Filed under: Good day, Music, memories | Tags: AZ, brendan james, club congress, Mike, Music, pinkerton academy, the day is brave, Tucson
January 10th, 2009
I met Brendan James.
I was tooling around The Space in early December, thinking about dumping my account. I was swimming around in “Edit Friends” thinking about how cool it was that I have or have had all of these awesome people in my life over the last few years. I decided against dumping my account, because I remember how everyone was like hands-to-mouths in shock when I dumped my Facebook (okay, all two or three of you). I thought about perusing my bands and wanted to see if anyone was going to play local. Very few ever do because Phoenix is the place to play, big gigs, big crowds and all. It isn’t that I don’t want to travel to Phoenix to see some shows but it is a hassle. It isn’t like back home, Boston was what 40 minutes, sometimes under a half an hour depending on traffic or how late you were. I drove to a Radiohead show and I swear we got there in like 23 minutes. Great Woods, now that’s a different story. That’s how the drive to Phoenix is… forever… and it’s two lanes of forever. And forget about getting home before 2am, which is cool when your 18 and young but not when your sleep is so much more important than even food. Oh, damn do I not miss that parking lot at Great Woods. Lucky if you made it out under 2 hours.
So I was checking the shows calendar in Tucson and I see Brendan James is coming in a week. IN A WEEK! Sweet! Don’t know who he is? You can read about him here. His music is destined to be celebrated for a long time to come. It is genuinely heartfelt, heartwarming and heart wrenching all at the same time. Brilliant. His voice is warm and touching and gets into the deepest parts of you. His delivery is honest and open and brings you into it’s sunlight like a long awaited embrace. Refreshing and renewing.
I scooped up two tickets for under $20 and the show was at Club Congress; what a cool place that is! Stepping into it you forget where you are and think you’re back in Portsmouth, or better yet, the Back Bay. It’s stylish and historic, the perfect setting for this music. Mike and I enjoyed some beers before the show and then approached the stage for a unforgettable set. Brendan was fighting off a cold and apologized for it a few times but he never lost his composure or his musical professionalism; you could tell that he really really cared to give us the best show he possibly could. Tucson was nearly his last stop on his Mtv tour and you knew he was giving it his all and that’s all you could ask for. He played lots of tracks from his album The Day Is Brave and then mixed it up with lots of new stuff from his upcoming album. All of the songs were outstanding and exactly how I had hoped they sounded live, beautiful. He even played my favorite, All I Can See. I was mesmorized.
After the show, Brendan and his band mates came out to the front of the house to sign autographs and to meet the people who had come out to see them play. I think that is awesome. I haven’t been to a show that intimate and personal since… the Murmurs in Cambridge, what 1996? Maybe Liz Phair in Boston, 1997or8? You are wishing these small venue artists success but at the same time you would never trade these kinds of experiences for anything. (I was about half a mile from Robert Smith in ‘97 but would have given a limb to be in the front row/at least I wasn’t on the lawn.) Being that close to them when they play, being able to share with them their emotions through their music. Being able to meet them afterwards and let them know that lyrics like, “I want to know where the stength of a person lies, in their past or their future. Is it in the way that they hurt or they love themselves or is it all an illusion?” have reached the nether of your being (although I didn’t tell him this, I was too star struck.)
We wait in line for a little bit and then it is our turn, Mike bought me a cool poster of the tour for Brendan to sign. The first thing I do is shake his hand and tell him how much we loved the show. OMg, I’m going to get a cold! Of course I said that in my head and not out loud. It will be my first famous cold. I didn’t say that out loud either. Then I didn’t know what else to say, I’m sure I was mouth agape and all googly eyed. Mike took it away and was his normal friendly self, he is that way around everyone, calm and collected. He told Brendan that we were from Derry too and the look on his face was amazement and you could see that twinkle of homesickness in his eyes, the kind I get when I miss things like leaves, apple picking and the ocean. Mike added that we were also Class of ‘93 Pinkerton and Brendan said that he was Class of ‘99 (I felt old 
and then he said, “Go Astros!” We laughed all together and it was so sweet. Mike shook his hand too (famous sickness!) and we thanked him again for a great show and I told him to feel better soon.
Yay! It was so much fun! We stepped out into the cool air of the night and we knew we just had a great time and my mind always races through experiences like that, flying around in a pool of this-is-what-life-is-all-about and I’ll remember this forever because Mike and I experienced it together and that is so special to me. Walking to the car I looked down and saw that Brendan had written on my poster, “To Tara, Go Astros!! Brendan James”. How cool is that?
