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It's almost hard to put into words how amazing the show was last night. At times I was almost in tears because of the beauty of their music and the intensity of their performance. Interference, the band they sing "Gold" with in the flat during Once, flew in from Ireland for the show, and they opened with a huge set. The lead singer Fergus O'Farrell - a fantastic singer - has Muscular Dystrophy and is in a wheelchair, so they don't perform very often (at least that's what I read somewhere) - so this was special. Marketa's family was in from the Czech Republic, and her sister joined her on stage so Marketa and she could perform a song from the classic film the Wicker Man.

Glen performed "Say It To Me Now" to start the show - without a mic - he went up to the very edge of the stage and belted it. Some people yelled "we can't hear you!" - but people cheered. (They used mics after...) :) Their set was over two hours long, and it would have gone on had the venue let them, I imagine. Glen did some songs by himself - notably a Van Morrison song where he played his guitar so hard that I thought his fingers would start bleeding, he'd break a string, or both. He was definitely feeding off the energy of the crowd - and his humorous introductions were the best. He apologized in advance for possible swearing, and said it was on account of the British having beaten the Irish language out of their people for so many years that the Irish, in revenge, have to use profanity in excess when they speak English. :)

Edit The song is "Astral Weeks"

( Video of Astral Weeks under the cut )

Glen talked about how it was such a big change for them since the last time they played NYC in 2006. He walked with Mar near Radio City and said, "you know what that is?" She didn't. He said it was THE venue, and that they had to play it. So they were quite moved by playing to a sold out audience there now - when back in '06 they were pleased with selling out 150 seats at the bar Pianos.

At some point they said goodnight, but the crowd wouldn't stop giving them standing ovations and cheering... and it seems like they did almost ten songs as an encore. Every now and then the house lights would come on and you could see them taking it all in. The violinist from The Frames (who plays with them), Colm Mac Con Iomairem did a song by himself from his own new album - another one everyone should look for. The very last song was their cover of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" - and the whole audience was standing, singing, and moving. Somehow Colm worked the Willy Wonka tune "Pure Imagination" in at the end of the song "Star Star", and then Glen sang a bit from it. "Do you know what happened to the boy who got everything he wanted? He lived happily ever after." (Misquote?)

It was surreal being there. I have a few crappy videos from my camera but the internet is being slow and I can't upload them. Luckily someone else at the show already did - and they got entire songs. I have a few photos, though.

( videos of five songs under the cut )

( some LARGE pics )

So yeah, I bought tickets for the show in Boston already... an early birthday present.

Edit - forgot to mention that he played the Hoover Sucker Fixer song. Someone asked him to play The Banana Man song he wrote for his niece - but he said he'll wait until he's on Sesame Street someday. :)

Also, Entertainment Weekly was at the concert and did a little review:
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/05/swell-season-li.html

Setlist (Source:
Say It to Me Now (solo acoustic)
Lies
This Low
The Moon
When Your Mind's Made Up
True (The Frames)
I Have Loved You Wrong
Falling Slowly
Leave
What Happens When the Heart Just Stops (The Frames)
Astral Weeks* (Van Morrison)
Gently Johnny (Paul Giovanni - Wicker Man Soundtrack) (w/ Marketa's sister)
(If You've Gotta Go, Go with) Happiness
Once*
---
If You Want Me
The Blue Shoes (Colm Mac Con Iomaire)
Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy
Gold (by and with Interference)
Fitzcarraldo* (The Frames)
Star Star (The Frames) w/ "Pure Imagination" from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory & Palace's "Christmastime In The Mountains"
Into the Mystic* (Van Morrison)
*Standing ovation.

It was a Subaru Loyale, 1990 (?). Light blue. A hand-me-down from my Mom, who had just bought the demo model of a 97 Ford Escort, which would become my second car. Kind of like the one below, though I didn't recall it as being so ugly back when I had it.

(from daphep, the original Chihuahua Mama)

Over 800 chihuahuas and small dogs were seized from an Arizona puppy mill run by an elderly couple in their triple-wide trailer. That's right. 800 dogs and other animals, in a trailer. It's a terrible story, but thankfully many of the dogs appear to be healthy from what I'm reading. Some were pregnant and were giving birth during the transport. It's just a sad story, but hopefully it will make people think about adoption. I get so upset when I hear about people buying their dogs from breeders over the internet. It's just so irresponsible given the number of dogs on death row at shelters needing homes.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/fromcomments/229498.php

An article, with video.

