Depth of Field

The above picture is Gary Louris and Mark Perlman of Golden Smog at the Fillmore last night from about 5 feet away. The official review will come tonight. What I'm looking for is photo help. I took photography classes in high school and college, shot for the yearbook and occasionally the school paper, but that was a million years ago in photographic years. I have a Kodak DX7440 and have been pretty disappointed with the quality of shots on it. The concepts of photography don't seem to apply to digital photography. If I were shooting with a 35mm SLR, I would slow the shutter down a bit, open the depth of field and pray that I could keep a steady hand...I've tried just about every setting on my camera and have yet to be happy with the results. The photos from the Hothouse Flowers show were unique because I used the flash but with a peice of masking tape over it to keep from blinding the guys. Most venues "discourage" you from using a flash, even if it's muted, so in most cases that's not an option. Other than upgrading my camera, does anyone have any advice for me on getting good pictures of highly backlit moving objects in dark venues?

Still Chills

Listen

Patron Saints, YouTube, and Greenhouse Emissions

The pressure is on a little bit, thanks to The Mad Fishicist. He posted a link to my flickr site on a Hothouse Flowers message board and made a promise for me that I would have a review and a setlist.

Fiachna said that after some internet research they came to discover that Saint Monica was the patron saint of the homeless, hopeless, alcoholic and overall downtrodden. My own research finds that Saint Monica was the mother of Saint Augustine and the patron saint of mothers, wives and battery victims...herself being all three. Perhaps ironically, Santa Monica, California is nicknamed "Homeless Capital of the West." The video below is a snippet of Hothouse Flowers' "Santa Monica." There are other videos on YouTube here. And you can see photos I took at Flickr.

The show was great, but the order of the setlist is a bit of a blur, so I won't embarrass myself by putting the songs in order, but here are the songs that I remember and know. There were a few songs that aren't on any of the albums, and I don't know the titles...plus a couple were in Gaelic.

They played:

You Can Love Me Now
Sweet Marie
Isn't It Amazing?
Better Man
Movies
Santa Monica
I Can See Clearly Now
It'll Be Easier in the Morning
Your Love Goes On
Don't Go
Si Do Mhamo I

Having been a fan for many years, I was excited to hear the old songs from People mixed in with the new songs. They haven't put out an album since early 2004, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was impressed with their presence and their professionalism. They proved in many ways that they're just a few lads from Ireland...but four lads that can play. If you are unfamiliar with Hothouse Flowers, unfortunately you're not alone. They're probably one of the most skilled and passionate bands out there...they successfully mix a flavor of rock 'n roll, American soul, and traditional Irish music. It's accessible music and the songs that they released in the 80's are still relevant and fit today. Do yourself a favor and get caught up with one of the great bands out of a country who's biggest export over the last 20 years has been music.

Buy:

People

Home

Songs From the Rain

Born

The Best of Hothouse Flowers

Into Your Heart

and/or

Rian (Liam O'Maonlai's solo album)

Heading in the Right Direction

Looks like Blogger is cleaning out their inbox and fixing some of the quirky things that have been frustrating me, as well as other users, for quite some time now.

The made some changes and have fixed the photo uploading feature in IE.  And I'm now able to edit posts using Firefox.  Both things were buggy for the last few months.  Good job, guys.  Now, lets turn those Beta features on in the real world!

Speaking of Blogger, Katie's Place has made the move from my arch nemesis LiveSpaces to Blogger.  Head over to her new digs and give her some encouragement.  A wise man once said "Comments are blog currency. The love language of bloggers. Vitamins."

Do me a favor and ask her how she came up with such a creative name for her new blog.  I'm dying to know where the inspiration came from.

The Saddest of All the Care Bears...

I had the privilege of spending an evening and the morning with my old friend JNard and his beautiful wife.  We had a chance to tell some old stories again, tell some new stories, and see Hothouse Flowers play at Slim's in San Francisco.  The picture above is a Care Bear (a quick google search reveals that this was once, ironically, Cheer Bear) that became a toy of Moses an Olde English Bulldog.  I thought it was picture worthy.  More soon on the Hothouse Flowers show.  Check out the pictures on Flickr to the right.

