Flaming Lips in San Antonio

Last night Carri and I drove to San Antonio to catch the Flaming Lips at Lonestar Pavilion. We wanted to see the band tonight in Austin but they are playing La Zona Rosa and tickets were gone in a nanosecond. If you have never seen the Flaming Lips you are truly missing out as they are one of the best live bands around. They do not just sit up there staring at their shoes while they play their album note for note. No they have confetti guns, huge balloons, video boards with strange effects, dancing Santas, aliens, Wayne pouring fake blood on himself, etc. Last nights show was a little wide ranging for my taste and Wayne was very verbose. This is my sixth time to see the Lips but the first when they were headlining a non-festival setting. I like their shows to be a little tighter.

Overall it was a great time with only one major complaint: The Lips kind of rail against George Bush and his policies, and they are anti-war, even going so far as to play Taps in their set. Now I am completely for this stance, as my personal feelings for Bush and war are in line with theirs. However, I find it a bit hypocritical that this tour is sponsored by Camel cigarettes. It seems strange that you would lament those killed in a bogus war yet take money from those that kill over 440,000 Americans a year with cigarettes.

Diet

Well after a really rough weekend of eating poorly and drinking every beer within arm's reach Carri and I have both decided to try to drop a few pounds. We have both been saying this for the last month or so but I hope this time it will stick. I found a calorie counting website and looking at the diet as simple math should help me stick to it. Our goal is lose some weight before our one year anniversary in early November. Now if I can simply stay away from my evil arch nemesis...beer. Wish us luck.

ACL Festival Recap

Friday: Got to the fest at about 1:45 and headed over to see Del MCoury. Nice and mellow but still had early fest excitement and wanted to move along after a song or so. Next it was over to Bela Fleck for some of his set. After this we headed to the merch tent, and noticed the fire in the background. Carri and I headed over a little closer, and caught a big whiff of the acidic smelling smoke. Next it was time for Peter Bjorn and John. Caught about half their set and then went to look for a hat for Carri. Unfortunately about this time I started to feel a little sick, no biggy I just thought I was hot. Caught the end of PB and J, then over to Wamu to meet up with Jon for Big Sam's Funky Nation. This is when I stated to feel really sick, I think I must have been hit by the heat as I felt like I could not cool myself, I was sweating profusely, was light-headed, etc. Luckily we got in the shade and I put ice all over myself. This certainly helped but I was still feeling sub-par. Thankfully Carri was there with me and really helped me out when I was thinking I was gonna pass out. Love you babe. Anyway I finally got cooled off, drank a ton of really cold water (I had already had 3 nalgenes earlier, but must have sweated those out), took some endurolytes, and ate a protein bar. After this we decided it was best to just call it a day. As we were leaving we did see a bit of LCD Soundsystem from a hill across the street from the park. So unfortunately we missed QOTSA, Gotan Project, and Bjork.

Saturday: Got a late start to try to stay out of the heat as much as possible. Caught Damien Rice who was really interesting with some really slow songs but then some rocking ones as well. A few songs of Cross Canadian followed and then it was over to see Muse. Muse by far was my favorite band of the festival. They put on an amazing show and I would certainly see them the next time they come to Austin.

Sunday: Another late start because of my yearly conflict with the NFL and the fest on Sunday. Really only saw My Morning Jacket, the end of Wilco's set, and the beginning of GLO. All in all I liked all the music I saw on Sunday.

Overall besides getting sick it was another fun ACL, even though I feel the middle level talent was a little weak and was not good enough to draw me out of the air conditioning house to see them in the middle of the day.

Ravens Blow It

Hello Monday Night Football...do you remember us? We are the Baltimore Ravens, we had the second best record in the AFC last year at 13-3, we laid an egg against the Colts in the playoffs, we had 6 turnovers in tonight's game, we got hosed on a tying TD catch by Todd Heap, we then put the ball right between the 8 and the 6 on Heap's jersey and he does not catch it, our quarterback not only got hurt but looked like he was playing JV ball, Ray Lewis ripped his tricep the third play of the game. Yeah that's us the Baltimore Ravens, I am bummed that you lost...but you are still my favorite team.