I have tons and tons of old paraphernalia at my mom’s house, and I’ve been going through some of it and some of the stuff I saved is just too good not to share with the rest of the world. So for your first installment of “Stuff I’ve Saved” I brought out the big guns — my 1980s Popple. This one was called Puffball — it was one of the original nine Popples that came out.

As you may remember, Popples could tuck themselves into a ball of fuzzy goodness thanks to their built-in pouch:

I used to love popping my Popple in and out of her pouch.

What a cutie!

Did y’all have a Popple growing up?

What a hipster! Look at those awesome shoes. This outfit alone makes me love the movie. If they ever remake this movie, Samantha Eggar‘s role should be played by Amy Adams.

Have you read this New York Times story about people who leave their air conditioning on all day long? The reason many of them leave their AC on? Because electrical utilities are included in their monthly rent!!!

Many of these people claim that they keep their AC on in sympathy for their pets, which I get, but c’mon — you do NOT need all units in your apartment turned up full blast. News flash — your dog/cat WILL LIVE if your apartment is 78 degrees!!

Listen to this quote from Danielle, a social worker living in Stuyvesant Town who leaves two units running all day long for her purse-size dog:

“I don’t want to walk into a hot apartment at the end of the day… It’s nice to not have to worry about it.”

I guess Danielle’s empathy only runs as far as helping people. She probably comes home to her arctic chilled apartment and slips into a nice and comfortable “eff the environment” t-shirt. I wonder if that’s after she turns off the TV that’s been blasting all day long because her pint-sized dog really likes to watch soap operas between 1-3 (watching it on DVR later just isn’t the same as watching it live).

Seriously people, even if you don’t have to pay for your electricity, you should be kind to the environment! Leave windows open and turn on a fan your dog/cat can’t knock over or get caught in on the floor, leave plenty of water, and if you MUST, leave the AC on in only one room. Your dog will figure out where in the apt it is the coolest. Your pet will live and the rest of us will thank you for NOT being a giant a-hole.

Long-time readers already know that whenever I mention the word “Keane,” a mention of my mom couldn’t be too far behind. As I’ve explained over and over on this site, my mom LOVES Keane. Basically every time Keane is within the tri-state area I get an email from my mom alerting me of the concert and a request that I get tickets for her to go to the show.

We’ve already been to Keane shows at Radio City and Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan, but I was pretty excited to find out that my next Keane-venture would be in Brooklyn at the very beautiful Williamsburg Waterfront venue which has a fantastic view of Manhattan across the East River.

The weather was perfect — warm, but not sweaty, with a cool breeze. The crowd was in high spirits. By the time Keane came on stage I think my mom had already worked herself to the third or fourth row of the crowd. Singer Tom Chaplin was looking a bit like a ’50s greaser, with a shortly cropped ‘do, skinny black jeans, black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirt, and slim light-colored sneakers.

Almost instantly he put the treads on his trainers to work by jumping atop the monitors as he sang, waving his hands about in big, sweeping gestures. (Examples: finger pointing, outstretched Jesus arms, heartfelt two-handed crooning into the microphone.) Although Keane really isn’t always my particular cup o’ tea, what I do admire about them is the non-stop, seemingly limitless amount of exuberance and enthusiasm they bring to each and every show. There are plenty of bands much smaller than Keane that seem to pride themselves on being perpetual sticks in the muds, but these British pop stars certainly do not seem to take their fortunate position for granted at all.

I recognized some of Tom’s banter from the last show I saw — the bit about his favorite song they’ve ever written was the same intro to “Perfect Symmetry” I’d heard at Radio City. It’s funny, to a jaded concert-goer like me, repetition of banter can come across as the performer being “boring” or “predictable,” but my mom didn’t seem to mind one bit. For her, going to a concert is an event that only happens once or twice a year, and when her favorite band repeats themselves in banter, she’s not annoyed by it — she’s almost comforted by it.  Being a super fan with an uncanny ability to remember nearly every detail of each Keane show she’s seen or read about, when Tom says the same thing as he did at another show, it’s almost like he’s just following a Keane script. Just like seeing a favorite play — it’s ok to repeat things over and over, the line can never be said exactly the same, and every time it is said it has a different meaning or feeling.

Yesterday I got a funny email from my mom about the show:

Richard, Keane drummer, always takes a photos of the audience from his drum set.  He has a few shots on the Keane website and he said it was the most spectacular concert he ever played because of the view and it was a great show.  One of the audience photos is clickable but I can’t make out which one is me, but I do see the guy that was two rows ahead of me so I know where I was in relation.  Maybe I can’t be seen because the girl in front of me raised her arms up in the air as he was shooting the photo.  It was a great night of music and fun for me and I will always remember that concert.  Thanks again.

Love,
Mom

Even though I’m slightly mortified by my mom’s obsession with this band, as a fellow super fan type person, I respect and understand the passion. And I would pretty much have to have a heart of stone to not be happy after reading an email like that. As a result, you pretty much can bank on me and my mom attending the next Keane concert. She’ll be the one elbowing her way up to the front, and I’ll be the one watching her a few rows back, smiling.

Hey folks — for those of you who watch some of the first two matches of the World Cup, is it just me or are those damn vuvuzelas (those plastic horns everyone has) making the most AWFUL non-stop buzzing sound throughout the matches?

I know that the horn has a 15-year history as THE defacto noise maker of South Africa, but to the rest of the world it’s the tool that makes the horrible sound of a giant swarm of bees buzzing over and over and over. It’s pretty much the most annoying background sound during a world sporting event. Will FIFA please put an end to the constant honks of the vuvuzelas and ban the damn things from the stadiums from now on?

Anyone else POed about the vuvuzelas?

Other people who hate vuvuzelas:
- Wall Street Journal writer Robb Stewart
- Tons of people in this New York Times article
- The folks at Hear-the-world.com really hate the vuvuzela and present data that states that the horns are more detrimental to your hearing than an air-horn.
- South African Times Live writer Mondli Makhanya
- Steve Schrader of the Detroit Free Press

The perfect time of year in NYC IMHO. Union Square flowers.

Something tells me it’s going to be difficult to hail a cab today.

Here’s some of what I did during the very busy holiday season in 2009:

Hipster karaoke, The Music Slut anniversary party with O’Death playing at Brooklyn Bowl, Kemado Records party, a visit to L.A., and other holiday fun!

You may have noticed the lack of updates — sorry about that, but I just made a big move from my beloved (but tiny) Lower Manhattan apartment to… Brooklyn. Yup, I’ve officially defected to the “other” camp, and although I had my reservations, I’m loving it so far.

Anyhoo, finally got the internet and cable set up this week, and I just happen to catch the tail end of MTV’s Woodies awards last night, with a performance by the Dead Weather. Was it just me or was the sound AWFUL, and the camera work equally as disorienting?

Definitely not their best performance. What a shame, since their show at MHOW was so fantastic the night before.

Check out the video of their performance of “Cut Like a Buffalo”:

Some un-aired performances of “Hang You From the Heavens” and “Treat Me Like Your Mother”:

I’m convinced there’s an evil gang of cats in the alleyway by my building. I hear cat wars every night as they fight over territory/food.

Proof: