saturday, september 26th, 2009.
got into dc after a layover in boston kinda late, and it took FOREVER to get from the godamn washington-dulles airport to where i wanted to go (my couchsurfer host’s house). she picked me up from the subway station after like three hours of travel or something, and then she went out with her friend and i went out to the experimental music show, sonic circuits. it was pouring like a motherfucker, which was kind of a bummer.
i hadn’t eaten in a while and was super starving, so like the fatass i am, i decided to eat snacks instead of a regular meal. got some peanut butter-filled pretzels and a bag of utz chips… the best chips ever, really. carolina bbq?!! it’s like bbq meets salt & vinegar aka HELLA FUCKING GOOD. ridiculously good. anyway, after cramming this shit down my gullet, standing in front of the drugstore under an overhang to keep out of the rain, i walked a block over to the black cat. stomped in a giant puddle on the way, hence i was fucking FREEZING to death in the venue because it was sOoOoOo cold and i was wet, too.
as i was watching one of the performers that night, kotra, this ukranian electronic dude, my camera fucked up, and i’m pretty convinced it had to do with his sound. i asked some other guy who was taking video next to me if it was possible, and he thought i was crazy and was not convinced. but check these pics, man. other than the first pic, the pics were taken the next day when it had a temporary relapse for a sec, but since then, the camera has been 100% in working condition.
many more where these came from.
kotra was amazing.
there was also a free jazz band and i don’t understand free jazz whatsoever, but it was interesting.
started talking to this persian couple — both really cute — about music and what not. saw them the next day, too. they were nice!!!
one more act had a visual and audio component synced together, but unfortunately, the venue hadn’t provided them with projectors. so, no visuals… they just tested out their audio portion. it was this japanese girl and a black dude, and the black dude made these shirts that plugged into usb portion of a computer and they were touch-sensitive, so when you touched certain parts of the shirt, it would make a sound. it was pretty godamn cool.
took the metro back late at night and then chatted a bit with katyln’s roommate, mb. mb was talking about how it was amazing, she thought, that a girl like myself (and others similar to myself) could travel by ourselves because she could never do it and she described herself as a “typical american” who has never been outside of the united states and is kind of content with that. kind of sad, really.
sunday, september 27th, 2009.
anyway, the next day, katyln, my couchsurfing host, and i, hung out. this started with some tapas at la tasca in alexandria’s old town (not in d.c.)! on the way back, we stopped by a new age bookstore for a while and she asked questions, and then we borrowed bikes and headed off to the city. i borrowed her roommates but i can’t use bikes unless the seats are really low, so we had to lower it…
obligatory washington dc pics. not gonna lie — really didn’t care about any of this shit other than seeing it for a sec. not that exciting. especially not with other people because then i can’t just cheel.
washington memorial. btw, all these monuments are in what’s considered a national park, which is really funny to me, because it’s so different from the kinds of national parks that are in the rest of the country.
some kind of world war ii monument that was remarkably new — think it was erected in like, 2003.
it started raining, so we went to starbucks to chill and hang and chat for a while. ^__^ nom nom nom chocolate banana smoothie, nom nom nom.
after doing the downtown circle, we went to the eastern market. lotta cool random stuff, and good, cheap fruit! mmmmmmmmmmm. got a buncha peaches for like a quarter each, like big, full-sized peaches (i think they were about to rot or something).
that night, went to see another part of the sonic circuits tour, this time to see HEALTH (along with some others, like faust). it was cool… decided to talk to the guy from HEALTH i had a crush on and he was really nice. did an impromptu interview and it went really well… now i just gotta find the time to write the godamn thing, ugh!
so i left and katlyn drove back and i decided to take the subway to josh wu’s place in dc, only the subways were about to stop running so i had to catch the last one. i accidentally missed the train i was supposed to take because i thought i was supposed to take a yellow train when it was in fact green (or vice versa) and i missed the last train and ended up taking it into another direction and being stuck in the middle of nowhere-ish and josh had to come and rescue me, haha. fun times.
his condo was really nice and i got a really super ass comfortable bed to sleep in because he has a spare bedroom. it ruled, needless to say, especially since i’d been sleeping on couches for quite a while by this point in time.
monday, september 28th, 2009.
josh left me a spare key and i just worked at his house all day until it was time for me to go to baltimore. got myself to the greyhound station and accidentally missed the proper bus because i had headphones on when they called for a chance of gate. by the time i realized it, i’d missed the bus by a couple minutes and it had already left, which sucked. the next one didn’t leave for another two hours or something. UGH.
tuesday, september 22nd, 2009.
going offa old notes, here.
