Hunting Bears
This weekend was glooooooorious.
Friday, I went to LETU and Spork had saved me a free ticket to see the great Phil Keaggy in concert! He performed in a very polite yet off-the-cuff manner, which just added to everyone's awe at his playing. My favorite bits were the way he used all his pedals and loops to build completely amazing songs with just his guitar and voice. I got no pictures, but good stuff.
Next day, Pebble and I went to Bubble/Geoff's house and played DDR and ate large amounts of pizza, and went to a Muse concert the next night.
It was at the Nokia Theater, which was a new Dallas venue for me. It was really nice to have a seat at a show for a change, though everyone stood the entire time Muse played.
The two opening acts were nothing special. The first group was entirely forgettable, mostly due to the songwriting in my opinion. I feel like that is a harsh thing to say about them but that's what I thought.
The second act had some distinctive moments. I believe they were called the Licks and the lead singer woman was absolutely the most enthuasiastic/explosive singer I have ever heard. She gave it 300% and had a pretty good voice considering all her prancing and swinging all over the stage (and even in the crowd).
I am convinced the best way to describe her would be a 21st century rock 'n rool Janis Joplin, which might be a huge compliment. She had that kind of charisma and passion for every second of the set. I'm not sure I'll go back and listen to more of their stuff, but certainly not because they didn't try hard enough.
As for Muse... yeah, what shall we say. Amazing.
The concert basically just proved that everything you hear on their CDs -- yes, Matthew Bellamy can do that live. I think one good thing that any band can learn from the big British acts is how to put on a good light show. Muse's equipment and light fixtures looked like a satellite had landed on stage.
Live camera footage was fed through a bunch of swirly colors, so the screens behind the band showed live images synchronized with the music. There was smoke and flashy lights and eight stage hands even finished one song by tossing eight confetti-filled balls into the crowd. It was splendiferous.
The band spoke very little. There was no political commentary, aside from the decidedly pointed juxtaposition of a JFK quote about tyranny followed by the very anti-Bush opening song "Take A Bow."
After that, it was a late drive back to LETU so Pebble could get to class like a responsible kiddo. That drive back was one of the hardest I've done, for keeping my eyes open, but we didn't die. I slept hard and then returned to Dallas next day for some job-hunting-related stuff. I'll let ya know how that goes.
Anyway, after I was through with that, I was right by the National Scouting Museum, so I thought I'd see it. It wasn't huge but it was a very nice museum with theaters and a couple of mannequin demonstrations and arcade style games.
Here's old Baden-Powell himself, with a sweet quote from Euripides.
There was a cool little arcade shooter that I liked.
And that would be 27 hits out of 25 shots. Yes, bonus challenge shots are *that* awesome.
There were other things that I liked, such as a display of every Boy Scout handbook ever made, as well as a nice little gallery of original Normal Rockwell paintings related to Scouts. I'd seen most of them in various bits of literature so I enjoyed seeing the real deal.
And then I drove back towards Alto, taking it easy and not caring too much how I got there. I got a bit tangled up in Tyler but eventually I found the IHOP by about 3 PM or so, since I hadn't eaten all day.
I think I was just getting used to some cooler weather but then Texas went back into summer mode. Ah well, fall will be that much sweeter when it arrives.
Friday, I went to LETU and Spork had saved me a free ticket to see the great Phil Keaggy in concert! He performed in a very polite yet off-the-cuff manner, which just added to everyone's awe at his playing. My favorite bits were the way he used all his pedals and loops to build completely amazing songs with just his guitar and voice. I got no pictures, but good stuff.
Next day, Pebble and I went to Bubble/Geoff's house and played DDR and ate large amounts of pizza, and went to a Muse concert the next night.
It was at the Nokia Theater, which was a new Dallas venue for me. It was really nice to have a seat at a show for a change, though everyone stood the entire time Muse played.
The two opening acts were nothing special. The first group was entirely forgettable, mostly due to the songwriting in my opinion. I feel like that is a harsh thing to say about them but that's what I thought.
The second act had some distinctive moments. I believe they were called the Licks and the lead singer woman was absolutely the most enthuasiastic/explosive singer I have ever heard. She gave it 300% and had a pretty good voice considering all her prancing and swinging all over the stage (and even in the crowd).
I am convinced the best way to describe her would be a 21st century rock 'n rool Janis Joplin, which might be a huge compliment. She had that kind of charisma and passion for every second of the set. I'm not sure I'll go back and listen to more of their stuff, but certainly not because they didn't try hard enough.
As for Muse... yeah, what shall we say. Amazing.
The concert basically just proved that everything you hear on their CDs -- yes, Matthew Bellamy can do that live. I think one good thing that any band can learn from the big British acts is how to put on a good light show. Muse's equipment and light fixtures looked like a satellite had landed on stage.
Live camera footage was fed through a bunch of swirly colors, so the screens behind the band showed live images synchronized with the music. There was smoke and flashy lights and eight stage hands even finished one song by tossing eight confetti-filled balls into the crowd. It was splendiferous.
The band spoke very little. There was no political commentary, aside from the decidedly pointed juxtaposition of a JFK quote about tyranny followed by the very anti-Bush opening song "Take A Bow."
After that, it was a late drive back to LETU so Pebble could get to class like a responsible kiddo. That drive back was one of the hardest I've done, for keeping my eyes open, but we didn't die. I slept hard and then returned to Dallas next day for some job-hunting-related stuff. I'll let ya know how that goes.
Anyway, after I was through with that, I was right by the National Scouting Museum, so I thought I'd see it. It wasn't huge but it was a very nice museum with theaters and a couple of mannequin demonstrations and arcade style games.
Here's old Baden-Powell himself, with a sweet quote from Euripides.
There was a cool little arcade shooter that I liked.
And that would be 27 hits out of 25 shots. Yes, bonus challenge shots are *that* awesome.
There were other things that I liked, such as a display of every Boy Scout handbook ever made, as well as a nice little gallery of original Normal Rockwell paintings related to Scouts. I'd seen most of them in various bits of literature so I enjoyed seeing the real deal.
And then I drove back towards Alto, taking it easy and not caring too much how I got there. I got a bit tangled up in Tyler but eventually I found the IHOP by about 3 PM or so, since I hadn't eaten all day.
I think I was just getting used to some cooler weather but then Texas went back into summer mode. Ah well, fall will be that much sweeter when it arrives.
Do you remember when we ate at that Ihop before (assuming it is the only one in Tyler which is entirely non-assumable)??? It was when Mom and Dad went to England for the first time and we had been up to the Keeners on Christmas day. We drove around Tyler like famished hounds and the *only* restaurant in Tyler that was open was Ihop.
It was good to eat that day.
Aaaanywho.
ps your family is funny/deep. i'm linking to them.