Let Me See The Light Again
Posted on | December 4, 2007 at 7:24 am | 7 Comments
Have this ever happened to you?
As I reported back in this entry, Scottish lass Emma Pollock opened up for the New Pornographers show that I attended a month ago. At that point, I had downloaded her album Watch The Fireworks from eMusic, but hadn’t listened to it yet. So I was unfamiliar with the songs she was playing. As I said then, I thought they sounded pleasant but not spectacular: nice little pop/rock ditties with some folk flourishes. Mos were a bit more mid-tempo than I usually crave. I don’t think her set would’ve made me go out and buy the album if I hadn’t already downloaded it.
Well, I finally got around to listening to the album and it’s got some really good stuff on it. Now I wish that I had listened to the album before seeing the show. I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed her set a lot more if I was familiar with the songs. The song “If Silence Means That Much To You” will probably end up as one of my favorite songs of the year, and I’m not even sure if she played that one that night.
Live shows are really not a good venue for being exposed to new music. I can never understand the lyrics and the music is hardly ever mixed right. Some instrument is always too loud or soft. You usually don’t get those all-important vocal harmonies live like you do on the record. And I really need those production touches that a studio adds. So I guess that’s one reason I don’t go to many concerts any more. But at least if I know the songs, then my brain can fill in the missing pieces and I can sit back and enjoy the musicianship.
On the other hand, seeing a new band live does give me some idea if I’m going to like their music or not. I hadn’t heard any Immaculate Machine before seeing them for the first time (before the previous New Pornographers concert), yet I could tell from the live show that I’d probably like their records. And I did. (IM also opened up for Emma and The NP’s at this latest show.) That’s happened a few other times for me, almost always with opening bands I had never heard of.
Anyway, shoot on over to Emma’s website, where she’s got a few of the songs available for listening in streaming mode. Unfortunately, “Silence” isn’t one of them. Of the ones there, I recommend “Acid Test”. The video for that one is there too.
Jogged Today: Yes, @ 50°F!! It’s really warm because of the Chinook winds. Although there’s high wind advisories out for other parts of the metro area and the foothills west of here, it’s actually pretty quiet here. I didn’t even get woken up by winds in the middle of the night like I usually do. Maybe we’re in some sort of eye of the storm here.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “Sugartime” (Poole)
- “Waiting for the Rain” (Judybats)
- “In A Lonely Coffin” (The Minus 5)
- “This Was The Weekend” (Baskervilles)
- “Pearly Jim” (Richard Thompson)
- “I Love The Night” (Blue Öyster Cult)
- “Afterglow” (Poster Children)
Today’s Weight: 163.8 lbs
Lunch Yesterday: Homemade ham sandwich.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Drivers who stay stopped at a stop sign and wait for me to cross the street even though they have plenty of time to go before I get the intersection. Seriously! I’d much prefer they go before I cross, especially when it’s dark or their windows are tinted and I can’t tell if they’re waving me through or not. I’d rather stop and wait for them to go then to risk misinterpreting their gesture. Believe me guys, I’m watching you and am ready to stop or go behind you.
(The reason an inordinate amount of these PPotD’s have to do with jogging is because I write them early in the morning.)
Latre.
Comments
7 Responses to “Let Me See The Light Again”
December 4th, 2007 @ 9:32 am
I’ll extend your peeve to the following: People who, out of a misplaced sense of politeness, yield a clear right-of-way to you (whether as pedestrian or driver). I realize they’re trying to be polite – but the effect gums up the system, because (a) traffic does not flow as expected, (b) you’re never sure if they’re really waving you on or if you’re misreading them, and (c) the time you spend deciding whether to take up their offer ultimately means the whole negotiation of the intersection or whatever takes longer than it would have had the other person simply made use of their right-of-way and gone on ahead. In some cases, I think people don’t know what a right-of-way is, or who has it. (Relatedly: the idiots who stop at YIELD signs even when there’s clearly no traffic or pedestrian to yield to. Grrr.)
December 4th, 2007 @ 10:02 am
Oh yeah, I hate that. Especially the people at the other side of a two-way stop sign intersection (or sometimes a stoplight intersection) who are going straight while I’m turning. They clearly have the right of way, yet sometimes wait for me to go. The standoff can last for days.
December 4th, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Ah, dear host, you may be paying attention, but for every attentive jogger there are nine others who are not. As much as one part of me would like to “weed the gene pool” (there are some of those nasty quote marks) the better part of me would be saddened at pasting a fellow human with my car. The bicyclists OTOH are really pushing the limit of human charity with me…
December 4th, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Now that I’m working downtown (or near it, at least) I thought that the bicyclists would be more careful and respectful than the ones in the suburbs. But no, if anything they’re worse. I can’t believe how often I’ve almost run into someone merrily biking down the middle of Lincoln without a bike helmet, talking on a cell phone or listening to an iPod, totally ignoring traffic. It’s like they want to get hit.
December 4th, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
OK, now I’VE got a pet peeve – cyclists that make the rest of us look bad! I hear a lot of anti-bicycle venom here in Australia too, and they’re all talking about behaviors I’ve never seen anyone engage in. I haven’t even ridden a bike outdoors in probably 5 years, come to think of it. But back in the day, I put in over 100 miles a week.
I mean, in Denver of ALL places, the bike path system is so great you hardly have to interact with traffic to get around town. So who are these bozos who seem to be trying to get bikes banned from roads?!
December 5th, 2007 @ 5:18 am
Hero Bill, Flasshe, InfK —
Just for the record, some cycle commuters are as peeved as you are. Not just me — other responsible cyclists sometimes spontaneously express their peevedness to me.
December 5th, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
Last weekend I was riding my bike across an intersection, watching two cars turn left in front of me. I stood there with my hands up like “wtf”, until a third car through finally let me through, only to be rear-ended by a FOURTH car. And the driver of the fourth car started yelling at me until I rode away. Bicyclists have the same rights of way that cars do! What part of “share the road” don’t you understand?