Miles Flying By

While I was out

2010-01-30T17:38:00.004-05:00

www.targetcancer.info

Written and visual evidence of the past month

2009-05-20T22:01:00.013-04:00

In brief:

- Jeff Tweedy was seen in Northampton, and a trumpet was later exchanged in Brattleboro.

- I indeed became the owner of two tickets to Phish at Fenway

- Speaking of Fenway, Paul and I saw Jacoby Ellsbury steal home, easily the coolest thing I have ever seen at a baseball game.

- Speaking of Fenway (again), Paul and I (again) saw the the Sox beat the Blue Jays in the shortest game I have ever seen (2 hours and 13 minutes).

- Anna and I saw Vetiver. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly express my love for Vetiver. I have loved them for awhile now, since I first saw them as Gary Louris’ backing band, and after this excellent show my love has truly blossomed. Listen to the Rolling Sea- for five minutes all will seem good and chill in the world.

- Seeing Bonnie Prince Billy live far, far exceeded all of my expectations. Ready for moody and contemplative, got sloppy rocking country. Excellent.

- Jad from Radiolab came to the Museum of Science and played the Space episode in the planetarium. Does it make me a geek that I was ready to go to scalpers for tickets for this? (alas, it was not necessary)

- Finally, trips were made to Martha's Vineyard.

Maybe that was a little longer than a month...

Phishin, redux

2009-04-08T07:40:00.004-04:00

A few months ago I tried unsuccessfully to relieve my longstanding live Phish deficiency. Predictably, that show sold out instantly and I haven't bothered to go the scalper route. But this week, Phish announced a May 31 show at Fenway Park, and I have to say I am pretty excited at this prospect. Normally I haven't been very interested in seeing concerts at Fenway, but this video changed that.

I've entered the lottery once again, we'll see if I do any better this time...

Catching up

2009-03-17T20:27:00.004-04:00

2009 has been a very good year for music in Boston, and as my growing list on the sidebar indicates, this looks like it will be continuing on at least through the summer. Some highlights so far:

Department of Eagles
1/18/09, Brattle Theater

In attendance: Paul

Music at the Brattle Theater makes me very happy. World Music/Crash Arts has completely expanded from its focus on, well, world music, and has taken on an excellent roster of shows in the first half of 2009. They’re using venues all over Boston, but a lot of smaller shows are being booked at the Brattle (capacity 235). I’ve spent a lot of hours at the Brattle, and being able to see music there in addition to movies is a treat. Not to mention the fact that it is a great, intimate venue, and in my old age I am much more inclined to go to a seated show where I don’t have to stand around and bump into people all night.

Anyway, Department of Eagles had a very big 2008, with “In Ear Park” ending up all over end of year lists. I like but don’t love the album- some great stuff (No One Does it like You is one of my favorite songs of 2008) but overall I find it a bit homogeneous and somewhat dour. Not that I have anything against dour music (a trip through shuffle mode on my iPod could result in therapy), but this album hasn’t really resonated with me. Regardless I wanted to see this show and am glad I went- as is often the case the songs worked really well live. These guys are seriously polished (without being boring), right down to the Jim O’Rourke-y vocals. I have yet to explore far into Grizzly Bear but based on this have bought tickets to that show in June.

Andrew Bird
1/30/09, Orpheum Theater

In attendance: Fletch

This was my third time seeing Andrew Bird, with the first being an amazing show at Berklee, and the second being an underwhelming set opening for Wilco at Tanglewood last summer (though I do not blame this on him- hard to do much with a 75% empty outdoor shed and surprisingly uninterested crowd). This show may not have matched the intensity of the first Berklee show but it was close. Seeing Bird live is a unique experience, and somewhat forces you to rethink the idea of seeing live music- at times Bird and his drummer each have several different loops playing, and it is easy to completely lose track of just what is actually being played “live” at that moment. But he is just as captivating playing a pizzicato line alone with no loops as he is playing by himself but sounding like there is an entire string section behind him.

The new music came off well but Mysterious Production of Eggs remains my favorite and the songs off of that were the highlights, and got the biggest audience response (Noble Beast had officially come out a few days prior to the show, though I suppose that really doesn’t really mean much anymore). Lots more atmospherics also than the other two times I had seen him, with long shapeless and improvised pieces providing beautiful leads into his songs. The Orpheum was a huge venue jump for him, and I believe he sold it out. Next stop in Boston is at the Bank of America Pavilion, which is an excellent summer venue, but very large- I’m a bit apprehensive about how that will work for him.

Juana Molina
2/26/09, Brattle Theater

In attendance: Anna

If Andrew Bird makes you rethink what live music actually is, Juana Molina completely turns it upside down. The loop pedal and the technology accompanying it seems ubiquitous these days. I remember first seeing it way back in high school at a Bela Fleck concert and was completely blown away- I never knew such a thing existed. Bill Frisell was the first person I saw apply effects to it, like bending pitch or making his tones come out as if they were being played backward. But Molina is the first person I have seen use the loop technology less as a supplement to her playing, and more as her primary instrument. Despite having a bass player and drummer with her, this was basically a one woman show, with Molina as an acoustic guitar wielding mad scientist in front of a keyboard and various attached devices and pedals.

A lot of her songs start similarly- a repeating acoustic guitar line that gives way to complexly layered effects, both electronic and organic. What’s remarkable here is how she is incorporating all modes of sound- guitar, her voice, keyboard effects, a knock on her guitar, anything- into loops and then using them at various points throughout the song, triggered by pedals or her keyboard. The loop is not a passive device here, providing a repeating background sound- it’s basically the equivalent of having an infinite pile of musical instruments in front of you. It is fascinating and not for a moment gimmicky. This was an incredible show- I don’t think she is in the US very often, but when she is here it is not a show to be missed.

Like I said, this technology seems to be showing up in more and more shows lately. But despite my enjoyment, I’ve always had an underlying skepticism about it that I can’t quite put my finger on. I’m by no means some kind of purist when it comes to these things, and I certainly don’t think that live music can only be played immediately in the moment. But at the same time I have a slight question about this technology and what it really means for live performance. This applies less to someone like Juana Molina, who essentially makes music built around the technology, and more to others who use it as a supplement to the live shows. And I’m quite torn on it.

On one hand, even if it is a recorded loop, it is being recorded live at a moment during the performance, and not previously. And using it effectively requires no small amount of mastery, if not completely musical, then definitely technical. Live performance has evolved continuously through the application of new technology and this is just another step.

One the other hand, maybe live performance should be just that- a live performance that is constantly reacting and adapting to the environment around it and emotion of the performer. Isn’t it kind of weird to have a performer reacting emotionally to a particular moment in a song, while in the background a loop is playing a line that reflects a completely different moment in that song? And what about the interaction with other musicians? Isn’t something being lost here?

In these dire times for our nation, aren’t these the questions that we should be asking ourselves?

Any thoughts from those of you who actually still check this blog for updates?

lovely.

2009-02-28T16:25:00.001-05:00

Fleet Foxes - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Monday in the park

2009-02-17T22:35:00.003-05:00

DeCordova Museum, 2.16.09

Off the wagon

2009-02-11T20:44:00.002-05:00

It was on sale. I couldn't resist.

Something seems off here.

2009-02-11T20:31:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I was completely irritated about not getting M. Ward tickets and wrote this complaint about Ticketmaster but never posted it (who knows why). Still had it saved and figured it was worth rehashing considering the recent controversy about Ticketmaster’s scalping site. The fact that this is getting attention is great news- of course it took something as high profile as a Bruce Springsteen show, but that’s fine. Unfortunately this good news is offset somewhat by the pending buyout of Ticketmaster by Live Nation to create an all encompassing ticket and venue behemoth- hard to believe this wouldn’t be in violation of antitrust laws, but it sounds like it has quite a bit of momentum.

Anyway, here goes:

I realize complaints against Ticketmaster are not the most the most original subject. We all know it is a monopoly, fees are exorbitant, etc. It's been this way forever, and despite the sometimes ridiculous lengths I will go to in avoiding them, doing business with Ticketmaster is as inevitable as the 47% in service charges and fees that they recently stuck me with on Fleet Foxes tickets.

But the racket has been taken to an entirely new level- now they have something called TicketsNow, which is essentially an online scalper site, run by, you guessed it, Ticketmaster.

Here's how it worked for me. M. Ward tickets for the Somerville Theater went on sale at 10:00 a.m. I know this is a relatively small venue, so at 9:59 I'm refreshing so that as soon as this opens up, I can get in. First try at tickets gives me upper-upper balcony, so I try again for better, and 2nd try (for orchestra) tells me that section is sold out. But the sold out screen now directs you to TicketsNow.

So somehow in the course of 45 seconds Ticketmaster's OWN scalper site already has dozens of tickets available for $100+ (face is $20). Granted, there was a "pre-sale" for this show, which was basically the same as the on-sale but opened a few days earlier. I did the same 10:00 refresh for that and the only thing that came up were seats in the far
corners of the right and left orchestra. So there is an entire center orchestra section that seems impossible to get tickets to, unless you're willing to pay resale prices on the scalper site. The FAQ says that the TicketsNow tickets are from "brokers", but are we really supposed to not assume that Ticketmaster isn't just holding back tickets so that they can sell them at higher costs on this site? What a scam.

I suppose it is possible that there was a huge rush on tickets. But in my experience in ticket buying in Boston, which is pretty extensive, sell outs like this rarely happen. It's one of the great things about seeing music in this city- shows will sell out eventually, but if you're on the ball you can almost always get in, and probably get good seats if it's not a club. And as notable as M. Ward has become (he would definitely sell this place out eventually), there's just no way that all orchestra tickets were gone in 45 seconds.

Business is business I suppose. I'm lucky enough to live close to a lot of the venues I go to, so I can buy directly there and don't have to deal with this too often. And if not, I've had great luck bypassing Ticketmaster with Music Today and Ducat King pre-sales. But I'm still amazed that such an incredibly high level of widespread consumer-screwing is allowed to happen.

