I really do not like it when Christmas songs pronounce it as "Chris Moss." It should be pronounced "Chris Məss."
I especially hate it when "Chris Moss" is sung by any sort of children's choir.
This is Chris dot com
Sunday, November 30, 2008
A Rolling Christmas Should Gather No Moss
posted by Christopher at 8:42 PM 
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wouldja Listen to That?
So Three Ninjas has posted the audio of the live show he did last Wednesday. Oddly enough, he posted it to his personal blog but not the Three Ninjas official website. At any rate, you should go listen to it all now. ALL. NOW.
I like the Geoff/Three Ninjas banter, such as after the first song:
I would post the video of the show here, I haven't gotten around to getting the video of the show from Sandy, nor does it seem she's given it to Three Ninjas or posted it anywhere online herself. So instead enjoy some Drunk History featuring Michael Cera:
Jack Black is in episodes 2 and 2.5 as Benjamin Frankin! Thanks, Joss Whedon, for letting me know about Drunk History.
I like the Geoff/Three Ninjas banter, such as after the first song:
GEOFF: Jason, I'm sorry.And before the 3rd song:
THREE NINJAS: What? Why?
GEOFF: I… I don't, I don't know how to play bass.
THREE NINJAS: That's why I asked you to be up here.
THREE NINJAS: Everybody sing along! Just make something up. It doesn't matter.And then before the final song ("Going Gay for House"):
THREE NINJAS: So, does anyone besides me like House? Okay. Then you might know the words to this song. This, this song is called--this is our last song, okay? Here's the, here's what you guys don't get: this is our last song. And after this, after this song, uh, if you guys want to come and talk to us, Geoff and I will be&hellip really surprised.So head on over to the blog and download the whole show, and do NOT go to the Three Ninjas website, 'cause who would ever go there looking for Three Ninjas music?
I would post the video of the show here, I haven't gotten around to getting the video of the show from Sandy, nor does it seem she's given it to Three Ninjas or posted it anywhere online herself. So instead enjoy some Drunk History featuring Michael Cera:
Jack Black is in episodes 2 and 2.5 as Benjamin Frankin! Thanks, Joss Whedon, for letting me know about Drunk History.
Labels: Drunk History, Jack Black, Joss Whedon, Music, Three Ninjas, Videos
posted by Christopher at 5:10 PM
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Three Ninjas Rocked the Hizzouse, Yo
So, yeah, this happened last Wednesday and I'm only now getting around to writing a post about it. But last Wednesday I went with Carrie and Laura up to Studio 7 in SoDo to see my pal Three Ninjas (Website, MySpace) perform his very first-ever live show.
I'd heard a lot of bad things about the venue, but honestly it was a pretty typical, dive-y Seattle venue. Cosmetically not much worse than Neumos, just in a much, much worse location. There were many of our palz there, including (using their Twitter names) gendlec, tangentbot & HeartFeltRobots, toraton & whimsi, and jayseman. Also my brother, but he doesn't Tweet. Three Ninjas went on third of eight total act. We arrived at Studio 7 in time to miss the 1st performer (a woman, I'm told). Carrie, Laura, and I staked out a position on the front of the balcony (where the bar was located) in time for the 2nd band, which HeartFeltRobots joked should have been called "Midlife Crisis." Agreed.
Three Ninjas was up next, but he didn't perform alone. NOPE! rabbiddogg went up and played bass for him! Honsetly, I did not know what to expect from a live Three Ninjas show. His music, which I love dearly, is not necessarily what you'd call "accessible" at all times. But he had a good, simple musical setup, which included a MacBook and an MPD32. The show turned out to be an absolute hoot and/or laugh riot in a good way. I was surprised and delighted that he actually performed "Beluga Calf." Not only did he perform "Beluga Calf," but he performed several different versions of "Beluga Calf" in a row, including the hip-hop and holiday versions.
He also performed his brand-new, never-before-heard song "Going Gay for House" about House M.D. That song eventually evolved into the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of this)," except they sang, "Sweet Dreams Are House M.D."
We all thoroughly enjoyed the show AND ourselves. HeartFeltRobots recorded the whole thing on video, so I'm gonna hafta see what I can do about getting a copy of that from her. I drove Carrie & Laura back to Tacoma after hanging out for a few minutes after the show.
As a post-script, on Friday we were hanging out with Laura again and she was talking about how her job was very boring. As she was leaving our house she said, "Well, if my job gets too boring and starts to make me sad, I'll just think about Beluga Calf." Then she turned and walked away, into legend and into all of our hearts. Or she walked away into her car instead of those last two things.
