End of an Era

The Matches - Chain Me Free

So last night was The Matches final show. Anyone that knows me well enough probably remembers the yellow bumper sticker on the back of my car (which is still there as far as I know). If you're not familiar with The Matches, they were a pop-punk band from Oakland that my circle of friends in high school was/is all about.

I discovered them in 2003 when I went to a Less Than Jake show at The Warfield (Fall Out Boy opened before they blew up) with Dallas and Robbie. This was my second real concert (after my birthday party in May of '03 at Good Charlotte - before they became gossip garbage, New Found Glory, MxPx, and The Movielife at SJSU Event Center for the Honda Civic Tour). We got to the show relatively early and were blown away by this band we'd never heard of called The Matches. Something about the singer's half-spiked-half-combed down long jet black hair, the guitarist's massive bleached 'fro, the drummer's Weezer glasses and the bassists dyed spiked hair cried out to our angst-ridden high school souls. I'd never seen anything like their set before, and we immediately went to the merch table and bought their album E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals.

I'll never forget the car ride home in Robbie's Tahoe listening to that album for the first time. It immediately replaced Blink-182's Enema of the State in my CD player and probably didn't leave for a few years. For nostalgia sake, I dug up the date of that show - November 14, 2003. That album, fondly known as EVDKTL, will always hold a spot in my top 10 for what it did to my taste in music.

When I got home, I researched this band I'd never heard of before and found out they were a local band from Oakland. At the time they were playing monthly shows called L3 (Live, Loud, Local) at a tiny all-ages Oakland venue called iMusicast which streamed all of its concerts live on the internet. I somehow convinced my parents to let me drive up to Oakland the following January with Morgan (who I really didn't know that well at the time, but is now my best friend... thanks The Matches!) for one of these L3's and had the time of my life. I probably went to about 6 or 7 of these L3's before the venue got shut down. The first appearance I got to see of The Matches in the south bay was a little in-store performance at Streetlight Records in Campbell. We'd managed to get our circle of friends into The Matches and probably had about 10 people at that show. We lined up in the parking lot for autographs and this other local guy from a band called Street to Nowhere asked us if he could play us some acoustic songs. We'd seen the guy open for The Matches at L3 before, but it was cool to see him playing for the people waiting in line. At the time, he was sort of like The Matches' little brother, but has since made a name for himself (still playing, now under his name Dave Smallen). He became another one of our favorites that we'd go to see whenever he played a show.

Anyway, the months went by, The Matches signed to Epitaph which re-released EVDKTL and the two subsequent albums. They continually toured the country on the Vans Warped Tour and on their own tours. We began to take them for granted and stopped going to all of their shows. Their subsequent albums were relatively well-liked, but nothing seemed to recapture the magic of EVDKTL. I distinctly being somewhat tired the last time (their actual "LAST" time, unbeknownst to anyone) and skipping their Monday night set at the Mercury Lounge in NYC. After that tour, they announced that they were going on "indefinite hiatus" (read: breaking up). I'll definitely never skip a concert of one of my old favorites again. I wish I could've been at their farewell show at The Fillmore last night, but I'll have to settle for the youtube videos.

Whoops... two months later

Well, so much for weekly updates. Work and life got in the way...

If anyone's still paying attention, my main excuse for not writing for two months would be the eighty hour work weeks, but those are history now (at least until January). It's been quite a May/June/July so far. Since pretty much all I do besides work is go to concerts, I'll write about that for a bit. Spring and summer bring more shows - and outdoor shows at that! Off the top of my head, I've seen The Decemberists @ Radio City Music Hall (unbelievable), Josh Ritter @ Central Park (great as always), Explosions in the Sky @ Central Park (1st time, quite an experience), and MGMT @ Prospect Park, Bklyn (adhering to the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" mantra here... okay, okay, great studio artists, but the live show could use a little work). Oh yeah, and then there was that one guy, Sir Paul McCartney or something like that, pretty catchy songs, could really take off some day.

I've been to a couple Mets games here and there (sorry, still not sold on the team... holding out hope it's just the injuries), and my first Yankees game (today, actually). I must say "Yankee magic" is real. After being trained to hate the Yankees for 22 years, one game at the new Yankee Stadium had me clapping for A-Rod home runs, Jeter put-outs, and Mariano saves by the end of the game. I feel like I'm a tough sell with advertising and marketing, but at Yankee Stadium, you don't even realize you're being bombarded with it until it's too late and you've already bought into it (like 45 minutes into being there).

