Half-assed Show Review: Republic of Letters @ Ken Club, 6/29/2007

Last night was kind of a fuckup.

I meant to go to the Sports Club to see The Infants, since it's been a few months, and they really kick ass.

And we did go to the Sports Club. We parked two blocks away, then were walking up to the door when I realized that I had left my wallet at home, in my pants pocket. Serves me right for wearing a dress out in public.

Unfortunately, the bouncer that I know there wasn't working, so I didn't think there was any way I could talk myself into the bar. Especially not after being carded at Roundtable pizza on campus earlier in the day because I "looked really young."

Bummer.

As it was already 10PM, and I knew Republic of Letters was playing at the Ken Club at 11, and that the parking situation by the Sports Club was only going to get worse, we decided not to make our way back. After a brief stopover at my place to retrieve my cash and ID, we were off to the Ken Club.

Once there, I ran into Lauren, a guy I know from UCSD grad school and who is in two bands that use the same rehearsal space as Republic of Letters. It's still pretty bizarre to be standing next to someone at a bar and realize that you know them from a completely different area of your life. Anyway, we chatted for a bit and I told him about the photography stuff I've been doing.

And speaking of photography, I didn't even attempt to take photos last night. To call the lighting at the Ken Club abysmal wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration, and after processing the ton of photos I took Wednesday night, I was content to leave my camera in it's bag.

Republic of Letters put on a solid set, as usual, including a cover of "Born to Run." The Springsteen/U2 vibe was definitely there, and to me, that's not a bad thing at all. It's been really cool to see these guys progress during the last 3 or so years that I've been following them. Afterwards, we hung around for a little bit, but the band side was about a million degrees, and the bar side was super crowded, probably the most crowded I've ever seen the Ken. The people watching was fun for a bit, but after awhile my friend and I both got tired and decided to call it a night. Kinda bummed that I didn't hang around until Rosey stopped by, but I was just really dragging, even with my 1.5 hour nap earlier in the day.

Tonight it's looking like I'll be at the Casbah for another all-locals show. Come on out and say hi.

Photos: The Burning of Rome, The Blackout Party @ Casbah, 6/24/2007

Photos from the free all-locals Casbah show last Sunday are up here.

I wasn't really feeling the photo vibe or reviewing ambition that day, so I'll save myself the trouble of trying to write up a review of a show that happened almost a week ago.

I saw The Burning of Rome and The Blackout Party. Both were good, but The Blackout Party is a little more towards my usual taste in music. That being said, here's the few photos I managed to get:

The Burning of Rome









The Blackout Party









It's funny - even though I've seen The Blackout Party before, I didn't recognize the guys when they took the stage. The lead singer's gotten a lot scruffier since I saw them back in March. And I have the photos to prove it.

Tonight! 80 Billion Things Going On

My calendar for tonight looks something like this:

Battles @ Beauty Bar
Grand Ole Party @ Che Cafe
The Infants @ San Diego Sports Club
The Vision of a Dying World @ Tower Bar
Republic of Letters @ Ken Club

Good god, San Diego, what's a girl to do?

Battles is out because I'm not too keen on standing in line to get into the Beauty Bar.

Grand Ole Party is out because I'm not riding the shuttle back to Hillcrest to pick up my car, only to drive it back to campus.

Realistically, I'm planning on going to see the Infants at the Sports Club (I think they open the show at 9:30PM but I haven't gotten a confirmation on that yet), then hitting up the Ken Club to (hopefully) catch Republic of Letters at 11. Yikes. After party at Rosey's? If I'm still on my feet at that point. Noontime beers are not really a good idea.

Haven't heard about the Infants yet? Check out their Myspace. That guy's got a voice that could pretty much make me do anything...and I'm a stubborn sort of person. Yeah.

In totally unrelated news, anyone heard anything about a rescheduling of the National's show yet???

Show Review Part II: Mooney Suzuki @ Casbah, 6/27/2007

Let me just start this off by saying one thing. Do not, I repeat, do not, try to shit talk someone from New York City if you're from San Diego and too drunk/stupid/whatever to defend your original comment.

