10/21/06

walking down the street we just randomly peeked into an open door and.. holy crap, there’s a bar in there. no sign out front at all. we wander in and the place is pretty small but pretty lively. the bartender was super nice and it really seemed like the kind of place that would be perfect for hangin’ out at and getting to know people. drinks were ridiculously cheap… our beers were 3$. they had a fun jukebox and the bartender would sing along to some of the songs. we asked the bartender what the place was called and she said that she guesses it’s called Geary Bar, but really it’s just no-name bar. there’s something really cool about a bar that has no name. if our friends hadn’t dragged us away, i would have wanted to stay longer…

Geary Club is at 768 Geary Street in San Francisco

10/21/06

i had read a bunch of reviews about this place so i kind of knew what to expect… a slick looking space and a bunch of yuppies. when i walked in, i instantly noticed how large the place seemed with its huge vaulted ceilings. i also liked the exposed brick in the wall. but after being there a bit, the place just seemed *too* empty. maybe they needed some couches or something, but i just felt like i was in an empty warehouse or something. too much dead space. also, there weren’t that many people there either, so that made it seem even more dead. the bar itself was fairly small and i just kept having the feeling like some people had set up a makeshift counter in an empty building. ok, ok, obviously the place wasn’t just “thrown together", but i just wasn’t feelin’ it. the drinks were pretty damn good though. i had a basil gimlet which although a bit of an odd combo, worked pretty well i thought.

Rye is at 688 Geary Street in San Francisco

8/13/06

dayum, this post is like 2 months late. i turned 30 this year. yup, 30. in my mind, that’s just insane. 30 has always seemed so old to me. like, your 20s are this nice in between age where everything is still ok, but 30 year olds… that’s straight up adult. 30 year olds are grown ups who are serious and have careers etc. i keep feeling like there’s some weird mistake.. there’s no way i could be that age. i’m still a young guy… right? so, as it got closer and closer to my birthday, i was really not looking forward to it. luckily, i figured out a foolproof plan to get through it:

1) avoid thinking about it as much as possible
2) spend the last 2 weeks leading up to your birthday having a blast in a foreign country (distraction)
3) arrive home on the day before your birthday and have a huge party (be sure to get really drunk)
4) spend your birthday recovering from the day before and celebrate all over again
5) home free! it’s all in the past now!

ok, i’m kind of kidding… well, partially.

my birthday celebration was hella fun. we rented this party bus that drove us all around the city. there’s something really cool about being driven around the city and being able to party it up the whole time. the bus had a soundsystem inside, natasha rocked her ipod, and everyone got trashed. we went to a bunch of bars, and also stopped by levis plaza for a little bit to have cake. the cake was bomb… but a damned security guard kicked us out of the plaza soon enough. we ended the night at the beach.

here’s some photos that i stole from natasha’s site:

i couldn’t have had too much to drink?

some more photos at natasha’s site

*v

usually i leave shopping for a costume until within a couple days of Halloween. I’ll drive down to the Halloween superstore and spend some time frantically running around and searching through the leftover costumes and debris. this time, for once, i actually got a costume early. along w/ natasha and erica, i’m gonna be a pink bunny this year. pretty random.

Caryn’s friend Becky had a Halloween party last weekend, so i got to try out the costume. driving through the streets of sf, 2 weeks before Halloween, was pretty funny. lots of people yelled out and waved from their cars.

i called my brother only 45 minutes before the party and tried to convince him to go (how’s that for short notice?). despite not having a costume, he was able to throw something together at the last second.

Joey’s costume was pretty funny

*v

it looks like nobody was really able to download this mix when i posted it the first time. ugh.

so, i’m reposting it here with a new url which should actually work.

the new link is at: http://www.thisisvlad.com/music/

the tracklisting is still:

1. Metric - Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)
2. Mystery Jets - The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-dub)
3. The Futureheads - Skip To The End (Digitalism Remix)
4. Justice vs simian - We Are Your Friends
5. Para One - Dudun-Dun (MSTRKRFT Remix)
6. The Presets - Are You The One?
7. SebastiAn - Walkman
8. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version)
9. The Valentinos - CCTV (Bang Gang vs. Van She Tech Remix)
10. The Rapture - Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh
11. The Gossip - Listen Up (ATOC Extended Mix)
12. Klaxons - Gravity’s Rainbow (Van She Remix)
13. Animal Machine - Persona (Para One Remix)
14. Young Love - Discotech (ocelot remix)
15. Bloc Party - Banquet (boys noize remix)
16. The Killers - Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s The White Duke mix)

The kind of music i listen to is constantly changing. sometimes i’ll listen to a ton of indie stuff, then be into breaks for a while, then underground hiphop, then whatever. for a long time i’ve been really psyched on indie tracks with an electro edge, and lately there’s been a ton of those kind of tracks coming out. apparently, NME dubs this stuff “new rave” (how lame is that?) but everyone has their own name for it… i prefer indietronic. it’s all indie guitars mixed with hard beats mixed with electro mixed with an 80’s flair. I’ve been downloading shit like crazy from Pound for Pound and any other site i can find.

