Who needs sleep? Not me!

ADDENDUM: OH MY GOD WHEN I POSTED THIS THE FIRST TIME I FORGOT ABOUT DOCTOR WHO. D: So it’s down at the bottom now.

I figure since I can’t really get the reading done for my next class done, I’ll fill everyone in about my abso-freaking-lutely busy week.

No seriously. It’s the busiest my weekend has ever been, and I didn’t even do everything I could do. I still have an ass-ton of homework due Wednesday. So I’ll start from last Wednesday. Wait, no Thursday.

No, Friday. Thursday wasn’t all that exciting. We started layout early, which was nice, but it didn’t really save us any time, because we still didn’t get done yesterday until 10. But anyway, FRIDAY. Friday I had the following tasks: pack for Saturday, purchase two maple bacon doughnuts, drive to school, lay out pages, edit photos, drive to Seattle, find parking, meet Renee, give her a maple bacon doughnut, and see Spoon.

Mkay. Lemme tell you something. I thought I found amazing parking that night. It said $6, right? I paid on the way in, I thought I was done. Not quite. It turns out the next morning I had to pay an extra $24 for the night. $30 for parking. Balls. But now that I think about it, I don’t even care. It was totally worth the next two days. Because while they were ridiculously busy and kinda stressful and I got like 8 hours of sleep over the course of those 2 days, they were terrific. Like, really really really terrific. So after naively parked at the Warwick hotel next to the cute old building Renee was staying in, I walked over to the Moore to get my ticket and photo pass. I got there before Renee, but when she did get there we gorged on doughnut. It was awesome. But when I went to get my photo pass, I walked up to the will-call, gave them my name and said that I was supposed to be on the guest list for a ticket and photo pass. She took out an envelope and pulled out 3 stickers. One of which was my photo pass, but I had no idea what the other two were for.

Well,

Needless to say, I squee’d. I was quite confused, like “why do I get these? Why am I here? I’m not this cool. Oh my god life questions!” But I handed one to Renee and it made us even more excited to see Spoon. Like seriously. We got after show passes. How? But then I realized that I didn’t have my ticket, so I went back over to ask if I had a ticket. Thank god I did, so then I was all set. I love the Moore Theater. They don’t check your bags and let you bring water bottles in. That’s the one thing about the Showbox that drives me crazy. You have to pay $1.50 for a water bottle you could have just brought yourself. BUT, when we got inside the theater, no one got there for a good half an hour. Well, it was still pretty empty until like halfway through Deerhunter. Poor Micachu and the Shapes. That’s one thing I hate and love about seated theaters. You don’t have to get there first to get a spot, because you have an assigned spot. But it leaves the theater pretty empty for openers. It’s a shame that not everyone got to see all of Deerhunter’s performance, because it was awesome. Casual, and epic, and awesome. Bradford broke into this long, almost poetic story about being 27 in Seattle at the anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. And how when he was 12 and it happened, he would say, “I’ll never be 27!” And other things. But that was pretty cool. Then this girl jumped up on stage and started beating Bradford’s guitar with maracas, shaking around the floor like a crazy person and dancing with all the band members. It was adorable. Too bad it was after the 3rd song, it would have made an awesome photo. But I was going to be bad this time. I adhered to the rules. Um…what else? Oh, Bradford kept saying, “this is fucking ridiculous, like what are we doing here?” (Hmmm, I know how he feels.)

After Deerhunter was done, the seat next to Renee’s was still vacant. I could have EASILY sat down right there, but I found my seat. All us photogs (the same ones I always see) piled up to the front to shoot Spoon. Again, we swiftly moved across the non photo pit, and oddly enough, as I was shooting, my phone vibrated telling me that I had an email. One of the other photographers, right across the stage, started following me on Twitter. ??? I dunno, it was funny.

And then they came onstage, and people went apeshit. Which is fitting, because, you know – it’s SPOON. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I still have to write my review for Popwreckoning, and it’ll get really tedious coming up with more adjectives to describe how awesome it was. I’ll just mention that everyone – including all the photographers – started dancing during “The Underdog” like silly fangirls at a Jonas Brothers concert. Okay, maybe I’ll use that description in my feature. It was fun to participate in the dance party. You can’t not dance to that song anyway. It’s so freaking danceable.

ABBY, STAY FOCUSED!

I think it was about halfway through Spoon’s set when Bradford came out to play guitar – OH WAIT! Michael Lerner (aka Telekinesis) played snare on a bunch of songs, which was a nice ‘lil local flavor. Back to Bradford, he came out and shimmied across the stage, dancing with Rob like goofballs, and I think it was during “Who Makes Your Money” when he snuck up behind Britt and thrust the guitar neck between his legs. Britt didn’t notice it for a bit, but then he stared down at his crotch and shoved Bradford back and they stumbled and giggled and it was awesome. And I don’t even know when this was either, but Britt looked down into the audience, and this was after I went back to my seat and I couldn’t see what was going on. He took his guitar off and jumped off stage to go into the crowd. Like, right into the crowd. Apparently some old dude was literally sleeping. Out like a light, and Britt went to go wake him up. Again – awesome.

Needless to say – it was all awesome. Afterwards, I made my way back up to the front of the stage to find Renee when she grabbed the set list, because she always gets the set lists. And we went out to the lobby to wait for whatever came next. As soon as the security people started shooing everyone away, I wasn’t sure exactly what we were supposed to do with our after show passes. Good god even when I say it now it sounds so flipping cool. What the hell? So it was us and a few other people who looked legitimately worthy of going backstage into Spoon’s FUCKING DRESSING ROOM. We were led behind the stage, and I turned around the glanced into the empty theater and I almost pissed myself. We climbed a steep set of stairs past Deerhunter’s tiny-ass dressing room where Jim Eno was talking with Micachu and the Shapes, and we heard a bustle upstairs. Spoon’s dressing room was small, but not obscenely small like Deerhunter’s. But still, we were in their dressing room. Renee wasn’t quite as all, “d’uh…I’M NOT WORTHY” as I was, because she’s met them like a gazillion times before. Literally, she’s following their tour right now. And she’s going to make cupcakes for Rob’s birthday this week. At least that’s what she told him. So we stood around for a bit looking like fools who for some reason got after show passes. I still was like, “I’M NOT WORTHY, I’M NOT WORTHY…WTF.” But eventually all the members of Spoon made it our way and we – and I mean Renee mostly – talked to them for a short bit before asking them to sign her set list and my ticket stub. Oh, that’s right here.

So completely running on adrenaline, endorphins and bacon doughnuts, we walked around the corner to Renee’s cute ‘lil rented apartment. $45 a night for cozy dorm-like room? WIN! I don’t know how the hell she finds these places. But I managed to upload and edit my photos that night, because I didn’t feel like sleeping. I couldn’t post them to Flickr until the next day when I found a Tully’s because the internet at the apartment was uber slow. And I didn’t notice this until I uploaded my pictures to Flickr, but I shot most of Spoon’s set in 400 ISO. What the hell? I was so confused how it got to 400 ISO. I shot Deerhunter and Micachu and the Shapes in 1600 ISO, which is what I normally do, but miraculously the pictures on 400 ISO turned out awesome. No wonder they had no noise. I’ll have to shoot shows at the Moore more often. Brilliant lighting = brilliant photos, not to mention much easier. No need to shoot in black and white to relieve the super-saturated red light. Nope, theater lighting is pretty.

