¡coming soon!

so, we're onto something big, kids.

http://www.teapartyboston.com/

keep it on the refresh for the next couple of weeks, as our official launch is approaching and we want to make sure you get in on the local music exclusives/late night dance floor photo shoots/gilly impressions.

[these photos were snapped by gab at the magic magic/hallelujah the hills show at the middle east friday night.  both bands were phenomenal, go check them out immediately.]

HAHA more wine riot.

courtesy of the second glass' photobooth at wine riot: jessie, ryan and me.

in other news, my sinuses need to not exist or they need to back the fuck off.  stop ruining my life, nose.

hil's social calendar.

i'm just a social lil' butterfly this weekend, aren't i?

friday:

+it was too gorgeous out to go to the gym.  i met up with los for a lovely lunch at crema cafe in harvard square and i had quite possibly the most delicious grilled chicken/cotija/avocado sandwich of my life.  we walked over to utrecht, where i picked up a few canvases and some more paint, because i have presents to make for a couple of boys.  we moseyed back to my place and i got my first sunburn of the season in the process, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon drinkin' beers and listening to lykke li with every single window in my apartment open.   love. ly.

+my mom came down for a visit to drop off my bike (!!!) and we had a nice dinner at the independent.  i just got a cheeseburger, nothin' fancy.  and of course the deviled eggs.  ohhhh the deviled eggs.

+i met up with james in coolidge corner last night and we went to the brookline booksmith, which is something i've been meaning to do for AGES.  a leisurely stroll through the bookshelves made me realize a few things: 1) i have entirely too many books in a stack on my bedside table that i've been meaning to read for ages, including infinite jest [still haven't started gah], crime and punishment, and el coronel no tiene quien le escriba [no one writes to the colonel 2) i have entirely too many books that i want to add to that list, including more stuff by chabon, brautigan and bukowski 3) i cannot be stopped around used books that have anything to do with picasso.  while poking through the booksmith's used section, i stumbled upon portrait of picasso as a young man by NORMAN MAILER.  i love norman mailer. i love picasso.  i had NO IDEA that this book existed until last night. so good.  other used books i've procured regarding pablo picasso are picasso's war by russel martin, picasso on art: a selection of views, edited by dore ashton, and life with picasso, which is a memoir written by francoise gilot, one of picasso's companions and the mother of his two youngest children.  here's a shot of my growing collection.

anyways, after the brookline booksmith, james and i moseyed up beacon street for beers at the publick house, only to shy away from the place because it was PAAACKED.  for a laugh, we continued on a beer at mary ann's, the infamous BC watering hole where my father and his best friend in college got into a massive fight that resulted in 23 paddy wagons hauling up outside the cleveland circle dive.  not much has changed: the place was chock full of BC underclassmen who probably got in with their older brother/sister's expired license so we booked it outta there fast.  eventually, we wound up meeting up with marcy and we settled for beers at the road house before calling it a night.  low key and pretty great evening out, if i do say so myself.

saturday:

+caught up on some reno 911 episodes while scarfing down a delicious breakfast of tomate frito, manchego and french bread.

+going to work on my fitness as soon as i finish this post.

+and, finally, getting all gussied up for the double-header i have in store tonight: wine riot takes place tonight, and after my very first wine tasting, i'm heading back over to my neck of the woods, where mcalister drive is headlining a show at precinct.  my smokin' date tonight is the one and only jessie and we've been counting down to this all week.  no pressure. haha.

sunday:

+brunch with los, jessie and maya at deep ellum

+BIKE RIIIIDES!

+and, duh, the sea monsters at precinct. 

i'm not even gonna touch on what's going down monday because iiiii am too excited.

MARATHON MONDAY: T-7 days. YES.

hey sports fans, guess what? MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY IS NEXT WEEK!  (and no, i'm not talking about it being christmas morning for stoners everywhere, aka 4/20).  i'm talking about MARATHON MONDAY!  my best friends from new york and i drove up for it last year because one of said best friends had a sister with an apartment on beacon street in brookline.  we could literally stumble out her front door with beer in hand and slap high-fives with runners before their last mile.  AWESOME.  

