Carbon Copy

Drive-by Shootings

I have a bad habit of taking photos while driving. It's dangerous, I know, but not as bad as when I try to text message while driving. I need to give that up. It was a perfect fall morning, though, made even better by the fact that yesterday was miserable. It not only snowed, but it stormed. It was dark and dreary, and I felt lonely. Enter the morning, crisp and sunny with snow-dusted mountains. My friend, Heidi, had set up visiting teaching appointments before church, so I drove up to her house by the capitol. On my way, I took some pictures.

My fair city from the freeway:

The mountains in the distance:

I made the mistake of going down Main Street where Trax runs. I had to stop a lot. But that just gave me the opportunity to take some more pictures.

The Church Office Building:

Eagle Gate:

I love the houses by the capitol. Too bad my drive-by doesn't show them off so well.

I used to think the United States of America Capitol was the same as the Utah one:

Those spires are the Cathedral of the Madeleine:

Church is at the Institute of Religion building up on the University of Utah campus.

But since our visiting teaching appointment was canceled, I had about an hour to myself before church started. I decided to go for a walk around Heidi's neighborhood. She lives across the street from capitol.

Although my walk was quite pleasant, it didn't take anywhere near an hour, so I drove over to Memory Grove and read for a while. Oh yeah, and took some more pictures.

I don't know what happened with the coloring/contrast on this self-portrait, but I kinda liked it.

Same Old Flame Again

Here's the thing about the Arcade Fire, I really like them. I snatched up a ticket right away for the concert and it didn't disappoint. Here's another thing about the Arcade Fire, a lot of people really like them, so it was a bigger concert than I usually attend.

It started off with LCD Soundsystem. Here's the thing about them: I usually can only listen to the first minute or so of their songs. But live, they were amazing!

We got there pretty early, but still didn't get the best spot. It was ok for a while, but then people started crowding in. Something I'm proud of, though, is that I actually stopped a man with my dagger stare. He was about to crowd in front of my but I scowled at him, and he apologized and went around me. It was the most empowering feeling. Still, the crowd kept getting closer and closer. After the first song, I couldn't see anything, and I decided to move to the back. Despite being at the concert with about ten people I knew, I ended up watching Arcade Fire all alone. And in some ways that seemed most fitting. I can't think of a time when I haven't listened to them alone. Their music reminds me of cold, early mornings driving on the backroads to campus at Purdue. Or walking the streets of Innsbruck at twilight.

Because I ended up towards the back, even though I could see them better, I was too far away to get a lot of great pictures. But here are some anyway, and again, there are a few more on flickr.

Listening Too Long to One Song

I already directed you to a much better review of the night events at Bryton's blog, so this will mainly be pictures from the concert. Also, more pictures can be found on my flickr. The night started off with The Awkward Stage, but I didn't get any photos of them because I was in an awkward position sitting on the stools with my side to the stage. I tried to crane my neck after I found out the singer was wearing a sweatervest and had colored his hair silver. But that's as far as it went. After they performed, though, Tanker and I met up with Kylie down on the floor for Lavender Diamond. Initially, I thought there was just one opening band called Lavender Diamond and the Awkward Stage, and I really liked that name. It's a little disappointing that it wasn't so. Also, initially, I thought Lavender was spelled L-A-V-E-N-D-A-R, but my spell check tells me otherwise. That's also taking some getting used to.

Tanker already saw the New Pornographers up in Seattle with his girlfriend, so we had the inside scoop as to how the show would go down. I guess when Lavender performed there, she was wearing a wedding dress and tiara. Her outfit that night was still cute, but I was looking forward to the wedding dress.

Here's the thing about Lavender Diamond: Every once in a while, I would think, "Hey, I like this!" But then I would get bored. I think she needs the rollerskates from her video to keep me entertained. The drummer helped, though. Tanker thought he looked just like the guy from Highlander.

But Tanker also can see me dating a guy like this guitar player, so...

