puredanger.com Blog

Beck update January 24, 2007

Just some quick updates on Beck. He is now sitting up really well all by himself and loves to sit and play with something in his lap. He’s been sucking his thumb for a long time but he’s got a new thing that he does. He’s always sucked his right thumb kind of oddly – he doesn’t curl his hand into a fist, but rather leaves it open, almost poking himself in the eye (a common source of food in the eye actually). The new thing is that as soon as the right thumb goes in the mouth, the left hand goes to the back of his head to feel his hair. He seems to like the texture or something so we’ve started giving him a soft little blankie and sometimes he’ll use that instead.

His big game these days is peekaboo, which he loves to play. He likes it when you put a small blankie over his face and say “where’s Beck?”. Then he’ll pull the blankie off as you say peekaboo and laughs and laughs. He can do this for a long time.

Actually, he has always wanted to put blankets over his face. If you put him on the floor or anywhere else with a blanket nearby, he is soon reaching for it and trying to pull it over himself. Used to be kind of scary because sometimes he couldn’t get it off and would freak out. Actually, we don’t let him sleep with a blanket because we’re worried about him doing that and getting scared.

He’s always seem fascinated with texture, noticeably more than either Ella or Truman and he always wants to touch any new or strange texture that he can see.

So long Mississippi Nights January 19, 2007

I was sad but not surprised to hear that Mississippi Night closed it’s doors tonight. They’ve been in gradual decline for quite a while, unable to compete against newer venues like the Pageant.

For the years in my life when I was seeing live shows on a weekly basis, MN was my favorite place to see a show. I dug the tiered floors that let you choose how you wanted to see the gig – down in the pit, sitting, standing near the bar, etc. I dug the bar. I don’t know why, but it was just a fun place to be. Tom was our favorite bartender – he’s been there for ever. I always thought it was just the perfect size venue to see the kind of shows that I love the best. You could get close but it’s big enough that the place can get really rocking and high energy.

The first show I ever saw there was Sass Jordan with the Arc Angels opening. The Arc Angels was basically the Stevie Ray Vaughn’s rhythm section after he died. And Sass Jordan was sort of a southern chick singer Nick and I were briefly enamored with. Nick and I went down to see that gig and we were young enough that we had to sit in the special minor “no drinky for you” area.

It’s hard for me to pick a favorite show I ever saw there. I remember seeing a ton of local acts there like Robynn Ragland, Vargas Swing, the Unconscious doing a reunion gig, Slapdash, Suede Chain, Savage St. Hubbins, Sarah Cloud, The Urge, 311. Also a bunch of more national acts like Barenaked Ladies, Medeski Martin and Wood, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Cherry Popping Daddies, G Love, Paula Cole, Rollins spoken word, and many more.

The Barenaked Ladies gig was an awesome xmas show put on by one of the radio stations. They did a medley of Billy Joel covers at one point that was hilarious. Undoubtedly one of the best gigs I saw there was Medeski Martin and Wood, an acid jazz group. In fact, the show was so good that I went out and bought a kick-ass keyboard the next day and started studying jazz piano. And I think that same show was the impetus for Scott buying his first drum set.

Later, Mary and I saw at least one show there: John Spencer Blues Explosion. Mary actually saw her at the time estranged childhood best friend there (whom I had never met), which was weird. Turns out Mary has been going to Mississippi Nights even longer than I have and has seen all sorts of awesome stuff. She saw the Beastie Boys there at least twice. The first time they were completely drunk and couldn’t even play their instruments. The other was on a later tour and one of her favorite shows ever. Turns out her favorite bartender was Tom, too. Guess that guy was good.

The last show I saw there was (fittingly) with Nick seeing Primus last year with Drums and Tuba opening. D&T were really incredible (oddly I’ve seen them opening several times) and I would have gladly watched them do the whole night. Primus was lackluster – guess Les was sick and having an off night.

Nick, this one’s for you. I’ve seen more gigs than I can count with you and MN has always been a constant and special place. I’m glad you were with me on all those gigs, ready to share the music. I can remember so many detailed musical discussions, grooving, drinking, and just all around enjoyment we shared all those nights.

Listening feed January 11, 2007

By the way, recently I added an RSS feed (see bottom right corner of the page for “Listening RSS”) that tracks what I’m listening to. The most recent 3 songs are always displayed in the upper right corner, so this is more for those with a truly stalker-like interest in seeing everything… :)

This feed is courtesy of last.fm which has a plugin for iTunes that scrapes your listening info and publishes it to the last.fm site. If you want to look at my most listened albums, artists, etc you can check out my user page.

More Crosstown Traffic

Scott’s post on MMW covering Crosstown Traffic reminded me of a recent version I ran across by Soulive that’s pretty good. The same album (available on emusic) has a tune with Corey Glover that’s pretty good as well.

Musings on MP3s and audio media January 10, 2007

I thought some of you would enjoy this blog from David Byrne about the co-evolution of music and recording mediums. There are some interesting questions near the end about whether music will be created that is produced specifically for MP3 and headphone listening. Not sure I’ve seen that but who knows what our kids will be listening to in 10 years.