New Years Eve on the town

For the first time in my young life, I will experience New Years Eve away from the comforts of a house party at a familiar abode, and I will venture into the city to partake in bar-stlye festivities. Unfortunately, most of the NYE events are advertised as "sexy" and "sinful" and charge $60 so that patrons can enjoy overly-handled cold appetizers and a champagne toast at midnight, all while enjoying the latest sounds of this year's top 40. Being cheap and somewhat unfamiliar with dressing appropriately for a night of sex and sin, I've been searching the event listings of my favorite music clubs. I'd rather pay $20 for a night of local bands and cheap beer. And I don't like dress codes. I just don't do them...I work at a bank. That's enough dress code for me.


SO! This is where I'll most likely be for New Years Eve 2009:

Harpers Ferry, Allston

I love Harpers Ferry. It's a big venue in an excellent area. College scenesters are crawling all over the streets, and I love it. I hope to move to that neighborhood next fall.

HF is having an overwhelming number of bands play that night, and it sounds everyone will be doing covers. That works for NYE because everyone will be so drunk that covers will tickle us to tears. At least I know I'll be tickled.

And $20??? Yes. My cohort and I can manage such a fee. There is a lot of room to mingle and a long bar at which to quench our thirsts.

Hooray and Happy New Year :)

POTTER!

Oh my goodness! I know I some may look down at me for this, but you know what? I'm not ashamed. Not ashamed of the fact that I have been a rabid Harry Potter fan since I was in middle school. Not ashamed of the fact that I've read a few of the books 2-3 times. Not ashamed of the fact that I was young enough when I started reading them to think I had a chance being cast as Hermione Granger if they were ever made into movies. I had really frizzy hair back then! I actually still do have frizzy hair but age has graced me with the wisdom to know how to contain it. A bit.

So, a Harry Potter exhibition is coming to Chicago in April. Lucky for me, I have la famiglia in Chicago and I was already planning on visiting them early next summer. This makes those plans concrete.

Yay!


Also, I kept writing "Happy Hotter" instead of "Harry Potter". Hello, subconscious?

While I'm posting videos...

I should just stick my favorite videos from my favorite bands on here. I think I decided that my three favorite bands are Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene and Kaki King.

Though not exactly a music video, this Arcade Fire performance inside of a French elevator is mindbogglingly beautiful. Also, I wasn't sure "mindbogglingly" was an official word when I started writing it, but apparently dictionary.com approves it. So be it! Mindbogglingly beautiful performance of Neon Bible:



As for Kaki King, this is the video that introduced me to her about 4 years ago and it was love at first pluck. I was finally able to see her last spring at Pearl Street in Northampton. I bought two tickets hoping that one of my roommates would see her with me, but said roommates turned out to be mindbogglingly disappointing people. I also had SEVERELY sprained my ankle the week before the show (about 3 months after I had SEVERELY broken my foot on the other leg) and I had been home for a week trying to heal a bit. I drove from Framingham to Northampton that fateful Sunday night and dragged my bum leg(s) into Pearl St and stood (painfully) for the show. It was worth it. And she is the smallest person I have ever seen. And absolutely my favorite female musician in the galaxy. So here is Kaki King with Playing with Pink Noise:



I have another post on here about the Broken Social Scene show I saw at the (boooooo!) Wilbur Theater. I was introduced to them back when I was 16, and they've been in the Top 3 ever since. My shoulder hurts from long hours at the bank (ugh...just ugh) so I won't type any more tonight. Ouch ouch ouch, but this is lovely lovely lovely. Fire Eye'd Boy by BSS:



Okay I just found this so one more. I don't think I even need to explain why this one is significant. Behold--David Bowie joins Arcade Fire on Wake Up:

From youtube virals to SNL digital shorts

I've been a great fan of The Lonely Island boys for a few years now thanks in large part to my little brother's uncanny ability to discover hilarity in every nook of the internet. I imagine that boy is capable of finding anything online. Andy Samberg is now a familiar face on the funny-again SNL (also my initials, ha!) and Jorma and Akiva, his Lonely Island brethren, are also part of the SNL family now. Akiva directs the digital shorts and writes them alongside Jorma and Andy. Finally, Jorma makes an appearance on the show rather than just spending his time dancing behind the scenes:



and to another of my favorite bands:



But this is possibly my favorite Lonely Island video. I think I can just really relate to it.



I love storks.

More quotes (because I can't think for myself)!

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings." - Victor Hugo

All Ladies of the Century need money somehow...

