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!

Videos: YouTube Playlist • Photos: Flickr Set

A week ago today, I was in Los Angeles, roaming around in “the world’s largest independent record store,” Amoeba Music, sifting through vintage rock posters, walking among aisles of CDs and vinyl records… and brushing shoulders with director Michel Gondry.

Oh right, ’twas Hollywood.

Vasthy, Liz, Christina and I had just come from eating dinner at Hard Rock Cafe on Universal City Walk. At Amoeba, we were all exhausted but willed ourselves to get lost in the music – literally. I mean, it’s why we were all here. (And Michel Gondry? Turns out he was there for a performance at Amoeba. He plays the drums.)

Franz Ferdinand would be performing the following day at the Hollywood Palladium. This would make it my second time seeing the Scottish band live; my first Franz gig was only about five months ago in Tempe, Arizona. That experience remains as among the best and luckiest I’ve ever had: we scored killer barrier positions right up front, chatted with the band (with frontman Alex Kapranos and bass player Bob Hardy, twice), and made a bunch of new friends — especially the coincidental meeting with Tracy, the other Hawai‘i girl who was there. It was definitely a surprise to find out we had both come from the same island – heck, the same side of the island — to see the same band. How did we not know of each other earlier?

This time around, Tracy couldn’t join us, and neither could Aurora and Cris, two good friends I had made in Tempe and on the online forum for my other favorite band, Muse. I missed them and wished they could have joined us. There were others I’d be meeting up with, though, mostly from the Muse boards, including Lisa and Christina, two Musers I’d also met in Tempe.

The next day, around 10am, Christina and I arrived in line to find about 10 or 15 others already queued. The group at the front of the line were part of our Muser group — Caroline, who was numero uno, had been sitting there in her lawn chair since 4:45 am. She was with her sister, Jackie; a friend of Jackie’s; and Liz, another Muser. B, as we call her, also joined us. Ashley, also from the Muse forum, was in line earlier, but had taken off. Turned out she got in to a small radio-hosted acoustic performance with Alex and Nick McCarthy, the band’s other guitarist and keyboardist.

The front of the line.

For about nine hours, we took turns sitting in lawn chairs, underneath umbrellas, guzzling water, waiting for the doors to open at 7pm. The sun was a scorcher. On occasion, someone would cross the street to the Coffee Bean to fetch cups of ice cubes, or to the nearby Rite-Aid or Denny’s for chilly snacks and beverages. (At one point, Christina handed out extra popsicles to fellow fans in line.) We listened to music from my iPhone that was blasting out of Liz’s portable speakers, chatted with other people in line, and made signs to hold up during the show. Around 3pm, the building across the street with the Coffee Bean cast its long shadow over us, finally relieving us of the sun’s heat.

As the time to enter the venue got closer, a verbal ruckus formed at the front of the line. At this point, about ten people had trickled in and cut in the middle of our group. Christina got frustrated and spoke up. Two or three friends being let in front of us – okay. Ten? No way. A girl said she was in line at 7am, then left to go to work, where she had just come from. Of course, this didn’t make things fair for those who waited all day in the sun. Someone behind us used the perfect analogy, calling it “touching bases.” After security got involved and gave her the ultimatum of moving to the back of the line or receiving a ticket refund, she and most of her friends huffily made their way to the back of the line.

Finally, the time to enter the Palladium was coming close. Erin, her sister, and Lisa had all arrived from San Diego. Lisa’s friend, who she calls “Hobo,” had also arrived. Females made two security check lines and males formed one. I made my way into the venue after the security officer checked my large purse, which contained my copy of Alex’s book, Sound Bites; my camera; iPhone; and the origami star lei and greeting card Tracy and I made for the band.

The lei.

We scored barrier positions again, though our group was separated. In Tempe, I was in front of Nick. The coveted barrier spot for fans is usually between Nick and Alex. This time, I was on the other side, in front of Bob, along with Liz and B. The others had made their way to Nick’s side.

