Thursday, June 30, 2005
Go have a late lunch/dinner at your 4th of July BBQ of choice & then meet us up for drinks & a fun night of great music! We're all going to be in rare form...
Hijack the Disco is one of my favorite local bands and
Diamond Nights (apparently) parties harder than I do, which means it's going to be a kick ass show!! :)
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
sunday: work work work - I am finally caught up!! wooohooooo!!!!
monday: work(out) + work work work + drinks w/
Harry (from
nyc's friday night madness)
tuesday: work(out) + work work work + dinner at
Limón w/
Jenny! It was SOOOOO YUMM!! Their ceviche is outstanding... and the sangria is so delicious! Besides the wait, it was a fun place with great service. I recommend it! (and thanks to
Jee for recommending it to me!) Jenny & I have needed a good one-on-one night for a long time and we finally made it happen! yay! She is so fun & so cute - we had a BLAST!! Thanks for a great night,
DJ ShOOey!! (and the yuuummy bday dinner +
Sauza! aww yaa! :) xoxoxoxoxo (here's
her post about the evening)
wed: client meeting downtown + lunch w/
lyne & kristin! + work +
BAM + drinks & crafts @
Jem & Tania's!
::::
OMG I totally want to see this movie:
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Monday, June 27, 2005
a teeny bit o water spilt and my (external mac) keyboard is no longer working. arg. any of you have an extra USB mac keyboard by chance? crap
UPDATE: It's working again!! I guess it just needed to air out - phew!!!! :)
p.s. something that's not crap - this site:
elsewares.com - great stuff!
Ok, so since I barely get my arse to the movies anymore, I need to make some decisions on a few these next few weeks before they leave the theatre. So, if you've seen these, please tell me what you think -
Catch it on the Big Screen or OK for rental?
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (at the Parkway, which is worth going to in itself!)
Batman Begins
Crash
I can't wait to see:
Howl's Moving Castle
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Wedding Crashers (probably could wait till video, but it looks hilarious, so I'd do theatre for it)
And, if you're a Star Wars fan - you might want to skip this next sentence, so you don't have a heart attack: I think I might not go see it at all! I've felt more obligated to than anything - but I really have no desire. I know... crazy! :)
Man, I'm so out of it - I don't recognize 80% of the movies out. I guess cuz I don't go to many movies or watch TV (or when I do, I FF through the commercials, thanks to TiVo)... so let me know if I'm missing anything great. The last 2 movies I saw where Madagascar & The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (Hi, I'm 13)
Sunday, June 26, 2005
I've been into the
Heartless Bastards for awhile now, missed them in NYC & was stoked when I finally heard they were coming through town! After mentioning it to my friend Dan (who I know from high school & ran into at a Noisepop party
back in February), he told me about the show & said him, his girlfriend Sarah and his friend Chris were going to go - so they bought me a ticket and the plan was in place!
Dan, Sarah & I met up for dinner at
Tsunami Sushi. However, we had to wait for a table, so they sent us around the corner to their sister bar,
Bar 821, which was actually a cool little bar none of us would have known was there otherwise. Good music and tasty beer (I had a Chimay!).
It was great to catch up with Dan and get to know his girlfriend a bit more (she's sooo awesome!). So after finally getting seated at Tsunami, we enjoyed some tasty fish and some yummy cocktails. It was all really good, but definitely seemed a little pricey, especially one of the appetizers we got - it was $12 for hardly any fish in some fancy presentation. Other than that though it's a pretty fun scene and I love that they stay open till 2am!
So we finish dinner & meet Chris, Lyne & Chris' friend Jim at the Independent for the show. Heartless Bastards came on first and they were great!! Her voice is SO powerful and they sounded spot on. They didn't even play
Onion though! But they did play
Gray as their last song. It was pretty empty in there when they got started, but it didn't stop me from being right up front. Great set!! I highly recommend you check em out.
The headliner was this band called The Slip. We'd read they were kinda a jam band with jazz influences, which wasn't that promising - but we thought we'd give them a chance. Just as I thought, I SO wasn't into them. The stinky twirling hippies weren't helping either - so we all decided to grab a beer down the street.
Willo & Dan @ Fly Bar on Divisadero
(Dan's gf, Sarah, left early - so there's no pics of her, unfortunately. I should have broke the camera out earlier!)
Chris, Lyne, Willo & Dan having a blast
Lyne, Chris & Willo
Lyne hadn't eaten dinner, so at some point her & Jim had gone over to Tsunami sushi for a bite. So after many beers, photos & laughs, Dan, Chris & I closed down Fly bar and went over there & helped them eat a few of their rolls (the Scorpion roll there is AMAZING!)... and then we all stumbled home. It was SUCH fun night!! All day Saturday we were crackin up at all the funny things that happened.
For Chris & Lyne: And a one, and a two and a one-two! hahhahahaaa What a night!
Click here to view photos from the show & the crazy photo shoot at Fly Bar
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Steve just posted a thing
asking people about their most played song in iTunes - and my results dumbfounded me... I would have thought that I played songs way more than it's reporting! But maybe it's because I had to reimport everything at some point last year because of an iTunes crash or something. Anyway - instead of listing out the very top one - here's my top 20. :)
| Song | Artist | Play Count |
| Bagel Radio | (streaming radio) | 84 |
| Woxy.com | (streaming radio) | 50 |
| Say Something New | The Concretes | 21 |
| Crown Of Love | The Arcade Fire | 20 |
| Come Over | Cathy Davey | 19 |
| Save Button | Cathy Davey | 18 |
| Seems Fine | The Concretes | 16 |
| On The Table | A.C. Newman | 15 |
| She's The Real Thing | The Casual Dots | 15 |
| Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) | The Arcade Fire | 13 |
| Robot | The Futureheads | 13 |
| Swingset Chain | Loquat | 13 |
| Fairlee | Matt Pond PA | 13 |
| Heavy Lifting | Ambulance Ltd | 12 |
| Reasons for Silence | The Delgados | 12 |
| The Good that Won't Come Out | Rilo Kiley | 12 |
| Come Crash | A.C. Newman | 11 |
| Venus | Air | 11 |
| Anything Anthology | The Butchies | 11 |
| My Surprise | Cathy Davey | 11 |
You can also always check out
my audioscrobbler stats, which I think actually do a much better job at documenting what I listen to the most. It's pretty fun to see, actually.
