Then a tornado hit. I’m taking that as a sign to continue chronicling my travels on my sorely neglected blog, so I can write about events that are more… current.

So back to where we left off: the film and music portions of South by Southwest in Austin, TX.

SXSW Film: March 12-20

I didn’t get the opportunity to catch very many films, but I made it a point to see several documentaries, one of which was Under Great White Northern Lights, a film about The White Stripes and their Canadian tour that I previously blogged about. You can read about my takeaways from that film there.

The Radiant Child, about artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a film my late friend Justin was also interested in seeing. The Sunday before he passed, Justin reminded me to tell him my thoughts on this film after seeing it. Well Justin… it was fascinating to see rare footage of Basquiat in action, and tragic to see and hear about his life spiral downwards to his eventual passing. And I loved the film’s opening credits… interview outtakes and manic footage of Basquiat paired with “Salt Peanuts” as the soundtrack.

The screening was on the last Saturday of the festival, and I’m so glad I fought off festival fatigue to see it. Director Tamra Davis, an old friend of Basquiat’s (and yeah, Mike D’s wifey) was on hand for a Q&A session, too.

I also attended a live interview with Michel Gondry, the man behind films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my favorites) and music videos from Björk, Beastie Boys, The White Stripes, and Foo Fighters. The following night, I saw his film The Thorn in the Heart, which chronicles the life of his aunt Suzette in the French countryside. Though the subject matter was nonfiction, some of his whimsical filmmaking found its way onto the screen.

SXSW Music: March 17 (more from Music to come)

SXSW Music kicked off on St. Patrick’s Day, which is brilliant timing—as though SXSW wasn’t occasion enough for revelers to hit up Austin’s pubs. That day, I caught word through Twitter that Broken Bells was doing a free, open-to-the-public, AOL-sponsored gig at the parking garage across from Stubb’s BBQ. Not knowing where else to go with my SXSW pass-less friend Stefanie, we made our way over there. We had just eaten gyro sandwiches for lunch, but as we stood in line in the afternoon sun, an Ice Cream Man truck pulled to the curb. What perfect timing!

The funny part was after the gig, it hit me that Broken Bells was on the National Public Radio showcase lineup, which I was attending, so I ended up seeing them twice the same day. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. They had a few good songs, but they’re not a band I was extremely enthusiastic about seeing twice.

Obviously, the highlight for me that night at the NPR showcase wasn’t Broken Bells. Neither were Visqueen or The Walkmen, who are fine bands. And though I (and many other people there, I assume) was there for headliners and Austin locals Spoon, the performance that really got us pumped was Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Da-yum. Her moves. Her energy. Her voice. Their music. So much power. You had to have been there to feel the reciprocated energy from the crowd that night. We loved her.

I’m so glad I got this moment on camera. That fan was standing a few people behind me and so enthusiastic, no wonder Sharon brought him onstage! I hope he finds this video!

Broken Bells’ set list of songs was in the exact order they appear on their one and only album, so as we were waiting for Spoon to come on, the guy next to me on the barrier, a big Spoon fan, sarcastically said that Spoon better play the entire Kill the Moonlight record in order or he’ll leave.

Spoon came onstage about a quarter after midnight. I didn’t care if my feet hurt from standing all night. We were seeing, swaying, and singing along with Spoon in the flesh.

A comment from SXSW that will always bug me
A few days later on the shuttle to the convention center, this guy told me how he loved Broken Bells but thought Spoon was trying too hard to sound like Radiohead. Really? Did you just namedrop Radiohead just to make yourself sound smart? Because I don’t know about you, but either he had his bands confused, or was just straight-up confused. Because Spoon sounds nothing like Radiohead. They sound like… Spoon. Quality poppy-funky-indie-rock goodness.

More, ahem, “musings” from SXSW Music to come…

Related photos:

South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX :: March 11-17
My travels this spring kicked off with South by Southwest. Work sent me this year for the opportunity to build on my knowledge and understanding of the web during SXSW Interactive, as well as the chance to meet so many like-minded geeks. For those of you who aren’t aware, SXSW is actually three events that take place over the course of ten days: Interactive covers web and video game development, Film includes the film festival and film-related panels, and Music incorporates the thousands of showcases and industry sessions. Because I had a platinum pass—thank you Mākaha Studios!—I had access to all three aspects of SXSW. I’ll focus on Interactive for this entry.

It’s no joke that Twitter was such a useful tool when I was there. Through Twitter and SXSW’s social website, my.SXSW, I met several other attendees from Hawai‘i, with whom I bounced off knowledge and feedback on sessions, and explored the tastes of Austin… particularly BBQ and Cuban food! I sampled the latter food option during a “Lost” fans/Hawai‘i meetup that local web evangelist and fellow SXSW attendee Ryan Ozawa set up.

The ExpressionEngine 2.0 panel was a highlight session for me, thank goodness, because I use EE at work and it was one I was looking forward to the most. It was everything an outstanding presentation should be: engaging, informative, and occasionally funny. And the slides did what they were supposed to: they were visual aids, not crutches for each presenter.