Before I move onto Saturday, I’ll post some of my favorite pics from the show. I’m so happy with this set!

Now I can the difference in noise on the Spoon and Deerhunter pics. Britt and Rob are SO CLEAR.

Friday, done.

Saturday, begin.

Saturday morning came way too early. I woke up at about 6, because I couldn’t fall back asleep. So about 4.5 hours is all I had, which actually was probably better than getting 6 hours. I always seem to be really really sleepy on 6 hours of sleep. By that time I’d reached the deep REM cycle. 4.5 hours it’s still nap-mode. But anyway, I woke up and got ready, didn’t take a shower because I was lazy. Just put my hair in a ponytail. I didn’t really know how many blocks I’d have to walk. Turns out I didn’t walk. It was 8 blocks away technically, but you couldn’t walk there without passing through a drug-dealer-infested street. I learned that when I was driving and a bunch of crackheads tried to flag me down in my car. IN MY CAR THEY WERE TRYING TO DEAL. But I missed the turn and ended up going like 5 miles out of my way down to the industrial area, and I got to the Bell Harbor Conference Center with like 2 minutes to spare when I left with 40 MINUTES TO SPARE. Boy do I suck with directions. Really.

I got to the conference center at the exact same time Niki did, and I was still pretty high from endorphins from the night before. Who needs sleep? Not me! We took the elevator up the third floor where everyone else was waiting, and they had free food. FREE BREAKFAST. I was so happy, because when I woke up it was too obscenely early to eat breakfast. 8 am is perfect for breakfast. So we ate our breakfast and I told everyone about my amazing night before, and tried not to sound like I was gloating. If I sounded like I was gloating you guys, tell me. I’m sorry. I like sharing my excitement. And I took my ticket stub out and they all – well some of them – ogled at it. And I squee’d again.

We went to a few sessions, learned a few lessons, and met with some of the Daily staff. Only about half of them came and introduced themselves, but the ones we did meet – Andrew, Lexie, and Nicole – were pretty cool. I can’t even fathom having just one job to do on the paper, which is what they do all the time because it’s daily and they have over 100 people on staff. ONE HUNDRED PEOPLE. We have TWELVE. That was my favorite part of the conference, meeting with them – because they are people that we can legitimately collaborate with, even though I’m starting to hate that word.

Here are some shots of us, sans me, since I was taking the pictures.

We got free lunch too, which was nice. After the conference, I tried to convince any of my fellow Ledgerites to join me at an awesome comedy show with Chris Hardwick, but no one obliged. I actually contemplating not going because I had so much homework due for Wednesday (which I still have not done yet), but then I thought that I’d regret not going. I’ve done that too much this year, and since I’m going to get paid more this quarter, and I might not even go to New York in July, I didn’t feel bad about spending more money on tickets and parking. I found an $8 parking garage a couple blocks away from the Showbox, which was great because it was half the price that I normally pay for parking. Definitely not parking right next to the Showbox anymore. Just let me tell you, I know my way around the Market now. It took me forever to find a place with free wi-fi for me to upload my Spoon pictures. I went into Starbucks naively thinking that I’d get wi-fi since we get it at school, but you needed AT&T. So I left and searched “free wi-fi pike place seattle” on my phone, and they gave me 3 locations. Tullys was about 5 blocks away, so I went to Tullys and uploaded my pictures, bought a chai and waited a ridiculously long time to use the bathroom. I swear this girl spent like 15 minutes in the Tullys bathroom. It pissed me off.

Oh well, because the rest of the night was totally worth waiting to pee and paying $30 for parking the night before and not doing my homework. I just wish I could have shared the experience with someone else. GAH I need to find people to hang out with who live in Seattle. It would surely make my spontaneous trips less lonely.

I stood in line for about a half an hour before they opened the doors, and alas, there were still tickets available! The Showbox set up chairs. CHAIRS. There are never chairs at the Showbox. It was weird. I sat right up front, because no one else did, but I was just a bit off to the left side, near the bathroom and the speakers. I think they started the show around 8-ish. Possibly before that. I dunno. Molly Lewis started the show with funny ukulele songs about breaking up with Wikipedia and a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” Apparently she might be playing at next month’s “w00tstock 2.0.” Yes. Three hours of nerd and music, featuring WIL FREAKING WHEATON and ADAM FRAKKING SAVAGE. To borrow from Trenton’s vocabulary – ADAM’S A SAVAGE. Okay, nerd tangent over.

Wait, no, nerd tangent NOT over. It’s FAR from over.

After Molly Lewis came Mike Phirman who told some jokes and played some songs. The mic kept cutting out, which led to some funny jokes – both from Mike and from Chris. My favorite joke was about how Mike wants marijuana legalized merely because he has an idea for a business venture. A pot cookie company called Chips A-huh. It’s better when you hear it, but it was funny. I didn’t take any pictures because my crappy camera was dying, but this guy did. Apparently he was part of the Street Team that Chris put together from his Nerdist website.

Here’s some of my favorites from his Flickr page.

So I have even more of a total nerdy fangirl crush on Chris now. It’s ridiculous. He came out with a tiny polo on, and told nerdy jokes about the south, G4, Cracker Barrels, Motorhead, Tacoma, his nerdist street team and tentacle porn. No seriously. Right when Chris got on stage a couple of his street teamers held up signs that said “Hard for Hardwick,” and “You’re my Palate Cleanser.” D’aww. And then a guy who was sitting behind me threw a rolled up poster to Chris on stage. Curious as to what it was, Chris opened it up and it was hentai tentacle porn. And he proceeded on a tangent about how ridiculous hentai is.

This is the only video I found on Youtube from it. They were kinda prohibidado about filming, but this guy didn’t care.

Some girl sitting at the bar kept shouting like “my kids love you on Barnyard!” Chris asked her where she was from, and she said Tacoma and people laughed. It turned into a theme. Apparently Seattleites hate Tacoma. I gotta admit, if I had Seattle all the time, I’d hate Tacoma too. One girl in the front had an awesome purse made from the face of Animal from the Muppets. At some point Chris was like, “oh my god is that your purse? That’s awesome! Can I see that?” And she walked up to the stage and showed it to him, and he proceeded to make noises like Animal, and the girl walked up a little closer and told him that his zipper was down. This was halfway through the show, and his fly was down the entire time. So hilarious.

And toward the end of the show, he brought Mike back on stage to sing some songs – INCLUDING THE PI SONG. At this point there were 3 mics on the floor after they died. The awesomeness of the show KILLED THE MICS. So I think this was the second song they played, but during their “Anything” song, where it’s all about determination, how you can do anything, fly like a bird, unless you’re a girl – Chris decided that he’d croon to the audience. Since it’s a power ballad, he got all up in people’s faces and sang right to them while Mike played guitar onstage and kept singing. Chris started on the right side of the stage, being all ridiculous and serious, and as he got closer to the left side of the stage, he got more and more intense, grabbing people and almost seducing them, right? So he walked up to the guy sitting two seats down from me, and he grabbed his head and shook it around while belting out this song about perseverance.

