^^^^Ezra is adorable^^^^

I changed my header. It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but I’m procrastinating finishing my paper for David’s class, so I figured where better to go than my own blog, right?

So as you can see, I have a new photo of Ezra. And it’s from Sasquatch. And I really don’t want to write all about it because I already have.

But I’d gladly marry Ezra Koenig, because not only is he adorable and dresses well, he writes catchy awesome songs about crazy-ass cousins and the oxford comma (which I do give a fuck about), AND HE’S A FONT NERD. Seriously. Both Vampire Weekend albums use Futura for the cover. Futura, as in Wes Anderson’s font of choice for EVERYTHING. Yeah. Ezra, it’s destiny.

Here are the recaps from the ‘Squatch though: Monday, Sunday, and Saturday. I have more pictures here too. I took over a thousand photos at Sasquatch. Close to 2000, but I deleted a bunch in my free time while I was there, whatever small amount of free time I did have.

But I will say one thing – I’ve never felt cooler in my entire life. I’m serious. I was standing in line with my camera and camera bag, and several people kept saying “they’re not gonna let you in with that.” I just rolled up my sleeve, showed them my wristbands and they were all, “yes they are!” I thought Deck made me feel cool – that was nothing. I sported my wristbands for many days after I got home. Including my “Drinking age verified” one. I should have taken a picture of my arm. Oh well.

Wait, did I just say “drinking age verified?”

I sure did, Abby!

So yes, I’m 21 now. And I can’t say anything especially 21-ish has happened. I didn’t go to a bar. I haven’t drank a beer yet. Libby kept insisting that I get a PBR, which would have been ridiculous, because I hear that they’re disgusting, and the alcohol at Sasquatch was horrendously overpriced. I have looked through all the show calendars in Seattle, and sadly enough I haven’t found any particularly awesome 21+ shows for the month of June. I did find a Portugal. The Man show at the end of the month though, but it’s all ages. Oh well. I still have my 2 (or possibly 3?) WAS shows this summer. They’re going to be awesome. I just have to think of a gift to bring them. Something cool. As cool as I felt at Sasquatch.

Okay. I’ll stop talking about it now.

School. Ledger. Finals. That’s what I’ll talk about.

I don’t think I failed my final yesterday, which is good. I actually feel quite pleased with my performance, insanely enough, because I had barely any time to study this weekend. Literally, I studied Saturday night from about 1 to 4 a.m., but only because the coffee I’d gotten at 10 p.m. hadn’t worn off yet. I would have liked to have at least ten more hours in each day this weekend, because the most… can I say unbelievable? Yes, because at the time it was unbelievable. It’s still pretty damn hard to believe, but kind of funny. I won’t detail it here, (I’ll link you!)but I’ll just say that it was the hardest thing we’ve had to deal with on the newspaper…ever. At least since I’ve been there. And I hope that nothing like this happens ever again.

Ugh….

Deadmau5 is giving me energy right now to finish my subculture feature, which is due tomorrow night by 5 p.m. by email to Chris. And I still have to write my final essay for David’s class, which is – get this – about why it’s important to study advertising and consumer culture. Seriously. And we only have to use 4 of our assigned readings in it as back up. It is 5 pages, so I should get started writing. But David’s so lax with his grading I’m not even worried about it. I got 56/60 on my midterm, and 58/60 on my final project, and like 10/10 on every insignificant assignment. I think I’m good.

Off to listen to Deadmau5. The Mountain Goats aren’t nearly as energetic as I need right now. And I’m afraid if I start again on my Local Natives binge, I’ll forget to actually write my paper, because I love Gorilla Manor THAT MUCH. It’s SO GOOD. I just wished someone would have recorded Taylor Rice’s super sweet dedication of “Who Knows Who Cares” to his super awesome girlfriend on her 30th birthday as Sasquatch (which also happened to be my birthday, and Amber’s dad’s from the Dirty Projectors. It was weird.)

This is one of the best ones I can find. The sound is relatively good. Even though “Sun Hands” and “Who Knows Who Cares” are my jams, “Airplanes” is still pretty damn good.

❤ Abby

Another week of FREAKING AWESOME AWESOMENESS

I took that video. Eddie Vedder. Fuck yeah.

But I’ll get to that in a bit.

I’ve told quite a few people this, but I feel like something bad is going to happen to me soon. I mean really. It’s like the stars have been doing a conga line in my favor for the past 3 weeks. I’m serious. I don’t mean to gloat, but this is a list of everything good that has happened to me in the last 3 weeks.

1. I got editor-in-chief.
2. I got press-passed to Spoon.
3. I inexplicably got after-show passes to Spoon, in turn, meeting them.
4. I got groped by Chris Hardwick, then met him, and he signed my gun-wielding cougar bag (yes, in that order).
5. I got press passed to Florence + the Machine, who was amazing.
6. (THIS IS THE BIG ONE) I GOT CREDENTIALS FOR SASQUAAAAAAATTTCCCHHH!!!!
7. Mom and I went and saw Conan on Monday, which was already awesome…
8. …but then he brought out special guest EDDIE VEDDER. WHAT THE HELL?
9. And mom got out of a ticket for a moving violation after Conan’s show in Seattle.

Now my car needs to explode or something. Or my hard drive will die. Or we won’t get all new technology for Ledger next year. Oh god please not that.

Or maybe karma is coming back around after all the crap that happened from 2006-2008. I mean, I got a life-threatening disease for no apparent reason and the first college I went to sucked ass, and a 5-year friendship ended in a ridiculous clusterfuck. And 2009 was pretty scary too. Mom got in a car accident, Dad collapsed, Gary crashed his car, and we had to give him Cedric back. I don’t know. Hopefully all this good stuff is my return for everything shitty that has happened the last 4 years.

