you can listen to the playlist via spotify, or, if you want, i can burn you a cd. enjoy. :-)
eta: these aren't in any particular order. just thought i should point that out.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
some of my favorite songs of 2013
you can listen to the playlist via spotify, or, if you want, i can burn you a cd. enjoy. :-)
eta: these aren't in any particular order. just thought i should point that out.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
top concert* experiences of 2013
* - one of these is a dj set, which i suppose isn't technically a concert, but i'm including it anyway.
so 2013 is almost over, which means it's almost time for everyone's year-end/best-of lists. i'm working on my 2013 favorites playlist and will post it when i'm done, but i also decided to share my favorite concert-going experiences from the past year. by my count, i went to more than a dozen concerts in 2013. i'm not sure how i pulled that off, either. i guess it helped that some of these shows were free or really inexpensive?
here's my list, in no particular order except for number one.
milwaukee summerfest, june 2013 - ll cool j, femi kuti, and morris day and the time all in one weekend. hell yes. this was my first trip out of chicago in a long while and holy shit i needed that quick getaway. in hindsight, i suppose it was a good thing that ll decided to skip chicago during this most recent tour, huh? ll's show entertained me greatly, despite the multiple fights breaking out in the crowd (really, milwaukee? that's how y'all roll?). femi kuti and his band and his dancers made me dance like i'm younger and skinnier than i really am, and affirmed my bucket list item of being one of femi's backup dancers at some point. morris day and the time always puts on a good show, and on the way back to the car, i made up a song to the tune of the flintstones theme song about some mini-doughnuts that we bought. in my halfhearted sorry-not-sorry defense, though, those mini-doughnuts were fucking delicious and i regret nothing.
frankie knuckles at smartbar, november 2013 - 'twas the night before thanksgiving and i stayed out until damn near 4am dancing. frankie knuckles has always been one of my favorite house music dj's and smartbar was full of fellow aficionados and we all collectively lost our shit multiple times when certain songs were played. one song in particular has made it onto my 2013 favorites playlist.
sphinx virtuosi with denyce graves, october 2013 - i was front and center for this show and i swear on everything holy that denyce graves smiled at me at one point during this concert and i almost died of squee. denyce graves is only one of my favorite opera singers and this was maybe the 3rd or 4th time i'd seen her live and never that close and omg i'm having a fangirl moment just thinking about it again.
turquoise jeep at bash on wabash, august 2013 - if you have any familiarity at all with the phenomenon that is turquoise jeep, then you know why this is on my list. if you don't, go watch some videos on youtube. there was also a miley cyrus wannabe who wound up on stage, so that provided extra entertainment value.
greg spero at city winery, may 2013 - this was a tasting event hosted by glennfiddich and it was also a full-out jazz piano concert, which was a total bonus for me b/c, let's face it, i was really only there for the whiskey. greg's a great musician and you should check him out if/when you can. i even got an autographed cd after the show!
lizz wright and raul midon at old town school, october 2013 - this concert was so amazingly wonderful that i almost slid out of my seat with joy. more than once. i really need these 2 to come out with a duets album, preferably a live version, so i can relive the magic forever and forever.
and now, my #1 concert-going moment of 2013:
daley at schubas, december 2013. ok, so this was a part of #alldecembereverything and i might have been a bit biased on this one, but the audience at this show was hands-down my favorite audience of the year. during intermission, a fellow audience member and i sang a duet version of oleta adams' "i just had to hear your voice." i'd never met this guy before, and yet we sang THIS WHOLE DAMN SONG IN HARMONY like we grew up in the same church choir or something. it was amazing. a few songs after that, the entire audience sang along with a live version of jill scott's "the way." as stephanie put it, it was a "peak blackness moment" b/c not a single one of us missed an ad-lib or anything else. oh, and daley put on a great show, too. :-)
so 2013 is almost over, which means it's almost time for everyone's year-end/best-of lists. i'm working on my 2013 favorites playlist and will post it when i'm done, but i also decided to share my favorite concert-going experiences from the past year. by my count, i went to more than a dozen concerts in 2013. i'm not sure how i pulled that off, either. i guess it helped that some of these shows were free or really inexpensive?
here's my list, in no particular order except for number one.