Finally, the New Pornographers came on. I love them. As linked to in my previous entry, I saw them in New York last year at the New Yorker festival and then listened to Twin Cinema constantly for weeks after. I still pop it in regularly. I need to listen to their other albums more, too, because they are so good. If I were on my home computer (instead of at work), I would post some songs. Maybe I will another time. But the thing with the New Pornographers is that nothing beats a live show. There's something about the layers of their music that you just have to experience in person and having it surround you. Not to mention the energy they bring to the stage. Ok, ok. I said I wasn't going to talk much, and I never feel like a qualified reviewer, so I'll stop there (except maybe one or two more comments along with the photos.)

Dan Bejar, a band member who also spearheads Destroyer (another great band), toured with them. At first, I was like, "Who is this guy?" Because he would walk out on stage and everyone started cheering and shouting out, "We love you!" And he acted so cool and casual, holding his beer bottle. And he never stayed on stage. No, he would just come out to sing. It kind of rubbed me wrong at first, but then he won me over. I don't know how to describe it or why he was, but he was magnetic.

Kathryn Calder, the keyboardist, has the most amazing skin. It's seriously perfect.

Neko Case was looking a little tired and haggard. There, I said it. But man, can she sing.

I think this may go down as one of my favorite concerts. This pic Tank took of me shows just how happy I was.

Here's a video from one of my favorite songs, Sing Me Spanish Techno. (The beginning got cut off because I had to hurry and switch the settings on my camera.)

Upcoming Posts

This has been a big week! In fact, I can't believe it's only Thursday. On Tuesday, I saw these guys at the Depot. I'm not sure when I'll get around to blogging about it (because of home Internet problems not laziness), so if you just can't wait, check out Microsuede's post. In fact, you should just check it out anyway because it's way better than mine will be.

And then last night, I joined the crowd at Thanksgiving Point for a little Arcade Fire. I'll be posting more about that later, too.

Just wanted to give you something to look forward to this weekend.

A Room of My Own

One of the first things I do in the morning is open up my Google Reader and see what wonderful things I can read about today. I have a long list of subscriptions (that just keeps getting longer) of friends' blogs and design blogs and photo blogs, etc. I love getting the little updates throughout the day. This morning, I was led to a feature on writers' rooms in the Guardian Unlimited through GoGoAbigail. Here are some of my favorites:

{Seamus Heaney's study in Dublin}

{David Lodge's office in Birmingham, England}

{Colm Toibin's space in Dublin}

Reading through the descriptions of each room and why a writer has this certain space made me want to create my own space. I imagine it near an ocean somehow. Or a lake. I remember writing in my journal when I was 17 that I wanted to move near Flathead Lake and write. I used to really want to be a writer. And there's something still in me that craves that and wants a writer's room to call my own.

The Weekend

This was a busy weekend and normally I would drag out each of them as separate entries, but I have to sneak time at work to do it right now so I'm going to just smash them all together.

First off, the silent films. Tanker told me about the annual viewing of a silent film at Capital Theater a couple of weeks ago, and we decided to go. When I looked it up online, it said that period attire was encouraged. That was enough for me. Now, I didn't go all out. I just tried to find something reflective of the time. Unfortunately, I was running late that night and never did get any pictures. But the other day I took pictures of my shoes because I was very proud of finding them at TJ Maxx, and I know my friend, Adrianne wanted to see them.

Admission to the show was only a quarter and popcorn (after waiting in a horrendously long line) was another. I wish we could go back the prices of 1931 more often.

The first hour was an interview/discussion facilitated by Doug Fabrizio of Radio West. Who knew Doug was so attractive?

But I also loved the organist. He was just so excited about what he was doing, and it amazed me because he said that he didn't even know how to read music. I always wished I were inherently musical like that. My sister used to always sit down at the piano and make up songs. I was probably the more accomplished pianist, but I had to read other people's music.

Saturday was the big move. I spent all of Friday afternoon bringing up my boxes from the basement. I seriously need to get rid of some books, but I love them. The curse of the lit studies major, right? Shipped to Indiana, shipped back and hauled around everywhere else.