(Neither of us did ever get the famous cold
Filed under: Good day, Music, Uncategorized | Tags: AZ, forever the sickest kids, mayday parade, Music, Ricky, the rock, tonight we have rhythm, Tucson
August 19th, 2008
My partner in crime, Ricky, and I went to the show of shows on Tuesday night here in Tucson, at The Rock. Getting to the show was like a comedy of errors, absolutely the best kind of preface to a most amazing evening. Nothing that runs smoothly has a very exciting conclusion, this being the pinnacle example of that. We both had to be up pretty early that day, it being the day we were supposed to get our new register system installed at the Eagle. Nothing goes without a hitch there either and to both of our dismay the new registers didn’t happen, so the day was long and dragged because it was just another day at work with nothing to distract us and take up the time before we went to the show we were looking forward to for so long.
Finally!– we are off, I agreed to drive because Ricky’s usually the chafferer for everyone else/I never get to drive with Mike, I like driving, I feel cool, that’s really the only reason. I go to pick him up at his house, and let’s just say he literally lives in the desert almost up a mountain. Seriously. Now, historically there are three things I do very badly: math, gymnastics, and reading and understanding directions and maps. I mean there are probably a ton of crap I do badly, but those are the top three. And I don’t mean like pummel horse or balance beam gymnastics, I just mean I’m not actively dexterous or flexible. Where the hell am I going with this… my point exactly! It should take 15 minutes from my house to Ricky’s house but since I got lost twice, er, three times, it took almost triple the time (but I think I only admitted getting lost twice, and only now am spilling my beans, oh well…) I finally get Ricky and we’re off! Hooray!
Driving, tra la la… OMG I FORGOT THE TICKETS!!! In a panic, I mean panic!– I u-turned like nobody’s business and had to backtrack to my house to get them. Tucson isn’t very big but no matter where you need to get to it’ll take an exuberant and almost unnecessary amount of time to get there. But not the trek home and back, I must have been on the wings of concert angels because I think round trip for the retrieval took about ten minutes when it should really have taken about a half an hour. So that was the start of our adventure…
We get to the place, and with a little help from his GPS phone thingy we get almost lost in a little web of turn here for your destination, no here, no now go left, go right, go straight up a camel’s ass… GPS is hilarious when it can’t pinpoint your location exactly, it just knows that you are there but it wants to get you right on top of the place. We park, I scratch my hubcap, don’t care and we get out. We’re walking up to the place and we run into AE Jon who is playing the show with his band Tonight We Have Rhythm, he’s nervous, smoking and shaking, understandable, playing in your town with two very amazing bands. We get in line and it is just an array of bubble gum, eye liner, long and big hair, stripes and neons, girl jeans on boys, and fun fun fun. Surprisingly I wasn’t the oldest person there and also of note, there were normal looking kids there too. I don’t know why that surprised me because we were normal looking so why wouldn’t there be other “normal” looking people.
We get inside and it is crazy small, for those of you who grew up clubbing around Manchester it was like The Web only without that wacky seating arrangement, so it was just stage and floor. It was going to be sardine city. Oh, and it is about 100 degrees outside and that made it about Burning Hell degrees inside. But I loved the place, it was seedy and dirty and awesome, exactly how it should be. Now we wait. Ricky met up with a ton of people he was really good friends with in high school, good, now we have our own crowd. You could tell this crowd was young and rough and ready to bring the pain. No seats, only sweaty bodies all clamoring to get as close to the stage as possible.
The first band comes on, the front man is obnoxious and obviously coked up and if he wasn’t, well then he needs some serious attention. They were crappy but some people dug it so who am I to judge really. Their set was way too long though and then we had to wait again. My friend’s band came on and they did their thing and they were awesome! It’s a really cool thing to see someone you know, someone who you see in everyday situations totally rock out on stage and really be able to show what they love to do. It was great, and their sound is right up my alley, so I know there are good things to come from this band. Keep a look out!
Mayday Parade are next and they were super great! At this point the crowd is going crazy. Slamming up into me and everyone else. And you know there was that girl and that guy. Those people who have total disregard for anyone else and just completely bust out and not care if you get a fist in the face or an arm to the gut; as if that can be called dancing. I think it was at that point that Ricky and I decided that if you can’t beat ‘em (and we did literally beat those two) then you might as well join ‘em. So we did, we danced, we sweat and we slammed back! It was hilarious and awesome and such a rush. I’ve always wanted to do that and not care how much it would hurt or how I would look, and I’m so glad I did. That set was great but we were really there for the next band.
