yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

when i was in college some 10+ years ago (holy crap it's been a long time!!) i got into the wedding present. the album Bizarro perked my ears and pinned them up with sped up jangly guitar riffs and scraggly songs of heartfelt and tortured crushes. a fitting soundtrack for a lovelorn student. i should have seen them then. this guy who i had noticed on campus a few times randomly stopped me on the street one day as he rode past on his bicycle. (it was a very morrissey/smiths video moment.) we went to breakfast that morning, kinda became friends. nothing romantic ever developed because i was too busy being hurt by someone else at the time. anyways, this guy invited me to see the weddoes with him months later. and stupidly i said no. well, perhaps not so stupidly. i had a midterm in one of my psych classes early the next morning and couldn't blow off studying to see a band play in hollywood. (although isn't that exactly the kind of thing a student should do??) anyhow, i ended up saying no. little did i realize that it would have been my one opportunity to do so.

but that was then.

a decade later, a newly reformed wedding present have emerged offering their latest music recording Take Fountain. and when i heard that they were going to tour in support of this album i bought tickets straight away. problem was work was gonna interfere. but being older and wiser i decided that i can blow off some work duties to attend this show. dammit, i wasn't gonna miss them a second time.

i'm not the biggest wedding present fan there is. and quite frankly i like a lot of gedge's work with cinerama a lot better. but i was feeling nostalgic for them. and if they wanted to come out of hiding and kick off their north american tour at the troubadour then the least i could do is show up.

so i got to the venue and could hear them playing "Interstate 5." so i knew they had just taken the stage. when i walked in i was quite surprised to find the place packed. jam packed. not oh-it's-quite-uncomfortable-but-i'll-make-do packed either. but packed like ewwww-there-are-large-beefy-guys-here-and-i'm-gonna-get-trampled-
lest-i-find-a-safe-space-to-stand kinda packed. and i had open-toe sandals on. open-toe!! yeah, not prepared.

the bouncer guy handed me a "vip" access sticker to the loft area of the troubadour. but the wedding present are the kind of band you need to feel the energy from. and being in a room above the stage behind a window doesn't cut it. so somehow i managed to work my way toward the edge of the bar at the back of the room--toes intact. i settled into a nice little spot with air conditioning and craned my neck to catch a glimpse of gedge. he didn't look how i expected. he seemed so...well...normal i guess would be the word. like some guy you might run into while on holiday in spain or something. but i liked that he was chatty during the show. even if i couldn't make out everything he was saying.

their songs are so damn catchy. they sizzle and blitz with glitchy guitars, and you end up shimmying along violently in time with them. it was such frenetic fun! i believe gedge even busted a few strings as he was convulsing the chords out. but david gedge also has a clever way with words. they can cut you up with a plain spoken tenderness. it's like love story dialogue. and to me that's what the wedding present are best known for.

they played a decent set. about an hour and a half worth of music. but in a way it was lacking. there were sooooo many other songs i was hoping to hear. ones i was more familiar with. but a lot were left unsung. and as the wedding present don't believe in encores it's hard to impose your will on the minds of the musicians on stage. somteimes with other bands if the crowd chants for a song enough they might feel inlinced to play it. but not so for the weddoes. it's all take what you can get.

virgo, are you listening?

Virgo
You've been thinking privately about quitting your job and moving on -- and maybe literally moving, too -- for some time now. Today's events might seem like the straw that broke the camel's back. If you've already formulated a battle plan, go ahead and put it into action. If you haven't, don't charge off into the sunset without knowing where you'll end up. Easy, there. Call an earth sign friend and ask for solid, objective advice.

*****

stars, you know me so well. this is espcially dead on in light of certain recent events. events like my boss giving his notice this week, thereby leaving me in that room to experience yet another regime change. and then yesterday my dear, dear work buddy told me she was abandoning me to "better the world." whatever. like kids really need an educational system that works. heh. acutally i couldn't be any happier for them both. if it were me i'd do the same. hopefully i'm next in line. these things do come in 3s right?

also penquin and i have been contemplating a change in scenery. maybe a different state, maybe a different country all together. i think it'd be refreshing. scary as all shit. but ultimately something i won't regret doing. perhaps we spin the compass and see where it points us.

there's a lot for me to mull over these days.

my roots have grown too deep for someone so young. and yes, almost thirty is young.

i took the dog around the park a couple of times today. and the combination of gentle breezes, sunny skies, and clear views gave me the feeling of hope. even as i am in turmoil. that's a good sign. i need to keep this feeling going. feeling young, full of spirit, and unafraid to leap back to life. nature's giving me a pep talk. and so i ask, virgo, are you listening?

