Stacyverb

Summer: it turns me upside-down

Somehow it sort of crept up on me, but apparently summer is pretty much here now.  Although my mixed emotions about the season have been well-documented on this blog, right now I find myself daydreaming mostly about the fun aspects of summer.  The seasons keep turning whether we're ready for it or not, so we might as well try to enjoy the ride, am I right?

What are you looking forward to this summer?  I'm excited about popcorn-worthy movies, both at the drive-in and in the cool of an air-conditioned theater.  Plentiful fresh produce.  Baseball games.  Frosty beverages, popsicles, and ice cream.  Picnics.  Fireworks.  Adventures big and small.

Summer and adventure seem to go together, don't they?  No matter how long we've been out of school, summer makes us think of freedom, of lazy days and endless unstructured stretches of time.  Whether that's the reality or not is another matter, of course!  Things aren't looking too promising for a real vacation this summer, but I'm hoping Anthony and I can get our free time and spare cash to align enough to take at least a little mini-break or two. 

I'm not hard to please, really.  Sure, I wouldn't say no to a swanky bed and breakfast or a week at the beach, but I'm the kind of gal who can also have fun just cruising down the highway with my head out the window (optional: tongue flapping in the breeze like a big dog on a joy ride), stopping to take pictures of weird signs and statues.  And if nothing else, there is always, always, some sort of silliness to get up to here in the ATL. 

Whatever summer adventures I find myself in, you can be sure I'll post about it all (or at least the not-so-incriminating parts...) here on the blog.

Here's a video that takes me back to those carefree summers of yore, when I was still too young to have a job, and spent those long hot days hanging out with my friends, either at the pool or in somebody's air-conditioned living room watching MTV.  Hee.

 

St. Vincent at Variety Playhouse

Last night some friends and I went to the St. Vincent show at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points. 

We've had these tickets since January.  It had been a long time since I'd bought tickets to an event way in advance and then waited for the night to arrive.  The anticipation of something like that adds an extra layer of excitement, I think.

St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) is a ridiculously talented guitarist, songwriter and singer.  Her music can be plaintive and lovely, and it can be visceral and aggressive.  She's also very stylish (bonus!).

I totally stole borrowed this photo from Wikipedia.  But by coincidence, this is the outfit she was wearing at our show!  How convenient. :)

The show was really thrilling, with Annie and her band playing songs from all three of her albums.  So much energy and creativity and skill--what an awe-inspiring way to spend a late spring evening.

Wine fairy follow-up

As you may recall, I recently reported that we had a backlog of opened bottles of wine here at Boogaloo Acres and I was frantically trying to find good uses for all of it (besides the obvious).

Since that post, we did drink some, and we gave some away.  The marinara sauce turned out FANTASTIC and is in the freezer.  Last Thursday, I made sangria.  Christy and I drank half of it and I poured the other half into a quart mason jar, also now in the freezer.  On some hot June day, a sangria slushie is gonna taste pretty damn good.

 

Other uses for leftover wine?  Well, here's some nice Shiraz freezing in ice cube trays, for future cooking u se.  (Disclaimer: all the photos in this post are terrible.  They're blurry and the wine looks brown instead of, well, wine-colored.  Trust me when I say that all of these items look much more enticing in person!)

 

Granita!  Instructions from here, minus all the pear business, although that sounds delish and I might try that another time.

 

My friend Megan sent me a link to this recipe for wine syrup.  Oooh, this will be so decadent over some ice cream this summer, or tossed with some veggies in lieu of balsamic vinegar.

Readers piped up with some excellent ideas. Jo suggested wine jelly, which honestly I don't think I even knew was a thing, but it is, and it seems do-able.  And yummy. 

For now, the vino supply is back down to a manageable level.  But I'm bookmarking all this stuff, because it's only a matter of time until we once again end up with a wine surplus. 

In the meantime, this will be my anthem--an old favorite from my childhood.  (Should children even know a song about a heartbroken janitor on a bender?  Maybe not.  Whatever.  I've always loved this song. Also?  I need a hat like that.)

