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

Friday, March 19, 2004

Stone Balloon Triple Threat

We get to the Balloon and they have us roped off like cattle. So we got some beer and talked. Tanya, Maryellen, and I had bathroom talks. Those are different than in public talks. I have to get to NY.

We get inside and say hi to people, and shortly after, Marlon Spike takes the stage - with a glowing leprochaun instead of Todd. They played Jade first and I was content. Tanya tried to get me to dance in the front with her, but I wasn't tipsy enough. ;-). Instead I jumped from cluster to cluster because I was so giddy and couldn't stay in one place. Todd rocked Tanya's bunny glasses and I stole McDermott's hat. I thought the performance was really good and I hate to say it, but I like the non-sax lineup of Marlon Spike. Has a little bit more edge to it. Dan did his bass spin and didn't hit anything or mess it. He was wireless and tore up the stage.

Jen and I ran into the bathroom and something was exciting, though right now I don't remember what it is. But we squealed and planned out more premium malt beverages. I noticed a sign in the bathroom saying how guys weren't allowed to wear white shirts. Steve was, so I tried to steal it but that duct tape was not coming off. The burly bear sticker is still plastered to the tampon machine.

It is absolutely crucial that Jen and I are in front and dancing to IKE. Reminds us of a certain day in Septemeber when we danced in the rain in Baltimore. :-) John and I had the same outfit on, and I told him of the necessity that was Welcome Home. And they started off the show with it, nice. So we danced and sang like silly girls and it was fun. Of course some of the time was spent running around the venue talking to people. Michael tried to teach me how to dance. I embrace my white girl groove. I know I can't dance haha. Chris and Dan joined us in the front for Devil's Diary and Deathbed and it was great.

Steve, Morita, and Maryellen came down the steps to hang out with us in the front for Omnisoul. Omnisoul is such a great band, more on them later, I am pressed for time. They had sound issues in the beginning. But by the third song I think it sounded ok. They played a lot of new stuff and blew everyone away with Paranoid Android. That song cannot leave the set ever. I kept nudging everyone around me, saying how great the song of the moment was. Jen was smiles. Chris came up to me before The Greater You and I told him how the song will be their last song. This song is amazing and Chris does a beautiful rendition of it. So he was like " i am going on stage for it!" Ok no... So tuning time was spent trying to get Chris not to go on stage. He had his time to shine! So we sang and danced instead.

Talked to the IKE guys after the show and Steve made his way to the merch table where I think I stuffed him full of free stickers and promo.

Stumbled back to my place for the post show festivities. The place was packed and the CDs kept skipping. Aurora and Jackman made it, as did Marissa, Amanda, and Meg. It all blurs together, I don't know how the hours flew by. Todd and Dan kept giving me jello shots. Oh, I remember throwing things from my window. I have a problem babbling to people I don't know so they feel comfortable, so I did that a lot. Lord knows what I said. John Faye made it and that was the greatest thing ever haha. I remember telling some girl she had the same jacket as he, but she may have thought I was crazy and nodded anyway. Tanya owned my papason and no one fell.

Then I crashed.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

double insanity

i love charise becuase she is just like me. we can talk for hours about the same thing and totally understand. from admiring boys' hair, going far far away, agreeing that she would have written the email too, unhippies - she gets it.

and this recent quote still makes me smile :-)
"move over pesto, diet cherry coke is my new favorite thing!"

the most perfect day to rock

Like i said in my previous blog, I arrived to work 5 minutes late riding on 4 hours of sleep. I definitely was not functioning right and the only pick me up I had was a visit next door to the coffee shop for soup and tea. John Faye and Cliff Hillis, of IKE, arrived around 12:30 and I was instantly rejuvenated. Their in-store performance lasted about an hour and it was fantastic. It sounded great and the store was absolutely packed. John asked me if it was too loud. I said no, I like my music loud and to feel free to break the windows. Newark Geroge made an appearance, and Cliff told him to have fun. It was interesting. They played Welcome Home for me, which of course is the anthem for the girlies. A very very good Saturday afternoon, but only a part of the wonderfulness that was the weekend.

