LA

Took the 5 straight from work and headed for Hollywood to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds yesterday. Since I got into town a bit early, I called up my pal Rachel and we had a nice dinner at Miceli's, a very cute restaurant around the corner from her place. It's an Italian spot that has a pianist and (how LA is this) all of the wait staff are also singers. They all take turns singing traditional Italian standards, opera, whatever the pianist happens to play. It was nice to catch up with Rachel, but our dinner lasted a little too long. In the middle of my tiramisu, Brande called to let me know we needed to jet if we wanted to get parking.

The show was great. Cat Power was really good. I like her covers. She performed "Ramblin (Wo)Man" which I asolutely love. Wasn't too into the next band, Spiritualized, but Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were amazing. They ended the show with "Stagger Lee." I underestimate my ability to remain awake for long periods these days. Since I got up early and worked all day, by the time the show was over (at around 11) I was too tired to hang out! How sad. I got home around 12:30 and fell right to sleep. Such an old lady.

The Hollywood Bowl is an amazing venue, and I definitely recommend seeing at least one show there, but I prefer the more intimate, smaller venues. Even the Wiltern, which is pretty large, was a better place to see Nick Cave. I went back when it had seats, and it felt more my style.

My new favorite thing, by the way, is iTunes Genius button. M. convinced me to download the iTunes update so I could see its powers for myself. You select a song from your library and press the genius button, and the program creates a playlist based on your song. And the playlists are amazing. Much better than the playlists I make for sure. Try it!