Just another Saturday night

Since last time I wrote, I've just been doing the same general stuff. Went to B&N on Thursday and saw George. He's chilling. While there I check out some magazines. Anyone seen this magazine Antenna? I don't know what to say about it, just check it out if you get the chance. That is in no way an endorsement of the mag however. I'm having a hard time figuring it out myself. I also checked out this book called Evening Dresses by Alexanrda Black. It was awesome and had dress designs spanning most of the 20th century. It rocked and there was even an Erin O'Connor picture that I'd never seen. Awesome!

Yesterday,I went to the mall to get some new pants for work and I got an awesome jacket too! I can definitely wait for fall, but man do I wanna rock this jacket. After shopping I considered having a beer at the mall. Then I realized that it was about 6:00 so I headed to Coakley's for wings. They have the best wings ever. I lived off them for about two months last winter and it was heaven. Anyway, I get to Coakley's and on Fridays they have $5 pitchers. So I get a pitcher, and I'm talking to a dude I hadn't seen in a while. Anyway, what happens is I totally forget to order wings. Happy hour ends at 7, so the special is over. So that sucked, but whatever. It just gives me a reason to go back to Coakley's in the next few days. Speaking of the simply the best neighborhood pub, they just won the award for, I believe, the sixth year in a row. Anyway, I grab a six pack and then just head home.

Tonight I worked and that was pretty chill. I made better money than normal and that was pretty nice. I also have more shifts this week so that's awesome even though I have to work at 6am next Saturday. I have to make myself get up early this week for some prepro on that.
Got a cool email from Steve who would benefit greatly from the stories contained in the first season of Never Not Funny. Anyway, I meant to watch SNL tonight, but kind of got sucked into like a Crimefiles type of show instead.
I'm waiting on a new episode of Uhh Yeah Dude (see links), but maybe it'll be up tomorrow. Clips from eps 127 and 128. Subscribe in iTunes under comedy podcasts, you won't be sorry.

Radiohead Santa Barbara Webcast

Tonight Radiohead will be webcasting their last American show. Go to Radiohead.com for details. It'll be nice to be able to watch it and not just sit on At Ease reading the setlist tonight. I hope the Santa Barbarians get a wonderful show. I'm glad that the band decided to do this. What a treat!

EDIT: It has started! Go to http://www.radiohead.tv/

Little update: Not a bad show. Glad to hear Talk Show Host, Morning Bell and Go Slowly. I don't normally like Go Slowly, but I liked it tonight. I wish that the show had been shown in color though. Maybe next time.

I had a pretty good day today. I went to Borders to look at magazines for a bit. Looked at records too. Thought about getting Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, but remembered that it's on vinyl somewhere around here. Radiohead covered Tell Me Why Monday night in Hollywood and I wanted to hear the original. Someone probably taped the show so that should be forthcoming, yay! Anyway, I love when Thom Yorke sings Neil, especially the Bridge School cover of After The Gold Rush. This is good though:
Tell Me Why

MP3 of this song upped by Marqueemoon!!

After Borders I went and bought the blank CDs I need to begin to clear off my hard drive. That's going to be fun. Actually, I'm oddly looking forward to putting everything in order and cataloging all the music I've acquired (don't judge!!!) over the past three years.
Came home and watched The Smiths Live at Rockpalast on demand. If you have Comcast it's under Concert.tv. I'd seen parts of it on Youtube before and it was fun to watch it today.
Checked out the FOT chat for a little while. Didn't see any of the DNC.

Whatev... Erin.......

Hell Yeah! The Onion AV Club has selected Scharpling and Wurster (see links) for Portraits Of Awesomeness Number 3!

Not much going on tonight. Today I went over to my friend's house and he was showing me all kinds of awesome stuff. He has this guitar that is from 1951 and there were only about 300 made back then. Typical story, he got it from a coworker whose deceased husband once played it.

We had some beers and smoked a bit and all in all it was a nice little Monday afternoon. Then I came back home. Began to watch some coverage of the DNC. It wasn't that interesting though, so I was just listening from the other room for most of it.

