Janelle Monae and a Great Weekend!

Thornton Beach Overlook hike

This past weekend was a mix of study and play as I worked on a paper for my "Strategy and War" class but also did several fun things with SMS.

Friday night, we headed out to Antolian Kitchen, a Turkish/Kurdish cuisine restaurant.  I had the broiled whole fish, which was really delicious.  I'm on the tail end of a Whole 30 month so I'm trying to go to places that fit within those strict parameters.  I'm sure I've inadvertently broke the rules with a tiny bit of added sugar, butter and oils but nothing major.  SMS had a baked meat-stuffed tomato eggplant dish that was awesome.  I think we'll be back, even off of a diet!

Saturday was a study/paper-writing day.  SMS and I started the day with the I'm taking my course through the Naval War College Distance Learning program and it's interesting to learn more about military history.  Some of the books are very dry so focusing is tough, but that's what blog entry writing breaks are for!

Hanging out!

The next day was Sunday Fun Day.  SMS and I went up to San Francisco to the Stern Grove Festival.  It was opening day and Janelle Monae was the headliner.  I saw her at Coachella a few years ago and she was fantastic.  We were supposed to go with friends but their son was sick so they bailed.  The show was amazing with a great setlist:

Suite IV Electric Overture

Dance Apocalyptic

Sincerely, Jane.

Q.U.E.E.N.

Electric Lady

One Fine Day

I Got You (I Feel Good)

I Want You Back

Cold War

Tightrope

Yoga

Let's Go Crazy Come Alive (The War of the Roses)

Sitting on the stump!

Our concert seats were...interesting.  The place was packed!  We arrived at 1:15, 45 minutes before the start of the show.  We climbed up the hill and found an awesome tree stump.  We stayed there through the opening act Midtown Social and then headed down the hill for most of Monae's set.  The sound was better and the energy level higher.  It was great!

Thornton Beach

Afterwards, we went out for sushi at a place with a TV so we could watch the first half of the Warrior/Cavs game.  It was Game 7 and I think most of the Bay Area was watching!  It was a great game- very competitive.  We didn't want to stay for the whole game so we headed back home and listened to it on the radio.  I even streamed the last few minutes on Periscope with mixed success.

Thornton Beach

On the way home, we stopped at Thornton Beach Overlook and hiked down to the beach cliffs.  It was so beautiful and a good impromptu hike along the Pacific.

Beyonce! Levi Stadium 5/16!

After such a busy weekend, I was feeling a little peaked.   All I wanted to do was relax but… Beyonce was in town! After getting married, SMS and I walked down the aisle together to “Love on Top” and we have always talked about seeing a concert together.  I missed buying tickets through LiveNation so I sort of wrote it off.  But, a few days prior, I started looking on StubHub and I realized that tickets were being sold below face value.  So I started thinking…

By mid-Monday afternoon, I was decided.  We were going!  SMS and I met up after work and bought our LightRail VTE tickets.  After dinner at home, we went to the train station and took the packed train to Levi Stadium.  It wasn’t packed to Japanese standards but a couple people really smooshed their way in and would definitely fit in during Tokyo rush hour!

We got to the stadium and, small annoyance, no bags bigger than 4 x 6 inches are allowed into the venue.   Argh, I really wished I knew that before I left home!  After checking my bag, we went into the arena where DJ Khaled had a good set.  I’m sure it was very cool since I didn’t know any of the songs.

After his set, we waited.  The show didn’t start until 9, which I somewhat suspected would happen because the focal point of the stage is a 5-storey LED screen.  By waiting until it was dark, the effect was much more dramatic.

The show was amazing.  Beyonce sang a lot and sounded amazing.  Some songs were arranged differently than the studio version, which always makes a live show a treat.  A few songs were more dance numbers where Beyonce wasn’t singing but instead, the studio track was playing.  There was no attempt at trying to lipsync, which I appreciated.

Although we had good seats, the highlight of the show was the last four songs.  SMS and I were between the main stage and a smaller stage that was at the end of  a runway.  Every time the group went down the runway and performed on the smaller stage, so many people from our section ran forward like the Running of the Bulls.  Finally, I decided I wanted to join the crowd so I asked SMS if he wanted to go too and off we went.  It was amazing timing because it was near the end of the show and the staging was great.  First, the smaller stage had been transformed into a large, shallow pool that Beyonce and her formation danced and stomped through.  Also, we were so close!    I felt like such a fan girl!  Finally, we were super close for the last song “Halo,” which was absolutely gorgeous.

