All posts by Nichole

Flotsam / Jetsam

My one-and-only VIP experience

Way back in June 2002, Ben Folds was doing a concert in Kansas City, and we went with our friends Chris and Sinead. It was roughly 8,000 degrees outside, and there were 900 million people there. The venue was a big, paved-over place that normally served as a farmers market. That being the case, it wasn’t graded stadium-style or anything. It was a big, flat, sun-baked expanse.

As you may know, I am short and Rockford is tall. Sinead is a little bit taller than me. Chris isn’t as tall as Rockford, but he’s tall enough that he was able to see over many of the heads in front of us. This is a very important part of the story.

There we were, amid a sea of sweaty youngsters, listening to but not actually seeing Ben Folds. So Sinead and I decided we would head toward the back of the crowd, where we’d get to breathe perspiration-free air and we’d still be able to hear the concert. When we got to the back, we noticed that there weren’t very many people at all to the side of the stage, where the VIP tent was. So we headed that way.

We had a decent view there, next to the tent, but we were still broiling. So we stared longingly at the shady space beneath the tent. And at the chairs! Because even at a concert, I’m lazy. My laziness giving me a sudden and unexpected burst of confidence, I asked the VIP tent bouncer what one had to do to get into the VIP tent. He said something about being invited by someone with the beer company sponsoring the show. My confidence evaporated, and I wandered back to my spot.

And then! A few minutes later! The bouncer waved us over and asked if we’d gotten our over-21 bracelets on the way in. I had, but Sinead hadn’t. She dashed back to the entrance, showed them her ID and dashed back. And we were in the tent! Sitting in chairs! About 15 feet from the side of the stage!

Several times — at least twice — as we lounged in the shade with our feet propped up and Ben Folds’ adorable, curly-haired little twins frolicking in front of us, we thought about Rockford and Chris. We thought, “Boy, it’s a shame they’re so tall.” But we knew that the bouncer wouldn’t have let us in if we’d had boys with us. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t feel as bad for them as I probably should have. They were less than thrilled to hear our awesome story.

And that is the Ben Folds story.

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"Sky Blue Sky"

I first started listening to Wilco in 1999 (I think), when “Summerteeth” came out. Rockford bought it on the way to a summer vacation in Minnesota, and I spent an entire day in the cabin, reading and listening to the album. I don’t often listen to an album all the way through, but that one hooked me. I still love it.

Whether you want to call them “experimental” or not (lead singer Jeff Tweedy certainly doesn’t), Wilco’s subsequent albums were a bit of a departure, sonically, from “Summerteeth.” The dissonance made it hard to listen to “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” at first, but it’s grown on me. I loved “A Ghost is Born” from the first time I heard it, even though it hurt to listen to it. I was not in a terribly happy place when it came out, and some of the lyrics can still bring me to tears:

I’m going away
Where you will look for me
Where I’m going you cannot come.

No one’s ever gonna take my life from me
I lay it down
A ghost is born.

I know that’s very junior high, but it’s true. It was a cathartic album for me.

I’ve been reading about the new Wilco album, “Sky Blue Sky,” for a month or so now. I’d only heard one song from it, even though the band has been streaming the whole album on their Web site for a good long while. (I wasn’t avoiding hearing it; I just couldn’t get it to download.) Rockford pre-ordered it, and it finally arrived today.

And I love it. Right away, without hesitation. I love the bittersweet humor of “Hate it Here.” I love everything about “Walken,” which I first heard in September 2005 on our whirlwind Wilco-following tour. I love the resigned optimism of “Either Way.” I love the guitar work, and I love that Mr. Tweedy doesn’t seem to be hiding his voice behind a wall of noise.

EW called it “the best Eagles album the Eagles never made.” It’s probably the most accessible album Wilco has made. I think my dad might even like it, and he doesn’t like any music that I like.

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$21

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) stood before the refrigerated section of the Safeway on Capitol Hill yesterday and looked longingly at the eggs.

At $1.29 for a half-dozen, he couldn’t afford them.

Ryan and three other members of Congress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That’s $3 a day or $1 a meal. They started yesterday.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), co-chairmen of the House Hunger Caucus, called on lawmakers to take the “Food Stamp Challenge” to raise awareness of hunger and what they say are inadequate benefits for food stamp recipients. Only two others, Ryan and Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.), took them up on it.

from the Washington Post’s “Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn’t Buy a Lot of Groceries.

It’s discouraging that so few representatives were willing to take on the “challenge,” but I hope those that are involved are affected enough by the experience to try to change something.

Jim McGovern and Tim Ryan are blogging about the challenge this week.