Sunday, November 28, 2004
I just posted some
pre-lasik/Thanksgiving Day photos and pics from last Sunday's
Loquat/Evan Dando show at Bottom of the Hill.
I finally got to see
Loquat perform and they were GREAT!!! Kylee has an AMAZING voice... and it's true what they say - her voice is a beautiful mix between Bjork, The Cranberries & The Sundays - and she sings beautiful songs!!
Seeing Evan Dando play stoked the 17 year old inside me SOOO big time! In '93 I used to play The Lemonheads' "
It's a Shame About Ray" over and over and over and over. Luckily my show ho buddy Jem was as hard core of a fan as I was (actually she trumps me in the psycho fan arena on this one :) so I was happy that she came along!!
Evan is still sooo hot (besides hippy shaggy hair and the smoking - ick), and his singing is beautiful. I LOVED seeing him live, and as you can see we were so close I could have touched him! *17yr old in me squeels with delight* My favorite song was "My Drug Buddy" and I was sooo stoked when he played it. I even remembered most all the words to the songs on that CD after all these years! Most surprising because I haven't listened to it in about 10 years since it was stolen when I was 19. But good ol Jem's gonna burn me a copy of hers so it can be back in my collection. phew!
Anyway - enjoy the photos.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
BEFORE:
AFTER:
The day before Thanksgiving (last Wednesday), I got Lasik Eye Surgery!! I didn't tell too many people about it, mostly because I was nervous myself! However, Thanksgiving was a great opportunity to simply tell clients I was going to be away in order for me to have a few days of healing before having to jump back into work, so now I will spill it to you all:
I CAN SEE!!!!!!
I have worn glasses since I was in 4th grade and contacts since I was in 7th. For as long as I can remember I haven't been able to see past a few inches in front of my face w/o the help of contacts or glasses. Reading in bed or putting on makeup without my contacts or glasses, the book or mirror would literally have to be 2 inches in front of me or it was blurry. (-6, -6 in contact speak if you're familiar)
I've been wanting this done for a long time and first went for a consultation almost a year ago. However, finding out the cost I had to decide: Surgery or Powerbook? And as you know, the Powerbook won :) But here it is a year later, and I just didn't want to wait any more, so I made it happen (with a little help from my wonderful momma, too! xoxo)
Results: It's absolutely AMAZING. I feel like I'm in a dream that I'll wake up from any minute... I just honestly feel like it's a MIRACLE they can do this and I truly can't believe after years of having the world so blurry, that now w/o the help of anything in or on my eyes, I can go asleep seeing across the room before I shut my eyes - and wake up and see everything clear as day. I am overjoyed!!!
:::::::
After consulting with a few surgeons in the area, I went to
Dr. Scott Hyver in Daly City. It worked out perfectly since he is a short 15 minutes away from my house!
Dr. Hyver's staff is SO KNOWLEDGEABLE! I was immediately so impressed with their professionalism, their breadth of information about my options and the risks, etc. Especially compared to the people over at Dr. Ella Faktorovich's office, who if you're at all looking around in the Bay area, you're bound to run into her name all over the place. I had consulted with their office last year and really thought I was going to go with them - however, in speaking with them further, their consultant not only came off as *incredibly under-educated* when it came to being able to answer my questions, but I've concluded from their prices and consulting approach that they are extremely greedy, rude and are not as conservative (read: safe) in terms of their patient approach (I'll discuss this more later). Needless to say, I was beyond relieved to find Dr. Hyver's office and my consultation with him and his staff only reaffirmed their expertise.
Much to my surprise, however, upon my initial consultation with them the shape of my cornea on my left eye kept testing as abnormal, and therefore Dr. Hyver recommended we do PRK on that eye. I was nervous about this, but I read up a ton about it, asked a lot of questions and was prepared to go that route. Especially since I knew Dr. Hyver was recommending that because it was safer and not as risky under the conditions. I'd even called my Mom's Lasik eye Doctor in Denver, CO and he assured me PRK is still considered a very excellent procedure, and that he himself had that done on his eyes for the same reason - and that he was really glad to hear the Doctor I was considering was taking that conservative approach, as it's most definitely safer for eyes that test abnormal in any way.
The deal w/ PRK is that it just doesn't have the instant satisfaction that Lasik does, and the recovery time is a bit longer and more uncomfortable. But Dr. Hyver and his staff said it was going to be way better than those who have to have PRK in both eyes, because my right eye would have the Lasik I would still be fairly good to go right away and would have to wait about 1-6 months for the PRK eye to catch up and be 100%.
Great news though!! The day we went in for my surgery, they tested me again - and lo & behold that eye wasn't testing as abnormal anymore!
See, we'd done a number of tests the first day and basically they look for symmetry on the eye (a circle 8, if you look at the eye maps), but it kept coming up as abnormal because there was no circle 8 on that eye. But they said it could have been from my eyes being dry or just from my having worn contacts so long, etc. But all of a sudden the circle 8 was there on the day of the surgery! They said if it was truly deformed it wouldn't change like that, so maybe because I'd taken out my contacts and only worn my glasses for a whole week before my surgery and had already been prepping my eyes with moisturizing drops (by Dr. Hyver's request/recommendation - things like this are what I'm talking about when I say I respected his safe patient approach) it was testing normal and therefore safe to do Lasik! woohooo!!
