that ring of confidence

Once in a lifetime

i love the Talking Heads, and one of their best songs is "Once In A Lifetime". The first time I heard the song however was not as sung by David Byrne and group but rather one Kermit the Frog as part of the relaunched Muppet Show. The show didn't really last, but the cover of the song by Kermitt was one of the great moments in Muppets history. I was reminded of this last night when Lydia revealled that she had never seen any of the Muppet movies, and only seemed familiar with The Muppet Babies cartoon.

What the heck? At the very least The Muppet Movie is now on our list of things we've got to watch to get her up to speed. The girl has never even seen Jaws.

Yup, there's a lot of work before the wedding.

The best merch ever

Radiohead Merch
Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson

i am a sucker for a good bit of concert merchandise.  Give me a t-shirt with a cool logo on it and I'll gladly hand over $30 for something that costs ten times less than that to make.  Hand me a poster for $15 and I'll roll it up and stick it in my closet with big plans to use it to decorate the wall in the home office that I don't yet have and may never get.  Hoodies, love them.  I've got Matthew Good soccer jerseys.  I've got backpacks, pins and baseball caps.

My new all-time favorite piece of tour merchandise ever however is now the Radiohead Sigg bottle that I picked up last night at their concert at Thunderbird Stadium [mbv].  I'm a huge fan of Sigg bottles, and I use my two current ones almost constantly.  I took one around as my main source of water in Europe, and I try to avoid using plastic bottles or buy bottle water in stores because of the toxic chemicals that are meant to leak into the water from plastics.  Not only that but cutting back on plastic bottles is good for the enviroment, even if they're recycled.

$25 for a Radiohead Sigg bottle is a no brainer then.  It's metallic so the chemical issue isn't a factor, and its washable so it's not going to end up in a garbage dump anytime soon.

Sub Pop 20: Iron and Wine reach such great heights

Over the weekend, well Friday and Saturday, Lydia and I got down to Seattle for a few events that had been organized for Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary.  The record label that really brought grunge and alternative music to the world in the early '90s was having a two day concert festival and a comedy show.  We made the Friday night comedy show, with David Cross and others, and caught some of the first day of music.

One of the acts we did catch was Iron and Wine, who are probably most famous for this cover of "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service.  The song appeared on the Garden State soundtrack and I love both versions.  This is the video I recorded of the song.  You can catch a recording of The Flight of the Chonchords' "The Humans Are Dead" here [yt].

I'm hoping to get some time to blog more in the next day or two.  So take care of yourselves until then.

Some music to pass your day

Here is my Last.fm playlist.  Click on it, play it, listen to it and hopefully if you do those three things properly you'll also enjoy it.  I haven't updated it for awhile, so it might not be an accurate reflection of what I'm listening to right now, but since only my favorite songs get added to the playlist then it's something I'll still stand behind even now months since I've last looked at it.

The dropped iPhone

I've been hard on my iPhone since getting it.  I've dropped it half a dozen times and it's bounced back from every knock and bump that I've managed to inflict on it until last Wednesday.  While rushing to get out of my car in the Metrotown parking lot I let it slip out of my hand and it fell face first on the hard concrete ground.  Having dropped it before I was not worried, until I actually looked at the screen.

There is now a portion of cracked glass on the top left corner of the screen, as well there is a large crack running across the screen from that top corner across to the right centre of the screen.  It's a hard thing to capture in pictures, but it's pretty ghastly looking.  Amazingly enough the touch screen still works, and every other feature of the phone seems fine.  Lydia's worried that I'm going to cut my face on the cracked glass, but I don't think that's much of a danger.

At work we refer customers to a guy in Richmond to get their phones fixed, and I've used him before when I locked up my iPhone's software.  He's quoted me $180 to fix the screen, and since I paid for the phone with my Visa card I'm trying to get them to pay for the repair under their purchase insurance that they offer.  So ideally the repair will be free, but I'll have to see how well Visa honours that.

I've been thinking about switching back to my BlackBerry until I get the phone fixed, but after having an iPhone it's really hard to go back.  The idea of not having the internet on me at all times, and having to have both an iPod and a cellular phone seems to be almost a hardship.  Granted it's one of those pathetic middle class hardships that don't really matter in the real world, but it's there still.

