Last weekend I hopped on a flight to Denver for my friend Bob’s 36th birthday party. His wife spent months planning “Bob’s Amazing Race 2008“; we spent Saturday as six teams of four people roaming around LoDo, barnstorming bars and looking for clues. It was a total blast.
The event was conveniently simultaneous with the first annual Mile High Music Festival, which featured a few dozen bands and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Dave Matthews Band.
Recommended by a friend:
iToner: No hacks. No per-ringtone fees. Unlimited custom ringtones for your iPhone.
Rap Lyrics Explained With Charts and Graphs
If I knew where it was
I would take you there.
An open letter to Amy Winehouse, from Ernie.
Another awesome night in Los Angeles: After work on Friday, Tricia and I had dinner on the West side and then headed to the East side to catch a secret, surprise performance by James. The band played an excellent set to a sold-out crowd at Silver Lake’s über-chic Club Spaceland. The show lasted a little over an hour and a half and we got Laid at the end.
I just finished reading Mark Hertsgaard’s excellent book, A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles and I loved it. My father-in-law — who, in 1974, was actually kicked out of the Troubadour with John for heckling the Smothers Brothers — gave it to me a few weeks ago after he’d read it. It’s an awesome read for any Beatles fan. Instead of the typical biography drudgery, Hertsgaard writes the story of the music that was created. So although there’s a little bit of the same old “Lennon was born in Liverpool … They played at the Cavern Club a zillion times …” it is mostly an analysis of how the songs themselves came to be created. Hertsgaard managed to gain access to the archived Abbey Road recording studio tapes and gives blow-by-blow accounts of which of the artists added this line or that chord to each song. He also chronicles the often hysterical banter between the lads from Liverpool as they worked.
Tricia and I went to see The Cure on Sunday night at The Shrine. We had dinner at The Foundry on Melrose first and got to the show at nine, about an hour late but just in time to catch most of our favorite songs. Just Like Heaven was first, which was the song I played non-stop through most of high school and my absolute favorite Cure track, so that was awesome. I assume that the show started with mostly songs from the new album, because we got to hear almost all the classics. They played four two-song encores, including Tricia’s favorite song, the heartbreaker Plainsong, and the rocker Killing an Arab. I managed to get a few great photos, too.
I have been a major Tom Petty fan for years and years. I have — I think — every CD he’s recorded. I know all the words to every song. I’ve seen him live almost a dozen times. I am absolutely astonished that it took me fifteen years to catch that “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was about marijuana.
Just about everyone that uses iTunes has a hella hard time keeping their music files organized. This is a shame because (a) it’s actually pretty simple and (b) it is a colossal pain in the ass to move your library if it’s not organized correctly. (Note that I’m talking about the organization of your actual music files and not the appropriate tagging and categorization of your music library.) The bummer of the thing is that the folks at Apple unwittingly made this more complicated and difficult by trying to make it simple and easy. It happens. Trust me. I have been building software for just over a decade now and it happens all.the.time. Don’t get mad at Apple for this one. Let’s just fix it.
First I’ll tell you what you need to do, and then I’ll explain why.
A Partial List of Artists in My iTunes Library That I Cannot Decide How to Properly Name
GatorDVG: I didn’t know Elton John was gay until like 2002.
a.friend: well, i can see that. I mean in the ’70s (when I was listening to him) he was considered cool rock and roll
a.friend: still kinda is, just the gay thing never came up
GatorDVG: I just thought the Donald Duck costume was him being kooky.
a.friend: so did everyone else…sort of like David Bowie
GatorDVG: wait
GatorDVG: David Bowie is gay?
GatorDVG: are you serious??
a.friend: u said that like you were a kid who just found out about the Easter Bunny
GatorDVG: dude
GatorDVG: come on
GatorDVG: really?
a.friend: really
One of my favorite songs is “Radio”, by Alkaline Trio. (mp3, lyrics) My sister got me to start listening to this group a few years ago and I’ve since collected everything they’ve recorded. What’s really funny is that for the longest time I thought it was a beautiful love song. Part of the chorus is — I thought:
I wish you
Would take my radio to bed with you
Plugged in and ready to fall
“What a romantic line,” I always imagined. The rest of the song is so sad, and sounds so angry. But with that one line he’s saying that he wants her to listen to him singing to her as she falls asleep. I thought this for many, many months … until I actually read the lyrics one day. I was so wrong. He’s really singing:
I wish you
Would take my radio to bathe with you
Plugged in and ready to fall
He’s no longer in love with her at all. He wants her to get electrocuted! So. Yeah. Totally changed the song for me. Still a great song, don’t get me wrong. But completely different. Talk about misheard lyrics!
It’s been ages since I posted an mp3 for you. Here’s a great one for today »
Song of the Moment
Yes, I know not always. But some days it would just be nice if you felt like every now and then you could.
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What’s Santa’s Little Helper doing to that dog? Looks like he’s trying to jump over, but he can’t quite make it.