Maybe I'll end up being a Yankees fan after all. Texeira seems like the epitome of an old-time ball-player (and with Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" as your at bat music, can anyone really not like you?). Jeter is just Jeter. Mariano Rivera is, in my opinion, one of the last great closers (more on that in another blog). Jorge, as rough as he had it today, is tough to dislike...

My brother and two of his friends came to stay for five days on a stop of their east coast baseball tour. We went to the Mets/Yankees Sunday Night Baseball game at Citi and they went off to Yankee Stadium while I was at the EITS concert at Central Park. Matt was here too that week, so I had four people staying in my living room for 4 nights. Aside from the one mysteriously deflating air mattress everything worked out great. I love having visitors (so anybody reading this that isn't Scott, Matt, Mom or Dad, you'd better come visit sometime!), it forces me to get out and do fun things (even when working 14 hour days).

Aside from uneventful birthday #23, the other major life event that happened in the past two months was anniversary #5 for Colleen and me. Pretty crazy to think it's been that long and to imagine where I'd be without her (probably not in New York City). We celebrated my birthday at River Cafe, (I really overuse parentheses when I want to describe something, don't I?) which is a fabulous restaurant in Brooklyn underneath the Brooklyn Bridge with an amazing Manhattan skyline view - quite the experience. We celebrated our anniversary at Walter Foods, a restaurant a few blocks from my place where I had clam chowder, filet mignon with peppercorn sauce, and a fresh peach cobbler. Any restaurant with moustached waiters, delicious cocktails, those courses, and practically playing my iPod on shuffle is a 5-star for me.

I spent a great weekend in London with my dad (separate blog to come later), and he was just here this past week. In a 24-hour span, we saw McCartney play the first concert at Citi Field, a Yankee game, and dinner at the aforementioned Walter Foods. It was quite a little weekend.

That's it for now, just checking in to say I'm still alive and I'll try to get back to blogging regularly (mostly to make sure I keep doing fun things so I have stuff to write about).

Lazy Weekend

When the most productive part of my weekend was finally getting my skates sharpened (I might as well have been roller blading on ice with how dull they were) and picking up Back in Black and Appetite for Destruction on vinyl (thanks to the Virgin going out of business sale), it was a pretty dull weekend. I had all these plans for Saturday - farmers' market, track/park, then off to Connecticut for the Giants' AA minor league affiliate. Let's just say I hit 0-for-3 for the day (insert joke about Giants' offense here). It was a combination of going out and staying out later than I'm capable of (to have a productive next day) Friday night and my friend being sick and not wanting to drive to CT anymore (which was for the best since the game got postponed after 2 innings anyway).

I ended up sleeping most of Saturday away, still catching up from last weekend I guess. I got up to watch the Giants lose to the Mets yet again. Then I went out to the park and ran a few miles, which is finally starting to come easily for me. I ended up staying in on Saturday night and catching up on my Netflix rentals. I watched The Tao of Steve which was a pretty funny movie about one guy's philosophy for picking up girls. It was especially enjoyable because the bar I was at Friday night was a great display of everything that goes against the "Tao of Steve". It was a rooftop bar with some great views, but the crowd was especially "Vegas" I guess. Anyway, check that movie out, it's a short hour-and-a-half comedy.

So much for that...

Well I was looking forward to settling in tonight to watch 3+ hours of amazing hockey. Unfortunately the Capitals had similar plans and are just sitting back watching the Penguins play amazing hockey. It's 6-1 Penguins as I write this, not such a phenomenal game 7. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm pulling for Boston to beat Carolina. I have no preference in the Ducks/Wings game, it's like asking if I'd rather you kick me or the shins or the stomach. Either way, I'll be glad you didn't do one, but not too happy about the other one.

Anyway, after sleeping all of Monday evening away, I tried to get back on track (sorry, the pun's unavoidable) yesterday and went for a run at the track in McCarren Park. The rainy week and the travel apparently took a bit of a toll on me, as I got winded way quicker than usual. I've been getting a lot of compliments (??) in the office about my nice sunburn. While I'd get chastised in CA for it, I guess any sun is good sun for New Yorkers.

I finally joined Twitter today. I can't really see myself getting hooked on it (or even using it at all), but who knows? I still don't understand how it's any different than status updates on Facebook. Somebody please enlighten me.