Thank goodness for brothers and friends that will move my furniture. Afterwards, Tanker went with me to IKEA to look for shelves.

{photo by Mr. T. Martin}

I was glad that we moved in the morning because that afternoon, it started pouring. Fall came overnight, and it was so beautiful. I tried to get a good picture on one of my drives back to the new house.

I spent the evening unpacking and putting together my bookshelves. I owe Tanker's girlfriend an apology. When we first pulled up to IKEA, he mentioned that she hated having to assemble her purchases on her own and always wanted a guy around to help her. I think my exact response was, "That's lame." But after many bruises and some swearing, I came to realize she was right. Still, I got it put together, even if it's a little wobbly.

I'm still working on unpacking things. I should've spent more time on Sunday afternoon putting things together because my room still looks like this:

But I couldn't resist those mountains, and it was another beautiful day, if somewhat brisk. So instead, I went for a drive up the canyons with a reluctant Tanker.

Monday comes too quickly.

New Glasses!

For the first time in ten years, I got new glasses. I'm so excited about them. What's perfect about them is that they are plastic frames, but they have nosepads. My slopey nose desperately needed nosepads. I wasn't sure about the amber stripe on the sides at first. I was leaning towards a pair with a light blue, but Tanker insisted these looked better. I sought a second opinion by the store clerk who agreed. Now I'm really happy with them. Of course the first thing I did was come home and use photobooth to take a few pictures.

This is my librarian look:

And this pose is the best reason to actually get glasses, but I have to figure out how to do it better. It just wasn't working for me.

Just Because It's You, Kris

One of my best of friends, Miss Kris, just tagged me on her blog. I haven't done this before. One time Dave tagged me, too, and I always felt bad because I meant to do it, but I honestly couldn't think of 8 things to say about myself that people might not know. Maybe I should've changed it around to 8 things I wish people didn't know about me. Anyhoo, this one looks much easier, and I have to admit, I like making lists and filling out forms and answering questions. So here we go:

1) What I was doing 10 years ago:
I was beginning my first semester at Smith College in Northampton, MA. I had just traveled across the US to a completely new world for me. I remember spending a lot of time looking in the mirror while I was at Smith because my face was the only familiar thing. I sometimes still regret that I didn't stay at Smith. I wonder what it would've been like.

2) What I was doing 5 years ago:
I had just returned from my mission in Montana and moved up to Utah State in Logan to start school again. I never thought I would go to school in Logan. It always seemed so far out of the way, but after living in Montana, Logan was a metropolis. Interestingly, I guess this is when I first met Kris. We were talking about this the other night. She remembers our first meeting being when we carved pumpkins for a church activity and I was being nosy and asking everyone about their first kisses. I remember we had an art class together that I subsequently dropped .

3) What I was doing 1 year ago:
Settling into my final year at Purdue, after having decided to stick it out. I can't believe how close I came to leaving.

4) What I was doing yesterday:
Worked. Like usual. Then I went out to dinner with Tanker and regretted my order of onion rings. We built block houses with Claire (well, Tanker and Izzy did - I was watching America's Next Top Model) and then after putting Claire too bed a little too early, we settled in for a night of Monopoly, and I kicked ass. I totally killed it with just the railroads and the orange monopoly.

5) 5 snacks I enjoy:
Granola bars, cheddar and sour cream Baked Lays, beef jerky, pears, and M&M's.

6) 5 things I would do if I suddenly had 100 million dollars:
Pay off debt, set up trust funds with ridiculous stipulations, set up some kind of scholarship with a ridiculous stipulation, never work again, and travel a lot.

7) 5 locations I would like to run away to:
Anywhere. But right now I'm dying to go to Ireland, Croatia, France, England, and somewhere south.

8) 5 bad habits I have:
Staying up too late, internetting while i should be working, swearing, not budgeting, and I'm sure there's something obvious that I'm totally missing.

9) 5 things I like doing:
Taking photos, traveling (even if it's just going for a drive), listening to music really loud, chatting online at work, and having really good conversations with people I care about.

