Better Than Ezra photos, videos

As promised, here are the photos and videos from the Better Than Ezra show Friday.

Gulf breeze on the porch, me and my honey rockin' back and forth

In addition to ending a 2 1/2-year Better Than Ezra draught for me, last night's show was special for a few reasons. First and foremost, my dear friend Carmen trekked from Florida to attend. Although we've been online friends for going on three years, this was the first time we met in person. I very much enjoyed getting to spend an entire evening chatting with her and having someone to share fan-girliness with (Jason was with us and overjoyed, I'm sure). Our combined obsessiveness inspired us to arrive an hour before doors, making us first in line and first to the front of the stage, just left of center. The audience slowly filled in from there. We were a little concerned when the crowd was very sparse for the first opener, but it was packed by the time BTE came on.

Second, the venue is unique and pretty fabulous. The boys performed at Sloss Furnaces, an iron foundry turned national historic landmark to preserve Birmingham's industrial heritage. All of the strange contraptions used for iron production remain around the site, including a huge furnace at the end of the building in which the concert took place. The structure is well covered but not completely enclosed, allowing for a quasi-open air experience. The fabulous cross-breeze made the evening feel a tad tropical (which Kevin noted during the show).

Third, the concert, titled "Raise the Volume," is a fund-raiser for Birmingham's Laps for Cystic Fibrosis organization. Five Birmingham high schools joined forces to sell tickets and otherwise promote the event, raising a combined $20,000. The top two fund-raisers each got to choose a band from their respective schools to perform as opening acts.

Both were mainly cover bands, performing tunes by groups that have been around since long before they were born. Altamont's choice was called Sweet Santana and the Love Parade (or as Kevin said later, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium). These kids looked YOUNG (I assume they were underclassmen) and goofy, the latter primarily due to the ridiculous costumes they were wearing. The guitarist (who kicked ass, by the way) wore a Sgt. Pepper-esque military jacket; the bassist a crazy multi-colored Cat in the Hat-style cap; the drummer a kingly velvet purple cape; the saxophonist an open shirt with a big black sequined bow tie, big sunglasses and a plaid golfer cap; and the lead "singer"/screamer a red vest without a shirt and a Native American headdress. They covered mostly Red Hot Chili Peppers and did OK. Mountain Brook gave us Square One: four shaggy-haired cute dorky boys wearing dark t-shirts, ragged jeans or khakis and Converse. They seemed a little older (maybe juniors or seniors) and performed better, offering a set of Chili Peppers, Collective Soul, Led Zeppelin, and Beastie Boys.

We then endured a 20-minute wait as BTE's crew set up for the main act. Carmen and I could scarcely contain our excitement; Jason played his Nintendo DS. Finally, the lights went dark, and a recorded intro brought Kevin, Tom, Michael and Jim to the stage.

The 1 3/4-hour set was high-energy, the banter hilarious, the music FANTASTIC. The smiling, cheering, singing, and dancing left my face, throat and body sore. I anticipated that seeing someone other than Travis on the drum riser would be strange, but it wasn't. Michael looked at home there and tore it up, and the interaction among all of the band members felt natural. I miss Trabby, but Michael fits in well.

Of course the music is the big draw, but the interaction and banter is really what makes the live show special. We got the always entertaining battle of the "yeah, yeahs" between Kevin and Tom. Tom definitely won with a long, loud screechy "yeeee-aaaahhhh" that made Kevin say, "Wow." (Tom's only other mic time consisted of a pitch for today's Ezra Open, after which Kevin encouraged us all to take a road trip to New Orleans after the show.)

Other typical banter included Kevin's insistence toward the beginning of the show that the South has the most attractive people, and his warnings that those who are sensitive to flashing light should avert their eyes from his guitar fret prior to "Extraordinary" and that the room was bound to overheat prior to "Miss You." However, the pre-"Miss You" bit was modified such that the caution actually was coming by way of the specter of "old man Sloss," whom Kevin said looked like Yoda. Another reference to Sloss's history and legends came via a comment early in the show that Kevin was going to go on a haunted history tour of the venue later.

