Pumpkin carving (better late than never)

This is pretty much how I feel today. A few days ago I did some pumpkin carving with my friends Leah and John. Leah marinated the pumpkin seeds in soy sauce before baking, this was a very good idea... what's good with a pumpkin seed? salt, salt, and more salt... yum!

Nerd tour and wine country

Last week I attended a tour of the open source lab facilities at Oregon State University where I touched the Linus Kernel. Ah the energy, ah the excitement, ah the whirl, whistle and wind of the HVAC running furiously to cool down the busting rackmounted server city. Ahem, then for a leisurely jaunt to the Willamette vineyards on the way home. It was a spectrum in the extremes as usual: nerding out on wires and software to relaxing with a gorgeous pinot noir. Life is grand.

Pizza parté

Friends Camilo and Wesley have a mud oven in their backyard that is perfect for baking pizzas. They build a fire inside and let it burn for about 3 hours, sweep the coals off to the side and with the help of a well dusted pizza bottom shoot the dough and topping goodness into 800 degrees of hot love. These people know how to throw a fantastic party.

Fun D read, and a great R gaffe

This article from the New Yorker is a fun read for the pro-Obamite.  How can you go wrong when using words like "equipoise"?



I've maintained a fairly sheltered view of the media coverage

 surrounding this campaign, so I've missed many of the talking points from both sides.  In an attempt to see what the

 Republicans are saying these days, I did a quick google search for "republican talking points".  This lead me to http://www.gop.com.  I didn't see the talking points I expected right away, so I selected the "more publications link" under the publications/fact sheet heading.  This is what I saw:

Huh. Appears the GOP is lacking in fact sheets.  Coincidence?... I think not!

VP debates: nothing can top this

There was quite a contingent of Obama-loving supporters (myself included) watching the debates at the Roots Brewery on October 2nd. 

Since ~69.9 million others watched the debates, I won't go into much of what was said.  What I will do is point out this the minutes from 1:11:40--1:16:32 on this youtube video of the debate.  

Absolutely amazing, scary, and telling.  Palin showed a complete lack of understanding of the position she is looking to enter, and proved her puppet status as a talking points talking head.  Maybe she forgot to google "Vice President" when offered the potential job.  If you were offered a job, would you read the description?  If you were an interviewer and your candidate didn't take the time to understand the description of their responsibilities, would you let them past the first round?  Please America, let's take our job seriously and give her the boot.

Laptops go Live

Check out this article about laptops and how they're utilized by some of our finest performers.  I especially enjoyed the bit about the Battles bank of sounds (probably because I had no idea what was REALLY making their music at their recent show at MFNW.) 

Craigslist browsing will never be the same

Check it out! Hey... some people use their bandwidth for gaming, I prefer to shop. Will this impede my reduce, reuse, recycle philosophy?

Ideas on dating

This is sooo 2001, but the idea is not lost upon me. At least not on a Wednesday night.

MFNW: Music Festival North West 2008

With my slip on bright red wristband, I fit right into the crowd that started off MFNW week at the Roseland. I was surprised by the number of young kids raring to go on a school night, but then I guess it was a school night for me as well. I never really did care much about school. So here goes nothing, a terse yet verbose listing of the concerts I was lucky enough to attend at MFNW oh 8 and the reactions each experience evoked.

Wednesday:

Fuck Buttons: too loud, sounds didn't coalesce , not to mention the Roseland one of least favorite venues

Mogwai: no lyrics?! Can't hold my attention with the droning alternative rock and monotonous three chord progressions

Langhorn Slim: fantastic, so much fun more to come!

Thursday:

No Age: dude threw his guitar on the drum set - the drummer moves the guitar off to the side of the drum and continues to wail - guitarist proceeds to play the pedals hooked up to the guitar ... unbelievable, and it sounded fantastic! Kids these days, what will they come up with next?

Battles: four solos performers come together to make an incredible sound. The guitarist appears to be conducting the band by slowing the internal metronomes, creating a feeling of lethargy that helps us come down from the crazed high energy battling beats. The conductor raises his hand the drummer responds with the resounding crash of the high hat arm distance above his head.

The Blakes: heard one song, heard them all. Bri likened them to the replacements, perhaps the strokes. A few goodies in here, but the performance was tamer than I expected from other reviews.

The Whigs: wow, that is one ripped guitarist. Unfortunately, he only showed off his arms. At 1 am, I expected more of a show. The guitars of this band produced more varied riffs than the Blakes, and Bri said the drummer was better (I'm just learning about drums...)

