Cars

Solid movie. The animation was really amazing, especially the reflections and the wide open scenes. Not sure if the wide open vistas were done with 2D mappings or what, but they looked fabulous. The story was funny, but not a non-stop laugh parade like some of the other Pixar movies. I did enjoy the story line a great deal and I think that's what held my interest throughout the movie. Maybe not that entertaining for children, though. Not sure. Anyway, I had a great evening out with Esther, Carl, Noelle, and Rachel. Good dinner at the coop, followed by a very entertaining (to me) movie.

Radiohead Live

I went to see Radiohead last Saturday with Annie and her friends Thad and Will at the Greek Theater in Berkeley. What a fantastic show! We got in right as they started up and got a place to stand about 200 feet from the stage. Since I was standing on a step right by an aisle that security kept clear during most of the show, I had a largely unobstructed view, as well. They played about two hours, including a second encore. "No Surprises" was really good as was "Fake Plastic Trees", which I hadn't heard in quite a while. The whole show was really superb. They had a lot of stuff from OK Computer as well as Hail To the Thief. I should follow the band around or something. I am hoping they'll do a stadium tour once their new album comes out. They played a few new songs from it including one called "Down Is the New Up." Ahhh, so nice.

Random Trivia:
1. Thom played: guitar, drums, piano, and synth (as well as singing)
2. Jonny plays Telecasters pretty much exclusively.
3. This is the first major band I've ever seen in concert that stopped when they messed something up and started over again.
4. I can go without peeing for over two hours, if I have to.

Happy Summer!

Bloody hot, appropriately enough. Wearing shorts today.

Napoleon Dynamite

(No, the other one.) Went to see Elvis Costello at the beautiful Paramount Theater in Oakland Tuesday night with Noelle. Got there a bit late, but caught 75 minutes of a truly fantastic show. EC was playing with Allen Toussaint and The Kansas City Horns (a really great horn section) an organist, bassist, and back up guitarist. The great thing is that his voice is still amazingly good even after all these years. Since they had the horn section they did a lot of rearrangements of his stuff. They did a fabulous ska-d up version of "Watching the Detectives". "Pump It Up" was memorable as was "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror". I haven't seen him in 17 years, since I caught him at Colby College with some high school friends during the Spike tour. I would definitely see him again, based on the show the other night.

Hectic/Relaxed Weekend

Pooped out from another weekend. Friday night went out to the late show of Nacho Libre with a bunch of people. Not as bad as it could be, not superlative. I'd go just for the caveman pygmy wrestlers. Saturday got up early and drove up to Yosemite with Noelle to meet up with Joe and Georgina, who had arranged for us to stay in a yurt. We got going late, so we didn't link up with them until late Saturday. We did amuse ourselves by driving over the newly opened Tioga pass which still has a lot of snow on it and thence onward to a brief stop in Lee Vining to check out Mono Lake. Got back to the yurt which turns out is pretty nice: it has running water, a shower, and satellite tv! Got up late the next day and did a hike over near Wawona Lodge, which was really nice. Drove back and checked out Glacier Point (which I had never been to) and had a nice dinner at Yosemite Lodge. Got out of there really late and back home at a rather ridiculous hour. Oh well, it was worth it. The company was good, it was supremely beautiful at Yosemite and the air was clean and good smelling. Oh, and there were lots and lots of butterflies drifting about visiting the the newly blossoming flowers. Really great up there. Well, now back to the grind. Some pictures when I get around to it.

Over the Hedge

Went out with a bunch of people last night to see the new PDI animated film. Very funny. Good ensemble cast and the animation was excellent.

Another Nutty Weekend

Friday Night: John Digweed in the City with Esther and Noelle. Ok show. Got in a fair amount of exercise dancing. :-)

Saturday: BFD with Noelle and Zak. First we went to Cingular to get Noelle a new phone to replace the one she lost at Digweed the night before. I convinced her that she should buy the cool PDA-phone-thing. She seems pleased with its shininess. Missed one act I wanted to see, but otherwise caught the rest of the acts there. Favorite bands I saw were Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Franz Ferdinand. I was so happy to see Ian McCulloch and the guys sing, "Lips Like Sugar", "Bring On the Dancing Horses", and of course "The Killing Moon." Oh, and Dave Grohl appeared to be sitting in on drums for them. FF was another band I hadn't seen before and they were really tight.

Sunday: Went to see Cake at the Alice Summer Fling in Golden Gate Park with Noelle, Carl, Zak, and Zak's roommate Ryan. Excellent show! Venue was a tad chilly (it being Golden Gate Park and all), but the show was a lot of fun. Had Japanese food in Berkeley and now am winding down the weekend. Whew!

Irresponsible Purchase of the Decade

Test drove my friend's 300zx that he was selling because owning a convertible suddenly seemed like a good idea the other week. Six hours later after driving through the Santa Cruz mountains, up the highway by the coast, and down Skyline, it seemed like an even better idea. Got it yesterday. VROOM!

Front Line Assembly

That was fun. Went to my first industrial show in the City with Noelle, Dave, and Wendy. Lots of bouncy goth kids. Lots of dancing. The opening acts for FLA were good too. Tired though.

Re: Mark of the Beast Voting Day?

It appears that the democrats have selected Phil Angelides as the guy who gets beaten by Schwarzenegger in the fall.

Mark of the Beast Voting Day?

Is it some coincidence that Primary Election Day is 6/6/06 this year? Hard to tell from the ho-hum ballot.