Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

I decided to do an experiment tonight and simply listen to my iPod on shuffle for an hour and make notes about the songs that pop up. Enjoy!

10:04 – Davíd Garza – Drone (alt. take) – Underdub
This is an exclusive track to the vinyl issue of Underdub. The story: for Davíd’s 2001 album, Overdub, he first released a vinyl called “Underdub” which was demos for the upcoming studio album. Attached with the CD of Overdub were the Underdub tracks on the CD-ROM portion…except for 3 tracks. 3 songs were exclusive to the vinyl. But then, after more research, it was found out that the version of Drone from the vinyl was different than on the CD-ROM. This is that version. It’s a lot more “bare bones” than main version, but I dig it. A nice blueprint.

10:07 – Bruce Dickinson – All the Young Dudes – Tattooed Millionaire
Bruce Bruce doing a version of Bowie’s song. I really like this version, much better than Mott the Hoople did. Janick Gers has some nice guitar playing on here – surprisingly melodic for him. Bruce sounds great on this.

10:11 – Rush – Resist – Test for Echo
One of the good tracks off this album, which is half-good and half-crap. This is a *very* pop song, but I’ve always liked it. I don’t mind when Rush goes into pop territory and does a ballad-type thing like this. I can’t remember which tour it was, but they did an “unplugged” version of this with both Geddy & Alex playing acoustic guitars. Neil got a break, I suppose. A nice and unexpected treat. It’s been a while since I’ve heard this song and it’s good to hear it again.

10:15 – Bill Frisell – Remember – The Intercontinentals
Very mellow track from this cool album. I absolutely love Bill Frisell’s guitar tone on this album. Maybe he has this tone all of the time? I don’t know, this is the only album of his I’ve ever heard. The album’s weirdly eclectic – he brought together musicians from all over the world and they created some very interesting music. Great track, but too short.

10:17 – Bryan Dunn – Postmodern Love Song – Shackle Melodic
Oh man, I love this EP and this song especially. It’s a typical Bryan Dunn song, but it manages to be outright excellent while being traditional. I LOVE the organ on this song. It totally makes it. I think Shackle Melodic is a hell of an album. The production on it is freakin’ stellar. Bryan’s voice sounds great on this song.

10:20 – Mike Keneally – Party Poopers – Pup!
Holy crap, this song cracks me up. It sounds like a commercial for some business called “Party Poopers”, but after a minute of comedy it devolves into overall weirdness. I love the line, “it smells like a basketball”. Weird-ass track, but totally Keneally. I dig this little EP thing – it was a bonus CD from the Dog album.

10:23 – John Coltrane – Countdown (alternate take) – Giant Steps
If such was possible, one of the cooler tracks off Giant Steps. The main version of the song just smokes, but this alt version, while great, can’t hang with the take that went on the album. The beginning part of this song, where Coltrane solos in his super-speedy way, is extended in this version before the band hits the melody of the song. Once the bass comes in, look out, the band takes off. I think this alt version is twice as long as the main take. Great playing on this, even if that transition to the melody part is a bit jumpy.

10:28 – Frank Zappa – Zoot Allures – Zoot Allures
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I *love* this track. Instrumental guitar-led title track from this otherwise disappointing album. But this song? Holy crap, one of the most beautiful things he ever composed. No one plays guitar like he does on here. Both Terry Bozzio & Roy Estrada play a fantastic background counterpoint to FZ’s perfect playing and graceful feedback experiments. Such a beautifully-composed song.

10:32 – Stevie Ray Vaughan – May I Have a Talk with You – The Sky is Crying
I think this is my favorite SRV album. This is a nice slow and dirty blues and of course it features some great guitar playing. His tone sounds great on here. Man, I just love that deep, slow-ass grove that Tommy Shannon does on the bass. Oh man, SRV’s solo is excellent. He’s really reaching down and grabbing some dirty-ass notes. This isn’t a “pretty” track one bit. This is pain. Beautiful.

10:38 – Mike Keneally – Never Ever Wrong – Wine and Pickles
W&P is an album of outtakes and rarities from Mikey. I believe this track was a left-over from Dog. There’s some nice guitar playing on here, but it’s not my favorite song. I don’t think it really works as a song. It’s a ballad, which is kind of odd for Keneally to do. I think the lyrical transition to the “never ever wrong” feels a bit forced. I just think it’s a weak track. Most Keneally fans love it, but I’m not in that camp.

10:41 – Led Zeppelin – Tea for One – Presence
Ah, a rare Led Zep song. I don’t care for that beginning, but once it gets to the slow and bluesy part, watch the hell OUT! These guys could just nail the blues in a way that a lot of people can’t imagine doing. I’m not a huge blues guy, even considering my love for SRV and this stuff…but when it’s done right, it’s excellent. This is a great song that’s forgotten by most people, and never played on the radio, but it’s definitely a cool track. I mean, Presence is almost a forgotten album by them. Some great music on there, esp. this one. Love Page’s guitar playing on here.

