Monthly Archive for August, 2006

Something that is interesting

Published
by
Andy
on 8/24/2006
in Log and Reviews
. 6 Comments

Drag the RiverDrag the River played The Domino Room on Wednesday, and they impressed the dozen or so people who were there.

Some other blogger told me that what I write about isn’t interesting. Well, she’s mostly right. Except that she writes about less interesting stuff than I do. But anyway, here’s my attempt at something interesting. I went to a show last night at The Domino Room to see three bands I didn’t know. (One member of one of the bands went to high school with a friend here. That was the impetus for attendance.) The result was a night of enjoyable music and a measure or three of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

I would like to extend a thank-you to the 12 or so people who came out to support one of our best local music venues. Shame on the rest of Bend.

Confederats

Nothing wakes you up from domestic bliss like the thrashing sounds of a hard-working punkcore band like the Confederats. I honestly can’t remember a single lyric or rif from their set, but I don’t think that’s what it was really about. They were loud, in tune and had tremendous skill with their instruments. You can’t ask for much more than that. My only real complaint is that they kind of fell into Cookie Monster Vocal mode.

I Can Lick Any Son of a Bitch in the House

I Can Lick Any Son of a Bitch in the House radically changed the feel of the music in the house with about their third chord. The punk kids who were thrash dancing during the Confederats set stopped and stood around for a while, then moved to the benches, then pretty much just left. Which is fine. Because I couldn’t see past their moussed mohawks anyway. ICLASOBITH confused me. I couldn’t really figure out what sound they were going for. It kind of started out as run-of-the-mill southern rock, then drifted into rockabilly. At one point they sounded like Metallica dipped in the Mississippi, at another they sounded like Bryan Adams if he were homeless. One song even sounded Steve Earle-ish. But none of the songs were what I would call memorable. The best genre I could come up with to describe them was swamp metal, if that has any meaning. I enjoyed several of their songs, but I kind of found myself looking at the time and wondering when the next band was going to start.

Drag the River

It turned out the next band arrived in Bend from a gig in San Francisco about 30 minutes before they were supposed to go on. But Drag the River didn’t miss a beat. They got their shit set up in record time and when they started playing, it sounded perfect. Drag the River is an alt-country band through and through, but they often reached points of intensity that lifted them above the fray. I couldn’t help but see influences from Uncle Tupelo to the Jayhawks to the Old 97s, albeit less optimistic than the latter. I’m really surprised this band hasn’t popped up before on the alt-country radars that I frequent. That is to say, if you like alt-country, this is one of those great acts that all of your alt-country friends have probably never heard of. Until you act all cool and lay it on them.

Drag the River: “Dirty Lips”* [mp3]

(*Could be legal, could not. Download at your own risk.)

Housekeeping

Published
by
Andy
on 8/20/2006
in Log
. 2 Comments

hank_dean_scooterI’ve updated some of the elements of this site to Latest Of versions, so there are a few new things. The only one you’ll probably notice is the little slider right above the latest post. This is a nifty addition to the K2 theme which lets you very easily “go back in time” in the Apostrophe S archives. So have fun

Also, I’ve started using a plugin that let’s me easily manage the things that appear in the sidebar on the right-hand side. Fun.

I’ve started reading another book, The Forest in Folklore and Mythology, that doesn’t really fit into my 26 Books project. I’ll get to that Stephen King book eventually, it’s just that the forest book is checked out from the library.

Oh, and don’t forget to watch Venture Bros. tonight. Should be a good one.

iPod resurrected, again

Published
by
Andy
on 8/15/2006
in Log and Observations
. 4 Comments

My iPod, after spending a week or two in the “I don’t want to fucking deal with you right now” bin, now seems to be back doing what it’s supposed to.

A couple of weeks ago, my iPod suddenly decided to not connect to my computer, rendering me unable to upload anything new to it. (Plus the battery was being weird, but that’s another can of worms I’m afraid I’m going to have to deal with soon.) Now, I guess my line of thought was anything that’s not working to the peak of its ability is the same as broke-ass, and after a frustrating night/early morning of failed attempts to format the iPod, restore it, or just get it the F into Disk Mode, I finally (gently) pitched it to the side of the desk and decided I’d be taking CDs to work for a while.

Tonight I got the gumption (read: got the time) to attempt repairs again. I was finally able to get my PowerBook to recognize that the iPod was plugged in, and that it was choking. Trying to restore it using iPod Updater failed several times, so I erased it using Disc Utility, and then was able to format it, although the beachball spun for nearly ten minutes before I got the “that worked” message. So now it’s having my entire Echo & the Bunnymen and A Tribe Called Quest collections poured into it as I write. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Crazy computers and gadgets.

On the upside, I got to see about every iPod indicator graphic known to man, from the one that says it’s checking the disc, to the one that shows the iPod cable connector with an arrow, meaning the damn thing wants some juice and company.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Published
by
Andy
on 8/14/2006
in Reviews
. 0 Comments

Twelfth Night PEL: Revised Edition (Shakespeare, Pelican)

I know, it’s a pretty short play, and it’s taken me a long time to read it. Other things occupied my attention. So don’t give me crap about it.

Anyway, there’s not much I can add to the 400+ year conversation regarding this play, so I’ll just let you know what I took from it.

Viola turns into a total puss in the end. (Figuratively speaking.) She just curls up and becomes the Duke’s mistress. Like that was her ultimate goal. She was so much more interesting as a guy.

This play was probably the Shakespearean equivalent of a Farrelly brothers movie. Gotta love the double entendres and total lack of regard for the well being of the “square” character (Malvolio). Oh, and the Big Reveal of True Feelings at the end, can’t forget that.

When reading Shakespeare, it always takes me about 5 minutes to get used to reading the language again, so I usually end up going back and starting over a little each time. But the good part of that is that it encourages me to read it in fewer sittings than I probably would otherwise.

Anyway, “Twelfth Night” quickly joins the ranks of my favorite Bard plays, right up there with “The Tempest” and “Hamlet.” Good job, dead guy.

Next book, “The Colorado Kid” by Stephen King

[This article is part of the 26 Books project that I'm doing this year.]

IMDb for plays and playwrights

Published
by
Andy
on 8/10/2006
in Notes and Observations
. 0 Comments

Since I’ve been reading more plays these days, I’m on the lookout for a resource that works like IMDb, but is specifically for plays and playwrights (and maybe theatres and actors and dates and such). Does such a thing exist?

UPDATE: I stumbled upon The PlayFinderâ„¢, which contains over 3,000 plays which are licensed by Dramatists Play Service. It’s a good resource for many contemporary plays and playwrights, with full descriptions. Just be warned, it’s a service provided by a company trying to sell you books and licenses to perform.