Eye Vs Spy

December has been a super busy month and I can hardly believe that Christmas has come and gone already. It really snuck up on me this year.

Anyways, last week Kyle, me, and a group of friends headed to San Francisco to see Skinny Puppy at the Warfield. Skinny Puppy is my favorite band and Ogre is my one of favorite human beings, so this concert was sort of a big deal. I had the opportunity to cover the show professionally but declined because I knew I wanted to party being that we were making "a thing" of it with friends and it's hard to recall set lists and take decent photos when you're drinking and having a good time.

The show was amazing, which was not a surprise to me. Kyle and I had seen Skinny Puppy five times prior, so the show at the Warfield was our sixth time seeing the group live. Our friends on the other hand, were Skinny Puppy virgins. I think it's safe to say they enjoyed the show and it helped that the entire line up of bands were all industrial so pretty much everyone had someone they were excited to see live.

I also really enjoyed the first band that played called Youth Code. I had never heard of the band before they got on the Eye vs. Spy tour, but Kyle bought their album and we both really like it. They remind me of a combination of Ministry and Skinny Puppy with a female vocalist.

Anyways, here are a bunch of photos from the show. I took videos as well, but I was having so much fun that they're all shaky and therefore not YouTube worthy in my opinion. Oh well.

Lip Service bat hosiery and silver rings.

Youth Code.

Youth Code had real analog hardware on stage. Hard to come by in this computerized age. 

More Youth Code.

Opening song was "Convulsion." Ogre spun around an umbrella and wore a creepy mask…well, I guess pretty much all his masks were creepy.

Even though this one is super blurry, I love the lighting on his mask. 

Mr. cEvin Key in the background.

cEvin Key is so hard to photograph!

Some kind of demented monkey mask?

Third eye pig monkey dog mask? His masks are so weird I'm just taking a guess at what his inspirations behind them were.

Blood on his hands. :-)

The following morning we all got brunch at a cafe nearby. We learned that it's hard to find brunch seating for six people on a weekend anywhere in San Francisco. All the places within walking distance were so small and seating was free-for-all, so it took us a while to get situated, but we managed.

The group of us. Right to left - Kasi, myself, Kyle, David, and Lyndsie. We're only missing Kasi's husband Zach in this photo. Also, excuse the blurriness - it's a blown-up Instagram photo (as is the one below).

Me and Kasi being goofy after brunch.

Next up is my trip to Florida to visit my family. Stay tuned for lots of photos of my baby siblings.

Birthday Celebrations in San Francisco…and a Sun Burn

Saturday morning Kyle and I got up early and headed to San Francisco to meet our friend Robin and his girlfriend Rachel for some birthday festivities. Kyle and Robin's birthdays are within a week of each other, so it was sort of a birthday celebration mash up day.

Our first stop was a car show at Pier 70, which is very unlike the touristy piers of the Embarcadero. It's basically a bunch of old warehouses in the industrial district and an area we had not really explored much before.

Clockwise from top left corner: view of the outdoor exhibition area; an Alien vs. Predator themed painted car; some sort of mini Scion thing that reminded us of a tiny Batmobile; a neat all-black car (sorry - I have no idea what make/model); a white Lamborghini 

Growing up with a step-father who built custom street rods and muscle cars for a living, I assumed the car show we were going to was either classic cars or muscle cars, being that those are the two types of car shows I always went to. Boy, was I surprised at the types of cars at the showcase! It was full of modified imports ranging from extremely lowered cars to cars with custom artwork/paint jobs and racing adaptations.

The venue from the interior of the warehouse - full of people, cars, and vendors

"Praise the Lowered" - this tickled me :)

There were several "girly" cars with themes like Tokidoki and Hello Kitty and I had to ask myself if those cars belonged to men or women. The car above has a Tokidoki trunk and interior.

My favorite part of the entire show was running into this little guy. It's a miniature pony about the size of a labrador retriever. Ugh - so adorable!

A lowered family van and Kyle looking at it trying to figure it out. We were equally puzzled by the van section.

It was surprisingly hot for a San Francisco day near the water, so we had to hydrate. I have never had "box water" before. Not surprisingly, it tastes exactly the same as water from a bottle, except they charge you twice as much because you are helping the environment and being "ecofriendly." Pshhhh….yeah right.

Honestly, I can't say I enjoyed the car show. I don't know anything about racing cars or modifying imported cars AT ALL, nor is it a topic I am interested in. When I see cars that are so low to the ground they are practically unable to drive, I have to shake my head and think to myself, "Wow, I just don't get it." But, I am glad that I had the experience of viewing that subculture from the outside. I just have to remind myself that it's not my thing and I don't have to get it. Just being at the show with the loud music, crowds of people, and interesting sights to see made it worthwhile, even if it ultimately made no sense to me.

The crappy part of the show was leaving with a sun burn all over my chest, even though we were only outside for an hour max. I even have outlines from where my necklace was sitting. Thankfully it's not bad enough to be painful, but it is itchy, which is equally annoying.

We were all starving after the car show and instead of doing the smart thing and eating in the immediate area, we wanted to eat at the Rainforest Cafe on the Pier. It took us an hour and half to travel approximately five miles and park. Saturday night traffic was awful!

Clockwise from top left corner: statue that looks like the "Atlas Shrugged" art-deco stuff reminiscent of "BioShock;" my fruity alcoholic blended beverage; Kyle and his penguin balloon; the penguin balloon and our devoured dinner and dessert

Everybody's dinner (except for mine!) was great. We enjoyed the loud ambience and animatronic critter decor. The boys got a happy birthday song and a dessert as well as some cheesy balloon animals. Kyle's penguin fell apart as soon as the balloon dude left our table, but Robin's "Shiraffe" or "Girark" held up well.

