Big Ol' Update

So, I have quite a bit to update.  Starting with, Spring Break (woo!):

For the first week of Sally's spring break we took a family trip to Italy.  First, we went to Venice which is an absolutely beautiful city.  Then we went to Florence:

We spent one day climbing so many stairs -- first the campanile, then the duomo.  The duomo is amazing, although the climb was a little scary since it's all winding, narrow staircases.

This past weekend I went to the music festival Coachella with a bunch of my friends.  I only went to Friday, but most of it was really fun.  This is who I saw there:

Steve Aoki

The Black Keys (pictured above -- the singer/guitarist is my cousin's cousin and I've met him a few times, so I tried to say "hi" after the show but it turned out I was in the wrong place.  I did befriend some security guards, though.)

Conor Oberst

Leonard Cohen (only for about 2 minutes though)

Morrissey

Paul McCartney

McCartney was by far the best part -- his show (full concert length) was amazing!  My friend Brittany and I were there watching him 'til 1:00 AM (the rest of our friends lamely left early as they were "unimpressed" by Sir Paul.  Hey, if they'd really rather see Ghengis Tron they can suit themselves).  We entered hell upon trying to exit the parking lot, but two hours later finally made it back to our friend Adam's La Quinta house at which we were staying.

Nick, Sarah and I left Saturday morning.  That was fine with me, since I couldn't have dealt with another whole day at the festival, and all the acts I really wanted to see were on Friday anyway.  On the way home we stopped at the Cabazon dinosaurs, which are these giant dinos just off the freeway.  It was kinda trippy.

I left on Saturday because I had to be home the night for the H-W Jazz Festival, a concert Leland co-produced benefitting the charity Inner City Arts.  It was a really great concerts -- students from a bunch of different high schools played together, then 7 famous professional jazz musicians who had never played in a combo together before performed the second half of the concert.  Like I said, it was a really great show.

The next morning, Sunday, Leland and I went out for brunch at Patrick's Road House in the Palisades.  While we were eating I noticed this woman walking in wearing big sunglasses.  She was a thin brunette and looked like a movie star, although she was not a familiar face.  She was followed by her daughter and husband, who was a very casually dressed chill-looking guy in a baseball cap.  Who just happened to be Marc Blucas from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of my favorite TV shows of all time.  As we were leaving, another couple was on their way in to join the Blucas party, and as I was standing up/heading out I blocked their way and said, "Sorry." 

"Sorry," replied Jonathan Rhys Meyers in that lovely British accent of his.

When I applied to Emerson, I wrote an essay entitled "Famous People I've Almost Met."  At the time, the list included Michael Cera and Steve Buscemi.  It grew to include Daniel Radcliffe, and now includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  Cool?

Other than that I've mostly been hanging out and looking for summer employment.