David Byrne

So it's been a while... again. Yet I will be brief. Because I have too much to do. But last Wednesday, Brian convinced me that we should go see David Byrne at Oven's Auditorium. (It didn't take much convincing) We were decently close enough but way the hell off to the side, which sucked. Especially since the guy selling the tickets sold them as "DEAD CENTER." And more especially b/c it made it hard as hell for the camera to pick up anything on stage w/o being blinded by the reflected light. But whatever. Shit happens. And it was still an awesome awesome show, regardless.
I don't think I ever got around to posting, but I went to see Of Montreal in Asheville a few weeks ago. It was... fine. Although the production was awesome in that it obviously took a lot of work and a lot of skill to pull off, I found it distracting. From the music. Which is the reason I went to the show. Way too much going on on stage, and the music suffered. It wasn't culturally shocking or anything either. Just a bunch of clever look-at-me-I'm-artsy kind of stuff. The point is that there were dancers at this show too, but I thought it was pulled off in a much much better way. Everything that the dancers did on stage added to the song, and I didn't find it distracting at all. Even though I found myself not focusing on the song sometimes, my focus on the dancers increased my enjoyment of the song since it became something that I felt more than something that I heard. It was a really great fusion of aural and visual stimulation.
As for the music... The only reason I didn't jump on this is b/c I'm rarely a fan of any complete Talking Heads record. Although I liked Byrne's Uh-Oh for its clever goofiness, I never really got into his solo career either. Before we went, I checked out the new record (with Brian Eno). As with most TH records, there were a few songs I dug, and the rest was completely mediocre. I'm sure the structure of the songs was fantastic and the vocal something or other was brilliant, but I don't really care. I just want to listen to something that, when I listen to it, I think, "I like this." To hell with thinking too hard. None of the songs that I liked off the new record got played, but almost (if not fully) half of the set were Talking Heads staples. Being the casual and uneducated fan that I am, that was awesome. His voice is still spot-on, and the musicians he assembled were absolutely phenomenal. For the most part, the crowd was pretty great too. Even tho it was in Oven's (a fully seated theater), I got to stand up the whole time. I hate sitting at good shows. Much to the chagrin of the people behind me. But fuck them. Lots of people were standing up including most of the people in front of me. Everyone stood up during a few songs, and I was happy to hear the everyone go really nuts at, you know, the appropriate times. Maybe Charlotte isn't so bad after all... We ran into Don and Lori too. Talked to Don and saw Lori, but I don't think she ever saw us. I kind of expected to run into more people there that I knew, but we didn't. Then again, we got there not long before the show started... downed four beers in the car and then went straight to our seats. That worked.

NYE 2006

Bryan sent me a ton of pictures that he took from our New Year's Eve party back in 2006... You can make up your own captions... Thomas is, quite obviously, the star...

birds

The other day this hawk or falcon or whatever dive-bombed this other falcon off one of the trees next to my house. I went over to take a picture of it after they stopped fighting... Right after I snapped this, the camera died, and the bird got very very mad at me. He screeched and watched me like a... you know... as I walked back to the door. Then he continued to stand there yelling at stuff for a while. A couple of stupid squirrels tried to run up and screw with him, but he quickly put an end to that. Then he just kind of got bored and flew away... A while back this owl was hanging out in my front yard and on top of the neighbor's truck. I haven't seen him in a while, but it's probably just too fucking hot... I took these back in December. When it was probably only like 80 outside.

ideal first date food?

Fox News Edge viewers say:

• Subway (b/c you don't want someone obese and you want to eat cheap)
• Hog Nuggets (b/c if you can find a woman to eat Hog Nuggets with you on the first date, then she's a keeper) ((((what the fuck?))))
• A Big Greasy Cheeseburger from Steak 'n' Shake... something you can eat with your hands...
• Fish (b/c it increases the serotonin levels in your brain and makes you happy)
• It doesn't matter as long as she orders alcohol.

The only respondent who was a woman was the cheeseburger person...
I have no commentary.

The Cure

Yep. Went to see The Cure last night at Bobcats Arena (fuck Time Warner) for the first time ever. I managed to get tickets in row 3 just slightly stage right, and I was really really excited about getting to see them live. The reschedule really fucked up my plans since I bought the tickets like a year ago for Allison's birthday and she's now in China... But it definitely raised my anticipation level. I didn't buy a Cure album until 1995; (or... actually I think it was 1996) I've liked them ever since, but I wasn't ever really totally ga-ga or anything. I like some Cure albums, I like more singles than albums, and "Pictures of You" is one of those songs with, you know, meaning. Now they, like any good band, have raised my opinion of them exponentially following their live show. I'm not usually a fan of slow moody concerts, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. The one thing I definitely did not expect was to be surrounded by so much frantic energy at a Cure concert. The opening band, 65 Days of Static hit hard and loud... they only played for about a half hour (no vocals)... they were a really good choice for the opening act. I totally forgot what I was going to say. So I'll say, again, how much it sucked that Pearl Jam scheduled their closest date to me since 2003 on the same day as the Cure show. Honestly, if I didn't already have the tickets, I might have gone to see them again instead. But I'm really really glad I didn't. Wow. I really can't think or type at all right now. I think I'm going to stop trying and just say that I was truly truly amazed by what happened on stage last night. I really did not think I was going to just absolutely love this show as much as I did.
They were filming the show for potential inclusion on a DVD, so the security was being slightly more strict about cameras than most security usually are. I still managed to get mine in and record all of the last encore. I'm not sure why I started doing all this black and white stuff, but I think it's kind of cool. Hopefully these vids won't get ripped down by youtube... but here's what I got: Boys Don't Cry 10:15 Saturday Night Killing an Arab (wow... crazy!)
Oh! I will say that, although I wasn't really holding any particular I-Want-To-Hear-X songs in my head, I was secretly hoping to hear Hot Hot Hot. There was a quote from that song on a Jyhad card from back in the day... I think it was "I left that basement burning and I never went back." Plus it was on the cassette version of Mixed Up, which I listened to until it broke. That game also had a quote from Ministry's Stigmata on one of the cards... "My favorite weapon is the look in your eyes." (I think) What the hell am I talking about? Pictures...
I also actually wanted to hear Lullaby since we had the audacity to try and play that live once. Or... good lord... maybe more than once. I'm sorry, Robert. But I got to hear that too. And, if I was really honest, Pictures of You was on the list too. See? I like the songs that everyone knows...
During one of the (I think the first) encore break I saw this guy waving around this little puppet. I thought it was cute... Speaking of people around me tho... wow. I met and talked to several people; everyone was totally awesome and really nice. The guy who was sitting next to me actually did his residency with Allison's old boss...
*whew*... and that's only like half of the photos that I took and didn't actually delete at the show. Even though I ended up spending a lot of money for a single ticket, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Very well worth it. I can't believe Robert still has his voice... he and Porl were looking old, but they were amazing performers. Fantastic fantastic concert. :)