truffle shuffle (is it really september? mix)- 8.31.07

i believe that i have survived the week. not that it was a particularly difficult week, but it was busy and full and lately busy and full have been my demise. as of some time past 5.30 today, i’ll be off work until wednesday, which is always good. i’ve got my follow up echo cardiogram on tuesday; while i’m not particularly nervous about it, having someone scan your heart to make sure it’s working right is always a little scary. i’m tired this morning, and really don’t have much to say, except…

bring on the shuffle:

1. search & destroy – the stooges (life aquatic soundtrack)
2. sketches of spain – the pogues (if i should fall from grace with God)
3. dreamer in my dreams – wilco (being there, disc 2)
4. yesterday’s news – whiskeytown (faithless street reissue)
5. bedshaped – keane (hopes and fears)
6. drive away – gratitude (itunes new music sampler)
7. i want someone badly – jeff buckley (don’t know the album)
8. off broadway – ryan adams (easy tiger)
9. all too much – gomez (how we operate)
10. beast of burden – the rolling stones (some girls?)

oh, one last thing. bwe & i are going to see superbad with friends tonite. wickedawesome.

on the list

thinking about the crowes show last nite has me contemplating and compiling some lists much like this guy.

i prefer top 5 lists to top 10 lists simply because it makes you really have to edit things and think hard about the choices. ten, being twice as much, is half as hard.

here’s today’s list:

TOP 5 POP/ROCK BANDS WHOSE DEBUT ALBUM WAS RELEASED POST-1980:

(in no particular order)

nirvana (bleach, 1989)
black crowes (shake your money maker, 1990)
r.e.m. (murmur, 1983)
radiohead (1993)
wilco (1995)

(honorable mention goes to uncle tupelo and the replacements. frankly, i really wanted to put the replacements in over nirvana, but i think nirvana, due more to massive amounts of exposure than to quality or depth of catalog, had a more wide reaching influence on music.)

did i hose your band? did i miss anybody? leave me your list and let me know.

an evening with the world’s most rock & roll rock & roll band

i went to see the black crowes last nite at the ryman with bwe & some friends. holy mother of rock! we missed the first half of the opening song (remedy) because the show started on time (what the hell?). other than that, we spent two and a half hours being treated to one of the best shows i’ve ever seen at the ryman (i’m calling it a photo finish between last year’s costello concert and this one).

here’s the set list:
remedy
sting me
gone
seeing things (chris’ vocal on this one gave me goosebumps)
my morning song/jam/king bee/my morning song
**rich and chris both strap on acoustic guitars*
polly (gene clark cover)
sweet mental revenge (a waylong jennings song written by mel tillis or, as chris put it, “an old mel tillis song…’cause i haven’t heard any new ones.”)
girl from the north country (bob dylan/johnny cash cover)
she (gram parsons)
driving wheel (tom rush)
**end of the acoustic set**
thorn in my pride/jam/drum solo/jam/thorn in my pride
jealous again
soul singin’
wiser time
virtue & vice
**encore**
don’t do it (marvin gaye/the band cover, rich on lead vocal)

other than wishing i could’ve gotten another cover, or that they would’ve played neil young’s “everybody knows this is nowhere” like they’ve been doing occasionally, the set was fantastic, almost perfect. the band was on on on it last nite and not only dropped some originals i hadn’t heard before (gone, wiser time), but played some covers that i’d never heard and some that are favorites of mine (she).

the only bummer about the whole show is all the people that wouldn’t shut the hell up during the acoustic set. the whole band was playing, but you could still hear everyone talking at the same volume as the instruments. some advice for the novice concertgoer: listen, don’t talk. you see, your friend next to you is still going to be there when the show’s over. you can talk to them then. in fact, you can talk about the amazing concert you both just saw. but if you keep your damn trap running through the whole concert, you’re wasting your money, my money and killing my good time.

(soapbox session over)

i also found the tour dates for the e street band’s fall tour. can you say madison square garden, kiddos?

looks like someone’s got a case of the mondays

maybe it’s all the negativity in the news today (the vick thing, the gonzalez thing, iraq, etc.). maybe it’s being back at work after a pretty fun weekend. it could have something to do with bwe being in a bad mood last nite and this morning. or maybe it’s the fact that it’s her birthday and it’s gonna be an awesome birthday dinner if things don’t brighten up. she’s talking about going out with her mom instead of with me, so i might be watching monday nite football and eating chili out of a bag instead of going to sole mio for a romantic dinner. whatever the reason, i’m totally blah today.

i’m not co-dependent, let me just state that. however, ever since we first started dating, if she is in a bad mood, i just can’t get happy or relax. lame.

