Love Bites

Ah, so I was just looking through my pile of junk trying to get organized before I move out and came across the "poem" I wrote for the Def Leppard concert (back in October). Now, I'd never made any kind of a poster to hold up for an event before this time, so I was determined to do so. On my poster, I decided to create a poem strictly out of the song titles of the bands playing at the concert, which were: Foreigner, Styx, and Def Leppard. It actually turned out pretty comprehensible, and I didn't need to add any extra words at all.

Love Bites

The Best of Times Feels Like the First Time. Too Much Time on my Hands, Waiting for a Girl Like You, Girl on the Moon. I Don't Want to Live Without You. Say You Will Show me the Way. See the Lights? Photograph The Grand Illusion. Another Hit and Run When Love and Hate Collide. Double Vision. Hot Blooded Animal Heart Turns to Stone. Heaven Is Two Steps Behind. Too Late for Love.

And on the other side I got a bunch of different shades of lipstick and put my lip prints all over it and drew in fangs for each one. Haha...it was a cool poster. And those who read it appreciated it. I remember I got a cool idea after I made it. There should be magnet poetry with song titles to rock songs. They could package them together with bands that tour together! It would be fun. Okay, I'm a little nuts, and I lost the definitions of the words to my genius themed magnet poetry, so...I'm at a loss.

EZ

I waited until today to do my taxes. Ah, well, at this point in my life they are EZ. Once they become complicated, I'll make my brother Matt do them. Wait, now, Matthew...I mean, I will pay you to do them. Yes... (twittles her fingers in a Mr. Burns-like fashion and laughs maniacally).

Apparently the equipment is down at work today, so I'm just sitting here waiting for it to come back on line. However, since the one student that comes to tonight's class is not here today I'm not too concerned about whether or not the broadcast connection will be re-established. Hmm...the irony is, now it seems that I am getting paid to twittle my fingers and wait, whilst laughing maniacally. I'm not getting paid much for it, though.

I still need to decide where I'm going to live and work for the summer. Alaska seems very doubtful, it was a passing fancy/fantasy. "Who guts fishes in their fantasies?!" you ask. Good point.

Here It Goes

That was absolutely the best concert I've been to! I even went back in to make friends with the security personnel so that I might be able to meet the band, but, alas, they did not linger long. Jim Adkins even said that we were the best crowd on the tour so far! It wasn't fanfare, I know the difference. He even laughed at our enthusiasm at one point and said that he'd like to play for us all night, but that they had to get to Utah for the show that's tonight. And I wanted very much to go to that one too, but Mondays are Mondays...and a Monday crushes all my hopes for happy happenstances.

Paramore also played, as well as an opening band called Dear and the Headlights (also from Mesa, AZ). I was excited to find that Paramore had a female lead singer, as I often bring up the topic of naming good bands with a female lead and can't think of many. Most that come to mind for me happen to only be single artists, and not the lead to an excellent band. So, if anyone has a decent list, I do need some more female vocalists in my collection. Paramore was pretty cool, but I didn't recognize any of their songs, and I noticed that the fanbase was mostly throngs of teenage girls. However, it was the girl-power sort of throng, rather than the swooning over the lead singer type (which in this case would be disturbing rather than annoying/humorous).

Speaking of swooning over the lead singer, I came pretty close to that myself. I loved watching Jim sing and play live, and I rarely took my eyes off of him. I guess from just seeing videos of their live shows, I became pretty familiar with what to expect. I immediately recognized that Jim was wearing his black button-up concert shirt. It's the only shirt I've seen him wear in concert, and I think it's cool that he keeps up the tradition, especially since this shirt invariably becomes absolutely drenched in sweat after each show. And yes, it was very entertaining to watch him transform from being completely dry to completely wet.

