hello, good kids. it's pretty ridiculous to attempt a whole weekend update on thursday night, so i will just say that cleveland fest was very fun (except for an unfortunate hour of hiccuping). we went down there with jami via carro after carl's frothy homemade margaritas and guac and cheese, also known as dinner. i was forced to talk to many people since i was doing a photo gallery thingie for metromix. some of my notes were rather amusingly indecipherable the next day. i think metromix is going to be publishing the gallery, uh, soon (ahem), so look out for that here. in the meantime you'll just have to enjoy the outtakes above.

we were there to see mussels, of course, and they rocked, although they rocked very late and for too short a period. mussels are opening for clap your hands say yeah (big time!) on september 10 at the music hall of williamsburg and at the gramercy theater on september 11, you know, so if you're going to those shows, please get there early. they really do have the shit you need. both shows are sold out, which is totes exciting for mussels. (anyone got an in for me??)

i have no links, though i did recently start up a del.i.cious page, or however the hell that is punctuated. i'm not sure exactly why i did that but it's sorta fun. there are a couple of links there. i'm also still twittering like a fiend(ish). it's minimalistic blogging! the new trend! also, i'll have you know that i just renewed catherinespita.com, so i hope you weren't looking forward to the annual couple days' downtime. 2007 is clearly the year of getting my shit together!

uh, and with that, carl and i are heading upstate for an extended labor day weekend, through wednesday. i can only hope you are doing something equally exciting. later, kids!

okay, how about a little wednesday thursday morning evening pita update? a little weekend report action? eh? eh? okay. well it started out friday night, obviously. we watched perfume: the story of a murderer, an arty, creepy thriller from one of my favorite directors, tom twyker, and i loved it. seriously. then we headed out for a "private" john vanderslice performance at the living room, thanks to the generosity of barsuk records and the catbirdseat, one of my oldest (and apparently tallest) internet buds. would have been nicer if it was in my living room, or someone else's living room, rather than the living room, because then maybe carl would have been able to get a drink instead of getting into a fight with the bitchy cocktail waitress and storming out. ahem. but JV played a typically poised yet hilarious show. he even got the crowd to do the wave! i love him.

saturday we had brunch with nate and holly at alchemy and then never left their house, except to shop for dresses (the ladies) and meat and wine (menfolk). hamburgers were consumed, babies were bounced; a fine time was had by all. by the way, the crystal-clear cute photo above taken with a digital SLR (and making my photos look terribly crappy in comparison) was snagged from holly's flickr page.

sunday my beach book club was called off due to nonbeachy weather. instead we discussed "anna karenina" (which only one of us finished) over brunch at ditch plains and then saw the king of kong, an awesome documentary that you must go see immediately. i laughed so much, and i think a tiny tear brimmed in my left eye at one point, too. hilarious but also strangely poignant and totally suspenseful, this film about champion arcade-game players. here's an interview with the hero, steve wiebe. i love him too!

and then the other night little matt and i got some grub and beer at spitzer's corner in my old hood (pork-fat popcorn, anyone?), then scurried over to the bowery ballroom for the new pornographers' record-release show. i've been bored by them before, but this was a really good show, folks. neko was hampered by sound problems at first and was sorta holding back, which was too bad. she let loose on big numbers like "letter from an occupant" (yay!) and the extremely cute and lovable kathryn calder picked up her slack. in fact, my only disappointment is that she, kathryn, didn't get the spotlight for what is my favorite song on the new album, the arresting "failsafe." i think she has a gorgeous voice. carl newman was pretty funny too, taking a couple pollard-like swipes at spoon: "ga ga ga ga ga, $9.99 at target." repeat ad funnium. well, it turns out the spoon album is actually $10.99 at target, and challengers is only $9.99. also, i think this is the first time i've learned a fact about a band in a target product description (britt daniel moved to oregon?). anyway it was a nice long show, with two encores, and i left fully satisfied.