Rick was there with me (ready to drive me home post surgery) and we read through a bunch of instructions, waivers, etc. But NOTHING could have prepared me for the actual procedure. It was really quite scary I gotta say!! The second eye went fast and w/o a hitch, but my first eye took a little while longer than we'd all have liked because I couldn't follow the dot. Every time it started moving all weird (almost like double vision) and when I tried to follow it, he would say that I wasn't following it. It was really stressful!! But he said nothing was going wrong, we would just have to stop & start and therefore it would take a little longer. Inside I was bawling my eyes out and wishing it would just get over with and somebody would just hold me and tell me it was all going to be ok. But thankfully the left eye went off w/o a hitch and all of a sudden we were done! YAY!!!
The next few minutes were a bit of a blur, I put their funny glasses on and was marched into another room. The assistant (who was also my counselor and I really connected w/ her so I was sooo glad she was there with me!) was so thrilled for me, but I couldn't muster up any excitement except that I was just so glad it was over! I wanted to keep my eyes closed, but even opening them a little looking through the glasses, I could already tell that I could see so much better.
I walked out to Rick, and a waiting room full of people. A stressed out pre-surgery girl asked why I was crying, but it was mostly that you are tearing like crazy afterwards, so it's uncontrollable. Rick was asking me if I was ok, and I just kept saying how intense it was, but pulled it together enough to reassure the four-eyed group that I could actually see all of them! They all clapped and we thanked the people at the front desk and left.
As soon as we walked out the front door, on the way to the car I just started sobbing. It was soo intense and I was feeling kinda woosy from the whole experience and I just was praying this feeling would go away. Rick was soo good at taking care of me and I just put my head down and closed my eyes the whole way home. My head felt very heavy and my eyes felt soooo tired. Like one of those dreams where you can't open them no matter how hard you try. But when I would open them just a little to see where we were at on the road, I could see. However I was in no mood to be excited about it at the time.. I just wanted to get home and stop moving (closing my eyes for the trip and the whole fresh experience in my mind was making me a little ill). Thankfully we got home in no time and I got inside, took off my clothes and crawled into bed with my new fandangled dont-touch-your-eyes -while-sleeping eye mask (that kinda look like some crazy snowboarding goggles or something :)
Rick was awesome and while I tried to fight off my icky feeling, he covered up the window near me (eyes sensitive to light), and put on a music mix for some background music, since I quickly realized lying there in silence, thinking about how uncomfortable my eyes felt wasn't helping at all. The music was wonderful!! And soon I dozed off into a more peaceful wonderland and woke up about 2 hours later feeling WAY better!!!!! I was sooo thrilled to be feeling better, but most of all - I COULD SEE!!!!!! I had Rick come crawl in bed with me and I read everything on my walls and bookshelves to him. It is SUCH. A. MIRACLE!!! I can't believe it.
That night I watched a movie and I felt fine!! The next day we went in for my follow up and everything was lookin good! Better than 20/20!! I hugged Dr. Hyver and got very teary as I tried to quickly tell him how miraculous it was to me.
Thanksgiving day we went over to another couple's house who live in North Beach, so they have amazing views of the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and TransAmerica building all from their roof. Even though it was a cloudy day, it was so neat to go up there and be able to see everything so clearly and know for the FIRST time in my entire life I was looking at that view w/o my contacts. WOW!
Since then they're doing good, but very, very dry... which is common for the first week ++ after this surgery. My eyes are still healing so the clarity and such will even be shifting over the next couple days and weeks while they completely heal - but already I can see just as well as I did with my contacts and I'm sooooo thrilled I could just cry! :) :) It's amazing.
So there ya go. That's what I did for Thanksgiving and I'm very, very thankful! :)
HERE ARE LINKS TO OF ALL MY POSTS ABOUT LASIK:
I am adding these links to this post on 2/18/05, and since I have gotten it done, I have received several emails from people who are about to get Lasik (most with Dr. Hyver) and have found my site via Google.
If you have made your appointment to get it done - Congratulations!!! I had a great experience at Scott Hyver's office and overall it was worth every penny. It still blows me away every. single. day. that I can see without contacts or glasses!!! Truly a miracle.
I was really impressed with Dr. Hyver because he does take a conservative approach.. he's not just there to get people through the door with lasik no matter what - he wants to make sure you get the best procedure for *your* eyes. Which was comforting to me - especially after the runaround with Dr. Faktorovich's office where it seemed they could have cared less & just wanted the $7K!
Dr. Hyver himself is a busy man around there, and I like that he was kinda all business. There to answer my questions - and not trying to play the cheesy doctor trying to make everyone love him. His staff, his surgeries and his knowledge all speak for themself.
All of my follow ups went well. His staff was so nice and helpful every step of the way. I had some concerns with the blurriness due to dryness afterwards, but they were all really comforting and helpful the entire time.. and I never felt like my phone calls were a problem, etc.
2 Months later: My eyes are doing great! I still use ointment at night, only because I figure I'll use up these tubes I have - and it helps my eyes stay much more moist the entire next day. I'm not having to put rewetting drops in as much hardly at all. Maybe just a couple times a day while I'm working on the computer or driving a long distance. And I don't use the thicker ones anymore (Refresh Celluvisc or Endura), like I did at first since they last a lot longer (which I needed because I was needing to constantly moisturize). I'm just using the basic Refresh Plus drops now.
