I Shoulda Rolled Solo

Please forgive the tense changes...I was sleepy when I wrote this and don't feel like going back to change past tense to present tense or vice versa....

So, the Ery.kah B.adu and Ro.ots concert was tonight. I went with an old acquaintance named Marina. She was my last minute companion as my other plans fell through. Let me back up for a minute.

Originally, when I bought the tickets, I had no idea who I was gonna go with. I wasn't dating anybody at the time, but I figured that in the month span, someone would pop up on my radar. As it became obvious to me that wasn't going to happen, I came up with my back up plan. I was gonna go with my sister. She was the one that introduced me to The Ro.ots back in the '90s and I know she hardly ever goes out without her kids. I figured it would be cool. We used to do stuff like that a lot. We've been to a couple of Pri.nce concerts together, taken a couple of trips to Chicago together (my brother came too once), so I figured that it would be cool to hang with my big sis before she moves next month. Unfortunately, her kid's grandmother died this week, so she had to go out of town to take them to be with her ex husbands family in the country somewhere. So, I was back to square one. I found out about this on Tuesday night.

That left me 3 days to find someone to go with. Well, really 2 because I forgot for most of Wednesday. I thought about who I wouldn't mind hanging out with for 3 hours and came up with a short list. My work crush couldn't get the day off of work (she works until 10 like me.) My other work homey was going out of town. Kristie had stuff to do. I went to bed Thursday night/Friday morning not knowing who I was gonna roll with. I wasn't really stressing it, but I probably should have had a greater sense of urgency. Woke up Friday afternoon, like 6 hours before the show and remembered that Marina really liked Badu. I sent her a text, which she promptly returned saying she wanted to go. Now, to be honest, I hadn't talked to Marina for like 4, 5, 10 months. I only had her number still because it was written on a book of matches that I haven't used from like 2 years ago. Anyway, she was down, so my search was over.

I went to get my haircut, (pictures when I feel like uploading them) and while I was in the chair, Marina called me to confirm. I told her it was on and that I would call her when I got out the barbershop (this is not the actual barber that cut my hair, but he works in the same shop.) She called 2 more times before I was done. The first time I answered and told her I was still getting my line up, the next I was like "what have I gotten myself into?" I remembered why I had stopped calling her. Marina is one of those people that need instant gratification. She will keep calling until you pick up. While if the nature of our relationship was different, I could possibly give her a pass, we weren't that kind of friends. Eventually, I just stopped answering altogether and she stopped trying. But dumb Rashan just had to rekindle the friendship fires.

Leaving the barbershop, I called her. We came up with a place to meet. I wasn't planning on driving to the Fox, I was gonna take the train. She lives out in Cobb County, I'm out in DeKalb, so it didn't make sense for one of us to drive across town to pick the other up. We made plans to meet at the Marta station at 7:30. I went home to print out the tickets, (yes, I know I should have done that way before now), and my printer is not working. I switch it out with my old cheap printer, and that one is out of ink. Not knowing anyone nearby with a computer, I went to Fe.d.ex/Ki.nk.os to print the tickets. Marina calls me again. She asks if we can meet somewhere else. I'm like whatever. Just get there. Tickets are printed, and all of a sudden the skies open up and monsoon like rainshowers fall. I treacherously drive home, iron my clothes, jump in the shower and I'm ready to go. Marina calls yet again: This time she's telling me that it'll be 8 before she gets there. That's what time the show started, but I understood. The rain made traffic a little worse than usually, and when you throw in the Memorial Day traffic, its just that much worse. So, I drive to the Avondale train station. Park my joint, find the right train and get there like 7:45. By then the rain had stopped falling, so that was good.

Marina calls again. She is supposedly looking for a parking lot that isn't full (there are no trains out in Marietta). I see the line in front of the Fox and know that I'm already gonna miss some of the show. Marina finds a spot and calls me and tells me where she is. I walk down to her to meet her halfway... we hug hello and I usher her as quickly as possible to the door. It's now 8:15....and we aren't even inside yet. (This is getting too long, so the rest of the post will be on fast forward)

I see some people I know in line... Say what's up, give dap and hugs... Didn't introduce Marina... Marina introduces herself as "Shawn's date."... Resist urge to ask what that was about... get inside... Marina talks me to death... "I don't know this song"... "What'd she say?"... "Is that incense?"... no its weed...Thinking to myself, "shut up and listen" or "I know I can't hear you, but that's no reason to grab my shoulder and yell in my ear."... See some more people I know...give them the head nod...Marina sits closer to me...damn near on my lap... wonder how she managed to get that close with the armrest being there...Marina asks me more questions that I can't hear...show's over...get ready to leave...someone steps on her shoe...exaggerated limping...wish she would suck it up and stop making a spectacle of herself...walk her to her car...tells me she had a great time...she misses her friend...I should call her more often...I'm thinking see you in another 4, 5, 10 months you annoying annoying woman...feel like a big loser for having to reach waaaaaaay back in the archives to find someone to go with...get over it quickly...get a text from work crush asking me about the concert... find out that the coworkers are going to Ve.lvet Ro.om for the after party...hop on the train back to Decatur...Get to the car...Marina called to tell me she was home...decide to pass on the club for the evening...come home...watch some movies...have some conversations...write a long ass blog post....the end....

