Now that it's ancient history...

... part two of my ACL experience. Sunday was to be my busy day, having to see Elvis Costello, Spoon, Wilco, and Cake, back to back. It didn't turn out to be as busy as I only stayed around for a few songs of Spoon and Cake. Spoon I had seen at the last ACL festival, up close where I wasn't going to get this year, having stayed around for all of Costello's set. So while I didn't hear much of them this year, if you haven't heard Spoon you should check them out. Catchy riffs, many piano based which isn't all that common. Cake was the last show I wanted to see and again coming straight from Wilco, I wasn't going to get close enough to really enjoy them. I listened to a few songs, and since the first one they played ("Sheep Go to Heaven") was my favorite, I took that as a sign that I didn't have to stick around for much longer.

As for the sets I did see, Elvis was outstanding. His encore (one of only a few that weekend) lasted forever.. "Pump It Up" ended and started right up again a couple of times. He wouldn't have played so long if he wasn't enjoying it. The sound guys were having a hell of a time getting the right balance though. The stage he was on was plagued by problems all weekend, too bad but didn't make me enjoy the set any less.

Wilco also was excellent--and they got to use the good stage, too! I wasn't close enough (and didn't stand up enough) to see how Tweedy was enjoying his set, but it sure sounded like he was really getting into it.

Brief description, I know.. I'm really just doing it so I can say I at least covered the whole weekend. I'm glad I went, but I left again this year thinking maybe one day is enough for me. Its hard to go that way though cause there's always a band I want to see each day.

Maybe I will comment on my non-music thoughts about ACL if I get around to it. Cheers

ACL Music

There was lots of good acts at ACL last weekend. If you didn't have anyone talking at you, and if you had enough concentration to not get distracted by the sweaty, tanned, fit bodies surrounding you on this hot, sunny weekend, you might've actually had the chance to enjoy some of it.

I showed up on Friday afternoon to hear the tail end of Neko Case. I don't know much about her except she's good looking and has a nice voice. Also, she sang on an album I own by the New Pornographers, which I remember being described as a "Canadian super group" of sorts, made up of famous Canadian musicians. I believe she sings mostly country, but I only caught the last few songs of her set. She does have a beautiful voice.

From there I went to see Solomon Burke. This R&B icon (who unfortunately I had never heard of until that day) had a great set, regarded by many to be the best of the entire weekend. It consisted of a review-style set, with lots of medleys and tributes to other R&B acts. The large band and singers were all dressed in formal attire, quite amazing consiering how hot it was. Solomon's daughter several times throughout the set came over with a towel to wipe down his bald sweating head, as he sang sitting in a green and gold throne. I thought it strange that he sat while singing, and I only realized at the end of the set that part of the reason for the throne is that he has trouble standing, evidenced by the use of a wheelchair to wheel him off stage. The music was great but what really made it impressive was the feeling that Solomon and his group were really emotionally involved with their music.

I had planned on seeing Franz Ferdinand Friday evening, but left as they drew a large crowd and I was unable to get close enough to hear their music enough. I only know this act by the ten second video clip they play at the end of one of my MTV reality shows anyway. I like the clip, but I'll have to experience their music some other time.

Saturday I headed down to see G Love and Special Sauce, who I've heard a lot about but have never seen. Unfortunately, due to a scheduling change, they weren't on when I thought they were and I went to see Modest Mouse instead. Their music was simple but catchy, which is not a bad combination. I don't have much to say about them except that they ended early, which is not a good thing. Ending early is about the only bad thing a band can do at ACL. Is it too hot for you, wimpy band? Play your allotted time! C'mon, you only have one set!

The only act I'm aware of that had more than one set was Trey Anastasio, who I saw next. Its probably impossible for this guy to play any venue shorter than one hour. If he did, it would only consist of one or two songs, right? I never thought you could jam to two chords for so long. I stuck around for the first half of his first set, and probably should've stayed for more. He really got the crowd going and I was feeling it. There was definately something in the air, I tell ya.

The reason I left early was to get a good seat for the Pixies. I love their music, they had a huge crowd, they sounded good, but regrettably on stage they just looked like they were going through the motions. They also ended early, which pissed a lot of people off.

I still have Sunday to talk about; probably a shorter entry, and no sound clips due to my stupid ass plugging the mic into the line input. Stay tuned!

A new Monday exercise routine?

