I had post Christmas ennui, I needed to be cheered up so I went to a few antique shops here in Alameda. I found a few things that made me smile:


These are the most hideous/fabulous lamps I have ever seen. The remind me of 70's superheroes.

















I also found this totally awesome guide to being a valley girl. Furr Shurr!

Lets just say every fucking thing that could go wrong on my return trip to California did.

They couldn't print me a receipt for my rental car (they are supposedly mailing it to me),

My plane was delayed by an hour leaving Seattle,

I had to sit next to an approximately 7 year old boy that made farting noises the whole flight,

and to top it off, while I was waiting for my luggage, a stranger whispered in my ear that I had toilet paper sticking out of the back of my pants!

Welcome Home!

But here is the thing that made up for everything; When I got off the plane and was on the way to get my luggage, I heard an announcement over the intercom:

"Paging Mr. Ben Dover, paging Mr. Ben Dover, Mr. Ben Dover please pick up the white courtesy phone."

Oh, and I was back in love with the world again!

This is my last weekend in the Seattle area so I decided to do a few things I had not gotten to do so far here.

Saturday, Mhairi (my co-worker from the UK) and I went into Seattle to go to the Aquarium. We wanted to see the new baby Sea otter. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen. The rest of the aquarium was a lot of fun as well.

Here are the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1610643/


On Sunday we drove about 2 and half hours out into the mountains to Leavenworth, Wa. It is a little town in the middle of nowhere that in the 60's was doing very badly and decided to give itself a facelift. It totally remade itself into a copy of a Bavarian village. We had a great time shopping and walking around in the snow. It was really cold, but that didn't stop us from having a fun day out.

and here are the pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1610581/


So, it is back to work tomorrow and my last week here. I will miss this area, but I am ready to go home. See you all soon!

I think we are all friends here.

So, I'd like to make a confession:

I am driving an SUV and I like it.

I am probably going to go to environmentalist hell just for saying it, but there it is, out in the open.

Forgive me.

Ok, I feel so much better now.

Today I had the day off and decided to go out to a botanical garden in the near by town of Bellevue. I know that most people wouldn't think of going to a garden in winter, but it actually was very beautiful. There were an abundance of winter berries and evergreen plants as well as a lot of birds and squirrels.

Here are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1505178/

After the garden I went into Seattle and went to Pioneer Square to go on the Underground Tour. It was a lot of fun, the whole tour is underground (of course) on the old street level. There were a lot of fun and interesting stories about the founding and past of Seattle. It was a real behind the scenes look at the city. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Seattle.

Here are some pictures of Pioneer Square and the tour:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1505240/

After the tour I did some shopping and had dinner at the underground cafe of the Elliott Bay Bookstore. This is a great bookstore with a little of everything and a great friendly atmosphere.

Back to the grind tomorrow...Oh well, I had fun today.

This past Monday I drove out to Snoqualmie Falls. I got lost getting there so it took me about an hour and a half to get there (and only 40 minutes to get back) but it was a nice drive. The falls are really beautiful but it was colder than a witch's tit out there! I swear I got a minor case of frost bite. I am leaving my scarf, hat and gloves in the car from now on just in case. Here are some pictures of the falls.
















On a whiter, fluffier, even colder note, it has finally started to snow here in Renton. It started to snow in other areas yesterday. Today it was mostly snow that turned to rain as it fell, but there is rumor of a heavier fall tonight or tomorrow. I went this afternoon and traded in my Chevy Impala for a Ford Exlporer. It makes my feel safer and if I decide to trek out to the wilderness at any point I want to be prepared. I will keep you updated!

Those of you that know me well know I like a good challenge. So, I decided about a month ago that I would teach myself German. Ok, I know it is almost impossible to teach yourself a language if you don't have anyone to talk to and you are learning it through German TV shows and music. But all I can say is...I am having a great time.

In my quest I have bought German language CDS, dictionaries and verb conjugation books, but the most helpful things I have bought so far are a variety of German phrase books. They give me a great overview of the language as well as giving me actual phrases to practice. To be honest I don't know if I am saying the phrases right, but at least it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.

In the interest of sharing the wealth I would like to share with you what I have learned from my various phrase book that might be helpful if you ever travel to a German speaking country.

Fertig? (Ready?)

First, it is important to be VERY honest about your identity to everyone you meet:














Second, it is important to know what topics of conversation to avoid, here are my suggestions of things NOT to talk about:


















If, however, you end up engaged in a conversation about these topics, here are some suggestions of phrases to use during the ensuing argument:
















If you manage to make it out of the argument without getting your ass kicked, you might even make a friend. Then you and said friend can go out and party it up a little, or a lot, if the following phrases are any indication:




















































On one of these exciting nights out you will invariably meet other human beings. Maybe one of these people will be interested in you in more that a "friendly" way.

Some of these people you will not be interested in:
















Now, telling people that you are an accountant will definitely scare off all but the most hardy of suitors, but if that does not work here are a few alternatives that should do the trick:

Ich bin ein teufelsanbeter (devil worshiper)
Ich bin ein terrorist (just what is looks like)
Ich bin ein republikaner (republican)

On the other hand, you might like someone and want to make your intentions known:













which leads to:













Which leads to:

NOTE: The following phrases should be MEMORIZED before they are needed. It would be extremely distracting to have to find and look up the phrase "Fuck Me Harder" while engaged in the actual act.

















This will lead to the need for the following phrases:













Oh, yes, how many times have I said "That was weird" after sex? Too many times, my friends, too many times.

