Willo O'Brien

Hope you’re all enjoying your Easter Sunday and having Hip-Hoppity good time!

I myself am trying to clear off the to-do’s on my massive list. One being taxes!! oy! But I’m making progress.

Thursday night we hit an awesome show at GAMH. I picked up Sarah & Ian and we met Rick, Jem, Tania and a friend of theirs at the venue. A whole crew!

Our pals Rogue Wave were opening – and as always, they rocked it so good… If not even the most rockin yet… they were totally hittin it hard and I loved it!! Sarah really liked em too – I knew she would. Pat has grown out the tasty chops he had goin on and now it’s a full beard. That’s ok – I still have fro envy for his awesome Sideshow Bob curly fro. And that Sonya was showin all her rockstar tatoos. She’s SUCH a cutie!! And of course Golden Gram…. I love watching him perform… he always just looks like he’s having the BEST time and it radiates such a good vibe into the crowd.

Then I got to finally see Bart Davenport – and with his full band! Which apparently means I missed some of his more quirky solo interactions (finger waggin’ – can’t wait to see that!)… but I’m sure I’ll have the opportunity to see him again. I love his CD.. it’s really quite diverse, with some songs sounding straight out of the 70’s. Really beautiful… and he’s great live!

Kelley Stoltz is such a character on stage and his music goes beyond his years, it’s so rich and wise somehow. I enjoyed his set, especially because he too was playing with a full band, and I’d only see him play a solo set before as well. He’s great live – especially after listening to the CD for months now… it all comes together live and honestly blows me away how much I enjoy it. Good stuff.

Overall it was awesome to see these 3 bands play GAMH. It was a relatively small crowd (for the spacious GAMH), but I loved it that way. It felt cozy, like most everyone knew eachother or was friends of the band or friends of friends… it was nice. Sometimes this city is such a small town – I love that about the Bay Area.

I got to see the charming MeatyJax there, too, and that was nice. The best part was our hug goodbye. Sometimes those bend down to say goodbye hugs can be so bad – but this one was really good. Yay for hugs!

I was soccermom willo drivin the crew home that night – but I was happy to have such a large group of peeps out to enjoy the show!

I have been taking a lot of photos of the fuzzy pants, rest assured!! Here’s a few until I have the time to get the rest together.

No matter how small the box is, Kazoo is determined to get in it. I laughed so hard when I saw him jump in this one – he barely fits!



(and yes, that’s a large stuffed peach. I also have a lemon and grapes :)

Longing to go outside….

Kazoo probably spends atleast 40% (of his awake time) looking out the window to make sure he’s not missing something big. There’s 3 kitties that live downstairs, so he’s sure to keep an eye on them, so they don’t come up here & sit on *his* porch.

Ok, so I’m officially gonna start taking lessons to play the drums!

I have to call a few of the teachers who’ve been offered up to me, but the bottom line is that I’m finally going for it!!!

I’m excited.

What’s funny is my long time friend (my e-friend, since we’ve never met in person, we’ve only emailed for probably the last 3 years or so) Johnny P send me this link to a kick ass drum set on ebay. How did he know? :) I don’t think I’ll be buying my own set for awhile.. but if I did – look at this one – it’s RED!!!

Johnny P has been an inspiration, because he has been teaching himself the drums for a couple years (?) now – and it goes w/o saying he loves watching the drummers in bands just as much as I do. Last Thanksgiving he even sent me this awesome video with a tour of his studio (and a camio of his kitty, Charlotte is in there, too!). He was kinda making a spoof from a goofy video I’d done of myself where I was filming myself doing a sound check on my Nikon camera.

Anyway – Johnny’s awesome – and it’d be sweet to have a house where I could have my own mini lil’ studio and jam on the drums on Thanksgiving morning :)

I showed Rick the link to the drum set Johnny emailed me and he was like, “aawww shiit, It’s STARTING!”

Rick plays guitar, so we talk “guitar talk” quite a bit – and he’s taught me a lot about what the guitarists we see are playing and such. And he’s in the market for a new electric guitar, too. So I think he’s psyched I’ll actually be starting to talk gear talk with him more. That and he’ll have lots of new ideas for gifts :) hahaa

Let the fun begin!