What are your top songs? Do you use audioscrobbler?
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Holy Moly. My good friend
Justyn is getting married. Jeezus. Everyone is getting married & having babies! But Justyn, man, he was my party buddy! He hadn't had a long term relationship in YEARS! And now look! So wild!
We ran into eachother randomly on Caltrain, after almost 10 years (we know eachother from high school!) and ended up becoming best of friends. We had so many good times together! But a few years ago he moved, and now he's shacked up in Nashville, a home owner & about to be married! My gawd. Totally goes to show you that you think it might not happen, and then all of a sudden it's just *happening*. Pretty wild. But I'm really, really excited for him & Stephanie. Plus, it's a great excuse for me to
finally get my ass out to Nashville to see them, their house & have us all catch up (aka party it up like old times)!
::::
I've been seeing a trend lately, that I think is a good sign. People are hookin up! And I'm not just talking marriage and babies and all that serious adult stuff... I mean there are times when people are breakin up & there are times when people are hookin up - and right now I'm seeing some good upswing on the hookin up side!
Granted I can't claim that I am one of them (I'm not sure I'm 100% looking for that just yet, anyway so it's no wonder), but all I have to say is it's a good thing to see. Summer love is in the air! yay!
::::
I was invited to a ball game tonite, but sadly had to cancel. I knew I couldn't just hop off all willy nilly to a game - I just have too many deadlines I need to tend to. I might even be meeting a potential client who is flying through town tonite, at like 11pm. Crazy!
But it's not all work. People think I work *too* hard, but that's what happens when you have your own business. And I'm not complaining, because although it can sometimes run me ragged trying to squeeze in my 3 lives into 1, I definitely play and make time for fun.
Tomorrow night I'll be going to a show, Saturday night there's a BBQ/b-day bar crawl and then Sunday another BBQ. But every single hour around that is work. Oh & working out!
I've done SUCH a kick ass job at making working out a priority. It feels good & already I'm noticing a difference. I wish I would have reminded myself that I had actually lost about 2 sizes in 2004 (working out + being blissfully in love = willo miraculously gets skinny), so that I could have been remembering to
keep it off. But hey, the last 6 months have been pretty intense, so I suppose really everything just had to happen that way for one reason or another and now it's about pulling it back together. I'm already feeling MUCH better, I'm happy to say. Life is such a work in progress, huh?
Ya, so anyway - I'm a workout machine. And like a big dork, I put together a little mini calendar to pat myself on the back:
This is actually really cool to see... because I thought I was averaging about 6 days a week... but it looks more like 4-5. Good to know! (I guess it just feels like 6 hahaa). So ya, I made it my mission to get back in the habit and I sure have! yay for me! I'm already feeling the difference, and seeing it a little... but it takes time. It's certainly a lot harder getting into shape than it is getting out!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Lastnight I picked up
Lulu and we headed over to the Make Out Room to catch
Say Hi to Your Mom - and they were GREAT! The lead singer's voice reminded me a ton of Conor Oberst's - but their music is different, so it makes it all it's own. They had great stage presence and intensity - I am stoked to get their CD's!
UPDATE:
View Photos from this show (the ones of the band aren't so good, cuz I was in the back & didn't feel like moving closer. The red light at that bar makes it hard to get good shots, but hey - you get the idea anyway. :)
Unfortunately we missed the opening band,
Cloud Cult, and after listening to their CD today - I am extra bummed I missed them! As soon as I walked in I saw
Mike (and later Trevor & Dave, too!) of
Hijack the Disco, who chastised me for missing them. Darnit! We should be talking about shows more, you guys! :)
Trevor (Hijack's drummer) is the one who turned me on to
Kissing Tigers, though, and I love them! I actually discovered them because he posted on myspace about their video
So Stay In Love being SO good - and so I watched it & it is great!
Check it out here! You also MUST click his name & watch the video he has on the main page of his myspace profile (under "Who I'd like to Meet") - it's hysterical. So anyway I'm stoked because Kissing Tigers is
finally coming here (8/10 @ BoTH) & I told Trevor lastnight, and we're all gonna go! woohoo!
OK, so like I said - Say Hi to Your Mom was *really* great - and it was a fun show because not only were the Hijack boys there, but my friend
Ali met us there and I saw
Deb (who's apparently booking the Make Out Room now - awesome!),
Ted,
Jake and Tracy!
Funny story about Tracy is that she was at my birthday party last Saturday - but I don't even know her! My friend
Ryan had stopped by earlier in the night w/ his friend Becky (of
Becky Stark and the Lavender Diamond!) and then apparently later had spoke w/ Tracy & told them to come by here - and they did!
So it was pretty funny because out of nowhere this stranger introduces herself to me at my party & explains how she got there & of course I was like "Sweet! The more the merrier!" Then when I talked to Ryan the next day & told him about it, he said she actually books for the
Rickshaw & is really into music, too. And I was like aww man, if I'd known that, I would have talked music with her more! So, ya - it was cool to run into her at this show randomly. I was like "Hey! You were at my party!" hahaaa. This really is such a small town.
