A few months ago, I purchased tickets to Ray LaMontagne at the Wiltern here in LA. It was a second show that was added after the first show quickly sold out. I was so glad when it was announced because I hadn’t been able to see him live yet. Anyway, another one of my friends got tickets to the show in San Diego before the second show was announced, as it didn’t sell out immediately like the first LA show. Between getting the tickets and the show, circumstances came about that she might not be going with the person she had originally intended. So one day, I came up with this crazy idea of us sharing our tickets with each other and going to both shows. My friend loved the idea.
I don’t have many pics from the shows…just a couple of really dark pictures from the San Diego show (the Wiltern doesn’t allow photography)…but here is Leona Ness (the opening act) and Ray at the Spreckels Theatre:
I enjoyed both nights quite a bit, but for different reasons. I think the San Diego show was a little better…at least Ray’s portion of it. The set was at least one song longer in San Diego (I think…I wasn’t counting…but the LA show just felt shorter). We had great seats in San Diego, however they were off to the left and the view was partially blocked by the speakers. We basically just saw the side and back of Ray. In LA, the seats were in the balcony, so we were looking down from the center, but much further away. Both venues were excellent for ambiance and sound quality. Very fitting venues for the music. My only complaints…in San Diego, we had some annoying folks around us, a couple where the guy was demeaning and pretty much just horrible to his date, and a girl who kept recording on her cell phone in 30 second blocks the majority of Ray’s set. In LA, I was disappointed how little difference there was in the set list from the night before from Ray. While Leona Ness played pretty much the same songs, she at least switched up the order. Ray’s set was pretty much exactly the same, with the exception being him not performing Roses and Cigarettes in LA. More pics from the weekend are here.
Sometimes by a woodland stream he watched the water rush over the pebbled bed, its tiny modulations of bounce and flow. A woman’s body was like that. If you watched it carefully enough you could see how it moved to the rhythm of the world, the deep rhythm, the music below the music, the truth below the truth.
from The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Despite not really having any money, I’ve had a decent enough week.
Tuesday through Thursday of last week, I had a short-term temp assignment at the corporate offices of the Metro YMCA. It was a nice little break from the joblessness, and its especially nice to have some money coming in this week.
Saturday, I went for a short hike in Topanga State Park. On the way back out of the park, I even hiked barefoot for awhile. It was nice. When I got home, I took the bus downtown to catch the evenings show at Grand Performances series at the California Plaza. The artist was Rachid Taha a French-Algerian artist, most famous in the US for a Arabic version of The Clash’s Rock the Casbah. There was a small dance area, packed to the brim, with many French and Arabic speakers around. I had a blast dancing.
Sunday, I went on a hike with Progressive Christians Uniting in the San Gabriel Mountains. We went up to a spot on the San Gabriel River, that is quite popular with the latino population of the San Gabriel Valley cities. The sections alongside the road are a bit overused. We hiked aways down a trail towards the wilderness area, and were eventually able to find some space without other people. We even took a little dip in the river, which was really nice on a warm and relatively humid day.
I’m officially helping out with the 10:15 service at church now. I’m still not that sure how I feel about church in general, but I do like this service…and its nice to be helping make it happen. I’m in charge of making sure things are set-up before the service this coming Sunday.
I just saw this for the first time this past week. This was originally aired on BET show The 5ive, and I believe (from the CNN spots below) has been aired on the show 106 & Park, a daily top-10 rap video countdown. The song, by poet Bomani Armah, aka D’Mite or notarapper, is a parody/satire of the state of the “urban” black culture. Not surprisingly, people didn’t get it:
Part 1 (From CNN)
Part 2 (From CNN)
I love in the second part of the interview, that the guy doesn’t see how silly his complaints about this animated short are. He keeps trying to make the video out as a PSA, removing it from the context where it was shown. Completely ignoring the fact that it was shown on a show (and channel) that regularly feature music videos that glorify violence and drugs, while at the same time objectifing women.
When accused by the CNN host of being a provocateur, Bomani responds wonderfully: “I didn’t think the idea of reading and hygiene and all these things was controversial”
Went and caught Doc Martin at sublevel (His monthly underground party) last Saturday night/Sunday Morning. Had a great time dancing until almost 4am with my friends Charlie and DJ Drue.
Here’s a little taste from the March 29th party at 6:30am (I didn’t make it to that one):
I do love being so close to the beach. I spent the afternoon on Saturday with a good friend at Newport Beach. We hung out there for a couple of hours before we headed up to Huntington Beach to check out a show by William F Gibbs. It was nice to just hang out and just be.Friday night I went to a hookah cafe and saw the movie Teeth with a different friend. The movie was pretty ridiculous (billed itself as a horror comedy).
I’m in the home stretch at work. My last big event is tomorrow night and things are pretty much all in order for it. It’ll be nice not to have that lingering over me anymore.
I haven’t been to church (outside of work) for a month now. I was planning on going last weekend…but then woke up Sunday morning not feeling well, so I stayed in bed all day. I think I’ll go this Sunday. Or go hiking.
I’m not having much luck in my first choice of “things to do after I’m done at Canterbury.” The craigslist job board for Santa Rosa isn’t providing many opportunities to apply for jobs. So I’m left with also figuring out what Plan B really is. Do I stay in Los Angeles, which often sucks away my will, and is so expensive, just because its the easiest option. Do I look to move back to Oregon, even though I have no idea on how I’d pay to move my stuff back up there? Is there some other place I should think about going?
Really, like Ray sings above, the whole process has left me feeling kind of empty. Change is coming and I need to work on making sure its good. As one of my friends pointed out last weekend in Salt Lake…I sure thought I’d have more things figured out by the time I was this age than I do.
