Category: My Life

Gavin DeGraw And David Cook In Reno

October 26, 2011
MusicMy Life

Last weekend we drove up to Reno, NV for a quick getaway and a concert. Sure, we gambled a bit too but mainly we were there for the music. Petra likes both the artists and so we went to check them out. First on the bill, and starting 20 minutes early (!) was Carolina Liar. They were ok but the singer had some problems staying on tune. Not sure what that was about. Next up was singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. Turns out he’s quite a performer too. He put on a great show and should easily have been the headliner, performing most of his songs from his first album (Chariot) and his latest (Sweeter). Those are his best two albums anyway IMHO. Then last up was David Cook, from American Idol. He put on a decent rock show, but there’s a sameness to almost all his songs that makes him better in small doses. More variety might help. Overall, though, it was an entertaining show and Gavin was by far the high point. I took some cell-phone videos that you can watch, click on the “continue reading”…

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Our Latest 48 Music Items

October 23, 2011
MusicMy Life

Here is the latest update. Some we bought, some were gifts, a few we burned. Do you love any of these? Hate any of them? Or are you just confused? Take a look and then leave me a comment…

Read all the way to the end and then leave me a comment!

ARTIST – TITLE – FORMAT – SIZE – COUNTRY – COMMENTS

Death Cab For Cutie – Codes And Keys CD 5 US

Jack’s Mannequin – People And Things CD 5 US Special edition with three bonus tracks

Bowie, David – Vs. KCRW – Golden Years CD 5 US Advance copy

DeGraw, Gavin – Sweeter CD 5 US

B-52s – With The Wild Crowd! Live In Athens, GA CD 5 US

Beatles, The – 1 CD 5 US Remastered

Adele – 21 CD 5 US

Eisley – The Valley CD 5 US Autographed

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Music We Own: The U Stuff (As Of Today)

October 13, 2011
MusicMy Life

Hello again friends, family, and music lovers…

This is the twenty first in a series of posts about the music we own. We sort-of collect items by certain artists, as you may notice. And yes, we are both still obsessed with music!

Artists are listed as last name, comma, first name. If it is a band then it is just the band name. Anyway, check it out and see what you think. Leave me a comment below the list!

Name – Title – Format – Size – Country – Comments

U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb CD 5 US Special package with bonus DVD

U2 – No Line On The Horizon CD 5 US

U2 – The Joshua Tree CD 5 US 2-CD reissue

U2 – Boy vinl 12 US

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This Must Be The Place For Talking Heads

October 6, 2011
BooksMusicMy Life

Have you read this book? It’s called “This Must Be The Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th Century“, written by David Bowman and published in 2001.

First off, I really like this band. A lot. Talking Heads took pop, punk, art, funk, and quirkiness and cooked up something unique and innovative, while at the same time catchy and infectious. No one else sounds like them. They pushed musical boundaries with nearly every song, but the music was so good it would be stuck in your head for weeks.

Now, on to this biography. The author has a casual style that is kind of fun but also can get kind of annoying. He refers to women as “chicks” (does anyone still do that?). And, while there are plenty of facts about the band and it’s members, there is also an obvious bias to his opinions. He gives a lot of time to the tensions between David and Tina, and places that as the reason the band quite working together. This may be true, there are quotes and insights from friends and others, but there could have been more contributions from the band members themselves. There are some nice photos in a center section, though I of course wanted more.

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The New Airport Terminal And The Public Art

October 2, 2011
ArtFamilyMy Life

We took the granddaughters out to the airport to see the new Teminal B, scheduled to open on this coming Wednesday. We got tickets to a preview so we could see it early. We wanted to see the new one billion dollar terminal but also all the public art that is in it. The kids loved the art and so did we. And the terminal is pretty awesome too, very light and modern, lots of glass, and very large! And many of the restaurants in the terminal building are local, not just the same chains that you see in every city. Nice touch! Pictures after the “read more”…

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Music We Own: The T Stuff (As Of Today)

September 21, 2011
MusicMy Life

Hi there music lovers…

This is the twentieth in a series of posts about the music we own. We sort-of collect items by certain artists, as you may notice. And yes, we are both still obsessed with music!

Artists are listed as last name, comma, first name. If it is a band then it is just the band name. Anyway, check it out and see what you think. Leave me a comment below the list!

Name – Title – Format – Size – Country – Comments

T.A.T.U. – Dangerous And Moving CD 5 US CD-R

T.A.T.U. – 200 KM/H In The Wrong Lane CD 5 US CD-R

T.L.C. – No Scrubs CD 5 UK

Ta Mara And The Seen – Thinking About you vinl 12 US

Ta Mara And The Seen – Ta Mara And The Seen vinl 12 US

Ta Mara And The Seen – Everybody Dance vinl 7 US

Takahashi, Yukihiro – Neuromantic vinl 12 US Includes lyric/picture booklet.

