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!