Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

So last night, I headed home, ate some food, and then got picked up by Dave.

We then headed to get me some money, headed back to my house to pick up my forgotten ticket and then over to Dave's to pick up Jan.

We all then headed over to the Val Air Ballroom, and met up with Brandon and a few of his Friends.

We went in, sat down, and had a few beers and waited for the show to start.

Near that time we headed up towards where Brandon & Co were camped out. To my surprise, one of my past roomates was up there. Jake Froelich (sp?). It's been years since I've seen him.

Eventually Ween took the stage and they played very well together. Not necessarily the most planned or a steady stream of music, but certainly a very good very well played show. A lot of it seem very dream like, due to the use of the lights and the huge amount of smoke effect that they used. It was something. They covered a large range of the albums that I have, and a few songs that I didn't know. I had a good time.

Part of the show for me was certainly the crowd around me. I have found that there are few things funnier then stoned people trying to hid the fact that they are smoking weed. Holding your hands over the joint so people can't see it, In my opinion, looks more suspicious...but what do I know. I saw pipes, one hitters, and several joints. But the crown of the night was the couple near me that made out...and not just kisses mind you, during the ENTIRE show. I suspect they were on somthing...

After they came on for an encore, and after they said good night (but before most of the band finished), I was too hot and wanted to head out.

I found Dave and Jan near the back and we waited for a bit longer (of them doing a phish style repetive music type thing) and then We headed home.

You know it's hot in a place, when it's cooler outside then the inside...and the city is under a heat advisory.

I got home a bit before midnight, and took a shower and went to bed.

Great Show, Wanted to see wheen for 10 years or so...so It's cool.

Radiohead

Best.
Show.
Ever.

at least that I've been to.

So I figured why go to Chicago just for the show, why not go and hang out for a bit. So I left got some water, stopped at La Mie for a bit of Mocha and headed out on the road. I remembered at the gas station that I had forgotten my camera, but I thought about it and I didn't think I'd really need it.

I made a few stops, Just past Iowa City (potty and more water), at the Dekalb Oasis (potty, lunch, gas (not that I really needed it, just didn't want to find Gas in Chicago). I ate Subway...the Dekalb Oasis has gotten much better the McDonalds and gas station that I remember. They even had a Starbucks there. I was thinking maybe I could stop there on my way back.

So then I headed into the Chi-town. I don't remember if I've ever mentioned that I was an adopted Chicagoian. I was adopted by a group of guys that lived on my floor in college that I played poker with. Traffic wasn't to bad, certainly worse then Des Moines, except for at the very worst times.

It was pretty much a straight shot in and after I figured out where I was parking (apprently for almost $20) I got out, figured out where the venue was and started wandering around Michigan Ave. After wandering up and down the street for a while, I decided some indoors would be fun, so I walked up to The Art Institute of Chicago and went through the vast majority of the collection. I think I missed part of it though... It was fun they had a lot of stuff that I have seen before (in pictures) and it was interesting. I would've like to go when I have more time to actually spend more time. They had a whole lot of religious paintings, and etc. It was interesting.

At around 5 I was getting Hungry, so I headed to find some place to eat. I ended up at The Artist's Cafe. I had a beer (anchor steam) and a ruben. The sandwhich was ok, nothing special. I was kind of annoyed with the pay as soon as I got my meal, and having to pay in cash (they only accepted AmEx).

Afterwards I Chatted with Shannon (I did when I got there too) and then ended up getting this Fruit Smoothie at this smoothie/sushi place right on the block of the venue. It was actully the best thing I had that day. I saw a lot of people lining up. So I decided to get in line too. But which line? There were 3 lines. One for regular tickets, one for tickets for those who bought through the fan club and one for "premium" will call tickets. The last one was my line. But there was a bit of confusion, since, several people that were in the line I was in, were turned away and told to get in another line.

The check in process was a bit silly. I needed my ID, the order number from ticketmaster and the credit card that I bought the ticket with. So it was a long line, but it went pretty quickly.

