Free Concerts Rock My Wednesday

Wednesday started off with little sleep & heading downtown mid morning to meet up with Athena. Jack White set up shop at the Regent Theater for a few days selling records, vinyl, etc & played a free show with The Dead Weather. I've heard a song or two of theirs & wasn't really into their sound but I like The White Stripes & The Kills so I figure I'd enjoy the show. There was a ridiculous wait in line, for those of us who did wait in line to get in, standing in the blistering hot direct sun, sweat dripping down your back, down your legs then standing in a run down theater that is also hot... the complete downside to the show, but they are quite amazing live & were totally worth seeing. I don't think I'm going to run out & buy their record, but their talent & performance are quite something. A real rock band for sure. I took a couple videos but the sound is pretty blown out at times. My new camera's audio/mic sucks so bad. My old camera had great audio but the video sucked. Will I ever get the best of both worlds?








Later that day I picked Athena up & we headed over to The Grove where Gavin Rossdale was performing for free. If you knew me in 1995, you know that I completely loved him & Bush. I don't feel as strongly about him as I used to, but the man is still pretty hot. He played a lot of Bush songs, a few solo songs & a cover of Landslide (Fleetwood Mac). Now that I think about it there was a time when I was supposed to see Fleetwood Mac in 1997 that didn't pan out & I may have somewhere an unused ticket to their concert. So sad. I did however get to film the Mick Fleetwood Band a few years ago, so that was pretty cool. Anyway, I was super excited b/c I knew that Gwen Stefani was going to be there & was hoping to see them in a non-concert setting. She was next to the stage during the show, but I just never saw her. That man can sing & it was a lot of fun even if I had to suffer through watching Varsity Fanclub perform. It amazes me that young girls love that stuff. I was barely ever into New Kids On The Block & that was the boy band around when I was young. I didn't own any of their music but I knew their songs & thought Joey was cute & that's where it ended. I don't think I would've gone crazy over them. Thankfully! I also took some video at the show & again, the noise is not the best. I guess it depends on the setting?




www.thedeadweather.com
www.gavinrossdale.com

Lake Shrine

A few weeks ago I went to see Rocky Votolato perform & he mentioned going to see the Lake Shrine, which is in Pacific Palisades. I hadn't heard about it amazingly so I decided to go check it out on my day off. It's really quite beautiful & is a place for people of all religions to come meditate. It also happens to be a resting place for a portion of Gandhi's ashes. That's pretty impressive.






www.lakeshrine.org

August

Let's take a minute to appreciate the absolute gorgeous sunsets we've been having in Los Angeles. These pictures are from the 2nd week of this month as seen from my apartment.

Rocky Votolato

Rocky Votolato is doing a west coast house show tour at the moment & I went to the show in Studio City, a block away from my work conveniently enough as I had go to work after. He has a beautiful voice & writes lovely songs & more people should check him out. He's doing the tour out of his car with his wife April, who is simply gorgeous. We all gathered in the living room & Rocky was pretty entertaining with his stories, although I suspect he probably knows that even though he says things to the contrary. He's releasing a new album in January & played a handful of new songs for us. I'm not sure at this point how many b/c I think he played a decent balance of new & old songs. I've never heard him play "Where We Left Off" which is one of my favorites & I really hope he plays it sometime live. He played "Sparklers" which I think I possibly heard before & of course I love the title. I recently had an obsession with obtaining some sparklers for 4th of July. I couldn't find any, but luckily someone at work gave me some a few weeks later. Can't wait for the opportunity to go light them up some place that isn't illegal & take some pictures. Rocky also played an incredibly beautiful song called "Sun Devil" (I think) which I'm sure is about his wife. He's mentioned on twitter that she's blogging about the tour - sundevil11.tumblr.com. I can put two & two together.

I first saw him in 2003 when he played with The Casket Lottery, whom I love to pieces but broke up as bands do. I've been a big fan of Rocky's since then & I'm really glad he's still out there doing his thing. I was fortunate enough to catch him play in London when I was there last year & the place was packed. When my friend Erica was in town a few years ago I brought her to see him play at Hotel Cafe. She's a fan now & has since gotten her now husband into him. See? You'll love him. Trust me.

I filmed a few songs from the show. Check my YouTube for some more snippets. Here's a new song of his called Sparklers:




www.rockyvotolato.com
www.myspace.com/rockyvotolato
www.undertowtickets.com/artist/rocky-votolato

Score! A Direct Hit.

