i'm gonna make this place your home

there's a strange juxtaposition within me. i will sit for hours behind a textbook or computer screen, deeply immersed in academic jargon and long words. and i really, really like seminars, especially if they deal with grammar and are held in the basement of a big, old hotel. i like novels and discussions and heavy things that make you think.

but goodness, sometimes i just love me a reality show. specifically american idol. and while this is quite embarrassing, but hey this is my blog and space for my own humiliation, i should tell you robert and i have discovered "good luck charlie" on the disney channel. and it is hilarious. and we may or may not have watched five episodes in a row this weekend.

well, last night, phillip phillips (i know, but look past the name) gave the best performance i've ever heard on american idol. he sang a song called "home" and i just have to share it. because yes, the show is cheesy and overproduced and maybe even a little rigged, but you find art in the most unexpected places sometimes. and this song, with its marching band segment and nods to mumford and sons, fleet foxes, paul simon and even a little wilco, was the most artistic thing to grace that stage in a long while.

so enjoy, and google "good luck charlie." you know you want to:)

sara bareilles is a goddess

robert has had a surprise brewing for me for weeks. to kick off my birthday week, he's been sweetly scheming. every once in a while, he'll break into a sly smile out of nowhere and exclaim, "i can't wait to tell you about your surprise!"

last night was the big unveil. and it was everything he built it up to be, and more.

we went to a sara bareilles concert in a little chapel, at nearby wake forest university. it was hands-down the best live show i've ever been to. and i love live music, and i've been to a lot of shows. sara was beautiful, effortless on stage, cutely entertaining and had a voice like clear diamonds. she ended the show with a cover of coldplay's "yellow", and when she sang the line "you know i love you so..." i wanted to yell it back at her.

forgive the awful cell phone pics, but behold the imitable sara:

i highly, highly suggest if she ever comes within a reasonable radius of your home, you go. she will not disappoint. and neither did robert. i love the fact that he chose to take me to see an artist that i liked. not one that we were both in love with, but that i particularly fancied. and by the time we left the show, i do believe he was a little in love with her as well. and i'm okay with that:)

here's one of my favorite by her, city. listen and fall in love.