The Auditorium Theater was very cool. The lightbulbs were even cool. Lots of reliefs, lots of decorations, 4 levels of seats (I think), box seats. I was in row F and had a great view of the stage. I really wished I had brought the camera (not that it was actually allowed in the theater), not for just the theater but the other things I had seen that day.

So the theater wasn't half full yet and the lights dimmed. The Black Keys. A drummer and a guitar playeer. The music was interesting and good in a way. But by the end of their set I was starting to get bored, cause a lot of it was sounding the same.

So they left the stage and the crowd's anticipation grew. After a while the crowd would cheer for Radiohead at every pause in the music playing. It was kind of silly.

When they finally took the stage, a huge roar came up and they started right into it.

It was a mixture of older stuff (most of their albums being represented) and the stuff that will be coming out soon enough. It was interesting and I was just amazed...and I mean AMAZED as to how well they sounded and played together.

The stage was setup in a way to allow for many changing of instruments on the stage (including mini drum sets, pianos, guitars and etc). And they also had many lights and on the backdrop of the stage, they had about 10 trapazoidal screens that were being projected on. It's quite interesting what they did. They had cameras all over the stage, and so they might show a video of Thom Yorke broken up across the screens, singing. And they would have effects added to it. So things like inverted colors, or orange tints or dots or etc. At points you could see the drummer on two screens and Yorke on some others or the like. It worked.

The lights were amazing, being both, well timed and matching the speed and the intensity of the music.

After 2 encores, the show ended and I raced out of the theater. There were a few songs that I would've liked to hear, but all and all they covered the bases pretty well. I called Shannon when I got in the car, but the reception was pretty bad (since I was under Michigan Ave). So I told her the plan (I'd call if I was going to sleep somewhere before I got home). So I headed out of Chicago. The traffic leaving was pretty bad, until I got into the western suburbs. Then it calmed down quite a bit.

I stopped at the Dekalb Oasis, but Starbucks wasn't open, so I got a big pepsi and a water and continued on. I called my parent's house and left a message (around 11) and said I might be stopping by if I needed to sleep.

I drove on, traffic was very light and I rarely had to wait to pass anyone.

When I was on the East Side of Iowa City...or at least close to the East Side, I got a call back from Joseph to say it was ok, but I was doing fine (and by the end of the call I was passing the I-380 Exit anyways).

40 miles or so out of Des Moines, I was starting to wonder if I was gonna run out of gas (even if the light wasn't off) and I was kind of hungry and wanted something. So I saw this Kum & Go and noticed something. In Illinois premium is 92 octane, while Iowa's is 91. And it must of helped, cause on the Tank of gas from the Dekalb Oasis to Chicago and back to wherever I was off of I-80, I got Just over 33 MPG (again my car is supposed to get 29 MPG on the highway) and this was going 80 most of the way.

I pulled into my driveway at around 3:45 and I was pretty exausted, eyes dry and just kind of mentally losing it.

So I went upstairs, brushed my teeth, took my pills (since I didn't think I'd be up early enough to actually take it in the morning, and crawled into bed.

Anyways, I've been wanting to see Radiohead for around 12 years and now I have had the chance and I couldn't be more happy about it.

Wedding Plans ramp up again

It's good to have my girl back again. After the long time working for her test, it's done and Shannon's stress level is back to a more normal level.

To celebrate, since Shannon wanted a malt, we headed down to Drake Diner for dinner. I love that place. Good food. Good price. Her malt was good and my shake was good too.

Afterwards we went to Nacho Libre. The reviews that I had read were rather mixed. Either people loved it, or hated it, which sounds like Napolean Dynamite. I laughed and I thought parts were stupid...pretty much just like the previous movie. So I'm mixed but I'd probably watch it again.

Saturday, we lounged around for a good part of the morning, and then when we were ready, we headed over to University Photo and dropped off a few slides and photographs to get resized. Not to bad a price. I'm sure if I wanted to deal with my old scanner, I could probably have done it myself, but when it comes down to it, I'm not even sure that scanner works, or that I even have it anymore...

Anyways, we went grocery shopping, got home and started working on invitations.

