Due to some confusion, it’s a bit late, but we have our first non-Dave/Andy/Adrian version of a cover contest song. It’s from Alan and it’s right here, a cover of “Shape of My Heart” by the Backstreet Boys. It’s not going to be on the voting, but take a listen.
Two days left on “Consequence” if you want to do a version of that.
So I’m thinking about starting an mp3 blog. Maybe brandnewcanada.com. I think it’s be fun. I don’t currently have the bandwidth, I don’t think. If you happen to be overflowing with bandwidth and wouldn’t mind hosting a blog and the mp3s, then let me know. Or maybe I’ll set up freshmaker as a server again.
Meanwhile, here’s a good mp3. It’s a Portland, OR band called Jaime and Becky (though I think they’re originally from Minnesota). We got their CD at the station. This is a standout track. Nice arpegiatted guitar, great vocal melodies and harmonies (and blending of the two voices and the whatnot). Some totally kickin’ cello and glockenspiel parts during the chorus. The chorus is really really good. I don’t usually like female fronted bands (with a few exceptions, e.g. Cat Power), and two female vocalists seemed like it’d be too much, but these two pull it off really well.
“Midwest” by Jaime and Becky.
You can also listen to this song (and a couple more) at their myspace site.
I’d like to write such a song for western PA.
A guy at work really loves eating peanut butter. He keeps a bottle in the fridge and will eat spoonfuls at a time. (He’s also on a high protein/ fat, low carb diet, so even if he didn’t love peanut butter, it might still be a viable snack that he would have.) He says it’s like candy for him.
I gave him crap for it, but he said that everyone has their thing that they just love.
I was thinking that there’s no better snack than peanut m&m’s and a dr. pepper, but I don’t know if there are any foods I have a total weakness for. I think maybe my brother’s may be chocolate cake. If a restaurant has a chocolate cake, he’ll probably have it.
So what are your weaknesses? Anyone have any odd ones?
This guy has compiled a bunch of mp3s of indie darlings doing top 40 hits. Some are pretty great.
(I don’t know if any will be as good as Andy’s version of Shape of My Heart—not to show favorites or anything).
I was thinking about some CDs that I used to listen to lots at the MIT music library. I’d listen to a whole lot of fiddle music. One was called My Love is in America and was the recording of the Boston College Fiddle Festival which had some of the greats like Kevin Burke and Liz Carrol on it. I couldn’t find it online, but then I checked the label, Green Linnet, and not only did they have it, but it was $4. You can listen to it streaming on their site too. It’s lower-fi than I remembered, but it’s got a ton of energy and some great songs.
Another great CD was Green Fields of America Live in Concert (with a lot of great Irish American musicians). It’s also on Green Linnet, but I couldn’t find it on their site. I called them up and it turns out that they have about 5 copies left. I got that for $10.
And currently they have free shipping (for standard shipping at least) so two CDs for $14 is pretty good.
The songs for this week was Shape of my Heart by the Backstreet Boys. (Original here).
The entries are as follows:
Some good stuff there.
Listen and vote.
The song for covers contest #7 is Consequence by the Notwist. (Original mp3 here).
The results for last week’s votes (for covers of Flying Pizza by Swearing at Motorists).
Best Cover:
Adrian 1
Andy 1
Dave 2
Most Original Cover:
Adrian 3
Andy 1
Dave 0
I’d like to point out that Andy did not submit a cover so even though I left him in the poll (out of sheer convenience) whoever voted for his cover is dumb.
In other news, Dave and I are the big winners, though Andy was apparently more original than dave when not submitting a cover at all. OH SNAP, dave!
I went to see Sufjan Stevens at Great American Music Hall two nights in a row on Sunday and Monday. This may be the first band/ artist I’ve seen two nights in a row…I tried to see the Polyphonic Spree twice in a row at Slim’s but the second night was sold out.
The shows were fairly similar but different enough that I got new things out of each of them.
