MOG - willotoons's Posts

Joanna Newsom @ GAMH

willotoons — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:47:35 GMT

I had seen Joanna perform once before, at the Swedish American Hall. This time was just as much of a treat, if not moreso. The harp is such a beautiful instrument, that it is truly a joy just to watch her play it. She makes it look so easy, but I'm sure her hands get tired. You'd think anyway. :) She's so cute, too!

I've posted a couple photos from the show on Flickr, if you're interested.

not really moggin'

willotoons — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:32:16 GMT

So my computer sorta started lagging & one of the things that seemed to be sucking huge processor power was the mog app, so I had to kill it. Therefore, I won't be reporting any new 'listened to' tracks, but will try to come back here every once & awhile and talk about music & stuff.

2006 kicked ass for music. I am a tad lazy about making lists (or I should say actually typing/writing out the many lists I formulate in my head all year long), but I will say that undoubtedly my top 3 favorite songs of this year were:

Hospitalbeds by Cold War Kids Science is Golden by The Grates Napoleon Says by Pheonix

Solely graded by the fact that all 3 of those songs, at one point, were songs that I could not help listening to over & over & over & over & over again. :) sigh now that is LOVE people! :p

And, although I saw a TON of incredible shows this year (my friend Ali actually listed them all out & I was right next to her for at least 90% of these), I'd say the most incredible ones that come to mind were:

- Wolf Parade at the Independent 1/06 (and also at Coachella - love them!) - Band of Horses - again, both times I saw them - at the Independent & at the Fillmore... I LOVE them!!! - CSS - both opening for Ladytron & then again at Mezzanine - Pheonix at Slims

OK, that's about all I can commit to for the time being.... but be sure to check out my friend's lists! They're better at making the list thing happen & our tastes are very similar! :) - Ted of BagelRadio's Best of 2006 - Misty's Best of 2006! - Ali's list of favs

Lastly, remember I'm always blogging at willotoons.com and posting photos on flickr!

Happy New Year everyone! xo

awesomeness

willotoons — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:00:59 GMT

Some days I just cannot believe how fabulous my life is. How truly lucky I am to live in such an AWESOME city & be surrounded by a plethora of kick ass friends. I just want to bundle it all up and give it a bear hug! I'm so grateful.

Here's a snippet of how awesome my life is:

Sunday we had craft night w/ the girls @ Amanda's. Actually, her & her fiancé Todd are living at his parent's sweet apartment (while their home in Glen Park gets remodeled) that has the most breathtaking view of Coit Tower & the bay. I'm so bummed I forget to take a photo, but regardless, the company alone that evening was such a treat! Being surrounded by my supremely talented crafty girlfriends, red wine flowing, ordering in thai & listening to my new favorite band = Awesomeness.

Monday I worked all day (literally, 14 hours), but it was on a project that was very fun to do, and my client loved it! yay!

Tuesday night Ali & I were going to go see Lady Sovereign, but with such a busy week ahead we decided to go to a movie instead. We went & saw Stranger than Fiction and it was SOOO GOOD!! Seriously one of my new favorite movies. So good.

Then lastnight was supreme. That new favorite band I just mentioned? It's a band from Australia, called The Grates, and the entire CD is so fantastic!! But the BEST part is it's like someone knew that I couldn't stop listening to 'Science is Golden' on repeat all day Sunday (automatically moving it into my top 5 favorite songs of 2006), and like magic decided to book them on Wednesday (last night) at my favorite bar, The Hemlock! aaaah!! Better yet, Ted got us on the list and invited me to the RightRound party (free food & open bar!) at Cafe du Nord beforehand! So I met up with him there and not only did I get to hang w/ Ted, while he DJ'd all my favorite songs, but my friends Peter & Jeanne, the Heavenly States boys and Anthony from Loquat were there, too. Not a bad way to start a night where soon after I was going to get to see my favorite new band perform in a teeny tiny room. Is it my birthday or something?! Believe it or not, it gets better.

Ted & I go to the Hemlock, where we meet up with Ali & after a drink or two, go in & get right up front to see this fabulous, fabulous band and their dynamic lead Patience play a super fun show!! Words cannot describe how absolutely super fun & fantastic this was for me. Shows like this remind me how much I LOVE music. Music that I am so moved by that I cannot do anything but let it take me... It's my bliss! I danced and sang right along with her the whole way through. FAV!

Then when they were done and we're walking out I see this cute boy I've been emailing with, who I'm pretty sure showed up after his other show to see me (aww yaaa) and then we walk out & ALL of our good friends are in the bar! YAY!

The night was seriously sooo sooo fun. I have photos I need to post & stuff, but I just had to post all this now to say thank you life, for being so damn AWESOME!

More upcoming awesomeness: - Mario's bday party tonite at Lucky 13 - Tomorrow night: Courtney's LIMN opening & then Hot Chip at Mezzanine - Saturday day: A crafty girls brunch (with Sarah, Mai, George and Julia) & then going to the SF Craft Mafia Trunk show - Saturday night: Cut & Paste & then the Laughing Squid party

Thank goodness I'm a professional, or I just might not be able to take all this fabulousness! :)

my pumpkin rocks

willotoons — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:10:23 GMT

I carved this a few years ago, and it's late being posted here, but what the hell:

ROCKtoberfest (costume party)

willotoons — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 18:44:18 GMT

This is from awhile ago, but worth posting here:

Willo and Ali
Originally uploaded by mistylwhite.

Ali threw a rockin party on Friday night in celebration of our favorite month: Rocktober!!

