Damien Rice and Gigi

Well, it's Summer. This of course means it is concert season. After eliminating Bonnaroo from the schedule because of their inability to attract quality bands this year, there is some slack to pick up to meet my stringent concert quotas. I am trying my best. In the preceding post, we talked about seeing the highly, talented Ryan Adams and since then I have seen the John Butler Trio (who I consider the best guitarist on the planet....don't believe me, find a version of Oceans on youtube.com), a solo show by My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, and the surprisingly good Sarah Elizabeth Whitehead. Sara and I also went to see Damien Rice at The Palace. The Louisville Palace is easily my favorite venue. Not only is the decor unlike any other theatre, but the acoustics are unbelievable. To prove this point, Mr. Rice played Cannonball (my favorite song of his) with his guitar unplugged and his mic turned off. There was dead silence as 4000 people listened to an incredible version of the song. It was very impressive.

I was talking to Gigi (who you can probably guess has to be a grandma by her name) over Memorial Day weekend about my internship this summer at Humana. I was telling her how I worked for a group that supported the call center (there will be more on this in another post, but I am giving you the facts for the story) and she asked how workers at the call center knew all the answers. I explained that our call center has a program much like Google, that they search internally for answers, many questions are generally the same in nature, and that if someone searches for an answer enough times they know the answer. I could tell she was still perplexed, and the reason was that she thought call centers there were only a few call centers in the world. Meaning that call centers were staffed by highly intelligent people who answered questions on any subject. They might answer a question about Humana, then answer a call dealing with Peter Pan peanut better, and then tell someone the best way to program their VCR. My uncles and i definitely laughed at her, but it was all in good fun though. Gigi surprises me everytime we hang out.

WFPK Listener Appreciation Concert

Tonight was without question the most bizarre concert I have had the pleasure of attending. In fact, it was so bizarre it was entertaining. In fact, the last 35 minutes was the only bizarre part.

Every year the local, independent radio station (WFPK) has a listener appreciation event. It is two nights of great bands for $20 a night. This year the Friday night line-up was Martin Sexton, Tom Morello, Moe, Keller Williams, and Angelique Kidjo. The far-superior Saturday night line-up was Paula Cole, Charlie Louvin, Suzanne Vega, Vietnam, and Ryan Adams. I didn't go to the Friday show because I'm not really into the way hippies (or the weed they smoke) smell, but I heard it was a good time. In all honesty though, I would have liked to have seen Tom Morello (he is now under the name, The Nightwatchman) and Angelique Kidjo (Sarah Drake won't stop raving). The fact that Ryan Adams was going to be there Saturday meant that the other 4 acts could have been four marching bands and I would have still went. Unfortunately, the fact that Ryan Adams was going to be there caused the show to sell out before I was able to get tickets. Luckily, they released more the day of the show and I was able to go. In fact, I told Aaron at lunch on Friday that I would have paid $50 to see Ryan Adams by himself, and that came true as I did pay $50 for 2 tickets (fees of course) and the person I was supposed to go with backed out. So I went and saw Ryan Adams by myself.

Paula Cole was actually quite enjoyable. She sounds good live but is horribly awkward on stage. Oh yeah, her last song was a Dolly Parton cover where she beat-boxed at the end. Wasn't expecting that. Charlie Louvin is old-time country. He had his first country hit in 1955 and is 80. He is hilarious on stage. They also mentioned he was going to be playing Bonnaroo this year. Suzanne Vega was good too. The theme of her new cd is New York, so I got tired of hearing about the city, but other than that I have no complaints. Well, besides being at the concert by myself. Vietnam was up next. They look like homeless people but sound like music gold. Ok, not music gold, but they rocked hard and had hilarious lyrics ("it's hard to give head when your almost dead" was on of the cleaner lyrics). Aaron showed up in the middle of the Vietnam set so I didn't have to sit by myself. Also, all the old people left.

Next up was Ryan Adams & The Cardinals. Apparently, Ryan recently had a skateboarding accident and was reduced to just a vocalist. No worries though, the band could handle it. Ryan and the band sounded unbelievable. Every bit as good as they do on the records but like I said at the beginning, it was just bizarre. Imagine if you will, the house lights being dimmed so the band can come out, but only being brought up enough for Ryan to be able to read lyrics off sheet music (I didn't recognize but one song.....meaning the rest were off the upcoming album and he doesn't know the words yet). Ryan was also wearing sunglasses, a hoodie with the hood up, and what appeared to be a 1920's leather aviator cap under the hood) and looked away from the crowd between songs. Then after playing Down In A Hole by Alice In Chains (30 minutes into their set), Ryan says "It was great to be part of the line-up. Thanks." Then he jumps off his chair and the entire band scatters off stage (Much like The Wonders do in That Thing You Do). I wasn't expecting a long set, 1 hour at the most. Like I said, they sounded great but it was bizarre. It was a really memorable, unique show. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that a busker was wearing the same white sunglasses before the show. Was it a fan? Was it a friend?Was it Ryan and he had to hide the way he looks so he could busk more? The picture at the top is what he looked like tonight (The pic wasn't taken by me). Bizarre.

Song Recommendation: Two by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

St. Lunatics

Andrew, Clint, Fox and I went to St. Louis on Wednesday to see the Cardinals play. I know what your thinking, and it is what everyone else has said when I told them we went to St. Louis (5 hour drive) to watch a baseball game. "Why?" That is a simple question to answer, "The tickets were free." So yea, Andrew's brother secured the company seats for us. They were in left field about 3 rows up and were padded. There was also an air conditioned bar/concession area and bathrooms that only our section was allowed to use. Sweet. The new Busch Stadium is pretty nice and all the seats seem to be close to the action. Being that the Cardinals are owned by the Busch family (of Anheuser-Busch fame) they really push beer at the games. There would literally be 3 beer vendors fighting over a section of 30 people. And to think, when we went to Wrigley earlier this year David had to wait 10 minutes to get his Old Style (why he wanted to drink Old Style is a different matter altogether....apparently Old is a marketing word for Gross). The game was enjoyable, the umpire blew a call at the plate that went in the Cardinals favor (they won 9-2 but that play changed the course of the game), and the only real complaint is that Cardinals fans go nuts every time Pujols hits a pop fly (the guy could hit a pop fly to the pitcher and they would think it was going out).

