and i’ll live while i’m young
this past weekend was a double header of camping in the Tahoe National Forest (specifically not disco-camping) and then to South Lake Tahoe (CA/NV line) for to see Phish.
superfuntimes with the crew Friday-Sunday in the forest, including mountain hiking, alpine lake swimming, and lighting things on fire. i mean, it really Wasn’t A Big Deal so there’s not much more to say except that i <3 my friends and all their mischief and merrymaking.
then off to South lake where we chilled, had some hike and beach time with JaSbo, and caught up on our sleep. Tuesday arrived and after some beaching, had lunch and started to prepare for the night’s show (we only had tix for 1st of 2 nights). unfortunately, what i ate for lunch disagreed with me IMMENSELY and i could barely walk across the street back to the hotel i was so doubled over in pain. i have a history of meals violently disagreeing with my stomach, even if it’s something i’ve eaten plenty of times before, but usually what happens is i get immediately nauseated, vomit, and it’s all over in an hour. this was more of a gut clenching thing, where every muscle of my digestive tract seized so much i could not stand up, and went on for 2.5-3 hours and at 4:30 i thought there was NO WAY i was making it to the show (doors at 5, show at 6:30) as i could not even walk to get there. this made me very very sad. but i was determined! and forced everything out of my body that i could. and by 5:30 i could stand up and soldiered on down to the state line. sad that there was almost zero pre-party for our little crew due to this, but whatcanyoudo.
the arena was the smallest venue i’ve ever seen Phish (this was my 20th show! first show 11/9/96 @ auburn hills, most recent show 8/5/09 @ shoreline) and i was STOKED about that. not a bad seat in the house, and we could get as close as we wanted. before the show started i walked around and was able to find old PB tour friends Stardog, John & Kristin Labonte, and Schlegel! greetings all around. and then the show started, outdoor in a small sunny venue surrounded by alpines. NICE.
< phish mode > first set was KILLER. oh i had forgotten how much i love Rift: “the passion that sparked me one terrible night / and shocked and persuaded my soul to ignite”.
i was en route to/from the bathroom for much of David Bowie but that did not stop me from enjoying it thoroughly.
by the second set however i was fading, having little food energy inside me and feeling a bit destroyed by the whole experience. i zoned out through much of it, but in a good way. all evening there had been people with these fluorescent green paper rockets on sticks, waving them all around. someone must’ve made and brought literally hundreds of them and handed them out. i had no idea what they represented or what they were for, until, in the middle of the second set, the band responded and Paige on piano sang Rocket Man. for the first time EVAR. woo!
the encore closer of Squirming Coil was really awesome, and that final piano solo echoing through the trees was really just sublime. </ phish mode >
we stuck around briefly to see if we had the energy for any of the after parties (even though it was a Tuesday, this is a 2 day run, so most people are staying for both nights and partying right through in between), most likely being FreQ Nasty, but i determined i was 1. STARVING and 2. EXHAUSTED and needed to eat and go to bed. so in the end, it was maybe the least “epic” Phish show i’ve ever attended, as there was almost no partying on my part and i went to bed before midnight (can we say “aging hippie”?). but still: as nourishing as always. and since i am currently wearing a phish t-shirt and sweatpants, some regression might have occurred.
But who can unlearn all the facts that I’ve learned
As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned
And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue
Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun
All my vasoconstrictors they come slowly undone
Can’t this wait till im old?
Can’t I live while I’m young?
and now: the Man Burns in 24 days. holy crap.
Filed in events, music, phish | Tagged with NBD, tahoe | Comment (0)summer 2011: warm-up
for years i wondered if my blogging was a result of actually having something to say, or just something to do while sitting at a desk job for 8 hours a day. well, these past few months i’ve not been sitting at my desk job all day every day (shifted to working part time as needed), and i think the lack of posts here answers that question. it turns out when i’m not stuck spending hours a day in front of a computer i do other things, like read the New Yorker and go for walks, and don’t just sit in front of my laptop. so that is the explanation for lack of posts. it’s not because i haven’t been doing anything or reading the news or have commentary. i’m just not as inclined to sit down and write about much if i’m not already at the computer.
