C-C-C-Coachella

I'm having an incredibly difficult time getting work done today. Oh well...

While taking a break from looking at the Coachella website, I decided to plan out my days a bit. I thought it would be nice to share my schedule, so here is a quick rundown of my "must-sees":

Saturday
1:45-2:30: Platinum Pied Pipers
2:00-3:00: Hybrid w/ Perry Farrell
4:05-4:50: Lyrics Born
4:55-5:45: Common
5:45-6:35: Kanye West
6:20-7:10: Imogen Heap
7:00-7:50: Sigur Ros
7:10-8:10: Damian Marley
8:15-9:05: Franz Ferdinand
9:50-10:40: Atmosphere
11:00-12:00: Daft Punk

Unfortunately, I can only see Sigur Ros or Damian Marley...I'll probably go with Jr. Gong, since I saw Sigur Ros earlier this year. It is going to be a game-time decision.

Sunday
1:30-2:20: Murs feat. 9th Wonder
2:15-3:05: Los Amigos Invisibles
4:45-5:35: Matisyahu
6:00-6:50: Bloc Party
6:40-7:10: Gnarls Barkley
7:15-8:05: Digable Planets
8:10-9:00: Madonna
9:00-9:50: Coheed & Cambria
9:10-10:20: Massive Attack
10:45-12:00: Tool
10:55-12:00: The Scissor Sisters

Is Madonna a must-see? Not really, but I might have to check her out just because...Neither Tool nor Scissor Sisters are really must-sees, but I'd like to see a bit of both sets.

Well, that's it...hope you are all as excited as I am!

Beasty's Last Laugh

I hate that whenever it is nice outside, Rittenhouse gets absolutely swamped with people. Well...let me rephrase - I hate the way that this crowd reacts to us dogwalkers. They look at us like we are invading their space. If a little kid comes within 10 feet of Beasters, the parent will run up and grab the kid and often give me a dirty look, like "what the hell do you think you're doing bringing that dog so close to us?!"

Well, Beasty gets the last laugh b/c these are the same people who lay down to tan with their heads resting on Beast's (and a few hunderd of his friends') toilet.

Friday Night Lights

I love this time of [school] year - at home studying on a Friday night AND I also get to wake up early tomorrow for a group meeting to work on a final project...SWEET! My meeting is at 10:00, but some members in my group actually wanted to get together at 9...ugh!

I'm not writing to complain. I actually found an amazing website that everyone should check out if they have a few hours to kill. Its called artPad. Check it out!

Please let me know if you paint anything and want to share...

Ed vs. Spencer

All right, I got a new show for you guys. It's called, Ed vs. Spencer, and it's on BBC America. I'm not sure how I found it - I think I just saw a commercial on some other station. Anyway, it is friggin' hilarious. I'm not a big fan of reality TV...I was digging Amazing Race last year (family edition), but this season is budget.

Ed vs. Spencer is sort of a reality show...its kind of a mix between Jackass and something good. The two main characters, Ed & Spencer (hence the name of the show) are flatmates, who are extremely over-competitive. Each show is about a different competition between these two guys. I have absolutely no clue how long it's been on (I haven't had a chance to look around the website yet). The first show that I saw was a contest of who could stay handcuffed to the other the longest. Spencer attempts to get the advantage beforehand by eating a very stinky lunch.

However, it wasn't until I saw the most recent episode that I found myself hooked. This week's show was titled, "Who Do Women Like the Most?" Sound pretty self-explanatory? No? OK, well, each roommate dates three different women (aged 86, 39, 18). They get three dates on three consecutive nights with each of the women. First dude, Spencer, decides to dress up for the 86 year old, because his "nan" (grandmother) likes it when he dresses up. Without giving anything else away, I'll just end this with a recommendation: check out the show. If I had enough cash, I'd start up a spin-off over here in the states.

The Apollo Theater

Alex and I saw the Gorillaz on Monday night up at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. What a show! This could definitely be an example of what is to come in the music industry. A full multi-media platform musical performance. They had an orchestra, tons of unique instruments, and a grip of backup singers. Each song brought its own unique flavor - whether it was Roots Manuva, De La Soul, or a group of gospel kids. Overall, an absolutely amazing show.