I'd heard a lot of bad things about the venue, but honestly it was a pretty typical, dive-y Seattle venue. Cosmetically not much worse than Neumos, just in a much, much worse location. There were many of our palz there, including (using their Twitter names) gendlec, tangentbot & HeartFeltRobots, toraton & whimsi, and jayseman. Also my brother, but he doesn't Tweet. Three Ninjas went on third of eight total act. We arrived at Studio 7 in time to miss the 1st performer (a woman, I'm told). Carrie, Laura, and I staked out a position on the front of the balcony (where the bar was located) in time for the 2nd band, which HeartFeltRobots joked should have been called "Midlife Crisis." Agreed.
Three Ninjas was up next, but he didn't perform alone. NOPE! rabbiddogg went up and played bass for him! Honsetly, I did not know what to expect from a live Three Ninjas show. His music, which I love dearly, is not necessarily what you'd call "accessible" at all times. But he had a good, simple musical setup, which included a MacBook and an MPD32. The show turned out to be an absolute hoot and/or laugh riot in a good way. I was surprised and delighted that he actually performed "Beluga Calf." Not only did he perform "Beluga Calf," but he performed several different versions of "Beluga Calf" in a row, including the hip-hop and holiday versions.
He also performed his brand-new, never-before-heard song "Going Gay for House" about House M.D. That song eventually evolved into the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of this)," except they sang, "Sweet Dreams Are House M.D."
We all thoroughly enjoyed the show AND ourselves. HeartFeltRobots recorded the whole thing on video, so I'm gonna hafta see what I can do about getting a copy of that from her. I drove Carrie & Laura back to Tacoma after hanging out for a few minutes after the show.
As a post-script, on Friday we were hanging out with Laura again and she was talking about how her job was very boring. As she was leaving our house she said, "Well, if my job gets too boring and starts to make me sad, I'll just think about Beluga Calf." Then she turned and walked away, into legend and into all of our hearts. Or she walked away into her car instead of those last two things.
Labels: Beluga Calf, Life, Links, Music, Studio 7, Three Ninjas
posted by Christopher at 8:29 AM
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Three Ninjas Can Make Music
I'm so TOTALLY going with Carrie and Laura to see Three Ninjas perform tonight! Not three actual ninjas, nor the 1992 film of the same name directed by Jon Turteltaub and starring Victor Wong as Grandpa Mori Tanaka. I'm talking about Three Ninjas the musician!
The show is tonight at Studio 7 in SoDo. Looks like kind of a scary venue, and there are a total of EIGHT bands performing, so we have no idea what time Three Ninjas is actually taking the stage. So we might have to sit through a bunch o' crappy/boring music before we get to see him perform.
More info:
The show is tonight at Studio 7 in SoDo. Looks like kind of a scary venue, and there are a total of EIGHT bands performing, so we have no idea what time Three Ninjas is actually taking the stage. So we might have to sit through a bunch o' crappy/boring music before we get to see him perform.
More info:
- Three Ninjas official website: http://threeninjas.net
- Three Ninjas MySpace: http://myspace.com/threeninjasmusic
- Studio 7 website: http://www.studioseven.us
Labels: Music, Three Ninjas
posted by Christopher at 8:32 AM
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Jonathan Coulton Has the Coolest Instrument EVAR
It's called the Tenori-on. It was created by Toshio Iwai, the same guy who created Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS. Here he is using it to perform "My Monkey" at the Triple Door in Seattle this last weekend (I didn't go to the show 'cause of Fools Play):
(By the way, the woman he's singing with is sweetafton23, a very talented and funny singer/ukulele player)
I think it would kick ass to own one of these instruments, if only they didn't cost quite so durned much. Though I imagine it would be better off in the hands of Tangentbot. I bet he could K some serious A with it.
(via Jonathan Coulton)
(By the way, the woman he's singing with is sweetafton23, a very talented and funny singer/ukulele player)
I think it would kick ass to own one of these instruments, if only they didn't cost quite so durned much. Though I imagine it would be better off in the hands of Tangentbot. I bet he could K some serious A with it.
(via Jonathan Coulton)
posted by Christopher at 4:40 PM
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles
Mario Theme Played with RC Car and BottlesIt sounds impossible, but just watch the video.