Wednesday’s are a little tight for me because I have to hurry and finish everything up before 5pm, when I have to leave for Bamboozled. However, it blows me away that even when I’m in a bad mood or stressed – spending time with the teens out there for a couple hours always puts me in a better mood. Not that I was in a bad mood yesterday – I’m just sayin… it’s a part of my week I always look forward to, even though it pinches Wednesday work time.

After lastnight’s meeting, like many weeks – I headed off to a show. Lastnight Rick & I went to see The Raveonettes w/ openers: Von Iva and The Hiss.

We had seen the Raveonettes way back in Sept03, right after Rick & I first meet and were still “just friends” :) We didn’t have their CD yet, we’d only listened to some MP3’s and thought we’d go check em out. They played a rather thin crowd at the Great American (actually people are calling this “the Music Hall” more lately, but it’ll always be the Great American to me – or “GAMH”. Full name: Great American Music Hall – aanyway…), and I remember not being that into them – and instead that was the first night we experienced StellaStarr*, who stole the show and I fell in love with them!

So, despite not being that impressed with them at the time, I’ve since had the Raveonette’s CD and really have enjoyed it. So, I figured with this show being at a more intimate venue: Bottom of the Hill, and I’d heard a lot of things about The Hiss, so I thought we should hit it.

Von Iva opened, and we made sure we were there – as from the photos on their site, they looked like 4 hot chics in a band. sweet!

The lead singer has a great voice – and serious stage presence as she shakes her booty around in a amateur strip tease kinda way. Moves sometimes quirky and akward, yet somehow sexy and you can’t take your eyes off her (wanting to make sure if she trips and falls – you see it first!) hahaa But she had some SERIOUS tatoos making her even more rockstar… one of them on the middle of her back that said IVA – now THATs commitment! :)

So ya, they got the crowd going, the drummer was GREAT! I was inspired to watch her, as I really liked how she got to play during each song… like, not just keepin the beat – but a little bit of everything changin it up. And she’s a cute chic! awww yaaa, drumming world here I come! :)

So in summary: They were entertaining. And I think the lead singer has a good voice. If I were her, I’d be in a chic band shakin my shit too. :)

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The Hiss came on next and I was thinking they were gonna be really good! I had just heard a song of theirs played on KEXP earlier yesterday, and have heard their name getting tossed around here & there at SXSW & such.

Unfortunately – for as hard as they were rockin, hardly anyone was moving. Including us. The first song made Rick and I look at eachother and say “this song can end now”. And somehow it kept going on and on. One of those songs where the lyrics are the same verse over and over and over. How can they think that is still interesting in the third minute of it? End the damn song already! Instead they sequed into a different song, but you’d hardly be able to tell if it weren’t for the fact they finally stopped saying the same verse over and over again.

They didn’t have a good stage presence… they weren’t engaging the crowd at all, and here they are rockin their asses off up there, but if you looked at the people in the audience, nobody was that into it. Maybe their CD is better, but live – I’m not a fan.

:::

The Raveonettes were good to see again, after knowing all their songs really well now – and due to Rick’s talking about her so often, this time I was much more entranced with the lead vox chic, Sharon Fu – who is hot and has a sexy sultry voice that people beg her to say their names – or say ANYTHING to them. :) She’s cute and totally rockstar.

Their songs rock, but their vocals are kinda mellow – so it was good to see them again, but it’ll probably be the last time. But we had fun and danced a little to them. They’re opening for the Strokes at the Warfield tonite – that’ll be a good show for them.

AND we saw Ken, their manager who we met over us all trying to get on the wireless network in our hotel in Austin/SXSW. It was fun to see him in a different state (and the man lives in Paris full time!) so we went & said hello and thanked him for the awesome insider list he had given us. He said he didn’t get a chance to see much since he was working the whole time, so he was glad someone took advantage of it. And that we did… I looked at Rick just remembering what an awesome week of shows that was. *sigh*

Tonite: Kelley Stoltz, Rogue Wave & Bart Davenport at GAMH! woohoo! Jem (and maybe Tania?), me, Rick, Sarah and her friend are all going. I’m looking forward to *finally* seeing Bart D play live – and tonite is with the full band!

