05.31.2007

ahhhhh!!! the worrying begins. i took all my stuff to the printer and now i have to wait til monday to find out how the proof looks. i'm so worried it won't print well. because i mean a lot of printers are different. the ones down the street from me can do a good job but a lot of time their toner is funky or whatever. and the place i got my old portfolio printed at did a really good job on like 90% of the prints so i was happy but i dunno! i mean you just never know. so i will see on monday and if they look good then i'll move on with the project and if not then i'll take my paper elsewhere. probably back to my old printer except that they are really far, more expensive, and not open during optimal hours for me. so really it's a HUGE hassle for me. gah!! and if i go with them, then i also have to find a way to perfect bind it myself. gah!! i really hope this man works out. i'm crossing my fingers and toes.

my god i'm fuckin tired as hell. i got 3 hrs of sleep last night and i feel like i did back when i would have big projects in school and stay up nearly all night. sigh....

but we'll get back to that. first up, memorial day weekend. alex and i drove up to pebbly beach friday night after work. surprisingly it only took 7 hrs considering 1) we left LA at 5pm 2) on a friday 3) on a holiday weekend and 4) pebble beach is not a straight shot. it's like the 5 north to some freeway that goes toward the ocean and as you get over that way its all curvey, dark, and hard to see. so we made decent time, all things considering. we stayed at the hotel that his parents were staying at which was this swank place right on the beach where the famous golf courses are. NICE ass hotel room i have to say. his parents were there because his mom's company was on a retreat to hand out awards to people and she was getting one. so we met up with them for the weekend.

saturday we drove down to carmel for some lunch and walked around. sadly it was ALL overcast so we get the awesome views but i could tell it would be beautiful all over that place on a nice, sunny day. then we went to the monterey bay aquarium which i had never been to before. i thought it was great. pricey, but quality stuff there. the jellyfish always amaze me. so pretty and so weird. but the weirdest fish of all was the sunfish. OH. MY. GOD. it was the ugliest thing i've ever seen i think. see below in the photos (middle right). it was like this HUGE head with fins swimming around super slowly. i mean it looked like something you'd see in 20,000 leagues under the sea or whatever. something just totally fucking BUTT ASS UGLY and scary under the ocean. man.....we must have looked at that thing for like 20 min amazed at how ugly it was. hahaha

while alex's parents were at the special awards dinner thing, he and i got room service in the room and watched reno 911: miami which was dumber than i expected. but still some good laughs. it was a very leisurely day, and weekend in general.

on sunday we drove down to big sur along PCH. it was very beautiful i have to say. it took ages to get back to LA going that way but it was fun. i mean the slowness of the drive was part of it all.

monday we went to brian's for a BBQ and beer pong. my first 3 day weekend of the year where i didn't have to take a day off! so nice....i also got a little H&M shopping in with my 25% off card. always good. and now the week seems so much shorter as it's already thursday! thank god.

i went to see arcade fire last night which is part of the reason why i'm so fucking tired. the show was at the greek theatre and michael's friend hooked that shit up. close seats and VIP parking. sweet deal. as usual, i looked around for famous people since they always sit close up. didn't see as many as at the radiohead show. but i saw the cast of it's always sunny in philadelphia minus danny devito and also saw drew barrymoore and spike jonze! i fuckin love spike jonze and he's usually very incognito so i was quite excited to see him. i don't get that excited about famous people anymore but he was a good sighting. there was also this other guy there who i now is like d-list famous but i can't recall his name. he was a child/teen actor and now he's like not really in anything. anyway, the show was brilliant. i find that with arcade fire i must be pretty close to enjoy them. i think i am spoiled being that the first time i saw them was at the troub and it's so small there that nothing can compare. like i didn't thoroughly enjoy them at coachella the way i would have wanted to. it was a good show but i wasn't close enough to really get into it the way i did when i saw them back in 2005 at coachella. so it's all about proximity for me and since i was close last night, it was awesome! some of them went on the price is right and had their stickers on and it made me really wanna go on that damn show. or like get in the audience at least. but i looked it up and bob barker is leaving this month so there's just no time. oh well. c'est la vie. i wouldn't go otherwise cuz it wouldn't be the same.

