...thinking that they own the world - but i believe it's mine...

Blurry pictures of The Downtown

Saturday morning was brutal, though highly entertaining compliments of Jen. She had lost her contact in my bathroom and after a bout of frustration she found it suctioned to the side of my sink. Funny shit. Jen and I went out to breakfast at Newark Bagel place and it was greasily fantastic.

I spent Saturday afternoon at the store with the girls, which is always trouble. I escaped the store around 5 pm and hit the road with Aurora and Tanya for a 170 mile destination. Of course no trip is complete without our customary stop at Wawa for caffeine to fuel us. Our goal? Farmingdale, NY to see Akiva and Ron Sexsmith. But mostly Akiva because his music is super saucy.

In the player: The Clarks "Fast Moving Cars", Akiva "Bueno y Sano" (our rule is that we can listen to the artist that we are seeing if we are beyond the 100 mile mark), Jonasay "Live at the 9:30 Club", Lloyd Dobler Effect advance music, Omnisoul "Live at the Scrounge", and Jamie Cullum "Twentysomething".

On the way to the rest stop we told our stories from the previous evening as well as other misadventures such as bracelet heads and bladder crushed uteruses. Uteri. Uteri or uteruses? Burger King is becoming my favorite road stop because they have veggie burgers. Has anyone else noticed how immaculately clean the Jersey rest stop bathrooms are? Jersey rest stops kinda bother me a little because they all look the same, and while its predictable, its not always fun. Half the adventure is not knowing what to expect, and you expect the Jersey rest stop.

Traffic was moving fine until we hit New York. Uggghhh - I don't think I hit fifth gear until we were almost in Farmingdale. Kinda odd, along the highway there was a park. I would call out to people as we rolled along, but the girls reminded me that this wasn't a good idea while we were cruising at 10 mph.

We find The Downtown, not quite using our directions, but we found it nonetheless. Cute town. We grab our stuff, lock the doors, and head to the club. Wait - I forget my wallet. Turn around. The venue was pretty neato, the way I would decorate a venue. When Aurora, Marissa, and I have our venue, it will look like this. The stage was large and not very high. Cymbols covered the lights and guitars adorned the walls. Shit, I forgot my camera. Back to the car.

It was kind of laid out like The Point but more spacious. Everyone was sitting down, and there was no way I was going to sit down after I was sitting for three hours, so we stood. Hopefully we didn't block too many peoples' views.

Akiva took the stage with Simon and began the rock. Simon had this box he sits on and beats with his hands. See above pictures for a blurry view. It was awesome. Aurora saw a sticker on his instrument that said "Simon Rocks My Box". That's the greatest sticker ever (and now we possess one). I'm totally honest when I say this guy is super good and up there in my top ten artists right now. Well, probably my top five on my one list. I have to have two lists - one of the artists that I support, will see whenever they are close by and I have all their albums and stuff like that, and the other list is just artists that are just out there. Such as um, Radiohead. I love them, and well, I have all of their CDs too, but I have only seen them once and don't even have a shirt. And there is Pat McGee Band. Totally different band, also my favorite band ever, I have all their albums, I think I have every shirt made because the band gave them to me or I bought them back in the day, and whenever they are within a few states radius, I will usually be at those shows. Two different schemas. But yeah, Akiva would be in the PMB category of my rock list. This could be a totally different post. It will be.

Whew, that was a tangent and a half. This new paragraph makes me feel all clean and new. So yeah, the show was good, half funky rock, half singer songwriter crooning. Akiva even covered Sarah McLachlan even though he didn't say her name write and I probably didn't write her name right. Akiva wore the shirt of the place his CD was named after, which prompted Aurora and I to contemplate checking that place out next time we are in Boston.

After the show we moved the the back so that the others could actually see. We chatted for a bit with Akiva until Ron Sexsmith came on. They were a really colorful band, with Ron leading the pack with a purple shirt. My initial reaction was old school Wilco but that could be because Ron reminded me a bit of Jeff Tweedy.

A little after 11 we decided to head back home. Were we seriously only there for less than two hours?! Talked to Akiva some more and we may head down to Atlanta. Hmmm. Its been a few years since I have been to Atlanta... But due to money and time, it will either have to be Atlanta or Cleveland. Time will tell, but I am sure we will have our answer by Thursday since then Aurora and I can actually figure things out.

Aurora said the funniest thing ever. To be followed by Tanya. "I need someone with a tongue ring." I look back at her. We pause. "NOT YOU!". Haha. i think Aurora missed this because she was in the back of my car switching CDs. Starsailor replacing the Clarks and the new Akiva sampler replacing the Jonasay. And we were on our way to the 7-11 we previously passed. Not as good as Wawa, but the Slurpees will do.

The NY roads were still trafficky even after midnight. Do people ever sleep?!! I can't imagine what it would be like at 5 pm during the week! While gong over the bridge this carfull of guys stared at us and one got in the back seat to, what we assume, plaster his phone number on the back windshield. Unfortunately we did not catch up to them, haha.

We stopped for gas and coffee and Jersey rest stop coffee has got to be the worst ever. We only had two choises, 12 ounces and 24 ounces. That is a huge difference and a major beverage choice!! Aurora and I opted for the larger since we are addicted. Big mistake. The warm flavorless coffee barely took us home at 3 am.