Small (Hipster) World

So, now that Jeremy and friends have introduced me to the greater hipster community/hangouts over the past six months or so, I spend a whole lot of time in the same ten bars or so in town, and as such, I've started finding that I often bump into someone I know or have recently met almost every time I go out. Here's the best example I have thus far:

A few weeks ago, I had a night out where I jumped from place to place throughout the evening, starting at Brick Store Pub. There, I saw my old friend Kevin from high school, whom I hadn't seen since. We're now set to meet up sometime soon.

Next was Twain's, where I was recognized by this girl who works at 529 (one of the venues I go to) and with whom I recently reconnected from high school even though we barely knew each other back in the day.

Then there was the Bookhouse Pub, where I saw a girl who looked very familiar to me but couldn't quite place at first. Then I realized she was a server at the main 24hr diner in Athens and that she used to go by the name "DJ Bitch" back when she spun at the local gay bar. So, not 100% sure it was her, I casually said her DJ name somewhat under my breath, to which she turned her head and initiated conversation in a very surprised fashion. Funny if you were there.

Finally, I ended up at the Clermont Lounge again, where I bumped into two guys I had met at Estoria the week before Thanksgiving, one of whom has an even cooler moustache than I do (he's Mexican though, so he's kinda cheating...).

So, five people in four different locations in one evening. Haven't had that sort of set of coincidences in awhile, but it always happens on a smaller level. Fun times.

Phantom Menace Review

This review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is easily the best, most-comprehensive movie review I've ever seen. First off, although the clip above is only ten minutes long, there are six more videos of equal length, clocking in this bad boy review at 70 minutes long!

Second, although the reviewer intentionally tries to disarm the viewer into thinking he's just an ordinary old man (albeit, a bit strange), his degree of true expertise when it comes to cinematography, character development, plot devices, and logic easily betray his true identity, which is most-likely that of a young film critic or film student. So, despite being perhaps just another thoroughly negative review of this already hated film, the reviewer goes to great lengths to legitimize all of our deeply-felt qualms with the movie via excellent examples, cinematographic references, and a truly-thorough approach.

Finally, if you stick with the review long enough (at least until the midway point of the second clip), you'll start to realize how much a minor work of art the review itself is...I don't want to spoil too much about it, but the review is actually oozing with style, and as such has already been lauded by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, calling it "astounding film making."

Quite a big stir for such a shitty movie!

Falcon Lords @ Picaflor

As I wrote before, I recently discovered the truly awesome Falcon Lords when catching a show at Eyedrum, so it was only a matter of time before I went back to see them rock my world again. This time it was at the TINY Picaflor art gallery as special guests for a collection being shown that featured old video game characters (think Donkey Kong and QBert, not Link or Mario) in different somewhat-comedic situations. Actually, this was my second time to the gallery: back when Candace and I were together, she heard of an event going on at Picaflor that we went to check out...unfortunately, the gallery was so small that it only took about ten minutes to take in all the art work, leaving us a bit disappointed. That said, it's definitely better to go catch a band there and in the process check out the small collection.

Anyway, the Falcon Lords show was pretty solid, although the band that was on afterwards, supposedly headlining, was lame enough to just leave...can't remember their name though. The Falcon Lords weren't quite as mind-blowing this time around as they were at the Eyedrum show, but that was probably just a low/high expectations thing...I'm still totally stoked about them. Afterwards, I got to spend more time getting to know the band, who is super down-to-earth and cool. Can't wait to hopefully do shows with them in the future!

Pat Benatar Keys+Vox @ Riot

At this point, we've actually had a total of five recording sessions for our first two tracks, but this post is going to focus on the second, which (like many of the sessions since) has largely just been only Erich and me in the studio. Having completed drums for Pat Benatar and Bayan Pierrot almost three weeks before, this marked the beginning of our regular weekly recording sessions, which we continue to maintain to this day. So, after drums, the next step was for me to go in and record more-or-less permanent synth parts, followed by some scratch (i.e. place-holder) lead vocals, this time just for Pat Benatar.

While the keys turned out pretty nicely, I was still getting over a cold I had developed just before Thanksgiving, and being the first time that I had ever recorded vox in a sound booth, my vocal takes weren't all that impressive, especially not at first. The first two takes I laid down were a bit forced, too gritty, and definitely pitchy, so Erich and I decided it might be worth it to then go in for a third take, attempting to just sing as naturally as possible. Now, while this did take some of the rock edge off the performance, I definitely was more in tune and was able to do the take without wearing out my voice in a serious way, so this manner of recording has become the standard procedure for all vocal takes we've done since.

Anyway, after this session, Erich burned me a copy of what we had thus far, and from that day on I've taken to listening to the track numerous times a day on my frequent drives to and from work and/or socializing downtown. More on recording in due time (chronologically-speaking)...

Wrong Way @ The Loft

The day after Thanksgiving, I was invited to a gig of my bassist Doug's Sublime cover band, Wrong Way, and I was happy to go, as it was the first real opportunity I had thus far had to go check them out and throw a little support their way. As it turns out, the evening was SUPER fun...the band was tight, the crowd was in a contagiously-dancey mood, and I even got to hang out with the band a bit backstage, which of course made me feel a bit special.

Honestly, I'm not even that into Sublime...I never owned one of their albums, I only really know the singles, and when it comes to reggae-influenced rock groups, I was always more of a 311 fan...regardless, I had a fun time. It really is too bad Wrong Way doesn't get to play a whole lot of gigs in town (they're more popular in small college towns, and as such end up on the road more often than not), especially at more traditional venues like The Loft (as opposed to Wild Wings), because I would totally like to go back. Good time for sure.

The Men Who Stare At Goats

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS: Movie Trailer - The most amazing videos are a click away

This was easily one of my most-anticipated films of the Fall quality-film rush, but unfortunately, it didn't leave a particularly strong impression on me. That said, this Coen Brothers/Wes Anderson-style film was WAY better than the actual Coen Brothers film this year (A Serious Man), and looking back at the trailer just now, I had warm feelings towards what I remember of the film. Still, the plot is a bit directionless, Ewan McGregor's performance/character is a bit disappointingly bland, and ultimately, the film just left me feeling like it could have been so much more.

Still, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey were all pretty great in the film, the premise was certainly interesting, and the disjointed flow of the plot was also a plus, despite being one of the main contributors to the film's lack of story-based direction and a sense of a message being conveyed. Overall, I would say that it's worth seeing, but don't get your hopes up too high.

James Hall w/Dirty Pollyanna @ The Earl

This is such old news, but that's not news now, is it(?), so here we go. Actually, if I'm not mistaken, I'm OVER A MONTH behind now, but whatever.

So, my friend Kelly from Siberia My Sweet invited me (and a number of other people) out to see this local legend, James Hall's gig at The Earl. I missed the very first band, but the second of three bands was this pretty cool group called Dirty Pollyanna that's fronted by this really talented girl who has a really young look but a very mature voice (her vibrato alone is pretty impressive). Also, their guitarist and bassist were recently on tour with Lady Gaga(!), which in and of itself is pretty amazing. To prove it, here's a clip of one of her performances that they were both involved in. Anyway, I'm definitely planning on going to check out their next show if possible.

Onto James Hall and his band. Ultimately, the style of the band was a sort of retro-90's thing...evidently the guy's been around in the local scene for quite some time, so I guess it's not surprising that his sound is pretty 90's-influenced. Regardless of how much I dig the style, he put on a great show (he obviously knows what he's doing), his band was tight, and his stage presence was very refined. The funny thing to me about this dude though is that he kinda resembles Owen Wilson's character from Zoolander...evidently he's even into some New-Agey stuff too, which only helps support the comparison.

Anyway, the night was pretty fun. I definitely wouldn't mind catching either of these bands out again sometime soon.

Rabbit, Twice

I've done a lot of the past month or so, and I'm super-behind, so perhaps I'll actually have enough stuff to write about to catch up...?

Anyway, one of the things I do these days to keep me super-busy is going to shows of local bands. Well, one of the bands I've seen multiple times recently is Rabbit, which also turns out to be one of the two bands our new potential drummer, Matt, is in. The first show was at Lenny's, a divey half-bar half-venue, and the second was at the Highland Inn Ballroom, the ballroom of a literal small hotel that occasionally features indie shows.

In terms of the band's sound, I think they've gotten better each of the three times I've caught them live, so the ballroom show was better than that at Lenny's. In terms of the bands that have accompanied them, I haven't really been all that impressed. At Lenny's, I saw two more-or-less noiserock bands followed by a pretty decent blues-rock band. At the ballroom I saw this atypical punk band (bonus points for a female electric guitarist!) and an ambient rock band that wasn't all that great.

Regardless of the quality of the other bands that have accompanied Rabbit, they've always been pretty solid, and now that I've met all of them, I enjoy their company as well.

