I just read this very exciting musical announcement from Mr. Ryan Adams. So far, 2005 looks promising for music releases. Other ones I'm looking forward to: Coldplay, Guster, Dave Matthews Band, The Decemberists, Ben Folds... (Links are to more info on the albums, not just to band sites.)
Whoo!
Jan 30, 2005
I'll always love you though, New York
I just returned from yet another fun weekend up in the big apple. This trip was a little crazier than my usual ones, as I tried to juggle my time between three different groups of people in three different areas of the city. In the end, I vastly underestimated the difficulty of doing so and had a few commuting issues and a bit of stress, but it was all worth it in the end. I stayed with Lo in her upper west apartment this time, instead of with my usual hosts Kim & Natty, in their lovable west village pad.
I got in around lunchtime on Friday and was able to stop in to see Lo in her temporary office at work. That's right, a whole office, not a cube. She even has a window. And, it's in the Flatiron building. What could be cooler? Look for pics of all this to come. I had a little giddy touristy moment with my camera as we strolled around outside to lunch. After a nice restaurant-week-lunch treat at Eleven Madison Park (a "Sex and the City" locale, unbeknownst to me until after the fact), I headed further downtown to hang out with John at his pad, as well as Becca & Pepper who were also up visiting. We killed a few hours watching Food network and breaking down the mannerisms of Giada De Laurentiis and trying to figure out just how Rachael Ray went from tapered jeans to FHM (still so shocking!). Then it was back up to Laura's place for dinner and eventually passing out in front of the TV.
Saturday there was more jumping around the city. I went to meet Kim & Nathaniel at Crif Dogs, another specialty hot dog joint in the East Village. This had me traveling quite a ways, like a giant diagonal across the city. It was worth it, though, for some good chili cheese waffle cut fries, and a couple very satisfying and well-topped hot dogs.
Then, in a surprising tourist moment for all of us, we went to Central Park to go ice skating at "The Donald's" rink. At first it was one of those moments where Kim and I were like, wait, why do people do this? Going around in circles on ice with this ridiculous crowd of people while wearing cheap plastic rental skates that are somehow already moist when you put them on? But after a little while we were having fun and forgot about all that silliness.
We went back to the apartment and enjoyed some TV time on the couch. Then we enjoyed dinner at this lovely italian restaurant just around the bend. I finally had my experience with "The Wheel," a fettucine dish where they take the noodles and spin it around over a big wheel of cheese, so it's all fresh and natural and pure. It was definitely deliciously simple. As the highlight of dinner, we somehow managed to get our drink tab picked up by the table next to us. They were the classic 40-somethings who came in already very inebriated and continued to drink with dinner. They were very loud and often rowdy, and while some other couples in the restaurant actually requested to be moved to a different room, we just went with it and joked and became "dinner friends" with them. I guess that went over well, because when the check came they had insisted on paying for not only our bottle of wine, but a round of after-dinner drinks or dessert for each of us. Not a bad deal at all!
So that's what got the ball rolling on the rest of my evening... I stopped by John's apartment for a couple homemade top shelf vodka-tonics, then we shared a cab as I headed back to the East Village to meet up with Laura and Allison at a bar. This turned out to be a funny experience because all these random UVA people were there, and it was like worlds colliding. Strangechild. After a few hours at this place, a bunch of us walked a block up to meet up with John, which was hilarious because we brought in a party of about 10 girls into this gay bar and definitely felt like we changed the dynamic a bit.
Finally, finally, after some more drinks and some flurries, I headed back to the upper west to crash. Wow, it was almost 4 am by the time I went to bed.. definitely can't remember the last time I had one of those nights, and my body reminded me of this when I woke up this morning. I wasn't feeling too hot, and by the time I mobilized myself out of bed it was close to 2 pm. It was nice to have one of those completely lazy sleeping-off-your-hangover kind of mornings, though.
All told, it was a great weekend, though a little hectic at times. It was just another reminder of how big the city really is, though easily accessible if you have the proper luck. The next few weekends coming up should be pretty exciting-- February looks to be a great month so far.
Current Music: Come Crash, by A.C. Newman
Current Mood: tired/contemplative
I got in around lunchtime on Friday and was able to stop in to see Lo in her temporary office at work. That's right, a whole office, not a cube. She even has a window. And, it's in the Flatiron building. What could be cooler? Look for pics of all this to come. I had a little giddy touristy moment with my camera as we strolled around outside to lunch. After a nice restaurant-week-lunch treat at Eleven Madison Park (a "Sex and the City" locale, unbeknownst to me until after the fact), I headed further downtown to hang out with John at his pad, as well as Becca & Pepper who were also up visiting. We killed a few hours watching Food network and breaking down the mannerisms of Giada De Laurentiis and trying to figure out just how Rachael Ray went from tapered jeans to FHM (still so shocking!). Then it was back up to Laura's place for dinner and eventually passing out in front of the TV.
Saturday there was more jumping around the city. I went to meet Kim & Nathaniel at Crif Dogs, another specialty hot dog joint in the East Village. This had me traveling quite a ways, like a giant diagonal across the city. It was worth it, though, for some good chili cheese waffle cut fries, and a couple very satisfying and well-topped hot dogs.
Then, in a surprising tourist moment for all of us, we went to Central Park to go ice skating at "The Donald's" rink. At first it was one of those moments where Kim and I were like, wait, why do people do this? Going around in circles on ice with this ridiculous crowd of people while wearing cheap plastic rental skates that are somehow already moist when you put them on? But after a little while we were having fun and forgot about all that silliness.
We went back to the apartment and enjoyed some TV time on the couch. Then we enjoyed dinner at this lovely italian restaurant just around the bend. I finally had my experience with "The Wheel," a fettucine dish where they take the noodles and spin it around over a big wheel of cheese, so it's all fresh and natural and pure. It was definitely deliciously simple. As the highlight of dinner, we somehow managed to get our drink tab picked up by the table next to us. They were the classic 40-somethings who came in already very inebriated and continued to drink with dinner. They were very loud and often rowdy, and while some other couples in the restaurant actually requested to be moved to a different room, we just went with it and joked and became "dinner friends" with them. I guess that went over well, because when the check came they had insisted on paying for not only our bottle of wine, but a round of after-dinner drinks or dessert for each of us. Not a bad deal at all!
So that's what got the ball rolling on the rest of my evening... I stopped by John's apartment for a couple homemade top shelf vodka-tonics, then we shared a cab as I headed back to the East Village to meet up with Laura and Allison at a bar. This turned out to be a funny experience because all these random UVA people were there, and it was like worlds colliding. Strangechild. After a few hours at this place, a bunch of us walked a block up to meet up with John, which was hilarious because we brought in a party of about 10 girls into this gay bar and definitely felt like we changed the dynamic a bit.
Finally, finally, after some more drinks and some flurries, I headed back to the upper west to crash. Wow, it was almost 4 am by the time I went to bed.. definitely can't remember the last time I had one of those nights, and my body reminded me of this when I woke up this morning. I wasn't feeling too hot, and by the time I mobilized myself out of bed it was close to 2 pm. It was nice to have one of those completely lazy sleeping-off-your-hangover kind of mornings, though.
