and now back to our regularly scheduled ramblings

It has been a while since I sat in front of my little iBook and went on and on about nothing in particular. I've been in Chi-town, the Windy City, the city with its own Ticketmaster. Chicago in July wasn't as miserably hot as Orlando, but it did hit 102 degrees the day after my cousin Michelle's wedding.

The wedding was very nice. In fact, it featured the best wedding cake I've ever tasted, the best wedding party gifts I've ever jealously watched being presented, the best conversation I've had with my sister-in-law, the hottest bartender I ever smiled at while sober and the scariest dance floor ever assembled for a reception.


That probably needs some explanation. At the rehearsal dinner, the bride and groom-to-be recognized their weddding party members with lavish gifts thoughtfully purchased for each groomsman, including an iPod Shuffle, an expensive assortment of hardware tools and an XM satellite radio. I KNOW!!! All of the bridesmaids received jewelry to wear at the wedding and a sweet, personalized photo collage of images of the bride and her maids.


The bartender reminded me of Jeff Buckley if he had not shaved in six days. *exhale*

The dancefloor had two victims. The squares that made up the floor started separating during "Who Let the Dogs Out" or "Brown-Eyed Girl," I don't remember. My cousin, an adorable toddler who was also the flower girl, cut her foot on the edge of one of the squares that made up the dance floor. My aunt got her heel caught in it, but recovered quickly. One of the groomsmen's girlfriends didn't fare as well and wound up spending the rest of the evening in an ambulance. It probably was more of her drunkeness and crazy dance moves than the San Andreas dance floor, but it was also enough to cause a huge scene, and the bride to cry, which was sad. I heard she broke her tailbone, but the next day, I heard she was fine.

If you know me well, you probably also know that I am not a huge fan of weddings, and I'm not even sure I believe in marriage, for that matter. I have nothing against happy couples everywhere who pledge their love, devotion and a check for thousands of dollars that could have be an outstanding down payment on a home. Seriously, if you step back and forget all the happily ever after tales you've listened to, you can start to believe that someone is behind the curtain laughing hysterically at the dollar signs ringing up at bridal stores, florists and bakeries around the world.

I believe it's everyone's right to have the wedding -- and the marriage -- he or she dreams about, whether male or female, gay or straight, young or old. If it makes you happy -- do it! It's the one day people will dismiss your crazy antics because it's your day. Although, I will never forgive the sadistic madman that thought adding a thimble to the cake pulls was a good idea. I pulled the thimble, and that meant I would be the "old maid." That was in the early '90s, and I have since pulled a heart, meaning I would find "true love" (which became true when Mr. Jobs invented the iPod), and I most recently pulled a diamond ring, which meant I would be the next to be engaged. I'll admit, it did make me feel kind of nice, like I was redeemed in some way. How sick is that?

I made up for it at my Chicago wedding, when I looked at one of my aunts, who is not married. I watched her dance with an array of different men, all good friends of hers she doesn't have to pretend to like. She was free to talk to whomever she wanted, leave whenever she wanted and eat as many chocolate-covered strawberries as she desired. Being single does have its perks. And although I did get the obligatory, "So Stephanie, are you going to be next?" it wasn't so bad. I have a terrific family that no matter their faults, always remind me how lucky I am to be in such a tight-knit, gossipy, lovable, sometimes indecent, exceptional family.

I'll write again soon with highlights from the rest of the trip -- including five-egg omelettes at Lume's, tornado warning sirens and a chance encounter with Bob Mould on Michigan Avenue.

Drapes, the X-factor of concerts

I've seen a few big shows at the TD Waterhouse Centre in downtown Orlando -- Red Hot Chili Peppers & Foo Fighters, Aerosmith, Marilyn Manson, Incubus & Phantom Planet, Jimmy Buffett... They are big names performing in a huge place; they're trying to squish in as many paying customers as possible -- it's not about creating a vibe or even sound quality, for that matter.

I just read in the Orlando Sentinel that the O-rena, as I still prefer to call it, is getting somewhat of a makeover in hopes of persuading more touring artists to venture a bit farther south than Atlanta. It seems that window treatments will bring more business. Let me explain.

With drapes that set the city back about $160K, the O-rena can transform the seating area into more initimate spaces, perfect for a crowd of 3,000 or 8,000 or 17,000. The city believes it can make up the cost in just a few months. I can't help but be a bit wary. I can't imagine that TD Waterhouse could create half the ambiance of The Social, which has been an incredible place for live music since it had a cooler name, Sapphire Supper Club. The sound quality rocks, the set up awards everyone a great view -- and creates a more personal show -- and there's a photo booth!

