i'm getting crunchier anna burch vibes here and i love it. apparently, alaska is not from alaska, but from montana. i've never been to montana, but this song (and entire album, big bunny) sounds exactly like how i'd expect an album by an indie singer-songwriter from montana to sound. i mean that as a compliment, obviously. that pre-chorus is pure magic!
have you ever read a book about the EXACT moment in life you're currently experiencing? comedian jessi klein's essay collection is 1000% that for me right now. there are essays about filling your free time as a 30-something single person, essays about anthropologie, and essays about just feeling generally out of place as a particular kind of woman (slightly anxious, not particularly girly-girl or flirtatious, joke-cracking, and late-blooming) in the world. it's not only making me laugh, but it's making me feel a whole lot less alone at the moment.
3. this video of evan dando from the lemonheads singing in a walgreens on cape cod
Just had a special guest appearance at Walgreens by artist @Evan_Dando (lead singer of the group the Lemonheads). Thank you Evan, you sounded great as always! pic.twitter.com/GB6XOBPfnS
put your mask back on, evan!!! but seriously, barring that, this is basically my favorite thing that has happened in 2021 because i am here for any and all content related to evan dando/the lemonheads. plus, this is just such a great story. basically, he lost his wallet "walking from a hotel" in falmouth (drugs, probably?) and tweeted about it. then, the walgreens manager told him someone had turned it into them and i guess when he claimed it, he decided to give them an impromptu serenade of "confetti,"which is definitely in my top five lemonheads songs. sigh.
4. this garfield shirt which i may or may not purchase because it's my forever mood
just when i thought quar had depleted me of frothy romantic comedies to watch, amazon prime suggested this to me and i was as giddy as a child on christmas morning. miles teller? analeigh tipton from crazy. stupid. love? a plot that revolves around an app-based hookup and a new york city blizzard that forces the two main characters to fall in love? how the hell did this pass me by in my late 20s when it came out?? regardless, all that matters is that i've watched it now and i highly recommend it for lighthearted and feel-good viewing. sidenote: it also has a great soundtrack that introduced me to a bunch of tunes i'm currently obsessed with, like "nuclear seasons" by charli xcx.
1. this nutso purple and blue house in my neighborhood
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 heartthrobteddy 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.
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.
