weemawee.

finally one of the best television shows from my childhood is out on dvd, square pegs. it’s strange to think that i have the sex and the city movie to thank for it. square pegs was sarah jessica parker’s first big hollywood role, so they timed the release of the dvd with the s.a.t.c. movie.

i have memories of watching square pegs on my little tv that i had in my bedroom. although it was never mentioned i always suspected the show took place somewhere in connecticut, ct was a popular location for eighties televison. i used to walk around quoting it, it introduced me to “gag me with a spoon”, “gross me out the door”, and “totally different head, totally”. musically this show was an influence also, with guest spots done by the waitresses and devo, i was entranced by the punkier side of new wave.

over the years i would periodically meet people who remembered square pegs, but for the most part no else seemed to had seen it. almost ten years ago nick at nite ran a marathon of a bunch of the episodes and i managed to tape them. i watched that video so much that i almost wore it through, not to mention i would also lend it out, recruiting others to the cult. finally after years of waiting the complete series is mine.

i stole them from your mother.

thanks to morgan i got fantastic seats for antony’s show with the portland symphony.
september 5th needs to hurry up and happen now.

the little movie that should.

i forget exactly where i read about colma: the musical, i just remember them saying it was a musical and vaguely gay. so i added to our netflix a while ago, i finally watched it yesterday, and boy what a suprise it was. this movie brightened my day. they pull off a new take on the musical, similar to hedwig and the angry inch, using pop and rock music successfully. i really appreciated how the songs never took on a concert or music video feel. they seemed natural in a way that is reminiscent of the classic musicals, west side story, guys and dolls, etc. never once did it seem weird or forced that they were singing. i might have to order the soundtrack. as for the acting, it was not always great, but they came off as a real group. lately morgan and i have been noting a lack of chemistry in movies, so it was great see this cast. highly recommended.

summer pop.

for all the esoteric noise and avant rock i listen to, summer always brings out the pop. so far these are my summer jams.

robyn:
“cobrastyle”

“konichiwa bitches”

santogold:
“l.e.s. artistes”

lykke li:
“i’m good, i’m gone”

and of course madonna:
“give it 2 me”

if you’re not for good then you’re for some bullsh*t.

two weeks ago i had a great little getaway that included two shows by the fantastic erykah badu. the first show was at marymoor park in redmond washington, just outside of seattle. i always get a little disappointed when artists i like play these silly temporary summer venues. the sound is never right and the crowd is generally there to hang out. i was still excited though, it was erykah badu after all. the group for the show gathered at rachelle’s house and we split into two cars, juan and i with status, and rachelle and bianca with loren. we had plans to meet up at a pub near the park that loren and status knew of, when we got there i was excited to find out that it was called the celtic bayou. i was endlessly amused by their concept of irish cajun food, or cairish as we deemed it. i ordered the northwest salad with cranberry dressing, no one makes a northwest salad like the cairish, juan also really liked his cairish pasta. don’t even get me started on their cairish nachos or veggie burger. i can’t wait till i get the chance to go back.

after the ironically delicious meal we headed off to the park. we claimed a space on the lawn right behind the chairs. the seated area was empty. we had about an hour to kill before the show, so we plopped down and relaxed. by the time the roots came on to open the show, there was still barely anyone there, including about three people in the seated area in front of the stage. one of those people was former american idol person, blake lewis, who was strangely by himself. that didn’t stop him from being the only one excited about the roots. this was the second time i’ve seen the roots, the first time also happened to be with erykah badu. i got the same impression from them, they seriously lack energy, you think that with a live band it would be easy. the band didn’t really gel, the members just played a loop for a while and seemed a bit bored. despite the best efforts by black thought and ?uestlove they just fell flat.

status and i before the show.

during the roots’ set the seated area filled up and the crowd moved in on us. we were all pretty giddy and were more than a bit antsy for erykah to come on. when the p.a. silenced and the band and back up singers came on we couldn’t have been happier. erykah came on wearing her huge afro and a red flannel suit, she was very small to us since we were behind the seating area. even with the distance i still felt that she had our full attention. the setlist focused mostly on new amerykah and worldwide underground, we heard “my people”, “amerykahn promise”, “soldier”, (a dangerless) “danger”, “times a wastin” were just part of the two hour setlist. of course she played on & on, but the highlight of the show was a fantastic afroacidhouse version of apple tree. every one was blown away by it. the song was twice the speed and had a killer drum loop that erykah produced on her drum machine. she pulled off an amazing show, her voice was top notch and the crowd loved her.

little erykah.

the next day rachelle, juan and i scooted up to vancouver to catch erykah at the commodore ballroom. we were all really looking forward to this show, it was indoors and a small venue. on the way up rachelle mentioned that she got an email that erykah added a second show after the one that we had tickets to and we decided that since we were driving all the way up there that we were going to try to go to that show too. we figured we would be able to ticket from a scalpler, more on that later.