West Coasters just can't shit talk like East Coasters. It's a fact. I mean, c'mon, Philadelphians even shit-talk their hometown baseball/football/basketball teams.

And besides that, don't fuck with other people's good times. If you don't think a band is "original" enough, go hang out in the back room of the Casbah, or the smoking patio, rather than stopping the show only to see your foot shoved squarely in your mouth.

I speak, of course, of the mohawk-laden punk who yelled out "Play something original!" to the Mooney Suzuki mid-set last Wednesday night. Rosey's got video footage of the whole thing...unfortunately all I've got is photos:







The lead singer of Mooney Suzuki responded by saying, "Yeah, because you're so original with your mohawk and lip piercing and peace shirt. Do you play guitar? Why don't you come up here and play some original music then?" He even went so far as to take his guitar off and try to hand it to the guy, who of course by that point had totally misplaced his balls. All he did was mumble in response "...original..." Lame.





The rest of the set went off without a hitch, with the singer bouncing all over the stage, floor, and even standing on one of the tables near the stage, while his guitarist was writhing on the Casbah dance floor. And by writhing, I mean he was on his back playing guitar. Damn, dude.







And yeah, it's standard garage rock, it's not Sonic Youth/Ray Charles/James Brown original or anything like that, but it was a goddamn good time. I say that even though at the beginning of the set the singer leaped off the stage and pretty much straight onto my left foot, jarring my camera on the way. But it was fine, and I managed to get a ton of good photos, thanks to the bright lights and the "burst" shooting method (i.e. hold down the button while the camera takes a bunch of consecutive photos).







Again, the rest of the photos can be found here. Keep up with the good lighting work, Casbah. All 5 photographers who now show up to most every gig really do appreciate it.

Show Review Part I: The Swedish Models and the Photo Atlas @ Casbah, 6/27/2007

If my mom had been down at the Casbah on Wednesday night, she would have said pretty much the same thing to every member of every band that played: "You need a haircut."

Now, my mom's opinion of haircuts and my own opinion differ greatly - I'm kind of a sucker for the "indie rock haircut," as one of my friends calls it. As long as your hair's not longer than mine, which is getting pretty hard to do these days. And long hair makes for some sweet action shots.

I made sure to make it out to the Casbah early that night, even though that only meant an hour at home between work and play time. The reason for this was that the Swedish Models were opening the show. Yes, it's true that Dusty hooked me up with my ticket, so out of courtesy I would have been there for their set anyway. But even more than that, I didn't want to miss a single song of theirs.

That night was their fourth show ever. By some weird twist of fate, I've managed to see all of those shows, except for their debut. Wednesday night was definitely their strongest set so far. It's amazing to me to see all of these guys on stage, trading instruments and playing extremely well together after so few shows. Granted, all of them were/are in other local bands. But even so, this group is tight. I have no idea how they manage to maneuver around on stage without tripping over instruments - even changing instruments in the middle of a song! I'm talking about getting up from a drum kit and moving to a keyboard too, not just switching guitars. Natural grace, perhaps?

But I digress. If you can't already tell, I really really really liked their set. And so did the crowd, judging by the number of people who ended up watching them by the time their stint was over. I'm talking about going from a handful of peo0ple (mostly friends?) on the dance floor, to a pretty crowded floor by the end. Great to see for a local band opening up a show on a Wednesday night.

Unfortunately, their myspace page doesn't have much in the way of songs on it. However, Rosey of SD:Dialed In managed to get some video footage of their song "Victoria Prescott," and was kind enough to post it on her page. That song's been playing on repeat in my brain for the last 36 hours, and for once, that's something I'm happy about.

As I was looking through my photos of the show yesterday, I decided to play a little game, called "How Many Instruments Does Dusty Play?" I counted 6: guitar, tambourine, kazoo (it's totally an instrument), xylophone, keyboard, and finally, drums. If you got anymore, let me know.

Here's the eye candy:











Oh yeah, they had strobe lights for the last song, which gave some interesting photo results. All in all, the lighting at the Casbah was way brighter than usual. Yay for being able to shoot at something other than f1.8 at ISO 1600!

