What are the "rules" when it comes to Saturday and Sunday afternoons? Is there a certain code or something I have to follow with regard to moving/activities? My preference is really to sit around and do nothinh; to relax.
When I was a kid, I was made to do stuff on the weekends. And I'm not talking about the standard, "grill, its nice outside. You should go outside and play" shtick. I like doing outdoor activities. I'm outdoors-ish. When I lived in LA, I used to get up early every Saturday morning to drive 20 minutes across the city to play basketball with 20 other semi-coordinated dudes. I miss that I can't do that anymore. I'm talking about on crappy or even semi-crappy days. Why do I need to do anything? Can't I just be...lazy?
Right now, I'm single, I don't have kids...when I don't have work on the weekends, shouldn't I be allowed to be some kind of blob (gelatinous or any other kind)? Once I have gf/wife/kids, it won't be my choice or my time anymore. I probably won't even want it to be or think this way (most of the time, at least). But for now, can't I spend the day semi-comatose, watching crappy 80's movies on TNT/USA/Bravo/HBO? At least, can't I do so without people trying to make me feel guilty?
I'm at the point where I usually have work to do on Sundays anyway, so I spend most of that day at the local coffeeshop/bakery reading...particularly with football coming to an end. So that pretty much leaves me Saturday. And since Friday is usually the only night of the week I go out with any viguor, half of Saturday is already lost to sleep.
I guess I just want someone to tell me that relaxing is ok or that being a vegetable on the couch is ok or that sleeping through an entire weekend afternoon is ok. Ok?
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I've recently become obsessed with my iPod (though it is a Gen3 and probably getting close to death). I'm fortunate enough to have friends who constantly keep me up to date with amazing new music. After hitting ACL in the fall, I made it my goal for the rest of 2007 and all of 2008, until I return to Austin, to see as many concerts as possible. Thanks to the use of my trusty volvo, I've been able to get to shows in Providence, NYC and Boston:
Blonde Redhead LCD Soundsystem The National Talk Demonic Arcade Fire Band of Horses Cold War Kids Mute Math Spoon
I also had tickets to New Pornographers, but had to sell them last minute. Brutal. Fortunately for me, ACL the TV show has been rocking all winter with Arcade Fire, Wilco, Ghostland Observatory, Bloc Party, Patsy Kline, Paolo Nutini and others. Not the same, but it helps. All the music got me thinking, I wonder if all of these awesome musicians, aside from just being flat out awesome (awesome of course being a trait of their awesomeness) were connected. Had they ever played together? Had the written songs together? Been on the same compilation? You get the drift.
So, I did a little work to see if I could connect the redheaded ladies of the New Pornographers (Neko Case) and Rilo Kiley (the gorgeous Jenny Lewis). I think I was able to do it with only one stretch (two bands on the same compilation album) and found some sweet videos in the process. So here we go with "X Degrees of Win Butler" (I chose Win Butler because he is a) the lead singer of one of the hottest bands around (Arcade Fire) b) because he appears sort of in the middle of the game and c) because Win Butler is just weird and random enough to show up on stage somewhere and fill the void left by Kevin Bacon's wonderously mulleted shoes):
First up, the Canadian group, The New Pornographers. Their newest album, Challangers might be their best. I had tickets to seem them here in Boston, but got stuck at work and had to sell my tickets last minute. I hear the show was fantastic (every member of the band was there) and caught the previous night's show via "All Songs Considered" podcast. Gotta love NPR. Below is the title track from "Challengers":
As mentioned, the lovely redheaded lead singer is Neko Case. Ms. Case has had a pretty prolific solo career (as have all of the members of NP). Below is the song "Favorite":
This track, is from her 2001 album, "Canadian Amp," which featured a number of different musicians. Among them, on violin, was Andrew Bird. Andrew Bird is an immensely talented violin player and whistler. I've tried to see him live a number of times and finally succeeded at ACL. His performance was amazing. I'm not quite sure what the spinning things on the back of the stage are (or were doing), but his sound is unique and his whistling is piercing. Below is a live performance of "Plasticities":
While his sound makes me think of a Tim Burton movie (almost "Eerie Classical" for lack of a better classification), that doesn't mean that he can't rock out or appreciate real rock music. After staking out a great spot for nearly an hour for My Morning Jacket at ACL (and being immensely pleased with the opening part of the set), I was blown away when Andrew Bird moseyed on stage in shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and a lei to play accompaniment for a few songs. Fortunately, someone captured it. "Gideon":
