sufjan! my spanish fluency, zanzibar, trumpet players, monty python reunion

i had a weird moment. i was walking to pick up some stuff from the tailor and i felt like everyone was staring at me. to the point where i actually felt my head to make sure there wasn't bird poop in it. and felt my face to make sure i didn't have any gunk all over it. i wasn't wearing tight clothes or a low cut shirt. it was just so surreal. and i'd say it was guys and not women but i was near wall street where the girl/guy ratio is probably 1/10. anyway, apparently i was distractingly exotic/interesting looking for all of 30 minutes the other afternoon.

 

 my spanish experiment is going well. i find that my comprehension really depends on who is talking. if they're speaking slowly enough i'll understand everything. if they're speeding through, i miss 2/3rds of what they're saying. but i suppose that's the point of this, right? to get used to listening at a rapid pace? i find myself making note of verb conjugations that i wasn't expecting or irregulars and i'm trying to remember the stuff i'm hearing often enough (and the tenses) to use them in practice.

 

the difference in language between the puerto rican stations and the espana stations is crazy. and all the stations in cataluna are out as they're all in catalan. but the mexican and puerto rican stations are just so loud and cheezy and the transition music is crazy. i listened to an interview with a bunch of 13 year olds and understood every word so i guess that's about where my comprehension is!

 

kenya is coming together, slowly. the only train to mombasa leaves every other evening from nairobi so neither does it leave nor return when we need it to. SO, we're going to hope over to tanzania and go to zanzibar instead. it's a one hour direct flight so it's easy peasy to fit into the schedule. we're also taking one day to spend in nairobi, do the markets, whatnot, visit the slums to remind ourselves how lucky we are or something. kidding! (not really.) but the good news is that colin is healing brilliantly and so there's a pretty good chance he'll be able to go since chemo looks like it's not necessary. all excellent!

 

alex balk, breaking my heart.

 

saw sufjan stevens last night. i don't feel that i'm exaggerating when i say that seeing him in concert is a spiritual experience. his voice is angelic. Nedelle Torrisi had a gorgeous voice and sang on most of the songs as well. he introduced himself as if he were on an audition. "my name is sufjan stevens. today i'm going to play _____" his new stuff was catchy and a little bit rock and roll. and every time he'd move from a new/unrecorded song to one we all knew he'd say, "okay, we're going to play a real song now." at the top of the show, in his sweet, sunny little voice he said, "maybe for this song i'll plug in the keyboard! this is a disaster. we have 44 effects pedals up here, the trumpet has the most!" speaking of the trumpet player, it was the same hot one that i saw playing with rufus wainwright. he looks better when he's not wearing crazy pastel striped jeans. c.j. camerieri. in my head he's a nice boy who doesn't cheat on his girlfriend (he MUST have a girlfriend, i mean, he plays trumpet. what? not all women are obsessed with trumpet players? see number 65. it all started with tony zator in high school. i can't even go there...) so, sufjan. he's maybe the cutest person i've ever seen. it was a good mix of new stuff and old favorites. two encores, the last was just him and his bango. he joked about how his guitarist was demoted to bass because sufjan had been wanting to play more guitar. anyway, superb show that left everyone feeling quite warm and glowy.

 

i have an extra ticket to the monty python reunion show. you know, the one that is bringing the cast together for only the 3rd time in over a decade. some idiot is trying to sell it for $699 on ebay. i suppose i'm the idiot if he sells it and i offer it to my friends at face value. that being said, my friends are broke/cheap/whatever so i'm not sure who is going to take the $150 ticket from me...