Much like last year I won’t be donating money for my yearly birthday giving this year. A few weeks ago I started going into the Bookery (or watch an overly dramatic video about it) for a few hours, twice a week to sort, label and cover books for school libraries. I’ll continue this for the time being.
There’s also a very good chance I will return to Ingwavuma to help out at Zisize again.
Previous years:
Does the NY Times‘ stylebook actually include calling people with PhD’s “Mr.”?
“Attention is the holy grail,” Mr. Strayer says.
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Among the bright academic lights in the group, Mr. Kramer is the most prominent.
[Links added by me.]
That’s strange. Well, the Times repeatedly messes up cardinal’s titles so who knows.
The other day I started realized that toilet paper is pretty non-linear. (As I’m not the first person to point out.) The last part of the roll disappears a lot quicker than the start because each sheet makes up more and more of a warp around the roll.
I decided to do some calculations and make it real by measuring (using my awesome new Mitutoyo calipers I love) a roll of 350 sheet two-ply toilet paper I have here.
Conceptually one can look at it as a series of concentric shells of radius Rn and length 2*pi*Rn. A roll with no center tube looks like:
L = pi*R^2/T + pi*R
where L is the length of paper, R is the radius, T is the paper thickness.
If you missed the US America v Algeria game the other day, it was US soccer’s “most dramatic and important” win. I attended the game and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. My hands were shaking so much by the end of the game that I had a hard time writing an SMS. It seems that the other fans liked it as well, possibly because it very American.
I’ll write more later about my experiences going to that and the previous US game (US v Slovenia) later, but in just a few hours, the team plays again, this time against Ghana, the lone remaining African hope in the tournament. Some smart people put the odds at even for who will win. Though I’ve been rooting for African teams at every turn, my allegiances today will be with the US.
Go US America! Go Yanks!
I’m in Johannesburg now. Jo’burg, Joeys or Jozi.
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I came up to the high country to go to a couple US America soccer games. I went to the US-Slovenia game on Friday. Even though I had the cheapest class of tickets for the game at Ellis Park, somehow I had great seats. See my view above.
I think America should have won with a botched call from the ref disallowing the would-be winning goal. That said, I really had a good time at the game. The atmosphere and the game were exhilarating.
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I drove up through the Karoo, the semi-arid interior of the country. It’s a stark and beautiful area. It’s cold at the moment; the snow on the mountains marks the first time I’ve seen it in the country.
It’s a long drive, some fifteen and a half hours over two days. It’s easy to forget that South Africa is this big.
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I rode the brand new Gautrain yesterday just for fun. I like high speed rail. This never really had a chance to get up to full speed but it was still impressive.
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Today I watched the Slovakia-Paraguay at a fan park in Newtown (pronounced as if it was two words) and went to the top of the Carlton Centre, the tallest building in Africa (but not tallest structure). The tower used to be prime property but is now in a fairly rundown area; on the other hand, Newtown seems to be in the middle of revitalization.
A bit of a continuation of the last World Cup post.
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I don’t think I have to reiterate this, but I will: the entire existence of this country is the World Cup right now.
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In last Sunday’s church bulletin was a special World Cup prayer. I was a bit surprised that there was one. It was for the country, sportsmanship and fairness–things like that.
The most visible church between the city center and the stadium is a Catholic chapel that has been undergoing upgrades to the foundation. After being closed a year or more, it’s reopening this Sunday, June 13, the first Sunday during the World Cup. I’m sure this is not a coincidence.
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Wednesday was Vuvuzela Day. People were to blow their vuvuzelas at noon. I managed to go up onto the road-to-nowhere with the giant vuvuzela there. At noon they sounded it using compressed air, I think. It was pretty amazing. Between that and all the vuvuzelas on the streets below, it was a fantastic cacophony.
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There are tourists everywhere now. Everywhere.
The bad part is that whenever I open my mouth now people think I’m a tourist. Before people wouldn’t assume that but now that the World Cup is on, I’m a tourist again.
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A giant coke man was erected in Johannesburg. I was pretty jealous until I found that they’re making one at the Waterfront in Cape Town too (see above!).
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For the occasion I put together a a post on/ mix of great South African music. Go check it out. I’m happy with how it turned out.
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They’re showing some games in 3D. I think I’ll need to go to one of those.
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The Big Picture has a nice selection of photos of World Cup preparations.
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Look no further. This is the best World Cup calendar.
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moments after Tshabalala’s rocket
I walked into town yesterday to watch the game with some friends at a bar that, for whatever reason, the French Consulate was throwing a party at. On the way there people were cheering and yelling out of car and minibus taxi windows. I was greeted and smiled at randomly on the street, which is a rarity here.
The bar was a good atmosphere: lots of people cheering on their adopted country. There wasn’t much action in the first half other than South Africa’s goalkeeper making some great stops. When Tshabalala scored the first goal of the World Cup to put Bafana Bafana up 1-0 on Mexico. The room, already loud and raucous, became absolutely buoyant. It was not to be, however, as Mexico tied up after not too long.
Near the end of the match, there was devastation like earth opening up underneath us when Mphela’s breakaway ended in a shot off the post.
There’s always Wednesday, Bafana. There’s always Uruguay.
Amazingly, there were two perfect games thrown this month (only the 19th and 20th ever in major league baseball).
The first perfect game was thrown by Dallas Braden. He has mediocre numbers while pitching for a decent team. The opponent was easily the top team in baseball at the moment.
Roy Halladay threw perfect game on Saturday night. He’s widely acknowledged as a pitching ace. Playing for a top-of-the-division team, he pitched against one of the weaker teams in the league.
(See highlights at each of the ‘perfect game’ links.)
What would you do if you had 6 months off, but limited funds? I mean, I’m not asking what you’d like to do: what would you actually do? Just something to think about.
Not for those scared off by explicit language, but a pretty funny video some Australians introduced me to. I have a hard time not quoting this all the time, even if it’s in self-deprecation.
I haven’t watched a lot of Ellen but this clip is hilarious. Thank you, internet.
Victoria Falls
I still haven’t written much about my trip to Zimbabwe. It’s been a busy couple weeks here.
The falls themselves are still magnificent (I saw them in 1998 as well). The water was coming so hard now, though, that it was hard to see them through the mist in places.
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muscle car, vic falls
Strangely enough, there are a number of vintage cars in the town. I wish I’d caught more of them, but this is a great one.
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phone shop, vic falls
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high tea at Victoria Falls Hotel
I stayed at the famous British colonial opulence of the Victoria Falls Hotel in 1998 when I was traveling on someone else’s dollar but now that I’m on my own, I stayed at somewhere a bit more price conscious. I still went to the hotel for their afternoon high tea, though, which was lovely. It makes you feel like you should be wearing a khaki safari suit while chatting to Dr. Livingston.
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Speaking of dollars, the Zim dollar is not a legal currency anymore—businesses can accept US Dollars, SA Rand, Botswanan Pula and possibly some other currencies, but the default is the US Dollar. It’s quite strange to be in a sub-tropical rural African town spending US Dollars.
Since the Zim dollars went out of circulation, street merchants sell the bills, particularly the high value ones. I now own a 50 Trillion Dollar note. Yes, you’re correct in thinking a bill with a five followed by thirteen zeros looks ridiculous.
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Victoria Falls train station
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Possibly my least favorite part of Victoria Falls was all the tourists and particularly Americans, who seemed to do a particularly good job of embarrassing our nation.
On the plane there, I saw multiple Americans wearing all khaki, including vests and safari hats. On a British Airways 737. This is not 19th century colonialism, Americans. You can wear regular clothes.
Another particularly embarrassing instance was at a restaurant that served local-flavored dishes. One of them had a description that read: “A Shona dish with dried meat in peanut butter sauce.” Someone asked the waiter “What’s Shona? Beef?” Pro tip: learn the barest essentials about the country before you travel to it.
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In the town of Victoria Falls, I was told not to walk around at night, not because of crime. The reason: elephants. As if to prove this advice was sound, one evening two elephant walked right by the entrance to the hostel I was staying.
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elephant in the Victoria Falls National Park
On the morning of the day I left, I went on a horse ride through a wilderness area. We saw some elephant, who asserted their territory quite strongly, which was a bit exhilarating. We also managed to get very close to some bushbuck and warthog, apparently because they saw us as other animals rather than humans.
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handwritten boarding pass for Air Zim
I was on British Airways to and from Zimbabwe, but to get from Victoria Falls to Harare, where I was headed for a family wedding, I flew Air Zimbabwe. The first signs that it may be an interesting experience was that when I went to check in, they looked up my name on a print out and crossed it off. They then hand wrote out my boarding pass.
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Air Zim turbo prop
I’ve flown a lot of regional airlines in at least four continents but it’s been probably 15 years since I’ve flown on a turbo prop. The whole experience was interesting for a few reasons:
1) Turbo props are loud and shake a lot. I rarely feel the urge to drink on flights but I took the wine they offered on this flight.
2) When I booked, they told me the flight time was a bit under two hours. I checked in at the sign that said “Harare” and waited in the boarding area for the only plane on the tarmac. I boarded with everyone else for the only plane on the tarmac. So on the flight, I was in a near panic when they said “This is the flight to Bulawayo.” Another passenger quickly assured me that it was going to Harare after a stop in Bulawayo. But there was no way that the flight could make it to Bulawayo and then Harare in two hours. We ended up in Harare an hour late and I very nearly missed my shuttle to the wedding because of it.
3) Tiny chunks of dry ice fell out of the ceiling onto me during the flight. I thought they were paint chunks but when I brushed them off they were really cold. I suppose the insulation was going up there and CO2 is the first gas to liquify or freeze.
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the bride and groom signing the registry
My second cousin’s bride’s family is from Zimbabwe and her mother lives and works at a private school about an hour outside Harare, outside the small town of Marondera. There isn’t a lot of accommodation so all the guests stayed in the dorms (while the students were on holiday) and ate at the school. With guests from five continents, it was an interesting occasion.
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The wedding itself was pretty spectacular. The wedding was in a small game park that the school owned; driving to the site of the wedding we saw wildebeest and zebra; apparently giraffe were right there during the rehearsal.
Perched on a large rock surrounded by those typical African wind-swept trees and with an amazing view over the park, the bride was marched in by a marimba band from a local school. We sat on hay bails as a local school’s choir sang the hymns and the ceremony beautifully unfolded before us.
The reception was on the rugby field back at the school. There was some eating, some drinking, some dancing, some chumming around with family and strangers alike.
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jet dry cleaners, marondera
The day after the wedding, there were some braais and general relaxing. I went into town for an hour to look around and take some photos. It was bigger than I thought it’d be but it was still, in many ways, a typical rural African town.
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a rock and the moon in Gosho Park
I finished off the trip with a quick track back into the game park. I saw a couple animals, but one of the more striking features were the teetering rocks perched around the park.
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All in all a fantastic trip.
I enjoyed watching this try by a Zimbabwean-born American against South Africa, blowing past one of the fastest players in international rugby. It’s from the last rugby World Cup.
The Pirates have started 2-0 for the first time since 2007 and the first time at home since 1993. This early in the season, it’s possible to be unreasonably optimistic. Maybe the worst losing streak for a franchise in American sports history will come to an end. Maybe they’ll even be in contention for the playoffs! I mean, two games into the season, they already have a player who has hit three home runs.
It seems fitting that the season starts during spring, which is the optimistic season. Flowers are blooming and the world starts anew out of winter’s frigid clutches. Summer is coming (; we should all stand clear).
It seems odd that we have complimentary seasons here, that the major league season starts in the autumn. Autumn is less optimistic than realistic or preparatory. Winter is coming and we must prepare. It’s not that there isn’t anything to be optimistic about—I love winter clothing and fruits—but it’s not a season built on optimism.
But I suppose I’ll have to put on my hats and hoodies and eat my guavas while I cheer on the Pirates.
Things I forgot to put in Thursday’s post.
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I’ve been making milkshakes. The most successful so far have been fresh mint + chocolate chunk, banana + nutella and banana + peanut butter. They have been well received by my flatmates. Mmmmmilkshaaaaakes.
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I’m going to Zimbabwe in a couple weeks for a couple days. It should be fun. It’s mostly for a family wedding near Harare but I’ll also spend a couple days in Victoria Falls.
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A good friend and his wife* will be here at the end of April for 10 days. I’m pretty excited about that. It’ll be great to see them and I like showing off Cape Town.
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*who I’m friends with as well.
It’s appropriate to say “I’m just looking around” in response to “Can I help you?” in just about any store, except hardware stores. You should always be looking for something in a hardware store unless you want funny looks. If you don’t have something in mind, I suggest “picture hooks.”
I got new scissors today. The packaging is marked “Cutting Series.” I wonder what other series of scissors they have?
A runner got arrested for flicking off SA President Jacob Zuma.
Maxwele was jogging on Cape Town’s De Waal Drive just before 6pm last Wednesday when a convoy of six government cars sped past him.
“I waved them away, as if to say ‘hamba’, because of the noise. After that a black BMW X5 pulled up and three guys jumped out, pointing guns at me,” Maxwele told Sowetan.
Say you want about the current or past US administrations but I think they would at least respect one’s right to flick them off.
I’ve realized recently that my favorite way to nap is the following, which overtook dozing on the couch while watching TV:
Who knows why.
Fun exchange while chatting with a friend the other day. I’m not quite sure how much of the humor translates without all the context.
me: yp
wow, brilliant typing
friend: you are a skilled typist
me: there’s a reason I’ve made my name in the field
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[later, after I told him not to worry about me dating someone in particular]
friend: I’m not at all worried
about you making a move
ON ANYOEN
oh damn
undone by poor typing
it’s like I’m you!
me: haha
it’s because you have giant fingers
that are unsuited to normal sized keyboards
friend: it’s true
you should see me type on the G1
me: like a clown in a midget[1] car!
friend: everybody needs an automobile!
this was the largest car I could afford!
[1] Of course I mean a very small car, not necessarily one made for or used by little people.
I referred to some reverse culture shock since I got back. I thought I’d elaborate about what I’ve noticed anew in US America.
Five all time great laughs:
I’m going to tell you a story every day for the week.
JW is a solid dude. He’s the sort of guy who, if you asked him to take time off work to show around a Malawian guy you barely know around New York, would probably say yes. He’s also the sort of guy who could be the first person to inform me of my receding hairline and I wouldn’t take it as an insult or an effort to embarrass me; he would simply be informing me of a fact.
JW is also the sort of guy that might have traveled to Bermuda on the spur of the moment a few years back and returned with some Bermudan black rum. And though I was of legal age, I may have never have been even remotely tipsy.
And so it may have happened that we may have mixed that rum with ginger beer to make dark and stormies. And I may have gotten drunk for the first time as we sat in the hallway outside JW’s room and laughed and chatted, stumbling down the hall to the bathroom at necessary intervals and marveling at slushy feeling I was getting in my head.
Maybe.
I’m going to tell you a story every day for the week.
Near the end of my time living in Taiwan, I decided to go to Kinmen (formerly transliterated as Quemoy), a Republic of China (Taiwan) island 2km off of mainland China for a weekend. It’s a fascinating place that’s had a lot go on in the last century: isolationist Fujianese culture followed by briefly adopting British-Asian colonial styles and then sustaining shelling by both the Japanese and Maoist Chinese.
It leads to some shocking scenes: traditional Fujianese villages with miles of bomb shelter tunnels underneath. Or sorghum fields, waiting to be harvested for traditional brews, with rusty anti-parachute spikes every 10m. Such images are endless.
The English proficiency was very low and I had mastered only a few dozen words and phrases of Chinese including such useful phrases as “This is a pair of chopsticks” and “This is my business card” so communication, or lack thereof, was a major issue. I didn’t hear any English on my flight. I was picked up at the airport by someone that couldn’t speak English; I was taken to a scooter shop where I rented a scooter from people who didn’t speak English. Only when I got to the guest house did I hear any English and then it was quite broken.
I was in over my head. I was an island.
At one point I tried going to the local-style noodle shop. Well, I succeeded at getting there. And I succeeded at standing awkwardly in the entrance for a while. I even succeeded at pointing at a bowl of noodles with pork and indicating I wanted that dish.
When the proprietor said something as she carried a bowl past me, I thought she meant it was mine so I followed her to the table where a young man and an older woman were already sitting–it’s not entirely unusual to sit with people you don’t know–and started to sit down. Then the young man’s friend returned to the table and sat in that chair and started eating the dish I thought was meant for me.
Seeing my confusion, the young man got up and grabbed me a chair. “Xie xie” (Thank you). A dish of various meats and tofu arrived. “We,” he said motioning in a circle, “together.” “Oh. Xie xie” and I tried a few pieces. My noodles arrived and I started eating them. (They were delicious, incidentally). He pushed some sauce toward me. “Spicy.”
Finished with their meals, the young man and his friend got up and paid the proprietor, who gave me a funny look. He came back over to the table. “You no pay.” The spicy sauce must have started to get to me because my eyes welled up a bit. “Xie xie.”
No man is an island, it turns out.
I’ve been on some photo adventures lately, first to Green Point Stadium and most recently to Cape Town’s container port. Both were fun and interesting and I think I got some decent shots.
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Today marked, I believe, my first subconscious use of SA slang–isit, meaning “really?” or “is that so?”. What’s funny about my saying it is that it still sounds odd to hear other people say it. “I’m going to the container port” “Oh, isit?” “Uh…is what?”
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I think it’s time to start learning some Afrikaans, even if it’s just greetings and how-are-yous and I’m-sorry-I-don’t-speak-Afrikaans. Most people at work speak it, some as a first language and its also my flatmate’s first language. I’ll just have to fit it in my head with English, German and touches of Spanish, Chinese, and Zulu. But that’s it! No more languages after that!
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I like this fun theory business. The idea is that the best way to get people to change their behavior is to make it fun. Here’s one example.
(It’s a marketing campaign for VW, by the way. Not sure of the tie in…)
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This is a pretty tremendous photo series covering 27 months in the life of a US soldier from graduating high school to returning from a tour in Iraq.
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I enjoyed this piece in Wired:
According to archival footage, Brown was standing on his toilet seat on the evening of Nov. 5, 1955, attempting to hang a clock in his bathroom, when he slipped and slammed his head on the side of the sink. Upon regaining consciousness Brown reported having “a revelation, a picture, a picture in my head.” A picture which he crudely scrawled down on a piece of paper and subsequently spent 30 years of his life and family fortune to build.
That picture, of course, was the flux capacitor. And as every high school physics student knows, it’s the device that makes time travel possible.
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The incidents leading up to the time machine demise also served as the basis for the award-winning documentary, Back to the Future.
This ad is on SA TV quite a bit. I think it’s pretty funny. What’s funnier than a guy dancing to “Single Ladies”?
There’s also the flash dance version of “Single Ladies” if you like that sort of thing. (And that reminds me of the Belgian train station version of a Sound of Music.)
And another ad that I always laugh at is this one that’s on here as well as US TV:
One funny phrase here is boerewors curtain. It’s a play off of boerewors (SAan sausage) and Iron/ Bamboo Curtain-type boundaries. Afrikaaners live beyond the boerewors curtain.
I started working last week. I won’t really say much more about that.
My route to work goes past the containerized shipping port of Cape Town. I love working ports–they have great, huge machinery moving all these building blocks filled with stuff around. Some day I’ll have to plan some extra time to explore the area around the port. The other thing I find interesting about containerized shipping is that it’s such a sign of the modern times–fast, efficient, standardized–but at the same time, they’re just steel containers that could easily have been made a hundred years ago.
One thing I find frustrating is that despite a lot of roads having numeric names, (it seems) locals give directions almost exclusively by street names. But sometimes street change names often and in such cases the numeric name seems particularly appropriate. For instance, in about 1km, De Waal Dr becomes Mill St becomes Anandale St becomes Orange St becomes Buitensingel St.; all the while it’s simply called M3. Yet people will still tell me to take ‘De Waal Drive’ and if I happen to get on the street where it’s called, say, Orange, I’m simply out of luck for sign posting.
Update: Did you know that LA is the busiest US container port but it’s only 13th worldwide? And did you know Savannah is a busier port than Oakland?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| William Kamkwamba | ||||
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Talk about Afrigadget,
You can buy the book here, William Kamkwamba, who was then about 14, made a windmill to provide power for his family based on a picture in a library book. A pretty good interview with him above.
(Kamkwamba is now in school in Jo’burg.)
This article was written by my grandfather, Alec Milne, chronicling a horse trip across Lesotho in 1936. It’s a long but fascinating article. The photocopy of the article I have has lost all definition in the graphic and three photos that accompany it, so I have supplemented it with ones that did not run with the original story. I’ve tried to preserve the original spelling and style wherever possible. The links, obviously, are not original and have been added to add clarity to those not familiar with some particulars.
The Star, Johannesburg, Transvaal, May 16, 1936
When my fortnight’s leave was drawing near and I had decided that it should be spent on the Natal South Coast, I rebelled at the thought of the slow, circuitous train journey. Some memory, more exsiting and interesting must be brought back to cheer my daily toil in the little town of Wepener. A nebulous idea began to take definite shape. Between Wepener and Natal lies the mountainous Protectorate of Basutoland, the very roof of South Africa. I would ride over the mountains to Matatiele. Once the idea had been defined, nothing could change my purpose; over the mountains I would go.
“Madness,” laughed my friends when I outlined my scheme. “Hair-brained,” they muttered when I showed no signs of relenting. As I am well versed in Sesuto and have a good knowledge of the journey I proposed to undertake, I was not disposed to listen to these croakings.
View Ride of 200 Miles over Mountains of Basutoland: South African’s Adventurous Holiday in a larger map
A glance at a map will show you the extent of the task I set myself. Find Wepener in the south-easern part of the Free State, and Matatiele in the extreme north-eastern section of the Cape. Then draw a line between the two straight across Basutoland and you will have a rough idea of the route. You will see that two mountain ranges, the Malutis and the Drakensberg, lay between me and my objective. That is easily read from the map, but unless you are acquainted with the country or are gifted with vivid imagination you will have no conception of the endless succession of precipitous descents and ascents by dizzy paths offering foothold to only a sturdy Basuto pony.
rented Beetle on Boyes Dr.
I rented a 1977 Beetle through December. It’s pretty fun. It’s quite a different driving experience, even compared to my no-nonsense VW Golf that I had before I came. Nothing is power (steering, locks, windows, etc.). It doesn’t have AC or a radio. It takes a minute to warm up enough until it’s willing to be put into gear. There isn’t an intermittent setting on the wipers and the turn signal doesn’t turn off by itself.
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When there’s road construction, there’s a person employed whose sole purpose is to wave an orange flag all day warning of the start of the construction area.
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The TV at my apartment broke on Thursday and my flatmate said she’d get it fixed. I don’t know if I’ve ever known someone to get a TV fixed[1]. In the US, the cost of getting electronics fixed is rather high whereas the price for new or used consumer electronics is relatively low, so people just tend to get a new one. Here the opposite is the case. Besides washing machines and sewing machines and laptops, I’m having a hard time remembering any piece of consumer electronics that I’ve known someone to get fixed. TVs, cell phones, digital cameras, etc–just get a new (or used) one. I told my flatmate about this and she, rightfully so, thought Americans are quite wasteful.
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A couple people have asked which way the water spirals as the toilet flushes here. Toilets flush straight down here, but the sink in my apartment drains clockwise. However, this is, apparently, due to how the vessel is construction or the water enters rather than anything to do with the Coriolis effect.
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flowers at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
I spent the afternoon at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. I walked around for a while looking at all the things, especially the proteas, fynbos and silver trees, but I chose to sit and read by the prehistoric cycads. They’re funny looking plants and they date back hundreds of millions of years.
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A cautionary sign on Boyes Dr.
I love this sign. I read it ¡Baboons! and it makes me laugh to myself every time I see it.
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[1] I did know someone who fixed’s tEp’s TV while he was living there, though.
the water spigot at Okhayeni Primary School–the school doesn’t have running water
On Tuesday, I took my first hot, running water shower in two weeks. It was glorious and I wanted it to last forever, though I kept it to a reasonable length.
Immediately afterwards, though, I thought to myself: I bet that’s a week’s worth of water that I just used. I decided to do some calculations to see if I was right.
US federal regulations now mandate low-flow shower heads, which allow 2.5 gallons/ minute at 80psi or 2.2 gallons/ minute at 60 psi. Let’s assume the latter and a short, 5 minute shower. That’s 11 gallons of water or 41.6 liters of water. A pre-1992 shower head might let 5.5 gallons/ minute flow through it. Total water usage for an older, high-flow shower head for the same shower would be 110 liters.
By comparison, by the end of my visit to Ingwavuma, I was using about 25L of water every 2.5 days (plus 5L of bottled drinking water.) That works out to 84 liters of water a week. So about two showers with a low-flow shower head or less than one with a high-flow shower head is about a week’s worth of water. And let’s not even talk about washing dishes or doing a load of laundry.
This is just about facts; I’m not pointing fingers or trying to guilt-trip anyone.
Every morning, a sea of thirty pre-school voices greet me as I go past the playground. I never knew what they were saying, so I’d smile or give a little wave and half-ignore them, not knowing what they were saying. I learned yesterday that malume means uncle but is often used as a term of respect. So, oops.
By my coworker’s count, 29 people are employed at Zesize. Yesterday (and many days) there were four cars. And Ingwavuma, by many accounts, has gotten a lot more wealthy over the past few years. So that gives you a bit of an idea what gainfully employed individuals in a rural town such as this, even one that’s getting wealthier, can afford.
During yesterday’s school meeting with the radio project kids, they were asked to come up with themes for next week’s broadcast, which occurs shortly before the Heritage Day holiday and will be somewhat related to the idea of heritage. One kid suggested the theme of “Thank God I’m a black man”. After a beat, everyone looked at me to see if I was offended. I wasn’t but I enjoyed the awkwardness of the situation.
Tonight I had my first full conversation in Zulu; granted, it was merely the simplest of exchanges, but I was quite proud of knowing what to say.
I learned today that all the land around here is owned by the king of the Zulus and people have a ‘Permit to Occupy’ (PTO, as they’re known) at best. This, apparently, has its upsides (prices are low and even the poor can afford land) and downsides (can’t be used as collateral at a bank; impedes business development).
Today was quite nice. I went to watch the SA rugby test match at a local lodge with the family friend’s fiance. It was a good time. And it was my first beer in two weeks. After we had a simple lunch on his stoep and dozed for a little bit before hiking out to the edge of the mountains, where they drop down into Swaziland. On one side one can see Mozambique as well and the Ingwavuma river winds through some small hills. On the other, it faces the west and the plains of Swaziland on a shear drop of 600m or 700m. We watched a beautiful sunset from there.
It’s been nice living this little slice of African life; for me it has been a simple and calming time. But I’m not worrying about money, food, clothing, shelter or really much at all right now. I don’t want to misrepresent this area, though. For all the of the romantic ideals of African life, life here is difficult for the average person. For its increased wealth, Ingwavuma still has issues of high unemployment. HIV/ AIDs effects nearly every family and the taboo of the subject hurts the situation even more. Carrying water from the pumps, which run intermittently, a job often left to children, is time-consuming and takes up time when they could be studying or playing. There are water-borne illnesses. Mosquitoes carry malaria. I could continue on, but I think you get the idea.
Just a couple more days here. I’ll be sad to go.
No day is exactly like this, but this is sort of how things have been going:
6:30a wake up
6:35-6:45a heat water for bucket shower
6:45-7a shower
7-7:30a eat breakfast, read email/ internets
7:30-7:45a wash dishes
7:45-8a get ready, walk to center
8a-1p radio project work
1-2p lunch at my rondavel
2-4p radio project work [1]
4:15-6:30p read, play soccer [2] or go for a walk; carry up water or boil water for drinking as necessary.
6:30-7:30p make and eat dinner
7:30-9:45p read, blog, listen to music; sort photos or videos etc.
9:45p-10p brush teeth, get ready for bed
10p go to bed
[1] on Wednesdays and Fridays, for the radio project, we go to a school that is farther away from about 12:30-4:30pm, so I eat lunch earlier on these days.
[2] soccer is Mondays and Thursdays
I’ve been up to everything and nothing over the past few days.
With opening a bank account last week, logistical issues haven’t been as much of a constant concern. There’s still plenty up in the air, to be sure.
Colorful houses in Bo Kaap
I’ve been trying to decide where in the city to live. I’ve taken to walking around all the different neighborhoods I was thinking of living in: Gardens, Tamboerskloof, Bo Kaap, De Waterkant, Green Point, Sea Point, Woodstock, Observatory. I’m mostly concentrating on Gardens, Tamboerskloof and Sea Point now, but I’ve been meaning to take another look at Woodstock. Here’s a map that shows the different areas of town, if you’re curious.
the Sea Point pool and Atlantic Ocean
Driving around has been a bit of a challenge. The left-hand driving isn’t hard, but the roads are narrow and winding and one-way streets abound. In perhaps the most extreme case of it since Pittsburgh, I think Cape Town is really a city you need to drive around a lot before you know how to get around. I know the arteries and areas so I can get close to where I want to go, but once I get close, wrong turns seem to have some odd attraction to me. The sign posting also leaves a lot to be desired.
Boats in Kalk Bay, False Bay
I spent a little bit of Friday and most of Saturday down on the False Bay side of things. The towns there have a lot of charm to them. Little fishing harbors, that despite expectations of being tourist traps are still genuine fishing harbors, and towns nestled between the mountains and the sea. Kalk Bay has quite of bit of charm to it and has at least a couple great restaurants. Saturday, I spent with a family friend down in Simon’s Town. Drinking rooibos on the porch overlooking the naval base and bay while the sunset was nice. So peaceful.
The naval shipyard in Simon’s Town
While down there, the friend also drove me around that end of the Cape Peninsula. We stopped at a place called Imhoff, which probably started as a trading post/ farm shop, but has since added camel rides, a nursery, a snake zoo, and recycling center. We went to the snake zoo–wow there were a lot of snakes there and plenty of them were highly venomous. Pretty cool, but every time you came across a cage without a snake, you sort of checked around your feet to make sure it hadn’t escaped. Imhoff reminded me of the places you find in the West of the US on secondary highways–tourist stops that keep added unrelated attractions and businesses to try to get people to stop.
I figured out how to turn on the radio in the old beast of a car I’ve been driving and I kind of like radio here. I’ll just turn the knob till I find something interesting. A couple days ago I listened to about fifteen minutes of Islamic sing-chanting, which is something I was introduced to in a world music class and have only really heard one other time, in Jakarta. I have a bit of a soft spot for the heavily Muslim Cape Malays, who were probably the target audience for this broadcast. Yesterday I listened to some Indian ragas on the radio. They were pretty traditional and wonderful and even included some shehnai or the South Indian equivalent.
Some people answer phones here funny, giving the phone number first. “Eight two four eight one six two, hello!” I haven’t noticed this widely but at least a few families do it. I suppose it helps let the caller know if they’ve dialed the wrong number immediately.
According to wikipedia’s list of statues by height:
Not a very impressive list, I think. I mean, the Jolly Green Giant and a statue of a giraffe are within our top ten?
Absolutely ridiculous is the planned and partially completed Crazy Horse Memorial Statue, which when/ if completed will stand at 172m, placing it as the largest statue in the world. Then again, it was started in 1948 and the designer died in 1982 so who knows if it will ever be finished.
Mellie on top of the fridge
The people I’m staying with have six cats: Timmy, Jack, Fudge, Mellie, Amber and Robbie (the robber). And they spoil them like you wouldn’t believe. Each, naturally, has its own personality, food preferences and spots around the houses they like to sit.
Moving affords one lots of opportunities to decide whether to keep or get rid of a lot of stuff. The easiest is probably just stuff: will I use this and is its size/ weight something I’d be will to pay the expense of keeping.
Sentimental and small is easy too: yeah, I’ll keep that small stack of papers from that summer job in Germany.
Sentimental and big: that’s hard. Last night I threw out a section of a grad school project that I was pretty proud of. But it was big and weighed a ton. Goodbye pneumatic-powered nerf gun with linear and rotational control.
I just realized that I’ve often lived and worked in different places where I had to cross water and boundaries to get there. Examples:
I don’t know why I noticed this, but there it is.
I was looking through my lease today and noticed that there was a clause about how the owners may enter the premises (with prior warning) during business hours, from 7am-7pm.
I don’t remember doing this, but on the lease, I’ve crossed out 7am, written in 9am and initialed it. 7 to 9am is not during business hours; it is during sleeping hours.
I got a new lunch box! I was thinking of getting a construction worker’s box for a while but it seemed too big to put in my bag every day. Then I saw this one at an antique story in Virginia and I had to get it.
It even has the thermos!
I know my friend Andy’s reaction to this will be: ‘you’re a strange guy.’
Yesterday I saw someone at the side of the road with a flat tire. A guy stopped to help him. What was that guy was driving? A Hummer. Not what I expected.
I saw a banner today in Palo Alto in Lytton Plaza, a spot that often has some activist group or another:
The Truth about 9/11
And Cookies
The ‘O’s in “Cookies” were made of cookies. I’m not sure if they were trying to reveal the truth about cookies or if they were trying to use cookies to lure people in to hear the ‘truth’, but either way, I was laughing.
There’s something in San Francisco called Privately-owned Public Open Spaces. Under a law enacted in 1985 developers, under certain conditions, had to include some public open space in their buildings. Here’s a list (pdf) which include atriums (atria?) and sun terraces and whatnot. I’ll have to start visiting these when I’m spending more time downtown again.
I saw Pepsi Natural at Target the other day. You know how much I love sodas made with real sugar rather than corn syrup, so it should be no surprise that I picked some up.
It’s very very sweet, but it doesn’t taste syrupy. It’s got a more nuanced taste than the standard colas. The kola nut, I believe, gives it a sort of bitter, almost coffeeish overtone. I love drinking sodas out of glass bottles. Pretty good stuff.
I think I still like Mexican Coke better, but this stuff is a reasonable substitute.
yellowed page out of my circa 1992 Tim Wakefield scrapbook
Here’s some baseball stuff that I’ve seen recently.
Tim Wakefield, who, yes, I’ve followed since his Pirates days, had a no-hitter through 7 1/3 last week. He’s 45, has been in the majors 17 years and he’s never had a no-no, as they call them. Watch the highlights or read more.
A Ranger named Ian Kinsler had a 6 hit game including the cycle last week. Highlights. He has two singles, two doubles, a triple and a home run. How’s that for a good game?
Do you realize the Pirates are 0.600 and are a game out of first? Crazy. Can it last? We can—and should—hope.
The new Yankee stadium has overpriced seats and the four games in there are already empty seats.
Chris McGreal, the now-former Guardian Africa correspondent writes a long and interesting piece about Africa during his dozen or so years there.
the 14 Mission
So I’m thinking it might be a fun project to ride all the Muni bus, lightrail and cable car lines. As you can see below, I have ridden a decent number but I have plenty to go.
I’ve decided that all iterations of one number count as one line; for instance, 14/ 14L and 14X all count as one line. I’m not sure about some of those 80-somethingX shuttle lines. We’ll see if they count.
Here’s the list of the lines, crossing out the ones I’ve ridden.
*I’ve ridden these lines more times than I can remember.
**I’m 99.9% sure I’ve ridden this at least once.
Update 4/24/09 rode the 26 Valencia, 67 Bernal Heights and J Church. (also, realized that I’d ridden the J Church once before last May).
Update 4/26/09 rode the 21 Hayes for half a dozen stops.
Update 4/30/09 rode the Powell-Mason cable car, the California cable car and the 19 Polk.
Update 5/3/09 rode the 28 19th Ave and the L Taraval.
Update 5/20/09 rode the 30 Stockton.
On Sunday, I went to the BYOBW (warning: annoying auto-play music), Bring Your Own Big Wheel event. It’s a race down Vermont Street with a Big Wheel, kid’s tricycle, or really any sort of non-powered transportation method. This is the 9th annual one, though only the second on Vermont. Previously it was on the more famous and not quite as dangerous Lombard.
the organizer was the first down the track
my friend Alan is in the white helmet
guys dressed as Koosh balls walked down the course at some point for no apparent reason
If you’d like to ship some things via the the Postal Service (and have them see you waving from such great heights–no that’s not right…), how much should you mail at once? Basically, is it better to ship a lot of small boxes or a few big boxes?
I went through and figured it out for you based on their current rate chart. If you have media (books, CDs, notebooks, etc.), definitely do that, as media mail’s really cheap.
For media mail, the per pound price flattens out pretty quickly. You actually don’t get any break after 54lb (it’s all $0.38/lb at that point), but anything above 25lb is within 15% of that lowest per pound price.
On the other hand, parcel post–which takes equivalent amount of time as media mail but covers other types of contents–continues to decrease all the way through 70lb. To get within 15% of the per pound price of $0.73, you need to ship 55lb or more.
If what you’re planning to ship via parcel post is particularly dense and you only have a little bit to ship, priority mail flat rate boxes might actually turn out to be a good deal.
I believe in both cases, the cheapest option is to package things into the fewest number of boxes and evenly split the weight between the two.
Note, I believe this information is accurate as of April 2009, but make no guarantees after that.
WHY NOT WASH YOUR HANDS?
Protect the water you swim in and the health of those you swim with. Keep poop out of the pool by washing your hands.
Is that necessary? Was their a rash of problems with feces in the water?
Here are some recent photos from my camera phone.
The setting sun, some buildings and Caltrain managed to frame this graffiti mural on 22nd St. @ Iowa nicely.
An old-style garage door in Palo Alto.
It’s spring in Palo Alto. Flowers of all colors are out. Trees are green and grass is lush. In San Francisco, it’s still quite a bit chillier and it seems more like ‘winter’ still.
That’s not true, actually. But it might be some day.
I’ve been watching a fair amount of Jeopardy[1] recently. It’s one of the few shows I devote all my attention to; no emailing or blogging while watching, like I do with most shows. I play along–who doesn’t? I’ve been doing decently every day. I haven’t been keeping tracking of my score, but I feel like–in the comfort of my home and without needing to buzz in, mind you–that I’ve been holding my own. I’ve been feeling like I should try out for the show at some point.
The issue is the gaps in my knowledge. For every science or music category I run, there’s a Shakespeare or art category that I know zero or one question on. Ken Jennings, in his book Brainiac brings up studying for categories like these. It becomes a practice of memorization, of connecting words together that doesn’t have any other meaning or context. I like knowing trivia, but I’m not sure I’d like to know it in this way.
I day dreamed today about how to best make a practice buzzer, incidentally. Yeah, that’s the sort of thing I daydream about.
[1] Part of the reason why, oddly enough, is that my roommate got an HD tv and we don’t get all our channels in HD so I tend to watch the ones that are a little more.
There’s a store called The Jelly Donut. I had a donut–a Chocolate French Cruller. It was outrageous.
“How’s such and such going?”
“It’s trying.”
I forgot about that usage of trying. It’s a good one. I’ll try to use it more.
I’m looking for recommendations for thin wallets/ credit card holders. My situation has gotten out of control. My wallet’s giant–and I don’t even carry money in it anymore. (Both bills and coins go in my back pocket while my wallet goes in my left pocket, though I could see carrying bills in my wallet.)
I have a lot of cards and miscellaneous things I carry around: two credit cards, two debit cards, driver’s license, cards for three different transportation systems, tickets for the public pools, and business cards. That’s the minimum–I also have movie rental store cards, other people’s business cards and things that I could probably prune out.
My brother (indirectly) suggested All-Ett wallets, though I feel like the area might be too big. Or there’s those combined card holder/ money clips that you see on late-night TV. Or there’s just regular old card holders.
Is there anyone particularly happy with their solution to this problem?
Update This looks like a reasonable way to get rid of some of those club cards. Also These wallets seem to be another thin option.
I have very little interest in basketball, but I found this article about Shane Battier (by Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball) long but fascinating. Battier doesn’t have good stats, in the traditional sense, but makes his team better when he plays. It makes me want to take an interest in basketball and start running some stats about it.
On the topic of stats, Nate Silver (of Baseball Prospectus, FiveThirtyEight.org) predicts the Oscars using stats. Interesting!
And, on the topic of Michael Lewis, his book The Blind Side, a book about football’s left tackle, was preceded by a NY Times Magazine article, Ballad of Big Mike. It’s more of a narrative than a stats-filled article, but it’s still pretty interesting.
[Warning: American Apparel's ads, which are featured some of the links, tend to have people in moderate states of undress. Some links are somewhat NSFW.]
So my neighborhood in San Francisco is the Mission. It’s split in two parts–broadly generalizing–young, white hipsters and Latino families. The center of hipster commerce is Valencia Street, while more of the Mission Street.
American Apparel is a brand that appeals to hipsters. They make tight fitting clothing and make it in America. They wanted to put in one of their stores on Valencia Street–a perfect fit, right?
Apparently not. People were up in arms (well some people were). People, plenty of whom were probably wearing American Apparel at the time, said they didn’t want a chain store on their Valencia Street. They wanted their unique and pricey boutiques instead.
Blogs and newspapers were abuzz with developments. There was a protest (where the above photo was from).
The Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition was against it but pointed out that the pricey boutiques were also displacing older stores. (Irony.) They also pointed out that people weren’t up in arms about the plans related to an old movie theater on Mission Street.
Eventually the San Francisco planning commission voted against allowing the store. American Apparel apologized and offered Mission residents discounts at their other SF stores.
Wow, what a strange place this is.
There’s a little patch of old industrial buildings at the intersection of the Mission, SoMa and Potrero Hill.
Are you getting sick of my cell phone pictures yet?
x Noe in Noe Valley. Yes, it’s early February.
It later missed the my station and had to reverse about a mile.
Conductor over the speakers: “Next stop: 22nd Street.”
[time passes]
Passengers, looking out the window: “Uhhhh wasn’t that 22nd Street?”
[time passes, train stops]
Conductor over the speakers: “Um. Give us a couple minutes while we fix this.”
Headlines like that (on the front page of today’s Palo Alto Daily News) always make me laugh, even if they do have some reason. They remind of Onion-style headlines of the “Oxygen Still Necessary for Living” type.
I saw a few movies in the last few weeks.
Gran Torino I’m a big fan of later-era Clint Eastwood films, especially Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, and Unforgiven. They tend to have these great conflicted characters. Gran Torino is no different. Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a retired auto worker and a Vietnam veteran living in a Detroit neighborhood that is becoming a Hmong neighborhood. Kowalski is set in his ways and doesn’t like his new neighbors. Hilarity ensues! Not really–but what unfolds as he gradually becomes involved in their lives (and they in his) is a pretty great story. It has still got me thinking.
Milk I’ve done my civic duty as a citizen of San Francisco and seen this movie. Sean Penn is good (of course) as Harvey Milk in this biopic. Gus Van Sant tells the story well. What stuck with me is that I didn’t know that Milk reluctantly got into politics and it was fairly late in life–he was already into his 40s.
Kenny This is an Australian movie about a guy who rents and services portable toilets. I got it because they had the following quote on the back of the box: “The Citizen Kane of romantic comedies about sewage.” Everyone puts hyperbolic quotes on the back of movie boxes but I thought I’d want to see a film whose makers were willing to put that quote on the back of the box. It was hilarious. Besides being laugh-out-loud funny for much of the film, the characters were also pretty endearing.
Here’s the trailer:
The other day I was reading in the Juri Commons, the odd, slanted mini-park between 25th and 26th, Guerrero and San Jose, reading when the little map in my head made the straight-line connection to the slanted building at 24th and Capp near where I used to live. I remember talking to someone that suggested it might have been an old railroad route.
I looked into it more and found a cool graphic depiction of the route through the Mission, SoMa and Noe Valley, and some history. It used to be the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad which was later acquired by Southern Pacific. It’s essentially now Caltrain but they added the shortcut tunnels through the hills that made this Bernal cut, as they called it, obsolete. It seems the tracks were taken out sometime between 1906 and 1942–probably in stages.
There are some sites with some cool vintage photos, like this one with Harrison Street tracks, this one of the depot at 3rd and Townsend and this one already linked above.
What I did over the last week was walk along the path, at least in the Mission part. There are still a lot of remnants in angled buildings, rights-of-way and oddly shaped plots. I made the map above. You can see in the satellite view many of the angled buildings. I also took some photos which you can see if you click the placemarkers on the map.
Juri Commons
I’m not an activist. I have opinions about things, sometimes even strong ones, and I support some charities and volunteer time (though I suppose music DJing is activism in a certain light), but I guess I’m not programmed to be the type to be moved to work in an activist manner.
So it’s a little weird that today I joined an activist group, the San Francisco Bike Coalition. They’re very vocal in local planning, organization and transportation decisions. That’s fine, but given that I spend a non-zero amount of my time on a bike in this city, I appreciate that they make my life (and those of other cyclists) easier (e.g. free bike valet at events, working for more bike storage on public transportation) and safer (both by awareness and getting bike paths and lanes put in).
I’ve never seen this bridge near China Basin/ ATT Park up before.
This came up in conversation yesterday and I did have a definitive answer–not that there is one, necessarily.
September 1, 1939 or December 7, 1941
After a lot of lead up, September 1, 1939 directly caused a war, one in which many countries declared war on others.
December 7, 1941, on the other hand, only brought one country into the war, but it probably changed the outcome.
I think August 6, 1945 is significant, but, I think, more for the Cold War than the WWII.
And, honestly, you’re just being a contrarian if you say July 7, 1937.
Adrian Chatting With Someone Off-Camera by Alex Bischoff
My brother borrowed some of my portrait stuff when we were at my parents’s house.
Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters crossed 26th St. as I was biking up it. He was walking a dog with a companion.
I spent 48ish hours in Pittsburgh a little after Christmas. It was my first trip there in two years. I’ve already posted a couple from the trip, but here’s a bit more.
I love Pittsburgh. I’ve lived in something like nine places at this point, but the longest tenure and most formative years were spent in Western Pennsylvania. I didn’t really didn’t think much of it while I lived there, but in summers of college and afterward on visits, I realized how much I liked it. Let’s say that everyone I know who didn’t grow up there thinks I talk too much about Pittsburgh for their liking.
When Pittsburghers say “Pittsburgh” to non-natives, they often mean Western Pennsylvania. Culturally, linguistically and in landscape it is a region that is pretty unique region. And driving to Pittsburgh from Southeastern Virginia, I could tell when Western PA was getting near–Cumberland, MD seemed very familiar. A shrinking town in a hill with similar architecture. And maybe it’s selective memory mixed with nostalgia talking, but I think if you lean your head against a car window and look out, through the trees and at the sky, you can tell just from that when you hit Western Pennsylvania.
Pittsburgh surprises me every time I go back, both by changing and by staying the same. I didn’t expect there to be cyclists on the road or to have the same experience at a number of places that I had 8 or 10 years ago. Coming from a place where bars and restaurants and people turn over every few years, it’s odd to be in a place where something is still pretty new if it was built five years ago and many people have spent their whole lives in the region.
One of my favorite traditions is late night pizza at Mineo’s. It’s cheap and good and the company is unbeatable.
A newish place to me is Pamela’s Diner. They have great food at reasonable prices, compared to what I’m used to. I’d been introduced to the original (in the Strip) a few years ago by a friend from out this way who’d moved to Pittsburgh. It’s still good.
I’d been to Jerry’s and to Paul’s CD but I’d never been to Dave’s Music Mine. I don’t know how that hadn’t happened before, but it’s a pretty cool place. It’s got a good used selection and their soul records are pretty good.
I had a couple pinball aficionado friends that lived in Pittsburgh for a bit. One introduced me to pinball at the Beehive. I liked the Spiderman one. It had plenty of action but it was still pretty straight forward.
I love walking around the South Side. There are such great buildings. Also, there’s a sweet Salvation Army Thrift Store. I bought a suit for New Year’s Eve for $6.50.
I went back to the Church Brewworks for the first time since 2000ish. It was still good and, hey, possibly even better now that I can/ like to drink beer.
I went to Gooski’s for the first time. We didn’t spend a lot of time there, but I can imagine spending a lot of time at a place that’s halfway between its hard scrabble Polish neighborhood and the hip and alternative side of the clientele. Next time I’ll have to have the pierogies.
Primantis is as good as I remember it, but I’m glad I have Giordano Brothers the rest of the year for my Pittsburgh-style sandwich cravings.
I rode the incline, had cheap draft beer at a dive bar, and watched a football game.
Oh and did I mention I got to have buckeyes for the first time in a while? They’re a Christmas tradition for me and the region for whatever reason.
Pittsburgh always seems to tease me when I’m leaving, as if to say, look, Pittsburgh can have enticing weather sometimes.
Finally, all my friends now seem to have GPSs in their car. These are pretty funny in Pittsburgh, with its convoluted roads, one way streets and difficult geography because the driver inevitably says/ yells: “Why does it want me to go that way?? No, no, no, this other way is much faster.”
I was at my parents’ new place in Charlotte-ish, North Carolina for Christmas.
I finally did portraits of the two of them:
We ate well, thanks almost entirely to my mom:
We went ice skating on Christmas eve. I’m not very good at ice skating anymore, but it was fun.
We opened some presents:
As is tradition, we sang carols around the tree, achieving our least dissonant sound in recent memory.
I took silly photos without looking:
My dad was the captain of the boat for our Christmas ride.
At PIT, statues of George Washington and Franco Harris (mid-Immaculate Reception) next to each other.
Total produce: 822
Organic produce: 91
Locally grown produce: 16
Total organic products: 670
I’m surprised that a big supermarket in North Carolina lists this right up front. Even supermarkets in SF aren’t transparent about it.
Can you tell in figured out how to blog from my phone? Don’t worry, I’ll get tired of it eventually.
I’d forgotten I came down with a cold last time I went to South Africa.
Also, the cough syrup is in a glass bottle. Who puts medicine in a glass bottle these days?
Probably the highlight of my day was that I found a home-made chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich in the back of the freezer. It was one of a a batch that I made for my birthday party at the end of August.
It was as good or possibly even better than I hoped it’d be. The ice cream had sort of soaked into and saturated the cookies, making them super cookies of sorts.
Animation of a day’s worth of flight patterns in a bit more than a minute. Pretty fascinating:
via core77
A pretty slick bike storage/ locker system in Japan. I’d love to see the mechanism.
via boingboing
xkcd has some nerdy shirts, like the one below.
However, if you really want to turn the nerd up, you have to go over to mental floss:
or
If there can be class action lawsuits against the tobacco companies and McDonalds, why not against the Girl Scouts? Those cookies are serious.
Sandwiches, even meaty and hot ones on buns, are usually cut in half, either straight or at an angle, and then eaten from the middle to the outsides. Hamburgers and hotdogs, though, are eaten from the outside or end and are rarely cut.
You don’t look classy and timeless in that black trench coat and fedora. You look ridiculous.
There were at least two noteworthy David Lawrences: David H. Lawrence, the English writer of Sons and Lovers among other things–probably the better known of the two–and David L. Lawrence, the Pennsylvania Governor and Pittsburgh Mayor, for whom the convention center is named. Next time you’ll know that D.L. didn’t write Sons and Lovers and D.H. didn’t govern Pittsburgh.
Yesterday morning I saw my breathe for the first time in many months. It’s getting brisker here, but it’s overall still pretty warm compared to the eastern provinces.
The sunrise that morning, seen from the 2nd deck of Caltrain, starting around Millbrae or San Mateo and developing through Redwood City was one of the most beautiful I’ve seen[2]. The photo on my camera phone failed to capture it. It was red-orange on a light blue sky with plenty of wispy clouds, the kind that tend to spread the colors of a sunrise/set so nicely.
[1] Not really cold by any real standards. Just chillier than a few weeks ago.
[2] Just because waking up before dawn is generally the domain of crazy people, I usually avoid it. As such, I haven’t actually seen that many sunrises.
This web game where you have to do various geometric things by eye–finding midpoints of lines, convergence of three lines, sides of a parallelogram–is pretty addicting, at least for me. My natural talents apparently, lie more in bisecting angles than finding the center point between three edges of a triangle.
HD TV commercials are funny: they try to demonstrate that their picture is better despite the fact that you’re (probably[1]) viewing it on a TV that can’t actually show any of the advantages.
[1] And if you’re viewing it on a TV that can show the advertised TV’s great picture, then their TV isn’t better than yours.
my first earthquake. It was tiny. In the five years since I’ve moved to California, I’ve had an amazing ability to be out of town for earthquakes, at least 3 of the noticeable sort. Additionally, there was another small one a month or so back where I was at a ballgame and people were stomping their feel and otherwise shaking the stands anyway, so it was not noticeable.
Nilla Wafers shouldn’t come in a “Stay Fresh” bag within the box, they should come in a “Go Stale Quicker Please” bag. They’re best that way.
from maps.google.com
A couple weeks ago Saturday my dad and I did the Alcatraz swim. It was the second time for me.
the swimmers at the orientation
My elbow’s been hurting for weeks so besides some kicking in the pool I hadn’t swam since the end of August. My elbow hurts a bit more now. Otherwise, the swim went decently. I sighted better and picked a better route (important because of the currents) than last time. I came in 2 minutes faster than last time.
Yeah, my pop beat me by 13.something minutes. 55:01 for me and 41:15 for him. He’s still speedy.
It was really cold, but you only notice for the first few minutes. Last time I swam Alcatraz I had quite a bit more–let’s say–insulation. But it was warmer (63 vs varied reports of 57 to 60). The currents were present but not too hard to handle. I swam a conservative route so I ended up west of the opening of aquatic park, despite a west-to-east current, but only maybe 200 yards upstream, which is far better than ending up 100yards down current, for instance (which I did last time).
my pop, wet-suit clad
swimmers walking toward the boat
mom and dad enroute the boat
mom and dad passing fisherman’s wharf
I didn’t see this info on the internet, so I’m adding it. 12 (glass) bottles of beer in a carton weigh 16.0 lb by our measurement.
A label on a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream cake, paraphrased:
Your health is of utmost importance to us. Please beware that Cold Stone Creamery products may contain trace amounts of tree nuts, soybeans, eggs…
If you’re so concerned about their health, how about warning people that the products may contain massive amounts of fat and sugar?
Sometimes I have my phone with me but not my regular camera and so I take camera phone pictures.
[click for bigger image on any of them]
I walked over Bernal Hill last weekend. This is a photo from the top with my neighborhood, the Mission, in the middle of the photo. (Bernal Heights is in the foreground; SoMa and downtown are to the back and right, Hayes Valley to the back and left). From the tall yellow building left-of-center, I live toward the viewer and to the left a little.
I went to an SF 49ers pre-season game a few weeks ago. This is the view from our seats.
I went to Camden Yards when I was in Maryland in early August. It was my first trip there. I liked the stadium a lot, especially how it was built into some existing buildings (or walls, really) in the area.
I liked this sign on Del Mar beach in the San Diego area. I was there in early July for a wedding.
I’ve noticed that there are a number of instances where I use different prepositions when some other people use “on”:
I find it strange that the language hasn’t converged on one usage by this point.
The top article on the front page of the Palo Alto-based Daily Post was the following:
New Homes Under $1M
I kid you not, an ad further down the page was:
Expert Birkenstock Repair
I really need to get out of California.
Football: A friend got tickets to the 49ers v Packers preseason game last night. I’ve never been to an NFL game (and I rarely even watch NFL games on TV) that didn’t involve the Steelers, but this was still pretty fun.
Candlestick is an old relic of a stadium, but it’s got some charm to it, even if the winds are pretty chilly. The new Packers guy didn’t look great. The 49ers didn’t look amazing, but they were infinitely better than the Packers and won the game easily.
Also, there was a funny guy next to us. He and one other person tried to start the wave. It failed.
track: The men’s 100m dash was last night. Usain Bolt destroyed. He was so fast that with 20m left he was already showboating, his arms out and then pounding his chest. He was decelerating before the finish line and still easily broke the world record and won gold. It sort of reminds me of that Manny home run when he just admired his own brilliance instead of running. I’d like to see what he can do when he actually runs the race through.
swimming: You know what Phelps has done by this point. I’m pretty inspired and impressed. Incidentally, during the 3rd quarter of the above game, they announced that Phelps had won his 8th gold and everyone applauded.
I also realized that no Olympians look like normal people. Marathoners are stick thin and lack body fat entirely. Sprinters have quads that are bigger than my waist. Swimmers are triangles on top of smallish legs. Pistol or archery are probably the closest to normal people.
I’ll be posting a lot of my trip photos–and some older photos too–up on the collective photo blog over the next week or two. Check in there for new photos. Here are a couple so far:
You Go Girl, Brooklyn
Monk outside Snake Alley, Taipei
For some unknown reason, it was open yesterday on the the car I was on.
It’s been just over five years since the road trip. I still go back and read through the travel log every year or so. . .
Citibank, so far, has sent me two notices in the mail telling me when my paperless statement are ready to view online.
my favorite herb is basil. I’m a big fan. It’s a big reason I love san bei ji. It’s one of the reasons I love my salmon burgers with tomato, basil and feta.
Mark Twain didn’t say “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”.
I think the notion is quite silly. I think the coldest winter I ever spent was 1993ish in Pittsburgh when it hit -22 degrees F and with completely clear roads they canceled school simply because they didn’t want kids standing outside in those temperatures. (The only thing better than snow days is really freaking cold days…and typhoon days.)
But it is chilly here for summer. I leave the house in the morning with a light jacket and yesterday that wasn’t enough. As the sun set at the outdoor afternoon concert, I found myself thinking about the heat lamps that I’d thought were silly earlier.
I don’t know why I remember things like this sometimes.
One day when I was 10 or 12 my parents decided that I wasn’t getting enough protein with breakfast. I asked how I could get more protein. If they were so adamant about this, they should be able to come up with some things that were high in protein. Milk, yogurt, peanut butter, steak…
Wait…steak? I know it has plenty of protein, but breakfast?
And so my mom made me steak for breakfast everyday for a few weeks in 1992ish.
I had an odd childhood. I know: you’re surprised.
I live above a Peruvian restaurant. Not a lot of bad things about that (except the exhaust fan on Saturday mornings) and if I run out of food–hey, food downstairs.
A few weeks ago we went there to check the place out and say hi. I got pescado frito. You know, old school.
Anyway, we finished up and I’m at the register paying. There are these deserts with two soft, round, floury, sugary bits with a chocolate creme filling. Here’s the conversation:
Me: And could I get one of those.
Proprietress: sure
Me: And what are they called?
Her: Cookies.
Me: Oh…
I think I was swallowing my pride for much longer than I was swallowing the cookie.
[I posted this on my music blog a while ago and was just wondering why I didn't also post it here. It is, after all, pretty personal.
It's not uncommon for Americans to go over to Europe and ride the rails all over but most haven't ridden this nation's rails extensively.
From September 7 to 10, 2003, for three and a half days I rode trains from Boston to Emeryville, changing trains once, in Chicago. I moved to California on those trains. I had known Boston as home for four years and Pittsburgh before that. Three thousand miles away, the Bay Area was almost a complete unknown. It was to be a time of new friends, new living arrangements, new streets, a new school, new supermarkets, and a new barber. I left half a day after a friend's wedding and leaving that wedding was sort of like my farewell moment for most of the people I counted as friends there. I got on board with an ipod with only a few hours of battery life, my laptop with even less, two suitcases, a guitar and a backpack.
I didn't have a cell phone and the train rarely stopped for long enough to have meaningful contact with people outside the train. I was very isolated for those few days.
I wrote down some thoughts at the time, when I was on the train. A few distinctive names and details have been changed to protect the innocent and I edited some small sections to make it easier to read. The rest appears as typed at the time.
--
Vernon L Sutphin - Lost Train Blues (mp3)
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9.7.03
7:22pm
Dido- "Thank you" (ha!)
my shoulder hurts like the dickens. I strained it getting my 75 lb. bag into the rack above my seat. I just remembered that I have vanishing scent ben-gay and I applied some. I hope it helps because right now I can't move my right arm without it hurting. this happened in san torini too.
been reading some of naked by david sedaris. the first three or four pages are so amazingly annoying but then he settles into a style that is acceptable. he has these ticks that sound similar to those that the narrator has in motherless brooklyn. maybe he's tourrettic.
they sell beer on trains. how about that? it's also like $4.50. maybe I'll get some in chicago and bring it onboard. I wonder if that's allowed.
it's remarkably quiet here. it's so much quieter than a plane and it's probably a bit quieter than a car. I have my headphones set to a level a little louder than I would in [my old room] 42 with a bunch of computers. the vibration isolation is not so hot though. walking toward the cafe car I basically fell into the wall because of some side-to-side shake.
