Imogen Heap

I went solo to an Imogen Heap concert at Dante's in Portland tonight. I was turned on to Imogen when I saw her perform "Goodnight and Go" on David Letterman a couple of weeks ago. Lo and behold, when I checked her concert schedule, she was coming to Portland.

She put on a fantastic show, packed with songs from her wonderful new album, Speak For Yourself, as well as a couple of tunes from her Frou Frou album(s). You can hear the new album in full on her generous web site: ImogenHeap.com.

Though she had a sore throat (from "having too much fun and it catching up" with her), she powered through her songs with only a scratch here and there. I feel sorry for the faithful in Seattle who are planning to see her tomorrow. Her voice will be shot. Highlights of her show tonight were Goodnight and Go, Hike and Seek, an acoustic Clear The Area, and what she calls her favorite song, Headlock.

The crowd was mixture of 30 somethings, predominantly women, with a strong gay presence.

This was my very first concert experience where the main draw was a woman I realized just now. I've seen Jewel and Dido as part of a Christmas ensemble concert headlined by the Bare Naked Ladies, but Imogen's show was the first I've ever been to where I went to see a woman singer.

Opening act, Zoe Keating, was interesting, but certainly not the type of opening act that gets the crowd excited. She's a cello player who samples her own pluckings then lays them over other sounds and puts all of that on top of her live playing. I could appreciate the artistry, but the music was the kind of stuff lite radio stations play late at night to put you to sleep.

Young Love

Grady has caught the fancy of two older girls in his school. Taya and Seran (sp?). They're both in 1st grade and he is in pre-K. I first got wind of this two nights ago when I was putting some lotion on a red spot next to Grady's mouth. I said he was probably getting that chapped area from drooling at night, and he said, "No, it's because Taya and Seran are always kissing me."

I never know when he's being serious. Now, I know the red spot wasn't from kissing, but I wasn't sure if these two young ladies were as fond of him as he was implying.

Tonight I asked his teacher, Cleta, in private if Grady had these two admirers. She said, "Oh, yes. They can't get enough of him. Yesterday I looked over and saw Grady pinned against the fence while Mariah, Taya and Seran hugged and kissed him." Grady heard this part of the conversation and was SO embarrassed.

But, he showed me something he had drawn for Taya and asked that I put it in her mailbox. We walked over to that part of the building and Taya was nearby. Taya, who incidentally has long blond hair, coyly waved to Grady and he blushed like crazy. Cleta brought Seran over to meet me since I had told Cleta I didn't know who Seran was. Seran is Korean and is as cute as a little first grade girl could be. She smiled up at me and then mugged Grady with a huge hug.

Grady was in heaven. I have to admit I was too. He's a popular boy! Yay!

When we got home, Grady asked me to draw two hearts on a piece of paper. I asked him why and he was embarrassed to answer, but he finally admitted one was for Taya and one was for Seran. "They're both going to get hearts?" I asked.

"Yes, Taya is going to be my wife and Seran will be my girlfriend."

Gulp.

Wednesday KidSpeak

What 5 year-olds pick up when you're listening to the radio...

What do you hear about on the news or hear on the radio?

Josh: “about stuff in my neighborhood that happened, like a guy close to my house that was stuck in a hole”

Maddie: “that it’s going to snow, not in Oregon but in different places”

Grady: “about this thing called a Tsunami that killed one person that was outside of their house”

Walter: “on the radio I hear songs and books on tape”

Landis: “ songs about bouncy balls”

Lucas: “ On the news, I heard there was an earthquake in California and on the radio I hear songs on radio station K LOVE”

Annie: “ My Mom loves the news but I don’t know why, but I love my Mom and Dad and the news and my pet”

Kaitlin: “I hear Frosty the snowman on the radio”

Jack: “I hear cool music on the radio, like rock and roll music. On the news I hear…um…. now wait, what’s the news again?”

Changha: “ On the news I hear about Comcast internet”

Tuesday KidSpeak

What 5-year olds find interesting.

Tell me something really interesting….

Jack: “ My Dads car looks really cool and it’s almost done”

Pierce: “ One time Gage was naked and he peed on my Mom. It’s not very interesting but it was really funny”

Annie: “ My Mom can’t have a baby because her tummy isn’t big enough yet, but maybe when she grows up her tummy will get bigger”

Lucas: “ One time at the circus I saw a bike rider that went down a ramp and flipped over”

Maddie: “ When we were at our beach house, one time, the waves came all the way up to our stairs”

Josh: “ Two things, first…I wish I could just eat junk food…I’d love to live in ice cream and cake land…a land that really exists. The second interesting thing…today when we were outside, those big 4th or 5th grade boys said I threw a football really good. I asked them to give me a chance to throw it and when I did, I believe they were amazed. They were all saying oh my gosh, Wow, how can you throw so good!”

