I guess I just wish it were like the old days, where I would actually care about moving my guys around or making trades, let alone squinting at the sports news to see who scored, etc.
Alabama chief justice defends Ten Commandments monument
Sure enough, right there in Section 3 (Religious Freedom), there’s a paragraph that pretty much sums this up:
That no religion shall be established by law; that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect, society, denomination, or mode of worship; that no one shall be compelled by law to attend any place of worship; nor to pay any tithes, taxes, or other rate for building or repairing any place of worship, or for maintaining any minister or ministry; that no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under this state; and that the civil rights, privileges, and capacities of any citizen shall not be in any manner affected by his religious principles.
I can see how they’d mis-read that.
Hockey’s Different Here
Actually, I probably wouldn’t know because I’ve never been to a game anywhere else, but I’m really tired of New York Sports fans.
ONE game into the season & they’re booing the Rangers. WTF kind of fan is that? And don’t get me started on people walking to their seats in the middle of play. I was at a game last year & this guy wearing a Leafs jersey (gutsy in and of itself) actually yelled at people to sit down. I think I want to move to Toronto.
I took some pictures. The net’s not as distracting as it looks like it would be – for some reason it stands out more in the pictures. While I’m happy to not have to worry about taking one in the head, I sure would’ve liked to have caught a puck. I’m sure they’ll take them down in a year or so.
OpAds
I thought this was very well put.
fuck yeah
I want to buy these guys a beer. I’d be “very uncooperative” too if the police & FBI pulled me over based on the story of some redneck from GA. I hope we remember this, but we won’t.
40 Clinton Street, 4L
Well, it’s official. We’ve closed and are now property owners. As Phil says, now we can vote.
Been way too busy w/ closing/moving to do more, but I’ll put some thoughts down soon.
Warped @ Randall’s Island
One of the coolest thing about the way this things was set up also set up the “Us vs. Them” mentality that led to the (relatively good natured) conflict. Each band played a half hour set, with bands alternating between two adjacent stages. 30 minutes isn’t very long, and the fact that there was no break between bands kept things moving. By the time NOFX went on, the show had been going on for over 8 hours – I think everyone was happy things moved along quickly.
Highlights included Bad Religion, who in my opinion weren’t nearly near enough the top of this bill, playing at 5:20. Most of these bands owe BR a huge debt, and it seemed that they should be in one of the more prominant spots. They put on a great show, played all the things people wanted to hear, and left saying they were going back to their trailers to get out of the heat – “not like you losers.”
Most of the others we saw were unremarkable. Missed Lagwagon, who I’ve always characterized as a cross between BR & NOFX, but saw an unremarkable set by MXPX. Why bands insist on trying to get people into the pit, or jump around? Just play & STFU – you sound like an idiot. Thursday played at noon, but on the main stage. We weren’t there for that, and I was surprised at the number of Thursday t-shirts on kids.
I’d never seen The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and they put on a really high energy show. I’m not a big ska guy, but it was pretty entertaining. They seem to have one guy whose sole job it is to dance around on stage. Strange. At least they realized that 30 minutes was too little time to chat, and said as much.
Can’t say much about New Found Glory – we’d already decided to move over to the other stage for NOFX, but they seemed like decent stuff.
I’ve also never seen NOFX, which has always struck me as strange. They’ve been around forever, and I’ve been listening to them forever, but they’ve developed such a huge, if underground, following that they only play big places where I’m unlikely to go. Anyway, it was a really good set. Mike had the mood of the crowd as they came on… “we’re not going to do any songs about girls.” Instead they ripped into The Brews just like they would in my dreams. Ironically the show degenerated into a singalong that wouldn’t have been out of place at a Dashboard Confessional show. I was really amazed at how many songs from Punk in Drublic and WTTHAAB they did.
Unfortunately they had to play the same short set as everyone else.
I was impressed at the lack of hassle that the venue presented, especially keeping in mind that it’s an island served only by exits off the highway & no subways. Good bus service & it was easy to get one home, even with everyone leaving at once. I have to say that I was shocked that the whole show was dry, but I suppose it was for the best… 80 degree heat & a bunch of obnoxious (mostly 16 year old) “punks” – just add beer.
Breeders @ The Bowery Ballroom
Yes, I like the Breeders. Yes, Kim was in the Pixies, so she could make armpit noises & I’d probably love it.
Lately, dunno if you’ve noticed, but I’ve been going to a LOT of shows. This one was down my list, not because they’re not a good band, but… well, you know, the heroin, the one hit albums, the new single, etc. We manged to get tickets early enough that we could go to the Friday show though, so why not? Normally I love the BB, but lately with all the smaller venues we’ve been going to I was sure I was going to hate it.
It turns out that they’re not that popular at all. We arrived exactly on time (or at least when I was planning on showing up), in time to watch them change for the headliners, and the place wasn’t that crowded. We got a good spot and Juliet could almost even see.
