I often forget when I blog that people other than me actually read this thing.  I’ve found out recently that pretty much anyone can find you on the internet if they search hard enough, and I have seriously considered trying to erase all of the content on here and shutting down this site for good.  I’ve also thought about trying to find some way to move whatever I’ve written about onto a private site.  After thinking about it quite a bit, though, I’ve decided to continue with it.  Life comes at you at such a rapid-fire pace and it really bothers me to know that so many great details can be forgotten along with interesting thoughts.  I mean, in just the two weeks that I took off from writing I’ve spent a weekend in Chicago with my high school friends, saw possibly the best baseball game I’ve ever seen at a Cubs game, saw Arcade Fire live (also one of my favorites), had my first experience at Camden Yards in Baltimore, and took part in my roommate’s bachelor’s party.  All of that has happened in the past 13 days, and that isn’t even counting what random thoughts that have passed through my brain in which I’ve already forgotten.

I need to just be mindful that others do read what I put on here.  As a perfect example, a short while ago I posted a picture of me drinking at a bar while reading the Bible.  The picture wasn’t meant in a sacrilegious way but was instead meant to ridicule whatever moron thought bringing a Bible to a bar would be appropriate.  That was what the picture was about to me but I can obviously see how things like that can be taken the wrong way.  I already make a point not to talk about certain things (i.e. relationships, work, etc.), but I guess I should probably use a little more caution with what I post about knowing that anyone can read it.  In a perfect world this wouldn’t be the case but that is reality.  So I’m content with saying that I will continue blogging.  I’ve been doing it for four and a half years, and it would just be too weird not to do it.  Thanks for reading.

I had a free night while in Boston this week and decided I was going to make a point to go to a game.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had different plans and ended up dumping tons of rain upon the city all evening.  The game ended up getting canceled, and I was able to snag a ticket to see Andrew Bird from a girl off of Craigslist.  Not a bad backup plan if you ask me.

In the past year, Andrew Bird has gone from being an artist I thought was pretty good to being one of my favorites thanks to another excellent album called Armchair Apocrypha.  I had the pleasure of seeing him at Lollapalooza last year, but I failed to completely pay attention to just how much the man does while on stage.  I knew he played different instruments (i.e. violin, guitar, and xylophone) and could whistle with the best of them, but we were all sitting in the lawn enjoying the day too much to see just how masterfully he used his many loop pedals.

Watching the man perform his craft is absolutely fascinating.  Not only is the man incredibly skilled at his instruments (especially the violin), but you are able to witness just how dense the layers upon layers are that Mr. Bird puts into his songs.  In most of his tunes, if you closed your eyes, you would swear that there were at least ten musicians on stage playing different parts to the song.  If you were to open them, you would find that there were only three people creating what you were hearing.  He would often start a song playing an obscure part one of his instruments, then he’d stomp on a pedal to loop it, then he’d start another part and loop that.  Before long, you literally got to watch the song completely unfold before your eyes.  Like I said, it was fascinating.

Another nice thing was that they often played different variations of the songs so they didn’t sound like they were just rehashing the recorded versions.  They never really “rocked” all that much, but I was too busy watching him layer his parts and run around to grab and play his different instruments.  It was a great way to spend an evening, and I highly recommend seeing Andrew Bird to anyone who appreciates how music is made.

Another really cool part of the evening was sitting next to the girl who sold me her extra ticket.  She was from Russia but had lived in Astonia and France for a large part of her life.  This was her second month living in the U.S., and her boyfriend was still in the process of trying to move to the states, too.  We chatted a lot throughout the evening about music (she saw Sufjan in France and said it was the best thing she’d ever seen), politics (she said people in France compare Bush to Napoleon and that they think the U.S. could suffer the same consequences from his actions, as well), what she thought of the U.S. (Americans are much more open and blunt than people in any other country which is something she really liked). It was really great to meet someone so enthusiastic about life and to talk with her about her many experiences.  At the end of the night, we promised to keep in touch since we had already emailed each other from Craigslist.  At a night when I was originally supposed to go to a baseball game alone, it was really cool to end it knowing I had seen/heard some great music and even made a friend in the process.

The venue didn’t allow for any cameras or video to be used, but I am going to include a few videos that I think are notworthy from other performances.  It’s hard to really describe how he does his looping  so hopefully the videos help.

“Plasticities” at Amoeba Records:

“A Nervous Tic Motion” Live at Bonneroo: 

Andrew Bird on a kid’s television show:

This past weekend happened to be my fourth anniversary of moving to Kansas City.  I am in absolute awe that I’ve spend just as much time in KC as I did in college.  It just doesn’t seem right to me.  Every year that I’ve lived here I’ve wanted to take part in the annual Crawl for Cancer event that takes place in Westport but have never been able to for some reason.  Thankfully, it worked out that I was able to do it, and I can safely say I had a blast.