All told, it was a great weekend, though a little hectic at times. It was just another reminder of how big the city really is, though easily accessible if you have the proper luck. The next few weekends coming up should be pretty exciting-- February looks to be a great month so far.
Current Music: Come Crash, by A.C. Newman
Current Mood: tired/contemplative
Jan 27, 2005
Chicks and sports
Here is an article highlighting typical girl behavior as related to sports. I found it very insulting. That was about all. And it was written by a girl!...who writes for a site called Chicksonfootball.com! Maybe she is "one of the boys" now so thinks she can mock the whole idea. Anyway, that's weird. I guess that's probably the reason why it seems okay to publish it? Because she's actually trying to help girls break out of the stereotype? I don't know, but I didn't take it well. While I know things like this are meant to be lighthearted and in good fun, they give me even more reason to keep pressing Auddie to learn about and watch sports with me and my bro and dad when we're at home. I've tried to explain to her time and time again that it's so important, even if she doesn't really like sports, that she knows what's going on so that guys don't just assume she's an idiot about it. (Ok, so it's hard to get her into it if she doesn't like it, but I figure if she knows what's going on she'll learn to like it.) We can't let these boys perpetuate the cycle. So far, Auddie's not really picking up the ball (no pun intended)... I mean, she's occasionally watching the games and everything, but every week, even after I think I've explained the basics, she'll come up with a more ridiculous question. I think I've tried to explain the very simple 4-down concept to her at least five times. We also played a fun game where she tried to guess the team mascot based on their helmets. I think one of her answers was "Indianapolis Horseshoes." Simply classic.
Current Music: Clocks, by Coldplay
Current Mood: good -- c'est le week-end! :)
Current Music: Clocks, by Coldplay
Current Mood: good -- c'est le week-end! :)
Jan 25, 2005
Fun with links!
First, some articles o' the day:
Why text messaging is a silly phenomenon.
This is ridiculous and sad, but still funny. But strangely I can imagine what they're talking about because my fingers start to hurt after only a few text message exchanges. What made me laugh the most was actually the title of the article.
"We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving..."
This is totally awesome and just classic. It brings me back to childhood memories, and now they'll introduce it to a whole new crowd of kids who can create their own great memories!
And finally, a very fun music game for a special feature in Esquire magazine. It's easy. All you gotta do is pick the Best Band in the World. For those interested, Radiohead won my competition with the Dave Matthews Band in a close second and U2 rounding out the top 3.
Try it, it's fun! Tell me your results.
Current Music: Heavy Metal Drummer, by Wilco
Current Mood: ready for bed
Why text messaging is a silly phenomenon.
This is ridiculous and sad, but still funny. But strangely I can imagine what they're talking about because my fingers start to hurt after only a few text message exchanges. What made me laugh the most was actually the title of the article.
"We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving..."
This is totally awesome and just classic. It brings me back to childhood memories, and now they'll introduce it to a whole new crowd of kids who can create their own great memories!
And finally, a very fun music game for a special feature in Esquire magazine. It's easy. All you gotta do is pick the Best Band in the World. For those interested, Radiohead won my competition with the Dave Matthews Band in a close second and U2 rounding out the top 3.
Try it, it's fun! Tell me your results.
Current Music: Heavy Metal Drummer, by Wilco
Current Mood: ready for bed
Jan 23, 2005
The moon is up over One Tree Hill...
View from my backyard as the sun was going down and the moon was coming up.
This reminded me of the song (not the television show), One Tree Hill, which I probably haven't heard in over a year or so. This is one of my favorites. Glad I brought it out again.
Current Music: One Tree Hill, by U2
We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy love
The sun so bright it leaves no shadows
Only scars carved into stone
On the face of earth
The moon is up over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes
You run like river, on like a sea
You run like a river runs to the sea
And in the world a heart of darkness
A fire zone
Where poets speak their heart
Then bleed for it
Jara sang, his song a weapon
In the hands of love
You know his blood still cries
From the ground
It runs like a river runs to the sea
It runs like a river to the sea
I don't believe in painted roses
Or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the night of the merciful
I'll see you again
When the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red
Over One Tree Hill
We run like a river
Run to the sea
We run like a river to the sea
And when it's raining
Raining hard
That's when the rain will
Break my heart
Raining, raining in my heart
Raining in your heart
Raining, raining to your heart
Raining, raining...raining
Raining to your heart, raining
Raining in your heart.. .
To the sea
Oh great ocean
Oh great sea
Run to the ocean
Run to the sea
This reminded me of the song (not the television show), One Tree Hill, which I probably haven't heard in over a year or so. This is one of my favorites. Glad I brought it out again.
Current Music: One Tree Hill, by U2
We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy love
The sun so bright it leaves no shadows
Only scars carved into stone
On the face of earth
The moon is up over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes
You run like river, on like a sea
You run like a river runs to the sea
And in the world a heart of darkness
A fire zone
Where poets speak their heart
Then bleed for it
Jara sang, his song a weapon
In the hands of love
You know his blood still cries
From the ground
It runs like a river runs to the sea
It runs like a river to the sea
I don't believe in painted roses
Or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the night of the merciful
I'll see you again
When the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red
Over One Tree Hill
We run like a river
Run to the sea
We run like a river to the sea
And when it's raining
Raining hard
That's when the rain will
Break my heart
Raining, raining in my heart
Raining in your heart
Raining, raining to your heart
Raining, raining...raining
Raining to your heart, raining
Raining in your heart.. .
To the sea
Oh great ocean
Oh great sea
Run to the ocean
Run to the sea
Johnny Carson, 1925-2005
Though I was merely a youngin' while he was still on TV, I do remember Johnny Carson well and he was good at what he did. Just a couple days ago I was reading an article about how he liked to occasionally send jokes to Letterman (and not Leno, his actual replacement) to use for his monologues and such. That made me like him even more. So sad. R.I.P. Johnny.
Jan 22, 2005
Musica!
So this Music Map place I stumbled upon is kind of fun. Just type in a name of an artist and it builds this crazy web of other artists for you based on what listeners of the initial artist also listen to. After playing around with it for a while, I was curious about how they did it, so I kind of backtracked to this other cool site that is similar to the music map but lets you input things and it outputs responses based on that. Ok, confusing. Just check it out.
[Edit: I found a better one. Go here instead if you liked what you saw in those previous links.]
Current Music: Feelin' the Same Way, by Norah Jones
[Edit: I found a better one. Go here instead if you liked what you saw in those previous links.]
Current Music: Feelin' the Same Way, by Norah Jones
There's a wrinkle in the water...
For those of you still keeping score, Iota Club Part II was a success! Tonight was sweet redemption for last night's mishap. All things went well, down to my lame fan interaction with Colin after the show.
