"this explains....so much..." - william miller
i love that quote from almost famous and yet every time i quote it with intonation and all, no one ever gets it. so sad....
so i learned that my boss is quitting. it's a long, sad story of why he's leaving our company but he is and even though i barely knew him, i will miss him. he seemed very nice and the reasons he has to leave are just shitty....but this explains why he's been sort of out of it i suppose.
i also just caught up with joe and man, it has been ages since i've seen that boy. he looks fresh and alive. his hair is short and he's just vibrant. i think it's because as he said, he's finally going to live a good life. he's been cutting corners and skimping on shit for years to save for his movie and now that it's finally done, he can live a proper life. i'm happy for him. i also need to see his movie again because he said it's changed a lot since i saw it. but yea. we had a great dinner. caught up on everything. good times. i hope he hangs around more now that all that shit is out of the way because he was an essential part of our group and he's been MIA for like a year now basically. so sad. so anyway, that's that. time to work!
i fucking hate the 101. at least in the LA county area. in SF it's fine but down here, mother of god the people that drive on that thing are fucking asshole retards. i can't stress this enough. i swear to fucking god i feel like people are going to hit me left and right. i mean i hate the 405 with a passion because it's ALWAYS congested. but the fucking 101 is just insane. it's not trafficky for me going to or from work because i am going against traffic, but the people that *are* driving at that time are fucking crazy. i hate them all. they are armpit of LA. ugh. i just had to rant.
i just booked a flight on virgin america!! wee!! i'll be going to NYC in feb. man. it'll be COLD as shit i bet. how fun. i can't wait to see kyla and jason in NYC. what a totally different environment it will be. and i'll have to bundle up and all that jazz.
one day this beautiful chair will be mine. it's called the ball chair and the original one was designed by eero aarnio in 1966. since then there have been countless knock-offs, some better than others. a true eero aarnio ball chair is fully fiberglass on the outside and on the pedestal at the bottom and runs around $5500. the fiberglass comes in white, red, or this dark granite color. and then the inside can be a variety of colors. the knock-offs sometimes have stainless steel pedestals but the good knock-offs generally look just about the same with the fiberglass all over the outside. they run around $1500 starting. because......some of the newer knock-offs have added things. so like an original ball chair is 47" tall, 41" wide, and 39" deep. but the knock-offs that have aimed to make the chair even better have made it taller and wider by about 7" and you can even have speakers built into the walls so that when you are sitting in your "room within a room" (original tagline) you can have music coming in as well. and you can also get a nice ottoman to match. a chair with speakers and ottoman would run you around $2000. so while this chair isn't cheap, it's not outrageous. an original is, but a knock-off isn't. i will own one of these one day when i live in my modern 70's futuristic style home. or just when i live in a home i can be more proud of it's looks. i have wanted this chair for years and if i got it, it would be MY chair. like seriously, i wouldn't let tons of people sit in it. it costs too much for people to be fucking it up and it'd be my little sanctuary of sorts. oh man i want one so badly. haha
anyway....this is what you get when you are cooped up inside the house most of the day taking care of alex and his ailing mouth. he's doing well overall but i still have to take care of him and make him his mushed food and whatnot. haha but today he's better so i'm going to do my errands. get my hair cut. get my supplies for my illustration class. go to the gym. and do some more work. on my way i go...
random ramblings at midnight....
ok so i realized that my car is falling into the problem that always occurs when you have an ailment. you feel sick because x,y,z and then when you go to the doctor the problem is gone....temporarily. so then you can't show the doc what's wrong. but then the next day it comes back. it's so likely huh? well my car is doing that. for a few months now it's been making this strange noise on and off whenever i brake. but it doesn't do it all the time and when i took my car in to get the rack and pinnion fixed (FUCK YOU AA PARKING LOT FOR RUINING MY GODDAMN CAR!!!), the damn noise didn't occur so they didn't know what to look for. my best guess is the rear brakes or something loose but i seriously have NO idea. there is a mechanic a few blocks from my work and i thought about bringing it there before work and having them fix it while i'm at work but every morning it doesn't make the noise. but then when i come home it does. so today i thought i'd just take it after work so they could hear the noise and then bring it back tomorrow morning for them to work on. well, when i left work it didn't make the noise. i even drove around in circles (literally around the same few blocks over and over) trying to see if the noise would come. nada. but then when i gave up, got on the freeway and went home, it made the noise after i exited the freeway. i thought that maybe it had to do with high speeds but i have no clue. cuz i take the freeway in the morning and i don't hear the noise. it's really fucking frustrating because i don't know how i'll ever be able to let a mechanic hear the problem. i think i'm going to have to wake up early on a weekend, drive on the freeway, and then just hope it starts to make noise and take it in. i mean what the fuck else can i do? so annoying....
