Muse and other music thoughts...

Lets start with Muse.
I SAW THEM THURSDAY NIGHT!!!!!!
Muse is a band I saw at Coachella this year. Those readers of mine know it was my highlight of the the weekend. Its rare when I watch a live show that I'm brought to tears, joy and passion all in the same sitting. Muse does this to me.
I heard they were coming to Honda Center, but due to finances and honestly my lack at purchasing anything online they promptly sold out. This didnt stop T from finding a way to get us tickets through pretty much her genuine love of me. 2 other friends of ours had tix as well on the other side of the venue. We all arrived at my house, drank, chatted and laughed and headed out. We parked down the street a bit and trekked over to Honda Center. Passion Pit was opening and this was a fave of T's so we took a quick pic of us 4 then shot off in our different directions. When T and I got to our seats we flipped. We were so close!!!!!!!!!!!! 6 rows up from the floor - off to the side a smidge - perfect. They were right there!!!!!! Passion Pit was lovely, we scooted out to get booze, food and merchandise. Back to our seats for Muse. "Kate Hudson!" T shouts pointing - there she is, with a little posse making a bee line for the tech booth area on the floor. Lucky bitch is banging the singer for Muse. The concert begins. 3 towers covered in a material with images of people walking then falling...very 9/11-esk. BAM - they drop and the powerhouse concert begins. The band was on key, sounded brillant, excellant show. The towers went up and down. They had random images throughout the set. When he played the piano with the war like images in the background I almost lost it. Green laser lights shot out into the crowd making for an acid head's dream. They were amazing.
Music is an interesting thing. There are certain bands/songs/lyrics that hit your heart and your soul like nothing else. Certain songs or albums that happen right at a pivotal point in your life and they stick with you forever. A live performance that is so fucking awesome you never forget it. Music constantly amazes me. The depth of it, the talent of it, the sheer magnitude of how it can affect your life.
I have a huge range of music I like - I'm certainly not stuck on one type or one genre. I love blues, funk, rock, alternative, jam bands, heavy metal, hip hop, jazz, classical. Country and pop I'm not as keen on. But there are still a few gems in those genre's I like.
Live music is another beast - I've been disappointed in the past when I fall in love with a band and then I see them perform live and they dont live up. I want to see you tear it up on your album and on that stage. I'm not asking for too much because I've seen it. Some of my all time favorite bands to see live are: Tower of Power, Gogol Bordello, Grateful Dead, Muse, Pink Floyd, Blind Boys of Alabama, BB King, DJ Z-trip and many others. And all for different reasons! Music is so vast. So much. So amazing. I cannot understand how there are people in this world that dont have music in thier life at all. How do they live???
I love getting blown away by bands I'm not familiar with. Alot of my friends will bring me along to concerts or festivals where I have no idea who the people are we're going to see - and BAM - I'm slapped in the face with some brilliant music.
Johnny Lang...friggin kid!!!! Sang the blues like nothing I've ever heard. Mad Marionettes - a local band of kids that play at Bistro sometimes....so unusual and so fun to watch. I could go on and on and on about shows I've seen and fallen in love with.
There was a fun little thing that went around on FB recently - something about listing 15 albums in 15 minutes that somehow affected your life in whatever way. You werent to think just list them as fast as you could. Mine are below - and it was fascinating to look back at what I threw out there and there's something about each album that touched me for a very different reason. What albums obviously stuck in my mind like that.
Music.
Its amazing.
Plain and simple.

Grateful Dead - American Beauty



Pink Floyd - The Wall



Blink 182 - Self Titled



Tower of Power - Monster on a Leash



Beatles - Abbey Road



B.B. King - Gold



Metallica - And Justice for All



Muse - The Resistance



Green Day - American Idiot



Earth, Wind & Fire - Faces



Gogol Bordello - Gyspy Punks Underdog World Strike



Bob Marley - Exodus



Motley Crue - Theater of Pain



Billy Holiday - Blues Legends



My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade

Labor Day Weekend...

