Apr 30, 2011

It was a nice morning for tennis so Ryan and I played on the courts near his house. It seemed really strange for whatever reason. The balls were not very good and all courts feel a little different. We played a couple of good games before I had to run along.

I met Tracy at Rowan and we headed north to the Meadowlands Sports Complex to Bamboozle. After a strategic parking spot and some walking around following a large fence to the entrance, we found our way in and wandered around planning our day.

We had some time before the first band so we wandered and then took our place toward the front of the crowd at one of the main stages. In a very short period of time I got yelled at for standing in front of a couple of girls because I'm too tall, told that I'm ridiculous because all guys with beards smoke and I should have a lighter for this guy, and got a suggestion to put my camera in my little secret pocket that apparently all girls' pants have. That was exciting.

Anberlin came out to "Godspeed" to the delight of the sunbathed crowd. People were not really moving around too much, and it generally felt a little strange. I wasn't in the zone for a show yet. They played a good set, including some great old tunes.

We wandered over to the other stage to see Rx Bandits, who were somewhat disappointing because they don't have horns anymore and didn't play anything I knew at all. They weren't really bad, just not not what I was expecting.

Streetlight Manifesto was basically my welcome to the pit. Everyone was dancing and it was hard to not get caught up in it. I didn't know all of the songs they played, but I still had a great time dancing and jumping with the other sweaty peoples.

We left Streetlight a bit early to get to Thrice in time. They played a lot of new songs from Beggars amid a great selection of songs from older albums. Nothing from the EPs, but that was my only complaint about a really nice set. They closed with "Deadbolt," clearly pleasing many people.

I made my only visit to one of the smaller stages to see The Movielife for a short time. I was only there long enough to see them play a few songs, but it was all good and I hear they might actually tour so I'll check that out.

I ditched to go see Alkaline Trio, who were underwhelming again. I always expect them to be amazing, but they have been disappointing the last couple of times I saw them. I should have stayed with The Movielife. They did play a couple of good songs toward the end of the set.

I ran over to get to Circa Survive, who played the best set of the day so far. I don't know what it was about it; the atmosphere was wonderful and they just played great songs. It was better than anytime I've seen them at a club show before, which is really unusual.

The sun was setting over the crowd as they played and Anthony commented on the beauty of it and made some comments about appreciating what we have and that we're here. He always has something inspirational to say. "We can talk for days about what we hate, but take a minute and appreciate this. Don't let anything get lost." - Anthony Green

Though I was enjoying the transcendental experience of seeing Circa, I had to leave as they played "I Felt Free" to get to the other stage for what I was considering to be the main event: New Found Glory. They opened with.. you guessed it! "Understatement." They powered through a fast-paced set of great songs, including a cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop" with Marky Ramone on drums. I had no doubt they'd be good and I had an awesome time in the crowd.

I got to the other stage to see Chris Carrabba on stage playing "Swiss Army Romance" by his lonesome. This excited me that he might be playing alone or at least playing old stuff. The latter was true. He played a lot of old stuff; "Stolen" was the newest song he played so I was thrilled with the set.

We took a break to sit down for a while as we waited for the last band of the night. When the time came we came back to the stage and made it about halfway through the crowd before it was just a solid wall of people. Just before it was time for Taking Back Sunday to come out, the Exit 152 banner dropped down and the crowd pushed up. They opened with "You Know How I Do" followed by "Bike Scene" before revealing that they'd be playing Tell All Your Friends in its entirety!

It was amazing to see the whole album played on a beautiful night with the old lineup back together. Some of the songs they haven't played in almost a decade. They played a handful of other songs after the album set, including a cover of "Existentialism on Prom Night," which I was not thrilled with because Adam sang it even though John was right there. Regardless, this was the best set of the day. It was just awesome and exciting.

We got out of the parking lot with not problem and headed down the Turnpike home. The day was awesome and nostalgic; seeing so many bands that I've listened to forever play together and have such amazing sets was great. The TBS surprise at the end was a perfect ending to a superb day. Best festival show I've ever been to.

Apr 29, 2011

After taking care of some e-mails that I've needed to answer for quite a while and editing some photos, I went out for a run on a beautiful day. My knee had been hurting, but running makes it feel better somehow. I took the basic trail that we took during the 5K except starting at my house instead.

After the run I went back down the trail for a quick walk and took some photos of the trail and the flowers. I liked this one with both phases of a dandelion.

Later, I met Joanna and we went to a place called Thai Chili. They were very friendly and even their food was smiling. Mmm spring rolls.

The food looked amazing and was presented really nicely. My rice was shaped like a heart. The eggplant dish that I had was great. And I got an orange for dessert. Win. And Foursquare gave us a discount. Thanks!

When we got back we stopped at Margaret's show at the High Street Gallery. She had up her paintings on cut wood. They all looked great. She's really good. There was another person's paintings up as well that were nice. I'm always impressed by painting.

I spent the rest of the night in Westby with Alex editing my photos for finals. I changed my ideas a few times about what exactly I wanted to do for it.

I came home pretty late, but there was no need to get to bed early, or so I thought.

Apr 28, 2011

The Gallery Publication books are in! Technically we got to see them yesterday, but now we have them all and they look great! It's hard to see the black on black type in this photo, but we're all really happy with the way they look.

