Thursday, August 31, 2006

Let me off uptown

Porridge is a strange food for me. I either really like it or I really don't. Right now I really like it. I had it for breakfast this morning. I think I like it when it's really soupy, rather than all thick and sticking to the roof of your mouth-like. I just ate the rest because for some reason I was starving when I got home, even though I ate lunch. Maybe it was because I went to the gym before uni and I walked home. It's too nice a day to be inside. I was sorely tempted to cut class and go to Fed Square and bask in the glorious sunshine, but my class finished a little early anyway so after going to the City Library to borrow some books and jazz CDs I did just that. Apparently the Deni Ute Muster (sorry, Deniliquin...I had a school friend from Deni, I'm used to calling it that) is coming up, and they had about the blokiest aussie bloke band I ever saw playing on the stage. Blue chesty bonds and flannies and everything. They were good though. There were two seriously awesome looking utes there too. One was this metallic burnt orange colour at the front, kind of flaming down the sides, and cream at the back, with a cream leather interior and the same paintwork inside. Can't remember what colour the other one was, but it had spinning rims (as in, the wheels were spinning even though the car was staionary). I only saw these for the first time last night on NCIS, so it was kinda cool to see them in real life today. I only know they're called spinning rims because a primary school boy who was walking past went 'whoa, check those spinning rims!'.

Ooh. Tomorrow's going to be 23 degrees. lovely.

-R

(pointless enough for you, Brendan?)

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The camera never lies

Too much time on my hands+digital camera+new macbook=
IMGP3598

My sister was very confused about how I did this. :D Maybe I should've lightened the photo on the screen, but otherwise I think it went okay.

-R

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Parrot Fashion Love

Yes, today is Georgie's birthday. She and I were chatting on MSN last night at midnight so I took advantage of my built in iSight to send her a greeting :D

Mum came back from Malaysia/Singapore yesterday, as usual with an enormous amount of clothing and shoes from JB. We're all very glad to have her back...not least because I can now hand back ironing duties...She says Singapore is encouraging people to move there to live and work. That would be pretty cool. If I can't find anything exciting to do in Australia once (well ok if) I finish my studies I might move to Singapore.

I found this website called CD tracker through last.fm, which is very handy because it catalogues all your CDs (artist, album title, genre, date bought, how much you paid for it, etc etc etc...oh and what you've loaned to other people), and I'm slowly cataloguing all my CD details. Apparently this year I have spent something like $600 on CDs. I didn't even know I had $600 to spend! Very very very bad, Robyn. I can't help it...other girls buy hundreds of pairs of shoes, I buy CDs. I could get them online, but I prefer to spend the extra few dollars to have the artwork and everything.

And I'm contemplating whether to dye my entire blonde streak a pale pink...decisions decisions.

-R

Buon Compleanno

Photo 7

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

Today at work we had a table of 16. And surprisingly, no one fucked up. It went as smoothly as it possibly could, everyone got the right food, no delays, no dramas. We wrote up a big sheet with everyone's seat and what they ordered and all that jazz, so it was all cruisy. I even managed to tally their bill without mistakes (although it did take me nearly ten minutes. Very big bill.) I'm getting used to my hybrid status at work - For the time being I'm both a dish hand and waitress.

Tomorrow I have to leave home at 5 am to pick my mum up from the airport, so I miss the sleep in on my day off. But it's worth it. Tomorrow's weather is apprently going to be gorgeous as well, so I might do something outside. Maybe I can con mum into taking me to St Kilda for coffee or something.

I have to go to Ikea at some point this week...my CD collection has outgrown the one shelf on my bookshelf that I've allocated to it, so I need to buy a proper CD shelf. I was going to custom make one that could also house my stereo, then I realised that I don't know the first thing about woodworking. But Ikea has a decent looking one for $35...at this rate Ikea is going to take over my room. Annoyingly, the one in Moorabbin closed last year, so I have to get mum to drive me down to Richmond. I think it's slightly too large to lug home on the train.

