Tuesday, August 23, 2011

things move fast around here

The time has come: my friends are starting to get married. I went to my first non-family/family-friend wedding this weekend in Columbus, OH. Despite some travel woes (flight to Chicago delayed 90 minutes! first flight to Columbus canceled!) we barely made it to Ohio for the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night. As we rushed to get dressed and ran downstairs in the hotel, we came around the corner to see the bride- and groom-to-be making their way there, too. We met Elliot for the first time (so sweet!) and reunited with Alissa (gorgeous, as per usual). It was a mini-college reunion of sorts, meeting some newer friends along the way who told their own stories of the progression of Alissa and Elliot's movie-like relationship.

the bride-to-be at the rehearsal dinner! she never stopped smiling all weekend 

 rehearsal dinner outfit shots with my wedding weekend roomies

The wedding was beautiful -- as was their bridal party (talk about good genes in those families!) -- and the reception was a blast. We felt honored to be a part of their celebration and see the beginning of what I'm sure will be a wonderful life together. It felt funny at first to attend a wedding where I had never met the groom, but I was quick to understand and see how well they fit together.

The wedding and reception were at the Franklin Park Conservatory. The space and the decor were perfect! We all loved her berry and sage green color scheme, and the earthy elements they spread throughout: the sticks under the wedding cake, rocks with your name for place cards, and the lantern center pieces.





The signing of the ketubah and the ceremony under the chuppah were full of smiles and meaningful glances. I loved watching her parents during the ceremony - they looked so happy and proud!


circling the groom - the point at which I started to get teary-eyed 

first dance to Stand By Me 


with Alissa! Congrats, again!!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

"How now did you see what I did see?"

Seemingly out of nowhere on Monday morning, a tweet/post went up on BrooklynVegan that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would be performing at Littlefield that same night with tickets going on sale at noon. I dutifully waited with my laptop and pounced, snagging 2 tickets. The show was great, as the crowd wasn't pushy nor the venue overly full (despite being sold out). Everyone seemed so chill, in fact, that Ana and I found ourselves in the front row moments before the opening act took the stage.

I tend to have mixed luck with opening bands that I'm unfamiliar with, but we were really happy with Conversion Party. They switched up vocalists and instruments several times, but the sound remained fairly consistent. I got a Thermals-ish vibe from them at times, which I didn't mind at all.

CYHSY played a mix of their first two albums interspersed with tracks from their upcoming album. All the new tracks sounded great and I'm really excited to hear the whole thing in September. While I was never the biggest fan of Some Loud Thunder, the songs they chose to play translated well to the stage and I may give it a second chance. The crowd was pretty vocal as time went on that they wanted Gimme Some Salt to be played, so their wish was granted in the form of an extra song thrown into the encore. How do we know it was extra? Because our front-row positioning allowed me to hop up onto the edge of the stage and snag Robbie's set list after the show. Win! Photos of the show, including the setlist, below:








(Gimme Some Salt was inserted before Heavy Metal)

Friday, August 5, 2011

the pretty little patter of a seaboard town

Just about one week ago I was heading off to Newport, RI with team T.E.A.M. (tiffany, eve, ana, and [myself]) for the Newport Folk Festival. Our drive was never too traffic-y (thanks, John!) and our hotel was kind of ridiculously oversized for the 4 of us.

On the surface, Newport is a really typical waterside vacation spot. All the buildings have the same look and feel and themes, but what sets Newport apart is its insanely prep-bro visitors. It's like being smacked in the face with a Ralph Lauren catalog. Despite the almost pathetically stupid things that some of the drunk dudes on the street said to us, the town was cute and I'm sorry we couldn't spend more daylight time walking around. Rather, our day on Saturday was spent out at Ft. Adams State Park for the festival, which was a beautiful location and delightfully breezy. We ate and drank and possibly got too much sun exposure. It was fantastic.







Musical highlights of my day included Gogol Bordello, Delta Spirit, and the Decemberists. Colin Meloy (jokingly?) mocked the "party flotillas" out in the water catching the concert for free (or rather, for the price of already having a boat you can sit on all day). We missed Earl Scruggs because we were eating hotdogs (necessary). We also sat in the shade tent during Gillian Welch and I let her gorgeous voice lull me into an almost-sleep.




Sunday we attempted to visit the Breakers before heading back to NYC, but were very sad to find out that it costs $19 a pop to get in. We walked past a lot of the mansions, though, and I have grand dreams (probably to never be realized) of living seaside now.

my life as a Vanderbilt (ha!) #gpoy