blarg (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
napoleonherself) wrote2001-12-29 06:08 pm
napoleonherself) wrote2001-12-29 06:08 pm
laserBeatles
I'm finally in the mood for the writeup of my adventures last night.
The short version of the evening went like this: dinner, laserBeatles, home.
Becky came and picked me up a bit before 6, for to the taking to her house before we all (me, her, her parents) piled into her mom's car and went to Millie's (a family-style restaurant where Becky works and where they often eat) for dindin. I had actually been freaking out violently about having to go out and interact with people -- routine stuff like school I do okay with, but this was dinner with Becky's parents, then a thingy at an unknown place with some unknown friends of said parents. Nerve-wracking. I was actually crying, that's how scared I was of doing something stupid. Yeah, I suck.
Anyway, got picked up, went to Becky's, got attacked by their puppy, then we piled into car and went to Millie's. I had soup. And I managed to only spill a little, and it only went on the table, not on me. I hate eating in front of people because not only do I usually make a mess due to being clumsy, but I have almost no concept of table manners because I simply wasn't raised that way. Thus I have to spend the entire time concentrating on not making a mess while also watching everyone else to see what's the right thing to do. NOT fun. "Okay, should I hold the rest of this piece of bread while I chew, or put it back on my plate? ...for that matter, should I eat it using a fork like I want to do, or should I just put up with greasy fingers and pick the thing up? ...ack, am I going for my water too often? I don't know how often it's acceptable to nervously go for liquid..." Kid you not. But with soup it's fairly obvious, and there's no cutting (I can never figure out which hand should hold the knife and which the fork, being as I am left-handed for some things and right-handed for others) and a spoon to hold. Yes.
We ate and then we got on the freeway and began the journey towards LA's Griffith Observatory for to watch laserBeatles. Got carsick on the way (car air does NOT agree with me, I need FRESH air, even if it's raining I need a window down), but not the vomity sort, just the stomachache and headache and dizzy sort, so I put up with it. Everyone else in the car was fine with it, and why have them freeze to death just so I could feel a bit better? Plus there were a few things to amuse me and take my mind off the icky. For one, I heard what sounded to me an awful lot like Eddie Vedder covering a Beatles song. And that's exactly what it was. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. It's apparently on the soundtrack to some upcoming movie. It's also now on my WinAmp playlist, thank you, AudioGalaxy. Also heard a radio commercial which contained the phrase "last week we learned how to make snowflakes out of Corn Flakes and correction fluid", which caused Becky and me muchly of the amusement. Also passed a large building that had writing on it that identified it as an Italian clothing warehouse. I had the VERY strong urge to suggest that we go there and look for Headcheese's flannel there, but I didn't. No other Pokey fans in the car.
Got to the observatory area thingy, and Becky and I sat on a wall and waited while her parents found parking and then walked back up the hill to where we were. Becky had to reassure her mom that we wouldn't wander off, and then this bit of dialogue ensued as we were left alone.
Becky: "You can protect me!"
Me: "Well, who will protect ME?!"
Becky: [pointing to a couple cops who just happen to be walking by] "Them!"
One of the cops: "Good timing, huh?"
We laughed very hard.
Becky and I wandered around and in the observatory a bit while her parents waited in line. They were very very very first in line, which meant we were too when we rejoined them. We wandered around a statuey sort of thing that had the likenesses of various famous astronomer scientist types, such as Galileo and Keppler. The word "pwap" was for some bizarre reason inscribed on the base of the thingy. Just that. "Pwap". Wasn't graffiti, was carved in there as part of the design. Pwap!
While sitting on the base of the statue, the following bit of dialogue honestly, truly occurred:
Me: "Your feet are smoking."
Becky: [jerking her shoes back from where they were indeed smoking] "Oh my god!"
We've both decided that I should not explain that. Bwahaha.
We went into the building and looked at the displays (including a model of the Hubble, leading Becky to briefly sing at me, and us both to then laugh), then went up to the roof where we peeled paint off the wall and listened to a guy talk about their big telescope. Then we saw that Becky's parents' friends had joined them, so we went down there too. A newsvan had also shown up, and at the urging of a couple of the grups we went over to ask what channel they were from. 5. Vital bit of knowledge, that. At some point in time we also attempted to see a Tesla coil demonstration, but we got there a bit too late and the tall people in front wouldn't move. I got to see the spikey pretty blue 'lectricity bolts go into the wall, so that was good, anyway.