 

Mandolin mania

I know I've mentioned a couple of times on this blog that I wanted to learn to play the mandolin someday.  This is one of those things that you keep putting off, because you don't have the money to buy an instrument or take lessons, you have enough other things clamoring for your time and attention, blah blah blah.

But then an occasion comes (say, Christmas), and someone (say, my dad) decides to take matters into their own hands and get you a mandolin.  That's what just happened to me.

This photo shows me on my parents' couch, moments after opening the gift (not shown: actual moment of me opening the gift and being utterly shocked).  The tag is still on.  I have no idea what I'm doing.  But I have a mandolin.

So, I've been working on it.  With the help of a booklet that came with it, YouTube, a DVD from the library, random tips from friends who actually know how to play stringed instruments, and much trial and error, I'm learning.

My favorite thing about receiving this gift is that it demonstrates how thoughtful and sneaky my dad is. :)  My other favorite thing about it is that it serves no practical purpose whatsoever.  I'm not striving to be a professional musician here.  It is purely for enjoyment.  I'm doing it for the simple reason that I want to.  Without someone actually giving me an instrument, who knows how long I would have postponed attempting this, just because there are always more "important" things to do?

What dreams are you postponing because they're not practical?  How could you help give someone else a nudge to pursue an impractical goal?

"Old Man Cabbage" screening party

A few months ago, I mentioned that my husband had shaved off his goatee for his role as an extra in a music video.  It wasn't just any music video, but a 15-minute "long form narrative music video" produced by Ninja Puppet Productions and featuring the music of Atlanta's fantastic Blair Crimmins & The Hookers. 

This week we were invited to a screening party of the almost-finished video at The Goat Farm (an amazing venue that might need its own post sometime).  Director Raymond Carr introduced the film, and the band performed the soundtrack live.  It was a great evening of music, wine, and creative folks.  At the bottom of this post, watch the trailer for the video!

 

Anthony appears very briefly at 1:02, but is much more visible in the full video. :)

Birthday hijinks

 A while back, I decided I wanted an iPod.  Notice I didn't say a new iPod, as in a replacement for my old iPod.  That's because I didn't have an old iPod.  Yes, I'm one of these deprived weirdos who've never owned an iPod at all.

Of course I would have liked to have had an iPod, but with our household finances being pretty unpredictable (such is the life of us creative folks), it was never really in the budget.

At some point, in an effort to bring my music enjoyment into the 21st century like a big girl, I started saving spare change in a jar and calling it my iPod fund.  It was exciting to see the money adding up, even if the progress was slow.  I wasn't in any particular hurry.

But then look what happend: My sneaky husband secretly enlisted the help of a bunch of our friends, and they all pitched in and surprised me with an iPod nano for my birthday! As you can see from these photos, I was a little excited.  Heh.

It's so tiny!  And cute!  And I haven't quite figured out how to work it yet!  But we are bonding.  And I think it needs a name, because I always seem to end up naming inanimate objects.  I was thinking about Nina Nano, but I'm not sure. 

Now what will I do with all that spare change in a jar, formerly known as the iPod fund?  I think I just might be forced to buy shoes with it. :)

 

I'll leave you with one more shot from my birthday festivities.  Our waiter at Twisted Taco asked me if I would like a brownie on the house for my birthday.  Um, duh...yes, please.  I was expecting a little rectangle of brownie, possibly with a birthday candle.  This is what he brought me: a delicious dark chocolate brownie covered with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, surrounded by dollops of whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce.  Oh...my...god... was it ever good.  And it took six of us to eat it. 

Hurray for birthdays, good food, great friends, and a sneaky husband who uses his powers of deception for good instead of evil.  I am a lucky girl.

RIP Amy Winehouse

The music world lost a huge talent yesterday with the passing of Amy Winehouse.  How sad to see someone with so much ability just self-destruct from drug addiction.  I always hoped Amy would get herself together and put out another fantastic album.  Frank and Back To Black have pretty much been in my rotation constantly since they came out, and now I guess I'll have to settle for that (in fact, I played my first CD copy of Back To Black so much I actually wore it out and had to replace it a few years ago!).

