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

Tuesday, July 06, 2004


Pat McGee during "You & I" in Baltimore, MD July 4, 2004.

June 24th at Azaza Lounge

Two Thursdays ago, there was no better place to be than New York City... Akiva had told me about this show he was setting up in this sweet lounge and promised that ot would be a great evening. And it was! (and if you already read the Akiva board, most of this is cut and pasted from there because I didn't feel like writing the same info twice)

Aurora and I were going to go early and shop, but the roads had other plans. We spent 90 minutes driving around New York City trying to find a decent place to park and running over pedestrians. Luckily Graham serenaded us and I screamed out of the window that I just wanted to get the hell out of my car. We decided to just park and eat - no shopping.

The place was really nice and our waitress was fabulous. She had a nifty accent. Our company was a nearby table of diplomats. We eavesdropped into some of their conversation pertaining to fundraising and certain celebrities. The lounge had ambiance, but what made the evening amusing was the background music. The loud background music of the latest hip hop and rap songs. Such as the unedited version of "Roses" (which we were talking about during the car ride) and the unedited version of "Put It In Your Mouth". And roases played twice in a row. Ken and Jodie met up with us during the second spin. Followed shortly by Steve, Katie, Aimee, and Maryellen. I think Aimee and I freaked Steve out because he forgot we knew each other. I blamed Steve for giving me pink eye and contemplated what he did while he was in my room to give it to me when Ken said that Steve has a constant problem with pink eye. I assume that Steve has a syringe of pink eye germs and uses it whenever necessary. I think he shot me in the eye. Anyways...

Saw Mr. Dave Pittenger and I think he was shocked to see me since I have known him for quite a while and haven't seen him play yet. Said hi to Akiva, and we all made our way into the back room. Aurora said it felt like a sleepover - there were tons of wall chairs and huge cushions. And everyone pretty much knew each other, which made it even better.

As always, its cool to see Steve from Green to Think play solo shows - they are more low key then the GTT stuff and is always entertaining. Such as when he used the mic to push his glasses back up. Steve also couldn't finish a song because he couldn't see his guitar. It was quite hilarious. He took requests from Ken, so Ken asked him to play Dear Urgency, which is my favorite of the new songs. Maryellen and I were dorks and sang the backing vocals and harmonies during "We Are Stars".

I was *really* impressed with Brian Sendrowitz and would have bought his CD then if I didn't have to worry about enough cash to get out of the parking lot and coffee for the trip home. Now I have an excuse to see him live again. He reminded me of David Gray, Damien Rice, and Johnathan Rice. Ken and I were texting back and forth during the show since he was sitting across from me. Brian was telling a story as Ken was reading the text I sent him about my strategically placed bandaids. Ken's jaw dropped and he laughed out loud at exactly the inopportune time during Brian's story. We both turned red and Steve stole Ken's phone and ran off.

I was also really impressed with Dave Pittenger. He busted out some tunes on the keyboard and guitar and all were enjoyable. Even his covers. And I don't think he messed up his songs - haha. Dave brought his video camera, so of course I was camera girl, but I think the venue was too dark. Hopefully some of the footage can be used.

And of course Akiva rocked the house and well worth the numb ass from sitting down for three hours. We forgive him for playing songs twice. The new stuff sounds good - and the sex song is great - haha. And I like the Mississippi song a lot. And track ten was played, though it wasn't written like that on the setlist. Aurora and I will have shirts. I promise. And we will have Swift shirts. It's like a secret society.

After the show we talked about porn then dodged out around 1 am. Spent about an hour getting out of the city - all for Dunkin Donuts. We got our iced lattes and headed for the highway.

Monday, July 05, 2004

twirling around and round

Please stop the world. It's moving way too fast for me to catch up. I feel as though I am hyperventilating because there is too much to experience and not enough time.

a quick game of chess with a salt and pepper shaker

I'm at work now, listening to the Aware Greatest Hits CD. It is repeating itself on track one, which is John Mayer's "My Stupid Mouth", which reminds me of freshmen year in college. I was in Grotto's with Michelle and she had said this was becoming her favorite song by him and how she hoped it wouldn't become a single. It was our secret society with random Comfortable quotes in our away messages and no one knew who "jm" was. Ha. Track two...Tabitha's Secret. Wow, I remember them when they were Tabitha's Secret. Known to most of you as Matchbox 20. This CD is like a timewarp through the past few years. When Raf put this CD in today, I told him that Aware is one of the best things to have happened to music.


Happy Independence Day!
I was raised in a military/government family. I chose my high school parking space to be underneath the American flag. I majored in Political Science in college. I love July Fourth. :-) This year, I spent the holiday in Baltimore (more pictures to be added to the above picture soon). Please don't take our freedoms for granted.

(and let's get Bush out of the White House in November :-) )

Sunday, July 04, 2004

3 more days

"I'll never be a slut. I can tell you that much. I can tell you that will never happen." - juliana hatfield

Wednesday is the Juliana Hatfield show at the Northstar Bar. Woo woo - I am way excited. She's the first artist that I liked and really got into. "Become What You Are" is a perfect power indie pop rock CD and one of the first CDs I bought. I may have even bought the tape.

What is even more exciting is that she has two fiiiiine openers - The Damnwells and The Jane Anchor. Ryan sent me over to the Damnwells way a while ago and I really dug their stuff then and think that the recently released album is great. I would have been content with that bill until I found out that The Jane Anchor was also added on. John, Dave, and Joann from IKE are also in the Jane Anchor. John absolutely loves Juliana Hatfield as well. I'm not sure how we discovered our mutual adolation, but every time she has played nearby, he has had a gig. Now he gets to share the same stage with her. I remember during the second half of shooting the music video we listened to Juliana's new CD all morning. Good times.

John and I were talking the other day aboout how we hope we don't act all goofy and doubfounded in her presence. This is going to be fantastic. :-) Oh yeah, and I am guestlisted. Rock on. Guestlisted for a Juliana Hatfield show. I think I can die content now.

y100 love

I really have nothing to write about. Phantom Planet is coming back into town this week, and though I really want to go, I am not. Then I remember that nothing will be better than the Apil 8, 2004 Phantom Planet show. This is all about me catching up in the past few months.

A few months ago, I met someone from Warner Brothers and we talked about some bands on the label that I liked. Most notably Pat McGee Band and Johnathan Rice, among others. We also chatted about The Darkness and I told him how the tickets for the philly show sold out in 92 seconds - a fact I know since Dan engrained it in my mind. So Mr. WB guy said he would try to get me tickets since he may have some industry passes. Score! Days later, instead of tickets to the Philly show, he told me he got me two passes to see The Darkness play their sonic session on April 2. Woohoo!

Dan and I dodge the raindrops and head up to Indre Studios. We stood in line forever then about 75 of us shuffled in front of the stage. The people working it kept telling us it was going to be loud. No shit it was going to be loud. They gave out toilet paper for earplugs, but we wanted unadulterated rock. It was great, we weren't cramped and we were right there. This was the first performance Justin sang since being sick, and it sounded great. "That guy" also made an appearance at the show. He was wearing The Darkness shirt and was right in front. Cool dude.

A week later, I was hooked up with Phantom Planet Sonic Session tickets, so Dan and I both dodged out of work and headed up to Khyber. This was even better than the Darkness. The Khyber may hold 100 people. And Phantom Planet is wonderful. I hadn't seen them live before this, though I have liked them for a whole now, so it was really cool seeing them in such an intimate venue. And it was loud.

Yay for free intimate rock.