Forever The Sickest Kids were incredible! I was so taken at how comfortable and happy they were to be on stage. I’ve never seen a band like this play, they were all ecstatic to be there and really belted out everything they had. That’s a show. They were animated and energetic and that is what moved the crowd, or at least that is what moved me. I had to go to those energy reserves that I didn’t even know I had to keep up, but you know what I did. A year ago I never would have been able to do that, so it was such a personal triumph for me. I was totally taken away and forgot who I was, where I was and what was going on in my life and just left it out there the way the music did. It rocked. That’s what it did.
It was one of those nights, the best kind. Ricky and I left the place and our bodies were all wiggly and tired. We couldn’t hear until late the next day, and I think I haven’t yet caught up on my sleep from that night. That’s the rock and roll lifestyle I guess (I am so hardcore… not really.)
Okay, here’s the ultimate biggie of the night!!! Ricky caught a drum stick from FTSK and he gave it to me!!! How wicked awesome is that!
Filed under: Good day, Living | Tags: cats, majestik tattoo, Ricky, tattoo, Tucson
August 15, 2008
I got inked and I have to admit that it was pretty much one of the most bad ass experiences of my life, on so many levels.
I had to wait for Ricky Doo to get off of work and because he is such a diligent worker he stayed later and that just made my anticipation grow greater. It made something else grow greater too, but we’ll get to that. I suppose I can say this now because what’s done is done but I haven’t really admitted to mostly anyone that I have really only considered getting a tattoo for about… a day. I mean I have always thought about getting one mostly in a romantic kind of way, the kind of way that doesn’t actually have you picking out a design or driving to the place. So you can clock how long I actually wanted it in a real time season of 24. I know, most people would think that wouldn’t be enough time to take anything seriously, but my mind and heart works like that. It’s just the way I have always been, it’s when I do my best work really, not overly analyzing anything to death, not talking myself in and out of it.
I knew I wanted a cat, but not literally a cat, unless of course I ever get a Felix the Cat on me somewhere, which I will never really rule out. Just not a Garfield, as much as I love Garfield. The point is I have to give the credit for “Leo” to my friend Bri. I mean “cat” was always at the top of my list but I was weighing all of my options. It wasn’t until I heard it from someone else’s mouth that it really sealed the deal for me.
10:30 Friday night, on Speedway at the place everyone has recommended, Majestik and I am so glad that they did. That place rocks, and here’s why:
I get the coolest girl ever to do my tattoo and I was so comfortable and at ease, which are good things when someone comes out from the back room to show you the needle they are going to be using to permanently mark you. The place was chill, completely cool and made me remember my “bar days”. You know, I was that girl who would sit at the bar even alone, on a Tuesday night… seedy part of Manchester… I wish I had tattoos then, would have really added to my mystique. Neither here nor there. Oh and Ricky knew the tattoo artist from school, so there’s comfortable common ground. So we get settled and she tells me that she is going to go for it and ask me if I can handle it. Go… okay, you can go. Didn’t hurt really. I mean on a scale of no pain and pain it was pretty much on its own level, I won’t lie. But it didn’t hurt the way I thought it was going to hurt. I know now that it is most impossible to try and explain the feeling to someone, it’s one of those things in life, you have to experience it for yourself. Probably a lot like jumping out of airplane… you can’t explain that terror and euphoria to someone… for the record I’m sticking to tattoos.
Tra, la la… getting a tattoo… sitting here with Ricky watching, couple of other people who work there in the room, Tool is playing, life is good… man, I’m getting sweaty, can’t feel my legs, or my arms for that matter… starting to see those gray splotches that I did when I passed out in church when I was like nine, think I was wearing that pink jumpsuit with a white turtle neck with little hearts on it… learn to swim, learn to swim… shit! I’m gonna pass out!!!
Me- Ummm, I think we should stop for a second
Tattoo artist (Bryanna)- Okay. Are you okay?
Me- I think I’m gonna pass out…
Big Guy With Lots of Tattoos and Piercings- Here DRINK THIS NOW! LAY BACK!
Whoa!!! Holy hell that was intense! No other way to explain it. So the big guy gives me the world biggest Arizona sweetened tea and I drank it like I had just trekked across the desert wearing a winter coat. I even got cookies. Was I embarrassed, f*ck no. I would have been super embarrassed if I had face planted and eaten parkay floor. Hell, I probably would have broken my glasses and been a blubbering mess. Instead I was pretty calm and collected, I had my sh*t tight, I just played it off like “oops”. So Bryanna goes on to explain that what I just experienced was like giving blood on an empty stomach. But I ate… at like 5.
