





Just returned from a great weekend wine tasting with friends in Solvang, CA. It was my boyfriends birthday. We stayed at the Solvang Inn & Cottages and took the "Sideways" tour of many of the wineries and vineyards

Sure the album’s first single, stripped down ballad I’m Yours, is typical man-with-guitar Mraz, but on other tracks he gets hip, trading in the acoustic guitar for jazzy electric piano and brass solos. Album opener Make It Mine engages with vibrant lounge-inspired melodies and Mraz’ trademark “la-la-las.” Then he brings the funk on the smoothly seductive Coyotes with its computerized beats and imagery-driven lyrics (“No wonder I’m a one woman man/ She keeps my heart in a jar on the nightstand”). Or there’s the deliciously tongue-in-cheek Butterfly, an innuendo laden ode to love laid out over energetic trumpet flourishes.
But don’t think We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. sees Mraz completely turning back on his troubadour roots. He duets sweetly with Colbie Caillat on beachy ballad Lucky where the two extol the virtues of falling in love with your best friend. And to close the album, he aptly chooses the quiet but impressive Beautiful Mess that reminds listeners that Mraz unplugged almost always trumps everything else.
As a fan of Mraz, its easy to be blindsided into automatically loving any new music he makes. All his usual stylistic devices are accounted for: spitfire delivery (see borderline rap song Dynamo), witty/incisive lyricism (Love for a Child) and inspirational balladry (Live High or as I call it, Life is Wonderful 2.0). Still, fan or not, We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. is a must for anybody searching for grown-up pop with personality.
All that I am going to say about Madonna is that I have never and will never pay to see her in concert. Yeah, I was a material girl back when the lace hair berets and multiple rubber bracelets were in style and danced in my bed room to "lucky star" and "like a virgin" for hours on end in 1985, but that doesn't mean that I need to stay devoted to a rude ungrateful rock star who doesn't appreciate her fans. The two times that I have seen her she was rude to the audience and acted like her fans should all be grateful to spend $500 on a ticket to see her. I've seen Mariah Carey 3 times in concert and
The Black Crowes I saw at the Greek Theatre in
I've been listening to the latest album by a great band called, The Weepies . The first time I saw them was at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood in 2006. Thier music sounded like a mix between The Indigo Girls and Fountains of Wayne. It was two girls and a guy who had all met eachother along the east coast. The female lead singer and the male guitar player had traveled around Boston and New York playing in different clubs and lived in the Berkshires for a year which I thought was funny because I lived there for 4 years while I was in boarding school. They actually reminded me of the hippie bands I used to go see back then like Phish, The Samples, Big Head Todd and Dave Mathews Band. It was a good show.
Oh, as we were leaving the show, Keiffer Sutherland walked in. I couldn't believe it because my boyfriend loves the t.v. show 24 and makes me call him Jack Bauer on Monday nights. Crazy,huh? Anyway, we were both so excited. Apparently, Keifer has started his own record label and the band with Rocco Deluca who's album he is producing also played that night after we left. My boyfriend really wants to do the soundtrack for 24.