So you’ve heard of that new movie The Boat That Rocked, right?
Wait – you haven’t? That’s right. It’s called Pirate Radio here in the states.
Well, in England, it’s called The Boat That Rocked
Apparently, Americans demand straightforward movie titles. And we don’t understand Beatles references.
But at least it isn’t being advertised as a sequel
Or a videogame tie-in
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but never got around to it. So since it’s the end of the month, let’s turn this in at the last minute.
Quick summary – ACL 2009 was good. How would I compare it to 2007? Bands-wise – not so good. Weather-wise – much better. I’ll take rainy over heat any day of the week. And 2007 headliners can’t compete with Björk and Arcade Fire.
In my previous post I mentioned that I had a tough choice to make – Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Kings of Leon. I ended up choosing Kings of Leon. And, I chose poorly. King of Leon were such rubbish. Long was smart, he chose Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Afterwards, I wanted to scoop out his eyes and steal his ears so I could experience Yeah Yeah Yeahs live. By the time I gave up on Kings of Leon and trekked to the other side of the park, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were finishing up their encore SADFACE
I still like Kings of Leon, but I wouldn’t pay money to see them live ever again. It was such a terrible show, I decided to rate the bands I saw in KOL. 1 KOL = 1 Kings of Leon Live Performance. I believe I gave using the portable toilets 1.5 KOL.
The highlights of this years ACL?
Pearl Jam. Yea I used to listen to Pearl Jam, but I was never a huge fan. I know a few songs, and I think No Code is underrated. Their show was spectacular. Eddie Vedder is a tambourine genius.
Bell X1. The first band I saw on Saturday after Kings of Leon on Friday night. They were great fun to see, and they were having fun. The exact opposite of Kings of Leon.
Arctic Monkeys. 2nd ACL, 2nd time seeing Arctic Monkeys at ACL. Enthralling show. Arctic Monkeys may be my favorite band of the decade.
Passion Pit. I’ve never heard of Passion Pit before ACL. I selected them the night before as filler between Arctic Monkeys and Pearl Jam. This is gonna sound stupid, but they really got the crowd moving.
Mud. My last ACL was at the end of September, and it was hot. AT&T were giving out fans and they were cherished by all. This year, Friday was perfect. Saturday was rainy. And Sunday was muddy.
And Green Man.
See you at ACL 2010!
This Friday night I will have to make a tough decision. Do I see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Kings of Leon?
I think Kings of Leon would be a better festival band. But, I do like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs more. Loads more. And I have a feeling that they will put on a fancy show. But Kings of Leon, I think their primary function is to play outdoor festivals. What would you do?
Favorite Yeah Yeah Yeahs song – Y Control (Great video directed by Spike Jonze)
Favorite Kings of Leon song - My Third House (On Call B-side)
You know what’s great about having a much younger brother?
They ask you questions like this.
But seriously, I envy Kian. He’s going to listen to Ok Computer for the first time. His life will change forever.
Ok Computer for me really signified the break between 106.1 KISS FM Raishad and 88.7 KTCU Raishad.
I remember I bought it from Hypermart. I had heard Karma Police on the radio. It was a huge single. And after school one day, I asked my mom to take me to Hypermart to buy it. And after listening to it, it was a situation where I wanted all music to be like Ok Computer.
Ok Computer wasn’t my first CD, that was Green Day’s Dookie. But it did start a change in my approach to finding new music. I wasn’t so dependent on major commercial radio. This was 1997. Napster didn’t come into existence until 1999. And I was still accessing the internet using a modem. So the internet wasn’t a big influence – at least not until I found The Perfect Song Facsimile. So it was luck/necessity, I found college radio and 88.7 KTCU. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The next playlist challenge idea was something I stole from The Word Magazine Podcast. I forget the exact situation/podcast, but the idea was to pick a song that you would use to introduce a band to someone who has never heard of that band. The idea being, if they like that song, then they will like the band.
It’s a fun game. Do you go for a hit single that sounds nothing like the rest of the band’s catalogue or a deep cut? If I were doing Blur, would I pick ‘Song 2’ or ‘Tracy Jacks’? Song 2 sounds like nothing else in Blur’s repertoire, but it is one of their most well known singles and would surely win hearts and minds.
So for this playlist challenge, the bands were picked beforehand.
Here are my choices
radiohead – Million Dollar Question
I couldn’t pick an album track. I would lose all my street cred. So instead I went with a Pablo Honey B-Side.
I stole this song from The Word podcast. They used this as an example – if you like ‘No Reply’, you’re gonna love The Beatles. I didn’t know this song before that podcast, and since listening to it – I think it may just be my favorite Beatles song as well.
Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy
What do you think of when you hear the name Massive Attack? A track with a nice heavy beat and female vocals. And that’s what ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ is.
I’m pretty sure ‘Hunter’ was the first song by Björk I ever heard. It was on The X-Files movie soundtrack which I, of course, purchased. And I think it’s a good introduction to Björk. Hey, it worked on me.
Modest Mouse will never make another album like The Moon & Antarctica. 3rd Planet is everything you want in a Modest Mouse song – Isaac Brock shouting over guitars.
The Smiths – This Charming Man
What makes a song a Smiths song? Easy, jangly guitars and morose lyrics. Any of their songs would’ve worked. So I picked ‘This Charming Man’ because it’s one of my favorites. The version I picked is one they recorded for John Peel and was released on Hatful of Hollow and probably not the version you’re most familiar with.
Belle & Sebastian – Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying
I used to really be into Belle & Sebastian. This was a hard choice. I picked this one because every few months I catch myself humming ‘get me away from here, I’m dying’ and I have to listen to it again. It sticks with you. The version I used is from their live recording of If You’re Feeling Sinister.
I’m not really familiar with New Order. The easy choice would be to pick ‘Blue Monday’ and call it a day. But I didn’t want to do that. Luckily I had rated ‘Temptation’ 4 stars at some point, so I gave it another listen and realized I was right. ‘Temptation’ is a great track and could only be done by New Order.
U2 is a band. And honestly, I’m not really that in to them. So, I picked a single because I couldn’t be bothered to listen to all of their albums to do some digging.
I’m not really familiar with Jay-Z aside from his singles. So I picked his best. This is from his MTV Unplugged album.
I’ve been meaning to write this entry for a long time. Anyways…
So, how /do/ you throw a successful BBQ for 55 people? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall – practice.
The BBQ I had on Memorial Day was #3. BBQ #1 was a small affair – 10 people at the most. And to be honest was just a BLC Happening. BBQ #2 doubled in size, but there were still mistakes. We overestimated the food and probably could have fed 50 people easy.
You need guests at your BBQ. You have to invite people and give them enough notice so it doesn’t seem you sprung something on them last minute. But then you can’t invite people months in advance, because no one knows what they’re doing a month from now. I ended up inviting people 2 weeks before. I figured that would be a good balance. Not too far, not too soon.
But don’t forget, people are bums. The invited will take their time responding, and you’ll be wondering – is no one going to show/is this going to get out of control/does everyone hate me? And it’ll drive you crazy. Because if you don’t have an accurate guest list, how are you going to know how much food to buy? How much drinks? How much plates? How much chairs? All these things and more depend on an accurate guest list. And don’t forget to account for extra. People will bring friends.
So for BBQ #3, 91 people were invited. (Wow, that is a lot!)
Let’s go to the breakdown
| Confirmed | 52 |
| Maybe | 20 |
| No Response | 2 |
| Declined | 17 |
| Invited | 91 |
So I could’ve theoretically had (52 + 20) 72 people showing up plus any additions. But the actual count was 55.
| Confirmed + Maybes | 72 |
| Attended | 50 |
| No Shows | (22) |
| Late Additions | 5 |
| Actual Attendance | 55 |
So how do you feed all these people? With lots of meat
20 lbs of Chicken (Drumsticks + Wings)
20 lbs of Lamb
6 lbs of Ground Turkey
4 packs of Turkey Bratwurst
2 packs of Turkey Dogs (24/pack)
Also on my receipts
1 Bag of Rolls
2 Bags (Costco) of Hamburger Buns
2 Bags (Costco) of Hot Dog Buns
1 Bag of Chips
Ketchup
Mustard
BBQ Sauce
People also brought
Cheese & Crackers
Eggrolls
Corn
Bratwurst
Salad
Lemon Bar Cake (Extra Delicious)
Cookies
Pies
And I had my mom make
Fried Rice
Potato Salad
To wash all that down, you need lots of beer. Surren and I decided it might be more cost effective to just get a keg. And you also need beer for beer pong. In addition you need coke.
So all together, we had
1 Keg of Shiner
1 Case of Keystone
3 Cases of Coke
3 Bottles of Wine
People also brought more beer and coke.
But, sadly we didn’t finish the keg. We did come close, but in the end I did have to empty it out down the drain. I think if we used the Keg for the beer pong, it would’ve finished.
If you put people together with food and drink, they’ll find a way to entertain themselves. But to get that started, you need music. It’s there to fill the silence.
