evangeline

So-
I got back from my trip to LA this weekend where I was visiting my friend writer/actor/general man about town Jason Konopisos. Jason is actually from Texas and therefore an excellent guide for an unseasoned to California-ite girl such as myself. Everyone kept asking me what I intended on seeing in LA but the truth was I had no fucking clue. The absolute truth is that I have no fucking clue where anything is, anywhere. The Eiffel Tower's in France, pyramids are in Egypt, Space Needle's in Seattle. That last one was cheating because I actually lived in Seattloe briefly. But all those excellent landmarky tourist attraction things everywhere else? No fucking clue.

The first night Jason took me to Ripley's and the wax museum, which was wonderful and great and made me feel like I was visiting something, which was a feeling I wanted to have. I was awed, amazed, and amused. I thought wax Samuel L Jackson was going to come alive. I was also really excited about American Apparel, which was like a hipster's haj.


me and Jason


a cute birth defected at piglet at Ripley's that I am trying very hard to will to life so it could be my pet. I loved it. It freaked jason out.

After that we met Jason's friends, wwho happened to be half of the band Pale, which I will get to later. We went to the Rainbow Room where I got temporarily hijacked by the owner's son and given a surreal tour that included a few dark moments in a dark cupboard (but altogether harmless), and then was deposited with my friends shkaen but intact. Where I prompltly got to meet (drumroll) my first LA bitches! ONly they weren't actually from LA they were from Texas, which was disappointing. But they did have awesome fake tans and bleached hair and one of them really enjoyed coyly insulting me.

"Your summer scarf makes me giggle."

Now, I love making people laugh and all but my summer scarf actually just makes me a fucking hipster.

On Saturday we were meant to go to the beach but it was gloomy and overcast for the second day in a row which was a huge ripoff, I thought. But we saw the Hangover at the Universal Strip(or whatever its called) which looked like Grownupland at DisneyWorld. The movie was cute, but I know how I feel when I'm super hungover and there's no way I would have done any of that shit, even if my best friend's wedding was at stake.

Sunday was the best. I watched Jason play softball and it was sunny and beautiful. Lorelei graciously came into town and we shot a set on Pale's roof, which was th efirst outdoor set I'd done and something I've wanted to do for a long time.

After that we went to watch Pale rehearse in their teeny bedroom of a space. It was amazing. I should begin this with, if you don't already know me as well as say, Sheila, then you don't know that I really FUCKING. HATE. LIVE. MUSIC. Which is weird and sad because I'm an Austinite and nobody understands and I'm forever left out of coll experiences because I don'tgive a shit. I don't know exactly why I don't like live music, maybe it's because I'm not as passionate about music in general as other people. But I know that it's really loud, and I don't get to listen to the songs I want to listen to and it's crowded and hot or crowded and cold and I can't ever get a drink in a timely manner and I never know what to do with my hands. So I was a little reluctant about this, but I figured these boys had been so nice I would grin and bear it.

But then, dear reader, something magical happened. I got a window into what all you normal livemusicjunkies out there have been feeling this whole time. I listened to them and watched and while I was watcing I thought about my 12 year old brother and how he's really good at the guitar already and suddenly I was imagining all of the guys as little boys playing their instruments with the soul of adults, and then I was imagining everyone I knew as little girls and boys and wondering how you could hate a child and then I was imagining Israel and Palestine as little girls and boys and wondering if they could still hate each other, and then suddenly I was in Maine stuck in the river that ran by my house and then I was thinking of Javier, the only boy I ever LOVEDLOVEDLOVED and thinking how it's so surreal that he's dead and my life has gone and done other things without him and then I'm thinking about when he said "The muddy water is cool and clear around your feet. I want to jump in, swim, and repeat." Which turned into thewateriscoolandclearroundyourfeetiwanttojumpinswimandrepeatthewateriscoolandclearroundyourfeetthewateriscoolandclearroundyourfeet-
and just when I felt I was about to explode from everything I have ever known and everything that has ever been known-
they stopped playing. And the drummer was cute and sweaty and the singer was smiling and breathless and all the people were back in the room that were there to begin with.

Thats what you guys have been talking about this whole time, right? It's time to open my mind.



This was me and Travis, aforementioned cute, sweaty drummer. If you want to see the rest of the band, check out http://www.myspace.com/palerocks because they are all pretty adorable and amazing.

I took an amazing walk I would love to elaborate on with you, SG community, but I'm a little leery of lurkers lately.



And that's me and comedian buddy Jim Hamilton who I havent seen in a few years and was ecstatic to be around.

So final summation, LA was really awesome and I didn't think Jason would be able to convince me to want to move there but he did. I just don't know how the hell to ever accomplish that.

I will close on the most tourist-y picture I took while I was there. I still have some credit with Southwest, so I hope to be back at the end of the summer.