Music on the Way...

This week when I was back home, I saw my friend Jonathan. He was the drummer in my band in high school, and we decided that we should post some of our old recordings (what with modern techmology being what it is). I am currently in the middle of doing that, and I've already got all of the songs posted, but myspace is so sloooooooow that I can't put up the band pictures that I wanted to.

Hopefully tomorrow it'll be up, and you can jam to it.

The Thanksgiving Break

Ah, Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year. As I was pretty busy over my entire break, I didn't bother to write anything here. This may seem a little strange since we do have the Internets in New Orleans, but something about being back home throws me off my rhythm and makes me not want to keep up with the usual parts of my life (Excercise, Blog, Guitar, Moderation).

Anyway, break was fantastic. Unlike my last visit home, where I went in expecting too much, this break I was ready and willing to have a very low key time, and I guess that without the pressure, good things ended up happening.

First of all, I don't think I have ever had as many oysters (raw, charbroiled, Rockefeller) in a one week period; two times a day at some point. I went out while I was home and saw a great collection of New Orleans friends and well-wishers without overdoing it. (Shout-outs to New Orleans transplants Alex and Caroline! Respek!) I actually did (some) homework. I went to a blues concert downtown and saw both the Saints and the Trojans win. Then, to cap it all off, I saw Outkast's Big Boi at Louis Armstrong International.

Now I've got a serious push leading up to the winter break. There is much work to be done; papers to be written, homework to be completed and preparations to be made for my first ever TA job.

And as if I didn't have enough to do before break, at the beginning of the semester I promised my mom I'd go on a recruiting trip with her to the Army/Navy football game in Philly. It turns out that this game is next weekend, thus ruining any chances of my doing work then!

Hopefully I can get everything done without ignoring my Pittsburgh friends, whom I then will not see for almost three weeks starting December 20th... sad!

I Met Het on a TV Show

Tonight's "How I Met Your Mother," was funny, until it got surreal...
But I can say that I actually saw this ending coming. I think it's because I've got Tiffany on the brain.

I'm gonna rock your body until Canada Day...

By the way, "How I Met Your Mother" is a great show, and one of the three shows (including "My Name is Earl" and "The Office") that I actually watch.

Extra:
I found the full video for "Let's Go to the Mall" on YouTube.

Spanksgiving

Tomorrow I'm leaving for New Orleans for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Love Thanksgiving!

I'll miss you Pittsburgh...

Great Success!

As if we needed any more reasons to dislike UCLA, now their police are taser-ing their own students!

With that nugget out of the way, last night I did a little Shadyside nightlife experience, starting at Cappy's. It was their 25th anniversery, so we got a bunch of free junk and we hung out with my boss from over the summer, as it is his personal hangout. Since it was Cappy-oke night, I decided to indulge and sing "Goodbye Earl," by the Dixie Chicks; I somehow could not find the proper register in which to sing the song! It's normally too high, but instead of singing one octave down from the recording and being right in the sweet spot of my tenor voice, I think I was going 2 octaves down. It was very low... not a good sign.

Later we hopped over to the Elbow Room, hopefully not ruining my friend's date in the process.

Today I am going to Cleveland to visit my sister who is there for a month on trial! Sweetness.

Smart Football

Still hurting from the Saint's loss to the 3-6 Pittsburgh Steelers, I've got football on the mind:

While Gregg Easterbrook is not the funniest NFL columnist around (that distinction probably goes to ESPN.com's Bill Simmons), I am pretty sure he is the most intelligent. If you enjoy sports but think most sports writers are hacks, then I definitely recommend you read his "Tuesday Morning Quarterback." This week, among other things, he points out how according to NFL rules women are permitted to play professional football.

Extra:
Just found this towards the end of the article I linked, thus proving my point:
The situation is very different in the developing world. The United Nations Development Programme just published its latest Human Development Report, one of the world's most important annual documents. (Tomorrow your columnist is moderator for the Washington unveiling of the report -- note the announcement is the first United Nations press release ever to mention ESPN.com.)

Ted Leo + Pharmacists + More

Tonight was full of rock and roll music. A friend of mine bought a ticket for the Ted Leo/Phamicists and Death Cab for Cutie show but then was unable to make it, so I stepped in his place. The venue was a hockey rink 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. We stood on top of rugs that had been placed over the ice, which was rather amusing. It was overall kind of a weird place to see a show. The acoustics were pretty rough. I could hear audible slap-back echo made when the snare bounced off the far wall. Also the sound in general was a little muddy but they made up for it by keeping the overall volume relatively low; a novelty in this day and age.

Someone in our group pointed out that the drummer for Ted Leo looked a little bit like me. Upon closer inspection, I decided that he looked exactly like me, so much so that I was a little bit disturbed. It was like I was looking at Bizarro Nels, but then I realized, since he is more famous than me, that I was actually bizarro him! Wild! I tried to find a good picture of him, but I couldn't find one that I felt really looked like me. Check the image on the right, and if you can't tell whom I am talking about, well then maybe he doesn't look that much like me after all.

Oh yeah, Death Cab was pretty good. I didn't know too many of their songs, but I at least enjoy the lead singer's voice.

One more thing:
On Friday night we joined some of the members of CMU's Engineering and Public Policy PhD program. Now, after having been to several of their parties and meeting some of their most esteemed students, I have decided that the School of Computer Science needs to step it up. These guys party hard, and are putting us to shame. When we finally ended up leaving at 4:15, the party was still going pretty strong. I plan to organize a committee and address this issue post haste!

Extra!
Finding more pictures of the drummer from Ted Leo:
http://www.tedleoguide.com/Live%20Photos/TLRx.2005.03.30/TLRx.2005.03.30.Pic.02.jpg
http://www.underexposed.org.uk/tedleo/tedleo4.jpg
http://www.tedleoguide.com/Live%20Photos/TLRx.2005.04.21/TLRx.2005.04.21.Pic.50.JPG
http://www.tedleoguide.com/Live%20Photos/TLRx.2005.04.21/TLRx.2005.04.21.Pic.51.JPG
http://www.tgrec.com/images/bands/full/92-2.jpg
http://www.tedleoguide.com/Live%20Photos/TLRx.2005.02.15/TLRx.2005.02.15.Pic.05.jpg
http://maskedmoviesnobs.blogspot.com/tedleolive1.jpg