When I first heard Amy, she blew me away with her big soulful voice and modern twist on old-style R&B, which I've always loved.  It made me hungry for more of that kind of music, and when I created an Amy Winehouse station on Pandora, I became exposed to the new soul music that was coming out of the UK, which we weren't getting over here yet.  Noisettes, Florence + The Machine, Imelda May, Adele, Joss Stone...all these artists I first discovered via Pandora because Amy's voice made me want to seek out their kind of music.  Ditto snarky British songstresses like Lily Allen and Kate Nash. 

It also must be said that I loved Amy's over-the-top stylized 60s look.  The exaggerated beehive hair and cat-eye make-up mixed up with vintage and random modern clothes created an instantly recognizable style that fit her music perfectly.

A few years ago, a friend made me a mix of outtakes and rare recordings of Amy, and this cover of the Zutons' "Valerie" is one of my favorites.  I was glad to find this video version; it really shows off the big voice coming out of her small body and highlights her incredibly soulful phrasing.

 

Summer rolls on

Thanks to a paycheck for a big freelance job Anthony did, we've had a little breathing room in the money department this week.  This has meant more opportunities for fun!

Slim Chance and the Convicts at Kavarna.  The original line-up of the Convicts reunited!  Photo is blurry due to photographer tapping toe and/or shaking booty, honky tonk style.

 

Apparently Suburban Lanes in Decatur now rocks.  Who knew?  We spent Tuesday night bowling (badly--my high score was a 66), rocking out, and enjoying the culinary delights of the snack bar.  They have tater tots!  I brought my camera but due to a dead battery issue, this was the only shot I was able to get...

*giggle*

Oh, and because of the increased cash flow in our household, I was also able to take Sunday OFF and hang out with my BestGalPal for the day.  What a treat it was to actually be off work on a day when other people are also off!  Having Mondays off is nice, but it sure makes socializing tricky. 

It was so fun to have a tiny bit of disposable income in my pocket and no more pressing decisions to make than what flavor of ice cream to eat and what color of nail polish to buy.  One advantage of being broke all the time is that when you're accustomed to spending no money at all, spending $35 (for the whole day, including lunch) feels absolutely wild and crazy!  No photos were taken, but take my word--it was an excellent day.

Saturday snapshot

Soundtrack: Lucinda Williams, Blessed

 

Kingsized Elvis Royale

Big Mike Geier and his Kingsized Orchestra are pretty much institutions in the Atlanta scene.  And for the past 15 years, Big Mike and the band have been putting on legendary shows every August to commemorate the anniversary of Elvis's death.  Adverb and I went to Friday night's show at the Variety Playhouse.

Aren't the event posters gorgeous?  These were plastered on the wall outside the Variety.  As you can see, I wore something sparkly.  It's what the King would have wanted!

All-female Elvis tribute band, the Pelvis Breastlies (best band name EVER), provided pre-show entertainment outside the theater.

How to describe the show?  Big Mike is not an Elvis impersonator.  And only about half the set consisted of Elvis songs.  But the whole evening was imbued with the spirit of the King.  The showmanship, the earnest desire to entertain and connect with the audience--it was all there.

Here's a shot from the encore, which had to be experienced to be believed.  Big Mike, the band, Dames Aflame, a bunch of guys dressed as Elvis...all frolicking on stage with what has to be the most spectacular version of "Free Bird" (yes, really) ever performed.  It was surreal and joyful and weird--basically, awesome in every way.

We'd spotted this mini-Elvis (I'm guessing age 11-ish?) in the crowd earlier.  Outside after the show, he graciously agreed to pose for a photo with one of the Dames Aflame...

...as did my hubby.  I think the look on his face says it all, don't you?  Hahaha!

Big Mike, Kingsized, and Dames Aflame: Thank you... thankyouverymuch...for a fabulous Friday night of fun and entertainment!