Nothing but Song

  

I have a lot to get out. I had a busy last week or so.

I’m going to paraphrase myself from my MySpace blog: Saturday night, after work, I went with my co-worker R to see UB40 at the House of Blues, and saw my cousin there! rofl.

Cameras were verboten. Ugh. I always bring a camera to my gigs, as you know, unless it expressly says not to on the ticket, which it did. I was able to snap some pics with my camera phone. They’re kinda crappy, but they’ll have to do. I put them in my new photography portfolio

I got a set list too!! Ahh. R & I stayed behind to see if we could get a drumstick, guitar pick, whatever, and I made out with a set list (complete with what key they were in). I called my dad during “Red Red Wine” - one of his fave UB40 songs - but he said he couldn’t hear it.

It was amazing. I can’t stop listening to my UB40 songs now. I was dancing, swaying, singing along with every other song. I’m not too familiar with the lyrics, but all I know is that I love the music I did know. I’m so glad I went. I was almost gonna flake, like I so often do, but I had no reason to. It was kinda me and R’s last hurrah together as co-workers too.

Plus I’d never been on the inside of the House of Blues. I’d spent half a year walking past it on the way to work otherwise. That’s a crap reason to attend a gig, but I like venues. After living in Modesto, which had no decent venues when I was growing up, I love how many venues I’ve been to in Vegas so far: Star Nursery Field, Theater Under the Stars, Empire Ballroom, the Pearl, and now House of Blues.

Note that most of those venues were to see my boys, haha.

All I know is, I pretty much died when I heard their cover of “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

It kills me. It really does.

* * *

Monday was my last day at my tea store. *le sigh* End of era, man, let me tell you what. We were on the clock for 9 hours (minus an hour lunch), packing everything up. I took some pics, which I’ve uploaded as well. It’s called “Goodbye True Tea” under the Captured Moments category.

It just felt so… surreal, walking in there for the last time, packing, and cleaning. I managed to snag myself some goodies on 75% off, such as my 4 contemporary style tea cups, my clay Beehouse cup (whose twin I gave as a gift to R), my tea service set, and my electric water kettle. I bought a tea for one (pot and cup) awhile ago at full price, but it was super cheap anyways. I gave my dad my Karigane Kukicha and Jasmine Pearls, since he likes green tea. But his only experience has been with teabags, so I have to teach him how to brew tea properly.

I got my schedule at my new job after lunch that day too, and it looks like I finally got an almost set shift. Closings and mids. Yay! No more waking up at the buttcrack of dawn (and buttcrack of dawn to me is not the same to a normal person, rofl) to stand around and not do anything. That was my biggest complaint - and I loved my store. Sometimes you would go hours without anyone stopping in to look or anything. So you’d have to find stuff to do. It wasn’t so bad when I first started; there was always something that had to be done, customers to educate, etc.

But towards the end, it was inevitable that they were gonna shut us down.

*weeps*

* * *

My first day of school was Tuesday. Was late for my first class - Writing About Literature - by almost half an hour, because I underestimated the amount of morning traffic on the 215. So I’ll have to start waking up a half hour earlier to leave my house an hour before class starts so I can at least get to class 15 minutes early. Ugh. But that’s what I get for signing up for that particular class, I suppose.

I decided to try something a little different this year. Most of the classes I’m taking are for my major, which is English. As such, most of the books they are assigning for us to read can be checked out at the library. So instead of buying the books from the bookstore (who will buy them back much too cheap) or Amazon (which I usually do, but I have to wait forever for them to come in), I’ll just keep renewing them through the website. I don’t even have to renew them in person!

So for the better part of my first day back, I was tracking down my books for my library branch and putting holds on them. I went in, renewed my library card, and got about half of them today. The others are being delivered from other branches. I now only need 2 books that are proper textbooks, which I purchased for hella cheap on Amazon today, for my Literature of the American West and History of Popular Culture classes.

I’m trying to save as much money as I can, and this is the best way. I dunno why I never did it before. I’m not worried about marking up my texts, because I think it’s sacrilegious to write in books.

I’m also taking The Bible as Literature class, but that only meets once a week. I’m looking forward to that, reading the Bible in an academic sense, and not a religious one. I hope I can get the books for it soon. I double-checked to make sure I had put requests on them, and I did, but there is no update on ‘em. It would say “IN TRANSIT” if it was being transferred. So hopefully, my branch can track them down for me.

* * *

The Pipettes are coming! The Pipettes are coming!

Finally we can announce the release of our North American full-length debut We Are The Pipettes, out October 2nd on Cherrytree / Interscope!

