What is up in my world

A lot of stuff, actually. I've been very busy lately.

CONCERTS:
I went to CSS this past Sunday with Ruthie, Marissa, & Ethan. It was great fun. I got a call at 5pm from Ruthie asking if I wanted to join the trio on their excursion because they had an extra ticket. I was pretty tired, but given that, I still managed to dance my socks off. CSS has great energy and put on a great show. The lead singer wore 3 layers of clothing, but I only remember 2: an elaborate sequins unitard, which she shed to then expose a more fitting, shiny unitard underneath. I felt like I was at a kids' concert for grownups. Like I said, it was great.

The White Stripes are coming to town - San Diego & Inglewood - in September, so I've got to remember to buy tickets for that. I'm not going to disclose what date the tickets go on sale, in an attempt to preserve my chances at securing a pair for myself. HA!

The Reverend Horton Heat are coming to Long Beach in July and I'm torn about the situation; I was very excited to see them in concert yet again, but then I found out they are only playing a set at an annual convention on the Queen Mary. BUT it's a TATTOO convention, which also sounds like great fun. Point is: I'm going either way (I just wish they were playing a full show).

FUN:
Lats night Josh and I bottled his second round of home brew beer, so if you're a local friend, get excited!! Thus far, the lukewarm un-carbonated product tastes great! I'm very excited for two weeks from now.

I'm going to an art exhibit with Marissa tonight. I'm actually really excited that she has (unintentionally) been motivating me to be more active in the realm of arts. I haven't actually started painting or drawing again recently, but I think frequenting exhibits definitely gives inspiration, so thank you for that, Marissa!

I'm so excited to go to Boulder next week!! Yep, the gals are having a Colorado reunion. It will be me, Emily, Karen, Kate, Megan, Kelly, Kirby, & Betsy. So so so excited. I'll be there from 6/20-6/24, if anyone is still in town and wants to meet up. It's been over a year since I went back to visit and I'm having withdrawals. But it's going to be a little different this time. See, very few of our college crew still live there, so it's not like I'll be going back to have fun reliving the college days. No, I'll be back there getting an entirely different experience than I've ever had in Boulder. We're staying at a hotel, as opposed to a familiar house. We'll be getting spa treatments, as opposed to walking around campus. We're going back as adults!! But hey, it's still Boulder - beautiful Colorado. I can't wait to be up in the mountains, breathing the fresh air, seeing those white billowing clouds, and feeling the bright sun, sans smog. Plus, we will still be frequenting the same old spots: happy hours, lunches, and dinners at The Mountain Sun, pool at the Downer (Sun Down Saloon, for those of you who aren't familiar), The Attic, or The Pub (and also for some great jukebox action), Emily and Megan's birthday dinner at The Med(iterranean), Haricovert and cocktails at the Brasserie Ten Ten, roof top cocktails at K's China. We'll have our mountain hikes and sunbathing at the usual spots high above gorgeous canyons - oh my god, I am SO EXCITED!!! (Albeit that Jon won't be there and I'm really sad I don't get to hang with him. Mad love, homey... expect a sip on the concrete.)

BUSINESS:
Emily and I are currently apartment hunting!! This will be fun eventually, but right now the process of actually finding a place - all the calls and visits and numbers - just really feels like business. I am finally moving out of my dad's place. It's been almost a year and a half since I moved back from Colorado and I really should have saved more money during this period of not paying rent. See, I'm never really in money trouble, but I just have a problem saving for the possibility of something undetermined. Basically I need a goal for which to be saving, in order to really save any substantial amount. I didn't have set date or plan for when I wanted to move out, this opportunity just sort of came up, so I could have planned a lot better I think. Either way, I'm psyched to get my own place. I feel like I haven't had a home for the past year. I feel as though I'm a guest in my father's house, so I only stay there about once every 2 weeks. Josh's house is great, but I'm starting to feel as though I've overstayed my welcome with the roommates. It'll be refreshing to move out and get my life in order. I just want to find some place great, and the hunt is really daunting.


So that's what's up with me. This weekend I have Father's Day boat rides to attend and brunches to make, yet still no gift ideas. Any suggestions?

Culver City Art Walk

I've been pretty active the past week or so, which has felt really good. I already wrote about the ARcade Fire concert, being that that activity completely warrants its own entry.

