Sunday Art II

My offering today (It's supposed to be bread and wheat. And the seeds are real. Neat!)

Power To The Romo People! - Part Duex

Photo courtesy of Raffaella.
Found and contributed by Swoz (shout out!)

Reception 4:30 PM - Nixon Library

We arrived at the Nixon Library around 4:30PM, where we would have to wait in the hall until the reception room was ready for the public. The location had a beautiful garden area outside, but it was disgustingly hot and about 5 people or so foolishly wandered outside in the heat before rushing to get back in. Mind you, this hallway was sort of narrow, as a hallway will tend to be, and having that many guests in that compact a space quickly became unpleasant. I was willing to be patient about getting through cocktail hour (is it even called that if there's no alcohol served?) because I'm a gracious guest like that. I thought that maybe an hour and a half would be standard, but when the time stretched to 5:30 PM.. 6:00 PM... 6:30 PM and we were still standing around waiting to be let in, I could feel the rumblings of a quiet riot rising to the surface. But during that waiting time, we were treated to plastic cups of either water or watered-down lemonade, some hors d'oeuvres went around (dates wrapped in bacon - who knew?), and my dad was dragging me in every direction to reintroduce me to the older folk that used to know me. They all had the same reaction of "wow, it's Andrea!" with bugged out eyes. Yeah, it's me, can I go now? I may be paranoid, but it felt like every time I turned around, my Romo match (let's call him "Steve") was always there in a group of guys. I would look and the group would all turn away and I'm flustered and turning red because I have no idea what's happening. Any attention is good, right? But it was still not pleasant.

Once those doors were opened, it was like a stampede to the tables as there were no seating arrangements. My pre-established table of people got a little greedy as we passed good tables to find something better, but then we hit the section of reserved tables and we were screwed. We looked back and those tables we passed up were quickly filled, so we sulked to a pretty crappy table in the farthest corner of the large hall. As we were getting seated, I took time to assess my fellow table compatriots and noticed how it was all couples and then Jon and I (my sister had some buddies that she was able to get seated with). The table consisted of the newly engaged couple (which of course meant that the girl was all about the feigned yawns so she could show off her new ring to a table that couldn't care less, and she was generally bitchy the whole time to her boyfriend as well. She's a keeper!). There was also the newly married couple of two years, whom are actually such a great twosome. And I'm pretty good friends with the wife, having known her for twelve or so years. So I was very happy as she is a lot of fun to hang with. And the third was the sort of young pair in their early 30s, but who have been married for ten years. It was interesting to observe the interactions of each set as they started to look identical in mannerisms and such. Remember in "Bridget Jones's Diary" the smug marrieds scene? Pretty much dead-on description of my table and really any couples party I stupidly attend. If you're a strange one and have never seen "Bridget Jones's Diary", I was able to find the clip here (Can I say how much I LOVE Colin Firth? Tall, British, and gorgeous. *Sigh*).There was an empty seat available, and for a moment I sweated a little as the dude my parents were trying to set me up with (see previous post: "Just A Love Machine") contemplated taking the seat and even pulled the chair out. But apparently his parents wanted him to sit with his cousin. Since our table didn't have room he pushed the chair back in and wandered to the table right in front of ours, to which I let out a soft sigh. Not ideal, but I'll take any space I can. I turned around to kind of scan the room and saw that "Steve" was sitting at the table right behind me. Yeah, I don't know what the chances are that these two would be right next to me in this very large banquet hall of 400 people, but of course I couldn't expect less.

Since it's a president's library, the room was supposed to replicate the East Room of the White House, but kept in all of it's retro 70s style glory to honor Nixon. When the lady in charge of the event mentioned something about Nixon's legacy, everyone smirked. And keep in mind that 99% of the people there were Republicans and weren't even in this country when he was president. Way to rock all the way to Romania, Nixon. There were a lot of portraits of dead Presidents, huge chandeliers, and gold gold gold everywhere (well, I assume spray paint gold. It wasn't that swank of a joint). The wedding theme colors were midnight blue and gold, which nostalgically reminded me of my elementary to junior high school mascot colors. Go Crusaders! I still wear the P.E. uniforms from those years as pajamas. They're so comfortable!

