Friday, October 19, 2012

Rosey's Diary: San Diego, Livin' The Dream

It's been a couple weeks since I've written a diary post, so I'll try and catch up with the things I've forgotten to post or failed to mention since the last post (10.3.2012), but you how these get all long winded and such...to be perfectly honest, I write them more for myself than for you anyway, but if you have any interest, click 'read more' below. Oh, and remember how I told you that North Park was named the #13th hippest neighborhood in the country? My friends Pat & Kristian and their team and My SMN put together this cool little video series for North Park Main Street after getting a flood of media requests from people all over the country (and internationally) whose interest was piqued by the designation. You can see my nephew, Baby Ziggy, at 1:35.


So I left off on October 3. That night the Casbah presented The Head and the Heart, Blitzen Trapper, Bryan John Appleby at Spreckels Theatre. I went with Elliott, but we were a little bit late and only caught the end of Bryan, but the whole show was just phenomenal (though I can't believe it didn't sell out). Somehow I was the only approved photographer in the pit that night, and though I embarrassingly tripped on my way out of the pit after Blitzen Trapper, fortunately I was able to avoid falling down the scary trap door in the orchestra pit.


The next day, Darren and I made a trip out to Lemon Grove. We have been stalking Craig's List to try and find me a bow for archery, which can retail somewhere anywhere from $400 new, but the one we found still might be a bit too powerful for me. We saw this little BBQ spot and had to try it. It's called Barnes BBQ and their slogan is "We put the South In Your Mouth". The food was awesome and hopefully we can go back again another time. My god sister was having her final volleyball game of her season, so I rode the bus/trolley down to Chula Vista where my sister and I surprised her. She's on the freshman team for Castle Park and they kicked ass. It just generally makes me happy that she decided to get into high school athletics with no experience and with her height, she is certainly an asset to her team. That night I worked at the Ariel Pink show then finished the night exploring North Park on the bike I'm test driving, hitting up Seven Grand, Bar Pink, and then finishing up at Eleven. I'm not buying the bike after all, but it has been really fun having two wheels again.

On Friday night, Jeff and I had dinner at the House of Blues and then stayed for the Admiral Fallow show, then hit the Casbah for a little bit of the Burning of Rome CD release show until Darren picked me up to see Class Actress at The Griffin. He works on weekends but decided to take some time off to catch the show, so I wish the band had played when they were supposed to but we filled the time playing pool and shuffleboard. Darren was pretty bummed that they played to tracks instead of a live drummer, but it was a fun night for us nonetheless. Because it went late, I didn't make it back to the Casbah and just came home waiting for his shift to finish.

The next day is a lot of what you see in that video at the top of this post. It was the day of the Taste of North Park, but we missed out on tickets so we went for a bike ride from Normal Heights to University Heights then back through North Park and had lunch at Riki Sushi (which was nice and empty since it wasn't part of Taste). Darren took off to work but before he did, I ran into Kyle and Kristian so I stayed with them at Urbn for awhile before I had to bike home. My best friend is getting married next weekend, so we had her Bachelorette with a dinner at Ken Grill and drinks at the Ken Club. Super fun and without super crazy shenanigans.

On October 7, my niece had her third birthday party at PB Rec Center and that was really fun. Darren and I snuck away when we found a ping pong table, and we decided to play some tennis, which is when I completely pulled or popped or strained or sprained my calf muscle that made walking nearly impossible. Fortunately my bro-in-law had a friend loan me crutches and when Darren left to work, I went to the El Cajon Oktoberfest with the girls- my mom, sister, god-sister, and two nieces. After several hours of sitting, my leg was killing me so sadly I missed the Dry The River show at Soda Bar. Guess I can't do it all. Darren has been such a champ with me and I'm grateful beyond words. Not only has he been carting me all over town (like the next day when we picked up my Peter Gabriel tix from Jack FM), but bringing me goods and supplies like a heating pad and other gestures that leave me speechless.

Monday night I went to Peter Gabriel with my mom and we sat with Tim Pyles. We were in the nosebleeds, but it was cool to see him for my first time ever regardless. See my videos here. After the show, my mom left me at the Hard Rock Hotel for the free show with Divine Fits, which was awesome. It was well attended but not overdone, and when I was taking some pictures, the security guy ushered me up to the front which was pretty cool. You can see my videos for that here.

All this fun stuff means that on Tuesday I mostly hung out with Darren, caught up on work and then had some evening cocktails at Eleven, followed by my Wednesday Casbah meeting which is always fun after we have skipped a couple. Afterward, Pyles and I hit up M-Theory and lunch at Mama Testa, before I met back up with Darren. I had ditched the crutches by Tuesday, and we had 22 open hours ahead of us, so it was a fun date night. We started in the afternoon with ping pong at the Adams Avenue Rec Center, did some shopping around Sports Arena where we priced out rafts and canoes for future Humphrey's Concerts. We picked up some snacks and clam chowder from Point Loma Seafoods and went to Humphrey's. We didn't have tickets, so we just laid out in the grass listening to the show which was just perfect. After the show, we returned to the 'hood, having a couple drinks as we saw Kite Sun Kid at Eleven and then K Flay at Soda Bar, and then closed down the night back at Eleven. I have to say it was a pretty amazing 22 hours and evidence how much fun can be had without spending a lot of money.

