Tuesday, February 24, 2009

modest mouse! fat tuesday fatigue

it's no secret to anyone who knows me, I'm not as spry as I used to be. therefore, still tired from last night's odyssey to see modest mouse in visalia, I thought I should point out that I am excited about this friday's Rogue Fest show at the starline. Excited enough to drag the fam out to Tower and hand out a few fliers. There were a lot of pepole out there celebrating Fat Tuesday who may not be observing Ash Wednesday or the rest of Lent for that matter. Just an observation.

Keeping with the theme of excited, I actually posted a comment on the beehive about the modest mouse show. I'll do a more detailed review later but I'm off to listen to the War Child Heroes album and hopefully fall asleep.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Bleak Economic Outlook offered by the FED

I admit it. I went ahead and listened to a very famous band's new album. This highly anticipated record doesn't come out for a few weeks but though I suspect the band leaked it on purpose, it still doesn't excuse my actions I suppose. And I already pre-ordered it anyway...let the rationalizations fall like rain on the bleak economic outlook stores pouring into my inbox today.

The album? Pretty promising so far. Favorite track "Unknown Caller."

love

here's a compilation of photos from the last two years, feat. music by jets to brazil

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Laser Cats, Alphabet Songs

sometimes i'm a little late to the party (laser cats 4, where have i been?). for instance, i just first watched steve martin host SNL for the 15th time. also, some of my friends have been posting notes called alphabet soup, now i follow them into the abyss of facebook note-posting (on my blog as well).

every one of these songs comes from my laptop itunes library, so the selections generally skew new. though the hardest choice of the day was whether to include "blood bank" by bon iver or "between the bars" by elliott smith.

A - Abel - The National
B - Between The Bars - Elliott Smith
C - Can't Hardly Wait (Electric Out-take Version from Tim) - The Replacements
D - Deep in the Heart - U2
E - Ex's and Oh's - The New Amsterdams
F - Feeling Like I Do - Superdrag
G - Geraldine - Glasvegas
H - Heretics - Andrew Bird
I - I Want You To Be My Love (live from nowhere) - Over The Rhine
J - Joseph, Better You Than Me (feat. Elton John) - The Killers
K - Keep You Around - Matt Hopper
L - Lullaby - Shayna and The Bulldog
M -Mercury (Gene Mix) - The Prayer Chain
N - Night Windows - The Weakerthans
O - On and On and On - Wilco
P - Passionate - L.A. Symphony
Q- Quick and Painful - Free Blood
R - Reckoner - Radiohead
S - ?School - Crashdog
T - The Perfect Beat feat KRS-ONE - Talib Kwelli
U - Underwater (live) - The Violet Burning
V - Vid Spilum Endalaust - Sigur Ros
W - Way You Walk - Summer Hymns
X - X Off Days - The New Year
Y - Your Ex-Lover is Dead - Stars
Z - Zephyrus - Bloc Party

7/4 Shorline - Broken Social Scene



note: songs are for sampling purposes only, if you like what you hear, please support the artists through buying their albums and t-shirts and going to their shows.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

post crisis world, 5 dollar water, happy birthday

My daughter Amelia turned 2 on friday and my son, Micah, turned three weeks. These kids are a reminder why the World Economic Forum in Davos is important. Has anyone been watching the videos from last week's summit? I have and let me just say, while all the apologizing is commendable, I don't exactly feel like it's gonna be ok. But I do agree in the words of Hans-Rudolf Merz that we must "overhaul our institutions, systems and most of all our thinking and actions and adjust our attitudes to the needs of the World." Check out the Davos channel below.

The other day, I found 2 $5 bills in a pocket of a shirt laying around my office. I was pleasantly surprised of course and ended up using one for my DMV printout so I can volunteer for CASA and the other to pay foe 5/12 of a ticket to attend a high school play called Titanic! The Musical. But for the first time in a while (I've been quite caught up in baby/toddler land and guitar pedal junkie-ville) I remembered just how privileged we are to be middle class in one of the richest societies in the history of the world. And these times may not last forever, for me or for all of us. The day may come when I am acutely aware of all of my money: paper or otherwise. But it's essential that we remember that this economic turmoil hurts the poor more than anyone else...

something you could do with $5:


Got any gift ideas for Valentine's Day? We do. from Angel Mission on Vimeo.

Monday, February 2, 2009

innovation vs. learning vs. experience vs. knowledge

"Innovation is amputation."

Just had an interesting discussion with Nate Mullen about progress and artificial intelligence. Interpret the above quote as you wish.

I've been getting pretty into the Visual Bookshelf facebook ap. Just finished The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland and reviewed it. Also finished Everything Must Change by Brian McClaren.

"Coupland is rightly accused of retreading the same disaffected post-modern territory in some of his novels. In my opinion, his work is also wildly inconsistent from novel to novel. However, The Gum Thief is quite original in structure and tone, and ranks up there with his best books IMO (Microserfs, Life After God, Generation X). Sure, we feel like we already know some of these characters, but Coupland manages to three-dimensionalize them and the plot(not always his strong suit) is engaging enough to support the characters themselves."

"A great, easy to understand, summary of the major global crises facing humanity...McClaren is especially skilled at pointing out the hypocrisy behind our western perspectives and pointing to Jesus as the solution for a Revolution of Hope. Regardless of political idealogy or theology, we can all agree that the current suicidal system is in need of a complete and comprehensive change."

Sunday, February 1, 2009

super bowl, boss, chili

One of my new year's resolutions (in addition to using zero individual sized plastic water bottles in 2009) is to recap important events immediately rather than planning to blog later. Invariably, those entries rarely get written. For instance, I have yet to blog my new year's resolutions.

Today was a great day for community at Northpark. Our morning gatherings were lively and included a laugh-out-loud hilarious Hanz and Franz routine from Jason Tatham and Ron Nelson. Then at least 200 hundred people came out for the Super Bowl, Chili Cook Off and Classic Rock Halftime Show. Bekah's aunt, Cynthia Sondeno, won the Cook Off and the band (known to me as Raul Hernandez and the D-HOUSE BOYZ) tore through the classics "Come Together," "Rock and Roll," "Behind Blue Eyes," "La Grange," "Dead or Alive" and a song by some band called Velvet Revolver (hehe). I didn't even regret missing the Boss...

Anyhow, it would've been nice if the Cards had pulled it out but you can't complain (unless you are an actualy Arizona fan) when the Super Bowl is an actual contest.

Mostly, today was a reminder that I am blessed with a great family, great friends and a great faith community. Sure, some people raise their eyebrows when I squeeze MGMT and Tokyo Police Club into the Super Bowl mix, but I think they like us here.

One More Thing, I think Springsteen should have played "The Rising".