Cranking Through the Netflix Queue

I've been progressing through my NetFlix queue with a very ecclectic variety. Netflix takes away any reservations of whether to see a movie or not for me. If someone mentions a movie, or someone on the radio/podcast/tv mentions a movie that I haven't seen or haven't seen for a while, I throw it in the queue. I've gotten fairly lucky and I thought I'd make some recommendations for you.

I mentioned "Everything is Illuminated" and if you haven't heeded my advice and gone out to rent/buy/borrow this movie, you're missing out.

I can't remember where I left off and I'm too lazy to sort through posts to find it, so I'll just give a run down.

Munich was good and it really put the tension with Lebanon in a different light.

Junebug, I enjoyed it...not as much as I thought I would, but I'd recommend it.

Don't Come Knocking was pretty fantastic. Wim Wenders and Sam Sheppard team up for another beautiful movie. They also teamed up to make Paris, Texas which also was a Netflix rental.

I thought I would have a hard time enjoying The New World because of Colin Farrell, but the guy can act and that's been forgotten with some of the choices he's made in roles.

I watched LolliLove and liked it a lot. I laughed out loud a few times because some of the humor takes you by surprise.

There were a few things I didn't realize about The Family Stone before I watched it. The first was that it was a Christmas movie...Christmas in August, not too big of a deal. The second was that it had some pretty intense dramatic scenes in it. I thought from the trailer that it would be a light hearted "Meet the Parents" type movie, but it had a heart and a soul. If I were Wes Anderson, I'd get Owen and Luke Wilson together and make a movie where they play brothers (imagine that!!) and Craig T. Nelson plays their dad. The chemistry between Coach and Luke in The Family Stone was a rare thing.

The Squid and the Whale was well done. Noah Baumbach wrote and directed the movie but I was expecting a slow drama. There was a lot of heavy stuff, but there was a subtle humor to the characters that seemed like something out of Zissou.

I saw Aeon Flux and expected to hate it. I actually enjoyed it a lot. I think the concepts were a little thicker than a 2 hour movie could handle, but the story was there and come on, Charlize Theron.

The Best Two-Piece Band in the World

No offense to Dan and Pat of the Black Keys, but Mates of State are the best two-piece band in the world today.  With just keyboards and drums and their uniquely harmonious voices, they keep amazing me everytime I listen.

They have a new video on MTVU, which honestly, I didn't know existed...guess I'm not a kid anymore.  But check out the videos, they're great and you'll thank me.

Fraud in the 80's  (You will surely find this pleasing to your ears...)

Like U Crazy (I had to download an extension to watch this in firefox, not sure about IE)

Snippet of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy as inserted into "Like U Crazy" at the Greek Theater in Berkley.  I see myself in the video, but you'd never see me in the crowd. 

I wish all the best to Mates of State because I know they feel everything they put out and they aren't compromising themselves one bit.  Notice in the snippet how a two piece might not seem ideal for a venue like that, you wouldn't know it by the way they put themselves out there.  Not to mention their addition to Death Cab's "Transatlaticism."

All the thought that music videos don't drive record sales anymore have been stifled with the OK Go madness.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, get yourself over to YouTube and get your learn on.

Buy Mates of State

Buy OK Go

Buy The Black Keys

Buy more music than you steal.

Assignment Extended

Today was going to be the last day of my temporary assignment.  I had a plan to put together a post celebrating my completion of the most boring job I've ever had, but it will have to wait.  I was also going to basically post my resume and open up my employ to the highest or most interesting bidder, but that will have to wait too.  I'm not picky I just want to be challenged and this gig doesn't do it for me.

How I Get My News: Old vs. New Media

One of the first websites I hit when I have a cup of coffee and a few minutes of free time in the morning is MSNBC.com.  I read the headlines and occasionally a story or too that is either big news or catches my interest.  Then I fire up my RSS reader and check in.  I rarely learn something newsworthy happened via "new media."  If a new media person is plugged in enough to get wire stories, they might beat the old media to the punch about a story, but generally they're good for reaction to news rather than the news itself.  In fact, I might go so far as to suggest that new media has a way of diluting news.  From all I've seen there still seems to be a pretty big gap in local news on the internet.  Most smaller newspapers are filled with AP stories and columns rather than an actual new reporter out seeing what's going on in the community.  In this area for sure, there is much more interest in what's going on in San Francisco or Sacramento or even LA than there is coverage of the local area.  I think new media has a real opportunity to take the citizen journalist thing to a local level.  I don't know when the time will come when new media will consistently beat old media to a newsworthy story, but I know it can tell me something about the construction project tying up Dougherty Rd. or why the local Ralph's closed down.