Here are some additions phrases that should get you through almost any social situation:


At the hairdresser:













At the dentist:













And finally at the park (hopefully accompanied by a baby or child)













So there you go, all you need to know to travel the world!

Good luck with that....

Here are a couple odds and ends that I have been collecting.

Enjoy!

Here is a book I found that is a lot of fun. I have been having a great time reading it.

















And yes, it is a book about bastards throughout history.


And here is a great dedication in a little park in my home town of Alameda, CA.
Oh, if only I had friends that loved me this much...
(if you can't read it well, it says; "In Memory of My Dumb Friends")

Rob Thomas
Paramount Theater

We almost didn't go to this show, which is a huge thing for us since we love concerts. We were both SO exhausted from traveling, work and the NIN concert the night before that we almost decided to skip this one. We actually flipped a coin. Heads we go, tails we stay home. Flip. Heads. So off we go.

We had a bitch of a time finding parking since the theater is in downtown Oakland. But we finally found a spot and headed to the theater. We had purposely headed out late since the opening act was Anna Nalick and neither Tina or I like her.

Believe it or not I had not been to the Paramount theater before, I know, a theater that I had not been to? Yeah, I was surprised too. This a great place with an old fashioned charm. It is beautifully restored and done in the art deco style.

I am really glad we decided to go. Rob Thomas was really on that night and played a really rocking set. He played all his new stuff with some Matchbox Twenty songs thrown in for good measure. His band was great and he was as cute and charming as ever. We even got see two ladies almost throw down in our ails during the show...Not what you expect with this crowd...How exciting! :)

Fun stuff and I went home even more tired, but happy.

Nine Inch Nails
Queens of the Stone Age
Oakland Arena


We were supposed to see NIN on September 29th but it was postponed until November 19th because the drummer was having heart problems, so I was very excited to finally be seeing them. We had seem an abbreviated show of theirs at Coachella and I had really liked it. I had not been a huge fan before then, I had know their main hits but did only owned one CD. After seeing them live I went out a bought everything I could get my hands on and have been listening to them ever since.

Tina came and got my about 7:30 and we headed out to the arena which is only a few miles from my house. When we got there we started looking for the special "Spiral" entrance for fan club members. After a few false starts we found it at the side of the Arena. We got our tickets at will call and headed in. I am really glad I remembered my ear plugs, this was an especially loud show. QOTSA were already playing. I am not a huge fan of this band and it didn't help that live them kind of played like a jam band and would play the same song for 15 minutes with instrumental parts for about 10 of those minutes. Not my style at all. We did have a good time looking at all the people and reading all the t-shirts. It was like band t-shirt heaven.

Finally NIN came on. All I can say is it was a fantastic show. Very straight ahead, little on theatrics and big on the rock! They had a cool stage set and a curtain that would go down in front of them at a point in the middle of the concert when they were playing some of their slower songs. It was almost see through so you could still see the outline of the band but see the images that were projected onto the screen. It was really cool. They played about 5 songs like that with images of flocks of animals and people flowing into images of was and destruction. It got the message home without saying a word. I was very impressed. Trent was also much more animated during this show than I remembered him being at Coachella. He danced and moved around the stage a lot more. That was great to see. Trent didn't talk much, which is what I expected. There were only a few thank yous, fuck yeas and he did thank us for coming back and apologized for the concert delay.

I left there exhausted, my back and knees were killing me from standing on the cement on floor, but I was so happy to finally see this band in a full concert.

I have been in the Seattle area working, and I will be here until the end of December. I had my first day off and decided to go to the wharf and to Pike's market. I had a nice day, excluding the part where I got lost in downtown Seattle. I went to Ye olde curiosity shop on the wharf which mostly has crappy souvenirs, but does have a weird little section at the back with real shrunken heads, two modern mummies (mummified by natural causes) and a fine selection of other animal and human freakage. I bought some very fun mummy and shrunken head floaty pens and took a few pictures. I then hiked up the hill to Pike's market. This is a very nice market with every imaginable food stuff and lots of crafty stuff to buy. I bought some amazing pears and raspberries that tasted like the were grown in the summer. I then went out of the market to the street and bought handmade cheese and fresh bread to make a proper feast. I decided to go home at this point so hiked back down the hill to my car and drove the 20 minutes back to my hotel.


Here are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1442624/

I went to my first Sharks game in two years tonight. I was so happy that hockey was back on after the last season being cancelled. When I lived in San Jose my friend Lita and I would go to up to 10 games a season, so I have been missing my Sharks.

The Sharks were playing the Minnesota Wild. The Sharks lost 3-1. Bummer. But I had a great time with my friend Lita and got out a lot of aggression yelling at the teams and cheering on the fights. We also had our great seats again (about 20 rows up from the penalty box on the lower level) So even though they lost I left the arena very happy.

GO SHARKS!

Here are some photos I took at the game:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1442487/

October 28 2005
Hot Hot Heat
Weezer
Foo Fighters

I have been a fan of the Foo Fighters for a long time now and have seen them twice, but only at festivals where they only played for a limited amount of time, so I was thrilled to hear that they were touring and would be literally right around the corner from where I live, at the Oakland Arena. I was also totally stoked to have floor tickets. I was less thrilled that they were on a double bill with Weezer. Don't get me wrong there are a few songs on each of their albums that I like, but as a whole they just don't do it for me. But I was willing to give them a chance to see the Foo Fighters.

First up were the Hot Hot Heat. We had seen them twice before as well at the same festivals that we had seen FF. They are always a lot of fun and have really catchy tunes. But the best part of this band is the lead singer's absolutely spectacular white man fro...Fabulous!

