Ants on the Melon
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Last night I traveled to Austin with Pepper and Ethan to see Neko Case at Antones. I had never seen her before, but had heard a lot of her music on KSYM and at Pepper and Ethan’s house. The show was scheduled to start at 8:30, with doors opening at 8:00. As it turned out, we had two extra tickets, so we got there a few minutes before 8:00 so that we could sell our extra tickets. After entering we found out that Neko was not going on until 11:00, and that there was an opening act going on at 10:00. Soooo, we had a few hours on our hands.

We walked down to Waterloo Records and looked around there for a while. I decided to buy Mofro’s Lochloosa CD, after all, it is on Chris’s approved live music list.

After leaving Waterloo we walked over to an Asian restuarant for dinner, then headed back to Antone’s for the opening act. This may or may not have been a good idea because the dude simply could not sing. And he was weird. His drummer and keyboard players were excellent, so he had that going in his favor. Anyway, before he began playing his second-to-last song he mumbled something about a young girl asking to sing with him, and that she had never performed before. So this normal looking girl goes on stage and in the middle of the song begins to sing, I couldn’t believe it, this girl had an amazing voice! She stayed on stage for his last song as well, and that’s when I realized that it wasn’t just any girl, it was Neko!

When Neko and her band came on stage we were all ready, and the venue was almost full. It’s really awesome to hear something so original and unique. Neko has this great voice that is both extremely powerful and lofty, it’s pretty hard to imagine. If you have never heard her you should head over to amazon.com and listen to some samples of her music. The show was terrific and lasted about an hour and a half, during which I was able to record video for two songs. I don’t know the names of either of the songs, but she preceded one by saying that it was a story her grandmother told her, and the other is apparently a Hank Williams song. Here are the videos: Grandma’s Story (65MB), Hank Williams song (48MB, missing the last 20-25 seconds of the song). If anyone can help me identify either of these two songs I would appreciate it. After the show Neko signed a poster for Pepper, and we got a picture of them together. It was an excellent evening overall, and I can’t wait for Neko to perform in this area again.

We left Austin about 12:45, which put me at home a little after 2am, and I was asleep by 2:30. Just enough time for 4.5 hours of sleep to power me through the RHCE exam the next day at work.

Tuesday night I drove up to Gruene Hall for my first Two Ton Tuesday of the year. Two Tons of Steel is a really awesome band, and I appreciate them more every time I see them play. On Tuesday they started playing around 8:00 or shortly thereafter, and played until after 11:30 with only one break of 20 minutes around 10:00. It’s amazing, especially considering how high-energy their performances are anyway.

I watched the show for a little over an hour, during which they played my favorite Two Ton song, “You Know” which is on their Transparent CD. After an hour or so I headed over to the CD/shirt/merchandise table to see what was available, and as I was standing there I heard someone call out my name. I turned and looked out the door and standing there were Edwin, Annalie, Dirk and Annie. Apparently they were up there to celebrate Annie’s birthday along with Brett and some other rackers and friends. I stayed outside and chatted with everyone until almost midnight and then headed home. I hope to make it to as many Two Ton Tuesdays as I can this summer, I just love being at Gruene Hall.

It’s been a busy few days, fun though.

Brandon and I got together on Wednesday evening for our regular ritual of pizza, cigars and beer on the porch, followed by a documentary/movie. Last time we finished watching the series of episodes in The Elegant Universe, so Brandon suggested that we continue the tradition with Band of Brothers, an eleven part series that follows “The story of Easy Company of the US Army Airbourne Paratrooper division and their mission in WWII France during Operation Overlord.” (quoted from the Internet Movie Database) Brandon had been telling that this was a great series, and after seeing the first episode I am anxiously waiting to see the next one.

Thursday I had to get a few cavities filled, which is normally not a fun thing to do. Dr. Ngo makes it all okay though, he is awesome. Chris recommended Dr. Ngo to me, and after having a bad experience at another dentist in town I decided to go see him. I was very impressed. If you live in San Antonio and do not have a dentist, you should consider making an appointment with Dr. Ngo.

Last night I went over to Pepper and Ethan’s house for dork card night. Ethan and I teamed up to out-dork Jason and Josh, although in real life our dork powers are no way near as strong as theirs.

Tonight I am going up to Floore’s Country Store to see Eleven Hundred Springs lay it down. I’ve been listening to their stuff a lot lately, so I’m really looking forward to the show.