this year, best friend's sister sadly no longer resides in the same sweet digs, but jessie lives relatively close to the marathon route and we're going to chow down a spaghetti and meatball spread (runners need those carbs, man) and then mosey on over to beacon to cheer those athletically superior marathon runners on.... in STYLE.  our marathon monday party will only consist of those donning 80s track star/gym class get-ups inspired by the likes of these icons:

larry bird

bjorn borg

and the woman responsible for the creation of the most awkward music video in history...

olivia newton john.

today i was able to score some sweet tube socks, gym shorts and a sweatband/headband from american apparel on my way back from an afternoon screening of "adventureland".  (someone needs to tell jesse eisenberg that he was clearly the runner-up for michael cera's part, as the movie was clearly written for everyone's favorite fictional teenage father/awkward high school heart throb.  just sayin'.)  i'm wearing this beautiful red baby out to dinner tonight because i haven't been able to take it off since i bought it: 

whatever, at least i got the 'fro to go with it.  i plan on rockin' this until the last person crosses the finish line (which very well may be a full 24 hours after the whole shebang is "over".  see?! such excitement.  too bad it's only once a year.)

the night that funfetti devoured my kitchen/we devoured funfetti: Los' 23rd.

get ready for some surrrrrious cupcake porn.

SO DOMESTIC.  jessie is so vogue.

kevin felt the need to document our frosting/sprinkles process because we were kiiind of into it.

to quote marcy: "these cupcakes look like fairies pooped all over 'em."

if los was a cupcake she would look like this.

i missed the "be sexy!" memo.  ah well. kj's into it.

sadly, there aren't many photos of the birthday girl - there was a pretty massive turnout and she was bouncing around to say hi to all the party goers, but i was able to snag a quality shot of the four of us before the night ended:

and a shot of me and the newest member of the 23 club.

happy birthday los :)

what's on tabs this weekend: bishop allen tonight at the middle east, brunch at deep ellum at some point, the sea monsters, of course, and a long, bloody, drawn-out battle between me and my frosting-covered kitchen floor. I WILL CLEAN THIS APARTMENT! I WILL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WIFEY!

LOS TURNS 23 TODAAAAAAY!

expect a photo-heavy post chronicling the celebrations sometime tomorrow.

¡QUE LOS CUMPLAS FELIZ, MI ESPOSITA!  i'm so lucky to have you as a best friend and my #1 partner in crime. i love you!

we found nemo.

hahahahaha.

gummy clown fish courtesy of a drunk jessie's cravings and the gourmet market on mass. ave. in porter. (these have been sitting on my coffee table for a week or so.)

it's dreary outside, but i'd rather it be dreary and warmish than snowing and pretty.  it's almost april and i can honestly say that i've never, eeever been so happy to put a winter behind me as i am this spring.  winter of '09, you are officially going down in the record books as the worst three months i've experienced consecutively, ever.  as a result, this spring is going to be phenomenal. i can feel it.

anyways! april is so soon, which means that the wifey's birthday is so soon (cough thursday).  i got her an awesome birthday gift. (she does read this little blurb occasionally, however, so i'll wait until after she gets her present to talk about the gift and the ridiculous place where i found it.)

today is all about figuring out unemployment stuff (which never seems to end, ugh), eating a sandwich, going to the gym and returning my sad minnetonka's to nordstrom.  tomorrow i'm getting a much-anticipated haircut at marc harris with my girl rogue.  i can't decide if i should do something drastic or just get a trim.  we'll see.

oh, also! speaking of hair! los recently went to shag in south boston to be a hair model and came home with a gorgeous, newly red-hued head of hair.  (she was blonde/dirty blonde before and wanted a change.)  the deal is you go in and you have to be open with color options and the stylist literally has a field day making your hair look pretty in different colors.  los' hair looks so good that i was seriously considering doing it myself (i've been wanting to dye my hair for awhile now) but my locks are fiiinally back to their natural color and i feel like i should be kind to them for a bit.  so, to anyone who's looking for a change on the cheap, head over to shag and offer your scalp up for hair model services.  it's fun, free, and you'll look pretty bangin'.

...and now i have to go be a productive grown-up.  on a rainy day.  lame. 

um.

a couple of things:

#1. anyone else in boston watching "the office" right now?  because they definitely had a commercial for the massachusetts tourism bureau (www.massvacations.com/) playing in ... uh, massachusetts.  what?  that's dumb. they should be playing that shit in florida or texas or somewhere else.  who FROM massachusetts is going to book a vacation TO massachusetts? stupid. [i do understand that this could be a national advertisement, but i highly doubt it. c'mon people.]

