ACL 2011-Day Three

We began day three with breakfast at the Galaxy Cafe in the Triangle.  Josh, Mary, Trevor, June (their bull dog beagle mix), and I had an awesome breakfast.  Josh and I had never been there before, but it was really swanky and neato.  I got a saucer with my coffee cup, need I say more?

Awhile later, Mary and Trevor picked me up and we headed out to our final day of music filled fun!  When we got to the park, we caught the last half of The Head and The Heart.  I thought they were pretty good.

After that, the Walkmen played and they were super awesome!

Next, we saw Broken Social Scene, which was also really good.

Then, we headed over to Death From Above 1979.  This is not my kind of listen to at home music, but it is great for festivals!  They were super awesome and very fun to dance to.

On the way back to the group, Mary and I stopped at Gomez.  They were pretty good too.  There was also this adorable old man baby that was way too little to be at a super loud festival with no ear plugs/earphones.

We saw some of the Fleet Foxes.  They were alright too, just not completely my thing.  After that, we headed to the other side of the park and saw the end of Manu Chao La Ventura.  They are so full of energy, they had the whole crowd dancing.  Although, they weren't singing in English, I was totally loving it.

Next, Social Distortion came on and they completely rocked!

On the way back over to meet up with our group, we stopped to see some Randy Newman.  Although he didn't play my favorite (You've Got a Friend in Me), he was great.  He's still got it, for sure.

After catching the end of Empire of the Sun, it was finally time for the big closer, Arcade Fire!

They were wonderful, just like they were the first year I went to ACL and saw them in the middle of 107 degree weather.  This has been a great ACL year, the only thing that could've improved it would have been Josh being there.  But, he says he will come next year!  Yay!

After I got home from the festival, Josh and I had a double date at Trudy's with Lily and Javi.  It was so much fun!  I hadn't been to Trudy's in awhile and almost forgot how yummy their mexican martinis are.  We had a great time and ended up closing the place down (by that, I mean the dining room closed at midnight and we were there for a good 30 minutes later before we realized everyone was cleaning up and starting to give us the eye).  Great times!

ACL 2011-Day Two

The sky on the way to ACL

When we got to ACL yesterday, we saw a little bit of Young the Giant, which I really enjoyed.  Then, we met up with Camille, Floyd, Alta, and Peter for a little bit.  After that, we saw City and Colour.

It started raining, so as we were chilling under our umbrellas when I spotted Liz!  I also worked with her at Ben & Jerry's, so I went over and we caught up for awhile.  It was so good to see her!  It's funny because the last time I had seen her was at Eeyore's Birthday last year.  We joked about only seeing each other at Austin festivals.  Hopefully, I'll see her again sooner.  We talked more about the idea of a Ben & Jerry's reunion. I really hope it works out.

After City and Colour, Iron and Wine started playing.  They played a few good songs, but mostly it seemed like he was more focused on rocking out constantly with no specific song in mind, so we headed to the food.  I got these amazing pizza rolls with marinara from Austin Pizza. We listened to a little Skrillex from the safety of the covered eating area.  It finally stopped raining.  Then, it was time for Cee Lo.

He played some Gnarls Barley which was awesome.  I always enjoy seeing him.  Right after that, TV on the Radio started.  They were really great!  We've seen them before and they always put on a great show.

Then, we went to see some My Morning Jacket.  If you were to imagine what a rock and roll show would look like at a festival, it would be My Morning Jacket playing last night.  They looked like total rockstars and they were rocking out really awesomely.  The weather was perfect and their lights were great too.  It was a pretty neat time.

Finally, it was time to see Stevie Wonder.  We walked over, but the problem was the sound wasn't very loud on Stevie's stage and we could still hear My Morning Jacket.  Although we got to hear a some Stevie Wonder, we didn't stay for the whole show because it was really difficult to hear.  It was a great second day and it went by super fast.  We're about to head to day three!  I hope it doesn't rain again.

ACL 2011-Day One

Mary, Trevor, and I got to the festival around 2:30 yesterday.  The first act we saw was Brandi Carlile.  I wasn't a fan until she played some 80's covers, then I came around a little.  After that, we went to get something to eat.  We met up with Peter and Alta and went to see Ray LaMontagne which I wasn't really feeling either.  After that, however, we went to see Big Boi which was awesome!  He played a bunch of great Outkast songs, which I was very happy about (Ms. Jackson and Bombs of Bagdad!).  We saw a little bit of Foster the People, but since they weren't playing Pumped Up Kicks, I had no idea what they were about.  So, we saw the end of Cold War Kids and then prepared ourselves for Bright Eyes.  Just in case you don't know, Bright Eyes is one of my top ten people to see play live and they are always amazing.  Conor seemed happier than he was when Josh and I saw him at a free show during SXSW this past summer.  He was walking around the stage a lot, spinning (which I'm not sure means your happy, but definitely means your full of life), and he jumped down to where the audience is and shook peoples hands and hugged the security guards.  It was really nice.  He also played my favorite old school Bright Eyes song, "Lover I Don't Have to Love."

