July 2007 Archives

Back in February (!!!), the Mrs. and I were fortunate enough to get away from work for a week and a half to take a trek across the Pacific Ocean to visit the Hawaiian island of Maui. We had been to Hawaii a couple times before, and we've easily determined that it's our favorite vacation destination overall. We decided to give Maui a try this time around, so what follows are some thoughts and snippets of stuff we did, saw, tried, drove by, took a picture of, what have you...

If you enjoy whatsoever, make sure you book a trip to Maui sometime soon. If you don't enjoy, well yeah, sorry, it's my blog and I need to get this documented once and for all. Carry on...

The journey begins back in February...

I'm a relative newb when it comes to web apps and the venture capital dollars flowing in and out of these said web apps, but that didn't stop me from appreciating the fact that one of my new, favorite tools, Twitter, just announced that they closed their first round of financing. Build, Twitter, build! Integrate with every other social network on the web! Blog about your accomplishments -- on your own blog! Twitter it, even!

Want me to discuss the business implications just like everyone else has already done? Naw, I'll actually leave this to the people that like to call themselves experts.

I had a funny epiphany this weekend that hit me sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. I woke up with a song in my head, some 80's jam that you hear on the radio from time to time, and I vowed to find this song and download it for inclusion on my iPod Shuffle. My shuffle is like, my "best of" in my recent, musical rotation. I needed this track for the shuffle to be complete.

Thankfully, after what seemed like hours of searching, I stumbled upon the song name and the artist name via YouTube. Given that I knew only part of the chorus, the search was rather difficult. And once I finally found it, I knew why -- who knew that there was a band out there called Haircut 100...

Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) [YouTube]

Very Oingo Boingo-ish. Good stuff.

I just now remembered that I vowed to blog about my Hawaii vacation way earlier this year. I guess I've had some other stuff on my mind since then, but it's still something I plan on revisiting soon. This week even. Expect some photos and some other fun thoughts from our trip; I want to remember it while I gear up for thinking about booking a trip for the same time next year. I love it there.

Also, expect a couple updates to the site over the next couple days. I hope to make it look pretty again and get the sidebar working all fantastic like it should be. Next weekend is Lollapalooza '07 -- who else is going?

I'm pretty sure most of my Ward-o-blog readers are not huge fans of music festivals all around; I'm not even sure I am anymore.

But damn, this lineup for Vegoose 2007 looks amazing...

Rage Against The Machine
Daft Punk
Iggy & the Stooges performing the album Fun House
Muse
The Shins
Cypress Hill
Queens of the Stone Age
Public Enemy
Michael Franti & Spearhead
Umphrey's McGee
Thievery Corporation
STS9
Ghostface Killah & The Rhythm Roots Allstars
Blonde Redhead
Gogol Bordello
U.N.K.L.E.
Ghostland Observatory
Pharoah Monch
Battles
moe.
M.I.A.
Mastodon
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
(via JamBase)

If that doesn't get your musical love flowing then I'm not sure what could.

Last night was an exciting night for the Mrs. and I -- it was the premier of The Simpsons Movie in Chicago and we went to get early tickets for the 7:00pm showing at the Kerasotes 14 on Western Ave. Unfortunately for us, the line ahead of us was huge and we got there just a little too late for that showing. We opted for the next one at 7:50pm and took a nice walk -- it was a perfect night for actually being outside and not at a movie, but I digress -- and we made it back to the movie theater right in time to wait in more lines before the movie seating began.

Once in our seats, we were subjected to a bizarre pre-movie entertainment mashup that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy: quotes courtesy of E! Online from various C-list celebrities on various topics that I could care less about, as well as music from a local radio station featuring the best in R&B tunes (along with one tune from the musical, Wicked -- which was oddly placed). Thankfully, the Simpsons Movie began and the crowd went pretty wild right from the start. The movie was fantastic. We were psyched. It was getting really, really, really good when...

The Mrs. nudges me and says, "Get up...get up!" and we're immediately wisked away in a blur. I had brushed off the fact that we saw a security guard run past us about five minutes before (we were on the aisle seat), and I hadn't immediately noticed the woman from the theater standing at the front of the theater announcing half-loudly that we all had to evacuate immediately due to fire in another part of the building.

The fire alarm sounds...and every theater gets cleared. Needless to say, that was the end of that and we were definitely not going to get a chance to see the second half of the movie. Given that the showings were selling out, we opted to leave immediately for fear that the building might actually be on fire and we might get trapped in a rather unfortunate situation.

