The next day we went to see Santana at Jones Beach. To give you an idea how great the tickets were, I'm pretty sure we were in F on this chart. Pretty damn sure.
So we were supposed to meet up at the mall,
The weather was not on our side. We all were wearing coats, and the friend brought plastic trash bags to throw over our seats. That weekend was full of intense winds, storms, and nature's wet fury. For those not familiar with the venue, it's out on the water. You sit down, look up, and see sky. You're looking out over the water to the left and right, and have the stage in front of you. Seagulls spiral overhead, clouds pass over the stage, you're totally exposed. So we drove through the rainstorms and wind, heading towards the edge of a long island, exposing ourselves to it all.
The opening act was a cool world music act, with some great songs. The place was mostly empty at that point, with the ushers toweling off seats for new arrivals. I ate overpriced Aramark prison industrial complex food, and
Santana came out, and opened up with a traditional rain song (according to
He thanked us for perservering the ``...wind and rain, that whole mother nature thing...'' Later on, he attacked the New York Times. ``I was reading the New York Times earlier, which is, you know, whatever.'' (At that point
All three of his drummers were fucking amazing. The bongos versus drummer contest was awesome, the man on the bongos was mindblowingly good. The third drummer's extended solo performance was even more fantastic than the contest. The keyboardist was great, and was the guy who used to tour with Gabriel, so it all ties back together. It was awesome hearing him do more Santana-ified versions of songs like Smooth, instead of the Rob Thomas-ified version I'm used to. The set was awesome, and it felt like it kept on getting better every time I swore it was about to end.
Towards the end, he had a few kids on stage, letting them shake the maracas that the rappers shook during some songs. Before the last song, he gave a speech about the children and us being the architects of the future, and dove into a song that
So we left, dropped off his brother's friend in the Bronx, and determined it was too late for me to join the party. If we were taking mass transit like I thought, it would have been much more plausible. We went to
Got home, went to bed, and worked at EB the next day. Found out third-hand that some ``LiveJournal fans'' visited the store looking for me. Please let me know who you are, mmmkay? I'm more than happy meeting random crazy online psychos, being one myself, but I'm just curious as to who it was.
The next week was hectic. Monday, I attempted to get home at a reasonable hour, but
Wednesday was Movie Night.
Thursday was a whirlwind at work. My review, where
That night, at Game Night, it was hot hot hot.
After the guests left, we sat around sweating and played Go Fish. The final scores were
Tuesday night
We hit major traffic on the way there, and saw a car with girls and a fake severed head. Nothing like two attractive young girls showing motorists they pass a severed head. I kept on trying to get
Nothing nothing nothing! Nothing got done on Saturday! I woke up, I got every soul I could steal, and went back to sleep. Woke up again at eight, starting my day. Went back to get 100% in Brute Force, replaying all the missions I went through with Stave or with Frank. The former missions were replayed to get a higher score, the latter missions were replayed to get the plot I missed while passed out with my finger on the movement stick. Got a bit further, finished up Trigun, and listened to Solid State while slaughtering things.
The next morning I woke up and ventured off to
johnstevensaul was dressed in black, except for his glaring white sneakers and pride rings.
kingfox was dressed in black, including black boots, and a LJ shirt.
kikibird was dressed in a bright top, shorts, and developed a blue breast over the course of the day.
runstaverun was wearing a tie-die shirt, shorts, and a less than jake bag.
So
We took the train into the city, seeing more and more people obviously there for the parade along the way. We got a great spot along the route, and watched the parade for a couple of hours.
Some time after the minute of silence (which was hella disorganized) we grabbed a bite at a local deli with a second floor overlooking the parade, and took the subway down to the street fair. More condoms, more things to sign, magnets from my bank, candy-coated strawberries, more people vying for attention.
After dinner I ran into some LJ user who started chatting with me. A few times during the day people cheered for the shirt, but this guy was close enough for me to notice and chat with. So hi, random LJ person, if you remembered by username. We went back to
And now you're up to date. Good times.