I was overly cautious and arrived at the club a little before 7:30. Things were shakin, people were drinking and standing around. I scoped out the scene while I waited for Becca and Pepper to arrive. When they did, we had close to two hours to kill before the show. Ah, this is what happens when you get to a place early for a show. I had almost forgotten. But it wasn't bad at all.. I enjoyed a nice Yuengling and we secured our standing area near the stage entrance. (The stage is actually like a one foot tall 10' x 10' platform.) We were getting antsy as show time approached, but as soon as Colin took the stage I was pumped. I was actually just happy to be inside the venue, so when I actually remembered we were there to see an awesome show, it was doubly exciting.
Anyway, he played close to 20 tunes or so for over an hour and a half. Some stuff of Her Majesty, some off Castaways and Cutouts, a couple Morrissey covers, and some brand new stuff off the upcoming Picaresque release. It was an incredible show. For a solo act--average-looking dude with guitar and mic-- Colin was quite engaging and definitely held the stage well. The audience was all into him (including one hilarious Kiefer Sutherland look-alike in the front row who was gazing at Colin with adoring eyes the whole time, while mouthing every word to every song...), and Colin was playful and congenial, making jokes and conversation and telling stories.
You can't help but come to a show like this and see this type of musician and just be in awe. He's totally "normal," incredibly kind and giving with his fans, and you get the sense he's just an all-around genuine guy. Not only that, but he's achieved what I view as the perfect level of musicianship. He's released some amazing music to relatively popular acclaim, but he can still walk down the streets unnoticed (when he first walked into the club I think only a handful of people turned and whispered to their friends) and live a comfortable life.
After the show, we realized the convenience of our chosen spot, as it was right in the path of the stage steps. Colin descended and found himself kind of trapped in this corner of the club, with no real way out. We kind of sat around on the stage for awhile trying not to act groupie-like, but I finally went in for the kill after giving Colin a moment to breathe. I stole some girl's pen (well, she let me borrow it but then she left and said I could keep it and pass it around) to have Colin sign his Morrissey covers EP, which I had purchased. Then I said some lame and typical fan things ("Thanks, that was a really great show"), tried to make more small talk, shook his hand and told him good luck traveling up north through the snow tomorrow. He was really nice, though. I mean, I can't begin to imagine the number of fans he interacts with after shows, and how they all mostly say the same thing and want to take a picture with him or have him sign something, but with each person he seemed really genuine. Look at me suddenly going off like he's my new best friend. Well, I just gotta say I really respect a good musician who is that down-to-earth and kind and friendly and defies that distant-cold-rockstar-ego stereotype.
It was an excellent evening and a great way to kick off this snowbound weekend!
Here are some pics that I managed to sneak... apologies for poor quality-- I had to do what I could without flash.
The now infamous (no, not really) Iota window chalkboard:
Colin Meloy of the Decemberists:
His very cute suitcase and two guitars (both Martin, one a beautiful 12-string):
One last one of Colin, just for art's sake:
With that, I close. My hands are numb now anyway. The temp. seems to be dropping by the second. Perhaps when I wake up it will be snowing! Off to bed... look for snow updates soon.
Current Music: Paper Moon, by Whiskeytown
Current Mood: great
I was overly cautious and arrived at the club a little before 7:30. Things were shakin, people were drinking and standing around. I scoped out the scene while I waited for Becca and Pepper to arrive. When they did, we had close to two hours to kill before the show. Ah, this is what happens when you get to a place early for a show. I had almost forgotten. But it wasn't bad at all.. I enjoyed a nice Yuengling and we secured our standing area near the stage entrance. (The stage is actually like a one foot tall 10' x 10' platform.) We were getting antsy as show time approached, but as soon as Colin took the stage I was pumped. I was actually just happy to be inside the venue, so when I actually remembered we were there to see an awesome show, it was doubly exciting.
Anyway, he played close to 20 tunes or so for over an hour and a half. Some stuff of Her Majesty, some off Castaways and Cutouts, a couple Morrissey covers, and some brand new stuff off the upcoming Picaresque release. It was an incredible show. For a solo act--average-looking dude with guitar and mic-- Colin was quite engaging and definitely held the stage well. The audience was all into him (including one hilarious Kiefer Sutherland look-alike in the front row who was gazing at Colin with adoring eyes the whole time, while mouthing every word to every song...), and Colin was playful and congenial, making jokes and conversation and telling stories.
You can't help but come to a show like this and see this type of musician and just be in awe. He's totally "normal," incredibly kind and giving with his fans, and you get the sense he's just an all-around genuine guy. Not only that, but he's achieved what I view as the perfect level of musicianship. He's released some amazing music to relatively popular acclaim, but he can still walk down the streets unnoticed (when he first walked into the club I think only a handful of people turned and whispered to their friends) and live a comfortable life.
After the show, we realized the convenience of our chosen spot, as it was right in the path of the stage steps. Colin descended and found himself kind of trapped in this corner of the club, with no real way out. We kind of sat around on the stage for awhile trying not to act groupie-like, but I finally went in for the kill after giving Colin a moment to breathe. I stole some girl's pen (well, she let me borrow it but then she left and said I could keep it and pass it around) to have Colin sign his Morrissey covers EP, which I had purchased. Then I said some lame and typical fan things ("Thanks, that was a really great show"), tried to make more small talk, shook his hand and told him good luck traveling up north through the snow tomorrow. He was really nice, though. I mean, I can't begin to imagine the number of fans he interacts with after shows, and how they all mostly say the same thing and want to take a picture with him or have him sign something, but with each person he seemed really genuine. Look at me suddenly going off like he's my new best friend. Well, I just gotta say I really respect a good musician who is that down-to-earth and kind and friendly and defies that distant-cold-rockstar-ego stereotype.
It was an excellent evening and a great way to kick off this snowbound weekend!
Here are some pics that I managed to sneak... apologies for poor quality-- I had to do what I could without flash.
The now infamous (no, not really) Iota window chalkboard:
Colin Meloy of the Decemberists:
His very cute suitcase and two guitars (both Martin, one a beautiful 12-string):
One last one of Colin, just for art's sake:
With that, I close. My hands are numb now anyway. The temp. seems to be dropping by the second. Perhaps when I wake up it will be snowing! Off to bed... look for snow updates soon.
Current Music: Paper Moon, by Whiskeytown
Current Mood: great
Jan 21, 2005
Left out in the cold
I should be getting ready for bed right now since I have work tomorrow, but I couldn't go to sleep until I shared with the blogosphere my evening's big disappointment.
I have been looking forward to the Ray Lamontagne show tonight for quite some time now. He was playing at the Iota Club in Arlington, which is a teensy little low-key cafe type place. The catch is, it doesn't even sell tickets in advance. (Can you see where this story is going?) It was one of those situations in which you could not properly assess your level of preparation until it was too late. I arrived on the scene early, a few hours before anything went down, and the club looked pretty deserted save a couple random dudes at the bar. I figured Becca, Pepper and I had time to grab a quick dinner before the show. When we finished about an hour later, there was a line stretched a few blocks down outside the club. Pepper and I guesstimated about 55-60, but Becca's more accurate count showed about 80 or so. In any case, it didn't matter because there seemed to already be people in the club, so they weren't letting many in from the line at all. A while later, some guy came out and announced that the show was sold out, so almost immediately the 80+ people in front of us disappeared, and we found ourselves first in line, standing outside the door of the club with a few others behind us. We were the ones in denial. After peering in desperately and trying to figure out what was going on, we were told over and over again that there was no chance. We tried talking to all the pushy dudes who worked there and even making up fun reasons why we should be let in (Pepper was here for the Ray look-alike contest), but in the end, it wasn't meant to be. We finally gave up after about 6 people on the "list" were let in into the already-packed-potential-fire-hazard room. We walked away with our heads down, our toes frozen, and large frowns. Boo.