10:50 – Tori Amos – Hotel – From the Choirgirl Hotel
I really liked the experiments she did on this album. It’s got a strong techno/dance influence which produces some interesting results. This song has a very interesting structure and composition. I dig the techno/electronica elements in this song, but it also has some good slinky guitar parts that I like. This is a very weird song if you’re just used to hearing the “female singer with a piano” stuff that comprises much of her early material. This entire track is out of left field it its construction. She seamlessly drops the electronica and the full band comes in, before everything but her voice and the piano drops out. Very, very interesting stuff.

10:56 – Van Halen – One Foot Out the Door – Fair Warning
That surely doesn’t sound like Mike Anthony on the bass here! Sounds like Eddie to me. This is a weird track in that the guitar doesn’t come in until half way into it – it’s just bass, drums and David Lee Roth. This song is almost like filler in that it’s just under 2 minutes. Kinda cool, I like it.

10:57 – The Who – Call Me Lightning – The Ultimate Collection
I dig the track, but I don’t care for that “dom dom dom durrain” refrain that the background vocals do. Nice bass solo that emulates My Generation. Actually, this track is WAY similar to My Generation, with the multiple key changes in the exact same spots. Oh well.

11:00 – Stereolab – Contact – Switched On
Last song of the experiment tonight. I have to admit, I haven’t really listened to this album but a couple of times so this track is a bit of a mystery for me. Very Doors-like in the beginning. Ah, now I remember it. I really like the haunting vocals on this one that come in after a few minutes. It’s very meditative. Of course, after 5 minutes of the same riff it gets a little bit old. It still has that meditative quality, but I’m ready for it to be over so I can get to bed. It’s making me sleepy.

Posting music: XTC – Earn Enough For Us – Skylarking…LOVE IT.

Setlist: Surrounded By Trees, Travelers Merchants & Masters, The Storm, Snow, She Waits By The Sea, Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma, Hanging Up the Dream, Abused’s Song, August, 10K

Raleigh was a debut.  Also this was the first gig with Matt, first gig in Chapel Hill & first gig at the Cave.  Lotsa firsts.

The show was decently attended.  I think it’s the best we can hope for.  Julie, Eric, Bryan Younts, Brooke & Travis, Don & Lizzi and Chris & Andrea, plus some regulars.  We made pretty good money and that was a total shock.  I forgot to bring the mailing list & CDs (and setlist, thankfully Matt had a copy), but we managed.

Jenn wasn’t completely present tonight, kinda disconnected.  Matt did a great job of setting her levels and I could hear her voice wonderfully.  While her voice sounded great, her guitar playing was a bit off on a few songs.  The Storm started out so awful, like that one show at Pheasant Creek.  It eventually got better, but it just wasn’t there at the beginning.  She played better for Abused & Hanging, but it was still REALLY quiet during those.  During all of her guitar playing, actually.

While she contributed a few guitar-clams, I certainly contributed my share, which is usually pretty significant.  Overall, I thought it was a good show, though.  A good number of mistakes, but good overall.  We were stupid to open with Surrounded.  It was a trainwreck and Matt had a tough time with it.  I tried with all my might to hold it together, actually.  I like Travelers as a song, but I don’t think it fits in with our set on an every-show occurrence.  We need more material before we can start playing others less.  Ideally?  If it were me, I’d cut Abused’s, Snow & Travelers down to “not very often”.  Same with Amnesia, but we’ve already kind of done that.  Abused’s is currently one of our major songs, and one of our few up-tempo ones at that.  I just feel that it doesn’t reach people.  There’s no reaction to it.  I think it’s a pretty good song, but really, no one cares.  Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma got a good reaction tonight.  I thought we played it WAY fast, but Brooke & Bryan specifically really liked it.  I have to say, it was very nice to play again and except for my horrid bass solo it was good.  I thought my backup vocals in the chorus sounded good.

My singing?  Overall I’m still too afraid of the mic and when I’m not singing, I just stay away from it.  I thought it was decent.  I still can’t hear myself well enough when singing, so we’ll have to work on it.  We’ve talked about having some specific vocal rehearsals with all 3 of us.  I think it’s a good idea.

So, Matt.  It was a lot to try to have him learn 10 songs in 3 weeks.  For the most part he sounded really good.  Songs like Raleigh, She Waits, Snow, Hanging and Storm really sounded good with him.  He did good on August too, specifically.  Surrounded was a mess; he’ll get better.  10K was still a bit too scatter-shot, esp. the chorus.  Travelers was good, but it just needs a bit more on the verses.  The “heartbeat” thingie.  He made some real nice, subtle touches to the music that I loved.  I think with a few more weeks/months of good practice we’re going to be a hell of a band.

I think it was a good showing all around and I’m pretty happy about it.  We have a lot of things to work on, so that’s good.

Setlist: Lady Pilot, The Storm, Abused’s Song, August, 10K, Matte Kudasai, Travelers Merchants & Masters, Hanging Up the Dream, Snow, Surrounded By Trees, She Waits By the Sea

August was debuted.

