OT: Hockey Heaven

/ / Opinion, rantings

It’s no secret to my twitter followers that I’m a monstrous Sabres fan. For those of us who bleed blue and gold, free agency opening day has been hell for the last 4 years. 2007, we lost Chris Drury and Daniel Briere. Absolutely brutal. 2008-2010 we’re literally pointless. No big acquisition, no big signings … nothing exciting except watching the big-name players move everywhere else but Buffalo.

Tomorrow is opening day of the free agency market. At this point, to Sabres fan, it’s almost an afterthought already.

In the last 48 hours, we’ve acquired Roybn Regher from Calgary–considered by many to be one of the top defensemen in the NHL–and as of this afternoon, we’ve signed Christian Ehrhoff from Vancouver. Yah–he of Stanley Cup finals fame and experience. The rumor is that he had an off finals because of a shoulder injury, and he still had a good run.

Whatever happens tomorrow or in the days/weeks to come is pure icing on the cake. We’ve already beefed up our blue line more than we dreamed possible. We’ve been watching these annual NHL goings-on with such disdain and jealousy that it’s been surprising to be caught up in such a whirlwind of excitement and … erm ….. luxury, I suppose. I mean, I don’t know any other way to put it. We’ve been the bridesmaid for so many years that this being the foot that fits the glass slipper is a totally unexpected but more than welcomed experience.

Terry Pegula is the flat-out man. I’ll give Darcy Regier his props for being GM, but really … TP is the hero of the day.

EDIT: It’s almost 1 in the morning in Utah. We are about 9 hours away from the free agency market doors swinging wide open. I cannot sleep. My eyes are heavy with exhaustion from the adrenaline rushes throughout the day. I’m already planning next year’s playoff parties. Hell, if I were mayor Brown, I’d be planning the parade route as of Saturday morning. Hey, why not?

I’ve been following Buffalo sports for almost 25 years. Between the Bills and Sabres, I *know* bitter disappointment and resentment (I’m staring straight into your soul-less eyes, Dallas). Part of me *wants* to go to bed because I know that’s about 7 hours I can shave off the wait. The other part of me is irrationally afraid to go to sleep because I seriously do not want to wake up and face the possibility that every Sabres fan’s greatest dream that could possibly less than 12 months away was nothing more than an over-stimulation of cerebral cortex while REMing into oblivion. Right now, my best chance at seeing the Sabres hoist the cup is to simply not go to bed. Obviously, that’s not going to happen, and yes–I know how ridiculously psychotic this all sounds. I don’t care.

You Cleveland sports fans know what I’m talking about here. The pain of realizing your teams are at best runners up to someone else excruciating at best. I’m not willing to face that just yet. So for now, I will continue to stay awake. More than likely, I’ll fall asleep in this chair. I’m okay with that … so long as when I wake up, nothing changes. We still have Ehrhoff and Regehr, and we’ll still be riding the dream until next June when Buffalo graces Lord Stanley’s cup.

Kickstarter Project: Terri Tarantula

/ / Kickstarter, Opinion, rantings

Yesterday, I posted about Christa Joy’s Kickstarter project, and I got to thinking, “hmm … I could post the other Kickstarter projects I’m funding (or at least hope to fund!).” Hence this post about Terri Tarantula.

So she’s working on getting out some new music here in the near future. I’ve liked what I’ve heard so far. Kind of a piano and drum based sound, which works for me. Not so much like Tori Amos or Regina Spektor … kind of like A Fine Frenzy or Wild Strawberries sound. I like it. Mellow, relaxing, and a great voice to match the music.

She’s pretty responsive to comments left on her Kickstarter site, too. I asked her about an in-house performance, and being that she lives in the Seattle area and I live in Utah, she didn’t flat-out rule against it, which I thought was pretty sweet. To be fair, I don’t have $500 to spare, though if I can work enough hours, I might (though I think that would be met with *strong* resistance from a certain woman with whom I share financial responsibilities … 🙂 ) More than likely, I’ll up my contribution to the reward that includes a hand-crafted box (and, as Terri put it, will be crafted out of either wood or metal … I’m hoping for wood, but that’s just me) and a bunch of cool one-offs like hand-written lyrics, demo CDs … excellent stuff to include in a rewards-based funding project.