Hopefully Visa will be standup guys and gals and fix this for me.

Photo credit

• Photo by: Jeffery Simpson
• What: Cracked iPhone
• Date Taken: March 28th, 2008
• Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XTi [fkr]

The Screwup Letters

This following exchange took place via email between Nathan Carter and myself.

From: Nathan Carter
To: Jeffery Simpson
Subject: A Nidea

Hi Kelly

If we ever form another Rock Band band, we should call it "The Grade Ten Birds"

Hugs,
Nathan

---

From: Jeffery
To: Nathan
Subject: Re: A Nidea

Ha ha.

Or Dr. Pants and His Lonely Flute Section.

Sent from my iPhone

---

From: Nathan
To: Jeffery
Subject: Re: A Nidea

That's a very poignant and filthy name, sir.  I enjoy it.
Someone from the "internet", someone whose eBay feedback explains
exactly how long I had to wait for shipping, is offering me money in a
bid to buy his reputation back with the removal of my feedback (Oh no!
He's only at 99.3% positive).  No-one buys my love!

Or how about: "Miles Kilometers and The Way Home"

Nathaaka

---

From: Jeffery
To: Nathan
Subject: Re: A Nidea

"Miles Kilometers and The Way Home"

That's an album title you sick bastard.  How dare you attempt to trick me into giving a band an album name.  Imagine if U2 were instead named The Joshua Trees or the Under A Blood Red Skies?  It would be foolish and nobody would know who Bono was and he'd have never been able to save Africa with his smile.

If you keep this shit up we might have to dissolve our friendship and start a new relationship as enemies.

---

From: Nathan
To: Jeffery
Subject: Re: A Nidea

Perhaps we are up against a brain anomaly.  The Way Home.  You're
right, that rings a bell.  Whose album be it?  Unless you're serious
about initiating enmity, I suggest continuing friendship and an
amended name: "Miles Kilometers and the Roasted Hopes"

Captain Dander

---

From: Jeffery
To: Nathan
Subject: Re: A Nidea

Gak.  You must be a brain anomaly.  I think we call in Gene Rodenberry and get him to write an episode of Star Trek based on your inability to concieve the difference between a band name and an album title.  "Miles Kilometers and The Way Home" is clearly an album title.  It is not, to my keen ken, a currently existing album title but it is indeed an album title.  It has that vibe. 

I do not want to dissolve our friendship like so many slugs under salt in a White Rock backyard, but you are forcing my hand with your ninny-ness.

Look.  I've had to do this to prove you wrong.  Here are some band names and some album titles that I've made up.

Band Names:

Rocket Red and the Glory Wheels
The Dreamers
Vampire
88 Keys
The Lovers of Paper

Album Titles:

'Round Aboot Here
Until the Squids Came Home
Crab Pot Sickness
Aligator Al Runs My Pawn Shop
Fuck You It's Broked

Are you clear now?

---

From: Nathan
To: Jeffery
Subject: Re: A Nidea

Crab Pot Sickness it is.  Now i'm the one convinced, and you're the
one being painted as a brain-deficient anomaly - I'm at least 60% sure
there's something (someone's band) called "The Way Home".  I will
prove it one day and make you sick with envy!  I'll make you sick with
crab pots!  I'll make you eat that snake and ladder!

Be sweet
Be kind,
Cue the cheering(booing) children,
I'm listening to reggae
Nathan

---

From: Jeffery
To: Nathan
Subject: Re: A Nidea

You talk a retribution like you're a reader of the Old Testament.  My God is a micro-biotic God, not a fire/brimstone God.  If I wanted that old tyme vengeance vibe I would have stayed settled with Zeus.  Now there was a god who knew a good vengeance tip.

Did I tell you about the time Zeus, Jeff Weston and I went to the faux-Commonwealth debates at UBC when we were in high school?  Jeff was reading up on Noam Chompsky, who he would later engrave in marble for the oracles, while Zeus and I were trying to figure out what the major concerns of the Solomon Islands were.  My gosh, what a speaker he was that Zeus.  Once he got on roll it was like he shot lightening from his teeth.  He did not, at least not during the conference since it would have been out of character for the tiny island nation to do so.