I returned to San Antonio today after spending the last 5 days in New Orleans. A few months ago Mandi called me and said that she was planning to give Tate tickets to Jazz Fest for Valentine’s day, and she wanted to know if we would be interested in meeting up with them there. I am always looking for an excuse to go to New Orleans, so when Mandi told me they were going to be there for Jazz Fest, I bought the tickets right on the spot. Tate had no idea that we were coming, so while he was grabbing their luggage, Mandi called me where I was waiting in the rental car across the street from the airport. She told him that their hotel shuttle would be there in 5 minutes, but instead we picked them up!

We spent a lot of time hanging out and eating at restaurants throughout the city, it was a lot of fun. Mandi booked a suite a the Prytania Park Hotel, which turned out to be really nice. Chad let us stay with him on Thursday night, and we stayed at Prytania Park with Tate and Mandi on Friday and Saturday nights.

James joined Tate and me on Friday for JazzFest while the girls shopped on Magazine street. I had some great Jambalaya for lunch that day, and then I discovered fried plantain, that stuff is great! Later that night we had dinner at Figaro’s Pizzeria, a nice little Italian restaurant that I used to eat at every Sunday when I lived in New Orleans.

Ken flew in on Saturday from Oklahoma for his first visit to the Big Easy. After picking him up from the airport we all caught the Dave Matthews Band show at Jazz Fest. It had been raining that morning, so the venue was a little messy, but not bad enough to deter the DMB fans. After the shows we drove back down Carrollton avenue and met up with Chad for dinner. It was really great having that many friends from all over the place at dinner, it’s not too often that stuff like that happens.

Chris had been telling me about this band Mofro, and I was excited to see that they were playing at The Maple Leaf, a bar close to where I used to live. Tate, Ken and I showed up at 11:00, when Mofro was supposed to go on, we paid our $20 covers (a bit expensive, but i really wanted to see this band), and go inside. There was a band play who obviously wasn’t Mofro, but I figured they would be finishing up soon so we just stood there and tried to ignore the idiot fratboys who were dancing like idiots in front of us. The band finally finished up, and I said something to Tate about Mofro when the fratboy in front of us turns around and informs me that they aren’t going to be going on stage until 1:00am. This was a serious bummer, as we were all dead tired and probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place. So, after paying $20 to see 5 minutes of drunken college idiots dance to some local band, we decided to ditch the effort and call it a night. BOOOO…

The weather on Sunday was much better, but the bad news was that we had to take Tate and Mandi to the airport after lunch. It really sucks when good times have to end, but so it goes…. After dropping them off at the airport, Ken, Alana and I rode over the Maple Street P.J.’s Coffee to get a snack and check email. Once we were sure that the Internet was still moving along, we got back in the car and headed to our third day of Jazz Fest. We met up with Justin and Traber at the Trey Anastasio show, which was really good. I tried to get some more of that tasty fried plantain, but the lines were too long, sigh. We made a couple stops at the Blues and Gospel tents before finally calling it quits.

After the show we drove over to Covington to have dinner with the Taurman’s. It had been a really long time since I had seen my third family, and there was no way I could go all the way to New Orleans and not make a trip over there. As usual they had this amazing dinner for us, including my favorite artichokes. When we finished eating dinner we all went out to the famed back porch and talked for a while, consuming pound cake and coffee like it was going out of style. It was really great seeing them, and there is no way that I can go another year and a half without making another trip out there.

Earlier in the day we decided with Ken to get a double room at the Prytania Park Hotel for Sunday night. So after leaving the Taurman’s we made it back across the lake to the hotel by about 10:30. Ken had never seen the French Quarter, so I took him down there for the standard tour: Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, Cafe du Monde, etc. And that was pretty much the end of the trip. Alana and I woke up extremely early today to catch our flight back to Texas, and I should have gone to sleep hours ago.

I can’t wait for Jazz Fest 2006.

Today turned out to be a pretty good day. First, Will brought in his new Great Dane puppy, Titan. It reminded me how much I love dogs; that little thing is so cute. I got a lot of work completed today at the office, and that always makes me feel good. Brett, Sameer, Todd and I went to lunch today at Jason’s Deli, and afterwards Brett and I had a chance to talk for the first time in a while. In the afternoon Will and I worked on a new procedure for rolling out code to the production systems before heading down to the rec room to win a doubles match of ping pong. On my way home from work I stopped by ThunderCloud Subs and picked up two smoked chicken sandwiches for dinner, mmmmm good! After filling my belly I played my fiddle and mandolin for an hour or so, and then decided to come hang out on the front porch with a candle, my PowerBook and a nice Punch cigar. Nothing particularly exciting today, but a good day nonetheless. I can’t wait for tomorrow.