after the show we went to fred's for some late night grub/dinner. then i got home at like 12:30 and had to paginate my portfolio and make a dummy book since i am finally going to the printer tonight. needless to say i was up til 4am doing that shit and had to wake up early (7am) to go to the paper store and get paper for the books. i always spend WAY WAY WAY too long choosing paper. 80lb text? 100lb text? matte or gloss? 90lb cover? 100lb cover? etc etc. it's like neverending. but i got my paper and i'm good to go. hoping that i can get this process over with maybe by the end of next week. we shall see! i can't wait to see the finished product and show people. i really hope they turn out well. i got quite excited just looking at my 2" dummy book. haha

05.22.2007

ok so this is going to sound SUPER nerdy but i just got off the phone with a man who works at this printshop in LA. i found them online and decided they would be my last effort for LA printing of my portfolio before sucking it up and going with this NY guy i found. so anyway, the guy, vernon, called me back and we had a lovely chat. you know when you speak to someone and they are just pleasant, well this guy was like that. in the end we ran through my specs and my price point and i think it's going to be doable!! i am so excited. if i can print in LA it will be soooo much better. so i'm crossing my fingers!

meanwhile i took some test pages to get printed at my local shop today. just to see if the tricky pages will print alright off of a PDF file. so we'll see tonight. also very excited. i ordered all my extra supplies such as shrink wrap, transfer paper, etc so that it should all arrive soon and then i can get going on this mofo. goddamn i'm excited. i can finally see the light at the end of this fucking tunnel! and it looks like blue skies to me! :)

05.21.2007

another one bites the dust!

5 people in 2.5 months. who will be next?!

05.20.2007

ah it's been awhile since i posted. OOPS! been really busy. nearly done with my portfolio. doing the last bit tonight. i vowed to finish this weekend and goddamnit, i'm going to. my plan is to do some test prints tomorrow of pages i think might not print as well to ensure they will. i am also going to call one other print shop in LA to see if they can do my job. if not i'm going to send it to the place in NY that i found. i'll have to call again to get more specs. but motherfuck, i want this shit done. once it's off to the printers i have to compile my PDF of work to put online. i also have to compile my web work and put it on cd-rs and print on them. i'm going to include a cd in the back of the magazine. i ordered cardboard sleeves and shrinkwrap bags. this shit is hopefully going to look pro. i also have to design a little insert card which i will perforate (OH SHIT! must buy perforating blade!) so you can punch out my "business card." then i have to redesign my resume a bit as well. but goddamnit, it's all nearly done. i mean once it's at the printers, all the rest can get done in a matter of days while i wait. then i have to post a few new projects on my website. i can do that from work i suppose....

anyway, so that's been my life recently. just finishing up this bullshit. i took a mini break a second ago and was trying to file away my images and whatnot into the appropriate folders. in the process i realized that i had totally forgotten that i used to save significant AIM chats with people. ie. dan, brian, tyler, etc. anyway i didn't want to drag up all the old drama so i didn't bother reading any of those but i did realize i saved one chat with preston. preston from the ordinary boys....he's now quite famous in the UK and married to chantelle houghton who was on the UK big brother. they met on that show and got married last year. crazy fucking shit. i used to chat with preston back when he was not famous at all. and i reread the chat and sure enough he was like "we're signed for 2 EPs but no full length yet. but we'll be big soon enough. we're really good." and lo and fucking behold, i own 2 of their cds and they are quite popular in the UK. crazy huh? i remember chatting with him before i returned to brighton back in 2003 and he said he was going to be in amsterdam while i was there so we couldn't hang out. but he gave me his mobile # and i should have called him. because we ended up going to amsterdam after all and i totally saw him at a musuem while i was on shrooms and wandering the streets while i was high. at the time i wasn't sure it was him because i had never met him in person and i was off my rocker, but hells bells we confirmed it after the fact. it was him and he was with him gf who i think was the girl he left to marry that chantelle chick. oh memories....my little diversion on my computer took me back to all of that just now.

