The scoop

Welcome to the new "Dustland Fairytale," where we've lot lots of tales and maybe, if you're really special, a fairy or two (keep your eyes peeled). This is more of a journal than anything. You're welcome to read and comment all you like, but the really fun stuff is at A Silvertongued Serenade!

I dare you to move

Last night Paul and I drove to New Hampshire to see Switchfoot (which was really excellent of him since he doesn't even know their music). The show was at the same place I saw Cobra Starship last fall. Paul was amazed at how much the town resembled his hometown, but we concluded this place was better because it had a lot more stuff to do, even if it was a little on the seedy side.

It was 7:20 when we got to the venue. I must say that I am entirely sick of getting huge black X's drawn on my hands every time I go to a show. It used to be a bragging right - I'd go to school the next day and it was like "LOOK AT ME! I went to a show last night." But now they're just a Scarlet Letter (as I told the bouncer) that makes me look and feel inferior. I don't want to drink at shows. I want to rock out. I just don't want to sport the double stigma, especially if they're giving out wristbands to people over 21 anyway.

We showed up just in time for Ours, the opening act. At first I was impatient to get to the good stuff, but one song was enough to convince me that this WAS the good stuff. Imagine that Freddy Mercury of Queen and Matt Bellamy of Muse somehow pooled genes, add a dash of Anberlin's Stephen Christian and a pinch of Dream Theater's James LaBrie, and you've got the vocalist of Ours, a real skeleton of a man but with a vocal versatility I've never seen in anyone before. He got his highs and his lows, steady and vibrato, and every so often he'd get really into it and lavish us with a scream.

In spite of my many comparisons, the musical experience was something entirely new. One of the guitarists played part of a song on the teeny tiny little strings between the nut and the tuning knobs. There was a girl playing keys and a guy rocking the violin, one of the guitarists had dreads, and the bassist was out of this world (talentwise, not lookswise - I qualify this because usually when I talk about bassists it's to say how sexy they are, but this one was just downright talented). Then there was the drummer - ohmygosh the drummer. I was reminded of Mute Math's Darren King; he was that good. Not as intense, maybe, but his beats were every bit as inventive.

On top of all that, the dark sound was augmented by really excellent lighting - lots of red. I bought their CD the second the set ended. It's not as good as the live show but still worth a listen, especially this one:

Switchfoot played second, and to me it was everything rock shows should be but aren't. Again the lights were an integral part of the set, creating something of an old-skool atmosphere while adhering to new-skool rules. Flashy but classy, you know? They played us a few new songs and I'm super stoked for Hello Hurricane, coming out this fall (wiki says November 10, which is too far away if you ask me!)

I've always loved Switchfoot concerts because they're like the albums on steroids. Everything you love, but with the added bonus of singer Jon Foreman's energy and charisma. He climbs the drum set, he screams into the pickups on his guitar, he jumps off the stage and wanders around the audience.

Which brings me to the highlight of the show! Jon jumped down from the stage and started meandering toward the back of the club, where we were standing. There was one of those metal bars a little way behind us to keep people away from the sound and light equipment, and he decided it looked like a jungle gym so he climbed it. I moved closer to take pictures.



The song ended and people were all crowding around to touch Jon's hand. Having endured six years of failure to have any interaction with this legendary band, I was naturally among them. And here my five feet, ten inches of tall served me well: Jon decided I was the right height to be his spotter, took my hand, and leaned on me as he walked the bar.

At the other end he stopped and, still balancing, introduced the band members. I was a bit too starstruck to remember anything he said beyond that except for this: "Hope is not something you keep in your back pocket... sooner or later it takes form and becomes something real." There is something different in that man. Every so often he'd look down at me and I could see it in his eyes. It's enough to make me live a different kind of life.

Then, STILL LEANING ON MY HAND, he started the next song - "Dare You to Move." "Everybody's watching you now," he sang, with a smile at me because everyone was.

Paul was none too happy with me after Jon went back up on stage. "He would've fallen if I'd just walked away," didn't make things any better, nor did "he's married with children" or "I've only looked up to him for six years." But I bet if he meets Blind Guardian, he'll understand.