Dad and Unsolicited Mail

This is totally random, but today when going through the quasi-junk mail my dad (like everyone else) often gets from airline companies, insurance companies, and banks, he informed me that when he gets an offer to sign up for something that he has no intention of signing up for, he takes the postage-paid-for return-to-sender envelope that always comes with these things and sends it back to the company with nothing in it, making them have to pay the $0.40 return shipping for inconveniencing him! In fact, he does this so regularly that he had a sizable pile of these empty envelopes ready to go out!

I don't know about you, but I thought this was really funny... Wonder how long it's been going on... =)

Comcast Problems

Here's the deal: when Evan and I lived at Berkeley Run together, we used Comcast as our internet/TV/phone provider. Well, as you know, Evan had to move, but he left about five weeks before the lease ran out, so I was there by myself for that time. Normally, our Comcast account would have expired at the end of October, but because we had that whole ordeal with Berkeley making us stay an extra 17 days, if I wanted to continue Comcast service, I was going to have to establish a new account under my name alone.

So, I talked with a representative inquiring what steps I would have to take to make this happen, one of which was going to my local Comcast office to set up the account and pick up a modem. Well, due to some miscommunication, Comcast thought I wanted them to go ahead and start the account before I had actually gone to the store to pick up the box (and before they had even sent anyone to install anything), but I hadn't actually ok'ed any of this because I knew I was only going to use the internet for about 10 days before I had to move out, so I decided just to bum internet off an unprotected WiFi box nearby for that period.

You can imagine my confusion though when I got a bill from Comcast asking me to pay $60 for a month's worth of service that I hadn't used or even set up, so I called, and although there was a good bit of confusion over our miscommunication, they told me that my balance would be negated and that my account would be closed.

Then, about two weeks ago, I received two letters from Comcast, one acknowledging that I had discontinued my service, and the other asking me to pay not one month's bills, but two! Naturally I called them back a bit pissed off, and through yet another difficult conversation, they told me they were sorry and that they would have this taken care of right away.

So, the other day I received another letter acknowledging the discontinuation of my service, which of course was a good sign, but then today I received an automated phone call asking me to call Comcast. After doing so, I was informed by the agent that because I hadn't paid my bills they were going to turn off my service! I told the guy that I had already had two angry phone calls with Comcast representatives and was about to have a third if he didn't get this resolved. Fortunately, he took the time to do some research (evidently their bookkeeping is HORRIBLE over there) and came back saying that he would make a note to check my account every morning to make sure it had been thoroughly taken care of.

I've heard stories about service providers messing with people long after their contracts were up, but this is ridiculous, as I never even had a working account! How many people do you have to talk to to close a non-existing account?!? Is this even the end of this, or will I be getting billed later on this year for a service I never used?

11th Band-Recruiting Rehearsal

Seems like the search for band members might never end. Having not exactly found a drummer who is both talented enough for our music and free enough to commit the necessary time to be a creative force in the band, we recently (well, two weeks ago) tried out yet another drummer (our 7th thus far, if I'm not mistaken). As it turns out, he's the bassist for another band in town I've written about, Rabbit, and although he had said he would recommend a drummer the first time I met him, it turned out that, despite being in two bands already, he himself wanted to try out for the position.

Now, the trick with Matt is that he's so hipster-like that he doesn't do cell phones, the internet, or answering machines on his landline, so it's REALLY hard to get a hold of him. We did manage to set up a single meeting with him thus far, and for the most part, he's perhaps the best fit for the band we've found (with the exception of a little tendency to rush due to not playing in a bit and the fact that he's really hard to get a hold of).

So, we'll see where this goes. I'm not going to assume this is going to work out until we get into a regular rehearsal schedule with him, but as far as everything else is concerned, I'm pretty happy with him as our drummer. We'll see how it pans out...

Jeans Tucked Into Boots

It's all about the jeans tucked into boots... I became a big fan of this fashion trend back when I lived in Europe, where it was already super-popular. In fact, whenever I came home in 2006-2007, I was often very critical of Americans in Atlanta for not having really gotten into this trend. Well, a couple years have gone by, and now jeans tucked into boots are all over the place here in Atlanta. Hell, even though I had been trying to convince Candace to get some boots for the majority of our relationship, it wasn't until we broke up almost two months ago that she finally bought some (oh well...at least they look nice on her).

Anyway, although I'm definitely glad to see that Atlanta has finally caught onto the sexiest fashion trend in recent memory, some women still haven't realized that wearing boots underneath bootcut jeans or wearing them with a skirt actually kinda looks dated, therefore making them look totally unaware of how many other women are showing them up. For instance, I was at a rock venue last night in one of the more popular-kids-type parts of town, and I was shocked to see how many women were violating this simple new rule.

Bootcut is way out girls. Get you some skinny jeans to tuck into those sexy boots of yours, and you'll be super hot again. Wearing boots with a skirt makes you look too slutly (yes, I made that word up and happen to like it, so deal with it), and wearing boots underneath jeans makes you look old and out of touch.

Like Seriously...Lady Gaga

I'm not joking...I have a HUGE crush on this woman. Like seriously. Sure, her tracks are great, but it's her live choreography and videos that win me over. Maybe the fact that I LOVE this new video of hers just shows how weird I am, but whatever, I'm crazy about Lady Gaga. If I had the chance to date her, there is no way I would turn it down. Just saying... She's so bold, talented, attractive, and has such an incredible poppy artistic vision that it's almost impossible for me not to keep drooling.

Seriously. I understand if the average person doesn't feel this way about Lady Gaga, but I must be hardwired for whatever she's offering. Great stuff. Can't believe I'm missing her two back-to-back shows here in Atlanta. Stupid that I didn't pick up tix right away....

Oh, and one other thing...I really hope she didn't get a permanent nose job and that the new nose look she has (as seen from the halfway point of the video on) is just some sort of tape-job. I liked her natural nose...it made her distinct and attractively imperfect. Her new look is just too pretty...too predictable...too common.

Return to Rehearsing...Kinda

Despite finally getting our band into the studio as of late, we haven't really been doing that well with regular rehearsals. Since we found out Erich might not be able to commit the time needed to be our drummer, we've tried out a couple people, talked about trying out even more people, and thought about even more, but we still haven't thus far been able to settle into a regular routine of full band rehearsals.

That said, a few weeks ago we were able to meet up as a quartet with Doug's drummer (from his Sublime cover band) Brady, who, as you may remember, was one of our better-fitting candidates for drums early on but encouraged us to look elsewhere due to him also having scheduling conflicts. All this considered though, we felt like we were left with too few options, so we had a talk with him to see if he would be up for being a less-committed-but-still-regular member of the band, to which he agreed to give it a go, I think.

That rehearsal went fairly well, but it did feel like we were taking a few steps back, adding someone new into the group who wasn't up to date with our most recent progress on the songs. At this point, we're kinda trying to decide if Brady or one other candidate (whom I'll discuss when I get to it chronologically on this blog, being behind and all) would ultimately be better for us in the long run, but hopefully we'll be able to settle on one definite member sooner than later...

AFI @ The Tabernacle

Three weeks ago today, I went to see the band AFI (A Fire Inside, but they never go by that name) live at the Tabernacle, a cool mid-sized venue with an opera house-like appeal. Unfortunately, the band that was scheduled to open up for them, The Gallows, had an emergency and had to return home (to England), so they were replaced with some boring dude on acoustic guitar...most-certainly a strange choice considering that AFI is a punk-emo-metal band. Don't know why the band didn't do a smidgen of research and get Attention System to play for them, as they are WAY more suited for this sort of show, but whatever.

Anyway, I had never seen AFI live before, despite owning two of their albums, so I was pretty pumped to finally catch one of their shows. In addition, I had seen recent photos of the group and was definitely digging lead singer Davey Havok's new more-stylish look, so although I'm not particularly digging their newest stuff, I thought it would prove interesting to see them in person.

Sure enough, the show was pretty great. The band played well (even though the sound was only alright), the setlist largely featured stuff I knew and not too much new stuff, Davey's look was definitely cooler than before (and he's got a lot of stage presence), and the crowd (although a bit moshy) only added to the experience.

Overall, a fun night, even though it's not really my style anymore. Definitely glad I went.

Inglourious Basterds

Still way behind. Like I said before, I have no drive anymore, at least, not while I'm physically in my parents' house. I mean, I do set up plenty of occasions to get out, but when I'm actually here, I'm lazy as I've ever been. Ugh.

Okay, so roughly three weeks ago I finally went to see Quentin Tarantino's new film Inglourious Basterds, and let me just say, it was really amazing. It's easily Taratino's most-serious movie, at least as far as I'm aware, to the point that it could almost pass as a legitimate (if significantly inaccurate) WWII film. The closest film I could offer to compare it with is Das Leben der Anderen, because although the time periods aren't the same, the overall feeling isn't too far off (albeit with a significant Tarantino twist).