I had a few nerves earlier in the evening before I headed out and also a bit on the way there. Once we set up and waited around to start, I was fine. Not a single nerve for this show! HOORAY! It was like, no pressure whatsoever. Just get up there and play. Extremely sparse audience…I only saw 5 people total, not including the bands (Yohimbe & Durham Ukulele Orchestra). Matt the hopeful drummer showed up. He said he really liked it and had lots of ideas for the songs. For the most part I think I played pretty well, maybe better than I ever have in this group. Of course I made some massive clams and I had some big troubles with Matte (but I heard the chick from Yohimbe say at the end of the song how beautiful it was), but overall I think I played well. Some songs, hell yeah, were spot-on. A few lyrical mess ups from Jenn and a couple of chordal mess ups as well, but mostly she sounded good. She said afterward that she couldn’t hear herself too well, but from my end of the stage everything sounded good.  I especially loved the perfect telepathy between us in the improv section of Lady Pilot.  That was sweet.  The sound in club was quite cavernous, but that’s expected with such a low turn out. Where were our friends? I don’t know.  I *hope* it’s just MarVell and they’ll come out to the Cave show. The “trilogy” went pretty well. We haven’t quite got the transition from Abused’s > August, but I know it’ll come. Having a drummer will certainly help out. Uh, yeah – for the most part I was happy. I’m thoroughly glad the nervousness has gone and now I feel like I should. I was pretty happy while playing and happy overall.

I mentioned this in the Protean Mean blog, but a few weeks ago Jenn & I were discussing the idea of structuring our free time in a better way.  Maybe toying with the idea of a set schedule in which to get the stuff done that we “need” to do.  I tried to adhere to a schedule a few years ago…it obviously didn’t work.  Ideally I’d love to have set time to do all of the various things I like to do (album reviews, regular website work, recording, writing new songs, practicing guitar/bass/piano/vocals/lap steel, etc.).  Unfortunately, I’m horrible at time management; I always have been, and it’s a very difficult habit to break.  So in our conversation I mentioned to Jenn that the idea of my “solo album” is always in the back of my head, and more importantly has been in the forefront of my thoughts since I finished the Protean Mean demo a couple of months ago.  We talked about the need for such a thing as a “James Solo Album” and even though I’m sometimes reluctant, Jenn encouraged me to finish and get it out there.  Introduce it to the world.  She’s right in that it would be great sense of accomplishment for me.  I also agree with her that even though some of the songs are repeats from the current PM song list, there are enough differences in those original versions that it would make for an interesting comparison and would present them in a different way.

I appreciate her views on this, because what she said has definitely grounded me and made me realize that not only do I NEED to finish the album, I WANT to finish the album.

Tonight I was looking through various word documents on my computer and eventually landed on the tracklisting for the album.  I looked at it and thought about it for a while, around 15 minutes, and had the idea of, YES, I should spend my evening practice time running straight through the album.  I haven’t played through the whole thing in a year or so and it was a lot of fun going through all of the songs.  I had written out the possible tracklist, but I was unsure on a couple of songs.  Well, you’ll be happy to know I have officially settled on a final tracklist and I really like how the whole thing flows together.

So here we go - I’m really going to finish the thing.  I’ve determined that it’s what I want to do right now.  It’s been “in production” for far too long and it desires to be completed.  If you’re any sort of a regular reader to this blog, you’ll remember how I was going to finish at various times back a few years ago.  I think my first “official” finish date was August 1st, 2005.  Yeah, THAT LONG AGO.  Various dates have come and gone and my most recent thought, at the beginning of the year, was that I’d finish it before the election.  Well, we have 30 days until Maverick or Goose becomes our leader and I know that realistically I won’t finish it before November 4th.  No big deal.  My promise is that I will finish it and it’s now re-become my top creative priority.  I really don’t have that far to go, a few bass tracks, drum programming, vocals then mixing…and I’ll be done.  It’s a tall order, but it’s time.

So, in anticipation of that moment when you can download it here, I present the final tracklist to my first solo album, Square One (times are current estimations, final times will vary slightly):

1. 10K [3:16]
2. (The Last Romantic) Part 2 [4:49]
3. The Big Yellow Bastard [3:20]
4. KC [5:37]
5. Travelers, Merchants & Masters [4:10]
6. M.E. [7:14]
7. Big Red Bus [6:02]
8. Mine [4:55]
9. Larry [2:44]
10. Niagara on the Pacific [3:29]
11. Rings [3:40}

Total Time ~50 minutes

You heard it here first.  I’ll let ya know when it’s done.

NP: Bryan Beller - Thanks in Advance (a fellow bassist’s solo album, his second, and I’ve been devouring it constantly for the past few days.  Great stuff)

I met a couple of my neighbors, Chris & Andrea, the other day; they live a few houses down from me.  We were all hanging out next door at Travis & Brooke’s enjoying the first Saturday of college football.  As T&B had just met them a week or two ago, we were all getting to know each other.  Eventually the topic of music came up (Brooke played them some bits of Protean Mean…I thought that was cool of her) and Travis asked Chris what kind of music he listened to.  Christ answered “I listen to everything”.