Kaitlin: “ When you hurt someone, or kill someone or knock someone out, you’ll get arrested”

Walter: “ Today I was running so fast, the girls never even catched me to kiss me”

Grady: “ One time Liam broke our stained glass with a jump rope”

Landis: “Buzz Lightyear has wings and he can fly”

Changha: “My friends know my name because they know me”

Thursday Kid Speak

Pierce continues to get his Dad in trouble. :)

What do your parents always talk about?

Jackson: “ I usually hear them talk about me, like tell stories about when I was little”

Annie: “ They always talk about my ballet class”

Grady: “ They always talk about finding a new home”

Landis: “ about Christmas “

Lucas: “ me, I can hear them talking when they’re out on the couch and I’m in my bed”

Josh: “ important things but nothing that interesting…. mostly just about the emails they got.”

Maddie: “ they usually just talk about special things, like getting a surprise for me and Ellie”

Kaitlin: “ They talk about what car they’re going to drive, the van or the black car and they argue about who is going to drive. My Dad likes to drive because he can get there faster because if the light is yellow he just goes through it really fast so he doesn’t have to get traffic”

Changha: “ about scary stuff that they hear on TV, and scary stories they read about in a book, and I don’t want to hear it”

Walter: “My Mommy always tells my Dad and me and Christina that she doesn’t like living in Oregon, and that’s all she talks about”

Pierce: “ Girls, my Dad and Grandpa always talk about girls, they think the ones on that one beauty show are really pretty”

Witty

I'm a fan of Dan Tobin's blog, Surgical Strikes. If you're not, read his 100 Things About Me list. I'm sure you've read several of these from other bloggers that were so bland didn't get past #20. Read Dan's and I think you'll become a fan of him and his blog.

Thursday Kid Speak

Another amusing edition of the daily Q&A from Grady and his 5-year old classmates. This love talk between boys and girls is starting pretty early in my opinion. Pierce must be quite proud.

Today we started reading one of the “Horrible Harry” chapter books. It talked about when Harry wrote a love letter. Have you ever written a love letter?

Maddie: “No, but I might write one to Pierce”

Jackson: “ No, but I think my Dad gave my Mom one because they got married. He wanted to marry my Mom because he thinks she’s really pretty.... plus, if he didn’t get married to her, he would just have to eat dinner all alone with just me and Joe and Sally and Calley”

Annie: “One night I was going to write a love note to Pierce because he’s so sweet, but I just want to wait and give it to him when we have a sleepover or something”

Pierce: “ No, but my Mom gets them all the time…I don’t read very well so I don’t know exactly what they say but I think they’re probably from my Dads friends…I don’t know why they like her so much…. she’s nice to them, but I don’t think that’s the problem”

Lucas: “only the time I wrote one to you, but if I knew how to spell Maddie’s name I would write her one too that says I love you”

Walter: “No but I might write one to my sister Christina or Maddie”

Grady: “ Ya, I wrote my Dad one before when he was on a trip but I love Maddie so I might write her one tomorrow”

Changha: “I will write one to say that I love Kaitlin”

Josh: “No, because I haven’t got in love with anybody. I’m kind of getting in love with Annie and Maddie so I might write one to them someday…. but I can’t really think of what I should write”

Move Over William Hung

Listen to this version of Oh Holy Night that was butchered by someone who honestly submitted it to a choir hoping to win a spot.

Thanks to The Sneeze for this. Steve is absolutely right when he says in gets worse even when you don't think it can several times in the song.

What's a little scary to me is I'm sure I'd sound like this to anyone who happened upon me if I was wearing headphones and singing. JW can attest to that.

Kid Speak

A new installment of the Q&A with 5-year olds that Grady's teacher does each day. I thought all the answers were interesting and give you a glimpse into the minds of 5-year olds:

Today we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Have you ever had a “bad day”?

Pierce: “ Well today I thought I was going to have a bad day because my Dad forgot my homework folder…he was sitting right by it and he just walked right out of the house without it…. but it ended up being okay because you weren’t mad a bit”

Kate: ” Yesterday was a bad day because Betsy made spaghetti and I hate spaghetti”

Grady: “ When I got new shoes they hurted me, so I had a bad day all day”

Annie: “I had a horrible hard bad day with my Mom and Dad because I was just a little tired and grumpy”

Maddie: “Ya, today…this morning I was screaming at my Mom because I didn’t want to get out of bed”

Josh: “ Today I am because I have a cold and I don’t want to get anyone sick”

Walter: “ Once Christina cried because I got soap in her eyes, and she wouldn’t stop crying…. she gave me a bad day”

Changha: “ Mommy gave me a bad day when she made me clean up my room because it was all messy”

Jackson: “I have a bad day when my Mom makes me wear my uniform shirt instead of my Batman shirt with my belt”

Lucas: “Yesterday I got in trouble for breaking my chess game so I had a bad day”