- brekky with michael: he cooked eggs and stuff – don’t remember what exactly haha! oops!
- fly in from long beach.
- meet with jericho: he picked me up from the subway station and we ate at stix — this kabob and wrap place which was pretty good!
- too late for la dispute show: it ridiculously began at 5:00pm wtf?? i called them and they were like, yeeeaaaaah a lotta our friends missed our set, too.
- go drinkin’: jericho’s neighborhood is kinda in a cool hip part of town. i forget the name of it but we went to a bar and the bartender chick made me a really yummy drink cuz the long island cost too much and i know nothing about alcohol and wasn’t sure what to order other than beers and shots and long islands, haha.
- overnight trip to detroit: not scary at all really and the people were all really normal and this is from quote unquote one of the shadiest cities in the states to an even shadier one (who am i quoting, you ask? no idea — i made up all of that completely!) but really, it feels like chicago has a mega bad reputation and i’m not sure why at all because even around the greyhound station it felt safe, and that’s practically the ultimate test, haha!
wednesday, september 23rd, 2009.
a day in detroit. i don’t have notes for detroit so i’m actually going to write it like normal-ish. got there really early and putzed around downtown. tried to find a hotel asap so i could get a map. went into mgm grand but it was fucking weird because it wasn’t really a hotel, but a conference center, so i just kinda hung out upstairs stealthily in the conference area playing around on the computer and most importantly, charging my phone!!! outside the mgm grand there were tons of “no standing” signs, which was my first time seeing them so i found them extremely funny (but since then i’ve seen them a whole bunch in other cities). eventually, as i was leaving mgm grand, i asked them for a map and got one and just walked around downtown a lot, really aimlessly, really. i think i got to detroit at like, 6:00am or something ridiculous like that, and i just walked straight down this main thoroughfare and past all these kind of ruined buildings and schools and stuff. got hit on… a lot. luckily, i could use the, “i don’t live here,” line, and i wasn’t lying. the first guy to hit on me i forgot the name of — i think it was randy. he was nice enough and i kept running into him and it was only the third time that he actually introduced himself. of course, i didn’t see him again after that. he told me to be careful down there. cute.
there were lots of really amazing victorian and otherwise-styled houses that were completely abandoned and overgrown. to be honest, i wanted to go to some more ghettoer parts of town but i didn’t feel entirely comfortable unfortunately.
there was a really old walgreen’s around, and this was their display window, full of cool medical relics and stuff. i reckon they got it from some houses around the area, but it was really fucking cool.
hung out in this starbucks for a while (blech) because it was the only coffee shop around, and it had the longest line EVER, i swear.
fox theatre.
found a falafel place and another coffee shop and kinda wanted to eat both, but i was looking for wireless and neither of them seemed to have it. eventually i was standing outside the coffee shop trying to steal their wireless when the guy in there motioned for me to come in, and i told him my plight, and even though they had wireless it wasn’t working on my ipod touch, so he lent me his laptop, which was really nice of him. he talked to me for a while and talked about this one book he was reading that said that asians had roots in africa and that’s why we tan and don’t burn and don’t need to wear sunscreen or something. he said from far away before i entered the store, he thought i was a black woman. interesting? i guess i am pretty dark right now?
random detroit tigers thing on an abandoned place next to the coffee shop.
giant general motors headquarters looms in the background.
came across the most amazing freaking store, man. it basically just stored stuff that would be put up for auction… such really, really amazing pieces in there. upholstered chairs, beautiful chandeliers, stained glass things… everything. amazing.
went towards the waterfront and there was this — the henry ford theatre, completely abandoned and falling apart in the heart of downtown. couldn’t go in, unfortunately.
waterfront. since i was in detroit for so long by myself, i sat in random places a lot. at this waterfront, i sat for a while, laughing at the guy next to me who was singing with headphones on… and singing really horribly. and rapping as well. and rapping horribly.
