Warped Tour 2012- Living up to expectations

Living up to expectations

Warped tour had so many bands I loved bands I've blogged about.  I saw We Are The In Crowd first.  And I've got to say I love it when a band sounds like their cd but the best is when they sound like the recording and they add to it making the live experience familiar and new.  We are the in Crowd rocked it.

Then it was off to see Mayday Parade
 That band made it out to more writing mixes then another band.  
After we moved from stoner boys failed love connection there show was amazing.  The perfect blend of energy and connection with the audience.  


We bounce around from.  Three stages all day seeing bands if various degrees of fame...  But all equally skilled.  New found glory put it best wrapped tour mixes up their line up every day because it's not about ego but people who love a day live for music. How beautiful.
 

Yellow card wanted the crowd to make the mistake of the day and crowd surf to the stage.  As the day went on, the crowds got bigger and as you can see, I couldn't get a good shot of the band.  In fact, I couldn't see the band, just some guys with tattoos.

Bayside was mellow..  Because that's who Bayside are.  Emo rock and mosh pit but "guys let's keep it safe out there." 

But then it was time for All Time Low--- anyone who knows me, knows the story about how I yelled at a girl in a wheel chair at an All Time Low concert- (don't feel bad for her, she could walk the whole time)  

I've been a fan for a VERY long time. I've watched them grow from playing small venues to now main stage at warped tour.  

 

 Although I have to say, I didn't stay for the whole set.  Maybe it was because the entire day I was so close to the bands, maybe because I felt like they had matured more then stealing Blink 182 dick jokes, maybe because if I wanted to watch them on a screen I would watch their DVD (which I own).  

 

But at the end of a perfect day, they just didn't live up to my expectations. 

I still heart them, I'll still buy their new CD. (they played their new song and it sounded great) 

What about you?  Ever been let down my the main event before?  

Next post: Discovering something NEW.. and becoming a super fan girl over it.

 

Warped Tour- Tattoo Fail

Tats are for life.

When done right, they are works of art.  I love love love looking at tattoos. 

But I feel like size does matter.  Too big and it's tacky.  Too small and well....

When I first saw this, I thought it was a mole.  I think it might be a stick figure riding a bike.  I saw teenage girls with bigger and better tats.   See this makes me wonder, did he lose a bet?  Did he run out of money at the tattoo shop?  Does he even know it's there?   Whatever it is... it's a total fail.  

Here's a tattoo.  It's not pretty, but at least he committed to it.

I've been thinking about getting a tattoo, any thoughts? 

Warped tour 2012- failed pick up line

These next few posts will be Warped Tour 2012.

For ten years I've wanted to go to The Vans Warped Tour, for years it either came to town while I went one vacation, or all the bands I wasn't into.  But this year, after my experiment with Pink hair, I decided this was my year to go. 

For the next few days I will be blogging about the lessons I learned, and the bands I saw. 

Today's lesson: Failed pick up line


So during Mayday Parade (one of my all time favorite bands) I overhead this conversation.

Pretty Girl: I can't inhale
Stoner Boy:  Oh I can teach you---

Yes Stoner Boy, this is knowledge you need to pass on to other people.  (One a side note--- considering it was the WARPED TOUR... a concert event for Alt rock, metal and Skaters... you would think there would be a lot more illegal substances, but there wasn't any more or less then at any other concert experience.)

A few minutes later after she seemed not really interested in his lessons, Stoner  Boy has not given up on his quest to woo the Pretty Girl.

In his versions of a sexy voice he said, "You smell good."
Pretty Girl: what? (Unsure if she had heard him right)
Stoner boy:  You smell good.

Oh yes, the compliment every girl longs to hear from a guy who has smoked so much pot he's openly bragging about not returning to high school, from a guy who has lost all sense of smell himself.

Look I'm going to be honest with you, "you smell good," ONLY works in a compliment in a novel or a movie.  Mostly because the reader CAN'T SMELL the character.  But in REAL LIFE-- unless you're blind, it's impossible to tell someone--- ANYONE you smell good, without looking like a creeper.


And how did the pretty girl react?

EW! GROSS!

 I know, dear readers, you were SHOCKED by the outcome.

The band came on the stage and they all lit up.  Hubby and I left to watch the band in a less hazy area. 

WEENEND OF AWESOME 2.0

So I went traveling the last two weeks,  first to South Carolina for a lovely visit with my parents.  Then we did a family cruise for five days.  (Parents out there- cruising is the way to go.  My daughter loved the kids camp and I got plenty of time to read and write)

But the event that was most relevant to this blog was WEEKEND OF AWESOME 2.0 (insert dramatic music).

I'm sure if you've been reading the blogs you've heard it from a few people. 
This year it took place in Charlotte NC, a place that doesn't believe in road signs.

We stayed at cabin on Lake Norman.  There were eight of us, three from Florida, three from Virgina, one for New York and I was traveling from South Carolina.  Amazingly we all arrived within an hour of each other.

Friday we hung around, went food shopping and grossed over estimated how much food 8 women could eat.  After the lulls of awkward silence, which most came from me over sharing, by the end of the night, we were all pretty cool with one another. Which in itself is amazing considering most of us didn't know each other at all.

