Tuesday Tunes: Japandroids

Guys, I cannot stop listening to this band. 

This is one of those weird cases where I've known about Japandroids for ages, and in fact, they'd been recommend to me over and over.  I had heard them a few times, and there was no real reason that I didn't listen to them, except that I didn't.  That sometimes happens.

Then Celebration Rock came out and, seriously, I have been listening to almost nothing else (except books on tape in the car because of reasons).  "The House that Heaven Built" is the single, and it's so damn good that I feared that it would be the best songs that the rest of the album couldn't live up to it (I'm looking at you, Walk the Moon).  But I needn't have worried – the album starts of with "The Nights of Wine and Roses" and never lets up.  In fact, the only song that didn't blow me away was a cover of "For the Love and Ivy" originally by The Gun Club.

Japandroids will be in at the Fillmore in November, and I'll be there and I'll yell like hell to the heavens!

Legendary Games of Awesome

 























 

My friends Jenny and Cristin host the most awesome events.  This weekend we participated in the 1st annual Legendary Games of Awesome!  And not only did they plan out a whole afternoon's worth of events, they got everyone team shirts and sweat bands!  They even had sliced oranges for half time!

The games opened with beer roulette to choose team captains.  One beer per team was shaken up, and who ever got the one that exploded got to be team captain.  This sounded a lot more awesome in theory; in reality, only 1 person got a really explody beer.

Games included: Synchronized Sipping, a beer-pong type game, a ring toss (which no one could successfully do), and something that involved getting an Oreo into your mouth without using your hands...

The trophies were dinosaurs.  And they were awesome.

In first place we had The Pickled Livers, who got the amazing golden dinosaur trophies.

Second place went to Team Dino-Might, who actually only had 3 participating members.  The other 3 were fashionably late to the event, but arrived in time for photos.

Third place went to the other 3 person team, Don't Let the Planes Crash, whose first names all started with the letter P and who did amazing airplane arms during Synchronized Sipping!
   

In the end my team, The Drunken Giraffes, came in dead last.  But for the record I'd like to point out that while everyone else was drinking Pabst, I was drinking wine.  Also for the record, we cheated proudly – and still lost.
But it's ok – we only came for the dancing.

Desaparacidos

Have you ever loved an album so much, but knew you would never ever get to see any of those songs live?  This can't be that strange of an occurrence, especially if you are a fan of bands that broke up decades ago (like my sister, Bear, the Zeppelin superfan).  But since I tend to like smaller, more accessible bands, and since I live outside of SF, I've always been very lucky in this respect.

Boyfriend's favourite album of all time is In the Areoplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, and by the time he really started to listen to it, they had already broke up. So, when Jeff Mangum (the singer/songwriter) was touring this past spring, he was so excited.  And were blown away – he played 90% of the album live!  A dream come true for Boyfriend, who thought he would never ever hear his favourite songs live.

Tonight, we're going to see Desaparacidos and The Velvet Teen, which will be a giant musical blast from my past.  They're touring for the first time in 10 years, and goddamn and I excited.

Desaparcidos is best known for being fronted by Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame.  They formed in 2001, released Read Music/Speak Spanish in 2002, and then disbanded.  And in those 10 years, I have listed to their one album over, and over, and over.  For me, there's just something about it that album that I can't get enough of.

I've seen Bright Eyes live twice, and nearly back to back – once during the I'm Wide Awake it's Morning tour, and once right after for the Digital Ash in a Digital Urn tour.  And based on those performances, I imagined that Desaparacidos would be just as amazing, louder to be sure, but amazing.

And tonight, I finally get to find out.



photo from desaparecidosband.com

Vicious & Wreck: Road Trip (Part 1)

Ten years ago, on 8 July 2002, I set out for a study abroad program that took place at University College Dublin in Ireland.  That experience in itself is a whole other story, but it was on that trip that I met one of my best friends, Vicious.

Dublin, Ireland – Summer 2002 – Vicious (20), Wreck (19)

The Vicious & I got our nicknames when she lived across the hall from me at UCD and one night, she and I and about 6 others in our building got very, very drunk and thought we were in a band.  While we were there we spent most of our time drinking, swearing at each other whilst playing Thirteens, harassing the French bartender at our favourite pub, listening to the Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels soundtrack, and laying on the floor reading Trainspotting out loud to each other in Scottish accents (of varying accuracy).  We also apparently went to class once in a while, because both of us actually passed our courses.

When we returned state-side, despite not living across the hall from each other any more, and despite periods of large distances, various boyfriends, schools, and other crazy life stuff, she and I stayed in touch, unlike almost everyone else in our program.  And no matter how much time passed between hangouts and adventures, we've stayed close all this time – and even more so in the past few years once we were both back in the Bay Area on a permanent basis.

In April, this email arrived: I'm wondering if you bitches were free the days around July 2 to go on a trip.  I'm thinking maybe a weekend in Los Angeles? Or Las Vegas? Or somewhere new like Ukiah?  Portland?  Boise?  Klamath Falls?

I will be... the big three-oh.

So awful it cannot be comprehended fully.  

In other words, I wanna run away for my birthday, and I'd like you grrrls to be my accomplices (or kidnapped whores, your choice).

LOVE
[Vicious]

ps- Texarkana?  Montreal?  Orlando?  Milwauake? How do you spell that?  Carmel by the Sea?  Mendicino?  Reno?  The place where dreams go to die?

I immediaty wrote back with: EFF YES. I am totally in.

We hadn't traveled together in nearly 10 years, but I knew that wasn't going to make a difference.  I started working on a very specific road-trip mix for the occasion.  This was going to be epic.