as i was about to leave that place, this one dude stopped me and asked me to take a pic, and i thought it meant me take a pic of him and his two friends. what he actually meant was his two friends take a pic of me. he was totally drunk even though it was the middle of the day. so i was like, whatever, and took a pic with him, and then he told me to go on a walk with him. i thought, why not, since it was the middle of downtown — what could he possibly do to me? so i went on a walk with him. he kept wanting to take photos and i kept saying no. we just walked along the waterfront a bit and then he brought me into the general motors building since i hadn’t been there yet. he asked me if i was hungry and i said not really. then he just goes to the cafe downstairs and grabs a salad and walks out. i’m thinking, wtf? but think he’s going to pay somewhere, and he doesn’t. we go upstairs and walk around and he keeps asking me what i wanna do, and i’m kinda incredulously saying that i have no idea. and then eventually we run out of stuff to do so we go upstairs to the starbucks area and he of course lets a businessman go in front of him so he can be the last one in line, then asks me if i like frappaccinos, then takes one and leaves. after this, i’m like, “i gotta go,” and he’s like, “why? do you want me to put that back?” and i’m like, “yeah,” and he’s like, “no!” and kinda grabs my hand and tries to leave. i keep insisting i have to go and am looking for an exit and we eventually exit. he’s this totally plump black dude with kind of a dirty shirt and reeking of alcohol — in comparison to these really nicely dressed businessmen and such. he’s fucking hilarious, though, on the way out he just stops by to talk to random strangers nonstop, including addressing one particular businessman as “donald trump”, which the guy found funny. amongst other similar funny things. anyway, i’m insisting that i have to go and meet up with la dispute (a lie, really, because i don’t have to meet up with them until much later) and he’s like, “well, before you leave, eat your salad,” and i grudgingly agree to do it… so we sit on a street corner and he basically watches me eat the salad. and i’m picking out the bacon and chicken, and he’s like, “why aren’t you eating that?” and i’m like, “i don’t eat meat,” and he’s basically like, “that’s why i picked this salad!” (which makes completely and utterly zero sense). after i finish eating it, i’m like, “okay, i gotta go,” and he’s like, “first drink your drink!” and i’m like, “i’ll drink some of it, but not all of it,” and i take a sip and then say i have to go. he asks me for my number and i give it to him, just for shits and giggles, really, cause even if he calls, that’s whatevers, go ahead and call. oh i should mention that throughout this time period he first starts off by calling me his girlfriend, then his wife, then his friend, then his sister. lol. hahahahahahahah. and that was his justification for being able to “borrow” food from the place — because his “sister” works there and he does that allllllllllllllllllll the time. anyway. he gives me a hug finally and says that if he calls i better pick up (he never does) and that i shouldn’t talk to ANYONE. which is hilarious.
abandoned.
hit up the la dispute show at nighttime, and it’s cool and stuffs. the show is good on their end but there’s an asshole next to me. such an asshole. first, his friend spits on the ground, and he’s like, “they’d cane you in cambodia,” and i’m like, thinking, dude, it’s not cambodia, it’s singapore, and then he says, “well maybe it’s indonesia, because they’re a muslim country, and muslim countries are backwards,” and he starts talking about muslims and basically how they all need to die because they’re soo backwards and in one muslim country a girl got raped and it was her who got punished not the rapist (truth, but that’s not ALL muslim countries, for starters). then he makes this joke about the dead asian girl who got killed at yale and then stuffed into a wall, and is like, “before she died she begged the killer, ‘don’t kill me, i sucky sucky for free,’” which is just in REALLY bad taste. and as la dispute are coming on stage, i pull out my dSLR, and his friend is like, “she has a dSLR,” and he’s like, “why am i not surprised?” and i was like, “you’re pretty much the biggest dumbass ever,” and he instantly fell silent. then i was just seething the whole godamn time because it’s fucking ridiculous! what’s worse — the dude isn’t even freaking godamn white. he’s like… a minority. i don’t know what minority, but what the FUCK.
anyway, la dispute’s show was fine, although their sound seemed a bit off and the main guitar wasn’t loud enough. might’ve been because i was on the left side of the stage, though. either way. after the show, i highly felt the need to tell the guy off. so i went up to him and said, “i’ve never done this before, but first off, it’s singapore, not indonesia you’re looking for,” and he kinda nodded and said okay and was really quiet and friend one kinda smirked and laughed, and then i was like, “second, not every muslim country is the same just like not every christian country is the same,” and friend two was like, “we don’t need a lecture.” lastly, i was like, “and the reason i have a camera is not because i’m asian, but because i run a music magazine,” and friend three was like, “you should put him in your magazine!” and i’m like, “what, douchebag’s corner?” and he’s like, “yeah!” and then i left. douchebags.
interviewed la dispute shortly thereafter, and it was a little teeny bit awkward because i don’t think they are the best people to interview and also, they’re young. but it was mostly fine (except i later accidentally deleted their interview in my phone in a fit of confusion and bitterness… completely unrelated, days later). but they were nice kids, for sure.
la dispute performing “sad prayers for guilty bodies.”
thursday performing “division st.”
caught part of thursday’s set and like the last some of the fall of troy’s set… then i leave before thursday finishes cause that shit is boring. CLICK HERE TO SEE REVIEW OF THURSDAY. i walk late night to the greyhound station in detroit, and it’s fine, cause really, how dangerous can it be? there’s like no one on the godamn streets.
thursday, september 24th, 2009.