Kevin made sure to point out that Jim Payne's father played for Auburn (drawing emphatic boos from the crowd) and to reference the rivalry between Alabama and LSU, conceding Nick Saban to us but predicting that the Bayou Bengals would avenge last year's loss to the Crimson Tide this fall. Kevin also brought up Jim's Alabama ties during his pre-"At the Stars" guitar change, asking him to play something by someone from Alabama. Jim started to play "Sweet Home Alabama," but his guitar apparently was out of tune. Kevin asked the crowd who else was from Alabama, and someone shouted out Oasis, to Kevin's great amusement.

Of course Kevin did his little dance during the "Miss You" prelude to "Juicy." He also did a crazy sexy dance toward Michael at one point, which he described as "Princing it up." This led him to sing a bit of Prince's "I Would Die 4 U."

When Kevin noted the tropical feel of the breeze, he said it made him feel like singing "Margaritaville." Tom started playing it, to which Kevin replied, "I said LIKE. It's like saying I feel like an eagle. I'm not really an eagle. I can't fly." Jim then started playing Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle," and the boys broke into an awesome partial cover of that song, to the audience's delight.

During the "breakdown" part of "Desperately Wanting," Kevin had Michael interpret some vocal gymnastics on the skins (Kevin proclaimed the he had no rhythm, himself). Kevin then had the lights dimmed and asked Jim to interpret his lyrics in a sexy voice. So Jim spoke the lines "Take back your life/let me inside" in a Barry White-esque low, steamy style (which Jason just said sounded more like Satan to him haha).

Finally, during the partial cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" in the middle of "In the Blood," Kevin invited the cute little drummer from Square One (whose name also was Kevin) on stage to play the cowbell. The kid rocked it.

The whole audience got to participate during a couple songs. Kevin asked us to sing the chorus of "A Lifetime," predicting that if everyone in the audience sang it in unison, we'd all start looking at each other and making out. "It will seem weird and wrong at first," he said, "but then you'll just go with it." Apparently, not everyone sang in unison, because no making out occurred that I saw. He also asked us to sing the chorus of "Collide." I expected he might have us sing the "do do dos," but he didn't; he actually had us sing the chorus. We sang the cover of Sublime's "What I Got" at the end of "Extraordinary" with him as well.

Because there were so many high school students in the audience, the boys had to keep their set as clean as possible. We noticed this most in "King of New Orleans," as Kevin left out his customary "mother fucker" after the line "Gutter punks are all the same" and sang "Break that STUFF on down" (in lieu of "shit").

Following is the setlist, which I know is in the right order for the first few, last few and encore. The middle, I'm not too sure about, but I know I got all of the songs in there.

Good
Misunderstood
Sincerely, Me (Not ENTIRELY the right words. lol)
Rosealia
A Lifetime
Extraordinary/What I Got
Partial Fly Like an Eagle cover
Collide (So beautiful, I almost cried; video forthcoming)
King of New Orleans
At the Stars
Absolutely Still (video forthcoming)
Laid
Southern Thing
Miss You/Juicy (video of Miss You forthcoming)
Desperately Wanting

Encore:
Burned
Part of It's Only Natural (Not entirely the right words here, either, but I LOVE the slower live version so much more than the album version)
Breakdown (Tom Petty cover)
In the Blood/Don't Fear the Reaper

I took a few videos, as noted above, and tons of photos. As soon as I have a chance to pull them off my camera and post them, I'll let y'all know. Those were the only souvenirs we got, unfortunately. A lot of picks came our way but were caught by other people around us, and we couldn't get the security guy to give us the one that landed at his feet in front of us. One of the event dudes gave it to a high school chick near us who either was cuter or just squeaked louder than us. Nevertheless, it was an amazing show and an all-around wonderful night. I will not let another 2 1/2 years go by without seeing them again.

My name is Harvey Milk, and I'm here to recruit you

I've wanted to see Milk since we first saw previews for it several months ago, but unfortunately, it never came to the local cineplex. So, although it's already out on DVD, we took advantage of the opportunity to see it on the big screen when it came to the old Bama Theatre downtown this weekend.

