Last night, Matt and I went to the Hollywood Bowl to see David Byrne. This, for me, was akin to a visitation with the Pope (even though I was nowhere near close enough to kiss David Byrne's ring, or touch the hem of his pink suit).

I was first introduced to the Talking Heads my junior year of high school. It was the first year I really allowed myself to be a teenager--I was sick most of my freshman year, and held onto my sick girl identity most of my sophomore year, but junior year, I was ready to be part of the world. I was on the yearbook staff, and someone (maybe Liz Phair, who was the photography editor, and gave no indication that one day she would become an indy queen) put the Talking Heads on the turn table in our basement office. That music spoke to me in a way that no music ever had before. I had loved other music, had been moved by other music, but the Talking Heads reached a different, deeper part of me. They expressed things in a way that I wished I could, in a way I hoped I would one day be able to--their lyrics were so idiosyncratic, so philosophical and visceral at once. They reached into my chest, into my brain; they shook me to my foundation and made me profoundly happy. My friend Laura and I started to go to the Fine Arts Theatre in Chicago every Friday night at 10pm to see Stop Making Sense, the fabulous Talking Heads concert film; Laura even entered the "big suit" contest one week, jury-rigging hangers in the shoulders of her father's jacket to get them to jut out more. Those first strains of Psycho Killer always got my heart pumping. Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa...

David Byrne sang Psycho Killer last night. He sang a bunch of Talking Heads songs, which thrilled me to no end. Burning Down the House was accompanied by a marching band. And The Arcade Fire (one of the opening acts, along with the fabulous Si Se), joined him on stage for my favorite song in the world, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody). As soon as the song started playing, I burst into tears. I sobbed through the whole song, feeling the music fill my whole body, singing my heart out, watching the man in the pink suit wiggle around on stage like a flame, as we sang the truth of each word together: "Home is where I want to be, but I guess I'm already there."