The gist of the event is that you raise money as a team and then go on a bar crawl for all of the afternoon.  You have a team of ten with a mission to finish off four pitchers of beer at five bars that have been assigned to you in order.  I have no clue what the first people back win but those that make it back in time were able to take part in the official after party at the Beaumont Club. The after party included free drinks and a live cover band.  I’ll be the first to admit that the concept seemed (and still does seem) kind of messed up.  Granted, it’s fun and for a good cause, but it’s more or less encouraging binge drinking if you ask me.  If you took away the whole competition aspect of it I think I’d be less uncomfortable with the whole notion of it.  I mean, they may as well have called it “The Liver Damage to Cure Cancer Trade-Off”. Nevertheless, I preferred to call it a “philanthropy” whenever anyone asked what I was doing on Saturday.  It just made me feel better..

Our route started off at Westport Beach Club followed by stops at Grand Emporium, Westport Flea Market, Beaumont, and then Blayney’s.  Some people were able to go to several bars I’d never been to before, and I was kind of hoping that our group would get to go there.  Still, the crawl ended up being a ton of fun, and I will likely do it again. 

While the crawl itself was fun, the afterparty is where things were turned up a notch.  I think some of the reason for it is because people were concerned about finishing in time to even make it to the after party. Apparently a lot of people got turned away the year before for being too late.  

My good friend Natalie showed up with her group and hilarity ensued.  Both of our groups were in the mood to joke around and it continued pretty much all night.  Before long, I was doing my own version of “chair dancing”, Natalie was being taught by some ghetto looking people how to properly smack a booty, everyone was doing cheesy dance moves, and we were all taking dumb pictures.  It was a pretty great time, and I’m looking forward to doing it again.

I was a little reluctant to do a post about this, but I had a very interesting night a couple of weekends ago.  After telling several friends about what happened, they convinced me that I had to go ahead and write about it for the world to read. 

My friend Casey decided to throw a grand event of a birthday celebration with a couple of other friends that involved a whole slew of activities throughout the day.  The day was to start with a round of golf, followed by some drinking games, followed by hitting up a roller skating rink, followed by heading over by bus to Funkytown, a the cheesy theme bar out in the middle of nowhere that I had never even heard of before.  Over-the-top 70s and 80s attire was strongly encouraged.  Being that I didn’t have enough free time that weekend to dedicate a whole Saturday to playing (and keeping in mind that I was born physically incapable of skating), I opted to meet up with everyone after skating commenced.  Once I showed up, I felt like I had just time warped back to a college house party as everyone was dressed up (and also much taller than I). 

As you can see in the picture, I decided to go with a baby blue leisure suit that I had purchased a few years ago.  I had since lost the bow tie and the cummerbund, but I think I was still able to make it work.  I searched fruitlessly for some white dress shoes at various Goodwill and Salvation Army stores around town so I had to wear regular shoes.  I was bummed about it, but it ended up being a massive blessing in disguise.

The second I walked into the bar, my mind was completely blown.  Never before have I seen such a perfect combination of uninhibited cheese and severe white trash.  I was in heaven.  In no time, our group raided the dance floor and started to boogy.

My buddy Andrew managed to transform himself into one of the sleaziest ensembles I’ve ever seen.  I laughed every time I looked at him because the guy looked like such a shiester used car salesman.  Casey, one of the people whom the party was for, managed to grow a pretty sweet handlebar mustache/beard thing, as well.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love shooting the breeze with the most random people possible.  Since everyone had been pretty much partying for most of the day, I got it in my head that I needed to catch up with everyone.  I ended up ordering quite a few large cups of Rum and Cokes and was making friends with the locals in no time.

About halfway through the night, I spotted a guy that looked like he could be Ron Jeremy’s nephew.  It didn’t take long for us to become friends.  I think this may be due in large part to the fact that he may have come to the bar alone and not many people were talking to him.  Scott and I kicked it quite a bit that night as he just stood next to the dancefloor staring at the ladies.  Sure, it was probably a little creepy, but it was also extra awesome times infinity.

Here’s where things start to go downhill fast.  There’s a reason I don’t drink hard alcohol for most of the night when I go out.  Somehow, I magically seem to time travel every time it happens.  The gameplan was for us to stop by the parking lot where our cars were to get anything we might need before having after hours at a friend’s place.  Everyone was just planning on crashing there at the end of the night.  Well, the bus skipped out on stopping by the parking lot and just went straight to the friend’s place instead.  According to my friend Andrew, I started acting like I was more or less off in my own world.  The last thing I remember is me walking around the house seeing everyone asleep on the floor.  My inebriated mind thought that it would be a great idea to walk to my car to get a pillow.  This would have been a great idea had my car not been quite a ways away from the house we were at.  And so began my nature hike through Overland Park, Kansas…

I honestly do not remember a thing about where all I walked.  One second I remember leaving the house in the night and the next it’s daylight and I’m walking next to railroad tracks in a field.  Looking back, I think it’s kind of funny that I thought to take a picture of it.

