ilovemycanoe's Xanga

Chicago/Lolla Review? Ok...

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 18:28:59 GMT

Wow. Hmmm. When we got there on Tuesday night (8/1) we go stuck in traffic around 10pm and decided to get off the highway and find our way to Josh's place...little did we know that we would end up in Chinatown...and in Greek town. I didn't even know that there was a Greek Town. After another good hour or so, we made it to Josh's place.
The next day I had my first Chicago style stuffed pizza...it was delicious. We also went to a place called Cereality, which was amazing because you get to create your own concoction of cereal goodness. We revisited the Bean and the Crown Fountains in Millenium park and from there headed to The Art Institute. We saw stuff like American Gothic, vanGogh self-portrait, and Nighthawks.

I wanted to go see a few other things...but I got a call from Josh asking if we could come back to the apartment because we had his keys and he was locked out. Which reminds me...I stole for the first time in my life while I was there...it was on accident. Josh told us to go to the hardware store and make copies of his keys. We did...but little did we know, we were supposed to pay for it. Which sounds dumb, but as we were walking out I was holding the bag of keys in my hand and the cashier looks at us and smiles and says "have a nice day!" Then when Josh asked us how much they cost later, well...yeah. Josh's place was pretty awesome. We had 6 roommates while we lived there...3 boys - Josh, Mark, and Jeff...and 3 kitties - Dulcinea, Killer, and Timmie (aka Colonel McSwishy Hips).
Oh Chicago... we actually became pretty "city" while we were there. Allie increased her walking speed, and we took the L just about everywhere. I think the brown line got about 50 bucks from us combined. We even helped out people that needed directions in the city and a family that was visiting and wanted to know fun things to do. I can't wait to live there...again.
Our second night there we went to the Cubs game...at least we tried to. Major rain out.

I was very sad...

Josh tried to lighten the mood by creating fun hair styles...?

Anyway, after, we went to some Thai place and I had Thai food for the first time ever. Eh. Not a big fan.

We also went to The Field Museum and The Museum of Science and Industry. Science and Industry was ridiculous...I loved it. But lets get on to Lollapalooza...
We saw: Cursive, Midlake, eels, Stars, Ryan Adams, Mates of State, The Secret Machines, Nada Surf (the band that had that hit "Popular" many years back), Built to Spill, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, The New Pornographers, Ben Kweller, Andrew Bird, about 30 seconds of 30 Seconds to Mars (that band sucks...but Jared Leto is pretty), The Shins, Of Montreal, Wilco, and Broken Social Scene.
The greatest set was The Flaming Lips...Holy crap, they can put on a good show...

The next greatest was either Cursive or Of Montreal. Cursive brought a lot of energy and had practically the entire audience singing along. The songs Art Is Hard and Gentleman Caller were amazing.

Of Montreal was basically one giant dance party...Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal ended up like this at one point... which I think will say enough about their performance...

The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Wilco, Mates of State, Nada Surf, Midlake, Secret Machines, and Ben Kweller all had pretty good sets, too. The worst was probably The Shins...but it wasn't their fault because the sound wasn't working that well. Built to Spill and Ryan Adams also didn't have very good sets...but what can ya do? I could probably talk all day about Lolla...but I'll spare you. I took A LOT of pics and I'll post a link to them at the bottom of this entry.
Anyway, on our last day there, Taylor Davis and his friend Aaron came into town and we decided to show them the city. We went back to that pizza place, then took them downtown. It was quite fun. They had to head off because they needed to do sound check at the venue they would be playing at that night so allie and I went back to our Chicago home. Surprisingly, all of the boys were home (very surprising since we hadn't really seen Josh for about 5 days...but uh...that's a more interesting story for a different day)...and Mark and Jeff told us to go to the grocery store with them...which was good...I guess? Then they dropped us off at Tay's show and that was pretty much the night. The next morning we got up, drove 15 hours home, and yeah...sad days.

Okay, I guess I should start packing for Norman...I move in on Tuesday...woo.