New Music Tuesday: The Pro Bowl

If you're anything of a football fan, you might catch the reference in the title.  It refers to the lackluster excitement that surrounds the NFL Pro-Bowl.  The NBA and MLB have their all-star games in the middle of the season and generally get decent ratings.  The NFL has it's all star game after the Super Bowl and none of the guys really want to be there or play hard.  I don't blame either the NFL or the indifferent players.  Nonetheless, after last week's huge release date, anything released this week will seem a bit like a letdown.  Though, there are still some titles I'm interested in.

The Lemonheads - Become the Enemy (single)

Ben Kweller - Sundress (single)

Keane - Live at ULU (iTunes exclusive)

The Polyphonic Spree - Wait (EP) (iTunes exclusive)

Josh Ritter - Girl in the War (an EP of sorts) (iTunes exclusive)

The Be Good Tanyas - Scattered Leaves (EP)

 

Of course, the second season of Lost is released on DVD this week...can't wait for Season 3 to start in October.  I haven't paid much attention to "The Lost Experience" this summer.  I'm hoping that the producers hold true to the idea that the only things that are canon to the show are the show itself and not their clever marketing campaigns with Jeep and Sprite.  I also hope it doesn't go the route of the X-Files and focus all of the energy on the Hanso/Dharma conspiracies...yes I do want to know about them, but I'm more interested in about the characters on the island and the seemingly supernatural stuff the island has been involved with.

Be sure to read the comments on the Five Star Music post for an explanation from Reid Davis, Managing Editor of Paste, of how they view the star rating system.  It's a wonderful magazine and the editors definately have a better eye for what's cool than Rolling Stone does now.

Blogger Beta Learns a Lesson

They may not have a good customer support system, but they definately listen to what people are saying.  Very good work, Blogger.

Their Link Here

My Complaint Here

Five Star Music

I've been a reader of Paste Magazine for several years, and a subscriber for a few months.  It's a great magazine and I have a lot of respect for it.  I do, however have a couple of criticisms and as a subscriber, I feel it's my right to voice those criticisms. 

My first criticism deals with the advertisements.  I'm not against the ads, I know that it's how they make their money...other than the $7.95 newstand price.  I think there are several ads per issue that catch my eye not because they're good or because they're annoying, but because they are terrible.  I personally know several non-professionals who could produce a better ad for a CD than some of these ads.  The ads definately don't make me want to even think about listening to the artist's music.  I fault the magazine for settling for crappy ads.  They could probably do a great job in house producing the ads rather than getting them from the musician who probably made it in a Kinkos using Word.

The second criticism is in their criticism.  I'm assuming that their highest review of a CD would be 5 stars.  I assume this because I've seen a handful of albums reviewed as 4.5 stars.  I just spent a few minutes going through 5 issues and couldn't find a single 5 star review.  So because there is no indication of a top review, I'm left to ask is 4 stars the highest and a 4.5 is their way of saying it's more than amazing, or have no 5 star albums been released in 2006?

Like I said before I think Paste is a great magazine, so to even out my criticism, I offer great things about Paste.

1.  A great CD sampler with every issue with 20 or so songs from all sorts of musicians.

2.  Did I say they're monthly now?

3.  The have tons of free songs on their website for subscribers, and lots in their store section for non-subscribers.  You might be asking what the difference between tons and lots is...

4.  They include a DVD every couple of issues with some great short films and music videos.

5.  The Paste Culture Club podcast is one of my favorites.

One Q at a Time: Should The Internet Be Free?

I have a list of questions that I've received via email that I've compiled into a Word doc.  I'm going to go through them one by one, because I think most of them are great topics.  Send your questions to MKinMotion[at]gmail[dot]com.

Q:  Where does MKinMotion weigh in on Net Neutrality?

That's right, I'll kick it off with a little political question.  There's a saying that the only problem with politics is the politicians, which very well might be true, but sometimes it's just the actual politics that get in the way.  I think net neutrality is one of those issues.  Congress will always have a problem when it is suggested that the status quo be legislated.  We have net neutrality currently (unless you want my Comcast or Google conspiracy theories, but no one asked for that).  For anywhere from $0 to a million dollars, a consumer or business can gain access to the internet.  When someone types www.mkinmotion.com into their web browser, it takes them there, when they type www.whitehouse.gov or www.cnn.com, etc. it takes them there.  Whether you are a goverment entity, a zillion dollar media corporation or a humble blogger, everyone has the same access to your stuff.

