Before we take our first breath

As mentioned below, Amanda recorded my open mic performance last night, and I think this particular clip is pretty good. It's a cover of BNL's "What a Good Boy," and I feel like I sang it pretty well.

Amanda says I should be more specific in my blog entries, so: this was shot at Top of the Chop in Dover, NH on 7/16/07. Enjoy!

I should clean the apartment

Amanda is on the road, pug dogs in tow. She's staying in the same hotel I did and should be here tomorrow afternoon. This is good news, since I've missed her.

In other news, I've been playing at open mics around town and plan on doing more as the summer goes on. It really a great setup. Right downtown, about a five minute walk from here, are three places that have open mic on different days of the week. And here's the kicker - they all start at 8.

That's the complaint I have with Winston. I've lived there, a city of approximately 125,000 people, for almost four years now, and the best place I can come up with to get booked is the Borders cafe. There's exactly one open mic that I know of, and it starts at 10 on a Wednesday, which is great if you're in college, but not so great if you work.

I've been in Dover (population somewhere around 20k) for about a week and a half and I've already played mini-sets in two places, met more singer-songwriters, and I'm confident that I could play full sets around town if I were a permanent resident. Just a different local music culture, I guess.

The people at the shows have been very friendly and receptive, too. Just a good time all around.

Now it's time, as the title says, to get ready for the Dar's arrival tomorrow. I feel like the "real" summer is about to start.

Old School Hollywood Baseball

As I was mowing the lawn today, and, as usual, struggling with what mix of songs to play on the mp3 player, I was reminded of Brendan's recent journal entry about songs he listens to while running.

When I exercise, I'm not very picky about what I listen to. As long as it has a decent tempo and a melody or rhythm I can get into, I'm fine. But mowing is a different story. For some reason, the only thing that can propel me to keep pushing that godforsaken machine over all of our exposed roots is an upbeat theme album, straight through. I say "theme album" rather than "concept album" because it's not quite so strict. As long as the songs on the album are loosely connected by a story, mood, or whatever, it will qualify. It was this way even as a kid mowing our yard in Fulton. Then it was Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. Now, it's either American Idiot or System of a Down's Mesmerize. I'm not extolling the virtues of Nine Inch Nails or Green day as great pieces of art or anything, but they make mowing more fun. (System of a Down, by any metric, though, is a very good band.)


Even albums I otherwise love can't keep me mowing if they're too disjointed, spacy, or mellow. I might try Brian Wilson's Smile, since it seems to fit all the criteria, but I can't hink of anything else to use.

Any suggestions?

Why I love my wife

Amanda and I went for a walk this morning, after which we stopped for lunch at a local eatery. When we first sat down, John Legend was playing on the sound system. Fine. Then came James Blunt's "You're Beautiful." I made the requisite comment about how I couldn't see any girl thinkning that song, or that guy for that matter, was sweet or attractive or really anything other than whiny and annoying.

Of course, James Blunt was followed by Five For Fighting. I asked Amanda who would win in a wuss-off between James Blunt and Five for Fighting:

Me: Five for Fighting does use drums in thier songs, which gives them a point.

Amanda: But they also have a longer history of wussiness.

Me: True. (pause) I'm trying to envision a Five for Fighting concert, but I can't imagine the crowd. Who is it?...Businessmen? Housewives? No, they don't go to concerts.

Amanda: Fifth-year seniors. In college.

Me: And they're DRUNK!

Amanda: And sad. And they bring their girlfriends but don't pay attention to them all night.

Life Lessons from Huey Lewis (and the News, too)

1. It's hip to be square.

2. You don't need a credit card to ride some particular train. (The train of love, perhaps? The train of the power of love? I've heard of starting a love train, but I also thought love was a roller coaster.)

3. The heart of rock & roll is the beat.

April Showers

A few notes:

- We've sent off the lease for the place in New Hampshire, so that's a relief. I'm really looking forward to this summer.

- It's freaking cold, but you already knew that.

- After watching all the BnL Bathroom Sessions, I'm having to fight hard not to put up a "video response" of myself doing one. I'm not one of those kids, am I? Maybe Blame it on Me? Maybe Conventioneers? I want to do it, it just feels so lame. Of course, I'm pretty lame :)

- Graduate school is full of work. This work, however, happens to be enjoyable. I'm really thankful for that.

Some Fantastic

I had a nice post all written up yesterday aboutthe UK basketball coaching situation, but Blogger ate it. So never mind. And Billy Donovan's not happening.

This post, however, is about Barenaked Ladies. Not only do I love their music and really support their stance on digital distribution and all that, but they really have to be the band that's most in touch with using technology to get right to their fans. They've had a regularly updated blog since at least 2003 or so, have distributed their albums via all kinds of digital media, held fan remix and video contests, and now, they're releasing videos on Youtube called "the bathroom sessions." They're pretty much the sort of video that every bnl fan will want to see. Here's my favorite.