A Trifle One-Sided

Went to a great club show the other day. Can't really call it a concert, as it was in a pretty small venue (the Middle East Upstairs, which is even smaller than Downstairs I think). But it was an excellent time.

We were pretty late to the show. The show was supposed to start at 9pm but due to overindulging at Midwest Grille, a Brazilian "Churrasco" restaurant (you know, one of those where they just keep coming and filling your plate with fresh cuts of meat). The sirloin was particularly good and the Caipirinha was an excellent "dessert". But it did mean we didn't show up at the Middle East until nearly 10.

But lucky for us, the first act was just getting warmed up.  Anna Ternheim was brand new to me, but between her guitar playing, clear voice, enchanting accent, and cute-as-a-button looks, I was hooked from the start. Her songs had an engaging personalness and were sung with feeling and verve. And her cover of China Doll blew me away. I talked with her a bit after her set and she was as nice in person as she seemed on stage. Her first real North American tour, it continued to Montreal the next day and on across North America. I later bought her US debut CD, Halfway to Fivepoints, which she graciously signed. Anna explained that it was much more orchestrated than her solo set, but that didn't worry me at all. Also, see V♥M's Anna Ternhiem post.

Anna was followed by Lykke Li, who opened up the sound quite a bit. Adding a drummer and keyboardist, Lykke showed some serious dance chops, with some great beats and plenty of energy. It was funny, as we were talking with someone in the audience before Lykke came out and he wanted to know about El Perro, who he wasn't familiar with, while we were in the opposite boat, having never heard Lykke Li before. Lykke later came out to accompany El Perro Del Mar.

And it was El Perro Del Mar that originally brought us to the Middle East. And she was as introverted on stage as she sounds on disc. Her hair in a short pony tail, she stuck with her hauntingly beautiful lo-fi songs, with a drummer and a keyboard along with her. El Perro's voice was as clear and unique in a club setting as it is on CD and she played a couple of encores, with Lykke Li helping out on one. The set was pretty much split between her first two US releases, while the encores were from The Valley to the Stars, her newest CD. I had held off buying it until the show and I was lucky enough to get El Perro to sign the new one there too. But, like Anna, her stage personae is no fake and she's as distant in person as she was on stage.

But a great night was had by all. Well, save for dropping a full beer on the floor before the start of things! But I otherwise had a grand time, especially enjoying the up close viewing I got for El Perro, as the crowd thinned out a little, possibly due to the latest of the hour, but also I think there were plenty who were there for Lykke Li. So if they come to your neck of the woods, I encourage you to check it out.

I also finally watched Casino Royale, the 2006 version that introduced new Bond, Daniel Craig. It was a darker, more serious Bond film than I am used to, although I have to admit to having never seen any of the Pierce Brosnan ones, so I'm not sure if the trend had started earlier.

In this film, based on Ian Fleming's first Bond book, we see the origins of the "double oh" that James Bond would become. In fact, it begins with a black and white montage, showing us how Bond qualified for the 00 status. After this, we see him in Africa, trying to track down the source of terrorist money and he follows the money trail until he attempts to break the financier in a high stakes poker game. Much mayhem ensues and Bond gets his man.

I enjoyed this new Bond flick and thought Craig made an excellent Bond. I'm not, however, keen on torture scenes, even if we know revenge is in the offing, so it was a little unsettling. And I thought the movie in general was uneven; that the pacing was off. There were plenty of good action scenes, but the idea of hinging the whole plot on a poker game seemed just to trite these days. But I'm looking forward to his next installment.

I watched on BluRay extra, about the search for Craig. It's funny, the producers were talking about needing a new Bond, because this movie would go back to the beginning of his career, so they wanted someone younger. But they admitted that while it didn't make much chronological sense, they did stick with Judi Dench as "M". I have to also admit that I for some reason thought this was her first, but she actually goes all the way back to GoldenEye, Brosnan's first Bond flick.

The BluRay picture was very nice. I could really see the quality when I paused the movie - rock solid pause with a crisp, clear picture. I still like the HD DVD menus and extras better, but what can you say?