I recently downloaded a copy of MixMeister to mix some tracks together. now, after djing for hella years, mixing with anything other than vinyl seems almost like sacriledge, but i decied to give it a shot. dayum, it really wasn’t easy. unlike house etc which is pretty much made to be perfect for mixing, a lot of these songs were really tough. listening to other mixes, i noticed that so many of the transitions are just hard cuts into the next song instead of trying to make a long mix… isn’t that pretty much cheating? anyways, here’s my first attempt at putting something together. cut me some slack…. i’m still getting used to the software and to mixing this kind of music. if you listen to it, lemme know what you think…

the tracklist:

1. Metric - Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)
2. Mystery Jets - The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-dub)
3. The Futureheads - Skip To The End (Digitalism Remix)
4. Justice vs simian - We Are Your Friends
5. Para One - Dudun-Dun (MSTRKRFT Remix)
6. The Presets - Are You The One?
7. SebastiAn - Walkman
8. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version)
9. The Valentinos - CCTV (Bang Gang vs. Van She Tech Remix)
10. The Rapture - Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh
11. The Gossip - Listen Up (ATOC Extended Mix)
12. Klaxons - Gravity’s Rainbow (Van She Remix)
13. Animal Machine - Persona (Para One Remix)
14. Young Love - Discotech (ocelot remix)
15. Bloc Party - Banquet (boys noize remix)
16. The Killers - Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont’s The White Duke mix)

You can download the mix here or here. Neither of these links work correctly. instead, go here: http://thisisvlad.com/music/.

*v

10/07/06

i was a bit wary about going here after reading a bunch of yelp reviews. it seems a lot of people have had incredibly heinous experiences. but, this place isn’t too far from home, and plus it was on the way to Amber which is where we were heading. ok, i definitely have to agree with people who complained about this place being really slow. when we got to the bar, there were only two people waiting for drinks before us, and yet it took centuries to get served. but, as we watched the bartendender make drinks for the people in front of us, we all realized that the drinks they make here are probably worth the wait. each drink was concocted with a zillion different ingredients, and painstakingly perfect and then tasted to be sure it was just right. these were no ordinary coctails.

i decided to order off the menu and the bartended just askedf wheteher i want a drink that’s sweet, sour, fruity, etc. i said i wanted something a little sweet but not too sweet, with raspberries, and tart. i ended up getting some amazing creation with mashed raspberries, chunks of watermelon, peppercorns, cardemom pods, mint, and other stuff. this drink was seriously insane… and then i tasted it… DAYUM!!! SO GOOD!!! every sip was incredible (except when i would accidenatlly sip up a whole peppercorn through the straw, ouch!). my friend got a drink made with bourbon and peaches that was super good too.

it turns out that we had gotten there just in time, cause a few minutes later, there was a mob at the bar. so in the end, if you want an absolutely amazing drink, check out the orbit room and order something that is not on the menu. you may have to wait a while, but it’ll be damn worth it.

the Orbit Room is at 1900 Market Street in San Francisco

10/07/06

this place is a pretty cool spot to get a drink by the bay. there’s great views of coit tower on one side and the water on the other. it’s a nice chill spot, and better than all the cheezy bars near pier 39/fisherman’s warf. you can get buckets full of beers there, which is a pretty cool idea, though we never got one. the second time we came here, it was totally packed and impossible to get service though….

Pier 23 is at Pier 23 in San Francisco

9/26/06

we were having drinks at poleng when we noticed this place called Gabin. why not try it out? so we walk in and the place is dead. like completely dead. there isn’t a single person in the bar except for the bartender behind the counter. there’s no music playing. just silence in a long empty building. i asked if they were open, and the bartender said yes, so we decided to get drinks although it felt really odd being there. as we played some pool, we realized that this place was a karaoke bar with several small rooms in the back. strangely enough though, we really only heard karaoke once in a long while. plus, each room was staffed with a woman who would only come out of the room very rarely to get soem drinks and then go back inside. veeeeerrrry suspicious. while we played pool, the bartender just stared at us the whole time.

i read online later that this place is a brothel. somehow that just isn’t a surprise…

Gabin is at 1775 Fulton in San Francisco

9/26/06

this bar was really cool. the decor was nice and they had two large video screens showing some really cool travel photos that made me all nostalgic about traveling in india. their signature drinks were a bit pricey but actually tasted super good. most of them are cocktails made w/ tea, various fruits, and other stuff. the one i got had a bunch of raspberry pulp and was bomb!

Poleng is at 1751 Fulton Street in San Francisco