10) 5 TV shows I like:
The Simpsons, Days of Our Lives, America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, and 30 Rock.

11) 5 things I hate doing:
Looking for a job, getting groceries, and trying to figure out what I'm doing with my life. (I know, that's only 3, but the last one is a big one.)

12) 5 biggest joys of the moment:
Being close to family and friends, getting hugged by Claire, the cooling weather, looking forward to trips to New Orleans and England, and not living on a student's budget anymore.

Here's where I'm supposed to tag people, but I don't want to. Consider yourself tagged if you've read this and want to make your own lists.

The Emmys

Last night as I watched the very end of the Emmys, I suddenly remembered that a celebrity event with a red carpet meant something really great: coverage by the Fug Girls. It starts here. This blog gets me through my day. Two of my favorite moments include:

1) A debate over Vanessa Williams' feathered dress with the dialogue:

ANGEL: Oh, relax. It's just bold. It's soap-opera bold. You love soap operas!

DEVIL: Only the ones in which Satan possesses psychiatrists, murderous she-male blackmailers hold a town hostage with its evil deeds, floating heads in powdered wigs make fun of the town witch, and people wear eyepatches despite not being pirates.

ANGEL: Well, this dress would look great in one of those.

2) Ellen Pompeo's imagined monologue homage to Scarlett O'Hara:

I can practically hear her internal monologue now: "Great balls of fire -- there's that mealy-mouthed Kate Walsh, thinking she can swan around with her red hair and her wedding ring and her new spinoff. As God is my witness, that show's not going to lick ours. Even if I have to lie, cheat, steal or kill the power on their studio. Where shall she go then? Whatever shall she do? Oh, if I wasn't a lady, what I would say to that vixen! Sigh. This is getting me overexcited. I can't think about it any more today. I'll think about it tomorrow."

I really want to befriend the Fug Girls. We would have so much fun watching TV together.

A Night of Beethoven and Planets

Friday night, Tanker and I attended the opening night of the symphony. I haven't been to symphony in years. I think the last time I went was for my birthday when I was in Innsbruck. I thought this was enough of an occasion to get all dressed up (that means heels). But in the morning, I decided to also try and do something different with my hair. I put it up in pin curls and wore it like that throughout the day.

I was hoping it would give me more of a wavy, extra curly kind of look, but it didn't really turn out like I was hoping. I really need to figure out how to do some finger waves. Anyway, here's the final result.

One thing I love about the symphony, or at least in Utah, is walking up the stairs. There's something that feels so elegant about it, even if I was winded when I got to the top of them. We sat on the second tier in the back. Next time, I want some elegant little opera glasses.

We were there kind of early, so after finding out seats, we went back outside to stare over the balcony at all the lobby hubbub. This was prime people-watching territory. And there were so many great people to watch, from mustachioed older gentleman to one man wearing a tie-dyed polo shirt. I saw a woman in the bathroom at the intermission wearing a lilac-colored silk dress with flounces, and I thought she must have taken her fashion cue from May Archer. Suddenly, I wished I had taken my fashion cue from May Archer as well. If I had known I could get away with ballroom attire, I would have.

And then during the symphony, it's so silent inside (other than the music, of course) that it felt holy in a way. The only other time it feels that silent is during the sacrament on Sundays. I liked to look around at the people and see their reactions. I kept returning to one woman who had a large closed-mouth smile and would nod her head in approval. She made me appreciate the symphony even more. And then after Andre Watts had finished Beethoven's 5th piano concerto, I couldn't believe the applause. It went on and on, and it felt so unselfish. When I attend rock shows, the applause will last but its for the specific purpose of getting an encore. It's expected. Everyone knows an encore will come, but here, Andre Watts was not going to be doing an encore. There was an intermission to be had and another piece to perform. So people clapped without expecting anything in return.

