Holy Cow - MMJ at Terminal 5 Edition

Pooch is here to welcome you to the good times ahead...

So, remember I said I was actually excited about something and how rare that is and yes you get the picture. This is full on bananatown, I must say.

My Morning Jacket will take to the stage at Terminal 5 in New York City for five nights starting October 18th and ending on October 23rd.

Each show will be dedicated to one of the band's full length studio albums in chronological order... so, The Tennessee Fire, At Dawn, It Still Moves, Z, and Evil Urges will all be performed from start to finish and goodness gracious, this has never happened before! I've seen hundreds of MMJ shows and they'll be performing songs I've never seen.

After the album is finished, the guys will play a mix of favorites from their catalog (and some covers, mayhaps?).

All of the dates will go on sale as individual shows on June 18th but for fans who want the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of experiencing all five shows, there will be a special pre-sale. Five show packages will go on sale June 14th.

As per MMJ usual, each show will benefit a different charity with $1 of each ticket sold going to a different local organization:

October 18 - The Tennessee Fire - Safe Haven of Pike County.
October 19 - At Dawn - The Innocence Project
October 21 - It Still Moves - 826NYC
October 22 - Z - New York Cares
October 23 - Evil Urges - Sustainable South Bronx

For info on tickets, please visit Terminal 5's website.

Hope to see you in the Big Apple! My camera will probably explode from the awesome sauciness.

Thousand Words - MMJ At Sasquatch Edition

Here's some shots from My Morning Jacket's recent appearance at the most wonderful Sasquatch festival. Well, they aren't all pics of MMJ. I didn't take that many of the show because people kept yelling at me and I gave up.

I hope you enjoy this small offering of photographic evidence.

Pooch and Denise pose for some vacay shots

Tom is 75 ft tall. Or 11 as he told me when I showed him this shot.

I think I saw this in an 80s music video (and I mean that in the best way possible)

Thoughtful Mr. Hallahan

I'm pretty sure that's Jim

Thank you and goodnight!

Well, that was fun. MMJ fans are going to be very excited come tomorrow afternoon. I mean, I'm even excited and that almost never happens.

Until then...

(ok, that news is out now... you can read it here.)

Live Blogging the, err, MTV Movie Awards

Oh God... here we go again. Why do I do this to myself? To you? I'm turning 40 in two weeks... I may use that as an excuse to stop doing this, but... you know... probably not.

I'm becoming kinda like John McEnroe when he interviews the French Open winners. You know how he always manages to bring up how he never won? Yes, I'm like that with the 40 thing. I CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.

Oh oops, it's starting...

Part I

9.00 pm - R-Patz really did cut all his hair off. The reports are true, ladies.

9.01 pm - Is Tom Cruise really relevant to the youth market?

9.01 pm - Oh, I guess he is when paired with R-Patz and Taylor Lautner.

9.02 pm - And Michael Cera.

9.02 pm - and Jaden Smith.

9.04 pm - "I don't understand why they're doing jokes on a movie that came out two years ago." - Tom. Also, Tom thinks Aziz is pronounced, "As-Is." Also also, Tom started a Formspring thing, too. Now you can ask him anything. I wonder if he will regret this someday. Then again, so far no one's asked him anything so maybe not.

9.07 pm - From lampooning Precious (wha?) to Justin Bieber. Go ahead and kill me now, please.

9.12 pm - Oh awesome, it's Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, Kevin James, and David Spade. Another youth market push, I see. They present Best Female Performance to Kristen Stewart for New Moon. The homicidal rage is building. I want to win awards for being catatonic for two hours. I like how I'm getting pissy about something that doesn't matter in the slightest. That is just excellent. People are starving and I'm getting stroppy about K-Stew beating Sandra Bullock.

9.19 pm - Tom is not impressed with J-Woww's boobs. This is one of many reasons why I like him.

9.21 pm - It sounded like Aziz pronounced Russell Brand "Russell Bland." Diddy is dressed like one of the metal dudes from Plano East Senior High circa 1987. He, RB, and Jonah Hill are here to hype Get Him To The Greek, I mean give an award to Anna Kendrick for Breakout Star for, thank God, not New Moon but Up in the Air.

9.26 pm - Ed Helms is playing the piano and singing. Ken Jeong is wearing a tiger print leotard and doing interpretive dance. Tom Cruise is ruining things. Then again, how do you spoil that which was not fresh to begin with?

9.29 pm - Tom Cruise and J-Lo. What year is it, again? I should probably explain that Tom Cruise has been doing everything as his Les Grossman character from Tropic Thunder but that won't make it any better.

I guess I'll post now... back in 30... or 40... or never. Just kitten.

