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Tuesday, March 30, 2010
treasure trove
last time we were in florida, dr. wintermute (total wizard) scanned a pile of old pics. brilliant. there are a bunch of classics, and now we have them captured digitally.
mama cass put together this masterpiece. she combined cornifying (it's what the kids are doing these days) and the woman who is trying to eat her way into the 900 lb club (urged on by her boyfriend, whom she met on a fat-fetish web site).
greetings from marta in atlanta. my delta flight landed 30 minutes early, but the fuckwits who operate the concourse (i'm not sure whether it's delta or hartsfield or both) couldn't figure out how to get us to a gate. in fact, we ended up sitting on the tarmac so long we were late.
and the train does not appear to have any intention of leaving. i have now been in atlanta an hour and thirteen minutes, and have traveled less than half a mile (from tarmac to the train). i made it from bwi to atlanta in an hour an hour and thirty minutes!
it's good to see that not too much has changed in atlanta.
tonight will be a good one. stinky, big game, and bama boy are meeting me for some metalsome monday.
i rarely blog about work, but this week is a milestone of sorts. after fifteen months in nashville, i'm starting a new gig, working for our CIO. a fresh start. i'm excited about working for a small team (going from running a fifty-five person team to being part of a six person team). i learned a lot about myself, in nashville. one of those things is that i'm better at building than i am at repairing.
nashville was a fantastic experience, and i'm going to miss a lot of things about it. great leaders, great people. one thing that i won't miss is getting on a plane every single week. this gig will be a lot more flexible, and i'll be able to be in dc a ton more.
Today is my grandmother's (whom we call Ba) 95th birthday. My brother flew is yesterday to visit and celebrate. It's a great week, as it's also jay-z and dr. wintermute's birthdays.
last night we went out to eat in chinatown and met up with shan de la shan (aka the king) to get some crabcakes.
here are the two wiseguys of the fam, as well as pic of them a few years earlier.
Alice in Chains - March 3 - DAR Constitution Hall, Washington DC
Alice in Chains was one of my favorite bands in high school. i loved facelift, and dirt came out right when i was learning to play guitar. i thought that it was sweet that they were cast in the movie singles (didn't totally get the movie at the time, but it has one of my favorite soundtracks--hidden gems by pearl jam and soundgarden include 'state of love and trust,' 'breathe' and 'birth ritual'). i listened to dirt over and over. 'angry chair' was one of the first songs i learned (6th string tuned down to D, open D note against B and C on the 5th string)--so easy, so ominous-sounding. it was a cool moment to be able to play along with a CD.
in our band, we covered man in the box and them bones. the latter was really difficult (if i remember correctly, the verse is in 7/8 and the chorus is in 4/4; the vocal harmonies are insane), and we never got it to the level where we could play it in shows, but it gave me a whole new level of appreciation for chains. we also covered a song or two from mad season (staley's other band with mike mcready). when sap came out i sat down with the cd and my acoustic and taught myself almost every song from beginning to end. jerry cantrell was my reason for buying a wah-wah peddle. wayne, my neighbor who gave me rides to school freshman year, was a huge chains fan, and we listened to dirt and facelift in his integra.
so i was bummed when layne staley died, and had to accept that i plain missed out on seeing them in concert. i comforted myself that at least i got to see soundgarden in their heyday.
like most fans, i was skeptical of their new album and singer. it felt a bit out of the movie 'rock star' (with mark wahlberg), which i actually love because it's every kid's dream. but how could anyone sing like layne? harmonize with jerry?
william is the real thing. he doesn't try to be layne or replace him. he does sound a lot like him, but not exactly, which is fine. he also plays guitar, which is cool. he has a totally different vibe. layne was intense and shaky (heroin will do that to you). williams is more chill, he struts around the stage and seems very friendly and accessible. it helps that jerry cantrell IS alice in chains--he sings lead on a lot of songs, sings harmony or unison on most of the others, and his riffs define chains' sound.
a great show at dar (daughters of the american revolution) constitution hall. a great venue (we saw the pixies there last fall). very intimate, great acoustics. good seats, courtesy my brother (the tix were a christmas gift).
totally stripped down stage. the amps were actually covered with some kind of reflective cloth on to which they projected different films stills and animation. jerry was clearly the mc, doing most of the hosting. he apparently was really sick, and announced that dc's toilet system was working well. at the end, he thanked the crowd and said that they carried him him through the show.
they opened with the heavy crunchy riff of all secrets known from the new album. i'm glad that they are functioning as a real group, i.e., writing and recording new material, and not just playing as a tribute band to themselves.
my favorite songs were 'rain when i die', 'it ain't like that,' and 'again. their rendition of rooster gave me new appreciation for the song.
no pics of my own, as the band did not allow cameras. i grabbed a couple on flickr--the first one is from last night, the other is from a previous show at the 930 club in dc.
Muse - Resistance Tour - March 2, 2010 - Fairfaix, VA
Muse rocked the house Monday night at George Mason University's Patriot Center (which is the worse marked arena ever--it was freaking impossible to find on campus). my brother has seen them and he called it his favorite concert. ever.
now that is a tall order. i take pride on all of the great shows that i have seen, but he has seen ever more than i have. working for fender and having access to the corporate box seats at virtually ever arena in phoenix helps.
muse did not disappoint. they are the guys that start band practice with the amps turned to eight, and by the end, they are cranked to eleven. is it ever possible for a concert to be too loud? i don't think so, though after being front seat for metallica in 1996, i felt a bit differently. muse came the closest to match that sonic assault.
their light, laser, and video show was bar none, even queensryche at their peak. as dr. wintermute put it, everything about the show was cogently put together--it all fit. their video had a distinct sci-fi vibe to it, which I dug a lot.
i shouldn't overlook the silversun pickups. i know only two of their songs (lazy eye and panic room), but they were a great opening act. panic room, in particular, sounded great. and their bassist plays loud! i mean, i could feel ever note she played in my chest. their singer has a very distinct delivery--kind of a billy corgan croon.
so muse opens with 'uprising' from their new album. each band member is on a rectangular column which hydraulically rises about twenty feet. the column itself is a giant video screen, plus there is a symmetrical video screen above each band member.
the set list was fantastic. they mixed in songs across their albums. in particular, they played 'map of the problematique' in addition to the fan favorites and singles. 'map' is perhaps my all-time favorite muse song. some pics, plus the set list below. only disappointment is not hearing 'mk ultra.
hell of an opening moment
these images of thousands of face resolved to spell out muse
the columns rising, andy playing a baby grand piano
plug-in baby, with giant inflatable eye balls released into the arena
the finale--knights of cydonia--ending with huge steam bursts out of the stage
Most of the folks reading this blog now know our news: dr. wintermute is pregnant, and we're going to have a little jedi august 26. we're going to start a separate blog to write about the youngling.
we did our first major shopping expedition yesterday. first, we went to look at strollers and learned how they can go from stroller to bassinet to optimus prime.
then, we we went to pottery barn kids.
they have a star wars-themed bedroom in the store.
it was like they made it just for me.
a great bed
a great pillow
the importance of reading early--a proper book collection
straight out of glamour shots by deb
you can run, but you can't hide from pics this good
straight out of glamour shots by deb
you can run, but you can't hide from pics this good