Their show is really interesting. The interplay between Kim & Kelly (who looks strangely like the more sober of the two these days) is great. Kelly’s almost the mom on stage… “Honey, are you ready to rock?”. In fact, the whole band was responsible for keeping a well lubed Kim on track. Invariably someone in the rhythm section would start the next song, interupting Kim’s drink or monologue when they decided it was time.
I shouldn’t comment on playing the guitars, because my sk1llz only extend to G & F, but the three (!) players in the Breeders could stand to learn to tune themselves. The constant breaks… pass the guitar back to tech, tune, return… slowed the show down considerably and accentuated Kim’s patter (not necessarily a bad things) making the show like being in their living room. Tuning aside, it’s obvious they all have a great musical ability – again, a good show. I wonder why more bands can’t move the drummer up with the rest of the band, is it because they can’t keep together without the constant pounding? It’s certainly not for lack of space, because the Breeders are 5 strong and managed to fit.
Yes, this is just one more thing that I owe J. – Spicy Gumbo.
Desaparecidos @ Northsix
All week long, all I’m thinking is that I’m going to see the Desaparecidos. For those of you that have been living in a cave, this is a huge deal. The first time we ran into Conor Oberst’s new band, they were opeing for Sorry About Dresden & Curisve at the Knitting Factory last year. At the time they were still working on their first record and we had no idea what to expect. The show was less than good, it really seemed like a one off kind of thing to indulge the parts of Conor that weren’t being fufilled by Bright Eyes.
How things changed when Read Music, Speak Spanish was finally released. Easily one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time, it’s one of those things that I have to school myself not to listen to every day. I was disappointed to hear that they were opeing for Jimmy Eats World all summer, playing venues that I’d never go to… until I randomly saw on pollstar that they were doing a warm up show at North Six the night before their Roseland gig in the city.
North Six is really the epitome of the new Williamsburgh and we’d never been, so that was going to be a bonus as well. Turns out that it could be one of the best places to see a show in the city – it’s set up very well, probably holds ~500 people and has a good (but really loud) sound system. I liked the bar & the people were really into what was going on.
Rilo Kiley opened, and they were great. Keyboards, yes, but enough guitars to keep me interested. North Six is set up so you can stand at the bar & be close enough to the stage to be engaged, without having chatters bother you (the sound system, again). As their set was finishing I was really worried that J was going to miss the start of the Desaparecidos – it was only 10:30 & I told her to show up @ 11. I didn’t know it, but there was another band playing second.
The Miracle of ’86 kicked my ass. Possibly the best emoish punk I’ve heard live (at least by accident) in a long time. I remember the first time I heard the Old ’97s live, I had no idea that people could have that much fun playing music that I wasn’t prepared for. This was exactly the same thing, he even emotes like Rhett, and I really thought I was seeing the start of something really special, a band that I’d want to see over & over again. AND they were based in Brooklyn. This was a Good show.
The Desaparecidos were, quite honestly, ok. This is a studio band. Conor’s voice just doesn’t work that well live (it does better in Bright Eyes), and he’s not the best guitar player in the world. They’ve replaced a few of the younger members since we saw them last (constant debate during the show about whether the lead player was the same guy much older or not), but still just ok. I’m sure their next will be another of my favorite disks, and I’ll always go see them live, but I wish they had the power & beauty that they manage to pull off in such a raw way on the album.
As for the openers… everything they put out on CD is only OK. Juliet says the first rule of music is that you must rock harder live, this is the first time I’ve run into to such an extent.
Siren Festival @ Coney Island
Jon & I had been kicking around going this year because he came with us last year & had a good time. It turns out that Saturdays are his biggest days in the new job, so no Jon this time. The wife had to work, too, so I went alone.
The Shins, The Donnas, Pretty Girls Make Graves, along with Sleater-Kinney headlining. Even after having an only marginally decent time last year (rule #1 – don’t drink beer when there are only 10 portable restrooms for 10k people), I couldn’t pass this up. I got there in time to catch some of the Shins, but really couldn’t get close enough to the stage to hear them. For some reason they insist on having this in a little side-street, so people are really stuffed in. I decided to go get a corn dog & beer on the boardwalk instead.
I walked back for enough of the Donnas to confirm what I’d always assumed about them – pretty boring. I watched from the side of the stage, through a fence inside one of the amusement parks. That was enough for me – back to the boardwalk for some sausage & peppers
I’d resolved to get something out of the day, so I pushed a little further than I was comfortable into the crowd for S-K. I was only about a quarter of a mile away when they came on. We’d seen them play a couple of months ago at the Warsaw, where they were great on the old stuff & made me wish they’d stopped putting out new stuff a couple of albums ago. The new songs just didn’t rock. They weren’t even fun in a funky way, they were just bland. I was pleasantly surprised that everything sounded much better this time. Even with distance & a very distracted crowd there was lots of energy. It would have been a good show even if it had cost money.
I took the camera along, and took some pictures. Of course I hadn’t charged the batteries, so only a few pics.