St. Vincent and Meatballs in Icelandic

Nearly a month has passed but it has not felt like it. I've been busy but would rather not bother you all with stories mostly of being preoccupied with age-old questions like What Will I Do With My Life, or How Will I Pay These Taxes. Needless to say those stresses have been put to rest, at least for now. I saw a fabulous concert by St. Vincent tonight, which if you don't know her or her band, it's about time you checked out this video. She and her delightful curlyhaired litheness (and the soundguys) totally rocked the multi-instrument arrangements on stage without losing the quirkiness of her amazing compositions that seem to take inspiration from classical music, funk, french pop, and avant-garde noise. I would also kill for those lyrical skills. Plus, everyone in the house thought she was pretty badass when she did her experimental electric guitar whacking i.e. the shredding of the 21st century. Annie Clark is St. Vincent, pictured right.
Those points, and the punctuality of the concert, were the pros. The con was that I stood in back of a girl who was annoyingly texting the entire concert and her phone's light was blaring in my face the whole time. If you're going to pay $20 to see a concert, please do not text to your gurlz the entire time. A picture, maybe. A single text of 'OMGAmazing!', fair enough. But otherwise, keep the clam closed. Though, truth be told, I secretly saw several of the texts including one that read "There is not a single guy here I'm interested in. Not my type." Well, I don't think they're interested in you either, sweets. Most of these people are gay, and the others wouldn't appreciate a girlfriend who can't pay attention. Pictured: someone somewhere is texting something completely inane.

Musically, I've been working on Music of North Side Spaces a bit, and have some sample pages for the vocal groups to try out. I've written/rearranged some music for my sister's wedding, and I've also been preparing for a trip to NYC in March to hear the String Orchestra of Brooklyn play a piece I wrote for them based on an Irish folk tune, The Last Rose of Summer.

I've also been practicing Icelandic! What better way to sing along with some of my favorite musical groups but to study the language. It's hard, but very rewarding. I'm glad I can still memorize nouns and adjectives, but the retaining of genders and declining and agreement and all these case issues are pretty difficult. I can, however, say "meatballs with gravy and potatoes". Kjötbollur í brúnni sósu með kartöflum. This is very important.