(via Wynn Ryder)
Labels: Links, Music, Video Games, Videos
posted by Christopher at 6:12 PM
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Most Unwanted Song
So apparently these two Russians did extensive polling of Americans to discover our tastes in music. They then compiled the results and created (with the help of musician Dave Soldier) one song that statistically was the song that Americans most wanted to hear... and one that was statistically what Americans least wanted to hear. From the article:
"...over an accompaniment of bagpipe, tuba and accordian (statistically, America's least favorite instruments), an operatic soprano (our least favorite type of singer) raps (ditto) about cowboys (ditto). Their research indicated that the most hated lyrical subject is holidays (disliked by 33%), so the song is suitable not only for Christmas, but Easter, Labor Day, Veterans' Day, and Halloween. These interludes are introduced abruptly by a children's chorus ("Hey everybody, it's Yom Kippur!"), who couple their refrains with cheerful commercial messages. By the end, the subject has shifted to human slavery and genocide. The whole thing, going on for nearly 22 minutes (the least favorite song length), is as impossible to ignore as a car crash."
When I listened to The Most Unwanted Song I nearly wet myself; I was actually crying with laughter. It is truly one of the most spectacular pieces of music I have ever heard. I also thoroughly enjoyed The Most Wanted Song, with its absolute over-the-top blandness and inanity of lyrics (including an over-abundance of "baby"). I thought both were hilarious. Go on. Click those links. Listen for yourself and then decide for... yourself. Here's some more info (and a link to buy a CD of the songs).
(via tangentbot, in a round-about way)
posted by Christopher at 6:01 PM
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Friday, March 28, 2008
Hard To Drive a Bus in the Snow
Yesterday (Thursday) we woke up to snow on the ground. This was no big surprise considering that it was snowing Wednesday evening. It was kind of a surprise that it was snowing at all this close to April, though. This never happens 'round these parts. I got Carrie off to work nonetheless, and from there she left for Portland for the weekend (boo).
After work I came home, had a sammitch, fed Suki, took care of a couple of sundries around the house, then I headed up to Seattle. It started to snow again while I was on my way up there!
I hung out with Sandy a bit and then we went and got Mathias and proceeded to have dinner at Taki's Mad Greek. This has got to be one of my favorite Greek restaurants evar. Especially the Oven Baked Feta appetizer. And their pork is cooked just right: not too much, but not too little. And everything just tastes really, really tasty.
I also took a photo of the decorations in the men's room:
On the left there we have a completely nude Poseidon, but on the right we have Theseus covering his privates with a leaf! I wonder why. Does he not measure up to Poseidon? I just thought it was funny.
After dinner we parked near their apartment and then walked through the bitter cold (though it wasn't snowing at that time) to Neumos, where we met up with Jason and his wife Jennifer, as well as Geoff and Lisa!
Why were we there? Why, to see Busdriver, of course! Look:
The man moves as fast as he raps; it's difficult to get a good picture of him. Just look at the blur lines on his left hand in those pictures!
When we got to Neumos we were basically the only people there. Everybody else was in the attached bar. When Busdriver took the stage we were still practically the only people there, but Busdriver plunged ahead anyway. A handful of other people trickled in after he started (30 to 40). Last time I saw him the place was packed so we all thought it was weird, until we figured out that this was a 21-up show, and he usually plays to all-ages at Neumos. I guess only the kids like the Busdriver.
Anyhoo, it was a great set, and he did that cover of Man, It's So Loud in Here by They Might Be Giants that I really like. He played for just under an hour. We all met him over at his merch table, where Sandy bought the last copy of his rarities CD. He told me he'd go to his car and see if he could find another, but I wasn't able to catch him again before we left. I talked to him a bit about that TMBG song he does, and he said it was pretty old and he was thinking of retiring it. He's very shy and awkward off the stage. Hopefully he'll have another copy next time he comes into town.
Sandy kinda creeped him out by showing him a picture of the Busdriver Bot magnet that she made.
An hour after he left the stage the "main attraction," the Gray Boy All-Stars took the stage, and suddenly the theater was swarmed with frat boys, bros, and similar early-to-mid 30s types (and the kind of women who hang out with them). They were a jazzy kind of quintet, with drums, bass, guitar, sax, and keyboards. They were all very skilled musicians, but it was just not what we were in the mood for, and also didn't really sound like what they offer on their MySpace page. They sounded like they were straight out of 1985. Seriously! They even looked it.
At one point Sandy turned to me and said something to the effect that she felt like they were a band that the Huxtables would go and watch on the Cosby show. Mathias summed it up best by saying they were "Sportscoat and Bluejeans" jazz. They didn't go with Busdriver at all, so it wasn't a big surprise that none of their fans came out to see Busdriver go crazy.
We left after four or so songs. Jason gave us a ride back to S&M's apartment, and from there I drove on home.
You can read Mathias's "version" of events over at his website. He's got some really crazy pictures up, too.
After work I came home, had a sammitch, fed Suki, took care of a couple of sundries around the house, then I headed up to Seattle. It started to snow again while I was on my way up there!