-R

Saturday, August 26, 2006

I will soon post a recording of The Special Two by Missy Higgins. I did a trial recording today and it actually sounded pretty good, except for when I missed a page turn (or rather, turned two pages at once) and as a result kind of fucked up the next two bars, and you cna hear my grandmother in the background telling my grand aunt to be quiet because I'm recording. Hahahaha. The chorus has some notes which are quite high for me to sing in my chest voice, and I prefer to record the whole thing live rather than piano and vocals separately because it feels more natural, so I have to be sitting down. I've worked out though that if I hyperventilate a bit before recording and then take deeper breaths than usual, that the notes come fairly easily, even if I do feel rather light-headed by the end. I need to photocopy the book so that I can get rid of some page turns. Special Two isn't too bad because the left hand is mainly minims, and I can turn in between those, but Any Day Now has an impossible page turn that I can only do by cutting out most of the left hand part, so I'll photocopy that. I will try and con Kathryn into recording Nightminds with me because she sings it much better than I do.

-R

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Head in the clouds

What a difference a day makes,
24 little hours....

Yesterday when I walked to and from the station and through the city, the weather was *lovely*. Slight breeze, warm sun, very mild for this time of year. I spent the whole day with my nose pointing in the air, staring at everything around me. I've often been asked in the city how long I'm spending in Melbourne, as if I'm some kind of tourist. People need to look around more, you can see some really nice things. There's a patch of really nice lilies growing beside the Sandringham train line just after Gardenvale, heading to Flinders Street.

Today the weather was pretty shit by comparison, raining and windy and 10 degrees. I managed to get a lift to the station but I walked home. Didn't bother me though, I was listening to Lily Allen and so my spirits were high.

And I realised today that I bought the wrong Split Enz album...I was listening to Time and Tide and thinking 'wasn't History Never Repeats on the album after True Colours....how come it's not on here?' Then I realised that I'd accidentally skipped Corroborree. Nerrr, Robyn you retard. They had plenty of copies of Corroborree too so I don't know how I managed to consciously pick Time and Tide. It's the same thing that made me consciously ask Yamipod to skip the duplicate songs on my iPod, and resulted in me spending another hour handpicking them after.

-R
I have a burn on the first knuckle of the middle finger on my left hand and I have no idea how it appeared there. And recently I found a scar on the first knuckle of the pointer finger on my left hand and I don't know how I got that either. I know how I got the scar on my fourth finger - I was on a playground with my sister and she slipped and grabbed my hand, and accidentally gouged out part of my finger with her fingernail. It was really cold so I didn't even notice until we got back into the warm car, and once my circulation came back a lot of blood starting coming out. I should keep a tally of unknown dings and scrapes. A few months ago (last year? can't even remember the time) I woke up with a massive bruise/lump on my head, like I'd hit it really hard, and I still have no idea how I got it. I'd had a normal school evening the night before so it wasn't because of drinking or anything. The last time I managed to get a bruise that big on my head, I was seeing stars for a while (I got up too quickly after looking for something in the cupboard under the stairs).

And for some reason channel ten has started showing old repeats of NCIS. Not that I mind, because I only started watching it recently, but it's a bit weird because I didn't realise the most recent series had ended.

-R

PS I didn't mention the m word once in this post. Not once. So there.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

God help us all, Paris Hilton is bringing out an album. I thought that crime against music was just a once-off. I bought two new albums today, Split Enz's Time and Tide and Lily Allen's Alright, Still. I was meant to get The Beginning of the Enz but I couldn't find it anywhere, and I already have True Colours, albeit the wrong remaster. I might buy the most recent one at the end because the bonus song is Things, which I absolutely love and which never appeared on an album. There will be a review at some point I'm sure, if not here then at my last.fm blog because Brendan says I blog too much about music.

Actually speaking of music I made my first Garageband recording today, but I won't post it because I definitely need to redo it. I'm still trying to do Missy Higgin's Nightminds, but it's foiling me at every turn. Firstly I had to record the piano part about 10 thousand times because I kept making dumb mistakes, or the phone rang, or my bangles fell off the top of the piano and attacked me, and then it was all out of time so I had to play with a click track, and after all that drama, I can't sing it well at all. That song really doesn't suit my voice for some reason. So I might just give up on that one and go for something else. Sound quality's much better than with my mp3 player, but that's using the built-in mic, so I have to go find a proper one somehwere.

OK. One more bit of music talk before the general chit-chat. I got Grates tickets today, so I'm very excited about that. Faker are supporting, plus an unannounced guest. $33 each too, which is quite good, so I can't wake. I'll have my birthday celebration a week early.

