Crawling, Cooking, Concerting

Did many of my favorite things this weekend. :) (and still managed to knock off a fair bit of grad school homework.)

It was St. Paul's Art Crawl this weekend, so I went to that, and as usual walked away with a purchase. This time it was only a buck, though! I need a paycheck before I can spend more. :) A little fridge magnet painting in my favorite colors did the trick. Nothing particularly remarkable this year at the crawl, but, like normal, there were always a few things displayed that made me stand and stare for several minutes.







Sunday afternoon was spent improvising on a recipe out of the newspaper for a southern seafood and sausage stew (after a stop at Penzey's Spices to find a substitute for Old Bay Seasoning, used for crab and in fish boils). I backed way off the hot seasonings, but it still turned out mighty flavorful and a little peppery, yet not too much. Another keeper! The house smells marvelous.


But the highlight of the weekend was a concert by Australian singer/songwriter Sia Furler, sometime lead singer for Zero 7, and now on a solo career. She came to The Fine Line Music Cafe' Saturday night, and I couldn't help myself.. just had to go, absent a paycheck or not.

What a great show! It was opened by "Body Language" a Brooklyn based psychedelic, tropical, neo-soul group (which descriptive attributes they seemed to display only one at a time from song to song, rather than fusing them.)



Sia then same on and had a crazy stage to go with her crazy costuming and demeanor. The band and she wore jumpsuits, and at one point she came out with an elongated Christmas ornament on her head.



For the encore she wore rotating wings turned by a fan, through which bubbles were blown at the audience.



There was a sort of quilt on the floor which kind of went with the jumpsuits, as well as on the back wall with the artist's name spelled out in yarn. The speakers were wrapped in afghans adorned with yarn balls, and even the mike stands had knitted sleeves.



Quirky behavior, no doubt, but man, can she sing, and the new album set for June release sounds like it will be great.

Swell weekend - one of those that leaves a lasting impression. :)