We've gotten them designed and test printed and it's all good. And maybe, just maybe, if we do it right, we'll be able to get the maps, response card and invite in there and still remain under an ounce (thus not having to add extra postage). Shannon scanned through the stamps and foud a couple of designs that we wanted to use. So we ordered oh around 200 Stamps for around 70$. Initially when I've thought about ordered just single books of stamps, they were a little obnoxious on the price, but when you buy a lot, it's not so bad to pay $1 for shipping and handling.

Shannon talked to her mom a bit and while she was doign that I investigaged M&M prices. So we ended up getting 5 pounds of pink M&Ms, 5 Pounds of White, and 5 Pounds of Silver. Then we added a couple of custom printed M&Ms, and got 2 pounds (4 8oz bags) of a mix of Pink and White with our names on them and then another 2 pounds of a mix of dark pink and silver. So I cannot believe that we ordered 19 pounds of M&Ms or how much we paid for them, but they'll make a nice give away. We will have to have a M&M packing party (no eating of the wedding M&Ms).

Today we plan on checking and finalizing directions and maps and get the final weight of the invitation...then maybe start printing.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Chicago to see Radiohead. My seat is pretty good, but I'll miss not having company. I think a big part of the fun of going to a concert is going with someone else. But I'm not missing the show. 6 hours there and and another 6 on the way back, probably puts me home (depending on the show's end time) at 5 in the morning on Tuesday. Good thing I took Tuesday off too.

Showing Adam a good time

So I had the day off yesterday, so I was lazy most of the day...I did fix the light in the bathroom with a combination of a hing and velcro (yes velcro).

Around 3:30 PM I headed to the back to get some cash, Target to get a bucket and a marker and then Starbucks to get a coffee (it was on my way, normally I don't go there).

I met up with Josh at his house, and after he changed, we headed over to get Adam.

I drove to Omaha...and when we got there we headed into town and went to Sushi Ichiban (which was apparently inside a Japaneese Resturant).

The Sushi was actually pretty good, not the best I've had, they lost points for some of them actually crumbling while they got picked up. It was served on a big wooden boat.

The highlight of the meal, at least for me, was Ginza No Suzume Shochu, which, apprently is a 40 proof Sake, which is off dry and light bodyied...well it pretty much tasted like water and was warm on the way down. It was quite nice. It was served in a container where they could put ice in the side to keep it cold, through the meal.

After dinner we stopped for gas and then headed over to Sokol Underground. We headed in an drank for a while, waiting for the show to start. We chatted and drank and vice versa.

First up was Mac Lethal supported by Joe Good, who I found to be quite entertaining, so much so that I bought two of his albums (The Love Potion Collection 2 (Mac Lethal) and Hi, May I Help You (Joe Good)). Good beats and good lyrics and good topics. Ranging from the silly (fighting over a baby's mama) to more serious...

After that, we had Los Nativos come on stage. They were...good, but not something that I would've picked out. I just didn't really connect to it.

After that was Brother Ali. And, like before, he put on a great show. The crowd started to pack in and the heat started to rise. The good brother maintained a masterful control over the crowd.

Afterwards, there was a long wait, which gave a chance for even more people to crowd in and the temp to rise more.

Atmosphere took the stage. Slug was initially supported by both Brother Ali and one of the guys from Los Nativos. It was quite good and a fun time, lots of crowd participation. The set went on, and his backing band came out to help with the show. It was a fun time.

Behind Josh and I was a dolt who was jamming to the music and holding his full beer...or more accuratly, spilling his beer on to our shoes. Over and over he did this...Many thoughts of violence crossed both our minds, but neither of us acted on it.

It was near this time that I was getting to hot for me. During the encore, I actually had to leave the crowd to get a glass of water. But I came back and with water and ice and I was good for the rest of the show.

Leaving the heat into the cool Omaha air, was very nice. We headed to the car and then to on the interstate. We stopped at a gas station somewhere's in Iowa and then drove the rest of the way home (I fell asleep somewheres in there).

I got home around 3:00 or so and got to bed around 3:30.

By the sounds of it, Adam did have a good time, which is the whole point of the excersize.