Hopefully nobody was hurt; I didn't find any local news coverage on it and I'm sure we would have heard if something major went wrong. They're going to let us into another showing of the movie so at least we'll still get to see it on the main screen.

Anyone see it yet? Don't leave any spoilers yet.

After a brief hiatus and some upgrade testing done on Movable Type 4, I'm pleased to report that I've officially rolled back this blog to Movable Type 3.35. I'll wait until all the bugs are worked out, and I really don't feel like learning Wordpress right now. MT makes sense to me. I should keep it simple for myself.

Sorry for the disturbance. Carry on...

And I was hugely surprised by that, actually -- especially the fact that Jeff Tweedy himself admits to enjoying Battles.

Read the NY Times article in question.

Download Phish's 1990 Halloween show on mp3 here.  That is good stuff, man.  Thanks for the share.

It's about time.

I've been a little down over the past couple days, maybe due to a little birthday fun hangover.  There's that exciting event anticipation, and then there's exciting event hangover where you can feel a little bored or anxious by the lack of anticipation for anything else.

One song has been helping me through my pain.

Menomena - Strongest Man in the World [mp3]

It's been haunting my brain ever since I saw them play this on Sunday as part of the Pitchfork Music Festival.

I caught a fantastic Cubs game yesterday to help celebrate my 26th birthday on Thursday. They ended up winning 6-0 to beat the Astros and continue their little winning streak they've been on lately. Keep up the good work guys.

Then I saw this on the way home. LOL.

This morning at 3:18am, I turned 26.  To celebrate this momentus occasion and my very strategically planned day-off tomorrow, let's listen to The Vandals, one of my old favorites.

The Vandals - Happy Birthday to Me [mp3]

I love my birthday.  Many people don't like it because it might remind them that they're getting old.  Or some don't like to have a "center of attention" sort of day.  But there's just something about my birthday that's obviously special to me, and it's always one day during the year that I feel unstoppable.  It reminds me that I'm alive.  That life is short.  That I just had a kickass year.  And so on.

I'll be celebrating at work with my good friends and I'll be celebrating later this evening with my lovely better-half, and I can't wait for both.  Today is going to be awesome.

Thanks to my man Jessie for sending this my way.

There's a beginner / social / competitive Baggo tournament coming up in Chicago on July 28.  It's called the Windy City Cornhole Classic, and it sounds like fun all around.  I might actually try to organize a small group for this...that'd be killer fun to have some friends in the mix.  I'd hit up the Social group most likely -- I'm sure I'm far from competitive as compared against some of the frat boy graduates from Wrigleyville.  If you're the kind of person that carries around your boards in your car trunk, well, you're probably a lot better than I am at the game.

It's one of my favorites, though.

Flight of the Conchords - Roll of Tape [YouTube]

Every new episode of Flight of the Conchords gets better and better.

Here's a clip from the latest episode, with my favorite part coming at the end around the 3:00 mark.  Stay through to the end if you want to see Jermaine's real singing power.  And Bret's, too.

I've entered what I like to call "the dark side" of being a web worker these days -- I now have a Blackberry.

I'm using it for both my internal work email and my personal email, and so far it's been great for staying on top of both. I'm still weary of the ultimate power that one of these devices can have, and I'm hoping I'll be an effective case study for effective Crackberry wielding techniques for the next generation. Or something like that.

Before I work on my full post on The Police concert at Wrigley Field on Friday night...

I'm about to head out to Woodhaven in Sublette, IL with two of my three brothers.  We're visiting my mom and grandma out there, and I'm pretty excited to have some time to hang out with my family.  Plus, their campsite is absolutely gorgeous.

I'm heading to a hugely highly anticipated concert tonight, one that I've been waiting for ever since I discovered the drumming magic of Stewart Copeland -- The Police. They're playing Wrigley Field, of all places. Katie and I probably just walk over there...pretty epic to think that I can walk to Wrigley Field to see a band that has truly shaped my appreciation of music and musicianship in general.

I can't wait. Hope to have some better shots than this one taken by my man Steve...but then again, I think our seats are probably even worse than this. Ugh. Great choice for a venue? We'll be the judge tonight.

As a follow-up on one of my previous posts, I just got around to making my own Simpsons character avatar in honor of the upcoming release of The Simpsons Movie.

I honestly think I need to put a little more work into this one. It doesn't look that much like me. Katie's is pretty good, though.

