Lily Allen

Almost forgot. Wanted to write a bit about seeing Lily Allen on Friday-it was pretty cool. Got there a bit late because I was having dinner with a friend and a friend of a friend, but got to see most of the set from the upstairs balcony. 9:30 Club was packed. I've never seen it so jammed, with the possible exception of Sleater-Kinney's show there last August. The music was great and the samples translated really well into live music. She had a horn section, a fantastic drummer, a guitarist and bassist. Plus a synthesizer thingy that she kept banging on during random moments. It was all really fun, no angst and everyone just bopping along. Lily didn't do too much stage chatter-mostly it was just a bit about the next song and she'd just start into it. Exception was the slapdown for the ATL posse, who apparently ended several states out of their way yet didn't seem to know it. Lily politely corrected them with, "We're in DC, muthafuckas!" Was pretty funny. She didn't seem that drunk but she was drinking and smoking (!) on stage and giggling in a really cute way. You could tell that most of the crowd, if they didn't have one already, was walking out with a crush on her. Not gonna lie, I would not mind being Lily Allen for a while. Singing songs about done-me-wrong exes! Reprimanding your lil' bro in front of thousands! Skipping about in dresses and sneakers to the reggae beat of your own Specials-influenced songs! Touring the world and giggling adorably! Blowing smoke in the face of newly enacted DC smoking ban! I am only slightly envious.

Holiday Fallout

Crap day today. The day after a holiday always is, because you've had that extra taste of freedom and now it's that much harder to go back to the old 9 to 5. Work complete fiasco as it seemed all the authors needed a status update on their manuscript and they needed it NOW or at least YESTERDAY. And they're all for an editor who's been a bit slow with sorting through their assigned manuscripts. Which means I have to be the moderator of Author-Editor Relations, a role I heartily dislike because it means having to feed them a bit of knowledge to keep ravenous authors satisfied while withholding any real information from them, because an author with knowledge of what is really causing the holdup on their manuscript is a dangerous author indeed, liable to call me up and shout angrily about Competition and Significance, or worse yet, ask to speak to an editor. Editors are like priceless treasures behind glass-they are there to see and to judge, but not to touch or have contact with. This includes email.

Anyway, for the concerned, I am feeling better now. More and more it appears that New Year's was the absolute bottom and now I am finally going up.

BIRD FLU - M.I.A.

The newest Asian epidemic to sweep the nation. This time it's dance-related, and I'm rooting for M.I.A.'s captain hat and the little kid in the red shirt. He can lay it DOWN!