Andy's Blog

Voodoo Music: The Flaming Lips

An hour after MCR played the Voodoo Festival, The Flaming Lips took the main stage. Initially, Sara was thinking that we'd leave after MCR's set, but I convinced her to hang around and see The Flaming Lips. I have one of their albums, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots", that I was quite into for awhile.

And fortunately, I can say this without any hyperbole - that was the best damn idea that I've had all weekend, because The Flaming Lips were AWESOME.

I don't think that I have ever seen a more spectacular rock concert. Ever. It started with the lead singer, Wayne Coyne, crawling into an inflated bubble, and then going for a nice crowd-surf:

And did I mention that Wayne was helped into the bubble by Captain America and the Flash? And did I mention the dozen woman dancers dressed as aliens who were on stage right? And the dozen male dancers dressed as Santa Claus on stage left?

And the giant inflatable Santa, Alien, and Moon Men at the back of the stage:

And the giant inflatable balloons, that came from the side of the stage, and bounced around the audience for the entire show? And the massive confetti cannons, that filled the entire air around the stage with two different colors of confetti?

Oh, and there was music, too. Really good music -- they played a few songs that I recognized off of "Yoshimi", and a bunch of stuff that I didn't recognize (note to self: pick up their new album, "War of the Mystics", pronto). I think I've been getting a little bit jaded with the whole going to concerts thing -- everything that I've seen lately has just left me with a sense of "going through the motions". The band mentions the town in which I'm in. The crowd produces the approprite response. Etc.

Well, I'm glad I saw the Flaming Lips. Because I have never seen a show like that (have I said that already?), and it has really invigorated me. There is still room for innovation, and new things, in the realm of concerts. I saw that The Flaming Lips has been named "One of the 50 bands you need to see before you die". And after seeing them for myself, I couldn't agree more.

-Andy.

Voodoo Music: My Chemical Romance

The main point of going to the Voodoo Music Festival was to see My Chemical Romance. The contest that Sara won was sponsored by their label, and included a "meet and greet" with the band before their performance. Unforunately, there was some miscommunication between various back stage parties, and thus Sara and I spent 45 minutes waiting in the wrong place. So, by the time everything got straightened out, we had barely 5 minutes to get some posters signed, say some hellos, and snap some pictures:

MCR and some other contest winners. Sara was too shy to partake.

As for the performance itself, it seemed like it was pretty good. I'm not the world's biggest MCR fan, but they played about 11 songs, with a pretty decent mix of songs off of their prior album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", and their new album, "The Black Parade". I have listened to "Three Cheers" a fair amount, on the songs that I like off of there, "Helena" and "I'm Not Okay (I Promise), were enjoyable live:

Anyways, it was a decent performance, and I guess I owe MCR thanks for hooking Sara up with the VIP passes to the Voodoo festival, as well as the hotel and airfare...

-Andy.

Voodoo Music Festival: Jack's Mannequin

Although Sara and I were at the Voodoo Music Festival in order to see My Chemical Romance, we had bit of time to kill, so we checked out another band that Sara likes, Jack's Mannequin:

I actually thought they were pretty good. I can see why Sara likes them -- they are little like Ben Folds, except a bit harder with the rock.

-Andy.

Playing the PlayStation 3

Apparently, the Voodoo Music Experience festival was partially sponsored by Sony, who used the opportunity to pimp out the upcoming PlayStation 3. They had a truck which contained a bunch of PS3's, setup for play. After about a 10 minute wait in line, I got to spend about 5 - 10 minutes in there, messing around with some PS3's. I wasn't able to get Sara interested in playing, so she messed around with the camera. Here's a shot of me playing NBA Live '07:

NBA Live '07 certainly looked "next generation", in that the player models appeared to have a high polygon count. But I definitely noticed the "Uncanny Valley" problem. The faces on the NBA players in the game just looked disconcerting and strange. Aside from NBA Live '07, the other launch titles that they had on display included Madden '07, some sort of F1 racing game, a motocross game, and Resistence: Fall Of Man:

Of the games that I saw on display, that was pretty much the only one that I was interested in. The graphics sure did seem to be pretty good, but I can't exactly say that I was blown away. The control scheme was fairly standard for a console FPS - you used the left analog stick to move, and the right analog stick to aim. This is why I don't like FPS games on home consoles (with the exception of the Metroid Prime games, where the controls rock) - the controls just aren't as good as the keyboard/mouse combination on the PC.

