Lyrics for Friday

City Hall
By Vienna Teng

me and my baby on a february holiday
'cause we got the news
yeah, we got the news
500 miles and we're gonna make it all the way
we've got nothing to lose
we've got nothing to lose

it's been 10 years waiting
but it's better late
than the never we've been told before
we can't wait one minute more

oh, me and my baby driving down
to a hilly seaside town
in the rainfall
oh, me and my baby stand in line
you've never seen a sight so fine
as the love that's gonna shine
at city hall

me and my baby've been through
a lot of good and bad
learned to kiss the sky
made our mamas cry
I've seen a lot of friends
after giving it all they had
lay down and die
lay down and die

10 years into it here's our window
at the Vegas drive-thru chapel
it ain't too much
for 'em all to handle

oh, me and my baby driving down
to a hilly seaside town
in the rainfall
oh, me and my baby stand in line
you've never seen a sight so fine
as the love that's gonna shine
at city hall

outside, they're handing out
donuts and pizza pies
for the folks in pairs
in the folding chairs
my baby's lookin' so damned pretty
with those anxious eyes
rain-speckled hair
and my ring to wear

10 years waiting for this moment of fate
when we say the words and sign our names
if they take it away again someday
this beautiful thing won't change

oh, me and my baby driving down
to a hilly seaside town in the rainfall
oh, me and my baby stand in line
you've never seen a sight so fine
as the love that's gonna shine
at city hall

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I did a bunch of chores and wrote a Shatner article and things like that today, but I spent most of the afternoon and evening at the Birchmere, and since both HP fandom and LiveJournal are in states of insanity with which I cannot cope at present in my post-migraine mid-menstrual state, I am just going to talk about the concert. Which was amazing. We got there very early -- the box office opens at 5 and starts giving out seating tickets -- so we arrived at 4:45, got ticket number three, then sat and had nachos and Cokes for an hour while waiting for the dining room to open. The Birchmere has mostly Southern food, though they also have burgers and chicken sandwiches; I had seafood gumbo, had Cajun macaroni and cheese. The food was great but I barely made a dent in mine, the portions are so big. Christina Courtin and her band opened; they have great energy and she's a lot of fun to watch, though her musical style isn't quite my thing.

Vienna Teng does three kinds of songs: breathtakingly beautiful songs, amazingly powerful songs and songs that leave me inarticulate with tears running down my face. When I skip songs of hers on the CDs ("Love Turns 40," "Passage"), it's because I just can't take them at the moment, not because I don't like them. "Momentum" and "Nothing Without You" have made me sniffly more than once. "City Hall" never actually had that effect on me before tonight, but the two men sitting in front of us were hugging and crying through the whole song and I was crying too halfway through, even though the melody is totally upbeat and everyone was clapping along. She opened with "Enough To Go By," interrupted "1BR/1BA" with Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecilia" (in other concerts she's played "9 To 5" here), did all of the magnificent "Pontchartrain" -- she did most of the songs on Dreaming Through the Noise, including "Recessional" which is the other one that regularly puts a lump in my throat.

She did "Shasta" by request from people she met at Habitat for Humanity volunteer work (she called it a Red State song and said it was balanced by "City Hall" which is clearly a Blue State song, but since it's about a woman choosing not to have an abortion -- choosing rather than being forced -- it's Blue State enough for me). She did "Harbor" and "Hope on Fire" from Warm Strangers. The encore was phenomenal: she performed a cappella a Mandarin lullabye that she said she learned as a child but sings with an American accent, then she accompanied herself on piano for Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" which she told us in the autograph line had been a rather spontaneous decision, and she finished with "Lullabye For a Stormy Night" which it no longer was by the time we left. (ETA: Full set list here.) For anyone who is 1) local and 2) not a Harry Potter fan, she will be in Annapolis tomorrow at the Ram's Head Tavern and I cannot recommend her highly enough.





Since everyone is diving in various directions, I am cruisedirector or cruisedirectr on pretty much every journaling site around -- you can find links to other journals on my userinfo page here. But I have a permanent account and 10GB of storage space here that I am not giving up. All fan fiction that shouldn't be seen by underage eyes is custom-locked here and posted elsewhere in the places where it's been for a long time, and the photos, poetry and blather will continue here as they have. Sorry if my lack of activism offends you, but I'd rather protect my butt and the content of this journal which is nearly five years old and represents a significant chunk of my life, of which fanfic is only a small part.

It's my younger son's eleventh birthday. Where I spend the evening -- at the Silver Spring Harry Potter party, watching Doctor Who, going out for ice cream -- will largely depend on what he wants to do after camp and dinner with my parents.