like...WHO LIVES HERE?!
2. this song by teddy, "i was in a cult"
i can't be the only one to remember the shaggy-haired, blue-eyed heartthrob teddy geiger, can i? his earnest acoustic tune, "for you i will (confidence)" was kind of a sleeper hit back in the mid-2000s, and he starred on the short-lived, ill-conceived, but mostly enjoyable show love monkey with tom cavanagh from ed.
fast forward 13 years, and he is now a she, who has apparently co-written mega-hit songs for the likes of shawn mendes, one direction, and 5 seconds of summer. one of her own recent tunes, released under the moniker teddy (i can't add the heart because blogger thinks it's HTML code), popped up on spotify and it is a certified BOP. it has an undeniably catchy melody, there are shades of fuzzy garage/psych pop, and how about that little piano riff?! just makes me want to strut down the street.
3. this vintage garfield sweatshirt
can you imagine if i wore this to work?! hahaha.
so, you guys know that i'm a fanson fo' lyfe and that last night, i had the pleasure of seeing my OG favorite brother band (sorry, greta van fleet, our relationship is still too new to call it) for the ninth time. this show was different than all the others, though; they were backed by a symphony orchestra. it was likely for this reason—and the fact that i was really feeling the two glasses of wine i imbibed—that halfway through the first song, the tears just flooded my eyes without warning. something about the dramatic strings, and that i was in the same venue a few feet away from where i first saw them live 18 years ago, and that i've loved their music so deeply for the majority of my life all converged and i just couldn't help it.
it was also that the day before, a woman that i met at one of their shows a decade ago posted the above article and tagged all of the ladies she's met at hanson shows, including me. as she said, i don't think i've ever read a more perfect description of how it's felt to be a fan for all of these years. "...part of loving hanson is loving the memory of who i was when i became their fan: an outsider who found kindred spirits in a band that wasn’t quite mainstream." last night, singing along to songs that still hold up wonderfully after more than two decades with all of those other "outsiders," i felt not only comforted, but incredibly proud that my 11-year-old self was so right about them all along. relatedly, this song from the new album, "siren call," is also insanely good so i'mma just leave this here:
5. this chilean sandwich, a chacarero
i know, it's hard to imagine a sandwich with green beans on it being good, but these little guys are ADDICTIVE. always on the hunt for lunch places near my office, i popped into this restaurant (which shares a name with the sandwich) with a coworker a month or so ago, and ordered a small original chicken chacarero. it was the beginning of something beautiful. the bread is soft and homemade, and the chicken is dressed up with muenster cheese, tomatoes, green beans, avocado spread and hot sauce for a little kick. it's everything i never knew i needed in a sandwich and i now find myself craving it at least once a week.