Once everyone settled in to their respective seats and the chattering began, the brother of the groom stood up to give a toast. He spoke really close to the mic and mumbled through the whole toast. People were quiet for about 30 seconds until they realized that they couldn't make out anything he was saying so the chattering continued. I was puzzled as to why he did not have a glass in his hand to raise. I would have even settled for one of those plastic cups of water, but no. I wasn't even sure it was anything resembling a toast until my friend Lydia leaned over to ask if the toast was over. I told her that I didn't hear any more muffled noise over the speakers, so yeah, it must be.

Quick story on this brother - we had a History of Rock and Roll class a few years ago and we sat next to each other but never talked the whole semester. Well, I found out that he was bragging to his friends (who know me) that he was cheating off of me on the tests. Mind you, these tests were open book, open note. Lydia said that I should have stood up during his toast and yelled "Cheater". I think I would have only looked like a crazy person so I kindly declined her suggestion.

I have to say that I really enjoyed my table. Everyone was entertaining and did their part to contribute to the joviality. Plus we had that empty seat so we always had some fun person stopping by and joining in before moving back to their tables. One thing that we all found to be hilarious was that the music being played over the speakers was the Yanni CD "In the Mirror". What was even better was that most of us at the table loved the guy.

The food staff started serving us the salads and it was.. interesting. It consisted of mixed greens, a sweet vinaigrette dressing, and placed in some kind of edible translucent white bowl that I wasn't even tempted to taste. The next round of food served was a bowl of sarmale, which is a specialty Romanian food that I really despise. I think I'm the only one who doesn't like it, and that's sort of a stigma for me because it's considered a staple food. There even used to be a Romanian group on myspace called Sarmale (that I assume is now defunct because I can't find any trace of it). As this delectable food wasn't part of the catering staff's menu, some poor Romanian women were tasked with having to make them all. And of course there was general grumbling from the ungrateful diners over the missing sour cream. The main course arrived, with the meat resembling an oven roasted piece of beef covered in a horseradish-tasting sauce, and included was a stuffed chicken (mine was cold) and mashed potatoes. This tower made of cheese and cracker was on the plate as well, which I dismantled and played around with before piling the pieces in the corner of my plate.

Now that most of the food was out of the way, it was time for the couple's standard and bland wedding slideshow movie! Our table was in a bad location, so Lydia, Jon and I got up and went to stand in the back of the room to get a better view of the soon-to-play debacle. And wow, was it a train wreck (that was a pun that will make sense in a few sentences..). But first, as Lydia and I started to walk back, "Steve" literally jumped out of his seat to say hi to Lydia, along with how much he missed her and that he would never miss an opportunity to say hi to her. All the while I was standing there like a goon, not knowing if I should continue walking past or say hi and get it over with. I chose option C as I continued to just stand there looking extremely uncomfortable and shifty. What's another moment like that to add in the grand scheme of generally crappy times?

Back to the movie - the first part was of the groom and his life told in pictures. Since he's an F.O.B. (fresh off the boat) a lot of his pictures were from the old country and looked like they were from the 1930s but were of course taken in the 1980s. Those were followed by pictures of the bride, which were all pretty generic and not that interesting. Then a video popped out of nowhere and it took about 2 minutes for me to figure out that it was from when he proposed to her. Cute in theory, but this video wasn't edited so it was a film showing a bunch of kids playing around in hay or something, then him proposing followed by her hugging everything that moved, and then back to more kids playing in hay. Pictures of them as a couple then came on, or was supposed to, because the first five of them were just of her posing in the sun while doing that fake laugh. I let out my own genuine chortled laughter, to which some old biddies at a nearby table turned to stare me down. A video clip of a train also was shown moving through a snowy terrain, and after discussing the events with Nicole a few days later, she explained that it was probably representing the passage of time. "Gay" was my reaction. The music was really the low point of the whole thing. (And before I get into it, I have to confess that I've turned into somewhat of a music snob, and more recently, a wedding slideshow music snob. Not that my taste in music is necessarily superior, it's just that I have a very low tolerance for crappy music. How is it that I get to decide what is and isn't crap? Well, that's your conundrum to figure out.) The groom's section was accompanied by the death scene song "Now We Are Free" from Hans Zimmer's Gladiator soundtrack. Absolutely love the song, but completely inappropriate and over the top for a couple of pictures showing him holding a soccer ball and a security blanket. The bride's music was a Kenny G number. Yes, Kenny G. I don't even want to track that one down in iTunes. Then the couple's pictures were backed by some terrible bland pop song sung by an unknown (and please, for all our sakes, stay that way) Romanian. You should have seen me in the back watching all of this. I was a sad sad girl.

