It's never a good sign when you wake up exhausted on Monday morning -- yet that was me a couple hours ago. But here I am, ready to dominate another week. Here's what made me so tired this weekend. Add your own weekend adventures in the comments:
FRIDAY
- I started my weekend at Creative Fresno's monthly blender. November's took place over at Silver Dollar Hofbrau. It was good times hanging with a bunch of Fresno creatives, many of whom I already knew and some who I was meeting for the first time. I met some of the ladies behind Fresno Etsy Especial and they are -- cheap plug alert -- having a holiday crafts bazaar next month.
SATURDAY
- Sanger Firsts! I went to lunch with James of Taste Fresno and we tried the tacos at Sanger Colimas. Pretty darn good, especially the carnitas. James wrote a review on his site and I gave my two cents as an assist.
- Swede Fest 4 was standing room only at Starline. Good to see people out supporting something different and not-so-mainstream. There were some really good entries this year -- our own Heather McLane even made a Swede. You can check out the Swedes from the comfort of your computer by visiting swedefest.com. Oh, and one more note: We need more events that start at 5 p.m.
- After the Swede Fest, it was right to the car to head to Save Mart Center to see Jay-Z. I've covered it extensively already, so I won't repeat myself here.
SUNDAY
- Ventured over to Audie's Olympic to see rock band Cage the Elephant (aka the "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" guys), who turned in a wild, energetic performance. There was stage-diving, some moshing and a lead singer who was all over the place (in a good way). It was a sold out and packed. Props to Fresno for showing up for this one -- especially on a Sunday night. I'll post some video from the show later today.
YOUR TURN
What did you see? Where did you go? Discover a new band? Try a new place to eat? Run a marathon? Spill it all in the comments.
Not a single picture with the bobble head?
Not yet ... he deserves his own post. Thanks for spoiling it.
LOL!
What's up, Oz!
Friday night: MMA fights, Strikeforce Challengers, at SaveMart Center. Nice to see several local fighters on the national Showtime broadcast! (And Kirk Vartanian made an appearance too... in the audience, not in the ring!)
Saturday: Checked out the Reptile Show at Manchester Center, and then the Hot Tamales Comedy Show at Chukchansi Park. (Man, those ladies can get nasty!) Crowd was way smaller than it should have been. Guess there was a mix-up with ticket sales, so a lot of people couldn't buy them ahead of time. Too bad, because it was really a good, raunchy show.
Sunday: Finished "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown ("DaVinci Code"). Enjoyed most of the book, but the ending was a major disappointment. Big build-up thru the whole book, for THAT! You've got to be kidding.
Fri. Went to the Kingsburg High football game---our school's band (small, but fierce), joined the other jr. high bands in the area along with the Kingsburg High band to make this huge massed group for half-time---a great experience for the kids at my school.
Sat. Crab Feed at Kingsburg High....my daughter's last year in band, my wife helped put it on, I was going to go, it was a done deal. The food was good.--but yeah, two weekend *night's* sort of in support of my 'day' job. hmmmmm.
Sun. a reprieve from work----had a BLAST at KFSR under the guidance of John Shafer, I guested on his blues shift in the late afternoon---played some great tunes, and definitely stretched and played at the edges of what qualified as 'blues', but also played plenty of Muddy Waters.
THEN, across the sidewalk to the music building and saw bay area wunder-ladies "KITKA"! I'd always wanted to see them, and here they were in Fresburg! right on. Beautiful beautiful vocal music.
Friday: Went to see the Christmas Carol in 3-D at Sierra Vista. I was nice to see so many people heading out there on a Friday night. The movie was great.
Saturday: Went over to the 2009 Health and Fitness Expo. I wish they had more vendors, but I guess the space is limited. Had dinner for the first time at Joy Luck in Riverpark with my bf and we had the best orange chicken in town along with great tomato curry chicken chow mein. I look foward to eating my leftovers for lunch today!
Sunday: Participated for the 2nd time in the Two-Cities Half Marathon run...I did about 35 minutes slower than my time last year haha, but the trail was beautiful and I had a ton of fun. I'm really looking forward to next year!
I've also been hurting this wonderful Monday morning - but it was WELL worth the Cage the Elephant show. Fresno showed up in force, and I'm sure that had a lot to do with the incredible energy level of the band. Without a doubt the best $10 show I have ever been to.
NICE! Sanger First.....any Fresno Firsts still on the list to do MIke?
I don't so much have a list ... I just try to go to new places whenever possible.
Friday - Interviewed DJ Neil Armstrong, Jay-Z's tour DJ, for a website that I write for (BakitWhy.com). What I thought was going to be a quick 30-minute thing turned out to be me chillin' with him for a majority of the night LOL. I missed the Strikeforce Challengers, but I believe all of the fighters from AKA Fresno won, so I'm happy about that (I'm a member of the gym).
Saturday - Jay-Z madness. Finally met up w/ Johnn Q after the show. Didn't make it to the after party at Aqua Shi, but saw that it got shut down HELLA early.
Sunday - Fought off this sickness that I'm still trying to fight off as I'm typing this review >.
if you were feeling the tacos at the sanger colimas then i highly recommend the parlier colimas. a little better imo. i recommend the al pastor tacos or anything with tripas dorados.
Oz....so you want great tacos... Try the FOOD at OAXACA (sp?) on Belmont near Chestnut. WOW...now thats real Mexian food....the have a tostada that costs about $15 that I saw (cannot think of what it is called)on some tables....wow what a lot of food and not many places offer that.....I had tacos there just to try something and they were great...lots of meat and inexpensive.
Okay, so I finally got around to blogging about all the great things I got to do from the past week and weekend.
http://ashtreestudios.net/info/?page_id=61
Long list includes:
ArtHop, Creative Fresno Blender, Fresno Arts Council Dinner with the Artists, Swede Fest, The Mikado, Chagall-Matisse and Dr. Suess at the Met, Oh My! etc.
You gotta love the Fresno scene! There's always plenty to do!