Skyekat

Stuck somewhere between utterly tired & what I hope isn’t a second wind, so I thought I’d whip up a post in the iPod.

We decided to take a city tour to orient ourselves. When our first choice of an early tour didn’t pan out, we opted for the 11:45 leaving from the ferry building. I had checked out the ferry building online previously, & saw they had a farmers market on Sat, so we decided to head over around 9 to check it out before the tour started. On our way out of the Muni, we started to see people setting up tents & stalls. It was the beginning of the arts and crafts fair, and we had some luck finding a really unique, handcrafted bear. Then we walked across the street to the farmer’s market proper. Man, if I lived here I’d be at that market every weekend. Such awesome looking (and tasting) food. They had a ton of samples everywhere. We broke down and got a few things that would keep for the trip.

Also, after much discussion by my friends in the uk about getting satsumas in their stockings, I had finally admitted I had never seen one. I thought maybe they were called something different in the US, but couldn’t come up with anything. Well walking through the farmers market, what should I see? You guessed it, satsumas! I don’t know if it’s a matter of climate or if they don’t transport well, but I’ve never seen them in new England. Ferry building: yummy & educational!

Then we picked up the tour & headed off. First a ferry to Sansolito, then we took the Golden Gate Bridge back into town. We took a few pictures there and then it was back on the bus to head to the palace of fine art & then we wound our way through the Presidio to Golden Gate Park. After seeing it, I can’t wait to come back to the Academy of Sciences, the de Young museum, the japenese tea gardens & maybe the conservatory of flowers tomorrow. Onwards we went, stopping in a gorgeous old Victorian & then finished with 2 short walks, down Lombard St then Chinatown.

It was a lot for one day, and I think some of it washed over me by the end, but I can’t wait to go back to the high points over the next few days!

There are a couple of blogs that I check and go, “God, why haven’t they updated!” and then I realize it’s been 10 days since I last posted, so who am I to talk? And in about 10 days I’ll be off on another trip, so there will be another week without posting. At least that will be planned.

So, since we last spoke… I got bunnies, which was good, and found out that the publications office at my alma matter got dissolved, which is horrible. I spent a couple of really good years there and everyone will be missed sorely…

The bunnies have been great fun though. They’re mini and fluffy. One is all white, tentatively called Bianca (they get sexed on Tues), and the other is white and brown, called Butterscotch. I went over my mother’s almost every night last week to play with them. We found out that Butterscotch can fit through the bars in their exercise pen. That was an exciting discovery. Each day there’s something new with them, which has been fun.

I also realized that I haven’t been putting any time or effort into any personal projects in a while. So I decided to take a couple of steps that will hopefully mean I will start working on some of them soon.

I picked up a couple of lenses and other accouterments today, so they’ll be in before I leave. The big ticket items were a Nikon 18mm – 200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IF AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor Lens and a Nikon 28mm f/2.8D AF Wide Angle Nikkor Lens. I’ve come to realize that, while a great deal, and it allowed me to afford getting my D80 at the time, the lens I have is pretty crap. It lets so little light in, I always have the ISO ratcheted up, so I get some grainy pics. Since I have another trip coming up, I thought it was worth the plunge to get a better lens. Getting the vibration reduction will hopefully come in handy as well, buying me a few extra stops. And the wide angle… well, I have an idea or two for projects I’d like to shoot, so this will give me a bit of a push to get out there and get some images in the can. More info on that as I start to piece things together.

I also finally broke down and ordered about 100 prints from last year’s South Africa trip. I realized that without some hard copies of images, I was never going to be able to really edit the photos, and decide on an order and theme for the book I want to make. So hopefully a stack of prints on the table will give me a good push towards completion. I’ll try to bite off more editing of my travel photography once I get the Africa book my mother’s been asking for for over a year off my plate.

Other than that, work’s been busy. I’ve been reading some, but not what I should be. I’m behind on reading blogs and finding things to post everywhere, but that’s the way it’s been this summer. Slowly fall is creeping in through the edges, but not fully until I get back from the Caribbean!