but i digress....i forgot to post about lompoc and what a FUN time we all had there. it was me, alex, dan, jessica, brian, tinna, her sister donna, christine, james, and amanda (of course). we went up to amanda's house and stayed there all weekend. we went wine tasting at 4 places and got wasted as shit from like 11am to 6pm or some such. i recall taking a nap after dinner and waking up with a massive headache. and that was all before 9pm! we still hadn't even gone to the bar yet! it was great great times and as always, it's nice to get out of LA if even for a couple days. i rekindled my love for the hoola hoop as she happened to have quite a few in the house. my shennanigans were caught on the camera and yes, i still have *it.*

while on the wine trip, jessica, brian, alex and i spoke about going on another one of our famous (or not) double dates at doughboys followed by watching high fidelity at brian's and breaking out some of that wine we purchased. we were going to do that this past friday but i decided that i wanted to see paris, je t'aime more than that on account that it's a small film that will likely be in theaters for a very short period of time. and well, high fidelity isn't going anywhere! but we compromised the date by bringing a bottle of wine to doughboys! so it worked out splendidly. i like when we go on these little double dates. it's quite fun! the movie was decent. it's about finding/losing/exploring love in 18 of the 20 arrondisemonts en paris. it's made of 18 five-minute (ish) vignettes from some famous and some not-so-famous directors. some of the vignettes were really good and some were throwaways. that's to be expected. so i thought the movie was decent overall. if i had to give it a letter grade, i'd go with a solid B. meaning if you are interested, check it out. but don't kill yourself if you miss it.

finally, i am having a dress made for myself. this is the first dress i've ever had made. scratch that. this is the first article of clothing i've ever had made for myself. other than when my grandma would make me halloween costumes. i feel like that doesn't count because i was a child, the costumes were unsolicited, and i didn't pay for them. anyway, i was obsessed with this dress:

so much so that i really just wanted to buy the damned thing. but at the time it wasn't even available to purchase because i saw it on the designer's website before the summer line had launched. anyway, i found it online eventually and it retails for like $220. umm...no way. so i looked on craigslist and lo and behold, there are freelance seamstresses out there ready to make you clothes. so i contacted some of them and settled on this girl named jenevieve. she's going to make that dress for me for $75. i want it to look exactly like that except longer. like so that when i bend over my ass doesn't show....haha i went out and looked for fabric which was a pain in the ass. trying to find a modal or stretch jersey knit was really hard actually. and i couldn't find it in that canary yellow. so i'm going with a sort of plum/burgundy color. i think it will look nice. i had been toying with the idea of making it a darker color anyway to allow for it to be worn in the summer and winter and i guess by circumstance that's what i'm going to get! i ordered some lace for the trim online so once that comes i'm all set to give to her to make. she said it will take about a week or so. i need it before the end of next month because i want to wear it to my boss' wedding. but it should be no problem i think. i'm quite excited! my first handmade dress! i hope it turns out well and looks as good on me as it does on that model. we shall see!

ok back to work.

