The Fish Tank Blog

A cloud of illness

2008-12-27T23:55:00.002-05:00

Sickness has settled down on our house for Christmas and maybe New Year's -- we'll see. One family member has croup which caused us to go to the ER on Christmas Eve. All is better now, but it was scary there for a while because she was working so hard to breath. Now another member has come down with some sort of stomach bug and so we'll have to work through that. Not much fun, but I am feeling like the walls are closing in on me!

Facebook = massive time suck

2008-11-19T09:30:00.003-05:00

It's not like I update this blog very often to begin with, but now I am more active on Facebook, and it's seriously distracting me from all sorts of things including updating this blog. It wasn't really until my wife joined that I really paid much attention to my FB profile, but now...!

Monkeyin' around

2008-11-05T11:58:00.004-05:00

Here are some recent pictures of Jane, including some of her dressed up for Halloween as a monkey. We actually could not convince her to get in her costume on Halloween night (she put up a convincing counter argument: hysterics), so these pics were taken on Saturday when she was much more agreeable.

Jane runs the Army 10-miler!

2008-10-05T18:43:00.005-04:00

OK, not really, but she is now officially a walking toddler! We're all very excited, but maybe a tad unready for the whole transition to walking. But so far, so good. No black eyes or scary falls -- yet. Just kidding. It's pretty amazing to watch her go, and improve her balance, too. They grow up fast, as they say.

Here's a short video of an early walk. A warning about the video: you may want to turn your sound down before viewing because there is loud yelling from excited parents. :-)

And here are some more recent pictures.

Go 'Skins!

2008-10-05T18:40:00.002-04:00

I don't think I've had this much to cheer about in a looong time. It feels good. Four and one -- who woulda thunk it at the beginning of the season??

One week, three shows

2008-09-17T20:52:00.004-04:00

Three shows in one week is too many, at least for an oldster like myself. I feel like I'm still catching up on sleep.

Last week started out with the Kooks show at the 9:30 club on Monday night. It was a sold out show. Overall it was a good show, but I had some problems with Kooks. They have good songs, and they're energetic, but they just seemed to be trying too hard: singer's got overly dramatic stage moves and singing, guitarist changing guitars too much. I don't want to make it sound like I don't like 'em because I do, but I found those things to be distracting.

At the last minute, we decided to go to the Gray Matter reunion show on Friday at the Black Cat. This was a fun show. GM played for a little over an hour, playing stuff from Take it Back and the first album. They were rockin'. The crowd's age was mixed, old and young. I did manage to get most of a pint spilled all over me. Some girl was standing in front of me, at the back edge of the pit, with a full pint glass full of what later smelled like Sierra Nevada. Of course, she got knocked, and then the beer went flying all over me. Not the best move standing at the edge of the pit with a glass of beer. Interesting thing at this show was that there were no people taller than me standing in front of me! Are punk fans shorter than average? At almost every other show I go to, there is at least one person taller than me who stands directly in my line of sight. But, that always happens at 9:30... maybe people who go to the Black Cat are shorter than average. Hmmm...

The next night (Saturday) was the Paul Weller show at 9:30 club. This was a show that was lukewarm on, but I went because it's Paul Weller. I'm not into his solo stuff, in fact, I don't own any of it. But I was a big fan of the Jam, so he'll always have a certain stature in my mind. I was mixed about this show. On one hand, it was cool to see Paul Weller energetic and playing a guitar and performing like he means it. On the other hand, he played a bunch of mellow stuff. I had to duck out while that was going on. The crowd loved all of it though, and then went nuts when he finally played a Jam song, Town Called Malice (which was great). Fun fact learned at this show: mods are rebellious! This was demonstrated by the fact that Weller himself lit up while on stage (DC smoking ban be damned!). This by itself is not the only indication that mods are rebellious since other performers at 9:30 have lit up while on stage. The real indication came when a mod standing next to me by the bar said to his friend "man, I really wanna cigarette. and not outside either, I want one right here like him [pointing to Weller]!" He then proceeded to light up right next to the bar and smoke, albeit *very* discreetly. It didn't last long either since I'm sure he was worried he'd be tossed out, plus it's probably not that enjoyable to smoke so sneakily.

And that was the end of a long but fun week. Now comes rest for a while.

Clean up your web presence if you're searching for a job

2008-09-12T11:06:00.003-04:00

This article references a study showing that about 20% of all employers are doing web research on job applicants. So, in other words, they're looking at blogs (ahem), Facebook and MySpace profiles, etc, for a look at applicants' "character".

Dark Chrome Strummer

2008-09-02T20:53:00.005-04:00

(I'm writing this in the new Google Chrome browser... just downloaded it and started using it today so it's too early to know what to make of it.)

This past weekend was fun but a bit active. We did the usual weekend stuff: errands, cleaning, etc., but we also got to mix in a few trips w/ Jane to eat out. We also visited my new twin nieces now that they're home from the hospital. Very cute!

We also made it to the movies... we haven't done that in probably two years. I *think* the last movie we saw in the theater was The Lady in the Water which I didn't like too much. This time we did it right. This time we saw Dark Knight and we saw the IMAX version. We saw it at the National Museum of Natural History at a 5:30pm show, and it was sold out. The movie was pretty much everything I had hoped it would be and more (ie, IMAX). Liz and I both really liked it. It was awesome. Did I say we liked it?

So that is the "dark" and "chrome" part of the title. The "strummer" refers to Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, which I also watched this weekend. (Yes, a bit of movie watching this weekend. It was a long weekend.) I thought this was great, too, but of course in a different way. Being a big Clash fan, and to a lesser degree a fan of Joe Strummer's solo stuff, I was very eager to see this documentary. It certainly didn't disappoint, but it did depict him as a human, faults and all. But I appreciated seeing that aspect of him. I've read books on the Clash and they have implied that he was maybe a hypocrite or maybe even a phony because of the way treated people. But I think we all have our contradictions, and we all have our demons and episodes of bad judgment or maybe you can call it immaturity. But I think the movie showed how he got past that stuff, went through a period of "darkness" as they put it, and then came back. It was a very interesting, funny, and also sad movie about a great musician. I would've liked to have met him.

First steps!

2008-08-31T09:33:00.002-04:00

On Friday, Jane took her first two steps on her own! She's been walking around with me or Liz holding her hands in the last few weeks, but this was the first time she took steps on her own. Wow, it's very exciting, but as Apple says "this changes everything!"

Colorado Rocks!

2008-08-14T21:37:00.026-04:00

Last week we got back from a trip to Colorado. We were there for a week, attending a wedding in Ouray and also visiting family in Colorado Springs. It was a fun trip, and Colorado was beautiful. And, Jane was great and did really well throughout all the traveling we did, even with the time change.

Here's a travelogue...

We arrived in Denver last Thursday, July 30. It was Jane's first plane ride (and our first plane ride as parents w/ baby in tow), so we were a bit nervous about how things would go. But everything went really well -- Jane slept most of the way and was otherwise really good on the plane. Phew! We drove from Denver down to Colorado Springs where we were visiting family. We stayed in Colorado Springs for one night, and then it was off for a drive through the Rocky Mountains to Ouray, a small town surrounded by mountains in southwest Colorado for a wedding.

The drive to Ouray was long, but really good. The scenery was amazing! It seemed like every mile I said "wow." The highest point on the drive was Monarch Pass which was 11,000 feet. The views were incredible. We also went through several river valleys which were lush and green. We took US Route 50 through the mountains, going through towns of various sizes, many of which started as mining towns: Canon City (home of 13 penitentiaries!), Salida, Gunnison, and Montrose. The pictures we took just don't do the scenery justice.

When we got to Ouray late afternoon on Friday, July 31. Ouray is a very small town of around 800 people with only paved road. But it's a beautiful setting at the head of a river valley and surrounded by mountains on three sides. We were there for one of Liz's old friend's wedding. We spent Friday night at a rehearsal dinner party. And Saturday in the morning we hiked up to the Box Canyon Falls, a local waterfall, and then up a mountain to a bridge that had great views of the town. Saturday evening was the wedding, and it was very nice. It was an outdoor wedding under the mountains. Again, Jane was great throughout the wedding even though she was it was way past her bedtime.

We took off from Ouray on Sunday morning to head back to Colorado Springs. The drive back was just as great, in fact, it took less time, and in some ways the scenery was even better than the drive to Ouray. We got back to Colorado Springs in the late afternoon.

Back in Colorado Springs, we spent the rest of our time (about 3.5 days) visiting with Cathy and Doug and their kids. It was great to see them -- they moved from MD back in February, so we haven't seen them since then. We went to a pretty park with Cathy, Gammy, Braeden, Abby, and Jane for a picnic and some playground time. That was fun; there are some pictures of me on a seesaw -- that's my best event. (Oh yeah, we had to drive on Rollercoaster Road to get to the park -- not making that up.) And, we visited the Cheyenne Mountain (yes, the home of NORAD) Zoo with Cathy, Gammy, Braeden, and Abby. Jane liked the monkeys (as did Dad) and the giraffes. The zoo was literally on the side of the Cheyenne mountain. Liz, Jane, and I went to Garden of the Gods, a park of natural rock formations. I took a lot of pictures there, and then we visited Manitou Springs for some lunch. If you hadn't guessed, Garden of the Gods was beautiful, as was pretty much all the scenery we came in contact with.

We got home Thurs, Aug 7, pretty late -- our flight out of Denver was delayed -- so we were tired.

Take a look at all the pictures we took.

This is a map of our travel routes:

View Larger Map

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

2008-07-21T22:18:00.004-04:00

This is a pretty thought-provoking article about the Web and how it may be affecting our minds and how we think and process information. Of course, the ironic thing is I didn't finish reading it.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Nats Park

2008-07-21T21:51:00.003-04:00

A few Sundays ago, we went to our first Nats game at the new stadium. I think we both agreed that the experienced was mixed. The day we went was pretty crowded since the Nationals were playing the Orioles. Of course, the stadium is brand new, and so everything looked great and new. Our seats were great, just a few rows back from the Nats' dugout on the first baseline. The field was beautiful, and the jumbotron was very... big.

