As of 6PM last night the big news was that Monnie has a new blog on Madison's favorite website! Monnie will be doing a featured blog there (woohoo! the right side of the screen!) with her cohert Becky, called Nutirilitious. It's awesome that she has a featured blog (there are only 7!) on such a popular site! Congrats Monnie!
And then there were three... the other (even bigger!) news of last night was the arrival of the worlds newest Fox! Annabelle Mary Fox was born last night in Brookfield, WI. Congratulations to Mike and Steph on their first!
8.25.2006
8.07.2006
Lollapalology
This is my apology for the crazy-huge posts I am about to put up about Lollapalooza.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
I started off meaning to only post about the good bands... then realized that there were like 5 bands in all three days combined that I didn't think were great - and several of those I wanted to talk about because I expected more!
Anyway, I imagine you'll either skip them completely or just do the old "Ctrl-F" to search for whatever band you're wondering about... that's fine though: enjoy!
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
I started off meaning to only post about the good bands... then realized that there were like 5 bands in all three days combined that I didn't think were great - and several of those I wanted to talk about because I expected more!
Anyway, I imagine you'll either skip them completely or just do the old "Ctrl-F" to search for whatever band you're wondering about... that's fine though: enjoy!
Lollapalooza Day 3
The first act we saw Sunday (Day 3) was The Hold Steady - a solid start.
The next one was a really nice surpirse: Ben Kweller put on a great show that I think we were all very happy with. What's with the Aussie's at Lollapalooza? They all put on great shows!
Andrew Bird was one show that I really thought was going to sneak up on me. I thought this could be the one that really put on a great show out of "nowhere"... not quite. It was a solid show but I think he would be much much better suited to a smaller venue.
Next for sadly the biggest disapointment of the weekend: The Shins. I am definitely a fan of this band so I really thought I was in for a treat. The worst sound of the weekend (by the way, the rest of the weekend they did an INCREDIBLE job with making every band sound good) combined with what I think just wasn't that great of a live show really was disapointing.
The last two bands of the weekend were two of my favorite shows. Wilco owed me a good show. I am a pretty big fan but the only other show I had seen was quite disapointing. This one was a completely different story though - I REALLY was happy with the show and now I can happily say: they are very good live.
And, of course, how could we talk about Day 3 without talking about the festivals biggest act and closer: the Red Hot Chili Peppers. These guys put on a really great show and I am very glad to have been able to see them.
All-in-all Lollapalooza was an absolutely great time and I would definitely go again. The back-to-back grade A bands for three straight days was just as incredible as it seems like it should be! My expectations were definitely exceeded: thanks for organizing Brandon!
The next one was a really nice surpirse: Ben Kweller put on a great show that I think we were all very happy with. What's with the Aussie's at Lollapalooza? They all put on great shows!
Andrew Bird was one show that I really thought was going to sneak up on me. I thought this could be the one that really put on a great show out of "nowhere"... not quite. It was a solid show but I think he would be much much better suited to a smaller venue.
Next for sadly the biggest disapointment of the weekend: The Shins. I am definitely a fan of this band so I really thought I was in for a treat. The worst sound of the weekend (by the way, the rest of the weekend they did an INCREDIBLE job with making every band sound good) combined with what I think just wasn't that great of a live show really was disapointing.
The last two bands of the weekend were two of my favorite shows. Wilco owed me a good show. I am a pretty big fan but the only other show I had seen was quite disapointing. This one was a completely different story though - I REALLY was happy with the show and now I can happily say: they are very good live.
And, of course, how could we talk about Day 3 without talking about the festivals biggest act and closer: the Red Hot Chili Peppers. These guys put on a really great show and I am very glad to have been able to see them.
All-in-all Lollapalooza was an absolutely great time and I would definitely go again. The back-to-back grade A bands for three straight days was just as incredible as it seems like it should be! My expectations were definitely exceeded: thanks for organizing Brandon!
Lollapalooza Day 2
After spending the night at The Congress we were back at Grant Park for Day 2.