There are theories, however, that suggest that internet providers will start to favor web sites and services that pay them a payola of sorts to make their sites more reliable or perhaps make their competitors less reliable.  There are also suggestions out there that a consumer would have to pay more to have the access they have today and they could pay what they're paying now for a tainted internet.  We're using the internet more and more for more and more things, and I don't see that stopping.  I think this has a certain industry up in arms.  Because keep in mind when I say competitors, I'm not talking the competition between say MSNBC.com and CNN.com.  I'm talking AT&T vs. Skype, or Comcast vs. the guy in your neighborhood with open WiFi, or Sprint vs. Vonage.  Most huge companies got huge by doing something smart or investing a lot of capital and having that investment pay off.  Now that these giant telecom companies built an infrastructure that has made them gazillions of dollars over the last several decades, they're getting really nervous about all the services that are popping up that work around the traditional methods.  The people who are the most passionate about net neutrality believe that internet providers will prevent the use of such things as VoIP, bit torrent, etc.  

Where politicians come into this is where it gets messy.  As with any issue these days, the two political parties try to establish a party line.  You might think that the Republican party would be for network neutrality:  Traditionally they're for the status quo and against the bureaucracy that government oversight of the internet would cause.  However, my years in the telecom industry taught me a lot of things and one of them is that the Telecom lobby is very strong.  They're in the pockets of a lot of the "influencial" (read: "senior" or read: "Ted Stevens") Republicans, and because no one in either party has the guts to express their own opinion...especially in an election year.  The Democrats aren't any better at this game because they have their anti-posterboy in Stevens (also here and here) they don't really do anything but say they don't agree with Ted.  They talk a good game, but ultimately end up doing nothing.  That was their strategy in the 2004 election and we all know how well that worked for them.  

Public From Both Political Parties: "Um, Senator Kerry, you say you have a plan for getting our troops out of Iraq and winning the war on terror, we'd love to hear your plan, in fact we all might vote for you if you could do both of those things with your plan."

John Kerry: "Yes, I have a plan.  I was in Vietnam while Mr. Bush was serving in the National Guard."

Public: "But what is the plan?"

Kerry: "I have a plan."

Public: "Nevermind, status quo must not be that bad."

 

So yes, MKinMotion is for neutrality of the internet, and I think we need to take some time to legislate it in order to keep it free...not free of cost but freedom free.

Thanks For Asking

Thanks for asking, but no, I did not ask a ninja anything recently...

MKinMotion.com Technical Support

My domain provider, GoDaddy.com, tells me that the reason that when I go to MKinMotion.com, a domain I own and have routed to this blog, it's my computer(s) that are not forwarding the domain to blogspot. Do me a favor and try it yourself from around the world and let me know in the comments whether you see this blog or a page saying that I'm "working on my website". I get the latter on every computer I've tried on two different ISPs.

www.MKinMotion.com

Update: I got a second email from GoDaddy support and it actually included some technical info. For some reason, the IP address they assign to my domain changed. I updated it and it should be fixed within 24 hours. Because of the way the internet works, your ISP may update the DNS before or after other ISPs. Propagation.

Quick Review

As mentioned yesterday, I threw the new Dylan, Yorn, LaMontagne, and Kings of Leon albums on my iPod and they did the trick.  All are very good and very fresh for a boring day at work.

Run Support

When I heard that 81 HR and 221 RBI had jumped a plane from Oakland to Boston yesterday (that's not counting Wily Mo, who was also on the flight), I knew it was going to be a tough game.  Beckett pitching meant the Sox were going to be in it, but could this AAA lineup score any runs?  The answer is yes and no.  They scored one run, not enough to win.  The Coco Crisp catch was worth the price of admission...maybe not the parking and the fuel 2 nights in a row, but admission.

I wish David Ortiz all the best and encourage him to take his time getting back to the diamond.  Manny, rest that knee a bit.