Then he got to me. Seriously. I kinda got molested by Chris Hardwick. Seriously. He got right up in my face and sang right to me, grabbed my face and started to crawl on me, grabbed my ponytail and I got a faceful of Chris’s chest. I have to say that I awestruck with the WTF-ness of it all, but I kind of enjoyed it. Okay, I was really excited when he grabbed my face. I mean, I see him on TV every week. And he was like, crawling on me.

Come on, stop looking at me like that.

So after the last song, Chris announced that he’d be in the lobby signing stuff and taking pictures, because “apparently people like that.” I stood line in front of these two high school guys, who were clearly nerds themselves. Except in all of this, I didn’t have anything for him to sign. I had $20 bills and the Ledger business cards. But I had my purse. My gun-wielding cougar purse.

I swear, it’s the only thing I had. But maybe I could turn it into a “thing,” where I get all the famous people I meet to sign it, so it’s not just Chris Hardwick and then WAS. I almost felt kinda bad for having the first signature on my bag to not be from WAS, but then I saw what he drew, it made me happy.

And the first thing I thought of to talk about was Spoon, because he mentioned earlier in his set referencing a hypothetical heckler, “hey if we leave now, we can make the last ten minutes of Spoon!”

So I said, “I was strategic and saw Spoon last night so I could see you tonight!”

“Ah, great! I haven’t seen them in a long time, how was it?”

“Awesome. And Britt totally jumped into the crowd to wake up an old guy who was sleeping.”

And Chris looked up from my bag for a second and said, “what the hell, who sleeps during a Spoon concert?!”

“I know, it was ridiculous.” And I said some sort of thank you and asked for a photo, and the guy standing behind me took it with the crappy coolpix.

“It’s really bright.”

“That’s what Photoshop is for.” And Chris laughed. And I squee’d and said thank you again and walked away.

Eeek yay.

I just have to say that there weren’t enough Doctor Who fans in the audience, because when Chris made a DW reference, “Doctor, are we going to take a trip in the TARDIS?” in a British accent, and like four people shouted. I screamed so loud. Seattle needs more Who fans. We really do.

LAST WEEKEND was the Doctor Who series premiere. I have to say that I love Matt Smith. I felt really bad for a bit that I liked him because I felt like I was cheating on Ten, but now I don’t feel as bad. Matt did such a good job. Like a really good job. I so excited for this season. I was house-sitting for Andrea’s old neighbor and their horrific dog, and I downloaded the episode while I was doing nothing surrounded by an incredibly windy day. Heck, I was getting paid $20 a day to do my homework and make sure the dog doesn’t go too apeshit. I’m all for that. So what else better to do than watch Vlogbrothers videos and download Doctor Who? Ahhh, spring break.

I mean, look at Matt. He’s adorable.

I love him. And I love Karen. And I love what Moffat has done so far. I still feel a little nostalgic about the old Tardis and sonic screwdriver, but it’s still early, and I’ll probably end up loving both of them. We need more Doctor Who love, seriously. At least Nerdfighteria is all for the Doctor Who love.

I think I’m done now. Holy hell that was a long, photo-loaded post. But I told you it was a busy weekend. Was I right?

I was right.

❤ Abby

Your English is Good

I completely forgot Spring Break. It’s almost April. Like, tomorrow is April. I’m getting kind of annoyed that the Florence and the Machine people haven’t emailed me back about a press pass, and at least Spoon’s people told me to remind them on APRIL 5TH, FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE SHOW. I don’t see why they wait so long. It just makes us more nervous.

Today was a nervous day.

I won’t say why just yet, but let’s just say the nervous ended well.

Right, spring quarter started yesterday. About that…

I LOVE (two of) MY CLASSES! The other one will hopefully be a piece of cake, but so far I know that I’ll definitely need coffee before each Earth History class. It was the only Natural World credit that fit into my schedule without a lab and an extra lab fee. Plus, it’s only a 200-level course, so it won’t be too bad. But my other classes are the ones I’m excited about – Feature Writing with Demaske and Advertising and Consumer Culture with Coon. And it’s nice that they bookend the day. Lots of creative thinking in the morning – but not too early morning – then my boring after-lunch class, then the critical thinking theory class. It’s perfectly set up for my brain. We already talked about our final assignment in my feature writing class yesterday, which sounds quite awesome actually. We have to study a subculture over a long period of time and do an in-depth, 8-10 PAGE ARTICLE about it. That’s a lot of words for feature stories. But I’ve already thought about what subcultures I could do. There’s not a lot of subcultures in Gig Harbor that would make for an interesting story. There are lots of subcultures, but they are boring. In terms of Gig Harbor, I’m pretty sure all I could choose from would be pot smokers, old people, crafty people, snooty people, and high school kids. Wup-de-freakin-do. And the subcultures I’d really like to study would either a.) be in Seattle, so I’d drive way more than I’m willing to, or b.) not let me, because I’m not 21. So I’m considering doing the subculture of straight edge. There would be no danger involved, so that’s good, and it would only be in Tacoma. But I’d have to endure local hardcore music at The Viaduct. Not sure how keen I am on that, but I think it might be an interesting experiment in my will power. And I’m doing it for a grade, so that’s kinda worth it. Once I sift through all the subcultures that I don’t consider myself a part of, I might think of a less excruciating one to do. If you have any ideas, I will accept anything right now.

What else?

Nerdfighters. I had such a boring spring break that over the last 2 weeks I’ve watched approximately 250 Vlogbrothers videos. I started out with random ones from the last two months, but after feeling like a lame Nerdfighter, I started from the beginning. I’m up to November 13 of 2007. If you have absolutely no idea what the hell I’m talking about, I’ll quickly explain. In 2007, John and Hank Green, two nerdy brothers decided to embark on a year-long project where they would post alternating video blogs every weekday for a year, called Brotherhood 2.0. Their viewers are called Nerdfighters. But the Nerdfighters don’t just watch, they participate in Brotherhood 2.0, posting video responses, donating money to the Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck, that Hank and John then discusses with either other and the Nerdfighters on what to do with it. I’ll stop explaining now. Well John is an author of young adult fiction and Hank runs Ecogeek.org and writes nerdy songs about nerdy things. Since I started watching their videos quite religiously, I feel kind of a part of it. These are a couple of my favorite vlogbrothers videos.

And of course there’s Accio Deathly Hallows.

The other day after watching one video where John went through his old notebook, I delved into my old journals and started my own project – to journal more. I think that may have been why I avoided blogging for the last eleven days. But I went into my old journals and did a vlog reading of an entry from when I was 11 years old and in put this fire inside me that I’d journal more. Blogging is one thing, but journaling is just for yourself. Truly for yourself without an audience. Not that I have a significant audience here, but my journal is private. Also the fact that Disney put out their own sucky remake of Harriet the Spy called “Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars.” See, that’s my point. Harriet wrote in a notebook, for no one else but her to see. Blogs aren’t truly private. Sure the names are the same and Harriet wants to be a writer, but it takes out the central conflict devise from the original novel. Harriet’s classmates read her notebook and it ruined her. Temporarily, but Disney has taken it and morphed it into something that is surely not made of awesome. It is made of suck.