After the show, we got home fairly easily.  I left my bag (on purpose) and will pick it up from lost and found this week.  The VTE was crowded but not unmanageable. If Beyonce comes to a city near you, I highly recommend the show!

Bay to Breakers 2016 weekend

This past weekend was amazing and packed with fun events.  There was even a special bonus on Monday (teaser alert!).

Pretty Mountain View Garden- not ours though!

On Friday, we picked up our keys to the new place and did our walk-through.  The house is absolutely lovely.  The property manager spent two weeks between the two tenants fixing up the place- and it had already been quite nice!  There's new paint, completely clean interior, new recessed lighting and a backyard drought-resistant landscaping, aka, mostly gravel.  SMS and I love the place and are so happy!

SMS moves rocks.  Literally.

Saturday was a little less glamorous as we rented a truck, bought and picked up a couch on Craigslist and moved SMS' stuff from storage to the his new garage!  We met a neighbor building an electric go-kart and overall, we're looking forward to our new place.  It was really a very lucky find!

Beautiful SF day!

After moving, I headed up to the city to pick up my Bay to Breakers bib.  The expo was pretty cool and absolutely mobbed.  Thanks to the power of Facebook, I messaged and met up with two friends from San Diego.  We belonged to the same book club and they are so much fun.  They had originally come to San Francisco for the Spartan Race but when they heard B to B was going on, they signed up for that too.  I was so happy to meet up with CL and Beth!

This is how I will take my coffee from now on!

Plus, we met up at The Buena Vista Cafe, famed for its Irish Coffee.  The cafe has been on my "SF List" and through serendipity, I ended up there with two great friends.  The coffee was delicious and I highly recommend.  Well, actually, there's a caveat because we actually went to two places with Irish coffee.   The second was one that Darren, SF native, knew about called the Gold Dust Cafe.  Here, hidden in plain sight among the tourist traps in Fisherman's Wharf, is San Francisco's "best and cheapest" Irish Coffee.   Unlike the Buena Vista with its white-tiled, bright interior, Gold Dust is more lounge-y with lots of crushed red velvet.  Both are awesome and really, can you ever have too many Irish coffees? Yes, I'm sure the answer is actually yes but if you have two spaced out over a few hours, you should be alright.

Yummy shabu shabu!

After leaving CL and Beth, SMS and I met up for a late shabu shabu dinner at Shabuway in Mountain View.  It was pretty tasty and brought back good Japan memories!

The Ladies!

Costumes from Bay to Breakers

More Bay to Breakers photos!

The next day, I met up with CL and Beth for Bay to Breakers.  They were actually fairly hungover thanks to several Irish Coffees (see above) with more drinking after that.  But they rallied like champs!  We jogged/walked the race and had an amazing time.  There were so many people with costumes to see.  It was an incredible event and I'm so glad I did it.  I've been wanting to do it for years and since this is the year I live here, I made it a priority.

Costumes included: a group of chickens, men in Franzia boxes, a Pintrest-worthy homemade rocket pack, male Disney princesses, oompa-loompas, many Princes with a heavy “Purple Rain” contingent, a few David Bowies, old naked people (not technically a costume) and so many more costumes that it was hard to remember them all.  It was costume overload!

I wore my Japanese fuzzy monster costume from our Amazing Race days.  I’m glad I had something because I would have felt out of place in normal running clothes although there were many people in just that. 

Andytown

After the race, we met up with SMS and headed to Andytown Coffee for a Snowy Plover.  Oh man, that drink is so delicious.  Since it's been awhile on the blog, I'll remind the reader that a Snowy Plover is espresso, Pellegrino and whipped cream.  Delectable!

Then we headed out to Lale cafe in Inner Sunset.  It was very good and best of all, no line for brunch!  I got an egg scramble with a homemade English muffin, which was delicious.

After brunch, we dropped CL and Beth off at their house and went to Glass Key Photo where SMS sold a camera.  It was a cute shop with a lot of old cameras.  We headed home and relaxed for the afternoon.

Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires

That evening, we went to Mountain Winery for a John Prine concert.  He's an excellent performer with great songs, although I want to listen to some of his older recordings since his voice was a little clearer when he was young.  The opener was Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires.  They were excellent and a new-to-me find.  I also want to seek out some more of their work, which shouldn't be hard since Jason Isbell is a very well-known performer in his own right, even though I hadn't known about him before the show.

The venue was absolutely gorgeous.  It was also so cold!  There was a mountain breeze and the temps were in the low 50s/possibly high 40s.  Yuck!  We were definitely not dressed for it.

Vance Joy Oakland Concert

Vance Joy, with opening acts Jamie Lawson and Elle King, played a sold-out show at the art-deco Fox Theatre in Oakland on Saturday, 27 Feb.  It was an all-ages show and as Elle King said, "Raise your hands if you're over 21....What are you doing here?!"  All three acts had solid performances, although I definitely had a favorite.

SMS and I walked in just after Jamie Lawson had started.  He had a small, self-supported background  of his name separating him from the rest of the stage, which had a huge backdrop of VANCE JOY.  He played an acoustic set composed of mid-tempo songs with very sweet lyrics.  The cynic among us would use slightly more negative words such as "saccharine" or "sappy" but boo on that person!  Who wants a negative vibe ;)  Jamie Lawson has done well in Great Britain and hopes to break into the US scene more.  He's got a good start by having a solo tour starting in May so best of luck to him.

Elle King totally rocked.  She was extremely adept at sassy stage banter and really livened up the crowd.  She opened up with "Where the Devil Won't Go," which was awesome and high-energy.  She free-styled a little musical interlude while waiting for the banjo to be trouble-shooted since initially, it wasn't miked properly (a replacement cord fixed the problem).  Everyone thought her lyrics were great, mostly because "Oakland" was rhymed with "rule" and "cool" so the concert-goers felt good about themselves.  Seriously, it was a pretty funny improv and definitely a testament to her stage presence and showmanship.  It was fairly clear that she's a little over singing "Ex's and Ohs," but she still delivered.  I heard one of my favorite live mash-ups ever from here, which was Nick Jonas "Jealous" and The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face."  It was excellent!  It does reveal my slightly embarrassing pop-music tastes though.

Then, it was time for Vance Joy.  He had a confident stage presence and an excellent back-up band.  His songs are similar in style to Jamie Lawson and without the power of the back-up band, it would have had the same mellow energy.  The thing that struck me the most about his songs is that he uses a falsetto in almost every one to convey vulnerability.  The thing is, his falsetto is not really that good.  I haven't heard enough of his recordings to hear if it does better in the studio environment, but in the live setting, it's almost cringe-worthy at times just listening to the vocals alone.  It veers towards a pitchy vibrato that if I was sitting in a coffee shop open mic night, I'd look around for his cheering section and hope that one of them would pull him aside afterwards and say, "Great lyrics, great chord progression....maybe lose the falsetto?"

Vance Joy played an hour-long set, which included an encore of two songs, one unaccompanied acoustic and finally, "The Fire and the Flood," the tour's namesake and really well done.   Another highlight was "Call Me Al," which showed the strength of the back-up band since they did a great job with the back-up vocals and horns, even though the horn section was a lot smaller than Paul Simon's.

So, overall, solid show.  I wouldn't buy marked up scalped tickets, but face value would be ok.   I love the Fox Theatre and we don't go out to concerts that often so it was a nice treat.

Tokyo Concert

After a great day at work with my first “real” surgery as a staff, I was on my way to Tokyo for The Killers concert. Now, if you want to feel like a big weird-o, buy tickets via a Japanese translator for a band named “The Killers.” I swear, it’s just rock, not death metal!

I headed out to Studio-Coast in Shin-Kiba using my trusty Hyperdia directions. I love that website. When I reached Shinagawa, I had a quick bite to eat at Soup Stock Tokyo. The dinner was amazing! I had two delicious soups: a lobster bisque and a tofu soup. Both were so tasty and served at the absolute perfect temperature. They were hot, but not too hot. I hate when soups are lukewarm because I don’t think they’re as flavorful and I worry about germs growing – yuck! But this dinner reminded me of how good food can be in Japan. I also had a tasty roll and a small mug of honey lemon tea that was also perfect. 

Then I got on the Yamamote line followed by the Tokyo metro. I sped-walked to the venue because as I learned the hard way with Arcade Fire in 2008, concerts in Japan start on time! 

