Shows, beginning of a good weekend, etc.

So many random and exciting thoughts but first I'll start with a really random one. You know in California we don't get the seasons and that's good and all, but I was just reading this article about the cherry blossoms that are going to start blooming in D.C. And I realized it's almost like you pay the hard price of winter for the beauty of spring. And we just go the easy street, no guts no glory.

But I digress.

The two shows the guys put on were totally awesome. First night electric. Second night acoustic. The crowd was awesome. They played two new songs each night. Saw lots of peeps, here's a few:


It was also extremely nice that these shows were down the street, the closest we've ever been living to a venue hosting YC. On Thursday I had to go to the West LA city planning department. And on the way back my route went right by the venue where they were sound checking...too bad all venues aren't a hop away from where I'm working. But speaking of getting out and around now the guys are doing Arizona today, and Florida on Sunday. Coast to coast in one weekend!

Electric night at the Troubadour.

Another Saturday, yep that's right, in Goleta

So this Saturday was a good one too. First we played disc golf. First time since way back in the day, since before we were even married! Then we went to DP and ran, and we had lovely friends running with us as well. I would highly recommend group exercise. You get all the stimulating conversation of hanging out, but also the benefit of getting something done off your productive list. A mix came back, always fun to listen too, hehe! And then we had a so long bbq for our friends who are moving to Hawaii. Really, these Saturdays can't be beat.

Disc Golf. This is the scenic part where you rescue your discs from the depth of the swamp. But rest assured this is the least enjoyable part of the game.


Upper left: A disc golf basket. Lower left: Me.

All nighter

That's what they're doing, and I'm keeping them company. I don't have too much to say Ryan (Key) sums it up nicely on their myspace blog.

But I will say it's kind of like pulling an all nighter writing a paper. Only unlike silent words on a computer screen, it's beautiful music. And instead of sitting alone in the dark you're in a room of nine people who are getting exponentially more delirious and therefore even as the eye-lids grow heavy the laughter increases, and so the energy keeps going. Yeah too bad all papers aren't written like this.

Disclaimer* unlike that paper you put off they haven't been putting anything off, they've been working very hard since the beginning they just have a lot on their plate and this is the end.

Oooh, and a cool thing about living in LA is that if you want to eat at four in the morning, you aren't limited to Denny's. Yes the twenty-four hour thing is the leading perk of living in a large city.

Sitting in the Studio

Yep that's about it.

It goes on and on, adding piece by piece. But then when you step back and hit play it's truly amazing. I haven't really kept much of a log of being at the studio, but there's not much in terms of specific events. It's just watching layer by layer grow as the record progresses, like watching anything grow into fruition.

But yes today is a late nighter being the day before the last. Ryan keeps apologizing that I'm "stuck" here with him, but I keep saying no, because he's doing something important and I certainly don't mind being here at all.

Living in the LA area

Can you tell by the title that I'm acknowledging the different areas of LA? There is a common overriding theme (smog, etc.) through all of LA. But I am definitely recognizing that areas within LA contrast by far. I don't really feel I am justified diving into these differences because I have barely begun to uncover it myself, after all I haven't even been here six months, and we haven't spent all of that six months here. But I will leave you with this:

Reccomendation #1: Never live in the area between the 405,10,101 and the mountains (the majority of this area is known as the westside). That is unless you like traveling an average of ten miles an hour or less to get to any point within this defined area.

Originally I thought that LA was just bad traffic, but there is a night and day difference between traffic and westside traffic.

If you want positive stuff skip to here.

Today I went to the Burbank farmer's market (at the tail end) and I bought fresh hummus and pita bread. Pretty unique thing to find at a farmers market, I can't say with certanity that you won't find something like this at a farmers market in Santa Barbara, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Last night we went to a Bar called the Foxfire Room. (googles says in Valley Village) Anyhow it was awesome. It was busy, but not hollywood busy, and good socializing was had. But just to let all people know who are counting their calories, the average mixed drink is 300 calories. If you are counting your calories, don't forget to count it in your alcohol. I learned this after we visited the bar. :)

More Goleta Saturday Awesomeness

If anyone has been bummed that my last few posts have been only about Goleta then maybe you shouldn't be reading my Journal.

So this last Saturday was awesome. Ryan and I had plans to go running at DP. And then our friends called us informing us that we should go to DP and launch rockets. So lucky us, due to our small town atmosphere we got two for the price of one. We ran laps while our friends launched rockets, it was spectacular and distracting. To wind it up I finished just in time to launch the last rocket:



Of course our Saturday didn't stop there, we then saw 300, celebrated at the brewhouse Tim's 21st, and then hung out at his girlfriends pad and ate Ben & Jerry's. To quote greatness, "The days are just packed."

With today's warm weather it reminds me that Summer is around the corner, and what a good summer it's looking to be.

Goleta

Goleta is amazing, I had hundreds of things to say about it over this past week. But I will leave it with this thought. As we sit here on the edge of our chair waiting to see how far the real estate market will dip, I began to wonder how much of a price correction is really going to occur. I mean Goleta is beautiful, and now I believe a tract home really is worth a million dollars.