Yes, there are two days until the big two-oh, the lamest birthday one could ever imagine. I’ll be working at school on the Ledger on my birthday. In a weird way, it will be nice, because I remember having my birthday at paste-up for Outlook junior and senior year, and my birthday last year was a little bit…hmm…I’d rather not talk about it.
But I just figured out what I’ll do next year to celebrate. Since I can’t go get wasted with my over-21 friends, I’ll go to a 21 and over club and see a band. It won’t even matter who’s playing, it will just be the fact that it’s not an all-ages venue that will make it cool.
*Crosses fingers for WAS to come back*
Doubt it.
But my birthday is on a sunday next year, so it kind of sucks. I wished my birthday was on friday this year and a saturday next year, because most likely saturdays will have better events. It’s too bad that Sasquatch is always on the celebrates memorial day weekend, or really, that memorial day weekend isn’t celebrated on the ACTUAL memorial day (my birthday). That way, next year, I could drink at Sasquatch, on the campground.
Because I’m camping next year. I’m saving as much money as I possibly can to have a good amount to camp next year. Hopefully Sasquatch 2010 has artists as good as this year’s. Maybe WAS will come back after their 2006 appearance.
Again, doubt it.
Maybe if we rally enough to the Sasquatch people or Keith and Chris themselves, it will happen!
Year-long project instigated!
Oh Keith, how I love your telecaster.
Hey! Bon Iver had the same one this year! Hooray for Telecasters (they’re way better than Strats). But Caleb Followill’s Gibson ES-325 comes to a close second.
COME BACK KEITH! COME BACK CHRIS! TAKE YOUR FIRST TRIP MAX AND ADAM!
I wanna see some pics from Bishop Allen on monday with Tapper on drums. Time to go find those.
I’ll start off by explaining what the fuck that means.
During the Decemberists’ set last night at 7, about halfway through, everyone in the crowd looked to the left, at something. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the fuck people were staring at and cheering at, and suddenly, Libby saw what the big deal was about.
“Right next to the fence! Look!”
There were four different fences, mind you, so I couldn’t figure out what she was looking at, so Libby grabbed my head and faced it towards the cliff area the side of the wooden fence on the top of the hill – and lo and behold, the silhouette of a woman and a man, thrusting – it was a couple was having sex, on the hill in front of thousands of people. Even Colin Meloy started clapping and pointing over to the couple with absolutely no shame. Then the cops came and stopped them, made them wrap things up and get off the hill. SO EVERYONE BOOED. It was HYSTERICAL. Perfectly hilarious.
And then the Decemberists went back on to being amazing.
So there you go.
Now I’ll rewind a little back to 8 hours before.
As my sister and I were almost to the Gorge, about 11 am – mother was driving us there to avoid paying for parking and she went and visited with my aunt and uncle all day – and there was a checkpoint with about 7 cops pulled off to the side of the road. Seriously, it was just as my sister had taken off her seatbelt to read down to get her makeup when the cop flagged us over. My mom, unknowing that my sister had actually just taken her seatbelt off – told the cop that. Libby basically whined, but they actually talked their way out of it – and to top it all off, Libby forgot her ID, so my mom would have been ticketed.
Then it hit me – what if Libby needs her ID to get in? I freaked out momentarily, until we reached the venue, and saw a sign for ID needed for 21 and over. Thank God.
We stood in the ridiculously long line, and made our way in within about a half hour, sandwiches, sunscreen, water bottles, camera and blanket in bag. I could have smuggled anything in my bag, because all the security guy did was put his hands under my purse and jumbled it a little, but didn’t ever look in my purse. He had Libby open up her backpack completely, but mine was fine.
And then, we were in.
Both of us her starving, so we went over to the Wookie Stage to sit in the grass and eat our sandwiches during Owl City. They weren’t bad. Kinda generic, but not bad. We just needed to eat our sandwiches before the mayonnaise and mustard went bad. After Owl City, we walked down to find the main stage. Little did we know – it was at the bottom of a steep hill. We walked up and down that hill 3 different times, each as tiring as the last time. But our first trek down the hill led to Vince Mira – the 17-year-old Spanish-American vocal reincarnation of Johnny Cash. He’s so freaking adorable. And so ridiculously talented it’s insane. I’ll splice all the videos I have from yesterday, because I don’t think I got any whole songs. But I’ll put them on youtube in the next couple of hours.
After Vince was a little rest in the comedy tent – in the shade. The shade was nice. And this one comedian was pretty funny. His name was Rory Scovel, and was a part of the People’s Republic of Komedy. We actually caught the very end of the comedian before him, but that guy wasn’t nearly as funny as Rory. He came out speaking in a stereotypical southern accent.
“How y’all doin?”
The funniest part was at the end where they had this video about his “charity work for the clown college,” and it ended unexpectedly with various clips of him in like, clown orgies or something. And he and the AV guy kept screaming at eachother, “MARK, SHUT IT OFF!” “I’m trying! It won’t turn off!”