Ok, I will admit it....I actually enjoyed Weezer. I ain't going out and buying all their CD's or anything, but I did enjoy their live show and actually knew a lot more of their songs then I thought I did. But the best part of show was the last song when six strippers came out on stage and danced in their underwear with each letter of weezer's name across their chests. It was hilarious to see these buff naked men dancing in front of possibly the nerdyist band ever. Pure genius.

The Foo Fighters were even better than I remember. One thing I really love about this band is that they seem totally tireless. They almost never stopped playing for the full time they are on stage. They pretty much only stopped to change instruments, to let Dave and Taylor change places for a song and for Dave's hilarious rambling. In referring to the strippers he said the words "hot cock" about 20 times. You can never here those words too much. He also told the crowd that the best part of being in your thirties is that you can hold your Jeagermeister and have finally learned how to eat pussy. Oh my! I just felt sorry for anyone that had brought their teenagers to the concert thinking; "This band will be safe, they don't swear too much in their music." He also made the whole crowd say "Hi Mrs. Grohl!" to his wife who was sitting in the back of the floor seating area. They played all their oldies but goodies as well as songs off their new double album. They had a great stage set and made the show a lot of fun.

We had a great time, enjoyed all the music and it only took three days for me to be able to hear again!

While I was in Albany this last week I asked around for things to do in the afternoon after I was done at the clinic. A couple of people told me to go to Saratoga Springs, about 30 minutes away. That is were the famous race track is and they said it was a "quaint" town with "cute" shops. So, off I went. The drive was pretty, the trees are just starting to change but when I got to Saratoga Springs I realized that my idea or quaint and cute and different than most peoples. The town was nice but really yuppified. The main street was filled with Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer type stores. Not my style, I was expecting antique and coffee shops and the like. But the town did have a nice little historic park that I wandered around in and was nearly stampeded by ducks in when I went to take their picture.

Here are some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1205688/

My friend Row and I went for a little day trip out to wine country this weekend. First we went to Santa Rosa to a jem show and bought pretty shiny things and then we made our way to Sonoma to do some wine tasting and to enjoy the day. It was beautiful day and we had a great time. The first winery we went to had a free horse drawn tour that took us around the winery and explained their wine making process. We were on the tour with the most obnoxious group of people I have ever seen. They talked over the tour guide, made stupid jokes and were obviously drunk. But we managed to have fun anyway. We then went to another winery and did some tasting and then we headed off to the Mayo tasting room were they have an absolutely fabulous food/wine pairing. I was in heaven. Each bite sized meal had a wine that complimented it perfectly. It is truly amazing how the wine changed the taste of the food into a completely different experience. I was a little tipsy after the wine tasting so we went to get a coffee and then drove over the mountain to Napa and on to home. We had a great day and I will definitely be back to do the food/wine tasting again.

Here are some pictures from our day out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1205117/

I have been traveling to Albany NY for business.
Here are some sets of photos I have taken so far.

Here are some pictures of Chicago from the Air and from inside the airport(the toilet changed the seat cover automatically, except it hardly ever worked):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127235/

Here are some pictures of downtown Albany and the Hudson river:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127220/

Here are some nature pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127229/

And finally here are some fun "memory bricks" that line the pedestrian bridge from downtown to the Hudson River:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayitaazul/sets/1127203/

Enjoy!

I have the flu.

I went to Walgreens to get some drugs.

What I found is the worlds most evil cold medicine.

Be afraid, be very afraid....

The Crystal Method
Ruby Skye

I was totally exhausted from having just flown in that afternoon from New York and I considered not even going to this show. ( I had actually fallen asleep in the shower while getting ready for the show) But I am glad I decided to go after all.

Ruby Skye in an ultra cool club in San Francisco that caters to the dance music crowd. It is housed in an old theater that retains a lot of its old features but at the same time is a completely modern club. It was a great light system and good acoustics. There is a downstairs dance floor with two bars and the stage and an upstaires balcony area with another bar and the VIP section. They also have go-go dancers and my favorite, a girl that dances with a hoola-hoop that lights up. All I could think was that this place would totally rock if you were on ecstasy! We stayed mostly upstairs since you could see the stage better from up there and the fact that the downstairs was a bit (ok, more than a bit) of a meat market.

We got there at about 11pm and got some drinks before heading upstairs. There was a DJ playing that just OK, but we were anxious for the professionals to show how it should be done.

At about 12:30 The Crystal Method came on. Now, this was a DJ gig not them playing music off their CDs. I think some people were confused on this point and were a little disappointed. The guy next to us kept saying "that's not them...it doesn't sound like them." I tried to explain that it was a DJ gig, but I don't think he was convinced. I just had this vision of him marching downstairs and demanding his money back because he thought it wasn't The Crystal Method.

All I can say about these guys are 1) they are nerds, but who else besides nerds would stand behind turntables for probably 15 hours a day perfecting beats? 2) these guys are not two of the best DJs in the world for no reason! They had fantastic mixes and wall (and ass) shaking beats. I had to keep reminding myself that it was all live because it sounded so flawless. Someone might say; why pay to see a DJ..Aren't all DJs the same? Oh no, my friend, they are not. The first DJ of the night was a two year old's birthday clown to Crystal Methods Cirque-du-Soleil. Oh, Yeah...that different!

We left at 2:30 or so and it took us nearly an hour to get out of the city, but I was home by 3:30 and in bed by 4 am, a mere 22 hours after I had gotten up the day before...and it was well worth it!

