Sunday, January 25, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Neil Young is the coolest man who has ever lived.....(circa Oct 2003)
Before blogging, I guess people just wrote stories. Well, here is a story Jamie wrote back in 2003 that I thought I would post to the blog. It has all the makings of a good blog, it rambles on and on and probably contains way to much information. But I like the story, so here goes:
Neil Young is the coolest man who has ever lived. Don’t believe me? Ok, let me explain…
9:30 am Saturday morning. I roll out of bed, slightly hungover from drinking at the Lingba Lounge up the street from my house the night before. Friends Mike and Vanessa were in town from San Diego, so we were out late doing a bit of drinking and catching up. A red fruity drink served in a bowl and lit on fire is the apparent culprit for my current headache and grogginess.
However, the hangover quickly subsides from the excitement of knowing today was the day of the Bridge School Benefit concert that Neil Young puts on every year. For those of you who are not familiar with this, the Bridge show is always one of the most popular concert events in the Bay Area each October. I go every year, no matter what artist is playing, because no matter what, it is always a great time to sit outside on a cool October afternoon and listen to some great acoustic music.
Apparently most music fans in Northern California (and around the West Coast in general) tend to agree with me, since this is typically, by far, the hardest ticket to get in town. Lawn seats are easy to come by, but Reserved seating is definitely a scarce commodity, and literally, sells out within seconds every year. I happened to get lucky, and scored some Reserved 200 level seats a few days before the show. Not great seats, but at least not on the lawn, which really sucks at Shoreline. I just need to pick up the tickets at the Shoreline Amphitheatre Will-Call before the show.
Noon. Today is the nicest day in San Francisco, perhaps ever. High 80’s, clear skies. We drive out to the Beach Chalet Restaurant in Ocean Beach for breakfast and Bloody Marys. You can see for miles across the ocean. October is always a great month in SF, but I feel like I am in friggin’ San Diego. After breakfast, we drive around the coast some more just to enjoy this weather.
3:30. We realize we have to stop enjoying the weather and head off to Shoreline.
4:30 Angela and I arrive at the Will-Call office at about 4:30. Give my name to the lady at the Will-Call desk, who shuffles through the ticket envelopes several times, apparently having trouble finding my order. Finally, finding the envelope, I sign for the tickets and glance at the seat location while walking away, wanted to make sure they did not“screw me” by giving me tickets other than the ones I ordered…
Section 102, Row BBB, Seats 1-2.
I rub my eyes a bit, adjust my contacts and look back down at the tickets.
Section 102, Row BBB, Seats 1-2.
I suddenly break out into a cold sweat and the heart starts beating faster. This cannot be right. Am I actually looking at this? These DEFINITELY are not my tickets. They can’t be. The lady must have accidentally pulled the wrong envelope and gave me the wrong tickets. After all, I have a hard name to pronounce and most people usually lose interest in deciphering the spelling or pronouncement after the first 3 letters. Anyways, I don’t stick around to find out and get the hell out of there.
So, by the way, 102 BBB is the Holy Grail of all Shoreline tickets. Front row, dead fucking center. Until now, I didn’t think these things really even existed. I have gone to MANY shows at Shoreline over the years, and it is by far, one of the hardest places to get good tickets to for any quality act. Especially for this show. My favorite show of the year. And I’ve always heard of these “upgrade” things, where unsuspecting fans get upgraded from crappy seats to the front row, but until now, I just thought it was a myth. Something overzealous fans make up to make others jealous.
I walk over and show them to Angela. “BBB she asks…isn’t that the second row.” Nope. The front row. “But how?” I don’t know and don’t really care at this point. I’ve got em though.
We nervously hurry inside the Amphitheatre, still wondering if they will actually work. Whether these things are actually real.
Score…inside.
5:00. Neil Young takes the stage as we walk down to our seats. We start walking down the stairs, farther and farther, until there is no where else to go except to Neil’s guitar. As we sit down, the security guy reads our tickets, sits down and leaves us alone. They’re legit. Surely I thought he’d be looking for some Corporate VIP or celebrity that was supposed to have these seats, and I figured that Shoreline would realize their mistake and we’d get kicked out any second. But I realized all the people sitting in the first 2 rows were kind of laughing at us, and looked quite a bit younger than the “VIP-type” folks I expected down there. Turns out, that they had all had similar crappy tickets way in the back, and when they picked them up at Will-Call, they had the same thing happen…free upgrades straight to the first 2 rows…courtesy of Neil Young. My guess is that it is Neil’s way of keeping these tickets out of the hands of scalpers, and giving them to unsuspecting folks who had just come out to hear some good music. Nice strategy.
