So WIld and Free and Far From Me

Ok, no theme here....just what I've been up to:

- M-83 at the Black Cat were pretty good. Rich, textured, very pretty. I wasn't blown away the same way I was the first time I heard them (sitting in the unbelievably expensive lobby bar at the Tribeca Grand Hotel), but I still have to say that it was enjoyable. Still can't quite believe how fucking young and suburban these crowds are these days, but shit, I'm turning 35 in a week, so I guess I just need to accept that this will be the trend moving forward.

- Photo Week DC has exceeded ALL of my expectations. Every single one of them. Very much enjoyed the three exhibits on M Street (sorry I can't remember the name of the really big host location; it was an excellent venue...Was it Lumas, maybe?); also enjoyed Ken Ashton's work at Vegitate.

Wasn't so crazy about whatever clusterfuck event took place at the Katzen Arts Center at AU (too crowded, overwhelmingly text-heavy, and just generally packed with people), but I do have to say that the third floor exhibits were pretty rad, and that the space in general just might be the best contemporary arts spaces I've ever seen in Washington. Total f-ing gem.

Either way, those prima donnas at Art-O-Matic might want to consult with the Photo Week folks. These people seem to knw how to run an event.

- Dinner at Chef Geoff's last night was good (scallops with mushroom risotto, bowl of won ton soup; the lady had soup and salad), but I'm not sure if it was $100.00 good. I'm pretty sure it would have been a spectacular $50 meal, and a pretty darned good $75 meal. $100 is a tougher sell.

- Cleveland Park finally has their Yogi Berry! Now I can finally stop wondering if I should check out that Mr. Yogato place (is D.C. really so boring that we need names this dumb?).

- WhyIHateDC finally have some new writers, and a few of them seem to have a little common sense. We'll see how long this lasts.

- Skins got it back to gether tonight, thank you Mr. Springs. Good to see us get a little distace on the Eagles, (though I must say that it doesn't feel good to see it end this way for Donovan. Reid mismanaged the heck out of that team this year, and looking back it's hard not to empathize with McNabb over his desire over the offseason for more weapons on the offense.

Whatever....Philly sucks).

Life goes on.

But I'm Outta My Head When You're Not Around

Here we go again....sorry for being a completely shit blogger.
I'm kinda busy these days, and most of my effort (haha....
effort) has been going towards my updating my Flickr account
and working on a different blog, which any straglers should
try and check out if they can.

So, because I didn't bother to do full entries on anything
I've been up to lately, here's a quick-form run-down:

- Caught the Avadon exhibit at the Corchoran.  Goddamn.  It
honestly is just as good as everyone says. I'm just as big on
pimping the free museums in D.C. as the next Washingtonian
apologist is, but when the Corchoran does it right (see:
Modernist exhibit of last year), you don't quite mind
shelling out.

- We have a new President coming to town. I'm happy to have
been here when it happened.

And while I'm at it, I'm happy to throw a little love at Sen.
McCain.  In the past five days it's become all kinds of
fashionable to cite McCain's concession speech as proof of
the man he once was....the Republican that Democrats could
once get behind. I always did maintain that the world would
have been a better place if he had gotten the nod in 2000,
rather than W., but at this point it matters not.  I just
hope that now that this fucking mess is over he can go back
to being the statesman that he once was, before Bush warped
him.

(P.S. President-elect Obama: Don't sleep on nuclear!)

- Went to New Orleans last weekend for Halloween.  My god, do
I loathe Bourbon Street (and a lot of the Quarter), but we
still ate well, drank absinthe, and had a good time.

I believe that my mission in life now is to somehow have the
Rebirth Brass Band commissioned as a national treasure.

- Caught one hell of a show by the Magnetic Fields at Lisner
a few weekends ago. Although the place was packed with just
as many NPR nerds as I was fearing, the fact was that it was
a great big fun show.  The sound was phenomenal; you
immediately appreciated how pure each of the three vocalists
is, and no aspect of the instrumentation suffered at the
expense of another. And while Claudia Gonson's ultra-dry
intellectual wit is a huge turn-off to me personally (why do
smart girls always insist on stripping the cute out of absolutely
everything?), I could listen to Stephin Merrit complain all night
long. With no sarcasm intended whatsoever, that dude is one
charming curmudgeon. "Papa Was a Rodeo" was almost too
beautiful that night.  Seriously. As was a very stripped down
version of "No One Will Ever Love You." Best show of the year.

- Not best show: John Powers at the Red & the Black.  Listen, it's
not like I don't love stupid silly schtick. I love metal.  I love
garage.  Schtick is fine by me.  But schtick without effort is just
a waste of everyone's time.  I fucking hate it when performers
won't go all in on a schtick.  Near as I can tell, John Powers is
basically just goofing off enough to maybe get some trim, but not
hard enough to convince anyone to come to more than one show.

HOWEVER, Low Red Land kind of won me over, despite the 5 string bass
and a drummer with a tendency to overplay a little. Loved the dual
shouting, and I got the feeling that the lyrics had some substance to
them.  Most impressive was the encore/acoustic mini-set at the front
of the stage, which most of the fucking drunks missed out on. Awesome,
awesome way to end the set; shame no one but a handful of us actually
saw it, but in a way, that made it better.

- I missed DMBQ when they came to the Velvet, but I saw them before.

- Caught the Dandy Warhols at the 930 Club - Not their best performance.
I happened to catch them on the "13 Tales" tour, and this performance
underwhelmed me by comparison.  Part of this was due to some half-assed
performance, but more than anything, it was the coked up Asian chicks
chatting their asses off at full volume next to us, and the fat, old
girls doing the sexy-dance all night long and making weird,
uncomfortable, prolonged eye contact with every guy in near proximity
(including yours truly).  Nice way to totally, completely, absolutely
ruin "Godless".

- WhyIHateDC died and then came back.  Hahahaha.....it's so much easier
for transplants to hate on DC than it is to make a consistent argument
for why they hate it.  Pussies. (Although, as much as it pains me to
say it, the content is markedly improved these days....big time)

- Finally hit up Palena.  Holy shit, that was expensive.  And fucking
good.

Ok, I'll post again in like three months.