Here's pics:
Chicago Album
Lollapalooza Album

hello?

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:57:28 GMT

Well, Allie and I leave for Chicago tomorrow. It's about time…we've been planning for this trip since December or something. Anyway, we'll be staying with our good friend Josh in downtown about 3 blocks away from Wrigley Field…which I think is pretty amazing. While we are there, we're going to a Cubs game (we have bleacher seats and plan on reenacting the movie Rookie of the Year), the Field Museum (hopefully to see King Tut), The Museum of Science and Industry, The International Museum of Surgical Science, The Art Institute (to reenact Ferris Bueller?), Lincoln Park Zoo, and…oh yeah, Lollapalooza :). At Lollapalooza we will be seeing Midlake, Cursive, Eels, Stars, Ryan Adams, Mates of State, The Secret Machines, My Morning Jacket, The Violent Femmes (maybe), Nada Surf, Built to Spill, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, The New Pornographers, Ben Kweller, Andrew Bird, The Shins, Of Montreal, Wilco, and Broken Social Scene.

Fantastic.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 16:03:37 GMT

Hey kids.

2 more weeks of school. Yet I have about 589 papers to write. And by 589 I mean 7…but still. Over the summer I have to take another class and go back to work, but Allie and I are going to take another Chicago trip…and I get to work some camps and such, so it could be fun. Holy crap, I actually miss Plano a lot…and a lot of people that live there. I want to see all of you when I get home. And I know how excited you all must be to see my face as well.

Well, not too much crap has been going on lately. Just lots of schoolwork and stress. This is the first weekend I've been in Norman since march 3-5. Weird. There was spring break, then I was a leader for the dnow back home, then went down to hpu to visit frisco+friends for HPUfest, then went to see the phantom of the opera, and then last weekend was Easter…so yeah. I tried catching up on some work this weekend and went to the library to do research. Okay, that place already creeped me out…but holy crap – it's too freaking huge. First, some chick that worked there yelled at me because I asked if she could help me find something in the stacks…but apparently what everyone calls the stacks is actually the decks…and the stacks are just the regular floors? I don't know. Anyway, I got lost on the 4^th floor, and…wait, what the crap am I doing? I'm writing an entry about the library.

I think I'm done.

Oh wait - Norman people - come to the BYX Island Party on Friday…Allie and I scheduled the bands. It's Sanctus Real, The Afters (Blisse), and Mainstay…I don't really care for the other bands, but at least come watch our friends play (the afters) and hang out with us. It's in the Walker-Adams Mall (outside in between the dorms) around 5 or 6 I think. Call me if you come out. Oh, and does anyone want to go see John Vanderslice at the Opolis with me on May 4? No? Okay, it's cool…I'll go alone and still be awesome.

South by Southwest + some

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 05:20:11 GMT

So it’s Sunday…meaning spring break is over.

That sucks.

But – this spring break was definitely a great one…maybe the best one I’ve had yet. It was full of music and friends and such. I’ll sum up the beginning of the break in a few sentences. I saw Mates of State and Midlake at the Gypsy Team Room w/ Laura on Friday, don’t remember Saturday…don’t remember Sunday, on Monday, 3^rd Eye Blind played a free show down the street so me, burger, Robby, and Ethan went…it was cold. Yes. On Tuesday I turned 20. I spent time with my fam and went to dinner with Danielle. Good times.

Okay, on to South by Southwest.
Hell yes.

Wednesday
Allie and I had lots of good luck on this day. It was weird. We woke up early and drove to Austin. It only took us 3 hours and we didn’t hit any traffic. We exited on 6^th street and managed to find a parking spot on the side of the street about a block away from the venue we wanted to go to (believe me, this was amazing…there were so many people on the street). We saw Chris from Troubled Hubble…it was kind of awkward because we hadn’t really talked to him since we went to Chicago. Well, around 3:30 or so we drove out of downtown to Lake Travis where we would be staying the night w/ our friend, Esther.

