Mar 272006
 

We started work on remodeling our downstairs bathroom. Well, the contractor started work, I wrote a check for half of his original estimate. Since starting at 8am, I’ve already received two calls from The Wife.

The first was to tell me that pretty much all of the framing behind our shower is rotted. This isn’t surprising as we’ve known for quite some time that the faucet/knob combo was leaking and that the grout between the tiles was missing in several places. We’ve been putting off doing anything about it until we had the time and cash to do the whole bathroom. Longtime readers will note that the one year anniversary of the flood just passed.

The second call was to tell me that the bush that’s immediately outside the bathroom window is growing roots into the foundation, so we’ll need to rip it out. I’ve been trimming it back from the roof for the past umpteen years anyway. I would’ve logged a third call about the fire ant mound in the water meter, but I already knew about that from before I left.

We spent all day yesterday rearranging and weeding through stuff in the kids’ rooms in addition to clearing out the downstairs bathroom in preparation for the remodel which we expect will probably take most of April to complete. Sounds like this coming weekend will be spent trying to get the backyard into some sort of reasonable shape. Ahhhh…homeownership.

Which reminds me. As soon as I have time, I’m on a mission against the neighbors across the street. This is the house that had been occupied by several St. Edward’s students and pseudo-students. It’s now housed by an assortment of christian dudes. They’re generally nice enough fellows, but the sheer number in the house leads to street parking issues. Our driveway’s on a hill and they’re always parking a car directly across from the driveway. This is minorly annoying, but last night, they had a bunch of people over until roughly 11pm. One car parked such that the entire back half was blocking our driveway. If we had needed to back the van out for whatever reason, we wouldn’t have been able to do it. I mentioned it to two different people entering the house, including one that I’m pretty sure lives there. Nobody moved the car until they all left. That’s some rude shit and I won’t forget it. Is there a city ordinance limiting the number of people that can live in a rental based on the size of the house? If so, what is it?

 Posted by on March 27, 2006 at 10:56 am
Mar 232006
 

The time to be civil is over. I said it. I’ll say it again. I’m sick of this crap.

Transcript of and commentary on Helen Thomas’s question to Bush yesterday in a press conference.

More commentary and calling out the aforementioned sack of shit.

Not mad yet? How about this?

Why didn’t the press corps call Bush on his lies yesterday after he got crappy with Thomas? Why isn’t anyone pointing out that what he’s saying isn’t true? Why aren’t the Democrats getting behind Russ Feingold’s move to censure Bush? Here’s an excellent analysis of that question.

Ok, back to work. Damn.

 Posted by on March 23, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Mar 212006
 

Saturday consisted of trying to meet some friends at Japanese Night at Elysium. You’d think I would’ve learned my lesson after seeing Dir En Grey the night before, but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. This time, though, I was pleasantly surprised even though I never did find the people I was trying to meet.

I walked in on PE’Z, a japanese jazz band who call themselves “samurai jazz”. They were really good. Their style was in a hard bop vein and they were very tight. The band is a quintet with trumpet, sax, upright bass, drums and keyboard. The keyboard player was the most interesting member of the bunch. He was dressed in a tracksuit and hat that made him look like a small and thin LL Cool J. On the more frenetic pieces, he’d hunch low over the keyboard and go nuts with his fingers. He stood the entire set and would straighten up on the slower parts. They were great and I’m regretting not picking up one of their CDs while I was there. They were the discovery of the weekend from all that I saw over SXSW. An article I found on the japanese bands at SXSW says many of the bands from Japan Night are touring other parts of the country for the rest of the month. I definitely recommend checking out PE’Z although I’m still not sure how to pronounce their name.

I headed over to Emo’s after that to see Hellacopters. Since I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be to get in, I went pretty early. I had to wait roughly ten minutes before I was admitted, even with a badge. I got in just in time to see the Riverboat Gamblers do their last two songs. Good stuff. Lots of stage-diving and energy. No big deal missing that performance as you can see them pretty easily here in Austin. The place cleared out considerably once they finished, so I could’ve waited ten minutes somewhere else and just waltzed in. Riverboat Gamblers were followed by Nebula, who apparently have one of the ex-members of Fu Manchu in their ranks. They were ok, but I wasn’t all that impressed. Hellacopters were up after them. I noticed David Fricke from Rolling Stone come in with Raoul Hernandez from the Chronicle a little before the Hellacopters. Hellacopters were pretty good. They didn’t blow me away or anything. One song, “Better Than You”, stood out from the set that I heard. It had an amazing dual guitar solo. I left a few songs before they finished.