Ha. Ha.
Let me see, what was after that. Oh, then we went and sat for Passion Pit for awhile. They took a long time to get started, as technical difficulties proved a habit for the Wookie stage. But once they started, they were quite good. I’ve only heard one of their songs before on Myspace, so I was curious. The band was really cool, they sounded kind of like Friendly Fires and Matt & Kim, but with a little more electro. The guys voice sounded a little off, but the band was good overall.
The most entertaining part of Passion Pit was the obviously drunk man dancing in front of us. He was wearing a tiny pair of shorts and no shirt with a ridiculous sunburn. He swayed around, thrusting in odd directions, swinging his arms in circles until he tripped over two different groups of people – one a couple and one a couple girls laying out for a tan. So he just lied there with the two chicks, cozying up to their weather-appropriate clothed bodies (i.e. bikinis).
He made us laugh. I’ll have a video soon.
After drunk man was Maria Bamford. FINALLY someone who we actually came to see specifically. I freaking love this woman. I normally don’t like lady comedians, because they always just use the female thing as their shtick, but not Maria.
She’s totally weird, and it’s awesome. My favorite bit of hers of all time – she didn’t do it yesterday, but it’s still my favorite – is the Voicemail Non sequiturs. You must search for it, because I almost pissed my pants the first time I heard it. Yesterday she did the Pterodactyl song as her closing bit, which is always amusing. But what pissed me off were the people sitting around us who weren’t nearly as entertained. This one chick kept saying, “I don’t get it.”
Then get out of the tent, bitch and make room for people who actually do get it to sit down!
That made me angry.
Her set was only a half hour long, which gave us another like 3 hours until the Decemberists, so we went and got some food and listened to the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam band for awhile before going to the XBOX room for awhile. The food prices were ridiculous. Chicken strips and fries were $9 and water bottles were four fucking dollars. Seriously. After our first water bottle, we decided just to fill that same bottle up from the sinks by the bathrooms. The XBOX room proved to be pretty entertaining as well – as a group of kids got up to play Rock Band. One boy in particular – he looked about 9 – sang during the Offspring song, only he didn’t sing. He just made noises, attempting to hit the right notes. Some overweight man sitting by Libby and I actually proceeded to heckle the kid. Oh XBOX, how much joy you bring people.
We sat in the somewhat cool room for what seemed like an hour, but it was nice to sit in chairs without the hot sun beating down on our already-sunburnt shoulders. After that, we took yet another trip down to the Main stage to see the end of Animal Collective and get a good spot for the Decemberists – as they were one of the main reasons why we came. Animal Collective was actually really cool. I’ve had their latest album for a good couple months, but I never realized how exciting their music was until I saw it live and saw how all the people around us danced to it. Pretty insane. These guys standing by us had body paint all over them and didn’t not stop jumping for about 10 minutes I’m pretty sure.
And then the dude fell on us.
Yes, a man standing to the right of Libby collapsed – most likely from dehydration. When we saw him laying on the ground, we just kind of stood there like, “um someone do something.” His head was on my feet as he lied there, but then the first aide people standing right on the other side of the barrier came over and got him up. When we looked in the first aide tent 20 minutes later, he was gone, so apparently he was fine. That kinda spooked us.
But nothing was more epic that the Decemberists’ set.
To tell you the truth, the main reason I came to Sasquatch on Saturday was Kings of Leon, but I gotta tell you, I haven’t stopped listening to Hazards of Love all day. Colin Meloy and the gang are really…really good live. Like the kind of good where you wish you didn’t have to listen to the album, you wish you had the entire live set on tape to keep forever. I only had enough battery, so I recorded some of each performance from Animal Collective on, but this lame video recording isn’t nearly enough to make me happy. I’m actually contemplating seeing them again at Marymoor in July because they were so good live. If I get a job by then, we’ll see. But who knows how that’s going to work?
But the Decemberists were so damn good. The two girls who don’t normally record with Colin Meloy and the rest of the band added so much more interest, and Shara, aka My Brightest Diamond reminded me of an updated Grace Slick actually. Seriously. She was so badass. My favorite songs of the night, and the one I can’t stop listening to is The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid, The Abduction of Margaret, and The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing. I love this whole concept album idea. Sure, it can get a little repetitive, but it’s almost like you could make a whole inexplicably awesome musical from this album. Not like a rock opera, but a musical.
I love it.
And like I mentioned earlier, the naked couple who had sex on top of a cliff during the whole thing and had their coitus halted by the security guard. I didn’t realize how much my camera zoomed. It’s not very high quality, but it’s something.
After the Decemberists finished their set at 8:15, we walked back up the horrendously steep hill once again to see Bon Iver. By then, my feet hurt like a BITCH. Like a motherfucking BITCH. Once at the Wookie stage, Mos Def was still performing – and still performed for another half an hour. So this was number one reason why Bon Iver started a half an hour late.
