Worse Than Ezra

Well, in keeping with what seems to be the theme of my 2006, I did not go to the Better Than Ezra concert, even though I had a ticket. Here's what happened. My friend bailed on me today, which sucks, b/c I wasn't able to find anyone else to take her ticket. But whatever, no big, like I said, I've been to concerts by myself before.

So, I show up at House of Blues around 9:30 (doors opened at 9), and I fork over the $15 for parking since it's full out pouring and I didn't feel like trying to find a spot 2 blocks away for free and getting soaked on the way to the club. After getting my tickets from the Will Call, I found out that BTE wasn't taking the stage until 11:15. No band ever comes on when they're supposed to. Remember the line from Guns N' Roses' "Mr. Brownstone?" "The show usually starts around seven, we go on stage around nine." They're not kidding.

Then I made my way over to the line of about 50 or so people who were waiting to get in. In the rain. I stood in line for about 3 minutes, didn't move an inch, and said "screw it." There's no way I'm standing in line in the rain for at least 20 minutes, then hanging out inside while waiting for the band to come on for an hour and a half by myself. I put the tickets in my pocket, walked back over to the valet guy, and asked him for my car back, and my $15. Thankfully, he looked favorably upon me (am I that pathetic that I'm getting sympathy from the valet guy??), and handed me my money back. So I went to Blockbuster and picked up some crappy horror flicks that Amanda won't watch with me, and I came home. Redeye sucked. I'm going to watch Saw II tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes.

I was going to do a post about other concerts that I've been to, but I'm tired now, so that'll have to wait until later. Luckily, I'll catch Better Than Ezra next month when I'm in San Francisco for Bay to Breakers, so it's not a total loss. Just mostly.

Happy Passover, Everybody

Some quick notes before I head over to House of Blues for the Better Than Ezra show later tonight (by myself, since my friend who was supposed to go with me bailed today - I've been to concerts by myself before, though, so not unchartered waters):

Congrats to the Red Sox for opening their season with 7 wins in the first 10 games. That's a solid start, and I'm giddy that The Apostle Curt Schilling is 3-0.

I found out last night that I have some new readers. Welcome aboard. Hope you enjoy yourselves.

Check out the live concert series over at NPR. There's some great stuff on there, a lot of which is available for free download. I've been listening to these concerts for the past few days, and I've been really impressed. The Colin Meloy one is really good, if you're looking for a suggestion.

Time to post some more music. Admittedly, all of these are tunes I picked up from some of these other music blogs I've been checking out lately. The first one is a really good song by a guy I've never heard of before, and I always like a good song about Jackson. The Neil Young tune I have been completely obsessed with lately for some reason, and the third one is a really good cover of the same song by Victoria Williams and The Williams Brothers that I pulled off of the Aquarium Drunkard's page last week. Speaking of, that dude's got a pretty cool radio-thingy on his blog, and I'm trying to figure out how to put one on mine as well, but it turns out I'm not nearly as computer savvy as I would have hoped. I'm gonna keep at it, though, until I either figure it out or stop caring. Hopefully the former.

Enjoy the tunes, I'll post later about the show.

Jeffrey Foucault - Train to Jackson - mp3
Neil Young - Don't Let It Bring You Down - mp3
Victoria Williams and The Williams Brothers - Don't Let It Bring You Down - mp3

Over 5,000 Years of Rockin'

Great news! I was thumbing through this book today called "Jews Who Rock," (it's about Jews who rock), and there are a ton of rockin' Jews out there I had no idea were in the tribe. Here's a sampling:

Beck
Eric Bloom, singer from Blue Oyster Cult (I gotta have more cowebell, baby!)
Cass Elliott, and John & Michelle Phillips (Both of the Mamas, and one of the Papas)
Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, of Steely Dan (the greatest studio recording artists ever, according to a law school classmate of mine)
Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack
Susanna Hoffs, of the Bangles (hot Jew)
Billy Joel (I always thought he was Catholic)
Mick Jones, of the Clash
Mark Knopfler, of Dire Straits
Courtney Love (best known for ruining Kurt Cobain's life, then her own)
Lou Reed (when he's not trying to be Bowie)
Paul Simon (I just thought we had the other guy)
Slash (yeah, that's right)
Warren Zevon

That's quite a list. That doesn't even include the ones I (and everyone else) already knew about, like Bob Dylan, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Geddy Lee, Robbie Krieger, Max Weinberg, The Beastie Boys, and Garfunkel.

