Tag: music

Musical Weekend

Friday night alenxa and I went to a Gin Blossoms concert in Cerritos. They spent most of the show alternating between songs from the new album (which is surprisingly good) and their old standards. Encore was 2 covers: Rocketman and something I didn’t recognize.

Funniest remark: “We don’t get to play many Performing Arts Centers. Mostly we play casinos and dog pounds.”

Saturday I spent some time filling in random songs for our music collection, going with Amazon’s DRM-less plain old MP3s when possible and iTunes when not.

Sunday we watched Phantom of the Paradise, a truly bizarre mash-up of Phantom of the Opera and Faust set in a satire of the 1970s rock music industry.

Utilization of College Impulses

I’ve been meaning to run by the UCI bookstore and pick up some new license plate frames (the original plan was to just move the old ones, but when we took them off, we realized they looked kind of ratty) — if possible, before the plates arrive. Around 11:30 or so I decided I’d run up on my lunch hour, then drop in at the Apple Store at Crystal Court (excuse me, South Coast Plaza) and see if they could give me any pointers on some weird stuff my iPod is doing. (The Googles, they do nothing.)

I hadn’t been in the bookstore in several years, and it was mostly familiar, with only shelves and departments rearranged, but this was my first visit to the new Student Center. It was actually kind of eerie, since what I’d seen of construction made it look like they’d razed the entire old building except over at the bookstore/Cornerstone (sadly, now a Starbucks) end of the place. And yet the landing in front of Crystal Cove, the hallway below it, and the landing above, all looked strangely familiar. (And I could swear the only thing changed about the restrooms was the auto-flush sensors and the graffiti.) It turns out they actually kept most of the building below the terrace intact, in some cases moving stairways or adding partitions, and mainly built around it.

Most eerie: In the checkout line, I heard “La Vida Loca,” which for some reason I associate with the Student Center Zot-n-Go.

While I was there, I remembered a photo I took of the old Student Center from the top floor of what was then the Humanities Office Building. (10 years ago, as it turns out.) I had enough time left on parking that I figured I’d run over and try to match the shot. On the way, I pulled up the website with my phone and looked at the original photo so that I could match as closely as possible. I’ll try to post the before and after photos tonight. Edit: I’ve posted the before and after photos at K2R.

UCI Student Center: 1997UCI Student Center: 2007

By then I figured I didn’t have enough time to deal with the iPod, so I’ll just wait until the Spectrum store is done remodeling and drop in next week.

Current Mood: 🤔nostalgic
Current Music: The World is Not Enough, Garbage
Current Location: work

Comic Con ♥ Avenue Q

I’ve been checking weekly at the Ahmanson Theater website to find out when individual tickets go on sale for Avenue Q. (alenxa and I saw the abbreviated version in Las Vegas last year, and it was great.) They have season subscriptions open, but they’re in the form of shows A,B&C + your choice of shows D,E&F… and I’m only interested in shows A,D&E. (I forget which shows Katie wanted to see, but B&C weren’t on her list, either.)

Last night I decided to see what Ticketmaster said about when tickets would open. On searching for the show, I discovered that the tour stops in San Diego this month. All month. Downtown. Right next to a trolley stop, across the street from Horton Plaza, and within walking distance of the convention center.

So, bird in the hand and all that. After last year’s Wicked-at-OCPAC fiasco, I didn’t want to risk missing the show because the entire LA run sold out before I could get to it. I bought the tickets for San Diego, and we’re going to go Wednesday night after picking up our badges.

On a related note: They Might Be Giants tickets are on sale now for an LA concert on October 3, and they’re scheduled to be in Anaheim on October 5. Anyone interested?

Current Music: “Super Girl,” Gin Blossoms
Current Location: work

Electronica

I’ve finally done it. After resisting for years, I’ve bought an iPod.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Our music collection is on alenxa’s computer, which is old enough that its USB port is USB 1.1. This hasn’t been a problem until now, since she syncs her iPod with Firewire. Little did I know that the latest generation of iPod only supports USB. I charged it this afternoon, and started the initial sync this evening. So far it’s about 1/3 through.

At least future syncs won’t be so bad.

In other news, I’ve found myself in the middle of an online firestorm twice this week. Safari for Windows and a relaunch of the Flash comic book.

Musical oddity

I have now forgotten just enough of both “American Pie” and “The Saga Begins” that whenever the tune runs through my head, the lyrics alternate between the original and the filk.