As I posted before, I think the biggest tip I can give people for the healing process, is to not be surprised if you find yourself spending quite a bit on the rewetting drops. It adds up... but overall if I've spent maybe $200 on drops, it's been incredibly worth it to make sure my eyes are healing up right and feeling comfortable.
If you find this post & it's helped you, let me know. And better yet, come back & post after your surgery. You'll be totally amazed. :)
LIMITED TIME OFFER: I just got something in the mail - should any of you be googling & finding/reading this - Scott Hyver's office just sent me a coupon for $250 off for me to give to someone I know. Email me if you want it: willo at willotoons.com - it says it's good till June 10, 2005.
UPDATE: Just say that I sent you! They should give you a friend referral rate!
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Hey everybody!! I'll be offline for a few days - but I hope you all have wonderful Thanksgivings, including some big, fat, juicy turkey, stuffing and PIE!!!! :) Talk to you in a couple days!!
xoxo
Saturday, November 20, 2004
I just lost a whole huge blog post. :(
Aarggg... such a bummer! I need to either start using a local blogging app or I need to install a keystroke recorder that saves what I type to a text file in case crashes like this happen. :(
Oh well! You just don't get to hear about all that stuff cuz after painfully trying to save it for a ridiculously long time, I can't bear to take the time to rewrite it. Atleast not tonite.
*sigh* Well.. I will tell you part of it:
Photos from November shows are posted.
Friday, November 19, 2004
This week has been long. Mostly cuz last week really didn't end & I worked through the weekend. On Wednesday someone said "I can't believe tomorrow's already Thursday! This week is flying by...", but I felt like it could easily have been Friday already. But today is finally Friday and I don't think I'll work as much this weekend. But I still will probably work a little... but that's OK because the good news is I have been CRANKIN and I'm LOVING it.
I'm totally loving work right now! I'm sooo busy and sooo productive, it's just sweet. Being productive RULES! You should try it sometime! The project I worked on last week & over the weekend ended up being way more enjoyable than I thought I was going to be, too, so that was cool. And overall I just love my clients and have really been enjoying knocking a ton off my list(s).
Other than work, I did go to a show last Friday night:
Les Savy Fav at Slims. They were awesome, as always. Totally hilarious, full of energy - they take you on a fun rollercoaster the whole show. Slims isn't my favorite venue though and I kinda wished it was at GAMH again, but we were pretty close up front, and this time there weren't too many stinky people, so it wasn't too bad.
Saturday night we went to
Fray Day and it was great. Some really fantastic stories, and I saw a lot of people I knew - including my friends who came along: Rick, Lyne & Stig (and 2 of his friends). The highlight in my opinion was
Kid Beyond. He did a whole Portishead song and it was AWESOME. Totally incredible, I was way impressed.
Sunday night I went over to my friend Kristin's for dinner. She made this amazing Moroccan Chicken (crock pot action!) over cous cous and it was tres magnifique! Or however you say "totally delicious" in Moroccan :) It was great to see her and catch up because usually we see eachother at shows & we're really rushed and then always think we're going to match up later at the show, but then never find eachother. Or if we do, we're busy listening to the band & not chatting, so ya, it was good to sit and catch up over yummy food, wine and even some candy corns for desert :p
Monday night Rick & I went & saw The Incredibles!! It was SOOO FUN!!!!!! I want to see it again already :) Elastigirl's character totally impressed me w/ her abilities. If I had a super power it would for sure to be invisible though like Violet. She's not old enough yet, but I think later on she could easily use that skill for some serious kinky voyeur action. I'm just sayin'.
:::: Random stuff:
I'm buying a new wacom tablet today! woohoo!
I'm selling an 20GB External HD (USB 2.0), another Wacom tablet (4x5 Graphire) that was my sisters and is for PC - we've both gone mac & now need to switch hence the big wacom turnover around here. Lemme know if you're interested in either of these. Note: The wacom is specifically for a PC desktop. update: now posted on
craigslist
::::
I cleaned up my house and it is soooo much better!! Working my arse off this last week things have built up something fierce. I think the pile of clothes in my bathroom (pile where clothes get thrown before jumpin in the shower) was the largest it's ever been. I'm aspiring to Jem's messiness :p hahaa (poking her for her disasterous room I saw a couple weeks ago, and she said she'd even cleaned up!)
So that's cleaned up now, and the 2 items of furniture that seemed orphaned in the middle of my living room have now found homes in my home, and have even created more space/convenient shelves for me! Hard to explain, but just know that I'm STOKED. :)
My dishes are clean, the bedding is clean, my coffeetable actually has NOTHING on it! I get off on a clean house, so things are feeling good.
Oh, a notable part of my kickin butt in the productive department is this cool app I'm using:
ToDo X
If you get off on making to do lists & then crossing off your accomplishments as much as I do, (and you're on a mac) then you need to get this application. It's SWEET!!
You can have categories of lists, and then within those lists, you can make notes on the items. Here's an
example of one of my lists, so you can see how I've added notes to that specific to do.
I used to use a
Planner Pad, and it is very cool - but I find since I'm always looking at the computer, somehow it would get really easy to forget what list I may have in there, or laying around on the various scribbled notes around my desk. So since this is always open - and top priority items even put a little red mark on the taskbar icon, I am always referencing it.
