I have a tendency to listen to depressing music and watch depressing movies when I’m not in a good mood. Which is kind of nice because at least it makes me feel like I’m not the only sad person in the world, and listening to happy music is usually more depressing because it’s happy. However, sad songs never really seem to help lift my mood. So, for those times, I am compiling a list of comforting songs that aren’t really sad (and therefore depressing) or happy (and therefore more depressing). I don’t have many so far, so feel free to add your own comfort songs.

“Angel Standing By” - Jewel
“Everything’s Not Lost” - Coldplay
“Gravity” - A Perfect Circle
“Let Go” - Frou Frou
“Let It Be” - The Beatles
“Shut Your Eyes” - Snow Patrol
“Speeding Cars” - Imogen Heap

Are there any songs out there that actually cause you to have a positive physical reaction when listening to them? I’m talking about that hair-raising, tingly feeling of a really good song.

Here’s some songs that give me this feeling (in alphabetical order):
“3 Libras” - A Perfect Circle
“Ask Me Anything” - The Strokes
“Everlong” - Foo Fighters
“Everything’s Not Lost” - Coldplay
“The Great Below” - Nine Inch Nails
“Halcyon + On + On” - Orbital
“Hide and Seek” - Imogen Heap
“Lateralus” - Tool
“Layla” - Derek & The Dominos
“Let Go” - Frou Frou
“Life Uncommon” - Jewel
“Only In Dreams” - Weezer
“Pushit [Live]” - Tool
“Rods and Cones” - Blue Man Group
“Someday” - The Strokes
“Structure” - The Cynic Project
“Susanne” - Weezer
“Tonight, Tonight” - The Smashing Pumpkins
“Unchained Melody” - The Righteous Brothers
“Warning Sign” - Coldplay
“Where I End and You Begin” - Radiohead
“Wish You Were Here” - Pink Floyd

I’m sure there are others that I’m forgetting.

So what songs make you tingle?

Where do I begin?

Ben and I left Knoxville around 2:00 on Saturday and drove to Atlanta with no problems. We had a little difficulty locating the hotel once we arrived, but found it quickly enough. We headed over to Gwinnett Arena around 7:00. The show was scheduled to begin at 8. I didn’t bother taking the stealth cam with me this time around. We went inside and went down to the floor. Hardly anyone was there yet, so we sat down against the wall towards the front.

Burning Brides came on at 8:00. They were good, much better than I was expecting. The lead singer told he had a surprise for us, and Josh came out and played drums on one song. Then James came out and played guitar on the next one. That was pretty cool. Anyway, I was fairly impressed by them, and I think a lot of other people were too.

A Perfect Circle came on at 9:30. I had an excellent view this time. We were standing on the left side of the stage, pretty close to Jeordie, and like the second “row” of people. I had a great view of Jeordie, James, and Maynard the entire time.

They opened with “Vanishing,” of course, with Maynard behind the screen. When the screen came down as they went into “Pet,” Maynard had a cardboard cutout of Arnold Schwarzenegger placed in front of him. He also had a sign that read “Maynard Dr.” on his microphone stand. Hehe.

I was very, very happy with the setlist for this show. Basically, every song that I didn’t get to hear in Indianapolis, they played in Atlanta. I actually think this show was possibly better than the one in Indy. Maynard was really getting into it. It was just awesome.

Here’s the setlist:
Vanishing
Pet
The Hollow
Magdalena
Weak and Powerless
Orestes
Blue
Thinking of You
Brena
A Stranger
The Package
3 Libras
The Nurse Who Loved Me
Gravity
A song that James sang
The Outsider
The Noose
Judith

Very awesome show.

Afterwards, I couldn’t remember where I parked, so we wandered around the parking lot for awhile. We finally found it, and then it took forever to get out.

Ben before the concert.	Ben after the concert.
Me after the concert.	Dinner!

The next day, we decided to go to the Mall of Georgia, which is like the largest mall in the south. We checked out of the hotel and went to get in the car. It wouldn’t start. We determined that it was the battery and got someone to jump us.

We got to the mall and walked around for a bit. Personally, I think I like Opry Mills better. Although the Mall of Georgia does have an Armani Exchange store (*drool*). It had a neat little outside area with a fountain that kids could play in and some other stuff.

When we got ready to leave (I actually didn’t spend any money), the car wouldn’t start again. Wonderful. The battery is officially dead. We start trying to figure out what to do. We go back into the mall and find a mall security guy and he gets someone to jump it for us.