you bet i am.

find me in the fields

penquin and i spent the day exploring the "charming" little town of lancaster. we drove past penitentiaries and barbed wire spaces just to behold our state flower in all its golden glory. and i'm glad we did.

the above average rainfall we got this past winter made for a spectacular wildflower display - splashes of color washing over hillsides, sprinkling the desert with rainbows of blooms. even stretches alongside the roads and freeways are showing off their spring fashions. it really is a wonderful time of year.

we arrived at the poppy reserve sometime after noon. cars were lined up waiting their turn to find a spot in the dirt field parking lot. the line looked daunting, but it moved quickly. in the meantime we ate part of our picnic in the car - a small tony's special from the awesome italian sandwich shopdeli near our house and a tumbler of diet coke. which explains what was to happen next.

as is my usual style, i had to pee before we did anything else. (damn you tiny bladder!!) there were four port-a-potties in the lot. thinking this was my one and only chance of doing my business before hiking, i took a deep breath and held it before braving the claustrophobic shit box. i had to kind of tip toe and brace my heels against the side of the base so as not to come in contact with the toilet while making sure i didn't pee all over my shoes. it was such a foul experience. *shudder* sadly, if i had just walked 100 yards from the parking lot, i would have been able to pee in a proper restroom, with a stall, and toilet paper, and oh i dunno, maybe even a toilet with flushable water!!!

it gets better from there.

no really, i mean it.

penuqin and i spent some three hours strolling the orange and gold fields. we climbed a summit to get a 360 view of the poppy reserve, taking pictures of all the bouquets and floral arrangements nature set up before us. it was nice spending time enjoying the sun and breeze of perfect califronia weather. 29 years of living in this state and i had not once stepped foot on this lovely landscape.

we even ran into some co-workers present and past on this visit. i guess everyone was soaking in the scenery, taking time to smell the flowers as it were. some people being a lot louder about it than others.

maybe i shouldn't be surprised by how quickly the masses can annoy me. and really, it's unfair to say "the masses" in this case, because it was more like a small group of people. a small group of loud, obnoxious, unaware of the volume of their voices and not caring kind of people. they were rude foreign tourists. not only were they shout-talking at each other from 1 foot away, but they were stepping off the trails, trampling poppies to get a better picture. penquin and i were following them along a trail for sometime before i couldn't stand it any longer.

we then left to visit the joshua trees a few miles further up the road from the poppy reserve. and lo an behold! the same obnoxious loudmouths were there too! they must have got ahead of us while i was in line for the running water, flushable toilets. grrrrrrrrr

we hastily walked through the little park, trying to avoid their idiotic picture poses and blabbing. it was such a pity to have another moment communing with nature spoiled by these senseless fuckwits.

still it was a nice way to spend the day, frolicking the fields of wildflowers, picnicking on poppy scattered peaks.

yes dears, we can have it

it takes a lot to put on a good show. you can record lovely songs on an album, keeping in perfect harmony with well-tuned instruments, laying down a sound over and over again until it meets a musical ideal. but to replicate that, to transcend the notes and lyrics, takes something altogether extraordinary. and The Dears, well they have that something.

i went to a free concert of theirs, an in-store gig at amoeba records, and they absolutely blew me away. first off, they are from montreal and hadn't been in a record store quite like amoeba. so they were genuinely excited to be playing there. (i love it when young bands glow with naivete.) they played a 45-minute long set that swelled and became larger than the room itself, expanding and filling the space with infectious drumbeats, movie-moment crescendos of guitars and keyboards, and that voice, the passion and daring in murray lightburn's voice, that captures every appeal for love in heartache. like morrissey with more color. (and yes there are a couple songs on their album that remind me of moz and the smiths. but don't we need some of that on the music scene right now?)

when lightburn sings "our love, don't mess with our love, our love is so much stronger" on "Lost In The Plot" it becomes more convincing with each repetition. the sentiment of the line is punctuated by the power of the music, turning from casual decree to plaintive declaration until you find yourself shouting the contents of your heart with raised fist. and in "Never Destroy Us" the slinky, sexy, jazz flute sounds turn you into some kind of seductive snake, slipping out of your skin. and when the Dears played one of my favorite tracks, "22: The Death Of All The Romance" i swooned with silly joy.

the Dears are na incredibly talented group, impressive to be sure. even my friend who is rarely impressed by any band had no complaints. he even said it was one of the best shows he had been to in a long time. and that's saying a whole lot if you knew this guy.

if you haven't yet had a chance to check them out do so immediately!

i hope this band makes it. they deserve to. i'm excited to hear what they have next to offer.

yes dears, if you can make it, we can have it.