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention this: The concert was great!!! More on the actual show later, or not. We'll see.

Let's Try This Again

When I got home from work yesterday, I sat down at the computer and tried to read your blogs, but I couldn't. I tried to write a post, but I couldn't. I tried to even focus but I couldn't. I was so tired that words started to blur together and I think I may have fallen asleep mid sentence on the phone. Not sure. But one thing I do remember is an email I got for the good folks at Ticket.Master... Erykah Badu is coming to Atlanta on 5/23 at the Fox.

You may remember my adventure trying to get the Jill Scott tickets, but there was no problem this time. I've already put my vacation day in (actually I did that yesterday before I even knew she was coming) and bought my tickets (Orchestra row KK) and I'm good to go. Anybody wanna come with? LOL. I have to get ready for work now, but I'll try to give you a substantial post later during my 2 hours of Friday meetings.

Concert Recap

By now, you are either tired of waiting for me to write about the concert, or tired of hearing about it. I'm in the latter category, but I'll write it up anyway....

I left work on Friday and rather than trying to fight traffic to get home, I met my friend Kristie at her house. Its closer to my job, so I brought my clothes with me and got dressed there. After procrastinating for a while, I finally ironed and got ready. Once I was looking appropriately fly (LOL) we headed to the train station in separate cars. Since we live on opposite sides of the metro area, we took separate cars, so that when the night was over, I didn't have to go all the way back up there. To say that I didn't know where I was, would be an understatement, but I followed her down all those desolate roads and eventually wound up in civilization. We got on the train and headed to downtown Atlanta to the Fox theater.

When we got there, there was a crush of Black people in the atrium. Usually when I go to concerts, even hip hop concerts, the crowd is at least half white. Not for this one... it was all colored. LOL. We get in and they didn't check us for cameras or anything, so I could have brought mine. Oh well, the usher took us to the seats and they were great seats. I had seen the seating chart online, but I didn't realize I was gonna be that close. I wasn't front row or anything but I had a good view of everything. Raheem DeVaughn came on first and ran through some of his singles. He was high energy and gave a good show. He had on a suit with a bow tie and some sneakers, looking like as Stace said, "a hip hop hippie." Very Andre 3000-esque. He only performed for about 30 minutes, which was disappointing but totally understandable once Jill came on. After his performance he was taking pictures for $20 in the lobby. My homegirl got one, wait... remind me to get my $20 from her. She didn't have cash on her, so technically, I paid for it.

Next up, after a long intermission, Jill came on. I'm not gonna go down the list of all the songs she did, but lets just say she was amazing. I'm a Jill Scott groupie now. I always liked her, but even more now. The band was ridiculous. Her voice was flawless, she was getting down on the stage. Some of my favorites... when she did "Long Walk" and mixed it with Roy Ayer's "Sunshine", the bluesy version of "He Loves Me", "How it Make you feel"... Really all of it was just great. She did a good mix of the old and the new. Before I knew it 2 hours of straight performing with no breaks went by. At that point she left the stage, but no one in the audience left, so she came out and did a couple more songs. Then she really left, they turned up the lights and people started to leave. Jill then came back and said the show was officially over, but she wanted to share a new song with us. It started out with just Jill onstage, beatboxing and then singing. Then the entire band came back and joined her, then it morphed into an audience participation thing. It was mad cool. All told, Jill put on a 2 and half hour show by herself.

After the show, Kristie and I walked back to the train station (I remember one year at Freaknik, I asked a cop "where's the train station, yo?" He responded by saying "we don't have trains. We have MARTA" Not sure why I inserted that sidebar in...) and saw some interesting characters while waiting. Like the guy that had on a suit and some crocs. I didn't know they made those things for grown men. Or the guy that was playing a sitar on the train... but not asking for money. Or the guy that we thought was a woman at first that decided that he wanted to stretch on the train, and was about *thisclose* from putting his leg behind his neck. It was a character fest, and me without my camera. By the time we got back to the cars, it was too late to go get some food, so we just headed home. All in all, a great night.

Jill and Raheem Friday, Old School Saturday???

Its almost the weekend. I'm so used to Thursday being the end of my work week, but since I got that new job and have to work M-F now, I'll have to postpone my elation at not working. I should have a pretty full weekend, if everything pans out the way its supposed to. Who am I kidding? It's not gonna happen...

