October 30, 2007
 
                                 
 
I mentioned a few days ago that we saw They Might Be Giants in concert (my 34th time).  What I didn't mention was the opening band.  We got the tickets a month before the show and it said "They Might Be Giants" and then under it was, "Oppenheimer". 
 
Normally, I would have gone online and looked them up, but since we were living without internet at the time, I didn't have that luxury.  I thought, "oh well, another 'eh' opening band," and didn't give it much thought. 
 
The night of the show we were having dinner in the one restaurant in Northampton that didn't have a huge line going out into the street (after getting the food, we realized why), and talking about the pros and cons of going to see the opening band.  The venue had assigned seats, so we weren't all that interested in getting there hours early to get up front of anything like we normally do when seeing TMBG.  Kari didn't want to get there until the opening band was done and TMBG was ready to play, but thinking back to the track record of awesome bands I've been introduced after seeing them open for TMBG (Okgo, The Candy Butchers, Lincoln, Scout, Frank Black, Corn Mo, and Betwixt), I was thinking, "Um, maybe we could go to the Calvin and catch the last three or so songs from this Oppenheimer band."
 
We actually caught their last two songs and were totally blown away by these two guys from Belfast who just totally rocked out in this amazing synth-pop style.  Right after they finished, we were saying, "Crap!  Why didn't we look these guys up beforehand?  They're awesome!"
 
Last night we listened to one and a half songs from their MySpace page before I bought their cd from iTunes; whereupon I immediately burned two copies of it so we both could listen to it today on our way to work.  Oppenheimer's cd is definitely, hands down, without a doubt, the most wicked awesome cd of the year.  
 
in other, non-music news, we're going on a pilgrimage to Ikea on Thursday.  Joining the caravan will be Laurie, who will be driving a big ol' truck so we can collectively cart more cool stuff home with. 
 
 
What I'm listening to right now (on repeat):  Oppenheimer - Saturday Looks Bad To Me
 
 
 
October 27, 2007
 
                                      
 
We're knee-deep in good music over here!  Usually when you get a cd from a band you've never really heard before you take a gamble.  Way too many times I've bought a cd, only to find one (maybe two) good songs on it, with the rest being wholly unlistenable. 
 
This week we got cds by Feist, the New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, Belle and Sebastian, and a few random songs by bands like Whiskeytown, Pavement, Peter Bjorn and John, For Squirrels, and Nada Surf, I've been wanting for a while and finally got from iTunes.  All of it has been great, so there's a happy home in Western Massachusetts with their iPod painting the room with great sounds.   
 
 
What I'm listening to right now:  Feist - Mushaboom
 
 
 
October 25, 2007
 
                                                
   A crappy picture of some cool Alyssa Ettinger pottery at Fuchsia Home in Lenox.
 
Wow, did I ever miss the internet.  Today I paid a bunch of bills, looked up a bunch of old Mega Millions tickets that were cluttering up my wallet (crap!, nothing), caught up on a bunch of blogs I used to read, got the coordinates for caches galore from Geocaching.com, and spent the rest of the day tromping around various historic sites, cemeteries, parks, radio controlled airplane fields (well, actually just one of those), and forests around Pittsfield.  I ended up finding five out of the six caches I set out to find, which is a pretty good ratio for me (normally, I find less than half of the ones I look for). 
 
While out and about, I realized how much I love fall.  It's the only time of the year that get together with all of the senses and has a raging kegger of a party...The earthy aromatic smell of the season; the cutty brisk coolness to the air; the sound of crispy crunchy leaves crunkling underfoot; the pleasantly smoky taste of nearby chimneys puffing away; and the stunningly delightful mountains filled with the bright volley of weeks-long lingering fireworks that nature saves for this, the bestest time of the year.  God, I love autumn in New England.  When I get wicked rich and have a house on the moon, I'm coming back to the Berkshires every fall just to experience this natural perfection of a season.
 
What else is new since I last had a reliable internet connection?  Oh yeah, we moved from the mean streets of historic Lenox to the charming climes of oh so pretty Pittsfield.  Years ago, in the late 1990's, when I moved away from Pittsfield to the alluring banks of the Merrimack River in Hudson, New Hampshire, I thought, there's no real reason to move back there; the city's been in a steep decline for the past decade, and there's no way it's going to come back.  There's nothing there for me anymore. 
 
