blue monday & the feathers

What a weekend! Saturday was the 350 show and it was an all-day event for me. I got up super early to get dressed and upload photos but it took much longer than I expected it to so I couldn't go shopping like I had planned.

K and I headed out to my parents' house for rehearsal around noon and got there at 1 pm. We played for a while and then all drove out to my old high school to set up for the performance (which would commence promptly at 3:50 pm).

Without our usual sound supervisor (my mother), my father struggled to get the equipment working in a timely fashion. We weren't able to do a sound check and because we were the first group to perform our set was a little shaky at first (at least the few songs I sang on).

However, things started to smooth out and the show was a smashing success. K and I stayed for all 350 minutes (nearly six hours!), and although my seat was a little sore after all that time, it was definitely enjoyable. There were some really great acts--it's incredible how many talented people populate these green mountains. It's probably because there isn't a whole heck of a lot else to do around here, so people have time to practice & learn an instrument.

Although banjos and fiddles were the most plentiful by a landslide, other instruments appeared in a variety of forms: concertinas&accordians, upright bass, coronet&ukelele (one of my favorite acts, the "Plank House Band"!), harmonica (an incredible performance by the prodigious Jan Meese)...one man even played the saw!... and of course your standard-issue guitars. The supreme vocal stylings of Andy Gagnon were a reminder to everyone that the voice is perhaps the most powerful instrument of all (and that he is much more than just a drummer)!

My friend S played some of her original songs which are awesome... I wish I could link to her website so that everyone could hear them but she doesn't have one (yet).

As far as 350 fashion goes, plaid was overwhelmingly influential. Most of these people looked like they had just rolled in out of the forest where they had been chopping firewood for the past few hours (some of them probably had been!). The members of my family were no exception.

All-in-all, it was a great show for a good cause. Well done, dad!

The next morning, however, starved for shopping, I drove to the other side of the state for some good old-fashioned consumerist fun. I ended up buying a LOT more than I had intended because a trip to Michaels for some Halloween-costume feathers turned into a $50 spree when I discovered their fantastic pendants and decided that some DIY necklaces were definitely in order.

A trip to TJMaxx for a brown shirt to sew said feathers to turned into $109 in tights (exhibit A above... exhibits B, C, D and E to come), a sweater, a holiday-red thermal and this new plaid dress (maybe the logger-style rubbed off on me a little bit...). Oh, and a brown shirt, on which I am sewing wings and feathers for my Halowleen costume. Did you catch that sneaky trick? If not, all will soon become clear...

TONIGHT: Andrew Bird and St. Vincent at Higher Ground!

350

Today is the big "show" I've been mentioning in the last couple of posts. Remember when I was touting the merits of dedicating your philanthropic efforts to a cause? My father has definitively decided that global warming must be stopped. Bill McKibben, Vermont writer and activist for climate change, has declared this day (October 24) a "Day of Action," where people around the world organize an event or an action to raise awareness about this problem. And with that, I suppose the time has come to tell you... I'm sort of in a band. My dad and brothers started it up a couple of years ago--just playing Irish music and performing locally for fun. When I moved back from Oregon I got roped in to singing for them. The event my father chose to organize in the spirit of Mr. Mckibben was 350 minutes of music by various local groups and musicians, held at my old regional high school (yeah, regional--three towns, 7-12, 400 kids--I grew up in a very rural area).

So what does 350 mean? According to scientists, it is the "safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere." Currently, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 hovers around 390 parts per million (ppm), which is significantly higher than it can be to sustain human life for an extended period of time. Basically, our atmosphere needs to go on a serious CO2 diet and our big dirty cars and power plants and smelly cows are the negatively influential friends who take you out for margaritas and nachos every Thursday night. It's pretty complicated and I don't claim to be an expert, but basically global warming occurs when the sun casts its lovely rays of D3 down on the earth and heats the surface. The earth absorbs some of that warmth, but also reflects some back, which is the Earth's way of balancing its temperature. The problem occurs when too much of that reflected heat is trapped beneath a layer of greenhouse gases and cannot escape into space.

Here in Vermont, our air is about as clear as it can get, but we have begun to see the impact of climate change. It rained every day this summer, which was unacceptable :) Whether this was a direct effect of global warming of if it's just the natural order of things, I can't pretend to know. But what better way to bring the community together on this (rainy) Saturday than stage a little musical extravaganza?! This is what I'll be wearing...

(skirt: vintage, hemmed; tights: GAP; boots: ALDO; shirt: charlotte russe; belt: thrifted; scarf: thrifted; woven purse: thrifted)

coming 'round the bend

I want to take a trip on a train. I'm hoping that I can convince K to ride the train into Boston with me to see the Nutcracker Ballet when the snow starts falling.

(dress: F21; FRANCE shirt: UO; scarf: vintage; boots: ALDO; je t'aime necklace: UO, braid: Alexander Wang)

I'm trying out the Alexander Wang braid today... I figure my long, perpetually messy and frizz-fest head of hair was just dying to follow that trend... although somehow it manages to look not quite messy enough for this look. Funny how that works. Not funny ha-ha, either. I'm also sporting a red lip (I blended a lipstick that was fire-engine red (aka too red) with one that was too purple to get a satisfactory shade. Still on the lookout for a nice, deep red that makes me look more classy than clownish.

