The Weekender

Monday, September 29, 2003

FINALLY, I'm goin to talk about the concert I had gone to last Sunday. It was The Now and Zen concert by Alice at Golden Gate Park. And let me tell you, THE HOTTEST DAY IN SEPTEMBER!!! Awesome picked me up at 9:15am to go to church and it was already in the 70s-80s. We trek out to Stanyan and Geary to pick up our tix and eventually find parking right in front of USF. Oh by the way, we took Sunset and up Fulton to avoid the traffic on 19th and Lincoln. I thought i'd mention that for any future picnic/concert goers! hee hee hee Anyways, we treked down Stanyan and cut thru the park and saw a big ass line. It's practically 11:45am and there was no way we were goin to get at the end of the line. So of course we just walked right next to the line and eventually blended in but these 2 white chicks were causin a rukus. They were like "uuuuuuuuh..there's no cutting here. We waited an hour in line. Go to the back of the line. I don't think the people behind us would appreciate it." With that..of course I was like "uuuuuuuuuuuh...what should we do?" and Awsome goes " whatever...everyone's doin it..just keep goin." So we ended up fallin behind the chicks and pretty much got in. But of course these chicks were sooooooooooo upset since they were the dumbasses bringin their baby strollers and standing in the hot sun for over an hour. Why the hell would you bring your baby in the hot sun to an outdoor concert???

As we walked in, we were lookin for Awsome's bro who's friend got dead center seats right in front of the Controller. WOO HOO... HOW AWSOME IS THAT!!! And the first act we saw was Maroon 5. They were pretty good. I'm not really into rock/alternative. I'm not sure what to call it these days. But I pretty much went to this concert not knowin anyone's music but Duran Duran!!!! YES DURAN DURAN BABY!!! Of course they were the finale. Anyways, it was about 15 min till the next act which was Liz Phair, who unfortunately, did not sound very well to me. I was told her album sounds better than she did live and her band was sooooooooooooooo unenthusiastic, and her voice wasn't very strong. I could barely make out was she was saying and barely even hear her. They looked bored on stage. 3rd on the list was Seal. DARK CHOCOLATE BABY! Ok, this guy is SEXY. I'd have to say he's dope live!!! And he can work the crowd. He played a couple of songs from his new album that sounded pretty good. And last but not least DURAN DURAN! The played all their classics from Rio to No..No.... Notorious Notorious!!! I was totally waitting for them to play Reflex...but what a bummer. They ended it w/ Girls on Film which wasn't bad... but you know.... These guys still have stage presence and can still work the crowd. Simon had said during their set that the police will allow the women to take their tops off just this once since it was soooooooooo hot...and WOMEN DID!!!! There naked boobies in the air!!!

So what was memorable about this concert? The heat, the tan that I will have until January, the various booths including Aveda which was giving $30 hair cuts, the crowd singing along w/ the performers and JOHN TAYLOR!!! j/k hee hee hee... I would definitely go to another outdoor concert again, but just be a little more prepared...frozen water bottles, snacks, cooler bags and sunblock every hour!!!!

posted by The Weekender @ 9:35 PM

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Ok, this is a continuation still of my LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG WEEKEND! So what happened Saturday? Well remember how hot it was? Oh man, well my neice decided to have her 12th birthday at Golden Gate Park. Ok..I"m hoping we have some shade and some chairs. Awsome and I try driving to get there and I guess everybody and their mama had the same idea. PICNIC!!! Now where the hell is this picnic? My cousin says, "JFK Drive near the Rose Garden" Frickin A, JFK Drive is HELLA LONG! It runs from the Great Highway all the way to Stanyan. If your a Franciscan, YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKIN ABOUT! Anyways, thank god my cousin told me they rented a Jumper or else I would have been drivin up and down that frickin Drive. You could see this thing a mile away. It was HUGE! Awsome and I tried our hand at it. And it's not your typical jumper either. You climb in...w/o your shoes of course, and I had sandals, meaning no socks people, hint hint for those who be wearin socks w/ their sandals. NOT CUTE! Ok, so you climb in, and you see it has an incline that's at a 50 degree angle. There's little tabs that you can hook your feet onto, similar to rock climbing, or you can use the rope. So since I wasn't so sure of my co-ordination skills, I decided to use the rope. GOOD GRACIOUS. AM I OUTTA SHAPE OR WHAT! I had such a hard time climbin up that rope. I'm not even close to what those Road Rules or Fear Factor peeps do. You get to the top and you hang on to another little rope w/ your back against the incline and when your ready...you let go to slide down. Oh man..WHAT FUN! Until you get skin burns from sliding down. buahahhahah... So note to self as Ms. Voodoo would say: Wear long sleeves, pants and socks for a smoother ride!!!!

So Awsome and I had enough of the heat. We made our appearance, grubbed, experienced THE JUMPER, ate cake, played volleyball, got some sun, fightin the flies, it's time to bounce. We're off to the Annual Pleasanton Rib Cookoff! YUM! Unfortunately, since we were waitin for peeps, we didn't get there till about 5:30pm and it ends at 7pm. Oh man! WHAT A NICE ASS EVENING! We get there and if you've ever been to downtown Pleasanton, it reminds of a little ol' town where the Ingalls and Waltons would live in. Am I dating myself here??? ahhahahah

