Jim James wrote a song for me!

As I mentioned in the last Bonnaroo blog I did not get to see the entire four hours of My Morning Jacket at Bonnaroo...to make up for it I am going to see them in Dallas next month. I am in love with Evil Urges.

So, I have been online ever since I have developed this love for Jim James reading, viewing, and listening to anything that involves him...just a friendly little internet stalking.

When I was googling images of Jim James I cam across this blog:
http://swill-merchant.blogspot.com/2008/06/ode-to-hot-librarians-everywhere.html

I have been singing Librarian and listening to it for a week straight. Since I am a librarian, when I listen to this song I like to pretend that it is me that he is looking at from behind the periodicals. I'm the one with the pencil in my hair. It is my glasses that he yearns to remove.

He MUST have written that song for me, right?

Right?

My goal for next week is to watch I'm Not There. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Friday Night @ Bonnaroo

Aright, I'm ready to relive some Bonnaroo again. I am beginning to think that taking a month to blog about those four glorious days is the way to go. It makes me feel like I was there yesterday instead of a few weeks ago. So Friday night was awesome. After taking a leisurely stroll down Shakedown Street we headed back into Centeroo. We made it just in time to hear Metallica begin playing. This is when things begin to get a little fuzzy. Dallas and I were sitting down in the grass listening to the show when we both looked at each other and just nodded our heads. We listened for a while until we decided to go back to camp for supplies. On our way out of the Metallica crowd we stopped to listen to a song that we really loved and this girl was talking to me for what seemed like an eternity. Dallas kind of wandered away for a bit. I was having a really hard time understanding what she was talking about, it was pretty hilarious though. We talked for the longest time but the whole conversation is lost to me

This was taken sometime between Metallica and Super Jam. I usually don't advocate posting pictures where I look this bad, but this is just too funny, so laugh your little heads off, I sure do when I look at it.

The first show of the late night set we hit up was My Morning Jacket. I had a limited knowledge of this band coming in to Bonnaroo but I knew I dug it and wanted to see their show. A few songs in it began to rain, which I was hoping for because I thought it would really kick ass. I was wrong. It got really cold and made it a lot harder to enjoy ourselves. I had on a hoodie over my dress and Dallas tied a wool blanket around him like a cape. He looked rad. The rain looked amazing while MMJ was playing and the billions of glowsticks that were being launched into the air seemed like the most beautiful fireworks show I have ever seen. It was a constant spray of glowsticks flying over our heads.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com

Late night Bonnaroo glowstick action/Photo by Payment @ http://www.bonnaroo.proboards21.com/


My biggest regret of Bonnaroo is not gluing my ass to the ground in front of that stage for the entire four hours that MMJ played. I was amazed by them while I was there, but as a first time Rooer I did not want to miss The Super Jam. I had hopes that Jack White or Glen Hansard may join up...and had a secret wish that Ben Harper might show up as a surprise...of course it was all a pipe dream. We left MMJ to watch the Super Jam and also to get a little relief from the cold rain that was pounding down harder and faster. We met some random cool dude and set off to check out the Super Jam. He and Dallas hung out while I sat under a tree watching two guys on acid climb to the top and then hang from their legs. I just knew they were going to die, but they were very good at climbing trees. Since I was sitting under said tree, I also though they would fall on me and break my neck, but like I said, they were pretty steady up there despite the large quantities of LSD they had ingested.

When we both realized that we weren't really diggin' the Super Jam as much as we hoped we decided to go to another tree and sit under it. We sat there for a while while the rain was at it worst. Here is that tree during the day, it was next to a little building that looked like The Flintstone's house:

From that tree we went to stand somewhere else and talked to someone near a garbage can for a few minutes until all the glowstick action at Tiesto caught Dallas' eye. We ran under that tent and stayed there for a few minutes until it got a little annoying. I think that we went back to watch some more MMJ after that but I can't be sure. All I know is that the walk back to camp was very painful. We were both bundled up in Dallas' cape/blanket and it felt like we were losing a two legged race contest at field day. I was soaking wet and exhausted when we got back to our tent. I slept very well that night!

Friday @ Roo

I should have been on top of this a lot sooner since Bonnaroo has been so long ago now. It is already July and that wonderful weekend is now fading into a distant memory. I finally got my pictures online though, and that got me motivated to relive some of those mind blowing moments with you.