What's a wedding without the bouquet toss? Better question, when was the last wedding when I didn't win the bouquet toss? Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal when it comes to snatching that sailing batch of flowers. I've caught four in my career, and right now I'm on a two-catch streak. (Question: You catch one and you're supposed to be the next bride, but if you catch multiples, do your chances decrease? I'm thinking yes). This event was no different as I used my nine years of basketball knowledge to box out the surrounding competition (getting your ass right up in front of the closest player and mowing them back to get a rebound) and cruise to victory. It was so routine, I remember yawning as I jumped and grabbed it. I think I need a worthy challenger to get me excited to do another one. Now I know how Lance Armstrong feels...

After taking pictures with the bride and the bouquet, this wild and crazy party started to wind down and it was time for the cake cutting. Nothing noteworthy here, except that the base of the cake looked like it was Raiders of the Lost Ark. After being served dessert and with nothing else left to entertain us, we were all ready to blow that pop stand. Lydia and her hubby, Joe, invited all of us over to their house for a little after-party, so were kind of psyched for that. As I waited by the car for my brother and sister to come, probably the creepiest thing took place then. A car with the heavily tinted windows drove by at 2mph, and I'm thinking he didn't think I could see who was driving because his body was fully turned towards me as he passed by. I tried to stare the figure down until he picked up speed and drove off. I totally made out who it was too, and if you want to take a gander at this fool, email me and I'll link you a picture. One word - fugly.

The after-party was filled with margaritas, a newly remodeled home that I very much want to steal from them, and this one guy who amusedly whined about everything from the AC, what people were watching on TV, that the game brought out to play was dull, and whatever else was crawling up his ass. Since it was Sunday night, this rocking party was cut short as the responsible people started leaving because of that pesky career thing they have to wake up early for. So we went home and listened to Chromeo all the way back with the windows down and all of us dancing and bouncing in our seats.

The end.

Darlene Love - "Today I Met The Boy I'm Gonna Marry"
Ray LaMontagne [Feat. Damien Rice] - "To Love Somebody"
Pete Yorn - "Never My Love" (also a top favorite love song of mine)
M. Ward - "Let My Love Open the Door"
Arctic Monkeys - "Baby I'm Yours"

Sunday Art

For the past 3 years I've been a helper at my church's Kindergarten Sunday School class. Aside from the snotty noses, uncoordinated use of the tacky glue, and the few troublemakers, these kids are so much fun to hang out with and talk to. Even at 5, they have pretty entertaining stories to tell, and their phrasings of things are adorable. One boy I had a few months ago talked about his older brothers and how one was "at sea" to describe that the brother was in the Navy. A perk of helping out in this class is that there are always arts and crafts for them to do and when I sit down and chat with the little ones, I end up doing my own project, for which they're always fascinated by what I attempt to pass off as art. I'm thinking of scanning some of these pieces every other Sunday or so, just for my own amusement. And here's today's lovely creation done on our monthly verse. Amazing what you can do with waterpaint, huh?

Andrea Digs [Insert Artist/Song Here] - July '07

(This will be a new feature where when I discover a new artist or song that I absolutely love, I will share it here.)

Today's new discovery is the band Radical Face, and more specifically their song "Welcome Home". I was perusing my thirty-five or so music blogs that I weekly check in to, and in about the 5th blog I discovered this track. I instantly halted, I mean it seriously stopped me in my tracks when this song was playing, and I only moved after the song was over (and that was to play it again). I headed over to iTunes and sampled the rest of the album and was so excited by what I heard that I just bought the whole thing. I would classify it as an impulse buy, definitely, but I'm finding that my impulses are actually doing pretty damn well. The album has turned out to be a goldmine of tracks and I'm so thrilled I found them.

A little history of this group is that it's fronted by Ben Cooper, who was also the lead singer of Electric President (also another pretty great band). Cooper played every instrument and recorded this album himself in his Jacksonville, Florida studio. Radical Face's album "Ghost" is the first release, and if you mercilessly threatened to beat me up until I could describe the genre it fits in, I would easily get out of that death grip, take you down first and then give you a description. And my thoughts would be eerily similar to the one that's in iTunes (i.e. They described it perfectly and I would be a fool to top it). So I'll just pull out some lines that I found to be accurate in labeling this music.