anyway....it's mid-year and i'm in LOVE with the band white rabbits. like totally in love. their debut album is definitely making my metaphorical top albums list of the year. that and justice, amy winehouse, peter bjorn & john (yes technically 06 but released in the U.S. in 07 i think), klaxons, maccabees, and a few others. white rabbits are from NY and they are like the walkmen on a good day. the lead singer of white rabbits sounds like the lead singer of the walkmen but i think white rabbits have a better sound. it's sort of upbeat and energetic and their piano just gets me every time. (i'm a sucker for pianos in songs) they are really fucking awesome and worth checking out. i think my fave song of theirs (but they are all good) is "navy wives." goddamn i've been hitting repeat on that shit.
so tomorrow alex gets his wisdom teeth pulled. 2 cut out and 2 yanked out. it's never fun to get that shit done and i believe the older you are and the longer you wait, the worse it is. so let's hope for the best for him. for me it was a piece of cake. i was groggy for the rest of the day but then i was pretty good. i mean i had 4 gaping holes in the back of my mouth and had to eat mushy foods but my face wasn't that swollen and i was up and about in like a day. but i feel like my mouth does well with this shit. so i think i'm on the one end of the spectrum. melissa had the opposite experience. she was out for days and she had a rough time. she was on the other end. so hopefully alex comes somewhere in the middle. consequently i'll be playing the motherly role this weekend. something i am not that good at as i have said before how my maternal instincts are basically non-existent. but i'll try my best.
ok i don't think i'm ever going to sunset junction again. it's just too much effort and it's not THAT fun really. we had such a fucking hard time finding parking and it was so crowded and full of hipsters. i saw a ton of familiar faces from usc, AA, etc. and the worst was seeing john from usc. yes, THE john who has my guitar still. the one who thinks/thought he can get whatever he wants and attempts to do so by smooth talking his way in/out of anything. that plus his good looks are what got me senior year and consequently entangled me into this weird pseudo/void-filling relationship with him. ie, not dating but just keeping each other company for the sake of doing so. yea it was a fucked up weird time and i'd just rather forget it. yet somehow that fuck seems to pop up randomly here and there. i shouldn't be surprised since he's pretty hipster and shit and hell, he rolled on through AA one day about a year ago and nearly made me shit myself out of shock. i saw him from afar at the junction and i know he saw me but he was too busy verbally fighting with some chick. that made me happy because she looked like she had the upper hand in the battle and that's the sort of swift kick in the ass he needs to realize he can't just get whatever the fuck he wants.
anyhoo.....no more sunset junction for jen. too much hassle. though blonde redhead was pretty decent and i had fun interacting with some of alex's friends along with rick as well. and we got gelato at the end of the night. so i mean it wasn't a bad experience at all, but i think it's just not worth the hassle.
today i hung out with dave which is always fun. got to see his new house which is pretty awesome and got to try cupcakes at a new spot. though this place wasn't as good as the others due to lack of selection. but the ones they had left were mighty good and packaged very nicely. so it's hard to say how i feel overall.
alex and i rearranged some shit in my room to allow for better airflow since it's so blazingly hot recently. so that was both good yet a pain in the ass since i hate moving shit. now i need an air purifier to help reduce the crazy dust problem i have in this fucking place.
on a totally unrelated note, i've decided i wholeheartedly want to start a magazine. a nice arts/culture mag with good printing processes and unique style. i am fully aware that magazines are money holes so i have to come up with an idea that can incorporate other revenue streams. such as sponsoring festivals or arts/design competitions or something. i dunno. maybe this could be an avenue for me to do some good and give back to this world through an arts program or something. i dunno. these are clearly life-changing ideas but they occurred to me and i want to explore these options in the futures. all ideas for the shelf.