Part II

9.36 pm - Amanda Seyfried wins an award for Best Scared as Sh*t Performance for Jennifer's Body. Over Sharlto Copley in District 9. He looks disappointed. That's cool, Shar, I AM TOO, MAN.

9.41 pm - Apparently the cast of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will be doing something soon brought to us by Orbit. I bet it will be awesome.

9.44 pm - Best Kiss goes to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson for New Moon. The only thing I remember about that movie is R-Patz saying, "You give me everything by breathing." And I only remember that because it made me vomit.

9.48 pm - "California Girls" by Katy Perry is a summer smash? Summer hasn't even officially started yet. This song is making me lose my will to live. To be fair, there is a Katy Perry song that I actually like, but I'm not going to tell you which one it is. Too embarrassing.

9.58 pm - The lads from Human Giant try to save the day with their bit, Stunt Kidz.

9.59 pm - Betty White also tries to saves the day. For the next few minutes, anyway. She, Bradley Cooper and, inexplicably, Scarlett Johansson (standing in for her husband? Can't tell and neither can she it seems) are here to present the Generation Award to Sandra Bullock. If Betty White can't make you feel better about your husband cheating on you with a Nazi tattooed slut, who can?

10.09 pm - Oh, I get it. Scarlett Johansson is here to make out with Sandra Bullock.

10.10 pm - It's impossible not to love SB, isn't it? I wonder when how likable she is will backlash? God, I hope she never turns into Julia Roberts.

10.11 pm - The cast of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is using the F-word. A lot. Apparently there's a WTF Moment award and it goes to Ken Jeong for The Hangover. Gotta give it up for the Asian power although I can't say that scene had a lot of... ummm... power.

10.14 pm - Aziz Ansari is channeling R. Kelley which means...

It's time to publish again. See you at the end of the line.

Part III

10.17 pm - Someone please explain Eva Mendes' garment to me.

10.18 pm - The thing that is happening onstage right now is commonly referred to as a "hot mess," I believe. Is that Marky Mark up there? And Will Farrell? And The Rock? And Samuel L. Jackson? Yeah...

10.19 pm - Best Villain goes to Tom Felton for whatever the last Harry Potter movie was. he seems like a very nice boy and appears to be nothing like that dreadful Draco Malfoy.

10.25 pm - I bet the patter on this Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan and Shaun White is going to be bril. They present Biggest Badass Star to Rain. Holy cow. I am actually stunned. No one seems to know who the hell he is. Especially Paris Hilton. This is hilar.

10.31 pm - My friend PGG thought the New Moon trailer was another parody. Enough said.

10.37 pm - R-Patz wins Best Male Performance. Somewhere Taylor Lautner is weeping with his baggies of meat.

10.39 pm - "Christina Aguilera's trying to be Lady Gaga." - Tom

10.41 pm - X-tina has a light up heart on her crotch. File under things I wish I'd never seen.

10.42 pm - I now live in a world where I can say, "I liked Katy Perry better than Christina Aguilera." Unbelievable.

10.45 pm - Cutaways to Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton + Aguilera and J-Lo = relevance taking a backseat to hume city.

10.47 pm - I sent that line to PGG and she said, "Population: Us for watching." Too true and too good.

10.50 pm - It's possible that I need a swagger coach just like Zach Galifianakis. Or is that swagga coach? K-Stew and R-Patz apparently do not if their tepid applause is any indication.

10.51 pm - I suspect that Zac Efron is on his way to a divorce from reality a la Tom Cruise. Just a feeling. I hope Oprah's couch is ready.

10.51 pm - Best Comedic Performance goes to Zach Galifianakis for The Hangover. Ta'Avon, Zach's swagga coach, you know, accepts for him. Ta'Avon looks suspiciously like Aziz Ansari. Ta'Avon is funner than Aziz Ansari, though. Tonight, anyway.

10.54 pm - This is almost over. The gladness is starting to fill my soul.

10.58 pm - In the final "2005 called, it wants its awards show back" moment of the night, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz show up to give Best Movie to... New Moon. I totally wrote that sentence before they announced it... and not because I'm psychic. Peter Facinelli accepts for the cast and says F a lot. Except to Stephenie Meyer because she's Mormon.

11.00 pm - My ellipses and I are going to bed. Goodnight.

A Lot of Wonderfulness

Every time I watch this my black black heart explodes.

This is the amazing Brian Gaynor on the Park/Blankenship's most favoritest show ever, So You Think You Can Dance.

The flip side, now there's an Owl City song I like. Drat.


The 40th birthday summer travels have been keeping me busy and I just had a little mini vacay with Pooch and Denise at The Gorge. Oh, and that My Morning Jacket band played, too. I'll post pictures of that... later.

