music

Please, Please, Please have a great Sabrina concert

| patmcg

Molly and I got to enjoy the pretty wild, funny, and amazing Sabrina Carpenter Short n’ Sweet tour together. 🙌

Since Sabrina was playing the Moody Center, basically on the UT campus, Molly and I incorporated our favorite UT routine into the night. We parked in West Campus (I mean, who wants to park near the venue? So boring!), got some pizza at Roppolo’s, and walked across the campus to the concert. It was a beautiful night, and the walk was a great way to get warmed up for the concert.

The Sabrina concert was a “little” over the top, including a “SABRINA AFTER DARK” segment with the tongue-in-cheek warning “PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED”. Oh well, too late. 🤷🏻‍♂️And everything was behind translucent curtains, so we’re 👌.

The show as surprisingly entertaining, and I’m personally glad that Molly got me into Sabrina’s music. I’ve had Short n’ Sweet on pretty heavy rotation, with fav songs being Please Please Please, Coincidence, Lie to Girls, Don’t Smile, and of course Espresso. You’ve got to love her lyrics…

Too bad your ex don’t do it for ya
Walked in and dream-came-trued it for ya
Soft skin and I perfumed it for ya
I know I Mountain Dew it for ya

T8!

| patmcg

Molly nudges me into taking her to the Tate McRae concert at the Moody Amphitheater.

I wasn’t real familiar with Tate McRae, who came out wearing oversized hockey shirt with “T8” emblazoned on the front. 😆

But what can I say? T8 was gr8!

Molly picks up the guitar 🎸

| patmcg

Molly has been talking about learning to play the guitar for a while. “I just want to play covers,” she said.

Last week, we talked in theory about guitar chords, frets, strings, etc. And also just how too hold a guitar.

This week she asked if I could teach her more guitar while the rice crispy treats she was bringing to a Galentine’s sleepover later tonight cooled. ☺️

Was this dad heaven?

We looked up the chords for My Tears Ricochet, since Molly is still a major Swiftie and thought it sounded like of of TS’s simpler songs.

The first chord was a C, so we decided to start with that.

It took a bit of time, patience, and finger pain, but Molly stuck with it. By the time the rice crispy treats were cooled and ready to cut, she knew how to play a C-chord!

Amazing. I thought this would take a few days or weeks, especially since Molly has pretty small fingers at this point in the game.

I was so proud of her. And I had to play her a scene from the movie Flora and Son where the main character first learns the C-chord, and her guitar teacher gives the best speech about it before just jumping into the G-chord.

You are now the proud owner of C, alright?

You didn’t own that five minutes ago. You’re rich. You own something Elvis owned. You own something new, and nobody can take it away from you. This is a gift you can take to the grave and use it whenever you want.

And in the right context, it can speak directly to your heart in ways we don’t even understand. More than thoughts, more than words, more than ideas. Just a chord hanging in there in the air… C.

Damn, I love that scene, and Molly seemed to like it too.

I told Molly she should look up G, the next chord in the song. When I got back from checking email, she showed me her G-chord, and it looks pretty good. 🤯

Mitski en Miami 🎸🏝️

| patmcg

Claire is a huge fan of Mitski, and so am I. Claire and I had been trying to see Mitski live for a couple of years, but last time she was nearby, in Houston, we noticed too late and the aftermarket tickets were like $700. Ouch; that’s almost Taylor Swift levels.

When Mitski announced a tour for new hew release, The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We, we wanted to jump on it.

The only problem was that Mitski was not playing in Austin. Or anywhere in Texas. Or within like 1000 miles of us. 🤷🏻‍♂️ We puzzled at how Mitski could miss our whole big state. Does she hate Texas? I mean, she does have a song based in Texas, so what gives?

So I coordinated care with Claire’s mom to get her a Mitski trip for Christmas. The only condition was that Claire could not miss even one day of school.

Some late nights on the problem yielded a good result – we could fly to a Mitski show in Miami, New York, Boston, or LA in January/Febraury, all for less than the $700 (each) that the Houston concert would have cost. Being winter, I chose Miami – duh. 🏝️

I told Claire we had a very early flight out on Saturday morning, but at least it’s direct. Claire asked, “Are we going to have to get up at like 4 am?” And I was like, “Nah, the flight’s at 7:10.” And then I was like, “Oh crap. Yeah, we’re going to have to get up at 4 am.” 🤦🏻‍♂️

The flight back got us home at midnight the following day, Sunday. Then back to school/work. Yeah, this better be a good concert.

The rest of the trip is sort of a blur, but yes, it was a great concert. Mitski had some amazing theatrical music, some surprising country versions of her songs, and some weird but beautiful dancing.

The icing on the cake was walking around Miami Beach in the warm weather, joking around, talking about deep subjects, napping in our “flophouse” of an Airbnb, having ice cream, coffee, and French toast, watching weirdos and families stroll down Collin Avenue, watching people play beach volleyball, visiting the botanical gardens… it was all a great time with Clairey.

It was really cool to be hanging out with what seemed like – and in fact actually is – an adult friend. I hope we have more fun trips in our future even though she’s all grown up now. 🤘

Adios, 2023 / Getaway Car

| patmcg

We rounded out the holiday season by doing Peppermint Parkway at the Circuit of the Americas. Driving the MINI Electric on the Formula 1 track (even at 25 mph 😆) was amazing. The best part was trading off songs with the kids. I started with The Distance by Cake (obvious choice for the race track), Molly called in Getaway Car by TS, Siri jumped in with Video Games by Lana Del Rey, and Claire kicked in a Lana’s Let The Light In.

Adios, 2023 ✌️🎉 #nye #circuitoftheamericas #austin #texas #atx #shotoniphone #christmascore #mcgkids via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/C1hVUXvufLR/

Walking UT

| patmcg

Molly is in 8th grade, but after some walks on the campus of a certain neighborhood college, aka UT Austin, she is pretty sure where she wants to go to college.

“I like the vibe,” is her explanation. And she’s keeping her grades up.

We’ve been going on walks all around UT when we can. We’ll walk from West Campus to the football stadium, from the “Hi, how are you?” sign to Hyde Park. We always stop for pizza. The Dollar Slice Club was our initial go-to spot for pizza near campus, but our favorite new spot is Roppolo’s.

Today we checked out the student union, and came across the perfect activity for her: Swiftie Night! I offered to drop her off, but she, being mature, insisted that it’s for actual UT students and not local middle schoolers. Fine, wait a few years then, you dedicated Swiftie. 😉

Molly the Swiftie

| patmcg

Molly may be the world’s biggest Taylor Swift fan.

This summer, she has tried to live-stream every single show from the Eras Tour, including shows on the West Coast that keep her up til 2am. And this from a girl who values her sleep!

To Molly, everything is a Taylor Swift reference. All too well? TS reference. Style? Cardigan? All TS references.

Molly and I bond over some of the TS catalog, including the 10-minute version of All Too Well, all of Folklore, and my personal favorite, Wildest Dreams. Molly’s favorites change weekly – she describes herself as being in a Red phase or a reputation phase, etc. One time we just sat and listened to Red and talked about the lyrics. 🤩

We got outraged when TS herself apparently said that Folklore is set in Colorado. Colorado? WTF?! It’s definitely Rhode Island.

Anyways, here is Molly about to settle in for TS’s last show of her current Eras Tour leg. She has a really well-honed system at this point, as you can see.