In this Discussion
- boydeer22 February 2007
- cementsteam8 February 2007
- chin3beggar February 2007
- dollarflame6 February 2007
- hail9fat February 2007
- pvcstore0 February 2007
- rice62witch February 2007
- sherib February 2007
- truckorgan02 February 2007
New Year's Eve in Las Vegas with OK Go
Prequel
Okay, you may notice my new avatar is Stitch. This is to prepare you for the toothsome, terrifying visage of myself below in what is, in all other respects, an absolutely luscious pic of OK Go (by Nettie).
Caveat
Nettie has her own version of this story, this is just from my perspective.
Prologue
I'm a latecomer to the OK Go party, having first seen the Treadmills posted on a forum last September. Trying to figure out who OK Go actually was/were took the better part of a couple weeks as Google led me first to instructions in ping pong, the Truth in Music Projects, AMW (in its many incarnations, which out of context is confusing as heck), Les Miz, etc. Finally (FINALLY!) I figured out they were, in theory, "just" a rock band (with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor & who made cool stuff).
Damian, in particular, was confounding. His "official" photos gave the impression of a pretentious poseur yet the articles he wrote for a Japanese magazine and his stint as a guest writer for an online music blog were smart and articulate with a real person behind them. I was having a devil of a time figuring out where the tongue ended and the cheek began. (i.e. unfashionably black helicopters at the top of a volcano, ha!)
Anyways, I was fascinated and quickly becoming obsessed. Obsessions are bothersome things so I wanted to get over it and figured all I needed to do was see them in concert once and I'd be cured. I went to their Sacramento show in November. Not cured. Hopelessly not cured.
Plans for Las Vegas
A friend was getting married in Las Vegas on January 1st, something I had already known about and was planning on attending.
As I started firming up my car rental and hotel reservations, I had this wild zingy thought: "wouldn't it be cool if OK Go were in Vegas?" then was appalled at myself: "this has gone far enough! I'm going to Vegas to go to this lovely wedding and that's all I should be thinking about. Stop thinking about OK Go!"
Yea, right.
Besides, everyone knows they'll be in New York.
Two days later, OK Go announces they are playing Las Vegas. I got a ticket. Then, as I'd been lurking on these boards, I noticed other people wanted to go but weren't sure how they would get there. My husband wasn't going with me and I'd already reserved a suite and knew how expensive hotel rooms were for New Year's Eve. Mine was already paid for and I figured I'd invite some boardies from here to ride down with me and share my hotel room. Alas and alack, through some technical glitch, I was not able to join (I never received my confirmation email and after trying two separate email addresses, then emailing J0rge and never hearing back, I gave up).
Then the bride (whose wedding I was going to) told me Nettie, who was flying in from London, might want to go with me. YAY!
New Year's Eve, Eve and Day
I left home (north of San Francisco) and stayed overnight at my sister's in Fresno. I don't see my sister and her family much, so we stayed up too late and I didn't get much sleep. I foresaw that if I waited for the family to wake up the next morning, it would be more of the same and I wouldn't get on the road until late -- so I snuck out at 5:30am and got to Las Vegas in the early afternoon. After checking into my hotel, I tried to take a nap but I was too excited.
I had never been to Las Vegas before and didn't know where anything was. Over the radio, I also learned that the Strip was going to be closed to car traffic and the freeway off ramps closed. I told the desk clerk at my hotel that I was going to the Fremont Street Experience and how should I get there & where should I park? She handed me one of those tourist brochures of the Strip with a map in it and told me to park at the Four Season's parking lot and I could walk.
Map Not to Scale
I drive to Nettie's hotel and tell her this happy news, that we are going to park at the Four Season's and walk. Nettie's hotel is close to the Four Seasons, so we just leave my car there. Unbeknownst to me, Nettie doesn't know Las Vegas that well either - in fact, I assume that because she has been to Las Vegas before, she must be an expert (sorry, Nettie, my fault).
We start walking. The sun is still out, I'm expecting OK Go to be one of the later bands playing. We've got plenty of time and it's a huge street party happening around us. Nettie gets a blingified colored-LED lights necklace, very eye-catching, lots of people stop and admire it. We're having a grand old time. We stop to watch the Bellagio water show, take pictures of everything and dodge the happy drunks.
At some point, Nettie says we just have to get past the Stratosphere and we'll be there. I believe her. We keep walking. The Stratosphere appears to never get closer, something we joke about, but I can see it and so I know it's an attainable goal.
Paranoia
Aeons later, we reach the Stratosphere. We pass the Stratosphere. The streets have traffic on them now. Where are we? We still haven't reached Fremont Street.
A few days earlier, I had polled my buddies on craigslist about Las Vegas and they said, "be careful, but you'll be fine as long as you stay away from the South end of the Strip."
