gig review: 50 foot wave @ café du nerd

Kim and i had a hard time finding parking, but we eventually settled for the garage on top of the Tower Records, which closed at midnight. Three other bands shared the night: Knife and Fork (the vocalist sounded like P J Harvey, and it turns out she and one of her bandmates met at a P J Harvey show, and the guitarist looked like she was trying to channel Corey Feldman; i found them a cut above average), Loquat (another band that goes for the cheesy Casiotone sound to go with a jangly feel that sounds like a cross between early Cars, Weezer, and the Pixies' poppier moments; although Kim felt that they were more technically proficient, i didn't like `em much except for one song), and The Monolith ("mellow chick rock" with quite good vocals; first two songs were good, but the rest were blah). Each band played for 30-35 minutes, and the break between each performance was about 25-30 minutes, so we had to go move the car after Loquat was done.

50' Wave came on and rocked very hard. Kristin's voice was abrasive. I only recognized "Clara Bow" (second song) and "Lavender" (near the end of the set). They came back for a two-song encore; they played no non-Wave songs. They didn't sound like they'd quite jelled on the songs (they had one false start), but there's a lot of energy there and i look forward to their upcoming release (March 23, i think) and subsequent tour. They only played for 45 minutes, so a full 90min show, with pre-Wave songs, should be really rockin'. Too bad the show went on so long... they really should've started at 20:00 (they started at 21:00). We didn't get home till 02:00.

gig review: 50 foot wave @ café du nerd

Kim and i had a hard time finding parking, but we eventually settled for the garage on top of the Tower Records, which closed at midnight. Three other bands shared the night: Knife and Fork (the vocalist sounded like P J Harvey, and it turns out she and one of her bandmates met at a P J Harvey show, and the guitarist looked like she was trying to channel Corey Feldman; i found them a cut above average), Loquat (another band that goes for the cheesy Casiotone sound to go with a jangly feel that sounds like a cross between early Cars, Weezer, and the Pixies' poppier moments; although Kim felt that they were more technically proficient, i didn't like `em much except for one song), and The Monolith ("mellow chick rock" with quite good vocals; first two songs were good, but the rest were blah). Each band played for 30-35 minutes, and the break between each performance was about 25-30 minutes, so we had to go move the car after Loquat was done.

50' Wave came on and rocked very hard. Kristin's voice was abrasive. I only recognized "Clara Bow" (second song) and "Lavender" (near the end of the set). They came back for a two-song encore; they played no non-Wave songs. They didn't sound like they'd quite jelled on the songs (they had one false start), but there's a lot of energy there and i look forward to their upcoming release (March 23, i think) and subsequent tour. They only played for 45 minutes, so a full 90min show, with pre-Wave songs, should be really rockin'. Too bad the show went on so long... they really should've started at 20:00 (they started at 21:00). We didn't get home till 02:00.

oooh, shiny

pobig introduced me to Grow, a deceptively simple little game. I finally figured out the 'solution' that leads you to maximize every item's level, but getting things 'wrong' can lead to different, cool effects. And, just to prove i'm not lyin':

WARNING: Addictive like crack, although probably not as bad as that damned penguin-smacking game

oooh, shiny

pobig introduced me to Grow, a deceptively simple little game. I finally figured out the 'solution' that leads you to maximize every item's level, but getting things 'wrong' can lead to different, cool effects. And, just to prove i'm not lyin':

WARNING: Addictive like crack, although probably not as bad as that damned penguin-smacking game

veri$ign delenda est

VeriSlime is now suing ICANN because only VeriSlime has the authority to impose its will on the Internet. Or something.

veri$ign delenda est

VeriSlime is now suing ICANN because only VeriSlime has the authority to impose its will on the Internet. Or something.

pondering the futility of social networks

I'm >this< close to deleting my orkut account; that is, to requesting that it be deleted. I will set aside for a moment my opinion of social networks, and point out why orkut sucks as a service:

• There's no communication. There's no news page that tells you what Orkut is working on, what new features are coming, what bugs are being fixed, not even a fucking FAQ. This is key.
• The "communities" suck ass. There's no threading; if you leave, your posts become "anonymous"; only 10 entries are shown per page, and you can't change that.
• The random disappearance of accounts and communities lead many to believe that there's an active censorship vector. In itself, that's not a big deal, but because there's no established policy, and referring back to my first complaint, we can't KNOW what's going on because nobody's SAYING ANYTHING.
• orkut's First Law: You can't delete your own account. orkut's Second Law: Your account can be deleted at any time for any slight against orkut, real or imagined. Corollary via Murphy's Law: trying to diss orkut in order to get your account deleted will fail.

I used to defend orkut by saying it was a beta site. No longer; it might say "beta" on each page, but it's evident that development ceased weeks ago (probably as soon as Orkut's stupid launch party occurred). It's abandonware, folks, so do the appropriate thing: remove your personal info and abandon your account.

pondering the futility of social networks

I'm >this< close to deleting my orkut account; that is, to requesting that it be deleted. I will set aside for a moment my opinion of social networks, and point out why orkut sucks as a service:

• There's no communication. There's no news page that tells you what Orkut is working on, what new features are coming, what bugs are being fixed, not even a fucking FAQ. This is key.
• The "communities" suck ass. There's no threading; if you leave, your posts become "anonymous"; only 10 entries are shown per page, and you can't change that.
• The random disappearance of accounts and communities lead many to believe that there's an active censorship vector. In itself, that's not a big deal, but because there's no established policy, and referring back to my first complaint, we can't KNOW what's going on because nobody's SAYING ANYTHING.
• orkut's First Law: You can't delete your own account. orkut's Second Law: Your account can be deleted at any time for any slight against orkut, real or imagined. Corollary via Murphy's Law: trying to diss orkut in order to get your account deleted will fail.

I used to defend orkut by saying it was a beta site. No longer; it might say "beta" on each page, but it's evident that development ceased weeks ago (probably as soon as Orkut's stupid launch party occurred). It's abandonware, folks, so do the appropriate thing: remove your personal info and abandon your account.