Last Thursday (I know, I’m usually better about updating my blog… more on how busy I have been in a sec), Abbe and I headed down to Wilmington, DE to see Louie CK at The Grand Opera (my favorite venue in the Philly area). After a hugely disappointing Tosh show that Abbe and I saw in Reading, I didn’t have high hopes, but Louie killed up there. That was the best live comedy set I’ve ever seen (even better than David Cross).

Bubs (and his family) had a busy day yesterday. 8am soccer pictures, 9:30am soccer game, and a 3:30pm ice hockey game down in Sewell, NJ (about an hour from our home).

After a brutal week, I am absolutely running on fumes right now. Today is going to be a bit of a bear – Doug is joining Abbe and I for an 8 mile run this morning, then I’m helping Doug move his snow blower, Abbe is heading to our good friend Paige’s christening, and then Audra from the lab rescue group is stopping by to give Titan a hug.

And this next week looks possibly worse – Monday – Viv and I have a sleep study for her, Tuesday – Bubs’ soccer practice, Viv has art class and brownies that night, and Titan has obedience class even later that night; Wednesday – Bubs’ ice hockey practice; Thursday – Titan going to the vet again (there’s a probably meaningless lump on his chest I want to have looked at), Bubs’ soccer practice, and then a client meeting that evening. Friday looks fairly open and I plan on keeping it that way. Saturday soccer and Sunday ice hockey.

I’ve got to do my best to have patience with myself and others with weeks like this one and last. All of these practices/classes/meetings are good things, but holy shit, I need some rest. The irony in all of this is that I just posted this at 6:30am and I’ve been up since 5:30am because I can’t sleep. Probably because I’m worried about all of this stuff, money, raising money for LLS… Ahh yes, the wonderful vicious cycle of stress insomnia… awesome.

Small Business/Tech Links…

• Here’s how to hide the Newsstand Icon in iOS 5
• How to Deal With Email Overload
• Pearltrees for iPad is a Must-Have App
• Google Chrome Browser Has 200 Million Users
• 5 Hidden Gems in iOS 5
• 4 Ways to Protect the Reputation of Your Small Business Online

Funny/Interesting Links…

• Saddam Hussein “porn double” escapes violent gang of Egyptian porno kidnappers. For the second time.
• Custom Zombie action-figure kits
• Spiral
• Whale Fall (after life of a whale)
• STORIES WE MAKE UP ABOUT OUR CATS

OK, now that I know everybody is OK. I can post about last night’s show. I’ll start with the bad. Tom is very big man and like most big men, he has a lot of issues with his knees, back, and a wonky hip too. Well, in his fervor of an awesome night, he lost his balance and took a big tumble after the show. He couldn’t get up. Our server Simon (who was incredibly kind and sprung right into action) had a wheelchair ready in no time. We got him to the car and headed home.

When we got to my mother’s house, getting the big fella indoors was no easy task. He was on all fours and had to take breaks because of the weight on his very sore knees. It took us well over an hour to move him about 10 yards. The handtruck sitting by the fence was looking like a good option at certain points. Mom took Tom to the ER today after he couldn’t walk this morning and I am happy to report nothing is broken, just either a bad sprain or a tear of some sort. Well I think a broken bone is worse… in any event, Tom will be staying a little longer to heal a bit more.

Now to the show. WOW! The opening act, Patrick Sweany was a one man show with a guitar, stompbox, and a voice that reminded us of John Fogerty meets Ottis Redding. Incredible guitarist, sensation writer. If you see this guy is playing anywhere you – GO!

The Gourds delivered an amazing show. I hadn’t seen them live before and I was blown away. Soulful, funny, and even dark songs that had everyone moving. Parts bluegrass, jam band, roots rock, and even zydeco. Loved this band and I will see them again. And here’s the pics…

Small Business/Tech Links…

• That First Impression: Title Consideration
• iOS 5 To Head Out October 12
• The New iPhone Is Coming and I Don’t Want It
• HOW TO: Trade in Your Old iPhone
• 5 Tips for Improving Your Product Landing Pages
• Study: 11% Of Groupon’s Deals Aren’t Actually Deals

Funny/Interesting Links…

• After the Final Curtain
• An entire band on a motorcycle
• The Many Loves of Judy Jetson
• Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin-Up Poses

I like the Electric Factory a lot when it’s not too crowded, the floor has a good grade to it so even towards the back you’ve got a fairly clear view of the band. Opening act, The Morning Benders were good – combo of The Ocean Blue or Ride and Vampire Weekend. Broken Bells sounded amazing and the question on all of our minds was quickly answered – “how does a band with one recording fill up a headlining set?”

Well, they just didn’t play very long. I somewhat respect that, I mean they didn’t just play some of Danger Mouse‘s projects as covers or Shins‘ covers. Putting a bunch of cover songs from their other incarnations can come off kinda slimy especially if there isn’t something new added to the song. But still, I’m left with spending that much money on a ticket and feeling a bit shortchanged. And in this economy, this really makes me wish I had trusted my first instinct. Wait to see a band until they really had enough material to fill a night up before I plunk down my hard earned money.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the performance. Sounds strange to say “I got ripped off” and “it was awesome” in the same review as if I’m into some checking account draining fetish of some sort. But that’s entirely accurate from my point of view. I want this band to put out another release, because when they can fill an evening up, this band could (and should) be something special. In fact, I think possibly bigger than any of Danger Mouse’s projects or The Shins.