It was a costume party - dress up as your favorite rockstar (or really any rock/pop star and/or musician) and our peeps really rallied with costumes, which made it soooo fun!!

I had a long list of ideas for my costume, including Steve from Hot Hot Heat, Janet Weiss (kick ass drummer for Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, and now Steven Malkmus), Shakira or Madonna - either Cowboy Madonna, or Like A Virgin Madonna. As you can see from the above, I went as "Cowboy Madonna", circa her 2000 "Music" album. Honestly only because it was easy and I didn't take time to get a costume - ha. I owned everything I wore.

Ali is Pat Benatar, and we also had appearances by PJ Harvey, Bono (who later simply took off his sunglasses & became Johnny Cash), Slash, Meg & Jack White of the White Stripes, Karen O, Jem, Danzig, Barbara Mandrell, Fall Out Boy, Blondie/Debbie Harry, and more! SOOO FUN!!! We rule!

Danzig, PJ Harvey & Madonna ("cowboy madonna",
from her 2000 music album) - aka Darren, Misty & I.

Madonna & Karen O.

Slash (aka Holly) arrives with beer

Jack & Meg White (aka Lane & Courtney) of The White Stripes

View the ROCKtoberfest photo album! Also check everyone else's on Flickr.

we don't call it ROCKtober for nothin...

willotoons — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 18:28:47 GMT

I've posted several albums of show photos from the last few weeks: - Zeitgeist & Beirut at GAMH

- CSS / Ladytron at Fillmore - and - SF Weekly Music Awards

- Aberdeen City & Electric Six at The Independent

- The Stills w/ Land of Talk at the Independent

- Band of Horses w/ Chad VanGaalen at the Fillmore

- Art Brut & We Are Scientists at The Fillmore

Yes, we've been busy little show hos & bros!

Oh, and, as promised, I've finally posted all the videos from the last month, too! - Rocktober vids - mostly shows, but some parties.

indie giraffe @ the fillmore

willotoons — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 18:21:06 GMT

indiegiraffe at the fillmore
Originally uploaded by Willo

I drew this on tuesday...inspired by amy's photo. :)

ROCKtober has arrived!

willotoons — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 22:19:19 GMT

It even started a little early this year, considering I just went to 5 shows in 7 days. aww yaaa, BRING IT!

To review: Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton performing (on 9/22), only a few at Cafe du Nord & Lucky 13 afterwards, which you can find right here. The Phoenix show, the next night (9/23), ROCKED and here's my recent blog post & link to photos about that, in case you missed it. Sunday (9/24) after Buzz & Courtney's beach bday (blog post) I hit the Ben Kweller show with Ryan & Mario. Again, sadly didn't take photos because my card was all used up from the day at the beach, but I'm amazed I haven't at least blogged about it because OMG it was AWESOME!!! One of my favorite shows this year I think, only because the 'vibe' (if I may use that word) was soooo awesome. I was also a little drunkle so that may have helped. :p But I heart Ben Kweller SO much! That whole day was insanely fun.

This last week we had Silversun Pickups w/ Viva Voce @ the Rickshaw Stop (9/28) and it was awesome. Of course. Except for that it was sold out, no thanks to Live105, and therefore there were a bunch of tools who are new to "our band"(1) and it took all the patience I could muster to deal with them. I pretty much was so fed up, especially with this idiot, that I vowed to just leave after they played Kissing Families(2). To which I must document: After the song was over and the 'in the know' portion of the crowd had just belted out the lyrics with all their might, the fools standing in front of us (or the "stripey shirts", as Ali calls em) shrugged & said, "huh, that must be on their first album or something." rolls eyes And then they played Lazy Eye, and of course I had to stay for that.

(1) I know, I'm a snob. (2) Kissing Families = My #1 favorite song of 2005.

I heart Silversun Pickups

Viva Voce, who was one of the openers, was great also! I've had their CD's for awhile, not sure who turned me onto them originally (was it you?!), but I have been looking forward to checking them out live ever since. I had heard at some point that they were "San Francisco's best kept secret" or something, so I dunno... that's all I needed to hear to keep them close to my heart, give em a good listen and look out for when they were playing live. Perfect that they opened for one of my favorite bands. We were up front & I really enjoyed watching the drummer. What's up with all the long hair & beards these days? I'm having a time warp back to the 70's.

View all the photos from this show (on Flickr).

::::

This last Friday night started with a FEAST!!

Korean BBQ extravaganza @ the Wooden Charcoal Barbeque House

I have had Korean BBQ before, but not like this. It was very fun & I even came away smelling like campfire - wooohoo! haha. I was invited to this dinner by my friend Kevin (photo), who was my main contact at TicketWeb (ongoing client of mine) before he bought a round the world ticket & has been traveling ever since! awesome! It was great to see him & catch up, especially considering he's going to live in London now & work between there & Barcelona. nice! I wish you the best, Kevin, and can't wait to come visit you on that side of the puddle. Next up was picking up my girls Ali & Jess, and meeting up with Aubs, Jordan, Ryan, Misty and Sean for the show at Slims with Division Day, Two Seconds & Birdmonster! I'm so into all three of these bands, and they were great, as always. A fun night all around! Great to see the Birdmonster boys back in town, and fun running into Elise and Mike & Anna, too! wooo!

rock show blur fantasticness. this is when division day came up & joined birdmonster at the end of their set. awesome!

View all the photos from Friday night.

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If you like this post, then you'd like my site (where I blog regularly): WilloToons.com.

There I also keep a show calendar for local SF shows, if you're into that kinda thing. :) Maybe I'll see you at a show!?