 Posted by on March 21, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Mar 212006
 

I was just playing Downtown Texas Hold’em on my Razr. The game essentially has you playing at the final table of several different tournaments. You play your spot and the program plays the other four spots. I had just entered a new one, which meant that each player had an equal amount of cash ($200k). I think I was in third position and started with 10-8 off-suit. I put in the initial bet of $6k. Everyone stayed in for the flop, which came out 7-9-J off-suit, meaning I had flopped a jack-high straight. Figuring I had pretty good odds, I went All-In and everyone called. Sure enough, I won and wiped out the entire table on the first hand.

Why can’t I have hands like that in real life?

 Posted by on March 21, 2006 at 1:34 pm

SXSW Takes Its Toll

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Mar 182006
 

Blurry Page HamiltonI surrender. I couldn’t get the day 3 lineup posted before I had to head downtown myself. I tried to go see The Editors at Ritz (As wae pointed out, it’s still the damn Ritz. There’s a huge sign that says Ritz. That makes it the Ritz.), but it was insanity out front of that place and I couldn’t deal. I stopped briefly at Casino El Camino on the way to Redrum Annex (ie the parking lot behind the Gas Pipe ). E., the door man at Casino, ended up working when he thought he’d be off. I’m sure he’s sorry that he took it out on all you unsuspecting revelers.
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 Posted by on March 18, 2006 at 5:07 pm

Second verse, kinda like the first

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Mar 162006
 

SXSW Night 2 Recommendations (Emo’s seems to be the likely place I’ll camp out):

Blackalicious – 6pm – Auditorium Shores (free to all)
Spoon – 7pm – Auditorium Shores (free to all)
Echo and the Bunnymen – 8pm – Auditorium Shores (free to all)
Flogging Molly – 10:15pm – Emo’s Main Room
Dresden Dolls – 11pm – Stubb’s
Gomez – midnight – Stubb’s
Gogol Bordello – 12:45pm – Emo’s Main Room
Eagles of Death Metal – 12:45pm – Exodus
Nada Surf – 1am – Parish

Here’s the list of Austin bands you should check out if you’re from out of town. I’m less inclined to see them during SXSW since I can see them many other times during the year for a longer performance and smaller crowds.

Golden Arm Trio – 8pm – Habana Calle 6
Ephraim Owens Quintet – 9pm -Elephant Room
Dixie Witch – 10pm – Red Eyed Fly
Honky – 1am – Red Eyed Fly
Hilary York – 1am – Oslo

Rumor is that Antone’s would be the most likely place to find Neil Young tonight.

Beastie Boys said in their interview yesterday that they were going to do a surprise show somewhere but declined to say where. Anybody know? Comment or e-mail me.

Update: Here’s some speculation on the Beasties. Does anyone know if it was the ATX Magazine Party last night?

 Posted by on March 16, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Mar 152006
 

Here’s the bands I’m going to attempt to see tonight. Barring discovery of my own personal time machine before then, I won’t make them all, but I like to have options. Or I may just stay at Beerland for most of the night.

Bad Rackets – 8pm – Beerland (duh)
Talib Kweli – 10:15 – La Zona Rosa
Curt Kirkwood – 11pm – Capital Place 18th floor (the hotel on the sw corner of 6th and I-35)
Belle and Sebastian – 11pm – Stubb’s
+/- – midnight – Friends
Goblin Cock – 12:45am – Habana Calle 6 (with a name like that, how can you not see them?)
Mogwai – 1am – Stubb’s

Here’s the list of Austin bands you should check out if you’re from out of town. I’m less inclined to see them during SXSW since I can see them many other times during the year for a longer performance and smaller crowds.

Knife in the Water – 10pm – Spiro’s
Tia Carrera – 11pm – Spiro’s
Quien es, boom! – midnight – Red 7
Octopus Project – midnight – Emo’s Jr.
Crack Pipes – 1am – Velvet Spade
Gorch Fock – 1am – Spiro’s (that’s two shows for Jason Morales since he’s in Tia Carrera as well)

(Sorry about the crappy formatting, no time)

 Posted by on March 15, 2006 at 2:35 pm

Bad Rackets, B**ches!

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Mar 142006
 

I’ve been getting my geek on at SXSWi for the past several days. Now it’s time to shift to Rock Star Mode (TM).

6115.jpgCome see the Bad Rackets at Beerland tomorrow night at 8pm and see whether I can pull off the transition. There’s no better way to kick off four days of music. It’s the first slot on the first night. You know you haven’t already scheduled another band for that time, so no lame excuses.

There’s a ton of other cool bands from Mortville and Super Secret records on the bill as well. On top of that, we’ve got a new CD, Full-On Blown Apart, available locally at Waterloo, Cheapo,. End of an Ear and Sound on Sound. Be the first person to come up to me and mention Metroblogging and I’ll give you a free copy. If you’re the second person, maybe we can work something out.

 Posted by on March 14, 2006 at 11:35 pm