Willo O'Brien

But, after seeing Sarah’s results, I was curious to see if mine would say the same or something different.

You’re Libby Reynolds
(Kelly Preston – ‘What a Girl Wants’)

You’ve had your share of hearbreak but have a tremendous sense of self. You know who you are and that’s something you’ve never compromised. You love deeply but you value your space and allow the same courtesy to others. You’re an avid believer that if you love someone, let them go. If they love you, they will return. Your strength of character is your greatest asset.

You’re vintage rock and roll, a flower child born too late. You sing and write poetry to express yourself.

All in all, you’re the genuine article.

Which Romantic Comedy Heroine Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Here’s a bunch of random videos I’ve taken over the last month. I’ve found regardless of the crappy sound, it can be fun to peek into a show (or random other event) with sound and movement instead of just still images.

To read about my going to these shows/places/etc, just look through my blog archives or do a keyword search. To see related photos from these events, you can find them here. Enjoy!

• White Stripes light up the crowd
   
• White Stripes movie 2
   
• White Stripes movie 3
   
• The Ponys @ BotH
   
• Scissors for Lefty @ RDL
   
• Hijack the Disco @ Fort Oregon
   
• Kissing Tigers @ BotH
   
• Wolf Parade @ the Warfield
   
• Arcade Fire @ the Warfield
   
• Arcade Fire @ the Warfield – end of the show, this was right after Win disappeared into the audience
   
• Stellastarr* @ The Independent 1
   
• Stellastarr* @ The Independent 2
   
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• Topanga 911 song – Dee & I went to this Topanga Canyon Emergency preparedness day while I was there, and this funny little show was going on. This is what actors do in LA if they don’t have jobs. haha
   
• Fatty and Boots play w/ a string

It all started Saturday afternoon. My old friend Matt said he was in my ‘hood & asked me to meet him for a drink in the Mission at 6pm. We hit the Revolution cafe, which is an interesting little cafe I’ve walked past a number of times, but never gone to (it’s that funky corner cafe between LAC & the Makeout Room, if you’re familiar). It was nice to chill & drink a glass of wine while the sun was setting. Good people watching, too.

I needed dinner, and Matt was down – so we called our friend Stig & had him meet us for dinner @ one of our favorite Bernal Height’s restaurants, Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack. More wine and good conversation, not to mention some delicious Spaghetti & Meatballs, and all of a sudden it was 9 and I had to get to my show! Matt drove me over to the Fillmore where I met Ali for the Josh Ritter/Frames show. Ali works for Josh Ritter, so we got to go backstage & watch The Frames play from the VIP area upstairs. aww yaaa.

Me, Zach & Ali @ the Fillmore

Both bands were great. I hadn’t heard any Josh Ritter before, but he absolutely put his heart and soul into playing, and it’s always so fun to watch a band have such a great time on stage. Also, due to Ali’s relationship to the band, it was fun to be on that end of it and be excited to see other audience members singing all the words and enjoying their set so much! I’ve had the Frames CD for awhile now, and really like it, so I was excited to see them live… and they were excellent! Especially from the VIP section with free drinks. :p It was actually really fun because we were standing right there when they walked down to get ready to go on. They all walked down one by one & you could sort of seeing them taking deep breaths & mentally preparing. So cute.

The Frames @ The Fillmore

After the show we all hit the Lone Palm to have another drink (luckily it wasn’t horribly smokey like it is usually!). “Highlights” of the Lone Palm will go unmentioned, but boy oh boy was it fun! After we closed it down, I called my friend Lulu to see if her party was still going on, and it was! She had a huge party that night & I showed up on the tail end of it, but there were still quite a number of people there! But it doesn’t look like it in my photos, because I didn’t take my camera out until the wee hours.

Party girls up late

Bottom line is Lulu & I ended up staying up talking till 5:30 in the morning! She lives just a few blocks away from me, so I stumbled home around 6am and realized I’d been partying for 12 hours. HA!!! Totally fun night!! Here’s all the photos from my 12 hour adventure.

Misty called me at 11am to see if I was still down for the brunch she’d planned… if you can believe it, I rallied & went! ha! I got up, showered, walked to where I’d left my car the night before and joined them at Savor at noon! Yes, i’m crazy.

Derek, Ted, Misty & I with full bellies out in front of Savor

View all photos from Sunday’s Savor brunch

Oh & I also posted photos from last Wednesday night’s Birdmonster/Serene Lakes/Catholic Comb show @ Cafe du Nord!

