My ultragood weekend!

[besubversive]

Thursday, I took the bus to Philly. It had been raining all day, but got brilliantly sunny right when I had been boarding the bus, and I totally enjoyed the walk from 30th Street Station to Travis' school. Once there, I read The Diary of Anais Nin and talked to my dad on the phone a little until Travis was out of class. After a few hours of hanging out in his room, we got all good-lookin' and good-smellin' to go see The Faint at The Trocadero.

Alert: Mini-rant to follow. First of all, I forgot that I had my camera with me, so when security opened my purse at the door, they told me I couldn't get in if I didn't pay the three dollars to check my camera. I ended up forgetting at the end of the night that they had it, and we were halfway home before I realized it was still checked at The Troc. We had to go back the next day to pick it up. Ew.

So, there was this STUPID thing going on at The Troc involving cigarettes. Basically, you weren't allowed to go upstairs (which afforded a better view of the stage) unless you had a pack of cigarettes and answered the quetions in a short poll. Apparently, Camel was trying to do some research and some advertising at the same time. It was basically forced consumerism... to get into any of the decent areas for watching the show, you had to have cigarettes! I ended up buying a pack so I could go upstairs, and they gave me a free one for taking the poll. Travis had duped the poll-takers because a nice bartender had dumped all his smokes into a cup and gave Trav the empty pack. We both got these stupid light-up necklaces that said "Pleasure Lounge" and identified us as the priveleged smokers. UGH.

Everything else about the campaign was super fucked up, too. There were huge dice with poles coming out of them and icky girls were all half-naked and dancing on the tops. There were big ol' signs for Camel cigarettes everywhere and this troupe of faux-burlesquers called Dirty Little Secret that performed before the show and between bands. I decided the girls should change their name to Dirty Little Habit, because they were dancing to promote smoking. The first girl on stage was even smoking as she danced. GROSS. I was disappointed in the atmosphere of the show, because we (the audience) were treated like lab rats, being administered cigarettes and sex appeal. Boo. Plus, it was REALLY smoky in there, no surprise.

ANYway, besides that stuff, it was an amazing show. VHS or Beta opened, and they were completely dreamy and discoclash and the lead singer sounded just like Robert Smith. I SO have to buy their album(s). After more subtle cigarette pushing and glittery girl gyrations, The Faint took the stage and Oh My God they were outrageously good. Like, sassy and dirty and All About The Dancing. Such a great show. YES.




Friday, before we picked up my camera at The Troc, we ate at a restaurant I've been wanting to visit forEVER... Kingdom of Vegetarians! I had Kung Po Chicken and Pork Dumplings and Hot and Sour Soup and HOE my god, it was all tasty as hell. Plus, it was 2:59 when we got there, and they still let us order from the 11-3 lunch specials, even though it took us a while to decide what to get. We also walked over to Tower Records and spent some time browsing before Travis bought the second season of the Ali G. show.

Later on in the evening, we took a cab to Shampoo because Travis had a meeting with the general manager, Tony Monaco. Now, I consider this to be one of the most awesome names in the world. How can you argue with a name like Tony Monaco? Whew. Plus, the dude was really big and blunt and intimidating. Man, I'm glad I wasn't the one interviewing him. I'd never been to Shampoo, and I probably won't ever go again. I just sat on a red velvet couch watching the bars get crowded and text messaging people. I DID get handed a free Logo stretchy wristwarmer thing, though. I win! And then I gave it to Travis because it looked better on him. He wins!





Saturday, we were SOOOO lazy. We stayed in bed until it was time to eat and got back in afterwards. I realized I hadn't really taken any pictures during my stay, so I snapped a few:


Laughing ultra hard!


Whew, we laughed a lot.


On the way to catch the bus back home, we saw this fountain lit up all pink.



So, my weekend has been amazing. Yours?



PS: There is STILL more to talk about later. :)