don't change your plans for me...

Quite possibly the most exciting and heartbreaking email announcement I've received:

BEN FOLDS FIVE TO REUNITE FOR A ONE TIME ONLY CONCERT! TO PLAY REINHOLD IN ITS ENTIRETY!

My logical side says that I can not afford a spontaneous trip to the cigarette state.

I know this.

My sentimental side is sulking.

The band and I go back to college. To the Gretchen/Aubrey road trip to Dallas. To post-college CD Warehouse days. We survived the parting of the band together, and celebrated Ben's solo endeavors. I love this band.

But, possibly more than the band, I love this album.

The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner was a friend through trying times. I was living alone in an apartment in Little Rock. Most of my friends were either still at college or had moved to bigger cities. I started graduate school only months after graduation, and attended at night while working a full-time day job and a part-time job in between. I was stressed and lonely and putting way too much pressure on myself. I can not tell you how loud, how long and how often this album was played while I studied for my comprehensive exams, promising myself I was almost done. Unfortunately, the power of the album was not enough to make me complete my thesis paper, but I am forever indebted to its support during the exam process.

Seriously people, who can resist singing along at the top of their lungs with:

while I was dreaming in streams

flowing between the shores

of joy and sadness

I’m drowning

save me

wake me up!

Or, the sha-la-la-la-la-las in Magic?!

Who hasn't cried while listening to Jane?

I could go on and on, but I've scattered the album enough across the length and breadth of this blog.