05.09.2007

today is the one year anniversary of my first official date with alex! one whole year. unbelievable. my longest relationship ever. it doesn't feel like it's been a year. time just flies on by. alex is awesome. so sweet and caring. so goofy. i didn't think he was like that at all when i met him. he seemed boring and stiff. but then again, it was an old folks party. so whatever. we aren't doing anything crazy to celebrate. with my birthday, coachella, lompoc, and pebble beach/monterey (i think that's where we are going for memorial day...) consuming recent and future weeks, there's no time (and money) to go big. which is totally fine. we are going to this sushi place tonight that is new and was started by the owners of katsuya which is one of my fave sushi places ever. so i hope this new place is good! then we are going to use the fondue set he got me for v-day and have some chocolate fondue when we get home. so yep. that's it. one year and still going strong. wee! :)

05.04.2007

HOLY SHIT. i just witnessed the most monumental thing ever at my company. owner bossman came in and said "thanks everyone." WOW.

another one bites the dust....

3 people have already quit in the past month and another one just put their two weeks in. there are a lot of reasons why people are jumping ship. but let me just say that my office is officially fucked.

05.03.2007

at last. a moment to compose my behemoth post-coachella round-up.

COACHELLA FLAG!!! waving proudly in all it's glory the first night of the weeekend. i am so proud of this little flag. all the blood, sweat, and tears (figuratively) that went into it. from conception (in 2006) to design, follow-thru, and production. it was a labor of love and to see it flying high at our 6 plot-of-land-campsite was just awesome. we had a record number of attendees in our group this year, 26 and counting. but yet i didn't feel the solidarity like years past. this was due to several things including stacey leaving her hardcore status at the door and checking out after being there for only ONE DAY!!! oh stacey stace. you let me down. we were gonna be festival buddies and watch the kooks together. i shed a tear inside when i heard the heartbreaking news. and then zach (who flew back from hawaii early to attend coachella) also checked out after one day as well. sigh....where's the love people? where's the love? and here i thought showering was a big cop out. not even. but damn, the showers were good. how i ever did coachella without them, i don't know.

anyway, i think we all still managed to have a great time no matter how many days we were there. i know i did. the music was great yet again and the overlaps weren't that severe this time. i only missed a few bands that i wanted to see and most of the overlaps were with bands i had seen before. so without further adieu, the round-up.


:: FRIDAY ::

noisettes
a good way to start off the LONG weekend of music. i have been wanting to the noisettes for awhile now. ever since i heard their EP. i think that overall they are a good band. rock out live and the music is good. some of the songs are so so, but overall, a thumbs up. if they came around and played a small venue, i'd go see them again.

tokyo police club
tokyo police club are an odd band. their songs are like 2 min quick bursts of musical energy. they just get going and build up only to stop very abruptly. it's definitely a "style." i like it, but i sort of wish they'd keep going. especially when playing live since you can dance and rock out with them. but when the song just suddenly ends, so does your dancing.

of montreal
the band i had to see to make up for when i missed out of their troub performance since i had a MASSIVE earache. i don't love of monteal by any means. i think some songs are really catchy and others are terribly annoying. but they seemed to put on a good show (i saw like 2 songs at the troub) so i wanted to check it out. i have to say, the glitterati doesn't work quite as well in 100 degree heat with the sun blazing above. it's much more impactful when you are in a small setting. needless to say, halfway through the set i was sitting down to save my energy.

amy winehouse
i was obsessed with her album for awhile. i just love her voice. i don't care if there are many others out there like her. i love it. and she put on a good show. very sexy. even if her face is a bit torn up. she sang "valerie" which i was hoping she would sing. i played that song over and over for like a week straight. holy hell it's awesome. and live it was equally as good. she had these men singing and dancing on stage who were also awesome.

digitalism
aje2*qk!&!393kd0w93kls@*##*!
sorry, that was my brain malfunctioning just thinking about how fucking grand their set was. yes yes, i did miss some of it due to seeing amy winehouse (a decision i do not regret at all), but the second half was amazing. and apparently better than the first according to the people i heard chattering in the crowd. jesus, that was what i needed for my dance fix on friday. soooo fucking good.

jesus and mary chain
i wanted to see what all the hub bub was about for this band. i never really got into them back in the day but i do like a few of their hits. so i decided to give it a try. i watched them perform the first two songs and i thought it was a snoozefest so i walked away. everyone else i know said they rocked out and put on a great show. but i didn't agree. i am biased though so don't take my word for it. i just know i didn't enjoy the stuff i heard.