The point is my dear friend, and I use that term as loosely as I use the term "faux-Commonwealth", that your attempt at verbal judo will not fool me.  You try to reverse or positions with a quick flick of your hip, and all you end up doing is making me mad.  I've been around the Model UN and I find it much too small to fit any real ambassadors in.  Those plastic people you've glued around the outside to represent scale will hardly be able to negotiate the sort of long lasting trade deals that your nation expects of you.

I have seen all of your moves.  I rate you 4 out of 5.3.  It is an odd sort of scale, but it's all about keeping the metric and imperial conversions clean.

I love you like a retarded frog I once caught in a muddy swamp in White Rock.  Or rather not love, but if I had you in a jar I'd feed you some flies and punch holes in the top.  It only seems fair.

Take care of my stalks while they're growing.  Though that's not an invitation for more horseshit.

- Frank Mahovlich 

---

From: Nathan
To: Jeffery
Subject: Re: A Nidea

Dr. Feelgood

That was probably the funniest email I've received in about five
years.  I think the point at which my bile rose the highest in protest
was when you say "I love you like a retarded frog..."  End quote.
That pretty much frosts (with malice) the cake of your dispassions.
Frogs are rare.  Frogs are precious.  I am from White Rock.

Remind me who Zeus is.  I have narrowed the list to Johannes, Michelle
(most probably), and Dane Bird.  The Grade Ten Bird.  Zeus, the real
Zeus, the one we clubbed with in Olympus (remember?), had nothing of
fire/brimstone/vengeance.  The most Zeus had was turbo-whim, and that
while topless (!!) and his hurling electricity was never pleasing to
him - he's said repeatedly that he regretted it.  His waxed chest
betrayed his need to please.  Besides, he had competition, and could
be tricked into incest, or replacing the distributor even though there
was nothing wrong with it.

Have you read much Chomsky?  I've read a fair amount.  And I must say
this.  I used to love him.  His writing is very hard to read.  It's
dense, and footnoted like there was a panel of celebrity judges.
There is actually only a pamphlet's worth of text in Manufacturing
Consent, and the rest is text-length citations of U.N. resolution
wording, Presidential speeches, obscure scholars of eastern european
historical conflict, and Woody Allen's most memorable nocturnal
mumblings.

If there were one person left on a tiny island nation, would that
person automatically be his own UN representative?  Would there be
allegations of human rights abuses if he weren't properly groomed?
Could he declare war on Mauritania and then hide for 3 years?  Or is
it more likely that the last person would sit on his tiny beach, with
his tiny tattered shorts, tossing stones into the sea and crying
softly to himself?  I say we annex him.  I say we sell him to
seagulls.

My swamp, your jar with or without holes, my hibernatory mud cave, the
centre of the sun: It matters not.

Bernard Callebaut

---

From: Jeffery
To: Nathan
Subject: Re: A Nidea

Dear Black Cauldron:

Zeus = Dane Bird?
Zeus = Michelle Smith?
Zeus = Johannes Saufer?

Your knowledge of my back catalouge is shaky at best.  I suggest you pay closer attention to my autobiography "Fashioning The Senses" and less to your so called studies.  Or read my blog which is located at www.jefferysimpson.net.  Also I have to say that I will be sharing your ignorance with my adoring public, they have a right to know what sort of free range fowl that I associate with.

You ask questions so I will give you answers like a rabbit stealing eggs and then re-distributing them on Easter like some insane animal kingdom Robin Hood.  Or Lenin.

Zeus = Aaron Peck.

Yes I have read some Noam Chompsky.  Largely in comic form thanks to Jeffrey Weston's cartoons.  I find that most great philosophers are best in comic strip form which is why I asked for the compelete collection of the writings of John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes as related by a young boy and his stuffed tiger. 

Be wary.  I must now take out the trash.  When I return I expect an apology and possibly some sort of smallish baked dish to demonstrate my dominance over you in the area of wishing on falling stars.  I wish but good.