I’ve been pondering this question & answer for a few years, because it ALWAYS comes up when people talk about music.  I haven’t met anyone in the past 10-15 years that didn’t give that answer to the question of “what kind of music do you like/listen to?”.  That’s nothing against Chris & Andrea’s answer, because I give the same one.

It could have been earlier for all I know, but in my life I started hearing that answer to the “music” question back in the early 90’s.  Back then, in high school, people started to have eclectic tastes.  Or at least “I listen to rock, r&b and country”.  Most everyone I knew back then liked some rock, some r&b/rap and some country.  Some people even listened to other stuff (Jazz?  WTF is that?!?).  I’ve noticed that since the early 90’s everyone I’ve asked the “music” question to has answered the same.  The truth is we ALL listen to different kinds of music.  The overall music since the early-mid 90’s may not have been of a high quality, but people have definitely been expanding the type of stuff they listen to.  We all have.  I certainly have.

Whenever the question gets put to me, I usually answer, “I listen to *most* everything”, which is true because I don’t listen to everything and I’m not going to pretend that I do.  I don’t listen to opera, I don’t listen to folk much, I don’t listen to hip hop, I don’t listen to any Christian music, I don’t listen to New Age, I don’t listen to Broadway showtunes.  I avoid all Top 40 if I can help it.  There’s a lot I don’t listen to.  On the other hand, there’s a ton of stuff I do listen to.  I’m perfectly happy with a mix of Iron Maiden, Jimmy Buffett, Miles Davis, Bebel Gilberto, Willie Nelson, Zero 7, Stevie Wonder, Ffynnon, Mars Volta & Journey.  Hell, that would make me incredibly excited to hear all of that together.

So, my point is that we’re all eclectic and we all “listen to everything”.  It’s not that the answer is bad, it’s that the *question* is the wrong one.  Maybe we could start asking “what kinds of music do you listen to most?”  My answer is easy - Rock mostly, with Jazz & World coming after.  Yes, those are very broad categories.  “World Music” especially, since it can encompass pretty much anything not based in Western tradition.  Bossa Nova, Afro Pop, Conjunto, Tango, even Hawai’ian music is considered “world”.  For me “rock” is a very nebulous term anyway, and it encompasses a HUGE variety of music.  From my personal collection, things I consider “rock” are: Beatles, Maiden, Journey, Frank Zappa, Radiohead, David Garza, Jonathan Richman…and a million other bands fit in there too.

So the “what kind” question can work, but maybe an even better question - and one that I think would get the best answer the questioner is looking for - is “who are some of your favorite bands” or some variation thereof.  Even with me, the “rock-jazz-world” tag is incredibly nebulous.  Which bands, though?  Iron Maiden, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, David Garza, James Brown, The Beatles or many others depending on my mood.  I think asking about specific bands we’d all get a better representation of what that person listens to.

It’s a hard habit to break, because we’re so used to asking “what kind of music do you like?”.  We just have to re-frame the question to get the desired answer.  Because honestly, “I listen to everything” is an answer that everyone will give.  Ask better questions.

NP - a bunch of stuff on shuffle from iTunes…eclectic as always.  Currently on David Garza but I’ve been through: Sorcerer, Protean Mean, The Kinks, Jimmy Buffett, Rush, Tori Amos, Mike Keneally, Dwar.f, Zero 7, Swervedriver, Jonathan Richman…

PM @ MarVell Event Center, Durham, NC

This was an interesting show and something we really haven’t been a part of before.  It was a benefit show for a local magazine and also part birthday party for the sound guy/show booker Justin.  A free show!  Before the bands started they played 5 short films about various subjects (I think there was one about the Black Panthers) and I only caught the last one, which was about how love is revolutionary and anti-capitalist and other crap like that.  Love wins over all!  Love is anarchy!  Whatever.  I thought the premise for the film was pretty lame and the supporting argument was really weak.  The filmmaker didn’t make a good case for their idea, I thought.  I did like the part where the chick got shot in her car, in the neck with blood gushing out everywhere, and she still managed to call her husband…but he sadly never picked up the phone because he was too busy working in his cubicle (with a frame picture of President Bush on the wall!) to hear the phone.  And she died, and it was SO SAD.  Actually, it was totally hilarious and I was laughing loudly.  I think the only one in the place laughing at that part.  Anyway, bad film.

The Durham Ukulele Orchestra opened the show and they were pretty good.  Lots of fun and they did good versions of a wide range of cover songs.  The audience was super quiet and completely paying attention to them (justifiably), but once they ended the conversation at the bar went up to 11 and it never decreased one bit while we were playing.  I’d guess that there were 10-15 people who were actually listening to us.  So, if you’re reading and you were listening to us…THANK YOU!  We appreciate people who actually pay attention rather than talk loudly at the bar.