For BBQ #1, I ended up buying an iPod boom box. I’m really happy with it. It’s able to produce a nice sound at a loud volume without too much distortion. I could’ve just stuck my iPod in there and considered ‘music’ taken care of, but I wanted to try something different.
Apple has a program for the iPhone – Remote. It allows you to use your iPhone as a remote for iTunes. Apple also has a router/print server called an AirPort Express that has a speaker jack on it. It’ll let you remotely connect speakers to your computer. So if you add all these things together, you can wirelessly stream music from your pc to a remote pair of speakers and let your guests control/vote for music. It’s a great idea.
And my execution was almost perfect. I had a spare AirPort Express that I decided to use. It would create a network, and I would have people connect to that – isolated from my main network. Well, the AirPort Express ended up choking. It couldn’t handle the number of clients. So I had to have it connect to my main network, and have everyone connect to my main network as well.
I also had this bright idea of outdoor Wii/movies. I bought a projector. I made a screen. And I was ready to impress. But, by the time it was dark enough to use the projector, I was too drunk/tired to be bothered to set it up. And I think that if I did, it would have detracted from the atmosphere.
So what did I learn from BBQ #3?
I should stop worrying so much. I freaked out about chairs. I had 18 chairs, and I ended up borrowing a few. And I think it was the perfect amount.
Do as much setup as possible before. I should’ve put the tiki torches up beforehand.
I needed one more table. The food table kept on running out of space.
Bugs are everywhere, and there is nothing you can do about it. Buy a can of Off and put it out.
It’s a lot of work.
It’s also a lot of fun.
Another semester is finished. And just like that, I have my nights and weekends back.
This last semester I took CSE 5324 – Software Engineering I. And at the end of the semester, I have to say I did like the course. I didn’t agree with the professor on some things, and I didn’t like the way he treated the students on the distance education section (me and most of my team). But I did like the term project, mainly because my team was amazing. It was definitely the best team I’ve worked with in my graduate career. Compared to the other teams in the class, we were giants. The team experience just made the class better.
But it’s tough. Working full time and going to school. I don’t know how much longer I can last. It feels like my soul is being scooped out. Like I know it’s the responsible thing to do. But all through out this semester, I felt like ‘Why am I doing this?’. I know that if I quit, I’ll never return. So I keep on. Though I am taking this summer off. I need it to recharge.
It’s true. They know they have the best product available. And they know that they will really, really, really, really have to piss me off before I switch to another service.
My Residential Gateway has been resetting sporadically for the past 2 months. Note the word sporadically.
sporadic |spəˈradik|adjectiveoccurring at irregular intervals or only in a few places; scattered or isolated
UVerse phone support seem to have trouble with this word.
I’ve called UVerse an innumerable amount of times complaining about this problem. And the tech on the line will rattle off the same steps – have you checked the power cable/have you reset the residential gateway/is the problem occurring now. And I indulge them. After all, I did the same job. And I know they’re just referring to a knowledge base. Sometimes this will result in an offer for a call back. This is when I have to explain to them the meaning of the word sporadic – “Yes, you can call back tomorrow. But it might be fine tomorrow and the next day, and the next, but then it’ll reset. Anyways yes, you can call me back.” Because really, it’s a very rare occurrence if they do follow up.
Twice now I’ve had a technician make a house call. The first time was a few weeks ago. That guy said it was a problem with the line and he’d schedule a line tech. I don’t know if that happened. But I do know that after his visit, I was fine for some time.
Yesterday, I had another visit. This visit was primarily to replace my DVR. Last week it deleted all my recordings and refused to record anything afterwards. I mentioned the RG problem to this guy, and he said it was a problem with the “bridge tap on my line”. And he would schedule a line tech to remove that. I don’t know if that happened. But a half hour ago, my RG reset.
UVerse is now up to “really, really, really”. I’ve started logging everything now. I know I should’ve started keeping track weeks ago.
UVerse, don’t make me switch to Road Runner or Dish or DirecTV – I love the guide too much.
Remember Spring Break?
For Spring Break I flew to Washington, D.C and drove to Boston. Driving music was required. So I made a playlist.
The only requirement was that I fill an 80 minute cd. With rental cars, you never know if you’re getting one with an AUX input.
So here it is.
The rental car was a Dodge Avenger, and what an unsatisfactory car. My biggest issues, poor visibility and terrible turn stalk. Though it did have an AUX input.
I received Where Did It All Go Right by Andrew Collins in the mail today.
It’s a book. All you really need to do to send it in the mail is stick it in an envelope, padded if you feel like splurging.
That is pre 4/7 thinking.
What you need to do, is stick it in a padded box and roll it 3 sheets of bubble wrap.
Twitter: raishad