Go pledge a donation to Terri’s new music! Doesn’t have to be a ton; every little bit helps! No sense in keeping all these great musicians financially shackled if we can help them. Just my opinion, but her music is worth it! Get the word out.

Kickstarter Project: Christa Joy

/ / Kickstarter, Opinion, rantings

As you may or may not know, I like to peruse Kickstarter to see what musicians are making stuff. Yesterday, I stumbled across this gem. I decided to support her because a) her music sounds pretty cool from the snippet on her KS video, and b) she’s a freakin’ Kindergarten teacher! How cool is that? My daughter’s gonna be in Kindergarten this coming school year. I don’t know why, but I just felt drawn to Christa’s project. So here’s hoping it gets funded!

Here’s what you need to do: share this with as many people as you can and get the word out on her project. Even ONE dollar makes a big difference. And she’s giving away some really awesome compensations for bigger donations. I selected the $25 option cuz it comes with a copy of the CD, <strong suggestion>hopefully signed</strong suggestion>.

Anyway, go support her project! I highly recommend it!

Pottermore by J.K. Rowling

/ / Opinion, rantings

Well, Potter fans, rejoice. The franchise lives on through J.K. Rowling’s next endeavor–Pottermore. Apparently, it expands the Harry Potter world in new ways, though how is still nebulous. The website rolls out July 31, presumably when the “Submit your email” button will actually work. Until then, we get to stare at an inactive screen (minus the vid Ms. Rowland has in the top left corner).

<geek moment>

Yah. I’m stoked. Not gonna lie about that. My wife and I each bought our own copy of The Deathly Hallows so one of us wouldn’t be in the dark. Also hoping to go to a midnight showing of Part 2 next month!

</geek moment>

I know a certain family with a certain daughter who is going to flip her lid when she finds out about this … if she hasn’t already. Not to mention my wife. I anticipate many a late night for her on her laptop. 🙂

Funny story about my wife … we were kind of late to the Harry Potter book reading bit. On a family trip to Yellowstone in 2001, she lugged the first book along with her. As we drove by herds of buffalo, moose, elk, and other various prettiness, she had her nose buried in the pages, only looking up when the thought crossed her mind. She finished it in a couple of days, though that’s really all the longer we were even there. Anyway, her addiction for them made me want to read them; however, I settled for listening to Jim Dale’s reading. When the movie came, I had only made it through where Harry gets to Diagon Alley for the first time.

Anyway, should be interesting to see what she has in store. According to CNN, she has about 18000 additional words to augment the site. I’m guessing that’s for book 1. That’s about 1/4 the amount of written material in “The Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone.” I wonder if she’s planning on rolling out additional text for each of the books.

Anyway, fun!

Music from the Oddest Things

/ / Opinion, rantings

I love creativity, especially when it comes to music. Using odd things as instruments is an extremely cool way to get my attention. Take, for example, this video. Hopefully you’ll be able to see the vid without being a backer, but i’m not sure. it sure is cool to watch though.

Watching this made me wonder what other “odd instruments” are used in other music. Google to the rescue!

This is a curious site, though not particularly what I meant or was looking for.

There may or may not be duplicates on this page.

More along the lines of what I was looking for …

Great collection of strangeness.

CD Review: Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler

/ / New Music, Opinion, rantings, review

The first music I heard of Marissa Nadler’s was Little Hells. The thing that struck me about that CD was just how … I don’t know … mellowingly  meloncholy? haunting? Dare I say it–macabre? It was one of the most amazing CDs I had ever heard.

I wasted no time hunting down and acquiring everything she’d done to that point. Ballads of Living and Dying, The Saga of Mayflower May, and Songs III: Birds on the Water. All of it was provacatively haunting, and I listened to it non-stop for weeks.

It was a pleasant shock to discover that Miss Nadler Released her 5th CD this past Tuesday–a self-titled effort that elevates her music to a new benchmark that borders on heavenly. 11 tracks that clock in at right around 45 minutes, there isn’t a song on here that won’t leave you wondering how God let such an angelic voice slip out of earshot.

The longest track, “In Your Lair, Bear,” is 6 minutes long. It opens with Marissa gently plucking her guitar and musing, “Where did you go when the snow fell that year? You’re inside these wooden walls like a bear, eager child, for the end in your lair. For the end of the year. The old familiar fear creeps up your little arms and runs through your veins like blood through your songs.” After several listens, that’s what I’m hearing, anyway. Between her guitar, the strings arrangement, the low-key cymbals and percussion, you can’t help but swoon like a shark that’s been knocked on its back.