8:37 – Mos Def finished, people left the yard
8:50 – No Bon Iver
9:00 – Still no Bon Iver
9:05 – Cute guys standing by us leave
9:15 – Finally Bon Iver comes on stage
Our spots weren’t as good as during the Decemberists, but it was okay because the ground was grass and not as hard on my feet. He started out with Lump Sum, then moved beautifully into Flume, but the best part was during The Wolves, when Justin had the crowd join in singing “what might have been lost” along with the band, getting louder each time, then screaming at the end of the crescendoing lyrics with him. I got video of it. It was the first time I’ve had that many goosebumps at a concert since Transatlanticism when we saw Death Cab in September at Bumbershoot. They played one song that we were unfamiliar with, but it was pretty awesome, and made us look forward to the next album, after the Blood Bank EP.
We couldn’t get a good picture of Justin or any of the other guys in the band without the big screen because it was dark and our vicinity to the stage wasn’t very good. But Libby was happy which was the whole reason we didn’t stay at the main stage during the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I wanted to see Bon Iver too, but I knew that if we stayed at the main stage, we’d be really close to the stage once the Kings of Leon came on. But it was all worth it – even walking up the hill multiple times. So Libby and I slipped out after I think 5 songs – at 9:45 to get a decent spot at KOL at the main stage.
It was so fucking crowded. Like, seriously. There was no point in taking pictures of it because it was too dark to see with the Coolpix.
I set my backpack down between my feet and got ready to rock.
I’ve seen the Kings of Leon’s live performances on tv before, but none of that can compare to being in a outdoor stadium with thousands of people on the Columbia River Gorge. It’s so much better than any stage at Bumbershoot, the Paramount, the Key Arena, any club in Seattle, although that’s a different experience altogether. But still, yesterday was the so worth the 100+ dollars we spent in all with the tickets, tee shirt, food and drink. Oh, and you can’t forget gas money.
Caleb, Jared, Matthew and Nathan came out on stage and it was like the President walked on stage. Needless to say, people were excited.
They started out with Slow Night, So Long, which was refreshing, because they didn’t play all new songs all night. Actually switched from new to old pretty frequently. They played songs from Aha Shake Heartbreak, Because of the Times, of course Only by the Night, and Molly’s Chambers from Young and Youth Manhood. I think that was the only track they played from that one, but it was so nice to hear that they played songs for all the fans – the old ones and the new ones. I was especially excited when they played Taper Jean Girl (the first song of theirs that I heard) and Knocked Up (my favorite track of theirs EVER.) Actually, when they started played My Party, I thought it was a new song, because I don’t listen to Because of the Times that often, but now I shall, because I’m totally obsessed with that track now.
And surprisingly, the Followill boys played for an hour and a half, which was half an hour longer than the Decemberists and all the other bands we saw that day. It made me very happy, because I got to look at and listen to them half an hour longer.
I honestly don’t think they could get any sexier. I really don’t think so.
Oh Jared. You’re so hot.
We left during the last song to try and get out before the huge crowds, but we got tee shirts on our way out. Libby got a Sasquatch shirt and I got a Kings of Leon tee shirt.
Surprisingly, as we walked down the road past all the campers and grape plants, Mom called us, telling us where she was, and literally a minute later, we found her. In a sea of thousands of people, Mom found us within 5 minutes. Quite miraculous really.
Actually, the whole day was quite miraculous. The only thing I wish I would have done was walk down to the main stage Easy Street booth to see in The Decemberists were there to sign stuff at 2:00. And maybe see Ra Ra Riot before The Decemberists, but I’m too tired to have any fucking regrets.
I just realized that it was May 21st, which means that I will no longer be a teenager in nine days. I will be twenty years old in nine days. And if you think about it, it’s kind of an anticlimactic birthday, because it means that I still have one year before I can legally drink. And I honestly can take joy in that birthday, because I have been faithful to the law up to this point. I know I can’t really ever get shitfaced drunk because then my liver will hate me and die. So that’s a buzzkill, but the fact that I’ll be able to go to a bar with my friends will be wonderful.
So this birthday is good and bad at the same time. Good in that I’ll be leaving my teenage years behind in the dust. No more nineteen.
I also had a weird epiphany the other day – on the 17th to be exact. I went back and checked my archives to be sure, and I was right. It was a year ago on the 17th that I had my first kiss. And it’s weird to think about how it’s been a year since I left St. Martins, and started my job at Petco, and started going on with Ryan. It’s been 9 months since we broke up, and I honestly feel like I’ve grown up so much since then. We kept in contact for a few months after we broke up, but since Christmas, I haven’t actually been down to Lacey a lot – and every time I visit I just go and see my friends. This year has been so much better than last year. Granted, I still have two weeks to fail my literature class miserably, but overall, this year has been wonderful.
For one thing – no fucking dorms.
For another – I’m on the fucking Ledger.
For another – my classes are fucking fantastic.