It rocked!!!!! I was SO stoked to see all my friends. A few of them, although friends for at least a year or more, hadn't even been to my place, so it was so cool to have them in my home! Thank you, those of you who came out to celebrate w/ me!!
Brian gave me a gift I've had on
my wishlist forever - a gift certificate to
Ambiance!! Oh man, I am a lucky girl! I can't wait to go use it! What a treat! He also got me this wacky book I had on my wishlist,
Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing. I started reading lastnight & so far, it's really entertaining! Thanks Brian!!! xoxoxxo
Speaking of wacky books, my friend
Cody got me another one I had on my wishlist:
Giraffes? Giraffes! It's hilarious!
Practical gift award goes to my sweet friend,
Eric who last year & again this year stoked me with a gift certificate to Whole Foods. SO. AWESOME. I mean, seriously - that's such a neat gift! They sell such yummy food, and personally I have some favorites in their vitamins, face & body products section that this certificate will help me buy! yay! Thanks Eric!
My sweet Lyney-looo made me a yuummy carrot cake (decorated with cute white daisys too!) & had me befuddled when everyone came out on the porch saying Lyne was making them come out there instead of be inside. Wha? Here I thought it was her way of stirring up the party - but surprise, surprise she followed with 30 candles (oh my god that's a lot of fire!) blazing atop her pretty cake. yay!!
Thank you to sweet
Lucia who came over early to hang out with me while I was setting up - and is
making me a scarf, that I got to even request size & length! I love the color & can't wait to see it when it's all done! Thanks Lucia bean! Speaking of handmade goods,
Hez is making these incredible bags & gave me a custom Hezcatt bag... it's awesome - and reversable! I'll have to take a photo & post it so you can see! She's going to have her store up in no time, right hez? :)
It was great to see the
Six Girls (minus
Kat, who had
her boy's bday that night & never made it!), since we've pretty much disbanded and we hardly see each other anymore. Sucks none of those girls are in my pics - I didn't even pull out the camera till like 9:30 - sorry bout that!
Speaking of, for any of you who were part of the early crew... it was pretty mellow and you missed a great party later on! I won't lie, I was nervous I wasn't going to have one of my classic crazy parties that I'm so proud of :). It was pretty chill in the early hours and mentally I was preparing myself - hahaa! but holy cow... come 11:15 or so, the party peeps started showin up, shots were had & the party got AWESOME till about 3am! WHAT FUN!
Misty & Ted hit the nail on the head w/ a
Bagel Radio mix and a book, called
Drop Dead Cute with Illustrations by Japanese Women. Awesome!
Darren also knows I like the art books, and he got me one of
Tiffany Bozic's (love her!) and a
KozynDan one, that I actually already had received from
Jee last year! huzzah! These peeps know what I like!! :) I'm excited that I get to now pass on the awesomeness of Kozyndan to someone else. Darren has given me the gift of an awesome gift to re-gift. ha! :)
However, quite possibly one of the *coolest* things I got was
Darren's awesome handmade card:
Isn't that AWESOME!?!? Damn, you are so talented, D! I was blown away when I got it - I was like "Whoa!
Where did you get this!?!?" And then he zoomed me in on his tag and I was like "OMG!" and my jaw dropped!! (like my play by play? haha) Seriously, my friend Darren is SO AWESOME!!!! And he even rocked it with us till like 4am. Now that is LOVE, man. Good stuff. My friends rule!
SO ya.... I had a great frickin time. The keg even was almost all gone by the end, which I proudly admit I think I probably took care of most of it - every time I turned around my glass was empty. haha... how's that for a recipe for a kick ass birthday? awww yaaa! And on top of that, I was fortunate enough to receive beautiful flowers, incredibly delicious carmel brownies (thanks
ali &
leslie!), a few bottles of wine, champagne, tequila and even sake (thanks
chris!)! woohoooo!! Uhh, so you know what all that means? I totally need to have another party! :)
My brother totally rocked. Poor guy had to work the SF Apparel show early the next day & had warned me he wasn't going to be able to make it a late night. But I retorted with a stern, "Oh HELL no. This is my 30th birthday and you WILL be partying with me all night!" And bless his little heart he did. Until about 4:15 when I couldn't find him & called his cell to find he'd snuck out to pass out in his car. HAHHAHA! What a trooper!!!! But, it goes without saying his Sunday was brutal. God, he deserves brother of the year award for that! THANK YOU MAX!!! Everyone loved you, you cutie!
Huge love to my hotty girlfriends Cameron & Jenna (I mean seriously - you ladies are
HOTT!) who made the wee hours of the morning so fun (until we all passed out), and then kept the party goin with me the next morning by taking me out for my favorite Huevos breakfast @ Boogaloos! yay!!! And to Neighbor Nathan who is my new party pal, and joined me for a sleepy sunday afternoon matinee of Madagascar! Such a cute movie!!
Everyone loved meeting each other and some kick ass connections were made over everything from tequila vs. Jäger - to hair-metal bands. Isn't that sweet? hahhaa
:::::
On my actual bday (Monday, June 20) my sweet friend
Trina took me out for a yummy lunch (salmon, my favorite!) at
Chez Papa - and then we even got ice cream afterwards at Scoop down the street! yay!!
I'm super bummed I forgot to have anyone take a photo of Trina & I... she even drove us in her cute little mini!