If you want to help, the Humane Society down there is taking donations. You can read more about the rescue on their page:
http://www.hssaz.org/news_chihuahua_rescue.html

I read somewhere else that people were getting into fights trying to get near the dogs - the demand is so great. Makes me feel bad for other breeds not in similar demand, like the pit bulls that I read were rescued in a dog-fighting raid last month in that area of Arizona.

Hug your doggies and kitties tight, everyone. They're the lucky ones.

(I really need to make a chihuahua icon with my pups in it.)

(This is an interesting analysis on the delegate count from the Obama community. With graphs and numbers from the Slate delegate counter.)

Mathematically impossible for Clinton to win candidacy.

Okay, back to work - no online for many hours. Take care, kiddos.

From an interview with Glen Hansard with Pitchfork, as seen in once_film.

Speaking of changing the cover, am I imagining things, or did they change the Once poster when it got released on DVD? They changed what you're wearing.
Glen: Oh, man. They fuckin' killed it. You're right. They have us holding hands, which we never do in the film! Those legs aren't mine. Those legs are like three times longer than my legs. It's a completely new body. They literally just used my face. I'm wearing a hat in the original picture, so they Photoshopped my head. If you look at my head, my head looks totally weird, because whoever did the Photoshop job was shit. My head looks really weird, they took my hat off, and they gave me an entirely new body. It's completely bizarre. And they made Mar much taller than she really is. You can look at the original cover and then what they did to it and spot all the crappy differences. It's awful. It's a real shame. But at a certain level you've got to let this shit go. I designed the original poster and the cover of the DVD myself. Myself and John like to do things ourselves, and I do a bit of design for the Frames. I designed all the Frames album covers. So I put together the DVD cover and the poster originally. And then they took it and fucking bastardized it. Instead of walking down a street, they stuck us walking down a big guitar.

It's so true! I didn't even notice it until now. What pisses me off most is how they make an already slim girl look TALL and SLIMMER. WTF? So annoying. The photo was great as is.

Before
After

BOTH of their acceptance speeches. See how cool Jon Stewart was?

Glen & Marketa's Oscar performance.

I am overjoyed they got the recognition they deserve for one of the most beautiful, fitting songs to be in a film.

Congratulations, Glen & Mar. Keep making music.

Put your large vocabulary to good use on FreeRice.com. For every word you define correctly you earn 10 grains of rice to be given to the UN to help feed the hungry.

(via AmericanMadness.com, philipvale's blog)

Clicky Clicky for the Earth

They ask that you call Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, too. I just did - you can, too!

I just found this incredible video from a UN conference on the environment in 1982 1992 in Brazil. A girl from an children's environmental group addressed the delegates with one of the most impassioned please for the environment I've ever heard. It's sad in a way because this is from 1982 1992 (the video looks like it's from the 80s!) - and had governments listened back then we would have had 15 years of progress behind us, when so many times it feels like we're only getting to work as the glaciers are melting, more and more species are becoming extinct, etc.

( YouTube video under the cut )

Pass this one along if you feel inspired...

EcoLibris.net

Kind of cool. They did a lot of blogging in support of Co-op America's People's Choice Awards for green businesses.

( YouTube video - Bonnie Raitt, Ben Harper, Keb' Mo', Jackson Browne explain the nuclear subsidies snuck into the recent energy bill - and how to fight back )

Do you live near a nuclear power plant? You may not today, but if the nuclear power industry has their way, a lot more of us could have those radioactive smokestacks as neighbors.

Please join musicians Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt as well as a growing list of concerned citizens in signing a petition to Congress that will stop a pending bailout of the nuclear power industry.

The Senate version of the Energy Bill now pending in Congress could authorize virtually unlimited loan guarantees for backers of new nuclear reactors – effectively, a blank check, at taxpayer expense. Besides the fact that reactors are vulnerable to terrorist attacks, human error in operation, and earthquakes, there is also no solution to the problem of safely storing or transporting nuclear waste. Why would we want more nuclear power facilities built if the safety of those already in operation is in question?

Tell Congress that nuclear power is not a “clean alternative” and has no place in an Energy Bill that seeks to expand the role of truly safe and reliable renewable energy from wind, solar, bio-fuels, geothermal and other green technologies.

Please sign this petition and call your Senators and Congresspersons and urge them to “REMOVE THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY LOAN GUARANTEES FROM THE PENDING ENERGY BILL.”

Thank you for taking action, please forward to your friends by October 22nd and ask them to do the same. Together we can make a difference, but time is of the essence!

Go to NukeFree.org - sign the petition - and pass it on!

(Damn, Ben Harper is cute...)