i've really been into old crow medicine show and the minus 5 lately. youtube is sucking at coming up with minus 5 videos, but here's one from OCMS:


i don't normally like music videos, but that one's not half bad. the harmonies help.

i listened to the minus 5's down with wilco the other day, and it changed the way my head works ever so slightly. i might actually like it, in some ways, more than actual wilco. "the revival of you", especially, is an incredibly clever song. and well-produced.

so...

...i saw district 9 tonight. would recommend it. would recommend not reading anything about it before going, as i did. it's a pretty unique movie, and i'd imagine you get more out of it by not knowing why ahead of time.

turns out that the joey beltram magical musical mystery motorcycle tour is in fact coming to spokane, but only to camp, not to play music. for shame. the closest they're actually playing is olympia, and i don't have time, sadly, to go to olympia at this time of the year. i feel as if i shouldn't complain since i got travel and camp and rock out for something like 8,000 miles this summer.

i'm putting in an extra day of work this week so i can afford to buy the phish joy box. it sounds like something pornographic, i realize, but it's really just something with lots of jams in a box.

at this time next week, i will have completed my first day of class for the semester. heaven help us all.

finally got both my computers back up and running, now on windows 7. i'm quite surprised how well my desktop that i bought in 2004 is putting up with it. the only real problem i'm having is, ironically enough, with running seti@home on it. i think it has something to do with the hyperthreading that those old pentium 4s do, combined with distributed computing apps...bah. the plan is to still potentially get a new PC in 1.5-2 years (and then, incidentally, get shitloads of video games and game myself into a stupor). but we'll see how that goes...right now i'm quite a bit in the red and trying to eat potatoes for every meal for a year or so to deal with that.

i've probably said this before, but phish was fantastic. i want to write more about the shows at some point, but everytime i think back on them it sort of blows my mind. i came in expecting them to be a sort of nostalgia act (in a good way)...you know, "see phish play all their most-cherished tunes!" when in reality this entire tour has been about them reinventing the way they play and jam (in preparation, one hopes, for more touring and jamming next year). sure, trey can't shred as fast as he once could, but that's being in your 40s for you, i'd imagine. hell, i'm in my 20s still and i almost didn't go to a movie tonight because it started at 930 and i was worried i'd have to go to bed late. but they pulled a lot of weird improvisational shit all throughout the two shows i saw, and with a polish and confidence to it where in 1996 or something they might have pulled the same sorts of tricks, but with all the delicacy and panache of a bull in the proverbial china shop. there's a place for both, i guess...it's just nice to see a band of their age still changing and innovating and not just playing to/for the crowd.

i still haven't blogged about what i got on here to blog about. i've been pretty horrifically sick for most of six days, and i'm finally getting a little better. had a good, brief trip out to dworshak park this weekend with a group of 10 for mass english-grad-student camping. i love my cohort. so social (but also laid back) and so not catty...i mean, seriously, it's not like we don't already have enough to do, right?

speaking of which, i have to go to bed. because i have to work tomorrow and i'm old.

gorge videos

here are all the videos i shot on night two at the gorge. nothing from night one because i was afraid to take my camera in, until i realized that only SLRs were restricted. dumb.

anyway, the video and sound aren't great, but here you go, such as they are:

this first video is of a spontaneous (apparently causeless) tortilla war that broke out amongst the concert-goers before the show started:


beginning of a huge glowstick war during "wolfman's brother":


some more of the "wolfman's" jam:


conclusion of the glowstick war:


part of the jam from "good times, bad times":


last two minutes of "it's ice":

good write-up of the gorge shows here.

as much as i've been in love with my apartment lately, and am looking forward to getting back to work (i.e. getting paid), and getting to sleep in a real bed tonight, i just looked at the clock and was a bit bummed that exactly 24 hours ago at this time, i was hearing "you enjoy myself" live in a gigantic river gorge. also, after 2 nights of phish, everything everywhere smells like marijuana.