Commit This to Memory

Motion City Soundtrack in Indianapolis. June 4, 2016

A few months ago, we took a road trip to Indianapolis to see our favorite band, Motion City Soundtrack, for the last time. Sunday was their last show, so we just wanted to say a few things about the band and what they've meant to us.

Back in March, the band announced that they were breaking up and going on one more Farewell Tour. This was not something we were not going to miss, hence the 9 hour road trip. MCS has really been the soundtrack of our lives, and our relationship, over more than a decade. If you know the band, then that statement may have given you pause, as they sing more about heartbreak and self-destruction than love, but let me explain. (In case you missed it, Theo has previously written in this space about the ongoing saga of asking MCS to play our wedding. It obviously didn't happen, but that's ok.)

Theo & Amber with Claudio & Justin. Silver Spring. Jan 2015.

Theo introduced me to Motion City in 2005, shortly after he came back from Japan. He'd seen "Everything is Alright" on constant rotation on Fuse in his apartment in Muncie and picked up the album. I was living in Peoria at the time, and MCS was making a tour stop just west of me at Western Illinois University as part of the MTV Campus Invasion Tour. So we drove all the way out to the sleepy town of Macomb, Illinois for  the first concert we ever attended together, and the rest was history.

In our 11 years of following this band, we've been to 8 shows all over, including Indianapolis, Chicago (on more than one occasion), Urbana, DC, and Silver Spring, as well as a meet-and-greet at a Best Buy in Aurora, Illinois. We've gotten older, and the crowds have gotten younger, but the music has never ceased to be relevant to our lives. (Because I seem to be caught in a bittersweet nostalgia mode for the past week or so, I've had the last track from their new album, "Days Will Run Away" stuck on repeat.)

I'll never forget driving around sleepy Macomb after the show desperately looking for something to eat, navigating hordes of screaming teenage girls wearing plastic derby hats just to get my t-shirt signed by the band in Indianapolis while on their tour with Panic at the Disco. We rocked out in the third row at the Canopy Club in Urbana, Illinois and were thrilled to get a chance to chat with most of the band after the show. We sat in traffic for so long on I-90 in Chicago that we missed part of the band's too short set at the Aragon Ballroom when they toured with Weezer. (We both have an irrational hatred for Jack's Mannequin who never should have played a longer set on that tour.)

Amber with Matt. Indianapolis. June 216.

In 2012, we had just moved to DC and were having an absolutely miserable time. Theo was slogging his way through a heavy class load and I was commuting to NYC twice a week on a Greyhound bus. We were broker than broke and living in a horrible bedbug-infested apartment. When my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said that I just wanted MCS tickets for their upcoming show at the 9:30 Club. Not only was the music amazing, it was so wonderful to experience something familiar in a new place. It felt like spending an evening with old friends.

Aside from traveling to their shows, the music has really been the soundtrack for our lives this past decade. Commit This to Memory helped me write seminar papers my first year in my doctoral program. Even if it Kills Me kept me going on the frequent drives from Urbana to DeKalb to visit Theo. While My Dinosaur Life lived in my CD player for about a year, it will always remind me of listening to it on repeat in 2010 while we drove from Detroit to Saginaw to bring my parents their new rescue bearded dragon. The day Go was released, Theo picked me up from my mind-numbing summer job at the mall and we listened to the album on the way home. And we played Panic Stations on repeat last fall along the entire western edge of Virginia when we returned to DC for Theo's dissertation defense and graduation.

 Last week's show in Indianapolis was perfect. Though it was crowded and hot in that too-small club, everything rocked and the whole crowd sang to the favorites. It was a perfect mix of a fewer new songs with the old standards to help us say goodbye. We also got to chat with most of the band afterwards to express a small amount of our gratitude for their music over the years. (Theo was much more eloquent with this in person than I was. I forgot the name of one of my favorite songs and inexplicably recited the list of cities where we'd seen MCS). Beyond the stellar music, the thing that kept us with MCS all these years was their generosity. Even though they were extraordinarily successful, they still took time to talk to fans after the show and interacted on social media. It's sad to think that we won't be driving somewhere for another MCS show some time next year, and I don't think we'll ever follow another band the way we have with this one. But thanks, MCS for everything. The future freaks us out too, but we're glad we got to spend these 10+ years with you.

Our Wedding Photos

Our photographer just released the video for all our wedding photos! I can't embed the video here for copyright reasons, but head on over to their site to check it out.

What have we been up to? Writing, dissertating (for Amber), thesis-ing (is that a word? for Theo), and generally loving our lizards and getting by in Central Illinois. It's been a little hectic, but we're happy we could share these photos with you.

Wedding Entertainment

Our wedding was a month ago now. Hard to believe, right? We're still waiting for proofs from our photographer, but we'll be sure to post those as well as a post-wedding blog post soon.

We're also still working our way through footage from another wedding we attended, Ami and Kunal's wedding in India, back where we got engaged. Indian weddings are known for their lavish celebrations, and Ami and Kunal's included 4 days of amazing events.

On our first night in Ahmedabad, we attended the sangeet, a night of music and dancing hosted by the bride's parents. We had a wonderful dinner, followed by music, choreographed dancing from Ami and Kunal's close family and friends, and ended the night with more freestyle dancing.

The performers were amazing. Here's a sample of the music from the evening.



The dancing was amazing as well. We'll post some footage from some of the choreographed dances later, but for now, feel free to laugh at my (Amber's) sad attempts at dancing:



Stay tuned for more footage!

Wedding Photos: A Preview

They're here! They're here!

Want a sneak peek of our wedding photos? Head on over to our photographer's blog. They really managed to capture our day so completely. We were so happy so many of you could share it with us.