Just like the day before, Day 2 was great right off the bat.
The first band was one of the biggest surprises of the weekend. Rainer Maria left us wishing they had more than a 30 minute timeslot.
Nada Surf was up next - Another band that I wanted to see more than the rest of our crew and I wasn't disapointed. Not a 'blow your socks off' show but I was quite happy with it.
The Go! Team and Coheed And Cambria were both... eh.
And then, my friends, it was time for Wolfmother. This was THE best band of Lollapalooza. Their show was absolutely incredible - I can't believe they had to play an early afternoon timeslot. We were all looking forward to this one but Geer had been building it up all weekend. Enough that I was kind of worried that he was making too much of it... wrong, he was right on: this show was unbelievable. One of the best I've ever seen.
Gnarls Barkley put on a good show but immediately after Wolfmother - they didn't really get a fair shake. They did have the big honor of the weekend though as their monster hit "Crazy" was covered by at least 3 other bands.
Another one of the most surprising bands of the weekend were up next. The Dresden Dolls put on a very good show.
Two very good bands that I've been wanting to had the slots leading up to the closer:
The Flaming Lips and The New Pornographers both put on very good shows that I was happy with. The New Pornographers were a band that I was really expecting quite a bit of - and they delivered. Great shows.
I'd say that the Day 2 closer (Kanye West) was disapointing... that may not be completely fair since I don't think I really gave him a fair shot... but hey, it's still true that I ended up leaving it early - so...
That's Day 2 I guess
Just like the day before, Day 2 was great right off the bat.
The first band was one of the biggest surprises of the weekend. Rainer Maria left us wishing they had more than a 30 minute timeslot.
Nada Surf was up next - Another band that I wanted to see more than the rest of our crew and I wasn't disapointed. Not a 'blow your socks off' show but I was quite happy with it.
The Go! Team and Coheed And Cambria were both... eh.
And then, my friends, it was time for Wolfmother. This was THE best band of Lollapalooza. Their show was absolutely incredible - I can't believe they had to play an early afternoon timeslot. We were all looking forward to this one but Geer had been building it up all weekend. Enough that I was kind of worried that he was making too much of it... wrong, he was right on: this show was unbelievable. One of the best I've ever seen.
Gnarls Barkley put on a good show but immediately after Wolfmother - they didn't really get a fair shake. They did have the big honor of the weekend though as their monster hit "Crazy" was covered by at least 3 other bands.
Another one of the most surprising bands of the weekend were up next. The Dresden Dolls put on a very good show.
Two very good bands that I've been wanting to had the slots leading up to the closer:
The Flaming Lips and The New Pornographers both put on very good shows that I was happy with. The New Pornographers were a band that I was really expecting quite a bit of - and they delivered. Great shows.
I'd say that the Day 2 closer (Kanye West) was disapointing... that may not be completely fair since I don't think I really gave him a fair shot... but hey, it's still true that I ended up leaving it early - so...
That's Day 2 I guess
Lollapalooza Day 1
I had an awesome weekend at Lollapalooza, in Chicago. Dan McNeil, Tom Geer, Brandon Vloch, Jesse Consolatti and Joe (Brandon's brother in law) made the trip and none of us left disapointed - great music all weekend and the whole experience really did vastly exceed my expectations.
This post is only going to do Day1
Sound Team - A good start to the weekend. A solid band who (now that I look) has a pretty cool website for you to check out, including a recital with some magazine cutouts of themselves.
Next up were The Subways. These guys were awesome. I didn't think that I'd be seeing one of my favorite bands of the whole weekend at noon on the first day (this show ended up 4th in my overall rankings). The lead guitar and vocals was very animated - jumping up on the base drum and jumping off and just generally everywhere. The bass player was also all over the place. She was basically unwilling to forgo dancing just because she had to play at the same time. Definitely check out this website too - the videos for two of my favorite songs are readily available on the front page. They're also listed on the Lollapalooza site as one of the "Six Bands Who Might Oneday Headline This Gig"
Aqualung was up next. I had seen Aqualung before (opening for David Gray) and am going to see them again coming up (opening for The Fray) and they're 'fine'. I guess the best way for me to describe them is that they're a great band to open for David Gray.
