sometimes I do college-kid things. really.

          Aaaaah, last night was so great!  Remember when I mentioned that my ridiculously talented cousin Kaleigh was gong to be playing at The Delancey?  That was last night, and honestly, she just blew me away.  For the past few years, I've been able to hear her play at family get-togethers, and she's always been talented, but I can't believe how far she's come in the past two years.  She opened with "Don't Close Your Eyes," then went into a gorgeous cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire," and a super-fun version of Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa."  She also did a fantastic cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep."  Kaleigh's original songs were the ones that brought me to tears though (don't worry, I hid it well.  Sort of.  Ish.).  We've dealt with some similar issues over the past few years and her songs "Walking in Circles" and "I'd Rather Be Living" kind of dealt with those, and ohhh, I am just so proud of her and adore her so much.  I'm really hoping she puts out an EP soon because I need more of her gorgeous music in my life.  And I got to see my adorable cousin Monica, and my lovely aunt and uncle, and family friends, and just in general a good time was had by all.

     Conveniently, the Brendan Benson show I went to afterward was just a few blocks away at the Bowery Ballroom.   The ID-checking guy hit on me in literally the most awkward conversation ever.  It went a little something like this.

"No way, dollface, you're like sixteen years old."

"Nope.  21.  Here's my ID."

"Alright.  So... are you looking to mingle?  You wanna get together after the show?"

Yeah, dude, that's why I came here tonight, I was hoping to get together with a mildly creepy individual who up until five seconds ago thought I was sixteen.  How'd you know?

(I didn't actually say that.)

"Um...no.  Thanks though.  Can I go in now?"

     So that was weird.  But the show was amazing!  Young Hines opened, and he was really great-- lots of energy, clearly excited to be doing the show, just lots of fun.  His album only came out on April 10th, so there's not much of his stuff on Youtube yet (Oh yeah.  Rackin' up the hipster points.) but definitely check him out on Spotify.   He's actually being produced by Brendan Benson, on his new label Readymade Records.  My favorites from the album are 'Don't Break My Fall,' 'Just Say No (Sometimes),' 'Hold You and Scold You,' and 'No One Knows.'  

     Aaaand Brendan Benson was just as fantastic as I hoped he'd be.  He seemed really humble and sweet, if a bit too skinny.  Should've brought him some baked goods.  (Whoa.  We've got an Italian girl here, ladies and gents.  And yeah, I've been known to gift musicians with baked goods on occasion.)  But the music was really, really great.  He brought Young Hines back out for a few songs, and they seemed to be having so much fun that it was impossible not to get caught up in their excitement.   He played a bunch of my favorites-- same situation with videos, his latest album was only released on April 24th, so not much on Youtube yet, but he also played a bunch of my favorites from his previous albums.

'Tiny Spark'

'Cold Hands, Warm Heart'

'Sittin' Pretty'

Yay!  And the new album is on Spotify-- I especially like 'Happy Most of the Time' and 'The Light of Day.'  Also, the crowd was so nice!  No pushing, no shoving, no errant beer spilled down my back, nothing.  It was great.

Alriiiight, back to working on e-portfolio stuff for me.  I'm actually writing this from my school's library computer lab.  Here's what I'm up to at the moment.

It's a little tedious to set up, but I'm excited to have digital version of my portfolio that still has the feeling of my actual book.

Hope you're all having a great Sunday!

♥