For one more thing – my professor is one sexy motherfucker.
Don’t ask about that last one.
It does kind of suck that I don’t have a job at the moment, or a boyfriend for that matter, but it’s okay, because I have some money in my bank account, and I’m happy. So far, 2009 has been great. It’s hard for me to compare it to 2008, because 2008 included both the loss of a friend and my first boyfriend. So there’s a give and take. Some things have been better. Some things have been worse.
But I will say – UWT kicks way more ass than SMU. No doubt.
Oh, and one more thing – TWO FRAKKING DAYS UNTIL SASQUATCH. It’s unavoidable – I’m going to mention this once more tomorrow, and numerous times from my blackberry on my Twitter.
And trust me, I’ll be in with an EXTENSIVE post sunday “morning” (it will be most likely around 2 in the afternoon, because we won’t get home until like…4 am. As KOL don’t start until 10.)
I’m going to talk about American Idol again. Deal with it.
I jacked this from a comment on Oh No They Didn’t because it made me literally laugh out loud.
I knew it. Mom knew it. I loved Adam. I really did, and I honestly didn’t care. But last week, Mom called it. When Danny got voted out, his votes went to Kris. That’s all there is to it, because Kris is an all-around appealing artist. With Adam, you either liked him or you didn’t. And if you liked Adam, you voted for him the whole season. If you were a Gokey fan up until he left, you probably voted for Kris in the end. Last night was a pretty good finale though – I mean, Kiss? Hello! Pretty fan-fucking-tastic. My friend Cassie almost shit her pants when Kris sang with Keith Urban, because she was like “he should sing country!”
She’s a country uber-fan.
I’m not, as one might have been able to tell by now.
And the We Are The Champions at the end was so joyous. At that point, neither Adam nor Kris cared who won, because they got to sing with Queen. And after the show ended, my mom was like “OMG ADAM’S GONNA TOUR WITH QUEEN NOW!” That would be pretty damn badass.
And I just fucking love Norman Gentle. That was pretty awesome when he jumped up on the mini stage behind the judges and gave Ryan his glasses and headband. Ryan’s gotten exponentially more appealing since the beginning. I swear. Last night, when Bikini Girl (uuugggghhhhh) got up on stage, my sister was like “she’s covered in skin cancer!” And fake tits. “I was going to ask you what’s new, but I think I know.” Haha, good one Ryan.
Allison and Cyndi Lauper sounded wonderful together, even as Cyndi was sitting with her legs spread wide open during the entire performance. She’s so cool still.
But no one could outdo Carlo Santana. That was quite awesome, and he’s still as fantastic as he was 30 years ago, whereas Rod Stewart is looking pretty old and ragged. Carlos can still rock.
I just listened Kris’s recorded version of “No Boundaries,” because I just felt like it, and it’s not as bad as it was the first night I heard it.
I love Kris’s reaction, every time. He’s got to be the most humble winner ever.
I remember reading a comment somewhere where Kris and Adam should be the poster-children for acceptance and friendship. They couldn’t be more different, yet they are such good friends.
Oh, and I can’t forget the obligatory pic.
Ugh, Kara.
I honestly don’t care. For the first time in…ever, I don’t care who wins. Personally, I would listen to Kris Allen’s album. I love Adam, but I couldn’t sit through an entire album of Adam singing. Kris is more my style, but Adam is amazingly talented.
Tonight was a pretty anticlimactic finale, if I do say so myself. Kara’s song “No boundaries” was fucking LAME. Like LAME with a capital L – A – M – E. It was neither Kris nor Adam’s style. I’m not sure if they were even allowed to interpret it, because the genre didn’t fit them at all. It was ridiculous, and kind of selfish on the writer’s part. It was just a way for Kara’s song to get out there. That’s the one thing I hate about American Idol – the coronation song. Every year they’re been the same song, just with a different title. “A Moment Like This,” “I Believe,” “Do I Make You Proud,” “This is my now,” “Inside Your Heaven,” “Flying Without Wings,” “The Time Of My Life” – ALL THE SAME FUCKING SONG. And now, “No Boundaries” is just a shameless plug for Kara’s quasi-successful songwriting career. I, for one, find songwriters lame. If you’re going to write a song – sing it. But also, people who sing and make money from it and don’t write songs – you’re lame too.
You hear that Kara? You’re lame. But at least you’re not on crack like Paula.
Go Adam. Go Kris. I don’t care. Kris will be more marketable, but if Adam wins, he’ll be the first openly gay American Idol. And that’s awesome.
Off topic completely – I’m watching that new show “Glee,” and it’s ADORABLE. And not to mention Matthew Morrison, the guy who plays the advisor of Glee club is fucking LINK LARKIN from the original Hairspray musical on broadway, when I went in the 8th grade. Yeah, long time ago, but he was adorable back then, and he’s equally adorable now.
And I just saw a new trailer for HP6, and OMG I’M SO EXCITED. So. Goddamn. Excited.