Being a history buff, I was well aware of Harvey Milk's story, but you don't have to be to understand the film and grasp its meaning. Director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Black aptly introduce us to all the main characters and establish their significance to the story without bogging us down in a lot of unnecessary build-up.

We meet Milk (the definitely Oscar-worthy Sean Penn) in a New York City subway has he stops a stranger (James Franco's adorable Scott Smith) and asks him to celebrate his 40th birthday with him. The two run away together to San Francisco, where a series of experiences catapult Milk into political activism and, eventually, public office. Through dialog alone, we get an excellent sense of Milk's background prior to that fateful meeting. Also, simply by jumping from one significant event to the next (which keeps the film moving along and the audience captivated), we come to fully appreciate how much Milk's devotion to the cause cost him and those around him.

Josh Brolin appears in just a handful of scenes as the conflicted city Supervisor Dan White, but the writing and acting in those scenes more than adequately provide insight into his state of mind. The irony of a drunk White proclaiming outside Milk's birthday party that he "has issues" is lost on no one.

Milk, particularly the footage of the memorial at the end, serves as a beautiful tribute to the man on the 30th anniversary of his death. The story is inspirational in the sense that it shows how one person can go from a humble life of "nothing to be proud of" to achieving greatness by standing firm to his convictions, taking action and rallying others to join his cause. On the other hand, it's also a somewhat depressing eye-opener.

Thirty years have passed, and little has changed. Although it's definitely easier for folks to be openly homosexual now than it was 30 years ago, there still are those forces that would seek to treat the homosexual community as aberrations. The language of Anita Bryant and the other conservative, "family values"-centered individuals who speak out against gay rights in the film echoes the sentiments of those who to this day try to prevent homosexuals from enjoying the same rights as the heterosexual population. Only months ago, the very state in which Milk and his cohorts fought to prevent the passage of Prop. 6 passed Prop. 8, and the rhetoric in favor of that equally demeaning and ridiculous proposal was no different from what we heard in the theatre this afternoon.

It's astounding the irrationality that stems from a fear of that which is different from you. When Milk debated Prop. 6 initiator John Briggs, he approached the conversation with logic and reason whereas Briggs spoke in circles and contradictions. It reminded me a great deal of the Republican propaganda that circulated during the recent Presidential election campaign, which used absurd half-truths and self-refuting ideas in an attempt to explain why Barack Obama's push for universal equality was bad.

For that reason and many others, it's interesting that the release of Milk coincided with Obama's election. Never in my lifetime had I seen people as engaged in the political process and excited about the prospects of change and equal rights as they were in this film - until Obama ran for and was elected president. Although those who seek to suppress the rights of those who are different clearly never will go away, perhaps we still can move toward the ideals for which Milk died.

Where have all the bloggers gone?

I remember a time not too long ago when every time something remotely interesting occurred in my life, I blogged it. A time when I spent the first hour or so of my morning reading and commenting on all my friends' blogs and catching up on more public (i.e., celebrity-related) blogs. But very few people blog anymore, and if they do, their entries are few and far between. The most active blogs are those with a purpose (like my friend Kimberly's Poor Girl Eats Well). People just aren't talking about their lives in blog form as much anymore.

Yesterday I was admonishing one of my friends (who used to write the most HILARIOUS blogs) because he hasn't blogged in more than a month. Then it occurred to me, I haven't been blogging so much either. I told myself my blogging urge had quieted because of MySpace's many recent glitches. I made this pretty blogger.com space to make up for that, and I've written all of three blogs on it since early February. I used to average three blogs A DAY.

So what's happened? The Internet has evolved. Now I spend the first hour or so of my day catching up on Facebook and Twitter. Everyone sends out pieces of their lives in snippets. The social networking site seems to have taken the place of the blog in many ways.

In some ways, that's cool. We're all growing busier by the minute. One may not have ten or twenty minutes to devote to writing a thought-out, carefully-worded essay on the state of their world. But it takes mere seconds to tweet, especially if you have a widget built right into your browser that lets you keep up with your friends' updates and post your own while you're doing other things. We still can keep up with each other, but more efficiently.