I didn't mention in last Thursday's post that I also had a similar run last Monday. Those runs turned out to be good training for ACL weekend, with all the sweating and drinking; maybe I was subconsciously training for it. I decided to repeat it again tonight. I picked some good music to run to at 160 bpm, Manplanet and Devo. Hmm.. Manplanet's website seems to be gone now, I hope they haven't thrown in the towel. They are a Devo-ish band from Minneapolis that you might have seen on an episode or two of the short-lived Comedy Central series "Let's Bowl." Both bands make for good running music as a lot of their songs are up near 160 bpm to begin with.

The brew pub I headed to downtown for my mid-run break was out of the home brews I usually enjoy, so I decided on their home brew stout which went down surprisingly easily. Great fuel for the run back home, which seemed much shorter than the trip out for some reason. I watched a little MNF, put off the other things I planned on doing, and am sitting here right now about to fall asleep.

ACL synopsis coming soon, I mean it...

ACL Weekend

Unless you've been living under a rock (or somewhere other than Austin, TX I guess), you know that this past weekend was Austin's second largest music event, the Austin City Limits Music Festival. I plan on writing more in depth about my experience, but for now, here is a list of bands I heard: Neko Case, Solomon Burke, Franz Ferdinand, Modest Mouse, Trey Anastasio, The Pixies, Elvis Costello, Spoon, Wilco, and Cake.

I'm beat

Last night was one of those nights when I had a lot of fun. So much fun that I was an additional hour late to work past my normal late arrival time.

I'm blaming it mostly on exercise. I play trivia at a bar downtown on Wednesdays. Last night instead of driving my car or motorcycle down, I decided to run (its 2.5 miles away). Running makes me want to drink--a lot. That's normal. Except maybe that it doesn't matter if its water or something stronger. What's definately not normal is that drinking makes me want to run, too. That then makes me want to drink more!

What made the running more fun last night is that I've resurrected my running music program. And by program, I mean perl script. I wrote it a few years ago when I lived in Minneapolis, and used it alot when training for the marathon I ran. Its pretty simple, really. It just takes mp3s and speeds them up (or slows them down) to match my running pace (about 160 BPM, by the way) without changing the pitch. It takes a little getting used to, but it becomes much easier to maintain a certain pace when a foot hits the ground on every beat.

When I first wrote it, I envisioned turning it into a stand-alone program which would allow one to create a music score for running routes. The tempo could get faster when charging up a hill or sprinting, a different song could start playing once you hit the next street, park, whatever. Its still not a bad idea, but now that there are robust mp3 player programs out there, I could almost accomplish the same thing by creating the right playlists in one of those software packages.

Now that I have a fast computer and a net-md minidisc player, the tempo conversion and dumping to disc is a lot faster, so I think I'll be using it more. Maybe I'll even get into shape!

We won the trivia contest last night, incidentally. We get a fat gift certificate, so of course I had a few more beers than I normally would have. Then I ran home and found my roommate still up, so I had another. Strangely enough, I didn't feel hungover this morning, or sore. Just very tired.

Brain Synchronization

Here is another problem I suffer from similar to procrastination. I call it a problem with “brain synchronization.” I think a lot of us suffer from this. Let me illustrate with a few examples:

7:50 Get out of shower, think to myself “I have these vitamins. I should take one with me to work and have it with breakfast or lunch.”
8:45 When eating breakfast*, think to myself “Whoops, I forgot the vitamin. I’ll take it when I get home, I guess.”
5:30 or later Never think of vitamins the rest of the night

That one prompted this entry. Here’s another, off the top of my head:

3:00 pm Think to self “Wow, these people really don’t understand electric fundamentals at all. I should at least brush up on it so I can sound intelligent. I will read a chapter out of my EM text when I get home”
Later that night Never think about reading textbook.

The common elements are 1) I want to do something; 2) I forget about it when it’s possible to do it 3) The same thoughts repeat on a regular basis. That’s the most frustrating thing--that the same thought patterns repeat over and over. I’m spinning my wheels and getting nowhere. Before I know it, I’ll be 85 and still not have had that vitamin.

*breakfast is loosely used here. A bag of animal crackers and iced coffee.

¿Yo quiero Taco Bell? ¡Ay caramba!