Summers seem to be a hard time for me to keep on top of things. I haven’t updated the blog, or really done much on ThisNext either. I’ve even fallen behind Flickr-ing. I started this post on Friday, and promptly forgot about it for the rest of the weekend as well. But better late than never. The up-side is that I have been having lots of fun out in that place we call the “real world”, so I can’t complain overly much.

Florida was fun, and everything you might think Disney in the middle of July would be: sweaty, hot, long lines and a few rainstorms to dampen your parade. But it was also a lot of fun. I hadn’t been down there in so long, so I got to do some things I never did when I was young, and got to compare things to my memory. The Haunted Mansion wasn’t quite as bad as memory served, I survived Thunder Mountain, and I will never do Splash Mountain again in a million years.

Since getting back, I had a shoot eat up my Weds, took an ex-co-worker out for farewell drinks that night, and saw The Police and Elvis Costello Thurs night. Elvis Costello was as great as he always is. I was kicking myself though, because as we walked into the venue at 7:25 for a 7:30 show, and he was already playing! Damn me and my not getting out of work on time! And the Police were pretty awesome too. They played the hits, and most of my personal favorites. (concert review) I do want to know whose (grand)kid was on stage for the second encore though. Kinda odd, and the kid looked a bit scared. And Sting really needs to cut that beard off. Unless he has joined the hallowed order of the hobos, and is eschewing the tour bus to ride the rails in between shows. In that case, it’s totally fine. Was going for the triple play by seeing The Dark Knight on Friday, but that got moved to Sunday due to a scheduling conflict. Which ended up probably being better (even though I still did not end up seeing it) because Sat was one helluva day.

It started out by me heading to my mom’s, and then we took off for Brookline to get snorkel gear at East Coast Divers. It’s a trek, but they’re really well respected and know their stuff. We got fitted for goggles, grabbed some snorkels, and I’ll grab the fins either today or tomorrow. So we’ll be all set for our trip to the Turks and Caicos over Labor Day. Then we booked it up to Danvers, to a BBQ in honor of her B-Day with people from her work. That was nice, and I got to see a bunch of people who I don’t normally, so that was terrific. Then I rushed down to Woburn to meet the friend who was going to the Springsteen concert with me that night at Gillette Stadium.

Both of us were running late for a variety of reasons, and were really hoping that the show would not start at the given 7:30 showtime. We figured we’d have until 8, based on prior experiences, but as traffic came to a screeching halt we could only hope that the lightening we were seeing in the distance meant that the show was delayed. When the skies opened up and a monsoon seemed like it was descending on us, our spirits picked up. We pulled into the nearest lot about 8:30, and walked as fast as our feet would carry us into the stadium. We were just fine, as the concert started at almost 9:30. We were still disappointed that we would get a shorter show because of the noise curfew at 11…except…we weren’t! He played until about 12:15!! They came out of the gate swinging, and the energy never really dipped. He was incredibly interactive with the fans down front, and even took posters from people and played a bunch of requests. At one point, at the beginning of the encore, the stadium staff turned all the lights on, as a hint I guess, but he just kept playing, not even stopping between songs. Finally, the lights went down for the last song, American Land, but even then, they were cajoled into playing Rosalita, one last song to cap the night. It was an absolutely amazing night. Then we wandered back to the car, getting there about 12:50, and didn’t manage to make it out of the parking lot until about 2:10. Collapsed into bed around 3am, and slept really well… (concert review)

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice long weekend. I know I have been.

If you have been enjoying celebrating the American Independence, it should be noted that, when setting off fireworks, never trust a mannequin…

(I have no idea what the title means, just saying)

What, oh what, you may ask, has finally pulled me out of my post-writing stupor?! Several things, as you will learn, but firstly…

Psychotic baby bunnies!

Secondly, I am just pointing out that my Twittering is probably more reliable than my posting. It’s me in bite-sized bits. Well, when twitter (and the rest of the internet!) isn’t down.

