Greater Satellites

Yesterday was the 14-month anniversary of Jackie and I. Some people think it’s silly to celebrate anything short of 6-month or year anniversaries; I am not one of those people. It’s the little things that make all the difference in the world.

For our special day, I opted to get us tickets to see Rain: The Beatles Experience at the majestic Academy of Music. For those of you who may not have known, The Beatles just so happen to be one of Jackie’s all-time favorite bands (right up there with MIMS and The Shop Boys… kidding). I don’t profess to be a Beatles expert; I think I’ve heard a majority of their catalog, mostly the later, trippy-er stuff. I like everything I’ve heard and concede that they were an extremely talented group. Let’s level for a minute: most cover bands suck. It’s a fact. Rain, however, definitely does not suck.

The first part of their set was the Ed Sullivan show era. I think everyone and their mother (probably their father, too) has seen at least a snippet of video from that famous set. The band came out in the same exact getups The Fab Four donned way back in the day (black suits, white shirts, black ties). They played video of original audience reactions on screens that flanked both sides of the stage and the effect was really engrossing. The played all of the bubblegum pop that they were known for in their early days and the audience (way back in the day and last night) ate it up. This part of the show was really neat and a great homage to the early days of the Beatles.

From there, it seemed to me that they went chronologically thru the rest of their career. I think the first song they played coming back from a very short (~5 min) intermission was A Hard Days Night. They nailed most of the tracks and then played some Sgt. Pepper era music. I think that’s probably my favorite Beatles sound. I guess it’s my inner hippie calling out. Jackie was smiling the whole time and singing along to just about every song they belted out, they even took a request halfway through the show from some guy who yelled it out in between songs.

There were two encores at the end of the show. The first one was a truly excellent version of Imagine followed immediately by Let It Be (probably one of the best songs every written). Then they followed that one up with Hey Jude and the place erupted into song at the “naaaaaa naaaaaa, nanana na” part towards the end. As they came out to take their bows, they were received with a standing ovation. They completely deserved it.

Jackie had a great time and so did I. So much so that I think I’m going to have to expand my Beatles audio collection (which currently consists solely of The White Album). We had a lot of fun afterwards in the parking lot waiting to get out with the droves of other people who attended the show, and hanging out afterwards at my house.

Happy 14, babe. I love you.

1. Led Zeppelin
2. Pink Floyd
3. Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. The Beatles
5. King Crimson

Technically, I still have a shot at seeing #’s 1, 2, 3, and 5… But I don’t think it would be quite the same.

Well, perhaps I should be giving myself a bit of a pat on the back. You see, the combined views of all the videos on my YouTube account has just shattered the 10,000 mark. “What are the most watched videos?” you may ask, the numbers don’t surprise me too much… Rockin The Drums has 6462 views as of moments ago. This makes sense because it already had close to a thousand views before I started adding the sketch videos. Rockin’ also has the most amount of comments and ratings. Second place is Wheelchair Race with 1,041 views. It fits in nicely on YouTube; that is to say it’s short and random like a majority of other user videos. The bronze medal winner here on my YouTube goes to Johnny And I with 879 views. It’s the shock factor that seems to be generating a bit of buzz with this one. I’ve received angry comments and messages about it, but I figure that since there’s a pause (stop) button, that I’m not forcing anybody to watch anything. I guess 25000 is the next sweet spot I’ll make a big deal about (when I’m 100 years old).

Another cool thing is that I’m back up over 4000 songs in my iTunes library again. There’s a natural ebb and flow of music with me, and this isn’t the first time I’ve been over 4000, but I just thought I’d make a note of it to provide a segue into what I’m really driving at: new music reviews. I’ve downloaded a lot of new music recently and rather than do my normal thing and save it all for one mega-review post, I’ll review what I’ve thoroughly listened to thus far and get to the rest later. This time will be different, this time I’m going to say the album name and then give a haiku for a review. I think it’ll be fun, so here we go:

Foo Fighters - Skin And Bones
Oh my fucking God
Acoustic Foo is grandeur
Go buy or download

Incubus - Light Grenades
Incubus is back
They lost their edge long ago
Please come back, Dirk Lance

The Human Abstract - Nocturne
What is happening?
Faint of heart, do turn away
This band is insane

That was quick and relatively painless. Perhaps in the future I’ll do more of those. This blog would be inaccurate if I didn’t address any other milestones in my life, so… Oh yeah, ok, I’ve been crazy about someone for a little over a month running. So there’s that. Booyakasha!