Friday was by far the best day for me at Roo, and also quite possibly one of the best days in my entire life. It is most certainly in the top five and will remain there unless several more super extraordinary things happen to bump it off the list.

We woke up at a decent hour, probably about 8:00. we had plans to meet some people I had met on an online community called Inforoo, a sort of online meeting place for all that is Bonnaroo. Inforoo was what prepared me for Bonnaroo....and I was very well prepared. There was an Inforoo brunch in the tent only area. We found it after looking for about ten minutes, which wasn't long considering I had a sinking feeling that I would miss out on the yummy list of food and party favors that might be present there. The smell of bacon helped a great deal in finding Camp Inforoo...what a glorious smell it was! I passed out some fudge that my mom made and ran over to the Mimosas. What a way to start a day at Bonnaroo. Dallas and I ate better there than we did all week. there were homemade biscuits with the most delicious sausage gravy I have had in my life. It was a white-ish gravy, and I have an anti-white gravy appetite, but there was an exception made for this heavenly pot of gravy. yum. Oh, and pancakes with syrup! I believe someone was cooking up some eggbeaters as we left. It was a gourmet camping feast! There were cookies as well that were much larger than my head. I did not partake in the cookies as they were rumoured to be very potent, indeed.
After recovering from a small heat stroke back at camp we went to Centeroo to watch Jose Gonzales at This Tent. He was amazing! If any of you listen to Zero 7 then you will know what a great voice he has. He sounded better live than I could ever imagine. The weather was so nice by then. After my mini heat stroke the clouds came out and brought along the nicest breeze imaginable. It was perfect.


When Jose Gonzales finished his set Tegan and Sara began but we decided to split our time between Minus the Bear and Umphrey's McGee. They were both really good but we literally went back and forth between the two stages that we probably heard two full songs from each band. During one of these shows, I believe Umphrey's, I decided that we should go back to This Tent and catch the end of Tegan and Sara in order to get a prime spot for Swell Season.

Swell Season...they were one of my top two bands for going to Bonnaroo despite being a band that half of America has never even heard of...and this despite the fact that they won this year's Oscar for Best Song in a Motion Picture. I fell in love with Glen Hansard's voice the day I heard it and never turned back. So getting a good view of the stage was very important to me. Of course, as luck would have it they were playing at the same time as my number two reason for going to Bonnaroo, The Raconteurs. they were a bit staggered so Dallas and I agreed we would see the first half of Swell Season and all of The Raconteurs.


As, I knew he would, Glen blew me away. But what I did expect is that he would also blow Dallas away as well. When they sang When Your Mind's Made Up everyone went wild and Dallas was completely surprised at how much Glen rocked it. He is now a loyal fan and we plan to see them in Dallas in September. Thankfully, Swell Season played all my favorite songs during the first half of their set, so that eased the pain. a smidgen, of having to walk away from Glen still playing.
On to The Raconteurs! We figured we'd get the crappiest view for this show since we were showing up right when the first song began. We went up the side of the crowd and ended up right along the gate and could see the side of the stage and the screens were just above our heads but far enough away to see. I could see Jack White's pale skinny body one the stage pretty clearly. I was so glad that I had listened to the new CD so much before we went because they only played a few songs form the first CD. I was a little disappointed with Broken Boy Soldier performed live but I believe it is because I am not a huge fan of distortion microphones. The "WOW" moment at this show was during You Don't Understand Me. listening to the piano solo on that song feels so great but I was not prepared for seeing it live. I am pretty sure that I cried a little bit seeing his fingers fly against the keyboard like that. They were moving so fast that I convinced he had fell victim to some kind of superhero mutation like in X-Men. Now, when I am in the car and I hear that song I always get a little teary eyed during that part of the song.


That is enough for now. I will continue with Friday: The Late Night Installment next time I feel like blogging. Stay Tuned!

The Beautiful Blur: Bonnaroo 2008

I'm calling it the "Beautiful Blur"...for more than one reason. Some of you will understand, some may not.

It is really hard to write about an experience like this...at least it is hard for me. It was such a unique experience that trying to write about it pales in comparison of living it. It was hands down the most wonderful thing I have done in my entire life. I could possibly give up my worldly possessions and live the Bonnaroo life forever.