Oh & I even wore my BEAUTIFUL new necklace my Momma got for me!!! I've been wanting something from
Small Things Designs forever, and so I picked out what I wanted & I now am the proud owner of this gorgeous necklace:
Thanks Mommacita! xoxox
My Mom apparently has several gifts on the way to me - she's sooooo sweet. I already got
one lastnight which I'm stoked on!! Besides the necklace, all I could think of that I really wanted was home stuff, like a new pot that strains pasta through the lid (smaller than the huge one I've had), and a square baking pan, etc. All these home-y things - I'm definitely getting old! hahaa. But I'm really excited - and say Congrats right back to my Momma for raising me so well that 30 years later I can safely say I think I turned out pretty darn good! hehee
So in summary, ringing in my big 3-0 was fantastic. Thank you all for your emails, ecards, comments - and most importantly to my wonderful family & friends for making it a great one!!! xoxo
p.s. if you missed the photos, there's
a big fat album of them here!
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
I have to run out to a client meeting downtown - but all three photo albums are posted!!
30th Birthday Bash 2005
Stephen Malkmus @ The Fillmore
Fat Pants & Funny Boots!
Enjoy & I'll write more later!
Monday, June 20, 2005
Lyne, Kristin & Hez beating on Stig :)
My birthday party was SO ridiculously fun. Delightfully, my camera was hijacked and the results are VERY entertaining. This is simply one of the many hilarious shots taken that night. I'll sort & upload them all tomorrow. (err, later today)
I finally had a photo shoot with Fat Pants & Funny Boots!! This is just one of the adorable shots I got of cutie Funny Boots... could you just die!? I about did. SO CUTE! :) I'll upload those photos tomorrow, too.
Night!
Saturday, June 18, 2005
me smiling ear to ear (except today icee's will be replaced with beer)
Today I got up @ 8am (only because my brother was up & leaving to hit the Apparel show with his
Om Gallery goods), went & worked out, and then got ALL my errands done! woohooo!
As soon as I got home, I was on the phone w/ Lucia when a beautiful vase of gerber daisies arrived from sweet
Samara! yay!!
Then, I worked a little, and got a surprise call from Matt (my ex) who stopped over to give me a bday gift! What a surprise!!! But SUCH a welcome one, because that guy gives the BEST gifts ever!!! So guess what I got!??! Something I've been wanting and had on my wishlist for the longest time:
The Iron Giant - Special Edition DVD! YAY!!!!!!! It's perfect that he got it for me, too - since we discovered the Iron Giant together. He was actually the one who gave me the huge Iron Giant poster I still have framed & hanging on my wall. I love that movie! Matt always knows just what to get.... what a sweetie!!!! Gotta love ex-boyfriends who are SUCH good guys that you never stop loving them. :)
He also got me a GC to
Kiehls - which is awesome, considering the last thing I had from there was from him & I ran out & totally miss it. AND he gave me this
hysterical car air freshener. Someone knows I like cat butt. hahhaaa Oh - and can't forget the great Emily the Strange birthday card, complete with a "birthday rap". :p It's awesome.
And so we hang out a bit & then he's like I gotta go... and I was like, "ya, what are you up to today?" and he was like "I'm going to Alaska." And I thought for sure it was a classic Matt joke... but he really is!! He was on his way to the airport! HA!
So I've cleaned up the backyard, the keg just arrived (yes, I'm having a keger hahhaa! - let's hear it for turning 30 and still partying like I'm 17!!). Now I have to jump in the shower, Lucia & my brother Max should be here soon, and then everyone's coming over later & we're going to celebrate WONDER WILLO!!!!!!!!!! :) I love birthdays!
Have a beer with me wherever you are. xoxo
p.s. actual birth day is 6/20/75 in case you're wondering.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
I need to:
#1. Find speakers I can hook up to my Powerbook (easy to hook up - USB? or the small jack on my powerbook?) to listen to better sound at my desk. Usually I have it streaming over the Airport Express to my speakers in the living room - but sometimes late at night it's better that I have it low at my computer, as to not shake the whole house! :)
#2. Find someone who has had experience with Online Stores/E-Commerce - I need to figure out a couple things... like if a business is already accepting credit cards... how can you hook that up to your online store? Is MIVA pretty easy to configure? Do you recommend something else? Experts, experienced peeps - I need your advice! This is an area I'm tired of not knowing the answers to. And no, this client does not want to do Paypal or Yahoo. Thanks!
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
I'm on
a list that emails me when there's an earthquake around here... and for the last month I've been getting emails notifying me about
little ones here & there. Apparently a bunch of small ones is a good thing though, because it lets the tension out... but still... I can't help but thinking it's leading up to the (sound effect: dun-dun-dun) "big one".
Living here I've totally become a big fat scaredy cat about earthquakes. I'm actually not that nervous about one happening, as much as I dread the actual onset of one. That slow rumbling that creeps it's way up to the edge of your house, and then permeates all your walls and objects of affection with monster sized rattling and you feel like it's never going to stop and everythings going to come crashing down. Ya, I could completely do w/o that. So, when I say I've become a big scaredy cat - it's actually more of a paranoia for that entire feeling. The wind will blow, rattling the windows, and my mind will think, "OMG, is it an earthquake?". My cat will be doing one of those furious behind the ear scratches w/ his back leg and the whole bed shakes and I woke up in a panic, thinking for sure my bed was shaking because there was an earthquake happening (FYI this time I had a pillow over my head while I was sleeping, so I couldn't auditorily match it up at first... it was still scary!).
I couldn't even escape my paranoia on the East Coast! When I was
staying in Brooklyn, where they don't even get earthquakes,
Karrie & Wayne's bottom floor flat would shake something fierce every time a truck or a bus went by! (she writes about this
here). It was hilarious every time my mind would go, "Oh shit!..." and then remember, I'm in Brooklyn. ha!