We start driving down the road looking for an Autozone or Wal-Mart or something. We happen upon a Sam’s Club and decide to stop there. It was already getting kind of late and we were ready to get back on the road to Knoxville. We go into Sam’s, locate the kind of battery we need, and go to pay for it. Well, guess what? My Sam’s Club card had expired. Bleh. So, we get someone there to jump us off and continue our search.

We found a Wal-Mart down the road. We go in, buy a battery, come back out, determine we need a wrench, go back in, buy a wrench, come back out, and finally finally finally get the battery replaced. Finally. Ugh.

So then we get on I-85 to begin our journey back to Knoxville. And get stuck in traffic. For an hour and a half. I’m not lying. We went 14 miles in 1.5 hours. Oh, and did I mention it was raining through all of this?

We finally got back to Knoxville. And now I’m completely broke once again.

Today I did my annual I-have-no-job-but-summer-is-here-so-I’m-going-to-max-out-my-credit-card shopping. I went for black cargo capris and some black shoes. I came out with black cargo capris, three shirts, some jewelry, and some black shoes. I actually wanted another pair of shoes, but yeah…anyway.

A Perfect Circle in 5 days. :-O I cannot wait.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/139092-1008-063.html

I just got back from Indianapolis.

I’m really at a loss for words. There is nothing I can say that can adequately describe last night.

Well, first of all, we got to Indianapolis in plenty of time. We were supposed to be at the fairgrounds at 6:00 to meet a guy that was selling us an extra ticket. But we ended up driving around Indy for like an hour and a half looking for a hotel relatively close to the coliseum. Apparently there aren’t any.

We finally found a hotel a little bit further away, and then got dressed and headed off to the fairgrounds. We got there at about 6:45. The doors had opened at 6:30. We met the guy, got the ticket, and then I realized that I had left the other two tickets in the car. Duh.

Finally, after we had all three tickets in our possession, we headed inside. They had to search us, and they were searching the guys and girls separately. I did manage to get the stealth cam in by strategically placing it in my shirt.

After we were in, we headed down to the floor and sat down to wait. It was 7:00 at this point, and the concert was scheduled to start at 8:00. I went and got a wristband so I could drink, but after paying over $4 for a tiny cup of Smirnoff Ice, I decided it wasn’t worth it.

At 8:00, The Mars Volta came on stage. They opened with “Roulette Dares,” which made me extremely happy. They continued to jam for the next hour playing an extremely extended version of “Cicatriz ESP”. I really don’t think the majority of the crowd knew who they were, cause they all kind of stood there and stared.

A Perfect Circle came on stage at 9:45, opening with “Vanishing,” as usual. The crowd started to get a little pushy during the first few songs, but they calmed down (at least in the part where I was standing), and I stopped worrying that I was going to die.

I had a decent view of Billy and James for most of the show. I had the tallest person in the world standing right in front of me for a few songs, though. I was probably about the same distance from the stage as I was for the Jewel concert.

It was Maynard’s birthday, of course, so we all sang to him. He’s forty years old now. Getting up there. He asked us to perform various experiments in censorship, and he did a magic trick for us (which I couldn’t really see because I had the tallest person in the world standing directly in front of me at the time). But he said he was going to drop a water bottle and then it was going to levitate. We had to say the magic words. He had to do it twice cause the first time it didn’t work, but apparently he dropped the bottle, it bounced, and he caught it. And as usual, he told us to “think for yourself, question authority” and that we had the power to change authority in November. The usual spiel.

I recorded “A Stranger,” but, of course, it doesn’t sound that great. At all. So I’m not posting it here. I will have to look around and see if I can find some better recordings of the show. I would have recorded some other songs, but at some point, I ended up with a guy behind me who was singing really loudly and off-key, and I could hear him better than Maynard, so I figured recording that wouldn’t be that great.

I can’t decide what the highlight of the night was. Possibly “A Stranger,” since it’s not usually a part of their set. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome they are live. Maynard had been sick lately, and had to cancel and postpone some shows earlier this month, but he sounded fully recovered and absolutely wonderful.

The set list was as follows:
Vanishing
Pet
The Hollow
Magdalena
Weak and Powerless
Rose
Blue
Thinking of You
A Stranger
The Package
3 Libras
The Nurse Who Loved Me (alt.)
Thomas
Fred’s Got Slacks
The Outsider
The Noose
Judith

I realized after we got back to the hotel that I forgot to buy a t-shirt, so I suppose I will have to find one on Ebay. Or I could just wait till Atlanta next month. Yay! I can’t wait to see them again!!