I hung out with Sandy a bit and then we went and got Mathias and proceeded to have dinner at Taki's Mad Greek. This has got to be one of my favorite Greek restaurants evar. Especially the Oven Baked Feta appetizer. And their pork is cooked just right: not too much, but not too little. And everything just tastes really, really tasty.
I also took a photo of the decorations in the men's room:
On the left there we have a completely nude Poseidon, but on the right we have Theseus covering his privates with a leaf! I wonder why. Does he not measure up to Poseidon? I just thought it was funny. After dinner we parked near their apartment and then walked through the bitter cold (though it wasn't snowing at that time) to Neumos, where we met up with Jason and his wife Jennifer, as well as Geoff and Lisa!
Why were we there? Why, to see Busdriver, of course! Look:
The man moves as fast as he raps; it's difficult to get a good picture of him. Just look at the blur lines on his left hand in those pictures! When we got to Neumos we were basically the only people there. Everybody else was in the attached bar. When Busdriver took the stage we were still practically the only people there, but Busdriver plunged ahead anyway. A handful of other people trickled in after he started (30 to 40). Last time I saw him the place was packed so we all thought it was weird, until we figured out that this was a 21-up show, and he usually plays to all-ages at Neumos. I guess only the kids like the Busdriver.
Anyhoo, it was a great set, and he did that cover of Man, It's So Loud in Here by They Might Be Giants that I really like. He played for just under an hour. We all met him over at his merch table, where Sandy bought the last copy of his rarities CD. He told me he'd go to his car and see if he could find another, but I wasn't able to catch him again before we left. I talked to him a bit about that TMBG song he does, and he said it was pretty old and he was thinking of retiring it. He's very shy and awkward off the stage. Hopefully he'll have another copy next time he comes into town.
Sandy kinda creeped him out by showing him a picture of the Busdriver Bot magnet that she made.
An hour after he left the stage the "main attraction," the Gray Boy All-Stars took the stage, and suddenly the theater was swarmed with frat boys, bros, and similar early-to-mid 30s types (and the kind of women who hang out with them). They were a jazzy kind of quintet, with drums, bass, guitar, sax, and keyboards. They were all very skilled musicians, but it was just not what we were in the mood for, and also didn't really sound like what they offer on their MySpace page. They sounded like they were straight out of 1985. Seriously! They even looked it.
At one point Sandy turned to me and said something to the effect that she felt like they were a band that the Huxtables would go and watch on the Cosby show. Mathias summed it up best by saying they were "Sportscoat and Bluejeans" jazz. They didn't go with Busdriver at all, so it wasn't a big surprise that none of their fans came out to see Busdriver go crazy.
We left after four or so songs. Jason gave us a ride back to S&M's apartment, and from there I drove on home.
You can read Mathias's "version" of events over at his website. He's got some really crazy pictures up, too.
Labels: Busdriver, Life, Links, Music, Pictures, Restaurants
posted by Christopher at 4:41 PM
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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Oh Baby, You Got What I Need, But You Say He's...
Almost every day that I work in downtown T-town, I park a few blocks away where there is free, all-day parallel parking. Near where I park is a building under construction (they only have 1½ more stories to go).
Yesterday (Friday) after work as I was walking back to my car I passed this construction site. Suddenly, from about five stories above my head I heard someone start belting out the chorus to Biz Markie's famous song Just A Friend
entirely out-of-tune and at the top of his lungs.
Very amusing.
Yesterday (Friday) after work as I was walking back to my car I passed this construction site. Suddenly, from about five stories above my head I heard someone start belting out the chorus to Biz Markie's famous song Just A Friend
entirely out-of-tune and at the top of his lungs. Very amusing.
Labels: Biz Markie, Life, Music
posted by Christopher at 12:11 AM
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Saturday, February 16, 2008
In a Round-About Way
Earlier this week I was going through all of my They Might Be Giants music to see what I still needed to get in order to have a "complete" collection (knowing full well that some songs are impossible to get right now, like Monsters of Mud) of studio recordings by Them. In researching, I discovered that not only do They have a podcast (which I knew about and enjoy), but they've been doing a video podcast for kids as well!
It's hosted by the Puppet Johns and they play a couple of videos from their two most recent kids' album-slash-DVDs, Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s. I'd seen most of the ABCs before, but I'd never seen the 123 videos.
One video in particular, the one for Eight-Hundred-Thirteen Mile Car Trip, struck me as being particularly well designed (and passably well animated for a low-budged flash video). So I went to This Might Be a Wiki and discovered that it was designed & animated by someone named Pascal Campion.