I noticed that two people, I'm not sure who, downloaded one of the Best Show clips and the episode that I posted a while back. I will be posting more, but if you're reading this and you downloaded either one please leave a message, so I know what you would like to hear more of. No big deal, but it would help me post clips and things that are sort of in the same vein. I'm cleaning out my hard drive soon, which means I'll be putting a lot of my audio onto CDs. If I come across something that really strikes me while I'm clearing out, I'll post it. Right now 90% of my Best Show clips aren't on my computer but on MP3 CDs. I need to go through those because that's about 60 great clips that I should upload. This is, after all, a world takeover. So I will fight the good fight and hype up the show as much as I can because I love it so much. It definitely beats any TV or current movies for being the most consistently funny thing in the world.

Also, as you've probably noticed, I put a CBox up so feel free to write anything you want in there. It seems less formal than commenting and doesn't require approval or letter verification or any of that stuff. So use it to call me a douche today!

Here's a CLASSIC Best Show clip! Craig Barron is a district manager for Smirnoff Ice. After Tom expresses displeasure with the malt beverage, he receives this call which contains several delightful ways to enjoy Smirnoff Ice. Not to be missed!! I have probably turned more people onto the show with this clip than any other. "If you don't know anything about Smirnoff Ice, you're going to find out when you drink it."

Go to friendsoftom.com to get in on the fun. The Best Show on WFMU is broadcast Tuesday nights from 8-11 est.

Wonderful day

What has happened since I last wrote? One of my best friend's fathers died, so that sucks. I haven't talked to my friend since he texted me about it on Friday. I don't even know if he's in the area right now. Maybe I'll try to talk to him tomorrow.

Saturday night I worked and made decent money. After work I went to Coakley's and saw some of my work dudes there. It was pretty uneventful. I thought maybe I'd run into Mike, but did not.

Today, I went to an awesome baby shower for one of my friends who I've known all my life. He'll be having a little boy in September and that's cool as hell. Saw a ton of old friends there and that rocked. They were telling me that Hummel is coming back, and that's when we started talking and I realized how many people from my group of friends now live right on my street. That's very cool. I really got a charge from seeing and talking to all my old friends. They're so great. My friend, Gino, who is the father to be is really cool and we talked for a long time when most people had left. His step dad gave me a great CD that he made of '80s type hair guitar rock and I'm about to fire that up. I heard some of the songs when we took a little cruise. The beginning of the album sounds like a riot is going to start and then it breaks into these songs which are full of solos and crazy technical playing.

These two guys, Gino and his step dad, are both really good musicians. If there are any people I know who have real success in music it's those two. Gino fronts one of the most popular bands in Harrisburg. In Harrisburg, 90% of the bands that get gigs in clubs and bars are cover bands. I'm really not a fan of too many of them just because, you know, there a cover band. Gino's band is different though because of the variety of stuff they cover. I wish I had a setlist to quote, but whatever, they're tight! I'm probably going to see them next Saturday. They play a ton of shows, but I never know when they are because I never log into Myspace anymore. I hate Myspace.

Anyway, after the shower I just came home and chilled. I slept for a little while and then got up to watch Adult Swim. I actually caught Tim & Eric Awesome Show so I was happy. Right now I'm listening to ep 129 of Uhh Yeah Dude and Chilling. The show now has an awesome new logo that I love. I hope that the UYD forums will return soon.

Mr. Yorke regulating suckers in Vancouver

That guy probably feels like quite a tool. I like this better than when Thom said "Shut up, cu*t." In 2006. Thom rules.

Campaign Swag!

Since I'm leaning towards PFT or Mike for the Mayor of Newbridge (Philly Boy Roy is not a realistic option for me any longer because I don't support a hoagie tax), I love these promotional campaign goodies from Senorcorazon from the FOT board! Edit: I'm not a Hammerhead supporter, but I like the Hardcore one from Erika as well.

So last night Ryan and I went to Hollywood Casino to check out this band, Grumpy Old Men. Great name. They were pretty good and did a lot of great covers. Their Comfortably Numb was a highlight. The dude that Ryan knows is a shredding guitarist and was soloing to the gods for most of the night. I then came home, walked my pups and watched South Park. Pretty chill night. Today I've got to finish Harry Potter and then meet the girl at B&N at 6:30 for coffee. Here are two Best Show clips that I love

A Talk With The Publisher of Pizza Aficionado Magazine One of my favorite Best Show clips of all time. A good intro to the alternate reality that the show sometimes veers into.

