My birthday weekend
My birthday was yesterday (many thanks for the well wished via Twitter, Facebook, LJ, and email!). I celebrated with a whirlwind weekend.
Friday, Ben the Philosopher and I drove down to New York City to see The Cat Empire. The show was fantastic, even for them -- very high energy, and the crowd was totally into it. I was surprised that most people knew the lyrics to the new songs, even. The "last" song was one off of the new album that includes a fairly simple eight-note, two-bar melodic refrain, which we were encouraged to sing along with. They left the stage for the ritual encore pause. The crowd started with the traditional hooting, clapping, hollering, and so on. Then one group started singing that refrain again, and soon the whole place had picked it up. I've never seen a band hustle their asses back on stage so fast. They were clearly completely delighted. Even better -- they picked up playing in time with us and went through the last sixteen bars of the song again. It was like a magical video-game do-over. ;-) And then they did what they should have done the last time, and played two more songs.
We stayed in an apartment nearby that I'd found on airbnb.com. I may never stay in a hotel again! $100, walking distance from the concert venue, and the equivalent of what a hotel would sell as a pricey junior suite (if you could find one with a kitchen). Plus it came with two adorable cats.
Saturday we hit Tu-lu's, a nearby gluten-free bakery. I had a panini! On toast! And two cupcakes! Nom nom nom! The cupcakes were fabulous -- maybe a little denser than your average non-GF cupcake, but other than that, totally indistinguishable. The chocolate with peanut butter frosting was a little too heavily flavourful for me, but the red velvet with cream cheese frosting was perfect.
Then we drove back and straight to a party. Thank the gods for caffeine...
Sunday, fennel and I had a long lazy day together that ended with him surprising me with a trip to Red Lentil, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant that clearly marks the GF items on their menu. Sadly, besides the Gobi Manchurian, we weren't wowed by the food. Still and all, I can't think of a better way to turn a year older than having adventures with fennel. ;-)
Friday, Ben the Philosopher and I drove down to New York City to see The Cat Empire. The show was fantastic, even for them -- very high energy, and the crowd was totally into it. I was surprised that most people knew the lyrics to the new songs, even. The "last" song was one off of the new album that includes a fairly simple eight-note, two-bar melodic refrain, which we were encouraged to sing along with. They left the stage for the ritual encore pause. The crowd started with the traditional hooting, clapping, hollering, and so on. Then one group started singing that refrain again, and soon the whole place had picked it up. I've never seen a band hustle their asses back on stage so fast. They were clearly completely delighted. Even better -- they picked up playing in time with us and went through the last sixteen bars of the song again. It was like a magical video-game do-over. ;-) And then they did what they should have done the last time, and played two more songs.
We stayed in an apartment nearby that I'd found on airbnb.com. I may never stay in a hotel again! $100, walking distance from the concert venue, and the equivalent of what a hotel would sell as a pricey junior suite (if you could find one with a kitchen). Plus it came with two adorable cats.
Saturday we hit Tu-lu's, a nearby gluten-free bakery. I had a panini! On toast! And two cupcakes! Nom nom nom! The cupcakes were fabulous -- maybe a little denser than your average non-GF cupcake, but other than that, totally indistinguishable. The chocolate with peanut butter frosting was a little too heavily flavourful for me, but the red velvet with cream cheese frosting was perfect.
Then we drove back and straight to a party. Thank the gods for caffeine...
Sunday, fennel and I had a long lazy day together that ended with him surprising me with a trip to Red Lentil, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant that clearly marks the GF items on their menu. Sadly, besides the Gobi Manchurian, we weren't wowed by the food. Still and all, I can't think of a better way to turn a year older than having adventures with fennel. ;-)