Dallas x2!
Well, Shroud and I had a good time seeing the Black Keys. We *asked nicely* for Coda's car, and he obligingly handed me the key. Shroud and I had a nice time talking the whole way about random stuff, life in general and, of course, music. We arrived just as the doors opened at the Trees, a music venue/bar in Deep Ellum, the grafitti-filled music section of Dallas.
Unfortunately, the opening band wouldn't start for another hour and a half, but I'm rather glad we arrived so early, as it gave Shroud and I really good time to just sit back and have some quality time together. We talked about school, how he had come to be a nutty tri-major, what his plans were for the future.
Shroud's musical tastes never cease to amaze me... once I think I have him nailed, he'll pop out a new artist that I'd never think he'd like. I particularly enjoyed his take on the story of the Beatles, of whom he is a big fan. I recommended a few Beatles' covers I was familiar with, and on the way home, we listened to Abbey Road.
But back to the concert. The room filled up slowly. Certainly the Black Keys were not as popular as Death Cab for Cutie, who I saw my freshman year at the Trees. A couple was sitting next to us, right up against the monstrous bass speakers beneath the stage.
One of them, the guy, had the black permanent marker X's on his wrists which I had, indicating he was too young to drink. The girl, apparently a little older, had the plastic wristband Shroud had, indicating she was old enough to drink. Everyone received these marks upon entering.
Trying not to attract attention, the guy took a swig from the bottle between them and immediately got both of them kicked from the establishment. Shroud and I chuckled at their excuses about how far they'd come, and were impressed that the Trees would indeed take underage drinking that seriously.
We immediately secured a good spot right up against the stage. At long last, the opening band came on. They weren't too great, except for the guitarist, who played like a madman and had a very Rivers Cuomo look and attitude. Shroud suggested that the guitarist deserved to be in a better band.
And then... the Black Keys came on. They are just 2 guys who were doing yardwork for their landlord, and they pretty much decided to try and play music instead. It just so happens that one of them is an extremely impressive guitarist, and he can sing, and the other guy can really play the drums.
They had really good stage presence, looked like they were having fun playing, and did some really impressive songs. It is basically rock with blues/folk influence. The guitarist seems like the kind of person who just sat back and taught himself guitar and could play crazy guitar licks literally all day long. His guitar cord snaked its way to two humongous amps with mikes, which connected to every speaker in the establishment.
I totally forgot cottonballs this time but one of the employees suggested napkins, which worked well for not ruining my hearing forever. :D
The concert remained relatively subdued even through the crowd's favorite, a cover of the Beatles' "She Said." Most people settled for passive head-nodding, but a few nutso's took to dancing in front of the stage.
One very drunk girl took the vacant spot just to my left, lit a cigarette and began throwing back beer like there was no tomorrow. I was here to enjoy some music, but she was clearly here to gratify/pacify her senses. How very sad.
It took away from the concert, to think that tobacco, alcohol and incredibly loud music was this woman's answer to feeling good about herself. She laughed and danced but it seemed so incredibly hollow. I can only imagine how depressed she must've been when the hangover hit after her last cigarette was gone. The synaptic quiet must be unbearable.
After the concert, the crowd cheered loudly for an encore, and the Black Keys obligingly came out for 2 more songs. By the time this was accomplished, it was after midnight and my head was aching from 2 hours of near constant cigarette smoke. It seemed every gush of air from the main doors was blowing the girl's smoke right at me, which I must also admit didn't do much for the odor of my clothes.
Despite the surroundings, I enjoyed seeing those two men play. Shroud and I stood right in front of the stage on the guitarist's side. At nearly any point during the concert, I could've reached out and tapped the man's shoe.
We left and never did notice the parking ticket tucked nicely beneath my windshield wiper. But that's a story for the next day.
We talked and listened to stuff from my iPod all the way back to Longview, where Shroud suggested we go to Ihop.
(and it is amazing how tempted I was, intially, to spell Ihop as iHop. Apple is an entirely malicious organization bent on world domination. But the iPods are so cuuuuuuteee...)
Anyway, I thought "why not? Perhaps a nice pancake will cure my headache."
It did, as it turns out. While we waited on our orders, Shroud showed me a mind-boggling conglomeration of Tic-Tac-Toe and Rock Paper Sciccors. It involved rows, columns, and little colored sugar packets. I don't remember much other than laughing very hard at a move of mine that Shroud thought neither humorous nor extremely well-conceived.
Ah, lack of sleep. Usually not much fun until you get laughing, when suddenly everything is hilarious.
I dropped Shroud off at his apartment, parked Coda's car and went back to my room. As expected in any decent living establishment, my compatriots were still up and going strong at 3:30 in the morning. I think I went to bed shortly thereafter.
**********************
Woke up the next day, took a shower, ate lunch, did some evil scheming of my future collegiate plans, and then prepared for the Rangers baseball game. This was something I'd looked forward to all semester long.