Deer Tick – These Old Shoes (mp3)
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I got out in Albany because they gassed up and added cars there so it was a half an hour stop. I should tell Am I’ve been to Albany. there’s this strangely shaped church tower right outside the train station. it reminds me of a rocket ship.
9.8.03
9:30 am (CST)
Bob Dylan – “When the Ship comes In”
we should be in Chicago, but we’re not. I don’t think we’re in South Bend yet either. oh well. I’ll have a couple less hours in Chicago. I’m going to try to hit the Art Institute of Chicago, get a pizza and check my email using someone else’s wireless.
the Impressions – People Get Ready (mp3)
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I saw the craigslist headquarters in the the Inner Sunset yesterday. I was pretty excited.
Here’s my photo through the bus window. The ladies on the bus looked at me very strange for taking this photo.
Did you eat meat today? Preferably prepared on a fire?
That’s what an American would do…
The other day, I saw a ThumsUp! while eating at an Indian restaurant. I decided to have it with my Desi chicken flatbread wrap.
This is my rating:
It tasted old timey–like Coke with sugar or Pepsi Retro. I like that old time taste!
26th and Noe: I like the city for having things around and it’s quieter than Taipei. But I miss the quiet sometimes. At a touch after midnight, it’s quiet here, so quiet that I could think I was in a different city. But I’m only a few blocks away from louder blocks.
…
26th and Guerrero: It’s getting louder now.
I literally groaned when my alarm when off this morning. Time to get more sleep, I think.
Andy trying to slap me with his tie makes me really happy:
Trying to practice portraits, this was what I could find to be my subject:
For Colin, the only thing I could find (besides myself) to be my subject was the 2004 roadtrip bobblehead mascot:
I like this poster I’ve been seeing in my neighborhood. “No more!”
Wandering around Chinatown reminds me of Taipei:
My philly photoalbum and ghm.
The other week I saw a photoset of a very cool building mural/ graffiti in San Francisco, based on an icanhascheezburger image (this one to be specific).
I was running errands in Chinatown during lunch and thought some things looks familiar so I went around back, down the alley and saw this:
It’s still there! As it turns out, the building owner consented to having that painted on there. It’s still pretty cool, though.
The left side of my butt chin is bigger and lower than right.
I was all excited because I saw I’d gotten an email
but it was from me
the one I just sent
sad
I don’t mean to brag, but I think it displays a lot of promise.
Almost a year and a half after Pittsburgh got it, Google Transit is now available for the Bay Area.
We had 511’s Transit Trip Planner already but–let’s face it–google’s going to do it better.
involves connecting two or more distinct computer networks or network segments together to form an internetwork (often shortened to internet), using devices which operate at layer 3 of …
But don’t you think it should mean networking on the internet? Internet networking–>internetworking! You know Linked In and things like that. Makes perfect sense to me. Let’s reclaim the word for its new use.
A subset of that could be interblogworking, for blog-to-blog networking.
Past words I may or may not have coined:
I buy fresh bread. It used to go stale. I bought a bread box. Now it stays fresh longer. Amazing!
You know when you go to Buci di Beppo or Vinny Testa’s or any of those Italian places that give you a mountain of food and you eat a full meal and it looks like you haven’t even started?
Yeah, that’s what my moving status is right now.
I saw a motorcycle the other day with a disabled parking placard.
Is that even useful let alone possible?
I’m sure I’m the first person to express this sentiment.
I spent basically all the time from 8:30am to 10pm yesterday moving. By the end of the day boxes I thought were light earlier were feeling really heavy. By the end of the day, I was threatening to drop couches and things after just a few feet because my forearms were atrophied to such an extent.
I got one of those stylish back support things that you see movers and home depot employees wearing. I pretty much wanted to look professional while I moved, but it did have some benefits in back support. (And, really, I don’t want a back support device, I want an Impenetrable and Invincible Back Exoskeleton Now Made with Super-Alloy-Z.)
Our one break was a visit to In N Out in the evening. We parked our Budget rent-a-truck across three parking spaces laterally and I had the biggest meal I’ve had at an In N Out. It was the most guilt-free meal I’ve had since the Tahoe century.
Today I hurt. Back, forearms, calves, quads and all the other areas that contain muscle.
When I moved to Menlo Park in 2003, there were three car dealerships along the main drag, El Camino Real. By the time I moved away in 2007, all of them were closed up. I’d meant to do a photo essay on them for a while and I finally did one time in December when I was back there.
Click for larger images.
when I’m in a hurry and I think I’m grabbing peach yogurt and it’s actually orange creme.
Note to yogurt making companies: orange creme is not a good flavor. That it’s patterned after an artificially flavored ice cream snack should be enough of a hint to that effect. What’s next Jolly Rancher Watermelon flavor yogurt?
In Mexico I had a Pepsi Retro.
It has “natural ingredients” and “no artificial flavors or colors” (that’s what the Spanish says, I think). As we know, I like my sodas sans corn syrup.
It has an old timey taste. Jesse tried it as well and said the same thing. I liked it. Generally I like Coke a lot better than Pepsi but if Pepsi Retro was available in Estados Unidos (apparently it’s Mx only), I might even buy it over regular coke (though probably not over Mexican Coke (w/ sugar rather than corn syrup) in a glass bottle, which is available in some stores around me.
Last night, Dug, jwerberg, Helene (and a couple others) and I went to Lucky Ju Ju, which a pinball museum in Alameda. You pay $10 admission and then all the machines are on free play. You can play as many as you want! There are some really old gems as well as some modern oddities, like one with a convoluted surface that makes the ball jump around in a crazy way (it’s a Martian theme, or something) and a soccer one that’s timed rather than a given number of balls–you have to score more times than letting the balls through the paddles. This place is a total blast.
It’s got pretty weird hours (6pm-midnight Friday and Saturday, 4-8pm Sunday), but it’s worth a trip or ten.
Here’s one flickr photo set.
My wrists still hurt from all that pinballing!
Best entertainment for the money around here outside of Musee Mechanique.
The strangest alternative-Super-Bowl TV ever had to have been Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl. Did anyone see this?
There have been Bud Bowls and Celebrity Death Matches, but putting a bunch of puppies (and kitties, for the half-time show) on a small field-looking play area and filming them? That’s absurd.
Also, we missed at least one or two plays of the actual Super Bowl watching it.
Decisions: do I bike the Wiggle or take one of ‘em Muni buses?
Oh learning new things in a new city!
I just saw snow flurries, unmistakably and confirmed by other witnesses.
It’s crazy! I was practically speechless.
Who else can I add to the list?
I only listed [(first middle/last) last] name variants up there, but I figure there must be some [first (middle/first last)] names as well. If someone was famous and was called Mary Elizabeth Taylor, that would be an example of that variant.
The other implied thing is that the 3-named famous person actually went by or was call by all three names regularly.
[Yes, I'm consciously stealing the title.]
Lucerne (Safeway’s house brand) now has a green tea light yogurt. It’s really good. I’ve been enjoying it frequently. The mango green tea is also good, but I’d give the peach green tea flavor a skip.
Fight Quest is a pretty fascinating show. I caught a couple episodes of it today. Two guys travel to different regions of the globe to learn regional martial arts styles. They have 5 days of intense training and then they have to fight a skilled fighter of the style. I’m not quite sure why it’s fascinating; maybe it’s seeing these guys push themselves to the limit.
(Here’s another post from my Taiwan backlog.)
I found the bathrooms in Taiwan pretty interesting. I sort of wanted to take photos of them except that it would make me a bit creepy[1], so I didn’t.
In America, many, if not most, urinals are of the short and blocky variety, like this American Standard one, but in Taiwan and other parts of Asia, they were of all sorts, short, tall, down to the floor, curved, blocky, narrow, deep and so on. Many of them were made by Toto (”I bless the raaaaiins down in Aaaaaaaafrica!” is what I’d sing in my head each time I saw one of those.)
There were also numerous funny signs. Two of my favorite are below.
In the MRT stations in Taipei:
Come Closer Please
automatic flushing when you draw near
This one I’d always imagine the “come closer please” said low and breathy, like a movie monster or serial killer. Because, I mean, when else do you hear “come closer please”?
In the train station in Hualien:
Stand Closer
to be discrete and clean
There was also a theme in many bathrooms of things that said something like “Let’s learn English!” with an English idiom and its Chinese meaning. Some of these idioms were not very common or possibly not idioms at all. I’d love it for a Chinese person to come to America and then say one of those and when people looked at him questioning, he would have to explain that he learned it in a bathroom so it must be right!
There were also a lot of proverbs and old sayings on walls. These were also translated into English. Most of them were not very funny.
I did take one photo of a sign in a bathroom in Thailand:
I hadn’t really considered washing my feet in the sink but now that they mention it, it does sound like a good idea!
Outside of a bathroom, but still related:
[1] Is this post creepy anyway?
(I have a backlog of posts started when I was in Taiwan. Here’s one of them.)
I recently [well, I started this a while ago, so more like a month or two ago] finished Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. It’s a memoir of his life with savant syndrome and Aspergers.
You might recognize him from his appearance on Letterman a few years ago:
I found it pretty interesting. Daniel is one of the people on the autistic spectrum that is most able to describe going on in his brain. For instance, each number has a shape and texture in his head. If he’s multiplying two numbers the shapes/ textures come together to form a new shape and he just says what that new number is based on the shape. Interesting, but not exactly helpful in getting my to do complicated multiplication or sums in my head…
There’s also quite a bit about dealing with Aspergers, unrelated to any special abilities he has. He has problems socializing and with making eye contact and things like that. I do too (though not as extreme), but people seem to just tell me to get over it.
It’s well-written and the reading goes smoothly and quickly (in case you’re concerned about reading a book written by someone who talks about his problems communicating). Overall, it’s an uplifting book, with plenty of hope and overcoming obstacles.
You can also check out another interesting video. He also has blog.
While reading this list of US Presidential assassination attempts I realized I have a new favorite president. The description of the attempt on Andrew Jackson:
At the Capitol Building, a house painter named Richard Lawrence aimed two flintlock pistols at the President, but both misfired, one of them while Lawrence stood within 13 feet (4 m) of Jackson and the other at point-blank range.[11] After firing the two pistols, Lawrence was apprehended after Jackson beat him with his cane.
Number of days: 112
Number of days or parts thereof spent traveling: 47 (3 to/ from, 7 intra-Taiwan (3 Kaohsiung, 2 Taroko, 2 Kinmen), 37 intra-Asia (7 Indonesia, 5 Thailand; 15 Hong Kong, Macau, China; 10 Japan)
Number of countries visited (since moving): 6 (Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, U.S.) + 2 special administrative regions with separate border controls (Hong Kong, Macau)
Number of countries visited (year to date): 8 (above + South Africa, Swaziland) + 2 S.A.R.s
Number of flights (since moving): 14 (SFO-> TPE-> CKG-> DPS-> CKG-> TPE-> BKK-> TPE-> HKG-> TPE-> NRT-> TPE, TSA-> KNH-> TSA, TPE-> SFO)
Number of flights (2007): 31 (SFO-> CVG-> IAD-> JNB, DUR-> CPT-> JNB-> JFK, BOS-> JFK-> SFO-> BOS-> DFW-> SFO-> HNL-> LIH-> HNL-> SFO + above + SFO-> CLT-> DCA)
Miles flown (since moving): 27,406 miles (44,106 km)
Miles flown (2007): 63,569 miles (102,304 km)
Number of high speed train journeys: 4 (Taipei->Kaohsiung->Taipei, Tokyo->Kyoto->Tokyo)
Number of train journeys: 6 (above + Taipei->Hualien->Taipei)
Approximate number of km ridden on scooters: 225
Best hotel (overall): Kamandalu Resort, Ubud, Bali. A connection to the cousin of the owner opened the door for staying in this swanky place. Gorgeous surroundings and really nice rooms. Private verandas looking over rice paddies. The service was also excellent. We went out riding bikes around the rice paddies one day and came back sweating. Pretty soon after we entered the lobby we had cool moist towels to wipe our faces with. Perhaps the only nicer place I’ve stayed is the ridiculous Schlosshotel Veir Jahrezeiten (Four Seasons Palace Hotel) in Berlin. (They had a Ferrari convention while we were there and it didn’t seem out of place.)
Best hotel (value): Hirano Guesthouse, Kyoto. 3500 yen a night in Kyoto is very cheap and besides a nice place to stay, the owner was very friendly, helpful and accommodating, making us tea when we came home for a break in the afternoons. She also made us breakfast every morning, let us use her bicycles and computer/ internet. Oh and there was a candy bowl and after we ate an unreasonable amount of it, she didn’t complain, she just refilled it.
Number of American chain stores patronized (not counting convenience stores, exact): 3 (2 Subways-Taipei, 1 Denny’s-Kyoto)
Number of American chain stores patronized (counting convenience stores[1], approximate): 22.2 (the above + Circle K’s in Taiwan, Bali, Thailand, ampm’s in Japan, plus 0.2 for a Mister Donut in Japan[2])
Oddest food obsession: Harbo’s Happy Cola gummy candies
Most common food eaten: rice (~ >1.5 servings a day)
Most common food product eaten: Kinder Chocolate (~ 0.6 a day)
Most “exotic” foods eaten: crickets, silk worms, frog
Number of Dr. Peppers consumed: 2 (one in Japan, one in Thailand)
Foods most missed: good bread, good cheese, Dr. Pepper, good beef, shelled shrimp, deboned fish.
Number of Hello Kitty products seen: in the thousands
Number of Hello Kitty products purchased: 1 (alarm clock, convenience store, Japan)
America: so quiet, so dark, so many English speakers, so many whites/ latinos/as, blacks. big supermarkets. low population density.
Least useful piece of clothing: dress shirt (the greenish one, never worn, given away at the end)
Most useful piece of clothing: shoes (the brown Adidas, nearly daily)
Most useful piece of clothing out of its original purpose (and new use): board shorts-style swimsuit (exercise shorts)
Piece of clothing I most immediately realized I’d forgotten: navy blue cotton boxers (that I use as warm weather pajama bottoms)
Number of books read: 5.75 (2nd 0.5 of Slow Man by Coeztee, Love is a Mixtape by Sheffield, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: a Story of the Hip Hop Generation by Chang, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Klosterman, Born on a Blue Day By Tammet, You Don’t Love Me Yet by Lethem, first 0.25 of About a Boy by Hornsby)
Number of concerts attended: 3 (Emily the Band @ Underworld, Apples in Stereo @ the Wall, Sugar Plum Ferry @ the Wall)
Number of CDs purchased: 19 (5 in Hong Kong (Monitor), 5 @ WWR (1st trip), 5 @ WWR (2nd trip), 2 @ IMPO, 1 @ FINAC, 1 @ Roses(?))
Number of pieces of mail received: 6 (3 packages of promo CD(s); 1 each from Ian, Lauren, Gumbeaux)
[1] This is tricky because things are confusing. 7-11 is Japanese for instance.
[2] Mr. Donut is an American brand but the Asian stores are run by Duskin Co out of Japan under a licensing agreement.
More lessons from Adrian. Former/ latter is comparative between two objects. For example:
I like apples and grapes. I like the former because of the crispness while I like the latter because of the sweetness.
(I’m just making stuff here.)
First/ last point to the ends of a string of things. If you have three or more objects, you may think you sound smart using former/ latter, but it’s not right.
For example:
I like ladybugs, lightning bugs and butterflies. I have fond memories of the first [not former] from my younger days.
That makes for an a bit of an awkward sentence so perhaps “first of those” would be most appropriate.
Basically just a caribeann-style sound system but on bikes. Pretty good photo essay.
For a year from September 2005, under the nose of the Panthéon’s unsuspecting security officials, a group of intrepid “illegal restorers” set up a secret workshop and lounge in a cavity under the building’s famous dome. Under the supervision of group member Jean-Baptiste Viot, a professional clockmaker, they pieced apart and repaired the antique clock that had been left to rust in the building since the 1960s. Only when their clandestine revamp of the elaborate timepiece had been completed did they reveal themselves.
It reminds me somewhat of a higher art version of what I saw at the ‘tute’.
(via wax)
Statistics lesson number 1, by me.
There’s a difference between percent and percentage points. People often get this wrong.
For example (bugmenot can help):
When it came to side effects, Effexor’s greatest liability was that it could cause hypertension, a side effect not shared by S.S.R.I.’s. Sussman showed us some data from the clinical trials, indicating that at lower doses, about 3 percent of patients taking Effexor had hypertension as compared with about 2 percent of patients assigned to a placebo. There was only a 1 percent difference between Effexor and placebo, he commented, and pointed out that treating high blood pressure might be a small price to pay for relief from depression.
Wrong. There was only 1 percentage point difference between the two.
3% is 50% more than 2%. (And 2% is 33% less than 3%). There is no form of comparison between the two of those percents that is only 1 percent.
(To the credit of the author, he points out that it can be seen as 50% more, though he doesn’t call Sussman’s version wrong.)
This logic puzzle is bugging me. I got a few steps in and now I’m stuck.
I’ve never been good at those logic puzzles. In fact, I’m probably the only person I know who was helped immensely by the GRE switching away from those. But maybe I’ll get better if I practice.
made a good point: don’t worry about little stuff and everything is little.
The weekend in Kaohsiung was good.
Friday
High Speed Rail from Taipei to Zouying (outside Kaohsiung). It’s fast and smooth. I’m a fan. There was a mix up with the hotel about the shuttle and I ended up waiting at the station for 45 minutes and then taking a taxi. The hotel paid for it (their mix up).
Saturday
Breakfast. I’m not sure if I’d ever get used to traditional chinese breakfast. I had some toast. Then I walked to the ferry pier to Chijin island. The walk isn’t far but it crosses a bridge that doesn’t have a sidewalk. It wasn’t too busy and I’m alive.
Chijin’s a small community in a big city. Small houses, lots of bikes[1]. I like it. The temple near the ferry terminal is small but one of the nicest I’ve seen. Built in 1666 or something. Lots of nice detail. I sat outside and read for a while.
I walked up to the fort and lighthouse on the hill. Nice views obscured a bit by smog. On the main drag there are seafood stalls with the stuff still alive or freshly caught and on ice. I had soem fantastic mussels and shrimp. The mussels were among the best I’ve had–done in a similar style to 3 cup chicken [2].
I took the ferry back to the main island (Taiwan Island, that is) and walked back over the scary bridge to the hotel and took a break. After that I walked to the Tuntex Skytower and went to the observation deck. It’s an interesting building that’s like a stick figure person with no arms or head; there’s a gap at the bottom, basically. Between the Skytower and Taipei 101, I’m thinking that the Taiwanese do skyscrapers pretty well–they’re attractive.
From there I took a taxi across town to the Liouho Street Night Market. It’s bustling and big and fun. I got some weird and great food and did some people watching. I’ll post a separate photo essay on this.
The taxis from Skytower to Liouho and from Liouho back to the hotel were about $4 each. Why had I been walking so much?
Sunday
Struggled through breakfast again.
I went to mass at the Holy Rosary Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in Taiwan. Really beautiful. Mass is given in English by an Italian priest. I was wondering if the place would be half full. Catholics and English speakers aren’t exactly numerous around here, but it was packed. The answer: Filipinos, who often come to work as domestic workers, are very Catholic and often, I would guess, speak English better than Chinese.
Another thing that’s nicer about mass rather than just a walk around in beautiful old churches is the time to sit and absorb it. Holy Rosary is really nice. I went to mass in the Koelner Dom back in 2002. It was nice to sit there.
From there, I walked around, getting some papaya milk at the Kaohsiung Milk King and then sitting by Love River and reading for a bit.
A quick tour of Yancheng’s temples, lunch at the City of Steamed Glutinous Rice, and then I went back the hotel. They took me back to the train station.
I had dreams of the most efficient tourism route ever for this trip. I was doing pretty well. Lotus Lake, in Zouying is close to nothing…except the high speed rail station, so I’ll just go early, drop my bag in a locker and then walk around the lake, I thought. Brilliant plan, except for the fact that the HRS station doesn’t have lockers. The two things a train station should have–take note if you’re planning on building one–are trains and luggage lockers. So I ended up walking around the lake for a few hours with my fairly heavy bag. My knees are not happy.
The trip back was as smooth as the way there and the MRT connections once I got back to Taipei were fast, so I was back in my room ~22 minutes after I got off the train.
[1] There were a whole lot of bikes–I might have seen dozens–set up with bullhorn barns and a single gear. I’m a big fan of this style and I was happy to see so many of them in Kaohsiung.
[2] The best chicken you’ll ever taste, as made by Joy Restaurant in San Mateo. I’m now determined to make my own 3 cup chicken/ mussels.
I didn’t get any photos of these things. Sorry!
Note: I carry my camera around a lot, but I can’t always get a photo of everything.
One of the weirder wikipedia pages: list of people who have disappeared.
The older ones are full of mystery and are pretty interesting. The newer ones are largely kidnapped kids; kidnapping kids is not interesting or fun; kidnapping kids is sad.
What’s with having 12 months? Does that make sense at all? Years and days make sense–they are determined by the behavior of the earth, but months? That’s just silly. I vote for ten 36.5 day months.
And while we’re at it, 24 hours? Why not 22 or 28. At least 28 is a perfect number. All 24 has going for it is that game [1]. Come on, split up the day into 10 hours, each of which would have 10 minutes, each of which would have 864 seconds [2].
Throw out those old archaic systems. Who’s with me?
[1] It is a fun game. Who’s up for a 24 tourney when I get back??
[2] No, not 10 seconds. The second is already the SI unit of time.
Driving into Ubud from Kuta when I was in Bali, we saw a lot of floats in the street. We asked the driver and it turns out that there was a parade that day commemorating the day. We got various stories about who it was for, whether it was for anyone at all. It was an annual parade, or it was for the husband of a woman we talked to, or it was for a baby that had died a couple weeks prior. Or it might have been a combination, a planned parade but when the baby or the husband died, they became part of it.
The plan, we learned, was to parade these floats about a kilometer and then burn the floats. As it was tradition, all the men, including my group, all wore sarongs.
Some floats prepared on the road.
Everyone turned out, it seemed.
It took quite a bit of coordination to lift each of the floats.
There was a lot of noise and excitement as the parade started.
On some of the floats, younger boys road up top.
There was a music group from the local school marching along with instruments from the gamelan tradition.
People who didn’t walk along the route with the parade watched as it went past.
At the end of the parade route at the cemetery area, all the floats were lined up around the edge of the area. Every family in town prepared an offering which were then placed in the floats before they were burned.
After a lull in the excitement there was a lot of yelling off to one side. Suddenly I realized that the locals had dug up some (apparently recently buried) bodies. Wrapped in thatched blankets, they were rushed over and placed in the floats amid a flurry of yells.
This man was the man with the matches, one presumes an important person on this day.
One float with offerings lined up around it and in the back.
Everything goes up in flames.
Man Charged With Beheading Hotel’s Duck:
Police said Clark — an auditor in the Office of Inspector General — tore the duck’s head off near the hotel’s atrium pond Saturday and then told witnesses: “I’m hungry. I’m gonna eat it.”
“It sounds like there was quite a bit of alcohol involved,” police Sgt. John Wuorinen said.
On the bus, seen on a young woman presumably going to work:
WHAT DOES “FUCK” MEAN?
F = FOREVER I LOVE YOU
U = UNHAPPY WITHOUT YOU
C = CARE ABOUT YOU
K = KISS YOU WITH A HUG
I GIVE YOU BIGGEST F.U.C.K.
Oh, Taipei, how you amuse me.
I could easily spend 3 months being amused by the signs here. Here are just a few I’ve seen.
[Some of the signs are hard to read in this size. Click for larger versions.]
Taiwan
There are signs everywhere, many of them lighted. They can easily fill your view.
Beef and beer, how can you go wrong?
Lobster and beer, is the only improvement, I guess.
On some signs, the iconography is unusual:
On some signs the language is–how should I say this–awkward. (Note, the screen they’re referring to has never been on that I’ve noticed).
Yes, they go fast, I get it! 39 m/ min fast!
Announced Tuesday along with the iPod Touch and the other things is the best designed cake in the world. It can hold 8 billion songs. 8…billion…songs…
Is the skin eating food or is the skin the food? I’m confused.
There is something about chicken restaurants. Thumbs up! You’re about to eat me!
“The best saporous fried chicken in Taiwan”. Where’s my dictionary? Is that a word?
“Super chicken” is the newest superhero…you can eat.
I know where I’ll go next time I need some mockery.
Hello! Damper Baby!
“Deep flied pork cutlet”. I’m not putting words in anyone’s mouth.
Some bring out the giggly high schooler in me.
Summer BEER Rock Festival
Beer
SUMMER
Rock
Festival
ACTIVE
->Activity Girl With Dream
Active girl has inside herself to be confident, fulfilled, happy and healthy. Active girl Power! is the power to speak your mind, to stand up for yourself, and to know what’s right for you. We want every girl to know: you are unique, you are valuable, and with your Girl Power! you can succeed. The future is yours.
Indonesia
No “tipping” <wink><wink> Ah yes, I see.
The only I saw can be disturbed aviation safety was me taking the photo of the sign.
Car maintenance shop, but in Indonesian!
Sort of like a Walmart but in Indonesia.
a) I dislike change. It ends up my floor because my pockets get too heavy. I had $41.68 on my floor as of this morning.
[Also, the Page Mill branch of the Stanford Federal Credit Union has a coin machine like those at Safeway but no commission! You get a receipt from it to exchange it for cash or deposit it.]
b) I have a lot more stuff than when I moved to California just under 4 years ago. It’s still manageable but barely. I can also be brutal when it’s time to pack up in terms of what I throw out and what I keep. Like today I threw out my coke can birdman costume (after it had sit on Craiglist->free a few days, I should note) even though it took me a ridiculous amount of time and energy to make but I knew I wasn’t going to use it again.
also:
c) I’m moving to Taiwan, well, now.
Thanks for the good suggestions. Here’s who I ended up donating too.
Yup, that’s 5/4. I ended up finding more worthwhile charities than I originally was going to donate to so, I just ended donating more.
I saw Superbad last night. It’s really funny and uses some dirty language.
I give it four fingers and a thumb.
On Sunday I saw the Pirates and Giants play at ATT Park with dug.
The pitching match up was $126 million Barry Zito (the highest paid pitcher, 2007’s stake is $10 million) vs. $380,000 Tom Gorzelanny. Zito walk the first three batters, gave up a two-run home run and a two-run triple (both to Josh Phelps). Meanwhile, Gorzelanny had his first complete game shut out, helping him earn the National League co-player of the week honors.
It was a fun game to watch and it was the first time I’d sat in the left field bleachers (5th row–nice grab, dug!). All in all a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Both teams then flew to Pittsburgh for a make-up double header on Monday. I’m only mentioning it because there was some craziness with the line-up on the Pirates behalf. Between the two games, here’s some of the odd positions:
Wow!
inches from my head. It’s so close the sound feels like it’s coming from inside my head. It’s sort of freaking me out.
We did suit Friday at work (a play off of casual friday). I looked dashing:
Possibly the best japanese game show, or any game show. A foam board with a shape cut out in it moves toward you. You have to fit through the shape or you get knocked into a pool of water. Unexpectedly hilarious. (From Melissa.)
A bunch of inmates in the Philippines do the Thriller video. It’s meticulous and awesome. We’ve seen it at a wedding and in a movie but this may be the most impressive. (From Dave)
Michel Lauziere performs “The Toreador Song” from Carmen on 300 some bottles, hitting them with sticks attached to his roller blades. Very cool and I never would have thought of doing it this way. (From Andy)
It had never rained (in recorded history going back to 1849) on July 18th in San Francisco until this past Wednesday:
San Francisco has the oldest consecutive rain record in California. Wednesday’s rain left July 7 and July 14 as the only days San Francisco has never recorded a measurable amount of rain, 0.01 inches or more.
Man, it’s so weird here….
I’m really sorry. I know my server/ blog is intermittent and slow if it’s even working. I don’t have the time to change servers right this minute.
I’ll try to take care of it this weekend.
I was just thinking about some things I said in situations where I was looking for a job. I’m pretty amused (and proud) of a couple of the things I said.
1. To an Autodesk (makers of AutoCad) representative at the MIT job fair:
So why doesn’t MIT use or teach AutoCad?
2. To an engineer at NASA – Ames interviewing me about a environment-surveying robot that used a parachute with a grappling hook to land on and drag itself up a hillside.
I can’t understand why you would want to solve the problem that way.
Needless to say, I didn’t get either job.
(I’m not actually that irreverent in general but sometimes I just get in a mood, I guess.)
(I should also note that I think both things are fair statements, even in retrospect.)
Google SMS is awesome. You simply text what you want to GOOGLE (466453) and it texts you back almost instantly with what you need.
Traveling in Boston last week, I used this a lot. (It should be noted that I have unlimited text messages.) Don’t know where that bar was? Text “the littlest 02116″. Is my flight on time? Text “AA 631″. What time is that movie showing? “Eagle vs. Shark 02139″. What’s that froyo place’s phone number? “Ankara Cafe Boston”. What’s the weather going to be the next day? “Weather 02139″.
All of these things got me the exact information I wanted quickly. I’m impressed!
I’ve been a bit slow on the updates here. I’m catching up!
Libs and I managed to wait possibly four hours between the two of us on the day the tickets were released (back in February), but we managed to get six tickets for the Red Sox while I was in Boston last week. The final groups was Jesse, Colin, Heather, Lauren (no blog!), Libs and I. Good group.
The game was hilariously lopsided (another recap here). By the end of the 3rd inning the Devil Rays were down 13-2, they were on their 3rd pitcher and the Red Sox had hit a grand slam (Coco Crisp) and a 3 run HR (Lowell).
We could have left at that point, but that would have been no fun. Plus we would have missed Sweet Caroline (you should have heard me singing!).
Afterwards, in what’s becoming a bit of a tradition, we hit up Ankara (”For the Gen X-ers”) for froyo. Brownie and reese’s pieces could possibly be the best combination of add-ins ever.
Last year, it cut 28 million miles from truck routes — saving roughly three million gallons of fuel — in good part by mapping routes that minimize left turns. This year, U.P.S. began offering customers a self-service system for redirecting packages that are en route.
via scott
I did a radio show for the first time in three weeks last night.
I played it pretty loose and I was pretty happy with the results. I’ve found a lot of great music in the last few weeks and I got to share that.
Now for the musak:
Times like these make me think of this a e housman:
“Is my team plowing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plow.“Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more?”Ay, the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands, Up, the keeper
Stands Up to keep the goal.“Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?”Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep:
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep.“Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?”Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.
The family, at dinner.
Brother: I got a few movies from Netflix and we could watch one tonight. I got Melinda and Melinda—from Woody Allen—Before Sunset, To Be and to Have[1], and a Hitchcock movie: Two Men on a Train [sic]. [explains some of the plot of Strangers on a Train for a couple minutes.]
Dad: So which Hitchcock is that?
Me: Alfred. [laughs for eight minutes]
[1] This is one of the best films I’ve seen in the last five years. A really really good documentary.
I beg to differ. I beg to differ, my friend. Do you have shirts supporting your argument? I think not…
Yup, it’s not even June anymore. Pathetic! This is the 12th mix tape. It’s been almost a year since I started these things. Yup, pretty long ago. You enjoying them?
This is heavily delayed, I know. It was probably in part due to all the time I put into my loop mix.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the 2007june playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one includes a lot of great indie pop/ rock, including a lot of new finds (of new and old bands) like Emily Sparks, the New Year, and My Latest Novel.
Adrian’s June 2007 mix tape (zupload link with zip file)
(I’m trying this because hosting the zip was a significant bandwidth drain. let me know your thoughts on it; maybe I’ll switch to something else next month if that doesn’t work well.)
As always this’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week), so grab it now.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
7-11 has transformed eleven stores into Kwik-E-Marts as a promotion for the new Simpsons movie, even including Simpsons foods like the pink donut and squishees.
Luckily one of the 11 is near me, so I’ll stop by in the next month. I’m excited!
ESPN does a story (/video) entitled “Death Race” and I sort of want to do it. It’s about the annual tough guy race in the UK. Parts of the race include running through icy water and mud, running through hanging strips of wire, some of which are electrified and bounding over hay bales on fire into icy water.
At long last, we come to the final obstacle, the newly added Viagra Falls. To get there, we wade 30 yards in neck-deep water before climbing up the muddy hill and sliding down a slick tarp into icy water as course marshals use fire hoses to spray us. The hoses and subsequent dunking aren’t the worst part, though. No. After all we’d been through, the added wading to reach the slide just seems cruel.
Cruel and, well, unnecessary.
It’s a pretty well-written story and the video’s good too.
I went for a short bike ride today. It was strange, riding around, hair-in-need-of-a-cut in a wind [1], with tension in my shoulders and a bit of discomfort in the seat. The discomfort was in a way comfortable, familiar. It was good being back on the bike. In the end, my knee only wanted to do a few miles, but I’m hoping it won’t show any ill effects of this exercise later today or tomorrow and that I can ride more in the near future.
[1] I’m a big fan of wearing a helmet, but on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon on a slow ride of a short route of all no-risk right turns on small suburban streets, I didn’t wear one.
Yesterday, I went to the Taiwan Cultural Office of San Francisco (in Sunnyvale) yesterday. They serve some consular functions and I was investigating visa stuff for the fall.
I got there and there are people sitting around, forms, papers and signs everywhere, but no one is speaking, reading, writing in English. It ended up taking me 15 minutes to find where to get the forms I needed.
I’m sure I showed a little of a deer-in-headlights look in my eyes, but my mental dialog went something more like “oh my gosh what am I doing?! how am I going to do four months of this when I’m having a hard time with fifteen minutes?!”
It was pretty sweet. I’m sure it’ll work out.
There are very few things I can convince myself to do daily. Brushing my teeth, getting dressed, eating and showering are about it and those I notice very soon if I don’t.
Things that take a longer time to see the effects of, I’m not very good. Physical therapy I can do for a while but it’s hard to stick with. Exercise I can handle on the times per week basis, but not on the daily basis.
Starting today, I’m going to start two things (that may or may not help me in the long run) that take 90 days (at least) to see an effect: Glucosamine and Minoxidil.
Glucosamine is a supplement that’s been shown to help some portion of the population’s joints in rebuilding. Now, I don’t have joint problems because I’m not old (and only old people have joint problems), but if I did they’d be left ankle, right and left knees, and right elbow and to a lesser extent left elbow, right and left shoulders. The dose that’s been studied is 1.5g (1500mg). This is a very large pill.
Minoxidil is just for fun. Any problem that it treats that you might think I have is a figment of your imagination. This problem simple does not effect me.
My mom was telling me this weekend that my parents’ new house is quiet. This astounds me because this is compared to Candlewood[1]. I can’t imagine a quieter place. I remember going into the basement during a break from college and my ears and head hurt it was so quiet. I was so used to four or six or eight computers humming in any room, people yelling, laughing, chatting, arguing, snoring in deep sleep, the belabored breathing of a cold that just won’t go away, the music playing, someone drumming or singing or playing guitar, the street cleaners slowly making their way up the street, the shovels of the snowplows scraping along the street in winter, the garbage trucks coming to empty the dumpster, the cars whizzing past or honking if they weren’t, the drunken college kids yelling or laughing on their walk home from whatever bar or pub, the planes making their way out of Logan. I was so used to a constant din, a background of noise that this silence was shocking.
If Double Eagle[2] is quieter than that, I may have a hard time. I’ll be sure to bring my laptop and music to play.
[1],[2] Through lots of moving, business relationships, and a spread out set of relations, my family has need to refer to a number of different houses. We invariably choose the street name. “Which house was that?” “Smits Road”. “Where was it that Wolfgang visited?” “General Allen Lane”. An odd case of synecdoche. The Candlewood house was always just the “house” but now that my parents have moved away, it’s taking on ‘Candlewood”.
Our cars also had an odd nomenclature: their color. “We’ll take the green car.” “Which car can I take to Andy’s house?” “Take the red car. Mom needs the blue car.” Somehow every car we’ve purchased since the late 80s has been a mutually exclusive color to all that came before. My family is rife with synecdoche.
Reading today, I realized I had an opinion about something that most likely no one cares about…so of course I must blog about it.
For me, the ideal bookmark is a reasonable size, is a bit thicker than standard paper and is plentiful, as I often lose bookmarks.
4 good bookmarks:
[click for bigger version]
Gelatin? Really? That’s all I can get in this aisle? An entire aisle of gelatin?
And gelatin is a “frozen choice”?
It’s about as official as it can get without having tickets: I’ll be going to live/ work in Taiwan for the fall (early-mid September to mid-late December).
Generally I’m a more of a descriptive linguist, but I do have a couple language pet peeves, one of which is misuse of binary words.
Perfect, for example. Something is or it isn’t. It can’t be pretty perfect or very perfect. It can be almost perfect; that works.
Unique, is another example. Is it one of a kind? Then it’s unique.
I’m all for saying over or understating things for effect. Like “I’m pretty much very perfect”. Hilarious, but grammatical error is still not correct and such a statement should only be used for its humorous value!
I saw Knocked Up on Friday night.
The basic plot is that a rather plain-looking slacker impregnates a beautiful go-getter during a one night stand. Hilarity ensues.
I thought it was really funny and worth seeing. Between all the laughs there is a bit of sappiness, but not bad sappiness. This is the least well-written review of anything ever. Sorry. I’m going to stop typing now.
Here’s my playlist from this week.
here’s the mp3 of the show which you can download and listen to if you wish (mp3).
Local folksy band Beatbeat Whisper appeared on the show and play a live set.
I went to quite a game between the A’s and the Red Sox last night. Mark Ellis hit for the cycle. The Red Sox made a comeback in the 9th to tie it and send it to extra innings. David Ortiz almost homered in the 10th and then Chavez hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th. Haren pitched really well (whereas Tavarez did not).
Pretty exciting stuff.
Update: Photos here.
I just deleted the “Bischoff” phone number on my phone as my parents moved out of my childhood home yesterday. Goodbye, Pittsburgh. It’s been good.
I won’t be doing the Escape from the Rock triathlong which I signed up for back in December. I’ve been having some knee problems so I switched to the swim-only event. It’ll be my second Alcatraz swim. This time will be not quite as bone-chilling, I think, as I’ll be using a wetsuit.
Mister Rogers was pretty incredible.
In high school, I remembering visiting a friend, Waller, who was doing a week-long camp/ program at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where Mister Rogers did his theological studies. Mister Rogers had stopped by the previous night. Waller was so excited about that; it had made her week. At the time I thought it was a sort of nostalgia-based, ironic excitement but now I realize it was probably authentic.
So I’m thinking of becoming a stand up comic. Here’s part of my routine.
so. have you noticed how “hola” looks like “holla“? I like imagining mexicans saying “holla!!”"
[with mexican accent]: “hollaaaaa, seniorita!!!”have you noticed that outside calipers aren’t like vernier calipers at all and yet they’re both called calipers? What’s the deal with that???
so there are all these apples product that have names that sort of make sense: iphone, imac, etc, but what the crap is ipod supposed to mean? it’s my ‘pod’? it doesn’t look like a pod at all!
This all comes out of a coversation with my friend, Andy. I’ve included the full conversation below because I think it’s funny.
Check out Cracked’s list of ‘that guys’. It’s a pretty good list; I recognized all of them but only knew the name of one of them.
In my line of business, it’s not unusual to get a couple packages from Asian (mostly Taiwan, China) a week. Sometimes the packing material is pretty cool. Some parts were packaged in this box last week.
I like the font (the ‘E’ in erasing and red-dotted ‘i’ in particular) and general graphic design. Also, having all that Chinese script just makes it that much cooler. It’s like someone’s bringing the traveling to me.
I went for a 3/4 mile swim in Aquatic Park today and I was reminded of some necessities for cold open-water swimming:
Oh, and one more thing. So this is actually “5 things…”
One optional other recommendation if you aren’t doing so well in the far sighted department:
I was talking to my friend Jesse on the phone. He was about to head to a bbq with some mutual friends.
me: Say hi to people for me.
Jesse: I probably won’t actually do that but I’ll say I will because it will make you feel better.
me: …
Thanks, pal.
I tried my hand at high speed photography courtesy of quake electronics
It started 10:30 last Sunday morning. I was still in bed and my other friend Dave gave me a call. The Maker Fair was great, he said, and that it’d be worth a trip to San Mateo to see it, so I headed out and met him there a little while later.
I got there and he was right. It was pretty awesome. I saw a bunch of really cool things, like what is below. I also got to hang out with the awesome folks at instructables, try my hand at welding (with the tech shop people), try high speed photography (see above), see some incredible and cool robots, talk to some interesting folks and eat a funnel cake. The presenters ranged from middle school kids who made lego robots to octogenarians with hand made, very precise engines that ran. All in all, if you have any geek in you, I’d recommend going to the Maker Fair next time.
Tesla coil!
A really cool cart with all mechanical, hand-cranked, hand-made mechanisms/ toys/ displays:
A really cool stylized sculpture with moving engine parts in the head:
more after the jump:
(more…)
I can’t believe I was ever associated with that weird place….
Quite possibly the worst yogurt flavor ever is Yoplait Light Orange Creme. I don’t want that flavor in my yogurt! (I think I must have grabbed it thinking it was the much better apricot mango flavor.) It’s worse than the odd apple turnover flavor.
It’s mixtape time!
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes (pdf)
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the 2007may playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one includes a lot of great indie pop/ rock plus some great soul and oldies songs. New Laura Veirs, some French Quarter, Bishop Allen, Elliott Smith.
Adrian’s May 2007 mix tape (zupload link with zip file, I’m trying this because hosting the zip was a significant bandwidth drain. let me know your thoughts on it; maybe I’ll switch to something else next month if that doesn’t work well.)
As always this’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week), so grab it now.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
I have been swimming a mile at a time these days, approximately 1600m, or for ease, 1600 yards (yes, I know they’re not the same). I count in 50 m/ yard increments, 1 length if the pool is set up in the 50m direction, 1 lap if it’s set up in the 25 yard direction, so that ends up being 32 increments.
I often get distracted by the thoughts of the day—one of the best parts of swimming is the time to think—and some days, the hardest part of the swim is keeping track where I am. (Other days, it’s pacing, speed or endurance.)
The three points (or ranges) where I often lose track of where I am:
Do you like the part where I find the most mundane details of my life and blog about them?
“This is my favorite” is a new series in which I show you my favorite things. I am going to start with kitchen items.
This is my favorite fork. It gives me joy when it’s in the drawer when I go to get a fork. It has clean and attractive lines.
The spork resemblance has been noted, but I didn’t actually see it until someone pointed it out.
It is a marked “US” “United Silver Co.” and “Stainless Japan”.
My other friend Dave and I were out getting some snacks when we saw “X-13D” Doritos and we had to get them. The bag says “All American Classic”. What could go wrong.
We got back and cracked them open
and gave them a try.
Note: backup Fritos
Man, these things are weird.
“What did I just put in my mouth?”
Dave said they tasted like a McDonalds Cheeseburger but a little spicier. After trying one myself, I think I have to agree. It has that bad mustard-dill-fake onion-maybe-even-ketchup taste. Very very strange. I stopped at just one on these chips.
Old Joy (wikipedia, trailer) is a minimalist story of two old friends who go camping for a weekend.
Kurt (Oldham’s character) is a free-floating and free-thinking friend who comes back into town and calls up Mark (Daniel London’s character) asking if he wants to check out some hot springs in the woods outside of town. Mark “asks” his pregnant wife(?)/ girlfriend (?) if he can go and then sets off. Kurt is that unreliable asshole friend that you have, the one that you love but you don’t count on for anything. Kurt gets them lost on the way to hot springs and delays the whole plan.
Friends change; that’s what this movie’s about. Mark is on the verge of fatherhood while Kurt has gone, it seems, from one hot spring and wild forest adventure to another. At the same time, it sort of shows you why those friends are still important even if the two don’t have that much in common.
Yo La Tengo’s soundtrack is great and works really well in the film. I must say, though, it didn’t quite floor me like their soundtrack to Junebug.
[1] “subtle” in critic-speak means the same thing as boring, but in a positive sense.
Tomorrow is Bike To Work day in the Bay Area, but everyone can take part.
I encourage you to take part. I’d also encourage you to do something extra: bike from work too.
[Yeah, I know, that's the same joke I made last year.]
A much funnier potential alternative to microdermabrasion: microdermlaceration[1].
“Oww! Why is my face covered in tiny little cuts! Seriously, how is that going help anything? Seriously!”
[1] types of wounds
I lived in Germany during the summer of 2002 and I traveled nearly every weekend. I arrived in Germany May 28 and left August 23. Sometimes I use this blog to put things down that are at the edge of my reach memory-wise, so I can make a record of them. I actually have all of this written down in a notebook, but I can’t find it.
Footnotes:
I’ve more or less halted training for the triathlon and haven’t done anything serious for the last week and a half. My knee is injured, so I’ve been taking it easy, taking naproxen or ibuprofen, icing it, heating it, etc.
Things I have done in that time: swam twice (1.0 miles, 0.75 miles), aqua-jogged* twice (10 minutes, 20 minutes), bike a small amount (3.3 miles, 4.7 miles, plus practicing track stands for 20 minutes) and walked quite a bit.
It’s starting to feel better, so I’m going to be slowly testing it out: a flat and easy 10-15 mile bike ride tomorrow and if that works, ~1-2 miles on the track (soft surface) on Thursday. Both will be with my new knee brace.
I’m a classic over-doer, but I’ve learned my lesson for this month at least, so, don’t worry, I’m not going to do too much.
*Aqua-jogging is possibly even more boring and stupid than regular jogging. But it’s low-impact.
I’m pretty proud of myself: I cleaned my desk yesterday…for the first time since I moved to my current house (August 2004).
I’m pretty happy about this. Probably a little too happy. It’s the little things…
And it wasn’t even on my to-do list!
Yeah, I’m about a weird as the following posts make me seem, but not as ornery.
Hi?
“Now your gums are bleeding a little bit because you don’t floss enough.”
I’d beg to differ. I believe my gums are bleeding because you just spent the last half hour jabbing them with a crude shive.
Seriously, why do we take this from dentists? This is the 21st century and they’re sitting there with midieval steel tools ready to poke my teeth and gums. What’s next? Blood letting? I could probably have my gallbladder removed less invasively than having my teeth cleaned.
I’ve been tired before. Back when I was at that place, I had weeks on end that were a complete haze, working on problem sets, projects, soldering until 4am then waking up at 7am so I could be at the machine shop at 7:45am when it opened so I could beat the rush.
There were times I was tired enough that I didn’t notice I was moving the tool into a piece of brass on the lathe axially instead of radially and I cut the piece in two and had to beg for replacement stock.
There were times when I was sitting in class and—dozing off in class was quite normal for me, even the over-caffeinated me—that I just woke up and the class was over. There was no head drooping and then waking with a nod repeatedly or really any idea or memory that I was dozing off. I was sitting there, taking notes and then, suddenly, I was waking up and the class was over.
I used to consider the amount of sleep I got last night a good night’s sleep. You got it pretty easy, boy.
Dave and Tina were in town yesterday, so I headed up to SF to hang out with them in the afternoon and evening.
We walked from Ghirardelli Sq, down Columbus to Giordano Brothers, a restaurant that serves “Pittsburgh-style” (aka Primanti’s) sandwiches. I love this place. They do this style of sandwiches well and it always helps/ calms my nostalgia needs. There’s also some good people watching in the area.
We then walked down Columbus (past the transamerica building) and then down to the Embarcadero. From there we made our way down past all the piers (picking up a much needed Slurpee near the end) before going to Musee Mechanique. It’s on Pier 45, right at the end of all those piers by Fishermen’s Wharf.
Musee Mechanique is a collection of coin-operated devices: penny arcade games, photo booths, flip-card movie machines (“Mutoscopes”), fortune tellers, moving dioramas and music boxes and other music machines. The collection has items from the late 1800s up until probably the 1990s, but most of them probably come from the first half of the 20th century.
It’s an amazing collection. More importantly, it’s a lot of a fun. I’m a big mechanical geek so the intricate mechanical ones are really cool to me. It’s pretty cheap: free admission and the games are 25 or 50 cents each for the most part, so for $5 or $10 you can play a lot of them.
An ancient and gorgeous sounding disc-based music box
After that we headed over the Mission to eat at Walzwerk, the always-delicious East German restaurant. Good food, good beer, not too pretentious. Winners!
Mel’s Bowl rounded out the night. It was really quiet, save a bunch of Warriors fans in the bar. We were one of two groups bowling. There was this really cute old couple next to us. The wife was asleep while he bowled. He was slower but was obviously good in his day. He had a lot of finesse still and was pretty good (he could easily beat me). I was cheering him on the whole time.
I bowled pretty badly with a 113 and 115, but I still beat out Dave to be the absolute champion.
more photos after the jump (way below)
Required valet service for one of its dorms.
I could say many things, but I will only say one: I wouldn’t be surprised if I push my far-in-the-future kids to go some college where it’d be silly to have a car at all, and definitely away from one that has a valet service.
I’m pretty sure my fastest growing finger nails are as follows:
At least going by the ones that are always the longest when I need to cut my nails.
Extreme ironing competition. It is what it sounds like. Some great ones in there.
Palo Alto has a gas-powered leaf blower ban. Okay, seems a little extreme, but you know, you want to do well for the environment, right?
Well twice in the past couple months, I’ve seen this: an electric leaf blower plugged into a gas powered generator.
For those of you who aren’t engineers or this isn’t obvious to: an electric leaf blower plugged into a gas powered generator is necessarily less efficient than a gas powered leaf blow. It’s quieter, though, while it’s killing the environment more so at least we got that!
This week’s triathlon training:
I had some knee pain this week. I think I’m going to take it easy, especially on the running for the the first half of the next week. If I try any, it’ll probably be on a softer surface like the track.
Percentage of times I eat yogurt that I spill some on myself: approximately 50%. It’s pretty bad.
I was listening again to NPR’s story about Brinkley, AR and the Ivory Billed Woodpecker (and the associated “Lord God Bird” song by Sufjan, I’ve posted about it before) tonight. It got me thinking (and I’ve thought before…
The SF Peninsula isn’t changing. I mean, it is, but it isn’t really. What am I doing here? There are places like Brinkley, serious small town America, that are changing irreparably and getting closer to extinction. Maybe I should plan a week next year (or in the fall) to drive around small town America, staying in small inn’s and talking to locals. Hopefully even catching some local music. It wouldn’t be exciting or crazy like vising NYC is, but it’d be pretty cool. It’s not like I Cache River National Wildlife Refuge and the Big Woods has been called America’s Amazon.
I’m serious about this. Let me know (here or offline) if you’re interested.
Last night I saw another film at the SFIFF: Bunny Chow (official site, wikipedia).
[Note: the film is named after a food popular primarily in Durban by the same name. Despite the description, it's not a sandwhich. It's hollowed out bread filled with curry.]
It’s a South African film (so I have an immediate bias) about three comedians and a random fourth guy who travel to a primarily music (but also comedy) festival together. It’s also about the comedy business and different approaches to women.
It’s a good film. It’s was a bit here-and-there, very conversational and, though it had an obvious plot, seemed like you were just watching friends hanging out a lot. I found it engaging. On the negative side, though I did laugh, I thought a film about stand up comedians would be funnier.
I’m fairly used to listening to various South African accents, but Gumbeaux had a hard time, he said. There were some parts that had subtitles even for English in the film (the Zulu and Afrikaans were obviously subtitled). I think the film could use subtitles throughout for American audiences.
Last night I saw Jonathan Richman perform live accompaniment to the 1921 Swedish silent movie Phantom Carriage at the Castro Theatre.
I haven’t been to the Castro Theatre in a couple years and as I went in and saw the beautiful molding and ornamentation in the theater, I remembered how amazing that place is. There was an interesting mix of people milling around and finding their seats: Jonathan Richman fans, silent movie aficionados, indie movie people, etc.
If you’ve never seen a silent film with live musical accompaniment, I’d recommend it. It’s usually a pretty good experience. The semi-improvisational nature of the music adds a lot of excitement to the movie.
The movie itself is pretty complex for the time. The plot’s based around a Swedish folktale. The idea goes that the last to die in a year that has bad things has to spend the rest of the year being Death’s carriage driver. It employed a few techniques that I was surprised were employed then, including non-linear story telling and some fairly good special effects techniques for the ghosts.
On now onto the music. I’d seen Jonathan Richman before. He’s really quirky live and has a lot of charisma and stage presence, so I was really curious how it’d end up when these things were taken away. The set up was Jonathan on (nylon string) guitar and pump organ. Other players were two hand bell players, a trumpet/ baritone player, a bass clarinet/ saxophone/ flute player, a violinist and a cellist. I thought their accompaniment was really good and all the players were very talented. It worked really well with the movie. The main characters had motifs and there were parts were these two motifs were almost colliding when two characters were talking or arguing. A daring move was during certain particularly intense moments in the movie there they left it completely silent; I think it paid off.
Update: I’ve noticed the bad justification to the text next to the photos. I have tried to fix it, but it’s stubborn. Sorry!
This Thursday’s My Name is Earl is going to be the TELEVISION EVENT OF THE CENTURY: Laugh N Sniff. You buy this week’s TV Guide which has a special card in it and at certain points in the show you scratch so you can smell what’s going on in the show! It’s like Smell O Vision! For the masses!
I have purchased my copy of this week’s TV Guide; I’m not missing this opportunity.
I was totally right. I saw one of those minature personalized license plates yesterday and bought it. It was pretty excited. I never see “Adrian.” My roommate said that “Adrian” had to be in the top 50 most popular names. How to resolve this? The Social Security Administration to the rescue!
Their site will show you top 20, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 names for any year back to 1880 (1880’s most popular names? John for boys, Mary for girls). In the year I was born, 1980, Adrian was the 115th most popular male name with 2,387 total Adrians that year.
The top 10 names from that year:
- Michael
- Christopher
- Jason
- David
- James
- Matthew
- Joshua
- John
- Robert
- Joseph
You can also check out the fads, how a particular name changed in popularity over a period of time.
After the jump how “Adrian” has varied since my birth year.
Hi. I don’t know if we’ve met. I’m Adrian and I’m crazy.
Last week’s triathlon training.
Saturday: 2.0 miles bicycling -> 0.9 miles swimming -> 17 miles bicycling -> 3.2 miles running
Sunday: 22 miles bicycling (Old la Honda, 2000 ft elevation gain)
Monday: 3.5 miles running
Wednesday: 1.0 miles swimming
Thursday: 3.5 miles running
Totals (and the goals in parenthesis):
I don’t know if I can keep this up. The running is starting to become a real problem, like a joint pain problem. I think I’ll try to just keep up this week.
Goals:
Here’s the playlist of tonight’s show. I am a bit sick and loopy, but I think the music, at least, didn’t suffer.
There’s just so much good music out there right now. I’ve been picking about 1.5 hours too much music for my show pretty regularly.
I got multiple calls asking about the One AM Radio track, “Lest We Forget”. It’s a good track. (And it’s streamable at his myspace.)
The 50th San Francisco International Film Festival starts later this week. Here are some of the ones I’m interested in seeing.
Bunny Chow A South African comedy. Despite the description, “bunny chow” is not a sandwhich and is not popular in Johannesburg (it’s a Durbs thing)
Phantom Carriage A classic Swedish silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jonathan Richman
The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music About the second best collection of American folk music and its effects.
Audience of One A documentary about an SF preacher that gets divine instructions to shoot a film and he goes about doing so on 70mm film.
Ghosts of Cite Soleil Documentary about Haitian gang rivals and rappers.
The Monastery Documentary about a former university librarian who wants to turn his ancestral home (a castle, actually) into a Russian Orthodox monastery.
Bamako An allegory about the Western World’s influence on Africa.
Third Monday in October A documentary about the heated battle for middle school president in a variety of schools in three states.
Once A rom-com (as I call them) about two Dublin musicians. I just love Irish musicians, alright?
Emma’s Bliss A German film about a man with terminal cancer and the woman whose pig farm he crashes his stolen car into.
Aqua About two swimmers in different parts of their careers. Minimalist and apparently good cinematography.
Eagle Vs. Shark quirky and compared to Napoleon Dynamite. I’m intrigued.
Rocket Science From the director of one of my favorite movies, Spellbound this is a feature film about a stuttering kid who joins the debate team to win over a girl.
Off the news wire:
April 21, 2007
Menlo Park, CA – Adrian took the prize by a narrow lead in the first annual Adrian Classic sprint-distance triathlon. Adrian held off competitors to take first place in the first running of this tough race.
The course started at the scenic Stanford pool with a 1600 yard (0.909 miles) swim. Then competitors cycled 17.5 miles around hilly Portola Valley, ending in Menlo Park. They then ran 3.2 miles around Menlo Park.
Adrian took the lead at the beginning and never let up. “I’m just glad I could hold them off,” Adrian said. “I think I had a strong swim leg and I really just held on after that.”
“I have to say, the hardest part was the Gauntlet.” What’s come to be known as the ‘Gauntlet’ is part of the run leg where the competitors have to dodge gypsy-moth caterpillars hanging over the route from trees overhead. “After the Gauntlet, though, I was home free.”
A spectator at the finish line who asked not to be named said about Adrian “He looked like shit.”
Twice yesterday this happened at two different social functions:
Dev/ Kyle: Hi, I’m Dev/ Kyle.
Me: Yeah, we’ve met. I’m Adrian.
Both of these people I’ve interacted with a few dozen times. Do I look different? Why are people not recognizing me?
Which reminds me of a pretty great story. At some point Natalie Portman, who went to the little brick schoolhouse up the road was at an MIT party. She was milling around outside. My friend Will was waiting outside for people so that they could all leave. He’s there; she’s there. Both milling. So he walks up to her and says “Hi, I’m Will.” She apparently grunts and doesn’t shake his outstretched hand.
This was in post-Phantom Menace, pre-Attack of the Clones period; there had been a young Anakin but no grow Anakin yet. He had this intricate plan in which he’d bust his butt and get the Anakin part for Attack of the Clones. On the first day of shooting, she’d introduce herself to him, her male co-star. “Hi, I’m Natalie.” He’d then yell “Oh, we’ve met!” and storm out.
Needless to say, this plan did not come to fruition.
I have interesting friends.
At an engagement party/ shinding tonight.
me, to the engaged: Congratulations!
him: you don’t look fat!
I forgot to post my playlist from this week’s show.
Also, here’s the mp3
I Once was Canadian (KZSU) – 4-18-07 (mp3)
I really liked the last set: Andrew Bird->Sigur Ros->Adem.
Miranda July’s new website for her book No One Belongs Here More Than You is lo-fi (so to speak), reminding me, actually, of spultek’s old website which was scanned from a hand sketch. She made the entire website by taking photos of a “whiteboard.” It’s a good idea and great execution.
Miranda’s the same person who wrote, directed and acted in the quirky and funny 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know. I’d recommend it.
I’m training for one of the Alcatraz triathlons. Today and last Thursdays I’ve done biking and running in a row and it has hurt. Today was slightly better than the last, I think.
What I did:
I bought one of these this week. It was nice to have water on the longer runs, especially when I’m in the sun. It think it’ll also be nice to have if I decide to do something like run to the pool, swim, and then run back. It has a little pocket where I can keep my keys and maybe one of those gel/ goo/ power shot sort of things.
Next week, I should do something like:
I don’t want to over do it. I have been starting to ache quite a bit, both muscularly and in joints and tendons and whatnot, so I’m not going to push it much this week.
Apparently, the Nike Airs that Marty wore in Back to the Future II might be release. Honestly, the thought makes me grin.
ESPN Page 2 has a great and extensive story about rabbit chasing/ catching in rural Florida and about how it makes the football players there fearless and fast. When I was young, maybe 7, my parents told me that if I could put salt on a rabbit’s tail, I could catch it. (They figured that if I could get close enough to put salt on a rabbit’s tale, I was close enough to catch it, my mom later told me when I confronted her with this.) So, of course, I spent days chasing rabbits around our yard with a salt shaker. Those things are really fast. I can imagine this would make you fast, especially if you do it in mud.
Both from Mefi.