Wow, so much can change in the better part of a decade.  We moved into a temporary living space about a month ago.  Our new building is a huge church rectory right in the smack-dab-middle of the city that is being converted into condos.  Our apartment will be ready in a few weeks, so in the meantime, we've been occupying a few rooms on the third floor.  Our first night here happened to be a "3rd Thursday," which is a big monthly event that attracts thousands of people.  After walking only one block, we were in the middle of a mile-long street party that featured dozens of musicians, entertainers, fire-twirlers, shops open late, and food being cooked on the sidewalk.  It was beyond awesome to see the city so alive, with throngs of people walking, crowding, and just being downtown.  It was wonderful.
 
A few days later, Kari, Paige, and I were having drinks at Spice when we got to talking with Douglas, the executive chef, who then gave us a tour of the new restaurant they're about to open next door called "Burger".  It's an awesome concept, it's one block away, and I can't wait for it to open (and they're serving cupcakes!). 
 
A couple of weeks ago Kari and I had a very rare day off together where we drove west with the intent on going to Hudson, NY.  We didn't know where Hudson was, and we didn't have a map, but amazingly we happened to find it without any fuss.  We're just lucky like that.  Anyway, we spent a very fun day in the cool shops and neat-o town that reminded me a lot of a weird combination of Charleston (SC) and Northampton (MA). 
 
In beer news, I've rated tons of new beers...but my ratings are packed away in a box somewhere.  I did manage to get a bottle of Ommegang's new beer, Ommegeddon, which I've very excited about.  I'm letting it age for a few months and might open it at a Ratebeer party we want to host when we get settled in the new place.  I also found bottles of cave-aged Ommegang at a local liquor store (the same place where I happened upon a 2-year old bottle of Three Philosophers a couple of weeks ago) and got a few.     
 
What's with the cats?  Our two cats (Zoe and NewCat) hate hate hate each other, but they always sleep on the bed within two feet of one another, they both sleep or sit in the same way at the same time, and apparently right now it's Cat Bath Time because they both have the same hind leg aloft as they lick lick lick themselves clean.  Weird. 
 
Baxter update ('cause everyone loves that Baxter):  we did laundry last night, and, as usual, haven't folded any of the clothes, so they're still in the laundry bag.  Since it's in his nature to burrow, he has tunneled his way into the bag and is all snuggly amidst a large load of of freshly laundered clothes.  I can see maybe doing it last night, since they were all piping hot, fresh from the dryer and all, but why today?  Silly puppy. 
 
Secret-thought-that-I-shouldn't-put-online-because-Kari-might-read-it:  When I wake up in the middle of the night with a stiff neck after discovering NewCat has completely overtaken my pillow, and I've been drooling, pillow-less, on the bed for hours, I pick her up and put her on Kari's pillow.   
 
 
What I'm listening to right now:  Whiskeytown - Turn Around
 
 
 
October 23, 2007
 
It's been a very long time...since we've had a reliable connection to the internet at home.  When we finally got it hooked up, I saw that I had gotten an email from a friend in Alabama asking, "Why do you even have a website?"  I dunno.   
 
The other night we went to Northampton and saw Billy Bragg in concert at the Calvin.  He's been one of Kari's top favorite musicians ever, and she was ecstatic to see him live again.  I, however, have always been, "Eh," about him, and have sorta like a couple of his songs.  After seeing him perform, I have been completely changed.  He's one of the very very few artists who can stand up on a stage by himself, with no backing band, and totally captivate and entertain an audience. 
 
Two days later we went to the Calvin to see They Might Be Giants.  The last time I saw them was a year and a half ago in Nashville, so I was suffering from TMBG withdrawal.  We had great third row seats, and after the first song, the band told everyone to come up front and fill all the aisles, so hundreds of people ran down and filled in every crevice in front and besides us.  Oh well.  The concert was really good (although, I don't care much for a lot of the new songs).
 
Funny, I had months and months of stuff that I wanted to write about, and now I can't remember any of it.    
 
 
What I'm listening to right now:  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Blue Turning Gray
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                    © 2007 Eric Nixon.  All rights reserved.