So, anyway - apparently tonite there was a
7.0 off the coast up here, which initiated a Tsunami warning for about an hour, before
it was called off. Oddly enough the service I am signed up for didn't email me about that one, but had emailed me about one that was about 5.1. I actually found out about it because my friend
Summer in Steamboat IM'd me to ask me if I felt it. But then she kept going on about some Tsunami warning and I was like 'whu?!' Nice to know if I need to evacuate, I'll be hearing it over IM from 1,000 miles away. :p
I have FINALLY updated
my show calendar!!!! wooohooooo!!
Over the last few months I've been working like crazy - to the point where I wasn't even hitting shows for about a month (gasp!) and really even last week I was way too hermity considering the incredible shows happening for
MCMF. But hey - hermiting is the new black - so it's cool. But even better, is that I'm no longer avoiding updating my list - and I'm ready to face the music (hahhaa!). aka I'm back in the swing of things & am ready to hit some shows!!
This week I'm hittin Stephen Malkmus w/ Martha Wainwright (Wed), possibly the Deerhoof/Electrelane show (Thurs), and The Go-Betweens w/ Court & Spark (Fri). I may skip the Thurs night show to chill though, since Saturday night is going to be the big partay for yours truly! Aww yaaaa.... I'll be celebrating my 30th birthday! YUP! I'm turning 30!!! Isn't that awesome!? I'm pretty stoked actually. :) 30 is COOL!!! wooohoo!
OK - now I gotta work. :) This is why I don't update my show calendar - it takes me hours & leads me to reading about my favorite bands online, and then finding more music I want to download & listen to and read about and, and, and... and all of a sudden it's a few hours later! hahhaa. It feels good though, I gotta say. mmmm....
muuuusiiiiic.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Sunday morning my ex (and Kazoobie's daddy) Matt came over to give our 4 year old fuzzy pants his bday presents! It was great to see him, and I wish I would have taken photos because he shaved his head for
the show he's been in, and it's so wild to see him sans hair! So anyway - it was cool to see him. I ate breakfast, and Kazoobie got treats and a new mouse!
::::
After doing a small bit of work, I got all prepared to head out the door for the
Haight Street Fair. Normally I wouldn't have gone to this, as actually I rarely hit any of the street festivals here any more, but this one I wanted to hit, because not only was
Ted there pouring beers, but my brother had an
Om Gallery booth there! Yay, I get to see my brother!
So I decided instead of doing a workout at the gym, I'd just walk over there w/ my iPod and enjoy the beautiful day! And right as I was walking out, I saw my neighbor out back of his house & asked him what he was up to - and he mentioned he was headed there, so I recruited him to join me on my walk and off we went!
It took us an hour to get from Bernal Heights to Haight Street, and the weather couldn't have been more beautiful!! Shortly after we arrived (and slugged through a few blocks of the massive crowds... ug), I saw a booth selling Fat Tire (my favorite beer!). I thought #1. I should wait to score the free beer wherever Ted was pouring #2. Max said he had margaritas waiting for us, so maybe I should just hold off to drink those - but the lure of Fat Tire was almost too much! It's just SO good! :) Well, AWESOMELY enough Ted just happen to be pouring there! YAY!!!
Then finally just a little further down, we finally got to my brother's booth, where him & Samara were hanging out (selling like crazy, which was so cool to see!) and it was SO great to finally see them again! We finished our beers and started on the margaritas in no time and ended up having such a fun day just chillin there with them. We didn't have to fight the crowds at all since we just stayed put - and we had shade, drinks & good company - nice!!
Afterwards Nathan & I helped them break down and load up, and then we all squeezed in the van and cruised back over to our neck of the woods where we ate some YUMMY Emmy's Spaghetti Shack!! mmm!!!
Here are a few
photos from the day!
Some of you may have heard about the
Bay Area Blogger Meet-Up deal that KRON 4 put on this weekend. Free food, and a chance to catch up with some of my blogging friends? OK!
But kinda funny - if you look that link above, they posted 2 photos from the event that are horrible. That's what I call "garfed". And trying to watch the video is painful, as it's encoded terribly and the buffering makes it skip the entire way through. Wow, they could use to learn a thing or two from Bloggers right there!
So ya, it was short & sweet, but they had pretty good food (the snickerdoodle cookies especially! :) I got a bad tshirt (that I've already cut, which ups it's chances for getting worn from about 2% to 8%), and got to hang out with some of my blogging pals. They're all so awesome!
tantek, me, lucia, sarah, eric, mai, biz & chris
Sarah even gave me 2 awesome new little pouches she'd made for me to put my iPod and camera in! A custom
sewjob from cutie Sarah! *blush*
View More Photos from this event
I am *so* glad
Jem bought me a ticket to BFD! It was perfect, because all the bands we wanted to see were during the day on the side stages! So it wasn't too gigantic and horrible, and instead it was a gorgeous day, full of great music!!
Click here to see more photos from BFD 2005
Oh, and my friend
Brian told me his friend
Justine was going to be there solo - so she met up with us and I think we've found ourselves a new show ho! woohoo! We're already planning to hit the Le Tigre/Beck show coming up.
We saw Tegan & Sara, Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery, Hot Hot Heat and Sleater-Kinney on the small side stage - and then The Lovemakers and Kasabian on the main stage. All were great, but I have to say Kaiser Chiefs really rocked it for me! I hadn't seen them live yet & they were FANTASTIC! The lead singer jumps around all crazy and they're all very charming. The energy was great for their show & I was dancing and singing and loving it!
