Fun with Random Music Videos. Plus, a Touch of Guilt!

Just when I thought one Jess was all I could handle, another one comes into my life. I’m talking about the bass player and sometimes singer in Chris’ band, Jess Glisson. Late last night, when my legs were rubbery with fatigue, along with the rest of my body, from trying to squeeze more into one day than I possibly can, Chris made me stand next to his computer and watch the music videos that Jess had sent to him. They were super funny and almost worth the torture, but I’m still resentful.

The other video I will only link to because, well, I’m just not mean enough to post it here on Moodvane. I would rather link to it and pretend like I accidentally clicked the hyperlink button and pasted the url into it. Then you, in turn, can follow the link, if you have nothing better to do, and let the video just happen to play on your computer while you laugh at how funny it would be if you were really a mean enough person to laugh at a video like this. Deal?

Ghosthunting at The Eldridge in Lawrence, Kansas

While I was in Lawrence, Kansas last week to attend a formal ceremony, I met a bunch of my best friend Jess’ other best friends. I know it doesn’t make sense to call more than one friend best, but that’s just the way that it works. On one evening in particular we decided to unwind by pushing a few couches together in the lobby and turning it into our drink table, which led to excessive unwinding, which led to relentless ghosthunting at our haunted hotel, The Eldridge.

We were disappointed to say the least that the hipsters at the hotel’s front desk would not book us into the haunted room, #506. So, desperate for a thrill, we sat around in the hallway like a bunch of college freshman goons who cling too closely to their RA groups. Ultimately we ended up stalking the hallway for about twenty minutes, cracking ourselves up over how stupid we were and trembling with the nervous energy that the possible presence of ghosts brings out in all of us. At one point we all felt that we’d made too much noise, so we ran down to opposite ends of the hallway and stood staring each group at the other as we waited for something to happen.

After a few uneventful moments, we walked back down the hallway toward 506 and planted our butts in front of the door, whispering shooshs that were louder than actual talking. An unsuspecting man in black pants and a long-sleeved blue shirt appeared around the corner, pulled a card key out of his pocket and started to slip it into the lock on room 506! “It’s his room,” we cried out and jumped to our feet, circling A.J. and pressing ourselves through the entrance of his room.”

A.J. was all open-eyed astonishment as he looked around the room at the 7 wobbly figures who’d just made his couch their next stop for the night and listened to our stories about how the room that he’d booked for the night is the most haunted room in the whole hotel and regarded as a portal to the spirit world. He sat down in the oversized chair next to the couch in the small living room of the hotel suite and put his hands through his hair and said, “You’re messing with me. Who are you guys?”
Blithely unconcerned with A.J.’s sheer terror over having to sleep in that room, we started to hold a seance during which I nodded off while trying to count to 5, which might account for the fact that we never communicated directly with the spirits that haunt that room. But, I do have plenty of pics up on my Facebook that we’re analyzing for orbs and strange shadows.
If you ever go to Lawrence, Kansas, you know where to stay. Here’s a news report on the haunting: http://www.eldridgehotel.com/video/ghost_video.htm

South Florida Local Shows & Events That Will Not Be Horrible

Guaranteed cool happenings for this weekend are below. Two things tonight, two things tomorrow night. Attending these events will help you to get away from the people you always complain about when you go out. Those people do not hang out at events like these.

Friday night, tonight

The Marchen and Quiet River High and Stonefox at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach tonight.

Friday night Spring Equinox bonfire and drum circle at Hugh Taylor Birch State Park tonight from 7 p.m. to midnight. $7 This is going to be majorly hippie dippy. I’m all over it. Shoot, I might even go over to the Kava Bar across the street from the park first for a couple of rounds of that mellow-making Fijian root.

Saturday night at Zoo Bar at Orange County Choppers Stonefox and the Freakin’ Hott. Two of the top local bands to play loud dance-inspiring rock music until…you beg them to play more.

Saturday night from 7 p.m. to midnight – Blender art exhibit featuring the area’s top artists opening at Full Circle Gallery.

These are all going to be very very cool events. I am very eager to see The Marchen and Quiet River High play live, but I don’t think that I will be able to make it up to West Palm tonight. I’ve got family in town and I’m going to try to check out this bonfire thing at Hugh Taylor Birch. Tomorrow night, I’m going to hit up Blender and the rock show at Zoo Bar. Good luck to me on that! Hope you find some cool events to do this weekend.

Because We Can Band at Zoo Bar

When a band full of kids calls itself Because We Can Band, all sorts of questions arise. Because you can what? Stay up after 8 p.m? Get home before the street lights go on? Before I get too ageist, I’ll just come out with it and say that the name of this band partially answers the question of why this group of 11 to 15 year-old musicians performs classic rock covers around South Florida — because they can. I believe that there is some promotional plan in the works too. But, it doesn’t answer the question, “Are they any good?”
The Because We Can Band Performs at Zoo Bar at Chopper Zoo in Fort Lauderdale

The answer to that questions is: Yeah, they’re really good. It’s not like an all-out screaming rock show, but these kids can sing, play their instruments and put on a show that adds up to be very fun. They carry off songs like “Feel Like Makin’ Love” by Bad Company and “Livin’ On a Prayer” by Bon Jovi as well as any other cover band, and the all-girl vocals are prettier than you’d get from bar bands.The 6-piece band has three girl members and three boy members. The girls play drums, keys and bass. And the boys play guitar and bass. Here’s a video clip of the band playing Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love”:

Because We Can is definitely adorable and worth checking out when they play near you.

