Saturday Night Live

Last night's show was the first in a long while that wasn't terrible. In fact the Kanye West bit was pretty funny.

Rock'em Sock'em Giraffes

Not quite lions, crocodiles, and water buffalos, but pretty intense.

I Couldn't Resist

Gotcha!

Austin City Limits TV Line-UP

10/13 and the first two weeks of November are the primary reasons to set your DVRs.

Austin City Limits TV Line-up:

10-06 Norah Jones
10-13 The Decemberists/Explosions in the Sky
10-20 Femi Kuti
10-27 Jimmy Reed Highway: Jimmie Vaughan and Friends
11-03 Wilco
11-10 Arcade Fire
11-17 Brad Paisley/Dierks Bentley
11-24 Van Morrison (Encore)
12-01 Gretchen Wilson/Miranda Lambert (Encore)
12-08 Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Encore)
12-15 John Mayer
12-22 Lucinda Williams/Old Crow Medicine Show
12-29 Bloc Party/Ghostland Observatory
01-05 Crowded House/Grupo Fantasma
01-12 Regina Spektor /Paolo Nutini
01-19 Roky Erickson/Kings of Leon
01-26 ACL PRESENTS: The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

The Death of DRM?

If it wasn't so damned convenient, I would boycott Apple's iTunes store because I loathe DRM. Well, I just might start my boycott. Amazon launched its digital music download service today, and it's DRM free!! It doesn't have the inventory (yet?) that iTunes has, but the prices are a little cheaper.

Given the pressure on several fronts, I doubt DRM lasts a year. Huzzah!!

When We Were Young

Not much to report, so I'll just post a Neil Young performance of Heart of Gold circa 1971.

Balancing Act

Amazin' This is worth 11 seconds of your time.

New TV Season

Other than the return The Office and maybe Earl and 30 Rock the only show that looks mildly interesting is Pushing Daisies.

Don't Tase Me Bro!

This is laugh out loud funny.

An Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Movie?

This at least has the possibility of being a good movie

Van Sant in the 'Kool-Aid' mix
Director to adapt classic '60s novel
By MICHAEL FLEMING/Variety


'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'
Nearly 40 years after its original publication, Tom Wolfe's hallucinogenic tome "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" is headed for the bigscreen.

Gus Van Sant is attached to direct, and Lance Black ("Big Love") will write the script. FilmColony's Richard Gladstein is producing, and he's in the process of setting the project with a financier.

The book told the story of a cross-country road trip that "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" author Ken Kesey orchestrated with a group called the Merry Pranksters. Driving in a psychedelically painted bus from California to visit the World's Fair in New York in 1964, Kesey and his band used the trip as a way to turn on those they met to the mind-expanding wonders of LSD.

Kesey ingested the drug while he wrote "Cuckoo's Nest," crediting the hallucinogen for many of the ideas in the book.

Shortly after the Wolfe book was published in 1967, its film rights were purchased by entrepreneur Alfred Roven. Not a film producer, Roven had some meetings over the years with filmmakers but was very protective. When he died, Roven left the rights to his children, Daryn and Alison Roven. FilmColony's Gladstein was introduced to them by attorney Peter Grossman, and for the first time, the rights were entrusted to a producer.

Van Sant, whose latest film, "Paranoid Park," was honored at Cannes, signed on quickly. The filmmaker cast Kesey in his 1993 film "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and dedicated his 2002 film "Gerry" to the author, who died in 2001. Van Sant enlisted Black, with whom he's collaborating on a biopic of slain San Francisco pol Harvey Milk.

It's likely Wolfe will not be a major character in the film, which will focus on Kesey and include events that occurred after the road trip.

Gladstein completed producing the Zach Helm-directed "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," which Fox Walden releases this fall, as well as "The Nanny Diaries" and John Madden-directed "Killshot," both of which the Weinstein Co. will distribute through MGM this fall.

Field Trip: Petco Park

I've been to hundreds of Padre games and I don't think I've ever seen a more dramtic homerun. The Padres were down 3 to 2 in the bottom of the ninth. There were 2 outs, the Padres had runners on first and second, and Scott Hairston was at the plate. Boom! Homerun! Padres win!

And, Dave did a great job as batboy.

Field Trip: The New Pornographers

"Music is the new pornography", Jimmey Swaggert.

They're a little too much B-52s and not enough The Grateful Dead for my taste, but they were well worth a late night trip to the House of Blues.

Who is that guy?

Fashion Statement

The picture of BC sporting the Cub Scout uni sparked a memory. I saw Linda Ronstadt in concert about a million years ago working the same look. Coincidence, I think not.

I promise that this will be the last Brandi Carlile post.