Comments welcome…

1. The Faint - Desperate Guys
2. Hooabstank - Can I Buy You A Drink
3. The 88 - All ‘Cause Of You
4. Incubus - Stellar
5. Zolof The Rock & Roll Destroyer - Argh… I’m A Pirate
6. The Cure - Friday I’m In Love
7. Reggie And The Full Effect - Congratulations Matt & Christine
8. Minus The Bear - Absinthe Party At The Fly Honey Warehouse
9. Weezer - El Scorcho
10. The Postal Service - Brand New Colony
11. Jimmy Eat World - The Most Beautiful Things
12. Smashing Pumpkins - Tonight, Tonight
13. Muse - Feeling Good
14. THe Juliana Theory - Top Of The World
15. Gin Blossoms - Until I Hear It From You
16. Cave In - Joy Opposites
17. Hopesfall - It Happens
18. Weezer - Only In Dreams
19. Thrice - Carol Of The Bells

Seriously, I just got finished doing my laundry and found $6 (in dollars and change). It’s not much, but it will probably help me eat a hearty, toasted ham and cheese hoagie from Wawa tonight… mmmmmm.

I’m done with US Airways. I’ve spent like 10 hours commuting back and forth to the airport to get these stupid little follow-up interviews, none of which clarify if I’m any closer to getting the job. Do I have to meet the whole fucking company before I get hired? Well, it doesn’t matter now because I’m looking towards greener pastures. I’m now posting two resumes to Craigslist and updating my Monster.com profile despite having 0% success with Monster. I’m also going to set up a PhillyJobs.com profile and hopefully that will help me acquire something lively and local. I’m getting by just fine with the freelance work right now, but it’s just a pain in the ass when things slow down to nearly a crawl. I demand consistency! I’m hoping I could hop on a design team or something that has to do with journalism, but I’d settle for your run-of-the-mill office position. Ahh, the rote and routine of life. If I may quote my friend Rich: “Work is Cancer.”

On a lighter side note, I just downloaded the new EP by HORSE The Band called “Pizza”. It’s five songs, all of which are about… wait for it… Pizza! It’s extremely good and hilarious to boot. The last track is a cover of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song, while the others are all originals. Apparently for this EP they got rid of their old drummer and replaced him with some 15 or 16 year old prodigy. Whatever the case may be, they sound much more cohesive than before. I have to see these guys live soon, before it’s too late. Anyone game?

So, for some odd reason I had a sudden urge to listen to the song “Millenium” by Robbie Williams. Although I can take a few guesses, I’m not really certain what it is about that song that makes it so good (to my ears). After hearing it, I was prompted to download and listen to “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Verve because of the strings, I presume. That song reminded me of the song “The Way” by Fastball, which reminded me of “3AM” by Matchbook 20, which reminded me of “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals, which reminded me of “Little Black Backpack” by Stroke 9, which reminded me (for some odd reason) of “Is Anybody Home?” by Our Lady Peace, and now I’m on this huge late 90’s mainstream alternative music binge. All of the melodies bring me back to a good time in my life. The early years of high school, mostly, when I didn’t have any worries and the most important decision I had to make was whos house I was hanging out at that day. The ties that music has to emotions and memories never ceases to amaze me. That’s why I’m in utter disbelief when I hear someone say “I don’t really listen to music.” (yes, it’s happened). The moral: listen to music or you will be diagnosed with Alzheimers.

Speaking of Alzheimers, today is my grandmom’s (mom’s side) 80th birthday. Wow. Congrats Gram, and even though you think the internet is the mesh lining on the inside of swim trunks, my internet friends wish you a happy one as well. On another related note: I’ve noticed, with rare exception, that the people in my family live very long lives. There’s no history of disease or abnormal conditions (other than male pattern baldness, stupid genes) that afflict any of my relatives. Most of my deceased relatives have died of natural causes after 83-89 good years on this dirtball^† we call Earth. That’s good news for me, there might be hope for me living past 30* yet.

For any interested, here’s the up-to-current band list of bands I’ve listened to this evening (most was downloaded in typical pirate fashion, garrrrr!): Robbie Williams > The Verve > Fastball > Matchbook 20 > New Radicals > Stroke 9 > Our Lady Peace > Barenaked Ladies > Semisonic > Marcy Playground > Gin Blossoms > The Wallflowers > Cake > Hootie And The Blowfish > Garbage > Counting Crows. Yikes!

† - I call the earth a dirtball because the parts aren’t water are, well, dirt and rock. And it’s round.
* - I drive way too fast to live past 30.