I think I’ve got it figured out. It took me a long time to put these in the correct order, because I kept switching them around.
I originally wanted to just make this a “top albums” post, but because I went to so many damn shows this year, I realized that I should add that in as well.
Top Albums of 2010.
20. Beach House – Teen Dream
19. Sleigh Bells – Treats
18. Broken Bells – Broken Bells
17. Matt and Kim – Sidewalks
16. Lightspeed Champion – Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
15. Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More
14. The National – High Violet
13. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest
12. Stars – The Five Ghosts
11. Cee-Lo Green – The Lady killer
10. Frightened Rabbit – A Winter of Mixed Drinks
9. Black Keys – Brothers
8. Vampire Weekend – Contra
7. Spoon – Transference
6. Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History
5. Morning Benders – Big Echo
4. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
3. We Are Scientists – Barbara
2. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
1. Menomena – Mines
Top Live Shows of 2010
Honorable mention: Weezer at Bumbershoot. I think if I’d have been able to shoot this, it would have been in the top ten.
10. Builders and the Butchers at Berbati’s Pan
9. Florence + the Machine at the Showbox at the Market
8. Arcade Fire at Key Arena
7. Panda Bear at the Crystal Ballroom
6. Phoenix at the Showbox SoDo
5. Frightened Rabbit at the Showbox at the Market
4. Editors at the Showbox at the Market
3. Spoon at the Moore Theater
2. Menomena at the Crystal Ballroom
1. EVERY SINGLE WE ARE SCIENTISTS SHOW I ATTENDED ON THE WEST COAST INCLUDING ALL OF AARON PFENNING BECAUSE HE’S AN HONORARY MEMBER OF WAS.
Here’s my vlog from the first two parts of WASTRAVAGANZA so I don’t have to explain anything. So if you feel like experiencing these things in order, watch the video below first before reading the rest of this.
Otherwise, I don’t give a shit if you read before you watch or watch before you read.
So now that you’ve been completely caught up on the awesome that was the last week of July, let me tell you about the how even the last 5 days of my life were better than that stuff my face talked about up there.
Thursday afternoon I drove to Adrian’s house in the Couve. We ate corn dogs and watched a Scottish b-movie called Dog Soldiers about werewolves. It was ridiculous. Then we went to Costco to get some food for our trip. It didn’t occur to me that you can’t really get normal sized portions of anything at Costco, so we bought a 50 pack of cream cheese packets for our bagels. We ate three. Because we failed to put ice in the cooler. Thankfully it was only about $4 so we didn’t waste much money. We literally left Costco five minutes before it closed. Then I put more gas in my car. The next morning around 8:15 we left to pick up Ash from Voodoo Too before we set out on our trip to San Francisco.
SAN FRANCISCO, YOU SAY?
Yes, my friend. In case you didn’t know – I traveled 800-ish miles south to San Francisco to see We Are Scientists, along with some of my other favorite people. A few of which I’d never met in person, so this was definitely a new experience.
But I’ll get to the really cool stuff in a minute, after the clusterfuck that was my car.
No, really. My car drove wonderfully because we’d just maintenanced her the day before so Janice was good to me. I just wasn’t good to her. We didn’t stop (besides pissing at rest stops) until we got past the OR/CA border where some border patrol thing stopped us to ask if we had fresh fruit or plants. I wanted to be like, “no, but we’re harboring illegal aliens from Canada and we had an endangered species of ape shoved in the trunk.” I don’t think they would have been very amused.
So that was weird.
But then we stopped in…Redding I think…to go to In N Out, because I’ve never been to one. Because it was around 5:30 p.m., as soon as we stepped out of the car the sky breathed its hot, humid breath on us pale out-of-towners. Seriously, everyone who walked into that place was tan, thin, and mostly blonde. Weird. But I never realized that the In N Out menu was so limited. I hoped for chicken, but because they only sold hamburgers, Adrian and I got french fries while Ash got a cheeseburger “animal style.” Apparently that means that the bun is toasted or something, but “animal style” it sounds like they just ran outside and slaughtered a fresh cow and stepped all over the meat to make the burger. Ack. But it looked tasty. Our fries were really good. I can say I’ve eaten at In N Out now, but it’s a bit of a cop-out getting just the fries. Oh well.
Several more hours went by, and we were literally like 60 miles from our destination and I had to stop and get gas. It was a good thing we did though, because there wasn’t a station for about a gazillion miles after that. I turned off the highway, around to get into the station and went over a giant curb, bottoming out, and Janice made angry noises at me while I drug her undercarriage along the road. Freaking out that I’d busted my radiator or something like that, the LEAKING coming from Janice almost made me piss myself. Thankfully this nice woman came up to us and reassured us that it was our AC letting off condensation because, ya know, it had been on for a good 600 miles. I didn’t kill my car, yay!
