kaleidoscope eyes: ~Sights & Sounds of Urbanscapes 2012~

I have a confession: I'm a sucker for all things hipster. I love the vintage retro things and fashions, the pretentiously healthy fusion food, the strange music, the rebellious zeal to protect the environment like it's a life's calling, and all the colourful, artsy things that hipsters love.

So it was no surprise that Alyaa and myself found ourselves making our annual pilgrimage to Urbanscapes, this year at Padang Astaka, to enjoy the shopping, the food, and the music. For the first time, Urbanscapes were featuring an international act, Sigur Ros, and Hijabster Princess Yuna, and tickets were selling out months before the event.

After a slight 'detour' (a.k.a. getting distracted by lovely weather and trying to Instagram fluffy Ghibli clouds while driving, hence heading to Shah Alam instead of PJ ... don't ask =w=;;), Alyaa and I reached Padang Astaka at around 4.00pm.

We were both starving by then.
First stop: Food.

Stall selling yummy deep-fried stuff, including to-die-for deep fried mushrooms~ *A*

yay,sammich!

Rainbow cake~! ♥

Fresh ingredients at Dave's Deli~

Nothing says 'hipster festival' more than fusion sushi~! XD

The usual awesome culprits were selling: yay, sammich!, The Last Polka Ice-Cream, tacos, cakes, fruit pops ... our favourite Karipop was nowhere to be seen, though. :< Commercial franchises Dave's Deli, Chatime and San Francisco Coffee also cleverly set up booths.

We quickly loaded up with a sandwich, deep-fried mushrooms, deep-dried octopus, Chatime and a taco to share (no regrets!). But unlike last year, it was quite hard to find a nice place to sit down and enjoy our food. :< The Bee had set up a nice little sitting area with neat wooden benches, but unfortunately they were serving alcohol and only non-Muslims above 18 could enter the area. :<

So this is what discrimination feels like ...

Padang Astaka itself was a muddy wonderland - planks had been put up so people could walk through the field without ending up ankle-deep in mud - so sitting on the grass was not an option. We ended up at a little cemented seating area~ =w=

No joke about the mud, though: Maybe it was all the rain we've been getting lately, but parts of Padang Astaka were almost like a paddy field ... some people had wisely brought galoshes or wrapped their shoes in plastic bags. Alyaa had made the awesome decision of wearing her Doc Martens ... while my nice floral-print sneakers went to Hell and became mud-print sneakers instead (luckily they were waterproof). =w=

My poor sneakers at the end of the day ... :<

Next stop: Shopping.
Alyaa was on the hunt for accessories and maxi skirts; I was all over pretty dresses and cardigans for officewear. Of course, we had to stop by I Heart Badges and add to our respective button badge collections, and there were all these random cute notebooks for sale.

Lookit these adorable paper dolls and red rotary dial phone~ Aaah~ ♥

Awesome floral-print shoes~

Moustache watches~!

Lady Gaga glasses lol~

Baby Doc Martens, so cute~! ♥

Love these 50s-style outfits~

Cute~! Individium~

I actually asked if this display parasol was for sale~ ^^;;

I Heart Badges~

Was tempted to get this notebook ...

Really creative and charming display~!

And at night, we stayed for the Music.
I admit, I kind of only wanted to stay for Yuna. :P Alyaa had to leave early for a friend's birthday party, and by the time I sent her off from Armada Hotel, Yuna was already playing. :)

Our view of the stage~

Sunday, 25th November~

To make up for missing the Yuna performance, Alyaa offered to keep me company for Sigur Ros on Sunday (thank you Chrisy for weekend passes!). Listening to Sigur Ros live was brilliant; I consider it a weekend well-spent just for listening to Varuo live. *_*

This is what magic and oceans and starry skies sound like ...

Celebrating band member's birthday~ Do you know how to sing 'Happy Birthday' in Icelandic? :)

Closing off with fireworks ...

However, tragedy struck towards the end of the evening ...
While my handy dandy 90-300mm lens came in useful for getting close-up photos of the singers even though we were so far from the stage, it wasn't very good for capturing the fireworks display at the closing of Urbanscapes.

While switching to my wider angle kit lens, I accidentally dropped my 90-300 and ...

Damages ...

The lens itself still worked, but the autofocus toggle was shot to Hell. :< I've since sent it for repairs and am waiting for the Canon Service Centre people to call me back with the price for repairs ... am hoping it's not too steep. >< I'm kind of grateful that I only dropped it after Sigur Ros and could take a few okay shots, but still~~

All-in-all, Urbanscapes has been a very adventuresome, expensive experience. ^^;; Heh~