Quick update

So, I'm on "vacation" ... but I'm not really.  This semester has actually been my most difficult in getting instructors to come teach.  Given the recent planner survey (out today! Heather's absolutely amazing; I'm so glad we had a chance to share a small part of our lives together...) I assume it is because despite the economy, planners are doing well. And understandably so.  When things are broken - those who focus on fixing are quite busy.

Anyway, I am currently looking under rocks for brilliant, passionate, curious amazing people to teach classes!  It'll come together - it always does (right?)

However, we're still trying to fit some vacation in to this week.  Two highlights - All of Outside Lands + a day at Bodega Bay.



Outside Lands:
Saturday
1) The Whigs - What a surprise!  These guys got things started right!  I would like to see them again.
2) Freelance Whales - Groovy fun made me smile.
3) Dawes - Best singing along of the entire show.
4) Langhorne Slim - this was a sit on the hill and chill a bit performance.  Which it did quite well.
5) Gogol Bordello - WAY more fun than I thought.  We went from "Don't need to see them" to jumping up and down screaming for more.
6) My Morning Jacket - we went front row, and I'm glad we did. What a show. Seriously, words do not describe MMJ - the part of your brain it excites is nowhere near the language center.
7) The Strokes - We were dead tired, but had fun listening to the music from a hill.

Sunday was strange.  We showed up tired from Saturday, but ready to go.  However, it started off kind of lame.  Little Wings were so whiny and just an awful way to start the morning.  So we headed to Quinn Deveaux & the Blue Beat Review, who were so-so. Then we tried Soft Pack - strike 3 - nothing really exciting happening on that stage either. Luckily, Amos Lee broke the funk by bringing the funk. Nneka wasn't as evocative as you expect her to be. Devil Makes Three was okay, but I prefer listening to them at home while I'm drinking whiskey.  We went to go grab the beginning of Janelle Monae before checking out Edward Sharpe, but she was late so we just wasted our time.  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros was PACKED - and the show was so darn good. However, the experience was less lovely than I expected due to some idiots who kept unsuccessfully trying to crowdsurf by crashing into me. We got out and the RESCUE began:

The Revered Al Green gave me a few songs to lift my soul.  

We found a nice spot to rock out to Phoenix - probably my favorite performance of the festival.  Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is the perfect sunny SF outdoor performance album.  I will definitely be at their next SF-area show. 

Social Distortion rocked Old School and Kings of Leon rocked New School. What an ending to the festival!!

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_

Why go anywhere for a vacation when this is a short drive away?  We saw a whole bunch of Grey Whales from the beach, climbed rocks, read in the sun, explored tide pools and played with sand.  Lovely.