Talking Heads – Remain In Light CD 5 US Dual disc, CD + DVD

Talking Heads – Electrically vinl 12 US Bootleg.

Talking Heads – Fear Of Music CD 5 US

Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense CD 5 US Special edition, seven bonus tracks.

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Seattle And Bumbershoot 2011 Photos Here Now!

September 21, 2011
ArtBumbershootComedyFoodFriendsMoviesMusicMy LifeSeattleSportsTravelVegetarian

Hello again, family, friends, and everyone else too. The pictures from our Seattle 2011 trip are now online! We had a great time as usual. There are Seattle pix, Bumbershoot Festival pix, and just some other weird pix we took on the trip.

Note: These photos came from my cell phone camera. There may be other pictures posted later.

Any questions, just ask. Besides Petra and me, you might even notice a couple pictures of our friends Mama O and Liz. Take a look! Leave a comment if you want, I’ll be waiting….

Seattle/Bumbershoot 2011 photos

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Seattle And Bumbershoot 2011 – Part 3

September 13, 2011
ArtBumbershootCoffeeComedyFoodFriendsMusicMy LifeSeattleTravel

Did you miss the first two parts? Read part one here and part two here. And there will be a bunch of pictures soon too…

Monday September 5

Last day of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival and the routine is familiar. A bit of food in the room and then we took the monorail over to the festival. Once there, we snacked at the hospitality room and pondered the myriad of possibilities for the day. At one of the booths we watched a song or two by Lemolo, which I didn’t really like. It was very low-key female vocal but much too low-key. Today we had decided to see some comedy too, not just music. Our VIP passes got us to the front of all the comedy lines so we wanted to take advantage of that. The comedy show we went to had a short funny introduction by Baron somebody (I think), didn’t catch the last name. But the main show was two fairly well-known comedians, Amy Shumer and Eugene Mirman. Seriously, Amy was so funny I barely stopped laughing for her whole set. Politically incorrect. Yep. Funny? Hilarious! And Mr. Mirman was very funny too. Great show. After that, we watched a four-person panel discussion about being vegan, featuring the Black Metal Vegan Chef. He is so cool, check out his videos on YouTube. The panel was humorous at times and informative.

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Seattle And Bumbershoot 2011 – Part 2

September 11, 2011
ArtBumbershootCoffeeComedyFriendsMusicMy LifeSeattleTravelVegetarian

This is the second part of the trip recap. To read part one, click here.

Saturday September 3

Mid-morning we took the convenient monorail over to the Seattle Center, the site of the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival. Today was the first day of this amazing event. Doors opened at 11:00 but we got there at about 10:30 and they let us in early! I took that as a good omen. We got our Starbucks pass, allowing us free coffee drinks for the entire festival. Can’t argue with that. Then we went to the VIP hospitality lounge for some food to get us started for the day. They were determined to provide vegetarian and even some vegan options too. We checked our schedules for the day and decided to start with a new stage this year (EMP Level 3) where Seattle’s Tomten was playing. They had won a competition to get a performing slot and were pretty good. Indie-type rock with a little more to the songs than some. Oh, and in case I forget, all three days of the festival we ate some festival food too. Eating is fun! But back to the music. The next act we saw was at the Main Stage (moved indoors this year), 90s act The Presidents of the USA. We watched about half of their set and they are still doing what they have always done. Of course they did their hit “Lump” and a bunch of others. Meanwhile, we realized that with our VIP passes we got some free drink tickets, so we went to one of the beer gardens and had a beer (or in Petra’s case, a glass of wine). At a nearby stage P.S. I Love You was playing but we didn’t hear anything that made us want to stick around. Not with so many other options. What are there, 12-15 stages?

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Eisley At Macy’s

September 10, 2011
MusicMy Life
2 Comments

Today we went to see the rock band Eisley, playing at Macy’s. Yeah, I was surprised to see that Macy’s was having music, much less by a good band. I had seen Eisley last week when we were at the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival in Seattle and I really liked their set. They rocked but it was still melodic and the harmonies were really special. Three sisters front the group and do the vocals, guitars, and keyboard. Their brother and cousin complete the band on bass and drums.

Today’s set at Macy’s was stripped down, just the three women on two guitars and a keyboard, so it was more of a (nearly) acoustic show. So the songs were quieter but the harmonies still great. It was almost folky but in a really good way. It was about 8-10 songs, I didn’t keep an exact count.