Waited in line a bit more, and then we got let in. Sat down, rested our heads against the "comfortable" wooden headrests, and the show began. Pretty pretty lasers on the inside of the planetarium dome, in time with Beatles music. Can I really ask for any more? (Well, yeah, but it's not like I'll get it. Heh.)
The best was Octopus's Garden. They laser-drew a little guy at work surrounded by paperwork and a yelling boss, who daydreams that he's under the sea with the octopus and a bunch of fish. He danced with the octopus and the fish sang. Jeremiah was there, too! There was a little purple fishy by the octopus in one scene that I declared to be the cute little betta. Becky and I laughed all the way through that song...
Back In The USSR was also good. There was a star motif for that one, and most of the stars were red. They even had little planes with red stars on the undersides of the wings, how's that for attention to detail?
Yesterday had a laser formation thingy that reminded me of nothing so much as the Mystify Your Mind screensaver that your Windows PC might or might not have come with. I was amused by that, which is a pity because Yesterday is not supposed to be an amusing song.
For the end, they played The End, and made what I think was a very very nice artistic decision on that one... while we were listening to that bit (And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make), lasered renditions of the Beatles' faces were projected one at a time on the dome surface. I liked that. An understated little reminder that yes, this is why we're all here, because this music has given us good feelings and maybe even had deep meaning to us. Sort of a nod of the head to the guys who made it all possible.
Of course, I am a huge Beatles freak, so feel free to roll your eyes at this.
Afterwards we all took a ride down the hill to Becky's mom's car in the back of her parents' friend's El Camino. Becky remarked afterwards that she felt like a day laborer. I was muchly amused. You might have to live near the border to really get that one, but I was muchly amused.
Another ride home, more carsickness, but also more amusingness:
Me: [makes reference to tasty but morally ambiguous pies, a takeoff of tasty but morally ambiguous cookies]
Becky's dad: "Speaking of morally ambiguous, there's Starbucks."
Me: "Not much moral ambiguity there."
And I got dropped off here around midnight. All in all, was lotsa fun.
Fnord.
The short version of the evening went like this: dinner, laserBeatles, home.
Becky came and picked me up a bit before 6, for to the taking to her house before we all (me, her, her parents) piled into her mom's car and went to Millie's (a family-style restaurant where Becky works and where they often eat) for dindin. I had actually been freaking out violently about having to go out and interact with people -- routine stuff like school I do okay with, but this was dinner with Becky's parents, then a thingy at an unknown place with some unknown friends of said parents. Nerve-wracking. I was actually crying, that's how scared I was of doing something stupid. Yeah, I suck.
Anyway, got picked up, went to Becky's, got attacked by their puppy, then we piled into car and went to Millie's. I had soup. And I managed to only spill a little, and it only went on the table, not on me. I hate eating in front of people because not only do I usually make a mess due to being clumsy, but I have almost no concept of table manners because I simply wasn't raised that way. Thus I have to spend the entire time concentrating on not making a mess while also watching everyone else to see what's the right thing to do. NOT fun. "Okay, should I hold the rest of this piece of bread while I chew, or put it back on my plate? ...for that matter, should I eat it using a fork like I want to do, or should I just put up with greasy fingers and pick the thing up? ...ack, am I going for my water too often? I don't know how often it's acceptable to nervously go for liquid..." Kid you not. But with soup it's fairly obvious, and there's no cutting (I can never figure out which hand should hold the knife and which the fork, being as I am left-handed for some things and right-handed for others) and a spoon to hold. Yes.
We ate and then we got on the freeway and began the journey towards LA's Griffith Observatory for to watch laserBeatles. Got carsick on the way (car air does NOT agree with me, I need FRESH air, even if it's raining I need a window down), but not the vomity sort, just the stomachache and headache and dizzy sort, so I put up with it. Everyone else in the car was fine with it, and why have them freeze to death just so I could feel a bit better? Plus there were a few things to amuse me and take my mind off the icky. For one, I heard what sounded to me an awful lot like Eddie Vedder covering a Beatles song. And that's exactly what it was. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. It's apparently on the soundtrack to some upcoming movie. It's also now on my WinAmp playlist, thank you, AudioGalaxy. Also heard a radio commercial which contained the phrase "last week we learned how to make snowflakes out of Corn Flakes and correction fluid", which caused Becky and me muchly of the amusement. Also passed a large building that had writing on it that identified it as an Italian clothing warehouse. I had the VERY strong urge to suggest that we go there and look for Headcheese's flannel there, but I didn't. No other Pokey fans in the car.