Thursday
Well. Hmm. Weird day. We made it downtown around 2 and saw a lot of our friends play (Taylor, Joshua, Lang, porterdavis, + some) at a coffee shop called The Hideout. We stayed there for about 3 hours and made a new friend named Todd. After they were finished we walked over to the Red 7 and saw Midlake play a few songs, and then Taylor called and we left to go eat w/ Taylor, Joshua, Todd, and 7 other people that I had never met at some small Mexican restaurant that I can’t remember the name of… Pretty sure we played 20 questions…and the answer to Taylor’s was ‘the spirit of freedom.’ Right. When we were done eating we went to Tambeleo and saw Mat Kearney and Glen Philips? Allie and I knew nothing about them, but the guys we were with seemed pretty excited. Hell, our new friend Todd even gave Allie his jacket to keep because she took a picture of Todd and Glen Philips together. We stayed there for a couple of hours until the bands started to get awful, and Allie, Joshua, and I drove back to 6^th street. Ooooh 6^th street. Joshua tried desperately to get into the nada surf/mates of state/starlight mints/john vanderslice show, but it didn’t work out….so then he tried to convince some wasted girl to give him her wristband to get into another club. Basically, the conversation between the 2 of them ended like this: girl- “I live about 5 mins from here. Do you want to go have sex?” Haha. Poor guy. Allie and I left him there to ponder that question. Apparently he said no and went into the club where Taylor and Lang were. Lame. kidding… Then Allie and I went to UT (boooo) to meet up with Whit and get some sleep.

Friday
Holy crap. Crazy freaking day. It was probably my favorite. Since the point of Allie and I going to SXSW was to see good shows, we hadn’t done a good job of it….so we made it a point to see some good crap that day. We started at noon and saw Ted Leo + The Pharmacists. That man wore very short shorts. It was enjoyable, though. After their set, we stopped by Urban Outfitters (yes they had shows there, too) and caught Rogue Wave’s set. But I was a bit sad because Of Montreal played before them and I missed it. Anyway, then Allie and I went back to 6^th street and started walking around looking for the Crown and Anchor Pub. As we were on our search, a guy (looked like a leprechaun) ran up behind us and asked where we were going. We told him what we were looking for and he told us that he would help us look for it. Little did we know, his apartment was on that block and he kept insisting that we go into his apartment to help him look for the place online. Hell no. We told him we’d wait outside while he looked and he got frustrated….and magically he all of a sudden remembered where the place was and gave us directions. Apparently the place was about 10 mins from there and we were nowhere close. We got the hell out of there before we got raped and never found what we were looking for. But it’s okay! Because we went to Trophy’s and saw Hockey Night play. It was hands down my favorite show of the festival. They have so much energy and are ridiculously entertaining to watch. I mean, they have 2 drummers… can’t beat that. After the show, we met up with Esther again, and then with Whit and ate at a place called Kirby Lane. Eh. Then, Allie, Esther, and I met up with Taylor and watched Lang’s band play. Went back to 6^th street around 1:30AM and had scary guys sprint down the street after us (pepper spray works wonders even when you don’t spray it, by the way). I’ve never seen so many desperate guys congregated in one place. It was pretty entertaining. Then, it was back to Whit’s for some sleep.

Saturday
Met Esther for some Chinese food and then went to the party at Pok-E-Jo’s where John Vanderslice, The Long Winters, and Andrew Kenny from The American Analog Set were playing. They were running way behind, so we didn’t get to stick around for JV, but we did get to talk to him and have him take pictures in Todd’s jacket…actually, we had many people take pics in Todd’s jacket. He’s going to hate us. Umm, I love John Vanderslice. A lot. Anyway, we drove home after that and yeah. Gay. I hate Austin, but I want to go back.

And today as I was driving back to OU, there was a van in front of me with Minnesota liscence plates…and I was getting really angry because they were driving so slow, but when I was able to see inside, I saw Hockey Night! They were on their way to Kansas to play a show. When I got back to the apartment, I found a flooded kitchen due to massive dripage from the ceiling. Yay.