Set (as well as memory serves):

Big Casino- Obvious choice for the opener. It's their new hit single, and it has a lot of energy. I think the chorus is really catchy.
Sweetness- One of their biggest hits ever. Everyone has heard this one. It was great to jumpstart the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Work- I like this one, and I gave a good shout for the Futures album.
Crush- I was a little surprised by this choice, but was glad to hear a lesser known song from a lesser known album.
Dizzy- This is my favorite song off of the new album, and I loved seeing it live. They had this green misty light on the whole time which gave off a Great Gatsby vibe. Definitely a highlight to the show.
Just Tonight...- They seemed to downplay the usual intensity of this song. It was kinda a shame, but it was still cool. I love the guitar solo on this one!
A Praise Chorus- Josie likes this song a lot. I think it's fun.
Polaris- This is another of my favorite slower songs of theirs. I was glad that they played it, and gave it a good cheer.
Always Be- This is a pretty catchy track off the new album.
Your New Aesthetic- The only real rocker on Clarity. I like it better than Bleed American.
Let It Happen- That's the first time I've heard the crowd laugh along to a song. This is one of my favorites from the new album.
Pain- High-energy crowd pleaser. A nice rocker from Futures.
Blister- I always skip this track on Clarity because the beginning always startles me with Tom's voice shouting from the start. Ewwh. It's a pretty good song other than that beginning. It's likely that they play this at every show to give Tom a chance to shine, and Jim some time to rest from singing.
Here It Goes- This is such a good dance song. It's got a good message to be yourself and have fun.
Get It Faster- I like the loud and soft transitions on this one a lot. It was at this point that I heard the people around me beginning to comment on how soaked in sweat Jim's shirt was, and I thought it was funny.
Futures- Always cool. I like the lyrics.
Bleed American- The classic rocker. I was getting a little sweaty myself at this point.

Encore:
The Middle- It's certainly a crowd pleaser. I was a little out of energy to fully appreciate it.
Hear You Me- Nice way to end. This is the only song I didn't sing along/lip sync with. I just peacefully enjoyed it. I was surprised at how many people still wave lighters around instead of cell phones. I like lighters. There's something very rock-and-roll about the old-fashioned flames in the air.

Lousy commentary, I know, but I wanted to remember the set, so I typed it up. It was an excellent show!

I also enjoyed getting to see Josie and her family, of course. I saw a potato cellar for the first time, and it reminded me of Scrooge McDuck's vault of coins off of Duck Tales. I'm sure her dad doesn't dive in and take a swim in the potatoes, but...I can't say I didn't imagine it :)

Feeling Lucky

After a couple months of gloominess, I'm really excited to go see the Jimmy Eat World concert in Pocatello this weekend! I'm going with my good friend Josie, and staying at her home for a few days. As I only have my pathetic camera phone, I doubt I'm going to be able to get any decent photos. I'll write something about it, though. Photo-wise, however, I thought that some of you might get a kick out of seeing the earrings I picked out for the occasion.









Now, have a look at the cover of their latest album Chase This Light. Yep, these peacock feathers are just right!!






The interesting thing to note is that peacocks symbolize bad luck in literature. And one of the tracks on the album is called "Feeling Lucky" with the lyrics, "You suck that lucky feeling right out of me." I just thought it was cool that I understood why the cover had a peacock feather. And it looks pretty :)

I Would Die Before Earning a Food Pellet

Once again, work is cancelled, and I showed up anyway. This time I was about 95% certain it was cancelled. That's the worst. I really wanted to sleep in, but that 5% was really nagging at me. Then as I was coming to work, I realized, to my dismay, that I would make an unintelligent lab rat. Well, that's if I were a lab rat. You see, there's this door code that I have to use for one of the doors, within which there is a set of two keys, with which to open two more doors, and two locks. Thus, you can see the importance of getting through the first door.

Anway, on the first day of class I couldn't open this door with my door code, so I called my manager to see if there was a new number for it. He said that I had the right number, but that I had to press the numbers very slowly and firmly. Well, he was right, and after that I was able to get it open...usually. I noticed that it only seemed to work when the duration between which I pressed the buttons was not exactly consistent between numbers, but I never could really pick up on the exact pattern. I just ended up coming early, to an already annoyingly early class, so that I could mess with the door code until it opened.

At some point, a few weeks, or maybe even a month later, I gradually became aware of the pattern. After pressing the first number, I had to pause for roughly a second, then enter the following four numbers in the usual fashion (with only slight pauses), and then finally pause roughly another whole second before entering the last number.

Anyway, that was a long story about a rather small and pathetic problem. Haha. But I realized that if I were a lab rat in some sort of experiment, I would probably die before earning a food pellet.