Saturday and Sunday we had word wars, talked craft and the industry and had gigglefests. I wrote over 5k in my new novel and revised 31 pages.  Of course the fact that we didn't have internet for two and half days helped with productivity.


I am snagging Holly's pictures and posting them on my blog, but I take ZERO credit for them, but I will take any money you're willing to offer me. :-)

Holly and I- the only two brave enough to go trespassing on near by property to go check out a weird indescribable structure- this was our victory picture.  We went in like ninjas. Ninjas wearing jeans.

Our view from the dock-- There were two VERY noisy ducks, but they were camera shy. You'll just have to take my word on it.

A peaceful morning before the party started.

The party was here, the WOA girls were NOT invited.  It could have ended badly, but thankfully our neighbors have the GREATEST Pandora stations EVER! 

So the whole event was awesome.  Next year we're going hang out in a blue castle with princesses and talking animals.  Because that's how the WOA girls like it.

Pink Hair and being you.

I was a teenager during the 90's grunge movement.  I wanted to dye my hair, pink, green, blue. Whatever.  I so desperately wanted to join the goth kids because I liked their views of the world.  I wanted to hang out with the kids who were in bands, because damn their clothes looked comfortable. 

But alas, I didn't have the confidence to switches peer groups, dye my hair and buy new clothes.  Mostly because I was too damn cheap and lazy to do any of that.  Do you have any idea HOW MUCH WORK is to required to switch cliques?  How much money I would have to spend going into New Hope and since my mom would be with me, how much time I'd have to spend in the Irish Heritage store? 
(That joke is only funny if you know that New Hope is a tiny town on the New Jersey/ Pennsylvania border where the 60's never died.  It's got like 5 tattoo shops, 4 thrift shows, a Theater that shows Rocky Horror every Halloween, tons of antique shops and of course an Irish Heritage store.  It's also were all the goth kids bought their clothes, or at least that's where they did back on the 90's, now they buy it at hot topic.)

Long rambling story short... I never dyed my hair.

Then I went to college... and still never got around to it.

Then I graduated and had to be a professional.  Sign.  It looked like I missed out on my opportunity for cool hair.

Then I started blogging and you know what I noticed, YA authors are SO STINKING CUTE... AND lots of them have fun hair: Stephen Perkins, Laini Taylor just to name two.

So I thought, maybe, just maybe I could pull it off.

Once again I talked myself out of it, I'm a mom, I'm a teacher, I'm 33 years old.  Ho hum, time to be boring OLD me.

Today my husband and I are celebrating our ninth wedding anniversary, and a few months ago I asked him what he liked in a woman. he said, "Pink hair."
"SERIOUSLY? I've always wanted pink hair." I yelled-- very loud.

FINALLY I HAD AN EXCUSE!  I would dye my hair PINK as an anniversary gift for my husband! 

I researched what pink hair would look like,  I googled pink hair, I over thought  how much I would dye--- I couldn't go TOTAL pink, after all I was a mom, 33 and a TEACHER--- who has SUMMERS OFF!!!  And hair dye only lasts 6 weeks.

I decided on all pink on the back of my head and pink highlights throughout.  I looked in the mirror and thought:  wow, this is me.  This is really what I'm supposed to look like.  Fun, quirky and yet sort of sensible.

I love it.  So here's pictures to prove the awesomeness:

Back of the head.

Pig tales and too much eye make up

Hair down-  it's the first time I feel pretty too!

So this got me thinking, it took me 20 years to work up the nerve to dye my hair, to finally feel 100% comfortable with who I am. And THAT'S why I write YA.  For twenty years I had ugly girl syndrome because I didn't have the courage to be myself, to let my outside reflect my inner awesomeness. 

For any teens out there reading, don't wait for an excuse to be you.  JUST BE YOU.
And I know it sounds super cheesy, and I know it sounds bad because I let a man change the way I look, and I'm well aware of how difficult it can be to be yourself.  But it's the most rewarding adventure you can take.

Good luck!

Next summer I'm going BLUE!

Yes because all kid lit is exactly the same.

So I was walking around my house of worship-- TARGET when I came across this. 

At first I laughed, immediately casting Dora as Kitnass and Elmo as Peeta and the hilarity  in my head ensued.  Oh I had jokes about how The Map would help Dora find the others kids from the other districts so she could murder them.  Cookie Monster seemed 100% appropriate in this story and Olivia was terrified she would be lunch.


But the more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

Basically in target's mind, all children's entertainment is exactly the same.  My four year old would equally enjoy Hunger Games because she likes Dora, right?  Under 16 is all the same demographic? Well, isn't it? 

Diary of a Wimpy Kids is totally geared to the same readers as Paper Towns.  Right?


And I feel like I'm stating the obvious by saying, Um no.

A part of me feels like it's stuff like that, preschool imagery next to YA literature that makes it so hard for YA to be taken more seriously. 

On the other hand, Target is marketing clear and recognizable brands.   No one is saying the YA doesn't make money.  Or that it's not entertaining. 

With established authors who tend to write for an adult audience now jumping over to YA side, does that mean that YA is now legit or just a cash cow?

I'm sure I'm not the only one pondering this.

What are your thoughts on the topic?  Leave them below