Book Eating
Though I rarely drag my ass out to go to stuff, Saturday night I'm going to Royce Hall at UCLA, for "Revenge of the Book Eaters", a concert benefitting programs fighting illiteracy.
Two of my favorite singer-songwriters are going to be performing, Aimee Mann and Jenny Lewis, along with some other performers. Authors Dave Eggers and Sarah Vowell are going to do readings. Andy Richter is hosting. Jake Gillenhaal is supposed to be there as well.
Tickets may still be available, if anyone is interested.
As faithful readers of the blog may remember, Jenny Lewis is the only concert I've actually been to all year, and she was great. Though she recently did a solo tour with the Watson Twins, supposedly she's working on a new album with her band Rilo Kiley, whose "Portions For Foxes" really should have been a hit.
posted by Scott the Reader @ 1:28 PM
5 Comments:
Talk about illiteracy - the first time through, I read "Jerry Lewis" and thought, "Well, whatever floats his boat."
really was one of the best songs last year
Jenny Lewis is my favorite writer (I mean of anything, books and movies included) and I was so tempted to go to this but I couldn't get the money together.
Can you please do a post describing a little of what I missed? Particularly anything involving Ms. Lewis or Ms. Mann (another favorite o' mine)?
Jenny went on alone, and did three songs, just her and a guitar, which was great -- she nailed Rabbit Fur Coat, and Rise up with Fists, and Happy. Then Johnathan Rice came out, and they did their new song, "Jack Killed Ma", which is great.
Aimee did about 6 songs, about half from her new album -- but she also did "Save Me" and "Wise Up". She had a couple of guys playing behind her.
Andy Richter did a funny bit in which he did excerpts from a one-man show as Jim Morrison. Writer Dave Eggers talked about 826, which sounds like a great organization that largely relies on volunteers to tutor kids in writing.
Writer Sarah Vowell read a piece she wrote, with help from Andy Richter. The Mountain Goats did about 5 songs. Jake Gyllenhaal didn't show up, but they recruited John Krasinski (Jim on "The Office") to take his place reading a story one of the kids in the program wrote; the story was funny as hell, and John did a great job with it. The hell with that Gyllenhaal guy.
The Mountain Goats and Jenny came out at the end, and teamed up on Hank Williams' 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".
So it was a great night. They even passed buckets during the show to collect more money from the organization, and it was the happiest giving I've ever seen; they raised about $6000 more in cash on the spot.
826 is located in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles (in Venice), San Francisco and Seattle. Anyone who is interested and lives in these places, look them up.
Ooh, I love "Jack Killed Ma"... I heard it when I saw Jenny with the Watson Twins. Dang!
John Krasinski is awesome. I understand wanting a "big name" for publicity sake, but I'd actually rather see him than Jake Gyllenhaal.
Too bad I missed this. :-(
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