~~

in other news, here’s a book recommendation for you:

blue like jazz, by donald miller.

i finished the book last week. it’s probably one of my favorite books concerning spirituality since the ragamuffin gospel. it’s refreshing, both in writing style and perspective. miller’s viewpoint is similar to mine but it was still a challenging book, requiring me to look inside myself to answer questions about what i really think of God and what i’m really doing to reflect His love in my community.

whether you’re a christian, a catholic, an agnostic, atheist, buddhist or whatever, (and especially if the christians that you see on tv kinda piss you off) you should read this book. it’s funny, poignant, relevant, and challenging.

if you’ve already read it or if you’ve seen donald miller speak, let me know what you thought of it. i’m reading his first book, searching for God knows what, right now…

truffle shuffle (my girl likes to party all the time mix) – 8.24.07

well, well, well. it’s been a mostly uneventful week, despite the “will i or won’t i get a root canal” shenanigans of wednesday. the rest of the week and all of next week is gonna be super crazy. here’s the rundown (deep breath) i’ve got a friend’s birfday party tonite, a fantasy football “league meeting” tomorrow nite (it’s really just an excuse for a bunch of guys to drink beer, play cornhole and maybe some poker), maybe a bike ride tomorrow morning, church and hopefully climbing or housework and maybe more bike riding on sunday. oh, and the fantasy football draft sunday nite. bwe’s birfday is monday, i also have chains class on monday, we’re running burritos on tuesday, i’ve got my chains class “graduation party” thursday, and then either a trip to the horseshoe next weekend or dinner & a movie with bwe and some friends.

tired yet? bring on the shuffle and pass the red bull…

1. monday night – ryan adams (down to the promised land, disc 2)
2. shhh/peaceful – miles davis (in a silent way)
3. blue skies – willie nelson (stardust?)
4. the beat – elvis costello (this year’s model)
5. nothing indeed – minutemen (double nickels on the dime)
6. bust (featuring killer mike) – outkast (speakerboxxx)
7. you make me feel so young – frank sinatra (songs for swingin’ lovers)
(audio clip from major league: “you may run like mays, but you hit like shit.”
8. look into the air – explosions in the sky (how strange, innocence)
9. pet rock – teenage fanclub (bandwagonesque)
10. georgia boy – pete yorn (nightcrawler)

invisible or unobservant

i shrank one of my favorite shirts a few weeks ago by putting it in the dryer. it was a short sleeve “polo style,” had blue and gold horizontal stripes and looked pretty cool. it was an accident and now the shirt’s mostly unwearable.

\
(that’s me with my super awesome grandmother, my cousin the sound engineer forrest, and one of my other cousins james)

in my “i wish i was still in bed” stupor this morning, i didn’t realize it was unwearable until i was almost to work. so at lunch i went to rei and bought a shirt (or three…shut up, they were on sale and looked cool!) to wear instead. it’s a white button down, made out of some sort of breathable/upf-proof fabric. i think it looks like a white safari shirt, but that could just be me.

changed in the parking lot of rei (yes, you ARE sorry you missed that), and went back to my desk for the rest of the day. i’ve talked to lots of people that saw me before and after “the big change”. no one’s mentioned anything.

so now i’m wondering:

am i invisible or are they unobservant?

newton goes to the dentist

yesterday i was scheduled for a trip to the dentist to have a root canal. turns out i didn’t need the root canal, just some fillings replaced, along with some type of sedative (similar to cloves) placed in the tooth to calm the nerve down. if those teeth quit hurting then in a month the dentist going to replace the fillings with permanent ones and take out the sedative stuff that’s in there. cool.

so that’s the good news: i didn’t need a root canal.

here’s the bad news: i can taste that clove-y sedative. i’m really hoping that i don’t feel like i’m chewing beech nut for the next 4 weeks. i mean, i like cloves as much as the next guy, but i don’t know that i like them THAT MUCH.

on a different note, i’m no sadist, but i was actually a little bit looking forward to the experience of the root canal, just to know what it was like and if it hurt as badly as people said it did. i’m sure i’ll get the chance, but i’m happy that it has to wait for (hopefully) a long time. in fact (and again, i’m no sadist), if it were possible to experience things like falling off the top of a tall building, or being shot, or running a car into a brick wall at 65 mph without getting injured or dying, i’d really like to “do” them, just to know what it feels like.

does that make me crazy, or just curious? here’s one for you: if you could do anything at all, just once with no consequences and no reward (fame, wealth, etc), what would it be?

stew on that, leave me a comment, and pass the beechnut.