jarvis cocker
ok so this was my downtime. could have been at felix da housecat and benny benassi but instead i opted to leave them be and go find some food and watch jarvis from afar so that i could find everyone in the crowd and rush over to the main stage to see interpol/stake out a spot for bjork. goddamn jarvis went on 30 min late though which means i could have seen benny. oh well. i am no jarvis fan so this was a wash for me. i found dan halfway through and just talked to him during the rest of jarvis's set.

interpol
well, i'll give these guys one thing, consistency. i've now seen them 3 times and every time, it's just a bit boring. their music isn't very condusive to a rockin show and they surely don't try to hide that.

bjork
WOW. best show of friday. i'm not even a big bjork fan. i think about 40% of her songs are good i'd say. but man can she put on a good show. she's just a spunky little gal bursting with energy. and the horn section on stage to accompany the songs was damn good. "army of me" was just amazing live. and her encore was a new track off the new album which she blew out of the water with energy. seriously, for someone who's music i don't love, she really got me. and that's saying a lot.


:: SATURDAY ::

fields
a nice, light way to ease into saturday. i saw them at reading last year and didn't know who they were really. i like their music. it's a little rocking and a little folksy. i have their EP and that's probably all i'll ever buy, but they are decent.

hot chip
ok, so i have to give this band props. i actually really dislike their albums a lot aside from two songs ("boy from school" and "over and over") and two remixes of their songs ("colours" and "just like we breakdown" both remixed by DFA). i tried to get into their stuff but i just couldn't. i don't like the guy's way of singing. it's that talking/singing shit which usually doesn't go over well with me (though i like destroyer, so go figure). but i like the music and i saw the potential for a very fun, danceable show. and hell yes that's what i got. it was PEAK heat on saturday while i was in the middle of the hot chip tent and i was sweating buckets by the end. a really fun show from some really nerdy brits. good times...

travis
oh travis...you are getting old. your music is sounding more and more like stuff my mom would listen to. yet i still love you. franny, you are losing your looks. you used to be so cute. what happened? rockin out caught up with you i guess. i thought you set was decent but not stellar. no complaints, but i just wish it had more oomph.

peter, bjorn, & john
PB&J (i love referring to them as such) were on at the same time as travis and mstrkrft for the first of two 3-way splits. so after seeing all of travis i headed over to mstrkrft by way of PB&J and luckily caught my two favorite songs of theirs -- "young folks" and "object of my affection." i was standing sort of far away but both sounded good. though people tell me the set overall was lacking. especially in the beginning when they appeared to be shy. oh well. i saw them at the roxy a few months ago, and that show was awesome.

mstrkrft
saturday was the day FOR DANCING. mstrkrft delivered in top form. again, i saw only half the set due to conflicts, but what i saw (much like digitalism from the day before) was fucking awesome!!! they played some of their own songs as well as remixed others. the highlight being the final song which was their new, world premiered remix of justice's "D.A.N.C.E" MOTHERFUCK that shit was good. i wish i could find it online. i NEED it.

!!!
they played coachella 2 yrs ago and i was NOT into their set at all. but then their new album came out and it was decidedly much dancier than any of their previous stuff. so i wanted to check them out again. sadly they played right before arcade fire and i had to make sure i got a good spot, so i only saw like 2 of !!!'s songs. but what i saw looked like a dancin good time. if they come around at a reasonably priced venue, i will go.

