man or astro-man?

Trust me when I tell you that there was no way I could have blogged this last night after the show. I fell asleep in the car on the way home, and when I awoke I was so tired that I was seeing double and everything was blurry. So I made the executive decision to post first thing this morning instead -- I apologize for the tardiness...

First off, the computer system was down in the newsroom the entire workday yesterday again. I know things like this happen in offices around the world occassionally, but we have a paper that we HAVE to put out every day, and when systems have problems like this, it is a Very Big Deal. It's super high stress and ... enlightening (I'll leave it at that). Our new gem of a system has been down every single day this week. Some days for a few hours, other days for 8-9 hours. I really cannot emphasize how badly I feel for my coworkers who are forced to work on this piece of garbage. And I cannot tell you how thrilling it is to think Wednesday is my last day on it (knock on wood).

The good news is that with the computer system down and no "real" work being done, I was able to clean out my entire desk and gather all of my portfolio clips. So there's that!

After *that* awesomeness of a day, we headed out to the Turf Club to catch Man or Astro-Man, one of my favorite bands from college. I used to go to these shows when I was 18 or 19, and I have such fun memories. Back in 2010, they played a show at SXSW, and I got to photograph that, and it was so much fun. The band comes out dressed as spacemen and they have crazy instruments and a theramin! And sometimes they light it on FIRE! And sometimes they make lightning on stage! In general, it's a great show.

Last night was interesting in that there's now a girl in the band (we all know how much I love that), and one of the main instruments had changed. Before it was a strap on keyboard/guitar -- not like a piano keyboard, but more like a computer keyboard -- that would help with the sound effects. Now? Now it's an iPad inside the guitar! So seeing upgrades like that was fun.

And lastly, I met up with a few friends at the show to celebrate my birthday (a week early). One of them, dear Tom, offered to get me a drink at the bar. I rarely drink at shows (really!) and so I asked for a glass of wine. This was funny in that the Turf is pretty divey, and I was pretty sure the wine was going to be awful, but hey, it would make a good story.

Tom returned with a BOTTLE. They only sell bottles, not glasses. And? And it was good wine! Do not worry, I did not drink the whole bottle. I shared plenty with friends, but I probably had the equivalent of 3 glasses myself, which is also why there is no way I could have blogged last night. Your fearless leader here? Total lightweight.