We get there, park our car, and start walkin. There's only a few booths left open and we decide to line up at one booth. This one booth had a LONG ASS LINE! Why? Cause the cooks were black while the others were white so then obviously they'd have the best ribs. NOT! It's cause everyone's runnin outta ribs and they're the last ones that have any food... buahahhahah Sorry Atlas, but I think your theory was wrong. hee hee hee Awsome and I decide to split a Super, which consists of a sourdough bun, 1 1/2 links, ground beef in some sauce with sauteed onions. Now how the hell are we suppose to pick this thing up and eat it. I'll tell you this. If you ever go to a rib cook off, make sure you have some wet naps, LOTS OF WET NAPS! And what kind of drink do have to go w/ our wonderful link, some nice ol' lemonade that was sooooooooooooooooooo good. I'm tellin you..it was no HOT DOG ON A STICK LEMONADE. Too bad I forgot what they're booth name was. I'm sure they're ones to go around all the festivals in the bay area. Anyways, we finish our food, well at least tried to since we had eaten at the picnic earlier and started walkin. Unfortunately, most of the booths were closin down, but it seemed as though this festival had its usual arts and crafts and home made fudge which was really good and FUNNEL CAKE! YUM! All in all, I would definitely try to hit up this festival next year, maybe a little earlier say 2pm, after the sun's peak hours. hee hee hee

posted by The Weekender @ 10:11 PM

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Talk about a busy weekend. The Weekender is back in the scene..but also payin for it... I'll talk about that later. So how did it start off? Bliss Bar. Located in Noe Valley of San Francisco, Noe and 24th to be exact..i think... If you know this part of the city, it's pretty cool. Kind of a quiet area, where peeps walk their dogs on Saturday/Sunday mornings, chill on a bench and have some coffee and go to the local hardware store to pick up a garden hose. But little does anyone know that there's a pretty cool bar on the same street as Pasta Pomodoro. I had to plug that in. hee hee hee.. It's literally 4 doors down from the eatery. Awsome and I went there to meet up w/ Lasing for a social hosted by The Guammies. There's usually parking along 24th Street. We actually found parking right in front. Pimp parking right??? NOT! If you guys have ever parked in front of a bar, all sorts of things could happen. Say...a fight breaks out and your window gets busted, or your car gets puked on by some drunk...FRESH! But none of that happened...just that these poots started leanin on the side of the car, fingerprints all over the passenger window. I'll let your imaginations run wild w/ that one. hee hee hee..

Anyways, back to the bar. So of course it's 21 and over. No cover, which is always nice. You walk in and you've got the dj on your left in front of the window. What I thought was HILARIOUS was that the little window in front of his his turns was open and this guy just put his head thru and started choppin it up w/ the DJ. Talk about drive-thru request!!! HAHAHHAHA. Also on your left is a long bar w/ two bartenders. On your right you've got a wall and as you walk straight ahead it opens up a little more w/ plush couches on your right w/ small coffee tables and then another area to your left . I believe there is a minature dance floor in between these two settings but unfortunately it's usually filled w/ people standing and mingling. There's 2 bathrooms w/ only one toilet each. So make sure, you pace yourself w/ your drinks cause you could be waiting for A WHILE!!! In the back, there's another room up some stairs and this is usually a VIP area where you have more couches and actually a white screen w/ a projector if you ever wanna show those porn animes that you be seeing nowadays.

Okay so you may be asking "well how's the music?" Actually, it was really good. Well of course I love R&B and hip-hop when I go to a bar and that's what they were playing pretty much all night. Well at least until we left at midnight. I know i've talked about Bliss Bar on a previous entry and that night they did play high energy. But all in all, I would say, stop by Bliss Bar whether you've just eaten at Pasta P's or it's still early and you wanna catch a drink and hang out for a bit. Either way, you can't lose.

posted by The Weekender @ 10:11 PM

Sunday, September 14, 2003

Happy Belated to me! hee hee hee..Yes, I'm nearing the 30's but it's only gettin better! Well...except for the metabolism which is runnin slow so i've gotta work harder in the gym.

So what did I do this year? DISNEYLAND! The HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH! Oh wait, I forgot to mention I did go to the The Getty first in Santa Monica. It's that museum off the freeway on the hill and you've got to take a tram to get there. You all know what i'm talkin about right? Oh man..this place is BEAUTIFUL! You've totally got to check it out
. It only costs $5 bucks to park. They've got your paintings and abstract architecture, but my favorite was the landscaping . There was this one stream that they have that starts at the top of the hill. And as you wind down, you listen to the stream and it changes sounds. There's even one point where it sounds like a washing machine and there's even SUDDS!!! hahahha..

The next treat that I had was my first time trying Cuban food at Versailles. This seems to be a very popular chain down in SoCal. And I was so happy to see my girls, The Evil One and Crackhead, especially. Like Awsome says, they are totally my medicine for laughter!!!!

For the grand finale of my b-day weekend we went to Disneyland! WOO HOO! I haven't been back since maybe '98 or so. And back then they didn't have those advance ride passes. Oh man, and did I totally forget how frickin hot it is down in SoCal. Right when we got off the tram from the parking lot to the front gates, I went straight to the gift store and bought myself a hat. Then I thought , "great I have a cool hat, but I can only wear it at Disneyland!" Do I really want to wear a fishing hat w/ "Disneyland" written all over it walking thru Stonestown. hahahahha uuuuuuuuuuuh not!

I had such a wonderful time kickin it w/ friends and eating at the Pirates of the Carribean for dinner and afterwards mashing to Sleeping Beauty's Castle for the firework show, and then fighting the crowds trying to get back to the Pirates of the Carribean for Fantasia, to squat on the cement for an hour for the show to start and battling w/ this Latino family for their kids and adult father to sit their asses down so we can see the show. Ok does it sound like we were rushin near the end??? Just a tad... I wish we had stayed maybe 2 more days to check out Universal Studios and Magic Mountain. Next time....

posted by The Weekender @ 9:28 PM

A report on the trends, the sights and weekend nights in San Francisco, now written from Oakland!

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Name: Voodoo Child
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