In between sets, I met Molly, another photographer that I've been in contact with through Flickr and email. We chatted about some nerdy photo stuff, like how when we go back to our earliest shots we just kind of cringe - something I recently did in an effort to revamp my photo website.

Next up was a band called The Photo Atlas. I didn't really know anything about them, but Molly told me they were pretty fun to watch and photograph. Hooray for bands that do something other than stand in the same spot on stage!

Their music wasn't really the sort of thing I would listen to usually. Not that it was bad - just maybe a little too emo-intense for my tastes. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed watching their set. They did really get into it and move around a lot. But my favorite was the drummer, who definitely could have used a haircut, or at least a headband of sorts:









Yeah, I was also playing with my new flash during their set. I'm super happy with it, and I love how it freezes the action. I guess I've been a little drummer obsessed lately (at least in terms of photographing them) - probably still riding the high from the Menomena show. But even so, I did manage to get shots of the other band members:







(Note the "flare" on the bassist's guitar strap. Oh, and he's also wearing a Cinematics t-shirt.)

Boatloads of more photos are up here. Stay tuned for my Mooney Suzuki post...

Streaming New Pornographers - Challengers

...and it's good. Real good.

Currently grooving to track 7 - "Unguided."

Super happy that I picked up my tix for their House of Blues show on September 18th. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that I'll be able to get my hands on a photo pass...

And All of a Sudden I Remember Why I Like Science

The training grant (thanks NIH!) that pays my so-called salary and gives me money for computers and things had a little extra money left over this year. So everyone on it gets an extra $350 to spend on some sort of computer equipment or software at the UCSD bookstore. Oh, and it has to be useful for science as well. So no iPods, digital cameras, etc.

So what am I getting? An external hard drive (YAWN)...and a flatbed scanner that can scan 30 35mm film negatives at a time. F'ing sweeeeet. This will definitely help sway me back in the direction of shooting film and subjects other than rock stars. Speaking of which, I've got a roll of 36 exposure film sitting at home that needs to be scanned in. It's ISO 3200 film, but I shot and developed it at ISO 400, so I'm very interested to see the results. Details in shadows vs. graininess and all that.

But what good is it for science, you ask? My lab doesn't have a scanner, and I frequently have important results that need to be scanned in. Like amplified DNA run on an agarose gel:



The bright bands are DNA under fluorescent lighting. Running it out on a gel will separate it based on size, because the gel is kind of like a matrix, with a lot of holes. Smaller things move faster and thus further through the holes when an electric current is applied (DNA is negatively charged), while bigger chunks take a longer time and thus move less. The lanes with multiple bright bands are DNA "ladders" - mixtures with DNA of different defined sizes, so when you run your bit of DNA on a gel next to it, you can tell approximately how big your DNA chunk is. Yay science.

Anyway, I can technically scan these images on the flatbed I already have, but it's old and half-broken (it's supposed to be a printer too, but hasn't printed anything in close to 3 years). And sometimes I run proteins on gels, and you detect those with actual film, so it'll be nice to have the transparency option for scanning, instead of having to take a photo of the film and then scan that in.

Hooray for new toys and science! Now it's back to work, redoing something that, surprise surprise, didn't work the first time I tried it. Oh yeah, now I remember what I don't like about this job.

Photos from the San Diego House Party (featuring The Swedish Models)

Like I said in my review of the House Party, I was a little too drunk to trust myself with the camera. Therefore, the few and only photos I took are of the Swedish Models, the first band of the evening. And here they are, in all their glory:













If you prefer to look at them as a Flickr slideshow, go here.

In semi-related news, some photos that I took for Vinyl Radio are up on their myspace page. I took a bunch, but since there was a business transaction involved, I'm not going to post them on here. I wouldn't want to steal their thunder :-)

A Request for Tuesday's "Friends Chill" @ Whistlestop

Maybe I really am turning into a crotchety old woman (at the ripe age of 25 and all), but I feel like this needs to be said.

The last two times that I've been to Friends Chill night at the Whistlestop, the music has been too damn loud.