Anyway, I loved that the film was largely subtitled, I loved the development and release of tension throughout the film, I loved the acting (especially that of the primary villain...who is NOT Hitler, I might add), and I loved the plot. Easily one of my top movies of the year, and very-likely in my Top 5. Glad I saw it in the theatre (I barely made it...saw it at the dollar theatre!).

Bill Maher on Feminism

Well, so much for regular blogging... For one reason or the other, I just find it really hard to be motivated to do anything when stuck at home with the rents. I need to move back out ASAP. I feel like I'm on permanent vacation, and that's never a good thing for productivity.

Anyway, while killing time watching Bill Maher clips on YouTube, I finally found a working clip of this great bit he did on feminism, a clip I've been meaning to share for probably over a year now but couldn't due to it being taken off the YouTube server.

Note: if any females read my blog and take the time to watch the clip, you may be offended, but I honestly don't think Maher is being sexist as much as he is expressing his frustration with reverse sexism...that men are always wrong these days and that stereotypically-male virtues are less important than their feminine counterparts.

Super funny, and quite poignant. Enjoy!

Falcon Lords @ Eyedrum

While seeing my friend Allison's band at the Eyedrum art gallery/concert space for the first annual EarBall music festival, I was lucky enough to also catch the Falcon Lords, perhaps Atlanta's greatest undiscovered musical treasure. This is a trio of musicians (vox, guitar, bass, using backing tracks) whose gimmick is to dress up as superheroes (and in great homemade costumes, I might add), donning not only their costumes, but also the characters they've created, even to the extent that after their shows they stay in character.

Add to this the fact that their music and musical abilities are quite good, and you've got a super-fun party band that would be extremely ideal for our group to have a show with someday. The style is more or less some kind of amalgamation of hip-hop, indie rock, and perhaps even a bit of 60's pop, and their presentation is nothing short of inspired (in a kitschy sort of way).

Anyway, can't wait to see them again. Hopefully the connections I made with them will serve us well as we start setting up gigs. Good times.

Catch-Up Time!

So behind. If I'm to maintain my quota of one blog per day for the whole year of 2009, I'm going to have to post two posts for 14 of the next 34 days in addition to posting one post for each of the remaining 20. We'll see how consistent I'll be able to be.

On average, this year has been way worse than last when it comes to blogging regularly. Is there some sort of reason for this other than perhaps the generally-obvious growing fatigue of blogging? If that is the case, is it just a phase or are the days of my blogging numbered (albeit, in the distant future)?

Regardless, I plan on getting this battle station fully-operational by the end of the year, so let's get down to business!

Shadow Complex

I don't play a whole lot of Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) games, and when I do, my involvement with them is usually half-assed and I often don't even finish the game. The complete list of XBLA games I've played in the past are as follows:

Hexic HD (free game, didn't "finish")
Alien Hominid HD (finished on normal difficulty only)
Braid (didn't finish...too challenging?)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (cool fighting game, but never worked on Achievements)
Portal (quasi-XBLA game, finished)
Shadow Complex (finished, more below)

So that's six games, most of which I haven't spent any real quality time with. That said, I've been on a roll lately: Portal was simply amazing, and Shadow Complex, although not quite as impressive, might as well have been a full-priced game, as it's that good.

Shadow Complex is essentially the most professional XBLA game yet made, and as such, it has received one of the highest ratings of ANY Xbox 360 release ever, including all the full-priced games. It's basically an Unreal Engine-fueled 2D platformer whose influences are best-described as such: the gameplay of Super Metroid with a Metal Gear Solid skin, featuring the guy from Uncharted. Basically, you're running around shooting guys and upgrading your equipment via over 100 upgrade packs hidden throughout the gameworld, all in an attempt to finish the storyline (saving your girlfriend, and the rest of the planet, from bad guys trying to take over the world).

Anyway, in addition to having incredible graphics (and sound), great gameplay, and a cool-yet-simple leveling system, what really made this game fun was how simple it was, harkening back to the simpler yet somehow more-addictive earlier days of gaming. I've beaten the game twice now, and both times it has proven to be pretty great. Again, the game couldn't possibly beat Portal for even XBLA game of the year, but it's not that far off. DEFINITELY worth the $15 I paid for it...

Jam w/The Orkids

Two weeks ago today, Jeremy and I were out having some drinks when we got a call from my buddy Adam in The Orkids, telling me he and his girlfriend Sandra were in town and wanted to see if we were up for chilling at her brother's place. So we picked up some beers and spent a fun evening chatting it up with the two of them, eventually moving upstairs to record an impromptu acoustic performance of a few of each of our songs. For the most part, Jeremy played on this cheap (but awesome) set of electronic drums while I filled out the guitar parts and sang. If you've seen any of the Facebook photos I've been recently tagged in, these are all from that awesome evening.

Super good time. Can't wait to hang with Adam and Sandra again!

Mild Cold...?

I don't get sick often, so it's always fairly notable when I do. That said, I'm still not sure if I'm really all that sick right now. Jeremy had a cold recently, and we do hang out a lot, so perhaps I picked up something from him, but my only real symptom is a frustrating sore throat. I mean, I'm also having some difficulty sleeping without a shit-ton (wouldn't it be funnier if it were "shitton", preferably pronounced with a British accent?) of nightmares, but it's hard to say if that is the cold or just how uncomfortable my parents' beds are combined with the fact that they don't let any fresh air into the house...

So, I'm not really complaining so much as just pointing out how mild my condition is. I have no plans to take medication, but I am trying to get more regular sleep. That said, it hasn't stopped me too much from going out and drinking with my friends. My biggest fear of getting sick is actually that it'll happen when I'm supposed to be recording vocals, but fortunately, that's not likely to happen again for at least another week or so, so I should be good. Here's to a speedy recovery...

Paranormal Activity

While I was in Greenville with my sister (yes, two weekends ago), we went to see Paranormal Activity, the new Blair Witch-style low budget horror film that everyone was talking about. Unfortunately, this guy right here isn't going to be one of those people...

The story is very similar to that of Drag Me To Hell with the big exceptions being that nothing was scary, the building tension doesn't really go anywhere, the "surprise" ending is anticlimactic, and far too many things go unexplained.

This is a rent at best. Sure, it was probably better than most of the teenage horror stuff that Hollywood spits out each year, but that doesn't make it amazing by any means.

Back at the Ranch...

Well, my much-appreciated fifteen-and-a-half-month stint at Berkeley Run has finally come to an end, and I am now once again living at home with my parents... I say that my time at Berkeley has "finally come to an end" because, well, for a long time there, it wasn't really clear when it might wrap up. In fact, from the start, Evan and I were constantly questioning how long it would last, largely due to Evan's growing desire to move: at first, it was just a tentative 6-month lease, then we signed another 6-month lease with the idea that perhaps Evan might be offered a job mid-lease in Utah or possibly Seattle. Then there was the plan to move out at the end of that lease, but that got pushed back three more months, which of course was recently pushed back another 17 days due to miscommunication with our apartment complex.

Anyway, here I am. As I said before, I wasn't exactly prepared for this move: yesterday was my moving day, and I was supposed to be done by the 6:00 pm closing time the leasing office strictly adheres to, but I only made it up to the office with five minutes to spare. Typical of me, I suppose, but to be honest, I really didn't think I would need as much time as I did. In fact, I was so off in my estimation that my move-out required not only myself, but also both of my parents and their housekeeper Mark, the three of whom helped me move all of my heavy stuff, load smaller stuff into cars, and even-more-importantly, clean my apartment!

Fortunately, I did get out of there on time, and now my only real responsibility is getting set up again at my parents' place. Yeah, it's weird being back home, but hopefully it'll only be as long as it takes for me to pay off my VISA bill. That said, a quick estimate would seem to indicate that that would take me around eight months of living at home, and I surely don't want to be here that long, so here's hoping I pick up some new clients soon!

Oh Crap, I've Gotta Move!

Short post here. My move-out day is almost upon me (it's tomorrow), and to be honest, it kinda snuck up on me, largely because I was trying to ignore it. I mean, I love my parents, but who wants to move back in with their parents? Unfortunately, my next two days are kinda crammed full of stuff to do in addition to moving out, so I've got my work cut out for me.

It's sad that this whole stint at Berkeley Run is ending, but perhaps something even cooler (living downtown?) lies ahead after I stay for the 'rents for a bit? We'll see...

Pat Benatar and BP Drums @ Riot

Dude! Seriously... We have started the ball rolling, and it's not gonna stop, brother. No way. Take your vitamins and say your prayers, because The Grand (evidently that's what the band's called now) has started hitting the studio, and we're not stopping until our music melts your freaking face off.

