Friday I'm In Love.....

This past weekend was jam packed full of fun!!  A couple weeks ago Jon and Ash had told me they were going to try and hit up two, yes! two!, shows in one weekend.  Can you believe that?  That hasn't happened since we were spry kids fresh out of Western.  Now I'm lucky if I squeeze a show in once a month.  Anywho, they said two shows, and I said sign me up!  Small problem.  When we actually got around to buying tickets, we found out that both shows had already sold out!!  As Mike Mabie would say -- crap in a crap basket!!  Jon and Ash weren't phased by the sold out status -- their idea?  Let's stalk the shows, wear them down until they finally let us in or call the cops.  So that is what happened.* (*Parts of this blog post will be embellished for entertainment purposes*)

Friday night I met up with J & A at the Crocodile bar for some drinks and dinner.  Wow, the Croc has been totally revamped since it reopened.  #1 difference?  The restroom didn't look like 1. the bathroom from Trainspotting and 2. like you would get Hep C from looking at the toilet seat.  By the time I got there, J & A had already started the liquor train -- exhibit A:

They look like they are having fun, no? So I got on board for a spin with a little gin and tonic action.  So delicious as you can tell from my empty glass.  Don't worry, I had another one waiting in the wings. 

So, still no tickets to the show.  How to remedy this ticketless situation?  Slide tackle the box office guy?  Probably not.  We nominated Jon to check out the ticket potential at the box office when it opened.  No luck.  Box office guy was giving Jon NO LOVE!!  After a few more drinks and some more laughs we nominated Ash to feel out the ticket sitch.  The response?  Maybe, come back in 15 minutes.  Okay, okay, this is starting to look more positive.  Apparently the box office guy is a fan of girls, this is a good sign, we can work this angle a bit.  Croc love trio shot!!!

Woot!!  Woot!!  And yes, I'm still loving the ShakeIt app.  Have you tried the food at the Croc?  Best $6.50 pizza I've ever had, and my shirt got a few grease marks to prove it (later to be removed by OxyClean, love that stuff).  After our snacks Ash decided to go back to the box office and test her luck with the dude behind the glass.  And this is what happened:

Oh yeah!!  Score!!  3 tickets to the sold out show!!  We were pretty excited.  There was a lot of high fivin' and cheers-ing going on at this point.  Who were we going to see?  The Pains of Being Pure At Heart.  J & A had heard of them before, but I was new to their sound.  Here's a taste:


The Croc has a new upstairs bar / hang out area that we checked out once the show started.  I almost peed a little whilst walking up the stairs -- so many totally awesome show posters!!!  Check it out!!

Did I tell you I'm getting two more Pearl Jam posters framed at HangFire?!?  Yup, so totally stoked to get them back in a few weeks.  I'll post pics fo' shizzle.  I'd love for my house to be jam packed full of sweet show art and I'm working towards that goal.  Slowly.  After we found our little spot for the show, we proceeded to enjoy the show and people watch.  I managed to find a super fan who gravitated towards me for some reason.  How do I manage to attract the strangest people?  Anyway, this guy appeared to be of the frat douche persuasion (no offense to any former frat douches out there) -- he was trying to find me a spot up against the railing by pushing other people that already had railing spots out of the way.  Awesome.  Let's make other people cranky.  I somehow managed to remove myself from that future trainwreck of a situation, but DFD (drunk frat douche) kept coming over and whispering in my ear who he thought the band sounded like.  I think the final decision was My Bloody Valentine.  Granted, he wasn't completely off base.  The band did seem like a mish mash of many different sounds.  They totally ripped off some of Modern Love by Bowie and Just Like Heaven by The Cure.  And the lead singer's voice was too soft.  He sounded like Shy Ronnie.  Long story short -- we had a super fun night!!!!

So what happened Saturday night?  J & A came over to check out the three posters I had framed from a few months ago -- Jon is also a collector of all things rock show related, so I think he wanted to check them out for possible future framing options.  The show we wanted to check out was down in Ballard, at The Tractor, also sold out.  We ended up hanging out at my place for a few hours -- drinks and Nic & Heather ended up joining us.  And we did a little FaceTime action with Corbett and Jessie -- technology is crazy.  Crazy awesome.  It felt like we were hanging out with them even though they are 1,000 miles away.

We decided to ditch the show stalking idea and just head down to Ballard for some dinner / drinks.  Have you been to La Isla?  So delicious!!  Check it out if you haven't been -- Puerto Rican pulled pork lasagna is my favorite!  I had a cocktail called Surfing Rincon: white and coconut rum with banana liqueur and pineapple juice.  Totally refreshing.

It was a great weekend!!  My goal is to make more of my weekends that jam packed full of awesomeness.  Because you know what?!?  We are on this earth for such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things.  Gotta take advantage of every minute we have.

Newest postcard acquisition:

Ahhhhhh..... Gus Gus.......     

Found: Awesome Framer!!

Holy smokes!!  I am in love with my new framed rock posters!  I have been stockpiling rock posters for a few years now, and I finally framed a few of them this past month.  My friend Kym told me about Hangfire Design in the Maple Leaf area of town, so I decided to check it out.  Mark, the owner, had so many awesome ideas for framing -- I basically just stood back and watched his creative ideas flow.  And I am incredibly happy with the results!!  I have two of the three pieces back, so check them out!!

This is a Death Cab for Cutie poster from a show they played at Marymoor Park in 2009, with The New Pornographers and Ra Ra Riot.  The poster was designed by Nat Damm -- it is one of my all-time favorites.

The frame is glossy and super awesome -- you can't really tell from this iPhone photo, but it is blue and black wood grain.  Mark also had the to put gold-leaf paper along the inside edge.  The gold-leaf paper didn't work out, so he actually built a quarter round gold frame to nest along the outside edges of the poster -- it looks really great. 











Here's a close-up of the actual frame -- super cool, no?  So excited about this one!!  Where am I going to put it?  Not sure yet.  I really want to repaint my living room because this color that is going on here is soooooo my Eddie Bauer henley circa 1992 -- like forest green/blue -- not going to do any favors for this frame.  I'm thinking until I have the living room repainted I'll put it up in the bedroom.  Yes, I've decided, it is a bedroom piece. 

This is a Pearl Jam poster from their "Portland" show in the fall of 2009. I put "Portland" in quotes because sure, the show was near Portland, but it was not Portland. It was Vancouver, WA -- Clark County Fairgrounds. Last time I checked, Vancouver is very much not Portland. I digress.  For this one Mark had the idea of doing a frame-in-frame, which I would never think of, but it looks totally cool.

So the outside frame is a glossy, textured, rich reddish merlot color.  The inside frame is different shades of blues and greens, in a kind of pearlized pattern.  Not sure where this one is going up either, but probably the living room for the time being.  Despite the 1992 Henley motif in there. 












The third poster I'm having framed is still in the works -- and I think it is going to be my favorite of the three.  Or it might be a tie for first with the DCFC poster.  Anyway, the third one is also a Pearl Jam poster from a Madison Square Garden show.  I'll post once I get it back, can't wait!!

So if you're looking for an awesome frame/design shop, definitely check out Hangfire!  You will not be disappointed!!