BUT, it was also really hot, and we had seats in the sun and we didn't realize they got ridiculously hot in the sun. Liz had a hard time sitting in them because her shorts weren't long enough to provide protection. There are big ugly parking garages that sit and block any sort of view of the city past the outfield walls. It seems they're still ironing out the kinks even after 3 months of being open. The lines were long, they ran out of concessions, and the food was super expensive. It's true the stadium doesn't have much character, I guess, but I'm not sure what kind of character I'd expect from a brand new stadium.

I am really hopeful, though, that when they finish developing that part of town that it will be lively and fun and full of action. It seems that will happen, but you never know. And hopefully the team will win more than lose. That could never hurt.

Crafty Bastards...

2008-07-02T09:00:00.002-04:00

Yes, we did go, but we only managed to get there a bit before it shut down. It was super hot, so we breezed through the thing in probably about a half hour. I wanted to go to support this type of thing because I think it's good for SS. But the thing about these events is that they are selling stuff that is cool and kitschy, but it's stuff that you don't really need. So we didn't support it with any purchases. It seemed to be well attended though, even at the end of the event. We missed all the bands, too. Hopefully, they'll keep holding it in SS.

Crafty Bastards in SS

2008-06-26T16:00:00.003-04:00

This year, there is a Crafty Bastards event in Silver Spring (in addition to the one that is in Adams Morgan). They're gonna have live music too... hopefully we'll be able to make it.

Root Boy Slim and Wikipedia

2008-06-22T22:43:00.004-04:00

I stumbled upon Root Boy Slim's wikipedia entry and found it sorta interesting. I never really liked his stuff that they used to play on the old 'HFS, but I came on his entry in the usual roundabout web route. Started at 30 Days of Night (vampire movie I watched tonight -- pretty good!). That movie was based on a graphic novel written by Steve Niles, who played bass for Gray Matter. From there I found my way to an entry for Count Gore De Vol (!?), then an entry for the Bayou, which led to Root Boy. And there you have it. Sometimes these rabbit holes are useful.

R.I.P. Bo Diddley

2008-06-02T20:03:00.001-04:00

Rehoboth Beach for Memorial Day weekend

2008-05-29T15:51:00.003-04:00

We just got back from a fun weekend at Reboboth Beach. We shared a house with four other families and their kids. Of course, with that many kids there was some chaos, but aside from the kiddie mayhem, it was enjoyable. The weather was perfect all weekend: mid- to high-70s during the day, in the 60s at night, and clear skies. We had some good meals, Jane got her first taste of the beach (literally), and we tried to relax as much as we could.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

Jane's First Birthday

2008-05-29T09:30:00.006-04:00

Jane is now one year old! All the cliches about time flying and kids growing up fast have already begun to ring true -- it *is* hard to believe that it's been a whole year since she was born. It has really flown by. We had a small birthday party for her, and she had fun. She wasn't totally into the cupcake and didn't dive into it like some kids do. She studied it more than tasted it.

There are some other new developments/favorite activities that she's doing now. One thing is she loves climbing up the stairs. It always makes her happy when she gets to the top. She'll usually let out little yells. She is also pulling up all the over place and cruising as well. It looks like she is also dangerously close to standing on her own. She seems to want to do it but is not quite there yet. She's got two bottom teeth coming in, and the doctor says some teeth on the top are not too far behind. She's off the formula (yes!) and is happily eating regular food, although she doesn't like meat too much but loves her veggies -- a budding vegetarian?

Here are some pictures from her birthday party. (I've moved over to flickr.com because it's much easier, and time is a premium these days.)

Black Keys @ 9:30 Club, May 13

2008-05-28T21:23:00.004-04:00

My thoughts on this show are mixed. I like the band, and I've now seen them three times. But every time I always think "well, that was pretty good, but not great". Dunno. I should probably stop seeing 'em. I like their records well enough. I don't love 'em though.

They definitely rock. The drummer is great to watch -- he just beats the crap out of the drums. The guitarist rocks -- he really fills up the sound (no bass). But during the set, I found myself a bit bored at times. And, I'm no master musician, but these guys definitely play on feel and not strict time -- they are not tight but super loose. The crowd was loving it, though -- sold out show. In fact, they sold out two nights at the 9:30. NPR recorded it too.

It was fun to get out, but I think I'll pass next time they come along.

Charleston for graduation

2008-05-16T09:57:00.005-04:00

Over Mother's Day weekend, all of us (plus my brother's family, my sister, and father) drove down to Charleston, SC, for my sister's graduation from College of Charleston. We were only there for about a day and a half which made the trip a bit of blur, but we enjoyed it. The downtown area is really nice -- like a southern version of Georgetown or Annapolis. Lots of old historic buildings and trendy shopping. We drove down and back -- we broke up the ride down into two legs by staying overnight in North Carolina. We drove back in one shot though, which turned into an 11hr drive home in almost constant rain. That was pretty bad. But through it all Jane was great (and so was Liz), so everyone got home in one piece... :-)

San Francisco on the company dime

2008-04-29T22:19:00.006-04:00

I recently got back from a business trip to San Fran. I went to the Interwoven conference, GearUp 2008. The conference was pretty good, considering a large chuck of my time was spent in rooms about 3 floors below street level listening to discussions of varying degrees of usefulness. But that's what a conference is, and that's what I knew I'd be doing. They fed us pretty well, and the hotel was pretty nice. And the topics were generally pretty good.

There were a couple of good speakers. One was Guy Kawasaki, who was highly entertaining. He's written several books and is currently a venture capitalist. Tim Ferris spoke too, and he was interesting as well. He just wrote a book called "The 4-Hour Work Week". He looks like a better-looking Steve-o from Jackass.

San Francisco, what little time I spent actually in the city, was great. It was my third time there. I managed to walk around a bit. The hotel was in the downtown / South of Market area, so I walked around SoMa a bit and then down to the Embarcadero along the water. One night I joined the local culture in a pub called the Chieftain and had a couple pints while witnessing a trivia contest. My last day there, I had a whole afternoon free, so I took a bus up to the Haight and went to Amoeba Records. Wow, that place is pretty impressive! It's beyond huge. I walked out with only 4 CDs -- I exercised restraint. The bus ride there was also fun and interesting. Public transportation is usually a great way to see a city. I've never used the SF Muni before -- only cable cars -- and this time worked out pretty well. SF is really a beautiful city. If I *had* to have a west coast perch, I think I'd opt for SF. Assuming that, you know, money was no option.

It's good to be home, though. I missed Liz and Jane a lot. We had tried to work it so they'd come with me, but in the end we decided it would be more trouble than it was worth.

Carbon/Silicon @ 9:30, April 6

2008-04-16T22:32:00.003-04:00

Boy, this show was a real surprise. We went in with pretty low expectations, and they were well exceeded. Carbon/Silicon is the new-ish band with Mick Jones (The Clash) and Tony James (Generation X). I had downloaded a bunch of their songs a while ago, and to be honest I didn't really listen to many of them since I wasn't too into the ones I did listen to. But "The News" has been getting some airplay on 94.7, and it's a pretty darn catchy song, so I thought maybe the show might be okay.

It didn't take long for my expectations to be bounced out the door. Mick Jones is a real kick to see live. He's so loose and easy-going -- really refreshing. He was joking and smiling and exchanging looks w/ the band. It was clear he was enjoying himself. The songs were fairly simple/straight-forward: simple riffs and solid rock beats. I think that might've been what turned me off to the songs I downloaded... maybe a bit light, a bit repetitive. But wow, when I heard 'em played live with some oomph behind them, it was great! So, now I've seen all members of The Clash, except for Topper, at the 9:30, but not as The Clash. :-)

The crowd was definitely into the show and was a mix but mostly older folks (like me). It's also a real pleasure to see a show at 9:30 that isn't sold out! You can actually move around... What else can I say except what a great show for a Sunday night! Thanks, Mick!

The Pogues @ 9:30 club, March 10

2008-03-30T16:19:00.004-04:00

A lot of this blog seems to be me catching up and posting about things that have happened in the past. This post is in that category. Way back on March 10, we went to go see the reunited Pogues at the 930 club. This was the second of two sold out shows. We had seen the Pogues on their first reunion tour, about a year earlier, and it was great, amazing, all I expected. This time around was just as good, but not as much as an event.

We got there and of course, the place was packed. Interestingly, the Hives show (which we had gone to two nights before) was also sold out, but not nearly as packed. My friend Scott had gone to the first night show the night before, and so we had the advantage of being able to compare the two shows. Our crowd was way less drunk and also less boisterous. Which was fine by me, honestly. I would've liked it if our crowd was more boisterous, but if that meant being really smashed too, then I'll take what we got. There were of course many people who were clearly way too drunk but fortunately they didn't infringe on my good time. Also, according to Scott, Shane MacGowan was in better form (it's all relative!) on our night.

In general, this show compared w/ the last (and first) reunion, was not as good. But how could it be. When we saw 'em the first time there was just a lot more excitement b/c we'd never seen 'em before and so there was a lot of build up and anticipation. Plus the show was on a weekend night so there were no worries for the next day. But that's not to say that this time around wasn't good -- it was great! It's just the shine came off it a bit.

Anyway, the set list was great w/ the usual "greatest hits", although there was no "Fairytale of New York". Shane did sound good (like I said, it's all relative) and the band was tight as usual. I ran into a couple of people at the show. One was a girl named Jennifer who sorta recognized me as someone familiar and I did the same w/ her. Turns out we went to high school together, travelled in similar circles, but were not friends then. She was friendly, and we talked for a bit during the Pogues. She is now married to the drummer for Black Market Baby. I also ran into Joe Englert and chatted with him for a few minutes. Super nice guy. I can usually count on seeing some familiar faces at shows like these, and this night was no exception.

Jane at 11 months

2008-03-30T00:51:00.004-04:00

Hard to believe that in a few weeks Jane will be a year old! I know it's been a while since I've posted any new pictures, so this slideshow is 3 months worth. She has become pretty proficient at crawling although she is a not a long distance crawler... her specialty is more like very short bursts of crawling. She loves standing up (with helping hands from a grown up) and will go up and down for hours. OK, minutes is more accurate but the point is she loves it. She's eating real food now and is doing very well in that department. But she has no teeth yet! Something to look forward to. She's been doing the sort of babbling thing and making vowel sounds. And as you can see, she's still working on the hair, but it's starting to get a bit thicker. All in all she's really doing well. Enjoy the pictures!

View the slideshow

The Wire has checked out

2008-03-19T23:03:00.006-04:00

OK, so this post is more than a week late... I'm catching up a bit. The finale of the Wire was a week ago, and it was a sad day for TV (if I can say so). The Wire was by far my favorite show on TV in the last maybe 3 or 4 seasons. OK, maybe not my only favorite -- the Sopranos, of course, was also great until it ended.

The finale was pretty good, and this season was decent, but last season was by far the best. I didn't always catch every line of dialogue, or keep up with all the characters' names, or understand every plot nuance. But to me, it was a very well done, affecting, and entertaining show that (I'm guessing) comes as close as possible for a TV show to depict what is happening in our cities' institutions. Yeah, the newspaper storyline could've been better this season, but Jimmy's wake in the final season was great, I thought. So many great characters: Jimmy, Bunk, Omar, Lester, Bunny Colvin, and the kids from season 4.

When we lived in Columbia Heights, I would usually watch The Wire on Sunday nights and then go walk the dog in our 'hood. And I gotta say that watching the Wire put a new spin on living in a place like CH. For one thing, it made me more paranoid about crime directly after watching each Sunday night -- everyone on the street while I was walking the dog was up to no good! But more generally, it really made me look at the things that I was seeing in CH streets in a different way. Seeing the people on the streets and knowing that they had stories behind them, some positive, some negative. Right now I'm writing at a superficial level, but the show really did affect me in the way I looked at my 'hood.

I was in Baltimore a few years back for a work retreat and we took a tour of some of the worse-off neighborhoods in Baltimore. Drove through streets of boarded up houses and I thought "wow, that really looks like something out of The Wire." And then we turned a corner and saw a bunch of HBO trucks set up for filming.

So now that The Wire's gone and The Sopranos is done, I might have to cancel my HBO... I like Big Love and Entourage well enough, but that might not be enough to keep us subscribed. Although Flight of the Conchords is pretty good... hmmmm.

Some Silver Spring news

2008-03-19T15:08:00.002-04:00

Here are a few pieces of info I've "repurposed" from other Silver Spring blogs.

- From Silver Spring, Singular, the City Paper Crafty Bastard fair will have an event in Silver Spring this summer.

- And from Silver Spring Scene, some info on the upcoming Hook and Ladder brewpub in downtown SS.

Hives & Donnas @ 930 Club

2008-03-15T15:24:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was a busy show-weekend. On Sat, we went to go see the Hives and the Donnas. (On Mon we went to go see the Pogues -- more on that later.) I was looking forward to it for a few reasons. One, the last time we saw the Hives, they were great -- funny, tight, energetic, and rockin'. Two, I haven't seen the Donnas in a few years and was looking forward to seeing them again since I like their older stuff a lot.

The Donnas have a new album out (Bitchin'), and the word on the street is that it ain't too good. (I don't have it.) This is not too surprising since their last album, Gold Medal, was a bit of a clunker. So this all solidifies a downward spiral since Spend the Night. But even so, they have been a source of fun rock n roll for me and my friends for several years, so a chance to see them is an anticipated event. What a disappointment. The set consisted of nothing older than anything off of Spend the Night. The new songs did not sound all that appealing. Plus, the singer has developed some stage banter consisting of things like "yay-aa!" and she really wasn't singing too well. I think in the past, we'd give 'em a pass on some aspects of the musicianship since they had great funny/catchy/rockin' tunes. The guitar player however sounded great like she always does. I was disappointed not to hear at least something from the older records...

The Hives were, in contrast, great. Second time I've seen 'em. The singer, Pelle, definitely has watched a few Rolling Stones films because in the same way that Mick Jagger used moves by Tina Turner, Pelle uses Mick's moves. But beyond that, the music was tight and it would be hard to imagine a less energetic performance. To be honest, my opinion of the latest album was pretty low the first time I listened to it. But it grew on me. And seeing the new songs done live, I thought they were great. They played a varied set, with songs going back to Veni Vidi Vicious (a great version of Hate to Say I Told You So). The crowd was very into the show, which for me always makes things more exciting. I really think it's a drag to go see a show -- no matter what type of music -- and not see the crowd make any indication that they're enjoying themselves. To me, that's what the live show is all about: feeding off the band, and the band feeding off of you. I know, it's a cliche, but that's how I feel. Anyway, enough of the rant... great Hives show and a fun Saturday night.

Ladies and gentlemen, we now have crawling!

2008-03-03T12:56:00.004-05:00

Jane has reached a milestone -- she has started to crawl! It is a tentative, sort-of shuffling crawl, but a full-on crawl nonetheless. Legs and arms move together, for the most part, and she can go about a foot or two. It was amazing when I watched her do it. Amazing to watch her figure it out. We, of course, had to put the proverbial carrot out in front of her (in this case a book) to motivate her, but it worked! I have some video of her doing it for the first time. And that's the first time that I saw, anyway. Our daycare provider tells us that she has not seen Jane crawl before, so I'm gonna assume that I saw it first. I'd like to put the video online, but I've got a feeling that may never happen. Maybe some pics!

Moz Angeles

2008-02-29T09:57:00.003-05:00

Here's a sort of random music culture posting... Over the holidays, a guy I know was in town from Southern California. While we were talking, he was telling me that he and his wife went to go see Morrissey in LA. So, while he's telling me about this show, I learn that Morrissey has a pretty large and passionate Latino fan base in LA. Who knew?! I didn't think about it again until I ran across a write up of a documentary about these fans.

The whole thing seems counter intuitive. I did like some Smiths stuff, but I'm not a fan of Morrissey, so this is not anything earth shaking for me. But I did think it was slightly strange and interesting anyway. Not to make too much of a big deal out of it, but this is one of those cases where truth is stranger than fiction. Is it really a multi-culti world, after all?

This essay argues that there is a logic to the whole "phenomenon" (for lack of a better word).

And apparently, there have been a few documentaries about this.

No Depression: no more magazine

2008-02-26T09:56:00.007-05:00

Heard this on NPR over the weekend... No Depression will cease publication as a magazine and become online only.

The story from NPR

New Pornographers: Use It

2008-02-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

This is a great video!

Northern Illinois University

2008-02-15T11:43:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to say we are very sad about what's happened at NIU -- it's a terrible thing. But we are happy that our friends there are safe and were not harmed. These things happen far, far too often.

The Wire: Senator Clay Davis

2008-02-13T19:57:00.004-05:00

This doesn't really have anything to do w/ anything, except I think it's awesome. If you don't watch the Wire on HBO (the best show on TV), here's what you're missing. This is Not Safe For Work.

Coen Bros. at the AFI

2008-02-05T11:12:00.000-05:00

OK, the actual Coen Brothers will not be at the AFI in Silver Spring, as far as I know, but the theater is putting on a retrospective of many (all?) of their best movies. 'Course I'll probably never go to any of the showings since I never go to movie theaters. I think the last movie I saw in a theater was ... um ... maybe Lady in the Water? If that's right, that was in 2006.

Anyway, here's the info about the Coen Bros. retrospective.

Video from Government (Re) Issue show

2008-01-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

Just came across this video on youtube from the GI benefit show for John Stabb at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Here's hoping more gets posted/released.

Vintage WHFS recordings

2008-01-26T11:41:00.001-05:00

My buddy Joe tipped me off about some blogs that have posted vintage recordings of radio shows on WHFS from the '80s and '90s. I haven't yet checked them out, but some look pretty promising -- some for nostalgia sakes and some for the music. I believe (not that it's all that earth-shattering) that DC was able to build and sustain the scene it had in large part due to 'HFS. Without that easy way to access much of the music that was under the radar at the time, it would have been much harder to get the word out. Most people I know from the area who were hip to non-mainstream music in the '70s and '80s were so because of 'HFS.

Here are the links:

WHFS and other great music -- various shows from 'HFS and other stations from mostly late '80s.

Camarillo Brillo -- Weasel show from '83

Some new music-related sites

2008-01-26T11:33:00.000-05:00

In the last few months I've learned about some new (to me, anyway) music related sites. Check 'em out:

Jango -- search engine for music

Seeqpod -- search engine for music

Slacker -- internet radio a la pandora

Songza -- search engine for music

Welcome to 2008

2008-01-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

2007 is dead, long live 2008! Well, maybe it should just live for a year... 2007 has been an exciting and eventful year for us. Of course, first and foremost, Jane was born in May, so that was the most exciting thing that's happened to us this year. We've now been in our new house for a year, and we really like it. And there was also some excitement (and anxiety) for me job-wise with our re-org and then my resulting promotion.

We had a fun, but busy, Christmas and New Year's. Jane enjoyed her first Christmas although we're sure she was not aware of what was really happening. She did really like playing w/ the wrapping paper (ie, grabbing it, crumpling it, and stuffing it in her mouth). And she looked very cute in her Christmas dress. We spent a lot time with family and friends over the holidays, and Jane loved all the action and attention.

Looking forward to 2008, we have 2 weddings we'll probably be traveling for, and my sister is graduating from college, so we'll be heading out of town for that too. And Jane will be turning 1yr old this year too. Otherwise, I don't need a crystal ball to know that we'll have plenty of stuff to keep us busy and happy.

Jane at 8 months

2008-01-06T00:20:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe that Jane is already 8 months old. It's amazing to watch her learn and develop. She's able to sit on her own (when we put her in a sitting position), she's been very grabby in the last few weeks, and we think she is teething because of her prodigious amount of drool. And she is (slowly) growing more hair! She is really a lot of fun these days.

Click here for the slideshow.

What to do during a writer's strike

2008-01-03T09:58:00.001-05:00

This is definitely true at our house as we tear through (and get current) on Battlestar Galactica.