The concert was amazing. I stood on the steps to the main floor so I was close and had a great view. The venue is about 2000 people and has a wide, shallow floor so there really isn’t a bad vantage point anywhere. The whole band has a great stage presence although Brandon Flowers is definitely the focus, apart from the instrument solos. The concert was similar to X-fest last December. They played “Mr. Brightside” with the lights up, which felt like I was watching a band inside a school auditorium. The rest of the concert was darkened with lighting for effect. “Human” was awesome, both in the piano intro and full-song version. “A Dustland Fairytale” was a new-to-me song and I really liked it. Battle Born has some great songs and I loved the live version of “The Way It Was” and “Runaways.” It was just an overall awesome show. 

During “Read My Mind,” a Japanese fan in a green dragon costume was invited on stage. He was great! He danced and sang the “Read My Mind” line a few times. He was also very hug-gy. Flowers got 3 hugs from him and several deep bows! I later found out that the guy was dressed as Gachapin, a character that shows up in the “Read My Mind” video. Ah, so desu. 

Here’s the set-list: Mr. Brightside* Spaceman* The Way It Was* Smile Like You Mean It* Human (piano/vocals)* Bling(Confessions of a King)* Shadowplay (Joy Division Cover)* Human* Somebody Told Me* For Reasons Unknown* From Here On Out* A Dustland Fairytale* Read My Mind* Runaways* All These Things That I’ve Done* Encore: Jenny Was a Friend of Mine* When You Were Young (The Internet tells me that on 10/9, they also played Under the Gun, Prize Fighter, This is Your Life, Battle Born, but minus Jenny. Neither show had Miss Atomic Bomb.)

Coachella 4/15-4/17

Coachella was AWESOME! I knew that I would have a good time, but the whole experience exceeded my expectations. We went with two friends and camped at the Polo Grounds. Camping was great, although we lucked out with our site in a few ways. Our neighbors were all pretty mellow and quiet, but not too mellow in a blasting Marley or the Beatles (seriously?) during the day type of way. We were also in the middle of a row, away from random foot traffic and, more importantly, large floodlights.

But the music, you say! Stop being so crochety and old and talking about where you slept. Boring!

So the first day, I saw CeeLo Green who had the plug pulled since he was 30 minutes late into a 40 minute set and was really mad at the organizers. Lauryn Hill’s set was AMAZING with Fugees and “Miseducation” songs seamlessly flowing and she sounded great. A new discovery (for me) was the Cold War Kids who are a great rock band and I downloaded several songs immediately- “Royal Blue” and “Bulldozer” stand out. Brandon Flowers set was terrific and I had never really heard his songs before. I now have his whole album thanks to Jenny! In addition, the Killers came out for “Read My Mind” and “Mr Brighteyes.” The only disconcerting thing about Brandon Flowers is that his voice has a shitload of strain in it. I kept thinking his voice would crack and I’m sure he has singer nodules in his future. I loved Robyn and am working out to several of her songs all the time. Finally, we say Floggin Molly that night, super late (until 130). They had an amazing amount of energy. Other bands we heard that day were The Black Keys, Crystal Castle and Ozomatli.

On Saturday, we saw The Joy Formidable who have a guitarist/singer who is this really bad-ass pixie. Sean saw Two Door Cinema Club, whom he said were awesome and the “Irish Killers” so I definitely want to check them out at some point. New Pornographers and Bright Eyes were very good. Bright Eyes was followed by Mumford and Sons and they were awesome! We were really close to the stage for their show and the energy was through the roof! They played two new songs- “Blinded by the Light” which I heard at Belly Up and another that I’m blanking on right now. Finally, the night ended with Arcade Fire. They were great and I finally got to see them after my frustrating near-miss in Tokyo 3 years ago!

The last day was more mellow for us. We saw Twin Shadow, Jack’s Mannequin and Best Coast which were all new finds for us and sounded great. Nas and Damian Marley were great and Wiz Khalifa had really energetic fans especially considering there was a pot smoke cloud over the crowd the entire time. We ended our night with The National then headed home, totally tired but so happy.

The concerts were amazing. There were a few folks we weren’t as fond of but more due to our tastes rather than lack of musical artistery. I missed the advance sale for 2012 (boo!) but I’ll definitely be looking for tix in Jan, 2012!

Procrastination...

