Israelisms -- Podcast # 17

OK. So I was a lazy iPod person. I knew about Podcasts but didn't want to be bothered. So when the new version of iTunes came out yesterday, I went a bit crazy. Now I have subscriptions to

• KCRW's Elvis Mitchell show The Treatment
• The Dawn and Drew Show
• Israelisms
• KPCCs Larry Mantle show AirTalk
• KPCCs Kitty Felde show Talk of the City
• Inside Mac
• And a rabbi's weekly parsha (I can't find his name right now)

so I think this Podcasting thing is now probably going to be huge and therefore, probably viewed as ruined by all the people who loved it before I got there. Like the Internet was before I started being on it in 1994.

OH! The Arcade Fire/David Byrne show on Sunday lived up to my expectations and then surpassed them. First off, I had never seen a show at the Hollywood Bowl. That was fun. You can bring picnics including wine with you. So everyone is in their seats trying to eat and drink with people squishing by to get to the bathrooms. Very fun. And then someone was always accidentally kicking over someone else's wine bottle... but the show was great. The Arcade Fire is so good in concert. This time last year they were playing in tiny clubs and today they are in huge rock festivals and they are as good and intense and fun. It was a great, great show. I'd go on about it some more but it's kind of hard to describe it intelligently. It was a very emotional thing. My G/F and I had a wonderful time. I had played her the Arcade Fire album previously and she read the lyrics as she listened, and that really made her like them as well.

Oh. David Byrne was joined midway through his set by the Extra Action Marching Band. HAH! A San Francisco marching band with cheerleaders wearing silver thongs and meshy tops (except the guy cheerleader who just had on the silvery g string and silver) and black pom poms and tall flag women with bondage attire and members dressed up in every sort of get up you can imagine, and they played really well and actually made David Byrne's songs even better. To close, David and the marching band did Beyonce's Crazy in Love. Whaaa??? It was obviously the Extra Action's idea, and David read the lyrics as he did it, but it worked well. It was so much fun. http://www.productshopnyc.com/archives/2005_06.html has a link to footage of that last bit. While the show for me was all about witnessing The Arcade Fire at what I sincerely pray is a long and vibrant career, it also made me like David Byrne a lot more than I had before. A great night.