A Lucky Strike For Netflix?

'Tis the season...

2007-12-16T14:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a live clip of the classic Pogues song, Fairytale of New York, from 1988.

The SS music venue saga continues

2007-12-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

In the last several weeks, it seems that the new all-consuming pasttime in Silver Spring has been debating who the county should partner with in order to get the SS music venue built. The county agreed to have Live Nation build a Fillmore branded club. Then Seth Hurwitz came along and offered a new, arguably more attractive offer. Now seemingly everybody in SS is lending their voice to a more and more discordant crescendo about who should have the right to build and run the thing.

So, here's a series of links and summaries of the latest info...

First, check out Steven Pearlstein's column from Friday's Post. So far, I think this is the best summary and view of the situation.

Sample quote: "It wasn't too many years ago that even street musicians would refuse to perform in downtown Silver Spring. Now things are so hopping that you've got Live Nation, the country's biggest live music outfit, and Seth Hurwitz, owner of the District's 9:30 Club and operator of the Merriweather Post Pavilion, in a nasty political catfight over the right to operate a new music venue there."

Next, for context, check out the links to letters submitted both for and against Seth Hurwitz.

For Hurwitz: From Howard Co. executive

Sample quote: "While I do not know all of the details of this situation, I understand that Seth Hurwitz and I.M.P. Productions have expressed a desire to be involved. Certainly, you must do what is best for Silver Spring and Montgomery County, but having worked with Seth over the past four years, I believe he would be an invaluable asset to this project."

Against Hurwitz: From owner of Ram's Head

Sample quote: "Practically every show we have tried to book in Baltimore, Seth Hurwitz (the Nations top club owner) has “blocked’ due his fear that it may hurt his club in DC, nearly 40 miles away. Apparently, Seth has the answer as to why the people in Baltimore would prefer to drive to DC than to see the same show in their hometown?!? For goodness sake, there is enough population between the two cities to support more than his club and mine. I have never, and will never, block a show from playing in the DC market. Anyone living in the area knows there are plenty of people to fill two very small venues."

It's nutty! Read the comments on those "For" and "Against" pages too if you want to witness the real back and forth around this. I still say that Hurwitz missed his chance, and the county should stay with Live Nation. I love the 9:30 Club and have been going since it was on F St. I would love to have a similar club in SS. But a deal's a deal, bird in the hand, all that good stuff. Just get it done!

Seth Hurwitz in WashBizJournal

2007-12-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a profile of Seth Hurwitz from a few years back in the Washington Business Journal. In the midst of all the discussion around the SS Music Venue Saga, this article is interesting reading.

Stage presence
As the region's dominant music promoter, 9:30 Club co-founder Seth Hurwitz relishes his place in the spotlight, and at home

Silver Spring Thanksgiving Parade

2007-11-22T18:57:00.000-05:00

On November 17, we went w/ my brother and his family to watch the Silver Spring Thanksgiving Parade. Here are some pictures.

Rev. Horton Heat

2007-11-22T18:56:00.000-05:00

It's always a good time going to see the Rev. He doesn't disappoint, and the show on Nov. 15 was no exception. The line up was pretty packed: Nashville Pussy, Hank III, and the Rev. Maybe because of that line-up the crowd seemed to be more edgy than a usual Rev show.

We totally missed Nashville Pussy, mostly because it was a Thursday and we couldn't get down to the 930 club that early. We were bummed. I haven't seen them in years so I would've liked to have seen what they're up to now.

I've never seen Hank III and have always wanted to, so I was a bit excited when they came on. They started off by playing a bunch of hopped up, sh*tkicker hillbilly music which sounded pretty good. The bad was entertaining to watch, especially the bassist who had a maniaical grin on his face the whole show. He was also channeling a sort of Misfits-like look w/ a mohawk that hung down over his face a la the devilock. After the hillbilly set, Hank III launched into a full on hardcore/metal set. I wasn't so into the hardcore stuff as much. To be honest, it just sounded like a bunch of noise. I know -- showing signs of old age!

Next, the Rev came on and immediately launched into several songs from Liquor in the Front to start the set off. Of course, they smoked! We had a great spot right up front and could see all the action. One new thing they did for this show was go into a set of covers representing the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It was very cool. From the 50s, they did That's All Right (Elvis), then the 60s was King of the Road (Roger Miller), and then a great and surprising cover of Paranoid (Black Sabbath). Rocked the place. So, the Rev can count 6 more satisfied customers! One unfortunate thing happened where my brother was taking pictures during the show (frowned upon) and had his camera taken away. They put it in the 930 office and told him he could pick it up after the show. Per the staff: "The Reverend doesn't like to have his picture taken." Turns out they took the camera during the last song, so no big deal. We'll be back next year!

Next Stop: Silver Spring

2007-11-22T18:50:00.000-05:00

This is sorta interesting... it's a trailer of a new PBS special about the restoration of the Silver Spring Railroad Station. Here's the youtube description:

"Next Stop: Silver Spring" (from director, Walter Gottlieb)is about the history and restoration of the B&O railroad station in Silver Spring, MD. Scheduled to debut on WETA TV in March 2008 and also to be released on DVD. It is a sequel to the documentary, "Silver Spring: Story of an American Suburb," released in 2002. The trailer features the theme song, "Next Stop: Silver Spring" written and performed by Sharon Freedman Gruber. Reserve an advance copy of the DVD by emailing finalcuttv@aol.com. Visit our blog www.silverspringtrain.blogspot.com

Soul City

2007-11-22T00:17:00.000-05:00

So, I'm reading Sweat, by my good friend Joe, and I just got to the part early in the book (I'm a slow reader) that discusses the Soul City video. And here it is.

What's in a DC identity?

2007-11-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

In the WashingtonPost, there have been some recent articles/postings regarding what it means to be living in DC. On one hand, there was a Marc Fisher post from his blog that disputes the fact that, as is usually said, "nobody's from here".

Then, there's an article here that sort of contradicts that by playing into the idea that most people that live in the DC area are not from here. This article asks "transplants" to name aspects or places about DC that remind them of their home. So that kind of made me think they were implying that DC can be viewed as a place that is representational of the country. Or that it should be viewed that way. As is appropriate for the capital of the country. That idea would make it okay that nobody was from here and give the city more of an identity, although one that fits in w/ the "DC-as-only-a-government-town" identity. (And it also provides DC with an identity that is not "look how many things we have that NYC has! We're cool too!")

But as Marc Fisher points out, the identity suggested in the second article is not really accurate. His post was refreshing, since it is a common thought that most people that live and work here were not born here. I, for one, was born in DC and have lived in the metro area my whole life. Sometimes I wish I had at least lived in another city somewhere else, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

Monkey Man

2007-11-19T11:38:00.000-05:00

Via the HypeMachine, here's a link to Amy Winehouse covering Toots & the Maytals on Jools Holland show.

Crime in the old 'hood

2007-11-02T13:46:00.000-04:00

We still pay (distant) attention to what's happening in our old Columbia Heights neighborhood, usually via listservs, blogs, etc. It seemed like Shaw was really the hot spot in terms of scary amounts of shootings and gunfire. But things have been bad down in CH lately, at least from what's coming into our browsers. The below links are to stories on the washingtonpost.com, but we also heard about these incidents from the various listservs we still subscribe to. Call us vicarious DC residents, for lack of a better term. Or maybe the interest is that we lived there for 2 years (not a huge amount of time in terms of residencies) and still are curious to see and hear what's happening there. What new development is opening? What ridiculous thing will Jim Graham say or do? Is the crime getting better or worse? It appears that crime is getting worse... Pretty bad when a drive-by occurs a block away from where a cop car is stationed and on watch.

Halloween violence

Then, 2 days later...

First Halloween in the Spring

2007-11-01T22:26:00.000-04:00

Our first Halloween in Silver Spring was a good one, and a learning experience. Both Liz and I haven't participated in a Halloween, ie, giving out candy, in many, many years. So we were not sure what to expect not only because we were in a new neighborhood but also because we haven't done this a while. It went well but we had a couple of lessons learned.

Lesson 1: When your side of the street has no sidewalk, kids will not come to your house. This may necessitate you chasing kids down in order to give out your candy (see Lesson 2).

Lesson 2: Buying too much candy is always better than not buying enough. But in our neighborhood, it appears that 10 bags of candy is way too much.

Lesson 3: When you leave a bowl of candy out on your front stoop in order to try to get rid of the excess, the kids will swarm around the bowl like sharks (I watched safely from inside). And in that situation, the oldest girls will always try to maintain order by insisting that the other kids only take 2 pieces of candy. Usually not that effective to try to regulate candy in a "free market" front stoop (I watched safely from inside).

Lesson 4: Dressing your infant daughter in a ridiculous costume is awesome (but that kind of goes without saying, don't it?).

The Fly

2007-10-29T23:00:00.000-04:00

Recently, I re-watched The Fly on HBO. Not the original Vincent Price movie, but the David Cronenberg remake w/ Jeff Goldblum. I've always liked the movie but hadn't seen it in a long time. Funny thing is -- and this is admittedly slightly twisted -- after watching it now as a parent, I looked at it in a different way. So consider this my Halloween-themed post.

In the movie, Seth Brundle becomes merged at a DNA level with a fly, ultimately becoming a human-fly. It's pretty gruesome and frightening, but you feel empathy for Seth. Seth and the fly are sort of combined as a gene splice. So, in my slightly twisted way (see above), I thought of producing a kid as a same sort of gene splice w/ my wife. And obviously I don't think it's gruesome or frightening (well, maybe a *little* frightening), but loosely the same idea.

And I think the movie touches on this when Seth realizes that his unborn child is being carried by girlfriend Veronica. After finding out, he decides that the best way to correct his problem is to horrifically combine himself (plus the fly), Veronica, and his unborn child into one being, in that way mixing up all the DNA together. Which again made me think of what a child is -- a combination of many generations of DNA. But of course, normally a child is it's own entity. Seth even makes the comment that by doing this he would be creating the ultimate family unit (or something to that effect).

Dunno, after writing this out it all sounds more than slightly twisted, but somehow I related this to producing another human and combining DNA with my wife. Horror movies often deal with science-gone-bad, or paranoid technology fantasies that produce terrible results. Same thing w/ The Fly. So I looked at it as a comment on gene splicing and manipulating DNA and how doing something as unnatural as that will only lead to trouble. Let mother nature take care of things in the proper natural way.

In any case, I do like the movie a lot, even though after watching recently I found Jeff Goldblum to be more annoying than I remember him being. He got a lot of praise for that role as I remember. Anyway, that's sort of my disjointed take on The Fly and babies.

Up I-95 for the 95th

2007-10-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday, we went up to Lancaster, PA to celebrate my grandmother's 95th birthday. It was a really nice family get-together. Most of my dad's side of the family were there, so everyone got to meet Jane. The event was also used as a way to have a family Thanksgiving too, with all the trad Tgiving food. My Aunt Rosa knocked herself out preparing all that food! Jane was great on the ride up, while we were there, and on the way back -- it would've been hard to imagine her being easier.

My grandmother has always been an active lady, mentally and physically. At 95, she has definitely slowed down but is still lucid. It's great to see her, and we had a couple of photos of her w/ her three great-grandchildren. Four generations -- wild!

It was a long day, but a fun one, and the kind of day we don't have often.

Today was spent chilling a bit and watching the Redskins squeak by.

Jane at 5 months

2007-10-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

This week Jane hit the 5 month mark. She's continuing to smile all the time (as you can see in the pics), she's getting good at propping herself up while on her tummy (although for short periods of time), she gets *very* talkative now (well, not talking... how about vocalizing), and she loves to thump her legs down on her bed while we're trying to get her to sleep.

Click here for the slideshow

Amazonian mp3s!

2007-10-04T23:00:00.000-04:00

This week I tried out Amazon's beta mp3 store, and except for a "challenging" issue, everything turned out fine. I wanted to get the latest New Pornographers album, Challengers, and since emusic.com does not have it for some reason (they have other Matador releases, so what's up?), I decided to try out the new Amazon mp3 store.

The cool thing about the Amazon store is that everything is DRM free and the bit rates are higher than usual 128 (they use VBR). I wanted to check it out because I don't want to be tied to iTunes -- sometimes I feel a bit cornered by the iTunes/iPod model of propriety. Probably my fear of commitment kicking in... Plus, as an emusic.com user, I wanted a place where I could buy non-indie music. I guess I'm still old school as far as how I "use" music: I want to buy the music anywhere and have it work on anything.

The downside to the Amazon store is that the selection is not huge. But hopefully that'll change in the future.

The problem I ran into was that the Amazon downloader software crashed on me after three songs had been downloaded. So I had to contact customer service, and they made the album available for download again since once you initiate the download process you cannot go back and try to download it again. When I went back to download again, everything worked fine.

So, their customer service was pretty responsive, giving me a fix about 12 hours after I had initially emailed them. And except for the initial problem w/ the software, everything worked fine. It is beta, I guess, but I was pretty annoyed that the software crashed on me. I still like the fact that it's a pretty good alternative to iTunes (or other music stores).

Here's a Cnet review of the Amazon store.

Crafty weekend

2007-10-01T20:20:00.000-04:00

This past weekend was fairly busy but fun. And the beautiful fall weather didn't hurt one bit. I don't usually do a blow-by-blow, but here goes...

Friday night we went over to A&E's for a pizza dinner. We got to see their baby girl who is very cute and also their 2.5 yr old girl as well. So it was good catching up w/ them -- sounds like everything is going well.

Saturday afternoon my mom came by for a visit w/ Jane and brought over a bracelet that used to be my sister's when she was a baby. So I guess you could say Jane gets her first family heirloom. It's great to have that stuff. Saturday night we went over to T&R's for a party which was cool. We don't get to see them very often, so it was good to see them for a bit, plus we got to see their little daughter who ain't so little anymore. Jane came w/ us cos she likes to party. Well, only if it's early. Well, okay, she likes to party somewhat, and then when she doesn't, she really doesn't. So we left at around 8pm -- it was a quick stop at the party.

Later that night I watched Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, which is a Korean movie and part of a thematic trilogy about revenge and vengeance. The second movie in the trilogy was Old Boy, which is very good but disturbing. It was also controversial because there was speculation that the VA Tech shooter may have been "inspired" by the movie in some way. In any case, SFLV was decent but disappointing to me even though it seemed to get high marks from others on netflix.

Sunday, to top off our weekend, we headed down to Adams Morgan for the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair that was put on by the City Paper. We took the metro down -- Jane's first time! -- and walked over from our old 'hood, Columbia Heights. The development and building that's going on at 14th and Irving is pretty incredible to see. It looks completely different now that the structures are up for the DCUSA mall and the various condo/apt buildings. Wild. Liz and I couldn't help but speculate how bad the traffic will be once everything's up and running. But w/ the metro stop right there, hopefully that'll diminish traffic some...

Anyway, on our way to Adams Morgan we walked past Mt. Pleasant and were pleasantly (sorry) surprised to see that the DC Fiesta 2007 was going on in Mt. P. We didn't stop but I *did* manage to spot Ian MacKaye standing on Mt. P. Street. He's easy to spot, and I figured he'd be at something like that, but still I was pretty impressed w/ myself. After that I started singing Everybody Knows by the Evens in my head because there's a line that goes "Washington is our city". Don't know why really, but I did.

Got down to the Crafty fair, and it was crowded. Many, many booths. A big product being sold: t-shirts! I don't think there really is that much of a demand for t-shirts, but hey what do I know? I think every other booth sold t-shirts of some sort. But we did pick up a bib for Jane and some mounted photos of DC. Then we popped over to Lauriol Plaza for some Mexican for lunch and to feed Jane.

After lunch we hightailed it back to CH metro to get our girl home! She did really well while we were out. We were very happy with how she handled it, and she was in a good mood just about the entire time. We then got home and Milton came over w/ some Chinese for dinner, so we chilled out w/ him that evening.

The Fillmore is coming to Silver Spring

2007-09-27T14:33:00.000-04:00

This is sort of old-ish news by now, but Silver Spring has signed a deal w/ LiveNation to bring one of their Fillmore-branded clubs to the downtown area. It will go where the Birchmere was going to go -- in the old JC Penny building on west side of Colesville Rd, across from the AFI Theater. LiveNation has several of the Fillmore clubs around the country, like in NYC and San Fran, plus they own the House of Blues clubs.

Not too long ago, the House of Blues wanted to open up shop in the newly developing 'hood of NoMa. Not sure who comes up w/ these names, but NoMa is in the area where 395 meets NY Avenue. Guess NoMa stands for North of Mass Ave... Anyway, when the House of Blues wanted to do that, many people rose a stink about it, especially because the club would directly compete w/ our own nationally-renowned local institution, the 9:30 Club. Plus, people don't like LiveNation because it's Clear Channel and a huge corporation.

Intestingly, Seth Hurwitz who owns and runs IMP productions and the 9:30 Club sent a letter to Montgomery County saying he was very interested in being considered to develop a music hall at the JC Penny site. But he was too late because MoCo had already decided they were going w/ LiveNation. That's too bad because it would've been cool, I think, to have him develop something. And this new Fillmore club definitely will compete w/ the 9:30. Hopefully, the competition will be good for everyone.

Oh yeah, and the other interesting thing is that very shortly after the LiveNation deal was announced, College Park announced that the Birchmere was gonna open up a new location in their planned new Town Center development. So PG County gets the Birchmere and MoCo gets the Fillmore. To me, it sounds maybe there's more to the story, but what do I know.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about this, but I think generally it's a good thing. On the one hand, I do have an admittedly knee jerk fear of Clear Channel because -- many people would say -- that by buyig up many many radio stations they have an unfair monopoly on radio and have homogenized radio in general. And as a local supporter of the 9:30 Club since they used to be on F Street, I would hope that nothing bad happens to their business because of the competition. But it'll be a good thing for Silver Spring. Bottom line: I probably won't spend much time there, but I think it's a good thing.

Government Re-Issue

2007-09-25T22:51:00.000-04:00

It's taken me a little while to find the time/energy to get in front my computer to post this, but here's how the show went...

Bill and I went down to the old Rock and Roll Hotel on Sunday night to check out the John Stabb Benefit and of course catch Government Issue. I can't say I remember the last hardcore show I've been to, but it certainly did dredge up some memories for me (some good, some bad). But that was part of the point of going down there. The other part was to contribute to John Stabb's medical bills.

This is the first show for me at the RnR Hotel. Not a bad place... smaller than I expected, but fine. Guess I expected something closer to the size of the Black Cat. As an aside, boy, that neighborhood is still plenty rough. And not even rough around the edges, just rough all over. So, that's one thing that reminded me of going to the old shows back in the 80s when they were mostly held in the rougher neighborhoods. There was a good sized crowd there when I walked up, with a lot of people hangin' in front of the Hotel. I was expecting to see a mostly older crowd and was surprised by the mostly younger crowd. Both Bill and I were hoping to run into some old aquaintances, but that didn't happen. We didn't really see any familiar faces. I guess I was slightly disappointed, but fine.

There were several opening bands, all of which were hardcore and none of which I had heard of. Not surprising. One of the openers, from DC I believe, liked to introduce their songs by way of something like "this one's about the growing divide between the rich and poor and the reduction of the middle class" or "this one's about the plight of immigrants all over the world". For me that just sucks the wind right out... talk about dry. As a matter of fact when they used that first introduction, someone in the audience yelled out "Then why are you wearing a Brown t-shirt?" because the guitarist had a Brown University t-shirt on. And the singer's response: "what?" Not to get too down on these guys but that was pretty comical. I'm sure they believe in what they do, but I'm just not down with that. The irony is that you can't understand any of the lyrics. But I did enjoy seeing what hardcore was up to these days and slightly reliving some older days. The last opener was pretty decent. We also found out that 76% Uncertain had cancelled at the last minute. As we joked, guess they really were at least 76% uncertain to play.

