Wow. It must suck to be a Mets fan right now. The NL East is all tied up now.
Month: September 2007
Odd Man In game started
I haven’t started an Odd Man In game in forever, mostly because I thought the players still into it were fine with the private games, but xorg (and my mom) has been bugging me to start a public game. Oddsmobile has begun and the first moves are due Monday.
Rogan?
This video was highly enjoyable for me. Brian is probably the only person who reads this site that ever played Age of Empires though.
Interpol @ The Tower Theater
A friend offered Interpol tickets to Jeanne and I a few days ago. I’ve never seen them live and I’ve heard good things, so we decided to go. The Liars opened up and everyone around us hated them. I thought each of their songs tried to emulate a different band. I had fun guessing whether this was their Pixies song or their Radiohead song. I also heard Pavement and Jesus and Mary Chain. I went back and forth a few times on whether I liked them or not. The singer said the last time they were in Philadelphia not enough people bought tickets and the show was canceled. Ouch. Also, he wore an all-white suit and danced around like a faith healer on crack.
Interpol started and I thought they sounded fantastic. Granted, their songs are so simple they are unscrewupable, but they killed. (Side Note: I once got into a huge argument with the drummer from Photo Atlas simply by stating that Interpol’s music was simpler than the White Stripes). I’m not familiar with their whole catalog, but they definitely played every song I knew. The guy in front of me recorded the whole show on this camera and had a ridiculous zoom. We were near the back of the bottom section and you could see the band’s faces in the view screen. Of course, being zoomed in from that far away made for some jumpy camera work. Security came by and pulled him out of the seats, but he returned a little while later and resumed filming. I asked him if they took him out because of his camera, he said, “Yeah, but who cares?” and that they asked him to delete everything, but he just deleted one picture.
The crowd was a little strange. I wouldn’t expect Interpol fans to get crazy and mosh around, but I wouldn’t expect them to stand stiff as a board for an hour and a half either. I could see about a dozen people dancing in the whole theater. Even the front row was frozen. It’s not that they weren’t into it because the crowd went nuts after each song. A lot of Interpol’s songs are slow, but they played a primarily upbeat set so it was surprising to see no one dancing.
This girl went to the show last night:
There?s always a lingering high one feels after an amazing show. It?s a little like that happy calm one feels post coital, where it just gradually fades, leaving a weak smile on the lips. That, for the most part, is how I feel after seeing Interpol. For some, that may have been an odd analogy to use and they are slowly backing away from the screen wondering if they should disinfect it, but for others – most my friends in fact who go to shows all the time – understand what I mean entirely. Interpol know how to put on a show no matter where they are at and the louder the better.
In all, a great live show. Maybe not worth a whoping $35, but I don’t feel too cheated. You can definitely tell that Interpol has been playing for almost 10 years. The show was energetic and professional, but not overboard, rehearsed and fake.
Like the old farts that we are, we bounced before the encore…
Haha.
Dude_____
As most of you know I’m a big fan of Jason Zahn’s world famous GameShow. I submitted a bunch of possible word ideas two years ago and today one of my phrases made it’s way to the game: Dude____
I’ve gotten so much crap for this word today.
This American Life
I know I’m late to the party on this, but how brilliant is This American Life? While most shows are about extraordinary events and people, This American Life examines the lives of mundane, ordinary people. They take the time required to find out things like why summer camp is like a cult, or that the simple tale of a family moving to the country might be the most depressing thing you’ve ever heard… at least until you hear Betsy Walters talk about her parents’ divorce. Throw in David Sedaris trying to solve the mystery of who secretly wiped shit on their bathroom towels and you have the greatest radio show I’ve ever heard.
Ira Glass, host of This American Life
(also, the only person in radio who’s voice matches their face exactly)
Wayback Machine
I’ve posted this before, but man you have to love the Wayback Machine at archive.org. You can go back and view almost anything on the web from the past.
One of my first web pages in 1999
Some more…
Another Rib Try
I made baby back ribs again for the game today (argh!) and they turned out great. The main difference was that I smoked them with hickory chips and I cooked two racks at a time instead of just one. A neighborhood cat tried to eat them right off the grill.
I almost screwed up the smoke, because I forgot you have to get the chips smoking before you start cooking. I put them on at the same time and the proper procedure is to start out blazing hot until the chips smoke like crazy and then turn the heat down and load the meat. Unlike the Eagles today I was able to come back from my bad start and produce something worthwhile.
Also, I tried to buy the meat yesterday at Acme but all they had were the precooked Tony Siragusa ribs, so I drove all the way to Superfresh.
In my NFL Pick’Em league I’m 12/13 so far, but I have three upsets picked for the last three games. I doubt I’ll be that lucky.
Hang on to your Ego
Great song, but crazy video. I never saw it until today.
Is This Thing On?
I shouldn’t be surprised the Phillies won’t be making the playoffs this year, but I always am. I’ve never seen a Phillies team hit this well, but it still won’t make up for bad pitching. The only starters I’d like to see back next year are Hamels and Kendrick. Myers isn’t bad, but I couldn’t care less if they unloaded that dirt bag.
Utley, Burrel, and Howard are all having good years, but everyone seems to be getting on the Rollins4MVP bandwagon. From philly.com:
Rollins entered yesterday on pace to have 210 hits, 141 runs, 40 doubles, 19 triples, 30 home runs, 93 RBIs and 33 stolen bases.
Just seven players in baseball history have hit .290 with 200 hits, 125 runs, 35 doubles, 15 triples, 25 home runs and 90 RBIs in a season: Earl Averill (1936), Joe DiMaggio (1936 and 1937), Lou Gehrig (1927 and 1930), Chuck Klein (1932), Stan Musial (1948), Babe Ruth (1921) and Al Simmons (1930).
Each of those seven resides in the Hall of Fame.