So, at this point, the PS3 seems to be a little under-whelming. I'm sure that at some point, some sort of must-have game will materialize, which will make me lust after the PS3. But for now, the only thing that is even mildly intriguing about this console is the possibility of running Linux on it.

-Andy.

New Orleans: How it came to pass

Sara showed me the fateful text message that she got from Q101 two weeks ago, which launched us onto this New Orleans adventure:

I believe that the did actually call her and put her on the air (I would love to have an mp3 file or something of that conversation), and then a few days later, they called again and told her that she won the grand prize. And as a result, I'm blogging from New Orleans...

-Andy.

Justin and Lucy

Justin, demonstrating how to both rock the laptop and hold the baby at the same time:

I knew that handling new babies is kindof like a balancing act, but now I have proof!

-Andy.

Me and Rushabh, at the start of the bike trip

As Rushabh points out, we biked over 25 miles on Saturday. This picture is from the very beginning of the trip (no, I don't have an after picture):

I have posted a full gallery of photos from my Seattle trip, as well.

-Andy.

Another Seattle Success

I had a really fun time in Seattle this weekend. Contrary to what I expected, Rushabh and I didn't spend all day on Saturday with our noses stuck inside of our respective laptops. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend in Seattle, so we ended up spending a lot of time outside. We hopped onto some bikes, and started riding around Seattle. We took a fairly long ride, starting in Capitol Hill, down to the U district, and then over to Green lake. We rode around the entire lake, and then headed back to the U district for lunch. While eating, some of Rushbh's friends called him and asked if we wanted to go on a bike ride.

Seeing as how we were already engaged in such an activity, we accepted. So, we rode a few more miles over to his friend's house, and then had a nice 14 mile bike ride up in north west Seattle, on some sort of biking trail. Surprisingly, I wasn't too sore and/or tired after all was said and done (I think I had a much better bike than Rushabh did), and I was really glad that to have seen a view of Seattle that most tourists don't see. I tried to take some pictures, but it was really hard to capture how beautiful of a city Seattle is, when you take the appropriate tour. We saw lots of people enjoying outside activities out in the many parks and bicycle trails. It seems like Seattle offers a lot of different outdoor activities, for those who are so inclined to partake.

After dark we got cleaned up, and spent the night hanging out at some places that were far too trendy for me. One interesting place that Rushabh took us too was called "Frites" - a small european-style restaurant that only served french fries. And only one kind of french fries, at that. The hook is that the fries are made fresh-to-order, and that there are a whole bunch of different sauces that you can order to accompany the fries.

Today, I spent the day with Justin and Sarah, and their new baby Lucy. It has been a long, long time since I have been around a baby who is that tiny (less than a month old). She is really pretty good natured, however - we had a nice breakfast at a small place in Capitol Hill ("Crave"), and Lucy made nary a peep. Then we spent the rest of the day hanging around Justin and Sarah's house. They have made a lot of progress on their renovations since I was last there, and things are really shaping up nice. It seem like their dog, Ada, is a bit jealous of Lucy. Ada demands attention from anyone whom she can reach, and since I wasn't doing anything important (like holding a baby), I got in a lot of play time with Ada.

Anyways, it seem like things are going pretty well for Justin and Sarah, and I'm glad that they were able to spend some time with me today. I had a really great, relaxing trip, and I'm ready head off to another week of work.

-Andy.

