Notes from Backstage
Originally uploaded by katdlr. I went to a concert at Central Park last night to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, with opening bands Takka Takka and Architecture in Helsinki. The show was dynamic, the bands all sounded amazing, and best of all, I got to go backstage! I got to go to this show courtesy of my friend Julie whose boyfriend is the drummer for Takka Takka. These three bands are on tour together for the next few months.
Takka Takka has only played nine shows (in their current line-up) but you wouldn’t even know it since they sounded obscenely tight and crisp. In my opinion, their sound is reminiscent of early R.E.M. with dashes of They Might Be Giants and The Proclaimers with some indie-folk influences thrown in. Very different and unexpected. And their drummer Conrad rocks!
Takka Takka live!
Architecture in Helsinki is an (8-member) Australian band whose sound is very eclectic and quirky. They remind me of The B-52’s for some reason, (as well as The Rapture), with a lot of electro and folk-pop thrown in. They had a lot of energy and you can tell they had a great time onstage –almost as if they were throwing a party. They were a lot of fun!
CYHSY is a well-known band but I haven't really listened to them. I’ve only heard their songs briefly, but remember liking their melodies. These guys sound amazing live –their songs really come alive onstage (and listening to their album on CD does not do them justice). Their music is very upbeat, happy, and makes you clap your hands (really). How apropos, no?
I had a very fun time backstage taking photos of everyone. But the problem with being backstage is that you get the view of a lot of people’s backs!
A view of the stage | The guys of CYHSY take the stage |
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A view of the show from back stage:
Ah, the crowd!
Chilling after the show:
I didn’t really schmooze with anyone since I didn’t want to be a poser and act like I knew all about the bands (which I didn’t). However, I did go around and told band members that they played a great set. I was more of a fly-on-the-wall taking candid pics, but then this jerk made a comment about me being a “shutterbug” so I stopped taking pics after that.
In any case, it was great to see the inner workings of a big concert. It made me all wistful and pretend that one day, I could be up there complete with roadies and everything! I also got to meet some really cool people (like the members of Takka Takka, a singer from Architecture, and the drummer from CYHSY).
The last time I scored backstage passes was at a Metallica/Guns-n-Roses (combo) concert when I was in high school. But we only had limited access and didn’t actually see much action (we just had access to the catered food and not Lars Ulrich). So this was quite cool indeed.
Special shout-out to Julie and Conrad for making it all happen! Thank you!
Labels: music
UPDATE: I accidentaly deleted this post and lost the comments.
Friday, I went to the wedding of a family friend. My whole family was invited and my parents were one of the ninongs and ninangs. I went solo and the hubs stayed home with the baby because we're still at that stage where we just can't leave him with someone not in our immediate family. But when I got there, there were a lot of babies present! Had I known that people were allowed to bring babies (or just brought them anyway), I would've certainly brought rockstar baby! (But at the end of the night though, I was glad I didn't since all the babies got cranky and there wasn't a quiet spot to put them to sleep --rockstar baby's bed time is 7 pm).
The couple had a beautiful ceremony at St. Agnes' Cathedral and a nice (and lengthy!) wedding reception at the Floral Terrace. They had a really good band playing who did covers of songs by Shakira (i.e., Hips Don't Lie and La Tortura), Sean Paul's Shake That Thing; Beyonce's Crazy in Love, and other fun pop songs. It was an 8-piece band and 4 members took turns singing and I think they did an amazing job! Heck, maybe I'll play for a wedding band! A cool part of the wedding was the viennese dessert table --this translates to a variety of dessert stations including a cotton candy man, a chocolate fountain, an ice cream bar, a cake bar (with the wedding cake, layer cakes, tiramisu, etc.), a cherries jubilee station, an espresso bar, and two other bars I didn't even visit.
Another cool thing about the wedding was that I got to see my childhood friend Pebbles. Pebs and I grew up together in the Philippines and we've been friends literally since we were born (since our parents are good friends and we were born about 1 month apart). I don't remethink the last time I saw her was a couple of years ago, so it was good to chat with her. At times, though, I feel like I don't know what to say to her, even though we've had hundreds of sleepovers in each other's houses when we were younger. I'm trying to spend more time with her but she leaves for the Philippines this coming Thursday and I work during the week.
Congratulations to the Happy Couple
(Pebs, Anthony, Marianne, and Me)
Mi Familia
Saturday was spent at home recuperating. It seems drinking more than 3 alcoholic drinks nowadays triggers my migraines so I spent the whole of Saturday and today with a throbbing headache. Ugh. My mom came to visit and she spent the whole day playing with rockstar baby.
Sunday was another day of eating. I just finished having dimsum with a group of friends and we had fun eating and chatting. There was more talks of weddings during the brunch since two of my friends were in the midst of planning their weddings. I also have two more weddings to go to in October!
Congratulations to recently engaged friends of mine: Angie and Julian; Tim and Ade; and Phil and Christina!
And now, for a non-wedding related blurb:
I was tagged by Alternati to list 7 Songs I'm Listening to Now:
1. Icing Sugar by The Cure
2. I Write Sins Not Tragedies by Panic! At the Disco
3. Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson
4. My Love by Justin Timberlake
5. I Can't Wait by Plastiq Passion
6. Bandages by Hot Hot Heat
7. Narc by Interpol
And that's that. How was your weekend?