"Ben Cooper has a few names he works under; as Radical Face, he creates an album that's possibly one of the best debut takes on whatever the word Americana is supposed to represent in the 21st century.... Ghost is something that lives up to its name - a strange, murky presence that sometimes is not entirely there, but in the best, most suggestive way. Cooper's singing is understated but sweetly calming, a gentle glaze that recalls the not-quite-shoegaze of the many early-'90s U.S. acts that rejected grunge and lo-fi for another approach. Meanwhile, the music is equally cool but hardly cold, a carefully detailed combination of instrumentation that lightly references everything from late-'60s Beach Bos to late-'90s Mogwai in its cinematic scope - banjos sit well against the building drums, strings suddenly appear to add piercing emphasis, and there's a hint here and there of Dave Fridmann's full-on widescreen production style..."

I would add that while Ben Cooper's voice is a little bit limited in range and has some nasality, he works these songs to fit his voice and it still turns out to be good music.

So I hope you enjoy it as I much as I do!

Radical Face: "Welcome Home"
Radical Face: "Glory"

And some other songs that I am currently into:

Stars: "In Our Bedroom After the War" - The last 2 minutes are my favorite. I'm all about the buildup and grandiose style of music.

Jean-Michel Bernard : "If You Rescue Me (Chanson des chats)" - Quirky film (The Science of Sleep) with a strong soundtrack. I always listen to this when trying to fall sleep or need a little calming.

Scott Simons: "Umbrella" - I sort of half-enjoy the Rihanna one, but I just can't fully commit to her version as it grates on the nerves with all of the "eh eh eh" thrown around. Mr. Simons, I think, does a great cover of the song by keeping it tempered with a softer sound. Simple pop at its best. Plus to me the male voice makes most things better.

Power To the Romo People!...

I attended a Romanian powered, hardcore full throttle, 400+ guest wedding this past Sunday. Yeah, let that sink in for a minute... Now I will officially be accepting your pity. Oh boy, where to start. Well, I think the best way is to time-line this sucker and split it into a two part post as there were so many random things happening it really didn't have an overall theme or point, as is usual in a Romanian event.

The Outfit - 1:00 PM
I found this important to focus on because:
A) Weddings are really just an excuse to get dolled up.
B) I had to look somewhat presentable because I haven't seen most of these people in, seriously, a lot of years. I think it was time to turn some Romo boys' heads. I wore this dark green chiffon J Crew dress and a pair of black pumps that shot me up to 6'0 height. So cuteness and intimidating height were working hand in hand that day.

The Ceremony - 2:30 PM
Of course with having invited 400 people, the church they used (my old Romanian one that my family left a decade ago this fall) only fitted about, oh, 300. So since my family has hung around Americans for so long, we've acquired the skill for being at places on time or even earlier, compared to Romanians who float in when the mood strikes and that's usually an hour or so later than the scheduled time. We arrive to the church (my parents, my oldest brother, and youngest sister. Tim was smart and said "oh, heelll no") around 1:30 so we wouldn't be crammed somewhere in like sausages or have to stand up in the way back for the 2 hour ceremony. Yes, you read that right, two.. hours... When you go to a ceremony and see two chairs up on the stage, you know it's going to be sad, sad times for you.

At first entrance into this aging building of a church, I was hit with this really musty and old odor. I asked Jon if he smelled that and he replied without skipping a beat, "It smells like death". I couldn't disagree with that. We arrived so early that we weren't allowed in because the wedding party was having their pictures taken. As we waited around in the back, the awkwardness got its mark, get set, ready and go. Ok, back story moment here - I am currently using a certain dating site for different reasons I won't go into at the moment (though in my defense for using this particular site, I just wanted to see what else was out there, but am now sort of just half-assing the dating site now as I'm not impressed), and I was recently matched with a Romanian dude that I know and that goes to this old Romanian church. And yes, he knows we were matched, as it's inevitable because of the way the site works. I pretty much just left that one alone when I saw it, I didn't close it down, and he didn't do anything about it as well. But I knew he would be at this wedding and of course the first person that I see while sitting in the back is him barreling down from the balcony stairs. And it was that awful awful moment where our eyes locked for a brief second and then broke as he lumbered off, leaving you with a fresh feeling of dread in your tummy. So this event was off to a good start.