Last night our buddy Erich generously let us come start recording at his workplace, the previously-mentioned post production studio, Riot Atlanta, all during his after-hours time for free. This is a HUGE leg up for us, as most bands' first demo is done at home or at some shitty studio that they still could barely afford. We've skipped all that, and although we might have to wait longer to get some more of Erich's generously-offered free time, it's going to be WELL worth it.

Anyway, check out the photos from last night's session, which I added to my Facebook album: Band Stuff:

Recording at Riot Atlanta (11/13/09)

The big surprise to me was how long it takes to record drums. Last night, it took us seven hours to record drums for two tracks, but of course this included time spent setting up and tearing down our gear, plus EQing the kit and setting up click tracks (which is easier said than done with some of our material). The next step is to record keys and then the rest of the band, which we'll hopefully get to do at the end of the month. If we're lucky, perhaps we can get three or four tracks fully recorded by Christmas.

Overall, the time was well-spent, as the drums sound big and amazing. I can't wait to hear what the finished product ends up sounding like! Also, super-excited about getting to record it all too...this whole studio thing is a first for me, and I'm just ready to take it all in.

Thanks SO MUCH, Erich. Seriously, bro. You ARE our Brendan O'Brien, Steve Albini, Rick Rubin, and the Beatles' engineers (couldn't figure out who you named last night) all rolled into one!

Carl Sagan - A Glorious Dawn

Never before has a science-themed song been more kickass than this one. First off, Carl Sagan is the shit, for realz. Add in some great vocoder work (doesn't Sagan's voice fit this perfectly?), a guest spot by Stephen Hawking, and some great ambient production work, and you've got a nerdy hit on your hand.

Naturally though, what's really meaningful to me here is the message: anyone that ever questions whether or not an atheist can find the near-divine transcendence in the universe despite not writing it up to an intelligent designer need only look to the text of this incredible song. Carl Sagan is perhaps the greatest public champion for a non-religious appreciation for the beauty in this world, as well as one of the best teachers of all time, so I certainly recommend checking out more of his YouTube clips if you've got the time.

Halloween 2009

Alright, I'm finally getting around to posting about Halloween. For those of you who can't see my profile on Facebook, above I've posted one of the numerous photos taken of me as Freddie Mercury this year. And here's a link to the Live Aid '85 outfit he wore upon which that I based mine. I think you'll agree with me that my outfit was pretty dead on. That said, it was kinda expensive, despite not looking that costume-y. Of the things I'm wearing in the photo, I had to buy wife-beaters, the arm band, the belt, hair gel, and the pants, and then I had to get the pants altered. All of this totaled around $85. And of course that's not including the ADIDAS shoes and the microphone, both of which I already owned but would have had to have purchased otherwise.

Anyway, for all this hoopla, I didn't actually get to do a whole lot with my outfit. Basically, I just went over to Jeremy's place for a few beers with him and his girlfriend Megan before heading out to a party held by a friend of hers way out in Kennesaw. The party was fun (Jeremy and I were the reigning beerpong champs, despite not having ever really played before), and we met some cool people, but Jeremy and Megan were pretty wiped out around midnight, so we had to call it a short evening. I tried to get in touch with people to see if they were still out, but everyone else had already wrapped things up...guess it's just a sign that I'm getting old?

Overall, it was a fun evening, even though many of the young'uns at the party didn't know who Freddie Mercury was. Fortunately, a lot of people have commented positively on the costume since then (mostly on Facebook), so I don't feel like all my effort was for nothing. Glad I finally got to do Freddie for Halloween!

Lady Gaga Infatuation

Seriously, folks...Lady Gaga has me enthralled. And I'm not just talking about her looks...in fact, although I do think she's really attractive, what's got me so into her is her incredible sense of showmanship and her undeniable talent. Sure, on the surface, her music is basically just really good Brittany Spears, but that's just where it starts. Lady Gaga is all about the presentation, perhaps even more so than Madonna (from whom she clearly took inspiration), and you'll never see her wearing a boring outfit, or even the same elaborate costume twice. Her stage shows are incredible (just YouTube her live stuff), full of great choreography, video work, and costumes, and perhaps most-importantly, she can actually sing.

Sure, Brittany Spears, Jessica Simpson, and Christina Aguilera all have varying levels of true vocal talent, but Lady Gaga is easily the only one who is an artist in the broad sense of the term, both musically and non-musically. If you're not aware, one of the big things that sets Gaga apart is her formal training in music at NYU and her years spent as a cabaret performer in New York. If you don't believe me that she's actually talented, check out the video above (more on that in a sec) and this piano-only version of her doing the same track.

Anyway, my most recent cause for obsession is the amazing performance she gave at this year's MTV VMA awards show (seen above). The song she performed is her single "Paparazzi", essentially a tongue-in-cheek social commentary on the damaging effect of the paparazzi on celebrities. If you're impatient, just skip to the three-minute mark in the video to see how committed she is to expressing her message powerfully...gave me chills the first ten times I watched it. Also, it's worth noting that she actually does sing live, and it's good too...

I really hope Lady Gaga's career isn't just a flash-in-the-pan: we really could use another female artist with this level of integrity, talent, and control over her musical path (as opposed to simply being a puppet for her record label). It's been too long, and Madonna can't hold down the fort forever...

Greenville Stopover (Part II)

Time to finish up my account of my weekend-long trip out of town for Mike's wedding. Now, although I didn't get much time to spend with my sister when I stayed at her place in Greenville on the way up, I DID get some decent quality time with her when coming home, which was nice. Before that though, I stopped for a leisurely lunch in downtown Charlotte at this burger joint called Nix. The main reason I wanted to stop at a real restaurant instead of a typical roadside fast food joint was that, up to that point, I hadn't gotten a chance to see the downtown area of any of the cities I had been to, and considering that Charlotte's was perhaps the biggest/prettiest of the options available to me, I figured I might as well check it out.

Anyway, once I got into Greenville, J!Rock and I hit up some Goodwill shopping followed by a trip to the cinema to see Paranormal Activity (review up soon). After this, we headed to the quaint-but-modern downtown Greenville for some sushi and a walk, and then we retired at her house watching Zoolander to keep us entertained until bedtime.

Overall, this was easily the most relaxing day of the trip, and it was nice to finally get to return to Greenville to hang with Jaclyn (something I had been planning on doing for awhile). Although the trip as a whole had its awkward moments, I would say that it was a nice four-night adventure of sorts, and as such, I could certainly see myself doing that drive (and perhaps up to Baltimore/Washing D.C. as well) in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality!

Cartman Sings Lady Gaga

South Park: Go and Hug a Tree (Lady Gaga: Poker Face) - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Although I have yet to have seen this whole new episode of South Park, I couldn't help but look at this clip on YouTube when it popped up. Evidently Cartman, Kenny, and Kyle end up getting a Rock Band set and decide to play Lady Gaga's single "Poker Face". Seeing as I love this song (in a guilty pleasure kind of way), and I love Cartman, it was a match made in heaven.

Hopefully the video stays up for awhile, but I have a feeling it won't. Enjoy.

Still frustrated by this whole new YouTube video length won't fit in my blog thing though...

Gay Karaoke Night

Seems like I've been bitten by the karaoke bug lately. While having dinner at this Mexican restaurant in one of the gay districts of Atlanta near the movie theatre where I saw A Serious Man, I was informed not only that it was karaoke night that night, but also that the first three people to sign up for karaoke would be given a free shot of tequila as a way to encourage people to get the party started. Although this was enticing, it wasn't until I heard that the winner of those three participants would be given a $15 gift certificate for the restaurant that I decided to go for it.

Seeing as I wanted to size up my competition first, I waited until the first two guys went to be sure I had a fighting chance. From what I could tell, they were both of the "I'm gay and flamboyant and automatically assume I can sing but really can't" category...you know, the sort of guys that go on American Idol who are entirely delusional about their abilities. Fortunately for me, my assessment was right, and they were both horrible. So, I got up and did my now tried-and-true karaoke mainstay, "Surrender" by Cheap Trick, and sure enough, this guy right here won a shot and a gift certificate. I'm pretty sure one of my competitors was giving me the evil eye the rest of the night, but whatever...

Good stuff. It was a little weird singing karaoke more-or-less sober and with only at most ten people around, but it was still fun. Maybe I'll have to go back and win again!

The UnDutchables

While I was in The Netherlands, my best friend there (and my only truly close Dutch friend), Bas van Schelt not only spent some time with me, but also was generous enough to give ME a gift (hell, in my initial plans, I was supposed to be staying with him, in which case I was certainly indebted to him, not the other way around). Anyway, the gift was a very popular English-language book about Dutch culture called The UnDutchables. While I was actually living in The Netherlands, I was in fact aware of this book, but I never ended up checking it out.