There seem to be very few "rock" bands out there...or at least very few rock bands that avoid being classified by me as "cheesedick" rock. MMJ is certainly one of them. I was first introduced to them about three years ago. First time I heard it, I felt like I was in 1960 something and hearing something totally fresh, free and rocking. I had tickets to see them in NYC in fall of '05, but got sent to SF for work. Fortunately, a year later, I saw them at the Whatever-They-Are-Calling-the-Shawmut-Fleet-Center now. They were opening for Pearl Jam. They came on stage for a song or two. This is what it was like. The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away":
Eddie Vedder and the Boss perform "Darkness On The Edge Of Town," what can I say:
Springsteen has been showing up on stage with a lot of contemporary rock musicians in the last few years (some would argue that he IS a contemporary rock musician, but nothing beats "Greetings From Asbury Park," the guy has been around forever). I guess I first noticed it with the concerts for John Kerry in 2004. But like David Bowie, the Boss has become a big fan of indie rock sensations, The Arcade Fire. Bruce and Win Butler (lead singer of AF) were featured in a cover story for Spin Magazine in November. That mag hit the stands shortly after Win and his wife Regine (lead singer and about 18 instruments for AF) appeared on stage with Springsteen to perform AF's "Keep the Car Running":
Arcade Fire, if you aren't familiar with the, are flat out awesome. They exploded on the scene almost three years ago out of Montreal and have been playing sold out shows all over the world ever since. I saw them perform at Coachella in 2005, with zero expectations. I'd never seen a band with that much energy (or that many members). The crowd fed off of it and they, in turn, got more pumped up by the crowd. I've seen them four times since (I think they've added roughly a new band member each time). As big as they became, as quickly as they did, they still play these tiny, quirky shows that are impossible to get tickets for, but are absolutely amazing. Here they are in the basement of the Ukranian Center in Montreal playing a surprise second encore of "The Well and the Lighthouse":
Here is the only stretch of my little experiment. The truth is, I could have stuck with live performances or collaborations and gotten here in a few more steps, but I think co-appearance on compilation is ok in one instance...particularly when the compilation is for something awesome. In this case, it is for "Six Feet Under, Volume 2: Everything Ends." SFU was a revolutionary show that posed the hard questions about life, death, family, blah, blah, blah (I don't mean that yadda, yadda out of disrespect for the show, but merely don't have the literary chops to analyze it). Only fitting that two darlings of indie rock, Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie end up with back-to-back tracks on the disc. Here is Death Cab performing "Transatlanticism":
Ben Gibbard, lead singer of DCFC, is has a knack for catchy music and an incomparable lyricist. His side project, The Postal Service, only produced one album, but songs from it show up all over the radio, tv and film. The most well known, "Such Great Heights" features some of Gibbard's best:
I am thinking it's a sign that the freckles In our eyes are mirror images and when We kiss they're perfectly aligned And I have to speculate that God himself Did make us into corresponding shapes like Puzzle pieces from the clay
As a side project, Postal Service featured musicians from outside of DCFC. One of them was Jenny Lewis, who performs all of the female vocals on the PS's album, "Give Up." She made a couple of surprise appearances on stage with Gibbard while he was doing a solo tour. Here's one such appearance in Seattle for a performance of "Nothing Better":
Ms. Lewis spends the bulk of her time as the front lady for Rilo Kiley, a band she put together with some of her friends in LA. Their first album "Portions for Foxes" was an indie hit and landed them on a major label. Very recently, they released "Under the Blacklight," from which this is the first single, "Silver Lining":
And with that, we complete the trek from one talented red headed musician to another (and we complete the killing of a few hours of my life). I guess I'm putting this out there because I've been lucky enough to have some friends really educate me on some good music (thanks ep, chim, alexa mayo, lpj, mands and blizzle), so I'm attempting something similar (and dorkier) for anyone looking.
I've been eating a lot of GORP (that's "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts" for the uninitiated) lately. We have a small pantry in our offices and I've found myself wandering into it at various times during the day to mix myself up a serving. Well, to be fair, I shouldn't call it GORP, since it is not GORP in the traditional sense. My standard mixture includes M&M's (my candy arch-nemesis).
I imagine that when people speak of GORP in today's Whole Foods world, they call it trail mix. I believe you can get it in small plastic containers at your local grocer/health food store/wholesale club. But when I think of trail mix, I think of a multitude of ingredients: various nuts (most definitely peanuts and cashews), dried fruits (often cranberries and that unidentifiable yellow sugary thing), seeds, cereal (chex or cracklin' oat bran) and raisins (yes, I know raisins are in fact dried fruits, but they are separate). For me, this "trail mix" seems more like something I'd feed my horse while we walked on the trail than something I'd eat myself. But when I think of GORP, I think of a tasty snack.
