I'm still here

Just thought I'd write something quickly to let everyone know things are going well here in the KC area. I'm heading to Denver in a couple of hours, but I'll be back next week with some more tunes, some friendly mutton chop updates, and all sorts of other good things. Until then, enjoy your holiday weekend, party people!!!

Nik Freitas (what I'm listening to at work)

I'm going to attempt to do a new little feature, and, hopefully, I'll actually stick this one in the future. I'm going to make posts about what I'm listening to at work, since that's actually when I spend most, if not all, of my time online. So I have XM on, and if I hear a musician or group that intrigues me, I'll check out their myspace page. So far, such bands have included Airborne Toxic Event and Fog, as well as a few others that I'll talk about in the next few days. But for today, here's Nik Freitas!

Here's his website, here's his myspace. I heard the song "Sun Down," and instantly liked it. He's got a Paul Simon/Bob Dylan sound, without being overly obnoxious about it, or sounding too pretentious. It's a good thing. And it's great stuff to listen to at work, relaxing, and not requiring too much attention. That's not to say it's not worth focusing on, because it is. But, it's nice to have on in the background.


Basically I'm saying it's good, I like it, you should listen to his stuff. I'm sure he'd appreciate it. And I'd appreciate if he'd come to Kansas City, instead of playing 2 dates in Omaha. Omaha's a nice city and all, but come on, help me out here Nik!

This post brought to you by the band Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, the planes of Midwest Airlines, and the letters NIN

First off, if you're a fan of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor has made his latest album available as a free download, just go to this link:

http://theslip.nin.com/

I'm giving it my first listen-through right now, and am liking it a lot. And you can't beat the price.

This past weekend was a quick, but very fun, time spent in Minneapolis. And while my camera sucks, (not to mention I forgot to put in fresh batteries), H and Whiskey snapped off a few. Check out their blogs to see some of the action, and check out H's post at Three Pints for more about Kate Nash.

The Kate Nash show was great, I really enjoyed the opening band, the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. The family (dad Jason on guitar/keyboard/vocals, mom Tina on the slide projector, and 14-year-old daughter Rachel on drums) basically goes to estate sales, buy old slide photography, and write songs based around them. A lot of bands use a video aspect to their live shows to supplement their sound, (like the Faint, the previously mentioned NIN, Project Jenny, Project Jan, to name a few I've seen in concert), but this is the first instance I'm aware of where the band uses the audio and video in such an intertwined level. To get the full enjoyment out of their performance, here's a couple of their videos

Look at Me (from Conan, with a few slides removed for network TV purposes. I'm not sure if it's better or not. . . )


Don't You Know What I Mean?


Now these videos are a few years old, so Rachel is a few years older now. And Jim still didn't want me to go get her number for him.

These videos don't really do them justice, I was blown away by them, it was awesome. At first I didn't think I'd buy their schtick, but damn if they didn't win me over.

I flew (yes, flew) to Minneapolis, after finding tickets that were cheaper than it would have been for me to drive, and saved me about 13 hours driving (round trip), and a lot of wear and tear on my car. Rudy can't put up with too much more, so I gotta take it easy on him while I can, until I find a new ride. But don't tell him about that.

Anyways, I flew on Midwest Airlines. Holy crap. It was amazing. When I got on the plane for my first flight of the day (Midwest is based out of Milwaukee, so I had a stop there each way), there was classical music playing on the speakers, and (relatively) large leather seats as far as the eye could see. They were incredibly comfortable for plane seats, and even left me with a couple of inches on either side. Plus a middle armrest that was about 5 inches wide. No elbow fights with the neighbor for space! And plenty of legroom.

My favorite part, though, was getting freshly baked cookies. Not just one, but two on each flight! And on my first flight, an older lady was sitting next to me, didn't want her cookies, so she gave them to me! AND everyone got a little bag of pretzels. And drink service. C'est incroyable! I would definitely recommend this airline to anyone if it's available (and comparably priced to other airlines). Lucky for me, KC is one of their hubs. Rock.

So it was an awesome weekend, all around. Played some Wii (Mario Kart is lots and lots of fun) and some XBox 360 (NCAA Football still rules, and the new Grand Theft Auto game is kind of fun), saw a good concert (even if Kate Nash got everyone to say they hated me and I'm pretty sure called me a dickhead), at somewhere near my body weight in pizza (Old World Pizza's buffet is delicious), had some cocktails (most gin and tonics, with a free Jameson and something thrown in for good measure), had a wonderful time meeting and chatting with WhiskeyMarie (however nonsensical and incoherent it may have been), and just really enjoyed myself. If only every weekend could be so fun-filled! Now I'm waiting for visitors to come to KC. There's plenty of room, everyone's welcome! And of course, I can make the airport pick-up, so check out Midwest. It's worth it!

Still here, still kickin' it

yeah, I haven't done much in the way of blogging lately. I got all moved into my apartment, got the living room area arranged and cleaned up, and should be working on the bedroom. But instead, I decided to play my DS, and now I'm at Charczuk's, watching Top Chef and using the internet. And tomorrow I'll be over here, using the internet again, but more to watch The Office. I don't have cable or internet, yet, so yeah. Hopefully things will get figured out on that front soon, but in the time being, we'll have to deal with this setup. Oh well.

This weekend should prove to be exciting, I'm heading to Minneapolis, and will have a shenanigan-filled time with H, a performance from Kate Nash, a get together with an old high school friend, and a meeting with the ever lovely Whiskey Marie. There's a chance that I won't make it back to Kansas City.

I'm going to clean off my camera card, so there will hopefully be some classic pictures. Or at least some blurry evidence of what happens. There will probably be some memories that will be blurry, too.

I'll try to be back soon, but if not, fret not, my homies. And check my friends' blogs, the whereabouts of Flenker may be reported elsewhere.

LATER

Add this to the list of toys I want

And go to this link, watch the video, and feel sorry for the guy.

If anyone out there has XM radio, listen to channel 43, XMU, during the day. Billy Zero will be playing some song selected by your truly. I'm stoked for that. I'll post more about it tomorrow or this weekend.

More actual content stuff coming soon, I hope

Before I go, here's some Maritime with "Tearing up the Oxygen."



If you don't know, that's Davey from The Promise Ring singing. I dig these guys. Here's their myspace page. Check out the songs "For Science Fiction," and "Guns of Navarone." They're good

bye bye bye everyone!