Music Thoughts

Like Columbus "discovering" the New World, I feel like a modern Columbus finding Biffy Clyro and what I think is one epic rock ballad, Many of Horror. Although I can't admit to attending an actual concert of theirs, I watched via the TV a show, called RockNess in Scotland where they absolutely tore up the act. So good in fact, I bought both of their last two albums on Amazon.

Other Albums I like recently:
Vampire Weekend's most recent offering, Modern Vampires...
CHVRCHES, top down a beautiful album.
   Highlights include the bookend tracks 1+12: The Mother We Share and You Caught the Light
The War on Drugs

Blog Riotus Music This Time

Warm Water - Bear in Heaven
Amazing Eyes - Good Old War
The Arrow the Killed the Beast - Heartless Bastards
Missing Pieces - Jack White
Good Looking Loser - Meiko
Mountain Sound - Of Monsters and Men
Like a Diamond - Sharon Van Etten
Hi'ilawe - Gabby Pahinui
Baby Missiles - The War on Drugs
Jump into the Fog - The Wombats
A Real Hero - College & Electric Youth

Wild Flag and Hospitality at the Paradise

I went solo last night to a rock show at the Paradise Rock Club to see a chick band Wild Flag and the opening act, Hospitality. I have to admit, I left the show disappointed in the bands I had seen, and that is on top of the fact I was anticipating enjoying the opener. As I was riding the train away, I met with a brother and sister who enjoyed the show, and from our conversation, I rethought about my experience. I realized that it wasn't that I was disappointed in the bands, far from it. They actually had some nice moments and I was Boston-bouncing to the drum beats and guitar riffs.

I was trying to catch some of the NCAA Final Four game between Ohio State and Kansas. Incidentally, it is not my love of basketball or sports or anything close to resembling purity which interested me about this particular game. No, it's all about money. Yep. If Kansas wins the whole dance I win lots of money. So as I was sneaking into the front bar to watch the game, mostly alone, but with a few notable exceptions, I actually didn't miss much concert time.

Hospitality has clear rhythmic talent. Their songs have such an allegiance to faux-dispassion, but their chords, beats and lyrics seem to balance well. My only real problem with the opener was the lead singer seemed to have a problem locating her microphone between changing chords and singing a line. She had to look down at the guitar, which took her away from the mic leading to clear vacancy of vocals. I'm sure she'll work it out.

Between sets, I watched the game's finale, with Kansas threatening several times to take a lead and finally prevailing in going ahead and preventing Ohio State from surging back. My viewing companions included a beard toting hipster, who I couldn't imagine was actually watching the game if it wasn't that his eyes were fixed on the screen and I could hear a few Yes' and No's corresponding with positive and negative events for Kansas. At least he was going for the team I was.

The other oddity was the blado chicken who asked if she could join me at the table and then realized after I awkwardly accepted her own invitation to sit, that I was sitting and watching the game above me... not sitting desperately by myself. Awkward awkward awkward silence reproached my polite demeanor. Making it worse, my beer had run empty, and to make myself look busy to avoid this weirdo's gazing desire to start conversation, I was taking blank swigs of the bottle. It's always been a dream of guys to be approached by women, but when you turn the tide, there's nothing worse than being bothered by a drunk desperate women looking for attention. I feel for the normal ladies out there being hit on by drunk men.

After the game, and the high of winning money getting one game closer, I returned to the stage to find Wild Flag had begun. I do not have much to say. I didn't really enjoy the music. I listened to a few songs and recognize their musical attractiveness for a certain demograph, after all, it's chicks rocking out. In my opinion, it wasn't paving roads to new territory, there was nothing very creative, but it wasn't bad. Initially I feared my reaction was a bit harsher than I really experienced, but they just didn't do it for me. I left before the encore break.

When I got on the train, I noticed the bro/sis combo getting on and asked if they enjoyed the show. They were wholeheartedly enthused with the performance (although leaving before the encore is suspicious) which made me rethink my apparently hasty verdict. It was a rock show, pure and simple, and the girls rocked out. It wasn't the Rolling Stones, but I enjoyed being there. All rock shows are pretty incredible.