So, this weekend is finally over – and it’s been a long weekend at that. Flight of the Conchords was wednesday, but for some reason, I still consider it as part of the weekend, because that day was way too awesome to even be called a weekday. Yeah, I know, it was wednesday, but wednesday can be a weekend just that one time.
We had the Oscars friday. No – not the Academy Awards – the Outstanding Student Ceremony for Awards and Recognition. Now there’s a mouthful, and an awkward mouthful. I’m pretty sure the people in charge of planning this shindig at school just came up with words to fit “Oscar” to make it sound that much cooler.
On the surface, the event was pretty cool. Students and staff were awarded for several reasons – volunteering, students’ choice, and “outstanding registered student organization.” The Ledger was in that category.
Against Psychology club and Marketing Society. I, for one, haven’t heard of any things those two clubs have done. And the criteria included planning events worthwhile to the school community and some shit like that. Doesn’t putting out a full newspaper every two weeks count as a recognizable contribution to the student body?
Apparently not enough, according to three random people whom I don’t know. Nope, as we were planning on how to accept our award, they announced that psychology club had won the damn award.
Really?
It was lame, because we totally got snubbed. Snubbed like no other.
So the actual ceremony was pretty boring, but the after party was anything but – mostly because we made it fun. I jacked my sister’s homecoming dress for the affair, because I didn’t have anything remotely appropriate for the event. But the after party had a “casino night” theme, which didn’t serve any purpose, as most people didn’t actually play any poker.
But we danced. We danced quite a lot. To some shitty music, and some good music. Maybe two of the songs would actually be found in my almost 9000 song itunes library, but still entertaining. At one point while the DJ played some random gangsta rap and people started doing some cool dance – not sure what it was, but I got some cool pictures from it – Alexis said, “I didn’t know our school was so urban.” It was pretty funny.
And then the DJ played the “Cupid Shuffle,” one of those songs where the lyrics consist of instructions on how to do the dance, like the “Cha cha slide,” which the DJ also played. However, the cha cha went on way too long. We can only take so many “to the left, take it back now, y’all”s. But again, I got some kick ass pictures from all this. Even though there were maybe 50 people in the oUWTpost, it looked like a rave with my camera trick – low shutter speed, flash and shaking the camera from side to side.
Case in point:
This one was my favorite. He actually changed his profile pic on Facebook to this picture. Boo yeah.
Hmm…what else to talk about?
Oh, right. Five fucking days. Seriously. Five days from now, I’ll be seeing the Decemberists on the Main Stage at the Gorge. And then shortly would be watching the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, then trekking down over to the Wookie Stage to see Bon Iver. But it sucks because Yeah Yeah Yeahs start at 8:30 and Bon Iver starts at 8:45. Lame. But then, in a matter of five days and two hours approximately, Kings of Leon will be taking to the Main Stage, in all their Followillian fiery sexiness. So fucking excited.
Anyway, on to music news.
I got two artists to write about today – Sliimy (and that’s pronounced sleemy, I think. Or Slimmy. I think.) and Greg Laswell.
Sliimy is like a younger, French version of Mika. My sister says it Prince was our generation, he’d have a style like Sliimy.
This song (and this video) fills me with glee. It’s so catchy, and so adorable. My sister read somewhere that he learned English on the internet. If you like Mika, or Nouvelle Star winner Christophe Willem, or any other French power-pop, check out Sliimy. I just was on his Last.fm page, and now I’m kinda mad because apparently Perez Hilton “discovered” him after he covered “Womanizer.” Well, I haven’t been reading Perezhilton.com at all lately, as Oh No They Didn’t has completely taken over the place in my online time for celebrity gossip.
I’m trying to download his full album, “Paint Your Face” right now, and it’s going quite slowly, but I highly recommend Sliimy. And don’t forget that there are two ‘i’s, or else his name would be “Slimy.” And he’s anything but slimy.
New musician – Greg Laswell. He’s where I got my headline from – his song, “How the day sounds.” It’s a good song. Quite a good song. But not the one that I haven’t stopped listening to for the last three days. “Off I Go” is that song. Specifically, it was the song at the end of the Grey’s Anatomy finale, and every time I listened to that song on friday, I teared up. Seriously. I know it’s sad, but each time, I got the visual in my head of deformed George writing “007” in Meredith’s hand and her running down the hall after she realized it was George.
The first time I heard Greg Laswell was with his song “Sing, Theresa Says” from the Paste Magazine sampler 23, and his new album is so awesome. My personal favorites are “And Then You,” “Days Go On,” and “How the Day Sounds.” “Off I Go” is a separate single, and it’s equally as amazing. I highly recommend it if you like Josh Radin, WIlliam Fitzsimmons or Cary Brothers. Basically – chill acoustic piano guy music. It’s good music to chill to. It sounds like autumn, at least to me.
This was one of the videos I found on Youtube with “Off I Go.” And it just so happens to be compiled scenes of Izzie and George in Grey’s Anatomy, and such.
