Austin City Limits Music Festival 2012, Day 2

Day 2 of the ACL Festival can best be described as...wet. Shortly after I arrived, there was a huge downpour of rain. I had brought an umbrella and poncho, but I was really hoping the rain would stop. I know some of these younger kids revel in the rain by dancing and sliding in the mud, but I'm too old for that crap.

So...I lucked out. The rain stopped at around 6pm and it didn't rain again for the rest of the night.

 The only band I really wanted to see Saturday night was Neil Young & Crazy Horse. His performance started at 8pm. There was another performer, "Gotye", who was performing at 7pm that I considered watching. He's got a current hit single called "Somebody that I Used to Know" that I think is pretty good. But..that's the only song that I know. If I had watched his performance, I would have been stuck at the very back of the crowd for Neil Young. One thing I learned from these ACL festivals is that if you want to get close to the stage, you have to get over there at least one hour before the band is scheduled to come on. The longer you wait, the farther back you will be. Neil Young had the priority that night.

                                 (NEIL YOUNG)

 Neil didn't disappoint either. When he plays with Crazy Horse, he is in an entirely different stratosphere. His performance rocked harder than just about any other rock band half his age that was playing at ACL. There were several songs running nearly 15 to 20 minutes where half of that time was just FEEDBACK. I think only Neil can turn 10 minutes of feedback into an artform.

                              (KISHI BASHI)

Over these past couple of days, I have also learned the limitations of my iPhone camera and came to the conclusion that it sucks. I'll occasionally get a good picture out of it, but it's capabilities are too limited and the video recorder is awful (there is no zooming capability unless you download an additional app, and even then it's still not good). I was hoping the iPhone camera would be better than my current, 8 year old Nikon, but it's not. They both suck. So, I guess it's time to spring for a new camera.

                                (PUNCH BROTHERS)

Video - The Black Keys - Howlin' For You - ACL Festival 2012

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2012, Day 1

Here's a few pictures from the first day of the Austin City Limits Music Festival (10/12/12)  I didn't get there until late in the afternoon, so I caught about 30 minutes from both Weezer and Florence and the Machine, followed by the full set from The Black Keys.  I'll have a few videos to follow in the days ahead.

Sara Talks Openly About Obama Vs. Romney 2012

I asked Sara to tell me her opinion about the upcoming election.  I didn't coach her or tell her what to say.  This is what she said.  I thought it was kinda funny.

Video: The Australian Pink Floyd at ACL Live

Here is some video I shot on my new iPhone of the Australian Pink Floyd doing the Floyd classic, "Comfortably Numb." You can decide for yourself if you think they captured the Floyd sound or not.

ACL Live: The Australian Pink Floyd

October is a pretty big month for music fans in Austin, as the Austin City Limits Music Festival takes place next weekend (October 12-14).  I'll be attending once again, as the lineup this year is quite a bit better than last year.  This years headliners feature The Black Keys, Neil Young, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Before the ACL Festival, however, there was Austin City Limits Live.  This is a show that has been broadcast on PBS stations since 1976, and is pretty famous here in Austin.  If you get to see a live taping, you can see some pretty famous bands (sometimes) performing in a very small venue.

Last night Christy and I saw our first ACL Live show, featuring the most famous of all the Pink Floyd cover bands out there: The Australian Pink Floyd.

The Australian Pink Floyd has been around for a very long time, gaining a pretty solid reputation as the best re-creation of a Pink Floyd concert (circa the '87 and '94 tours).

The show started off well.  "In the Flesh?" opened the evening, but since the Roger Waters production of "The Wall" was still fresh in my mind, I couldn't help but compare the two, and obviously it's better to see the real thing.  Then they segued into songs from the David Gilmour-led Pink Floyd, with "Take It Back," "Sorrow", and "What Do You Want From Me?"  They did a very good job with these later songs.  The highlights for me, however, were the two songs that the actual band didn't even sing on.  "One of These Days" sounded almost identical to the PF version from "Pulse."  "The Great Gig in the Sky," performed by their three backup singers, was also quite excellent.

