Wednesday, August 06, 2003
OK, so here's what I've been doing the past couple of days.
Leah drove up on Sunday afternoon, and we've been hanging out since then. Monday I showed her around Austin a little bit: first we were going to poke around South Congress, but I had a flat tire so we spent the first hour of our time changing my tire and taking my car in to have the flat repaired and put back on instead of my stupid donut wheel. After that, I drove around, showed her part of campus, went to the Texas Memorial Museum, and then headed at last to So Co, where we spent the afternoon poking through the shops, followed by late lunch at Magnolia Cafe.
After that, we headed back to pick up my car, only to find that the flat had been irreparable, and that I would have to buy a new tire -- which, as it turned out, was an odd size and cost me about $60. Blah.
Yesterday I dropped off the rest of my Italy photos to be developed, and then Leah and I drove 2 hours to visit our great aunt and uncle. I haven't seen Uncle Dale and Aunt Juanita since I drove to San Antonio in January to visit them in the hospital -- my uncle's doing much, much better, though, which is a relief. It was wonderful to see them. I brought my sketchbook and pictures from Italy, and spent a lot of time talking art with Aunt Juanita and Dura, a distant cousin of mine. They both paint china -- something which I've never done, but think I might like to try my hand at one of these days. I ought to go spend a weekend with them when I get the time, and see if I like china painting at all. Supposedly it is challenging but addictive. :) I also picked figs, caught frogs, and otherwise entertained Dura's daughter, Deidra, who is very cute indeed.
After our visit we drove back to San Antonio and to the Majestic Theatre for the Dave Gahan concert. Woo! It was awesome. And the theatre is really amazing, too -- it's designed to look like a pseudo-mideastern cityscape. The details are simply gorgeous.
But anyway. I was there for the music. Leah isn't a big Gahan fan, but she wasn't going o turn down a free ticket, especially as we had pretty decent seats -- but she never really got into it, not even on the Depeche Mode songs, and she said she didn't particularly care for his solo stuff. Personally, I like his solo work. It's not fantastic, and it certainly isn't Depeche Mode, and his lyrics pale in comparison to Martin Gore's -- but I definitely respect his effort and at the moment I think the Paper Monsters album is the perfect blend of melancholy and hopefulness to suit my present mood.
But I won't deny it: the people were there for the Depeche Mode. Gahan's renditions of "A Question of Time", "Walking in My Shoes" and "Personal Jesus" were the main crowd pleasers. I enjoyed listening to the Paper Monsters stuff live, as well -- he put more of an edge on some of the slower songs, which worked well in some cases, and didn't in others. But if nothing else, the man knows how to perform. Oh, yes. It was a tremendously fun concert, almost as entertaining as the Exciter tour in 2001. And he did two encores of Depeche songs: "I Feel You" and "Never Let Me Down Again", followed by an acoustic encore of "Policy of Truth" (my favorite! YAY!!!) and "Enjoy the Silence" with a brief but enjoyable surprise interlude of "Just Can't Get Enough". Good stuff. :)
In a little bit I have to pick up the rest of my Italy photos and get Leah up and ready to go back to Tomball. I may be scanning photos today, or I might just sit and write: we shall see. :)
| 9:06 AM |
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