music

I think Silversun Pickups is my new flavor of the month (last month it was Feist). I'd been hearing about them on various blogs I read, and after the umpteenth Wil Wheaton name-drop, regarding how Lazy Eye should be on the Rock Band set list, I decided to check them out. Thanks to YouTube, I heard the song while watching the video, and thought, "eh. A bit Smashing Pumpkins. Not bad. Let's check out the rest of their stuff, see if it's better." And it was. My favorite song: Little Lover's So Polite, followed closely by Waste It On, All the Go Inbetweens, Booksmart Devil, and Creation Lake.

Speaking of Wheaton, his latest book is pretty good. Too short. But like they say, always leave them wanting more.

No water, I don't care how pure the source is claimed to be, tastes better than that first glass of cold, fresh water after diving in salt water. As long as it's cold and clean, it's like tasting paradise.

Wikipedia. Is there anything it doesn't know?

So how do you follow Coulton and Beethoven on a Sunday afternoon? Uh, Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit? Well, that's what I ended up doing, anyway. I won a game I had no business winning. That, or I know an appalling amount of Pop Culture trivia. Amusingly, the Music category was my nemesis throughout the game, and was the last piece I collected before heading for the center for the win. Appropriately enough, the final question was in the Music category, but I finally got an easy one, wherein an album cover (heh) was described that could only be a Rolling Stones cover. Rolling Stones FTW!

How do you follow Coulton/Paul and Storm? With Barber and Beethoven, of course! Saturday night, I went with my friend Jon to Jordan Hall, where the Longwood Symphony Orchestra was playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Opening for Beethoven was Samuel Barber, with his Night Flight tone poem (the title of which puts me in mind of Hopper's Nighthawks). Okay, Barber wasn't physically there, but you get the idea. I had a great time at this concert. I'd never heard the 9th live, and it's one of my favorite symphonies; I keep my one recording of it, the George Solti/Chicago Symphony Orchestra recording, on my desk at the office so that it's available whenever I need it.

I went to a fantastic Jonathan Coulton show Friday night at Johnny D's in Davis Square. I got my co-worker Neil to come out for this, despite the late starting time and the fact that he lives just south of the North Pole or thereabouts. While waiting for Neil outside the venue (venue? I'm so pretentious...), I ran into a guy by the name of Dave that I met at a filk circle a few months ago. So the three of us went in and tried to find somewhere to stand, as all the tables were full.