I can’t get in the car these days without having Lane say “Daddy, where’s your Zune? I want to hear my songs!” (Actually, Shelly has the exact same thing happening, but since this is my blog I chose to include myself in the previous sentence… )
So, what are “Lane’s songs” you ask? While the order that he likes to hear them changes on a daily basis, below are the songs that Shelly and I both have included in a “Lane’s mix” playlist.
Returned Zune #2 to Best Buy today and had it replaced thanks to the Best Buy Replacement Plan. Yeah, the replacement plans are a total rip-off, but I am super glad I did it for my Zune.
A little history… Zune #1 was purchased the first day they were released (like the fanboy that I am). 29 days later, without realizing, I took it back to Best Buy because the headphone jack was malfunctioning. The girl working the return counter made a snide remark about how another 2 days and I would have been SOL. Perhaps it was sneaky plan to get me to buy the aforementioned rip-off, but I did so out of fear.
Now, a year and a half later, the headphone jack was again wonky. My two year replacement plan (that cost me just $20) covered the unit, and I walked out with a new Zune. Yay!
What an amazing record! I mean, holy crap, how is this thing not readily available??!?! It’s an outrage… an injustice…
Whatever it is, you can download the mp3’s from this amazing live album over at Buddyhead. Do it quick like, who knows when this will disappear!
I’d never heard of this album until tonight, and being a casual Neil Young fan, I decided to give it a download.
Now, I’m not joking when I say that my life has been enriched from listening to it for the last two hours on repeat. Seriously. This is an amazing live recording.
Reading about it on a few fan sites and Wikipedia, I obviously have been missing out. Fans have been ranting and raving for Neil Young to allow this album to be released, but it seems he would rather forget that this ever happened…
I finally fulfilled a long time desire last week, when I got to see The Eels live at the Palace of Fine Arts in SF. And it wasn’t just another show, it was “An Evening with The Eels.” Didn’t know what to expect by that title, but they surely didn’t disappoint.
The opening act was… a BBC documentary entitled “Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives.” It was about Eels front man, Mark Oliver Everett (”E”) going on a journey to find out more about his father, Hugh Everett III. He didn’t have a close relationship with his father, but they lived in the same house for 20 years. From the Wikipedia entry for his father…
Hugh Everett III (November 11, 1930 – July 19, 1982) was an American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he called his “relative state” formulation. He left physics after completing his Ph. D., discouraged at the lack of response to his theories from other physicists. He developed the use of generalized Lagrange multipliers in operations research and applied this commercially as a defense analyst and a consultant, becoming a multi-millionaire.
The documentary was about an hour long, and quite enthralling. I’ve been trying to find it online, but only links to bit torrents can be found…
After a brief intermission, The Eels (being E and “The Chet”) came out and played wonderful music for nearly 90 minutes. The show was filled with great moments of showmanship, some amusing readings from E’s new book, reading (fake) fan mail on stage, etc. My only complaint was not playing “Friendly Ghost,” but one of the readings from his book might have best explained why…
E’s sister committed suicide shortly after his father’s death, writing in her suicide note that she was off to meet her father in a parallel universe. He returned from her funeral to his apartment in L.A., and his elderly woman landlord (who knew nothing of the death) told him that she saw the ghost of a young woman enter his apartment the previous day. This freaked him out some, but he liked the idea of his sister coming to say goodbye, and so he turned the weird idea of a ghost being with him into a good thing by penning the song about a friendly ghost.
I learned a ton about the man during this evening, and it makes me listen to some of his songs in a whole different way. One thing is sure though, they continue to be one of the few bands that always seems capable of eliciting an emotional response from me when listening to their music, regardless of how many times I have heard it before.
Gene and I have tickets to see The Eels at the Palace of Fine Arts in SF on April 14th, which (obviously) is next Monday.
Funny story… all day long, I somehow managed to convince myself that today was actually next Monday. So, I drove to Gene’s house in South city, and then we drove up to the Palace of Fine Arts. The parking lots were very empty, and it seemed strange that we could park right in front of the theater just 5 minutes before show time.
As Gene says, “the show was tonight… right?,” I realize that my cell phone says it is April 7th, and I know that the tickets say April 14th. Crap. Much laughter was heard, and my embarrassment could be seen.
This is certainly not going to help my reputation for getting days and times wrong…
One thing is certain though, Gene and I now know exactly how to get to the Palace of Fine Arts from his house for next week.
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