4th

Amanda and I went and watched the fireworks last night with Amy and Otter and some other folks. We were right under were the fireworks were going off and had debris raining down on us during the show.

Lindsay's wedding

My dear friend and former roommate Lindsay got married today to a really cool guy named Brett. It was a great ceremony. It started at 10 am and in this picture Lindsay is getting a phone call from another friend asking for directions to the place. Note the time on the clock on the wall behind her. It explains the look on her face.


I really love the above photo for obvious reasons. Amanda started to cry while she was congratulating Lindsay here. Amanda didn't even realize I was taking the picture. Before the wedding started, Lindsay and I took a quick moment to snap a self portrait. She's only 4'11" tall so in this photo, I'm really ducking down, and she's stretching as much as she can. You should see her impression of Axl Rose. It's spot on.

what a week

After quite an interesting week, Amanda and I went out to eat at a cool little bakery/cafe downtown. We really needed some time to sit down and relax. Right when we got there, we ran into some friends we hadn't seen in a while. They had there new three week old baby boy with them. They're in the photo sitting at the table behind Amanda. I got a grilled cheese sandwich. It was one of the best things I've ever eaten.

The Willkills

Some friends of mine have a really cool punk band called The Willkills. I was in the band for a little bit, but quit when I got my job at the Tribune.

They've got a record deal in the works so today we got together for a bit and I shot a bunch of photos for them. I just put this together and I think it looks pretty cool.

f.i.r.e.i.n.c.a.i.r.o.

Last night at the concert, the band played three encores. During the second encore every song came from 1979's Boys Don't Cry album. As they played Grinding Halt I turned to Amanda and asked, "What if they play Fire In Cairo?" She looked at me and literally screamed, "THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!" It was really cute.

This is the setlist from last night

plainsong

fascination street

a night like this

the walk

the end of the world

lovesong

pictures of you

lullaby

catch

the perfect boy

from the edge of the deep green sea

other voices

sleep when i'm dead

push

friday i'm in love

inbetween days

just like heaven

a letter to elise

shake dog shake

never enough

hot hot hot

the only one

wrong number

one hundred years

disintegration



Encore 1:


at night

m

play for today

a forest




Encore 2:


boys don't cry

jumping someone else's train

grinding halt

10:15 saturday night

killing an arab




Encore 3:


why can't i be you?

Playing hooky

I used to sluff class when I was in high school to go home and listen to this song. I seriously would. I'd just walk home, listen to this song a few times, and then walk back to school. I never got caught either. In fact the only time I ever got caught sluffing I had gone to my friend Allen's house during my wood shop class. We ate microwave pizzas and pushed a slinky down the stairs a few times.

The next day I got called into the principals office and interrogated about where I had been. Well, it wasn't much of an interrogation. The principal asked where I had been and I told her. Naturally, I didn't rat out my friend so I had to take a 10% grade cut in the class I skipped. When asked if I understood the consequences of my actions I remember looking at her and saying, "It's just shop."

The Cure

I surprised Amanda today by getting us tickets to The Cure concert next weekend. I am incredibly excited. They've been one of my favorite bands since I was a freshman in high school. When I first met Amanda, she made the "mistake" of telling me The Cure was her favorite band. I thought she was really cute and wanted her to come to my house so when she said that she liked The Cure I told her she needed to come over some time and check out all the rare Cure records I have. I have a pretty decent collection. The rarest one I've got is a 7" picture disc for The Caterpillar in it's original PVC sleeve. Not too shabby.

Anyway, Amanda knew what I was up too when I invited her over. I didn't really want to show off my record collection, I just wanted a really cute girl to come to my house. Obviously, my ploy worked.



Here's excerpts from one of my old journal entries about this great band.

"May 30th, 1992

I DID IT!!! I GOT TICKETS!!! 4 tickets to see The Cure on July 7th- OH MY BUT I AM EXCITED!!! I AM GOING TO SEE THE CURE IN CONCERT!!! OH YEAH!!!! I'm going to write a letter to my cousin Theresa to tell her- She'll be jealous! I was talking to Brando today- He got tickets too you see- BUT- I am on row 21. He is on row 135- I laughed most heartily upon hearing this news! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I CAN HARDLY WAIT, I AM GOING TO SEE THE CURE. LIVE IN CONCERT!!! These are the songs I want them to play: Lullaby, A Forest, A Strange Day, Short Term Effect, Cut, Killing An Arab, The Walk, Primary..."

The list of songs goes on and on and on. In all I listed more than 50 songs. The way I was acting you'd think I was a 14 year-old-girl who just met an American Idol finalist.