glen hansard

Much to my joy, I’m going to have an excellent spring/summer concert season even if I only get to see the two shows we currently have tickets for.

Coming up first is The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) on April 26 at The Paramount. It was great seeing them win the Oscar for Best Song and I’m super stoaked to see them perform live.

In July, Bryan and I are heading out to see The Police and Elvis Costello & The Imposters. Wooo!

During a trip to Japan in 1994, I was shopping in a giant record store in Tokyo called The Wave. While I was there, I bought a CD because I liked the cover.

Sometimes I’m just that shallow. Turns out that the CD was even better sounding than it was good looking and my happy aural relationship with The Frames began. Finding some of their music in the States has been difficult prior to a few years ago, but I purchased Burn the Maps last year and grooved along happily.

About two weeks ago the universe conspired to bring The Frames and their frontman, Glen Hansard, back into my life. I’d noticed that the top choice on my Netflix home page was Once. I didn’t look beyond the pop-up description and kind of ignored it. Then I received an email from my friend Jess. Usually we send novella-length emails back and forth, but this was a short burst from her…basically saying “I saw this movie, I loved it, and you will too.” Guess what movie it was. (Jess and I also happened to be reading the exact same book at the same time too. Whoa.)

I rented it. I loved it. Watched it three times. Bought the DVD and the soundtrack. I am officially hooked. (For those keeping score at home, please note that though the DVD and CD use the same photo for the cover, Glen and Mar have been Photoshopped together to be holding hands on the DVD. Hmmm.)

So thanks to Jess and Netflix I have a new movie I love, which I can pimp out to my friends.