A quick Google search turned up not only a website for Pascal, but a blog as well! I have to say, I really dig his style. It has kind of a Maurice Noble vibe, but is still very individualistic. He's got great lines and a phenomenal sense of color. He's actually done a handful of videos for TMBG, including some on Venue Songs and ABCs.
It's safe to say that he's one of my new favorite artists, and I discovered him in a very cool round-about way.
It's hosted by the Puppet Johns and they play a couple of videos from their two most recent kids' album-slash-DVDs, Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s. I'd seen most of the ABCs before, but I'd never seen the 123 videos.
One video in particular, the one for Eight-Hundred-Thirteen Mile Car Trip, struck me as being particularly well designed (and passably well animated for a low-budged flash video). So I went to This Might Be a Wiki and discovered that it was designed & animated by someone named Pascal Campion.
A quick Google search turned up not only a website for Pascal, but a blog as well! I have to say, I really dig his style. It has kind of a Maurice Noble vibe, but is still very individualistic. He's got great lines and a phenomenal sense of color. He's actually done a handful of videos for TMBG, including some on Venue Songs and ABCs.
It's safe to say that he's one of my new favorite artists, and I discovered him in a very cool round-about way.Labels: Artists, Links, Music, Pascal Campion, Pictures, They Might Be Giants, Videos
posted by Christopher at 2:34 PM
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Monday, February 11, 2008
Robots Would Never Hurt Us
I'm going to say: It's about damned time. Gibson has come out with a Robot Guitar. What makes it a robot? No, it doesn't transform into a bipedal robot and run around. Instead, it tunes itself. It automatically spins its tuning knobs until all the strings are in tune. I am wondering why it took until now, many years into the 21st century, for someone to actually create something like this.
But that is of little import. It is here now, added to the growing list of useful robots that the general populace can actually own!
posted by Christopher at 2:37 PM
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Friday, June 15, 2007
Last Hurrah (For Now)
Yesterday (Thursday) my dad came over to work in the yard while Carrie & I were still at work. Carrie walked home at one point and was rather startled to see his car in the driveway. She forgot that he has a blue car now, so she didn't know who could possibly be parked in our driveway!
Anyhoo, after work I picked up Carrie and we quickly swung by the drugstore and then headed home. I took my dad out to lunch at E-9, where he had an onion/Swiss burger and I had a good ol' club sammitch. I took some of it home for Carrie, then worked in the backyard a bit with my dad, digging up grass in preparation for paving.
Geoff showed up while we were out back. He leaves for China today! So this was our last chance to hang out. We set up our laptops on the dining room table and spent many hours making each other listen to our music collections. "Hey, have you heard this?" "Wow! I really like that! But have you heard this?" That kind of thing. It was really a lot of fun, and a very fitting way to hang out with Geoff before he goes away for six months.
He left around 7:15 to go do capoeira, and I settled down with konpyuta and did what I promised to do: I wrote my review of Spider-Man 3. Take that, procrastination! Pow!
So I really didn't get any work-work done, which is unfortunate because there's quite a bit I need to still do. But hanging out with my best friend since kindergarten seemed more important. Weird, I know. But fear not! Geoff has set himself up with a blog so he can chronicle his adventures in the exotic Orient! It's called More Qi! There's nothing on it right now, but that's okay, he plans to post photos and maybe even other things once we figure out how he can.
Anyhoo, after work I picked up Carrie and we quickly swung by the drugstore and then headed home. I took my dad out to lunch at E-9, where he had an onion/Swiss burger and I had a good ol' club sammitch. I took some of it home for Carrie, then worked in the backyard a bit with my dad, digging up grass in preparation for paving.
Geoff showed up while we were out back. He leaves for China today! So this was our last chance to hang out. We set up our laptops on the dining room table and spent many hours making each other listen to our music collections. "Hey, have you heard this?" "Wow! I really like that! But have you heard this?" That kind of thing. It was really a lot of fun, and a very fitting way to hang out with Geoff before he goes away for six months.
He left around 7:15 to go do capoeira, and I settled down with konpyuta and did what I promised to do: I wrote my review of Spider-Man 3. Take that, procrastination! Pow!
So I really didn't get any work-work done, which is unfortunate because there's quite a bit I need to still do. But hanging out with my best friend since kindergarten seemed more important. Weird, I know. But fear not! Geoff has set himself up with a blog so he can chronicle his adventures in the exotic Orient! It's called More Qi! There's nothing on it right now, but that's okay, he plans to post photos and maybe even other things once we figure out how he can.