Punchline! (It's Chris's Birthday)

I went left work headed home and ate some fried egg and dubliner cheese sandwhiches, watched the Sopranos and then headed downtown.

I got down to The House of Bricks and met up with Brandon.

So here's the line up:

New Atlantic
Cute is What We Aim For
Punchline

Cute is What we Aim For was goodish...made me get up from the bar and actually watch, instead of just listening form the bar. Maybe it was cause the lead singer was sick...or maybe cause he wouldn't stop talking during their set...Maybe I'll listen to their music somewhere's or another.

This was probably the best I've seen Punchline perform. I was pretty happy with the set list they played and how well they played them. Apprently it was Chris's birthday and there was a lot of sillyness surrounding it.

I felt really old. I think their fans are getting younger....

It's really to bad, the poor turn out to the show, a lot of people missed out on a great show.

After the show, I thought about hanging out and having a bear with Punchline, since Chris remembered Brandon (although he said he didn't recognize him at first, cause of the beard), but I decided I'd rather go home and see Shannon...

Some things from the past week...

I have a new niece! My older brother and his wife had a little girl, Her name is Laural Annmarie. Congrats!

So this week and part of last I've had a lot of new music. And I mean A lot. I ordered a bunch of CDs with tax return money (Shannon got something so I got something too).

So here's the list:

Ben Folds - Rockin the Suburbs
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Amen
Brother Ali - Champion
Brother Ali - Shadows On The Sun
Coheed & Cambria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness
Coheed & Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Depeche Mode - Exciter
Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel
Fall out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree [Limited "Black Clouds and Underdogs" Edition]
Greig - Piano Music, Vol. 5
Kanye West - Late Registration
Kanye West - The College Dropout
Punchline - 37 Everywhere
Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds
25 Wedding Favorites
Monty Python's Spamalot (Original Cast Recording)
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall [LIVE]

Yeah I went a bit nuts, but right now I'm stuck on Brother Ali and Coheed & Cambria....I've seen Brother Ali at the Vaudville Mews (amazing) and I'll be seeing him in a month or so in Omaha with Atmosphere.

I started walking again, instead of excersizing in the basement (the videos bore me to tears). I changed my path so that there is more up and down hills, instead of the basically flat Franklin Ave. It's been nice.

It was hot yesterday. I think it hit 89 degrees...it's april, it's supposed to be much cooler. I actually seriously considered turning on the air conditioning yesterday... It's in the 80s again today...

My Gramma had a heart attack last week, but has recovered a bit an is back in the nursing home. From the sounds of what my parents say, she is making an effort again, so she can go home (instead of being at the nursing home). I need to get up there and see her (and my new niece).

I made pot roast this past Sunday. It turned out pretty well, I vaguely followed the recipe...more just used it as a general idea. But the beef was tender and very spiced (spicy mustard will do that).

We got chocolate eggs from Choclate Stam...and well so far they've been amazing. Good things for easter.

Speaking of Easter, Brandon mentioned that Val's family was coming for easter, and with all honesty, I asked him, "That's this weekend?". You think maybe I'm out of touch a little?

(Insert Religion Name) (Insert Type of Music) Music...

So I've long held the belief that music, like Christian Rock, are not as good as most mainstream music and the only reason why they are published is because they have a built in market of people that will buy them just for thier religous content.

This, I think, is also proven by my current artist that I'm listening to. Matisyahu. His strong Jewish beliefs show through clearly in his music and here the thing...I love it cause it's good. It's really good.

I think it really shows that if the music was good I'd like it....if you take more classical music, which is inspired by religion, I really enjoy it..

Oh well...just a thought.

Panic! and Gramma

So after work yesterday, I went home, changed, ate some dinner, and headed over to the Val Air Ballroom to see the XBox 360 tour....well ok I went to see Panic! at the Disco. The rest of the bands I didn't really care that much about.

So the first two bands, well...they were ok, I guess. The second band started and I was like hey that's a good intro, then they started singing and then I suddenly didn't care anymore.

Panic! started and it was pretty good. The last time I saw them, the lead singer said that he was a bit sick and having trouble, and it really showed. They were really good live, before, and they were better this time. The second song in I got a call from Shannon (at home, not her style of music), that told me that my dad called about my Gramma.