Okay, so I filled you in until last…fuck it was ten days ago!

Florence. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a press pass for her until literally the morning of. It hadn’t been that close since Deck the Hall Ball, which was 5 hours before. So I got on Holy Hail’s guestlist, but once I got there they said I couldn’t take pictures after Holy Hail or else they’d take away my camera or something. So I had to be shifty. I literally had to prop my elbow on Libby’s shoulder so her head would block my camera from the security guard’s view. I mean, I got on the list, so I wanted to take pictures of the whole set. Libby was happy though, because Florence in her new favorite, and if she didn’t have to be to school the next day, I would have wanted to stay after and say hi, because Florence Welch is absolutely adorable.

This was one of my favorite shots from the night.

Um…

Saturday. Saturday morning I emailed Jaime from the Sasquatch people asking her if she got the email I forwarded from Josh with my assignment letter. She emailed me back a little later telling me that she had, and ten minutes later, she sent me this:

You are all set by the way. Approved!

That was it. And I started to cry. Crying and laughing and shaking and jumping up and down. Millie looked at my like I was a crazy person. I probably sounded like I was a complete nutter, but I didn’t care. No one was home, and I got credentials for the Sasquatch festival. Libby gets my tickets now. She gets to go. I was so nervous that my mother would have to buy her Stubhub tickets for a kajillion bucks, but she doesn’t have to. AND I can sell my Saturday ticket because Libby has prom that day, and I can probably make back any money I use to rent out the badass lens I want. I’m sure I can manage with my 28-135mm, but I REALLY want to rent the 70-200mm from Glazer’s. It’s so badass. And beautiful. And heavy, but I have a monopod that will help with that. Oh god I can’t wait. Just over a month….oh god. 5 WEEKS. 5 WEEKS AND I’M 21. REJOICE, HALLELUJAH!

Okay, I’ll calm down now.

But seriously, 5 weeks isn’t all that far off. I don’t even want to focus on school right now.

There is one buzzkill, but it will turn out better anyway. Laura’s peeps won’t let guests stay, so if I were to go to NJ in July, I’d have to pay for a hotel, and when I heard that, we were like, “hell naw.” So Laura’s gonna come to Portland for her birthday and we’ll party in PDX. I’m kind of gutted that I won’t be able to hang out with Susie in NYC while she’s there, because it’s always nice to meet my WAS peeps in person. And it’s too bad that graduation is the day before Barbara comes out, or else I’d be all for driving to San Francisco to Amber’s for a Barbara release party with penis pasta. D’aww that’d be great. But Libby’s graduating. We’ll do some cool stuff of our own.

Oh my god Libby’s graduating in less than two months. Holy shit.

I have such ADD. What was I saying? OH CONAN. Wait, I wasn’t quite to Conan yet, but I think I got the point across about Sasquatch. It’s awesomely awesome.

Now to Conan.

Mom and I got the cheap seats for Conan’s show at McCaw Hall in the Seattle Center on Monday, and I left before my third class, which is my favorite class, but Conan’s worth it. We got there way too early, so we hung out in the Center for 2 hours before going to the Sport for dinner. I got a turkey sandwich and salad, and the bread I had was so stale. I swear. It was chewy and hard to eat, and dry. Ack. The salad was good though, with crispy fried onion strings. Mmmm. Mom and I didn’t get any Conan merch, but the tee shirts were like $30. And we already paid $37.50 for the show. But now thinking about it, it was worth even the expensive seats at $77.50. If I’d known what was going to happen, I would have paid the $77.50.

Conan’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour” was awesome and funny, and we got to see the Masturbating bear, which is now the Self-Pleasuring Panda, which is ridiculous because apparently the Masturbating Bear is NBC’s “intellectual property.” INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. It’s a MASTURBATING BEAR for Christ’s sake! What is NBC going to do with it? And the Chuck Norris lever is NBC’s too, so Conan had to rename it. But we did get some great oldies but goodies. Mom and I would have liked to see “In the Year 2000,” but it was okay that we didn’t. Andy Richter was there, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was there, and Reggie Watts opened the show. That reminds me, I have to download some of his stuff. He’s hysterical. But the entire theater gasped in awe when towards the end of the show, Conan was like, “I’d like to bring out my very special guest, Eddie Vedder everyone!”

Wait, what?

No.

Really.

It can’t be.

That was mine and mother’s short dialogue as everyone was equally confounded and excited.

And Mr. Vedder walked out on stage and the audience rose into a standing ovation. It was just him and a mandolin. And after everyone sat back down to realize that he was actually standing on that stage, it was silent. He played “Rise” from the Into the Wild soundtrack, and it was so beautiful. So somber and epic, it made mom almost cry. “I want him to sing at my funeral. No really.” Mom and I talk so alike. I got video of the second half of the song, but haven’t uploaded it to Youtube yet. I should probably do that, because I have video of Conan singing too, and a great “local commercial” Andy did for the Fremont troll. “Come see what has mildly impressed out-of-towners for decades, the Fremont troll.” I love Andy.

But Conan can actually sing, and his Strat is wicked.

See! Eddie!

He has aged so well. He’s way better looking now than he was in the 90s.

OH MY GOD THAT REMINDS ME. Soundgarden played a secret show at the Showbox last friday. That was the one piece of fail I incurred this week. I failed to get tickets, but Anna got one, and she said it was amazing. The first show in 13 years, dude that’s amazing. Okay. I think I’m done. I’ll add more videos from Conan’s show if and when I get them posted to Youtube.

For now, I’ll leave you with this wonderful La Blogotheque video of Grizzly Bear. I love them

❤ 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