Basically, Nickelodeon pwns Disney.

So that made me upset, which partially led to my reinsertion into my journals and the vlog that followed.

I think possibly my favorite part of the early videos of Hank and John is John’s process in writing his third novel, Paper Towns, which I haven’t read yet, but I’m reading his first book now, Looking For Alaska. It’s funny now, as I’m about 35 pages in (I just started reading it this morning after my Editor-in-chief interview), but when I read it I hear it in my head in John’s voice. It’s kind of eerie, but it gives another dimension to the book. I don’t think I’ve ever really heard the voice of an author of a book that I like. Except for J.K. Rowling, but when I read Harry Potter I just hear it in my head with a British accent. And I hear Harry’s voice and Ron’s voice and Hermione’s voice whenever they speak. It’s different. I’ve never heard Megan McCafferty’s voice, and I got almost as invested in the Jessica Darling books as I did with Harry Potter. I think I’ve heard Chip Kidd speak in a video he posted on his website from Comic-con, but this was after I read The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners. I wish John Green were coming to Seattle on his book tour for Will Grayson, Will Grayson, his new book, co-written with David Levithan, who also co-wrote Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. I’ve been so void of books that I actually read for pleasure these last two years that I kind of forgot what it was like to like books. And I’m glad that I’m reading Alaska now.

Watching these Brotherhood 2.0 videos has made me realize lots of things. I won’t go into detail about all of them, but I’ll just let you – I’m a Nerdfighter.

Oh, my title refers to my favorite Tokyo Police Club song, as well as all this talk of books.

Don’t forget to be awesome,
❤ Abby

an awful lot of running

Been listening to the new MGMT song, and I’m not sure if I like it or not. Apparently, MGMT thinks so too.

It’s pretty funny though, right? I feel like Ben and Andrew were totally high when they wrote this. And perhaps when they recorded it too.

But that was just a funny lil’ lead-in. That’s now why I’m writing this post tonight.

WINTER QUARTER=PWND.

Yes, my fair readers (if I can call you fair), winter quarter is officially over, and now I have a good ten-day break until spring quarter starts. Although, I don’t really get ten days to rest. I have ten days to finish a couple reviews for Popwreckoning, work out like mad, clean my fish tank, order my books for spring quarter, and all the while trying not to spend any money. Wait…damnit books! Okay, I won’t spend money on ANYTHING else other than books. I’m not broke. I’m not, but I want to have enough money so that my trip to NYC for Laura’s birthday in July won’t make me broke. And I want to be able to sell my Sasquatch ticket to make back $170 (+$16 for Ticketmaster fees). No more Starbucks, no more tasty soup or salads from Coco Bobs, and not Subway. I’m brown-bagging it this quarter. The only thing I will spend money on will be gas. And Seattle parking when I go to shows. But this will take effect after I buy my ticket to see Chris Hardwick at the Showbox on April 9. OH RIGHT! I should tell you!

I was on Twitter the other day (like any other day), and I was debating whether or not to drive to Seattle two days in a row to see Spoon on friday and Chris Hardwick on saturday. All the while I was tagging my tweets with @Nerdist and @Spoontheband, which if you know Twitter, people can click to see all their @replies. So this was a real conundrum. I’ve been watching loads of Web Soup lately, because it just started back up again, and I’ve listened to 3 out of the 6 Nerdist podcasts (the Joel McHale one’s pretty good), and Nerdist is one of my favorite blogs. Apparently Chris (Hardwick) has just discovered how awesome Doctor Who is. I love it. Maybe if and when I meet him we’ll talk about DW. That’d be awesomely nerdy. BUT! After I stopped discussing my Seattle conundrum, my phone vibrated a short time after, and I got an email from my Twitter titled “Direct message from Chris Hardwick.” I was like, “FU-WHAT?” And this is what he said: “TWO DAYS. See me!!!” (In direct response to me considering driving to Seattle two days and see Spoon and Chris or just one day to see Spoon.) It made me all giddy. But in this instance, I was like, okay now I have to see him. CHRIS HARDWICK TOLD ME TO.

I kinda really dig him.

What else?

Speaking of Doctor Who – it starts in…SIXTEEN DAYS. Boo yeah. Just to prolong my distorted reality that Ten never actually regenerated, I’ll be watching loads of David Tennant episodes this week. I’ll try not to go on and on like I did a couple months ago. Sorry about that. Seriously, we were copy-editing an issue of the Ledger a few weeks ago and I genuinely forgot that tenant was spelled with one N. Hehe. But Tumblr’s been my new source of Tennant love, and LOLs.

Speaking of attractive men from the UK, Libby and I were watching 30 Rock tonight, and it was the second episode with Michael Sheen in it, and I can’t help but find him kinda really hot. I don’t know why. He wears a suit quite well, and his Welsh accent is sexy. When I mentioned that, Libby’s ears perked up and was like, “who is he?”

“That’s Michael Sheen. He was Frost in “Frost/Nixon,” and one of the Volturi.” Please don’t hate me for knowing that. It was unavoidable that I’d consume at least some information about New Moon from Oh No They Didn’t.

“Right, but he’s really hot!”

“Okay?”

“No, with long hair and facial hair, he’s really hot. He’s in Underworld: Rise of the Lycans!”

“When the hell did you watch that movie?”

“Today! It was on TV.”

“Oh, okay.”

And I rest Libby’s case.

Yeah, I know right? Mmmhmm.

He’s quite dashing as a normal Welsh man too.

In music news.

[Begin rant] I WANT TO BE AT SXSW RIGHT NOW. I REALLY REALLY REALLY DO. I KEEP SEEING ALL THESE TWEETS AND FACEBOOK POSTS FROM SXSW, AND IT MAKES ME SAD. I'VE LISTENED TO TWO LIVE STREAMS SO FAR – SPOON AND FRIGHTENED RABBIT. AND I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT WAS PLAYED EARLIER AND I MISSED IT GRRRRRRR!!! [End rant]

But I am going to see the Morning Benders at Sonic Boom on April 2nd. I've been trying to figure out a way to not to have to drive to Seattle and park, but my ferry plan has failed. Sonic Boom is a good 6 miles from the ferry dock, and I'm not about to walk 6 miles there and back. I could take some public transit, which I haven't done in a long time, but that'll take a good half an hour with the Seattle transit schedule Hmm. I'll keep that in mind. I just don't want to battle with Seattle traffic and pay $10 for parking. Plus, driving to Bremerton is way shorter than driving to Seattle. Half the distance to be exact. And if there's a chance that I'll be going to Seattle twice that week, I don't want to drive twice like I will be doing the next week.

Why would I possibly drive to Seattle twice a wee, two weeks in a row? Animal Collective and Danny Perez's "visual album" ODDSAC is having a screening at the Egyptian Theater on March 30th. It's gonna be all acid trippy and psychedelic and AMAZING. But the real reason I'm considering paying for this crazy bit of AnCo madness is that the info says that Perez and "members of Animal Collective" will accompany the screening. What exactly does "members of Animal Collective" mean? Does it mean that all members or just Deakin will be at the screening, because Deakin is playing a solo show at Neumo's the next day? Grrr. If I miss the chance to see Panda Bear in any capacity, I'll be heartbroken.