Reminder to the DJ - you're not trying to start a dance party. You're providing background music for board games, video games, and conversation.

When that music starts to impede with any of those things, that's when I finish my one and only drink and then take my drinking business down the road to Hamilton's.

Regarding the Lack of Show Reviews/Photos/etc

I've been cranky so far this week.

Sunday I was tired, went to the Casbah anyway, shot some photos that I haven't even looked at, then left right after the third band started.

Yesterday morning I fell into a funk due to the cancellation of The National's show. I'm still pretty much wallowing around in that black pit of despair. Well, okay, not really, maybe I'm just burnt out. As such, didn't do anything last night except have dinner at a friend's house and look through my gazillion photos on Flickr to pull out the good ones for the revamping of my "real" website. I'll link to it when it looks nicer.

Today I got surprised with a postdoc candidate who was interviewing in our lab. Which meant sitting through a talk from 12-1, then trying to come up with things to talk to him about for 45 minutes. I think I lasted 30. What can I say? I'm shit at small talk (sooo boring) and would rather pull off my toenails than talk about science any more than I already have to. And wtf is my boss doing interviewing postdoc candidates when it's fairly possible (probable?) that the lab will be moving to San Francisco within the year?

Really, I just want to drop all my obligations and get my research done so I can get the hell out of grad school poverty and start making some well-earned money with this degree. Fuck academia, I want a job with stability and a decent salary sometime before my 40's, thankyouohsomuch.

There, that should convince you that I'm cranky. Gonna try and shake it off by heading to the Whistlestop tonight for some video game action...

New Pornographers Preorder

In the latest news of bands/record labels using creative methods to keep people interested in buying CDs (instead of bitching, moaning, and inciting lawsuits), the New Pornographers have some interesting goodies included in the pre-order of their new CD, Challengers.

If you pre-order either the "executive" edition or the "regular" edition, both of which are available on CD or vinyl, Matador will send you an email within a few days with a link and a code allowing you to stream the album NOW. Keep in mind this album isn't out until August 21st! You also supposedly get advanced notice and exclusive ticket buy links to upcoming New Pornographers shows.

AND if you drop the $3 extra for the executive edition, you get three bonus CD-R discs with pre-printed labels (!), which are meant for you to download exclusive content onto, such that:

• Disc One = B-sides, Demos, and alternate mixes
• Disc Two = The New Pornographers "Live From the Future"
• Disc Three = Videos, photos, and artwork

Some of that content (I'm assuming "Live from the Future" here) hasn't been recorded yet, yadda yadda yadda, hence the reason for giving you CD-R's. I think it's a neat concept. Way to go Matador!

Pre-orders are available from both Lou's and M-Theory. Only M-Theory doesn' t have a "pick up in the store" option on their site, instead requiring you to pay $5 for shipping when you live 10 minutes away. Looks like I'll be hopping into the store to pre-order that one.

And if you haven't heard, New Pornographers will be playing the House of Blues on Tuesday, September 18th, if you're too lazy to drive to Viejas to see the White Stripes with the Cold War Kids. Neko Case will be joining them. Tix are $20 and are onsale now, but please don't buy all of them until I have a chance to get down there later today to pick up mine. $10.25 in fees on a $20 ticket, $8.25 of which is a "convenience" charge? Fuck convenience, I'll drive down there myself, thankyouverymuch.

Okkervil River coming to San Diego

But don't get too excited - it's not until September 3rd. Damien Jurado will be opening, and they'll be playing at the Casbah for $14.

I'm a big fan of their older work (although I'm most familiar with Black Sheep Boy), and their fifth LP, entitled The Stage Names, will be released on August 7th, 2007. Oh, yeah, and if you haven't heard, Lou Reed is a huge fan.

Okkervil River on Myspace (definitely go listen to "The President's Dead")

Damien Jurado on Myspace

Tix onsale now.

The National's show canceled

Update: If they don't reschedule for sometime next week, it's going to be end of July or August for a makeup show. Eek.

From The National:

Hello everyone,
Really sorry to say that we had to cancel tonight's show in San Diego because of a family emergency in the band.