Yay!! After 2 years of meaning to do this, I’m finally making it happen!! This weekend I’m flying to Seattle to buy the TDI I’ve been looking for: VW Golf TDI, 4DR, GLS (power windows/keyless entry/etc), Automatic and… RED!!! woohooo! Here’s a pic of my soon-to-be new ride:

UPDATE: Here’s photos from my roadtrip going to get my new car!! And here’s some more current photos of SMOO!

What’s a TDI? TDI stands for Turbodiesel, which means it the car can run on any combination of diesel and biodiesel! Biodiesel is essentially “veggie oil” and I’m super stoked to be a part of the green movement with my car, and paying less & less into the mad gas racket that’s going on.

Whoa, you’re flying all the way to Seattle? YES! These TDI’s are actually becoming harder & harder to find. You can’t buy one brand new here in CA, and buying used you quickly find yourself limited to the selection here in the Bay Area. Mostly because they get purchased very fast, and even then to find the features I was looking for, it was clear I would have to look nationally. I spoke with a couple people who have had theirs shipped all the way from the East Coast, so I’m actually way down for a west coast road trip than having to pay for shipping from so far away!

In addition to my TDI being red, automatic, 4 door, etc – the price is right, too. I don’t have any debt and I don’t want any. So it was important for me to find a car that would be priced as close to how much I think I can get for my Trooper. Plus, the girl I’m buying it from sounds awesome. She’s selling it because she’s about to take a round the world trip! My friend, Kevin, is doing that right now and he’s having a blast.

If you want more info on biodiesel, here are some cool resources:

• Biodiesel Blog – my friend Eric maintains this blog & has been an awesome resource & inspiration for me in my quest. He has a silver VW Golf TDI :)
• SFBiofuel.com – San Francisco’s Biodiesel Co-op!
• BioFuelOasis -Berkeley fuel station
• Berkeley Biodiesel Collective

If you are looking to buy a TDI, you can do individual searches in every city’s Craigslist, or you can also do an advanced National search on carsdirect.com, using the keywords “diesel” or “tdi”.

Biodiesel is a little more per gallon right now, but the more people sign on to this (which is happening right now at a rapid rate) then hopefully the price can continue to come down. Eric & I might also look into setting up something in my garage/basement for filtering our own… but we’ll see. The best news is that I will go from getting 17 MPG in my Trooper, to getting 42-49 MPG in this TDI! And I’m thinking my insurance will even go down. wooohooo!

Hello road trip #2 in 30 days! First LA, now this! I read (err, listened) to the book Pattern Recognition on my way to/from LA a couple weeks ago, which was fun. It was like every time I got back in my car, I could dive back into the world of the book. I’ve got a big list of audio books, so I’ll let you know what I end up listening to. I’ll have plenty of time, that’s for sure! I’ve heard this scenery on this trip is really pretty, too. I’m excited!

I have no idea how it got on my calendar (besides the notion that I simply saw it somewhere and marked it down), but just in case any of you are planning to go to Amoeba tonite for a free QOTSA show… it’s not happening.

I’m trippin, cuz I have no idea where I saw it if I didn’t get it off the Amoeba newsletter or website. All I know is that it sucks, because I would have loved to see them play!! dangit!

Anyway, very sorry to all QOTSA & WilloToons fans! And a big thanks to Miss Jennimann for pointing it out to me!

say that title line in one of those big booming monster truck voices.

except for some reason i don’t feel like blogging at all right now. so at the risk of an uninspired post, just go look at my photos instead:

Friday night: Stellastarr* at the Independent
Saturday: Webzine2005 and then Lisa’s BBQ in Oakland

Photos from my trip to LA have been posted! Here’s a few details:

I cruised in early Friday morning (I drove down most of the way Thursday night and stayed at a hotel about an hour or so outside of LA) and headed to the WB Studios to meet up with a friend. Crossing my fingers I’d see some E.R. stars we cruised around the lot in a go cart & checked out the E.R. sets. Amazing how different they look on TV! ha! In the end, I only had one small star sighting of Freddie star, Brian Austin Green, walking with his back to me, but hey – I was like 15 feet away, so there! Big news, dude.

