Category: General

Grant-Lee Phillips, and much more

Post author By ryan
Post date July 27, 2006
5 Comments on Grant-Lee Phillips, and much more

Last night was a crazy evening. It started at the end of the work day…

The company I work for was throwing a party last night the Thirsty Lion for attendees of OSCON, an open source software convention being held in Portland over the next couple days. I was destined for Berbati's Pan (right around the corner from the Thirsty Lion) to see Grant-Lee Phillips with Kelly and our good friend Miranda, and told my manager that I wasn't sure if I was going to the party because of the show. My manager said "Oh? I think the boss's sister is playing there." Come to find out that my boss is a brother of Kristin Hersh, of Throwing Muses fame, who was opening for Grant-Lee.

I met Kelly and Miranda at the Shanghai Tunnel and then at around 7:30 I decided to do some recon of the scene at the Thirsty Lion. It was a fairly packed event, and there were free drink tickets and free food, so I decided to report back to Kelly and Miranda. We decided to go (since I had brought some entry cards with me from the office) and we had a good time. While there I get a call from my brother Travis. Last night was also Katie's 21st birthday (brother Chad's girlfriend) and they were all headed downtown. They found us at the Thirsty Lion, Travis got a list of places nearby from me, and then they all headed down to the Shanghai Tunnel, with a promise to meet up later on after Kelly, Miranda and I get out of the Grant-Lee show. Whew.

We went to the show, which was very good and very mellow. Kristen Hersh is a really good performer, with a fantastic voice. It was just her with an acoustic guitar on a stool. At one point towards the end of her set she invited Grant-Lee on stage and they performed together, but aside from that it was all her.

Grant-Lee came on around 10:45pm and was similarly stripped-down (just him with his acoustic guitar and harmonica, and the drummer). It was a great show, though I have to admit that after the last time we saw him, with a full band, it was a bit disappointing. While Grant-Lee is a fantastic performer, full of wit and charm, I found myself missing the fullness of sound from the previous show. Still, it was definitely worth going. Kristen Hersh joined him on stage for a couple songs (as did another fellow he invited up who's name I forget), and he played most of the songs on his latest album and a few from the Grant Lee Buffalo days including Mockingbird, which made Kelly and I very happy. His cover of the New Order song 'Age of Consent' both live and on the album are excellent, giving me chills and warm-fuzzies at the same time.

After the show at about 12:45am, Kelly, Miranda and I met up with the rest of the gang at the outdoor seating of the bar part of Berbati's for another drink for Katie's birthday before Kelly and I came home. Whew, what a night. Happy birthday Katie, hope you had a great birthday!

General Movies

I hate the heat

As the title says, I hate the heat. I hate how tired it makes me. I hate sweating standing completely still. I hate how the relative rarity of this kind of heat here doesn't quite warrant the purchase of an expensive air conditioning unit for my house, but being miserable not having one. Urgh.

OK, I'm done ranting. This past weekend Kelly and I accomplished one goal, we ordered a new desk and chair for the guest bedroom / Kelly's office. We also escaped the heat a bit and saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The movie, while great fun, wasn't (for me) quite as good as the first one, but it was well worth seeing in the theater (which, for anyone who knows how I feel about the theater-going experience nowadays, says a lot).

Here's to hoping the weather forecast is correct and that it will drop below 90° F for the rest of the week.

– Signing off, and melting into a big puddle of goo.

General

It’s the new style…

As you can probably see, I've finally created a design for the blog, rather than using one of the defaults of the blog software. It's in a pretty early stage and will likely see continued tweaks over the next few days, but I figured it'd be better than what was there before. Well, maybe, you tell me. 🙂

Entertainment General Music Television

The Weather, This Weekend, Next Wednesday

Post author By ryan
Post date July 22, 2006
4 Comments on The Weather, This Weekend, Next Wednesday

Been hot again the past couple days (highs over 100° F), with humidity well above 50%, so it's not only hot, but sticky. And seems we're in for a repeat through the weekend. Ugh.

Last night Kelly and I went to our friends Ty and Aymie's for a BBQ (because not even the hot weather will stop the grilling of meats) and had a wonderful time relaxing in their yard. We got home around 12:30, watched some TV (got to see a late-night re-run of the show Psych, pretty funny show) and passed out on the couch.

Today we hope to get some furniture ordered for our guest bedroom… a mattress for the boxspring my brother gave me, and a desk and chair for Kelly since she's starting school again in a few weeks.

This upcoming Wednesday Kelly and I are going to go see Grant-Lee Phillips in concert again. We had seen him about 3 years ago (at the same venue, Berbati's Pan) and it was a fantastic show. He recently released new album titled nineteeneighties, containing covers of songs by artists such as New Order, Pixies, The Cure, The Smiths, etc. The new album is really quite good, though I think I'd have preferred an album of new material, but we're still very excited to see him again. More on that later (hopefully late Wednesday evening).

General

A busy weekend

The weekend has been pretty busy so far. Yesterday after work Kelly and I met up with our friends Ghost Dog (and his wife Becky) at the Mash Tun for some dinner and drinks. I haven't been there for a couple weeks and they have some new batches of beer, one of which is the delicious Ford Prefect Porter (good name too, nice Douglas Adams 'Hitchhiker's Guide' reference), and another is their 'Kitchen Sink #2', which is something like a cross between an English bitter, and an amber. We had a good time and then Kelly and I came home and watched more Lost (which we just started getting via Netflix). It's an excellent show so far.

Today we went to the Mississippi Street Fair in North Portland (with a group of folks, including Ghost Dog and his wife, Snooks and his girlfriend, Miranda, and other friends of Kellys). Quite an interesting event, loads of people with pets (mostly dogs, but Kelly saw somebody walking a pet pig), lots of environmentally-conscious groups, arts and crafts etc. The thing that stands out for me was this scrawny girl wearing face paint dancing down the street on stilts while wearing a very small bikini thing.

Since Portland was hosting an International Beerfest that same day, Ghost Dog and I took off for a bit to check that out. It was a spendy event ($20 entry fee that included 10 drink tickets, each 4oz drink was between 1 and 3 tickets) but it ended up being worth it. Had a few delicious beers, most notably the Freeminer Waterloo, and the Yeti Oak-aged Imperial Stout.

After the beer festival Ghost Dog and I met back up with Kelly, Becky and Miranda at my house to relax and eat some dinner before going to my friend Tyson's birthday party. Kelly and Becky went to see Paul Oakenfold in concert while the rest remained at the party and had a fabulous time.

Tomorrow Kelly's sister and family are going to be in Portland so I don't yet know exactly what's going on, but I'm hoping at some point to get some yardwork in and to relax and watch a movie. Whew!