Aqualung
The Great American Music Hall

Or as we now call it after realizing how much the inside of this place looks like the theater in the Muppet Show: The Great American Muppet Hall.

Every time I have seen this group it is slightly different. I have seen incarnations from just Matt Hales at an electric piano to a five piece band (once even with his wife singing) so it is definitely never the same show twice with these guys even if you are hearing the same songs (which I never get tired of by the way) This is a band on the low key side of the spectrum as far as music is concerned. Not that they are low key as people, there is always a lot of energy and Matt Hales is one of the funniest musicians I have ever seen. I think it also helps that he usually plays with his brother (Ben) so there is always good natured teasing between them. This show was the full band variety with Matt actually playing guitar in addition to the piano, which I had not seen before. In addition to all their great songs they ended the set with a totally kick ass rendition of Queen's Somebody to Love! Oh yeah!

The Bravery
The Fillmore

As I have said before I love the historic Fillmore theater. I have also said the bands that play here are thrilled to play here and show it. The lead singer of The Bravery confirmed this for me. Before they started he said how cool it was to be playing here. I believe his exact words were; "This is some historic shit!" Well said my friend, well said.

Now, when I talk to people about The Bravery, I usually get one of two responses; enthusiasm or ambivalence. I am not sure why this is, I think they are great...as long as you don't take them too seriously. They are a fun band to listen to and look at. I am not saying that they are the greatest band out there, not by a long shot. But I have found that people tend to be music snobs. They wont admit to liking a band unless the band is branded "cool" by the rest of the world. I am not a music snob. I like ALL kinds of music and many, many, many different bands within each genre. So there! ;)

This show was great fun and the crowd was most definitely enthusiastic! Everyone was singing at the top of their lungs and jumping around and being generally silly fans. The band interacted with the audience a lot (which is a big plus in my book) they were having as much fun as we were. I think the band comes off as very aloof and ultra cool, but they were gracious and a little dorky (another big plus) The lead singer even dedicated a song to his dad who was there at the show.

I was hoarse from singing to all the songs and all tired out from jumping around. The only disappointments were that the show was not long enough, though I don't know what I expected since they only have one album out and it is only 37 minutes long! And that I got caught taking pictures during the next to last song and security made my erase all the pictures on my camera, damn effective security!

I encourage anyone with a sense of humor and a sense of fun to see this band live. Long live faux-pretensious music!

Today I went to get my hair cut and then hit a few second hand shops. I always find cool/wierd/funny stuff when I go to these places. Here are a few of my finds from this trip. Enjoy!

Wicked
Orpheum Theater

My friend Row and I took our moms to see wicked this weekend.

To be honest I have not always been a big fan of musicals, I kind of think they are cheesy. So, maybe it is old age setting in, but they have started to grow on my the past few years.

I enjoyed this production mostly for the spectacular stage set up and the cirque-du-soleil-esque wardrobe. I still think the singing is a bit cheesy, but could get past that for the cool story. It did not hurt that the play was at the orpheum theater, which is absolutely beautiful.

Row said the musical was not very close to the book (which I have just started reading) and that they changed a lot of the story. But that is to be expected, it is not too easy to cram a whole book into a two hour production, and there is always "poetic license" taken when plays and movies are taken from books. It is more "inspired by" the book than based on it.

All in all we had a great time with our moms and a great dinner before the play at a restaurant in Berkeley called Seasalt. Even if you don't like musicals, this one was not half bad.

Holy shit! The world is falling to pieces!

Wars, genocide, hurricanes, typhoons, people falling of bridges, AIDS, malaria, hunger and a bunch of plane crashes.

Oh and on a personal rant... last year our "great" leader cut, by over 50%, money to the Army Corps of Engineers that would have been used on levee maintenance and reconstruction and hurricane preparedness (mostly because these funds cut into his Iraq war money). What a Dumb Ass! (But I bet you already knew that!)

If you want to help go here:

www.redcross.org
or here:
www.secondharvest.org
or here:
www.theglobalfund.org
or here:
www.one.org

I saw this sign in Walnut Creek, Ca and it made me laugh. My first thought was: Are the women still married?

(turns out it is a "men's only" legal office. Hmph.)

Coldplay
Shoreline amphitheater
August 19th 2005

Coldplay as a band is a bit deceptive. When you hear their music on the radio or on a CD it has a very laid back, smooth, quiet feel and sound to it. This is not what they are like live. I remember the first time I saw them live, I fell completely, head over heals in love, and I have stayed a fan ever since. I had heard some of their songs on MTV and on the radio and liked them, but seeing them live is a whole different animal. They rock 100 times harder, have 1,000 times the energy and the live shows are 10,000 times more passionate. If you think that their music is good, but lacks that rock edge, you will be really surprised by seeing them live. Even their live album didn't do their live shows justice, they are just one of those "you had to be there" bands. This is the 7th maybe 8th...oh, who the hell knows how many times I have seen them and I never get tired of them. I have remained in my honeymoon phase with this band. I will, however, admit that it took me some time to warm up their new album. We had seen them twice this year(once in LA and again at Coachella) and so heard a lot of their new stuff even before the CD came out, but it is hearing the CD in it's entirety that made me love it. It has a flow and rhythm that needs to heard as a whole. Of course I have my favorite songs, but each song compliments the next. I think another reason it took me a while to really get into this CD was that it had a different feel to it than their first two CDs. The other ones felt kind of like the were playing the songs for the first time. I don't mean unrehearsed or sloppy, just like they were sung from the heart, very spontaneous. This album has a more mature, electronic, produced feel to it. This concert had the same feel.

