Remembering the Encores

Who: Gary Lightbody (of Snow Patrol) When: August 2, 2015 Where: Swedish American Hall/ San Francisco, CA With: A room full of people in varying states of emotion Of Note: This is a story about how I cried in public. Snow Patrol is a band that I have a lot of emotional bullshit tied to. For years, one of their albums (it rotated) was my 'go to sleep' music. And, the first time I saw them (in PARIS) served as kind of an ending for me, the end of a period of mourning from a failed relationship . I can still clearly remember tearing up during 'This Isn't Everything You Are' and feeling so very triumphant during the last chorus because the message that despite all the pain and heartache, that's not all you are provided a tidy end to my, "and now we move on," narrative. So, when I saw that Gary Lightbody, Snow Patrol's lead singer, was doing a solo show in SF, I immediately bought a ticket. That man's voice is magic. The set was a g

Dear Internet, I have a gift for you.  On Saturday, I decided that I just could not take the city any more.  I needed to get out.  So I took a drive down the coast, did some fantastic outlet shopping, pushed a cart around a giant suburbs Target, etc. - and it was glorious. While I was driving, I found a sandwich baggy of CDs in my car, put there when I drove across the country.  A potpourri of old favorites, unlabeled disks, and some of my mix CDs from college (oh, you sweet summer children who do not understand the joy of getting your first computer with a CD-RW drive and the power it held!).  I blindly grabbed one and put it in. Have you ever wondered to yourself, "I wonder what music Jen listened to when she was 19 and wanted to feel all the things?"  If you knew me in college, have you ever thought, "What were all those terrible songs that made Jen cry her entire sophomore year?" And so, I present to you, "Bastard Little Duck": an eloquently