Pictures from the night…

• xkcd : Book Burning
• Every F Bomb From The MTV Movie Awards
• New BP Logo
• Pop Song (Jon Lajoie)
• Lollerskates – thanks Justin

Small Business/Tech Links…

• 9 Magic Methods for PHP

Tracy, Doug, Abbe, and I had a great time last night. First we hit The Standard Tap for some burgers, fries, and great beers (I had a Yards Brawler – nice heavy English Ale). And then we headed over to my new favorite bar in Philly to see bands, Johnny Brenda’s.

Johnny Brenda’s has some of the greatest coasters ever btw…

The first opener was Sharon Van Etten – gorgeous, willowy voice, but lyrically not all that great. Her first two songs were awesome. When a crowd unfamiliar with your songs notices that every song uses some variation of the word “hold”, that means you need to open yourself up a bit more.

Next up was The Wooden Birds from Austin, TX, a band that reminded me a lot of Spoon if Spoon sounded more like they were from Austin, TX. The band had some really good songs, but I’m pretty sure someone told them that there’s a contest for using “Awww’s” in their songs. And if they win the contest they win all the Rudy’s BBQ they can eat.

Going into the night, I was a little concerned that this show would be a sleeper. The Great Lake Swimmers write such pretty, quiet songs – I love them, but I was worried that Abbe might be sleeping. But as we watched them load their stand-up bass, violin, banjo, and kettle drum onto the stage, we knew it was going to be fun to watch. The truth is, they do play pretty, quiet songs but seeing any artist do their craft live so well is just damn impressive. Moving Pictures Silent Films, Your Rocky Spine, Pulling On A Line and I Am Part of a Large Family really stood out for me as the strongest songs of the night. Moving Pictures Silent Films is the perfect song to introduce someone to this band, the proverbial, “you need to hear this song” song.

I felt horrible towards the end of the night. Tony Dekker was mumbling through an introduction to a song, and it was a long story about a tune written for an architecture association concerning the architecture of Toronto during the 60s and 70s. I then told Doug, “this is bullshit, I had just happened to have written a song about architecture of Toronto during the 60s and 70s. Shit!” Doug burst out laughing and apparently Tony heard it too, he shot a dirty look up into the balcony in our direction. Sorry Tony! We loved the show!

Here’s a clip of the band performing Pulling On A Line…

Here’s some pictures from the evening…

• Top 10 Dancing Babies on YouTube
• Super Cool Concept Tape Watch
• xkcd : Ohm
• funny racists

Links for my geeky homies…

• YUI 3.0 First GA Release of YUI’s Next Generation Codeline
• YUI Theater — Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath and Scott Chacon: “Git, GitHub and Social Coding”
• Facebook Releases Free Translation Tool For Your Site
• CMU G20 protests Pittsburgh – thanks Marty
• Add Facebook Connect to your site in 3 easy steps

Concert review – The Doves w/ Wild Light @ The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA 6/5/2009…

This was my first time seeing The Doves live and I am admittedly not as familiar with their catalog (albeit very impressed with what I’ve heard), so I had no idea what to expect. The opening act, Wild Light from New Hampshire (and they reminded us of their New Hampshireness about every other song) looked like they had just stepped off of the Concorde, NH High School Talent Show stage. Very 80s, very bombastic cliche riddled lyrics, very bad dancing (a mic stand was inadvertently knocked into the crowd by some sort of weird hoppy thing done by the singer). Wait a fucking second… they have two guys in the band named Seth? That’s a violation of some sort. Seth’s make Family Guy, Seth’s do your taxes, Seth’s don’t rock. On the positive, I think Jan and Robyn liked their asses in tight pants.

The Doves thankfully hit the stage to musically deodorize  the stage after that Hampshire funk was spread out like grandma wrecking the bathroom after fudge and crab cakes on a humid July day.

I came away with two things after seeing The Doves live : #1 Jimi Goodwin’s voice is fucking amazing, #2 The Doves really write great songs. I was blown away at the endurance of Jimi Goodwin’s pipes. This guy belts out each song with everything he’s got, yet from song one to the final encore, his voice was perfect. And it’s no lilting, Thom Yorke-y type voice, it’s powerful, soulful, and gravely.

The Doves writing is really interesting, there’s a lot of really interesting musical influences from song to song, but with that etheral Doves feedback washes and jagged areas that never let any groove sound too sweet. The contrast really hits with me. I really like Jez Williams tasteful guitar parts (and the fact that he plays beautiful Gibson 335s too), he really works with tap delays well using very cool dotted eigth note patterns with which he will suddenly fill a wall of sound and then let it heartbeat away.

I was followed last night by the Doves Music Blog on Twitter and you should check out some of the posted video performances when you have a chance.

On a side note, Robyn has started embroidering things and I’m pretty sure I convinced her to embroider a beach towel for me depicting the Virgin Mary smoking a cigar and wielding a blow torch against a pack of ninjas (decided against the pack of Gary Colemans). Which will kick ass.

Also, I explained the importance of following CobraCommander on Twitter too.

And below are some shots from the night…

• Three Frames – thanks Marty
• Desperately Wanting Cover by The Chipmunks – thanks Bill T.
• Ukulele With Mustaches On It
• Hammer Pants Mob Strikes
• Ray’s Video Resume – yo, these are my cats
• Cat Workout
• WhoPooped.org?

Links for my geeky homies…

• fixel
• 5 On-Demand Secrets to Creating Great AdSense Sites