Aloha â hui hou!

Thanks to a little help from dad (and his many trips to Japan on United Airlines), I have secured the perfect trip to Laie, Hawaii on the island of Oahu.

My former/future roommate Cody is living over there while he attends summer term at BYU Hawaii, and next week I'm going to visit.

Free flight, free accomadations. Now I just need to find out where the free food is, and I'll be set.

Next Monday at 5:30 AM I'll be saying "Aloha â hui hou!" Click here to google what it means.

PS

The dashboard hula girl was given to me in high school by a Hawaiian friend. I must have it placed on the right wall in my apartment (feng shui).

John Mayer at USANA

Tonight I hit the John Mayer show at the USANA Amphitheater.

I must say that upon my initial inspection, tonight's crowd was a little disappointing. I'm sure someone else would find the people entertaining to watch, but for the most part, everyone there looked like this guy.





And I like to think that I'm not a spectacle. That is, in every picture but this one, which makes me look like Quasi Modo.





Now, the evening wasn't completely devoid of good people watching. After a while, a few gems surfaced, and naturally, I documented them.

The first gem was sitting right next to me. She was a middle-aged, toe-tapping, beer-drinking, flask-toting kinda lady. We made sure to document the flask.





Concessions prices lead me to believe it was filled with water. Her breath says otherwise.

Next, there was this kid.





Notice how you can't see through him. Even during the breaks, he would only sit halfway down. What's worse? Leaning around him caused me to get even closer to flask lady, who had already crossed the line as far as personal space goes.

Back to the concert, my favorite part, besides John Mayer, had to be the free wristbands they were handing out at the gates. Give anything away for free, and automatically you need at least 15. I only got my hands on three.





They say something about John on the other side.

Speaking of John, the show was great.

Colbie Caillat opened. I don't really like anything she sings (besides "Bubbly"), but it says something for the artist when he or she can actually hit the notes that are played on the radio. Good artist, not my style.

Next came John Mayer. He knows how to entertain a crowd, both during and in between songs. He's a true musician, and you can tell he loves what he sings and plays. One highlight was his cover of Tom Petty's "Free Falling."





He's more bluesy than I realized. A lot of his stuff sounds like something I heard long ago at the Long Beach Blues Festival (the first concert I ever attended). Even dad would have liked the show tonight.





We saw Ray Charles at that festival. We also picked up at least 15 free CDs, one of which is now in my possession.

After this week, I have decided that concerts can be a little draining. I don't plan on doing another show for quite a while. I might actually wait for Coldplay in November or Weezer whenever (if ever) they go on tour.

For now, I'll have to find somewhere else to people watch. I always do!

More On Feist

Leave the box wine at home, this is Deer Valley.





As you know, I went to the Feist concert on Thursday. Because the last concert I went to was still fresh in my memory, comparisons were impossible to avoid.

So, for your reading pleasure (and so you can fit in next time you go to a show at Deer Valley), here are a few of my favorite observations.

1. When participating in any Deer Valley event, you must leave the "booty" shorts and combat boots at home.





In their stead, you can wear something you picked up at the local Abercrombie and Fitch or Gossip Girl yard sale.

Maybe this picture illustrates best what I'm talking about.





2. Don't even think about eating your gourmet cupcake with anything but a spoon.





That's right, a spoon.





Only pigs and and Journey fans stuff cupcakes in their faces with their hands.

3. Be informed that the shiny, brass, rectangular thing on the wall in the bathroom is, in fact, a baby changing station.

4. Make sure you don't forget your haute cuisine via picnic basket. If you do, don't fret, they sell fully loaded picnic baskets at the concessions stand.

Each basket contains (or should contain) the following:

Cheese (nicely aged)
Crackers
Baguette
Wine (good vintage)
Wine glasses
Wine glass holder (to stick in the lawn)
Gourmet cupcakes

...and possibly some real food (not verified).

All in all, Deer Valley has proven again that it's all right.

As for the show, Feist was a great performer. I think she wooed the Deer Valley crowd, and they can be pretty hard to please. I mean, old people were dancing in the aisles.





Here's to Deer Vally and Feist.