We knew we couldn't go home after that whole experience, so I thought we could go catch a movie to try and redeem the evening (ok, not redeem but at least try to lift our spirits). We caught a viewing of Closer, but this didn't turn out to be the key to success. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be. Ok, I didn't quite get it, either, so that could have been it. It was kind of a downer, too, if you want me to be honest. We did have Jude and the ever brief clip of Damien Rice's music, but... it wasn't quite a Ray Lamontagne show.
(You know what's weird though? When you miss something, as in... you didn't see it, you didn't watch it, you didn't hear it, whatever.. you can only be bummed to a certain extent because you will never know what exactly you missed, no matter how much someone tries to convey it to you. I mean, clearly I'm disappointed and sad about tonight, and I'm sure the show was awesome as anyone who was there will tell me, but at the end of the day, since I didn't get to experience a lick of that, it will all be kind of trivial in a little while. Ah, there you go Pouy, perspective, nice...)
The good news (or bad news, however you want to look at it) is that tomorrow we get to try again. That's right, after all the horror and rejection, Becca, Pepper and I are headed back to the Iota Club tomorrow evening to try and catch Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) in a solo show. You can bet we'll be arriving nice and early and killing just as much time as we need to. It just sucks that you need a night like tonight to get yourself all psycho like that. I'm kinda disappointed in myself, actually. I'm usually anal enough to be on top of these things so that I'm not left out in the cold, but tonight just didn't work out. If anything, I hope that Ray's people saw that he was way too big for this tiny place and book him to come back soon, and to a bigger venue. I think the issue this time was that they thought he was too small for 9:30 and this was the next closest and available thing. Not so, friends! He could have easily filled up 9:30... if not this time, then definitely next time he rolls through town. If you haven't heard of him yet, you've heard of him now, folks!
Some quick pics:
Still hopeful... (Pepper really does look like Ray)
...But this is as close as I got tonight... literally peering in through the front door:
Ok, I'm off to bed. Updates on Iota Club Part II to follow...
P.S. Happy Birthday, Becca!
Current Music: Trouble, by Ray Lamontagne (I know, how sad. I have his Conan performance from last night taped, and I actually considered just watching that a few times on repeat...)
Current Mood: bummed and disappointed and tired
I have been looking forward to the Ray Lamontagne show tonight for quite some time now. He was playing at the Iota Club in Arlington, which is a teensy little low-key cafe type place. The catch is, it doesn't even sell tickets in advance. (Can you see where this story is going?) It was one of those situations in which you could not properly assess your level of preparation until it was too late. I arrived on the scene early, a few hours before anything went down, and the club looked pretty deserted save a couple random dudes at the bar. I figured Becca, Pepper and I had time to grab a quick dinner before the show. When we finished about an hour later, there was a line stretched a few blocks down outside the club. Pepper and I guesstimated about 55-60, but Becca's more accurate count showed about 80 or so. In any case, it didn't matter because there seemed to already be people in the club, so they weren't letting many in from the line at all. A while later, some guy came out and announced that the show was sold out, so almost immediately the 80+ people in front of us disappeared, and we found ourselves first in line, standing outside the door of the club with a few others behind us. We were the ones in denial. After peering in desperately and trying to figure out what was going on, we were told over and over again that there was no chance. We tried talking to all the pushy dudes who worked there and even making up fun reasons why we should be let in (Pepper was here for the Ray look-alike contest), but in the end, it wasn't meant to be. We finally gave up after about 6 people on the "list" were let in into the already-packed-potential-fire-hazard room. We walked away with our heads down, our toes frozen, and large frowns. Boo.
We knew we couldn't go home after that whole experience, so I thought we could go catch a movie to try and redeem the evening (ok, not redeem but at least try to lift our spirits). We caught a viewing of Closer, but this didn't turn out to be the key to success. It wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be. Ok, I didn't quite get it, either, so that could have been it. It was kind of a downer, too, if you want me to be honest. We did have Jude and the ever brief clip of Damien Rice's music, but... it wasn't quite a Ray Lamontagne show.
(You know what's weird though? When you miss something, as in... you didn't see it, you didn't watch it, you didn't hear it, whatever.. you can only be bummed to a certain extent because you will never know what exactly you missed, no matter how much someone tries to convey it to you. I mean, clearly I'm disappointed and sad about tonight, and I'm sure the show was awesome as anyone who was there will tell me, but at the end of the day, since I didn't get to experience a lick of that, it will all be kind of trivial in a little while. Ah, there you go Pouy, perspective, nice...)
The good news (or bad news, however you want to look at it) is that tomorrow we get to try again. That's right, after all the horror and rejection, Becca, Pepper and I are headed back to the Iota Club tomorrow evening to try and catch Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) in a solo show. You can bet we'll be arriving nice and early and killing just as much time as we need to. It just sucks that you need a night like tonight to get yourself all psycho like that. I'm kinda disappointed in myself, actually. I'm usually anal enough to be on top of these things so that I'm not left out in the cold, but tonight just didn't work out. If anything, I hope that Ray's people saw that he was way too big for this tiny place and book him to come back soon, and to a bigger venue. I think the issue this time was that they thought he was too small for 9:30 and this was the next closest and available thing. Not so, friends! He could have easily filled up 9:30... if not this time, then definitely next time he rolls through town. If you haven't heard of him yet, you've heard of him now, folks!
Some quick pics:
Still hopeful... (Pepper really does look like Ray)
...But this is as close as I got tonight... literally peering in through the front door:
Ok, I'm off to bed. Updates on Iota Club Part II to follow...
P.S. Happy Birthday, Becca!
Current Music: Trouble, by Ray Lamontagne (I know, how sad. I have his Conan performance from last night taped, and I actually considered just watching that a few times on repeat...)
Current Mood: bummed and disappointed and tired
Jan 19, 2005
Snow... Storm?
Oh, how I love DC when it snows. The whole city and surrounding suburbs just go nuts. All the inauguration hoopla didn't help the situation at all. It probably snowed about 2 inches max today, but of course it took us about an hour and a half to get home, we saw two new BMWs within 100 yards of each other abandoned on the side of the road (not a good sign), and another old pick up truck about to plow down the car in front of him. Going in the opposite direction, toward the city, we saw a couple Capital Party Rental trucks and a ton of giant tour buses getting set for all the W festivities.