here is an excellent hold steady flickr set, taken by a friend of the band, full of lots of yellow-lit motel shots that make it look like being in a band and drinking liquor whilst sitting on a motel sidewalk is totally glamorous. rock on, photography!

and when it starts airing, everyone must watch the new online reality dating show, "30 dates in 30 days," which is starring my friend michelle. i am wondering if it will reveal her craziness. because she is crazy -- in a good way, of course! she's the hottie all the way to the left in the photo.

hilarious headline alert! pencil removed from woman's head after 55 years.

i am a little afraid to listen to it, but a new travis morrison album comes out next week. you can stream it on his site. it is called all y'all. i am a little afraid to listen to the whole thing. and i liked his last one. but this song has a nice groove:

::: Travis Morrison, "As We Proceed" ::: and now i'm on track four, and i'm getting excited.

also, is anyone else relieved that "john from cincinnati" got the old heave-ho? i watched it and it was sorta intriguing, but i can't say i really enjoyed watching cissy explode like a crazy bitch in every goddamn scene, or seanie thud his way through his lines, and luke perry annoyed the shit out of me. i liked butchie and john, and that was about it. oh well. guess we'll never know just what the fuck that show was all about (besides, you know, GOD).

oh yeah, i forgot to explain. we did not get a dog. sweet old hendrix was just visiting while ellen pushed a little serblet (serblette, that is) out of herself a few blocks away. congrats to erik and ellen on their as-yet-not-officially-named little girl!

also: is there a reason none of you bitches are commenting anymore? just curious.

so! the weekend, now a semi-distant memory, totally rocked. we started it out thursday for carl's birthday in prospect park, which the hold steady and the big sleep had graciously agreed to play. beforehand, we played bocce under a threatening sky that luckily held out all night, then ambled over, boxed wine and bottles of beer in hand, at showtime. the big sleep's stonerriffic set was the big surprise of the night; i loved them, and i have never loved them before. the hold steady were awesome even though they were teeny tiny little stick figures and even though, at one point, i agreed with steve's opinion that they were "doing the hold steady for the irish." just a little too U2 stadium-esque for me. a minor quibble for a band that rocks so hard. i was compelled to get up and dance and reached concert nirvana almost immediately (i suppose the beer helped). and boy do they turn up the volume at prospect park! it was actually so loud that it was difficult to hold a conversation. very impressive. anyway, lots of folks showed up and we had a nice little party going back there on the blankets. we closed the night out at commonwealth, an unnecessary but enjoyable stop. thanks to all who came out, and for those who didn't, well.

friday night i took carl out to po, where we enjoyed the tasty tasting menu. he even wore a jacket! it was nice. you can read my full review of the place, if you're interested, on that there yelp link. we were gonna go get a final glass of wine at the black mountain wine house (brooklyn friends: awesome new spot that we should visit, and soon!) but succumbed instead to our food and drink comas.

saturday we were supposed to go up to eileen's mom's house in connecticut for a day of lounging by the pool and relaxing, but it was absurdly mild that day and thus the trip was cancelled. so we grilled in her brooklyn backyard instead. jesse made interesting little wraps with a plum sauce and some leafage from their garden, and carl kept it real with (of course) sausage sandwiches. we ended up at montero's, the second unnecessary semi-late-night bar trip of the weekend! i felt a good 27 or so.

and sunday we hit mccarren pool for the awesome double bill of the thermals and ted leo. the thermals were good, but ted leo was better. ted leo is the man. i especially enjoyed his little "one more time" interlude, which i only later realized was daft punk. (unlike apparently half of new york, i don't give two craps about daft punk.) after that we were supposed to go home and have a nice home-cooked meal but were spontaneously invited to go bowling at a soon-to-open bowling alley/bar in williamsburg. i am far from a bowling fan (i prefer wii bowling), but this place is sweet. photos were, i heard later, expressly forbidden but i can tell you the space is beautiful and i would totally go back, even though there was an incident involving carl and vintage bowling machinery. i'll say no more.