Well, flattered as I was that Bas gave me this totally uncalled-for gift, I took it upon myself to start reading it on the trip almost two months ago, only recently finally finishing it (it's rare when I actually prioritize reading). Fortunately, the book was easy to pick up and put down whenever I wanted, as it's written more as a collection of observations about Dutch culture (from an English-speaking perspective), each of which is a more-or-less self-contained (and brief) article.

Now, while the book certainly did have some chuckles, I would say a good bit of the humor was lost on me, as I often found myself defending Dutch culture from the often grossly exaggerated simplifications the book made instead of just taking them as humorous accounts of culture shock. Perhaps I just didn't end up living in the NL long enough to allow me the time to experience all of the small quirks the book so painstakingly describes, or perhaps it really was just a question of differing senses of humor. Regardless, I did enjoy the book and am thoroughly grateful that Bas shared it with me.

I wonder if there's a similar book I could give him that is instead a Dutch account of crazy Americanisms...?

A Serious Man

A Serious Man Trailer - WATCH FULL MOVIE ONLINE

So, I'm behind on blogging, and I want to catch up, but I don't feel like going in chronological order here, so here goes. Last Monday, I went to see the new Coen brothers film, A Serious Man. This is my 7th film of theirs to see, so I obviously knew what sort of experience I was getting myself into.

Ultimately, I wouldn't say I either particularly liked or disliked the film. It's a film about an awkward Jewish guy surrounded almost entirely by awkward Jewish people, and a bunch of unfortunate stuff happens to him. If anything, the film is an exploration of the most absurd of Jewish stereotypes, so much so that if the Coen brothers themselves weren't Jewish, I might say this film was a bit racist. If nothing else, they certainly paint every character varying degrees of neurotic, with the lead being perhaps the worst-off.

There were a few chuckles to be had, but for the most part, they were due to how absurd-yet-serious the film was. I would say that if you were a big Coen brothers fan you should definitely see this film, otherwise, just stick to the classics. I've seen all three movies they've released in recent years, and of them, No Country For Old Men is still the only one I would truly recommend.

Mike's Wedding Visit

So, Mike's wedding festivities have come and gone, as I'm sitting here at a Microtel (I've given up on Travelodges) just outside Durham, NC. After last writing, I made the six hour drive to Richmond from Greenville, stopping for lunch at this place called Biscuitville (more on that later!). Once I got to town, I checked into my hotel, freshened up, and eventually made my way to Mike's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. After this, I drove Paul, one of Mike and my mutual friends from elementary school, and I over to a bar near my hotel for a few drinks over some interesting conversation. Mike eventually joined us, but only briefly before taking Paul with him and leaving me at the hotel.

Saturday morning, I checked out of my hotel before meeting up for lunch with, of all people, Julie Bondy, my first girlfriend ever (I was a junior in hish school and she was a freshman), and two of her friends who were in town. It just so happens that Julie lives in Richmond (she went to school there as well), so Evan suggested we meet up since I had some time to kill, and it proved to be really fun catching up. After this, I headed over to the wedding itself and the reception that followed, after which I said my goodbyes and drove for a couple hours to arrive here at my hotel.

Overall, the weekend has been a mixture of lots of things (catching up with old friends, celebrating a wedding, seeing my sister briefly, etc...), but easily the most socially-awkward was being the non-religious minority in what was otherwise an entirely seriously-evangelical group of wedding guests and participants. Generally-speaking, everyone was really nice and inoffensive, but it was still hard for me to cope with being around a bunch of people whose ideals clearly don't jive with mine.

Again, it was great seeing Mike, bonding with our mutual buddy Paul, and getting to know Mike's good friends Kenny and Simeon. Plus, the wedding was well-put-together and was pretty touching in many regards, and overall, I was super happy to be a part of something so big to one of my best friends, but even all this couldn't shake how awkward it was for me to be the only atheist in the room. Regardless, I'm glad I came up, and I look forward to hanging out with Mike, his friends I mentioned earlier, and of course, his new wife, Megan.

Greenville Stopover (Part I)

So, I'm in Greenville, South Carolina right now staying at my sister's place before heading out for the longer leg of my trip to Richmond, Virginia tomorrow for my longtime friend Mike's wedding festivities there this weekend. It's not that Richmond is all that far from Atlanta (about the same distance as Bloomington), but I haven't visited my sister at her home since my initial visit over a year ago, and considering that staying here does cut down my drive tomorrow by a couple hours, why not, right?

The drive over here was pretty nice, actually. Nothing special to report. I got in around 9:45 PM, but since Jaclyn likes to go to bed around 10:30, we didn't get a whole lot of time to hang out. Still, we did watch some of The Office on DVD, and we hung out with her Pomeranian puppy, Louis.

Now I'm about to head to bed for my six-or-so hour-long drive tomorrow, eager to catch up with my good buddy Mike in person for the first time in four years! I'll be back in Greenville on Sunday on my way home though, and that will afford me more quality time to hang out with my sis. Looks like a nice weekend!

Rabbit @ Vacation

Somehow this one slipped through the cracks. A week and a half ago, I joined my friend Brett for a night out, ending with a strange mostly-punk Halloween party but starting with a local rock show at a small art gallery called Vacation. Although there were two bands that played there, I really wasn't into the second at all (a Pennywise-style punk band), so I never caught their name.

That said, the first band, simply called Rabbit, was pretty solid, despite not being able to hear the lead singer's apparently Muse-inspired vocal lines. Easily the strongest selling point for this band was their charismatic bass player, who not only had all the right moves (despite being a bit over-the-top in such a small venue), but also had nearly all of the most interesting instrumental parts in the band (whether it be on bass or his cheap synthesizer).

While the P.A. they were playing through was certainly muddling up the singer's parts, I am intrigued enough by the band to check them out the next chance I get. Regardless, they seemed like cool guys, so I did a bit of networking with the bass player and look forward to staying in touch with them.

Matt and Chris

So, my music theory class with the ASYO students is finally in full swing now that we've gotten a handle on the ASYO's varied schedule, and easily the most unique part of the class thus far are two fairly-hyper brothers I have as students, named Matt and Chris. To begin, Matt and Chris have to wake up at 4am every time they have ASYO rehearsals because they live all the way in Birmingham, Alabama! So, as they have confessed, they're often hyper enough as it is considering they've had such long days already by the point they arrive in my class, and hell, I can't really blame them. Secondly, another element that contributes to their level of excitement is that last year they were in my colleague (and boss, to some degree) Will's corresponding music history class he taught at the same time as my theory class, and as such, they got really comfortable with him and (indirectly) me well before my other current students will/have.

Anyway, I guess the guys also find me amusing (especially when I once tried to prove to them that the key of G# major doesn't exist), and as such, when asked what they were going to go as for Halloween this year, they both said, half-jokingly, that they were thinking about going as me. To be honest, I was pretty flattered by this, even though wanting to go as your teacher means you probably think he's goofy/dorky in some way. So I asked them what a Ryan outfit would consist of, and they said a suit and skinny tie (which I always wear to theory), pointy leather shoes, and of course, a moustache.

Pretty awesome costume, if I do say so myself... =)

Sugar & Gold @ 529

Last night I went to see one of my buddy-bands in town, Attention System, play a gig at 529, and it was easily one of my favorite local shows all-around I've seen in awhile. Their first opener was The Drownout, another local band that I'm starting to build connections with and had seen once before, and they were solid...definitely digging the synthier dance-rock direction they're heading in. Attention System was good too, probably the best I've seen them live thus far...their sound was pretty well-mixed at the show, and as such their dance vibe was particularly noticeable with comparison to other live mixes I've heard for them.

Anyway, the band in between these two groups was called Sugar & Gold, and although they weren't everyone there's cup-of-tea, I thought they were AWESOME. First off, Sugar & Gold is a five-piece nearly-psychadelic disco group (although the female singer wasn't on tour with them) from San Francisco who uses a whole bunch of electronics yet has a really live feel to them. In addition, the frontman is not only a great guitarist (reminded me a little of Prince) but super flamboyant live, which is certainly perfect for this genre.

Well, with all this in place, I danced my ass off. It's been since the first Today the Moon show that I've danced anywhere near this much with a rock band, and that's saying something, considering I generally try to see as much dance-rock as possible. Anyway, great show all-around! Looking forward to the next one I make it out to!

New Goodwill Fan

This year for Halloween, I'm finally going as Freddie Mercury...I say finally because it's something I've been wanting to do for at least four Halloweens. Anyway, I'll talk more about the outfit later, because this post is about how I procured the pants I needed for the outfit.

Finding a pair of white-washed-looking jeans that fit me well almost certainly meant heading to large warehouse-like used clothes stores, searching mostly through women's jeans instead of men's, as these sections tend to have a larger selection and the sizes fit me better. Well, after trying out two kinda trashy used clothes stores, I decided to head over to Goodwill.