June has been so much fun. And while I should be working on a paper [see title], I've also been quite neglectful of this little page so really, who's the procrastinator now?!?! Um, I think it's still me.

The first weekend in June, I went to an American-French housewarming party with delicious French small plates (actually served in glasses) called Verrines were served. They were delicious and it was so much fun to see my friend Suzi and her husband Renaud again. I hadn't seen them since med school apart from seeing Suzi every so often here at the hospital.

Sunday 6/6, I went to Mumford and Sons which was an INCREDIBLE show. They were amazing live and I felt they had a lot of charisma that added to a live delivery of their songs. Here's a set list that is from Bonnaroo but seems to be pretty accurate to what I heard on the 6th.

*Sigh No More*The Cave*Awake My Soul*White Blank Page*Timshel*Nothing Is Written*Feel The Tide*Little Lion Man*Lover of the Light*Thistle and Weeds*After the Storm*Wagon Wheel* Roll Away Your Stone*

The weekend after, I became a true sailor b/c I completed my basic sailing course. It was so much fun, although hyper-competitive me always gets annoyed while learning a new skill. I can't handle totally sucking at something- well, I can but not very graciously. I'm still pretty terrible but I'm going to rent a boat and practice.

The third weekend, I went to Amanda and Nate's wedding which was so much fun and I met so many neat people there. A&N have a great group of friends and although I had met several before, it was nice to get reacquainted. I also became reacquainted with the idea that bottomless wine glasses are a TERRIBLE idea and I really ought to know that by now. Fortunately nothing too terrible happened other than a ridiculous hangover but really, smack on the hand for me.

That Sunday, I went to an Imogen Heap concert. I didn't know much about her music other than the stuff from the O.C. (I am so cool. And so 2005) and that three of my friends with excellent musical taste all like her stuff. The concert was great! Her sampling in real time and manipulation of the musical sounds was incredible. A setlist is pending but really, I am a big fan now. I know it seems I'm a big fan of every group I see, but it's in part due to the fact that I don't see that many concerts and I really only go to acts I already know and like.

This weekend, I'm on call. I'm supposed to be writing a paper *ahem* so I think I'll get back to that now. Tonight is my friend Kate's birthday celebration which I'm excited for- a big backyard BBQ! I haven't had grilled food in awhile. Hopefully, the pager will be quiet so I can stay and have a delicious dinner but it not, she and her husband live right up the hill from the hospital so I can get here and back in a flash.

Fun weekend!

This past weekend was the funnest! And while "funnest" might not technically be a word and some might even find it annoying, it apparently isn't as annoying as "kewlest" to some folks. That word sparks vitriol although I think it's hilarious. Oh, well. Tastemaker I'm not.

ANYway! I had so much fun this past weekend. On Friday, I watched "The Big Labowski" which I saw at some point during high school. I don't get the cult-classic appeal but there were some excellent lines. "I'm calmer than you...I just want to point out I'm calmer than you." In addition, I'm firmly on the side of hating the Eagles so I definitely appreciated the scene where the Dude gets thrown out of a cab for expressing the same opinion.

On Saturday, I had a pretty mellow day but then got called up by a friend to go out to "The Steamery." I love seafood! Too bad I misheard. But I loved the other place too, a very chi chi club called Stingeree here in SD. It's totally not my normal scene but the DJ was really good and we had our own table so much dancing ensued. Well, actually, not tons but it was a lot of fun.

I got home at 3 and guess what I had committed to prior to accepting the invite out on Saturday? A 10-miler starting at 9. I woke up and felt great so I went for it. I caught up with my friend Amanda whom I hadn't seen in awhile. We ran the entire Mission/Pacific Beach boardwalk continuing into Wind N'Sea and back. Then I went back home and crashed. It was a 3 hour nap and I woke up with a sleep hangover. It felt luxurious! Then, I went out to Neighborhood for dinner. I was STARVING since I slept through lunch. While the Black Bean Burger was pretty good, the sweet potato fries were STELLAR. OMG, so good.

Then, Jenny and I went to The National concert at Spreckel's Theater. They put on a great, energetic 2 hour show. The opening band wasn't bad and I really had a fun time. I would have preferred a Friday or Saturday night concert but it was worth staying out late on a school night!