After finally settling down a bit, I take a few swigs of my beer and enjoy the rest of the show. I have seen many of my favorite artists at this show in the past, including The Who, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and the Dave Matthews Band. The lineup this year is not quite as star packed as in prior years, consisting of Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Willie Nelson, Pearl Jam, Incubus, Counting Crows, Indigo Girls, Wilco and Dashboard Confessional. But still pretty solid.
So the first row. About 15 feet directly in front of the center microphone. You can see, well, pretty much everything. Sweat stains on Adam Duritz’s shirt, steam coming out of the cups of tea that Eddie Vedder and Graham Nash were drinking, one of the Indigo Girls spitting all over her microphone, the hole in Willie Nelson’s guitar (more later). Ok, so maybe a little close for some of those things. But the best part…there is a security guard sitting right on the aisle who…get this…stops anyone from walking in front of you to block your view. Un-fucking-believable.
All bands put in good sets. Overall, was not too impressed with Incubus or Dashboard, but the rest were great, and the sound, as it usually is at Bridge School, was incredible. I actually was very impressed by the Counting Crows, who I have never been very crazy about. However live, they put in a great set and seemed to be pretty talented guys.
9:00, Pearl Jam takes the stage. Eddie Vedder is blonde…WTF??? While Pearl Jam is probably my favorite band at the show, I had looked most forward to seeing Willie Nelson, since I had never seen him before…and…well, he was Willie Nelson. Pearl Jam had just played an interesting set prior to Willie, busting out a hoard of cover songs including Masters of War by Dylan and a Ramones tune, but only 2 of their own songs, Daughter and Black, which are played at Bridge every single time they are there, as well as a new one. Just being able to be that close to watch Mike McCready’s, one of my all-time guitar heroes, fingerwork on the fretboards was great, especially considering I am trying to learn the guitar, and obviously have a long way to go.
About 10:00, Willie Nelson takes the stage, playing a guitar that looked like it was about 60 years old, with a hole in the front of it that was not supposed to be there. So after playing most of his solo acoustic set including all his old favorites: Crazy, Ain’t it Funny How Time Slips Away, On the Road Again, and Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys, we give him a standing ovation in the front row, along with the rest of the 22,000 people behind us.
Then…Willie smiles at us, takes off his hat, and flings it RIGHT FUCKING AT US!!!! It seemed to be headed a bit more towards my beautiful girlfriend Angela, but then, like Deion Sanders back in the day, like the overzealous fan in Chicago at Game 6 of the NLCS, I… reach over, and…INTERCEPTED!! Then, Willie looks down at me like “What the fuck…that was supposed to go to her,” looking in Angela’s direction. Yeah, I would be a little worried if Willie had intended it for me instead of some cutie sitting in the front row, so obviously, I hand her the hat and put it on her head. But still crazy nonetheless. Willie Nelson’s hat! Kind of like catching a bullet from the Alamo…a genuine piece of American History. Angela is convinced that her Grandma, a huge Willie Nelson fan, was looking down from above, so obviously some divine intervention was involved.
Midnight. The set closes out with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young playing the Buffalo Springfield classic “For What It’s Worth” and then closing out with “Teach Your Children” with the rest of the performers on stage singing along.
Unbelievable day. I am still wondering if it actually happened or if it was just something I dreamed up. But there is a big black cowboy hat sitting on my bookshelf telling me it was all real. Years of getting screwed by Ticketmaster and Shoreline comes back to reward me in a big way by the Karma Gods. All together, I’d say it was a pretty damn good day. So as you see, Neil Young is, now, the coolest man who ever walked the face of the earth.
Jamie de Uriarte
Oct 27, 2003
Neil Young is the coolest man who has ever lived. Don’t believe me? Ok, let me explain…
9:30 am Saturday morning. I roll out of bed, slightly hungover from drinking at the Lingba Lounge up the street from my house the night before. Friends Mike and Vanessa were in town from San Diego, so we were out late doing a bit of drinking and catching up. A red fruity drink served in a bowl and lit on fire is the apparent culprit for my current headache and grogginess.
However, the hangover quickly subsides from the excitement of knowing today was the day of the Bridge School Benefit concert that Neil Young puts on every year. For those of you who are not familiar with this, the Bridge show is always one of the most popular concert events in the Bay Area each October. I go every year, no matter what artist is playing, because no matter what, it is always a great time to sit outside on a cool October afternoon and listen to some great acoustic music.
