"I'm spinning round the room in awe" ryan adams

Friday, November 14, 2003

"sit back and relax and inhale the next drink"

Thursdays are always long, but often times an upcoming fun weekend gets me through.
I worked open to close, then the crew hit up the East End to support Marlon Spike. Pregaming happened at my place then walked in the blustery tundra to the EE. If you are a regular to my journal, you will know that I think the EE is one of the happiest places on Earth. Along with Wawa. Totally blows Disney out.
If we weren't already drunk, we definitely pushed our limits there. Marlon Spike put on a really awesome show and a highlight was the good times we had in the audience. It was a massive group of us who were just spread out at the bar - hopefully the pictures come out. They definitely showed the East End how its done.
We're all hanging out after when Chris announced that we're all partying at my place. Fine by me haha. So there was seriously just a mass of people going from the EE to Rainbow. I rode with Oliver and we stole Tanya and halfway there Dan lept onto Oliver's and my lap while driving. Get to my place and mass quantities of liquor and beer and malt beverages were consumed. Trying to remember this days later is a bit hazy, it was just impromtu and crazy. Its always great to reminisce, talk about music, and be foolishly inebriated. We crashed around 5:30am. Yowzers, work in the morning!

six performances in two hours

So the girls round up and we head to Bryn Mawr to the Point. I love the Point; it used to be my premiere venue and now I don't go there nearly enough. I guess when you try to go to fifteen different venues a month, its hard to squeeze the favorites in. It was a Songwriters Circle featuring Rich Price, Ryan Montbleau, Tyler Hilton, and Julia Othmer. The four of them were on stage and rotated, performing one song each time. Aurora, Tessa, and I had seen Rich Price before, a few months ago at The Saint with Green to Think and Graham Colton. Ryan Montbleau blew us away. He held his own style and emitted such talent. Very blues influenced and though I do enjoy the "crooning singer songwriter genre", Ryan offered something a bit more refreshing. If I wasn't so damn tired, I would write more. Tyler Hilton was also a very good performer. Unfortunately we didn't get to see more of the set than a few songs, but its always good to find new ones. We also ran into Mackenzie, Ari Hest's merch girl who we all met in DC who goes to UD. Very sweet girl, and just like us, so if you see her, say hi!
We left to grab some food at Peace a Pizza - NOT as good as ours - then get gas and coffee. Bipin was the man of the hours since that's about how long it took him at the gas station. Bipin!! We have places to go!
We get to Kahuna to see Jealousy Curve's last song and all of the Omnisoul set. Good show, but still didn't beat the passion that was at the East End the other week. They are such a talented band and they keep getting stronger. Great things to come hopefully sooner than later. Get home around 2 am and spent a few hours doing laundry since my washer machine exploded a few hours earlier and listened to some new music. Stupid insomnia and work in the AM.

Thursday, November 13, 2003

change of plans

If you read the previous blog, I did not get to take a nap. Instead, I cleaned Rainbow. Why would I clean Rainbow? OH BECAUSE I FLOODED MY APARTMENT AND THE RECORD STORE when my washer machine exploded as I was making the liquor run. If you don't know already, I live above the record store I work at. We were all afraid I would set the damn place on fire, not flood it out. But all was well. Concert review in a bit.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

life or something like it

"Music is necessary to my physical and mental health. I think if I didn't have it I would just explode or something." - juliana hatfield

I'm working at the record store till Chris feels like waking up and coming in. Thennnnn, naptime and liquor run. Followed by a quick jaunt to The Point (my favorite Philly-area venue not in the city of Philadelphia) to see Ryan Montbleau and Tyler Hilton. Both artists we (Aurora, Marissa, Tessa, and myself) have not seen before, but want to check out. Heading out of there early and hitting up Kahunaville to support Omnisoul and Jealousy Curve. It will be rock and roll.

i still sleep with the lights on

Ahhhh...a day filled with Center Stage goodness...or not so goodness....

