Germans would see a concert in a church

Last night I went to see Iron and Wine at Frankfurt's Dreikönigskirche. Over 500 people packed the venue, impressive for a dreary Monday night. I get anxious by social events held on school nights. I find myself jealous of the carefree people who seem to be enjoying themselves and are not, like me, silently saying to themselves, "I have 10 hours until I have to wake up tomorrow, I have 9 and a half hours until I have to wake up tomorrow, if I don't sleep my immune system will weaken, I'll probably get a cold..."

The Dreikönigskirche, be the way, is a huge old church, and the 500 or so concert goers I mentioned were sitting quietly in the pews, nodding their head to the music, and only standing if they had to go to the bathroom. This is so German. Most of these young people probably never went to church for, well, church, and so the idea of seeing a rock concert, albeit a folk-art rock concert, in a worship space didn't inspire an ironic or even mischievous mood.

The concert was good, as the church did have wonderful acoustics and Iron and Wine performed with a full band, something I require when seeing a show. But after two hours of very mellow, very heavy ("...we always lean on the broken hand," wow. deep.) songs I was tired and thankful for the one song encore.

After the show, another Minnesotan gal and I had a great discussion lamenting the on stage antics of "rock stars" in our time. We both agreed that concerts would be better if someone passed out on stage from a slight OD, or if the bassist could smoke three cigarettes at once or something. This, "oh-gee, are you guys looking at me, I have dumpy clothes on" indie ethos jut doesn't do it for me. Give me some sex on stage, a little Prince or something.

Anyway, I am off to Rimbach tonight for dinner. Rimbach is an hour south of the 'Furt in the Odenwald, or as I call it, fairy-tale land... it should be fun.

Here are some picks of some food I've made recently. These are mostly for my sister's benefit. But I just want to say that Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian has really changed my life.