Anyway, GI came on next. Brian Baker on bass, Tom Lyle on guitar, John Stabb on vocals, and William Knapp on drums, who I think is from 76% Uncertain. Guess the rest of the band couldn't make it down from Connecticut. So GI was a lot of fun, although it was clear that they hadn't practiced much (in fact they didn't really -- see below). I guess I was hoping for a full blown, blow the roof off show. They were definitely good, but not like I imagined/hoped for. Instead it was a loose and relaxed set that sometimes felt like a practice since they stopped songs a couple times and then restarted. To the best of my memory, here's what they played (this is not in order):

I'm James Dean
Asshole
Fashionite (an a capella version)
Religious Ripoff
Familiar
Sheer Terror (introduced as the song that scared Glenn Danzig)
Boots are made for walking
Teenager in a box
Circles (the Faith song)
Stepping Stone
Mad at Myself
Where You Live
Jaded Eyes
Understand

So everyone seemed to be having a great time. The crowd was into it, and danced that funny dance of theirs. Actually, I got blindsided in the back by some dudes who rushed through the crowd from the back of the room to the pit and knocked me on my ass. Hate that. I hated it when I was younger and I hate now. So that was the bad memory of the evening.

After the set, and while the crowd was trying to get an encore, Stabb came out and talked for a while telling everyone how really, really grateful he was for all the support he's had since his assault. Henry Rollins sent him a bunch of money, he said. He also explained how the reunion came together and that everyone in the band basically didn't practice as a unit until the sound check that day. They practiced their respective parts independently, but not together at the same time until the sound check. And they had only learned 15 songs and that was it. Brian Baker also came out to tell the audience that, yes, they had played all the songs they learned and that was it. But hey, if everyone wants to hear the set again, we'll do it! And so, they launched into the set again. At this point, the thing deteriorated into a bit of a sloppy affair, but nobody seemed to care. They didn't get all the way through the set again before they decided to end things. And that was it. Fun but fleeting.

Uline Arena / Washington Coliseum

2007-09-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

View Larger Map

The Uline Arena (or Washington Coliseum) down by Union Station is being renovated and redeveloped by Doug Jemal. When I heard about the development, I wanted to find out more about the building since I wasn't that familiar with it in the first place. Turns out it has some kind of interesting history behind it -- I had no idea. And it's a pretty unusual looking building for DC. I've ridden past it many times while riding on the eastern leg of the Red Line to Silver Spring and always wondered what it was.

For one thing, it was the location of the first Beatles concert in the US on Feb 11, 1964! Wild. Here's a picture from that show.

The cover photo of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits was taken at a concert at the Washington Coliseum in 1966.

In the '80s, go-go bands like Chuck Brown, Trouble Funk, and Rare Essence played there.

Here's a pretty thorough history of the facility from the Washington Business Journal.

Most recently, it has been used as a parking lot and as a waste facility. It's in pretty rough shape now, so here's hoping they do a good job in redeveloping it. Check out some pics on flickr.

Jane at 4 months

2007-09-07T23:47:00.000-04:00

Jane turned 4 months old last week. She started up daycare and Liz started back at work, so we've had lots of new adjustments to everyone's routine. Jane's been really smiley and generally happy. Next week is the big 4 month check up at the doctor. Jane gets to have some shots so no one will be happy about that.

View slideshow

Hoodoo Gurus: Teenage Head live

2007-09-07T23:18:00.000-04:00

Here's a cool clip of the Gurus in San Fran playing Teenage Head w/ Cyril Jordan from the Flamin' Groovies on 3/31/2007. Man, I wish they had played this at the DC show! I didn't mention in the post about the show below how good Dave Faulkner's voice sounded...

Hoodoo Gurus @ Black Cat

2007-09-05T21:02:00.000-04:00

Last night was the Hoodoo Gurus show at Black Cat. Great show! They brought it. Back in college days, me and all my friends were big Gurus fans. Since they never come here, this was a definite event. A bunch of us went: me, Bill, Greg, Marty, Jeff, and Michael. We bought tix in advance, but boy was that unnecessary. The place was not even half full. Disappointing but not surprising. BTW, Kim Kane was there from the Slickees.

We got there around 10pm and grabbed some beers. Once we were fixed up some beverages, we saw the crew starting to set up for the next band. It was about 10:15pm so we didn't think it was possible the Gurus would come on that early. But the way other people were crowding in on the stage made me think it was them. Lo and behold, the lights dropped and out they came! Wow, I can't remember the last time a headliner came on that early, especially when there were two openers.

They opened up with I Want You Back, and right away I thought there were some issues with the sound. They played the song great, but it was super loud, and the mix wasn't so hot. Later on after the show we all agreed the sound could've been better. Anyway, we were all psyched, and the Gurus delivered throughout the show. Found a setlist from another blog:

I Want You Back
Chop (?)
Waking Up Tired
The Real Deal
Come Anytime
In the Wild
Bittersweet
Form a Circle
Tojo
Miss Freelove '69
1000 Miles Away
What's My Scene
Like, Wow - Wipeout

Encore:
Axegrinder
My Girl
The Right Time (maybe)

All great stuff! Dave Faulkner and the boys were all relaxed and enjoying themselves. Brad Sheppard was especially energetic. They were even reminiscing a bit about old places they've played in DC through the years. We found out that In the Wild was originally gonna be titled In the Dry because Faulkner wrote it while traveling to the north coast of Australia during the dry season. And, Dave likes to write songs in "D" more than any other key. Our only collective complaints were the sound (as mentioned above) and the shortness of the show. They could've definitely done another encore!

We had a few beers after the show since it ended early, and I ended up back home too late. I'm super tired today... barely energy to write this up. But it was worth it. Might never see 'em again! Sorry, Joe, that you weren't able to make it!!

Labor Day and Summer come and gone

2007-09-03T22:43:00.001-04:00

As the work week creeps up on us once again, I'm left w/ the empty feeling of really, really not wanting to go to work tomorrow. More than usual. We had a good weekend, I think. Got some house stuff done -- there's always house stuff to do. And I hung a picture in our bedroom! (You have to be proud of all the things you do, big or little. That's what I say, anyway.) But even with that level of accomplishments, it still doesn't make me feel like going back to work. It's too enjoyable spending time w/ Liz and Jane.

Life with Jane is just going really well right now. She's super smiley and happy and funny now. She just makes Liz and I laugh. She just turned 4 months old last week, and she continues to eat well and sleep well... well, except for small hiccups like below. But it's really great. We took some afternoon walks this weekend w/ the dog and Jane in the baby Bjorn, and it was just really nice. I was thinking back on our trip to Rehoboth over the Fourth of July and how we were still waking up w/ Jane every 2-3 hours to feed her and how hectic that was. And now she sleeps from basically 9pm to 6am, and it's unbelievable! I'll have some new pictures up soon.

Back to the weekend...

We got some crabs on Sunday night w/ my brother and his wife. The crabs were really good. Had to pony up for the large ones. They're def not cheap -- and haven't been for some time -- but we do it so rarely that I don't mind spending the extra cash. Funny, but I don't think Bethesda Crab House uses many Bay crabs anymore. After we had just sat down, some guys wheeled in several large boxes of crabs with "BWI" stickers on them. Guess they were flown in from Louisiana or somewhere down there on the Gulf of Mexico. Wherever they came from, they were really good.

On Sat afternoon we spent some time w/ Aunt Cathy, Gammy, Milton, and Jane's cousins, Braeden and Abby. That was fun. I haven't seen Braeden and Abby in ages, probably since Easter. They're both getting so big. Jane was a little worn out from that visit. In fact I think Jane was worn out from the weekend in general. Today we went down to Tyson's to do a little shopping (it was a bit crowded and crazy), and Jane was just waaaay over stimulated. Liz and I both agree we'll have to wait until she gets bigger to do stuff like this with her in the future. She just likes to see all the stuff going on around her too much, and she wears herself out. Doesn't seem like she can shut things out and just fall asleep like some kids. Granted, shutting out a busy day at the mall is pretty tough to do for anybody, but some kids are able to crash out in their strollers. We saw 'em.

So, now it's the symbolic end of summer. I love autumn here, but I'm definitely a summer person. I'm always sad to see it go.

Another Stabb Benefit

2007-09-03T22:39:00.001-04:00

This one looks really interesting since there will be a GI reunion! It's on Sept. 23, and it's at the Rock n Roll Hotel down on H St. I think I'll have to make it down there on a school night. Here are some details:

Sun Sep 23 John Stabb Benefit

76% Uncertain
Government Re-Issue (Tom Lyle, William Knapp, Brian Baker, John Stabb)
No Image
Alive At Last
L.O.J.
Pup Tent

Tom Waits - Lie to Me

2007-09-01T18:14:00.000-04:00

I've been listening to a fair amount of Tom Waits these days, mostly because I'm a member of emusic and they have some of his more recent stuff on there. Here's a video of "Lie to Me" from his most recent album, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. It's Tom Waits doing rockabilly, and it's very cool.

Scorsese + Stones = new doc

2007-08-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

Joe sent me this trailer for a new Stones documentary filmed by Martin Scorsese called Shine a Light. Sounds and looks like it'll be really cool!

Whole new world

2007-08-22T12:41:00.000-04:00

Today, Jane turned 15 weeks old (I'll be happy when I can stop counting in weeks... maybe I can do that now?) and started her first day of daycare. We're doing a nanny share with a family who lives in our 'hood. It seemed like a pretty good situation when we first discovered/heard about it, and so far we like the nanny. Liz was very worried and stressed about Jane starting daycare, plus she went back to work today too. So, this is a new twist on being new parents that we're sorting through. But Liz, as always, has been very focused on this and has just about thought of everything in order to keep things from falling apart. And for that, I'm very thankful. Liz has been focused on Jane and being a (great) mom, and I've been tyring my best to be a helpful dad and husband.

