Thoroughly enjoyed Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  It was hilarious, sweet, and just plain old fun to watch.  We watched a late showing on Thursday night with a really fun crowd that laughed as hard as we did.  I downloaded the soundtrack Friday morning and have been listening to it ever since.  The iTunes reviews were pretty annoying to read.  There are a lot of the snobby indie music listeners who are disturbed that the general masses are discovering their precious little bands.  They call the movie soundtrack a big sellout from the bands.  I think these people are more concerned about being an indie music guru than they are about the success of the band or enjoyment of the music.  I don’t keep up with the indie music scene (anymore?) and I welcome a soundtrack like this to show me the highlights — regardless of how old they are!

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The Cat Power concert was good last night.  Warehouse Live is a really cool venue.  People weren’t kidding about how clean they keep the place.  I was unsure whether they were going to let me bring in my D200 but after consulting the Yelp forums I decided it was worth a try.  As we approached the door I saw a girl with a dSLR camera slung over her shoulder.  The door guy let her in without a hitch so I breathed a sigh a relief.  When the door guy saw my camera bag, he asked to see what was inside and called over another guy to ask if my camera was okay.  The head security guy said that I had to put it back into my car and that I could take pictures with my cellphone if I wanted to.  So we walked back to the car.  I’ll admit that I was a little upset that the other girl got away with it.  Fortunately, as we were walking back to the door guys, we saw that the head security guy was escorting the girl with the camera out and telling her that she had to put her camera in her car.  Not that I wish misfortune on others — I just appreciate consistency in rules.  I’m not sure if that’s Warehouse Live’s policy or Cat Power’s policy.  She had her own camera guys taking photos of her during the show so I’m guessing it’s a Cat Power policy.

I had the same gripes last night that I always have about concerts.  Body odor, lack of personal space, obnoxious drunk girls (or just plain obnoxious underage girls as was the case last night), and all of the waiting!

I know everyone keeps talking about how our generation is all about instant gratification and people don’t know the value of waiting anymore.  I think the concert-going subculture is one of the remaining groups of patient people in the world.  With really long attention spans!  We waited in the studio for thirty minutes before they opened up the doors to let us into the ballroom.  (I’d really like to see someone in the studio in the future, the place is so intimate and cozy.)  Then we waited standing up near the stage for quite some time until the first act came on stage.  The opener was Appaloosa who played music from her Macbook (which was covered in stickers) and sang along to it.  Truth be told, it was actually pretty good music — but there was nothing to look at.  She did not have the star power or stage presence to really draw in the crowd.  She wore a strapless glittery red dress over blue jeans and cowboy boots which I guess was interesting.  Besides doing an awkward dance now and then and her constant readjusting of her dress so that her boobs wouldn’t fall out — there was nothing to see.  Then there was a LONG wait between the opener and Cat Power.  Stagehands came onstage to check the mics and the cords, tape setlists on the floor, place water bottles and towels around the stage, place a huge fan, etc… is this on purpose?  To create so much suspense and buildup that by the time the band comes on stage you’re delirious with happiness that it’s finally starting and you cheer so loud — slightly unsure if you’re cheering for the band or if you’re cheering that it’s finally starting.

Haha, I know I sound like I didn’t like the concert but I really did.  Chan Marshall is incredibly talented.  Her songs and her voice are both so emotional.  She was really in the zone for some of the songs.  I didn’t feel like she connected very well with the audience even though she did turn the fan towards us to cool us off, hand a girl in the audience her onstage cocktail, throw flowers out to the audience at the end of the concert.  Why is it that when musicians smile, it makes everyone watching want to smile back?  Musicians are mesmerizing.  I did feel that she was in her own world for a lot of the concert and she didn’t really say anything to us.  I have a suspicion that she was instructed not to talk during the concert to avoid a repeat of this.

Anyway.  This is a really disjointed post but it’s Saturday morning and I’m not used to being up on Saturday mornings.

Go horns!

History is full of great speeches.  Some of the most influential speeches in my life are:

• Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.
• Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech:
• Robert F. Kennedy’s “Mindless Menace of Violence” speech after MLK’s assassination:
• J.K. Rowling’s Harvard University Commencement Speech

And now, after watching Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, I am adding it to my short list of life-influencing speeches. If you missed Obama’s speech last night, please take the time to watch it.

Not that reality is all about rhetoric and great speechmaking, but I do believe that the masses need to be inspired to hope for and work towards progress.

While I’m on the topic of Obama, here’s a great NYT article that Lawrence linked me to about Obama’s stance on economics.

In all fairness, as independents, the husband and I will be tuning into the Republican National Convention next week.  This brings a whole new meaning to “tough act to follow.”

EDIT:  I am adding Barack Obama’s Call to Renewal speech about religion and politics and Barack Obama’s Yes We Can speech.

