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Baby Dee ♥ Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (12/01/09) |
Before her last song, she introduced The Books by telling this joke about next to the dog, a man's best friend is a book. Next because inside a dog, it's too hard to read.
The Books set up two chairs and their movie projector at 9 o'clock. Remember, this is the Cedar, their shows starts early and ends early (no later than 10:30pm). Which its audience is an older (and probably gainfully employed crowd), so they like early shows.
So, back to the Books, they provided the live soundtrack to their movies. Everything is in sync, no technical problems at all. They even went so far as having a one-minute intermission song as they tune up their instruments. The intermission song features anagrams of the word "Immediate". Everything is calculated.
I find that trying to watch the movie and watching Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong was somewhat distracting. I think they prefer you watch the screen, because watching the duo play isn't exactly that exciting.
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The Books ♥ Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (12/01/09) |
As for the encores, which incidentally is predetermined because of the movies that is associated with the songs, they did two songs. The first is a Nick Drake cover "Cello Song", which Paul explained is their only cover they do. It was for the benefit of the Red Hot organization for Aids awareness. If you recall, I've previously endorsed the organization by buying many of their music releases. Their final song is "An Owl With Knees" from their 2005 album, Lost and Safe.
PS, This is my final concert for 2009 (I hibernate during the winter), I would like to thank everybody for offering shows for me to review. I will be able to accept assignments in March-ish 2010, and/or whenever it stops snowing.
12/02/2009 11:29:30 ♥ vu (
) ♥ thebooksmusic.com ♥ myspace.com ♥ twitter.com
Today in the Twitterverse:
- 14:13 yay, reservations made for Xmas with the family and Marrit #
- 19:19 Today was a surprisingly "bright, sunshiny day" ♫ blip.fm/~h5trh #
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12/13/09 Loring Kitchen & Bar Minneapolis
Discography
12/20/09 Loring Kitchen & Bar Minneapolis 12/31/09 Loring Kitchen & Bar Minneapolis
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Minneapolis duo Bella Ruse self-classify their sound as “indie folk jazz,” but when Joseph Barker plugs in his electric, as on opener “Push On,” the result doesn’t quite fit the categorization. The sparse, moody guitar and Kay Gillette’s intimate vocals would be as appropriate for a sparse, moody Jim Jarmusch film as for a smoke-filled jazz club. While “Push On” is Bella Ruse’s standout track, the rest of the EP is quietly pleasing. “J’ai Presque Peur” is a smooth Pinot Noir toast to Edith Piaf and “Heart of Everyone” jangles along nicely. When Norah Jones released her debut, I remember being underwhelmed at first, certain that her foray into “jazz” was one clarinet short of Lite FM. However, after a few listens, I warmed up a bit, mostly because beneath the soccer mom ear-bait, I could detect the slightest shade of melancholy, and this interested me. Bella Ruse is interesting in a comparable way (they had me at “kind of sad”). Gillette’s voice calms rather than excites and sure, “Hold Me Close” would probably excite a Meg Ryan character (when she realizes that the Tom Hanks character is The One*); still, revisit “Push On” and convince me there isn’t a little Scout Niblett/Chan Marshall angst beneath the romantic sentiments.
In his track notes, Barker admits that “Push On” was not an immediate favorite. In fact, it took Gillette’s persistence and encouragement from fans to convince him that the song had a place on the EP. Although this baffles me, I also kind of get it. “Push On” is Bella Ruse’s “Hide and Seek”: a stand alone track that deviates from an otherwise comfortable style. There’s a reason why I’ve listened to the song a total of 27 times since I received the EP, except the ‘reason’ is actually a sensation—a slight tingling, milder than goosebumps but equally elusive. My request for the band is simple: more, please. More blood, sweat, tears, booze, ultra-lights, magic fairy dust or WHATEVER combination birthed this beauty. More Pinot Noir, too.
Besides their debut EP, Bella Ruse has also released ‘Twas a Bella Ruse Christmas, a 4-song compilation of Christmas favorites. Both albums can be purchased digitally at http://bellaruse.bandcamp.com. For more information visit the band’s official website or e-stalk the pair on Facebook and Myspace.
*Sadly, my Nora Ephron references are dated. Help.
12/01/2009 23:35:26 ♥ lara (
/lara206.vox.com)
♥ bellaruse.com ♥ myspace.com/bellaruse ♥ twitter.com
Bono is looking a little tired. I hope he goes home to relax with the family for the holidays!
This photo is from a press conference announcing that Nike has joined the Product Red Line.
