Now That's Love!
I'm a big believer in the theory that its the little things that really count in life and in love. Of course big, grand, sweeping gestures of romance and passion count too, but its the little things that sustain you from day to day, and as such I'm a sucker for them. Be it a greeting card (I love getting cards from Elena, don't ask me why), an e-mail or a phone call to brighten your day, just telling someone you love them and miss them, or, in this instance, have your picture taken holding the guitar of your boyfriend's favorite musician of all time.
A little back story here. Search back through my archives to the March/April 2003 and you'll get the sense that I'm a huge Pearl Jam fan, if you haven't gotten that gist already. I have all their CD's, a ton of their live official bootlegs, two concert DVD's (one done in Madison Square Garden in NYC, the first of two nights they did there, I saw the second night, which was not as good as the first. Seth saw both, the lucky bastard), and I've seen them four times in concert (tied for the most shows I've seen with Dave Matthews Band, soon to be Incubus too after I see them in June), including twice last year.
Their music speaks to me, which if it didn't I don't think I'd be such a huge fan. Hell, I even took the title of this blog from a lyric to my favorite song of all time, "Rearviewmirror" off their second album, Vs. It's a great song and it holds a lot of meaning to me concerning my ex girlfriend. Its all about getting perspective on something really bad thats going on in your life once you finally get away from it. Once you remove yourself from the bad situation, suddenly what was so bad seems miniscule. Hence the lyric, "Saw things so much clearer once you were in my rearviewmirror."
For me, that was getting away from my ex. I was afraid to be alone and single so I let the relationship live way way way way past its expiration date. It finally took her saying that she wanted to leave for me to confront my feelings and see that it was for the best. And once she was gone, I realized just how good it was without her. So I love that song and I love Pearl Jam.
So back to the story. I saw Pearl Jam twice in concert last year. Once at the end of April out on Long Island, right across the street from the building that I work in now ironically enough, and then again in July at MSG, in NYC. I took Elena to see them in April. I asked her to go with me at the end of our first date and she said yes and she really enjoyed the show considering she didn't really know too much of their stuff aside from whats played on the radio. So she knew how huge a fan I was.
Her mom and aunt just visited her in London two weeks ago and they went to the Hard Rock Cafe in London, which incidentally, if I remember correctly was the first Hard Rock Cafe, so as a result they have something called "The Vault" that you can tour. Basically its a memorabilia vault. So they took the tour and Elena saw and held and had her mom take some pictures of one of Eddie Vedder's acousting guitars. Jealousy does not even begin to describe how I feel, considering we went there the first time I visited her in London and knew nothing about the tour.
Elena said there were some lyrics taped to the guitar, written on a napkin if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, her mom's digital camera sucks, so none of the pictures came out great, especially the one of her holding the guitar, which is a shame. I'd post it here, but I don't think she'd appreciate it too much, considering its not the best photo. But she also took some pictures of the lyrics, and although they're a little blurry, I made them out from the bottom right sentence. No, its not "Rearviewmirror," but its probably the second best song off that album, "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town."
So here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Rock on!