Fueled only on good vibes I was able tor un some errands and clean before picking up Tanya. We came back and were very antsy and played around on AIM and got ready. Dan brought the PBR and pizza and all was well. Shortly after Dan went to the venue to set up his bass stuff, Steve, Maryellen, and Morita came, followed by Michael and Chris and a girl whose name I forgot by now. Then John, Matt, and Brian. I think I got those names right. Mike or Matt. Argh. So we chatted and ate and drank. Michael came in with a green lighted leprechaun and I knew it was LoPresto's. Apparently every year his family gets together for St. Patrick's Day. Interesting. Though tonight I think our festivities include McGlynns and perhaps some car bombs. I wonder if the leprochaun will attend.

Steve, Morita, and I went downstairs to check out some music, bother Charise, and grab some more booze. I was in a really giddy mood, so it was enjoyable. Charise and I sprawled ourselves on the floor talking while the boys perused the discs.

Came back to hang out some more and I was greeted by Tanya with Chris on the phone. He was looking for an adapter that I randomly found in a bag in my closet. So he jogged up from the venue and we all left for the Balloon.

But I have to leave for work, so I will finish this later. :-)


finishing up the hoboken fun

I figured I would dedicate a little time to the blogger this evening before tuckering out.

Chris, Dan, and I arrive at the Farside shortly after the open bar started, and we dove right in. Even though it took me an hour to nurse my Guinness, and I was made fun of the entire time, I quickly downed the rum and cokes that were to follow. We danced around to Morita's mix CDs and played with the noise maker blower things. It was a pretty jubilant night, everyone was in high spirits. Maryellen was giving out stickers and left me in charge of them as she scampered off. Big mistake. If you look at the pictures, you will notice that everyone was left defenseless. I made stickman designs on LoPresto, Dan, Aimee, and Kylie. It was a work of art. Hmmmmm. Some guy yelled at me for going into the guys restroom. I didn't realize where the hell I was, oh well. Steve came and I tried to get him and Chris to make out. I hang my head in shame now, I can't believe I did that. Oh it was fun. But come on, how hot would that have been? I am sure Steve was mean to me at some point in the evening, even though I do give him credit for showing up...but I can't recall if he was or not. I remember sitting on a stool with Chris because I could barely stand and I told him my darkest secret ever. Hopefully he was drunk enough to forget. So scandalous. We leave the bar after closing and stumble for a million blocks to Maryellen's apartment. When its minus three degrees, drunk, and carrying a bunch of stuff, the walk is treacherous. We get to her place and I realize I brought the wrong pump for the air mattress, but we were only sleeping for a few hours, so it didn't even matter. I remember tripping over Morita, who was already asleep, a bunch of times trying to orient myself. Dan crashed stomach first and ended up staying like that the whole night. I remember talking to Chris then drifting off eventually. Only to be awaken by the incessant cell phone at 7am.

We groggily walk to the car in the cold a very very very far distance away. We meet Chris's friend Michael at Dunkin Donuts, which is now becoming a NYC/Hoboken tradition, and partook in the 99 cent breakfast sandwich special. The 130 mile ride to DE at 7 am was extremely awesome. The worst part was driving and I think I still may have been drunk from the night before. But I was entertained by the backseat stories and Jamiroquai and Sting. Had to be at work at 10, roll in at 10:05. Nice.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

a hoboken kind of evening

This past weekend was absolutely amazing and Friday couldn't come fast enough.

Started off the day at the record store then off to WVUD. Chris and Derek sat in with me to help promote the show on Saturday. Chris brought his keyboard and invaded the airwaves. He and Derek performed The Greater You and it sounded great. Derek talked about money a lot, and Chris mentioned Sting's virility. Fun times. I'll mention more about that later.

