Jan 31, 2011

I went up to Rowan in the afternoon since I didn't get a job and I discussed my upcoming projects with Tom. We made some plans and then I went to the studio to set up the lighting and play with it.

I took several self-portraits to test it and just to do something different.

Heather came up to help me by tracing my shadow. I'm using it for an upcoming sculpture/installation piece. Should be fun.

I shot some photos of Heather after she was done tracing me. I didn't shoot many but I got a few good ones.

We ended up going to meet Kat for dinner at the Student Center. I got a big burrito and enjoyed every bit of it. We went outside for a while and then sat in the pit talking for an hour or so until they went for an audition and I went back to Westby.

I met Shannon and Jackie at Landmark a short time later for drinks for Shannon's birthday! Mexican monday means margaritas! In a cactus glass! They were delicious.

They both danced-off for a free shot, which Shannon got by dancing the "dougie." They both had a few shots though and the DJ was enjoying talking about Shannon.

We were playing "Musical Bingo" where we hear clips of songs and have to cross them off to get lines. I won a free drink! Yeah for Blink and The Backstreet Boys!

I got a quesadilla (even though you shouldn't eat after 9pm...) and we kinda stopped playing the bingo game after a while to focus more on drinking and dancing.

The dancing increased as the night went on and the music got slightly better. There was a lot of disco at one point but Jackie seemed to be enjoying that!

We finally decided to call it a night and I dropped the ladies off at home and then brought myself home to sleep.

Jan 30, 2011

I had to get things done in the morning time so I got up and dropped off my car at the shop to get an oil change and then got pizza with my grandmom at Little Caesar's. I ran four miles on the treadmill then showered and got ready to go pick up my car from the guy who was smoking a pipe while working on it. I picked up Shannon and we headed up the PA Turnpike toward Allentown.

We got there early and walked through the cold and snow to the Croc Rock and hung out in the bar for a little while as Foxy Shazam was playing on stage. We met some guys from Vineland somehow!

We hung out and talked to them before we went into the show and watched one of them try out the breathalizer machine... he kept blowing a .25 somehow......

Anberlin was up first tonight, opening with "We Owe This To Ourselves" and going into an awesome set of old and new songs. The crowd was great and a lot of fun.

They played "The Unwinding Cable Car" which is one of my favorite songs of theirs. They played for quite a long time and closed with the popular songs, which are still on par with the rest.

I walked outside for a bit to cool off and take photos, enjoying the re-entry policy of this venue, and came back in for Circa Survive to start. They played an awesome set too. Hometown shows are always more energetic it seems.

Anthony got the crowd pumped up as always, opening up a wall of death that didn't really go the right way but got through an intense set including "Through the Desert Alone," which is probably my favorite song of theirs. They closed with "Get Out" as the encore. Great ending.

The drive home seemed pretty quick and, after I dropped off Shannon, I came home and fell asleep watching Due Date.

Jan 29, 2011

I picked up Shannon and we went to the Piazza in Northern Liberties to the 104.5 free winter concert something-or-other. We did have to pay for parking but for a free show that's not bad. We trekked through the muddy parking lot and over to the plaza just as Terrible Things was going on.

The band consists of Fred, previously of Taking Back Sunday, and Andy from Hot Rod Circuit. They played a really good set, with the exception of a Led Zeppelin cover which I wasn't really into.

It was great to see Andy Jackson in action again and some of the songs sounded like old Hot Rod Circuit. I definitely need to pick up their CD.

We went around the corner between bands to get lunch. I found a nice little bar with great southwestern food and a lot of vegetarian/vegan options. I just got a giant burrito but I'd like to go back and try some of the other things on the menu.

When we got back to the stage, Valencia was just starting their set. We moved up in the crowd to stay warm as it started snowing.

I always forget how good they are until I see them live. And I always know more of their songs than I expect to. They played a fun, energetic set and the crowd was into it.

We wandered around the plaza and I bought some merch after Valencia played, then we moved up to the front for Bayside.

Bayside came out to songs from The Walking Wounded and kept the pace up for a few songs until "Masterpiece" when people started a pit and we got into it. It was swiftly broken up by security but it was fun while it lasted.

They played a bunch of great songs, old and new. People kept opening it up and it kept getting shut down by security but the set was great, the crowd was good and it was a lot of fun.

I went back to Shannon's to get ready and then went to pick up Katie* for our date at Kokopelli's Tequila Bar in Philly. We had some great drinks, the blood orange martini and the margarita. Both were really good.

We were seated and then got to ordering the tapas-style food. We got a corn bisque, sweet potato fries and crab cakes for dinner. They were all amazing. We had a trifle thing for dessert, which came in a little shot glass. Good thing because I could have eaten a lot of it. After sitting and talking for a while and finishing our drinks, we decided to head out to find a bar.