On the other side of the coin, we're also stuck with Michael Bolton. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Leavin' on a Midnight Plane to Georgia

Amanda's taking the redeye to Atlanta tonight to go visit her family for Passover, which means that I'm effectively a bachelor until Sunday. Let's hope I can hold it together long enough to remember to not eat popcorn for an entire meal.

In other news, there was a blood drive today at my office, so I gave blood at lunch. Along with doing what I can to help save lives, I got free apple juice and chocolate chip cookies. There's your real reward, no matter what anyone says.

Every Moment's a Little Bit Later

I'm one step closer to world domination. The way I see it, the steps to world domination are as follows:

1. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
2. Figure out how to post mp3's on your blog.
3. Unknown.

As soon as I figure out what Step 3 is, I'm there. Then nothing can stop me.

The big news is that I've figured out how to post mp3's on this here blog. So, if you're interested, just click on the following link and listen away (note: it might take a few seconds to load, but it'll get there). I probably won't post too many songs, maybe one or two a week, when the mood strikes me. In honor of this inaugural mp3 posting, I've decided on a nice upbeat tune from my favorite band, Wilco, that you're all sure to love. Also, in honor of my buddy Johnny Crump, I've also posted a favorite tune of his, or so his recent comments have led me to believe. And for my friend Wavin' Dave Kahn, a catchy tune from Loose Fur (one of Jeff Tweedy's side projects) with some rather, shall we say, unorthodox views on a major religious figure. No offense intended, listen at your own risk.

Please enjoy these, and any future songs I may decide to post. As a disclaimer, I feel that I should say that these are posted strictly for the enjoyment of myself and my readers, and are not intended to be used for illegal downloading. If anyone has any problem with these songs being posted here, please feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email, and I will happily take them down.

Wilco - Pot Kettle Black - mp3
Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman - mp3
Loose Fur - The Ruling Class - mp3

I've come across a slew of really cool mp3 blogs lately. I'll probably recommend a few of them in a future post, and I'm definitely going to link to them at some point in the near future. Until then, stay tuned, and enjoy the music.

You Live For the Fight When That's All That You've Got

We went karaoke-ing tonight for our friend Naomi's birthday. Amanda and some friends sang some Bon Jovi. We also did a fairly crappy rendition of Johnny and June Carter Cash's "Jackson". Good times.

I Got Soul But I'm Not a Soldier

I'm officially a runner. Sort of. Amanda found out about this 12K race in San Francisco next month called Bay to Breakers, and we're going to head up there and run it. Needless to say, 7.5 minutes of running doesn't exactly sound like heaven to me, so 7.5 miles is going to take a little work. I got online the other day and found this 10-week training guide for a 15K run, and I figured, since 12K is less than 15K, it's ok that I only have 7 weeks to train instead of 10. That's logical, right? Anyway, since I'm officially training for a race, I'm officially a runner.

Only problem is, I've been sick for the past week or so, so I haven't been able to get to the gym. Nothing serious, I don't think, just a sinus infection (like I get just about 47 times every year), except that I've felt fine since last Thursday but haven't been able to shake this really phlegmmy cough. I'm hawking stuff up all day (I know you all wanted to know that), and it's driving me nuts. I decided to will myself well, though, and tonight I hit the gym. Luckily Wednesday is an easy day on the training schedule, 30 minutes of cross-training. Didn't sound like a long time before I started, but man, that really adds up. Good thing I had good music to keep me going.

Today's lesson is a list (in progress) of the best albums to listen to at the gym, whether you're lifting weights or running, or whatever. Just good "get-you-going" music. This is just off the top of my head, so there may be some glaring omissions. As always, if anyone has any other suggestions for me, or disagrees with any of these, please feel free to leave me a comment.

Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Metallica - S&M
The Killers - Hot Fuss
The Strokes - Is This It?
Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
AC-DC - Back In Black
Beastie Boys - The Sounds of Science
Soundtrack - The Rocky Story

If you're headed to the gym, pop one of those albums in the iPod or discman on your way there. You won't be disappointed.

If you're into music, I came across a great blog the other day, called An Aquarium Drunkard. It's excellent, and the guy just started podcasting today (or maybe yesterday), and I'm actually listening to his podcast right now and it's freaking awesome. Check it out when you get a chance, it's in this link.

A Sign of Things to Come

Sorry for the prolonged absence. I'll try to be a bit more diligent with my posting. I took this pic and sent the post from my new cell phone, so there may be some interesting (maybe) mobile posting in the future.