Because I was so startled by our near run-in with car trouble, I failed to realize that I’d set my phone on top of my car when we DROVE AWAY. Coming around the turn to get on the highway, Adrian and Ash noticed that something fell off my car. We backed up in the freeway entrance and parked my car and looked. And looked. I was worried that I’d run over my phone and the pieces from lodged in my tires. Tremendously, they weren’t. The back cover came off and the battery flew out, but we eventually found the phone part and Adrian put her hand into the prickly bush to retrieve it for me. I love her. In the car Ash looked for “poisonous california plants” from her iPhone just to see if what we were stepping through wasn’t going to give us a rash or kill us or something.
I’m obviously not dead, and if I’d gotten a horrendous rash, I’d have already mentioned it. So no poisonous plants.
It was so weird once we got to the bay, because this heavy sheet of fog that reminded me of Mount Doom hovered over the city, but with a layer of clear sky right below it. It looked pretty creepy. And this was about 8 p.m. I think. Yeah. Cause we got to the hotel at 8:30.
THE HOTEL THAT DOLORES GOT US. We stayed at the airport Marriott that night, and Adrian almost finished up her dolls that night. Aren’t they awesome?
Not creepy in the slightest. Mine are the big ones in gold jumpsuits on the left. Original Keithdoll is the really big one with pink eyes and a Tapper pin. Aarondoll was added after this, because I got to perform surgery on an extra Chrisdoll so Adrian could stuff Aarondoll with Chrisdoll’s stuffing.
That sounded dirty.
That night at the hotel I also learned the Fresca is Adrian’s favorite drink, southern flight attendants with those ridiculous accents actually do exist, and hotel porn is really expensive. Nah, we didn’t actually buy any. We watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and That’s So Raven the next morning. We’re cool like that.
Also that night at the hotel, we got to meet up with Dolores, who was one of the people whom I was dying to meet in person because before she solely existed to me on the internet. She’s so funny and feisty. She stuck around at the hotel for awhile after we drove around Millbrae for a bit and got pizza. We watched more Ace Ventura, ogled at Adrian’s dolls, and talked about Kings of Leon and Amanda Bynes.
Real quick – OUR HOTEL ROOM HAD A BOTTLE OPENER IN THE BATHROOM. MOUNTED ON THE WALL.
Since the hotel didn’t have free Wi-Fi, we went to bed relatively early. The next morning we ate bagels and showered before we departed to our Slorestravaganza at the Metro Hotel. I didn’t drive this time, because I don’t like hills. So Ash got to check parking up a hill in San Francisco off her list. It was kind of awesome, because literally the San Fran hills are horrible. Well, we first parked right outside the hotel to unpack our shit. I noticed that there was a sign in the window warning people about recent sneaky thieves, and then saw that our hotel was on the most adorable block (save Haight/Ashbury). We were next to (and our room was actually above) a Comic book store, a vintage clothing store was to the right of the Metro, then a vintage record store, and a cute little grocery store. Can I move to San Francisco please? Once we go all our Fresca, doughnuts, and dolls unpacked, we noticed that our hotel room had a tiny back room. The walls were all painted red, and a queen-sized bed sat raised up two steps. There was a mirror too. That’s all that was in the room. I wondered what one would do in that room, so we started calling it the sex dungeon. Then someone said that we needed to get Aaron Pfenning back to our sex dungeon (with how wasted he was, I’m sure he would have obliged if we asked).
While Adrian stayed back to finish the dolls, Ash and I walked .7 miles (which seemed way longer up and down hills) to this tea place that she’d heard about from Kevin Rose of Diggnation. He’s her idol, and he’s apparently a master of tea.
This is where we enjoyed our English breakfast (me a chai) and stumbled upon Kevin himself.
Ash about vomited, because she loves him so much. We were sitting against the window near the door and Kevin was up in the back nook area. So after…about an hour chilling, freaking out, drinking tea (because I’m such an Anglophile) Kevin was leaving, and as he walked by our table, Ash said “Kevin, I just wanted you to know that I’m a huge fan of Diggnation.” “Oh thanks, what’s your name?” “Ashley, would it be alright if I got a picture with you?” Ash was fangirling so much she said her full name. Kevin was very friendly and gracious, and when he left the waitress said that it happens a lot. So Kevin probably didn’t feel as weird as we did.