After the intermission, they played Holst's "The Planets." It felt like a soundtrack. Is that just me? Is it just because I know it was written in 1914, but it felt so much more visual than the Beethoven. And in a way it was. At least, Keith Lockhart's jumping and shimmying as he conducted was certainly a sight to behold.

And then it was over, and we all filed out into a perfectly lovely September night. My heels clicked against the pavement and I complained that they hurt my feet.

A Growing Boy

I often feel bad that I post so many pictures of Claire on this blog and neglect my equally adorable nephew. It's only because he lives so far away, and suffice it to say, I will be taking plenty of pictures of him during my visit in November. But for now, I have to make do by stealing some from their blog I can't tell you how many times I want to squeeze his little cheeks and feet and knees. Can't wait to really be able to.

Twittering Away

I recently started my own little twitter. I think I might be late on this trend and most people have tired of it already, but I'm digging it. You can update it from your cell, your IM, and of course, your computer. It's perfect for those times when I see something random or have a random thought that I want to share, which may or may not be a good idea. Anyway, I want more people to do this. There are a few of you that I know would be awesome at it. Cloud8 has already jumped on the bandwagon and is using it to give updates during her trip to Hawaii this week.

The Utah State Fair

Can you believe that I have never been to the state fair? I decided to change that fact this year. It's about time I enjoyed the agricultural feats of my state, not to mention the chance for all sorts of fried goodness and carnival games.

We started off looking at the animals. I never expected that the pig, sheep, and cow rooms would all smell differently, but they did. The pigs were so huge. And adorable. I loved how they snuggled next to each other. So sweet.

But the little piglets were even cuter.

But they moved around so quick, it was hard to get a good picture.

The fair was off to a good start. Next, the sheep:

And then the cows:

The posters above the cows chart their family history. It is Utah, after all, and family history is important, even for cows. I think the charts go back at least four generations.

After seeing the animals, we were ready for some dinner. Apparently, my decision to be a vegetarian after seeing the pigs was short-lived, though, because I had some delicious bbq chicken. Meanwhile, we were entertained by this guy:

I use the word "entertained" lightly. I was more excited by this square dancing skirt. Oh the frills and ruffles!

After dinner, it was time for the carnival portion of the evening! We wandered around, checking out which rides we would go on.

And then we saw the sideshow! I *had* to go in. They promised me a six-legged cow, a baby born with two heads, a cow born with two heads, and much more. What I thought was funny, though, is that they didn't even trust the man taking the tickets to entice people to the sideshow. Even our freakshows have become institutionalized.

I'll warn you now, the pictures below may be disturbing for they are taken from inside the sideshow. Behold, Misty the Mermaid!

The Celebrity Frog Band:

Umm... some pig fetuses?

The promised two-headed child:

And perhaps the most disturbing of all was Red-Eye Louis, the baby cyclops.

I was a little disappointed by the lack of real live freaks. They just had this fire eater.

I did, however, love to eavesdrop on the ten-year-old boys who were so excited by everything they saw.

Time for the real rides. I had to go on the Ferris Wheel. That's classic fair, right? So that was the first ride.

Self-portrait:

I like how my face is neon orange in this, like a German Expressionist painting. Except smiling.

More pictures. I loved the lights, the smells, the squealing.

We also went on a ride just like Lagoon's Tidal Wave.

But I think my favorite ended up being the Tilt-A-Whirl. We had some really great spins in there, and I loved just closing my eyes and laughing. I was about to say that I couldn't remember the last time I laughed that much, but that wasn't really true. I laugh like that a lot.

We still had to see the large veggies. And they were really large.

I loved how shiny these cherry tomatoes were. They looked like marbles.

Pretty colored vegetables:

I was hoping there'd be a sculpture made from butter, and I was not disappointed.

Next year I am going to take the fair by storm. I will enter photographs, quilts (better learn to sew), a rabbit (possibly), and my new favorite art form, tiny flower arrangements.

Really I just want to win a tiny little ribbon.

I planned to get a funnel cake before I left. (I was really hoping for some Fried Pepsi, but I couldn't find any). Turns out, funnel cake is expensive. I know it was the fair and all, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $8 for something that was going to kill me.