Here’s my latest mixtape. It’s a tad bit late, as usual. I hope you enjoy it. I like these songs a lot!
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list (the txt file). you should now have the 2007april playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one includes a lot of great indie pop/ rock plus one soul number. There are great local bands like the Finches, the Dodos (what’s with SF bird bands?), and Beatbeat Whisper. I also have national acts like Andrew Bird (ah! more birds!) and Ted Leo. There are a few interesting quirky songs in there too.
Adrian’s April 2007 mix tape (zip file, right click and ’save as…’)
As always this’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week), so grab it now.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
I went to bed last night. I always fall asleep to music. I wanted to fall asleep to Beatbeat Whisper’s song “Play Me a Time” (a lullaby, so very appropriate), but I also wanted to hear their “Old River” (3:55) and “The Cowboy’s Lament” (3:02). If felt like a century trying to stay awake for that 6 minutes and 57 seconds before “Play Me a Time” was to come on. In the end I didn’t make it. I think I got into the middle “Cowboy’s Lament” before falling asleep.
I’ve always been able to fall asleep easily. If I have my head on the pillow for more than seven minutes before falling asleep, it’s a truly extraordinary night. The only times I can’t/ couldn’t fall asleep easily, at least usually, was the night before my first final and when riddled with jetlag.
Last week I sent out my goals for triathlon training for this week (my training weeks go Saturday-Friday for this, for whatever reason).
They were and how I did:
The brick was a whole new experience for me. I’d only biked and run in the same day once before and those were hours apart. It feels very strange to do that to your legs. They’re already tired and then you ask them to do a different and (for me) more painful movement. The feeling was assaulting. It wasn’t pain necessarily, not acute pain at least, but just a general feeling of wanting to not be running at that moment and tiredness in my legs.
I know it’s no great physical feat and wasn’t about to collapse, but I’m not quite sure how I did it. I certainly wanted to give up. I think it was very mental: if I couldn’t do that today, then I certainly couldn’t ready and do a triathlon. I had to prove it to myself.
Really one of the things that got me through the run part of the brick was the great album from Beatbeat Whisper which I just posted about on my music blog.
Next week, I should do something like:
My radio show will be at the same time this quarter: Wednesdays 10p-midnight (PST (or PDT?)).
Meanwhile, if you want to read me ranting about music in a different forum, you can check out my music blog.
Update: Here’s this week’s playlist
And here’s the NEWSPECIALFUN:
I feel like I must have posted on this last year, but I can’t find any references to it.
Yesterday was the annual big wheel/ tricycle race down Lombard Street. It seemed like it was all big wheels this year. Here’s a great photo gallery.
I’d been talking with a friend about going to watch this year. I guess I missed my chance. Next year!
I think it was a lot more tricycles in previous years.
My dad’s German and extremely efficient. I’m not German.
However, I do like efficiency. I was quite chuffed with myself today when I figured out the most efficient route to do all my errands: swim, then KZSU, then haircut, then picking up my glasses. It is almost all right turns with the only left turns coming at 4 way stops and a fast-cycling traffic light with a left turn arrow. It also allowed for enough time for my hair to dry after the swim and before the hair cut.
Yeah, these are seriously the sort of things I think about. I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks about path efficiency.
Passive activity credit?? You mean I can get credit for sitting on the couch and watching TV? That’s awesome!@!
Wikipedia has everything. Including Bristol Stool Scale.
[Update: Graphic removed; it was too...graphic.]
A couple guys (professorial types) in Bristol wrote a paper on it. Goodness.
I signed up for the Alcatraz triathlon a while ago. Running’s not quite working right yet and it’s got me a little worried. I was having second thoughts at the beginning of the week about whether it’d be possible at all to do this (1.5 miles swimming, 13 miles biking, 8.5 miles running) at all, but now I am think it might be possible. This past week consisted of:
I think this coming week I’d better do something more like this:
Last night’s playlist is there.
The mp3-rip (NEWSPECIALFUN) had problems and got split up into a bunch of small pieces.
I Once was Canadian – 4-4-07 (mp3, first hour)
I once was Canadian – 4-4-07 (mp3, last hour and change).
To some people, “Pittsburgh sound” might conjure up Don Caballero and other math rock groups. Other might think of Girl Talk. Now people might think of Wiz Khalifa. He’s a young Pittsburgh MC (a senior at Allderdice, in fact) with a song out by that name.
Rolling Stone has a write-up about him. Ed Masley at the Post Gazette talks much more about Pittsburgh.
I like the video because it shows a number of familiar sites. As for the music, it’s competent and listenable, but not great. I’ll give it time.
You can find out/ hear more at his his myspace page.
I scanned and uploaded a bunch of black and white photos to my picasa thing.
Galleries include Pittsburgh over Christmas, my first try at fisheye, the Oakland A’s last game of their sweep of the Twins in the playoffs, Jose Gonzalez @ Stanford, and John Vanderslice @ Stanford.
I noticed today when I logged in to Netflix that they had a new option “watch now.” They have a whole lot of movies that you can stream and it’s included in my subscription.
It’s a win for them (server bandwidth << shipping costs + wear/ depreciation of DVDs) and a win for me because I don’t have to wait…
except they don’t support mac.
Keep trying, Netflix.
I’ve been doing this in stealth for a couple days, but I feel like it’s time to announce my other blog. It’s a music blog.
I’ve felt for a while that I was writing too little about music for this to be a music blog and too much about music for this to be a personal blog. In one case, outside readers see too much personal ranting and in the other, friends get alienated by the constant music talk , so I’ve split it off.
I’ll still be blogging here. I won’t be posting here about music, unless it’s related directly to me, like music I write/ record, radio playlists or if it’s a mixtape. I’ll be co-posting the last two of those.
I feel a bit weird about it—I’m always written this for myself and maybe a couple friends, but writing about any specific x is an admission that someone wants to read that. Now I have a whole blog where I pretend that people want to read my writing about music.
I had a 3 hour slot–from 6-9pm tonight. Playlist.
The streamripper had to reconnect so it split the mp3 into two parts for this week’s NEWSPECIALFUN:
I once was Canadian, KZSU – 3/28/07 [1/2] mp3
I once was Canadian, KZSU – 3/28/07 [2/2] mp3
For the record, it appears it split it right in the middle of Spanish Harlem.
5 odd questions people (totaling 5) in my car were asked by a member of the MPPD after being pulled over for an out left tail light on Sunday:
And, yes, I’ve replaced the bulb; it’s fixed.
Last night, Sulu and I saw the Last King of Scotland.
It’s the story of a Scottish doctor who goes to Uganda in the early 70s to escape his controlling father and to have a fun. He gets into the good graces of Idi Amin shortly after the coup that puts Amin in power and becomes his personal doctor.
The doctor is fictitious (though apparently based in part on Bob Astles) but Amin was unfortunately very real. As a story, it’s enthralling and gripping. As a historical perspective on Amin, it makes me want to learn more about Amin’s life and rule. He was a ruthless man.
That the doctor being taken in Amin’s character is a testament to the really impressive acting from Forest Whitaker, a role for which he won an Oscar. He completely takes on this role and it’s tough to see him as anything but Amin in the movie.
It’s really good overall. There is one obvious complaint, though. As some reviews have noted, this story is centered on a European and all of the bad that comes to him—it’s a human story, after all— but it obscures one’s view of what really was happening: hundreds of thousands of Ugandans dying. I guess you could explain that away, saying that it’s more a story of how reasonable people can be taken in by unreasonable but charming dictators. I’d recommend this, though, even if it’s just to see Whitaker’s performance.
My radio show will be on early tomorrow and next Wednesday, from 6-9pm Pacific (a reasonable hour for you east coasters!) on KZSU. You can even Listen online.
I might have a special guest tomorrow, Adem, a great indie folk artist out of England. It’s still a bit up in the air so check back here frequently for updates.
Last night I saw Elvis Perkins (in Dearland) at the Cafe du Nord. I got there a little bit before he went on when they were finishing setting up and sound-checking their mics. I was a bit surprised because they had large diaphragm condensers for his vocals, the harmonium and as an overhead for the drums (?!).
When Elvis and co. came out, they pretty quickly launched into “While You Were Sleeping” which was fine with me, as it’s my favorite track off of his album Ash Wednesday. The band consisted of Elvis on guitar and vocals, a guy that switched between guitar, harmonium and trombone; an upright/ electric bassist and a drummer/ percussionist. Everyone sang back up vocals. “Ash Wednesday” followed soon afterwards. His sound from the get-go was really good. His voice was clear and the mix was nice.
His set quickly veered away from album songs. “Weeping Pilgrim” was a great song. I think it’s a traditional song. It was rollicking and fun. On a few songs including that one, the drummer got out from behind the set and played a marching bass drum with a mallet on one side and a set of jingles (like on a tambourine, but in a line) on the other.
All in all, the show was a lot of fun and the band and sound were good. I’d definitely recommend it if you like Ash Wednesday or if you’re on the fence about Elvis Perkins.
Perkins did do a couple things that could be taken as arrogant or endearing, depending on how you look at it. The one that I’m mostly thinking of was before the last song he said “Well, the last song before we go backstage and you clap for a while and we come back out.” and then later while people were clapping he stuck out his head out of the dressing room and said “louder!” It was a little much
more photos after the jump
where does dracula go for his movie listings?
that’s right: fangdango!
get it? FANGdango.
A pretty good evening last night.
First Uncle Frank’s BBQ in Mountain View w/ andyl and liz. This place is awesome. You walk through to the back of Francesca’s bar to get there and it’s the sort of place where there are paper towel holders at the tables. They don’t mess around. Ridiculous brisket, good links and ribs, good corn bread. I couldn’t get to the sides (baked beans and greens) due to stomach capacity issues. Hilarious waitress.
Second, my friends the Light Footwork played at Make Out Room. They have cheap beers. When’s the last time you got two pints (Anchor Steam and PBR) for $6? (Answer only if you live in an overpriced city.) The Light Footwork put on a fun show, as always. I also ran into KZSU alum Nick Mirov again. We chatted about SXSW and various bands.
Really, I can’t complain. Good times.
Those google people are CRAZY.
I noticed the other day that there was a new option on my google map, traffic.
Looks like I should take the 280 and avoid the 101. It’s a bit slow around 92.
[I just learned it's about three weeks old and it's only available in 30 cities so far. When's the Bay Area going to get google transit anyway?]
Should be worried that I can and sometimes do finish a 2L of Diet Dr. Pepper a day without really noticing?
Yes, I think I should be worried.
I did my radio show last night (with some help). Here’s the playlist and the NEWSPECIALFUN:
I Once was Canadian – KZSU 3/21/07 (mp3)
Also, I never posted my playlist/ mp3 from last show. Part of it was there were some problems with the mp3. It was half Irish music (for St. Paddy’s Day) and the rest indie. Anyway, if you’re interested:
playlist
NEWSPECIALFUN
I once was Irish – KZSU 3/15/07 (mp3)
The mp3 has two bad edits where it was split up before and one part where there was a chunk of maybe 10 minutes missing (just showed up blank in the recording) so I just cut out all that dead space.
Here it is, a little late as always… (I should just say that I’ll post it on the 21st of every month instead of mid-month…maybe I’d be on time more often).
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file—I think the m3u file might actually be right this time)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2007march playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here (first time as a google doc). This one includes a strange variety of music. I have a few indie pop/ rock songs (Benoit Pioulard, The One AM Radio, etc.), a couple field recordings of prison work songs and then a few South African songs, given that I spent much of February there.
Adrian’s March 2007 mix tape [zip file]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
I should have all my posts written for me like this:
From: Randy X <x@x.com>
To: Dave X <x@x.com>,
Adrian X <a@ab.com>,
Andrew X <x@x.com>
date: Mar 21, 2007 2:35 PM
subject: Three things that if I were Adrian I would post to my blog….… but I’m not Adrian and I don’t have a blog, so I’m just emailing them. And really, you 3 are the only ones who would care. It also constitutes a majority of the readership of Adrian’s blog.
Funny story about how kids see things (as seen from Daring Fireball)
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/03
/26/070326sh_shouts_richAndy, you could do this!
http://www.coudal.com/pinsetter/
(also seen on DF – I’m bored, still at work, waiting for a friend for
coffee, and determined not to do work anymore because its after 5.)And
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO5JY1KKYZo
for the impatient, skip to around 1:20.
Again, reminded me of Andy, and his Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.
Thanks, Randy!
There’s an interesting study on genetically modified mosquitos that can resist malaria. Malaria is serious business. Once you get it, you never get rid of it and if you don’t catch it early on, it can be fatal. I chose one of my charities based on the fact that they supported research into malaria in addition to HIV/ AIDs and other prominent medical problems in Africa. I’m worried about malaria every time I go to high risk areas.
I’d always thought that a solution to the malaria problem would come from the human medicine side of things. Of course getting rid of mosquitos helps the problem a lot too, but I’d never even considered that it might be possible to change the mosquitos themselves.
This story seemed cool, but worried me at first. I mean, couldn’t this just be a mongoose-introduced-into-Hawaii sort of situation? That’s the cool part of the findings, though. Feeding on non-malaria-infected hosts, these mosquitos replicated the same as normal mosquitos. On infected hosts, they have lower mortality and were more fertile.
I’d like to see follow up studies, of course, but this seems like one promising path.
on the phone a minute ago:
me: hello, this is Adrian
caller: Hi, this is X.
me: Oh, hi X. how are you?
X: good. how about you?
me: good. how about you?
X: …
me: <awkward laugh> so….what’d you call about?
[fin]
Note to self: don’t let brain go into autopilot.
After seeing some good reviews, Libs and I decided to see Into Great Silence (Die Grosse Stille auf Deutsch) (wikipedia/ imdb) on Sunday. Check out the trailer.
It’s a documentary about the Grande Cartreuse, the head monestary of the Carthusian Order. The wikipedia page on the Carthusians is very interesting and gives you a good overview of the Order, but the basics are that they speak only when necessary (not a vow of silence, per se, but they also don’t speak much) and spend much of the day in solitude praying or meditating or performing manual labor. They sometimes get together for communal meals (where they don’t talk, it appears) or other communal time, where they do talk.
There’s also no narration (or music).
And the film is close to 3 hours long.
A three hour film with little-to-no talking and no narration. Sounds like it could be boring, right?
This movie is strange, though. It’s boring, in a sense, but it’s also interesting and fascinating and extremely artistic. The movie goes in cycles; it sort of reminded me of the rondo form in classical music. The repeated elements give you a grounding and then new stuff comes up. It’s also visually very striking. There are many shots throughout the movie that would make great photographs. It also helps that the Grande Cartreuse is isolated in the beautiful French Alps.
Obviously, it’d be silly to say that watching a three hour movie is like living in a monestary for any length of time. But this movie does, in a way. At the end, you feel sort of serene and meditative.
The movie lacks plot in the most obvious ways, but it does have an arc, starting with the newest members and their initiation into being novitiates (I’m guessing) and going to some of the oldest members over the gradual course of the movie. (I’m totally stealing some of these ideas from Libs.) There are some particularly strong moments later in the movie with an old, blind and partially deaf monk talking about life and death.
The movie isn’t entirely made of serious moments, though. It has some moments where the entire theater laughed, particularly a very cute moment of these serious, usually silent monks laughing and sledding/ skidding down a snow-covered hillside.
There are some interesting things that I learned after the movie: the director, Philip Groening, asked the Grande Chartreuse about filming there. Their response was that it was too early, perhaps in 10 or 12 years. 15 years later they called. He spent 6 months living there and did all the filming himself over that time.
I’m a little backlogged as far as the concert review posts go, but here’s one I definitely wanted to mention.
[As a side note, does anyone but myself like these concert reviews?]
On Friday I saw Hrishi Hirway and the One AM radio at Fort Oregon in Berkeley. I’ve mentioned the One AM Radio before in this post about his kickball music video (which I still love) and this concert recap of his last Fort Oregon show.
Gumbeaux and I got to the Fort around 10pm. It’s just a house in Berkeley with occasional shows in the basement. As a venue it’s pretty odd–you’re standing under ducts or next to a furnace quite often. The opening band was the Golden Birds. It was quite a turnout for them and I think they have a following around here. The basement was pretty full. They were good indie pop but the sound seemed a little bit like a band playing in someone’s basement.
The One AM Radio’s sound combines the electronic elements with intimate vocals and colorful arrangements. Their live set up this time through was Hrishi on guitar, vocals and laptop operating; a tenor saxophonist, a tenor/ alto saxophonist and an upright bass player. The only things that were amplified were the vocals, guitar and laptop.
The One AM Radio started out with the Greatest of Ease (mp3). A really nice version of “Drowsy Haze” with the audience singing backups followed [1]. After a few songs from the new album (including In the Time we’ve Got (mp3)) he asked if there were any requests and after hearing a few, he played Flicker (mp3). He then played my favorite new song (”Echoing Airports”) and favorite old song (”All I Can Recall is the Haunting”) in a row.
His last show I was pretty tired and wasn’t all that into it. This one was completely different. I enjoyed it a lot. The mix was great (despite the fact that the mix was being done by the guitarist/ vocalist/ laptopist and the rest weren’t being amplified); Hrishi’s voice was great; the song selection and the songs were great.
[1] I have mentioned it before but I’ll mention it again: I like when bands ask the audience to sing along. I like it a lot.
Conan’s coming to San Francisco April 30-May 4. Here’s where you can get tickets. I asked for May 4.
First: Winner of the Noise Pop one day music video contest, the Blammos “Girl of My Dreams” video. The guy walks around the Mission and sings a love song to strangers.
Second: (for the jdawg, a pinball wizard) a Pepsi commercial with San Francisco as a giant pinball machine.
(both via sfist)
I’m catching up on a blogging backlog.
Last weekend I saw Das Leben der Anders (aka The Lives of Others).
It’s the story of a well regarded Stasi agent, Gerd Wiesler, in East Berlin (circa 1984) who starts spying on a playwright who they suspect might be a sympathizer. Wiesler learns that the real reason that they are spying on him is that the Minister of Culture, a high ranking official, wants the playwright out of the way so he can make advances on his girlfriend unencumbered. Wiesler becomes more sympathetic with the playwright because of this, even though he’s a strong party supporter.
It’s really an amazing film. The writing and direction (both by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck of the famed Henckel von Donnersmarcks) are both superb. The lead actor playing Wiesler, Ulrich Mühe, has a very Kevin Spacey quality to him, both in looks and some of the restrained, subtle acting he does.
It manages to be a lot of stories in one. It’s at least love story and a political thriller.
Last week, I saw Mr. Ted Leo a couple of times, first as part of Noise Pop and then as part Stanford Concert Network’s campus concerts.
I came to the first concert with a familiarity with Hearts of Oak and Shake the Sheets. I like those albums, but didn’t play them too often.
I got there on Friday just before the Georgie James set. They were competant musicians, but it was sort of take it or leave it in the end… I might post separately about some thoughts it got going in my head, but I don’t want to connect them directly with this band, because the thoughts aren’t.
After the usualy pre-headliner shuffle and push toward the stage, Ted Leo came up to much applause and excitement. Immediately he started rocking out with high energy. After a handful of songs, I started thinking “oh, he’s just playing the hits. what’s he going to do when those run out?” After a few more songs I realized he wasn’t just playing hits; his catalogue is just really good.
He bantered well between songs, answering people yelling out from the audience and whatnot.
Ted Leo live is like the best things from punk, indie rock, and folk. Punk: high energy and a DIY melody. Indie: great melodies and chord progressions. Folk: interesting and multi-layered lyrics.
Ted really goes all out with the whole show. I’m surprised he can put so much into his vocals and not completely destroy his voice. His falsetto is pretty amazing, too.
He played a handful of new songs, including a really great one called “Lost Brigade” with a really nice repeated line “Every little baby has its own song” (which doesn’t sound great when I write it, but you can check out a live version of the song here). They also did a live covers of Chumbawumba’s “Rappaport’s Testament: I Never Gave Up” and the old Irish tune “Dirty Old Town.”
I went in not knowing what to expect and in the end, I was pretty much floored by his performance.
Sunday’s concert (which the Stanford Daily covered) had different openers: Stanford bands. They weren’t really good at all, though the last, the Bee’s Knees were an interesting combination of 50’s throwback and modern pop.
It was in an odd venue, Kresge Auditorium. Immovable seats close to the stage made for awkward standing during the show. The crowd was not your standard indie rock crowd. Far more—what do you call them?—frat boys in attendence.
But for Ted’s part it was a fairly similar performance in that he brought his A game once again. There was a fairly similar set list, but he was still great. One amusing anectdote from the evening was when Ted started saying that their set was originally going to be longer but … (then he sort of trailed off, I think he was going to say that his voice was starting to go or that he wasn’t feeling well). Someone from the crowd then shouted “Fuck you!” to a completely stunned Leo and crowd. He then just said something like “Okay. I guess we’ll keep going” and then they rattled off another half dozen songs.
Overall, two really enjoyable shows.
Recommendation: go see Ted Leo when he comes to your town. He’s touring the US starting at the end of March. Check to see when he’s in your town and buy tickets.
I’m giving away some shirts, cleaning house. Let me know if you want any. They could be yours for the low low cost of free (plus shipping).
Overheard at last night’s Mountain Goats show at the Bottom of the Hill.
Peter Hughes: You know, we’ve been playing at the Bottom of the Hill for so long that I remember a show where my now ex-wife’s best friend was buying us shots of liquor.
fan, from the back: yeah, it was Old Grand Dad
Peter: yeah, it was.
and later in the show
fan, diferent from the first: T SHIRT SONG!
John Darnielle: There is no such song!
fan: T SHIRT SONG!
JD: It was an improvisation and therefore not a real song!
A portamanteau for all of you:
bischawkwardness
bischoff + awkwardness! to describe my awkwardness and its peculiarities.
nor can it be. NYC is out of luck as well.
At least according to this essay about what it takes to be Silicon Valley.
I subbed for someone tonight on the radio. I did an hour and change of old-time music.
newspecialfun (mp3)
The strangemaps blog is a blog about, well, strange maps.
It’s a bit weird, quite a bit interesting.
(via kenjennings)
Grab the latest mixtape now. I’m moving it into a password protected folder a day from now.
So my ridiculous pursuit of the moment is my concert list
It’s meant to be a list of every concert I’ve ever been to. It’ll never be complete, but I’m trying. I have a lot of concerts on there already and then I have a lot of concerts that I don’t remember/ can’t find the dates of.
Fionn Regan topped my list of best albums of ‘06 and for the first time (I believe) he’s touring America.
Well, actually he’s just playing four dates. But if you’re in Austin (or will be for SXSW) or NYC, you really shoud go:
15 Mar Stubbs Austin SXSW
16 Mar BD Rileys, 204 East 6th St Austin SXSW
17 May Mojo BBQ (1-4pm) Austin SXSW
20 Mar Mercury Lounge (7.30pm) New York w/ Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
So buy tickets already!
There’s a great interview with John Vanderslice on the Merlin Show which is a new online/ iTunes free short TV show (video show?).
Merlin Mann of the Merlin show is the internet famous guy who also runs 5ives and 43 folders. He also goes to some of the same rock shows I do.
The episode after the John Vanderslice one is another good one with Chris Wetherell, a Google employee/ touring drummer.
I’m not talking about the movie, but rather about reposession men and more specifically about this story of a guy who reposesses large ships. It’s fascinating, like something out of a movie.
From the same people that brought you that spectacular bouncy-balls-in-San-Francisco Bravia ad (which, incidentally, first alerted me to the amazing Jose Gonzalez) comes another amazing commercial. It’s basically a building demolition/ fireworks display, except done with paint.
The commercial is pretty great by itself, but go ahead and watch the making of as well. The actually did all of that (as they actually dropped a quarter of a million bouncy balls down the hills and streets of San Francisco). There’s something really cool about doing something that would be a little cheesy with computer graphics instead with real materials, people and dollars (or pounds, as the case may be). The Brits seem to have the corner on that market, starting with that ridiculous Honda ad a few years back.
Last minute^H^H^H^H^H^Hfew hours, I’ll be filling in for a sick DJ tonight from 6-9pm PST on the KZSU. Listen in!
Give it a listen—it’ll actually start at a reasonable time for you east coasters. Also, I won’t be on tomorrow in my normal slot because of the aforementioned Sebadoh concert.
[Update:] playlist
I saw Half Nelson tonight. Basically it’s a story of a gifted inner city teacher whose life is also falling apart and who has a massive drug problem. The teacher also develops an unusual (and at times inappropriate) relationship with a student.
Ryan Gosling (I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling. Two, no six, no twelve, BAKERS DOZEN.) plays the teacher, a role for which he was nominated for an Oscar (but did not win).
It’s a hard movie to watch;—umcomfortable enough that I physically squirmed at a few parts. But the acting and story are good. Gosling and Shareeka Epps, who played the student, both turn in stunning performances.
The ending seems to happen about five minutes too soon. The future is indicated, but weakly enough that there is still a hint of doubt.
I meant to post this the one day I was back between South Africa and Mexico, February 14, but I got held up. I had a brilliant theme, given that it was St. Valentine’s Day: Love Songs: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Well, it almost worked out but I feel like it won’t have the same relavence or weight posting it today. Oh well.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file—I think the m3u file might actually be right this time)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2007feb playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. There are a bunch of great songs on here, from 60s girl groups, to Pedro the Lion (he sure is good at the Bad and the Ugly), to Jose Gonzalez. I also took this one apt opportunity to throw in a couple ‘emo’ songs.
Adrian’s February 2007 mix tape [zip file]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
Anyway, I hope you like this one even if it’s a bit past its due. I have a bunch of great songs in my mind for the next one, so hopefully I can get back on track for that one.
I haven’t been to a rock show in a while and all of a sudden, it seems like I’ll be going to quite a few, with Noise Pop this week, a couple of Stanford Concert Network shows and some random bands coming through (some of which I’m considering/ am seeing multiple times). Here’s what it looks like:
There are also Badly Drawn Boy w/ Adem, Elvis Perkins, Adem (headlining) and other bands at the end of March. Goodness, life’s so hard.
I saw a review of I Belong to this Band: 85 Years of Sacred Harp Recordings in the latest Rolling Stone (which I apparently have a subscription to, maybe because I’m a world famous radio DJ.) I tried to find Rolling Stone’s review online, but I did find one in Stylus.
From that CD, I found a documentary about Sacred Harp, Awake My Soul. Did anyone see this? Apparently it aired on PBS recently. The trailer actually give a decent, quick introduction to Sacred Harp singing.
For a taste of it, listen to my favorite song in this style (from the Alan Lomax-recorded Southern Journey, V. 9: Harp of a Thousand Strings – All Day Singing From the Sacred Harp by the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers):
Alabama Sacred Harp Sings – Sherburne (mp3)
Sacred Harp (wikipedia!) is a form of shape note singing, which was developed as a form of notating music such that four shapes on either a line or a space indicate the eight notes of the scale. Sacred Harp was a hymn book written using shape notes in 1850s. It’s been sung in pretty much the same way since that time, largely in the American South. See also: how Sacred Harp is sung.
Usually there is a different conductor for each song. The singers run through the melody once on solfege before running through the song once. They then move right on to the next conductor and the next song. There’s no practicing or rehearsing songs.
My favorite idiosyncrasy the style are that the singers just sing. There are no pretenses of being polished.
In much the same way that it’s been sung for the last 150-odd years, it’s still sung today, in fact, I could (and am considering) sing in a group in Palo Alto though, I have to admit I’m not very good at site singing.
Last night I saw Ralph Stanley at St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. Laurie Lewis opened. Tickets were due to my wicked smarts and quickness with the internet in responding to a flavorpill quiz.
Laurie Lewis (and Tom Rossum and the Right Hand Band) was up first. She’s a local bluegrass fiddler and singer. Her band’s set was good and her band’s tight. It went by pretty quick.
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys came up next. Right at the beginning of the set, Laurie came back on and made a big deal because it was the eve of Ralph’s 80th Birthday. They had a cake and a proclamation from Berkeley’s mayor.
Once the festivities ended, the set started in earnest. Ralph introduced the members one by one (including Ralph Stanley II and Nathan Stanley, the grandson) and they did a short number featuring that member. They then did a few full band numbers, Ralph did ‘O Death’ solo and a capella, and then went back around featuring each member that had a solo CD out (which was most everyone). From there it was a couple more full band numbers before the set ended. Ralph didn’t do all that much in the set aside from singing on the full band numbers and playing clawhammer banjo for one song. It seemed a bit obvious to me that this was, at this point, a franchise. They were selling the Stanley name and artistic vision more than his actual musicianship. It sort of reminded me when I saw the Count Basie Orchestra 15 years after Count’s death.
All of that said, his band was tight. When you’re Ralph Stanley, you can get some good pickers for your band, certainly. Going into the show I was actually a bit afraid that the show would drag on a bit, but, even though the set was well over an hour, it didn’t bore or drag on. For Ralph’s performances himself, he certainly can still sing and play a mean clawhammer banjo. I enjoyed the night.
(more photos after the break)
(more…)
Daytrotter has some mp3s of a recent in-studio by Elvis Perkins. They’re four songs, all originally on Ash Wednesday. The voice recording is a bit boomy but they’re otherwise good.
I haven’t talked about music much lately. I’m about to unleash a slew, so steady yourselves.
NPR has Arcade Fire’s performace from last Saturday at Judson Memorial Church in NYC both streaming and download. The first few minutes are a bit rough fidelity-wise because the band starts the show in the audience for the first song.
Also heresay has mp3’s from the Friday Judson show, all split up nicely.
I understand writing stupid things in wikipedia, but sometimes people write really, really odd things. For example, someone ammended hair:
Sometimes the hair can become transparent. I don’t know how this happens but it just does. Beware of transparent hair, and if it does happen to you quickly use your own urine as shampoo.
Of course, it has since been editted out.
(Thanks to Jesse for this. I can’t link to him anymore because he abandoned his blog.)
Dylan, Melissa and I went to the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford to see their exhibition of In the American West by Richard Avedon. It’s a set of photos taken from 1978-1983 of largely working-class inidivudal from the “West” against a white backdrop. It’s mostly working class and non-working people: miners, housewives, farmers, drifters, house-wives.
They were originally taken on 8×10 negatives. The prints are huge, 1.5-2x life size. You can see every detail and with the white backdrop, the audience is left to study the face, the eyes, the scars, the oil or coal or gypsum or drit from the hard day’s labor in the mine.
The exhibit is arresting. As a photographer, I feel like I would done it differently. I wouldn’t have done the white backdrop, for example, though I think it worked to good effect.
Ipod Breathalyzer with FM Transmitter
Better or worse than that ipod dock/ toilet paper dispenser?
I found a site which is a nice bike route maker. In a lot of ways it’s similar to runthere.com (or many others, I’m sure), but it does a few nice things that are important to cycling; in addition to the total mileage, it’ll tell you total and net elevation gain, average grade and max grade and show you a nice elevation profile. It also gives you the current weather conditions. Apparently it’ll show you where steep grades and even show you photos along routes but I didn’t run into either of these features actually in use. I found the interface a little slow at times, but nice otherwise.
It uses google maps, so it probably works everywhere, but lists a dozen or so cities, probably because it has weather information, etc coded for those.
Apparently the O.C. is over. I’m not sad. I hadn’t ever followed it or really cared about it other than for the music. Articles have been written on the effect the O.C. had on music buying habits related to small time bands. I’d heard so-and-so was going to be on the show here and there, but today I read down down the list of songs (or this one if you’d prefer) on the show and it’s really an amazing list in a way. I mean there are some really pretty small time bands in there, and many bands (and even songs) that I’ve put on my online mixtapes. The shear volume of music is quite amazing. There are 12 songs in some of these episodes.
Anyway, the other conclusion that I have from this is that it might be very very expensive to put out the DVDs of this show. It sort of depends. In the past a different license was needed to get the music for the broadcast as opposed to the DVD, but now, as far as I know, the contract usually covers both.
Now it seems quite common for indie bands to be well-represented in TV shows and, for that, I thank you, the O.C. For that and for the excuse to call my town, the MP.
I’m back on the radio.
and the NEWSPECIALFUN
I Once was Canadian – 2-21-07 (mp3)
(yes, I’m clever: the first song on Ash Wednesday was Ash Wednesday)
The last week (Tuesday-Monday):
Not all bad.
I walked around all weekend in a Boston covered in inches of ice. I walked carefully and I did not slip and fall. I got back to sunny California and one of the first things I did was slip after getting out of the shower. My hip and elbow hurt.
Some people are accommodating. These people are nice. Some people are too accommodating. This can be destructive. If you find yourself in this latter group, just think to yourself, “I will not give in so easily. I will not roll over at the first chance I get. I am not France.”
I really like traveling and I’m usually not ready to go home, but I’ll tell you, when I got back yesterday, it was nice to sit on my couch, sit on my chair, sleep in my bed, eat out of my cupboard.
holy crap. I think this is the best blog post I’ve seen, possibly ever. Well, done, Wax.
New proposition for outlawing: very tall (say over 6′8″) heavier-set men (you know, not skinny, with some bulk) should not be allowed to grow beards. They look too menacing. I mean, those lumberjacks could just tear your in half!
So, no beards for them. And no coffee.
madiba is my homeboy. I got a shirt that says this today.
I’m totally a south african hipster now.
it’s awesome having fast internet again. my mind has a problem slowing down to dialup speeds.
After a mostly crazy and ambitious itinerary for the first ten days of my trip, I’ve arrived in Cape Town, where I’ll stay for the rest of my trip.
Dug said yesterday that I looked energized and asked why. I like this city. I like it a lot. It’s definitely in my top five cities ever (though I don’t have time, or really care to make a full list right now).
This city is also familiar to me. I know people here; I know places here. The Cash Converters (thrift store) is still down the street in Sea Point and it’s still a great place to pick up an extra suit case on the cheap in case you bought too much stuff to fit in the luggage you brought with you. The Vondi’s Holistic Pet Nutrition store that I like to make fun of is still here too. I know where to get a good bite to eat and where to do laundry. We’re even staying in the same place
(where my parents have a time share). Perhaps the only other foreign city I have this familiarity with is Stuttgart, where I lived for a summer.
Traveling in a foreign country is largely about learning and experiencing new things, so you may wonder why I enjoy this familiarity. Well, it’s hard being out on the road and rushing around in a very different culture for ten days and coming here has the feeling of coming home and that’s always nice. It’s very encouraging for my thoughts of moving to this city in a couple years.
The water off of Camp’s Bay (Atlantic side) is freezing, but even that was nice somehow. Sundowners on Camp’s Bay is still one of the best things.
The cycling shop that I liked in Sea Point has been torn down though. I don’t know if they relocated or what.
Just a handful more days here. I’ll try to make the most of it, but I also don’t need to wear myself out any more on vacation.
[Oh, Ali's daughter is on TV. She's fighting here in South Africa. The other day I heard her on the radio say that she puts Mandela on the same level as her father. Um...Ali's good and all, but Nelson Mandela's slightly more important.]
I guess this is my first real update about my South African trip with Jon, Helene and Dug.
My goodness, it’s been quite a trip so far.
I started in Jo’burg for a few days, mostly running errands and spending time with my aunt and uncle. I did go to the Apartheid Museum in Soweto, though, and it’s really good, a very well done museum.
Once everyone arrived we headed out to Graskop (hint–not pronounced with a ‘g’ sound at all). That was our home base for exploring the Blyde River Canyon. The views from God’s Window and at the Three Rondavals were amazing, both in the foggy evening and the clear next morning. We also saw some beautiful waterfalls and swam in some of the natural forming pools.
We had our first braai of the trip too (though I’d had one with my aunt and uncle already). mmmm lamb boerewors and steak. delicious…
It was a fairly long decent drive from there to Kruger Park, Satara Camp the next day. We found an elephant before we’d even gotten into the park–it’d trampled the fence at a neighboring private reserve, it appeared. We didn’t even stop for that long and, as you might expect if you expect irony, that was the only elephant we saw. The night drive was a bit of a disappointment, but the drive right as the gates opened the next day was amazing, with fairly close encounters with lions, rhinos, buffalo (not bison), zebra and giraffe. We just kept on driving south from Satara, out of the camp, through that little stretch of Mpumalanga and into Swaziland. It was a long drive that day, with a stretch of KwaZulu Natal after Swaziland to get to Ingwavuma.
Ingwavuma is a rural town up in the Lebombo Mountains on the border with Swaziland. It, like much of the rural towns in that area and much of southern Africa, has a massive problem with AIDS and unemployment. A family friend is working up there with an NGO called Zisize, who are doing some great work with the children of the village. We also visited a couple income-generating groups for the local women: Fancy Stitch and Ingwavuma Women’s Center. We bought some of their beautifully made, locally produced goods.
Bridgie, the family friend, and everyone else we met there was really great to us.
Yesterday was our last big drive of our trip was yesterday, from the dry heat of Ingwavuma to the hot humidity of Durban. We’re still figuring out what we will be doing these next two days before our short flight to Cape Town, where I’ll meet up with my family.
Since my South Africa/ Tanzania trip of 2004, I’ve thought a lot about how lucky I am, but I’ve been reminded once again. If you’re reading this, you are probably quite lucky, too: you are reading the internet. You are probably sitting comfortably in a home or apartment. You can probably open the tap and get fresh, clean drinking water. You have electricity. You probably are able to purchase food for dinner and earn a reasonable wage for your work. This isn’t the norm of the world, not at all. I don’t mean to preach.
I’ve arrived. The two days on planes wasn’t all that horrible, actually.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to rock this jetlag thing. I am multitalented, after all.
Incidentally, The Queen is good. The Guardian is not.
Alright, I’m heading off to the airport in a few hours here.
Have a good few weeks and remember: life is not about fear; life is about love.
I’m a pack rat. I keep everything, though at time (when I’m moving, particularly) I get ruthless and throw everything out.
I am also disorganized. Most people looking at my desk or closet would wonder how I could find anything.
I also have good spatial skills and spatial memory.
Somehow these all work well together. My last trip to South Africa was a bit over two years ago. This morning I reached onto my desk and found 2 R20 notes and one R10 note without searching around at all. They were just in a middle of a pile. I also found about R10 in coins in my everyday shoulder bag which I was repacking it as my carry on.
I’m totally going to be able to buy myself a coke at the airport.
Somehow I missed this: Pitchfork publishes a weekly list of bands and artists on TV that week.
For example, this week’s:
Monday, January 22:
ABC: “Jimmy Kimmel Live”: Nas (rerun)
CBS: “Late Show With David Letterman”: Nellie McKay with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
CBS: “Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson”: Lady Sovereign (rerun)Tuesday, January 23:
CBS: “Late Show With David Letterman”: the Shins [1]
NBC: “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”: Cheap Trick (rerun)Thursday, January 25:
CBS: “Late Show With David Letterman”: Gwen Stefani (rerun)
NBC: “Late Night With Conan O’Brien”: New York Dolls (rerun)Friday, January 26:
NBC: “Last Call With Carson Daly”: Young Jeezy (rerun)
Saturday, January 27:
NBC: “Saturday Night Live”: Ludacris (rerun)
Monday, January 29:
MTV2: “Subterranean”: the Shins
Now you can totally be up on that stuff. Set your Tivos!
[Update:] [1] Did anyone else catch this? Did you see Gibbard playing with them? That man’s everywhere!
Grab the January mix tape while you can; I’ll be moving it to a password protected folder tomorrow (or Wednesday).
Apparently the Steelers will name Mike Tomlin their new head coach. Who’s this Tomlin guy?
Is this a good or bad choice over Grimm? (The Whiz is going to Arizona).
Also, go Bears?
I’m leaving for South Africa (and possibly Swaziland) on Wednesday for a few weeks. I then get back and go to Mexico for five days. I’ll be back in the States ‘full time’ the third week in February. I won’t be blogging much during that period, though I’ll try to write some periodic updates (and also update my lifestats).
It’s a duel-activity trip. Road trip with friends (Jon, Helene and Dug) and family stuff in Cape Town. I’m flying into Jo’burg and spending a couple days there before the rest arrive. From there we go to Blyde River Canyon (including God’s Window). We may stop in the Kruger Park before driving through Swaziland to Ingwavuma. From there we drive to Durban for a couple days before flying to Cape Town. I’ll be in Cape town a little bit less than a week this time. (I was in Cape Town two weeks last time.)
After being home for less than a day, I’ll be heading to Playa del Carmen for a long weekend.
If you need to contact me, email will probably be best, just the same email address as always. If it’s urgent, my parents will have my full itinerary.
Notice anything new about the page?
Look to the right over there…
After Randy’s comment on my post about being inspired to keep track of some life stats for 2007, I was further inspired to put up some of the stats in more or less real time. So there they are. Are there any other stats you want to see? The full list of stats that I’m tracking:
Originally I was going to do this literally updating every time you loaded the page, but that made the page really slowly (even slower than it loads already), so I decided to write up a caching system where it only loads the new data every six hours. I might adjust this if it makes sense to.
The script checks to see if the cache is older than 6 hours old and if so pulls some data from a google spreadsheet. Otherwise, it writes the old data into the html that you see on the right. I’ll probably write up a full post or a instructable of how I did all this sometime when I have more time.
I’m going Web2.0 all over this place!@
Here’s the playlist for tonight’s show.
NEWSPECIALFUN:
I Once was Canadian 1 -18-07 (mp3)
I am genius at coming up with band names. I don’t usually tell people because I may some day need 1,027 band names for my various bands, but tonight I’m feeling generous.
You want to know it?
Alright, here it is: Frick! Paper Cut!
No, no need to thank me.
I’m almost hitting mid-month on this one. It’s a bit hard to believe that this is the seventh online mixtape already. I hope you’re enjoying them. In a way, they’re a lot of work, but a lot of it (finding the music, making the playlist) has become part of my routine.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2007january playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. It’s mostly smaller indie bands this month, with a couple bigger names thrown in and one Motown song.
Adrian’s January 2007 mix tape [zip file]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
I like all the mixtapes I make. I like the songs on this one.
February’s mix tape (to be released valentines day-ish) is going to be mostly love songs of various sorts. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
[Update:] I once again messed up the m3u file. Jesse fixed it (m3u file).
There are a few links I’ve been meaning to put up. Things I find interesting but I don’t want to add to the sidebar on the right.
Random links:
[This was going to be one post with the above part 1 and below part 3, but it was too much, so I split them up]
There was recently the kottke best links of 2006. Here are some of my favorites from that list (including some I’ve seen/ linked to before):
Idea #1:
What if the Internet Turned into a Were-Wolf
There were a number of the links on that kottke best links of 2006 list that I had already seen, but I’d enjoyed.
This is one guy’s report of 2006, with stats about all sorts of things, from how many beers he drank to how many emails he sent.
I’m inspired. I’ve started a spreadsheet and I’ll be keeping track of the following per day:
Andy (not andyl) is also inspired. He’s keeping track of mostly the same list of things.
I didn’t talk much tonight on my show because I’m tired and lethargic. Here’s the playlist.
Also, I once have the NEWSPECIALFUN, in mp3 form (for a limited amount of time):
I Once was Canadian – 01/10/07 (mp3)
People listen to the Beatles, maybe the Beach Boys, but not a lot else from the first half of the 60s and certainly not (usually) from decades earlier.
There are reasons to dig further back. Most of this is from emails to some KZSU list over the past few days.
50’s: the start (for all intents and purposes) of Rock N Roll, Motown, Phil Spector, R&B coming out of gospel as a twinkle
in Sam Cooke’s voice, folk as a traditionalist revival (and the release of Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music), folk as a mainstream genre, cool jazz, hard bop, classic country, one of the only reasonable periods of musical theater, etc.
30’s and 40’s: perhaps one of the two most important collection of traditional folk music from the American South, the Lomax field recordings. the turning period of jazz from a dance genre to essentially an art music genre, the signature American sound in classical music and theater (in the Copland and Gershwin sense).
(As with all broad sweeping statements, these can be argued with, but they’re generally accurate)
For my upcoming South Africa trip:
Just because:
[another update:] I also bought a few tickets to this year’s Noise Pop:
a conversation between an engineer and an alumnus of KZSU while having a problem printing from a laptop:
alumnus: why won’t this work?
engineer: it’s be simple on a mac
alumnus: but 2/3 of the world uses windows
engineer: 2/3 of the world also shits in bushes and eats bugs
that’s one argument for macs, yes.
Everyone knows that Cowher retired (or stepped down or whatever), but no one seems to have noticed that Dick Hoak retired a few days earlier.
Dick Hoak was the Steelers’ running backs coach for 45 35 years, going back to 1972. Pittsburgh has been a running team all of those years and Dick Hoak was the reason that usually worked. Franco Harris was coached by Hoak. Barry Foster had 12 100 yard games in a season under Hoak. Jerome Bettis was transformed from a good, but faltering running back to a Hall-of-Fame runner under Hoak. Willie Parker had two 200 yard games this season (the record for a career is six) under Hoak. I wonder how Parker will continue to develop without him.
Here’s a bio and nice article about him from 2004.
1963 and 1964 were some of the best years in music. Today I got to devote an hour to each as part of the KZSU 60th Anniversary Marathon.
1963’s playlist had a lot of Motown and Phil Spector songs.
1964’s playlist had some of the same, some Beatles and some main stream rock hits.
I grabbed the stream (the NEWSPECIALFUN (mp3)) of it starting only about half an hour in. You can still check out some great music for the rest of it, though.
I was pretty distracted tonight so I didn’t plan and just put on what I felt like it. It actually worked out pretty well.
KZSU’s 60 hour 60th Anniversary Marathon starts tomorrow at noon PST and runs through Saturday night at midnight PST. It’s even doubly famous (and a small blurb here. You can listen online.
There’s an hour for each year from 1947 to 2006. I’ll be DJing 1963 and 1964 which will run from 4-6am PST (7-9am EST!) on Friday morning. I’m really about all the music that is from those years that I’m going to play. Tune in.
There will also be 25 or so alumni DJs that will be coming back on the air for the first time, in some cases, in 58 years. Some of them went on to professional careers in radio and media.
My New Year’s Eve activities included seeing Pan’s Labyrinth and later the Light Footwork at the Hotel Utah.
I was intrigued by Pan’s Labyrinth because it had one of the highest ratings I’d seen for a movie on metacritic. It also has a pretty interesting description in some of the reviews: it’s a fantasy movie and a war movie and a love story and… It seems like there’d be a lot going on but while you’re watching it, it doesn’t. It’s a fairy tale of sorts, but it’s possibly the most gruesome fairy tale you’ll see this year.
Post-Spanish civil war, mid-World War II, Ofelia and her very pregnant mother travel to the mountains of Spain to join the new husband/ step-father. He is a captain whose mission is to eliminate the remaining resistance in the area. We quickly learn that he’s not a nice guy. Ofelia is fascinated with fairy tales. During her first night at the mill, a fairy comes and leads her to a labyrinth on the premises. A faun explains to her that she is the long lost daughter of the underground king and that to return to her throne she must complete three tasks before the full moon (in a few days).
The rest of the movie is her trying to complete these tasks, the struggle of the resistance, a love story between one of the resistors and one of the people working under the captain, the struggle between her and the captain, etc.
I still don’t know quite what to make of it. It’s still swimming around in my head. It’s a light fairy tail and, yet, it’s heavy and affecting.
Later in the evening, Gumbeaux and I went over to the Hotel Utah. I’ve known the guys from the Light Footwork for a while and recently heard them live for the first time. They were playing their first gig “out”. The Hotel Utah is small venue which has apparently been around forever.
They put on a fun set full of their signature indie pop songs. Lots of energy. The one area I think they could work on is the banter. (Without some talented DJ leading the banter, it fell a little flat.) Gums and I weren’t in the mood for more, so we left after the Light Footwork.
Happy New Year’s.
I don’t know if you’re like me. Maybe you went out and had a blast…NYE (as they call it in the business) is particularly geared, it seems, towards large parties. I’m not a huge fan of huge parties so that’s one reason I have a feeling of dread as NYE approaches.
The other thing about New Year’s is that pesky reminder that time is passing. I’d like to say it hasn’t always been this way, but I think that’d it’d be a lie; I’ve always been too ambitious, had too many goals, to enjoy the fact that time is passing and that I have less time to accomplish them. (Birthdays also remind one of time passing, but somehow I mostly avoid that same dread with my birthdays and instead I meet them largely with joy.)
Another thought: Weezer’s Weezer (the first one) is a dang good album throughout.
One of the episodes of Letterman that was mythed while I was gone was one with Darlene Love, one of Phil Spector’s singers. She sings Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) a song she was the original singer of. And she just tears it up. It’s pretty impressive that she can still belt it out at her age.
Check it out on youtube: Darlene Love on Letterman
(You can also check out the U2 cover of the same song from back in the Bono-has-long-hair-and-wears-dumb-hats phase.)
I had to wait till after Christmas to post this (it was present-related), but the Phil Sector Back to Mono 4 CD box set is only $16.99 at amazon, brand new.
I have it (and paid a lot more it than that, used) and it’s fantastic. 3 great CDs with songs like “Be My Baby”, “He’s a Rebel”, “Da Doo Ron Ron”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Spanish Harlem” and “Unchained Melody.” The fourth CD is the Spector Christmas CD, which is enjoyable during that season.
In any case, this is a great price for a great and worthwhile box set.
After some considering, I am now signed up Escape from the Rock Alcatraz Triathlon.
1.5 mile swim, 2.5 mile run, 13 mile bike, 10K (6.2 mile) run. I’d better start working on my running.
I managed to see the three Pittsburgh sports teams a total of five times this year.
Due to some fortuitous scheduling, I saw all of them in the Bay Area (in three different cities):
I saw two of the three in Pittsburgh:
Today when I was sorting through my desk drawers, I found this receipt from Beluga Records:
[they said to save the receipt and I did]
Colin had told me that this band, the Coctails, had musical saw because he knew I was interested in it, so I decided to order The Coctails’ Peel. I’d also heard him talking about bands like Superchunk and Sebadoh, many of whom appeared on the Lounge Ax Relocation and Defense Fund CD.
I ordered those CDs and I believe they were my first indie rock CDs. I possibly bought Sebadoh’s Free Weed before that, but I’m not completely sure. July 1997 would place me at the end of my sophomore year of high school, about to enter my junior year.
Andy said that yesterday: “I had embarrassing teen years.” He was going through some boxes of stuff that his parents wanted to get rid of to make space. I laughed at him. I’m not embarrassed by my teen years, I thought. I did alright with them.
Here’s one gem Andy found yesterday:
[yeah, I should crop this and make it a smaller file.]
It’s the original lyric sheet to the Where’s Luke theme song. This was when we were preparing for the coffee house that they hosted at Westminster Presbyterian. I think we might have just been asking Colin if he’d be our drummer.
Tonight I went through my drawers in my desk tonight. I was laughing again, this time at myself. Despite myself I did have an embarrassing adolescence. I found all sorts of ridiculous things that I saved. The pot of gold at the end of the embarrassment rainbow was the half-drawer full of love notes, poems and drawings from a high school girlfriend. I was smiling so much at the ridicilousness of it that I almost cried.
If you choose to celebrate, Merry Christmas.
I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing day with family or friends.
Our Christmas crackers had some pretty funny jokes in them!
Q: What happens when a frog’s car breaks down?
A: It gets toad away
And the piece de resistance:
Q: Why is a leaking parking lot like Frankenstein’s Monster?
A: Because “it’s a porous car loft”
Indie rock (in the broadest of senses) lives and dies on credibility, so much so that ‘indie cred’ is a common phrase. Sure image helps and gimmicks help and music/ songwriting ability may also help, but cred is important. I won’t go as far as saying that cred is king, but it’s certainly important.
And yet, indie rockers often take on genres they are not intimately familiar with. That is, they lack imediate credibility. Beirut takes on Balkan brass music. Iron & Wine take on southern folk.
Even when indie rockers are not taking on other genres, they are often tackling music that isn’t familiar to the listener. Sufjan’s epic folk, Joanna Newsome’s weird harp screeching, Andrew Bird’s experimental, looped violin pop and Neutral Milk Hotel’s emotive fuzz pop are all examples.
What do these people have in common? Unique voices. And they don’t lack credibility.
The unique voices lead to the listener to view these artists with more authenticity than otherwise. If they not going to sing normal then they must mean it.
I’m not sure this is a conscious thought on the artists part, but it’s more likely some bred by the culture.
calm down and don’t strangle people this instant.
yeah, I’m stuck in O’Hare.
a corrollary to this is, I believe, a new phrase I’m coining: comfort music which, like comfort food, may not be great in and of itself and probably isn’t good for you, but helps on those tough days.
I was delayed there a bit, but here’s the December mix tape. Hopefully there’s enough time for you to download it and get it on to your favorite digital audio player for your holiday travels. Play it while sitting around the Christmas tree with your family.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2006december playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. It’s a mix of normal indie fare along with indie and oldies/ Motown Christmas songs.
Adrian’s December 2006 mix tape [zip file]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
Enjoy and have a happy Christmas or other winter solstice-timed religious, ethnic or other holiday.
My Second Annual I Once was Canadian Christmas Extravganza turned out pretty well. You can listen to it if you missed it.
(You can find some more gift ideas/ philosphy over at Colin’s blog.)
Gift cards are really easy. They also show something slightly more personal than cash or a check. They say “I know you enough to know that you might enjoy something from Best Buy[1] but I don’t know you well enough to actually pick something.”
Here’s the thing: gift cards tie your money up in plastic that is non-transferable and often expires. You are basically guaranteeing that some of your money will wasted or that the receiver will have to spend some of their own money to get full use out of it.
My recommendations:
[1] And if you are being a total hippie about it, gift cards usually requires the person to patronize a large corporate retailer, which the receiver may not wish to do.
Jesse and I have been having conversations like this forever. Jesse’s new phone can send email.
OH WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD tHAT wOULD bE!!@^$@$^#$^
On Tue, Dec 19, 2006 at 08:00:14AM -0800, Adrian wrote:
INTERNET SHOULD BE coNNECTED STRAIGHT TO OUR BRAINS PERMANENTLY
On Tue, 19 Dec 2006, Jesse wrote:
yea tell me about it… this seems to happen way too often, considering
it should happen oh about … NEVER!On Mon, Dec 18, 2006 at 08:35:09PM -0800, Adrian wrote:
oh disaster!
Adrian
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 jesse@ wrote:
My wireless stopped working…
I walked out my back door this morning to grab my bike and head off to work. There was a lid of a container that had overturned and filled with some water. This water had turned to ice. I think this is the first time I remember seeing naturally formed ice in Palo Alto or Menlo Park. There was frost on the neighbor’s grass.
I need to figure out if I own gloves in this state. My hands didn’t work for many minutes after I got to work today.
This sketch, from last year, is meant to be funny, and it is, but it’s also a good song.
[Warning, paulpham style joke coming.]
School bike? What’s that? A long yellow bike that all the kids get on?
Well, it’s been announced and the Time Person of the Year is me.
Wow. I never thought this would happen. I have so many emotions. I don’t have a speech prepared, but I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me through all the tough times: my parents, my friends, my teachers and my collegues. I’ll never forget this day. Thank you. Thank you, Time Magazine!
Hypothesis: everyone has a bit of a soft spot for the music that (s)he liked in high school.
Discuss.
I did my top dozen albums of 2006 show last night. My picks and start-with-these tracks:
A little bit about each album after the jump.
Just a reminder that the Light Footwork will be playing live on KZSU tonight at 9pm PST. It’s the first live gig of this blog-acclaimed band. You can listen at 90.1FM or online.
Update: If you missed it, check this out (and the playlist). It starts a couple minutes in.
This is not quite as totally sweet as the “Adrian is Rad” shirts, but still pretty good. Reader mim sends in this:
As TW Walsh points out, Rosie Thomas has put out (digitally, at least) her new album which was recorded with Denison Whitmer and my fav Sufjan Stevens. You can listen to a track or two at her website (streaming, flash), one at her myspace (streaming), or head over to Aquarium Drunkard to grab one mp3. The one at her website and myspace, “Much Farther to Go”, has Sufjan singing and playing banjo and TW Walsh on percussion. It’s a nice song with good finger-picked guitar and orchestration. Sufjan and Rosie’s voices go very well together. It’s still very much a Rosie song, so if you’re hoping for a new Sufjan song, check out his Christmas box set.
I’m working on my top albums of 2006 list. I’ll have my list posted probably Thursday because I need to have it done Wednesday for my “Top Albums/ Releases of 2006″ special on my radio show. In the meantime, though, here is a list of some good albums from 2006. Have I missed any? What are your favorites?
In no particular order:
Thoughts?
[Also, I've been rediculous this year in CD purchasing. The only albums among that list that I don't personally own: Fionn Regan, ms john soda, Danielson, V/A Big Mack, Built to Spill, Belle and Sebastian, Centro-Matic. I've heard all of those extensively, though.]
I don’t really get into webcomics much, but I’ve been really enjoying xkcd “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”
It’s pretty geeky stuff, generally. Some of it reminds me of jokes friends would make in college (like thing jwerberg said about the Apollo 11 space shuttle and it having the same computing power as a TI-85 “and that thing can’t even do tan 90!”)
There are some of my favorites.
I may relate a little too much to some.
Some are at the heights of geek humor while others are just sort of random.
Business Week has a article about Best Buy’s new corporate philosophy of measuring output rather than hours at a desk. They’re basically encouraging people to come in late or leave early as long as they get their work done.
It’s sort of like flex-time, but it isn’t because the metric (hours vs. output, however that’s measured) is different.
I do enjoy collaboration so doing away with the office entirely sounds like a bad idea to me, but something along this line sounds pretty good.
BoSox tickets for April and May games go on sale tomorrow morning at 10am PST.
Vigneto wine opener, single screw pull action. BNIB:
Well the boozy season is nearly upon us…
I think I should start calling the Christmas season the “boozy season”.
Tonight Judit and I made gingerbread houses (from the Trader Joe’s kit).
a) I am now diabetic.
b) I should pretty much be a professional gingerbread house maker.
I’m pretty proud of my two-mini-candy-canes-as-a-heart innovation.
I figured it’d be paying rent or doing my own taxes that’d do it. Or perhaps it’d be my first real paycheck. Or buying a more expensive product to get better quality so it’d last.
Well, I did those things and don’t feel particuarly like an adult. Yesterday, though, I realized it comes in steps. I realized this because I clipped my fingernails. I looked at my hands yesterday and saw that my fingernails were getting long and realized that I hadn’t bitten them, none of them.
Now I have nothing against biting one’s fingernails (or picking one’s nose) and I realize there’s a time and place where it’s not appropriate (in a client meeting, for instance), but, while I wasn’t doing anything about it, I also didn’t particularly like this habit. Well, apparently I’ve unknowingly stopped. I guess it was just time.
And so the realization that I’m one step closer to being an “adult.” Next step: talking to girls like they’re normal people.
I just posted five times. You weren’t ready for it, I know. You have got to steel yourself for stuff like that! Steel yourself!.
Also, I cut the palm of my hand today scaling a fence (legally!). The skin is really thick there. Now, lacerated. It’s fine, just a bit strange.
[this is possibly the first of a series of 'vinyl gems', songs that are weird or wonderful and can only be found on vinyl records]
This is a total gem that the station’s music library. It’s from the b-side of “All the Umbrellas in London”, one of the best Magnetic Fields songs out there.
This song is just crazy and weird.
I’ll give on one reason to take a listen to this and it’s the only reason you’re going to need: the chorus is “We are the rats in the garbage of the Western world…so let’s dance!“.
Magnetic Fields – Rats in the Garbage of the Western World (mp3)
I’ve been considering, trying to decide whether to do the Alcatraz swim again. It’s early next June.
There’s also this event two weeks later. It’s a swim-heavy triathlon, so that plays to my strengths that and 13 miles of biking (even hilly) I could do today, but the running would take a lot of preparation.
I don’t know if you have been there lately, but Trader Joe’s is overflowing with German Christmas sweets these days. I picked up some Pfeffernüsse the other day and they’re almost all gone. Delicious and fairly cheap!
Today I noticed that they have Lebkuchen and Stollen as well. I also picked up a gingerbread house kit, which I’m going to make with Judit on Monday.
I also have been absolutely ecstatic to open the little doors of my advent calendar these past two days (though as we all know Advent only starts on Sunday (which is still tomorrow to me)). Today chocolate treat was an aeroplane! What’s tomorrow’s going to be??