Okay, here is the official set list from the Jewel concert, taken from her website:

Near You Always, Passing Time, Everything Breaks, 1000 Miles Away, Sometimes It Be That Way, Little Sister, Down So Long, Everybody Needs Someone Sometime (1st time acoustic), Life Uncommon, Hands, Stephenville TX, hitchiking story->Race Car Driver, Cold Song, What’s Simple Is True, 2 Become 1, Stand, Intuition, Morning Song, Foolish Games, You Were Meant for Me, long intro->Who Will Save Your Soul Encores: Per la Gloria d’adorarvi, Where You Are, Q&A with audience, Chime Bells

Seems I forgot Sometimes It Be That Way and Hands. I knew I was forgetting one or two.

A Perfect Circle in Indy tomorrow!! Woohoo!! I need to get to bed early tonight. I’ve got a long drive ahead of me tomorrow. I do, however, have my outfit all ready.

I love this weather. And I love my one tan arm. And I seriously dislike men.

I’m in an extraordinarily good mood today. As was I yesterday. And most of the weekend. Hopefully this will continue.

The Jewel concert is a week from tomorrow! I didn’t realize how close it was! That means that TMV/APC are only two and a half weeks away. I should probably make sure that I can get people to cover for me at work.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it, but I got tickets to APC in Atlanta on May 15. They went on sale last Friday, so I picked up a couple floor tickets. I’ll probably drive to Atlanta straight from Clarksville, since I will be there for Sabrina’s graduation on the 14th (lucky!!!).

I’ve got to remember to get some quarters tomorrow so I can do laundry. It’s all sorted, but I’ve only got enough quarters for one load. And I have six loads. I also have two checks I need to cash. So I will try to get to the bank before work tomorrow.

Hopefully I will be seeing Eternal Sunshine again this weekend.

Okay, first of all, I seriously doubt I am going to San Francisco. Really, that’s just money I can use when I move to Seattle. Plus then I can go to Sabrina’s graduation on the 14th and the APC concert in Atlanta on the 15th, which will be just as fun and much cheaper. And I don’t feel like I’m betraying my best friend for a vacation. I can always go to Nextfest another year. I just really need the money right now.

Second, The Darkness concert is already sold out. So that’s a no go.

Tickets go on sale to the Atlanta APC show on Friday. So I have a few days to decide.

I really, really, really want to go see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Really, really bad. I need a date.

I would like to thank Steve for giving me whatever illness he had while I was in Indiana. I feel blah.

My new hair color is definitely growing on me. It’s a good summer look.

I think I’m gonna go dig through my refrigerator for some Sunny D and rewatch A Perfect Circle on Leno last night. My throat is killing me.

Got Tera shipped off today, FedEx style, to Sager to get her sub and headphone jack back into working order. Track her here.

Music Midtown decided to delay announcing the band lineups for two more days, so I won’t know anything about that until Thursday.

Gonna start planning the San Fran trip next Monday.

A Perfect Circle is also going to be on Leno next Monday, so set your VCRs and TiVos.

I don’t know what to do.
I just found out APC was coming to Atlanta.
On May 15.
I am supposed to be in San Francisco then.
What is more important?

One looks great, the other is a little off. It’s supposed to be the APC logo (see right), but right now, the only way this sticker will work is if the band changed their name to A Perfect Oval. It’s a little elongated. Anyway, I plan on running Ariel through the carwash and sticking the good sticker on after I get off work today, so I will take pictures of that one. I’m still trying to figure out what I can do about the oval.

I have a test in 365 tomorrow. Missed the review day because of snow last week, so I’m gonna be studying hard tonight (around the final episode of Average Joe, of course).

It clearly reads on the ticket “No cameras / Search required,” so I gotta figure out a good place to stick my stealth cam so that they don’t find it. Hehe.

I ended up dropping 494. Was just too behind, and today was the last day you could drop with a W. I just need to catch up in 365 now. Being sick is really bad for schoolwork.

And Maynard’s birthday is April 17.

This concert is gonna rule.

First of all, I forgot that I had a doctor’s appointment at 11:00 this morning. I didn’t even get out of bed until 11:15. And it was around noon when I realized that OH YEAH, I was supposed to go to the doctor an hour ago. Oh well. I’m not really sick anymore. Just sniffley.

Second thing is, I’m gonna see A PERFECT CIRCLE and THE MARS VOLTA in concert!!!! I got tickets to the show in Indianapolis on April 17, which is the closest one at the moment. I’m hoping they come to Atlanta in May, but who knows if they will or if I will be in SanFran at that time, so I thought I should go ahead and go. YAY!!

Jewel is going to be in Asheville on April 7th. I haven’t decided if I am going to that yet or not. Tickets don’t go on sale until the 21st, so I don’t even know how much they are yet.