Labels: musings/personal stories
Simple Pleasures
Just some random, everyday simple pleasures and things that brighten my day:
- Picking up my baby from daycare after work and scooping him up in my arms
- Rockstar baby's wild, crazy grins and giggles
- Hot fudge sundaes
- Starbucks' Mochas
- Strumming songs on my guitar and having baby tap his hands to the music (yes, he can do that!)
- Smelling rockstar baby's yawns
- Discovering that a Red Ribbon Bakeshop opened up a block away from work!
- Discovering that a new Filipino fast food restaurant opened up a block away from work!
- A good read
- Listening to a new album and being very pleased with the music
- Watching your favorite band live --and being only 10 feet away from the stage
- A piece of chocolate
- A mug of warm Milo after a long day
- A cup of hot chocolate anytime
- Getting comments
- Smelling rockstar's baby's neck as I kiss him goodnight
- Watching a flick
- Getting a writing stint and keeping the dream of being a writer alive!
- Weekends
- A new episode of Project Runway, Prison Break, or Gilmore Girls
- Getting actual letters/cards from friends
- Starbucks' Brownie Frappucinos
- My mom's pork sinigang
- A nice fat juicy hamburger (I'm always on the lookout for a great burger)
- Coming home to a clean house
Labels: musings/personal stories
Everyone Has a 9/11 Story
And this is mine....
At the time, I was still in law school, doing my last year. My law school is right near the World Trade Center, and it was common for students to take the train to the WTC station and walk to school or go there for lunch or just hang out. I had a 9 am class that day, but decided not go since I wanted to relax and prepare for a job interview that I had around noon. So instead, I went to the gym and when I got home, my phone was ringing like crazy. It was the hubs saying go watch the news.
And we all know what the news was. At that point, the second plane just hit the second tower and I watched the TV as if in a trance, thinking that this all looked like just some weird movie. It was so surreal. They showed live footage of what was happening below ground –black dust everywhere; people running and crying; utter chaos. Through the TV, I saw the twin towers collapse and it didn’t seem real despite the words “LIVE” being displayed over and over again.
I couldn’t help but feel both happy and sad that I decided not to go to my first class that day. What if I was there?! I would’ve certainly panicked, I’m sure. And I would’ve certainly joined the droves of people who had to walk miles and miles to get back home again. I would have witnessed horrible things that I would certainly remember.
And the hubs and I felt very relieved that he decided not to accept a job at a company whose offices occupied the 94th - 100th floors of 1 World Trade Center. I would’ve been a very young widow indeed, since we just got married that June 2001.
September 11 was such an unbelievable day. I was bawling my eyes out watching the news, and felt so terrible for all the innocent lives lost. The WTC, the Pentagon, United 93. I remember being very scared. I also felt guilt for feeling relieved that I was spared all that. So many people were not so lucky. I’m not even going to talk about the political and negative ramifications of this event, but suffice it to say, it changed everything.
But 9/11 did result in a lot of positive effects –people learned to be kind again to one another; people took pride in their country and evaluated their civic duties; people learned to be strong and persevere. People finally stopped taking things for granted.
My school shut down for 3 weeks after that event (our power lines were affected and we had no electricity or water for a bit, I was told) and it certainly gave me time to reflect about my life and what I should be thankful for. This is the reason why I went out and bought myself a guitar and learned to play it all over again.
Bottom line is that 9/11 will be a day to be remembered for eternity. To this day, I get teary-eyed when I read people’s accounts of survival and the stories of loss and tragedy among other things. After that day, I didn’t step foot south of Chambers Street for a long time. In fact, it took me about 3 years to visit that site despite it being only 7 blocks away from my school.
I don't know when my next visit will be, but I don't need to see it to remember.Labels: musings/personal stories
First Things First
Today was my first day at work. I woke up at 6:20 am (although I had been tossing and turning throughout the whole night --excitement perhaps? Nah, maybe it was because I had dairy too late in the night. Hahaha!) After waking, I took a shower, got mostly dressed, fed the baby and got him ready. Then I finished dressing. We left the house at 7:35 am and I was at work by 8:30 am.
Today was the first day I wore a suit since February 16th! I'm lucky that a) I had one to wear! I had brought my suits to the cleaners last week and forgot to pick them up over the weekend. I'm also lucky that b) the suit still fits! Yay! I didn't bother to try any of my suits on post-partum!
I have a new assignment at work and my new unit is very different from my old one. I'm still in court most of the time --and this is why I can never work from home. I'm in court 4 out of 5 days a week, but I no longer have to prepare for trials. It’s a pretty good assignment coming out of maternity leave because I won’t be too stressed out.
Today is the first day I have to juggle the whole ‘working and having kids’ thing so for my first day as a working mom, it wasn’t too bad.
Going to work was a little surreal for me because for the past 6 months, I haven't really done much except take care of the baby 24/7. I felt like it was the first day of school for me!
And speaking of rockstar baby, I think we made our first mistake with him last night: we shaved off his beautiful hair! All of it! We had a little “mohawk-gone-awry” incident -–we were fixing up his mohawk but the hubs used a very short blade and cut off more hair than he thought. So he had no choice but to even out the whole thing.
Rockstar baby looks more like a little Asian refugee now than a rockstar!! WAAH!! But I guess it’ll grow back in… Hopefully! But I told the hubs that he is never allowed to cut rockstar baby's hair ever! Well, not until after his first birthday!
Oh where, oh where has all my hair gone?
Labels: musings/personal stories