The material was mainly (almost entirely—I think the first night it might have been entirely) from Illinois. This was fine with me. There’s certainly enough good material on that disc to put together a good set. I liked the softer songs a lot: “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” and “the Predatory Wasp of the Palisades” were both played both nights. The would-be-singles “Chicago” and “Come on Feel the Illinoise” were also played both nights. He also finished the main set both nights with a song I didn’t like too much on the album but liked live “the Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts.”
I’d forgotten how good Sufjan is at instruments. He’s a good enough guitar player. He writes interesting guitar parts and plays them flawlessly, but they’re not incredibly hard. He’s a fantastic keyboard player, though. He’ll just plow through a fast solo on a song or play some of the rhythmically difficult things he writes in 5/4 or other strange time signatures without a hesitation. He’s also a great singer.This latest album he uses his falsetto a lot to good effect.
He’s fun to watch on stage. During the Michigan/ Seven Swans tour, he told lots of (made up) stories about the origins of the songs and whatnot. He didn’t really talk much about the songs but he did do cheers. The whole thing for this tour is Illinois cheerleaders (or Illinoisemakers); like for the last tour his back up band was the Michigan Militia, dressed in little boy scout-like uniforms with American flag hankerchiefs around their necks. So do go along with the cheerleader outfits they wore, they did cheers for some cities, like Peoria and Metropolis (which rhymed Metropolis with “Balki Bartokomous“). They were mostly under-prepared and sometimes forgotten. They were endearing in that way.
The second night the encore consisted of his cover/ version of “Star Spangled Banner” and “Romulus” both, apparently, by request. Those are two of my favorite Sufjan songs so I was pretty pleased with that.
His former bell player and back up singer, now just back up singer, is still really cute!
One major complaint was that I think there was only one or two songs with banjo and John Ringhofer (of Half-Handed Cloud) who was playing as part of the backup band, did the banjo playing, not Sufjan. Dylan and I tried to start the chant “B-A-N-J-O” (same cadence as “B-I-N-G-O” was his name-o) and I was tempted to yell “More banjo!” and later “Put away the damn guitar and play some banjo!” I encourage you to yell these things or to start the “B-A-N-J-O” cheer if you see him later this tour.
it’s really just a side note that there’s going to be a hockey season later this year.
meanwhile, we’ve got from four major sports to three and a couple fringe sports like hockey, soccer, arena football, etc.
Last week’s cover song was Suspicious Minds by Elvis. The voting went like this:
Best cover:
Most original:
Andy and Dave are the big winners.
This week’s song is Flying Pizza by Swearing at Motorists (Original mp3).
The entries:
*like many of my covers, but particular with this one, listening in stereo is better.
Listen to them and vote for the best and most original here.
Next week’s song is Shape of My Heart by the Backstreet Boys. (Original mp3) (Note: this is Dave’s choice and the owner and proprietor of adrian is rad and adrianbischoff.com disavows any association with the choice of this song.)
I did the Alcatraz Sharkest swim yesterday. It’s a 1.5 mile swim from Alcatraz to Aqautic Park, San Francisco. Water temperature yesterday was reported as various numbers between 57 and 62 degrees Fahrenheit.
I made another hastily draw map with annotations (you’re welcome!) of the race route for you to follow along with.
I got there and registered. I went and sat down for a while in the grandstands, waiting for the pre-race announcements. I was pretty anxious at this point.
The race director came out and said a few things, including how there was a 9 year old and a 70 year old both participating in the race. He asked if there were any questions and someone asked where we should sight. He sort of offhandedly (foreshadowing!) responded that the three-masted ship to the east of Aquatic Park and also there’d be a guide boat with orange bouys to the front of the race.
See, sighting is important for this swim because there is a current that goes out of the bay (east to west) right near the shore/ breakwater so if you aim for the entrance of Aquatic Park you will end up far to the west of the entrance and you won’t be able to make it back.
