krazy fest was this weekend. i continued my trend of hanging out and not paying for it, which resulted in actually having to work as stage crew yesterday. it was a long hot day in the sun, to say the least. a few bands i was wanting to see actually played the fest, but for the most part i was just there to hang out with all my friends (both from here and out of town).

friday night was pretty low-key. we left when the fest was over and went out to friday's to drink giant mixed drinks. we heard there was a bunch of party going down at a hotel close to where the fest was being held, so we went down there. there ended up being a bunch of people standing around, drinking in the parking lot, but nothing really exciting. we decided to head over to cahoots and see what was happening over there. we hung out at the bar for a little while, but it just wasn't enough party. i ran into a bunch of friends from the skateshop and they decided we should grab some beer, head back to the hotel, and make a party of our own. that turned out to be a pretty fun idea. there's a big patio on the roof, which is where we set up party shop. we ended up hanging out there until the cops showed up. apparently some girl was raped. i guess even the punk kids can't be trusted to be functional, non-disgusting human beings. after that we just drank at my house.

saturday was pretty much insane. after the fest wrapped for the day, we headed over to the warehouse for some party. the cops showed up when there was only about 20 people there. they actually cuffed elizabeth from the reputation, mainly because she told them she was a lawyer and she knew her rights. she learned an important lesson: rights don't mean anything to the police. the cops ended up leaving without arresting anyone, but a bunch of people had already ditched out on the party. so…we decided to take the party back to the hotel from the night before. we ended up back on the balcony, summoning half the people in the hotel for giant party. john dubbed it the "party patio." kevin and i were randomly walking into kids rooms to use the bathroom. we'd just walk in, tell them we had to take a leak, and continue on our way. this went over surprisingly well. kevin handed me his elliott stage pass and kept telling people i was benny. some kid tried to interview me on camera, so i went with it, proclaiming that kevin was our roadie. kevin then said "i let them pee in my butt." after a little while, the cops ended up coming to bust our little party, so we hid out in some kids room and drank all his beer. after the cops split, we went back outside and decided to make it to cahoots for last call.

yesterday was the last day of the fest, and chris and i just worked stage crew and tried to keep hydrated.

in other news…

sebastian got a new kitten.

my review of the new hot snakes record went up on 75 or less.

i am now completely sober and very sore.

as matt mentioned in his l'il post earlier, our dear friend jess has decided to up and move away. she's apparently getting married and now she's living in dallas, texas. well…i have a different perspective than matt and paul, i guess. i've known jess for around the same amount of time, but…i dated her. she and i dated for about 6 months. this was, of course, after knowing her for a few years. we dated and we had a strange relationship, then we broke up (she dumped me), then i promptly moved into the same house as her (the house that i currently share with scott). i think one of the dumbest things i'm guilty of ever doing is dating jess while i was still wrapped up in my prior ex. it strained the relationship and led to my eventual downfall. shortly after me she started dating the guy she's now slated to marry.

to not put too fine a point on it, i'm not entirely thrilled with the whole scenario. i'm not thrilled with her moving half a country away. i'm not thrilled with her not being around whenever i want to hang out. and most of all…i'm not thrilled with her marrying some guy i feel like she's settling for. jess and i have had plenty of in-depth discusssions since our break-up, and most of them centered on how the future hubby isn't what she likes in guys. to put it bluntly, he's kind of a tool. before you start pointing and laughing, realize that this isn't just petty ex-boyfriend jealousy talking. this is honest concern for a girl i've known for eight years. i can't help thinking that it's all a grand mistake. if it still counted for anything, i'd be the guy standing up at the wedding, stating my objections.

i keep feeling like that guy in the jetta commercial.

but if it's a mistake, it's her's to make. so i have to swallow it like the bitter pill it is and go on. i guess this just meanss we won't hook up on a lazy tuesday to catch a movie and eat at thai caf? anymore…

wow. last night was a doozy. it started out with an innocent trip to the back door to hang out with a few friends, and ended up as a no holds barred, full on bar brawl at the karaoke bar down the street. how quickly things can go south…

i was hanging at the bar with a few friends when most of them decided to leave. brendan needed a place to crash, so i offered up the couch. he wanted to cruise down to cahoots, so we headed on down there. i figured we'd hang out there for a while until they closed and then brendan would want to crash. well…when we got there, it was our friend rob's 21st birthday. everyone from the skateshop was hanging out, getting loaded. we drank a bunch and then someone said "let's go down and sing karaoke for the birthday event!" so we polished off our drinks and walked down the block.

