Crossroads May 19, 2009
Posted by bbop in comebacks, technology.add a comment
For the few of you who might actually check in on this blog from time to time, I apologize yet again for being such a complete and utter slacker about updating. I realize that it’s been several months since I’ve posted anything and literally over a year, I think, since I’ve posted about what I’ve been up to in the present (or at least the recent past). It feels kind of weird to be writing this, but with the rise of Twitter and Facebook, I’ve honestly thought about whether it’s practical or worthwhile to even continue blogging. Has it already become passé?
I’ve come to the conclusion that I want to keep doing it, though I think I probably need to start running this thing like an actual blog. That is, update more frequently; make shorter posts; and not wait for a bunch of things to build up before writing about them, as I know I’ve done more often than not. I’m sure I’ve said most of this before, but for what it’s worth, I’m rededicating myself. With a busy couple of months ahead, including a jaunt to España over the next couple of weeks, there should be plenty to post about and I’ll endeavor to do so. Stay tuned. Or not.
If you do check in here every now and again, you’ll know tht I’ve repeatedly promised to “catch up” with updates of what I’ve been up to since last May when I last posted about current goings-on. (Embarrassingly I’ve had half of the May 2008 update written for months now, but never seem to get around to finishing it.) Anyway, since it’s been more than a year now and I’m certain no one — probably not even me — cares about what I did months and months ago, I guess I will officially cut the strings on the update plan. Maybe if the well really runs dry sometime, I’ll reconfigure the updates as a “looking back” series or something to that effect. But for now, in blogging as well as in life, I think it’s generally a good idea to not dwell on the past and live in the present.
Argh November 12, 2007
Posted by bbop in technology.1 comment so far
Just wanted to post a quick little update, so that all four of my readers would know why I haven’t posted in a little while despite a solemn promise to be more consistent in that regard.
Reason 1: Not a good excuse, I know, but from the week from Nov. 1 when I left Chicago to Nov. 8 when I left New York for, ahem, a certain trip really flew by! I kept saying to myself I’m going to do a “recap of the week” post, but then I had a nightmarish couple of days. Which leads me to my second (and other) reason…
Reason 2: My laptop crapped out on me (again). My hard drive crashed earlier this year. That sucked. This time, actually, it’s just my Airport card. But in a WiFi world, that kind of hampers your ability to do stuff online. I think it must have somehow dislodged when my bag fell, either that or it just died. So since then I’ve been stuck with purchased time on grubby shared computers in a series of Internet cafes and hotels.
Hopefully I’ll get my machine fixed soon. Until then, I hope anything that I post will justify the money I spent to post it. (Haha, no way that’s happening.)
Taking the bad with the good December 9, 2006
Posted by bbop in music, technology.2 comments
The bad: Sometime after I left school yesterday (around 5:30 p.m.) to when I arrived at the Mercury Lounge (around 11 p.m.), my cell phone — a trusty Sidekick II — was either lost or stolen. I got on a really crowded subway and someone could easily have taken it off my belt. Or I could have somehow left it on the bus I took to the Merc. There’s also a small chance I could have set it down at the Lincoln Center Tower Records, where I stopped in to see what was left at their going-out-of-business sale. But that’s really about it.
When I told my roommate Peter about it after I got home, he said — and rightly so — that I must just not be meant to have a Sidekick. I think that was literally like the fourth Sidekick I’ve owned and something bad has happened to all of them. I stupidly cracked the screen on two of them, lost another one and then this one. Argh. So that’s it. After I post this, I’m going to go get a BlackBerry Pearl. Hopefully I’ll have better luck with that model.
I actually was considering making the switch soon anyway, so this just expedited the process. My only real regret about this latest incident is the loss of the SIM card. I had a bunch of contact info on there, though I had backed up most of it, and some little notes. What can you do? At least I think I’ll still be able to keep my number.
The good: I was going to the Mercury to see the Pernice Brothers, who are always so great. Joe Pernice said this was their last weekend on the road after like 31 straight shows, so that’s why they sucked. Well, they might have been a little tired and we might not have gotten Grudgef***, but Joe and band (which included Peyton Pinkerton on guitar and James Walbourne on keyboards, guitar and even saxophone) are nothing if not professionals and Joe really has written so many great pop songs by now that you can’t really expect to get everything in a single show.
I’m really liking the new record, “Live A Little,” more and more every time I listen to it. And those songs formed the bulk of the setlist last night, including the main set-closing “Somerville.” Fitting that they played a Zombies cover, too, because quite a few of the new songs wouldn’t sound out of place at a Zombies show. And I think I never appreciated “Bum Leg” (which originally appeared on an album by one of Joe’s side projects, Big Tobacco) fully until Joe opened the encore with a solo rendition of it last night. He noted that it’s his mother’s favorite of his songs and that she always refers to it as “the one about the bad leg.” Haha.
Pernice Brothers//12-8-06//Mercury Lounge, New York, NY//support: Sono Oto, Elvis Perkins
High As A Kite/The Weakest Shade of Blue/Overcome By Happiness/Automaton/Water Ban/Conscience Clean (I Went To Spain)/The Ballad of Bjorn Borg/There Goes The Sun/Microscopic View/Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914) [The Zombies]/Zero Refills/Lightheaded/B.S. Johnson/PCH One/Baby In Two/Flaming Wreck/Somerville//e: [Joe solo] Bum Leg/[w/James Walbourne on guitar] Please Mr. Please [Olivia Newton-John]/[rest of band returns] Working Girls/7:30
