Bumber --- Shoot!!!

So over the last few days I have been thinking about how Bumbershoot has changed over the years. Not that change is bad, but one of the changes they have introduced, well suck.

Today is a Friday, in the days after they started to charge for the event ,Friday's were still free. Not any more, today is just set up for the weekend, starting tomorrow it is $40 per day to get in. With the schedule the way it works out, I can see maybe one band on each day I want to see, none of which I want to pay $40 to see. When I was younger, the festival was free. I could check out art, music and performance that I might not otherwise view, all for free. Even in the years after they started to charge $5 to $10 to see multiple bands was still a good deal. The problem was during those years I was working for bands that played so I got to go for free then as well.

Fast forward to now, all the bands I might want to see are playing around the same time, and I could see any of them for less than $40 at a club without all of Seattle milling around when I'm trying to get in.

Well if you decide to go this weekend, go see Battles. They will be worth it.

The Comet smells like hot dog water

So I forgot to mention in my post about the Poseur show that the Comet Tavern smells like hot dog water. I haven't seen a show there since the hot dog stand set up shop outside. It was hot inside and the windows to the outside were letting in much needed air. But the air smelled like hot dog water and cream cheese. It coated me like an alien invader trying to take over the human race by osmosis. I thought I might need to take a shower when I got home. I was worried it might not ever come off, like the episode of "Seinfeld" when the car smells and they can't clean it. In a way I felt it was very punk rock, like the Lake Union Pub's floor that was so sticky with beer and sweat that my shoe almost came off playing a show years ago. In the end it just smelled weird and made me not want to play the Comet.

on the way home last night

noise and indie rock

Last night was busy. First I went to Full Tilt Ice Cream to see Brizbomb. He has this huge rack with some analog synth modules and lots of effects running into a mixer and uses it to create some real cool sounds. I played some pinball and relaxed to his super low end sounds. I wondered how the crowds that are usually out in front of the bars next to the ice cream shop would react, and to my surprise some of them came in and checked it out.

Then I headed up to the Comet to see Poseur . The photo I took with my phone didn't turn out so good, but the show was great. I hadn't seen them since I was doing sound at the Crocodile back in 2002 and they opened up for the Mates of State. They sounded tight. I hadn't listened to the new cd too much, but I put it on this morning on my way in and I think I will be hearing it more and more.

Playlists vs. Mixtapes

A while back I was reading a book about the future of music delivery. The author had a theory that users would pay a small subscription fee and have access to music all the time on all their devices, transferring back and forth with ease. Being that all music has yet to be owned by one company, these days users have different devices to play digital files, or older analog devices like turntables or tape players.

When I was younger, before the computer was widely used in the home, but after the compact disk was released, people would make tapes of music for each other. These "mixtapes" were a labor of love, or in some cases, in search of love. They took hours, sometimes days to create. Much thought was applied to come up with the perfect mix for who ever it was aimed at. I threw out all of the tapes I had in our last move. I hadn't had a cassette player for years, and was only a hair away from transferring all my cd to a ipod and selling off all but the most important music I own on cd.

I hadn't thought much about the playlist on my ipod. I have made some, but I usually just listen to single artists at a time. I have made some, but never put to much effort into making them. But after a long road trip last weekend I got to thinking about the difference between the playlist and the mixtape. The play list is fast to create, if changes need to be made all it takes is a couple of clicks and its done. Mixtapes took hours, songs being recorded in realtime, breaks to change the lp or cd for the next one. If you wanted to change a song on a mix tape it had to be the last song, or it was time to start over from the beginning.

The playlist is not any less valid. To come up with a good one it will take the same amount of thought and planning, just less on the digital creation side.

Looper #2

So a few months back I posted about Boss RC 20xl looper pedal. I used to love it, then it died. I was about to play a show a couple of weeks ago and it stopped working. I played the show without it and called the Boss customer service the next day. They said I could send it in, but as I didn't have the receipt it wasn't eligible for warranty service. I sent it off thinking I could pay the cost of repairs, but when they called they said they could sell me a new unit for $10 dollars less than retail, plus the cost of shipping (not to mention the cost I had already advanced shipping it to them). I chose not to buy a new pedal from them, but to look at some of the others on the market.

I settled on the Digitech Jamman. I haven't used it with my other gear yet, but it looks cool.

More photos of Dirk

Last weekend we drove to Idaho to visit my two month old niece and play with my dad's dog Dirk.

Free Carwash day at Brown Bear

Go to your nearest Brown Bear Car wash. Now it is only the tunnel car wash, you know the ones that you drive into and it moves your car for you. Check the website if you don't know of the nearest one to your location. The free car washes are until 8pm tonight. I saw it as I was driving by and just pulled in got my car washed and went back on my merry way.

The Rocker

So I downloaded a ring tone. I have created ring tones in the past, ones I never used for my own phone. Somewhere out there a few people at one time may have used them. Not me, I have always stuck with what ever rings the phone came with. Out of curiosity I downloaded a ring tone from the Scott Sigler website, one that was from the "Infected" podcast. The site that hosted the ring tones had some others and I saw one from the movie, "The Rocker". It says, "You don't ask your parents for permission to rock!".