I’ve owned the first three and tried the last two at work the other day for a couple hours each. These are all pretty pricey.
Overall, I’d say the HD600s are the best sounding, but the DT990s are my favorite everday headphone for comfort and listenability.
A couple weeks ago, I finished Body Piercing Saved My Life by Andrew Beaujon (named after the “clever” shirt.) (Amazon, , one review, two mp3-blog like posts by the author about Christian music)
It’s a look at Christian Rock, capital C, capital R, by an outsider. Beaujon is a writer for Spin so he comes from the mainstream rock criticism side of things. I’ve never been really involved in the scene he talks about although I stood at the edge of it a couple years, so I’m a bit of an outsider to it as well. (Which reminds me of a post about an article of the same topic and perspective…)
He spends chapters looking at aspects and events in the Christian music world. He looks at particular bands and people as well as other cultural forces like Mars Hill Church and Tooth and Nail Records. There are various people that come off earnestly and then there are some more slimey people. I’d heard some negative things about T&N (that they don’t give their bands a fair shake) and they were sort of confirmed in this book.
Perhaps my favorite section is the chapter about David Bazan (at the time of the interviews, still in Pedro the Lion). Where a lot of interviewees seem to sidestep questions that might result in controversial answers, Bazan seems to take any and all questions head on without flinching. Sufjan denied the interview request, apparently, so there’s only a brief section on him, which was a bit disappointing.
Overall, it’s an interesting, informative and well-written book about a large cultural phenomenon (Christian records easily outsell jazz records currently). I’d recommend it if you are curious about the scene or genre.
I’ve since moved on to the Dave Eggers editted The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004.
Here’s my radio show’s playlist.
Also, I got it started late and my show went on late as well (Wednesday Night Live ran late) so it’s a bit short this week, but I have the, as I’m calling it, NEWSPECIALFUN:
I’m fascinated by little perculiarities in our world. There’s a country, which is soverign over a city, which is only 0.2 square miles in size. That’s 108 acres, much smaller than a large urban park. (Also of note with the Holy See/ Vatican is that there are various Vacitan enclaves on separated from the Vatican and surrounded by Italy, including Castel Gandolfo and Patricrchal Basilicas, but they’re sort of like embassies with extraterritorial status.)
People also seem to be fascinated that Lesotho (formerly Basutoland), where my mom spent much of her youth, is completely surrounded by South Africa. Well that makes a lot more sense to me than Büsingen which is a German town completely separated from Germany and surrounded by Switzerland. It is separated by about 1km from the rest of Germany.
It’d be kind of cool to live there though. You get alternate addresses and telephone numbers if you want people to call or write to you in Germany or Switzerland. You also get to live and work in Switzerland without a visa after living there for ten years.
That Beirut show that I went to has has popped up at the Internet Archive.
It’s a really good show, even in repeat. There’s a woman screaming like an idiot next to the guy recording it for the first song and a bit of the next couple, but once you get past that, it’s a worthwhile listen. It’s available in a number of formats, too (mp3, ogg, FLAC). And it’s free.
I’m getting ready to leave the Phoenix airport and, appropriately, I’m listening to “Goodbye Sky Harbor“.
In the middle of a stream of bittersweet nostalgia, I took a bunch of photos this weekend.
They’re here.
I did a bunch of fun stuff, today, some of which I may write about later, but, for now, it’s all about Paul’s Compact Discs in Bloomfield. Dave and I made the trek over to Bloomfield after a Primanti’s sandwhich this afternoon.
It’s a smallish record store, not giant by any means, but also not shoebox and very navigable. The way it’s laid out and the way things are organized made it easy to look through things. They had a good selection among indie music, including the classic stuff (they had 3 of the 4 Seam albums in stock). They also have a good vinyl (7″ and LPs) selection. Their used CD selection is small and flat-priced (all $8) so that’s not the greatest. The people behind seemed knowledgable (one geeky clerk informed me of a Girl Talk show tonight after I bought the album).
I’d say it’s perhaps on par with Aquarius or slightly lower on my list for small record stores, but that’s saying a lot: Aquarius is pretty amazing and I like Paul’s a lot too.
I got:
I was familiar with the Ida and the Sigur Ros sounds good from first listen. I had heard little snippets of the Girl Talk and had read the rave reviews and I figured I should buy it in Pittsburgh if I was going to buy it, given that he’s a Pittsburgh local. I listened to it in the car a few times while driving around today and, I must say, I’m impressed. He takes tiny samples of pop songs, often dozens for each song of his and mashes them together (quite different from a “mash up” in most ways) to make another song. The samples he mixes and the smothness with which he does it, for the most part, are pretty amazing. It’s good music and it’s fun to try to pick out the samples he’s using. Today I definitely heard, among others, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Pixies, Verve (itself a sample), Kanye West, Gwen Stefani, and Elton John. No one’s sacred.
I also found out today that Unwed Sailor has cancelled their tour, including tomorrow night’s stop at the Brillobox, so that’s sad. I was looking forward to that. If I’d know that it was cancelled (I just found out), I would probably have made more of an effort to catch Girl Talk tonight at Belvedere’s. Oh well.
I’m back in Pittsburgh for the Thanksgiving holiday. Today I went up to New Brighton in Beaver County to grab lunch with my friend Chris Atwell. He’s been working at his uncle’s business, Ceramic Color and Chemical Manufacturing Co. They take metals (inorganic chemicals), grind them and combine them in various ways to make pigments, which are largely used in tiles and other ceramics. He gave me a tour of the plant, which is mostly within a very cool 200 year old building and it was a bunch of industrial equipment. Man, I love factory tours. Giant mechanical equipment is my thing.
(Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take any photos of the giant mechanical equipment inside.)
I also think it’s cool that they’re doing what they’re doing: growing slowly, competing on the global market with a family business using local labor. That seems increasingly rare these days.
We ended up grabbing lunch at the Backdoor Tavern up there. (I must admit, I winced after I hit enter in google with the search terms ‘backdoor’ and ‘beaver’ (it’s in Beaver county) thinking I’d get a bunch of dirty results but I was actually able to find the place I wanted.) I got a really solid meatball sandwhich and a Penn Pilsner. The total for the two? $7. In Palo Alto, I might get a mediocre sandwhich for seven bucks…
After lunch, the following sign caught my eye and I had to check out the Rosalind Candy Castle:
That 3ft tall chocolate Santa was like a little person but jolly and made of chocolate. mmmmmm three foot tall chocolate Santa…. (give me a minute here.) I ended up getting a Santa chocolate lollipop and some dark chocolate covered pretzels which my family agreed were excellent when we had them for dessert tonight.
Then I walked through downtown Beaver before coming home.
I put more photos from today online
(How is something so simple like going to the same place and getting a pizza so awesome? Wish you were there, Andy.)
why don’t they just make everyone get naked to go through security at the airports. I’m already taking off my belt and shoes here!
I was delayed there a bit, but here’s the November mix tape. Hopefully there’s enough time for you to download it and get it on to your favorite digital audio player for your Thanksgiving travels.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2006sept playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. It starts out with a chunk of great, not super common oldies stuff and then goes into the indie rock. Bishop Allen, Polyphonic Spree, Mogwai and Phil Spector are all represented.
Adrian’s November 2006 mix tape [zip file] (moved to password protected folder)
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
I started this thing two years ago today.
The blog stats: 691 posts (0.945 posts/ day on average) and 1,056 comments (1.53 comments/ post; 1.44 comments/ day on average) in 32 categories (21.59 posts/ category on average). At last count, the comment leaders (besides me) were Jesse (130 comments) and Milkshake (125 coments). If you don’t count general (613 posts) or the overall music category (278 posts), the most posts are in music (recorded) (114 posts), sports (97 posts) and music (radio) (84 posts). The fewest posts are in music (photography) (2 posts, a new category) and arts (3 posts).
There are 691 posts and I don’t remember them all, but I think some of my favorite posts are in the list category. Lists like
(that’s right, a list of lists! METALIST!)
I also like posts like how to wash and dry your socks and underwear if your crap airline strands you in Las Vegas when you’re trying to get home for Christmas and a couple of the posts where I wrote about my adolescent or past expieriences, like this one about Roald Dahl’s Omnibus and my fifth trip to Germany. The covers contest has come and gone, but now I have online mixtapes to impose on you.
It’s been an interesting experience. Sometimes I’ll start talking to someone (this happens particularly with dug) about something that happened and he’ll just say “I know, I read it on your blog”. I don’t think I’m a particularly good writer, but I enjoy writing here to some extent and I think my writing’s probably gotten better. I try not to take this place too seriously. After all, it’s just me writing about some crap on the web. There are probably a couple people who read this that I don’t know, but I don’t get an delusions of grandeur here.
So, any thoughts? Any of your favorite posts that I missed? Any particularly good or embarrassingly bad adrianisrad moments?
I saw Borat Cultural Learnings… on Friday at the Capitol Drive In in San Jose.
Hilarious, funny, awkward, causing of uproarious laughter. Worth seeing.
I was thinking about how I’d write that it wasn’t offensive—something I’ve heard describing the movie quite a bit, but then I realized I’ve gotten somewhat hard to offend. There are a lot of offensive things said in the movie, but by saying them, it’s pointing out that they’re rediculous and offensive, I think. Then there’s the naked man wrestling.
Just about every time I have an out-of-town guest, I propose going to Amoeba. They half-heartedly agree. I buy seven or eight CDs and they buy one or three.
Yesterday, I went with Liz. According to plan, she got three CDs and I got seven:
There are a couple entertaining videos that I found or ran across in the recent times:
Aries Spears impressions while freestyling. This is a guy doing impressions of LL Cool J, Snoop Dog, DMX and Jay Z while freestyling. It’s pretty dang impressive, though I’m not familiar with DMX at all and only somewhat familiar with the other three. I’m still very impressed. (A couple things of note: a) that’s Live 105, in SF and that’s the same studio where I did the college dj of the week thing and 2) it appears Woody, one of the hosts, is a Steelers fan as he’s sporting a hat and a Willy Parker jersey). (via stereogum)
Peyton Manning Mastercard Priceless Ad. I can see how you might not like Peyton Manning, but man, I love this commercial which started running last year. They have a second, similar one this season but it’s not as good. I laugh every time I see this one.
[Update:] Oh man, I found another Peyton priceless commercial and it’s hilarious too. Also, there’s a blooper commercial from the first Peyton video and the making of (including the actual commercial at the end) a third in the series.
Amazingly the Steelers pulled off another win. Roethlisberger threw for 224 yards in the fourth quarter (out of 272 yards total); he was intercepted 3 times in the first half. I have an idea, Ben: throw well the whole game! I know it’s crazy; just crazy enough that it might work.
You can check out the video highlights (check out the end to see the crappy-but-somehow-it-worked go-ahead shovel pass), the post game quotes, or the rather pathetic game stats.
My roommate’s pretty dang smart. Incidentally, TV skipping commercials automagically is just about the best thing EVER.
I saw and ad for a touring production of this the other day. Why? Why must ‘broadway’ (or the west end or theatre or whatever you want to call this in general) ruin everything. Check out the ‘video clips’ (sorry no direct link—stupid Flash) on that site if you have any doubt if it’ll be horrible.
Two questions:
[1] Even ‘good’ productions currently on Broadway (e.g. Spamalot, the Producers) are not original.
[2] I will maintain that this is the best musical every made and the movie version is a great movie. What other Broadway musical can hold its own, musically, with the best ‘classical’ works of the twentieth century (especially if you limit it to American classical works)?.
I will let you know: Bam Stain and Drain Cleaner works. I don’t know if my respiratory system will ever be the same but it works.
My radio show, I Once was Canadian will be on in its old time slot this week: Thursday 6-9am PST, due to a visitor.
So, all you east coast people can listen live. I’ll be tired and it’ll be early, so you can listen to my deep, groggy just-woken-up voice on the radio. Tune in!
Do you guys still read this thing?
Everyone:
do I write too much about music? have I alienated you with my incessant talk about music?
do you have favorite types of posts on the old ab.com?
I am here to egotistically proclaim my greatness, but if I can do that while also providing something interesting to read, maybe I can tweak the formula.
Maybe it was growing up during the early 90’s but for some reason I still tune in to Saturday Night Live every week. For a few years, I’d watch up until Weekend Update and then switch it off: during most of the Falon-Fey years it was certainly the funniest thing of the night. Since Fallon and then Fey left, even that hasn’t been all that funny recently.
But tonight I was surprised. The show was actually funny throughout. I laughed out loud during a number of sketches. Maybe it was Alec Baldwin (who hosted) who was great. Or maybe Tina Fey wrote some sketches (she cameo-ed on the show). And it probably wasn’t hurt by cameos by, Tina Fey, Tracey Morgan, Steve Martin, Martin Short (who appeared for about 22 seconds), Paul McCartney (similarly, 22 seconds), and Tony Bennett.
Anyway, funny stuff tonight. Maybe it’ll happen again next week…or again in six or seven years.
I went to see Bishop Allen (their myspace page) on Thursday at the Bar of Contemporary Art. They were the second of three on the bill, the headliners being the Starlight Mints.
If you don’t know Bishop Allen, check out some of their mp3s on their webpage or listen to the ones I’m going to hand pick for you:
Bishop Allen – Same Fire [from June] (mp3)
Bishop Allen – Flight 180 [from April] (mp3)
Bishop Allen – Things are What you Make of Them [from Charm School](mp3)
They’ve announced (and so far followed through with, though sometimes a bit delayed) a plan to release an EP for every month until they release their next EP. I can’t imagine doing this, especially for months when they’re touring. I may or may not have bought all the months EPs they had for sale at the show (January-August). I’ll possibly post a review of all of them later.
Bishop Allen went on after a somewhat clever but ultimately unexciting opener. The stage at BoCA is basically tiny, so the drums were off to one side, instead of the usual behind-the-leadman and the bass player and guitarist were behind the drums. Sort of an odd set up. I feel like I’m fairly unfamiliar with Bishop Allen—I’ve only listen to Charm School a few times and then the mp3s that they’ve offered up for the month EPs, but somehow I went through the set knowing most of the songs they played (maybe all but two). That’s always kind of nice, knowing the songs a band is playing.
They played well. Particularly I liked the versions of “Busted Heart”, “Same Fire”, “Flight 180″ they did. It was a fun and energy-filled set.
After Bishop Allen, the bar cleared out before Starlight Mint came up and continued clearing out throughout their set to the point where about forty people were left. The sound for the first part of their set was really badl; well the vocals were too low for the whole set but sound at the beginning was particularly muddy. They did a number of halloweeny or horror movie sounding songs at the beginning and that, combined with the muddy sound, put me off for most of their set. I must say I liked the last few songs they did.
I’m pretty excited to say that super-local (Redwood City) blog favorite the Light Footwork will be performing live on KZSU’s Wednesday Night Live, its live local band show, on Wednesday December 13 at 9pm (PST). I’m going to be hosting the program. Let me know if you have any burning questions for the band; I can ask them between song.
If you don’t know the Light Footwork yet, check out some mp3s. (Or check out any of the aforelinked blogs.)
Also, Jay (of tLF) and I hit up the Bishop Allen show at BoCA in SF last night. Good show. I’ll write more about it later. Something I was pretty amused by: someone took one of those ‘Visitor’ stickers and filled out the rest ‘to the hipster indie world (please by nice)’.
Once again, tune in to KZSU (90.1FM or online) on December 13, 2006 at 9pm (PST) to hear the Light Footwork. (I’ll see what I can do about putting an mp3 up of the show after the date, but no guarantees.)
Here’s my playlist for tonight’s show.
Also! my NEWSPECIALFUN seems to be working so I have a recording of the show:
I Once Was Canadian – November 8, 2006
Grab it now! It’ll be gone in a couple weeks.
Just two. I had a short ska phase around the end of psychedelic classic rock and before I really got into indie rock. It’s tied in my mind to Boy Scouts and a few kinds who I talked about these albums with or listened to them with.
I should listen to them again and see what I think now.
Members of the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL) are recording a Christmas album.
The article’s interesting, but the best quotes are from the studio owner/ engineer:
In the engineer’s booth, as the players took a break and wiped their brows, DiCenzo commented: “I am shocked. It was not terrible.”
and then later:
“But all of them did way better than I expected. When the key would change, most of the time most of them hit it. I really thought I’d be hitting the Excedrin pretty hard by now”
(via largehearted boy)
I went to ten [1] (rediculous!) concerts in October, so I was pretty busy there. There were a couple I wanted to write about but didn’t and now they seem a bit irrelevant. Well, I’m going to write what I wanted to say about them, in brief, now:
[1] for real:
Friday Night Lights just had Beulah (”Score from Augusta” I think) as background music. That’s pretty obscure.
(And they used Explosions in the Sky later as well.)
This morning I received an email from the nice people at insound letting me know I could pre-order the Mark Kozelek Live double CD Little Drummer Boy Live. A Mark Kozelek live CD? wow! I thought it’d be a Christmas live album. It’s not (but White Christmas Live follows the same fake-Christmas-album-that-only-has-one-Christmas-song-on-
it-and-that’s-the-title-of-the-album model).
From their email:
Just in time for the holidays, Caldo Verde Records will release a limited edition (10,000 North America), 20-song, live compilation from Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon songwriter Mark Kozelek
I would like to point out that, though 10,000 is technically “limited” in that there is a limit, it’s hardly limited in any real sense. A live double CD for a semi-obscure indie artist? I’m guessing it’ll sell right around 10,000 at most anyway. Indie kids love buying “limited” quantity records&mash;usually out of 500 or 1000— so it’s probably just playing off of that.
It comes out November 28 and it’s $15.99 for a double CD set and insound’s offering 10% off (your whole order!) with a coupon code, which I can tell you if you contact me privately. Mark, if you haven’t seen him live, actually does pretty different versions of stuff live than on the album. I’ll probably buy it because Mark Kozelek can do almost nothing wrong.
Over two years after its completion, I finally posted my Coke Can Birdman Costume on instructables. Part of the motivation was the Halloween Project Contest.
Last night I saw the Penguins play the Sharks. They lost in a close and well-played game. It was a fun game to watch. The new young players (by which I mean Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury) are really good, by the way. And if you haven’t seen, the Penguins are actually doing well so far this season.
The Steelers lost again today. They actually seemed to make a game of it until the end there. But in the end, the result is the same: disappointment. The culprit was turnovers again. Blah. Also: post game quotes.
My radio show’s playlist for this week. Captain Dee co-hosted this special ‘folk’ show.
Also it appears the cron job or as I call it “SUPERMAGICSPECIALFUN” worked and recorded my show automagically:
I Once Was Canadian November 1, 2006 (mp3)
My show starts maybe 30 seconds in.
The mp3 will be up for about two weeks so grab it now while you still can!
I like the scolding tone of this spam subject line:
Obesity is dangersous, stop it
I just passed 1000 comments on the old blog here and number one thousand was one of those stupid trackback comments on one of my previous posts. I was hoping it’d be some lucky blogfan who I could give some useless prize to!
Oh well.
On Friday, Laura and I went over to see David Bazan (ex-Pedro the Lion, Headphones) at the Swedish American Hall. It was an odd billing. I had never seen DB play anything but a headlining (or co-headlining) slot and here he was opening for someone I’d never heard of Kristin Hersch (of Throwing Muses, apparently). It was also an early show (doors at 7:30pm–DB was on by 8:30ish) which led to an odd mix of older people and even some infant kids.
We got there as the first opener was in her last couple songs. She was good enough but, honestly, I didn’t pay much attention. Tip to artists, by the way: say your name or band name fairly often, and at least once at the end of your set. I don’t know the opener’s name.
David came up next. It was immediately obvious that this was going to be the most laid-back show of his that I’d seen yet: he was sitting down and playing a nylon-string guitar. (Later I also learned that he was sober, apparently a new thing for solo shows.)
I can’t remember the exact order of songs he did but he definitely did a nice mix of old (Ptl) and new songs (DB) and even one Headphones (H) song, in no particular order: “Transcontinental”(PtL), “Hot Shit” (H), “Fewer Broken Pieces”(DB) (on which he tacked on parts of a new song that he was working on), “Cold Beer and Cigarettes”(DB), “the Longer I Lay Here” (PtL), “Priests and Paramedics”(Ptl), “The Poison”(DB/ PtL), “Of Up and Coming Monarchs”(PtL), “Bands with Managers”(PtL), and “Bad Things to Good People”(PtL) (which I hadn’t listened to for quite a while but had been actually listening to earlier in the same day—good song!). I’m sure he did half-a-handful of other songs, but I can’t remember them all.
He played well and sang well—it’s sort of snuck by me that he actually has a great falsetto. I missed that some how, or at least I’d never noted it before.
It was obvious that crowd was not all DB or Pedro fanatics as some of his ‘quirkier’ lyrics ellicited giggles from the audience.
He also did his usual question-and-answer session during songs. These are always fun. One of the kids (~5 years old) asked him why he said “smokes a lot” during one of his songs (I think). DB sort of winced like he does and then awkwardly tried to explain that he said that because he doesn’t have a very good vocabulary and instead uses hyperbole to try to say what he means. He also said he uses explitives in his songs for the same reason and basically apologized to the father for swearing around this kid. (A few minutes later he launched into “Hot Shit” of course…) The same kid also asked him if he was married and that got DB into a story about how the minister that married him left the church because he tried to go on a date with the secretary and the minister’s wife didn’t like that, “but that’s another story…”
The one question I asked was whether he regrets releasing any of his songs; if you’ve listened through his catalog, this question may occur to you as well as it sort of “switches gears”, one could say. His response was “the Promise”, the last song off of It’s Hard to Find a Friend. His reasoning was mostly that he likes the somber mood that he created with the three songs before that (”The Bells” to “Secret of the Easy Yoke” (still one of my PtL favorites) to “The Well”) and then it jumps into this “pop jingle” as he calls it. He we was too scared to end on a somber note then. He also doesn’t particuarly like “the Promise.”
After the show, it was still early so Laura and I headed over to Sparky’s for a milkshake and a slice of delicious pumpkin pie. I think I am currently suffering from a heart attack due to consuming these foods, but, dang, it was worth it. The milkshake was possibly one of the best I’ve ever had: a perfectly blended vanilla ice cream with a dollop of peanut butter shake.
After the break, check out more photos and my list of David Bazan/ Pedro/ Headphones shows.
(more…)
You have one more day to grab the Online Mixtape, Vol 4 (October) before I wisk it off to a sooper sekret location to never be seen by the public again despite any public relations campaigns you start or slanderous accusations you make.
I had a dream last night where something had happened where I’d been signed or discovered or been given a good review online or something and suddenly I was going to play a show as a headliner. I was trying to get enough material together. I was going to play some originals on wurly and guitar. I was going to play some old songs (Greetings from Johannesburg? Where’s Luke??) and some new stuff. I wasn’t very good at the songs and playing wurly and guitar (in the dream, of course not in real life) so I needed to practice. The night of the show came and the openers went and were good and I was thinking I shouldn’t be the headliner of the show. Then it was my turn to play and I realized that I really hadn’t practiced much and I was totally unprepared.
I don’t remember my dreams much.
wow. that was just embarrassing. 4 interceptions! Two for TDs? Come on, Ben~
good thing I paid way too much for tickets to be there!
(Out of ~63K people there, I’d say 5-10K were baseball fans though.)
Possibly my favorite Halloween tradition is when we buy candy “to give out on Halloween” and then we eat all or most of it before Halloween such that we need to buy more in order to have some to give out on Halloween. Oh man, I love it.
There’s this sign (I know, awesome picture!) on the outside of a firehouse (SFFD Station 6, for the record) near the Cafe du Nord:
The first time I saw it, I think I did a double take. That’s a picture indicating a person handing over a baby.
There was a passing mention on the TV a week later of a Safe Surrender Baby Law that apparently exists in California. New mothers can give up their baby at a hospital or some fire stations without fear of legal ramifications.
Wikipedia has an article and it looks like most states have laws on this topic of varying degrees. I find it strange.
I did my radio show tonight. Playlist.
And!!! the SPECIALNEWFUN: I recorded it and thanks very much to mim who’ll be hosting the mp3s.
I Once Was Canadian October 25, 2006 (mp3)
The recording starts a bit into the show this week (and might, actually, cut off a little bit before the end–ack!). I am trying to get it to automagically record it, but there was a hiccup this week. I’ll try again next week!
Here’s a clip of the Times are a Changin cast performing “Like a Rolling Stone” (the greatest song of all time) on the View.
I couldn’t make it all the way through. Can you?
Ouch. Ouch!
It takes talent to produce something that horrible.
(via stereogum)
Last Friday I managed my third (I believe) ever two show night [1] [2]: with Damien Jurado w/ Rosie Thomas followed by Beirut.
The night started with meeting Dave and Dasha outside the Swedish American Hall at about 8:15. We got inside and Rosie Thomas was on, having already started her set. Rosie is really funny in a goofy way. She has this tiny voice but has a huge voice, easily filing the hall when she wanted to. Her set was good: her music’s a bit on the sappy side, but it’s still nice. Her between set banter was very funny; I’m not entirely surprised she’s also sometimes a stand-up comic (as “Sheila”). Apparently she’s friends with Sufjan, which makes me happy.
[full write up and pics continue after the break]
(more…)
Yeah, I’m running a little late on these. Oh well. Here’s October’s mixtape.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an m3u file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2006sept playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. There are some old favorites here, some new discoveries and some new songs from old favorites. Pinback, Beulah, Damien Jurado and local indie pop stars the Light Footwork all make appearances.
Adrian’s October 2006 Mixtape [zip file]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
One of my roommates: “What else is there to do besides watch TV? I mean, if we weren’t supposed supposed to watch it all day long it wouldn’t work all day long, would it?”
Despite liking the book and Clint Eastwood’s previous directorial work, I hadn’t been looking forward to Flags of our Fathers much. Maybe I just felt that the World War II movie had been played out or that Eastwood’s touch wouldn’t be as deft in a subject that tends to be done in an epic and over-the-top manner. But the critics seemed to be liking it, so I thought I’d catch a show yesterday at the new megaplex down in Redwood City.
It’s about the photo and the people in the photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima and more broadly about World War II, and “heros”. The book is written by one of the flag raisers’ sons and it goes through the story of each of the six flag raisers, the story of the flag raising, the history of the battle of Iwo Jima and other related topics.
I was surprised by how closely it stayed to the book. I was expecting that everything that wasn’t the battle of Iwo Jima would be stripped out. It’s not really a battle movie, as such, because of this because a lot of it takes place after the battle. The movie bounces back and forth between the post-battle scenes and the battle scenes; it might be a bit hard to follow for some, but I didn’t have much of a problem.
The cinematography has a very gritty quality to it for the battle scenes. It’s filmed in a way that it’s almost black-and-white for the battle scenes and, like similar scenes in Saving Private Ryan, it’s sometimes filmed in an unsteady manner such that it’s closer to what a soldier would have seen. The whole film is gritty too. Eastwood doesn’t sugar coat the situation or truth, here. It’s all here and laid out for you to see. He leaves out a lot of the feel good parts you might see in another war movie.
It’s good. Not amazing, but good. It is a film with some weight: it hits you and doesn’t leave immediately.
I was talking to a WWII veteran earlier in the same day who had served at Okinawa. He was 19 at the time and was in the campaign for 75 days. I don’t know about you but when I was 19 I couldn’t have handled that. I mean at 22 I lived in Germany for 75(ish) days and was marginally able to handle that. No killing people, no enemy combatants, no watching friends die. That was it, either: he was scheduled and was training to be in the second wave to invade Japan, if that had happened. And then they, for the most part, just went back to school or work and went about their lives. I always take the opportunity to talk to WWII vets when I have a chance. If you think about it, if a soldier was 18 when he was fighting in the last battles in 1945, then he’s 80 now. It’s a shrinking group of people, I imagine rapidly at this point.
I don’t know what it is about WWII, something gets me about it. All these young kids went off and fought, hopefully, the last war of that magnitude (110,000 Japanese died on Okinawa alone—the population of more than Menlo Park and Palo Alto put together died on one side during one battle). It was the whole country too. The whole country mobilized and supported the effort and sacrificied. (Interesting fact: we went to war with Japan because they attacked us. Why did the US go to war with Germany? They declared war on us.) I’m not saying anything for or against war here: just that the sacrafice of the WWII generation gets me.
Most of you are probably not near a Sonic so you don’t see the commercials. Heck, the closest one to me is 45 miles away so I probably am at the edge of Sonic commercial range.
There’s a series of funny ones with two guys in a car (for example). One they’ve been running is for the breakfast burrito and I find it pretty funny.
It goes like this: two guys are sitting in a car eating the breakfast burritos. They’re talking along about how full it’s going to make them.
Guy 1: It’s so filling it’s like a feast for breakfast. A breakfeast!!
Guy 2 (not impressed with the new word coinage): uh huh
Guy 1 (again and with weight as if it’s profound): a breakfeast!
Guy 2 (still unimpressed): Uh yeah sure, man.
Brilliant! I am mostly amused by two things: the stupidity of the conversation and the similarity that it bears to many conversations I’ve had.
I hope it shows up on youtube so I can share it with you.
I’m all musicy lately, but here are three more things of interest:
Pitchfork went at music bloggers this morning:
Zing!
I have no love for the Cold War Kids, but, man, that’s so petty and childish. It doesn’t even mention what kind of music it is, let alone if it’s good or not!
Either endearing or unbearably socially awkward:
her: Yeah, I’d like that.
me: Um, I don’t know how to do this. I guess I get your phone number or something?
Come on endearing. No whammies no whammies…
In the comments of my Rogue Wave benefit post, Mie from Our Lady of the Highway (who I saw open for Zach Rogue’s solo gig over the summer.) She sent me links to a few songs which I listened to.
OLofH is sort of hard to pinpoint as to what they sound like. They sort of stradle a lot of sounds: indie rock, alt country, dareIsayemo, folk, classic rock. “I get the sense” is a cool song with some Built to Spill-ish stylings. It’s a single off of their latest album and sounds sort of singley (that’s not always bad).
Our Lady of the Highway – I Get the Sense (mp3)
“Brown Dress” is folkie sort of song with a dark, distorted side. Man, I’m horrible with these descriptions.
Our Lady of the Highway – Brown Dress (mp3)
How local are they? They’re based in SF, I believe, but it appears Mie works around the corner at Stanford.
I’m still catching up from my crazy week last week.
On Thursday, I hung out with the nicest man in indie rock, John Vanderslice for a few hours and saw him play a solo gig at the 750 Pub at Stanford.
A couple weeks ago I talked to JV after the Rogue Wave show and since he played on my show we’ve had some rapport. I mentioned that it was cool that he was playing at Stanford and he asked if I wanted to hang out before the show. Well, yes!
I showed up at the 750 around 5:30. It’s kind of weird describing hanging out with someone, so maybe I’ll just skip most of that part. I met Chris, the guy from Pattern is Movement who was also on the bill, as well and he was pretty cool. JV is still just about the nicest person I’ve met.
A bunch of cool people showed up at the show, including KZSU DJs galore: Matt, Kirstle, Eel, and Megan, who helped organize it. Jay and much of his band, the Light Footwork also showed up and we got to hang out a bit again. I also met a few new cool people at the show.
First up on the bill was Pony Pants. They were sort of math-rocky with some classic rock influences and drum machine drums (played off an ipod) with female vocals. They were entertaining. The lead guitarist pulled out all the stops, playing being his head, standing on his amp and up in the face of an audience member.
Next up was JV. He was playing solo, acoustic. The room actually (somewhat surprisingly) got pretty packed. At some point during the show he said that earlier he was walking around Stanford with his “friend Adrian” and I felt pretty cool. He played a handful of new songs and a bunch of old ones. He got us all clapping along for a great version of “Pale Horse.” He is apparently doing a 7″ and wrote the B-side two weeks ago and recorded it the same morning as the show. He was saying that he’s never written a b-side before and he kept worrying that it was too good or that he was spending too much time on it. He played it and it was good.
Pattern is Movement was last; I missed most of their set chatting outside with JV.
All in all a great evening. Fun chatting with JV and a great set.
After a few weeks of disappointments, I’m happy the Steelers can still beat a crappy team. Their domination of the game encourages me that this might not just be a one-week-against-a-crappy-team spurt. As always, the post game quotes are somewhat interesting.
My team won the Mixed Draw Pairs Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club tournament on Saturday and I was playing vice rather than my normal role of lead. I’ll be getting a trophy.
Yes, you may be very impressed.
Starting last Friday, totally crazy 8 days:
What could you call a cross-dressing Sarah Michelle Geller impersonator?
Sarah Michelle Feller!!!@@@
Tonight I saw Sufjan Stevens in Berkeley at the Zellerbach Auditorium. He had a full choir (the Pacific Mozart Ensemble) along with a string octet, a brass trio and a backing band.
Holy crap. That was really good. Amazing, really.
I actually wrote down the setlist this time:
The concert was so theatrical and, to use an entirely over-used word, epic. All the songs were added to in weight, joy or emotion by the massive number of musicians on the stage. There was certainly some surprise in the number of songs that ended in a cacophonous ‘freak-out.’ Notably, freak out at the end of “Predatory Wasp,” a particularly subdued song for much of it’s length, was a parculiar juxtaposition.
I’d also recommend being a nut and being online when the tickets go on sale for future concerts at the Zellerbach. I was in the third row in the wings (tiers) that come down and touch the stage and the vantage point was excellent.
One last note: the show was so good that even the usher, would was advanced in her years, gave the band a standing ovation at the end of the show.
[1] Acknowledging that it wouldn’t be a popular sentiment in this area before he said it, he dedicated this to the Detroit Tigers.
[2] He inserted the lyrics “Tigers Stadium” “‘84″ into that repeated section with the various locations in the middle.
[3] This was so incredibly gorgeous. My eyes literally welled up during this song.
[4] 100 inflatable Santas were throw off the balcony during this song. I did not get one.
[5] Funky. Move your booty.
[6] New song about the dark eyed junco. It’s pretty great. You heard it here first: my prediction is that Sufjan’s next album will be about birds. (Think about it: Majesty Snowbird and Great God Bird? Not a coincidence.)
[7] similar to [4], lots of inflatable supermen were thrown off the balcony during this song. I did not get one.
I am undecided as to whether I’ll liveblog this game as well. We’ll see. Check back here early in the game and see if I’m updating or not.
4:23pm. I made good time to the south hayward BART after leaving work late. I’m taking BART because I decided that it definitely wasn’t worth trying to mess with traffic and parking around the stadium again. looks like I’ll get to the stdium with plenty of time.
4:47pm. I’m at my seat. wooo. I like being here, you know, before the end of the first inning. I’m meeting some people here and they haven’t arrived yet. on the bart we passed either an ambulance storage or sales place and it had the ghostbusters ambulance!!! or one of the same design.
5:25pm tigers go down 1 2 3 in the first
5:44 dug says hhgvcfhgfesth. I say another 1 2 3 inning down the tigers
6:11pm zito got into some trouble in that inning. he didn’t look very good at all. there is a very drunk and somewhat entertaining girl in the next row back. she’s talking about her boobs.
6:37pm white won on the diamind vision dot race. zito got in trouble and another 3 scored before he was pulled. it’s now 0-5.
6:57pm a’s had runners on 2nd and 3rd withno outs and didn’t score. and dead seriously there was just cheering in the bathroom. cheering and chanting and pounding on the wall. and the a’s just retired the tiger’s side.
7:41pm a’s get more on base and don’t score. come on!!
7:56pm alright. I’m all 7th inning stretched now. time to score some runs…
8:17pm another no out, runner in scoring position situation. let me guess the outcome…
8:27pm they finally scored one. there was a seriously bs call at first. they wouldn’t show a replay of it here.
9:08pm on the bart. they lost. oh well.
When I first heard about Jose Gonzalez playing at Enchanted Broccoli Forest from a fellow DJ I couldn’t believe it. Why would Jose Gonzalez be playing a weird coop at Stanford? Well it turns out that it was real and being put on by the Stanford Concert Network, which, it turns out, is being run by yet another fellow DJ these days.
The space in EBF where they had the concert was maybe a dining room or a living room. The posted maximum occupancy was 65. I’d guess there were closer to 222 people in there. It was packed and hot and sweaty. I couldn’t see Jose for most of the show.
But the sound was good and Jose played a good show. He didn’t say much and just ran through his songs and covers. He doesn’t have a giant repetoire yet, so he played most of Veneer and most of the covers he plays.
Final four songs:
Encore:
Pretty dang good final five songs.
So starting Friday, totally crazy 8 days:
In 8 days, 5 concerts and 2 baseball games. Goodness.
So I’ll have plenty to blog about but probably won’t be blogging a lot, probably.
I found a copy of the Rolling Stones’ Let it Bleed at the station the other day with an interesting handwritten note on it.
The note reads:
Just a reminder from your Lakewood FLA Baptist Church. Out of 1000 who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 did so while listening to rock music. Music like this.
I’m going the A’s-Twins game in a couple hours and I’m going to try to liveblog it from my sidekick. I’ll do it between innings and stuff. Check back for updates!
11:40am. we’re in the car in palo alto. there is traffic on university ave.
12:49pm. we’re in traffic around the stadium. total mess.
1:54pm. we got to the game late after having to park a while away. chavez hit a home run and a pair of doubles made it 2-0. sweet. I picked up a total fratboy a’s hat on the way in.
1:58 1-2-3 inning with a’s on d. there’s a guy dressed as a banana in the next section. I don’t know his deal. he’s yelling a lot.
2:12pm. milton bradley hits a 2 run homer. pass go and collect $200!
2:19pm. twins hit a home run and the fans yelled at the guy who caught the ball until he threw it back
2:43pm. a bit of a hiccup with 2 outs on D but no damage in the end
3:17pm. twins scored one last inning though they had three on base. a’s side went down pretty quick. this inning they took haran out.
3:21pm. twins went down quick. 6 outs left. 7th inning stretch now. singing ‘god bless america’. I’d like to point out that though it’s a patriotic song, it’s not the national anthem so no need to take off your hat and face the flag.
3:32pm. chavez came very close to hitting a 2 run homer on a 3 2 pitch with 2 outs. ended up being foul. next pitch was at his head. now the bases are loaded on an error
3:44pm. a walk with the bases loaded and then a bases clearing double!!@! mark scutero!
4:07pm. they win the series!!@!!
post game notes: this was a fun experience, a fun game to go to. The crowd was really into it. The guys with flags were there; the guys with the whistles and drums were there. As were the flags and banners. People cheering at every instant. It was cool to see a team win a series in person. I’ve been to 3 game 7’s (2 Pirates and 1 Penguins) where the team didn’t win and that’s always disappointing.
I seriously love high fiving people I don’t know. It’s great.
As Moneyball make the point, salary doesn’t necessarily determine the final standing in the league, but I wanted to see who and at what team salary made it to the playoffs.
Playoff Teams:
| record | team | playoffs | team salary (Million) | team salary rank | overall rank |
| .599 | Yankees | AL East | $198.6 | 1 | 1 |
| .599 | Mets | NL East | $100.9 | 5 | 1 |
| .593 | Twins | AL Central | $63.8 | 19 | 3 |
| .586 | Tigers | AL WC | $82.3 | 14 | 4 |
| .574 | Athletics | AL West | $62.3 | 21 | 5 |
| .543 | Padres | NL West | $69.7 | 17 | 8 |
| .543 | Dodgers | AL WC | $99.1 | 6 | 8 |
| .516 | Cardinals | NL Central | $88.4 | 11 | 13 |
Pretty interesting.
Out of the top 10 team (Yankees, Mets, Twins, Tigers, Athletics, White Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Paders, Blue Jays), four were in the bottom half of team salaries (Twins @ 19, Athletics @ 21, Padres @ 17, Blue Jays @ 16) and one was close (Tigers @ 14). While low pay doesn’t preclude one from being in the top of the majors, a high salary does appear to help keep you from the bottoms. 7 of the 10 highest paid teams were in the top 11 and all but 1 of the top top highest paid teams were in the 17.
The total unexpecteds are teams that are either at in the top ten rank and bottom ten in salary or visa versa. Turns out they’re not entirely unexpected: the Athletics were 21st in payroll but 5th in the majors. On the other side of things, the Cubs were 7th in payrol but 28th in the majors.
The most impressive performance, I must say is the Marlins who fielded a team on under $15 million and came in 20th overall. You can field a team on $15 million? That’s well less than half of the second to lowest paying team (the Devil Rays at $35 million).
John Vanderslice also did a little call in (mp3) to promote a show he’s doing on Stanford’s campus next Thursday, October 12. We ended up chatting on the air for a bit.
It’s raining right now; I can hear it on the roof. It’s supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. It was supposed to rain last night and this morning and I found myself wanting to go to bed so I could wake up sooner to see the rain—it was like Christmas in anticipation. It hasn’t rain in Menlo Park since May. This is every summer in Palo Alto/ Menlo Park: no rain, highs of 72-88 for pretty much the whole thing. I love it.
My radio show is going to be staying on at the same time, Wednesdays 10pm-midnight (Pacific time) at KZSU until at least January.
Yesterday was my housemate Mr. Dylan Stiles’ last post on Tenderbutton which has made him totally internet[1] famous[2].
I read from the beginning (literally, I think I was the first non-Dylan reader) to the end and enjoyed it thoroughly. If you’re not familiar with it or have missed some posts, it’s going to be up for only a month more (before being password protected) so check it out now.
Good work, Mr. Stiles [3]. It’s quite something you had going there.
[1] Boingboing is obsessed with ear wax? I guess so.
[2] More famousness not from tenderbutton.
[3] Yes, these explanatory notes are totally inspired by Tenderbutton’s footnote style notes (for instance).
Last night Rogue Wave hosted a benefit concert for Pat Spurgeon, their drummer, who was born with one kidney and now needs a transplat for his now-failing second kidney (the first failed in the early 90s). They are also taking donations at their website so you can donate if you have the means and feel compelled.
When I heard about this two weeks ago from Laura, I was floored by the line up: Rogue Wave, Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie,) Matthew Caws (Nada Surf,) Ryan Miller (Guster,) and John Vanderslice; it was to be mc-ed by the sometime Magnetic Field (on accordion) Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket. I like or love all of those bands and seeing them on the same bill would be incredible, I thought. It also helped that it was at the fairly intimate and cool Independent in SF.
(Incidentally, benefit concerts are awesome.)
We got to the venue right as it was starting, probably 5 minutes before Daniel came on to introduce the first band, the Wine Chuggers. They played a short set; they played some rock. It was pretty good. Next up were the Moore Brothers. Despite playing down this aspect on stage, they do sound sort of like Simon and Garfunkle. They traded off guitar playing duty and both sang, which brings me to a Rule for Rock Bands (#12): guys need an instrument on stage unless (a) they are backup singers in a soul band, (b) are Bono or Mick Jagger (and honestly, both of them look a bit silly too). It just looks stupid; you don’t know what to do with your hands and then just start doing bad dance moves. I’m sorry, that’s the truth.
I expected the bill to go in exact reverse order (Wine Chuggers, Moore Brothers, Ryan Miller, Matthew Caws, John Vanderslice, Ben Gibbard, Rogue Wave) of billing[1], so I was a bit surprised when my close personal friend [2] and nicest guy in indie rock John Vanderslice[3] came on next. He did a couple nice versions of recent songs solo acoustic (”Trance Manual”, “Angela”, “Radiant with Terror” among them). Then he brought on Ben Gibbard, who looked very English Professor with his glasses, scruffy hair and brown blazer, to play the upright piano on stage right and sing harmonies on an old mk ultra song (I think it was Letting Go). All the hipster were going crazy with the camera phones! Later he brought up 2/3 of Nada Surf (the bass player and the drummer) to act as his backing band on “Pale Horse” and finally the full Nada Surf with Matthew Caws doing harmony vocals on a song. All in all, it was an awesome set from JV.
Up next was Nada Surf whose latest, the Weight is a Gift, I’ve enjoyed a lot. Their basic set up was Matthew Caws on guitars and vocals, the drummer on a cajon box drum and the bass player on the bass (well, mostly on the smoking and drinking, but sometimes on the bass as well). They went through a good set of tunes mostly from their last album, like “Do it Again”, “Your Legs Grow” (see mixtape 1), and a really fun version of the gratuituously expletive-laden “Blankest Year.” (These guys were apparently a one hit wonder in the ’90s, but they didn’t play that song).
And then!! what all the ladies were screaming for: Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service, of course)! He started out on a borrowed guitar[4] playing a version of a Postal Service song, I think “Brand New Colony.” It’s cool to see him do PS songs live on guitar because they sound so different from the recordings. After that he moved over to the piano for a cool, slow, dark version of “Soul Meets Body” and a couple other Death Cab songs, including “Passenger Seat” Again the crazy cross-band collaborations happened with Caws helping out on a Harry Nilsson-penned Monkees number, “Cuddly Toy”. Daniel Handler came out next (insulting the “Cuddly Toy” choice of song, incidentally), to play accordion on a couple song with Ben switching back over to guitar. He finished up his set with “Title and Registration” and a folksy version of “Such Great Heights” (strummed, interestingly enough, because last time I saw him solo he basically did the Iron & Wine version, fingerpicked, even acknowledging that it was a “cover of his own song”.) I was probably about 12 feet from him during the guitar portions of his set (not to be all fan-boy about it) and I can’t imagine with the current stage of things ever having a chance to see him in such an intimate venue or at such a close distance again. I understand backlash toward Death Cab—they’re giant, by indie standards, they’ve jumped ship to a major—but Gibbard put on a thoroughly entertaining set: he was funny, good musicianship, good singing.
At this point, there were actually a bunch of people who left. I understand that Death Cab is a lot more popular than the other bands on the bill, but did you see the rest of the bill? Worth staying for, people.
I’ve talked a lot about music and before I get to Rogue Wave, I’ll talk about other stuff for a bit. There was a lot of talk of Pat’s kidney, Pat, people’s love for Pat. Gibbard referenced Woody Guthrie’s sticker that said “this machine kills facists” and suggested that all the guitars that night should have stickers that said “this machine buys kidneys.” Heck even Pat’s mom was there to talk about Pat’s story and to introduce Rogue Wave. The Small Stakes designed an awesome poster and shirt for the event with all the proceeds going to Pat. You can see the poster and buy it. I got a couple of the posters.
Finally, last up were Rogue Wave. They started out with Zach on the piano for “10:1.” After Zach switched to the guitar they then went into an interesting and not-exactly-like-the-recording cover of “I’m only Sleeping” which was good (an exception to the rule that Beatles covers are overdone and don’t add anything to the song). Around this point they talked about the bill and thanked all the other artists. They joked that they’d opened for all these bands and now they wrangled them into opening for Rogue Wave. They did a nice set of songs off of Descended like Vultures (”Love’s Lost Guarentee”, “Salesmen on the Day of a Parade”, among others) before bringing on Ryan Miller of Guster (whose “Demons” was my obsession song of October 2000) to play guitar on a freak-out jam version of “California.” They joked that he plays to a million people a night and now he was being relegated to playing with them. To finish up the night they brought up everyone that played that night (plus Dominic of Our Lady of the Highway who opened for Zach’s solo gig over the Summer) for a couple covers, the first of which was (What’s so Funny ’bout) Peace Love and Understanding). It was a indie pop style love-in there.
The crowd, I image, had to have gone home happy. An amazing bill with great sets and once-only on-stage collaborations. What more can you ask for?
[1]It all made sense, the strange order of the bill, when I realized later that Nada Surf was opening for Guster that same evening in Berkeley, so they were probably finishing up their sets and rushing over for their sets at the Independent.
[2] not actually. I do like making a big deal out of whatever affiliation I have with JV. During the last song, he saw me out in the audience and pointed out at me. After the show he said that when he saw me he thought “that’s my boy!” He also told a bunch of people around him that I was famous and that I’m rad. I can’t argue there, JV; I can’t argue there.
[3]Dug was complaining on Friday that I write too much on my blog about John Vanderslice (and someone else, I forget who). Well he’s awesome in so many ways it’s rediculous. So sorry, Dug.
[4] One of the cooler things about the show was that it was obvious that all these guys knew each other and were friends. They used each other’s instruments and joked around and gave each other hugs a lot. During the last couple songs with everyone on stage, I’m pretty sure they were having as much or more fun than the audience.
It’s time to take down the latest mix tape from public consumption.
You have one more day to grab it before it’s password protected.
maybe you believe in coincidences. maybe you don’t. maybe you ascribe them to fate or God or something.
I like coincidences. They make me like life.
Friday night I went up to the City to go to the m.ward show with Gums and Dasha. We met up for a drink beforehand at Toronado. We walked down to the Fillmore and when we got to the fillmore, I discovered m.ward had sold out the place (a place larger than Slim’s, which he half-filled last time through SF). Scalper’s wanted more than 2.5 times the face for a ticket, so I said screw that and started walking back to my car. On the way, I decided to see what people were up to in SF, since I was there anyway. I called dug, who was at the (birthday) party a girl I’d met once (at a dinner jwerberg threw when he was out here—she was the then roommate of one of jon’s former housemates, an acquaintance of mine) and he invited me. I was a bit reluctant to go, though the party was pretty close to where I’d parked. I was considering it though; after all, I had met her and, actually, another person I had randomly evited me to this party earlier in the week.
I was on the fence until about 3 minutes later when I got a call from yet another guy at the party that I knew and he handed the phone to none other than Zach Anderson, USC HS class of ‘00. Yeah, a guy I went to high school had heard dug mention me (first name and last, probably due to my relative unfamiliarity to the hostess of the party) and said that he knew me from high school. Turns out he was friends with the hostess due to them both currently being at Berkeley. That pushed me over the fence and I went to the party.
I’m glad I ran into him. It was cool catching up with him.
I’d run into another guy I knew from high school, Balaji, after a Giants-Pirates game, but that’s really not much of a coincidence, because after all both of us had a greatly increased likelihood to go to said game.
I’d say that was the second most coincidental happening in my life.
The first was as follows:
My brother and I were newspaper delivery boys back in middle school and junior high. One time my family was going on vacation so asked my friend John to deliver ours for us for that week, as he was also a delivery boy. I also happened to take piano lessons from John’s mom. Part of the piano education were these group lessons once a month or two months in which you had a lesson with people of a similar skill level and basically practiced playing in front of people. These lessons were at a different time and day from my normal lessons. So I was at John’s house at a different day and time from my normal lessons and the phone ringed. John’s mom didn’t normally pick up the phone during lessons, I think, but she did that time. Next thing I know she was handing the phone to me. It turns out that one of the people we delivered newspapers to wanted to stop her newspaper for a week while she was on vacation, so she found the flyer we sent out when John was going to be taking over for a week, with his phone number on it and had called thinking it was our number during the one hour that I was at John’s house on a different day and time than I normally was there and asked for me.
That was more of a cut and dry weird coincidence.
I was on the ray ray radio.
New show assignments go out next Tuesday. I’ll let you know if my show changes times. Big changes may be in the future. Stay tuned!
The A’s clinched the division last night after a few days of sitting at a magic number of 2, so my tickets will now be useful.
The four AL teams that are in the playoffs are the Yankees (booh!), Tigers, Twins and A’s. As I believe is the case, the A’s will have to play a Central team because they can’t play each other, so that gives us either the Tigers or the Twins. The Yankees and Tigers are tied for the best record, but we know that the Tigers can’t play the Twins, so unless something dramatically changes, I think it’s going to be Yankees-Twins, Tigers-A’s for the ALDS’s. Oakland is 4-5 for the year versus the Tigers and 4-6 against the Twins for the year, so it might actually be slightly better to get the Tigers.
Parents of Covington Elementary School students had reason to rejoice Tuesday when their prayers were answered in the form of the Los Altos City Council’s rejection of plans for a cell phone tower [inside a to-be-constructed 10ft cross] atop a church near the school.
“Their prayers were answered”? Really?
These people who are objecting to a 10ft cross and mobile phone transmitter for aesthetics and health reasons were praying that the Los Altos city council not allow it? I find that unlikely.
Lesson of the day: language is made up of words; words have meaning.
The other day, I was thinking it’d be cool to have sms alerts sent to my phone whenever the score changes in the Steelers game. I noticed that the NFL scores page has some peculiarities in their structure that would make it somewhat easy to pick out the scores.
There are people who you can pay to do this. (Or, I discovered today, there are sort of sketchy places that will do it for “free.”) But let’s say you don’t want to pay. And let’s say that you, like me:
So I wrote a perl script to do it (with some help from jesse and a lot of help from andyl). I’ve put it online here. Grab it if you want it. I ran it with a cron job which checked the score every two minutes during today’s Atlanta-New Orleans game:
[insert crappy picture of sms]
What you’ll need to do to make it work:
It emails you the team names, their scores and the time (2nd Qtr, 2:54, for example).
It worked very nearly flawless during tonight’s game. I made one change so that when the game ends it’ll sms you the score and say it’s “Final” as well as smsing all the score changes. It does send one unnecessary sms when things are resetting the first time the cron job runs. You could probably figure out how to make it not do that.
I’m just putting this code out there. Use it if you like. I’m not really in a position to offer any warranties or support on it. I’m putting this out there under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Pittsburgh friends, I can add you to my script if you want to get Steelers alerts too. Just let me know.
I did Page Mill Rd, one of the hardest hills around here, for the first time on Saturday (coincidentally so did Palo Alto Cyclist). The sort of triumvarite of hills around here are Page Mill, Old la Honda and King’s Mountain.
The hill part of Page Mill is 7.2 miles long and 2400 feet of elevation. It starts out fairly shallow, like the lower part of King’s Mountain (for about three miles). Then it hits some steep sections:
Page Mill Road (at Los Trancos parking lot 19.25%
Page Mill Road (at Moody Road) 14%
Page Mill Road (lower view area) 15.50%
Page Mill Road (long, steep section) 15.5 – 17
The long, steep section they’re talking about hits right around Gate 3 of the Foothill Park and is about half a mile of steep. It hurts a lot. Then it levels out and even goes down a little bit before the 100 or 200 yard section right before the Los Trancos parking lot. By this point my legs were pretty tired so even though it leveled out a bunch, it was still fairly strenuous.
I’ve had a pretty good riding season. I started out never having gone up Old la Honda or King’s Mountain non-stop. I set some cycling goals through the summer and I did pretty well:
My total mileage for this year (from January through now) is something like 1400 miles.
Oakland’s ALDS tickets go on sale at 9am PST on Monday (later today). I’m going to grab a few bleacher tickets for an early game and a couple nice tickets for a late series game.
They failed to clinch the division with opportunities on both Saturday and Sunday. I think they’ll pull it out in the next couple days.
[Update:] I ended up getting 4 bleacher seats in 136 for Game 1 or 3 and 2 Field Levels in section 106 for Game 5 (if necessary. Yeah, the links suck.
The steelers alternated being dominant and sucking badly in today’s 28-20 loss against the Bengals. When dug came over at the end of the first quarter, I told him the Steelers were dominating, at which point they started sucking. In the 3rd quarter they were dominating again, and then sucking in the 4th until it was do or die and they almost did.
The AP write up and the post-game quotes.
There was some stat that all x points were scored with the wind. Heinz Field is basically a nasty wind funnel on some days. I don’t know if the stat held all the way through the game, but at least the first 34 points were scored with the wind.
Willie Parker and the offensive line played really well all day and that made me pretty happy because they didn’t play great in either previous game.
It’s time for another online mix tape. This one was a bit later than I’d intended, but here it is.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an mpu file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2006sept playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one has a bunch of songs by unknown bands and a few by known great bands like Sigur Ros, Notwist and a time-appropriate one from the Mountain Goats.
Adrian’s September 2006 mix tape [zip file moved to password protected folder]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
[Update] The mpu file above doesn’t work. Jesse sent a correct and working m3u file for everyone. Right click and save as.
I wanted to make a list of my overseas/ abroad trips. We always traveled a lot because my parents are from South Africa and Germany and we have relatives in five or six countries (more now) so we were always visiting and whatnot. With my dad’s help, here it is:
The counts are, I think.
Germany: 7
South Africa: 7 (8th in January) 8 11
England: 5
Netherlands: 4
Mexico: 3
Hong Kong, China: 2
1 each: Hong Kong, China, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Italy, Greece, France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Tanzania, Indonesia, Thailand, Macau, Lesotho
Averages (per year of my life):
Countries: 1.38
New countries: 0.62 (or one every 1.6 years)
South Africa: 0.27 (or once every 3.7 years) (this will lower to once every 3.3 years in January)
Germany: 0.27 (or once every 3.7 years)
England: 0.19 (or once every 5.2 years)
*The Frauenkirche Incident as I call it. We’d toured Germany and went to famous churches in every town. By Munich, I’d had enough so I said “I’ve had enough! No more churches!” and sat down outside the Frauenkirche. Much to my surprise my parents said “Fine.” and they cycled in with my brother. I still have not been inside the Frauenkirche. It is on my to-do list.
Note: updated 13 Oct 2007.
Note: Updated 22 Jan 2008
Note: updated 1 Jul 2009.
Note: updated 26 Jan 2010
playslist from tonight.
[Update] The playlist may look a little strange; I am trying out a new radio show format: mixing indie and oldies. I traded off ~20 minute sets between sets. I’m also thinking of making the move to the morning again, particularly Friday morning. I don’t know if it’ll happen or if I’ll stay at my old slot. I’d kind of like to do a Friday AM oldie and indie rock morning show, completely with self-awaredly stupid schtick. Recorded sound effects!
As Drag City notes, Will Oldham’s Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy will be playing on Conan tonigth, September 19.
I was walking to work yesterday and passed the North Face and saw a sign up for the North Face 50 in which San Francisco resident Dean Karnazes will run 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states. He’s an amazing athlete who has won the Badwater Ultramarathon (let’s run 135 miles out of a giant valley in 120 heat—yeah that’s a good idea!), but I think this is a pretty ambitious project. It starts tomorrow.
He also has a blog about the challenge. I’ll be interested to see his progress.
I finally scanned in some photos of Jeff and Debi’s Wedding.
I also added a few of Colin to the Pgh 2006 directory. They’re from Colin’s first of two (or three?) trips to Eat N Park that day.
Screw cars, we’ll put a fire truck on the Dome. Pretty impressive hack and an interesting memorial for September 11.
One thing that I was sad I never did while at MIT was help organize/ participate in a serious hack.
Inside of Bumbershoot 2006 was Flatstock 10 a silk-screened (indie rock) poster show from dozens of artists from around the country. It was really cool and possibly one of my favorite parts of the day at Bumbershoot.
There are a lot of artists with a variety of styles. There were two sort of camps, the ones that went for the old psychadellic poster style that’s common of posters in the late 60s—bubble lettering and bright colors—and then there’s the camp that’s more into simple graphical silk screens and more standard fonts. I personally like the second style a lot, but I saw good posters in each camp at the show. I could have easily spent hundreds of dollars there.
My local (Oakland-based) favorite, the Small Stakes was there. I love Jason’s posters. They’re simple but great. He may over-use the heart in his designs but that’s pretty appropriate for that sort of indie pop that he’s designing posters for. I picked up two from him: a Jose Gonzalez one from the Swedish American Hall show that I went to (normally I would have bought it from Jason at that show, but Jason was out of town for it) and an awesome Mates of State poster that he did:
That brings my total small stakes posters up to six (one, two, three, four, five, six). What can I say? I like his stuff and I like buying posters from shows I go to (which is the case for all but one).
I also ran into a few Pittsburgh artists, which I thought was pretty cool. Budai (Michael Budai) lives in Pittsburgh and does his work for Pittsburgh shows. It was cool seeing posters for places like the Roboto Project and Garfield Art Works. I ended up buying a cool hand silkscreened/ hand drawn little character (Monocle Man, who is saying “I really think monocles should make a comeback”) from him. Really cute. He was a really nice guy and we talked about Pittsburgh for a bit.
There was also Strawberry Luna (samples) who shares a space for Budai, but she produces show posters for Philly venues. Her stuff is good too. I ended up buying an art print (”E is for Elephant”) from her.
And finally, there was the Pittsburgh–>SF transplant Lil Tuffy (myspace, view samples). His work has a pretty big range from the surreal to the psychedelic to the simple graphics. He and I talked about SF Steelers bars and he gave me a Tuffy pin which has the US X hypercycloid (aka the Steelers logo) along with ‘Tuffy’ on it.
