‘Tis the season to give back, and the San Diego arts and music community needs your support! Tonight, Sezio launches their 2012 Membership program, which helps our favorite non-profit make awesome all year long. (Remember this? Or this? Or this? You get the point.) For the reasonable price of $40, the Sezio Card gets you 10% off your tab at a bunch of rad local businesses including Starlite, Tiger!Tiger! and Bottlecraft, just to name a few. If that wasn’t already amazing enough, try these letterpress sketchbooks on for size. Oh no you didn’t!

This evening, they’re celebrating the 2012 Membership with a huge art show, delicious food truck fare and crafty cocktails (did someone say Moscow Mule?) at the Luce Loft from 7-11pm. The event is free, so come down and join us for a night of local art, music and culture!

Come join us this Friday for an interactive panel discussion on Social Media For Social Good. It all goes down inside Wired’s holiday pop-up store in Times Square and features founders from Warby Parker, Catchafire, Tweet Drive and Holstee. I’ll be moderating the panel so feel free to tweet any questions. Admission costs only a hi-five and is open to the public. Hope to see you there!

I’ve only been living in San Francisco a month, but I can’t pass up the chance to head home to San Diego this weekend for Sezio’s Four Day Weekend. If you missed last year’s radness, #1 – make sure you go, but it’s the 2nd installment of as I like to think of it, a mini music festival. This year’s headliners – Peter Wolf Crier, Dirty Gold, Lord Huron and Real Estate are all worth your time and accompanied by a choice selection of opening acts. It’s only $30 for a 4-day pass (or $10/night) and shows are all ages, but that isn’t to say that’s the only thing going on. Each evening is filled with happy hours, DJs and after-parties. If you need any further convincing you can listen to this sweet mixtape of all the acts, but would I really be so intent on visiting this weekend if I didn’t know it was going to be awesome? Check out the cuties going and get your tickets here before they vamoose.

A couple weeks ago, Kiran and I danced our pants off in a sea of bubbles and bright lights. There were no Mayan Temple Guards or Pendants of Life, but blue spandex, ripped fishnets, animal masks, glow sticks and exposed chest hair? It was all there. We were attending the last night of the San Diego Music Thing at the Sunset Temple, and caught some wild performances from Jamuel Saxon, Rafter, Cuckoo Chaos and Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr. Good times included Rafter’s rendition of No Fucking Around and a Whitney Houston cover from the DEJJ boys that had the entire room shaking their rumps while singing at full lung capacity. If you have the chance to see any of these bands in the future, do it! Promise you won’t be disappointed.

Drool over the rest of our disposable camera photos here.

Tired of your weekly routine? Great, because this Friday is PARK(ing) Day and we encourage all of you to take a break. You know, that is if you’re down with more urban green space and promoting community. It’s truly an international affair and last year, 850 parks were set up in 183 cities across the globe to demonstrate the need for more urban green space. This will be our 3rd year of creating our own park in San Diego (details here) and we’ll be joined by our friends at Sezio, Community, The Foundry, the San Diego Architectural Foundation and Synthetic Lawn Supply. Last year, we were called hippies and deadbeats by some miserable people (on the interwebs of course) so this year is sure to have its share of drama, although I must say we’re getting to be pros at handling the fuzz. I kid, they were actually quite awesome about us doing this last year! Get on out there, even if it’s just during lunch and if you’re not in SD, check the map to find locations in your city.

Last weekend, half of Holiday Matinee met in the middle of a spacious San Francisco park for Outside Lands. Despite our inability to be in four places at once, we caught some really rad shows and met volumes of super friendly people. Smaller, less-packed performances by Vetiver and Phantogram were a treat for our elbows and ears, while bigger bands like Arcade Fire and The Shins lived up to the hype and successfully gave us the chills.

If you were on the hunt for more than just music, the festival offered a bunch of different options for exploring. We spent a lot of time in McLaren Pass, admiring the interactive installations from Monica Canilao, swinging with the chimes and sampling bites from the Food Truck Forest vendors (tots + fried mac & cheese = <3). The booze selection, however, left a lot to be desired. Forget Big Boi, we were missing craft brews, as Heineken completely dominated the beer booths. This had Kiran and Ice Cream Man reminiscing over the good ol’ Goose Island days of Pitchfork. Thankfully, the $2-4 pours splashes of local vino inside Wine Lands were there to quench our thirst.

Some favorite memories include: The Decemberists’ encore performance of Mariner’s Revenge Song, which had the audience clapping and screaming like they were being swallowed by a whale, our interviews with Chaz, STRFKR and The Stone Foxes, winning a koozie in the shape of a shoe, a magician playing the cello in Choco Lands and Dave Chappelle’s first beach ball concert.

In its fourth year, Outside Lands took it up a notch, hosting a wonderful weekend packed with memorable shows, enthusiastic fans, delicious food and environmental friendliness. We’re already counting down the days until next year’s festival and looking forward to the magical things that take place within the woods of Golden Gate Park.

See more photos here and check out our previous Outside Lands coverage too!

Who’s going to Outside Lands this weekend? With half of the HM crew in the Bay this weekend to get our summer music festival fix, we thought we’d drop a quick mix of some of the artists we’re looking forward to seeing. While there’s always some choices and compromises to be made (it’s killing me that Toro Y Moi and Foster The People are playing 10 minutes apart on a 3-day festival) this is still going to be a great time. Hit us up if you’ll be there. We’ll hang!