to keep my sanity intact, every once in a while, especially during the non-holiday months, i take a friday off, relax, get some random errands/adult obligations done, etc. it's like ferris bueller's day off, but with less adventure & not in chicago. this friday was one of those days. i slept in for a few extra hours, waking up around 11am after a night where, with no work ahead of me, i had stayed out past my bedtime seeing the debut performance of the W.U.T.S. (who need to get some music on their page) at vox pop, a recently-saved community-owned bar/cafe/performance space/book store/publishing assistance place here in brooklyn...since i'll be back there, more to come on that awesome place at some point.
...so i woke up at 11 & started my day with an iced coffee & the paying off of some outstanding nj taxes. they were from two months from when i moved back to new york over two years ago, so it was sort of like a closing of that "coming back to ny" period, which i suppose is a good thing...sanity & all.
i also used the power of the internet to purchase a three-day pass to the mid-july pitchfork music festival out in chicago. very excited about that. i've never been to the festival & haven't been to chicago since a 2002ish trip, when i was there for a convention of college cable tv systems. all i remember of the city was a few hour journey into the city to meet a friend at a bar somewhat near where dillinger was shot. that's it though.
...so i finally left the apartment in the early afternoon for my usually bi-monthly supercuts haircut up in downtown brooklyn. usually i get the short, frumpy east-european looking woman or the slightly older, talkative woman who's been there forever, but this time, i got a cute, young girl with glasses & a pseudo-afro who fixed my hair. most satisfying haircut of the 09 thus far. you can smell it...spring is in the air.
after my haircut & a few errands, i came home & picked up my mail. to my surprise, there was a cd-shaped package for me in the mailbox, which contained a cd from allison, who you may remember from such places as snack away! #3 & wrestling entropy. in honor of my now-impending trip to chicago, it's a mix of songs about chicago or by chicago bands (including chicago) & it single-handedly made my weekend & got a solid listen over the last few days, especially with the subway waits due to copious mta construction. so yeah...spring is definitely in the air.
#86 - shawny shawn's day off.
snack: pretzel pete spicy-hot! sour cream & habanero pretzel nuggets
drink: rogue morimoto hazelnut signature ale
my friday evening plans consisted of the long-awaited return of the missing teens (the band i'm doing some managing for) as a full band, complete with guitarist & keyboardist, but it was 4pm & i had a few hours to kill, so i picked up a beer & some pretzels to munch on during my few hour-killing. the pretzels i went with are straight outta landsdale (pa)--the pretzel pete spicy-hot! sour cream & habanero pretzel nuggets. look at that pretzel pete! he's such a pretzel-hording lil scamp!
the pretzels come in a gold bag, which is totally classy. as the diagram on the back of the box points out, a lot of thought has gone into making these nuggets as tasty as can be. a wide split in the nugget & things like flakes of parsley make it all possible. they're good...no less dry than any other pretzel, but they're buttery & peppery/spicy, which is tasty. well done, lil pete.
luckily, i had picked up the rogue morimoto hazelnut signature ale to combat cotton mouth. rogue has recently rebranded their hazelnut brown nectar (featuring a communist-looking figure on the front) to the morimoto brand, featuring some sort of samurai. it's a well-done brown ale that's much more flavorful & not as harsh as a newcastle...not really something i see a communist drinking, to be honest, so i support the switch to the composed, asian stylee.
by the time i was done with its 22 oz & had a bit of pretzel pete coursing through my veins, i was good & ready for a full on rock & roll show. james call & erotic photo hunt (the missing teens mastermind's solo project) opened up, followed by full-on rock from psycho rainbow, who i had seen before but absolutely loved for the first time on friday night (check out "penny penny" & this rockin' live action & this stripped-down live action if you're so inclined). then the missing teens returned with a seriously awesome show & (i think) i got my video camera to work & (hopefully) taped the whole thing. i'm so happy they ditched the singer + ipod + couple of instruments approach in favor of a full band sound. it sounds so damn alive it's not even funny. tons of people came out & rocked their faces off & peeps made some money! friday night melted into saturday morning with beers & conversation & this awesomeness.
part deux of weekend amazingness coming tomorrow! my life is so inspiring exciting! interesting neat full of events!