swing seats and cello babes

Happy Birthday to Karen (a day late) and Happy Birthday to Robin (a day early).

Had a successful sleep in. Had a successful hash brown and egg breakfast courtesy of Gabe. Had a successful finish up of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3. And now I am in a state of, "OH MY GOD HOW AM I GOING TO GET 4-6 AS WELL AS ANGEL!!". Hulu ran out. Curses Hulu!

The day eased along in a comfortable way. Natalie, Robin and this other guy have this band that Natalie is fronting called Issimi. So I went to support them. It was chillier than I expected but biking gets you warm in no time. Went down across Hawthorne. It was nice. No traffic. Had to do a multiple light turn around to get to 18th. I had to do the legal U turn because there was no way to get to 18th (the venue is on 18th and Burnside) by turning left on a bike. Then 18th vanished for a couple blocks because of houses so I have to cut up to 20th. And again I go down to 18th only to find that Hipbone Studios is on the other side of Burnside. So again I have to cut up to 20th. I arrived and they were setting up so I checked out the little musty comic shop.

Robin hugged me. Natalie hugged me. They said they were not going on till 10 and at 8:15 the first act wasn't even set up. I sat near some guys and one of them brought up Derren Brown. So I cut in politely and said a coupled things but the guys just yammered about Derren Brown right over me. Didn't pay attention to me at all. Total diss! What gives, totally not seeing that a girl wants to talk to you about something you are interested in. Oh well. I didn't need them anyway as some of MY MUCH COOLER THAN THEN friends showed up. Michaela & Dominic arrived and we chatted about summer goings on. Kevin joined us and we all went across the street to grab a couple drinks while waiting for Issimi to come on.

Michaela directed us to the backporch smoking section which was totally rad. The chairs were swings attached to the roof structure. Very fun. The tables were wisely padded underneath. I had a single pint of the Lazy Boy Ale. Mostly because I only had $4 on me. It was tasty. Not a chore at all to drink. Kevin had the same and I didn't catch what Michaela and Dom got. Wait no, Dom got the... oh I forgot it again but we made fun of the title as being a bad one for beer. We swung and talked and caught up. It was nice. Atmosphere was lovely.

At 9:45 we departed back to the venue. Carrie and Alex were there. Devin and Brandon I saw later. There was a core of PNCA people. We had our cool little section. Much larger than the guys who totally ignored me. Their section was TINY! Ha! Anyway. Oh! The Improviser! That was Dom's beer. Finally remembered it. Anyway, Issimi was a while yet in getting set up. We chatted. Kevin put on my glasses.

Issimi was lovely, the few songs they played. The first was just the cello and the piano. Then a song with the drums and vocals. Natalie has a really beautiful voice and a good sense for composition. Robin rocked it. It was loud but clear. There was some shuffling while Natalie got set up for just some guitar and vocal pieces. Then some more shuffling after that as she tuned her guitar. Robin stalled with some cello numbers. She called upon yours truly to tell a joke. I told my one about how many performance artists does it take to screw in a lightbulb. Nathalie played another beautiful medly about breaking up and all that. Then there were two songs with the trio.

Robin was selling band posters but I had nothing to buy them with. But I think there were enough left than I can wait a couple days. I hugged the necessary people and waved good by to others. At 11:06 I rode back through night Portland. I had my blinker so all was good. Cars could see me. There was some construction I had to double back on. I smiled and dinged my bell at the night time construction dude. He smiled back. See SOME people get it. Feh.

Adam was chilling when I got back. No Gabe. Gabe is off doing something. Katie was there as well. Adam didn't just get in by himself. We three stayed up for a bit and talked about weak conceptual art. Deep stuff like that. Adam left after while and then it was time to rest.

Wonderful fun evening. The rest of this weekend is looking fun. I'll be living it up with Katie these two nights. Going to Sinferno, this burlesque show on Sunday night. Should be...an experience.