Let’s contrast this with some low points during SXSW Interactive. The presentation for HTML5 Accessibility lacked direction and professionalism — the PowerPoint slides were dense with text. The presenter sounded like she knew what she was talking about, but let’s face it, she was boring and for much of her presentation, refused to aim her mouth toward the mic in such a way that the entire huge ballroom could hear her. This was one of two events that I actually walked out on, the other event being the “keynote” (in a dry interview format) with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Not sure why I didn’t walk out on Twitter CEO Evan Williams’s keynote (also a dry interview format), but I might as well should have because I zoned out for most of it.

RIP Justin :: March 11
Of course, these supposed low points pale in comparison to the most significant low I experienced while I was in Austin—this one was personal. The night before the start of SXSW, I got a call that my good friend and colleague, Justin Cash, passed away. We trained together at Apple and talked a lot online about geeky stuff, work, and life. When he passed, he was getting ready to move out to crash at a friend’s apartment as he waited to hear about a potential job transfer to Honolulu. We were also in the middle of preparing our music blog, where you can now read the music review he wrote up shortly before he passed, as well as a bit more info on Justin.

I could not believe that it happened so suddenly and at such an inopportune moment. He was looking forward to making a life change and all of a sudden, it was taken away from him. I felt helpless; there was nothing I could do. I felt guilty for having so much to look forward to for that week and a half—or really, the next month or so—and that somehow I shouldn’t be allowed to have that. The guilt resurfaced when I flew to New York City a month after his death (more on that trip eventually) because I felt like I should have visited Justin while he was still alive. After quite a bit of thinking throughout my travels, I know Justin would not have wanted me to stop what I was doing on his behalf. He’d think I’d be silly for doing so.

Next entry: SXSW Film and Music

Here’s a bunch of photos from that weekend on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/libperalta/sets/72157622917593013/

And a couple of videos I shot in Vegas:

So as you may know, I spent December 10-15 in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, to watch my favorite band Muse perform at two different radio station holiday festivals. Here are the highlights from that memorable weekend.

- Stayed at the California Hotel my first night there (Thursday), since I hadn’t been to Fremont Street when I went to Vegas in May with my sister, Yvonne, and Jon. There were tons of people wearing cowboy hats; the national rodeo finals was taking place that weekend. Cowboys and Muse fans in the same city, the same weekend. Hehehe.

- On Friday night, I walked through the Venetian, the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace, and Harrah’s with Jae and her husband, who flew in from Chicago for the gig. They’re so sweet!

- The Vegas concert on Saturday was at the Hard Rock Hotel’s venue, The Joint. I made it a point to go to this gig because this is probably the last time in a while that Americans will witness Muse in a mid-sized venue (The Joint has a capacity of about 4,000 people), since Muse is doing an arena tour in the spring. And I’m glad we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel because everything was right downstairs. I lined up at 7 am to find that I was the first one there! At 10 am, though, security told the 20 people who had gathered to disperse, since lineup starts at 4 pm. That was disappointing, since we were already in line for three hours before someone actually told us, and we weren’t in anyone’s way, since we were in a separate lobby from the casino, but it was still a fire hazard. We anxiously lined up outside and kept checking the front of the venue inside until then.

- To pass the time, we started a sign-making campaign to get Muse to play “Bliss,” one of many songs from their previous albums that they rarely play these days. It spread to other people who waited in line with us, and soon, there were a bunch of us sporting signs requesting it. Unfortunately, when it came time to enter the venue, security didn’t allow signs inside, so we had to throw them away.

Mine is the neon yellow one. And yup, those are my star lei… which I’ll talk about in a bit.

Muse fans for “Bliss”!

- The Las Vegas gig was my first time seeing Muse (“popping my Muse cherry,” as it were). And it was AMAZING. Front and center on the barrier! After watching three other bands — Afghan Raiders, Paper Tongues, and Cage the Elephant — it was time for Muse. It’s surreal seeing a band you’ve always watched onscreen at home, then seeing them in the flesh for the first time. Though they didn’t play many oldies, they did bust out “MK Ultra,” one of my favorites off their latest album, and apparently this was their first time playing it in the States. I made sure to call my friend Kylee, who was back home on O’ahu, during the song, so she could enjoy it along with me.

Lead vocalist, guitarist, and pianist Matt Bellamy.

Bassist Chris Wolstenholme playing the harmonica during “Man with a Harmonica,” the Ennio Morricone song the band uses as an intro to “Knights of Cydonia.” My favorite live photo I took that night.

Drummer Dom Howard.

- Thinking there was no way I would be able to meet the band afterward — and note, I feel very uncomfortable about throwing things onstage — I thought, “screw it,” and, after seeing someone throw their jacket onstage (???), I threw one of my lei toward frontman Matt Bellamy during “Starlight” (you know, because it was a lei of origami stars). But…

- Matt, drummer Dom Howard, supporting musician Morgan Nicholls, and “fourth member” Tom Kirk were at the official afterparty. The great thing about the party was that it was free, as long as you showed your photo ID (you had to be 21+) and concert ticket stub. Two very brief encounters with Matt Bellamy: one in which I actually “lei’d” him with another lei I had, which incited his hilarious giggle (I didn’t “lei” him like that, you pervs!); the other in which we took a photo together. I need to get over being so nervous around people I admire. I also had a scare with my wallet, which turned out to be in my room, but had a ton of fun with the people I was with after I found it. We were standing the next booth over from Muse’s booth. I glanced in the band’s direction a few times while I was hanging out with other fans, and it was a bit awkward catching Matt dance to music like Usher’s lol.

