i wasn't born of a whistle or milked from a thistle at twilight

Joanna Newsom.  lets talk about her .



there are few bands here on this earth that can create a 16 min spinning folk epic fueled by a harpist with a voice that sounds a little like a 7 year-old joan baez (or a 70 yea- old joan baez).

there are few bands that can use the word 'thou' and 'thee' (save possibly Dragonforce) without me rolling my eyes completely out of my head.

t.a.f.b. that can conversely created lovely little pop songs that defy definition.  it's not that she sings about the minutia, but the makes the tiniest noun sound Proper.  that's her drowning bell, that's her wool, that's her bean sprout, that's her belfry, that's her journal that she recorded mnemonic devices to tell the difference between a meteorite, a meteor, a meteoroid  (ok that last one probably is Proper).   never is she vague about her images... she paints a pastoral musical portrait which is like walking through a rusted and wooden consignment shop, overgrown with antiques and trinkets, filled with lone woodland creatures and non-sequiturs.

i only write this to show my love for her, and my excitement for her new album 'have one on me' coming out in 3 weeks.  a 3 cd set.  i just can't wait.

my morning jacket is playing with the preservation hall jazz band in columbus.  i will be there.

i just did a reading of "boy gets girl" by rebecca gilman.  that play is just flawed, as is i think her other play "spinning into butter".    she has very intelligent views on perception of women (former) and race (latter) but presents her characters as cut-outs that only develop through passive stories.  it's frustrating to actually try to act: "this one time i found this rock and it meant so much to me and this is why you should care about me know and i hope i opened a door for you to the inner chamber of my beating heart."
or something like that.
though:  this reading was a huge giant awesome step into hopefully filling monday night with rich readings of plays and hopefully paul leiber and i playing some songs in that room.  i'd love to get some original scripts read , too.  who's got one?  send it my way.

othello starts tomorrow, which is possibly one of the best plays ever written.  and i get to be in it, playing lodovico/gratiano (melted into one super senator).  it's one of those times where i really am blessed to have this job.  it's a work in progress, this job is, but man do i love the work.