#2. i was just pokin' through apartment therapy, which i make a point to browse through every couple of days, and found this:

and promptly swooned.  what i wouldn't GIVE for my apartment walls to just be bookcases filled with books assorted by color.  brilliant.

anyways, that's all.  tomorrow is friday, meaning i've got another three days in store that'll consist of dance parties, fantastic live music and brunch with my three favorite people on saturday.  jessie, los, maya and i, together at laaaast! 

my rockstar friends are, like, soooo dreamy.

photo courtesy of mcalister drive's myspace, which can be found here.

i've been kind of bouncing around like a crazy person this week, so i haven't had the chance to write up a decent review of a fabulous lil' show i attended at bill's bar last weekend.   a week ago today, jessie and i dolled ourselves up and scooted over to see the supremely talented val emmich and the adorable poppy-punky-hearts-a-fluttery musical stylings of our friends mcalister drive.

a few things about the show, the venue and crowd in general:

1) i may be biased in saying this seeing as these guys are pals of mine, but mcalister drive is a breath of fun, fresh air in a sea of brooding hipsters wailing about their ex-girlfriends while clutching their teles to their chests.  the band of buddies hails mostly from the greater boston area and they sold out three shows (three!) before their appearance at bill's last saturday, so things are only looking up for the foursome from here.  their recently recorded "i wish i knew" is up on their myspace, so give 'em a listen and getcha dancin' shoes on.

2) val emmich was f*cking fantastic.  i'm kind of a sucker for anything remotely rockabilly, and emmich, who's kinda blowing up right now and getting his tracks featured on "ugly betty" episodes and everything, definitely delivers in the rustic/twangy/sultry/steel-stringed grit department.  i haven't been able to take "hurt more later" off repeat on my iTunes since last saturday, so give that a listen, too.

3) bartenders at bill's bar: you pour shitty beer and your attitudes suck.  i'm not a fan of you, and i don't plan on buying drinks from you or tipping you if i'm back for a show in the near future.  the guy who served us was rude/borderline aggressive and the guinness i had before the show was the worst pint in HISTORY.  granted, it's not like i was there for the beer and i wouldn't recommend bill's bar anyway unless you're going to see a band in particular due to its landsdowne location, but the service and the drinks were just bad. juuuust bad. 

today, i met up with meg, my childhood bestfriend/neighbor/partner in crime, and we spent over three hours chatting it up in the vault room at bloc 11.  tonight, pato and jessie and i are making a scrumptious cuban dinner and then heading out in the night to do stupid things, most likely.

how's your weekend?

happy things.

hi!

i just posted this on los' fbook wall.  i figured i'd share the love with you, too.

as much as i want to write about how spontaneous and awesome it was to run to the back of the somerville theatre last night to greet U2 after their super secret surprise show, i'm too tired right now. i have no idea why, either, seeing as i got plenty of sleep last night. (ok not really but i got more than 7 hours, i think, so i shouldn't complain.)  in lieu of talking about how much i love bono and how genuinely happy he seemed to see the crowd who had come out just to say hi, i'm going to write a happy list.

THINGS THAT MAKE HIL A HAPPY CAMPER! (in no particular order):

+coffee and ginormous chocolate chip cookies from 1369.  mikey and i hit up 1369 after a fantastic visit to the ICA (see below) and the cappuccino i had was one of the best caffeinated concoctions i've downed in awhile.  (i usually consume between 4-6 shots of espresso a day, so this is big.) 

+the interlock mini skirt from american apparel.  i have it in black and eggplant and i wish it were springier outside so that i could wear either one with leggings and cute little flats and not have to worry about getting said cute little flats all muddy and gross.

+"back to the future": i own the complete trilogy and watched the first installment while awaiting the arrival of marcy, chris and andrew before our bono sighting.  los and i are thinking of going as marty and doc next year for halloween, but only if this brilliant plan falls through.  (jessie i know what you're thinking but I ALREADY HAVE THE PURPLE SKIRT AND THE GLASSES OK!)