I had started to use stickies, but I was bummed I couldn't check things off & instead I just was deleting stuff.. and it left all the formatting up to me. But thanks to ToDo X, the joy of checking off my to-do's has never been better! *holds up product with a wholesome smile*
Do you ever have days that you just feel a tad alone? Or that life, and the day to day responsibility of making decisions, feels really difficult and you just want someone to hold you and say it's ok?
Here's 5 albums that say, "I feel your pain, and I'm here to oooh and aaah your worries away":
Honorable Mentions (I didn't plan to ad, but upon looking through my collection these also definitely qualify:
You better get some of these soon.. the holidays are coming :)
Sunday, November 14, 2004
There are two new independent movies out that I think look interesting:
They should be coming through the bay area soon, but the dates aren't announced yet. Let me know if you happen to hear or read about the SF date announced.
UPDATE: Tarnation is playing here & I think
Sarah & I are going to go see it this weekend!
I still want to go see Motorcycle Diaries, too.. and the Incredibles!! But I think that'll probably be playing through Thanksgiving, it's doing so well.
Friday, November 12, 2004
I just stumbled upon this - check it out:
"We are citizens of the Urban Archipelago, the United Cities of America."
Read Full Story
It's pretty funny that we're all talking red vs. blue lately. What are we - gangs? Bummer cuz I wear red all the time!
with my fuzzy baby boy
Kazoobie Pants MgGeee. God damn is this cat the best kitty ever!!
Guarding the suitcase so I don't try to pack it & leave again.
I've been thinking about a post for a long time expressing how much I love him and love every minute with him. As I'm working throughout the day he comes and says hi, sometimes just sitting on the desk in front of me as I work away.. and often (since he's usually sitting on the keyboard or in my way of the mouse) I put him on my lap and the cute little guy blissfully snoozes for a bit in his mama's arms. I wish I could put this feeling into words.. I wish I could somehow videotape it or photograph it to bundle the feeling, but there is no way it could sum up how snugglicious it is.
With this rain, Kazoobie has hardly known what to do with himself. He's grown quite accustomed to going outside every day and enjoying our nice yard outback. Most importantly, keeping a close eye on what the 3 kitties downstairs are up to! :)
Kazoobie outside on a sunny day (scoping the backyard scene)
My kitty kitty is so delighted I'm home all day. He loves it when I get up to do anything and most often is right behind me like, "whatcha doin' mom?".
Kazoobie keeping me company while I work
About 10 times a day he comes up to me, while I'm working, and puts his paws up on the chair and paws at my side and meeps. And then we have this little game where I act like I'm going to get his belly and he runs off really fast.
hehe I think he must know I'm writing about him, cuz he just jumped up here for some face nuzzlin.
My Kazoobie puts me to bed at night (comes up and lays on top of my chest purring and giving me bonks and licks my nose), wakes me up in the morning (either by doing the same thing or doing his morning strech and meow) and never fails to greet me when I get out of the shower :) We have a special bond time then... always have, since he was a baby.
He loves his Momma and I love him soooo much.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
If you live in San Francisco, you should join us for
Fray Day 8. We all hit it last year and it never fails to make you laugh or tear up or merely sit back in awe of PEOPLE and how powerful all of our stories are.
I'm pretty stoked on seeing beatboxer
Kid Beyond, too!
::::
Speaking of cool stuff happenin in the bay area... you have GOT to check out this kid's videos!! Cosmo (yes, that's his name and yes, I sooo want to name my child Cosmo some day!!) was in one of the classes I spoke to a few weeks back. You might recall me telling you I was going to go, but I don't think I ever posted about how it went, but it was really cool:
My friend
Manny referred me to a computer teacher who asked him if he knew anyone that could talk to her classes. Soon after Susan from Albany High School emailed me and despite my heavy workload I couldn't help but say yes! I love meeting and talking to youth.
So I went (a few weeks back) and spoke w/ 3 different classes about what I do and "how I got where I am today" and how, if they're interested in the arts or web work, they might go about getting started, etc.
I think overall the classes were into it, but it's hard to say with High Schoolers, as they have low attention spans and are by default not apt to show their true emotions in a classroom of their peers (read: won't raise their hands even if they do like what you're polling them about). But - I had fun! And I'd imagine from their point of view I was a relatively interesting speaker, and not some old fart talking really slow about nonsense. (hahaha gimme a couple years though...)
Aaaanyway - it was very cool and one thing I did through each class was poll them as to
1.) Who has their own website already?
2.) Who has their own blog?
3.) Who likes to do art of some kind; i.e. draw, illustrate, paint, whatever.
Well, shyness aside, I was suprised to learn how few of them did!! Literally only a couple in each class. Can that be right? I even heard a few "What's a blog?" and I was all "Really!?!?"
I did however meet a kid who says he's done a bit of PHP, which is great. And he said he was going to email me in case I had projects that need help, but I haven't heard from him. The other kid I spoke with after my talk was this kid, Cosmo. Cosmo's way into video work and he tried to show me some of his movies that day, but the computer we were on didn't have the plugin, was being slow, etc and we ran out of time. So I wrote down his URL and finally went & checked it out lastnight and.... Oh. My. Gawd. This kid is TALENTED!!!
Susan, his teacher, said her job is too keep his head from getting too big. :p Apparently this kid is so good he has a hard time focusing, but instead spends all his time doing all these awesome videos and editing. Truly fantastic!