After the prerace announcments we all walked down to Pier 41 to board the ferries to go out to the Island. Some people on the boats were pretty talkative and jovial and others were concentrating and getting prepared. I was in the latter pack. As I was sitting there and preparing and stretching, I felt the muscle between my right shoulder and neck sort of tighten up. I don’t know if anyone else gets these but I get cricks in my neck and shoulders sometimes. Usually I wake up with them but sometimes they just happen and I can’t stop them. I don’t think this one had anything to do with the stretching or the race but once it was a crick it wasn’t going away. I decided I’d prepared for this for months and that I wasn’t going to give up at this point. (I’d decided earlier in the day that I wasn’t going to give up before 200 yards after the beginning of the race, knowing that the shock of jumping out of the boat and that distance would be the hardest points of the race and the time when I’d be most likely to want to give up if I wanted to/ had to.)
The jump from the boat was a shock to the system, as I expected, but, by the time I got to where the kayaks were lined up to denote the starting line, the shock/ panic breathing was out of my system and I was feeling okay.
The swim started and was going pretty smoothly. There were two sections where they were pretty sizable swells—or they felt sizable at least—and that was a new experience for me. Between those two sections was pretty calm and warm, actually. I kept up a pretty decent pace and I knew I was swimming pretty hard but I didn’t feel like I was getting tired so I thought I’d just keep it up and if I needed to slow down a bit later I would.
As I mentioned earlier, the way the course is supposed to work, you swim to the east of the entrance to Aquatic Park and the current basically sweeps you west so you swim directly into the entrance. Now what happened was that I was swimming along toward the three-masted ship or even farther left/ east and then quite suddenly I was too far right/ west. The current was stronger than someone thought, apparenlty. Now I had to swim against the current to get back to the entrance. I swam hard and the pier to my right (at that point) didn’t look like it was moving relative to me. I kept swimming hard and saw that the pier was moving slowly relatively to me. All this swimming hard was getting me tired and I was worried I’d not be able to make it and have to get picked up by one of the kayaks. After probably five minutes of this I was getting pretty tired but I made it into the entrance and the finish area was in sight.
Everyone I talked to after the race also ended up too far west and had to swim against the current.
I swam somewhat slower for a bit to recover and then I picked up the pace again and sprinted to the finish. Ann, a coworker of mine, was at the finish area to cheer me in.
Overall, it was not as bad as I expected. My neck/ shoulder crick hurt most of yesterday and I took a bit to warm up but my body didn’t feel the effects of it too much.
Updates to come: photos of me finishing and my time once they post the times.
[Update 1:] My official finishing time was 57:01.0. Subtract a few minutes for those shenanigans with the current and that’s a decent time. I came in 68 out of 96 non-wetsuiters and 4th in the 20-24 age division.
[Update 2:] A picture of me finishing the race:
I have a couple more posts in the works, but a quick one first.
I saw Wedding Crashers last night which is about a pair of lawyers that crash wedding receptions regularly. The trailers looked pretty lackluster, actually, but as Jesse reported it’s actually really funny. Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Christopher Walken were all great.
It’s hard to be believe that Rachel McAdams who played the somewhat blah Regina George in Mean Girls plays the absolutely radiant Claire Cleary (read: main love interest) in this movie.
Also, I didn’t notice during the movie but the soundtrack looks like it has some decent stuff on it.
This 18 year old South Africa kid, Oscar Pistorius, is smashing world records left and right for the 100m, 200m and 400m distances. He’s a double amputee (missing both legs below the knees) and he also holds the world record for single amputees (I think I’m remembering details here).
And he plans to compete in the 2008 Beijing able-bodies Olympics. He recently came 6th in the South African Championships against able bodies competitors and he’s only been running for about a year.
Alrighty.
Results for contest #3 which was Sassafras Roots by Green Day (Original).
Best Cover:
Adrian 1
Andy 1
Dave 2
Most Original Cover:
Adrian 3
Andy 0
Dave 1
So it looks like Dave takes the best cover and my all-casio rendition takes the most original.
Here are the entries for this week:
Andy
Dave
Adrian
The original is Suspicious Minds by Elvis.
