Christine and I were just there for a 3 day whirlwind trip with extraordinary levels of emotional highs and lows that just wouldn't stop. This isn't a complaint. It was truly one of the best trips we've ever been on.
The madness actually began on Wednesday evening, the night before we left, with our driver's window switch going out in our car. I had to cover the window with tape and a garbage bag and Christine had to call out of work for Thursday so we could take our car to the Volvo dealership for the switch replacement. There was no way in hell we were going to drive to Dulles Airport (D.C./ Virginia) two hours from Dallastown AND leave the car there for three days with an open window. So we got it taken care of in the morning and split for D.C. right on time, late that afternoon.
Thursday at midnight we landed in S.F. (direct flight on Virgin!) and grabbed a cab to Eric the Daggerman's pad and got busy with some beers and records for a short while before bed. We needed rest in preperation of a busy Friday.
Friday morning we ate breakfast at Kate's Cafe on Haight and Filmore on a recommendation, and it was perfect. I ate some amazing corned beef hash and eggs. Super fresh, nice crispy bits, large hunks of corned beef... perfection. They also served chickory coffee. I never had it before and wound up downing four cups.
We were actually in town for our friend Grant's wedding, and we met up with him and his lovely fiance, the internationally acclaimed artist Jovi Schnell (google her), directly after breakfast. I was to be best man, and Christine and I were also DJing the reception. Right after we hooked up we went to pick up the turntables/ mixer (rental) and some other sound equipment of his own because he was going to do a short performance with his country band and a duet with his new bride before we started DJing. We got the stuff and drove to the Headlands Center for the Arts
http://www.headlands.org/ in Sausalito. This is one truly beautiful piece of American land. It was originally a military base/ barracks in the early 1900s. Now it's a gov't owned artists' retreat and they have wild turkeys and deer walking around! We eventually set up the equipment, and when all appropriate parties arrived we rehearsed the ceremony.The weirdest thing about the rehearsal was that right after we were going over some details with the party, I overheard a casual conversation with the bride-to-be and a friend of hers. It turned out that he was Phil, the drummer from (long since disbanded & ultra-obscure) noise group FAXED HEAD, who was fronted by comic genius Neil Hamburger! I flipped out and told him about an article, which apparently he had never seen, from about 15 years ago in an equally obscure magazine called "Exile Osaka," where little Japanese school kids got to wear the bizarre Faxed Head stage helmet. WILD!
Christine and the bride-to-be on the Sausalito side of the Bay:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1456.jpgGrant and I, same spot:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1458.jpgAfter set up/ rehearsal we took Grant and his fiance to dinner at a great Vietnamese place called Sunflower, which was back in San Francisco. This was followed by a trip across the street to the Cassanova bar where we met up with our friend Chris Owen and some other friends from the Terminal Boredom message board, including Mitch Cardwell, the retardedly hip and influential writer from the legendary American punk magazine "Maximum Rock'n'roll." He showed up with free records for us.
Eric the Daggerman and I:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1471-1.jpgChristine with Eric, Chris, Mitch, and some other random fruits and nuts:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1461.jpgA DJ was playing vintage Jamaican sides all night on the turntables at the Cassanova. What we were really doing there though was working on a healthy buzz while waiting for my favorite current band, Thee Oh Sees, to start playing up the street from us at another club called Amnesia.
We got to Amnesia around 10PM. The human brother of man/ rabbit hybrid punk rock superstar NOBUNNY showed up there just to give a specially assembled package (a 45rpm single with stickers/ flyers/ badges) from Hunx, of Hunx and his Punx fame, to my wife, the world's biggest Hunx and his Punx fan:
Justin (aka NOBUNNY) and Christine:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1463.jpgUs:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1464.jpgMilling around outside I see a girl and ask her where (Oh Sees leader) John Dwyer is. Since I've had their latest LP "Help" I've become a totally giddy fan boy for this cat. Turns out the girl was Bridgette from Thee Oh Sees.
I thought she was so pretty that I was afraid of standing next to her:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1475.jpgChristine thought she was so pretty that she started to make out with her:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1474.jpgI guess Bridgette must have told John i was looking for him, because he eventually came out and stole my hat:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1473.jpgI got it back:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1472.jpgTHEE OH SEES:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1483.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1506.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1500.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1550.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1534.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1543.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1524.jpghttp://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1545.jpgSPACE ECHO!:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1528.jpgGOOD CROWD:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/ledisquaire/100_1536.jpgThe show was incredible. Hits were played. Weird noises were made. Christine and I went gonzo right up front for the whole thing. After the show I think I actually convinced John Dwyer and his band to do a single for my new label, Black Gladiator Records.
