I heart The Chieftains

Hello friends! Now that I've been posting to 2 different blogs, I've found that I've been neglecting my primary blog again. Sorry:( February was an okay month for me. I finally picked a dissertation topic (woohoo!) and am now in the process of writing up my ideas in the proposal.

Additionally, I've been joining in with my boys at NOSE trying to have a different beer every day. As I told my buddy N8 though, I'm gonna hate when we hit day 360 or so because the only beer that's gonna be left is shit beer. I hope not though because it defeats the purpose of what we're doing. While it may appear that we're just trying to foster alcoholic-like tendencies for a year a la college style the purpose of the 365 Beers challenge is to really broaden your horizons when it comes to beer and get to try new good beers that you may not have tried before. I like a good beer but if you're like me, you order the same 2 or 3 types of beer when you go out. The challenge is to try some new beers that you wouldn't normally try. So anyway, that itself is going well. I forgot to start on Feb. 16th (N8's bday) so I'm a few beers behind everyone else, but it's been cool so far.

Finally, I got to see one of my favorite Irish bands on Tuesday night: The Chieftains. For those of you not familiar with The Chieftains (and shame on you;), they are Irish music legends who have like 6 Grammies, 19 Grammy nominations, and Oscar, etc. They're pretty much bad-ass in Ireland and have a standing gig playing at Carnegie Hall in NYC every St. Patrick's Day. Anyhow, imagine my surprise when I find out through the grapevine that The Chieftains are going to be playing at a small venue on campus that only hold about 2000 people and tickets are only $30. Sweet! Anyhow, I ended up going with 2 of my friends on Tuesday and they did not disappoint. The core members of the band have to be in their mid-60's by now but they can still rock out. Plus they have a great sense of humor, and broke out some Cotton-Eyed Joe and some Rolling Stones on the Irish pipe from time to time. Anyhow, that night just reminded me how much I love Irish music and if you haven't listened to The Chieftains before, you should:)

It's also been a while since I've posted any music recommendations, so I thought I'd add a few songs and albums playing in my iPod recently if you're looking for something to listen to.

Music I'm Listening to lately:

1) Le Tigre - Deceptacon
This is a hella catchy tune with an even better video. Her voice can get a little shrill but she's British so it works for her.

2) Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Another great song with an awesome video.

3) Blue Rodeo - Lost Together
4) Blue Rodeo - Hasn't Hit Me Yet

I love this band! The Canadian introduced me to them, as they are also Canadian, and I really dig how they've got this folk rock/not-scary-country vibe to them. Lost Together is particularly beautiful:)

5) Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
I never thought I'd love to see the day I'd have a Christina Aguilera song on my chart, but I really dig this song. It's really catchy and funky and great to listen to.

6) U2 - One Tree Hill
Not a new song, but the recent trip to Ireland and upcoming St. Paddy's Day has made me fall in love with old school U2 all over again.