It's Football Season!

It's hard not to get nostalgic for undergrad when college football season rolls around. I don't really give a shit about the NFL until playoffs, but when it comes to Penn State football, I'm there from the first game until the last one. Even if it doesn't happen to be a bowl game. Even if watching the games makes me sick to my stomach because we're doing so poorly. Even though JoePa is getting older and older and that fact is getting more and more obvious. Because I've been in those stands many of those days.

I watched JoePa win the game that made him the most winning-est coach in college football. I wasn't there when Adam Taliaferro broke a vertebrae and bruised his spinal cord while playing against Ohio State (at Ohio) - an injury that left him with only a 3% chance of walking again. But I was there when he walked onto the field at Beaver Stadium less than a year later. I still get chills thinking about it. I've stood on those bleachers at times when I was so hungover or so tired that I hardly even knew what was going on. But I was still there.

I have an emotional connection with college football - well, really only Penn State football - that I just don't get from any other sport. I've only been back to Penn State twice since I graduated, but somehow, those players always seem familiar. I feel every adrenaline rush and every depressing letdown just as if I were still in those stands, surrounded by fans wearing blue and white and screaming "WE ARE...PENN STATE," and watching the Nittany Lion do pushups every time we put points on the board. Which is why I'll be at Skybox with the rest of the alumni association this Saturday at the extremely early time of 9AM to watch the game. Me being anywhere at 9AM on a Saturday is proof of dedication. And I hear they have $2 mimosas starting at 11AM.

Penn State photos, taken during a daytrip up there while I was home this past May:

Show Review: The Swedish Models @ Belly Up, 8/29/2007

Photos: The Swedish Models w/Marc Ford

I've said pretty much all I can say on the subject of The Swedish Models already. I think they're a great band composed of a group of really talented, really good guys, and they fully deserve the buzz they've been getting around town. Their music is extremely variable from song to song, so it's really impossible to pigeonhole them into a certain genre. And their live sets are full of energy and a spectacle to behold. Ryan sticks to guitar and vocals and Mark sticks to bass, but the other 3 members juggle drum, keyboard, and guitar duties during the show. They've got an EP out with 5 songs, but they've written two more songs since then. One of them was debuted at the Roxy two weeks ago, but was played for the first time during a San Diego show at the Belly Up. And like all of their songs so far, it sounded great.













Notice that I got a new wide-angle lens? It arrived on my doorstep that day, so I tried it out at the show. I definitely like it, but I need to get a better lens hood to combat that crazy lens flare.

I stuck around to get a few shots of Marc Ford, but didn't stay long enough into his set to properly review it. I had work the next day, and a full day at that, so I was glad to get home early and get some rest.

Slow Morning

Apparently I'm incapable of getting water to boil, but it's a moot point since someone else is borrowing my power supply so I can't run my SDS-PAGE (that's Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-PolyAcrylamide Gel Electrophoresis to you) gel for another hour or so anyway. I should have stayed in bed a little longer this morning, but I had vague ideas of getting shit started sooner. I feel like I've just been in a daze this week, whether from the stress of my major proposal being suddenly lifted, or Saturday's mind-blowing Flaming Lips show, I don't know.

I haven't been sleeping that well, which ironically is due to my air conditioning. I run it because I can't sleep for shit when it's hot in my apartment. But I don't have a power drill, so I never really properly installed the thing. It's basically held on my windowsill solely by the weight of the window resting on it. And somehow, since I'm moving to SF in June, it seems like wasted effort to install it properly now. But the thing is, every once in awhile it kicks into high gear and shifts a bit, which makes the window rattle. Loudly. I can't tell if it's this, or when it abruptly shuts up and leaves total silence in its wake that is waking me up in a total panic every two hours or so.

The waking up every two hours is nothing new, my sleep cycle sucks (which is why I'm such a napper). But the startled waking is really messing with me. Usually when I wake up I just roll over, look at the clock to confirm that I don't have to wake up, and then I fall back asleep. Right now, I've been waking up by sitting up violently, going to the window to fiddle with the AC, fidgeting around, and then finally falling back asleep. I could really do without the extra adrenaline in my bloodstream - it's making it really hard to get work done during the day.

Gogol Bordello @ House of Blues, 8/27/2007

Gogol Bordello photosest

British Joe has a story about how, the last time he went to a Gogol Bordello show, he ended up with somebody else's blood on his shirt. Fortunately (or unfortunately, as story-telling cred goes), my experience was a bit less hardcore - although I did end up with somebody else's beer in my hair.

While most people I knew enjoyed a much mellower evening at the Open Air Theater with Wilco, I ended up at possibly one of the more raucous shows that the House of Blues has probably ever seen.