Still, I'm willing to believe! Anything that will bring more shows to Orlando can't be all bad.

Things I loved about this weekend

I'm so close to getting my new car, I am already smiling and waving at other MINI owners on the road! I went down to the dealership on Saturday, and Christy helped me pick out some some accessories for the car -- like the iPod adapter that will allow me to play my iPod tunes through the car stereo (cue angellic music), a glove compartment organizer, floor mats, etc.


As you may have read in Mike's blog, Christy & I made him one happy camper with a surprise early birthday gift. It's a cool gig poster from a show at The Social with The Faint, TV on the Radio and Beep Beep. He was probably going to buy it once he discovered it on the Eye Noise Web site, so we had to give it to him early. The excitement in his expression made me all warm inside.


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Loved it! Yes, Johnny Depp looks a little odd, and acts even stranger, but isn't that why we all love him so much?? The man is so incredible. Seriously, words fail me. And that cute little Freddie Highmore reminds me of Haley Joel Osment. He's got this innocent, adorable face, and his quiet demeanor convinces you that he has a deep soul. He seems so fragile that you want to protect him, and yet you know he's the one that's going to save you.


Clapping in Christy's car, listening to her mix of "songs with clapping." I don't need to tell you how fun it is to sing in the car -- they even make shows about it. (I love that VH-1 show "Motormouth," although the narrator does make me queasy.) But, there's nothing like clapping along to Tilly & The Wall, Of Montreal and Le Tigre with a good friend!


Garden rolls at Viet Garden!





Although it's not truly vintage, I found a dress on a HUGE sale at Macy's that has a "vintage style" and actually fits! Who knew that women in the '50s had such small boobs!?!? Still, shopping at some fun vintage shops on Saturday with Christy may have to turn into some kind of ritual because we had soooo much fun. I even saw Eyes & Ears on sale!


I got my Wilco poster in the mail! I assassin down the avenue.











I got lots of love from Polly Polly Paw Paw Patch!







Can you believe that all this happened in one fun-filled Saturday? Today, I had the honor of being there to see Kylie Carrigee experience her first day at Walt Disney World. Not quite a year old, Kylie and her parents (my good friends Korie and Kevin from New Orleans) met me at the Magic Kingdom on this historic day. It's the 50th anniversary of Disneyland!!! Happy Birthday!

Trent makes a week worth living

Oh baby! It has been a rough week, lots of 12-hour days at work and meetings, meetings, meetings! I love my work, thank goodness; otherwise I may give in to my secret desire to pack up and be a roadie. Wouldn't that be incredible? Just travel with a band around the world, hearning your favorite tunes live every night!

I have a feeling I'm going to rekindle my love for this parallel life in October! This week, I got tickets to see NIN in Orlando and Tampa. I can't wait!!! If you're going to be at the TD Waterhouse -- I still prefer to call it the O-rena -- for the show, you can come say hello to the v-hat kids. Section 102, Row S. I'll be the one looking wistful and dreamy-eyed.

By the way, my parents, the coolest in the country, broke the news to me this morning that John Goodman bought Trent Reznor's Garden District mansion in New Orleans. Nic Cage bought another place around the corner. Stalking uptown won't be the same without the anticipation of possibly seeing Trent taking out the garbage or mowing the lawn in black leather pants.

i'm obsessed!

OK, I have soooo much work to do, but I am incredibly obsessed with finding more gig posters. As I've searched around the Web, I also found lots of sites for some really amazing artists. Here's one that our friend betamike will enjoy. It's Brian Bell's sister!! It looks like she might have designed the shirt Christy bought for Tom at Coachella. Check it out: www.leiabell.com.

Ready, Steady, Destroy: The Art of Modern Rock

Brad and I went to this really cool event at House of Blues last night, which could have been amazing if more people would have shown up to enjoy the art and music. The turnout was terrible -- blame it on Hurricane Dennis, I guess.

There were displays set up all around the music hall with concert posters. Some were beautiful, some raunchy, some psychedellic and some alterna-cute. A bunch of the artists were there to promote their art, sell some posters, stickers and skateboards, and celebrate the book The Art of Modern Rock, which one day soon will be mine!