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batboy!

David will be putting his college education to good use on Tuesday and Wednesday when he dons a uniform and performs batboy duties for the visiting Pirates at Petco Park.

Ms Carlile

The San Diego House of Blues has a bar in the back that faces the stage. Some people congregate at the bar during performances and talk, and I swear the shape of the room amplifies the noise and directs it back towards the stage. The noise is a real annoyance and one of the reasons I dislike the venue. I have seen several performers complain during their shows, so it was quite remarkable that BC was able to completely silence the crowd during a song she performed unplugged and ummiked.

Here's the song performed in Eugene.



Also from Eugene her version of Madman Across the Water.

Field Trip: Brandi Carlile

Wow!! More tomorrow.

*******

Brandi Carlile is good, really good, off the charts good. She moves at ease from folk to rock to country with a voice that is pure and powerful. Veteran Vegas acts should be jealous of her ability to work a crowd. What a great show.

It struck me last night that it's fortunate that we let American Idol, MTV, and Disney create our pop stars. It allows real talents like Carlile to perform without the distraction and burden of being a celebrity and all that entails in 2007. I just wish there was a better correlation between talent and compensation.

Legacy covers: Folsom Blues and Madman Across the Water (which she killed)

Austin City Limits Music Festival

With Bob Dylan, The White Stripes, The Killers, Wilco, Arcade Fire, Muse, My Morning Jacket, Queens of the Stone Age, Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys among the bands playing I think I might have to put this festival on my to do list next year.

AT&T will be streaming all weekend. Austin City Limits

Tiny People on Food

Via Pownce I learned that there is a genre of photography dedicated to tiny people on food. Some great oness here: Tiny People on Food

Tip(s) of the Day

I think the elevator tip I had a while back was probably bogus, so I'm not going to vouch for these. Wait Less has a bunch of timesaving tip videos. My favorites are the peeling of an egg in 5 seconds video and the one on how to tie your shoes in world record time.

Let me know if you try them out

Cute

I usually don't do puppy and rainbow posts, but this is cute with a little edge.



Eth and I are going to see Brandi Carlile on Thursday.

Bubblegum Alley

A trip to Bubblegum Alley is required for a visit to SLO



Carly's a little unsure of SLO residents' hygiene.

Ben Kweller at the Echo

On our way to San Luis Obispo we caught a Ben Kweller show at The Echo on Sunset Blvd.



BK with Carly's favorite scenester.

Moving Day: CP SLO

Road Trip Update

It's Saturday morning and I'm taking advantage of some internet access provided by the Marriott Courtyard in beautiful Oxnard California.

The trip gas has gone without a hitch to this point. I picked up the minivan at noon yesterday. And while I was downloading instructions for removing the back seat, Eth and David had taken it out, so we were good to go. We loaded up the car and were on the road by 2:00 pm.

Surprisingly, there was no traffic headed north and we made it to Irvine with plenty of time to do some birthday shopping for Amanda. That done we headed to the Irvine Clarks for a family get-together and birthday fiesta. The barbecue dinner and strawberry trifle were awesome. With bellies full we hit the road for Sunset Blvd. and a Ben Kweller set.

Traffic was an issue as we neared Los Angeles. But, we arrived a little after 9:00 pm in area that I guess I could describe as not LA's finest, found a parking spot, and then got a little lost looking for the venue. The venue was a bit of a dive and was packed with LA scenesters ( Carly's term). Kweller came on about 10 minutes later.

Ben Kweller comes very close to being a bubblegum popstar, but just when he gets a bit cheesy he breaks out a clever lyric or a rockin guitar riff. He performs with a joyful energy that is infectious. The crowd was into it singing along with most of the songs. The set wrapped up before 11:00 and off we went up the 101 for beautiful Oxnard arriving before midnight.

Well, the girls say we're ready to roll. On to San Luis Obispo.

Roadtrip!

We're going on a little roatrip this weekend. The primary reason is to move Carly into her Cal Poly SLO dorm room. Other highlights on the itinery include a dinner/birthday fest with the Orange County family and a Ben Kweller show at the Echo in LA.

Field Trip: Okkervil River

My new concert year got off to a rousing if uncomfortable start last night. Yesterday was a scorcher in SD and The Casbah which is never the most comfortable venue was packed and sweltering. But, no one in the audience seemed to mind.

Okkervil River is a terrific band. Will Sheff is a clever songwriter and a maximum effort performer. It was an excellent show.

On Radar: Okkervil River

I saw these guys on Conan this week and was impressed. I then discovered they're playing the Casbah tonight. I'm going to need a nap.

I do like this song.

Happy Birthday Scent Weakly 2.0!

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