There were other cool poster designers there, of course. Some of the big ones and some little guys who were obviously just getting their start (one guy named Zack, in particular, was particularly fresh-faced and nervous looking). I had a fun time looking around at all the stuff that was displayed. I took particular note of the above ones but I’m sure if I’d kept more careful track, I could have written about a bunch more of the designers.
Yeah, I’m a few days late on this, but on Thursday I watched the Steelers win at Zack’s in Millbrae with Mike and Dug.
Charlie Batch did pretty well. Willie Parker looked great on a few runs and the handful of screen play passes he caught.
Polamalu continues to look better and better each game he plays. This guy is incredible. His interception was really skillful, as was Porter’s. Porter kissed Cowher after that and Cowher was fine with it.
Heath Miller’s 87 yard TD reception interception was sort of funny. There was this guy at the bar that had high-fived everyone before Heath had passed the 50. Cowher thought he was fast, but it took pretty long for him to get anywhere. I mean, he had time check the jumbotron to see if the defense was gaining on him.
If I were a Dolphins fan, I might be pissed about the missed challenge on the Heath Miller touchdown, but it’s sort of laughable that the coach waited that long (~1 minute) when he was obviously out and then did a dainty underhand toss right before the snap and then just sort of pointed to it when no one saw it.
Here’s a slide show from the Post Gazette and their write up.
Judit and I made a new recipe yesterday. It is a modified version of a modified version of the Consumer Reports chocolate chip cookie recipe. My brother and I modified the original recipe years ago. Those modifications are in brackets ([]). The new modifications (for the banana walnut chocolate chip cookies) are in braces ({}). So basically, this is three recipes in one!
Mix:
Then cream with 2 sticks butter
Add:
Add slowly:
Add:
Bake 375 degrees for 9 minutes [8.5 in modified recipe]
They turned out really moist and slightly fluffy. They are really good hot and still good the day after.
Last weekend whilst in Seattle, I went to Bumbershoot (Day 2) with Paul.
Here’s who we saw:
Spoon Spoon’s one of those stalward indie bands that’s been around for a chunk of years and they have their fan base, but they’ll probably not break into the mainstream. I was curious to see them live. They put on a pleasant set but it wasn’t incredible. Good enough.
Jeremy Enigk Jeremy Enigk (ee-nik) was the front man of the proto-emo-pop band Sunny Day Real Estate. Here he was doing a set under his own name and I was a bit curious to see what his current music sounds like. He put on a nice set of songs mostly on acoustic guitar, some accompanied by a band. His vocals have this sort of strange high-pitched strain to them. It was a nice set.
[Paul lent me his digicam for the day.]
Mates of State The Mates of State are so great live. This is at least my 8th time I’ve seen them and they always put on a very entertaining show live. Paul (unlike all the rest of the shows) did not seem to be completely bored. I can honestly recommend their live show without quals. Even if they’re not amazing, they’re still really good. They did a fun medly of “Like U Crazy” with Gnarles Barkley’s “Crazy.” They did a mix of new songs and older songs—in fact I was pretty pleased with the number of their “classics” they did.
Jose Gonzalez The hands-down worst scheduling of the day was having the Mates of State overlap with Jose Gonzalez. I thought I’d still be able to make some of his set after the Mates of State, but a 32 minute set (likely because he needed to go play with Zero 7 as well) meant I only saw one song by him. I’ll have to go see him at Enchanted Broccoli Forest.
Kanye West (with Lupe ) Kanye was day 2’s headliner. I’ve liked his music recently and his two albums are the two hip hop albums I own. He had a full string section and a harpist on stage with him. He put on a pretty good set—well he did the songs I like and then there was the normal hip hop fair of misogyny and marijuana—but the sound was pretty bad (vocals too low, percussion too high). The chunks of the set I liked, I liked and the parts I didn’t, I was sort of bored.
[space needle]
I was in Sealth (or Seattle, as you may call it) for the labor day weekend. It was a good time. I saw some of them old tEppers (including ppham) and saw some of the sites and some music.
Paul made us take this picture:
Recap:
That was the weekend in short. The biggest lose of the weekend was that the Boeing Surplus Store wasn’t open on Monday. I was really hoping to go; it looks like a mech e geek’s dream.
Here’s my playlist from last night.
Sort of a pleasant last minute addition was the Light Footwork, a local indie pop band (from Palo Alto!), who came and guest DJed the first hour and change. I’d invited them on a while ago, but they only took me up on the offer yesterday. Turns out they’re fun guys (er, guy + girl). You can check out their new video, too.
As stereogum reported yesterday and pitchfork reported today, Sufjan’s coming out with a box set of his Christmas EPs (and other Christmas stuff). I’m a little of two minds about it. It’s good because I like sufjan a lot, but I also already have three of the five EPs and I’m not sure I want to shell out $$$ for a box set to complete the set. I probably will though.
dear loyal reader,
I’m really sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I had a busy week last week and I was in Seattle for the weekend. I hope to post all about my adventures soon.
Thank you for your continued support,
Adrianisrad
Last night’s playlist for your glancing.
Incidentally, if you’re on the radio or otherwise DJing at some point, do not try to follow Thom Yorke’s “Harrowdown Hill” with Jens Lekman’s “Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa.” The transition does not work and is quite jarring.
Two time co-host wicked child was back in town and he cohosted once more. It was a fun time. We are almost entirely non-sensical when we’re on the air.
(Andy, note that Band of Horses was formed out of the broken up bits of Carissa’s Weird.)
With my dad working for a coal company, I grew up around talk of mining coal veins and the like, but I was a little surprised to see this in an article about Centro-matic:
Centro-matic’s dynamic is intelligent, emotional American rock that mines some of the same veins as My Morning Jacket, Son Volt and the Drive-By Truckers.
How about that? Is that a common expression? Does your average San Jose (or other major city resident) know that coal (and other fossil remnants) is located in veins?
I always have moments like these because the linguistic hodge-podge that’s in my head: South African English, Pittsburghese, south-eastern PA dialect, geek slang. I know that 98% of what I say is understandable by the listener; it’s that last 2% that I’m never sure if it’s some specific or specialized term, phrase or way of talking that I’m not sure is in the common lexicon.
I finally was able to make a theme (wordpress 1.5) out of my old style (wordpress 1.2). So this is what the ol’ blog looked in ‘04. I don’t think all of the bugs are worked out, but it mostly works.
I don’t know if I’ll stick with this permanently, but otherwise this’ll be the “throwback theme” week here at adrianisrad.
[Update:] Yeah, comments are broken. I’m not sure what’s up…
[Update2:] Comments are fixed. Heroic!
I went to see the Red Sox play @ Oakland tonight.
Beckett pitched well, but the Papi-less, Manny-less offense just couldn’t score enough runs, losing 2-1.
Oakland moves to 7.5 ahead of the Angels in the AL West. Boston moves to 7.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East. (The BoSox are 6.5 back in the wild card race.) Doesn’t look good for the Sox.
I don’t like Oakland when they’re playing the Sox, but I must admit, they’re growing on me otherwise.
I have a bunch of friends about to leave for Burning Man so I’ll leave them with…
Five things I’ll be doing while you’re at Burning Man:
Tonight was the 826Valencia benefit show at the Palace of Fine Arts with Patton Oswalt, Zach Rogue, Mark Kozelek, Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, Jonathan Richman, and Aimee Mann.
The Palace of Fine Arts is a pretty big building. The auditorium area has very comfortable chairs in stadium-style seating and the walls are drapped in red velvet. (I’m getting that old that I’m really glad that this was a seated show.) The stage area is large and the visibility from pretty much anywhere seemed like it’d be good. The sound was excellent. That’s thanks to the sound guy, John Karr (seriously, that was his name). Thanks John!
Let’s go through the night:
Patton Oswalt: actor comedian guy. I recognized him. IMDB tells me it’s probably King of Queens (from the twoish times I’ve watched it). Turns out he’s very funny, in the offensive vein of humor, mostly.
Zach Rogue (Rogue Wave): I’ve seen him play solo before. He played a short set including “Publish my Love” and “Postage Stamp World”. He sounded great on the guitar and his vocals sounded really good too. He said a couple funny things and a few things about 826 and that was that.
Mark Kozelek: I feel pretty lucky I live in the same city (or metropolitan area) as Mark Kozelek (Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters) and that I get to see him with some frequency. This guy is amazing. His voice is just so pure and incredible and his fingerpicked guitar playing is intensely good, though my concert companions wished “he’d just strum a chord sometime!” His set included “Trucker’s Atlas”, “Rock N Roll Singer”, and “Glenn Tipton”. I could listen to him singing about killing babies and he’s probably sound good. [I do no condone killing babies.]
Dave Eggers: He just showed a video about 826. It was fine. Then he showed some slides of the work of this kid named Alex who utilizes 826NYC. These were hilarious. He’s about 7 and does this collages of things like a peanut and a gingerbread man and then scrawls “A gingerbread man and a peanut got married. Can you imagine what their kids look like?” or a picture of a robot playing a trumpet and the scrawled writing says “Robots are the new jazz man. They are not good. If you want to go to a jazz restaurant, do not go, no matter how good the food is! DO NOT GO!” I’d buy a book of these if they made one.
Intermission: Hug Dave Eggers for $20, get a “buddy punch” from Sarah Vowell for $5 (or 5 for $20! bargain!). I did not partipate in these deals.
Sarah Vowell: She did a reading of a story she wrote about her favorite explorer, a German cartographer named Charles Preuss who she read about when she was on a book tour, reading a book about explorers. Patton Oswalt provided the voice of Preuss in thick German accent. He was quite funny about it. The story was entertaining and funny. I’m saying “story” but it was more like a report or something. There were many mentions of the Oregon Trail, but no mentions or jokes associated with The Oregon Trail. I was quite disappointed. You gotta pick the low hanging fruit!
Jonathan Richman: The last time I saw him was also a benefit show (and also with Mark Kozelek). He’s still as absolutely entertaining as always. He’ll move his hips to the music while playing Spanish-influenced guitar and singing in Italian while providing running translation in English or making off-handed comments. And then he’ll do an odd stage bow (or think of it as a figure skater at the end of a routine). I had a big smile on my face the whole time. I’m not overly familiar with his music but he closed with “Not So Much to be Loved as to Love.”
Aimee Mann: She was the only one to play with someone else, Paul Brion (any relation to Jon ?) He sang back ups, played bass (which was up way too much in the mix, only sound problem of the night), and guitar. I’m not incredibly familiar with her stuff, mostly just her Magnolia work and a handfull of other songs. She played a nice set, including “Save Me” and “You Could Make a Killing.”She’s got a great voice and the way her melodies work over her guitar is something else.
I’d heard reports of collaborations (Byrne/ Stevens and Gibbard/ Roderick) at other 826 benefits and so I had my hopes up for this one, but nothing materialized. Mann/ Richman? Mann/ Kozelek? Kozelek/ Richman? I wonder what any of those would have sounded like.
All in all a very good concert. What’s with benefit shows being great shows? I want my Small Stakes poster for this one, though. (I don’t think any were actually made.)
Yesterday I did the coast loop ride out to San Gregorio (stopping at the San Gregorio General Store for lunch) via Old la Honda and Tunitas Creek Road. The full map is here. I went with Dostal and a few of his friends, including a couple guys from the Campus Bike Shop. The total ride is about 45 miles and 4200 feet of climbing.
Thoughts on the ride:
I went to see Talladega Nights with andyl at the Capitol Drive In the other night.
We had a hilarious mix up with the screens (”How come the sound doesn’t match up to the screen? [rolling down window] Excuse me, what movie is this?” “Barnyard” “Oh crap, we’re at the wrong screen”) After that we got to the right screen and everything was sorted out.
The movie was pretty funny. It was no Little Miss Sunshine, but I laughed a lot. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly were both good. This movie isn’t going to make you smarter or a better person, but it’s entertaining.
Fin.
Five albums that I own but somehow have failed to rip from CD:
Other albums that I missed ripping:
Creedence Clearwater Revival Chronicle Vol. 1
Rachel’s the Sea and the Bells
Mark Eitzel The Invisible Man
Beatles Let it Be
Matt Pond PA Green Fury
Modest Mouse This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About
Seam Headsparks
Last night’s playlist. it turned out alright.
(Andy, note the Kleenex Girl Wonder.)
(Note the appearance of the full length from Night Rally.)
Tide (with Febreze) is using the #22 great song of all time, Be My Baby, in one of their commercials. They start with the huge drums from the beginning at the beginning (as well they should) and then there’s an absolutely horrible cut to the first chorus.
The edit’s so bad it hit me like a train.
So not only does Ken Jennings have a blog (which is hilarious), but he likes the Mountain Goats and he writes about it. How cool is that!
I’m going to move mix tape 2 into a password protected folder in one day, so grab it now if you want it and haven’t gotten it yet.
If you missed it, email me (firstname @ firstnamelastname.com) and I can give you the password, location etc.
On Sunday, I bowled what was quite possibly the best bowl of as-of-yet short bowling career (at the PALBC of course). It will undoubtedly soon be called “the bowl”.
We were playing triples, so 3 per team, 3 bowls per person. I was playing vice with a very experienced bowler as my skip and a person of about my level playing playing lead. After the two leads had gone, they had 2-3 bowls clustered around the jack. My first two bowls were too wide (I “took too much grass”) and were short (”not enough weight”). Meanwhile, my opposing vice had added to the head, so there were now 4 shots closely clustered around the jack, probably within 1.5 feet of the jack with two very close in. (I’ve made an illustration below.) They were close enough that without something drastic happening, they would have ended the end with 4 points. .
It was my third and last bowl. Gordon, the skip, said “add some weight and bring it in a bit tighter” and pointed to the inside of the front left bowl indicating the path my bowl should take. I switched over to backhand and started my bowl.
Here’s what happened:
[click on the picture to get a full sized image]
Not only did I move the jack out of the head, but my bowl followed it another 8 or 10 feet out! Gordon and the other skip bowled their bowls and in the end we had 3 points instead of them having a sure 4 points. A swing of 7 points.
Order of business 1: I installed the custom query string plugin. It has enabled me to change something that has been bugging me for a while: when you go into a month archive, or a category, or submit a search, it’ll show you all things that fit that instead of just the first 10.
It’ll make older posts easier to find. I’m not sure if anyone but me actually tries to find old posts, but there it is.
Order of business 2: I’m more or less sick of this theme. I like bit on the left side and the dates but the top is bad and most of the text formatting is bad. I’m going to look for new Wordpress themes and see what I can find.
Order of business 3: I think I also need to update to Wordpress 2.0 on this bad boy.
So I made some decisions and made some donations. I checked all the charities out on charitynavigator.org beforehand to make sure my money was going to the right places.
Here’s the breakdown of charities and portions of total money that I gave:
I don’t think any of these are perfect, but they all do good work. Thanks for the suggestions earlier. In the running for next time are Catholic Charities CYO, Archdiocese of San Francisco, Compassion International, and Worldvision.
note: Those of you who know me probably realize that I’m not writing about this because I want to draw attention to myself or anything like that. I’m not (or I hope I’m not). Perhaps you will see this and think about charities if you have the means.
note 2: It’s nearing my birthday and I’m thinking it might be a good tradition to give to charities every year around this time.
Currently two different network stations (the Fox-affliliate and the CBS-affiliate) are showing two entirely different versions (different shots, different commentators) of the SF Giants v Oakland Raiders game, in which two dreadful teams try not to embarrass themselves.
[Update:] Of course I mean the 49ers v Raiders. Also, they’re replaying the entire game on a third distinct station.
[Another Update:] Seriously, what’s the deal with this game? It’s being replayed on a fourth station.
I was thinking earlier today that I don’t give enough money to charity. So what are good charities?
I was thinking of splitting it 3 or 4 ways:
Any suggestions? Favorite charities? Who efficiently does good work helping people less fortunate?
If you haven’t heard this story, there were three fishermen from Mexico that were found 5000-some miles from their town after drifting at sea for 11 months. It’s pretty incredible.
I used to post my playlists almost every week. Did people like that or not? Yay or nay?
“You rock!” may be an appropriate thing to yell between songs at an indie rock concert. Here are some things that may not be appropriate to yell:
1 drink (sip) if:
2 drinks if:
3 drinks if:
Am I missing any here?
It is mid-August 2006 and as such, it’s time for another online mix tape.
You can download the zip file with the following:
1. mp3s of the songs
2. liner notes
3. playlist files (iTunes txt file and an mpu file)
(for the iTunes file, simply import all the songs to your library and then go to file->import and then select the song list. you should now have the 2006august playlist in your iTunes with all the songs in the correct order).
If you want to read the liner notes before downloading the whole thing, they’re here. This one has ditties by the Decemberists, David Bazan, the Long Winters, Danielson and many more!
Adrian’s August 2006 mix tape [zip file] [moved to password-protected folder]
This’ll be up for a limited time (~1 week) before being moved to a password protected folder.
If you like the artists or songs, I suggest supporting them by buying their music, going to a show, buying merchandise from them or at least telling other people about them.
I saw Little Miss Sunshine last night at the Aquarius.
Let’s see, it’s a movie about a disfunctional family with parents that argue, a profanity-loving grandpa, a son that has taken a vow of silence, a suicide-attempting uncle and most importantly a beauty-pagent entering but somewhat plain daughter who all have to pile in a van together so that the daughter can enter the Little Miss Sunshine contest. It’s a roadtrip movie; it’s a family movie.
It’s also one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. I laughed out loud so much and so loud. It also manages to have it’s heartfelt and touching moments. The writing, directing and acting are all very good.
(And any movie that accompanies a road trip in a van with a Sufjan song about a road trip in a van gets my vote.)
I highly recommend this movie.
[Update:: I had a few more thoughts on this movie. It's pretty amazing in its realness. Let me state this right: this movie has a contrived plot and is a farce, but within that the emotions and even many of the choices the characters make are real and true to those characters. Believablity within a farcicle shell.]
I rode my bike to the Golden Gate Park in the City today. It was a pretty good ride.
Here’s the route I took:
CaÑada road to 92.
92 briefly to Skyline
after the bridge over the San Mateo creek, I went onto the Sawyer Camp Trail
Sawyer Camp ends and pushes you under the 280. Left on the next road and then left under 280 at the first opportunity.
Back onto the trail until it ends, spitting you out on skyline/ 35.
35 [1] to the Great American Highway[2].
the Great American Highway takes you to the left (west) edge of Golden Gate Park.
[1] The part on 35 was the scariest. It’s a freeway for a short period with a medium-sized shoulder and a speed limit of 50 so lots of fast moving cars. This also has the steepest sections of the ride.
[2] There’s a path on the side of the Great American Highway that I’d recommennd. The road’s rough there.
It totaled 37.44 miles according to my bike computer.
If you haven’t seen them there are some funny or awesome videos floating around.
The band Ok Go managed to make one of the most entertaining videos (QT WMV) I’ve seen recently simply with a few rented treadmills and a borrowed video camera. That is some serious choreography. They also choreographed a back yard dance routine for one of their other videos (QT WMV). It’s not quite as entertaining, but it’s still fun.
Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager has a title that speaks for itself.
The “Chinese Backstreet Boys” are a couple Chinese college students who record video of themselves while animatedly singing along to Backstreet Boys songs. I Want It That Way is pretty great while As Long As You Love Me is more for completists.
Nikon announced the D80 earlier this week. It looks pretty good. One of my Nikon bodies (the N8008s) quit stopping down the aperature on the lens a couple weeks ago, so it’s darn near unusable at this point (and I’d spend more money repairing it as I spent on the camera to begin with) and I’m thinking of moving to a Nikon digital fairly soon.
I’ve also just about never heard a bad thing from a D200 owner so that is in the running as well.
Both of them are serious $$$, especially after already purchasing a Macbook and various trips I’ve taken this year.
Just a teaser here: Online Mixtape vol. 2 (August 2006) is coming up on Sunday night or Monday sometime. I’m in the test-listen stage. There’s one rough spot I want to iron out still, but it’s mostly ready. Then the liner notes and playlist (iTunes, mpu) files.
note: as far as I can tell the East River isn’t a river.
just letting you know.
oh, it’s not really the Hudson river by manhattan either.
perhaps you should rally to change the maps.
Normally I drink diet dr. pepper. It’s borderline good. It’s not regular dr. pepper but it’s pretty good still.
I tried coke zero last week. It’s drinkable. It’s better than diet coke with splenda.
Yesterday I bought a bottle of diet berry and cream dr. pepper because they were out of diet dr. pepper. It’s just weird. I’d recommend against it.
[note 1: I've been toying with the idea of writing a memoir of my time at MIT. I'm going to start posting some stories here as sort of a test bed. I don't have a writing voice, much like I don't have a singing voice, but I hope to find one.]
[note 2: What follows is, admittedly, a bit creepy, but it is not stalking nor was it ill-received by the parties involved.]
It was the Fall of 2001 and I was freshly a junior. A number of my friends had left MIT to live in and go to the other Cambridge across the pond. September 11 obviously hung heavily over that semester. I was taking a class in world music with the incredible George Ruckert along with the normal engineering classes and an incredibly hard German class (”Read this scene and memorize this speach from Faust by Thursday…”) with a woman named Dagmar which I eventually dropped after a month of struggle. I was living in 52 with Jesse which has a whole host of separate stories associated with it, but for now I’ll recount the story of the Lia Incident.
(more…)
So I saw George Lucas before, but this really takes the cake for celebrity sightings.
I was just finishing up my Wednesday night bowls at the Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club and who walks in but Steve Jobs. He sat and talked with another guy while watching the bowl for about 25 minutes and then got up and left. He pretty much kept to himself but talked to a couple members when they approached him.
The crappiest picture ever of him leaving (he’s the one in black):
I like this hat ($12, street vendor, the Strip District). I like this shirt ($0.99, Mission Thrift Store, the Mission).
I’ve been posting a lot of pictures of me recently. I’ll get back to substantive posts eventually. Maybe.
Here are some tickets I’ve purchased or obtained for the upcoming period of time:
Concerts I might get tickets for or go to:
Part of Jeff’s bachelor party was going to the Pirates game on Thursday. It was a close game and a good one, with the Pirates winning in the end.
Here’s a a good recap of the game.
Also PNC Park is awesome. They even have Primanti’s and a pierogi race. It’d be a truly sad moment if the team moved.
I was entertained in NYC.
Rye Playland. I went to one of two parks listed in the National Registry of Historic Places on Tuesday. It’s a great old park. It has a few newer rides including one of those vomit-inducing spin-you-around-while-already-spinning you-around-in-a-different-axis rides (I believe my quote to my ride companion liz was “it’ll be a bonding moment when we puke on each other”—yeah, I’m gross), but most of the rides are classic older ones, including the Whip, the Swing, the (Mind) Scrambler, the Derby Racer (wow! 25mph on a carousel-like ride) and a great old carousel. It’s pretty similar to Kennywood in a lot of ways, but smaller. It’s an extremely photogenic park, with a main promenade and a common color scheme throughout. I hope some of my photos from the park turn out. I recommend this park if you’re into classic amusement parks.
Conan O’Brien taping. Despite waiting in lines for approximately the same amount of time that the show filmed, I enjoyed this quite a bit. I laughed a bunch (a chunk of which was during the audience warm up by Brian McCann). The theater is a lot smaller than I thought it’d be. As has been observed by others, seeing a taping does ruin a little bit of magic, though for years I’ve realized that the interview portion of the show had prompted questions and Conan doesn’t do a great job of hiding it. It was still funny and fun to watch.
Jens Lekman at Soundfix Records. We headed off to hipster-central, Williamsburg, Brooklyn to see Jens Lekman play an in-store at Soundfix Records. We had some pizza at a place down the street from Soundfix which was mostly not noteworthy except for Jens Lekman sitting in the catty-corner booth. I wished him a good show as he was leaving. The show space was in a separate room from the actual store part of Soundfix and when we got there it was packed and really hot. This was during the heat wave so the outside temperature was probably still in the 90s and the temperature in the room was probably between 115 and 125. It was like a (swedish) sauna. I wasn’t surprised that it was packed—it was a hipster band in a hipster locale; only later I realized that the last NYC Sleater Kinney show (and the fourth-to-last S-K show ever) was the same night; that’s why brooklynvegan, hipster extraordinaire didn’t fill us in with pictures from Jens, I guess. After we realized that one could stand outside, in the relatively cool air, and still hear the show fine, it was a pretty enjoyable, but rather short, show. I like Jens a lot. Afterwards I bought a couple CDs at Sounfix (the Wrens, Kelley Stoltz, Masters of the Autoharp) and we headed back.
I ate some food in NYC.
Grimaldi’s Pizza on Old Fulton* in Brooklyn. This is some seriously good pizza. Not-too-greasy and thin crusted, it tastes like it was made with care. Recommended.
Hallo Berlin on 10 Ave. Great German restaurant. Good food (brats, other sausage, potato pancakes) and good German beers (Kostritzer!). The only damper was they were out of Spätzle (which, I’d like to remind everyone, is from Schwaben). Highly recommended.
Katz’s deli on Houston**. The giant pastrami sandwhich is giant and delicious (if a bit overpriced). It’s the best pastrami sandwhich I’ve had. So succulent and juicy.
Nathan’s and funnel cake at Rye Playland. Nathans? I’m unimpressed. Funnel cake, on the other hand, is just about the best food ever invented. My hat off to the Pennsylvania Germans.
*Funny story: I went to Grimaldi’s on Old Fulton and then walked back to the subway station with Paul, my coworker. Right outside the subway station, a girl approaches us and asks me if I know where Old Fulton Rd. is. Well, there are about 1 million streets in NYC and I get asked about the only one I know! I felt pretty great! I told her “down here and then take a left at the bottom.”
**It was Sam Hyuston, wasn’t it? Then why is it Howston St.? New Yorkers, you need to get this straight.
I was a bit of a tourist in NYC.
Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Empire State Building require standing in security lines. The Brooklyn Bridge is monitored. This is a different age we live in.
The Bridge was pretty cool to walk across. I like that the walkway is suspended and in the middle of the bridge. It’s a cool thing to do, to walk across it. The east to west direction perhaps has better views, probably.
The Met is cool pretty much only in that it has a collection of baseball cards and it has Washington Crossing the Delaware (which is oft imitated by me).
The Guggenheim seems to be cool but I was unimpressed by Zaha Hadid’s work, which is the main exhibit currently.
The Cooper-Hewitt is the national design museum. It had paintings (about travel and tourism). Paintings are not design. Graphic design is design. Product design is design. Paintings are not design. I think I need to write a letter.
The Moma was cool. I liked the third floor (I guess) a lot: architecture, design and photography. The design section had what was supposed to be in the Cooper-Hewitt: lots of neat product design. The photography exhibit was great too.
Claude Debussey?
Isn’t that some relation to Jerome Bettis?
harharharharharharharharharharh
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday [are you ready for it?]:
Man, who invented open cell polyurethane foam? All the best souvenirs are made of it.
For instance: I got a foam Statue of Liberty crown after I went there on Monday:
And I got a sweet foam finger at the Pirates game the other day:
These are all the souvenirs I got for a three city east coast tour:
This city that I’m in, it is crazy. It is tall unlike any other city I’ve spent reasonable amounts of time in. Even London, another massive city, is unlike this in shear tallness.
But there are some cool parts. I’m trying not to judge this based on previous experiences and this one day, but I feel sort of like it’s a city that has cool stuff that I’ll never love.
Maybe. It’s hard to tell.
I had a pretty fantastic dinner at Hallo Berlin with jwerberg, perlick, liz, mim, and qwdigbo. It was a great time and the restaurant was a good choice (thanks to jdawg on that one).
I don’t have a lot of time now and I don’t know if I’ll post a full write-up later. I have a hectic week coming up.
AND! I don’t know if I’ll write a full blog entry about the Chadwick-Amrhein wedding, but it was, well, incredible. If my wedding is half as much fun, I’ll be a big winner.
I’m on the east coast for a couple weddings so I probably won’t be posting much until next Sunday.
Have a nice center-of-the-summer week.
So I completed a year of Spanish at the prestigious Palo Alto Adult School and I’ve learned some stuff. I’m totally like
me llamo Adrian. soy ingeniero mecanica. soy de Pittsburgh.
like boom!
but yeah, I don’t know if I’m going to continue on to the second year, but I’d like to continue learning. do any of you have recommendations for spanish learning CD sets that I could use to learn more Spanish?
Two to 4 CD sets would be good. I have a 14 CD Berlitz set for German and that’s a bit too much.
Also, if you’ve had good experiences with a series of language CDs but not the Spanish one, let me know; the same series might have a Spanish one.
I’m pretty sure I’ve written about Phoning It In on WMBR before. It’s a radio show where the host gets bands and artists to call in and play a mini set over the phone which is then broadcast over the air. He’s had some great guests.
Two that I enjoyed recent were:
The same guy ran the show at BSR before that. My favorite of those shows is John Vanderslice who gets interrupted mid-song by some one coming into his apartment, only to take up right where he left off when the person leaves.
Patbird and I saw the Rex Stockings beat the A’s last night, 7-3. It was a good game and a nice time.
There were three home runs by some big guys: Ortiz, Manny and a bomb from Nick Swisher. As always with BoSox v A’s games out here, there were a ton of Sox fans there; to the point where one could hear chants for both teams at the same time.
I also learned yesterday that Oakland has closed the upper deck for the season, reducing the seating capacity to 35,077, which was almost reached by the 33,370 in attendence last night.
I’m going to move Online Mix Tape, Vol 1 into a password-protected folder tomorrow, so you have one more day to download it. Get it now while you can!
If you’ve missed it, feel free to email me [first name @ domain.com] and I’ll let you know what the username and password are.
received earlier today
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:44:23 +0200
From: beer <beerchant @xxx.xxx>
To: xxxxxxx@xxx.xxx
Subject: Pay attention to this stock,
it will most likely return the investment increased., New and hot
Normally I trust beer; beer has rarely steered me wrong, but I also know it doesn’t know a lot about stocks, so I think I’m going to give this one a skip.
from Aquarius:
from Amoeba:
saw zach rogue at rickshaw stop STOP second trip to rs STOP jens lekmen previously STOP
zr acoustic and without band rogue wave STOP new and old songs STOP enjoyed both STOP intersong space filled with awkward humor STOP zr has singular gift at melody STOP
old telegraph style played out STOP any of you ever received a telegram?
Did anyone else watch Floyd Landis today?
They’re calling it the greatest single day in Tour history. Landis, down by over 8 minutes to the leader attacked early and rode alone for most of the stage to come within 30 seconds of the lead. At one point he reeled in a group that was 10 minutes out. Incredible!
The other day I finished King Dork by Frank Portman, (former) front man of the band, The Mr. T Experience who I remember coming through Pittsburgh a few times in my youth.
It’s a “young adult” novel, which is a genre that I don’t delve into often*. Tom Henderson is the main character. He’s a dork, surprise, who is well outside of the “normal” clique in his high school. He has one friend, Sam Hellerman, who he’s friends with largely becauses of alphabetical ordering. They’re in a band together. In fact, they’re in many bands together. Tom maps out his school year so far, in fact, by what their band was named at the time. They have lots of trouble finding a drummer (which I might relate to—my high school band, Where’s Luke?, got its name from our missing drummer). Tom gets harassed daily by the alpha males of the school. He has a bit of a disfunctional family, with a step-father that he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with, a mother that’s still disturbed by Tom’s father’s death some six years in the past. The book finds him struggling with the bullies at the school, his family, Sam’s new friends, his first experiences with girls, and mysterious notes left in some of his father’s books from his childhood.
It was a quick read and I liked it a lot. I related to Tom in some ways. I liked that it was sort of like taking an normal YA novel and jamming in a little bit of music geekery. And it was a good and interesting story. I found myself wanting to find out what happened next. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it was worthwhile.
* The last YA novel that I read was The Perks of Being a Wallflower (in a day back in the spring of 2003) which was written by a guy that went to my high school. I related to it for my similarities to the main character but also because of the connection to my high school, which was pretty subtle, small references to teachers I had and phrases we used. One of the acknowledgements at the beginnig of the book was of a person I used to play ultimate with. The main characters of King and Perks come down on polar opposite sites of whether Catcher in the Rye is a good book or not.
I think the Coudal Partners’ Field Tested Books Series is pretty interesting so I thought I’d try one of my own.
Roald Dahl’s Omnibus field tested by yours truly at Schloss Emlau, outside of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany. Early August 1995.
I was in Germany with my second cousins and their parents (my dad’s cousin, her husband and children), the Fuesers. I’d just finished 8th grade and was going to be starting high school in about a month. The Fuesers lived in Solingen near Koeln and Duesseldorf and the like. It was my first trip far away from my immediate family (I’d gone to London and Amsterdam with my brother the previous year) and my German was spotty from three years of slow and substandard German education. Part of the reason to go, I think, was to improve my German. I was nervous and shy about my German skills. I’d think for ten minutes about how to ask someone to pass the chocolates only to have them offer before I asked. Eventually I gave up trying and that turned into a refusal as the trip went along. The Fuesers all spoke English fairly well—they spoke English better than I spoke German certaintly—but it was obvious my refusal to speak German was a strain on them.
After about two weeks in Solingen, we left for the south of Germany, for Schloss Emlau, more of a nice hotel than a castle (Schloss = castle, palace). It was perhaps sometime during the car trip, or perhaps only after I arrived at the Schloss Elmau that I started Omnibus. Most people know Roald Dahl for his children’s stories, but the Omnibus included many of his short stories, including those that he contributed to Playboy. I was no longer a kid and I was reading “adult” stories.
There was a dance in the grand ballroom at Schloss Elmau. I didn’t want to dance. (I wasn’t much of a rebelious teenager, but I say that this German trip landed smack dab in the middle of my three months of rebelion.) Instead, I would go up to the balcony overlooking the ballroom, dressed up in my flannel greys and shirt and tie (because, my aunt decided doggoneit, even if I wasn’t going to dance, I had to be dressed in case I changed my mind) and read the story about a family feeding their weak baby royal jelly only to see it start turning into a bee. Roald Dahl has a way with characters and stories. They’re not subtle or overly complex, but they’re good.
I’d also read at night. My bed was across the room from the son’s, Justus’, and I’d read with the light on while he was asleep. My innocent fourteen year mind absolutely exploded a story about two buddies trading wifes (without their knowledge) for a night. This story is quite possibly less graphic than what ones sees on prime time TV and definitely less graphic than what one sees in any R-rated movie, but my young mind was sent reeling and I had to contend with a funny feeling in my pajama pants.
I read it quite quickly. It was good and I was lonely. All my communications were strained so I withdrew.
On the last day at Schloss Elmau, I made a concession: I went to a class to learn the Schloss Elmau dance with the daughter, Olga, and we danced it at the dance that night in the ballroom. I’d learned all the steps well but it went into a freeform waltz portion at the end, during which I repeatedly stepped on Olga’s feet. We decided to sit down instead of dance that part.
but “my words like silent raindrops fell“?
Come on, Paul, I can write lyrics like that: “I’m all alone like a lonely tree.” ta-da! or really “I all alone like a lonely tree am.”
Reminds me a bit of the bad metaphors contest, my favorites of which are the simple ones:
10 Unintentially funny domain names
sample:
A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com
I bet they did not mean that!
I’m pretty excited about this. I’ve decided to make an online mix tape and post it here for all of you guys. I want to do this monthly, but I’m not sure on that frequently.
They’ll be 60-76 minutes long so you can burn them onto a CD if you want.
They’ll always have a zip file with the following:
*With the song list you should be able to import all the mp3s to iTunes and then say “import” and select the song list and it’ll come up as a playlist with all the mp3 in order. Let’s cross our fingers that this works.
I have also made a new category for online mixtapes so you can find all of these easily.
Lastly, these will be up for a limited amount of time (after which I will probably move them into a password protected directory) so get them now. If you missed one, email me (firstname@thisdomain) and I’ll give you the password, etc.
So that’s the concept. I wouldn’t just announce this and leave you dry, so here it is, mixtape Vol. 1.
Adrian’s July 2006 mixtape (zip file) [file moved to password protected folder]
If you want to check out the liner notes(pdf) before you download, go ahead. This one has some great new songs and good older ones too, by Laura Veirs, Beirut, Jose Gonzalez, the Soft Drugs and more. It totals 66 minutes of music.
One more thing: these are for evaluation purposes. I strongly encourage you to support these artists with your dollars. Buy CDs, go to shows, etc.
[Update:] Thanks to Jesse for making an mpu playlist file for all you non-iTuners.
[Another update:] I’ll welcome any feedback on the mixtape that you want to give. Except from you, Dug. I don’t care about what you have to say. [ZING]
I was thinking of ordering a bunch of black hoodies and hand silk-screen YINZER in block letters across the front, probably in a collegiate sort of font, in gold.
I was thinking of making these so they’d be ready in time for the start of the Steeler’s season. Good idea? Would you buy one? They’d probably be ~$20 each and I’d want a few people to commit before I ordered any sweat shirts and make the silk screen.
I got “tagged” by judit so I guess I’ll do this…
(Incidentally, I don’t like calling these things memes. I think it’s a misappropriation of the term. I once saw a talk (I think that wally might have been there as well) about the Superman Meme by one of the writers. That is actually a meme.)
8 facts/ things/ habits about myself:
I’m not tagging anyone. Go ahead and continue it if you’d like.
Likely to not be of interest to many, but…
Touch and Go Records is having their 25th Anniversary Celebration. All the online peoples (for instance) are having themselves a fit because Steve Albini’s band Big Black will be playing and they just skim by other bands, including the underrecognized Seam (which doesn’t even have a wikipedia page). Seam hasn’t played in a while and might as well be broken up.
The T&G celebration includes a bunch of great acts, in addition to that, including Ted Leo, Black Heart Procession, Pinback, Man…or Astroman?, Shellac, Calexico, etc.
It’s pretty cheap too ($35 for the weekend). Maybe I should fly to Chicago.
I say this without fear of exaggeration: I am quite possibly the smartest person on the planet.
I say this because I invented the FlufferPretzeler.
You take the already delicious Fluffernutter sandwhich, with Marshmellow Fluff and peanut butter, and you add pretzels to the mix, right between the fluff and the peanut butter.
Both the flavor and the texture are now explosive! Delicious!
This week I read Goat by Brad Land. (Here’s a review/ plot summary.)
It’s a memoir about Brad as a college student that gets abducted, beat up and has his car stolen. He’s pretty traumatized by the event.
A year later he joins his brother at Clemson, where the brother’s joined a fraternity. Brad decides to join the same fraternity. The hazing that follows gets to him and gets mixed up in his head with his previously trauma and he starts having nightmares every night and shaking constantly.
It’s a fast read and well-written. I was (technically) in a fraternity but even by MIT standards it was a bit of an outlier. By the time I was a senior I still hadn’t ever seen a keg in real life and we were more likely to have a discussion about LEDs or carbon nano tubes than getting drunk or getting lucky. And people didn’t even memorize our frat’s poems or history, let alone go through any more serious hazing. I knew this sort of thing went on and probably still goes on, but the details, the specifics were shocking.
All in all, it was pretty unsettling.
It also made me want to write a memoir of my college years. I’ve been thinking about this since about my sophomore year. I think it could be a good story.
I am the coiner of new phrases (I’m still a bit disappointed that nowtro hasn’t caught on).
Now a new phrase to put in your slang dictionaries: geek crush.
Sort of like a man crush but the platonic admiration is based soley on intelligence and geek accomplishments. Like when I was going to host Leonard Susskind on my radio show I kept blabbering on about him because I have a geek crush on him.
Commence usage!
Colin pointed the Album-a-Day project. It looks pretty cool. I remember Jesse and I were going record an album in a weekend once. That never happened.
see also: the covers contest
there was star wars-themed mr. potatohead called darth tater!!@
no, it’s not arthur (though colin “arthur ashe” would be good). hmm… Alasdair?
the blogging family, that is.
This morning, I finished Bob Dylan’s autobiographical Chronicles, Vol. 1.
It’s not your average autobiography by any stretch. It just arounds to a few different periods of his life and focuses on those. Those periods include when he first moved to Minneapolis and later New York and hadn’t been signed yet, a period shortly after his motorcycle crash in the last 60s and a period at the end of the 80s when he was recording Oh Mercy with Daniel Lanois.
He just between these, giving little reference to time and intervening facts. If you don’t know some of the Bob Dylan story going in, you’d probably get lost in these jumps. Reading the Dylan wikipedia entry would serve you well.
Even in these little parts that he focuses on, he doesn’t provide the reader with the facts and chronology as much as he provides his thoughts on what was happening.
It’s a funny biography. The reader goes in and comes out of it the same in many ways; he doesn’t give the Chronology of many events, he doesn’t talk about writing or recording his most famous albums; he doesn’t talk of his stint (or permanent change to?) christianity; he doesn’t talk about going electric; he doesn’t talk about “Blowin in the Wind”, “The Times, They are a-Changin’”, or “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
It is nearly three hundred pages long, so he does talk about something though. He somewhat extensively talks about the folk scene in NYC in the early 60s. He also talks extensively about his early influences, including, of course, Woody Guthrie.
He also writes quite a few pages about a new guitar playing style he developed in the late 80s and early 90s. Not so interesting.
In the way he writes the book and in various passages in the book, it seems clear to me: Dylan doesn’t want to be what people want him to be. He doesn’t want to be the Voice of a Generation and he doesn’t want to write about “Blowin’ in the Wind” or going electric.
All of that being said, for the most part, he writes interestingly and he really shows the hunger of his young self. Just don’t expect him to tell you all his little secrets.
Next up: perhaps King Dork by Frank Portman.
Last night I watched Being There and tonight I saw Wordplay.
Being There is an odd movie. I saw it a lot of years ago with my parents and for some reason was reminded about it recently. A simple-minded gardener who’s never left his employer’s house has to leave after the employer dies. After an accident he is taken into a house of wealthy family. Pretty soon, his slow way of speaking and talk of gardening are taken as great signs of wisdom deep metaphors. Pretty soon he’s on national TV.
It’s a pretty funny and clever movie. I was pretty entertained by it.
Wordplay is another weird-word competition documentaries, in lines with Spellpound (spelling bee) and Word Wars (scrabble). Wordplay is about cross word puzzles and cross word puzzlers. It not only covers the national competition but the history and famous cross worders (like Jon Steward, Clinton, etc.). It was an entertaining movie. I’d put it at better than Word Wars but not as good as Spellbound (but Spellbound’s pretty high on my list).
An additional note is that I’m pretty sure I saw 1.5 seconds of Dan Katz in Wordplay.
I scanned some photos tonight and put them in my gallery. Particularly, I scanned some older photos from Boston, some baseball shots, my last trip to Mexico, and local ghost town.
I’ve also started to post some photos on godhatesmath again.
You may have noticed that this site was down earlier today. That’s because the registration on adrianbischoff.com expired and I’d forgotten to renew it. OOPS!
All taken care of now, though.
But seriously, did you miss me?
I generally avoid writing about religion or politics, though I have a half-written post from months ago on exactly this topic. What brought it up this time is Barak Obama’s keynote speach at the “Call to Renewal” conference. It’s the sort of topic that could alienate people on both sides, but the speach is well-written and I think it walks the line pretty well. I admire someone that’s willing to put his thoughts out there like that, though. I’d recommend reading it all the way through.
(Incidentally, Call to Renewal is run by Jim Wallis, who wrote this book, which looks like it might be interesting.)
Now to go back to being apathetic about politics.
I like Neutral Milk Hotel a lot, but this might be a little rediculous.
There was a post on an Elephant 6 message board, apparently from Jeff Mangum, in which he talks about having new songs and thinking about recording them.
You Ain’t No Picasso picked it up, followed by Brooklyn Vegan, followed by Pitchfork and the previously reputable Billboard. No one actually knows if it’s even him, but everyone’s aflutter!
[Update: and Billboard retracts]
My friend Andy emailed me today:
You probably already knew this, but Ken Jennings blogs? And he’s a good writer!@
I know that you’re obsessively weird about him, but I thought I’d let
you know, in the off-chance you didn’t.
[links added by me]
Thanks, I didn’t know, Andy! Agreed on the good writing part. I like the post about the giant foam version of his head that he got. Good stuff.
I ran across this amusing spanish-language world cup coke commercial. Basically, it’s a bunch of adversaries whose boundaries are broken down when their common team scores a goal. My favorite part is when the hippie and the soap hug.
Walter pointed me to Matthew’s Celebrity Pixies Tribute. It’s a bunch of Pixies recorded in the style of, and with imitated production values of, various famous singers and bands.
It’s pretty interesting stuff and it’s a very impressive effort by whoever this Matthew guy is.
My favorite is:
Monkey Gone to Heaven as prefrormed by Frank Sinatra
also:
me – old glasses – beard + new glasses + stubble + 1940 Pirates Road Hat =
[Update: for reference, this is the previously bearded, new glasses me:
]
Along with my new computer, I also got a new Ipod, the 60GB video version. The old one was on its last legs battery wise and was lacking in capacity big-time.
I got a case along with it: the Contour Design Showcase. It’s pretty fantastic. Comolded rubber and a clear plastic, probably acryllic keep it looking pretty slick and it’s not too big. It also looks like it’ll absorb a shock too.
[yup, Contour has better pics than I do]
[The new ipod's name is The Proud Tenant of Brand New Manitoba]
My new bedside companion:
Specs: 2.0GHz Macbook 13″ with 2GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, DVD-r/CD-r.
I saw Syriana the other night.
It’s a complex, multi-threaded plot about oil and the Middle East. You can read more at the wikipedia article linked above.
It’s got an ensemble cast and some great performances, including, of course, George Clooney as a CIA agent. It’s interesting.
But before we get to far, I’m just going to put this out there: complex doesn’t necessarily mean good. There are complex, multi-threaded movies that are good, amazing even, like Magnolia. But let’s not get confused with what makes a movie good. Engaging and compelling movies are good or great movies.
That said, this movie is good. It’s entertaining but I never found it fully engaging.
The other day I was surprised to find out that no only has Rick Sebak put some of his programs on DVD, but that Netflix carries some of them. Rick has made documentaries for many years. Originally they were all for WQED, one of Pittsburgh’s PBS affiliates (now it’s only PBS affiliate) and they were about Pittsburgh. A program about downtown Pittsburgh; another about the churches and places of worship in Pittsburgh (just about always shown on Christmas and Easter), another about the renowned Kennywood; a couple about things that used to be around and one specifically about things that are still there. I watched all of them, taped most of them off of TV during one of their pledge drives. When I first moved to the city they were a way to get into the culture pretty quickly. Later I just loved watching them. I remember when I first heard that he was going to do national programs and I was happy. Now I pop on the TV occasionally to see “Sandwhiches that you will Love” or the one about roadside attractions. They’re infectious. I want to go to the places that Rick shows and talk to the people he talks to.
I haven’t seen some of the newer programs, both the national ones and the Pittsburgh ones. I put Things We’ve Made into my queue and watched it on Friday.
This movie is probably mostly of interest to Pittsburghers or ex-Pittsburghs, but there is quite a lot of manufacturing processes shown, so geeky mechanical engineers or the like might also like it. One of the coolest parts is when they’re showing the Glenshaw Glass Company plant in which they made millions (billions) of beer bottles and how the machines cut up the molten glass into measured blobs and then pushed it into molds and out popped a bottle.
There’s still steel made in the Pittsburgh area—they visited the Clairton US Steel plant. I’d love to go there and take photographs. There’s this one shot in the movie where they’re in a semi-open area and there are these two giant cauldrons of molten steel being poured out and in the background there are the machine operators and a sign saying “House of Pain.” My goodness that could be an amazing photograph.
There were also quirky little things in there, like when they’re talking about All-Clad which is made in Canonsburg, really close to where I grew up and they’re talking about taking some of the new products to this restaurant and this chef to test. Well, that place, the Classroom in McMurray, is where I took my first girlfriend before the Homecoming dance and where my family at dinner on New Year’s Eve, 1999. I realize it’s just a local Pittsburgh movie, but given that it’s a movie out on DVD and that I got from Netflix it has enough separation that it seems weird to see this place on the screen.
6:58am: roll out of bed. crickeys, it’s early. some days I really think I’m crazy.
7:00am: game starts
7:01am: I don’t understand just about anything these announcers are saying. Oh they just said “Estados Unidos.” That’s “United States.”
7:02am: The TV/Cable signal is choppy. I hope this doesn’t continue. A header gets the ball in the air right in front of the Ghana goal but nothing happens.
7:05am: One of the Ghana guys just got a yellow card for a tackle-from-behind of Reyna.
7:07am: Lewis on the Estados Unidos team just got a yellow card for what appears to be an unintentional handball. Man, I wish I understood what they’re saying.
7:09am: Oh man, they’re giving this Ghana guy a free kick after he totally took a dive. The replay is of him running flat into a US player and then falling over. Kasey Keller’s looks like a champ in goal. Luckily the ball goes wide and he doesn’t need to be a champ.
7:11am: Ghana drives toward the goal but get called for an offsides. I think I finally understand the offsides rule in football.
7:14am: During a free kick stoppage they show the crowd and there’s a guy wearing a fez and playing a lute.
7:16am: Lewis is bleeding. I’m not sure what from because it sure looked like he was faking whatever grievous penalty just happened to him.
7:17am: USA corner kick! header!…right to the goalie.
7:19am: Onyewu just got a yellow card for some friendly pushing.(Both players were pushing, but the Ghanan took the dive first).
7:20am: USA guy has a nice header to block a Ghanan goal. Now there’s a corner kick. Ghana fouls; USA free kick.
7:22am: some sloppy play on the US side results in a breakaway and a Ghana goal. crap. Now the announcer’s going “gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!”
7:24am: It appears that Reyna got hurt on that last play. He’s getting carried off the field.
7:25am: USA corner kick….goalie makes a nice stop.
7:26am: The Ghana goalie’s writhing around on the ground. I guess on that stop he dove into a US player.
7:28am: They switched over to the Italia v Republica Checha game to show that Italian goal. They’re up, which is what we need.
7:29am: Ghanan breakaway. No goal, but we seriously need to pick it up here.
7:30am: I seriously don’t understand how these goalies can kick the ball this far. The Ghana goalie just kicked it almost to the other 18 yard line.
7:33am: This Ghana player just put his forearm into an American player’s neck. Yellow card.
7:35am: The USA just set up Landon Donovan pretty nicely but he put it high and wide.
7:36am: A tackle-from-behind results in a free kick fo the USA just outside of the 18 yard box. I wish Kingson wasn’t so good. Another good stop.
7:37am: Donovan on a corner kick…nothing.
7:39am: USA driving down the side. He centers it! to no one!
7:42am: Free kick on a dumb dumb foul. The US player barely touched him! Luckily it goes wide.
7:43am: BEAUTIFUL! Beasly centers it and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. Demsey! I love this guy right now.
7:47am: Two guys jockeying for position and the Ghana guy takes a dive. Penalty kick for Ghana. Come on Kasey…Goal. I seriously think these announces are judged by their ability to hold out “gooooool” for the longest.
7:50am: Alright, that’s half. I’m going to shower and grab some cereal.
8:06am: Showered, lunch made and cereal and milk poured. I’m ready for the second half. The players are just coming onto the field now.
8:14am: Alright, done with my cereal. Dangerous kick by a Ghanan, so we’re looking at a free kick from just outside of the 18 yard box. No Americans got to the ball when it was in front of the goal. It’ll be a corner kick.
8:16am: Corner kick…come on, guys.
8:19am: Italy’s still winning 1-0. 12 minutes into the second half, so there’s plenty of time, left, but I’m not feeling good about this. Oh! good stop by the Ghana goalie.
8:23am: These guys are pretty good at this.
8:24am: I’m glad there’s instant reply. It makes it easy to tell who’s totally taking a dive and who’s not. One of the Ghana players just took the funniest dive. He just jumped up, bumped into a US player in the air and then fell down, holding his foot.
8:25am: I have to go! someone tell me what happens. It’ll be a pretty exciting game if the US can pull it off.
[post-blogged]
8:36am: I found the game on the radio in my car. At least I think it was that game. It was in Spanish. It was on 1170AM.
yeah, so they lost. that’s sad. there’s always 2010, America!
A couple weeks ago, Dylan IMs me:
Dylan: what’s the girl that plays harp and sings like a cat in a blender?
Me: Joanna Newsom?
Dylan: yeah, that’s the one.
Today, there was a pretty well-wrtten post by Long Winters front man John Roderick covers Bonnaroo for CMJ. In part he talks about Cat Power:
I thought, “Great. I’ve been suckered in. Chan Marshall is backstage having kittens and we’re going to sit out here with building anticipation only to have her never leave her trailer.”
I’m keeping track of the World Cup scores on my handy pull out sheet from a Spanish-language newspaper out here:
I was somewhat ambivalent towards it until this weekend’s USA-Italy game, now I want to watch Thursday’s USA-Ghana game to see if the boys can get into the second round. (Italy also needs to beat the Czechs.) I was pretty sad to discover the game would be on ESPN, not ABC, like Saturday’s game, and I didn’t really want to go out at 6:30am looking for a bar or something that was showing the game. Well I was looking through the TV listings today and saw that one of the Spanish-language chanels was showing one of today’s Copa Mundial games. I investigated further and—what do you know!—I can watch Ghana vs. Estados Unidos on Thursday morning on broadcast TV!
Shove off ESPN! Viva Copa Mundial!
Dave Eggers writes about the World Cup. Very entertaining as alwasy.
The Baseball Card Blog for those of us who spent too much time and money on baseball cards as a kid. They’re currently on #5 on their best baseball card sets ever. I have a few packs of #5: 1989 Upper Deck. It was the year my family went on a New England road trip and we went through Cooperstown and saw the Baseball Hall of Fame. I picked up some of the new Upper Deck cards there. I hope #1 is 1987 Topps, the one with the wood grain. I loved those cards.
On Monday I saw the Mountain Goats at the Bottom of the Hill.
We got there a few minutes after the posted start time and there was a line around the block. It was a sold out show, but they held 50 tickets at the door for day-of and they hadn’t yet sold those out so there were a lot of people in line that wouldn’t get in.
When we finally got inside, Barbara Morgenstern was just starting her set. Her first song was promising: it was a sort of electro-pop song with nintendo-like stylings, sort of like b. fleischmann’s work and his work with Duo 505, but with female German vocals. After that first song, she continued with this electro-pop, but the rest of her songs didn’t really have the catchy melodic arts of her first song.
Before JD (John Darnielle) came on, I went to check out the merch table and who was there but John Vanderslice. I’m like “Hey JV!” He then goes to say that he loves KZSU and listens online all the time. And that the interview I did with him was the first and best he did after Pixel Revolt and that all the interviews he did later were framed in light of that one. Wow, didn’t I feel pretty good about myself.
JD and Peter Hughes (the MGs) came on to thunderous applause. I hadn’t seen them in probably three or four years. At the time I was familiar with approximately three or five of their songs, none of which were played at that show. At this point, I know three MG’s albums and I am familiar with about another three. Mountain Goats fans tend to be intense, slightly obsessive completists. I felt like I was in the minority in not knowing just about every song that they played. People were singing along to pretty obscure songs.
JD had the audience in the palm of his hand the entire show. It probably helped that everyone was an obsessive fan, but his stage banter and sometimes meandering talking drew people in.
Among the songs he played were “Your Belgian Things” and “Palmcorder Yajna” from We Shall All Be Healed (the latter of which had lead vox by JV who JD called onto the stage), “Broom Broom”, “Love Love Love” and “Dance Music” from the Sunset Tree, some new songs and some covers, most notably “The Sign,” originally by Ace of Base, which had the entire audience singing along.
They kept up a high energy show. I liked it a lot.
Update: They did two nights in SF. This wasn’t from the night I went to, but the second night the whole audience sang “No Children” (mp3) because JD needed to rest his voice. It’s pretty amazing.
3 songs or albums that I like whose titles include a state name and a cardinal direction:
Any “North”-state songs or albums? North Carolina or Dakota don’t count. Any other examples for the other (already given) cardinal directions?
Today I finished Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane. I blanked out part of the name above because K- is an offensive racial slur equivalent to the N-word in America (when said by non-blacks at least). Basically it’s best to only say it in context of the title of this book.
This is the latest in my series of South African books (Cry the Beloved Country, Country of My Skull, Tsotsi and Karoo Boy were among the SA books I read in the last year), this was possibly the hardest to get through, though Country of My Skull is up there too. As with Country of My Skull, it’s not hard to get through because it’s poorly written—both are well-written, in fact— but this is just some heavy heavy shit here. I picked it up in early April, read the first bit and then put it down for a few weeks before I could pick it up again.
This books is a memoir of Johannes’ (aka Mark’s) youth in the Alexandra township (”ghetto”) outside of Johannesburg. There are graphic descriptions of things he saw and went through in everyday life: violence, disease, malnutrition, and prostitution. I would be reading this during lunch at work and find myself nauseated by it and have to stop reading so that I wouldn’t lose my stomach; or I’d have to close my eyes for a few minutes.
The book is divided into three parts: Road to Alexandra, Road to Knowledge and Road to Freedom. The first part is the heaviest and the one that brings about this feeling of dispair. The second and third parts are more optomistic. The book, in the end, is, in part, a story about overcoming adversity, but it’s also about the system that lead to this adversity and the anger and frustration and hatred bred by it.
As I said, it’s well-written, though I actually found it a bit on the overly descriptive and heavy handed side of things at a few points. A lot of questions are raised in the book, many of them thought-provoking. The book is written, of course from one perspective and it has its biases, biases that history (the book, incidentally was completed and published years before apartheid was abolished) has shown to be on the right side of things. However, as with some other books on apartheid, whites are painted in one of two clear camps: revolutionaries/ those that actively help blacks and racist biggots who fear blacks and want to hold them down. As much as Mark defends himself in the book for having friendships with sympathetic whites and for not being a revolutionary himself, so too are there whites that would defend themselves for not being revolutionaries and yet would still put themselves in oppisition to apartheid.
It’s a worthwhile read, though. Like many things, even after the main conflict is over, the ideas are still true and for many years yet, no doubt, there will be other peoples in human rights struggles and in similar situations.
As much as I’ve been enjoying this literay tour through South Africa, I need a break for a while. I think I’m going to read Chronicles, Vol 1, Bob Dylan’s autobiography, which will go along well with my recent Bob Dylan kick.
I had some backup in the blogworks so I’m doing a somewhat abbreviated and consolidated post here.
A few weeks ago now, I saw Mogwai play at the Fillmore. Mogwai is a Scottish guitar-based post rock band. Honestly this is a bit long ago at this point so I’ll do the executive summary. First trip to the Fillmore (I think): it’s good, better than the Warfield by a lot. Mogwai’s set: super loud and apocalyptic stuff->softer more minimalistic poppier stuff->loud stuff->20 noise fade-out from their encore. They played some of my favorites especially those from Rock Action like “2 Wrongs Make 1 Right” and “Take Me Somewhere Nice”. I mostly liked the softer more mininmalistic stuff.
Mogwai – 2 Wrongs Make 1 Right (ATP Version)
A week ago Friday I saw Danielson at the Bottom of the Hill. Danielson is sort of a quirky indie pop folk band with epileptic fits of craziness in the middle of their songs. The first openers were a band called Pants Pants Pants. They had a fun electro indie rock thing going. At one point their drummer came out from behind the drums and just started dancing crazy. The second opener, Young People, were just so bad that I’m not going to talk about them further. Danielson came on close to midnight in light-blue-with-navy-accents Salvation Army-style uniforms, each with a patch of the player’s name on the breast.
This band is just crazy. Quirky is probably a better term. They have these softer or sweeter parts to their songs interspersed with these intense, high-energy parts with often high-pitched vocals. It’s almost disorienting to see them play. Daniel Smith, the leader of the group, has this way of singing that’s half in falsetto, but the parts of his mouth and throat that he uses to sing aren’t normally used by people unless they’re imitating a cat meowing. His two sister and the keyboard player, Evan, all sing with such energy that it seems like they’re yelling into the mics. There were a couple probably unintentional funny bits where Daniel asked the crowd to clap along to the songs and then proceeded to show us incredibly complicated and rather long clapping rhythms that no one could follow. It’s the sort of music that you probably either hate or it puts a smile on your face. One guy whose face had a giant grin on it was John Ringhofer of Half Handed Cloud who was standing a few feet over to my left.