Which reminds me – I’ve got some SERIOUS updating to do on my music event calendar. I’ve added a few things to the yahoo calendar, but it’s only so that I don’t double book myself! :)

We’ve already got tickets to shows I don’t even have listed yet: Britt Daniel (solo), The Wrens, Tracey & The Plastics, Metric/Mellodrone, and a few more I think… I’m debating hitting John Vanderslice next week, too – but that’d be 3 shows/row. Which I can handle of course, cuz I’m a professional!! But he’s local, so I’m thinkin I could catch him another time if I wanted to. The good thing aboout it would be they’re all 3 at different venues. Sometimes 3 nights in a row at Bottom of the Hill can get old… hence a part of why I didn’t go to last Friday nights show there. I’d had enough.

Ok, I have to work now! BYE!

My workout buddy, Rebecca, and I have been all thrown off our workout schedule since she went off and got a FT job – how dare she! Her unemployed status was helping me get in shape!!! :) But it’s of course a good thing she can now pay the rent & afford to go to shows with us, too… so it’s kinda a lose one/gain another trade-off.

Aaanyway – we used to go in the morning, were it was nice and NOT busy.. and without her it’s extremely hard to get my ass there on my own. Especially the last few weeks after returning from Austin’s lushfest and having piles of work (positive problem!), it’s been extra difficult to get there. Actually I haven’t even tried! I’ve just been plain out of habit and letting myself conveniently stay there.

But I’m addicted now, I tell you. I crave working out! So tonite we went. We planned it & went!! Yay for us! But nay for the dumb busy gym full of people on our machines!! Except – I ran into my friend Hai! Such a surprise to see him there, and a good one at that… I never see him anymore!

Anyway – the BEST part was that after our weights (my arms are spaghetti) and our abs (ugh) and our cardio (I started reading this book) we went for yummy in my tummy BURRITOS!! At none other than my favorite: Papalote! woohoo!!!

Their chips & salsa is the BEST. I got the marinated tofu burrito and treasure hunted all the goodies from the inside with my fork. yumm. And she got the camaron tacos (shrimp) and we ate and chatted and had a good ol’ time.

So ya, that’s my story – I just thought I’d say how damn excited I am to have worked out this evening – it felt soo good! And to then have had some delicious mexican food, too? AWESOME!

OK… so what was all that mad cleaning really about lastnight?

I had a camera crew come to my house this morning.

Yup.. a camera crew!!

Crazy. Between this & the modeling gig – I might need an agent, huh?! ha!

So, I can’t tell you what it was about – but I will tell you that they interviewed me, filmed my website, my blog, my sketches, and some of my animations.

I was nervous a little – especially them filming me sketching – and having to answer some of their questions w/o sounding totally dumb. :) But I’m sure it’ll all get edited together all fancy and you’ll only even see about 3 seconds of me from all the footage that they took.

Doing stuff like this makes me so glad I’m not a movie star or someone famous that has to be in front of the camera all the time. Ug – no wonder we think so many people we see on TV sound like idiots, it’s hard to sound articulate when the camera is on you and there’s all these lights and people around!! It’s all just kinda artificial somehow, ya know? And yet you have to *act* real. Wierd. :)

Anyway, overall it went well I think. (even though it was kinda scary and now I want to be an ostrich and stick my head in a dark place where no one can see me! Don’t Look!)

I’ll try to keep you posted when I can release more details. I can’t wait to see the end result!

My weekend was awesome. In short:

Friday night I was wiped out. All this workin hard ;) I had woke up early on Friday to hit a deadline, and didn’t get my precious 8 hours of beauty sleep.

So we skipped out on going to the show I’d bought tix for: Les Sans Culottes with Rene Risque & The Art Lovers and Coco Rosie.

Jem went & said Coco Rosie was good, and Rene Risque and Les Sans were campy and although it was all alright, they left early.

Well we caught up on some hilarious Reno 911 and chilled out and it was niice.

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Saturday we ate breakfast at Savor in Noe Valley – and then hit Streetlight Records, where I picked up the new David Byrne and some Apples in Stereo. Rick got some Muddy Waters – and a CD of a band Elliot Smith was in before…

Buying new music is fun!