The rest of the tour, including tomorrow in LA, will go on as scheduled. We don't have any information about when the San Diego show will be rescheduled, but as soon as we know we'll pass that on.

Refunds will be granted at place of purchase for tonight's show.

The rest of our upcoming tour dates are below. Hope to see you all soon.

26 JUN: LOS ANGELES, CA / EL REY THEATER w/ The Broken West // SOLD OUT
27 JUN: SAN FRANCISCO, CA / BIMBO'S 365 CLUB w/ The Broken West // SOLD OUT
28 JUN: PORTLAND, OR / BERBATIS PAN w/ The Broken West //
29 JUN: VANCOUVER, CANADA / RICHARDS ON RICHARDS w/ The Broken West // SOLD OUT
30 JUN: SEATTLE, WA / NEUMOS w/ The Broken West // SOLD OUT

07 JUL: DENMARK, ROSKILDE / ROSKILDE FESTIVAL //
08 JUL: IRELAND, KILDARE Punchestown Racecourse, Naas / OXEGEN FESTIVAL //
10 JUL: UK, STOKE-ON-TRENT / SUGARMILL //
11 JUL: UK, NOTTINGHAM / RESCUE ROOMS //
13 JUL: BELGIUM, DOUR / DOUR FESTIVAL //
14 JUL: BELGIUM, HERK / ROCK HERK FESTIVAL //
15 JUL: UK, SUFFOLK Henham Park Estate, Southwold, / LATITUDE FESTIVAL //

05 AUG: PORTUGAL, Nr.Zambujeira do mar / SUDOESTE FESTIVAL //
15 AUG: FRANCE, St. Malo / LA ROUTE DU ROCK FESTIVAL //
17 AUG: USA, New York, NY / SOUTH STREET SEAPORT // w/ Takka Takka + The Forms

01 NOV: IRELAND, Dublin, Olympia Theatre // Tickets >> / Tel 0818 719 330
02 NOV: UK, Glasgow, ABC // Tickets >> / Tel 0870 1690100
03 NOV: UK, Sheffield, Leadmill // Tickets >> / Tel 0870 010 4555
04 NOV: UK, Manchester, Academy 2 // Tickets >> / Tel 0161 832 1111
06 NOV: UK, Birmingham, Irish Centre // Tickets >> / Tel 0871 2200 260
07 NOV: UK, London, Shepherds Bush Empire // Tickets >> / Tel 0870 400 0688
09 NOV: UK, Bristol, Anson Rooms // Tickets >> / Tel 0870 400 0688
10 NOV: UK, Portsmouth, Pyramids // Tickets >> / Tel 023 9282 4355
14 NOV: FRANCE, Paris, Elysee-Montmartre //

From Tim Mays:

Hello - It is my unfortunate responsibility to inform you that the National have had to cancel tonight's show at the Casbah. There has been a family emergency with one of the band members which precludes him being in San Diego today.

We are working with band's management and booking agent to try and find a new date for this show sometime in the next week - we should know by end of day or first thing tomorrow when the show can be rescheduled.

If you would be unable to attend a rescheduled show you will be able to obtain a refund of your ticket purchase. We will have details on this as soon as we know about rescheduled date.

I apologize for any inconvenience and will keep you posted on the situation regarding a new show date.

Tim Mays
The Casbah

No replacement tonight at the Casbah, unfortunately.

On a possibly related note, word on the street last night was that they were probably going to come back to San Diego soon anyway, maybe to play a bigger venue. Please, dear God, not the House of Blues. The dull roar of the crowd in their would completely kill their live set. Belly Up maybe? I could see them there, easy.

"Hear Me Play My Violin Again..."

I am giddy with glee about The National's show at the Casbah tomorrow night. Hope you got your tickets already, because this show is SOLD OUT. As well it deserves to be. I bought mine pretty much the minute they went on sale (and even so, had to finagle a spot on the list to help out a friend who wasn't so forward-thinking).

There was no way I was going to miss seeing the band that's already given me the best live show I've ever seen. Seriously.

Alligator's been out for two years, and in the full straight year that I've been listening to it, it's never gotten old. It actually has gotten better and better as I keep discovering new layers to the songs, new bits about each one that make me happy.