Looks like some fucking crazy stuff. Even The Stranger recommended going in this week’s issue.

Oh, I should probably address where my title came from. It’s another Doctor Who reference, but this one is from the Who-centric Trock (Timelord rock) band Chameleon Circuit. I don’t know why I didn’t discover them before now, because all my Youtube channels were pointing me into its direction. Seriously. The Vlog Brothers (Hank and John Green) were integral in getting DFTBA Records started, and Hank releases his nerdy stuff on it, and Chameleon Circuit is on DFTBA (Don’t forget to be awesome), and guess who’s in Chameleon Circuit?

This guy.

That’s right. Alex Day of his “Alex reads Twilight” videos. In them, he’s all snarky and British in his critique of Twilight. It’s quite entertaining. Yay for Nerdfighters!

“My name ain’t Luna, but I sure do love good!”

Okay, I think I’m done now.

❤ Abby

nobody steals from girl scouts

I miss Lemon Pastry Cremes. And when Peanut Butter Patties were still called Peanut Butter Patties, not Tagalongs. What the hell does that mean?

But anyway, I heard a story on the news today, about a guy who robbed a Girl Scout troop outside Safeway. She was an older Girl Scout, like 16, but still – IT’S HORRIBLE. Apparently, it was some short ginger with a goatee in his twenties. At least it’s more descriptive than an average height male in his thirties with sandy brown hair. But really? Who steals from Girl Scouts? You have to be completely desperate and heartless to do that. However, from this horrendous act came something good – the Safeway reimbursed the troop for all the money that was stolen, a radio station donated $1000 to the troop, and apparently some woman off the street gave the girl $100 after hearing about the robbery.

I bet Ginger feels pretty damn stupid now. If I were him I’d kick my own balls.

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Winter quarter is ALMOST over. I have two finals next week, but classes are over. THANK GOD. I was ready to be done with Creative Nonfiction halfway through the quarter. That might be why this quarter seemed so long. But I did have an interesting last day of class. We planned this stupid potluck for thursday; people brought veggies, doughnuts, baklava, and we had nachos. I was in charge of cheese. So I got to the office early, heated up the cheese in the crock pot, and got to class a couple minutes late. I wasn’t about to run across campus with a crock pot full of hot nacho cheese. I opened the door to class, and everyone clapped.

“For the cheese? Well we can’t have nachos without cheese.”

“The cheese too, but no! For this!” And Rachel pointed to the class publication.

Oh right, that thing that I spent hours on. I better get some fucking extra credit for doing that. Beaufort even said it was the best class publication we’ve had yet. Well…duh. I designed it. (LOL the Libertines song “Narcissist” just came on my itunes as I wrote that.) So everyone loved it – except MICHAEL, because his name isn’t ROBERT. I’ll explain. His name is Robert Michael, but he goes by his middle name in class. But I don’t care enough to pay attention, so I just followed what it said on his email, which is ROBERT MICHAEL. How the hell was I supposed to know that he went by his middle name? Oh well. I’m just glad to get out of that class, with all Beaufort’s crazy ass oil pastels, arbitrary grading techniques, and my classmates endless ramblings about either having children at a young age or going to Iraq. I’ve heard it all. I don’t really care anymore.

This was basically my attitude all throughout this quarter:

I just colorized this old photo for my mom to use for a flyer for her store. I like it a lot.

What else?

Oh! I’m heading to Mountlake Terrace High School tomorrow for the WJEA State Convention to judge. I have no idea what I’m judging yet, because Fern never got back to me. I should probably figure that out before I go tomorrow. Jesse Jones is the keynote speaker tomorrow, which I’m actually quite excited for. “Jesse Jones, King 5 News!” But it gets over pretty early in the afternoon, so I’m thinking I’m gonna take a little detour to Seattle on the way home and chill for awhile. There are certain things that I have to do that I haven’t done yet. I’ve never been to Elliott Bay Bookstore (I know, it’s horrible), Easy Street OR Sonic Boom, or Dick’s. Commence with the finger-wagging. But that reminds me – I just found out that the Morning Benders are going to play a free acoustic in-store at Sonic Boom on April 2nd before their show at the Crocodile (their 21+ show). I love them so much I might just drive up to see them. Plus, I have to buy Big Echo, and I’d rather not order it online. And I surely won’t be able to get it anywhere but Seattle.

I almost forgot. I was going to try and stop by the convention center, cause it’s Emerald City Comic-Con tomorrow. I can’t get into anything, but it would still be pretty fun walking around the place. And Leonard Nimoy’s gonna be there. Alexis is gonna go apeshit. It is Leonard Nimoy, after all.

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BEHOLD THE GAGA.

I watched this video this morning, and I didn’t know if I loved it or if I was disgusted with it. But it surely is something to be ogled at. I hate all the product placement though.

OH MY GOODNESS I ALMOST FORGOT.

I haven’t written about American Idol since last year’s finale, but last night was blasphemous enough to make me write about it here. If you don’t really care for AI, avert your eyes and finish watching “Telephone.”

I first have to say how much I hate Kara Dioguardi. She makes me want to…ugh…what’s really bad? Oh, she makes me want to rob a Girl Scout! She is such an attention whore. She just HAS to bring everything back to her. When any of the contestants have sang a song that she wrote, she is always, “when I wrote that song I was thinking about how much this guy….BLAH BLAH BLAH I’M STARVED FOR ATTENTION.” This week she made it even worse, even worse than when she got all hot and bothered after Casey’s first performance (you know, the pretty one?). Wednesday she fucking CRIED after Michael’s performance – the only man of color in the final 12. He said Kate Bush’s “A Woman’s Work,” and she was bawling. I wanted Simon to stab her with his pen right there. Or Ryan to kick her in the head. But that wasn’t what I came to rant about.

The top 12 is bullshit this year. Sure, it’s ten white people and two black people, and that’s it, but three out of the four people who got sent home this week didn’t deserve to.

Katelyn Epperly was bland and inconsistent, so she needed to go.
Todrick Hall had one of the best performances on wednesday with “Somebody to Love,” and I was sure that all the love that Glee has given that song would put him into the top 12, but no. America is stupid,
Lilly Scott was the only one who was consistent and completely sure about what kind of artist she was going to be. And she could sing, with a distinct voice, and she was really cool. She played a gazillion instruments – INCLUDING A MOOG. It really pissed me off that she went home.
Alex Lambert was freaking adorable. Okay, I wanted to chop the mullet off, and he needed a little time to gain more confidence, but he had so much potential and one of the best and most distinct voices there. His departure made me genuinely sad, because he was such a sweet and talented kid.

