Looking Back at 2005
2005 was the year that I decided to give the whole blogging thing a try, and so I thought it would be a good idea to put together this list so that I will be able to remember some of the things that I did over the course of the year.
The Places I Visited in 2005
- Atlanta (4 trips)
- Baltimore/DC
- Boston/Cambridge
- Las Vegas (3 trips)
- Los Angeles
- New Orleans (for Jazz Fest, before Katrina)
- New York
- Reno
- San Francisco
- Virginia (3 trips)
Along with lots of trips to Austin and a couple visits to Houston, I did a reasonable amount of traveling this year.
Musicians I Saw in 2005
- The Hot Club of Cowtown (2x)
- Two Tons of Steel (many times)
- Widespread Panic (Jazz Fest)
- Dave Matthews Band (Jazz Fest)
- Trey Anastasio (Jazz Fest)
- Randy Newman (Jazz Fest)
- The Derailers (2x)
- Eleven Hundred Springs (3x)
- The Gourds (3x)
- Mingo Fishtrap
- Neko Case (blogged)
- Drew Kennedy (blogged)
- Matt Powell (blogged)
- Hank Williams III (blogged)
- JB Beverly and the Wayward Drifters (blogged)
- The Greencards (blogged)
- Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez (blogged)
- Slaid Cleaves (blogged)
- Susan Gibson
- The High Flyers (blogged)
- Mickey and the Motorcars
- Guy Forsyth
- Jason Boland and the Stragglers (blogged)
- Dale Watson (blogged)
- Terry Allen (blogged)
- Robert Earl Keen (ACL Festival)
- Lyle Lovett (ACL Festival)
- Grupo Fantasma (ACL Festival)
- John Prine (ACL Festival)
- Wayne Hancock (ACL Festival)
- Lucinda Williams (ACL Festival)
- Big Sandy and His Fly Rite Boys
- The California Guitar Trio (blogged)
- Asleep at the Wheel (2x)
This year The Hot Club of Cowtown broke up, which was a major bummer. But Elana has a few things going on, and Whit and Jake are performing with some others as Whit Smith’s Hot Jazz Caravan. At Jazz Fest and ACL Fest I saw a lot of other little bands, but I can’t remember the names.
The Books I Read in 2005
- Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
- Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Being There by Jerry Kosinski
- Radical Leap by Steve Farber
- “1984” by George Orwell
- The Fuckup by Arthur Nersesian
- Entanglement by Amir Aczel
As usual, my interests over the past year are reflected in the books I read. I almost always cycle through 4 topics: physics, economics, sociology and literature. In 2006 I want to finally finish reading Gödel, Escher, Bach.
Random Stuff in 2005
- Participated in Cornyation during San Antonio’s Fiesta (blogged here and here)
- Met up with some friends in New Orleans for Jazz Fest
- Switched to a new job within Rackspace
- Enjoyed many Wednesday Night Dinners
- Attended DefCon (blogged here, here, here and here)
- Worked on the SafeList project
- Saw some great music at the Austin City Limits Music Festival
- Attended Paul Graham‘s Startup School
- Saw two Cirque Du Soleil shows – Varekai and Mystere
- Almost finished paying off my hefty college loan
- Sold the Ford F-150 and bought another white Nissan
- And, for what its worth (not much), got an RHCE
Overall, it was a pretty good year. Made some new friends, spent time with old friends and had a lot of fun.
Happy New Year!