It’s down to final head counts, renting table cloths, ordering beer…stuff like that. There’s some minutia I don’t want to go into, but rest assured it’s not minutia like whether the flowers match the bridesmaid dresses, and there’s no assigned seating or that sort of junk.
Our wedding is relatively simple in that we tried not to be wasteful or vain. We wanted the marriage to take precedence over the wedding. It’s not a terribly big wedding, but it’s big enough to cause some anxiety to those of us who do not get a rush out of party-planning. People are coming from out of town, and we want to make it worth their while!
And it’s going to be fun! Carlos and I picked the music play lists and my dad’s band is playing at the end! I want to keep in mind all the things I have for which to be grateful, and know that the wedding planning will be over soon, and even the wedding will have to end some time, so I might as well enjoy this moment.
The Summer Sun was REALLY hot, and unfortunately, the zucchini plants did not make it. I’m sure I’m to blame for not watering them enough. The truth is, I’ve been busy, too busy to keep a garden. And vegetable plants need watering every day. However, my chives are still alive and so is my aloe vera plant (which I mention because even though it is not a vegetable plant – and hey, neither is the chives plant, I hope to make use of the aloe gel for skin treatment some day
So lesson learned: if I’m going to keep a garden, but I am too busy to water every day, then I should stick to succulents and such. I had time for daily watering when I first planted the zucchini, but I forgot to take into account that the summer was peaking and the wedding and a move would be fast approaching. The best thing would have been to give the plants away.
And because we’re moving to Santa Monica for a few months starting Sept 1st of this year, I don’t know if I can take my plants :p If I can’t, though, I’m sure I can leave them with someone. No point in wasting plants. No point at all.
I’ve considered being a professional blogger, and it is not completely out of mind, but I also know that it is not a short-term solution for my non-employment woes; it would take some time to hone my blogging skills as well as to market my services. In fact, it would just add another long-shot dream with no foundation or funding to my list, right after animal savior, professional musician, and professional poet. So, I’ve decided to, yes, continue to do the things that bring me joy, but be more practical by looking for a full-time job that will finance my efforts, diminish my student loan debts and fund my future home with my future husband.
I filled out a job application through Monster.com, and I think it was a good move. Even if I am not granted an interview, I feel very accomplished having succeeded in this first step.
By the way, I was offered a job to teach at Texas State University, from which I just earned my Master’s degree in Creative Writing/Poetry, but I had to reluctantly turn it down because although my job would have been very emotionally rewarding, it does not justify passing up the wonderful career opportunity Carlos was given in Santa Monica.
Well, I did it, even if it was not ideal. I went in thinking to do my cover of “All I Need,” then play one of my songs. I took my sister’s keyboard and my guitar. But I had a lot of anxiety just before I went on and decided to only do the cover on keyboard because it would be too much to do both. I haven’t played in public for years, so I was pretty nervous.
My goal was to just do it, even if I made a fool of myself, just to get my feet wet. Then I could go back to practicing my set list, and continue to do more shows until I am confident again.
Anyway, I got my wish. I was first up, and there was a big crowd, and I thought I saw the guy put the cable in the keyboard and leave. Actually, he was still fumbling around with the cable on stage when I started to play! So he gave up and put a mic on the keyboard, which made a bit of a noise when I played. Weirdly enough, I didn’t make a single mistake in the piano, even though I had never played piano in a show, but my mouth had gone dry from my anxiety. I drank water before I went on, but my voice was not at its best.
Oh well. It was a VERY good learning lesson. Can’t wait to do it again!
A special note: let it be known that, as of yet, I have never published a poem on the internet…
It was recently brought to my attention that a person named Estella Ramirez has submitted a poem to poetry.com. The site is questionable, at best (the site is a scam), so I would never submit to it. And let’s be honest, I’ve written some bad poems in my life, and will probably continue to write bad poems into the future, but I’d like the burden of only those bad poems I write myself, and not those of others who submit poems online under my name, even though it is, of course, their name too.
This is the problem with my namesake. If this other Estella Ramirez had been a mechanic, or a painter, well then, I’d be just fine; what an interesting story to tell about the “other” Estella Ramirez…but what happens when both of us are aspiring poets? How to distinguish?
I would like to believe that my work would be my signature in the universe; surely no one could read my work and then read hers and believe they are from the same author? But what if I am wrong, and both mine and hers get lost in the fray of poetry’s mediocrity, neither of us distinguished from even each other–what a sad fate for our poems.