Philly Boy Roy Takes Over The Show I haven't listened to this in a while, but I remember it being pretty good. Roy is one of the show's most beloved screw ups. Maybe once the Best Show takeover begins I can post some clips of the caller known as Spike. He's true class and a real person which makes it more great.

Killer Show

After not doing much yesterday but driving around and getting some Sbarro, I was ready to laugh. For some reason I didn't listen to The Best Show live, knowing that I'd check out the archived episode around midnight. Last night's episode was the first one I ever listened to twice back to back. It was that good. From the Newbridge national anthem set to the tune of The Cars' Just What I Needed, to Marky Ramone's awesome accent and climactic stories, this show had everything! I'm listening to it again right now.
It was also proposed by Tom last night that the Best Show World Domination Project get underway in earnest. I can already feel it beginning. Soon The Best Show will rule the iTunes comedy chart and I can't wait. This summer has been greatly improved by awesome Best Show moments and it looks like September could be the biggest month ever, entertainment wise.

Tonight, I'm going to a casino with Ryan to see some band that his former guitar teacher plays in. I'm not really into gambling, but it should be pretty fun. I think that the show runs until about ten and then I'll come home and walk my dogs. I'll probably put up some Best Show clips or some kind of music tonight, maybe just sort of a grab bag. I've got to email Harry Potter girl tonight and tell her we can meet up tomorrow. I'm not really looking forward to that at all.

Anybody have any music requests? Of the few people who read this the only ones whose musical tastes I have any knowledge of are Denise and Steve. Steve get over and check out that Neckface show. It's like a mile from you. Snag this fool a T-shirt, please!

The Newbridge Mayubernatorial Debate

So, tonight's episode of The Best Show on WFMU is all about the Newbridge Mayubernatorial debates. Over the last few months, tons of candidates have come and gone and the race is really heating up. I'm listening to the show right now, so I don't know how it's going to turn out. I got a text from Steve in North Hollywood earlier tonight and he said it was hilarious. I'm not listening live. I know many of the other candidates are afraid of Tor Halbersom from the Chocolate, Machine Gun and Switchblade Party, but I'd like to see what direction he would take Newbridge in if he were to become mayor. Otherwise my vote goes to either AP Mike, Paul F. Tompkins or Philly Boy Roy, naturally. Even though I live 90 miles to the west in Harrisburg, I gotta keep it Roxborough!

If you like comedy, comedians, people, rock music, jokes, fake names, real names, heroes, ghouls, phone calls, catchphrases, nerds, movies, ABBA, and most importantly the good guys, do yourself a favor and check out the show. You can find full archives at Friendsoftom.com or stream it live every tuesday night from 8-11pm (est) from WFMU.org.

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'll put up some good clips this week!!

Another Pitchfork documentary

I'm pretty sure I used this pic on my old blog too.

This time about Public Enemy's grounbreaking album It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. Old school still rules.

http://www.pitchfork.tv/

Blogging gets boring

Lately, I've been spending way too much time in the coffeeshop section of Google groups which I stumbled on a month ago. It's kind of a wasteland, but I get sucked in by people who want tips or readers for their blogs. The thing that's so annoying and weird is that half the time people don't post a link to their blog so you kind of get why they need help. Some blogs I read there are pretty cool but suffer from being over promoted and some just suck. By over promotion I mean when people post their link every few hours despite there being no new blog content. I don't get that. I guess people are just hard up for readers and need comments to feel good about what they write. Not me, I never get comments and yet I blog away like a busy beaver because I enjoy it. I truly have no idea why, either.

Uggghhh!! I now have to meet up with Harry Potter girl at some point this week to give her back her book before she moves. This got me thinking about how I was seeing this real idiot last summer who never gave me back my special edition Kid A CD. That still pisses me off, but I know that the girl is an emotional nutjob and Kid A was probably the best thing anyone had ever given her. I don't usually like to throw people under the bus, but with her I see no problem with it. I got that CD from someone very special and it pisses me off that this girl now has it. Oh well.