So you have to check out his videos... These kids are all into this thing called Parkour/Freerunning - which I've never heard of until checking out his site lastnight.. To get a good idea of what it is, check out the FIRST video listed
on this page called "Slide to the Vibe". That should peak your curiousity a bit and if you want, you can read more here on "
What is Parkour?".
Alright, so the coolest thing is seeing ALL the videos and short movies these guys have created. Honestly, I'm so impressed.
The fight scenes are AWESOME. The sound effects are AWESOME. Man - teens these days are *so* incredible!!!
I'm going to have one of our
BAM kids interview or profile his work on our site for sure! SWEEEEEET!!!!!!!
::::::
In other SUPER SWEET STOKING ME LIKE CRAZY news, I got to practice on a drum set tonite!!!!! I can't tell you how frickin RAD it was!!!!! I've always been with my drum teacher and I have had *no* interest in practicing on my drum pad, so getting in front of a kit was key. And I did!!! And it was AWESOME!!!
I was on fire! I loved being able to take it as slow or fast as I wanted to. I was kinda nervous that I wouldn't be able to work on much - but Warren (my drum teacher) had written down this small beat from a
Ben Kweller song I brought in, so I tried to work on that. I thought for sure I wouldn't remember what the heck all these lines (music notes) meant and wouldn't be able to get it on my own - but I did!! I got the flam down!!!! wooohooo!!! I'm flaming!! hahaa
It was great to be in there on my own to slow it down, break it apart, do beats over and over and over until it felt right.. Go from looking at the music to looking at the drums to closing my eyes. Talking to myself, saying beats out loud.. I even tried rockin my whole body with the music like a drummer would on stage if he was totally into it - and it helped!
I was stoked. It's my friends (old next door neighbors) who have this SWEET music room in their basement, and they're being suuuuuper cool about letting me come over and practice and will probably get me keys so I can go over during the day when they're at work so we don't have to even bother eachother. And they're just right over the hill from me! I'm. So. STOKED!
It's especially awesome because part of me started feeling like if I am not practicing, what's the matter w/ me? Maybe I don't really want to play the drums? Maybe it's not a priority and I should just spend my extra time doing the illustration business I want to develop more, etc. But the thing is... when I get in front of that drum set, I am so excited!! I get like a kid in a candy store. I'm smiling from ear to ear... giggling and full of energy. Yes, I absolutely must keep learning the drums :)
Rick & I are going to have a date soon where we rent a space to start playin together. He just got this sweet new guitar he's LOVING which is so exciting... and now that I can do flams - WATCH OUT!!! :)
check this out & tell me what you think.
update: if that link doesn't work, use this one:
What Barry Says on Atom Films
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
wi-fi accessorized
p.s. lastnight i updated
my show calendar, in case you're into that kind of thing. I want to hit these shows - anyone wanna join me?
The Butchies 11/11 (and if I was really hard core I might even head over to Popscene for Dogs Die In Hot Cars)
Friday we already have tix for Les Savy Fav - stoked on this show... we've seen them once and they were awesome. They do not dissapoint!
Saturday night I might go to
Fray Day 8.
Wed 11/17 Dresden Dolls/ Count Zero @ GAMH
Thur 11/18 Communique with Plus Ones / Nuke Infusion at BoTH (only to see Communique though - the Plus Ones kinda suck)
Friday 11/19 has a TON goin on. Ideally I'd see the Walkmen open, maybe catch a few Cake songs and then head over to the Futureheads at Popscene (where I will be for sure no matter where the night starts). I would like to see Le Tigre or the Evening too... but it'll probably be this first plan or at least the Popscene show.
Sunday 11/21 I wanna go to Evan Dando w/ Loquat - who will join me for this? I've been wanting to see Loquat play for the longest time... and as for Evan Dando, I have no idea what his new stuff is like. But back in 92/93 you couldn't get me to stop listening to The Lemonheads.
11/26 A.C. Newman @ Slims - I for sure want to go to this. Who's in?
12/1 THe Kills. We're SOOOO THERE!!!!!!!
12/2 Neko Case at Bimbo's OR Keane/ The Dears @ Fillmore - I haven't seen Neko Case w/o the New Pornographers, so I'm thinking it's about time.
12/7 The Dears w/ Robbers on High Street. I like both these bands, but especially Robbers! Also that night though is Pedro the Lion who I really like and have never seen. Once again, torn.
12/8 The Arcade Fire w/ Heavenly States - We're SOOO THERE!!!
Ok that's enough for now. Gotta run.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
seriously chilly weather we've been having here lately.
let's see, what have I been up to?
went & got an estimate on my car - not that bad really. it'll cost me $250 if I want to do the work on it. and my insurance will even cover a rental while it's in the shop! sweeeet! i do pay insurance for a reason! hah so ya, thank goodness I pay a fat amount for a low deductable! but it is a bummer that I was about to sell the darn thing and now I gotta put money into it!
speaking of selling it, I want to put it on eBay - but it seems like you gotta be really official and have tons of photos and stuff like the dealerships do. And then I wouldn't want someone drivin all the way out here for it & deciding they didn't want it, etc. eBay Motors scares me - but I hear it's quite the place for selling cars online these days.
um - so let's see.. last week after the car accident that night we went to
Gogol Bordello. They're crazy. It was hyper and a bit of fun - but I have to say I was kinda sore from the crash and wiped out/depressed about the stupid election... Nov 3rd, 2004. What a day eh? So ya, that was alright, but I was tired. I recommend going to check them out though - they had a ton more energy than me! I was impressed.