Center Stage days are pretty much the highlight of my week when we have productions. I can't even explain to you what makes them so great - the car trips, the people, the crazy things that always go wrong - but it is always a memorable time.
As you probably know, I have been ranting and raving about Teitur since I heard his album. I am also quite fond of Glen Phillips. So I noticed on the Iota site (one of my favorite clubs - in DC) that Glen would be there, so I checked out Pollstar and Philly and low and behold he was coming to the Northstar. So I check that site to see who was opening and dammit it was Teitur. As soon I found that out, I told Marissa that CS HAS to do the show. No question about it.
So she set it all up and everything was going well. Well, aside from the wrong turn we took. There has never been a problem filming at the Northstar and it is one of my favorite places to film because the people there are always so accomodating. We get there for load in, where Keith (the manager) proceeds to tell Marissa that everyone has to be 21. This has never been an issue before! And wouldn't have been an issue if Marissa and Jay weren't 19. Which left just Epler, Ed, and me. I had the idea of having the portable studio outside so she can direct and produce, just not be in the venue. Then the crew informed me that we were in the ghetto and someone may die. There was already a helicopter swooping over the area, which we assumed, was looking for a body. So we did the only thing we could do - go to Wawa.
After deliberating, it was decided that Marissa and Jay would cruise around South Street and Epler, Ed, and I would pull of at least a five person job, with 3. The three of us have been working together on this crazy idea of mine for a while so I had confidence on our production. I wasn't ready to step into producer mode, I was all psyched on handling a camera for the show for the first time, but of course I did since I live for this. But the show went INCREDIBLY well. Especially for how limited it was since it was a solo artist. We try not to do solo artists because of the lack of busi-ness on stage, but we had to do Teitur because he is amazing. I think I drove the boys nuts since the entire time I was singing along and saying how beautiful and great his music was. And I don't think I ever yelled once, which is a feat for me in production, I actually had a voice left. Afterwards...the interview.
Again, I wasn't really prepared to interview anyone. Usually I bask in the fact that I can go to these productions now and not stress, that's on Marissa's shoulders now ;-). I hope the interview went well...asked the basics, plus stuff I was personally curious in, and other business type questions. As Ed was fiddling with the audio, I had about 15 minutes to talk with Teiter off camera. One of the most personable guys I have ever interviewed that I hadn't known previously. Though the interview went smoothly, I am curious to look back on it and see how he answered a few questions. Wondering how much of an influence Universal has on his public speaking. Not to say that any of the answers weren't acceptable, but he was very quick to answer his thoughts on some things, such as music downloading. It was simply just plain awesome to interview him. Marissa pointed out that Center Stage is now internation (Teitur is from Denmark). Rock on.
Out of all of the productions I have done, it didn't rain for like, two of them. Of course it was downpouring on the way home and still going strong as we unloaded. I guess I should be worried if its actually sunny and nice for a show.
Nothing too entertaining about this show, no one bled, no one was embarrassed, no one fell off the stairs, no one knocked over a candle on stage...but it was still an incredible experience.

Sunday, November 09, 2003

So tired. Yesterday was yet another open to close day at the record store, though the last half was entertaining since it was Maryanne, Charise, and me. We all got caught up in each others lives and watched the eclipse. I think they thought I was nuts since I was bouncing around the store the entire time. Charise had bought me coffee and that did me in.
Afterwards, Karen, Dan, Chris, and I headed up to Philly to hang out with some friends of theirs. Always refreshing to meet new people. You'd be proud of me, I was the responsible DD and didn't even drink, unlike other times. Before we went to Pat's (Cheesesteaks - I know I know, I drifted away from Jim's....even though I do not consume the product, there's still years of loyalty to ol' Jim) we played in this big pile of leaves. Great fun. It was cold. Very cold. Stupid lack of internal heating system. I swear, I have no thyroid. I had to parallel park and I did it successfully on my second attempt in front of the whole line of people in front of Pat's. I averted a potentially embarrassing situation by perfect navigation from my passengers :-). It was NOT another Bohagers incident. Ask Aurora, its her favorite story of me and driving. We drove around the vicinity of Pat's for about a half hour as we tried to find Oliver's car. We knew it was on a street...and he had to walk to Pat's...and he saw a red light near where he parked....he thinks. Operative word being "thinks". But we found it and all was good for the rest of the trek home. Got home around 5 and watched Saving Silverman due to the prior conversations of Neil Diamond. I had all this energy until the drive home from Karen's where I nearly fell asleep with every blink. And of course a weary miranda is a boring miranda and I crashed around 7:15. Stupid 10:30 am alarm clock. But it was worth it, good times :-)