After Bright Eyes, Santigold played.  I had no idea who they were until I heard that song that goes, "I hope it will be worth what I give up, whoo whoo."  She's kind of like MIA, I think.  After that, Coldplay started and they were super awesome!  Their light show was especially great.  It was neat to see them play again because they were the headliners the first year I went to ACL in 2005.

Lastly, we saw Kanye West who played some really good songs and a lot of not good, singing, not rapping songs.

On the way out, I wanted to look at the merch booth to see if they had some awesome Bright Eyes shirts.  As we walked up, someone yelled "Allie!" and it turns out it was Emily who I had worked with at Ben and Jerry's over five years ago!  I haven't seen her since I worked there.  She is married now and seems really happy.  She said she still keeps in contact with Liz (who also worked with us).  So, hopefully we can have a giant Ben and Jerry's reunion really soon.

Overall, great day one!  Can't wait until today (day two)!

Josh says, "Hi."

Nine Year Anniversary

Last Friday was Josh and I's nine year anniversary.  This means we'll be married in less than a year now (hello, exercise, I've been trying to ignore you)!  This was definitely one of the best anniversaries ever.  Josh came home with roses and a potted flower plant (because you're supposed to give pottery for a nine year anniversary).  He also got me some more surprises that are on the way, in the mail.  I got him a pretty cool X-Men shirt, Superman boxers, and Carcassonne (which is a board game and also a place in France).  I set up my lights and we took some pictures in the living room.  We decided we're going to take pictures on every anniversary and keep them in an album so we can see how we change over the years.  I think it will be especially cool for our kids to see.  That way they will know we weren't always old and lame.  After that, I got treated to an hour massage which was amazing!  Then, we went to Romeo's for an early dinner.  We had never been there before, but we had always talked about going.  It was so nice and, since we went early, there were very few people there and it almost felt like we had the whole restaurant to ourselves.  We got the most amazing spinach and artichoke dip with some toasted bread slices.  For my meal, I had spinach manicotti and Josh had this awesome pizza with like five yummy cheeses.  I also had two mexican martinis which were equally delicious.  After eating, we rented a movie and hung out at home.

Then, the next day I had taken off work, so we decided to do some more fun stuff.  First, we went to breakfast at Maria's Taco Express.  It was very delicious and inexpensive.  After that, we went to the Jester King brewery.  It was so awesome!  It's way out 290 and in the middle of the country.  When you get there, you pay $10 and get a souvenir pint glass which you get to fill with beer three times.  Then, they do a tour of the brewery which was hosted by one of the founding brothers (which I thought was pretty freakin' cool).  It was really interesting to learn the process and everyone there was really laid back and relaxed.  After the tour, we enjoyed our beers and sat around for awhile before we headed back to town. When we got back into Austin, we went to Joe's birthday party at Plucker's which was followed by a trip to Pinballz which is an awesome arcade we hadn't been to before.  They have at least 100 pinball machines along with every other type of arcade cabinet you can think of.  We had a wonderful time.

Here is a photo from our little anniversary photo shoot.  I sure do love this guy.  <3

A Couple More Book Reviews...

Although I have started back to school, my work load is not overly heavy (yet), so I've read a couple more books.  I also read a book for a political science class called Our Undemocratic Constitution by Stanford Levinson.  I feel like the chances of someone reading this blog also having the urge to read a book about the flaws in our Constitution are quite slim.  But, just in case, it has a lot of good points, but very few solutions to those problems.  I did learn a lot more about the details of the Constitution, so it was a worthwhile read.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer:  This is the best novel I've read in a long time.  It is centered around an incredibly intelligent nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell who lost his dad in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  He narrates most of the novel.  Oskar takes a long journey around New York trying to find out more about his dad.  The book is also layered with stories of the boy's grandmother and grandfather and their life in Dresden, Germany.  This is also the most unique novel I've ever read.  There are changing type faces, photos, and even a few blank pages.  Even with the sad parts, it is a wonderful story that I highly recommend.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon:  I've always seen this book at Half-Price Books and have never read it or picked it up before.  In this novel, the narrator is an autistic 15-year-old boy who has been encouraged by a teacher to write a book.  The story begins with him intending to solve the mystery of who has murdered his neighbor's dog.  As the story progresses, he ends up discovering more than he intended and has new, scary experiences.  I would recommend this book because of the interesting perspective of someone with autism.  The author has a history of working with autistic people and it provides a better understanding of the disability.

