Jan 23, 2017

I subbed for the computer class at Memorial and spent the day going through photos and editing again, so it was good and productive. Becca's case for the evening was canceled so I rescheduled my doctor and oil change so we could get to Philly a little earlier and go to Memphis Taproom for food and happy hour. We got spaghetti sandwiches, delicious as always, and they had Two Hands Hop Hands on tap. During this time I "realized" that I locked my keys in my car where I left it at Barnes & Noble in Deptford.

We got Becca's mom and Christie to team up and leave the spare key under my car tire. It was really nice of them. Since that was figured out we went on to Manny Brown's and had one more beer to kill some time.

We got to the TLA with plenty of time to spare before Dashboard came on. I hadn't been there in so long I kind of forgot what it was like. We squeezed in and made our way to the middle area of the crowd, causing a few people to be annoyed that I was in front of them.

Dashboard played a good set even though the crowd barely nodded their heads at most of the songs. That didn't stop them from Snapchatting the songs anyway. It ended up being fun anyway, even if it wasn't as good as the Taste of Chaos set. Chris invited the guy from Sorority Noise to play one of his songs in the middle which was cool. I need to listen to them more. We went back to my car and definitely didn't realize the keys were in Becca's car the whole time.

Mar 27, 2014

I had to go down to the AC Convention Center to shoot video at the Eastern Concrete booth at the Atlantic Builders Convention. Very exciting stuff. Everyone that was working there was really nice, even if 2/3 of them were camera shy. I got some good video of them interacting with customers and then did some quick interviews.

I kept thinking I should have kept my sub job as I wouldn't have made much less and I wouldn't have had to drive down there. Overall it was a pretty quick and easy job though. I was happy to be done and on my way home.

Alex, Tyler, and I went to the TLA for The Ataris' So Long, Astoria reunion show. The crowd was pretty stagnant for the first few songs, which made no sense to me since everyone was there to see them yet they didn't seem interested. A big group of big dudes came up front a few songs in and got things going and the rest of the show was great after that. They played the full album, which I forget how much I love sometimes. Kris played a couple of acoustic songs and then the band came out for one last song for the encore. At one point a pick Kris threw landed directly on my shoulder. Score.

Apr 20, 2012

I worked day two of my English job at the senior high, watching videos for most of the classes so the day went quickly. I met Ashley near UPenn and we went to Sitar for Indian buffet. It was delicious. I love Indian food and I don't get it nearly enough.

After printing my ticket I found an amazing free parking spot around the corner from the TLA and hung out at Dobb's and had a beer before going into the show. I got in to see Transit start their set and play some good stuff. The crowd wasn't too into it. Polar Bear Club played next and they were really good, but with a similar crowd reaction.

The Wonder Years were fantastic. They played pretty much every song I could possibly have wanted to hear and the crowd was great and energetic and fun. I can't believe I waited so long to get into these guys. I should have listened to Joanna. All of the bands came out at the end of "Bar Bands" to sing along and then get crazy on stage since it was the final night of the tour.

After a great show I went back to Ashley's and hung out looking through travel books and then trying to plot a route on Google Maps. After we did that we had some beers and spent the next few hours watching old music videos on YouTube. It was actually a lot of fun.

Dec 30, 2011

I met up with Jen in the morning to take a walk around Parvins and catch up in person before she headed back to London. We walked to a bench and sat there discussing our options for online employment and becoming authors.

After leaving the lake I went to Ryan's to head up to the rock climbing gym in Cherry Hill. We were there and hour before they opened, but the guy was there and he was nice enough to let us come in early and climb. We had the place to ourselves.

We did the bouldering section without harnesses. They are lower and have pads below. Even the easy paths were really hard. We spent an hour or so climbing around all the different walls. Some I couldn't do at all, but I was able to get up a few of them. I have a lot of work to do before I'm good at this it seems.

Tracy and I went up to Philly and checked on set times then headed to Manny Brown's for some drinks. I had a sour ale and tried a few others. The Lagunitas Sucks is an awesome holiday IPA. And a great name.

When it was show time we left the bar and headed back down to the TLA. This is the last time I'll see this name on the marquee. (maybe?)

mewithoutYou was great and fun. They played a lot of new songs that I don't know as well, but there were plenty of old ones mixed in. They played for a good long while.

Thursday began their last US show ever playing the same set list as the other night except they added in "Paris in Flames," which I actually said I really wish they had played before.

The rest of the set went as it did at Starland, but it was great to hear the songs one more time for their last show. I have seen them probably around thirty times over the last ten years and it has been amazing almost every time. The holidays won't seem the same without them playing a show.

It was a sad but amazing farewell show. I will remember the intensity of their live shows every time I listen to them turned up loud in the car.

Nov 3, 2011

A pretty easy day at work again as we watched Beetlejuice and the band practiced their parts. It was a little boring, but I've gotten to know some of the students and it's easy. I met Ryan at the gym after work and then we did a 20-minute interval run at the park.

I picked up Christy and we headed to South Street where we got falafel at Maoz. It was her first time and I hadn't had one in a really long time. She approves. We walked around for a while before the show and got some frozen yogurt at Phileo.

We went into the TLA and stashed our jackets before Yellowcard came out and got right into a great set. They are always so much fun. They played a good variety too, even throwing in "Avondale" after talking about how people always want to hear old stuff.

