Like endless rain into a paper cup

So Starbucks, the evil coffee empire, is named for Starbuck, first mate of the Pequod, the whaling ship in Moby-Dick, which is all very literary and pretentious and lovely, but I don’t get it. Why is it plural? There was only one Starbuck. (Although, apparently, there’s another one on this Battlestar Galactica show everyone’s watching, which actually sounds like something I might like, but I don’t know if I care to get invested in a sci-fi drama right now. Also, this Starbuck is a girl. Weird.) If they want an ‘s’ on the end, because it sounds better, it should be Starbuck’s Coffee. Even though Starbuck had nothing to do with coffee ever. I read on Wikipedia that the founder dudes wanted the name of their coffee company to be Pequod, but that just didn’t have the right ring to it, so they snagged Starbuck. And made it plural. Whatever, it bothers me.

I just freaked out about this over there on Twitter, but it is bothering me, and I have a snobbish-nerd need to expound. All over the place lately, it seems, I am reading “lightening” when people are talking about lightning, you know the electrical flashes that come with thunderstorms. “Lightening” is actually a word, because “to lighten” is a verb, as in “Try lightening up about spelling and grammar mistakes, you freak!” Never! “Lightening” is the present progressive form of “lighten”—“lightning” is a regular old noun that should not occur in February in New England, but nevertheless, it, um, did. By the way, it’s spring today! And there are still piles of snow everywhere. And it won’t stop raining and/or snowing. “Droghte of March,” if only.

I miss group games of Trivial Pursuit. And then I think, “It would have been so much better if I’d more than two friends who drank in college.” My friends are such squares! Actually, three of them drank—no, four—but one of them never played board games with us (actually, maybe two of them never played board games with us), and the other one we do not speak of anymore, because she showed herself to be the biggest asshole to ever…exist. Wow, that insult went nowhere. Whatever, we graduated, and she turned into a giant jerk. So it was just me and the potato who were drinkers, really—and he wasn’t even into it that much. God. So. Lame. Thank god I hooked up with Mike the alcoholic after college and let the real fun begin! But I don’t think Mike and his friends would be very interested in playing drunk Trivial Pursuit. The best I can do for that is my grandparents and aunts—and it’s fun! But it could be funner if I had friends who would drink and play Trivial Pursuit.

Oh, so last night, Jess and I went to see A Fine Frenzy, even though both of us were sick, and Boston was wet and cold, but it was totally worth it. I’d already seen this girl twice, but only because she was opening for some other girl whose name I totally can’t recall at the moment, but this time she was, like, a bazillion times better. I have no idea why, really—she just sounded better. That girl whose name escapes me and her boys stole Alison’s drummer, Daxx, which made me sad, because he was my favorite thing about A Fine Frenzy’s performances, but oh well. I was on the wrong side of the stage to get to see him anyway. She played a brand new song at the very end that she wrote on guitar, and it was the first time I’d seen her play guitar, and it was such a good song. It had the kind of rambling country feel that “Closer to You” and “How These Days Grow Long” have, which made me think that perhaps she wrote it last fall. But it’s possible that she didn’t—except, it didn’t sound like any of her other songs. And I liked it better than all of her other songs combined. Hmm.

Anyway, I told that whole story just so I could tell this one: during her encore, Alison did “Across the Universe,” and it was lovely, about a billion times better than anything happening on American Idol these past two weeks (good riddance to you, Amanda!), and I kind of want an mp3p of it now, because my new thing these days is lovely women who sing Beatles songs. I need to get my hands on more lady versions of Beatles tunes. It’s even better when they don’t change the gender-specific pronouns. I used to have this mp3 of Cyndi Lauper doing “Strawberry Fields,” which was splendiferous, mostly because I love Cyndi Lauper, and oh my god, I’m still not telling the story!

After the show, as Jess and I were waiting in the rain for the train (I can’t resist a cheap rhyme), she told me that she didn’t know that “Across the Universe” was the name of the song. Even when the movie came out, she was like, “Huh. That’s interesting—I wonder why they called it that.” And I was just laughing my ass off, and I was like, “What did you think the name of the song was?” and just as she answered my question, I answered it for myself, “Nothing’s Gonna Change My World.” I don’t know why I find that so amusing—Jess is so literal sometimes. Also, “Across the Universe” is a big deal song! But this is from the girl who thought Led Zeppelin was a guy. I loved Carlos’s reaction to that: “No, Mrs. and Mr. Zeppelin did not have a baby and name him Led.” Oh, Jess. She’s so precious.

Lady Sings the Beatles:
Hold Me Tight – Evan Rachel Wood
It Won’t Be Long – Evan Rachel Wood
Why Don’t We Do It in the Road – Dana Fuchs
Helter Skelter – Dana Fuchs
Blackbird – Sarah McLachlan
Mother Nature’s Son - Sheryl Crow
We Can Work It Out – Heather Nova
I’ve Just Seen a Face – Brandi Carlile
I Want to Hold Your Hand – Brad & Nikki Boyer (Nikki is the one who sings.)

Regina did a Beatles cover for one of those, like, save Darfur charity albums, but I can’t remember which one. Maybe she did “Imagine”—should that not count, then? Since it’s not the Beatles, just John? Also, I clearly need to get Fiona’s “Across the Universe,” which is really the only non-Beatles “Across the Universe” worth having, but, um, I’ll get to it. Right now, I need new and different lady Beatles covers. Where even do I begin?