ALIVE WITH THE GLORY OF...

For the past year-ish, I've finally jumped on the Say Anything bandwagon. I'm not quite sure why it took so fucking long since I had read nothing but great reviews about their record ... is a real boy, but sometimes, it takes me a minute and i need to approach things at my own pace. I think the thing that converted me was the song "Alive with the Glory of Love" ... the lyrics were the most unbelievably sexy, romantic, and depressing lyrics about nazi concentration camps i've ever heard. Well, kind of the only lyrics about the camps that I've ever heard, so there was no competition, but that's not the point. No matter how depressing the topic is, I still found myself weirdly believing in love more than I did before listening to the song. There's something completely hopeful about the song that's almost comparable to the last few minutes of the movie "Life is Beautiful" but infinitely less depressing. You know in the movie when the father is trying to make his son laugh and not be scared as he's being carted away by the Nazi's, and you really can appreciate the lengths that love will go to make the other person feel better about things -- that song is sort of the musical equivalent of that (mostly because it's based on the same subject).

I thought of this, mostly because I just saw the video for "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" which is about love, and is not romantic in the least, but kind of funny. There's just something about Max's lyrics and vocal delivery that is just so great and makes me love the songs that I feel somewhat lukewarm about. I do really like the bridge of that song, and the video is so unfitting, it's hilarious.

I stayed away from downloading the internet copy of the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible (watch Arcade Fire videos here) because I wanted to hear the high quality version that the band intended fans to hear -- not the lowbitrate version that got passed around. I was on the subway listening to it when "intervention" came on -- was that the song they performed on SNL? I've gotta double check. Anyway, when "intervention" came on, I pressed my headphones close to my ears so i could hear the lyrics better and feel like i was surrounded by the music and not in a gross subway that feels like a coffin everytime i step into it.

i hate this song. i hate it because i love it so much and I cant listen to it without bursting into tears -- which is basically my relationship with the arcade fire. they make life more beautiful, and give it reason. its like gospel music without the God... it's hope and suffering all in one. I think that in 20 years, kids will still be discovering the Arcade Fire the same way they're discovering the Smiths and Joy Division today and be completely inspired and feel the same exact same way I am feeling this very second as I type this and listen to the song on repeat.

By the way, the Christina Aguilera video in which she plays three diff colored haired versions of herself is awesome. i'm not listening to the song cause i'm listening to the AF, but that video is fucking fantastic. I wonder what it sounds like.

I had dinner with my family last night to celebrate my Dad's 61st birthday. I was sooo nervous to see my dad cause I wasnt sure if he had seen the cover of the Village Voice yet or not. Coincidentally, my mom had only called me from her cell since it came out and i was convinced that it was cause my dad was really upset about the cover which displayed me in a slightly (although tastefully) provocative manner. But he had asked me to bring him 10 copies of the Voice for his birthday (how fucking cute, right?), because he was really proud and loved the article. It turns out that one of my uncles was less than pleased saying that I would embarrass the family if one of our Rabbi's saw it. I'm not sure how many of my family's rabbi's know me as "ultragrrrl" and would pass by the VV box and see "ultragrrrl" in huge letters and think "oh, there's is ondine and marc's daughter! what a ho!" Even my mom's nearly hasidic sister thought it looked great, which surprised the fuck out of me. I'm still nervous about Passover when I have to face my extended family and they give me the cold shoulder over the cover. But the important thing is that my parents are proud. I can live with that.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to live from the concussion i'm certain i have, which has left me with slightly fucked up depth perception and a backache that is going to have to demand medical attention as soon as possible. As if my memory wasn't bad enough before, it's kind of gone downhill. Thankfully, i think i got my love of emo knocked the fuck out of me since anytime i listen to an emo band demo i get disgusted and shut it off immediately. maybe it's just because they're all really bad demos.

By the way -- the best Chris Black quote from last night: "I love jewish girls -- they've got exaggerated features in various places."