Let’s see, the set was: Abused’s Song, The Storm, 10K, Surrounded By Trees & Lady Pilot.  As usual at the MarVell, the stage was super duper hot and I was dripping sweat everywhere by the time Surrounded rolled around.  The heat, whatever, you deal.  The loudness was a bit frustrating, esp. during The Storm where I couldn’t hear Jenn’s guitar too well and we got off rhythm.  Otherwise, while I was playing my thoughts on the “talkers” were just to not worry about it.  Just have fun and play well for the people who ARE listening.  I thought most of the songs went well.  Minor timing issues in Storm and a sloppy solo in 10K, but mostly they were solid.  Abused’s was solid, I liked that one.  Surrounded…holy crap, I screwed the pooch on that one.  I missed a ton of notes.  My problem with that one especially is that I don’t practice it standing up (yes, you’ve heard this before) and playing it standing up at a gig doesn’t work for me.  I have to rely on my eyes, rather than my hands, and the lights combining with the shadows on the strings messed me up a couple of times.  I just couldn’t see what I was doing.  The only fix for that is to just not look!  Even with all of my mess ups, I thought the rest of the song went well enough.  When we were on, it sounded good.

Lady Pilot was the closer and it got a bit more emotion and energy than it normally might because I was pissed off about my performance in Surrounded so I went with a general “balls out” attitude for it and that really worked.  I thought it sounded great.  I really loved my improv and then Jenn tore the damn roof off during her vocal bit.  She’s *never* sung it like that.  Absolutely awesome.

I thought she did great for the whole show.  Her guitar playing was solid and her vocals sounded great, with no assistance from lyrics on a music stand.  We still have a lot of tightening up to do, and a drummer is needed for us, but mostly it was a good show.  Frustrating at times, but for our part I thought it was fun.  A really important point for me - I think I’m over all of the “being nervous” crap.  I was a bit nervous about 20-30 minutes before we started, but once I got up there to set up the gear everything was gone and didn’t show up once during the show.  It appears to be over, thank goodness.  I was getting quite tired of it.

No shows currently lined up, so my focus is on writing new material and finding us a drummer.

NP: Frank Zappa - Easy Meat

Wow, it’s been a lot of work, but I finally finished the Protean Mean demo last night after band practice.  I’m happy with it.  It’s a lot better than the last recordings we did back in 2006.  If you’re keeping track, yes, 3 of the 4 songs are the same.  However, we’re a much tighter band now, more confident & more familiar with the material.  Plus, we have our friend Josh Stohl (bad ass) playing drums on the songs for us.  Why 3 of the same songs?  It’s a demo, and they’re our 3 best songs.  Don’t worry, we’ll record more as time goes on.

For now, go download the tracks (FREE!) over at the Protean Mean Curiosities area.

This blog will probably contain some spoilers for the movie, so if you don’t want to have it ruined, come back here after you see the movie.

Julie and I went to see X-Files: I Want to Believe last night.  Dumb title, but it worked in with the story.  I was skeptical about the movie as I used to be a big fan of the show, but I hated the last few seasons.  My quick story of how I got into the show: when the X-Files first came out I thought it looked pretty stupid, even though I have a fascination with aliens.  I remember my dad saying that he watched it and I thought that was pretty silly of him since to me it looked dumb.  In my first year of college (1994) my suitemates Lance & Ryan started to watch the show strictly to make fun of it, as they thought it was a dumb-looking show too.  After a few episodes of making fun, we grew to love the show and became rabid fans pretty quickly.  When I met Julie she was a fan of the show too so even after college we still watched it religiously.

We own the first X-Files movie (on VHS!) and at the time I thought it was a pretty good movie, but I was really disappointed how nothing really happened in the movie, it was just a continuation of the story and added more layers of mystery, but without resolving anything.  Of course the years following the movie was more of the same: more layers of mystery, no resolve or answers.  I’ve heard current viewers of Lost say the same thing.  My view is that the show, all of it, should have been rapped up with the first movie.  That should have been the climax.  Instead it was drug out for a few more years, BOTH main characters got replaced and I don’t think everything was really ever answered.  I’ll be honest, I gave up.  Once Mulder was gone, it was over.  I’d check in every once and a while, but I thought it became pretty bad.  Then Scully left and I was like, WTF!  You can not replace both characters and still have the TV show.

I first heard the rumors about this new movie a couple of months ago.  There really wasn’t much hype or promotion about it.  I really think it’s because the last few seasons left such a sour taste in the mouths of the fans that people were glad it was gone and didn’t really want to see it return.  Jenn & I discussed this the other day and she said that she’s been watching the last 2 seasons recently and according to her they’re pretty good.  Nowhere near as good as the classic stuff, but not as bad as we all thought when they were airing.  Maybe I’ll go back and watch them, sometime; maybe they need a reassessment.

