by Matt | Jun 19, 2001 | Imported Entry
Well, it’s now been two days since I’ve last visited my keyboard. It’s great to be back. Lots has happened, mainly my trip to NYC to see the mistress of folk, Ani Difranco. The trip started under horrible circumstances. First of all, up until the morning of the show, it was unclear as to whether I’d have a ticket or not. My uncle had gone out to find me one and I was very grateful for that. As the night progressed I was less and less grateful due to what felt like the babysitting job I was doing but we’ll get to that. Ok, so the concert was Sunday night and as of Saturday night I hadn’t heard from my younger cousin who was supposed to go with me. Turns out she was at the Dave Mathews Band concert all night. I, knowing she wouldn’t have prepared any plans, looked up driving directions and train schedules that night, just in case. So, Sunday morning rolls around and I wake up early knowing that I have a 3½ hour drive a head of me to Connecticut and a 2½ hour train ride from there to NYC. As I look out my window I can see some of the darkest storm clouds I’ve ever seen begin to roll into our area. This isn’t good, especially for an outdoor event. Anyway, I get ready and wait for my cousin to call, which she does around 10. I head over to her house to get her and ask if she has any idea how to get there and for driving information (I’m playing dumb). She doesn’t have any and assumes that I know my way into Manhattan. She had assumed I was going to drive the 6 hours into the city, magically find somewhere to park and then drive home. I was fairly mad at this point but chose not to voice my opinion, knowing we had to get on the road. So, off we went into what I’ve now come to learn was the tail end of a tropical storm. This makes driving so much fun. I don’t think I got the car above 40 the entire way down. That of course makes a 3 ½ hour trip into 5. Half way down Connecticut I say “forget this” and pull off the highway into New Haven, CT. I’ve been to New Haven before and know that there is a Amtrak stop there. I tell my cousin that we’re taking the train because I was no longer willing to drive. She then informs me that she doesn’t have any money for a train ticket. Yippee. Matt’s extremely happy with her at this point (sarcasm). So, after buying two round trip tickets, we’re on the train to NYC. At this point its 3:30 and so we get there around 5:30. We then walk the 32 (!) blocks from Grand Central Station to Central Park. We get there around 6:15, grab some water from a street vendor and wait for the show to start. The opening band came on around 7 and was absolutely horrible. They were almost painful to listen to. It was basically very bad spoken word poems about racism and how he, the proud black man, had been oppressed all his life only all set to very bad bass and piano jazz. Racism is one of the worst things on the planet and I’ve always been against it in any form, but the things this guys was saying made him sound like a racist himself, anti-white this, anti-white that. It was very insulting actually. Thankfully he left the stage after only a very “songs”, if that’s what you’d like to call them. After a brief stage equipment change Ani came on. To say that she rocked the place would be an understatement. Now, I’ve been to a few Ani Difranco shows in my time. Usually they fall into two categories. Either they are 95% her and her alone, playing all her old and more famous tunes, or it’s her and her band playing funked out versions of her new stuff. This concert was both. She played all her famous old tunes, plus my favorite tracks off the new albums. It was a great show. Afterwards, we walked back along 5th avenue toward Grand Central, caught the 11:15 back to New Haven and got to the car around 1:30. At which point, my cousin decides not to remain awake and goes quickly to sleep. Leaving me to talk to myself and sing along to the radio in order to stay awake. So, I quickly threw in CD after CD and sung along to keep myself going as I drove home. Pulling into my drive-way some time around 4 and after dropping my cousin off, I started to notice the horizon getting lighter and lighter. I’ve only been up at 4am a very times, and this was one of the least pleasent. None the less, I had seen an awesome show but I just wish I didn’t have to drive so far to see it. Needless to say I was very tired (still am) and fell right asleep. Before I did I managed to loose my cell phone somewhere between the house and the inside of the car. I had it in the car on the way home, I know because I made a call from it. And I thought I brought it in. I guess it’s here somewhere, but that can be a project for tomorrow. A nice game of “find the missing cell phone”. At any rate, I had a good time, but I’m defiantly not going to anymore shows with my cousin. Later.
by Matt | Jun 17, 2001 | Imported Entry
Had to share this before I went to bed. This is the worst web page I’ve ever seen. ps: don’t click on the client list if you’ve been known to have epileptic seizures. It seriously hurt my eyes. Night.
by Matt | Jun 17, 2001 | Imported Entry
Well, you’re now looking (reading) at the re-hired senior associate at EB. I’ve got some mixed feelings about this one. First of all, those bastards at that internet place can kiss my ass. It’s very rude to become incredibly interested in a potential employee and even get a good way into the process and then break all contact with them. After three or four dead-end phone calls and countless email, it appears that no one is hiring in the tech sector this summer. And its to such an extreme that apparently some people even dodge phone calls and don’t return email. Screw them. So, I went to EB today and talked to Eric and Brent. Not only were they incredibly glad to see me, they offered me a job before I even asked if they needed help this summer. Then I got a whole host of stories about how they had held a position over the winter for me in hopes that I would come back and that managers at three stores had fought over who was going to hire me if I did. Then I was told I could have all the hours that I wanted and that employees at other stores had wanted to transfer just to work with me. This was no joke, I was a little taken back by this. I don’t quite understand it. All I did was do my job and be somewhat nice to the customers. I didn’t slack off and screw around (to much) and apparently I was a outstanding employee. I’m confused. To me, I was simply “doing my job”. But I guess to everyone else I was doing something wonderful. I don’t know, and I really don’t care. All I know is that the job is fun, air-conditioned and I have some great co-workers. Sure the pay isn’t as much as a nice desk job in the tech sector, but honestly, I think I’ll have more fun this way. Sure, it’ll drain all creativity out of me like it did last summer, but its paying the rent, so, for now I won’t complain. Ok, it’s getting sorta late and I’ve got an Ani Difranco concert to go to tomorrow (tonight). I’ll take pictures, promise. Later.
by Matt | Jun 16, 2001 | Imported Entry
Dial ups must die. This is it, last straw. I can’t deal with this anymore. I’ve been disconnected 4 times trying to put this stupid post up. I either need to find a better dialup or get a cable modem for the house, cause I’m sick of this shit. Arrg! Can anyone recommend a cheap alternative in the southern-NH region? Cable maybe? I know DSL around here sucks.
by Matt | Jun 16, 2001 | Imported Entry
Tomb Raider review (contains spoilers): Ok, Tomb Raider, a summer action movie that secretly tries to be more than it is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an ok movie, but there’s always those little things that start to bug you after a while. First of all, I realize that different people are going to see this for different reasons. Pete will see it because is has Angie in it, Nagle will see it because he’s bored, Chip will see it because Chris Barrie runs around with a shotgun. I saw it because I had nothing better to do. The movie starts off well, a little training with robots (see the trailer) and unfortunately her “party mix” makes it into the actual movie. Ouchy. After that, the first half was pretty good. Fights with bad guys, a cool shoot’em up scene in her garage in which a beautiful James Bond-ish Aston Martin gets trashed (cry), Chris Barrie running around with loafers and a shotgun. Not half bad. Then, after we discover the plot (literally) beneath her stairs, we start getting a pointless back-story (I’ll explain as I go). Laura finds a “clock”, which looks like something out of Stargate, which is the key to unlocking pieces of an artifact with incredible power, her dad life work was trying to find it… we think. Of course the bad guys want it too. And so shenanigans ensue. As we go, we’re introduced to our bad guy who’s working for the secret organization that wants the artifact. He never quite appears evil enough. He lets Laura live, repeatedly, where you’d expect a normal bad guy to try and kill her. Which leads you to believe he’s not all bad. Through all this, Laura is driven to get this artifact and keep it away from the bad guys by her commitment to the memory of her father and his willingness that his work be completed. Cheese. Completely unnecessary. You’ll have to see it to pick out the specifics of what I mean, but lets say this: if Indiana Jones doesn’t need a deep and emotional back story to compel him to raid tombs, neither does Laura Croft. To further this is the “climax” if you’d like to call it that. Our hero finds the pieces, does the right thing, saves the world and then gets the bad guy with his own knife. Dead, of course not. Our bad guy then reveals at the last second that it was indeed him that killed her father and then provokes her to fight him in one last fight scene. Um, hello, you just got stabbed in the chest! Watch the plot take a flying lead at this point. The entire back-story leading up to the admission that he killed her dad was, again, unnecessary. He could have simply tried to kill her and she was fighting back. That would have been fine. Ok, I digress; I don’t want to spoil too much of it for you. Its a fun summer action flick with some problems. But hey, aren’t they all? Go see it if you’re bored, but don’t expect much other than guns and mildly interesting action scenes and the always annoying 13 year olds that need to shout out and comment on everything. Remember, it’s PG-13 for a reason, I just wish I could have figured out what that reason was. Yet another o.k. movie that would have been better R-rated. Later.
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