gimme some

venue: great american music hall
artist: peter bjorn and john & the bachelorette (sold out!)
who: ro (& ashley!)
when: 13 may 2011 (friday)
doors open at 8p

when young folks came out in 2007, i fell in love. i don't think i was the only one. that album, writer's block was their best. i can't believe i have never seen them live before. i love love peter's voice. there is something about it that makes me melt. the bachelorette opened up for the trio. she makes full use of the loop machine as she is a one-woman band. she is surrounded by cool equipment that includes at least two laptops. it was really cool to watch and hear her put the songs together.

peter bjorn and john were awesome. so much that i wanted to see them again the next night in la at the el rey since i was going to be in the area. unfortunately, that show was sold out too. they are coming back in the fall and i am definitely planning to see them again. i can't wait...

during the show, peter made his way down to the audience (twice!) and that is when i spotted my dear friend, ashley, who was wearing a matching horizontal stripped long-sleeve with peter! she was right behind him at one point. it made the experience even more fun. the vibe on stage and in the audience were so incredible, i almost wished i was down there. but i was stuck sitting next to the couple on their first date, talking loudly the entire time! grrrr...

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ gimme more

belong

venue: great american music hall (sold out!)
artist: pains of being pure at heart (pobpah) with catwalk & twin shadow
who: ro
when: 19 april 2011 (tuesday)
doors open at 7p

ro and i headed up to the city at 5p so we could have dinner at tommy's joynt. we got there so early, we had prime parking. this is rare in the tenderloin district of the city. i had the corned beef and pastrami sandwich. it is the most tasty meaty sandwich, ever. that is my default item there. we finished in time to make it into the great american music hall just after the doors opened and scored prime seats in the balcony. as we looked around, we saw others filling up the balcony seats in the same situation we were in. we were now too old to stand at concerts. so we get there early to get these seats. previously, in my days with my former partner in crime, betty, we barely made the show as she was always late. i am so glad those days are over.

the first time i saw pobpah, i was sort of on this blind date but not really. it was when i met my ex, john, through a college friend of mine. she asked for a favor, to take her friend out during his first trip to san francisco. he and i ended up at the pobpah show in the fall of 2009. i spent the whole time chatting with john that i didn't get a chance to see what the band looked like. if i had, i might have freaked out. ro warned me that when he saw them at sxsw, he thought the lead singer (kip) looked a lot like my ex, ted. i didn't believe ro at first but when they came on, i had to get over the initial reaction that kip looked so much like emo-ted. i couldn't watch him for a bit.

for once, the opening bands were pretty good. catwalk was surprising. and then twin shadow came on and it was as if he was headlining. i have an inkling that the show sold out because of him. the crowd below went wild when he came on. his music was reminiscent of 80's new wave with a hint of rock and roll. it was very catchy and a bit too pop for my taste but i'll have to give him another listen before i can make a proper decision.

when pobpah was preparing to get on stage, i noticed this large gap of space between the mic stands and the drummer. i mean, he was way back there. i'd never seen bands set up this way. then i found out why. kip, the guitarist and bassist all use this space to dance (sometimes in unison) or stretch out their legs. i wasn't sure which. they do this one step back thing. kip's vocals are soft and almost feminine. i should say dreamy but it is more fem than dreamy. they are clearly influenced by the shoegazer genre. their songs are romantic and some are on the edge of cheesiness. their latest cd, belong, is quite good. i am still enjoying it in its entirety.

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ heart in your heartbreak

so tired of being sexy

venue: mezzanine
artist: css (cansei de ser sexy) & opening bands: princeton & hottub
who: joe
when: 15 april 2011 (friday)
doors open at 8p

last month, joe was in town and wanted to see a show. originally, he wanted to see the two door cinema club at the fillmore but we couldn't get tickets online. so, we decided to see css, an abbreviation of "cansei de ser sexy" which is portuguese for "tired of being sexy," taken from a reported quote that beyoncé had said about herself. easy, beyoncé.

joe and i spent most of the day together. it started with my picking him up at the fremont bart station. we stopped by the new nordstrom rack to check it out. for some reason, my allergies are really bad in fremont. i think i am allergic to that city. it happened again when i was there in early may. afterwards, i had to go home for a nap to recover from the allergies. we went to joe's new fav place in sf, the house, for an early dinner. and even made it in time for the best egg tarts ever, at golden gate bakery in chinatown across from where we were in north beach. i love both of those places.

we arrived very early at the mezzanine. so early, there was time to hang out at the sf shopping center for coffee and window shopping. when we returned to the mezzanine, not only did we have to get in line for will call but we had to get into another line to get into the venue. lame, if you ask me. i don't really care much for the mezzanine but am sometimes forced to go there. the venue itself is kinda cool. but the stage is tiny and the sound is pretty horrendous. it's better as a dance venue than one for live music.

since we got there so early, we secured seats on the second floor. the opening bands were pretty mediocre. though during one song, princeton made joe and i give each other that "OMG, this song is awesome" look. there are two singers in princeton and they are twins. but the song we actually liked was with the minor singing twin. and hottub was a sad trio version of salt-n-pepa. css is a brazilian pop group with a sassy and fun appeal. i think it's mostly due to their lead singer, who refers to herself as lovefoxxx. plus, she is awesome and adorable. she is japanese, german and portuguese. her lyrics are fantastically entertaining and upbeat. usually, her outfit matches the entertaining and upbeat aspect of their songs.

rating: ♥ ♥ ♥
if the sound wasn't so bad at the mezzanine, i think they would have gotten 4 hearts instead of 3.