- Pony Boy

Ghosts I-IV make Reznor $1.6 million

If I still had the weekly gig with eVent! I know what I'd have written about last night, it would be the news that Trent Reznor's new album(s) from Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV made him around $1.6 million dollars in the first week of release [wm].  Radiohead were the first big group that I listen to who did a no-label internet release and they've been secretive about how much they made, but Reznor the man behind Nine Inch Nails has been much more open about how much he's managed to make.

Over the last few years it's been sort of accepted that if you're okay with simply making a living with music, you probably did not need a record label.  Someone like Jonathan Coulton has been able to make a decent living playing to his niche but there's was a lot of doubt as to whether a major artist could manage to make the sort of money they were used to making with a major label, if they went on their own.  It's been a long time since Nine Inch Nails was a top tier act, probably since 1994's The Downward Spiral [wp] but they're a well respected group with a avid fan-base.  Reznor's albums sell fairly well, but there's no way that was getting the sort of money from Universal (his old label) that he got from doing this.

Now it's important to point out that Reznor made one of the four albums available for download for free, and that the rest of the tracks were on bit torrent sites just like any other album.  People stole these discs, got them for free and yet he still made money on them.  The mantra of the labels like Universal that you are stealing their music (I mean you clearly have an internet connection you must be a pirate) and that's what's affecting record sales is completely bogus.  Yeah some people steal music, and don't pay for it.  Maybe some people who before the internet would have bought the album downloaded it without paying, but music fans do in large part believe that their favourite artists deserve to make money from their music. 

I paid $10 through NIN.com [nin] for the full four album downloads plus a fancy .pdf formatted liner notes.  The equivalent through the iTunes music store would have been about $40, and truthfully I would have paid that being a NIN fan since Ryan Corbett introduced me to them on the grade eleven band trip.  Back then I had girl issues that needed angry techno/industrial music to deal with properly and now though I'm fully healed, and have a girlfriend to boot [ls], I still enjoy the NIN.  Instead though I got for an amazing price, the money all went to the artist and it's not in the iTunes DRM cage which means I can make ringtones out of it.

The advantage a band with a strong fan-base like NIN has is that the marketing is largely taken care of.  I first saw mention of Ghosts I-IV on Wil Wheaton's Twitter stream [ww], though I didn't know what he was talking about.  Bit by bit I saw more of the people I follow on Twitter mention listening to "Ghosts" and eventually I turned to Google to figure out what they were talking about.  A few short minutes later and I was on NIN's site downloading the album, and word-of-mouth-marketing had another victory and Trent Reznor had $10 of my dollars, not the $2 he would have had had I paid $50 for the album at the local HMV.

Though their niche is a lot bigger than someone like Jonathan Coulton, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are still niche artists.  I'm really looking forward to the days when a major artist, a U2 for example, figures out that they could be making the music they want to be with no label interference and be making more money if they just cut the strings and forged their own path without a major label.

Photo credit

• Photos by: Jeffery Simpson
• What: Nine Inch Nails at Pacific Colisium in Vancouver
• Taken: September 26th, 2005

Matthew Good @ Tractor Tavern in Seattle

I went down to Seattle with Nathan to see the Matthew Good show at the Tractor Tavern. I've seen a lot of Matthew Good live, from 1997 when I got kicked in the head while standing at the edge of a mosh-pit at EdgeFest in Edmonton to 2008 where I had to strain to hear the tunes over a group of drunk girls and their boyfriends who kept yelling out "Play Timebomb!" I've travelled around western Canada, from Alberta to the interior catching him in Vernon, Kamloops, Kelowna, Vancouver, Whistler, Edmonton and now Seattle.

After all of that I feel like I'm something of an expert on what is a good Matthew Good show.  That is if it weren't for my one terrible secret, that I've never seen his live acoustic show before.  That's right for various reasons I've missed out on the last two tours and so in order to catch him live again Seattle the opening date on his American tour was where I had to go.