After this happened we wanted to run into Steve Jobs so Ash could punch him in the face. I really wanted to see that, actually. Ash had terrible reception on her new iPhone, so Jobs deserved it.
Because it was warmer outside than we expected, and Adrian had texted me letting me know that Renee and Meghan had gotten to the hotel already, we took a bus up the hill to the hotel. It was so nice seeing Renee again, after our fantastic Spoon encounter in April….awww after show passes…but this was SO MUCH BETTER. After sitting around for awhile, Ash and Adrian (who’d finished Aarondoll in the time we’d been gone) went in my car and Meghan and Renee went in their rental car. Because Adrian’s hardcore and a bit paranoid, we dropped her off at the venue early before heading over to Amber and Scott’s loft (!!!) There was already a girl waiting outside Slim’s but only one, so Adrian got to save our seven spots in line. Yeah. Seven. But it turns out that Slim’s stage is very long, so there was plenty of room. If we’d been at Neumo’s we would have covered the entire front of the stage.
So we left Adrian is this sketchy-looking area, wearily…but it’s okay because she was there when the guys got there for sound check. And she got to give Aaron and Danny their dolls, which they very much appreciated.
Uhhhh, Aaron’s so hot.
But Ash and I drove just over a mile to Amber’s loft, and they had to ring us up. I think I was the most excited I’d been all day, actually, because I’d never met Amber in real life and she’s one of my favorite people in the world. One of my favorite tiny people. They rung us up to the fifth floor and I giddily hustled down the hallway and Amber greeted me at the door with her cat to a wonderful hug. I can’t for the life of me remember which cat it was. There were three, so it’s hard to keep straight. Let me tell you – the Gregorys’ loft is pretty sweet. We didn’t have penis pasta, but we did have tasty basil pasta with parmesan cheese – and Pirate Booty. Amber said that even though she couldn’t get penis pasta, she would have other food that had either a sexual-sounding name or was phallic in shape. Pirate Booty and summer sausage. I love her.
Ash and I were the first ones there, and by that time Ash had gotten a damn ear infection, so Amber got her some benadryl, then Renee and Meghan got there so we sat around and ate food and talked for about an hour before leaving for the venue. Because Renee’s awesome, she got these plushy mustaches from Comic con for Meghan and Amber, because we all know how much they love mustaches. I’d taken Adrian’s cat bag with all her dolls in them, so Amber could pick out her dolls and Dolores could get hers.
Amber’s dolls.
Dolores’ dolls.
My favorite part about Amber’s dolls is that Keith has a v-neck and Chris has a crew neck. Adrian, you’re awesome.
When it got to be around 7:15, we all left Amber’s house in car my so she could get dressed in her snazzy show garb and Scott could get some work done before heading out. We got to the venue and there were probably about 10 people in line after Adrian, but we stood up front with her because she saved our spots. That was after I got my will call and Renee got her guest list spot (even though at first her name wasn’t on it because Keith and Chris suck). She called Chris (I think) and got it all squared away, because Renee’s cool like that.
We got into the venue at just after 8, and went and took our spot in front of Keith. I was between the speaker and this obnoxious pole, but the pole kept me cool…and something to drum on. Amber was to my left taking pretty pictures with her magic camera and pretty f1.4 lens. I’m still waiting for those pictures, too. You can hear us in several of the videos I took, because we didn’t stop talking. Meeting everyone in person was so not weird. I was expecting to have this awkward feeling of “oh right, you exist. What should we talk about?” But it was like, “hey I know you!” It wasn’t like meeting someone for the first time, more like seeing someone you haven’t seen in a REALLY long time. That’s how it was. And also kind of how it was when we talked to Keith and Chris that night. Even though we’d seen them the week before.
Aaron Pfenning came on stage around 9, and he was dreamy. Like…hnnng. I still get a girl boner watching videos back. And even better, he spent quite a bit of time over by us during his set. After all, we were most definitely his biggest fans in the venue. At one point I was looking over at Renee and Adrian, and failed to realize that he’d stepped up on the speaker and wrapped himself around the pole I’d been clutching all night. Renee laughed and gestured for me to look up, and I found myself looking right at his Marty McFly sneakers above my head. Again a little later during “Come Close to Me” (that song makes me thing dirty things) I was singing along because I’ve listened to that song so many time, and he came right up to Amber and me and sang to me with his floppy blonde bangs in his face. This made for quite a good photo opportunity for Amber though. It just made me awkward, still singing along and smiling a HUGE fangirly smile. *Sigh* He better tour with more people and come back to the northwest, cause I bloody love him.