Labels: Life, Links, Music, Restaurants
posted by Christopher at 2:42 PM
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Monday, June 11, 2007
Theremiah
Yesterday (Sunday) I got up early-ish in the morning and successfully did some good bit of cleaning. I went to Fools Play practice in the afternoon, but only stayed a couple of hours because I had to leave to pick Carrie & Christine up from the airport! Hooray! I like them.
I dropped Christine off first, then took Carrie home so she could gather all her things inside and relax for a tiny bit. I then actually dropped Carrie off at the Babe Factory to see if Carrie could help out, because apparently they were severely short-staffed while Carrie & Christine were gone. But they were apparently doing all right, because they sent Carrie home only a few minutes after I left. She walked back to the house and met me there.
At 6:00 we went back up north to my folks' house where my dad was barbecuing some hot dogs and brats. Yums. We hung out there for a little while. Susan & Jason were out of town, but Alexis was staying with me mum and da, so Carrie colored some Hello Kitty stuff with her, and I briefly played hide-and-seek with her.
After we came back home I shut the house down and we got into bed and watched Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
, which, by the way, was given to me as a birthday present by Jeremiah. Jeremiah does this really cool thing where instead of giving birthday presents to his friends on their birthdays, he sends out all the presents at basically the same time, regardless of when your birthday actually is. The note that came with the package said something about happy either late or early birthday.
He also gave me Esquivel's Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music
. Thanks, Jeremiah. Theremiah.
I dropped Christine off first, then took Carrie home so she could gather all her things inside and relax for a tiny bit. I then actually dropped Carrie off at the Babe Factory to see if Carrie could help out, because apparently they were severely short-staffed while Carrie & Christine were gone. But they were apparently doing all right, because they sent Carrie home only a few minutes after I left. She walked back to the house and met me there.
At 6:00 we went back up north to my folks' house where my dad was barbecuing some hot dogs and brats. Yums. We hung out there for a little while. Susan & Jason were out of town, but Alexis was staying with me mum and da, so Carrie colored some Hello Kitty stuff with her, and I briefly played hide-and-seek with her.
After we came back home I shut the house down and we got into bed and watched Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
, which, by the way, was given to me as a birthday present by Jeremiah. Jeremiah does this really cool thing where instead of giving birthday presents to his friends on their birthdays, he sends out all the presents at basically the same time, regardless of when your birthday actually is. The note that came with the package said something about happy either late or early birthday. He also gave me Esquivel's Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music
. Thanks, Jeremiah. Theremiah. Labels: Fools Play, Life, Movies, Music
posted by Christopher at 3:31 PM
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Friday, June 08, 2007
In the Driver We Trust
Yesterday (Thursday) after work I came home and wrote an entry in this here blog. Then I headed up to Seattle and met up with Sandy. I got supremely sleepy on the way up, so when I got there I took a ten minute nap whilst Sandy got herself readied.
Then we got in her rental car and started the long, strange journey to go pick her car up from the dealership where it had been repaired.
First off, it was almost impossible to get to the freeway. For some reason the downtown entrances are all blocked off (like I discovered when I tried to use them on Tuesday). So Sandy planned to go through the international district and onto the onramp by SafeCo Field (like I ended up doing on Tuesday). This proved to be extraordinarily difficult, though, due to the fact that for some reason there was a fire truck parked at almost every intersection in the International District, lights flashing and spinning and all that. We didn't see any smoke anywhere, so who knows what that was about, eh?
Well, finally we got on the freeway, and that wasn't actually too all that bad until we got around Tukwila. But that's always bad. We went over on 405 to 167 and took that down to Auburn. That was wide, wide open all the way through Kent, and then came to a grinding almost-halt. We slogged our way down through to Auburn's Auto Mall, the horrifying string of car dealerships that stretches for miles and miles in the north half of Auburn. There we finally made it to the car dealership after well over an hour of travel.
After Sandy paid for the new radiator, the manager came out and looked over the paperwork and said that he'd go through everything, but he might be able to as much as half the price that Sandy was charged, and if so then he'd cut her a check the next day. I don't know if that was every actually done or not, though.
Anyway, we went and ate at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place for an early dinner 'cause we were both starving (this was around 4:30 or so). We were given our place settings by a six-year-old girl! It was kinda adorable. The restaurant was just a mom, a dad, and their daughter running the whole place. The daughter brought out silverware and napkins and stuff like that while the parents waited and cooked and all that stuff.
I had two cheese enchiladas with onion, and they were very tasty. We also each had that drink that's like rice milk with cinnamon. It's called horchata. Get it if you're ever in a restaurant that offers it. Ve'y tasty.
