Coachella: Saturday

By Saturday the heat was getting to everyone, including my water bottle! The design was melting off!


We tried to find shade anywhere we could at the campsite.


For lunch that day we bought avocados, tomatoes and cheese from the farmers market and made really delicious sandwiches. It was the best thing I ate all weekend but I didn't take a picture. After lunch I headed into the grounds to see John Waters!

He was hilarious and it was very informative but I can't post my new learnings here because it is definitely NSFW
I even got him to sign my book!


Lauren and I went to see Camera Obscura while Dan waited to meet MGMT. But Camera Obscura was really not impressive so after one song we went to chill in the lawn and listen to Old Crow Medicine Show.



Lauren wonders why bluegrass bands sing so much about cocaine.

Next up for me was Beach House. They were another of my favorites. The show was fantastic. I was worried that their dreamy pop music wouldn't hold up in a big outdoor tent but they sounded great. I would love to see them again.




I took a lot of picture while listening to Hot Chip and MGMT. They were both great, just perfect for a night show.




Hot Chip: an explosion of light


In between Hot Chip and MGMT I went to see a little bit of Faith No More, just so I could tell Natan that I went.


MGMT emerging from the fog.


After MGMT I headed over to see Major Lazer. It was as crazy as you could imagine.




When Major Lazer finished I inched by way further into the tent to get a good spot for DEVO, but first I had to sit (well stand) through Les Claypool. I felt neutral towards him before and feel the same after seeing him. Although it was funny a. because I was surrounded by a bunch of young, pot smoking dudes and b. because this guy kept yelling "Be awesome Les" before the show. Be awesome.
Finally, it was time for DEVO and my birthday! because DEVO played at midnight, it was an awesome way to ring in my birthday.





Trash

Coachella Day one!

Man these past few weeks have been crazy. I've been super busy and working like 75 hours a week so I have not had time to update about Coachella. So here it is finally!

Friday.
Friday was the first day of the festival, but there was no one we wanted to see until 2:30 so we checked out the campsite, there was a farmer's market that was awesome, we got breakfast burritos that were delicious and we wandered around and got slightly lost. We also played scrabble at the campsite.



It was a day of hopping around from band to band.

I love the composition of this picture.


The origami crane
When we finally went into the festival grounds we went to see Wale. Unfortunately he was about 30 minutes late coming on stage. We stuck around just because there was no one else on that we wanted to see and just when we were getting ready to leave he came on. He played for about 15 minutes because I guess they wanted to keep the other acts on schedule. I wish he played his whole set time because the fifteen minutes were great. But I didn't get any pictures of him because he went into the audience and we weren't that close.

Then we headed over to the other stage to watch the Avett Brothers.


Next up was Sleigh Bells. I had never heard anything by them, all I knew was that they were signed to MIA's record label. They were really great. They only played for about 25 minutes, I guess they don't have that much material. I'm excited to hear their record when it comes out.


Then we tried to see Yeasayer but I only got to sort of hear them because the tent was exploding with people. It was crazy ridiculous.
We went back to the campsite for supplies and a change of clothes because it got really cold at night. Then we headed back in to catch the last half of She and Him.


They were super cute, of course and they were the only band that I saw to play cover songs which I love.


In the crowd.


Passion Pit. As Lauren says, small voice, huge mouth. I was really impressed with Passion Pit, they were better live than I thought, it was a very fun show.

I went off by myself to see Grizzly Bear. I was really excited to see them because I love their new album. I thought they were great. I can imagine that they would be better in a confined space because their sound gets slightly lost in an open tent but I still enjoyed it. It was dark and sort of spooky and they had organs that kept building and building which I love.



I stopped by to see Echo and the Bunnymen but I didn't stay long. I was kind of turned off because Ian McCulloch, the lead singer, introduced their song "The Killing Moon" as "the greatest song ever written". I mean who says that about their own song? I honestly thought when he said that, that it would be a cover of another band's song. Then he introduced their next song (I forgot which song) as "the second greatest song ever written" Urgh I had enough by that point.


I meant back up with Lauren and Dan at the Little Dragon show. I had only heard a few songs by them, but the show was awesome. Definitely one of my favorites of the weekend.
The singer came out in the headdress that made me think that she was a witch casting a spell on the audience.


She also went and played some drums.



After that we caught a little bit of Jay-Z's show. It was really good and fun but Lauren and I were both really tired so we went back to the campsite and we missed when Beyonce came out to sing with him. Oh well I was exhausted.

Coachella (preperations and traveling)

We left for California Thursday morning on a 7:30 am flight. Even though I was exhausted because I had worked the night before, the early flight was nice because we got to California with enough time to get our car, buy supplies from the worst Wal-Mart ever, and then drive to the beach for lunch. (So the Wal-Mart wasn't really the worst but it was pretty small and had a lousy food section)
The beach was really awesome, we went to Manhattan beach which was beautiful and all of the houses were adorable. The landscaping was fantastic too, check out these succulents, so pretty!


Lauren and I at the beach

We ate delicious fish tacos there.

Driving to the campsite was a really nice drive too because I had never been to California so it was fun just watching the scenery. On the way to the Coachella valley is a big wind farm. It was like a little factory.


Once we got to the campsite there was the inevitable wait to get in and have your vehicle searched. I was a little worried because they seemed to be searching pretty thoroughly (Lauren and I saw a guard go through a girls makeup case) and I had a bottle of whiskey, which wasn't allowed but our search guy was awesome. All he did was sort of squeeze our luggage and then he took a jar of peanut butter and jelly (yes it was in one jar, it was Goobers ok?!) but he seemed to feel really bad about taking it.


