Category: Music

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We went to the Orange County Fair on Saturday afternoon. Most years we end up going to at least one of the Pacific Amphitheater’s summer concert series, which includes fair admission, so we just combine it into one trip. This year it was Melissa Etheridge, and we also had another goal: Al’s Brain.

We started by grabbing some water and (in my case) a chocolate milkshake (because I wanted some ice cream, dangit! and drinkable made it easier), then wandered through the arts and crafts displays, where they showed prize-winning jewelry, crochet, display models, dresses, origami, etc.

Al’s Brain

A giant sand sculpture of a brain and Weird Al's head.Then we made our way to the back of the fair, where they had set up a portable theater for Al’s Brain (in 3-D!). There was a huge sand sculpture out front of “Weird Al” Yankovic holding out a brain in his hand. An animated question mark and exclamation point would occasionally pop out the top of his head, and smoke would pour from his ears.

“Weird Al” has actually had a long association with the Orange County Fair, often doing free concerts on multiple nights during the run. We’ve seen him there at least twice, possibly three times. One year there was a “Weird Al” museum of sorts. This year, he got involved in a short 3-D educational film (comedic, of course) about the brain.

Continue reading →

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One day, someone will take a collection of popular songs from the 1990s and turn it into a nostalgia musical.

Update July 2016: I was wondering if this had happened yet. I suppose you could count “American Idiot,” but apparently the album was intended to tell a story, so it’s not quite the same as someone stringing together the hits of ABBA or whoever.

It turns out someone put together a Spice Girls–inspired musical in 2012. It was not well-reviewed and didn’t last very long.

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We’ve been following singer/songwriter Butterfly Boucher since 2004 — in fact, since the first day we tuned in to the now-defunct Indie 103.1 and heard “Another White Dash” for the first time. We caught her opening for Barenaked Ladies a few months later and picked up her album, then caught her again opening for Sarah McLachlan later that year. Her second album, “Scary Fragile”, finally came out on Tuesday (it’s very good — Katie says it may be the best sophomore album she’s ever heard), and she’s doing a concert tour. She’s playing in Los Angeles most of this month, but timing worked out better for us to go see her in San Diego on Saturday. So we bought some tickets and made a weekend trip out of it.

Historic San Diego

Old Town San Diego Wagon.We drove down after lunch on Saturday and hit Old Town San Diego on the way in. (More Highlander Grog!) I could swear I don’t remember having trouble finding it before, but the last few times it’s been hard to get to even following a map. At least we managed better than we did in December, when we ended up several miles inland before we could find a place to cross the inlet.

I don’t remember much going on the last time we were there, but this time Old Town was in full-on living history mode, complete with tour guides dressed up in 1800s outfits and a horse-and-buggy ride.

Fancy lobby. Once it was a bank, now it's a hotel.I’d booked the Courtyard San Diego Downtown because it’s literally next door to the House of Blues. It took a while to negotiate the one-way streets, but once we arrived, we stepped inside and were blown away by the lobby. It turns out that the hotel used to be the building for the San Diego Trust & Savings bank. After the bank closed in the 1990s, Marriott bought it and converted it to a hotel. The vault, safe deposit rooms, and other rooms on the first floor became a conference center, and the offices on the upper floors became guest rooms. They’ve preserved as much of the old look of the place as possible, down to keeping the mail slots on the former office doors. (Don’t worry, they’re blocked.)

Clouds and TowersWe ate dinner at Chopahn (6th Ave. near F St.), an Afghan restaurant we first visited during last year’s Comic-Con. It was empty when we got there, which I hope was just because we were there on the early side, because the food is great. Another couple arrived while we were eating, but they were the only people we saw other than the waitress. She had started pushing tables together as if they were expecting a larger party later on.

After dinner we wandered the Gaslamp district for a while. I kept making notes of where various hotels or restaurants were located. Eventually I realized I was basically scouting for Comic-Con next month.

Around 7:00 we made our way to the House of Blues.

Concert

That’s when we discovered that we’d been under a misapprehension about the nature of the venue. Continue reading →

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I accidentally left my iPod in my car a few days ago, in plain view, not realizing until shortly before lunch. I found myself considering what my options would be for replacing it if someone had stolen it (fortunately, it was sitting right where I left it), and thought of a couple of options:

iPod Classic. In essence, just upgrading to the current version of the same player. From what I can tell, Apple only sells one size these days, the 120GB model, for $250 — more or less what I paid for my 30 GB model two years ago.

iPod Touch. This would also give me web at wifi hotspots and all the apps from the iPhone marketplace. Downside: I’d have to spend $400 to get the 32GB model. And I already have a G1 with web and all the apps from the Android marketplace — and it works in wifi hotspots and on the cellular network. Also, I use my iPod a lot in the car, and a touchscreen isn’t the best interface if you can’t actually look at the controls.

Just use the G1 and get a bigger memory card for it. The G1 has a decent music player built in. The downsides: I’d need to remember to carry around the USB-to-headphone adapter. I’m not sure they make 32 GB micro-sd cards yet (and even the 16GB ones are expensive, plus they’d have to share with photos, app data, digital comics, etc.), so I’d have to pick and choose music. Also, I don’t think it reads AAC files, so I’d have to re-rip any CDs that I imported into iTunes. And of course re-purchase anything that was bought through iTunes. Then there’s the matter of rebuilding all the playlists… Never let it be said that Apple doesn’t take advantage of vendor lock-in.

Get a second-hand iPod. I can find a 30GB or bigger iPod Classic for close to $50 on eBay — comparable to a 16 GB microSD card.

If it came down to it, I’d probably end up going for the second-hand iPod. While the brand-new iPod Classic has its appeal, it would be hard to justify spending 5x the money when I’m not likely to use the extra capacity.