To my beloved Ryman, which hates me.

I love the Ryman: it has great acoustics, a nice atmosphere, and adorable pews to sit in. Whenever I attend a concert there, I feel like I'm experiencing either some sort of church service or a symphony. I've decided that this is the reason that I tend to always get annoyed. Is it so wrong to want respectful silence and appreciation of the aural beauty floating around the room?

I'll give you three examples from three different shows: Iron & Wine, Andrew Bird, and Regina Spektor.

1. Drunk Titans Fans/Tourists (Iron & Wine)
This lovely group decided to visit the Ryman without knowing who was playing. This was an exercise in personal independence: concert by myself, absorb the music, et cetera. Which was interrupted by my new, loud friends: middle-aged women and men who met at the Titans game and decided to see a show. They left after 5 songs...and after yelling back and forth at each other, tripping over an entire row, spilling a cup of beer, and getting the whole section to turn around and glare at them.

2. Turtle Man (Andrew Bird)
You may ask, Turtle Man? What does that even mean? I don't really know, but he reminded me of one, so I nick-named him that. Imagine a rather husky fellow who happens to be your next door pew-mate. He has turtle-like posture: hunched over, concentrating hard on the music. So hard, that he rocks back and forth the whole evening, shaking the pew.

3. Adolescent Boys Whose Voices Haven't Changed (Regina Spektor)
Apparently the local high schools gave out concert vouchers, because we were surrounded. The four girls in front of us got up every other song or so in a group to go buy t-shirts, take photos, go to the bathroom, etc. The boys behind us...sang half a beat off to every song, yelled like 12-year-old girls, and yelled I LOVE YOU REGINA! at every break. I thought one of them was going to start crying because she didn't play his favorite song. Literally. I would not have been surprised to hear sobbing. I would also like to give a shout out to our great white leader, Ms. white outfit/white hair, front-row conductor of each song.

All this to say, I have bad Ryman luck, and you should probably find someone else to go with if the mood ever strikes you.

seeking suggestions

If you were to make a "must-read" list (not necessarily favorites, but books that you always try to convince other people they need to read whether they want to or not), what would be on it? I need some suggestions.

For example, a few on my list:
Jane Eyre
Ender's Game
Anything by Roald Dahl (The BFG and his short stories)
Twilight
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy



totally just kidding about twilight.