All this time, I’d been filming little clips of a couple songs as to avoid getting caught with my camcorder. But when Keith stepped up to the drums and Chris grabbed his bass and Danny put the SG around his neck, Aaron was like, “if you have a camera, it’d be really cool if you filmed it, because I’d like to see it.” He wasn’t talking directly to me, but to the whole audience. So naturally I shot the whole thing.
Yeah, isn’t it wonderful? I was pretty happy with the filming I did that night. And I didn’t get caught EVER. Now I just wished I’d filmed more of Pdreamy (which is what we all started calling him). Chris even called Aaron Pdreamy the night before when they were in LA.
OH MY GOD I FORGOT.
When Adrian, Ash and I got to the hotel the first night, we were getting constant updates from Renee in LA, and he told us that WAS had a special guest playing with them. Automatically Adrian and I thought “TAPPER!” Because he lives in LA, and we got all nachos. We would have cried if that had been the case. It wasn’t sadly, but not so sadly – Max played two songs with the guys in LA and Renee got to see him again. Max has been playing with Katy Perry lately, because he likes money. But when we heard Max, I thought “LETHAL ENFORCER” because Max plays synth, and that’s all “Lethal Enforcer” really needs that WAS doesn’t have regularly now. To our dismay, he didn’t play LE, but he did play “After Hours” and “Jack & Ginger,” with its awesome synth line, definitely the best synth line on Barbara.
Back to now (well not now, but chronologically correct time).
Um…so Keith drumming is one of the greatest things ever. What made it even better was that he was wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt. So he looked even more like a 13-year-old boy.
After Pdreamy (I love how we’re not even calling him Rewards, because we’re all BFFs now) was done, we had a short intermission where Keith was peddling his merch again. There was a huge line so I wasn’t about to go wait in it. I needed to get a shirt, but I waited to do it until after the show was over.
I got video of a lot of the songs they played that night, but I don’t remember the setlist. Thankfully Adrian has a fantastic memory – so it went like this:
Nice Guys
Nobody Move
Rules
Carol (I Don’t Bite)
Scene is Dead/Inaction
Impatience/Let’s See It
Pittsburgh/Ambition
C’lit
Jack & Ginger
It’s A Hit
Dinosaurs
The Great Escape
After Hours
Cash Cow (Encore)
Even though “Impatience” isn’t my favorite song, it was one of my favorite moments of the night, because Pdreamy got up in stage all nonchalant in sunglasses lounging in a chair to play tambourine.
Here you can definitely hear me and Amber laughing like crazy people.
Honestly I don’t want to include excruciating detail of the show because you can see a lot of the clips below. But I will definitely say that when they started playing “It’s A Hit” I jumped up and down like a 10-year-old at a Jonas Brother concert. What can I say? I didn’t get it in Seattle and Portland. The stage was really tall though. And I’m relatively tall, so this was different. It made the Neumo’s and Doug Fir stages look short. It was funny though, because I kept looking over at Adrian after Keith would tune his guitar to see if she knew which song was coming next. She didn’t. But that was another reason why this show was so much better than Seattle and Portland – all of us were there, and since this was an all-ages show, Adrian got to see it with us. It was all of us sharing in our love for We Are Scientists, we slores came together in San Fran-fucking-cisco for the WASTRAVAGANZA.
Once the encore came, I got all sad. I mean, I knew that the night was definitely not over, but still. “Cash Cow” is the last song I’m going to see them play in a long time. I don’t even know how long. If I wasn’t in school I’d be booking a train or something to Texas for Ghoulsfest. But it turns out that Sufjan is playing that same night in Seattle, so that will be good I guess.
After the show was over, we stood around by the stage (well, Adrian and I sat down because we’re lazy) before the venue people kicked us out. So instead of leaving, we went and stood in line for merch. I needed to get my t-shirt, damnit! The line was ridiculously slow, because Keith talks too much. But we still love him. We finally got to the front, and Dolores showed Keith her doll. He made a comment about his hair not being the right color. Keith, don’t deny it. Your hair is going to be that grey one day. Then Dolores said that it was Apocalypse Keith, but Keith exclaimed, “Post apocalypse you wanna cover all exposed skin!” And he got all fired up. Once I got to the front, I slapped down a twenty and asked Keith for a medium of the one of the new WAS logo shirts. He said they were out of mediums. Damnit. I asked, “which shirt DO you have a medium in?”
“The bass your life on Chris shirt… you want it?”