no, really. tomorrow i'll be back (i swear!) with some patent-pending "fun links" and a hearty show recommendation. right now i have to walk the dog. more on that later, too...

hello campers! i'm back from my superawesome beach vacation in hilton head island. this was a family vacation, which means that i went with my two brothers, my dad and his girlfriend, janet, plus carl, who valiantly signed up for a week with my weirdo family with nary a raised eyebrow and even bona fide enthusiasm. he's a good egg, if you haven't figured that out already.

day 1. we survived the insane 14-hour overnight drive down. i twittered the whole way. upon arrival in hilton head, we were early to check in to our villa, and immediately crashed the marriott's pool area, stealing towels like the louts we are in order to appear legit. the first day concluded with a trip to the publix grocery store to stock up and yummy onion-stuffed hamburgers.

day 2. we set up our "beach encampment" (six beach chairs, eventually some umbrellas and a cooler and a bocce set), and then carl and steve and i went on an aborted search for a lighthouse via bikes. we rode back down the beach, which had quite hard sand, and set up shop under the sun. this was where carl and paul were burned to their respective crisps. eventually carl would develop a pussing, scabby 2nd-degree burn, and paul would wig out like a crazy speed freak, compulsively scratching his chest and running off to various pharmacies in search of a cure. after i'd had enough lazy sun worship, i took a run on the beach (strangely enjoyable and repeated a few times throughout the trip) and then we played tennis on the resort's courts. for dinner carl made mustard-encrusted chicken breasts and salad with a balsamic reduction. he became the de facto cook for the rest of the week, and no one was complaining.

day 3. carl and i ditched the navigationally challenged steve, and went for a long bike ride by ourselves. the trails in hilton head are not that great, but we did reach a weird marshy area with bewildering, creepy little bugs that ran into holes when we rolled over their area. we got really dirty. this was a great beach day, because my dad had bought carl a bocce set for his birthday. a real set, not the crappy plastic version that some other losers on the beach were using. and so bocce became a major feature of beachgoing, along with drinking beer (pronounced "burr" as in "amurricans love burr," a steve-ism everyone adopted with varying degrees of success). the boys poured so much burr down their pumpkins, i could not even fathom it. after returning, steve and i took a dip in the pool. we raced with those "noodle" things a few times. he won. i felt like a kid again. whee!

day 4. more sun-baking. dinner at red fish. shrimp 'n' grits. mmmm.

day 5. our second tennis outing took place under a hot sun at the deserted courts of hilton head high school (which have the advantage of being free). i wore my awesome new tennis skirt and played somewhat decently (as my dad likes to say, i have a pretty good game for someone who never plays). thenpaul and i joined dad for his overhyped "key lime log experience": a visit to the marriott for their weird, bland key lime dessert, which my father inexplicably loves. after sitting around the back porch for a while, we converged on the beach around 5. it's really lovely around then: not as hot, not as many people. we drank burr and played bocce for a good three hours. then steve helmed taco night back at the ranch, followed by the daily berries-and-ice-cream dessert. we were all turning into total fatheads.

day 6. carl and i dragged a somewhat reluctant group to nearby savannah, georgia, to witness the southern gothic glory. spanish moss, wrought iron, town squares, the whole bit. it's a nice little city, with seemingly about five people living there. we ended up at the shrimp factory for dinner, downing crazy punches and imitating people with crazy laughs.

day 7. it poured all day. i was supergrumpy but perked up for the bourne ultimatum, which approximately everybody on hilton head had decided to go see that day. it was a great action flick, but i was left wondering: where, exactly, was the ultimatum? hiding under matt damon's knitted brow? anyway, as a vacation day, especially the last day, this definitely sucked. though we did have fathead steaks and carl's sausage-laden pasta for dinner.

day 8. we leave around 7:30 in the morning so carl can get back to new york in time to be in battery park for 2:15 a.m. to work on the half marathon. (pretty signage, huh?) we pulled up to our apartment in brooklyn around 11:30 p.m. and that's what i did on my summer vacation, by catherine's pita.