Dear Friends,
My dogs are barking.
My whole body barks, actually. What a day, though. We saw a lot. Let me run it down for you.
We definitely saw parts of Boston I had never seen before. After leaving the aquarium, I thought I could get us back to Brookline for some Thai food that had been haunting the girls since they last ate there a couple of years ago.
I could not.
Getting a bit lost, though, ended up showing us sides of the city we were unfamiliar with previously. If you have driven in Boston, you know what we were experiencing because it was also the tail end of rush hour. People drive like maniacs.
After being in small town America for a few weeks, traffic quickly reminds you of the truth about humanity.
*****
The Boston Museum of Fine Arts is definitely worth a visit. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. Tons of Rembrandt, Picasso, and Monet. Also a really cool Dali exhibit that was a traveling thing, so our timing was good.
There were great exhibits, too, of jewelry and musical instruments. We were all very impressed. We also spent a lot of time in the Egyptian section. It boggles the mind to look at things that are 4000, 5000, and 6000 years old.
We could have spent all day there, but TQ was hell bent on seeing some fish.
The New England Aquarium was a sea of humanity. It made me long for the days of face masks again, although the 50% humidity in Boston yesterday would have made that sick, too. And the parking….ugh.
It’s a fine aquarium, though. Rhondi was using her animal powers to make friends. It was cute.
I loved seeing the penguins. They had a really nice exhibit of them and everything was pretty cool. They had a very misleading shark exhibit, though. I also missed seeing Jaws on their big, IMAX style screen by two days.
We walked around the North End afterwards and I regret not buying myself some shoes at the Clark’s store we saw. They have the coolest shoes. We ended up at a pub so Rhondi could have a beer and she fell in love with a bartender who had a British accent.
Not really, but it was funny, just the same. He was a handsome older guy, though.
Then the delicious Thai food after an hour-plus tour of the city. A great day, indeed.
*****
Today we head to Old Orchard Beach. I’m excited to see the Southern Maine coast again up close. More touristy stuff, for sure, but it will be good.
*****
Don’t tell her, but when my wife hips me to music that I end up falling in love with, it makes me love the music just a little bit more. Such is the case with Courtney Barnett. I don’t know how you can listen to “Pedestrian At Best” from Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometime I Just Sit and not completely fall in love with it.
This is one of those songs that is so damn good that even if the rest of the album were utter crap, I would still feel like I got my money’s worth. Luckily, it’s just one of the many good songs on this ridiculously long name for a record. I’m stoked that I can just hit the paste button and I don’t have to keep typing out Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometime I Just Sit.
Barnett writes incredible hooks and her “I don’t give a fuck” delivery is just infectious. When we got to see her a few years back at the Van Buren in Phoenix, it was an excellent show. There were so many songs that I just loved that I would have gone back and watched the same exact show the next night without question.
“Give me your money and I’ll make some origami, honey” is such a great line.
“An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)” follows up “Pedestrian At Best” so well. It has a different feel, but there is no momentum loss on this excellent record. I’ve read a little bit about Barnett over the years and it awesome that she sort of wears her heart on her sleeve in her songs.
“Small Poppies” goes super bluesy for the next song before “Depreston” and both of them show off Barnett’s ability to take things down a notch yet remain extremely listenable. The gal is fucking prolific and it shows on her records. She can do a little bit of everything.
“Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” is a fun one. Barnett’s wordplay (including a line where she freely admits to wearing her heart on her sleeve…guess I know where I stole that notion from) is top notch and hits the feeling we have all had so many times. Who hasn’t wanted to go out but really wanted to stay home? I know I have, and it gets more like that every damn day.
One of the coolest things about this record is how it kind of straddles the line of garage rock in a way that reminds me of Paul Westerberg’s work. Barnett is a nimble songwriter, and like Westerberg, she knows how to write a guitar part that could go really big if she wanted it to, but she can also reign them in and keep things a little on the twee side.
“Debbie Downer” is such a song and by “twee” that is not a diss. I like a lot of music that fits the ‘twee’ thing. It takes a songwriter with some confidence and guts to do this well. Barnett has both, at least it seems that way to me.
It doesn’t get much more powerful, either, than “Kim Caravan.” Such a slow burn, but Barnett builds the song up to a crescendo of scratchy noise that is fucking great. She’s no slouch on the guitar, that’s for sure.
I can’t imagine that hanging out with Courtney Barnett would be anything other than a blast. Someday it will happen. I know it…and I don’t mean that in a stalker kind of way.
*****
See you tomorrow.
O.O.B.A.I.
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