I said I wasn't going to do it, but I lied

After last year's MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, I swore that never again would I pay out of pocket in order to get to Moscone crazy early (but not crazy early enough) to watch Steve Jobs on TV. Well, as it turns out, what that really meant was that I was simply going to be on the fence. And what with all of the recent announcments of iTVs and rumors of iPhones, I've really been getting tempted. Then late last week, I saw that Kevin Smith is going to be giving a talk, and I cracked.

So, I will once gain be going to MWSF, in early January of 2007. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to go all out and get to Moscone super-early on the day of the Keynote. My guess is that once again, I will be watching Steve Jobs on TV. :)

-Andy.

A tale of two trips

A couple of weeks go, I looked into my "crystal ball", and decided that this weekend would make a pretty decent one for a quick trip. I figured that work would start finally getting crazy in November, and I was doing pretty well saving some cash in anticipation of my impending car purchase. So that, combined with the fact that Justin and Sarah just had their first baby, conspired to cause me to book a quick trip up to Seattle.

Everything was well and good, until Monday, when somehow (some way), Sara managed to win a contest from Q101, which included a free trip to New Orleans, and a chance to meet My Chemical Romance. So, after Sara did some of her best convincing (and the new job rolled over and gave me a day off), it looks like I'm going to be going to New Orleans for another quick trip, next weekend.

That is two trips in the span of a week, which I think is a lot. But still, I've never been to New Orleans before, and I've engineered my flight that for only a little extra money, I get a lot of extra time in New Orleans for sight-seeing (can you believe that there are already dozens of Hurricane Katrina tours?!?!), etc.

Hopefully, I'll stop being lazy with the pictures, and actually take and post some after these trips.

-Andy

Dinner with Liz and Mike Pirnat

So, I'm only about a week behind with this, but I had dinner in San Francisco last weekend with Liz and Mike Pirnat, whom I haven't seen in approximately 5 years. Mike is in town on vacation, following Liz who is here on a sort of working vacation. Liz picked a mexican restaurant near AT&T Park called "Tres Agaves". We got a photo after all was said and done:

Is that not like, the worst photo of me yet? I actually thought about not posting it, but it's the only one that ended up in my camera that whole night.

Anyways, I had a good time catching up with Mike and Liz. For one thing, I learned a whole lot more about the world of wine - a world which I didn't even know existed. :)

-Andy.

The Cavaliers on the beach in Santa Cruz, CA

Thanks to Chris and Tanya, I had another dog-filled adventure last weekend. This time, we woke up crazy-ass early and trucked down to Santa Cruz, California, to go to a beach that magically becomes a dog beach before 10:00 AM. Earliness aside, it was a lot of fun, and I snapped a few pictures along the way, including this one of Kaylee on Chris' shoulder:

Kaylee, licking her nose.

And as you can tell from the lower-right corner of that picture, I had Zoey in my lap while I was trying to take that picture of Kaylee. Two dogs, no waiting. I put the full gallery of pictures online, as well.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Cavalier, Puppies, Santa Cruz, California

New Job: The Commute

One of the aspects of the new job that I wasn't looking forward to is the commute. About two weeks ago, we relocated to our new office which is in San Mateo, just across the border from Foster City. According to Google, this is "only" 22.4 miles from my apartment in Sunnyvale. However, I have been finding that to get to and from work, I have to go by Palo Alto, which almost always gets me stuck in traffic.

In true California fashion, however, I'm finding that the traffic, while slow, isn't actually all that bad, and my commute is taking about 30 minutes each way, on average. Until today, that is.

For some reason, it was raining today when I wanted to leave the office. It usually doesn't rain in October, but this is the second time that it has rained this month (the first being on Sunday). Well, in the Bay Area, rain (any amount of it) makes everything go slower. And true to form, when I checked the traffic report before heading out, all I saw on the roads that I wanted to take was red.

I tried experimenting with my trip home, cutting over to 280 via some back-roads, but it was to no avail. It still took me nearly an hour to get home. :(

So, it is looking more and more like I'll be moving out of Sunnyvale once Kevin's and my lease is up in April.

-Andy.