I realize we're on the south end of the Strip. It's full dark, the casinos and their bright lights are gone. We have reached the land of nudie strip clubs, pawn shops and liquor stores (shuttered closed), wedding chapels, shadowed alleys, and shifty-eyed men in great coats furtively slipping around the corners.
I notice some people trying to wave down a cab and the cab doesn't stop. I figure cabs don't stop to pick up rides in this neighborhood. I realize Nettie is still wearing her bright, flashing necklace. I don't want to alarm her, but we're a target. A target with lights.
I am beginning to feel a little tired but I pick up the pace. I've been in bad neighborhoods before and the thing I've learned is you don't want to stop walking and you don't want to show indecision or fear. So I say nothing. We've come too far to go back, the only way is forward.
Fremont Street
We got to the Experience just AFTER OK Go had finished their set. Nettie was really hungry and hadn't bought a ticket ticket yet. They were broadcasting the show all over the place on TV so she decided she would just watch from outside and I would go inside and check things out, then we'd meet after the show at the street corner in front of the Golden Nugget.
I went inside (which was still outdoors) and a bitterly cold wind started blowing, my feet were hurting and the band that was playing wasn't doing anything for me. I was sorely, deeply bummed. This wouldn't do so I made a conscious decision to be positive. I told myself I'd had a lovely (albeit, a bit long) walk with Nettie, gotten to know her much better and seen the entire LV Strip from one end to the other on foot. So the universe must have had other plans for me and I should just go back to the hotel and be happy.
I went back outside and started searching restaurants for Nettie. There weren't very many and the restaurant I find her in is pretty empty except for her and ... OK Go. She Nettie insisted on getting pictures with them and me (exhausted and nowhere near my best) was "forced" to go along with this (ha!). Nettie has this wonderful London accent and went up behind Tim where he was seated and tapped him on the shoulder. Of course, he was charmed and obliging. So was everyone else
I'm still trying to adjust to my new reality. I offer to take the pictures of Nettie with the band. I wasn't even going to get my picture with them but Dan and Damian said "hey what about you?" "Do you want your picture taken?" and I really, really did -- even though I was fainting on my feet.
The Picture
The picture below was the last picture we all took and Andy had started to walk away. Damian said "hey Andy, come back, we're working here" and Dan just grabbed
him, which made me laugh. Thus the whites-of-my-eyes and Andy's startled look. Actually, I think I lost consciousness at this point, as I don't remember much after this except in brief flashes. Nettie is still talking to me so apparently I didn't go into some fugue psycho state.
Afterwards, I do remember everyone was getting ready to leave and Damian looking at me (waiting for me to say something, I think) but then I blank out again and the next thing I remember is Damian is going to sign autographs for the restaurant staff on a deck of gay-porn playing cards (provided by the staff, I believe). He is looking for a Sharpie and I exclaim that Nettie has one, she has one in her purse. I don't actually know this and Nettie says she does not have one, but I am SO insistent that it is there, so she looks in her purse anyways as Tim says something about the woman from London being the one who has a Sharpie - and lo, yes, she DOES have one.
Anyways, that's most of it.
Okay, you may notice my new avatar is Stitch. This is to prepare you for the toothsome, terrifying visage of myself below in what is, in all other respects, an absolutely luscious pic of OK Go (by Nettie).
Caveat
Nettie has her own version of this story, this is just from my perspective.
Prologue
I'm a latecomer to the OK Go party, having first seen the Treadmills posted on a forum last September. Trying to figure out who OK Go actually was/were took the better part of a couple weeks as Google led me first to instructions in ping pong, the Truth in Music Projects, AMW (in its many incarnations, which out of context is confusing as heck), Les Miz, etc. Finally (FINALLY!) I figured out they were, in theory, "just" a rock band (with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor & who made cool stuff).
Damian, in particular, was confounding. His "official" photos gave the impression of a pretentious poseur yet the articles he wrote for a Japanese magazine and his stint as a guest writer for an online music blog were smart and articulate with a real person behind them. I was having a devil of a time figuring out where the tongue ended and the cheek began. (i.e. unfashionably black helicopters at the top of a volcano, ha!)
Anyways, I was fascinated and quickly becoming obsessed. Obsessions are bothersome things so I wanted to get over it and figured all I needed to do was see them in concert once and I'd be cured. I went to their Sacramento show in November. Not cured. Hopelessly not cured.
Plans for Las Vegas
A friend was getting married in Las Vegas on January 1st, something I had already known about and was planning on attending.
As I started firming up my car rental and hotel reservations, I had this wild zingy thought: "wouldn't it be cool if OK Go were in Vegas?" then was appalled at myself: "this has gone far enough! I'm going to Vegas to go to this lovely wedding and that's all I should be thinking about. Stop thinking about OK Go!"
Yea, right.
Besides, everyone knows they'll be in New York.