Today I need to get out of the house and soak up summer's last remaining goodness. I can't believe it'll be over soon. Then the blackness of fall will be here as violent as a spooked horse. I really don't want fall to happen this year. Unless I win the lottery or something, it's going to just be the same long, cold trial that last autumn was. Winter is OK for some reason, but fall, a season I used to absolutely love, has really lost it's luster. Maybe this year, with my new job, it'll be cooler than last year, but right now I can't see that being the case. Anyway, models are coming back full force.

Radiohead - Mansfield, MA 08/13/08

Recorded, edited and everything else by Sensitiveeyes from At Ease. Big ups!

EDIT: There should be more sources for this available tonight. I know people in the UK can't use Sendspace. I'll post them when I find them.

Setlist:

01. Reckoner

02. Optimistic

03. There There

04. 15 Step

05. Kid A

06. Nude

07. All I Need

08. The Gloaming

09. The National Anthem

10. Videotape

11. Jigsaw Falling Into Place

12. The Bends

13. Faust Arp

14. Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi

15. Everything In Its Right Place

16. Exit Music

17. Bodysnatchers
Encore 1:

18. House of Cards

19. I Might Be Wrong

20. Paranoid Android

21. A Wolf At The Door

22. How To Disappear Completely
Encore 2:

23. Cymbal Rush

24. Karma Police

25. Idioteque

Link

Photo by Chris Devers.

A mild day at work

I worked today, which was pretty fun. I didn't really have too much work to do, so it flew by. I wish that I had made more money, but what can you do? I always seem to make the same amount of money, which is really sort of getting to be a drag. I need to look for a new job this week. As much as I dread the prospect of interviewing and meeting with people, I have a lifestyle to sustain and if it weren't for unemployment right now I'd be dead. Deader than dead actually. I need something with good vacation time. I'm almost more concerned with vacation time than I am with the wage. Ahh, what a total nightmare.

In other unrelated, stupid shit, Harry Potter girl is moving. It's actually kind of cool, because now I don't have to worry about reading every JK Rowling book. I enjoy her work and the book I'm reading, but I can see that this would have been the beginning of many little random tasks that I wouldn't have really enjoyed. It wasn't like I was insisting that this girl be able to discuss the highlights of OK Computer or Kid A, you know? It was kind of annoying to get to know someone who wants to give you homework right away. I'm used to things with my friends sort of happening more organically because we're all into the same stuff. You kind of automatically become interested in things that interest the people you care about.

I got cool emails from my friends in Colorado. They are both teachers and a couple. A couple of really great people who I'm very lucky to have as friends. Cool folks! The young woman is about to begin her student teaching, so I'm sure she's a little apprehensive. I know that she'll do great though. Her hardest thing to overcome will probably be sticking with it as a career. She's very talented so it's easy for her to become interested in anything but what she's currently doing. I'm kind of the same way, but in my case it sort of prevents me from really committing and doing anything at all.

Bah!! I should have gone out tonight, but I am really trying to watch my drinking. Last night I drank and it was kind of boring. I'm spending way too much money on it. If I had gone out tonight it would have cost me at least $50 and that's not including buying drinks for other people.

New Uhh Yeah Dude Craigslist segment. From episode 126

888-842-2357. UYD.

Also, a new Neckface show!! Cannibal Carnival! Neckface is an amazing artist who has gained international acclaim for his demonic and radical characters. The creepy dude at the top of my page is a Neckface painting from his last show ( I believe), Closed Casket. Looks like he's using a lot more color than in his earlier work. I'll post any pics I can find of this new show. Excitement!!

My God! After three whole seconds searching the net I came across this! So great! I hope my brother will go see this and maybe take some pics. Check some more here!

YES!!!

I have cranked this so many times in the Jetta that it defies modern logic. Oh yteah!

Lazy Friday

Not much going on today. I should make the most of it too, since I have to work tomorrow. I've just been chilling and cranking tunes this morning. All my friends are at work, so I have to wait until later to see if anyone wants to do anything. I need to email Harry Potter girl and say hello, but I haven't finished the book, so that prospect seems grim. Actually, that whole situation leaves me with little hope.
So, I posted a response to one of the mysterious CL postings and nothing has happened yet. It's probably nothing, but I must have little distractions and BS things to make my days more interesting.
I went to Borders and B&N yesterday, but it was the most pointless thing ever. I saw this guy at B&N with these two awesome puppies. I think they were St. Bernards. I've seen them there before and they're awesome. Never talked to the guy though. Ultimate chick magnet the dogs must be, though.