Turns out I was incorrect on one thing here- the M. Ward show did indeed sell out quite quickly, so I misjudged this one and should have just bought the tickets when I had the chance. But I still can't believe it sold out THIS quickly, and have to think it is at least in part due to the reallocation of tickets to the scalping site. Very interested to see where this story goes. Worth noting that Ticketmaster seems to have taken down the scalping site, at least for now.

Owns Home Computer

2009-01-31T17:34:00.003-05:00

This seems to be everywhere at this point but I wanted to share anyway. Amazing. Might as well be 100 years ago.

10 years later

2009-01-27T22:43:00.007-05:00

Received the final Hawaii quarter as change today, and the collection is complete. I don't really have much of an interest in collecting coins, but I've stuck with this since starting it back in 1999.

Is it a little dorky that I was really excited to get the Hawaii quarter today? Or that I have been eagerly awaiting it for weeks now?

Just arrived...

2009-01-11T19:02:00.004-05:00

...and i'll be starting from the beginning once again.

Phishin'

2009-01-08T18:18:00.002-05:00

I've always truly regretted that I never saw the Grateful Dead before Jerry Garcia died. I never quite embraced the whole Grateful Dead scene (as so many of my friends growing up did), but I've always been a huge fan. The Dead have endured my many musical phases: the classic rock years of middle school, the jamband years of high school and college, post college indie rock, and presently what I like to call the "potpourri years". Europe '72 will always be my soundtrack for the first warm days in Spring, and Reckoning remains one of my favorite albums in my collection. But I never made the trek out to Giants stadium or whatever seemingly far away place where the Dead would be playing, and I feel like I really missed out on something by never seeing them. Seeing any of the present iterations of the remaining members holds no interest for me.

Unfortunately I didn't really learn a lesson from this, because I always had it in mind to make it to a Phish show, and never quite got around to that either. I came around to Phish relatively late- my friends were all listening to them in high school, but being a contrarian, I was focusing on other parts of that whole genre. I would travel hours to see God Street Wine, but didn't make the 20 minute drive to see Phish in a club in New Haven. Live and learn I guess. But by the time I really got into them they were playing huge venues, and I had started losing patience with the whole scene surrounding them. As time went on their shows apparently started to spiral in quality also (which I believe ran directly parallel with the increase in Trey's drug habit), and when they broke up "for good", I figured another opportunity was lost.

But, not entirely surprisingly, Phish is back! And why not- they still have legions of fans. The leftover deadheads, the thirtysomethings ready to pull out the hackey sack for one last hurrah, and undoubtedly the younger kids who never got a chance to see Phish but have been smoking dope to them all the same. And, hopefully, me. They are playing the Comcast Center (previously Tweeter Center, and Great Woods before that) in June and tickets will be close to impossible to get. But I signed up for their pre-sale drawing today, so if I'm lucky enough to get randomly selected I can go to the venue I vowed never to return to for a last chance to see this band.

Jimbama's house of antiques

2009-01-07T21:55:00.002-05:00

At some point, I will get around to fully refurbishing all of this (only have fully done so with the Victrola in the back of the photo.)

2 newest additions- a Philco Cathedral from 1937, and a mid-50s RCA Victor short wave/AM radio. These were in an attic for a very, very long time, and I wasn't expecting much when I plugged them in. Sure enough the tubes in the Philco were glowing even if I couldn't tune anything in, and the RCA picked up AM stations and sounded lovely.

Wonder if I'll be able to say the same for my iPod in 50 years...

A for effort

2009-01-06T20:54:00.004-05:00

After my last post, someone asked me what the other 2008 resolutions were. Here's most of them, along with the varying levels of success.

1. Write something, anything. Also keep journal. The "something, anything" is this blog. Posting is a bit sporadic but it's still more writing than I have done in years. Never got around to keeping a journal depsite carrying around a forever blank notebook with me.

2. Gym: three times per week, minimum; 4. More veggies. Less cheese. For me these go together under the Jimbama 2008 health initiative. Not unlike the futility of carrying around a blank journal, for years I paid for a gym membership that I never used. Finally frustrated with that, I joined the swanky gym across the street from my office. Cons: Triple the price of the gym I never went to, occasional awkward encounter with co-workers in locker room. Pros: I go a lot (good), they have towel service and nice showers (awesome and not to be underestimated), and I can go during work (amazing). On the nutrition side, it became clear that I really needed to do something about my cheese consumption when I would walk home from the subway every night thinking about the Triscuits and block of sharp cheddar waiting for me. Sometimes when I went food shopping I would unload my cart to pay out and realize that I was buying 4 types of cheese- shredded mozzarella (for english muffin pizzas, of course), sliced deli cheese for sandwiches, sharp cheddar for the previously mentioned Triscuits, and a package of those little individually wrapped Babybel cheeses for snacks. It is important here to note that I live alone. It had to end. I'm not completely on the wagon but no more blocks of cheddar, no more Babybel, and less of the english muffin pizzas (I'm not willing to give up the deli cheese). Still could use some work on the veggie side but that one will carry over to 2009.

All in all, resolutions 2 and 4 have resulted in losing somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 pounds, so I consider this one a success.

3. Read: minimum of one book per month. This is not a lofty goal at all but one I have not found success in. I blame my iPod. Reading time on the subway has now given way to podcasts- between Meet the Press, This American Life, Radiolab, and the Onion News Network, my commute time is almost completely filled up, and I never seem to find time to dedicate to reading otherwise.

5. Invest money. Never got around to this, and not too disappointed considering the the way things have gone for the past few months (not to mention what I lost in my 401k last year).

6. New job. Put in a ton of effort on a few very good opportunities, but none worked out. If I need to be positive about it I could say it provided me with some character building experiences:
1) Having a surprised interviewer look at my resume and ask "what makes you think you would be at all qualified for this job?" To my credit, I suppose I came up with a good answer because I wasn't qualified, but I still got called back for a writing test and another round of interviews. The job went to someone who had something like 15 years experience at the Wall Street Journal. Clearly, I should have been the one asking what made them think I would be qualified in the first place.
2) Sitting at work in Texas and hitting "print" on the thank you note to the above mentioned interviewer, and immediately realizing that my printer was still set to Boston. Still don't know if I was able to cancel that in time or if someone in my office picked it up.

Anyway, my company is laying off 1700 people in the next month, so depending on how that goes, this one may not technically be a resolution anymore anyway.

All in all, not too bad- this was the first year I put detailed resolutions on paper and came back to them throughout the year, and I'm happy with the result. As for 2009, the resolutions are a bit bolder and more specific, and I've followed my friend Steve's advice and added benchmark dates for each one. We'll see how it goes.

Here we go again

2009-01-04T15:22:00.006-05:00

I'm sensing a pattern here.

Sporadic posts, often many in one week, then nothing. Sometimes for entire months. Like December.

Resolution number one last year was "Write something. Anything." So despite being somewhat successful in that regard here, I'm keeping it as number one this year. I should add that out of my seven resolutions last year, 4 were successful, which I must say is quite satisfying for someone like myself who notoriously ignores such things. I should also add that that number 5 was "Invest money"- not too disappointed about missing out on that one.

Anyway I'm trying to dress up the blog a bit. Will continue to add some more links, and will be rotating photos on the top (credit goes to my good friend Sharon on the current photo of my dusty Victrola by the way).

More to come soon.

Nephew in the Yellow Hat

2008-11-17T21:53:00.002-05:00

Halloween 2008

Brief histories of many things from the last few months that I never got to write about (part 1)

2008-11-17T21:32:00.011-05:00

Wilco with Andrew Bird,

Tanglewood, 8.12.08
In Attendance: Fletch, Bob, Jeremy, and Niki

Wilco is my favorite band on the planet, and dare I say, the best live band on the planet? Maybe the best band on the planet? Every time I see them my opinion on this matter gets stronger. Sure, the absolutely gorgeous surroundings and perfect outdoor-summer night atmosphere didn't hurt. But that should take nothing away from Wilco's excellent set- maybe a bit too heavy on the Summerteeth for me but I'm not complaining. Wildly enthusiastic crowd, excellent seats- a near perfect concert experience.

Andrew Bird's opening set was lovely as always but got a bit lost in the then-empty shed- Not much of a crowd for a 6:30 opening set. Had to laugh when my friend who was out on the lawn and couldn't see the stage asked me how many violin players were playing.

The two hour drive home at midnight was not fun but I would absolutely go back to Tanglewood for a show like this.

Sox vs. Rangers

8.13.08
Sox 8 Rangers 4
In attendance: Kristen

Not much notable about this game aside from the fact that we sat among what might have been the geekiest drunk crowd I've ever encountered. Lots of loud talk about cell phones and computers and in the 8th inning, an impromptu acapella singing of the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego theme song. No joke.

Bill Frisell
Cambridge YMCA Theater, 8.16.08
In Attendance: Brian

Brian Blade Fellowship Band
Scullers Jazz Club, 11.6.08
In attendance: Anna

I have found live jazz in Boston to be challenging for one reason- the crowds. Maybe this isn't limited to Boston but I find them to be the most smug, self- important crowds in all of the live music that I see. Lots of over-excessive nodding and grunts/laughs of acknowledgement during solos, as if they are in on some joke with the musicians (and making sure EVERYONE knows it). It always makes me think of the David Sedaris story where he recounts the terrifying experience of attending jazz shows with his father, who would obnoxiously tap his foot and shout out "Blue Rondo a la Turk!" requests at Dave Brubeck concerts. I can deal with drunk guys talking and bumping into me at rock shows. For some reason I have a harder time dealing with jazz snobs.

Anyway, these 2 shows were notable exceptions and made me wonder if I've been too harsh and missing out as a result. The completely under-publicized Bill Frisell show was a truly unique experience. Last time I saw him was at a sold out Berklee Performance Center, this time was in an old, run down, sweltering theater with 100 or so people in attendance. Frisell played solo with his trusty loop pedals, with which he continues to do amazing things despite the current ubiquity of that technology. Like everything Frisell does, this show was completely different than every other time I had seen him. A hypnotizing performance.