After a bit of pre-game frenzy, wherein I learned that Dr. Johnson and a number of other people actually weren't coming, we finally got transportation and tickets worked out. Aaron Gentry and his girlfriend Courtney were going to drive themselves and meet us at the ballpark, while Josh Fleetman (Mr. Amminadab on my list), Melby, and Courtney would ride with me in... Coda's car. Yeah, I still hadn't returned Coda's key. So we pretty much decided we'd steal his car for this trip to Dallas, my second in less than 24 hours.
It was a good time to talk a little bit with the other Josh. Aaron I knew a bit because he helped me quite a bit a year ago with putting together a few commercials for my English Comp 2 presentation.
It rained a bit on the way to the game, but overall the weather was comfortable. I flipped on the windshield wipers to deal with a few rogue raindrops, and that was when I noticed the parking ticket fluttering between it and the windshield. Luckily it was a pretty cheap ticket, and hey, you can pay it online. Spiffy.
The baseball field is pretty new and really cool looking. I did enjoy the game, but half the fun was just being inside the same structure with over 40,000 other people. When they hit a ball, the scope of the roar was just tremendous. I was reminded of the scene from Gladiator, where the gladiator owner describes to Maximus his experience in the Coliseum.
We arrived just after the first inning, due to some of the transportation/ticket drama making us a bit late. The Rangers had already scored once, and the Red Sox were still at zero.
"well," I thought, "That sure won't last long." In case you didn't know, the Red Sox won the World Series last year and everyone in our car had predicted a clear Red Sox victory for this game.
Well, the Red Sox made 2 quick runs, and I thought that was the nail in the coffin for the Rangers. Courtney was borrowing Dr. J's Red Sox cap, and I sat next to her in my old Rangers cap. There was a surprsing number of Red Sox fans in attendance. Very vocal people, those Red Sox fans.
The Rangers made a run, which tied the score, and then never looked back. It was a Rangers man that nailed the game's only home run. When the ball hit the stands way behind center field, a bunch of fireworks went off and people went crazy, throwing their food everywhere and cheering as if they'd all won a million dollars.
By the top of the ninth, the Red Sox still hadn't scored any more and the Rangers led by 5 points. The game ended half an inning early when the Rangers' pitcher struck out the Red Sox's last hope for a run. Fun times.
So now... I've had quite a busy and travel-ish last few days. I look forward to spending some quiet time right here, studying and just enjoying staying still. :D
Oh... I have to get up in less than 3 and a half hours to go work at the Gregg County museum. Yaaaaaaaay. Go Historical Society.
::turns off sarcasm::
Good night.
Unfortunately, the opening band wouldn't start for another hour and a half, but I'm rather glad we arrived so early, as it gave Shroud and I really good time to just sit back and have some quality time together. We talked about school, how he had come to be a nutty tri-major, what his plans were for the future.
Shroud's musical tastes never cease to amaze me... once I think I have him nailed, he'll pop out a new artist that I'd never think he'd like. I particularly enjoyed his take on the story of the Beatles, of whom he is a big fan. I recommended a few Beatles' covers I was familiar with, and on the way home, we listened to Abbey Road.
But back to the concert. The room filled up slowly. Certainly the Black Keys were not as popular as Death Cab for Cutie, who I saw my freshman year at the Trees. A couple was sitting next to us, right up against the monstrous bass speakers beneath the stage.
One of them, the guy, had the black permanent marker X's on his wrists which I had, indicating he was too young to drink. The girl, apparently a little older, had the plastic wristband Shroud had, indicating she was old enough to drink. Everyone received these marks upon entering.
Trying not to attract attention, the guy took a swig from the bottle between them and immediately got both of them kicked from the establishment. Shroud and I chuckled at their excuses about how far they'd come, and were impressed that the Trees would indeed take underage drinking that seriously.
We immediately secured a good spot right up against the stage. At long last, the opening band came on. They weren't too great, except for the guitarist, who played like a madman and had a very Rivers Cuomo look and attitude. Shroud suggested that the guitarist deserved to be in a better band.
And then... the Black Keys came on. They are just 2 guys who were doing yardwork for their landlord, and they pretty much decided to try and play music instead. It just so happens that one of them is an extremely impressive guitarist, and he can sing, and the other guy can really play the drums.
They had really good stage presence, looked like they were having fun playing, and did some really impressive songs. It is basically rock with blues/folk influence. The guitarist seems like the kind of person who just sat back and taught himself guitar and could play crazy guitar licks literally all day long. His guitar cord snaked its way to two humongous amps with mikes, which connected to every speaker in the establishment.
I totally forgot cottonballs this time but one of the employees suggested napkins, which worked well for not ruining my hearing forever. :D
The concert remained relatively subdued even through the crowd's favorite, a cover of the Beatles' "She Said." Most people settled for passive head-nodding, but a few nutso's took to dancing in front of the stage.