After a little bit of walking around in the cold, we went to Good Dog, where we stood awkwardly for a while with our drinks until some people left and we got a seat at the bar. The Stone beer I had was the best of the evening.

We had a few drinks and met an interesting guy that we hung out with and talked to while we watched Ace Ventura and Cheaters with the closed captioning on. It was really quite amusing. After a few drinks and a lot of laughing I took Katie* home for the night and headed back to Jersey.

I stopped at Shannon's on the way back at her house party, where I was just in time to see a window get smashed, a table get broken and a bunch of people being rude and getting kicked out. When things calmed down and everything was in order, I finally headed home.

I had a really great day. It was a lot of fun being in the city in the snow and having a good night out with good people.

Jan 28, 2011

My first Gallery meeting of the semester was a long one. We talked about the layout of the publication and discussed what we were going to do for our fundraisers. I edited and submitted my photos so that was taken care of. We hung around talking for a while after the meeting ended. I went to Heather's for a short time to hang out until Alex was ready to go to Philly.

We went to Blackbird Pizzeria. It's an all-vegan place so I was excited to try some things. I got the BBQ mushroom sandwich with cole slaw and jalapenos on it. It was quite good. Alex's eggplant grinder was also delicious.

We walked down South Street and then up Pine Street to take some photos while trying not to die in the snow. Alex almost went down a few times.

The city looked really nice buried under a layer of white but the walkways were not very well cleared. After wandering around for a while we went back to the car. We did find a great sale on Vitamin Water so we picked up a bunch to use in our fundraiser for the Gallery. We also tried to check out one of our professor's openings at Moore College, but it was over when we got there.

I dropped off Alex and hung out at Westby for a little while before I came home to watch some things and update this. Now I need some sleep. Goodnight.

Jan 27, 2011

When we finally got up and had breakfast, I snow suited up and we took to the streets to see the damage and wander around campus.

We walked down the tracks to take some photos and tried not to fall into the snow. So far only once this winter! Good thing one camera is waterproof.

We walked over to Westby and hung out in the computer lab for a while. I edited some of the photos from yesterday and played Scrabble online. We walked back to Shannon's house as the sun was setting and I took some more photos.

She made some pasta that we at before I relaxed and felt like falling asleep in the chair. I didn't sleep very well.

I went to Samurai a little bit later and met Maureen for dinner. I got the spider roll and we shared some wasabi calamari, which was really great. We had a chance to talk and catch up since it's been quite a while since we've really spoken. It was a good time.

I went over to Heather's and Chuck showed up shortly thereafter and we hung out listening to music and trying to ignore Jersey Shore.

I got to be the DJ and Chuck played some tunes that we sang along to. Remember Box Car Racer? Of course you do. We had some pizza that didn't belong to us before we broke out the games.

The first game we played was Jenga. It was my first time. I didn't knock it over. There were things written on each block that added to the game as well. Most of them just said to drink.

We played a short game of Kings and then got into Trivial Pursuit. That game took a long time and we just ended up calling it quits after an hour and only one wedge had been awarded that I can remember.

We watched some of Eurotrip before we realized how late it was and we decided to head out. It got "Scotty Doesn't Know" stuck in my head though.

Jan 26, 2011

I didn't get a job and when I got to school I was able to talk to Tom about my upcoming show and projects that I want to work on. He seems pretty excited about them which makes me more excited about them as well. He gave me some good ideas. I talked to Heather as she worked on her Sculpture I project about what she would be doing and doing the box installation.

I went to get Shannon and picked up some slices on the way back to Westby to eat while I set up the lighting and such in the studio to shoot some photos. A lot of the equipment is either not where it's supposed to be or it's broken so that wasn't helpful.

Though I started off without much idea of what I wanted to do, we stumbled upon this box in the studio and used it as a prop, which really made everything start working. I really love the box and we got some really great shots with it.

I dropped off Shannon and drove through the snow as it piled up on the way to Quizzo. The game began with less teams than usual but still a decent crowd considering the weather. We were doing quite well through most of the game and had an early lead.

Fish tacos were delicious and our waitress was great.. and we won first place! There's thirty bucks for next week's fun!

The snow had gotten pretty crazy in the short time we were there and we had to scrape off and dig out our cars before we could leave. The drive back to Shannon's was not too much fun. It was really slow-going and careful. Between not being able to see the road ahead of me and thinking I might get stuck a few times I'm surprised I made it back without incident.

We watched the beginning of The Social Network but the disc stopped working about forty minutes in so we switched to Mr. And Mrs. Smith but we were all falling asleep anyway so we called it a night and went to bed.