The other guy in the photo? Didier Drogba. He plays for Chelsea. My brothers were not happy to see him as one is a Man United supporter and the other one supports Liverpool.
It's funny that this week my brothers have cooked/baked more than me.
On Sunday during football my brother Joe baked up some yummy cupcakes. He wanted evidence to show his friends on FB so I took a photo! : )
Tonight, my brother Billy who I refer to as PITA (pain in the arse) baked chocolate chip cookies, yes they were frozen but still !!!! They came out yummy!
Philosophy is a unique subject for various reasons. One of its most novel characteristics is that it does not establish facts: there are no facts in philosophy. The discussion about facts (or the lack thereof) in philosophy usually revolves around the topic of metaphysics. But the same principles would equally apply to the other major branches of philosophy, namely, epistemology and ethics. Even if there are such things as moral facts—a debate among moral philosophers—that claim itself has not been established as fact precisely because there are no established metaphysical facts (saying there are moral facts is a metaphysical claim). Thus, any discussion about facts in philosophy is going to breakdown to a discussion about facts in metaphysics.
In saying that there are no established facts in metaphysics, the claim is twofold: (1) there is no established consensus in the philosophical community concerning the answers to metaphysical questions and (2) there is no established consensus on how to go about verifying one metaphysical position over another. In other words, there are no non-controversial answers. If we take a look at other disciplines, astronomy for instance, we find that there is a strong consensus that the earth is a sphere. There are also various agreed upon methods to confirm that this is the case. It thus becomes an established fact that the earth is spherical. The only part of philosophy or metaphysics that is analogous to this is the established historical facts concerning the existence of and proposed ideas of certain past or current philosophers. Otherwise, there is no set of information or established facts or theories that one must adhere to in order to remain respectable in the philosophical community. In fact, philosophy is notorious precisely because of its bizarre, counter-intuitive, and seemingly radical positions (e.g. the claim that ordinary objects, like chairs, do not exist, or the claim that we do not know that we have hands).
One reason given for why metaphysics has this peculiar
non-factual nature is to say that there is something wrong with metaphysics
itself. Or more specifically, there is something wrong with metaphysical
questions and statements. The logical positivists of the early twentieth
century gave such a response. They argued that this peculiar characteristic of
metaphysics (and philosophy in general) was due to the fact that, despite
initial appearances, metaphysical questions and statements are meaningless.
Thus, questions and statements about free will, God, being, matter, time,
personal identity, are all, quite literally, nonsense. Such questions are
nothing more than a string of words jumbled together that seem to make
sense—that seem to have the sort of content that allows for an answer—but in
fact do not. It is not surprising then that metaphysicians have not only had
trouble coming up with answers to these questions but have also had trouble
agreeing with one another. Of course, the logical positivists evasion of
metaphysics was eventually shown to be a failure (most famously by Quine in his
earth-shattering article, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism.") This is not to say, however, that there are no longer philosophers who suspect that at least some metaphysical problems are reducible to problems of language and meaning.
A second response—one favored by philosopher Peter van Inwagen—is to say that while there is nothing wrong with the nature of metaphysical questions, there is something about human minds that makes us unable or unfit to investigate metaphysical questions (at least to the degree of satisfactoriness that we desire). This is not to say, as Kant did, that it is logically impossible for any being that represents external reality to themselves by means of their internal states to answer metaphysical questions. Rather, this is the more modest position that states that while it is logically possible that there could be creatures that have minds that are attuned to answering metaphysical questions, it turns out that humans are not those creatures. Human are attuned to do physics but perhaps not attuned to do metaphysics.
Today in the Twitterverse:
- 16:22 Progressives (and Obama) are Doing Better Than We Think -- and We Won't Know What We've Got 'Til It's Gone bit.ly/7ujcT9 #
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One of Kateg's favorite label, Polyvinyl, is offering a free 16-track album at polyvinylrecords.com/mentalmath. The sampler includes a ton of bands we've previously covered: Architecture In Helsinki, Mates of State, Asobi Seksu, Headlights - just to name a few.
Incidentally, one of those band, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are on tour:
- 12/02/09 Outland* Springfield, MO
12/06/09 Binghamton University Vestal, NY
12/07/09 Bell House Brooklyn, NY
12/08/09 Summit Columbus, OH
12/09/09 Bishop Bloomington, IN
12/12/09 Outland Ballroom Springfield, MO
01/13/10 Maxine’s Pub Hot Springs, AK
01/23/10 Gallery Sounds Collective Springfield, MO
01/28/10 Schubas EARLY ALL AGES SHOW Chicago, IL
01/29/10 Courtyard Cafe Champaign, IL
01/30/10 Mojo’s Columbia, MO
01/31/10 Jackpot Lawrence, KS
* SSLYBY 10th Anniversary show with Brian Azevedo and Lamentia
I got a download sample and press release for this band's latest "double a-side single" for Simple Pleasures/Like Dat. Generally, I am not accepting singles, remixes, or demos, but since I did enjoy their previous single for "Your Music is Killing Me" and "You've Got To" (especially the Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim remix), I did give these two new songs a listen.
