Today Kelly had class all day, and that meant I had the day to myself. I had grand plans to continue organizing my office, but instead spent most of the day playing video games. Played some Call of Duty 2 online for a bit, and then spent some time playing OpenArena, the free Quake 3 Arena game (based on Q3A’s open-sourced engine). It had been a number of years since I’d played Q3A, and had forgotten how even though the graphics are pretty ‘lo-fi’ compared to modern games, it’s still a blast to play (literally, KABOOM). There are several really fun maps to play, and it’s just as fast and furious as Q3A was. Neat!
Tonight Kelly and I went to my company’s holiday party, held at Holocene. It was a good time; open bar, tons of snacky foods, a live band, and an excellent speech from the CEO. Here are a few photos from the party, taken by a coworker). After hanging out until 10pm Kelly and I stopped briefly at Moon & Sixpence on our way home before calling it a night (Kelly has class tomorrow).
There, now that that’s out of the way, while reading through Digg tonight I came across a really good article chronicling the career turn-arounds of certain musicians/bands. The first on the list was Radiohead which included a music video for “Just” from their album The Bends. Having never seen it before, I was amazed by it’s brilliance. It’s among the best music videos I’ve ever seen (next to this video by Sigur Ros, and “Hurt” covered by Johnny Cash). The kind that is intelligent, tells a story, and is more like a short film than the kind of garbage that does nothing but glamorize the singer and his gang of “ho’s” and his “bling” (thinking about most rap videos, which is about all you ever see on MTV) or about how sexy and sensual the female singer is.
Below, for your viewing pleasure, is the video for “Just” by Radiohead
Got up early today. Well, early by my Saturday standards (8:30), and spent most of the day being somewhat productive. I continued cleaning my office, cleaned the kitchen, the garage, the car, etc. You know, super exciting fun stuff. Oh, I also IM’d all day with my loser friend Martin. What a loser! (yes, I expect a response from you, you loser).
Tonight Kelly and I met our friends Ty and Aymie (as well her sister and brother-in-law) at Moon & Sixpence for some dinner and drinks. We were joined later by Miranda & Brian, and even later by my brother Travis. Had a good time hanging out. Had the cottage pie. Still full. Gruhhh.
Oh, today I also created my masterpiece. My friend SD sent me a mix CD (the prize for winning a blog contest: closest guess to the birth date of his son), which arrived in the mail last week (the CD, not his son). Naturally, a home-made mix CD doesn’t have cover art. I like cover art (so does my iPod), so I created one. The CD had only the phrase “Van Man” written on it, a fairly common nickname due to my long Dutch last name. I grabbed an oddball image from his blog and created this: Behold the awesomeness.
Hello readers (the, um, five of you). Here’s a recap of the week, with an added bonus weird Portland fact at the end (which you must read through all the following junk to discover… because I say so).
Sunday: After spending most of the morning reveling in the rawk greatness I’d seen the previous night, Kelly and I watched Rescue Dawn, which was fantastic.
Monday: I met Snooks after work for a couple pints at Kennedy School, where I got to talk in a limited fashion about Battlestar Galactica: Razor (which Snooks hadn’t yet seen, so I had to skirt around, well, pretty much everything).
Tuesday: I met my friend MB at Rialto (around the corner from my office) for lunch. Had their reuben sandwich. It was no Goose Hollow reuben, but it was good. However, I was left that afternoon feeling generally full and icky. I’m not blaming it on the sandwich, I think I was fighting off a cold. Stayed in and read about 200 pages of the seventh and final Harry Potter book. Was nice to have an evening in while Kelly was out seeing a play.
Wednesday: Kelly and I met after at Binks after I left work for a quick beer before going home and watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which was, uh, not great. Not quite as crap as I was expecting, but definitely not my favorite of the three.
Thursday: Kelly and I met at Rose & Thistle for a few pints before coming home and listening to some old cassettes (which came up because over the previous weekend I’d finally gone through all my old tapes and boxed a bunch up to donate somewhere).
Today: After a couple weeks designing the interface for a bunch of new features for SuperSweetCo’s next release of it’s flagship product (culminating with a demo at 4pm) I hung out at a work happy hour where I got to learn some funny shiz about some coworkers, before catching the train homeward. On the way I stopped at Moon & Sixpence for a pint of Old Speckled Hen before catching my bus connection home.
Oh, just in case you’re wondering, I’ve still got Van Halen stuck in my head. I’m still rawking out!
Tonight I went out with my longtime friend Sean to see Van Halen play at the Rose Garden Arena. Yes, you read that right. Van effin’ Halen, with David Lee Roth back as the lead singer!
How, you might ask, would I be going to such a show? Well, it’s a good question, and it requires a little bit of storytime… Back in elementary school I was into Van Halen, and introduced my friend Sean to them. Before I’d even reached Junior High, the “Roth Break-up” occurred, and I remember lamenting that I’d never get the chance to see them. I was also never a big fan of their Hagar-era reincarnation (“Van Hagar”). Fast forward 22 years… Sean, bless him, heard of the Halen + Roth reunion tour and immediately thought of me and bought he and I tickets to the show (well, his wife bought the tickets, thanks Mel!). While Van Halen has been off my personal playlist for many years, they occasionally resurface when I get the itch (equal parts nostalgia and the desire to rawk out).
Despite my fears (you know, of them being something of a sad, ghostly version of themselves, aided by walkers and IV’s… and catheters) they were great, and it was a blast. They really did RAWK, and despite their age they both looked and sounded great. Granted, DLR wasn’t able to hit his high screechy vocal accents the same way he did at 54 years old as he could at 26, he was still one hell of a front-man, and the energy onstage between he and Eddie Van Halen was that of two longtime friends having a heck of a good time.
The original lineup was almost complete, the original bassist Michael Anthony (who has sided with that loser, Sammy Hagar) had split with the group, and was replaced with Eddie’s son Wolfgang, who was excellent in his own right and seemed to fit in very well with the band, both in namesake and talent.
The band played nothing but Roth-era Van Halen, and sounded really good. There were, naturally, moments where the songs strayed from their album counterparts, either by mid-song improvisational guitar solos, or vocal changes by Roth, but there wasn’t a song that wasn’t as fun and rockin’ as the originals. Some of the standouts for me were pretty much anything they played from their first album, of which they played a LOT (if not all), which was a pleasant surprise since it’s the one album I actually leave on my iPod and enjoy listening to occasionally. It was also a long show, pretty much non-stop except for a VERY brief break before finishing the show with Jump. They went onstage at around 8:30 and played until 11:15, pretty much non-stop, featuring some amazing solo breaks by both the drummer Alex and Eddie.
Before the show Sean and I went to Rose & Thistle for some beers and some food, and after the show we hit Kennedy School for another beer or two and some fries, both of which served as nice ‘bookends’ to the night. Had a blast, despite how hesitant I was about the evening earlier today.
Oh, and if the pictures from my crappy phone ever make their way to my inbox, I’ll post ’em here, though I doubt they’ll be worth it. The above photo is credited to the official Van Halen website.
Tonight I went out with my longtime friend Sean to see 