The Apollo Theater was so nice. The people who worked there were the coolest concert employees that I have ever met. They were so polite and helpful - a real shock compared to what I'm used to.

Wasting time

So, I was taking a break earlier today and came across an interesting quiz online:
http://www.okcupid.com/politics

It is particularly interesting if you don't have typical, predictable political opinions and don't know where you fit. Check it out. That's it for now...

Cap-eeee-tahl-aye!!!

What a relief! Di and I finally admitted to ourselves and everyone else that we found our ceremony & reception site. I'm not sure about Di, but I was cool with it a couple of weeks ago. We ended up with the same place ranked "#1", so we did not have much to talk about. I'm glad we looked at a few more of the sites in Manhattan and Brooklyn this past weekend before making a final decision, because we both feel extremely confident that we have the perfect spot.

In the end we only visited 10-15 sites, but the travelling up to NYC every weekend was taking a toll on us. My boss had told me that he looked at about 50 sites for his wedding, so I don't think we wasted any of our time. However, my sister looked at less than five sites for her wedding and just got lucky by falling in love with a place early.

Anyway, this place is incredible. Sixty-five foot ceilings! And we are getting a great deal. I'm excited...just can't believe we have to wait so long!

Coachella

YES! I'm going to Coachella. I booked everything last night at the wee hours of the night/morning. Of course as soon as I booked everything through Priceline, I started to doubt my purchase. I mean, who goes all the way across the country on their own for a two-day show? Obviously, not anyone I know...which is why I'm making the trek solo.

Speaking of Priceline...what a scary idea. It's more or less gambling. I mean, I know I got good deals ($185 round trip flight from Philly to Cali and $75/night in a 3 1/2 star Marriot), but when I was submitting my prices, I noticed that I was squinting my eyes, hoping like I do when someone on my team goes for the game-winning shot. Anyway, it's too late now!

In case you are interested, here are the acts that I'm most excited for at Coachella:
Lyrics Born
Damian Marley
Sigur Rós
Atmosphere
Imogen Heap
Massive Attack
Matisyahu
Coheed and Cambria
Gnarls Barkley (MF Doom & Cee Lo)

There are others I'm excited to see as well, but they're certainly not the reason I'll be flying all the way out to Cali (Scissor Sisters, Common, Franz Ferdinand, etc.) I was actually really hoping that Guns n' Roses would make an appearance. Axl has gotten up the strength to make some appearances in Europe this summer, but so far he has not booked any dates in the US. If you remember, his last tour was cut short when a riot broke out in Philadelphia after he decided not to show. Di and I were there and, trust me, it was crazy. There were fights, fires, seat cushions and bottles flung from the nosebleeds, and people were taken to the hospital. I had actually seen them the night before in MSG and it was amazing. I find it funny that I'm all into random, good (and mostly underground) music, yet I still love GNR. Oh well...

While I'm on the topic of GNR and Coachella, I'd like to mention something that has been bothering me. I keep reading and hearing mixed things about Matisyahu. Most of the "critics" like him. He's sort of the new hip thing. That's cool, but it bothers me that he is getting SO MUCH attention for the fact that he is a Hasidic Jew. True, I noticed...its rather impossible not to. However, those who only focus on his religion really miss the best thing about him. Obviously, religion is an important part of his life and music, but he is a musician. Like any good artist, he incorporates his experiences and lifestyle into his lyrics and music. The thing is...he's good - really good. His albums are great and his live shows are phenomenal. I guess I'm kind of a hypocrite, because I took my parents to a show up in Vermont. I thought they would actually enjoy the music, but I knew that the fact that he was Hasidic would help them accept the urban music...and it did.

My point to this rant is that a lot of people who praise Matisyahu's music focus on his religion more than his music. In addition, those who don't like him, call him a gimmick or worse. How is he a gimmick? How is the fact that he is an Orthodox Jew any different than him being Catholic or vegan or anti-Bush? His beliefs and lifestyle do not make his music better or worse. Do these idiots think that he is pretending to be religious and when he goes home, he takes off his fake beard, grabs a 40 from the fridge, sparks up a blunt, throws in some hardcore porn, and kicks back? I mean, c'mon! Personally, to me a gimmicky musician is one of the dozens of pop star rappers on MTV or someone like Buckethead.