Anyway, I shouldn't complain.. it's been a ridiculously short week and we got to leave early today. It's just funny to come home to the local news and hear reports of "Snow Storm" and "Snow Victims" after a 2-inch accumulation. People are laughing at us in the Northeast and out West. Wasn't it something like -50 degrees in Minnesota this week? What does that even mean? Once you get down to the teens and colder isn't it all the same? You stop feeling everything once you hit single digits anyway, don't you? Brrr, scary thought. Well, I'm glad to be home and bundled up... that's actually my favorite. I'm such a devoted homebody.
As I'm not working tomorrow you can expect me to make up for the long breaks in my blogging by bombarding you with a barrage of posts. Stay tuned.
Current Music: Don't be Sad, by Whiskeytown (off Pneumonia, the last full-length release from Ryan Adams's former band. A very excellent album)
Current Mood: excellent
Anyway, I shouldn't complain.. it's been a ridiculously short week and we got to leave early today. It's just funny to come home to the local news and hear reports of "Snow Storm" and "Snow Victims" after a 2-inch accumulation. People are laughing at us in the Northeast and out West. Wasn't it something like -50 degrees in Minnesota this week? What does that even mean? Once you get down to the teens and colder isn't it all the same? You stop feeling everything once you hit single digits anyway, don't you? Brrr, scary thought. Well, I'm glad to be home and bundled up... that's actually my favorite. I'm such a devoted homebody.
As I'm not working tomorrow you can expect me to make up for the long breaks in my blogging by bombarding you with a barrage of posts. Stay tuned.
Current Music: Don't be Sad, by Whiskeytown (off Pneumonia, the last full-length release from Ryan Adams's former band. A very excellent album)
Current Mood: excellent
Jan 15, 2005
Tsunami pics
Since the celeb-ful Tsunami Aid concert is on TV right now, I thought I should post this link of some of the before/after pics of certain areas completely wiped out by the Tsunami. It's really, really unbelievable, and even the time that has passed hasn't made it less shocking or easier to look at. The Banda Aceh photos are really the most terrifying; it's like an entire city washed out, leaving only mud in its place. It looks like something out of a terrible movie or a Michael Crichton book. Anyway... yeah. Not much else to say on that.
Current Music: Bowl of Oranges, by Bright Eyes
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Bowl of Oranges, by Bright Eyes
Current Mood: mellow
Jan 14, 2005
HFS no more...
Oh, one last link for today. For all you once-local people, HFS as we know it is gone! Even though the station has been really terrible for the past few years (perhaps this is a reflection of my musical taste and not the station), it still represented such a large part of my teenage years, not to mention the famed HFStival. I still remember going in 1998 and seeing the likes of Third Eye Blind (first time I discovered Stephan Jenkins could not hold a single note live) and of course Green Day burning down the drumkit on stage. Sigh... so many memories represented by a single radio station. I found out about this on Wednesday when Huan asked me to turn to 99.1 on the dial, and I did only to hear some upbeat Spanish tunes instead of the usual "alt-rock"... It was so weird!
And now for one last random comment. As much as MTV has gone down the tubes the past few years, I have to say I do love the new commercials they are playing to promote the Simpson sisters' new shows. They are simply hilarious. But how Ashlee Simpson still seems to be going strong? I have no idea.
Current Music: Typical Situation, by Dave Matthews Band
Current Mood: relaxed
And now for one last random comment. As much as MTV has gone down the tubes the past few years, I have to say I do love the new commercials they are playing to promote the Simpson sisters' new shows. They are simply hilarious. But how Ashlee Simpson still seems to be going strong? I have no idea.
Current Music: Typical Situation, by Dave Matthews Band
Current Mood: relaxed
Oh Harry, why can't you be more like your brother Wills?
This is a day old already, but I still feel I have to blog about it. Besides, today's story has a different angle about how Prince Charles apparently ordered Harry to visit Auschwitz in the wake of his ridiculous Nazi shirt yesterday.
Seriously though, I can't believe Harry would do that. It's as if he wants to stir things up. He had just kind of redeemed himself, at least publicly, with all the stories about him going to Africa and working with all these kids. That didn't last long, eh?
As I was telling some people in conversation... It's one thing if some moron you see on the street is wearing something offensive (like all the hippie travelers who wear the Communist Vietnamese flag) or has a bad costume at a party (though it's no less in appropriate, of course)... But if you're a future KING, wouldn't you think twice about what you're putting on, knowing that someone's always watching you?? Seriously, it doesn't seem like rocket science here. Extra shame on the big bro William for not smacking some sense into his brother.
Current Music: Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon & Garfunkel
Seriously though, I can't believe Harry would do that. It's as if he wants to stir things up. He had just kind of redeemed himself, at least publicly, with all the stories about him going to Africa and working with all these kids. That didn't last long, eh?
As I was telling some people in conversation... It's one thing if some moron you see on the street is wearing something offensive (like all the hippie travelers who wear the Communist Vietnamese flag) or has a bad costume at a party (though it's no less in appropriate, of course)... But if you're a future KING, wouldn't you think twice about what you're putting on, knowing that someone's always watching you?? Seriously, it doesn't seem like rocket science here. Extra shame on the big bro William for not smacking some sense into his brother.
Current Music: Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon & Garfunkel
Jan 13, 2005
First Week O' Work
Clearly this whole "work" thing is still a novelty for me, so lucky for you, I will continue to blog about it. Things are still going swimmingly. For a first week, all went as well as it could have. Yesterday was exciting because I participated in my first conference call. Again, this was something that never happened last summer. In fact, I think they told us about the calls last summer and then went ahead and locked us out of the rooms as they went on. Swell. But Wednesday we were even called upon to share our knowledge and to fully participate in developing some story ideas. All of us interns were pleased because we're getting some direction and now know what we're actually going to be doing, or at least attempting to do. However, this also means it will get busy and we actually have lots of work to do. Exciting, though! Sure beats killing time refreshing the e-mail page and playing yahoo games (last year).
Yesterday was made even more exciting by some more DC drama. There was a bomb threat outside the Borders behind my building. They closed off 18th street for a while and apparently one of my colleagues saw a bunch of people screaming through the streets. Just great. It's basically just practice for the cops in preparation for inauguration next week. Speaking of next week, it's going to be awesome because Monday is a holiday (MLK) and then Thursday is inauguration (which we get off as well, since they pretty much shut down the whole city). So yeah, guess I picked a good week to start work... just easing into things.
Tonight, in trying to keep up with my new year's resolution of being more social, I met up with Jess & Alli and one of Jess's coworkers for happy hour and dinner (It's restaurant week in DC). Truth be told, I was getting giddy after about 1.5 beers, and that buzz carried itself through our fancy lil' dinner. It was a good time, though... highlights were discussing our personal experiences in "Office Space" world... cubicles, communal restrooms, etc..
I have tomorrow off, which means I have a 4-day weekend ahead of me. Time to catch up on all the TV I missed this week. 24, Lost, The O.C...etc. Looking forward to it. I know... I watch way too much TV.
Current Music: Nothing is Good Enough, by Aimee Mann
Current Mood: ready for bed
Yesterday was made even more exciting by some more DC drama. There was a bomb threat outside the Borders behind my building. They closed off 18th street for a while and apparently one of my colleagues saw a bunch of people screaming through the streets. Just great. It's basically just practice for the cops in preparation for inauguration next week. Speaking of next week, it's going to be awesome because Monday is a holiday (MLK) and then Thursday is inauguration (which we get off as well, since they pretty much shut down the whole city). So yeah, guess I picked a good week to start work... just easing into things.
