This is what 96 degrees does to me

It makes me buy Jamaican Ginger Beer (which I have been craving since last summer; it seems to be sold seasonally) and impulsively pick up Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Bars.
 The ice cream bars are definitely NOT vegan. But so cold and peanut-buttery....

Broadway fiend

Since I'm heading back to California in less than a month, I've been trying to think about things I want to do before I leave. And weirdly, I've mostly been fixated on theater. So this past week, I saw TWO, count 'em TWO Broadway musicals (at student rush prices, though, of course). On Wednesday I saw Porgy and Bess (which was pretty good, but the pleasure of the music was moderated by people using their IPHONES during the show), and Jesus Christ Superstar on Friday.

Of the two, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I LOVED the significantly-less-classy JCS much, much more than Porgy and Bess. But I know almost all the songs to it! And we got third-row seats! And Jesus' voice was AMAZING (although so was Bess'). Ah well. We can't always control our preferences, I suppose.

Elated after coming out of the show.

Back from Bonnaroo!

Well, uh, Bonnaroo was pretty amazing. I'd been planning to go to this festival (well, that or the Sasquatch Music Festival in Seattle, but those dates didn't work out) since last summer. So this was something of a "I'm DONE WITH SCHOOL!!" trip for me. And it was totally worth it. I'd heard that this was one of the most laid-back, friendly music festivals, and that rumor definitely seemed to apply to my experience.

Everyone was really nice (despite (because of?) the copious use of drugs), and everything pretty much ran smoothly--there was always enough water, always a clean-enough Porta-John to use, and always an awesome band to see. The top five shows for me were (in no particular order, because I just hate figuring that stuff out):

• Radiohead (Kind of obvious. It's been a life goal of mine to see these guys live. But they even played Paranoid Android for the encore! YESSS!)
• St. Vincent (I recently became a big fan of hers, and she did NOT disappoint. She's like 5 feet tall and plays guitar like a monster, and then she ended her show by crowdsurfing and then disappearing.)
• Ben Folds Five (Only playing the songs from the BFF era)
• The Beach Boys (So good still--amazing harmonies!)
• Tune-Yards (I'd never been a huge fan of her stuff recorded, but performing live, this girl is awesome)

We also got to see some comedians in the comedy tent (no Aziz Ansari, sadly, since he was performing at the same time as Feist and St. Vincent), we played on a giant inflatable water slide, and we saw Alice Cooper introduce the movie Duck Soup! (Apparently Alice Cooper was close friends with Groucho Marx at the end of Marx's life?!)

Some highlights from the trip (all taken with Ari's iPhone):

Blurry pic of St. Vincent

The Beach Boys on the main stage

Jellyfish umbrellas! (During the Phish jam sesh on the final night of the festival. We could only handle about 1 hour of Phish before bailing.)

A view of the fairgrounds from the Ferris Wheel on the first day.

My favorite graffiti (there was awesome graffiti all over the walls surrounding the fairgrounds)

The Apple Butter Express (a fun bluegrass band we saw on one of the cute, smaller stages)

Me dressed like an old lady (most women were walking around in bathing suits and quite a few were even topless).

Playing around with glow sticks that people threw into the crowd

Downtown Nashville (we tried to stop here briefly but got stuck in horrrriiiibbbllle traffic because it happened to be the same night as the Country Music Awards).

At least we got to try the delicious "Tennessee Fudge" sundae at Mike's Ice Cream Fountain

We ALSO got even BETTER ice cream at Jeni's in Columbus, Ohio. Ari got some fancy "Cherry Lambic" and "Pear Riesling" combo, while I got more straight-ahead "Salted Caramel" and "Dark Chocolate."