Justin – NOLAGEEK

Went to Wonderland Ballroom with Justin

Posted on April 8, 2008May 22, 2009 by nolageek

Stopped by Wonderland with Justin tonight. Great show. Marcus Ricci opened for Andrew Callard. I took a few pictures of both acts, but for some reason only a couple from the Callard set came out. And as you can see, they’re barely recognizable. I *really* wish people would Shut The Fuck Up while bands are playing. The crowd was so loud during the first act that Justin and I had to stand in front of the speakers just to hear anything, but it was worth the resulting loss of hearing. We only caught the last 3 songs of Ricci’s set but it was pretty damn good… kind of Costello. Although it sucked we only caught his last couple songs, I was fortunate to get a free CD. Will definitely check it out. (click that link up top and check out some of his stuff on myspace – ‘This Modern Age’ was freaking amazing live.)

Andrew Callard was good as well. Started off sounding derivative of Elton John – when Elton John was good. – but soon found his own voice. The first song was catchy, but Justin and I both realized that the amount a group sounds like a Christian Band is directly proportional to the number of times they sing the lyric ‘I got that feeling’ and use the pronoun ‘he’ in a song.

The guitarist sitting in was fun to watch too. As far as I could tell his name was John Lin, or Lind, or Linn, or something. It was obvious that the material was new to him, he was playing along while staring into a notebook on a music stand in front of him, but he was having fun up there. I gathered he’s another local DC musician but I was unable to find any information on him… or for Callard for that matter. That’s a shame because they both deserve more exposure! I wanted to say hello to the guitarist after the show, but he was preoccupied with his friends that showed up and I didn’t want to just stand there like a doof until he was free so I left.

Washington D.C. Recap

Posted on April 21, 2007June 8, 2008 by nolageek

Many apologies for not making timely updates throughout the last week – I never really had a chance to sit down long enough to type anything out that made sense. I’m home now… well, I’m at work. I was home long enough to see the kitties and wash my hair before I had to turn around and come up to the office.

This past week was amazing. First thing I have to say is thank you so much to my brother, Michael for getting me the last minute plane ticket. To Brian, Marshall and Julie. You really took a huge load off my mind, watching the cats like you did. Also, thanks to Mike for lending me his camera.

Mad props to my homies.

I haven’t been so happy to spend time with someone in a long time, too long to remember really. Justin and I have probably talked to each other on average of once a day since we met January and being able to hug him again after all this time was such a thrill. It made the 2+ hour plane ride worth every agonizing minute. I’d do it again.

I did so much I don’t think I can remember it all, but I’ll try. If Justin or Alberto can fill in any details please feel free… I have terrible short term memory. (Probably from that one time I smoked pot… that shit’ll eat holes in your brain, I swear.)

Friday night: I got in a day early due to the flight, go me. Justin was at his production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and couldn’t join us. Alberto picked me up from the Airport and brought me to meet his friends at Recessions – an underground (literally) hotel bar near Dupont Circle. I tried not to drink for as long as I could, but his drunken friends John, Andrew and two others (James and his sister?) eventually talked me into a couple of cocktails… plus they were buying. I got home late and slept in.

Saturday: Alberto and I met Justin and Stephanie at the Cherry Blossom Festival, Steph was volunteering there and we had fun watching various displays of Japanese culture and stuff. Martial Arts exhibitions and some Japanese rock bands were present. Very cool. Justin and Stephanie both speak Japanese so Alberto and I each had our own private translator! :)

After the festival Justin had to get ready for the play that evening, and Alberto, Stephanie and I met met their friends for a birthday dinner at some mall restaurant that was very OK. Afterwards we went to see Justin in T.M.M. and we were all completely shocked at how amazing the production was. The sets were incredible, the singing was excellent and Justin looked adorable in his suit and suspenders as he tap danced around the stage. (I’m not sure he knows the extent of my ‘thing’ for suits and ties yet…. heh heh heh) Afterwards we went back to the mall for drinks. We discussed the fact that I’ve been in D.C. for two days and so far I’ve only been to bars and restaurants that were located inside of malls or hotels. Justin pledged to ‘not be as lame as Alberto and Stephanie’ (he was kidding) and he later made good on this promise.

Case in point: the next morning Justin and I went to eat lunch at the coolest middle eastern restaurant ever: Yazuzu. The decor is inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 – one of my favorite movies ever and the food was excellent. It was even served on little space-age cafeteria trays!

I highly recommend it. Justin and I agreed that the Pita could use some improvements.. but the owner explained that he has a problem getting a consistent supply from his delivery person and he cant heat it since he doesn’t have an oven. (He heats everything with steam.) Still.. get a microwave maybe?

After that the week was kind of a blur. I visited a few D.C. bike shops, ate all the Ethiopian food I saw, did as much as I could (that time allowed) with Alberto and Justin and managed to sneak in some sightseeing between it all: The Washington and Lincoln Monuments, WW2 and Korea Memorials as well as the Native American, Holocaust and Air and Space Museums.

The metro is incredible – I want to move there just to experience a functional public transit system.

The train ride home took almost 30 hours, as we were delayed by several freight trains. That sucked. Someone stole my toothbrush on the train. My used toothbrush. How nasty is that?

All in all I’m a little sad to be home. It was so nice to see Alberto and everyone again and a relief to know I’m not crazy for feeling the way I do about somone I met in a bar nearly 5 months ago and talk on the phone with on a daily basis. :)

I miss him already.

Today in pictures.

Posted on January 22, 2007 by nolageek

Got off of work around 9 and went and got a haircut.. All in all I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve been going shorter and shorter with every cut, hoping to get to the point where I can just buzz it. I had it done once, last year and it looked a little silly. Dare I say it, I’m not quite thin enough on top to go that route yet… The sides look good, but the top just looks stupid if it’s cut too short.

Anyway, then I went and got lunch with Justin, whom I met last night at the Pub before I headed to work. Really sweet guy… who of course flew back home to DC shortly after our meal. *sigh*

I gotta get outta here.

Anyway, my day ended at like, 2pm so that’s all I took. Here’s a picture of my desk at work though. Notice the insane amount of carbonated diet beverage.

Kidney stone #3, here I come!

Miss Jackson if You’re Nasty

Posted on February 2, 2004 by nolageek

Every heterosexual male within a two block radius of the Medical Center is asking me to print out pictures of Janet Jackson’s Boobie. I think it says a lot about how terrified this society is of ourselves when something like this is as big of a deal as it seems to be. I swear, I thought we were going to have today off from work. (Ok, not really.)

So of course, I had to comment about it too. :)

I just think it’s a little too funny that mere moments after the incident, CBS, The Superbowl, MTV, Justin and Janet all had statements ready to go denying that it was intentional (even though they got the approval from CBS. (according to drudgereport).)

In other Superbowl news: This guy hates Talking Animal Commercials as much as I do.