¤ jetless heights

makin’ tea in your underwear

+ Wed, September 29

The Great Concert Roundup of 2004

During The Great Online Silence of Phil Dokas of 2004 I managed to see a ridiculous number of concerts.  We’re talking about The Shins, The Strokes, Rogue Wave (twice), Modest Mouse, The Walkmen, The Decemberists, The Long Winters, Of Montreal (twice) and Yo La Tengo.  Keeping in mind, of course, that Interpol and The Pixies are still on tap for this fall, and Travis Morrison just announced a date with Death Cab For Cutie (even though his album just roundly had its ears boxed by that very same publication) in my neck of the woods.

So yes.  A few.

The Strokes began this absurd stint in May, wherein I had my first experience with the Crushed-At-The-Front-Of-The-Mosh-Pit style of concert viewing.  It’s a shame that I don’t remember much of the show, what with all the “fighting for my life” and such.

Shortly thereafter came The Decemberists and Long Winters show, who played exactly one floor below Kanye West and his attempt to rock St. Andrew’s Hall to the ground.  Despite the deep rumbling seeping through the ceiling, they played marvelous sets each, including notables like The Decemberists’ The Tain and virtually every song you’d care to name off either Her Majesty and Castaways & Cutouts.  The Long Winters played without keyboardist Sean Nelson and when asked, explained that he was too busy recording with Harvey Danger to be touring.  John noted further that a record can be expected sometime early 2005 and new Harvey Danger can hardly be a bad thing.  He also gave a rousing rendition of his Detroit is for lovers speech.

Following that came a fantastic trip to Chicago to see The Shins play The House Of Blues.  This show was unusual in the extreme gentility of everyone in attendence.  You could leave where you were, return five minutes later and find your spot completely bare, awaiting your return.  At a rock show?  Are you kidding me?  Some band called Rogue Wave opened and they were startingly good.  A decent opener?  At a rock show?  Are you kidding me?  So good, in fact, that I saw them on a tour of their own supporting AC Newman in Detroit in which they were just as good.  Back to Chicago though, The Shins played all but four songs off their two brilliant records.  Laughing, joking, bra-throwing, they themselves had a blast and there’s nothing more important for a good show.  Stopping by the Chicago Apple Store didn’t hurt neither.

After this summer’s Lollapalooza tour crashed and burned, headliners Modest Mouse and supporting act The Walkmen banded together (har har) and went on a tour of their own with the exception of the Detroit date which occurred sans Walkmen.  No worries about that though, The Walkmen one-upped that problem by playing Ann Arbor’s own Blind Pig.  Modest Mouse put on a show sized according to their recent popularity and catered to that by playing heavily from their most recent record.  It’s a shame I missed them when they were smaller and more capable of playing small venues, such as how The Walkmen played the Blind Pig.  Standing under Hamilton Leithauser and his wicked name while he belted out The Rat – nearly knocking himself over the monitors the whole time – was one of the more intimate and intense concert moments of my life.

Finally, this Sunday and Monday night brought Of Montreal and Yo La Tengo to town.  I saw Of Montreal when my friends opened for them and knew of their antics.  Unfortunately, this Sunday they seemingly forgot about that and played a pretty ho-hum show.  Not bad, just not up to snuff.  Monday night’s Yo La Tengo show, however, was more than up to snuff.  They’re on a tour of swing states in support of John Kerry’s bid for presidency and are putting on a different kind of show.  No opening acts, just friends playing music with them and a few comedians.  As such, they played a ranging concert for three hours straight.  They played from all over their 17 year repertoire and the flow was one of the most dynamic, creative displays by a group that I’ve ever seen.  17 years on the road and they’re still having a great time, how fantastic is that?

I nabbed the setlists at the Modest Mouse and Rogue Wave shows (YLT’s roadie took the one I was going for, that bastard) and they’re in the extended reading.

And this friends, has been The Great Concert Roundup of 2004.

→ Read on…

1:01 PM  ×  1 Comment  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Sun, September 26

V to the OTE

Jason Kottke along with others has produced a handy Voters Information Guide for the 2004 US elections.

There are far too many people out there who either don’t know how to become registered or who don’t feel compelled to complete the short and painless process.  This guide answers many of the “how-to” questions that a lot of people have and has direct links to downloadable registration forms.

If you’re an American citizen who’s at least 18 years old and isn’t registered to vote, I want you to peruse that guide and take 5 minutes out of your day so that you can make this world a better place on November 2nd by voting for whomever you think is the best for the job.  It’s your duty.

11:55 PM  ×  1 Comment  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Thu, September 16

Dirty Secrets

Jeremy at Antipixel wants to know about your iPod’s dirty little secrets.

The way I do things, my iPod only stores songs which I’ve checked in iTunes and as it turns out, my secrets remain unchecked.  While they don’t waste space on my little white friend, dirty secrets I have.

Wait.  Wait.  Hootie And The Blowfish?  What?

All I have to say for myself is that 1995 was a long time ago and I was in 5th grade.

8:10 PM  ×  5 Comments  ×  1 Trackback

+ Mon, September 13

Dokas Photos

After a summer of work, I’m happy to announce Dokas Photos to the internet.

My dad has been taking professional black and white photographs for the last 30 years or so and has recently taken an interest in getting his work online.  I produced this portfolio site for him over the course of this summer, swimming in the sweet nectar of valid and semantic code.

He’s already placed ~150 of his prints online, and I hear he’s ready to put more up shortly including photos from his trip to Greece this past June.  But enough of that, you can read about all the details over there.

On my end of things, yes, the site is fully accessible and compliant with all of your favorite standards.  It even has an Atom feed!  For me, this site was the largest departure from my standard course of design.  A portfolio is a far cry from a weblog (though, for those who are interested, his site is powered by MT) and as such required a great deal of thinking in terms of usability and flow.

It was also a wonderful chance to work with some recent techniques.  You might notice a modified version of Dan Cederholm’s fantastic CSS Tabs in action.  For those of you that missed it, it’s right below a modified version of the Fahrner Image Replacement technique.  Onion Skinned drop shadows are also heavily used, but that’s only because they’re so damn handy (if markup heavy).

But with all these CSS shenanigans, problems reared their horrible little heads.  Doug Bowman came to the rescue once again with his IE5/mac Band-Pass Filter debuting recently, saving users of that browser from some truly hideous errors.  Additionally, on account of Internet Explorer’s deep-grained hatred for PNG images (typically requiring ugly hacks), I’ve used the silly but useful Conditional Comments available in those browsers to prevent them from choking on content they shouldn’t even try to support.

In case you were wondering.

In any event, it’s live and now I think it’s time to buy a new toy.

5:49 PM  ×  2 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Sat, September 11

9/11

I don’t think that anyone walking into Mrs. Dahl’s AP US History test that morning expected American History to be the one receiving the most difficult test.

9:28 AM  ×  4 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

+ Wed, September  8

<tap tap>

Since last time, I’ve started a new school year and forever moved out of the shelter of my parents.  This is it kid, I’m on my own now.  This also has much to do with my recent silence, what with all the moving and lack of internet connection and throwing pudding parties in my backyard and not the eating kind.

Ah, life.  Ah, college.

Regular posting is here again for all you and your insatiable demands.

7:14 PM  ×  4 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks

Slow Hands

Interpol is like a dark woman, slicing effortlessly into your world, pulling you into the most unabashedly passionate stages of your life.

You make me want to pick up a guitar
and celebrate the myriad ways that I love you

Interpol – Slow Hands

4:25 PM  ×  2 Comments  ×  0 Trackbacks