1. a random, steady, unvarying, electronically produced sound
2. nerdy notes from suburbia
No news to report on the computer build just yet, however we went to our last symphony night of the season last night. We’ve been season subscribers to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for 12 years (wow, how time flies!). Even after all this time, Music Hall still blows me away. There’s really not too much I like about Cinci (or Ohio, or the Midwest), but the concert halls are amazing.
I think the ceilings there even inspired me with our basement to some small degree.
Filed under Music
No, it’s Joel McHale, and it’s still a felony! If none of this makes any sense to you, then congratulations for having higher standards and not wasting a moment of your time on the crap comprising pop culture. For the rest of us, we have The Soup on E! to help us wallow in it.
Last weekend, D and I caught Joel performing downtown. McHale’s been filming The Soup for over four years, but launched into a live standup tour last year. As you might expect, even without the clips and teleprompter, he is one funny dude. Along with his animated stage presence, his tales of Ryan Seacrest, Dick Clark, Tyra Banks, and his son Eddie (the genius/retard) were a hoot. From what I’ve read, preSoup Joel got his start in an improv group. It showed. While his set material was good, some of his best moments were improved remarks about audience members in the front row. The constant cracks directed at the ‘pirate woman’ were great. He said the only logical reason to be dressed like that was if she just got off work from a cheesy seafood restaurant. “Arr, would ye like to hear the specials?” I’m sure glad we were in the second row instead of the first!
Filed under General News
D and I took a trip down to the Southgate House to catch The Faint Wednesday night. I find it’s getting harder and harder to pull me out of my comfy suburb to see a show in a smokey club – especially in the middle of the week – but every now and then one comes along that can’t be missed. This was one of those nights.
My friend’s band Eat Sugar opened and put on a solid set. People were still filtering in when they went on, so it wasn’t as packed for them as they might’ve hoped, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. Their music was a great fit with The Faint, so hopefully they picked up a few new fans and sold some discs.
The next act, The Show is the Rainbow, was a hot mess and doesn’t merit any space here. Let me just say Rainbow is a single dude onstage flailing away to prerecorded laptop tracks in some terrible, unmusical, unfunny version of Jack Black. I was cringing with his first song and cowering by the sweaty, shirtless finale.
The Faint came on about 11 and played for an hour (with a three song encore) and they completed shook the joint. For the unfamiliar, they are an electro-punk-pop band from Omaha who really started taking off around 2000. As expected they played a lot of tracks from their latest album, Fasciination, but also threw in their older, harder rocking favs as well. They brought all the AV equipment they might normally use in a much larger venue – so much that they actually had their own generator running in the ally to help power it all. On stage there was barely enough room to move. In addition to the drums, four keyboards, and lots of monitors I counted at least 6 LED light panels, 4 flood strobes, 2 spot strobes, 6 programmed scanner spots, and 2 huge video projectors. The lighting and video (mostly black and white processed collages) was intense and meshed with their sound perfectly. The audio was very good and balanced considering it can be a hard room to mix for. The bass was heavy and throbbing and the synths growled and screamed nicely. And to top it off, singer, Todd Fink, performed in a very Dr. Horrible-esque outfit. Mad scientists or not, they were legen…dary.
Filed under Music
I should be just hours from seeing Kevin Smith fielding questions, spinning tales, and being all together affably crude. Alas, it was not meant to be.
A couple months ago I heard Kevin was making a rare Ohio appearance on his post- Zack and Miri Q&A; tour. I eagerly plucked down dough for six sweet floor seats and have been waiting for the days to pass. Then suddenly Monday morning I received an email from Miami U with news that the gig had to be cancelled. Appearently due to some shift in the overseas release of “Porno”, Kevin would not be able to make it (and unable to reschedule for the foreseeable future).
Looks like instead I’ll just have to deal out my own wall of profanities while watching the OSU – Michigan game.
Filed under General News