So. onto the...what's that word? Minutiae or something? Whatever it is, onto that. Brendan and I went to a swing dance class last night, was very fun. It was a beginner's one and we learned the Lindy Hop, which is apparently the most difficult swing dance. My years of dance classes stood me in good stead and I picked everything up pretty quickly, it's a really really fun dance but we were going slowly. I can't wait to see what it's going to be like when we go faster. At one point Henry (the instructor) was teaching us how to do a 'three-step', or step-ball-change, and I thought he was being incredibly patronising, but here were definitely people there who needed it! I've always had classes with people who can dance and our teacher throwing combos at us a few bars long, and then us doing straight off, so it was different learning things step by step, but it was good, because it's a style I'm not familiar with. I'm too used to the classical style, ramrod straight, butt tucked in, all that jazz. Learning to dance with chicken wing arms (elbows pointing down as opposed to out) is more difficult than I anticipated...One of the intermediate guys stepped in at the end of class because we were short and it was really fun to dance with him because he knows how to lead, so when he spun me around (which is something we didn't learn last night) it all went fine. Last night before I went to bed I tried to do it myself but I don't even know how I got around. The importance of a good leader!

My God, I'm rambling. Marsh's pub crawl was last night and it was a lot of fun. We went to James Squires Brewhouse, The Elephant and Wheelbarrow, some Irish pub, and the Exford. I like pubs, they're so...comfortable, I guess. I like bars too, but pubs are a nice change. Next week for George's birthday we're going to Loop, which is the opposite end of the spectrum.

-R

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Good morning Starshine, the earth says hello

I've figured out pretty much everything on my new computer so I'm happy. I used Yamipod to copy all the tracks from my iPod to iTunes, then restored it to factory settings so that I can updae it properly with a mac now. Time will tell whether I've accidentally deleted somehing I really want. Downloaded last.fm so I can scrobble my tracks here (hooray! No more Corrs, Ayumi Hamasaki or Falling Up cluttering my playlist anymore!), and I've come a little closer to understanding how to get my webcam working with amsn (some kind soul posted a tutorial for idiots with lovely screenshots of everything). Not bad for someone who doesn't know much about computers, I think.

-R

Monday, August 21, 2006

Blogging from the bedroom, take 2

So here we go with my second attempt at blogging from my bedroom. This attempt seems to be much more sucessful so far, not least because I'm using a laptop that can actually handle being wireleslly networked, not least my *drumroll* new MacBook :D It's quite exciting. I've spent most of the evening so far setting it up, which has been surprisingly easy, the basic stuff at least. I found to my annoyance that msn messenger:mac doesn't support webcams, despite the fact that I now have one, so George directed me to aMSN, which is a clone which does. So I'm waiting for someone to come on so I can test whether it works. Also I'm trying to transfer my music from my iPod to my computer...I could just re-import all my CDs, but that would assume that I own all of what I have on CD, when in fact a fair chunk of what I have is from George's computer. So if this transfer thing works I might just restore my iPod so that it works properly with the Mac. 536 of 2197 copied so far...this could take a while.

-R

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Hey, Rollover DJ!

George, Ben and I went to the myspace secret show for Jet on monday night. I kind of forgot to blog about it. I almost couldn't be bothered going but George decided that we were and so we did. I was expecting there to be about a billion people at the Prince of Wales so I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at 5pm and there were only a few people there. It was much more pleasant than most waiting experiences I've had, because we were sitting on a bench with our gin and cranberries and just absorbing the vibe. Luckily it was an over 18s gig so there were no snotty emo kids hanging about. There was someone wandering around with a camera videoing people and they asked to film George and me answering some questions. I don't think they got anything good out of us though. I'm kind of camera/stranger shy so I barely said anything and spent most of it staring into my drink so Georgina basically had to bullshit her way through the entire thing. It was a good gig too, Jet played two little sets, the first one was all new stuff and the second one was all old stuff. I wouldn't pay to see them live so it was good to see them for free. I quite enjoyed some of the new songs, although George didn't.

Anyway the reason I'm writing about the show now is that I went to the secret shows page today and they had photos up from it. And this photo was up there:
secret show jet
I knew they took a photo of us as we went in, but I never thought it would make it onto the page. Probably because I'm dressed in all black and so I look like a fucking emo. The archetypal myspacer.