Apparently most music fans in Northern California (and around the West Coast in general) tend to agree with me, since this is typically, by far, the hardest ticket to get in town. Lawn seats are easy to come by, but Reserved seating is definitely a scarce commodity, and literally, sells out within seconds every year. I happened to get lucky, and scored some Reserved 200 level seats a few days before the show. Not great seats, but at least not on the lawn, which really sucks at Shoreline. I just need to pick up the tickets at the Shoreline Amphitheatre Will-Call before the show.
Noon. Today is the nicest day in San Francisco, perhaps ever. High 80’s, clear skies. We drive out to the Beach Chalet Restaurant in Ocean Beach for breakfast and Bloody Marys. You can see for miles across the ocean. October is always a great month in SF, but I feel like I am in friggin’ San Diego. After breakfast, we drive around the coast some more just to enjoy this weather.
3:30. We realize we have to stop enjoying the weather and head off to Shoreline.
4:30 Angela and I arrive at the Will-Call office at about 4:30. Give my name to the lady at the Will-Call desk, who shuffles through the ticket envelopes several times, apparently having trouble finding my order. Finally, finding the envelope, I sign for the tickets and glance at the seat location while walking away, wanted to make sure they did not“screw me” by giving me tickets other than the ones I ordered…
Section 102, Row BBB, Seats 1-2.
I rub my eyes a bit, adjust my contacts and look back down at the tickets.
Section 102, Row BBB, Seats 1-2.
I suddenly break out into a cold sweat and the heart starts beating faster. This cannot be right. Am I actually looking at this? These DEFINITELY are not my tickets. They can’t be. The lady must have accidentally pulled the wrong envelope and gave me the wrong tickets. After all, I have a hard name to pronounce and most people usually lose interest in deciphering the spelling or pronouncement after the first 3 letters. Anyways, I don’t stick around to find out and get the hell out of there.
So, by the way, 102 BBB is the Holy Grail of all Shoreline tickets. Front row, dead fucking center. Until now, I didn’t think these things really even existed. I have gone to MANY shows at Shoreline over the years, and it is by far, one of the hardest places to get good tickets to for any quality act. Especially for this show. My favorite show of the year. And I’ve always heard of these “upgrade” things, where unsuspecting fans get upgraded from crappy seats to the front row, but until now, I just thought it was a myth. Something overzealous fans make up to make others jealous.
I walk over and show them to Angela. “BBB she asks…isn’t that the second row.” Nope. The front row. “But how?” I don’t know and don’t really care at this point. I’ve got em though.
We nervously hurry inside the Amphitheatre, still wondering if they will actually work. Whether these things are actually real.
Score…inside.
5:00. Neil Young takes the stage as we walk down to our seats. We start walking down the stairs, farther and farther, until there is no where else to go except to Neil’s guitar. As we sit down, the security guy reads our tickets, sits down and leaves us alone. They’re legit. Surely I thought he’d be looking for some Corporate VIP or celebrity that was supposed to have these seats, and I figured that Shoreline would realize their mistake and we’d get kicked out any second. But I realized all the people sitting in the first 2 rows were kind of laughing at us, and looked quite a bit younger than the “VIP-type” folks I expected down there. Turns out, that they had all had similar crappy tickets way in the back, and when they picked them up at Will-Call, they had the same thing happen…free upgrades straight to the first 2 rows…courtesy of Neil Young. My guess is that it is Neil’s way of keeping these tickets out of the hands of scalpers, and giving them to unsuspecting folks who had just come out to hear some good music. Nice strategy.
After finally settling down a bit, I take a few swigs of my beer and enjoy the rest of the show. I have seen many of my favorite artists at this show in the past, including The Who, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and the Dave Matthews Band. The lineup this year is not quite as star packed as in prior years, consisting of Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Willie Nelson, Pearl Jam, Incubus, Counting Crows, Indigo Girls, Wilco and Dashboard Confessional. But still pretty solid.
So the first row. About 15 feet directly in front of the center microphone. You can see, well, pretty much everything. Sweat stains on Adam Duritz’s shirt, steam coming out of the cups of tea that Eddie Vedder and Graham Nash were drinking, one of the Indigo Girls spitting all over her microphone, the hole in Willie Nelson’s guitar (more later). Ok, so maybe a little close for some of those things. But the best part…there is a security guard sitting right on the aisle who…get this…stops anyone from walking in front of you to block your view. Un-fucking-believable.
All bands put in good sets. Overall, was not too impressed with Incubus or Dashboard, but the rest were great, and the sound, as it usually is at Bridge School, was incredible. I actually was very impressed by the Counting Crows, who I have never been very crazy about. However live, they put in a great set and seemed to be pretty talented guys.
