Good-time Videos

I haven't watched tv in a while, especially after hanging out with the lovely Amish people in Indiana. They showed me that life could be happy without electricity.

Do you know that they go out to a lake in the winter, cut a block of ice, and keep it in a thermal ice house for a year a two??? Sounds like it's time to toss that refrigerator. Oh wait, I don't live near any frozen lakes. Never mind.

Anyway, I was surfing online and discovered that there is now a Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice) reality show!? You can watch the first episode online.

You have to see the part where the Beverly Hills Socialites (including Marla Maples???) invite Victoria over for a party. They actually made Posh Spice look modest.

Maybe I've just been MTV-deprived, and I'm sure they're hamming it up for tv, but I still thought the show was way fun. Plus I love her hair and clothes. She's like an adorable petite British Barbie with spunky hair.

And did you hear that the Spice Girls are reuniting for a TOUR???
Sign me up for a ticket, please!

While we're on the topic of entertaining online videos, you have to see these:

• Meomi's new portfolio reel
  Watching this nearly made my heart burst.


• Philippine Prisoners doing the Thriller dance
  Anyone know where I can find some orange jumpsuits to wear with some friends for Halloween? Also if you want to learn the routine, this is the year to do it, because you could become part of a Guinness World Record.


• Adventure Time
  This cartoon makes me feel high. But it was actually on Nickelodeon!--you know, the channel for kids? I think it really belongs on Adult Swim. It's so quoteable. I think my favorite line is, "My hat is AWESOME!"


• Super cute gum commercial
  This made me want to adopt pet foods.


• The Art of Origami
  You gotta love a good battle between Origami senseis.

A Case of the Happy Mondays

This morning, I signed the lease to my fabulous future Manhattan apartment and visited my friend Jen to get it scanned and sent back to New York to cinch the deal. Jen was working from home because she had a cold.

To comfort her cold, we headed to our favorite Mission restaurant, Luna Park, where she had a steak, soup, and salad, and I had a sweet corn risotto with English peas and cherry tomatoes. I "Dodgeballed" "@ Luna Park," to gloat about our lovely lunch, and so later a couple of my friends in the neighborhood later passed by to say hello.

Then I ran a few errands in my VW convertible bug with the top down, while Pink Martini, Digable Planets, Arrested Development, Smoosh, and Michael Bublé emanated from my car stereo, connected to my new iPod. It was just set to random shuffle, but the songs seemed oddly appropo. Then I came home to find an IM from KT, saying we should grab dinner and hit the Mint later this evening. That sounded like a plan to me!

Then I played a couple turns of "Scrabulous" (basically online Scrabble, my latest addiction) on Facebook and decided to take a nap, until I realized that it was so warm and sunny that it would be a travesty to not go lounge by the pool.

I got on my red Paul Frank bikini on, grabbed an amusing novel called "Love Monkey," and then decided it was so warm that I deserved a bowl of ice cream. Then Linda called me, and said, "Well you sound happy!" And I replied, "Well, I'm in swimwear, eating a bowl of Bi-Rite ice cream, listening to Britney, so yes, I'm pretty happy."

She confirmed that the papers went through, so we are, indeed, going to share an amazing apartment in September!

After I finished my ice cream, I grabbed my cowboy hat for shade and went down to go read by the pool, as I listened to mellow summer tunes from Beck and Emiliana Torrini.

Then I pondered what I should do with the two weeks' time I'll have between my last day of my San Francisco lease and when school starts. Quick trip to Los Angeles? Hawaii? Road trip to New York? Last-minute trip to Costa Rica? Or hitting as many bars and restaurants in San Francisco as I can before my time is up? Hmmm. Anybody up for a quick last-minute trip with me? Or San Francisco drinking and karaokeing? I'm hoping to check out Amnesia's Tuesday night karaoke tomorrow.

And just now Nicole called me about grabbing a snack at Ti Couz later after she's done browsing at Therapy. I'm trying to cajole her into joining me at the Mint later, with the offer for her to crash on my cozy sofabed, as I am just walking distance from the Mint.

I shall now return to enjoying the rest of my Happy Monday.

---

Soundtrack songs of the day:

Pink Martini: "Sympathique" (a song in French, about not wanting to work but rather to go smoke.)
Digable Planets: "Rebirth of Slick (Cool like Dat)"
Arrested Development: "Everyday People"
Smoosh: "Find a Way"
Michael Bublé: "For Once in My Life"
Britney Spears: "Outrageous"
Emiliana Torrini:"Unemployed in Summertime."
Beck: "Earthquake Weather"

The Pipettes & The Bird and the Bee

I love it when I go see a cheap concert at a small venue, for a band that I don't know that much about, and it turns out to be thoroughly entertaining.

Last month, Tatertot told me about The Pipettes, performing at the Rickshaw Stop. So I got last-minute tickets for us, and it was one of the most fun shows I've seen in a long time. They are a British 3-Girl-band reminiscent of '60s Phil Spector girl bands, like the Ronnettes, complete with matching dresses and hand movements. You can check out this video to see how they are live... totally fun! I also love the cheeky lyrics.



I had seen their site and maybe subliminally, seeing their dotted dress outfits made me choose to wear a striped dress and red headband with white-skull-pattern. When I showed up at the show to meet our other friends, one of them ALSO wore a striped top and a red headband with white dots. It was like we were a competing Asian-girl version of the Pipettes.