After the set, we found my friend Joanna and tried to figure out where the after-show acoustic show was taking place, but the band hadn't tweeted it and all our companions wanted to leave so we gave up. BUT NEVER FEAR, for the two of us may take a little road trip to see them again next weekend! To be continued!

In with the new

It's a new school year, so I thought it would be appropriate to share some things that are new in my life.

1. I have a new blog. There's nothing on it yet, and unless you go to my school there probably isn't going to be anything on it that will interest you. But if you want to take a look at what I'm doing in my journalism class throughout the semester, you can see it here. There will be no negative repercussions on A Dustland Fairytale. Everything I would have posted here will still be posted here. Now there's just more to love!

2. I have a new project. Last year I completed the Epic String Project:


Now, having seen that this size purse is barely sufficient to hold a cell phone and some mints, I have begun The Doubleplusepic String Project:


Where the last purse incorporated 48 strings of embroidery thread, each reinforced by folding in half (and thus making the true string count 96), this one will include 60 strings, which should add maybe an inch to the final product's width.



It's gonna take a while. But, I will be amused in chapel!

3. An odd phenomenon took place last spring, namely, that all of my friends suddenly stopped taking pictures of each other and the things we did together. It had been a long time since I'd changed my profile picture, and a friend of mine was looking to add some portraits to her photography portfolio, so we did a little photo shoot. She did a really excellent job, and I would encourage you to check out her website! Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot:









4. (Last one!) Yesterday was my birthday, and as I mentioned in my last post, Le Paul came to visit. Feast your eyes on the glorious, ADDtastic sparkledom that is my birthday present:



Why yes, I do have the most fabbity fab boyfriend in the world, thank you.

Peace, love, and Scum&Emperor,
Miss Rex

Yeah, I live in a fishbowl. 's pretty sweet.

I want THIS for my birthday:



FANGS UP.

So I moved in at school on Monday. The process gets a little less painful each year, though they always seem to pick the hottest, most humid day of the year for this event. I'm starting to believe it's not a coincidence. Worse, I now live on the third floor of the same building I've lived in for the past two years. As if traipsing up one flight of stairs after a typically weighty meal at the dining hall weren't bad enough, now I get to lug myself up TWO flights of stairs! Lucky me! Who needs a gym when you live on the third floor?

Well anyway, my three roommates have also moved into our former lounge of a dorm room. As far as on-campus housing goes, the Fishbowl (so named because two whole walls consist of nothing but windows) is truly the best you can get without making the step up to an apartment. Except for the furniture and visitation rules, I'd say it's even better because of the view. But, we aren't allowed to have upholstered furniture, which sucks because how are we supposed to entertain company without chairs, and we don't get apartment hours, which means we still only have 5 hours of visitation a day. For those of you who don't go to a Christian college, visitation hours are hours during which you're allowed to have guests of the opposite sex in your room or hall. Gay, right? Almost literally.

Since classes have yet to start, the only exciting bit of news I have to share is that I swam across Gull Pond and back yesterday. It's a heckalot bigger than it looks! And, there is a metropolis of seaweed in the middle, which likes to entangle breathless swimmers and force them to thrash about for their very lives.

I could have drowned.

I think I found my new workout regime!

To Infinity

Last week I had the privilege of seeing my good friends in Kiros play a show. The first time I saw them, Eli and I ended up getting Taco Bell with them and eating in their van. The second time (2 days later) I drove through rush hour traffic by myself to see them play at some random church where they would be the only people I knew. Somewhere in between, Eli and I joined them for a frigid game of disc golf that involved a lot of embarrassment on my part, which resulted in Neil taking his frisbee away from me so I wouldn't lose it and subsequently throwing it in a half-frozen swamp and losing it himself.

But back to the original story.

I picked up Gill and Cara and we drove out to the show. We got lost, and when we finally found the place it turned out the be the same small church they'd played at before. I WAS COMING FROM THE NORTH THEN, OK? And this time we came from the south. Through the really shady part of town with like, boarded up factories where kids smoked weed all day. No, I'm not stereotyping, jumping to conclusions, or even exaggerating: driving home again, the entire town reeked of Mary Jane.