Back to Daggerman's for a good night's sleep. Woke up Saturday and returned to Kate's Cafe with Daggerman and his beautiful and groovy girlfriend Iris for more super slamming breakfasts. This time I had cornmeal pankcakes with strawberries and bananas and some kind of fresh lemon custard goo with real Vermont maple syrup. T-N-T baby! After breakfast we went across the street for a QUICK archaeological digging session at Rooky Ricardo's Records. If you're ever in the area and want to spend time looking for really great old soul/ r&b/ etc 45s, this spot is perfect. I left with a great gospel 45 with the BO DIDDLEY BEAT by Willie Morganfield called "You Better Get Right" (Jewel Records) and a nutty semi-instrumental 45 called "Hot Cross Buns" by Paul Gayten (Anna Records). This one had actually made an appearance on the Frolic Diner series some years ago. Christine grabbed a smokin' hot track about a horse called "Tennessee Stud" by The PJ's, on the Jubillee label. All three combined were a nice and low $20, but we added an extra $7 to the bill cuz we got a bunch of totally cool badges with old record label logos on them (Tower, Chess, etc...)
Off to the wedding. Perfect weather. Everybody was looking fine as wine. A friend from New York I whom I affectionaltely refer to (much to her chagrin) as CRAZY JENNA was even there, and on her best behavior I might add. Good times... until Grant's parents were late and he went a bit ape-shit for awhile, screamed at his mother on the phone, and then cried for screaming at her. Gooder times. They finally showed and the ceremony commenced, late but brilliantly. I cried the whole time. Grant and his bride were both smokin' hot and obviously madly in love with eachother. Goodest times.
Dinner with Chris Owen and his wife Shannon, members of S.F's The Mindless Things, other good folks... GREAT dinner. Delicious chicken, nice, fresh veggies, roasted beet salad, a killer assortment of fine cheeses, good beer... yeah!
We all proceed back to the reception room. Christine and I start playing some mellow tunes to start off with. I played the bride and groom's first dance song, which i had picked especially for them: "We'll Always Be Together" by Nino Tempo and April Stevens. If you don't know it, check it out. It's a perfect song.
We pick up the tempo a little and the dancefloor starts to get packed. It's boogaloo time! that is until a waitress came over to us AND DROPPED HER ENTIRE TRAY FULL OF DRINKS DIRECTLY ONTO THE MIXER, splashing sweet syrupy liquid onto some of Christine's 45s and the turntables, too. the mixer DIED immediately. We were frantically trying to come up with an alternative from the house's own system. Between about four of us technically proficient dudes we couldn't get any sound out of two different pa's. We dumped all of the liquid out of the first mixer and the bride's dad dried it with a hair dryer for about a half an hour. Miraculously we got sound back out of it about 45 minutes after the disaster. We played some records and everyone cheered and danced! There was a short, two-song interlude featuing the guy from Faxed Head and, I think, his wife. Grant's band played a couple tunes, including a duet with the bride and Bo Diddley's "Pretty Thing" to close it. We rocked our records for another hour and a half and everybody had a blast. Turned out great after all that chaos. Sigh...
After party at the Headlands' dorms: Christine and Daggerman's lady are so trashed that they decided to go to sleep in the bunkbeds. Iris is on the top bunk, thought she heard someone at the door, tried to reach over to open it and fell off the top bunk and BROKE HER COLLARBONE. Daggerman had to drive her to the hospital in San Francisco, drunk off his ass at 2am. Once again, we are blessed with devine intervention and they are both alive and well.
Saturday was so retardedly intense that Sunday had to be mellow. After getting dropped off in the city we showered, went around the corner to get some great burgers at It's Tops diner (since 1935!) and more records at Grooves, right next door. I scored a 1st press copy of the Dead Kennedy's classic "Plastic Surgery Disasters" with the booklet (wax was vg++/ booklet was all stuck together) for $2! Also picked up Thee Oh Sees demos LP on clear wax.
I'm trying to wrap this up, but there's still important news to get to, so bear with me here...
After flying from S.F. back to D.C. we had a two hour drive home to Dallastown. We make it back and crash for three hours. We wake up at 2:45pm. I go downstairs to see Christine's dad who has his seafood shop below us. There's a moving truck in the parking lot. I think I'm gonna help him load up some empty crab baskets. What happened though, was me walking in to the beginning of a six person job of us all moving a disassembled 28 foot walk-in freezer from the basement up into this truck. Insane. All the while Christine is upstairs checking her email, only to find out that...
WE WON A 6 DAY/ 5 NIGHT VACATION WORTH $5,000 TO THE ELDORADO ROYALE RESORT IN MEXICO'S MAYAN RIVIERA! WWWWWHHHAAAAAAAATTTTT???
It turns out that Christine entered a contest on the Sephora (cosmetics) website in January, and she cornfirmed with them after recieving the prize notification email that this is indeed legitimate and we are finally getting our honeymoon.
OLE!!!
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