alanis x

the snoop dogg show was in this big tent which could hold a few thousand people. I kid you not, there were more african americans on stage than in the crowd. When I got there it seemed like half of the white house was there but then they ended up watching from backstage. Don't strippers just get all the perks? Did you realize snoop has been making hits over a decade? Also I was impressed by the fact that he actually had a full band backing him up. Two dj's, a drummer, guitarist, bassist, and two keyboards. The dj's would usually start the song by playing the intro on vinyl but then the band would kick in. He played all his old classics and even had tributes to biggie and tupac.

sunday i woke up and had a big ass breakfast that put me right back to sleep: cereal, toast, fruit, hot tea, and a hot plate including two poached (seemed like ostrich) eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and tomatoes. i woke up around 1pm and made my way to the ferry building to get over to waiheke island. i'm telling you, that 45 minute ride couldn't have been over fast enough. the weather and sights were great but for someone that gets sea sick it don't matter. we finally de-ferried (not sure if that's a word) and it took me probably a good hour to get back to normal (assuming i've ever been normal). i had a few hours before the evening jazz performance so i hiked to oneroa bay. waiheke island used to be a place where ordinary people lived but lately more and more wealthy people started moving in and really driving up the price of real estate. in downtown oneroa i kid you not one out of five storefronts was a residential real estate office.

what i did stumble upon twice was oneroa fish and chips, a local eatery that specialized in fried stuff. it was great, you could smell the grease walking up the street. on the way to the beach (the first time) i ordered a banana fritter and a pineapple fritter. this was basically a battered and fried banana and pineapple ring. the second time i ordered beer battered fish and chips and spiced calamari strips. had i eaten the latter with my eyes closed i would've guessed they rolled them in salt. the fish and chips were excellent tho.

the windy and steep walking path from ofc to the beach reminded me a little of lombard street that the tourists line up to drive down. but instead of opening up to lombard street you see this great view of oneroa bay, surrounded on two sides by hills and trees and ending at the small stretch of beach. i sat at the edge for a while just watching the waves crash in and the anchored sailboats rock from side to side. i was thinking this is why you make and save money, so you can visit places like this. or you could just work for accenture and pray they don't send you to oklahoma city for half a year.

then i went towards the water to search for a particular kind of rock. back when i was living in sf i went to this one tiny beach along route 1, probably halfway between half moon bay and monterey. i'm trying to remember who was with me at the time, laura and mimi or gloria. anyhow, i found this one small stone in a rectangular shape with rounded edges that had a hole smoothly worn away in the middle. why is this rare? because if you look at all the other debris tumbled onto the beach they're all smooth on the edges but solid in the middle. that is unless it happened to be a cross section of a shell and then it's hollow in the middle. so either this rock already had a small hole in it and it was eventually made larger and smoother or by random chance the natural erosion that occured was concentrated in the center. anyhow, i decided to put this little rock on a string around my neck. i even got the red string used in necklaces when i was visiting china. instead of putting one end of the string thru the hole and then tying a knot, i decided i'd be different. i went ahead and closed the loop first, when threaded part of the loop thru the hole, and then threaded the other loop and pulled it tight. that way it could move around a little, which turned out not to be a good thing. one day i was taking a shit when i felt something touch my thigh and then i heard something fall in the water. i looked up as if the sky were falling. nothing. then i felt for the stone around my neck. nothing. somehow it had unraveled itself and fallen into the toilet. a clean toilet would be one thing but this one had some lincoln logs in it already. i thought "hmm, that sucks" and flushed it. so that's why i was looking for another stone to replace it.

i headed back towards the ferry because the jazz festival was being held right next to it in another tent. this evening they were focusing on vocalists. i especially liked two of the younger ones, chris melville and elena stone, one from nz and the other from australia. if you're into jazzy vocals i think you'll be hearing about elena stone in the future. i was talking to the old ladies next to me about the music and the area and then asked when the last ferry back to auckland left. they thought there might be some later ones but basically offered me a spot on their couch if i missed it. i thought that was pretty nice of them.

the show ended at 9:45pm so that allowed me to catch the 10:15pm ferry back. i learned that if i just slept thru the ride i wouldn't be affected by the motion. when i got back to the hotel i picked up the local paper and saw alanis' picture and a teaser saying she was in town. of course i already knew that. apparently a reporter spotted her biking thru the park with fiance ryan reynolds. this is kinda funny because when i was standing next to them at baggage claim i was going to ask her if she was playing a show in nz. she was busy chatting on her cell so instead i was going to ask this scraggly guy she was with. i looked at him and thought he looked kinda familiar but wasn't 100% sure. we made eye contact, i'm sure he was thinking "that's right, it's me". i wonder if he would've been offended had i simply asked about her and ignored the fact that he was in a tv sitcom and a recent movie. i know it's surprising but people don't recognize me from tiger bomb fame either :)

i think i need to brush up on my punctuation rules, especially when used with quotes. ok, gotta go brush my teeth and head over to the sigur ros show. hope these whales/wails rock the mic.