- get in town at like 6:00am: take the overnight greyhound from detroit. sleep on couch pretty much right after jericho leaves his house to go to work.
- freak out jericho’s roommate’s bf: well, he woke up at 11:00am or something and was yapping on the phone and even walking back and forth from the dining room to the bathroom (and crossing where i was) and i finally stirred and he was like HOLY SHIT I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE THERE!! not the most observant feller, evidently.
- meant to wake up at 9am but phone was on silent so i woke up at noon: again, because of jericho’s roommate’s bf.
- planetarium at 3pm after bus confusion: i thought i’d miss the last showing and almost didn’t go because the place closed at 4pm, but there was actually a 3:30 showing.
- caught 3:30 showing.
- saw cool old-school diorama stuff, like a fake physics classroom from way back in the day. also, in the first pic above, a teeny tiny book galileo wrote on. it was actually legible :0 second pic above is an old school sundial.
- learned the north star isn’t the brightest; sirius is: but i actually almost fell asleep during some parts of the planetarium showcase. oops.
skyline near the planetarium.
- walked around downtown.
buckingham fountain (aka “married with children” fountain)… the first pic is supposed to be a seahorse that’s on it. hahahahhahhahah. sea horse, my ass.
cool ass art installation thing downtown.
- raining!
dinosaur!!
street puppet car or something, but i didn’t actually see the performances or anything.
- deep dish pizza!!!!! from gino’s east. SO GOOD.
jericho! yay! thanks!
- chairlift / micachu and the shapes: at schubas tavern. it was initially a close call between pizza and the show but the show ended up being later than it was originally supposed to be.
- angry heckling guy: really hated micachu and the shapes and went up to them asking them, “what is this??” and the keyboardist chick is like, “what is what?” and he’s like, “that… is that music? that’s not music.” he was really angry. i was like, “music means different things to different people,” and he said, “i’m asking HER.” ridiculous. he was such a douche. and such a douche in particular because for these situations, the band you came to see (chairlift) is the band that brought the band you hate (micachu and the shapes) so they obviously consider that band to be MUSIC. – READ MY REVIEW OF THIS SHOW HERE!
micachu and the shapes performing “curly teeth”.
chairlift performing “garbage”.
- crazy detroit sports fan: stopped us in the street after we were leaving the show and was babbling about how safe chicago was and how you couldn’t walk around at night in detroit or go jogging (a lie, really, because i definitely saw people jogging!)
- bed!!
3:14am. I’m listening to… La Dispute’s Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair album.
///
The beginning half of today was fairly uneventful. Rachel came over and we went to Chupacabra, where she watched me eat. I did some work. That’s about it.
Come 7:30pm, though, I headed over to Neumo’s where The Helio Sequence were playing. Hojo had picked up a ticket for me… and you get tickets for free when you buy a drink at Moe Bar. Since I don’t drink myself, this was fantastical…! It was the five year anniversary of Neumo’s.
So, Saturday, I’d gotten a ride down to the Olympic Peninsula in a car with some CouchSurfers. I’d unfortunately left my camera in the rental car they had, but called them immediately, notifying them of this. They said they’d put it in a safe spot, and I could get it from them later. Today, Peter, the driver, told me that he had looked for the camera for two hours and could not find it, and did not know if Nick, the passenger, had it, and that Nick had triple-checked the rental car before they returned it. So, what the fuck? That means they either lost it or someone stole it. Either or those are really unacceptable. Yeah, it was my fault for leaving it in the car, but it’s not that hard to keep track of a camera, z o m g?!! That or someone is a lying ass liar, which I would be really disappointed about… it’s making me think I should not trust strangers. UGH.
I was by myself, but luckily, I ran into Scott, and Kiet, Anthony‘s cousin, and some other guy I kinda forget the name of. Derrick, I think.