I've got some downtime at work, so I decided to start studying for the Actuarial exams. Trinomial distributions and density functions don't make me feel like such a number-whiz anymore. It's quite a bit more mentally stimulating than ticking-and-tying though, which is much needed.

What I'm watching: Arrested Development (only about 10 episodes into season one, but I still don't see what the big deal is).
What I'm reading: Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End (a great satire about the doldrums of office life)
What I'm listening to: I guess I've been listening to a lot of Stars this week, finally ordered Your Ex-Love is Dead on vinyl - one of my all-time favorites.

LA Weekend

Writing from the Terminal 3 at LAX while I wait for my red-eye back to JFK. I was in LA this weekend for my cousin's graduation from LMU (college graduate number 4 of 5 for my grandma). It was amazing to be in a place with zero percent chance of rain for three days straight. I managed to only see Sportscenter about twice through on my way out here which means I slept for about four of the six hours in the air - quite an accomplishment for me. It also meant that I could watch it twice more once in the hotel, so I saw Curtis Granderson's home run robbery a total of four times that night.

Backtracking a bit, we had a group of about ninety eighth graders in our office for four hours on Friday as part of a Junior Achievement deal. We worked with them to develop a business plan to open a chocolate shop somewhere in New York City. It was pretty fun working with them, but I think I decided that, while I do have somewhat of an urge to teach, I could only teach juniors in high school and older.

Anyway, back to Los Angeles. Stop number one when my plane landed was In-n-Out for my number 2 with no onions and ketchup instead of sauce. It lived up to what I'd been craving the week leading up to the trip. We went to the hotel and crashed since it was already after midnight by that point and we had to be up at 6am in order to get to LMU before the sun did for graduation. The ceremony was really nice, I managed to only get something around a 2nd degree sunburn on a few spots that I missed with the sunscreen (clearly I'm out of practice). It's hard to believe that it was less than a year ago that I was watching Space Jam with my housemates at 4am before our graduation. After graduation we got brunch at a huge buffet style restaurant where there had to be at least ten grad parties going on. The newest inductee to the poor-planning-hall-of-fame was the funeral reception having brunch at the same restaurant as champagne toast after champagne toast to the new graduates.

(In case you can't tell, I'm bored at the airport with no wi-fi, so this is going to be a detailed update to keep me occupied)

After brunch, the whole family went back to the hotel to catch up on sleep. Scott and I watched the NCAA volleyball championship between Irvine and USC. It was a great match, especially now that they've cracked down on letting 30 year-old international players compete in the NCAA. Oddly enough, the highlight of the match came during the post-game interview with the MVP from Irvine. When asked how winning the championship felt, he struggled for words and then finally found them in saying "Fucking awesome" live ESPN2 (followed by "Oh, wait, I can't say that on tv, can I?"). Who would've though the NCAA men's volleyball championship would need to be on a 5-second delay?

After the match, Scott and I wandered down the not-so-happening Lincoln Blvd in Marina del Rey to a sports bar to catch the end of the Pens/Caps game and the Canucks/Blackhawks games. It was a total dive sports bar (PBR on tap and every bar game you could want), but it did the trick. Apparently the captain of Law & Order SVU was one of the ten people at the bar with us. I've yet to see a celebrity in seven months in NYC, go to a dive bar at 5pm on a Saturday in Marina del Rey, and there one is.
We were staying right near where my friends Danny and Casey live, so we met up with them and had a few drinks before calling it a night. It was great meeting up with old (well, not that old) friends and they promised (sort of) to visit soon (now it's in writing, make it happen) which would be great.

We slept in Sunday and headed out to Dodger Stadium to watch the Giants play the Dodgers that afternoon. Sadly the stadium was pretty empty, apparently the combination of Manny-gate, the economy, and nobody-really-liking-the-Dodgers-anyway is really taking a toll on attendance. The Dodgers fans that did show up for the third through seventh innings were treated to a decent game. Despite an average outing from Lincecum, Juan Pierre remembering how to hit a baseball, and an 0-for-6 from Pablo Sandoval, the Giants managed to eek out a 7-5 victory in thirteen innings. They took 2-of-3 from the Dodgers in LA this weekend - hopefully a sign of good things to come this season.

