Constrained Bliss Point

Last week I purchased Tegan & Sara’s new album Sainthood, which has quickly become my second favorite musical purchase this year. For those of you just tuning in, Tegan & Sara are Canadian identical twin lesbian singer-songwriters, which is even more awesome than it sounds. They are streaming their new album on Myspace, so if you’re into that sort of thing you can navigate over there and listen to their glorious tunes as you read the rest of my post. I implore you: such a decision is full of epic win.

Even though they are like seven years older than I am, I feel like I’ve been watching (listening) to them grow up. I was introduced to Tegan & Sara through Grey’s Anatomy, back when it was good. I think I bought their album So Jealous first, which was new at the time, and which, while I still like it a lot, was and stayed my least favorite of their albums. So Jealous was their third-or-so album at the time, not including a beautiful little gem called Under Feet Like Ours which they released on cassette when they were just starting out, and which you could order from a website that charged you in Canadian dollars.

Under Feet Like Ours was insanely worth the purchase. It is incredibly genuine, without the studio finish that comes with big budgets and famousness, and all the better for it. You can hear how T&S developed and matured through their albums. Every album is different, every one is good, and they all lead to where they are right now. Which, right now, just happens to be Sainthood, but it used to be The Con, and before that So Jealous (and then If It Was You and then This Business of Art).

And some day in the future they will grace us with something we will have been waiting for the whole time.

Last weekend was the glorious NYC edition of ROFLThing, packed from end to end with epic win. In no particular order, there was Tron Guy, Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere, the eminent Jason Scott,  and the guy who invented Comic Sans. The legendary Tim Hwang worked the scene like a puppet master of the calibur of the John Cusack character from Being John Malkovich. Anonymous was there, and proceeded to heckle the first few speakers — until they were stilled by the threat of forcible expulsion. All the while volunteers were on stand-by to counter possible stage rushing or similar tomfoolery. Imagine “The Battle of Evermore” meets the Internet memescape for a better idea of how things went down.

When our cadre of volunteers was preparing the venue for the awesomeness that would follow, I heard the most curious music come over the sound system. Pre-ROFLThing was graced with the melodies of Tegan and Sara in the song “I Was Married”  — in my opinion, the finest defense of same-sex marriage I have ever known, and a catchy tune to boot. But that wasn’t all! Indeed, the entirety of The Con would play before the ROFLFestivities began. It was a fitting start to a fabulous day.

Last, to anyone unfamiliar with Tegan and Sara, stop what you’re doing right now and go purchase at least one of their albums. You shall not regret it.