The last two shows of Cornyation were performed tonight, and once again it was a lot of fun. Alana’s family came to see the first show last night, and they had an extra ticket so Todd came along and sat with them. Dave and his friend Kay came to see the second show tonight, which was probably the best show. Dave was wearing his kilt, of course. Even more strange was that he wasn’t the only person there wearing a kilt, but then again, it is Cornyation.

Since Alana was performing in the act with Johnny and Jesse, they invited me to be a part of their group. The theme of the group’s skit was “Labor’s Love Lost”, which involved Willy Wonka and his Umpa Lumpas battling Walmart. My role was to help move the large prop centerpiece onto and off the stage, and to help with whatever else was needed backstage. I had a blast working with everyone in the group, they were all a lot of fun. Between the first and second shows our group was told to stay in our dressing room. We were not sure what was going on, but we all went back and waited. Before long a large group of people appeared and presented our group with this year’s Spirit Award, and a huge trophy. Apparently the Spirit Award is chosen by the winner of the award from the previous year, and it goes to the group that is having the most fun and who puts on the best show. It was an honor to be a part of the group and to see everyone do so well. Johnny and Jesse deserved to win, they put together a great act.

Cornyation is held at the Empire Theater in downtown San Antonio. The Empire Theater shares a common underground dressing area with The Majestic Theater, which is around the corner on Houston Street. The walls of this underground area are filled with paintings of the different acts that have performed at the Majestic and Empire theaters. The paintings are signed by the actors and actresses who performed in the shows, and some are really impressive. I took some pictures of these walls so that everyone else could see what is down there. Some of the works of art are really creative, and my favorite has to be the one for Seussical the Musical. Notice how the cat’s hat is actually painted around a duct that is coming out of the wall, it really catches your eye when you walk by it.

I got home around 11:30 tonight and decided to restring my new mandolin. I’ve become a big fan of Elixir strings, both for my guitars and mandolins, so I bought a pack with my new mandolin last week. I’ve been playing along to Garcia and Grisman this evening, their music is so sweet.

So Alana and I flew to Maryland on Friday with her parents to attend a wedding of their friend. We are actually staying in Bethesda Maryland, so when we arrived at the hotel on Friday around 5 pm I opened up the laptop and sent an email to my friend Dave who lives somewhere around here. Dave and I had not seen each other in almost 2 years, and the last time we talked was over a year ago, so I thought it would be great to get together and catch up. Well, around 8:30 my phone rang, and the screen told me that it was Dave’s number before I answered the phone. So when I answered I said “Hey Dave! What are you up to tonight?” He sounded a little confused, and said “uhm.. not much, what are you doing?” So I asked him if he wanted to get together and have coffee or something. He asked where I was and I told him and he said that I was literally 2 blocks from his apartment at the time. So he came over to where I was and we were talking about how it was great to get together. I said something like “I’m glad you got the email” and that is when Dave said “what email?” As it turns out, when he called me earlier he was calling to ask me about a problem with his father’s website that I host, Dave had no idea that I was even in town! He never got the email that I sent him, he just happened to call when I was 2 blocks from his apartment, so weird.

Alana wanted to try out for MTV’s The Real World, so we took the Metro downtown and found Lulu’s Mardi Gras Club, where MTV was holding auditions. I dropped her off at 10, and then I started walking around downtown Washington D.C. I found Pennsylvania Avenue and started walking down that. Pretty soon I noticed that I was walking along a nice big mansion, with a pretty yard. Then it occured to me that I was looking at the White House. Next door to the White House is The Department of the Treasury. A few weeks ago I read a story on Yahoo news about a duck with secret service protection, and before I knew it I was looking at the famous Duck!

After seeing the duck I started walking towards the capital. Just as I reached the FTC building, a parade started up right in front of me. It’s been a long time since I have heard a marching band, but I really love hearing that type of music. The Eastern High School marching band was amazing, and I followed them down the street for 4 or 5 sets of music. I followed several other bands down the street too, but none of them had a name as good as the Bowie State University’s Symphony of Soul.