So anyway, Byron got an electronic drumkit today. He can already play lots of little bits and pieces which is handy. I had a play and it was fun, but I prefer playing bass or guitar or piano - something with tone. I supppose it's kind of a waste that Byron's playing untuned percussion because he actually has perfect pitch and apparently it's pretty rare. I've always taken his perfect pitch for granted. I love playing a bunch of non-chordal notes on the piano and having him name all of them. I never realised that so few people have it. We were discussing pitch in the car today. Neither Byron nor I can comprehend how people can be tone deaf. I mean we can understand *that* it happens, but not *how* it can happen. I don't have perfect pitch, but I've got a good memory for it, and I always remember songs in their original key and transpose and stuff easily. For me, pitch is really clear, and I can tell if something is off. I guess it's like looking at colours. For me if something is off, it's like the difference between green and red. So I don't get how people can sing out of tune and not realise, because it's like trying to match green with red. Like they obviously aren't the same.

Might go to bed now. I had my frist shift dish handing in ages tonight and I'm knackered. I forgot how much more strenuous it is than bar work. But I'm doing bar work tomorrow. Hopefully by next week my roster will be back to normal and I'll either be one or the other.

-R

Saturday, August 19, 2006

That's all stuff and nonsense

Sometimes I wish I didn't lisen to so much music, because inevitably you absorb all these melodies which then become part of your subconscious. A while ago I was just mucking about on the piano and I came up with this little melodic line which was damn catchy. I kept playing it, repeating it over again and found the chords and was feeling pretty pleased with myself until I realied that I'd basically written Fall At Your Feet, at which point I closed the piano in disgust and vowed never to write again.

I've just started getting into The Arcade Fire, and I finally realise what the (minor) fuss is about because their album is bloody brilliant. I actually saw them live at Lollapalooza last year but unfortunately I hardly remember it, because staying conscious in 47 degree celsius heat was slightly higher on my list of priorities at the time. I love that thier songs have really complex instrumentation and structure, yet you can still hum along with them because they have really beautiful, memorable melodies. I like to think of it as accessible experimental art-pop. I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't enjoy them more than I did at Lollapalooza, which is also why it took me so long to listen to them now (because I've had them on my iPod for months).

Also this past week I've been playing Beth Orton - Trailer Park heaps. She has a great voice and her songs are soooooo good. There's a really good laid-back groove to them. She Cries Your Name and I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine are my favourites. She Cries Your Name is one of the laid-back groove ones. It's quite relaxing to listen to. I Wish I...is just a really beautiful, sad breaking up song. And right now I'm listening to Missy Higgins, because I've been playing her a lot on the piano and guitar lately and I wanted to hear what the originals actually sound like.

-R

PS I did write a song this week. It was a horrendously sweet, ridiculous cutesy throwaway piece of bubblegum pop, something simplistic and cheesy that an eight-year-old could've written. It would give cavities on the first listening. I hate it. I can't believe I came up with that tosh. It's so immature and simple.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

There may be trouble ahead

I had posted a very cathartic response to a message earlier, but then after 5 minutes of it being up, I decided that was catharsis enough so I took it down. Well, in reality I'm a complete wuss and I was afraid of what might happen if the person that it was intended for read it. However, it felt rather good to type it all out. I'm not generally a mean person but that was one rather harsh post.

Aaaaaanyway I went to see The Boy From Oz tonight with my family and IT. WAS. AMAZING. Hugh Jackman is so talented. He acts well, he has an amazing voice, he dances, and he is also such a good entertainer- somehow he connected with an arena of 9,000 people and made them feel like old friends. I had a very very good time. Georgina's going on the 18th I think so this will make her excited. Oh and George, he's even more good looking in real life.

-R

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Come On Baby Light My....Fibre

My brother just brought home the fucking coolest thing ever from work for me - a fibre optics lamp! Only in hospitality, eh!? The base has lights that change colour so I have a rainbow of light dots dancing around. It's bloody awesome. I have to take photos at some point. Now I just have to find a place to put it.

-R

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Even educated fleas do it

Today I discovered the joys of the City Library. It's been sitting under my nose right in Flinders Lane, but I'd never heard of it until a couple of weeks back. So today I had a bit of free time and remembered that I meant to go check it out. It turns out that membership is free, and as well as books, you can borrow CDs and DVDs from them. I like that. You can't borrow CDs from Rowden White at uni (probably because they want to prevent copying). I borrowed three albums - Travelling Made Easy by the Icecream Hands (which has long been on my list of 'oh, I should listen to them some time' albums), Beth Orton (ditto), and Ella Fitzgerald (well, obviously). And yes, I'm importing them as I type...aren't I just the naughty one. I can't afford to keep buying CDs! They have the DVD of 7 Worlds Collide too, which is a concert that Neil Finn did with members of bands like Pearl Jam, Radiohead and The Smiths. I have the CD and it's awesome.

