Exhaustion

I now remember why I hate having to drive to Oakland U so much. It's about 65 miles from A2 and it's an especially fun 65 miles during rush hour. Yesterday it took me over an hour and half to get home. Best part? I only have to do this for two more days. Worst part? I have to do this for two more days.

The saving grace of this whole thing is that the class is really helpful and my instructor is very good. I walked out the first day with a huge pile of books (for free) including the newest edition of "A Writer's Reference" and a brand new copy of the AP textbook I'll be using this year, which I didn't already have (yeah, I'm a nerd for getting excited about free textbooks!) The days are long and draining, but I think this will be well worth the time once school starts.

Speaking of school, I got our opening week's calendar in the mail today. It kind of makes me want to cry...I don't want summer to be over. I feel like it's flown by. Usually by the beginning of August I'm getting stir-crazy and ready for school to start but this summer I feel like I didn't fit in all the goofing off that I had planned, so knowing that school starts on the 20th is rather depressing.

And, as if this week wasn't nuts enough as it was with driving to Oakland U, I also am covering the Motion City Soundtrack/The Forecast/Hard Lessons show tomorrow night at St. Andrews (sold out, but I'm "on the list" and have a photo pass courtesy of Victory Records). Then Friday night is Kelly and Martin's party and another Hard Lessons show at The Elbow Room. Saturday is the big b-day bash for Wife and Jon. Whew...exhausting.

Backtracking for a moment though, Jon and I went to Warped on Friday and, even though I had a photo pass which was very cool, the lineup this year sucked. There are a few good bands on the lineup, but (of course) they weren't playing the Detroit date. After waking up to pouring rain that morning, the day became ungodly hot and humid and the trip to Comerica took 2 hours. I did see and shoot Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Hawthorne Heights and Mustardplug but I just could not get excited about most of the other acts and those I did have a desire to see, I've seen at least twice before. With the heat, lackluster lineup and crowds, we decided to take off early. It was honestly a very disappointing Warped, last year's was much better. Here's hoping next year's will be a vast improvement. I did at least get some cool photos, so it wasn't a total wash.

Time for bed.

Reviews

Not much new here other than a few new reviews up at Revolt and Static.
Read about the album that isn't made up of punk bands even though it's called Punk Goes Acoustic 2 here.
My review of the new Fall Out Boy album should be up in a day or two. More on that later.

My editor at Static finally put up my review of the Bright Eyes show and one of my photos. Check it out here.

Friday Jon and I are playing hooky from work to go to Warped. At least it isn't supposed to be as hot as it was last year, but it might rain...we'll see. There aren't too many bands I'm over the moon to check out, but at least I won't be at plastics! I *should* also have a photo/media pass for the day which would be cool. It's funny to think that last year's Warped was the very first live review I did and I was taking photos with my point and shoot. It's been quite a year.

Also, for anyone who is interested, The Hard Lessons are playing a show on August 3 at Ypsilanti's Elbow Room. I believe they go on at 10pm. Check them out, they're great!

Not much else in this neck of the woods.

Listening to: Lily Allen, Alright Still

Feeling better

Well, the cold that might have been was merely an annoyance and other than me being a bit sniffly and very tired, I survived without it getting too full-blown. Phew:)

Exams at school went really without a hitch. I had some students that did great, some that did horribly and most in the sort of middle range. However, if I never see another essay on The Count of Monte Cristo, I won't be in the slightest bit upset. Reading 100 of those suckers definitely made me want to tear out my eyes after about the 50th. No school Monday as a sort of end of the semester break, so that's fun!

As for music, I think I mentioned that Husband, Wife, Jon and I went to The Hard Lessons show at The Blind Pig last weekend. Great show and it was fun to go to a show just to enjoy, no story to write and no photos to shoot. Not that I don't love doing all that, but sometimes it's just fun to really relax and enjoy the show in a different way (er, can we say drinking cheap beer??) Husband was learning the trials and tribulations of shooting live shows like that and got some good pictures which maybe he'll eventually post a few of. However, various candid type shots were also taken and after I do a little editing for size, I'll post some.

I also got an invite to the Ann Arbor Folk Festival on this past Friday and though it isn't my usual type of music, it was still a very good show. Rufus Wainwright was the headliner and he was awesome. It never ceases to amaze me when people can just go from one instrument to the next and play them all really well. I mean, the number of times people at the Folk Festival just went from playing the piano (amazingly) to picking up a guitar and playing it equally as well just blew me away. If only I had a tenth of that talent! I did get some pretty good photos though Hill Auditorium is NOT an easy place to shoot. I also got to use Husband's nifty new Nikon D-200 which was fun. I'm test-driving cameras for when I have enough money stockpiled to be able to justify buying my own:)

So, the big thing to look forward to at the moment is the Gatsby Party next weekend. I'm getting quite excited about it and I'm really psyched that people are taking the whole 15 minutes to DJ thing extremely seriously. While I won't compete (doesn't seem quite right), I'm still going to put together a 15 minute set for fun. Haven't a clue what will go on it, but I've gotten some theme ideas, so that is a good start. I'd started my mega-mix for earlier in the night after a bit of a brainstorm on the way to visit Husband and Wife the other day, came home, stayed up till 1am working on it (dumb on a school night, but what can I say) only to listen to it the next day and decide most of it was crap. I've scrapped a bunch of it, added some new stuff, but I'm still not sure if I'm satisfied with it. Guess I've got a week or so to come up with something better.

I've also gotten some more concrete ideas for what to serve in the ways of food. I wanted to go kinda authentic and glam without breaking the bank and I think I've finally come up with a bit of a plan. Hopefully I won't poison anyone:) I'm also torn on the whole question of what to wear...unfortunately some of the really cool things I've found are authentic vintage dresses and cost in the $500-$1000 range. Hardly something justifiable! I've got a backup plan but I'm not thrilled with it. We'll see... I'm excited about the whole thing though, I hope it turns out as well as how I envision it in my head. I'm honestly also a bit excited about it being my b-day party too, I haven't had a true birthday party in years, so I think it should be fun. Anyways, what is a better way to head into the last year of my 20s than with a Roaring 20s themed party??

Peace out Starving Nachos:)
Listening to: Depeche Mode The Best Of, Volume 1