Category: Uncategorized

Rivers Cuomo Solo in Boston

With the impending release of the third volume in Rivers Cuomo’s Alone series, I’ve been listening to a lot of his solo stuff lately.

Rivers has written hundreds of songs, many of which have been released on Weezer’s nine-plus albums. Others have been released on solo CDs, or given directly to fans through the magic of filesharing. But there’s also a handful of songs that we don’t have official versions of, having been bootlegged from a small number of solo shows during late 1997 and early 1998.

In the fall of 1997, Rivers lived in Boston, intending to resume his studies at Harvard. However, he didn’t go back to school and returned to Los Angeles in early 1998, to focus on Weezer. While in Boston, he played five shows with a group of local musicians under the name of Homie. The setlists were made up of potential Weezer songs (Rosemary, Baby, The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World, Little Sister, 1,000 Years, American Girls) and older material he would label as “goofy” and “country.”

Of the second group, the material ranged from songs written right after the release of the Blue Album (I’ll Think About You) to songs written in the midst of Pinkerton (Sheila Can Do It). The songs were received well, both by the audience during the shows (despite the one drunken woman crowing “I wanna hear the sweater song”) and by fans who heard the songs via tapes (remember those?) and later MP3s.

I actually heard these early on, as the fan who bootlegged them sent me a copy in January ’98 after the final Boston show. Even though the recording quality wasn’t great, I listened to the tape enough to wear it down. Other Weezer fans also hold these songs in high regard. Two members of the allthingsweezer fan community recorded a killer cover version of ten of the songs (despite not having access to the official lyrics or music), if you want to check it out, they (still) have a MySpace page.

Anyway, as I mentioned in the intro, I was listening to some of these songs today, and realized the MP3 tag said the show was held on November 21, 1997. Fourteen years later, and we still don’t have official versions of most of these songs. But at least we have the bootlegged versions. If you want to give it a listen, download the show on Mediafire at http://www.mediafire.com/?tnb6o35652vx365.

Here’s the show info, according to Weezerpedia:

Homie show #2, 11/21/97 at TT & the Bear’s, Boston, MA

The following is the second “Homie Tryout” show, which took place on November 21, 1997. In addition to Rivers, Kevin Stevenson of the Shods plays guitar. A bootleg tape exists.

  1. Autumn Jane
  2. Hey M’Darlin’
  3. Sheila Can Do (It)
  4. Think About (AKA’ sesame street’)
  5. The Good Life
  6. Stay There
  7. Wanda
  8. Sunshine O
  9. Fun Time
  10. American Girls
  11. Hot Tub — Encore
  12. No One Else

King Tom

What Wakes Me Up in the Morning

For the past year and a half, since The Civee and I moved into our house, I’ve been taking the same way in to work every morning. I drive down a one-way street and most mornings, I have to stop at a light. The light is located near a washer-dryer repair shop, with some equipment in the window.

A few weeks ago (back when I was driving in the dark), I stopped at the light and saw something new in the window.

There was a dude with really big hair behind the machines, probably fixing them or something. I go in around 7:10 in the morning, and while it was kind of early, I guess it’s never too early to repair a washer/dryer combo. That was the last morning that my commute was normal.

The next day, I was stopped at the light and looking over, noticed the dude was still there. Only, it wasn’t a dude- it was a mannequin. And I was stopped right where he was looking at me with his ominous mannequin eyes. Ever since, I’ve been majorly creeped out by the mannequin and the big hair. It’s not great, but here’s a closer look:

In the past, there have been mornings when I was still a little bit asleep when arriving at work. But since noticing the mannequin, I haven’t had to deal with that. This mannequin is better than ten cups of coffee.

King Tom

My Sixth-Generation Star Wars Set

Throughout my life, I haven’t made it any secret that I’m a fan of Star Wars. I’ve even written about it on the blog once in a while.

However, for various reasons, I didn’t write about what I got for my birthday last month- the Star Wars complete saga Blu-Ray set.  Between getting it and now, I’ve watched the movies and the bonus features.  The bonus features are great to finally have (although it would have been nice to have some of them cleaned up a bit) and the movies look incredible. Others have written about changes made to the movies, and while I don’t begrudge George Lucas the opportunity to change his movies, most of these changes are just unnecessary. Darth Vader’s new NOOOOOO at the end of Jedi is more bizarre than offensive. But the change that affects me the most is the blinking Ewoks.  That’s just creepy.

By my count, this is the sixth ‘complete set’ of Star Wars I’ve gotten (or made) over the past twenty five years (four versions on VHS, and two on DVD), and I would bet that none of those versions are the same.