So, this weekend...

Karen and I started Friday night by eating at my favorite sushi place, which I've been going to since fifth grade with my dad: Noshi Sushi! It's very authentic; no frilly & elaborate Americanized rolls (the closest they come is the California Roll, which is standard now anyway). They have the freshest, tastiest raw fish I've ever engorged. Yum. I could eat there everyday (but that would get pricey). However, their sake carafes are only $3, and beer, only $2.50.

Next we headed to an art exhibit opening enitled "Happy Squirter" at , for artist "Buff Monster". The opening was in honor of (and timed with) the Culver City Art Walk, which took place the next day. The painting there were good; there were elements I liked, like use of waves of water droplets in every picture, but all in all, not really my style. I couldn't see these paintings matching with anything inside my house (when I get one). They had an opening bar and were serving Stone Pale Ale and Arrogant Bastard(!! - though unfortunately the latter's supply was expended by the time I got there). Open bar is ALWAYS great, and even better when they are serving good beer. In fact, I was so excited over the beer that I didn't even explore what type of Vodka they were using for martinis - I really could have scored! We also ran into some friends there, so that's always fun.

Then we headed to Karen's new favorite bar for some pool playing and debauchery.

Then, Saturday, Marissa and I... I saved this draft and never finished the entry, but it is now a week old... went to the Culver City Art Walk, after going to a sample jewelry sale in Santa Monica. The art walk was great. We first spent about 3 hours at the Museum of Jurassic Technology (aka Museum of Oddities). It was fascinating in the more obscure and strange way. I will most likely devote a blog entry to it, so expect that. Then we visited a few more galleries, including the Tim Biskup exhibit. This was the one that Marissa had been wanting to see, and I'm glad it was on her list. I really enjoyed his work. Unfortunately the prices were a bit out of my range, so I only got to admire them there.

I was going to write in detail about everywhere we went, but i let to much time pass before I revisited this entry. I do that a lot: get excited to write about certain things but then never have time to finish the blog in the detail that I want to, so the subject matter just sort of fizzles out. Hopefully I'll get a system down (it's all about having a system, huh Josh?). Ok, tata.

Kids are swingin from the power lines

I saw Arcade Fire at The Greek on Wednesday night. It was phenomenal. They were fantastic. Josh and I had seats in section A, row J... which is very close. Where's J in the alphabet? About 13? I just counted - it's 10. So we were 10 rows back from the very tiny 'pit'. I think a shard of guitar wood hit me in the chaos of instrument demolition. They put on such an amazing show and give off such a great energy. (To be said with a German accent:) Zey're so passionate, no? (I don't know why, just because. Probably because it's a cheesy sounding statement.) Things that make Arcade Fire a superb live band: 1) like I said, they're energy - they are all constantly jumping and dancing around, like the devil said, "play music like you mean it or it's your life!" and thy have no choice but to rune around like madmen with their instruments. Well that's just the men in the group who do play so ferociously. The women just dance really exuberantly, with occasional thrashing. Okay, so 2) the fact that there are so many member in the band. There are 10 (I believe) and they seem more like an orchestra than the traditional rock band. That many players just adds to the energy. 3) Most of them repeatedly swap instruments. This probably should be listed as number one, as far as qualifying factors of a great band go. Violinists and brass players stay on their instruments (although I'm sure the brass players switch it up), but everyone else jumps around from guitars to organ to piano to drums to xylophone to accordion to hurdy-gurdy (yes, I looked up what that cranking instrument is called). There were at least 3 different people on the organ throughout the night. Yes, I could just go on and on about how absolutely fantastic Arcade Fire is. OH! And Win, the lead singer, ran throughout the audience during the encore break, all the way up to the back of rows. And they called him down, Price is Right style, because they had gone to a taping that day and were pumped on the show (talked about it between songs and "Richard" was still wearing his over-sized name tag).

Phew, that was long. So,Dance Right Last night. Ryan Gosling is now a regular and I feel the need to hide my face whenever I notice him. Because you know, professing my crush on him was something I did under the assumption that I'd never see him again. Not that he'd remember, but still. I'm awkward like that. Right Marissa? ;) ("Right").