My absence is pretty hard to explain.  I’ve had more time in the past two weeks than I’ve had in a long time.  And I’m about to start a crazy year of working at the hospital and finishing my last year of classes.  I’ve been enjoying a random assortment of things so in no particular order, here goes:

I purchased these hiking shoes (Women’s Vasque Breeze, no GoreTex) last week on sale for $80 as well as a pair of REI Merino Wool Light Hiking Socks.  They are pretty comfortable and not as heavy as the leather hiking boots that are out there.  Most of the reviews I’ve read say that they don’t require a break-in period so I’m glad about that since we are headed to Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend.

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I spend most of my web surfing time reading through my Google Reader.  Especially with the convenience of Firefox’s Google Reader extension that has the option to load the website inside the reader, there’s really no reason to leave my Google Reader (except to read the Freakonomics blog which strangely doesn’t work inside the reader).  I really like the Google Reader iPhone app although I wish there was an option to “expand all” so that I don’t have to click into each feed to read it.

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I discovered this CD (Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone) on IMEEM and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.  The sound of a sorrowful cello is beautiful.

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I’ve been also trying to incorporate Evernote into my life.  I’ve been using it for school and also for brainstorming for future ideas.  I used to carry around a little yellow notepad to jot down ideas and books I wanted to remember to pick up or artists to check out.  Now that I have the iPhone Evernote app, I’ve ditched the little yellow notepad.

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This is the first time I’ve watched a political convention and I’ve really been enjoying it.  I wish CNN would show more of it instead of some of its pointless commentary but otherwise it’s been pretty good.  It still bothers me when the crowd starts booing or chanting in response to the speeches — and the speeches can get kind of hokey sometimes but most of the time I am inspired and encouraged by what I’ve been hearing.  I’m looking forward to Obama’s speech tonight although I might not be home to catch it– thank God for YouTube!

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Ever since Barcamp I have been using Twitter.  I noticed that I don’t twitter very much when I’m out of town.  We’ll see if that changes.  I wonder if there’s a correlation with being able to twitter and not feeling the need to write blogposts as frequently.

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I’ve been asked to join the Yelp Elite Squad!  I’ve been on a Yelping hiatus but now I’m back in full force! This is probably why they ask people to join the Elite Squad.  The main perks of being elite are that I get invitations to their parties, special deals and discounts, a free t-shirt, and pride!  This is kind of like when the husband and I got Gold status at Dave & Busters.  Too bad we don’t really go there anymore.

My Google Reader is easily my favorite Google app these days as it has streamlined and regulated my browsing habits as well as introduced me to new websites and ideas from my friends.  I have a widget on my sidebar that shows the latest feeds I’ve shared (the dark blue box under the heading “sharing is caring”) but I figure I’d mention it in a post because my sidebar isn’t very friendly.  (Thanks to Denver for converting me to the GReader.)

Speaking of efficiency, I ordered a white, 16GB iPhone 3G this past Sunday.  They said it will take 4-5 days to come in so that means I should receive a phone call tomorrow or Friday.  I haven’t been this excited about a product since I got my Sony XBrite monitor in college.  I don’t mean to be over dramatic but I think this purchase will change my entire lifestyle.  For those who don’t know me, I’m not a very well connected person.  I am an email junkie during the weekdays but during the weekends and in the evenings it’s difficult to contact me unless you are with me in person.  I used to go days without knowing where my cellphone was and checking my voicemail once a month was not unusual.  With the help of the husband, I’ve curbed most of this behavior and have really made an effort in the past year to stay better connected.  But I still have my days.

Once I get the iPhone, I’ll always know where my phone is (it’s too expensive not to!), I’ll always have access to email, my spontenaeity will be much better informed, and I’ll finally have my calendar on me!  While this sounds great for efficiency, I hope I don’t get too sucked in.  I don’t want to be that guy (or girl) who is constantly checking his/her phone.  I don’t want to forget the pleasure of reading a paperback book on the beach.  You know, that sort of thing.  I think I’ll be fine, I’m just slightly apprehensive.

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We went to the new H MART yesterday to pick up some ingredients for our Okonomiyaki dinner.  It’s a lot closer than Chinatown, has Korean, Japanese and Chinese foodstuffs and snacks and it’s cheap!  The produce section was really clean (sometimes hard to find in Asian Groceries) and looked really fresh.  They also have a mini foodcourt and some prepared food.  If you haven’t been, make a trip out there sometime soon.

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I’m sold on the Houstonist.  Last week it told me about the St. Arnold’s Scavenger Hunt Pub Crawl that was happening.  (We were outside of the first 200 entries, but they’re still letting us come to the party, we just won’t be eligible for the kegerator raffle.)  And this week I read about BarCampHouston3 which the husband and I will be attending this weekend.

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EDIT:

I just received the following email from AT&T!

“Your iPhone 3G order has been shipped and is on its way to the AT&T store in which you placed the order, please see address below. Your credit card has been charged.”

I think Nas’s song might be the hit of the summer:

Speaking of good summer songs, I really like Rihanna’s Take a Bow.  I swear I’m not kidding.  I think this is one of the best breakup songs ever written.  I like that she’s trying hard to be mean and sarcastic but you can still feel her pain.