HHH is one of my favorite bands, but this show wasn't their strongest IMO. The show at GAMH a few months back was way better... but still cool to see them (because I looooove them) & now that we know their new stuff, it was good to hear that again.
It was excellent to see SK, too! We got up pretty close for that one & I enjoyed their whole set. I love their voices, and it never gets old watching Janet Weiss kick ASS on the drums. She's awesome! There's a great interview with them in this month's
BUST if you're a fan!
It was wild to see the Lovemakers on the main stage, cuz they were so teeny! Usually they got all their sexiness
right up in my face (
that's more like it!), but they still sounded great... and we could see & feel the sexy all the way up on the lawn. I can't wait for their new album!!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Anyone hittin
BFD tomorrow? I just remembered that I'm not going to be working a full day tomorrow. Turns out Jem bought me a ticket (which I asked her to, but then forgot so I'm glad she reminded me!). As much as I've become pretty anti-Shoreline (giganto-stadium-like-venue), I have to admit I'm pretty stoked to see: Kasabian, The Lovemakers, Sleater Kinney, Hot Hot Heat, The Bravery and Kaiser Chiefs. I hope it's sunny!
Anyway - if you're going... lemme know or ring my cell & maybe we can meet up for a $7 beer and $8 garlic fries.
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Driving me crazy: These damn dogs in my neighborhood that just bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark and it never stops!!! SHUT UP DOGS! uuugg.
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Loving like mad: This new bodywash I bought at Trader Joes:
ShiKai's Yuzu Bodywash. It smells SO DELICIOUS!!
I would have initially just told you how amazing the 'grapefruit' scent is... but it's actually Yuzu! (I'm just learning from their website) Yuzu is a Japanese fruit that is similar to what you would find if you combined a grapefruit and a mandarin... yummm! I picked this out because I have sensitive skin (no Lever 2000 for me!) and since this body wash is soap free & moisturizing, it's perfect! It's pretty funny to get so excited about taking a shower, especially since I love my long hot showers as it is. But seriously, this has added a whole new level of fantastic to it all. :)
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Today the sun has been out, which is good... it's been a bit rainy here. Reminding us all that summer in SF is usually quite fog laden.
I gotta go do my workout for the day. Without a workout buddy (she's super busy this week), it's hard for me get my ass there some days. I did finish
the book I've been reading at the gym yesterday, though, which was cool. I love finishing books*.
I concur with
Sarah's review that it pretty much just made me feel like I needed a dose of Ritalin. However, I can appreciate an analytical mind (right up there with people who make the effort to program all their appliances to display the correct time), and I suppose it was a fairly interesting story to get through. That said, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone. A couple people told me I
had to read it - but I think you're really not missing much except a few days of feeling like you're stuck in the body of an autistic boy. Kinda like
Momento... you're just SO glad you're normal and don't have to constantly go through some crazy process just to keep it all straight.
*Speaking of, Steve & Burt - I finally saw High Fidelity (the movie) again *after* reading the book. They left out the entire deal of him freaking out when he didn't give the reporter lady his true top 5 list, and needing to call her back so many times. I couldn't believe that! That was such a huge part! :)
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I love
this guy's style... he does these in Illustrator! Man... sometimes I just get so slayed by the talent that is out there. *sigh*
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
I'm delighted to finally be able to show off my latest illustration & website:
Brian and Kara Eloped!
Kara discovered my illustration work through her brother Mike, who hired me to do the
wall paintings for Connor's nursery, and contacted me a few months back to do a Custom Illustration & website for their big news.
Apparently after a lot of "So when are you two getting married?"'s, they decided just to go for it! And instead of the big hoopla of a wedding, they're taking an incredible two week trip through Italy. Part of which is a Backroads bike trip through Tuscany (hence the bikes :)! So fun!!
So all of their friends and family just received the postcard announcement we created (which means I can finally spill the news here... hehehe!). Here's the back of the postcard, letting people know where they are and to visit the site for more details:
It's been such a fun project to work on and they're such a sweet couple - Congratulations, Brian & Kara!!
Monday, June 06, 2005
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoy cooking spinach and watching the big fluffy spinach leaves shrivel and get all small and wilty. It might be the one thing in life that makes wilty=yummy.
Being a nerd, I also take small pleasures in the internut. Like these cool things:
- Housing Maps - Google Maps + Craigslist. Genius! And, thankfully, every time I do a search to see if I can find something as sweet as my place, nothing compares. woohoo!
- Find Cheap gas w/ Google Maps!
- Delivr - Send Flickr photos as ecards! Awesome! Now if you're like me and you got confused as to how to send just any ol photo... copy the photo location of your favorite image on flickr.
For example, this elegant photo's actual location, on the flickr servers, is actually this. So when you go on Delivr & you hit one of the images that's right there on the front page, replace it's photo URL - so that the URL to your photo of choice is after Delivr's string: http://www.delivr.net/popcard.php?pu=
Send this photo as an ecard! Bonus: It works with any photo! See?
ALERT: Please read Charles' comment regarding Creative Commons/Copyright issues & be respectful! :)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Oh YES. Let the days of summer and BBQ's begin. I vow to hit more BBQ's this summer and lovely Heather kicked it off right today!
It was sooo fun to see all these peeps. It had been since Coachella! Well, I think Hez & I saw each other in between then & my trip... and of course I've seen Jem all the way in NYC no less! But usually I see Ted & Misty at shows every week or so, so for a month to go by is kinda crazy. Needless to say, I missed em! So it was great to see the whole crew, enjoy some limeade and seriously tasty BBQ food and catch up.
