Musical Interests and Collective Soul

I owe my love and fascination with music to three bands, Collective Soul, Better Than Ezra and Train. But truly a concert back in the summer of 1999 was really what cemented my love of music.

If you have not heard of the band Collective Soul, where were you in the 90's? They had hits like 'Shine', 'Simple', 'The World I Know' and 'December' which surely everyone has heard once if not multiple times. All of these songs were on my "must listen to" list at the time (AKA my personal mix tape).

Fast forward to 1999 and their new album Dosage and the first single 'Heavy'. Another one of those songs that immediately went onto my 'lastest favorites' list and what had evolved to my mix CD.

In 1999 there was a radio station in Birmingham, Alabama simply known as The X. It was 107.7 WRAX or The X. A great radio station that had a history of great music. In the 90's this station and the Birmingham area introduced the masses to many bands that went big, those bands remember and thank The X and Birmingham for bringing them to the forefront of music.

A friend and I get tickets to a music 'festival' of sorts on the southern side of Birmingham at Oak Mountain Amphitheater called 'X Fest'. Many bands played there but the three that stood out the most was Marvelous 3, My Friend Steve, Train and obviously Collective Soul.

My friend and I arrive and listen to some of the bands like My Friend Steve comes on and plays the song I know most by them 'All In All' and Marvelous 3 with their hit at time 'Freak of the Week'.

Around this time Train was getting lots of airtime in Birmingham with their song 'Meet Virginia' which had been playing for months but was only just now catching on nationally. So they were the last band on before the headliner Collective Soul. They were playing all of their songs from the album and I remember being enthralled by their music and Pat Monahan's bongo solo.

They ended their set and the stage was reset for CS to come on. I don't remember the set list or order of songs, but I remember being awed so much by their performance and the finale of 'Heavy' that I decided to that, even if I never become a music star or anything like that, I still want to learn to play.

So you can really say that concert by Collective Soul back in 1999 was what set me on my path to learn and play music. To this day, Collective Soul and Better Than Ezra continue to inspire my interest in music.

Here are some links that might interest you:

Collective Soul's Website

Collective Soul's Twitter

Collective Soul's 2009 Tour

Better Than Ezra's Website

Better Than Ezra's Twitter

Better Than Ezra's 2009 Tour

ISP's trying to bring back bandwidth caps

On Monday, I saw an article on Yahoo! News about Time Warner Cable trying out metered internet usage in Beaumont, Texas. People in this area will have a monthly allowance for the amount of data they upload and download. If they go over this limit, they will be charged $1 per gigabyte.

They claim that this is an attempt to fairly deal out internet usage, which they claim is uneven among Time Warner Cable's subscribers. They also claim 'We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure'. However, the investment should have came from all of the millions of dollars given to telco's by the government over the last several years.

The article also goes on to talk about how phone companies are less concerned about congestion and will be unlikely to impose metered usage on DSL customers since their networks are structured differently.

Time Warner Cable gave some info about their tiered service. One will be $29.95 a month for 768 kilobits per second and a 5 gigabyte monthly cap and another will be $54.90 for 15 megabits per second and a cap of 40 gigabytes per month. The price covers the internet portion of subscription bundles that include video (think video on demand) and phone services. Both of which the downloads and uploads count toward the monthly cap.

Comcast, which is the country's largest cable company, has suggested that it may cap usage at 250 gigabytes per month.

This is just a way for these companies to make more money to pad their bottom line. They see a trend where people are using the internet more and more and feel that its their best way to increase their profits. With iTunes, Amazon, Audible, NetFlix and many other services that use the internet for sales and delivery, these companies have set their sights on us users who use it for entertainment to increase their profit margins.

I have started watching TWiTLive.tv streaming broadcasts of Leo Laporte. The video and audio is 564 kilobits per second. If you multiply that out its in the neighborhood of 2 gigabytes per hour. He broadcast about 25 hours a week. If someone watched all 25 hrs per week and did nothing else, that would total over 100 gigabytes per month.

If you watch a movie from NetFlix, each one would be (roughly estimated) 2 gigabytes or 6-8 gigabytes for a high definition movie. This is completely ridiculous. It reminds me of 1995 when metered dial-up internet was around. Remember what happened to that?

Yahoo! News Article
CNet: The Digital Home Article

Love the Muppets

I love the muppet video for Mahna-mahna but I think this is right up there with it.



Link for the embedded impared.

Have you been Rick Rolled yet?

I remember hearing one particular song by Rick Astley when I was growing up in my hometown. Little did I know that some years later it would come back around and be cool again. I'm talking about Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

Throughout the years I would hear snippets of the song here and there. I remembered who it was, forgot, and remembered again. Now its a wild internet meme phenomenon. Even the people who join the group Anonymous, the hacker group protesting the church of $cientology, at protests play the song during their demonstrations. Everyone then joins in and sings the lyrics while waving their signs in time with the music. Quite amazing considering.....I remember when the song came out.

Well, here is the link to the video since embedding has been disabled on most of the videos. This is the VH1 pop-up video version which describes some of the things in the video. Enjoy!

Also, thanks to yougotrickrolled.com here is a great pie chart describing what Rick Astley would never do:

'Still Alive' in Rock Band

Jonathon Colton performing his song 'Still Alive' with the help of Veronica Bellmont from Mahalo Daily, Merlin Mann blogger, and Leo Laport who you should already know for sure. Check out the video:


Jonathan Coulton performs "Still Alive" in Rock Band from Joy Stiq on Vimeo.