Robin and his shiraffe - the bottom half is a giraffe and the head is a shark. Kyle's deflated/broken penguin riding on top. 

Right next door to the restaurant is a new attraction called "The San Francisco Dungeons." It's an interactive walk-through historical experience with live actors who try to scare you while educating you about the history of San Francisco. Kyle and I had been to a similar attraction in London, so while it was fun (we are ALWAYS down for spooky horror-filled rides and attractions), it wasn't anything we hadn't experienced before. Still, it was a blast, especially having some friends along to enjoy it with. While they did take some pictures beforehand as souvenirs, they wanted an arm and a leg for them, so no fun photos to show - sorry!

The next post will be about what we did on Kyle's actual birthday - a drag show featuring Bianca Del Rio from RuPaul's Drag Race. Stay tuned!

Until next time!

Snow White Smile at the DNA Lounge

Sunday night Kyle's band Snow White Smile played the DNA Lounge in San Francisco! I carpooled with three girlfriends (Lyndsie, Kasi, and Brittney) in a brand spanking new car, freshly purchased by Lyndsie on the Fourth of July.

It normally takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to San Francisco from my house, but due to some insane holiday weekend traffic, it took us approximately three hours to get there! What an ordeal. We barely made it in time to see Snow White Smile. They were starting their set as we walked in the door.

Poor Zach (drummer) - always hidden behind David 

David Wright - vocals/frontman

Stephanie on guitar

Kyle on his Roland bass

Yay for fog machine! But not really - I hate those stupid things…always clouding up photos. 

Kyle and David

Stephanie looking adorable

The girls and I weren't particularly interested in seeing the other bands, so we headed downstairs to DNA Pizza Lounge and got some eats. They even have vegan and gluten free options, which is amazing considering practically every one of us has different dietary requirements.

Brittney chowing down on vegan pizza, Zach watching TV, and Kasi being the only one who noticed I was taking a picture…you're awesome Kasi.

Surprisingly, we were all super unimpressed with the main act, Kuza. Although all the members look the part of dark, L.A.-based rock stars, they were pretty inexperienced and seemed to not care at all how they came across to their fans. What a shame. We didn't even stay for their whole set.

Snow White Smile enjoying (maybe?) one of the other bands playing. David looking very deep in thought and Kyle looking very unimpressed with my photography.

It was an early night as far as San Francisco evenings on the town go. We got home around midnight and everyone got to bed early enough to get to work with no issues in the morning because we are all lame, old folks.

So before I sign off, I'll close with my outfit of the day, or rather, evening. Nothing super fancy - just all black as usual.

Tunic tank - Forever 21, Lace shrug - thrifted, Boots - New Rock; Bracelets - Beneath the Roses

Until next time!

San Francisco and the Disney Museum

Front view of the Walk Disney Family Museum

San Francisco is just about an hour and 15 minute drive from Sacramento, so Kyle and I make frequent trips there to go to clubs, do some shopping, see concerts, and go to museums. Saturday we went to the Disney Family Museum, which was super interesting to us because we're Disney addicts. In fact, I'm not really sure why we haven't been there earlier since it's been open for a few years.

Black Magic fringe tank from Black Heart Lingerie, Chiffon high-low blouse from FreeStyle Clothing Exchange (midtown Sacramento location), boots by New Rock

Of course, I have to take a slight detour to mention what I chose to wear. Since we would be out and about all day, I had to make sure I would look cute and be comfortable. The weather in Sacramento right now is in the hundreds (YUCK!), but in San Francisco it's comfortable and can even get chilly, especially at the pier area, which we planned to visit. So I layered a tank top with a chiffon high-low blouse over top. I really love the extreme "low" on the back of the blouse, by the way.

We arrived at the museum mid-afternoon (had to get an oil change before we took off which put us a little behind) and we headed straight into the museum.

The admission area before you enter the actual museum proper is filled with awards that Disney has collected, and boy, are there a LOT. The room was filled with tons of obscure little statues and placards and trophies to inspect.

This award shows Mickey riding a turtle?!

An award from Peru - hence the llama

A ton of Oscars, plus me and Kyle in the reflection

The rest of the museum involved a LOT of reading. It starts out detailing Walt's birth and his family history, then detailed his war experiences. There was a lot of information on his early short films and how he got his start in the animation world.

An early accounting of Walt's "Laugh-o-grams" and Kyle taking some photos

Eventually there were areas where you could sit and enjoy clips and snippets from Classic Merry Melodies, war propaganda shorts, and just pieces of every-day recognizable Disney classics. The films were my favorite part.

Wall of TVs at the end of the museum

Interspersed throughout the museum were neat things like a complete case of Technicolor paints and some really creepy old toys.

The creepy toy in the middle was a wind-up contraption.

Wall of Technicolors

There was also an entire section devoted to how WWII affected Disney studios. The soldiers came right on in to the studios in Burbank and basically lived there with Walt's permission. He also helped contribute by animating anti-Nazi propaganda films like "Der Fuehrer's Face," which is quite a hilarious song by the way.

The finals rooms of the museum contained a full-scale miniature of Disneyland as well as some really depressing and sad press clippings and drawings about Walt's death.

After the museum we headed to Pier 39 to do touristy things like check out the sea lions, eat some Bubba Gump's, and scope out Alcatraz across the water.

A zoomed view of Alcatraz. It was quite foggy out there.

This sea lion was the fattest I could find and that amused me.

A view of Alcatraz from a bit further away

It was a really long wait for dinner at Bubba Gumps, so in the meantime we walked around and checked out the cheesy tourist stores. I found the creepiest mannequin in a sports store. I can only guess why its mouth was that big. Ugh…so creepy.

It was a super fun day and I'm very happy we got to go. The museum is a must-see for any Disney fan.

Thanks for reading!