I first saw Brian Blade when he played drums for Bill Frisell in 1999. I was completely knocked out by his drumming and had always hoped to see him again, and for some reason, it took me another 9 years. In the standard jazz club setting of Scullers, he played to a packed and very enthusiastic house. I'm not sure how to describe him without sounding corny, but this is one of the most soulful musicians I have ever seen. And by soulful I don't mean soul music- I mean he seems to be pouring his soul into every second of his drumming. He is coming back for a big Wayne Shorter birthday concert at Berklee soon, which I was thinking of going to despite the fact that it is sure to be a jazz elitist explosion. Then again, I think I might just keep the memory of this spectacular show fresh in my mind instead.

Wow (revisited)

2008-11-10T22:02:00.000-05:00

11/4/08, Copley Square

Wow.

2008-10-17T01:21:00.002-04:00

The Sox were down 7-0 into the bottom of the 7th, at which point they scored 4 runs. Then 3 more in the 8th. And a walk off in the 9th to win it and stay alive against the Rays in the ALCS.

Never been to anything like it.

Quiet, please.

2008-10-14T22:17:00.009-04:00

I've watched a lot of cartoons throughout my life. Like most kids I was on a steady diet of Looney Tunes throughout my childhood (and beyond- I still usually make it over for a night or two of the annual Bugs Bunny Film Festival at the Brattle). But one particular cartoon has always stuck out in my mind, and I have never been able to find it. For years I have been looking around, hoping I would come across it on TV, but I never did. It occurred to me recently to look around the internet for it and of course, about 2 minutes of searching yielded success on You Tube. Not sure why I hadn't thought of it before. In any case, I present Tex Avery's cartoon short from 1955, "Sh-h-h-h-h-h".

Watching this years later, it is easy to know why this particular cartoon stands out for me- safe to say I can identify with the main character a bit more than I'm comfortable with. I remember finding this whole thing hilarious, and it still holds up for me. The slapstick section is fairly standard, but I love the reaction of the hotel clerk when Mr. Twiddle asks for the room, and the little sound signs are brilliant.

But the thing that really struck me after watching this now is just how completely odd, and very dark, this short is. It is easy as an adult to pick up on themes in cartoons that we would have missed as kids, and there are often the intentional "wink-wink" jokes in children's shows and movies that are intended only for the adults who are watching. But it is hard to tell exactly what is going on in a cartoon where we have an anxiety-ridden protagonist who ends up exploding in a fit of rage.

Weirder still is our trombone playing doctor. Why exactly is he at the Hush Hush Lodge playing trombone? Why is he playing this sad song? And why on earth is it making him and his wife laugh so hard? I suppose the point isn't to understand why, it's just supposed to be funny on its own. And it is. But I couldn't help but think that there was more going on here- was Avery making some kind of a statement with one of his final shorts?

Unfortunately some research didn't reveal too many answers about this in particular, but it did give some insight into the trombone and laughing. Turns out it is from an old novelty 78 called "The Okeh Laughing Record", recorded in 1922. It's basically three minutes of what you hear in the short- a slow, maudlin performance interrupted by uncontrolled laughing. Apparently this kind of thing was a big hit back then- you would gather the family in the parlor, crank up the victrola and put this on, and laugh, laugh, laugh. And we all wondered what we did before video games.

Anyway, here's the original recording. Kind of creepy when removed from the already strange context of the cartoon.

Boomp3.com

Well put

2008-10-13T18:43:00.003-04:00

Many, many more of these here.

Three sides of Lucy Vincent beach

2008-10-10T19:47:00.005-04:00

September 28, 2008

We're the one!

2008-10-10T19:12:00.002-04:00

What a lineup! So crazy that this is from 1978- I remember all of these shows so clearly, but considering that I was 2 at the time I guess I was watching them all years later in reruns. But I never knew that they were all on the same network in the same year.

Some other observations:

- I miss cross-TV show guest appearances. The fact that Mork's world would somehow intersect Fonzie's is awesome.

- What is that weird depression era show? I have no memory of that at all. Also, the grandfather on it seems to be the exact inspiration for Mr. Stokes on Extras.

- I forgot how big of a deal it was for a movie to be on TV. Think about it- Pre video, when a movie finished a run in theaters, there was basically no way to see it again until they showed it on TV. I completely remember having big dinners around the TV and staying up late when something like Star Wars was on.

- Only 30 years ago, that insane ending song was allowed to happen. Let us never let it happen again.

This old house

2008-10-02T19:15:00.004-04:00

2 weeks, tons of dust, and lots of money later, our new paint job is done.

Before:

During:

After:

Clinched!

2008-09-23T23:32:00.003-04:00

Red Sox vs Indians, 9/23/08

Sox 5 Indians 4

In attendance: Chris

An excellent game on a cold night, at which the Red Sox reminded us that the wild card is better than nothing at all (and by nothing at all, I am referring to the freshly sealed fate of the 2008 Yankees).

Here's some of the celebration. Jonathan Papelbon mercifully did not strip down to his underwear this year- he opted instead for handing out the bases to the fans.

Weddings, therapy, scenery

2008-09-22T22:07:00.006-04:00

Writing is therapeutic. Maybe not as much as, say, a martini (the many qualities of which I have thankfully rediscovered lately), but therapeutic nonetheless. So, to those of you who read here, thank you for reading and assisting in my therapy.

On to more interesting topics.

I went to a wedding back where I grew up in CT this past weekend, and it was surreal on several levels. Always odd to see someone you have known for decades getting married, especially when you barely know the person they are marrying. But even weirder was that for the second time, without my prior knowledge, I was called out in a wedding speech. I should say from the outset that I am not someone who enjoys having any type of public attention put on them, so the idea of being singled out in front of hundreds of people is generally mortifying to me.

This ended up being an amusing surprise, however, as the bride's father took the time to acknowledge my longtime friendship with the bride. I'm not entirely sure how thrilled the groom was that I got quite so many minutes in the speech, but it was nice nonetheless, even if it did completely catch me off guard.

It was nothing like the great Nantucket wedding speech debacle of 2005, in which I was singled out as the idiot who turned down the bride when she asked me out a few years earlier (thus leading to the genesis of the relationship of said bride and her groom). I believe there were about 200 people at that wedding, all of whom laughed as I was forced to stand up and wave. If I could have swam off the island at that moment, I would have.

Anyway, the weather this past weekend was absolutely perfect. As much as I love living in Cambridge, a day like that in Guilford makes me want to move back tomorrow. That won't be happening of course, but here's a few pictures from some of my favorite places there.

Grass Island

Chaffinch Island

Jacob's Beach

Rambling

2008-09-14T22:14:00.008-04:00

Another week, another trip to Texas behind me. This was my seventh trip there since last August, and it is safe to say that I am not too eager to get back again anytime soon. As far as these trips go, this one was fairly standard- ridiculously busy days, and lots of eating. In my normal life I eat well- cook for myself, bring lunch to work, etc. On business trips, I eat 3 meals out every day, and after 5 days of that I'm ready for some sort of crash diet/detox/hunger strike. This trip included lots of bar food, some Tex-Mex that I thoroughly regretted the next day, cajun food, and a lot of Jimmy Johns, a damn good sandwich chain that hasn't made its way up north yet.

Anyway, I stayed at the lovely yet poorly named Gaylord Texan once again. It's always my first pick, despite the complete over the top nature of the place. As I mentioned earlier it's a bit like a big bio-dome- a gargantuan enclosed resort, complete with restaurants, bars, shopping, without ever having to step outside.

We tend to spend the most time at Texan Station, which is the big sports bar here. Not sure if this picture does it too much justice, but the square footage of the screen is bigger than that of my condo.

But even better than potentially watching 5 baseball games simultaneously (I did it, it is amazing) is the people watching in this place. Besides being a hotel and resort for regular people, the Gaylord operates as a major convention center. Which basically results in hordes of people moving in and out every day for some sales conference or convention. If there was any question that the business world remains male-dominated, look no further than late night at Texan Station. The place is crawling with, well, men, many of whom clearly don't have too many opportunities to go out drinkin' with the boys. Picture lots of loud and awkward drunkenness by guys in lanyards and matching polos with the company logo embroidered on the front.

Then there's the interactions with the very few women who actually are there, or even better, the local cougars who hang out at the bar waiting to get free drinks from the convention guys. And let me just say this- you have not seen a cougar until you have seen a Dallas cougar on the prowl. Frightening and fascinating.

To follow up on my earlier post, I was very disappointed in the Whataburger crowd- they started off strong with a weird rally outside the window of my room, but I didn't see much of them again. Besides them, we had a jet-ski conference, an elevator conference, and some group having to do with surety bonds (no idea).

What else? Listened to the Steve Harvey show every morning (awesome), drank lots of Shiner Bock (wish I could get that up here), tried something called Spudzilla, which is sort of a cross between a potato chip and a french fry (artery clogging but delicious), and realized that one of my Texas co-workers is a die hard democrat (didn't know we had any down there). She told me this is the first year that she could come out of the closet about it to other people. I felt so proud. She gave me this pin:

Maybe I could get to like Texas...

Is anyone else freaked out by this thing?

2008-09-09T20:07:00.003-04:00

Fascinating photos of this supercollider that gets fired up for the first time tomorrow. Should be pretty cool as long as it doesn't create black holes that swallow up the earth.

Day 3

2008-09-09T08:13:00.003-04:00

I'm staying once again at the Gaylord Texan (stop laughing), which is a giant hotel/resort/convention center/bio dome in North Dallas. I'll post some photos but in short, if the bomb gets dropped some day, i'm pretty sure civilization will live on in this place for awhile. It is huge.

The funny thing about it is that there seems to be a different convention rolling through every day, which packs the place with middle aged sales guys with bad facial hair who are away from their families for a few days and getting wasted. It's an odd scene. Monday night was a Jet Ski sales meeting, and last night I was walking to the gym and the lobby was packed with people for the Whataburger convention. What happens at a Whataburger convention? I hope to find out. They seem like a rowdy bunch...

Dallas, revisited

2008-09-07T12:32:00.005-04:00

(Big Tex, once again)

Another week, another trip to the exotic world of suburban Dallas.

Posts from the road to follow.

Thank you, internet

2008-08-28T23:56:00.002-04:00

Sunday in Cambridge

2008-08-25T22:45:00.001-04:00

To say that this summer has had its share of weird weather would be an understatement. Incredibly hot and humid weather in June gave way to what seemed like daily thunderstorms and rain in July and August. So as summer quickly and sadly is coming to an end, I had no other plan for this weekend other than to get out and try to enjoy the (finally) perfect weather. After an excellent Figgs show on Saturday night (not to mention an equally kick ass set on Fri night), I pulled out the new camera and took a walk into Central Square on Sunday morning to meet up with the family for some breakfast at Miracle of Science. As a side note I should mention how thoroughly happy I am to have discovered breakfast here- it's always been a great bar but somehow I never realized they had such a good, cheap breakfast menu. I'm not sure what this says about the rest of my personal life, but this is one of the most exciting discoveries I've made in a long time.

Anyway, while sitting at breakfast we quickly realized that something different was going on when a 90% naked woman wearing a headdress walked by the restaurant. A quick walk up Mass Ave after breakfast confirmed that we were not hallucinating, but it was Caribbean Carnival Day in Cambridge. Or, better put, the complete and utter insanity that is Caribbean Carnival Day in Cambridge. Barely controlled chaos is probably the best description I can think of. Here's a few pics from the parade.

One thing to point out here is that the "floats" are basically rolling speaker rigs. I go to a lot of concerts at venues of all varieties, and I can honestly say that I have never experienced something as loud as one of these trucks. This pic shows about 3/4 of the length of one truck, and the back and total length of the other side are lined with speakers as well. My ears are still ringing.

The family had enough at this point, so they headed out and I stuck around for a little while longer before needing to get away myself. In search of some serenity after the ear shattering music, I walked up Mass Ave towards MIT to see the chapel there. It's one of those places that I knew of but in 9 years have never seen, and it is an amazing building. Built in the 50s and designed by Eero Saarinen, it's a bit like stepping into another world- not only because of the surreal design, but also because of how quiet it is despite the noise and traffic outside. Hard to do justice with photos- this is definitely a place to be experienced. Here's a few anyway.

After stepping out of the peaceful confines of the chapel, I made my way a bit further up to the Mass Ave bridge for a few more pictures- not the most original, but no less of an amazing view on a day like yesterday.

The older I get the more I think about moving out of the city, but it’s days like these that make me wonder why I would ever leave.

Top O' the morning to ya!

2008-08-22T18:28:00.007-04:00

This week, during my 6th trip to Dallas, I finally found the tribute to Mr. O'boma that I was looking for.

Red Sox vs Angels

2008-08-18T22:15:00.001-04:00

7/30/08

Sox 2 Angels 9

In Attendance: Dan

One of the great things about baseball is that the season is so long, and over the course of 162 games, you get a huge range of experiences. Blowouts, shutouts, walk offs, maybe even a no hitter, to name a few. But that also means that you're bound to see some very boring games. The same applies to seeing games in person- if you go to enough, you're going to see all varieties. And after seeing some great games this season, number six fell driectly into the boring, even depressing, category.

Listmaker managed to get some last minute seats online which put us in a brand new section for this season, directly under the new Coca-Cola sign in left field. We were basically in the last two seats of the top row in left field. These are upper deck seats, but being that it is Fenway, they are probably the equivilent of the mezzanine at most ballparks, and had an excellent view.

(Cell phone camera strikes again)

After a long walk around the entire ballpark trying to figure out just how to get to our seats, we settled in for what we hoped would be a good matchup between the Sox and Angels, who were at that point cementing their status as the hottest team in baseball. This quickly proved to not be the case, as Josh Beckett turned in a lackluster performance and the Red Sox played like little leaguers. By the time the fourth error was committed, the crowd was booing as loudly and angrily as any I've heard in 8 years of going to Fenway.

Of course the big drama surrounding this game was Manny Ramirez's antics regarding his contract. This is old news now of course- Manny is happily settled in LA and pissing off a new manager. But at the time this was huge news in Boston and clearly had an effect on the team, and within 24 hours, he was gone. So while it may have been a lousy game, it was definitely notable to see Manny's last game in a Sox uniform.

People who aren't from Boston are always shocked by the fact that we were all so ready to give up one of the best hitters in Sox history. But anyone who follows this team year to year had seen this whole charade before, and by the time he pulled himself out of a key Yankee game in July, we all knew it was time to go. But instead of dwelling on that, i'll post my favorite Manny moment in Boston- Manny's walkoff in Game 2 of the ALDS last year.

Back in Business

2008-08-17T16:58:00.002-04:00

Been an unusually long break (even by the standards of this often neglected blog) as a result of an unusually busy summer. But all good stuff and much to report on, including 4 or so concerts, 2 baseball games, a few movies, and on and on. Of course i'll try to do this as I embark on yet another trip to Texas this week, not to mention just starting season 5 of The Wire, but I'm hoping to get at least a few entires in soon. Until then, thanks to everyone (anyone?) who still stops by despite the lack of new material...

Gone fishin'

2008-07-23T22:17:00.005-04:00

Around the horn

2008-07-21T20:55:00.005-04:00

A few quick things to catch up on, much of which deserves it's own post, but in the interest of actually getting something up here, here goes:

- There is a new Crooked Fingers album coming out soon, which is very exciting news. Yet another band that I was introduced to by Gamera- this one through an ambitious 2-disc retrospective which includes an absolutely perfect first disc of all Archers of Loaf. I've grown into a huge Eric Bachmann fan over the past few years, and while I wasn't there for the Archers days I've been lucky to see several excellent live shows, both with Crooked Fingers, and especially solo. Apparently he has decided to leave Merge, which I was sorry to hear about, but it's hard to argue with his reasons. Makes you wonder why any indies really bother with labels at this point (at least the ones selling 10k per album). Anyway, hopefully this works out for him and he can move out of the van.

- Fleet Foxes. If I wrote this last week my review would be lukewarm, but as I'm getting past the Jim James voice similarity (imitation?) I'm really enjoying this more and more. Beautiful music, despite the distraction.

- Operation Filmmaker. Excellent documentary about an Iraqi film student invited to work on an American film production, and the general disaster that ensues. The amazing thing about this film is just how completely poorly just about everyone in the film comes off (director included). When the problems became clear in the first 10 minutes of the film I really wondered where it would go for another 90 minutes, but the snowballing mess is quite compelling. Only complaint was the end- it seemed too abrupt, and I really wanted to know what happened to these people. Maybe in part 2?

- Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer. Not bad but I'm feeling let down. On it's own it's a decent album but compared to Apologies to the Queen Mary it's not holding up for me. Soldier's Grin is an excellent opener but where are the epics? 11 minute songs don't count- I want more Dinner Bells! I managed to snag tickets to this immediately sold out show in Boston in August and just realized that I can't go. Not at all pleased about this.

- I did, however, just get tickets to go see this guy at the end of the month. I'm hoping he wears more clothes in Cambridge.

- Red Sox vs Orioles, 7/12/08. Sox 12, Orioles 1. In Attendance: Irene

Not a lot to report from this one except that the Sox completely embarrassed the O's. In the 8th we moved down to field level seats, where I remarked that I've never caught a foul ball, and on the next pitch had a towering foul fall 2 feet to the right of me. Never had one come that close and there was no way I was putting my hands anywhere near it.

Finally, per a recent discussion with Gamera, here's Geddy Lee with rotisserie chickens roasting live on stage. Anyone know why?

I want royalties.

2008-07-13T22:44:00.000-04:00

or at least something for free....

Rangers vs Angels

2008-07-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

7/8/08

Rangers 3 Angels 2

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

In attendance: lots of co-workers

My hotel in Texas has a bar with a 52 foot screen (everything is bigger in Texas) which shows 5 different baseball games at the same time every night. Needless to say I am grateful for such amenities. Of course the biggest part of the screen (and the audio) is reserved for the Rangers, so I got to watch quite a bit of this team which I otherwise don't pay too much attention to. It may have just been a good week for them but this was a fun team to watch- hanging in games, come from behind victories, walkoffs, etc.

Luckily this was the case for the game that we went to as well. This was my first experience at this ballpark, and the mere feat of driving to the stadium and parking in a lot was something I haven't experienced in a long time. The temperature was a steady 103 when we pulled in, which was causing some concern among attendees, but a look to the sky showed some very ominous clouds rolling in. We decided to try to beat the rain and make our way to the park, which resulted in us being trapped in a full on downpour for the entire walk. We finally made it in thoroughly soaked, but by the time the game started (1 hour late), the temperature had dropped to a much more manageable 80 degrees.

I have to say I liked this ballpark a lot- big place but had a very cozy and friendly feel to it. Lots of between inning activities and even a big "Deep in the Heart of Texas" singalong, which I was very excited for. Surprisingly good fans as well- good sized crowd who all stuck around until the end (as they should have- Rangers went into the 9th protecting a one run lead). We sat in the centerfield bleachers, which gave us a nice view of the park, as well as a close view of the home bullpen to the left, and the batter's eye grass (no idea what that is really called) to the right. Best of all the tickets cost $15 and we bought them the day of the game, certainly a luxury I'm not used to in Boston.

Y'all? Hi.

2008-07-10T21:42:00.002-04:00

A belated howdy from Texas.

Back in Boston this weekend, blogging to follow.

Put on your sunday shoes

2008-07-01T21:56:00.006-04:00

A few miscellaneous items before leaving the steamy city for the long weekend.

- I've been seeing this floating around for awhile, but just got around to checking it out today and enjoyed what I heard. Had I known that it was the entire Footloose soundtrack I may have just written the whole thing off as boring ironic covers, but as the heart wrenching story behind the whole project suggests, there is a lot more going on here. Also, I love free CDs that come with ready made cover art. Worth a listen.