I knew all along that T.R. Knight might not be coming back to Grey’s Anatomy, but I didn’t think that his exit would be this emotional. I knew all along that Izzie might die all along, but it didn’t hit me until tonight.
It hit me in a big way, with a constant stream of tears from 9-11 p.m. Okay, I didn’t start the finale out with tears, but when Alex was first telling Izzie to tear up the DNR form, I cried a little. But seriously, the last 45 minutes, my heart was racing and I couldn’t sit still.
As soon as John Doe looked at Meredith that first time – I knew it was George. I just knew it. At first, we maybe thought it was her Dad, but then I saw his hair, and I absolutely knew it was George. George’s wonderful face. Ruined. But he was a hero. He was a hero the day he decided to got to Iraq and be a hero. I’ll have to admit, if Shonda was planning this all along for George’s exit, it’s a pretty grandiose way to go.
What was so tragic was how they were talking about George going away to Iraq right as he was on the table, and Meredith drilled a burr-hole into his skull to keep his brain from swelling, and he stepped in front of a bus to save a girl.
He’s the tragic hero.
Izzie, on the other hand, was expected to die. I figured knew this episode would be all emotional and melodrama-y, but it was still uber sad. It’s been a long time coming, and I just don’t think it would be fair to kill her now after all the shit she and Alex has gone through, and all the times Derek has saved her life. But to be honest, I’d be happier if she was the one to die and George didn’t. But I know that is highly unlikely, because it’s not like he can come back as the same George – I mean, the truck turned him into meatloaf. It wouldn’t be the same.
I watched an episode from season 2 for a homework assignment for my TV studies class, and it brought back such fond memories from when George was an inexpendable character, worthy of more than 5 minutes on screen. It’s been a tough couple seasons, and now I have to wait until September to find out the fate of George and Izzie.
I haven’t cried this much during television in…I don’t think ever. But then again, I’m menstrual. And George has been my favorite character from the beginning. Shonda can’t kill my George.
The ending was even sadder than when Denny died for sure – when George wrote “007” in Meredith’s hand, and she finally realized it, and ran down the hall screaming “it’s George! John Doe is George!” Izzie stepping into the elevator, going up to the next floor, and the doors opening to George in his army uniform, haircut and all. And I cried even more. I couldn’t control myself. I was basically hyperventilating. I’ve never missed an episode. I own the first three seasons. These characters have become my TV friends, like Dr. Carter became Mom’s TV friend on ER.
I have to stop thinking about it, or I’ll start tearing up again. That Greg Laswell song at the end was pretty damn good though. I think I’ll go and download it now.
Green Day’s album comes out tomorrow. And Sasquatch is in nine days. I have plenty to look forward to.
I didn’t want to let this high go away until I found the camera cord, so I felt like I would write about this this morning before I went to school.
HOLY CRAP THE SHOW WAS AWESOME! And Lindsay’s game got cancelled, so we made it there PERFECTLY ON TIME. How I’m enamored with Jemaine’s sideburns. They are the most marvelous sideburns. I’m really mad that I didn’t stay in the lobby to meet Arj after the show, but we stood outside for awhile to wait, but Lindsay and I had to get home, so that made me sad. When we got to the Paramount, there was a sign on the door saying “strictly not photography or recording allowed.”
Fuck that! I took pictures. Tragically, I didn’t during Arj’s set because there was this huge bouncer guy next to the door, which was right next to us, so I held off with the photos until FoTC came on, and then I tried to be conspicuous with it. But no one stopped me, so then I felt really bad that I didn’t take any pictures of Arj. But it was awesome, and I have a tee shirt now, and I’ll stop blabbering and get on with the actual coherent review.
Oh, and by the way, I know I mentioned this above, but Jemaine is SO DAMN SEXY!
Okay, continue.
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“It’s wednesday!” Some dude in the crowd shouted from the first mezzanine of the Paramount Theater wednesday night.
Awww, yeah. It’s business time.
I’ve been a Flight of the Conchords fan ever since I heard a short bit of them on the radio 7 years ago. Then came their HBO special, then their cult favorite HBO TV show about two down-on-their-luck New Zealand immigrants trying to make it as a rock band in New York.
So when I found out they were coming to Seattle – for three different dates, I was damn excited.
But that excitement soon turned into overwhelming disappointment. The tickets sold out in one day, and I missed out on seeing them. For months I accepted the fact that I wouldn’t get to see Flight of the Conchords. I told myself I would be willing to sit outside the venue for two of the three days maybe to get a sympathy ticket. Maybe Jemaine or Bret, or even Arj Barker, the opening comedian, would see how dedicated I was and get me in.
But two weeks ago, just 4 days before the first show on May 11, the stars had all aligned for some reason, and The Paramount had a second batch of late release tickets available on their website. So I jumped on the opportunity to see my favorite two hilarious Kiwis- Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement.
