healthy appreciate for silence too, but that's a whole other blog.)

I love that people still make music because it's what they're pulled to do. That is ultimately where the best music comes from. I love seeing music performed live, be it in a smokey bar with three other patrons, on a sweaty stage with beer warming in the plastic cup in my hand because we're outside in august, or in a stadium with thousands of others - there is little that can rival the magic of watching stand up and perform.

I think it is important to go and see people perform the music they've made when they are still working day jobs and pulling it together to tour and just trying to make it happen. Because you know they are putting their hearts into it, that it matters. And if you end up not liking the music, hey, you probably didn't spend more than maybe $10 and a couple beers (if that).

I know a guy that one might call an 'up and comer' in the music world. I first heard of him because my brother played the drums in his band off and on, so I started listening to him about a year or so ago. He writes and plays his own music and I swear he reminds me of Bob Dylan sometimes, only way sexier (taller and he's got some sweet boots, and a really cute puppy named Waylon.)

So, if you're in the mood to support some music that doesn't have big money behind it and is actually good shit, check him out. I've seen him perform on a casual occasion or two and can't wait to see him on an actual stage one of these days, so if he's in your town you should go and let me know how much fun you had. Nathan Xander is a kid with talent and heart and I bet you won't regret it.

In the meantime, listen to him and maybe even buy a song or two (or, even better, the whole album - I've had it on repeat in my car the last few weeks.)

Links:
This is a great review and describes almost perfectly how I feel about this music.
http://www.alwaysneverhome.com/
http://www.myspace.com/nathanxander
Another Nice Review

Letter to My Brother

March 20, 2009

Dear Brendan,

Happy Birthday. You would have turned 25 today.
It falls on a Friday this year, and I think you would have made a party out of it. Last year on your birthday you played in a show and you posted a comment to me about it. I remember saying something like, "Man I would love to but it's gonna be tough to get to from California." You'd probably do something much the same this year, drink some beer, maybe play some music. I'd call you at some point during the day and I'd do that creepy happy birthday singing thing I like to do to you and Megan to creep you out and make you laugh because I keep it going just long enough to make it awkward. You'd answer the phone saying, "Hiiii Sister!" because that's what you did, to both Megan and I and man I know we both loved it. You were our baby and you really could do no wrong. I know you'd have friends around you to celebrate and you'd probably get drunk and stay out late putting stickers all over your city. At some point today you'd probably think about the fact that you are a quarter of a century old now (because I'm sure that's how dad would remark upon that milestone). I'd probably tease you about being closer to 30 than 20, and then make it about me by whining about how I can't believe my little brother is so big and grown up. Your hair would have noticeably receded by now so I'm sure I would tease you about that too, because I could, because I'm your big sister and that's my right.
So Happy Birthday Brendan. I can't believe how old we're getting. I can't believe you're gone.

Love,

Your little big sister, Caitlin

On Up The Mountain

The name "All This Useless Beauty" comes from an Elvis Costello song that I heard him sing in the opening segment of his talk show the night before I decided to create the blog.

I was sitting in the living room tonight with the dog and the fire and another episode of that show was playing in the other room down the hall. It was mostly background noise until the sound of a familiar song filtered through to my conscious. A soft gentle acoustic version of The Wallflowers song One Headlight.

My brother started taking drum lessons back when he was about 10 or 11 I think. He was a student of some music teacher that worked out of a big music store/school on the west side of Madison. For their recitals the different teachers pieced together students of various instruments to create a few 'rock bands' that would then practice together a few times before performing their song, which I believe was selected collectively by the teachers.

The song that Brendan's group performed was One Headlight, which had been a hit single sometime in the year previous and had been played on the radio countless times, so was immediately recognizable to most of the attendees of the recital. However, I don't remember Brendan being particularly fond of the song, but maybe it was just that he was required to attend lessons and a recital he wasn't a fan of.
For some reason only my mom and I could attend the 'show'; it was the first time I ever saw Brendan really perform anything and I remember being so tickled that my little brother actually seemed pretty good at what he was doing, with a scowl on his face the whole time.

Brendan ended up getting a drum set at some point for Christmas in some year that followed, and played them pretty regularly for the rest of his life. The musician with whom he was performing with the last couple years said one of the reasons he chose Brendan was because he played so much louder than any other drummer he had heard. Although I was woken up many a time early in the morning by the banging of those drums from two stories down, I somehow doubt he ever played One Headlight again after he got off that awkward stage at the music school. But every time I've heard that song since that day it's made me think of my brother playing the drums.

On Elvis Costello's show tonight, Jakob Dylan was playing the song solo, with just his voice and his guitar, no backup band, no drummer.
He followed it by a song called "On Up the Mountain".

"You get tired...
You get weak...
But you won't abandon
Your masterpiece..."