The Breeders @ the Magic Stick
Beth and I went to see the Breeders earlier this week and, as promised, it was a great show. Even though they’ve been around for nearly 15 years (jeez, am I getting that old?), they still deliver. Their new songs, while not quite as good as the classics, are still better than most of the B.S. today’s kids are into. (Shit. I am getting old.)
In addition to the Divine Hammer video above, I also took videos of (my personal favorite) No Aloha, New Year and Cannonball (just by random chance, all off of Last Splash) and some photos of the evening.
The Nixon Summer Concert Series is just getting started!
Skating with Kona
Some people skate with their kids. I’ve got a dog…
More weekend lessons
We spent most of last weekend working on our house. Saturday morning I went to the Oakland County Farmers Market for the first time since we moved here years ago, and was really impressed with all the beautiful flowers for sale. I spoke to a number of sellers there, got some great gardening advice, and bought some new flowers to plant in the front yard. I spent most of the rest of the weekend working in the front yard weeding, transplanting some of our flowers, planting new begonias, trimming trees, and digging up a dead rose bush. Dan helped me pull out the 30 feet of trim along the side of the yard so we could plant some grass seed and blend it in with the rest of the yard. The final result - the yard looks crazy good now!
Dan spent most of his afternoon re-doing the floor of the patio, (and getting very sticky) with some new vinyl tiles. Looks great!
Lessons learned:
- Spend some time mapping out the yard before buying flowers as to avoid buying WAY too many
- People actually still drink Christian Brothers brandy?!? (found an empty bottle littered in the yard)
- Local hardware store closes ridiculously early on Sundays
- Birds love eating grass seed
You Can’t Stop the Rock
In high school and college, we used to go to shows on a weekly basis. I was even in a band and ran a record label for years, and used to play a few times a month, but it’s been a long time since there’s been a show that I’ve been really excited for, let alone several. For the first time in years, this summer, there’s a ton of shows that Beth and I are going to.
So, create a new Google Calendar category labeled “Hard Jams”, and take this down:
- Blood on the Wall (May 22)
- Kids in the Hall (May 30)
- The Breeders (June 1)
- Mudhoney (June 2)
- Mighty Mighty Bosstones (July 8)
- No Age (July 17)
- Rancid (August 1)
- The Go! Team (August 2)
A present for me!
My friend Lish told me a few days ago that she had bought me a present on Etsy and was awaiting its arrival. I’ve been curious since, and excited cause Lish has fantastic style and taste (seriously, her apartment is amazingly cool) and I knew whatever it was, I would love it.
She passed it along to Dan, who gave it to me in the parking lot of Chipotle last night. I opened it in my car - there was no way I could wait until I got home!
First off, look at this wrap job! So cute!
And the gift…
A super cool neoprene & velcro lunch bag (how green!)! Its handpainted, and made by Goshdarnknit. Not only is it really fun, it’ll be super functional for me whenever I’m on buying trips or selling at shows!
Thanks Lish! I’m so on the hunt for you for something cool!!!
Last bartending shift…
Last night was my last bartending shift at the Majestic Complex. I worked in the Garden Bowl with my “work husband” Nathan, and had a great last shift and a lot of fun. I managed not to cry the whole time, but I can’t promise that I won’t writing this out right now…
Thanks to all my friends and our regulars who came out to get one last drink from me. I was really touched by everyone’s kind words, best wishes and contributions (all my tips from the night were donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society)!
I’m still going to hang out there a lot I’m sure, plus I’m still going to running the Baar Bazaar (hopefully more each year now that I have more time to work on it), but I will miss seeing everyone there as often as I did. I made so many friends there, and I really am looking forward to keeping in touch with them all now that I can have a bit of a social life again!
Now that I won’t be working nights, I’m excited to work more on RewareVintage.com and really build that up even more, and to continue working with Handmade Detroit and all our future plans. I’m also excited to spend more time with Dan, my friends, and my family!
I took a bunch of pictures of my last night - look at our Flickr account to see all of them!
Thanks to the Zaniea family for giving me a job there, great experiences, and a ton of memories! It was a blast, and one of the best times of my life!
With a fond farewell…
My last night bartending at the Garden Bowl is tomorrow (Wednesday)!
