'Tis the season

Sometimes I really wonder about myself. I've been running around like a lunatic for the last four and a half months with MSU, teaching, writing, covering shows and trying to have some sort of a social life and now I've got over two weeks of glorious nothing and you'd think I'd be thrilled to bits. Well, the sad truth is, I'm bored. I'm getting stir-crazy and tired of doing nothing. Problem is, not too many people around to do stuff with b/c everyone is home for the holidays and whatnot. I keep finding dumb excuses to get out-MUST go to the bank, Whole Foods, Target...etc. Lame, eh?

However, one of the highlights of this post-Christmas boredom was hitting the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the DIA yesterday. It was SO awesome and it killed me how nonchalant she was in her descriptions of getting some of these amazing photos. "It was just a snap" or "just shot a few frames but didn't think they'd turn out well" and then you'd see the photo and they'd just blow you away. I think one of my favorites was this one of Johnny Cash and June Carter:



Beautiful, eh? I love it beyond belief.

Christmas was good though quite quiet. The older I get the more I realize that most people don't have Christmases like ours. Most people (or maybe it's just a lot of people I've come into contact with lately) have big, crazy Christmases with relatives from all over coming into town. It sounds like total chaos but it also sounds really fun in a way. My Christmas evening was just me & my parents watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Husband and Wife had been over earlier in the day but, obviously, had to play both sides of the fence and went to her parents' for dinner. It was quiet. Really quiet. Oh well, I guess that's just how my family is, not much I can do about that one.

I did, however, manage to get a cold. Figures that the first time I stop running in 4 1/2 months I get sick, and there's really so many things I could blame: those damned kids ;), the stupid weather in Michigan for being cold, then warm, then cold, then warm..., Jon, my brother, my psychotic schedule... Meh, whatever. I'm still sick so I guess blame doesn't really matter.

Well, this post is horrifically boring, so I'll stop here before I bore you to death.

Listening to: New Found Glory, Coming Home

Cool!

Just found out that Drive By posted my review of their live show (with Senses Fail) on their official website! Go to www.drivebyworld.com and under news it's "New show review: check it out here." (Dec 6). Kinda cool! Guess they liked it:)

Also, I forgot to mention that My Chem is coming back to Detroit in February and I immediately got tix for the show for me, Husband and Wife. It's gonna be awesome:) I really hope Muse is on the tour with them at that point! I'd love to see them live too...

Bad news: I think I'm getting sick. You'd think it would have happened ages ago with all the craziness that has been going on in my life. Nope, instead, the minute I finally slow down a bit, that's when my immune system says, "Fuck this, we're leaving" and I get sick. Figures I'd get sick right before Christmas. Boo hiss. Oh well. Guess I'll finish up a few things and crawl into bed with a book.
Peace out starving nachos
~S
Listening to: The Strays, Le Futur Noir

Finally, a break

Wow, it's been so ridiculously busy, I don't even know where to start. Guess we'll just go in order:
Last Wednesday : 89x Nutcracker with Fall Out Boy. Harry was supposed to do an interview with Cobra Starship but that fell through so he decided to go to a different show. I, however, decided to go to see FOB anyways. I made friends with a security guard and he let me up as close as he could without me actually being in the photo pit. I handed out business cards. I got amazing photos of the bands. I had a blast and (still) heart Pete Wentz:)

Thursday: The Night 89x Stole Xmas. Amazing fucking show. Well, let me rephrase that, most of the bands were amazing, I wasn't all that impressed with Angels and Airwaves. The photo pass didn't come through but I got some good pics despite shooting totally blind (holding the camera over the crowd and just shooting. I got a lot of pics of the crowd, or cut off the performers heads, but I still managed to get some good ones.) My Chem was fucking unbelievable...totally amazing, words can't really describe their show. I lurrrved it:) I *was* pretty comatose the next day, but it was totally worth it.

Friday: ended up at Tower Inn for drinks with Jon and Brandon. My dad has taken to calling us the Three Musketeers. It's kinda funny...yet another late night. I think I've been averaging about 4 hours of sleep a night. Must work on that.

Saturday: Went with Jon to see a few of my students' bands who were playing for another girl's 16th birthday. I was *really* nervous beforehand-I mean, I had no idea what to expect, and here are two teachers invading their space. In the end, it went really well. The kids (the ones in the bands at least) were actually very excited that we showed up. Jon and Brandon insist that I'm the "cool" teacher, but I still don't see it. I've never been cool in my life, why on earth would people think I'm cool now?? The kids were really excited about the photos I took and have already posted them liberally on their band's myspace page. They did make very sure to find out what I wanted my photo credit to say, which was kinda cute. Speaking of myspace, a bunch of students found my facebook page. Luckily there isn't anything particularly interesting or inappropriate there, but it still weirded me out a bit.