These train tracks run alongside the road across from our Barn and I like to watch it roll by out our bedroom window. There is something so soothing about a chugging train... even if the sudden, thunderous whistle bursts do break through that reverie.

one of those days

(dress: betsy lauren via NodtoModvintage; boots: UO; leather jacket: ALDO; tassel necklace: vintage; purple turtleneck: tjmaxx; belt: thrifted)

about last night...

I think it's official... a week before the commencement of my 24th year and I am already an old lady. The show last night was great, I'm really glad we went. We got there a little late and missed the first band, Drug Rug, but we were just in time for the Portland-based youngsters hockey to wow us with their funky dance jams.

They were fantastic, albeit creatively underdeveloped, but I have no doubt they will grow into their style as time goes on... they just released their very first album. My only complaint would be the brief interlude in which they suddenly decided to mimic Bob Dylan--random? Hell yes. It didn't work, kids. You'd be better off incorporating the harmonica (always awesome) into those dance jams we were talking about.

Portugal. the Man--awesome.

They do need to get a better sound technician at Higher Ground, however, because the past couple of shows were just not quite right. We went to see the multi-instrumental Welsh indie band Los Campesinos! a few months ago and it was difficult to enjoy the inspired discord because the sound wasn't properly balanced and the cacophony just kind of battered and bludgeoned my aurally-inexperienced eardrums.

The sad thing is, I think this band was actually good. Anyway, perhaps I'm being too harsh. The sound last night was pretty good, and P.the Man rocked it. The stage was dark, which was actually kind of a refreshing change from all other indie rock bands that seem to scream, "look at me! look at how hip my clothes are! look at my funny moustache and my tighttight jeans!" For most of the set they just jammed the hell out of their songs, renouncing any recognizable tune for the sake of stellar solos and long, rocking riffs.

So why am I an old lady, you ask? You were out rocking at a rock and roll show until 1 AM! (you say). You must still be possessed by a youthful spirit! (you insist). We got home from the show at 1 AM, and I crashed. I was even kind of crashing while we were at the show. For a while I may even have pretended that my eyes were closed because I was so into the music. And this morning I rolled out of bed, didn't even glance at the shower, threw on some clothes that I knew I would love no matter what, forgot to take my vitamins (I need one of those days-of-the-week pill boxes) and hustled myself out the door. My eyes still don't want to open fully and I think I picked up a head cold. But I got one thing right--I do love this outfit:

I am going to wear this ruffled blouse as much as I possibly can until it is deemed absolutely, unquestionably uncool. Which will be never. Or until it falls apart, which might be soon.

I got the little fur (favorite #1) and paisley (favorite #2) coat (shrug? capelet?) at One More Time consignment shop in Montpelier and paid too much because it was too awesome to pass up.

I also got the beautiful woven purse there and i lovelove it.

Tonight? Pizza and "band rehearsal" at the homestead (for that show I mentioned... elaboration still to come).

i'm with the band

Tonight K and I are going to a rock n roll show, so I've put on my band uniform :)

I've allowed my outerwear to go the way of mismatched plaid&paisley-esque because I've been wanting to wear this plaid blazer for a long time and I couldn't take it any more! I stole it from my mother.

(dress: UO; shoes: marshalls; blazer: mom's; belt: thrifted; scarf: vintage anne klein, etsy)

It's rare that bands we want to see come out here to VT--because, lets face it, would you? Sometimes they stop in en route to Montreal or Boston or New York or ... you get the idea. Anyway, I'm super excited to see Portugal the Man. We caught the tail end of their set when we went to see Minus the Bear in Oregon last year, and I have to say I thought they were better than the Bear! I'm not even remotely a hipster (despite my best efforts to seem cool sometimes) and I'm not one of those enviable up-to-the-minute music mavens who knows all kinds of obscurely awesome bands and regularly goes to shows and bobs her head and drinks PBR. Non, ce n'est pas moi. K, however, is one of those people, and tries very hard to educate me (by way of pop-quiz questions a la "What band is this? If you don't guess this I'm never speaking to you again" when certain super-famous bands from bygone eras come on the radio). I always fail. I don't play the name game. But I do know what I like and I do like to see good bands sing and sweat and slam on their guitars. So we go to shows when we can.

This weekend we will be attending a very different sort of show :) More on that later...

blue suede shoes

I bought these shoes on a spur-of-the-moment trip to DSW with the girls when I was in Boston. We were in Dedham looking at wedding dresses (!) and it was right across the way so of course we had to stop in... At first I was afraid they looked a little bit like hooves, but I came around :) I don't regret it!

(fur collar: H&M; FRANCE shirt: UO; scarf: vintage, thrifted; dress: thrifted; belt: thrifted; purse: gift from mom; HUE tights (yellow); blue suede shoes: DSW)

I've been procrastinating the trip home because the sink is overflowing with lazy-weekend dishes, but I must go! A happy Monday to all!