arcade fire
OK. i love the arcade fire. do not get me wrong here. i love them a lot. a LOT. but i am going to say, this was not the best thing i have seen from them. and it was not the best show of saturday for me. top 5 yes, but not the best. and i'm sure it was the best for some people. but hear me out. i've seen them 3 times before this. once at the troubadour, once at coachella '05 where i was right at the front of the stage, and once at the hollywood bowl. now this performance was better than the bowl, but not as good as the other two. or rather, my experience seeing them was not as good as the first two times i saw them. and this is mostly due to proximity. seeing an explosive band at a small venue or right up close, is leaps and bounds better than standing in a sea of people where you can still see the band just fine, but you aren't right up in the action. so yes, their show as good, but it could have been better. i will be seeing them at the greek at the end of the month and if michael's friend comes through, i'll be in the first 5 rows somewhere which will make the show AH-MAZING i presume. so i'm hanging tight for more. their new material sounded awesome, but it doesn't seem to lend itself to the crazy debauchery that the older stuff does. and i loved seeing them beat the shit out of thing song after song. sigh.

blonde redhead
i wanted to see more of this show but i was stuck in the middle of the second 3-way conflict of the weekend. that and escaping the 40,000+ deep sea of arcade fire fans took a good 10 minutes which cut into my blonde redhead time. so i only caught 2 songs, both of which sounded awesome. i wanted to stay for more but i had to hop over to a few minutes of girl talk and then see half of justice's set. sigh....

girl talk
i was trying to sum up my brief experience in the girl talk tent to joe with an analogy which i think is pretty spot on. if you have consumer dance music and professional dance music, the girl talk tent would be consumer and justice would be pro. basically i got to the tent and there was a huge crowd dancing it up on stage. it looked like a college party sort of. lots of fun being had, but not a ton of substance. i mean girl talk is basically one big mashup dj. but in a different way than 2 many djs who i think fall more into the pro category. the crowd in the girl talk tent was also very "consumer" which isn't a bad thing, but it is what it is. i had a good time for the few mashups i heard. but then i went on my way...

justice
as i said earlier, saturday was THE DAY FOR DANCING. and goddamn i did a lot of it. justice did not slow me down. i just wish i had more energy. i started to get sluggish a bit by the time i tripped on over there. but hell, they dropped some awesome tracks and i can't WAIT for their full length to leak. motherfuck i can't wait.

lcd soundsystem
the best show of saturday with mstrkrft and justice trailing right behind (probably partially cuz i didn't see their entire sets). james murphy just BELTED it out the whole set. "yeah yeah yeah" blew me away. and i mean, it was me, alex, and joe in the middle front area just dying from heat and physical discomfort but still mustering upt the energy to dance through the set. my lower back was killing me, my feet were like lead, and i was dirty as shit, but godDAMN i couldn't stop there. not with the amazing music playing right before me. cowbell up the ass!

the good, the bad, and the queen
UGH. the worst show of the weekend. hands fucking down. i was looking fwd to them because i do actually like the album despite not being the world's biggest blur fan. yet they came on 30 min late (WHAT was with that outdoor stage having bands after 6pm go on LATE??!?), lacked any sort of energy whatsoever, and just played their songs as if they were machines. i mean seriously, what the fuck? damon's voice sounded good but that was about it. i stayed for 4 songs before just giving up.


:: SUNDAY ::

mika
mika may be way over the top, but 1) he's a damn good performer 2) he's a damn good singer and 3) i'll go so far as to say he's like a really young elton john. i know that's saying a LOT being that elton is fucking amazing and ranks up there with the best of the best, but i see a lot of elton in mika. with the flamboyant displays, the poppy music, and the energy. hell, if he just got his act together with the songwriting, he could be WELL on his way....or not. i mean i think he has the potential is what i'm saying. anyway, his set was damn good and a proper way to start the 3rd and final day of coachella where by that time, we were all aching just a bit and losing energy at an exponential rate. at least his poppy songs were a good pickmeup.

mando diao
mando diao are a band i never really got into yet did thoroughly enjoy when their album came out years back. they were like the libertines but with a breath of fresh air, ie. no drug addiction dead weight to drag them down. but then they sort of fell of my radar. so i finally got to see them and they were good. i was sorry i didn't know more of their songs by heart or their new stuff, but they put on a good show.