Tonight, in trying to keep up with my new year's resolution of being more social, I met up with Jess & Alli and one of Jess's coworkers for happy hour and dinner (It's restaurant week in DC). Truth be told, I was getting giddy after about 1.5 beers, and that buzz carried itself through our fancy lil' dinner. It was a good time, though... highlights were discussing our personal experiences in "Office Space" world... cubicles, communal restrooms, etc..
I have tomorrow off, which means I have a 4-day weekend ahead of me. Time to catch up on all the TV I missed this week. 24, Lost, The O.C...etc. Looking forward to it. I know... I watch way too much TV.
Current Music: Nothing is Good Enough, by Aimee Mann
Current Mood: ready for bed
Jan 10, 2005
First Day O' Work
I just got home from my first day, and naturally I'm sitting here blogging about it. All in all, a fantastic first day of work for a job that seems like it will be a very rewarding experience. Not a bad first impression, right?
I came in, overdressed (but you have to be, it's your first day!), and met the other interns. We're all locals and one of the guys looks like Jimmy Fallon. I haven't told him this yet; I will tell him tomorrow, but I doubt it's the first time he's heard it. Anyway, the office manager, the one I've been addressing as "Ms." in all my emails, is actually my age or younger, but very friendly and "cool." The other staff folks are not only really experienced journalists, but very helpful and definitely accessible. Maybe this is how people usually work, but after my internship experience last summer it's all news to me. We all got taken out to CPK for lunch on the company's tab, too! On the first day it was a nice treat, considering I never got that treatment last summer (I feel like an orphan who was just adopted into a better family).
On the way back from lunch we were treated with some good ol' DC drama as the hotel workers were on strike outside the Mayflower hotel, which is directly across from our building. For the rest of the afternoon we could hear their megaphone-chanting even inside our offices. Really does wonders for the concentration.
Anyhow...On top of everything else, the work I'm doing is incredibly interesting and I'm really excited about it. I won't say any more about it in detail, only because 1) this is a blog, after all, and very "public" (as my Who Let the Blogs Out? blog guide will tell me), and 2) the nature of the work I'm doing bears a certain degree of confidentiality which only makes me want to talk about it more because I feel so super secret and therefore special. So yes, maybe you'll hear about it in the future on "20/20" or read about it in the Post, but til then I probably shouldn't say much (look at me, gloating already).
Well, my feet are tired and I'm actually very sleepy (I know, I'm a wuss), so that wraps up my first day update. I think I may have to go to the dark side and pick up a coffee habit to keep from nodding off in my cube.
Current Music: Africa, by Toto
Current Mood: good but tired
I came in, overdressed (but you have to be, it's your first day!), and met the other interns. We're all locals and one of the guys looks like Jimmy Fallon. I haven't told him this yet; I will tell him tomorrow, but I doubt it's the first time he's heard it. Anyway, the office manager, the one I've been addressing as "Ms." in all my emails, is actually my age or younger, but very friendly and "cool." The other staff folks are not only really experienced journalists, but very helpful and definitely accessible. Maybe this is how people usually work, but after my internship experience last summer it's all news to me. We all got taken out to CPK for lunch on the company's tab, too! On the first day it was a nice treat, considering I never got that treatment last summer (I feel like an orphan who was just adopted into a better family).
On the way back from lunch we were treated with some good ol' DC drama as the hotel workers were on strike outside the Mayflower hotel, which is directly across from our building. For the rest of the afternoon we could hear their megaphone-chanting even inside our offices. Really does wonders for the concentration.
Anyhow...On top of everything else, the work I'm doing is incredibly interesting and I'm really excited about it. I won't say any more about it in detail, only because 1) this is a blog, after all, and very "public" (as my Who Let the Blogs Out? blog guide will tell me), and 2) the nature of the work I'm doing bears a certain degree of confidentiality which only makes me want to talk about it more because I feel so super secret and therefore special. So yes, maybe you'll hear about it in the future on "20/20" or read about it in the Post, but til then I probably shouldn't say much (look at me, gloating already).
Well, my feet are tired and I'm actually very sleepy (I know, I'm a wuss), so that wraps up my first day update. I think I may have to go to the dark side and pick up a coffee habit to keep from nodding off in my cube.
Current Music: Africa, by Toto
Current Mood: good but tired
Jan 9, 2005
Last day of vacay...
Well, it's time to close the door on my 7 month + vacation (ooh, sounds different when you actually say it out loud). It's been a lovely ride, but I fear it's time to move on to the next big thing. It's been a time for playing mom, playing school (VN), ... and mostly just a lot of other playing. Don't get me wrong-- I found myself surprisingly productive for what one would expect out of an unemployed grad living at home. And I often felt I had to justify this to myself and other people. "It's not like I wake up in the afternoon everyday and just sit around watching TV." Ok, so I watched my fair share of TV and did enjoy more couch time than the average guy, but as many of you know, living around the fam in NOVA doesn't leave you much time to be still. There's always something to be done, someone to see, something to pick up, etc. I probably won't mind a little break from that, to be honest. I'm actually quite excited about getting into something new, and at the least, feeling like a productive member of society. I'll know soon how much time I have left for blogging, but never fear, I'll do some reshifting on my priority list and make it happen as best I can. Blogging is a way of life, after all!
For now, an afternoon of football before I go try on my first-day-of-work outfit and get at least 8 hours of sleep before the big day. As an aside, I must say I enjoy Jake Plummer 10x more than I used to with his new macho-man beard. He was always just a sissy man before, but with the new facial hair he's moving in the right direction.
Oh, one last thing. Tonight is the big premiere of the 4th season of "24." I don't know if I can handle it. Last season was really draining. It became like this love-hate relationship. Forced to tune in every week for 24 episodes total, and by the end it was like-- is this really the best thing for us? But I kept coming back because I had to know, I couldn't pull myself away. Anyway, I'll definitely start this season but I make no promises about my commitment. If you've never seen this show, though, I do recommend it. It's the only one of its kind. After all, have I ever failed you with a recommendation?
For now, an afternoon of football before I go try on my first-day-of-work outfit and get at least 8 hours of sleep before the big day. As an aside, I must say I enjoy Jake Plummer 10x more than I used to with his new macho-man beard. He was always just a sissy man before, but with the new facial hair he's moving in the right direction.
Oh, one last thing. Tonight is the big premiere of the 4th season of "24." I don't know if I can handle it. Last season was really draining. It became like this love-hate relationship. Forced to tune in every week for 24 episodes total, and by the end it was like-- is this really the best thing for us? But I kept coming back because I had to know, I couldn't pull myself away. Anyway, I'll definitely start this season but I make no promises about my commitment. If you've never seen this show, though, I do recommend it. It's the only one of its kind. After all, have I ever failed you with a recommendation?
Jan 8, 2005
Gasp!