I’ve done the whole watch the saga over a few days thing before and can’t say I’ve noticed anything new this latest go-around. It’s still an enjoyable watch, especially seeing how the Prequel Trilogy improves with each installment and how the scope of the Original Trilogy grows each movie. Before getting the set, I read J.W. Rinzler’s Making of Star Wars and Making of Empire Strikes Back, which provided excellent background to the movies. It’s clear after reading them (and reviewing the different drafts of each movie) that while George had some ideas and themes he wanted to explore, at no point did he have the whole saga (whether it was a six-, nine- or 12-movie saga) planned out beforehand.

Unfortunately, the amount of background information for the Prequel Trilogy isn’t as abundant. For Episodes II and III, George wrote the movies as the art department developed characters and places. However, I recently found (or rediscovered) something that gives an idea about George’s original plan for The Phantom Menace. The Episode I Insider’s Guide CD that came out back in ’99 (which I still have somewhere) had bits from the original script sprinkled throughout. Michael Kaminski, who wrote the Secret History of Star Wars did a great job of compiling all the script information.

The original story for The Phantom Menace was much better than what we got (and I say this as someone who enjoyed TPM). The movie isn’t as childish; Jar Jar isn’t a bumbling fool, Anakin is more mature and there’s more depth to the interactions between the characters (for instance, there’s actual racial tension between the Naboo and the Gungans). The only drawbacks I can think of is that Qui-Gon doesn’t enter the story until the last third of the movie (Obi Wan is on his own) and Palpatine’s maneuvers to become Chancellor aren’t shown. But overall, the story just feels better.  Give it a read sometime.

Who knows, maybe one day, George will have the technology to go back and make that movie (or any other draft he wants). But I’m betting that won’t happen until seven or eight editions of the Star Wars Complete Saga from now.

King Tom1 Comment

Hope and No-Neck: Reunited (and It Feels So Good)

Well, No-Neck’s eye job didn’t last that long.

Despite The Civee’s best efforts, Hope’s continued gnawing at No-Neck’s eye sockets (and the surrounding fabric) meant her favorite stuffed animal was in danger of being put out of commission permanently.

Thankfully, we have someone who can sew in the family: Grandma. Only problem is, she lives on the West Coast.

So earlier this week, I mailed No-Neck and another of Hope’s favorite stuffed animals, Ga-Ga the Cat (something she actually named herself, unlike most of the rest of her stuffed animals) out to Grandma. Hope quickly discovered they were missing. At first, she’d look at us and touch her neck (her sign for No-Neck) and we would pretend we couldn’t find him. But she quickly learned something was afoot. She grew tired of our lame excuses and got pretty clever by doing things such as pointing to pictures of giraffes to highlight the absence of a particular giraffe in her life. Over the past day or so, most of her giraffe-related communication would result in crying.

Thankfully, Grandma worked pretty quickly and this afternoon, we got a box in the mail with two of Hope’s missing friends and a bunch of other Halloween-related goodies (and some candy for The Civee and I).

Here’s Hope going through the box:

Thanks again, Grandma!

 

King Tom4 Comments

Phone Chuckin’

In a previous life, I used to work off-air at a TV news channel where our studio was also the newsroom. I was often in the background of many a live newscast. On one evening broadcast, a sports reporter was doing a voice over for that night’s live show. All of a sudden, his phone (or it may have been a pager) went off. As he was giving his voice over, he unclipped the phone from his belt, and in one motion, chucked it clear across the newsroom, where it shattered against a wall a few feet away from me.

My previous phone gave me plenty of reasons (mostly releated to its speed, or lack thereof) to chuck it across the room, although I never did.

I’ve had my new phone for three months and today came close (which is to say not really at all) to chucking it against a wall. I was at lunch, looking forward to the opportunity to view some websites and send some e-mail, when I took out my phone and saw it was downloading a forced update, rendering it unusable for five minutes. For a split second, I was frustrated by the timing. Then I thought about my old phone, which never had an update (as it was probably obsolete the day I bought it), and remembered the phone chucking story.

Then, when the phone finished updating, I wrote (or should I say am writing) this. Something else I couldn’t do on the old phone.

Although, now I’m tempted to dig out the old phone and find a brick wall when I get home.

King Tom

The Fool and The Fool Who Follows Him

This weekend we decided to go to a local community event.  It was in an area of Columbus I’m not too familiar with, so I Googled directions before we loaded into the car.

We got to the address where the event was being held, but no event.  Turns out the official address of the place is actually the back entrance, which was not open to traffic. We weren’t the only car there, as there was a car ahead of us and a few behind us who seemed as if they were looking to go to the event too.  There was a person giving out directions and after the previous vehicle (a black SUV) drove off, I stopped, rolled down my window and asked the person how to get to the event.