So onto other things. I’ve seen a couple shows in the past couple of weeks. First, there was The National (most recent album), Modest Mouse (most recent album), and R.E.M. (most recent album). It was the first real concert of the summer, Raconteurs not withstanding as I went by myself. As previously mentioned, I got out of work at 3 for this. The concert was starting at 6:30, but it meant that each act got a decent amount of time on-stage. Unfortunately, everyone in the known world was on the road with us. It took me almost twice as long as normal to get to my apartment, and my friend took another half-an-hour after that. Once we were off, it wasn’t too bad getting down there, but we didn’t hit the lot until 6-something. Not a good prognosis! So I had to curb my plans to see The National‘s whole set, because otherwise there were steak-tips that would have gone to waste!

We did make it in for the second half of their set though, and walked into the venue while they were playing “Mistaken For Strangers”. I wasn’t sure how much my companion was going to like them, but he totally enjoyed it too. Mostly songs from The Boxer, but a few others thrown in as well.

Next up was the Modest Mouse, who were very good and had energy to spare. I wish they could have played even longer, but was happy with what I got to hear. My concert buddy didn’t like them quite as much, which surprised me, as he tends to dig the aggressive thing, and they were being a bit that day. The screaming into the guitar and using it as a mic was interesting! I’m trying to remember what they played, but I know “Satin in a Coffin” made it (and I think was the first song), along with “Dashboard”, “Here it Comes”, “Paper Thin Walls”…and a bunch more I don’t remember! This is why I’m not a rock critic.

And finally, there was R.E.M.. I had heard from a number of people that they’re great live, and they really are. I don’t know a ton of their back catalogue, but they’re engaging enough that it really doesn’t matter. Michael Stipe is one funny individual. He’s up there bantering about something, loosing his train of thought, noting that the current tangent is not germane to the story, and then proceeding on with his tale. And his dancing! I did get to hear “Ignoreland”, which made me happy, and they played “Orange Crush”, my friend’s favorite, so everyone left feeling warm and fuzzy.

Then… I disappeared for two weeks. I mean, not literally. I know I did things, I just can’t think of what they were at the moment… I know there was a fair bit of book reading involved. Finished The Age of Conglomerates (which was decent), and also read, Goodbye, Chunky Rice (now an all-time fav), The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, The Dangerous Alphabet, and The Labyrinth. All of which are reviewed over at LibraryThing.

I also got a brand new haircut and dye job. It’s much shorter now, but I likes it a lot. And I am going to save my thoughts on the two Pearl Jam and Ted Leo & The Pharmacists show for the next post, as this has gone on long enough!

I’ve been busy trying against all hope to staying cool as this terrible heat wave rolled in. It’s starting to break now, which is good for everyone. I had a couple of really large dub jobs going on this week too, so on top of the heat, the AC had to contend with me having a bunch of decks on. It did an admirable job, but just couldn’t keep up with the heat output. Man, it was bad for a couple of days… but it’s broken just in time for the weekend.

Tomorrow night I’m seeing R.E.M., who has Modest Mouse and The National opening for them. This is totally going to kick ass, and my seats are pretty darn good too. I really can’t wait. It’s one of the cheapest shows I’m seeing this summer, and it’s a great triple bill as far as I’m concerned. I’m getting out of work at 3, meeting up with a friend, then heading down to grill before the show starts. Whoo to summer and concerts.

I received my Something in the mail the other day and was summarily un-impressed. I mean, it’s kinda cool, but totally not my thing. If you look at the Something tracker, under June 6th, there’s an all zipper purse. That, but in purple… But that’s the chance you take, and it was still fun to try to figure out what it was. I’m torn on whether or not I’d do it again… I guess if I won $10 or something, then I would, but not right away.

In other fun web news, Pandora now has a downloadable client. I loved this when it came out, but had been sorely neglecting it as of late. So I fired it up again and have been enjoying listening to it a lot today. That, in turn, made me launch Peel for the first time in a while. And both made me wish that Last.FM would scroble things played in apps other than iTunes.

It also made me check out MuxFind, which has been wallowing in the purgatory of my tabs for quite some time. You type in an artist that you like, and it spits out playlists that people have uploaded that it thinks you might like. It’s kinda nice actually, and simply put together. It does exactly what I’d like it to do without any extraneous bells and whistles. Just what I need, another music site to be addicted to ;)

Something I just put up on ThisNext is Waterstone’s Postcard Stories. You can read more about it by clicking on either link, but long story short, 13 top authors contribute stories hand-written on postcards and auctioned for charity.