when we walked into the karaoke bar, some girl was singing lisa loeb or some shit. we all grabbed some beers, put in a few songs (amongst our picked hits were "sweet child o' mine," "crazy train," and some boyz II men tunes), and settled in while the losers before us took their turns. well…during a frat boy duet of some lame pearl jam song, one of our friends got onstage and started whooping it up during the very end. the frat boys got a little pissy, but the friend apologized and told them that we were just drunk and showing our friend a good time for his birthday. the frat boy relented, but the bartender decided we had had enough to drink and, without a last call, closed the bar down, cutting us off. the dj tried to throw a couple of our friends out, but they refused to leave. some frat boy started a fight with another friend (keep in mind there were about 12 of us in our group) and i ran over to break it up. i got clocked in the back of the head, and i started swinging. people pulled us off the frat boys and everybody started to calm down. until the dj started pulling the mics off the stage, closing up shop…

that's when we all started yelling and screaming. i think the fratty jocks were pissed off because we had been dancing with their girls and now we had the girls screaming with us about the end of karaoke. the next thing you know, they're totally kicking everyone out and some jock thinks it's a wise idea to throw a punch at one of our friends. all of a sudden, the place erupts and the bartender pulls out a tazer and starts nailing my friend with it. i jumped in and got tazed, but i got plenty of shots in before we cleared out of the place. the last thing i remember seeing was the bar in total ruins. we bolted out of there and laid low for the rest of the night. amazingly enough, everyone cleared out before the cops came.

now i'm sitting around, nursing some tazer burns, and reflecting on one of the most insane nights in recent memory.

it's gonna be a great summer…

i've realized that daytime soap operas (and daytime tv, in general) rate incredibly high on the "unintentional comedy scale." as i was putting on my shoes and getting ready to leave the house for a spot of lunch, i flipped on the tv to see what the gods of television programming decided to grace my life with. what i found was a particular carwreck called "days of our lives." to be honest, i'm mildly familiar with this particular waste of an hour because i dated a girl for two years that watched it religiously. she even made her mom tape it for her if she had to work. it was kinda scary.

to get the most for your "unintentional comedy" buck, you really need to catch the first five minutes of any soap before they even roll credits. the proof may be in the pudding, but the laughs are in the setup, i'd say. that first five minutes is packed with moony eyes, shady dealings, and everything else that you can only find in the dreams of an unhappy housewife. to be honest, the other 55 minutes are just a big tease to make you watch the next episode.

anyhowways…saturday was pretty low key. i spent most of the time recovering from friday night's festivities. we ended up going over to a cookout for our friend jess (my ex-girlfriend and ex-roommate, in that order). she's getting married to some tool and moving to dallas, texas. as long as she's happy, i guess. so most of the early afternoon was spent standing in the hot sun, drinking pepsi (i didn't feel like dancing with beer again, quite yet) and hanging with a bunch of people i don't know.

scott and i ended up splitting to head over to see irina and black widows play at the indoor skatepark. what i thought was going to be a huge show ended up being sparsly attended, but it was all good. irina rocked hard, but they sounded kinda muddy and steve's guitar wouldn't stay in tune. black widows kicked as much ass as always. after that we popped in and out of the various bars and i ended up back at the warehouse until 5:30 in the morning.

but i'm sure you could have figured that one out on your own…

yesterday was the weekly cookout and kickball in the park. we got rained out, last week, so we returned with a vengeance. once again, the team i was on kicked ass and ended up winning 16-13. another glorious victory. another week where we retain bragging rights. ahhhh…kickball. a few of us have joked about starting a weekly dodgeball game. now that would be brutal…

brian gets drunk and makes a giant ass of himself (vol. 3, chapter 472):

scott and i set out to have a fun evening of drinking and socializing, last night. we dropped off some stuff with johnny that he had left over here, then we jetted over to the rud to catch a friend's band (party girls). we hung out there for a while, then we decided it was time to hit the bar. we got to the well at around 12:30 and there really weren't that many people there. scott and i then decided to go grab some booze and drink at home at a discounted price…free (aside from the original price of the alcohol).

on the way back to the car we ran into our awesome friend kelly, who invited us to a midnight pool party. scott and i were pretty determined to get our drink on, so we told kelly we'd give her a call. that was the first mistake of the evening: never tell someone you'll call them if you plan on doing a lot of drinking first. chances are…you're gonna forget to call. either that or you're drunk dialing, and that's bad news, as well.