Spent the rest of the night just shitting around the internet. I want the new TV On The Radio album to leak. I was checking for that last night, but didn't see any links. If you're so inclined you've got to check out their last album, Return To Cookie Mountain. Seriously, a marvel of an album. I want to go see them again. Their live show is incredible.
I keep checking for a good recent Radiohead boot to post here, but so far the one I've found, which I mentioned the other day, was utterly terrible. Supposedly, there will be a recording of the Mansfield show up later today, so I may post that if it's quality.
Right now I'm listening to Meat Is Murder and trying to get motivated to do something. Anything. Maybe I'll take a drive.
I'm wating on an email from my friends in CO. It's not like them to not email me right back, so maybe there's something going on with them that I'm not aware of. Whatever, I'll probably write more tonight.

Two '80s bangers

Michael McDonald's 'Sweet Freedom'


Jane Wiedlin's 'Rush Hour'


There is no telling how many times I listened to these songs when I first got my iPod back in the day. Such good times. I remember being into both of these songs when they came out. I know that Sweet Freedom is from '86, but I'm really not sure about Rush Hour. I think that that was '88. Anyway, I was so glad when I found these on Limewire when I used to use Limewire. Now I download all my music from forums and they would never have this type of stuff. No Information Society either.

5:00 pm time to wake up

Oh my God, I am such a slug today. Last night I didn't do anything. I didn't meet up with Ryan I just ate a Tony's pepperoni pizza and drank a little while keeping up with the setlist from Radiohead's show in Mansfield, MA. I can't believe they got A Wolf At The Door and I Might Be Wrong, but Radiohead does love Boston, so I guess that should have been expected.

Today I haven't done anything. I need to shower and get out of the house. I'll probably go to Borders or B&N. I always go to the same places when I'm bored, when I need to get out of the house.
I had another weird thing on Craigslist yesterday and I'm really thinking that I should post a response to one of the ads. It's a little creepy, but I really think someone's trying to find me and if it's the someone I think, I would love to be found. I've got to step back and really think about this though. I mean, there's a reason that some people are no longer a part of my life and opening up the door to them again could spell disaster in the long term. I don't know what to do, but right now I need to get off the computer and go out into the world for a bit. It looks like it's going to storm here. Perfect.

This is awesome!!

http://www.pitchfork.tv/

Excellent documentary about The Smiths' The Queen Is Dead. Only available until tomorrow night. Just scroll down on the right. It's fantastic.

Ooh scary

When I was putting up those pictures I thought I had screwed up my blog for real. All of the fonts in the sidebar became tiny. Then they became huge! Well, it seems that everything is OK now.

Last night on The Best Show was the WFMU debut of the H Man and it was a pretty good show. I had said that I was listening to episode 126 of Never Not Funny the other day but it was actually episode 321 that had Patton Oswalt as a guest. You should be able to click on the NNF link to see video of the show. In other podcast news, is HBO developing Uhh Yeah Dude into a show? They're saying that they're being sponsored by Entourage season 5. I wish I thought that the whole thing were some kind of joke, but it's not like Jonathan and Seth to yank the listener's chain too much without revealing the joke. I'm excited to see what happens and I'm loving that they're putting up clips on Youtube. Seriously, the show is funnier than 90% of TV talk shows.

I don't know what I'm going to do tonight. I need to save money since I drank many an $8 beer at the show last night. Ryan is getting a new tat, but I may chill with him when he's done. I want to go see Pineapple Express, but I may wait until Friday when I can catch a matinee. I think I'll either go with my friend or my mom, not sure.

I need to finish reading Harry Potter. I'm half way done with it and I can tell it's just about to get good. My friend, who insisted I check it, out plans on quizzing me on it when next I see her. I have no idea when that will be though because I don't have a lot of free time lately. Maybe I can meet her in the next few days. I doubt she'll want to see Pineapple though. I love comedy, but I don't know how much she likes it. She really like '90s sitcoms and stuff like that, whereas I'm more into sketch, standup and improv.

Other people's Radiohead photos

The tour is over for me having seen four shows. My brother and at least one person from my hostel crew are probably going to see them in Hollywood towards the end of the month. Anyway, here are some pics from APW. I found a lot of these on Flickr, but some are Sweetcell's, I'm pretty sure.