After the WB tour I headed to WACKO, which my friend had raved about, so I had to go. It’s this huge, awesome store with all the books, toys, and uber fun things you can possibly imagine fitting into one place. To boot, they’ve got a gallery (La Luz de Jesus Gallery) in the back that, while I was there, was showing SHAG! It was great to see his real paintings in person. Here’s one of my favs:

“The Amoralists” by SHAG
24″x 48″, Acrylic & Vinyl Paint on Panel

I like to think she’s talking to her kitty about how she’s going to crash the party & make herself a drink. :)

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By the way, Friday I had 2 of those lovely LA “oh crap, I missed my exit” adventures. :) Luckily I was in no real rush to get anywhere on time, so I didn’t freak out too bad! I had another one the next day, however, that got me caught in an accident backup that took me an hour to get through. Do’h! So don’t miss that part of LA at. all.

:::

Friday night after getting myself to Dee’s place way up in Topanga Canyon, we got ready & headed down to Santa Monica, where we met up with Renee, Chris & Steve at the World Cafe.

Me & Renee!

Renee & I grew up together in Steamboat, CO, but we haven’t seen eachother in over 11 years! We got in touch again about a year or so ago after my 10 year reunion and I promised I’d call her when I went to LA next. :) It was so fun to have her join us for drinks and get to know her a little bit as an adult! :) She’s a sweetie. Come visit me in SF, Renee!

Me & my girl, Dee Money out on the town (Santa Monica) Friday night!

Dee graciously hosted me at her sweet little Topana home. Here’s the view out of her big sliding glass window doors:

Beautiful!

Dee & I again, partyin in a local bar in Topanga Canyon Saturday night!
awww yaaa local bars. So fun!

And because I can’t resist, I have to post this hottie pic of Dee at one of our luxurious brunches at Pat’s Topanga Grill:

aww yaa, baby. this girl rolls right!

Other highlights of the weekend:

• Meeting Steve of theSneeze!
• Meeting Chris of ChasetheLight! Read his account of the night here. That’s pretty funny… Just for you, Chris: It was awesome meeting you in person finally! Happy Birthday!!!!!! :)

  I love my internet friends! :)

• Seeing my dear friend Aletha, who I haven’t seen since her wedding, five years ago! (look at that wedding link for a few photos of me with my natural blond hair!)

  Ten years ago my friend Paula introduced me to Aletha & we became fast friends. To the tune of my sharing a bed with her for a couple months when we were both broke and needed the break on rent while we were living in a teeny 1 bedroom in West Hollywood. :)

  Aletha introduced me to the joys of Del Taco and the beautiful hikes at our fingertips in the Malibu hills. A few years later we met up in Spain & traveled for 10 days together! We’ve been through a lot and even lost touch for a few years recently, but Aletha is an amazing person and I am so happy she’s in my life.

Overall the weekend was so relaxing and it was good to get out of town! Here’s a link to all the photos, again.

Coming home I got to see Karrie & Wayne for a bit while they hopped in & out enjoying their last 24 hours in SF. I had gotten Karrie a little surprise for her bday, but to my surprise they had gifts for me when I returned! so sweet! Their gifts couldn’t have been more perfect for me: A beautiful little necklace, which on one side has a little fish drawing with blue & orange (love those colors) & the other, some sweet little flowers. A reversable necklace? I love it! And the other was a Nara book of postcards! yay!!! I love Nara! But I’m afraid none of these will ever get to see the light of day, I can’t bear to part with even one of them! haha!

I’m so glad I was able to skip town & offer up my home to them while they were visiting. Plus it was so helpful and wonderful they took such good care of my Kazoobie, too! Thanks guys! Can’t wait to see all your photos from your visit here! xoxo

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As I said Sunday night I cruised back & caught the Arcade Fire w/ Wolf Parade show at the Warfield and LOVED it! < that link is to the few photos I took from our balcony seats. Enjoy!

Lastnight on my way home, driving back from LA, I got a call from my friend Dan saying he had 4 tickets to the (very sold out) Arcade Fire/Wolf Parade show. I was stoked… mostly because I have fallen in love with the new Wolf Parade album and wanted to see them so bad! So I called everyone I knew, quickly found 3 friends who were into going, raced into the city as fast as I could (didn’t even have time to go home and drop off my stuff first!), picked up the tix and went directly to the Warfield. wooohooo!

Long story short is that the show kicked ass. But since I have GOT to work & would like to spend some time adding some photos & more detail to the post, it’ll have to wait till later. Just wanted to let anyone know who was keeping track that I’m back safe & sound. Photos & such will be posted soon. xo

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