Already 1am by the time they were going back on stage for their encore, I took off. The next morning I was waking early for my Tahoe Century bike ride. It was fun while it lasted though.
Danielson – Did I Step On Your Trumpet
This past Friday I saw The One AM Radio at Fort Oregon, a house in Berkeley. The One AM Radio is an electro indie singer songwriter. I arrive just in time to see the last song by a kid called Hank May. When I say a kid, I don’t just me a “guy,” I literally mean, a kid. He was probably 15 or 16 years old. Turns out he’s the touring guitarist for the One AM Radio (and apparently a cousin of a friend of Hrishi’s) right now but he had a solo set to start out the night. The one song I caught, I was actually pretty impressed with. He wrote a song with skill beyond his years. I’m going to check him out further and probably keep an eye on him.
The next act, Earthen Sea, was a improvised guitar/ loops group/ guy. It was good and pretty relaxing and he played a multi-parted piece with smooth transitions and some nice parts. Michael Zapruder’s Rain of Frogs was next. They were an alt-country sort of group with cello and violin (and wurlitzer 140B!) in addition to the usual suspects. They had their more rock-based numbers, which I think they crowd liked the best, and the more folksy numbers, which I liked better.
Somewhere in there, I went back to the merch table and picked up a shirt and his split EP with Ted Leo. I mentioned that I’d gotten something in the mail designed by him, which was a wedding invitation for my best friend’s wedding. We chatted about the wedding for a bit and Hrishi said he wished he could go.
I said the “crowd” up there, but this was a concert in a basement about the size of my livingroom (which is a decent sized living room, but it’s no rock club). By the time the One AM Radio was on, I’d say about 40 people were there. I was sitting on the floor (like most people) about 3 feet from Hrishi’s (tOAMR’s main guy) mic.
The One AM Radio went on next. They warmed with “Drowsy Haze” and Hrishi asked the audience to sing a repeated back up part on it. First rule of winning over Adrian when he’s in your audience: ask him to sing or clap (rhythmically, not just on the back beats) along to your song. Just a FYI on that one.
They—Hrishi on guitar and vocals and manning the laptop, Hank May on guitar, a guy on stand up bass and two guys on french horn—continued with a set filled with mostly old songs but a handful of songs that I hadn’t heard before. I liked the old stuff, of course, and I liked most of the new stuff. I was a little tired and the One AM Radio isn’t dance music or high energy at all and I was sitting so I caught a couple winks here and there, unfortunately. Their last song was “All I Can Recall is the Haunting” where Hrishi once again asked us to sing along to a part, a part that went “The sea swallowed up the sky.” It’s a gorgeous song and it was the same song they closed with last time I saw them— that time with jdawg werberg in a basement at BU. Just like that time, I left the concert singing that phrase over and over again. This time the trip home was a bit longer so I didn’t sing it all the way home.
I went to the Pirates at Giants game this afternoon with dug.
We got tickets in the Arcade section (147 to be specific) which is an odd section in front of the pathway out in right field that’s only a few rows (4-7) rows deep. We were in row four which put us pretty close to the field. It was Moises Alou Bobblehead Night and I was looking forward to having a bobblehead to put in my space at work.
The Pirates squeezed out a couple of runs and were ahead 2-1 until the Giants took the lead in the 6th. In the top of the 8th when they loaded the bases. A hit to the 2nd baseman followed by a where-do-I-throw-this bit of confusion lead to the bases still being loaded and another run in. Then Bautista, who had doubled earlier in the game, came up and hit a grandslam on a 1-1 pitch. Final score: 7-5.
It took me a long time to like Bob Dylan. A lot of his famous stuff just isn’t that good—or rather, it’s good, I just don’t like them much. The first of his stuff that I really liked was off of the excellent first disc of the Bootleg Series, Vol 1-3. Here he was singing sparse acoustic songs that have ties to folk music (and when I say folk music, I mean the traditional type: songs have unknown authors and multiple versions) or actual traditional songs (like ‘House Carpenter’ and other ballads of the Child type). Here’s music I could get behind.
Over the next few years, in digging around for studio versions of music off of that Bootleg disc, I found myself going to a few of his early albums, particularly The Times, They Are a Changin’ and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Earlier this year, I made The Times my first Bob Dylan album.
The instrumentation is constant throughout: Dylan, his guitar and harmonica (usually recapitulating the melody). The guitar parts are low in the mix, so these songs are sustained by their lyrics and melodies.
The quality of the songs ranges from good to amazing. Among my favorites are: “the Times they Are a Changin’”, “With God on our Side”, “Boots of Spanish Leather”, “When the Ships Come in” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.”
“The Times” is overused and misused (including a Kaiser Permanente commercial—that I actually like a lot—about an overweight guy getting in shape), but it’s still an amazing song if you step back and listen to it. Imagine hearing this song for the first time, how bowled over you would have been.
I first hear “With God on our Side” on Bootleg Series, Vol. 6 in a duet with Joan Baez (who I don’t like alone, but I love when harmonizing with Dylan). It’s a song with some immense gravity to it and a timelessness to it, despite the anachronism of the lyrics at this time.
“Boots of Spanish Leather” is a ballad, in the Child sense. It’s a pretty and fairly simple story about a lover leaving and possibly not returning. I love the melody, which is really similar to another Dylan favorite of mine, “Girl from North Country” (which is possibly even better in its this-is-a-really-old-song-that-I-wrote-ness) and apparently both draw melodic inspiration to Martin Carthy’s version of Scarborough Fair (which is Child #2 for those that are counting). It also has such longing in it.
“When the Ships Come in” is possibly my favorite Dylan song. I think it’s something about the combination of melodic and lyrical strength in the song. It’s another in the “The Times They are a Changin’” camp of the-world-is-changing songs; however I like this one better. I’m totally blown away that Dylan apparently wrote this one one quick angry stint in a hotel room after the clerk didn’t recognize him and treated him poorly for his unkempt appearance.
“The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol” is a modern narrative ballad about a society man accidentally killing a servant in a Baltimore hotel and the aftermath. I find in narrative songwriting, the true gift comes in which details to include and how all the details return back together at the end of the song to bring it to a conclusion. In this sense, Dylan triumphs on both accounts: the details are enought to develop the story and the characters without bogging it down and the conclusion hangs largely on the sentence from the judge.
So yeah, if you don’t know: The Times They Are a Changin’ is good.
I just saw a commercial for America’s Got Talent, some Simon Cowell reality TV talent show. Whatever, right?
Well, I noticed that one of the judges is—you guessed it—David Hasselhoff. So let me get this straight: they’ve having David Hasselhoff judge people as to whether they have talent or not?
Uh, is he going to be kicking himself off of the show?
I love bridges for the fanciful and deceiving things they make me feel like. The Lake Pontchartrain bridge made me feel like I was driving across the ocean. The San Mateo Bridge makes me feel like I’ll drive right up to the sky.
Here’s a contest that can send you to Austin City Limits for three days to blog about the festival. I’m probably going to enter a spruced up version of this post. Wally, you should do this.
And this is a songwriting blog with some tips and whatnot on various aspects of songwriting. I’m not sure I’m picking up all that they’re putting down, but it gets the mind going.
Both of these, I think, I got from largeheartedboy.
So, I’ve talked a few times about doing the Tahoe Century and now I’m done, so here it is.
On Saturday morning, my friend Dave (not Franusich) and piled our bikes and our gear into the back of my car (gotta love hatchbacks) and we headed up to the Lake Tahoe area, just outside of Stateline*. The other people in our group included my coworker Dan and a former coworker of his, Scott. Scott had gotten us this pretty nice house for the weekend about six miles from Stateline, just off of the route.
Saturday afternoon we registered for the race; ate some no-guilt burgers, steaks and pasta (when you’re riding 100 miles the next day, there’s no guilt in pounding some serious calories); and going to bed fairly early.
Sunday started early with the alarm going off at about 5:30am. The bed gravity seemed awfully strong. We all had some breakfast, got in our embarrassingly tight-fitting clothes, did some last minute tune-ups to our bikes and headed out at about 6:30am. Because we were staying along the bike route, about 6 miles from the beginning, we just started on the route and after we hit the finish line, we’d have 6 miles more to go at the end.
It was pretty cool to start with, probably around 40 degrees. Once we started going, I wasn’t too cold, though I actually kept my arm and knee warmers on until lunch. The first of the two major climbs is pretty early in the ride—even earlier for us because we were starting 6 miles in—and all of us just seemed to gun up the hill. I think it was mostly adrenaline.
At the top of the hill, there was the first of the rest stops. They were spaced out about every 13-23 miles along the route and had water, fruit and protein bars and the like (and bathrooms). They were definitely nice places to refuel, rehydrate and just take a couple minutes off of the bike.
After that there was a nice fast descent with some sweeping curves where I got to about 45mph before we hit the flats and some rolling hills. Up until about mile 40 I was keeping up a pretty fast pace. Once we got to Truckee, CA, I realized I should probably hold back a bit so as to not blow my legs out. Truckee isn’t on the loop around Lake Tahoe, but they add a loop out and back from Truckee in order to make it 100 miles in total. Coming back from Truckee there was a pretty good head-wind and a slight ascent that required some work (though drafting off of the stronger riders in our group certainly helped). After that was just a few miles and a couple minor hills to the lunch stop.
It was around this point why I realized they call this “America’s Most Beautiful Ride.” Lake Tahoe is really gorgeous and I hadn’t been up there before.
After lunch we had about 20 miles to the next rest stop at Spooner Junction, the second half of which was up the longest, and biggest of the climbs of the day. It’s actually a pretty gentle grade for most of it and probably wouldn’t have been a big deal at all, but after 75 miles, it was something. I just put the bike in the lowest gear and kept my legs moving fast and got up to the top.
After that it was just 12 miles to the finish. The first part was a descent that should have been a lot of fun, but there was a strong head/ cross-wind (but it was still pretty good) and then some rolling hills to the end. We hit the finish and then the 6 bonus miles (from the finish back our place) were rough, mostly because of a head-wind.
Overall, I think I prepared pretty well and besides the climbs, I didn’t hurt too much; I definitely hurt more during some of my rides to get prepared for the century than during the century. Today my muscles were tired but they didn’t hurt. Timing-wise, I think the overall time was about 8.5 hours with 6-6.25 hours of actual ride time.
*My friend Andy wrote this great song with the first line “crossing the state line/ the bridge across the bay.” Because of the start line of the race being in Stateline, NV, I had this song in my head for most of the race. Unfortunately, I only remembered little bits of the lyrics. After the race the group talked about it and it seems that all of us had songs that were in our heads for large portions of the race.
first line “My name is x and…”
Yes I know, your name is in the “from:” line and probably at the bottom as well. Why don’t you just say “My name is x and I’m 12 years old” so you sound completely like a child.
[This is mainly from emails I get in my position at the radio station.]
The Subway in Redwood City has in it’s soda fountain both Dr Pepper and Mr. Pibb.
This is not common, people! This might be the only soda fountain ever to do such a thing!
I found this a bit interesting.
I’m going to Philly then NYC and then Pittsburgh late July, early August. I booked a ticket into PHL and a ticket out of PIT (separately, on two different airlines).
Originally I was going to rent a car on Sunday night or Monday morning, drive to NYC (google says 2hr 19 min) and then drive to Pittsburgh on Thursday (google says 7hr 47 min). Then I investigated options:
Option 3 is half as long and $138 less than option 1. Neat!
I’m going to one or two Pirates games a year so I figured I should be able to outfit myself for the event. I was looking at getting the old 70s Pirates high top hat (below) but found a bunch of great throwback caps. I particularly like 1901-06, 1915-19, 1940-41, 1947, and the 70s high top. I think the winner may be the 1940-41. It’s just so classy.
Update: 1940-41 Road Cap ordered. I’ll consider picking up the 70s high top cap in Pittsburgh on the cheap.
I’ll be on tomorrow morning from 6-9am PDT as a fill-in for Matt. Listen live if you’re so inclined.
I plan on saying, repeatedly, “People of the morning rush hour, I have returned! Rally to me!”
Update: here’s the playlist.
So I’ve been trying to get ready for my 100-mile Lake Tahoe century bike ride which is in just over a week now. This week so far:
The rest of my rides before the century will probably be:
I hurt; I’m starting to regret signing up for this thing.
While on the subject of sports, my friend’s ipod excercise idea got patented (by him/ Apple).
I saw the Apostle tonight. I’m not sure why I put it in my Netflix queue, but I did.
It’s a film about a southern preacher who puts his wife’s lover into a coma and then flees to rural Louisiana. Robert Duval wrote, directed and starred in it.
There are few performances where there is no explanation for the transformation from the actor to the character. Which is to say, Robert Duval does an absolutely amazing job as the preacher. He has all the stylistic elements down and acts this complex character very well.
I have a soft spot for the charasmatic southern preaching style and good southern gospel and it’s nice to see it done right in this movie.
Anyway, a well made and well-acted movie. Also, the DVD has a good “making of” feature, but it basically has spoilers in it, so only watch it after watching the movie.
I did a pretty good show tonight. Here’s the playlist.
I’ll be making a return to the Lunch Special as the host on Monday, Memorial Day. The guest will be Ed Carryer, an old prof of mine. It starts at noon PDT.
The other week when Nedelle was on my show, she had a guy named Chris playing some additional guitars. At one point she said to me “He plays in the Curtains and he just quite—well, I shouldn’t say.” And then, I saw this and it all came together. That was Chris from Deerhoof. Not only am I hosting Nedelle, I’m schmoozing with rock stars here people!
It’s bike to work day out here in the Bay Area.
I think they’re overlooking an important aspect, here, though: biking from work! I mean all those people have to get home somehow. Perhaps it should be called Bike to and from Work Day.
Am I right or am I right?
I’m working on it a bit more—I’m going to have a link to jump to the results page and/ or a time-based IP restriction (eg you can vote once per IP per day).
I fudged the totals–I remember the percentages and approximate total votes from the last time it was up, so I just make the votes reflect that. I’m wondering if that’s the right approach or if I should start anew.
I’m getting ready to ride around Lake Tahoe and I’m woefully underprepared, I’m finding. I’m also coming out of a period of 7 flats in three weeks, which I thought was resolved on Thursday with my tune-up/ inspection but should definitely be resolved now with my new tires.
So anyway, from Friday through Sunday, I pushed it a bit (not as much as pat, but still), doing 80 miles and about 5000 feet of gross elevation gain. The breakdown was one of these which has some rediculously beautiful parts going down 35 there, and three Portola Valley loops. I ate at In n Out without shame last night. I’m going to take a break until Wednesday.
So I saw John Vanderslice at the Independent again on Friday with Dylan and Gumbeaux. Opening were Laura Veirs and Division Day. The latter was supposed to be Nedelle but she had to cancel, unfortunately.
I only saw about a song and a half of Division Day after I got there, so I’ll just skip to the next bit.
We got there well into the first band and JV (as those of us that are his pals call him) draws a lot of people in his home town of SF, so I was surprised that we could get right up against the stage before Laura Veirs. I haven’t been right up against the stage in forever. I felt like a school boy.
Laura Veirs put out a solid album in 2005 called Year of Meteors. While we had in in rotation at KZSU I played it every week. I sort of didn’t think about it much since then, listening to it occasionally. Laura came on and it was just her; she sometimes tours with a band but I think this part of this tour was just her. It was just her and a guitar and a bunch of pedals. Oh and she had a really sweet drum machine. I should find out what it was. Anyway, she played through her set using a sampling pedal to great effect (much like my friend Jeff Miller does), sampling her guitar, drum machine and vocals and looping. Overall a very solid set. I’ll have to listen to more Veirs.
Incidentally, Laura Veirs is not only talented but she’s very attractive. Basically, I want to marry her.
JV came on after a bit of a break. Once again, he seemed overjoyed to be home after a long tour. He joked around with his band mates and the crowd. He’s touring with the same band two tours in a row for the first time in forever and they sounded pretty tight. They put together a marathon set (25-ish songs) that lasted almost two hours, but it was a good time.
Overall a good time. It would have been cool if Nedelle had been on the bill as well, but you can’t win them all. The only downside of going to this concert was missing Jason Molina across town at the Great American Music Hall and Elf Power over at the Cafe du Nord. Seriously, couldn’t they have scheduled all those bands a couple days apart?
So not only is this a sweet german indie rock blog, but it has a bunch of mp3s of a good band, Beirut, who I previously posted about.
Nedelle played on my radio show last night. It went pretty well. One minor problem: it seems I had some mic distortion here and there—mainly on ’s’ sounds. Any thoughts on that one? Just a mic placement? Popper stopper? I was pretty pleased with out it sounded otherwise—the guitars and the mix both sounded good to me.
The mp3’s online:
Nedelle – Live at KZSU
Her setlist:
The rest of my playlist.
Conan’s in Chicago this week. Guests include Dave Chapelle, Common, Wilco and others.
So the other day Andyl was talking how if it was possible to eat a food bar that had all the nutrition he needed, he’d switch over and eat only that. First we thought of Clif Bars or Balance Bars. As you can see, though, you’d have to eat a lot of those and you’d end up getting too much of some things and not enough of others. I then searched for “food bars” and what do you know? Mayday food bars! They’re approved by the US Coast Guard! If you eat five four-hundred calorie servings a day, you’re pretty much set on most of the things your body needs. Andy ordered some and they arrived yesterday. Before I’d gotten home he cracked them open and eaten two servings as his dinner. I decided to try one. They come in these blocks that look like little chunks of coffee cake. They even have an apple-cinnamon sort of taste. The thing is, they are dense. Imagine saw dust that’d been compacted by a 10-ton press. They also have no moisture in them at all. They don’t have a lot of sodium so they’re advertised as “non-thirst provoking” but I was glad I had some water (and soda) to go along with my chunk. I ate this piece and about 3/4 the way though BAM! it just hit me. It’s deceiving because of it’s small size, but this is a LOT of food and it just slams into your stomach. I was full for hours afterwards.
I offered Andy $20 and the cost of the mayday food bars if he’d only eat those for a week. Dylan made the same offer.
In the distant future, I don’t think I’ll necessarily be a good father, but I am pretty sure I’ll be pretty great at the pet names* for my son**: ace, champ, chief, pal, big guy. I’m just getting started here.
**I don’t mention a daughter here, because: a) pet names just work so much better with sons and b) I’m screwed if I have a daughter.
*When my dad turned 60, I told him that I was now going to call him “Pops” and “Old Man.” He did not take kindly to the latter.
I’ve been pretty slow on the posts recently, large because I’ve been busy doing stuff that is sort of not-interesting-in-the-blog-way.
So I decided I’d turn all this stuff into a post.
One time things and whatnot:
Everyday stuff:
The other day, Stereogum had some mp3s by a artist called Lily Allen. I listened. This is interesting stuff. It’s a bit hard to describe. It’s sort of rap, sort of pop, but it also has a pretty great sample, probably taken from an old field recording or a 78. It’s definitely not what I usually listen to and it has grown on me to a guilty-pleasure extent.
Interestingly, there’s another track by a different band that has a very similar base musical feel but ends up being entirely different. Starting with an upbeat ukulele part (note: the uke’s name is ukulele, not ukelele), Beirut’s Postcards from Italy ends up being something a lot more akin to Andrew Bird. It apparently has a middle-eastern feel to it, but personally, I think it’s got mostly a songwriter sort of feel: it’s much closer to Andrew Bird, than, say, Oum Kulthum.
Thoughts on either track?
I’m all fists for punching!
My computadora is sad (again). The CD drive is giving it problems (again). I am sad.
I’ve said before that I’m a fan of Going Tribal on the Discovery Channel. It’s a documentary series where a guy, Bruce Perry, goes to live with a tribe somewhere around the world for about a month and they edit it down to an hour. Definitely more “reality” than “show.”
Here’s the current schedule. Discovery Channel tends to air each episodes multiple times.
I’m thinking about getting an analog drum machine, partly inspired by how awesome will oldham sounds with his Maya Tone one on some of his recordings. Any suggestions as far as models?
In the meantime, I found a pretty awesome virtual analog drum machine playground. I like a few in there. The Yamaha MR-10 has a nice set of features and sounds pretty good.
My crazy Saturday actually started Friday when a pair of pretty decent tickets to the next day’s ball game were up for grabs, and grab I did. After some calls dug and I were going to see the Giants vs. the Diamondbacks.
We started at the 21st Amendment a brewpub a few blocks from the ballpark. The burgers were decent and their watermelon wheat was suprisingly subtle and good.
Then we headed over to the ballgame. We were situated at the end of the right foul line, still in the lower boxes. For a game where I wasn’t rooting for either team, it ended up being pretty entertaining. It ended with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, which is pretty sweet. This was immediately preceeded in the top of the ninth by some tremendous play in left field by not-Barry Bonds, including a game-saving catch of an otherwise-sure-to-be home run. Bonds wasn’t playing because, as far as I can tell, he’s weak and has had too many steroids. Honestly, I didn’t miss him too much.
I also took the opportunity, since I got my new new lens on Thursday to try my hand at baseball photography. Not surprisingly, even a 200mm lens from decent seats doesn’t get you close-up shots of much stuff, but it was definitely a new viewpoint on things. I definitely missed a couple great shots, including a tremendous Moises Alou diving catch basically right in front of us. It’s yet to be seen whether I did get any good shots.
After the game, I headed up to Aquatic Park to swim there for the first time since last July. Man, it was cold, probably close to 55. I’d forgotten how cold that is. A quick primer on cold water swimming (try this at your own risk): get yourself some silicone ear plugs and a Barracuda Hot Head. When you get in the water, you’ll probably go into panic breathing. This is normal. The best way to overcome it is to just start swimming. Put your fast in the water and swim, even though this the opposite of what your body wants to do; your lungs want to expel all air from them.
After that, I headed to gumbeaux’s place, only to walk back to Fort Mason (right next to Aquatic Park) for the SF International Beer Festival, which, get this!, is a fundraiser for a nursery school. Gums and I had a nice walk all the way down Fillmore, catching some awesome views of the city and the bay on the way. The beer fest was, well interesting. There was a lot of beer there, all of it measured out in 2-3oz tasting cups. Good news: there was a lot of good beer there. Bad news: most of the beers I liked, I knew already. It was still a good time. I don’t know why I thought differently, but it ended up that a lot of the patrons of this event were slightly grown-up fratboyz and sorority girlz. Given this, it wasn’t too surprising that I got about ten “go bosox!”s on my sox hat.
Definitely note-worthy was our experience on our way back from the beer fest. Gums and I didn’t want to walk the three-ish miles back to his place, so we decided to take the bus, the number 22 Fillmore, to be specific. We saw it circle around at the end of its route but we could figure out where it would actually stop given that there weren’t any bus stop signs nearby. We started to walk quickly and gums stuck out his arm to flag down the bus and it actually stopped for us. Then, realizing that it was $1.50, I said aloud to gumbeaux ‘I don’t think we have enough change’ (we thought it’d be $1.25) to which the bus driver responded ‘$1 is fine! Just $1.’ That’s right, we flagged down a bus and then managed to knock the price down 50%. The bus ride had its interesting characters as they always do, the least of which was the absolutely amazonian woman in the short skirt who showed no evidence of wearing underwear.
Wooo. Good times.
A thoroughly blog-worthy weekend.
It started out with a pair of movies on Friday.
First, I saw Thank you for Smoking with Andyl. It’s a satire of Big Tobacco and lobbyists. It’s very very funny. I laughed aloud for much of the movie. Some rediculous scenes, but that’s sort of what you’d expect from a satire. I’d recommend it. My one complaint only comes after the fact: satires are supposed to make you think, otherwise it’s just a parody, right? I haven’t been absorbed in thoughts about Big Tobacco or lobbying.
I also saw Out of Africa a classic European-out-of-place-in-Africa story. It’s set in the first half of the century. A Danish barroness moves to Africa with her lover’s brother/ then husband. In the end this is a romance set in Africa, obviously with a lot of other stuff going on as well. I couldn’t help thinking of Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa) while I watched this movie. Nirgendwo owes a lot to Out of Africa, but in the end, I think Nirgendwo is a better movie with more substance and it makes you think more.
Al Jazeera TV says to air bin Laden audio tape
Audio tape? Seriously? Come on, Osama, get with the program, this is the 00’s! You should be using a flash-based audio recorder, burning that shit to a CD and then sending it to Al Jazeera. I mean, do you think they’ll keep a cassette player around just for you? They’re not using it for anything else!
I was walking into the radio station tonight and I walked by who else but George Lucas. How about that? He must have been giving a talk at the business school.
As I have done before, I’m going to try to chronicle my last few days in wikipedia reading. from oldest to
latest.
The Price is Right
Peet’s Coffee->grocery store->super market-> shopping cart
Coal mining. Anthracite->bituminous coal
Charles Bukowski-> Post Office -> Ham on Rye
Jonathan Richman. The Marvelettes. Talking Heads. Nina Hagen. Nena -> 99 Luftballons.
Eddie Vedder->Jill McCormick and songs Pearl Jam has covered
If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a pretty sweet video that a guy made recreating the bottom of the 10th of Game 6 of the World Series using Nintendo’s classic RBI Baseball. He even uses the real play-by-play. Apparently getting certain hits right took him up to 200 tries. My goodness! Also, apparently the maker of this managed to get a job out of it. The resume for the New Era.
Speaking of Game 6, has anyone seen the movie? Apparently it’s good.
the decemberists and deerhoof. The decemberists are the softer, more acoustic and better of the two. I like the decemberists. Deerhoof leaves me wondering why people think they’re great.
I did a night of only music on vinyl (LP’s, 7″s, 10″s, etc) on my radio show tonight. Here’s the playlist. I ended up having way too much stuff, like usual and there was some stuff I wish I had time to play. I think I’ll have to play more vinyl on my show on a regular basis.
My dad’s retiring at the end of May, which is a bit of a shock. Not because he’s not “of retirement age”—I’m sure he doesn’t mind me saying he’s 61, as long as I add that he looks at least 10 years younger. He’s always invested himself in his work, so it seems odd that he’ll be done with that. I’m sure he’ll enjoy relaxing…for a few months. Then he’ll get antsy, I’m sure.
The earlier indicators also seem to say that he’ll be less frugal in his retirement—there’s been talk of a fancy car, which my real dad (before the alien imposter took over his body) would never think of buying. Hard-working and frugal, that’s my dad…for another month or so.
I guess it also seems strange because of the implications, if he’s retiring, if he’s 61, that means, I’m old, at least in my mind. He met my mom when he was about my age; my mom was younger than I am now when they got married. I guess I have no reason to feel or think I’m getting old; afterall, I have plenty of time. But, yes, it is strange; at some point, I became an adult and no one told me. I work and save money (for retirement no less!) and pay bills and pay rent and do my taxes. When’d that happen? It’s all been quite sneaky.
In any case, he’s retiring, and so I ordered him this (don’t click that link, dad, if you’re reading! it’ll ruin the surprise!). It’s pretty appropriate, given that it was his industry for the last 17 years or so. He’ll probably thank me; and then as politely as possible, ask how I thought of getting him such a thing. He won’t like it or put it to much use, I don’t think.
The BBC3 put on the Manchester Passion, a passion play/ musical in which all the music was by Manchester musicians, including New Order and Oasis. Some current local (to Manchester) rockers and actors play key parts in the play. It appears it was performed and broadcast live while roaming through the Manchester streets, ending up at the city hall.
It looks pretty cool. You tube has plenty of video of it, including Jesus singing “Love will tear us apart again” at the Last Supper.
Pretty cool idea, I must say.
Today’s the 100th anniversary of the 1906 SF earthquake. It’s been all over the news here for weeks.
My friend Leo’s been working on a website called Runthere for a while. It’s pretty cool. The function I use most is mapping out a route and finding out how long it is. I’ll also show you the elevation profile for the same route.
He’s recently added a feature where you can save and, optionally, share routes around you. You can also find routes that other people have saved.
It’s a pretty slick site. I’m impressed. He’s a mech e, like me, and didn’t have a whole lot of programming experience before ME218, just like me, but I’m struggling to make a php website for the radio station and he’s made this pretty cool site.
I watched Match Point on Friday. It starts off like any other husband-cheating-on wife indie movie (think Closer) and it’s going along and it’s fairly interesting and then BAM it takes a hard left into more of a thriller territory.
I don’t really like thrillers. I tend to want to leave the room.
I still thought this one ended up being pretty good and it had some nice moments of everything coming full circle.
Not really a must-see, but more of a don’t-mind-if-you-see.
Initially, it’ll be Andy, Dave, Randy and I posting pictures.
Some tweaks to be done to the site, but I’m liking how it’s looking.
I played all of In the Aeroplane over the Sea after my recent reading of the book of the same title.
Man, what an absolutely amazing album. I restrained myself from listening to any NMH while reading it or since: I wanted the first time I listened to it to be all the way through, undistracted.
Yeah, I’m just a little obsessed with that album. Thank you, Colin Ashe.
I’ve update my list of upcoming shows.
How about this for a date in live music!
May 12:
How do I choose! I think the best bill is the JV one, but I haven’t seen Jason Molina in a long time. I think the shows all start at the same time, so it’ll be pretty tough to do a venue-skip, multi-show night.
The SF International Film Festival is coming up in a couple weeks. I thought I’d make a list of films that I might want to see. Anyone else have any interest in any of these?
In the last week I finished Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon and In the Aeroplane over the Sea by Kim Cooper.
Michael Chabon has become famous for books since Mysteries of Pittsburgh, most notably Wonder Boys and the Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay. It’s a story about a kid’s post-college summer, his gangster father, his gay friend and his retro-loving girlfriend. It also takes place, in part, in Junction Hollow, the “Lost Neighborhood”, an odd place in a ravine beneath CMU that one can end up accidentally, but rarely on purpose.
It’s a well-written book, interesting and engaging. It’s bittersweet; not too bitter, not too sweet. It’s like an indie movie.
Then I read In the Aeroplane over the Sea about about the best album of the last decade. It’s a small book, barely hand-sized and only a little over a hundred pages long, so you can really gun through this. But then again, it’s sort of like extensive liner notes and how many liner notes do you know that are a hundred pages long? The book goes through the history of the band and the Elephant 6 collective, and the events leading up to the recording of the album. If you are obsessed with this album, I’d recommend this book.
Next up: Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane.
I want to protect my hearing but I hate standard ear plugs at concerts. Anyone have any experience with flat-frequency-response ear plugs? I’ve seen these a bunch of places.
There are also the custom ones which cost about $180. I don’t want to buy those.
This may be nothing new to you or you may not care.
Diets are a myth, a figment of your imagination. Diet is a reduction in calories and/ or increase in physical activity to lose weight. But you “go on a diet,” the implication being that you “go off” it at some point; that it’s temporary in some way. And people wonder why the gain the weight back.
We’ll assume a constant amount of physical activity here. See the thing is, given that, a certain number of calories prescribes a certain weight. If you eat x calories a day, you will weigh a fixed value of y (where y depends on your metabolism and a lot of other stuff). To lose a pound a week, you need to eat approximately 500 calories/day fewer or burn those off with excercise. Say you start at 200 lb, you may need 3238 calories a day to maintain that weight exactly. To lose a pound a week, you need to consumer 2738 a day. You lose x pounds and then go back to eating 3238 calories a day, and bingo, you’re back at 200 lb.
This also points out to why it’s easy to lose the first few pounds and harder to lose the last few pounds. At 180 lb. you now require only 2914 calories a day, so if you’re still eating 2738 calories a day, you’re suddenly a running a deficit of only 174 calories a day, leading to a loss of pound every 3 weeks instead of every week, and if you’ve let up a bit, say 150 calories a day worth, you’re going to plateau.
Mysteries of weight loss revealed!
So basically, the key is life style change, finding excercise that you can continue forever and lighter calorie foods that you like eating.
I’d almost forgotten about this. I remember the font being more readable than that.
There were three more of them. I’m trying to see if archive.org has any of them.
a month and a half after I dropped my glasses into the Caribbean, I finally bought a pair. they should be ready in a few days.
gorilla vs bear links us to a nice storyboard music video by a band called Midlake for “Young Bride”. I like the song (most for the rumbling drums under the music) and I like the video.
also, you can head over to gorilla vs. bear to get a cool track from Oh No! Oh My! I have no sister. I like this one a lot.
Also, not from gorilla vs. bear, but doesn’t Kanye’s “Touch the Sky” just get your booty movin’?
I’m thinking of starting a new periodical post with the wikipedia articles I’ve read in the last few days. You know, make this an actual web log of sorts. I read quite a bit of wikipedia.
Upper St. Clair (my home town(ship)—check the demographics of USC out. Pretty sweet, huh? 94.56% White, 4.02% Asian) to Bethel Park to Mt. Lebanon to Pittsburgh Light Rail.
brooklyn to brooklyn neighborhoods to williamsburg to hipster to argot. new york city to bronx to bronx neighborhoods (which one’s yours, jdawg?). staten island (wouldn’t it be funny to live on staten island?). alameda, california (an island off of oakland).
I think my comment posting’s a little bit broken. I’m not sure why. They post fine, but it doesn’t bring you to the updated post page with your comment.
Today I realized I had little idea of the difference between Kid Koala and Kid 606 but that I was familiar with both of the names. This set off a set of mental excercises and estimates. Here I write about them, just to put them down somewhere.
I estimate I am familiar with about 9700 bands/ groups/artists by name.
The breakdown of the estimate is as follows:
In approximate decending order, the number of bands I’ve heard of come from the following genres: indie rock/ pop, oldies/ classic rock, radio rock/pop, old-timey/ bluegrass/ country, irish/ celtic music, jazz, hip hop, comedy/ novelty, classical musicians, (south) african, other world, indian music, electronica, metal. I’m probably forgetting a few here.
While I’m on the subject of books, have you read any books lately that you can recommend? I have a bunch in my list, but I’m going through them pretty well. I’m generally more into good+readable over good+seminal+hard-to-read.
Also, I have a total soft spot for books about/ set in/ by South Africa(ns), so I’ll take any into special consideration.
Anyone have thoughts on Wind Up Bird Chronicles? I don’t know much about it but I like a band called Wind Up Bird.
I finished Moneyball on Thursday night. It’s about inefficiencies in the baseball player market and how they came to be exploited by the Oakland Athletics and their manager Billy Beane. I found it really interesting for a non-fiction book. I tend to like fiction books and read very few non-fiction books because I tend to get bored with them, but this one kept my attention throughout. I’d recommend it if you like baseball at all, especially now, with the baseball season fast approaching.
A few things that struck me while reading the book is the statistical significance of baseball. A hundred sixty two games a year. A few at bats a game. A few pitches per at ball. Overall, this leads to a statistically significant number of pitches and at bats. You can really run some numbers on this stuff and figure out what is significant in winning games, which is, as it turns out, something that people have done and is explained in this book. Football, with sixteen games a year, maybe a couple more, doesn’t have much statistical significance.
Another thing that stuck me is that all these people going into baseball now are from Harvard and Yale and crap. (Theo Epstein went to Yale). Where are all the MIT people in baseball?
In somewhat related news, I’m trying to read more. In the last month, I’ve finished How We are Hungry, Karoo Boy and now Moneyball. I’m starting Mysteries of Pittsburgh now. Hopefully I can keep this up. I like reading.
On Tuesday I saw Belle & Sebastian at the Concourse at the SF Design Center.
My main reaction to the evening was who in the world thought that this would be a good or appropriate venue for a concert? It’s huge, making for a very impersonal show. The acoustics are horrible (lots of flat metal walls). Many of the places you can stand have obscructed or no view of the stage. I’m not planning to go back to this venue.
Shame on Another Planet Entertainement for booking shows there.
I was a bit distracted during the concert, having paid a lot plus exorbitant “convenience” fees to see a show in a crappy venue. B&S were fine, playing some good old songs and some new ones. I think they made the most of a bad venue.
On Saturday I saw Jose Gonzalez at, appropriately, the Swedish American Hall.
This was my first trip to the Swedish American Hall, though it’s right above another venue that I’ve been to many times, the Cafe du Nord. It’s an interesting venue, to be sure. Imagine a Swedish Elks Lodge hall and that’s about what you’d have. Lots of tudor-like exposed beams and whatnot. It was a seated show, which was nice and appropriate to the music. The acoustics were pretty good, but it’s very reflective, especially of audience noise. Luckily the audience was pretty quiet and respectful, but all the applause sounded thunderous, even when it didn’t seem like people were clapping particularly loud or hard.
The opening band was the the Finches Have you seen the Jerk? Remember the scene on the beach where Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters sing “You Belong to Me”? The Finches are sort of like this. Simple and, in a way, old sounding songs with sweet lead female vocals and male harmonies. It’s just guitars and vocals. I picked up their EP for $5.
I talked to the guys from Cafe du Nord, who book the Swedish American Hall shows, a couple months back about this show and they were a bit worried that Jose wouldn’t fill this room. Well it ended up selling out a week or so before the show and by the end of the Finches set, it was standing room only.
I like Jose a lot. He’s sort of like the Swedish-Argentinean version of Iron & Wine. He doesn’t have a whole lot in his catalog yet, an album and a CD singles/ EPs, so maybe 15-20 songs, and they’re all about 3 minutes long. He ran through his main set not talking a lot and playing his songs without much of a break. He came back for an encore and did another 3 songs. All of this lasted about 50 minutes. I was pretty tired, so this worked out pretty well.
It was a good show, but not in the sense of Jose bringing a lot more to the live show than he brings to his recordings. He played his songs well and said a few short, funny things between songs, but that was pretty much that.
I found an interesting and extensive article by Rian Milan, originally for Rolling Stone, about Soloman Linda’s song “Mbube”, written in 1939, which was later rewritten as “Wimoweh” and “the Lion Sleeps Tonight” with hardly any royalties going to Linda or his decendents.
After the College DJ of the Week thing, Gumbeaux and I went to Giordano Bros. in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. They have all-in-one, or “Pittsburgh style,” sandwhiches. These are obviously patterened after Primanti Bros. sandwhiches, with italian bread, your choice of meat, french fries, and coleslaw.
The atmosphere isn’t very much like Primanti’s. I mean Primanti’s is as no-nonsense and unpresumptuous as possible. Giordano’s is only slightly more so but you don’t have a large lady behind the counter yelling at “Chjohnny.” The people are friendly and helpful.
The food is good. Very similar to Primanti’s on this account. Very slight differences make it seem a little more “San Francisco”: olive oil on the cole slaw, slightly fancier fries.
It’ll do. It’ll do good.
It was fun. Played some music, got some calls. Got some crazy calls. But I’ll leave those off the internet.
As I mentioned before, I got to pick about 1/3 of the music.
The music I did pick:
* Songs from their collection. I had to pick one of my selections an hour from their collection.
+ I got at least five calls and an email about this song. So way to go for JV.
One reassuring thing was that I got probably fifteen or so calls on the songs I’d picked and maybe one or two calls on songs that they’d picked. And I have like four girlfriends from all the calls.
After talking a lot about it, I finally saw Tsotsi, the Oscar winner for best foreign language film.
I liked it. The first thing I noticed was the cinematography. It’s got a moody darkness to it, like the Matrix construct except more red, less grey.
The acting is fantastic across the board. Expect big things from Presley Chweneyagae, who plays Tsotsi. His is the dynamic character. He transformation is astounding. The female lead, Terry Pheto, plays her role with such softness throughout.
The soundtrack is bumpin’ with kwaito. I think I should pick it up. I’m not sure I’ll like all kwaito (which appears to be more house-like rather than hip hop-like), but I liked the stuff in the film.
Hot dang. Junebug? good movie.
I liked it a lot.
[It's a Chicago city-dweller going to the South to visit her new husband's family, basically. A simple story with complex characters.]
and so I did mostly irish music for the last 3/4 of my show last night in preparation for the day.
I was chosen as the college radio DJ of the week (showing they don’t actually have criteria) by live 105 which means I’ll be on a big 1 trillion watt* station this Sunday morning 8am-noon.
That’s the good news.
I get to pick about 1/3 of the music (badish news).
They even have streaming so all you east coast people can listen. 105.3 FM for you SF people.
* Actually 16.5KW
Befor
[sic]
Come on, guys, if you don’t have an editor, you should at the very least have a spell checker.
I lost my glasses to the Caribbean a couple weeks back and I’ve been looking for new ones. (Meantime I’m wearing some backups.) One thing I’ve noticed in looking is that so many glasses just suck. There are bland ones that are bland. There are also fancy-looking ones that are just dumb. Can’t anyone just make a simple, stylish frame?
So I’m looking around. Maybe something like these. Or something like what I have but modernized. Converse All Star, surprisingly, have some decent frames.
These people have a good selection. I’m probably going to end up buying in a store, but that’s a good place to look around.
Any suggestions?
Today I went to a ghost town near here called Drawbridge with Qwgbo and Dylan.
It’s on a little island in the South Bay. It’s a bit of a walk to get there but it was nice today. We had ourselves a little picnic and checked out these abandoned and degraded houses.
I’d never heard of this place and I doubt many people in this area have.
I got a new bike. It doesn’t have multiple gears or a free wheel.
more pictures beyond the break
(more…)
I haven’t posted a playlist in a while, mostly because they’ve been crap and also because I don’t think people really care.
But this latest one, from two nights ago, was pretty good. I’m pretty happy with it.
The first song, the A Silver Mt. Zion one, is a gorgeous piece I hadn’t listened to in probably three or so years and it popped up while I was playing music at work. So much of it is just seemingly random, unmelodic sounds, but the overall effect is so moving.
I learned today that the bocce courts I thought I saw in Palo Alto were actually lawn bowling greens. There’s a Lawn Bowls club! My grandma in South Africa used to go lawn bowling (or as she called it, bowling) every week until she must have been 85. I know the basic rules—it’s very similar to bocce except the balls are weighted so they curve as you bowl them. My brother and I even got a carpet bowls set one time in South Africa.
It turns out that there’s also bocce in the area.
Palo Alto Weekly even did an article on the club.
I think I might investigate this place. They give free lessons.
[Update: Apparently my great aunt was the national lawn bowls champion of South Africa for her age group.]
How can I be a total asshole to someone I know and very generous and nice to a bunch of people I don’t know in the same day?
I’m planning to go to south africa for probably about 3 weeks in just under a year (maybe Januardy 21-Feb 11, 2007 give or take a week or two). I’m psyched to drive around the country. I’ve been thinking about where I want to go, so I made a page about stuff I want to do.
If you have suggestions or thoughts, let me know. If you are thinking about joining me, that’d be cool (I’m looking at you jon!) Driving around a lot would be a lot better with someone else.
I saw Dave Chapelle’’s Block Party last night with the roomies, Raag and Jesse. Good times!
Quick summary: Dave Chapelle gets signed to a $50 million contract, decides to blow some of it. He throws a block party in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn and invites a bunch of people from his current hometown in south west Ohio. (NOTE ANDY: he grew up in Silver Spring for part of his time!) He also found some decent hip-hop acts to come and preform (the Roots, Kanye, Mos Def, the Fugees, etc)
And also! he invited a marching band, once again proving that marching bands are cool.
It happens that Michel Gondry directs, but that doesn’t have much bearing on the situation. Dave Chapelle’s funny as it turns out. The music is pretty fantastic. I loved a lot of the performances. I’m not the most familiar with either mainstream or underground hip hop and I imagine most of you are more familiar so you might enjoy the music even more than I do.
I loved the scene of Kanye watching the marching band play his “Jesus Walks” with a huge smile on his face.
There are also little stories of people through out. The old woman from Ohio. The two kids from Ohio that are out of their mind that they get to go. The very very strange couple that lives in the most-abandoned house right where the block party is going to be held. The marching band director and members. The neighborhood pre-school director.
In the end I sort of wish I could have seen more of all of it: the humor, the music and the people stories.
It’s good and surprisingly uplifting. I vote yes.
South Africa brought home its first Oscar for Best Foreign Film yesterday for Tsotsi last night.
I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s going to be showing locally in a couple weeks so I will, but I read the book recently and it’s a good story.
Any ideas where to find video of the acceptance speach online? I missed it live. I’ve looked briefly but I couldn’t find anything.
As Chris at gorilla v bear says, you probably need more mash ups like you need a heart attack, but these are some good ones.
Who would think of mashing up Jose Gonzalez, the Swedish/ Argentinean equivalent to Iron & Wine, with hip hop tracks? Not me certainly. But some dude did. And I like the results.
Go here to get them. I like 2 Words better (Kanye + Jose).
I tend to like hip hop in mash up form better, because sometimes I feel like the music part of hip hop is sometimes done without paying much attention to it. In mash ups, especially with songs that I know and like, there is attention paid to the music part, at least in equal parts to the lyrics in this instance.
And I like hearing soft acoustic music with hip hop drums on top.
Producers do a lot of things from picking studios and engineers, to fleshing out arrangements, to picking/ writing the songs.
10 great producers and why:
So that’s a likely incompletely and not-necessarily-well-thought-out list of some people who, in my opinion, are/ were the best producers.
Feel free to add your thoughts.
USA Curling hat to support their first ever medal!
Way to beat the Red Coats, Team USA!
One thing I noticed in Mexico is that they call coke “coca” and diet coke is “coca light.” In Germany, you want to ask for a “kola.” In America “coke.”
What do people call it in other localities?
I just got back from my company’s trip to near Playa del Carmen, Mexico. I got to hang out with Mr. Jon “j-dawg” Werberg.
Recap:
I’m not going to post for a couple days because I’ll be in Mexico, leaving tonight. Be back on Monday.
Enjoy your Washington’s Birthday weekend.
This is the year of the marching band, I tell you. Gwen Stefani has one, I was talking about my indie rock marching band idea and now Kanye West and Jaime Foxx have one on the Grammy’s with them.
Maybe I should start this indie rock marching band now to catch the trend.
The federal holiday on Monday is called Washington’s Birthday. Please refer to it as such.
I love Lincoln as much as the next guy, but let’s get it right.
it’s tradition.
My friends in the Night Rally will be in Pittsburgh March 6 at the Garfield Artworks with the Triggers, Luke Doucet and My Sexiest Mistake. It’s $6, so you should consider going if you’re around the area. You can check out mp3s of Night Rally. Anyone know the other bands?
I’ll even pick out an mp3:
Night Rally – Humor is Non Sequitur
Here are other tour dates for those of you in other parts of the world:
03.07.06 in Bloomington, IN TBA
03.08.06 in Philadelphia, PA @ The Manhattan Room
03.09.06 in Boston, MA @ Bill’s Bar
03.25.06 in New York, NY @ Sin-e
03.27.06 in Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (Upstairs)
These guys play good music and (as of last time I saw them at least) sport some serious and enviable facial hair. My friend Farhad, aka Yahktoe, is a fantastic drummer and producer (just check out his production on the hip hop album, Onomatopoeia on which I played trumpet on a couple tracks) and now plays some fantastic bass on the Night Rally stuff. Devin and Luke are the other two. Fantastic people. Devin and sometimes Luke would cohost my show back on WMBR a few times way into the early hours of the morning.
In yet another South-African-book-now-made-into-a-movie-which-I-haven’t-seen is Tsotsi (the other ones are Cry, My Beloved Country, which I’ve since seen the 1995 movie version, and Country of my Skull). I got the book back in South Africa in October 2004, but it’d been sitting in my stack of books until I saw a preview for Tsotsi, which has since been nominated for an Oscar. So I decided I should read it before it’s out in the theaters.
It’s by Athol Fugard, known mostly as a playwrite. I’ve read and enjoyed a couple of his plays, including Sorrows and Rejoicings. This is his only novel.
It’s about a young thug in Johannesburg in the apartheid days (published in 1980, it was written in the 60s and set in the 50s, though it’s pretty timeless). His life changes when he is left with a baby after a woman he’s accosting runs away. Similarly to Cry, My Beloved Country, though it’s not about the conditions under apartheid, there is a lot that reflects on and reveals those conditions.
It’s a largely psychological novel with relatively little dialogue. The characters are very well fleshed out . The descriptions of events, people and places throughout are sometimes a little much but are always thorough. The ending is a bit unsatisfying, but in a book like this, the ending isn’t as important as the journey.
I like this book a lot. If you want a more narrative story from South Africa, you might want to start with Cry, My Beloved Country.
Slightly related note: is there an equivalent to IMDB for books? Wouldn’t that be useful?
This quarter’s KZSU program guide has a lot of me in it.
Perhaps of note is that I’m in there as both “canuck,” my DJ name, and “adrian” which is the name I do Breakfast Special under.
Sigur Ros, who put out the excellent Takk last year are on Conan O’Brien tonight. It’ll be interesting to see how they’re received.
This is probably too late for most of you.
Sometimes I get these movies from Netflix that just sit around for weeks. I start wondering why I got them. I start thinking that I’ll just send them back without watching them.
One such movie was the Edukators (German title: Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei). I decided I’d send it back on Monday regardless of whether I had watched it or not. It turns out I did watch it and I was glad that I did. I think I got it originally because it had Daniel Bruehl, who was the main kid in ostalgie-dripping Good Bye Lenin!
Three revolutionary friends in Berlin break into houses of rich people and rearrange the furniture, putting stereos into the fridge, the porcelain soldiers into the toilet and leave notes saying things like “The fat years are past” or “you have too much money.” Nothing is stolen or broken, simply rearranged.
It’s a lot of different movies. It starts out sort of counter-culture, FightClub-like; then it’s a love triangle story, a thriller, a discussion of opposing ideologies and ends up being a comment on human nature.
Overall a solid and enjoyable movie. It’s really odd in a way because the most suspense happens about a third of the way in. I really liked the twist ending. I’d recommend it.
A NY Times op-ed piece about Pittsburgh, its relationship to the Steelers, and its low opinion of itself.
Sports Illustrated has some Super Bowl photo galleries up.
What are people getting as far as Super Bowl champions gear? hats? shirts?
Chicago Tribune has an interesting article about people listening to their ipods at work. I listen to mine (or my laptop) constantly. I assume everyone does. Do you?
It was a quiet sort of celebration. I gave a quick hug to my fellow former Pittsburgh resident, dug, leaned against the wall for a minute, did a quick run up and down the street shouting a little bit. And that was that.
A call to pat confirmed what I expected. Pittsburgh is going nuts. I’m happy it is.
After the AFC championship game, I figured the Steelers would win today. Not because if they can beat the Bronco’s, surely they can beat the Seahawks. My reasoning was actually completely different. It was the same as my assumption that the RedSox would crush Cardinals in the World Series after that amazing ALCS against the Yankees back in ‘04. After having to win each game for seven straight games to get to the Super Bowl, while making history (like the BoSox did to get to the World Series), to get to Bettis to the Big Game in his hometown, after coming so close last year with what seemed like the perfect team, they had to win the Super Bowl this year because it’s a good story. That’s how the story’s supposed to end. Funny enough, it did.
It wasn’t the prettiest of games. Honestly Ben was all nerves for the first bit and a lot of parts of the game didn’t seem to click like they did in the past two to three games.
I’m happy that we won by 11 points because after the “questionable” calls of Ben’s rushing touchdown and the Seattle touchdown taken back on offensive pass interference, I didn’t want the game to be won by three points.
The two main offensive plays of the game were both absolute beauties. Willy Parker. Fast Willy Parker. One of Seattles corners has an obvious chance to catch him, but doesn’t because this undrafted back is just really, really fast. Fantastic play by the offensive line to open up that hole, but congrats and most of the credit goes to Willy on setting the record on that one.
And the gadget play. We all knew it’d happen, right? I sometimes think Cowher is a bit silly with his gadget plays, but he (and Whisenhurst) have been really smart with them this post season. So let’s see: a hand-off to Parker. Okay. Oh wait, it’s a reverse to Randel El. Sweet. He’ll get a few yards. And then what has to be the most beautiful pass thrown in the Super Bowl by a non-quarterback ever. Perfect arc, right smack-dab on target. Absolutely gorgeous. And he didn’t even set his feet, just sort of threw it off of his right foot. It made me just jump out of my seat.
The MVP pick was a hard one. There weren’t any stand-out players besides Hasselback, who played really solid ball until the last couple drives. To give it to Bettis would have been nice, but wrong. Randel El or Parker were both somewhat reasonable picks, Randel El more than Parker. Hines Ward is one of my favorites. I like his attitude and his loyalty to the team, to Pittsburgh and to Bettis. That doesn’t warrent an MVP trophy, but those things make me happy that he got it. He’s also underrecognized around the league and it gave him some good exposure.
Author Chuck Klosterman is writing a Super Bowl Week blog for EPSN: Page 2. It’s pretty interesting. It’s not about the specific game, coming up, but rather about the athletes and the general view of these athletes as we approach the game. It’s pretty amusing at times. I’d start with Tuesday’s entries.
Regret the Error is a blog that collects errata and corrections from newspapers around the world. They are often funny.
Example:
In an interview with Jodie Marsh (I could’ve been a lawyer, page 12, G2, January 25) we referred to the silicon-enhanced charms of her rival, Jordan. Silicon is a non-metallic element, as in silicon chip. Silicone is the polymer used in breast implants. This has been corrected on five previous occasions: February 29 2000; June 20 2000; May 31 2001; November 10 2004; October 21 2005
Also, on a completely unrelated note, a one-liner in an email from my mom that I thought was pretty great:
The frenzy builds in Pittsburgh. Can anyone survive?
I just finished watching the last of the DVDs of the 7Up! series. The documentary film series starts with fourteen participants of various backgrounds at the age of 7 in England and follows up with them every 7 years. Thus far, 7 Plus 7, 21 Up!, 28 Up!, 35 Up! and 42 Up! have been released on DVD. 49 Up! has been recorded and perhaps has aired, but hasn’t been released on DVD.
There are sort of two premises to these films. One is that Britain is a class society and a persons class determines their opportunities in life. The second is the Jesuit phrase “give me the child at the age of seven and I will give you the man. To an extent, both of these phrases are proven and to some extent not.
I liked this series a lot. I found watching these kids go through their lives in rapid succession (I watched these six documentaries in about two months) facinating. For the most part these are just normal people living their lives, but the comparisons over the years and between the various people are interesting.
These definitely take some patience to watch, but they’re worth it.
As a bearded man, I appreciate this analysis of the beards of Roethlisberger and Plummer and their effect on the outcome of the AFC championship game.
A reminder: I’m on the radio on wednesdays these days. 10pm-midnight. Tomorrow will be my first day at that slot. I’ll be doing a special program consisting of only cover versions of songs. I’m really excited; I have some great stuff picked.
A request: anyone that is super 31337 out there: can you find Aqueduct’s cover of “Damn It’s Good to be a Gangsta”? I loved their version and would love to play it tomorrow, but I have had zero luck finding it online. It’s likely going to be off of a live recording because I don’t think they’ve recorded a studio version out there. I’ll post it if anyone can find it. Thanks!
I was walking by (not into) the Vapor Room, one of the medical marijuana clubs in San Francisco and there was a guy standing outside smoking.
“Oh, pot? yeah, come in and smoke away. You want to smoke cigarettes? Yeah, I’m going to have to ask you step outside.”
Steelers won another one on the road, this time to get to the Superbowl.
I watched the game at Shanghai Kelly’s again. By game time they were turning people away—dug almost couldn’t get in until I said he was with me (and I was inside already). I’d guess somewhere between eighty and a hundred people in there.
After last game, it was nice to see a game more in control this week. The Steelers looked really good out there. I’m pretty happy with our* chances out there against either of the teams that may be representing the NFC (it looks like it’ll be Seatle at this stage).
*I acknowledge that it’s a bit stupid to use the first person possessive when talking about teams that one supports, but I like it anyway.
A post script of sorts: Two funny stories from half-time. I went out to a store to grab a sandwhich because Shanghai Kelly’s doesn’t serve food. 1) a Bronco’s fan was in the store. I didn’t say anything (though it was 24-3 by that stage) because I thought I’d be nice. To my Bettis jersey, he said “I hope Bettis dies.” Wow. 2) The bagger was talking to the cashier while I was in line. “It’s possible to be a sports fan and not be a total douche. I don’t think people realize that,” to which I said “I try [not to be a total douche].”
Entries for covers contest #13 were due on Tuesday. I finished mine Monday but was waiting for other to come in. Dave says he has one recorded.
The original, to remind you, was You Can’t Hurry Love by the Supremes.
Entry:
I’ll set up voting and put Dave’s up if he ever gets it online.
I recorded mine while hoarse from yelling during last week’s game. I’m not particularly happy with it.
I haven’t really enjoyed the covers contest for a while and I don’t think I’m getting much out of it anymore. Add that to the fact that we’re not getting three entries any week and it’s about time to shut this thing down, so this will be the last of the covers contest, quite possibly forever. Thanks to all that listened and voted on the songs.
[Update: Dave finally got his cover online. It is posted and linked to above.]
9-10am: Live with Regis and Kathy Lee
10-10:30am: Family Feud
10:30-11am: Brady Bunch
11am-noon: The Price is Right
noon-12:30: the news (or lunch)
12:30-1pm: Doogie Howser, MD
1pm-1:30pm: the Wonder Years
Man, good thing I’m not such a loser now.
On Saturday I watched a couple spaghetti westerns with the lovely Laura, in what shall be dubbed as Spaghetti Western Fest 1. (I chose these by going down the IMDB Top 250 and finding the best-rated ones and also by looking at Sergio Leone movies.)
The first one that we saw was Once Upon a Time in the West. This is a complex story about a number of outlaws of mysterious backgrounds who all interact with a woman who has just moved out west from New Orleans to find that the husband she was moving out to live with has been killed along with his children. This one is long (2 hr 45 min) and deliberately paced at times. A lot of very intense scenes and a lot of characters to keep track of. It took some patience but I liked it.
The second was A Fistful of Dollars (part of the Man with No Name Trilogy with For a Few Dollars More and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly). This is a classic spaghetti western with Clint Eastwood. This has a pretty simple story about a rough newcomer to town playing off of two major warring gangs for monetary gain. Of course our man Clint turns out to not be completely ruthless. I found that this movie ended about half an hour after I expected it to; that is the happy ending came and then the movie continued on, so that it actually a much darker ending. I liked this too, but I think the better of these two is, if you have the patience, Once Upon a Time in the West.
I also had The Good, the Bad and the Ugly but Laura had already seen it, so we chose Fistful of Dollars as the second.
I’d never really seen any Spaghetti Westerns and, in fact, besides the excellent Unforgiven, I hadn’t seen any westerns. I think part of the attraction is in an environment with few laws, what you see is pretty primal, the fight between good and evil, the very base-level human nature comes out.
Both of my radio shows (on KZSU of course) moved slots in the schedule for the next quarter.
I Once Was Canadian, my indie rock show, will now be on Wednesdays 10pm-midnight. That sort of sucks, I know, for you East Coast people. Maybe in the comments people can suggest tools for ripping the stream.
Breakfast Special, formerly the Lunch Special, will be on Wednesdadys from 9-10am. The show brings on Stanford professors and they play some music they bring and between songs they are interviewed. I will still be producing the show and hosting some of the shows, but I’m handing off most of the hosting duties to a veteran DJ at the radio station, Byrd.
So be advised!
Wow, what an game.
Dug and I went down to watch it at Shanghai Kelly’s, which must be one of the most crazy Steeler bars outside of Pittsburgh. It’s a relatively small neighborhood bar in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Pretty unsassuming really, but when I arrive half an hour before game time, all the seats were filled with people donning Steelers gear and there were a number of people standing already. Beers were being consumed (keep in mind, this was 9:30am PST). By the start of the game, it seemed like everyone had one under their belt already and the place was packed—maybe 60 people there. Some were old timers, undoubtedly fans from the 70s dynasty era and others were younger, raised on Jerome Bettis and Cowher football.
It was really funny, I met people from Peters Township, Mt. Lebanon (the neighboring towns) and Upper St. Clair (my alma mater) there. It was a boisterous and fun place to watch a game. People were cheering at every chance they got and on the big plays, I was high-fiving and hugging people I didn’t know.
I sort of poke fun at people in Pittsburgh for living and dying with this team, but I have to admit I was bouyed by this game and experience.
I haven’t made a fun list in while. Here’s something interesting that I discovered today.
3 good songs that have “I will follow” in the title:
Any know any other good ones? How about bad ones? So far I’ve only discovered good songs that have “I will follow” in the title.
