(no subject)
I just had a great time following Common Rotation around to three shows. Wednesday a living room show at psubrat's in PA; Thursday a free show in the park in Huntington, Long Island; and Saturday at this neat old cafe in Woodstock, NY.
Woodstock is a really cool town. I guess lots of hippies stayed there and made it their own; it's full of really interesting shops, and tons of vegan food.
Anyway, so we made a road trip of it and stayed overnight, since they weren't playing until 10pm. (But we couldn't find a hotel near Woodstock, so ended up staying an hour away in Poughkeepsie). We drove up Saturday afternoon, dropped our stuff off at the hotel, then headed over to Woodstock. (We inadvertently took the, uh, scenic route, though we only got really lost a bit in Saugerties).
We arrived in Woodstock just as the band was getting there--in fact, we were loudly discussing our skills as stalkers when we glanced over to realize that they were right there. Then fruitynut ran over to their car, threw something into the back, and then ran away without saying anything. (It was candy that she got for them, but still....)
We went to eat at a nice little deli; I was really impressed that almost every restaurant had vegan and vegetarian options. Then we went into a candy store, which had a ton of cool stuff. I ended up buying a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, because I am, after all, in the grip of a Harry Potter obsession.
Can I just say that these are, without a doubt, the most repulsive things I've ever tasted? (None of the ingredients were explicitly not-vegan, so I was eating them, although I wonder what the "natural and artificial flavors" might mean). First I had a spinach flavored one, which really tasted like spinach. Then spaghetti, which really tasted like spaghetti--garlic and cheese and everything. Then a vomit flavored one, that seriously tasted like vomit! It was repulsive! Then dirt flavored one--again, EWW!! And then to follow up the dirt, a soap flavored one. My god! The box ended up consisting almost entirely of vomit and spaghetti, which were hard to tell apart, so I fed them to 10zlaine. I did get a couple of good ones--lemon drop, green apple, tutti-fruitti, toasted marshmallow, cherry, cinammon. But mostly it was stuff like grass, booger, and--the absolute worst--sardine.
Anyway. That grossness (and my weird compulsion to keep eating them) aside, it was a very fun night. We finally got to the cafe, where we met up with chenanceou and jerrymcl89. We sat up in the very front, because we're dorks like that. Well, and we came all the way to Woodstock, so we may as well have a good view, right? There were a few other Common Ro fans, and a lot of older people who'd seen the spoken word thing beforehand. The older people drifted away throughout the night, though, so it ended up being mostly just those of us up front. (Jordan told us afterwards that they were really glad we were there because it would have sucked without us.... awww!)
So first Eric came out alone, barefoot (they explained later that they were barefoot because their footsteps were disturbing the spoken word thing from earlier), and sang "Dancer." He really got into it, too, and was like, jumping around and stuff. It was a great performance. (I said in an entry the other day that I like music that seems to have strong, genuine emotion behind it, so those are the songs I enjoy best. The smart/witty/funny songs are interesting intellectually, but I respond to the ones that display more emotion.) Eric seemed to be putting a lot into his performance that night--"Offstage Lines," which they did later, was absolutely gorgeous, and "Everything Under the Sun" is always pretty. (My god, I'm actually learning song titles!)
So anyway, they played a pretty long set, all very good. It was really fun; they interact so well with the audience, and seemed really relaxed.
Marlaine had asked them at Leslie's on Wednesday if they would play "Fortunate" the next night in Long Island. They didn't, but they all said to her afterwards "Sorry we didn't play 'Fortunate.'" So this night, they did, indeed, close with "Fortunate," for Marlaine. She was so excited. She grabbed the set list after, upon which they had written "Pawn" as the last song, and then written "Fortunate" over it, because they'd remembered to play that for her. Awwwww. Did I mention how cool these guys are? And they all signed the set list for her.
Afterwards they just hung out for a long while--I think we probably stayed there another half hour, chatting, and they were around most of the time. Adam sat at our table and talked, mostly with Ingrid, but we were all just talking, like about high school and stuff. (The guys in the band all went to school together, apparently.) I finally caved and bought their two studio records (I have all the live ones) and got the guys to sign them. Eric gave me this weird look and asked "Why are you buying these again?" and I explained, um, actually, I never owned them before; I just like seeing the band live. Then when I was talking to Adam I told him about the vomit-flavored Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and I think I grossed him out because he left pretty quickly after that! But Joann was the worst; she asked Jordan "So, how are we doing as groupies?" I think we all nearly died of embarrassment, and had to explain to her afterwards that "groupie" has the connotation of someone who has sex with the band. Which we definitely don't!