This lady has gotten a job. An almost real job. Since there are no jobs she wants, she must get a job that is reliable, lucrative, though undesirable. She is...a bank teller!

ooooo let your fantasies run wild!

the branch I'll be working in is in a nice town with plenty of funny little shops to explore and coffees to sample, so I'll be content for at least a few months. So now, when people ask me what I "do", rather than saying I'm an unemployed former student who lives at home in the town I grew up in, I can say I'm a BANK TELLER former student who lives at home in the town I grew up in.

I'm going to look at this as a step in the right direction.

ooo, Perezzies!

Hottest Hookup	Biggest Breakup
Lindsay Lohan and Sa...	Anne Hathaway and Ra...
Favorite Jonas	Breakout Star of the Year
Nick	Robert Pattinson
Baddest Bad Girl	Biggest Scandal
Amy Winehouse	Raffaello Follieri's...
Best Dressed	Worst Dressed
Anne Hathaway	Aubrey O'Day
Hottest Hottie	Cutest Celebuspawn
Robert Pattinson	Kingston Rossdale
Most Improved	Worst Trainwreck
Britney Spears	Lily Allen
Most DVR-worthy Series	Biggest Box Office Blowout
The Office	Twilight
Celeb of the Year
Heath Ledger

Who would you vote for?
Go to PerezHilton.com to vote!

The very reason I won't let my cat Binx venture outside yet...

"The thing about cats is that they're nocturnal creatures, meaning they prefer the night! Then again, so do coyotes, feral dogs, and devil worshipers..."

-The Dad on Malcolm in the Middle (heh)

The L.o.C. Gastro Diaries: The Met Bar & Grill

So when I started this thing (around last week...) I decided that it may be beneficial to comment on not only what I'm reading, watching, smelling or stealing, but also what I'm eating and drinking. Because I am in the mood and still too full to move and do something productive, I will today write about The Met Bar & Grill, specifically the one in Natick, MA. Yes, the one in the abominable Natick Mall Collection (hisssssss).

To celebrate our last day of temping together at our temp-of-the-month position, my co-worker and I decided to celebrate with tall drafts of bubbly brew and red meat. Yes, it was a true ladies night out.

I'm going to keep this simple: it was satisfying. No...it was saaaatisfying. The kind of satisfying that is so satisfying that you have no choice but to roll off of your bar stool at the meals end and make the slow march back to your car in a gastronomic stupor. The fact that one must also navigate through a mildly frightening and mostly-hidden secret hallway that winds behind all of the hip new stores to get into the faraway parking lot you left your silly little red Civic in to escape makes the experience a bit less satisfying, but that is no one's fault but my own. Or possible my co-worker's fault because it was she who demanded we park near the new American Girl Store. Oh, folly!

That was meant to be simple. NOW I'll get simple.

This is what we ate:



A $5 appetizer of Onion Strings and Fries, served in the very basket it was fried in. Service!

This friend and I don't typically enjoy onion rings, but these are strings and therefore very agreable to a ladies palate. We ate more than was attractive. We looked like a couple of moose in a cranberry bog...

That analogy doesn't work at all, but I liked the mental image. Munching moose in a cranberry bog is a MUCH more attractive image than us eating at the Met.

Way off topic. That's just evidence of how good these vittles were. I'm still in a complete stupor.

And, the burger.

I guess Phantom Gourmet RAVES about these burgers, but they like everything and I've never met a phantom I trusted. But they were right, these burgers are boss.

I got the L.A. Burger as an homage to the L.A. trip I have been meaning to make for a while, but keeps getting postponed indefinitely.

It had sprouts, avocado, and sesame seeds. So L.A. Right?

I made a god-awful mess of this. When the bartender brought me a take-home pouch, I refused to let him see the remains because I was so embarassed at what I had done. I did give him a great tip though because he was a water phantom. He literally refilled my water glass twice without me even realizing what had happened. Another testament to the beauty that was this meal.

This was a bit long-winded. Stupor is slowly guiding me towards sleep...slowly...

As the country moves ahead, my (semblance of) maturity travels back in time...

Note to self:

Talk about Twilight.

More specifically, talk about Robert Pattinson.

Even more specifically, talk about newly developed urge to find vampire lover.

Edit: Talk about newly developed urge to find vampire lover who looks like Robert Pattinson.

This is going to get very pathetic very quickly.

Edit II: Also will consider tall werewolf lovers.

CHANGE

Thank the Lord :)

Must Elaborate: 10/26 Broken Social Scene @ Wilbur Theater

Amazing show. The word "epic" popped into my mind at least three times during their set, and possible even one "EPIIIIIIIIIIIIIC".