Based on that first email Vicious sent, there was a lot of talk about where we could realistically drive to in the approximately 72 hours we had blocked off for this trip (leaving after work Friday afternoon and being back for work Tuesday morning).  We went a little google maps crazy and may have forgotten that we'd need to calculate in sleeping – at one point, I think we were talking about making it to Canada and back... But ultimately, we decided to drive Hwy 1 towards the Lost Coast, and see where we end up.

That Friday afternoon we loaded up my car, Kingsley, with way too much for a three day trip (since we had no idea where we would end up, we each brought about 4 pairs of shoes, swimsuits, a dress, jackets, shorts, jeans, and of course, a towel), and headed for our first and only real planned stop on our trip: Mill Valley.

Vicious and I had decided to spend the first night in the Bay Area's back yard for a couple of reasons:

• We didn't know how late we would be leaving or what the traffic would be like, and it would give us a fresh start in the morning.  
• We knew we would be able to eat there – she's a vegan and I'm gluten free! – and we ended up finding a Thai place that catered to both of our dietary needs.  
• We tentatively planned to start our adventures in Muir Woods the next morning, complete with references to Vertigo and 12 Monkeys.

So, that night we settled into our motel room over an Indian restaurant and giggled ourselves crazy late into the night.  It was just like old times, minus the booze and plus Avengers snap-bracelets.

DAY 1

It was quickly apparent that Muir Woods was not going to happen on the Saturday before 4th of July.  We were directed to the overflow parking where we were going to have to wait for a coach to bring us to the park.  As we scarfed down some nut bars, we were ushered into a queue of hikers, tourists, and families.  Now, Vicious and I are very good a queuing (owing, we think, to time spent in the UK and Disneyland), but as we looked around us, we realized that this was dumb. We had driving to do, the coast to see, and Muir Woods is so close, we could get to that later.  So, we hopped back in Kingsley and headed towards Stinson Beach.

I am a nerd, and I don't care.

On July 14th, I attended Pink Prom IV: May the Fourth Be With You.  This is the 4th annual party thrown by my friends to benefit the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and WomenCARE.

As I have the past 3 years, I had a wonderful time and danced the night away. There were amazing Star Wars themed decorations, souvenir pint glasses, and puns everywhere – my favourite: Admiral Snackbar!  Plus, there a photo booth that would be placing us among the stars.

If you didn't think it could get nerdier than a Star Wars themed event, you're wrong.  When I saw this photo of me and Boyfriend, I couldn't help myself... I had to make one small adjustment.

The Twelfth Doctor and his companion, Meggie Stardust!

Photo by Jon Sawyer Photography 
edit by me :)

Dear Readers, I'm not dead.

I'm trying to work on getting better at updating this more regularly again. But, don't worry, Dear Readers, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, instead I have been super busy and having tons of fun.  And as I learned last year during Awesome August, sometimes it isn't worth it to stop and blog when you are enjoying the moment so much.  And, hey, I am awesome at recap posts ;)

So, as I work on getting this back up to speed, you can be jealous of the amazing view I had this past weekend during my (unfortunately) short trip to Tahoe.

March Photo a Day: Days 1 – 10

Yeah, so I'm slacking on posting again, but I'm keeping up with my photos!  Just think of this as an award for your patience – a whole bunch of pictures at once :)

Day 1: Up
I caught this shot when I was leaving the market.  I've always love skywriters, and these seemed like a great way to kick off a new month of photos! (it's too bad none of the rest have lived up first one so far!)

Day 2: Fruit
I had so many ideas for this and there was fruit around all day, but in the end I nearly forgot to take a picture at all and ended up taking a quick shot of an orange my manager had given me.  It was tasty even if the photo was boring.

Day 3: My Neighbourhood
Another last min/late photo.  I live up in the hills and don't have a typical neighbourhood.  We do have a little block of stores at the bottom of the hill, though.  When I was little they had a pizza place and a movie rental shop where I rented Troop Beverly Hills 800 times – fun fact!

Day 4: Bedside
I don't have a bedside locker or table or anything because my bed fits right between the door into the room and the closet door. I do, however, have a set of drawers filled with accessories and other miscellaneous items, and stacked with the some of the books that I've read since I moved in Nov 2010.  I read a lot.

Day 5: A Smile
This pic was taken by Boyfriend back when we used to work together and had these crazy 7am shifts.  I love this pic of me.  This is a post-yawn smile and eye rub.  I may or may not be about to pound a sugar free Redbull as well.

Day 6: 5pm
My boring but accurate picture of my water bottle and a gluten free bar, for the very exciting task of hydrating and snacking before Bikram.

Day 7: Something I Wore
This was harder than I thought it would be, but only because every other time I've done style photos, Boyfriend always takes them and I wanted to do this myself.  So, here is part of the houndstooth dress and sweater from H&M and my vintage boots that used to belong to my aunt.

Day 8: Window
At my Mom's house there are these amazingly old stained glass windows.  It's just too bad that I waited until dark to take a picture of them, but believe me, they are so pretty!

Day 9: Red
I had actually planned on paining my nails with my favourite colour "Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ" but I ran out of time.  As I was searching for something both interesting and red to take a picture of, my eyes fell on my Harry Potter box set that my wonderful sister, Bear, got me for Christmas a few years ago.  It's all the British editions, so Year 1 is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. 

Day 10: Loud
This is the opening title to one of my all time favourite movies: Velvet Goldmine.  It's a play on the liner notes to David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (which also happens to be one of my favourite albums), that says "To be played at Maximum Volume."