We found the church and went in. After a minute I spotted Tyler, the drummer, and tackled him with a hug. Tyler has long hair, sweet glasses, and the greatest sleeve ever (it's based on a verse from Ezekiel. It says so on his wrist.) After that we found Ryan, the guitarist, who also got tackled with a hug. Equally long-haired. Less inked. Much sillier (and that's quite a statement if you've met Tyler). Then I found Neil, the lead guitarist, who to me was sort of like the Scarecrow to Dorothy - I got to know him first and thus grew to like him best. The comparison was made perfect by the straw hat he was wearing, which I stole and Gill changed the price tag to read $100.50 (it was only .50 before). At last I ran into Barry, the clean-cut lead singer/bassist. He's got a lot of heart and passion - but offstage, the other guys tend to overshadow him with their antics.

We also met a fellow I dubbed "Buzz Lightyear" because I didn't catch his name and he'd already dubbed us "Mandy, Candy and Sandy" (without anyone telling him my name was Mandii o_O). After that, it was only right that I return the nicknaming favor. He was excited to meet some people that weren't little youth group kids. We were, too. Everyone else there (except the band) was a little youth group kid. I forgot how much that holier than thou vibe drives me insane. But in my impressionable high school years, I was one of them, so I can hardly criticize. They put on a skit before Kiros played, which is only worth mentioning because the kid who played Jesus was later overheard devouring popcorn and telling his friend how blazed he was.

Then the guys finally took the stage. Unfortunately, there were a lot of problems with the audio, and even after a mid-show five-minute break for a hula hooping showdown between Tyler and Ryan, the issue still wasn't resolved. I was sorry Gill and Cara didn't get to see them at their best, but. Water under the bridge.

We hung around after the show and I invited the band to Dairy Queen, promising that we would pay for their ice cream. They wanted to make sure they spent time with all the fans, plus they had to pack up their gear, so it was a while before we got out of there. I was so hungry that Tyler went to find me some pizza, and when he brought back a slice of pepperoni, I devoured it. Someone kept squirting at me with a water gun and it was really pissing me off.

We finally hit the road, with the kids Kiros was staying with in tow, only to find that Dairy Queen was long closed. We ended up at another pit of fast food filth, McDonald's, where Ryan thoroughly infuriated the lady taking orders by asking why certain items weren't on the menu if they were, in fact, available. Then, while we waited for our ice cream, he stuck his finger up my nose. All I have to say about that is, someone recently told me that "unwanted penetration" is the definition of rape.

But maybe I deserved it. I did, after all, try to fish the $20 he stole from me out of his pocket when he wouldn't give it back.

We annoyed the hell out of the Mickey's staff until someone remembered that we had lil babies with us, who needed to be brought home at a reasonable hour, and we parted ways. Ryan made me promise to wear my heart shaped sunglasses to the show the following day and stand in the front row right where he plays so he could take them and wear them during his solo. I promised. I nabbed Neil's hat again and said he could have it tomorrow. Hugs all around, and then Gill, Cara and I drove back to Gill's house, enjoying that delicious buzz that comes from a night full of good music, good friends, and good ice cream (and had nothing to do with driving through Weedville.)

The Bucket List

In light of the fact I won't be a teenager much longer, I've been thinking a little bit about death. Actually though, I've been thinking more about life, specifically all the crazy wonderful amazingtastic things this world has to offer that I'd like to do before I kick the bucket. So here it is, that epic tome of everything I've always wanted to do as well as some things I've only recently realized I wanted to do. First Edition, to be amended.