The Tractor Tavern is a small club, the perfect sort for this sort of show.  Small, intimate and decorated with a (possibly) ironic country and western vibe it was the sort of place you could imagine a pre-Ten Pearl Jam playing with the band packed onto the stage.  For a solo acoustic show the stage was roomy enough for Matt Good.  The crowd however was packed in tight, the show having sold out with a large contingent of fans making the trip down from Vancouver.  I bumped into Vancouver bloggers John Bollwitt [jb] and Duane Storey [ds] after the show, and after an evening of standing right behind them trying to photograph over their heads.

The show was excellent, loose and relaxed.  It's clear that Good seems to prefer the acoustic setup more than a full band show and he spent the night joking with the audience and was even convinced by someone to do a verse of "The Future Is X-Rated" which is not really an acoustic friendly song.  It was probably the smallest venue that I've seen Good play in, and though it was nicer than the curling rink shows I've seen him play in Vernon during the MGB days, I still have to say that the Commodore is probably my preferred venue. 

Most of Good's recent songs lend themselves to acoustic treatments, and so it was nice to hear them as he most likely originally wrote them.  Still I have to say that I am looking forward to being able to see him with a full band [mg] this summer.  This time I'll have to remember to buy tickets when they go on sale, as opposed to waiting, and waiting and waiting until they're all sold out.

Jeffery's Playlist for 02/22/08

I recieved an email from a reader named Pawel Utko asking me to recomend some music.  It seems that he came across one of my earlier playlist posts and was really getting into Sloan and The New Pornographers thanks to my mention of "Deeper Than Beauty" and "Letter From An Occupant".

So here's a quick playlist using only the songs that are currently on my 8 gig iPhone.  I'm not going to write a big todo about each one this time, just trust that if you're interested in some good music that you'll use your internet skills to find samples of these songs and explore the catalouges of the artists a bit.

Think of it as your homework for the weekend.

1. The Arcade Fire :: "Keep The Car Running"
2. The Magnetic Fields :: "California Girls"
3. Matthew Good :: "Black Helicopter"
4. Moldy Peaches :: "Anyone Else But You"
5. The National :: "Secret Meeting"
6. Peter Bjorn and John :: "Young Folks"
7. The Postal Service :: "We Will Become Silhouettes"
8. Yael Naim :: "New Soul"
9. Radiohead :: "Videotape"
10. The Weakerthans :: "Tournament of Hearts"

The 90s is the new oldies

At work today I was listening to a Supergrass track on Last.fm [lf] when my co-worker Mike asked what kind of music I liked.  After saying that I liked stuff like that, alternative music, he agreed that it was good and he liked it as well.  It just happens to turn out that our opinion of how to classify that music is quite different.

Mike: I like Bryan Adams, Phil Collins and all that oldies stuff.

Me:  ...

Oh I feel old.  Not only would I consider Bryan Adams and Phil Collins to be a part of the 1980s, rather than the 1990s' like Supertramp, to hear the sort of music I like described as "oldies" was a blow to the part of my ego that would like to believe that I'm still young, cool and hip.  I mean I like The Beatles, they're oldies, the 1990s' isn't oldies... Right?

The New Pornographers in Vancouver

I was actually a bit reluctant to go to the New Pronographers show last night.  The last show in my week of three concerts [jks] I was not really that jazzed about hanging out at the Commodore for two hours until the main show started.  After The Arcade Fire in Seattle and They Might Be Giants also at the Commodore I was felt like I was out of love for live music.  Thankfully I went, because it was a great show.

I wrote a slightly punch drunk review of the show for Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv], since I'm damn right exhausted after a long night bouncing up and down and shouting. I think my concert reviewing chops are a bit out of shape, since my review can basically be boiled down to "Yay, Neko Case and Dan Bejar were there, look at some photos!"  Not my best work, I'll admit.  Back at The Phoenix I could crank out solid gold on the drop of a hat.

Currenlty I'm waiting for the clock to run out on this shift at work so that I can go home.  Al Gore and David Suzuki [jks] are going to be drawing people to the hotel across the street from my apartment like flies, so thankfully I walked/Skytrained to work rather than fighting traffic in the parking lot I share with the hotel.  Hopefully I don't fall asleep on the Skytrain and spend the night bouncing between stops. 

Which of course has nothing at all to do with The New Pornographers show last night, other than it was part of the reason I'm quite haggared today.  Of course the fact that I made Lydia show me her tapped copy of the season premier of The Office probably did not help much.