I hate to go Us Weekly on all of you, but this is news...and sad news, at that! Hollywood's best looking couple is on the outs. Yes that's right, I'm talking about Mr. & Mrs. Pitt. Wow, I'm seriously shocked, and I'm actually trying to be serious about this without being mocked. Major bummer. We'll never get to see what those beautiful children may have looked like.
Current Music: James, by Josh Rouse
Current Mood: shocked! :o
Current Music: James, by Josh Rouse
Current Mood: shocked! :o
Jan 7, 2005
My namesake
In NYC...
This is the storefront of the first restaurant Mario Batali (Molto Mario) opened in New York. Incidentally, he named it after me. I haven't been there, but I'll bet you it's good.
This is the storefront of the first restaurant Mario Batali (Molto Mario) opened in New York. Incidentally, he named it after me. I haven't been there, but I'll bet you it's good.
Teenybopper update
Ah! I bet you thought this would be an Ashlee Simpson story, but you are wrong! The poor girl has been through enough so I'm going to leave her alone about her career meltdown. This is actually a serious story, but also kind of amusing, which is why I felt I had to post it. Our little friend Aaron Carter was in a little accident in his 2004 Escalade, which subsequently burst into flames. Yikes! What scared me most was the idea of the mattress coming loose from a truck. I'm occasionally paranoid about these types of things when I'm driving... ladders, furniture, those huge "ExCargo" roof bins, etc. A couple days ago I was driving behind a trash truck and out of nowhere its recyclables started flying out of it. I had to dodge a milk carton, some soda can, and other miscellaneous debris before I got out of its way. Scary.
Oh, and what are those things you always see on the highway? They look like giant hexagonal washers and they're always littered in or in between the lanes. Like maybe like they fell of a tractor-trailer because they didn't need them anymore? Anyway, also bizarre.
Happy Friday everyone.
Current Music: So Right, by Dave Matthews Band (Rediscovery of the week)
Current Mood: good
Oh, and what are those things you always see on the highway? They look like giant hexagonal washers and they're always littered in or in between the lanes. Like maybe like they fell of a tractor-trailer because they didn't need them anymore? Anyway, also bizarre.
Happy Friday everyone.
Current Music: So Right, by Dave Matthews Band (Rediscovery of the week)
Current Mood: good
Jan 5, 2005
Fun with fotos!
Here are a couple gems from a Ski Liberty excursion last week with some of the fam:
Whee!! It actually looks like I'm going fast. You wouldn't even know I'm not an ambiturner on my snowboard, would you!? It's true, I can barely manage a right (toe-side) turn.
...But at least I'm not on my butt like our little friend Kam (sorry buddy! payback for the VN school present!!)
Sib pose. It's kinda funny skiing where everything around you except the actual man-made slope is green and earthy. We saw some old guys playing golf right next to us when we were on the ski lift. Sweet east coast action!!
New Year's Rockin' Eve in NYC:
Here are the yummy personalized chicken potpies we cooked up. I love being able to express myself creatively through food. (Tonight I made these again for the fam, and it was another rare cooking success, which means I didn't cry this time.)
Blurry, but probably fitting since Nathaniel was happily drunk by this point.
Current Music: Christmas Song, by Dave Matthews Band
(Mr. Matthews is quite good... I'm sorry I've been ignoring you for so long! Sigh..Makes me feel like a teen again)
Whee!! It actually looks like I'm going fast. You wouldn't even know I'm not an ambiturner on my snowboard, would you!? It's true, I can barely manage a right (toe-side) turn.
...But at least I'm not on my butt like our little friend Kam (sorry buddy! payback for the VN school present!!)
Sib pose. It's kinda funny skiing where everything around you except the actual man-made slope is green and earthy. We saw some old guys playing golf right next to us when we were on the ski lift. Sweet east coast action!!
New Year's Rockin' Eve in NYC:
Here are the yummy personalized chicken potpies we cooked up. I love being able to express myself creatively through food. (Tonight I made these again for the fam, and it was another rare cooking success, which means I didn't cry this time.)
Blurry, but probably fitting since Nathaniel was happily drunk by this point.
Current Music: Christmas Song, by Dave Matthews Band
(Mr. Matthews is quite good... I'm sorry I've been ignoring you for so long! Sigh..Makes me feel like a teen again)
Jan 3, 2005
Happy New Year!
Ok ok, I totally fell off the blogging bandwagon as we approached year's end, but I'm back (for now) and blogging from Kim & Natty's NYC pad. I was going to wait to update after I got home, but I feared there would be too much to say at that point and I didn't want to delay any longer.
So, 2005! Wow. I made a point not to plan or commit to any big and wild new year celebrations and I pretty much had no idea what I was doing even as Friday approached. I decided completely last-minute to hop a bus to NYC to visit with my favorite West Village-dwellers, Kim & Nathaniel, whom I had not seen at all yet over the holidays. My idea was to try and keep the usually overrated hoo-haw new year thing as low-key as possible. I knew K&N were my people for that!
Ringing in the new year with them did not disappoint. We baked personalized chicken potpies and enjoyed Kim's ridiculously delicious homemade mac & cheese. Then, using Nathaniel's new black (opaque) wine glasses, we played a fun wine tasting game. You see, the idea is that you cannot see what kind of wine is in the glass, even if you look in. So, after a very complicated process, we each had glasses of wine in front of us and none of us knew of the contents. I, not too surprisingly, guessed incorrectly that I was drinking a white when it was actually a red. Before you laugh, it's actually a lot harder than you'd expect! We knew this was true after Mr. Wine Enthusiast Nathaniel guessed incorrectly on his second glass. (We think the fact that the red had been chilled played a role in the difficulty.)
As midnight approached, we prepped some champagne and each got ourselves a dish of 12 grapes. Nathaniel had previously informed us of a tradition originating in Spain, in which everyone is supposed to eat 12 grapes for good luck as the clock strikes 12. We weren't exactly sure of the technical aspects, but we made up that we had to eat one grape for every second after the ball dropped. It was kind of awesome! You felt like you were taking shots, but you were actually just stuffing your face with grapes. Anyway, it was another fun and random activity of the evening.
Other highlights: watching old Tivo'd episodes of "Desperate Housewives" as we waited for midnight to roll around, seeing fireworks from the window of the apartment for a good 10 minutes after midnight, and posing with Kim in front of the X-mas tree as we reminisced about our days of Mickey Mouse hats and Limited Too sweatshirts.
Don't worry, photos of many of these exciting events are to come...
Other than that I've been hanging out up here, which usually means great food and lots of TV time on the couch. I did manage to have my next NYC celeb-sighting on New Year's Day as we walked to SoHo, though. I saw the blonde bassist guy from Green Day. I know, random sighting... like, who even knows what that guy looks like, right? But when you saw him, you could just tell he was a rock star, with this crazy all-white outfit, bleached blonde hair and a few random piercings.
Today I strolled to Chinatown to pick up some of those cheapie slippers for Auddie & Kam. You know what I'm talking about-- Urban Outfitters sells them for $10 and girls can actually be seen wearing them out, like, doing something other than getting the mail or walking around the house. But in Chinatown, it's 4 for $10.. for that I can deal.