“Just follow that car,” she said, pointing to the black SUV.

I rolled up the window and proceeded to follow the black SUV.  I think she gave similar directions to at least two other cars, as I could see there was a convoy slowly forming behind me.

So we were the second car in the convoy, and I was trying to keep up with the black SUV as it turned on to a main street, went about a mile, then turned into a subdivision and wound its way through the maze of streets.  All of a sudden, the black SUV stopped and pulled into a random driveway and the driver got out and went in to the house.  I pulled off to the side about a block up and the cars behind us stopped short of the driveway.  I’m sure they did exactly what we did- consult their cell phones (or GPS units) to see what to do now.

Luckily, the main entrance was around the corner and another mile down the road. And we got there without any incident. But the next time someone tells me to just follow another car, I’m going to have a backup plan ready just in case.

King Tom

My First Quake

Growing up on an island in the Atlantic, I was used to certain weather patterns. Cold (but not too cold) winters, hot (but not too hot) summers and springs/falls of a decent length. Just about the only type of severe weather we would get was hurricanes. A tornado hit the island once, but I missed it as I was away on summer vacation.

I moved to Ohio 11 years ago and things are different.  Tornadoes are a seasonal thing.  There is no spring or fall, and I’ve complained several times before about the cold bleak winters.  But one thing I’ve never been subjected to in Ohio or out East was an earthquake.  Until today.

I was sitting in my office when I felt a rumble.  Because I’m up on the 17th floor, I thought it was the building settling or something. It wasn’t until my Tweet Deck started going crazy that I realized it may have been more than that (not to mention clicking on #earthquake froze up my Tweet Deck for an hour or so).

I’m not saying I’d want to go through another one, because I wouldn’t.  And I’m sure if I was closer, I would have felt a lot more than a rumble.  But at least I can say I survived my first earthquake.

King Tom2 Comments

High Energy Physicists Finally Develop Something Worthwhile

Twenty years ago, the Internet was a text-only method of communication used mostly by academic types and those who were really into computers.  People shared files through FTP transfers and talked through e-mail and Usenet, which was a group of bulletin boards comprised of e-mail discussions.

Then, on August 6 1991, Tim Berners-Lee posted an item to the Usenet announcing the creation of the World Wide Web (or WorldWideWeb), a browser-based system to view hypertext.  Or, as he said:

The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any
information anywhere. … The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data,
news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other
areas, and having gateway servers for other data.

It was a few more years before graphics could be viewed alongside all the text. But pretty soon after that, the Web was everywhere, and the Internet was no longer the domain of academic types or those who were really into computers.  Even though I’d been online since ’92, it was still a few more years before I used the Web.

Things have certainly changed.  For instance, this blog is slightly more advanced (though not much more mature) than the hand-coded site I made in college.

So if you find yourself being productive (or wasting time) online, thank a high-energy physicist.

King Tom

Bandwidth Hogging

On Saturday, it will have been three weeks since I got my new phone. One of the reasons I got it at this point was Verizon’s (then) impending switch to bandwidth caps for new customers. I signed up under the old plan and have an unlimited data plan.

I checked my usage today and I’m up to 1.8 GB of data used. The Incredible 2 is not one of those fancy 4G phones (and so far, I haven’t felt like I’m missing anything) so I’m not exactly streaming Netflix on it, but I am watching the occasional YouTube video, downloading a Weezer song here and there and listening to some online radio. Actually, listening to the radio is what’s been using most of that bandwidth.

Even if I have a lot of my own music on the phone, it still is entertaining to listen to something different. Back in college, I had one of the original versions of Real player and would listen to stations from around the world. Now, it’s pretty much the same thing, except through my phone.

Overall it’s nice to have something to get my money’s worth out of my data plan.

If you read this and you’re thinking, “it sounds like he’s writing this just to blog about something,” well, you’re mostly right.

King Tom

Blogging From the Incredible

This entry is more of a test than anything else.

Last week, I got a new phone, a Droid Incredible 2. The phone replaces the old LG VU (pronounced voo) I sported over the last two years (okay, technically 22 months).

The VU was one of the first iPhone knockoffs. But it was slow, had horrible battery life and the technology was pretty obsolete for 2004.

I am not an Apple person, and have a natural affinity for Google. So it was a foregone conclusion that my next phone would be some type of Android. But I have to admit that the Incredible is (pardon the expression) incredible.

I still have a lot of learning to do (the phone came with three different maps programs and I’m still trying to figure out what each does). But it’s nice to have a phone that doesn’t take ten minutes to open up a program. I’m amazed at all the things I can do with the phone. And it’s nice to be able to blog from the phone.

Who knows…if I can figure out things to write about, I just may start blogging more frequently.

King Tom3 Comments