After watching the marching bands for about an hour I decided to head back towards Alana. We had lunch at a restaurant named “Le Bar”, and the crabcake salad was great. When we left the restaurant we met up with Alana’s parents at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where Alana wanted to see the Gem exhibit. Afterwards we walked to the National Museum of American History. Initially I was not excited about going to the History museum because, well, after 4 years of history in college, I have very little interest in history. But I was surprised to find out that the Americian History Musuem has a lot of exhibits on inventors and technology, it was pretty cool! I spent most of my time there at the Lighting a Revolution exhibit, which was all about Edison and the gang, very coool stuff!

I’m exhausted now, so I’m going to bed. Good night!

So at some point on my way home from work today I decided I wanted to buy a new mandolin. A few months ago I had been over to Guitar Tex and played a Kentucky mandolin like the one that my grandfather has. I really liked the action on this mandolin, and told the guys there that I would probably be back for it at some point. So today I quickly ran by and bought it, it was only $195, which is not bad for a pretty decent mandolin.

Chris Blumentritt was in town tonight and a bunch of us got together at Rebar to hang out with him. I miss having Chris around, nobody else really seems to be into good music since he left. I stayed around till about 11:15 until I had to come home to pack for our trip to Maryland tomorrow.

We are flying out at 10:00 tomorrow to go to Maryland for the weekend to see some of Alana’s friends get married. Todd helped me find a sports jacket today at Goodwill that I can wear to the wedding, otherwise I would have been in big trouble.

So it has been a few days since I’ve written, and a bunch of stuff has happened. Here’s the story…

First, when I got in to work on Monday morning I was greated with an alarming email from one of the systems for which I am responsible. A quick look at the server told me that something was seriously bad, and two coworkers and I spent the rest of the day minimizing the damage and repairing the system. There are some really bad people out there.

I spent that night at home washing clothes and cleaning the apartment. About 11:30 I stepped out on the back porch and I heard something quickly moving around down on the ground. Whatever it was, it was bigger than a squirrel and I didn’t really want to step down into the dark without knowing what was down there. So I stopped for a second and looked over the edge of the porch, and that is when I saw two very large Opossum’s running around down below. They kept running into each other and making really awful snarling/squealling sounds. I watched them for a while and called Alana out to see, then they moved on to the neighbors yard. I don’t think I like these creatures.

Today I went to the dentist for the first time in a long time. I’ve been nervous about selecting a dentist, but I finally got a great recommendation from someone that I trust, and the dentist’s office is about a mile from our new office, so I didn’t really have any excuse not to go. Well, let’s just say that I found out that I have an embarrassing number of cavities. I’ve scheduled a couple appointments in the coming weeks, and after the fillings are complete then I have to get my bottom two wisdom teeth removed. That promises to be a bundle of joy.

On a brighter note, Apple’s OS X Tiger will be released on April 29th, and I can’t wait!

Brandon is coming over tonight for cigars, beer and the third and final episode of The Elegant Universe. We have not been able to hang out in several weeks, so I am really looking forward to this.

Happy Anniversary, Pepper and Ethan!

This evening Dave and I drove up to the One World Theatre in Austin to see the California Guitar Trio. We were late leaving the office, so Chuck gave us some super secret directions to the venue that helped take some time off the trip. Dave Roth is one funny guy. He had me laughing so hard on the way to the concert that I could barely breath. His stories about rednecks, Excel based house plans, and limosine schoolbuses are insane, ask him about them some time. We arrived at the theater around 7:15, about 15 minutes after the show started, and found our seats next to Avie where we sat down for the remainder of the show.

I had pretty high expectations for the Trio, as I have heard some of their stuff before. I was blown away, these guys are on an entirely different level than any musicans I have ever seen before. One of the most amazing things I have seen in a while was their performance of Bach’s Prelude using something called a “circulation technique.” Using this technique each musician plays every third note and together it sounds as if a single person were performing the song. Amazing stuff that you have to see to get an idea for just how impressive it is. They ended the night with a great version of Bohemian Rhapsody and blisteringly fast version of the Dick Dale’s Miserlou, popularly known as the Pulp Fiction theme song.

Afterwards Avie and I drove back to Camp Young Judea where Alana is teaching and dancing this weekend. It’s a really nice place, and they have a very nice open wireless network so I am happy. I hope to get some work done this weekend, and maybe catch up on some reading that I have been trying to do.