But the baby thing continues to open our eyes to a whole new world. Now as parents we have to worry about China. Not China as in "those commie reds," but China as in "that country that supplies the US (world?) with baby products." Seriously, seemingly every baby product we own -- from toys to clothes and everything else except our bottles -- are produced in China. And now that China has demonstrated that their standards for quality control are not the greatest, we've got to worry like crazy people whether our baby is exposed to all sorts of bad stuff. I knew I was signing up for (partly) a lifetime of worry by having a baby, but this is some serious modern-day worrying. Sure doesn't seem like the garden-variety worrying my parents did (eg, out past curfew, did he dress himself properly today, etc.).

Now I pay attention to all sorts of parent/child-related content on the web... such as this, uh, interesting story about people reserving domain names for their kids. Who knew? Not me. But in this case, I don't think I'll be reserving a domain for Jane. That just seems a bit excessive.

Missing: Megan Elizabeth Welch

2007-08-17T12:42:00.000-04:00

UPDATE, 8/19: Megan has been found. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

I wanted to help spread a message from my sister in law that her step-sister has been missing since Mon, Aug 13. Here are the details, including a picture. Please help if you are able.

Name MEGAN ELIZABETH WELCH
DOB March 10, 1993
Height 5 ft. 6 in.
Weight 140 lb.
Hair Light brown, short
Eyes Hazel
Others Freckles and wears braces
Scars Chicken pox scar under right eye
Wearing when last seen:
Jean shorts and tank top (unknown color), Silver earrings, pierced and a Star of David necklace, White watch and flip flops

Picture attached was just taken last week.

Note: Megan takes several medications and has not had any since Monday morning.

Last seen Monday, August 13th about 3 PM in Laurel, Howard County, MD.

If seen, please call Howard County Juvenile Dispatch 410-313-2620

What's new?

2007-08-12T22:24:00.000-04:00

Things have been busy around here lately... The weekend was a full one as usual. Well, maybe not full exactly, but with the baby, time seems to evaporate. I spent some time working on the yard over the weekend. Yardwork is not my idea of a good time. Mowing the lawn is not something I look forward to in the least. Weeding the backyard so my property value don't drop like a stone does not make me smile. But I did it. At least it wasn't a thousand degrees like earlier this week.

On the topic of work, I was offered and accepted a new position within our newly re-orged department. It's a promotion, which is really nice. So I'm pretty happy about the way that turned out. But even at the last minute, I was contemplating taking the package. In the end though, I think this is the best move for me at this point in time. Should be a busy period from now until maybe the end of the year though. We've got a lot to work through while we transition work from people who are leaving, and most people who are staying will have new responsibilites to pick up. And it looks like we'll be shorthanded until all the positions are filled. Should be fun! I'm just glad things are settled for me, and now I can move on.

On a sad note, I sold my Miata today at Carmax. I've had that car for 11 yrs, and it was the best car I've ever owned, hands down. It was certainly impractical, but, man, it was a lot of fun to drive! Like driving a go kart. I kinda regret that I didn't do some fun drives leading up to this weekend, but time did not allow for it. I drove it to work a bit this past week, but only was able to drive it twice this weekend: once to pick up some Chinese for dinner on Sat and then the drive today to Carmax. Wished I could've driven it more over the weekend since it was so nice. When I drove it up to Carmax today, we video'd my final "approach" (ie, me getting in the car, putting the top down, and turning it on). I put on The Great Twenty-Eight by Chuck Berry and hit the road. I figured that was a fitting way to say goodbye. And then I got up there, they gave me a check (after a coupla hours of waiting -- it was busy there), and we were on our way. Still a little bummed, but I couldn't keep it forever! We've def had a lot of change going on this year: new baby, new house, new car, sold old car, new job... I need some dramamine! I don't think we have enough going on right now... let's see, what could I do to make some things happen around here?? Eh, nope, this is enough for me... Life is good.

The last bit of info is that our nephew Isaac is coming down tomorrow for the week -- he'll be leaving on Sat. So we're excited about that! I haven't seen him since Jan, and he hasn't been down here since last summer. He's excited to meet Jane, and visit w/ Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Greg, Aunt Dena and his cousin Mason. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures of his visit to post when he heads back home to NYC. Getting his travel arrangements worked out has been a bit difficult, but I think everything will work out. We're excited to see him.

Benefit for John Stabb

2007-08-09T11:31:00.000-04:00

Recently, John Stabb from Government Issue got severely beaten up near his home in MD. On dcist.com, there's now information about a benefit concert for him tomorrow night at the Velvet Lounge. I think when we were kids we saw GI more than any other harDCore band around. Mostly because they played like crazy. But they're a big piece of my teenage years (and beyond).

Velvet Lounge to Host John Stabb Benefit Show

GI on youtube.com

Jane at 12 weeks

2007-08-04T18:43:00.000-04:00

This past Wed (8/1), Jane hit the 12 week mark. So now at 3 months, her lifetime achievements include meeting her great grandmother, continuing to add OZ's (altho she's still small compared to other babies her age), smiling a *lot*, sleeping for 5-6 hr stretches at night, and shrieking happily while watching the mobile in her crib. So, life with Jane is good. She's starting to show some hints of personality now. It's still tough at times, but it's much easier and more enjoyable compared with 1 or 2 months ago. Here are the latest pics:

View Slideshow

Old video but still very funny

2007-08-03T18:03:00.000-04:00

This is via dcist.com, but it's pretty funny (and very real). It's a clip of WRC news anchor Jim Vance laughing uncontrollably during a news piece about fashion models. Hearing people laugh like that just makes me laugh. Reminds me of the old Carol Burnett shows where they would lose it while doing their skits. Loved that!

glumbert.com - News anchors can't stop laughing at falling model

NoTV

2007-07-31T22:26:00.000-04:00

Apparently our DirecTV receiver has died on us. It happened over the weekend. Once we realized we weren't gonna get any TV reception, we rolled through our Netflix DVDs we had at home: Weeds (season 1), The Machinist, and Children of Men. We don't get Showtime so we don't watch Weeds usually, but I had heard it was good and it turned out "they" were right! It's a funny show. The Machinist was also good. It's kinda in the same vein as Memento, which I loved. Christian Bale is the protagonist, and he dropped a bunch of weight for this movie. Boy, does he look unbelievably freakish. I'd recommend that one.

Children of Men was not nearly as good as I had hoped it would be. I really wanted to like it, but in the end it left me cold. I usually go for the whole dystopian future kind of sci-fi movie, but this one was a little too serious. Pretentious maybe. It was well done, ie, it looked good, but I was just left thinking "eh".

But as for not having any TV, it's been kinda nice. We miss it when we're feeding Jane, for example, and would usually be watching something while she sucks down her bottle. But it's nice to not have to search and search for something -- anything -- to watch. Plus being able to listen to music or just read is nice. Liz might have a slightly different opinion since she's at home all day w/ Jane, but I think she mostly agrees. We have missed episodes of shows that we regularly watch, like Flight of the Conchords (awesome!), but they'll replay them, I'm sure. At least we didn't miss any Sopranos or the Wire!

DirecTV is shipping us a new receiver for free, which is nice. It's a DirecTV DVR, not a Tivo receiver, which is what we had before. So I'm a little wary of the non-Tivo, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Heck, it's free.

Rock n Romp

2007-07-30T22:59:00.000-04:00

Last Sat afternoon, we took Jane to the Rock n Romp at McGinty's in SS. RnR is a semi-regular event where local DC indie rock bands play at kid-friendly volume for kids and parents alike. Lately, it seems that most of the RnRs take place at McGinty's. My buddy James's band, J. Forte and the Secret Pop Band played this time around -- which is why we went -- as well as Greenland.

We got there at 3pm and chatted with James at the bar for a bit. There was a pretty good sized crowd there of kids and parents -- mostly bigger kids around ages 2 through maybe 5 (I dunno, not the greatest judge of kids' ages). The Secret Pop Band played first chugging through their indie pop -- good stuff! Some friends and my brother and sister in law joined us with their kids, too. Seemed like some kids were into it while others were definitely not into it. Jane ended up getting hungry after the Secret Pop Band played, so we split. I think it's a great idea to do that for parents and kids, but maybe next time we go will be when Jane's a bit older. We're so eager to start doing kid stuff that we just couldn't wait...

No Birchmere here

2007-07-25T21:23:00.000-04:00

Apparently, as is being reported by several of the Silver Spring blogs, the deal to bring a second Birchmere here to SS is dead. I find this to be disappointing on one hand since I think it would be a feather in SS's hat to have the Birchmere here. However, I can't say that I'd go to see many shows there. In my whole life of living in this area, I have only been to the original one in Alexandria once. But you know, maybe I would go more often if it was close by. Plus I'd guess I now fit more into their demographic since I'm an oldster. Maybe I'd enjoy some nice quiet acoustic folk or bluegrass or blues. It would be easy on my ears... Eh, I don't really see that happening.

As for the rumor that the county wants a comedy club, I say I'd rather have the Birchmere. As little as I would go to the Birchmere, I would go to a comedy club less. But I guess other people would go more often to a comedy club. The county wants a tennant that generates more revenue than the Birchmere is what it sounds like it comes down to. I hope they bring in something good, but odds are I won't be spending much time at anything they bring in. This town does need some more decent bars, tho, that's for sure. But I say that about most places I live in, visit, read about, see on TV. You get the idea.

Here are a coupla links to posts from SS blogs:
Silver Spring Singular
Silver Spring Penguin

Should I stay or should I go?

2007-07-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

The update on the job situation is I decided to reapply to several of the new positions at work. I figured this was the best thing to do for several reasons. First, I only applied for positions that if I got them would be promotions and would give me good experience and broaden my skills. Second, if I don't get offers for any of the positions I've applied for I can still take the package. So I reckon either way, I land pretty well. It was *very* tempting to just opt out and bail, but I decided that in terms of my future "career" (whatever that is), I'd put myself in a better position by trying to boost my experience. We'll see what happens...