And on one last, completely unrelated note: amazon has just launched warehousedeals.com where they sell open-box and returned items and deep discounts. There are a few camera lenses in there that I have my eye on. Worth perusing as long as the opened part doesn’t put you off.

I’ll try to write a review of the concert, but either way, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mostly good though.

I got my iPod touch (8 gig, not 16, but free’s free). I’ve been playing with it incessantly. It actually finally motivated me to get the wireless internet working at the apartment. (That was a fun chore. A few hours and 3 routers later, it’s up and running) It’s so great being able to check email on it and go online. The downside, not as much room for music, and the fact I’ve been neglecting my laptop (and Flickr, ThisNext and blog reading as a result). I have been Twittering though, and Facebook has a nicely laid out iPhone page, so I’ve been keeping up that way. It’s interesting how quickly we change our habits when we get a new piece of technology. It’s so incredibly convenient for what it does do, that I start not to miss what it doesn’t.

I also saw The Raconteurs this week. They were really great. They sounded really tight and played a pretty long set (almost 2 hours), given that they only have two albums. The guitar and bass playing was terrific, and man, their drummer has a ton of energy! They played almost every song off of their latest album, Consolers of the Lonely, (about the only songs they didn’t play were “Five On the Five”, “Pull This Blanket Off”, and “These Stones Will Shout”) along with “Steady As She Goes”, “Level”, “Store Bought Bones” (done in a *very* different style than on the record), “Yellow Sun”, and “Blue Veins” off of Broken Boy Soldiers. I know I had lamented the harder sound of this album, over the popier vein of the previous, but in concert, it just sounded amazing. About the only bad thing about the show was the *incredibly* long time they waited to come out for the encore. I’m not sure how much longer people would have kept clapping for.

That, and the stupid drunk people behind me who decided that my sweatshirt looked like an ash tray. I had draped it across my seat, not the seat back, mind, as that is questionable territory, but over the seat itself, where my ass should have been. That’s firmly my space, so them reaching over to put their cigarette out on the sleeve of my sweatshirt was totally uncalled for. I didn’t even know they did it at the time, but the next day I saw the burn holes. And it’s my favorite black sweatshirt too!

But otherwise, the gig was good, and the rest of this week has been uneventful. I’m going back up to Ogunquit on Sat, and this time will have a chance to walk around more and soak in some sun!

Moving can put a total spin on your schedule, that’s for sure. I was out of internet for a little while as well, but things are starting to settle into relative normality. The next few weeks are still going to be a bit hectic, but should be good. It’s the beginning of summer and there are cookouts to go to, and warmer weather to enjoy.

I’m also going to be enjoying the iPod Touch that I won thanks to ThisNext!! There was a contest for mavens to tag their favorite music. Well, you know me… I hadn’t actually recommended music on that site before, but now I’ve recommended over 250 albums and singles. Thanks to all that, a shiny new 16 gig iPod touch is wending its way to me. Schaweet!

And speaking of recommending things, I’ve also received a few early reviewer books over the pat couple of weeks, and I just finished the first one last night, so there will probably be a couple book reviews popping up in the next few days.

In the meantime, here are a couple of cool links I’ve found in the intervening weeks.

• Something store appeals to the childish part of me that loves surprises. You give them $10 (no shipping) and they’ll send you *something*. You have no idea what it is until it shows up on your doorstep. It could be a watch, a coffee maker, a $25 gift card, a camera, a belt. Check out their something tracker to see just what they’ve given out.
• If you have a Netflix account you might be interested in a $99 device that will let you watch any movie on demand from your TV set at no extra charge. I know someone who just purchased one, and I’m really interested to see how good it is.
• Lastly, a visual, musical 6 degress of seperation. Tuneglue’s Audio map will take an artist you input and spit out six artists who sound similar. Click on any of those and find 6 more. It’s really fun to see what a diverse map you can make, and find some new music in the process.

The song at the beginning is great, and 4:50-5:15 is freaking great too. 8:45-9:35 is another good section