My mom refused to sit in the balcony of the church or in the pews below it because, in her words, "I don't trust the structure of this church. I don't want to be anywhere nearby if the balcony crashes down." So we chose to sit closest to the door to the right. These particular pew benches were beasts because there was no cushion for the back, just you and the hard wood. So we were already writhing and stretching our backs from the moment we sat down. Surprisingly, the ceremony started on time, and while there were a few scragglers most were there for the start of the wedding. I was pretty happy because the AC was blasting and I thought that at the very least we would be semi-comfortable, but it seemed like once the wedding started they shut the whole thing down. The heat was bitch-slapping me in the face. When I looked at the program and saw not just one, nor two, but three freaking pastors scheduled to do a message, I cried inside and outwardly groaned as well (try it, it's a strangely pleasant feeling). Why? What's the point? It was Sunday and they already had a service that morning. Why three more? Romanians, that's why. They see an opportunity when so many people are coming into church that they want to get to you while they have you. I remember at my cousin's wedding about seven years ago a Romanian pastor that gave a message during the ceremony, speaking of Hell and those going to it. It was a beautiful wedding.

The wedding started and I did a double take as there were six sets of little pipsqueaks walking down the aisle, of course fulfilling the obsolete roles of the flower girls and young groomsmen. One pair of the bunch did a loop and walked down the aisle a second time. People thought it was cute and did the obligatory chuckle, I wasn't so amused. Then the groomsmen and bridesmaids came on down, looking pretty well-dressed. The one thing that was odd was how all of the bridesmaids were just cousins of the bride (and she had a sister, who was not included) and the groom just had his brother plus more male cousins of the bride. Another strange thing was how the bride was 26 and the wedding party was all under the age of 20, save for the groom's brother (more on that guy later). I do have to give the bride credit as her dress was gorgeous and she looked great. The first pastor to give a message threw out every marital relationship cliche in the book and I can guarantee he probably figured he was being original and enlightening, as if we've never in our lives heard of being kind and loving to our spouses. Thanks, Descartes. One thing I hate that this guy did was the throwing of rhetorical questions to the couple, and it's much worse when the couple kind of quietly mumbled the answers as they didn't know if the pastor wanted an actual response or not. "Do you love this woman with all of your heart?" "Uh...Mumble..yeah..mumble mumble"

As we trudged through the half point of the ceremony, which so far included a musical performance involving a synth keyboard, a mediocre singer, and a full choir sitting up in front 2 feet away from the couple, it turned out that one of the pastors that was supposed to give a message wasn't actually available. A soft huzzah was let out from our bench and smiles were had all around. They just ended up filling that space with the groom's father giving a toast. Yes, a toast speech during the ceremony. Though it turned out to be very sweet and heartfelt, just really one of the more touching moments of the day. But I need explained to me how even with that 5 minute toast substituted in for the 20 minute one, the ceremony still amounted to two hours. The main pastor of the church who officiated the wedding was given his time (and an English translator) and he talked about how he had only started thinking of what to say for the wedding the day before and that he came up with his material while he wandered around the mall. I whispered to Ligia, "that's preparation and caring for you" while she whispered back, "Why was he at the mall?". He also threw out a joke to my parents' friends about putting on their yarmulkes when a song from the Fiddler on the Roof was about to be sung. Classy. My siblings and I passed the time by writing our "Do's and Don'ts" for our own weddings in the far distant future. Number 1 on our list was banning that pastor from coming (I added that I would hire a bouncer just to be sure). The following picture is my sister's copy of the wedding program that we defaced. I will scan my own when I find out where I tossed it (click the picture for a larger image).


When those two hours of my life taken from me was over, my siblings and I quickly slinked out the side door so we could avoid having to say hi to the couple. I really hate saying hi to just-married couples I don't know well because of the awkwardness + fakeness required to get through that. It's something I don't intend to strive to master any time soon. After enjoying the sunlight for a brief moment and then waiting for those chronic double-parkers to move their cars so we could leave, off we drove to the Nixon Library for the reception...

Part Two - The Reception: Coming soon...
Sneak peak includes more torturous encounters with my Romanian match, plus awkward seating arrangements, and a frightening picture slideshow with background music that would make you want to weep into your hands.

Wilco - "I'm Always In Love (Live)"
Al Green - "Love and Happiness"