The first band, Palmer Electric Co., was unexciting, so I headed off to Caffe Vita to do some writing and to drink a mocha. While I was there, I saw The Helio Sequence’s Benjamin Weikel in line, so I said hi to him and asked me if he remembered me. He said he did, but man, the conversation was awkward as SHIT. He’s kind of a shy guy to begin with, and I also cut in line in front of — I later saw — Brandon Summers, and I was like… oOps. :L They never remember me although I’ve met them like a zillion times, and once was for like an hour! Godammit. Haha. :L Unmemorable, I guess. That was kind of a buzzkill, especially since they were not particularly super friendly. Probably due in part to my awkwardness, perhaps.
So I sat and write up a show review at the coffee shop and then headed back.
At that point, Kiet started pestering me about whether or not I had a boyfriend, what kind of guys I liked, and why I didn’t like his cousin. :L It was like, AWKWARD! I barely remember even meeting you! But it’s all good. I have no taboo questions, although some are hard to answer, is all. He said he was just curious about me, because I’m an enigma. Why do people always say that?
Grand Hallway, Alina‘s band, came on. They were actually really fucking good, with their eight members and mandolin players and violin players and drummers and keyboardists, and holy shit, eight people!!! Hojo had interviewed them a while ago, but I’d never published it, and now I feel bad… it wasn’t because it was bad, but it was short, and I thought I’d mentioned that, but evidently, I just forgot about the article altogether. Not particularly professional.
After that, I decided to move up to the front to get a better view of The Helio Sequence. There was a group of friends who were there together, and three really tall guys were spanning the front area, forming like a wall of tall. Most of them were behind me, but one particularly tall AND wide guy was front and center, blocking everyone behind him. I tapped him on the shoulder, and this conversation took place:
Me: Do you think I can move in front of you?
Him: No.
Me: Are you serious?
Him: Yeah. I’ve been here for like, four hours! (an impossibility, really, since I’d been there since the doors opened and it was NOT four hours)
Me: But you’re so tall…
And that was the end of the story. What a fucking dick. He rendered me absolutely speechless. Like… fuck. There was this other girl, even shorter than me, next to him, and he insisted on standing in front of her, too. They knew one another, but still, WHAT THE FUCK? She was like 4’8″; one would think a friend would let her go in front of him, if not me… unbelievable. I mean seriously. The dude was like, over 6 foot and hella fucking wide. You seriously can’t let a 4’8″ chick and a 5’1″ chick in front of you? What a fucking douche. And the way he said it was just unbelievable.
So later, there was a guy standing next to 4’8″ girl, and he moved. I moved into his spot, cause he hadn’t returned for a while. I figured he wasn’t coming back. I stood there, and the girl said, “You know someone is standing there.” I said, “I didn’t know he was coming back.” Wow, attitude people. Like… gee, I’m sorry you came with a group of 40 people, but this is usual concert etiquette — if someone leaves, he or she leaves. Other people fill in that space. Just because your whole fucking crew took up the whole front half of the venue doesn’t mean that other people can’t stand in your friend’s place. Five seconds after she told me her friend was standing there, she decided that she was a dick and told me, “You know what? Just stand there.” Freak. Where does this sense of entitlement come from? Do you people not go to concerts or what?
It was a weird ass crowd for The Helio Sequence. I dunno why their crowd is like, always comprised of fucking… frat boys and idiots. I swear.
Anyhow.
I was going to meet back up with Scott and co. after the show, but they’d disappeared. I tried to contact Scott, but I think I have his number from 80 years ago.
I went downtown to Trinity to meet up with Jennie and Chol because drum n’ bass DJ Reid Speed was in town. It was cool, kinda, but she played wayyyy too much dubstep. I fucking hate dubstep. Why does everyone like that shit?
At one point, I moved to the front of the drum n’ bass room, and Jennie and Chol and co. left, I guess. Again, they’d disappeared without saying something to me. -__-
On the plus side, I had the opportunity to: a) be hit on by two somewhat greaseball guys — one of whom was more greasy than the other, because he actually left the venue when I left and followed me to my fucking car to ask me for my number. WTF; and b) witness the most fucking EPIC dance-off ever, between two random strangers, a guy and a girl. They were both clearly trained in dance in some way or another, and they were doing crazy turns and flips and shit. I shit you not… there were these white decorative bars on the walls of Trinity, and they were climbing up and down the wall using those, as well as crawling on the floor and doing the splits like motherfuckers. The girl was dancing initially and the guy approached her, and I didn’t actually think he could dance, but he could dance pretty decent. The girl was fucking amazing, though. The two of them together had REALLY good chemistry and they were doing some insane “So You Think You Can Dance” nearly choreographed looking shit. It was really seriously unbelievable, and they had a fangirl there who wouldn’t stop like, talking to them about how awesome they were. At one point, the girl climbed the wall using the bars, all the way to the ceiling, and then did the splits on the wall like ten feet off the ground. It wasn’t like super perfect in execution, but it was kind of cool. I don’t think I’ve ever seen dancing like that ever in my real life. Insanity.