- Nuking the fridge is the new jumping the shark.

- Speaking of Indiana Jones, here's a funny review/commentary by someone who really hates this movie. I never wrote about this but I should say that I actually mostly enjoyed this movie, but found a few things unforgivable.

1. The ending. I realize that all of the Indy movies dabbled in the supernatural, but this was ridiculous. Plus, the only other one that really went over the top with the supernatural was Temple of Doom with the whole weird voodoo thing, and that was always the weakest of the three.

2. The swinging with the monkeys scene. My fear for Crystal Skull was that George Lucas would get his paws on it and include some of that Jar-Jar type kids stuff (that I don't even think kids really like and everyone else hates) that he seems to be so into. Luckily there wassn't too much of that, but this was just weak. I'd be more inclined to believe that Indy would survive the damn nuclear bomb in the fridge than accept what happened this scene.

- The Corner. In anticipation of season 5 of The Wire coming out on August 12, I wanted to take a look at this mini-series that was the launching point for it. I'm halfway through, and man, this is some depressing stuff. Really strong performances by about half of the cast that would later make up The Wire, but it paints such a dire and hopeless picture of Baltimore. 3 more episodes to go and I'm not confident that it's going to end happily.

- Finally, in honor of the Footloose covers, my favorite moment from Flight of the Conchords.

(and after that watch this to see how true to the original this is. Does anyone remember taking this movie seriously?)

The Edge of Heaven

2008-06-30T22:59:00.004-04:00

6/29/08

Kendall Square Cinema

I'm not really up on Turkish filmmakers, so Fatih Akin is another director that I might not have ever been exposed to had it not been for my ticket taking days at the Brattle. But Head On happened to be showing one night a few years ago when I was working, and I was floored by it- completely loud, violent, intense, and surprisingly affecting.

So I have been eagerly awaiting the follow up, The Edge of Heaven, which opened locally this weekend. The over the top and bombastic tone of Head On is replaced with a much more contemplative and slower moving story here. Like in Head On, the issue of Turks living in Germany serves as a backdrop. And again I wish I knew more about this, as well as the greater political situation in Turkey, since it seems to impact so much of what is happening in the film.

This is a tough movie to write about without spoiling things (though Akin does inform us of the impending deaths of characters in the titles of two "chapters" of the movie). As always I am so grateful that I walked into this without having read a thing about it, so i'll leave out details here. I can say that there are multiple linking storylines that indirectly or directly impact each other, but this is not a Turkish version of Crash (though I would wager that some reviewers will lazily compare the two solely because of this similarity in structure). In fact, my only real criticism of the film is that these coincidences and near misses feel a bit forced and predictable at times, which is frustrating since that really wasn't what the movie was about. For me, at its heart this was a film about redemption and forgiveness between families, strangers, and cultures, and the emotional weight of these issues is stronger than anything I've seen recently.

The closing shot of this film is absolutely beautiful and left a crowded and otherwise chatty theater (old snooty Cambridge people and foreign movies are not a good mix) absolutely silent. This was easily one of my favorite films so far this year.

Fon To Due

2008-06-26T19:18:00.003-04:00

I'm not a big South Park fan- casual at best, as in when I happen upon it, I might stick around to watch the episode (or flip back and forth to it from something else). Like other shows that have been on forever, it's too inconsistent to really pay steady attention to.

But oh my, was last night's episode amazing- cat pee induced acid trips that take people to the bizarre world of...Heavy Metal?

But this begs an important question for me- how is it possible that I was completely unaware of this movie? Maybe I was too young when it came out? I certainly wouldn't have been allowed to watch it when I was younger, and apparently it was out of print for a long time. But bad animation, ridiculously overt "boobage", characters named Taarna, Sammy Hagar songs- how did this escape me during college? I feel like I have failed. I must watch this film.

Red Sox vs Diamondbacks

2008-06-26T09:40:00.006-04:00

(crappy picture of a beautiful sunset courtesy of my cell phone)

6/24/08

Sox 5 Diamondbacks 4

In attendance: Paul

Forget about 1918 or any other curse- the Jimbama Red Sox losing streak has finally ended! As previously reported the Sox had a dismal record when I attend games- 2-8 since the beginning of the 2007 season. This looked like it was going to be more of the same, but the Sox managed to come back in dramatic fashion.

I didn't even think this game was going to be played considering the bizarre weather that rolled through earlier in the night. I left work at 5:00 to somewhat dark skies but nothing too ominous. By the time the red line came above ground over the Longfellow Bridge, it was like armageddon- black skies and wild wind and rain. It basically looked like someone was spraying a hose against the side of the subway car. But as quickly as it moved in it made its way out, so Paul and I dodged some downed trees and started our walk over to Fenway where the game was only delayed by 45 minutes.

From the beginning this looked like the Sox lineup that I had resigned myself to witnessing in person- limp and lifeless, scratching out a few hits with nothing else coming of it. Masterson pitched well for the Red Sox, but gave up 2 home runs which led to the 5-0 Dback lead going into the 8th. And out of nowhere, the Sox picked up steam and started putting together hits- Lugo, Ellsbury, Pedroia, my long lost brother Mike Lowell, and even Varitek, who was previously in a miserable slump. By this time it had gotten very cold up on our rooftop seats, so we moved down to the grandstand, where it was slightly warmer. The view from the rear grandstand may be lousy (poles blocking your view and an overhang that blocks the view of any ball hit more than 10 feet in the air), but it is a fun and incredibly loud place to be for a Sox rally.

So we're looking at a 5-4 lead, and Jonathan Papelbon coming in to close out the 9th. Papelbon enters to "I'm Shipping up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys, which you may recognize as an excellent music cue at the beginning of "The Departed", or if you're from Boston, the song that you heard a million times during the 2007 Red Sox postseason and are completely sick of. But I have to say, when Papelbon comes out in the 9th to protect a 1 run lead and that song is blasting through Fenway, you would have to be unconscious to not get fired up. Anyway, Papelbon closed out the game, Sox got the win, and my streak was broken. 3-8 is nothing to get too excited about but i'm happy for now.

I had a blog once...

2008-06-25T20:43:00.004-04:00

...and I even updated it from time to time. And then a somewhat hectic few weeks happened. But despite what the disturbing weather report of my last post would suggest, I did not wither away in the heat, and will be back in action soon.

Luckily my sitemeter reports that I have plenty of visitors who spend an average of zero seconds after searching for tips on what to do with dead crawfish or trying to find out where to see the new Werner Herzog movie. So for all of them and everyone else I will charge on starting this evening.

This can't be good.

2008-06-10T22:20:00.000-04:00

Mercifully, this is 2 degrees cooler than what I arrived home to tonight at 7:00. And as I write this now at 10:15, we've dropped to a balmy 95 degrees in the living room.

Of course this is nothing new- I essentially live in a converted attic, so it doesn't take much to get hot up here. And I do have an air conditioner that will cool down my apartment to an at least manageable 80 or so. But I have been inexplicably stubborn about putting it in the window so early- I'm convinced that the warm spell has to break soon, at which point i'll be appreciative of the ability to still open my window and get fresh air. This has been my argument since Saturday.

So in the meantime I continue to torture myself, with window fans uselessly blowing around warm air, and sucking in enough pollen to give everything in my living room a dull yellow sheen. Apparently we'll finally get thunderstorms tonight that will break the heat, but until then I remain confined to the icy comfort of my bedroom where I did drop in an a/c unit (I'm stubborn but not masochistic), trying to forget about the unpleasantness that lurks on the other side of the door.

Way back when

2008-06-06T08:31:00.005-04:00

Going through some old photos and found this one, taken on a drive to Florida in December 1987.

Granted, gas was always cheaper down south. And I assume this struck us as especially cheap even for then (we don't usually take photos of gas signs on our vacations). But 21 years isn't that long of a time, yet it's almost impossible to remember this expense being almost a full 5th of what it is now.

Opposite of Possible

2008-06-04T22:40:00.002-04:00

I was starting to run dry on blog ideas but then watched this and have since been inspired to take this site to the next level.

Actually just been traveling a lot over the past few weeks but have a big backlog to get through this weekend, so regular (this of course being relative) posting to resume then.

In the meantime, don't forget to cross out the losers.

2008-05-24T19:29:00.004-04:00

I've lived in a city for about 9 years now, and as I have gotten older I have grown less tolerant of so many aspects of city life. Noise. Litter. The drunk guys in Central Square who are at best fighting, and at worst relieving themselves in public view. Inner city pressure. The list goes on.

But as I gassed up this weekend in anticipation of my Memorial Day travels, it occurred to me that it was only the second time since March that I had put gas in my car. And considering the jaw dropping cost of filling up my tank, that's something to be very happy about.

I guess I really haven't thought about how little I drive, at least in comparison to a lot of people. Before traveling this weekend I figured I would get my oil changed, and when I pulled into my local instant oil change the woman laughed at me- in three months since my last one I had driven a total of 700 miles. She told me to come back after a few thousand more. In comparison, when I spend 5 days in Texas for work and return the rental car, I've usually gone about 300 miles. I really don't know how those people are doing it.

Today I came across this website which rates the walkability of your neighborhood, and my address scored me a 98. Not sure who gets 100, but I was happy with the result. Maybe the guy screaming at me on the way to the subway every day isn't so bad after all...

On and on and on...

2008-05-20T20:15:00.005-04:00

Another day, another primary win for Hillary that will mean little to nothing in the long run. But she continues on as if this victory actually increases her viability, stumbling along until she either wises up and drops out in June, or fights her way to the convention in an effort to overrule the primary process through the superdelegates.

I say this not as a big Obama supporter- he's fine but I am generally underwhelmed by him as a candidate. I voted for him in the primary, which was a rare opportunity as a liberal in Massachusetts to vote for the losing candidate. But choosing between him and Hillary is like flipping a coin for me- I just want whoever is going to beat McCain. And I believe either one of them could do it so I wish they would just get on with it already.