Friday:

Britt Daniels: what it must be like to be in front of a microphone with just you and your guitar and sound fabulous. Colin thought he was looking around for his band members, force of habit? I wondered if he had to redo his guitar work to accommodate a solo act, and how difficult it might be to get into that groove after performing one for so long. Half way through the set, he brought out a drummer and fed us some new material. Some of the lyrics seemed questionable, but as with much of Spoon's work, I find it takes a few listens before the love sets in.

Built To Spill: I don't remember three guitars, one bassist, one cellist/keyboardist, and one drummer last time I heard bts, however; the fuller band didn't let me down. I guess they played the album in order, I didn't realize this until viewing the set-list after the fact, which speaks to my knowledge of this particular album, and my attention span. I wasn't introduced to them until Keep It Like a Secret, and so my night was made complete by the last encore of "You Were Right". Ah, the sound of satiation.

Langhorn Slim (part deux): yep, back for more, and well worth the performance as well as the music. The lead singer had a hat that moved from head, to floor, to microphone stand; it became a central focus of the act, where the hell is that hat? The standup bass rocked the party, almost made me want to two step.

Builders and the Butchers: with megaphones of varying sizes the lead singer made some interesting lyrics louder yet farther away, fun incorporation into an already visibly titillating spectacle: see guitarist wearing a butterfly shirt and sporting a handlebar mustache... need I say more.

Saturday:

Ratatat: enjoyable, but very similar sounding songs. I do love any band that incorporates a tiger roar.

Les Savy Fav: dude comes out with what looks like a broken arm and what is definitely a tie dye shirt. He mentions something about this not being your regular run of the mill show, but using hipper verbage. He gets his start on, yells a few lines, the guitars rail a few licks, and he unwraps from what turns out to be toilet paper wrapped around his arm and throws it into the crowd, et voila! the toilet papering begins. Rolls into the crowd later, the guy disappears into the volatile throng. He crowd surfs on ladder, jumps off, runs up to the balcony and takes off a guys shirt, runs back down, yells: "shutup", "who rocks the party", does the robot, pours water down crotch during the "sweat descends", rolls his belly, takes off his pants, puts on a hoodie, spits water on the crowd, jumps on the drummer, throws more toilet paper which now drapes from the ceiling. Phew! I think he wanted to be at the concert, not "the concert". Me too, man. Good work.

Blitzen Trapper: we got the treat of a double sound check for this show, lots of mariachis appearing at this festival. They played a couple new ones, which unfortunately to my ear included many a sha na na plus a bop bop ba, and the addition of a synth.... pee u. The lead singer pillaged directly from Bob Dylan replete with harmonica, but lacking in poetic lyrics.

Fleet Foxes: ethereal, indian drumming style, rich organ, and a bow on the guitar provided a steely sound. The high pitch vocals sound lovely with the band's other high tones. This performance didn't come close to that of the Doug Fir a few months ago, but they were still nice to listen to above the din of the crowd.

Ferando: that's one shiny guitar

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: love her. Didn't stay too long as I've seen her four times this year, but just long enough to get a bag of hammers in.

Helio Sequence: caught the last couple of songs from these guys including my favorite: Hallelujah. and hallelujah what a fantasmic week it's been!

AFTERPARTY! Including dj (what music do you play for a bunch of musicians?), montage eats, and free music-themed drinks. The stir-mix-a-lot reminded me of the shows I missed along the way, but I think I packed in all that was necessary to make this experience a success.

Bumbershoot '08

Fletch and I started out the day with Thao and the Get Down Stay Down.  I've seen this tight group twice this year at the Someday Lounge and then Holocene; both venues filled with the large sound of Thao's lead guitar strumming, beat boxing, and entertaining antics.  Unfortunately, her sound was lost upon the lawn in the outdoor indie stage and her vocals screeched out in an abnormal scratchy cry for throat coat.  I hope her voice was racked from previous performances and not indicative a new style.  The good news for us was the announcement of a private showing of !!! later that day for which we snagged tickets.  

!!! was fanfunktastic.  In a room of approximately 150 people and the backdrop of a small but cozy stage, the members of !!! danced around somewhat awkwardly in that "yeah, I know I'm a dork, but that's hip" fashion.  They combined electronic, guitar, multiple drummers, and both male and female vocals (the chick of chk (!) has a phenomenal voice) for a huge cohesive/balanced sound and lots of visual stimulation.  They played mainly new songs leaving the hits for the night time performance, but as the lead male vocalist pointed out, most of the people in our audience would be watching Beck at the !!! main performance time slot.