Except I got a ticket – which sucks because I feel like I just payed a gazillion dollars in parking tickets here lately. arg! Rick pitched in and it made me feel better. Thank you shugga daddy!! (just kidding :)

We also went into Ambiance and I have to say that store is awesome and I wish I could spend $1000 there sometimes. Except $600 maybe so I could use $400 for shoes. :)

Sorry, I think I have the shopping-travel-the-world bug… oh and add the do-more-artwork-all-day bug, too.

Then again, I’m very grateful for all that I have – and I actually think, although they won’t maybe turn out as grandiouus as they are here, I’ll probably do atleast 1/2 of them in some/way/shape/form.

:::

I feel lucky to do creative work for a living. I am loving working at home and making myself coffee in the morning, and figuring out whats on my schedule for the day!! I just gotta keep up the pace! I need to go to the gym is what I need to do. I was super busy, but for crimeny’s sake – it’s only an hour or so.

:::

See how much I’ve had to spill – I’m babbling here!! Brain dump from 4 days of not blogging, what do you expect?

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Saturday night we had birthday party parties!

UPDATE:

Photos have been posted!

We met my friend/the birthday girl Michelle and all her friends at LuLu’s and feasted. After lots o wine and feeling pleasantly full of yummy food and cake, we headed off to our next destination: Butter.

Butter’s a fun bar in SoMa. It has this white trash theme, mostly due to the trailer in the back you can order food, like tator tots, beenie weenies, ho-ho’s and more. They have a lot of great DJ’s and they play old funky movies against the wall the whole time. And on some other wall there’s some other trippy movie image, too.

We ran into Brian there, who within minutes of our arrival was on the bar dancing with 2 of his friends. He’s crazy :)

It was fun to see all Michelle’s friends… it was like a reunion and nice to catch up with some of them. Even Michelle! Her & I hardly see eachother any more.

Sucky thing: Rick had his jacket stolen. Huge bummer… it is when you get anything stolen, it’s just lame.

Sunday I worked… and then worked some more. But Rick & I got ice cream cones that afternoon, so that’s kinda fun.

Today (Monday) was good. I worked so much over the weekend for one client, that today I just had to catch up on all the other things.

Oh & I also made myself an awesome dinner tonite. I took photos and I might even post the recipe. :) I’m not much of a cook, so I’m all proud of myself.

:::

Ok, that wasn’t short – it was really long.

Now back to cleaning.

I am cleaning my house like a mad woman tonite.. Albeit I might be a little obsessive about cleaning, but I think it’s just because things feel *so* unorganized, I can never get organized. Well, that’s not true – I’m sure I’m probably way cleaner & more organized than some… but I just need all new furniture to help me organize.

The last few days I have been feeling a serious need to refresh the *stuff* in my life. I’ve been in my place almost a year now – and it just needs some improvements.

If it were up to me, I’d hire an interior designer. I’d also, sell my car/buy a new one, buy a new couch and maybe a new table & chairs for my living room. Oh & might as well get a different entertainment center (one that takes up less floor space). And I need some help with bookcases/file cabinet/closet organization, etc too. oy.

While I’m at it… I want a whole new wardrobe, and all of a sudden I *need* all new jewelry. I need atleast 3 new pairs of shoes. And a few new bags and sunglasses. Accessories baby!!

And also, I’d make sure I got to a couple of places this year: New York, Europe (maybe Greece/Italy), Ohio (who doesn’t wanna go to Ohio?), oh – and I want to go camping this summer, too (and I don’t just mean Coachella).

oh, and before I forget. How about a weekly cleaning service? Now you’re talking!!

Ok, back to cleaning.

What’s more annoying than having to transfer over all your files to a new computer (PC to Mac) the first time?

Answer: Having to then create a “new user” on your mac (to try to solve it’s pixelating/crashing issues) and do transfer all your files/emails/set up your settings ALL over again.

What’s more annoying than that?

Answer: Having to then transfer them BACK to the PC so you can still work and have access to everything while your {brand new, 3 week old, and very expensive} powerbook is at the shop for “5-7 days” to fix all it’s godfersaken problems!

I tried asking for a new one – but they insist they just want to try to replace the hardware in this one first.

Anyway – it’s just a time suck and a pain… but such is life right? I just hope this fixes it!!!!

Happy Thursday! And Happy April Fools – don’t get fooled too bad by all those tricksters out there!