Maybe its the M&M's. I'm not sure when they made the cut to become a standard GORP ingredient, but when I tell people I'm snacking on GORP, they more often than not assume I've included M&M's. I'm not sure, harkening back to when I was a little'n and went hiking in NH, if I've ever had GORP sans M&M. It makes me wonder, at this point, doesn't the M&M deserve to break into the acronym? It IS the most enjoyable ingredient.
I've tried thinking of other acronymic foods with late ingredient introductions (my ears are open if you know any), but have had no luck. As I have been known to make up words occassionally (read: often), I feel like I can personally rectify this situation and right this wrong. So, for me at least, as of today, GORP will no longer be known as GORP. From now on, its MMGORP (pronounced "mmmmm-GORP"). It captures everything:
1) It has two M's to get the M&M into acronymic equilibrium. 2) It puts the representation for the M&M's first, which is where they belong in terms of flavor contribution. M&M's are so ephing good, they go before "Good Old." 3) The pronounciation of the new acronym perfectly captures how I feel about this treat. Mmmmmmm. Yup, that's it. There you have it. MMGORP...mmmmmmm. Don't you just want some?
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Referring to his new status as the Democratic front-runner, he said: "This feels good. It's just like I imagined it when I was talking to my Kindergarten teacher."
I appreciate that Boston has put in a great deal of effort to try and improve rider access/comfort/enjoyment on all forms of inner city transport. Despite the fact that the MBTA is a big money loser, they have purchased some new trains, upgraded stations and introduced and RFID/swipe card payment service to replace tokens. It is this last "improvement", the Charlie Card, I have a problem with.
I ride the bus to and from work everyday. On the Silver bus line, all but one stop (one which I never pass) are outdoors. None of these outdoor stops have Charlie Card recharging stations. So for bus riders who want the convenience of tap-and-go, refillable commuter passes, they have to go to some other station, out of their way, to buy a monthly pass. I thought that maybe the MBTA website would have a solution. They did, but it was worse.
I ordered my Charlie Card online, it came nearly one month later for the following month. Great, I have it. At the end of that month, I return to the website, assuming all the personal information I gave them the previous month would allow me to purchase a refill. Nope. I could order another Charlie Card (about as thick as a credit card) which would only let me buy the following month's pass. So, if on January 29th I went to the site to refill, I could only order a NEW March pass. Spectacular.
Why create a system of convenience, only to make it inconvenient to use? Only in Boston. ------------------------- Sent using BlackBerry Wireless
I still don't understand why voters in any states that get to vote between now and February 5th ("Super Duper Tuesday" as I like to call it), would let anything that any idiot on TV says about their potential candidate change their vote. Actually, the people on the TV shouldn't have any influence. Pundits are just opinionated people who have managed to find their way onto the TV because they moved up some ladder from some previous job or moved sideways from some political job. They are the equivalent of TV lobbyists. They carry an air of impartiality, but nearly everyone of them would sell their own child to fluff John McCain. I mean, the guy finished fourth, behind Fred Thompson and barely ahead of Ron Paul, and Mike Allen of Politico is on TV talking about how McCain is the story...other than Obama, of course. I do think that McCain is genius for plying reporters with alcohol back in 2000. I mean, get some reporters drunk on your straight talk train and they will completely overlook when you sell out your core principles four years later to get someone who slimed you in the worst way elected president and will continue to overlook your overt conservatism to declare you "genuine," "straight-talking" and "moderate."
It's the same with Clinton's third place finish. Yes, it's a disappointment, but did I really need to hear Gloria Borger tell me that Hillary was cold and Barack was excited? Couldn't I just watch and make a judgement for myself? Hillary Clinton has raised a lot of cash and isn't going anywhere. Carl Bernstein told me 70% of D's in Iowa voted against her...gasp! By that genius logic, 62% of D's in Iowa voted against the winner! Wow, people are split on who they think should be president. Five days from now, Hillary Clinton could finish first in NH, John Edwards and Obama a close second and third. This is not my prediction, I'm just throwing out a scenario. What does that mean? It means people are still split on who they think should be president. And while the press will be in a frenzy, you know what that means at the end of the day? Nothing, because it's two small states that are in the bottom quartile of delegates to the D's national convention and are unlikely to swing the national election. So when these guys go crazy because Obama got 16,000 more votes than Hillary in IA (which translates to all of a two delegate spread), people should just tune it out, watch what the candidates have to say and then turn off the TV.
But not me, I like going all Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the pundits. I can't quite capture the sound of Chris Matthews spitting all over everyone though.