Producer Greg Wells came on board to mix the whole album and record two new tracks exclusive to this release – ‘Dance and Boogie,’ and ‘Baby, Just Be Yourself.’ which you can exclusively hear on the MySpace page now!

Not only that but we will be coming back to North America for a whole month of dates in October!

The full tour dates are:

October 2007

2nd - Chicago, IL - Park West
3rd - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
4th - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern
5th - Toronto, ON - Opera House
6th - Montreal, QC - Petit Campus
8th - New York, NY - The Fillmore @ Irving Plaza
9th - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
10th - Washington, DC - 9.30 Club (early show)
11th - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
13th - Pittsburgh, PA - TBC
15th - Nashville, TN - Exit/In
16th - Atlanta, GA - Vinyl
17th - Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay Theater
18th - New Orleans, LA - The Parish @ House of Blues
19th - Austin, TX - The Parish
20th - San Antonio, TX - TBC
21st - Dallas, TX - Cambridge Room @ House of Blues
23rd - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
25th - Los Angeles, CA - Avalon
29th - San Francisco, CA - Bimbo’s 365 Club
31st - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom

November 2007

1st - Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
2nd - Vancouver, BC - TBC

Details of where to order tickets will follow shortly…

Of course they wouldn’t come to Vegas. They’d fit in just fine though, rofl. Maybe when they take over the world, they’ll swing by. I’d love to see them live.

* * *

Today, I got the oil changed for my car with my mom. Before, she was always the one who got the oil changed, but I went with her so I would know what to do. It was relatively easy. She woke me up at 8AM to get it done, when we didn’t really need to rush. Took us all of half an hour. I went straight back to bed, and fell in and out of sleep until almost 2pm. I’ve been feeling really run down. I dunno if it’s all the things I’ve done in the past week catching up with me, or that thing that comes once a month (ugh), but I just didn’t feel good at all today.

* * *

THE ACADEMY IS… in less than a month. Yay!!

?: “Anything new going on with you?“

  

Working six days straight and then getting only two days off is tough on a young body.

I got back from my trip to the Grand Canyon Sunday afternoon, but after closing and then opening my store within 12 hours, I didn’t have time to flesh out my recollections.

More here, especially if these thumbnails don’t load.

I slept most of the trip down to Flagstaff, waking up only long enough to stretch whenever we stopped. First, we stopped at the Hoover Dam which I had never seen before, and THE Route 66 in Kingman, AZ. We decided to stretch and get some fresh air. Me and my niece C ran across Route 66 (just to say we did) and put our fangs up, it was great! I threw my arms up and yelled at our family that was still across the street, and this dude in a Mustang honked and joined in my screaming. I was all, “WTF?” But I didn’t care. My dream is to drive from one end of Route 66 to the other. Maybe someday.

We got a bit lost trying to get to Mormon Lake, so my cousin’s boyfriend decided to rent us rooms at the local Ramada after dinner at Coco’s on Friday night. It’s a good thing he decided to splurge on the rooms, because by the time dinner was done, it was already 10 o’clock our time (11 o’clock theirs), so imagine what would’ve happened if he hadn’t. We would’ve had to try to find our campsite in the dark, get the tents up, get settled, and all that. That would’ve been ugly.

I had to share a bed with C, who fully took up the whole bed. I kept waking up, because I kept finding myself closer and closer to the edge of the hotel bed. I put a pillow between us, because I like to cuddle with pillows when I sleep since I don’t have a boyfriend, rofl. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the little turd used the pillow for herself! She says she’s not used to having all the space, so I let it slide but teased her for the rest of the weekend for being stingy with the sleeping space.

Saturday morning, we had the continental breakfast the hotel provided, and drove up to our campsite at Mormon Lake near Flagstaff, AZ. As soon as we were settled, set up the tents, and had lunch, we got into my cousin’s van - crammed with 5 adults and 3 kids (1 of whom was in a car seat) - and drove almost 2 hours to the Grand Canyon. I don’t think my cousin realized how far away Mormon Lake was from the Grand Canyon. I slept the whole way of course. I felt loads better when I woke up.

Spent a few hours taking the edge of the canyon in. It was beautiful. There’s no other phrase, word or sentence to describe it. Or even do it justice. You have to experience it for yourself. I wonder what it was like before the Department of the Interior had to set boundaries. You know me and history. The writer in me wants to sit there, and soak up the inspiration that has been left behind since people first started going to places like the Grand Canyon. There is so much beauty in this world, and people are so quick to pass it by. Makes me sad.