It was Julie’s idea to see the new movie, but I also thought it might be interesting to see what they would do.  I have to say, it was really great to see Mulder and Scully together again.  It’s really like old friends who you haven’t seen in 7 or 8 years.  Where did they go?  What are they doing?  Well, Scully’s a doctor at some Catholic hospital and Mulder stays at home all day and seems to have gone a bit bonkers from constantly hiding out from the FBI.  It’s slowly revealed in the movie, but it turns out that Mulder & Scully are in a relationship and have been for some unknown amount of time.  Years, I guess.  OK, they’re a couple, and have been for a while, but they STILL call each other “Mulder” and “Scully”!  Whatever.  No “Fox” or “Dana”.  Even when in bed (yes, there’s a slight bed scene, though nothing happens other than talking) they call each other by their last names.  Still, once Mulder gets back into the life of being an FBI type guy, he becomes the old smart ass Mulder we all remember.  Scully, I guess, is an extension of how her character was heading throughout the TV series.  She started off very fact-based and scientific, and then moved to be more emotional to where now it seems she’s way more emotional than logical.  That was part of the original greatness of the series - you had Mulder who had crazy ideas about aliens and paranormal activity, while Scully was the grounded, scientific, logical one.  I appreciate the continuity from the series, but I prefer her the old way.

I do have to say, that Gillian Anderson still looks absolutely smoking.  She looks great with long hair.

Anyway, I was surprised, but ultimately happy that the movie was not centered around the “mythology” and the whole alien story.  Yeah, there was supernatural stuff, but it wasn’t about aliens.  Other than a few comments about Mulder’s sister and how he’s still looking for her, it had nothing to do with aliens.  You know, I liked the movie.  To me it seemed like one of the good two-parters that they had in the series.  I think it would compare with a good two-parter from the immediate post “Fight the Future” years.  Not amazing, but there was certainly a good amount of paranormal, belief vs. science, trippy stuff, some scary bits, some bits that definitely made you squirm.  I also like how they brought back the Russians as the “enemy” of the movie.  I don’t know why it is, but growing up in the 70’s and 80’s the Russians were always the enemy in movies and it’s still comfortable, I guess.

Overall, yeah, I liked the movie.  Some parts were kind of blah, but for the most part I liked it and it certainly kept the door open for more movies (my preference) or maybe TV episodes.  I think I’d prefer them to do 1 or 2 movies and completely wrap up the whole story.

Julie and I spent an extended weekend in Charlotte this past weekend. It was our first time to visit the city, which is kind of odd since it’s the biggest city in the state and only 2 hours away. The trip revolved around the Rush show that we were seeing on Sunday night, so we thought we’d make a weekend of it. As it turned out, Julie had a business presentation/meeting in Charlotte on Friday morning so we headed out Thursday after work. I worked remotely from our hotel room so it worked out nicely for both of us.

For proximity to Julie’s meeting we ended up staying in 2 different hotels, the Marriott City Center smack in the middle of downtown for the first two nights and a Sleep Inn out near the concert venue for the last two nights. It’s not really “fun” to move your stuff, but being that she was getting reimbursed for the first night at the Marriott, I’ll take it. After dropping off the luggage we wandered around downtown looking for a place to eat. There were still a few eateries open that late in the area, but nothing really piqued our interest so we ended up eating at the sports bar in the hotel. The food was good and I had some nice beer so I was happy.

As the hotel offered “free wireless”, we attempted our first of many tries at getting online after dinner, and even with a tech support call we were unsuccessful except for a quick 1-minute time period. Friday morning I was once again on the phone with tech support and we managed to get it working long enough for Julie to check her email before heading to the meeting. That left me to try to work from the hotel room. The stupid internet (wired, the wireless was hopeless) rarely worked. It would be on for a few minutes and then die. I called tech support a few more times during the day and the longest it ever worked for me was for about an hour before lunch. When lunchtime hit I decided I needed a break so I showered and went out in search of food. I ended up eating at a little place called the Dogwood Cafe located in the Latta Arcade. It’s amusing that there are so many “Latta” places around Charlotte, as this is one of the hundreds of names that Julie calls me.

I had a turkey sandwich with black beans, white rice and some iced tea. A nice lunch. I slowly worked my way back to the hotel, stopping at a TCBY and having some frogurt. Happy James! I arrived back at the hotel literally 5 seconds after Julie did. On her way back from the meeting she noticed a cool wine bar where we’d go for dinner. I tried again to get online, since we both had to work remotely for the rest of the day, and was again unsuccessful so we decided to go down to the hotel’s business center and work there. Wouldn’t you know it, the wireless worked perfectly down there. Stupid Marriott.