I continued to walk for what seemed like forever until I spotted a Holiday Inn around 86th and Quivera.  At this point, although still not completely sober, my body was experiencing some pretty awful fatigue.  My cell phone had also apparently died at some point in the night.  I didn’t think I could take it anymore so I walked straight into the Holiday Inn and asked if I there was any way I could get a room.

The man at the front desk took a look at me with my disheveled face and baby blue leisure suit, took a deep breath, and replied, “No.” I was crushed.  Getting rejected from the hotel meant I had to continue walking to who knows where else to find shelter.  I ended up walking along the side of the road for another 3/4 of a mile until I came upon a corporate business park.  I walked into the building to be greeted by a security guard who offered to call me a cab so I could go to my car.  When I got into the cab, the clock said that it was 7:45.  Judging from what friends said about when they went to sleep, I had been walking around for approximately four hours.  The experience was really scary to look back on, and I obviously feel like a complete idiot.  That being said, I’m glad others can laugh about my stupidity.

I left work a little early on Friday so I could drive to Eastern Iowa for my good friend Becky’s wedding.  I ended up staying at my mom’s place Friday night in nearby Clinton so I wouldn’t have to endure the long, dull drive early in the day on Saturday.  I just saw my mom when she was in town just three weeks ago.  She had been recently told by doctors at the Mayo Clinic that they knew what was wrong with her and that they thought they could get her back on track within a month or two.  That timeframe has since come to pass without yielding any positive results.  My mom is now down to  98 lbs. and that feeling of optimism she carried with her during her visit to Kansas City is pretty much nonexistent now.  She’s also recently gotten back together with a guy she tried living with about a year ago but it didn’t work out.  Why she believes it’ll be different this time around I’m not sure.  I’ve met many men that my mom has dated since my parents divorced when I was six, and I honestly think this guy ranks dead last in my book.  My sister and my mom’s sisters feel the same as I, and it’s sad to see my mom become so desperate to find a companion. That being said, it really was very good to see her again even though it was for such a short amount of time.

The wedding itself was one I was looking forward to quite a bit.  Becky has been a great friend of mine since high school.  In fact, we were both voted “Best Sense of Humor” in our senior superlatives. Brian, her now-husband, is someone I got to know because he became friends with my high school group while they were away at the University of Iowa.  It’s becoming more and more of a rarity that you know both sides of those that are getting married as well as their friends.  Because of this, the wedding almost served as a reunion of sorts, and I think it’s safe to say that it lived up to any expectations we may have had leading up to the event.

The wedding itself was short and sweet.  I believe the whole thing lasted an entire 20 minutes from beginning to end.  Now, that’s what I call a wedding ceremony.  It also took place at my old church which was odd because they have a whole new crew there.  After the ceremony commenced, the new bride a groom each dismissed the attendees by row and everyone congratulated them as they walked out.  Becky and I have always had this inside joke where we always give do an “armless hug” whenever we each other.  As I exited, the bride and I did it as if on cue.  It was hilarious.

The reception was a blast as everyone took time out to catch up with each other in addition to partying it up.  It was very strange to know that some of the guys in our group are now parents, and Nick must have felt the same as he held Alex’s baby.

Many random things took place during the night including senior picture taking, uncoordinated dancing, trying to take sexy poses with cigars, etc. Of course, the dancefloor was where the main party was at, and the group wasn’t afraid to let it all out. 

Thankfully, I remained in control throughout the night, but I can’t quite say the same about some of my friends.  One decided he thought it’d be funny to hide from his wife in the woods.  Another decided to take a “nap” in the hotel lobby only to be woken up by the cops.  It was a great time, though, and I’m excited to see most of the guys again in two weeks for a fun-filled weekend in Chicago.

I went to see The Frames play at Town Hall in New York City one week ago from tonight.  It seems like people were either disappointed with their latest release or loved it.  I happen to fall into the latter category.  It seems like any write-up you read about the band includes that they are huge in Ireland (where they’re from) but are still trying to make it big here in the states.  Even though the show was sold out, I was surprised at how small the venue was for being in the biggest city in the country.  The place had assigned seating and was as big as my high school auditorium except it also had a balcony.

I’d seen The Frames play at festivals before and really liked their live shows.  I was anxious to see how they’d do on their own, and I was left extremely impressed.  Glen Hansard has to rank right up there on my list of entertaining frontmen.  The stories he would tell were engaging and his comments were hilarious all throughout the show.  The band played really tight and it was evident that Hansard and the violin player are both exceptional musicians.

As for the song selection, I thought they did a great job of playing a mixture of their catalogue.  I can’t say I considered myself a big fan of their until just a few years ago and hearing some of their old stuff live really allowed me to gain more appreciation of their old material.  They pretty much played every song I wanted (especially “Revelate” and “Fake”) to hear.  I was a little disappointed not to hear them play “Lay Me Down” and “True” but I really can’t complain after such a great performance.  If they ever come anywhere near where I am again I would consider them to be a must-see.

Here are some YouTube clips people took from the show.  They’re of slightly higher quality than the videos I took.

“When Your Mind’s Made Up”

“Leave” (solo) 

“Fake”