Two days later, OK Go announces they are playing Las Vegas. I got a ticket. Then, as I'd been lurking on these boards, I noticed other people wanted to go but weren't sure how they would get there. My husband wasn't going with me and I'd already reserved a suite and knew how expensive hotel rooms were for New Year's Eve. Mine was already paid for and I figured I'd invite some boardies from here to ride down with me and share my hotel room. Alas and alack, through some technical glitch, I was not able to join (I never received my confirmation email and after trying two separate email addresses, then emailing J0rge and never hearing back, I gave up).
Then the bride (whose wedding I was going to) told me Nettie, who was flying in from London, might want to go with me. YAY!
New Year's Eve, Eve and Day
I left home (north of San Francisco) and stayed overnight at my sister's in Fresno. I don't see my sister and her family much, so we stayed up too late and I didn't get much sleep. I foresaw that if I waited for the family to wake up the next morning, it would be more of the same and I wouldn't get on the road until late -- so I snuck out at 5:30am and got to Las Vegas in the early afternoon. After checking into my hotel, I tried to take a nap but I was too excited.
I had never been to Las Vegas before and didn't know where anything was. Over the radio, I also learned that the Strip was going to be closed to car traffic and the freeway off ramps closed. I told the desk clerk at my hotel that I was going to the Fremont Street Experience and how should I get there & where should I park? She handed me one of those tourist brochures of the Strip with a map in it and told me to park at the Four Season's parking lot and I could walk.
Map Not to Scale
I drive to Nettie's hotel and tell her this happy news, that we are going to park at the Four Season's and walk. Nettie's hotel is close to the Four Seasons, so we just leave my car there. Unbeknownst to me, Nettie doesn't know Las Vegas that well either - in fact, I assume that because she has been to Las Vegas before, she must be an expert (sorry, Nettie, my fault).
We start walking. The sun is still out, I'm expecting OK Go to be one of the later bands playing. We've got plenty of time and it's a huge street party happening around us. Nettie gets a blingified colored-LED lights necklace, very eye-catching, lots of people stop and admire it. We're having a grand old time. We stop to watch the Bellagio water show, take pictures of everything and dodge the happy drunks.
At some point, Nettie says we just have to get past the Stratosphere and we'll be there. I believe her. We keep walking. The Stratosphere appears to never get closer, something we joke about, but I can see it and so I know it's an attainable goal.
Paranoia
Aeons later, we reach the Stratosphere. We pass the Stratosphere. The streets have traffic on them now. Where are we? We still haven't reached Fremont Street.
A few days earlier, I had polled my buddies on craigslist about Las Vegas and they said, "be careful, but you'll be fine as long as you stay away from the South end of the Strip."
I realize we're on the south end of the Strip. It's full dark, the casinos and their bright lights are gone. We have reached the land of nudie strip clubs, pawn shops and liquor stores (shuttered closed), wedding chapels, shadowed alleys, and shifty-eyed men in great coats furtively slipping around the corners.
I notice some people trying to wave down a cab and the cab doesn't stop. I figure cabs don't stop to pick up rides in this neighborhood. I realize Nettie is still wearing her bright, flashing necklace. I don't want to alarm her, but we're a target. A target with lights.
I am beginning to feel a little tired but I pick up the pace. I've been in bad neighborhoods before and the thing I've learned is you don't want to stop walking and you don't want to show indecision or fear. So I say nothing. We've come too far to go back, the only way is forward.
Fremont Street
We got to the Experience just AFTER OK Go had finished their set. Nettie was really hungry and hadn't bought a ticket ticket yet. They were broadcasting the show all over the place on TV so she decided she would just watch from outside and I would go inside and check things out, then we'd meet after the show at the street corner in front of the Golden Nugget.
I went inside (which was still outdoors) and a bitterly cold wind started blowing, my feet were hurting and the band that was playing wasn't doing anything for me. I was sorely, deeply bummed. This wouldn't do so I made a conscious decision to be positive. I told myself I'd had a lovely (albeit, a bit long) walk with Nettie, gotten to know her much better and seen the entire LV Strip from one end to the other on foot. So the universe must have had other plans for me and I should just go back to the hotel and be happy.
I went back outside and started searching restaurants for Nettie. There weren't very many and the restaurant I find her in is pretty empty except for her and ... OK Go. She Nettie insisted on getting pictures with them and me (exhausted and nowhere near my best) was "forced" to go along with this (ha!). Nettie has this wonderful London accent and went up behind Tim where he was seated and tapped him on the shoulder. Of course, he was charmed and obliging. So was everyone else
I'm still trying to adjust to my new reality. I offer to take the pictures of Nettie with the band. I wasn't even going to get my picture with them but Dan and Damian said "hey what about you?" "Do you want your picture taken?" and I really, really did -- even though I was fainting on my feet.