It would have been a pretty good evening, if it weren't for the smoke alarm that went off during the group's first set.  After about 5 songs in, the house lights came up and the music was abruptly halted.  The band quickly left the stage, and we were never told what happened.  Only later did I find out that the smoke alarm was accidentally triggered.  Any momentum the band was gaining was quickly lost due to this "What the hell just happened?" moment.  I should point out that, even though the smoke alarm went off, the audience was never told about it, or asked to leave the venue.

Christy enjoyed the show and said it made her appreciate the original band more.  But she still insisted that "a clone is still a clone."  I think The Australian Pink Floyd serves a niche.  Pink Floyd hasn't toured since 1994, and there's an entire new generation of Floyd fans who wish they could have seen them.  Barring an unlikely reunion, this is probably the best they're going to get.

Ramblings #18 : Birthdays, iPhones, and Romney (again)

"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.  All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.  My job is not to worry about those people.  I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
  -Mitt Romney, 2012

I have to wonder sometimes, if Mitt is purposely trying to sabotage his chances as president.  Does this guy really think that nearly HALF of the country sees themselves as a victim?  That doesn't take personal responsibility and care for their lives?  Sorry to inform you Mitt, but I'm one of those 47% who supports Obama, and I'm not dependent on government for anything, nor have I ever received any handouts.  I buy my own food, pay my own mortgage, pay for my own healthcare, and I take responsibility for everything I do.  This is really insulting.  Basically he's calling half the country a bunch of lazy freeloaders with their hands out.  Yes, those people do exist, but 47%???

My support for Obama has nothing to do with wanting free stuff.  It's very simple, actually.  I prefer the policies of the Democratic platform more than I do the Republican one.  I agree with the Republicans on some issues, but I agree with the Democrats on more issues.  That's all there is to it.

As it gets closer to November, people are getting more and more heated about the election.  I try to talk as little about it as possible.  I have Facebook friends who are staunch supporters of Romney, and when I read their anti-Obama rants, all I can really do is cringe a little, and ignore it.  I can't debate or argue with them because it leads nowhere, and it will most likely end our friendship (not that I'm close friends with most of those Facebook people anyway).  I don't really know anyone who is on the fence about this election.  Everyone seems to be very pro-Romney or very pro-Obama.  People talk like it's going to be the end of the world if Romney or Obama win.  It's not.  Life will go in.  I've already told my wife that the only difference we're likely to see if Romney wins is owing more taxes.  So...we'll just have to prepare for that.
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 I celebrated my 42nd birthday earlier this month.  My birthday fell on Labor Day this year, so I had to work.  It was probably the most un-fun birthday I've had in quite a while.  For those who are new to this blog, I work at a hospital, and on this particular shift, I had the unique experience of trying to talk to someone who was already dead.  I've never actually experienced a death at work before.  Odd, considering I work at a hospital.  I had heard stories about deaths constantly, but this was the first time for me...and on my birthday!

Later, after the melancholy of the days events had passed, Christy and I went to Wal Mart to buy the iPhone 4s, which they currently had on sale for $148 (with a 2 year contract, of course).

I've never actually owned a smartphone before.  I hung on to my crappy little flipper cell-phone for years while the smart phone dominated the market.  I always seem to be last in line for the latest technology, and by then something better has come out (in this case, it's the iPhone 5, which was just released.)

But...I really love this iPhone, particularly the talking assistant, "Siri."  The first day I had the phone, I spent hours asking Siri all kinds of random questions, and she had some pretty good answers.  But I got over that pretty quick.

I gotta give credit to Apple for making some really cool and easy to use products.  I can imagine sometime in the future we're going to see houses (iHouse?) created by Apple, where all you have to do is speak to Siri (or HAL?) to do things for you.
Siri....start the oven.
Siri....turn on the shower.
Siri...flush the toilet.
Siri...open the living room window.

Etc. etc.  Imagine an entire house jacked in to Apple.  Hell, this kind of house probably already exists somewhere.

So will I be waiting in line for hours (or days) to buy the iPhone 5?  Hell no!  Get a life, people.