What can I say ? I really dig the old-school punk intro, followed by this weird 80s pop singing, then some rasta-thing. Not really sure what to classify the whole thing, except that it's quite dancey. As for "Like Dat", I wasn't keen on this as much. Perhaps it's the rap song is such a stark contrast to the other song... but that's probably why people like Young Punx.
Currently, I think you can only get Simple Pleasures/Like Dat on iTunes. If you want to wait, I think these two songs are going to be available on their upcoming album, Mashpop & Punkstep, due out in 2010.
Anyway, since this is the "free" post, you can head over to their official website under theyoungpunx.com/../mp3, you'll find a ton of free mixes and oddities. My favorite are any remix of "Juice and Gin".
Also, some random thoughts: I survived Black Friday. I have never seen so many people out in force at 5am. The parking lot at Wal-Mart was completely full, thankfully we got news alert from other shoppers that we went to Wal-Mart at the last stop. Deals were everywhere, it was the worst at Target (which also reflected people flocking to there). One of the item I bought was the Matrix 10th Anniversary Bluray, which comes in a nice book-format, for $12.99. It's normally $29.99 suggested retail price. My impulse buy was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. PC game for $5.... it couldn't be helped.
I spent most of my vacation catching up on reading and TV shows. TV shows comes in the form of Hulu and Netflix - via the Netflix Instant Streaming disc for PS3. Compared to Xbox's "Gold Membership" which costs $50 a year, PS3's free streaming is a much better deal.
The Netflix streaming is dependent on your internet connection, I have a semi-decent connection at 5 megabit, so the video starts instantly (less than 30 seconds). Compare this to Playstation's own HD digital rental services, you have to wait at least 30 minutes to start the video, while it download the rest of the file. It's probably fast if you just drove to the video store and rent your movie.
Quality-wise, again depending on the connection, was pretty amazing for me. According to 1up.com, the streaming is in HD (however, I think some titles are only available in standard definition).
My gripe is that most of Netflix's titles are only available on DVD, the digital portion is probably less than 1% of their titles (it is only a guess since their selection is so poor). Also, there's no searching via the streaming disc. You can browse the recently added in various genres, but older titles, you will have to search and add to your "instant queue". Kind of lame, I hope they fix this problem in future updates.
If you don't have a PS3, most newer television and bluray player will come with instant Netflix, so this company is quite smart in getting their hands on all devices. Think about it, if you bought a Bluray player with Netflix, you will probably sign up for an account. Anyway, if you have a PS3 and a Netflix account already, you can request the free Bluray disc for yourself at netflix.com/ps3.
12/01/2009 00:16:50 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
Last Christmas, my brother-in-law really wanted a new fishing pole. I went to Dick's Sporting Goods at Franklin Park Mall - in between stops at Barnes and Noble and Toys-R-Us - to get him one. The strange thing was: none of their selection was marked with a price tag. So I hunted down a clerk. I picked up a really nice looking pole and asked the salesman how much it was. He said, "I'm blind, but if you give me the pole I can tell how much it is by the weight." I gave him the pole and he quickly replied, "This pole is worth $45." I was a little surprised by how cheap it was. I picked out another nice-looking pole nearby and handed it to the man. He told me, "This pole is worth $55." I could barely believe how cheap these fishing poles were. I then selected the nicest looking pole in the place and handed it to the man. He barely hefted it before saying, "This is our best fishing pole, and it costs $70." I told him I'd take it.
I'd eaten at Taco Bell for lunch, and as the nice salesman was ringing up my merchandise I suddenly had to fart very badly. I decided since he was blind it probably wouldn't matter if I farted in front of him. So I just let it rip. To my surprise, the clerk said, "Okay, your total is $80." Confused, I asked him, "Didn't you say the fishing pole was only $70?"
"It is," he said. "It's $70 for the fishing pole and $10 for the duck call."
It's Week 12 of the NFL season. How's your team faring?
Ohhh no! The Patriots are getting clobbered tonight! UGH!!!!!
Tom Brady does not look happy.