Please listen and vote for the best and most original. I’d like to get the voting numbers up a little after a slightly disappointing showing last week.
The song for contest #5 is Flying Pizza by Swearing at Motorists (original). Take a listen. Just a reminder that though the songs are chosen by Andy, Dave and I, anyone can enter. Entries are due next Monday night at midnight.
[Update:] Anyone have ideas for new or different voting categories? Are the current ones good or would something else be better? Or should I add categories?
I haven’t posted anything for a while so I thought I’d put in a couple updates.
I saw Crash last night, which was directed and written by the screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby (and creator of Walker, Texas Ranger), Paul Haggis, and stars just about a bazillion people. It’s a Magnolia-like many-stories-happening-simultaneously-and-somewhat-related sort of story. It’s largely about race and things like that. Besides being intense, it’s also uncomfortable—”good” characters do bad things and “bad” characters; a nice muddle moral pool to make one uncomfortable. But it’s good. It’s a thinking movie.
At Wally’s recommendation, I got Freestyle: the Art of Rhyme, which is a documentary about, amazingly, freestyling. Freestyling is often exhibitted in battles, like those in the movie 8 Mile, if you’ve seen that, but just as often, or more often, in parks and on street corners. For those not as entrenched in the hip hop arts as I am, freestyling is rapping off the top of your head. There were two characters that were focused upon a bit more than others in the movie, Supernatural and Juice, both of whom are absolutely amazing in their ability to rhyme just about anything without any forethought. There were clips where both of them were just going about their normal business rapping about their surroundings and things as they came along. It’s an interesting movie. I’d recommend it.
On Saturday, I swam for the fourth time in Aquatic Park, in San Francisco. After all this time, I’ve decided to show what it actually looks like. I decided to do a “perimeter” swim on Saturday. I started between those two short docks on the right centerish, went left and a little down across towards that boat house looking thing on the left side, then headed up and a little left for a while, then went almost directly right toward that boat—aww, I suck at describing this. I’m just going to draw you a hastily drawn map. Two points of interest are marked by the dots. Around the one at the top, there it was quite choppy because it was basically open to the Bay at that point. At the one on the right side there was a wicked current toward the right that almost carried me into one of those large boats on the right side. The X at the bottom left is where the last swim bouy is; most people swim back an forth between that swim buoy and one located near the two docks on the right side.
The big swim is this coming Saturday. Wish me luck.
Sufjan Stevens wrote a song about Brinkley, Arkansas at the request of some people at NPR. Together the song and interviews with locals makes a nice story, which was broadcast on NPR and can be heard here. Much of it centers around the town and its economy and the recent discover of a woodpecker near there that was thought extinct since 1944.
One can listen to the NPR piece and download the song at the NPR site. I think the song might only be available for download for a short time so download it now.
I’m sitting in the W20 (the student center) at MIT, burning about an hour before I leave for the airport. I got in Saturday morning early and I’ve been going just about non-stop since then. I hope I sleep some on the airplane because I need to get some rest before I go back to work tomorrow morning. My goodness.
The itinerary, in somewhat chronilogical order:
Last week I wrote about the covers contest #2 entires. The results are as follows:
Best Cover:
Adrian 3
Andy 2
Dave 2
Most Original:
Adrian 1
Andy 1
Dave 5
Looks like Dave and I are the big winners for this week.
This past week’s cover was Sassafras Roots by Green Day. (Original).
The entries:
Andy
Adrian
David
Listen to them and vote for the best and most original cover here
The song for covers contest #4 is Suspicious Minds by Elvis. (Original). Entries will be taken until next Tuesday. Start recording!
The Craig Hotel, on Hamilton in downtown Palo Alto, was torn down earlier this week and when it came down, it revealed a well protected surprise, two vintage ads on the neighboring building. The Craig Hotel went up in 1962, I’m told, but these ads were apparently up quite a bit before that—one person said they were up since the late ’40s.
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