I didn't really talk; mostly just watched and listened to everyone else. I'm shy already, and awkward socially, and this is an especially awkward social situation because I don't understand the rules for it at all. Like, I think of these guys as sort of friendly acquaintances--we've seen them too many times, and they recognize us, so it's not just a distant fan thing. I feel that it would be rude not to say hi if they're near me, but I don't want to bother them or make them think I want something from them, so I freeze up. There's that fan/"star" power dynamic thing that I don't know how to deal with. (Especially as I don't actually think of them as stars, but I expect that they expect me to think of them as stars, and that they think of themselves as stars in relation to me as a fan....) So anyway, mostly I just hide and let Ingrid talk, because she's the master of this kind of thing. And I don't really have anything to say to them other than "great show," anyway.
So then we drove back to the hotel, listening to Billy Idol (which was annoying because we had a great system of listening to Common Rotation because it's the only thing we all agree on, and Billy Idol is way before my time and most of his stuff is boring, but whatever). Then we hung out and chatted until 3am, although at some point I fell asleep and Ingrid had to drag me to the shower. (Sorry guys). Then we woke up, Tammy left, and the rest of us went back to NY. Very fun trip, overall. :)
Then that night I hung out with jaydk to see "The Bourne Supremacy," which I highly do not recommend to anyone who gets motion sick. We were in the front row, because we got there late, and I had to leave halfway through, go stand in the back, and sort of squint sideways at the screen in order to try to figure out what was going on without actually making myself vomit. It sucked. Don't they teach you in film school how to hold a damn camera without shaking it up and down and sideways every second? I know they're going for "realism" or whatever, but what's the point if you're making people ill? It just comes out looking like a bad home video, anyway. The worst part is that I think it was actually a good movie--I quite liked the ambiguity of the main character and the anti-essentialist idea that you can make choices and change who you are. But it would've been nice if I could've actually watched most of the movie.
Okay, so now, got to go buy luggage, and then pack for Writercon. Oh, and uh, work.
Woodstock is a really cool town. I guess lots of hippies stayed there and made it their own; it's full of really interesting shops, and tons of vegan food.
Anyway, so we made a road trip of it and stayed overnight, since they weren't playing until 10pm. (But we couldn't find a hotel near Woodstock, so ended up staying an hour away in Poughkeepsie). We drove up Saturday afternoon, dropped our stuff off at the hotel, then headed over to Woodstock. (We inadvertently took the, uh, scenic route, though we only got really lost a bit in Saugerties).
We arrived in Woodstock just as the band was getting there--in fact, we were loudly discussing our skills as stalkers when we glanced over to realize that they were right there. Then fruitynut ran over to their car, threw something into the back, and then ran away without saying anything. (It was candy that she got for them, but still....)
We went to eat at a nice little deli; I was really impressed that almost every restaurant had vegan and vegetarian options. Then we went into a candy store, which had a ton of cool stuff. I ended up buying a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, because I am, after all, in the grip of a Harry Potter obsession.
Can I just say that these are, without a doubt, the most repulsive things I've ever tasted? (None of the ingredients were explicitly not-vegan, so I was eating them, although I wonder what the "natural and artificial flavors" might mean). First I had a spinach flavored one, which really tasted like spinach. Then spaghetti, which really tasted like spaghetti--garlic and cheese and everything. Then a vomit flavored one, that seriously tasted like vomit! It was repulsive! Then dirt flavored one--again, EWW!! And then to follow up the dirt, a soap flavored one. My god! The box ended up consisting almost entirely of vomit and spaghetti, which were hard to tell apart, so I fed them to 10zlaine. I did get a couple of good ones--lemon drop, green apple, tutti-fruitti, toasted marshmallow, cherry, cinammon. But mostly it was stuff like grass, booger, and--the absolute worst--sardine.
