An in depth review of my holiday, and the past 48 hours

[Stefinitely Maybe]

The past 48 hours:

-On Wednesday night my girlfriend and I wander around Vegas to do some last minute shopping and sightseeing and to go on the Stratosphere rides.
-We go for an amazing meal at Sensi at the Bellagio.
-At about 10pm we get a text message from my girlfriend's cousin, saying that she just happens to be in Vegas too, on business, and inviting us to join her at a private party at Tangerine nightclub at Treasure Island, with all drinks paid for. We go.
-At about 1am we are very drunk. We decide to leave, to do some final Vegas gambling. We head for Caesar's Palace.
-We go to Pure nightclub. Over-rated and over-priced. No celebs to be seen.
-I join a No-Limits table in the poker room at Caesar's Palace. I lose about $100 in an hour.
-It's about 3am and I'm pissed off and drunk and decide to go for broke. I place $50 on black, at the roulette table. It comes up black. I now have $100. I place the $100 on black again. It comes up black again. I now have $200. I decide to cash out and we head for Excalibur. Here I join another poker game.
-I play poker till 6:30am. I come out around $50 up. In total, I won around $100 during my 3 days in Vegas.
-At 7am we get back to the hotel room and collapse into bed.
-At 10am I wake up and realise that:
a). I have a terrible hangover.
b). We have to check out of the room by 11am.
c). We still haven't even started to pack.
d). We have to return our rental car by 3pm. In Los Angeles.
e). Our flight leaves at 5:30pm. From Los Angeles.

We jump out of bed, pack, and check out. I drive to LA and somehow we return the car and catch our plane on time. I sleep for the entire flight and then get home and sleep for 16 hours, until about 30 minutes ago. I feel like shit.

I had an amazing holiday though. Coachella was as amazing as ever (although I felt the lineup was a little weak this year) and it was great to meet some of you at the pre-party. LA was great too. I saw the most incredible gig of my life at the Hotel Cafe, a few days before Coachella. It cost $10 and featured:

Alanis Morrisette
Motley Crue
Nuno Bettencourt
MC5
Cypress Hill
Tom Morello
Alice In Chains

I am now wondering what will happen with the $310 speeding ticket I got in Banning.

I'm going back to bed.

[ewiggy]

I saw the most incredible gig of my life at the Hotel Cafe, a few days before Coachella. It cost $10 and featured:

Alanis Morrisette
Motley Crue
Nuno Bettencourt
MC5
Cypress Hill
Tom Morello
Alice In Chains

wtf?

[Stefinitely Maybe]

wtf?

No kidding. I will post pictures as soon as I get them off my girlfriend's camera.

It was a secret launch party for the Nightwatchman record, and a friend managed to get me on Tom Morello's personal guestlist.

Wayne Kramer from MC5 played Kick Out The Jams with Mike Mars and Tom Morello and the guys from Alice In Chains (and Breckin Meyer on drums!?!?!?), and Alanis Morissette sang More Than Words with Nuno Bettencourt. Then Cypress Hill came out and played Insane In The Membrane and a bunch of other stuff.

Oh, and I almost forgot, Ben Harper played too: http://www.benharper.net/?page=news&id=481

And here's a YouTube video of Alanis covering Guerilla Radio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1JJo7BvHcc

Tom was sitting right in front of her and cracking up.

Most amazing gig ever.

[Stefinitely Maybe]

Some more video clips here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJBNsXKQkNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRluYmD52rQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e48Hv-oz5Mo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LIe4F60kNo

[mountmccabe]

I am glad you made it to the US and had fun Stef. It was great meeting you.

[mountmccabe]

Some more video clips here:

[amyzzz]

Banning is frickin hell-hole.

[ewiggy]

i'd forgotten about that speeding ticket. who drives 120mph and gets caught, anyway?

[bballarl]

I enjoyed meeting you Stef.

[Stefinitely Maybe]

You too Andrew. It was so awesome to meet all the people at the pre-party, it was great to put faces to all these names and to realise that you're all assholes in real life as well as just online!

[ewiggy]

you were nice, and not nearly as creepy as i'd thought you might be.

[Stefinitely Maybe]

I save most of my creepiness for online.

[Hannahrain]

Ewiggy, today at the open-air market I was working at two of my customers were this old couple dressed entirely in black leather. The woman was wearing a jacket with fringe all over it and the man had chaps.

Sorry Stef, this had nothing to do with your thread.

[ewiggy]

stef - i was also hoping you'd be more of a chav.

hannah - it'd have been cooler if it was white leather with fringe.

[Hannahrain]

Cooler...suckier... it's a fine line.

[TomAz]

fuck speeding tickets
fuck las vegas
fuck LAX
fuck Ben Harper married to Laura Dern

but the MC5? fuck yeah.

[full on idle]

fuck Ben Harper being married to Laura Dern (x a jillion).

Your girlfriend is nice, Stefinitely, and has nice specs.

[Stefinitely Maybe]

Thanks Valarie! She usually wears contacts but about a week into our trip she started to get an eye infection from them, and then we found out that optometrists in the US won't give out contacts unless you have a prescription, so she was stuck with her specs for the final week.

[Yablonowitz]

You were as white on Sunday as you were on Thursday. I respect that.

You ended up coming in 2nd place overall with my favorite t-shirt(s) I saw at the fest.

Best one went to the guy with the shirt of George Bush Sr with the line "I should have pulled out" underneath the pic.

[Stefinitely Maybe]

You were as white on Sunday as you were on Thursday. I respect that.

You ended up coming in 2nd place overall with my favorite t-shirt(s) I saw at the fest.

Best one went to the guy with the shirt of George Bush Sr with the line "I should have pulled out" underneath the pic.

I was very careful to apply my factor 50SPF every 60 minutes throughout the trip. I don't want to lose that whiter than white sheen!

I think my favourite shirt was "Smile If You Masturbate", worn by some guy watching Travis. I was disappointed not to see any Virginia Tech shirts with red paint on them.