Reality Check

2007-07-12T22:26:00.000-04:00

A little update on life in general: got a lot going on at the moment. It is beyond great to have Jane here now, and she's getting so big. We're all adjusting to each other I think, and the past 9 weeks have not been without their challenges and stressed out periods. But I guess that's probably just life w/ a newborn. Once Jane started gaining weight in earnest, we thought "well, we should be good to go -- hurdle hurdled." Jane sez, "not so fast." She's been showing some signs of acid reflux altho the doc says that it's not full blown. Whether it is reflux (I'm not completely convinced) or whether it's just garden variety gas, the bottom line is she has periods of extreme fussiness/discomfort where she will not sleep or let us lay her down. But on the plus side, Jane's way more alert now and her expressions are very funny sometimes. I say "we" have to deal w/ her fussiness, but it's actually Liz who is bearing the brunt of the cranky baby. I feel badly about it, but I gots to go to work.

Speaking of work, there's a bunch of stuff going on. Causing a bit of stress. Big decisions to make. My department's management just announced a big re-org/realignment/whatever on Tuesday. What it comes down to is whether I want to stay or whether I want to take a severance package. The packages are pretty generous, but I've got this life situation now -- baby! -- that doesn't allow me to be too cavalier about what I do. So I'm not sure whether to roll the dice and take the package or stay at the company. Oh yea, I gotta decide before midnight this coming Tuesday. Ugh.

And I'm putting some pressure on myself to get a car very soon. I currently have an old two seater (Miata), and that just ain't gonna work out w/ aforementioned life situation -- baby! We're looking at small SUVs, but I think I'm going w/ a Honda CRV, most likely a used one. There seem to be a lot of features and it gets pretty decent mileage. We're looking at the CRV type cars because we also need room for Lucy in the back. The drop dead deadline for the car purchase is mid August when Liz goes back to work. At that point I've got to have the ability to put Jane in my car. I'll be a little sad to get rid of my car, but all things must pass. I've had it for 11 years, and it has been great to me.

So, that's the update at the moment. I'm sure there are other things that need getting done (our yard is turning into a weed species showcase), but for now I'm only doing the important stuff. In fact I barely made time to write this.

LightningPod

2007-07-12T15:42:00.000-04:00

Apparently, there are many stories of people getting struck by lightning while using their iPods... that's a little scary. According to the article, if there's lightning even close by, there's a chance the devices could become receptors because they're made of metal.

Experts warn of lightning-strike injuries with iPods

Jane at 8 weeks

2007-07-08T23:20:00.000-04:00

Here are some pix of Jane in the weeks between 4 and 8 weeks old. She turned 8 weeks on July 4 and rang it in at Rehoboth listening to fireworks (she was inside). While I was looking at some of the pictures at the beginning of the slideshow, it's clear how old they are because she's already gotten much bigger than that. Seems like she literally changes every few days... maybe I've said that before. I'll probably say it again. Anyway, she has really put on weight compared w/ 4 weeks ago, and we're really happy about that. So far the consensus seems to be that she looks most like me. I can see that, but I think Jane is showing more of Liz as she gets older. You be the judge!

Also, as you'll be able to tell, I have discovered the super close up feature on my camera. There are a lot of close up shots. A lot. So, please enjoy...

View slideshow

Rock History + Maps!!

2007-07-03T00:03:00.000-04:00

What could be better?? I can't think of any better combination than rock history and the new street view Google maps. It caught my eye, anyway... I've already sent the link to pretty much everybody (all 3 people) who reads this blog, but I thought I'd post it anyway.

Sixty-Second Rock and Roll Tour at rollingstone.com

Government Issue

2007-06-29T00:59:00.000-04:00

GI is waaay under-represented on youtube. This is from an '88 show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ. 2 songs.

Minor Threat

2007-06-29T00:25:00.000-04:00

Live from 930 (?), circa '82 (?).

Marginal Man

2007-06-29T00:19:00.000-04:00

Live from GWU, '85. Posted to youtube by Mr. Kenny Inouye.

Rites of Spring

2007-06-29T00:14:00.000-04:00

Live from 9:30, '85.

Dag Nasty

2007-06-29T00:05:00.000-04:00

Live at 9:30 circa '84 (?) w/ original singer, Sean Brown.

Void

2007-06-29T00:02:00.001-04:00

Live at Wilson Center, '83.

Slickee Boys

2007-06-28T23:52:00.000-04:00

vintage studio video

The Faith

2007-06-28T23:45:00.000-04:00

live from wilson center '82. check out the lack of thrashing.

Marginal Man

2007-06-28T23:40:00.000-04:00

live from the wilson center '84. this was included on the cd version of double image.

Kingface

2007-06-28T23:29:00.000-04:00

More old DC stuff... this is a Kingface video probably shot at 9:30. Yea, I've been trolling youtube.

Teen Idles

2007-06-28T23:23:00.000-04:00

Here's an oldie... from 1980 at the Chancery in DC.

R&D got talent!

2007-06-28T21:24:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest video from R&D, aka Marty's kids Rosie and Declan. Watch and learn.

Just wanted to make it official

2007-06-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

Apparently, my last.fm widget is not behaving like it should... and apparently a capital X choked it at the first line. In other words, my top artist for this week is X. I watched X: The Unheard Music recently on DVD, and really enjoyed it, so I had to listen to some old X. So there. Not really sure why there's a blank line on the first entry of the widget...

Sweat

2007-06-25T22:45:00.000-04:00

An old buddy of mine, Joe, has recently finished writing a book about an old band, and a current band, The Fleshtones. The book is titled, Sweat: The Story of The Fleshtones, America's Garage Band. After spending many years doing research in NYC during summers, he was finally able to get a publisher to put out the book. Big congratulations to Joe! I know it was a ton of work and seemed at times like it wouldn't get published. But now, it will be out on Sept. 1st, and is getting great reviews. It's also generating a lot of interest from the likes of Peter Buck, Jesse Malin, and other like-minded musicians (check out the MySpace page to see!).

I've read the beginning chapters of it, and it is truly a great read. I'd recommend it not only if you're a fan of the band, but also if you have an interest in the underground scenes that were happening in NYC in the late 70s/early 80s and beyond. Very cool.

Joe: I know you're stoked!

Here are some links to check out:
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fleshtonessweat
Continuum Books
Pre-order the book on amazon.com

First Father's Day

2007-06-17T23:05:00.000-04:00

It's the end of my first Father's Day, and we all had a nice, if a bit lazy, day. It was pretty much business as usual around here: takin' care of Jane, goin' to get groceries, laundry, etc. My big Father's Day gift was a nice smile from Jane, and it was the first real one she's given me. Well, at least that's what I'm choosing to believe. Other smiles have probably been due to gas, but not today! Today's smile was the real deal, and it was the best thing that happened all day.

Sometimes Liz and I both look at Jane and still find it a bit unreal that we have this baby. But there she is, staring back at us... well, most of the time she's just asleep, but sometimes she stares back.

Silver Spring in the NYTimes

2007-06-15T18:52:00.000-04:00

Here is a recent article about Silver Spring's revitalization from the NYTimes. Thanks for sending, Rosana!

A Dose of Art and Entertainment Revives a Suburb

Petition to bring NPR to Silver Spring

2007-06-09T17:22:00.000-04:00

Apparently, NPR is considering moving their headquarters to Silver Spring. This sounds like a great idea to me and would complement Discovery and AFI nicely, IMO. The Silver Spring Scene is running a petition on their site to show support for NPR in the Spring. So, if you're inclined, go sign it.

Change to the bloggery

2007-06-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

Last night I updated the blog to a new customizable Blogger template. The new template allows you to do a few more things w/ the blog than the old one, but when I changed over I lost my previous CSS changes on the old blog. (Not a surprise -- they tell you that will happen when you upgrade.) So now I'm playing around with the styles, colors, etc. As far as that goes, the biggest challenge for me is trying to keep the blog in synch w/ the old site. And when I say "old," I mean OLD. I built that site in, like, 2000. I don't really feel like updating the site, so it may just be a jarring transition for a while when you move back and forth between the two, eg, when viewing photo slideshows.

But the new template has allowed me to add the last.fm widget you see on the top of the left sidebar. I'm testing out this works/displays, but for now it shows my most often played artists from my iPod and from iTunes. We'll see how well it works. Right now it's not showing very fresh data, but hopefully it'll update itself.

The other new thing is I've added a feed for my del.icio.us bookmarks on the sidebar. The feed itself seems to work well, but I'm not all that stoked about how it's displaying. It seems a bit hard to read -- you can't really tell what things are. I guess I'll continue to play with it. If you have any suggestions, lemme know.

Jane at 4 weeks

2007-06-07T22:05:00.000-04:00

Here are more pictures of baby Jane leading up to her 4 week birthday, including some pix of her getting dried off after her first bath. But don't worry, we didn't wait 4 weeks to clean her!

So, as well as being a clean little girl, she's also now more alert and awake more often (as the pictures show). But the biggest news in our house is that she has gained back the weight she lost in the first week since she was born (and then some). And that makes everybody happy.

View slideshow

Loudness War

2007-06-05T12:50:00.000-04:00

Nope, this is not a new band -- this is apparently the term used to describe how modern CDs are being mastered louder and louder. I found this to be very interesting, if only on a superificial level since I'm not a sound engineer. Of course, there are two side to how people feel about this, but in my anecdotal experience, after reading the Wikipedia entry, I feel like I can definitely tell this is happening.

One way is just by listening to CDs. For example, Spend a Night in the Box, by the Reverend Horton Heat is very harsh to me. I feel fatigued by listening to it. Also, as mentioned in the wikipedia article, Californication by the Chili Peppers has the same effect on me, as does the most recent issue of Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges. After reading the article, I feel like I have a better understanding, and appreciation, of when people say that vinyl has a "warmer" sound.

This all came about after Joe, Greg, and I were discussing various settings we could use in iTunes or on the iPod to "normalize" volumes. When I've created CD-R comps for friends or Liz, I usually use Goldwave to "normalize" or level the volumes on the various songs so the CD sounds consistent. You can really tell how things have gotten louder and more compressed by looking at the Waveforms in audio editors. And as far as I know you can only bring loud songs down in volume and not bring quieter songs up in volume. In the same way that you can't make a JPG bigger w/o losing quality, I think the same thing applies. Or that's my layman's observation.

Maybe all this explains the ringing in my ears! ;-)