On my way back I stopped in SoHo again to kill some time in the Apple store. Oh, the cult! I quite love it. I kinda need an actual Apple computer to be complete, though. I can't ride this iPod wave forever (what a poser I'd be!). Anyway, the Apple store in SoHo kicks the booty of any other store that I've been to. It's two stories and it is ridiculously packed with people... all of us really doing the same thing, strolling around playing with stuff and then strolling around some more. I could do it for hours, really. But! Here's the catch.. on the second floor of this place, it's like a mini-auditorium setup. Reminds me of one of the old lecture halls at school, actually, but with nice blue velvety chairs and a huge projection screen right in front. There was a guy up front with a mic and a computer giving this Photoshop lesson. I was like, "!" The other day when I was there with K&N, he was doing a GarageBand demo, but I didn't realize it was a daily thing. So I took a seat in the front row and got comfy. Who knew, this whole time I've been doing photoshop lessons with a family friend, I could have been coming to the Apple Store and taking notes from the front row! It was kind of awesome. I stuck around til the end of the lesson, which had me there for about a half hour. The whole tutorial, I found out, was 3 hours long! And afterwards there was a CS lesson! If I'd known sooner, really, I would have been up here months ago hanging out at the Apple store all day. It's really amazing though, that they offer those services for free. There must have been about 50 or more people watching the lesson, some with their Apple laptops open following along (cult!!). So great. [End Apple promo.]
Thanks to Laura, I just started reading Who Let the Blogs Out?, a lovely informative look into the world of blogs. I'm learning a lot so far. There are 3 basic components of a blog: Chronology, Frequency, and Focus. I might be falling off the Frequency boat a bit, which leads to longer posts (and a lack of focus), which are generally less-desirable to read. So I'm going to try and stay on top of it, and there are a few interesting factors that will come into play. For one, I'm starting my internship in one week, which will impede my ability to be on my comfortable home computer for hours and hours on end. However, my thoughts and hopes are that the internship will also spark a lot of new and interesting things in my life, which will allow me to blog about things besides the people at my gym.
On that note, let that be my wordy resolution for now... to discover new and interesting things in my life (read: be less antisocial) and be here to tell you all about them.
Happy New Year to all. Many cheers as always.
So, 2005! Wow. I made a point not to plan or commit to any big and wild new year celebrations and I pretty much had no idea what I was doing even as Friday approached. I decided completely last-minute to hop a bus to NYC to visit with my favorite West Village-dwellers, Kim & Nathaniel, whom I had not seen at all yet over the holidays. My idea was to try and keep the usually overrated hoo-haw new year thing as low-key as possible. I knew K&N were my people for that!
Ringing in the new year with them did not disappoint. We baked personalized chicken potpies and enjoyed Kim's ridiculously delicious homemade mac & cheese. Then, using Nathaniel's new black (opaque) wine glasses, we played a fun wine tasting game. You see, the idea is that you cannot see what kind of wine is in the glass, even if you look in. So, after a very complicated process, we each had glasses of wine in front of us and none of us knew of the contents. I, not too surprisingly, guessed incorrectly that I was drinking a white when it was actually a red. Before you laugh, it's actually a lot harder than you'd expect! We knew this was true after Mr. Wine Enthusiast Nathaniel guessed incorrectly on his second glass. (We think the fact that the red had been chilled played a role in the difficulty.)
As midnight approached, we prepped some champagne and each got ourselves a dish of 12 grapes. Nathaniel had previously informed us of a tradition originating in Spain, in which everyone is supposed to eat 12 grapes for good luck as the clock strikes 12. We weren't exactly sure of the technical aspects, but we made up that we had to eat one grape for every second after the ball dropped. It was kind of awesome! You felt like you were taking shots, but you were actually just stuffing your face with grapes. Anyway, it was another fun and random activity of the evening.
Other highlights: watching old Tivo'd episodes of "Desperate Housewives" as we waited for midnight to roll around, seeing fireworks from the window of the apartment for a good 10 minutes after midnight, and posing with Kim in front of the X-mas tree as we reminisced about our days of Mickey Mouse hats and Limited Too sweatshirts.
Don't worry, photos of many of these exciting events are to come...
Other than that I've been hanging out up here, which usually means great food and lots of TV time on the couch. I did manage to have my next NYC celeb-sighting on New Year's Day as we walked to SoHo, though. I saw the blonde bassist guy from Green Day. I know, random sighting... like, who even knows what that guy looks like, right? But when you saw him, you could just tell he was a rock star, with this crazy all-white outfit, bleached blonde hair and a few random piercings.
Today I strolled to Chinatown to pick up some of those cheapie slippers for Auddie & Kam. You know what I'm talking about-- Urban Outfitters sells them for $10 and girls can actually be seen wearing them out, like, doing something other than getting the mail or walking around the house. But in Chinatown, it's 4 for $10.. for that I can deal.
On my way back I stopped in SoHo again to kill some time in the Apple store. Oh, the cult! I quite love it. I kinda need an actual Apple computer to be complete, though. I can't ride this iPod wave forever (what a poser I'd be!). Anyway, the Apple store in SoHo kicks the booty of any other store that I've been to. It's two stories and it is ridiculously packed with people... all of us really doing the same thing, strolling around playing with stuff and then strolling around some more. I could do it for hours, really. But! Here's the catch.. on the second floor of this place, it's like a mini-auditorium setup. Reminds me of one of the old lecture halls at school, actually, but with nice blue velvety chairs and a huge projection screen right in front. There was a guy up front with a mic and a computer giving this Photoshop lesson. I was like, "!" The other day when I was there with K&N, he was doing a GarageBand demo, but I didn't realize it was a daily thing. So I took a seat in the front row and got comfy. Who knew, this whole time I've been doing photoshop lessons with a family friend, I could have been coming to the Apple Store and taking notes from the front row! It was kind of awesome. I stuck around til the end of the lesson, which had me there for about a half hour. The whole tutorial, I found out, was 3 hours long! And afterwards there was a CS lesson! If I'd known sooner, really, I would have been up here months ago hanging out at the Apple store all day. It's really amazing though, that they offer those services for free. There must have been about 50 or more people watching the lesson, some with their Apple laptops open following along (cult!!). So great. [End Apple promo.]
Thanks to Laura, I just started reading Who Let the Blogs Out?, a lovely informative look into the world of blogs. I'm learning a lot so far. There are 3 basic components of a blog: Chronology, Frequency, and Focus. I might be falling off the Frequency boat a bit, which leads to longer posts (and a lack of focus), which are generally less-desirable to read. So I'm going to try and stay on top of it, and there are a few interesting factors that will come into play. For one, I'm starting my internship in one week, which will impede my ability to be on my comfortable home computer for hours and hours on end. However, my thoughts and hopes are that the internship will also spark a lot of new and interesting things in my life, which will allow me to blog about things besides the people at my gym.
On that note, let that be my wordy resolution for now... to discover new and interesting things in my life (read: be less antisocial) and be here to tell you all about them.
Happy New Year to all. Many cheers as always.
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