After that Sandy & I had to slog through much traffic to get to Highway 18 so she could go to Mathias's mom's house and pick up two packages that Mathias had had delivered there. Then we went up Weyerheuser to avoid getting back on 18, and finally we got back onto I-5 and took that all the way up to SoDo, where we retrieved Mathias from Cobalt much later than had originally been planned. But we got a meal to go from the Mexican place for him, so it was all good.
We headed back to their apartment, and as we parked and were walking up to the door, long came Jason, with whom Mathias & I were gonna hang out that evening. We dallied in the apartment for a little bit so Mathias could open his packages (he got an animé DVD, some new fancy headphones and a signal scrubber thing so that his audio monitors would stop picking up radio signals).
Then all four of us walked to Neumos, where Sandy split off and continued walking on to the garage bowling alley to have a bowling night with her co-workers at Starbucks. Jason, Mathias, & I stopped at Neumos, because we all had tickets to see Busdriver live on stage there!
While we were waiting in line a redhead girl asked if she could buy a ticket off of us for $40. We declined, and then proceeded to waste her time by talking about exotic fish and animals with her. Later on her boyfriend or somebody arrived and they were offering $100 for a ticket. A little tempting, but I really wanted to see Busdriver and hang out with M&J. So no go.
We got in and staked out a position towards the right of the stage, close up but out of the way of anyone who wanted to get rowdy. This being Seattle, though, of course nobody got too rowdy.
Busdriver was actually opening for a band called CSS, which I learned did not stand for the internet term "Cascading Style Sheets." It stands for "Cansei de Ser Sexy," which is Portuguese for "tired of being sexy." Before the show started I bought Busdriver's new CD, RoadKillOverCoat. I bought it by handing a $10 bill to Busdriver himself, then he handed me the CD! Yes, Busdriver works his own gimmick table. He was on the phone, though, so unfortunately I didn't get to talk to him. Jason did later, though, and Busdriver actually remembered him from an earlier show! Jason made an off-hand mention of Master P, which will be important soon...
Anyhoo, there was a band before Busdriver played. It was called Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, which I assume is a reference to V for Vendetta. They sounded like early 80s energetic electro-pop stuff. Nothing terribly original, but very well done, and I really appreciated the fact that they wore matching costumes and had two backup dancers! They were very much a kitschy nerd band who were kinda parodying the music they were making. Like an electro-pop version of The Darkness.
Busdriver came on after NPSH, and he had a super mixing board thing, a digital turntable, and two mics (one for regular voice and one with a variety of effects). That was it. It was a really, really good set, and he really tried to work the crowd, which is always hard in Seattle. He made some subtle fun of Seattleites, saying how we made depression look so very stylish and stuff like that. Funny stuff.
Between several songs Busdriver would go off on a tangentical freestyle. During one of these freestyles he did a bit about Master P! Jason was proud for having planted that seed in his head.
My favorite moment, though, was when Busdriver performed a brand-new song based on the They Might Be Giants song "Man it's So Loud in Here" !!!!! It was spectacular! One of my favorite musicians doing a song by my all-time-favorite musicians! I turned to Mathias after he finished that song and said, "Well, I liked that a whole lot!"
We didn't stick around to hear CSS because we were all kinda tired and weren't terribly interested. So Jason was picked up by Jennifer, and Mathias & I walked back to his apartment so I could pick up my murse, which I had intelligently left there. I said goodnight to Sandy, who had also a very fun evening of bowling, and then I got in my car and drove back home.
It was after midnight when I got back, but I was hungro so I mixed some sour cream with salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder, bacon bits, and bleu cheese. I used this concoction as a dip for a bunch of carrots, which I ate in bed whilst watching Teen Titans. Then I fell asleep.
Then we got in her rental car and started the long, strange journey to go pick her car up from the dealership where it had been repaired.
First off, it was almost impossible to get to the freeway. For some reason the downtown entrances are all blocked off (like I discovered when I tried to use them on Tuesday). So Sandy planned to go through the international district and onto the onramp by SafeCo Field (like I ended up doing on Tuesday). This proved to be extraordinarily difficult, though, due to the fact that for some reason there was a fire truck parked at almost every intersection in the International District, lights flashing and spinning and all that. We didn't see any smoke anywhere, so who knows what that was about, eh?
Well, finally we got on the freeway, and that wasn't actually too all that bad until we got around Tukwila. But that's always bad. We went over on 405 to 167 and took that down to Auburn. That was wide, wide open all the way through Kent, and then came to a grinding almost-halt. We slogged our way down through to Auburn's Auto Mall, the horrifying string of car dealerships that stretches for miles and miles in the north half of Auburn. There we finally made it to the car dealership after well over an hour of travel.
