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Verbosity...| | I suppose I should update this thing more frequently instead of doing it all in one go. more regular basis. And I guess it's good because it consolidates things, so you just get the outcomes instead of having to read it as I'm going through it. Then again, thoughts at a particular point in time are also of certain value. But I guess the past few months have been pretty hectic and have prevented me from doing it on a regular basis, so I'll bring this up to date. But only from Coachella to June because I'm doing this before going out to a friend's going away party.
LATE APRIL
I went to Coachella. It was pretty amazing, mainly because of Jarvis Cocker, The Good The Bad and The Queen, and several other bands that I really wanted to see. I took the Friday off to do it, and Scott and Kim drove down from Northern California to go. I ended up knowing a lot of different groups out there. Susie from Berkeley with several friends also went, as did my friend Wendy from UCLA. I also ended up running into Ian, Meriza, and their friends, as well as another old acquaintance from Berkeley, Melissa Tom, who worked at Tower Records across the street from my old apartment. It turned out that Cheryl, Sung, and Bryan also were there too. It was pretty intense. As was the heat. But again, totally worth it. To recap....
On the first day, I didn't get to see Interpol because it was on the main stage at the same time that Jarvis Cocker was on. Considering I've seen Interpol live before (you're not missing much...they just stand there), and how influential Pulp/Jarvis Cocker was to my musical tastes, it was no contest - Jarvis Cocker wins. It was a little bad because it was a festival set, but Coachella was his "LA" tour date, so there was no other opportunity to see him. Bjork was pretty cool too - there was some device that manipulated her vocal tracks between the microphone and the speakers. Aside from that, Arctic Monkeys were also surprising. I say that because, despite the buzz around that band from before, I was never really into them. I have to say that their live show totally won me over, and I really need to pick up both their albums. Jesus and Mary Chain were good, but they just seemed tired and old. Sadly, it made me want to see BRMC. haha. That'd be like going to a Beatles concert (obviously not possible, but hypothetically, of course) and wanting to see Oasis.
On the second day, we got there after having lunch in Palm Springs. I was debating between Fountains of Wayne and the Fratellis, but opted for the latter, since Brit bands tend not to tour, and I've seen the Fountains of Wayne several times, while I've never seen the Fratellis. They were pretty fun. After that, I headed over to the beer garden for some shade (didn't have any alcohol during the entire event...needed to stay hydrated). After keeping cool for a little, I headed over to the main stage to catch Travis, and stay through the Arcade Fire, moving closer and closer. Travis was pretty great. Watching them play reminded me of so many memories watching them play outside (them opening for Dido, them playing Golden Gate Park, them playing the Metreon, etc) in the 2000-2002 era. Such good memories (unlike 12 memories). After Travis were the Kings of Leon, which were ok, but the crowd was getting increasingly rowdy. By the time the Arcade Fire was on, I was about 20 feet back from the front of the stage, but had to get out after three songs because the pit was just too intense. The Red Hot Chili Peppers were on immediately after the Arcade Fire, so all those ass-head fans were up in our business saying things like - "hey, you like that stupid accordion band! haha!" It was pretty lame. I saw them from afar, but figured I'd head up to Berkeley to see them anyway, so I opted out. After the Arcade Fire, I headed over to catch Blonde Redhead, LCD Soundsystem, and the Gotan Project in waiting for The Good The Bad and The Queen. I made it to the front of the barrier for the last band. It was pretty amazing. I've never seen anyone play bass like Paul Simonin. He holds it like a shotgun, with each pluck a pull of the trigger. Damon was pretty subdued compared to me watching him in Blur, but I guess that happens with age. Plus, the songs aren't as active anyway. Because of that, I have to say Jarvis was way better, and way more engaging of the audience. Particularly with the sing-along during "Running the World."
The last day of Coachella, security was stepped up because of the "RAGE" virus that was sweeping the audience, and the "Battle of Coachella." Not being a huge rage fan, and having work at 7AM the next day, I opted to only catch a few songs before heading off. I have no idea who won the battle; I draft-dodged to my car. Earlier, I saw the last few songs of the Kooks, then headed over to the side stage outside to see Against Me! from the back, while slowly moving forward to get to the front for the Kaiser Chiefs. The efforts paid off, and I was up about 5 people from the front. The Kaiser Chiefs put on a pretty great live show, with lots of jumping around, and pomposity. I like it when Ricky Wilson shouted, "We are the world famous Kaiser Chiefs! Not everyone has heard of the world famous Kaiser Chiefs!" After that, I saw some of Placebo and then moved to the main stage for the Crowded House reunion. I'm not the biggest Crowded House fan, but I figured if they were reuniting, it'd be worth seeing. It was a little sad though - when they played "Don't Dream it's Over," either they really did have mic problems, or they were trying to play it off as a botched "sing-along" where people forgot the words after "hey now, hey now don't dream it's over." Either way, it looked really bad. Then I headed back to the side stage for Air who went on really late, and only played 45 minutes despite having a later time slot. But that was ok, because then I ran over one of the rave tents to see the Happy Mondays before heading off. All in all, a great weekend. I went to work like a zombie the next day, but it was totally worth it.
Photos later - I don't have time to upload anything right off.
MAY
The month of May was pretty busy too. I ended up in Alabama for work to tour the factory facilities of where we manufacture/ship our DVDs from. Aside from that, I also moved out of the apartment to a condo my parents purchased for investment property. It's pretty nice. I have to start looking for roommates pretty soon. The move out was kind of intense at the end with the move-in date continuing to be pushed back. I finally moved in during the first week of June, and have since been acquiring the various things needed for a proper apartment that I didn't have before because I lived with roommates.
JUNE
The first weekend of June, I went up to Berkeley to see the Arcade Fire with a bunch of friends. Talking to Ian and Meriza at Coachella, I figured out that they were also going to the Berkeley Greek Theater concert, so I planned to meet up with them. My friend Nelson also went up, and so did Andrea, Andrea's boyfriend Dan, and Andrea's roommate Jessica, who I also found out was running the San Francisco Marathon as well. After getting back, I also saw the Kaiser Chiefs at the Henry Fonda Theater, which was also great because it was a full set. And lastly of note, I saw the Pipettes who are just awesome - cute British girls from Brighton singing catchy Phil Spectre 1960's wall-of-sound girl pop.
Aside from the concerts, I also felt overwhelmed because or my leisure time. Specifically, outside of work, I was trying to juggle three major things - being social, marathon training, and setting up the apartment. Because the marathon was coming up, and could potentially injure me without proper training, I opted to focus more on that, and just do the others if time permitted. After that decision, I ended up increasing my miles to 18 by the end of June. My time for that was still pretty decent - about 2 hours and 45 minutes. I was also relatively social, and got a few things of the apartment done. Things got much easier to manage in July after I tapered off of my distance running to go back to maintenance runs.
More to come for the month of July, and photos, on another date. I'm off to see my old supervisor from my temping days off. He's leaving for Ohio to start school for physical therapy or dentistry (he hasn't decided completely yet).
P.S. - this is coming off of just memory. I may end up looking through my planner from work (where I also write down personal stuff too), to add to this if I've forgotten anything major, so check back evrey once in a while. This is just a preliminary update since I haven't done it for so long.
| | | Posted 8/25/2007 10:03 PM - 21 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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