Thursday night we went to dinner in North Beach and it was really romantic and wonderful. Then we headed over to
Bimbo's for the Delgados show. They were really fantastic. We got there just in time for Crooked Fingers, but lost in our woo'ing we sat in back and cuddled, smooched and talked most of the way through it. Sickening I'm sure, but it truly was a lovely night - and hearing
the Delgados at the end made it even more fantastic.
Friday night we hit a movie at the
Parkway Theatre (wine, pizza, couches! oh ya!). We saw Team America: World Police and it was pretty funny. Totally offensive, and hilarious in terms of making fun of how tough America thinks it is. The South Park guys really push it to the limits!
Saturday I worked a bit and then headed over to my friends going away party and got to see a bunch of old coworkers from my days at Fine Brand. They all have kids! Then I came home & cleaned my apartment like a maniac. I'm the Janitor here at WilloToons Headquarters. Glamorous, huh?
Guess what happened Sunday!??!?! I GOT A COUCH!!!!!
It's a futon - pretty comfy.... and under $100 AND I got a red cover for it! woohoo! It's good to have. I sat down on it after we moved it in, but haven't sat down on it since. I might tonite though - because I CAN!
Sunday afternoon I went over to my friends Jem and Tania's house and
Darren met us there for another craft extravaganza. I made buttons!!!! So FUN! I'll take photos or somethin sometime soon. I need a button machine of my own!
Jem used the resin I had to make some stuff - and Darren got all ready to use my etching stuff, but we soon realized after he'd done all his hard work
exacto-knifing box-cuttering that the etching solution was the one piece missing out of my huge craft box. *sigh* Sorry Darren! But he was a good sport & stuck it out for me to crank out some more buttons before we wisked off to the
Juliette and the Licks show.
Yes, that's right. 4 shows in 4 days. Yes, we're crazy. You know who else is crazy? Juliette Lewis.
Except I didn't like it as much as I would have liked to have liked it. Something about her spreadin the rock made it seem too much like a stanky drunk in a dingy bar. But that coulda been the crowd. It basically was an expensive ticket to see a celebrity.. but the reviews are right: Her music isn't that great. She's entertaining to watch though - but it was packed and I was over it. My Bailey's on ice was tasty though. I wish I had 2 for 1 coupons for those.
Anyway - good to see some familiar faces at that show, but even better to get my arse home and in bed.
I've been loving my bed lately. I finally put on the electric blanket tonite and I can't tell you how stoked I am to climb in that warm safe haven. I've been taking 35 minute hot showers most other nights to heat me up to the point where I know I can crawl in bed nice and warm and not shiver for a half hour wishing I could sleep and that it wasn't so damn cold in here. So ya, it's damn time I got out the electric blanket.
I've also been enjoying reading in bed before I sleep. Lastnight I didn't go to bed till 12:35 (after my hot shower from 12-12:30) and even though I had to wake up "hella" early, I couldn't help but just read a couple pages. I'm almost done w/
The Fountainhead. It's insane how many months its taken me to get through this book - as I just hardly read except when I'm on the bike/treadmill at the gym... so goes to show how much I've been slackin on the workin out over the summer! haha. Anyway - I'm almost done and I'm excited. Next up:
The Devil Wears Prada
Lastnight I worked all night (and any time you're not hearing me talk about extracurricular activities, insert sleep, eating or work.)
Tonite we were supposed to meet
Sarah Hatter for a movie, but she bailed so it turned out to be just Rick & I. We went & saw
I Heart Huckabees. It was good, very heady & some basic thought processes around growth - but very funny and entertaining. The French lady bugged me for some reason -but I really liked Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman in it - and Mark Walberg's character, too.
Does Jude Law have an accent in real life?
Then we went for
Chai Yo Thai and it was really good. I saw a really old ex-boyfriend on the way over there and was SOOO glad he didn't recognize me. I thought for sure he would but as soon as I passed I realized he probably didn't because I have brown hair now AND I was wearing my glasses. phew! He was super possessive and I even used to have daymares (nightmares while walking down the street in broad daylight) that I'd run into the f*ker. Anyway... I hated bringing it up to Rick, but it freaked me out seeing him.
Blah blah blah now I'm home. Does this win the award for the most lackluster willotoons post or what?
Night.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Wild! I wasn't the only one that got into an accident yesterday! Within 24 hours I've heard of 3 others... 1 person commented on my post about it that they too got in an accident AND had a small fire in their building even! And I also read on
Dooce's site, her husband got in a fender bender, and so did my other friend's girlfriend! Crikey!
Look at how CUTE! My girlfriend
Kat is featured on
1up.com with
Seanbaby - check it out!
The Frag Doll Dreamdate
It's written really cute & funny the whole way through.
Kat is my
sexy gamer friend who is a member of a girl gamer group called
Frag Dolls, who are kickin ass left & right in the gaming community. HOTT!
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Halloween was just a couple days ago, but today is way scarier. But to put us back in that playful let's-dress-up, party-and-eat-candy-all-night spirit, I thought I'd post a few fun links I came across today.