I left out a lot, but I can’t write anymore.

PICTURES

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 18:01:51 GMT

This will be a rant. It could be fun?

So, I can't stand stupid people...at all. Seriously, how can people be so stupid and still make it in college? Not to mention, I'm pretty much "the baby" in most of my classes...being at least a year younger than the rest of them. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm so thankful that I got the education in High School that I did...this goes for Clark HS (9th and 10th) and Plano East (11th & 12th). Plano East was ridiculously huge (for those of you that aren't from Plano...huge meaning a graduating class of around 1,250...people here in OK seem to think that a class size of 700 is too big. ha), but they had things together. I mean, today I got back a paper that I was positive that I would have gotten a C on. It was no more than a B- paper. I got it back, and holy crap it was a 100. It sounds lame, but sometimes I want to earn what I'm given. If I would have turned that same paper into my 11th grade English teacher, she would have laughed at it, written a fat "F" on it, and then given me a long speech about how I wasn't applying myself... and that if I was going to continue that same work, then I needed to switch into the lower level courses. That teacher was by far the best teacher I've ever had...because basically (excuse my language), she could read through the bullshit. It's so irritating to me when some chick in my math classes doesn't understand why 2+2=4 (okay, so that's an exaggeration...but it doesn't hit too far from the mark). *Don’t get me wrong, I encountered some awful teachers at East along the way…such as Satan (Ms. Williams) – my 11^th grade physics teacher.*
And yes, I fully understand that some people didn't have the option of going to good High Schools, but hell, if you're in college and taking upper level classes - you need to raise the freaking bar. It's like the first time in one of my English classes here, a girl argued with my professor about how she didn't understand why we would write a paper and not use the 5-paragraph format. Are you kidding? That method was Elementary and Middle School work. The girl was almost in tears because she was so frustrated with the idea of being creative in her writing and not sticking to the structured and banal method that she was accustomed to.
I hope this doesn't come across that I think I'm better than anyone, because I definitely am not. This stuff just frustrates me...almost as much as people that complain about how bad life is when they have so much. Seriously, stop using depression to get attention. But that's a whole different rant for another time.

Anyway, I love you all.... and Happy Birthday, Dupes...and happy half-birthday, Burger. oh yeah, and happy belated, Timmy.

Monday, February 06, 2006

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 05:33:43 GMT

Well I made it 3 weeks before apathy kicked in this semester. Which is definitely a record. Usually it takes a day...except during the good years when it took 3-4 days. So now, it doesn't bother me that I have many major assignments due this week. Screw it. I'm still a teenager for at least another month, so I'm going to act like it. Hmm, it doesn't really work that way, does it? One of my assignments is to read 60 picture books and then write a 1-2 page paper on each. I think I'll just read the books, though. Writing papers is asking too much. Plus, I'm going to be a 5th grade teacher...if they are still reading picture books at that age, I'm kicking them out of my classroom. Just kidding...but seriously.
In my Schools in American Cultures class I get to student teach in downtown OKC. Holy Crap! OKC actually has a ghetto! It's freakin amazing. I'm trying to make some friends with the homeless people in the area. They seem really nice. But anyway, my class is awesome. Some of them don't speak english...actually theres only 2 white kids, so I'm apart of the minority. It's fun.
Oh yeah, I'm a YoungLife leader now. We had a retreat thing this weekend...it wasn't too exciting, but that probably had something to do with the fact that I stayed for less than a day....and the cabin we slept in had a broken heater and the temp was in the 20s. amazing. I kinda of wish I could have stayed longer so I could meet more people, but I had previous plans. So anyway, I left around 2 and then went to the Lakers vs Hornets game...kind of. We didn't have tickets, and the game was sold out...but we got in anyway. So it was free. I'm not a big fan of watching basketball, and neither is allie...but by the end of the night we were both standing in the middle of the court. Our friends played a concert after the game. It seemed out of place, but they did well. I think we even clapped for them a couple of times. When Matt first saw us in the audience he was surprised and said something along the lines of 'oh my gosh! I'm so excited!!' I guess we just have that kind of effect on people. We got them to play at OU for the BYX Island Party in late April...so everyone needs to come. That's going to be an interesting day.
That's pretty much all I've got. I'm going to go read....I do that now.