In my opinion these people should have gone home:

Paige Miles had the WORST performance this week, and she can’t pick a good song for shit. She had a voice, I’ll give her that, but she has no style and no consistency, and no personality.
Aaron Kelly is still getting used to his post-pubescent voice. I like the kid – he’s cute enough, and the country people need something in the top 12, because Haeley Smiles-Alot went home last week (THANK GOD I COULDN’T STAND THAT WHITE BLACK GIRL). It’s only fair for the country fans, but he needs time to grow into his voice. He’s going to struggle in the top 12, guaranteed.
Lee Dewyze needed to go home because as much as Simon seems to love him (I have no idea why), he isn’t special at all. For one thing, he has a shitty taste in music. Last week he said Hinder’s “Lips of an Angel,” which is perhaps one of the worst songs ever, and this week he did a heavier guitar-laden version of “Fireflies” by Owl City. Where the hell does he get his taste? From bad adult-alt radio. Apparently none of the judges listen to anything but pop radio, but Lee’s voice is like EVERY OTHER rock-lite band out there. Hinder, Shinedown, Nickelback, Theory of the Deadman, 3 Doors Down – they all suck ass. He’s a nice enough-looking guy, and I can understand why America likes him, because America likes Nickelback, but that doesn’t make it good.

Ugh. I’m really angry with this final 12. Crystal Bowersox better kick some ass. And Lacey Brown better figure out what kind of songs she wants to sing, and Siobhan Magnus better stay awesome. Andrew Garcia better get his shit together and pick some good songs, because the judges have been picking him apart these last few weeks. Other than that – I was glad that Tim Urban made it into the top 12, because he worked really hard to get there, and he did a bang-up job on “Hallelujah” on wednesday. It takes some balls to do that song, especially cause the judges were giving him such shit up until then. Ellen even got up on stage and gave him a hug. “I have to do this,” she gets out of her seat and rushes up to the stage, “that was fanTAStic!” And she hugged him. I was adorable. And he’s quite adorable too.

There’s a rabbit living in our yard. I left a carrot out for it earlier, and Millie started chasing after it when I let her and Lucy out to pee. Naturally, Lucy hasn’t been able to focus on anything other than sniffing out that rabbit when I take her outside. She’s easily distracted. But she’ll be here until tomorrow, so she’ll be sleeping in my bed tonight. I swear, I’m her second favorite person in the whole wide world. And she’s my second favorite dog in the whole wide world, although sometimes I like her more than Millie.

They’re both sleeping on the floor. It’s adorable.

Goodnight.

❤ Abby

Rules don’t stop me, forget about it

I’ll start off by saying-

So…yeah.

Keith’s looking PRETTY fine lately. Gah I need WAS so badly.

BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW.

It’s been….shit I don’t even know how many days it’s been since I last posted because of February’s fucked up 28-day month. Anyways, last week I went to a show after requesting press passes like the day before. Cutting it really close. But the pic ^^^^ up there is of John Van Deusen of the Lonely Forest. I got some REALLY good shots of him, and it didn’t hurt that I had the best view of him.

But it was at Neumos. Such a weird experience going up there for the first time since seeing WAS in July of 2008. I’ve driven by it a gazillion times, but I haven’t gone to a show there since. That could be because all the good shows at Neumos lately have been 21+. Only 3 more months and I’ll be free to go to any shows I want to! YES! ‘Twas a good show though. As I was waiting up front for my photo pass, I introduced myself to Alex, another photographer whom I’ve seen at a couple other shows. He has a wicked sweet camera, hella expensive, but it has 21 MEGAPIXELS, AND HD VIDEO. It’s the Canon 5D Mark II. I’ve been salivating over it for bit, but I know I don’t need it, and I can’t afford it. But the 5D Mark I is within reach, as the Mark II replaced it, so you can get good deals on Ebay. I found one for under $1000 the other day, and they retail at $2500-ish. I know, GOOD LORD. But I felt so accomplished after leaving Neumos that night because a.) I got sweet pics, and b.) I finally met another Seattle photog.

As far as after Tuesday, I’ve been busy as all hell. School, Ledger, and now I’m sick. Great. A week before finals and I get sick. AND IT SNOWED TODAY. March 8th, and it’s snowing. Way to go weather.

I want spring break. Right now. I’m way too ready for winter quarter to be over, because Beaufort’s class is driving me absolutely bonkers. I did write my final revision of one of my papers today, which will hopefully give me a good grade. I’m totally gonna lie in my cover memo and say I cried when I wrote it. Beaufort will eat that shit up.

Okay, I’m done now. Watching Signs. And my tasty tasty pork roast.

❤ Abby

oh my god you guys

“Rules Don’t Stop” is so fucking good.

I’ve said this in multiple places by now, but seriously. It’s so good. I’m way more excited for Barbara than I think I ever was for Brain Thrust Mastery. No lie.

I’ve listened to it a good 60+ times by now. I just kept pushing repeat on my iPod earlier. But it’s kind of awkward because my jeans don’t have front pockets, just back pockets, so every 2 minutes I’d press a button on my ass. Yeeaaaaaah.

The song needs to be longer. Way longer. Like 10 minutes. Or I need all of Barbara right now. It was the craziest thing. I was getting ready to go to school yesterday, and I had my computer logged into iPlayer to listen to Zane Lowe’s radio show, completely pessimistic from the two previous days of FAILURE. It was 11:20-ish. I was seriously going to get in my car and head to school, BUT THEN ZANE SAID IT. “We Are Scientists’ new song coming up.”

AHHHHHH!

So I sat on my bed, listening to Zane’s ridiculously long intro, playing “After Hours” or “Nobody Move” or something else in the background while saying random things that we as WAS fans already knew. And then the opening riff came on.

And I screamed like a crazy person. My door was closed, mind you, and mom came in thinking that I saw a rat, or I stepped on a pushpin, or I dropped my computer and it broke in two. But no, I was hearing the actual recording of WAS’s actual song from their actual new CD Barbara. It was so exciting that my heartbeat got all fluttery and I acted like even more of a crazy person, dancing around my room, shouting and pumping my fists into the air like Pauly D. No lie.

I love this song like Keith loves Andy.

Like Keith and Chris love Danny North.

Like Tapper loves Chris (Urb).

Fuck, like Carl and Pete USED to love eachother.

I’m off to listen to it another 60 more times.

YOU SHOULD TOO, DAMNIT.

❤ Abby

I started a Tumblog!

It’s right here. I kind of haven’t really stopped posting there for the last day and a half, cause it’s so much quicker than posting here, but you can include more things than on Twitter. Tumblr’s like a blog mixed with twitter. So I figured I should make myself present in the Tumblr world, cause where do I not exist on the internet? WordPress, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Myspace, Last.fm, Flickr, and now Tumblr. I’ve titled it “This Is A Tangent 2.0,” because I’m not creative. And it will include these posts as well as short lil’ bits of goodness, like videos, pictures, quotes, links, and SONGS. We can upload audio to Tumblr and have them play right there. It’s pretty cool.

This week has started out exponentially better than last week. Well, apart from “Rules Don’t Stop” not being played on Zane Lowe’s show on BBC radio this morning, today’s pretty alright. I didn’t feel like shit waking up, I have the easiest homework this week, and we watched a badass movie in my film class today. Check this sexy mofo –

Seriously, is Johnny Depp never not hot? Okay, Willy Wonka wasn’t sexy, but every other time, he’s so pretty. And Dead Man was by far the craziest movie we’ve watched in my Western class to date. It started out slow, and Crispin Glover was all creepy like he always is, and Johnny Depp saw a whore blowing a guy in an alley in this town called Machine, and he killed a guy, got shot, then an Indian came and rescued him and took him hella West. I mean, as pretty freaking West as you can get – Pacific Ocean West. Iggy Pop and Billy Bob Thornton were some mountain dudes who wanted to kill Johnny Depp, and Alfred Molina was a Christian dude who ran the trading post and all this happened in 90 minutes. You should watch it. Neil Young did the soundtrack, and it’s ace. Like, one of the coolest soundtracks I’ve ever heard.