Monday: All American Rejects show at EMU. Harry had an interview with Boys Like Girls that I got to tag along for, so that was fun. We also got photo passes from GLB, so we were able to shoot the whole show from the pit. I got a ton of pics, but AAR kinda sucked. I'm not a big fan to begin with, but they just played into every concert gimmick in the book and spent WAY too much time talking. Hardly the greatest show I've been to, especially since the 89x shows (and even my students' show!) were better.

I made it through the rest of the week, barely. It has been nuts with getting my work for school done, writing my weekly album reviews, adding in concert reviews, trying to have a social life, AND writing blurbs for Static's top albums and singles retrospective. I was honored that my editor asked me to do a few more than other people (I interpret that as he likes my writing, not that I'm a total pushover), but it was one more thing to fit in. Oh well.

Went to see the school Christmas play last night. It was a hoot-the kids were really good and it was quite funny. We (the three musketeers) almost didn't get in b/c the show was sold out, but luck was on our side and we got in. Hung out with my boys afterwards and had a great time. It was a good night:)

Did a little Xmas shopping today but I probably spent more time running around trying to track things down than I actually did legitimately shopping. There are still a couple of people I need to get things for, but at least I know what I want to get them:) good start, eh?

Ok, a few photos from the many, many shows. I think I need to just post a ton of them on my flickr account, but this will do for the moment.
Those of you that I don't talk to before Christmas-have a great holiday!
Listening to: "The Sharpest Lives" My Chemical Romance

Finito.

Wow. I never thought I'd be quite done at MSU, but I am! Woot! This is the first Monday night in what seems like ages where I haven't spent 5.5 hours of my day at MSU or driving back and forth from there. I liked almost all of my classes, but I am sure glad to be finished with that drive (and my car is glad too).

I think it's gonna be a fun but busy, busy week. Of course we have school all week but on top of that I've got four shows coming up as well. Wednesday night I'm catching the 89x Nutcracker with Fall Out Boy, Cobra Starship and New Found Glory. I'm tagging along for an interview Harry is doing with Cobra Starship before the show and I'm really psyched about getting to shoot FOB (as much as I feel like one of my students admitting it, I do heart Pete Wentz:)

Thursday night is going to be off the map. The Night 89x Stole Christmas with My Chem, Angels and Airwaves, Taking Back Sunday and Ok Go (maybe I'll FINALLY get to see them!) I am totally, utterly, insanely psyched about seeing MCR again. I'm not sure if the photo pass is going to come through, but I'm still trying. I can't wait!! Any sleep-deprived coma I might be in on Friday is going to be well worth it.

Saturday night I've been invited to a show out in Howell-a few of my students are in bands and they're all playing and asked me to come along. They also asked me to take some photos of them, which I agreed to do. It's kinda cute how excited they are that I'm coming to their show. I wonder how weird it'll be though...oh well. Should be interesting to say the least:)

And then Monday there is the possibility of covering the All-American Rejects show at EMU. They're playing with Motion City Soundtrack, The Gym Class Heroes and The Format. I saw AAR back in April when they opened for Fall Out Boy and I rather like them, so I hope this works out!

You know, when I think about it, it's insane how many shows I've seen in the last year and how many bands I've seen (or will be seeing) multiple times (because I'm a nerd, I've bolded bands I've seen more than once in the last year):

Green Day with Jimmy Eat World (Sept 2005)
My Chemical Romance with Reggie & The Full Effect and Alkaline Trio (Sept 2005)
Action Action with Men Women and Children (Dec 2005)
Hard Fi (Jan 2006)
The Subways (March 2006)
Fall Out Boy with All American Rejects, From First to Last & Hawthorne Heights (April 2006)
Alkaline Trio with Against Me (April 2006)
Warped Tour (July 2006)
Big City Rock with Drive By, October Fall and Needtobreathe (Aug 2006)
The Raconteurs (Aug 2006)
The Editors (Aug 2006)
Hawthorne Heights with the Plain White T's, Relient K and Emery (Sept 2006)
Trey Anastasio (Oct 2006)
Good Charlotte with Young Love (Oct 2006)
30 Seconds to Mars with Men Women and Children, Street Drum Corps, Head Automatica and Cobra Starship (Oct 2006)
Lady Sovereign with Young Love (Nov 2006)
Heavens (Nov 2006)
Senses Fail with Drive By, Saosin and Bleeding Through (Nov 2006)
Fall Out Boy with Cobra Starship, New Found Glory (Dec 2006)
My Chemical Romance with Ok Go, Angels and Airwaves and Taking Back Sunday (Dec 2006)
All American Rejects with Motion City Soundtrack and the Gym Class Heroes (Dec 2006)(?)

Yep, that's a lot of shows:) I love it! Ooh yeah, and check this out. I emailed Chris Perrino from Drive By with links to some photos I shot of the show and he not only wants to see more of them, he asked if he can use this one I got of him as his default photo on his MySpace:) Ok, so, it isn't like MySpace is Rolling Stone or anything, but it's cool that he liked them enough to want to see more and use at least one of them:) Yay!