Next off to the main stage to wait for Band of Horses (BOH).  Twenty rows back, I sat in the middle of the crowd with

 my monster burrito and waited out the encroaching darkness. A perfect soundtrack for a richly colo

red sunset.  The swooning sounds of BOH melted the night, as the lead singer (Bridwell) continually said whooo! with gusto.  After a few songs, Bridwell made an announcement that his friend had a special question to ask his girlfriend, whereby a guy a couple rows in front of me got down on his knee and proposed.  With the following acceptance, BOH played marry song as the happy couple embraced in a slow dance.  Pretty fucking sweet, don't you think?  The mood changed a few songs later when the drummer got up and broke a beer bottle over the head of one of the guitarists and proceeded to flip him off.  This seemed strange until that guitarist broke a bottle over the basists' head.  This stunt continued until everyone in the band had been properly flogged, at which point Bidwell took a piece of broken bottle, put it in his mouth, and proclaimed: schnozberries taste like schnozberries!  I was a little put off by the stunts, but overall the concert was enjoyable. The addition of Armone really rounds out their sound allowing for more organ forward and funk laced new tracks, but maintaing sweet country musings.

Next, Beck.  Wow.  Beck.  He played the usual tracks, opened with Loser and then turned to some new tracks of which

 I'm less familiar. I was starting to get a little bored until he came out with a rendition of Bob Dylan's Leapord Print Pill box = fantastic, Guero, and Nicotine and Gravy (yum.)  The band put down their instruments and huddled up front with some drum machine like boxes.  I have no idea what these things were, but a beat based version of Hell Yes and Black Tambouring were fun and mixed up the alternative groove.  The band took it down a notch with some Sea Change while a camera projected onto the stage background light backdrop providing a pixelated image of Beck's face and guitar.  The camera then turned on the crowd with the Chemtrails lyrics "so many people, so many people, where do they go?", good work, good times.  What an experience.  He wrapped it a

ll up with a bow and two turn tables and a microphone.  It amazes me how diverse his tracks can feel, when the underlying chords, progressions and instruments are so similar.  He's an alternative rock mainstay and a genius from 20 rows back.

Coachella music (player + some) review:

Artist	Review	Priority
120days	a little electronic beat, a little rock guitar riffs, a little 90s alt feel with some straining lyrics in between	4
adam freeland	headache inducing electronica.	5
aesop rock	fantastic hip-to-the-hop, great beats and lyrics, blackalicious on opium.	1
akron family	a little psychidelic. Some good lyrics, slow, enjoyable african drum beats sound out of place against a wind section.	3
american bang	self described southern fried grunge rock is not the descriptive words I would use for this popped up red hot chili peppers inspired remixed shit.	0
animal collective	aside from being fresh, rockin, and upbeat, this band has a reputation for putting on great live shows	1
annuals	indie rock: an eclectic mix of choral vocals, guitar in various amounts of distortion, melodies, even throwing sliding around now and then in a country revel. This band does so much it's difficult to place them, with this much musical talent, good things are bounc to happen.	3
architecture in helsinki	so happyand bubbly, this music begs jumping for joy. what fun to watch a group of fine instrumentalists weaving a cloak of smiles - hopefully they play old stuff	1
austin tv	a interesting guitar conversation that goes somewhere and reaches its destination. this conversation transcends the language barrier imposed by the spansish dialogue.	4
autolux	laid back indie rock with guitar licks that melt into a soothing reverb backed by a strong and steady drum kit.	2
battles	electronic meets drum meets great grooves: a party in the making, and that guy is really singing!	1
black kids	whiny indie rockers have some interesting synth almost arcade fire movement.	3
black lips	get there early, in the first few rows for proper urine exposure	4
black mountain	boring rock, not writing home	5
bonde de role	brazilian funky cold medina	5
booka shade	trancey... if you're into that blip blip beep beep business.	4
boys noize	fun housey stuff. player has one bad song, one good song.	4
brett dennen	ben harper meet guster	4
busy P	samples from go team to hip hop mixed with blips and bleeps	4
cafe tacvba	happy guitars and keyboards drive an upbeat latino dude singing about something that sounds like cuervo, turns into latin crooner on the second song. man this guy is versatile.	5
calivn harris	he's got hugs for me since I was born in the 80s. I'll give him that, but I think 80s came and went already.	5
carbon silicon	love the use of abbreviation in the track name 't f madness'. What is the world coming to!? what will happen to the extra space after a full stop!?	5
chromeo	kill me now	5
cinematic orchestra	Velvety female vocalist sails above piano and other orchestral insturments over slow methodical waves in an almost Macy Gray styling. is one of the dudes in the coachella media player singing?	4
cold war kids	indie rock with some attitude. intriguing	2
cut copy	uptempo dance music, fun: need some more of this	4
dan deacon	fun and energetic in concert, upbeat repetitive lyrics are fun to dance to, might be a strange midday concert	3
dan le sac vs scroobius pip	british dude on soapbox. nice accent and a few lyrical insights.	5
danny tenaglia	Boring techno	5
datarock	Anyone who sing about commodre 64s is down with me.	2
deadmau5	everybody's doing daft punk these days. i'm pretty sure i heard most of this stuff 10 years ago – nothing new or exciting.
death cab for cuite	oh the swooning heartfelt lyrics! Who doesn't want to father his children?	1
devotchka	intriguing use of instruments, languages, and genres. fusion rock.	3
dimitri from paris	uhm, interesting. the french are into all kinds of weird stuff.	5
diplo	he writes beats for MIA. sick break beats, bettie davis eyes? - who can hate?	2
does it offend you, yeah?	yes, it offends. a little too much yelling over some noise. not very appealing.	5
dredg	uninspiring rock	5
duffy	interesting, would like to hear more from her	3
dwight yoakam	a little too much twang for my ears, although the slide guitar is beautiful	5
electric touch	not too inspiring rock, a little on the	5
enter shikari	woah – angry emo/punk? get em outta the headphones!
erol alkan	blip blip beep beep, not holding my attention
fatboy slim	phat.	1
flogging molly	fun Irish jigging	3
golgol bordello	i hear they put on an amazing show: yeah the lyrics and music is funky, but a serious experience	1
grand ole party	dig it! wailing lady kicks some ass as the devils daughter!
holy fuck	intersting use of drums, beats. More on the rock side.	3
hot chip	dancing at my desk, that's a good sign. peppy dancerock with some funky organ undertones
im from barcelona	sounds like a party on the stage. bubblegum happy rockers rocking the stage like it's 1999	4
islands	woodwinds and cymbals! get out! thank you indie instrumentalists! vocals reminicint of BTS, instruments Architecture-like	4
jack johnson	what do you say? can be great for a sunday drive in the sun	3
james zbiela	lovely lo-fi. enjoyable, for some relaxation	3
jamie t	boring bumping blipping beeping bleeeping, repetition will only get you so far, will only get you so far, will only get you so far...	5
jens lekman	it's cool that a lot of artists are bringing back old styles and making them relevant through new lyrics. I just don't get this one	4
john butler trio	makes me think of big head todd. I dig it sometimes, but not this flavor	5
justice	love the funky beats of under this young sounding female vocalist, danceable	3
kate nash	lilly allen... look what you started!	4
kavinsky	synthy sounds way too highpitched and fast for my taste (not to mention 80s sounding, blech)
kid sister	jammin-style hip to the hop. heidi would be all over this shit. I'm all for a strong woman rapper and she's definitely following in the footsteps of the great missy elliot
les savy fav	up indie rock, great guitars, always loved go forth off inches. haven't seen live, don't care for newest album as much	4