Me and Matt Bellamy. Oh. My. God.

Dom and Matt, who’s wearing my star lei. Props to Christina for taking this photo.

- Flew to Los Angeles the following afternoon for KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas. It was interesting because I had an opposite vantage point from the previous evening; I sat with a few friends in the balcony. In addition to Muse, I got to see bands like Metric, Phoenix, and 311 perform, as well. The downside was seeing Cage the Elephant, who played before Muse the night before in Vegas, again. I didn’t enjoy them because, in short, their lead singer is epileptic and incomprehensible live. Muse, who headlined this festival too, brought it, of course. Complete with the big balloons with confetti inside them for the pit to destroy at the end of “Plug In Baby.”

After my back-to-back Muse shows, I went to a Craig Ferguson taping. I have no photos from that, since people aren’t allowed to bring cameras and cell phones inside CBS’s studios. But I must say, the guy who amps up the audience before the taping did an excellent job putting everyone in that laugh-out-loud mood. And Craig himself is hilarious, of course! I watched the episode that night, and I could barely hear my hoarse laugh. (Yeah, my voice was shot after the weekend!) That night, I had dinner with Vasthy, a friend I made at my inaugural Franz Ferdinand gig in April, and talked about traveling and concert plans for next year.

Thank you to everybody who helped make this such a memorable weekend… and thanks especially to Muse. See you again in the spring, I hope!

Philippines | Click here to view photos on Flickr
After our week in Manila, my mom and I went to Iloilo, where we reunited with most of my mom’s side of the family and met my three-year-old adopted sister, Loren. She’s very cute, smart, and has a phobia of any room or building that looks like a hospital. (She had a traumatic experience in one.) After spending a week there, we went back to Manila, where we reunited with my mom’s aunt and uncle. We stayed at their house for a few days, went to an open market, and took lots of pictures of my mom’s aunt’s cats and roosters. Back in Manila, I met up with Audrey, who I met on the Muse messageboard. We met up twice – the first time, we had lunch; the second time, we walked around a nearby SM (their chain of huge malls there), since traffic and weather foiled our original plan of going to the zoo. The day I came home, I had a scratchy throat, which usually means I’ll be getting a cold. My suspicions were correct.

(I should mention that I have another sinus infection. A month later. My immune system sucks. And no, it’s not the swine flu.)

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon | Click here to view photos on Flickr
A week after arriving from the Philippines, I flew to Las Vegas with Yvonne and Jon – two good friends from high school – and my sister Lori. It was our Memorial Day weekend vacation we had planned out for ourselves; it was my sister’s first time on the mainland. (She’s traveled to Europe before traveling to the mainland!) We stayed at the Sahara. We rode the rides and did an old-school Western-themed photo studio session at Circus Circus. Got to see a Cirque du Soleil show (Ka) at MGM Grand and the Tournament of Kings show at Excalibur. Spent half a day at the Bellagio, taking photos, relaxing and enjoying dessert at Jean Philippe Patisserie. Sunday was our road trip day to Grand Canyon; driving back took longer because of traffic at the canyon and at Hoover Dam and we ended up missing Dane Cook’s show at the Palms. (My sister and Jon were particularly looking forward to that one.) We spent the last day checking out the California Hotel to see what the buzz was about with that place; it really does host the entire Hawaii tourist delegation. They had a good breakfast buffet and I actually won $1,000 at a couple of their slot machines there. (My luck has been unusually decent these past few months…) We walked around Fashion Show mall, where outside, facing the Strip, the iPod Touch ad featuring “No You Girls” played in an almost continuous loop. Good thing I like Franz Ferdinand and Apple. If it was any other ad, I would’ve been really annoyed. By the time we left to check out Paradise Island across the street, I was… borderline annoyed. From the new logo to the change of its feature show (pirate fight replaced with siren musical?!), I found it strange that Paradise Island (“P.I.”) has been obviously trying to add a dose of “hip” to its image.

Back Home | Click here to view photos on MobileMe
Back at work… been making websites. After six months of being in my office, I finally hung up some framed posters and a couple of nice boards with photos from my recent travels. I’ll post a photo later. I’ve been taking driving lessons with Kermit Brown, who is an awesome instructor; my road test is on Monday. Saw Up and Star Trek with some friends and my sister. Had some good food a couple of times with Tracy, who I met at the Franz Ferdinand gig. My good friend Yvonne announced she was moving to Florida, so some friends and my sister (I take her around everywhere!) celebrated with a day of bowling, Fun Factory, and seeing Up in 3D. (Yeah, I saw Up twice. Good movie!)

So as you can tell, it’s been a fun-filled month or so! Lesson learned: I need to update this blog more regularly to prevent making summary posts like this!

The last couple days, we’ve been exploring the area we’re in now – along Aurora Boulevard, surrounding the Araneta Coliseum. Muse was supposed to play here a few years back, but for some reason cancelled. EDIT: Muse was rumored to play at Araneta as well as the Philippine International Convention Center in 2006. (Source: MuseWiki) It’s a huge arena, painted blue and yellow. Surrounding it are several mall complexes, sort of like the Ala Moana and Ward shopping areas in Honolulu.