Come and get your last drink from me from 6 til close, and tip me well - all of my tips from the night are being donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!!!!
Volunteers Needed!
If you’re interested at putting your crafty/do-gooder skills to work May 3 or May 4, Handmade Detroit is looking for volunteers to help out with Swap-O-Rama-Rama.
We will be teaching people of all ages how to sew and turn old clothing into something new! There are a dozen different tutorials (all are no-sew or basic sewing knowledge geared) that we will have around our tent for participants to use, but we need volunteers to help guide people through the process!
If you’ve got a lot of time or a little bit, one day or two, it doesn’t matter; we’d love for you to help out! If you’re a sewing queen, we’d love to have you come on out, but if you’re more of an overall helper or just want to part of the action, we can’t wait for you to help.
The Swap-O-Rama-Rama is from 10am-7-pm on Saturday May 3rd and from 10 am-5pm on Sunday May 4th. If you can help in any way, for any amount of time, please email me at bethany@rewarevintage.com or Lish at lish. dorset@gmail.com!
you know we’re just trying to get to the club and shake our asses
Josh and his brother get in a short session. I can’t wait to get out this year.
Josh:
f-you, we suck and we’re ok with it, but hey, at least we got off our asses and did something… thanks to lauren for shooting us…
Things I learned this weekend:
-Trying to cut little Michigans out of Astroturf is nearly impossible and will really dull a pair of scissors. It will also result in a big mess! So much for that Mitten Pin idea for Handmade Detroit…
-I need to go out more! I had a great time with Mary on Sunday night drinking at the WAB, catching up and joking about our lack of social lives.
-Transformers can catch on fire and make quite a lot of smoke! Just ask anyone at the Magic Stick on Friday night.
-And finally, every car has a little arrow next to the gas gauge to show you which side of your car your gas tank is on. Thanks Dan!
Die Bitch!
Hell yeah! I’ve been waiting for a couple weeks to post this. (One of these was a surprise for my buddy Fabrizio, and I had to keep it under wraps.)
Designer and all-around kick ass dude, Josh Weston, made me a pair of “Die Bitch!” skateboard decks. I’m not sure if the picture really gets across how totally awesome these decks turned out, but these are seriously the fucking coolest skateboards I’ve ever seen (and that’s coming from a guy that used to ride this!).
These will really help Team Die Bitch’s chances in the flatland competition at this year’s Lawn Sport Olympics. Thanks, man.
Springtime Love
The past week it really began to seem like spring here in Michigan, and Dan and I started talking about how great it would be to take bike rides around the neighborhood again. I was thinking of getting a new bike this year, since my bike needed quite a lot of work done to it. Fate brought a sale at the bike shop this weekend, and I crushed on this obnoxious green bike and the “Flat Foot Technology” (I call it “I can comfortably reach the ground”), internal gearing and the disc brakes. I envisioned me riding it to the post office each day to ship out orders and knew it needed to be mine! We brought it home and gave it a spin last night - it’s true love.
It’s going to be a great spring and summer!
Congratulations!
Just wanted to send our best wishes to Josh and Lauren, who got engaged Friday night. Congrats, kids!
Doggie Breakthrough!
So for a couple months now I’ve been giving Kona an occasional bath in our bathtub. Doesn’t sound difficult, right? Well it is when your dog has an abnormal fear of the bathroom! Every time she needs a bath, it is a long process of me trying to coax her into the bathroom with treats, finally ending in me chasing her down, picking her up and putting her in the tub and sustaining a number of scratches as she freaks out and tries to escape. After a couple minutes in the tub she realizes that everything is ok and calms down, but that first 30 minutes beforehand is very, very trying.
Today we had a breakthrough! She followed me into the bathroom after only a couple minutes of prodding, and for some reason I decided to climb into the tub myself and try to then coax her into climbing into the tub on her own. Imagine my astonishment (really, seriously I was astonished) when she actually put her front paws onto the rim of the tub and jumped into the bathtub! It was amazing, and I felt like she had some breakthrough in her insane fear of the bathroom.
When you work from home and the majority of your social interaction during the day is with your dog, the smallest things make you really excited. At least I’m not a crazy cat lady, though.