Anyway, this is a long way of saying that despite my apathy for Obama, I'm very impressed by his ability to mobilize people and generate excitement for his campaign. If he can keep creating scenes like this one from Sunday, I'll feel very good about November.

The Rest of IFFB

2008-05-18T20:47:00.000-04:00

Every year I have the highest hopes of spending an entire week getting through as many movies as possible at the Independent Film Festival, but realistically I end up somewhere around this year's total of three. So besides closing night, I headed over to the Somerville Theater on a Sunday for a double feature. I did this without much research except to see which two movies would work as a double feature, and got mixed results.

First up was Secrecy, a documentary about "the vast, invisible world of government secrecy". Obviously, much of this focuses on our current administration. I was mostly bored. Which isn't to say that it was a poorly made documentary- it was well put together and the directors did a very good job finding the right people to feature. But I find that a common problem with documentaries like this is that there is a bit of a "no shit!" factor here.

There is a real challenge in making documentaries concerning current events. While 10 years ago this may have been a great way to get an unknown story out to a wide audience, today there's a good chance that the subject has been covered in length already somewhere, probably on the internet. Of course there is a lot of crap on the internet, but in my opinion the most important and timely reporting of government craziness is coming through that medium. And as a result, documentaries like this (and also a lot of very well written books on similar topics) feel dated the minute they come out.

An exception to this would be the excellent Frontline doc "Bush's War", just due to the tremendous amount of information covered and the high level of the subjects interviewed. Then again, that was four and a half hours long and had the resources of PBS behind it. Anyway, Secrecy ended up taking the special grand jury prize at the festival.

Next up was Goliath, which I loved. The story is simple- a man is in the middle of a divorce from his wife, then loses his beloved cat, and spends the next 70 minutes slowly but surely losing his shit. I'm not familiar with the Zellner Bros. but they apparently are fairly well known for their shorts (this is their first full length).

The movie moves slowly- the Zellners really seem to like setting up a camera and basically letting it roll while the characters participate in mundane activities. There is a 5 minute scene of two people signing their divorce papers (and nothing else) that was simultaneously one of the most boring but oddly funny things I have seen in a movie. But the long shots are punctuated by some very darkly hilarious stuff as our protagonist slowly falls apart (with some help from a power saw). Not a film for everyone but I'm definitely interested to see where these guys go.

Also, the trailer is excellent.

People with a lot of time on their hands

2008-05-12T20:05:00.004-04:00

I'm sure everyone has seen this already (I tend to catch on to such things late), but just in case, take a look. I have to say, the attention to detail is spot on, from the shot-by-shot re-enactment of The Royal Tenanbaums, right down to the double tracked singing.

A few questions-

1. Will I ever be able to watch this very sad scene again without thinking of Kermit?

2. Will I ever be able to listen to this song again without hearing Kermit's voice?

3. Did I see Rolf in there?

Encounters at the End of the World

2008-05-05T22:43:00.005-04:00

4/29/08

Coolidge Corner Theater

For about three years I worked as a volunteer ticket taker at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge. My shift was Wednesday nights for the early and late shows (usually two different films in a double feature) and I would always stay and watch at least the early show, regardless of what it was. Given the wide range of programming at the Brattle, this occasionally resulted in sitting through some seriously tedious stuff. Most of the time, though, but this forced movie watching exposed me to a comprehensive film history that I likely would never have encountered otherwise.

Two years ago the Brattle ran a Werner Herzog retrospective, and the first Wednesday was a double feature of Cobra Verde and My Best Fiend. At first viewing I didn't like Cobra Verde at all, but was fascinated by the complete insanity of Klaus Kinski. This was my first exposure to Kinski, and I couldn't get the scenes of him charging up a huge female African army out of my head. I was especially struck by the final scene of him crashing around in the surf, and while I wasn't interested enough to stay for the documentary that night, I decided to come back the next night for Aguirre, the Wrath of God. This film knocked me out. Kinski is more restrained but no less creepily intense, and the slow burn of the film had me completely hypnotized until the famous final scene of Kinski alone on his raft except for a bunch of monkeys, madly declaring himself the wrath of god.

From that point on, I have been a bit obsessed with Herzog, and have slowly been making my way through all of his films, documentaries, documentaries about him, and documentaries about people who are far more obsessed with him. So I was very happy to see that the 2008 Independent Film Festival of Boston closing night film was his newest documentary, Encounters at the End of the World.

At first glance this looks like any number of generic IMAX/Discovery Channel docs, but that perception changes almost immediately as Herzog and his cameraman land on Antartica. While the film meanders around from subject to subject, Herzog is most interested in the type of people who would abandon any semblance of normal life and move to what is basically the equivalent of a military base stuck in an almost endless void of ice. As you would expect these are unusual people- among them, a woman who traveled across a continent in a sewer pipe, a man whose hands are evidence of royal Incan lineage, and a linguist who tends a greenhouse in a continent of dead languages. But he is far from exploitive- he takes a typically philosophical approach to each person in trying to find out what brought them there. Much of the rest of the film is free of dialogue and focuses on some amazing footage, both on land and underwater.

There are so many things that stand out- lines of people with buckets on their heads trying to practice survival skills, the sadly hilarious penguin who loses his way and waddles off to his demise, divers swimming away untethered from their only exit hole in the ice, and most of all, the surreal underwater recordings of seals that I still can not believe was not made on some sort of electronic equipment. Besides all of this, of course, Herzog's narration (as much as I am obsessed with his films I am even more weirdly obsessed with his voice) hypnotically and humorously ties everything together.

I suppose this won't be playing at any multiplexes but absolutely should be seen on the screen rather than on TV.

Red Sox vs Blue Jays

2008-05-03T13:52:00.006-04:00

5/1/08

Sox 0 Blue Jays 3

In Attendance: Trinidad, Chris

Clearly, I need to stop going to Red Sox games because they always seem to lose when I go. Since the beginning of the 2007 season they are 2-8 in games I have attended. This includes one of the worst games I have ever been to, an 11 inning 13-6 (figure that one out) loss in the playoffs last year.

So after two nights of winning with two-out walk off hits, it is only typical that I was there to see them get shutout. Regardless, it's always fun to bring someone to Fenway for the first time, as I did with a visiting co-worker from Texas. Besides that this game was notable for only two reasons:

1. I got tickets from redsox.com only a few days before. I had always heard of people having luck getting tickets shortly before a game, but never managed to have it work out myself. But I checked the Sunday before the game and was able to snag excellent roof box seats, avoiding any potential craigslist/stubhub thievery.

2. This game had the weirdest ending I have ever seen. Bottom of the ninth with two outs, and Coco Crisp hit a pop fly that was caught and appeared to end the game. Everyone got up to leave, the scoreboard flashed the final score, and the "Goodnight Sweetheart" organ music started playing. We hit the restroom on the way out and heard cheering, but just figured that they flashed a losing Yankee score or something. But the cheering got louder. We take a look at the field, and the game is still going on with runners on first and third. Huh? Turns out a balk was called on Coco's pop out, and while we were waiting in line for the bathroom he followed up with a single. So we head back to our seats- tying run at the plate, potentially a third night in a row of heroics after being given a lifeline by the ump, and the place is going nuts. And Jed Lowrie strikes out looking to end the game. Like I said, I guess I need to stop going to Fenway.

Excuses, excuses

2008-05-03T12:17:00.003-04:00

When I decided to keep this blog going I figured I had to post at least twice per week to make it worth it- really not too lofty of a goal. But I'm close to two weeks out from my last post, so my apologies to my millions of readers. I have had a colleague from Texas in town for the week, which essentially means that my work day ends around 11 every night, after finishing whatever entertainment we had planned for the evening. But after a week of shmoozing and lunch/dinners out, it's great to have a cold and rainy Saturday (this is the last time i will be happy about such a thing by the way) to sleep in and catch up...

Red Sox vs Angels

2008-04-23T23:54:00.005-04:00

4/23/08
Sox 4 Angels 6
In Attendance: Paul

5 months out from surgery and on the day of his first successful scan, I couldn't have been any happier than to be sitting next to Paul at the ball game on a beautiful evening.

Not much more to say about this game than that.

Beisbol

2008-04-23T15:47:00.005-04:00

Well it is mid-80s and sunny today, and I am finally ready and excited for baseball season to be here. For some reason I've been apathetic about it so far- Never really feels like baseball season when it is 40 degrees out, and kind of felt like the season just ended (even if I did like the ending). Anyway, it's especially exciting this year for three reasons:

1. I managed to get four games in Conigliaro's Corner. These $25 seats were built last year so that regular people could get into Fenway (of course, it's about 0.05% of all the seats in the stadium, but that's another story), and are "scalper-proof"- you pick them up at a dedicated ticket window, and a security guard watches as you walk straight into the ballpark. They're real back-busting steel bleachers but provide one of the best views in the house, perched on top of the right field roof. Best of all they have a practically dedicated bathroom and beer/concession area, so there's no waiting for either of those things.

2. I'll be making my first excursion to Shea Stadium in over 10 years. It is huge and ugly, but I have a soft spot for Shea and will be sorry to see it go. It was the first ballpark that I ever went to, and the only one for about the first half of my life. I grew up with a family of Mets fans and despite my growing allegiance to the Red Sox over my past nine years in Boston, the Mets will always be my team. (And before someone asks as they inveitably do, yes I would root for the Mets against the Red Sox if they ever played in the world series again). I know this truly disturbs many of my friends, but I am at peace with it.

3. I'll finally go to Yankee Stadium. I've never been to Yankee Stadium simply because I really don't like the Yankees. But I need to see it before it is gone, so I'll be heading to the Bronx one weekend this summer as well.

Add to this a few Rangers games on my next trip to Texas and a visit to Camden Yards when I (hopefully) make it to Baltimore this summer, and it should be a good year for seeing some games. But most of I'm just happy to know that every night for the next six months, I can sit down on the couch (or at a bar, or put on the radio) and find a baseball game.