THE BUCKET LIST

1. Visit all 50 states
2. Go to Australia
b. Scuba dive and see the Great Barrier Reef
3. Go to Japan
4. Go to Scotland
5. Go to England
b. write a book there
c. go backpacking
6. Trans-America road trip
7. Trans-Atlantic sea voyage (sooner rather than later since I need the experience to write my next book. If you can hook me up with that, PLEASE DO SO. I'll be forever indebted to you.)
8. Learn the constellations
9. See the Northern Lights
10. Take a flight in a hot air balloon
11. Kiss someone at the top of a Ferris Wheel
12. Go parasailing
13. Take a spin on one of those Miyazaki-esque flying machines (no, I don't mean an airplane; these have a little motor and a big parachute, and are just for one person).
14. Live on Coronado Island
15. Live in Colorado Springs
16. Live in a sphere. They have spheres you can rent for a weekend in the Canadian rainforest. I kid you not.
17. Have a room full of clocks.
18. Have my own tower (a lighthouse would also do.)
19. Go white water rafting through the Grand Canyon (can you do that? If not, I can settle for somewhere else. If I have to.)
20. Hike the Appalachian trail
21. Learn to surf
22. Ride an elephant
23. Work on a farm
b. Have a milk cow
24. Go wassailing
25. Be in a band
26. See Mutemath live in concert
27. Have my book made into a movie
28. Catch a drumstick at a show
29. Meet Switchfoot

WHO'S WITH ME? LET'S DO THIS.

This is the end of a really sad story.

Tonight Paul and I had the pleasure of driving half an hour to Cara's house to, allegedly, drink and play Rock Band. However, the two of us wound up sitting alone in the basement while the others upstairs "waited for Mike." When we went up there to see what had become of the elusive Mike, we found the three of them applying for Jane's loans. Then we went to Wendy's, where I made Paul buy me fries that I really shouldn't have eaten. Then we went back to Cara's, where Jane demanded we watch Dracula even though I was pulling for Ghostbusters and even had Paul on my side (which never happens when we're choosing movies). After convincing the rest of us, those three disappeared again and Paul and I sat in the basement without them, watching a movie we didn't want to watch, while they smoked pot without us and didn't even offer us any (not that I'm into that shit). So we drove half an hour home and here we are. The end.

Connections

Hey everybody! Sorry it's been so long. How I have missed spilling my guts to each and every one of you! Let's catch up, shall we?

Last week I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at WBZ. My neighbor, Mr. Ed, took me to work with him and I got to meet the people that make the news happen. Or, I mean, make it appear on TV. Not that it wouldn't be awesome if my neighbor was involved in an international circle of crime responsible for every calamity you see on the news.

Mr. Ed gave me the grand tour and introduced me to tech people, writers, newscasters, and most notably, Ken Barlow the weatherman, who let me push the button that makes the clouds move across the screen. I got to sit in while Jack Williams and Lisa Huges did the 10-and 30-second teasers that air between shows and suck people into watching the news. Mr. Ed filmed and edited those suckers in like thirty minutes flat. He was temporarily working a night shift and sharing an office with Sean, the producer, so I got to meet him too (and got mistaken for his girlfriend by Jack Williams XD). He does that thing I do with videos, where he tries to fit too much stuff in not enough time. Unlike me, he's got someone else (Mr. Ed) trimming to make it fit, and that's where the pressure really happens. Lucky Sean.

Overall I was really impressed at the team they had over there. It's a very well-oiled machine. As much as I'd hate to get in the way of that, I hope there'll be some opportunity for me to get involved, maybe as an intern or a PA or something. Mr. Ed says he'll let me know. Fingers crossed.

Sunday night I saw my birthmother, Jolie, and her husband (but not my father), Michael. I've met Jolie once before... not counting the nine months I spent inside her. She was nervous, and even Michael was cautious lest he do anything to offend us, but everyone relaxed more as the night went on. We took a walk down to the Reservoir and I caught Jolie up on some of my recent adventures. Then we lounged in the living room and Jolie showed me pictures of their boat on the canal by their home in Florida, and the family at their cabin in Maine. Someday I hope I can visit both in real life, but for now I'm keeping things on my parents' turf (that is, the ones that raised me) until they're comfortable letting my birth parents have a more significant place in my life. Which would never, ever be before the parents I've lived with for twenty years; they've been there through it all and no one could ever replace that.

Other than that, it's been the same old same old... although with my job, nothing is ever really the same old. Sad that I've only got three days left with my kiddos.

Til next time! Peace, love, and toe socks.