Comedy Jam

haha!! best picture ever!! preparing to laugh our asses off.

stand-up comedy is one of my favorite things because laughter makes the world go round. you know what else i love? picnicking in the park. oh, and i love festivals too. so how do you get all of those things combined into one ultimate night of fun? you go to Comedy Jam! a month or so ago i bought four tickets to go with no idea who i was going to take with me. all i knew is that i needed to go because i love everything about Comedy Jam. so on saturday i packed up my friends, some sandwiches and snacks, blankets and lawn chairs, and we had a blast laughing the night away. 

roomie pic! Fern, myself and Natasha (aka Natty, which is the worst funniest nickname ever!)

between these two. mMmhhmm...

while last years lineup was exceptional due to Dave Chapelle, this year wasn't so bad. there were a lot of laughs and my already raspy voice got much worse from the constant chuckling. though there was an awkward break from laughter when a pair called Key and Peele came on. they were so terrible they were booed throughout their whole set and at some point one of them said "soo..okay..you don't like our aesthetic? what else do we have?" then proceeded to not be funny. poor fellas, i'm sure it's a terrible feeling to be unfunny. i wouldn't know what that's like though. haha i'm juuuuust kidding! no i'm not! one surprisingly very funny comedian was Ali Wong who i've seen on Chelsea Lately. you know, she's from San Francisco? she's doing a show in December at Cobb's and i'm going to make sure i see it!

what a good night. i love stuff like this! 

Rock The Bells

Redman, lifted into the crowd.

i'm not sure what it is about me, but the moment i find myself with a bit of free time, i do this really tiring thing where i fill up my schedule so that there's no room for lounging or catching up on tv. this past weekend i initially had no plans and thought to myself "hmm...that's weird," but welcomed the idea of doing a whole lot of nothing for a couple of days. then during one very short conversation with a friend, the notion of chillin' on a couch was thrown out the window and by 4pm friday afternoon i had a ticket to Rock The Bells.

what does this entail? Rock The Bells is a two day hip-hop festival. that means huge crowds. a lot of rap. a lot of Humbolt County grown haze. which means a lot of snacks. as well as a lot of time laying out on a blanket. and while this all sounds like it's worthy of the category "chill-things-to-do," i assure you, it's tiring as all hell. i mean, dancing was absolutely involved, along with a lot of head bobbing and thrown deuces in the air. it's a wonder how my arm is still attached to it's socket and my neck isn't sore. oh....that sounds bad. anyhow, ten-ish hours of alla that for two days in a row is sort of exhausting. 

Smart Food white cheddar popcorn and good ol' Cracker Jacks never tasted so good! that salty sweet goodness hit the spot. this, of course, is amongst a ton of other snacks such as Gushers, Fruit by the Foot, Peachie O's and sandwiches. all very necessary.

so the line-up for this gig was pretty damn awesome. we kept it old school and focused on the stuff i'm used to hearing. i sorta stopped listening to a lot of hip-hop half way through high school so i couldn't even tell you what track is Kid Cudi's or whether or not i like Tyga. on day 1 we saw Jadakiss, Salt-N-Pepa, DMX, Wu Block, a couple of songs from J Cole, Ice Cube and Redman/Method Man. day 2 consisted of Mix Master Mike, Slick Rick, Supernatural, Common, Atmosphere, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and Nas.

i'm sort of dumbfounded about Salt-N-Pepa not singing Let's Talk About Sex. it seems like a song they'd have to perform, but i guess that's not the case. i didn't know who Supernatural was prior to sunday, so i was surprised at what a crazy good freestyler he is. he asked the audience to hand him random things and he'd put it in his rap. i'm not really sure how someone would work Cheez-its into lyrics off the top of their head but he made it happen with ease. who i really came to see though was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. i remember listening to the radio on my old ass boom box late at night waiting for Crossroads, First of the Month, or Days of Our Lives to come on so that i could record the songs on mixtapes. of course i'd only keep them on cassette tapes until i finally got my hands on their singles. remember those? damn, the good ol' days. 

that's a good way to sum up what Rock the Bells was. it brought me back to the good ol' days. 

*somehow i don't have any pictures of myself or the people i was with. errrr i guess i don't have very many pictures at all. that's not typical of me. i'm not sure how that happened. oh wait, yeah i do.

SF Street Food Fest

so this past saturday the food event of the year (in my eyes) happened. that's right, folks, the SF Street Food Fest went down. i look forward to this event every year because it combines all of my favorite things: food, friends, festivals, sunshine (with fingers crossed), and people watching. 

ready with fork in hand!

i kept this very fork the whole time so as not to ruin the earth with an excess of unnecessarily used utensils. oh, you didn't know you could single handedly save the earth with one good move? well BOOM! i just did!.....just kidding, but it did make me feel the tiniest bit better about myself today. don't judge me, but it was held in my trusty back pocket all day long. something very a la Joey from Friends.

with Marjie, one of my favorite foodies in tow......

signals telling me that it was time to feast....

231:365

fake money, our "passport," and a map of the vendors also listing what they had to offer, we were ready to get grubbin'. 

State Bird Provisions- burrata with garlic bread

hands down the best thing they had at the festival! the bread was crisp yet chewy and ultra garlicky. the burrata added a nice creaminess. to be quite honest, with extra money left over at the end of the day, we went back for a second one. the second somehow wasn't as spectacular as the first but that probably has to do with the vendor trying to get a hold on the increasing demand for their food option.

Pinx- sweet potato pie waffle

just what you would think they'd taste like. very good and not too sweet. 

Azalina's- chicken kaya penang chilaquiles

this was a really great dish when you got bites in with the crushed raspberries. it was pretty spicy and had a deep penang taste to it. the raspberries sort of helped calm the heat with a sweetness. 

Azalina's- rose basil coconut drink

looks better than it tastes. but maybe that's because i wanted it to taste a little less like rose and more like basil/coconut. what kind of idiot orders a rose drink and expects it to taste less like rose? this one! *points finger at self* 

Zella's Soulful Kitchen- jacked up hushpuppies

with whole corn kernels, jalapenos and cheese in the center. i love hush puppies if they're done right, and these were just right. not too dense and full of flavor.

Tacolicious- grilled squid veracruz

the only disappointment of the day. this was lacking in salt and the squid was almost too tender, if you can imagine that.

Clairesquares- deep fried caramel pop

the most sinful dessert. so good though.

le inside

that looks like something worth the hours of running for to rid calories though, right?

15 Romolo- chicken wings boriquas

coconut milk and lime chicken wings. pretty good stuff!

Good Foods Catering- pork belly sandwich

tender pork belly with the skin on (thank goodness they did this. that's the best part!)!!! 

random street vendor- diabolito rasposado

shaved ice piled with raspberry syrup, tamarind syrup and chili powder. topped off with a straw of tamarind candy rolled in chili powder. not really my thing, but Marjie slurped it down.

what a completely satisfying way to spend my saturday.