Downsides to this live show: The band doesn’t play one Foreigner song!The band members do not spray or spit beer all over the audience. The song announcements could be delivered with more enthusiasm (though it’s great that they announce them at all as many bands neglect to do this). The back-to-back Bon Jovi songs have got to get split up in the set! I Can’t Deal!

I Love The Lauderdale Evening Sky, But What The Heck Was That?

Yestereve (Tuesday), I was attempting to enjoy the lovely sunset over Fort Lauderdale — the colors nearly penetrated my tough-to-touch senses and the stillness tried to move me — when something strange happened. A strange bright streak came into the sky. I like to watch plane traffic from my balcony, but I don’t usually see something like this, and I don’t think it was a bird:Did anyone else notice this curious fiery-looking object in the evening sky?

Talk of Love, Madonna and Nirvana at Undergrounds Coffeehaus

I’m writing at Undergrounds Coffeehaus today, and, as usual, I had the most interesting conversation with proprietor Aileen, this time about Kurt Cobain’s death. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Kurt and Courtney, not that it’s the kind of movie you really wanna watch twice, or even thought about Nirvana or the controversy surrounding Cobain’s death. We got to chatting about it when Nirvana came on the Radiohead channel on Pandora.com, so we looked up “Death of Kurt Cobain” on Wikipedia and had fun tossing around our theories about it — it’s a great page. We both lean toward the conclusion that he was probably, er um…didn’t kill himself. We dragged up all kinds of weird stuff on that couple, but my personal favorite Courtney Love moment has got to be this old MTV interview with Madonna that she ambushed. Weird, dudes.

Fort Lauderdale Santacon Part II at the Heatr Party at Voodoo Lounge 12-19-08

At around 11:30 p.m. we caught up with the Santacon crew once again at the Heatr Party at Voodoo Lounge. By that time this jolly scene was going off. This blur of red and white gathered in the spirit of randomness and partying hard. Below, a big part of the Santacon gang gathers together at a VIP table for a picture.

Some of these Santa-types were very entertaining. This one naughty elf was a crazy dancer, but as you can see he gave everyone fair warning.

The gentleman below, as well, was pretty entertaining. His mask terrified me and his dress amused, so I asked him to do a little Marilyn pose, and this is what he came up with. Pretty good, eh?

Misha and I were there too, but, as you can see, we forgot our Christmas costumes at home. Oops.

These ladies were holding court at the VIP table.

And then, of course there was this scene, which would be very tragic if it were at a dive bar near a shopping mall after closing time on Christmas Day. ;( But, it wasn’t. These happy Santas are at Voodoo, of course.

Gallery from Heatr Party/Fort Lauderdale Santacon event is below:

Fort Lauderdale Santacon – Part I at The Floridian

Inside The Floridian, Santas started gathering at at around 7:30 p.m. It seemed like a group of friends at the core, but there were plenty of random jolly folks who wanted to celebrate the spirit of Santarchy. When I left The Floridian to head downtown at 8 p.m., about 12 santas had gathered. Below, Keegan the organizer of Fort Lauderdale Santacon 2008, a very pleasant elf.

While engaged in other downtown activities, I heard that 80 Santas has crossed the tracks at 2nd Street en route to the weekly (Friday night) indie and underground Heatr party at Voodoo Lounge. As Santacon was an extra worthy and unique event which produced tons of great pics and video, you will find more on how the Santas partied at Heatre in an upcoming post.

Photo gallery below. Feel free to nab pics for your pages and profiles.

This Moodvane post fueled by Intown 411.

Santacon Friday, December 19th at The Floridian and Heatr at Voodoo

As senseless as it is crazy, this Santacon event looks like a ridiculously good time. Even though I have a previous commitment for early Friday evening, I feel like this is something that I just must see. The party promoted on this ad is a one-hour get together at The Floridian, but the afterparty is at Heatr at Voodoo Lounge, downtown Fort Lauderdale. Hmmm. Looks awesome! I’m wondering if I can get a costume together in time…

Friday at Art Basel-Related Events and Exhibits in Miami

Wowee, what an amazing weekend I had! I spent Friday afternoon and evening at the design district in Miami checking out the events surrounding Art Basel.

I rode around with the Oceanview Rickshaw pedicabbers and took video footage of the event and the boys hanging around there. I bumped into Ed Malone in front of the GenArt party. He’s working on a documentary about Lebo and Francesco Lo Castro. Speaking of LoCastro, I went to the Francesco Lo Castro-curated Ginza Tropicalia exhibit, which had lots of cool graffiti art and skaters doing tricks on a ramp.

Then, I popped in on something very cool called The Station. I liked a few of the pieces in here a whole lot. The one below, by Martha Friedman, is a series of rubber bands that extend from floor to ceiling. You could walk through grab them, as I did, and grab a fist full of squishy rubber. I

After that, I walked across to the underpass and visited the Art Photo Expo Miami exhibit, where I took in the Naomi Retrospective exhibit.
She did a lot of nudes, apparently.

This Moodvane post fueled by Intown 411.

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