Call ideas

I just got back from seeing Radiohead again tonight, for the final time, in Camden, NJ. Bah! Summer is now officially beginning to end. I normally welcome fall with open arms, but not after last year. Last fall sucked.

Radiohead was good tonight but I don't think they could really top APW night 2. Even though they played a few of the same songs (not counting In Rainbows material). The only differences being that at APW they played Exit Music and Airbag. Tonight we got Go Slowly (snooze) Street Spirit and Just. So that's that, pretty much. I'll wait around and catch them again in 2010 or eleven.

Since I've been taking so many roadtrips lately and I don't have an iPod jack in my car, I've been listening to tons of radio. I'm obsessed with Miley Cyrus' See You Again. The other day on the way back from New York I was rocking to it in the car. Tonight I was scanning the channels like a mad man trying to hear it, But I didn't. I also want to hear Rihanna's Disturbia, because I've caught the tail end and thought it sounded lame. I youtubed it just now but could only watch about 20 seconds of it. The video kind of has a Marilyn Manson/NIN's Closer vibe to it. Anyway, check out the hook in this tune!



Right now I'm downloading Radiohead's 8/8 show (APW 1) from http://shortwaverockin.blogspot.com/. If it sounds good, I'll definitely put it up. The taper says that it is poor quality, but we'll find out. My 6/1/06 recording is only 64kbps and sounds awesome, so you never know.

New Thoughts

Well, I haven't really found too many good All Points West videos to post. I didn't really take many photos because my camera wasn't taking night shots like usual. They were coming out way too dark so I kind of just stopped. I don't think I shot a single photo on the second night.

I can't seem to bounce back. I'm still kind of just tired and laying around today. I have to go to Camden tomorrow and, hopefully, I'll hook up with a few Ateasers there. I'm trying to get a ticket for my brother to the Hollywood Bowl. If he can get it for face value he'd be pretty psyched. Anyway, maybe I'll get some pics in Camden. I need a new digital camera anyway, because mine is only 5 megapixels and not that advanced. A simple $180 Sony Cybershot would be much better. Normal blogging to resume soon.

All Points West recap

So, I just got back yesterday from All Points West in Jersey City. Great shows by Radiohead both nights but the second night was, as I had predicted, absolutely phenomenal. I was lucky enough to stay in NYC with some awesome people from At Ease and we partied and had a great time for three days straight. Many thanks to them for making the experience so awesome. It was great having other hardcore fans to share the experience with before and after both shows. Here's a little recap of my trip.

Thursday
Get up and get stuff together. I had to drive to Allentown to catch the Bieber Bus to NY. I always take the Beiber because it's a super short ride, you can return whenever you want and it's never crowded. For $42 it's the best thing going for getting from Harrisburg to New York. Listened to Never Not Funny episode 321 with guest Patton Oswalt. It definitely made the ride enjoyable.
I get into New York and the girl who's putting together the meetup and whose name the room at the hostel is in is delayed in Chicago. I wander around 7th avenue, hit Starbucks and then go to the Molly Wee pub at 8th and 30th for some rum and cokes. I then leave to go and meet Romesh who is coming into Penn Station at 4:30. He was really cool and we got to know each other a bit as we again headed to Starbucks. We then get a call from another kid named Orlando who had travelled with his friend Charlie from Puerto Rico. These guys were cool as hell, and I could write a whole blog about how funny they were. Awesome dudes.
So then we go down into the depths of Penn Station to meet everyone else. We met up with four other people in there, Andrea, Larry, Oleg and Gina, who organized our trip. We got on the 1 train and headed uptown to our hostel. Check in went smoothly and once we had our stuff all situated, we headed out into the streets seeking food and spirits. We went to this diner and got dinner then made the first of our two trips to the liquor store for Malibu rum, a bottle of which I'm still enjoying. We probably go to sleep around 1:30 having all gotten to know each other and telling stories from our Radiohead related travels. The level of all of these people's dedication to catching the band live was amazing. It was nice to be with people who share my high opinion of Radiohead being the greatest band on Earth. It was also cool to put names to faces of people from At Ease as we've all shared in very spirited exchanges in the past.

Friday
We all get up around 10 or 11 and get ready to go. We wait for Jordan, who had just gotten off the plane from Los Angeles to arrive at the hostel then we take off. He had sold a pair of tickets to the Hollywood Bowl show on ebay for a bit of profit (it's a necessary evil) and is now able to go to many more shows. I'll see him in Camden tomorrow. Anyway, we take the subway to PATH and then get on the light rail in Hoboken to head to Liberty State Park. We get there and it's not crowded at all. We all get spots on the rail and we wait for the fun to begin. I was excited to be able to have a spot at the absolute front row, but I would have to wait there in huge stints for about the next eight hours before Radiohead would take the stage. I leave to get some beer and give my dad a call to see what he's up to. We talk for a few minutes and I'm enjoying a beautiful sunny day with mild temps and a nice breeze off the Hudson.
The show starts around 1:30 with the Go! Team. They had a great energetic set and I really liked their high energy performance. They played a lot of songs that I was happy to hear. Next up was Michael Franti and Spearhead. All of a sudden all these 40 year old hippies come rushing to the front and they were getting wild as hell. There was this beautiful girl right beside me for his set who I recognized from either TV or print advertisements, but I don't know who she was. She was rocking out to Franti. Everyone in my group thought he was laughable but I like his upbeat vibe and inspiring lyrics about peace and unity. After his set all the hippies left like they had never even been there at all.
Then came New Pornographers who had the beautiful Kathryn Calder on keyboards and accordion. She also sung great and is on my list of women I'd marry. She was so awesome as was A.C.. I took many pics of their set. They ended with a rocking cover of ELO's Don't Bring Me Down after playing great songs from Challengers and Twin Cinema.
Next, right before Radiohead, Underworld came on and I thought they were just OK. I'm not really into club music, so I thought it was just alright. The entire set to my untrained, nonfan ears sounded like the same song pretty much.

After about 45 minutes of getting the stage set up, Radiohead finally came out the thunderous applause of slightly less than 40,000 people. I gave up my rail spot to a girl behind me who was about 4 ft. tall and met another kid from Vermont. He and I made sport of guessing which song was next based on the instrument changes. We were correct most of the time. They opened with 15 Step and played much of In Rainbows, Faust Arp being the only song not played. Highlights were Morning Bell, You and Whose Army, Just, Dollars and Cents, and Cymbal Rush from Thom Yorke's stellar solo album, The Eraser.
Here's a video of Cymbal Rush, shot by someone else.





I was never the biggest fan of the song, but it really struck a chord with me this night. I would have loved to hear Super Collider, but this was a nice surprise and I think the first time Thom has played the song in America. I might be wrong.

I must mention that I only kept my spot at the front for a little while, maybe ten songs, because I was unhappy with the sound. About ten songs in I, along with the small girl in front of me moved back about twenty five feet to escape the insane bass coming from the speakers directly over our heads. That made a world of difference and the whole experience was greatly improved, as if it were possible. After the show many of my hostel buddies got setlists and Gina got a pick. We then headed, thanks to Chris from At Ease who was not staying with us, to Rosie's Pizza in Penn Station for pizza, beers and good times. We were all buzzing with excitement and stayed up until about 3, even though we knew we had to get up early the next day as well.



Saturday

Everyone I was with was going to be on the rail again all day, but I was meeting Ryan and Jess so I just chilled and waited for them, knowing that I'd get good and close before Radiohead took the stage. Had some beers, met up with those two at about five and we just hung out. Saw Chromeo, who I thought sucked. Metric, Animal Collective and Kings Of Leon were all pretty decent but I was mostly just talking with Ryan and Jess and not really paying attention. I went to the bathroom and lost Ryan and Jess but was able to run into the crowd and get a really good spot by the time Radiohead came on.

They opened with Reckoner and from there it was just an all out assault as their second night in New York always is. Highlights were Kid A, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Bangers 'n' Mash, Pyramid Song, Airbag, The Bends and Planet Telex. An amazing set all around. Ryan was very happy that it more focused on their more rocking stuff rather than the more technoish sounds of Kid A or Amnesiac. I was just super happy to hear Airbag and The Bends sounded better than I've ever heard it. Also, it seemed like the mix had been greatly improved from the first night. Everything sounded really clean and not as muddy and bass heavy.