Oh yeah. I nearly got hit by a taxi crossing Flinders Lane. I used the pedestrian crossing, and made eye contact, and stepped out, and he didn't stop. Until his bumper was about 10 centimetres away from my right leg (I'm serious, it was really freakin close). So that was my litle brush with deat for the day. I didn't think anything of it at the time, other than muttering 'idiot!' under my breath as I kept walking, but now I'm a little freaked out. I nearly got hit by a freakin car! Shit. Anyway, I was walking up degraves lane and it was one of those times I wish I had a camera on me (hmm, I know I've heard that phrase in a song.) The dark stone pavement was all wet because it had been raining, but there was a shaft of sunlight poking down through the buildings and making everything look shiny, and catching in the steam billowing out of the little noodle shops, with people bustling about because it was lunch hour. It was really beautiful. (I know where I heard it. It's a Crowded House song. er....I feel possessed, I think).

And I really like this Icecream Hands album.

-R

PS I bought the remixed/remastered/expanded 'Frenzy' yesterday (I'm keeping on track with these Split Enz albums). It blew my mind. It sounds SO much better than the original. Give It A Whirl used to be a mess. Now I can actually hear the different instruments. It's awesome.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Notpron

Notpron

This game is seriously addictive. You have to figure out riddles and everything. the background music's a bit freaky but it cuts out after a few levels. It's keeping me from going to bed so it must be pretty good.

-R

Sunday, August 06, 2006

What table am I going to?

I don't really know why I'm updating as pretty much everyone who reads this blog is currently at Ben's houseboat (damn them. Damn them all) and most probably drinking and playing Brendan's Truth or Dare. Well, drinking. Whereas I on the other hand absolutely busted my ass at work today, and consequently I'm finding it very hard to sit down now. Okay I jest. I speak figuratively, not literally. But work was very busy. Firstly lunch was apparently very busy so when I got there at 4pm nothing was done and insead of doing my usual saturday afternoon thing of setting the tables and sitting and reading (and getting paid for it) for an hour and a half, I actually worked the two hours. Setting tables takes a surprisingly long time. There's something like seven items per setting...and I set up for 46...so that's 322 items. Plus salt and pepper, candles and flowers. And relaying paper where it's dirty, and sweeping, cleaning the bar, stocking for the evening, taking reservations, etc etc etc. We were fully booked tonight and actually had a few turnovers so we were busy the whole way through. I got $50 in tips, which is a good indicator of how many tables we had (usually on a good night I'd get $30). I really don't like the Saturday shift. It's just so long. Theoretically because I start at 4pm, I should leave early, like 10pm, but I always work til closing. So there's my bit of complaining for the day. It wasn't all bad I suppose, we played Kylie on the stereo while closing so that was quite fun.

Oooh and the census form has arrived. It just spotted it on our rather cluttered desk. How exciting.

-R

Thursday, August 03, 2006

But you don't really care for music do ya?

Hooray! I learnt a song on guitar today. As the title implies, I learnt Hallelujah, well the Jeff Buckley version anyway. I downloaded the tabs and they turned out to be completely wrong, so I had to sit at the piano and figure it out for myself. Thank god for years of music theory at times like these. I was quite excited because I had a strumming rhythm going and I was making the chord changes okay and everything. And I even sang a couple of times. Very exciting. My mum called down from upstairs 'You've gone all religious all of a sudden!' and I was like 'no, it's originally a Leonard Cohen song' and she's like 'Well derr, I know that. I have all his albums on vinyl.' and I'm like 'WHAT!!!! WHERE!?' Turns out they're with my cousin in Sydney, so I've assigned dad the mission of bringing them back. Apparently my mum has great taste in music. I wanted to keep playing because it was so much fun to make all the chord changes, especially something I figured out myself, but a) it was getting rather late and b) my fingertips are on the verge of bleeding, so I suppose I'll have to wait until tomorrow.