Netflix and the USPS really have been combining for a joyful experience. I dropped the movie in the mailbox Tuesday just before pickup (1pm). Wednesday at 7am I got notice that the movie had arrived in the processing house. And I had its replacement by Thursday. Very Nice!

We went to see Crowded House last night at the Somerville Theater. My wife is a huge fan, me not so much. But hey, I'll go anywhere for a night out. They put on a good show, and seemed to be having fun up there. The crowd was a little laid back, at least until the encores.

It's unfortunate the cell phone pictures and videos didn't come out. A bad cell phone camera combined with the challenging atmosphere of a concert make for some pretty unusable media.

The coolest thing happened during dinner before the show. We went to an Indian restaurant in Davis Square and as the drinks came, I noticed that G wasn't paying any attention to me, preferring instead to stare at the table behind me. Turns out, two of the band members, Nick Seymour and Mark Hart (much older looking these days!), were having dinner. She couldn't get over it and I took a couple of pictures of her with them after they were done. Made for a pretty exciting evening.

Personally, I've still been playing the heck out of the Gorillaz Demon Days CD. Just can't get enough of it. I see where the Harlem film version of it is playing on MHD, I think, May 15. I think I like the mixing on that better than the CD version. A friend loaned me Guster's Lost and Gone Forever, which I enjoyed. A group formed locally, it's good jangly pop stuff.

I actually crawled out of my cave and went out to see Bess Rogers at a local dive. She was great and I really enjoyed the show. Picked up a CD and even got it signed, my third such CD (Lui Collins and Sleepy LaBeef being my previous two). Once again, big thanks to W♥M for the heads up on Ms. Rogers.

Now I'm looking forward to seeing El Perro Del Mar locally later this week. I should just grab her latest CD and give it a listen, although if I wait until the show, maybe I can get it signed!

I've been pretty quiet here at Trifle for a couple of reasons. First off, work has been pretty hectic, as we try to get a version together for a BIG customer. While my company is very very good at resisting long, involved changes for the sake of one customer, when a multi-billion dollar company really really wants something that is on your upcoming feature list, you tend to do your best to deliver it early, right?

I've also become something of Twitter-holic, especially since I added unlimited text messaging to our cellphone plan. As I've mentioned before, I have even received some timely help via my twitter "neighborhood", which is a feedback loop that is hard to resist. I've stopped using TwitterFox though. For one thing, Firefox itself is slightly too unstable, as it tends to crash about twice a day, so I figure I need to cut back on my Addons. Secondly, typing gets very very very slow. Not sure what that is, besides a general Firefox slowdown, but it makes it impossible to use.

So I've been beta (maybe even alpha!) testing phpitter, a PHP(!) app. It took some work to get it installed, but the SVN version is reasonably solid at this point. I suppose I should look at twitux. Or maybe write my own, eh?

But anyway, a couple of short takes on my time wasting efforts, besides Twitter:

• I read Debatable Space by Philip Palmer. A pretty long science fiction novel, it tells the story of some space pirates who kidnap a VIP and then proceed to try and topple the current galactic overlords. A little too much internal dialog by the VIP, and not quite enough action, but the book postulates an interesting future of limitless resources and "travel" by avatar, as the light speed speed limit is still obeyed. If you like "hard" sci-fi, I think you'll like this book. Just skip over all the interminable Lena reflections and you won't miss a thing.
  

• I watched Michael Clayton onDemand and was decidedly underwhelmed. Originally, I had no interest in the movie. Who cares about battle lawyers? But the previews I saw on cable made it look pretty intense, so I used my free coupon to "rent" it. The beginning was cool, with a very startling event punctuating a quiet time, but then it rewound time (which I generally like in a movie) and got dull. I just never understood why George Clooney's Michael Clayton suddenly got attacked by a case of the guilts. Some whacko lawyer friend of his decides that defending big business is right and he somehow infects Clayton, whose conscience bothers him after years and years of protecting the big guy. I never got connected with him and so the last 2/3rds of the film just didn't resonate. Oh well.
  

• Fever Pitch became available online at Fancast (a Comcast site), so I watched that yet again while "working" yesterday. Man, the 2004 ALCS still brings a tear to me eye. I wonder if any but heartfelt Red Sox fans can really "get it". It's not as painful as Game Six, as it has a much better ending, but still...
  

