That's the culmination of being infested by Incubus, which is my life in the last 12 months, but I'm by no means complaining..

See the following timeline:

Nov 2006: Won tickets to private Incubus show, Nissan Livesets.
Feb 11, 2007: Wiltern show
Feb 17, 2007: I meet Jose at House of Blues!
Feb 22, 2007: Brandon's 1st Art Show, I meet Brandon!
May 2007: Brandons Book Signing
June 2007: Incubus at Greek Theatre

And now next weekend is Incubus weekend! Friday night at Irvine Meadows Amph......oops I'm dating myself, it's now called "Verizon Wireless Amphetheatre", then Saturday I'm commuting south to the San Diego show.

The highlight was DEFINITELY meeting him at his art show..

It was a February afternoon, I was at work, loving the rain, looking forward to a quiet night at home and within a few hours my schedule did a bellyflop and I suddenly found myself at Brandon Boyds art show asking him the meaning of why there's so many damn eyes in all his pictures?

The Art & Photography of Brian Bowen Smith, Brent Bolthouse & Brandon Boyd. It was being held at a stage where my friend works so naturally she called me and finagled a way for me to get in.

The show started at 7pm, I was leaving work in Marina Del Rey at 7. Traffic on the 405, traffic on Sunset, TRAFFIC UP MY F**KING A$$HOLE THE ONE NIGHT I really need to be somewhere! I was so pissed I could've drop kicked a puppy..

I ran home, got ready in 10 minutes then tore off to the location. I found parking right away and people were hanging around outside. I walked up with a group of 3 girls. I noticed the RSVP tent and it didn't look like the girls were stopping. It seemed as if they had already been in, so I followed in right behind like I was with them and strolled right into the stage, woo hoo!

I called one of two friends that I knew were supposed to go. Apparently they were already there. I grabbed myself a free c**ktail and found them smoking outside.

Since they're not fans of Incubus they have no idea what he looks like. I sniffed around and didn't see him. Once they were done smoking we went inside and decided to look at the artwork, after all that is what we were there for.

Brandons work was on the last wall. I tried to look at it with an unbiased opinion and not someone who makes me so happy I could club a seal. I did notice an theme of "eyes" in many of his pieces. Very interesting.

Shortly after we finished looking at all the pieces I turned around to see who was there and like a ton of bricks made eye contact with Brandon. I gasped and turned around.

I described what he was wearing to my friends and they both agreed they never would've picked him out of a crowd on any given day. WHATEVER.

He was wearing a hat, the same old torn up white tank that I've seen him wear a billion times and a brown jacket, with dark pants and sneakers. Someone had a video camera, he pulled out a mike and started talking about his work and how it was his first art show. I don't know where that footage aired.

People were pulling at him from every direction so I figured I'd give him some time to settle in..plus I knew I would need another drink to give me the courage to say anything to him.

I wanted wine, instead the bartender made this awesome & potent Sangria. I walked around with my friends for a bit and saw a few other randoms. Matt Sorum from GNR/Velvet Revolver, Tony from No Doubt, Jose from Incubus (who I met the previous Saturday ha!) Nick Valensi one of the guitarists from The Strokes, boy he was a mess. Oily matted hair, dirty everything, he looked like just went for a few dumpster diving rounds. I love The Strokes and wanted to go up to him but I had nothing to say other than I love The Strokes which I'm sure he's heard 1000 times, so I left him alone.

A few other random celebs who I can't remember and I think Carolyn Murphy was there. I'm 95% sure it was her, damn she's so skinny. She was wearing this velvet black dress that went down to knees, dark black tights and witchy pointed heels. There was this strange white lace that went around the neck of her dress, it looked like someone had cut a doilie and slapped it around her neck. The dress looked way too big for her, she's way to pretty to dress like such a grandma.

So after pounding my sangria, the girls were off doing other whatever and I just needed to get it over with. So I found Brandon, still hanging out by his wall of artwork and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hi I'm Marisa."
"Brandon, nice to meet you." he said and shook my hand.

I could've dropped dead.

But I didn't.

"I don't want to interrupt your conversation, but I'd like to ask you something when you have a moment." I said.
"Oh it's totally fine, ask me now." He said looking me in the eye.

I wasn't expecting him to say that.

A tumbleweed went by, and the sound of crickets kicked me back into reality.

So I asked him about the running theme of eyes in his work and if there was any meaning behind it.

"Funny you should mention that.." he says. He goes into this story on how he didn't realize he was so focused on eyes until after he went back and looked at all his work, there's a historical thing about the meaning of one eye, blah blah, telling me about some book he read about blah blah. Again, I had too much Sangria, I wish I could've remembered everything.

There was one picture in particular, a coffee cup with the image of an eye in it.

"That's actually an undoctored photo." he says.
"Shut up."
"No really."
"What kind of crazy s**t are you putting in your coffee that creates an 'eye'?" I asked.

Oh dear, my foul mouth. Damn that sangria..

He leans over to me and whispers in my ear. "Splenda."

"Shut up!" I say. And we both start laughing.

Of course it was only a matter of minutes before someone else interrupted. I stood there for a second but I didn't want to keep him from other people so I tapped him, said it was nice meeting him and congratulated him on his first show. He smiled and said it was great meeting me too.

Then I went to the bathroom and died.

Actually I didn't. Strangely enough the first few seconds I spoke with Brandon he was so sweet, gracious, down to earth and just totally in his element, that he put me completely at ease. I suddenly was just talking to some guy Brandon who happened to be showing some of his photography and paintings.

Did I want a picture with him. Sure, but no one else was taking pictures with him and I didn't want to be "that person". I did get alot of pictures of his artwork and video too. But honestly, having a genuine 5 minute conversation with him about his work was worth more than me running up to him at some show, squealing like a friggin pig and getting a pic with him. There's so much else I wanted to tell him and ask him, that I think he's an amazing poet, writer, but I'm totally satisfied with the way the night went and I wouldn't change it for anything..

Oh did I mention I can't WAIT till next weekend?