Happy Birthday Tracey Allen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you, and I'm sorry I couldn't get you Billy for your birthday...you're just going to have to settle with Brandon.

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 05:09:54 GMT

Nothing too exciting to say. Since I've been home, all I've done is work... I think. I did get my grades back and managed to get a B in Botany. I was pretty excited. I got As in everything else. score. Oh wait, there's some other things too. There was Christmas, in case you guys didn't know. It was pretty cool. So anyway, I'm stealing this idea from a friend's xanga. I find it entertaining:

Things That I’ve Learned This Year:

-If your roommate is in deep ellum and gets her crotch grabbed at 1AM on new years day, the New Year is going to be a good one.
-Miami is the worst place in the US (and possibly the entire world)…in fact, let’s just throw in the entire state of Florida
-Captain Hook has many different meanings…
-Sam’s Club=Heaven, and a Sam’s card=life.
-I’ve finally accepted it…Rusty’s frozen custard is better than Marble Slab. In fact, it’s about 10 times better.
-Don’t ever go to downtown Ft. Worth while a marathon is going on and it’s pouring. You’ll be stuck down there on a one-way street for a few hours.
-That reminds me – don’t drive down the street unless you know for sure it’s not a one-way street. And if it is, make sure you’re driving in the right direction. Chaos.
-A visit from the cops at 3:30 in the morning isn’t always a bad thing.
-“You’re only cool if you hang out at Campus Corner and The Mont.”…HA
-No chicken place can outdo Golden Chick…it’s kind of sad.
-Since we’re on the subject of food – I LOVE Taco Cabana Tortillas. Holy Crap.
-Reenacting the JFK assassination in downtown Dallas is all fun and games until someone gets shot
-It is not wise to drink 3 energy drinks in a row… on an empty stomach… at 5 AM….when you have a 12 hour drive ahead of you
-The song “Glitter” by Motley Crue might actually be taken seriously by some people, which in turn will make them sad. That was weird.
-I’m addicted to LOST
-The city of Dallas isn’t that great (but it is better than the entire state of Oklahoma…excluding the OU campus).
-My best friends are most likely cooler than yours. Actually, they are definitely cooler than yours…unless I’m your best friend.
-The Yankees are still, and will continue to be, douche bags (Johnny Damon broke my heart).

I'll probably add more later. Happy New Year, kids.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:10:58 GMT

Well hello. So Thanksgiving break is over, and it kind of makes me sad. To my surprise, it was actually a lot of fun. Let's Laura Wright this thing and break it down day by day, shall we?

Wednesay- Had lunch with Danielle. I hadn't seen her since July and I miss her so much! Then, Allie and I watched 3 episodes of LOST...holy crap that show is amazing. And then, since it was Taylor Davis's birthday, we went to Grapevine around 10pm...Well, Taylor (along with the rest of his friends) were extra drunk and wanted to go play lazer tag...our team was so awesome...the only people I knew on it were allie, taylor, sexual harassment tyler, and ramsay. I think our team broke every rule except the "dont play if you're pregnant" rule... the rest were something like: no chewing gum, dont play if you have ever dislocated a joint, stay 5 ft. away from all players, no physical contact, and no foul language...to which the majority responded with "no f'ing way!" During the prep movie, the kid running it had to stop it and threatened to throw us out...which isn't really nice. Interesting.

Thursday- turkey and family time. nothing too exciting. I went to see Saw II with my brother. It was all right, but not as good as the first.

Friday- wait, what happened on Friday?? I think I watched some football? Wow...I really can't remember that day...