As the same time, you lose something. There's no way my friend Elise could pack one of her crazy stories into a Facebook status (so thankfully, she still blogs from time to time). You can only express so much in 140 characters or less.

Bastard!

"Reality" TV amuses me to no end. I know I've expressed this before, but the anthropologist in me is fascinated watching how people react to unusual situations.

I've been on plenty of tirades about the Bachelor. Although I love watching it, it's so cruel...and unrealistic. While it is entirely possible for you to meet your soul mate and love of your life on a television show in which you are courting several people at the same time over the course of a few weeks, it's highly unlikely.

Here's what happens... All of these contenders are thrown into this surreal situation of dating the same guy. They come into it expecting to fall for him, so they do, especially when thrust into all of these over-the-top, fantasy, fairy-tale romantic dating situations. I have no doubt they develop real, true feelings. Whether or not it's the type of love that lasts through a lifetime of actual reality is another matter.

Being a romantic at heart, though, I was excited to see Jason become The Bachelor this season, and was convinced he could find his happy ending. At least I wanted him to, and I wanted to watch it happen.

So I watched every episode, enjoyed all the cattiness (because of course that's what makes the early episodes truly interesting), and picked my favorites. Early on, I predicted Stephanie, Jillian, and Melissa would be the final three. Though I adored Jillian, I figured Melissa was better suited for him and he ultimately would choose her.

Molly threw me. I couldn't stand Molly from day 1. I don't think she's at all attractive, her hair looks like a rat's nest half the time, and her laugh is annoying. Every time he have her a rose, I was shocked. I couldn't believe that he seemed so torn between Melissa and Molly on the finale, and his reaction to cutting Molly loose floored me.

But then he proposed to Melissa, they seemed so happy, and all was right with the world. Happy ending achieved, despite DeAnna's pitiful attempt to get him back. THAT was ridiculous; she looked like a fool, and shame on ABC for making that out all season to be a bigger deal than it was.

That's what ABC does best, though. Every rose ceremony has been "the most dramatic ever." Thus, despite ABC's claims that the "After the Final Rose" special would be so shocking and emotionally charged, I had very low expectations.

Then, the bombshell dropped. I was truly shocked, but I can see Jason's point entirely. You are rushed into a decision between two women for whom you clearly have deep feelings. That bitch DeAnna comes in and says, "If you have one certainty and one kind-of wild card, go for the certainty. Don't follow your heart, lead it." Had she not said that, I really think he would have picked Molly to begin with.

You spend however many weeks in this unrealistically romantic situation, and it's easy to get caught up in that. Of course the chemistry changes when the relationship shifts to real life, especially when real life is a long-distance relationship. If he really couldn't stop thinking about Molly, and he really didn't feel that Melissa was right for him, I see no point in him continuing a charade. I understand Melissa being perturbed that he didn't try harder to fight for their relationship after proposing to her, but he proposed under durress. I wouldn't want to be with a man who was so deeply in love with another woman.

However, there are a couple things about the "After the Final Rose" show that I don't buy. For one, I don't believe for a second that the break-up happened then and there. Who does that? I think it was over before the cameras started rolling, and the big on-screen split was for dramatic effect. When she spat, "You bastard!" I rolled my eyes. Hello! Soap opera! As my Jason and I discussed in the car this morning, the only thing that would have made it more soapy would have been if she'd slapped him and said, "But I'm having your baby!" Better yet, "Fine! I'm having Chris's baby!"

I also don't believe that Jason and Molly have had no contact whatsoever. That hello hug was not a hello hug between people who are seeing each other for the first time after having broken up, and the way she smiled at him when he came out was not the way you smile at someone who broke your heart. Maybe I'm just a bitter bitch, but I don't think it works that way. Then there are all the Internet reports that claim Jason and Molly have been spotted together in Grand Rapids multiple times since Christmas.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the whole crazy turn of events. I'm looking forward to seeing what nonsense goes on in the "After the After The Final Rose" show tonight.