i just saw superbad and hell it was hilarious. i just fucking love that michael cera kid. i know he's like 18 yrs old and looks like he's 14 but shit, i love him. i totally have this absurd crush on him the way stacey does. like we know he's young and looks young and we are way older than him, but the kid is just so hilarious. i mean arrested development was pure genius and clark and michael had be laughing out loud at work for 10 wks straight. but i was saying this to alex (who probably doesn't appreciate me professing a crush on an 18 yr old actor kid....haha) and saying how i bet girls his age don't understand how awesome he is and he's probably that awkward "nice guy" which is so sad. he'll come into his own one of these days. maybe when he starts to grow some chest and/or facial hair. he looks way way way too young. but anyway, that movie was hilarious. i highly recommend it.
on another note, i read this really fascinating article about road signs in america and how they are changing the font on them to increase legibility at night. it's a very nerdy font-astic article but it relates to everyone who drives so it's well worth the read and looking at the visuals to compare the new font and the old. it's from the NYT magazine and i figure it might get taken down, so i converted it into a PDF. here is the PDF for you to download if you wish.
off to sunset junction!
ok. let's focus on the good before moving on to the bad. so today i took the photos for my business card. we were supposed to shoot it last week but i got really busy. anyway, so we shot the photos and they turned out hilariously awesome. there were over 150 shots and i am going to present the best of the best to you because it's just silly to show you all 150. i am also refraining from showing you the one i have selected to base my business card off of.
i sort of wanted to go with the bottom left one. the paris hilton parody. but it's very busy in frame and considering a guy has to illustrate this in black, white and shades of grey, it might get a bit difficult. and just very muddled for the card. but i found that image totally awesome and hilarious. i also really liked my afro but it's not my real hair and at the end of the day, i don't want people thinking the card is someone else. the bear hat/aberdeen one was too cutsey and the camera one is too boring. once the card is all done, i will post it online next to the image that i used to base it off of. it's not really like the rest of these images. it's simpler, but i like it. i'll take it slightly into the world of absurdity by having the illustrator add background and such. i can't wait!!!
on another good note, i signed up for a basic illustration class at otis. i'm really excited. it meets every sunday from 1-4pm. i think i can handle that. low stress but good for me. i totally need to get better at illustrating. i can't illustrate for shit. i'd like to take a few illustration classes if possible. but one at a time. that and flash classes.
ok, now onto the bad.
first up. i HATE customer service/tech support that is in a foreign country. people just don't know what the fuck they are talking about. they don't speak good enough english and it's hard to get the help you need. i struggled for an entire hour at work with my web domain crap and basically i had to pay $20 extra to ensure that my domain doesn't die and get snatched. so annoying. anyway......
i learned some heinously ridiculous shit that just makes me even more bitter and angry than i once was. the anger and bitterness used to be coupled with good times, laughs, and slight acceptance of the entire situation. but now i realize that shit was not quite what it seemed and really it was kind of like an abusive relationship. at first things start off well. you're "in love" and all that bullshit. but then it wears off and the battle scars start showing. the hitting, the kicking, the screaming. the denial of it all. not until you get out do you realize just how bad it was. today i realized that. and i'm really saddened and pissed off by it all. i won't really ever look at it the same way again. and that's really quite sad to me.
the weekend is drawing to a close. but all is not lost. i had a fantastic past few days and i'm trying to kick my ass into finishing up some things on my "TO DO:" list. like getting my haircut (probably tomorrow night), returning a skirt to urban outfitters (probably tomorrow or tuesday), registering for an illustration class (within the week), and buying an air purifier (DIE DUST DIE!!!). and then of course there is the matter of all my freelance work. i need to just get some of it done and start turning people away when they have work. some of it's too hard to resist because it's easy money. like this cd package i'm doing that i'm not actually designing and therefore can't use for my portfolio. basically i'm just laying it out but they are paying me a grand to do it. hell, an easy grand. i can't resist. that's half a computer!
and on the top of the computers.....