After two opening acts — local bands Neverever and The Blood Arm — we were ready for Franz Ferdinand. A skinny, flamboyant guy who had introduced The Blood Arm earlier came back onstage to introduce the headliner. Hilariously, he deemed Franz Ferdinand “the most evil band in the history of Scotland,” more evil than Satan; whereas earlier, he called The Blood Arm’s sound better than Jesus himself. (Uh yeah, talk about some high standards!) With that introduction, Franz Ferdinand came onstage and opened with “Bite Hard,” a slow starter with a punchy ending. One of my favorite songs, “The Dark of the Matinée,” was next, followed by “No You Girls.”

Everyone in our group got their signs out. Christina had the brilliant idea of each of us holding up individual signs that all read “Van Tango,” a b-side that has become a live rarity. (Wanting some Hawai‘i flavor to my sign, mine read, “Van Tango Mango,” while Lisa’s read, “Van Tango Dammit,” also my idea.) The plan was to hold up our signs during “No You Girls,” which always happens early on in the show, and they would play our request soon after. It worked. At least at that point, we thought it did. When Christina got a setlist later, “Van Tango” was already on there… right after “No You Girls.” Huh. Talk about coincidences. At least Nick was nice enough to dedicate it to our group.

I’d like to think Alex was trying to read my sign in this shot. At that point, I was the only one on the barrier holding a sign. It said, “You survived Green Day – now come to Hawai‘i”

“This Fire” came after “Van Tango.” It’s so weird how that song is now early in the setlist because for a long time, it was the very last song played in shows. Plus, when Franz first came to town a couple days before, the wildfires had started that same day. “This fire is out of control / We’re gonna burn this city, burn this city.” It’s all Franz Ferdinand’s fault! (Just kidding, guys.)

Not gonna do an entire play-by-play of the setlist… because I have a photo of Christina’s setlist!

For most of the show, I sang along to the words and bobbed my head to the beat. Along with b-side “Van Tango,” I was surprised they played “Darts of Pleasure,” their very first single that these days has also become a live rarity (we requested they play “Darts” via signage in Tempe); and “Auf Achse,” a deep cut from their debut album and one of the first Franz songs I remember liking.

One thing I did notice a few times during the show was Alex making a motion with his pointer finger across his neck — looked like he was telling someone off stage to stop something. What this something was, I had no clue. I didn’t hear any technical problems.

Here’s a favorite that’s become a Franz ritual: the drum circle at the end of “Outsiders”:

They ended the set with “Lucid Dreams.” That song alone was worth the trip there. In Tempe, the band had played up until the electronic outro was supposed to start, but some sort of technical glitch happened that (I’m guessing) prevented the sampler from triggering. So in Tempe, that epic dance outro was aborted. But this time… musical bliss. Fifteen minutes of it. Of course, I wasn’t gonna spend the entire time filming it — I had to relish it and dance along — but here are a couple of snippets of it (the second video is part of the electronic outro):

For the curious, here’s “Lucid Dreams” in full, from the iTunes festival in London, July 2009:

The downside to them ending with “Lucid Dreams” was that the band didn’t take a final bow; each band member left the stage, eventually leaving Paul Thomson banging on his drums at the end. After the concert ended on that note, we made our way out of the venue. Before leaving the GA floor, a girl who turned out to be Stephanie from the FFG flagged me down; she had recognized me from some photos taken in Tempe. We all made our way to the side of the venue, where about 40 other fans were waiting for a chance to meet the band. While we waited, Stephanie and I chatted for a bit. Turned out she was staying at the same hotel we were — a shame we didn’t know sooner! During the 90 minutes we spent waiting and talking with friends and other fans, people gradually dispersed. It was pretty clear they were not coming out to meet fans. Our group of friends gave up at 1 am and made our way back to the hotel. It was a bummer I couldn’t present each band member their lei and give them the card Tracy and I made, but I just think it was meant to happen at another time, preferably with Tracy, Aurora, and Cris there.

All in all, it was a fun experience. It certainly will not live up to Tempe — for me, the Tempe experience is difficult to top — but the crowd was pumped up, Franz Ferdinand delivered a strong performance, and we got lost in the music.

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.