So to re-cap: i) The New Pornographers get a thumbs up, ii) The Office is great and iii) despite going to see two leading enviromentalists speak Vancouver is still going to fill my parkade up with gas guzzlers. Damn hippie/yuppie hybrids.

Below the jump is a video I took at the show.

The week of three concerts

  IMG_0743.JPG 
  Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Months pass without me going to a concert, and now all of a sudden I'm in the midst of a week where I've got three high quality concerts all in a row.  On Monday Lydia and I drove down to Seattle to join Jeff at The Arcade Fire show [mbs].  The very next night I was at the Commodore Ballroom with Nathan for They Might Be Giants [mbv] and now tomorrow I will be back at the Commodore for The New Pornographers, which should be a heck of a show.

The last show, The New Pornographers, is a birthday gift from Lydia, and she's coming with me.  So far my favorite has been the They Might Be Giants' show, but it's possible (though unlikely) that The New Pornographers could push them out of the top spot.

I hit reset on years of iTunes listening

When it comes to music, though sadly not math class, I am a statistics dork.  The fact that iTunes tracks how many times I play a song, when I last listened to it and how I've rated it has been a source of much nerdery in my life for years.  However given the recent death of my hard drive and my need to buy a new one and reformat the old one, I've managed to save my music but not the stats. 

Now I have thousands of songs, and a clean slate.  Gone for example is my early love of The Refreshments [wp] and their song "Banditos", there is no evidence that the lyrics:

"So give you ID card to the border guard
Your alias says you captain john luke picard
Of the united federation of planets
Cause they wont speak english any ways"

caused me a great deal of mirth and then suddenly stopped being listened to around 2003.  There is no longer any sign that I've listened to the orchestral version of U2's "One" that was included as a B-side on the Passengers "Miss Sarajevo" single, more than I've listened to the Auchtung Baby version.  It is gone, all gone.  Only the music itself remains.

So now I've got a 250 gig drive which I think is fixed now that I've reformatted it, and a 500 gig drive.  The 500 gig one is from Seagate (pictured) and is extremely nice looking which is odd for a hard drive.  I've plugged that into my Airport router and am using it as an Air Disk, so I have a large hard drive that I can access anywhere in the apartment via Wi-Fi.  The older one I've plugged back into my iMac and it's once again serving up my iTunes, though I'm going to be more vigilant at backing it up to avoid a scare again.

Meanwhile I'm back to rebuilding years of iTunes ratings, playlists and stats.  But maybe this is a good thing, allowing me to hide a few musical black marks on my record.  Now Lydia will never know just how often I listen to James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", and neither will you.

Sore throat

Caution:
Originally uploaded by Supremedalek_99.

Today I have a sore throat, but since it's the least serious of the sore throats currently going around the store I'm at work. If I put my mind to it and upgraded my sore throat to a flu and missing voice combination then I'd probably be able to go home, but as it is I can't make that up-sell right now.

So here I am, at work.

Earlier today I was trying to get tickets to the White Stripes show, but Ticketmaster's website was being its usual buggy self. What status it is now I don't know. Lydia took over the attempt to secure the seats, and I think she's gotten some but my short term memroy is not at its peak today.

Did I mention I have a sore throat? I do. I went to Shoppers Drug Mart and bought some sore throat relief stuff. It's not working great. Maybe that's what's damaged my short term memory.

Now let me tell you about trying to get tickets for the White Stripes this morning. Oh boy, the Ticketmaster website was being a pain in the ass. Lydia's taken that project over, though I'm not clear on whether she's gotten some yet.

That and I have a sore throat. Or did I say that already?

Tomorrow we race

My second Forza car
Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Still anxious to get some serious time playing deep into Forza Motorsport 2 for the XBox 360. Today I woke up too late to play any and most of the time I did have was spent dealing with the fact that the new White Stripes album did not seem to want to work in either of my computers. My iMac and my Macbook both rejected it, and iTunes kept freezing while the disc was in the drive. It's probably some weird copy protection but I'll go to HMV tomorrow and get the disc exchanged just in case.

Stupid DRM.

