Halloween- Save the Date

Oh, wow. I haven't read a blog or written a blog post since the beginning of September. It's now November. Oh well, life happens. I'm gonna try writing this one on my iPad.

Lots has been going on. Changes, some happy some sad. And finally, our wedding planning is pushing on! While I was in CT last month I managed to secure a photographer and buy my dress. Since that's happened I really have slowed my progress down. Because all that matters is the dress, right? Just kiddin.

We've had successes, like the dress, and setbacks like the officiant and DJ not working out. While I was in CT at a party we were talking about doing a photo or video save the date to email out to everyone. Since people will be traveling from Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New Orleans we wanted to let them know about ten months in advance so they could plan accordingly. My uncle suggested dressing up as a bride and groom for Halloween and sitting at a table with champagne glasses cheering and then saying save the date. I started to tell Ben about this idea the day before Halloween and he decided it was great.

So, the night before Halloween we ran around to thrift stores looking for a suit for him and a wedding gown for me. We needed a veil, gloves, face paint, etc. Somehow, we pulled it all off. The next day we carved pumpkins before tearing, cutting, and soiling our clothes. Then we picked up our friend Gabe who helped us with filming.

The whole thing only took a few hours, and then a few more to put together on a computer, and voila! It's done. We sent it out to our guest list (almost everyone got it) on Halloween!

Take a look and let us know what you think:
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=1wF2MPMIp8A

the VOODOO experience

I can't believe it's been two weeks since Halloween weekend! Ben and I were super excited to spend it at the Voodoo Experience 2010 at city park seeing three full days of bands. 

that's me standing on the VOODOO sign!

On Friday we headed over a little later in the day and missed Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes AND Honey Island Swamp Band- two bands that I've seen a few times in Nola and who I really like.

But, we did get there for Metric:

Metric

Then we had a snack during Soul Rebels Brass Band and got ready for Weezer! Weezer! 

During Weezer I sprained my ankle (the one that's been hurt since last December) and fell down crying for a bit. But that's when they started a cover of Lady Gaga's Pokerface and went into MGMT's Kids! That cheered me up immediately. I have an awesome video of it, but i'm not posting because i'm singing along :) Weezer was amazing. Completely amazing. I could've gone home then and been happy- but we still had 2 more bands to see that night AND two more full days.

So, off we went to Galactic and Muse. So good. Galactic is one of those bands I discovered in Nola and really like. Whenever I hear Muse I like to pretend i'm a vampire (yes, twilight fans it's from the movie) and they are such a talented band, they were gooood.

Saturday we got bagels and headed off for another day of music. Walking in, we saw this: 

a head.

yah, that's a head. It was Halloween weekend in New Orleans mind you. We saw some good costumes, but the head freaked me out.

rebirth

Saturday we saw Rebirth Brass Band!! Oh so good. I got right up the stage to dance and almost peed myself with excitement. 

Then on to Cage the Elephant. 

Then on to Theresa Anderson at Preservation Hall. She is one amazing woman. She plays every single instrument herself and loops them so that she's her own band. Her voice is beautiful and the combination is fantastic. I had been wanting to see her in person for a long time so it was exciting to get the chance at Voodoo.

Theresa Anderson

After that we caught Florence and the Machine. Drake was up next on my list of to-see's but we needed real food so we walked a long long way to get burritos. Ben didn't really care about Drake and although I thought it would be fun, I wasn't going to spend another $7 on ONE slice of pizza.

Finally, we got to see... OZZY!

I've never seen so many people come together like they did to listen to Ozzy Osbourne live. 

people watching ozzy from inside this lit-up sculpture

By the end of Saturday we were totally exhausted. BUT, we had an amazing lineup on Sunday. We chose to see Minus the Bear, Airborne Toxic Event, Interpol, MGMT, Macy Gray, and My Morning Jacket! 

We were so worn out but I'd seen Minus the Bear in Boston and was excited to see them again.

They were good, but definitely better in a small venue. 

The airborne toxic event were super fun! I don't know what it is about them but they got the crowd going and we just really enjoyed it. 

Airborne Toxic Event

After that was Interpol, who Ben has been happily listening to for years. This was the first band that we were just too exhausted to be in the crowd for. We sat in the grass and drank lemonade and listened. We're such old geezers! But three full days of dancing and eating festival food and being out in the sun really wore us down. Plus, we wanted to be well rested for MGMT!

MGMT was great. But it was weird how all of a sudden a younger crowd emerged, dressed in all neon colors. The band came out dressed up as Scooby Doo characters :) 

MGMT

Now, I must say, there were a ton of other bands playing that I haven't mentioned. For every band we saw there were four or five or six other bands playing at the same time- it was hard to choose! There was even a karaoke stage set up with a live band to play for you. Voodoo experience is more than just music- there's art displays and tents to go in and giveaways and vendors and more. 

pretty color changing shrooms

I took so many photos and so many videos of the bands. I wish I could post them all! Recently Voodoo Experience 2011 tickets were on sale for half off!! But I couldn't convince Ben to buy them because he said he doesn't know if he'd do it again. We'll see. One of us has more passion for live music than the other. But, we both loved the heck out of this weekend and everything about Voodoo.