Hez,
Misty &
Ted. I love that Misty & Ted were so ready to put their camera faces on for me :) hehehe! LOVE you guys!
:::
Prior to going over there, Lyne picked me up & we hit the
Summer Lovin' Trunk Show at 12 Galaxies. Shopping in a bar. Brilliant. haha.
Ya, so there was a bunch of great local artists there with their fabulous silkscreened, sewed, hand drawn, hand made goodness. Including Jen of
Nooworks, who has super cute stuff. And then I ended up falling in love with
FluffyCo, and bought Hez & Misty rekord print wrist cuffs, and me a brown deer print wrist cuff and a few buttons. yay!
Hez, you gotta get your bags there! It's perfect! They do it every month, and I can put you in contact w/ Annie & Jen who I think organize it.
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Now I'm home blogging my booty off trying to catch up on the last week! For those of you who didn't notice, I cheated &
back posted like it was last Tuesday to wrap up last weekend. Sorry I've been so behind! I've been workin' hard, baby!
Speaking of - that's what I gotta do now. Oh - but before I go - here's
photos from Hez's BBQ today! Hope you all had a great weekend, too!
So Wednesday rocked... then Thursday night Lyne & I met up with Jem, Hubert and Lulu at the Tilly & the Wall/Of Montreal show at GAMH. (oh & total bonus: lyne & I chanced it to walk up & buy tix - and scored $10 tix out front! thanks, stranger!)
I LOVE Tilly & the Wall. I've fallen in love with that CD and I was really excited to see them live - and they did not dissapoint! Jem had seen them before and attested they were great, so I was looking forward to their lovely poppy goodness. I can't recall if Jem had told me - but how great is it they have a live tap dancer!? Love that! It was so fun. I absolutely love harmony - and they're all about that. Really pretty voices, beautiful lyrics and good energy. What's not to love?
Of Montreal was the headliner, but I was prepared to leave a few songs into it so that I could get a good nights sleep. Wednesday night I had come home so fired up from the Bloc Party show that I ended up not going to sleep for a few more hours, leaving me with about 6 hours of sleep... so I was looking forward to bed-e-bye. They came on & they sounded pretty good... but after the beautiful voices of Tilly & the Wall, I felt like his voice was sounding too nasaly for me or something.. and decided I liked them better on CD. And even then I haven't really gotten into their CD. So we stayed for a few songs & took off. There's
a few photos from that show in the Bloc Party album, starting on photo #21.
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Friday night I planned to hit Tussle and Out-Hud at BoTH. Mostly because my awesome drum teacher,
Warren, is in
Tussle and forever I've been meaning to go out & see him play/show my support. It was sold out, but luckily I scored 3 tix for Lyne,
Darren & I from some guy on Craigslist.
The opener, Madeline Minx, was a bit too trashy for me somehow... so I couldn't get into it and eventually went to the back with Darren and got to see/chat it up with Warren a bit, too. They share the same letters: a-r-r-e-n! :)
Tussle went on, and it was great to see Warren drum it up up there... but I SO need lyrics at a show. Otherwise I get really bored, really fast. I feel like "what am I doing?". And Tussle sort of has this dub/house/trance thing I guess goin on. I dunno - I can't get into it. I'm not someone who goes out & listens to DJ's or goes to those clubs to hear people spin rave/techno/dub stuff. Dig the drums, and love that they had 2 sets and another guy doing percussion here & there... but I was wishing I was on some kind of a drug to keep me into it.
Pretty much same w/ Out-Hud, except they had lyrics... but it still wasn't doin it for me. I exclaimed to BeeDub (and his pretty wife who I finally got to meet!) that I hated it. And yes, I realize hate IS a strong word. I think it was just that frustration point of the night where I was so ready to be into the music at all. And I so couldn't get there. Arg.
Luckily Lyne was ready to go (yay!), so I said goodbye to some peeps, and went home. But this is where my night began!
My neighbors, who I've hung out with a few times now, and am really stoked to get to know more, were having another party. And so when I arrived they had just sent the last of the parents home & they were ready for the *real* party to begin. Aawww yaaa... just in time! :) All the roomates are so nice, and this time all their friends were so nice... and within about 10 minutes of my being there we did a shot and let the madness begin. :) There's
a few photos in this album. Emma's the girl I've been workin out with lately. Pete's her boyfriend. Nathan's the amazing cook and Francesca's the one with the suuuuuuper cutie kitties that I still have yet to do a photo shoot of! They're all so nice... total partiers and I'm stoked to have them living next door! Most of you will meet them at my bday party that's comin up.
So long story short is my Friday night got crazy. Which I emailed Warren about because the last time I went out to see him play it turned into a ridiculously crazy night - so I asked him if he has that effect on all the girls. hahaa. Long story shorter, I didn't get home till way late and my Saturday pretty much consisted of sleeping and movies. :)
But - keepin the great 'hang out with friends' plan goin in full force, I invited Darren over to watch
Grave of the Fireflies with me. Which (although I keep saying it was) wasn't directed by Hiyao Miyazaki, who is a favorite of mine - but instead by Isao Takahata. However, it was a production of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki's animation studio. Got it!
Darren & I finished that and couldn't help but put on my other Netflix movie: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, while we looked through his Stencil Pirates book and my Japanese Illustration book. Darren's awesome and I am so stoked to have found such a solid guy friend (not to mention art buddy) in my life. Plus, movie nights rule! I'm so having more movie nights.
OK - so I think I've finally updated everything! Oh! Except for today! Jeeshk! Ok, new post for that. :)
So last Wednesday I'm at
BAM... and I get a call from
Jem who says they have an extra *FREE* ticket to the (sold out!) Bloc Party show at the Fillmore show & did I want it? uuuuhhhh. YA!!!