-R

You probably couldn't see for the lights but you were staring straight at me

Tonight George and I finally got to see a gig together on Australian soil! YAY!

We went to see Arctic Monkeys, with support from The Grates, at the Palace. Byron and I got there just before 5pm, and there were surprisingly few people there. When we went to see Franz in January, at 5 there were already quite a few people queued up. I suppose the cold weather kept everyone away. We stood there shivering in the wind and made friends with Ingrid and Elkie. They're very nice :) made the three hours pass slightly faster. Georgina turned up around 7:40 and I had to bail her out with parking...fucking expensive down at the Palace. Lucky Byron and I got a park on Acland St for free.

Thanks to Byron's and my earliness we got a very very good possie, at the barrier just to left of centre, and I proved yet again that I'm completely and utterly spoilt for the front. The Grates were scheduled to come on at 9:15 and I was practically hyperventilating when I saw a flash of silver sparkles which indicated that Patience (who, by the way, I'd totally turn for) stuck her head out for a peek. at 9:15 on the dot the lights went down, the cheers went up and Patience, Alana and John took to the stage...and immediately launched into Trampoline. Which is like, my most favouritest Grates song. So that pretty much made my night right there. Patience, apart from being fucking adorable, is incredibly energetic, jumping and dancing around like a maniac. She'd give Ricky from Kaiser Chiefs a run for his money. Now there's two bands that I'd like to see play together. They were just so much fun. Joyous is probably a more accurate description. They all obviously take joy in performing, and it makes them so marvellous to watch. Elkie said I had a big grin on my face for their entire set. I hope I can see them live again soon. George said I should call Brendan during Science is Golden but I couldn't reach my phone.

The Grates finished at 10pm sharp, and Georgina and I scored one of the setlists, which was very exciting. Then Arctic Monkeys roadies started setting up, and suddenly it was like there was a giant magnet on the stage drawing everyone in, because it suddenly became extremely crowded. I commented that a mosh pit is probably the only place where I wouldn't particularly mind having a complete stranger's sweaty crotch pressed against my backside. I'm pretty sure someone copped a feel too but you get that. The press photographers turned up, and I felt like telling them that they really missed a good opportunity to get some excellent gig shots of The Grates. They were also blocking our view but assured us they would only stay for three songs.

Soon enough the lights dimmed and the chant started up: 'MOOOONKEEEEYS, MOOOOONKEEEEYS...' and just when I thought I couldn't get more compressed into the barrier, suddenly I was beginning to seriously worry about the state of my ribs. Then four (surprisingly short) Northern English boys walked out onto stage, doffed instruments and began with Riot Van...which is my favourite Monkeys song. So that pretty much made my night again. The crowd sang along with every word. Without pausing they segued straight into The View From The Afternoon. 'Anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment in evening entertainment but, tonight there's gonna be some love, tonight there's gonna be a ruckus regardless of what's come before'. A pretty knowing thing to sing.

It would be fair to say that Arctic Monkeys are the most hyped band of 2006. I for one think that they lived up to that hype. They may not be as charismatic as say Franz Ferdinand, but they're a bunch of boys who are my age, so that's kind of expected. They sound fantastic live, really tight. I'm not sure of the name of the bassist who replaced Andy Nicholson, but he's darn good. Alex was wearing a black t-shirt with the words 'I LOVE YOU WILL U MARRY ME' scrawled across in white, which I think was just asking for it. Georgina yelled 'The answer's yes!' but I don't think he heard. He's a bit young for her anyway XD Funnily enough, there was no encore. It could be either because Alex was a bit pissed off with the crowd (we had two dickheads standing right behind us yelling things at Alex all night) or because they honestly weren't going to do one anyway. There wasn't one written on the setlist so I think it was probably the latter.

So, the gig was great. I came away happy and sweaty and I'm bruised pretty much everywhere, and feeling rather tender everywhere else. Byron scored Alex's pick so he's very pleased, and I tripled my band t-shirt collection by buying Grates and Monkeys t-shirts. Admittedly the Monkeys one was a bootleg...but $10. Seriously. Call me tight but I already shelled out $66 for the ticket. And George and I finally saw a gig together! Hopefully it's something that we'll do more of in the future.

-R

PS George blogged about this too. Go check it out.
PPS George and I split the Grates setlist and we're both going to put them up in our rooms. Beats a silly friendship necklace any day!