One very drunk girl took the vacant spot just to my left, lit a cigarette and began throwing back beer like there was no tomorrow. I was here to enjoy some music, but she was clearly here to gratify/pacify her senses. How very sad.
It took away from the concert, to think that tobacco, alcohol and incredibly loud music was this woman's answer to feeling good about herself. She laughed and danced but it seemed so incredibly hollow. I can only imagine how depressed she must've been when the hangover hit after her last cigarette was gone. The synaptic quiet must be unbearable.
After the concert, the crowd cheered loudly for an encore, and the Black Keys obligingly came out for 2 more songs. By the time this was accomplished, it was after midnight and my head was aching from 2 hours of near constant cigarette smoke. It seemed every gush of air from the main doors was blowing the girl's smoke right at me, which I must also admit didn't do much for the odor of my clothes.
Despite the surroundings, I enjoyed seeing those two men play. Shroud and I stood right in front of the stage on the guitarist's side. At nearly any point during the concert, I could've reached out and tapped the man's shoe.
We left and never did notice the parking ticket tucked nicely beneath my windshield wiper. But that's a story for the next day.
We talked and listened to stuff from my iPod all the way back to Longview, where Shroud suggested we go to Ihop.
(and it is amazing how tempted I was, intially, to spell Ihop as iHop. Apple is an entirely malicious organization bent on world domination. But the iPods are so cuuuuuuteee...)
Anyway, I thought "why not? Perhaps a nice pancake will cure my headache."
It did, as it turns out. While we waited on our orders, Shroud showed me a mind-boggling conglomeration of Tic-Tac-Toe and Rock Paper Sciccors. It involved rows, columns, and little colored sugar packets. I don't remember much other than laughing very hard at a move of mine that Shroud thought neither humorous nor extremely well-conceived.
Ah, lack of sleep. Usually not much fun until you get laughing, when suddenly everything is hilarious.
I dropped Shroud off at his apartment, parked Coda's car and went back to my room. As expected in any decent living establishment, my compatriots were still up and going strong at 3:30 in the morning. I think I went to bed shortly thereafter.
**********************
Woke up the next day, took a shower, ate lunch, did some evil scheming of my future collegiate plans, and then prepared for the Rangers baseball game. This was something I'd looked forward to all semester long.
After a bit of pre-game frenzy, wherein I learned that Dr. Johnson and a number of other people actually weren't coming, we finally got transportation and tickets worked out. Aaron Gentry and his girlfriend Courtney were going to drive themselves and meet us at the ballpark, while Josh Fleetman (Mr. Amminadab on my list), Melby, and Courtney would ride with me in... Coda's car. Yeah, I still hadn't returned Coda's key. So we pretty much decided we'd steal his car for this trip to Dallas, my second in less than 24 hours.
It was a good time to talk a little bit with the other Josh. Aaron I knew a bit because he helped me quite a bit a year ago with putting together a few commercials for my English Comp 2 presentation.
It rained a bit on the way to the game, but overall the weather was comfortable. I flipped on the windshield wipers to deal with a few rogue raindrops, and that was when I noticed the parking ticket fluttering between it and the windshield. Luckily it was a pretty cheap ticket, and hey, you can pay it online. Spiffy.
The baseball field is pretty new and really cool looking. I did enjoy the game, but half the fun was just being inside the same structure with over 40,000 other people. When they hit a ball, the scope of the roar was just tremendous. I was reminded of the scene from Gladiator, where the gladiator owner describes to Maximus his experience in the Coliseum.
We arrived just after the first inning, due to some of the transportation/ticket drama making us a bit late. The Rangers had already scored once, and the Red Sox were still at zero.
"well," I thought, "That sure won't last long." In case you didn't know, the Red Sox won the World Series last year and everyone in our car had predicted a clear Red Sox victory for this game.
Well, the Red Sox made 2 quick runs, and I thought that was the nail in the coffin for the Rangers. Courtney was borrowing Dr. J's Red Sox cap, and I sat next to her in my old Rangers cap. There was a surprsing number of Red Sox fans in attendance. Very vocal people, those Red Sox fans.
The Rangers made a run, which tied the score, and then never looked back. It was a Rangers man that nailed the game's only home run. When the ball hit the stands way behind center field, a bunch of fireworks went off and people went crazy, throwing their food everywhere and cheering as if they'd all won a million dollars.
By the top of the ninth, the Red Sox still hadn't scored any more and the Rangers led by 5 points. The game ended half an inning early when the Rangers' pitcher struck out the Red Sox's last hope for a run. Fun times.
So now... I've had quite a busy and travel-ish last few days. I look forward to spending some quiet time right here, studying and just enjoying staying still. :D
Oh... I have to get up in less than 3 and a half hours to go work at the Gregg County museum. Yaaaaaaaay. Go Historical Society.
::turns off sarcasm::
Good night.
