Phish 3D and The Bloody Bloody Band

May 4, 2010
3D technology is everywhere and I think we can safely say it has proven itself beyond a gimmick. It truly enhances the visual experience even without the original cliched application of sharks and other objects popping into your face. Phish 3D is the best look I've ever had at my favorite band, bringing the audience onstage with incredible depth and perspective, allowing visual details that would be invisible to anyone at the show and some that would be unseen even in a 2D format; I saw what their "farewell" show in 2004 simulcast in a theater, and this blew it…

Music Evolves!

May 2, 2010
I saw the band OK GO perform "This Too Shall Pass" on The Colbert Report then saw their videos for the song and am overjoyed by their brilliance. They made two versions, one featuring a giant Rube Goldberg contraption and one performed live with a marching band and choir. Absolutely Amazing. And if you have never seen their first video, dancing on the 8 treadmills, then you should probably watch that as well. Thank Good there are still great music videos despite the fact that MTV has turned into a wasteland of our culture's worst. Interestingly, State Farm Insurance paid…

Ukulele Cabaret

May 1, 2010
My neighbor is one half of Sonic Uke and host of the monthly Ukulele Cabaret, which is an eclectic variety show featuring that wonderful instrument. I joined the cabaret this month and played with a laptop running Reason/Record and a small keyboard, which I used to record loops on-the-fly. This is a condensed arrangement of the sounds I made last night. Ukulele Cabaret 4.30.10 It is far from home-studio perfect, but I love that my studio is mobile and that I can improvise and create a unique recording anywhere I go. O Technology!

Still At War?

April 28, 2010
Two great movies on war in the past 24 hours. First a My Lai documentary on PBS, which was one of the heaviest pieces I've ever seen, bringing us through the events leading up to the worst civilian massacre of the Vietnam war and though its execution. Men who were there and involved with mass slaughter of 500 unarmed villagers explained, almost rationally, why they committed this atrocity, and a photographer presents his magnum opus of War's Worst. In the heat of battle and under constant fire from invisible enemies, it is reasonable to expect men to lose their heads,…

The Ascent of Money

April 20, 2010
I just finished reading Niall Ferguson's book and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the history of finance. It is a fascinating look at the evolution of money and mankind from hunter-gatherer to creditor-debtor. The Incas were perhaps the last great moneyless empire but they were eradicated by conquers intent on claiming the metal in their mountains, a symbol of wealth and power in their own culture; and while rocks and metals could be immediately traded or transformed into goods and services, bankers took the concept temporal with loans and interest, creating stocks, derivatives, insurance, mortgages and futures.…

The Flaming Lips

April 18, 2010
I had heard rumors about this band... I have listened to them for years (Vaseline was in the prime of my middle school-MTV watching years) and have heard they put on an amazing spectacle but had never seen them live until last night in Poughkeepsie. This rumor turned out to be completely true. The show was at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center and they transformed a drab empty space into a vivid party; giant balloons, confetti cannons, giant bug costumes and hundreds of laser pointers distributed to the crowd accompanied by joyous music made the evening a truly special experience. But…

Fired!

April 14, 2010
In the half of my lifetime that I have been working, I have been relieved of my duties twice. The first was at my very first job at an ice cream store, where I was accused of scooping kids cones too big. While she did have a point, I maintain that she was also completely crazy and not a person that I wanted to be working for anyway. The second time came last week, when I was told by a certain Upper East Side preschool that my one-day-a-week contract would not be renewed because "movement is more than just running…

Thank you Phil for reminding me!

April 5, 2010
They play at least 162 games in a season, which makes the value of each one so small, but last night was the very first and after months surviving on other sports I allowed myself to watch it as if it were game 7 of the World Series. Plus it was against the Yankees. Beginning of Baseball season also means beginning of patio season, which is where I write this now and where we grilled last night, opening BBQ season with spicy kebabs v. spicy chicken (Daliente!); a great night of hanging out with friends watching The Sox deliver a…

i hate everything

April 1, 2010
Life sucks. Anyone who believes otherwise is an ignorant fool. Being alive is nothing but ugly disappointment everywhere you look: all your hopes and dreams will be crushed by reality, which is just a painful death march. Every day depletes your soul as you become the zombie slave our society feeds on. In the grand scheme of things, you are nothing, infinitesimal in the pointless existence of the universe. Joy is a fleeting illusion. Love will only break your heart. Good is dead.

Karaoke

March 19, 2010
I had a few great karaoke experiences this week. On Saturday night, our crew traveled to Koreatown for the classic room rental and sang and screamed into a microphone to various selections from our cultural history. The background music is cheesy MIDI accompaniment, and the words are superimposed on ridiculous Korean films, but it is still one of the most fun activities I can think of participating in with my friends. There is something very intoxicating (besides the copious alcohol consumption) about belting out a song that you've listened to passively hundreds of times. When you are given license to…