Into the World of Ska

About a week ago, I noticed a strange bit of the USA plastered on the walls of INSA. It was a poster for the band Streetlight Manifesto (pictured to the left). It was nice to see that there were fans of the band in town, and I reminisced on that time about a year ago when I was going to see them in San Antonio with my friend Chris but decided instead to put my 8 hours in at work and have a relaxing evening with my girlfriend.

So asking if I'm a fan of Streetlight Manifesto is kind of like asking some random person on the street if they're a fan of the mayor. Sure, maybe they voted for him, know his name, heard of a few things he's done. But really ? their feelings are not that strong. I suppose the term «familiar» comes to mind. But sure, Chris really likes them and I've always wanted to experience a new type of show.

And this is when I realize that no only are there posters up promoting the band, they are coming. to my school. in France. for 4€. omgwtf.

As it turns out, Streetlight Manifesto concerts are amazing. So I decide to go. Seriously... 4€. where can you wrong?

So the night of the concert comes, I buy my ticket they write «NTL» on my hand (i don't know why). And I'm with my friend Nathan who is a huge Streetlight Fan. Far more than I in any case. And he is pumped because he just got over a cold just in time for the concert and he's got 2 half-liters of Kronenbourg in his hands. He's just ready to party.

The first opening band goes on. They're called Defy Control. They're punk, they're sound is a little too thin for my taste, but they're decent. I meet them after they go on and they say they're from Portugal. Pretty cool.


So the next opening band goes on. They're called Charly Fiasco and they are French. Wow what a difference it makes. Suddenly there's energy in the crowd. Not too much dancing going on, but a respectable amount of head bobbing.

They sound a lot like Green Day, which is to say, simple, sweet and pretty good. I liked them and enjoyed their show quite a bit.

And then the main attraction comes on. That space you see at the front of the stage gets filled and the party really starts. Now I had no idea about this before. Being a frequenter of more indie concerts that attract the kind of people whose dancing tops off at the headbob and foot tap move, I really had no idea how much fun a crazy (slightly drunk) energetic and happy crowd could be. What. A. Blast.

It was amazing. The music was energetic and lively, the technical difficulties were charming, the moshing was quite enjoyable, the crowdsurfing on a crowd of only ~50 people was ridiculous and awesome. I had no idea.

And for the fans of Tomas Kalnoky out there. Who knew he looked so much like Charlie from Lost?

They Came Back

For those who haven't been following, about a week ago, two french hooligans/vandals came to my window, pulled my hair and beat in my window... you can read about it in the previous post.

Well, they came back. To be clear, it seemed to actually be someone else who came. But they attempted to do the same thing, break in my window. It went something like this.

The Phon and I were hanging out in my room after deciding to not go party downtown with the other Americans. We started watching the HBO series True Blood (which I quite enjoyed despite it's unnerving similarities to Twilight). After watching the first two episodes, The Phon decided he'd had enough and left to go to his room, so I started watching the third episode by myself.

I got through about 10 minutes before I heard a sound. Now this wasn't too weird, because I hear weird noises all the time. They're very deliberate and usually consist of someone using a hammer or slamming a door. But this time it seemed eerie... close.

And then I realized someone was ripping out my blackout blinds!* I saw half of them fall off and I freaked out. I ran out of the room and I heard loud banging noises all the way from the hallway. They're trying to get into my room! Eventually, I went back into my room, turned on the light, grabbed my cleaver and went to the window and before I got there, the guy had run off. I heard what I would imagine to be "he's here? run away!"

I called the police, but they decided to not do anything since the guy left. I decided to spend the night in The Phon's room (taking my valuables with me). When I wake up, I made my way to my room, and I run into the maintenance man outside of my window looking at it. He helps me out to clean up and patch my window.

So now I'm scared of my room... since there are no blackout blinds (so people can see into my room), there's a hole in my window so sound gets through easily, and there have been 2 attempts to burgle my apartment. Bleh... I think I might try to move.


_{*For those who have not heard of them, they are blinds that roll down on the outside of your window and are able to block out all light.}

So... That's the French Police

An event transpired this night.

A sickly young asian-american sitting in his apartment in France was watching an episode of Fringe when he heard a knock at his window.

rapp-rapp-rapp

standing up to go see who it was, he found that it was two boys who were unfamiliar to him. he opened the window to see who it was

Bonsoir

Immediately one of the boys jumped up and grabbed the young man's (finely taken care of) beautiful black locks. On this cue, he closed the window and the other boy outside the window retrieved a bottle that resided on the window sill and repeatedly smashed it into the window, shattering glass and spreading it around the room.

After the ordeal had taken place, the young man phoned the police to realize that the police only speak french. He attempted to portray the event to the policeman on the phone to no avail.

Eventually, after a quarter of the Americans who were in France with the young man passed through the apartment and he found a convenient neighbor to help him out with dealing with the cops. And everything went smoothly.