One is a big page of costumes -
photos and drawings - cultivated by the darling illustrator,
Penelope. There's some really cute ones, huh!? I love the sock monkey baby and the Bjork ones. There's some great ideas in there really! Rick & I could have gone as the White Stripes (especially with him playing guitar, and me being a (err, wannabe) drummer! Or it would have also been funny to go as Napolean Dynamite and the dorky girl. But we make out too much for that combo. haa!
Anyway - the other one is this page of pumpkin carving ideas - specifically
Rock & Roll faces, but there's tons more
here.
And although I didn't carve a punkin this year, I realize I should have at LEAST posted my last couple creations here for you to see. Sorry it's a couple days after the fact but I say we could all use a good Halloween sugar coma to help ease the pain of November 3rd!! :p
And this poor guy obviously just saw the results of Election 2004:
Scary stuff!!!
As if I didn't have enough to be bummed about. I went out for errands and got in car accident.
:*(
today kinda sucks, huh?
If you voted for Kerry and did anything to talk about it, spread the word, enlighten others... be proud.
If you voted for Bush, you get the snarkier side of that "well, I hope you're proud of yourself". hmph.
I think Mark Morford said it best today, when he said
Wallow In Chaos, And Laugh.
If you're anything like me you simply can't believe it can be true. That they MUST have not counted something right. There MUST have been some kind of shady shit goin on *just* like last year. This guy talks a little bit about
how suspect it is that Ohio and Florida's exit polls don't match up.
Isn't it amazing how split America is on this? Wild.
Another friend passed on this link:
BlackBoxVoting.org. Check out the video there or read through some of the info. Here's another similar one:
VerifiedVoting.org.
I totally think we have messed up counting system. 150,000 votes isn't that many people and by tweaking numbers here and there, forgetting to add this stack, or droppin the 0 off that total, etc... it all adds up and in the end we're stuck with four. more. f*ing. years. of BUSH!!!!!
(pukes)
Happy Hump Day.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Introducing "FattyGigger"
My new external drive, with a fat (not just any ol' fat, we're talkin SUMO FAT) 200GB, baby! Now I can keep ripping my music collection because I have room!!!! woohoo!!
Also I've successfully upgraded to my *new* 1GB of RAM and so far, so good. :)
::::
p.s. NEVER buy from buy.com. Take my word for it! Took them 2 months to get this external case to me... and after I demanded a refund for all their dickin me around they sneakily finally sent it to me - 60. Days. Later. ....... ug!! they suck. But my drive with Firewire 800 (transfers 1GB in 30 seconds!!) is saaaweeeeeeeeet!
:)
I couldn't believe how excited I was walking to my polling place today. It didn't hit me until I officially sat down and wrote out my final selections (my cheat sheet), put them in my book (to read in case the lines were as insane as I've been hearing they are) and set out to make my mark in history.
We have a ton of props here in California so it was cool to read through all those and take a stance.
Most importantly, of course, I hope Kerry kicks Bush OUT OUT OUT!!!!!
*crossing fingers & toes*
::
This is pretty intense.
Monday, November 01, 2004
Darren (
boykani.com) & I have been saying we're going to do some silkscreening for awhile now - and yesterday we finally had a date set to do it!
It was a first for both of us, so although they didn't turn out as good as we may have wanted, we learned a lot and had a good time hangin out.
A few photos from the silkscreening process are posted
here.
It was rad rappin w/ him about painting and we both are way into artists like
Tiffany Bozic,
Sam Flores, etc. Darren has actually turned me on to a lot of art and techniques. I'm stoked to have him as a creative buddy!
I got to check out some of the sweet books he has (and I have wanted!) like
Pictoplasma, and we even watched the
Fifty24SF Dithers DVD that I've been wanting to see while we were doing our first step of the silkscreen painting.
Darren also has a button maker that I'm jealous of and will probably buy myself one for Christmas. The whole day was rad. Or as Darren would say: Siiiiiiiick. ;)
Rick & I went as Rock N Roll Sushi (it's a roll made with Avocado & Unagi/BBQ Sea Eel and it's really good!) plus, we love the Rock n Roll :)
So Step 1 was making the costumes, which took WAY longer than we expected! We went to Good Will, then a fabric store and to another store for the packing peanuts and then finally came back here around 4 to start our project. Lots of sewing and glue gunning later, while watching a couple episodes of TIVO'd South Park, we had our costumes *finally* done!!! Due to our project taking way longer than we thought we broke out some tasty gin gimlets here while getting ready, which was a good move because by the time we got ready, stopped by Rick's and then headed over to our first party it was midnight!! haha!
We tried to hit my friend
Trina's party, but sadly were too late and nobody was home! whoops!! So we headed over to the
Rickshaw Stop for
Fallout and danced to some great 80's music and ran into Anthony (of the band
Loquat) who I was stoked to finally meet in person.
After closing down the bar there, we followed Thing 1 & Thing 2 to a party in the mission where Bruno & Talia met up w/ us. We left around 3:30 (4:30 w/o the time change!) and went for some grub at the open-all-night Bagdad Cafe, since we really hadn't had dinner & we were starving! It was a SUPER fun night!!!
View All Photos from Halloween 2004. Warning: Fotki is being finiky today so you can either try refreshing if you get the 503 error, or just check em out later today.
P.S. Here's the pre-costume sketch I had done:
Last Monday (10/25/04) Jem & I went to Interpol. Openers: Hail Social and Secret Machines.
Hail Social was pretty good! Boys from Philly, humble, good indie sound.