The opener was DJ Scratchy, who played a lot of Russian gypsy-esque music. It was...interesting. DJ sets aren't really my thing, but there were some people dancing. I took the opportunity to grab a few beers before Gogol Bordello's set. We also wandered over to the FM94.9 table, were they had just about the smartest giveaway ever - earplugs, which came in their own convenient keychain case. Pete took two pairs. Me, I've got my musician's earplugs (thanks, hearing aide specialist Mom!), and trust me, they're worth the price.

As the band was setting up, I worked my way up near the photo pit so I could jump in as soon as they started. Strangely enough, I also saw the girl from the SoCo Music Experience who got pulled out of the crowd twice by security guards during DJ Z-Trip's set. Obviously not learning anything from Saturday, it appeared that she was going to try to sidle into a spot right up against the barrier at the last minute. There was also a girl in full-out gypsy/go-go dancer outfit, complete with finger cymbals. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the people watching was just amazing.

As soon as Gogol Bordello started playing, it felt like the temperature in the room had risen 10 degrees and the humidity shot straight to 100%. Which was fortunate, because then you couldn't tell if the moisture on your arms and face was your own sweat, or somebody else's sweat, spit, or beer. And yes, there was beer flying everywhere - it was like being at a college football game when the home team makes an outstanding play. I'm telling you, I was more concerned about the crowd at this show than I was at the Hold Steady show - and at the Hold Steady show, I didn't have a barrier between myself and the crowd.







The singer was all over the stage, holding the microphone stand out to the crowd, straddling the space between the stage and the crowd barrier, and hauling crowd surfers up on stage to dance.
The violinist and accordian player (accordianist?) were also quite animated, with the guitarist and bassist hanging out a little more in the background. The band quickly ripped through an hour-long set, while crowd surfers went up every few minutes. The scene in the middle of the dance floor was chaotic and I was not brave enough to even try to get anywhere near it (plus I had the camera to think about). So P and I just hung out on the outskirts, alternately people watching and enjoying the band's antics.







After their regular set, the band came back for at least two encore sets. We left during the beginning of the second encore though, because P is leaving for New York today and had yet to pack anything.







This show definitely goes up there with The Polyphonic Spree and The Flaming Lips as being one of the more energetic and interactive shows I've ever been to. I was worried that a whole set of their crazy gypsy punk music would start to wear thin after awhile, but it didn't. Gogol Bordello is a band that I will probably never listen to on CD, but will try to catch whenever they play in town. The energy of their live show is so great that it could never be replicated on CD - I think listening to them recorded would just ruin it for me.

The Flaming Lips @ SoCo Music Experience, 8/25/2007

Photoset from the SoCo Music Experience

I feel like a Flaming Lips show is sort of like Fight Club. You don't talk about it, you just experience it. Words just fail, so I'll leave you with the visual remnants from that night. Let's just say my mind was definitively blown.




Testing the megaphone


Confetti and streamers


Waiting in the wings


Wayne in the bubble


The only way I'd ever crowdsurf






This guy had a skeleton twin that day




Confetti!


Probably my favorite photo from the whole day




This man is the definition of charisma













And just for the record, it pays to go all out if you want to be on stage with the Flaming Lips. The guy in the skeleton suit here showed up prior to 2:30:



Also, notice the blond woman without a hat in this photo:



Look familiar?

DJ Z-Trip @ Southern Comfort Music Experience, 8/25/2007

I've always been kind of skeptical of live DJ sets being billed as "shows." The truth of the matter is, most DJ sets that I've seen are fairly boring. But I guess there are new standards in place, with mash-up artists like Girl Talk garnering rave reviews for their live sets.

Of course, Z-Trip is sort of the godfather of acts like Girl Talk, so it would make sense that he'd also have a fairly energetic live set. Photographing it was kind of boring, at least until live drummer Pete came out and joined him on stage. At that point, it was well past the three-song limit and I was knee-deep in the audience, two people from the front, and two people away from the mosh pit that broke out when he played Rage Against the Machine. Seriously. A mosh pit during a DJ set. Motherfuckin' insane. The crowd loved him, as did I. During most of his set, they played videos from the songs that he was mashing up. He also did a collaborative song with one of the guys from Galactic on harmonica and Mr. Lif (I think, although it was hard to tell with the cape).

We also saw some girl get pulled out of the crowd and over the barrier twice by security guards. No kidding - she got pulled out the first time because apparantly she was "throwing punches" and forcing her way up to the front. No more than 5-10 minutes later, she was back, in exactly the same spot, and got pulled out again. Ridiculous.