Since the game went long, we headed straight to the airport for our respective flights. I'm extremely jealous of those who aren't getting on a red-eye right now. It's officially 11:30pm NYC time as I write this, so I'll hopefully be hitting my bed in about 18.5 hours after work tomorrow evening. I'm thinking about 3.5 hours of sleep at best on the plane, cab to my apartment after landing at 6am, quick shower, little breakfast, and off to the Monday morning commute.

Back to CA

The longest I've ever been out of Californa for was about 3.5 months when I was studying abroad. I haven't been back since a few days into 2009 (or the last time the Sharks were playing well), so this will be a new record. I'll be headed to Mannywood (at least Barry to man-roids) though, so it won't quite be home. The weather here hasn't cracked 65 in almost a week now, so I'm ready for the California sun.

On a side note, the thing I'm most excited for (besides various visits from friends) is Josh Ritter with the New York Pops at Central Park in June. He's one of my favorite musicians (great live) and I'm really excited to go to one of his orchestra shows.

("California" live from Ireland just to tie everything in here):



When I get in tomorrow night, destination number one will definitely be In-n-Out Burger. There have definitely been replacements for it - much better burgers (though not so cheap), almost-there fries, and a shake/custard that must be from the blender of God himself. The magical thing about In-n-Out is that when you mention you are from California, the first two things people say to you are sunshine and In-n-Out. It's the symbol of California, they might as well replace the bear on the state flag with the giant yellow arrow. I'm sure half of the amount that I miss INO is attributable to the fact that it burger-sonifies all the intangible things about home that I miss.

Anyway, I'm sitting here watching USC play Penn State in the NCAA Men's Volleyball national semi-final on ESPN2 which features a guy a few years younger than me at my high school and one of my old club coaches as assistant coach. I've never really felt much nostalgia about my youth before, but it's a weird feeling to think that I'm past that stage of my life and I'll never lace up the Asics and step on the SportCourt in an overly air-conditioned convention center in a relatively undesirable city again. Hopefully this summer there will be some relatively competitive volleyball at the park near my apartment that I can join in on. It's somewhat unsettling to think that the only outlet for my competitive drive is beer-league hockey. I think that's why I'm so set on launching my own website - I'm so competitive that I'll have to find a way to make it work.

Well that was quite the ramble. On that note, see you tomorrow CA!

Case of the Tuesdays

I swear, I would blog more often if I didn't have to think of a title everytime. Anyway, it's been rainy and not super warm here everyday. I thought one of the ways people tried to justify east coast weather was that you actually get four seasons. Well, spring, summer, and fall have come and gone and it feels like we're headed for another winter. I suppose the same thing can be said for working 3 months of 12 hour days as never getting good weather, you really appreciate what you have when things are good.

I'm having outdoor running withdrawals since it's been a solid five days without it. Anyway, enough complaining. My dad was in town last week, and we went to see Rock of Ages, the new musical-for-people-who-don't-like-musicals on Broadway (now that Spam-a-lot is gone). It was highly entertaining, and possibly worth the price of admission just to drink a tall-boy of Coors Light in a Broadway theater (yes, they walk up and down the aisles selling it). Is it cheesy and over-the-top? Sure. Do I have a problem with that? Absolutely not, and neither should you. Here's a little teaser trailer for it. Anyone who was alive during, in-utero for, or not even a thought yet during the 80's should definitely check this out if you have any sort of appreciation for hair-bands.



Saturday rained, so I spent much of it inside watching Freaks & Geeks, the late-90's sitcom from the Apatow crew (Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, etc.). It's definitely one I should've watched sooner. I'll almost definitely be adding it to my list of favorite shows when I'm all done watching it. My friend Tom's birthday was Saturday night so I went out with a bunch of people from work that I hadn't seen in a few months (see: 12-hour-days comment above) which was really fun. Sunday was another rainy day, much of which was spent inside again (rain is an excellent excuse to stay inside and watch playoff hockey all day long). I had my own hockey game Sunday night which was a little rough since we only had 7 players. The Subway adventure was even worse after having to play most of the game. Just to get an idea, according to Google maps, the rink is 2.5 miles from my apartment, transportation times are:

Trip time by car: "About 8 minutes"
Trip time by public transit: "About 40 minutes"
Trip time walking: "About 48 minutes"

Anyway, looking forward to being in California this weekend for my cousin's graduation from LMU and for Mothers' Day! In-n-Out on Friday night, more on that later...