“Ummm, sure! Give me one of those!”
And then he leaned on the table closer so I could hear clearly. “Okay, I’ll sell this to you on one condition. Will you follow the prescription? Will you base your life on Chris?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well alright then!”
So now I think I’m the only one of us that has that shirt. Next time I’ll have to have Chris sign it, as well as my dolls.
At that point Scott took Amber home, because she’d been to three shows in the last three nights and was really REALLY tired. It would have been nice to have her stick around for awhile, but it was really fun to have her shooting right there in front of me. Amber’s short, so it’s not like she got in my way or anything. Right before the show I realized that this is the first show I haven’t SHOT since October (besides Muse in April, which was a last minute thing and their photo policy was rubbish). I mean, I was videotaping a bunch of it, but as I was recording it I kept seeing photos in my head. This was the first time I haven’t had to worry about getting good photos, and it was kind of freeing. Besides, if I’d shot it as well as Amber, I’d have been comparing our photos the whole time and I’d feel inferior.
After the show we waited for quite a while before the guys came outside. There were other people out there too, but I’m not sure if they were there for the same reason as we were. I filmed a little bit of it, but it was way too dark to get any good picture on it. The guys were packing up there stuff, and at one point when they were shoving things into the van, Adrian yelled at Keith.
“KEEEITH!” No answer.
“You should try again.” I said.
(IN A MANLIER VOICE) “KEEEEEIIIITH!”
Then Danny joined in. “KEEITH!”
“Just a second!” And Chris came and talked to us. Renee asked him about his different glasses, because he’d been wearing the sexy horn-rimmed ones recently, but that night he wasn’t. I think he called these ones photochromatic or something.
“Transition lenses?”
“Yeah, but I like the way I said it better.” Then Adrian accidentally called his other glasses rim-horned, and Chris smiled and laughed. So I proclaimed that it would be a good name for a band – the Rim Horns. We’ll do Chairlift covers, and I’ll sing the high parts that Caroline does, and Adrian will sing the really low parts that Aaron does, and Keith will play drums, and Chris will be our manager. We’ve decided.
Danny told Adrian that he’d been protecting his doll with his life, because he’s worried that someone might hurt it, in turn hurting him (they’re not actual voodoo dolls, guys!).
“Like that guy!” Adrian pointed over at Keith.
“Hey!” Keith said angrily.
Keith eventually came over and gave Adrian the most epic hug in the entire world. I was jealous of that hug. They literally didn’t let go for…forever. It was magical.
I’m not going to try and rewrite everything Adrian wrote, because she already wrote an awesome blog about it.
But I will include the photo we all got. I handed my camera to this guy standing around outside, and he failed in pressing the button so the second photo is not focused right, but it’s still awesome. We all knew what happened there, and we all knew how amazing everything in that photo is.
Aaron’s nomming Renee’s shoulder, and Danny is nomming Keith’s leg.
Then Chris jumped in, which is when the focus fucked up. CHRIS FUCKED UP THE FOCUS.
Can you see Aaron in the corner there? Yeah, he was drunk. Adorable Aaron Pfenning drunk. Adrian and I came up with that new description for adorably drunk after that night.
As the guys were almost done packing their stuff, Aaron gave Adrian an epic hug himself. He went in for the normal hug, but then they stumbled off the sidewalk and into the road, and into me. I think I helped keep them from falling. We talked to Aaron for awhile, and Renee asked him when he’d be touring again. All the while, he was struggling to stay standing so his feet kept shifting around. “I might…tour with them down…New Orleans…to make music…down…” And he pointed to the ground. We all laughed. Then Adrian said “down on the ground? that’s a good place to make music.” So then he smiled and giggled, all drunkenly and adorable-like. *Sigh*
Before they all left for the bar called Butter, Adrian told Aaron that he had to sign her Talkboy. That got him really excited. She pulled it out of her bag and he was all, “I can’t believe you have this. Oh my god (giggles).” She handed him the Sharpie and it took him forever to finish drawing what he was drawing. It was his name, quite illegibly (not as bad as K-squiggle) and another random squiggle. He said it made him feel nostalgic. At this point we were all standing in a circle on the sidewalk in the cold, possible misty rain. So it called for a hug huddle. Me, Adrian, Aaron, Renee, and Ash (Dolores had gone to get her car) all put our arms around each other to keep warm. Apparently Aaron’s hands were really cold because he had his hand right on Adrian’s neck. He said, “It’s so cold, but it feels so good!” I love him so much.
What was next?