Narrator: Ben became one of God's most pathetic creatures - a Red Sox fan.
Uncle Carl: Careful kid. They'll break your heart.

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I almost made it all the way through Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour. I really tried but I have to admit to just losing interest in the adventures of Guy Crouchback after about 600 pages (out of 800). Originally published as three book, this long novel follows the life of Crouchback, beginning just before the start of World War 2. It finds Crouchback in his mid-30s, hanging out at the ancestral Italian summer villa. He decides to "make something of himself" and goes back to England to enlist.

He originally finds it hard to fit in somewhere, but eventually joins an infantry group. The book follows his (mis)adventures through training, getting shipped to Europe just before Dunkirk, getting shipped to North Africa, and then off to Crete. In each case, he just sort of misses the interesting bits. He gets to Dunkirk in time to retreat, to North Africa in time to get sent back for a misunderstanding and Crete in time for the evacuation.

In the beginning, it was a lot of fun. Waugh's wry commentary on the class-conscious society of the 1940s, even with the war clouds building, is quite amusing. Crouchback reminded me a little of Forrest Gump or, maybe even closer, Chance from Being There, as he just sort floats through life, observing, and getting peripherally involved in weird plots. But the detachment got to me after about 600 pages, and so I just gave up.

Strange that this would be one of Richard Dawkins' top five novels of all time, as Crouchback is a devout and practicing Catholic, with religion playing a fairly prominent role in the book. Perhaps it would have been easier to take, reading it one book at a time, but as an entire course, Sword of Honour was too much for me.

Redzilla's recent posting about her lawn had me thinking about my lawn, which is a mess, despite my tearing it up last summer and starting from scratch. It looked good for about a month but now it is merely a mud patch with tufts of grass. Not that I'm a perfectionist, or even believe in the monoculture of a "good" lawn, but I'd like my kids to be able to play on it!

Anyway, a little humor to take my mind off the pain:

GOD: Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in The world is going on down there in the USA? What happened to the Dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a Perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, Withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of Songbirds.

I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are These green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's Temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass Growing there?

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and Poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow Really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it, sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS: No, sir -- just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will Grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS: Yes, sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and Saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stoke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in The spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and Protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to Enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.

ST. FRANCIS: You'd better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great Piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the Winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy Something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in Place of the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the Mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us Tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: "Dumb and Dumber," Lord. It's a real stupid movie about -

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

6	1		El Perro del Mar	11
	2		Dead Can Dance	5
	3		The La's	4
	3		Johnny Cash	4
	5		J.J. Cale	3
	5		Mike Oldfield	3
	7		Lissa Schneckenburger	2
	7		Faces	2
	7		John Cale	2
	7		Massive Attack	2

Hoping to make the El Perro show next month. Read a DcD refrence on Twitter and so got into them again. And you can't listen to "There She Goes" just once! Lissa is going to be at Passim's tomorrow night and showed up in the Globe Entertainment section. Downloaded an Ommadawn remaster, so Oldfield is back on the list.

According to Joshua Allen, the "perfect pop song" is two minutes and forty two seconds long. And he uses one of my all time favorite songs, one I consider a serious contender for Perfect Pop Song, "There She Goes" by the La's. I loved the line about the song:

When “There She Goes” is over, I guarantee absolutely no one in the room goes: “Jesus, finally.”

So I checked my ripped collection in Amarok to see what I had. Given some small variation in ripping (my "There She Goes" clocked in at 2:43), I searched in my Collection tab of Amarok using "length:>160 length:<164" for the search terms, and I came up with:

Three of my favorite songs from the 4 CD "Children of Nuggets":

One of my favorite Cure songs:

An excellent Gram Parsons song, covered by Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris:
One of The Boss' best love songs:
One of the best of an incredible collection of songs from The Clean's Anthology:
Solid rocker from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road:
The best movie song, bar none, of all time:
Not surprising to find one from the CD I've been playing over and over recently, Demon Days:
Another slice of pure rootsy pop heaven from Sleepy:

All in all, a filter that turns out pretty well, I'd say.