Anyway. That grossness (and my weird compulsion to keep eating them) aside, it was a very fun night. We finally got to the cafe, where we met up with chenanceou and jerrymcl89. We sat up in the very front, because we're dorks like that. Well, and we came all the way to Woodstock, so we may as well have a good view, right? There were a few other Common Ro fans, and a lot of older people who'd seen the spoken word thing beforehand. The older people drifted away throughout the night, though, so it ended up being mostly just those of us up front. (Jordan told us afterwards that they were really glad we were there because it would have sucked without us.... awww!)
So first Eric came out alone, barefoot (they explained later that they were barefoot because their footsteps were disturbing the spoken word thing from earlier), and sang "Dancer." He really got into it, too, and was like, jumping around and stuff. It was a great performance. (I said in an entry the other day that I like music that seems to have strong, genuine emotion behind it, so those are the songs I enjoy best. The smart/witty/funny songs are interesting intellectually, but I respond to the ones that display more emotion.) Eric seemed to be putting a lot into his performance that night--"Offstage Lines," which they did later, was absolutely gorgeous, and "Everything Under the Sun" is always pretty. (My god, I'm actually learning song titles!)
So anyway, they played a pretty long set, all very good. It was really fun; they interact so well with the audience, and seemed really relaxed.
Marlaine had asked them at Leslie's on Wednesday if they would play "Fortunate" the next night in Long Island. They didn't, but they all said to her afterwards "Sorry we didn't play 'Fortunate.'" So this night, they did, indeed, close with "Fortunate," for Marlaine. She was so excited. She grabbed the set list after, upon which they had written "Pawn" as the last song, and then written "Fortunate" over it, because they'd remembered to play that for her. Awwwww. Did I mention how cool these guys are? And they all signed the set list for her.
Afterwards they just hung out for a long while--I think we probably stayed there another half hour, chatting, and they were around most of the time. Adam sat at our table and talked, mostly with Ingrid, but we were all just talking, like about high school and stuff. (The guys in the band all went to school together, apparently.) I finally caved and bought their two studio records (I have all the live ones) and got the guys to sign them. Eric gave me this weird look and asked "Why are you buying these again?" and I explained, um, actually, I never owned them before; I just like seeing the band live. Then when I was talking to Adam I told him about the vomit-flavored Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and I think I grossed him out because he left pretty quickly after that! But Joann was the worst; she asked Jordan "So, how are we doing as groupies?" I think we all nearly died of embarrassment, and had to explain to her afterwards that "groupie" has the connotation of someone who has sex with the band. Which we definitely don't!
I didn't really talk; mostly just watched and listened to everyone else. I'm shy already, and awkward socially, and this is an especially awkward social situation because I don't understand the rules for it at all. Like, I think of these guys as sort of friendly acquaintances--we've seen them too many times, and they recognize us, so it's not just a distant fan thing. I feel that it would be rude not to say hi if they're near me, but I don't want to bother them or make them think I want something from them, so I freeze up. There's that fan/"star" power dynamic thing that I don't know how to deal with. (Especially as I don't actually think of them as stars, but I expect that they expect me to think of them as stars, and that they think of themselves as stars in relation to me as a fan....) So anyway, mostly I just hide and let Ingrid talk, because she's the master of this kind of thing. And I don't really have anything to say to them other than "great show," anyway.
So then we drove back to the hotel, listening to Billy Idol (which was annoying because we had a great system of listening to Common Rotation because it's the only thing we all agree on, and Billy Idol is way before my time and most of his stuff is boring, but whatever). Then we hung out and chatted until 3am, although at some point I fell asleep and Ingrid had to drag me to the shower. (Sorry guys). Then we woke up, Tammy left, and the rest of us went back to NY. Very fun trip, overall. :)
Then that night I hung out with jaydk to see "The Bourne Supremacy," which I highly do not recommend to anyone who gets motion sick. We were in the front row, because we got there late, and I had to leave halfway through, go stand in the back, and sort of squint sideways at the screen in order to try to figure out what was going on without actually making myself vomit. It sucked. Don't they teach you in film school how to hold a damn camera without shaking it up and down and sideways every second? I know they're going for "realism" or whatever, but what's the point if you're making people ill? It just comes out looking like a bad home video, anyway. The worst part is that I think it was actually a good movie--I quite liked the ambiguity of the main character and the anti-essentialist idea that you can make choices and change who you are. But it would've been nice if I could've actually watched most of the movie.
Okay, so now, got to go buy luggage, and then pack for Writercon. Oh, and uh, work.