Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So how about this template instead? I felt like the other one was maybe too boring, plus I love orange. What do you think?

I have acted the idiot more than once

Man, I LOVE the Olympics. I'll usually watch about any sporting event on TV, so the Olympics are three weeks of sports goodness. It's also a chance to watch all those strange sports you usually never see on ESPN - handball, badminton, field hockey, water polo, etc. Did I mention I love it?

It's also a nice way to pass the time until football season starts. I'm just saying...

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As the countries march into the stadium during the opening ceremonies, I thought I'd update everyone on some of the new music I've been listening to lately.

• Black Kids - I just got the new album from this group and I'm loving their song "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You." They're from Jacksonville, Florida but they definitely have a British sound to them. You can hear The Cure, Jarvis Cocker and The Go! Team in their music.

• Conor Oberst - You may know him as Bright Eyes, but Conor released a new album under his own name just this week. It's kind of loose and jammy and it feels like Conor has relaxed just a little. May he'll cheer up some, too. I hope not too much, though. There's a short little tune on the album called "NYC-Gone, Gone" that I really like.

• Girl Talk - Their (or really his, it's just one guy) new album, Feed The Animals, is track after relentless track of crazy mash-up tunes. It's big summer fun, and if you go to the Girl Talk website you can pay what you want for it. So go ahead and get it now.

• Frightened Rabbit - If you've gotten one of my mix CDs lately, you might recognize that this isn't a new band for me. Their new album, The Midnight Organ Fight, is pretty great, though. It might at the most depressing thing you can handle in the summer. Just a warning. They're sad, Scottish and oddly funny.
  

• Heart-Sick Groans - I found out about this group from the wonderful Swedesplease blog that you can find over there on your right. They're another of the recent batch of great Swedish bands like my favorite, The Shout Out Louds. You can't buy their album in the U.S. but you can download a few tunes from their MySpace page for free.

• Tobias Froberg - Another great Swede who you should check out if you like Peter Bjorn and John. "Slipping Under The Radar" is quickly becoming my song of the summer. You can get his album on eMusic if you're so inclined.

So that's what I'm listening to this summer. Is there anything else I should be checking out? Let me know!

This is what you get when you mess with us

I'm back from my Indianapolis concertacular weekend and I have many thoughts. The chief among them is why is Radiohead so popular?

I mean Radiohead has been at the top of my list of bands to see in concert for a couple years now, and I was excited to see them in Indy on Sunday. It was just strange to see about 10,000 other people just as (if not more) excited. They would play a couple discordant notes that barely sounded like anything and the crowd would go nuts like they'd played the opening slide guitar part to "Freebird." I love Radiohead, but they don't seem very rock an roll, you know? Someboday didn't tell this crowd.

About halfway through the show, I realized that Radiohead play the sort of music that the teenagers of the future listened to in '80s apocolypse movies. It's exactly the sort of stuff gutter punks would have blaring in the headphones (or ear implants or whatever) as they assaulted the fine citizens of a big city in the year 2030. It made me want to buy some parachute pants and get a barcode tattoo.

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This is all in contrast to Monday's Wilco concert. Wilco is a band that by all accounts should be mch more popular than Radiohead. They have a core of very approachable pop melodies surrounded in several layers of feedback and noise to give it that indie cred that the kids seem to like. However, there were nowhere near 10,000 fans at the Wilco show.

Wilco played at White River State Park just outside downtown Indianapolis. Jeff and I been through there earlier in the day on a Segway tour (yes, I just said Segway tour) and it was a lovely venue. Everyone in the city seems really proud of it, too.

The Wilco crowd was as devoted and knowledgeable as Radiohead's but they seemed less inclined to rock. Lead singer, Jeff Tweedy, even had to give everyone permission to dance like the way you might tell a dying relative it's okay to go to the light. I really think Radiohead wouldn't have minded if everyone had just swayed back and forth, while Wilco would have really liked a mosh pit. They should have swapped crowds.

I've seen Wilco a ton of times and at this point it's like catching up with an old friend. We laugh, we have fun and we know we'll see each other again soon.

So now I need a new band that I've always wanted to see in concert. That list is thinning in my old age, so I think my new number one is The Weakerthans. Yes, they did just play in backyard in March, but I, alas, was thousands of miles away.

I would wait for you to arrive with kibble and a box full of beer

I got a new sofa at the beginning of the month, but I'm just now getting time to really enjoy it. It's awesome for naps, even when you didn't really plan on one. Tippy enjoys demonstrating his napping technique on it, too.