Little did I know how awesome, clean, and well-organized it was going to be. I spent probably over an hour pouring through their women's clothing, and although I was sad to see a lot of great pieces that were just a bit too small, I did end up finding not only the jeans I was seeking, but also a cool jean jacket (which I've been wanting for awhile now), a green blazer, and a classic Adidas blue/white track jacket, all of which fit me well. The best part of the whole thing was that the total cost for these four pieces of clothing was only $20!

I think I've found my new favorite place to shop!

On the Current Frequency of Longer Posts

I've been writing a lot of long posts lately, and by "lately" I mean for a long while. I had a feeling this might be true, so I looked back at my first month of blogging, and sure enough, it was so. I'm not sure what has caused the change, except perhaps that as life has become increasingly more routine and therefore less blog-worthy, I find myself having only lengthy introspective (or lengthy review-type) posts to write.

I hope it's not turning anyone off from reading...

I'll leave it at that: no need for another long one!

The Wrestler: Grindhouse Version

Found this funny. Title says it all. Enjoy.

New Networking MySpace

I have traditionally had a strained relationship with MySpace. I've always been much more of a Facebook person, but yet, I still have three, yes three, MySpace accounts. Why? Well, the first was the typical personal MySpace page, mainly just because everyone else was doing it. Ultimately though, once I got to know both MySpace and Facebook, it was clear which one I was going to favor, as MySpace was (and still is) a particularly trashy site for anyone trying to network outside of the entertainment industry.

In that light, both my second and third MySpace accounts were created essentially as artist-promotion utilities. The second was (and kinda still is) my personal composer site, although I mainly made it simply to allow friends to hear my music online without having to have it hosted elsewhere for money. Although I have directed a few people towards that site, it always comes with an apology for how shoddy and unrepresentative of the pride I have for my work it is.

But today is another day, another MySpace page. Considering that I'm trying to get a band up-and-running and in the process am meeting a number of bands to be networking with, it just made sense to start doing so on MySpace instead of Facebook, as the former is by far the preferred site for musician-networking. Considering though that I didn't want to contact everyone with my composer page, fearing that this might seem to indicate a much different project than I've been talking about, I opted to not contact everyone via that page. Ideally, I would have used my original personal page, but I've forgotten how to access it, as my registered email address there is my old IU school email (which I can no longer check...).

So, although it's nothing flashy by any means, here's my band-to-be temporary promotional/networking MySpace page. I'm basically only using it to stay in touch with all the bands I've been meeting and will therefore probably stop using it (for the most part) once our band puts up an official artist page ourselves (would that be my fourth page?), but until then, I hope it serves me well!

Glad To Be In Atlanta

Long, introspective post here. Over the past fifteen minutes or so, I found myself "flipping" through some of my oldest tagged photos of myself on Facebook, some of which go back to my second year in Bloomington (which is also roughly when Facebook added the photo album function), and I came to the realization of how happy I am here in Atlanta at this general point of my life.

You know, it's easy to take for granted, but of all the different stages of my life since high school graduation (Miami, UGA, IU, the NL, and ATL), I'm easily the happiest, most-content, and most-self-assured here in my hometown, much to my surprise. Granted, this didn't happen until well after I had moved here (actually, it didn't even happen until this year, which was at best 15+ months into my life back in Atlanta), but now that my life's really headed in the direction I want, I can't complain.

I mean, going down the list: Miami was exciting (being my first time to college), but the very reason I left (my girlfriend at the time) was just the beginning of four more years of not knowing myself. UGA was certainly foundational (especially in terms of my developing love for minimalism, which still influences me today), but again, there was that long relationship clouding the experience. While IU was where I finally started figuring myself out (including finding some great friends), you could say it was unstable by nature of being a sort of growing pains learning experience for me. And then, completing that cycle was The Netherlands, which offered even more insight into who I was but was ultimately the least stable of all the places I've lived.

And that brings us to my time in Atlanta. The big milestones in my experience here would be deciding to stay here in the first place (instead of moving to Bloomington), meeting Candace and having her introduce much of the city to me, moving in with Evan (or, better put, out of my parents' place), and finally, deciding to start up a band here, which has easily been the most-fulfilling (if even also the slowest-developing) endeavor I've undertaken since the UGA Philip Glass Ensemble, if not ever. Add to this the fact that I've had steady (in a net gains sort of way) work that has been on my own terms for the entire time and that I've recently started really finding some friends in town, and you've got a pretty happy guy.

Sure, Atlanta's not the most ideal place in the country for me to live (hell, I've looked into San Francisco and even Vancouver since living here), but I'm super-happy here. I've found friends, a scene, a band, work, and perhaps most-importantly, a sense of self-awareness and the accompanying life-rhythm it brings. Sure, I might not have EVERYTHING I want here in this one place, but I'm working on it, and as long as that's true, I'm happy...

The Orkids @ Caledonia Lounge

When I was in high school, I played accordion (in lieu of a true horn section) for a Christian ska band called the Slack-Jawed Yokels, a band which was started by two brothers: Chris and Adam Monica. The Monicas and I went to church and high school together, Chris and I were best friends at the time, and I taught Adam how to play double bass in our high school orchestra. Actually, I recently wrote about my reunion with Chris while he was on his Yatagarasu tour in early September, so the name might sound familiar.

Anyway, before I reconnected with Chris, I accidentally bumped into Adam while walking around Athens sometime back in late 2007. Ever since then, I had seem him periodically with his then-band Blue Flashing Light, who recently broke up. Following their separation however, Adam and the keyboardist from their group immediately formed a new synth rock band called the Orkids along with Adam's girlfriend Sandra (who is one of the lead vocalists...Adam being the other) and a couple other friends I just recently met.

Well, despite a couple attempts up to this point, I finally made it up to Athens for one of their recent shows, spending the night at Adam and Sandra's place and spending a good amount of time getting to catch up with Adam and getting to know the other band members. Overall, the show was fun, and I'm super-proud of Adam...it's awesome to see how far he's come since our ska days. We had a great time catching up, and I eagerly look forward to playing with the band as soon as my own group is up and running.

Can't wait to go back to Athens to spend more time with them! Oh, and check out their MySpace...my favorite song is "What Is It With Me"

Meeting Drop Dead, Gorgeous

While I make a point to network with local bands whenever I get the chance, the other night at the Clermont it happened on another level entirely. While we were there for karaoke, we saw this group of guys singing together (they ended up doing "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind) but didn't think much of it until they later introduced themselves to me after my turn doing Cheap Trick... Turns out that not only are they in a band, but they were on tour from Denver with five other bands on a major label tour.

It wasn't really until I got home to check out their MySpace and music video (above) that I realized how big of a deal these guys are. Sure, they're up-and-comers in a different scene, and as such I hadn't yet heard of them, but still... They were super nice, gave Jeremy their number, and liked what they heard when I sang, asking us to get in touch with them once we've got our own MySpace page up.

Pretty cool. I wish those guys luck, and most-certainly (if nothing else) hope to see them at the Clermont again next time they're in town!

Small Bladder?

So, I've been going out a good bit lately with my buddy Jeremy and his friends, but for one reason or the other, I've also seemed to develop a near-insatiable need to pee throughout our evenings out. I've always been aware of the stereotypical phenomenon of having to pee a lot after "breaking the seal", but my new peeing trend has really taken it to the next level, as "the seal" for me now occurs after my first time peeing in the course of the whole evening, even after I've only had one drink.

I don't really know what's causing this...am I drinking more liquids (including water) beforehand? Am I getting worse at holding in my piss? Is my bladder shrinking as I get older? Am I not really letting it all out when I do go? Am I getting more socially anxious, especially when I have to pee in a room with other guys waiting for the toilet? All these questions, and the only answer I do have is that it has gotten worse from what I remembered it being not too long ago. Is this something I need to seek medical attention for? Am I developing a condition? Not sure, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Thanks for indulging me in this rather personal and introspective rant. Sorry if it was gross. Hopefully I won't need to talk about it again... =)

Nights At The Clermont

About once a week or so, Jeremy and I have a CrunkFest where we get our drank on while hitting the trendy parts of town (East Atlanta Village, Little 5, Poncey Highlands, etc...). Well, one of our new favorite spots is the infamous Clermont Lounge, Atlanta's most-talked-about stripclub.

Now, I know what you're thinking when I say "stripclub", but I can guarantee you it's not the Clermont. No, the Clermont is where strippers go to die: most of the strippers there are generally over 50 years old, are fat, and if nothing else, a bit ugly. Also, despite having room for more of them, the club only has one strip pole, and it's not necessarily the center of attention there. There's also a dance floor, a DJ, and a sitting area that's not even in line-of-sight to the strippers. To further drive the point home, it should be noted that it's not uncommon for at least half of the patrons at the club to be straight women hanging out with their (boy)friends.