The fact that I don't listen to CDs and don't have a CD player in my home, aside from the drives in my computers, makes it pretty much worthless to me if it can't be read by computers. I could listen to it only in my car, I suppose. But I want to race, and my car can't go as fast as I can in Forza, in video games.

Late nights

Skytrain
Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

I hate the closing shift at work. Finishing at 7:30 last night actually turned out to be me finishing at 9:30. Tonight finishing at 9:00 turned out to be 10:10. Add to that the late night Skytrain ride home, and then walk from Canada Place to the apartment, and it's a late night.

Now I'm going to microwave the meal that I should have eaten at lunch, copy the new White Stripes album that I bought instead of eating my lunch to my iPod, eat the lunch that I did not eat at lunch and watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report before turning in.

Damn I've also got to play some Forza 2 tonight.

Ben Folds covering "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service

One of my favorite songs of recent years is "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service. I've enjoyed some covers of it in the past, the version on the Garden State soundtrack for example, but in general I prefer the original. Still this video of Ben Folds performing the song is worth a look at. So get to it, look at it.

Terrible video, pretty good concert: Modest Mouse in Vancouver

Last night Lydia and I went to see Modest Mouse in Vancouver at the PNE Forum.  When we got there we were searched for things like booze, drugs, knives and helper monkeys.  While I was finishing off all my drugs and booze out in the parking lot my helper monkey ran off with my knife.  Lydia however still had her Swiss Army knife and was told she'd have to hand it in at the bag check.  Instead we just walked into the show, bypassing the bag check lineup.

The first opening band was good. Called (Grand) Archives they're from Seattle [ts].  The second band wasn't so hot. Neither was the very long wait between the second opening act and the main event Modest Mouse.

Modest Mouse was really good, playing their most well known songs like "Float On" and "Dashboard" early on in the show. However that left them in a bit of a pickle later on when the show went from being songs to being long periods of musical masturbation as they just sort of noodled around and jammed. The encore was completely pointless and we left halfway through that. All in all it was a good show, but today my feet are tired from all the standing up and about.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Lydia told me that she had heard that former Smith's guitarist Johnny Marr had joined Modest Mouse. I checked into that and he had, helping to co-write some of their new album [wp]. So now I've seen half of the Morrisey-Marr team.

Another Final Fantasy concert

The other night Lydia and I went to the Centre for the Performing Arts downtown to see a union funded concert that was apparently to stop the government from privatizing BC Hydro. How having a free concert was going to stop that from happening I'm not sure, but since Final Fantasy was there so were we. We caught three of the four acts and the only one worth talking about was Final Fantasy. The previous two were old folkies who appeal to that sort of wealthy over-50 crowd that you see manning the telephones on funding drive for PBS when in fact you're trying to watch the Red Dwarf marathon. It was completely obvious within about three minutes that they did not get Final Fantasy, a one man band, nor did they want to get him. So by the end of his set, the final set of the night, the auditorium was quiet empty and those that had braved the full concert seemed more confused than anything. The show we saw at UBC in the winter was a much better audience, and a longer show. Still Lydia was glad to see him again and once again I realize that he's got some fiddle moves that one.

My ears. My poor, poor ears.

Really Loud
Originally uploaded by perclissigi.

Back almost two years ago I developed tinnitus after a Duran Duran concert [jks][jks].  I visited Graham's dad, who at the time was my GP, and he basically said that it would either go away on its own or not go away ever.  Nathan's dad apparently has it as well, and as of March 2005 it still had not gone away following his going to a Guess Who concert.  Eventually it faded away and was not a problem again until yesterday when it's come back strong.

This time the ringing is in the right ear, I believe it was in the left last time, but it's making me quite grumpy.  The store being made nearly entirely of glass and concrete is echoes loudly at the best of times when it gets busy, but add my current hearing issues and it's a bit of a nightmare trying to hear customers.  It's also given me a nearly full time headache, which is a nice touch.

I had considered calling in sick to work this morning, especially given that there's three of us working today, but I was sick last month for a few days with a flu/cold combo so I didn't want to be sick again.  Besides I can't be sick on the weekend.  So I'll just tough it out.