Got to the observatory area thingy, and Becky and I sat on a wall and waited while her parents found parking and then walked back up the hill to where we were. Becky had to reassure her mom that we wouldn't wander off, and then this bit of dialogue ensued as we were left alone.
Becky: "You can protect me!"
Me: "Well, who will protect ME?!"
Becky: [pointing to a couple cops who just happen to be walking by] "Them!"
One of the cops: "Good timing, huh?"
We laughed very hard.
Becky and I wandered around and in the observatory a bit while her parents waited in line. They were very very very first in line, which meant we were too when we rejoined them. We wandered around a statuey sort of thing that had the likenesses of various famous astronomer scientist types, such as Galileo and Keppler. The word "pwap" was for some bizarre reason inscribed on the base of the thingy. Just that. "Pwap". Wasn't graffiti, was carved in there as part of the design. Pwap!
While sitting on the base of the statue, the following bit of dialogue honestly, truly occurred:
Me: "Your feet are smoking."
Becky: [jerking her shoes back from where they were indeed smoking] "Oh my god!"
We've both decided that I should not explain that. Bwahaha.
We went into the building and looked at the displays (including a model of the Hubble, leading Becky to briefly sing at me, and us both to then laugh), then went up to the roof where we peeled paint off the wall and listened to a guy talk about their big telescope. Then we saw that Becky's parents' friends had joined them, so we went down there too. A newsvan had also shown up, and at the urging of a couple of the grups we went over to ask what channel they were from. 5. Vital bit of knowledge, that. At some point in time we also attempted to see a Tesla coil demonstration, but we got there a bit too late and the tall people in front wouldn't move. I got to see the spikey pretty blue 'lectricity bolts go into the wall, so that was good, anyway.
Waited in line a bit more, and then we got let in. Sat down, rested our heads against the "comfortable" wooden headrests, and the show began. Pretty pretty lasers on the inside of the planetarium dome, in time with Beatles music. Can I really ask for any more? (Well, yeah, but it's not like I'll get it. Heh.)
The best was Octopus's Garden. They laser-drew a little guy at work surrounded by paperwork and a yelling boss, who daydreams that he's under the sea with the octopus and a bunch of fish. He danced with the octopus and the fish sang. Jeremiah was there, too! There was a little purple fishy by the octopus in one scene that I declared to be the cute little betta. Becky and I laughed all the way through that song...
Back In The USSR was also good. There was a star motif for that one, and most of the stars were red. They even had little planes with red stars on the undersides of the wings, how's that for attention to detail?
Yesterday had a laser formation thingy that reminded me of nothing so much as the Mystify Your Mind screensaver that your Windows PC might or might not have come with. I was amused by that, which is a pity because Yesterday is not supposed to be an amusing song.
For the end, they played The End, and made what I think was a very very nice artistic decision on that one... while we were listening to that bit (And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make), lasered renditions of the Beatles' faces were projected one at a time on the dome surface. I liked that. An understated little reminder that yes, this is why we're all here, because this music has given us good feelings and maybe even had deep meaning to us. Sort of a nod of the head to the guys who made it all possible.
Of course, I am a huge Beatles freak, so feel free to roll your eyes at this.
Afterwards we all took a ride down the hill to Becky's mom's car in the back of her parents' friend's El Camino. Becky remarked afterwards that she felt like a day laborer. I was muchly amused. You might have to live near the border to really get that one, but I was muchly amused.
Another ride home, more carsickness, but also more amusingness:
Me: [makes reference to tasty but morally ambiguous pies, a takeoff of tasty but morally ambiguous cookies]
Becky's dad: "Speaking of morally ambiguous, there's Starbucks."
Me: "Not much moral ambiguity there."
And I got dropped off here around midnight. All in all, was lotsa fun.
Fnord.