So here is my account:

Day one:

We stayed in The Knights Inn motel in a city somewhere outside of Manchester. It was crummy, the sheets were dirty, but four hours of much needed sleep won out over cleanliness, I suppose it was a way to prep for four days sans shower. We drive into Manchester rapidly enough and are greeted by the longest line I have ever seen on an interstate in the opposite lane of traffic. We take an exit and get in line.

I heard that the wait was brutal, two or three hours, and I was hopeful that it would only take two. Four! It took four hours to go 15 miles. I ate homemade beef jerky, listened to Bonnaroo radio, applied more sunblock, traded places with my husband Dallas and let him nap while I drove...er, I mean, sat in traffic. My saviors during the wait were a group of young shaggy blonde haired frisbee players who a several cars up. I kept my eye on them and when their frisbee game ceased and the sprinted up the road to get back in their van, I knew it was time to start moving an few inches. They played frisbee a while, ran back to the van, moved a few inches, jumped out of the van, then played more frisbee. That lasted about 3 1/2 hours until there was no more grass for them to play on. Then I got a bit grumpy...until I finally saw ext 114. It was closed. I woke up Dallas and we waited about another 30 minutes to get to exit 112. Finally we were at the gates.

We get up to the guy who is supposed to check out the truck. We get out of the car and he glances in the truck bed, opens the cooler and says, "ya'll look OK, I trust ya", pretty funny huh? A few people in front of us were guzzling down Red Stripes since they don't allow bottle beer. They looked so yummy. I love Red Stripe. I should have gotten out to help them finish those tasty beverages.

So we are finally IN Bonnaroo. We are in line for about another hour waiting to get to out designated camp site. Damn, there was a lot to look at in line...little did I know I wasn't seeing anything yet! We get to our area and I jump out in full force to claim as much land for ourselves as possible...but first things first, I pop open a can of beer for each of us. We get our shade tent and regular tent up with lightning speed and help our neighbors put up there's as well. There is more than enough room for us all.

Thursday's shows are not the best and for good reason. We spend the night looking around wide eyed and acclimating ourselves to the Roo lifestyle, which isn't too hard. Virtually no rules, a utopian community at its finest. The entire time I was there the only altercation I witnessed was a man on acid who was battling a garbage can that had been accused of breaking his leg. He had to be controlled by security, who by the way are pretty lax and probably partaking in the same holy relics as the Rooers.

I did see some shows Thursday that were noteworthy but we never really sat down and listed to a whole set that night. We mainly scoped out which tent was where, which becomes a feat in itself when the tents and stages are named, That, This, The Other, Which, and What. I believe the shows we listened to on Thurs were as follows: MGMT, The Battles, Lez Zepplin, and Dark Star Orchestra. I remember walking by The Battles stage and being pretty impressed. I missed Vampire Weekend which I was looking forward to but it was just impossible to see everything. Actually, I may have seen them and just not know who I was seeing or where I was. There was just entirely too much to take in that night to be sure what I was saw. Oh, and the weather was to die for Friday night. There was such a nice breeze and none of the nighttime humidity you feel in Louisiana in June.

Getting back to camp and going to sleep was nice since those four hours at The Knights Inn were all we had since Tuesday night. I was loving the air mattress we brought!

OK, I'm going to have to continue this another time. Maybe tomorrow. Stay tuned for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday recollections (those are way better).

Modern Day Foot Binding?

I was writing reviews for all the books I have read that are listed on my Goodreads profile at http://www.goodreads.com/ when I started writing a short review about Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I gave the book as many stars as possible although it really isn't up to par with the books that I usually give that amount of stars to. I was going to explain that I gave it so many stars because it kind of opened up a new world for me, or should I say obsession with Chinese Literature. It wasn't so much that the book was so great, it was the subject matter that hooked me. The idea of this culture where women are so different than myself and the kind of women I surround myself with, although the are not so different to women we know. Here is how I began the review:

I read this book when I got on an World Lit/International kick that began with The Reluctant Fundamentalist. This book really opened my eyes and gave me a yearning to read fiction about other cultures, and although this book was set in the Middle East, I switched gears and gravited toward literature about Asian cultures. I became a bit obsessed with the foot binding tradition, mostly because I just cannot fathom how anyone could out themselves through such pain as a form of beauty. Americans go through pain during plastic surgery which is, in a sense, similar....but with a couple of bottles of pain pills to relieve the pain. These women had nothing and were forced to endure pain that some people will never get close to. It is disgusting, heart wrenching, and fascinating all at one. I had to stop and Google some images to satisfy my curiosity. It made me not want to walk on my perfectly health feet...I guess I know now how it feels when a man sees another man get kicked in the balls. You just really empathize at once. The craziest thing to me is that, despite the fact that this is illegal, some women are still doing this to either uphold an old world tradition, or (from what I can glean despite my Westernized perspective)just become a sort of novelty for men. I suppose it is no different to the women today who are having these strange vaginal rejuvenation surgeries that are discussed on Dr. 90210. I feel a feminist-perspective critical essay coming on. (that was the end of my review)

I felt like I needed to say more about this. Here is a picture of a foot binding, sorry if this image turns your stomach, but I feel like a visual element is needed:



It would take me too long to describe the process of foot binding, but if you are interested check out this link. It gives a great explanation and a little background history.
http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/China/04/hutchins/hutchins.htm


When you look at that picture it seems insane that anyone would put themselves through such torture for the sake of beauty (although it is hard for us to see that deformed foot as beautiful you need to trust me on this, they did.) but is it really that different from what some women do today? Yeah, the outcome may be more "desirable" in our eyes that what we see as a deformed foot but you can't deny the similarities. These "lily feet" turned men on, some made love to them, they floated their boat. The mother would take great care to ensure that their daughters' feet would be transformed to beautiful "lotuses". They took great care wrapping the feet and making the transformation successful. Read the link if you have the stomach for it.

Well, here is our Western equivalent to these dutiful mothers that ensured their daughters marriageability , wealth, and status:



His website states that one of his top procedures is vaginoplasty, also called vaginal beautification.

So, essentially he can make your vagina look like a fresh lily or lotus flower.

I could go on here, but I think I'm just going to leave it at that.

Nearsighted Enlightenment

I remembered why I chose the name Nearsighted, or at least have come up with the reasons that I think I chose the name. I had a bit of a notion when I said I couldn't remember but I wanted to think a little more and make sure it was what I wanted. The general thought behind the name Nearsighted was about looking at things closely....really looking at things. Not just on the surface, but also not ignoring the surface. While I am nearsighted, it has nothing to do with my trademark glasses...although in a round about way I guess it it does. You see, the more I read the more nearsighted I get. If I read a book for a few hours when I finally look up from the pages I cannot see anything further than my own hand. My ability to see beyond what is near me is temporarily hindered. So if I spend a lot of my time blogging about books, which I'm sure I will since they consume my life in so many ways, I will be closely examining the things that are in the books...but I will also become more and more nearsighted and eventually need to invest in a stronger pair of lenses, which incidentally, I have been putting off for entirely too long.

The Secret Novel

I have always dabbled in writing since I was a little girl. I have written poems, short stories and I even wrote a small play. I always have little ideas for screenplays, tv pilots, or novels and I'll jot down my ideas and then never really do anything with them. This one idea that I have for a novel just keeps coming up over and over and over again though. It just nags at me constantly and I feel like I've finally come to a point where I'm just going to have to do something about it. I don't want to say much about the presmise because it just seems to intimate right now for me let it any of it go. I want to hold on to the secret a little longer and let it stew. I have jotted down in a notebook some of the key ideas and even large chunks of what will someday become chapters , but its funny because it would be pretty hard for anyone to decipher what I wrote. It is all in wierd Jen code....strange, I know, but I just feel so secretive about the plot right now. I'm not worried about anyone stealing my idea or anything like that, I just don't fell like I'm ready to reveal anything other than what I'm saying in this blog, just yet. There are things I want to say right now about the plot in this blog, but I know I regret it later, so I'm going to savor that fact that I know what it is about and no one else does and just be satisfied that I at leats admitted that there is something in the works. I guess I can say this: I know of certain people in my life that may read it, if it ever materializes into something tangible, and have very strong feelings regarding what I have written. I guess that is the hardest part is just letting go of the fear that you are letting someone into your mind.