Once 5pm hit we walked around in search of something related to Happy Hour. I showed her the “Latta Arcade”, which she got a kick out of and we had drinks at Mimosa Grill (beer and wine, not mimosas as would be expected). We then headed a few blocks away to Press, the wine bar & restaurant that Julie spotted earlier. This place totally kicked ass! It’s almost like a wine store, except for once you buy the wine, you sit down at a table and drink the wine and eat food. It’s nice to just pick out a wine from HUGE selection on the walls and have a good dinner. I think we chose a Spanish wine, but I could be wrong. Regardless, it was excellent and it went perfectly with the gruyere fondue & the Antipasto with baby fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, olives, aged provolone, prosciutto, coppa, mortadella, & hard salami. Yeah, YUM. For dessert we had the chocolate fondue which was also excellent. The food & wine were excellent, the atmosphere was great and the staff was super friendly and knowledgeable. After the meal we got some more wine and beer to go so we’d have something for the night.

I brought my swimsuit, so I went swimming in the hotel pool while Julie watched me and read her book. It was really nice to swim around for a bit. I don’t think I’ve swam since Hawaii back in December so it was great to get back in the water. I’m not the best swimmer (anymore…I used to be a lifeguard so I had some ability back then), but being in water is still a completely natural state to me. I think I might feel more “at home” in a body of water than walking around on the ground. So yeah, I enjoyed it immensely. After the pool we headed outside on the balcony and just chilled out drinking our beers. We had a real good conversation about our childhoods - I always love learning more stuff about Julie and studying the way she works.

Saturday we got up early enough to hit Bojangles and check out on time before we went exploring. We checked out Dilworth (nice neighborhood with great old homes and Latta Park, which we walked around in), Elizabeth & Myers Park neighborhoods before heading to our lunch destination at Phat Burrito in the SouthEnd. Good (not amazing) and HUGE burritos. We were happy. We then headed all the way up north to our 2nd hotel, the Sleep Inn. It’s true that Sleep Inn wasn’t as “nice” as the Marriott, but I liked it better. The internet worked with ease, there were twice as many cable channels & we had a mini-fridge AND a microwave in there. In the Marriott there was a bottle of water on the table with a warning note saying that we’d be charged $4 if we drank it. Lame.

After check-in and luggage drop off we drove around UNC-Charlotte’s campus and that was pretty uneventful. It looked like a community college that was built in the 80’s. No personality whatsoever. Next we stopped by the grocery store and got some dinner which we ate back in the hotel room. We finished off the night by watching Jackass 2 & Weeds on TV before heading to bed.

Sunday we got some breakfast and walked for a while at the Reedy Creek Park & Nature Preserve. After showers we headed out to lunch at a brewery I found on the internet, Southend Brewery and Smokehouse. It was way down back in the SouthEnd near Phat Burrito. When we arrived where it was supposed to be…it wasn’t there. Julie called and they had closed. Sooooo, we headed all the way back up to the area where we were staying and went to a place Julie saw in the yellow pages called Bad Dog Burgers & Brew. Not a brewery, but they had a great beer selection. Cool place, good atmosphere and the food was awesome. I had a blackened burger with blue cheese & bacon and it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had in my life. I do not kid about this. It was *SO* good.

After the food we took it easy and rested until the Rush concert, which was only a few miles away from the hotel. I’ll write more about it in the concert review for the show, but overall it was a great show. The first set featured some classics and some cool obscure tunes that made me really happy (Ghost of a Chance!). The 2nd set started off really weak as the band decided to play *5* songs in a row from their recent and boring/crappy/uninspired 2007 album, Snakes and Arrows. Thankfully the rest of the 2nd set was geared towards the classics so things picked back up pretty quickly. Even for the amount of boring newer material they played, it was still a really good show and I was happy with it. Julie had a good time too, even though she thought it was about half an hour too long. Yes, my wife enjoyed a Rush concert! She still liked the Adrian Belew show from last month a lot more, but I guess I’ll be OK with that.

Sunday we took our time driving home, stopping by a couple of wineries on the way back to Durham. We first hit the Childress winery, which had a great tasting room and beautiful grounds, but the wine wasn’t too hot. It showed me that even if you have a ton of money (the guy is a NASCAR team owner and champion and all that stupid crap) and can hire top-notch people, you’re not always going to get the best wine. You could tell that the place was geared toward presentation and not WINE. The 2nd winery, however, was tremendously better. RayLen had gorgeous grounds, an extremely nice staff and great wine. Surprise surprise, they actually make good red wine, the first good red wine that either Julie or I have tasted that came from the state of North Carolina.

So, a good trip. We were happy to get home and see the cats and relax (playing guitar for me) before having to start the workweek. That’s probably going to be our last big trip for the year so I’m glad that we crammed so much in and had a lot of fun.

NP: oh lots of music on shuffle - Keneally, Belew, Flat Mass, Bruce Dickinson, Phish, Zappa, Rush & currently on Megadeth’s Mary Jane.

I know this is a bit later than I had originally intended, but sometimes work intervenes and things get put off. Oh well!

Julie and I visited Austin for my Grandmother’s 95th birthday. Although we’ve been back to Texas a few times since we moved out to NC, this was our first trip to Austin in 2 1/2 years. Austin’s a very important place for us. Not only did we meet there while in school at UT, we also lived there for 8 years and have a lot of great memories of the city. We’ve come very close to moving back several times since 2001 when we left, but it was never the right move at the right time. So, it’s always great to get back to Austin whenever we have the chance. I think it’s awesome we got to not only hang out in an amazing city, but also get to see all of my relatives and help my Grandmother celebrate her 95th.