You see the 3rd track, “The Sun Always Reminds Me of You,” and you think, “Aww … a love song!” Yah. This is about as love-songy as “Every Breath You Take.” The only difference is that this doesn’t have the stalker feel to it so much as it has the “Shit … why must every ray of sunshine remind me of you? Curse my rotten luck.” You can hear her heart breaking with each strum and drum beat. I love the steel guitar at the end. Gives it just that hint of country flair to it without actually invoking Fords, dogs, shotguns, line dancing and cheating spouses. No, okay … seriously. You know how a lot of country has that “love lost” feel to it? That’s this song in a nutshell.

My favorite song on the CD is “Baby I Will Leave You in the Morning.” Hands down. The chords, arrangement, BPM, theme, lyrics … this thing is brooding, moody, depressingly gorgeous, and just frickin’ hot. For some reason, it has a very Pink Floyd vibe to the music. This makes it on my “desert island” top 10 list. That’s right. Love this song.

This whole CD is just breath-taking. I’m already wishing she would put out an new CD. Not because this one has grown stale (right … cuz that’s possible), but because her music is just that good. I crave, want, and desire more. Now.

File this under “shiver” cuz you will get the chills from listening to this.

 

Stayin’ Alive

/ / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

My wife and I had back-to-back meetings. Mine was at 7, hers at 7:30. I went out and swapped vehicles with her and took our girls home. She always has her car radio on … something I tend to avoid at all cost unless it’s the local college station. On the way home, The Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive” came on. For whatever reason, I automatically started swerving the wheel to the beat. Mind you, this wasn’t some super busy road at 75 MPH … we were going down some little residential road at 25. Very easy to control the car. The girls absolutely loved it.

As we approached our street, I realized that I was *right* in front of the police station. Anyone looking out their window would have seen us be-boppin’ down the road as we turned down our road. Oops. Thankfully, no one noticed. Ha ha!!

So of course the girls demanded to listen to it again. “Sorry girls. Radio!” That was met with a chorus of “AWWWWW”s and “WAAAAAAH”s.

Guess what I just bought on iTunes. 🙂

And with the goodness of Audiogalaxy, I can play it pretty much any time I want for them. Or … me. Come on … who amongst us doesn’t have that occasional guilty pleasure?

Bee Gees FTGP!

Possible New HD Camcorder

/ / Blah-ness, Opinion, rantings

So I stumbled across this little doohickey earlier today. I like it for a number of reasons.

For one, it’ s black–definitely more difficult to see it at a concert than, say a Kodak Playsport which *claims* to be black, but is, indeed, actually white (though the part that would face the stage/security guards is indeed black).

16x digital zoom is cool, but … it’s still just digital. Hello, pixelating and artifacting. No interpolation for me, thanks.

The 16MP stills option is, cool, but … well, refer to my comment above about interpolation. The 16MP isn’t *really* 16Mp–it’s 8MP x 2. Not at all the same thing.

I like the fact that it supports SDXC. 8GB SD cards aren’t gonna give you much time. 16GB, maybe. 32GB … not bad. 64GB? Yah. Now we’re talking length. Wait … what?

Price point: excellent! Amazon has it listed for $99. that’s pretty good for a 1080p digital video recorder.

Now … I told you all that to show you this.

Difference is, that’s a flip-out screen. As in, if a security guy at a concert sees that, he’s going to FLIP OUT. I’d like to get a tech spec comparison for the camera sensors between this, the B10, and my current Kodak PlaySport. I like the PlaySport. I do. But … it has it’s limitations. For one, it doesn’t do well in dark situations. Like concerts. Cuz, you know … they’re generally dark, right? So I’m wondering if the Toshibas would perform any better. Only one way to find out, right? 😉

Here are the perks to the P100:

Really, the only difference is the 5x optical zoom. For me, that’s *huge*. Optical will ALWAYS beat digital zoom (until such time where optical zoom does not beat digital zoom, and thus renders this statement obsolete *COUGH*billgates*HACK*512K*WHEEZE*whoneedsmore*MORECOUGH*). Anyway, 5x optical would be really, really nice for concerts. Especially if we’re sitting near the back. Maybe not for, say, A Perfect Circle, where you have 12th row. 😉 In that case, no zoom would probably be just fine.