Off to Hoboken for Maryellen's birthday bash! Chris sat in my passenger seat and noticed that the heated seats were on. So he had the bright idea of turning it on way up when we picked up Dan. At Dan's we evealuated the CDs and iPods in tow and we also had the option of the radio. I made a comment saying that no matter what, we won't be riding in silence since we will have some type of music available for the 2 hour trip. Dan noticed when he got in, but of course Chris and I pleaded ignorance. Our seats were perfectly fine. I told Dan he broke my seat. Dan tried to use my cassette player to hook up Chris's minidisc player so we could listen to the WVUD show from earlier and ended up locking my stereo system. I was not being serious when I talked about riding in silence a few minutes earlier! I blamed him for breaking that as well as my seats. He ended up fixing it though after Wawa so the drama didn't last long - until we got gas. Riding along 95 listening to something Chris had on his iPod that will now give me nightmares, and my car lurches and stutters as the RPM goes sky high and then I had no gas. This happened a few times and I pull on the side of the road and panic. Since Dan already broke my seat and stereo, I blame him for this as well. Just kidding. We smell gas and Chris mentions it could be the gas line. So we brave the roads again and I go on a back road and I guess my car got its problem out of its system, but still it didn't need to happen! I am no longer an EZ Pass virgin. Chris exclaimed that if one person should have EZ Pass, it should be me. Yeah, the reason I don't have EZ Pass is because I have $-5.34 in my checking account! Chris fell asleep in the back as Dan and I navigated through Jersey City cutting across multiple lanes.

I am the worst at parallel parking, as most have witnessed, so I hop out and have Chris drive my car. He finds an excellent spot. We find a quick an easy food place. Chris and I eat the green pizza. Not sure what was on it, it was green. Because the more food we eat, the more our bodies will love us at the open bar.

But my poptarts are done and I have to be at Rainbow in 15 minutes, so I will start part 2 of Friday night sometime at work. Enjoy. This reminds me of a quote from one of the best movies of the 90's:

"Now, I'm sitting in class enjoying a late breakfast when out of all the classrooms in the school, she walks into mine! And where does the teacher sit her? Right next to me! Up until now, one could write this off to coincidence. But then she reaches in her bag and pulls out a strawberry Pop-Tart - the very same breakfast pastry I was consuming at that moment! What was I to do? How was I to proceed? "

tuesday mornings just don't work for me

Why do I wake up to snow and ice and cold?! Why why why, especially when yesterday was such a gorgeous day!??!

I own two umbrellas and they were both in my car, so why walk 4 blocks to the tv studio when you can drive :-). The only reason I am blogging my morning is because Jen and I had the craziest conversation. She came in as I was writing her and looked extremely tired. Damn filming in the snow with 4 hours of sleep - poor girl's eyes were blood shot!

So we complained about the cold and wondered why. Then I informed her of a conversation I had with a guy and again, we ponder why.
And at 9:30 in the morning with the two of us having minimal sleep, this was pretty damn funny because I was at a loss for words...
"So he asked me to do something with him, why does this happen? Number one, no. Number two...NO!"

Shortly after I left to go to Wawa and I hit a car. Nothing major, I just scraped it. But still. Who knows what the rest of the day will bring.

Monday, March 15, 2004

what goes around comes around

This little thing is making its way around blogger and I guess I will partake since it was sent to me about 83 times... and its a lot better than finishing up all the correspondence I have piling up. Ahhh...procrastination at its finest :-)


1. What was the last song you heard?
Cannonball by Damien Rice. I drove to the tv studio and back, which is a perfect drive for one song each way. I have to be mega selective and it was the best song in my car at the moment. It's almost excrutiatingly painful to know that something this beautiful exists in the world.

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
In the theatre, it would have to be Mona Lisa Smile (on Christmas 2003) and Catch Me If You Can (Christmas 2002). I don't go to the movies that much. I thought I caught an independent film in philly during the summer, but apparently it wasn't too memorable.
On DVD - A Mighty Wind and Finding Nemo. Obviously I rule at movie watching.