SO I had been out & about doing things for 2 different clients before going to BAM, so I had my laptop with me. But I figured I didn't care if I had to hold it the whole time (as I was so NOT going to leave it in my car or trust it to coat check- it has my whole life on here!), it was worth it for a free ticket into this show that I had totally wanted to go to!
So I arrive, meet up with Jem, her cousin and his crew and we go in to catch the first band that her cousin and all his friends know (hence the free tix, I think), called the
Ooh La's. I wanted to love them... but I just couldn't. Something about it reminded me of music that's already past it's time. And the lead vox girl, although she was super cute and admittedly her sexy boobies, that we could see the beautiful shape of so clearly through her little hippy-esque top, were doin it for me. I still couldn't love the music like I wanted. But hey - good for them! They apparently just got signed w/o even having so much as an EP out. Which is sorta Josie & the Pussycats freaky, but whatever... I'm sure they're stoked.
Alright, moving on though - the show just got better & better! On next:
Kiss Me Deadly a Montreal band on
Alien8. They were great & I want their CD!
Complete bonus was that I ran into cutie Todd (who I met @ The Walkmen & then ran into again at the
Hijack the Disco show) AND Chris, who I hung out with a bit the night of
Misty's PNYE, at
Coachella, and I'm delighted to say is becoming a friend I completely look forward to talking to and hanging out with. He's a good guy. Oh... so the best part? Is that between Chris & Todd, I had two tall, sexy, music-lovin men standing by me all night. Like that doesn't help make it a great time!?!? hahaa :)
So Bloc Party goes on and oh my god. Seriously, ask anyone who was at this show and they'll tell you the same: INCREDIBLE!!!!
Apparently they'd played the night before at Slims, but weren't so 'on'. It seemed like they may have been tired or something... but not Wednesday night. It was AWESOME!!!!
You know how a show can completely be all about the energy in the audience!? And when everyone is just enjoying the shit out of the band, the band is having a great time, the crowd is freaking out - and it all turns into a spiritual experience of HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE BEST SHOW EVER!!! Ya, that was this show. KICK. ASS.
I wasn't that close, so I only got a few shots worthy of posting: View Bloc Party Album
(also shots of Kiss Me Deadly (openers) and Tilly & the Wall/Of Montreal from Thurs)
So they end their set, crowd goes nuts, they go off stage - crowd is going wild, they of course come out for an encore... play about 3 songs, rocking us all so hard... the floor of the Fillmore is warping as people are jumping up & down screaming (I love this feeling, every time I envision us all crashing through the floor, and that's the way I die... having the best f*in time at a show and falling through the floor because everyone was getting their rock on so. hard! hahaa). SO they end - we all cheer... lights go up & the music starts... people start funneling out and we, like most everyone we heard passing us as they were leaving, are just standing around in awe of what an incredible show we just witnessed. I mean, jesus. SO. GOOD!!!!
Oh, and it probably helped that I fell in love with the lead singer, Kele a bit. Hott damn is he hot. Not to mention his accent slays me. Although I couldn't understand a word he said it was so thick! It was still hott. hahaa. AND the drummer!! Who I have to say looks more like he's taking time off from a very high level science project than is a major drummer in a rock band - but oh my god is he awesome! Several times during the set he was blowing me away. And, despite his science look, he had his shirt off anyway. When I become a drummer, I'll totally take my shirt off, too. (haha)
So we're all standing around guffawing about how frickin incredibly mind-blowing the show was... and about 8-10 minutes goes by and all of a sudden they come back out on stage!!! "Since you all stuck around, we're going to play you a few more songs!" AWWW FUCK YES!!!!!!! So the stragglers rush up to the stage - making it maybe 150 or so of us and they played like 3 more songs!!! Then at the end I think Kele did a stage dive - but for sure the drummer did and I got it all on video. :)
I got an email from my friend Dan the next day, telling me about how amazing it was - and I was SO STOKED that he was there, too and SO STOKED that I was able to report that I had been there - and we both emailed back & forth about how incredible it was. yay for great shows!!! Man. I get so happy just thinking about it!
Oh - and although my laptop got pushed around quite a bit (mostly by me as when it was between my legs at my feet I had to continually remind myself that knocking it back & forth between my two legs as I rocked to the beat was probably NOT good for it. haha!), not to mention my Booq bag getting its fair share of whisky spilt on it (thanks Todd! haha), it still works! phew! :)
Anyway - great seeing you boys & thanks for calling me, Jem! That show is in
my top 5 of this year FOR SURE! xoxo
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Lastnight, driving home from one of the most ROCKIN shows of this year (Bloc Party!!!! EPIC!!!!!!) I was blogging like mad in my head. Life. so. great. Must. blog. now!
But alas I've been a busy bee working away and haven't had a chance to post yet - but it's coming! And photos, too! I'm feeling great! xo
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UPDATE: I worked my arse off today!! I'm stoked though cuz I got SO much done! I finished an entire site - I can't wait to show you all - it'll be live next week! :)
I went to Tilly & the Wall tonite w/ Lyne... and saw Jem, Hubert, Lulu, and Mai!
Photos & a better update of all of this will come, but sadly I probably won't be able to until early tomorrow night or Saturday. Tomorrow I go downtown for an afternoon meeting, which means in the morning I need to tackle all the stuff I didn't do today cuz I was working my butt off on the one thing! :) juggle. juggle! Life is good though & I can't wait to tell you aaaaaaaaall about it! xoxo (again)