The show was scheduled to start at 7:30, but because of ridiculous Puget Sound weather, my friend Lindsay and I arrived just about ten minutes late. However, Arj didn’t come on stage until I 3 minutes after we sat down in section 1, row J seats 5 and 6. It was honestly that close. We couldn’t have been more on time.
If anyone has seen FoTC’s HBO show, Arj plays Dave, their pawn shop owner pal. I’ve heard his comedy before, and his energy was a good way to warm up the audience, as he never really stopped shouting. But not in an annoying way. People obviously weren’t there to see Arj, but he still made people – namely me – excited.
His act was only about 15 minutes long – giving FoTC four hours to finish the show. Why did we have until midnight? Well, we parked at the Convention Center around the corner, and it closed at midnight, and Lindsay and I didn’t want to get stuck in Seattle on a school night.
Then Bret and Jemaine came on stage in their robot costumes – consisting of basically a cardboard headpiece spray painted silver with some shiny knobs and such, and a huge glittering silver codpiece which they wore on the outside of their jeans. “Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor,” was the first song, one of the new ditties from the last season of their show. One can infer what the song in about just with the title, which repeats itself many, many times throughout the song. At one point, Arj jumped out and did some rapping like he does as Dave in the show. What made the show so enjoyable was the fact that they were all so dang close – as in great pals. During the witty banter, it would seem almost as if Bret and Jemaine could finish each other’s sentences, which made the audience more connected, even with the large and someone impersonal venue.
Nothing against the Paramount – it’s a beautiful theater with really comfortable chairs, but I like to be up close and personal with the musicians during a show, most of the time not even sitting down. But I guess they couldn’t very well have played at Neumos or Chop Suey because of their huge following and comedy aspect of the show. As Bret explained it: “we talk then play a song, then talk some more. That’s pretty much how the show is gonna go. We’re professional talkers.”
The witty banter intermingled with classic crowd pleaser songs, as well as a couple completely new ones, made for a diverse and entertaining show. They even took requests.
“FREEBIRD!” Another seemingly drunk man shouted from the floor seats.
“Freebird, that’s not us,” Jemaine responded to the inebriated man. But then…
“If I leave here tomorrow…” and Bret and Jemaine proceeded to play a good two minutes of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.” Seriously. Jemaine even started improv-ing and flapping his wings at the end.
What added to both the musicianship and wittiness of the act was the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra – or Nigel. Yes, as Jemaine explained it, the other two people in the orchestra were dropped from the tour because they lost their costumes and they were performing naked, which made for an awkward experience for concertgoers. But Nigel didn’t come out to play with the duo until about 5 songs in because, and I quote “Nigel was getting more [BJs, that is].” This was after Bret and Jemaine told us their pre-show ritual, which included about 47 BJs. Jemaine alluded to the BJ jokes many times later in the show after Nigel went for a quite break.
“Did you have a small order of B, with a side of J? And I’m not talking about us,” he said.
I’ll admit that I’m easy to please when it comes to concerts. One would have to completely fuck up to disappoint me, but FoTC surely did not. Because even though they have self-proclaimed themselves as “New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo,” Bret and Jemaine are quite talented. Bret switched from acoustic guitar to keyboard to some drums, while Jemaine was juggling his acoustic guitar and an omnicord, as I’ve come to find it to be called, like this one.
When they sing, they are trying to mock the absurd melodrama of certain genres with overpowering falsettos, but to tell you the truth – they can hit those notes.
My favorite part of the night was “Jenny,” a hilarious song about an awkward encounter of mistaken identity. “Jenny” wasn’t on the show, or on any of their albums but the HBO One Night Stand Special, but it still got as many laughs as did “Business Time” and their first, last song “Sugarlumps,” where the boys got up close and personal with the audience, thrusting and gyrating while riffing like a cracked up Boyz II Men.
Once that song was over, my cohort wasn’t aware of the encore as much as I was, so I told her to stand up and start cheering, because the lights hadn’t gone up yet. A few minutes later, Bret and Jemaine came out on stage one last time, clad in zebra print spandex and fantastically tacky pimp jackets – Bret played a tiny axe and Jemaine rocking the drums for “Demon Woman.”
This was at 10 o’clock. It was over that quickly, but it was the only disappointing part of the show. I would have liked it to go longer and closer to midnight, but Lindsay and I did get tee shirts on the way out, and stood by the tour bus for half an hour to see if the boys were coming out anytime soon. Sadly, the roadies came over to the 30 of us waiting behind the barrier.
“I got some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?”
“The bad news!”
“You’ll be here for awhile.”
We would have had to wait for close to an hour and a half to see them, but by then our car would be locked inside the Convention Center parking garage, and Lindsay has an early baseball game thursday, so we decided to pass up the chance at seeing and taking some pictures with the objects of our excitement.
That’s the only regret I have – not waiting until midnight in the rain on a school night. But that’s all my fault. Bret and Jemaine did absolutely nothing wrong – in fact, they did everything right but playing longer. But that’s what live albums and video is for. I can watch Bret and Jemaine over and over again.