This evening, Hojo, Graham, Tiffany, and I went to see No Age at the Triple Door. As a part of the Seattle International Film Festival’s annual “Face The Music” program, No Age basically did a live score to the film, The Bear. I don’t feel it was as good as when Kinski did it, but it was pretty solid. :} I had a bit of food coma and almost fell asleep during a part of it, but luckily, I didn’t. Hah. The Bear is a weird ass movie. It’s fucking amazing, some of the footage they got, of bears all up in human’s faces, roaring like crazy and shit, and then just backing down like it wadn’t no thang thang. Freakish. There was also this part where the bears at mushrooms and tripped out which was pretty bizarre and random, because it was literally just like, three scenes of the film where they used stop motion claymation crap, and the rest was normal… I don’t know why they chose to do it. It was largely enjoyable. And the food at the Triple Door is fucking GOOD.
After that, Graham and I went to the Halogen Gallery and the Roq La Rue and checked out some amazing art. I reallllllly need to update Redefine’s art blog ASAP. Hah. Max Kauffman was in town for a show at the Halogen Gallery, so it was nice to meet him, and Robert Hardgrave was there, and I haven’t seen him in a long time, so that was nice, too!! :}
Then we went to Healthy Times Fun Club, where Yair was playing a Big Spider’s Back show, but unfortunately, he was supposed to go on at like 9:00pm or 10:00pm and he didn’t end up going on until 12:15am-ish. Haha. I shoulda stopped back over but it was late. :L It was my first time to Healthy Times, though, and it very much reminded me of The Smell, and was really cool! SO CUTE. Four people live there as well, and they were offering free chips and chili!!! And cost was donation-based. So godamn cute. I would love to have something like that in my living abode. So awesssssoooooommmmme. It’s a pretty fucking solid venue, too, sound-wise and some of the shows they have in there are pretty legit. Also got to meet the guy who runs SeattleDIY, which is awesome. Was hoping to stay around for Universal Studios Florida (I’d actually heard their music before and liked it) and Yair’s set, but because it was so late starting and we had to go catch the Nurses show, didn’t get to.
Nurses played at some house show that was like, right off of Rainier Ave, at this new-ish house venue called The South Pole. A chick opened for them (and some other bands, but we got there at 11:00pm and it started at 9:00pm)… she was basically just a loopstation, guitar, distortions, mic. Some songs were good. Some were not. Simple.
Nurses were really fucking solid, though, and I’m glad they lived up to my expectations. Definitely going to interview them in a couple weeks when they come back to Seattle, or in Portland early next month. Hoping that I won’t need to make the trip down to PDX. ^O^ I was kinda scared to talk to Aaron, the lead singer, before leaving that house party thing… and I’m always fucking super awkward about talking to bands after shows haha. Rarely smooth about it. As we were leaving, though, Graham went and told them the show was awesome, so I was like, “Ah feck, I guess I will, too,” especially since the group had thinned out a little by then and he was no longer being mobbed. Turned out to be a jolly good time with lots of stupid jokes that snowballed into ridiculousness. LOL. Someone said the word “hambone” and soon every other word ended with “bone”. It was silly.
That’s all. Fucking awesome.
I’ve discovered, randomly, that there’s this certain pattern of speech that I find really attractive, and it makes me instantly attracted to people who talk that way… and then in retrospect, I think about it, and feel like all those people are kinda similar. It’s a very factual, very to-the-point, very confident style of speaking. Haven’t pinpointed it yet, but it’s interesting.
So here is my attempt to FINALLY write up my SxSW journal. This is going to take god knows however long. Forever, I think is the word for how long it’s going to take. GOOD LAWD.
I’m going to time it in fact.
Left for Austin ass early after an evening of watching “Breaking Bad” with Lenny and playing Left4Dead with Alex at his new Bellevue abode. He moved out earlier in the week, much to my surprise! Did not realize he had been planning to leave mid-month, after all. Anyway. Got to the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport for a layover and finally made it to Austin. Waited for Jeanette, whose original flight was cancelled, and unfortunately missed an assload of bands I’d wanted to see… including IMA Robot, Starfucker, and Phantogram. I was pretty bummed about it ~__~ Oh well.