BlogRiotus Music this Month

If You Wanna - The Vaccines

Colours - Grouplove

Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

Undercover Martyn - Two Door Cinema Club

Them Shoes - Patrick Sweany

Whirring - The Joy Formidable

Missed the Boat - Modest Mouse

Helena Beat - Foster the People

Awake My Soul - Mumford and Sons

Blog Riotus' Music this week

Usual Suspect - Ha Ha Tonka

Black Night - the Dodos

I Can Change - LCD Soundsystem

LDN - Lily Allen

Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells

Take Care of Yourself - Social Distortion

Garands - Young the Giant

I and Love and You - Avett Brothers

Current Events - Local of course, really local

So my friend came to town to visit and we did the classic - a night out, shots, drinks, getting loose and the inevitable hangover. Hangover's seem to hurt that much more at my age. It's either that, or I am just losing the initiative. Black Ops is a time kill, I started getting good at Multiplayer playing Hardened Capture the Flag and Headquarters at the expense of numerous hours entrenched squarely in front of my massive 40" 1080p Dreamset. And I realize the more I waste time improving my virtual skills, my social skills (and willingness) decrease. I find myself wanting to talk virtual shop when out with friends, stopping myself from glorified recounts of internet battles and "war" stories when in reality, absolutely nobody cares. Not even myself (in reality). But it's still fun...

Concert Series returns this spring and summer. I've got Death Cab for Cutie lined up in early June and Weezer in mid-May. I'm going to HaHaTonka in Allston tomorrow night and I'm going to see the Wandas and Rods and Cones later this month at the Brighton Music Hall. So that's up, plus softball is just around the corner in May. Busy night schedule during the summer

Blog Riotus' Music This week

What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club

True Blood - The Naked and Famous

Kick Drum Heart - The Avett Brothers

This Too Shall Pass - Ok Go

My Body - Young the Giant

Architects and Engineers - Guster

Something to Talk About - Badly Drawn Boy

Kiss With a Fist - Florence and the Machine

Blog Riotus fears

Things I am afraid of...

1. Dying. It just sucks to think of death. Either mine or someone close. Nothing is more final; or inevitable. Death is waiting for all of us.

2. Prison. The thought of which keeps me from doing something stupid enough to be sent there.

3. Getting out of prison, and no one is there to pick you up. So #3 really is just a nuance of #4

4. True loneliness. Getting older you realize what a waste it was to throw away the people in your past that got it. That got you. But you didn't get it then. And now those people are long gone. Leads to #5

5. Regret. Who wants to lead a life which leads to wishing you could take shit back. That would be awful. Thankfully I don't have that much to regret, yet!

6. Poverty. Squalor puts the fear of God in your backside every morning.

7. Blindness. Everyone is a head thrust or jerk away OR Black fly bite from not seeing out of one or both of their eyes. Terrifying.

8. Missing another Arcade Fire or a Silversun Pickups concert

Concert Run in Boston

Miracle on Tremont

Kate Nash

Morning Benders

Frightened Rabbit

Griffin House

Marina and the Diamonds / Young the Giant

Rogue Wave

MGMT

Interpol

Clambake on Landsdown St.

Blogriotus - Music of the Week

Sprawl II - Arcade Fire

Keep Yourself Warm - Frightened Rabbit

NYC - Interpol

Pictures of You - The Cure

Suburban War - Arcade Fire

Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National

It's Thunder and It's Lightning - We Were Promised Jetpacks

Amputations - Death Cab For Cutie

And by the Way...

The Lost Weekends are back!

The Myth and The Reality (SBA73 on flickr)

Just a Perfect Caption

Endurance in the Thirties

30 years. I am 30 years old and I can't stop believing I am still 22. I go out, drink, smoke, cavort, get drunk at a frequency that would end my life years before I'm due, yet I feel my regeneration every morning puts me at odds with this inevitability. I reason to think I am not invincible, but at 30, I am still quite nimble, adept at the game, and definitely not slowing down. After 10 official months of a relationship that has actually spanned a full year at this point, I have realized that it's more important to find the comforts of a relationship that strive to grow, support and cherish both partners' strengths; not lambast, dwell and ultimately hinge on their weaknesses.

I have not found the strength yet to make this epiphany yet known, but I am growing in spirit to do it. Sometimes the realization that you're not appreciated for who you are comes from within, but for the most of us, it comes from some experience, event or from another you meet, that reminds you of your strengths and makes you cherish your own quality. I am not sure when, or where, mine was rediscovered, but it certainly has lead me to expand my opinions on whether one's happiness should be met, accepted or denied by external forces.