Saturday - I laughed while watching how bad OSU sucks. boomer sooner. Then Laura, whit, and I went to Cafe Brazil and then on to see The Afters play at The Door. The show was really really good. Except one of the opening bands was horrible. I was just waiting for them to start crying. Oh emo. After the show I realized my ex-stalker was there (not some guy I'm just saying was a stalker...but the one I had to take legal actions against). I was frickin terrified...and the weird thing is that I was promised that I'd never have to see him again. But overall it was a great night. I got to see the best friends, and see other people that I haven't talked to in a really long time.
**edit**
Someone just sent me a pic from Saturday night of Matt Fuqua (the afters) bribing me with a kit-kat so that I'd still be his best friend. crazy man.

Anyway...has anyone ever been to SXSW? I need someone to inform me on how tickets/wristbands work.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:42:06 GMT

I would like to thank my apartment complex for screwing up the internet, causing me to have to go to the library to waste time. Who knew that having no internet would make procrastinating so hard? Last night I was supposed to be studying for my exam, and Allie was supposed to be writing a paper....and typically we procrasinate online, but last night we were forced to be creative. So, we went out and bought some clothes, and then we played Super Street Fighter II (greatest game ever) until about 11:30. Sheesh. Oh man, Elizabeth and Kyle took Allie and I to the caf last night. It was insane. I haven't been there since last year, and now I know why Cameron was always so excited when I asked him to come with us last year. Finally I got to eat food that wasn't a microwave dinner or a bowl of cereal (not that cereal is bad). However, I think we were jipped last year, because the caf now has an all-you-can-eat Chick-fil-A.
In other news, this weekend should be fun. Football game tomorrow @ 11, and then we're going to Denton to spend the weekend with Ashley Davis and Jamie Doolin. Crazy. There's so many people from last year that I never see anymore, and it sucks. What's up with that.

Anyway, I need to go to Walmart and then go clean the apartment. It's going to be an eventful day.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 00:55:50 GMT

Okay. This will most likely be a long entry…so I hope you’re ready and filled with glee.

So I’m definitely going to move to the suburbs of Chicago some day. Wow. It sucks being back in Norman. We miss the environment of the Chicago area and our friends there. We woke up Nate to say goodbye yesterday morning and right when I knocked on his bedroom door he yelled out “you’re not leaving!!” We were planning on just moving into his basement for a few months. It was a great place- and 3 different rooms (the main room where the tv and stuff was, a room where the band made their t-shirts, and the room where troubled hubble practiced for years. The combined area was about twice as big as my apartment…so I think it would have worked out great. So after the library crap on Friday, we went to Andrews and watched the new family guy movie after him and nate had gotten back from the wedding.

The next day we woke up nate bright and early and took him into the city and he showed us around. We went to Wrigley Field! Oh Cubs. When we got back from the city, we dropped nate off at work (blockbuster) and allie and I got some food. Then we visited Andrew at his work (a different blockbuster) and after, went back to find nate at his store. Apparently sometime between when we dropped him off and when we went into his work, he managed to get himself wasted…it was pretty fascinating. We knew he was definitely wasted when he said, “hey, have you guys seen the show LOST? No? Me neither, but I have disc one and two in my car and I think that’s what we’ll do tonight!” And oddly enough, he wasn’t lying….he made popcorn w/ M&Ms and we watched the first episode….until we got in an argument over whether or not there are dinosaurs on the island. Apparently Nate hates them and was planning on writing a letter to the creators if they used dinosaurs…but that’s just lame, because come on- remember Land of the Lost on Nickelodeon back in the day. That was a great show!

So yeah, we fell asleep and then the next morning we left and all that sad stuff. Pretty sure Nate and Andrew will be coming here sometime soon, and then in March we’re going to SXSW together, so that will be fun.

Oooh yeah…the show was good, too.Kind of sad, but good. During the last song, there were a lot of people in the audience who were crying. It was intense. We had to go on a long journey to find our car after the show and bring it back to where the bus was and Josh waited around for us to get back so he could say bye. Then he left for Nebraska. It was quite the sad experience. All these pics are Allie’s. I haven’t developed mine yet.

Josh

Chris

Nate being awesome on the drums...

Here's the rest of Allie's pics