Waited for the freaking bus going to downtown to come. It took it like an hour plus to come when it was supposed to come every forty minutes. We musta just missed the previous bus. Finally got downtown and then decided it would take way too long to catch another bus since it was already 8:00pm, and that’s ridiculous… so we took the cab from downtown to our hotel (Days Inn). The shit had originally been listed under my name, and I’d called in early to see if perhaps Karla could check-in earlier, but before Karla checked in, Jeanette’s friend Micha checked in. So we had five people in one room, although the original listing was for three people. The dude at the counter, though, this super nice cute (in an older dude way, although he wasn’t that old) Korean dude didn’t much care at all that we were superbly breaking the rules. So yay?
So dropped off our stuff real quick and I was basically thinking, “!!! NEED TO GET A MOVE ON!!!” We finally left and waited a bit for the bus to come, but the bus took FOREVER to come and there was a lady at the bus stop who seemed like uncomfortable that I was sitting slightly close to her. She kept moving further and further away on the bench as though I had some hideous disease or something. ~__~
I finally convince Jeanette to walk because it’s such a short walk (less than two miles), and it wasn’t all that bad at all. We walk to the Convention Center and pick up our badges. I’m told that I don’t have video clearance, which I am slightly freaked out (but not overly so) about it for the time being. When I’d gotten approved initially, I’d told them I wouldn’t need to shoot video, but since the idea for video interviews came about, I’d changed my mind (but forgotten to change the press). A chick at the press booth told me to e-mail this lady, and I did at this free laptop station they had there, and told the lady to e-mail back to Jeanette’s e-mail so that we could check her response on her iPhone.
Then we head over to Pangaea. Temposhark was supposed to play, but much to my dismay, I guess they’d cancelled, and The Paper Route had replaced them. Jeanette *REALLY* liked them. They were decent, and had pretty watermelon-colored lighting shining on them (see photo)! Real pretty. I wish I’d gotten closer and taken some better photos, but oh well.
After they played, we headed over to Stubb’s to watch The Decemberists and The Avett Brothers… I’d completely forgotten about Stubb’s and how it housed the big shit, and how there was always a huge line to get into a Stubb’s show, because frankly, I generally avoid large shows simply because they’re not shows I REALLY want to see.
Jeanette in line!
Ze line.
We got in line way early, but heard The Avett Brothers come on, and then it was ALMOST time for the Decemberists to come on when two random dudes came out of nowhere and offered to give Jeanette and I their VIP passes to Stubb’s for the day. The Decemberists was the last show of the night, so they really weren’t missing out, and I guess they didn’t really want to see them, so the guy who offered basically said that they were trying to give it to some people who might really want them. They’d miscalculated the result of their kindness, however, because the pass wasn’t technically enough to get us in; we needed Stubb’s wristbands, too!
So we got to the door and the door lady asks us for our IDs but then is confused because we have VIP badges but no wristbands and that’s not supposed to be possible. Jeanette bullshits some shit about how her friend ____ (forget the name, but it’s a real person) who works for SxSW got them for us. The folks at Stubb’s say that the VIP passes have nothing to do with SxSW, and that Stubb’s gives them out. Jeanette says she doesn’t know then, and this whole time, I’m sitting by, silently, incredulously, totally looking guilty, and thinking, “WHAT THE FUCK! PLEASE DON’T CALL ON ME!” It was like being in middle school again or something.
Like honestly, I’m not even sure how Jeanette came up with any of that shit. The whole time I was like, completely and absolutely drawing a blank on possible things to say. I am a god awful liar and this was more proof of it. These lies and extrapolations that Jeanette came up with simply do not even cross my mind… like, at ALL. At ALL.
Anyway, one worker finally says that he needs to get the manager, and the manager eventually comes and tells us that we’re “all set” and lets us in. Well, alrighty, then. I guess honesty isn’t always the best policy. In we go.
The Decemberists played their new disc in its entirety or near entirety, which I was slightly excited for because I am a huge… or at least was a huge Decemberists fan and basically try to see them every time they come to town. This particular evening was rather disappointing, however, because, in my opinion, their new disc sucks. It’s so generic and lacks all of the unique, slightly goofy, totally poetic Decemberists flair. There was one Renaissance princess-dressed chick with a super lame, super pure, corny angelic type choir voice. She looked annoying, sang annoying, and was boring.