Oh right, Renee had gone to put her stuff in Dolores’ car while Adrian and I kept talking to Aaron.
“Aaron, I got really good video of your last song with Keith on drums!”
“What?” He didn’t hear me and leaned in closer to hear.
“Two Cardinals, I got really good video of it!”
And his eyes lit up, “Where can I see this video?”
“On YouTube in a few days.”
“Awesome.”
Then they were all getting ready to go to the bar. Aaron started getting really excited and jogging drowsily in place
“Can I go in? Will they let me in?” Like an anxious 7-year-old.
“I don’t know if you should drink any more.” (WHO SAID THIS? I CAN’T REMEMBER)
And Keith and Chris were like running, gesturing Aaron to hurry up.
(Still running in place) “I’ll be RIGHT BACK!”
He didn’t come right back, but they did all invite us into the bar with them. Since Adrian didn’t have a fake ID (which disgusted Keith), we sat outside and got some crepes. But at one point Ash and I did go into the bar to see if Aaron was okay, and to make sure Keith wasn’t taking advantage of him. It was so weird being in that bar. I handed the bouncer my ID, and we walked in to like three chicks dancing on the counter. We didn’t get up from the table for like ten minutes, and just kept staring back at Aaron and Keith giving flirty eyes to each other. I guess I can say that I went to a bar with We Are Scientists. That’s cool I guess.
We left eventually because it was weird, and Dolores, Renee and Adrian were outside eating their yummy crepes. I think about 20 minutes passed before the guys came back outside because APPARENTLY they needed to go to this burrito place that closed at 2 a.m. So we were in front of the crepe place, and they were down just a little ways, and when they stumbled out of the bar and saw us down the street and pointed at us all excitedly. We pointed right back at them.
“You guys are crazy!” Chris shouted at us.
So we all ran up to them before they could leave, and there was another round of hugs.
Adrian went up to Keith and said, “One more hug?” And then there was another epic hug.
“You’re making a mockery of my hatred of you!”
“You love it.”
Before they skipped out to find the burrito place. I went in for a Chris hug and he said, “It was nice to see you again Abby!”
I just about died.
I know that it was like a week and a half before when we’d seen them, but it was one of the best things that had happened all day. Well, that whole day was the best thing that ever happened.
We ran across the street in front of the van to get to my car, and waved at them as we departed.
I really hope that it doesn’t go another two years before I see those wonderful guys again. Hopefully Aaron will tour with someone else so we can see him again too.
We drove back to the hotel, and it took up about half an hour to find parking, and Ash went up and down the craziest hills ever (I’m pretty sure one was at least 45 degrees). She had to piss like a racehorse, so it made the searching all the more stressful. But we eventually found a free spot in a non-tow-away zone, but we had to walk at least 6 blocks back to the hotel at 2 a.m. in downtown San Francisco. We did see a guy standing on top of his apartment building and he waved down at us. I’m pretty sure that he was drunk, so I was worried that he might fall off, but he was okay.
Back in the hotel room, we stayed up for quite awhile, and reflected about the awesome night and Pdreamy’s dreaminess and how he gave us all girl boners. And how much we love Keith. And Chris. And Danny. Adrian and I were the last ones to go to sleep at around 4 a.m. Laying in bed after the best night of my life, I cried just a little bit because it was over. I wondered if Adrian was doing the same thing, because I was listening to my headphones and couldn’t hear anything.
The next morning we took Renee back to meet Meghan at Amber’s house and so that we could properly say goodbye to Amber and Scott. And get rid of some of our doughnuts. We still came home with quite a bit. Four-day-old doughnuts. Yum. We said our goodbyes and set off to find Amoeba Records before we officially left. Amoeba was as epic as I remember it. They didn’t have any copies of Brain Thrust Mastery, which was kind of lame, but they did have the Deftones! And an entire row of Bright Eyes, and an entire row of Mountain Goats.
Our final goal for San Fran was crossing the Golden Gate, because we had to do one touristy thing while we were there. It took us FOREVER to find the damn thing, because my GPS is a piece of shit, but we eventually found the exit, where we met lots of traffic. It was okay, we danced to the awesome playlist I’d made for the car ride. It was quite awesome. Adrian and Ash can vouch for that.
The Golden Gate is so long. Like really really long. Once over the bridge, we stopped to take touristy pictures.
I have the best friends in the world.
