World Party "They're Me Favorite Baaaahnd!"

I just spent 1,000,000 hours trying to de-brick my wife's $60 Sansa c240 MP3 player. Which I eventually figured out after trying the most basic fix possible that I found buried deep on some user forum on www.anythingbutipod.com. Basically, disabling the multiple versions of the USB 2.0 driver that the operating system was running. It fixed in an instant. So basically if you take my salary level and then divide it by the number of hours I spent effing around with the Sansa, as a electronics support technician I'm earning about as much as a Bangladeshi street vendor. Which is okay; in the end, the job was done.

I haven't really used any other player than the iPod before, and now that I've figured out that this thing is really only $60, and has an FM radio, and can take a microSD card, and acts as a voice recorder if you want to record your thoughts, script ideas or bitter blog posts. I'm starting to think that the whole iPod thing might actually be a big waste of money. Hey, hey E.A.S.Y. Depends on what you want an MP3 player to do. For one thing, I'm usually only listening to a few of albums at any one time (mostly recent purchases) and the FM thing is pretty cool (and you don't have to blow all your dough on a Zune). I know, I know, video blah blah postage stamp size blah blah iTunes blah digital rights nightmare blah blah design who cares blah blah if you lose a Sansa at the gym. Oh, and it weighs about a half an ounce. Anyway, it seems like a good alternative to a more expensive iPod, if you just want some tunes to take to the gym. Really, this review is probably just because I'm just so thrilled to have fixed the effing thing.

Oh, and the best hour, the one that followed the first 999,9999 was hunting for a CD to load into Windows Media so I could make sure the Sync function on the Sansa was actually working, was spent listening to 'Goodbye Jumbo' by World Party, which I found stuck in a bookshelf behind the sofa table. Which Caroline and I were just discussing as one of our favorite albums of all time. I could listen to it a 1,000,000 times, fixing people's little electronic problems.

It also reminds me of an English lad who worked at Zeus Gallery Cafe in Richmond, Virginia with me back in 1990 or '91. My cousin's husband, Andy, put the disk on the restaurant CD carousel, and hearing the first few opening bars, he looked up and exclaimed, "WORLD PARTY! They're me favorite BAHHHHHND in a thick English accent." One of those moments in life that you never seem to forget.

Put the Message in the Box is a genius tune.

First Photos from Rothbury Festival!

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Originally uploaded by JeffersonB

My first set of hundreds of Rothbury Festival photos are now up and uploading on Flickr and are all publicly available. Check it out - cool backstage and behind-the-scenes photos through the afternoon of Saturday, July 5.

Tonight Dave Mathews Band. More photos soon so check back often.

R.E.M. at Hollywood Bowl

R.E.M. put on a great show at the Hollywood Bowl. They opened with "Pretty Persuasion" which they rarely play live. I shot this image of Stipe on the video screen on the side of the stage. We bought tickets through the R.E.M. Fan Club so we had great seats. We also hooked up with David, who works in Athens for the band, and went to the after-party. Caro got to introduce me to one of her mentors, Burtis Downs, the band's manager. There was also a funny cast of characters from Athens, and Caro also ran into a former UGA radio colleague. It was really a great music night.

Crowd Shot at R.E.M. Hollywood Bowl

I love LA! Greetings from the Hollywood Bowl. Great turnout and a lot of die-hard fans of R.E.M. turned out for the show.

Modest Mouse Opening for R.E.M.

Modest Mouse opens the show for R.E.M. at the Hollywood Bowl. We were lucky to run into our friend, David, who works for the band. He was in town from Athens, along with a larger contingent of friends and fans who made the trip from Georgia.

Jesse Dayton

So in one of the small world instances that me and Caro are becoming famous for (at least among a select few friends), it just so happened that our Austin friend, Jesse Dayton, was playing in Aspen on the Saturday before Memorial Day. He's been touring with Mike Ness from Social Distortion. He was a little surprised to see Caroline and me, and we probably should have given him some heads up. Also, in a stroke of luck, we showed up without tickets, and our group of five got the last five before the box office sold out. Crazy! Jesse is a blast, so definitely check out his site to see if he's coming to a venue near you. 

Look out kid, don't matter what you did . . .

We took a family trip to the Skirball Cultural Center and Henry jammed on the keyboard to some Bobby Dylan in the Bob Dylan's American Journey exhibit. You could also play guitar or percussion, and they had a lot of folk revival memorabilia, too. See it soon - it runs through June 8, 2008 and these things always leave town before you remember to visit them.

We also played around in the really amazing Noah's Ark exhibit (the real reason we went up there that day), which if you haven't been is a real treat for any kid (and parent). It's one of those things that is unique and so interactive and playful that you're amazed at how anyone came up with the idea, and you have to experience it; words can't do it justice. Henry had a blast running around untethered with dozens of other kids. We even ran into some friends we hadn't seen in a long time.

