Quiet evening to myself

I just listened to the new Decemberists album for the second time. Still trying to get a grasp on it. I think my favourite song right now is the ghastly Shankill Butchers, just because it's so grim and vivid and I love the tune of the chorus. But there are other songs I like, mostly parts of the long, multi-part songs, Crane Wife and The Island. The first single, O Valencia, is pretty good too. I've been reading about their current tour in the US and I think some of the new songs will be great live. Just gotta wait 3 more months till I can see them myself.

Speaking of seeing the Decemberists though, O and I saw 3/5 of the band while in Portland when they did a signing to celebrate the new album. It was at the wonderful NW Music Millennium store and we got there early enough to be rather near the front of the line. We had about an hour to wait and eventually the guy behind us in line sort of started joining in our conversation, which was fine, he was pretty nice and it was cool to chat with a stranger for awhile. He and his wife (who was rushing to the signing from work) had moved to Portland from Baltimore only a few months back. They quit their jobs and moved across the country mostly because they loved a lot of bands from Portland and figured it must be a pretty cool city. I thought that must have taken a lot of courage, but then they didn't feel all that tied to Baltimore. Finally the signing began, but John and Nate were missing unfortunately. Still, it was nice to say hi to the other 3. We had great hopes that Colin would remember O from the Paradiso show in May, when the note O had thrown on stage was read aloud by Colin, but when O got to Colin and was trying to jog his memory, you could tell he just had no clue what O was on about. Well, they were quite jetlagged at the show. I was so hoping that they'd be really freaked out that this guy who'd been in Amsterdam was now in Portland, like some really insane, obsessed fan, but they didn't seem to remember it. It was a bit of a letdown, but I did get my CD signed and we met some nice people.

An even bigger letdown was after we came home and I realized I could have gone to see Colin playing solo in the living room of a friend of his, but I confused the date of my friend's wedding and thought the two events coincided. Ok, I still would have had to decide whether to spend $75 just to see Colin playing solo in the living room of a friend of his, but at least I would have had the choice. But I thought he was playing on the evening of the wedding, making it a moot point. But it so wasn't moot. The little show was right after the Music Millennium signing, so, while O and I were chomping down some Mexican food and then retiring early to our hotel, we could have been enjoying an intimate, once-in-a-lifetime concert. I'm so dumb.

To finally move away from the Decemberists, in honour of the baked potato I had tonight, which was heated in the microwave, I present a link to one of Sars's recent columns over at Tomato Nation. While part one is usual cat hilarity and part three has a good ending, it was part two - specifically the paragraphs at the top of the second page - which had me giggling so hard I was crying at my desk at work. Maybe you had to be there, but I found the whole image absolutely hilarious at the time.

Oh, I guess I should post a link to O's video, though I think anyone who really reads my blog will have already heard about it. He was filmed for a commercial for Canon that is part of a series focusing on amateur photographers (though previous films in the series were about professionals). He was contacted back in July, arrangements were made for where to film and how it was going to be done, he and I made the trip to London for two days at the end of September for the filming, and now, finally, there is the final product. I think it turned out well, it's weird seeing O in his normal clothes and all in this professional looking little film. It's meant to be airing as of yesterday on MTV, but I've not seen it yet. It would suck if we never catch it on TV.

So, drinks tomorrow with friends to celebrate my birthday (and hopefully presents from O who was too jetlagged to be prepared for my actual birthday last weekend) and then we see O's brother and his girlfriend on Sunday for lunch. I also want to pop by a camera store and check out a camera I think I really like. I really want a new, smaller point-and-shoot to replace our old G3 which is so bulky. I think I'd use it so much more if I can easily tuck it away rather than the G3 which, besides being heavy to carry around, is so slow and unwieldy that I often would pass up taking a photo rather than dig it out. Hopefully, then, I'll have a new toy soon.