So I spent most of the set wondering what was going on, is gramma sick, is gramma worse then sick? did she break something?

All these things kept going through my head, it really was terrible.

so when the set was over (since I could barely hear brandon and val and they were yelling right by me), I tried to find a quiet corner to call my dad.

I did get the gist of what was going on, Gramma's got an infection, She's in the hospital, we're hoping for the best. Some of the more finer details I'll leave off, since it's her life, not mine. It was still hard hearing dad, cause even if it was a bit quieter, it was still pretty loud.

After the next band started, I pretty much shrugged at them and headed home.

Visiting Ames, The Birdman, and the rest of the week...

Wednesday night, we headed over to Chris and Pat's to watch the Grapes of Wrath, for the AFI top 100 film watching thing. It was a good movie. I brought over the bottle of white that I had chilled for valentine's day. The wine was ok, not great. The movie was pretty good. Certainly gives a few into how the whole depression worked. Good times...

As soon as I had gotten home from work, on Thursday, (Shannon had taken the day off), we headed up to Ames. We wanted to get there early enough to eat and maybe make it to the book store (I was going to buy an ISU diploma frame or two so I could put up my diplomas on the wall).

So the weather was supposed all nasty and awful, as was predicted, but it really wasn't that bad, or so I thought. The Interstate was fine, and until we turned off I35 on to Highway 30...Suddenly it was very windy. Apprenty the wind was blowing south.

I gave Seth and Briana a call and they agreed to meet us for dinner. I had been craving Great Plains Pizza for a while. It's one of the two resturants in Ames that I actually miss (The other being Battle's BBQ). So we went there. We had pizza and some soda and it was great. We caught up with Seth and Bri, which was great. I got to do my favorite part of the pizza, taking the end of the thick wheat crust and covering it in honey to finish it off. Their pizza is probably my favorite that I've had.

So being that we still had lots of time to the concert, we headed next door to the Corner Pocket. Seth, Bri and I had a Guiness and Shannon had a Bacardi Raz and Seth and I played a game of pool (which he let me win). Afterwards we said our goodbyes and Shannon and I headed to the M-Shop.

We parked, headed in, checked to see if the book store was open (it wasn't, it had closed 15 minutes before), and then, since we were still running early, headed in to the reading library (which during my 6 years at ISU I had never actually gone in), and hung out for a little while and read.

So we headed down to get into the show, and apprently because of some sort of delay, the show wasn't going to open it's doors until 8:30 (instead of 8). So we stood around and waited and waited...

and waited...

At around 8:50 they finally opened the doors. We had been near the doors, until we both started feeling a little crowded and moved more to the back of the line and less of a crowd.

It took us a while to get in and were a bit disappointed when we found out that they didn't have chairs setup...

So we took a spot to the side of the stage where it wasn't so crowded and then moved back a bit to get out of direct line of the speakers.

The first person up was Haley Bonar. She had a very breathy voice and she sang folksy songs about various things, including her cat. We both liked her, enough so we tried to buy her album, after her set...and...well...couldn't. The Andrew Bird people were not selling her stuff, and she was no where to be found...But after the entire show, we picked up both Lure the Fox and The Size of Planets. I'll let you know how much I like her albums when I get a chance to sit down and listen to them both...

Next up was Martin Dosh. Shannon really didn't like how much bass there was. But after it listened to it for a while, I kinda liked it, not enough to buy...yet...but certainly enough to see him with someone else I liked. A good example of his music and how he does it is in this video.

Then the headliner, Andrew Bird. Now this is the same guy where after I saw him in October in 2004 I went out and bought all the albums that he had. He played with Martin Dosh and Haley Bonar over his set, and he had quite the mix of the old and current (redone in the way that his music grows and changes) and the new as well. With the new really making me crave his next album, which his site says should be recorded this year. Sometimes when he was talking between songs, I wanted to whack some people on the head and tell them to stop talking and pay attention to the show. But I was impressed. By the end of the show, Shannon was getting very tired, so we prepared to go.