Go! Go! Raleigh

My friend Dana is again publishing an amazing blog at gogoraleigh.com. He was out of the scene for a while, but is back this year with what I think should be recognized as one of the best, most comprehensive civic blogs I've ever read. Would someone give this guy a Webby?

Everything from the highest level city development plans, to sports (he's an admitted Carolina and general ACC basketball addict) to where the next chain restaurant is opening down to local music events, if there is anything you want to know about what's happening in Raleigh, it's here. Speaking of Raleigh, and the fantastic time we spent there with Caro's friends and our families, if you want to see change happen fast, look at that place. If you think they're only building high-rise luxury towers with downtown loft living in places like Manhattan, Atlanta and Los Angeles, well then think again. With an air of objectivity, the site feeds you some insight into the impact that development is having on economy, civic pride and local activism. Growth (and the sprawl that goes with it) isn't all it's cracked up to be, and this site will give you some perspective to follow the impact of development on a mid-sized city. My aunt, who also lives in Raleigh, tells me developer greed is taking over there at the expense of sustainable and environmentally sound growth. It's in these mid-size cities where you can really see how fast change and growth can happen. Interesting stuff.

"it's a big world" Performance with Renee & Jeremy

Here is Henry (chewing on a book), in Studio City while seeing our friend Jeremy and his singing partner Renee play at a children's program at Storyopolis. Renee and Jeremy have an fantastic children's album, and you can find out more on the official site (and a really well produced one, at that) for "it's a big world."

Village Green Preservation Society

I heard this song, The Village Green Preservation Society, on XM Radio today and it got to me. It's a 3-disc set of The Kinks' 1968 album. Has some great lyrics, and I'm thinking it would be a good name for the weekly weekend family trips that we have on our New Year's resolution list, trips that we'd like to take with our friends and their kids around Los Angeles.

This weekend, we're planning on seeing the (c)Murakami exhibit at M.O.C.A.

Relaxing Before the Show

Hanging out before the show with Spud. Caro just ran into Fall Out Boy in the lobby - she did their Nintendo sponsorship. We're watching the feeds of the Live Earth shows from around the world while we watch Giants Stadium start to fill up - heading out from the city soon.

Hanging at Soho Grand

Caro and I are just having coffee, reading the Times and waiting for Spud to show up. Counting down the hours to our front and center seats at Live Earth!

Snow Patrol at Gibson Amphitheater

This shot from the second row stage left actually turned out nice. Irish slash Scottish band, Snow Patrol, who I'd really not ever listened to very much before. Suprisingly young crowd, so obviously they're getting a lot of mainstream radio play. The songs were hit and miss, some saccharine radio pop as well as some good rock show tunes. You can hear why they were opening for U2 on tour.

Ok Go

YouTube superstars, Ok Go, opening for Snow Patrol at Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City. If you have any doubt about the power of the internet, this band (and the screaming teen audience who showed up to see them) should put it to rest. They clearly like to remind themselves of their power and popularity by constantly chiding the audience to perform stunts for them like flashing mobile phone screens. They had a video backdrop running some really great stuff, though; they also reminded the audience to check out their new YouTube video and that they have the best videos. Interesting at a live show.

Ozzy & Sharon

Yep. That's Ozzy and Sharon at the Ozzfest tour press conference in Century City. Ozzfest will be free this year. I'm so proud of the work that my wife does on Ozzfest, and we like to laugh that when our son grows up to be a teenager, telling him that his Mom worked with rockers like Ozzy will be the future equivalent of the Alan Parsons Project. Sharon herself said it on a recent episode of Gordon Ramsay's F-Word on BBC America: it doesn't matter what you do, you're going to be an embarrassment to your kids. She's a smart lady and a lot of fun to watch doing some business.

And clearly they're not vampires - look at the size of that crucifix Ozzy is sporting.

Paul Weller at Avalon

A truly great show. Caro took me to see former The Jam lead man Paul Weller at the Avalon in Hollywood. Yeah, you officially feel old when you go to a show and realize, once your eyes adjust to the dim lighting, that you're in a crowd of 35+ year old balding dudes who rock out. 'That's Entertainment' is one of my favorite tunes of all time, but I didn't hear him play it - we came late and left early because it was a school night and we were wiped out.

The Who at the Hollywood Bowl

Caro got us kick-ass seats at the Hollywood Bowl for The Who. I had actually seen them before sometime back in the 80's, at RFK stadium in Washington. I also saw someone fall from the second deck of the stadium into the crowd below at that DC show.

This was a better show than I thought it would be, in part because we had great box seats (see the music god sighting in the post below).

The Great Smashing Pumpkin Sighting

Hardly recognizable in this photo - sort of like a shot of Sasquatch in the woods - but it's Billy Corgan sitting in the adjacent box seat at The Who at the Hollywood Bowl.

According to wikipedia, Corgan's 40th birthday is this year, on Saint Patrick's Day, which is also a Saturday. Which would mean this could be the number one coolest birthday party of the year.