before the show we hit the hotel’s bar, o’douls. for some reason i have a romantic notion about hotel bars, i blame movies and tv for making them look so alluring, when in reality they are full of drinking ugly tourists. after a drink we took our space in line outside the commodore. we only had to wait about half an hour for the doors to open, once inside we found the perfect spot, center stage about two feet back. thankfully there wasn’t an opening act, and the crowd was in great spirits. when the curtain opened we could hardly contain ourselves. the band and her (so over it) back up singers entered, followed quickly by miss badu. strangely she was wearing the same outfit as the night before in redmond. not only that but we got almost the same setlist, this time she added “tyrone” and “bag lady”. this was still a totally different show though, being inside and three feet from her made it an almost supernatural experience. she has a magnetism and charm that if it could be bottled would cost millions. she spent a bit of time mugging for the cameras, she seemed to love posing. miss badu was in amazing form, she just blew us away. you could tell she was having a blast, and loved every moment. at one point she pulled a girl up from the front and the girl spit us a few lines. she was pretty good, and had erykah impressed. miss badu played for two of the quickest hours of my life. looking back, it was some of the most fun i’ve had in a long time. the show was supposed to end at 9:30, she ended at eleven, i think she would have played for us all night long. once outside we discussed our plan to go to the second show, we all had brought extra money and knew our limit. we decided that we really didn’t want to go, we were completely satisfied.

rachelle and juan in line before the show.

miss badu.

i do have two small gripes though. i think that she needs to lose a few members of the live band. she is such a dynamic artist and i don’t think that a live band can match her. she needs to get herself a good live producer. her back up singers were so done being there. they looked bored and pissed the whole time. it was so obvious that i thought they might have been playing characters. if so, why?

we walked back to our hotel, to hit the bar. we were all in such great moods that we even tried to chat up the waitress, she wasn’t having it though. she gave us the cold shoulder several times and  didn’t want any of our gum. after a few drinks, we headed up to our hotel room and watched crappy canadian hotel cable till we all passed out.

i would like to thank juan for coming out.

i would like to thank rachelle for motivating this musical adventure.

i would like to thank erykah badu for being an amazing performer.

buy me a present?

i would like either of these two bags.

they can be purchased here.
if you order now you (or i) would get a free toiletry bag.

rachelles growth part two.

part one.

rachelle’s plant went from this

to this in two weeks.

do you know abouts juan’s sugar?

the last week and a half has been pretty active. it all started last wednesday when juan arrived, he was three hours late and had been traveling for thirteen hours. despite his delerium we stayed up way too late playing wii. on thursday juan and i drove up to seattle. the main reason for juan’s visit was because he, rachelle and i were going to see erykah badu twice, once in redmond wa and once in vancouver bc. we had to leave portland pretty early so that we would be able to have lunch with audrey. the drive up to seattle was slightly frustrating with many periods of uncalled for congestion. we made it to seattle, met up with audrey and had lunch at in the bowl, which would turn out to be the first of many meals the would involve meat analogues. juan got to quickly meet erika, although i know the timing of the visit was just their way of getting me to pay for the meal. we dropped audrey back off at work and headed over to rachelle’s. rachelle’s was the meeting place for the group going to the eyrkah badu show at marymoor park in redmond. the review of the show will get it’s own post.

typical audrey picture

friday morning rachelle, juan and i rose fairly early to eat and get ready to go to vancouver bc, for the next erykah show. for breakfast we had waffles and a grapple, a food product that rachelle and i have been wondering about for quite sometime. eating a strange grape flavored apple is just as weird as it sounds, and kind of taste a bit like children’s medicine. i don’t really recommend them. after breakfast we packed up the car and left for canada. a rather cold and gray trip was in store for us. we stopped at the co-op in mount vernon for lunch, a very dry veggie burger from their deli. the pastries we got for dessert made up for the dry veggie burger. rachelle became strangely obsessed with cheddar beer flavored potato chips and bought a large bag, luckily i noticed that it was expired (by almost a month) before we left the store, new bag in hand we headed for the border. i should mention that those chips were gone before we got to the border. we breezed through the border and made it to the listel hotel with plenty of time to walk around. the hotel is on robson street so we walked around that area looking for an h&m. juan has a superpower, and the superpower is to always be able to tell in which direction the nearest h&m is. it needs to be seen to believed, he kind of blindy led us right to it. i generally have luck at h&m, especially in the shirts and jackets department, but not this time. the store had just opened and it was packed. the fitting room and checkout lines were out of control. i felt that i couldn’t even look at the clothes, we fled pretty quickly. we had dinner at the possibly reduntantly named HON’s house of noodles. rachelle and i have eaten there several times, and this would be the second meal involving meat analogues. i love this place, the food is always interesting and generally very good. i get the feeling that it is the most authentic chinese food i will ever have, unless i go to china. plus i love that they have a vegetarian kitchen separate from the meat kitchen. we ordered several stir frys and something called “assorted glutens”. everything was delicious, except for the yellow gluten. the yellow gluten was curry flavored and looked a bit like a batch of burnt scrambled eggs. strangely watery and chewy at the same time, and the flavor was a little sour. the star was the “chicken” dish we ordered off the specials menu, lots of green beans and “chicken” served sizzling with a delicious sauce. after dinner we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the second erykah show.

