My mother made me laugh today. She told me that none of her girls would continue the (her) St. Patrick’s day tradition of making corned beef and cabbage. I asked her why I would make it if I didn’t like the taste of it. That is how I am, though. I suppose a lot of my family’s traditions and habits will die out with my parents. I’m not really upset by this, as some of them are questionable, like corned beef and cabbage.

I’m not particularly motivated by my heritage, although I do respect people who are. I never found a strong connection to any of the cultures of my known ancestors. That doesn’t mean I won’t learn about them, but it also doesn’t mean that I have to be one way because that is how my family was. I suppose I’m too busy doing my own thing.

In any case, did a few things over the weekend — went to the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New Haven (something that’s been going on in town since 1842) to people watch. Straight from the parade, Britt and I headed down to NYC to see Charles Spearin perform from his new album The Happiness Project at Le Poisson Rouge. I feel like I’m still taking it all in, two days later. What I can say is that I found the show very moving and relevant and fascinating as well as beautiful and humorous and rather humble — but it doesn’t make sense until you listen to the album. I suppose I should expect nothing less from essentially the same people who perform in Do Make Say Think (give or take a few), the band who can move me to tears during a performance.

I even got to have milk and cookies during the show!

I am coming down with some Spring fever, as well.

Last Friday woke up before dawn to catch one of two trains that would eventually get me to Utica, NY. New Haven still seemed sleepy even though the rush hour trains to New York were just minutes behind me. I like that time. Seems when I wake up in the morning for work the world seems ahead of me, even though it’s still considered early (at just after seven a.m.) so for a change I was ahead of things. When my family used to go on road trips, this was our way: wake up while it’s still dark, fumble around to get dressed, consume something sugary to give an extra start and get on the road. It’s been a while.

The train didn’t really start getting crowded until the next stop, so there were a few quiet moments before it got too noisy (and even then, it didn’t get too noisy. People keep to themselves reading the paper or a book or dozing off or watching the abandoned industry go by). I had a chance to witness the sun rise, something, again, I miss day by day by wanting those extra minutes in bed.

I feel so at peace on the train. When I was a baby, my parents would have to put me in my car seat and drive around town to get me to sleep. It’s the vibrations. The endless rocking. I suppose I never really got past that.

Books read in 2008:

56. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
55. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
54. The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice Weaver Flaherty
53. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
52. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin
51. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
50. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
49. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
48. No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty
47. Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
46. I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun by Professor Happycat
45. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
44. The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson
43. Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth by David Browne
42. Civil Disobedience and Other Essays by Henry David Thoureau
41. The Portable Henry Rollins by Henry Rollins
40. What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist-The Facts of Daily Life in Nineteenth-Century England by Daniel Pool
39. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
38. Three Plays: Desire Under The Elms, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O’Neill
37. Portrait of a Killer: Jack The Ripper - Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell
36. Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America - A Memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel
35. A Distant Episode: The Selected Stories by Paul Bowles
34. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
33. Emma by Jane Austen
32. Anne of Avonlea by LM Montgomery
31. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
30. The Faber Plath: Poems Selected by Ted Hughes
29. X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking by Jeff Gordinier
28. What Happened Later : A Novel by Ray Robertson
27. Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love by Carl Wilson
26. Four Plays: Summer and Smoke; Orpheus Descending; Suddenly Last Summer; Period of Adjustment by Tennesse Williams
25. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
24. The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys by Chris Fuhrman
23. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
22. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
21. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
20. Against the Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans
19. Mercy by Jodi Picoult
18. Persuasion by Jane Austen
17. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
16. The Trial by Franz Kafka
15. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
14. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
13. Diaries of Franz Kafka
12. Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
11. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
10. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
9. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
8. Essays in Existentialism by Jean-Paul Sartre
7. Lyrical and Critical Essays by Albert Camus
6. I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg by Bill Morgan
5. Queer by William S. Burroughs
4. Junky by William S. Burroughs
3. Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays, 1952-1995 by Allen Ginsberg
2. Allen Ginsberg in America by Jane Kramer
1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

It seemed like this year of seeing shows was a chance to catch up on some acts that I’ve liked for a while but never got the chance to see live: Blonde Redhead, Polvo, Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill and Smashing Pumpkins. Seemed like it was that way for a lot of people, with acts reuniting and playing albums in their entirety. I didn’t see nearly as much as I did in 2007, but I had a lot more going on this year, which made going to see shows a little more special. There’s one large venue show in there (Smashing Pumpkins), as well, which I’ve been rid of for quite a while… strange to hand your ticket to someone and have you ushered to a seat rather than standing in front of a stage the entire time, in a small club. The most fun was Julie Doiron’s show at the Communist House, I mean, People’s Center and The Simple Pleasure playing for the Advocate, at BAR. The most surprising, The Notwist and Artanker Convoy. The most shocking, Smashing Pumpkins. The least interesting, Ra Ra Riot. Sorry. Anyway, here’s the list for those keeping count:

January:
Blonde Redhead w/School of Seven Bells @ Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT

February:
Ra Ra Riot w/The Simple Pleasure @ Cafe Nine, New Haven, CT

March:
The Walkmen w/Aeroplane, 1929 & TITLES @ Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT

April:
The Constantines w/Jah Division @ Mercury Lounge, New York, NY

May:
Mates of State w/Monitor and the Merrimac, MT Bearington, Phillistines, Jr. @ Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT
Islands w/The Magic, Street Carnage @ Webster Hall, New York, NY
The Simple Pleasure @ BAR, New Haven, CT

June:
Sloan @ Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY (x2)
Polvo w/Birds Of Avalon, Artanker Convoy, Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

July:
Have Fun at the Altar, Phantastic Prayer Book, The Heart Beats @ Sneaky Dee’s, Toronto, ON Canada

August = No shows? Really? I have to look back to make sure I’m not missing anything.

September:
Built to Spill w/Meat Puppets, The Drones @ Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT
Dinosaur Jr. w/OM @ Toad’s Place, New Haven, CT
Mount Eerie w/Julie Doiron, Calm Down, It’s Monday @ People’s Center, New Haven, CT

October:
The Notwist @ Webster Hall, New York, NY

November:
USAISAMONSTER w/Vivian Girls, Miami Nights @ BAR, New Haven, CT
Smashing Pumpkins @ Mohegan Sun Area, Uncasville, CT

December = none.

A mix.