I wanted so badly to stay, breathe that fresh air, lose myself, maybe have a spiritual episode of sorts. If I didn’t have so much responsibility, I would prolly have wasted away, daydreaming and writing. I walked past a lady who was crying from the sheer beauty of the expanse. I couldn’t believe that it had affected her that much, and how such beauty will bring someone to tears. We didn’t really have time to fully explore, since we had to get home by nightfall and they had warned about scattered showers.

On the way back from the Canyon, we stopped at this campground that had a distinct Flintstones theme. C wiped “SANTI” into an Air Force missile set up nearby, rofl. Slept the whole way back. C said I had a good shoulder to sleep on. I get that a lot, sadly enough.

Had burgers for dinner, and s’mores for dessert. It’s a good thing Mormon Lake is a small town and the campsite had its own general store. We kept running back and forth for stuff to buy. Had to go to bed early since we had to make it an early day. Ate remembered to pack her queen-sized inflatable mattress, and thank God she did. If she hadn’t we would’ve had to sleep on the bare floor. It was like sleeping on air.

After breakfast, we broke our campsite down and got ready to go. The showers were $2.00 for 5 minutes so nobody took a shower, except for the baby. The drive up was uneventful. The Amber Alert sign warned us that taking the Hoover Dam home (which would’ve been much easier) was going to be difficult, because Sunday traffic on the Dam is awful. Weekend warriors and all that. So it advised us to take this really weird route home that we weren’t even sure was going to get us home on time. It wasn’t so weird after all, because it sent us right through Bullhead City, AZ/Laughlin, which is a stone’s throw away from Henderson, and home.

We decided to come visit Bullhead City/Laughlin on another day, since the Colorado River passes right through both cities and you can swim in it really easily. Bought Powerball for my dad (who says I got the wrong amount and wrong day), but I never buy lottery so I dunno what I was doing. We got home a lot quicker than we thought, and I had more than enough time to get ready for work.

My body is still aching. I haven’t been sleeping the whole night through so my body’s not healing. I got to bed at 1, if I’m lucky, and then I wake up at 7 because that’s when my sister leaves the house and she usually goes through the garage (which my room is over). My room is kinda crappy, you can hear EVERYTHING because it faces the street on two sides. So if someone roars down the street at 2 in the morning, best believe, I can hear it. I should prolly move my bed away from the wall, because I can’t keep living like this.

And once I’m up, I’m up. I think it’s because of my allergies and opening and then closing at work too, and perhaps that little thing that comes once a month. But I don’t have any money to buy some Claritin, to at least alleviate that problem. So I have to suffer until I get paid on Friday so I can see how I can fit it into my budget.

School starts next week, as well as my new job. God, I can’t believe how quickly summer is ending. But I have a lot of things to look forward to, such as knocking out 1 of 3 semesters I have left in school this winter, saving up more money for spring break at Disneyland (that I hope my friends will be able to splurge on), and stuff like that.

?: “How has your summer been?“

  

This is a story I wrote whilst I was at work, between customers. Feedback is welcome.

“We need to talk,” she said, the most feared phrase in the English language invaded his ears. She took him by the hand into a quiet corner of the arena’s backstage area, and waited for her to speak. She seemed resolute in her words, but her hands told him the truth. She was nervous, and couldn’t quit playing with her trademark purple jade ring. She couldn’t look at him as she spoke either. He wasn’t paying attention, really, until…

“You’re what? Say that again?” he interrupted her.

“Look, Summers, I’m 26, you’re 21,” she began before he cut her off again.

“What the fuck?”

“We’ve had a good time together on this tour, right?” she blundered on. She was babbling, and they both knew it. During any other time, he’d have found it endearing. But endearing was the farthest thing from his mind right now.

“Are you seeing somebody else?” he fired back.

“No. Of course not, but I shouldn’t have let us go as far as it did.” Her shoulders sagged.

“You mean to tell me that everything we’ve done together meant nothing?” Shit, he was just bragging to his mom how amazing she was, and she was going to pull this on him? Screw that noise.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I fell for you, Landon, and that’s where I’m wrong.” She hardly ever called him by his first name. She was serious.

“That’s doesn’t make any fuckin’ sense!” he said as loudly as he dared. Roadies were running past every few minutes, preparing for that night’s show. “There’s like a four year age difference between Ingrid and Derek, and they make it work.”

“It makes perfect sense. You’ll see it my way. Me, I’m too old for you, and you - you’re young, you still have your whole life to fuck it up as badly as I have.”

“You told me that The Newsies saved you,” he argued.