Ricky was quiet enough to bite his tongue. Earlier that day I had text Ricky and was boasting how much I was loving my frosted Lucky Charms because they’re magically delicious. Ummm, that text wasn’t at 5, it was at three thirty 5! Hahahahaha… I’m an ass. Not so magically delicious 8 hours later! (Of course he did remind me of this fact afterwards… lol! is all I can say!)<– so that’s why they ask you if you have eaten in the last 4 hours on the legal thingy that you sign before getting it done, and that’s why you don’t guesstimate.
The rest of the tattoo went without a hitch and was done in a flash. I was figuring that after that pain and after my near pass out experience the want to get another one wouldn’t have come up so quick, but I do! I want a ton, or at least I want another. I should really let this one heal first, I won’t have any sides left to sleep on! All in due time. But I do know this, Ricky and I are eating a steak dinner and a cake and sipping soda through pixie sticks before the next time… with pancakes and syrup on the side.
Those aren’t mistakes, those are freckles. This was taken right after I got home… after Ihop, of course. I’m in love with it!
Filed under: Commentary, Food | Tags: AZ, Food, Italian cuisine, La Dolce Vita, Tucson
April 20th, 2008
I had all but given up on trying to find a good Italian restaurant in Tucson, much less a great Italian restaurant. Until today I didn’t think I would ever find it, but, alas I have found you.
It is aptly names La Dolce Vita and it is amazing. It is everything you want in a great Italian restaurant, honest food, fresh product, creative yet home style cooking, superb service, numerous courses each with a purpose and the chef’s heart and soul in each bite. We are so happy we found it and the really surprising thing is it has been here all along. It is mere miles from the house! I can’t wait to return time and time again.
Ciao!
Filed under: Commentary, Emotions, Food, Good day, Vacation | Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Coach, Food, Phoenix, Scottsdale, shopping, sisters, The Persian Room, Tucson, Vacation
April 7th, 2008
7 Days into April and for the record I haven’t posted a proper post yet, so here it is.
My sister left Tucson yesterday for business in Phoenix and is heading back to NYC tomorrow morning. I had an absolute blast with her here, as I always do, but this trip was somehow even more special than the others. I see us getting older, but not just that, I see us growing into ourselves wiser and more relaxed too. I think the more we come to terms with who we are, where we are going and what has made us, us, we have an even stronger relationship. We’re sisters, we have always been sisters. Time and circumstance may have come between us, but as the years go by we both, in our own way, have come to realize that what it comes down to is what it is that we both want out of a relationship with each other, and what the other is capable of giving. On some level we have both always wanted a “normal” relationship but because of the past, because of our somewhat trying although pretty common tumultuous, we have always sought that normalcy without knowing that we could achieve it by just letting go. Individually we have calmed down, we have let a lot of our quest for strength, control, and independence go and have come to understand that opening ourselves up to change and accepting that sometimes the change is good and sometimes the change is bad, is not only the path of least resistance, but the smart path. It was good to be with her.
I apologies for not properly posting and I must admit that on Saturday I wasn’t even able to get to my computer. My poor little Mac sat waiting in its slumber mode until Sunday when all I did was excuse myself for another day. The reasons though, are completely satisfactory, more than I must confess.
Saturday, my sister, Mike and I set out for Scottsdale and embarked on a shopping spree of that of which dreams are made. Holy Retail Batman! I got to shop in stores I have always wanted to shop in, I got to step into stores that I have only dreamed of stepping into… my sister probably thought I was a shut in, but she understands that we just don’t have those stores around here, and not too many opportunities to shop in high end shops. I went into a Neiman Marcus and a Nordstoms, Juicy Couture, kate spade, Betsy Johnson, BCBG, Michael Kors, Swarovski, and of course a giant Coach store. Hello! The best thing about going into these shops is that they assume you have money and they HELP you! I had some of the best customer service I have ever had anywhere, and I wasn’t even buying! Mostly, not buying, just buying a little…
(My big purchase)
Whatevs.
It was such an outstanding day, and Mike had a great time too. It’ll always be remembered as the day we walked 3 miles in a mall, the Great Pocket Square Hunt and so many other great memories.
We finished off that night at a super restaurant of Mike’s choosing, The Persian Room, and it was so good. Now, I’ve never been a fan of Mike’s family cuisine and before you judge you must try some of these dishes, and I’m not talking the one’s you may think you know, Middle Eastern food, Persian food, Indian food and Mediterranean food is all very different. Mike’s dad is from Iran and that falls under Persian food. I’m not saying it is bad or bad tasting, what I’m saying it is that it is very different from European/American flavors. It is just about on another planet from Italian food, what I grew up on. Let’s just say it isn’t my ab-fab favorite. But this place had some awesome food and I would recommend it to someone, who say has lived in a culinary coma for most of their life.