Fast food is special to me. It holds special place not only in my heart, but the rest of my body too. In fact, I physically consist of 75% fast food and 25% beer. Ah, and the memories. The first place I stopped after crossing the Texas border on my move here from Minnesota was Jack in the Box for their stuffed jalapenos. Jack in the Box has some unique items that I can’t live without, and I'd been forced to live without it for seven long years. Those first jalapenos filled a hole in my soul that’s existed since I’d left Hawaii. Now that I think about it, maybe JITB is the reason I had to leave Minnesota. Hmm! What else… I love how the lady at the McDonald’s drive-thru always knows to include the hot salsa with my breakfast burrito. That personal touch lets me know how much she really cares. And how can I forget the countless days when my only conversation with anyone at all has been with a fast food cashier. I would come up with such witticisms as "for here" and "could I get some ketchup with that." Man, where would I be without the fast food industry. They’re almost like family.

What surprised me when I first moved to Texas was a place called Taco Cabana. It’s a fast food chain that’s similar to Taco Bell, but their tacos seem more authentic, whatever that means. You add your own toppings, and they have a selection of salsas, and it doesn’t come out of little packets, you scoop it out of big bowls. They also have beer and margaritas, yet they operate as a fast food restaurant. It became a rule of mine that if I wanted tacos, I would go to Taco Cabana. So, I haven't been to Taco Bell once since I've lived in Texas. That's close to two years.

Well, something happened. I stopped going to Taco Cabana several months ago. I'm not really sure why, but their tacos don’t appeal to me anymore. However, I hadn’t been back to Taco Bell either, until last night. I was nervous at the drive-thru. Their menu had changed! Do they still have the chalupas I love? The three different types? And what were the names of their hot sauce levels again?!?! Well, I managed to talk my way through the transaction like an old pro, and the chalupas tasted just as good as I remembered.

So I’m no longer a Texas Taco Bell virgin, and have no immediate plans to go back to Taco Cabana. I don’t know if this is a serious enough indiscretion to count against my Texas citizenship, but I’ll deal with the consequences.

Drinking Milk in Public

“So what’s the deal with all the milk drinking in Minnesota?” That’s what a friend asked me the other night after returning from a week long fishing trip to Canada. Apparently they had stopped at a restaurant on the way back home and witnessed two macho looking men with beards and steak dinners order milk to drink, and thought it was odd. I lived in Minnesota for a couple of years and in Wisconsin most of my life, and it also struck me as odd. You just don’t see adults drinking milk in restaurants--in the Midwest, the Southwest, anywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever ordered milk at a restaurant, have you? It’s always been water, soda, or alcoholic beverages. So, I told her I didn’t think this was a more common occurrence in Minnesota or Wisconsin than anywhere else. However, I do think more milk is consumed at home in that region of the country, if only because that’s where all the dairy farmers live. And they aren’t afraid of 2% or (God forbid) whole milk.

There is one dish that I would consider ordering milk with—meatloaf, with lots of ketchup. Milk tastes great with that.

Only myself to blame

Okay, I've started a blog. I don't have the energy right now to explain my reasons for it. They probably don't exist anyway. Right now I just feel like telling everyone what a dumbass I am.

Take today, for example.

Today at 5:30 pm I found myself at the Municipal Court searching for a scrap of corrugated cardboard. I described to the guard what cardboard looks like, and he didn't remember seeing anything like it today. I didn't end up finding the cardboard I was looking for. I wasn't happy.

A few hours earlier I had taken a break from work and rode my bike down to the Court to pay a ticket. I could've mailed the fine in, had I not waited until the last day to pay it. The ticket was for having an expired safety inspection sticker on my car. It's been expired for six months. I got the same ticket last month. That was before I decided maybe I *really* shouldn't drive my car until I fixed it.

My motorcycle jacket has a big pocket in which I keep lots of stuff. Today that pocket contained my ticket as well as various forms, receipts, and barcodes I needed to send in for about $180 in rebates on my new computer. I put that stuff in my pocket this morning since today, of course, was the last day I could mail in for the rebate. All of this stuff came out of my pocket when I paid the ticket.

When work was about over, I went to get my rebate stuff copied and sent out. This is when I noticed I was missing the barcode from the computer case/power supply, which I needed to send in for $150 of the $180 rebate. After searching my work area, I headed down to the court, where my search yielded nothing.

So, it seems that I've lost $150 because I've been putting off several things: paying a ticket, fixing my car, and filling out a few forms. Not getting the $150 back pisses me off, but not as much as noticing that these are symptoms of a much larger procrastination problem. I put off everything. No wonder I feel like I never get anything done!

Maybe I've started this blog as a way of feeling like I've accomplished something today.

By the way--after I got home, I found the missing barcode on my bed. Also, through filling out the forms today, I realize I have another week to send in my rebates. Happy ending? Only if I send in my rebates this week. We'll see.