“But I know what it’s like not to have the band. You had Love Split Mystery from day one, and you were so sure of it. There was never any other choice in your mind. Everything was set for you. It’s not that easy for me. I still don’t know if this is what I want to do with my life.”

He started at her disbelievingly, unable to speak because of how stupid her argument was sounding.

“We’ve only got a few more shows on this tour, and I need to know that we can be friends,” she said, hoping to close the issue and walk away within the next few minutes. She was going to fall apart if she didn’t.

He picked up on it, but refused to let her go. “I make you come every night. There’s no way I can only be your friend. Being friends is impossible.”

She blushed, but stuck to her guns. “It has to be this way.”

“No, it doesn’t. Are you in some trouble? Do you need help? Whatever it is, let me help you.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Landon. You can’t help me anymore,” she replied, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. He reached for her, but she shrunk away. In a blur, she took off running.

“Heyyy Summers!” Derek said at the top of his lungs, as Summers was admitting defeat and simmering in the corner she had left him in. “Sound check in 5.” He finally saw the look on his best friend’s face and the smile faded from his lips. “What’s wrong, man?”

* * *

By the start of the gig that night, everyone knew that Stella Delacroix had broken up with Landon Summers. They avoided each other, which was a difficult task to accomplish, as Stella’s band was Love Split’s opening act. The show went off without a hitch and their fans were none the wiser. It was an open secret that they were a couple, but they weren’t obnoxious about it. So when the fans that were lucky enough to get pictures with them after the show, they immediately went online and started blabbering on their respective official LiveJournals.

The mood on their tour buses was electric.

And not in a good way.

“Do you think I did the right thing?” Stella asked as Katie Deleon - her synth player, best friend and only other girl in the band - handed her a cup of chamomile tea.

“Do you think you did?” Katie asked diplomatically, settling down on the built-in couch beside her.

“Yes, I think so. I’m going to hurt him sooner or later, and I’d rather I be in control of the hurt than have it be some huge like, surprise in the future.”

“You sure about that?” asked Katie, squeezing her arm to leave her stewing in her thoughts.

* * *

It’s a damn good thing they were both in bands that had promotion to do. After the Year of the Tiger tour ended, both groups split to continue on with their respective album promotions. Both Stella and Landon lost themselves in interviews, performances, and videos for their fans on FriendsorEnemies.com.

Neither could get the other off their minds. Stella had hoped time and distance would heal a broken heart, but it wasn’t. She deserved to be alone. She knew it. Why hadn’t he? She had stressed from the beginning what her plans were. She had spent most of her life alone, stymied by her beauty, intelligence, and overprotective family. Guys fell for her for all the wrong reasons. At least that’s what she told herself. She’d rather be an ice queen to spare herself, and them, from the heartbreak that was going to happen.

But Summers was different. He was stubborn, and fell in love at first sight. She kept her sarcastic and cynical bitch mask on for as long as she could, but he saw right through her. He was incredibly mature for his age, and she called him on it tons of times. He broke her down, and saw the scared little girl hiding beneath. He always kept the smile on her face, holding her when she cried, teasing her if she was taking things too seriously and over thinking, as she so often did. He was perfect for her, and that was why she had to walk away.

Meanwhile, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. After the initial shock of the breakup occurred, he started talking to other girls he knew before they had met. But he would eventually stop returning phone calls, texts and emails once he found out their imperfections. One girl was too clingy. Another was too independent. He even stopped talking to one girl because she was too blond. At least those were the thoughts he comforted himself with. He had the perfect woman, and she walked away from HIM. Her loss, not his. If only he could make himself believe that for one second, he would probably be okay.

* * *

It was at Derek’s 25th birthday party when they saw each other for the first time in months. They were both scanning the crowd for people they knew when they locked eyes. Her heart skipped a beat - as did his - but she wasn’t there for him, she reminded herself. She was there for Derek, one of her good friends. That was all.

The Society was a pub co-owned by their label’s poster boy Dan “The Man” Buchanan and several artists on their label. The party was already off to a great start. Mike from Abstract Theory was the DJ, cameras were flashing every few minutes. Even George Michael - Love Split’s camera guy - was trying to capture as much as he could.

Summers pulled Derek away from his girlfriend Ingrid and her friends Becky, Natalie, and Donna. “Did you invite her?” he asked, in a tortured voice.

“Who?” Derek shouted over the thumping music, already more than tipsy.

“Stella!”

“Yeah, man, we’ve been texting each other off and on since the Tiger tour. She’s still MY friend, you know.”

‘Keep your cool man, keep your cool,’ the little voice in his head counseled him.