The other difference is, of course, the flip screen. I’m not a fan of it. Period. Not for the purposes I’m considering. At least with the standard non-flip design, it looks sort of like a phone. The flip-out screen *might* arouse suspicion in even the most lax of security guards. Maybe.

So really, it’s a toss-up. I do like the 5x optical. That’s a huge selling point. Digital zoom means nearly nothing to me. Especially 16x. I might as well watch fuzzy colored squares that vaguely resemble semi-recognizable shapes dance around my screen. Thanks, no. Couldn’t be less bothered.

Decisions, decisions …

 

App Review: SongKick Concerts

/ / iPhone Apps, Opinion, rantings, review, software

Guess what app I’m in love with right now. I’ll give you a hint:

I hadn’t really checked out any new apps on iTunes’ store lately, so I thought I’d glance through it and see what I could fiind. To my surprise, SongKick Concerts was featured on the main page. The app integrates with its web-based counterpart to sync your SK accout (if you have one; if you don’t, it’s easy enough to set up one). Best part is that it’s free.

This thing is incredible. By “incredible,” I don’t just mean, “Wow, hey … this thing is pretty nifty.” No–I mean this app makes Chuck Norris look like the E-Trade baby. That’s how enormously awesome this thing is. Here’s why.

1. It scans your iDevice and finds the musicians in its database, which is vastly superior to any other concert app database I’ve seen. This thing finds EVERYthing. I loaded one song from each artist from the first half of my library (A-M), excluding classical artists and new age/soundscape artists. It had representative graphics for almost everyone, including obscure artists like Hungry Lucy, Diane Birch, Howling Rain, First Aid Kit, Emily Wells … the list goes on.

For every artists that is on tour or a concert date is scheduled, it puts a little “On Tour” banner in the top left corner of the image so you KNOW that that artist/band is playing somewhere soon. Could be as little as a one-off gig at some bar in Rigby Idaho. Could be as extensive as playing Estadio de Luz

One thing that I would like this app to do, and it may  … I haven’t seen it do this yet, but it very well could–is to localize the list to my geographic area and provide that same banner for artists coming to the greater Salt Lake area. As it is, I sift through my artists and see if a particular artist is coming. If not, oh well–move on to the next one. If so, I check out date, ticket prices, venue, etc. But really … it’s not at all a large complaint.

2. The app links you out to ticket vendors. No need to go out to Ticketmaster or wherever. Links are provided to the venue, ticket purchasing, or wherever you need to go.

3. You can search for an artist and track when s/he/they are coming to your area. It’s a bit better than having to scan your whole iOS device library and look through at individual artists/bands, but at the same time, you have to manually search and select “Track” to get that localized effect. Again, oh well. 🙂

4. If 6you select the nearest large city to you, it will spit back who’s playing where, when and for how much. For example, tonight in the SLC area, we have:

  • Psychostick at Club Vegas
  • Soulcrate Music at Kilby Court
  • Taking Back Sunday at In the Venue
  • Pharoahe Monch at the Hotel Elevate
  • Craze at One Nightclub

I’m telling you … this is the ONLY concert app you need. Download it and check out what shows you didn’t know are coming to your area!

Concert Review: Samantha Crain in Salt Lake City

/ / Concerts, Opinion, review

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Should it be the fact that she went out of her way to grant an interview? That during the interview, she was so down to earth that I couldn’t help but feel like we had known each other for years instead of mere minutes? How about the fact that this tiny little spitfire put on a show that kept people coming on to the floor immediately in front of the stage?

Where to start …

I guess I’ll just go in chronological order. At this point, it seems to make the most sense.

First off, I should mention that this is going to be a two-parter post: The concert review, and the discussion/interview we had. Again … damn. They really don’t come any more laid back than she.

So concert review. Here it is, from the top.

