Field Trip: Qualcomm Suite - Petco Park

The heat and humidity has been brutal in So Cal, and while we may not have beat the heat, watching a Padre game from the Qualcomm suite is certainly a great heat distractor.

My friend Mark, a Qualcomm employee, scored an extra ticket and was kind enough to invite me. You gotta love the great seats and unlimited food and drinks.



As an added bonus the Padres thumped the Dodgers 6 - 4 and Trevor picked up the save.

Great Live Bands

Rolling Stone posted a list of the best current live bands. Having seen My Morning Jacket, The Hold Steady, and Wilco the list just might have some merit.

1. The White Stripes
2. Radiohead
3. Pearl Jam
4. Rage Against the Machine
5. U2
6. Metallica
7. Flaming Lips
8. My Morning Jacket
9. The Hold Steady
10. Arcade Fire
11. The Raconteurs
12. Wilco
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs
14. Red Hot Chili Peppers
15. Gogol Bordello
16. Kings of Leon
17. Muse
18. Dave Matthews Band
19. Tool
20. LCD Soundsystem

Field Trip: Wilco

Update

Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) has probably been performing for over 20 years. For a lot of musicians maturity and experience do not enhance a great rock show. However, in Tweedy's case it surely does. Wilco is a well oiled machine performing at the top of their game.

I've been to alot of shows this year where I was one of a handful (sometimes only) person in the crowd over 35. It was kinda nice that Wilco's crowd skewed a bit older and I was not the outlier.

The Wilco concert closed out my concert year (Septmber 1 -- August 31). Since I'm unable to vote anyone off my current top five show island I'm just going to squeeze Wilco into the group. My end of the year top five: Ryan Adams, The Hold Steady, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Bright Eyes, and The Avett Brothers.



Carly and I just got back from SDSU's Open Air Theater where we saw Wilco. It's kinda late and a school night, but I have a couple of thoughts.

1) Wilco is a great band.

2) Warm August California night + great band + excellent seats + outdoor venue = awesomeness squared.

Hurricane Dean's Ground Zero

Our cruise this summer made a stop at Costa Maya where we spent an enjoyable day on the beach in the adjacent town of Majahual. The eye of Hurricane Dean went right over this part of the Yucatan last week.

The pier at Costa Maya




Here are a couple pics of the small beach town of Majahual. The palm trees where we posed did better than the buildings.

Miss South Carolina!!

You would have thought this was a scene from a Christopher Guest movie.

The Zune Phone

This is a rather cheap shot at Microsoft, but it's pretty funny.

Finally, Embeddable Google Maps!!

Google announced the following today:

"Starting today, Google Maps users can add a map to their website or blog just by copying & pasting a snippet of HTML. This new functionality enables Google Maps users to share and disseminate geographic information in the same way that YouTube users share videos. Bloggers and webmasters no longer need an API key or knowledge of Java Script to put a Google Map on their website or blog."

Very cool. So, I guess I should give it a whirl.

Need a dose of beach culture and place that serves a great burger? I suggest Hodads in OB.


View Larger Map

On Radar: The Hold Steady + Art Brut

In a stroke of marketing genius The Hold Steady are going to tour with English funny boys Art Brut. These guys will put on a show!

Here are the California dates:

Tue. 11/6 - San Francisco, CA @ Warfield Theater
Wed. 11/7 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
Thu. 11/8 - San Diego, CA @ Cane's

The complete list


Tickets for the San Diego show go on sale on Friday.

JT a RA Fan??

I found this on the music blog, The Phoenix:

We've reviewed Justin Timberlake enough that we didn't expect to have anything new to say about his show at the Garden last night, a return trip on a tour that Sharon has already gushed about anyways. Partly we wanted to see how the crowd makeup changes when he had a so-called rock band opening (answer: an even larger ratio boost, this time it appeared to be about 12:1 women). Partly we wanted to see what the HBO special is going to look like.

The last time we saw JT -- a couple of days after the album leaked, but before most of his fans had heard it -- "What Goes Around" was greeted with blank stares. This time it was the centerpiece of the set, with Justin playing piano while rotating on a platform in the middle of his in-the-round stage. (He appeared to be playing an electric keyboard; if memory serves, he had a real-live baby grande at Avalon. What gives?) In the middle of the song, he started singing some new lyrics, and for a second we couldn't place them. "Come pick me up . . . " No, it couldn't be. "Take me out." Oh my god. "Fuck me up." Holy shit. "Steal my records, screw all my friends." Jesus H. Christ. Justin Timberlake is sneaking in the chorus of "Come Picke Me Up," a song from Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker, which still hovers in our mental all-time top 10 albums list. We suspected that maybe we were hallucinating. But when the song came back around to the bridge he did it again, sneaking in pretty much the same lines.