Friday, I work a half day and then I'm going to see Jill Scott. You remember I bought the tickets damn near 2 months ago, and the day is finally here. I should be more excited than I am, but I can't seem to muster that emotion. Probably because I know that something is gonna piss me off before I get there. Be it the rain (and really can we stop talking about being in a drought when it does nothing but rain since the New Year) or the traffic (When I get off work, its gonna be smack dab in the middle of rush hour) or the parking situation (the concert is downtown at The Fabulous Fox, which is a cool ass venue. I saw Prince there waaaaaaayy back in 93. Anyway the point, besides using unnecessary parentheses is that I don't know where to park downtown, and I always get lost). I know that once I get in, all that is gonna go away, but I'm still tempering my excitement until that time. I wish I could bring my camera, but they made a very big deal about mentioning no pictures on the tickets themselves and I'm not trying to have some security guard take my joint. I can't let that happen; how else am I gonna take crazy pictures of myself all the time. Opening act is Raheem Devaughn, who I'm pretty impressed with. I dig both of his albums and his version of "Prototype" has been in heavy rotation for about 2 years now. I could make a list of all the Jill Scott songs I hope she sings, but I really need to hear this one. I always liked it, but I gained an even greater appreciation of it when PYT (the artist formerly known as Youngster) sang it to me. Anyway, expect some raspy voiced Utterz from the concert, cuz you know I always think about my blog fam...

Saturday, I'm supposed to hang out with some of the co workers at the Old School Saturday joint. I can pretty much tell you right now, that I wont be going. I hate that its only one Saturday a month, and always seems to fall at a time that I don't feel like going. It's like the other weekends, it would be all good, but the actual weekend, I'm either doing something else, or in one of my withdrawn moods. How can I tell that I'll be in that mood on Saturday, you ask? I just know. It might have to do with the cold and rainy forecast which is not exactly conducive for drunken good times, or it might be because I am already going out on Friday. Regardless, if I show, it'll be a miracle. I didnt exchange phone numbers with the co worker, so it'll just be a hit or miss thing. I hope they are not waiting on me.

On another note, I am completely addicted to Utterz. Anybody who hasn't already signed up should do so expeditiously. I want to hear what you guys sound like. I don't know if its one step away from a phone convo, as someone told me, but its pretty darn cool. Don't make me beg. Soon as I finish typing this, I'll probably go record another one (not 10 minutes though). If you do it, let me know, so I can stalk follow your Utterz. On that note, I'm gonna call it a night. I hope everyone has a Happy Friday and weekend. One!

Crazy Morning

I got my tickets to see Ji.ll Sco.tt and Rahee.m DeVau.ghn at the Fabulo.us Fo.x Thea.tre in February. That's the end of the story. Of course since its me, it couldn't be easy. Let me take you back a few hours...

I got the email yesterday telling me that tickets went on sale today at 10AM. Cool, I knew I would be sleep and that I had to wake up before the scalpers bought up all the tickets. So at 5:30 AM when I was preparing to go to sleep, I set my alarm for 9:53 to give me enough time to wake up and then go to the Tick.et.mas.ter website to get my tix. I also bookmarked the page so I wouldn't have to go through all the searching and stuff. I was ready. I went to sleep and everything was all good.

9:53 AM - My alarm goes off. I walk over to my computer and plop down in the chair. I left it on last night. I pulled the internet and.... "this page cannot be displayed." WTF??? Let me try this again. Still no internet.. It's now 9:57. I have cable internet so I try to tighten all the wires and restart the cable modem, but nothing. Its now 10:01. Shit... I'm not trying to pay scalper prices. It's hopeless, this damn internet never goes out, but today the one time I actually made plans dependent on it, I have no service. Aaargh!!!!

Okay, I'm not in any position to be leaving the house. I have sleep in my eyes, probably dried drool and I'm wearing yesterday's work pants that I fell asleep in and are now extra wrinkled. Sure, I could throw on some jeans and head to Pu.b.lix and buy my tickets there, but I have a phobia about going out in public looking like crap. I just know that would be the day when I meet my potential wife and she won't give me a second glance. Anyway, I called my sister and told her what was up and she offered to stop by P.ub.lix and get me the tickets. Phew!!! I thought, but its now 10:15 and I wonder if there will still be tickets left. I sat nervously at my computer cursing it out, even though I should have been cursing out Com.cast. (I just got the internet back at 3 PM). About 15 minutes later, I got the call. They still have tickets. "Is the Orchestra okay? Hell Yeah! Get those for me, I'll pay you back this afternoon."

So long story short. I got my tickets, my sister rocks, and Com.cast sux!!! Now I have two months to find a date. LOL