Showing Up

I was in California last week for a conference and a mini-vacation.  The first week I went with two friends to Big Sur where we ate good food, drank good wine and just lived.  It was amazing.  The second weekend I rented an apartment in the Mission and visited with friends.  One person in particular I spent time with is a friend of mine who I've known since high school, Matt.  Matt is the kind of person who is incredibly smart and really eclectic.  With him the conversation will always be interesting and I never know what to expect.  It's fun.  He also grounds me, reminds me how great it was to grow up where I did and with the people I did.  We had this lovely afternoon of Christmas shopping/finding books that made us smile that turned into an evening of good food/great conversation/good drinks/great jazz.  He also reminded me of something so very important in light of the past year.  Friends are the people who show up.  He told me this story of a friend he has who would always drive down from Connecticut whenever Matt goes to NYC.  Friends he said very simply show up.  Sometimes I make life about the people who challenge me or who inspire me, but at the end of the day, none of these are really important.  In a year where I have lost my grandpa and my childhood home has probably changed in ways I have yet to see who process, my friends, my real friends have show up.  In big ways and small ones.  In the way of sitting with me while I am snotty crying talking about dropping out of grad school (Erin and Gary S.) or interpretively dancing to random french movies (Forrest and Steph).  Of being there when my Grandpa passed away (Forrest, Gary, Erin, Steph and Laura).  They have inspired great parties (Parker and Tyler) and amazing road trips (Sarah and Hallie).  And sometimes we laughed so we didn't cry.  There have been some really high highs and really low lows for all of us.  The important things is that we showed up and experienced them together.  This is not a sum total of all my friends or just the friends I am grateful for, but just some of the points most vivid to me this moment.  As the year ends and I can see the rollercoaster of next year on the horizon, I am so unbelievably grateful to everyone who showed up in my life this year.

xoxo
Laur

Big Sur

I'm in California for a conference, but last weekend I went to Big Sur.  I will post more on this later but for now...

tonight tonight

Tonight a dream came true for me.  This happened

That is all...

Camera obsession

For the longest time I had an obsession with this "toy" camera called a Holga.  Sophomore year of  college I took my first color photography class, and my Professor was one of those rare teachers who was a kindred spirit.  She got me on what has been a quest to buy, fix and use rare, interesting cameras.  It's easy to take a good photo with an expensive camera and photoshop (also not surprisingly, easy to take AWFUL photos with an expensive camera).  However, can you take interesting, reflective images with a plastic box and a plastic lens?  Ahh haa.

There is something about film cameras and in particular cameras such as brownies, land cameras, pinholes, etc that fascinate me.  So recently I caved, bought a Holga and have been shooting people and street art with it.  Side note, I bought it at Urban Outfitters so I could use cheaper 35mm film and have been feeling remorseful ever since.  I intend to purchase a real medium-format Holga soon.  There are two final cameras I am craving for my collection: a Leica (which I will never be able to afford) and a Rolleiflex.  In particular, I REALLY REALLY want a Rolleiflex.  I don't know if I will ever be able to take a single good photo with it, but I really want to try.  It's this ultimate stripped down camera, where there are so few bells and whistles, you have to know what you are doing to take anything, let alone something someone would want to see.   I hope one day I can get one and see what kind of photographer I really am.

xoxo
Lauren

MuteMath + Civil Twilight

So for those of you who know me, I am a HUGE music fan.  I have an abnormally large obsession with all things music.  When I was in high school and my peers would talk about falling in love with boys, I would take about how I was in love with music.  When I got to college, I would spend every free penny I had to go to shows.  I am an audiophile beyond belief.  The joke now is that I am walking around with my earphones on at work so I don't have to talk to anyone.  Truthfully, I'm jamming out to tunes.  Life is better with a soundtrack.  Lucky for me though, there is a cute coffee shop here in town that draws decent (and sometimes even great bands) to perform.  Also I have great friends (such as my bestie Steph) who will attend these shows whether they love the band (Civil Wars) or just kinda like them (MuteMath).

This week MuteMath came to town.  Opening for them was a DJ I've heard heard of before (The Quiet Entertainer) and another band Civil Twilight.  I would have paid to see Civil Twilight or MuteMath perform so the fact they were on one bill $20 seemed WAY to good to pass up.  I convinced Steph and Hallie to come with a girls night of fun ensued.  I had heard through the grapevine that MuteMath perform a show that is not to be missed.  That was an understatement.

First up was the Quiet Entertainer.  He was good.  Definitely an ambient/hip hop kind of DJ.  He remixing "Tequila" by the Champs (also known by me as the song from Pee Wee), and he has some good Lauren Hill remix.  They he did some of his own, ambient sort of stuff.

Quiet Entertainer spinning his tunes

Next was Civil Twilight.  They sounded just as good as they do on their records.  They played about a hour long set that included most of the stuff on their new album, and the songs that have been on the radio. Pretty standard but really well done!

Civil Twilight

Civil Twilight

Civil Twilight performing!

Mutemath opened their set by playing drums and marching through the crowd.  It was an EPIC entrance, probably the coolest for any concert I've ever seen.  They then proceed to launch into a 2 hour long show, where every song sounded as good as their records.  With the exception of their drummer, Darren, all the other members play multiple instruments, so there is a lot of running around the stage.  At one point, Paul Meany, the leader singer, was doing handstands on his keyboard!! 

MuteMath start their set by marching through the crowd

I loved their lightbulb backdrop, even if it sometimes was a bit seizure inducing

MuteMath

For those of you who do not know them, here is a sample of Mutemath performing Blood Pressure.

MuteMath

MuteMath

MuteMath

MuteMath

So many keyboards/keytars

MuteMath

Suddenly, about an hour into the show, Paul jumps off the stage with a synth thing in his hand, ran through the crowd and jumps up on the sound table and just jams out!  He plays synth for a song, then someone handed him a mike and he sang a whole song on the table. 

Yeah Paul Meany is playing synth on a table in the middle of the crowd. 

Synth playing continues

Paul switching to a microphone

Serenading from the back of the venue (so cool)

Paul singing his heart out

So after singing from the back of the venue (we were so close!) Paul gets back on stage and sings another song.  Then suddenly out of no where a black inflatable mattress flys through the crowd, and Paul climbs a speaker on the left of the following photo, stage dives ONTO the mattress, which lights up and he crowd surfs around the venue.  It was awesome!

Crowd surfing!

Paul crowd surfing

We were on a porch but he got so close

Towards the end of the show, all the individual members came to the middle of the stage and just jammed out.  My favorite is when the drummer, Darren King, who side note, is a beast, grabbed a synth drum set, took it to the middle of the stage and went to town.  It was pretty awesome.

Darren and his synth drum.

Also Steph and I hadn't seen each other that day at all, and ended up dressing alike.  We found this so comical, that we took a photo.  How very Baylor of us!

All in all an AMAZING concert.  If Mutemath come through your town, GO.  It doesn't even matter if you don't know their music, I don't think you can't enjoy the show/get your money's worth.  

Laur