Today, I am at my parents' house... and boy am I tired! Last night was Nerissa's birthday party. Sebastian and Seth voluntarily did a free show for us... it was the first time I had seen Sebastian do an electric set, and it was very different and cool. (Cereal Song + distortion = rock!!) Afterward we watched Queen music videos and played a few rousing rounds of Team Twister. More partying followed... although it's all kind of fuzzy in my mind at this point. :P Hmm. I know it doesn't sound like we did very much, but for some reason I didn't get to bed until 6am. :P Anyway, it's naptime now, so bye. :)

Whew! Last night Jeremy came over with a mixer and microphones... so we had some fun harmonizing and recording (just like old times! sigh...) The end result of our labors is Everybody Sing Freedom, which we transformed into a folky hippie protest song. We started on "Creeque Alley," too, but by then it was 1am--our voices were shot, we were botching lyrics unforgivably, and coming down with random fits of giggling. No worries. Creeque Alley will be our winter break project. ;)

So today has been an interesting work day... it's so windy here right now that a huge thing of water was knocked over, and fell onto building 198, flooding it entirely. so all of the labs in that building (including CryoDelayLine, which is one of the projects i'm working on) are pretty much destroyed right now. We spent some time packing up lab equipment in dry boxes and moving them into building 306, so i got my fix of manual labor for the year. it was actually kind of fun. also, the combination of wet roof and wind is causing building 198's roof to fall off. hah!

p.s. please be patient while i get the archiving stuff to work...

Welp, our $300 Laker tickets were well worth it... our seats were excellent and the game was really entertaining... it came down to the last possession and everything. Kobe scored 46 points, except that he blew what would have been the game winning layup. Doh. Also, I lost my purple hat, which Stephen bought for me two days ago. :(

I just got back from seeing Mamma Mia! at the Ahmanson Theatre. That musical is like a non-stop ABBA dance party! White spandex! Platform shoes! AIR PIANO! This play has a scene in which three long time friends (who are in a BAND) are hanging out in the bedroom, singing, dancing, goofing off, and being silly. I strongly approve of this. "You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life! Oooowooooh!"

Welp, it's the morning after the Natural Afrodesiac show at B.B. King's Blues Club at Universal Citywalk. We got to hear some really good old-fashioned groovy-funk-soul stylings. It was great fun. Also, at any club where there are three full service bars, you know there's going to be a bit of drunken booty dancing, and last night was no exception. Imagine Girls Gone Wild, minus the gratuitous nudity. Sigh! Anyway, me Melissa and Stephen were not drunk, so we were just the sober sensible bystanders who laughed at everybody. These two girls danced like tipsy velociraptors. It was funny.

Hey, this is Stephen. Just wanted to point out that I started a chant of "We Want Ben" that night, which coincided with Ben's return to the stage (for his encore, of course)! And William Shatner fucking rocks!!

I saw Ben Folds at the Palace this Wednesday! That show rocked my ass! I didn't get to touch him this time, but I *did* get to see William Shatner! Wow! Here's the setlist, courtesy of the wonderful people at benfolds.org . I have also noted which albums you can find these songs on, if you are so inclined...

Also, one of the regulars at benfolds.org took about 15 minutes of video footage which hopefully will be put up on the Internet sometime. I will keep you posted as to when this and other bootlegs of the show become available.

1. Don't Change Your Plans -- TUBORM
2. Zak & Sara -- RTS
3. Silver Street -- BFL
4. Philosophy -- BFF
5. Chopsticks -- Liz Phair cover
6. Ascent of Stan -- RTS
7. Raindrops Keep Falling -- Burt Bacharach cover
8. Where's Summer B (with crowd harmonies) -- BFF
9. Evaporated -- WAEA
10. Army (with crowd harmonies) -- TUBORM
11. Kate -- WAEA
** Ben started to play The Luckiest but changed his mind ** -- RTS
12. Narcolepsy -- TUBORM
13. Emaline -- NBP
14. Short Bus Benny + One Angry Dwarf -- WAEA
15. The Ultimate Sacrifice -- NBP
16. Steven's Last Night in Town (with drum solo) -- WAEA
17. Not The Same (with crowd harmonies) -- RTS
18. Satan is Real (with William Shatner and Fleming) -- exclusive!
19. In Love (with William Shatner and Fleming) -- FOP
** Ben played the first line or so of Hava Nagilla and left the stage** -- traditional

ENCORE
20. Careless Whisper -- Wham cover
21. Say Yes -- Elliott Smith cover
22. Rockin' the Suburbs -- RTS
23. Song for the Dumped (Minor) -- major version, WAEA; minor version, BFL

BFF = Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five
WAEA = Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
NBP = Ben Folds Five - Naked Baby Photos
TUBORN = Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
FOP = Ben Folds - Fear of Pop
RTS = Ben Folds - Rocking the Suburbs
BFL = Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live