Then came a show that I was definitely excited to see. The Eels were one of the bands this weekend that I'm sure I liked more than anyone else in our group. They sported a variety of costumes - the lead had a WWII fighter pilot look while another guy sported a Security outfit and a crazy demenor - karatee chopping and speaking jibberish up there: which really suits the Eels about perfectly!
Then on to The Editors and Umphrey's McGee - finally a couple shows that were good but not great so I could lump them together and make this Day 1 post less than 80000 words long. Both of these are big up and coming bands though - I'm sure we'll see much more of them coming up soon.
Next for me was Iron & Wine. This show I was by myself sitting on the grass for a good portion of. In my opinion - probably pretty much the perfect way to see them. Very laid back - very enjoyable.
Next I had a tough decision. Do I see My Morning Jacket, who I really like and have a couple of my favorite songs from a year or two back? Or do I see The Raconteurs - with Jack White and a first (last?) CD like there's - this one is an obviously good show. Well, Brandon, Joe and I went to check out My Morning Jacket... probably a mistake. They were fine but boy am I glad that we made it over for the second half of Raconeurs - clearly my second favorite show of the fest.
The night ended with two good bands that sounded just like they should have: no better and no worse. The Violent Femmes (they bring all their equipment on the bus) and Death Cab for Cutie. The Femmes are a band that I really had to see - I've listened to them for so long I don't know how this is the first time I've seen them. Death Cab was one that I expected a little too much of, I think. They put on a good show and I'm glad that I got to see it, but I didn't think it was one of the better ones of the weekend.
So, that's DAY 1 ONLY! I'm going to definitely seperate these out into different posts.
This post is only going to do Day1
Sound Team - A good start to the weekend. A solid band who (now that I look) has a pretty cool website for you to check out, including a recital with some magazine cutouts of themselves.
Next up were The Subways. These guys were awesome. I didn't think that I'd be seeing one of my favorite bands of the whole weekend at noon on the first day (this show ended up 4th in my overall rankings). The lead guitar and vocals was very animated - jumping up on the base drum and jumping off and just generally everywhere. The bass player was also all over the place. She was basically unwilling to forgo dancing just because she had to play at the same time. Definitely check out this website too - the videos for two of my favorite songs are readily available on the front page. They're also listed on the Lollapalooza site as one of the "Six Bands Who Might Oneday Headline This Gig"
Aqualung was up next. I had seen Aqualung before (opening for David Gray) and am going to see them again coming up (opening for The Fray) and they're 'fine'. I guess the best way for me to describe them is that they're a great band to open for David Gray.
Then came a show that I was definitely excited to see. The Eels were one of the bands this weekend that I'm sure I liked more than anyone else in our group. They sported a variety of costumes - the lead had a WWII fighter pilot look while another guy sported a Security outfit and a crazy demenor - karatee chopping and speaking jibberish up there: which really suits the Eels about perfectly!
Then on to The Editors and Umphrey's McGee - finally a couple shows that were good but not great so I could lump them together and make this Day 1 post less than 80000 words long. Both of these are big up and coming bands though - I'm sure we'll see much more of them coming up soon.
Next for me was Iron & Wine. This show I was by myself sitting on the grass for a good portion of. In my opinion - probably pretty much the perfect way to see them. Very laid back - very enjoyable.
Next I had a tough decision. Do I see My Morning Jacket, who I really like and have a couple of my favorite songs from a year or two back? Or do I see The Raconteurs - with Jack White and a first (last?) CD like there's - this one is an obviously good show. Well, Brandon, Joe and I went to check out My Morning Jacket... probably a mistake. They were fine but boy am I glad that we made it over for the second half of Raconeurs - clearly my second favorite show of the fest.