I caught this amateur firework display last night after dinner while on a walk. Good stuff.

Disco Biscuits - "Cyclone" [YouTube]

One of my favorite bands, the Disco Biscuits, just created their own YouTube channel and they've been uploading some gems to the collection -- some from way back when the band started out in 1998/1999 (some would say the glory years) and some from very recent shows with their newer drummer Allen Aucoin -- and I'm all subscribed up and ready to see what they add next. The clip above gives you the best sense for what their concerts are like, what their sound is like, and how much these guys rage live.

I was never a raver or anything in high school or college, but I always seemed to associate myself with some of the music that was big in the rave culture at the time. I think this band was just a logical progression for me once I discovered Phish and jambands in general. Their jams aren't jams, really -- they're techno excursions. Untz untz untz untz. Four on the floor. Best seen in a dark club.

I've been to a bunch of their shows over the past couple years, and I got to see them while we were over in Amsterdam for Jam in the Dam 2006. These guys rule.

Flight of the Conchords - "Part Time Model" [YouTube]

A couple weeks back, HBO premiered the first episode of Flight of the Conchords, a series about the comedic folk duo that go by the same name. The duo is comprised of New Zealanders Bret Mackenzie and Jermaine Clement, who have both had some acting spots lately that you might have noticed them from. Bret played Figwit in Lord of the Rings (which seems logical given his home and where the movies were filmed), an odd controversy in and of itself. Read the Wikipedia entry on "Figwit" for a little more detail; it's interesting stuff. And Jermaine was actually in some Outback Steakhouse commercials here in the States.

At any rate, they've been doing their comedy duo thing for a while, already landing spots at SXSW 2006, Bonnaroo 2007, and elsewhere. And the series is absolutely fantastic so far. The video above is taken from the first episode; it's actually the first-time you get a glimpse into what you can expect from the series all season. Bret and Jermaine are presented as loser-ish, starving artists until they get to their friend Dave's party. Jermaine catches a glimpse of a hot girl standing across the room, and instantly we're transported into a soul, R&B love song about how she could be a part-time model (that still might need to keep her normal job). He simply can't believe that he's eating a kabab with the most beautiful girl he's ever seen (with a kabab).

Hilarity ensues when they break up, and hilarity ensues way further when they need to film their video, "The Humans Are Dead." Stay for the binary solo at the end. Affirmative.

And TiVo this series immediately. You won't want to miss any of these. YouTube does have a lot of the stuff you may have missed so far, so definitely catch up and try not to succumb to the Inner City Pressure. You know you're not in high finance considering second-hand underpants.

Given the relative exhaustion that one feels after three days at a music festival, it's hard to look ahead to Lollapalooza 2007 for the aftershows.  It's hard enough to see everything you want to during the day, let alone at night when you're trying to rest up for the next day full of music.  Regarding these aftershows, I didn't hit any last year, even though they looked great on paper, and who knows if I'll try to muster up the strength to hit some this year.  One thing's certain -- these definitely look great on paper.  Apostle of Hustle.  Cold War Kids.  Good stuff.

Read on for the full lineup of aftershows.  Anybody going?

Good news for any FeedBurner fans -- we've just announced the stats and services that we used to charge for are now being given away for free.  The initiative has even been given a brand name -- FreeBurner.  Aren't we cute?

Head over to the 'ol company blog for more info. 

The free MyBrand service is really a no-brainer here.  Any publisher should want this service, and the fact that we're giving it away for free is hugely useful to anyone that knows a thing or two themselves.  You'd never want to outsource your brand.  FeedBurner just said, "dude -- we don't even need your brand."  And like, dudes like me think, "whoah, that's awesome that FeedBurner just let me control my brand a little better."  And then FeedBurner's all, "but dude, that's what we do here."

"Dude..."

"DUDE!"

"Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude."

'Nuff said.

A few real-life Kwik-e-Marts have been created for The Simpsons Movie and the photos are starting to make their way onto Flickr.  There's even one in Chicago, albeit way on the south side.  Awesome marketing idea.

I've had some New Belgium beers in my fridge all weekend, which before last week would be impossible for someone in Chicago (unless I just came from a trip out West).

It started last year when Chicago started selling 22oz bottles of Fat Tire, one of my favorite beers. Most good bars around here serve it on tap now, so it's my new regular when I'm don't feel like ordering the pint special of the night.

The beer in the distance is called Skinny Dip. It tasted great...and it's definitely a beer that deserves a second taste very soon.