These are a few of my favorite things

I don't expect people to listen to me. I babble a lot, I'm just a reporter at The Michigan Daily, I'm just a history major. Nothing special. I'm an insignificant little speck. No biggie.
I also don't expect people to share my interests (certain television shows that are really good if you give them a chance, The Bad Plus, The New Yorker, journalism in general, politics, quirkiness, food). They're not the traditional kind of hip thing most people like; they won't show up on Mtv. But within my little world when parts come together it adds a personal sweetness. In this case, David Remnick writes about The Bad Plus, a fantastic contemporary jazz band. I highly recommend them. Remnick praises some of their edgier songs: renditions of other famous songs like a techno-jazz version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Those are okay, but at the first concert I went to my fellow fans and I agreed their original stuff is the best, like the wonderfully chaotic And Here We Test Our Abilities. Songs like that are a union of so many wonderful sounds into this fusion that's pleasurable to the ear, much like when things you like pat each other on the back.
Below is Our Abilities:

Modest Mouse

Just got back from a Modest Mouse concert in Chicago. A few impressions and thoughts:

1. Concerts are entirely couples events. Me and my friend couldn't find a place that didn't have a couple hugging more than four feet away.
2. Talk about Narcs! Security regularly "ejected" (which is I think too kind a word) anyone smoking pot. It looked more like the guy in Florida during the John Kerry Q&A. The Mary Jane lover is cringing and struggling and the security people are wrestling -that's if they resist. Non-resisters are made to walk a sort of walk of shame with their hands over their heads while one of the guards flashes a light to make way. How humiliating.
3. Some songs are hard to play in concert fashion. Take Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, a highly technical song that just can't be performed well without extensive musical equipment.
4. Talk about extortion! I paid $5 for a bottle of sprite! And an even more embarrassingly insulting price for a hoodie...I definitely didn't need to buy the hoodie though...

The highlight of the night was either when they played Dashboard off of their latest album, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank or 3rd Planet from The Moon and Antarctica. The band also played Float On which I hate but in concert didn't sound so bad.