This was definitely the best media experience of any of the Coldplay concerts I have been to. They always have really great lighting that compliments each song, but this time they added a screen behind them as they played that showed images in addition to the different lighting for each song. This worked particularly well at the Shoreline since this venue has a large tent that covers the stage and first section of seats allowing the multi-media show to spill off the screens and onto the white tent.

One of the things I have always liked about seeing this band live is the feeling that these guys are just so fucking happy to be there. They always seem to be genuinely surprised that all these people showed up to see them and they try to interface with crowd as much as possible (at least Chris Martin does, the rest of the band usually leave the talking up to him.) Chris involves the audience in the songs and tries to get them closer and get closer to them. At one point inviting the people in the higher seats to come closer during the song "God put a smile on your face," which caused a scramble to the front clogging all the aisles. After the song security shooed everyone back to their seats, much to the disappointment of those that had come closer. Chris also made several trips into the audience to sing and get the crowd singing as well. They even like their audiences so much they turned off all the lights on the stage at one point, making it pitch black, so that the band could take pictures of the crowd. All you could see from the stage were flashes of light coming from their cameras.

They played a great set of songs, the only exception being the song "Speed of Sound." Chris kept forgetting the words and even the rest of the band didn't seem to be in synch for this one. This was strange considering that the rest of the songs they played were executed perfectly. They also sang the beautiful song "kingdom come" that they had written for Johnny Cash, along with a lovely rendition of "Ring of fire."
I am hoarse from singing every song and had a great time as I always do at their shows. My only complaint is that it was a short concert in contrast to other Coldplay shows I have been to. But a little Coldplay is better than no Coldplay at all!

Dave Matthews Band
SBC Park
August 13th 2005

The openers for this concert were Jem and The Black Eyed Peas. Unfortunately we hit really bad traffic on the bridge getting there so missed Jem as well as half of BEP. The Black Eyed Peas is a powerhouse group with more energy than four humans should have. They jumped, danced, sang and rapped there way through a booty shaking set of pure energy. I do have to say that Fergie has got an amazing set of pipes. I also like that they are so culturally diverse (one black guy, one Mexican guy, one Filipino guy and one white girl). They were a lot of fun and seriously got us in the concert mood.

Ok, so, I admit it, I have not yet bought the new Dave Matthews Band CD nor have I been listening to a lot of DMB recently. But, thankfully going to a DMB concert is like being welcomed back into the loving arms of old friends. I didn’t feel like I had been away from their music at all. It is seeing 5 old friends that love their music, each other and their fans, and their fans love them right back. Listening to DMB live is like listening to a series of perfectly crafted, brilliant gems of music seamlessly strung together until they become a beautiful stream of consciousness that washes over you like a rippling river over the rocks and each and every song is written just for you. That, my friends, is the live Dave Matthews Band experience. Tonight was no exception.

Or, it could have been the contact high I got from all the people smoking pot around us.

Naaaahhh…their music really is that good.

Want to see more photos from this concert? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/759020/

White Stripes
Greek Theatre
August 12th 2005

We saw the White Stripes a few years ago at a music festival, and while we really liked the music we had not exactly been overly impressed with their stage show or their energy. Maybe they were having an off night or they were not thrilled with being in the festival. All I can say is this show was very different. They were Fan-fucking-tastic! They absolutely blew me away. I cannot believe two people can make music that big. Even though the acoustics at the Greek are not the greatest, they filled every corner with their big, tight, perfectly arranged show. They moved smoothly from the hardest rock to the twangyist blues to the quirkiest of ballads. Jack White moved from one instrument to the next with a flair all his own. He played three different guitars, the piano, an electric mandolin and even the marimbas! His high pitched, wavering voice perfectly complimenting the intense soul wrenching lyrics and ground shaking rock and blues. I can’t believe someone that young (and pale) can play the blues like that. I could feel it all the way to my bones. This man was made to perform and Meg kept perfect beat to compliment every note. This band is definitely going on the permanent must see concert list. Wow, wow, wow. If you have a chance see they live, you will not regret it!

Want to see more photos from this concert? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/758944/

Howie Day
Fillmore
August 11th 2005


First I want to say something about the Fillmore. This is my very favorite venue to see a band. It is positively dripping with history and the bands that play there seem to feel privileged to do so and play accordingly. That gives the place a great vibe that can’t be found anywhere else. It also has amazing acoustics, the strongest drinks of any club I have ever been to and to top it all off, if you are lucky, you get there on a night that they are giving away free posters for the band you are seeing. Oh yeah, this place is a class act all the way.

Now on to the bands…

There were two openers:

First up was Missy Higgins. She is from Australia and plays sort of folksy, rocky stuff. It is just her playing the electric piano and another guy playing the guitar. Between each song she would tell the audience what the song was about and what prompted her to write it. It was kind of like VH1’s Storytellers – Just with someone you had never heard of.


Anna Nalick was up next. I was not impressed. She seemed to be trying way to hard and came off as over rehearsed and under talented. She sounded like Avril Lavigne trying to do an impressing of Fiona Apple. Just without Avril’s popularity and Fiona’s clever lyrics or charismatic weirdness. Whatever…Next….


The headliner was Howie Day. Oh, the sweet, popy goodness! Fun personal lyrics, good band and all the spiky hair you could ever want. He bantered with the audience and made the show a lot of fun to watch and participate in. At one point he told a lady in the front that repeatedly asked for the same song (Collide); “I remember my first beer too.” And later after she had screamed the name of the song at ever point she could he told her; “When you only have one hit you will eventually play it, so don’t worry, I’ll play the fucking song!”