Why can't we brush past happy inconvenience and always see the strength in oneself? Why do I have to be reminded periodically? This must speak to perhaps my greatest fallibility: Self-doubt. These questions I cannot answer with any certainty. Whether I shelf my self-doubt for the time-being or permanently based on this epiphany, I cannot predict, but it sure feels good to feel good about myself again. And I'm going to nurse that for all its worth.

Boston Street Art

World Cup exposed South Africa

Just as the '08 Olympics focused the world's attention on the emerging superpower of China, the World Cup this year could turn heads toward the conditions in one of the more advanced states in Africa.

I saw a commercial last week how the world takes a break from the turmoil, the tragedies and injustices that continue to plague our planet to commit to one month of the "Beautiful Game" sans interruption, but how about for a change to use the focus on South Africa to highlight some of these problems, to make people aware and to reshape the lost continent in the right direction.

It's not going to happen solely through tourist money. It's going to have to be policy shift towards developing countries that does not solely attempt to drain resources out and import dependence on established international economies, instead, altruistically benefit these underdeveloped countries with, at the least, short-term policies that help foster real socioeconomic birth.

Soccer, or football elsewhere doesn't need help promoting itself, but promotion should also be targeted with the impoverished problematic host nation.

BlogRiotus: Netflix follow-up

Edit the following post:

A bonus to having a PS3 for netflix is the ability to add to an instant cart for those movies that are streamable (?) online. Then when I throw on the PS3, I can watch the movies I added to that queue and watch them on HD rather than add them to a Blu-Ray queue (which would be a huge pain in the ass).

I am still on the fence about this new and revolutionary service, however I must admit that in this new digital age, renting DVDs does seem mostly outdated.

It seems D

VD release dates are being pushed back for mail-order rentals in favor of Blu-Ray and DVD sales from stores and brick and mortar rental businesses which seem to be falling off like lemmings. There are only two rental posts remaining in my very dense neighborhood now that all the Blockbusters are gone; one Asian DVD store, and the other, an independent renter on Beacon St in Brookline called MovieWorks. I have to say I definitely favor an independent rental business, however, the building in its location rivals only a few others for ugliest on Beacon.

I guess I'll go back to watching movies now.

BlogRiotus on Netflix

I got a Playstation 3 recently and decided to take advantage of the streaming Blu-Ray capability of Netflix. As a bonus, I figured that I could also receive the one disc mailed to me at a time and not have to worry about when they're due, or getting them back to a store. I have to admit I am a little (not too much) disappointed by the Netflix experience.

I have found the streaming video is hardly useful. You have to select an option from a limited amount of choices and most of the choices that you have in mind are never available. When browsing the selections available on the PS3, either luck or a compromise is likely necessary to facilitate a movie-viewing.

The mailed disc side of the Netflix experience is the better side of the coin. I upgraded to Blu-Ray for a couple dollars more and can watch as many Blu-Rays as I can get mailed and mail back. That is, it takes a day or two to get it mailed, then takes a day or two for them to get it back. That being the case, I can probably get about 6-9 Blu-Rays mailed every month. The setbacks are the delivery delays (snail mail is nicknamed for a reason), unavailability due to demand and the fact that the release dates for the Blu-Rays are not the actual release date for the video of popular movies. Therefore, most new releases are available at least a month after their actual release but demand could make them impossible to get until even longer.

I like Netflix overall, but these setbacks can be a little annoying and I wish I knew what they were actually offering before I got sucked into the hype.

Big win at the BSC league

As I gather steam in the race of life, I realize as a former (and attempting current) athlete is the exhilaration of lacing up the sneakers and competing in sports. Basketball, never one of my better sports, but nonetheless a fun one to play has become the game of choice during the winter months. In New England, this period seems to stretch from mid-November to April. I don't take basketball leagues or pickup games nearly as seriously as some of my counterparts; my buds and friends from growing up, but I do like winning. And there is nothing like draining the nets with a steady rain of three point shots, as what occurred tonight during the league play. Usually, I perform as a trusty utility player when playing in organized games. I set picks, pass along the ball to the open man, or crash the boards, however, my personal skills are not shabby. My long range shots are marksman-like, and I do play decent defense. However, it is my reluctance to fail (and perhaps get hurt) that prevents me from truly becoming the player my athleticism could have me be. Until that day, when I can finally graduate to a level of confidence yet attained, I will continue to relish the great equalizers of the basketball universe for small men - the outside jumper.

Green Planet Pest Control