I like the
Secret Machines (CD) and was actually really looking forward to seeing them because I've been enjoying the CD so much - but I thought they were totally just "pleasing themselves" up there going on & on... Their set made me antsy and I just wanted them to speed up or get on with it or something. I was annoyed they weren't as good as the album for me. So ya, I think it had to do with their jamming out with themselves that made me want to scream "Your not Interpol yet - you're here to rock us now get on with it!!!"
Interpol, on the other hand, was AWESOME. Way better than I could have hoped even!! I thought I was only going to last 2 songs in that insane people crush where I was getting touched by strangers on every side and having to touch parts of them against my will!!! But then somehow the music started and I couldn't leave! We ended up staying down there for the whole show.
Oh, and for the record, I heart Interpol's guitarist,
Daniel Kessler. Something about him is SO HOT.
:::::
Thursday night (10/28/04) we hit The Husbands, Mr. Airplane Man & Holly GoLightly at Bottom of the Hill. "We" was me, Rick, Jem, Mike, Lyne, Jim and even Hai was there! (actually I ran into about 3 other people I knew too, including a Pat from
Rogue Wave sighting! :)
The Husbands annoyed the sh*t out of me. I liked them the first time we saw them, but this time she was smacking her gum and it was driving me crazy. Like her missing tooth isn't enough of a distraction when watching her sing - nobody should chew gum & sing in front of an audience! You're guaranteed to be grossing out at least 65% of us. Her backup singers (especially one of them) look like they had lobotomies and they're up their clapping and singing and it's all they can do to remember their big "oohs & la la la" parts while they look out at the audience like brainless zombies. I had to close my eyes to enjoy them... and the only cool part was when the organ/piano player from Harold Ray got up there & danced around with his toy piano.
Mr. Airplane Man was great!!! Unfortunately Rick left by that time to hit Metric at GAMH, so I think I was a little sad about that, and misplaced after being up front I couldn't hear her vocals - so then I moved and was getting that "your head is in my way b*tch" vibe from someone I was standing in front of - so needless to say I was a tad distracted during it all. But I ended up settling in next to Jim 1/2 way through and thoroughly enjoyed their last couple songs. They played a short set (unfortunately!) but they were awesome live! It's just 2 girls!! I thought for sure there'd be more of them and I kinda wish there had been just for energy - but they were great. I love their songs!! And live they lived up to every bit of their CD. I just wish they'd played longer!!
Holly GoLightly was fun! My friend Lyne is a big fan and she was right, I enjoyed their set! The lead singer is English and she was very cute - and they had a stand up bass, a keyboardist, 2 guitars and drummer. Great energy and the crowd loved their garage/jazz/blues/swingy beats.
I left around 12:15 tired and ready for bed... but hilariously ran into some people outside and we all ended up deciding to go to Thee Parkside for a drink. Crazy kids!
We walked in for the last band to go on & they gave us 2 for 1. We wouldn't even have gone in at this point due to having to pay another cover, but because I was absolutely FREEZING I insisted I couldn't bear to walk back the couple blocks to my car w/o having 1 beer here to warm up. So that's what we did :)
We ended up showing up for the last band:
Armitage Shanks - and they were GREAT! I just realized they played w/ Operation S the following night at the Hemlock. I was stoked to have stumbled upon them. They have a really fun garage/uk punk sound and we all danced around and enjoyed warming up over a few more beers before calling it a night. Nice meeting you guys!
:::::
Photos from the Interpol show & the Mr. Airplane Man / Holly GoLightly show are
posted here - but I'll warn you Fotki is being finiky today so you can either try refreshing if you get the 503 error, or just check em out later today.
::::
Friday night Rick & I met up for Happy Hour at the Hotel Utah with some people from his company before heading out for a double header at Cafe du Nord.
We stopped off for a quick bite at
Home, which we've been wanting to try. It was tasty!! Over dinner we got in a "heated discussion" about the difference between Voltron and Wonder-Twin Powers Activate. :) We also ran into my old friends Michelle, Ewa and Bridgette!
The night began upstairs at Swedish American Hall for
Two Gallants. They were good, he's got such a unique voice and their songs are so amazing - total stories, but they feel like they're stories that happened back in the 1890's or something.
Next up was Britt Daniels (of
Spoon), who was great as always and got the sleepy Swedish American Hall crowd clapping and calling out requests.
We headed downstairs for an awesome set of
Robbers on High Street. I love these guys!! Their excellent live and we've had their
Fine Lines EP for a couple months now and have really gotten into them.
I think they sound a ton like a cross between Spoon and
On The Speakers, but I hate comparing as they've got their own deal goin on for sure because they're all very solid musicians that write great songs. Love them! Rick & both nabbed a t-shirt afterwards and rapped w/ the lead singer who (in reply to my question) reported they will have a full length out in January! woohoo!
We caught a teeny bit of Monolith, but didn't pay much attention for me to give any kind of review - but I'd like to hear their CD as it certainly didn't sound bad!
Closing the night was
John Vanderslice who I was really stoked to see live finally after only getting a peek of him at SXSW. He was good, but I think we were more in the mood to see the pacings of Robbers on High Street at that point. Plus I was pretty tired from partyin the night before, and both Rick & I were feelin the long night in our legs (his more from running 20 some miles this week, me just cuz I am OLD! :) So we left before Vanderslice was done - but overall we had a fun night of shows!!!
