Vampire Weekday

Monday night i had the pleasure of seeing Vampire Weekend at the Fox Theatre in Oakland. I'd previously never been to the Fox, and i must say the place is a lot nicer than i expected, although a little bigger than i usually like. Vampire Weekend was so fun! The last time i saw them was at Treasure Island Music Festival 2008. At the time they were just beginning to get really popular so they were a bit awkward, like "o hey...you guys are like reeeally excited to see us..?? cool!". By now they've obviously embraced their popularity, but quite humbly, and have a bit more success under their belt with the relatively recent release of their sophomore album, Contra (which i HIGHLY recommend). It was also nice to see them all gain a huge amount of stage presence, notably front man Ezra Koenig who i personally find delightfully cute. They played all the favorites (which pretty much includes their entire discography), supplemented by some audience participatory vocals, back stories, and smooth dance moves. My award for best dancing of the night goes to bass player Chris Baoi. The set decorations were modest, but thoughtful. A giant banner of their album cover's infamous unidentified blond woman hung behind them with holes in her eyes for lights to shine through and dangling chandeliers also featured in the album's artwork hung from above. As predicted, the show was great dancing fun!




Music: Diplomat's Son - Vampire Weekend

characters welcome

today i finished my 2nd week at sac city college and i've come to realize something. city colleges are full of characters. i suppose that 4 year universities are also full of characters, but they are quite different. here are a few that i've observed thus far.

1. The Baseball Douche-bag: he thinks he is the royalty of the school. he is not too tall, but very buff and carries around his plastic baby bottle which contains he daily protein shake. they travel in packs (including taking classes together) and usually have two first names like Justin Bobby or Timmy Smith.
2. Girl with Bad Extensions: she may not be smart but she is going to try her best to be pretty. that is why she decided to get extensions. so that her douche-bag bf (often a baseball player) can more easily pull her hair when they have sex. she usually comes with a fake tan and an extensive amount of brightly colored eyeshadow. watch out. you don't want to hear her scream when you step on her Juicy book bag.
3. The Ghetto but Good Person: let's not lie to ourselves. ghetto people tend to either scare or intimidate us (usually both). that is why these ones are such a sigh of relief. they may not speak proper english but "theys is helluh nice and stuff cause they don't play people and shit". they always come to class, they are usually on top of their assignments, they genuinely take an interest in talking to you. these are probably some of my favorite people at city college.
4. The Old Ass Annoying Woman: she has a rolling backpack and weird mosaic colored glasses frames. she always comes to class out of breath and takes up 3x more space than anyone else. this is not because she is fat (although she very well might be). no, this is because she has to put her rolling backpack somewhere easily accessible, drape her coat and scarf somewhere, and have space for her color-coded binder-folder-notebook for whatever class. and finally, she never shuts the fuck up and makes a lot of irrelevant comments that no one wants to hear.


i'm sure i will come across more throughout this semester. all i can say is, no wonder they have a whole tv show about community college.

Music: Diplomat's Son - Vampire Weekend