Although I found some really cool pieces from some of my favorite bands, I initially only wanted to buy ones that were made for the shows I actually attended. I purchased a poster of the Bright Eyes / Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter / Neva Dinova show that I attended at House of Blues. I already have one for Pearl Jam in West Palm, Bright Eyes at Firestone, and Beck at Hard Rock Live. There was a Raveonettes at the Social and a Cat Power at the Social I wanted to get, but ran out of cash. I think I'm going to order them on the Web site.

www.luredesigninc.com
www.eyenoise.com

Check them out and support local artists!!

One other really cool thing happened. When Brad and I walked in, we went right over to the first display, and the artist there saw my Coachella T-shirt and said, "Hey, my friend designed that!" As if I could have loved that shirt anymore, to find out the artist was female -- in an obviously male-dominated industry -- set me over the top! Her name is Tara McPherson, and she's incredible! He pulled out a portfolio of her work, and there were some beautiful pieces for Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse (with the same little rabbit aliens on my Coachella shirt) and a whole bunch of others.

Her site is TaraMcPherson.com, and it's so wonderful, it makes me happy! Here's some of the ones we saw last night. There are so many cool ones, I might have to break down and buy my favorites, even if I didn't go to the show!!!

get the popcorn and the ear plugs!!

I'm all kinds of giddy!! Plexifilm just annouced that it's going to release "Spend An Evening With Saddle Creek: The First 10 Years Of Saddle Creek," a documentary about the creation and unbelievable success of the Omaha-based record label. Not familiar with Saddle Creek? We're talking Bright Eyes, baby!! And Azure Ray, Cursive, Desaparecidos, The Faint, Now It's Overhead, Rilo Kiley and a bunch of other bands you don't even know you love yet.

Check out this link: http://www.plexifilm.com/sc.html

The DVD will be released on Aug. 23, and there's a great trailer you can view at the link above. It looks like it will be really cool -- lots of interviews, live performances, old photos and home video of today's coolest kids when they looked like the boys that sat behind you in science class.

Perhaps there will be a premiere party at my place??? Really, it should be some place cooler with some indie cred ... maybe downtown? Brad??? :)

Fear and the mundane. No, it's not a new band on TRL. But if that's what makes you happy ...

Weezer, original lineup. 1994. The year of my College Program. Kurt Cobain killed himself. John Travolta proved cool again in Pulp Fiction. The Clinton Administration, pre-Monica Lewinsky. We learned that OJ drives a white Bronco … very slowly on the freeway. A time when life was not necessarily simpler, but it certainly wasn’t as scary as it is today.

I wasn’t scared to ride on airplanes or other mass transit systems. Well, I was, but not for the same reasons. I was more frightened of getting mugged or harassed by someone who smelled like he had not bathed in a week or used a toothbrush since he was 7.

I turned on the news at 6 a.m. this morning and heard about the London bombings. It’s truly horrifying. After about 10 minutes, the newscasters broke away from national coverage and resumed local news. The Super Doppler indicated Hurricane Dennis was headed straight for my hometown. The weatherman said the worst-case scenario was that Dennis would hit “New Or-leens” (I know it’s a common mispronunciation, but it irks me almost as much as people who say “Illinoissss”) and cause major flooding because the city is below sea level.

I talked to my mom later, and I could tell the stress of Tropical Storm Cindy, which passed not two days ago and created a ton of debris, and the impending Category 3 Dennis was getting to her and the rest of the city. She said the newscasters were already talking about evacuation, and reservations for hotels from Baton Rouge to Houston were already being snatched up.

So much fear.
I saw War of the Worlds last weekend, and I promise, I’m not giving anything away when I tell you this. At the onset of the “War,” Tom Cruise is driving his frantic kids through the city dodging lasers, flying 18-wheelers and crumbling buildings. His precocious 10-year-old daughter quietly screams from the backseat, “Is it the terrorists?”

Christy and I were both affected by that scene. That’s the “post-9/11” environment we live in. The one where little kids are more scared of the reality of “terrorists” than the silly but horrifying urban legends that made me sleep with my hands in a fist – hiding my thumbs – every night from age 7 to about 15.

It’s sad. How do we cope? Remember how, in the days after Sept. 11, Letterman, Leno and Conan all took time off from nightly comedy because it seemed almost insensitive to laugh or to be happy? We learned pretty quickly that, while it seems appropriate for a while, in the long term, you just can’t live that way.

