The Adam Show and Tell

We

2008-11-08T01:28:00.001-06:00

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Need to start something...

2008-11-07T21:51:00.004-06:00

First of all, I'm really happy about the election. Tuesday night was so memorable. I couldn't help but get a bit emotional when Obama walked with his family onto the stage to give his acceptance speech. Overnight, I am feeling really positive about my country and the world again. I wish everyone could share in this.

I saw today the launch of Change.gov. It seems that finally, my country's leadership is starting to move with the current of progress, instead of against it. Obama held his first press conference as President-elect, and anyone around the world can now view it. I hope this is the kind of "warts and all" portrait our leaders will encourage us to paint of them, instead of all the phony boloney and covering up of the last administration. It seemed like politicians didn't get that we now can see and record everything they do on camera. Obama seems like he is encouraging this. It set's a fine example. It keeps politicians honest, and if they really believe in the ideals they stand up for, that those ideals are self-evident, they should have nothing to fear from this level of visibility.

I'm feeling a bit inspired by all this positivity and progress. I've been pretty lazy the past 6 months, and it's starting to get to me. I'm no longer satisfied with making due and treading water. I need a new big project/direction/purpose. I have surprised myself in the past when I've met goals I thought I were too ambitious, so I'm not going to set the bar low now. So far the ideas I am interested in are these:

-start a cooking podcast
-start a band/music project
-learn a programming language and work on some apps for Android/iPhone
-start looking at grad schools in the pursuit of becoming an Art professor.

One factor here is that I'm getting burned out on computer animation. So far, all I've done with that skill is to further the agenda of Walmart. I think that does help some people in a way. Like it or not, some people do depend on that corporation for their needs. While it has given me a means to support my family, I feel like I could be doing something even more satisfying.

A band, let's face it, is a bit of a vanity thing, but can be very, very fun.

I like the idea of the cooking podcast the best, because I believe in food as the most driving force behind culture and society. I think that most people don't really cook in an expressive way, and that's a shame. I get that sometimes (a lot of the time), I and most people want to just come home and want to eat and veg out. That's perfectly fine. But there is an opportunity for discovery and expression and joy in cooking that could really enhance everyone's lives.

I could also work toward the professor thing too. I don't expect a podcast to become a significant source of income. It could. But the schedule of a college professor really appeals to me. I am finding the 8-5 office environment very unnatural. It doesn't agree with me. I need naps, and I probably need to explore polyphasic sleep.

I wonder if there is a way to work the mobile phone app into the podcast thing (or vice versa). Hmmm...there's a thought.

A few initial thoughts on a few bands

2008-02-11T19:47:00.000-06:00

The Annuals: Like 'em. Varied and fun. Maybe similar to Flaming Lips, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads.
Jason Collett: Meh to good. It's Wilco-esque indie alt country. On second thought, there's nothing exciting.
The Walkmen: I like the band, but the singer's overly Bob Dylanisms are too much. I need melody in my vocals.
Kelley Stoltz: This is the White album with different songs. Like it.

Big Fat Caucus

2008-02-06T22:26:00.000-06:00

Last night (1/5/08) was the Democratic caucus and the first I had attended. The organizers had underestimated turnout to an insane degree. The line outside Asbury Methodist (at 75th and Roe Prairie Village, KS) eventually stretched to my estimate, a half mile or so. It was a sight to see, I loved it as an event. Everyone was voting Obama.

Movies watched this year:

2008-02-06T22:20:00.000-06:00

(In semi-reverse order:)
-I Am Legend - 2.5 stars
-There Will Be Blood - 5 stars
-No Country For Old Men 5 stars
-Elizabeth (from 1998) - 3.5 Stars
-Capote - 4 stars

Also tried watching The Protector but it was too terrible.

Life of Pi

2008-02-06T22:17:00.000-06:00

by Yann Martel. Reading this with James. Very very good writing style - Fiction that reads like an autobiography.

New Music

2008-02-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

Just some quick mentions of bands I've discovered lately and liked:
-Menomena
-Dan Deacon
-Vampire Weekend
-Wolf Parade
-Holy Fuck
-Dead Meadow
-Kelley Stoltz
-Klaxons
-Black Mountain
-Dungen
-Blitzen Trapper
-Deerhoof

I've followed my musical New Year's resolution by more than 200%. I'm going for extra credit.

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-07T21:11:00.000-06:00

At a party this past New Years I was disappointed that so few folks had resolutions. I was looking forward to hearing some good ones because you can learn much about someone that way. I was let down. I thought about mine quite a bit, and I narrowed it down to a few. I'll share the ones relevant to this blog:

1.) Read 1 book or about 500 pages each month
2.) Find one new artist every two weeks (I learned that his will be easier than expected, so it will be one a week).
3.) Find one new band each week.
4.) See a new movie each week.

I'll be tracking my progress and sharing those here. Should be fun.