Summer Reading Reviews

I read some really good books over the summer, so I thought I'd write a little review of each of them.  They are in order of completion.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver:  I began this book before last semester ended for a book club we started at work (the book club didn't work out).  I wasn't reading much during last semester (because my workload got crazy), but once my classes were over, I flew through this novel.  What I found most interesting was the way it was written.  Each chapter was in the perspective of each of four daughters of a southern Baptist family relocated to Africa to become missionaries in a small village.  Their mother has a few chapters, as well, although they are fewer of them throughout the book.  Kingsolver gave each character such different, interesting personalities that (after you met each of them) you were able to recognize who the chapter was by just by the way they were speaking.  The book takes you through their time adjusting to life in the Congo and how they grow up into adulthood and take surprisingly different turns.  You even get an accurate history of the Belgian Congo moving out of colonial rule under Belgium and gaining their independence.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach:  Previously, I read one of Mary Roach's other books, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, which was a wonderful read.  I highly recommend it.  In Bonk, Roach discusses the history of studying sex, which is really interesting. She also talks about the science of orgasms and sex in general.  I thought it was a pretty good book, but it was slow at times and I was expecting a bit more from it (maybe because Stiff was so freaking good).

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver:  Another book by Barbara Kingsolver!  This book is nonfiction, unlike her other books.  This tells the story of her family's year long venture to eat foods either grown by them or purchased from neighboring farmers they knew personally.  Although, it was difficult to be completely successful (making your own pasta is pretty intense and certain herbs had to be purchased from far away locations), they did a pretty amazing job.  It was wonderful to read about growing your own foods (especially after my sad first attempt at a garden.  At the time of reading this, it was doing better).  I learned a lot about what is actually in season at the grocery store and what has been shipped in from halfway around the world.  The book is also peppered with informative essays by her husband and older daughter.  I think this work offers a lot of great lessons about our food industry without the usual pushy hippy dippy stuff that turns most people off.

Preacher by Garth Ennis (illustrated by Steve Dillon):  Okay, this one isn't a novel.  It's a graphic novel comic book series.  Josh and I started reading this series right after high school and we never got ahold of the last three or four books and never actually finished it.  Not long ago, Josh made a trade of some Magic cards to a friend for a huge stack of graphic novels (including the entire Preacher series).  So, Josh and I started from the beginning and read the entire series this time.  What a great read!  It is arguably the best comic book series ever.  Jesse Custer is a preacher in Texas and, one day, a spirit with the power of God enters his body.  Along with his gun toting girlfriend and an Irish vampire, they set out to find God (who has left Heaven) and get an explanation as to why he bailed on everyone.  I know, it sound pretty crazy, and it is.  But, it is really a wonderful story, I would highly recommend it.

Bossypants by Tina Fey:  Let me begin with, I love Tina Fey!  I think she is absolutely hilarious and I could not wait to read her book.  Finally, I found it at Half Price Books (because I refuse to pay full price for anything other than essentials) and purchased it immediately.  She talks a lot about her personal life and being a mom, which I found really awesome.  She also talks about being a boss (hence, the title of the book) and her journey to the top.  There is a great section on posing for pictures I found especially funny.  You really can't go wrong with Tina Fey.

Normal Gets You Nowhere by Kelly Cutrone:  Ever since watching The City, I've always thought Kelly Cutrone was the most awesome bitch I'd ever seen.  When I found her book (which I didn't know existed and, after looking online, I've since learned she has another book) at Half Price Books, I had to have it.  This book is awesome!  She is a no holds barred, tell it like it is woman.  It was refreshing to read a book telling you to stop being stupid and get your shit together!  She talks about everything from sex to coping with people close to you dying.  She also talks about being a mom (I had no idea she had a child).  Surprisingly, she seems like a really good mother.  Her section about talking to your kids about sex was especially great.  It seems like so many parents are afraid to talk about sex because it's somehow inappropriate, then they're floored when their daughter gets pregnant or their son gets someone else's daughter knocked up.  Also, she never wears makeup, definitely my kind of role model.

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard:  What an incredible story.  Jaycee Dugard went through hell and is back to tell her story.  She was kidnapped and kept captive for 18 years while being sexually abused and mentally manipulated.  She had two daughters during her time in captivity (her first at age 14).  Although her story is incredibly sad, I found comfort in her ability to share her experience and move on with a new, wonderful life with her daughters and mother.  Throughout the book, she has sections called "reflections" where she talks about how she feels now and how she has worked through things that happened to her.  Her story makes you realize people can overcome almost anything with love and hope.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides:  This is the story about a man, born a girl.  He is a hermaphrodite with a rare chromosome condition carried down from his grandmother and grandfather who happened to be brother and sister.  This novel is unlike any I've read before.  Although, the story progresses slowly from the late beginning through the middle, it really picks up when the main character, Callie, starts showing male traits and has to figure out how to deal with the changes.  It was an interesting story and gives the reader a view into a subject I think few people have advanced knowledge of.

Did you read any great books over the summer I need to check out?