Boxer was an album that I was literally afraid to listen to at first, because I loved Alligator so much and found it more than a little hard to believe that these guys could top that album. But they did. I honestly can't say which album I like better, because they've both proven to be growers and Alligator had a year's lead on Boxer.

But I've said all of this before. Now, what I'm saying is, I think I'm just as excited for this show as most people are to see the Arcade Fire. Although, also a little scared, because I don't want them to not be as good as they were the last time I saw them, but I can't even imagine how it could be better. They managed to do it with an album, now let's see if they can do it with a live show...

Show/House Party Review: Swedish Models, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects @ San Diego House Party, 6/23/2007

At 10PM last night I was sitting in a friend's hot tub somewhere east of the 15. The fact that I got myself home, cleaned up, then headed out to the House Party should speak volumes about how good these bands, and the party itself, were.

At first I wasn't even planning on bringing the camera along. The commencement of drinking at 7PM, with the inaugural drink being a rather potent margarita, doesn't really lend itself to carrying around expensive equipment 4 hours later. Especially not at a packed party with many other likewise liquored up folks.

But a text message from Andrea reading "will I have the pleasure of you taking another beautiful picture of me tonight?" convinced me to bring it along. Sadly, I only took about 11 photos (all of the Swedish Models), and none of Andrea. It was one of those nights where I was happier bringing my Nalgene bottle of Barcardi and Coke up to my face, rather than the camera. Oh well. It's just been that kind of week.

We got there as the Swedish Models were finishing up their set, and managed to catch about two songs. It was interesting to see two rather large bands jammed into the basement space, but they made it work. The Models sounded great again, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them on Wednesday at the Casbah with the Mooney Suzuki (thanks for the invite, Dusty!). The basement seemed to be pretty empty for their set, maybe because people were still arriving, or because the sound was really loud?

After the Swedish Models played, we hung out for a bit with various folks, and I made even better friends with that Nalgene bottle. The basement gradually filled up with people as Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects set up their massive amounts of instruments. I quickly figured out that there was no way I trusted myself to stand at the front of that crowd with my camera in the state that I was in. So instead we found a spot near the back of the crowd and settled in to be thoroughly rocked by Mr. Tube. The whole time they were playing, I was struggling to classify them into a genre, but I just couldn't do it. They had a sax and a trumpet, but they weren't a ska band. They made people dance like Lady Dottie and the Diamonds, but they weren't a blues band. After awhile I just stopped trying and enjoyed it for whatever it was. Most people in the basement were dancing along, getting all hot and sweaty, and it was a great vibe to be sharing with people. It was nice not to worry about taking photos for once...although that doesn't mean I won't continue to take photos at most of the shows I go to. It's just fun to have a night off every once in awhile.

All in all, I proclaim the night another great success for Heather and Amanda. It seemed that this House Party was even better attended than the last one, and by some different sorts of people. It's good that the word's getting out around town - I just hope that these events don't get too big for the venue...

This Little Light of Mine

My flash came in the mail today - hooray! It's the exact same type of flash that I used to take the photos of the last House Party. Normally, it costs $280-ish new, but someone was willing to sell me their used flash for $150. Sweet.

I probably should have debuted it tonight at either the Dynamite Walls or Muslims show (or both!), but I just wasn't feeling it. Might have something to do with having to be on campus at 8:30AM tomorrow for the last day of this conference. Sigh.

By that logic, I should be in bed right now. There's an idea...

Hoping to be at the House Party tomorrow night, flash and camera in hand...

Scientists Can Be Witty Too

I forgot to mention this yesterday during my "live blogging," but sometimes scientists can be funny. Not often, but sometimes.

This came to my attention while sitting in an otherwise boring talk. The research that was being explained involved finding a new protein that bound to a known protein called "Frat." Usually these names are acronyms for a characteristic about the protein - I'm not sure what it stands for in this case. Anyway, that's not the funny part. That comes from the new protein's name - since it interacts with the "Frat" protein, they called it "Sorority."

Haha.

