Mad World

I remember with clarity most of the events in my life when my parents did something to embarrass me. I also remember there were times when it seemed that all adults were a bit "off". Usually these types of outlandish behavior would occur at venues where music was being played. The offense, clapping of the hands and wild gestures, usually accompanied with singing... Things got even crazier when they would turn to me and want me to join in. I didn't get it. Didn't they realize they were all crazy?

Well, apparently its a disease that comes with age. Flash forward 20 years and I would have to admit that I have this bug, and so did most of all my peers in attendance at the Tears for Fears concert.

Little did I realize that my straight brethren could boogy down as good as the predominantly gay crowd at the Erasure concert. Who would have thunk it. Here we were a crowd of 40 something's, all dancing, singing and waving our hands in the air.

I didn't realize it at the time but TFF had a lot more memorable hits than I could remember. With a great opener put on by Gary Jules, who is mostly what you would term an Indie Folk Artist on an acoustic guitar, the night only got better from there.

Once TFF took to the stage everyone stood up for the next hour and a half as they recanted their musical history to one of the most excitable crowds I've ever been with. It was a show worth catching. As the night wore on I had to ask myself - has it really been 20 years? Are the anthems of my youth relegated to the easy listening stations on my radio dial? Who knows for sure - right? That night we rocked it like we did back in the day... those heady days of crazy hair, accent makeup, excessive jewelry and the feeling that the night would never end. Hats off to you Roland and Curt, you haven't lost the mojo.

[ winamp is currently decoding: Lifted by Eurythmics ]

All that glitters is not gold

sometimes its just Andy Bell...

 

One more album, one more tour. After all these years, this band continues to entertain Karen and I. Its definitely a good time and the crowd's energy never fails to stir everyone into a frenzy.

Margaret Cho was on hand and opened up the Erasure part of the show (I can't remember the opener band) with a rendition of "My Puss" and then the festivities started. Covering a lot of their newer material (i.e. Light at the end of the World), Andy and Vince also plucked a good sampling of their previous material which now spans more than 20 years. The show had one wardrobe change and the intermission was filled with "Jacques Cousteau" a B-Side single from "Boy".

I'm bummed that Karen was out of town attending a CHA tradeshow but I'm sure that there will be more albums and more tours. My friend Janett and I had a lot of fun and its always a great people watching venue.

As of now, I'm setting my sights forward to next week to the Tears for Fears concert at the Pacific Amphitheatre. I never got an opportunity to see them in their hey day so I'm really glad that they're back together and touring. I'll let you know how that goes - next week...

One final note - seeing as how Karen was out of town, our Canon was traveling with her. Not wanting to get our D70 mixed up in all this craziness I traveled sans camera to the concert. The lovely pics you see here are courtesy of Christine1127.

[ winamp is currently decoding: Pharoahs by Tears for Fears ]

Back to the Future

The premise: You're thrown back in time.
The reality: You probably aren't smart enough to move civilization forward, no matter what you think you know. Knowing how to download music to an iPod doesn't count.

Take the quiz and find out how you rate... You can take the quiz here.

There's nothing like knowing you're technologically useful.

[ winamp is currently decoding: Get Me Out Of Here by Marion Raven ]

There's no place like home...

but Europe comes damn close.

Its taken me a while for the details of our trip to The Netherlands and France to sink in. What felt like so many disparate events when we were overseas are now a seamless timeline full of things that make us smile, laugh out loud or reminisce with a longing to go back.

The Netherlands is a beautiful country and in spite of only being there for just over a week I can say that I got to experience a fair amount of it. Karen's family took us in, and I must say we were treated like royalty. It was wonderful being led around from one point of interest to another and I enjoyed seeing everything immensely. Karen and I had such a great time and it was even more special because we were able to share the experience with family that we don't see all that often. Now that we are back home I definitely miss some things that began to grow on me. The Dutch people are very progressive, outgoing and friendly. There wasn't a time when I felt out of place - other than not speaking the language - and after spending some time in Copenhagen, Holland is yet another area that Karen and I could see ourselves living in.

In contrast, France (in my opinion) lives up to its hype and then some. This country should definitely be on your top 10 list for travel. In spite of having no real expectations or over romanticized ideals about it, Paris left me breathless. There was little that I had to overlook in order to enjoy myself and it seemed that there was an endless list of things to enjoy. We did our best to take in as much as possible but we still only managed highlights and to our chagrin we never made it to Versailles because of a roof leak in our apartment and dehydration episode on my part. Believe me, there are very few places that offer as much as Paris and yet, you always have the opportunity to just sit down in the park, in a cafe or by the seine and take a break from the world around you.

Spending our 5th wedding anniversary between both countries was a great pleasure and even though we're booked until 2013 as far as vacations go, I'd still like to find a way to get back and spend more time there. As Karen and I begin to make plans for our trip to Peru next year, we are still basking in the glow of our vacation.

I never used to be much of a traveler until I met Karen and now I really wish I would have started earlier. For those of you contemplating traveling abroad - do it. Its a great experience and its never a bad idea to realize that we share more than we think with our neighbors overseas.

[ winamp is currently decoding: DVNO by Justice ]

iTunes... Seriously!?

Even though I'm a big proponent of simplicity, sometimes it just smatters of being a bit condescending. Sometimes things are too simple and iTunes fits that bill in my book. To add insult to injury iTunes also manages to keep you from tinkering and I hate that. So, for all you people out there who aren't big on buying music from the iTunes store and would like to try more "robust" iPod management tools this article is for you:

10 Alternatives to  iTunes

Go on, try something new but remember the caveat - some of these things are incompatible with iTunes, so once you make the switch, its got to be cold turkey - there's no going back.

Now, I've been a winamp fan from the get go so that is my tool of preference. If you'll allow, I'll make two recommendations. 1. Get a copy of winamp 2. Get yourself a copy of the ml_ipod plugin for winamp. Not only will it give you the ability to manage your iPod to your heart's content but it will give you the magical ability to retrieve songs from your iPod as well as any other iPod you might run across. Of course, I do not in any way, shape or form condone that type of activity, I'm just bringing a hypothetical situation to your attention. You can do with it what you want... Rock on people.

[ winamp is currently decoding: Music [Ft Lauryn Hill] by Joss Stone ]

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Karen loves fireworks... so, by proxy, we love fireworks - get my drift? In spite of my "being over" fireworks (mostly due to 3 summers of Videopolis) I still enjoy a good fireworks show but it takes a HUGE finale to impress me. Yes, I know I'm jaded but I'm willing to admit it. So, in the spirit of seeing a good firework show we spent the day at my brother-in-law's house in good ol' "Surf City" and waited for the night time festivities to begin. After spending a lot of time anticipating the show it turned out to be rather anti-climactic. Between the smoke from the other beach city efforts and the marine layer... most of the show was hidden from us behind a big cloud cover. Needless to say it was the best fireworks show I've ever heard.

All in all, it was nice to have a day off in the middle of the week but it just threw me off. Its not like you could commit to any revelry because of having to go to work the next morning. So, about the only thing that it really did was reinforce the idea that we need shorter work weeks in this country. I mean really - 5 days people!? How bout 3 day weekends? Anyone? Beuler..?

Karen and I had a fun day hanging with the fam but Karen could have used more bright lights in the sky. With me being a "hands on" type of guy, we might have to be personally involved in our fireworks show next year.

[ winamp is currently decoding: Ooh La La (Benny Benassi Remix Extended) by Goldfrapp ]