The venue was The Urban Lounge. I hadn’t been to a show there, so I did some poking around. Not a lot of favorable reviews, sadly. Even my friend in Colorado who had been to a show couldn’t think of a good thing to say. “It’s hot, AC sucks, sound system sucks … not my favorite place for a concert.” For all the reviews I read and all the dialog about the place I had had, I can’t help but say this: y’all are wrong. Okay … not about the AC. It was really warm in there. However, the intimacy of the venue trumps pretty much everything. The stage is tiny. The dance floor is tiny. Actually, the whole venue is tiny. It’s only designed to hold about 300 people, and there were possibly 200 people there last night. Very, very intimate place for a show. And I *loved* it. Our “seats” were bar stools on the fringe of the dance floor. I could have thrown a feather and hit the stage (if that feather were tied to a tiny pebble, or maybe a wad of semi-compacted paper).That’s how close the seats were.

My intent was to take pics and video the whole show. Both were accomplished, but not in the manner I had anticipated. I was hoping that I could just prop up my phone and record the show. That was tossed out within the first 2 minutes of the first song as everyone rushed the stage and staked their claim to band proximity. Hey … who am I to complain? Newbie to the venue, rules already well-established … who am I to demand a straight shot at the stage? No … I adapted and made the best of my newly acquired understanding of how the vibe works there. I held my phone aloft for all 10 songs (11, if you want to count the Britney Spears tribute for Will), and it looks great. Even better than I had planned. Lots of crowd interaction, lots of needing to maneuver to get a better angle because of the crowd … all of whom were awesomely enthusiastic to be there for Samantha, Penny and Anne.

Samantha opened her set with “Lions,” off her newest CD You (Understood). The first thing I noticed, and I love this about an artist, is that she sounds even better live than she does on her CDs. This takes NOTHING away from her studio performances, but man … the girl can rock out. And rock out she did. She danced and stomped around the stage with her guitar, threw her head back and let the moment sink in, never missing a note or a beat. Her feet were constantly moving. Her music and moves were of one mind. And her smile! What a genuinely awesome smile she has. Her music and love for it is so sincere that she cannot keep from smiling while she’s playing. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. The passion she displays for her art and for making sure the fans get everything out of her show that she can offer are the only things she’s worried about while on stage.

She’s also aligned herself with Penny Hill (bassist) and Anne Lillis (drummer). They equally throw themselves into the moment. Anne set my “wow” factor for drummers to an all-time high. Just … WOW. One quick note from the interview: Penny and Anne were on another couch while I chatted with Samantha. Very unassuming, quiet, and low-key. Yah … that was all left in the green room once the show started. Anne took her sticks, and with fluidity like I’ve never seen, she began pounding away in anthemic rhythm. She was Niagara Falls, flowing relentlessly and careening over the edge in one million gallons of pure drumming, crashing down upon her drumset with unbridled passion. Penny, the bassist, matched Anne pace for pace in her energy, constantly bouncing around the stage and enjoying every minute, her fingers flying up and down the frets as she sweetly and crooningly sang harmony and back-up. MOST excellent.

Their energy and playing was infectious, which the crowd obviously picked up on this vibe cuz the floor kept filling up with each passing minute, all longing to be part of that energy. And let’s face it … who wouldn’t want to be part of that energy?

On the next song, “Songs in the Night,” Samantha traded in the mini-guitar solo opening for a kazoo solo.  I don’t know if the guys next to us were digging or making fun of it, but we loved it. Practically no one uses a kazoo anymore, but it fit so perfectly with the intro that going back and listening to the studio track almost seems … incomplete? This is the magic of Samantha Crain–“Surprise! Here’s a kazoo intro. Didn’t see that coming, did ya?!” Love it!

Here’s the entire set list from the show:

  • Lions
  • Songs in the Night
  • Equinox
  • Holdin’ that Move
  • New Song (not sure what it was called … something about convertibles)
  • Scissor Tales
  • Get the Fever Out
  • Religious Winds
  • Two-Sidedness
  • Toxic (Britney Spears cover, tribute to Will)
  • Up on the Table

Here are some pics from the show.

 

Videos of the show can be found on my YouTube channel.

For supposedly being an “opening act” for Langhorne Slim, she got the crowd on their feet and kept them there until well after the last note. After the show, I made it a point to get her attention before we left so that I could once again thank her for her time earlier in the evening for the interview and for such a spectacular show. What ended the night on such a personal high note was the huge, glowing smile that greeted me. I’m telling you … the girl has class. She knows how to make people happy, which is simply by being her good-natured self. I’ll get more into it when I write about the interview/conversation, but for now, just know that she is as geniunely friendly and kind a person as you can imagine, and my life is better for having met her.

Samantha Crain, thank you. 🙂

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