I…but…but you…and it’s…what? Jen, you hurt my heart. Why a live album? Because it’s a live album!! There are covers and unreleased songs and there’s stage banter and it’s live! I don’t know what else you need. Not only that, but it’s a live solo album which means there are different arrangements by necessity. It proves the music is mutable and that putting a song on wax is not the end of its evolution. It proves that if a song is worth singing, it’s worth exploring and doing it right. The live album, if done right, is lightning in a bottle, capturing a moment shared by a room full of people on a night. Live music is a fleeting thing, the live album is an attempt to grasp at the fleeting moment.

And as long as I’m commenting on yesterday’s posts (I’ll do one with music soon, I swear), you’ve proven a theory about Jack Johnson for me. When Sleep Through Static was released it jump right up to the freaking top of every chart applicable. I swear, all of ‘em. I was absolutely baffled because, well, most people who don’t hate Jack Johnson have a hard drive so full of various Jack Johnson tracks and Jack Johnson & Ben Harper tracks and Jack Johnson live bootlegs and songs that aren’t Jack Johnson but are attributed to him, &c. that they don’t really need to run right out and buy fourteen more songs that sound just like all the other ones on their computer, but they did! Jack Johnson is extremely frustrating to me, especially since I still get sucked into most of his songs. Even played “Banana Pancakes” at a wedding last week.

Finally, regarding Juno, I’ve not seen hard candy, but Ellen Page’s character is infinitely endearing. Or at least not a ball buster. It’s worth your time, Jen. And now I’m done saying what I should’ve said in an email. Yay for making it public!!