Man Man

2008-04-21T21:11:00.004-04:00

With: Yeasayer

4/12/08, Paradise Rock Club

Boston, MA

In attendance: Fletch, Steve

I realize that the following opinion puts me in the minority of basically everyone who cares about such things, but man oh man was I bored by Yeasayer's opening set. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for mid-tempo proggy-world music-type stuff. Maybe I drank too many of those super cold bottle/can hybrid beers and it affected my brain. Maybe it was the super-psychedelic show being projected behind the band that I think I last saw used on a 1994 HORDE tour (OOOOHHHHH, a giant blinking eye!) Or maybe I was just aware of the complete ass kicking to come in the next set. But they did nothing for me.

Man Man were another story. I last saw them open for Modest Mouse last year and they completely overshadowed the headliner. This band is completely insane and unlike anything I've seen before. Of course, every article written about them contain the three same names (Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart), and those are fair comparisons, but there is much more going on here than just rehashing already-made sounds. The new record rabbit habits makes that quickly clear. But as good as that album is, this is a band that really needs to be experienced live. Drums, keys, pots and pans, marimba, trumpet, sax, and anything else that was nearby is fair game by any member of the band at any moment. 90 minutes of compete chaos- the sold out crowd who mostly stood still for Yeasayer turned into a giant bouncing mass of people being led by 5 crazed carnival barkers dressed in white. An absolute blast that I would implore anyone to go see live as soon as possible.

I tried to find a video online that would best approximate what this is all about, and this one seemed to come closest despite the cruddy audio.

Wilco, a Bird, and some Zappa

2008-04-19T10:38:00.007-04:00

Wilco has announced a few more dates for their summer tour, and while I was initially apprehensive about the prospect of driving two hours on a Wednesday to Tanglewood to see them, they just upped the ante by adding Andrew Bird to the bill on 8/12. How could I not go to this show? Wilco's is basically my favorite band on earth and Andrew Bird blew me away the last time I saw him. Plus, if past shows are any indication, Andrew Bird will be sitting in for a good portion of Wilco's set.

Anyway I'm incredibly excited for this, and it gives me a reason to link to Steve DePino's excellent photos from the New Haven show that we went to in February (the pic above is his, the rest are at his blog here).

Best of all, I heard from Gamera on Wednesday and he let me know that a week earlier, Zappa Plays Zappa is coming back to the Hampton Casino Ballroom. We went to the show last year with only a vague notion of what to expect and left the show staggering not only from the (literally) 100+ degree room, but three hours of complete Zappa musical insanity. So we'll be meeting up once again this year on the strip of surreal depravity that is the Hampton Beach boardwalk for some more musical acrobatics. Looking like a very good week for live music.

Langhorne Slim

2008-04-13T13:01:00.002-04:00

With: Jennifer O'Connor, Hymns

4/10/08, Middle East Upstairs

Cambridge, MA

In Attendance: Fletch

I first saw these guys at SXSW, and basically caught the set by chance. We had walked to Waterloo Park since it seemed to be the easiest place to see some bands with the kids. We found a shady spot under some trees, and next on the bill was Langhorne Slim. Never-nude jeans shorts notwithstanding, I was sold pretty much immediately.

The album has been on constant rotation ever since, one of my favorite things that I've come across in a long time. But it is so much more restrained than the full-on throw down that happened Thursday night. These guys are seriously tight and they know how to work up the crowd- I honestly don't know if ever ever seen such an enthusiastic crowd (even the band seemed a bit surprised by it). Found this video from the show, I think it sums things up better than any description of mine:

Certainly not the typical "disorganized line of people" that you run into at shows...

Imagine my surprise...

2008-04-07T21:37:00.005-04:00

...when I opened up the new Vineyard Vines catalog and found a picture of myself in it. Actually it wasn't a surprise at all- I think three different people had told me about it by the time I actually got one in the mail, but kind of weird nonetheless.

Anyway, I was not in Key Largo at a sailfish tournament, but in Baltimore for Chris and Regan's wedding. The groomsmen had all received personalized Vineyard Vines ties (mine has democratic donkeys) and the photographer suggested the pose. Somewhere along the way, it made its way into the new catalog.

Granted, it is not quite as random as the time I opened up Sports Illustrated and found a picture of myself at the Red Sox World Series parade (and not even close to as weird as when my good friend Steve got called out in People magazine for being a TV star's first valentine), but I got a kick out of it.

Gary Louris

2008-04-02T20:56:00.008-04:00

With: Vetiver

4.1.08, Somerville Theater, Somerville MA

In attendance: Kristen

If there were any justice in the musical world, Gary Louris would be sitting pretty, making music in a cribs-style home recording studio and going on reunion tours with the Jayhawks to make a few million whenever he needed it. Or, at the very least, he would be playing to better than a less than half-full Somerville Theater, as he did last night. Of course there is not a lot of justice to go around when it comes to those who actually manage to make lucrative careers out of making good music, and Louris will be the first to acknowledge that. Read any interview with him and he seems genuinely perplexed, sad, and bitter that the Jayhawks never really made it big. And rightly so- at their peak the Jayhawks were a great band, basically pioneering the alt-country movement and just on the cusp of blowing up but never quite making it there. Even after Mark Olsen departed, Gary stayed on and continued to put out some solid Jayhawks albums, taking the reformed band in directions far beyond from the original countryish sound.

But the Jayhawks are officially broken up, and it doesn't look like they will be getting back together. Since the break up Louris has done just fine as a producer and songwriter, but luckily he is still making his own music as well.

For the couple hundred dedicated fans there last night, the show, in support of the new album Vagabonds, was excellent. Louris dedicated about half of the show to the new album, and the other half to some of the old Jayhawks favorites along with some Golden Smog songs. I’ve seen the Jayhawks a lot over the years, and as much as I hate to say it, these songs sounded as good as they ever have, maybe even better than they sometimes did with the Jayhawks. Same went for his album- it's taken awhile for it to grow on me, but it completely came together live.

Most of this is owed to Louris- his voice is still in top shape and he is clearly underrated as a guitar player. But a lot of it had to do with the stellar backing band, Vetiver. They opened the show, and then backed up Gary for his set. They reminded me a lot of the Sadies backing up Neko Case- completely solid, and completely unassuming despite being a band that you would want to go see on their own. Their album is streaming at their website, I would highly recommend it.

Links:

Gary Louris

Vetiver

Your my hero's!

2008-03-30T13:04:00.008-04:00

These guys are living the dream.

They seek, in short, to do for America's public signage what spell-check software has done for interoffice e-mail: smarten it up and make it easier on the eye. Their weapons: Wite-Out, markers, ink pens, tape, and nerves of steel.

This country faces many threats: war, poor economy, the environment, and college republicans, to name a few. But I have long maintained that none are as serious as the prevalence of the misplaced apostrophe.

Every day I receive email from co-workers at all levels that misuse "your" and "you're", or "its" and "it's". Even worse, I'm in charge of all hiring for my job, and have the displeasure of reading each application that we receive. I would say that 75% of these will have a typo somewhere, usually in the two line response to our question asking what makes them a good candidate for this position. Many of them will answer with something like "I am a good candidate for you're group because of my atenttion to detail".

But I have been noticing lately that more and more printed signs in stores and restaurants are falling victim to this plague as well. This usually arises when mistaking plural for possessive, and it is everywhere. But at some point, when this becomes prevalent enough, does it just become accepted as the "correct" way of writing? Are we already there?

That's where Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson come in. Best of luck gentlemen. You're doing noble work.

I will now re-read this entry 300 times to make sure there are no typos.

Crawfish Boilin'

2008-03-29T19:00:00.013-04:00

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to go to one of Andrew's BBQs knows that this is not a man who fools around when it comes to outdoor cooking. For the short time that Andrew lived in Boston, he would smoke some kind of meat or fish almost every weekend. I have been on the receiving end of more than one brisket that has resided on the smoker for 72+ hours, and required him to wake up multiple times over two nights to ensure that the temperature was just perfect. Unfortunately, Andrew moved back to his hometown of Austin last year, and aside from the occasional Redbones visit, my BBQ consumption has dropped dramatically. On the plus side, my cholesterol is no longer at crisis levels, and I've gone down a waist size.

So when Andrew told me that we would be having a crawfish boil during my Austin visit, I knew that this would not be a half-hearted endeavor. (By the way, we're a bit out of order here. I'm probably the only one concerned about this, but for the sake of documentation, this was day 2 of the Austin portion of the trip- after the week in Dallas, but before the trip from FL to NY).

Anyway, the successful journey of one of these little crustaceans from a Louisiana swamp to our table is a multi-step, all day affair.

Step 1: Locate Crawfish.

Understandably, Andrew's wife Mary was not very enthusiastic about the idea of buying the crawfish a day early and having them smell up the garage for 24 hours. So Andrew and I set off on Sunday morning for several unsuccessful attempts at locating a bag of these things. Obviously, crawfish aren't the kind of thing you find crawling around any stream- They're local to swamps and rivers in Louisiana and Southeast Texas. And since they need to be cooked alive, they're shipped in small quantities weekly. And as we quickly learned, when they're gone, they're gone. After finding no success at a few supermarkets, a visibly stressed Andrew called one last place who told us they had 2 sacks left if we could get there in a hurry. We raced across town (remember this is Texas, so across town = 30 miles) to a dimly lit cajun shop and picked up 33 pounds of Texas crawfish. Victory!

Step 2: Dump them out and pick out the dead ones

Unfortunately, not all of the little guys survive the trip, and the dead ones don't taste very good, so they all get picked out. Luckily, Lauren didn't seem too traumatized at having these things crawling around her baby pool...

Step 3: Purge

Purging involves dumping an entire container of salt on the crawfish, and then washing it off. Put simply, this step gets rid of the poop. Apparently there is some debate as to whether or not this is effective, but it certainly seemed worth the small effort to me. I'll spare everyone the picture of the water post-purging (safe to say, I think it worked).