He did a great cover of Crowded House’s "Don’t Dream, It’s Over", part of "Hey Jude" and even a few bars of Toto’s "Africa." Can you get better that that? I had a great time and left the show one happy camper.

San Antonio Texas

I just spent a month in San Antonio working. Let's just say I am glad to be home. Not that San Antonio is that bad of a city, it actually has some very pretty parts and for the most part it was not a bad experience. I visited the Alamo (which is smaller than I thought it would be and gave me the urge to yell out "where's the basement?") and walked along the river walk. The river walk is basically the stretch of the San Antonio river that flows through downtown and is built with a walking area on either side and lots of restaurants and a few hotels along the walkway. It is all very well done and is a tourist magnet for the city. There was also some good shopping in the area to be had as well. The place I did most of my shopping was the area called the "Mercado"(the market). It was an area of shops that sold mostly Mexican handicrafts interdispiredwith reasturants. Closer to down town was an area called "El Villita" (the village, for all you non Spanish speakers out there) it was more high end than the Mercado and was a small collection of local artists and craftspeople all set up in a historic grouping of houses.

The place I spent most of my time in San Antonio though was at the clinic were I was working. The clinic was located in the "medical area" of the city that had most of the hospitals and specialized clinics. The building where we were was a actually an old psych ward. And believe me I felt like I was right at home. The coordinators that was were working with actually had there desks right in front of the old "rubber rooms." I got to go in one and see what it was like. I can tell you it is not at all like the movies that show an all white tufted padded cell. They are actually really hard rubber walls with only a skylight for light and a drain in floor for, well, you know. They are now being used for storage. I was told all kinds of stories from the staff about the place being haunted. I can tell you it would be scary enough to see a ghost, but to see a crazy person's ghost would scare the bejesus out of me. The only weird experience I had there was in the bathroom of the office I was using (that used to the one of the rooms the patients slept in) the bathroom always smelt like flowers and even if I shut the door firmly, it would always be open again (sometimes with the trash can in front of the open door) if I left the room. Hmmm..odd.

Ok now for the bad news about San Antonio; it was hotter than Hell and so humid I couldn't wear my glasses outside or they would fog up. There were also sudden thunderstorms the caused flooding and frequent lightning strikes. Nice to look at from inside but a bitch to be caught out in. There was also the matter of the a certain type of Texan. For the most part they were very polite southern folks and it was fun to hear "y'all" all the time. BUT the other Texan was the Bush loving, war cheering, flag waving kind that really pissed me off and made me long for home where these people are in the minority.

So, there you go, a month of my life in the middle of Texas.

Yee Haw!

So Long Y'all!

Want to see more photos from this trip? Click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/759139/

BFD

June 10th 2005

Tina and I went to BFD two years ago and had a great time, so we thought, “hey why not try it again.” The headliner was one of our favorite bands, The Foo Fighters (and one that has not toured a lot in the past few years). Who by the way was the main reason we went to BFD the first time in 2003 as they were headlining then too. There were not as many bands that we absolutely had to see this time around, but we figured that we would catch a few new bands and hear some new stuff from older bands. The only two bands that we both really wanted to see were the Foo Fighters, of course, and The Bravery. A newer band that we were both hooked on.

We arrived at Shoreline ampetheater at about 12:30 and walked around a bit to get a sense of where things were, we also checked out the stalls selling t-shirts and decided what we wanted to buy later. We then headed for the “Café” area to get a beer. We situated ourselves behind the Live 105 booth and watched all the fans wait for the bands to show up and give interviews. We stayed there for about an hour or so watching the fans and bands interact. The only band either one of us recognized was the Kaiser Chiefs and that was only because Tina had seen them on TV a few days before. See, what you have to realize is that we are actually pretty old compared to the majority of the crowd at these kinds of events and so we are not up to speed on a lot of the newer bands that are out there. But that is one of the reasons we like these things, we get exposed to new music that we might not hear from our “Old Fogy” friends. (Just kidding about the old fogy friends, but not about the new music.)

After we finished our beers we headed to Stages A and B that were in the parking lot area of the ampetheater were all the smaller, or I should say less well know, bands were playing. The stages were set up side by side so that while one band is playing the next band can be setting up, making it so that the crowd just had to shift a few hundred feet from one side to the other to see the bands as they started. We positioned ourselves in front of stage B because all the bands we were most interested in seeing were on this stage. First up, on stage A, when we arrived was the Kaiser Chiefs, I had only heard one song of there’s, but from the one song I was expecting good things. Tina had told me that she really liked them, and I usually trust her judgment (the one exception being John Mayer, who she likes and who I think is complete rubbish.) We were not disappointed. They rocked through a short but sweet set and were entertaining to boot. They are one of what I call the “nuevo eighties” type bands that are hot at the moment they were wearing the requeset attire: jeans and a slightly eightiesish men’s jackets, the lead singer was even wearing a neckchief . Classic nuevo eighties! At one point the lead singer went out into the crowd and sang, loosing his mic in the process and having to sing from the mic of the guitarist until it could be retrieved from the crowd by a roady. At another point he climbed the metal supports on the stage and sang from there, the crowd liked that one a lot.