It will be discussed further...later...

I will point out that while the Wilbur is in a lovely area and looks nice, old and charming on the outside, it's a pretty poorly designed venue. They consider "general admission" to be a relative term that actually means "we'll slap different colored wrist bands on you (and rip off some arm hair with our reckless binding of of the straps adhesive) then herd you into designated fenced-in areas depending on how early you get to the theater."

In my case, I arrived a bit late because traffic was balls, and on a Sunday night, too! Booooo. So, my accomplice and I were put here:



That little yellow box was the cattle pen I was designated to. Those sinister looking red dots surrounding my pen represent the hoard of vicious security personnel. That sad gray dot inside of the pen? Yes, I'm afraid that was me. Saddened with the position I'd been forced into, and a little in pain due to the arm hair I lost due to aforementioned macabre wrist-banning.

Nevertheless, a light could be seen through the gates of my Wilbur prison. And that light was Elizabeth Powell, front-woman of Land of Talk and incumbent female voice on the BSS tour.

I offer this gem of portable media: Elizabeth Powell singing "Anthems for a 17 year old girl" with BSS at the Wilbur on 10/26. It was towards the end of their set and it was completely entrancing. Powell's voice handles all of the BSS songs amazingly well, and she can sing them just as well as Feist or Emily Haines. She's also completely adorable and the unfiltered energy she brings to the stage is addicting and refreshing...especially when viewing the band from a fenced off corner in the back of the theater with alarmingly butch security forces guarding the aisles, preventing anyone from shifting closer to the stage. But I digress...

A thick buzz pulsed through the entire crowd when she began "Anthems" and everyone's hearts suddenly felt a little lighter, and a little more emo. It is possible to feel both at the same time? That's a topic too controversial for these pages. Anyways, we were rewarded with this amazing performance of the song:





I loved this song when I was a 17 year old girl and like, really felt it, man. Doesn't everyone at some point in their lives wish that someone would "park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me"? I did/do/will continue to do so.

Another quote I like to think I'll remember...

"You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write."

--Saul Bellow (Canadian Writer)

Libros: Dead Travel Fast

Reading now: Dead Travel Fast by Eric Nuzum

I've been hunting down this book for MONTHS...literally hunting. I've approached countless booksellers at my local book establishments, my fangs bared and pupils dilated, asking why this book was no longer within reach of my claws.

Finally, FINALLY...after obtaining my first pair of contact lenses, I decided to reward myself with an iced coffee and a new book. Admittedly, I felt less bookish without my black-rimmed glasses, but I applied extra mascara so that my new eyes would still feel sheltered by at least one extra protective layer.

I found this book and hmm'd and haaa'd about whether I should spend the money, tossing it from one hand to the other and dropping my coffee because you can't catch a book when you're already holding a large cold coffee. I recovered from my blunder and remembered, hey, I don't have to spend money. I will just buy now and pay later, when I finally have a great job!

Perhaps to someone who was not familiar with this title, it would look like I was buying a book about the occult with intentions of becoming intimate with its ideals. The sales person at the register made an awkward crack about Count Chocula being a great vampire, and being quite caught off guard (probably due to the loss of my smart glasses) felt compelled to defend the book. In a tight voice and with my arms waving I squeaked something about it being a humor-clad cultural study of the international fascination with vampire lore and lifestyle and hoo and haa and whee baa boo. I was also walking away from the register, waving a vampire book in my arms and feeling temporarily blinded without my glasses the remembering I had tiny lenses on my eye balls that let me see and when it all hit me I made a run for it.

It all ended well because once I got into my car, I put on sunglasses comfortably for the first time, relishing the fact that I wasn't hiding my bulky lenses underneath and looking like a damn fool. I still ended up looking like a fool. But...I had a new book, new eyes, and a cold coffee bubbling inside me. All ended well.


**

liquified organs and oral ooze

Ah, la premier post de la blog.

About books I'm reading/want to read/have read/afraid to read/shmeed shmeed shmeed. About nights out and nights in and the hours in between. About food I make and shouldn't eat and the food I eat but shouldn't make. (???)

A place for me to abuse the availability of online journals, whether or not anyone ends up seeing it.

I'm going to feel it out...see what evolves. For now I'll try and post about things encountered in the Boston area and within my own cultural sphere (which isn't very large considering I'm finished with school and technically unemployed and single). So really, this will chronicle the encounters of someone in my situation. An educated, unemployed, single, poor, bored, but hopeful, lady of the century.