Then there was another chick who totally had a contemporary fashion model haircut, dressed stylish, and you could tell she kicked ass instantly. She had this super fiery divalicious voice and OWNED. The contrast between the two of these women, and the fact that it was both of their first times being IN the Decemberists, made me think that the upcoming album is a concept album in some regard. A brief bit of research, done right now, concludes that yes, in fact, it IS a concept album. The Hazards Of Love tells a story that juxtaposes an innocent woman (the annoying one) with a cruel queen (Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond, aka the awesome one) and the lover, William, caught between. Well. Well. Nice concept and all, but I’m unfortunately rooting for the cruel one, and honestly, most people in the audience were… so is that according to plan? Is it? I’m not sure.
Annoying singer chick desu.
Moving onwards. We didn’t even unfortunately finish that set, which ended pretty awesomely, so I have read, because the songs were just so boring. The Decemberists was comprised of many new members, although the great, cute accordion lady is still around (albeit no longer one of the focal points). As far as the disc goes… not interested. Maybe it will grow on me, or at least there were a couple songs that were decent, but as a whole… blech. Blech. I’m also pretty bummed I only brought my 50mm lens this evening and left my other one at the hotel room, and therefore couldn’t get super good photos, even though the lighting was perfect. Oh well. This photo below is the only decent one I got… our VIP passes got us in the upstairs section so I was directly to the left of Mr. Meloy and just above him. Good view.
Colin Meloy & crowd.
The lowly people at Stubb’s.
After that disappointment, we walked to meet up with Jeanette’s clients at the PureVolume House. They hooked us up with passes to get into that, along with other stuff they were sponsoring. That was pretty neato, I guess, although again, I’m not so interested in the bands that play at those kinds of things :/ We sat around for like an hour and a half chatting… I mostly just chatted with one of vTech’s workers, Tara, and she was really cool. Lives in Portland (along with the other vTech people), only she’s their senior designer and not quite like the others, I believe. We got in some semi-serious conversations about gentrification of neighborhoods and random environmental crap. Weird. Haha… especially since everyone else was like sloshed and talking about lord knows what. I do that a lot, I think. It’s not on purpose, though… that’s just the kind of stuff that interests me…, or something. No idea.
Silly Projekt Revolution Linkin Park Monster energy drink @ the PureVolume House.
Some other vTech workers included their main dude, who basically everyone was following around. He’s Tom. There was also Stephanie, who Jeanette works with a lot on their PR campaigns and such. She was funny, because she was pretty drunk, so she kept listing off the shows vTech was sponsoring, like numerous times, and I was just like… uh huh… ~__~
There were Grandma’s Sweet Teas there and they were not particularly delicious, but they were free. They actually had a buncha fifths on ice and a buncha other alcohol around because they were VIP, and random people kept coming by trying to snag some alcohols, without really even knowing that it’s not ONLY for VIP people, as well. So Stephanie played the roll of laying-the-smackdown-er and laid the smackdown on people who tried to come by and steal alcohol. One particular guy, to whom Stephanie told that the alcohol was only for vTech, kept calling her mean and stuff. Pretty irrational, and he wasn’t SUPER scary or pissed, but he was mad.
Anyway, The Stiletto Formal guys were there, I guess, because they had played there that evening, maybe? It was alright. I didn’t actually talk to them, but I did talk to their groupie friend, Matt, and their lead singer chick briefly, because she came by to talk to Matt and then Tom grabbed her ass because he thought she was someone else, and she’s like, “OMG! I feel violated!” and she was talking really loudly and he was right behind her! And she’s like, “I don’t know what to do now!” and I’m like, “You’ll be okay,” and she’s like, “Okay!” and wandered off. Haha? Matt was talking about how they picked out her clothes for her every day or something. Interesting. He was trying to convince me to go to their show the next day, which I would have, but Jeanette didn’t quite want to because she thought it was embarrassing, cause she’d given her number to their new bassist guy or something. Yeahhhh. So we didn’t end up going. So we were getting ready to leave, and then that Matt guy came back and like, twirled me in a circle and then said, “I missed you so much I needed to give you another hug!” or something. It was kind of just amusing that I was twirled in a circle, like a princess. Or something. O__o
But yeah. Didn’t see any music this evening beyond the Decemberists, which ended at… midnight? So that’s kinda lame. But it’s all good.
Actually, it’s not all good. I’d forgotten that I’d wanted to see These Arms Are Snakes at 1:00am really early on Thursday morning / Wednesday evening, and because of this mistake, I failed to see These Arms Are Snakes… and Jeanette failed to see them as well, because I’d talked up their showmanship SO MUCH and I wanted her to see them really badly since they were one performance that I could GUARANTEE an amazing experience of. Apparently they were going to play a show on Thursday during the day time, but that will soon be met with failure as well…
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