so…we got home and sat out on the back porch, drinking and shooting the shit, and enjoying the onset of summer. scott and i have decided to stop feeling so old and have a fun summer, this year. cookouts, back porch drinking marathons…we're gonna have to get matt and paul over here more often. good times, for sure.

scott and i decided to amble back down to the well to see if anyone was there. it was a bit more crowded when we walked in at around 2am, this time. elizabeth was still there, so we sat around and talked about whatever. second mistake: get really drunk and talk to pretty girls. chances are you're only making an ass of yourself. that's never a good thing.

scott ditched out and went for a walk to cahoots, then he dropped back in, hung out for a bit, and headed home. i stayed parked at the bar, hanging out to see if john would show up. right around the time i had given up on that and was getting out of my stool to make my way home, paul cruised in. i was literally off my stool and getting ready to head to the door. there's a cardinal rule in life: the party's not over if paul is still there. so i sat my ass back down and hung out with the illustrious puffin. a couple of beers and shots of beam later (the puffin is nothing, if not a tank), they were kicking us all out. i said my goodbyes and headed home.

you'd think being at home alone (except for the cat and a sleeping scott), it'd be hard to make much of an ass of myself. you'd think i'd be home, done, and ready for bed. well…you'd be thinking wrong. i called one friend and left a really drunk message on her voice mail. i ended up talking to another friend and lost all ability to make sense. fifteenth mistake: alcohol and phones just don't mix. if you're gonna drink, don't dial. if you're gonna dial…don't drink.

so…to cap this off, i'm issuing a blanket apology to everyone involved. i'm sincerely sorry, and i promise not to do it again…until later tonight.

i tried to keep last night low-key, but ended up failing miserably. i left the house at around 2am under the pretense of grabbing something to drink so i could take some medicine to knock out this summer cold ("the death," as scott calls it) that's been plaguing our apartment for most of the week. while i was out i decided to see if anyone was down at the well of spirits, our new neighborhood bar.

well…as soon as i walked into the place, i knew i wasn't going to make it home anytime soon. i ran into the usual gang of…usuals. i hung out with john and elizabeth for a little bit, and then steve and billy showed up. at this point, john decides everyone should go back to the warehouse to make some party. i stopped off and grabbed some beer and ended up back at the warehouse until 5:30 in the morning. steve and i sat around and plotted out a new band for when irina is on hiatus while phil is in russia for the fall. other than that…a lot of beer drinking and socializing.

and now i'm sitting around with a stuffed head, listening to mission of burma, contemplating some medicine (for real, this time) and a late afternoon nap. you have to love fridays…

i've come to the conclusion that i'm not posting to this site because i feel like my life is overwhelmingly uninteresting. i get these imaginary posts in my head that read something like this:

thursday…i went to the bar and got drunk. i sat around and made an ass of myself. then i went home and went to bed.

let me tell you…the excitement never stops around here. i could amend that by mentioning that scott ritcher was in town and we hung out for a while before he disappeared into the bathroom forever. when it came time for me to need to hit the facilities, i had to knock on the door several times. it went a lot like this…

me (knocking on the door): scott? you about done in there?
scott: wooo!
me: you okay in there, man?
scott: wooo!

ten or fifteen minutes later, he ended up coming out of the bathroom and said "i think it's time for me to go home." that stands as the understatement of the weekend.

anyhowways…friday i ended up at the bar again. i ran into a lot of people i haven't seen in a while (as well as people i see a million times in the course of the week). it was a nice evening out, but there were no crazy high points. i was a little drunk, so i felt like i was blowing a bunch of people off, inadvertantly. oh well.

saturday was more of the same. parlour played again, this time at the lava house. i enjoyed their set thoroughly, despite the fact that i was completely sauced. i ended up going back to the warehouse with john and a gazillion other people for a little impromptu party action. we all ended up on the roof, blasting some old time blues channel, drinking more beer. i ended up having some bizarre conversation with some girl that i don't remember at all (the conversation, not the girl). i do remember her not making a lick of sense, though. so i guess it's fine that i can't recall exactly what the fuck was said.

yesterday was supposed to be kickball, but we got rained out. we ended up just having the usual pre-game cookout in the little shelter thing in the park. after that, we headed back to rob's house to watch the lakers game. i guess everyone got all fired up, because we ended up at a park, playing 3-on-3 for the rest of the night. i am now convinced that i am horribly out of shape and have absolutely no jump shot to speak of. end of uninteresting story.