Was a good one!
Started off Friday night with T rollin my exhausted ass into Long Beach to see my friends band play at Clancy's. Its a 2 person band that pretty much makes songs up on the spot. They were a kick! T and I were also joined by 2 very colorful gentleman in thier 50's maybe? That proceeded to ramble on repeating themselves (drunk or just way out of it?) about art, soldier field, baseball and others. Oh - and apparently one of them bought a victrola from the other. Ok.
Saturday was the 1st Street Fair Day. We all met up at the lil bro's house who was in town for the weekend (He needs to be home and not work up north because I'm selfish and want him here). Anywhoo - Dad, me, T, bro, D, and Sutherland all met up with our bikes ready to roll. After a few drinks (Yes its a holiday, we're allowed to drink before 11am) we biked over to the Fair and arrived around 11:30. El Buen Taco as usual was our first stop. After some yummy tacos, beer (Yes I had a beer!!) and visiting with the Sumi's and some other friends we wandered on to Swedish Street and stuffed our faces with Abelskevers. Not before I purchased a large bag of Kettle Korn. We then rolled over to our favorite spot at Rod's Liquor where the booze is cheaper and they have much more variety instead of just beer. We never left. I guzzled Mike's Hard Lemonades while the rest guzzled beers. We munched on Gyros and yummy greek pastry someone shoved in my mouth. Miss Cumby joined us and we saw a few friends come and go. Great convo with many peeps then the heat started bearin down. Off we go. We stopped and grabbed some beef teriyaki sticks that were AMAZING and stumbled back to our bikes. Off we go. Back to bros. Court joined us, dad left and a very entertaining game of Cranium began. This was then followed by Taboo. The highlights of the evening were bro's charade of "Baywatch", D's charade of "Who let the dogs out" and learning that Miss Cumby is the goddess of Taboo.
Sunday started off mellow. Chillin poolside at lil bros, drinkin and laughing. We finally roll out bike style. This time its just Me, bro, D and Court. We catch American Wake's 1st set which of course is AMAZING. We all love them so very much. A Symphony co-hort whom I've developed a friendship with joins us as well as my girl Robin. We watch the whole set, bouncing and laughing and loving it. Off we head. The only bummer of the day is we run into dude who stomped on my heart earlier this year with his chickie. I played if off well - I'm an actress you know - and with the support and good moves of bro and Robin we moved on. I said hello to my new boss at the Chapman booth and we headed down Swedish Street. Bro said hi to the O's crew while Robin and I fended off a very drunk strange girl and we promptly hit up Rod's again, where we again - stayed. Its perfect - its just off the street so its not crowded, the booze is cheap and people come to you. We had a huge amount of friends come and go - our neighbors, Ber and KT, lots of bro's friends and many many more. I scarfed down a pulled pork sandwich and a backlava and chose champagne for the drink of choice that eve. We would have stayed longer but low and behold it was actually f-ing cold! We stood it as long as we could and rolled out around 8:30 listening to the Wake as we rode our bikes past. It was a little rough comin home - it was ass cold, I was the only bike with a light and we had to be very careful with the bunches of people and cars hoping no one was driving drunk. We got home unscathed after a stop at the store to refuel our drink supply and chilled once again at bro's. Much more of a mellow night involving Wenerscnetzel and good convo. I crashed hard that night.
Today was a day of running around - getting ready for the week. Uploaded pics, had lunch with T, bought biz attire for the new job, and ran a few other errands. The roomie popped open a good bottle of pinot and we hit the hot tub. I jacked my foot up again, hoping it will heal before I start personal training (Oh did I mention I'm doing that - Keep you posted) and here I type.
All in all - great weekend, lots of food which I'm starting to pay for and as always - great fuzzy fun Labor Day memories made!
Back to the real world.

Update...

I feel I can officially say it now...even though most of you probably already know...
I HAVE A NEW JOB!
Today was my last day at Pacific Symphony. With a cupcake send off I was out the door. I've been working both jobs this week, but tommorow is my 1st offical day as a full time Chapman University employee!!! I'm really really really hoping this will be a good opportunity for me. I'm hoping to GAWD its what I've been hoping for. So far it seems to be. Its close - I'm hopefully going to actually start riding my bike to work which would be AWESOME. After working there for 6 months I can start going to school there for pretty much free. Bennies are good. I'm getting paid a tiny bit more. And already I feel more welcome then I've ever felt at a new job. You should see the email my new boss sent out announcing my arrival. I felt like a star. I really do think this will be a really good thing for me!
I'm not gonna lie...smoking these past 2 weeks have been bad. Not that its an excuse but this has been the a couple of the knarliest couple of weeks. Dont fret - I'm not back to the full blown smoker I was, but I have been cheating way too much. With Street Fair and lil bro in town this weekend I'm probably going to be very very bad. BUT - Next week is a new week. I'll be at my new job, I'm hopefully going to be doing alot more active crap by biking my fat ass too work, I need to diet and I need to cut out those cheats completely and officially be a non-smoker. It'll happen. Just takin a bit longer then I care to admit.
Not all is perfect of course. Papa is still a major concern. I worry more and more about him each day. I still need to replace my cadalitic converter on my truck and finances of course are always looming.
But dammmit I think I've got some good comin my way. FINALLY.
I couldnt get into OCC - classes were full. I seriously think this is a sign. This job couldnt have come at a more critical time. I'm wanting to go back to school, and here it is. Plopped in my lap.
I'm of course terrified because its a whole new system and I have ALOT to learn and you all know me...I want to excel at everything right now. So patience has to come into play and I have to learn the new job and suck it up that I'll be a bit slow at first, but I really think it'll be awesome.
I'm also starting up kickball again - quite excited about that!
Street Fair is this weekend, so let the drunken, gluttony fest begin. Well Saturday anyway. As for tonite - I should be in bed.
So that is all at this point folks. Just taking shit day by day and hoping to hell things will start looking on the up and up.
I'm feeling good.
Holy Hell.....