moving on: last weekend was super fun. we went to see 2 live shows – Ezra Furman and the Harpoons (with Tristen opening) on thursday night and The Black Angels (with Sleepy Sun opening) on friday. Ezra was great, but he was sick and i think it showed. always a good show though with great energy from the whole band. i highly recommend their albums if you love singer/songwriters. while i dig indie rock, dark and twisted psychedelic rock is higher up there on the list of things that my brain soaks up and rolls around in and enjoys. local SF band Sleepy Sun was a great surprise for an opening, and The Black Angels did not disappoint with their wall of sound. it was a challenge to keep my mind from wandering into the purple haze, but the crowd push from the mosh pit jolted me back every few minutes (who moshes at a psychrock concert? i thought we all just stood around with our eyes closed? people who grew up at gilman street, i’m guessing). + i love falling in love with the people on stage for a minute and that is why i love live music.
a string of birthday parties on saturday, then sunday we went for a hike up our favorite trail in Berkeley and cooked dinner and watched the Babies documentary with friends. while it was fun to watch and beautifully shot, i was slightly underwhelmed by this film. the small controversy when the film came out about whether it was appropriate for children to watch (some mommies thought seeing other babies pooping/peeing/breastfeeding was TMI for their own little ones) was much more interesting to me than the film itself.
and now we are gearing up for spring/summer. with my new free time – the first summer i’ve had since 1998 that i’m not working full time all season – i have A LOT OF PLANS. we shall see how many of them come to pass.
things that are for sure:
–Spring Training, this sunday in Joaquin Miller park in Oakland (if the world doesn’t end on Saturday!), because if your summer is a marathon of camping (disco or regular), mountain climbing, all-night escapades, road trips, festivals, and full days of drinking in the park with work days in between, you need to warm up so you don’t hurt yourself. this is a free all day picnic-party. the illustrious obi-j closes the show, but we’ll be there all day.
–spending a long weekend floating on a houseboat flotilla in the Sacramento river in June – i have lived in this state for 12 summers and i almost never get to swim. the Pacific is cold and surly no matter when, and the rivers and lakes are all a drive away. growing up in Michigan with a freshwater pond and/or river every 100 yards, this really makes me crazy sometimes.
–PRICELESS. July 1-4 up in Belden Town. the best disco campout in the High Sierras for the 6th year in a row.
–Phish in Tahoe August 9 with a hiking/camping weekend beforehand. summer in lake tahoe + phish = guaranteed awesome.
the things that are definite maybe:
–New York City. sometime before July 31, because i NEED to get to the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met.
–Burning Man. we have tickets. but if something a better use of time/money comes up (like a trip abroad this fall?), this could get bumped.
in the meantime, i plan to continue spending my days biking around town, going to yoga/keeping up the workout routines, and window shopping. and….that’s about it.
summer 2011: are we ready?
Filed in autobiographical, music, phish, travel | Tagged with ezra furman, false profit, obi-j, sleepy sun, wanderlust | Comment (0)Summer 2009: in bits and pieces
i haven’t done a ‘this is what i’ve been up to’ bulleted post since the end of may, which means this one covers June, July, and August. wow. so i guest that makes this a “Summer 2009″ who/what/where/when summary. much of this has already been referenced in singular posts or tweeted, but if i don’t summarize like this i lose track.
after the beautiful zimtrix wedding came JUNE:
Filed in art, autobiographical, bay area gems, burning man, events, fashion, friends, phish | Tagged with badunklsista, false profit, mexico, oakland, priceless | Comment (0)OH in a phish show parking lot
me, to totally religulous bible-thumper with bullhorn chastising all the hippies for their sinful ways: BUT I LOVE JESUS!
bible-thumper: if you loved jesus, you wouldn’t dress in such a way so as to make men want to sin!
crowd: woooo! laughs! high fives!
me: i’ll think i’ll take that as a compliment.
(wasn’t jesus the original hippie?)
Filed in philosophical ramblings, phish | Comment (1)back on the train
back on the train, originally uploaded by amyleblancdotcom.
Filed in music, phish | Comment (1)2/26-3/25
it’s now been a month, so here some crib notes for recent doings (work and gym not included, which has also been a lot of time/energy), some of which may or may not be expounded upon later:
2/26 – transportedSF. wow. that seems like a helluv long time ago. like, i barely remember it. it was fun though!!