Next on Stage B was Ash; we had seen them a few years earlier when they opened for Coldplay at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. I had liked them then, but they were a lot more “popy” back then, so I wasn’t a huge fan (not that I have anything against Pop, I own a great assortment of it including one NSYNC cd, but don’t tell anyone!) It just seemed at the time they were trying to be a hard rock band that was only able to make Poprock. Times have changed. They rocked, and hard! It doesn’t hurt that I have a soft spot for Irish bands. They told us that on the way to the Bay Area, not one, but two tour buses had caught fire so they had come in cars without their equipment. So they thanked The Bravery for letting them use their equipment. Thanks Bravery for letting us hear Ash! They played a straight ahead rock set with out a lot of pretence or theatrics. Very nice. I will be buying their album this time.

Back on Stage A was Lyrics Born; they are a rap/rock group that I wasn’t very impressed with. I am usually a fan of Rock/Rap fusion but it just didn’t work for me this time. The crowd took a little time to warm up to them after coming off the hard rock high of Ash but eventually got into the mood and were jamming right along with the band. I did enjoy the first and last songs they played. The last song was one that I had heard before in a commercial. It is the one with Adrian Brody cruising a around drinking a Pepsi. That tune is pretty catchy and was the only really commercial (get it, commercial song…oh I kill me) song they did, they rest were pretty raw.

Finally the first band of the day we had come to see. The Bravery. I had bought their CD and we had seen them a month before at Coachella and had thought they were great. Another “Nuevo eighties” band that tended towards the punk look more than the new wave look. I was taken off guard by how much everyone else there liked them as well. As they came out and started up the first song the crowd lost it and started pushing to the front. We were trapped in a writhing mass of bodies all swaying, jumping and signing at the top of their lungs. A small mosh pit formed as well as the usual crowd surfing and general pushing and shoving that happens with this many people in one place. Besides almost losing my flip flops a few times I managed to survive. Sam Endicott, the lead singer made his own trip out to audience and was swept along with the crowd until he managed to make it back to the front and back onto the stage. He then dedicated the next song (No Brakes) “to the chick that just full on grabbed my balls.” They played a good, hot, sweaty, but too short for my liking, set and finished out with my favorite song of theirs (Fearless). We were dusty, hot and a little jostled at this point (did I mention we’re old?) so we decided to duck out on the next band and get something to drink.

We came back for the last few songs of the Hot Hot Heat set but were still to traumatized by the crowd to get too close. We watched them from up the hill and except for the fact that from where we were situated a tree was blocking exactly were the lead singer had his keyboard set up, we liked them. We had also seen them two years prior at this same festival. After their last song we decided to go to our seats at the main stage and kick back until the bands started there.

Main Stage-
At Shoreline we normally try to get seating for concerts and only get lawn seating if we absolutely have to (like we had to for Radiohead since they sold out in like 3 seconds) and this time was no exception. But we had never had seats this close before. We were in section 101 about 15 rows up from the stage. We had a great view of the stage from slightly to the right.

The first band up was The Lovemakers, a local band from Oakland. Neither of us had ever heard of them, and after hearing that their first album doesn’t come out until August, I guess I know why. This group had an interesting set up. They had two lead singers, one male one female. They played a kind of mix of alternative rock, synth pop. The songs I liked the most were the ones were the female lead singer played the electric violin. The one slightly weird moment was when the two lead singers started making out on stage. I just remember turning to my friend and saying; “I hope those two are actually dating.” The best thing about this band was their t-shirts that say “Oakland is for Lovemakers” with a pink heart. Oh yeah, I bought one of those.

Ok, You know that there are bands that everyone raves about and that you just can’t get into? I call them the bands I should love, but don’t. Well, Kasabian is one of those bands. They are one of those new style seventies rock bands. They were fine, I guess. I just can’t make myself get into them. Oh well.

Next up was Jimmy Eat World….See my thoughts on Kasabian. Enough said.

I have never been a huge fan of punk music, I like it, but I have never bought a lot of it or listened to it a great length. I own “Never Mind the Buzzcocks” and that is about it. I liked Social Distortion, who was next, even though I only knew about three of their songs. It is always interesting to see a band that has been around along time and were very antiestablishment and now are older and most likely family guys, but are still playing the same antiestablishment music. It is a study in the movement of time.

During the time we were waiting for the Foo fighters to come on we had noticed that every once in a while people from the crowd were going up to a guy about 4 rows in front of us and to a group of guys sitting in the row right behind us and were asking for autographs and pictures, I would like to say I knew who these people were, but I would be lying. But it was fun to see all the excited teenagers with their cameras and awkward approaches to these guys that were not too much older than they were.

Finally! The Foo Fighters were up next!
All I can say is the Foo were as great as I remember them form the last time I saw them. They played all the oldies but goodies and a lot of their new stuff from their upcoming album. At one point Dave went out in to the audience to play to the lawn. He made his way through the screaming crowd to the top of the reserved area and played a song and while he was there posed for a few pictures and drank a lady’s beer (which he thanked her for once he got back on stage.) But the ultimate high light of the foo experience was when Dave announced that the drummer Taylor was going to sing a song for us. I thought; cool we get to hear him sing and hear Dave play drums. But NO! Taylor spoke to the crowd and told them that his favorite drummer, besides Dave, was Stewart Copeland from the Police and that he had been hanging out with them on their tour a bit and that he happened to be here and would be playing the drums. What? I almost peed my pants! This was great! I love the police and though you can still see Sting touring around, you don’t get to hear Stewart Copeland play very often. I was thrilled. He still rocked and that just set the crowd off screaming again. The only bummer was that our camera had run out of batteries about three song prior, so we didn’t get a picture on him playing. The night ended on that high not and we were not disappointed by this year’s festival. This is one festival that we will probably go to again.