so i realized something that is very disheartening. the new iMac only comes in glossy screen. no matte screen!!!! UGH!!!! i can't work with this. i can't use a glossy screen. motherfuckers. i don't NEED a macpro. and now i feel like i'm being forced to get one. but there is SOME hope perhaps. two monitors. instead of getting the big 24" iMac i could opt for the 20" which has the same guts, just smaller display, and then get another 20" or 22" dell monitor to plug in next to it. that one would be matte of course. and then i'd have both matte and glossy which could be cool i guess because matte is pretty, it's just terribly inaccurate for photo editing and calibrating to printers. so the gloss screen would thusly be more for my internet, email, and docking my palettes. anyway, it's food for thought. i have to go check out the new iMacs still and see what i think. but this could be a viable option.
in other spending news, virgin atlantic just opened up virgin america last week. they currently only fly to 5 cities: LA, SF, vegas, NYC, wash DC. but the planes are all schmancy with leather seats, adjustable headrests, personal entertainment system that you can choose what you want on-demand with play/pause functions, power jacks for your ipod, laptop, cell phone, etc so that you don't run out of power, an ethernet cable jack for INTERNET!!!, and all the other good stuff. flights are pretty cheap right now. i'm sure they are going to raise their prices soon but they since it's brand new, i think they want to build more client base and then raise the prices. consequently, i want to fly to NYC with them because it will be flying in style. virgin atlantic is my favorite airline ever and i'd love to fly to NYC with them. roundtrips to NYC are going for like $300 with taxes which is pretty decent. so i need kyla to tell me when she's most available so i can buy a ticket.
and on that traveling note, alex and i are looking into a trip this winter again. this time some place warm. we're looking at south america. maybe chile or peru or something. have to flesh out the idea more. but as i'm thinking about it, it makes me realize just HOW much i need to be freelance in the grand scheme of things. two weeks of vacation is simply NOT enough for me. i want to go to places that require 3 or 4 weeks. like africa, india, etc. i mean this is just not going to cut it. so alex needs to get writing for a show so he'll have chunks of time off, and i need to start my own business. these are the long term goals goddamnit.
finally, friday was such fun. bowling with my current coworkers and then drinking with my former ones. bowling was hilarious. it was a really good way to ease me into the social life with these people. not that they are big partiers because most of them are married with kids. but the younger ones aren't! and it was quite fun just boozing (on the company dime no less) and bowling. i hope to get better photos from the other guy who took photos as mine are ok but not stellar. i think his will be better. he is our in-house photog after all. haha after bowling i headed off to silverlake to meet up with the AA crew. good times as usual. we had some dinner at good on sunset and then went to the cha cha lounge for drinks. laurel and i had a good rant with lisa over her salary at AA and how pissed off we were about our lack of money situation while we were there and how pissed off we are now for lisa's situation. it's just some BULLshit if you ask me. i learned more things about raises and such that made me even pissier. but i try to let it all roll off my back because i don't work there anymore and i am getting paid a decent amount more at my new job. so that's good. but STILL!!!! ugh...
i took 2 sets of photobooth photos and i shall end this entry with them:
i know this is going to sound ridiculous coming from me, miss internet guru and all. but i finally went paperless with all my statements. paycheck, credit cards, cell phone, etc. all paperless now. i know i know. why didn't i do this ages ago? because my mom is old school and i learned from her. she keeps all those papers and whatnot. she even balances her checkbook. as do i. but now i am going to just keep things in PDF form. much easier to work with.
on another note. tomorrow i am taking the photos for my business cards. i am SOOOO excited. i can't wait to get my business cards. they are going to look awesome. and then i shall give them out to every human being i know. WOO!
so the new imacs were announced today and i have to admit, i'm in love. just look at how fucking slick they look. and don't EVEN get me started on the motherfucking keyboard. that shit could make me....well, it gets me really excited. hahaha it's totally playing to my design senses in the highest way. good fucking GOD.
i was always the believer of "fuck the imac. i want the tower. i want the configurability." but you know what? this imac is cheaper than a tower AND it's already like over twice as fast as my current computer which i love dearly but it's slowly dying i fear. so i mean, why the hell do i really need some crazy ass 8 core intel processor when i don't do a lick of video work. i mean my biggest files are big ass print files and even those are like at most a few hundred MB. the biggest lag time i experience is opening one of those large files and/or lots of big photo files. so i think the imac would be able to deal with that. i mean i'll bump up the RAM a lot and then it will be good to go. and you can even (i think, i'll have to confirm) attach a second monitor to the imac. so hell, i could attach my existing old ass, small ass monitor to the side of it for palettes and such. it would make my home work experience that much more grand. AND i wouldn't have to deal wit a clunky loud tower anymore. i mean i can totally see why having a tower is better. totally. don't think i have lost my love for the tower. because i haven't. they are magnificent machines that have loads of power. but for the work i do, i simply don't need that power. i really don't. so why spend assloads of money on it? there is no need.