The drive that night seemed way longer than the drive there. For some reason. We stopped at In N Out again, where we found out that there are veggie burgers, but after Adrian and I ordered our fries. Fail. But I’m pretty sure i can write a travel guide to all the rest stops up the west coast from San Fran to Seattle. Most of them are quite nice, which makes me feel like an idiot that I stopped and peed at a gas station bathroom when we got gas. I walked over to the bathroom on the outside of the building and this little boy was just getting up from the toilet WITH THE FUCKING DOOR OPEN. I didn’t need to see that. It was awkward, and the bathroom smelled like piss really bad. I’m surprised I didn’t get any diseases.
As we were getting to Ash’s house in Tigard, I was literally on my last gallon of gas, so once we got over the border to Washington, I immediately got gas. I like filling my own gas tank. But once we pulled out of the gas station, I was going the wrong way down a one-way street. Thank god it was 2 a.m.
Adrian and I didn’t go to bed until like almost 5 a.m., when the sun was coming up. We were up reading all the tweets from the Visalia show and I uploaded the photos from that day. I didn’t want it to end.
You know what I said in the vlog about about Seattle being the best day of my life? Well, I lied. San Francisco was the best day of my life. I tear up a bit thinking about it now because I want it to happen again, and I never want WAS to stop touring, and I want to see Aaron Pfenning again, and I want my friends who exist most of the time in my computer box to exist in real life more awesome. Now all I have to do is see all Y’ALL over on the other side of the Atlantic. That’s my next goal. I honestly cried in the car on the way home from Adrian’s house on Monday. I was driving by myself for 2.5 hours, Keithdoll was sitting on my dashboard and Chrisdoll in my lap, and when “Foreign Kicks” came on I started singing along and couldn’t keep my voice steady. I wish I had a TARDIS so we could all do it over again. Exactly like we did it before, because it was perfect and if we changed anything it might make a crack in the universe.
That’s not the kind of branding I’m talking about.
Since it’s been summer for officially…almost 2 weeks…all I’ve been doing is cleaning my house for Libby’s grad party last weekend, general planning for Ledger next year (EIC WHAT WHAT!) and Internet-ing. Okay, that’s not a verb, but I’m making it a verb for now.
I figure with my free time this summer (whatever goddamn free time I DO have), I’ll increase my overall presence on the web. And some of your may think that it’s a complete waste of time and bandwidth, but I’ve come to find out that it most certainly is not. I’m not saying that I’m going to get a website, because that costs money, but with all the different networking sites where I exist, it adds up.
I’m serious. I kind of love vlogging, and with my recent mega foray into Nerdfighteria for Chris’s class (in which I got a 4.0!) I’ve seen how connective it is. Not that I will stop blogging, but vlogging is a completely different kind of thing – since you get to see people and their gestures, and hear their voice and tone. And YouTube is kind of awesome. I mean, I met Hank Green technically because of it. And I found this video:
Tres Piece never gets old.
Anyway, I love YouTube, and I insist that if you pay more attention to the parts of it that aren’t adorable cat videos (although those are always nice palate cleansers) or Miley Cyrus music videos. YouTube isn’t just a website, it’s a community.
I’ll actually be posting a video eventually defending my proclaimed status as a hipster, because so many people hate them. There are also several other videos on the docket that I’ve brainstormed:
1. Why I love Nerdfighteria
2. Doctor Who
3. 4th of July – why I love America, but would gladly live somewhere else
4. Camera nerd
5. The mega awesome WAStravaganza we have planned at the end of July and beginning of August.
I should probably fill you in on that, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
What else have I done to rebrand myself? Well I’ve updated my Tumblr to match the YouTube.
I do love Tumblr. It’s like Twitter but not limited to words and links. I think I may have said that before, but I need to reproclaim it now. And today I got a Dailybooth, because I’m that narcissistic. Not really, but I figured, why not?
Now I just have to get on that internship thing and getting more photography gigs. I’ll need to set up my own Facebook fan page for that, and maybe get my business license, so I can write my lenses off on my taxes. I do have Lindsey and Chris’s wedding next May. Right, oh shit. I really want that lens.
Speaking of lens – LOOK WHAT I FOUND THIS MORNING. I can’t tell if it’s legit, or if all the things he’s selling are pieces of shit. Seriously, $2100 for a 5D Mk I and two awesome lens, one of which is normally at least $1300 by itself. This would be the ideal package though, right? A shiny new 5D and the wonderful wide angle with the most badass telephoto? Except in this guy’s photo of the equipment, the 70-200mm doesn’t look like the 70-200s I’ve seen. It’s all black. Hmmm. I’ll keep this in mind. I’ll just keep checking craigslist. I don’t wanna get scammed or stabbed or anything.