What I don't get it why they play nothing from One for the Kids. Ryan even mentioned one of the songs before telling a story about his aunt recently passing away from cancer and her being the reason the band exists because she encouraged him to do what he wanted. It was really sweet and a nice break before the rest of the energetic set.

We couldn't really do anything after the show so we headed home. It was a good night and I was tired from it all!

Sep 18, 2011

Ryan and I got to the gym in the early afternoon for our third day of working out, this time working on pull-ups and related exercises. I can't do pull-ups. Gotta work on that a lot.

After showering and having something to eat I met Chuck to do some editing. We started cutting up the files further and moving them around to make a more coherent story out of our many minutes of video.

After editing for a while I went to Joanna's and we headed up to Philly, drove around for quite a while looking for parking and then went to Blackbird Pizzeria for foods. I got the vegan cheesesteak, which was really good. I always want to get the BBQ thing again. Next time.

We headed over to the TLA for night two of the discography tour for Motion City Soundtrack. They came out and played their third album, Even If It Kills Me. I personally love this album. There are some songs on there that are my favorites of theirs so I have a soft spot. It was great seeing some of those songs live. Especially "The Conversation."

My Dinosaur Life was up next after the little break and that is another killer record that is high energy. All of those songs are fun live and it, and therefore the show, ends with "The Weakends" which is my favorite song on the album and one of my favorite songs of theirs ever. I think this show was the better of the two. Lots of fun and great songs that I love.

The drive home felt long after a long weekend of back and forth to Philly/Camden. I tried to get to bed because I knew I had to be up early.

Sep 16, 2011

I took a job for a gym class at Memorial, against my better judgment. It wasn't too bad this time. The classes have health class half the time so I was only in the gym three times out of the day and the other teachers did all the stuff. They played a game that could be good if there weren't fifty kids on the court playing at the same time.

Later I met Joanna and headed into Philly for Motion City Soundtrack's show at the TLA. They started by playing their first album, I Am the Movie, in its entirety then they took a break. It's a great album so every song was fun.

They took a short break and then came back to play Commit This to Memory in full. This album was great as well. I wasn't thrilled with the crowd, but the music was great and Justin was characteristically awkward.

After driving home I was ready to get to sleep and bring a new day on.

Aug 13, 2010

I didn't have much to do in the early part of the day besides sit around and watch Dexter and then go to the gym. I did a varied set of exercises there and then it took me way too long to get home because of an accident.

Katie came over and we went to The Loving Hut on South Street for dinner. After much deliberation I got the chow mein and a smoothie. They were both really good. The chow mein was amazing, I'll be back for more.

Katie got the curry rice and veggies. I tried some and it was really good too. This was one of my possible choices but since I had it yesterday I decided to go with something else.

After eating we went to Market Street to Mac's Tavern. The only reason I went to that specific bar is because Rob McElhenney from It's Always Sunny owns the bar and I wanted to check it out. It was a really nice bar inside with no ties to the show except for the name. I was hoping for a door marked "Pirate."

While we were at the bar I presented Katie with the tickets I got her for her birthday for Mewithoutyou. She really wanted to go but I told her we weren't going there because I planned something else so she was surprised when I gave them to her.

The first band that played, Buried Beds, was really quite good. I would like to hear more of their music studio quality. They were out of CDs at their merch table. Murder by Death played second and I thought they were decent. I'd like to hear some of their recorded stuff as well.

Mewithoutyou came out to an excited crowd and played some old stuff in the beginning but quickly moved on to newer material and lots of it. I honestly haven't gotten into the new CD that much so I wasn't too excited about their set.

They threw some really good older songs in the mix and closed with an encore of a couple of my favorite songs. No matter what they put on a great live show and it was nice to see them on a big stage again where they could move around.

Yep.

Mar 5, 2010

I met Katie and Ryan at Bagel University for lunch. I had a tasty veggie sandwich on a bagel and we tried to plan skiing and disc golf trips.

I took at short job at Alternative School, where I worked for three hours with a maximum of three students in a class at a time. Not too bad at all.

Katie and I went up to Rowan where we met Joanna and took the shuttle bus from school to South Street and got there just as Deas Vail was going on. They were great just as they were the last time I saw them.

Person L came on next. I just can't really get into them. I don't know if it was the atmosphere or what. I like some of the recordings but when I see Kenny, I just want him to play Starting Line songs.

Ace Enders came out next with I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody's Business. It was cool to hear some songs I haven't heard in a really long time and he played some new songs from the CD that is coming out in a few weeks that sounded pretty good too. Early November reunion, please!?

Copeland took the stage for the last time in Philly on their farewell tour and played a slew of great songs from all of their albums. They broke out some great older songs that I really hoped they would play. It was a great set, I wish I got tickets to more than one show.

We waited for a few minutes after to talk to Aaron and get a photo. He's a really nice guy and always wants to talk to fans after the show. I hope he'll do more music stuff in the future.

I grabbed a veggie steak down the street before we headed back to get our bus. When we got there (before 12, when it was supposed to leave) we saw it just starting to round the corner. I made eye contact with the bus driver, who talked to me before we left Rowan, and she continued driving away. I figured she was rounding the block but she ended up never coming back. Joanna called Monica, who couldn't get in contact with the bus driver and had to come pick us up herself.

It was a bittersweet show, a bitter cold night and a bit of an adventure as always. Good night.