the kooks
ah, the brits from brighton. where was stacey for this? sleeping i bet....sigh. we both missed the kooks at reading fest and vowed to see them in the US. well *i* but she pooped out. they were good. i don't love their album but i think hearing the songs live made them sound better.

soulwax (nite versions)
i've actually seen soulwax do a similar set before at the vanguard a few months back. the problem then was that it was turned up well past 11 and my ears were practically bleeding while my heart was thumping. needless to say, i didn't have the world's best time. but this, THIS was damn good. midday, not too crowded. if only my body was in better shape, i could have rocked the fuck out to this. i will say that they did have a few too many piercingly loud sounds scattered through the set that i could have done without and they didn't play "compute." but other than that, some good shit.

css
alright, i was really losing steam at this point and had to sit down for their entire set. but what i saw and heard was damn good. if they come around again, i will go see them. because they had great energy and really got the crowd going. unfortunately for me, i was saving the last few bits of energy for the klaxons.

klaxons
BEST show of sunday. hands down. soooooooo fucking good. i'm glad i saved my energy for them because i needed it to keep up with the rockin pace with which they pushed their music on me. my god it was an awesome (and intense) show. they really brought their album to life and if they come around again any time soon, i'm sure to be there. they rocked the shit out of me. and midway through their set they played "it's not over yet" (listen below), which resonated with me on two levels. 1) it's just a damn good song to dance to and 2) i thought to myself "hell not it's not over yet. this weekend is still going strong goddamnit. despite the people we've lost along the way and my tired tired bones aching all over. this shit isn't over yet. hell no!"







klaxons - "it's not over yet"

placebo
i was going to do a 50/50 split with the klaxons and placebo because even though i saw placebo at reading fest, their set was marred with brian's guitar breaking midway. so i wanted to see at least some of their set to see if they could rock out a bit more under better circumstances. but then the klaxons were just beating the musical shit out of me, so i had to stay for their entire set. but once it was over i literally across the polo field dodging people, carts and overcoming a massive side cramp (hell, coachella really does you in after 3 long days...) just in time to get to the outdoor stage and see the last song of placebo's set -- the cover of kate bush's "running up that hill" which was damn good. it's one of my favorite songs of theirs. so i was glad i got to see it. my friends who saw them said their set was good but not amazingly rockin so i'm sure it was better than what i saw at reading but not crazy good enough for me to miss any of the klaxons. so i was happy with my decision.

air
air is always the same. sort of like interpol. very consistent and not very lively. though for some reason i enjoy watching air's "boring" set more than interpol. i think the difference is that interpol is on the edge of rock whereas air is just beautiful, sexy, makeout music. the kind of show you might go to with your significant other and just cuddle up the entire time. not that alex and i were doing that at all. i can't be having sweaty, dirty bodies touching mine like that. no no. haha but air was just beautiful to watch. i've seen them before and it wasn't much different.

ratatat
i was a bit disappointed. though i didn't have high expectations because they are an instrumental rock band. but byron saw them last month and said they were good and rocked out fairly well. i just didn't see it. maybe i was too tired. i don't know. their music sounded great but they lacked any sort of crazy stage presence to make up for the fact that they really are just 3 new york boys playing instruments on a stage.


***bands i missed:

tilly and the wall
i've seen them before but i wanting to see the tap dancing again if i could. but they were up against of montreal.

the rapture
i will see them when they open for daft punk so i'm not terribly disappointed but hell, i missed them to see the good, the bad, and the queen. THAT idea pains me.

cornelius
i don't know their stuff that well but alex and my boss both said they put on a good show. so i wanted to check it out. alas, the were up against the good, the bad, and the queen as well. sigh.


ok that's it. my coachella round-up. i'll end this post with a nice long compilation of photos. not everyone has sent theirs around so if there are any really amazing gems, i'll post them when i get them. but for now, this is good enough.

