music at the pub

January 29, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Tuesday night I got in my car and took a drive over to Venice to check out songwriters on tap, a monthly show put on by OlivoiL Records, which is really Cynthia from Saucy Monky. Lee Beth Kilgore was playing, so she spurred me into finally getting there. I had, to quote Lee Beth, "dos reasons" to be there, since I had told Cynthia a while back that I'd make it out sometime and just hadn't yet.

SoT is the last Tuesday of every month in a back room at O'Briens Pub. The room's great for the size of the event. I'd ballpark 30 people there, but I could be way off. Someone thought they saw Lawrence Fishburn, but I'm in a position to neither confirm nor disconfirm that rumor. The night works in a round format. Four acts up on stage, each plays one song per round, and I think there were five rounds total. Three of the four acts were great. Lisa Sanders' website has a cdbaby link that has some songs on it, so you can check her out there. I can't find a website for Anita Coats, but she reminded me a bit of Heather Nova at times. And I've talked about Lee Beth before, so just search for what I said then and pretend I said it again now.

And now I get to go hang out in class, pretend I'm listening, and probably just get work done online instead.

why i'm old-fashioned

January 27, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Sean Bonner recently wrote a blog post titled "Why aren't you using RSS yet?" In it he raves about what RSS -- and more accurately RSS readers -- has done for his experience of the web. I know a lot of people who would agree with him.

I don't.

I don't like viewing a site via an RSS reader. To me it seems that by taking the content out of the confines of the site, and presenting it in isolation, you cut out a large part of the experience. When I put together my site, I don't just think just of the content but also the presentation. I like the way my site looks. I intend that look to in some possibly imperceptible way to alter how you experience the information that I provide. Sure, if you pull my RSS feed into a reader you'll get the things I write. But they'll be orphaned, severed from the contextualization of the environment in which I have placed them.

Maybe this is all egotistical COMM major BS, but to me it means something. When I go to other people's blogs, I prefer to do it via a web browser. Their style colors my perception of their content. I just haven't seen any concessions to this need for context in an RSS reader.

the death of an icon

January 27, 2004 by Eric Richardson

In December I tried to go to Mo' Better Meaty Meat Burgers. The fence was boarded over, and there were no signs of life. I was a bit distraught. Today I drove past again, hoping to see signs that it had been closed for remodelling, or something like that.

No change in condition. Fence still boarded up.

I can't find anywhere where someone has said it's closed. I really hope that's not the case. All physical evidence would seem to point to that, though. If anyone knows any different they better tell me before I go into withdrawl.

another night of music

January 27, 2004 by Eric Richardson

So I've had this post sitting on my computer for like three days now and haven't finished it until now. That's pretty sad.

I started off the night Friday heading over into enemy territory to see Magilla's band's first show. The sound was very poorly done -- the guitars were running just off their amps, the vocal was far too low -- but none of this was their fault. I blame the bruins. It's always their fault.

Then it was off for a drive down Sunset to get over to the Hotel Cafe. We got there around 9:20, and Resonant Heads were just going on. They put on a good show. Kathy commented that they had very intelligent lyrics. Lead vocalist Dawn Frinta has a great Cranberries sound to her voice, and Rez Heads put her sound on top of a sort of rock, almost punk, musical style. A good show all around.

Jim Bianco was up next. He's amazing. His band is amazing. They know their stuff cold. Stage presence radiates off of them. Some amazingly funky cool stuff.

Final act of the night was Pedestrian. I was falling asleep at this point, and no amount of loud music was going to change that. They played a little harder stuff than I remember last time, but I'm not sure if that's my memory or really a change in what they do. Still good stuff, though.

wifi and catfish

January 27, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I'm sitting at the Original Los Angeles Farmers' Market, enjoying wifi provided by Sticker Planet. It's a bit hard to find power, but other than that it's a great spot to hang out and get some work done. I checked with Alan, and just because your access point is a sticker shop doesn't mean you have to buy stickers. I really don't need stickers.

I did just get blackened catfish and a really good creole mustard potatoe salad from The Gumbo Pot. At $7.50 not the cheapest, but really good.