And I’m a sleeper and of course I didn’t even make it out of Phoenix before I fell asleep in the back seat of the Jobing Kia. And that in a nut shell is my vacation recap (highlights) and my apologies for not properly posting on my blog.
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Battlestar Galactica: final season premiere episode-
I waited a whole year for that. Did I miss something? What the f*(bleep)ck?
I know he’s a Cylon, she’s a Cylon, those two are Cylons, and now what? What the…?
I need more. It’s like a drug. A mean, cliff hanging mind bending drug. Damn you Sci-Fi channel.
Filed under: Commentary, Food | Tags: Arizona, Food, In-And-Out, montana avenue, restaurants, Tiger Woods, Tucson
January 7th, 2008
I like to think I’m a simple person with simple needs. Okay, I’m a little high maintenance when it comes to food. Let me specify: high maintenance when I go out to eat, at home I’m a pig in shit with a box of Lil’ Debbie powdered donuts, toaster oven pizzas and string cheese. That’s a disturbing visual. The point is this, Mike and I just can’t bring ourselves to eat at your run of the mill, frozen to microwaved, chain restaurants. I think it happened around the time we went to an unnamed Aussie steakhouse and the bill was over $50+ and I felt had. The steak was boiled. Seriously boiled. I can handle that because they don’t make bones about it. I know what I’m getting when we go to a place boasting about how great that it’s Friday, inevitably it’s someone’s uncle’s kid’s birthday and everyone in the place is going to scream and clap about it. $50+ frozen delights all around. What was becoming abundantly clear to me was that I could make better food at home, and I’m not the chef in my family, by far. But there are those times when you just want to go out.
So we go to expensive, fancy dancy places instead. Thinking that this would solve our problem, and for the most part it has. The service is a million times better and in no way am I saying that the service in chain restaurants is poor. The truth of the matter is that these servers are stretched so thin, doing the job of many with such terrible pay, inadequate tips, no recognition and it is all for pure volume, get the people in get them out. So please do not take it that I am downing on these people whom are certainly trying to eek out a living. I actually feel for them deeply. The service in higher end restaurants tends to be better because these establishments actually allow the server the time they need with all of their patrons. Okay, off the soapbox, what I really am talking about here is food. The food does improve in higher end places. It is fresher, healthier and better prepared. The atmosphere is classier, no high chairs, no clapping party processions, dim candle votives and soft jazz music. All around it is relaxing and welcoming. Food, I forget we’re talking about the food. Wasn’t the food supposed to be better?
Last month Mike and I went to a place here in Tucson, a restaurant in Saguaro Ranch, a state park in Arizona. Park rangers escort you up a winding and breathtaking mountain road. They come to your car door and guide you up these massive log stairs with the light from a lantern… all of the works. I mean you pass Tiger Wood’s house on the way up, well one of his houses anyway. The food, the best we ever had, the most mouth orgasmic thing allowable by law? No. Terrible. Horrible actually. The worst meal I can remember. I couldn’t get drunk enough to swallow the fact that our bill, with tip, was over $200.
Tonight, sitting in the Target parking lot, Mike and I were faced with the inevitable burning necessary question, “Where do you want to eat?” We have concluded in all of our eating mishaps, chains aren’t all that bad, but at least prep yourself for what you can expect and don’t set your expectation too high. Of course don’t plan on food poisoning but don’t expect to have your steak take you to another plane of existence either. Fast food is what it is, thank our lucky stars we have an In-and-Out in town now. Fancy dancy? Unless I’m eating with Tiger Woods himself, I’ll pass. So that leaves us in the middle of the road. Mom and Pops are okay, but I think Mike is 0 and 3 with Salmonella, so we steer clear. Middle of the road.
We happened upon a middle of the road tonight. The kind of place where I didn’t feel completely bad about having jeans on and they had a one page decent wine list. A place where the servers were all wearing like outfits but no one was donning paper hats. A place where the bar had a TV but there weren’t chili pepper lights surrounding it. Our server was outstanding, with the suggestions and explanations of selections without sounding programmed or pushy. The place was simple with bleached Copenhagen wood, black rot iron Asian inspired lamps and high ceilings. The food was grown-up, well thought out, beautifully presented without being pretentious and the best thing of all… it tasted great! So there are those little pieces of food paradise out there and we’re lucky to have found one.
Now Tucson just needs a good, and I mean good, Italian restaurant. Maybe I’ll open one.
http://www.foxrestaurantconcepts.com/montanaavenue.html
