Weekend Redux: Shows and Drums

This Saturday we supported our friends 3d6 who played at the Beauty Bar with Nerf Herder. We had a blast. I spent most my night dancing with my best friend Petrina. Below are some amazing photos taken by our friend Calvin Boyken.

Nerf Herder

3d6

Brandy, Dave, Me, Brian and Petrina

Last night Brian, Hayden and I went to see Recycled Percussion at The Quad (formerly the Imperial Palace)

It was amazing and we all LOVED it. 

Before the show started Hayden and Brian got to band on pots and pans with drumsticks. 

Brian was asked to go up on stage during the show. He wore a monkey mask along with other volunteers and did a hilarious skit. Hayden and I laughed so hard our cheeks hurt.

Overall the show was amazing. The group is highly talented and we had such a great experience. 

I highly recommend it. Just be careful The Quad is still under heavy construction and it's easy to get lost in there. 

GREEK: My guilt obsession and a hilarious Sorority sister after my own heart

I didn't go to college. Honestly being in a band for ten plus years has been similar to what I think being in college is like.
At first it was all party, practice, party, practice and shows. Then after a few years, we declared our major by getting serious in recording, show booking, getting some recognition with an award, great reviews and decent merch. Then for the last few years we've been in graduate school continuing to record, getting better shows, better merch and occasionally traveling for shows. We get paid a little to keep us a afloat and we've gained a reputation. So pretty soon .bipolar. will have earned a masters degree in being an unsigned band.

My point to this observation of collegian comparison is that I'm not-so-secretly obsessed with the show Greek. It's on Netflix and I'm watching all of the episodes for the second time.
I suggest if you have a penchant for college age comedy that you check it out. Here's a clip of some of the funny stuff from my favorite character Cappie.



If I had been in college I'm sure I wouldn't have been in a sorority but I'm equally as sure that I WOULD have attended some Frat parties.

Totally random note on the topic of college and sororities: I ran across this letter from a Sorority sister addressing her fellow sisters. Warning: it's full of cuss words and is definitely hilarious, ie: CUNT PUNT.
She then was asked by her sorority leaders to resign. I want to find her and recruit her to my secret metal loving, no bullshit taking, no patience for retarded people, skull wearing, too-old-for-college sorority LIKE. NOW.

OH and then I found THIS: Which makes it THAT.MUCH.BETTER

Just a few skulls

About six years ago I started collecting skulls. It all started with a tattoo and now has become the theme of most of my wardrobe and home decor. I can usually only buy most items around Halloween time, but with the popularity of skulls as of late I've been able to find cool items on the internet any time of year.  Here are a few items in my collection

 

1/ Two candlesticks and silver glitter skull candles I picked up at Michaels a few years ago. 2/ My skull tablecloth. I got it at Target in 2008. They always have great skull decor around Halloween. What I love the most about it is the ability to machine wash it after Hayden gets food all over it. 3/ The skull in the back is a plastic halloween decoration from a party store wearing a pig mask we used for our music video. The cookie jar I got at World Market a year and a half ago. 4/ Skull votive holder, silver salt and pepper shakers and a skull mug I got at a Tiki store in Sacramento in 2005. 

My jewelry and wardrobe are filled with skulls of all shapes and sizes. 

These don't even show half of them. 

What do you collect? 

The Caveman has evolved

My wonderful husband has never been one to obsessively want material things, gadgets and the such outside of his drums.

A few years ago I gave him my old prepaid cellphone as he'd never had one before. He used up the minutes and then didn't renew it. So it ended up in our junk drawer never to see the light of day again.

The last two years have had many "I couldn't call  to tell you I was going to be home late, because I don't have a cellphone, " or "I don't have a cellphone because it will disconnect me from the important things," or his friends telling him "Damn dude, you don't have a cellphone? Get out of the stone age, man!"

A week or so ago I saw a screaming deal on an affordable phone with an unlimited plan and immediately added to cart and purchased said phone and plan. Well, probably not immediately. I contemplated it for at least an hour. Going back in forth in my head whether he would use it, lose it or just flat out run it over with his truck.
 A couple days later I arrived home to see the box opened on the counter but the phone was still in it's packaging. He was mad. He didn't want the phone and thought it was a waste of money. Hayden thought it was great and said he wanted to tell all the kids in his class that his dad got a cool phone. Brian rolled his eyes and said FINE! with his arms crossed. 

Now a week later he LOVES it. He customized it in every way with Star Wars ringtones, wallpapers, and has filled the photo gallery with awesome pics. 

I love that he sends me sweet text messages every day and that I am no longer his secretary. I'm sure that made you throw up a little in your mouth, but we know we're cheesy.

Weekend Redux: Orgy, Windy bad news and Mini Grand Prix

Friday night we played a show with some great local bands Revolve, Bravo Delta and national bands Davey Suicide, Vampires Everywhere and Orgy.
The show was amazing.
I know I use the words AMAZING and AWESOME quite a bit, and I should probably grow my vocabulary but until then deal with it.
It was the largest crowd we've played to in Las Vegas.
The response was great and the other bands dug us too.

One of the other band members came to talk to me and at first put on a front being kind of douchey with me.  We chatted a bit more and when he found out we were originally from Sacramento he stated that he was as well and listed off a few bands he had been in. One of them we had played with quite a few times. After he realized he remembered me and the band the douche switch turned off.



Saturday we lazed around most the day recovering from the late night before.
Then after our friend Matt headed back on the road home to Sacramento we headed downtown for Vegas Streats to see our friends in Nothing With Numbers. Here are some pics from our little trip.