anyway, i am going to check out the imac and that amazing work of art keyboard sometime soon at the apple store. just to ensure that i really do love it in person. and then i'm making a plan. the new OS comes out in october if all goes as planned. so that gives me a couple months to save some more cash before i throw down. and then maybe around xmas i'll ask my parents to help me out in buying the upgrade to the new CS3 adobe suite. it's like $500 for the upgrade with all my discounts and that's still an assload of cash. but i don't NEED CS3 right now. it's just preferable. and yes, i know i could get it for free from someone, somewhere. but i am trying to go legit from now on. this is my profession and hell, i can write this shit off anyway. come to think of it, i should get CS3 in january to kick off a new tax year. haha yes yes.
weekend of clutter is coming to an end. i'm going to the final dinner with alex's parents tonight. little door. awesome place to take a date. i took alex there for his bday last year. anyway, the weekend was good. hectic, but good. alex's parents got us a room at shutters, the hotel they were staying at this weekend. so we lounged in santa monica for 2 days. though of course we also went back to our respective homes during the day for random things. so it was a quasi-vacation. i got sunburned yesterday while biking around the beach on a little 3-wheeler low-seater thingymabob. i felt like a kid! haha and now i have burn marks because i thought like a kid. i'll just be outside for like an hour. and i'll be moving around. i shouldn't get burnt. ummm, yea jen.....DUMBASS.
alex's improv sketch was last night. it was alright. some people were good and some weren't but it was about what i expected for a level one performance. so it goes. so it goes. then i had din din with jason who was in town. good to see him before he jets off to NYC for grad school. WHY are my people moving to new york? damn you! i wanted to move there back when kyla first went and i said i would move once my lease was up. but then i met alex and that all sort of fell by the wayside. c'est la vie!
also, pat polk is in town and he's staying at our house. so i've seen him a bit here and there. saturday night alex and i met up with him, his friend, and rick at the cozy inn for some shuffleboard and darts.
ok time to go. dinner awaits!
gah gah gah. so many people in town. alex's parents, jason, and pat polk. i can't handle it all! AND i have freelance work to do. bleh. too much. i need to get some more work done now but i know i won't. ugh. i need to be freed from distractions for a few hours. maybe later on.....
alex's parents got us a room at the hotel they are staying at. shutters in santa monica. i've been by there a million times and i always thought it was an apartment building. it's got nice older fixtures and is very quaint. i love it. the room isn't big but it's really nice. and it's literally on the beach. you walk outside the hotel and there is the beach. it's freakin great! his parents are so awesome.
yesterday at work i got hijacked into a lunch with the pres, vp, and the design supervisor. it was sort of like "hey jen, wanna go to lunch with steven?" ie, "hey jen, you're coming to lunch with steven, scott, and i. but i will ask it like a question as not to make it seem like a command." haha i mean it was totally fine and all, it just caught me off guard. i think it's great how approachable and personable the pres and vp are. i can't totally relate to them since they seem to be in their mid to late 30s and have kids and mortgages and all that, but they are nice nonetheless. so it was good. though i have to say, riding in the backseat of a 2-door mercedes convertible made me slightly nauseous. luckily not enough for anything to happen. how embarrassing would THAT be?!?!?
holy mother of god. WHERE did the time go? i went to dinner with alex's parents who are in town til tuesday and then i got home and tooled around myspace and for some reason thought it would be fun to half ass fill out my facebook profile and now look at this shit, it's 1am. mother fuck. well anyway, i shall TRY and be concise with my recap of the glorious weekend in the PNW. ie, pacific northwest.
i figured i'd start off with the highlight photo of the weekend. i title it the simple life. it's fucking hilarious how ridiculous i look. i mean seriously folks. me in shorts and sunglasses that make me look so very LA, standing in dirt with my 2 fingers inside this baby cow's mouth. ummmmm.....yeaaaaaaaahhh....