My mum says I look like Yul Brynner - too old for Hamlet, too young for Lear

I finished my summer mix CD last month and most of the five of you who read this blog have copies. I have a few extras, though, so if you'd like your very own copy, just send your address to sadandbritish at gmail dot com and one will be on its way. For free! I haven't heard many reviews yet, but its full of tunes you might enjoy.

The photo above is the lovely cover image. It was taken by Meggan's husband Jeff (not to be confused with Cincinnati Jeff) when we down in Mobile. It was actually at the Flora-Bama Lounge - the home of many beers in a can. The Orjag story is kind of long on not as funny as it maybe should be so I won't explain. You should, however, check out Meggan and Jeff's website. They take lovely photos. At least that's my professional opinion.

I couldn't drink enough to make this make sense

Hey guys! Do you like the new template? I think now that I'm over 30, I require a more refined blog template. None of those childish colors for me. Ha! Actually, I finally upgraded to the new Blogger template and for some reason the colors didn't drop all the way down on the new version of my old template. I'm taking an online HTML class, but I haven't gotten far enough to fix something like that yet so I just picked a new one.

I though in honor of the new template, I might actually review an album like I used to on the old one. I know, it's crazy!

Today's album is a great one, though. Fight Songs by the Old 97s is one of my all-time favorites. It's got great country pop, wistful lyrics and it reminds me of a specific time and place. Amazon says the album was released in 1999, but I'm pretty sure I didn't buy it until 2000 after hearing "Murder (Or A Heart Attack)" on the music station I used to listen to on my TV.

Soon after, though, the CD was a near permanent fixture in my car. When I listen to it now, it sounds like the soundtrack to my life in California. There are songs about friends, love, loneliness, drinking, road trips and even one that I'm pretty sure is about a cat. I guess it could be a soundtrack for any single girl in her 20s then, huh?

What matters is that I still like it these days. I'm sure nostalgia has something to do with it, but it's also just a good album. You can get it for 8 bucks from Amazon so if you're a fan of alt country or power pop, pick it up. It's an amazing mixture of both.

Marriage is when we admit are parents were right

So another birthday has come and gone, this one not being nearly as big as the blast I had in San Francisco last year. Alas, it's hard to get people excited about 31.

I did buy a new camera for my birthday and it is already very good at taking pictures of Tippy. See?


Hmm, let's see... What else happened? Oh yeah, Josh got married! Here's a photo from the next morning when they graciously supplied us with coffee and pastries as we took our hung over butts home. What to see more pix from the actual festivities? They can be found here (along with photos of a really big fish). Seriously, though, it was an awesome wedding and a rockin' reception. We barely even noticed the storm that blew through. You guys should get married every year!

Another travelin' photo

Here's a shot from my recent travels to the south. I just remembered I had it in my camera. After our night out in New Orleans, we went out for beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde. It was like having funnel cakes for breakfast, which was perfect.

What do you think? Does Jeff have a future as a hand model?

Running down a dream

I have excellent news and a plea. First, the excellent news: Jeff (yes, the Jeff of so many adventures from this blog) is going to run the New York City Marathon! We went to New York last year just to watch it and I've been bugging him ever since to run it himself. I'm super excited to be able to go out there and cheer him on. My friend Nancy will be running, too, so I'm not sure I'll have any energy left to cheer for Lance Armstrong. Sorry, Lance.

And now my plea. In order to get a spot in the marathon, Jeff has to raise money for charity. He'll be running for the Tourette Syndrome Association and he needs to raise $2,500. Jeff and I both know people affected by Tourettes and it's not just a punchline for jokes. So if you can spare a few dollars, go here and make a donation. It will go to a worthwhile charity while giving Jeff a chance to run a world-class marathon. Those Kenyans better watch out!

I'm all photo'd up

I've been out of the office for almost two weeks, but it's time to head back tomorrow. There was the trip to 'Bama and then I was at a photo editing workshop in Indiana. I know, sounds awesome, right?

Our trip to Mobile and New Orleans was professionally photographed by Jeff Haller but I don't have the photos yet. I promise they're great and I'll share some when I actually get them. I know Jeff has a real job and all so I'm willing to wait.

To keep you entertained in the meantime, I've provided a link to a story that I've been telling everyone to look at for the past few months. It's much easier to have them watch it if there's just a link, though, so here it is:



Now you must watch it. It may change your life.