And what if someone I know runs into this person’s poetry, and believes (humiliatingly enough for me) that I had written these? Friends, acquaintances, you have been alerted.
But I can’t help but imagine what would happen if one or the other of us did gain some recognition for our poems, or even reach large audience even hundreds of years from now. What would Estella Ramirez-ians make of the “other” Estella Ramirez? Her or me?
I was interested in finding out more about the band that opened for Radiohead in Houston this month. They were entertaining and good, but during the show there was no mention of who they were. To be honest, at times they were unimpressive because their songs didn’t feel developed, but rather repetitive. Their strengths, on the other hand, included two drum sets for two great drummers, and a great front man in Angus Andrew, with a chameleon voice that ranges from the almost pubescent-sounding and at once urgent and cool style of Blur’s Damon Albarn, to the dark, rich, but deadpan style of say Joy Division’s Ian Curtis or Interpol’s Paul Banks. Andrew was also not a bad dancer. Like I said, they were interesting (hey, if they’re good enough for Radiohead…), and I was intrigued that I couldn’t figure out who they were. So, I found out. They are called Liars.
I went to their website and found this fantastic commentary on their experience with Radiohead.
I knew from Thom Yorke’s solo album, The Eraser, and from what little I know about him in general, that he is concerned for the environment and governments’ lack of action over the matter. So, it really reaffirmed my admiration of Radiohead to read that they are taking action themselves, that they are “purveyors of truth, beauty and a moral responsibility to the planet.”
I too am continuing to reduce my waste or “footprint,” as it is so commonly called. And I have found not so much an inconvenience, but a great relief and freedom. No one can force me to contribute to the frighteningly humongous dumps of the world.
An ultra-busy and enormously famous group might have a great big excuse not to make an effort like this, but I believe that what such a group, with their world-wide tours and blindingly wonderful productions, actually has is a big impact on the environment, and therefore, an equally large responsibility. I’m really glad to hear Radiohead takes on their responsibility so nobly. And I’m grateful to the Liars for their eloquent commentary on this subject.
This is my second Radiohead show to date. My first Radiohead concert was a tour date in Columbia, Maryland for the Hail to the Thief tour. I don’t remember the name of the venue, but I remember I had lawn tickets, and it was beautiful to hear them play live for the first time, even if I couldn’t really see them. I had a small step up this time for the In Rainbows tour, seats right in front of the lawn, on the 17th of May 2008, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion in Houston.
According to this comment on an article in the Austinist, when Radiohead opened for R.E.M on tour, the Houston audience was so enthralled that it moved Thom Yorke to promise always to come back. The comment’s author says he heard Thom say it. Well, true or not, Radiohead did come back for two encores!
The Set List
15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Lucky
Morning Bell
Nude
Pyramid Song
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
The Gloaming
The National Anthem
Faust Arp
Videotape
Optimistic
Where I End and You Begin
Reckoner
Everything In Its Right Place
All I Need
There There
1st Encore
Jigsaw Falling Into Place
House of Cards
Climbing Up the Walls
Planet Telex
Street Spirit (Fade Out)
2nd Encore
You and Whose Army?
Idioteque
Overhanging pipes were arranged across the stage like an alcove for the band set up. These made for a brilliantly colorful light show. My fiancé observed that at times song titles scrolled across the pipes, as can be seen in this video by “blakeeb”:
Let’s be honest, I am completely biased. If Radiohead did not do the most magnificent show in the world, I wouldn’t know it. For me, of course it was. Nonetheless, judging from the other show of theirs I witnessed, and by the quality of their light show, this one was a particularly spectacular one. Radiohead fans won’t go wrong catching a show of theirs this tour.
This show started strong, with two high-energy tracks from In Rainbows. Performance highlights from the set list include “Morning Bell,” “Nude,” “Pyramid Song,” “Optimistic,” and “Everything in its Right Place.”
And then, for the 1st encore, things got even better, as though the band was expecting to encore (justifiably confident fellows that they are) and had saved their biggest, more shattering performances for that. “Climbing Up the Walls” was gritty and good, and “Planet Telex” was a big production, with great big sound and psychedelic rainbow colors (appropriate to the tour) pulsing through the afore mentioned pipes. That should have been the show ender, actually, but they ended with a fantastic “Street Spirit.” Not terribly anti-climactic. And then of course there was the 2nd encore. Can’t go wrong with that.
