May 17, 2002

Belle and Sebastian/Sleater-Kinney at Constitution Hall, Washington, DC

I wasn't planning on seeing Belle and Sebastian in DC this week, but I saw that Sleater-Kinney was opening. There was no good reason that I could imagine to not see two of my favorite artists in one night. I recruited Michael and we drove up to DC after work. We had box seats – which in Constitution Hall are dining room chairs in a box at the front of the upper tier.

You always wanna hear the same old song
Come on play that new song!

Sleater-Kinney started a little after five. The first folks in the box left for Sleater-Kinney, much to their loss. Carrie, Corin and Janet came out and rocked with a new song. After about four songs, they were starting to hit their stride. I also realized that none of the four songs were off of any of their last three albums. They continued through the rest of their set, they tore through one new song after another. Carrie's playing on her SG was exceptional as was Janet's drumming. Corin's voice is just as strong and seemed a little surer and controlled. Looking down at the orchestra, I saw that a whole family must have come to the show. A cute little head with pigtails was bobbing back and forth down front for all of Sleater-Kinney's set. Someone had better warn Mom and Dad - that young'uns going to be one uppity young lady. At the end of the set, Carrie told the audience, "That was our new album" and the bad headed off of the stage.Apparently, Sleater-Kinney's been premiering the album live in New York, L.A. and their hometown (courtesy www.sleater-kinney.org). If the album lives up to the live performance, it could be their best ever.

The audience was thinner for Sleater-Kinney and filled in between the sets. However, as Belle and Sebastian started their set, they ran into a typical DC concert – about 5% of the audience arrives during the first number. Stuart Murdoch seemed mildly amused by it as they kicked off the set with "Dirty Dream Number Two"; he sang the first two verses of the song, then chatted with the audience while the band played. At the end of his spiel, he invited two young ladies from the front rows on stage and urged a little more enthusiasm from the audience. Murdoch realized his mistake when all of the orchestra seating stood up for the next two songs and a large section of the cheap sets filled the aisles. With the audience warmed up, the aisle mob headed back up to the nose-bleed seats, and Belle and Sebastian kicked out a solid set of cuts from all of their LP's, including a couple of tracks from Storytelling, their forthcoming CD. Belle and Sebastian personnel was a major contrast to Sleater-Kinney – they had more than a dozen musicians on stage for some songs, including a five piece string section. The set ended with a solid two song encore, finishing with "Dog on Wheels". I haven't seen two spectacular bands back to back since Quasi and Stereolab played at the 9:30 club last fall.

I spy with my little iBook

There's fascinating article on O'Reilleynet's weblogs (found via Metafilter) about an interesting way to kill time during a conference – Rob Flickenger watched the graphics other attendees download during the talk. If you want to see some other takes on the conference, O'Reilly has links to those as well.Yes, EtherPEG yet another reason to have a Mac. For now, I'll just have to settle for Antec on the oustide and Frankenstein on the inside.

May 14, 2002

A Good Day on the Internet

I actually got work done today. Yes, really. But I did run across some funny stuff on the 'net as well. Kodefu.com has a story about its author's experience with the Bureau of Immigration and how his accordion saved him from some personal discomfort. The link is courtesy of BoingBoing, who've covered Kodefu before.

The Onion, which is always fun, has a new advice column "Ask Raymond Carver". I greatly enjoyed it, especially since I purchased a copy of Where I'm Calling From from a local used bookstore recently. I had lent a copy to a waitress ten years ago and have missed it since. While re-reading the book this week, I remembered how much I enjoyed Carver's stories the first time. The Onion's parody is spot-on; in fact, it sounds like some blogs.

May 13, 2002

Virginia Wine

The Richmond Times Dispatch had an article on Virginia Wines in its metro section. Most of the column inches were given over to a large photo of a man tending his vineyards. The interviews were also a little thin. However, they decent job highlighting the rapid growth of Virginia wines over the last 20 years. And they did have an article on Virginia vineyards opposition to the current ban on shipping wine into Virginia. The state government is in a slight bind – wineries generate considerable tourism revenue and provide a relatively high dollar agricultural product. However, the licensed distributors in the state don't want to see their monopoly on wine and beer taken away. There is a decent California site on this topic. If you are a vinophile, the ad agency for the site is worth a look as well.

Make Your Own Lego™ Person

If you haven't had the time to peruse the links to the left, Boing Boing has a great site where you can create your own Lego™ person. If the faces match, you can opt for your own self portrait in Lego™ or try out the random Lego™ person generator for some truly bizarre combinations.

May 12

Running Around Town

It's been the first quiet weekend in a while, so I drove around town, doing chores. I was going down Cary Street past Meadow and saw this gutted house. It had been raining for most of the past week.