It was super windy and Hayden was really tired so we didn't get to stay long.
We drove around trying to find somewhere to sit down to eat and opted for a place near our house. While waiting for the server I checked the Facebook on my phone and read the devastating news of Chi Cheng's death. We held hands and talked about for a bit, but both of us were too sad and depressed to really do much else. 

We went home and watched Life of Pi.

Sunday we woke up early to get ready for a birthday party at the Mini Grand Prix. That place was so much fun and the perfect place to drown our sorrows in activities. We drove the karts and played some games with good company.

Rest in Peace- reblog

I posted this on our band site but I wanted to share here as well for those of you not on my facebook and what not.

It's no secret that .bipolar. is heavily influenced by the Deftones. Having formed our band in Sacramento we ran in similar circles and always trailed in the shadow of the most popular band to come out of our scene.

But they cast a big shadow as they were so talented, so hard working, and such nice guys.

Especially Chi Cheng. We ran into him a couple times in our neighborhood and he was always super nice. He had a reputation for being one of the most humble and down to earth people. Almost everyone within the scene in Sacramento has a cool anecdote about meeting or hanging out with Chi. 

Among our personal experiences two stand out the most:

In 2006 the Deftones played a last minute free show at Cesar Chavez park. Brian was hanging out backstage with some friends and he watched Chi's son Gabe collect every broken drumstick that Abe tossed aside.

In 2007 we played a show at the Blue Lamp downtown with Will Haven. Abe and Chi watched our whole set and chatted with us after. All of us were stoked to say the least.

His accident happened the year we moved to Las Vegas. We kept up on his progress through the site. Not a day went by without us thinking about him and hoping for his recovery. 

In 2010 when we attended NAMM we were exhausted heading back to the hotel to sleep when I stepped on a flyer on the sidewalk that had Chi's face on it. I picked it up and it was for a benefit show for him at the Slidebar in Fullerton. Fate wanted us there and who were we to deny fate? We hung out with fellow musicians who all felt as we did about his recovery. It was an experience we were meant to have.

We're deeply saddened by the loss of Chi. He was a huge inspiration and will never be forgotten in our hearts.

Much love to the Cheng family, his Deftones family and everyone else whose heart aches at this time.

Boys With Long Hair

I'm sure if you've read my blog at all you've seen my son's gorgeous locks. Just in case you haven't here they are

He choose to grow his hair out. He can choose when he wants to cut it.
It's as easy as that.
As a parent I've let him make this decision.

So often I get rude comments, mostly from older ladies at the grocery store that say "That kid needs a haircut."

More often he gets mistaken for a girl.

But he doesn't care. He makes sure to tell people he's a boy. At school most the other kids and parents know him because of his hair.

Here's his view on the long hair

See I can pat myself on the back for being a good parent so shove it.

Healthy Metal Living: Let's try a new/old direction.

Back in January I wrote about trying a new diet.  I was gung-ho, bought all the expensive food the book required, and then it all fizzled away when I found an amazing pizza place by my house that proved cheaper than the diet's recommended food.
I just fell off completely.
Then at the beginning of March I had some internal issues and had to go to the doctor. She suggested that I try a gluten-free diet because of my issues. I did that for a week. When I returned to my beloved gluten filled pizza, I had no significant symptoms so we ruled out a wheat allergy.
So now at my wit's end I decided to return to the one and only diet that ever worked for me, low-carb.
I started last Thursday and in the last four days already lost three pounds.
I have cut my diet to 30 grams of net carbs a day and continued to exercise every day. I found low carb snacks and even some ice cream.
Tonight is taco salad night.
Here's a low-carb taco salad recipe I found and love.

My goal is to lose 15 pounds. 3 down. 12 to go.

Inspiration comes at odd times in odd forms

Maybe it's the weather. Maybe an unidentified lull washed over me. Whatever "it" is I feel like I am crawling out of it. For a few months now I have been on kind of a creative break.
I haven't been able to write lyrics that I was happy with and I definitely wasn't inspired by anything. Then I started playing around with spotify and discovering new music. It's like Pintrest for Music sometimes and can pull me right out of an inspiration funk.

I discovered Marina and The Diamonds a few weeks ago which led me to Frightened Rabbits.



Then I stumbled upon this video from  an older band called Battles who do this song Atlas which is on one of the Little Big Planet games.




It's odd sometimes, finding music so strange and different from what we tend to write (metal) being inspirations for some of the better lyrics. I thought I'd share. Who knows you might get a little inspired.

Birthdays, Great Friends, Spa Days

I turned 33 on Saturday. It was the best birthday I have ever had. Friday night my guitar player Rob and his girlfriend Claudia treated Hayden and I to dinner. We had Cheesecake Factory and the food was great. When the server asked us if we wanted any desert Hayden said "I want cake..." then he tapped my shoulder slyly with a smirk and whispered "Mom, it's for you."
"Oh, that's ok. I don't need any cake," I said.
"It's my mom's birthday tomorrow, you should bring her something," He exclaimed.
So they brought me a sundae and sang Happy Birthday.
My kid knows how to embarrass me already.

Saturday morning I got my personalized license plates from the DMV finally.

Brian had a special surprise for me planned. He told me to pack up a swim suit and get in the car.

He did so great! He planned a Spa Day for me. I got to relax in a jacuzzi then I was treated to a body scrub/massage and a milk bath. It was amazing!

We then had a party at a bar close to our house that we enjoy a lot called Born and Raised. 

My friends were so great and  we had an amazing time.

Next year's bday will have a hard time comparing to this one.