There was one final thing we had to before we left the fair, though. There's a reason I chose Friday night to visit. Partly it was for the rodeo, that we never made it to, but mostly it's because I knew Weird Al was playing that night. I didn't want to get tickets or anything, but I thought it might just be possible to catch part of the show. And it was! We got some rootbeer and looked through the cracks of the fence. He was amazing! I wished I had got tickets.

In Keeping with Tradition

I've decided to spend my Thanksgiving with Mike and Amanda at their new home in New Orleans. I bought my ticket this morning.

{photo from ang (3 girls & a boy)'s flickr.}

Mexican Restaurant Magic Show

So there we were, innocently snacking on chips and salsa waiting for our meal at the Taqueria Lolita in downtown Salt Lake when the only other customer, an older gentleman wearing a plaid button-down and Dockers, in the restaurant came over to us bearing a peso and Kennedy half dollar. He had Tanker hold them in his hand and then, abracadabra, invited me to reach into his back pocket to find the peso. I just couldn't do it. I was not about to put my hand down some man's back pocket. After a minute of hemming and hawing and saying I didn't feel comfortable with this, Tanker bit the bullet and stuck his finger down the pocket and scooped out the hidden peso. It really was a pretty good trick.

The View from SLC Cemetery

Tanker and I visited one of my old haunts (get it?!) on Monday evening for a stroll. I used to skip class when I went to the U to visit the Salt Lake City Cemetery. It feels so peaceful to me, standing among the graves of prophets.

Saturday Night

Claire and I Visit the Birds

I got to babysit on Saturday, so first I put Claire to work by making her help me wash my car. Don't worry. She liked it. She said it was like playing in the sprinklers. Then we went to Tracy Aviary to visit some birds.

But before we could even get started, I had to tear her away from the DS.

At the aviary, we first saw some pelicans and then a black swan. The tail feathers of the swan curled so beautifully.

We got chased by some peacocks.

And found a bird with eyelashes almost as long and thick as Claire's.

Of course we stopped by the flamingos.

And Claire showed off her own flamingo stance.

We saw some more peacocks and Claire was quite taken with them because they are so beautiful. When I explained to her that male peacocks were more beautiful than the female ones, she guffawed in disbelief. That was the most ridiculous thing she had every heard and she wouldn't believe me. She wanted to be a peacock, too. Here she is creating the feathers on top of her head.

And she even does a pretty good imitation of their call.

We took a rest on the bench for a bit.

Then Claire named all the ducks after her friends.

She got to ride the carousel next and took great care selecting which horse.

I kept trying to get her attention so I could take a picture, but she looked serenely forward the entire time. Afterwards she told me that she was imagining that she was a princess and she was riding her flying horse. And did I notice that there weren't any reins? That's because the horse belonged to a princess and princesses don't use reins.

We made wishes on dandelions while we waited for the car to cool down.

I thought for sure I would remember the wishes Claire made. They all involved someone flying. For example, I wish we lived in a garden that flew and that we were fairies. Or, I wish I was a princess that had a flying horse named Pegasus. When it was my turn to make a wish, I went for something I thought Claire would appreciate (and I guess something I really do wish for): True Love. She responded, "But you already have that because I love you." (Insert melting heart right here.)

Then I told her to look pretty and this is what I got:

Claire was a great little companion and we had fun, but as soon as we got in the car, I lost her to the Nintendo DS again.

Summer Movie Nights

One of my favorite things this summer was movie night with the Gillettes. We decided to give in to our nostalgia and watch some favorite movies from the past. These included some sci-fi classics like The Black Hole, some fantasy classics like Krull and Legend, and of course, some cheesy girl flicks that Kylie and I used to watch in junior high, like Shag. It's funny how after watching a movie again for the first time in at least ten years, I can still remember the lines and still think about times when we would quote them. There are still a lot of movies that we need to watch, though, so I hope we keep doing it. The best thing is that I don't have to go back to school so no homework keeping me from good times.