Music: It's all about the Hotel Cafe

May 27, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I know, I'm way behind on putting up any kind of a report about last Friday. That happens sometimes. I get distracted.

We got there about 2/3 of the way through Amilia Spicer's set. To be honest, I don't remember much about it. It takes me a little while to sit down and get focused.

Eric Hutchinson was the 9pm, and Kathy and I both enjoyed his show. She bought a cd afterward, and today compared his voice to Michael Jackson. I can't say that was what struck my mind, but I did think at times he sounded a bit like Justin Rosolino vocally.

Erik Penny rounded out the acts we saw. He played a more sparse set, accompanied only by an electric guitar. It was a lot of the same songs, but often the tempo was changed up to make them more suitable for the smaller show. I missed hearing Ernesto's background vocals and thought their lack made the sound a little empty, but seeing as this was his first "mostly" solo show, I think I can cut Erik a little slack. He's got plans, and I'm sure they'll be good.

Tonight Kathy and I are headed back out to the Hotel Cafe to see Julian Coryell and Gus Black. It should be a good time.

selling some assets

May 26, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Cingular is selling its share of the CA/NV networks it co-developed without T-Mobile when that latter was working to break into the CA market. As the linked article says, this is probably to reduce duplication and clear some regulatory hurdles in the process of acquiring AT&T Wireless. AT&T has been running their ads about the newly improved coverage on their GSM network, but it'll be interesting to see what the real-world implications will be for Cingular subscribers when they suddenly hop over to a different infrastructure. I did notice that when Cingular started the acquisition process AT&T became a roaming partner and my phone's hopped over to it a few times where Cingular coverage has for whatever reason been unavailable, but none of those instances were around here (that I can remember). I have no clue what AT&T's GSM network feels like in LA these days.

learn something new every day

May 26, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I just took my bike in to the Manhattan Beach REI Store to get a chain skip looked at. Under load, especially in a low gear, the chain'll sort of pop out and then back in. Really annoying when you're pushing it. I thought the chain was old and needed replacing, but they thought it still had some life in it and think a derailler adjustment will clear it up.

They studied my bike pretty hard, though, obviously a bit confused by it. It's a Novara Ponderosa. Turns out it doesn't really have any of the stock gear on it, though, so the shop guys think someone just got a Ponderosa frame and stuck on random pieces they had around. That degrades a bit the deal I thought I had gotten, but really the bike does exactly what I want it to do, so that's what matters. I asked the guy whether the stuff was nice, crappy, whatever, and he said the front wheel was nice. Heh. I bought that myself. I don't know if that means the shifters, etc, are crap or just the front wheel really is that nice.

Anyway, they kept the bike and I'll pick it up Friday.

WIFI: Lickity Split

May 26, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Wow. Forget the wifi, this root beer frozen custard I'm eating right now at Lickity Split in El Segundo is good.

Really good.

And a cup was a touch over $2. And the wifi works great. Simple to connect, really responsive.

If only it wasn't so far away...

Oh, wait, they're actually opening two more locations, one of which is in Hollywood, easily accessible via the Red Line.

I love that wifi is no longer the exclusive domain of the coffee shop. I'm not in a coffee mood right now, but a little frozen custard hits the spot just about perfectly.

Downtown El Segundo is a lot nicer than I had expected, too. Parking is everywhere, and it's got a nice small city downtown feel.

the magic of cinema

May 26, 2004 by Eric Richardson

So my block is New York today. I didn't take pictures, 'cause I was driving after all, put sitting next to the building on the northeast corner of Spring and 7th was a line of NYC taxis. The building it'll have gotten a bit of a coat of paint (although only up to the 12 or 15 foot level... are they going to leave that or just do something different later?) and signage for "NYC Central Bank".

Yesterday I got distracted by film equipment and drove straight past my building, forcing me to circle the block. I really need to get over that. This is LA. They average like two things filming per day downtown.