Thursday I tried to rest up my leg but by late afternoon hobbled down El Cajon Boulevard to check out the new San Diego Soup Shoppe (2850 El Cajon Blvd). Run by my friends Jeff and Stephanie with Paloma working the register, I am so happy to have another delicious food option close to home. I had the lobster bisque and a black forest ham and havarti panini. It is outstanding and you have to check it out. Darren came by to pick me up so we could go to the Irenic, which was a total blessing because I'd left my crutches at home which was surely a mistake, and it started pouring outside. The show was awesome with Bad Books, The Drowning Men, and Harrison Hudson. To see my Bad Books videos, click here. This was my favorite Harrison Hudson song:



I shot a bunch of video of Bad Books, too. You can see those here. After the show I hobbled to Eleven and Soda Bar and closed out the night.



On Friday, Jeff picked me up early in the afternoon to head up to Orange County. We had an incredible dinner at Charlie Palmer's at South Coast Plaza, then went across the street to the amazing Orange County Center for Performing Arts for David Byrne & St. Vincent. I was glad to have heard the show on Wednesday because I was more familiar with the set and knew what to expect, and we were sitting 9th row, which was super cool because they encourage photography and videography. Our seats were close enough that it was the equivalent distance as standing at the Casbah soundboard. Clearly I've been backed up with all of this video, but you can watch a large portion of the show on my video playlist here. The show was relatively early, so we still made it back to the Casbah in time for Old Tiger at the CD release show.

Brian Karscig of Nervous Wreckorda

On Saturday it felt really nice to sleep in until Darren and I went to Liberty Station for Daye & Kat's wedding picnic, then picked up Chase so he and I could head down to the Night & Day Street Fest. We went straight to Mission Brewery for some beer flights before catching sets from Nervous Wreckords and Everest and others, then left to see Brian Posehn at the American Comedy Club. We got there a bit too early, so had some drinks at Urban Bar & Grill where Michael McGraw was playing a solo set. We'd hoped to make it back to the street fair, but it was late, so instead went to Soda Bar to catch the end of Sun Airway before Darren picked us up to take Chase back to OB.

Sun Airway
Sunday was beautiful around San Diego, so Darren and I went to West Coast Tavern for an awesome brunch, then walked around North Park before he was off to work. Do yourself a favor and check out Nose to the Grind on Ray Street. The owner, Brent, is super awesome and made us coffee as we shopped and looked at all of his cool art and kitchen gadgets. He's opening a second shop on Kettner in November with a grand opening party tenatively planned for November 19. After an afternoon nap, Darren and I went to dinner at my friends' house in Cardiff before he dropped Kristian and I off at the Michael McDonald show at the Belly Up. I tried shooting video but I guess it wasn't allowed for this show, so you'll just have to imagine that it was pretty awesome and Kristian was stoked beyond words.

Michael McDonald at Belly Up
By Monday, I'd deeply regretted not using crutches all week, and while my calf felt better, my entire ankle and foot was a deep plum color and swollen all to hell. So yes, I've been elevating, icing, and back on the crutches all week because I want to get back on the tennis court for a rematch sooner rather than later. I stayed home most of the day with just a popover to Eleven on Monday night. Tuesday was chill with lunch, babysitting, work, and a good nap before dinner at Dood's Foods at Tin Can then Bombay Bicycle Club at House of Blues, followed by Los Campesinos! at the Casbah.

Wrapping all of this up, I'll say that Wednesday was kind of a disaster. I hadn't eaten all day and an afternoon coffee meeting was changed to day drinking at the Alibi and the show at the Casbah and late late night at Eleven. I was incredibly stupid and should've stopped while I was somewhat coherent, so I'm sorry to anyone who encountered SuperRosey that night. By Thursday I was freaking because I couldn't remember where I'd left my backpack with my laptop in it. Fortunately I eventually remembered leaving it by the coffee pot at the Casbah, and when it was confirmed by the afternoon, Chase was cool enough to pick it up and deliver it to me. As thanks, we shared a pizza from Venice Pizza House and I decided I could use a night without a show, which brings me to now. It's 4:44 in the morning on Friday and I suppose I should get to sleep since I have a big weekend planned. On Friday I'll be at the Casbah for Bowerbirds and will be doing my first ever TV interview with Bowerbirds for SoundDiego TV (to air on Saturday night after SNL). On Saturday I'll be down at Rocktoberfest most of the afternoon for setup and some of the bands until I have to work at the Irenic for the Frightened Rabbit show. From there, I'll likely head to the Lafayette for No Knife and aMiniature, or maybe just kick around North Park, and Sunday, Casbah presents Crystal Castles at Soma. I don't think I have a date for that show, so hit me up if you wanna be my plus one for that one.

So yeah, I rambled on and on like I used to back in the early days of my blogging life, but as I've said a lot lately, things have been super great. Next week will be just as busy as always, and I'll be dodging the pre-Halloween weekend shenanigans with a trip to Puerto Vallarta for my best friend's wedding. Here's to hoping that my foot returns to normal and that life stays as great as it has been.

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