Computer issues finally solved, although I have massive updating (programs, etc.) to do to get it back to the functional level it was at before replacing the hard drive. New keyboard and touchpad feel and work great, so I'm happy about that.

Live Blogging a Science Conference

It goes a little something like this:

6/21/07, 2:20 PM: I wish scientists would learn that a 15 minute talk is only supposed to be 15 minutes long. This isn't a physics conference - we're not dealing with relativity.

3:05 PM: Why are so many people in this field unattractive?

3:35 PM: BREAK!!!!!! Hooray for 25 minutes not spent in a basement lecture hall!!!

4:00 PM: I wish that technician would show up to fix my laptop keyboard so that I didn't have to keep going to my fourth floor lab to check my email and read blogs.

4:45 PM: This is supposed to be my field and I'm not really interested in anything anyone's saying (insert minor quarter life crisis here). Fuck research, I'm going to go work for the Patent Office when I get my Ph.D.

5:15 PM: How is it that someone can be incredibly brilliant, yet not be able to form a coherent sentence in their native language? Was this guy one of those people who started undergrad at the age of 12?

5:30: Dinner break!!! Fuck coming back afterwards, I'm not staying on campus until 10:30PM when I came in at 8AM. Peace out, yo.

Live blogging will continue tomorrow.

Okay, maybe not really, unless I come up with anything else insightful to say. This is more just an explanation for why I've posted so much today...

One Stripe, Two Stripes, Red Stripes, White Stripes

For once I would like to read a record review of the White Stripes that doesn't reference their outfits. Pretty please? I'm just saying...I had higher hopes for Pitchfork than most, and well, it only took them until the end of the first paragraph. Yawn.

That being said, I need to pick up this album the next time I'm in the vicinity of M-Theory (damn you, Warner Bros, for not putting your catalog on eMusic). This stupid science conference is messing up my record buying by keeping me on campus until 10:30 tonight (!!!). I should be listening to talks right now, except for the fact that I'm still waiting for this computer technician to contact me regarding fixing my computer. Which he was supposed to do before noon today. Grrrr.

This is just not my week.

Show Review: Vinyl Radio @ Belly Up Tavern, 6/20/2007

I've known about Vinyl Radio's existence for quite some time, so I really don't know how I managed to avoid seeing them until last night. They were already on my list of local bands to check out, so when Matt asked me to come and take some photos at their show, I was in.

It was a pretty good end to a day that seemed to last forever. I'm in the part of the research cycle where nothing I'm doing seems to work, so I just get really frustrated and fed up with science. Example: yesterday I had a four-hour period of time where I was just waiting for bacteria to grow, and I just couldn't deal with the proposition of sitting in lab that whole time. Fortunately, Pete was in the same mood (2 hour meetings will do that to a person, I guess), so we went to Roundtable to grab a beer. The pub on campus has limited hours due to summer session, and so does Roundtable, it seems, since they started shutting down right after we got our drinks. After we finished our beers, we decided to head out from campus for a little while and down to La Jolla Shores. And that, my friends, is one of the good things about working at UCSD.

The beach left me in a much better mood than I had been previously, so we came back, showered (or at least I did - in the creepy shower by the animal facilities in the basement of MTF), and finished up whatever work we had left in lab. Then we headed up north, with the plan of stopping at Pizza Port for some food and beverages. But somehow, Pizza Port is always packed. Even on a Wednesday night. So we ended up just going to the Belly Up and ordering food there.

While waiting for the bands to start, Rosie and Andrea showed up, and we chatted with Matt for a bit. I asked him to tell the lighting guy to keep the lights bright during their set so I could get better photos for them, and he said he'd do what he could. I later felt a little bad, because during their set, Matt mentioned, "We've never played a venue with lighting this good before - it gets really hot up here." Oops.

But regardless of the heat, the band put on a great set. Even though the crowd was sparse (them being the first band and all), everyone was enjoying their version of rock 'n roll. Matt is an incredibly energetic frontman, bouncing and jumping around the stage for most of the songs. All the other members are pretty energetic too, moving around while they played and sometimes switching up instruments. I think the only thing that would have been an improvement on their performance was if the vocals had been mixed just a bit higher. It was sometimes hard to hear the lyrics clearly. Other than that, everything sounded great, the lighting was awesome, and I think I got some really good shots of the band. Unfortunately, I have to wait until the hard drive on my laptop is replaced to upload and process them. Damn technology, always breaking.