The National's Setlist
* Start a War
* Mistaken for Strangers
* Anyone's Ghost
* Bloodbuzz Ohio
* Afraid of Everyone
* Secret Meeting
* Slow Show
* Squalor Victoria
* All the Wine
* Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
* Little Faith
* Conversation 16
* Apartment Story
* Daughters of the Soho Riots
* Abel
* Sorrow
* England
* Fake Empire
* Runaway
* Lemonworld
* Mr. November
* Terrible Love
* About Today

DMV, a.k.a. the Star Wars bar scene

Today, I went to DMV and cursed CA smog laws! I have to get a smog test. This is NOT in accordance with the website. I went to MCRD to get the test and I learned that an automatic "FAIL" is generated by any car with a check engine light on. They were nice enough to send a mechanic out to check and verify that the check engine light was actually illuminated before telling me to get my car fixed before running the test. Actually, I'm being slightly sarcastic because, really Mr. Mechanic? Do you REALLY think I'm unable to recognize a light on my dashboard that's in the shape of engine as the mother-ef'ing "check engine" light? Maybe I'm just so stupid that I would confuse the oil can light with the engine light. Thanks for being a condescending a-hole...girls don't know anything about cars.

I feel slightly guilty about calling someone who was trying to do me a favor a mean name, but I just don't appreciate the motivating assumption that I was an idiot.

DMV itself was slightly more cheery than expected, but mostly because I was expecting a dungeon. The woman who inspected my car was quite nice and let me get back in line despite my number having been called when I was outside taking off my license plates. Thank you Misha! Thank you Lisa! Shout out to the nice people at DMV!

I also went to a Bar Method class this morning. By the time my 30 days are up, I will have gone to 19 classes. I love the classes. The combination of workout sub-sections and peppy music really make the hour fly by. I feel stronger and more flexible. No weight loss (slight boo!) but I feel leaner. I had really shirked from the strength training for several months and deluded myself into thinking that the scale staying the same meant that everything was ok, rather the lovely and insidious process of adding fat and losing muscle. Awesome-o. Not recommended!

Ooo, but what is recommend is Mumford and Sons. New love! And I bought tickets to see them at Belly Up Tavern. I'm so excited. They have a lovely mix of poetic lyrics and fast/slow parts to most songs. Although whoever writes the songs was seriously wronged by a former flame. Yikes. Some of the lyrics are withering. Hell hath no fury...

This weekend, Jenny and I are heading up to Santa Monica, followed by a Sunday spent at the Getty Museum. I'm excited for the mini-road trip!

And there's been an awesome email string among my college friends recently so I have a couple of "To Reads" to add to the list: The Help, Stieg Larsson's crime trilogy. The Larsson books are not in my usual genre but in 2008, only The Kite Runner outsold his first book.

Arcade Fire!

I am so excited! Arcade Fire is kicking off their Spring tour in San Diego on 26 April! I'm definitely going to see them and thus, heal the raw, vicious wound that has hurt my heart since last year.


You see, I love Arcade Fire. I love quirky bands with lots of instruments and a lot of AF's songs are awesome-o. They were playing in Tokyo last February and I went to see them. I would have been fine going by myself, but I thought it would be fun to go in a group. But two of my friends were late (I found out later they were actually a secret couple for months so I'm guessing they were making out, which I can hardly begrudge them for), which I was fine with because really, do concerts ever start on time?


Yes. They do. In Japan (of course).


So, we only saw TWO songs after a ridiculous trip with many subway switches and one memorable walk along an expressway until we decided that it was definitely not.the.way. I was very sad. And a little mad. Not so much at my friends, but at that completely non-rockability of the whole thing. A concert that starts on time? No opening act? A band that only plays for a hour and a half with a BREAK!?!?!?! (I have been spoiled by Springsteen, a 50+ year old who goes for at least two and a half hours).


But, Arcade Fire, I have forgiveness in my heart and now I'm so EXCITED to see you in San Diego.


And yes, I will be on time. Although it will likely not start on time here. Things are way less prompt here in the States, which is more consistent with my nature. When I first came back though, I would be completely bewildered- "Where's the bus? The timetable says it should be here now and it's NOT." Timeliness is not something to mess around with in Japan and here? Well, maybe it's just a little more mellow in California. But Arcade Fire is Canadian (actually Quebecois if I remember right) so really, all bets are off.


P.S. I finally added photos from my San Francisco trip!