95!! I’m amazed that I’ve been so fortunate to have her around this long. She can’t see perfectly anymore, but she can still get around and have conversations with people.  I know it’s selfish, but I hope she stays around a bit longer.  I lost 3 of my 4 grandparents back in 2003 so I’m very thankful that she’s still around and in such great shape & spirits.

We left North Carolina after work on Friday, 5/2 and got into Austin around 9.  It was a direct flight, so that made us really happy.  We got our rental car quickly and checked into the hotel as fast as we could so that we could head out to the Broken Spoke to see my cousin Lisa play with Cornell Hurd’s band.

“Broken Spoke…the last of the True Texas Dance Halls”

waiting for the food

You can’t beat Shiner and Chicken Fried Steak at a Texas Honky Tonk!

The website isn’t lying when it says “serving the best chicken fried steak in Texas”.  I *had* to order this masterpiece of food goodness.  I’m seriously salivating looking at that picture!  It was delicious, esp. with the Shiner Bock and good Texas country music.  The band was great and Lisa (drummer, for those of you who don’t know) rocked the house as always.  I’d never heard Cornell Hurd before so that was a treat.  There were a lot of couples, old and young, out on the dance floor doing their thing.  We had a blast.

After the show and food we headed “home” to our hotel on I-35 across the highway from downtown.

view out of the hotel room facing downtown.

Saturday was a fun day.  We started off by hitting the Hike and Bike Trail around Town Lake Lady Bird Lake (name change!).  It was a perfect morning and it’s always great to walk around the “lake” and see all of the people and dogs and the great scenery.

Stevie Ray Vaughan’s statue along the Hike & Bike Trail

After showering it was about time for lunch so we first headed to Shady Grove for lunch.  I should have known that it would be packed.  I mean, I expected a wait, but not an hour and a half!  Doesn’t surprise me, though.  The food and atmosphere is great there.  So, us being starving like we were, we headed to another Austin famous eatery, Hula Hut on Lake Austin.

Nice outside view overlooking Lake Austin.  The margaritas & food were excellent!  After Hula Hut we drove around West Austin for a while, just exploring and seeing where the road would take us.

view of downtown crossing Lamar on 15th

cool castle-house we saw while driving around

While driving around I finally got a hold of my great friend and old drummer, Wiley.  We agreed to meet at Double Dave’s with his wife and kids.  On our way there Julie and I stopped at the Univiersity Co-op to buy some Longhorn merch (because you can never have too much).

Freakish Bevo they built in the old Co-op parking lot.  I love it!

It was great to hang out with Wiley, Lynne, Holland & Drake for a little while, before the kids got too restless and needed to get home.  After leaving Double Dave’s, we had the evening to do whatever we felt like doing so we decided to drive out to Mount Bonnell (overlooks the Colorado River & Austin) and catch the sunset.

After the kick ass sunset we slowly made our way back to the hotel (still full from the late lunch) after stopping at Central Market for snacks and drinks.

Sunday morning we once again trekked over to Lady Bird Lake for some morning exercise.  I certainly didn’t go there enough when I lived in Austin.  I’d go there every day now if I could.  While hanging at the Bat-watching area (too early in the day to see them fly out, unfortunately), we watched a pro-pot rally march up Congress Avenue.  There was no upcoming voting so I guess they were marching just because they felt like it.  We cheered them on while they past us and crossed the river.

After that adventure we drove out to Dripping Springs to my Grandmother’s to see everyone and spend the rest of the day out there.  Everyone else was already there so we just hung out for a while at Granny’s before we headed to the DS Senior Citizen’s Center for her party.  There were so many members of my family who I hadn’t seen in a while and some who I hadn’t seen since I was 5 or 6 years old (and somehow still remember).  It was really great talking with everyone and, as usual, watching Julie provoke our nephew Kyle into doing more mischievous stuff.

After the party was over a lot of our group (Mom & Brother) had to head back to Dallas so Julie and I got to spend the rest of the evening with Granny, Aunt Sandy & Lisa all by ourselves.  I’ve really missed them all and except for the night Lisa’s band played in Raleigh last year, I hadn’t seen any of them in 2 1/2 years.  It was really, really great to see them all again.  That’s one thing I miss about living in Austin, getting to see my family all the time.

Before getting ready for bed Julie and I were looking through old pictures (always fun) and we came across a bunch of my Uncle Bob’s WWII papers and things.  REALLY COOL.  I didn’t realize that Granny had that stuff there.  Certainly a great piece of history.

Monday morning we said goodbye to Granny and drove out to the airport to fly back home.  It wasn’t as long as we’d like to stay there, but I’m happy we got to see everyone for as long as we did.  I guess it just means we’ll have to plan another Austin trip as soon as possible.

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