Get Back Loretta was up second, but we headed out a few songs in. From what I heard, they sounded really good, even though the singer has sort of an emo-type voice which threw me at first. They were also incredibly animated during their set, and the fact that we left early says nothing about the band itself. It was just that kind of day, and today is going to be another long one for me. It was nice to go out and be home by 11, for once.

Practicing Patience

I wish this technician guy would come fix my computer soon. Hopefully before this conference starts at 2PM.

I really would like to see the Vinyl Radio photos I took last night, but I don't see the point of uploading them onto a computer whose hard drive is going to be replaced later today.

Menomena - Rotten Hell Video

Came across this on Stereogum. Menomena soundtracking a slow-motion food fight makes me happy:

Starting off with a Clean Slate

In addition to getting a new keyboard and touchpad for my laptop, Dell is also giving me a new hard drive. Apparently the problems I was having with the system locking up were the fault of the hard drive.

This means that a) I have to backup all my files and reinstall all my programs after the tech installs the new hard drive, but also that b) I get to lose a lot of the junk that's accumulated on my computer in the last year and a half.

I'm trying to look at this like it's spring cleaning (summer cleaning?), not a huge pain in my ass.

I'll try to post tomorrow about the Vinyl Radio show, but photos may be a bit delayed. Replacing hard drives has always been a stressful, and usually tramatic, experience for me. But at least this replacement is planned and not due to utter failure of the drive (knock on wood). But still, it throws a kink into things...

Fun with Film

Some scanned-in negatives off of a roll of ISO 400 black and white film:


Autoclave pipes in my lab building. P.S. Autoclaves sterilize things with steam, heat, and high pressure...

but they can also melt things too:



That's two metal racks that normally sit in the autoclave, joined together by the plastic remnants of a bin that didn't have a high enough temperature rating. The culprit was someone from the lab down the hall - it happened about 6 months ago, and they still haven't bothered to chisel it off to make the racks useful again. Of course, that's how long it for me to drag my camera in and take a photo of it.


This is a photo of what I refer to as a "pineapple tree," because, well, it looks like a big freaking pineapple. Taken on a walk around my neighborhood.

More to come, whenever I get a chance to borrow my friend's neg scanner again.

Flickr Photo Stats

My photostream has been viewed 2,053 times. Whoa.

Top 5 photos based on views:

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(sorry Andrea!)

5)



Top 5 photos based on "interestingness":

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(P.S. this is what happens when you catch someone else's flash)

5)



Huh.

A Sticky Situation

Last night at a GSA (read: Graduate Students Association) meeting, I managed to spill half a cup of soda on my laptop keyboard. Turns out, the hour and a half I spent last night meticulously prying keys off the keyboard, soaking them in water, and cleaning the underlying surface with isopropanol was to no avail. Which left me with half of a keyboard that actually worked today, which wasn't exactly amenable to typing up blog posts.

Fortunately, I bought the computer at the UCSD bookstore, so it came with a massive 3-year, complete care warranty, including "at home" service. Which means that tomorrow, some guy is going to show up in my lab to replace the keyboard, touchpad, and perhaps figure out why my computer is unhappy when I move it around (it's a laptop, isn't it?).

Until then, I write to you from a keyboard poached off my desktop computer that's plugged into the USB port of my laptop. The screen feels about a million miles away, but it's probably about where it should be anyway.

No new music news to report today, other than that I'll be at the Vinyl Radio show at the Belly Up tomorrow night, photographing as usual.

My ears have recently been filled (mostly by way of car stereo) with Maximo Park's newest CD, Our Earthly Pleasures. It's full of infectious singles that will get your fingers tapping on the steering wheel or your feet tapping on the dance floor. It's also got it's share of that reverb-y bass that makes me love Snowden so much. Check it out, and check them out when they play the Casbah on July 28th.