when friendship and teh interwebz happily collide

sunday morning: i see a post on twitter about a new song and an upcoming album from one of my favorite artists. i retweet it and someone i know points out that meshell will be in chicago this january. i start thinking about how to incorporate this concert into my b-day celebration - maybe it'll be the finale? i dunno.

monday night: i realize that 2 of my girlfriends. who also are meshell fans, aren't on twitter and therefore probably missed my excitement. i make a note to email them on tuesday.

tuesday morning: i send my friends a quick e-mail with 3 links: one for the new song, one for a quick article about the new album, and the concert link posted above.

one of them writes back almost immediately, saying that they'd just been thinking about meshell and wondering if we'd put the concert date on our calendars. before i had a chance to respond in the affirmative, she wrote again, saying that we definitely had to put the date on our calendars b/c she'd just ordered our tickets.

i might have shed a couple of happy tears. here i was, sharing information w/friends who i knew would be interested, and now we're all going to see meshell again. and, of course, i will figure out an "official" way to tie this into my month-long birthday celebration. this is a good problem to have. :-)

things i've learned so far this week

1) watching the video for jill scott's "hear my call" in public isn't a good idea, b/c i will be reduced to tears and no one on the cta wants to see that.

eta: here's the video.

2) nikka costa puts on an amazing live show. that was my concert splurge for the summer and it was totally worth it.

3) dance floor plans also puts on an amazing live show. click the link and give them a listen.

4) the fact that 2 people asked me the same question w/in 36 hours, coupled with the question itself, is seriously making me reconsider all kinds of things that i previously thought/still kinda think are true.

5) the universe is laughing its ass off at me right now. ok, that's not really a new revelation, but it's really come through loud and clear this week.

but how the hell are y'all? :-)

to thank or not to thank...

this note came across a jobs/careers listserv i'm on (yes, listservs are still active in 2011):

Dear (list moderator),

Please don't advise people to send those silly thank you letters after interviews. I hire three or four people a year and I see those things as a pure negative. I'd rather hire someone who didn't send me a thank you letter than someone who did. The letter to me signifies "hire me because I'm polite" instead of focusing on the job requirements. It's my choice whom to hire. Don't try to influence me. That's my two cents.

(letter writer)

i strongly disagree with the letter writer.

let's be honest: a job interview is all about influence. the potential employee is doing their best to convince the interviewer that s/he is the best fit for the position and for the company. in some cases, the interviewer is trying to "sell" the potential employee on the reasons why s/he should join their organization.

i still send handwritten thank-you notes after in-person job interviews. one organization that i'd interviewed with decided not to hire for the position, but my contact there made it a point to thank me for my thank-you note when she told me the news. do i think a thank-you note can make or break my chances of getting to the next round? not necessarily, but i do think that those notes help keep me in the interviewer's mind as they're trying to make their decisions on who to hire.

personally, i'd rather hire someone who sent a thank-you note than someone who didn't. it shows me that this person is interested enough in the job and was appreciative enough of my time to thank me for it. if they're like me, they include something we discussed in the interview in their note, which shows that they were paying attention. and, yeah, they're polite.

thoughts?

and speaking of birthdays...

james would've been 49 today.

that is all.

ode to bff

today is my bff's birthday. i couldn't tell you exactly how we first met in 7th grade, but we've been friends ever since. one of the things that's most amazing to me about our 20+ year friendship is that we have never lived in the same city/suburb. as you can imagine, this made (and still kinda makes) hanging out a bit of a challenge. remember that this was before e-mail and cell phones - we're talking passing notes during class and meeting up at lockers, and even that fell by the wayside once i transferred high schools during our junior year.

during our 20's, there were times when we'd go weeks w/o talking on the phone, just b/c our schedules were insane or whatever. i loved that we could pick up wherever we left off. actually, we still do that now, but at least we're a bit better about keeping in touch.

to say that we've been through a lot is an understatement. we're both daddy's girls who lost our fathers way too early. we've had more than our fair share of family drama, relationship drama, college drama, b-school/law school drama, fallouts with friends (but, thankfully, never with each other) - you name it. an ongoing joke i have with her is that neither of us can run for office and piss the other one off, b/c we both know way too much about each other.

it's not an understatement to say that i wouldn't have gotten through the past year or so w/o her. this is not to say that the rest of y'all weren't supportive and wonderful, b/c you were & i love y'all for it. i have to say, though, that having your oldest & dearest friend in your corner when your life takes yet another unexpected turn makes dealing with it just a bit easier, and for that, i am forever grateful. (awww…)

out of all the people i knew in junior high and high school, bff is the only one i'm still in contact with. i am more than ok with how that turned out.

so…happy birthday, erica. here's to yet another year of friendship and love and support and booze. :-)

were they saying "boourns?"

this new york times article caught my eye yesterday - the author wonders if it's ok to boo at the theater:

You hear it at Bayreuth and at the Met. Some places in Italy are so famous for it you’d be disappointed not to hear it. Booing at the opera may seem like a breach of protocol, but for better or worse it’s a tradition. In some circles, it’s even a sign of good taste.

So I wonder … if we hear booing at the opera, why don’t we hear it at the theater? And — dare I ask — should we?

this intrigues me b/c i've NEVER heard booing at the opera. in the, oh, let's say, dozen or so operas i've attended at the lyric, i have never heard booing. sure, there's been some groans, but that's usually due more to the plot/character than to the actual performance. i was actually unaware of this "tradition" of booing at the opera until i read this piece yesterday.

as for booing at the theater - i can't say i've ever heard it there, either, and i've been to way more plays/readings than i have operas.

booing at concerts? sure, i've done it. for some reason, though, i wouldn't dream of doing it at an opera or at a play. i'll withhold applause, i'll stay seated when ovations break out, but actual booing? not so much.

i should also point out that i've only booed at "popular" music concerts. something seems very wrong about booing at symphony center or ravinia. house of blues, though? i've been that person yelling "get off the stage!"

(although now i'm remembering a "popular" concert i attended at the civic opera house where i might've booed the opening act...)

i say all of that to say that i don't see myself booing at the opera or at the theater anytime soon. i'd love to hear from y'all on this - have you booed at an opera or at a play before? would you? why/why not?