I sat next to one of the most reasonable Yankee fans I've ever met last night.  He made a good point that the Yankees suffered through the injuries early, but held on to contention.  Because of the extent and the timing of the Boston injuries, it's hard to gain the momentum when you're pedalling uphill.  I do have to say that Oakland fans aren't the brightest fans, and violence and throwing stuff onto the field aren't acceptable ways of showing your support.  Neither is leaving in the 6th inning when you only have a one run lead, I thought I was in LA for a moment.  Even the New Yorker next to me said that the remarks that pour out of the loud drunk Yankee fan in Yankee Stadium hold much more credibility than cursing for

And another memo to Oakland fans: When what you think are boo's reigning down every time Kevin Youkilis steps to the plate, it's actually the Red Sox fans saying YOOOUUUUKKKK, so your joining in with boo's, only makes the Youks sound louder.  

New Music Tuesday: Quick While I Have a Minute

Not a lot of time to write much about these...this is a big week for releases...most of these are sitting on my iPod ready to attempt to get me through another day at work before another Sox game tonight.

Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Pete Yorn - Nightcrawler

Ray Lamontagne - Till The Sun Turns Black

Kings of Leon - Day Old Belgian Blues (Live EP)

Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World

Morrissey - In the Future When All's Well EP

There's a number of albums on sale for $6.99, believe it or not there are a few that are worth picking up at that price.

Editors - The Back Room

OK Go - Oh No (search YouTube for the video to "Here it Goes Again", it'll be worth it)

Mat Kearney - Nothing Left to Lose

Ben Lee - Awake is the New Sleep

Brandi Carlile - Brandi Carlile

David Ford - I Sincerly Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused

Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet

Rocco DeLuca and the Burden - I Trust You To Kill Me

And here I go selling out...

Jessica Simpson - A Public Affair (no, it's not on my iPod)

No Runs, No Pride, No Erin Andrews

I won't go into much detail about tonight's game.  It was horrible.  It didn't help that Tito Francona marches the Pawtucket Red Sox out against playoff bound Oakland.  What did he expect to happen?  It seemed pretty obvious that they mailed it in.  They ran out of pitchers and so they grabbed a couple of AAA guys to walk out on the mound and get shelled.  Sad though, that Keith Foulke got thrown to the wolves too.  He's one of several players that used to play for the A's and left to win a world series...do the names Damon and Dye ring any bells?  Frank Thomas hit his 476th career homerun and Manny (who didn't play) slipped into the clubhouse not to return.  Tell me if this lineup strikes fear in your heart...

Coco Crisp, Alex Cora, Mark Loretta (didn't he make the All-Star Team?), Youkilis (hitting cleanup), Erik Hinske, Mike Lowell (totally a class guy tonight), Javy Lopez (don't you hate it when your favorite team grabs a player you've always hated and you're forced to root for them?  Remember Karl Malone playing in Laker Gold?), Carlos Pena, Dustin Pedroia.  With the ever intimidating Kason Gabbard (yeah, I spelled that right) starting...he walked the first batter on 4 straight balls and Bryan Corey (who I think may have played for every MLB team's AA team).  Missing from the lineup: Varitek, ManRam, Papi, Nixon, even Wily Mo.  It wasn't until Foulke took the mound in the 7th that a player who played on the '04 team made an appearance.

Not to mention, with the Little League WS going on, perfection herself was across the country.

The only think I can take from the game is I saw the Frank Thomas blast and the three sacrificial lambs protected the bullpen for Beckett to turn the series around tomorrow night.  I'll be in a different seat, but just a couple of sections over from where I was tonight.  Great seats, despite the all out brawl that happened right behind me.  Luckily two of Oakland's finest stepped down into my section when they saw my Red Sox hat...what happens when an Oakland Athletic's fan drinks too much?  He becomes a Raider fan and gives a Sox fan a lesson in the tuck rule.

I'll have a report on tomorrow night's game as well as a post on the wine tasting I did this weekend.  Very tired...must shut eyes, 6AM is going to come quickly.

Download Festival

I got an email asking me about the Download Festival listed in the right hand column with other shows and events.  The Download Festival is in Mountain View, CA at Shoreline Amphitheater.  So far the acts announced are Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, The Shins, Rogue Wave, Worfmother and others.  They promise more will be announced.  It's a fairly cheap ticket for so many bands so I had a hard time passing it up.  Last year the SF (Mountain View) edition of the festival had The Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, The Killers and Doves...not too shabby.