After the show we went around behind the stage to see if we could meet the band. However, there was a party going on in the backstage area, so they never came out. Saw Liv Tyler and Patricia Arquette at side stage throughout the set, so there's no telling who else was in attendance.

Photos and some more videos to follow soon as well as bootlegs, when I get a hold of them.

Sunday
I said goodbye to my homies from the hostel and headed downtown with Andrea and Romesh, who had to catch a train. I walked around midtown for a little while considering whether or not I should go down to the LES, but just ended up getting on the bus back to PA around 1 o'clock. All in all a great trip. I hope we have another meetup like that in NYC again next tour. It was truly magical.

More Uhh Yeah Dude!!

This video is about some delusions and things, a topic that is often covered. I heard this last week and two days later Colbert was talking about Truman Show Delusion.

Craigslist Pt.1

Craigslist Pt. 2

Craigslist Pt. 3

A good start to the working week

Tonight at work was pretty decent. I didn't make amazing money, but that's OK. I can make more tomorrow, so I'm not really sweating it. Work went fast and all of my customers were really cool and nice.
I saw something weird on Craigslist last night that I thought may have been addressed to me, but I'm not sure. I don't really have too much interest in finding out, other than just usual curiosity. So strange, but I don't want to go into too much detail. Basically it may be someone from a while back who just figured out that my phone number changed. They know I read CL and there are some strange specifics to it. I want to investigate but I don't at the same time.

I've gotta take back what I said about the new Beck album. I heard it when it was on shuffle or whatever at Borders and it's actually alright. I think I went into it with too much expectation. So the album isn't great but it's far from terrible. I guess I just want Beck to bring some new moves to the game. That's why initially I was let down by Modern Guilt because it just seems so paint-by-the-numbers. I'll give it 2.75 of out 5.

This weekend flew by, probably because I had to work yesterday. The night was kind of weird, started off really slow and then got busy way later, like 9:45. I made pretty good money considering the actual amount of work I did, which wasn't much.

What's the deal with this Axe shower tool? I just did a search for it and Amazon even has people giving customer reviews of it. People seem to like it and to that I say grow up. One guy is on Amazon like 'Every time I mow the lawn I get green stains on my toes and heels that usually last a week. This is the first product that has ever worked.' Try wearing shoes, jackass. I don't even want to get started on men who don't wear actual shoes. But this guy putting up with disgusting stains for so long before the Axe detailer came along. EEEGads!

This is cool!

One of my favorite podcasts and one of the best kept secrets in entertainment right now, Uhh Yeah Dude, has begun to make video clips of them recording. This is from last week's episode. If you want to listen to the show you can subscribe in itunes under comedy podcasts or you can go to Podcast Alley to download or stream it. I hope these video clips will make the show more successful and widespread. The first video deals with science while the second video is their weekly Craigslist segment. Each week they report on the best of Craigslist M4M in the LA area. Both clips are rated M for mature. UYD for life!

Pretty chill day

I don't really have much to post about, I'll say that off the bat. Today I didn't do much but read some Harry Potter, talk to my dad on the phone and get some Taco Bell. I've been obsessed with the Slap magazine message boards the past two days. I haven't registered or posted or anything, but they are pretty entertaining. The reason that I went to that forum was to complain about the X Games completely ignoring street skating in their TV presentations. Why does the average American just want to watch BMX and big air? I can only watch dudes do the megaramp so many times, I don't care who is riding. I see more kids riding skateboards than bikes where I live and I'm sure none of them gives a shit about how high some Brazilian dude got after rolling down a ramp that's like 40 ft. tall. Hosoi did everything you can do in the air twenty years ago. On Slap I was able to read up on the street results and I think that the finals will be lame anyway. I would have really liked to see Leo Romero and Koston, but whatever.

Anyway, I finally paid for my NY room today and I can't wait to meet all of the other fans and go to the shows. I'm not looking forward to Camden as much for some reason, but it'll still be a Radiohead show so it'll be epic either way.

I have to work tomorrow and I hope I make decent money but I don't want to be totally, crazy busy because I haven't worked in so long that I feel like I've forgotten half the stuff I knew. For some reason I think tomorrow could be hell or great. I guess we'll see.