Want to see more photos of this festival? Click here: http://flickr.com/photos/50208355@N00/sets/758776/

Coachella
Indio Polo Fields
April 30 and May 1 2005

This is one of the premier music festivals in the US of A. I have wanted to go for a few years and for various reasons have not made it out to lovely, sunny Indio for the event. I was particularly bummed last year when Radiohead was playing and yet again I wasn't able to go. This year I was going to get off my lazy ass and finally get there. I talked my friend Tina into going (though, to be honest, it never takes much to convince her to go on a road trip.)

We left Friday night and flew from our hometown airport (Oakland) and arrived in Ontario, Ca at around 8pm. We picked up our rental car and drove to Palm Desert were we had reserved a condo in a gated community. After getting lost a few times we got to our place and settled in. It was a two bed; two bath condo that was rented out to people like us and it was really nice. I am long past the years of roughing it and to be honest why would I want to if I can afford not to. You know?

The next morning we set off about noon and made our way to the venue in Indio.

Here's the thing about these festivals; When you get the lineup of all the bands you joyously highlight all the bands you are going to see. Then you get there and realize that there is five tents all going at the same time and you have to seriously cut down on the number of bands you can actually see. Also there is the heat and standing for hours and hours that make it impossible to see everything you want to see. From a line up of about 50 bands we ended up seeing about a dozen. But that is still a shit load of music over two days.

DAY 1


After parking, we walked what felt like a mile in the heat to get to the entrance of the polo field. Of course, I forgot to bring water so I thought I was going to die of heat stroke. Did I mention it was hot? Once we got to the entrance we had to stand in a seriously unorganized line and nearly sweated to death before we final made it inside to get into the polo fields. I was impressed with the lay out and the laid back vibe of the festival. All the tents were spread around the field and there was art, food and shopping as well. What more could you want?

Jaime Cullem

We had missed half his set from standing in line so long but he put on a good jazz/rock/pop show and had the crowd grooving right along with him. I was really impressed by this young guy's mature music.


Stereophonics

We heard rather than saw this band for about half of their set. The tent they were in was so packed we were relegated to the grassy area outside. We took this as a sign that we should sit down and relax for a bit, which we did.

Cafe Tacuba

During the 90's I was really into Rock en Espanol and though I don't listen to it as often as I used to I still have my favorite bands that I always try to go see live. This is one of those bands. They have so much energy and some of the best hooks out there in any language. Even Tina, who doesn't speak Spanish, likes them and has seen them twice with me. I had a great time singing along to all their old hits and rocking out to the new stuff.

Snow Patrol

This band is from Ireland by way of Scotland. They are a good, solid rock band that is more on the softer side of rock, sort of a slightly harder Coldplay. Good music that is fun to listen to.

Keane

This is one of my favorite bands right now. The music is smooth, the lyrics are personal and Tom Chaplin's voice is beautiful. This was the third time I had seem them live and they have become more confident and dynamic every time I have seen them.

Bauhaus

Goths rejoice, Bauhaus is on! I loved this band in the eighties and was happy to hear they were playing. You cannot get more entertaining that Peter Murphy with his wild white hair and fabulous stage presence. The highlight of the show was Murphy hanging upside down, swaddled in midnight blue satin material, singing the opening to "Bela Lugosi's Dead." Sweet!

Coldplay

We have seen this group way too many times to mention so decided to let others take up the front and headed to the back of the concert area to find a nice comfy spot on the grass. As always they put on a great show with all the hits and some of the new stuff coming out on their new album. We were exhausted and our feet hurt like hell, but this was the perfect ending to a great day.

DAY 2

We decided to take it a little easer this day to make up for the long haul the day before and since the first band we really wanted to see was not on until after five we didn't get to the polo fields until a little after four pm.

The Bravery

We had been listening to this band's CD a lot since it came out so we were pretty excited to hear them live at last. We were not disappointed. They played great eighties inspired rock with the perfect pop sensibility. They were fun to watch too with their post-punk look and a perfectly practiced "we couldn't care less/ our life sucks" attitude. Fun stuff.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon shopping and just hanging out. We had a great time people watching. Actually it was more tattoo/t-shirt watching. I think our favorite t-shirt of the day was a guy with a brown t-shirt with yellow lettering that just said "Your Retarded" We were saying that to each other for weeks after that. (a typical exchange would be: Person A says something stupid. Person B says "Your retarded, y-o-u-r"


In the Evening we headed over to the main stage to see the headliners.

Gang of Four

To be honest I didn't listen to these guys very much originally, so I didn't know too many of their songs. But we still enjoyed the music and sang along with the few songs we did know.

New Order

Another eighties band that I was a big fan of. They played all the classics (as well as some Joy Division songs) as well as new songs off of "Siren Song." The performance was only slightly dampened by the fact that lead singer Bernard Sumner was hobbling around on a soar foot and as a result was a little cranky.

Nine Inch Nails

30 thousand people straining to get closer to the stage. 30 thousand people singing every lyric. 30 thousand people screaming, jostling, and jumping to the best industrial rock band ever. I was smashed, hot, my feet hurt and I could barely see the stage...but who cares it was the best show of the whole weekend and one of the best sounding shows I had ever seen. I have officially been converted to the church of Trent Reznor. Hallelujah!!!

After Nine Inch Nails most of the crowd left and so did we, tired and deliriously happy. This weekend was a rousing success for us and we will definitely try to came again next year. You can't get better than great music, a relaxed vibe and a weekend with your best friend.