I saw the first part of Country Boys on PBS last night. It’s a documentary mini-series following two boys growing up in Floyd County, Kentucky, a very poor area of the Appalachians. Chris lives in a trailer in a “holler” and has trouble getting his work done at school, often missing school to take care of his alcoholic father. Cody is in a Christian metal band and has a girlfriend he talks about marrying.
I found it really interesting. It’s easy for people to make fun of people like this, but this is life. This is how a lot of people live their lives. Growing up in probably the biggest city in the Appalachians, I wasn’t far from people who lived in similar situations, but we still made fun of people from West Viriginia. I think in some ways these people are more America than a big city like San Francisco.
The challenge of watching a program like this is not simply not passing judgement, but trying to understand them. Or you could just say they’re a Red Stater, that they should be kept in the mountains or made a separate country called “Jesusland,” laugh your cynical laugh and go on feeling superior. Wait, which group is supposed to be the “open-minded” ones?
You can watch the first episode online and the next two episodes are tonight and tomorrow, I believe.
Something I’ve noticed about football, or people talking about football recently is that games are often talked about as, for instance, “Pittsburgh vs. Cincinatti.” In reality, of course, Pittsburgh is not playing Cincinatti; it is simply the team in that city versus the team that resides in the other city. This is a very common occurance in football (except for two team cities like New York, with the Giants and Jets), more so than other sports. I don’t remember people talking much about “Toronto playing Boston”—it was usually “the Blue Jays vs. the [Red]Sox.” People don’t call the Pirates “Pittsburgh.”
In poetry or literature they call a part representing a whole a synecdoche.
I’m wondering if this ties in to the attachment and involvement cities feel for their teams and visa versa. Pittsburgh may be a fringe example, but I know the city lives and dies with the Steelers and the team is exceptionally devoted to the fans and the city, in a way they’re not devoted to the Pirates or the Penguins. It could be that Pittsburgh is a “football” town and similar devote occurs elsewhere for other sports (Boston to the Red Sox comes to mind).
NPR has a nice recorded interview/ performance with my favorite Swedish crooner, Jens Lekman.
Iron & Wine and Calexico were pretty good on the Late Late Show last night., I was pretty tired by the time they came on, though.
In other news, I think I write too much about music.
What’s with bands dropping their names recently.
Pedro the Lion will now be going just by David Bazan.
The One Am Radio will now be called just Hrishikesh Hirway.
Set your tivos! Iron & Wine and Calexico are playing on the Late Late Show tonight.
(via who else but stereogum)
The cover for two weeks from today is Can’t Hurry Love by Diana Ross and the Supremes (original).
Of course you can remind yourself of the rules of the covers contest if you forget.
Actually tomorrow on PBS!
The movie is Yesterday.
PBS is showing it (without commercials, like PBS does) tomorrow (Wednesday) at 9pm. It doesn’t even come out on DVD until next Tuesday!
It’s a good movie about a woman with AIDs in the rural Zululand area of South Africa. It’s the first isiZulu feature-length movie.
The steelers pulled it off and will be in the playoffs. Way to go, boys.
I’m happy the Bus got 3 TDs in what will likely be his final game in Pittsburgh. Let’s hope they can get to the Superbowl for him and for all of Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, I haven’t been posting a ton and I probably won’t be posting much as mmt and mim are in town for the rest of the week.
Watching the Penguins the other night, Mike pointed out that Ryan Malone (USC HS, class of ‘98) plays for them now.
It got me thinking. Ryan was on my school bus for many years. Coming back from elementary school, we (the boys, at least) would sing on the bus every afternoon. We only sang two songs: “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” (Righteous Brothers) and “Barbara Ann” (Beach Boys).
I made a static version of my page to see what’s making things so slow.
Tell me which is faster to load:
Or if neither load faster.
Thanks.
I know it’s inevitable that a lot of the members of the 2004 Miracle Red Sox will sign to other teams, even the yankees, but this just sent chills down my spine.
I’ve been thinking that reviews of products that people have used for a while are better than ones where people just got the product and aren’t that familiar with it. This may be the first in a series of “products I use” reviews.
Some of you have probably seen me wearing my shoulder bag around. It’s a Street Scene “Small” bag by Pac Designs.
Background and overview: They’re a Canadian company started by a former Toronto bike messenger. I got the Street Scene Small last August (August 2004) and have been using it extensively since. The most use comes biking 2 miles each way too and from work. Other common uses are as a carry-on bag while traveling and walking to work. My usually load is a Powerbook 12″ laptop (with an InCase Sleeve, though now, I see, they have laptop inserts), a camera, a paperback book or two, two to five CDs in jewel cases, my lunch for the day and various miscellaneous items. I have the left swing blue bag with grey inset diamond and the radio holder option.
I heard about Pac bags from Indy, who has (and can maybe comment on) the Deluxe with a Custom Xiohazard flap.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, I’ve very happy with it. It was about $150 with all the options and whatnot. It’s well worth the price; it’ll last me a lifetime. The price/ use ratio is something to consider if you’re not going to use it for a while or if you aren’t going to use it very often.
Perhaps someday you will be flying a crap airline and they will strand you in Las Vegas when you’re trying to get home for Christmas. Perhaps they will put you up in a hotel (or perhaps they won’t). Perhaps it will already be one in the morning and you don’t want to wait an hour to get your checked luggage. Perhaps that will leave you with only the clothes you have on. Perhaps you will wish to wash your socks and underwear so you don’t have to wear them for many hours on end.
If so, you are in luck. I will tell you what to do.
I did my Christmas radio show today. It had all tracks that were Christmas songs, mentioned Christmas, had a titled including the word “Christmas”, by a band called The Christmas, or had a musical quote of a Christmas carol.
Here’s the playlist.
I started with Johnny Cash, the best way to start, then went into a nice wind band Christmas song, then the indie Christmas music, to the Motown/ early R&B Christmas music, and back to the indie before I did a couple “by request” and novelty songs to finish up.
I also managed to put some 30 seconds or so of dead air before the first Sufjan track. You’d think I’d be pretty good at this stuff after being on the radio over three years. Not so!
I also have a special treat for you: the show in mp3 form! Thanks once again to Jesse for hosting it.
Merry Christmas all.
On August 25th, John Vanderslice played on my show on KZSU, I Once was Canadian, and I interviewed him between songs. He’s the nicest guy in indie rock and he’s really interesting to talk to as well. Oh and his acoustic set was fantastic.
Here’s an mp3 from the show:
John Vanderslice Dear Sarah Shu [Live at KZSU]
I really like the version he did acoustic, moreso than the album version by a lot. I apologize for the sound going to only the right channel for about 2 seconds in there. It only happened on this one song but the song happens to be one of my favorite cuts from the show. Smurph was the engineer for the session.
The set and interview were from about 8:05am to 9:05am, so we were both a little bit loopy. What follows is the full text of the interview:
canuck: John, you are among other things, singer, songwriter, musician,
producer, studio owner, I guess…
John Vanderslice: Yeah, I think. [laughing] It sounds like I’m really like on the ball
when you put it like that. Also, I own a Pentax K1000 camera, which I think
that you just had in there.
canuck: Yeah, I do. I have it right here.
JV: I’m a huge fan.
canuck: Yeah, they’re great things. Actually one of my plans is—I don’t
know if I should reveal this to everybody over the air—I’m going to take
a K1000 and a digital camera and make my own digital SLR.
JV: That’s great. Perfect. I think for the money the K1000 is an absolute
steal. Total bargain. Beautiful camera.
I’ve upgraded the RAM on my virtual server. Let me know if you notice it being faster. Otherwise, I’ll probably downgrade.
This is probably only a somewhat temporary solution. I’m thinking about changing my server host entirely.
This post could also be titled “a study in lameness.”
The cover song for this week was Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead (Original). The entry in the covers contest is:
I tried a few things but nothing worked out when I was recording.
The results for the covers contest #11 voting (the song was Continuous Hit Music by American Analog Set) were:
Best:
Adrian 3
Dave 0
Andy 2
Most Original:
Adrian 3
Dave 0
Andy 1
I’m a big winner! Because only have has an entry for this week, I’m not going to reset the polls.
I’ll announce the song for contest #13 either sometime next week or early 2006.
I scanned a bunch of pictures over the last couple days and put them online.
[Anchovies swimming around quickly in the Monterey Bay Aquarium]
I’ve added a bunch of new albums, including fall colors, Death Valley, DC for my birthday, Monterey, boston. I also added photos to around Menlo Park and Cabo.
A lot of the black and white photos look really grainy, moreso than other photos with the same film. I’m not exactly sure why.
Equipment. Color: Velvia 50, Nikon N70 w/ 28-70mm Sigma f/2.8-4. Black and white: Tri-x 400, Nikon N8008s w/ 28-70mm Sigma f/2.8-4 and 20mm Nikor f/2.8 and Pentax K1000 with 50mm f/2.0.
I was trying to find examples of South Africans talking to play for a coworker and I discovered the International Dialects of English Archive, which has an Accents of South Africa page.
This “heavy accent” sounds like a lot of Afrikaaner women I’ve met or talked to, including the proprieter of The African Hut.
This one is probably my favorite. It’s by an older man who pops his r’s, which I like a lot. I think my granny did that. (The woman in this one practically rolls her r’s. That’s so fun!)
My parents have a fairly weak accent, closest to this one probably, among all of the ones listed.
There are, of course, many recordings from other parts of the world, including many in America. Disappointingly, there aren’t any good recordings of a solid Pittsburgh accent!
You can hear Germans and Irish and English and many other accents (in English) if you click around. It’s pretty interesting stuff.
Pat’s post about the Canon 20D and the following discussion got me thinking about shooting digital photographs as both RAW+JPEG at the same time, which is something I’d read about professional photographers doing.
For a day I couldn’t figure out where it was, then I remembered it was in an article about the Sports Illustrated Super Bowl photography and the tremendous amount of resources they pour into it.
It was tricky searching for it, but I eventually found it. I find this article amazing because no only does it have a human story to it, but it takes you through absolutely every step of getting a photograph from the field to the printing press and exactly what equipment was used at each step. You could recreate a Sports Illustrated Super Bowl photoshoot with the information given; it’s very scientific in that way.
I did my radio show this morning. I went through my top 15 albums of 2005, from number 15 to number 1. The playlist is here.
Here’s the list:
I made the list four times and it was different every time. This was the last. So it’s more like my top 15 albums of 2005 for December 14-15, 2005. Something like that.
Albums that were close: Set Free American Analog Set, Bodies and Minds Great Lake Swimmers, Set Yourself on Fire Stars.
Slightly disappointing albums that would have made the list if they were as good as I’d expected them to be: On My Way to Absence Damien Jurado, Stubbs the Zombie Sountrack, What Comes After the Blues Magnolia Electric Company, In the Reins Calexico and Iron & Wine.
A desperate Steelers team got back to basics and won against the Bears, who were on an 8 game winning streak. Some strange stuff, like Jerome Bettis, who’s ancient by this point, having a 100 yard running and the Steelers had 190 yards rushing against the best ranked defense in the league.
That was all pretty exciting, but a couple almost freakish outcomes created a nice situation. The Dolphins stopping a last minute Chargers touchdown and the Cowboys getting a last minute touchdown puts the Steelers back in the last playoff birth. I think my understanding of the tie-break procedures is correct and this means the Steelers are back in control of their destiny; that is to say, if the Steelers win their last three games of the season they will in playoffs no matter what the other teams do.
this is the point where I assume that you want to buy me stuff.
my parents ask for a christmas list every year. it’s gotten significantly different in the last couple of years since I’ve been earning money. I tend to buy what I want so there’s not a lot on my “wish list.”
If you haven’t heard that some new old Neutral Milk Hotel material has surfaced or if you have but don’t know where to find the recordings, you ain’t no picasso has step-by-step instructions to getting all the current crop.
If you haven’t heard of Neutral Milk Hotel, Familiarized! Yourself! Now! I still think In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is easily the best (and most important, to me) album from the last ten years.
here’s my playlist for this week’s radioshow.
My plan for the following weeks:
December 15: I’ll run down my top albums of the year.
December 22: Good Christmas music.
Speaking of which, I’ve found a few more indie “Christmas mixes” with lots of songs to download (mostly via brooklynvegan).
Anyone know of any other ones?
There are places that serve a thanksgiving sandwich all year around but mine is a bit different from what I’ve seen. here’s exactly what I’m using.
Spread a light layer of cream cheese on one half of the bread. Put a solid layer of the dried cranberries. Add a couple slices of turkey on and you’re done.
I’ve been making this every morning this week and it takes probably under two minutes and they taste pretty good. The sweetness of the dried cranberries is nice to offset the turkey and the cream cheese makes sure it isn’t too dry.
We have 3 entries in this week’s covers contest. The original, as you may recall, was “Continuous Hit Music” by American Analog Set.
Here are the entries:
After you’ve listened to all of them, you may vote on the best and most original versions.
The song for next week will be “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead (Original). It was Dave’s turn to pick.
I guess those covers will be due Monday December 19 at midnight local time.
The results of the voting for last cover (”Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson) were as follows:
Best:
Adrian 1
Dave 5
Most Original:
Adrian 2
Dave 4
Congrats to Dave on both.
While getting my song recorded for this week’s cover’s contest, I ran across some old recordings I made. Some were total total crap of course. None were really polished and done, but some I liked anyway.
So I decided to share with you a few of these “lost songs.” These could also be called “unfinished songs.” Note that all of these are completely embarrassing in their own ways.
Freak in Me formerly known simply as piano1. I recorded this partly in the practice rooms at MIT so it had to have been July 2003. I haven’t touched it since. This may well have been the first thing I recorded with my own protools set up and microphone. The piano part sounds like a lot of the piano parts I wrote in those years but it’s good. The end is a bit freaky. I think I wanted that juxtaposition between the prettier piano part and the ending.
Freak in Me
Freak in Me (first.class.airline remix) While we were on our roadtrip, zooming across Colorado probably, our very own Andy was remixing piano1. All of the sounds in this song are from my version of the song, just heavily processed. This amazed me then and it amazes me now.
Freak in Me (first.class.airline remix)
Not now I guess I recorded this last January. It’s about a girl, of course. Some multi-parted song action, with my first recording of a wurlitzer.
not now
Highland Cathedral and Wings and Murdo’s Wedding My friend Indy was getting married and I was going to play the pipes at his wedding. He wanted to hear some of the options before the wedding so a few weeks before, I put these down very quickly using my fireside pipes. I hear tons of mistakes throughout (and my pipes aren’t 100% in tune), but that’s because I hadn’t actually learned the songs yet, I was just running through them from a book. I haven’t played much of the pipes lately, but maybe I’ll start playing again.
Highland Cathedral
Wings and Murdo’s Wedding
38-31 against the Bungles of all teams. That was disappointing. Upside, Ben can throw for Manning-like yards with a hurt thumb. Downside: he can throw for Maddox-like interceptions.
I’m nervous for the rest of the season.
Since swimming on Friday, my right ear has made an occasional, sometimes frequent clicking sound as if theres’ still water in there (though there doesn’t feel like there is and I’ve done the water-in-the-ear jump-dance and felt no water moving around). It’s as if it’s pressurizing and depressurizing like on a plane, but repeatedly.
I think I’m going to do the Mystery Hunt for the seventh time this year, which is pretty funny considering that I’m not particuarly good at it nor do I take it particularly seriously.
It made me pretty happy when I was poking around the wikipedia article on the Mystery Hunt today that I remember a lot of the “notable events” and, in fact, know the named people in them.
After not knowing where it was for about a month and a half and having written it off as lost, I found my brass rat today. It was in the washing machine after I washed some clothes. I do my darks more than once every one and a half months so I can only guess it must have been in some pocket for two cycles.
As other people have noted, Walk the Line is a very good movie. The leads do a fantastic job.
Go see it!
I found out that Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set was at one point a PhD candidate in Biochemistry at Columbia before he took time off to do more music. That’s pretty badass.
I’m on the radio in about 45 minutes. I have no idea what I’m going to play.
Meantime, here’s where the playlist is going to be.
Just a quick reminder that the the cover for covers contest #11, continuous hit music is due next Monday at midnight.
Get yours done now, or get psyched to hear a new set of covers.
I’m going to do a radio show of good Christmas music for my last show before Christmas, December 22, 6-9am.
I’m looking for suggestions for songs or albums. Requirements: Christmas songs, mentions Christmas, otherwise appropriately themed. Genre’s not as important, but it’ll mostly be rock.
So far, my list looks something like:
Any other suggestions? In this case it’s equally important that it be “good” and “Christmas.”
I did an awesome Thanksgiving day show with my mom. The playlist had a ton of Motown and oldies music and we talked about our thanksgiving and read some of our recipes that we always use.
This week I’m back to normal—the Lunch Special with a guest (George Houle from the Music Dept.) Tuesday noon-1 and indie rock on Thursday morning.
[Update:] Jesse’s nice and has offered to host the mp3 of the Thanksgiving show. It is here. I’ll only leave it up for about a week or two. It’s a big file, approx 218 MB.
So I changed the theme around a bit so now it has a picture I took and says “adrian is rad” now.
I’m going to change the stuff around on the left side to be more user-friendly and sometime when I have time I might make it so that the “polaroid” is different every time you load the page.
Yeah, so I upgraded to wordpress version 1.5.x today. Turns out that my nice fence stylesheet thing doesn’t immediately work with the new ‘theme’ thing WP has and my attempts to convert it have thusfar failed.
So I have this theme that I like in general but of course the specifics won’t work at all. I’ll probably be changing and redoing it over the next few days. Does it totally suck?
In other news, users of WP 1.5, what are good/ necessary plug ins?
In Pittsburgh, Eat ‘n Park is a family restaurant chain. They have and are well-known for their Smiley Cookies. These things have been around for years and years. People will quite often buy them to go or get one after they finish their meal.
My friend Dave was at another Pittsburgh family restaurant chain, King’s and he tells me they’ve introduced the Frownie which you may guess is a brownie with a frowning face on it.
He also tells me that they have Frownie shirts for sale. I am definitely going to have to pick one of those up while I’m in Pittsburgh because that item is so very Pittsburgh it’s rediculous. People are going to ask what the shirt is about and it’s going to take 10 minutes for me to explain!
I went amish style for a bit. I shaved shortly after taking this picture last night:
That is all.
There was this girl I had a crush on for most of Spring 2003. We went to concerts together. I made her a mixtape, because we all know that mixtape=love (these guys think so too).
I found a copy I’d made yesterday while organizing my CDs. I’d forgotten about it completely but now I’m listening to it at work. I probably made this early May 2003.
The tracklist:
It’s a nice mix of songs. I still listen to and like most of these songs and bands quite a bit.
I made it on a friend’s computer because I didn’t have a laptop yet so I copied all the songs to the computer individually and then made the CD from that. She loved it; she bought three CDs of bands on the CD within a week because she liked them so much.
She was not smitten with me, though.
I watched Raging Bull from Netflix on Friday and Jarhead yesterday.
I don’t quite remember why I put Raging Bull on my netflix queue. It’s apparently one of the best sports movies and best all around movies ever. Robert De Niro plays real life boxer Jack La Motta and Martin Scorsese directs. It was well-acted and directed well, but it just never engaged me.
Jarhead, on the other hand, I found engaging from just about minute one. It’s about a kid of 20, “Swoff”, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who has entered the Marine, trains as a sniper and goes to the Middle East in the first Gulf War conflict. There’s something about the characters that one can relate to.* In a way it’s not that political, echoing what one character says: “Fuck politics. We’re here [at war]. All the rest is bullshit.” It’s not the best movie ever, but I thought the direction (by Sam Mendes, who did American Beauty and Road to Perdition) was good, some great visuals. The acting by the principles was solid across the board and Peter Sargaard, I thought, put in a stand out perforamance as the guy who takes Jake’s character under his wing. Some war movies are all about the plot, the mission (the Great Escape, Saving Private Ryan), and some more about the psyche and the aftermath of war (Apocalyspe Now, for example). This one was more toward the later, but had enough of the former that it kept moving.
*I should note that I’ve always had a slight thing for the military. I even briefly thought about going to the Naval Academy… I certainly don’t like all or even most war movies, though.
I still buy lots of CDs, despite the fact that it’s soooo 90s. I bought one of those 128 CD cases today and transfered all the CDs I’ve bought since I moved out here into it (plus a couple from before when I moved). Turns out it almostly exactly filled the booklet.
There were a number of CDs I’d forgotten that I had and at least a few that I know I have but can’t find:
Can anyone take a picture or tell me what is on the CD itself for Seven Swans?
Steelers lost to the 2-7 Ravens to drop to 7-3 (which is still tied for lead in their division).
Interestingly, all of their losses have come in overtime.
Maddox, their 3rd string QB, actually did okay—for a while there he seemed to missing every receiver he threw to, but he and the team seemed to refocus in the 4th quarter to tie the game.
I have a little bit of a pit in my stomach when I think about the Colts (10-0) game next week on Monday Night Football. The Steelers haven’t really come up big in the tough games since last year’s regular season victory over the Patriots.
sunday to saturday:
also: lots of heavy lifting and moving at work.
I am finally having the opportunity to write up the John Vanderslice (the nicest guy in indie rock) at the Independent a week and a half ago.
When JV was on my radio show in August, he said he’d put me on the guestlist (plus a guest nogal!) if I emailed him about a week before the show. I did and he did. (He also sent me Pixel Revolt following the show, so I figure I owe him at least $30 for the tickets and that.)
I went down with Bokoch and Tom-I-guess-his-name was (a friend of Mike’s). We drove around for a while looking for parking (which always happens when I go to the Independent). We wanted to have some dinner right near the club and we found Brother-in-Law’s BBQ #2. They were out of brisket and some other stuff, but we got the ribs and they turned out to be good. It’s a very no-nonsense type of place, which I liked. I’d recommend it if you’re down in that area. I gave Gumbeaux a call as we headed over to the Independent and he met us there. We met a couple nice people in line because we had some extra tickets (Gums and Bokoch both bought tickets (Bokoch three) and I had my extra) so we gave our tickets to them and they bought us beers. Not a bad trade…
I’m not going to waste any writing on the openers, just to say that they were something to bare rather than enjoy. I had seen John Vanderslice before, but only as an opener for Pedro the Lion and, of course, solo on my radio show. This was my first time seeing him for his band and since I bought albums and became familiar with some of his music.
(Before JV even came on, I saw that Ian Bjornstad would be playing a converted Wurlitzer 206A with the top removed from the base. After the show I saw him outside of the club and as I was walking past I pointed to him and said “Nice 206A!” He laughed.)
JV and co. (they were calling themselves John Vanderslice and the Photographs for this tour) went only pretty late, I guess close to 11:40. I was a bit restless by then, but the music settled me down pretty quickly. One thing that I noticed immediately was how good it sounded, which other people have noted. He toured with his own sound engineer and religiously does sound checks at every venue. They were also finishing up a 20-some date tour so they were really tight. JV and the rest seemed to be just so happy to be home. Dave Broecker, the bass player, sang harmonies and was spot on in both pitch and matching JV’s voice. It basically sounded like JV was doing his own harmonies. Matt Cunitz who plays a lot of the crazy keyboards like mellotron and celeste on JV’s records was not touring with the band, but brought a few keyboards and played with them for the night.
They played a marathon set. Not Bruce Springsteen-marathon, but 24 or so songs and 1.5 hours. JV announced quite a bit through the set that he didn’t like encores so he was just going to play every song the band new and then stop playing. They played a wide range of songs, but a lot from the last two, so I was familiar with most of them. I’m having a hard time at this point recalling which were my favorites of the night. He didn’t play what are quite possibly my two favorites from Pixel Revolt, which are “Peacocks in a Video Rain” and “Dead Slate Pacific.” That might be the only negative point of the whole night.
Besides the concert being awesome the big bonus for the night was that they were recording the show that night and that it’d be up on JV’s site sometime in December. I’ll link to it once it’s posted.
My friend Jon is looking at buying some NYC subway memorabilia in the near future. There are some neat signs. Apparently there are high minimums and processing fees, however. If you’re interested in some stuff I can put you in touch with him.
I was struck today by how Zulu has the best greetings of any language.
Particularly (and their translations):
Sowubona – I see you (used as “hello”)
Hamba kahle – Go well (as “goodbye”)
Sala kahle – Stay well (as “goodbye”)
I guess “God be with ye” which is what “goodbye” came from is alright, but there’s some thing so simple and elegant, yet personal about the Zulu greetings.
I’m pretty amused that there’s a wikipedia entry for “Pittsburgh left”.
Unfortunately it’s not particularly well-explained exactly what it is. This is a particularity of Pittsburgh driving when there’s an intersection with no left-turn arrow. After the lights turn green, the car going straight yields as (usually just) the first car turns left.
There’s one particular intersection I remember where the Pittsburgh left is absolutely critical. It’s when one is turning from Washington Ave. onto Station St. in Bridgeville. There’s always a steady stream of cars down Washington Ave. and no left turn arrow so you’ll just sit there forever if you don’t execute the Pittsburgh left.
As I announced a couple weeks ago, we are restarting the covers contest. Today the first entries are in.
This week’s cover was Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson (Original).
The entries:
(Andy’s may come later.)
I found this a pretty challenging song to do a cover of. Basically what I found I had to do was listen to it a few times and then not think about it for about a week and a half and then record my version.
After you’ve listened, please vote for the best and most original cover versions.
Update: Andy’s announced the next song, for cover’s contest #11. It’s Continuous Hit Music by American Analog Set (Original). Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we’ll have three weeks for this so entries will be due December 6, 2005.
I noticed on John Vanderslice’s tour schedule that he was playing at the “Kraftbrau Brewery” in Michigan. This is funny. It’s is obviously trying to be a clever reference to craft brews and German beer. It fails on a couple accounts. Kraft means “power,” “force” or “potency.” Brau means nothing, but braeu, usually spelled bräu means brew. (To their defense it does say Kraftbräu on their frontpage.) So Kraftbräu Brewery means something like Power Brew Brewery.
The funniest thing I ever heard of in terms of misusing words was a place my friend Colin saw in Wisconsin called das Gifthaus (he had a picture to prove it.) Gift means “poison” so this was a “poison house.” Not exactly what they meant, I would assume.
Sometimes it is made obvious that my daily trials and tribulations are trivial.
Some days the sunset is just about the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
From Saturday to Saturday here is how I accelerated my heartbeat:
I really hate running.
I also got stung by a bee on my finger on Thursday. It is still swollen.
I shaved my week-old scruff into a chin strap or, as I like to call it, a moses (or amish) beard.
I’ll likely keep it for a day (as part of the beard for a day program) or maybe maybe a week. There’s talk and negotiations involving andyl paying me the sum of $20 to keep it for a week, but we’ve currently stalled at $18.
The first hot Thursday was a rousing success. Absolutely fantastic!
We got it baking up to like 74 degrees. I think we’re going to start heating in the morning next week, but this was still luxurious.
I’m on the radio. I have a playlist and a link for you with which you may listen to the radio station on the internet.
So I finally put a new head (Remo Renaissance) on my strange-sized banjo (11 1/8″ medium crown, a 11 3/16″ would probably have fit slightly better). I put the bridge and strings on and tuned it up and it sounds pretty good. It’s not all that loud though and the bridge looks like it’s sagging in the middle a bit. I’m thinking I haven’t tensioned the head enough. How do I know how much to tension the head? Tarky? Andy? Jesse? Anyone else? Also, is it safe to just tune the strings down a bunch and then tension the head more or should I take the strings and bridge off first?
Charlie Batch, the Steeler’s 3rd string quarterback, was 9/16 for 65 yards. Brett Favre was 20/35 for 214 yards. The Steelers won.
Oh snap, Brett Favre!
Me and the roomies have decided we’re going to try not heating our house in order to save money on the utilities and to just be badass like that.
But, in order to give us a break and something to look forward to, we’re going to heat one day a week. Behold Hot Thursdays.
I can’t wait till Hot Thursday. It’s freezing in here.
Now that I’m catching up on all these posts, I’ll write about a couple movies I’ve seen in the last couple weeks that I had things to say about.
Rize is a documentary chronicling an inner city art (reminding me of Freestyle: the Art of Rhyme in that matter). This documents the rise of the “clowning” and “krumping” dance styles. These are amazingly fast moving dance styles. They’re hard to describe. The filming was mostly of pretty low production value, but in sort of an intimate way. There’s one section that filmed in gorgeous and very vivid color that’s just breathtaking for that but the rest is amazing for this dancing. It’s definitely worthwhile.
I saw The Weather Man last night with Andy. It’s a story of a weather man trying to juggle his career and family—his separated wife/ divorced (?) and kids. It’s about more than that as well. He’s a weather man; not a meterologist, just a weather man. This is the sort of movie I would expect to see in art house movie theaters, but it’s in major theaters and getting a good amount of promotion. It’s a subtle movie in some ways; it’s fairly slow paced and it’s not spelled out how you should feel for all the characters. Even the characters you like have visible flaws. It’s also funny in parts. Nicholas Cage is good in the lead and indie stalwart Hope Davis plays his ex. I’m not divorced or forty or a weather man but I related to Cage’s character some in the ways he is frustrated with life and figuring out how to live it.
In overly personal news, I noticed today on someone-that-I-don’t-talk-to-much’s away message that the first girl I had a crush on got married today.
I didn’t really have a crush on a girl until into high school. So if you’re keeping track, crush 1 is now married. I think I heard that crush 2 is married/ engaged. Crush 3 has a 3 year old daughter but isn’t married and crush four was engaged as of around this time last year, so she’s probably married by now. It’s harder to keep track to the crushes (the numbers) after that.
After the “Cog” Honda commercial, I thought the brits had the upper hand in the CGI-free commercial realm, but now I’m convinced.
Sony Europe recently filmed a commercial on the streets of San Francisco which involved dropping 250,000 rubber balls down Filbert and Leavenworth streets. You can gorgeous commercial or you can watch various videos about the making of the video.
If you’re curious about the music, it’s a cover of the song “Heartbeats,” by Jose Gonzalez, originally by Swedish duo The Knife.
Over the weekend I went to two concerts in as many days. I was going to make it three concerts (at three venues) in four days by going to see the Rachel’s at Great American Tuesday night, but I am sick so I gave it a skip.
Saturday was Jens Lekman at The Rickshaw Stop. It was my first trip to the Rickshaw Stop. Right around the corner from the Opera House, the facade is not marked as the Rickshaw Stop and if I had not known where to look, I probably wouldn’t have found it. Inside it’s a fairly small space with high ceilings and a two-level balacony/ mezzanine level in the back. There are, aptly, three or four rickshaws which you can sit in around the place in addition to a number of chairs and couches.
Nedelle from Oakland, was touring with and opened for Jens. She plays nylon-string (classical) guitar and sings. The guitar style is fingerpicked, mostly folky or poppy but sometimes with some pretty jazzy chord changes. Because of the very clear sound of her guitar and her voice, I was reminded a bit of Joanna Newsome, but without the annoying. Her songs were pleasant enough, but what really won me over was when she introduced Smokey Robinson song—”The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game”, recorded by the Marvelettes—and invited us to clap along rhythmically (not just on the downbeats) during the chorus.
Jens and his band played/ sang on a few of Nedelle’s songs. After about a fifteen minute break, they came on for their own set. Jens played mostly guitar and his band added cello, violin, bass guitar, drums and keyboard. Nedelle also added guitar and harmony to some songs. Jens is a Swede and apparently he’s been to #2 on the Swedish pop charts, so he’s a genuine pop star over there. He’s got a wonderful baritone voice (that often gets him compared to Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields) and an often-over-the-top pop songwriting style that just makes me smile. He often samples obscure records that he finds at rummage sales.
Jens Lekman – Black Cab
Jens Lekman – Maple Leaves
Jens Lekman – The Opposite of Hallelujah [I'm hosting this one so I'll probably only leave it up for a week or so. Download now if you want it.]
I’ve linked mostly upbeat over-the-top pop numbers here but he has his share of softer/ sadder songs too.
Anyway back to the show. They started out with a song that had the lyrics “We’re all going to die/ We’re all going to die/ Don’t know how/ Don’t know why” repeated. Rather than be some dirge or sad song The whole group was singing this joyfully and Jens was marching around the stage and blowing a whistle between songs. There were points when Jens would unplug his ukulele and walk out to the edge of the stage to sing without amplification, accompaniment or a microphone. He did this for “Julia” and “A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill.” During the encore he was playing a song on just uke and walked through the audience to one of the couches in the back and stood on it while continuing his song. He stopped right before one of the verses and asked if he could stand on the table in front of the couch. When someone shouted yes, he got onto the table and finished his song. He told funny stories, for example about he and a friend wanting to buy a small Swedish village. I really liked “The Opposite of Hallelujah.” They could sing the chorus from that all night long, for all I am concerned. The encore closed with an amazingly tender version of “Cold Swedish Winter” with Jens playing what he called a kalimba (but what looked more like an mbira to me) accompanied by bass, cello and violin.
Jens is swell. This new collection of songs he put out You’re So Silent Jens has a few EPs on it plus some of the album tracks. I’d recommend it.
On Sunday I saw American Analog Set at the Bottom of the Hill. This is apparently their last tour.
Gumbeaux and I got there in time for the first opening band. They were fine, but I really wish we hadn’t; my back hurt a ton by 12:30am or whenever the concert finished. The second opening band was sort of boring. In the mean time I picked up the new AmAnSet CD and another poster by Jason at The Small Stakes (it’s currently the first on the page— the safety pin holding the two hearts together).
I’d seen AmAnSet a couple years ago at TT the Bears but had forgotten most of the details of the performance. The set was really solid of course, with a nice selection of songs. They did nice versions of “The Postman”, “Hard to Find” and (as an encore) “Punk as Fuck.” Andrew Kenney seemed really nice, responding to people shouting out from the audience and making a point of telling the first opening band that they did a good set and that they should find him after the show.
I was called for jury duty so a sub is filling in for my radio show tomorrow (Thursday). You may listen anyway, but it won’t be me.
That’s right, it’s a return of the cover’s contest, with some slight changes.
A reminder of the rules and the changes thereto:
The idea behind having two weeks to do covers isn’t, in my mind, really to spend more time on the cover, but to have more time for other things.
I also want to have a little bit each week about why the lead has chosen that song.
And now, the cover for contest #10
This week’s song is Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson (Original).
What Adrian has to say about Smooth Criminal:
I know this song so well and I’ve heard it so many times and yet I don’t know it at all. My understanding of the lyrics is completely wrong.
Submissions for this contest will be due by midnight (local time) Monday, Nov. 14.
I was in the City yesterday hanging with Gumbeaux near the Haight so I went to Amoeba and got a few CDs:
I should probably not buy any more CDs for a while…
I’m a bit sick. Both of my roommates were sick last week and now I am. I thought I could squeeze by without getting what they had but the late night/ early morning today was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m going to go to sleep in a minute here.
The Steelers just squeeked out a win over the Ravens. They really need to stop taking these games to the final minute/ seconds like that. It’s not good for my heart.
I went to two concerts this weekend: Jens Lekman at the Rickshaw Stop on Saturday and the American Analog Set at Bottom of the Hill. Both really quite good shows. I’m going to write a post about them when I don’t really need to get some sleep and get not-sick.
You may leave your comments proclaiming your undying love for me. Also (if you’re female) you may leave your email address or other contact information. (If you’re male) you may leave contact information of available female friends.
Amrys, don’t think I didn’t notice the drop in my name in your “blog roll” from second behind mole to 13th behind, among other things, Scott’s fake and infrequently updated blog.
Anyway, I hope things are good for you. Are you doing anything for halloween? Decide on a costume yet? Classes treating you alright?
starting a few days ago, you can get a free trial of the Smithsonian Global Sound website. The promotion runs from Oct. 24 to November 23. Smithsonian Global Sound has something like 35,000 songs, most of which are field recordings from around the world. You can sort by type of music and instrument and make playlists on the site. I could make a playlist of all the bagpipe music they have from Europe, for instance.
You can’t download the files but you can stream all the music you want.
A guide to/ for Nice Guys. I found this pretty funny and I didn’t at all think it was something I could relate to.
It’s a bit crass; avoid if you dislike such things.
This has probably been up for a while but Hirishikesh Hirway’s The One Am Radio has made a video for “Witness.” In a way it’s one of the best video’s I’ve seen. I like the song more because of the video and it has a story I really like too. It’s about kickball and love. Hrishikesh can be seen a few times during the video, most notably as the first baserunner. Anyway, it’s worth watching.
Don’t forget to
I prerecorded a show with Mehran Sahami last night. It went pretty well. That show will air probably December 13.
Strangely, I’ve bought lots of things in the last 24 hours. First I got a call from African Hut to say that the goods I had ordered in mid-August had come in and they were sending them. Then, later in the day I decided to pick up that Mark Kozelek/ Sun Kil Moon Modest Mouse covers record from Insound at which point I found that you could answer a stupid quiz and get 25% off your whole order, so I got a few things there. Then, this morning, I read that there’s a new 7″ Half-Handed Cloud/ Sufjan Stevens EP out today so I decided to pick that up and noticed something else while I was at the Asthmatic Kitty website.
So, the full haul:
So yeah, that’s me going crazy. I’ll be getting piles of stuff over the next few weeks though!
Worst piece of writing in today’s Palo Alto Daily News, from the front page:
In the months since Caltrain launched the popular express trains a year and a half ago, it report nearly a 20 percent increase in ridership as commuters embraced the new, faster trains.
When we have parties we have music playing just about everywhere, including the bathroom. Up until now, we’ve had Motown in the bathroom, the playlist for which I’ve written about before.
This time we decided to change it up a bit. Indie rock was the thought. I made a pretty awesome playlist of songs people might know along with some they’re guarenteed to not know. Not too hard, not too soft. Some old, some new. I stayed (mostly) away from the depressing songs I sometimes play on my radio show. This is a party after all! I think this is sort of what my radio show would sound like on the best day if I decided to not play any depressing music and wasn’t worried about over-playing songs that you can hear on commercial radio.
Well here it is:
Patbird just changed domains on his blog and even though he didn’t take any of my suggestions for a blog name, (what’s wrong with nastydonkeyporn.com I ask you??), he’s got a new domain name. Nevermind that I didn’t know of his blog before, but, I present to you urbansaddle.com. Patbird is really rockin’ out over there. I read just about all of the posts so far last night.
Here are my favorites:
I’ll be keeping an eye on your blog there, Pat. I’ll also put it on my blogroll over on the right side there at some point.
Another thing that I’ve been meaning to add to the links on the right is largeheartedboy.com. He writes a lot about music and books. His daily “shorties” are just links to about 10-15 articles or blog posts. I usually find a couple interesting articles in there everyday. Some of his longer articles are pretty good too.
I’ve been swimming pretty regularly for a couple years now and never quite saw what I saw tonight.
A number of factors played into this. I was swimming outdoors; they had one half of the pool open without any lane dividers; it was dark out; I recently got prescription goggles.
Looking up at the surface of the water was just surreal. It looked somewhere between molten metal or molten glass. The lights in the pool reflected off of the surface of the water so it looked like these artificial suns setting on a molten metal lake.
I was so distracted I didn’t really count my laps.
I was reminded of this today. Human Clock is a pretty sweet site where they have have pictures of the time for every minute of the day. The pictures aren’t of clocks (usually), but rather people holding up the numbers or the numbers occuring in scenes around the world. That’s a dumb description, so just go see for yourself!
Also, there’s a new thing which is the time song database which is trying to collect all the songs with times mentioned in the lyrics. That’s pretty cool. I’m trying to think; there must be some Mountain Goats songs with the time. John Vanderslice maybe?
I did two radio shows today. man am I tired. blah!
Today’s Lunch Special with Mayor Jim Burch turned out to be really interesting. He’s led a facinating life.
Then I did a sub for an indie rock guitar show from 9-midnight, with a playlist here.
As a bit of warning: I’m trading my radio show this week on the KZSU. I’ll be on Thursday 9pm-midnight for the indie rocking. To fit in the format of the normal show that’s there, Lick My Moody Guitar, I will be playing guitar-based music only. Lots of mogwai and indie rock! here we go!
In my place on Thursday (6-9am) Red West will be doing my show. (Red West doesn’t host Lick My Moody Guitar show; this is a three-way trade that would make major league baseball teams jealous.) He’s going to have a guest host from Pittsburgh (that’s good), doing some 80s indie rock (that’s good) and some obscure gothy stuff (not so good). Should still be a decent show if you want to tune in.
Part of the reason I switched is that I found out that I could get a staff ticket to see Iron & Wine and Calexico at the Warfield on Wednesday night. I don’t want to be super tired on Thursday after staying late-ish for the show on Wednesday.
Two quotes from musicians from PopMatters interviews in the last month that made me laugh:
I go to someone’s site, and I see they have a 100 MP3s and I love them forever. But then I go to bands’ sites, and they have one song up and it’s in Real Audio and I’m thinking, What’s your home address because I’m going to stab you in the lungs. Just come out for your mail because I’m going to shank you.
—from this interview with John Vanderslice.
PopMatters: When I asked the last two artists I interviewed what contemporary musicians they liked most, they both immediately mentioned Smog. Richard Buckner even said that he buys everything you release “the minute it comes out”. How does that make you feel?
Bill Callahan: I have come to realize that I am really, really fucking good. So much better than almost everything that is going on around me. I am sorry but it is true.
—from this interview with (smog)’s Bill Callahan.
I decided to keep an online list of concerts I’m interested in or think will be good. It’s up with my stuff at kzsu.org here.
Any SF people interested in these concerts?
The first real show of the Lunch Special goes on tomorrow at noon. I’m quite excited about it. You can give it a listen online. The show is me with a Stanford professor or other community member. They bring music. We chat.
Tomorrow’s guest is Robert Harrison, Professor of Italian and Italian Literature. He’s bringing a bunch of an album by Gentle Giant. I don’t know that band, but it’ll prove to be interesting.
The schedule’s filling out quite nicely for the quarter. I’ve asked a few people for the open dates in December, so hopefully we can fill the rest of the quarter out nicely as well.
Red Sox are out of the playoffs in a sweep. I mean, come on guys. At least go down 3-2 in the ALDS!
Yankees are tied up in their series. I’m hoping the Angels will win tonight at 8pm, in the only major league game today.
A punter, Michael Koenen kicked a 58 yard field goal (after a “practice try” of sorts, caused by the opposing team calling time-out). Who would think of putting in a punter to try for a really long field goal? I guess he did kick field goals in college. What’s the league record longest field goal? Something like 63 yards, right?
Steelers play the Chargers tonight on Monday Night Football. I’ll be watching. Chargers beat the Patriots last week and the Patriots beat the Steelers the week before so if the Steelers win tonight, they’re—what?—better than themselves?
Most question marks in one of my posts ever. I don’t know if that’s actually true.
These roundup posts are pretty lame.
Two weekends in a row, I went to music festivals for no cost to me. I’m a big winner!
Last weekend I went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 5 last weekend in Golden Gate Park and this Saturday (the 8th) I went to the Download Festival at Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View. The first is an annual free festival. The latter I got a staff ticket to from KZSU. This is the first year of the American version of the Download fetsival; it’s been over in the UK for a few years and it’s yet to be seen whether it’ll be annual here.
I went up last Saturday for the first day of HSB. I ran a bit late and it took me a while to find parking, so I got there just before Earl Scruggs went on. He was pretty fantastic. Classic bluegrass and some hot playing on all the instruments. Gillian Welch played a great set after that. She and Dave (Rawlings?) both played mostly guitar, but Gillian (Welch, not Amrhein, which I have to specificy because Amrhein seems to be confused about these things lately) also played some banjo (girl banjo players? so hot!) and harmonica. The crowd went nuts for her excellent cover of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
(I tried to go to HSB last Sunday too for Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs and JD Crowe, but drove around for an hour and some not finding parking before I headed back. I lose!)
Saturday (the 8th), I went to the Download festival. There were a bunch of bands playing, but I showed up just before the Arcade Fire and stayed for Modest Mouse. Shoreline is sort of like a lot of those outdoor ampitheater places, with regular seating and lawn seating behind that. It’s not nearly as big as Starlake, for those of you who are familiar with it, but it can handle a good number of people (25,000, says the webpage). The Arcade Fire came on and did a thoroughly entertaining set. The people in the band seemed really energized, but, in a place that big, it’s hard to project the energy, I think. I’d like to see them again—this time in a small club, like the Great American Music Hall. (If you haven’t heard the Arcade Fire or need proof that their performances can just about bust open with energy, listen to this show from KEXP. These five songs are the first I heard from Arcade Fire and I’ve listened to this recording enough that I still think of these versions over the album versions in my head.) Modest Mouse came on and did a pretty good set. They didn’t seem to be really into it and I was feeling a bit tired so I left about 45 minutes into their set. They do a decent set, but I’ve seen them twice now, both times fairly similar, so I’ll probably won’t see them again.
I’m going to have two shows this quarter (which runs until early January):
I Once Was Canadian is my indie rock show. It’ll be Thursdays 6-9am PST again. Tune in.
Adrian’s Lunch Special is music-and-talk show with members of the Stanford community bringing in music to play and chatting with me. That page has a schedule as its shaping up for the quarter. Some interesting people sofar. It’s on Tuesdays from noon-1pm PST. Here are some of the guests so far:
Matt Pond PA was on Conan last night. Anyone see them? I recorded it on my “tivo” (what I call my VCR), but haven’t watched it yet.
U2 is the only guest on Conan on Thursday night. I’m going to tune in, if I can stay away, to watch. They’ve been really good on SNL in the past couple of years.
Death Cab for Cutie does a a pretty interesting interview with the Onion AV club.
Also from largeheartedboy, Nick Hornsby talks to the Boss.
NPR did an interesting piece on the singing/ playing of “Sweet Caroline” (by Neil Diamond) in the 8th inning at Fenway Park.
There is a song that is good and you might forget this fact.
It is “Love is a Battlefield” by Pat Benatar. When I listen to this song, I want to sing along. I also want to dance, but not if you’re looking. It’s got a great structure (except for the spoken word part at the beginning, but that can be forgiven), the way the bridge comes in and the song builds back up.
Thanks for reminding me of this fact go to Helene via Dug.
Andy’s made a handy chart of all 9 possible outcomes of Yankees, Red Sox and Indians outcomes of the next two days. Each game will eliminate a row or a column.
So I’m entering my fourth year of being on college radio, first on WMBR and then KZSU, having started in December 2002, with notable gaps (Fall 2003 and Summer 2004). It’s something I think about stopping sometimes, but even when it’s a difficult time slot (Thursdays 6-9am, alarm goes off at 4:30am), I enjoy it. I missed it both times I was off the air so I worked to get back on the air.
I’ve done some fun things and crazy show themes in the past three years:
I just applied for a show (or two, actually) for the fall programming schedule. I’ll still be doing my indie format show, but I might be adding a 1 hour slot of a different format. I’ll say more about that later.
I don’t usually rant here, but some people are really dumb.
I run an email list for a friend that’s on Peace Corps so that she can email her updates to just one address rather than 120. People somewhat regularly email this list address rather than her directly, thinking it’s her address. Great. Way to go, pal.
But someone did something pretty spactacularly stupid this morning: he tried to send a 12 MB photo as an attachment to the list. Mistake 1 was noted above. Mistake 2 is don’t try to email enormous files!, especially to lists or people you don’t know.
After this, I sorted my email by size and noticed that multiple people, who I didn’t know, cold (uninvited) sent me things related to my position at the radio station, with attachments over 1.5MB. I realize that that’s nothing these days, in the age of gigabytes and terabytes, but that still bogs down servers and makes things slow. Most email is <15KB, so something at least 100 times larger than that is not good. I take a bit of a offense to this. It’s sort of like someone putting a broken wheel chair on my doorstep; sure, I might want it, but I certainly didn’t ask for it, and most likely, I just have to worry about putting it in the trash.
Okay. Enough ranting. I don’t think it’s becoming.
What’s with soundtracks these days? There are some really good ones!
The latest is the Thumbsucker soundtrack. It’s got about 20 new songs from the Polyphonic Spree and three Elliott Smith songs, one of which (”Troubled” originally by Cat Stevens) is previously unreleased. Here’s the story of the soundtrack, how it came to be these two artists on the soundtrack.
On the first listen, it’s real good!
Steelers lost again those guys on Sunday. It was a close game. Well that’s not really true. Steelers were better for the first half and the other dudes were basically dominant for the second half. They have a bye week so it’ll be a week and a half until I get to see them win again.
The BoSox are a game back in the AL East and tied for the wild card spot. In the last two days the A’s and the Giants got elimanted from the pennant race in their respective divisions. The Pirates got eliminated approximately four months ago.
this could quite well be the longest I’ve had between posts. lack of laptop and being busy have kept me away.
but seriously, did you miss me?
anyway, here’s the playlist for this week.
And by films I mean that in the literal sense, of captured, originally, on film.
And by documentary, I mean documenting real events.
I saw three recently:
Dug and I went to see the Giants at SBC Park today. I’d managed to get some basically field-level seats (section 104, row 24, if you want to look it up) off of craigslist for below face value.
It ended up being a pretty exciting game even though neither of us were really rooting for either team. Something like five home runs were hit, the last being No. 705 by Barry Bonds, his second of the season after being out recovering from knee surgery for most of the season. I’d seen Bonds play in his Pirates years and probably saw many home runs by him. Someone’s career home runs 134 and 162 are not noteworthy. One thing you don’t notice from the highlight reels of someone who’s always swinging for the fences like Bonds [note: he's not always swinging for the fences—he hit a on-the-ground single earlier in the game] is what he looks like when he misses. He missed (or foul-tipped) two times in the at bat where he finally hit a home run and it looked like his arms were going to rip out he was swinging so hard. When he finally did connect solidly, the ball had no chance of staying in the park; a quick kayaker in China Basin is now the proud owner of the Bonds Home Run Ball No. 705.
(Wow, I just realized that I’ve seen 8 (Red Sox, A’s, Giants, Pirates, Blue Jays, Nationals, Phillies, Dodgers) teams play at four stadiums (Coliseum, Fenway, RFK, SBC) this year.)
In other sporting news, the Steelers won pretty handily (again) and I happened to notice another team lost today. It’ll be interesting when they face off next week.
Oakland A’s American League Division Series (ALDS) playoff tickets went on sale at 9am today. I bought 6 bleachers seats for either Game 1 or Game 3, October 4 or 7.
The hope, of course, is that it’ll be the A’s vs. Red Sox. There’s a lot that needs to happen first, though.
If it’s not the Sox, I can go anyway or sell the tickets.
Anyone know how the playoff match-ups are decided? Say if the season ended today, who would play whom?
It turns out that I’m a bit of a liar. I said last week that I’d be taking a bit of a break from my radio show for a few weeks. It’s true that I won’t be doing the Thursday 6-9am slot, but I won’t be taking a break. The opportunity came up to do the 10-midnight (PST) show on Wednesday nights for the next three weeks and I’ll be doing that.
I’m excited to give the evening slot a chance and to not be amazingly tired on Thursdays. I suppose it means that all you east-coasters probably won’t listen online, or might only listen to the first bit.
about not getting mentioned on my blog.
Other news:
I just finished Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa by Antjie Korg (pronounced “ahnt-key kroge”). It recounts the events and stories of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commision (TRC) as told by an Afrikaaner poet and South African Broadcast Company (SABC) radio correspondent.
I’ve been reading it on and (mostly) off since about Christmas. It’s not a quick read, certainly, and it is, at times, overly academic or swamped by the language, but it’s undoubtedly a very important and valuable thing to read. There are many sections that are direct transcriptions of the testamonies of victims and perpatrators that are so effecting that I simply had to put the book down. I also found the sections where she reacts to the events very interesting.
Here’s one such passage:
The proceedings are concluded with the anthem. I stand, caught unaware by the Sesotho version and the knowledge that I am white, that I have to reacquaint myself with this land, that my language carriers violence as a voice, that I can do nothing about it, that after so many years I still feel uneasy with what is mine, with what is me. The woman next to me looks suprised when I sing the Free State version of “Nkosi [Sikelel' iAfrica].” She smiles, holds her head close to mine, and shifts to the alto part. The song leader opens the melody to us. The sopranos envelop; the bass voices support. And I wonder: God. Does He hear us? Does He know what our hearts are yearning for? That we all just want to be human—some with more color, some with less, but all with air and sun. And I wade into song—in a language that is not mine, in a tongue I do not know. It is fragrant inside the song, and among the keynotes of sorrow and suffering, there are soft silences where we who belong to this landscape, all of us, can come to rest.
Maybe this has meaning to me, but not you.
I found an interesting site run by the USDA that has nutrional information (for reference) for just about everything (that is a single ingrediant and/ or a raw food). Want to know how much fat a banana has? (about 0.3g.) Are sirloin or ribeye steaks healthier? (sirloin is just about the healthiest cut of steak.)
The information is not organized in the manner I’m accustomed to seeing it, but you can find what you’re looking for if you wade through all the information that you’re not looking for.
Some things, specifically cuts of steak, you need to know pretty specifically about the cut in order to get it to spit out the nutritional information.
According to Pitchfork Mark Kozelek will be putting out an album of Modest Mouse covers.
Mark is known for his work in the bands Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, but I like his solo stuff best. He has a penchant for covering bands, having released lots of AC/DC covers and a John Denver cover. As I reported he covers Modest Mouse live, including Neverending Math Equation and Tiny Cities Made of Ashes at the Tsunami Benefit at Great American Music Hall.
The album apparently comes out November 1 under Mark’s Sun Kil Moon moniker.
Kozelek is also touring with Alan Sparhawk of Low as the Retribution Gospel Choir. I missed their show at the Bottom of the Hill Tuesday because my plane landed as they went on. If anyone sees them, let me know how they are. I haven’t been able to find many concert reviews online.
Of all the phrases that I heard over the weekend, one that I heard a couple times and stuck with me: “You have nice friends.”
There are many adjectives to describe this group of people, but that one is a good one.
I’m just outside of DC in Silver Spring, MD. My best friend Andy and I both have birthdays right around this Labor Day weekend and it’s a bigish birthday so I decided to make a big deal of it and fly here and invite people. Andy, Dave, Randy, Ian “the Mayour” Collier and respective significant others, along with my parents and brother came out for this Birthday Extravaganza.
I arrived Friday morning and I’m flying back tomorrow evening.
We did lots of fun stuff and some great hanging out.
Highlights include:
ok. that’s all for now. have a nice day everybody.
Oh, and Katie, you didn’t scare me. I just don’t “talk” to “girls” “good.”
It was nice to meet all the new people I met this weekend!
The playlist for this week.
And, of course, like always, you may listen on the internet.
actually, just spanish.
I signed up for a beginner’s Spanish class at the Palo Alto Adult School. It’s from Sept. 13-Nov. 29 on Tuesdays. I can take the second and third parts in the winter and spring.
There’s also this motorcycle class that I’ve been thinking about. I’ll hold off a bit before signing up for that.
Other languages to learn:
I should be able to learn five languages (english, german, spanish, zulu, afrikaans), right? They’re just words (and syntax and whatnot)….
I spent basically all of Sunday up in San Francisco with Jon Werberg (and Helene and others).
I got a bunch of CDs at Amoeba:
We went to Alcatraz, which was actually pretty interesting. They have an audio tour which is done by some old wardens and old convicts who served at Alcatraz. There are some really interesting stories of attempted escapes and the general conditions there. It’s not quite like having ex prisoners themselves give you the tour but it’s pretty interesting.
Continuing on the things that San Franciscans never do, we headed to the Coit Tower but the parking lot was full and rather than wait for a while or park farther away and walk up, we just gave it a skip.
After wandering around the Mission a bit, we went to Studio Z for a film fundraising thing for a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend (to me, Jon had one less of those). They’re making a documentary about two twins who were born boys but recently (at age 20 or thereabouts) one starting living as a girl and has had sexual reassignment surgery. They showed a 20 minute excerpt of the movie and I really didn’t know what to think. Various people from the mayor’s office and city council spoke afterwards. It was all a bit strange.
After that it was already after 9 and we were a bit hungry so we (Jon, and a few friends and friends of friends and I) headed to Walzwerk, which is a kickass East German restaurant (though don’t be fooled! Spaetzle is Swaebisch, not East German!). I had a Koestriker, potato pancakes, and an entree with chicken stuffed with apples and bacon and mashed potatoes on the side. Man, that’s a heavy meal! I thoroughly recommend Walzwerk. I’d recommend giving the “green salad” a skip; one of my dining companions was thoroughly disappointed with it. Just get some wurst or something!
I went to see 40 year old virgin at the Capitol Drive-In for my birthday on Saturday with Andyl and Shad.
The title basically explains what the movie is about.
It was really funny and well-written. I laughed out loud a bunch. It’s also got a reasonably good story and good characters given the genre.
Of the four major sports (baseball, basketball, football. and hockey), there are 15 cities with exactly one major sports franchise. They are as follows:
the following are what I call “sort of”s because they are in the metropolitan area with major sports franchises:
I added a “covers contest” tag so now you may click on that on the right side (at the bottom of the list, currently) and see all the posts about the covers contest. It’s great for going back and listening to them!
The song for last week was Photobooth by Death Cab for Cutie.
The votes went like this:
Best Cover:
Adrian 3
Dave 2
Most Original:
Adrian 0
Dave 5
Congrats to Dave and me.
four sports or activities in which I can beat the layman but I am no match for the skilled or professional:
I saw Johnny Clegg at Slim’s last night. Johnny is a South African who is sometimes called the “White Zulu.”
It wasn’t my normal indie rock concert fair. The crowd was entirely different—much wider range of ages. It was good fun though. I was suprised at how few South Africans I heard. I mean, how do you hear about this guy if you’re not South African? Have any of you heard of him?
The music was good; many of the 80s-era cheesy keyboard lines weren’t recreated live, fortunately. Johnny told some interesting anecdotes and danced some in the Zulu style. He also speaks a fair amount of Zulu, it seems. One day I’ll be able to speak a fair amount of Zulu.
I made a bunch of Adrian is Rad shirts:
Also, I made a couple hoodies:
Now, for some business. I’m trying to decide whether it’s good or fair to charge people for these? I mean, it’s sort of shameless self-promotion. On the other hand, I did spend ~$8 on each of these shirts? So what do you think?
a) sure, those shirts are pretty sweet and I’m willing to pay for it.
b) I’m willing to pay for one but not $8.
c) this is pretty much shameless self promotion. I’d like one if it’s free.
Anyway, let me know.
I’m doing a different show this week, a world music show.
right now I’m playing this awesome dhrupad by the Dagar Brothers.
my radio show is indirectly mentioned on tiny mix tapes today.
check the second show under the “tour.”
a couple quality “reality” shows that I picked up recently:
Overall some really interesting stuff to learn about our world.
Alright kiddos, here we go.
The entries in the Covers Contest for this week’s song, Photobooth by Death Cab for Cutie (Original):
Listen and vote for the best and most original cover.
The results for last week’s contest, the original for which was Matter by boom bip:
Best cover:
Adrian 0
Andy 1
Dave 2
Jesse 4
Most Original:
Adrian 1
Andy 0
Dave 0
Jesse 6
Good job, Jesse.
One last announcement for this post: We’ve decided to take a break for a bit. We may be back in a few weeks. Dave didn’t seem to have trouble finishing these but I’ve been scheduling my weeks around these because they take me a lot of time and Andy’s been having trouble getting them done, as you may have noticed. Hopefully you’ll see some original output from the three in the near future as well. If anyone would like to make their own cover contest with themselves, I’ll post a link to the result, just let me know. I can even pick a song for you to cover, if you’d like.
There’ll be a covers contest post next week to recap the results from the voting this week.
I saw Grizzly Man tonight.
It’s a documentary about bear activist Timothy Treadwell who lived among bears in Alaska for 13 summers. He called them and his friends and repeatedly tells bears that he loves them. He and his girlfriend eventually get eaten by a bear.
This is nutso German director Werner Herzog’s take on the Treadwell story, assembled largely Treadwell’s own footage.
This movie is pretty intense. It’s definitely an interesting study of one man by another interesting man. There’s some amazing bear and wolf footage. It doesn’t have a happy ending.
I’ve noticed the slowness of the site loading.
I’m going to try to see what’s up.
Here’s a couple fun tests: take a piece of paper and write all fifty states down. No references or asking people. No studying. Take as much time as you need.
Andyl got all of those.