rachelle and i getting to the car to leave for vancouver.

rachelle at the listel

search out the h&m juan.

saturday morning after the show we got up and went to have breakfast at a crepe place, i had the best one with nutella, banana and grand marnier. rachelle’s mushroom and egg one was pretty good too. unfortunately they had the worst coffee, and they must of been shorthanded becuase the service was a bit shakey. we did more shopping on the way back to the hotel to check out. our trip back to seattle was not as swift, we waited in line at the border for about and hour. thank god for my ds and the crossword game. we stopped in mount vernon again for lunch, this time we went to a brewery. the veggie burgers were much better. when we get back to rachelle’s, we all collapsed onto chairs and couches, and didn’t move for a couple of hours. when hunger finally motivated us to move we walked up to jalisco’s, lots of beans and margaritas were consumed. afrer dinner we all passed out watching myra breckinridge, a movie i know i’ve seen several time but can’t tell you how it ends.

at the creperie.

on sunday i went and worked at the dish. i enjoy working a day or two at a time, it seems more like hanging out than work. i love catching up with everyone. my next guest spot will be the weekend of the forth of july, if you happen to be in seattle, stop by and say hi.

after work juan and i packed up and left rachelle’s, before leaving seattle i wanted to swing by josh and janet’s. josh and janet both looked great and ben is getting cuter by the visit. i gave josh some cd’s and we chatted for a while, a sadly short while. juan and i had to get going, we still had to eat some dinner before leaving for portland. we ended up eating at my favorite (non arayas) thai restaurant kwanjai, the food was perfect as always. juan and i were on a tight schedule, morgan had left a message earlier in the day that he and his friends were going to see the crystal castles at backspace and he had them get tickets for us too. so now we had to back in portland by 10. we made it in time for the opening band to be ending. i’ve been to this venue before and knew it was not the best place for show. the place was packed with brightly dressed youngsters. i have never heard any crystal castles before, all i knew was that they are well liked by the blogosphere. they were pretty good, techno beats with female hardcore style vocals, not really anything i would buy though. visually we have no idea what they were like. we couldn’t see them at all thanks to the low stage and packed house. the crowd loved them, and hardly stopped dancing.

on monday i had to work and morgan was in the studio all day, so juan was on his own. luckily for him bravo was rerunning the last season of project runway, so he got to catch up. that night we met up with morgan to go to vegetarian house for our third meal of meat analogues. the star dish of that meal was the tofu hushpuppies in tangy sauce. savory tofu balls, lots of steamed broccoli and a sauce made with lots of bits that certainy was a bit tangy. juan and i walked back to our place and finished up the first disc of square pegs. tuesday was similar. i had to work and juan spent time walking around portland by himself. after work we went and had dinner at an italian place near our apt. the food was fine, but the service was bad, they put chicken, yes real chicken, in mine! after dinner we watched the directors cut of knocked up and went to bed.

at 4am i got up to drive juan to the airport, i got back home with enough time to sleep for another hour before going to work.

juan’s visit now seems like a blur, or should i say haze. next time he should come out for two weeks and i need to not work at all.

oh tyra.

tyra doing what tyra does best, talking about herself and smiling with her eyes.

juan in the new york times.

may 1st 2008

Arts, Briefly

Free Madonna Show? Only for Die-Hard Fans

By BEN SISARIO

Published: May 1, 2008

The first ones lined up at 10 a.m. Monday. They brought Madonna memorabilia and warm clothes. Some had candy earrings in tribute to their heroine’s new album, “Hard Candy” (Warner Brothers), which went on sale Tuesday. They were outside the Roseland Ballroom on West 52nd Street in Manhattan, and the lucky ones would get free tickets to Madonna’s promotional show there. For this event Roseland had a capacity of 2,200, which by Madonna’s standards is as intimate as a basement club. At 6 a.m. on Wednesday 750 fans received wristbands entitling them to free tickets that night. But by noon a hundred or so still had not left; they just had to be the first to walk inside. “I told my bosses I was going to take four days off,” said Juan Romani, 34, of Pawcatuck, Conn., who was near the front of the line. “When I told them what I was doing, they thought I was crazy. But it’s Madonna.”