Oxfordness

Ah, this place is beautiful!

I am sad to leave this lovely place of Oxford.  Perhaps I wouldn't be so sad if the weather wasn't as gorgeous (the California sunshine came with me - I actually got quite a decent sunburn yesterday), but it's been a wonderful few days.

I saw Karen, we watched rowing races (and crashes), we PLAYED POLO (which is my new obsession - seriously, whole new world opened up), I saw lots of Harry Potter-like things, found my favorite candy in the whole world, laid in the sunshine, walked along meadows, etc, etc. 

More much to be said later, but for now, I must get ready to leave for Italy in 6 hours. 

Musical Monday

Hey - guess what?  I'm the UK right now.

In honor of that, let's have some music from there, like the Wombats, who are from Liverpool.  Girls/Fast Cars - one of my favorites from their recent show. Have a little listen.

London Calling

So, the other day I got on a plane to London. I'm going to be hanging out over here in Euroland for the next few weeks.

I'm taking the Tube to work this week. 

And looking at pretty things when I'm not at work.  Wish I had a couple more days in London, but the tour must go on.  Weekend in Oxford up next.

Don't be jealous of my life or anything. #mylifeisamazing

My Concert Addiction

I've seen a lot of bands in the last couple weeks - let's review, shall we?

First band - Toy Bombs at The Satellite.  No photos, but you can check them out here.

The next night I went to the Troubadour.  Wild Belle opened.

But I was there to see Tennis.

Have your heard their song Petition?  Cause it's one of my favorites of 2012.  The rest of their show was just as great.

The next week, I found out that The Neighbourhood was playing their first LA show - they are getting all the buzz right now, and I knew I had to see them.  I hope to see a lot more of them, headlining their own shows at tiny venues in LA.  They've got some groovy stuff.

The Wombats headlined that night at El Rey, and man, if they didn't put on a great show.  You can't see them and not dance and have fun. My iPod has a few of their songs on repeat lately. 

Later that week, back at the Troubadour, it was time to hang out with Imagine Dragons.  The show was sold out, and people cleared out after their set so they were definitely the main draw, despite not being the headlining act.  

 

The Jezabels from Aussie land ended the night, and I'm a little sad I haven't listened to more of them until now.  I'd only heard a song or two, but I went home a convert.  I love their sound.  Had to buy a couple albums.  You should check them out.

 

Transmission LA : AV Club

I went to MOCA a couple Saturdays ago to see this exhibit, curated by Mike D of the Beastie Boys.  I liked a few parts of it, but it didn't really speak to me.  Maybe the Diplo part that I didn't get into would've been more my thing?

Jami + friends took the train up from Long Beach. I think they had to take 3 different lines.  Crazy.

The stage where other people would see Diplo, but not me.

This entire room was just a video game screen, constantly moving.  It was trippy.

We took the train to Hollywood for some sushi after art time.  Then we tried to get pics of the supermoon.  Kinda difficult in the city.

My neighborhood clouded the moon.

Musical Monday

The new Miike Snow is still on heavy rotation at my house.  I'm still bummed about being in NYC when they played in LA, and getting back to LA two days before they played in NYC.  I'll see them eventually.

Let's remix this.

Life from My iPhone

I was introduced to the best taco stand in LA.  I've been twice, even though it's all the way on the other side of town.  Tacos al pastor and carne asada.  Like whoa.  

 Corey came to visit.  I took him for tacos.

Marcello as dictator.  Will I see this movie?

Venice

Binoculars

The Gary Chronicles - Back to Utah Part II

We had sushi dinner with cousin Sarah one night.  

Max got wild.  He loves Taylor.

Adam and I hung out one afternoon.  We saw lots of things, like this old dude on his red BMW bike.  My dad recently bought one of those.  Should I be concerned?

We explored Sugar House Park.

I wanted a photo of the flamingos at Liberty Park, but the fence was too high.

Not too high for Adam.

There was some Earth festival thing going on.  Phenomenal people watching.

This dude dancing was brilliant.

Dinner at Sette Bello before seeing Snow Patrol.

Cousin Julie and Jesse met us there.  She now has two doctorates and will hopefully never have to go to school again!  She was about 7 days away from graduation here.

Tay and Court

Me and Adam

Ed Sheeran opened.  I liked.  Apparently he's the most streamed artist of 2012 in the UK.

Funniest moment of the night - Ed's done playing, this group of older adults starts to push through the crowd and make their way up front before Snow Patrol starts.  Adam leans towards me and says 'aren't you a little too old to be pushing to the front?' and the whole group heard him.  Totally hilarious.  Thankfully, they were really gracious and no punches were thrown.

 
And there they are!  I don't know exactly when I fell in love with Snow Patrol, but it's just been a gradual process and I just really, really enjoy them.  I've seen them lots of times in many states, I have all their albums and side project albums, and I love their way with words, regardless of how cheesy the topic might be (love stuff, ewh).  They just do it right.  And they're nice.  And funny.  

 

They recorded their most recent album in Santa Monica, and I know this because Gary started a tumblr and would regularly post photos of the pier, the sunset, etc.  I was living in Phoenix at the time, but I vowed that if I happened to be in Cali when I saw one of these posts, I would find and meet Gary.  I just think he's great and I'd wanna chat about life and music with him.

Well, when he opened a Twitter account recently, I noticed that after a couple shows on this tour, he'd tweet about coming out of the venue to meet anyone who was waiting.  Salt Lake was going to be my chance!  Dreams could come true!  Smaller venue, most people went home right after the show, and I knew I had to make it happen. Plus, after meeting Demetri Martin there a couple weeks ago, I was on a streak.  I could taste victory.  We all casually waited around until security pushed out out of the building.

I walked over towards a tour bus to see a handful of people from the show also waiting, and voila - there was Ed!

A few more minutes later, there comes all of Snow Patrol, just walking out the front door.  Uh....hello?  Pleased to meet you, Mr Lightbody!  I think I was mostly coherent.  We talked about Tired Pony.  Aren't I just beaming?  I was really happy.

The band has been in LA all week...hmmm....and they'll be in Phoenix next week when I'm there.  Hmm...

Okay.  Back to normal life.  I took Max on a run up the mountain because he had lots of energy to expel.

 

It was just beautiful.

On the way down the mountain, I noticed Max carrying something in his mouth.  Uh oh, yes, he found another deer carcass.

Courtney and Taylor went to bed early that night, so I was in charge of Max.  I let him outside one more time before bedtime, and figured he probably didn't need to be on the leash - he'd just go do his business and come back in.  I was very, very wrong.  He took off like a banshee up the hill.  He's also very black, so I couldn't see the likes of him if my life depended on it.  Half an hour later I saw his shadow in the yard, and I coaxed him in with a treat.  He had stuff all in his beard; I figured it was just weeds or a bush or something.

Nope, the next morning I found that it was this:

Enough fur for a blanket!  Gross.  I wouldn't let him near it, but he stared at it from a distance all day long.  Poor thing.

Taylor got home from work in the early afternoon, so we had a quick lunch at The Smoking Apple before going to the airport.  We both drank a little too much Dr Pepper at lunch, so our ride to the airport was pretty eventful.  His truck isn't the smoothest ride, the road was bumpy, and we both couldn't stop laughing. That was a close call.

Adios, Utah.  I'm sure I'll see you again soon.