Internships – yeah, about that.
I’ve been scouring the internet for good ones, and sadly enough I’m too late for any summer ones, which I guess is fine because I’ll be preparing for next year (EIC WHAT WHAT!) and going to a bajillion shows. Have I introduced you to my schedule? These are all the shows I WANT to hit up this summer. And that’s not including what may come up randomly on the schedule. Except I don’t think I’m gonna go to the Capitol Hill Block Party. If I’m not getting in free, I’m out. That’s basically how I feel about most shows lately. Except for WAS.
Now I’ll get to the most badass part of my summer, except for the part when Laura gets home. Well, directly after Laura leaves to go back to New Jersey, I’ll be embarking on an as-yet-undefined-number-of-days trip to San Francisco to see my beloved We Are Scientists. It will be me, Adrian, her friend Ashley that I’ve never met, Renee, Amber, Dolores, and Jenn in San Fran. I’ll drive down to PDX and meet up with Adrian and Ash on August 6th so we can all drive the 10-hour drive to San Fran from there, cause the show is on the 7th. Like I said before, I don’t know how many nights we’ll be staying, but I think that we may end up staying at the Ritz-Carlton and split the price. It was $100 a night! And with 4 people, it would be about the same amount as paying for a hostel, but it would be infinitely cooler because it’s the damn Ritz-Carlton.
So we’ll be in San Francisco, WITH A CAR, so we will have some mobility, even though the public transportation in SF is quite awesome as I remember from high school. Of all the things to do in SF – GO TO AMOEBA, EAT IN CHINATOWN, and of course SEE WAS with all my cool peeps (or as Adrian has started calling us, “slores.”)
I think I’m done, but I have one last thing to add.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’d rather not completely change my own principle way of writing, but I might have to in order to get better than a C in my creative nonfiction writing class. I mean seriously, woman…a flipping C? Not to sound too high and mighty, but I don’t get Cs in classes strictly about WRITING. Foolish woman.
But apparently, after a pep talk from Marisa yesterday, Professor likes IMPROVEMENT. Even if I had an amazing rough draft, my second draft has to be even more amazing, and my THIRD draft has to be almost sent from heaven. I DON’T DO THIRD DRAFTS. I write a great draft, and mess with it slightly here and there. So now, against my own conscience, I have to start with a shitty draft and improve immensely from there. Seriously, if some of the papers I read got higher grades than I did because they improved more on crap than I improved on a great paper, I’m gonna smack someone. Honestly, she told me that with MINOR adjustments that this was ready for publication in the school’s lit mag. I would have submitted it if the villain in the story didn’t go to our school.
That might get awkward, even though I doubt she’d ever read Tahoma West anyway.
I’m sorry if I sound arrogant right now, but I’m pissed. Her critique was all, “this is really good, you should submit it after making a couple adjustments,” and then I get my grading sheet back and she said, “met genre requirements, perfect grammar, used craft techniques effectively, but oh, yeah…you got a C.”
WHAT?
This is a seemingly waste of a blog, but it felt like a change up from what I usually write about. Because I’m sure you’re getting tired of my ramblings about…shit I don’t even remember what I’ve been writing about lately. Oh right, Doctor Who, missing my best friend, and music. Duh. Pretty much been what most of my tweets have been about for the last two weeks.
I took Libby’s senior portraits a couple weeks ago, and I never posted any pics, but this was one of my favorites.
I just freaking love her hair in it.
And here’s one from one of Laura’s going away parties.
Miss you already. ❤
OH MY GOD.
NEW WAS.
HOLY BALLSACK.
I wish I could embed this video, but Facebook doesn't want me too, and this guy hasn't uploaded it to Youtube yet.
And here’s Nobody Move at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly two nights ago. I just wish that Laura could go to the WAS show in Hoboken tomorrow night.
Oh, and here’s a show roundup from What’s the Word, including twitter pics and a link to a review and some better pictures. Philly Show Roundup. Damn Keith is looking good. One more thing to look forward to in May. Holy crap May is going to be the most amazing month EVER.
Hmm, what else?
Hello Thomas Mars. I get to see you again tomorrow.
You I get to see you, Laurent.
And you Deck.
You too, Christian!
And since I won’t be in the pit with time constraints and hopefully no smoke machine, my pics will be amazing. Here’s hoping. And to meet them. That would be fantastic.
And just cause, some David Tennant picspam.
And a bonus of Tennant and Cribbins at the NTAs the other day that Susie posted on the WAS board yesterday. So heartwarming.
THIS IS A TANGENT. 