linton dwesi johnson	reggae! thank you thank you thank you! there is nothing better than shit tons of people smoking grass and bouncing around to caribbean inspired beats under the hot sun... now if we could just break that soprano sax, maybe the kenny g flashbacks would stop. please, please make that stop.	4
little brother	in the vein of india arie, this soul music keeps it real (even if the content is not awe inspiring)	3
love and rockets	I guess coachella has something for everyone?	5
luckyiam	rap rap without the phat phat, some decent beats, shotty lyrics	5
man man	this is one crass dude	5
manchester orchestra	indie rock singer/songwriter sounds like a cross between colin meloy and conor oberst	3
mark ronson	all I can seem to find on this dude is amy whinehouse and radiohead (cover), so I'm not too excited to see him on his own. I know he's tried really hard to make it, but I don't know if I can promote him to my band	4
metric	rockin woman vocalist, need more of this	2
mgmt	this band comes highly recommended. love the rockin beegees vibe, could be fun live	2
mia	she started somthing new, her own thing, and she continues to follow her own path. can't argue with that	1
midnight juggernauts	rolling electronic rock could develop into an enjoyable show. need more of this	3
minus the bear	snoring, just a little.	4
modeselektor	beep beep beep, no go pour moi.	5
mum	one for the pixies (fairy-like creatures, not the band), two for the show!	1
murs	hit or miss, some solid beats and solid lyrics. dig it.	3
my morning jacket	I never imagined long hair from this rock-country crew, but long hair they have! the dichotomy of vocal clarity and muddled reverb create an ethereal joyride not to be missed – magheeta forever. seen 'em, so not my highest priority, but if any of them asked me to smoke 'em out - I would, in a heartbeat.	2
new young pony club	uh huh, don't hate it, don't love it, but could see myself seeing it. NEED MORE OF THIS!	3
pendulum	a little more highstrung than I usually like, but it really works – hard. One of the few electronic shows that has a real singer, not some sample of a british chick oohing and ahhing about love lost.	1
portishead	oh times most sour, oh times most lovely, take me back!	1
professor murder	don't hear anything new or inventive here	5
reverend and the makers	interesting, i could listen to more of these guys, sound a little repetitive, but worth some more listening	3
rilo kiley	i kind of lost interest after seeing her on mtv and listening to her latest album – gap add in the making?	3
roger waters	burnout?	3
rogue wave	nice folky stuff	4
sandra collins	not planning on dancing, nor trancing with her	5
santogold	mashup some reggae, hip-hop, electronic beats and throw some cynical lyrics on top. Sounds like a party getting started.	1
sharon jones and the dap kings	takes you back to the 50s, but not in an amy whinehouse interesting sort of way. not feeling it.	5
sia	really like academia (w/ Beck vocals) other than that, this emotional basketcase just needs a good therapist. her voice has a beautiful rich quality, maybe it's the lyrics that sound whiny.	3
simian mobile disco	electronic beats + grand master flash in a woman's body = before it's time past.	5
slightly stoopid	light reggae, always a favorite midday show, if nothing else is perking up the ears	3
sons and daughters	this band fades away to a hum in the scheme of the media player's contents	4
spank rock	offensive hip-hop lyrics under some house beats. never really liked these guys	5
spiritualized	I don't feel very spiritualized.	5
st. vincent	it was difficult to single her out in the chorus that is polyphonic spree, but it's great to get a glimse now.	2
stars	the broken social scene venn does it again. anything those members touch turns to a golden melody.	2
stephan malkmus and the jicks	jickin and still kickin. it's a long way from the pavement years, but malkmus continues to make great music with interesting lyrics and solid tunes.	3
tegan and sara	pop that bubblegum bubble! it's hard to hate these bouncy tunes and simple lyrics. this show is going to be packed, hopefully one of my 1's is playing on another stage.	3
the bees	reggae, rock, funk, combine to create a sound aching to backdrop a sunday drive along 101	3
the bird and the bee	love the vocal harmonies and crystal clear pitch of this group. sometimes the clapping and content are a little wearing, but happy this music is.	3
the breeders	takes me back to the days where I only really understood the single. it's been a long winding road.	2
the cool kids	a few rock riffs or synth beats pop out of solid rap beats and smooth vocal flow. this is not exactly easy listening; however, if you want to work up a sweat on the dance floor, this could be the band for you.	3
the horrors	horrific. can't get in this not-as-good-as-the-pixies-rip-off.	5
the national	love them, love them, can't get enough of them. that low baritone shakes me to the marrow.	1
the raconteurs	solid rock with catchy lyrics. really enjoy them	1
the streets	some of the best hip-hop coachella has to offer, and they're brits!	2
the swell season	if you liked the movie once, you might be really into this.	4
the teenagers	the accent really isn't working for me. maybe it's more than the accent, but they don't have to know it.	5
the verve	they really missed the boat with the sonnet but the symphony was bittersweet back in the day	3
turbonegro	sometimes you just can't get enough metal: i'm really into silver jewelry right now, call it a phase - for some people it's turbonegro, and that's cool, if it makes you happy	5
uffie	buffy?	4
vampire weekend	so hot right now. not so hot on my list.	3
vhs or beta	the 80s are so two decades ago... don't these people know that!	5
yelle	c'est vachement cool! s'il n'y a pas une autre, pourquoi pas?	4
yo! majesty	spit it, bounce it, jump it. sweet beats, a different take on the usual hip-hop	3
yoav	J.T. did you change your name!?	5