yesterday was the ani concert and since my dad had this workshop that he had to do in middleton and my sister and i had to go with him (my dad transcends overprotective, but he'll let us do just about anything as long as he's there with us, which doesn't bother me too much. he is beginning to let go a little. i can go anywhere i want to by myself, provided that it's within a 60 mile radius of my house. i'm his oldest daughter and he works with sex offenders. what can you really expect? i asked him one time if when i leave next year he was going to lay in bed at night and wonder if i was being raped. he said probably. i thought that was kind of sad. but anyway, that's why i had to go with my dad in tow.) we got to madison at about 10, which was about two and a half hours early (my dad hates being late) so we went to borders and i found the most beautiful frida kahlo book. and i spent more money on it than i should have, but it's frida kahlo and now i have pictures of all of my favorite paintings sitting on my book shelf.

so then we went and ate and i hate mcdonalds and their salads in the cup that you have to shake, but i survived. and then it was on to the workshop. my dad said we didn't have to, but i made my sister sit through the whole thing with me because i just thought it was respectful and supportive. how many crappy band concerts and the like has my dad sat through for us? too many. and he was taking us to this concert. but i don't think that she saw it that way and she complained that she was bored and drew a lot of little pictures. she'll mature soon enough. but i thought that the workshop, which was three hours long, was really interesting and well done and i was incredibly proud of my dad because he's fucking amazing.

and that was the boring part of my day that i'm sure no one gives a shit about.

we left the hotel that the workshop was at around 3:45 and so i was trying to get my dad and sister into a serious haul ass mode because i'm obsessive and i need to get a good spot. but we had to get food again and dad had to change his clothes and hen we couldn't find anywhere to park and got lost once we found a parking space. but we finally got in line around 5 and we were behind these two guys, who i "lovingly" will refer to as the skinny one and the bigger one. the skinny one was a complete asshole, called me "the daughter of the loser," chastised me for eaves dropping (stupid fucker, you're standing six inches in front of me. i'm going to hear what you're saying) and then commented on everything that i said to my sister, and repeatedly brought up the fact that he had flown to new york to see ani at carnegie hall because it was supposed to have been her last solo concert. apparently the arrogant asshole thought he deserved some sort of crown that said most devoted on it or something. i hope he spends eternity being swarmed by bees and chasing the blank banner in the vestibule of hell (i'm not very far in the inferno, so there may be a more appropriate punishment that i'm not aware of) but the bigger one was nicer and i don't really have anything else to say about him. we stood outside for two very long hours and it was so fucking cold that you're skin burned. and there was this girl who had her guitar and was singing and who i thought was really annoying. she kind of reminded me of cedar. and then she sang me and bobby mcgee and redeemed herself. and the longer we stood there, the more i began to question the sanity of the people who had been there since 7 in the morning.

finally got inside and got surprisingly good seats. and waited and waied and waited some more until hamell on trial finally came out and started playing. the only exposure that i've had to hamell on trial is his 30 second spot on render. but he is fucking awesome and gave me a great idea for the paper that i have been banging my head against a wall trying to write.

and then after waiting for so long, it was time for ani. and she limped out onto stage and had to do the whole show sitting in a chair because she had broken a bone in her foot. but it was so beautiful to hear her playing all by herself. and the sound was great and the lighting was beautiful. she opened with buildings and bridges, and then she also sang swan dive, heartbreak easy, marrow, two little girls, anticipate and then something like six new songs. i know that i've read the lyrics to one of them but the other ones were really new. and my favorite was bodily (i think that's what it was called) it absolutely tore your heart out of your chest and i think that is the most emotional performance that i've ever seen her do. she also did my iq and then as her encore (although she opted to skip the walking out and then walking in again) she did self evident, which would have been absolutley beautiful, perfect had it not been for a) the asshole who forgot to turn their cell phone off and b) the guy in front of us with the wonder bread tshirt who decided to try and jump on stage. stupid fucker. he's lucky the girls up front, laregly responsible for pulling him down, didn't tear him apart. but despite those little moments of utter stupidity, it was the most poignant version of self evident that i've ver heard her do.

so on ani's part, the show was fucking incredible. but the audience was really fucking rude. there was a guy who had brought his sister to the show and she was in a wheelchair and all of these assholes crowded around in front of her so that she couldn't see. but the guy asked ani if he could bring his sister up on the side of the stage so that she could see, and ani let her up. and then everybody kept screaming out stupid shit when she was trying to talk and clapping in all of the wrong spots. and then there was this girl up front who had her hands up in the air the entire time doing some little hand dance that she apparently thought was really fucking cool but pissed the people around her off to no end. wench.

but it was completey worth it. an amazing show.

and there is probaly a lot more that i could say but you're probably not interested and i need to feed my little sister

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