After setting up our tents we were all pretty spent. Lauren and I explored the campsite a little bit but then went to bed. The campsite was pretty cool, they had a lot set up for the campers including a dance stage/dj area, roller rink, pinball area, arts and crafts area, and best of all a farmers market.

More pictures and words about the festival and what bands I saw to come!

The weekend

My sister came down for the weekend and with her came the dogs. Here is Zoey hanging in the yard.


Saturday. Natan and I went to one of my favorite places to eat in Miami, The Lost and Found Saloon. It was delicious. I got taquitos. You tell in the picture but my dress is seersucker. I love seersucker.


Easter.


Easter outfit:

The dress is from Target and it just seemed perfect for Easter.

Playing with the dogs, look at Zoey, that dog is just waiting to be scratched!

Thursday

My outfit:

I love this skirt. I bought it last week and I have already worn it three times! It goes with everything, it has a high waist, and it has pockets.

My lunch:

It was delicious. I have been eating hard boiled egg sandwiches a lot lately. It's super easy to make and you can add a bunch of different things to liven it up. This was on a pumpernickel bagel with pepper jack cheese and lettuce and tomatoes from my mom's garden.

It was a pretty good day. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Coachella!

In three weeks I will be heading to California for the Coachella music festival and I'm super amped about it.




Here is my list of the bands I want to see, in order of excitement:

1. Pavement.
Duh, I love Pavement and I have never seen them live and they are playing on my birthday! A big reason why I bought my ticket to the festival.
2.DEVO.
My blog is named for a DEVO song, my old ringtone was a DEVO song and if I ever got a tattoo it would be this:

I really love them and from videos I have seen their live shows are great.

3. John Waters.
I really have no idea what he will be doing there (possibly DJing?), but whatever it is I want to be there. One of the first records I had was the hairspray soundtrack, which I still listen to regularly, and in my dreams John Waters plays the music for all the fun parties I attend.

4. Beach House/Grizzly Bear.
A tie.

5. Thom Yorke.
Thom Yorke, no Radiohead? I'm skeptical but still excited.


Yeasayer
She & Him
Major Lazer
Wale
Gorillaz
Phoenix
Yann Tiersen
Jay-Z
De La Soul
Gary Numan
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Yo la Tengo
Mayer Hawthorne
The xx
Passion Pit
Echo and the Bunnymen
The Avett Brothers
King Khan & the Shrines
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
Sly Stone
Little Boots
The Specials
MGMT
Little Dragon
The Dead Weather
Hot Chip
Gossip
Vampire Weekend


Most of these bands I have never seen before so that definitely raises the level of excitement. I've been to a few festivals like this, where you camp out at the site but I've always driven to them and this time I'm flying so I'm feeling pretty nervous about having room to pack everything I will need. I will have to be super creative in my packing or wear like three layers of clothes on the flight.

West Palm Beach

Yesterday Natan and I drove up to West Palm Beach. We went to have lunch with his great-Aunt but decided to go up early to take advantage of being in West Palm Beach. I wanted to go to John MacArthur state park, I have wanted to go there for a long time but I'm never in West Palm Beach and it always seems somewhat silly to drive an hour and half to go to a beach when I live about 10 minutes away from the beach. Well, we ended up not going to that park unfortunately because we didn't have enough time so instead we just went to the beach at the end of Okeechobee Road. It was an extremely windy day and the water is still way to cold to go swimming, but it was really nice to walk around and I love being on the beach even if I can't go in the water.

Natan did put his feet in the water but it was too cold for me to even do that.


You can see from the trees how windy it was.

One of the condos on the beach, I really like the buildings on the beach in West Palm because they weren't giant skyscrapers that ultimately block other peoples view of the beach.


Me, I got to wear my new Sperry Topsiders, which I was very excited about. They are super comfortable and I really needed good walking shoes that I could wear at parks and beaches without worrying that they would get ruined. I got these at Ross for $20!


The skyline, it's crazy because even though it was cloudy and ready to storm the sun was still poking it's way through. Very typical of South Florida weather.



We saw this guy washed up on shore, it's a jellyfish but without the tentacles. I wasn't sure if it's only the tentacles that are poisonous so I didn't touch it.


I also found a toothbrush washed up onshore.


The wind made it difficult for the birds to fly so a lot of them were lined up and waiting to go.

New things

I went to a local flea market with my mom recently and picked up some really awesome, and more importantly really cheap items.




So I got some really cool huaraches. I like them because they are yellow, they have high arches, making them very comfortable, they were only one dollar, and I really enjoy saying huaraches. It's such a fun word!

Next to those huaraches is a cute woven belt with flowers embroidered on.

I'm also pretty pysched about the two vintage hats I got. I love vintage hats but whenever I find them they are always too small for me, which leaves me low self esteem about my seemingly normal sized head that apparently is very large. But these two hats fit perfectly! I love them and have worn the green one several times already. And they were only two dollars a piece.

So when I showed Natan the leather messenger bag I got he said that I was ready to attend school in the 19th century. I imagine wearing this bag while riding my bike and wearing my new green hat, and let's be real at this point I would be the school marm not the student. Although I do really want book straps to hold and carry my stacks of books. This bag was only five dollars.

For just one dollar I got a leather etinenne aigner purse, that I have been using ever since. I really like it because inside there is more room that you would think.

And I got these awesome dinosaur earrings for only fifty cents! I love them so. I have a pretty good collection of dino jewelry now with these earrings plus a necklace and the first piece I ever got a dino brooch.

I was really happy and suprised to find so many good things at this flea market. It was a one time deal held at a community center.