He did do an encore, and for that he also had everyone that had played over the night help him out on the last few songs. It really was a good time. Here's a good video from his website on how he does his shows., not the best audio quality... Over here they have an entire show, audio quality much better.

I bought Haley's CDs and then we headed home. It was really cold, but the roads were fine. We got home at around 1 AM. I had to print out maps and make sure Shannon's phone got charged up so I didn't get into bed until 1:30 or 1:45, which made getting up at 6:AM to shovel the light fluffy snow all the tougher, espically since it was windy and cold.

I was a bit grumpy until Brandon and I took a trip to La Mie and I got myself a mocha and a cinnamon roll, then my day started to look up.

Shannon's Mom was coming up to take a peek at the wedding venues, and spend some time with shannon to get a better idea of decorations, colors, and what not. So they headed over to the wedding chapel and met the caterer (Winstons/Chef's Kitchen) at the nature lodge. I met up with them and we had lunch at Palmer's over in West Des Moines.

So with discussions with the Nature Lodge and Winston's/Chef's Kitchen, we are going to have a Cash bar. The contract that I got from the nature lodge pretty much said we'd have to pay for everything, but when I emailed and asked, it turns out as long as our caterer has the license and the insurance, then it's fine to actually sell beer/wine. Of course I've now asked for a new contract, cuase the way this one is written doesn't make any damn sense, for what we want to do.

So to clarify and ask a few questions, Shannon and I went to Chef's Kitchen for dinner (through the very cold weather). They let us sample a bottle of Champagne to use for the wedding, which, for Shannon, got a "It's not to bad", which, from her, concerning booze, is more like a this is pretty damn good! from other people. It was not very strong and more fruity then dry, so I think it'll work out great for us. Dinner was good too...yes...we had champagne and french fries :) I had the muffeletta sandwhich and Shannon had the chicken alfredo sandwhich.

Aftewards we rented The Producers and Must Love Dogs, and went home to watch them. We watched The Producers, during which, since I had around 4 hours of sleep, I fell asleep once or twice, I'll probably watch it again today though. For me, around 9:PM I headed up to go to bed. When Shannon came up, I got up and brushed my teeth and actually got ready for bed rather then sleep in my clothes.

Busy at home, busy at work, it gets tiring.

little things

Shannon came home last night with a drastically changed hair cut. She went to salon that she had reccommended her by a co-worker. I did balk a little when she told me how much it cost (I gave her the money that her dad gave me and she had the money that her dad gave her and it was more then that). But has trouble believing me when I tell her she looks pretty (She has said that she thinks I'd find her pretty in a potato sack). I dunno about all that, but I did have trouble keeping my eyes off her all night...so...she should take that as a hint (she even commented on it).

Made home made mac and cheese a couple of days ago. It was good...needs a bit more sauce and less bay leaf...it was even good reheated in the microwave (had it for lunch today). It was a lot easier then I thought it'd be, although it dirtys more pans then you do when you make box mac, but it has a lot less salt...

My older brother, his family, and one of my younger sisters are coming down tonight. Alissa is flying out tomarrow, and so they thought they should stop by and visit (for longer then 30 mintes). I'm gonna cook 'em dinner and breakfast too. For dinner we're going to have veal and lamb meatloaf (mmm...baby animals), and real mashed potatoes. I'm also gonna pick up some bread from La Mie. For breakfast I'm gonna make some french toast (with Challah from La Mie) along with bacon and sausage...maybe I need some potatoes there too...

I'm taking work off tomarrow...so today is my last day of work for the year....mmm...no worky. I got all the things that I needed to do done, or am at least waiting on other people to get back to me.

I got me a bottle of Laphroaig 15 year old Whiskey. I'm taking it to CR for the tiny little quiet new years celebration at the Matta's. So no ending up passed out on the kitchen floor.

I've been playing a new playlist that was suggested to me by Brandon. It's been kinda fun. It's songs with a 4 or 5 star rating (out of 5) that haven't been played in 2 months. Some of the songs I've been shocked that I've not heard them in that long (Been Caught Stealing), and other's have gotten demoted to 3 star status. But it's kinda nice to go through.