That’s a nice segue, music!

I’ve been listening to a lot of The Automatic the last day or so, after seeing this project that one of my many internet friends, Polly has done. She gets college credit for this. Seriously. I vote that you go take a look at her pictures, and listen to this band:

What else?

Oh, I bought my Sasquatch ticket. But that’s only to cover my ass in case I happen to not get my press credentials, which then I’ll be sad and cry.

I should move my car, wait, no. Not now. Then I’ll get another ticket. Keep it in the garage, Abby. Don’t move it. I’ll do homework. Right, my feature story final draft is due tomorrow. Way to go me for recycling an old story idea. Half-assing is so much easier that way.

Hopefully tomorrow Zane Lowe will play “Rules Don’t Stop.” I’ve been major jonesing for new WAS lately. And I’m sure that any of my friends who doesn’t listen to WAS are tired of hearing about them. But I DON’T CARE. I love them that much.

Cheers.

❤ Abby

shitty ol’ case of the tuesdays

I’m serious. The only thing that went my today was when I checked my bank account and had $600 instead of $300 in my savings.

I parked in Cragle lot today, which is the last time I park there on a weekday, I swear. After the Ledger meeting, I went out to get the unpaid parking ticket out of my car so I could go pay it.

ANOTHER FUCKING TICKET SITTING ON MY WINDSHIELD.

So already pissed, I grabbed the second one from under my windshield wiper and the first one out of my glove box, and went upstairs to the cashier to pay both of them. I stood there for a few minutes while the lady punched in a bunch of numbers, and then told me that my card was declined.

FUCK. ME.

I needed to move money from my savings to checking. Tuesday didn’t like me today. Not at all.

And what made matters worse was that neither We Are Scientists NOR Arcade Fire were on the Sasquatch lineup. It’s a good lineup, don’t get me wrong, but Sasquatch NEEDS WAS.

Here’s the full lineup (I’m especially excited for bolded): My Morning Jacket, Pavement, Massive Attack, Ween, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Band of Horses, The National, LCD Soundsystem, Tegan & Sara, Broken Social Scene, Passion Pit, She & Him, Public Enemy, Nada Surf, The New Pornographers, The xx, Dirty Projectors, OK GO, Drive By Truckers, Kid Cudi, Deadmau5, The Long Winters, Minus the Bear, The Mountain Goats, Quasi, Camera Obscura, Fruit Bats, Brother Ali, Midlake, Dr. Dog, The Hold Steady, Caribou, Simian Mobile Disco, City & Colour, No Age, The Temper Trap, VEtiver, Miike Snow, Portugal. The Man, Telekinesis, The Middle East, Mayer Hawthorne, Why?, Girls, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes, Wale, The Lonely Forest, Japandroids, Boys Noize, YACHT, Laura Marling, Patrick Watson, Freelance Whales, Past Lives, Cymbals Eat Guitars, The Low Anthem, The Very Best, Phantogram, Neon Indian, Hudson Mohawke, Nurses, The Tallest Man On Earth, Fresh Espresso, Mumford & Sons, Jets Overhead, Tune-Yards, Shabazz Palaces, Fool’s Gold, Morning Teleportation, Z-Trip, Dam Funk, Local Natives, Avi Buffalo, Booka Shad, A-Trak, Yes Giantess, Craig Robinson, Rob Riggle, Garfunkel & Oates, Luke Burbank.

So last night was a super long and stressful one, making it harder for me to get to sleep, on top of the abdominal pains I was having. I sat in front of the computer, my heart race quickening every time Atlas Sound stopped playing a song (I was watching a live stream of the launch party at the Crocodile, ’cause it was 21+), and I was refreshing my twitter feed five times a minute. I swear. And then I almost pissed myself when some dude started posting fake headliners, like the Pixies, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine. I was thinking, “oh god this kind of makes sense, but what is it, 1995?” Cause Soundgarden’s making a new album and Rage had that whole Christmas single surge in the UK this year. Those soon turned out to be fake, even though dumbass people kept RTing it. Dumbasses.

The lineup’s good. I’ll admit. It needs more and better comedians. And WAS, but I’m super stoked for seeing Vampire Weekend again, because it was what…20 minutes at Deck the Hall Ball and all my pictures were shit.

Hopefully this video works. It’s one of the only things that made me happy today. The third person in. CHECK IT.

Hopefully more will be added to that list soon. There’s about 15 less artists than there was on the final lineup last year. But get your tickets on the 20th. Seriously. I don’t have to *most likely* but you do. I want to camp with someone other than just my sister.

❤ Abby

I’m pretty sure I needed to pay my parking ticket today. Oops.

^^^Completely unrelated^^^

Today was Valentine’s Day. Blech. I hate how some people abbreviate it to V-day. It makes it sound like “Virgin Day” or “Vagina Day.” It’s just a lame day. It had a lame color scheme, and makes all us singles feel lame about being single. We’re the ones who don’t have to spend money on dinner and gifts, so who got the short end of the stick here? My mom’s friend had the hardest time finding reservations for dinner tonight because – not only is it Valentine’s Day, but it was their anniversary. That sucks for two reasons – you can’t get reservations, and it’s cliche. Valentine’s Day is just one big fat cliche.

So Happy Singles Awareness Day everyone who didn’t have to buy a teddy bear and chocolates and jewelry and some other random cheesy gift. But bravo if you came up with some really creative to do for your significant other.

Totally not the point of this post either.

The Sasquatch Lineup is being announced tomorrow night. Too bad the launch party at the Crocodile is 21+, cause that would be a cool place to be tomorrow. Soon after, applications for press passes will be online, and I’ll be able to shoot my first festival. For my 21st birthday. I’ve said this possibly way too many times, and I’m guessing that you’re getting tired of me mentioning it.

If these artists showed up to Sasquatch, it would be a dream come true.

WE ARE SCIENTISTS.

I will cry if this happens. And if it doesn’t.

ARCADE FIRE.

Funeral=Greatest album of the decade. Nuff said.

THEM CROOKED VULTURES.

I never loved Dave Grohl him as much as WAS, but I’ve loved him for much longer, so it’s almost an equal total amount of love. And fucking John Paul Jones. I mean, you don’t get much more legendary than Zeppelin. If I got to shoot them, good lord that would be cool.

THE MORNING BENDERS.

Big Echo is so amazing, and their Seattle show in April is 21+, and I’m heartbroken. I’ve seen them twice now as openers, and I would really like to see a show that’s just them. Festival would be cool too. And SXSW is hella expensive and not gonna happen this year.

FRIGHTENED RABBIT.

Thank you Susie for getting me into this band by proxy. They’re great. And again, SXSW has foiled me. But they aren’t going to be at Coachella, so it would be logical to hit up Sasquatch, even though they have a Seattle show like 2 weeks before Sasquatch.