In the meantime, I've been glued to the tely for the French Open. It's been a pretty lifeless affair so far. Wimbledon better deliver, methinks.

I hope you will forgive my prolonged absence after you see this photo of a bear doing a belly flop into a lake. Also, I've been saving up my writing power for the upcoming MTV Movie Awards. Okay, that's just an excuse, but I will be doing my usual awards-show-I-hate-myself liveblogging this Sunday. Dreading it already!


See you peeps Sunday eve.

Oh oh, I started a Formspring thingie because... you know... I'm not on the internets enough these days. You can ask me anything here. I am afraid.

My Morning Jacket New Tour Stuff

That My Morning Jacket band is headed out on the road for some more dates this August. Here they be...

Wed 8.11: San Diego - SDSU Outdoor Theater with Avi Buffalo

Thu 8.12: Los Angeles - The Greek Theater with Avi Buffalo

Sat 8.14: San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival

Sun 8.15: Denver, CO - Mile High Festival

Tue 8.17: Chicago, IL - Charter One Pavilion

Thu 8.19: Mansfield, MA - Comcast Center with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

Fri 8.20: Burlington, VT - Champlain Valley Lawn

Sat 8.21: Mansfield, MA - Comcast Center with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

Tue 8.24: East Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Wed 8.25: Holyoke, MA - Mountain Park

Fri 8.27: Pittsburgh, PA - The Amphitheatre at Station Square

Sat 8.28: Rochester, NY - CMAC

Sun 8.29: Philadelphia, PA - Great Plaza at Penn's Landing

Most shows go on sale Friday at Ticketmaster. For more details check out the MMJ shows page.

$1 from every ticket sold will go to a local charity. Charities include San Diego Coast Keeper, School on Wheels, Mercy Home, Combat Paper Project, WomanShelter, Just Harvest, Finger Lakes Land Trust and Greensgrow Philadelphia Project.

Loads of good times ahead... good times that look something like this...







I'll be out there taking loads more pictures that sit on my computer never to see the light of day. Can't wait!

Song For A Day - Kolniðu

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Sigur Ros makes everything better. Or, in this case, lead vocalist Jónsi, who has a new solo album out called Go and it's very nice, really, you should get it.

This lovely and amazing video made by Sean Stiegemeier of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull is something you ought to watch because it is super neat. Really. I promise. You can see a larger version with some more information on the piece here.

It makes me want to return to Iceland... ash and all.

You Need To See This... and This... and That

Couple of the year... not this year, perhaps, but still.


Kitties of the day. I kind of want that dress.



Finnish Metal Dragons of the hour. You're gonna thank me for this one. I just know it.

(and I thank Julia Segal)

Song For A Day - Blood Buzz Ohio

Earlier this week I mentioned my affection for The National. Here's their new video for "Blood Buzz Ohio" and while yes, sure, sometimes I think Peter Murphy or Tindersticks' Stuart Staples are not so subtly lurking around, I love Matt Berninger all on his own.

I'm so looking forward to seeing them at Sasquatch in a few weeks. I already told Tom if their set conflicts with MMJ's I'm going to see The National. THAT'S HOW EXCITED I AM. I also threatened that I would dance around and sing "Apartment Story" louder than the band but don't worry... I was just kitten.

I Woke Up This Morning and Saw This - Spider-Man Edition

So now... you know... you should, too.

I think Spidey might have been better served by not having a Mary Jane who seems to be twice as strong as he.

I'm also amused by the stoic crowd shots. Apparently this sort of thing must happen all the time at Lindy Hop competitions. I wonder if there's footage of a Wolverine/Jean Grey routine out there somewhere.

Song For A Day - Love Lost

This is some awesome Billy Elliot meets Chariots of Fire music videoing. The only other band I love these days as much as Frightened Rabbit and The National (and MMJ, obvs) is The Temper Trap.

Oh, and then there's this.



Generally speaking Tim and Eric make me kind of barfy but I love the Paul Rudd. And this is... something.

Behind The Scenes With The Muppets... and Stuff

This is pretty priceless.

I just got home (and by just I mean Monday morning) from a two day jaunt with My Morning Jacket. Full report coming shortly (and by shortly I mean someday before the end of the year).

In the meantime... they say a picture's worth a thousand words so here's a few...


This is Duke Ellington's Wurlitzer. Really! We took a behind the scenes tour at the Smithsonian on Saturday. You wouldn't believe the things we saw! I can't believe the things we saw.


This is the handsome Bo Koster doing soundcheck things at Merriweather Post Pavilion.


