Sunday, August 25, 2002

Weekend Getaways: Santa Barbara

Yesterday, my whole family went up to Santa Barbara for the day. It was pretty funny because none of us knew where we were going so we just drove. Finally, there was a freeway since that said there was a visitors' information center, so we decided to go there for some direction. We discovered that the visitors' center was pretty much in the heart of the tourist area, right by the pier and the water front. We decided to walk to the pier and there was a dolphin statue there. We took some pictures in front of that. It was around lunch time then, so we ate at a nearby resturant called Fishouse. I ate crab and oysters. YUM! After lunch, we left our car and went by electric shuttle to the downtown area. Some people are so stupid. They can't figure out how to put money into a machine! Idiots shouldn't be able to go on vacation! Downtown is basically a shopping district with all sorts of galleries and shops lining State Street. We went to the As Seen on TV store and to some other random places. I bought some pepper spray. Then we had dessert at the Andersen's Bakery. It was totally overpriced and not that good but whatever. I wouldn't go there again, but the interior of the bakery was really pretty. After that we walked around a little more and then went back on the shuttle to go to the car.

We left Santa Barbara to go to the Camarillo outlets. I really liked the shopping there. The stores are really good and it's really big. We didn't have enough time to shop even though we spent more than 2 hours there. I only bought a dress, a cd holder, some Harry and David cheese, and a birthday card for Chris. After shopping, we went to Alhambra to eat dinner at OK Cafe. The day was really long but fun! It was better than I expected.

Saturday, August 10, 2002

Music of the Night: Dashboard Confessional/Weezer

Current music: Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional

Yay! The concert last night was really good. I think it was the best Weezer show I've been to because both of the opening bands were good and Weezer was really fun too. I had never heard any of Sparta's stuff before but I was really impressed. I'm thinking of getting their album which comes out on Tuesday, so we'll see. Dashboard Confessional was so good!! This was my second time seeing him, and it was even better than at HFStival. I don't think all that many people were their to see him though. Their was a group of twelve year old girls behind us making fun of him the whole time. It was really annoying but I didn't let them ruin the set for me! Off the top of my head, I remember him playing Again I Go Unnoticed, Saints and Sailors, So Impossible, Hands Down, The Swiss Army Romance, Screaming Infidelities, Remember to Breath, The Good Fight, and a couple of new songs. The funniest thing was before playing 'Screaming Infidelities' Chris said, "This song is on the radio. Sorry about that." HAHAHA!!! Chris always looks like he's having so much fun and really enjoys being on stage. That's really refreshing when there are so many jaded musicians. Hopefully, he'll be back playing his own shows soon!

Weezer played all of their usual songs: Buddy Holly, Undone, Hash Pipe, Photograph, El Sorcho, Tired of Sex, Knock Down Drag Out, Dope Nose, Island in the Sun, Why Bother, Keep Fishin', Say It Ain't So, My Name is Jonas, and ended with Only in Dreams and Surf Wax. The thing that made this show different from all the other times I've seen them was the way Rivers was acting. He was being really talkative. He talked after almost every song and saying the most random stuff. It was weird because he usually nevers talks at all. Maybe he's becoming more outgoing or maybe he was really high, but anyway, it was really fun!

I also realized why I hate Verzion Amphitheatre. It takes an hour to get out of the parking lot after the show!

Thursday, August 08, 2002

SeeDo: Andy Warhol Retrospective

The next morning we drove to downtown LA to go to the MOCA and catch the Andy Warhol Retrospective, which I have been dying to see all summer. It was actually showing at the Tate Modern when we were in London but we didn't have enough time to go. So this was definitely an outing we were both looking forward to. We parked a few blocks away from the museum because I wasn't quite sure where it was. It was okay though because it was a cheaper parking lot. As we were walking, we passed by this thing called Angel's Flight. I think it's an old railway point or something but it's supposed to be historic. Downtown LA is actually looking a lot nicer now than before. Anyway, we got to the MOCA right on time because a crowd was beginning to form. The exhibit was pretty big, and there was a lot of stuff that I never saw before. The beginning pieces were a lot of gold foil and ballpoint sketches that I did not even know he did, so it was quite interesting. I thought the Most Wanted series was the most interesting plus all the famous celebrity silkscreens were there too. Stef and I also went to watch some of his silent screentests. We watched Lou Reed eat a Hershey's bar for 10 minutes. That was pretty cool too.

After the exhibit, we wanted to see the MOCA's permanent collection but it turns out the whole space was taken up by the Warhol exhibit. So we decided to go back to her apartment and order Chinese take-out. On our way back to the parking lot, we passed by a Mexican food stand called "Ye Olde Taco House #1", which I thought was a pretty hilarious name. Then we passed by Grand Central Market and went inside to take a look around. I suggested that maybe we could eat there, but there wound up not being that many food stalls. So we decided to go back to Ye Olde Taco House to eat. Not the best Mexican food you can have, but it was cheap. After that, I dropped Stef off at her apartment and headed back to Torrance. The Warhol exhibit is definitely worth checking out and it's ending in a couple of weeks.