The night ended with two good bands that sounded just like they should have: no better and no worse. The Violent Femmes (they bring all their equipment on the bus) and Death Cab for Cutie. The Femmes are a band that I really had to see - I've listened to them for so long I don't know how this is the first time I've seen them. Death Cab was one that I expected a little too much of, I think. They put on a good show and I'm glad that I got to see it, but I didn't think it was one of the better ones of the weekend.
So, that's DAY 1 ONLY! I'm going to definitely seperate these out into different posts.
8.01.2006
Fishin and Movin
I got an invite to head out fishing with (Mike) Gengler on Lake Michigan Monday night. Monday was another incredibly hot day but once we got out on the water the temperature was perfect.
We ended up catching our 10 fish (all salmon) limit in about an hour-and-a-half. Incredibly, almost all of them came in on the same line.
I'm thinking about getting this picture screenprinted on a t-shirt to wear when we go out again in a week or so with Mike and Kevin...
more pics here
Tuesday was another hot one for the move of Mr. Jon Fox to Milton. The move went as smoothly as could be imagined and we got all of his gear moved down there in one trip. Jonny recently graduated (Carroll) and will be the new band director at MHS. I'm sure he'll be awesome at it.
We ended up catching our 10 fish (all salmon) limit in about an hour-and-a-half. Incredibly, almost all of them came in on the same line.
I'm thinking about getting this picture screenprinted on a t-shirt to wear when we go out again in a week or so with Mike and Kevin...
more pics here
Tuesday was another hot one for the move of Mr. Jon Fox to Milton. The move went as smoothly as could be imagined and we got all of his gear moved down there in one trip. Jonny recently graduated (Carroll) and will be the new band director at MHS. I'm sure he'll be awesome at it.
New Battery for the MacBook
My only complaint about my otherwise awesome Macbook Pro has been an incredibly short amount of battery life. So, I was quite excited when Dion (Almaer) pointed out a battery replacement program that I am eligible for.
Ordering the replacement couldn't be simpler... unless you don't have your head on straight like yours truly...
* jim closes everything and powers down
* takes out battery and writes down battery serial#
* powers up and goes to online form
* powers down
* takes out and writes down laptop serial# (yes, this wasn't completely necessary)
* fills out form
* form says "battery serial# has already been submitted for replacement"
* searches for number to call
* calls and gets "it'll be 15 min message"
* wishes stupid old phone that had speaker phone capability would still work so the phone didn't have to be pressed to ear
* 20 min passes
* guy asks for battery serial#
* jim reads it and says "wait, this '2' may actually be a 'z' - oh crap"
* powers down
* checks out battery serial# - it's a "Z"
* jim tells tech support he's an idiot and hangs up
* fills out form with "Z"
* says "city/county/zip" doesn't match even though it lists "sun prairie 53590" (which was entered) as what I'm probably going for
* re-enters
* re-enters
* re-enters
* notices that it says "county" not "countRy"
* kicks self
* completes form
Ordering the replacement couldn't be simpler... unless you don't have your head on straight like yours truly...
* jim closes everything and powers down
* takes out battery and writes down battery serial#
* powers up and goes to online form
* powers down
* takes out and writes down laptop serial# (yes, this wasn't completely necessary)
* fills out form
* form says "battery serial# has already been submitted for replacement"
* searches for number to call
* calls and gets "it'll be 15 min message"
* wishes stupid old phone that had speaker phone capability would still work so the phone didn't have to be pressed to ear
* 20 min passes
* guy asks for battery serial#
* jim reads it and says "wait, this '2' may actually be a 'z' - oh crap"
* powers down
* checks out battery serial# - it's a "Z"
* jim tells tech support he's an idiot and hangs up
* fills out form with "Z"
* says "city/county/zip" doesn't match even though it lists "sun prairie 53590" (which was entered) as what I'm probably going for
* re-enters
* re-enters
* re-enters
* notices that it says "county" not "countRy"
* kicks self
* completes form
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