2/27 – went to see Port O’Brien and Ezra Furman at Cafe du Nord, except that Ezra Furman wasn’t there. which sucked. Port O’Brien was not that awesome live. we left early.
the first week of march, i went to michigan to see my family, including my new niece, for a week. omgcold!! besides adorable niece, highlight was being approached at the university gym to have a 3some with some random girl and her BF. the freaks, they are everywhere, and i attract them.
i came back to SF and went high-end window-shopping with Miss Velvet Cream.
friday the 13th we went out and did something but now i can’t remember what except that i drank too much and woke up the next day with a hangover.
3/14-3/15 we went to wine country for a friend’s 30th birthday (sonoma/russian river)
discovered antiseptic fashion during fashion show planning mtg for Alchemy. am in love.
my back spasmed on a week ago on 3/19 and i’m still recovering. learned that my new chiropractor is a way more helpful person than my family physician, and that the AMA is sort of evil. as soon as my body quits hurting/freaking out and i get some sleep, maybe i’ll blog more.
went with reagan to see a guru/mystic. had lots of subsequent thoughts about how much pressure it is to acknowledge that you do, indeed, have the all the power you need to create the life you want for yourself.
hottubed with jasonsays
scored tickets to both Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction (NIN/JA) and Phish for summer concerts @ shoreline
made some signs for Alchemy. you should come.
declared a long-awaited vacation.
approached to possibly teach a hooping class at the downtown oakland YMCA. it’s been long enough now that just might be into that again.
this weekend:
tomorrow: “Metamorphica” live art/drawing/fashion/music conglomeration soiree, with MVC and Bad Unkl Sista
weekend: friend’s birthday campout thingy somewhere in the woody peninsula, and then rendezvous with SFlovestory.
Filed in autobiographical, bay area gems, events, fashion, hooping, music, phish, travel | Comment (0)it came alive
phish @ the hampton coliseum 3/7/09
photo by Robert Ames
now *that* is some lighting. it looks like a frickin’ spaceship up in there. i can’t imagine the insanely fanatic energy of that crowd (esp considering the cops got $1.2M in drugs outta the parking lot), but you can hear it here.
Filed in phish | Comments (6)get back on the train
i am.
almost.
tempted.
to request tickets.
the energy for this will be like…..if burning man didn’t happen for 4 years and then came back again.
INSANE.
i do still v.much like the music.
i just got a little sick of the scene.
but maybe it’s been long enough that it would be fun again?
except that a certain little sister of mine has a due date right around then.
hm.
i have a week to decide.
and anyway, it looks like they’ll be coming west again too….
mmmm. summer09 phish tour. yes.
what 20 years of running like an antelope will do to you
then:
Filed in phish | Comment (1)5 years ago this weekend
(scroll down to read setlists. setlists are only interesting to people who were there, i know, but oh how fun they are to read again if you were.)
Phish 2000 Fall Tour + my 24th birthday.
2 nights in vegas –> 1 night in phoenix —>(we skipped the SoCal shows)—> 2 nights at our home venue, Shoreline.
i would say that yes, 9/29, 9/30, and 10/1/00 were the best shows i ever had (see list). it was my birthday weekend. we were in vegas. phish rocked the house. when phish got done rocking the house we all stumbled back outside into the warm desert night and ran through vegas like a bunch of hippies on acid. then we went to phoenix on my birthday (10/1) and it was quieter and small and we were all mostly sober b/c we’d just spent 48 hours out of our heads in vegas and i remember the smiles everyone had on their faces more than anything.
this was just before i started blogging, and the whole thing is sort of hazy, but i just remember it being one of the very best weekends of my life, and other than the warm memories inside i only have a few photos as a reminder:
thank goodness they made a DVD out of that weekend; it was the best birthday present ever. birthdays are always points at which we stop and measure and take stock, and i know for me it’s valuable to me to celebrate in meaningful ways with the people i love. it’s wonderful to have memories like my 2000 birthday week as a watermark, and even though sometimes it seems like i’m very much a different person than i was 5 years ago (i know some of you might be like what? phish tour? hippie? when was that?), i’m really not. should i be? are you? Filed in phish | Comment (1)