+shepard fairey.  i went to his show at the ICA today and found it to be inspiring and humbling and it made me wanna go home and create something.  the arrangement of the exhibit was exquisite, the presentation was superb, and i absolutely plan on taking advantage of the free ticket i scored sometime next week.  his guns and roses poster is now prominently displayed in my kitchen.

+i love the sartorialist and it's one of the first blogs i check when i wake up in the morning, and i've bookmarked this photo since its original posting on february 13th.  i want a bright blue scarf!  i want a grey blazer with colorful, almost unnoticeable details! (i want the girl version, however, seeing as i am not an extremely tan italian man...)

+buenos aires.  this time last year los and i were prepping and packing for a weeklong stay in my second home.  to say that it was incredible, that whole returning-to-my-favorite-city-for-the-first-time-since-leaving-it-with-my-best-friend-in-tow thing, would be a gross understatement.  some favorite shots from our trip to buenos aires in march of 2008:

los hanging out in the hammock at our hostel in palermo.

we got to catch up with tony, one of my good friends who i had studied with while living in buenos aires in 2006, and this was the view from the roof of his apartment building on charcas.

the graffiti and street art that plasters the walls of capital federal is amazing, and this was one of the many murals we spotted on the entrance to a restaurant in palermo.

i stayed out with a bunch of newfound friends 'til dawn my last night in BsAs and was able to snap this shot while walking home that morning.  sunrise on rio de la plata? this doesn't even begin to do it justice.

so, anyways!  that's the march 12th edition of the happy list.  what's making you smile today, ladies and gents?

-H!L.

recipe for a dance party, brought to you by maya.

background: los, maya and jessie are my three partners in crime when it comes to most of my adventures in the Bean and in life in general, actually.  more often than not, we tend to dance around like crazy people wherever we are and whenever we're at my place you can bet that maya's playing dj and making some ridiculous, adrenaline-pumping playlist on my itunes.  

while cleaning my desk yesterday i FINALLY found the cd that maya made for los, jessie and i.  i knew it was in my desk somewhere but couldn't find it the night of my birthday when about 30 people piled into my tiny one-bedroom apartment and we were in desperate need of danceable tunes, and los keeps the disc playing on heavy rotation in her car.  so, without further ado, here's what we listen to before we go out, when we're en route to going out, when we're already out... you get the idea.

architecture in helsinki, heart it races. (this is also one of the most absurd cockamamie things i have ever seen.  that should mean something.)

hot chip, ready for the floor. (my neighbors are probably real sick of hearing this when they walk by my apartment after 5pm.)

new order, temptation. (side note: the sea monsters do a fantastic cover of this. well done, friends!)

passion pit, better things. (we saw them at the middle east a couple of weeks ago.  pretty boss.  also, the intro makes me giggle.)

beyoncé, single ladies (put a ring on it). (you do not know ridiculous until you're at phoenix landing with us on a friday night and you watch hil and jessie and company try to do the choreography to this while jessie spills her beer and hil breaks stuff.  it's absurd.)

that's it, for now.  what do YOU listen to when you're getting all gussied up for a big night out and you're dancing like a cool kid in front of the mirror in your bedroom?

ps: this is us. taken at the brazilian girls show at the paradise this past october; from left, jessie, hil, maya, los.

aw.

(also: somebody make me go to the gym. seriously.  my couch is way, way too comfortable and i can't spend another afternoon on it and still like myself.)

wintry mix? wintry HELL.

like everyone else in this slushy mushy gross city, los and i are sick. to. death. of. this. snowy slushy nasty substance we fondly refer to as a "wintry mix".

anyways, we're here learning the choreography to michael jackson's "thriller" because los has to teach her hip hop club class at the winter hill school this afternoon and needs something for the kiddos to do.  i am her guinea pig.  i am not the most mj-inclined dancer, we've discovered.

in other news: the cold war kids' hospital beds is song of the moment for me.  they're coming to town on april 2nd; seriously considering getting tickets because i'm obsessed with them, but alas it's los' birthday!  they're playing terminal 5 in new york the following night, so maybe i'll just suck it up and head down to my former stompin' ground to see the show and hang out with some favorites.  here's an acoustic version of hospital beds for your listening pleasure.  so hauntingly gorgeous.  so perfect on a day like today.

so did anyone wake up with a splitting gin and dance party induced headache this morning? because i know that jessie and i did.  to quote jessietron, blergh.

also, i give you baby on a roomba.

love, hil.