Current Music: American Pie (mostly)

The Long Weekend

Friday: Goo Goo Dolls/ Counting Crows concert at it’s-still-Irvine-Meadows-’cause-“Verizon-Wireless-Amphitheater”-just-sounds-dumb. Nifty view of the central Orange County valley before the sun set.

Saturday. Spent the day lying on the couch with a fan running, catching up on the Babylon 5 script book commentaries. So far I’ve only read about 1/4 of one script, but the introductions are a fascinating insight into the process of making the show. Given how much was out in the open (since JMS spent several hours a night online during production), some of the stuff that wasn’t revealed back then is mighty interesting. (Example: we all thought season 4 was compressed because they weren’t sure they’d get a season 5, and wanted to get as much done as they could. It turns out that at the beginning of the season, they were told in no uncertain terms that there would not be a season 5. So getting that fifth season on TNT was a real surprise.)

Dinner at CPK, then Superman Returns Enjoyed it, but no interest in seeing it again. It already felt like deja vu since there were so many references to the first two movies with Christopher Reeve. There were some great moments, but overall it was just kind of okay.

Sunday: Finished Bad Twin. Decent book, but not exactly a major insight into the secrets of Lost. Waited several hours until checking my email, at which point I discovered I really should’ve checked earlier… so I could bring a server back online. Went down to the office, brought the server up. alenxa tagged along and we had lunch at the crepe place at the Spectrum. Happened to glance over at one of the wall alcoves, which held a vinegar bottle… labeled Temeraire. After some shopping for food for upcoming family get-togethers, went home and played Heroes V for a few hours. Fortunately I was still awake when the same server went down again at 1AM. So I drove back, brought it online, figured out a way to make sure that it would automatically start up again next time, then came home. Still trying to diagnose the cause, but whatever it is does seem to like holiday weekends…

Monday: Traditionally, the 4th of July consists of hanging around at home followed by looking for fireworks. This year, both our families wanted to get together. So on Monday we went to visit my grandparents, carpooling with my parents and my brother. My aunt and her husband brought their dogs, which meant I spent most of the afternoon in a Benadryl-induced funk, despite drinking way too much Dr. Pepper to offset it.

Tuesday: I squeezed in an hour or two of Heroes in the morning, then it was off to visit Katie’s family, with more BBQ. Dinner was relatively early, so we cleared out around 7:00 so we could make it back to Laguna Beach for the fireworks display there. They launch the fireworks off one of the bluffs, out over the ocean, and the viewing is pretty good from the beach. We caught the tail end of it a couple of years ago, while driving around looking for displays. Two years ago we got there too late and missed the entire show while we walked from the car out to the beach. (Hey, have you ever tried finding parking in Laguna Beach?) Last year I was sick, so we just walked out to where we could see the local display. This year we made it with plenty of time to spare, parking up on Forest (roughly in line with the Laguna Playhouse, and maybe a few hundred feet from the entrance to Tivoli Terrace, where we had our wedding), and snagged a spot on the beach. The wind blew the smoke in our direction, so a lot of the fireworks were half-obscured, but they lit up the smoke a lot more than I can remember seeing anywhere else. After the show, we did our semi-traditional stop at Diedrich across the street.

Today: Back to work. I’ve been stress-testing the server, trying to get it to crash under controlled circumstances so I can get some information about what’s causing the problem… and it just won’t crash!

Still preoccupied with 1995

Heard “1985” at lunch today and finally got a chance to listen to the lyrics. It was followed up with “Dreams” by the Cranberries (whose heyday was the mid-1990s). The two songs together got me thinking. I’m fine with the fact that it’s been more than 10 years since I graduated high school (1994). But it still weirds me out that it’s been more than 10 years since I started college. They’re only a summer apart, but for some reason one feels more remote.

Of course, I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that I’ve now been a college graduate longer than I was a college student.

Current Mood: 🤔nostalgic

Theater action! Too hot for radio!

In light of a recent expurgated version of “You Oughtta Know” played on the radio, alenxa wondered just what else Alanis Morissette might be singing about doing to someone in a theater.

I was originally going to do this as a write-in poll, but then I realized people would be limited to only one suggestion each.

So, fill in the blank: “Would she _______ on you in a theater?”

Be creative. If it doesn’t scan, that’s OK (it’s an Alanis Morissette song, after all), but stick to two beats if you can.

Post your ideas here!

Current Mood: 😉silly