ok so the weekend started with tinna heading up to seattle from SF and rick and i heading up from LA. we all converged at the seattle airport where neil was so kind as to pick us up. we headed to a bar to meet up with rick's brother, tino's, for some drinks. very chill way to start the weekend. we then went back to tino's house without neil and crashed there.
the next morning (saturday), we all (including neil) went out for some breakfast. then we all (minus tino) headed out to granger for the day/night. neil drove us and it took about 3 hrs to get there. on the way we stopped in the town of roslyn. it's where they filmed northern exposure. it's sooo small and quaint. we walked around for a few and then rode some swings.
then got back on the rode to granger. once we arrived we went straight to rick's house. first thing i thought was, "this isn't THAT farm-like....it's way less farm-like than i expected." his house is cute and small. the rooms are all oddly placed which gives it charm. his parents are as nice as ever. we hung around for a bit before rick gave tinna and i the grand tour of granger....
first on the tour was actually the town over called sunnyside. that's where they have burger ranch. the fast food spot where you can also buy new balance shoes. yes, you can buy shoes at the same place you get your burger and fries for lunch. crazy huh?
then we headed into the "downtown" granger area. rick lives in the outskirts where it's more farms and such. but "downtown" is all homes and the few stores and school and such. neil lives down there. so we went and got him at his place. we passed by their old school and the city hall/police station that looks like a log cabin. then we headed over to the barber shop/liquor store. what's with all this bundling of establishments? you can get a handle of vodka while you get your hair trimmed. crazy huh?
then we headed to the park which is next to the waste plant or whatever that's called. basically the park smells like shit as a result. all the while as we walked around places, everyone kept saying, " you guys aren't from around here huh?" btwn tinna being fully asian and me being half as well as wearing very LA sunglasses and shorts, we sort of stuck out like sore thumbs. hahaha after the park we headed over to see the cows!! now mind you, i've seen cows before. but i've never been to a dairy where they milk the cows and such. and rick's friends pat and greg (step-brothers) own a dairy. well, their dad does. so we met up with greg and his wife betty (don't be fooled into thinking they are older, they are younger than us and married!) as well as neil's younger brother, darren, who i haven't spoken too regularly in YEARS. greg's dad gave us the grand tour. we got to see the machines milking the cows. where they keep the various larger cows as well as the small newborns and whatnot. and that's when greg got us all to put our fingers in the cow's mouth to simulate sucking on a bottle. man it was weird. hence the hilarious photo. if only my first reaction was captured on film. that was golden. rick also got to drive one of the huge tractors that they had there.
after the tour of granger was over, we headed back to rick's house to have a mini bbq. we ate some kick ass corn we bought earlier in the day and then chucked the stalks into the field in the backyard. fun stuff. then we lounged around til it was time to hit the bars. i swung on rick's homemade swing which was awesome.
for the bar that night we went to this sports bar in yakima which is the nearest biggest town about 30 min from granger. it just so happened that nearly all of rick's close friends were back home that weekend. so we had a nice big group out. i got sufficiently trashed after greg suggested we do a round of shots. GRRRR....i think that did me in. though not right away. the whole time i was at the place i was laughing and dancing and getting it on with my friends. it was good times. and even in the parking lot we were trying to achieve a good "jumping" photo for the record books. it's something tinna has started doing when she goes places. but once we got in the car to go home, that's when i started to get sick and it was just bad. we had to pull over twice so i could puke in a bag or outside. bad bad bad. and then when i got home i had to puke some more. i haven't puked that much in ages. and certainly had a massive hangover to show for it.
in the morning i nursed my dreadful hangover with care and ate some food and drank a lot of water. i was worried i wouldn't be able to eat at thai tom's later!! we lounged around rick's house til about 2pm when neil came to get us and we headed back to seattle. we got there and hung out at neil's place til it was time to meet everyone at thai tom's. and as luck would have it, it was packed. i KNEW that would happen cuz thai tom's seats less than 20 people and we had 7 ourselves. so we decided we couldn't wait and we just got the food to go. we ate it in the parking lot outside the venue for the DAFT PUNK show!!! yes we looked ghetto but who cared, the food was totally worth it. even if it was super spicey. tinna and i got level 2 spice. far too much for us....
