vitamin T

my weekend was pretty solid. it felt like one of the first real summer weekends of 2009. i love when vancouver wakes up from it's rainy winter/spring slump and graces us with it's clear skies, mountains and ocean. also all the hot chicks come out wearing their best tight lululemon garb and parade around english bay on their roller skates and bikes for male viewing pleasure. and thus, all the men in vancouver are content again.

so i started my weekend by sleeping in. which is always a +. i made a giant batch of delicious margaritas and put it in franz's nalgene water bottle and then we put on our beach gear, hoped onto our bikes and headed to jericho beach. seriously, that first bike ride in shorts, flip flops, bikini and tank top is G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S. we passed through our old hood, waved to our former humble home le 2905 and had a moment of "ohmygod i miss this neighborhood".

we scoped out a rad sandy spot and proceeded to down our giant margarita. during suntanning, some smart ass bird decided to relieve himself of something nasty he ate earlier, which landed perfectly as one giant brown, gooey, liquidy mess on my tank top. thankfully not on my skin. i proceeded to shed said tank top and rock my bikini top... and then washing my shirt like a loser in the ocean. after 4 hours of lying in the sun, i had yet to tan or burn for that matter. fucking pale ass german skin.

franz and i headed back home before stopping at our favorite.place.ever, elwoods. i put my bike helmet on the bar which prompted some dude to ask "so what do you ride?" and i awkwardly and confused replied "i'm riding a bike", which made our fave bar gal lizzy laugh out loud. we had two coronas and lazily rode back home. 

we landed on the couch and decided to pop in my new season 1 of roswell on dvd that i got for 20$ at future shop. fuck i love re-watching series i was obsessed with as a teen. they are so mediocre now but still amusing. at around 10 pm we got our asses of the couch to join dan and his friends at a little house get together. first summer night bike ride in t-shirt with a backpack full of beer? G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S.

sunday prompted more sleeping in, more roswell and more vitamin T - aka tequila. dan came over and we made some delicious bison burgers and then got on our bikes to drink at mike's in prep for ANIMAL COLLECTIVE CONCERT. fuck yes. riding to mike's was torture, all up hill for 25 blocks. fuck vancouver and your hills. every bike ride is a workout i swear to god. we got tipsy at mike's with peter and lindsey. mike has a swank basement suite. dan and i's bike ride downtown to the commodore was AWESOME. beautiful clear night, all downhill and perfect temperature.

animal collective. i love thee. i know a lot people don't get it, that's fine. but some people like me, just do. and man do we get into it. there's something about finding that one consistent beat in their songs and then appreciating and getting elated by all the different layers they add. it's beautiful and invigorating. for easy listening to try and get into it, check out "the purple bottle" and "summertime clothes". i discovered them in 2005 from le cody bown. he played me "we tigers" and i was hooked. we used to listen to animal collective 24/7 and write crazy shit. it was our film school soundtrack. we first saw them at the commodore in 2007 (with my mouth wired shut from my accident no less...)

animal collective consist mostly of Avery Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist. Their live shows are super high energy and you never wanna stop dancing, and they make dreamy musical intervals between every song so the music never stops. it's like one giant musical trip that doesn't stop for an hour and a half. i started off by the side of the stage with dan and mike to get a good view but these two tall dudes stood in front of me and REFUSED TO MOVE once animal collective started. dude, you're at an ac show, fucking dance. so i did something i swore to never do in concerts cause it's an asshole thing to do, i pushed my way to the middle of the front of the stage. seriously, i wanna get into this with my fellow ac fans. which i did. we were all dancing and jumping around, so satisfying. i also made friends with the two hilarious dudes in front of me. see conversation:

dude 1: ah man i can't wait until they play brother sport!
dude 2: yo they already played that.
dude 2: what?!!! how did i miss that?! HOW?!
dude 1: it was like the second song dude!
me: they didn't play brother sport yet.
dude 2: they didn't?!
me: yeah that was summertime clothes.

cue animal collective playing brother sport and all of us rejoicing, i thought dude 2 would keel over in joy.

also i love panda bear so much. his singing voice is insane. he takes it to a whole new level. and when he turns to the drum set beside him and starts going ape shit on it during songs i lose it. i love it so much. i love seeing people going through different instruments. he does it so well.

animal collective. always a pleasure. 10/10

p.s also on my way back, i crossed the granville street bridge with dan. on my bike. first time since the accident. i made it. without freaking out and getting off my bike. HOLLERZ!

p.p.s y'all need to check out the new cool kids tunes. ugh i love these guys. summer jam.

ta!

julia gulia