This is Patrick and Little Joe BEING AWESOME!!

This is the end of the show. A melee of sorts. And by melee I mean crazy bananas excellence with MMJ and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band who I am now in love with.

I shot about a kajillion photos between the museum and the shows. It was fun to dust off the ol' camera and make some purty photox. I had such excellent subjects after all.

As I said, more coming. In the meantime you can follow all of us on Twitter: My Morning Jacket, That Tom, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and moi.

Bringing A Little Nerdy Joy To Your Day

As usual, I'm late to the game on the awesome sauciness that is UK photographer Mike Stimpson's lovely Star Wars' Lego photography. So maybe you've seen all this goodness, but if not, have a gander. His work is sure to bring the happy.


See! Happy!

In other news, this week is dragging by as I'm just waiting to head to Columbia and Columbus to see that Tom guy and his compatriots. Good times ahead at the Smithsonian, and I'm looking forward to the gathering of the ladies of the internets. Things are about to get girly, you guys.

Oh oh, speaking of Tom and his fellows, they finally made it on to the Twitter contraption. You can follow them @mymorningjacket. Keep up with set lists and the fabulous adventures of Pooch and Denise. If you want to follow me, you can do so @mspark... or via the RSS feed of this blog, if you're so inclined and I thank you if you are.

The blogging has hopefully resumed in earnest as I attempt to regain my writing vigor. If you can call this writing, that is.

High Five Etiquette

People who know me know I have a complicated relationship with the high five. This was never an issue in my life until I tour managed My Morning Jacket years ago although now it seems more pervasive. At work in Austin for SXSW I get people attempting this maneuver, as well.

For a long time I explained my reticence by saying, "High fiving - if I did it - says more about me than it does about you." My thought process was something along the line of "well heeled ladies of a certain age do not high five." Nevermind that I am not a well heeled lady. I'm not sure, actually, what a well heeled lady is.

It became such a running joke with the guys (and has continued with their new TM) that they would taunt me with a hand in the air, and I came to truly fear this friendly gesture. However, since I'm turning 40 in June I've decided to stop being such an uptight biyaatch and just go with it. I think this handy guide will help me in that endeavor. It might just help you, too.

(This wonderfully amusing video comes to you via @Beffery who is graciously bringing me Tim Tams from Australia to Columbia, MD this weekend where I will enjoy them while watching my first MMJ show in over a year.)

The Internet Just Keeps On Giving Today

Well now...

(thanks, PGG)

You're Welcome

Oh my goodness.

Song For A Day - Nothing Like You

It's almost embarrassing, my love for Frightened Rabbit. The fabulous Scott Hutchison did my LP Questionnaire over at the SXSW place and I waxed rhapsodic about them over at Nerve.com. I saw them twice in March and am contemplating a road trip to Newport for their May 6 show at Southgate House. My nightly prayers include one for a My Morning Jacket/FR tour. Okay, I don't pray, really, but if i did...

Speaking of le MMJ, the laddies play their first show in over a year tonight in Birmingham and I am muy sad not to be there. However, I'm saving all my excitement for Merriweather Post Pavilion and points beyond. I hear rehearsals went well and I'm purty sure the shows will be full of goodness.

But back to Frightened Rabbit... I heart this song, I heart this video, I heart these boys. The rush I got seeing them live was only equaled to the feeling I had when I first saw MMJ at SXSW in 2002 so peep this shizzle, you guys.

ps. A friendly notice... if you read this blog via an RSS reader, my feed's moved to here so feel free to, you know, re-subscribe and stuff. Thankin' ya.

My Morning Jacket at Sasquatch

Well, now this sure is cutiepants.

You can buy it here. Didn't know about Invisible Creature before five minutes ago, but they seem like an impressive collective.

Oh oh! One more thing... if you read my blog via RSS, you need to please re-subscribe as my url has changed. You can do so by clicking on this linky. Okay, thank you.

Laughter Is A Working Bun

Well, this is the best thing I've seen today.

(via Julia Segal)

Seriously?

Yeah, this isn't creepy or anything... I think the best way to move past Tiger Woods' indiscretions does not, you know, involve using the voice of his dead father. But that's just me.

What do you guys think of this new Nike ad?

I'm Back... No, Really...

Okay, I just realized I haven't posted since March 19 and I feel like a total loser.

So here I am... in Chicago... stuffed full of food from The Green Zebra, the greatest restaurant ever. One of them, anyway.

I'm in a giving mood so please enjoy this wonderful video from Major Lazer. Did you know their live shows feature lots of humping? It's true. I saw it. I may never recover... and you may never forgive me if you watch this but caring is sharing, you guys.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...