The Metal

Three mistakes....and Willie?!?

No, I didn't do anything wrong or anything like that. I'm talking about the game Saturday against Florida State. It was a very close, defensive game and the winner was going to be the team with the least amount of mistakes and unfortunately that was not Alabama. Although we only made 3 mistakes, the last two made the difference.

First was an interception. The second however gave FSU 7 points by fumbling the ball inside their own 10 yard line on 3rd down and long. Wilson was trying to make something happen for a first down and made this mistake. The third mistake took the wind out of the sails though. It was a breakdown in coverage that allowed a short pass to turn into a very long run for a touchdown. However, even though the three mistakes gave FSU a huge advantage and ultimately won the game they still scored again and make it a close game.

Well, I was talking to mom earlier today and I told her that Willie Nelson was scheduled to play the Wharf amphitheater in Orange Beach next month and she went crazy. She insisted I get tickets because she has always wanted to see Willie Nelson in concert. So we are in Section 103 Row Y for Willie Nelson on Saturday, November 3rd 2007.

Better than Ezra at the House of Blues - Sept 14, 2007

Well, I have been a Better Than Ezra fan for a very long time. I saw them live for the first time a few years ago at Bayfest in Mobile. I have wanted to see them again for a while but the real 'itch' started a few months ago. I saw a concert scheduled in Baton Rouge and was planning to go until Doug told me about a concert at the House of Blues in New Orleans, which is much closer.

So, we decided to make a go of it.

Here are some photos of my visit to New Orleans.

Stopped in Waveland, MS and this is two pictures of destruction from over 2 years ago still.Driving into the city I snapped this picture.
Random pictures taken while driving around trying to get to the hotel.


After eating at Pierre Antiones in the French Quarter, I walked down this alley towards Jackson Square to get access to St. Louis Cathedral.

Here are some photos from inside the Cathedral.

Then, obviously, I need a photo of me in front of the Cathedral.
Statue of Major General Andrew Jackson in Jackson Square.
Photo looking back from Jackson square on the statue and St. Louis Cathedral.
Obligatory photo of me, Jackson and the Cathedral.
Photo of the playbill for the House of Blues showing Better Than Ezra for Sept. 14, 2007.
After picking up the tickets, here is a photo from the hotel room showing that General Lee was our protector.
They warned me that the use of a camera during the show would result in me being thrown out, but I had this photo taken after the show while they were breaking down to show that I was indeed there.
The next morning after the show, I snapped this photo of General Lee. The sunlight in the morning was much better at illuminating the side of the statue facing the hotel.
We went to Cafe du Monde across from Jackson Square for Beignets for our breakfast. So, I went up the stairs across from Jackson Square towards the Moon Walk to snap a morning picture of Jackson Square and the Cathedral.
Photo of the horse drawn carriages that are at Jackson Square. They offer tours of the French Quarter, cemeteries and such.
Here is a photo of a building damaged from storm surge and flooding.
An exit from I10 that has been closed since the storm. Its very creepy.
The trip was awesome. New Orleans was great and I cannot wait until I visit again. The concert was superb. While the House of Blues was a fairly cramped space, it was very nice and intimate. I was out on the floor with a lot of people but I wasn't cramped. The only complaint I had was the middle aged woman behind me who was smoking cigarette after cigarette.

Kevin, Tom, and Travis put on one hell of a show and their chemistry and talent show through the concert. If you have not seen them live, its a must see show. If they were to play HOB again next weekend, I would SOOO be there!

Now, how could I not post a couple pictures of Thor while I was at it.
Here he is with his head underneath my pillow.
Again he was asleep on my bed and he woke up when I moved to snap this photo. All he did was open his eyes, not movement. Oh, what a hard life this dog has.

Ken Burns, The War

I attended the free preview of Ken Burns latest documentary entitled 'The War'. They focus on four towns (including Mobile) and how they changed during the course of World War II. But the main focus is the people from those towns. They interviewed many people for the documentary.

It was a very stunning mix of clips that was very touching. At times you had the audience clapping at something in the film, then other times you could see people shaking their heads or drying their eyes. It will be a very poignant series to watch as it airs on PBS. It is a 14.5 hour documentary that will be aired on Sunday nights starting September 23rd. For the schedule you can visit PBS here. For more information about 'The War' at the PBS website, visit the link here.

The DVD of this documentary will be available October 2nd, presumably at Books-A-Million. It will contain 15.5hrs of film plus some extras such as deleted scenes and interview outtakes. You can pre-order it from PBS here which is good because a portion of the proceeds goes to help fund public television.

Practice Safe Hex....

A simple hexadecimal number has been making its rounds on the internet lately (No, I will not publish them here). Users at Digg.com have been furious that their posts have mysteriously disappeared (who would have thought that would happen?!?). But, since it is a piece of....ummm.....art now. I will post a youtube video of a song dedicated to this simple hexadecimal number.

Enjoy!

Concert Tuesday night

For those of you who read my rants and stuff, here is a preview of a concert coming to Mobile Tuesday night. The Soul Kitchen, in downtown Mobile, will be hosting Yonder Mountain String Band for a concert. I will definitely be there and for those of you who are unsure or what not. Here are two videos of this talented foursome. Enjoy, I know I did.