Matisyahu is not like Buckethead. As I said above, I saw GNR in 2002 when Buckethead was still in the band. Admittedly, I was impressed by Buckethead's guitar solos, breakdancing, and nunchuck skills (and computer hacking skills for the Napoleon Dynamite fans). However, this guy is clearly a tool. He wears a white mask and a KFC bucket on his head. That is neither creative nor interesting. I have no idea if he was beat up a lot as a child, but it seems highly unlikely that his "image" has anything to do with who he is inside or what he believes in. Comparing this gimmicky dumbass to a true artist is a shame.

Here's a decent bio of Matis from good ol' wikipedia

Delayed Thoughts

Well, I knew that I'd be starting this off slowly. However, I didn't realize that it would take me three weeks before I could get down another posting. Why do I feel like I'm always too busy? This will have to get better.

So I took the MPRE last weekend. The law industry is such a screwed up system. Its fairly bizarre that my school requires us to take a professional responsibility course, but it does make some sense since we have to take the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam to pass the bar. Why? Well, the easy answer is that lawyers are shady...like enimen.

What makes NO sense is that the course is not taught to the exam. Instead we cover a tiny fraction of the material...well, I guess it depends on the professor, but my class learned about 7 rules. As a result, we have to learn most of the material for the MPRE from an outlined study guide. Basically, its like reading a dictionary - not fun, but I guess its good practice for the bar exam.

What else have I been doing lately? Can you say "wedding"? I'm just kidding around...I mean, it is really exciting and I enjoy most of the research and planning. At the same time, I better learn how to pace myself. Its only been a month and there is already so much going on for the wedding that I never thought I'd care about. I can't believe I care about our colors. I don't think I even realized there were wedding colors until recently and yet I care about mine. There are plenty of things I already know that I don't care much about: flowers, invitations, linens, table settings, etc. I bet most of you don't realize that some couples actually fight about the types of chairs used in the reception/ceremony...ridiculous!

Ever wonder what it's like to have ADD? Well, I'm not going to get into the details now, but I will as time goes on. However, you might get a feeling by reading about my experience last night. Thoughts were going through my head like rapid fire. Here is are a few examples of the topics: is seven too large of a number of attendants, who is my best man, do I even need a best man, I have to apply to my dream job, I've go this test (actually I didn't think much about the test), job stuff, wedding stuff, etc. Without feeling what I felt, this may seem like the same thing as having a lot of anxiety, but trust me I do get anxiety from time to time and I wasn't anxious about any of this stuff. I wasn't really nervous about anything. Instead, it was just like boom, boom, boom - thoughts running wild. It was like someone was flipping through channels inside my head like switch, switch, switch...never getting the whole story. Have you ever watched TV with someone that just can't make up their mind? Well, it was sort of like that. There was just too much going on in my head for me to fall asleep - and now i'm tired.

Hello Blog-world!

Well, this is my first official posting and it couldn't come at a worse time. I mean, I really should be doing school work. However, I've wanted to start a blog for a long time now ... ever since my idea for a novel began to develop. I'm not going to get into that whole novel thing now, but I promise to touch on some of the ideas in the future.

I believe that was back in July of 2004. It is not a coincidence that I had just received my second semester grades from law school. I only mention this because I plan to focus on the topics that at that time were a constant downer - my ADHD and law school. Those two ingredients do not add up to a tasty dish. As a famous horse once said, "No sir, I don't like it!"

I have to admit that my sister had something to do with me finally putting this thing together. I hope this blog will do her proud!

Back to my current state. I just have tons of @*#& to do for school. Anyone who knows me, knows that I feel this way much of the time. But its still true! Plus, for those who have not heard, I am officially engaged. This adds a whole bunch of tasks for me to complete - primarily, getting the ring (or as the Japanese version is titled: Ringu).

Di and I saw Henry Rollins perform spoken word on Saturday. Fantastic stuff...really. Who knew this guy was so smart 20 years ago when he was with Black Flag? Not me...but then again, I was only 7 years old.

I really wanted to meet him - just so I could approach him and tell him that I read his book as part of the required course material at a top-25 university. I took a Punk class at Tufts and we read his book Get in the Van, which chronicles his experiences of going from Black Flag's biggest fan to the lead singer, a la Marky Mark in Rock Star.