After the ring tone I told my wife we should go to the movie. She agreed and we went for dinner, shopping and a movie. It is the funnest movie I have seen in a while. We saw "Tropic Thunder" and it was funny, but this was funny in a way the whole family would like. Its not too cheesy, not too wacky, but just plain funny. Go check it out, if you don't have to ask your parents to rock that is.

Pineapple Express

So I had so much fun playing on Sunday I forgot to mention the movie we saw earlier in the day. Pineapple Express I thought was going to be a goofy movie about a stoner process server and his drug dealer who get in to some crazy situations. Instead it turned out to be some kind of combination of "Cheech and Chongs Next Movie" and Hard Boiled . Now I found some of it to be funny, but overall I got lost somewhere between when his girlfriend's dad started shooting and the end of the movie. Maybe I need to be stoned, cause it seems like it was written by stoners who had a great idea while watching some of their favorite movies, but forgot it once the weed wore off and ended up with this movie instead. I say save it for video and wait for the next big thing in comedy to roll up in smoke.

Infected part2

So a few posts back I wrote about the audio book Infected . I listened to all the episodes that are available and I must say I'm hooked. I have started listening to another of Scott's audiobooks, Ancestor . I've only heard the first chapter, but its moving along nicely. Scott does a great job on the production, the podcasts sound great, and his reading is smooth, nice to listen to. I find it easy to get lost in the story. If you like trashy scifi and are looking for podcast to listen to, check it out.

Chickenhed Church

So last night impacttestdummy played Chickenhed Church at The Chai House.

Above is a shot of Abe with no pants. He had no Dj for the show inbetween bands so he babbled into the mic instead. We played a great set and after noisepoetnobody played which was amazing as well.

I skipped the last band and went to see some friends play at the Sunset. The we headed home early to try and get some sleep as we were both still sick.

impacttestdummy at the Chai House

Come on out to Mr. Spots Chai House on Sunday night around 6 pm. One of my musical projects impacttestdummy are playing Chicken Hed Church. It should be fun. After my friends Blue Spark, Jodie Watts and more are playing at the Sunset Tavern. Make it a whole night out in Ballard.

Control

So the day before we left New York, both my wife and I got a cold . Its odd how sometimes symptoms are different even though we both must have the same cold. Anyway I'm getting off track. When we arrived home I also had a back log of books and movies from the library to watch.

Today I came home from work early and after we watched the last episode of the third season of "Weeds", my wife took a nap and I watched the biopic,"Control" about Ian Curtis. It was in black and white and I didn't notice until the end of the film. I thought it was a good movie, told the same story I have read and seen about a young artist who struggles with his life. If you don't know anything about the band it would be a great way to expose yourself to it.

I was 12 years old when Ian Curtis died. I wouldn't become in touch with his band's music until many years after his death. Being exposed to the band that formed after his death, New Order before I listened to Joy Division, I have always felt like a voyeur listening to Joy Division. Fans of the band held the singer on a pedestal, like other fallen heroes, his bass-baritone voice the soundtrack to many a disconnected teens bedroom. I can even remember the first time I heard of him someone wearing a Sisters Of Mercy t-shirt told me that New Order could never live up to the legacy of their former singer, with a look of disdain on his face. I made peace with myself after listening to "Unknown Pleasures" enough times to call myself a fan. In a way it the song, "She's Lost Control" may have played a part in the music I would write years later. The production on that record was amazing. It was part of the reason for me watching this film.

The band had a short life and a huge legacy. The movie captures the look of the photos of that time, but having been part of a musical movement in history I know that's all movies can really do. They can't answer the unanswered questions, they can't reproduce the action, only the reaction to the narrative created by the film makers.

Control does a good job of creating the narrative. I thought the end spent a little too much time trying to answer the question that can't be answered, but other than that it was a good movie.

Jones Beach

Yesterday we spent the day at Jones Beach on Long Island. It was hot, but we had a nice breeze. The waves were small, enough for both my wife and I to have a good time in the water. The Police were doing sound check at the Nikon outdoor theater.

Muscoot Farms

Today we took Jake to his favorite spot to see farm animals. Muscoot Farms is supported by the community as education on how farms work. We got to see cows, pigs, turkeys, sheep and horses. Then we had some ice cream at King Kone, mmmmmm.

Jackson and Deb

Pre Fab home exhibit at MOMA

I love the new designs that people have been designing. We went to MOMA today and they had an exhibit of some.

MMM breakfast on Broadway

NYC morning

Off the West Seattle bridge

speaker man on the keyboard

Whoo Whoo

Free Audiobook podcasts

So I was reading The Stranger and I saw a post on the Slog about Scott Sigler's book "Infected". The reviewer said the book was horrible. As I read on I saw that Scott Sigler had his books available for downloading as a podcast. I'm always looking for new ways to use my iPod, so I plugged his name into google and headed to his website. From there I went to his iTunes page.

I headed to iTunes and started downloading. When looking at Scott's site I saw that when finished his books are available at Podiobooks. They have over 200 hundred books for download, all of which are free.

So far I have only listened to the first chapter of "Infected", but it seems like it might be a good way to pass the time on a plane ride, or in the morning and afternoon commute. It isn't very good, but when someone else is reading it doesn't seem as bad to me, I agreed with the reviewer from the Stranger that the writing was full of cliches, but I like the bad with the good sometimes. Plus he offers it for free, and I can listen to it on the iPod, so it can't be that bad.