9:00, Pearl Jam takes the stage. Eddie Vedder is blonde…WTF??? While Pearl Jam is probably my favorite band at the show, I had looked most forward to seeing Willie Nelson, since I had never seen him before…and…well, he was Willie Nelson. Pearl Jam had just played an interesting set prior to Willie, busting out a hoard of cover songs including Masters of War by Dylan and a Ramones tune, but only 2 of their own songs, Daughter and Black, which are played at Bridge every single time they are there, as well as a new one. Just being able to be that close to watch Mike McCready’s, one of my all-time guitar heroes, fingerwork on the fretboards was great, especially considering I am trying to learn the guitar, and obviously have a long way to go.
About 10:00, Willie Nelson takes the stage, playing a guitar that looked like it was about 60 years old, with a hole in the front of it that was not supposed to be there. So after playing most of his solo acoustic set including all his old favorites: Crazy, Ain’t it Funny How Time Slips Away, On the Road Again, and Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys, we give him a standing ovation in the front row, along with the rest of the 22,000 people behind us.
Then…Willie smiles at us, takes off his hat, and flings it RIGHT FUCKING AT US!!!! It seemed to be headed a bit more towards my beautiful girlfriend Angela, but then, like Deion Sanders back in the day, like the overzealous fan in Chicago at Game 6 of the NLCS, I… reach over, and…INTERCEPTED!! Then, Willie looks down at me like “What the fuck…that was supposed to go to her,” looking in Angela’s direction. Yeah, I would be a little worried if Willie had intended it for me instead of some cutie sitting in the front row, so obviously, I hand her the hat and put it on her head. But still crazy nonetheless. Willie Nelson’s hat! Kind of like catching a bullet from the Alamo…a genuine piece of American History. Angela is convinced that her Grandma, a huge Willie Nelson fan, was looking down from above, so obviously some divine intervention was involved.
Midnight. The set closes out with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young playing the Buffalo Springfield classic “For What It’s Worth” and then closing out with “Teach Your Children” with the rest of the performers on stage singing along.
Unbelievable day. I am still wondering if it actually happened or if it was just something I dreamed up. But there is a big black cowboy hat sitting on my bookshelf telling me it was all real. Years of getting screwed by Ticketmaster and Shoreline comes back to reward me in a big way by the Karma Gods. All together, I’d say it was a pretty damn good day. So as you see, Neil Young is, now, the coolest man who ever walked the face of the earth.
Jamie de Uriarte
Oct 27, 2003
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Rave Run
Ok, so this is my first time posting. Angela has written most of this stuff so far, I'm just the editor. But I'll take the wheel from here.
About 3/4 of the trail up is steep but runnable, while the other half is pretty rocky and narrow, and I've had to walk that portion both times I've done it now. The trail is also crawling with poison oak so you really need to concentrate to stay on the trail. About 45 minutes later, I hit the top and looked down at SF, Mt. Tam and the Pacific in the distance. Not a bad way to end the weekend.
To finish off the 3-day weekend, we took Anmarie up to park for a little fun on the swing.
After we took her back home for her nap, I decided to take my second annual trail run up Montara Mountain outside of Pacifica. I just decided to make it second annual when I remembered I also ran it last year on MLK day. While last year there was a light rain and it was quite muddy, the 2009 version brought 74 degree temps and not a cloud in the sky. Montara Mountain is about a 1800 ft climb over 3.5 miles.
About 3/4 of the trail up is steep but runnable, while the other half is pretty rocky and narrow, and I've had to walk that portion both times I've done it now. The trail is also crawling with poison oak so you really need to concentrate to stay on the trail. About 45 minutes later, I hit the top and looked down at SF, Mt. Tam and the Pacific in the distance. Not a bad way to end the weekend.
Monday, January 19, 2009
January......Really?
That’s what we kept saying on Saturday. Gotta love CA, with recorded breaking temperatures in the SF bay for the month of Jan. This weekend we headed south down to Pescadero and then to Ano Nuevo. We stopped off at the best restaurant within 30 miles, Duarte’s tavern (well, the only restaurant within 30 miles, but still damn good) to get some of the best soup in town; cream of artichoke and cream of green chile...yum! Washed that down with a couple Anchor Steams and a crab melt sandwich. Slam.
Annmarie had cheese and toast.
Here is the cream of green chile with a side of pickles (this is all Jamie).
We then headed about 15 miles south of Pescadero to Ano Nuevo to see the elephant seals in action. This time of the year the seals are very active, fighting, mating and having babies. You are required to have tickets this time of year and we were lucky enough to show up that day and get on a tour.
