what may or may not be hard reality

So this Chely Wright thing has shaped itself into quite the perfect "hiatus obsession" (not to mention that she might just possibly be the perfect woman, but I'll get to that in just a bit). With Sanctuary on hiatus, and still 7 months to go until Amanda-con it's a good thing to have something else to focus on for a while (kinda like Mariska last spring while I was waiting for Defying Gravity). And musicians don't usually last that long as "main obsession", I need characters and plot and fanfic to maintain anything over a longer period of time. (And besides, I'm not a music person. If I had to choose between music, TV, and books - for the rest of my life - books would win, I wouldn't even have to think about it. No sounds or images created externally can ever be as powerful as the ones evoked in my head when I read something well-written. Which is why fanfic is so important to sustain an obsession over a longer period of time.)

However, back to Chely. I'm seriously considering the possibility that she's the perfect woman. She's got the basics; gay, pretty, makes good music. She's also intelligent, has a lot of opinions (big and small) that I approve of, and she can articulate them well, both in speech off the cuff, and in written text. Not to mention that she's both vocal and articulate about being gay, which I always appreciate. And when she might just seem to be taking herself a little too seriously, it turns out she has a pretty sweet sense of humor, both about herself and about stuff in general. She has cute dogs, an awesome dad, and most of the time I like her outfits, not to mention how very sexy she is in her librarian glasses. Her brown eyes are pretty, and I can forgive the blonde hair because I know she's naturally a brunette - and the blonde hair does suit her. And to top it off (and I just realized this last night, while stalking reading her twitter - in part prompting that rant I posted) she's also a - wait for it - a grammar nerd! If that's not the perfect woman, I don't know what is!

So yeah, this Chely thing is really working out well. I love her new album, and I've grown to love a lot of her older stuff (which wasn't really hard, I do like country), and her book is heartbreaking and beautiful and all those things, and she writes well (see 'articulation' above), and there are a ton of fantastic interviews floating around the net. She has a fantastic way of using her story as an example but yet make everyone included. She'll get these pointed questions, and she'll someone make it apparent that her story is not exclusive to her, that there are a *lot* of people going through what she's gone through, but she makes a point of saying that her story is special beacuse it's a story that isn't being told and she's damn well gonna use it to give a voice to all those who feel completely alone in the world and aren't allowed to tell their truths.

A few of my favourite songs under the cut (with the disclaimer that I'm still waiting for a few albums, so I haven't actually heard her entire repertoire)


Notes to the Coroner - the combination of morbidity and the boppy energetic tune is amazing. (audio only)


Something Positive and Hopeful - this is wonderfully hilarious. There are a bunch of different live clips, none of them with great sound quality, but I like the colors of this one. Sadly, they haven't included her telling the (true) story of how it came about, but she tells it in the song, so it's not really necessary... (THIS ONE has her telling the story, and the sound is just fine (but the colors are more gray).)


He's a Good Ole Boy - The video is everything. OMG. Hilarious and mock-worthy, but somewhere deep inside I really really love it... (and there's a BLUE PARROT!)


Heavenly Days - pretty pretty pretty pretty... easy and flowing and happy and all good things... (audio only)


It Was - someone on AE said this was the sountrack of their coming out, because it sounds *just* like someone figuring out just why it never worked with men, but now she's discovered women. And I listened to it, and it *totally does*. Not to mention she's stunningly beautiful in the video (except for that thing the 90s did where they painted lipstick half a cm outside the lips in an effort to make the lips look fuller, thinking we wouldn't notice... - the preview pic isn't exactly representative)


That Train - I love the forward motion in this song. Reminds me of that song by... someone (I have it with k.d. lang, but I don't think it's hers), Ridin' the Rails. (audio only)


Just Another Heartache - pretty generic, but it has something in the chorus that lifts it, and she's really adorable in the video (even if there's a dude in it... bah) jumping around and being generally cute (and the dark hair!).


And I really *really* love Hamburg, the iTunes bonus track. The sound is like something Melissa Etheridge would do, which is completely different than Chely's usual style, and I still don't know how I feel about the lyrics, but I *love* how it sounds. Haven't found it streamed online anywhere so I can link you...

(And I'm completely pissed off that the Amazon bonus track is only available to people in countries with Amazon... grrr...)

A video that has amused me lately is THIS ONE. Chely and Rodney Crowell and she makes a short announcement that she really is working with Rodney Crowell... then he takes over, and says that the record is good and all, but it's not the thing of real importance here, the thing that's her destiny, including stuff like "We don't want it to slip out there too soon" and "Gender has nothing to do with it"... the fact that it's about to become known that she's the world's greatest cyclist. Meanwhile she's giggling kinda like a child who's high on cotton candy. It's cute.








Yay glasses!!!


Pretty eyes...








Not an otherwise awesome picture, but ANGELINA! And CHELY! (Now I just need to photoshop out Billy Bob...)


Tentatively entitled "shirt/gay shirt"