That’s the best thing about time. It really does heal. And, thank God, today, I heard that we have an extra second in 2005 – a leap second at the end of this year! I think we might need it.

So, I guess this is how I cope. I immerse myself in the mundane details – work, laundry, surfing iTunes, checking on the status of my new MINI Cooper, coming up with new blog entries and trying to win concert tickets.

That’s the good news from today. I won two tickets to see Weezer at Hard Rock Live. I actually already have a ticket, but I have two friends who don’t. Mundane? Maybe, but telling them that I have tickets for them to a show that sold out in 18 minutes is going to make me so happy. And if I die tomorrow on a double-decker bus, then I at least want to know that I spent as much time doing things that make me happy in this life as I possibly could – as mundane as they might be.

Movin' on up

This weekend was, in a word, exhaustive. In three words, it was fun and exhausting.


My friend Brad just bought a cool new place in downtown Orlando (see above), and I offered to help him paint. I really enjoy painting, especially at the end, when I can lay on the floor and concentrate on painting the baseboards. Insane, I know. But there's something extremely calming about that. I think it's why I also love painting pottery at Glaze Under Fire or All Fired Up. It's kind of mindless. Turn up the tunes and let the creativity flow.

I think I took more showers in three days than I have in any three-day period ever before. Get up, shower, paint my booty off, come home, shower, scrub the paint off the bottom of my feet, go to bed, get up, shower, scrub the rest of the paint off the bottom of my feet, paint some more, shower, and go out to dinner!

I finally made it to Seasons 52. Brad's father was in town and treated us to a truly delicious, truly healthy dinner. How have I lived the last two years without going to this restaurant? It had such a good vibe, a menu that was full of choices that do a body good, and a piano on an enormous Lazy Susan. Too cool.

I hate to digress, but an M-n-Ms commercial just came on with Iron & Wine's "Such Great Heights" as the theme song. Huh? Love the song, love the chocolate treats, but how do they go together? Maybe it doesn't have to, because I completely stopped what I was doing and looked up at the TV. Then I shared my experience with you. So, I guess it was a good commercial because it worked. I want to listen to indie music and eat bon-bons!!

While I'm digressing, I just heard that Trent Reznor, Radiohead, Bjork, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and some other artists have donated autographed items for something called the Waxploitation Sudan Charity Auction to benefit victims of forced emigration and genocide in Sudan. On July 12, go to ebay.com/the_wax_trust and bid. But leave Trent for me!!!

i am proud to be an American ... blogger!

I have been thinking all weekend about what my next blog topic would be. Should I continue to be cranky and write another rant on America's misplaced affection for celebs? Should I make a list of the things I am thankful for on this Independence Day? This one almost won ... until I checked out the Skinny Tie Report, and I realized that betamike had already covered it and with his usual witty sarcasm.

Then, as Ace of Base might have said 27.7 million times, "I saw the sign."

Jeff Lindberg, a witty blogger in his own right, had chosen to devote some space to little old me on his cool blog, "when the light is green." I was so overcome with gushing and giddy excitement, that I forgot about my dinner, and I had a little madras lentils explosion in my microwave.

I met Jeff at Paws In the Park, the place to be seen if you're a pooch, or a pot-bellied pig -- seriously, my friend saw one there a couple of years ago. Betamike introduced us, so I knew he'd be fun! A couple weeks later, Jeff volunteered about 4 hours of his evening to serving as a panelist on the first College Program Alumni Speaker Series session -- this one spotlighting Entertainment. Anyone who would stay around to answer every last silly and serious question AND pass out business cards to students hoping to network with a Disney professional, deserves some love!

But who is this Jeff Lindberg? As a journalist, I like to stalk ... I mean, investigate. So, I started where all professionals digging for the real story go to get the goods. I Googled him!



Jeff? He looks like a gentle, kind-hearted soul, but this was not the one.


Holy conservatism, Batman! He's kinda cute, though not the Jeff Lindberg I'm looking for.


This truly came up on an image search for "Jeff Lindberg." I don't think it's the one I'm looking for, but I do feel a more urgent need to find him.


There's the sweetie!

If I knew how to create a link using Blogger on my beloved iBook, I would make it easy as apple pie on Fourth of July for you to check out his blog, but alas, I am only a novice. You will have to scroll down to my list of links. Now. Do it now! Thanks, Jeff, for the very sweet mention! I'll keep blogging if you keep reading!

Now, go check out his link!!