Good albums from 2007

2007-12-30T21:16:00.000-06:00

Reverse alphabetical order, no descriptions:

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
John Vanderslice - Emerald City
*Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Sigur Ros - Hvarf - Heim
The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
*Sharon Jones & the Dapkings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
The Sea & Cake - Everybody
Rogue Wave - Asleep at Heaven's Gate
*Radiohead - In Rainbows
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
New Pornographers - Challengers
The National - Boxer
MGMT - Ornacular Spectacular
*LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
*Iron and Wine - The Shephard's Dog
Field Music - Tones of Town
*Feist - The Reminder
Battles - Mirrored
*Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
The Album Leaf - Enchanted Hill
*Air - Pocket Symphony

*Denotes extreme awesomeness

Question of the Day

2007-12-13T00:37:00.000-06:00

If you want to know what makes me tick, watch the last minute of this.

Welcome back, Vinyl.

2007-12-11T21:24:00.000-06:00

In the past, I've been a pretty big naysayer when it comes to the whole vinyl arguement. I was pretty sure that the human ear cannot distinguish between a digital CD, well-ripped mp3, or vinyl source. So the fact that at this moment "December 2007 Adam" is sitting here listening to an LCD Soundsystem album on a vinyl setup in his home would probably surprise and anger "January 2007 Adam." I've read maybe a couple technically oriented articles about the advantages of the medium, but so far I haven't come across any subjective experiences of listening to vinyl "again for the first time."

That's what I'm hoping to offer here. My mind-change started when I was at a house party and the host was playing the music not from an ipod or cd changer, but from vinyl. As the night started, a couple bold attendees started shuffling through the LP collection, doing a bit of dj'ing while the host was occupied elsewhere. I joined in somewhere in the middle of the night, throwing on J. Geils Band and Wang Chung, suddenly realizing what the retro-thing was about. People had ipods and iphones, there was even a cover band playing downstairs, and the coolest shit at the party was obviously that fucking record player.

That got me enthused. Visiting with some friends across the state, I was surprised to find they had joined in without my permission. I nabbed my Dad's old record player the very next time I saw him. After taking my good time getting the need phono pre-amp, and of course some source material, I am at the time of writing listening to vinyl for the first time since 9th grade, when I discovered Led Zeppelin.

This is the same exact player, by the way, which is the crappiest part of the system. There is a bit too much hiss in the quiet parts of the record (LCD Soundsystem's 45:33), and I couldn't walk within 6 feet of the table on which it rests until I taped a nickel to the tone arm. I think that situation can be improved by a player upgrade. If you've heard 45:33, you'll be familiar with the fact that the first half of the album is pretty minimalist beat-pop. Since it wasn't testing the system, I didn't perceive a benefit, and points were subtracted for hiss and skipping. Somewhere into side C however, the instrumentation fills out and there is a single trombone belting out some "abstract randomness." Having played the t-bone for 6 years in school, I'm hyper sensitive to it's nuances. I'd forgotten about the detailed vibration sound of the player's mouthpiece when lower notes are played. I hear that when I listen now. Individual instruments seem more discrete, and there is more "space" in the recording.

The problem with such a qualitative judgement is that I want this to be a better sounding setup. I doubted that I'd be objective. But as the score gets pretty lush on side D I started thinking that I'm hearing some presence not felt from my high-bitrate-ripped mp3's played through a home theatre pc. The sound definitely fills the room and carries into the rest of the house in a much more balanced manner. Most importantly, I started to realize that my soundsystem is capable of more than what it's been asked. If you know about music production, you'll understand when I say that this sounds as though the source material is one generation younger than cds.

The sound quality is not the only advantage to vinyl. There's something about seeing that big artwork, physically pulling the music out of the sleeve, and carefully placing it on the wheel. I don't want to romance this too much, but it's not simply the nostalgia of throwing on Led Zepplin II and hearing the first few guitar chords of Whole Lotta Love. There's a hassle involved here, and one that makes me want to listen more closely to the music. It's difficult for an album to not be the focus of my attention when played this way.

Similar to the way portable mp3 players change the way people incorporate music in their lives, vinyl gives me a new experience despite the fact that I've listened to an album several times from a different source. It's a new experience gained by having a different behavior associated with listening to music. Simply put, listening to music is about more than hearing notes, it's the media collecting, artwork viewing, and the many other non-music things associated with a record. Vinyl has its own unique set of associations, and that's what January 2007 Adam did not anticipate.

93 arbitrary-and-meaningless-Adam-Points.

Falesco Vitiano 2005

2007-12-09T20:39:00.000-06:00

Bought because Robert Parker gave this $11 bottle 90pts and the cab-merlot-sangiovese mix sounded interesting, but maybe I'm missing something. The nose is interesting; I get vanilla, rasberry, and aerosol hairspray. Decent fruit, medium dryness, but tastes more like a ho-hum merlot than anything. Not bad, but not 90pts. Glad I tried it.

82 arbitrary-and-meaningless-Adam-Points.

Let's get right into it.

2007-10-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

So, I've been kicking around the idea of starting one of these for a while, coming up with ideas and things I want to share, and tonight I reached the tipping point. I'm not even going to get into background info on me because it's boring. But I will promise that my purpose here is to share myexperiences with everyone, hence the name

And it's a great night to start a blog. I'm halfway through the documentary "The Beatles: First American Visit." I had to stop and gush. I'm used to seeing little 5-10 sec clips of the band disembarking the plane and waving, but here, the camera stays on. It's simply magical. As long as I've loved The Beatles (since childhood) I was always hungry to learn what it was like for the fans at the time. I get that from this documentary. Full Review coming soon.