Homestretch

Classes ended last week, so that means only one thing: finals week. Weren't grad classes supposed to have no finals?? I turned in my math project on Friday, but my exam in optimal control isn't until Thursday. Yes, I'm glad it's not until Thursday since I still have lots of studying to do, but I've been looking for every possible opportunity to not study since classes ended... Thursday was the OC, Friday was the Tiësto concert (which was an outdoor rave in the rain - absolutely amazing!), and then I came up with random errands and other "important" things to take care of this weekend... it's the homestretch, and I really need to just force myself to study hard for another few days so that my exam grade can make up for my second test grade... but really, the only thing I want to do is go shopping for summer clothes to wear in Florida next week. :)

So, the concert - it was awesome! We got it just before Tiësto came on, and he played outdoors from 7:30 until a little after 9:30. It started raining about half an hour into his set, which only made the whole thing that much better - everyone in the crowd started dancing and cheering even more crazily. It was really cool to see/hear everyone react to the music he was spinning - it would start out mostly treble, and everyone started clapping in rhythm, building up to the moment when Tiësto finally threw in the base. Then the clapping immediately switched to everyone just throwing their arms up in the air and dancing. It was really interesting how techno is so much more satisfying when you've heard just the treble and finally the bass is added, rather than when you just hear both together from the beginning. I haven't really figured out what makes a good techno/trance dj, but I think that's part of it. There was another aspect of the concert that I thought was unique to a dj performance rather than a singer or group - it was completely visible that Tiësto was having just as good a time as we all were. Ideally, every musician has a good time performing, but sometimes as the audience, it's hard to tell. Here, Tiësto was smiling and half-dancing along with us as he spun, which gave it a together-ness quality between the performer and the audience that I've never experienced at any other concert.

Our tickets were good for the outdoor evening concert and the indoor club concert at Avalon from 12-2, but my stupid eyeballs got pretty irritated with all the cigarette smoke, pot smoke, and who-knows-what-else smoke while we were jumping around in the rain, so I decided to pass on the 12-2 part. And in case you were wondering, dancing in the rain with glasses is a little difficult!