Right, I suppose I should go do some grading or something since I'm going to be playing rock writer a few nights this week:) Happy, happy!
Listening to: Fall Out Boy, From Under the Cork Tree

More photos from Senses Fail

Also, a few pieces of good news:
1. I didn't get put on a jury, so NO jury duty!
2. It is 100% positive now that Harry & I are going to the 89x Nutcracker to cover the show (Fall Out Boy, New Found Glory, Cobra Starship-woot!)
3. We may also get to go to the All-American Rejects show at EMU the following Monday-woo hoo!
4. Tomorrow should be the very last time I have to drive out to MSU for class!!!
5. My review of the show and FIVE (Count 'em, FIVE) photos are up. Read it here.
6. Almost 100% for certain going to Bamboozle in Jersey baby! Woot!
Ok, now for the photos:









Grr, Blogger is being a bitch right now and isn't letting me put any more photos up. More later.
Listening to: Thursday "A City By the Light Divided"

Senses Fail Show! Woot!

So, very simply, Friday night was amazing! What a fun but bizarrely surreal night. I met Harry at Clutch Cargo's at about 5pm because he was doing an interview with Drive By. It turned out that they were the last band to do their sound check, so we ended up killing some time while they were finishing that and I got the grand tour of CC's, including backstage and such, before we met the guys. Harry did the interview (and I got to play cameraman) and we hung out with the band for a little bit before the show started. I was really pretty shy but they were really nice guys and very cool. I was talking to the bassist, Chris Perrino, backstage before the band went on and it was kind of weird because here I am talking to this heavily tattooed guy with those earplug/stretcher kinda things backstage at a show and what are we talking about? Teaching! Apparently his sis-in-law and brother are teachers. Weird, eh?

Todd Price, Drive By's lead singer, had given us photo passes so we were able to shoot their set which was awesome. They sounded great and it was so cool to see them play to a decently sized audience since last time, at the Shelter, there were maybe 30 people there. Those guys rocked, I can't wait to see them at Bamboozle!

Things were going really well until Harry and I went up to get ready to shoot Bleeding Through's set. The security guards were being dicks and said that we needed a separate pass for each band which is really unusual. Typically, if you have a photo pass at a show its good for every band. Not in this case. So, we saw the members of Bleeding Through waiting backstage to go on and we just went up to them and asked if they'd mind if we took a few photos during their set. They said it was ok, signed our passes and gave the thumbs up to security who then, begrudgingly, let us up front for two (not the usual three) songs. Better than nothing though! And it was cool that Marta (hot keyboardist from BT) signed our passes:)

So, now it was obvious that the photo pass thing was going to be a problem for the rest of the night. I was supposed to have a pass at the front waiting for me but hadn't picked it up yet b/c I thought at the beginning of the night that the pass Drive By gave me would be good for all the bands. Since that wasn't the case and my extra pass should have been good to shoot Saosin, I went and got that pass. As Bleeding Through was finishing their set, Harry and I were chilling at the back and I see this person walking towards me with a shocked expression on his face. Then I realize, "oh my god! That's one of my students!" Yep, not only was he there but there were two others at the show also-a girl who isn't a studnet of mine but goes to my school, and a guy who is in my journalism class and amuses me to no end. So, the first student goes running off in search of the second, they come back and we end up shooting the breeze with them for a while which was weird, funny and surreal. They're cool kids though and I get a big kick out of them.

However, Harry and I need to go back up to the front for Saosin's set but before we did, my students begged me to come find them again after the next band was finished. I agreed and we headed up front. Security lets me in with my pass but they refuse to let Harry in since he doesn't have a pass for this band. I got some cool shots though and I lurrrrve using a digital SLR! It made SUCH a difference!

We couldn't even talk our way into the pit for Senses Fail's set. I tried talking to the tour manager but he was like, "We don't have anyone on the guestlist, NO ONE is getting up front." Dick. You'd think they'd want the publicity! It isn't like they're THAT big a band yet. Whatever. Harry and I got some shots from the balcony and, considering the fact I was shooting completely blind, they aren't half bad.

Ended up shooting the breeze with my students again for a bit during the second half of SF's set. Those kids crack me up, seriously. The two of mine are both in bands that are playing locally on the 16th and not only did they want me to come to the show, the asked if I'd take photos of them which was really kinda cute. I told them I would and Harry will probably come along too. Tomorrow should be quite interesting at school though...

In other news, Sherri, my editor at Revolt told me that I got a bit of a shout-out on Sarah Lewitinn's blog for my feature on Bright Light Fever. How cool is this?-->

BRIGHT LIGHT FEVER

Check out the Bright Light Fever interview on Revolt Media. It's fantastic and Revolt is fantastic.

Ok, so it's short, but who cares? Still pretty damn cool:) Righty o. I should go do some work, but first, here are a few pics from the show. I'll post more later.