iTunes just did one of those really rare but really great random shuffle things. The Beatles “Long, Long, Long” to Radiohead “Kid A”. Just as I was thinking at the end of the Beatles track ‘woah, Radiohead precursor!” – srsly, the last 30 secs of that track. Set these two tracks in order and it’s like it was meant to be. Maybe it’s just me.
Tag: Music
After a long week getting up to speed on work for the next software release (including many, many meetings), the weather started to drastically improve here in Portland Friday a friend of mine came by for some BBQ and beers. Had a really fun night, followed by a slightly painful yesterday.
I got up and watched several episodes of Top Gear before Kelly and I went to the Blue Olive for dinner, followed by checking out the Oregon Symphony perform Beethoven. The performance was fantastic, though the dinner had me feeling a bit too full and sleepy. After the show we dropped by the Back Stage Bar for our friend B’s birthday. Didn’t stay long though. Sleepy. Happy birthday B! We suck.
After an early night and many hours of sleep I was able to get some serious yard work done today, mainly cleaning up the pile of debris that sat to one side/corner of the house. It was the spot where two years of Christmas trees/wreaths, many years of potting soil and planters, and general yard junk had been dumped. Hacking, sawing, digging, and barkdust re-spreading. It looks, well, not trashy now. After all that, I’ve been able to sit out on the front porch with a couple beers and, well, write this post. Hooray for spring!
This weekend I surprised Kelly with a trip to Astoria. Before leaving all Kelly knew was that we were going out of town. Later I hinted that there would be “a show” but that was all I’d told her. Friday we left home (a bit past noon) and as I was driving she was guessing “we’re going to Seattle”, and when I didn’t drive north on I-5 she guessed “we’re going to Eugene?”. Once I drove over the Fremont bridge and started driving north on Highway 30 she correctly guessed that we were going to Astoria.
We arrived around 3pm, checked into our hotel, and then wandered around town for a bit (including having some nibbles at both Fort George and the Wet Dog).
That night, we went to the Liberty Theater and shortly after entering Kelly saw a poster (there was no obvious marquee) for the Decemberists benefit show for Jessica Schleif. This was a one-time show (the only scheduled Decemberists show for 2010 thus far) for a friend of the band who “recently suffered a tragedy that left her with unmanageable medical debt.” The show was a lot of fun. The opening act Michael Hurley was really really good, and the Decemberists were great as usual. It was a fun night.
Saturday, after checking out the Flavel House, we drove over the Astoria Megler bridge and went to Cape Disappointment (visiting an old lighthouse) and Fort Columbia. Today on the way home we stopped at a friends place for a fortuitously planned birthday gathering before heading home.
After a long week of work, and my first Windows virus infection (long story short, keep your anti-virus up-to-date and Windows patched), I spent the day doing yardwork and went to see a band tonight.
The weather in Portland today was gorgeous (a sunny 65 degrees), so Kelly and I got out and continued to tidy up our yard; pruning shrubs, pulling weeds, and generally getting a jump start in the hopes that the rest of the spring and summer will be less upkeep and more kicking back and enjoying. Things are starting to look pretty good.
Tonight I joined some friends to see Midlake at the Wonder Ballroom. Midlake is something of a 70’s-inspired indie-folk-rock band that are perfect for chilling in the yard with a beer, or driving along a foggy coastal road. They have some really great tunes with some brilliant lyrics (though they also have some so-so tracks). I like ’em when I’m in a chill-out, introspective mood. Anyway, the show was really good, both because the band was good and the audience (a 21+ show) were polite and relaxed. That could have been due to weed (smelled some outside the venue), but all in all a good evening, and a good way to end a nice day in the sun.
Categories
Max Raabe & Palast Orchester
Tonight I attended a show put on by the Oregon Symphony (at the Schnitz): Max Raabe & Palast Orchester (more on them at Wikipedia).
Kelly organized a little ‘dress up’ event (involving local vintage clothing shops) to get as many people as possible to dress in 1920’s/1930’s outfits to attend the show. I played my part by buying a fedora, a tie (gasp!) and a new fancy trench-coat from a local haberdashery. There were about 30 of us that met at Nel Centro for some drinks before walking together to the Shnitz. We got lots of looks and smiles from other guests, and since we were instructed to wait until the last minute to walk to our seats our group even got a little bit of applause on our way to our seats. Pretty funny. Oh, the group was also taken backstage during the intermission to have a photo taken with Max.
The show itself was a lot of fun. Not only does Max Raabe himself have the perfect voice to perform these period tunes, the band was fantastic and fun to watch. A little over half of the songs were in German, one was in Spanish, and the rest in English. While I didn’t recognize most of the songs it didn’t matter because the music was great, Max’s banter between songs was hilarious, and the crowd were loving it. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Here’s a little sample (performing ‘Cheek to Cheek’). Fun stuff.