milwaukee summerfest, june 2013 - ll cool j, femi kuti, and morris day and the time all in one weekend. hell yes. this was my first trip out of chicago in a long while and holy shit i needed that quick getaway. in hindsight, i suppose it was a good thing that ll decided to skip chicago during this most recent tour, huh? ll's show entertained me greatly, despite the multiple fights breaking out in the crowd (really, milwaukee? that's how y'all roll?). femi kuti and his band and his dancers made me dance like i'm younger and skinnier than i really am, and affirmed my bucket list item of being one of femi's backup dancers at some point. morris day and the time always puts on a good show, and on the way back to the car, i made up a song to the tune of the flintstones theme song about some mini-doughnuts that we bought. in my halfhearted sorry-not-sorry defense, though, those mini-doughnuts were fucking delicious and i regret nothing.
frankie knuckles at smartbar, november 2013 - 'twas the night before thanksgiving and i stayed out until damn near 4am dancing. frankie knuckles has always been one of my favorite house music dj's and smartbar was full of fellow aficionados and we all collectively lost our shit multiple times when certain songs were played. one song in particular has made it onto my 2013 favorites playlist.
sphinx virtuosi with denyce graves, october 2013 - i was front and center for this show and i swear on everything holy that denyce graves smiled at me at one point during this concert and i almost died of squee. denyce graves is only one of my favorite opera singers and this was maybe the 3rd or 4th time i'd seen her live and never that close and omg i'm having a fangirl moment just thinking about it again.
turquoise jeep at bash on wabash, august 2013 - if you have any familiarity at all with the phenomenon that is turquoise jeep, then you know why this is on my list. if you don't, go watch some videos on youtube. there was also a miley cyrus wannabe who wound up on stage, so that provided extra entertainment value.
greg spero at city winery, may 2013 - this was a tasting event hosted by glennfiddich and it was also a full-out jazz piano concert, which was a total bonus for me b/c, let's face it, i was really only there for the whiskey. greg's a great musician and you should check him out if/when you can. i even got an autographed cd after the show!
lizz wright and raul midon at old town school, october 2013 - this concert was so amazingly wonderful that i almost slid out of my seat with joy. more than once. i really need these 2 to come out with a duets album, preferably a live version, so i can relive the magic forever and forever.
and now, my #1 concert-going moment of 2013:
daley at schubas, december 2013. ok, so this was a part of #alldecembereverything and i might have been a bit biased on this one, but the audience at this show was hands-down my favorite audience of the year. during intermission, a fellow audience member and i sang a duet version of oleta adams' "i just had to hear your voice." i'd never met this guy before, and yet we sang THIS WHOLE DAMN SONG IN HARMONY like we grew up in the same church choir or something. it was amazing. a few songs after that, the entire audience sang along with a live version of jill scott's "the way." as stephanie put it, it was a "peak blackness moment" b/c not a single one of us missed an ad-lib or anything else. oh, and daley put on a great show, too. :-)
Thursday, December 19, 2013
when the ask is too damn high
y'all know i come from a nonprofit background, right? that most of the gigs i've had to date have been in the nonprofit sector? i know and have worked with a number of people in fundraising and development. so really, i get it when organizations send their end-of-year appeal letters asking for specific amounts that might be slightly higher than their normal ask. i understand it, i do. you're taking the chance that your donors may be in the holiday spirit and are feeling more generous than usual, and you also figure that you'll never know if that donor will contribute (insert dollar amount here) unless you specifically ask for it.
i was going through my mail yesterday and there was an end-of-year appeal letter from an organization here in chicago that i've previously supported. it was pretty standard as far as donation letters from this organization go - they did their mail merge correctly and inserted my first name more than once to make me feel special, etc. i skimmed it, really, b/c this organization is usually on my list of year-end charitable contributions anyway, but then i got to the ask.
"eulalia, your gift of $2500 or more will..."
i literally laughed out loud. well, as much as someone with laryngitis can laugh out loud, anyway. as i said on twitter yesterday, the most i've given to this organization is maybe $100, and that's been in a very good year when i was working full-time and actually was staying in my own place, etc. my usual contribution amount is in the $20-$40 range, depending on my list.
needless to say, this organization won't be seeing a cent from me this year. i know i should probably contact their development office and tell them that asking me for that kind of money is just ridiculous, especially given my current circumstances, and maybe i will, after the 1st of the year. right now, though? whine whine whine bitch bitch bitch.
i was going through my mail yesterday and there was an end-of-year appeal letter from an organization here in chicago that i've previously supported. it was pretty standard as far as donation letters from this organization go - they did their mail merge correctly and inserted my first name more than once to make me feel special, etc. i skimmed it, really, b/c this organization is usually on my list of year-end charitable contributions anyway, but then i got to the ask.