so then we were ready for the big event. DAFT PUNK!!! i forgot to mention that all this time while in washington i was in contact with dominic. remember good ole dom from brighton? the tattooed kid with all the crazy piercings. well he lives in seattle now. he has for a couple year. he works for sbux doing engineering stuff for new stores. anyway, so i texted him to see if he was going to the show since i didn't have the forethought to ask him ahead of time. sure enough, he was going to the show so we were going to try and meet up. we got to the venue which was brand spanking new and we met up with sai. the tickets said 8pm and we got there at like 7:55 and the rapture were already playing. i am not quite sure what happened there since sebastian and kavinsky were supposed to spin first. maybe the ticket time was wrong?? who knows. but the rapture were on and they were pretty good. i could tell if the stage setup were more optimal (ie, they were playing at the edge of the stage in front of a curtain hiding the pyramid), i would have enjoyed in many times over. but whatever. at this point my main concern was to get a tad closer to the stage (we were already quite close but too near the speakers and it was hurting our ears) and make sure our whole group was together. because at this point i hadn't found dom yet and sai was off with her other friend.
so i was texting back and forth and finally i see a waving cell phone in the air to the left of me. it was dom! so i go over and give him a big hug. it's been like 4 yrs since i saw him. i think the last time was when he and a bunch of people stayed at my house near usc for a few days. he looked the same but i noticed all his piercings were gone. so i asked him if he still had the one inside his nose where he sticks stuff through it, and he does. but it's smaller. he can't fit sharpies anymore. hahahaha anyway, so we watched the rest of the rapture and then we found sai. so the group was solidified. but then it was weird. the lights came on and the curtain was down and music that sounded like it would be spinning from sebastian and kavinsky came on. BUT we didnt see them. wtf? we never figured that out. when did they play? were they behind the curtain? why were the lights on? etc. etc. we never figured it out. so bizarre. but it gave me a chance to sort of catch up with dom. overall he's the same dom, but he seems more mature. which is awesome. and his musical taste has expanded, thankfully. but at the core, it's just dom. haha
ok so after a bit of delay, daft punk took the stage. you knew it because the lights dimmed and the close encounters dings began to ring around us. i could feel the excitement rushing through me......and then i saw the pyramid!! my first actual thought was, "is it smaller? lower? why does it look different?" i was confused. and then i realized that at coachella i think it was all raised up. but anyway, the rock began and i was going at it. dancing up a STORM. soooo fun. then the lights started going and it was madness. and as at coachella, everyone lost their shit to "one more time." i danced so hard i sweat thru my newly washed jeans. goddamn the man. i think they played for over and hour and then left the stage waving their little robot hands and making the now infamous pyramid sign with their hands. then they returned for their encore which blew me away. "one more time" reprise but this time complete with glowing strips of red lights on their outfits and such. AWESOMENESS.
so now here's the thing. the show wasn't as good as coachella. but not because it wasn't as good, but because MY reaction to it wasn't as pure and innocent and genuine. i knew a lot of the songs they were going to play and what order they would play them in. so there wasn't much of a surprise. the lights were similar as well. but the encore was totally brand new and that is probably why i LOVED it. i pretty much felt exactly how james felt about it, except no complaints with the sound or crowd. especially the sound. it was spot on. i left the show completely satisfied but i knew that it would never be the same seeing the duo. it just can't be. but i'm ok with that. i still had an awesome awesome time.
after the show we all headed over to this local bar and got some pitchers of beer and just sat and chatted. again, i got to chat more with dom and definitely determined that he's more mature. we also determined that it's really hard to talk to tyson because he only talks about tattoos for the most part and there is more to life than that. even dom who has tons of tattoos agrees. also, his two friends were there from the show. and the one guy totally stayed at my house the last time dom was in LA. so funny how i remember that sort of shit. when i saw him i thought, "that guy's name is brian and he stayed at my house. WHY do i remember this useless crap?" we closed out the bar and when we left, tinna said we should do the jumping thing again. so we did. and dom did a handstand against the wall. it took a few tries but we got it.
dom said that he was coming down to LA at the end of august for work for 2 nights so were gonna hang. but now that whole scheme is off. so hopefully it won't be 4 more years before i see the kid. hell, by then we might be married with kids. haha no way, but in theory it's possible.
anyway, so that was the trip. it was glorious and felt a lot longer than it actually was, which is brilliant! i love seattle so much and i just love getting out of the city for even a few days.
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