If you say so, I'll leave home

The weather was terrible yesterday but it's a lot nicer today. Fall is approaching and I'm very much looking forward to it. It was a hot summer. I've just gotten over being sick (I had tonsillitis and spent Labor Day in the ER). My mom says that I need to start taking my vitamins regularly. I'm really bad about taking my vitamins. Perhaps I need one of those trusty pill boxes with the days of the week on them? Maybe not.

I met Rachel Zoe in Bryant Park on Monday. I saw a sneak peak of her new show on Bravo, The Rachel Zoe Project, a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it. I've seen a few famous people here and there since I moved to NY, but I've never actually gone up to any of them. It's almost as if they don't live in the same world as the rest of us, so when you see them outside in the "real world" it's a little strange. But I was just sitting there talking on the phone to my aunt and I saw Rachel and her assistant walk up the stairs and into the park. Rachel sat down as her assistant called somoene on the phone. When I got up to leave, I decided to say hello. She was very nice, shook my hand and said thanks when I wished her good luck with the show. I think most people's apprenhsion of going up to famous people is the fear that they'll be complete assholes. I'm happy to say that Rachel was as nice as can be.

If you don't have the Does It Offend You, Yeah CD, You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into, you should really get it because it's all kinds of awesome. "With a Heavy Heart" and "Dawn of the Dead" are personal favorites. I feel so out of the loop with music these days (as I've spent most of the year listening to The Duke Spirit and The Cure). However, with CMJ coming up soon, I hope to get back into the swing of things. Lots of great bands will be coming into town in the next few months and I look forward to seeing a few of them.

I recently purchased tickets to two shows that I'm VERY excited about. The first is Jaguar Love who will be performing at Mercury Lounge on Halloween. Yes, it's very cool that members of Pretty Girls Make Graves and Blood Brothers got together to form a band. I think everyone should like them on principal alone. However, their music is actually quite fantastic.

The other post Pretty Girls Make Graves Bands for those of you interested include:

Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death (Andrea)
Night Canopy (Nick)
The Moonrats (Nathan)
The Cave Singers (Derek)

I also purchased tickets to see the one and only RIVAL SCHOOLS at Mercury Lounge November 6th. It's already sold out (as is their show at Maxwell's in NJ) so I'm SOO happy that I didn't wait to get tickets. I never got the chance to see them live and United By Fate is such an important album for me. It's SOO my sophomore year in college. Rival Schools played a show in Athens once and all of my friends went. I couldn't make it since I was out of town. They all gushed about how great the show was and I've always regretted missing it. But now I get to see them in my favorite NYC venue. Once it starts getting colder, I'll have to start rocking my Rival Schools hoodie again. If you'd like some Rival Schools merch, there's a great sale going on over at their Merch Direct store. Perhaps their making room for new merch? Rival Schools' wikipedia page says that they've been writing new material, so maybe a new album is on its way as well.

As a side note, Merch Direct is owned by Justin Beck (of Glassjaw) who is married to the beautiful Melissa Beck (formally Howard -- She was in the New Orleans season of Real World and on Girls Behaving Badly). Melissa just annouced yesterday on her blog that she's pregnant! Congratulations to Melissa and Justin. That baby is going to be all kinds of gorgeous.