My mom grew up in this area, though by talking to her and observing her expressions, you wouldn’t have known. It’s been a couple of decades; so much has changed. An elevated rapid transit track and brightly colored footbridges dominate the immediate skyline along EDSA (Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue). The shopping district surrounding Araneta Coliseum is all relatively new – you can tell by the fresh cement and paint.

The skyline along EDSA.

We ventured out today to find my mom’s alma mater, Carlos P. Garcia High School. After eating lunch at Taco Bell – an establishment that’s been present in the Philippines for a mere five years – we walked to the nearest bookstore and bought a map of Metro Manila. According to the map, the high school was at the opposite corner of EDSA and Aurora Boulevard from our hotel. Of course, when we crossed the footbridge to the location, a huge taro field – yes, taro – was at the corner. Neighboring it was Cubao Elementary School. Mom says the elementary and high schools shared a campus. No longer.

Random, giant taro patch in Manila?

My mom and I walked around and asked random people about the whereabouts of my mom’s old high school. From our experience here so far, my impression is that Filipinos have no idea where anything is. When we were at the SM mall in North Edsa, we asked people who worked at the mall where the nearest Philippine Airlines ticket agent was. We got different responses from different people, from “in the SM Supermarket” to “outside, down the street.” Of course, the ticket agent ended up being right outside one of the mall entrances.

But back to our search for my mom’s alma mater – from security guards to street vendors, no one knew where Carlos P. Garcia High School was. Finally, we found a tricycle driver that knew where it was. He drove us to the school’s current location: seven blocks away from where our “handy” map said it was. It must have been relocated fairly recently, in a quieter location, away from the hustle and bustle of the Araneta shopping district.

The gate to the new Carlos P. Garcia High School, my mom's alma mater. Sort of.

But no matter how much things change, certain things stay the same. The surrounding area is still pretty filthy, despite the local government’s “Metro Gwapo” (“Metro Handsome”) beautification efforts. The poor still roam the streets, begging for cash or selling goods, no matter how minor, even tiny individually wrapped candy, to survive. And despite me being 9,000 miles away from home, I’m still watching “MythBusters”. Right as I type this, in fact.

We drove through horrendous Baclaran traffic – impeccable timing with post-church and open market crowds. I spent the time looking around at the traffic, the crowd, and the palengke stalls from within the confines of Uncle Jess’s jeepney. To our left, a few beggars were lined up alongside the road; one of them in turn was lining up plastic figurines. A couple others were kneeling on the stumps of their knees; they were legless. To our right was a row of stalls, where swap meet-ish clothes, sparkly Converse knockoffs, and ice cream, among other things, were being displayed and sold. And all among us was an unrelenting crowd of people on foot, passing around and between the cars stuck in traffic. It was almost like the apocalypse had hit, except no one was in panic. Lining the street we were on were drug stores, local eateries, and a few familiar names: McDonald’s… Dunkin’ Donuts… and 7-Eleven. Somehow I can never avoid 7-Eleven. I mean, I work right across the street from one and get my lunch there all the time. But it was an interesting contrast seeing those American establishments among the hustle and bustle of an impoverished Filipino community.

While I was making these observations in traffic, my mom exited the jeepney and entered the drug store we were “parked” in front of. Traffic was moving at a snail’s pace, so the jeepney hadn’t moved very far by the time she came back. She emerged with some newly exchanged pesos and a tube of Colgate gel toothpaste to replace the one that got confiscated at Honolulu International. (Apparently my mom didn’t hear me when I said I wanted her to put it in the checked luggage, because she had the toothpaste in her carry-on. And we’re talking about a standard-sized toothpaste tube.)

This sounds horrible, but by the time we got to the vicinity of our hotel, we stopped at… a McDonald’s. Yeah. The awesome thing about McDonald’s in the Philippines is that they serve two food items they don’t serve in any American McDonald’s that I’ve been to: fried chicken and spaghetti. It’s insane how fried chicken and spaghetti seems to be so popular here; it seems as though every fast food place serves them. The special thing about Filipino spaghetti is its sauce: sweeter than your typical meat sauce, and there are little slices of hot dog in it. So of course, I had to order the one-piece fried chicken and spaghetti combo. My mom was boring and got a Filet-O-Fish meal she ended up giving to her aunt and uncle, even though she also ordered each of them two-piece chicken combos. After some debate about which motel/hotel/apartelle we would stay at, we settled on the one we are currently staying at, on West Avenue in Quezon City. It was a half-hour wait until we got a room, which ended up being on the fifth floor. Though it’s a pretty inexpensive hotel, the lobby is really clean and classy, with a Japanese theme going on. The room too, aside from some dust that hasn’t been cleaned off above the headboard. Soon this hotel will have a sixth floor; this is apparent with the constant hammering that’s been going on somewhere above us. It’s fine though because it seems to stop by bedtime – at least it did just now and last night).

I woke up at 6 am today, unusually early for me as of late, but I still felt well rested. I checked my usual Web sites and did some work-related stuff on my laptop – this place has free wi-fi – and turned on the TV. I discovered this MTV-ish channel (but better because they actually play a lot of music videos) called “Channel V,” which is apparently based out of Australia, though most of the announcers sound American. I flipped back and forth between Channel V and MTV. A Lady GaGa song came on on MTV, and I felt some “spidey senses” (which turned out to be “Franzy senses,” apparently) tingle. I switched back to Channel V and a few seconds after I did so, the video for Franz Ferdinand’s “The Dark of the Matinée” started playing, followed by “No You Girls”. That was a nice way to start the day.

My mom and I spent most of today exploring the nearby SM North Edsa mall—the largest mall in Asia. When we got there, we ate a hot dog and fruit smoothie breakfast at the only place that was open at 9 am, the SM Hypermarket. (I guess bigger than a supermarket? But not really.) The mall opened at 10 am, so after some minor grocery shopping at the “Hypermarket,” we took the escalator up to the rest of the mall. We took pictures at the center court the escalators dropped us off at, with a player piano in the middle of it. We bought a couple of tote bags and walked around the mall for five hours, stopping to eat at Chowking and a few kiosk vendors along the way. During those five hours, I failed to find both a music store (though I found several musical instrument shops) and the bowling alley (though I did discover the big Fun Factory-ish arcade on the third level). We did, however, accomplish getting our plane tickets to Iloilo, where we’ll be going next week, and getting my watch battery replaced.

When we came back to our hotel room, I turned on the main power switch for our room, which turns on everything, including the TV. And what was playing on Channel V to greet us back? Muse. “Sing for Absolution”. Channel V, coupled with my Franzy/Muse senses, is a winner in my book. My mom and I ordered some fried chicken, chop suey, and rice and ate it in our room, while watching Channel V and Oprah. It’s been an embarrassingly Western day.

I’ll be staying in the Philippines for the next couple of weeks. My mom’s really just accompanying her aunt because she can’t travel alone, but of course it makes for a good excuse to visit the place where my parents are from. (Well, my mom was born and raised there; my dad was born here but grew up in the Philippines.) I haven’t been there in a decade, so this trip should be interesting, seeing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same.

My mom and I are pretty much playing things by ear as far as the travel itinerary goes. Right now, it looks like we’ll be staying in Manila for three days, then taking a one-day ferry ride to Iloilo, the province where most of my mom’s side of the family live. I’ve never taken the ferry there before; it’s always been a plane for me. Heck, I didn’t even know there was a ferry option.

It’s quite odd not having my iPhone with me. In its place is my fifth-generation iPod that I rarely use. I figured there was no point in bringing along a phone I wasn’t going to use at all for phone calls and didn’t want to risk losing it or getting it stolen. Plus I use it mostly for music anyway, and my iPod has my entire music library on it. Battery life on the iPod is a downer, but I don’t think I’ll be listening to music for 12 hours on a plane. I could if my iPod could take it, but I won’t. I’m too tired.

Okay. I’m gonna take a break from this computer and rest my eyes. See you when I’m in the P.I.

And my friend Aurora finished her blog entry – nay, novel – on our Tempe experience, which is posted on her Myspace blog. So if you want all the nitty gritty details – way more detailed than the one I posted – read it!

This has officially been the best weekend of my life. I flew in from Hawaii to Phoenix to see Franz Ferdinand live—and it has been more than worth it!

Pre-Gig
I flew in early that Friday morning. Later that day, I got to meet fellow Franz fans I’ve gotten to know through the official message board for Muse, my other favorite band. (Franz Ferdinand by far has the longest thread in the “Other Bands” section on the forum.) These friends were all from out of town: San Diego, Los Angeles, and El Paso. Only one of us in the group lives in the area, though she originally hails from the Netherlands. We went out to Mill Avenue Friday evening and had dinner, drinks, and basically amped ourselves up for the concert the following day.

Late Saturday morning, two of my friends and I made our way to the Marquee Theatre. We would’ve left for the venue earlier, but we knew there was a charity run and that routes to the venue were blocked until 10:30 am. When we pulled up to the venue, we spotted their tour bus parked behind the venue and got a bit giddy. We were relieved to find that we were the first ones there. We sat on a curb in the shade to see if anyone from the band would come out. Sure enough, we spotted Bob walking back and forth between the bus and the back of the venue. He eventually saw us and made his way toward us. We bought the band a bottle of tequila the day before, so we presented it to him. He was sincerely thankful for the gift and said Paul would especially be appreciative of it. After talking about Coachella, his new shoes, and some photos, Bob made his way back to the bus.

Me and Bob Hardy, Franz Ferdinand's bassist.

About ten minutes later, while we were preparing to write some messages to the band on our friend’s SUV (the one featured at the beginning of the Phoenix Kyte video), out emerged Alex Kapranos himself. He literally made a beeline towards us. We introduced ourselves and chatted about Paul McCartney and Morrissey, mostly about the strange things Morrissey was saying onstage about burning flesh and how he hoped it was human. We figured Morrissey needed some water and a cookie. Alex suggested he needed a veggie burger.

Alex also told us how Nick injured his foot and that he was in the hospital getting some x-rays done. Our Dutch friend with the SUV told him what we were going to write on it in German— “We came here to see Franz Ferdinand” — and Alex was able to translate it to English, thanks to his being around Nick all the time. He also asked us where we were from and he repeated it back to us: “So you’re from Texas, you’re from Holland, you’re from Hawaii… and I’m from Glasgow!” Very cute.

Alex even helped us take a group photo with him, suggesting we set a camera down on the hood of one of the few cars in the lot. We also took individual photos. When it was my turn, I did something I’ve been dreaming about doing when I ever met Alex—I taught him how to make a shaka sign with his hand. (It’s a Hawaii greeting. Look on YouTube for President Obama’s shaka during his inauguration parade.) We also had him give Bob a toy officer’s badge we bought for him (“Arizona Sheriff Bob”).

Me, Alex, Christina, and Aurora. Photo from Aurora's camera.

Me and Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand vocalist and guitarist.

After he left, we wrote the German message and “Get Well Nick” on our friend’s SUV.

"We came here to see Franz Ferdinand" in German

Our superfantastisch message to Nick.

The rest of our group arrived and we told them about our encounter with Bob and Alex. They were a bit jealous to say the least. We set up our little line party in front of the venue, with bum cushions, picnic food, water and a portable fan. We made a few signs on neon poster board. Three girls one of our friends knew from the franzferdinand.org days arrived a few hours before the doors opened; they just came from driving from Coachella. It turned out one of them was also from Hawaii—30 minutes away from where I live!

Showtime
The gig itself was easily the best I have ever been to. Our group scored barrier positions as we hoped, and were subject to Alex and Nick’s “eye sex.” One notable occurrence was that they played “Darts of Pleasure”—a rare instance in recent Franz gigs—instead of “The Fallen” because my friend held up the sign I wrote requesting it! It was cute how they apologized how they played the song afterward, but I didn’t even notice anything wrong… we were all excited to hear the song live! Nick saw my “Aloha Franzypants” sign and chuckled. He also dedicated “Tell Her Tonight” to our friend with the SUV. I was a bit bummed that they messed up/omitted the electronic outro to “Lucid Dreams” during the encore, but that was minor in relation to everything else that happened that day. I bounced up and down to a few songs, so I was surprised that my legs weren’t hurting after the show.

Alex's eyes boring his way through me.

Nick strikes a pose.

Ethereal Alex Kapranos.

The set list from the gig. Note that "The Fallen" was replaced by "Darts of Pleasure" upon our request!

Most of our group, most of whom I know from the Muse online forum.

Post-Gig
We waited outside near their van in hopes of meeting them (again), especially because most of our group wasn’t there with us that morning. The security guards told us that the band wasn’t coming out, and basically everyone else aside from our group left. The band eventually came out and graciously took photos and signed autographs for us. I got a few pictures with Nick as he told us how he hurt his foot in Seattle.

Photo by Christina.

Photo by Christina.

Photo by Christina.

I suggested they come to Hawaii sometime and Nick said he would love for the band to go there someday. After a while, the guys really had to go. Our group dispersed into smaller groups as we figured out where to go to eat afterward—we settled with Whataburger—and got each other’s contact info. I caught Alex looking at us as we were doing this. I wonder if he was wondering how we all knew each other. Perhaps he was amazed at our dedication and willingness to go through great lengths to see them.

Franz Ferdinand put on an amazing show and were very gracious about meeting with us, their fans, before and after the show. Thanks to them, I have made a bunch of new friends and experienced a weekend I will never forget. Mahalo, Franz Ferdinand!

After receiving a text message from Aurora with their room number, I walked downstairs to hang out in their hotel room, a.k.a. Franz HQ. The first thing I saw was a mass of blankets. I soon realized it was a small portable gazebo covered in sheets—the “fort” Christina and Aurora talked about building in the Franz Ferdinand thread in the Muse boards. Sure enough, as I entered the room and walked around to the right of the fort, I spotted its entrance.

That's "Lucky lucky yeah!" in German

Hanging from the top, inside the tent, was a small disco ball that you could shine a flashlight on. We talked about people potentially being able to see the disco ball-lit gazebo from outside the hotel room. It only meant fun!

When Cris and Lisa and her friends arrived, we hired a cab to take us to the nearby Mill Avenue district. We had a Mexican dinner at Macayo’s, where performers were singing lame acoustic covers. At one point, we launched into singing mode, with Muse and Franz songs, of course. It was pretty obnoxious but way more entertaining than the restaurant’s “entertainment.” Ha.

Afterward, we walked along Mill Avenue. Lisa really wanted to go to Fat Tuesday so we went there. The atmosphere reminded me of Waikiki on a weekend night. Loud music, college-aged kids, a few of them dancing. We found a seating area on the sidewalk and took over a corner area. We proceeded a picture-taking spree—it didn’t matter whether they were good photos, just that they were candid and random. We talked to a couple of guys who were ASU students and told them about our upcoming Franzy adventure. Neither seemed very familiar with Franz Ferdinand, though one of them very obviously pretended that Franz “was his shit.” Uh huh. We suggested they check them out the following evening but of course they made excuses about not knowing what their friends were up to that night. We had Mr. “Franz is My Shit” go check with the DJ if they had any Muse or Franz songs on deck. He came back with a no. Of course. Shortly afterward, we left. Lisa later apologized for bringing us there.

Back at Franz HQ, we hung out and blasted and sang along with—yup, you guessed it—more Muse and Franz songs. We also learned the choreography during the chorus of the “Dark of the Matinée” video, so we could perform it during the concert the following evening.

Saturday, April 18 (late morning/early afternoon): Lucky lucky
After a quick stop to the nearby Safeway for some snacks and ice for our line party cooler, Christina, Aurora and I arrived at the venue at around 11:30 am. We were planning to arrive earlier to ensure we were first in line, but road blocks from a charity run this morning prevented it. It didn’t matter though because we were still the first ones there. And perhaps this arrival time was meant to be because not too long after we got to the venue, we met Bob Hardy (bass) and Alex Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar)!!!!

So here’s how this happened. We noticed the tour bus parked behind the venue, so we nonchalantly sat by a parking lot median, underneath the shade of a small tree. It was the only spot that had decent shade anyway. It was near the buses but not too close that it made us look suspicious.

We waited in the shade for a few minutes and caught a glance of Bob walking from the bus. After a few moments he emerged and stood by the neighboring curb. I waved and he jutted out his chin in casual greeting. Christina said “hi” as Bob walked over. Aurora and Christina had me present the bottle of tequila they had purchased for the guys, since they were afraid they would drop the bottle out of nervousness. He was really appreciative of the gift and said Paul would especially appreciate the gesture. Bob also said they’ll drink it after the gig… not such a good idea to indulge beforehand. Then we talked a little bit about Coachella the day before. Aurora asked if the shoes he was wearing were the new ones he mentioned in the official blog and he said they were indeed. We took photos with Bob, and we both made sure not to trip over the tequila bottle we set down on the asphalt. We thanked Bob for coming to talk to us and he departed with the tequila bottle.

Me and Bob Hardy, Franz Ferdinand's bassist.

A few minutes later, Alex emerged and made a beeline towards us! He asked us if we were the girls who gave them the tequila. We said yes and he thanked us. We were amused that he introduced himself, even though we knew who he was, but appreciated his manners! He talked about Paul McCartney and said something like, “Who isn’t a Beatles fan?” Then he talked about a strange comment that Morrissey made on stage about how he could smell burning flesh (hamburger meat is what Alex thinks Morrissey was talking about) and how he hoped it was human flesh. (Morrissey is vegan.) I commented that it sounded like he needed a cookie and some water, and Alex suggested maybe he needed a veggie burger.

Christina told Alex what she was going to write on the back of her SUV with glass chalk: she said, “We came here to see Franz Ferdinand” in German and Alex was able to translate it to English. A consequence of being around Nick, he said. Speaking of Nick, Alex told us he was getting his x-rays done at a nearby hospital, so he wasn’t at the venue yet.

Afterward Alex asked where we were from. He repeated it back to us: “You’re from Texas, you’re from Holland, you’re from Hawaii, and I’m from Glasgow.” The “I’m from Glasgow” line we found amusing because it was something we already knew, but it’s something Alex likes to say. (We proceeded to use it as a running one-liner joke throughout the rest of the weekend.) He graciously signed some items we had with us: Aurora’s copy of Sound Bites, my Franz Ferdinand CD sleeve, and Christina’s dollar bill. We wanted to take a group photo but we were the only ones in the parking lot. Alex suggested we put one of our cameras on timer mode and place it on one of the few cars in the lot. He genuinely got excited that the idea would work.

Me, Alex, Christina, and Aurora. Photo from Aurora's camera.

We took individual photos with Alex. For my photo, I taught Alex how to do a shaka sign—something I was planning on doing in the event I ever met him! Again, Alex seemed to take genuine interest, as he was learning something new!

Me and Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand vocalist and guitarist.

After our photos, we each hugged Alex and thanked him. He’s tall and I’m quite petite so I had to tiptoe to hug him!

After he returned to the bus, Aurora noted that Alex’s lips were stained purple with wine. Someone’s been drinking wine in the afternoon! (Doo doo doo doo-oooh-oooh!) We also noted that Bob and Alex both complimented Christina’s Bavarian hat.

A little later, we witnessed Alex, Bob and Paul board a white van, presumably to get lunch, visit Nick at the hospital and/or go back to their hotel. On its way out of the parking lot, it passed behind Christina’s SUV, where the girls already wrote their German message. Aurora waved and through the tinted windows, she saw the guys waved back. She was ecstatic.

Part Two coming later

I grabbed my checked bag downstairs and caught a cab. Mo, the driver, was super friendly. He moved from Iraq to Phoenix about 15 years ago. It was cute how curious he was about Hawai‘i. He asked me questions like how long the flight was (six hours), how many people live in Hawai‘i (1.2 million) and if people there still practice the art of traditional tattooing (yes).

I got to the hotel and checked in with the front desk. At first, the woman there looked really tired but after I broke the ice (!!) she opened up. =) She was also curious how long my flight took.

So now I’m here, laying on my stomach, typing out this blog with the TV tuned to ABC. I was hoping to catch Franz Ferdinand’s performance on Jimmy Kimmel even though I know well enough that I missed it. No biggie because I’m seeing them live tomorrow night! This weekend is actually happening, yes!

Time for me to go to bed. I’m gonna explore the neighborhood and meet up with some fellow Musers (Muse forum peeps) tomorrow.

http://flickr.com/photos/libperalta/sets/72157604723013727/

Also, turns out I’m heading back to the Bay Area! Apparently, Apple sends one Genius and one Creative from each store for training at their headquarters (a.k.a. the mothership) in Cupertino. Just when I was bummed out that last week’s trip went by too quickly! My manager told me earlier this week that they’re planning on sending me there in June. Yay! =)

Thursday, April 17
None of us got any adequate sleep during the red-eye flight out of Honolulu. Funny, considering we went sight-seeing right after we dropped off our things and had a complementary breakfast at our hotel, the Embassy Suites in South San Francisco. The hotel shuttle took us back to the airport, where we caught the BART up to the Embarcadero. From there, we walked through Union Square and caught a cable car to Fisherman’s Wharf, where we had lunch. I had clam chowder in a bread bowl, of course. Right across from the restaurant was a Steve and Barry’s, which I learned was a warehouse clothing store. (There’s a Steve and Barry’s that just opened in Waikele, where the CompUSA used to be. I had no idea what kind of store it was before then.)

When we got back from Fisherman’s Wharf, we scoped out the South San Francisco Convention Center for the competition the following day. The place was a lot smaller than I expected. There were a few of the other schools there, also checking out the venue. The Chico students came off pretty arrogant. The Fresno and Reno students, in contrast, were pleasant and welcoming. After going on stage to determine blocking, we chilled out at the hotel, had dinner at Houlihan’s, and rehearsed our presentation.

Friday, April 18
The next day was Game Day. We were the second school presenting. After breakfast, we went to the convention center, where we were welcomed warmly (not) by our district coordinator. After tackling the projector issues (just like our rehearsals, we ended up having to use the S-Video output on my PowerBook), we squeezed in one final rehearsal. Our presentation went off without a hitch… except for the fact that the District 14 coordinator accidentally introduced us as University of Hawaii. She got a prompt correction from our advisers.

One of our team members brought up a good point afterwards: unlike the other schools, our entire team couldn’t attend, so when we were presenting, only our two advisers were in the audience, watching and supporting us. We did the very best we could, with the little resources and support we had.

After watching CSU-Fresno’s presentation, we returned to Houlihan’s for lunch, where we talked about a lot of things, serious and not-so-serious. After going back to watch presentations from USF (boring) and CSU-Chico (great but a little cheesy), we jetted off to the hotel to get some rest and discuss our presentation and the others we saw. Our team leader was pretty confident we had a fighting chance; I can’t say I had the same feeling, though I know we all did our very best. We returned to the convention center for the awards ceremony, where we learned who placed in the top three. Ironically, we didn’t see any of the winning presentations (we were setting up for our presentation while San Jose State presented, and took our break during the presentations from Berkeley and Reno). Chico left the ceremony early; we always sensed some pompousness coming from those guys. It was nice of a few of the students, namely from Berkeley and Reno, to tell us how great of a job we did. Some people from Hawaii Advertising Federation also came up to us after the ceremony to tell us what a great job we did, though I don’t know if they would have done so if our adviser hadn’t chewed out their president for ignoring us at the airport and not acknowledging us appropriately. Oh, and their president was wearing a UH football shirt. *scoff*

We went to a place in Burlingame called Broadway Grill to celebrate our hard work throughout the year. We were originally planning to go to another restaurant down the street (one of our team members had a list of recommended eateries), but they were super busy. Turns out Broadway Grill was a better choice, anyways. The vibe was way more relaxed, the menu had a cute Broadway theme going on, and the service was, in our team leader’s words, phenomenal. The server, originally from Russia, and the manager, Art, kept checking up on how we were doing. But it was a hilarious, colorful evening, too, watching our team leader and one of our advisers talk to the manager and staff about visiting Hawaii; the two of them were clearly tipsy. Plus, some weird, drunk guy kept hitting on our two advisers (funny!). The guy, who claimed to be Kai Kalihiki, sang “Tiny Bubbles” for us and bought us a bottle of wine. After he left, the staff told us they had never seen him before. But hey, if you’re ever in Burlingame, go check out Broadway Grill!

Saturday, April 19
The following morning, we got up at 5:30, had another complementary breakfast at the hotel, and made our journey to the Golden Gate Bridge. One BART ride, a streetcar, some walking, and two buses later, we were there. We took some photos and got on the bus to the Daly City BART. (We talked about walking/running across the bridge but it didn’t happen… we had to be back at the hotel by 1 pm.) We had lunch at the hotel, got our luggage, and took the shuttle to the airport.

When we were getting off the shuttle, one of our team members stumbled and sprained her ankle. Then while we were checking in, all five of the Northwest counter employees made themselves preoccupied with a man in a wheelchair. After making our way past the TSA checkpoint, we met up with our two advisers, who had arrived at the airport before we did, and we put ice on our team member’s ankle. We happened to sit across from a doctor at the gate, who told our injured team member to take Motrin or ibuprofen every eight hours to decrease the swelling.

Once we took off from San Francisco, I was out. I woke up near the end of National Treasure: Book of Secrets and had a short conversation with the woman who was sitting next to me; her military daughter was taking her to visit Oahu (she thought she was going to the Big Island—common geographical mistake). When we landed we saw a rainbow framing the view of Diamond Head—very picturesque and welcoming. My mom picked me up and we got some malasadas at Waikele. Ahh, home sweet home.

I miss the Bay Area, though. I wanna go back and visit Tasi and Angie! Plus, there’s so much more to see there that I want to see!