europe - last stop: zürich

st gallen was my first time in switzerland. despite the conversion to the euros, lisa and i still had to convert our money in each country. the swiss use swiss francs because they are special. on friday evening, we made our way to zürich. lisa's good friend from high school (thao) married a swiss guy (martin) and has lived in zürich for about 6 years.

switzerland is a marvelous place. the trains are always on time. everything seems so clean and well maintained. when we traveled from milan to st gallen, the italian train broke down so we had to switch trains and ended up arrived 10 mins late. we had a 3-minute connection that we missed so it took us another hour before we were able to meet up with brianna in st gallen. oh well. at least we made it, right? back to zürich... it was great, martin met us at the train station right as we arrived. he also helped us get our bus tickets and guided us back to their place. thao came home shortly after we were able to settle in for a bit.
we spent the weekend chez thao & martin. i personally had a fabulous time getting to know the couple and look forward to seeing them again either by returning for another visit or hanging out when they are in the states. on saturday, we explored zürich (out and about for gifts). unfortunately, it rained most of the day. the sun decided to show itself on sunday. thao & martin took us to the swiss alps in lucerne. it was a truly wondrous experience. You can find some photos here. we hung out in old town lucerne afterwards. it's interesting how nothing is open on sunday. so we couldn't do much. luckily, the businesses at the train station were open (packed actually) and we were able to pick up food there. lisa and i flew out the next morning back to london for half a day, equipped with enough swiss chocolate to last a year, or so.

after which, we spent a few hours at harrod's and shopping. funny how after shopping in zürich, london seemed cheap. and the next day, it took us over 20 hours to get home between layovers and delays.

europe - stop #3: st gallen

on st. patrick's day, we left venice and took the train with a stop in milano to st gallen. we were there to visit brianna and steve. it was really wonderful that brianna was there, otherwise, i would have never made it to st gallen. *thanks brianna!!*
we were only there for half a day but it was a full day's worth of st gallen. brianna and steve took us to their favorite st gallen eatery: restaurant marktplatz, which is conveniently located up the street from where they live. once our cute swiss waiter found out we were americans, his english came out. even though steve was trying to use his german, the swiss guy insisted on speaking to us in english. i had a big plate of crinkly fries and schnitzel which i nearly finished but couldn't, to my dismay.

the next day, we went to the abbey. the interior of the abbey (as seen in the top right of the collage) is beautifully ornate. the abbey dates back to the carolingian era (8th century). we also visited the library, according to wikipedia, is one of the richest medieval libraries in the world. there is an amazingly detailed ginormous astronomical globe that is an exact copy of the original globe, currently presiding at the swiss national museum. apparently, the original was stolen from st gallen by zurich troops during the battle of villmergen. while they returned some of the stolen goods to st gallen, they didn't return the globe. in 2000, st gallen prepared to reclaim the globe. as a resolve to keep out of the courts, zurich was ordered to make an exact copy of the globe to present to st gallen. honestly, i think the copy is much nicer (compared with pictures of the original). the colors and images are so much sharper, vibrant and defined. unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures.

brianna also took us to café pelikan. brianna and steve were on a quest for the best cappuccino. the cappuccinos at café pelikan, won unanimously. i don't know if i could consider myself a capp connoisseur, but i do enjoy a good capp every now and then or everyday. and not only was the cappuccino quite delightful but the ambiance was uber adorable. both lisa and i agreed. later, we tried to do some shopping but it was slightly disappointing. the style and prices were completely disproportionate. anything i liked, even slightly, was $$$$. :(

europe - next stop: venezia

it was my first time in venice. we had a conference on hebrew literature co-hosted with the ca' foscari university which was the first business university in venice.

lisa and i arrived at the venice marco polo airport around 4:30p. we took a bus to the piazzale roma and checked into our hotel by 5p. we missed the opening talk but thankfully, made it to the dinner reception. the reception was hosted by our very gracious italian hostess at her typical venetian home which was absolutely amazing. something from the 16th century or so. she had this great room where there were about 30+ of us, hanging out comfortably. we had good food and good drinks. it was lovely to finally meet the people i had corresponded with in the last few weeks.
the next day, we headed over to the piazza san marco (st mark's square). we were there a week after the carnevale of which there were still remnants of (confetti everywhere). we walked around for 4 hours and barely made it back for lunch. venice has so many small alley ways that all look the same. it is very easy to get lost. in fact, we got lost every time we went out. unfortunately, it rained very hard on our last day there. so much that we stayed cooped up in our hotel room. it finally eased up in the evening and we decided to set out for some shopping... to our dismay, we only had one hour. it took us quite a while to get back to the hotel but we did eventually get back. luckily, venice is super safe and a great place to get lost, even at night.i bought two pairs of shoes in italy. this pair was the one that was more fun.

europe - first stop: london

wow, i can't believe i haven't blogged about europe... yes, it's been that busy.

in mid-march, my sister and i went to london, venice, st. gallen, zurich, back through london and finally home. there was a bit of a snafu getting to london where we arrived half a day later than planned. but we arrived at london heathrow late sunday night (~9pm) and after about an hour or so getting through customs, we finally checked into our hotel by 10:30p. we hadn't eaten anything since the breakfast that was served on the plane so we made plans to go to the hotel restaurant at 10:45p, before the kitchen closed.

our hotel was conveniently located between buckingham palace and westminster abbey. we got up early and left to go sightseeing at 7 in the morning. we caught the monday workday rush. first stop, westminster abbey. next to that was big ben and then over to house of parliament to the queen's garden next to it. we took some silly pictures with phone booths on our way to st. james park. and more silly pictures through the park on the way to buckingham palace. it was amazing, it took us only 2 hours to see all of this. we had time to go back to the hotel, pack up and then head over to a coffee shop to leisurely have coffee and pastries.

and then at 1p, we caught our flight to venice.