"eulalia, your gift of $2500 or more will..."
i literally laughed out loud. well, as much as someone with laryngitis can laugh out loud, anyway. as i said on twitter yesterday, the most i've given to this organization is maybe $100, and that's been in a very good year when i was working full-time and actually was staying in my own place, etc. my usual contribution amount is in the $20-$40 range, depending on my list.
needless to say, this organization won't be seeing a cent from me this year. i know i should probably contact their development office and tell them that asking me for that kind of money is just ridiculous, especially given my current circumstances, and maybe i will, after the 1st of the year. right now, though? whine whine whine bitch bitch bitch.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
37 (and still counting, please god)
guys. guys. guys. guess what day it is? c'mon...guess what day it is?
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! *releases virtual balloons and confetti*
i've developed this annoying (to me) habit of waking up between 3-4am for no apparent reason whatsoever. when it happened this morning, my first thought was still "fucking hell why am i awake so gotdamn early?" but then i realized that it was officially tuesday, december 17, and therefore i'd actually made it to my birthday (not that i was all that worried, but still), and so i went into #attitudeofgratitude mode and managed to go back to sleep shortly thereafter.
a couple of nights ago, i tweeted about having a story to tell today. see, this time 20 years ago, on my 17th birthday, i was super-depressed and if i'd managed to put my hands on a sizable number of pills, i probably would've attempted suicide. that's not a secret, right? i mean, i alluded to such in one of the intro posts i did for this blog (see #7), so i don't feel like sharing this is a super big deal.
my original plan for this post was to flesh out more of why i was feeling suicidal 20 years ago, but when i finally woke up f'real this morning, i decided that wasn't the route i wanted to take today.
today - and really, the whole month of december so far - is about celebrating myself. i'm alive. i'm relatively well. i'm safe. i may not have my own place but i have somewhere to sleep that doesn't involve a shelter or a cta train. i have a part-time job that doesn't completely suck. my friends win all of the awards for being wonderful. i am loved. there is obviously a metric fuck-ton that i can be upset about, and trust me, i am totally upset about a lot of things a lot of the time, but for right now, in this moment? happy.
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! *releases virtual balloons and confetti*
i've developed this annoying (to me) habit of waking up between 3-4am for no apparent reason whatsoever. when it happened this morning, my first thought was still "fucking hell why am i awake so gotdamn early?" but then i realized that it was officially tuesday, december 17, and therefore i'd actually made it to my birthday (not that i was all that worried, but still), and so i went into #attitudeofgratitude mode and managed to go back to sleep shortly thereafter.
a couple of nights ago, i tweeted about having a story to tell today. see, this time 20 years ago, on my 17th birthday, i was super-depressed and if i'd managed to put my hands on a sizable number of pills, i probably would've attempted suicide. that's not a secret, right? i mean, i alluded to such in one of the intro posts i did for this blog (see #7), so i don't feel like sharing this is a super big deal.
my original plan for this post was to flesh out more of why i was feeling suicidal 20 years ago, but when i finally woke up f'real this morning, i decided that wasn't the route i wanted to take today.
today - and really, the whole month of december so far - is about celebrating myself. i'm alive. i'm relatively well. i'm safe. i may not have my own place but i have somewhere to sleep that doesn't involve a shelter or a cta train. i have a part-time job that doesn't completely suck. my friends win all of the awards for being wonderful. i am loved. there is obviously a metric fuck-ton that i can be upset about, and trust me, i am totally upset about a lot of things a lot of the time, but for right now, in this moment? happy.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
recipe review: sausage and bean skillet
it feels weird saying that i made this recipe up out of the blue, b/c i'm pretty sure i've stolen elements of it from various soups/stews/pastas i've made previously.
here's how it all started. i realized that i had a pound of ground italian sausage in the freezer that i wanted to use sooner rather than later. for some reason, i didn't want to make a pasta dish. i wanted something i could make in one pot or one skillet b/c on the day in question, i was running on fumes and knew i didn't have the energy or attention span to dedicate to cooking a "full" meal.
italian sausage and spinach, i thought. that sounds delicious. i can brown the sausage and then add the spinach and i'll have meat and vegetable together. but it didn't sound like enough. beans, i thought next. i'll add a can of beans!
list of ingredients:
1 pound of italian sausage, pre-ground or if in link form, removed from casings and crumbled
1 bag of spinach (i used a 9oz bag of spinach - you could use baby spinach or a spinach/arugula blend if you wanted)
1 15oz can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
seasonings to taste (my default is lawry's seasoned salt - use whatever you want)
heat a nonstick skillet on medium/medium-high heat. add a couple of tablespoons of oil to get things started, then add the sausage. cook, stirring and breaking up larger chunks as necessary, until the sausage has browned. depending on how much fat is generated from the sausage, you'll want to drain the fat from the skillet.
add the spinach in batches until it's all in and wilted. stir in the beans and cook until they're heated through. season as you see fit, then eat.
this serves 3-4, depending on your serving size. i had 2 dinners and a lunch out of it.
bon appetit!
