That Time Nels Cline Acknowledged My Presence

weekend highlights:

cooler weather (rain even!) and nels cline of wilco!

a couple weeks ago my dad told me that he read in the newspaper (thank god someone is still reading physical newspapers or else i'd totally have missed this) that the guitarist from wilco would be coming to sacramento with a group called unfold ordinary mind. it's comprised of a contra alto carinet player, a couple tenor saxophonists, a drummer and nels cline on the guitar. 

the venue is called antiquite, a place in sacramento that i'd driven by a million times without giving it a second thought. i overheard some guy there saying that the place used to house a stained glass repair shop, and is now purposed as an antique dealer/winery? i don't know. visit the web site.

anyways, the place was really cool for an intimate show. the vibe was really different - they only served wine and water and the median age of attendees was probably 50. lots of arty sophisticated older people were in attendance. not arty hippie boho types, but arty upper middle class college professor types. herringbone blazers and white ponytails. we were two of about seventy in attendance.

we went because we are wilco fans and love nels cline. when sky blue sky came out my friends and i were buzzing about impossible germany and it's guitar solo for weeks. literally. (check it out below, if you like. it starts at about 2:45)

it was cool to see him in this unique kind of hometown setting, without his tables full of guitar pedals in front of an audience of thousands and thousands. he was wearing thick functional eyeglasses and reading sheet music! hah! all the musicians were incredible. and the drummer is originally from sacramento! he was ridiculous. crazy good.

we milled around for a few minutes after their set because tony likes to meet people. i am notoriously horrified by meeting people i admire for fear that they will be mean and dismissive or act put out, causing me to be sad for the rest of my life. as the show ended, we watched nels buy a glass of red wine and head back to the little stage to break down his gear. he breaks down his own gear - just like a normal person! it was so weird. anyways, tony said hello and complimented him on his show. he was super, super, super sweet. he thanked us for coming and for complimenting him. he waved at me and smiled and wanted to know if the levels sounded right from where we were sitting. we told him it was great, and he told us to have a good weekend. it was rad. 

Red Ball!

have you heard of the red ball project? it's a pubic, participatory art project that travels all around the world. it's a huge red ball inflated in odd public spaces.

i heard it was going to make it's way to california this spring. i figured it would probably only visit los angeles, so i was stoked to see it would be making it's way to sf this weekend. and even more stoked when i saw that it's coming to sacramento on april 10th!

so cool.

good times!

our little family had such a nice little saturday yesterday. we woke up, got ready and headed to our friend roman's first birthday party. here's baby v and i wearing a party favor:

we got coffee on the way home and just laid around. despite ingesting 16 ounces of an iced vanilla latte with almond milk, i could hardly keep my eyes open at 5 pm. i took van and had a little catnap until around 6. van woke up in a fit of rage after his pacifier dropped out of his mouth and was too worked up to fall back asleep. i, on the other hand, was still feeling beat. tony took van to play some tunes in his nursery while i fell back asleep until almost 8. yessss!

i woke up starving, and tony immediately offered to pick up some mikuni for us. woohoo! right before he left, i went on facebook and saw that our friends, the golden cadillacs, were going to be playing shady lady from 9 to midnight. the combination of feeling refreshed by my long nap and wearing my favorite new sweater had me really wanting to get out of the house. plus somehow, by the grace of god, my bangs and eyelashes weren't all crimped by my nap...a sign that we should definitely hit up the show.

so we called gramma to come watch van and headed out for fancy cocktails and some modern, california-inspired honky tonk. so spontaneous of us.

birthdays + coffee + mustaches + naps + sushi + last minute babysitting grammas + cool sweaters + GOOD live music + gin cocktails = good times.