Of all the things I never thought I’d be interesting in (vacations on the beach, camping in some nature preserve, going vegan, studying mathematical theory) well, Irish folky type bands top that list. I grew up in Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish, where every March the Catholic grammar school went Green (back when that meant something else entirely) and all the halls were plastered with posters of 4 men dressed as leprechauns and smiling gleefully over their respective instruments. This was my introduction to Irish bands.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my Sinéad O’Connor album was never off the turn table for long during my college years (You heard me, I said TURN TABLE. It’s where we used to put a VINYL RECORD, which spun around and played minuets and ragtime and cave music). But my interest never meandered farther than that, not even to Bono or the Cranberries. So to see me staring at the Amazon page watching “Falling Slowly” over and over again on Sunday morning was a little surreal.

After seeing Once on Saturday night (by accident) I found myself thoroughly captivated and obsessed with Glen Hansard, this movie, the music and the story. Funny to call a movie “Once” when it’s so destined to become a movie that people watch over and over again. I’ll spare you my movie review or plot outline, but I will tell you that it’s firmly in my top 10 of all time.

So, in short: The Frames … my New Favorite Thing. I seriously was thinking to myself tonight (as I gazed all moon-y faced at the YouTube video of Falling Slowly and When Your Mind’s Made Up) “Wow … who’da thunk it? I got me a school-girl-crush on a band again.” You some how hit this age and think you’re out of the music scene … not having felt this excitement since you raced out to buy Madonna’s True Blue album. And you suddenly feel 17 again … Nice.

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