He wasn’t believing it for one second.

* * *

The Newsies had become the “It” band of their scene. After toiling away in nightclubs in their native Las Vegas for years, they were discovered by Appleton of Butler 7 during an open mic night at a local club. He slipped their debut EP, ‘Music from Another Room,’ to Dan Buchanan. He immediately hopped on a plane to attend a gig.

Their initial meeting at the Tidal Bar in their hometown had become the stuff of legends.

A drunk Stella announced from the stage, “This is for the Dan the Man lookin’ motherfucker out there.” The audience laughed as The Newsies launched into an impromptu cover of “Charge Up”, a song Dan’s band was most famous for. She became embarrassed when Dan introduced himself after the show. She refused to believe him until he showed her his ID card.

They were signed and immediately began working on their self-titled LP. They already had a small fan base on MySpace, but signing to Dan’s Eight Deities imprint sealed their creative fate.

After being impressed with “Music from Another Room” and the demos Dan slipped them, Love Split Mystery asked them to open their Year of the Tiger tour. That’s where front woman Stella and bassist Summers fell for each other. During the three-month stint, they all became close friends.

A home movie shot by George Michael spoofed “The Real World” and starred both bands halfway through the tour and posted on YouTube. It was so convincing that people were still talking about it online for months afterwards, and helped spread the word about the tour and each band.

* * *

And now, watching her work the room, was unnerving him. It was difficult to stay away as The Society was incredibly small.

“And getting smaller by the second,” he thought, sipping on his water.

The party itself was going to be talked about for ages afterwards. After he had blown out his candles, Derek got an entirely separate cake smashed into his face from C-Dawg and Liam, the Newsies’ guitarist. Before he could clean himself off, his best friend from The Darkest Corner, Caleb, as well as Ingrid, Stella and Katie licked the chocolate frosting right off his face.

Not long after Derek cleaned himself up, Katie stepped outside for some fresh air, and Stella decided to join her. Summers got the same idea and unwittingly followed them out to the cramped patio.

Her laughter filled his ears, just as he rounded the corner to the outdoor area.

“I can’t believe we did it!” Katie was saying.

“Good thing everyone held him down. Derek probably would’ve socked C-Dawg and Kuya Liam if they hadn’t!” added Stella.

“Him and whoever got in the way,” Katie agreed, laughing.

They both turned instinctively when he came upon them. They both froze, as he did.

“Hi Katie, hi Stella,” he began uncomfortably.

“Hello Summers, how you been?” asked Katie. Stella coughed and mumbled her greeting.

“I’m doing okay, I think,” Summers offered. There was a tense silence between the three of them, though it was filled with nearby partygoers.

“Mike asked to take over DJ duties soon. I better go check with him,” Katie said, trying to keep her voice light.

Stella and Summers stood a few feet away from each other in silence for a few minutes, as the others carried on around them.

“I heard ‘Security’ on the radio the other day. I didn’t know that was the next single,” Stella offered. Silence didn’t usually bug her because she was used to being a loner. But for some reason, at that exact moment, it did.

“Yeah,” Summers replied. “The label thought it would be a good third single.”

“I figured as much. As soon as I heard it, I knew. My sixth sense, and all.”

“Oh that’s right,” he said, suddenly remembering. She had the uncanny ability to predict the singles from an album, just by listening to it and without finding out on the Internet. It was a private joke amongst her friends, but she hadn’t been wrong yet.

Her heart was aching to reach out and know that she was still loved, her convoluted common sense be damned. Just being near him was intoxicating. But she couldn’t bring herself to make the first move.

He was debating whether or not this would be the last conversation they would ever have. He had to get over her. Being lovesick just wasn’t right. He had to grow up, and let her go. But she was so beautiful, so insecure, so imperfectly wonderful. The things that drove him nuts with other girls was what made Stella irresistible to him. It was ridiculous to feel this way about someone and not have them feel the same way. And if there’s one thing he had left, it was his pride.

Finally, the loaded silence became too unbearable. He turned to walk back inside, and away forever.

“Landon?” she said gently.

It was straight out of a movie. She took a deep breath, and hurled herself in his general direction. He wrapped his arms around her waist and their lips met in slow motion. She wrapped her skinny arms around his neck and pulled him as close as she could without getting indecent.

Cheers erupted from everyone on the patio, and whoever could see outside, as they kissed in the barely lit terrace.

“I’m all wrong for you,” she blurted out, a bemused expression on her face before he kissed her long and hard again.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

If you want to read the previous adventures of Love Split Mystery, check out Boys in the Band (or: Living for the Weekend).