The Picture
The picture below was the last picture we all took and Andy had started to walk away. Damian said "hey Andy, come back, we're working here" and Dan just grabbed
him, which made me laugh. Thus the whites-of-my-eyes and Andy's startled look. Actually, I think I lost consciousness at this point, as I don't remember much after this except in brief flashes. Nettie is still talking to me so apparently I didn't go into some fugue psycho state.
Afterwards, I do remember everyone was getting ready to leave and Damian looking at me (waiting for me to say something, I think) but then I blank out again and the next thing I remember is Damian is going to sign autographs for the restaurant staff on a deck of gay-porn playing cards (provided by the staff, I believe). He is looking for a Sharpie and I exclaim that Nettie has one, she has one in her purse. I don't actually know this and Nettie says she does not have one, but I am SO insistent that it is there, so she looks in her purse anyways as Tim says something about the woman from London being the one who has a Sharpie - and lo, yes, she DOES have one.
Anyways, that's most of it.
Comments
I'm glad that the whole ordeal of getting lost and missing the show was reconciled with a meeting with the guys.
I'm glad that the whole ordeal of getting lost and missing the show was reconciled with a meeting with the guys.
Oh yea, I forgot. We caught a taxi to get back to the hotel and asked the cabbie how far we had walked. He said, "Eight miles."
I don't remember Andy saying anything. I'm sure he must've, but I wasn't lucid enough to catch it, I guess.
It was a pretty miraculous misadventure!
and awww, now I miss Vegas.
I remember the first time I was on Fremont, I was in 8th grade and I could swear the giant creepy lightup cowboy was about to fall and crush me to death because it kept moving. Then someone gave me a slip of paper with naked people and prices on it in front of the light up cowgirl(which I soon found out was a strip club). Then I experienced Denny's for the first time ever at 3 in the morning. ah, good times!
(And may I add that Damian looks extremely hot in that photo)
For me, the cowboy was a welcome beacon that we had arrived but I could see how he'd be scary any other day.
Breton and others: Yes, it was a hella walk - worse when you aren't expecting it. But, in hindsight, everything that went wrong was required to have happened just in this way for me to have been in that restaurant at that moment. If I'd hooked up with boardies from here, if I'd gotten proper instructions from the hotel clerk, if I'd been with anyone less good-spirited and game than Nettie - I'd have either been at the concert like I was supposed to and/or given up and never made it at all. The universe works in mysterious ways
Tabetha: Yes, Nettie has an eye for Damian's good side (reference her pic of him watching Quit Your Day Job from backstage in London for another example).
ihave7stars: I owe you a belated thanks for your videos in your earlier incarnation on Youtube. They helped me get to know OK Go better when I was floundering. I decided early on that you must have some inside connection and that I shouldn't ask questions* but just soak up all the knowledge and be grateful.
*Questions like: "How'd you know the technical details behind the taping of 'WTD Live from Lucida's Living Room,' i.e. the metronome, etc.? No, don't answer that. I'm not one to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Here you go:
http://www.videoville.org/wiki/index.php/W...nda%27s_Room%29
http://www.videoville.org/wiki/index.php/W...nda%27s_Room%29
I know you've heard it before, but You Are Amazing!
For me, the cowboy was a welcome beacon that we had arrived but I could see how he'd be scary any other day.
Oh, those little porn ads are definitely always there. We always play this game when we're there, where we pull up to a red light and everyone but the driver hops out and runs to the side of the road and collects as many different porn cards and magazines as possible before the light turns green. Whoever has the most diverse collection by the time we get to our destination, wins. Then, I usually bring them back home and stick them on people's windshields at my college.
As for the cowboy, I've gone back many times since and haven't been intimidated, so I'm blaming that first bout of fear on my being a child at the time.
http://www.videoville.org/wiki/index.php/W...nda%27s_Room%29
That info was in Brian Perkins' blog, too
Edit: Der, I thought so, anyway. Well, I read it somewhere else somewhere. I'm getting Alzheimer's ...
But to make this post less pointless, here's a funny bit from his blog, talking about the interview on VH1 Box Set:
"Note to Damian: that filmstock so wasn't free."
http://blp.cc/info.html
There's other OK Go-related stuff too. "king of the nerds Damian Kulash"
That's an interesting variation of a Chinese fire drill.
Edit: Der, I thought so, anyway. Well, I read it somewhere else somewhere. I'm getting Alzheimer's ...
But to make this post less pointless, here's a funny bit from his blog, talking about the interview on VH1 Box Set:
"Note to Damian: that filmstock so wasn't free."
http://blp.cc/info.html
There's other OK Go-related stuff too. "king of the nerds Damian Kulash"
Thanks sherib! More stuff I haven't seen before. (insert emoticon for giddy-happy-joy-joy here)