After Sandy paid for the new radiator, the manager came out and looked over the paperwork and said that he'd go through everything, but he might be able to as much as half the price that Sandy was charged, and if so then he'd cut her a check the next day. I don't know if that was every actually done or not, though.
Anyway, we went and ate at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place for an early dinner 'cause we were both starving (this was around 4:30 or so). We were given our place settings by a six-year-old girl! It was kinda adorable. The restaurant was just a mom, a dad, and their daughter running the whole place. The daughter brought out silverware and napkins and stuff like that while the parents waited and cooked and all that stuff.
I had two cheese enchiladas with onion, and they were very tasty. We also each had that drink that's like rice milk with cinnamon. It's called horchata. Get it if you're ever in a restaurant that offers it. Ve'y tasty.
After that Sandy & I had to slog through much traffic to get to Highway 18 so she could go to Mathias's mom's house and pick up two packages that Mathias had had delivered there. Then we went up Weyerheuser to avoid getting back on 18, and finally we got back onto I-5 and took that all the way up to SoDo, where we retrieved Mathias from Cobalt much later than had originally been planned. But we got a meal to go from the Mexican place for him, so it was all good.
We headed back to their apartment, and as we parked and were walking up to the door, long came Jason, with whom Mathias & I were gonna hang out that evening. We dallied in the apartment for a little bit so Mathias could open his packages (he got an animé DVD, some new fancy headphones and a signal scrubber thing so that his audio monitors would stop picking up radio signals).
Then all four of us walked to Neumos, where Sandy split off and continued walking on to the garage bowling alley to have a bowling night with her co-workers at Starbucks. Jason, Mathias, & I stopped at Neumos, because we all had tickets to see Busdriver live on stage there!
While we were waiting in line a redhead girl asked if she could buy a ticket off of us for $40. We declined, and then proceeded to waste her time by talking about exotic fish and animals with her. Later on her boyfriend or somebody arrived and they were offering $100 for a ticket. A little tempting, but I really wanted to see Busdriver and hang out with M&J. So no go.
We got in and staked out a position towards the right of the stage, close up but out of the way of anyone who wanted to get rowdy. This being Seattle, though, of course nobody got too rowdy.
Busdriver was actually opening for a band called CSS, which I learned did not stand for the internet term "Cascading Style Sheets." It stands for "Cansei de Ser Sexy," which is Portuguese for "tired of being sexy." Before the show started I bought Busdriver's new CD, RoadKillOverCoat. I bought it by handing a $10 bill to Busdriver himself, then he handed me the CD! Yes, Busdriver works his own gimmick table. He was on the phone, though, so unfortunately I didn't get to talk to him. Jason did later, though, and Busdriver actually remembered him from an earlier show! Jason made an off-hand mention of Master P, which will be important soon...
Anyhoo, there was a band before Busdriver played. It was called Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, which I assume is a reference to V for Vendetta. They sounded like early 80s energetic electro-pop stuff. Nothing terribly original, but very well done, and I really appreciated the fact that they wore matching costumes and had two backup dancers! They were very much a kitschy nerd band who were kinda parodying the music they were making. Like an electro-pop version of The Darkness.
Busdriver came on after NPSH, and he had a super mixing board thing, a digital turntable, and two mics (one for regular voice and one with a variety of effects). That was it. It was a really, really good set, and he really tried to work the crowd, which is always hard in Seattle. He made some subtle fun of Seattleites, saying how we made depression look so very stylish and stuff like that. Funny stuff.
Between several songs Busdriver would go off on a tangentical freestyle. During one of these freestyles he did a bit about Master P! Jason was proud for having planted that seed in his head.
My favorite moment, though, was when Busdriver performed a brand-new song based on the They Might Be Giants song "Man it's So Loud in Here" !!!!! It was spectacular! One of my favorite musicians doing a song by my all-time-favorite musicians! I turned to Mathias after he finished that song and said, "Well, I liked that a whole lot!"
We didn't stick around to hear CSS because we were all kinda tired and weren't terribly interested. So Jason was picked up by Jennifer, and Mathias & I walked back to his apartment so I could pick up my murse, which I had intelligently left there. I said goodnight to Sandy, who had also a very fun evening of bowling, and then I got in my car and drove back home.
It was after midnight when I got back, but I was hungro so I mixed some sour cream with salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder, bacon bits, and bleu cheese. I used this concoction as a dip for a bunch of carrots, which I ate in bed whilst watching Teen Titans. Then I fell asleep.
Labels: Life, Links, Music, Restaurants
posted by Christopher at 5:08 PM
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