Feist at Deer Valley and The Dark Knight

Went to another concert last night. (Leslie) Feist. Great show.

If you're not familiar with her, here she is on Sesame Street.





I thought all the moms that read this (which is basically my entire readership) would appreciate that.

An in-depth, pictorial comparison to this concert is in the works.

After the Feist show, I made it by the skin of my teeth to the next hot spot, The Dark Knight premier.

As the title leads you to believe, the movie was thematically dark, but very entertaining. Harp Erstein of The Palm Beach Post agrees in this review.

You've done it again, Hollywood.

Oh! As a side note, no, I am not an avid reader of The Palm Beach Post. I just googled "thematically dark," and that review came up.

Someday I'll blog about how often I refer to Google in creating each post. Google and I are inextricably connected. And yes, I did just google "inextricably" to make sure my usage was correct.

Creepy

I don't know how to feel about this. It has increased traffic on my blog, but it's coming from people that watch really, really, extremely boring things on YouTube.





I stumbled across it when I was looking to see what was referring people to my blog. I thought it was a little strange that people were linking in from YouTube.

Whatever brings 'em in, I guess.

Now, here's back at you, Journey-obsessed, username "beerxpress."

Watch as your hits go through the roof!

S. T. Lewis

If you're not blogged down and could use a laugh, check out this guy's blog.

My friend Marie pointed me to it by telling me I'm funnier than he is. Though grateful for the flattery, I have to say I don't agree.

My two favorite posts (thus far) are "Freak of Nature" and "Frosty the Snowman."

I can't find a way to link directly to "Frosty the Snowman," so just scroll halfway down the page to 13 December 2007 and you'll find it. This stuff is laugh-out-loud funny.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Lemonade

On my way to the bank today, I drove past a couple of little girls selling lemonade on the side of the road. As I drove on, I told myself that I would stop and support their burgeoning business on my way home.

Then, at the bank, I made the mistake of depositing all my cash--I meant to keep out a few bucks. My hasty deposit left me unable to support the little girls.

I, being the "nice guy" that I am, had already imagined how I was going to be their only customer and how they would remember me for years to come as the "nice guy" who stopped to buy their lemonade when no one else cared to notice they had set up a stand. My dream was shattered. I guess I could've asked if they accepted AmEx.

Anyway, seeing the little girls reminded me of selling lemonade with my best friend James when I was a kid. There were a few differences between our lemonade stand and theirs.

First, their stand was on a residential street, not unlike this drawing.





James and I set up shop on the corner of Hamer Dr. (the street our house was on) and Yorba Linda Boulevard (the nearest cross street/busiest street in town), which was sometimes like this picture.





But was usually more like this.





I know those little girls didn't get their lemons at the produce-less Provo Farmers' Market, but I'm sure one of their mothers drove to the store to pick up their supplies in one of these.





James and I, on the other hand, got our lemons from the source (the hybrid lemon tree in our backyard, which produced the HUGEST lemons ever).


(I couldn't resist giving the lemon wheels like the soccer-mom mobile.)


We couldn't do just lemonade, though. Our aspirations were much bigger than that. We had to do Kool-Aid and, of all things, Blow Pops (which our cheerleader sisters had taught us were a staple of life). Those (in our minds) could only be purchased at Smith's. Smith's was several miles away, up the busiest road in town, in another city. Why we chose Smith's, I don't know. Anyway, we walked there. And on the way back, we got chased by some of these.





Okay, it was Orange County. They probably looked more like this.





Or like this (I wish).





Whatever they looked like, chase us they did. So we ran and hid behind some bushes until they got distracted by their reflections or something.

When we finally made it back to our house, we dragged the card table and some folding chairs down to the corner, set up shop, and waited for the customers and the cash to come rolling in.

The little girls today probably made some of this.





And they probably got it from some poor, starving student who didn't just deposit all his or her cash in the bank.

James and I, however, were just lucky we didn't end up like this.





We were just too stationary and the cars were just not stationary enough. No potential customers could spot us in their peripherals as they zoomed past.

Anyway, that's what I thought of when I saw the little girls with the lemonade stand today. I had my camera with me and thought about taking a picture, but then thought of how creepy that would seem and decided against it.