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Sharpie markers and folders for the tv station, potato pizza for dinner

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?
hehehehe....buy a digital camera, drive to NYC, drive to Maine, drive to Boston. My weekend is going to be better than yours. I could show you, but I'd have to charge.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?
Aurora, Epler, Maryann, Jim, Jamie

yummy sugary goodness

I haven't had poptarts in years and I just toasted two frosted cherry ones and right now, they are the greatest things ever. I really need to go to the grocery store.

unexpected surprises

In addition to this week being a whirlwind of anticipated activity, I was also surprised by a phone call.

STN changed my life. If it wasnt for that station and Center Stage, I would definitely not be where I am today in regards to a lot of aspects, specifically school, work, and friendships not to mention the craziest memories one could imagine. STN also made me a stronger person and whoever is reading this from STN is sure to agree. I learned that not everything works the way it should and that gaff tape solves everything. I couldn't stay awake to read for class but I could edit throughout the night on any given day. On the eve of my most important test of the class I was in danger of failing that could push me up to a B, going to North Carolina to film surely outweighed anything I would learn in Philosophy. If it was rainy outside I would debate not going to class, whereas for practically two years it rained or snowed during every single Center Stage show but we sloshed it out in style.

Without STN, there would have been no Dewey or Harrisburg. I wouldn't have met half the bands I know now. I wouldn't have gotten mono. I probably wouldn't drink as much. My stress level would be way different. I would not be addicted to coffee. Haha I guess STN impatcs your health dramatically!!

Funny, I was talking to Ed on Wednesday and he reminded me of this past summer. I seriously didn't do anything this summer but edit and work. I don't think I travelled anywhere farther south than the beach or anywhere more north than Philly, except for a week in Vegas. I spent my days at the record store and at night in the White House. It was a sick sick sick ritual that made me almost lose my mind. And more nights than not, Ed, Epler, and/or Jay were there also editing or hanging out as we made numerous Wawa trips and exhausted the Discreets. Wow.

So anyways, back to now. To sum it up, I am the new Continuity Director of STN. It's so funny because while talking to Aurora and Jen, I was reminded all of the times in years past that we joked around saying that when I graduate, I am just going to take Carlos's place. So to become a UD staff member for the station is just fitting. Except that i am under Carlos. It's part time so I am still able to work at the record store, just not as much as my usual 45+ hours a week, haha. Which is a great thing, but pretty much means that my schedule is going to kick my ass this week since the Rainbow schedule is already set. Pretty much my work week entails working with the horses at 6 am, being at the TV studio at 8 am, then Rainbow at noon until we close. But it's ok since I checked my bank account this morning and I have -5.84 in my checking account.

I talk a lot about things coming full circle, how everything is all interrealted and though we may not realize it now, it always comes around. I am replacing Chris, who is one of the coolest women I know. She's like an older me, which is hilarious. She's the one that I would always house sit for. She knows all of my crazy roadtrip stories and I have always asked her advice when it comes to guys or school. She even wrote my recommendation to NYU and proofed my personal statement. She partied hard, hit the road for shows when she was younger, loves to travel, and chased a boy and her dreams and won. And Jen and I always joke around and say that we're sisters and I'm her protege because everything I have done, she winds up doing by chance. Which is wonderful because I love Jen to death and I am so glad she is having fun and doing everything she does well. We're too alike and its scary. It's crazy how everything works out.

Let the games begin :-)

time to play catch up!

It's been one of those weeks where I just didn't have the extra 15 minutes in my schedule to blog away, so we once again revisit that game "lets sum up the week in some blogs"...


Monday night was spent at the record store and Quizzo. Marlon Spike had a big show this weekend, and usually the promotion begins on Mondays at Kates. This time they made "super sexy" neon green score sheets with all of the necessary info prominently displayed. The greatest thing about the evening was the fact that Chris barely slept, worked all day, was at Kate's promoting the show, drinking whiskey, and formulating his resignation letter. It all makes perfect sense. I don't think we came close to winning.