All photos coming soon!

Wedding Countdown: Welcome Wedding Guests!

We're starting the countdown to the big day, and we're excited for you to join us for the big event in Fort Wayne. We hope this multi-purpose blog will give you all the information you need before the wedding. (Check the links over to the right too.)

First the important details: the ceremony will be at held at the First Presbyterian Church at 4:30pm. The reception will be held at the Freemason's Hall, starting at 5:30 with a cocktail hour, followed by dinner, music and dancing, featuring the band Years. The two locations are pretty close together, but here's a map.

We have rooms reserved at the Courtyard by Marriott and the Hilton Grand Wayne. (Be sure to book by Aug. 24). You can find the hotel info here. If you're planning to fly to the wedding, we also put together some airport advice. If you're spending the weekend with us in Fort Wayne, we've also included some information on area attractions. We're also registered at Traveler's Joy and Bed Bath and Beyond. You can find our registry information here.

If you haven't visited our blog before, you can find recaps of our travel adventures here, links to our India pictures, and video of Theo's proposal at the Taj Mahal. You can also check out our EPIC Save the Date Trailer.

We can't wait to see you in Fort Wayne!

Wedding Gift Registry

We're hoping you've caught on to the wedding theme by now. As international travelers, we've made this interest a large part of our big day. For our wedding, then, instead of asking for a lot of stuff, we're instead asking for a great experience and some wonderful memories on our honeymoon to New Zealand. You can find our honeymoon registry here: http://www.travelersjoy.com/tnagoglobal

If you'd like to help us cook some great international food in our kitchen, we're also registered at Bed Bath and Beyond. You can find the registry here.

MCI Cultural Journal #15: A Hairy Situation

I wrote earlier about my ambiguous ethnicity here in Ireland. Never am I picked as an Irishman, and rarely as an American. No one has even really identified me as a Midwesterner. As for anything beyond that, no. But the hair, the hair's the monkey wrench. It's not as if I haven't seen lads and lasses with dreadlocked tresses in Dublin, but it is an uncommon sight. And surprisingly to me, rarely has there been leers or sneers thrown my way by observers as I walk the streets. The only real moment of visual derision that I saw was from the landing crew at the airport. It was as much befuddlement as disdain. Ashley and I hatched a plan to cut my hair either shortly before Galway, or when we got back. It's a decision that I had been considering for a number of weeks, and not one I took lightly. But I had decided that I was going to cut my dreadlocks off after 7 years of sporting them. Not only was it for cosmetic reasons (the weight of the dreadlocks was starting to make me preternaturally bald, a prospect that makes me shudder), but the shits and giggles that would follow seeing my fiancé not recognize me at the airport, and the astonishment upon her mother's face just one week after was incentive enough to make the change. I'd also decided to change the color. Because if you're going to cut off 7 pounds of hair (yes, you read that right, seven pounds), you might as well go full-tilt boogie and change the hue as well.

I've never dyed my hair black before. I've had it dark on occasion, a terrible dark maroon job from junior year in college comes to mind, but I thought dying it black would be the most sufficient distinction I could make from the "old Theo." Remarkably, after getting it done, a number of people questioned, "did you dye it?," as if they weren't sure if my hair without dreadlocks was naturally this dark.

So, like any good academian, I did research as to where I could best acquire my follicular makeover. After seeing the prices at a salon close to my house off Griffith Ave., at €20 for the cut and €75 for the color, I just knew there had to be someplace cheaper. I mean, come on, I'm not a woman going to Paul Mitchell's. I took an afternoon down in the city centre to poke around and find a more affordable option, only to be disappointed by nothing quoted as under €100. They were all excellent salons, filled with lovely ladies and effeminate lads with cutting shears and garden weasels at hand to cut the "mess" upon my head.

After consulting with Brid, my host mum, she said I could find a much more agreeable price if I looked at the Polish salons. During the influx of Polish labor during the Celtic tiger, one of the professions that burgeoned with foreign labor from from Eastern Europe was hair salons. Willing to perform a dry cut for €5 put them on par with any Borics or supersalon found in middle America. One of the native Irish salons told me I'd have to do a skin test to make sure the hair dye wouldn't cause an allergic reaction. No such need at the lower tier salons. Hives? Rashes? No problem, as long as we give you the color you want. I eventually found my way to a small salon run by a Chinese immigrant who had been in Ireland for over 7 years. Interestingly, his shop lie in what appeared to be "foreigner hair salon row." I could have had my locks redone from the Cameroonians around the corner, shaved by the Russian girls with the €5 euro and barber pole motif. But I decided I should trust my hair to Shun, with his Vietnamese nail technician partner (yeah, apparently that's a global stereotype).

The only problem I had was when I originally told Shun I wanted to cut my hair off, he assumed he would be shaving my head. A slight negotiation in price resolved how much hair I would be allowed to keep. As he snipped off the first lock, I did panic a little. My heart sank as half a decade disappeared from my head. The cutting process took about 30 minutes, after which I astutely bagged up my hair (that's like 3 iguana pillows worth of hair -- long story, ask me later). Overall, the process was pretty painless. I did get a few head rushes when I stood up, but losing 7 pounds from your noggin will do that. After we were finished dying the hair Cool Black, (it's blue, like Dick Grayson! Nerd points if you get that.) My coif was styled into a righteous faux hawk.

Oddly, despite the compliments and the number of people in the shop who suggested the new look was quite "grand," I felt quite self-conscious about the massive change. It actually might take months to truly get used to the change. I did notice I received more smiles from the Irish female populace, and I by no means claim to be handsome. But even a bulldog looks cute with a bow.

As for the shock and awe upon those who didn't recognize me, check out the video below: