ThisIsVlad

3/19/06

i somehow managed to go to 4 concerts this week. my poor ears.

concert 1

sunday night, i saw the Flock of Seagulls. yes, the old school 80’s band that is famous for their wacky hair. i really didnt want to pay the 20$ that this show cost, but at the last minute, my brother talked me into going. when else would i get a chance to see Flock of Seagulls? halfway during my drive up to SF i realized that i couldn’t think of a single song that they had ever done. my brother could remember only one, “i ran”. uh-oh… why had i ever decided to go to this?

once inside the concert, i regretted being there even more. all the people there were super old and all of a sudden i realized that when this band was big, i was only 10 years old. when they came out and played, everyone i the audience looked bored out of their mind. people weren’t even nodding their heads to the music. even opening bands get the crowd more pumped than this. everyone there had one goal and one goal only: to hear a couple of songs from one album written back in the early 80s. no one cared about any of the new material. it was a really sad scene really. seeing these guys who used to be really famous, and now they could barely get a 100 people to come to their show and they played mostly songs that nobody cared about. i dont know what would be more depressing: having something wonderful and just letting it fade and disappear into the past, or instead to drag it with you and keep milking it till it’s on its last legs. finally, they played their hit song “i ran” and everyone was excited and started dancing. oh, and the flock of seagulls haircut that they are so famous for… gone. the guy was wearing a baseball hat and i bet that he is bald.

concert 2

Wednesday night, through some mailing list, i somehow won tickets to go see The Guillemots. not only had i never heard of them, but i didnt even know how to pronounce their name. i pretty much had no idea what to expect from them other than that they were British and that their music was somewhat experimental. they ended up actually being pretty damn good. some of their songs were a bit boring, but some of them were really fun. they kind of have a “badly drawn boy” kind of feel to them. at one point though, everyone left the stage except for the lead singer who started singing without a mic and plinking away on this tiny little keyboard. he was so quiet that all the murmuring in the back almost drowned him out. that part was a bit hatin’ it.

concert 3

thursday night we went up to see Vitalic, a super good electronic artist from France. he was supposed to play at Boca, a brand new venue, but unfortunately, Boca somehow managed not to open during it’s opening week extravaganza, and so the show got moved to the mezzanine. the venue was way to big for such a small show, so it seemed really empty and weird. the show itself was pretty cool though. he didnt play too much of his more mellow stuff, probably cause he was playing at midnight set, so all the music was kind of harder techno-ish stuff. still cool.

concert 4

friday, we drove up all the way to Reno to see Franz Ferdinand play with Death Cab For Cutie. after being in Vegas just recently, Reno was looking pretty sad. one second you’re driving through downtown, and a second later all of a sudden town is over. the casinos here try to be all shiny and glitzy but sadly enough, they just kind of look cheesy. oh well, we were here for a concert and not for the town. we did get a bunch of games of Craps in. i didn’t win much (any) money as usual though.

the concert itself was really good. Franz Ferdinand was first and they had crazy energy. all of their stuff is just so fun. after they came on, i really wondered how Death Cab could keep the energy level up. i like death cab better, but they just are so mellow. it really didnt seem to make sense to have them second. surprisingly though, they totally rocked it. their stuff was way less mellow live than it is on CD and people really got into it. plus, the set they had on stage was way cool with these weird angular houses, tree backdrops, and a screen that looked like highrises in the back.

Reno Hilton

Franz Ferdinand

Death Cab For Cutie

Death Cab For Cutie

-v

what exactly is the deal with San Mateo that it thinks it can charge way more for gas than everywhere else? yeah, gas is expensive these days, but still most stations are selling gas for like $2.75. the Shell station by my work in san mateo is selling the cheap unleaded gas for $3.14!!!! what the hell?!?

and, speaking of gas, dan recently showed me this link. now i think i’ve seen it all.

-v

wow. I really can’t even begin to describe how disgusted I am right now. ugh.

the other night I was listening to the radio when I heard a news report about people having protests and demonstrations next to soldiers’ funerals. Now, I am totally against the war in Iraq. From the very beginning, I’ve thought that attacking a country without any real justification is utter crap. So of course I totally support people who protest against the war, but doing so at a soldier’s funeral is just wrong. First off, there’s no reason to be disrespecting soldiers… it’s not like it was their decision to go to war; they’re just following orders. Second, regardless of who is at fault, it’s just messed up to be disrespecting the dead and to cause any additional grief to the families/friends of those who are mourning. There’s a time and a place to make yourself heard, and at a funeral is not it.

But it gets worse. As I continued listening to the radio, I found out that these people aren’t protesting the war at all. They’re protesting… homosexuals. Yes that’s right. You may wonder what the fuck gay people have to do with soldier’s funerals. Well it turns out that these people believe that the reason why our troops are being killed in Iraq is that America is tolerant of gay people. Yes, believe it or not, that is the twisted fucking logic that these people believe. They think that because people in our country are ok with people being gay, god is punishing us all by killing our troops. How utterly insane does one have to be to believe such utter crap?? And fine, if you’re going to be an total dumbass and have such idiotic views, then keep them to yourself… don’t go and agonize those who just lost their loved ones.

The people who are doing this belong to the Westboro Baptist Church, and they have been doing it so frequently that 5 separate states so far have had to pass laws making it illegal to protest within 300 feet of a funeral. These people, who’s website is quaintly named “godhatesfags.com”, really are fucking unbelievable and I was just horrified at some of the signs that they bring to these funerals. “fag soldiers in hell”, “Thank god for dead soldiers”, and “they turned America over to fags, they’re coming home in body bags”. Also, apparently being a psychotic homophobe is something the whole family can enjoy, as they bring their little kids to join in the “fun”.

really, what the hell is wrong with these people? It’s almost hard to believe that people like this exist. UGH.

*v

Last week I wrote about how Dan was going to have his kitty talked to by a kitty psychic. The appointment was scheduled for a Tuesday evening, and that night we sat there eagerly waiting to see what the hell would happen. Dan set up this crazy microphone contraption so that he could record the whole thing on his laptop. Dan’s cat lazily lounged around in the living room, completely unaware that tonight it would be having its very first telephone conversation.

Eventually the psychic called. She asked Dan to describe his cat to her, and tell her what it looked like, how old it was, etc etc. now, you would think that a super powerful psychic would be able to figure this kind of stuff out on her own, but whatever. After discussing what issues the cat was having (it poops outside the box and also chews up all the electrical wires inside the house), the psychic said that we could now hang up the phone. She was going to contact the cat psychically and have a conversation with it. She would write down the conversation as it happened, and then call us back and tell us what was talked about. Wow. I don’t know what I thought would be more weird… if she talked with the cat on the phone, or if she just somehow communicated without a phone or anything.

So, we hung up the phone and waited. The cat ran around the house and played as it usually did. If it was having a conversation with someone, it sure didn’t show it. Meanwhile, somewhere in Oakland, the kitty psychic was probably frantically scribbling in her notepad… or who knows, maybe she was kicking back and watching Animal planet on TV while scarfing granola. This whole situation was just so absolutely ridiculous.

Finally, the phone rang. Kitty psychic was done with her conversation. So, apparently, when asked why she poops in the box, the cat replied that it was because she sometimes gets a cramp and has difficulty climbing in the box. Now, this is utterly bullshit. It’s not like this is some old unfit cat. This cat races around the house frantically at a billion miles per hour all day long. There’s no way this cat would have difficulty climbing a few inches into a cat box. The kitty psychic continued reading off her conversation with the cat.

Dude, it was so hysterically funny. Dan, Caryn and I desperately tried to keep from laughing like crazy during the whole thing. The psychic would describe the cat as giving her “surprised wide-eyed looks” and feeling bad for pooping in Dan’s house. Apparently the kitty was sorry for pooping outside the box and it promised that it would try to not do tit again. As for the wires, the cat claimed that it chews them because its teeth hurt it and it needs to chew on something. Well, the psychic told it that it shouldn’t chew the wires anymore and the cat said it would stop. The cat was then asked what it wanted from Dan, to which it said that it wants sunshine, fresh air, rides on shoulders, fresh water, and naps in laps.

And that was pretty much it. The psychic then discussed with Dan some options that he might look into like taking the cat to the vet etc. the whole thing was just so hokey. I mean, I was hoping that she would say at least one thing… just one thing… that could identify Dan’s cat, Dan’s house, or anything really. Just anything that she couldn’t have known. But we got nothing. She told us a bunch of junk that pretty much anyone could have made up. Man, if all it takes to be a kitty psychic is to be able to come up with creative stories for 90$ per hour, then sign me up! So, we were all hella disappointed by it all. And to top it all off, less than half an hour after it was all over… the cat took a crap on the floor. Thanks kitty psychic.

*v

3/11/06

the other day was caryn’s and my anniversary. believe it or not, we’ve been together for 3 years now. pretty awesome, eh? we tried to think of something special that we could do to celebrate and in the end decided to go to Restaurant Gary Danko. we’ve always wanted to try that place out, but it’s crazy expensive, so we were always kind of waiting for a special enough occasion to come along. we got a hotel room up in SF and made sure to eat only a light meal earlier in the day since we knew it would be an extremely filling meal. when we got to the hotel, it turned out that we arrived right during free beer and wine hour! really, complementary beer and wine? well, unfortunately we wanted to preserve our appetites, so we didnt have any.

the hotel room we stayed in was small, but i really liked the funky way that it was decorated. we got dressed for dinner, and for some bizarre reason the pants that i had bought in Indonesia didn’t fit at all. uh-oh. 30 minutes till dinner, and my pants are completely jacked. ugh. in the end, i had no choice but to wear my regular cargo pants with my dress shirt and tie. sheez, what a winner… thank god the place was dimly lit. it’s crazy how well known this restaurant is. the place is super famous and usually is booked solid a month in advance. the people at the hotel, the cab driver, and basically everyone we spoke to was all “Gary Danko? oh wow, nice!”. going there isn’t just going to dinner, it’s practically an event.

At the restaurant, we decided to get the five course meal… it was going to be a ton of food, but we wanted to try as much different stuff as possible. the meal started out with this tiny sample of Fois Gras Mousse with dried fruits. holy crap… this was seriously one of the best things i’ve ever tasted. i’ve always been a fan of Fois Gras, and this stuff was fantastic. wow, if the free pre-dinner snack was this good, i could only imagine what the rest of the night would be like.

As predicted, the food was amazing. really, really, really good. delicious grilled scallops, mini lobsters, seared ahi, lamb, etc etc… everything was crazy delicious and drizzled with amazing sauces. the foods were also paired with wine so we got a glass of wine with each course that perfectly matched our food. the service was super good as well. the waiter would explain everything that we were being served in detail and give us a lot of information about the wines that we were drinking. each course smoothly melted into the next and there was no pressure to eat fast, yet we never had to wait long in between dishes… everything just happened perfectly on time.

after the first three courses, we each got to pick 4 different types of cheeses from the cheese cart. for variety, i tried goat cheese, sheep’s cheese, and two different cow cheeses. all the cheese was delicious. and since we each had 4 different kinds, there was tons of variety to choose from. by this point, we were starting to get pretty full. when desert came, it was almost difficult to eat anymore even though each course had been fairly small. my soufflé was just ok, but caryn’s trio of crème brullees was the bomb… coffee, almond, and chocolate flavored. YUM. wow, what an incredible dinner. of course, such things dont come cheap, and when we got the bill it was a whopping $400. ouch!! oh well, it was totally worth it to do this kind of thing on a special occasion… and our meal lasted almost 4 hours!

*v