lately

My little space of the internet, I'll say it now - even with the best of intentions I think I am going to suffer through 2015 and admit now that I'll never hit a good blogging schedule. It's not that I don't want to blog, there are just a few other things out in the world that require more of my time and energy.

Anyway a little lately post to keep the creative juices flowing:

Listening: Louisa Wendorff and Devin Dawson's mash up of Taylor Swift's Style and Blank Space - it's so good. I could listen to this all day long. Rumor is Taylor is a fan of this too. It's amazing, do yourself a favor and favorite this now.

Baking: Birthday cupcakes for Mom's birthday. Probably the best looking cupcakes I've ever made, and surprising as I totally had to scrape all the mix out of the cupcake liners back into the bowl because I forgot the water the first round. Truth to paying attention when you are baking, or well...

Reading: Shrinkage by Bryan Bishop. Informative and funny - sometimes you need a little non-fiction in your reading list.

Getting warm fuzzies: from the extra special birthday lunch I had in Connecticut last weekend. I got a nice surprise from some very special friends. Sometimes you feel the love.

Looking forward to: to a weekend in my old stomping grounds, including a concert by my music crush Matt Wertz. As soon as I saw that he was going on tour at one of my favorite small venues, some emails were sent and tickets purchased.

Not minding: 6 AM spin class once in a while during the week. It's refreshing to bang out exercise first thing in the morning and then be free in clear of that the rest of the day.

Keep me up to date on what's going on with you. Also would love some book recommendations for when I finish my current book.

battle of the matts – round 2

Are you ready for the second installment of my “Battle of the Matts”? As you may recall, from this post, I had a week of concert ticket purchasing, which resulted in me with tickets to see both Matt Nathanson and Matt Wertz in concert within about a week of each other. I was lucky enough to have a friend willing to join me on my concert going adventures throughout the two weeks, and it was really fun to see to singers I really enjoy listening to.

Matt Wertz  was definitely a Pandora discovery a few years back, and now he’s one of my go to happy place music people.  Naturally, some of his songs have a breakup theme (something I realized I am drawn to, which is probably bad in a way, oh well), as well as some really happy songs that make me sing along (which I hope my neighbors enjoy). First off the venue for this show was much more intimate then the prior one, being at the Highline Ballroom. My friend and I were able to sit at a table right up front and have dinner and drinks before and during the show, I pretty much felt like I could almost touch the stage – or that at least the band could probably see me.  I really enjoyed being so close to the band and getting to hear so many of my favorite songs. I was sadly unaware of the latest album so I had not done my own due diligence in prepping for the show by spending the week prior just listening to the new stuff, however Matt played all my old favorites too. I was a happy camper based on the fact that I could sing along and annoy the man in front of me (sir – it’s a concert, you are supposed to sing along, not shoot dirty looks at those of us singing).

Highlights:

Favorite Songs: 5:19 as the original closer, Get to You, Someone Like You

Philanthropy: Finding out about the Mocha Club, a great charity helping out in Africa to provide clean water, among other things to those in need

Bonus: For the encore playing snippets of favorite songs, often after an audience member shouted it out, before bringing back the band and the opening act to finish the show

So, you may be asking, who won my battle? Well, I’ve been listening to Matt Wertz for two weeks solid since the end of his show, and trying to see when he’s coming back to town again, so I think he’s the winner from that alone. Both shows were so different, but I truly enjoyed the smaller venue and feeling more a part of the experience.