PHOENIX.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t happening because May is when Thomas’ baby is due, but it would phenomenal to see them again, because they’re Phenomenal.

THE NATIONAL.

I haven’t gotten to see them yet, and they have a new album coming out this year, so it would be only fitting. And there’s a break in the tour schedule that would naturally fit Sasquatch.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND.

Twenty. Freaking. Minutes. At Deck the Hall Ball, and I got sucky pictures of them, so I’d love to have a second chance at shooting them. And have more time with them than twenty minutes. Seriously.

MGMT.

New album this year. Sasquatch is just your crowd guys. Come on.

HOT CHIP.

How great would they be in the Rumpus Room?

PANDA BEAR.

I have no idea who mentioned the possibility of Panda, because AnCo was there last year, so it most likely won’t happen. But hey, you can dream, right?

I can’t think if any other bands that would blow my mind right now that have any possibility of going, but it hopefully I will get a nice surprise tomorrow night.

*FINGERS CROSSED FOR WE ARE SCIENTISTS*

❤ Abby

random nonsensical updates that have nothing to do with eachother

I just had to start with this video because my favorite band from San Fran that opened for We Are Scientists in 2008 released it this morning. It makes my heart feel full. It’s such a Valentine’s Day-y song. So cute and lovely, but not cutesy. Not only is it shot beautifully by Yours Truly (not me, the name of the production team), but it’s all warm and fuzzy and sweet. Don’t you just love the first couple lyrics? They’re kinda dirty, but from Chris’s lil’ crooner voice it sounds adorable.

I love the bit at the end when Chris explains what it’s about, the Phil Specter shout-out, when Julian and the two other drummers are playing in unison, and the violins, and Chris’s voice, and the Echo Chamber Orchestra, and John Vanderslice, and all the hugs. I just love it. It was a great way to end the day after finally turning in my personal essay for creative non-fiction, checking the IAS class schedule for next quarter, and having the easier midterm ever.

Seriously. Today was a good day. And Gary and Lucy came over. I swear I haven’t seen her since right after Christmas. The last two times Gary came over I wasn’t home. I was at Ledger one weekend and seeing Phoenix the next time. I was almost too excited to get home today, and when I walked in the door, Lucy could not have been more excited to see me. I really am her favorite. I’m not gonna lie. She didn’t stop jumping on me for 5 minutes and whining and gnawing at my wrist. That’s how she shows her love. She chews on me. I don’t know what I would have done if that dog had gotten away the night of Gary’s accident. I don’t know what HE would have done, because she’s clearly the best part of his life right now. Most likely what’s keeping him from looking for a job. Anyway… so…yeah. Good midterm.

Took photos at a school event today. It was called “Am I Beautiful?” So I was expecting this motivational thing about self-esteem, being yourself, ignoring stereotypes and uber skinny models, blah, blah…high school stuff, but nope. I walked into this room and a Bible was sitting on the table.

Uh. Oh.

It was a Christy event. That’s what I call them. I think it’s more vague that “Jesusy” or “Gody.” And besides, Gody could be misinterpreted as gawdy. And that’s not what I meant. No, it was Christy. I’m sitting there, listening to this woman talk about God and Jesus and the Bible and creation and all that, and I’m just taking pictures. At one point I think the woman said something about wanting scientists to come out realizing that they were wrong and be all “creation woot!” Well, not in those words, but basically that. It was WEIRD. They ended the thing with a prayer, and I snapped a couple pictures of the prayer, which turned out kinda cool actually, and I skipped out of the room before they opened their eyes. It was weird.

Oh, okay. Guess who’s April schedule just got even more inconvenient?

Well, obviously mine. But I just found out that Chris Hardwick, aka Nerdist, aka the host of G4’s Web Soup, aka the former host of MTV’s Singled Out aka one half of comedy duo Hard n’ Phirm is going to be in Seattle at the Showbox at the Market performing stand up on GUESS WHICH DAY?

No seriously guess.

Nope.

Not quite.

You’re getting warmer.

Okay, I’ll tell you. April 10th. Same night as Spoon, AND Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros. And I find out today that layout weekend is April 9-11. So basically I have to decide to either drive 200 miles in two days or just go see Spoon on Friday the 9th and bail on Jonsi and Chris Hardwick the 10th. Cause I’m not missing Spoon. Not even for layout weekend. And besides, it’s on a friday, and we never stay as late on fridays. But saturday will be a problem. I skipped out early to see the Cribs two weeks ago and we ended up staying really late on sunday. But then again we didn’t get a lot done on friday. I still have two months to figure this shit out, but I just know I’m not missing Spoon. Plus, La Roux and Florence + the Machine are both within the next ten days of Spoon. Hooray for insane schedules!

Five…wait, four more days until we find out the Sasquatch Lineup. I cannot wait any longer. I need The Doctor right now to take me in the Tardis to four days into the future so I can know if my beloved Scientists will be gracing any of the stages at the Gorge. If they don’t Miranda and I have already devised a plan to record a video begging them to come. I think I might cry either way – if they do or they don’t come. And I’m also keeping my fingers crossed for Arcade Fire. That’d be wicked. And I think someone on Last.fm mentioned Panda Bear possibly coming back because of his new solo album. I would die. I would seriously keel over and die if Panda, WAS and Arcade Fire were there for me to celebrate my birthday. Good lord yes. And what else would be amazing – if the Morning Benders came to Sasquatch! They’re playing SXSW, why not come north? It’s only fair because their show at the Crocodile in April is 21+. Don’t they remember what it was like to not be able to go to shows they wanted to see? It wasn’t that long ago. Grrr. I should have started a Facebook campaign to bring my favorite artists to Sasquatch.

Well, we’ll know in four days, won’t we?

What else?

I won’t talk about Valentine’s Day until Valentine’s Day. But as of right now, I still don’t like it. It has an ugly color scheme, like the color of those creepy cartoony diagrams of your insides, and it’s like they have to put nasty chocolates in the boxes to make the mediocre ones seem amazing. Honestly, who eats the coconut ones? I don’t. I like Easter candy much more. You don’t get coconut eggs. Easter and Halloween candy isn’t a mystery. You don’t have to punch a hole in the bottom of Easter and Halloween chocolates to know what’s inside. Damn Valentine’s Day.

You know what I wanna do? Go to the new Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle. I’ve seen pictures, and I don’t think I’ve ever been to one. In 8th grade we went to Planet Hollywood in New York, but never the Hard Rock. Pretty sure. And it’s right off Pike Place, so it’s in a nice part of town, not sketchy at all.

I need voodoo doughnuts. I want a maple bacon doughnut right now. When Cassie comes to visit, she better bring me doughnuts. Or if it wasn’t layout weekend this weekend I’d drive down for the long weekend and stay with her. Oh well, we’re going to make a good paper. I’m proud of my pictures, and I think we have good content. I wasn’t at the meeting tuesday because of my stupid writing group for creative nonfiction, so I’m not sure what’s going in this issue.

I told you it was nonsensical.

I’m having Editors withdrawals. Off to watch more Youtube videos of various live performances.

❤ Abby