I can not possibly pass up the opportunity to give a little tribute to John Hughes. The man made my childhood movie experiences so enjoyable, so memorable that it in fact got me getting my blog up to date just so I could say a few words about the man & the movies that defined part of my childhood. He was especially talented & there are so many great movies he was a part of, but I'll just touch upon a few that I especially loved & continue to love as an adult. Somehow I had seen these movies hundreds of times w/out actually owning them for the longest time. Maybe that is partially why they were so special to me.



I still watch this movie a lot. I think every girl can relate to longing after someone & having someone else be the person constantly trying to date her. School dances, passing notes, having to ride the bus. These are things I could relate to. And every girl loves getting the guy of her dreams. Besides, the movie is hilarious.






I loved this movie & at one point there was even a TV show on USA based on it, which I of course watched. Looking back on it, it kind of reminds me of my friend Sarah & I having sleep overs & writing stories about guys we liked, affectionately titled "The Elvis Chronicles". Not the same thing as creating a woman, but hey, I guess I could see where they were coming from.







I think I mostly like this movie for the fashion, or maybe oddness of fashion. I loved Iona & thought it would be rad to live in an apartment, work in a record store & wear crazy wigs. Andie's fashion sense certainly wasn't my own, but I still thought it was interesting, even if they dropped the ball on making her prom dress. I loved Duckie's character. Even as annoying as he must have been at times to Andie, we can all relate to watching his best friend love someone else. I guess I like movies about longing, huh?




Hopefully someone will come along & make movies that define my 30's.


John Hughes - Wikipedia

No Doubt!

I've been a fan of No Doubt since I was a freshman in college when I heard "Just A Girl" on the radio. At one point during that school year my friends & I tried to get tickets to go see Bush & No Doubt in concert. Being as this was right before the internet really boomed, it didn't work out too well for us. I did eventually get to see Bush while I was still in Pittsburgh but never had the chance to see No Doubt. It somehow never happened until this year. Heather was good enough to buy us tickets the day they went on sale & we just got the cheapest lawn section tickets, but we were going to see them in Irvine, which is in Orange County, where they are from & where Tom Dumont is actually from. So no matter where we were sitting I knew that it would be a fantastic show.

Getting there of course, proved to be adventurous as this was the day I found out the hard way that my gas gage was broken & we ran out of gas on the way to the show. Thanks to Jeff for coming to rescue us & helping to figure out that my car wasn't broken, it was just actually out of gas. This is the first time that's ever happen to me, so news that my car was going to be fine made be incredibly happy & relieved. This set us back quite a bit & it still took us almost an hour to get to Irvine. After parking, which wound up being free (hooray!) & walking unbelievably far to get there, we had missed both opening bands, which I admittedly wanted to see - The Sounds & Paramore. Hey, I paid for the ticket & I doubt I'd ever go see them on their own, so I really wanted to check them out.

The Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, which apparently used to be Irvine Meadows, felt almost like you were going to the fair. There are booths everywhere for food, drink, band merch & there were meet & greet tents & people playing Guitar Hero, etc, etc. I think "Ex-Girlfriend" is being released on Guitar Hero 5 this fall so that explains that. Heather & I got a free picture taken at the State Farm red carpet. Kind of cheesy, but a free picture is always fun! I grabbed myself a pretzel & lemonade & we hiked all the way up to the very top of the hill where the lawn was. I don't think I would ever knowingly buy tickets for this area but it wasn't so horrible. We saw people walking down the hill & sneaking over the fence. The fence was about waist high, not so difficult to hop. And there were people packed in like crazy. We found a little place to sit which wound up being a decent view & on a hill. Once the concert got started though we didn't care. It was so much fun to see thousands of people jumping up & down. The show was a lot of fun. I was super giddy & happy that I was finally getting to see No Doubt after all these years! And of course, that means I was camera happy...






Gwen Stefani was as cute as ever. They were at one point introducing everyone from the band & she saved Tom Dumont for last & told everyone how he used to work at that venue flipping burgers, followed by saying - He got a raise!

She had 3 outfit changes & was a lot better live than I had heard she was. She's seriously someone I've always been jealous of, but I say that in a good way. I'd love to have a better sense of style & fashion. Not to mention I think she's gorgeous!

Here are a couple videos I took. I love "New" & for good measure, "Just A Girl". Gwen does push ups! I rarely if ever tape a whole song b/c I want to enjoy the concert. If you want to see the rest check out my YouTube site.





www.nodoubt.com
the-sounds.com
www.paramore.net