Here's some bad video of the concert. The point of interest is at about 1:30 into the video.

I'm Not There

I'm really hoping that Todd Haynes's movie about Dylan is going to be great. I even kinda like the idea of having 6 different actors (Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and, Cate Blanchett) playing BD although the clip of Blanchett gives me some pause.

A set of CDs will be released with the movie and based on the following track list it might go on a perpetual loop on my iPod.

All Along The Watchtower –Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers
As I Went Out One Morning–Mira Billotte
Ballad Of A Thin Man–Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
Billy–Los Lobos
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window–The Hold Steady
Can’t Leave Her Behind–Stephen Malkmus & Lee Ranaldo
Cold Irons Bound–Tom Verlaine & The Million Dollar Bashers
Dark Eyes–Iron & Wine & Calexico
Fourth Time Around–Yo La Tengo
Goin’ To Acapulco–Jim James & Calexico
Highway 61 Revisited–Karen O & The Million Dollar Bashers
I Wanna Be Your Lover–Yo La Tengo
I’m Not There–Bob Dylan
I’m Not There–Sonic Youth
Just Like A Woman–Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues–Ramblin’ Jack Elliot
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door–Antony & The Johnsons
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll–Mason Jennings
Maggie’s Farm–Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
Mama You’ve Been On My Mind–Jack Johnson
The Man In The Long Black Coat–Mark Lanegan
Moonshiner–Bob Forrest
One More Cup Of Coffee–Roger McGuinn & Calexico
Pressing On–John Doe
Ring Them Bells–Sufjan Stevens
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)–Willie Nelson & Calexico
Simple Twist Of Fate–Jeff Tweedy
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With Memphis Blues Again–Cat Power
The Times They Are A Changin’–Mason Jennings
Tombstone Blues–Richie Havens
When The Ship Comes In–Marcus Carl Franklin
Wicked Messenger–The Black Keys
You Ain’t Goin ‘Nowhere–Glen Hansard & Markta Irglov

Field Trip: The Avett Brothers

Eth and I spent a raucous Sunday night at the BellyUp watching the Avett Brothers do their thing. It's a bit difficult to describe the AB. The best I can do is imagine giving the Red Hot Chili Peppers an acoustic guitar, a banjo, and a stand up base and having them perform the soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou. The result is quite compelling. In fact I'm putting them in my top five concerts of the year.

Top Five

1. Ryan Adams
2. Bright Eyes
3. The Hold Steady
4. My Morning Jacket
5. The Avett Brothers

Langhorne Slim and the War Eagles opened. He's another high energy performer who I had seen at The Casbah a couple months ago. He benefitted by the bigger stage and crowd at the BellyUp. Nice set.

Field Trip: Del Mar Race Track

Dave, Mark, Ken, and I made our way to Del Mar for an afternoon of betting on the ponies. We probably won't be allowed back. Before the first race each of us chipped in $3 for a pool bet. After hitting a quinella in the seventh race our initial $12 investment turned into $174. Needless to say, our dart throwing system worked quite well.

On Radar: No Country for Old Men

Coens + Cormac McCarthy. Should be epic.

Pownce

There are a few sites providing a service that can be described as a combination mini-blog/text messaging service. Twitter is one, Jaiku is another. The people behind Digg have launched Pownce to compete in this space.

Pownce is very well designed and has some nice bell and whistles. I like that you can form different groups within your contact list, but its best feature is the ability to send files (pictures, mp3s etc.) and links easily.

You'll need an invitation to join, but if your interested let me know and I'l try to hook you up.

On Radar: I'm Not There

Here's a trailer for the Todd Haynes's Dylan movie.



So, what do you think about the Cate Blanchett Dylan?

Google's Street Views

Google has added street views to their maps of San Diego, LA, Houston, and some other cities.

Can You Hit a Fastball

Baseball Game

This little flash game tests your ability to hit a 90 mph fastball. (If hitting a baseball was as easy as clicking your mouse button.)

Roberto Cafe y Barry Bonds

Bobby was one of the batboys for the San Francisco Giants the night Bonds hit number 755. He got up close and personal with BB after the historic homerun.

I'm not sure how long it will stay up, but here's a video of the moment. The hug is at the :50 mark.



Update: Here's another view taken by a fan with some great seats.

755

Swordfish tacos, cold beer, Bonds hits 755, and Dads win. Not a bad way to spend an evening.