Anyway, all this said, we've been to the Clermont three times now, and it never fails to be a blast: Jeremy's been hit on by the only hot stripper, we've had Blondie (the most-famous stripper: a big, almost 60-year-old lesbian black woman with a blond wig) do her famous PBR beer can crush between her boobs (see above), we've met a somewhat famous band there (more on that later), Jeremy's paid for a private group strip tease by this 68-year-old stripper who looks like someone's grandma dressed as Little Bo Peep, and of course we've had a great time hanging out with our friends there.

But most fun of all was certainly our last visit, where we partook in karaoke night! Unlike my last experience at Metalsome where I also sang Cheap Trick's "Surrender", this time I could hear myself, and I had a blast! I got lots of high-fives and compliments afterwards, and it was easily the best time I've had doing karaoke! Jeremy did a duet on "Love Shack" with our friend Maria, and Maria by herself nailed some obscure song by Mariah Carey. The rest of our group opted out of singing, but the whole evening was a blast regardless.

Ultimately, the Clermont is a harmless, funny, and kitschy place that everyone should experience at least once, especially if it's their first time to town! Viva La Clermont!

10th Band-Recruiting Rehearsal

Now that I've already lamented my band's inability to "hit the ground running" following my trip to Europe, I'm also sad to report that we've arrived at yet another hitch... After having a bit of difficulty working out rehearsal times with our present lineup, I had a talk with our drummer Erich about whether or not he thought he would be able to work the band into his (understandably) busy schedule (he's married, has a kid, and works at a really busy - and super cool - recording studio that has odd hours). Ultimately, I think he and I basically decided that if the band really wants to get off the ground soon, we're probably best finding an alternate drummer.

Bummer, but it's just how things work out when you're trying to mesh schedules with other busy adults. Anyway, Jeremy and my first point of business was to start brainstorming as to where we could find another drummer. The most obvious choice was our friend Grant who, despite not being an indie-type at all, is a pretty solid jazz and funk drummer. So, Tuesday night we took our gear over to Grant's for a jam session, but halfway through he informed us that he doesn't have time to commit to another band either...

So, two nights ago, Jeremy and I were out for some drinks, and we took it upon ourselves to start networking, asking around about drummers. We got a couple leads, but nothing too promising just yet. I'll keep you up to date...hopefully we'll have a full committed lineup by the end of the month.

SkyWalk

In a mostly futile attempt to YouTube myself (here, I'm using "YouTube" as a verb, much like the usage of "Googling" oneself), I happened upon the only correct link to my name, a post by my former collaborator and friend, Bala Sarasvait of the UGA CORE Concert Dance Company. While the full-length version of this dance-video/music collaboration was only publicly seen in four of CORE's 2007 concerts (which I missed due to being in Holland at the time), this short preview version of the piece is still quite nice, I think. Granted, I had nothing to do with the quality of the video (props to Bala), and I can't even really take too much credit for how well the music may or may not work in conjunction with it, as I wrote the piece a couple years before at IU, but it's still nice to see it up on the interweb.

So, here it is. Enjoy!

South Park: Season 5

Just recently finished Season V of South Park, and I hate to report that it started off as one of the most "blah" seasons I've yet to see. I'm making a distinction between how it started (for the first eight episodes or so) and how it was in general, because this season was that which straddled 9/11, and for whatever reason, it almost seemed like the tragedy reinvigorated the show's creativity, despite how horrible that sounds.

Although South Park is really quick to jump on recent events in their shows due to their ability to make a show in a matter of days, they didn't make their response show (or any show for that matter) until almost two months after the tragedy, and the show they did end up making was surprisingly full of American pride (unlike their fairly anti-American film Team America, released three years later). Anyway, I guess if nothing else, September 11th must have helped kickstart the series again, if only because it bumped them out of a growing complacency with the show.

As such, three out of my four favorite episodes from the season were aired after 9/11. Here are all four:

Scott Tenorman Must Die:
Cartman gets repeatedly duped by an older kid who convinces him to do ridiculous things with other kids' pubes, and in a final effort to get back at him, Cartman kills the kid's parents and feeds them to him at a chili cookoff. Easily the darkest episode I've seen.

How To Eat With Your Butt:
Kenny takes his yearbook photo with his ass hanging out his hoodie (somehow standing upside-down in his outfit), and Cartman takes the resulting picture to a missing child service, which then finds two parents who have butts for faces that are missing a child. Upon seeing this, Cartman loses his ability to laugh, as he's seen the funniest thing he'll ever see in his life.

The Entity:
Frustrated with airline holdups post-9/11, Mr. Garrison invents a new form of transportation that requires you to sit on a butt plug and suck on a phallic object to make it go. Surprisingly, people still buy it, as it's still less of a pain in the ass than the TSA.

Here Comes The Neighborhood:
Token, the black kid in town, always gets ribbed for being rich, so in an effort to bring other rich kids to town to hang out with, he ends up placing an ad that draws in other super-rich black families, who then get discriminated against by the rest of the South Park community for being too rich. So, to scare them out of town, they put burning "lowercase T's" in their yards ("T" stands for "time to leave", of course...) and they dress up as ghosts, because rich people are extremely superstitious.

Overall, those four shows were funny enough to save the whole season, but not enough to ignore its obvious shortcomings. Hopefully the sixth season will be better...

Effing Berkeley Run...

As if things weren't rough enough lately, Evan and I recently found out that our apartment complex is going to charge us another half-month's rent to stay here until this time in November because we failed to give them a 30-day notice letting them know we were leaving at the end of our lease. The shitty thing about all this is that Evan, who was handling the whole thing since he's been living here much longer than me, DID tell them he was moving to Chicago and was under the impression that we should be good to go as far as notices were concerned, but unfortunately, they didn't see it that way.

So now I'm not moving until November 17th and will have to pay half a month's rent plus at least my share of our monthly utilities. In all honesty, even though I'm glad that this is postponing my move back in with my parents a little bit, I was kinda hoping to have been able to move in with my them back on August 1st (when our initial lease was set to expire) so that I could have been saving money to pay off my accruing debt, so staying around until late October was already a little bit of a stretch for me. Now I guess I just have to put up with another couple weeks here. Oh well.

In the end, Evan gets the worst of this though, as he doesn't even get to use the extra $350-worth he'll be spending on our place for the extra time. I mean, at least I get to stay here for a little while longer. Oh well...we've tried to reason with the people at the leasing office, but to no avail. Business is business, I guess. My clients expect me to be compassionate with them, but the same isn't returned to me when I'm on the receiving end.

Dad's Health, Post-Hospital

Well, my dad's surgery and related recovery have gone fairly well...in fact, with the exception of a possible but certainly-manageable infection, the doctors have said that he did very well, even exceeding their expectations. He was in the hospital from a Tuesday night until the following Monday when they deemed him ready to go home, and I visited every day I could between those two dates (so, five times). It was strange and sometime difficult seeing my father tied up to machines with hoses running into him in multiple locations, but his spirits were high, and he was always happy to see me, so that certainly made it easier to handle.

The highlight of his time in the hospital for me (if you could call it that...) was when I visited him with my guitar, playing a Smashing Pumpkins song ("1979"), "Take On Me" by A-HA, and even one of my bands' songs (the one tentatively entitled "Pat Benetar"). This was a special moment for both of us, especially considering it was due to my parents' incredible support of my pursuit of music that I was able to entertain my dad a bit like that.

Anyway, now that he's home, I try to visit him whenever I'm in the neighborhood, and every time I see him he seems to be doing better. Hopefully this infection thing will turn out to be nothing, but I should know soon what course of action they'll need to take.

Can't wait until Dad's all better! He's been dealing with a lot of crap for a long time...

Where The Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are | Directed by Spike Jonze from JoeL K on Vimeo.

I've been talking a big talk about Spike Jonze's new interpretation of the children's book classic Where The Wild Things Are for quite some time now (since March 26th, actually), and I finally got to see it tonight. Let me just tell you, that despite extremely high expectations...

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this movie.

It is easily the most charming, heart-warming (and saddening, as it's often quite heavy), and true to the heart of the source material film I've seen in a VERY long time, and I couldn't recommend it more. The film has the heart of a labor-of-love, the depth of any other film you're likely to see, and the cinematographic finesse of the best indie art films. Spike Jonze has made a masterpiece here and couldn't possibly have done Maurice Sendak's beloved tale any better.

I'm going to stop raving here, as I don't want to overhype the film, but please go see this. It's easily in the running for my favorite film of the year, and I am most-certainly going to be the proud owner of this DVD when it's released. Who knows...maybe I'll even go see it again in the theatres!

"Hitting the Ground Running"

Before I left for Europe, Jeremy and I had both told the rest of the band that we were going to "hit the ground running" as soon as I returned, meaning we would be pushing really hard to get this group going ASAP.