Second test, write all of the capitals down next to the fifty states. Between andy and I we got 44 out of 50 right (and one additional spelling error). That’s a bit so-so.
I made a flower vase out of an antique hand held urinal which I bought as part of the crap buying contest:
It is right by the door of our house.
Here is the original proclamation of Adrian is rad:
I’m going to silk screen shirts to basically look identical. If you want one, let me know. I should have them within the next couple weeks.
This week’s cover contest was for the song Matter by boom bip (Original)
entries!
*I’d like to note that this one is not in stereo. It was done with one mic—banjo and vocals at the same time—all the way through, no overdubs or patch-ins.
Listen and vote for the best and most original cover. We have lots of entries this week so lots of votes would be good!
The results for last week’s cover of Consequence by the Notwist were:
Best:
Adrian 3
Dave 0
Most Original:
Adrian 3
Dave 0
Not that many votes but a clear mandate for ME. weeeeeeeeeeeee
The song for next week is Photobooth by Death Cab for Cutie (Original)
Over the last two nights I watched part of The Gods Must be Crazy and The Gods Must be Crazy II. Man, what a set of fantastic movies!
The basic plots are Xixo, a bushman from the Kalahari, interacting with “heavy people,” e.g. South Africans and westerners. Both movies have a bumbling South African and a woman who interact in a love story.
There is something very charming about these movies. Movies just aren’t made like this any more! Slapstick humor, slightly spead up film for effect, a goofy “narrator” part that makes it seem like an anthropology movie. The first movie even has this problem with the audio where it’s out of sync with the mouths moving on the screen.
I remember in 1989 or so, we’d just moved to Pittsburgh and the whole family went to see 2 at the Galleria (in the right most theater, if you’re counting). It was just at the time when my brother and I didn’t want to sit with our parents at the movies so we sat up near the front (probably the 3rd row—we’d often sit in the 3rd row) and my parents sat near the back. During the entire movie I could hear my dad’s laughter over everyone else’s.
I saw Me You and Everyone We Know on Thursday.
There’s a mentally unstable father and shoe salesman who is just separating from his wife. There’s a performance artist and “elder cab” driver. Then there’s the neighbors and coworkers and clients and whatnot.
I liked it. I can’t really pinpoint why. It’s tremendously funny at points and sad at points. There’s good chemistry between the two leads and in general I like the charactters.
)) <> ((
A friend of mine (Leo) set up a site a called runthere.com. It’s a pretty neat thing he’s set up. You can plug in a route that you run (or walk, or bike, or whatever) and it’ll tell you how long it is.
It’s based on the Google map API which they apparently released, which is pretty cool.
My walk to work this morning was 1.82 miles.
I confirmed today that John Vanderslice will be playing on my radio show in the 8am hour on August 25th, 2005. I’m really excited.
In the meantime check out this track from his new album, Pixel Revolt, coming out August 23rd.
Trance Manual – John Vanderslice
There is this part about 2/3 the way through where there’s this awesome plucked string part that adds to the hand bell part and then another string part on top of it.
Here’s a list:
*The shirt came first, the blog with the same name second. I made it with iron on red letters a white shirt with blue ringers; the ones I’m going to make are basically the same except they’ll be silk-screened.
**Let me know if you want one (and your size). I don’t think I’m going to be able to swallow the cost on them so they’d be $8-$10 or whatever they cost me. I’ll see if I can get a picture of the original up soon.
The cover for this week was Consequence by the Notwist. (Original version).
Here are the entries so far:
*best with headphones or stereo, like usual.
Andy may have one to add tonight. If you want to hold off voting for mine until you’ve heard his as well, that’s okay.
You may listen and vote.
Covers contest #6 Shape of My Heart by Backstreet Boys
Best Cover:
Adrian 2
Andy 2
Dave 3
Most Original Cover:
Adrian 4
Andy 3
Dave 0
Looks like Dave and I squeezed out narrow victories. Thanks for the votes!
Andy was also the chooser for this coming week’s song (cover’s contest #8) so currently we have no song for next week. This may be the end of the cover’s contest.
Update 1: The song for cover’s contest #8 is the Matter by boom bip (with Nina Nastasia) (Original).
Update 2: Added Dave’s cover above.
Update 3: Andy’s not doing a version of “Consequence” so go ahead and vote. I’ve gotta stop being nice and make the deadline the deadline.
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.
Now that Lance Armstrong is riding for Team Discovery Channel, he’s doing a series of commercials for the various tv channels they own, including Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and the Travel (or as I call it Poker) Channel.
These commercials are called Welcome to the Family, Lance and are viewable online here, I saw the Discovery Channel one which has the guys from American Chopper and Lance and I laughed a lot. I’d recommend it. The Animal Planet one with the crazy crocodile guy and the Travel Channel one with the guys from the World Series of Poker are both pretty funny as well.
You sort of have to know the people in each spot for it to be funny.
this week’s playlist. I’m doing an hour of indie, an hour of old-timey and an hour of motown. special edition of the show!
and if you read this before 9am PST, you can listen.
Results of the voting for covers contest #1 entries:
Best cover:
Adrian 1
Andy 5
Dave 1
Most Original Cover:
Adrian 1
Andy 1
Dave 5
So the big winners were Andy and David.
This week’s song is Wait by Secret Stars (original). Here are the entries:
Vote here for the Best and Most Original cover version.
Covers Contest #3: Sassafras Roots by Green Day (original) Entries will be accepted until next Tuesday.
I have a project for which I need a Canon Powershot A40 or A70. If anyone has one to sell, let me know and we can make a deal. It can even be broken in certain ways–it needs to power up and take photos at least, but the zoom doesn’t need to work and battery doors and the like can be broken.
I swam at the Palo Alto Riconada Pool last night because the Stanford pool didn’t have evening hours.
It was my first timed mile in a long time. 36 minutes. Take that Roger Bannister! That puts me on pace for a 54 minute Alcatraz swim
It’s weird swimming in a 25 yard pool again. It feels too short and I could really get into my stroke before I had to turn.
Maybe sometime I’ll write a post about Listen/ Silence.
But for now, I’ll just tell you to listen to my show till 9am PST.
And/ or check out my playlist.
And you should listen to and vote on the entries of the previous post. I know that more than 6 people read that post!
Last week, I announced the Covers Contest.
A brief recap of the idea of the contest:
The original this week was Never Ending Math Equation by Modest Mouse.
Listen:
*[update: new mix]
Personally, I found it pretty hard to conceive of and record a cover in a week–especially because it took until Saturday to get my laptop to a point where it’d run Protools again. A week definitely doesn’t give you time to make things perfect.
Vote for the best and most original cover. Voting will be open until next tuesday.
You can also comment here about the songs, if you’d like.
Covers Contest #2:
Andy’s choice. Original: Wait by the Secret Stars. Entries for this will be accepted until the end of the day next Monday.
Yesterday was the second time I swam in Aquatic Park in San Francisco. Aquatic Park is an area of the Bay that is protected by two piers, so you get all the coldness without any of the ship traffic or crazy currents.
I’m getting ready for a swim from Alcatraz in just under a month. The best preparation for swimming in that cold water is to swim in similarly cold water. Aquatic Park was probably about 58 or 60 degrees.
I knew what to expect this time and I still went into panic breathing when I went underwater. Once I forced myself to put my head in the water again and start swimming, I relaxed.
I did probably a mile and it didn’t feel too bad. I mean, it was cold, that’s for certain, but it wasn’t painfully cold after about the first five minutes. My injured elbow did nag a bit and I’m a bit worried about it, but I think it’ll be okay.
I was wearing a Barracude Hot Head neoprene hood and I had in silicone ear plug, which did help with the coldness. I figure I should be okay to swim without a wetsuit.
At this point, I’m going to start swimming a mile twice a week, one in Aquatic Park and one in the pool down here and probably two shorter work outs a week of kicking and whatnot to still get in the water but to not overwork my elbow. My previous regiment was 3 half-mile swims a week.
the local public access TV channel is on right now with kareoke! it’s awesome. this guy in a stupid hat is singing YMCA out of tune. it is really stupid.
he’s not even doing the hand signals.
It appears that last week you morning blog checkers did check my blog and listen to my show, so let’s do it again.
Listen to KZSU 6-9am PST.
Playlist. (refresh during the show to update the playlist)
Tonight at 10pm is the premier of the show 30 Days on FX. It’s by Morgan Spurlock, the guy who did Supersize Me. In Supersize Me, he took 30 days to live the all-American fast food diet. Each episode of this show, he’ll follow himself or someone else living another experience for 30 days. For example, oie episode is about an evangelical Christian living in America’s largest Muslim community in Michigan for 30 days.
This is like a short documentary more than a standard reality TV show with its share of schadenfreude.
Dave Franusich, Andy Chadwick and myself, the members of the seminal Upper St. Clair indie folk band Where’s Luke? have started a new competition. It’s called the covers competition. It is a weekly competition and this week is the first week.
The idea of the project is this:
*I’m thinking about opening up submissions to any one that wants to do a version…The lead would still be one of us three, though.
This week’s song has been picked.
Covers Contest #1
Song: “Neverending Math Equation”
Original Artist: Modest Mouse.
Dave already has his version done (that’s actually what sort of sparked the idea). Usually the versions will be posted simultaneously.
If can afford to do otherwise (i.e. you know where you next few meals are coming from), you should not shop at Walmart.
I’ve had Hotel Rwanda from Netflix for a while but finally watched it this morning.
It’s good—it’s a tremendously affecting movie.
Don Cheadle’s acting is good, but I think the standout part of the movie is just the story.
That’s all. See it.
Dylan and I have started a crap buying contest.
The terms are:
What’s an example of good crap (and good crap density)? My autographed picture of Bob Villa inscribed “To Joe. Best Wishes, Bob Villa” for $3.
I felt bad because I’m spending $50 on nothing in particular when I could be doing something better with it, so I just donated $50 to Catholic Charities of San Jose as an offset of sorts.
I’ll let everyone know who won and what the haul was when we’re done.
[note: this is an Alex Bischoff tribute post]
I tried the new Diet Coke Sweetened with Splenda and some Better N’ Peanut Butter today.
Diet Coke with Splenda (not to be confused with Diet Coke, which will still be made with the same formula) came out about a month ago, apparently, but I first heard about it today. We all know that Splenda is made from sugar so it tastes like sugar. I was really curious to see how this stacked up to regular Coke (I knew it wouldn’t compare to Mexican coke made with sugar).
I tried some. It was good. It’s not Coke but it may be good enough that the trade-offs (betterness-for-you vs. taste) might be worth it. It has a bit of an off aftertaste, but it’s tons better than Diet Coke. It has the same problem as Diet Coke, though, where it tastes like fizz more than it tastes like Coke. It’s taste is too light, I guess.
I also got a jar of Better N’ Peanut Butter at Trader Joe’s. 85% less fat! Well I thought, if this is good, that could be really good because peanut butter is good but has lots of fat/ calories (even though most of its fat is the good kind rather than saturated fat). This stuff has 2.5g of fat per serving.
It’s texture was alright (smooth—I like my Peanut Butter crunchy) and it’s flavor was alright, but the overall effect wasn’t that great. I like apples and peanut butter together a lot and I tried that after I tried a little bit alone and it didn’t taste that good. The BNPB didn’t add to the overall taste of the apple. It might be better in like a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich or a Velvet Elvis or something. Maybe I’ll try that before I throw it out.
I went to something like 60 garage sales this morning. It was the biennial (as in every two years) Palo Alto City Wide Garage Sale. Just check out the map with locations of sales. Look at all those dots!
The haul:
I had a dream Thursday night about fluffernutters. Marshmallow Fluff isn’t really available around here. I’ve seen the Kraft marshmallow creme but not the real stuff.
I saw the Headphones last night at Cafe du Nord. Serene Lakes and Crystal Skulls opened for them.
Serene Lakes were enjoyable. Sort of emoish or like the mid-90s band Seam. They had free CD EPs at the concert and I got one. I haven’t listened to it yet.
The Crystal Skulls have a lot of potential in that they have two members, Yuuki Matthews and Casey Foubert, in common with the great Seattle band, Seldom. In the end, though, they were not that good. They would start out a song and it’d sound good but it’d ineviably turn bad. The harmonic ideas were noodling and random; the chords just seemed to go from one random chord to another in an unsatisfying manner.
The Headphones played a short but enjoyable set. David Bazan and TW Walsh have good non-verbal communication and are tight when they play together. John Vanderslice was in the front row and seemed to be enjoying the show.
I should let everyone that doesn’t know already that Ken didn’t win on Jeopardy!. It was over by final jeopardy on the third day of three.
I always sort of like the Engineer’s drinking song that we sung at ye ol MIT. The chorus of it goes like this:
We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the engineers
We can, we can, we can, we can demolish forty beers
Drink rum, drink rum, drink rum all day and come along with us
For we don’t give a damn for any old man who don’t give a damn for us.
I decided to poke around the web a little bit and, what do you know, people sing it elsewhere. Here’s a bunch of verses from schools and engineers all around the world!
Who knew?
There is now a Cape Town Craigslist, the first one in all of Africa. Good work, Craig. Cape Town is where it’s at!
There are currently about 100 posts on the entire site. That’s sort of like the Pittsburgh CL. ha!
After day two of the three day point total final of Jeopardy’s Ultimate Tournament of Champions, we have:
| Contestant | Monday | Tuesday | total |
| Jerome | $16400 | $3200 | $19600 |
| Ken | $16000 | $10000 | $26000 |
| Brad | $18400 | $20000 | $38400 |
It’s not looking good for Ken. He looked embarrassed at the end of the day yesterday. He slammed down his buzzer after the Double Jeopardy round. He’s never been up against competition like this before.
I have no doubt that he can win still, but he’ll have to go on a tear. Pull yourself together Ken!
Ken Jennings had a strong start, but he’s up against good competitors on the finals of the Jeopardy Ultimate Tournament of Champions.
It’s a three day point-total event the points from yesterday will be added to today and tomorrow’s totals to get the Big Winner.
(I think they’re calling them points instead of money because they aren’t actually playing for the amounts on the board here—the winner gets $2 million, 2nd place gets $500K and third $250K.)
The results from yesterday:
Ken Jennings: $16000
Jerome Verede: $16400
Brad Rutter: $18400
Brad’s won a previous big money tournament and as such is the only person besides Ken to have won over $1 million on Jeopardy. Jerome started out quite slow yesterday, not answering a ton of questions, but getting the ones he answered right. I’d say he’s the dark horse (much like mim, the dark horse!) Jerome’s won four matches against the best of the best to get to this stage and Brad three (he had a bye in round 1).
It’s really incredibly evenly matched. Ken’s still got that twinkle in his eye, though. I can totally see him just snapping and being like “alright Jerome and Brad, I gave you a chance, but now I WIN” and going on a six category sweep of the board in Double Jeopardy.
As much as I want to see Ken win and am confident in his abilities to win, I’m a bit nervous. Go Ken!
I went to Aquarius Records while I was in the city yesterday. I was surprised at how small it was for a well-renowned record store.
The haul and first impressions:
Yesterday morning I went swimming in Aquatic Park, in San Francisco. Aquatic Park is protected from the nasty tides and choppiness of the Bay, but’s just as cold. Estimates yesterday were in the high 50’s in degrees F.
I went without a wetsuit or even a swim cap. I waded in and it was cold but manageable when I was standing in there waist-deep. When I dove in and started swimming, I immediately came up and treaded water for a couple minutes; I had gone into panic-breathing; I couldn’t control my breathing. I settled down and started swimming and I felt I did alright. I wasn’t swimming all that fast and my natural stroke (without lines on the bottom to guide me) apparently veers a lot to the right. But the cold wasn’t unbearable and I actuallly got used to it after a bit.
I might go up again next weekend.
how’d everyone do? I drove because it was raining and because I had my radio show before hand. Not much of an excuse, I know.
I bike 3-4 times a week to work, on average, though. That counts for something, right?
Andyl and I saw Fever Pitch on Sunday Night. I liked it.
It’s a movie about a fanatical Red Sox fan (Jimmy Fallon) and his priorities with new non-Red Sox fan girlfriend (Drew Barrymore) based on a book about a fanatical soccer fan.
It’s by the Farrelly brothers (Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber), so there is some gratuitous (and funny) bathroom humor, but mostly it’s a love song to the Red Sox and their 2004 season. And something of a love story between Fallon and Barrymore too.
Both Andyl and I came out of the movie, somewhat strangely for a movie about a team and a girl, very nostalgic for Boston. I knew where Drew Barrymore’s character lived (based on the First Baptist Church, at the corner of Comm Ave and Clarendon, you see as Jimmy Fallon leaves her apartment); it’s probably around 93 Marlborough. That was about a five minute walk from tEp; fenway was about a fifteen minute walk. It’s all very familiar.
Caveats to my liking this movie:
I went to the BoSox vs. Oakland A’s game tonight at the Coliseum. It was a really exciting game!
Sox out to an early lead. Oakland scored a few runs to a 5-3 lead and then the Sox scored 4 in the eighth to take the lead, which they held onto to win. Very exciting.
The Coliseum is an old concrete cookie cutter stadium, but it’s actually sort of charming in that way. Lots of bathrooms, quick to get out at the end of the game without much battling the crowd. The bleacher seats are cheap and the view isn’t bad at all. And the Oakland fans are quite devoted. I like that. Even though in the end they will LOSE to the Sox. HA!
here’s a partially done song that I worked on this weekend. I have a banjo part for the chorus and the verse and some vocals for the chorus.
I don’t completely hate how my voice sound here. Just mostly.
I had a guitar part in over the verse banjo part (the plucked part) but I couldn’t get it right so I took it out. Maybe I’ll try again later.
The click-track is not permanent (probably). It just needs the rhythmic backing and I haven’t done a real beat yet.
I’m not happy with it. It needs a decent beat and some more parts and a vocal melody.
I finally got back and scanned some of my photos from my company’s trip to Cabo San Lucas in February. Here’s where you can find them.
I also scanned in some pictures of Pittsburgh mostly of friends, but some are of Pittsburgh and the AFC championship game.
So during my radio show on Thursday, I set a new record for callers with 8 (only two of which were friends of the hosts).
We had lots of good music. Good flow.
from Asthmatic Kitty
Sufjan Stevens
* w/ Liz Janes
July.15 San Diego, CA – Belly Up Tavern – * w/ Bunky
July.16 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theater – * w/ Bunky
July.17 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall *
July.18 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall *
July.19 Santa Cruz, CA – The Attic
July.21 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theater *
July.22 Seattle, WA – Triple Door *
July.23 Seattle, WA – Triple Door *
July.24 Vancouver, BC – Richards on Richards *
July.27 Boise, ID – Neurolux *
July.28 Salt Lake City, UT – Lo-fi Cafe *
July.29 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theater *
July.30 Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen *
August.1 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room *
August.2 Tuscon, AZ – Plush *
August.19 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
August.20 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
Tickets went on sale for the GAMH shows today. I bought two for each show.
I saw the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou the other night [it was pretty good, not Wes Andserson's best, which may be Rushmore] and now I really want a Team Zissou red knit beannie cap.
The Onion shows it in the Swag Year in Review like I want it, the ribbed hat with the stop light on it . I’ve seen a lot on ebay that don’t look like that. They have movie title embrodiered on them (which I suppose I could rip out), they don’t look particularly ribbed and I haven’t seen the stoplight logo.
(Not to mention they’re expensive.)
Andy, your theater doesn’t happen to have any of these promo items lying around?
Useful background:
I don’t really time myself swimming anymore, but yesterday I was curious as to how slow I am so I did so. Slightly pushing it (but mostly just gliding along), I did 800m in 15:40. That’s not bad! I used to swim the same distance breaststroke in about 16:00—well technically I was doing 800 yards in ~14:30—if I was going at a pretty good clip. Now freestyle is a faster stroke (1/3 faster usually), so almost the same times for the two of them isn’t that great on an absolute scale, but considering I’m swimming injured and I’m definitely not swimming my fastest, I’m pretty pleased that I’m not coming in at like 18 or 20 minutes for that distance. Go me!
I’m swimming the 1.5 mile alcatraz swim in July. I think coming in <1 hour would be a good goal and <55 minutes might be nice.
I went to the Pirates @ Giants game last night with Quincy and, what do you know, they won 5-2.
I have to admit, I’m not a great fan, in the classic sense. My teams are not infallible and in the case of the current Pirates, I didn’t go to the game expecting them to win.
They got off to a slow start and were down 2-0 when Jason Bay smashed a ball into left center for a 3 run home run. Things looked up from then on out. There was a ton of good fielding (on both, teams, actually) and a couple more solo homers from the Pirates. Let’s go Bucs!
Quincy bought the tickets Monday afternoon and we got seats in the front row on the first base line. The (non-enclosed) Pirates bullpen was about 10 feet away. Apparently I got on TV too! Mike Bokoch, fellow Pittsburgh-Peninsula transplant, watched the game and saw me. I was right in front of a kid that got a ball from a ball boy. According to Mike, the shot stayed on us for about 30 seconds! I’m famous!
In other strange news, I ran into Balaji Sarpeshkar, someone I knew from high school (USC Class of ‘99 rules!) at the Caltrain station after the game. I don’t think he recognized me and I didn’t give him much chance to figure it out; I shook his hand and told him my name (because it seemed he didn’t recognize me) then bumbled for a couple seconds about how it was weird to run into him and then said I had to make sure I caught the next train and then did so. Maybe he’ll google for his name (everyone does it. it’s natural) and figure out who I am and whatnot.
I’d heard this song a few times (well parts of it, I’d usually switch the station or whatever) where there’s this sort of drunken shout frat boy anthem that goes “Beverly Hills! That’s where I want to be!”
I don’t pay attention to the pop music that much, so I just figured it was some one-hit crap band that makes crap music like that and for some reason the big radio stations played it because they do that.
Well! Turns out it’s Weezer. Oh man. Where have “My Name is Jonas” and “The World Has Turned And Left Me Here” gone?
On Wednesday, Gumbeaux and I saw Boys of Baraka as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Here’s a pretty good article about the movie and the story of the school. (Username:bugmenot90@mailinator.com
password: bugmenot, courtesy of bugmenot).
A few years ago Baltimorian (?) and philantropist Robert C Embry, Jr. and his Abell Foundation started a boarding school in the Kenyan bush for 20-40 “at risk” inner city boys a year. The idea was to get these kids away from gangs and drugs and shootings and give them personal attenion in teaching. The movie follows four kids as the go through this program and come back to Baltimore, some drastically different and some not.
I liked this movie quite a bit. The four kids they follow are really interesting. They are so genuine and funny. The editting must have been really hard; I bet there was just so much that they could have included. I would have liked to see more about their time in Kenya, particularly the boys’ reactions to Kenya and their interactions with the locals.
The scenes there were very familiar to me; my short trip to rural Tanzania looked very similar. I wanted to tell people around me at the theater that I’d seen these scenes and the people.
Because of circumstances beyond the directors’ control, it wasn’t the movie they probably set out to make and in the end it wasn’t the movie that I wanted it to be. (It’s sort of a spoiler so I won’t say what happens.) That was a bit disappointing.
There is something about documentaries that can really effect me. I guess it’s because these are real people and events that really happened. They can show you the goodness of humanity (and sometimes the badness). The characters are endearing. Other documentaries that I really liked: To Be and To Have and Spellbound.
One thing that sort of angered (I don’t know if that’s the right word) both Gumbeaux and I was the audience reaction to some parts of the film involving one of the boys Devon. Devon’s christian and he wants to be a preacher. In fact, he has the whole African-American evangelical preacher style down. (you know, the sort of agitated style with the vocalizations as emphasis: “I would like to ask you Lord huh! to help us huh!”) And he preaches at his Church when he gets back. People laughed at this. Not a “that’s cool” sort of amazed laugh but a condescending laugh. People also laughed when Devon was in Kenya and he was on the phone with his family and the preacher happened to be there and he told Devon to testify to the people. As Gumbeaux put it, if people have an enlightened enough world view to want to see a movie about this, then how is it that they are so condescending to these displays of christianity?
I could say more about this but I think this is as good a point as any to stop.
Me and the roomies are having a party tonight. (yes, I know that sentence that is grammatically incorrect and I don’t care.) I am preparing a Serious Kick Ass Motown playlist. [Technically Sam Cooke and a couple other of these artists weren't on the Motown Label but they're close enough.] People will want to shake their bootie.
Go ahead and prepare this play list at home at tell me that your bootie doesn’t shake.
Without further delays, here is the playlist:
Some song names you might not recognize, but you’d probably recognize the tunes, that is, if you listened to oldies/ motown stuff.
Ken Jennings, Jeopardy all-time champion, game show all time champion, and my hero, lost on Jeopardy! in November after 74 straight wins. A sad day, for sure.
But never fear! You will be able to see him again! The Jeopardy Ultimate Tournament of Champion top contestants will face Ken for a three day show down May 23-25. Get ready!
My normal cohost was out of town, so I did a radio show by myself.
This is what is looks like when I pick all the music.
Here’s another sufjan song for yunz. It’s one of my favorites off of the yet-to-be-released Illinois. So delicate. So well orchestrated. Such a sweet guitar part.
The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us! by Mr. Sufjan Stevens. (He’s so dreamy!)
There’s a sort of breakdown part where most of the instrumentation pulls back about 3:47 in that reminds me a whole lot of another song. I could figure it out for the longest time.
The answer is somewhat embarrassing and I think it may be one of those things that if you know to look for it (ie if you don’t notice it but I tell you) it’ll be all that you notice, so I’ll put it behind the screen, so to speak, in case you don’t want to know.
I saw a talk by the founder and artistic director of Project Bandaloop on Thursday. It’s a “dance troupe” but they “dance” on the sides of buildings and cliffs and such. It’s a combination of rock climbing, gymnastic and dance. I was, to be honest, a little skeptical when I went in but I was astounded when I came out.
Depending on the situation there is different amounts of free rope and therefore different microgravities that they’re seeing in their orthoganol world. On the side of a building in Houston, they had something like 300 feet of free road and were doing something like 11 second jumps. That’s rediculous!
Because of the micro-gravity effect they can also do absolutely gorgeous poses like these hand stands (I actually saw a photo at the presentation of a similar thing but on the corners of the Space Needle.)
I highly recommend checking out the video gallery and the photo gallery.
Sufjan Stevens has a new album coming out called Illinois, the follow-up to his Michigan album. Only forty-eight states to go!
Anyway, because I’m just that cool, I’ve hunted down two of the 22 track on the world wide interweb.
And this guy has “Come On, Feel the Illinoise”. (via brooklynvegan).
They’re both good. Much more in the full orchestrated style of Michigan than the mostly banjo, non-state-album Seven Swans. And both are over six minutes long. I don’t think this’ll be the pattern for the album because twenty-two six minute tracks would be a two hour and twelve minute album!
(And we know that it’s one disc.)
(And I like how I spelled out the numbers in this post. Doesn’t it make it annoying to read?)
Andyl the other day: “You must think your friends from high school are awesome… because they’re from Pittsburgh. “
I saw the movie In Good Company at Flicks at Stanford.
The 10pm shows at Flicks are fun: They put out newspapers and you ball it up and chuck it at people. Fun!
Quick plot summary: 26 year old up and comer ad exec, played by Topher Grace, become 51 year old old school ad exec, played by Dennis Quiad’s boss. Scarlet Johanssen plays the daughter of the old ad guy. She starts dating the young ad man without either telling the dad. Hijinx ensue!
I was surprised by actually how good it was. I didn’t expect it to be horrible, but I didn’t expect it to be good either. There were some moments that were genuinely very funny, mostly ones that were also very awkard. The story isn’t a break through story that no one has ever told, but it was good enough and only mostly predictable. The right people changed and the right people got their comeupance. I would say border-line theater material, but probably better as a rental.
The film has three songs by Iron and Wine on the soundtrack. Two were from the album Our Endless Numbered Days and one was brand new previously unreleased. It came on during the credits. Andyl and Dylan walked out and I just stood there and listened.
When I got home I found that it’s called “Trapeze Swinger” and it’s over nine minutes long in it’s full version. It’s also only available from iTune Music Store as part of the In Good Company Soundtrack. Well f that.
It turns out it’s available here. Read the comments to see how to actually download it (annoying! but worth it). It doesn’t sound like some of the other Iron and Wine songs (well sort of, it mostly does). It’s long; it has a loopy feel; the instrumentation builds; there are backwards loops in there (definitely not trad folk instrumentation there). Oh, and did I mention I’ve listened to it about fifteen times today because I like it a lot.
The first line of each verse just works so well. “Please remember me happily/ fondly/ at halloween etc.” Eh, just listen to it.
Last night, as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival, I saw Street Angel with live musical accompaniement by American Music Club.
American Music Club is a pretty old indie band (started in 1983!) with Mark Eitzel (who’s done some good stuff as a solo artist) that’s recently reunited. AMC did a great job with the music. They didn’t follow many of the customs of silent movie accompaniement. For instance there was singing!
The movie was surprisingly nuanced and complex for a movie of that error. I’m used to watching some of the more facetious silent movies, like Buster Keaton movies (who’s completely awesome!). This movie was much darker but still with a happy ending.
If you’ve never seen a silent movie with live musical accompaniement, I’d recommend it highly. Most of the time it’s a piano or organ. The Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto has a Might Wurlitzer organ with silent movie Wednesdays during the summer.
This is a three concert week (well, eight days) for me. I saw the Crooked Fingers at the Great American Music Hall last Saturday and the Album Leaf at the Independent on Tuesday. It was my first time seeing both of these bands. On Saturday I’m going to see a silent movie accompanied by the American Music Club.
I’d only started listening to the Crooked Fingers after the tsunami benefit at GAMH in January where he, Jonathan Richman, Mark Kozelek and Ben Gibbard. And here was this guy who was the leader of the seminal indie rock band Archers of Loaf playing toned down americana sort of stuff. I checked out some records at the station and they were good.
It’d been a long time since I’d gone to an undersold show at GAMH. It was surprising that people weren’t packed together (and that I could sit down in the balcony).
They put on a good show. They did their songs well. There was enough energy but nothing really special. The best part of the show was during part of the encore when they took acoustic instruments (two acoustic guitars, an upright bass, a fluegelhorn, a flute, a snare and a high hat) and went right into the middle of the audience and played for everyone completely unmiced and unamplified.
According to my crappy Sidekick camera, it looked sort of like this:
The Album Leaf were good. One of the things that makes live performances different/better than the studio recording is energy. Nominally electronic music can’t really have more energy, but that is not a worry with the Album Leaf live show, as it turns out. Plenty of emotion and energy.
I guess that’s all I have to say about that.
Oh wait, I do have a little more to say. This was my first trip to the Independent. It’s layout is somewhere between the Paradise and TT the Bear’s (for the Boston music sceners out there). It’s got high ceilings but it’s a fairly small room. The crowd wasn’t giant (which I always like) and the vibe more down to earth than the usual San Francisco venues.
With the Postal Service’s music appearing in just about every commercial on TV or radio currently and Give Up selling over 500,000 copies, which is huge for an indie album (100,000 is big for an indie album, many indie bands hope to sell around 15,000 copies of an album), I decided name a few other albums that you may like if you liked Give Up. The two elements brought together by the Postal Service are the electronica (IDM)-ish stuff by DNTEL aka Jimmy Tamborello and the indie rock/ pop by Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie).
The obvious:
The not-as-obivous:
Note: these are just some albums you might like. You might not like all of them. In fact there may be some you hate. Many of these bands have songs on their websites that you can listen to and get a feel for their music. Otherwise there are various forms of downloading music, both legal (Epitonic!) and otherwise.
Andy was tracing through our roadtrip route in Google Maps (which, incidentally, has a neat satellite photo option in the upper right corner if you haven’t noticed) so I decided to put my two road trip travel logs up on the web again.
Road Trip USA was July 13 – July 20, 2003. Andy Chadwick, Dave Franusich, Randy Oswald and myself covered 5600 miles from Pittsburgh to Santa Monica and back in a nutso crazy tour of our fine country. (If you haven’t read the Grand Canyon entry on this one yet, do so. It’s in the Wednesday entry.)
RoadTrip2 was June 13 – June 21, 2004, with andyl covering 4500 miles from Boston to Menlo Park through the American South.
I’m really glad I did these. I like reading through them again.
There is a lot of talking about Cardinals recently.
The correct form of a Cardinal’s name is first name Cardinal last name. Bernard Cardinal Law is correct; Cardinal Bernard Law is not. Cardinal Law is acceptable in short.
Just like you don’t say the name of the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson, but Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Please commence using the correct form. Newspapers can’t get it right.
I am not in South Africa; rather, I’m writing about my band with David Franusich entitled Greetings from Johannesburg.
The reason for writing is that it looks like we’ve finished the 6 song EP, finally. The mixes and mastering aren’t done but the writing and recording are.
MP3s of the songs are here if you’d like to listen.
The most recent changes were on the song Nashville, which I changed around on Saturday. On the other end of the spectrum, I haven’t touched Bitter in over a year and Thaw in over two.
You can comment on the songs, if you’d like. We also are looking for better titles for some of the songs and for the EP in general if you have ideas on those.
With less than 5 minutes notice, I did a radio show from 7-9PM last night. It was kind of fun, rushing around and grabbing stuff.
Here’s the playlist.
If this weren’t on the Idaho state website, I’d think it was fake.
That’s right, Idaho has commended Napoleon Dynamite with such language as:
WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho’s most famous export; and
WHEREAS, the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered multiethnic relationships; and
…
WHEREAS, Pedro’s efforts to bake a cake for Summer illustrate the positive connection between culinary skills to lifelong relationships; and
WHEREAS, Kip’s relationship with LaFawnduh is a tribute to e-commerce and Idaho’s technology-driven industry; and
…
WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote “Nay” on this concurrent resolution are “FREAKIN’ IDIOTS!” and run the risk of having the “Worst Day of Their Lives!”
I’m glad we live in America where people can make completely stupid resolutions in the government.
(Which reminds me of a time at tep where I made a motion to devalue the penny from 1.00 cents to 0.88 cents. I believe it failed. I may have reintroduced the motion later to devalue a penny to 0.92 cents. I thought that was a more fair indicator of it’s true valuel.)
Via Wally.
The San Francisco International Film Festival is coming up.
Here are some of the movies I may want to see. Anyone want to go to any of these?
optometrists, if you will.
I decided while I was swimming today that I like them. And I’ll tell you why: there is no shame associated with them, no fault.
Besides perhaps “don’t stare up into the sun, kid” there’s no “you have to take better care of your teeth” or “you have to take better care of your body[/ heart/ lungs].”
GQ, of all magazines, has an article about a giant Christian rock festival call Creation. It’s lengthy and sort of interesting.
As someone who’s never seen the appeal of “Christian rock,” even to Christians, I took some particular joy in this passage:
That’s the last thing I’ll be saying about the bands.
Or, no, wait, there’s this: The fact that I didn’t think I heard a single interesting bar of music from the forty or so acts I caught or overheard at Creation shouldn’t be read as a knock on the acts themselves, much less as contempt for the underlying notion of Christians playing rock. These were not Christian bands, you see; these were Christian-rock bands. The key to digging this scene lies in that one-syllable distinction. Christian rock is a genre that exists to edify and make money off of evangelical Christians. It’s message music for listeners who know the message cold, and, what’s more, it operates under a perceived responsibilityone the artists embraceto “reach people.” As such, it rewards both obviousness and maximum palatability (the artists would say clarity), which in turn means parasitism. Remember those perfume dispensers they used to have in pharmacies”If you like Drakkar Noir, you’ll love Sexy Musk”? Well, Christian rock works like that. Every successful crappy secular group has its Christian off-brand, and that’s proper, because culturally speaking, it’s supposed to serve as a stand-in for, not an alternative to or an improvement on, those very groups. In this it succeeds wonderfully. If you think it profoundly sucks, that’s because your priorities are not its priorities; you want to hear something cool and new, it needs to play something proven to please…while praising Jesus Christ. That’s Christian rock. A Christian band, on the other hand, is just a band that has more than one Christian in it. U2 is the exemplar, held aloft by believers and nonbelievers alike, but there have been others through the years, bands about which people would say, “Did you know those guys were Christians? I knowit’s freaky. They’re still fuckin’ good, though.” … In most cases, bands like these make a very, very careful effort not to be seen as playing “Christian rock.”… And here, if I can drop the open-minded pretense real quick, is where the stickier problem of actually being any good comes in, because a question that must be asked is whether a hard-core Christian who turns 19 and finds he or she can write first-rate songs (someone like Damien Jurado) would ever have anything whatsoever to do with Christian rock. Talent tends to come hand in hand with a certain base level of subtlety. And believe it or not, the Christian-rock establishment sometimes expresses a kind of resigned approval of the way groups like U2 … [These bands] take quiet pains to distance themselves from any unambiguous Jesus-loving, recognizing that this is the surest way to connect with the world (you know that’s how they refer to us, right? We’re “of the world”). So it’s possibleand indeed seems likelythat Christian rock is a musical genre, the only one I can think of, that has excellence-proofed itself.
Then again, it likely falls into the same trap that he accuses Christian rock of falling into: preaching to the converted. (I can’t imagine the average GQ reader to like Christian rock).
Much of the article is about five (I think five) crazy friends from West Virginia that the author meets and hangs out with. There are some interesting happenings.
I like that their relationship ends like this:
Darius said God bless me, with meaning eyes. Then he said, “Hey, man, if you write about us, can I just ask one thing?”
“Of course,” I said.
“Put in there that we love God,” he said. “You can say we’re crazy, but say that we love God.”
Overall the article is a pretty good read. It falls into some of the usual traps of misinterpreting Christians and Christianity, but surprisingly, the overall effect is not slamming either.
I’ll be DJing my first show in a few weeks tomorrow. It’s the Spring programming season so we went through a new lot of scheduling. I’m on from 6-9am PST (PDT?) on Thursdays still, but this time I applied for a show with a cohost, Tyler aka bedlam (like I am aka canuck). He’s another mech e doing the same program I did last year. He did college radio at Princeton.
The whole cohosting thing should be interesting. I’m in my third year of being on the radio and have never cohosted. I’ve let other people guest host and things but never let someone else pick music that went on my show. I’m just a little possessive.
The title of the show, “one tall canadian and one short american” comes, in part, from Vince, the guy who announced Palo Alto City Council for KZSU. We were talking on the phone and he was asking what my show was called. I said “I Once was Canadian” and he said “One Tall Canadian?” I liked it so much: “Yeah, that’s good. One Tall Canadian.”
So tune in tomorrow if you’re around.
None of my regular readers have t-mobile/ danger sidekicks, I don’t think, but maybe people will search for this and find my brilliantly written article and then pay me money.
Anyway, I dropped my sidekick 2 yesterday from about 4 ft onto a brick pathway. I picked it up and the screen was blank. It wouldn’t power up. Disaster.
I took it back to work (this happened during lunch) and I took it apart with one guy. Some pretty good mechanical design in there, whoever did that. Nothing looked broken. All the boards in tact and all the flex circuits and whatnot looked fine. The connections between the battery and the circuit board seemed fine. We put it back together.
I went to another guy, who uses a sidekick himself, and he plugged it in. Bingo. It works fine. The problem apparently was that it lost power for a second on the drop and after a power failure like that it goes into a software lock of sorts, where it can’t reset on battery power, but the wall power provides a hard reset. That’s the first thing to try.
that’s the title of the new Damien Jurado album. I got it and the new Magnolia Electric Co. at Amoeba yesterday. I haven’t listened yet, so I have no review as of yet.
I mentioned previously that I went to the Design Museum while in London. One of the exhibits had a couple things creditted to “fakeisthenewreal.org” so I decided to check it out. It turns out it’s quite interesting. Subway routes, comparitively, at scale; the US reproportioned for equal population electoral states, and the symbollic alphabet are some of the more interesting.
I’m back from London. Did you miss me?
The reason for visit was my cousin’s wedding, but I got to hang out a couple days in the city as well.
London sites:
Shows:
Movies seen en-route:
I’m in the Charlotte airport on the way to london. I have a few hours here. I’m going to a cousin’s wedding. I won’t be bloggong a lot. (hopefully).
I saw low and pedro the lion last night at great american music hall. good show. low was interesting. lots more distortion and stuff, keeping with their new album.
I got 2 hours of sleep last night. I didn’t remeber to bring the british money my dad gave me and I don’t have cuff links for my french cuff tux shirt.
Yesterday, while out running errands, Andyl and I were at BevMo just across from El Mercadito Latino in Redwood City. I decided to go in to see if they stock Coke in glass bottles made with sugar (instead of corn syrup). They do. I bought 6 @$1.19. I now have 3 left.
It’s so good. I like the glass bottle. I like the way it feels in my hand— the cold glass with condensation. I like the way it feels on my lips. I like the way it tastes; it’s crisper and less syrupy. I like how it reminds me of cokes I had in bottles in South Africa (and, to a lesser extent, Germany and Tanzania among other places).
An article about Mexican Coke vs. American Coke.
Other things that I like in glass bottles or with sugar instead of corn syrup:
yes, to answer your questions, I am apparently a total hippie.
I saw the premier of the american adaptation of the Office the other day. Quite good. I’ll have to check out the rest of the episodes.
Dis jaggoff on sa’urday night live jus did a picksburg accent n’ at! Dat is sumpin dat I nevr thought I’d see. Right der in one of dem sketches! Did yunz guys see dat?
Problem was, he was drinkin a bud, not an arn, and hes sez steeelers not stillers. But he did talk plenny bout Cowhr.
[Update: Check 'is aht. An article in da Picksburg Post Garzette jus 'bout dat sketch!]
Last Friday, the 18th, I saw Paddy Keenan at the Plough and Stars in the City.
Here’s a nice bio/ interview of Paddy if you want to know more about him. He’s an uilleann piper, and one of the best. The guy who introduced him at the Plough and Stars called him the best piper that ever lived. I don’t know. Seamus Ennis was really good.
Uilleann pipes are the irish sorts of bagpipes. Much more social and less loud/ militaristic than the scottish sort. And more difficult to play. Wikipedia will tell you more about the uillean (pronounced ill’ ee-an or ill’ an) pipes.
The Plough and Stars is a great place to see irish music. Lots of Irish there and not a lot of the stupid people who go to see the Chieftans and start clapping at the slightest sign of a reel.
Paddy was there with Tommy O’Sullivan, his touring partner and guitarist. Tommy did a few songs but the bulk of the night was focused on Paddy.
Paddy is just amazing. He has such tremendous technical skill on the pipes. He can start a reel out fast and then speed up even for the last time through. He can do all this while playing the regulators as well. He can also improvise in a tasteful manner and play the low whistle like a champ.
Paddy had a few guests on for a couple songs. There was a guy playing lap steel (dobro), which was more interesting than good and a guy playing bodhran, which was nice to hear.
I got a practice set of uilleann pipes a few years back. I should break those out and see if I can do something with them. It’s a gorgeous sound.
I am just downright sexy!
I have one of my dad’s old navy blue V-neck sweaters, a light blue t-shirt peaking out in the V and at the waist. Khaki cords and some blue leather adidas kickers round it off. I feel like just looking in the mirror all day.
Watch out, world, here I come!
The title is me singing along to a Rachel’s song.
Because I’m on the radio, as I type this!
rock n roll.
I spent the weekend in Death Valley with Dylan, Andyl, and Dale. We’d heard that there was the best wildflower bloom in many years, some saying 50. When Andy originally suggested Death Valley, I thought it was about four hours away. Turns out that it’s about ten, maybe nine if you don’t stop for any breaks. California is quite large and there aren’t any direct routes there.
How do you fit twenty hours of driving and wildflower viewing and sleeping in a weekend? Well the last thing gets knocked a bit. We ended up leaving at 4:45am on Saturday; I’d gone to see Paddy Keenan on Friday night (to be blogged about later) and had ended up going to bed at about 1:30 and waking up at about 3:45 in the am.
We got to the park after stopping for breakfast and at the jerky guy previously mentioned on this here website at about 2pm or there abouts. We stopped in Stovepipe Wells, trying to figure out if we should camp there or go on–we didn’t get an answer from the rangers whether Sunset was already full so we decided to go on. We ended up finding a spot in the Sunset overflow tent campsite, which is basically a gravel parking lot. A flat parking lot with a nice view, but if you’re going, bring a mattress pad. Andy and Dale regretted they didn’t.
After registering for and claiming our tent site and setting up the tent, we headed off to some dunes that we’d driven by on the way from Stovepipe Wells to Sunset. Dylan has a bunch of photos online of our adventures climbing the dunes. We ended up making it to the top of a maybe 100 foot dune. It was quite a nice view over many dunes and into the mountains. We saw a muted sunset from up there and then made our way back to the car.
My big plan as soon as I saw the hills behind the Sunset campground was to get some PBR and go up into the hills a bit after dinner. Turns out the general store at Stovepipe Wells didn’t have any PBR, so we got giant cans of Foster’s.
Who could predict what would happen when we got into the hills and started in on the beers? I can. I will tell you what happened.
We invented a new sport. Competative rock stacking. The rules will be goverened by the IFRS (International Federation of Rock Stacking). The short of it: you must stack reasonably sized rocks as many high (serially, no parallel stacking) as you can. Dale won a tight contested match against Dylan 12 to 11 with a questionable rock 1.
We ended up going to sleep pretty early and waking up around 6:30. After breaking camp, we did a quick hike at Natural Bridge and a stop at Badwater Basin (lowest point in the US!) we hit the motherload. There are a couple areas between Badwater Basin and Salsbury Pass that are just spectacular, especially near the mill ruins and one right near Salsbury Pass. Fields entirely yellow, like velvet from afar.
I’ll develop my films in the next couple weeks and get them online.
just before the 190 on 395, there is a man named gus who advertises really good beef jerky for 75 miles before.
his claims stand up.
the apparently best wild flower bloom in 50 years in death valley is on now and I’m about 50 miles from it. I’ll be back in the bay area sunday night
probably a leftover from my time at tep, I don’t really open my mail until it’s overflowing. Many of my bills are paid automatically or I periodically pay them online.
well, yesterday, it was time to go through my mail. here are some conclusions, harper’s style. There were probably about a hundred pieces of mail from mid-november until now:
*I should note that I’ll look through what appears to be new mail (the stuff at the top of the pile) and open things personally addressed to me or with a return address of someone I know. As such, I had already opened a wedding invitation. I also open netflix.
those things are fun!
I just blasted my car with high pressure soap, rinse and wax.
I had Friday Night Lights from Netflix for a while and got around to watching it last night. I liked it. The screenwriters did a few clever things to fit some things (quotes/ thoughts) into the movie that weren’t said in the main action. Some of it was sensationalized from the book (which Odessans said was sensationalized from the reality) and some details were left out, but that’s to be expected. It’s pretty hard to condense four months of detailed story and backstory into a two hour movie. Tim McGraw did a really good job for his first acting role and the kids and Billy Bob Throton were good as well.
The Explosions in the Sky soundtrack was pretty awesome. I’d heard many of the tracks already, but they fit in a lot better in the context of the movie.
dang! I’m tired!
this week’s playlist for my radio show.
if anyone was listening, the dead air and awkwardness in the later part of my show weren’t my fault. I had a dj trainee sitting in on my show.
hey andy, remember when we’d have mike glasser “sit in” with our band? and all he’d do would be to sit on a chair amongst the band? that was good stuff.
Non-German speaker Paul Pham, currently in Austria, in a recent email:
p.s. the guys around my lab speak English so I won’t feel left out. This includes cursing. Whenever anyone yells “Schei!” they have to remember to yell “Shit!” afterwards for my benefit. It is pretty awesome.
During all my years of high school, I played trumpet in the pit orchestra for the high school musical. Much of the time was boring and we were under-recognized for our tremendous skill. We were also some of the only people to see the musical in its entirety many times—many of the leads and chorus members only saw the scenes they were in—to the point where we knew all the lines and scenes in the musical, putting us in a unique position to make fun of it.
An that’s what we did. Jeff Miller and Colin Ashe, still friends of mine, started with a small-scale parody of Cinderella. The following year was the first real Pit Skit with Toilet Paper Man, a parody of Music Man, where a man comes to town to try to sell toilet paper to the people. The next years were Brig-a-Mart, a story of a Canadian convenience store that was stuck 10*pi years behind, a parody of Brigadoon and Joseph (or was Jorje) and his Amazing Techinocolor Pimpcoat, where I played the lead, a parody of, well you should figure that one out by now. The three that I did (Toilet Paper Man was the first) were a lot of fun. We wrote and rehearsed these two-act, 20-30 minute elaborate skits complete with props, a program, and plenty of sexual innuendo. They were performed over two nights at the pre-show meeting. We regularly would have to ask people to not laugh as much because we didn’t have that much time and they were missing our other funny lines.
What got me thinking about all this was a scene from Brig-a-Mart that still makes me smile. In Brigadoon, there was a scene in which the guy from the present is talking to one of the stuck-300-years-in-the-past Scottish ladies that goes something like this:
him: are you crazy?!
her: what is ‘crazy’?
him: insane.
And Brig-a-Mart, we had it like this:
him: are you nuts?
a guy-dressed-as-a-girl: what is ‘nuts’?
him [hands her a dictionary]: here’s a frickin’ dictionary. look it up!
a guy-dressed-as-a-girl [flips to page]: oh, I see, ‘testicles’.
The guy was played by Jimmy Cramer and the guy-dressed-as-a-girl by one of the best to ever play such a part, Pat Bird.
I should also mention that we didn’t rehearse with props. I would go around my house the night before and collect props. Sometimes we would forget about a prop and just fake it.
This all leads up to how the above scene played out during the perfomance. Pat and Jimmy were going along with the scene. I realized that the dictionary was still in the prop bag still. I reached into the bag and grabbed it. Jimmy’s facing me and Pat away from me. Let’s see how it turns out:
Jimmy: Are you nuts?
[I make eye contact with Jimmy and indicate the dictionary]
Pat: What is ‘nuts’?
[I toss the book. It makes a perfect parabolic arc over Pat's head, clearing it by a couple inches. Jimmy snatches it out of the air just as he's beginning to say:]
Jimmy: Here’s a frickin dictionary. Look it up!
…
I couldn’t have planned it better. I still smile thinking about it.
Any other USC HS people have fun Pit Skit memories?
So KZSU broadcasts PACC (Palo Alto City Council) and there’s an engineer at the Council and one at the station. These days, I’m the one at the station.
Usually PACC runs forever. Today it ran short of it’s alloted time, so I actually needed to fill some time with music.
my short playlist of some totally sweet Motown.
to be clear, the links in this post are mp3s of music I made as part of my band with Dave, greetings from johannesburg. you may comment on them if you like. italics.
I busted out a new version of a lullaby last night. I moved the bridge around a bit and dropped the percussion out there for a pseudo-breakdown feel.
The older version, plus the other greetings from johannesburg songs I’ve been working on (and their old versions) are in this directory.
Rock on?
My 3rd concert in 4 days was Jens Lekman (”yenz lek-mahn”) at Cafe du Nord on Saturday. His name is a bit less familiar than the Mates of State and the Polyphonic Spree, but I did previously mentioned him on this blog. He recently released his first album after a couple successful EPs. This page on Secretly Canadian’s website has a bunch of (free) rare songs. It’s worth checking out if you’re curious.
Back to the show. I went with Dale and his friend Jen (also from EC at MIT). The opening bands were so-so and the band after Jens (Kelly Stolz) turned out to be not worth sticking around for, but Jens put on an enjoyable show. He played some guitar and ukulele. He had a drummer, a bass player (from the Impossible Shapes) and a cello and violin player. The latter two really added quite a bit to the songs. Jens was entertaining and his crooning voice came through really well in the mix. He had a funny habit of singing with his eyes shut. I found it a bit charming.
The judgement on the show: I’ll probably try to see him again if he’s in town. I’d recommend seeing him if you have the chance. It probably won’t change the way you view music (like, say, a Polyphonic Spree show might), but it’ll be an enjoyable show.
His music really sounds like a mix between the Magnetic Fields and maybe Belle and Sebastian, but his records are really well produced with samples of various instruments such as “Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa” has this awesome latin sampled drums and later a bunch of a crowd clapping and saying “hey!”
The worst part of his set was that it was short. He said he was taking his uke out into the crowd and he would play any song by request to people personally but I didn’t see him. I would have requested “Tram #7.”
Last night I had a detailed and vivid dream that I pretty much put my job on hold and moved to germany without even knowing where I was going to live. There were other people with me (my mom, I think, was one of them). We went to Stuttgart and went around and it was all very familiar (because I have lived there before) but I decided that if I was going to live in germany it had to be Berlin so we went there. I forget where the dream ended but we definitely got to Berlin, but I don’t think I’d rented an apartment yet or anything like that.
now I’m off to sleep again. We’ll see what tonight brings.
This idiom dictionary is awesome.
My favorites:
And a few everyday ones that are just strange:
All this idiom talk has also gotten me looking for idiom stuff in German, because if idioms can be this foreign in English, they must be hell in German. Here’s one German-English idiom dictionary.
when I post my music, do you not comment because:
a) it’s bad?
b) you read my blog at work and don’t have speakers/ headphones? or
c) you don’t really know me so it’d seem sort of awkward?
I suppose I could expand this question to include people not commenting in general.
Judit, Dave, Andy(L) and I (and some of Judit’s coworkers/ friends) went to Palo Alto Bowl (or PAB as I call it) for kareoke night. The kareoke is for the most part painful, but check this: $13 gets you shoes and as many games as you can bowl between 9 and midnight. We ended up bowling five games, I think.
99, 115, 122, 126 and 139 were my scores. Not 194 but not bad either.
I just spent the past four days in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (at the end of the Baja California) with my company. My guest was Dave Franusich.
It was sort of like a Corona commercial. Blue skies, palm trees, Corona (or some Mexican beer), sand, warm weather. It was all inclusive so I ate and drank a bunch. I chatted to coworkers a bunch. I relaxed a whole lot. Definitely needed.
The resort and parts of the town of Cabo are sickeningly American. This definitely wasn’t a Mexican experience.
I got some good photos, I think. I’ll try to get some scanned when I get them developed.
Ody posted again. He’s posts really infrequently but the posts are of such high quality. He’s a master story teller.
Also, out trivializing even Jesse in the blogosphere is this guy.
to all the people who don’t care about Wurlitzer electric pianos at all, because it seems like every second post talks about them. As it turns out, I spend a good amount of my interesting, non-work time on them; that is non-work time that isn’t TV or making dinner or reading websites or whatever.
What do people think of the blog-title-continued-in-the-post thing that I did on this post and the last one? effective? confusing?
Firefighter dies figting blaze
[sic!]
Will “Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy” Oldham and Matt Sweeney will be in Baltimore at the Ottobar on April 25. It’s the last date of the tour.
Oh and Tarky, they’ll be in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts on April 17. (And Pat, in Pittsburgh at the Rex Theater on April 14, if you’re interested)
I missed them at Amoeba (free!) a couple weeks ago because I was in Pittsburgh for the game.
The new (collaborative) album is pretty good from first listen. I’m reviewing it for the station.
yeah, I thought of it while half-asleep at about 6:30am this morning. I was about to go back to sleep and, for some reason, decided that I needed to remember it in order to post later in the day.
Take a horse to water and he’ll not thirst for a day. Teach a horse to drink and he’ll not thirst for the rest of his life.
I saw a Afri Cola bottle while shopping at Bev Mo the other day:
[picture taken with the crappy camera on my sidekick]
and it reminded me of my time in Stuttgart. They had afri cola at the commisary at my company which was open daily from 8:30-10am and 10:30-11am. I’d quite often get a bottle for the afternoon.
I bought the bottle at Bev Mo and drank it. It’s actually not incredible soda, but I don’t care.
I was always struck by the incredible graphic design they had. The white palm tree and “afri cola” on black. So simple, but so catchy. I have a shirt that has that design on it. And that bottle!
I was also reminded about this sweet commercial they had of a bunch of people in a line in a train station or something dancing away the time. I was please to find that afri cola has a bunch of their commericials online, including the the one I remember. It’s still fun to watch.
For the non-german speakers Kein Vergnuegen ohne Gefahr (on the bottle) roughly means “no pleasure without danger” and und alles wird afri roughly means “and everything becomes afri.”
So among my huge lot of Wurlitzer 206As I also got one 200A, which is a more popular model that includes vibrato.
So I tried to play the 200A last night. The keys hardly move and definitely won’t slide from one position to the other (up to down and visa-versa). I open it up and I really can’t comprehend what happened to this keyboard. There is masses of dust that’s black but has shavings of metal or something that sparkles. It’s everywhere. On the circuit boards, between the keys, near the pickups. I need a vacuum. I tried to use one of those pressurized air cans and it got freezing before half the job was done.
The felts on the keys that allow it to slide up and down are hard. They’re hopeless. There are two points at which it slides and two felts per point and 64 keys, so I’m looking at replacing 256 very small felts.
There are brown/ black stains in the wood of some of the keys. Mold?
Maybe they kept this thing in a damp area near the exhaust of a machine-shop sander or something.
On the good side, the electronics look fine and all the pick ups and felts/ action that aren’t the keys looks fine, flawless almost. When I forced one of the keys down it emitted a glorious tone with sweet vibrato.
[Update: Despite being sold as a 200A, I think this actually a 214W.]
So the state of the union deal was last night. Blah blah we all hate bushy yada yada.
He proposed a reform to Social Security. People are up in arms about it, of course. He outlined some apparent principles of this thing and I will regurgitate them from memory and add my thoughts:
Now, I don’t know the details of the plan itself, but it seems to me that if I get to choose where my withheld money goes and it’s stays mine, that’s almost as good as it being in my pocket and me getting to put it into my 401K or Roth IRA or whatever. Are mandatory withholdings good? In the end, probably yes. It would probably cost the taxpayers more to have retirees going onto welfare or other government programs because they didn’t save enough.
Again, I’m making assumptions. This time that the Social Security system needs to become zero-sum. I don’t think it can last with the young funding the old, etc.
I think basically most of this comes down to the thought that I’m doing reasonably financially and saving money under my own volition for the future because I want to and other people could be doing the same if they wanted to badly enough. I can make you a giant list of (non-MIT) people who are smarter than me, but I am here, at a job that I enjoy, making a reasonable wage, because I worked really freaking hard for the last ten years to the edge of insanity (literally) multiple times.
Or maybe I’m just trying to justify my way out of the guilt I feel for being in my situation. My head is starting to do this floaty/ detached thing, which means it’s time to stop now.
Here are the controls on our stove:
I’d always assumed that Hi was the highest (ie “4″) and the numbers were out of order, like old stick shifts for manual transmission cars, when they were on the steering column, which go 1-N-3-4-2. (I’ve only been in one of these cars once; the cabs in Hong Kong had these.)
Andyl, on the other hand, assumed the numbers were in order and Hi meant “1.” The numbers were ordered from low (”Hi”/ 1) being the hottest and warm (5) being the coolest.
Basically we were in agreement about Hi being hotter than Lo and Warm being the coolest, but not about the order of 2 or 3. Which is hotter?
So we conceived of an experiment without a thermometer, which we didn’t have. We’d fill the same, cool pot to the same level with the coldest water our tap could produce. We’d cover it and put it on the same burner, preheated to the setting. Then we’d time it to see how long it took for the pot to boil (which we defined as the time when multiple bubbles rose within a short span of time, which is not really boiling, but a pretty identifiable time in the boiling of water). We’d repeated this for both “2″ and “3″ settings.
The results?
So the numbers are in order and some how “Hi” is actually the lowest number.
[Update: People don't understand how I thought they were out of order and I'll tell you this: I can't understand how Hi is a low number rather than a high number. In temperature, 3 is hotter than 2 and 2 is hotter than 1 and "Hi" means 5 or 10 or whatever. Why does Hi have a number? Can't it just be "Hi"? Hi has to have an implied number if there are 2 and 3 between Hi and Lo.]
I decided that I wasn’t going to watch TV today.
It’s weird. There are many times that I turn it on and I don’t think I notice. I was like “what am I going to do while eating lunch?”
I decided to read, but something else came up, which I’ll blog about later.
Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure
dashing
adj.1. Audacious and gallant; spirited.
2. Marked by showy elegance; splendid: a dashing coat.
We all know that I’m dashing, but who knew my life is dashing.