Being that St. Louis is on the Mississippi River (no matter what Clint thinks), the situation correlates well to a recent conversation I had. So the conversation started like this, " You can't believe anything Nick says because he is a liar." Wow, thanks...thats nice of you, but probably a true statement if one takes the literal definition (www.dictionary.com) of "lie". The problem I have with that statement is that it implies that when I "lie" I am doing so with the intention to decieve in a malicious way, and I don't think that's the case. Many times I "lie" because I get bored, just want to see how people react, or am being sarcastic. An example would be someone asking if I know where Beth went on Friday night, and me saying "I think she went to Jake's and had a few drinks." Now, if the person is asking me about Beth, they obviously know Beth. If they know Beth, they obviously know that she doesn't go to bars, nor is she going to be having a few drinks. So, did I lie. Yes. Did harm anyone. No. The point I am making is that these "lies" are nothing more than fictional stories. I don't think anyone calls Mark Twain a writer for telling fictional stories (there is the Mississippi River connection). I don't really see the difference. Do I need to write my "lies" on a piece of paper before saying them, does that make it ok?

A shout out to Schwartz (kevinschwartzenberg.blogspot.com) for giving me a shout-out on his travel blog.

Song Recommendation - Imitosis by Andrew Bird

Derby Weekend 2007

So, Andrew took a history class his last semester to complete a general education requirement (I think normal people complete those in Year 2, not year 5) and he had to write an essay for the final. For this "essay" he was to create a fictional story about witches. Seriously. Asking an engineer to create a story about whiches in the Middle Ages is like asking them to please a woman. It's not going to go well, but the attempt is bound to be hilarious.

The first weekend of May is always Louisville time to shine, and this year was no different. We decided to skip the infield this year (I'm not going back until I can afford tickets) and instead hoped to do the party scene. Luckily, the Walton's and Henry both decided to have parties. Ryan is currently living in Louisville, and I felt like it was my duty to show him the ropes. We started the day with the intention of going to the Walton's, hoping over to Henry's, and then heading back to Walton's for the Derby. Well...things got a little crazy, I was winning money (they had a bookie at the party, and I am an excellent handicapper), Katie's deck was too nice and we (the Sara/hs and their significant others, Ryan, and I) didn't end up going out to Henry's until dark. We stayed long enough to witness two guys almost get into a fight over their fraternities before heading home (with an intermediate stop at Papa Johns). The highlights of the day were winning money (of course), listening to Sarah Drake beg me to take my suit jacket off ("That is way too many layers"), Henry begging us to drink his beer (we weren't much help), and just being with friends.

Speaking of friends. Sara, my sister, and I went out to Mike Linnig's (that place is CRAZY DELICIOUS) for lunch and then to Zesto's. What makes this story interesting is that Matt Wagner was at Zesto's. Matt is the lead singer of the band A Girl A Gun A Ghost(www.myspace.com/agirlagunaghost) and took a break from working on their first full-length album in Atlanta to drive up to New Albany to get the tour van worked on. They are about to start a North American tour, and everyone is hoping for a stop in Louisville. Regardless if you like the music or not, you gotta give him props for living the dream.

Prayers go out to Beth, Josh, and Adam while they are in Uganda.

A School Year In Review

You know life is good when you are sitting on your porch listening to a live version of Brittney Spears' Toxic as played by Nickel Creek (I don't know if the hilarity comes from Nickel Creek playing a Brittney Spears song, or imagining Chris Thile in the Toxic video). If you wanna check it out, just go to http://www.myspace.com/nickelcreek. Hurry, I'll wait.

What a year it has been. Although undergrad is less than one year in my past, it seems to be a distant memory. I wonder if that is what all of life is like. Friends move away, new friends take their place, and all is left to memory. I assume it will be like this, only eventually friends will be replaced by children who you know will be your friend for at least 18 years. It isn't like it's not sad, because in a way it is, but it is just the way it is. As hard as you try, you can't stay meaningfully connected to everyone in your past.

So I will attempt to wrap these past 9 months in bullet format.

• The first four months (August to December) are nothing less than a blur of work and stress. I developed a constant shake in my hands that was scary at best.
• The fifth month was spent in India (which you can read about below), and that did not help the stress level one bit.
• The sixth and seventh months were a bit less stressful than the first four, with a little less work load and a lot more fun. The shaking went away. Hurray. I ended up going on trips to Colorado for a case competition (we made the finals, top 5 out of 43) and Oregon for Spring Break. I wasn't ever able to post about Oregon because 4 projects were due the first week back, but it can be agreed that it was pretty sweet.
• The eighth and nineth months were exponentially less stressful than the first 7th and I was able to see my friends again. I remember the shock when I called some friends up on a weeknight and asked if they wanted to hang out for awhile. I secured an internship at Humana in Louisville. It is about the best situation possible. The pay is good and they are paying for a furnished apartment in Louisville. Sweet. The weather turned beautiful. Doug, Scott, Snap, and Josh came for Grand Prix and madness ensued.

Who knows what this summer will hold. I hope to do some hiking, play some competitive ultimate, and send a lot of time on the water. (A girl is walking down the street crying and complaining into her phone....her final must have not went so well.....no comment).