fixed!

OK! remember when i got robbed a little over a week ago and life sucked? well, the universe more than made up for it.

first of all, i have the best bf ever.



this thing is so rad. i can't stop playing with it! now i totally understand why people who have these (or iphones) are obsessed.

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now, onto nin. at this point, i've told the story so many times that i don't feel the need to write a whole lot. went to three shows last week: irvine, santa barnbara and mountain view. in irvine, i had probably the best spot on the rail i've ever had. it was perfectly between tr and robin and i loooooved it. best view ever. in santa barbara, i heard probably the best set list of my concert-going lifetime.

01. Home
02. Somewhat Damaged
03. Sin
04. March of the Pigs
05. Piggy
6. The Beginning of the end
7. Discipline
8. I'm Afraid of Americans
9. Burn
10. I Do Not Want This
11. Gave Up
12. La mer
13. Non-Entity
14. The Downward Spiral
15. Wish
16. The Good Soldier
17. Suck
18. The Hand That Feeds
19. Head Like a Hole
20. Hurt

and you know what my favorite song was? the downward spiral. it's definitely not one of my favorites on the record, but live it was INCREDIBLE. it literally blew me away. i've also been waiting to hear sin and suck for quite some time (those haven't come up for me since waaay back during the club tours). and the beginning of the end. i dunno, it was just a really good set list. and a really good show. i sometimes have a hard time ranking which shows are better than others, but i can say for certain that the chula vista show was one of my least favorites i've been to, and santa barbara was one of my absolute favorites. the pit got kind of nasty, but we were off to the right of the nasty so we were pretty much okay. we were in the second row, but the view was perfect. perfect show. perfect night. perfect. AND the show was played entirely in the daytime. i thought it would be weird, but nah. it didn't affect anything.

if irvine i had the best spot ever, and in sb i heard the best set list ever, then in mountain view i had the best experience ever. we got to do the whole soundcheck/meet & greet/backstage thing. hanging out backstage and watching the show from the side of the stage are two dreams i've had for a very, VERY long time. i pretty much say it at every show (katie can vouch for that): i'd love to go back there and just see what goes down. i wouldn't bother anyone, i just wanna sit and watch. i honestly never thought i'd get the opportunity.

the soundcheck was one of the coolest things ever. it was basically just a private concert. the band had already soundchecked for real earlier in the day, and so the one they did for us was just for show. i can't explain how beautiful it was to hear the music that... pure. no screaming, no loud arena, nothing. just a handful of people and nine inch nails playing for us. i was so stunned and unprepared for the experience that i totally didn't think to record any video. i snapped a few pictures and pretty much stood around slack-jawed. the meet & greet was cool--but kind of rushed. i prepared what i was going to say so that i wouldn't get there and be a fool, and it almost worked. the thing is, i kind of ended up being rude to jmj and ilan. well, i actually straight up ignored jmj. i said something to ilan, robin and trent. trent remarked that i was very prepared. i had trent sign my ticket, and brett was prepared to take the picture and i was like "wait! robin will you sign my ticket?" and he did. at that point, i guess jmj and ilan thought i was going to get the whole band to sign, but i just took my ticket back from robin and continued ignoring the other two guys and posed with robin (i wasn't actually really thinking it through, now i kind of regret not posing right next to trent). so jmj and ilan are totally frowning in my picture (look around at other m&g pics, they're smiling in all of those. i guess i just offended them?) and trent looks the same as always, and robin looks crazy. i have lots of theories as to why, but i won't share them. whatever, it was a fun experience. and i love how trent's all like, normal and chatty until the camera comes out then he's back to the serious pose.

then we went to catering. it was funny seeing all the stuff that's on the band's rider. the juicer was there. and lots of protein shake stuff. heh.

we chose an empty table in the corner, without really paying attention. turns out we wound up sitting next to the rock star wives. which pretty much meant i didn't want to discuss the m&g because i felt weird chatting about these guys with their sig. others there. i will say perry farrell's wife etty kind of scared me. and robin's wife was wearing the same clogs as robin. hmmm...

then we found a spot from which to watch the show. it as on this platform thing on the side of the stage. that view was unreal. i loved two things in particular: first, there was a speaker up there with gorgeous sound. second, i LOVED watching the audience reactions to the music. it was so rad watching thousands of people getting into it. it was also nice getting to see the backstage stuff. guitar changes, water breaks, drum tune-ups. whatever. all that stuff.

we wandered around during the JA set. not gonna lie, i really didn't enjoy their performance. perry farrell creeps me the fuck out. he reminds me of sister gomez. i'm really glad i opted not to stay and watch them all the other times. eventually, we found our way back to the backstage area, where we got the chance to talk with robin once again. he was dressed like a mystical creature. a very tall mystical creature in shiny black clogs and stripey socks. the guy's really nice and he and his wife were running around handing out earth-mother hugs.

i dunno, then nin left and we had JA sightings. dave navarro looks like a walking std. aaaaaaand that's pretty much the whole story. it was a really great night and if a few days ago you had told me that it was going to happen, i so wouldn't have believed you. i'm excited that i got to fulfill some dreams of mine on the night of what is probably going to be my last nin show ever. i can't imagine a better note to end it on. :D



this is my favorite picture i took. i'm going to order a big print of it.


group:



but it's really more like this (a big thanks to katie for the paint job):



seriously... what's with the crazy faces? (from someone else's m&g pic):



more pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31199731@N08/sets/72157618811967914/flickr

and here: http://ninadventures.shutterfly.com/shutterfly