Also, there were a couple of fanboys next to us, one of whom would holler funny things at the Pipettes, like "You're very attractive!" or "You're so pretty!" or "I love your bangs!" or my favorite: "You're so British!" And occasionally someone would just let out a gasp.

And the two opener bands were quite entertaining, especially the one called Smoosh, which is a very young indie-girl-band (kid-to-preteen age) from Seattle. It dawned on me that I had heard about them on tv previously, and so then I got excited about seeing them. They were really adorable and surprisingly very good. The drummer had braces and was rockin' out. And the youngest girl, was just about as big as the bass she was carrying.

Just now, I got home from seeing The Bird and the Bee at The Independent, which was absolutely fantastic! I saw the show recommended on the Flavorpill email list, and I remembered that they had opened for Lily Allen at the Fillmore, but I had missed it that time. Ernie was telling me how they are the one Electronica band on the Blue Note record label, which should tell you how unusual they sound.

The lead singer, Inara George, is like a beatnik version of Suzanne Vega with a jazzier, spacedelic sound. All their songs were consistently entertaining. She has a beautiful voice, and her two back-up dancers in matching babydoll dresses, knee-high socks, headbands, and gloves were so cute. The guitarist, drummer, and keyboardist were also in snazzy suits and ties. At one point they even played a glockenspiel, which BK quite enjoyed.

And for their encore, they performed a beautiful rendition of the Bee Gees' "How Deep is Your Love" and a fun cover of Burt Bacharach's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" So go download the album and watch out for their next show!

Sexual harrassment in the City

On Monday, I walked by a flasher on 17th Street. Actually, I don't know what you call it, because he was fully naked, no coat or anything. He was standing inside the gate of a building, and just as I walked past, he opened the gate toward me and it looked like his hands were reaching for... --well. I didn't want to witness any more of this so I just continued to walk briskly to dinner down the street.

I think I would have been more distraught about it, except that it was in the Mission District, and actually something similar happened to me back in college once. I was just kind of annoyed and disgusted. (They caught and busted the one at UCLA.) Anybody know where I can get a nice taser gun?

BTW, I think I may make it through my whole stay in San Francisco, having never had a date in my house. And yesterday, I woke up to the sound of loud sex from the neighbors again. Like it was mocking me.

I think I'm ready for New York, folks.

I'll be moving to Nolita initially for a 1-month sublet, and if all goes well, I may be sharing a nice 2-bedroom apartment in Tribeca by September. Wish me luck!

(Image above captured from the oldie-but-goodie flash animation, Peanut Butter Jelly Time!)

Various thoughts of the last week.

• How the hell am I going to live a New York apartment, half the size of my San Francisco apartment?
  
  
• Tragically, I've decided to sell the Junebug. Know anyone interested in a 2004 Convertible Turbo VW Beetle in Aquarius blue, with practically new tires? I'll try not to cry.
  
  
• I use mobile texting a lot, but being asked out by a mobile text is a strange thing. I thought it was a Gen-Y move, vs. a Gen-X move, but in fact this has happened to me with older guys! Or maybe this is just the way guys operate these days, where they don't want to make it seem too "datey" but more casual, and if I happen to like the evening it becomes a date? But in the end it's really a date, isn't it?
  
  Getting asked out by mobile text strikes me as a little bit chicken, which is not a turn-on. And it strikes me as a "player" move, (also NOT a turn-on) because you could be texting while you're out with other people or other dates. Texting can be a multi-task sort of thing. I don't like the idea of being part of a multi-task.
  
  Back in the day, 15-year old boys had to pick up a phone and talk to a girl. If you're over 30, can you make the effort to talk to me? If I like you, I'll want to hear your voice. Am I old-fashioned?
  
  Or maybe nowadays, the texting is a early-stage thing, and the voice call comes later? I guess I could handle that. But it better move up to the voice call quickly. Or maybe guys don't like the sound of my voice, is that what they're saying?
  
  
• On my Karaoke Revolution game, I now have a virtual room of heads... of my San Francisco friends. That is, when I play karaoke in New York, I'll be able to pick one of their scanned heads to be on my player/singer. Is that creepy or sentimental? Both?
  
  
• After having about 3-5 cups of sake, maybe I shouldn't follow it with 3 shots of tequila.
  
  
• I know two people who have already shown me their iPhones. I guess they seem nifty, but that little keyboard is hard to type. And I didn't quite get the hang of the resize-drag. And knowing me, I would totally scratch up that screen in about a week's time.
  
  
• Okay, what is up with the dudes? I had like a 2-year dating dry spell, and last week I suddenly got the attention of 3 attractive guys, and this week, I hear nothing from ANY of them.
  
  I guess it doesn't help that I'm in mid-move to a new state. And I guess they know I'm traveling this week. But I am guessing that is not the issue. Is there any romance left in the modern metropolitan world? Thank God I have New York & toys to distract me from this nonsense.
  
  
• I saw that low-budget movie, "Colma." I thought it might be a sleeper-fun-slacker-indie film. But no. It made me want to go to sleep. I think there could be a more amusing musical made about my apartment complex. Or my livingroom. Or my dollhouse.
  
  
• Why do I have to wear a wool coat in JULY? (Yes, I know. I'll be bitching about the humidity next month when I finally move to New York.) At least it'll be warm when I get to Chicago for 4th of July. Happy Independence Day!