Annmarie was very excited to see her first real life elephant seals...hmmmm no. She passed out on Dad's back.
Here is a little pup.
And not so little guy. This is a male elephant seal that we got pretty close to. He weighs 5000 lbs and was about 16 feet long, and had come up from the beach to relax in the sand dunes. He started waking up when we were leaving the area and had to sneak pass him.
Annmarie woke up about 40 min into the tour to check out the seals.
We got to see a little action...with two males fighting and a pair of seals mating. The two seals wrestling moved their fight into the water. It was pretty exciting!
Also, on our way out we saw some deer.
It was a long day and Annmarie held up pretty well up until this point. She suffered a minor meltdown when we put her in the car, so we decided to stop. We thought she was hungry, but then proceed to have a meltdown at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. Sorry, we have no pics of the meltdown. We may have pushed her a little to far.
It was a great day all in all and look froward to taking Annmarie back there when she is old enough to walk herself and stay awake for it.
Annmarie had cheese and toast.
Here is the cream of green chile with a side of pickles (this is all Jamie).
We then headed about 15 miles south of Pescadero to Ano Nuevo to see the elephant seals in action. This time of the year the seals are very active, fighting, mating and having babies. You are required to have tickets this time of year and we were lucky enough to show up that day and get on a tour.
Annmarie was very excited to see her first real life elephant seals...hmmmm no. She passed out on Dad's back.
Here is a little pup.
And not so little guy. This is a male elephant seal that we got pretty close to. He weighs 5000 lbs and was about 16 feet long, and had come up from the beach to relax in the sand dunes. He started waking up when we were leaving the area and had to sneak pass him.
Annmarie woke up about 40 min into the tour to check out the seals.
We got to see a little action...with two males fighting and a pair of seals mating. The two seals wrestling moved their fight into the water. It was pretty exciting!
Also, on our way out we saw some deer.
It was a long day and Annmarie held up pretty well up until this point. She suffered a minor meltdown when we put her in the car, so we decided to stop. We thought she was hungry, but then proceed to have a meltdown at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. Sorry, we have no pics of the meltdown. We may have pushed her a little to far.
It was a great day all in all and look froward to taking Annmarie back there when she is old enough to walk herself and stay awake for it.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Swollen lip
It’s small and you can barely see it in these pictures, but Annmarie has a swollen and bruised lip. She was knee walking and tumbled face first into her booster chair. It bled a little, but she was fine in minutes. She did this while on Grandma and Grandpa’s watch, they of course feel awful, and I think it hurt them more than it did her.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Hiking - Marin
We headed over to Marin for a hike this weekend at Lake Lagunitas. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 60’s. Is this really January? Jamie estimated that we did 3 miles.
Yessss!
Annmarie says yes to everything:
Do you need your diaper changed? Yes
Do you want a snack? Yes
Want to read a book? Yes
Is the sky purple? Yes
Here is Annmarie taking a bath at Grandpa Tom’s house demonstrating
Do you need your diaper changed? Yes
Do you want a snack? Yes
Want to read a book? Yes
Is the sky purple? Yes
Here is Annmarie taking a bath at Grandpa Tom’s house demonstrating
Annmarie's First Steps
Annmarie took some of her first real steps yesterday. It’s a very difficult task to try and capture on video. However, we got it today! She has taken a step here and there for a couple of months now, but yesterday she took about 7 and this morning she was taking as many as 10! Go Annmarie!
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Dayton, NV
This week we headed to exciting Dayton, Nevada to visit Grandpa Tom and Christina. It was on the cold side, so we bundled up Annmarie in this darling snow suit courtesy of Sarah, to see if Annmarie would like the snow (is it just me, or does she look like a tick about to pop?) Needless to say, Annmarie did not dig getting in the snow suit and hated the snow even more. I don’t think she appreciated it when we dumped her in a snow pile to get a photo op.
It's too bad we were unable to capture her face......but you can probably tell...it was not a happy one.
Back inside where it was warm, some animal cookies made Annmarie happy again.
Thanks to Grandpa Tom and Christina for babysitting for the day, we got away for a day and went skiing at Mt. Rose.
Then on our way home we stopped off in Folsom to meet little Will. Isn’t he cute at only 20 hours old!
It's too bad we were unable to capture her face......but you can probably tell...it was not a happy one.
Back inside where it was warm, some animal cookies made Annmarie happy again.
Thanks to Grandpa Tom and Christina for babysitting for the day, we got away for a day and went skiing at Mt. Rose.
Then on our way home we stopped off in Folsom to meet little Will. Isn’t he cute at only 20 hours old!
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