I’ve gotten three of their CDs recently, and they autographed the latest one up in Seattle. So I didn’t bother them for more today. Just pictures and video 😉

Here’s one of my four videos from today, the other three are linked below:

My three other videos (and the one above) are here (you might need to click the “continue reading” link!):

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Seattle And Bumbershoot 2011 – Part 1

September 8, 2011
ArtBumbershootCoffeeComedyFriendsMusicMy LifeSeattleTravelVegetarian

We just got back from our annual trek to Seattle for the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival (and more). I’ll post some pictures soon, but in the meantime here is a short synopsis of what we did. Enjoy, and maybe we’ll see you there next year…

Wednesday August 31

We flew to Seattle (Southwest Airlines) and arrived in the afternoon. Seattle has a great light rail train system that took us from the airport (nowhere near the actual city) all the way up to three blocks from our hotel. For just a few bucks! We checked in at The Camlin and then walked about five blokcs or so to the nearby Whole Foods Market, to get some supplies. You know, chips, salsa, cereal, fruit, soy milk, bottled water, wine, just the necessities. We lugged all that back to the hotel and then we were truly ready for anything. Well, pretty much. But we were hungry too! We were walking the block or so to Cyber-Dogs, a great vegetarian hot dog place, when we bumped into a couple of our fellow Sacramento friends, Mama O and Liz. We chatted a bit on the street (sidewalk actually) and then went to Cyber-Dogs for our meal (menu). This place gives you a lot of food, not just a measly hot dog. Next it was back to the room to plan out the event of the next couple days. Yes, I love Seattle!

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Mixmasters Round 17

August 22, 2011
MixmastersMusicMy Life

Hey music lovers!

Check out the liner notes and song list for my Round 17 mix? It’s here along with some previous rounds as well. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments below.

What is it? Well, Mixmasters is a long-running mix tape (now mix CD) exchange. It is currently at seven members and in it’s seventeenth round. Here’s how it works: each person makes a mix CD (up to about 80 minutes) and sends a copy of it to each of the other people. Emphasis is on artists that have not been used in Mixmasters before, so a lot of new music is discovered, good and not quite so good. After all these rounds, most popular artists have been used but there is an amazing amount of great music by lesser-known artists.

Then each person writes a song by song review of everyone else’s mix. Yes, we all review every song on every CD except our own. The results are complied in a publication called The Wheel, a large and fascinating collection.

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Shout: The Beatles In Their Generation

August 19, 2011
BooksMusicMy Life

Shout!

Have you read this book? It’s by Philip Norman and I finished it recently. I’m a pretty big Beatles fan but I still learned a lot from this book. It starts with when they first met each other and goes chronologically through the breakup and a little after. It’s divided into sections of their career as a group: Wishing, Getting, Having, and Wasting.

The four of them are not saints and all of them did things they might want to take back, and of course the strain of their huge fame took a toll on their relationships within the group and also without. The author has some biases and opinions that are not hidden. As with most biographies, you can tell fact from opinion and disregard the opinion if you want to.  He does have an interesting writing style and the sheer amount of information makes it well worthwhile. There’s John the caustic but gifted one, Paul the sometimes sappy but melodic one, George the decent guitarist who comes into his own as the group begins to fall apart, and Ringo the good time guy who was everyone’s pal and had a fun ride. Is this the definitive book about the Beatles? Maybe not but it’s got a lot. Is it unbiased? Not all the time. Is it a fun and entertaining read with a LOT of great stuff about the fabs? Yes!

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I Saw Jimi Hendrix And He Was Amazing

August 11, 2011
MusicMy Life

I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. What a great museum. Seven floors of musical goodness, we spent nearly the whole day there and saw SO much cool stuff. And I don’t mean just Lady Gaga’s meat dress (yes, seriously, it was there). No, the coolest thing was this flier/handbill for the Jimi Hendrix show that I actually went to here in Sacramento some forty-one years ago!!

Yes, you read that right. He died later that same year so I am really glad I got to see him. And he was awesome, as you no doubt already know from seeing him on DVDs or YouTube. Yes, he played guitar with his teeth, but his hands were what was really impressive. He had a style and technique like no one else and got some sounds out of the guitar that are still brilliant even to this day.

After all these years the memory of the show has faded a bit but I can still see the stage with him playing that guitar. It was a truly beautiful thing.  Best guitarist ever? Maybe so…

Anyway, imagine my surprise to see the flier/handbill in a museum back in Ohio. It brought back the concert and I wish it could have brought back Jimi too (RIP).

Here’s a review of the show that I found on the web. I can’t say for sure if everything is correct but you get the idea.

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