1-2 our campsite was 6 lots deep. we had a slew of tents including dwayne's massive 10 person tent that i think could have fit a little city inside....
3-4 the campsite always has it's share of antics including rick braiding amanda's hair (umm, CUTE) and alex drinking HOT coffee on an equally hot day.
5-6 at the first band of the first day, we already had people laying down and falling asleep.
7-8 amanda loved hamming it up for the camera. she's just so damned cute. :)
9-10 i love how in the first photo alex has no idea he's being photographed while jen and amanda look cute.
11-12 the obligatory over the head shot along with the "i'm too cool for YOU with my shades" shot.
13-14 FOOOOOD...and shade.
15-16 jen's brother is hilarious. he's like a male version of jen and loves making silly faces at the camera, just like jen.
17-18 alex in pain, dan hiding his pain.
19-20 the amazing light thingymabob that i stared at for at least 15 minutes. it's light patterns were just so damned cool. and finally, the jens' feet. sooo dirty and definitely the best indication of what 3 days at coachella can do to a person.

05.02.2007

ok, i was going to blog about coachella today but then i lost track of time making a fake myspace page at work. don't ask. it was a tag team effort as a favor. and hell, that goddamned myspace code is a fucking nightmare. anyway....the coachella blogging will have to wait til tomorrow because right now i have to talk about a beautiful theatrical moment.

if there was a way i could write out a theatrical silent pause, i would. but i can't. so just take it for what it's worth. this was a glorious moment. i'm 26 and this movie came out when i was 6 years old. my dad brought it home one day on VHS and i watched it REGLIGIOUSLY. like i seriously must have seen that movie at least 100 times. i don't even know. i would watch it every weekend, start to finish. then rewind (yes, remember waiting minutes for a tape rewind?) and start again. i knew all the scenes. all the key lines. and i tried to learn the dance moves. i was OBSESSED to say the least. and i wanted to marry patrick swayze. i think he was my first celebrity crush. i was in love with him and the way he could dance. nevermind me being a child who didn't understand what abortion was or that jennifer grey had sex with my leading man. i just loved the movie for the dancing. pure and simple. but for as many times as i had seen it, never had it seen it big and bold on the silver screen. not til tonight.

thank the lord that my old coworker cindy loved that movie as much as me, because she was the one who tipped me off to the two-day engagement. i swear we were as giddy as teenage schoolgirls in the theatre knowing all the bits about the movie and yet still getting excited when they do the big dance or practice lifts in the water. this movie never gets old me. NEVER. i know it sounds ridiculous but it's true. everytime i watch it, it never disappoints. and seeing it larger than life was amazing. i had never noticed many of the facial nuances til now. like the scene where baby is changing in the back seat of the car after the big dance. johnny is driving and he takes a quick look in the rear view mirror to see her change. i never noticed that. or when she goes to his bungalow and they are about to have sex for the first time. before they start the heated moment, johnny says "well we're here..." and there are SOOOO many scenes that end in awkward silence coupled with equally awkward glances and whatnot. it's not as easy to see those subtlties when you are watching it on a 20in screen. and you certainly don't get any of that when you are 7 yrs old and have no conception of attraction or sex or any of that. i remember not understanding what was wrong with penny because i didn't know that she was pregnant and had an abortion. i just thought she was sick. like the way i got sick when i had a fever.

sigh. so so good. and what's even better is that cindy would watch the movie over and over and practice the dance moves too. and when i told her i was a child who dislocated my shoulder trying to dance to footloose, she confused to dislocating her knee when trying to ice skate in the house. i never did that but i did try to ice skate. triple lutz, double toe loop, yes sir. right in my living room. man, where was cindy when i was growing up? haha

anyway, i shant ramble on anymore. i know people are rolling their eyes left and right if they even made it this far down the post. if you did, good job. i commend you.

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