Step 4: Boil them up

We used a turkey-frying pot (aka, the most terrifyingly unsafe thing I have ever seen- the fact that people fill these up with boiling oil blows my mind) to boil up the fish. The recipe for the water is pretty simple- 2 full containers of salt, a package of cajun seasoning, lemons, and a few sticks of butter. In the basket with the fish, we added potatoes, corn, onions, and sausage.

Going in, and coming out, 15 min later.

Step 5- Dump them out and eat. Repeat.

There's not too much to it- just rip off the tail, peel off the shell, and eat the tailmeat. And drink lots of beer- this is some spicy stuff. About half of the people with us sucked everything out of the heads too, but I wasn't quite gutsy enough for that this time around.

There's not a ton of meat in the tail, so you end up eating what feels like hundreds of these. We did 3 batches before we got through all 33 pounds, and by the end were drunk and stuffed with sliced up fingers. The person next to me at the table literally didn't move for 2 hours- just slowly and methodically made his way through everything in front of him.

Start to finish it was basically a full day of prep and cooking- I think it took a full 2 hours to just get through the eating portion of things. But it's a damn good way to spend an 80 degree day in March...

The aftermath:

Home sweet home.

2008-03-25T20:11:00.003-04:00

The big misshapen circle is complete, and I'm back in Cambridge. And after 15 days, 3 flights, 12 states, 7 beds, 3 hotels, 1300 miles in the car, 1 breakdown on the highway, and more rest stops than I can count, it is very nice to be home again.

I have a giant backlog of movies, photos, and stories from the trip that will be appearing over the next few weeks, probably in no particular order. But as I expected I'm enjoying blogging, so I'll also be throwing other things out there as they come along.

But in the meantime, no more traveling. For as long as possible.

Almost home.

2008-03-23T17:51:00.003-04:00

Happy Easter from CT.

Despite a lack of posts this week, the drive did in fact go great. Of course, part of the whole idea of this was to post from the road- as it turned out, after a day of driving 500+ miles the last thing you feel like doing is putting together a long post describing the events of the day. But detailed notes were taken, so the day by day will come later, along with other random things that I ran into during the entire two weeks.

Anyway, the drive took 3 days, Grandpa and I arrived in NY on Friday afternoon, and came to CT on Saturday night. Back to Boston tomorrow, and I'm itching to get home. But in the meantime, coming to Guilford to spend the holiday with the family is a great way to wrap up this seemingly endless journey.

1400 miles to go...

2008-03-18T23:25:00.003-04:00

Goodbye Texas...

Hello Florida.

After arriving at my third city in a week, a day of rest at the beach was just what I needed to recharge a bit. But the relaxation doesn't last long- at 4:30 tomorrow morning a determined 89 year old man will be knocking on my door, and we'll be in the car and on our way to NY by 5 a.m. Gotta miss that traffic...

Austin and South by Southwest

2008-03-18T14:40:00.005-04:00

In Austin, you almost forget that you’re in Texas. Austin is everything that Dallas is not. Not only are there hills, but there’s even trees. The city has managed to stick to its roots and keep out most major chains (very proudly wal-mart free), so you end up with endless independent stores, restaurants, and bars, and a community determined to preserve it. Of course Austin is most famous for the live music scene, and it doesn’t disappoint- you can’t go into a bar or restaurant there without finding at least a few feet of space reserved for a band. Even the airport had a live band playing on the way in.

So after a week of Dallas, Austin was exactly what I needed. Best of all, my trip happened to coincide with the South by Southwest festival, so after meeting up with Andrew, Mary, and their two ridiculously cute children, we headed straight from the airport to downtown for a beautiful 85 degree day of music.

South by Southwest is basically the biggest thing that happens in Austin all year, and it’s hard to describe the scale of the event. A huge section of downtown closes down, and every bar/venue hosts music all day for about 3 days. The “bigger” bands require some very expensive passes, but you if you choose to go the free route, you can still manage to bounce from venue to venue and see some serious music.

Since we had the kids we stayed away from the bars for the first part of the day and headed down to Waterloo Park, which had 3 stages of rotating acts all day. This was the Saturday schedule:

Couldn’t get near the comedy stage because of the crowd, but caught excellent sets by White Denim and Langhorne Slim. Headed down to 6th Street after the kids went home and hit the bars, where things definitely get a bit crazier- Huge crowds at every single venue (and there’s hundreds). Everywhere you look, there’s a band playing for free that you would want to see, not to mention the people playing the VIP shows. Bottom line- 6 hours at this thing only makes you want to take a week off and do it all. I know where I’m going next March.

A few more scenes:

Lauren and a giant dog at Waterloo

6th Street

Bluegrass at the Ginger Man

End of the day at Emo's

Rodeo!

2008-03-17T00:36:00.008-04:00

Just a few more pics and movies from an absolutely surreal evening at the rodeo in Fort Worth. The movie I posted earlier was the second break in the rodeo, where a bunch of middle aged guys got to chase around a calf. Bizarre as this was, it was nothing compared to what came before it, which was a bunch of 10 year old kids chasing around a speeding and angry calf (sadly did not record this one). I did manage to get some video of the under 10 division, who got to chase some sheep instead of a calf, because that's much more safe:

Other than that we saw some horse racing, bull riding, and some serious ropin:

Yes, I was probably the only guy there feeling bad for the calf...

Done with Dallas

2008-03-17T00:07:00.002-04:00

I’m a few days behind and there’s much to tell about Austin, but first a bit about Dallas. All in all, it was a decent place to spend a week. Actually, to be honest, in 4 work trips to this area I have yet to really do anything in Dallas city limits, aside from a visit to the Texas State fair back in October. Our office is in Lewisville, about 15 miles outside of the city (aka, “the metroplex"). Coming from New England it's odd to come to a place that not only was developed on seemingly limitless space, but has been mostly developed in about the last 20 years. Everything here is new. And huge. And since everything here was developed with cars in mind, anywhere you go is likely on a 4 lane highway. Going out for the paper in the morning? Chances are you're hitting 70 on the speedometer at some point on the way to the 7-11. Ironically, for a place we're you're driving everywhere you go, the roads are full of giant gas guzzling trucks and SUVs (as opposed to Boston, where everything is within a mile and everyone drives hybrids). I mentioned to someone from here that I had a Subaru and I really think that they had to stop for a moment to figure out what I was talking about.

Of course with all of this driving, it would help to have some good music in the car, and for the third trip in a row, I forgot to bring CDs. Being left to the mercy of Dallas radio is not something I would recommend. I've identified 3 major options- Spanish speaking stations, religious broadcasting, or country music. Needless to say the radio has been on "seek" pretty consistently, but I did find the Steve Harvey show in the mornings, which I have to say (with no irony) is just about the funniest thing I have ever heard. Otherwise I settled for country, and 5 days of that absolutely deserves a post of it’s own.

Anyway, sprawling overdevelopment generally doesn’t increase a city’s character, and the burbs of Dallas are no exception. Driving down the highway you are treated to the repeated view of endless shopping centers, with big box stores placed like lego pieces everywhere you look. The shopping centers are so big that the parking lots connect for miles- you can literally drive from one city to another without leaving a parking lot. I wasn’t joking when I said that I wasn't sure if the town I stayed was just a shopping center. It’s not- but it’s close. It includes this area of retail Pleasantville- a massive planned community of stores, restaurants, and homes that went on for blocks- I tried to walk it all and maybe got through half.

So to sum up- great weather, bad radio, and way too much time in the car. Not a bad place to spend a week, but I'm happy to be off to Austin and vacation.

Submitted without comment

2008-03-15T02:40:00.001-04:00

Things in Texas that you don't see in Boston, #2

2008-03-14T19:35:00.004-04:00

Special bad weather edition.

Things in Texas that you don't see in Boston, #1

2008-03-11T20:05:00.002-04:00

Hanging in the window of a very nice restaurant. Apparently if your weapon is licensed, you're all set.

Howdy!

2008-03-10T20:36:00.003-04:00

(that's Big Tex by the way, in case you were wondering)

A mostly uneventful day of traveling and I'm here in Dallas. Southlake, technically, but I honestly have yet to figure out if Southlake is an actual town, or just a really big shopping center. More on this later.

The weather is nice and getting nicer- sunny and in the 50s today, and steadily working its way up to 87 (!) on Friday. Of course the pollen count increases right along with the temperature, but after a miserable February in Boston I'll take some itchy eyes if it means I can go outside without a jacket.

2008-03-08T23:11:00.006-05:00

Resolution number one this year was to start writing again. Of course, given how long it has been since I wrote in any real capacity, saying that I’m writing “again” is a bit of a stretch.

But for a lapsed writer of any level, a blog seems like the perfect place to get into it again, right? I read endless blogs- by friends, journalists, 5 year olds- but I’ve always hesitated to start one myself. Who really cares about my random thoughts on a day-to-day basis? And does the world need another blog? Probably not. But recently a unique trip has come together for me, and keeping a journal of it seems as good a reason as any to get started on this. If it sticks, I’ll keep it going after the trip is over.

In short, here’s the itinerary- I like to think of it as a trip to Connecticut by way of Texas and Florida.

1^st leg is a week in Dallas for work. I guess this will be the least exciting part of the trip (though there apparently are rodeo outings planned- very excited about this). From there I head off to Austin to visit some friends and hopefully catch a bit of South By Southwest.

The second week is where things get more interesting. From Austin I’ll fly to Florida to meet up with my grandfather, who is spending the winter at my Aunt’s house. After a day or two there, my grandfather and I will jump in the Buick, hit I-95, and make our way to Baldwin, NY. I’m thinking we’ll do it over 2-3 nights, and hopefully get a few side trips in. From NY I’ll head on to CT for Easter, and then back to Boston after that.

So all in all, about 5000 miles to make a huge, misshapen circle around one quarter of the country. And as long as there is a wi-fi connection to be found, I plan to report in from each stop. In the meantime, I’ll hopefully find a way to dress up this very boring-looking page...

Post the first

2008-02-25T21:04:00.001-05:00

testing...