Start Wearing Purple  //  1.23.06  [Music: Cake - Motorcade of Generosity]

The other night I saw Cake live at the Palladium and had a real blast.  I wrote up a big old article about the whole thing and you can read it right here.  Hope you enjoy it.  I know I did. 

Not much else has been going on, except the following...  For one, I tried making my first video in Premiere Elements, and although I enjoyed working with the program and I think the more practice I get with it the better, I wasn't happy with the actual project I was doing.  It happened to be the first thing I intended on putting up as a video blog, but I thought it was pretty crappy.  Also, there was an issue that I didn't know how to fix until after I finished it, but now that I know, I'll be able to avoid it in the future.

Also, my DVD/CD burner is on the fritz.  I was ripping some Cake CDs to put on my iPod when it suddenly stopped reading discs and decided to open and shut whenever it wanted, without me asking it to or hitting the button.  I have run every kind of diagnostic, virus scan, spyware scan, etc., I can come up with, and nothing has worked.  I checked the Dell support forums and it turns out that there's a lot of other people out there with problems with the same model disc drive as mine, and unfortunately, my warranty expired after only ninety days.  So, I guess it's off to Staples tomorrow to find a replacement!  I just hope I'll be able to install the new one without a problem, but I'm sure I'll do just fine.  I was worried about modems with my last computer, and that was easy. 

That's all from here.  Keep it real!
Shotgun City Sunshine!  //  1.16.06  [Music: The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth]
Mom and Dad had the time of their lives the other night at the Garden with The Stones.  I knew they'd have a good time, but I didn't know just how good.  They had plenty of great stories to tell and I'm glad that they could do it.  Throughout the night, Mom would call back home and just hold her phone out so that I could hear some of the songs.  I got to hear bits of "As Tears Go By," "Get Off of My Cloud," and "Start Me Up" as they were happening.  Pretty cool.  I hope those guys never stop doing what they do.

Meanwhile, I got myself a ticket to see Cake on the Unlimited Sunshine Tour at the Palladium for Thursday night.  Cake are supposed to have themselves a great live show, and I really can't let an opportunity like this pass me by, so I jumped on it.  Tegan and Sara will also be there, which should be interesting, as I really only know one of their songs (which was covered by my beloved White Stripes), but I'm looking forward to them as well.  I'll probably learn a thing or two.  The comedian Eugene Mirman is acting as a sort of master of ceremonies.  I think I've seen him on Comedy Central and I believe that I laughed. 

I promised some music reviews, so here's quickies on the last three CDs I bought.

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm:  British pop/punk quartet highly suggested by legitimate sources (Spin, Sarah Porter).  When I got FIFA Soccer 2006 for PS2 (and you should too, it's addictive and even better than the previous FIFA games), their hyperactive single "Helicopter" was included in the game's eclectic soundtrack.  Although the song is a serious slam on President Bush, I enjoyed it anyway for its impossibly catchy rhythms and the cockney accent of Kele Okereke.  So I picked the album up and I've noticed that half of it is similar in chops to "Helicopter" and the rest is a whole lot like Coldplay.  I haven't talked about Coldplay a lot lately, the reason being that I am starting to be bored with them.  Still, Bloc Party's a good mix of angry Clash-like energy and "Hey, love is a pain in the ass" reflection.  These guys are probably a lot of fun live.
The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth:  There's two camps surrounding the Strokes: the people who heard Is This It, loved it, and six months later said they never liked them and called them overhyped.  The other camp remained faithful and didn't mind the fact that Room On Fire was basically more of the same because it's music that has heart and the band are just five genuine New Yorkers.  Okay, so the fact that they're typical early 80's style New York rockers is a big part of why I love them, but I've always gotten a charge out of their stuff.  After trying to handcuff themselves on Room On Fire so as not to seem too progressive, they've burst through with a fresh set of songs on First Impressions.  From the opening track, you hear all the same signature moves The Strokes have employed since day one, Fab's tight drums, Nikolai's heavy-yet-mellow bass lines, Nick and Albert's dueling guitars, and Julian's "I should really have been in bed an hour ago" drawl.  Now, imagine all of these signatures and magnify them just a touch, and you've got this album.  They've all stepped it up and it shows through yet again.  The saviors of rock?  They might not have wanted that role, and Julian's lyrics prove that.  But they're cool enough with it, just stop reminding them and let them play.
The Best of Talking Heads:  The fact that I don't have any Talking Heads on any sort of hard copy is ridiculous.  I changed that last week with a little birthday money.  It's easy to say that I've got a bunch of new favorite songs on this great collection, like "Psycho Killer," "Uh oh, Love Has Come to Town," "Found a Job," "Heaven," and "Life During Wartime," to go along with the classic standbys like "Once In a Lifetime" and "Burning Down the House."  Cue the David Byrne-style dancing!  (Dumba dumba dumba doo!)

I'd love to keep writing, but I got a lot of stuff to get done before work and then a visit to the station, so I'll leave that for another time.  And don't worry, Dean, I'm still going to finish the video I've promised!
That's me!  Heh Oh Meh Eh Er!  //  1.13.06  [Music: The Best of Talking Heads]
Today's Mom's birthday, and she happens to be on her way to celebrate with none other than the Rolling Stones.  I can't wait to hear how it goes.  They still put on the best shows around from what people say these days.

So I haven't posted in about a week, which isn't much of a good idea, because as days go by, and you start saying things like "I'll post tomorrow" and you either don't get a chance to write the next day or you repeat the process.  Meanwhile, I manage to come up with good stuff to write about and the longer I wait, the less and less I feel like doing it.  Not to mention that last night I had a rough evening that I don't really feel like talking about right now, so I'll just leave it at that.

I did get Adobe Premiere Elements today, which I can't wait to start playing with.  It's a basic version of the full version of Premiere, but what I've looked over so far is really cool.  I can't wait to see how much stuff I can come up with with all the great features in there, so I'm pumped.  I gotta thank Mom for getting it for me. 

I just got off the phone with my brother Jimmy, who can be seen here with little Elizabeth!  (And a stuffed giraffe.)

It's still very exciting knowing that I'm an uncle, especially to such a pretty baby! 

That's all from here for now.  I'll be back to doing my good old elitist music reviews soon, don't worry.
New Year, not much else  //  1.5.06  [Music: Arcade Fire - Funeral]
Well, it's new year.  If you were expecting a new NP1 layout, like I do every year, I'm sorry to disappoint.  I didn't really plan on it anyway.  I really like this design so I'm sticking with it for a while.  However, I am planning to overhaul NP1 Films and maybe one or two other pages (the links could use some thinning out).  So keep your eyes peeled.

One new thing I'm planning on this year is video blogging.  Now that there's plenty of extra space and bandwidth to play with, I should be able to pull that off pretty easily.  I won't use it as a replacement for this blog, and it won't be a way to add stuff to NP1 Films quickly, either.  It's just another way to get funny ideas out there without too much fuss.  I'm sort of working on one tonight, so you might see it soon.

The weekend should be fun... George and Kelly will be here for my birthday weekend (ahem, BIRTHDAY) and that's always a good time.  Then on Sunday night I'm going out with a bunch of friends, because it's not only my birthday, but Chuck's as well.  That'll be a good time, no doubt.

Well, I really don't have much to say tonight, I just wanted to get a new post up for the new year.  Look for more exciting things some other time.