Last Thursday, we enjoyed another amazing performance from Jon Brion at Largo. Tickets to his shows seem like they’re getting more and more difficult to get; I saw that Friday and Saturday night shows had been posted on Largo’s all-Flash, un-RSS-able site, and the tell-tale pint glass icon letting us know the show was sold out (“so come on down for drinks, we’ll get you in”) hadn’t appeared yet, so I called and left a message reserving tickets for Friday night. I got a call back saying that all that was left was Thursday night – which wasn’t even announced – and that Friday and Saturday had sold out. So, there we were at 1:00 am on Thursday night/Friday morning, leaving Largo after a three and a half hour show which featured his original songs plus covers of, to name a few, the Pixies, Gram Parsons (“Sin City” and “Juanita,” back to back, were terrific), Billy Bragg, the Beatles, Lipps Inc. (a very funky “Funkytown”), and Nick Lowe. Benmont Tench joined him again on piano, and between the two of them, I?m pretty sure they might know every song ever written in the 20th century Western musical canon. It was a little long for a weeknight, but I wouldn’t have missed it – he’s a real L.A. treasure, as is Largo itself. We’ll see what kind of effect the Largo movie has on the fragile, easygoing nature of the place.
The apartment saga drags on; despite some complications we haven’t quite figured out yet regarding our current place, we’re excited to move into our new place soon. We’ve done a pretty good job packing most of our stuff up, and will be tackling more this weekend. We packed all weekend, and took a movie break each evening: American Gangster on Saturday night, long and engrossing, and Lions for Lambs on Sunday night, surprisingly short – the biggest thing I took away from that screening was seeing Dr. Johnny Fever in my row at the theater.
Yesterday was a big day: I started out in Aimee’s classroom, meeting her students for the first time and reading them a book to introduce them to their big “stranded on a mountain / in a desert / on an island” culture project, which was a lot of fun. I came back to work, and in the afternoon, I was offered the job I had interviewed for last week; starting soon, I’ll be an honest-to-goodness film preservationist, which is really exciting for me. It’s the position I’ve been aiming for since I began thinking about being in this profession, and it’s taken me more than five years of internships, work, then school, and more work to get there. I’ll keep doing what I’m doing as they hire a replacement, and start the new job in the next few weeks. I’ll be moving to a new office, I think, so if nothing else, this means I really do have to get rid of the snow tires that are under the desk in my current office.
To top off the day, we had a great night at trivia last night, with only four team members: we were in the thick of a tight game and managed to avoid some mistakes (yes, that is Bob Marley playing soccer) and stay in the running. I finally triumphed at Simon Says in the drinking round, winning our team a round of beer, which is an end to which I don’t think I ever imagined putting Simon Says skills. By the final round, we were one point behind the leaders, and when we got the final question – name the eight Democratic presidential hopefuls – we were pretty certain we’d remain that way in the final standings. But, the team ahead of us wasn’t confident enough to double down (thanks, Mike Gravel!) while we were, so we prevailed. It was especially sweet to do it with only four members, playing against teams with twice that many players, and it was a relief to have our regular quizmaster back. November is turning out to be one busy month – a new apartment, a new job, and a trip to Portland for Thanksgiving with the folks – but I’m looking forward to it.