Well, that hasn't quite happened...

In addition to me being lazier about the whole thing than I should be, the following things have gotten in our way:

- Emily got married (we knew about this ahead of time though)
- Doug's having shoulder surgery
- Erich's SUPER busy at work and canceled 1.5 times already
- the new keyboard player fell through and we haven't found another
- my dad's been in the hospital (more on this later)
- Evan moved out and I've gotta move in the next couple of weeks
- Candace and I are kinda on the rocks
- I've got lots of catching up to do from my 2.5 weeks gone

So, when you add all this up, it's been kinda hard to be as productive as we had hoped, regardless of how lazy I've been. Don't get me wrong, Jeremy and I ARE pushing through with new material, and we have had two semi-band rehearsals since I returned, but my goal of having a MySpace page up with demos by the end of October is not looking so good right now. We'll see...

Half-Life 2: Episodes 1+2

Having completed Half-Life 2 just short of a week ago, it didn't take me too long to plow through its two existing expansion episodes that also came with The Orange Box compilation package.

Episode 1 picks up right after the cliffhanger to the full-length game, but the big difference here is that your semi-love interest, Alyx Vance, is accompanying you through the bulk of the game, offering not only companionship and a bit more storyline, but also some nifty AI cooperative play without which you might not be able to defeat all your enemies. As such, Alyx gives you that much-needed face to live vicariously through in this game (the full-length game was almost entirely a first-person shooter with very little social interaction), and of course it doesn't hurt that she's pretty hot...in a post-apocalyptic girl-next-door kinda way.

Episode 2 picks up right after the cliffhanger in Episode 1 (see a trend here?) but although there is still plenty of cooperative play between you and Alyx (and even an alien at one point), this installment tends to focus a bit more on driving your car and taking town giant robots. As such, it's easily the hardest part of any version of the game thus far. Sure enough though, Episode 2 ends in a cliffhanger (see?!) which will eventually be resolved in the final expansion installment set to come out next year.

Overall, over the course of these two episodes, my impression of the Half-Life franchise improved significantly. I'm not sure if it was simply the amount of time I had been exposed to the game and/or the finality of wrapping up the first game (feeling like I had accomplished something), or if it really had something to do with the expansion episodes (having Alyx around the whole time...?), but now I actually really like the game and am playing through the full-length game right now trying to knock out all the Achievements.

The Strangers

While hanging out with Jeremy and his friends the other night, we rented The Strangers, one of the horror movies from this past year that I had most wanted to see but never got around to doing so. If you're not familiar with the plot, it's basically a variant of that found in Funny Games: a couple is at a vacation home and gets terrorized by some creepy intruders who mess with them a lot before presumably killing them. The biggest difference here (superficially at least), is that in The Strangers the villains all wear creepy masks, one of which isn't too unlike the Scarecrow mask from Batman Begins.

Anyway, despite my high hopes for this movie and some moderately well-realized creepy moments, the film just didn't really pan out all that well. Don't get me wrong, the acting, cinematography, and look/feel were all pretty spot on, but ultimately the movie failed to connect over its brief 88 minutes, leaving me feeling a bit unsatisfied at its abrupt conclusion. Still, this movie was way better than most of the horror movies coming out these days, but it still couldn't quite compete with the similar Funny Games. Oh well.

Homosexual Homeless Harassment

On our way out of a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place in Midtown Atlanta, Candace and I were accosted by a self-described gay homeless man from Nashville who was super chatty and apparently a bit insecure that he was asking for money. That said, for someone who seemed ashamed to be begging, he was awfully persistent, following us around, telling us to look him in the eyes a number of times, and even quasi-forcing us to shake hands with him (which we reluctantly did).

In fact, he was so atypical for a homeless man in his shtick that it wasn't really clear at first what he wanted from us. Eventually he admitted that he was "addicted to cigarettes" and could really use some...now that I think about it though, he never actually asked for money, I just suggested it and he somewhat-reluctantly took it. Afterwards though, perhaps in an effort to make it up to us, he proceeded to tell us three sexual jokes, none of which were particularly funny or vulgar (despite his assertions that they were). One even included a gay midget!

Other weird parts of our conversation included him insisting (almost more for his sake than ours) that he wasn't being unpleasant, his acknowledgment that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to follow us towards our car, that if he were straight I should be worried because he thought Candace was hot, and even talking about his inability to tell people he was gay back in Nashville for fear of the "good ole' boys" that presumably wouldn't take kindly to that kind of lifestyle.

Strange encounter. Totally bloggable though, which really makes it worth it, no matter how awkward the whole thing was. And hey, it was kinda refreshing to encounter such a unique homeless person who had a totally different approach from all the others I've had to deal with in recent memory.

Parachute Musical @ Five Spot

Last night, Candace and I went to see this band from Nashville called the Parachute Musical for my second time here in town. I first saw the band at a Today the Moon show about six weeks ago, and although I liked them at the show, I didn't realize how much I LOVED this band until I downloaded their free EP and took the tracks with me on my trip to New Orleans. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with their combination of Ben Folds-style piano work, awesome vocals, and quasi indie dance-rock rhythms, and Candace had liked what she had heard me play for her, so we were pumped about the show.

The show turned out even better than expected, and singing along to the tunes I already knew was fun (plus, they did a killer cover of "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", which of course I know the lyrics to). After the show, I also picked up their full-length CD and talked to the singer and bassist a bit. As it turns out, the lead singer recognized me from our conversation after their previous show, and he was super nice, which opened the door for my suggestion that we try to put something together once my band gets rolling. He seemed interested enough and told me who to get in touch with once we've got a MySpace page up and running, so that's good.

Overall, a fun night. The other band we saw was Atlanta's own The 54, an all-black rock band (rare, right?) who drew in a relatively huge and enthusiastic crowd despite the fact that I had never even heard of them. They even had some MC hosting the evening between sets, which was weird for this sort of small venue.

Europe Trip: London

The fourth and final leg of our trip was to London. While you would best describe The Netherlands as jet-lagged, Belgium as poorly-timed, and Paris as romantic, our time in London is probably best described as a tad bit lazy. While we did see some major sites and got around to most of the more notable parts of town, we were ultimately too wiped out to push ourselves really hard, so we often opted out of more strenuous, expensive, or time-consuming activities and leaned towards those that would afford us some time to relax (like renting some paddle-boats in Hyde Park, seeing a musical, and even choosing to relax at the hostel more than usual). That said, here's what we did manage to do:

Europe Trip 2009 - 7. London (Part I)
Europe Trip 2009 - 8. London (Part II)

Overall, I think we had a pleasant time in London, and we surely were grateful for not being rained on, but our time there still couldn't really hold a candle to that in Paris. It WAS nice having English being spoken around us for the last days of the trip, and because of this, getting to the airport and onto the plane was super easy. It's too bad the Tube was more-or-less offline for the last 36 hours we were in town, but we eventually figured out the buses, as annoying and inefficiently-run as they are.

Half-Life 2

For the first time since January I've finally finished my first full-length Xbox game: Half-Life 2. I've also been actively playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the past few months, but the game is so big that I still haven't finished it yet (I'll probably end up clocking in around 250 hours or something by the time it's done). Anyway, Half-Life 2 is the centerpiece of The Orange Box game compilation by Valve, and although I have spent some time playing Portal, my main focus has been on Half-Life 2.

Overall, the game took me around 15-20 hours to beat, but that amount of time felt much longer, as the game often seems to feel a bit directionless. One of the few things critics disliked about the game was its lack of a captivating story, and I couldn't agree more. While the graphics, sound, and character models are all great, the story is a bit amorphous, and as such, it's often difficult to find much of a reason to get invested in the game (short of simply beating it, of course).

The main weapon for the game is the "gravity gun", a weapon that actually has no ammo at all and instead relies upon you picking up objects to hurl at enemies. Easily the coolest section of the game is in this old rundown zombie-invested town littered with rusty saws which can be shot at the zombies to cut them in half. In fact, if you were to try to get through this board with regular ammo, you would probably run out, as there are no ammo clips to pick up along the way, so getting creative with the gravity gun really is the best way to go.

Anyway, the closest game comparison to Half-Life 2 would be BioShock, as it's also a first-person shooter where you never see yourself, the protagonist (naturally, you see yourself all the time in third-person shooters). Though Half-Life 2 received good ratings upon its release in 2004, and although its graphics are pretty solid (especially for the time), its story elements and environment simply can't hold a candle to those found in BioShock, especially when you consider that Half-Life 2 is also lacking in any sort of leveling-up mechanism, regardless of how simple it was in BioShock.

Bottom line: I did enjoy playing Half-Life 2, but not enough to recommend it wholeheartedly or for it to make any sort of "best-of" list.