We went around Westby passing them out to all the students and faculty. We got mostly all positive feedback from them, but people had a hard time with the flipped section in the middle. We put two sections in each book, both starting from a different side so when you get to the center the images are upside down, signaling you to start over. At least that's what we thought.

Amid the book delivery I went to my last classes before finals week. We had our last History of Photo lecture of the semester before our online final and then I was in and out of Keith's classes. I did some photograms while I had people around but mostly was out in the hall.

I did get to relive the Photo I days by showing Kim how to load a roll of film in the dark and develop it. It takes some practice, but it seems that I still remember how to do all of that.

Later, Joanna and I went to Philly for a club thing and got there early. We hung out in Rittenhouse Square because the weather was great and the people were amusing.

We were greeted at Whisper by girls in Day of the Dead face paint and corsets. They found our names on the list and admitted us with our drink ticket bracelets.

The club itself was pretty nice. Interesting groups of people. They basically let anyone in, explaining how we were there. No one was really dancing at first so I got one of the free drinks, a margarita I believe. It was quite good.

They had a face painting station so we went to that and sat on the couch waiting our turn while I enjoyed my drink and chatted with the guy next to us who was getting a Mike Tyson tattoo painted on his face to mess with his friends. We also debated the ranking order of our favorite comedy movies while Joanna got her paint done.

The finished product was really good, I think. I was happy with mine. They do a good job. It was a little awkward when we went to eat some chips after this without smearing the paint.

They had some weird videos playing and they dimmed the lights so we could watch the dancers in their glowing skeleton suits. They were amusing, but the whole atmosphere was a little strange. After a couple more drinks it was time to go. Though the other drinks sounded good, they were quite disappointing.

The face paint came off pretty easily. After a stop at Westby and a talk with Alex I headed home.

Apr 27, 2011

My car went in for a much needed checkup in the morning. Once Chopper had checked it out and figured out what would need to be done, he put in my new spark plugs and sent me away.

I went to work on my liquid emulsion photos for a while until I met with Keith to go over the images I had chosen for my portfolio. We pared it down to about ten for each section and now I just have to decide what size I want them printed and get my box.

I was going to look for food, but I found out it was coming to me. Several of the graphic design graduates from Rowan came back to talk about their real world experiences and what it's like in the design world right now. They were all doing really interesting things and it seemed like they were enjoying their jobs. We had a lot of pizza while they talked. The presentations were quite inspirational and made me want to get busy.

Soon after eating some more pizza, I loaded Christy, Tracy, and Tracy's friend, Sharon, into my car and we headed to the Electric Factory for Brand New. We saw a bit of the opener and then made our way to the front for Brand New coming out to "Sowing Season."

The set was great and even included "Quiet Things..", which I feel like I never see them play. Jesse ended the long set with "Soco Ameretto Lime" by himself on stage. We left happy, if not slightly blinder as Christy lost her glasses in the crowd somewhere (and didn't even notice until I asked where they were..)

We went looking for food at Maoz, but it was closed! New hours. Not cool. So we wandered South Street until we realized nothing would be open and then just went to Wawa for food. After a brief stop at Westby I headed back home to sleep after a nice night.

Apr 26, 2011

I spent my time in both photo classes doing test strips and trying to figure out the timing for my pieces now that I had my transparency to print from. It took some time and seemed like it would be a long exposure time.

After a six-minute exposure, I had a finished printed product on steel. I wasn't so happy with the quality as far as the painted-on emulsion goes, but I did print with liquid light on metal so that's pretty cool anyway. I have to refine this process and then hopefully get better results.

I didn't want to waste the whole nice day inside so I went to Washington Lake Park and sat at a bench with my banango smoothie and read a few chapters of Into the Wild. It was nice to be out, but reading that book still makes me want to take off.

I went back to Westby and worked some more on my liquid light and then hung out in the lab a bit before going home, starting to watch Fringe and ending up watching a bunch of episodes until I fell asleep.

Apr 25, 2011

I met up with Erika at Moe's for a late breakfast (for me, anyway) and to catch up since we haven't hung out in a long time. It was a great day to sit outside so we enjoyed the weather and way too much burrito.

I went to the sculpture studio to clear out the balloons in the box so the next person could set up. It was actually pretty enjoyable popping the balloons, despite my aversion to loud noises. It didn't take too long to clean them all out and return the box to its original pristine white form. Sad to see them go.

After a few more small things I had to do I met Christy and went over to the Rec Center to play ping pong. I was swiftly defeated. I've apparently gotten worse at ping pong since last time we played. I think I won a game. I think.

I went with Alex to the Deptford Mall so she could look at new phones. I considered my options as well and started thinking my phone was a little outdated..

After some deliberation, Alex and I both ended up leaving with iPhones. I was happy with my decision right after I started playing with it. We went to Applebee's to get dinner and play with our new toys.

Most of the meal consisted of us downloading apps and seeing what we could do. The food was quite good, however. We sat there after paying our bill until I think we started feeling awkward for doing so and then we left.

After going back to Westby and working/iPhoning a bit longer, I headed home and went for a run in the still-nice weather. I tried out a new running app too because I'm an iPhone person now.