Sunday, December 01, 2013
#alldecembereverything: the list
hi guys! guess what month it is? it's december! happy birthday month to me! as in years past, i will be treating myself to various social outings and gatherings, and you're invited to join in as much or as little of the fun as your schedule and budget allows. trust me - i totally understand about the budget thing. :P
here's the list as it stands right now:
saturday 12/7 - karaoke at third coast comics. do it. you know you wanna.
sunday 12/8 - one of a kind show at merchandise mart. i'll be there with a couple of girlfriends. there are discounted tickets available from goldstar, and some of the artists may have links to free tickets on their websites.
monday 12/9 - bears vs. cowboys on monday night football. i don't know where this game watch will be happening yet, but it's gonna happen. stay tuned.
tuesday 12/10 - "the upstairs concierge" at the goodman at 7:30pm. tickets are free, but you need to reserve in advance.
wednesday 12/11 - apparently this show at schubas is sold out, so unless you already have a ticket, you will be unable to go to there with me. sorry.
saturday 12/14 - "the rooster room" staged reading at the goodman at 11am. ok, yeah, this one is also sold out, but it looks like there might be standby tickets available? my bad.
oh, and i might do brunch after the staged reading. i'm kinda on the fence about it as of this writing, so we'll see.
sunday 12/15 - it's possible that i'll be hanging with bff in the afternoon/evening, but if there was some sort of gathering that involved the bears game, i would not be opposed to participating in said gathering.
tuesday 12/17 - happy birthday to me! lunch at primehouse as is my tradition, and then watching the blackhawks game at burger bar later that night. 1/2 price wings, anyone?
wednesday 12/18 - dj michellelesliebrown makes her triumphant return to dance dance party party! ladies only. $5. dancing. it's gonna be ridiculous.
thursday 12/19 - unbridled at untitled. 10pm. burlesque + whiskey = good times. i have a very limited number of free tickets available, so if you'd like to go and save your cover charge for more whiskey, let me know asap so i can save a ticket for you.
tuesday 12/24 - 'tis the season to go gambling on christmas eve and sing happy birthday to jesus at midnight!
this list will be updated/edited as needed. happy december! :-)
here's the list as it stands right now:
saturday 12/7 - karaoke at third coast comics. do it. you know you wanna.
sunday 12/8 - one of a kind show at merchandise mart. i'll be there with a couple of girlfriends. there are discounted tickets available from goldstar, and some of the artists may have links to free tickets on their websites.
monday 12/9 - bears vs. cowboys on monday night football. i don't know where this game watch will be happening yet, but it's gonna happen. stay tuned.
tuesday 12/10 - "the upstairs concierge" at the goodman at 7:30pm. tickets are free, but you need to reserve in advance.
wednesday 12/11 - apparently this show at schubas is sold out, so unless you already have a ticket, you will be unable to go to there with me. sorry.
saturday 12/14 - "the rooster room" staged reading at the goodman at 11am. ok, yeah, this one is also sold out, but it looks like there might be standby tickets available? my bad.
oh, and i might do brunch after the staged reading. i'm kinda on the fence about it as of this writing, so we'll see.
sunday 12/15 - it's possible that i'll be hanging with bff in the afternoon/evening, but if there was some sort of gathering that involved the bears game, i would not be opposed to participating in said gathering.
tuesday 12/17 - happy birthday to me! lunch at primehouse as is my tradition, and then watching the blackhawks game at burger bar later that night. 1/2 price wings, anyone?
wednesday 12/18 - dj michellelesliebrown makes her triumphant return to dance dance party party! ladies only. $5. dancing. it's gonna be ridiculous.
thursday 12/19 - unbridled at untitled. 10pm. burlesque + whiskey = good times. i have a very limited number of free tickets available, so if you'd like to go and save your cover charge for more whiskey, let me know asap so i can save a ticket for you.
tuesday 12/24 - 'tis the season to go gambling on christmas eve and sing happy birthday to jesus at midnight!
this list will be updated/edited as needed. happy december! :-)
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