I’ve never been an uber fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, or any other franchise involving space. I like earthly matters. Rain, gravity, oxygen – those things are comforting. But I will tell you, after going to see Star Trek tonight, I haven’t been so entertained by a movie since…well, Slumdog. Granted, I’ve seen a few movies since then – none of which living up to the expectations presented in marketing campaigns. Case in point, Wolverine, which I saw last weekend.
Star Trek has left Wolverine in the dust, and that pretty much sucks for Wolverine, because there’s no way it’s hitting no. 1 at the box office now that Star Trek has surpassed its expectations.
J.J. Abrams has been involved in some interesting projects, some of which aren’t related at all – such shows as Lost, Alias, and Felicity? That last one threw me for a loop, but his latest project, Star Trek is, as the marketing campaign calls it “not your father’s Star Trek.” I wouldn’t know really, because my father was never a trekkie, but I get what they were saying. This film included all the token aspects of the original series, laser guns, the U.S.S. Enterprise, certain choreographed moves on the actors’ part where they all move in one direction when the ship is hit, and, of course, Leonard Nimoy. To be honest, I’d heard the name, but wasn’t aware of its significance until I saw a rerun of the Big Bang Theory when Penny gives Sheldon a signed napkin from Leonard Nimoy that said “Live long and prosper,” and that he wiped his mouth on.
Now I’ve been educated in the sheer badassness of Leonard Nimoy, and I’ll never forget the name again.
But what made this film “not your father’s Star Trek” were the new editions – namely Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, John Cho, and Simon Pegg. I don’t know where I heard it, but at one point, I read that Matt Damon was originally going to be cast as James T. Kirk, but I for one, am very glad they didn’t pick Matt Damon. Nothing against Matt Damon – but this movie wouldn’t have worked with actors with extensive careers. They’d carry too much baggage. Just think if Kirk was Matt Damon and Spock was Ed Norton. I didn’t actually hear anything about the latter, but I’m just thinking hypothetically. The success wouldn’t have worked the way it did. People would expect great things, but because of the actors. Pine and Quinto are relatively new to the Hollywood scene – Pine appearing in the second, and far inferior Princess Diaries movie, and Quinto exclusively as Sylar in Heroes for the last couple of years. And truthfully, Quinto’s television role was probably the most noticeable role for any of the actors. Eric Bana has sure been in some blockbusters in the past, but him being made up as Nero made him almost unrecognizable. I surely wouldn’t have guessed it was him if I hadn’t seen it on IMDB. Now that’s some good make up artist that made Eric Bana unattractive.
But what hit me as odd, and almost disturbing, was that I found Spock attractive. It may be because I’ve been such a big Sylar fan since Heroes started, but Zachary Quinto brought a quiet sensitivity to the otherwise cold Spock. He does pretty much the same thing as Sylar, only he has to also bring murderous villain to the table in Heroes. He has a broad range of characters that he’s played – comedic, dramatic, evil but conflicted, sensitive, and Vulcan. He stayed true to the character, but didn’t imitate Nimoy. From the trailers, I didn’t expect the love story to turn out how it did, but I won’t divulge any more information if you haven’t seen the movie yet.
Chris was a perfect choice for Kirk – stubborn, cocky, but brilliant. And again, he didn’t imitate Shatner’s signature line delivery style, but updated the role and made it his own. It’s a difficult feat to take such a beloved franchise and not mock it while stayed true to the original.
Being new to the story, I personally enjoyed the love-hate relationship Spock and Kirk shared. Seeing both of their childhoods let the audience see how conflicted the two of them were. It was so bromantic to see how their relationship went from Spock exiling Kirk off the Enterprise to the two of them running the Enterprise together. Star Trek was a good example of jumping into the origins of characters. Wolverine was a bad example. What also made the story even more complex was the time traveling aspect with Nimoy, but it didn’t seem completely irrelevant – it had every bit to do with the main problem at hand, Nero’s vengeance and the black holes.
Finally, the humor wasn’t cheesy, but not completely understated. I especially loved the sequence when McCoy kept shooting Kirk with different vaccines – initializing several different reactions, including incredibly bloated hands and a “numb tongue.” There were actually a few moments when I literally laughed out loud. But I didn’t feel dirty after laughing. You know sometimes in movies where the humor seems so forced and inorganic, or just strictly ridiculous, that you feel sleazy if you laugh? This was one film where that didn’t happen.
Now, I won’t go as far to say this film will be nominated for any major awards – maybe some special effects Oscars and some Saturn Awards definitely, but as far as summer blockbusters go – Star Trek is a fantastic way to start out the season.
❤ Abby
(And I’ll just say that I freaking love Spock. Even with this stupid haircut and pointy eyebrows. He just has to put on these glasses and the eyebrows don’t even matter.)
<3<3<3
THIS IS A TANGENT. 