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February 21, 2007

Can You?

Posted by Jamie at 04:39 PM | Comments (4)

February 20, 2007

Typing Practice

I just read a blog entry from Houstoned and I wanted to say that I really think that it somehow should have been sponsored by this shirt. I mean I know blogs don't usually have third party sponsors and I know t-shirts don't typically make very effective sponsors, but you know, a great idea is a great idea . . .

Man, I hope XM channel 72, Beyond Jazz fares well through all of this hub-bub. I can't remember if I've blogged about it before or not, but it is an amazing Jazz channel. As far as listening to radio in your car goes, it really can't be beat . . . if you buy the satellite hardware, of course - but more and more people seem to be doing it all of the time and I might soon be following suit.

Holy crap I need a new compy ... or I at least need to borrow Homestar's leg.

Posted by Jamie at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

Scoping Out Saturn

Star parties are totally and completely the coolest things ever.
That birthday party was also extremely awesome.

It was truly a gorgeous and clear night. I heard many say that it was also chilly, but I think the excitement was keeping me warm - which is saying a lot because I am pretty much always the coldest person in any group of people I'm with. Apparently that night was a good night for seeing Saturn, so many of the JSCAS people had their telescopes on Saturn which I think is great for young kids - they really seemed to get a kick out of seeing Saturn! There were also several people checking out the Orion Nebula. One very excellent lady from the JSCAS had a telescope as well as a pair of binoculars - she was really great with the kids and kept helping them find things with the binoculars. I viewed the Orion Nebula and Betelgeuse through the binoculars.


This is the closest image I could find to how Saturn looked on Saturday, but actually the rings were tilted even more straight up and down and were almost entirely vertical. And instead of being all fuzzy like that, it was very clear and crisp. I even saw Titan!!



This is the closest I could find of what we saw when we looked at the Orion Nebula. It was really cool being able to see this with just a pair of binoculars!




Click the image to see a bigger picture. This is cool because this is a lot like what we saw - Betelgeuse is just very orange and huge.



I am definitely hooked on this whole star party thing now. I will be going to more ... and I might even take the kids with me too :P

Posted by Jamie at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2007

5 Down ~1295 To Go . . .

If you need me on Saturday, March 17th, I'll be at the Elephant Room.

Not only is Hiromi going to be there but I discovered a very cool sounding band that is playing there too called Second Movement. Also Keith Killgo Jazz and Elias Haslanger sound pretty nice as well. I remember last year I told myself that it would probably be a pretty good idea to just hang out at Elephant Room during SxSW and it looks like I was right. I mean not only do they have great music but just look at the rad d00dz and awesome dancers that hang out there. :P
I know Scott Amendola is going to be there Friday night as well and I still have tons of bands to sample.


Wait, wait, let me just say this again . . . Hiromi at Elephant Room.

Posted by Jamie at 11:50 PM | Comments (2)

February 14, 2007

But What Does It Mean???

:::This might disgust you, and this is your only warning:::

I had a really weird dream last night. It was about a long skinny worm that was burrowing around in my index finger. Disgusting, right? Well it was one of those things that didn't seem disgusting (or painful) in the dream, it was just kind of annoying and somewhat fascinating. It would always poke it's head out of a hole that it made at the tip of my finger and it would only come about half way out and then stop. No matter how hard I pulled on it, I could not get it the rest of the way out. I remember I kept thinking how odd it was that it never caused me any discomfort. It also would hide and crawl around in my finger in a way that I could see through my skin. I was afraid that it would crawl somewhere else in my body and possibly become dangerous so every time it went far down in my finger I would coax it back up to the hole at the end of my finger and try to get it to come out again. This whole thing was repeated many times during this dream - this actually *was* the entire dream as far as I can remember.

Isn't that great?

Posted by Jamie at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2007

Island Telescopes And Rainforests

Coolest Birthday Party Ever!!

In case you don't already know, my favorite boy is turning 7 this week. To celebrate we are going down to Galveston on Saturday for a Winter Star Party at Moody Gardens. Johnson Space Center Astronomical Society is bringing and setting up their telescopes so everyone can catch glimpses of the planets, stars . . . aliens, and whatever else is floating around up there. It is ONLY going to rule. Especially if we see aliens.

But before we do that we are going to have dinner and cake and mucho fun at Rainforest Cafe.

Doesn't that sound like a blast???

fun FUN FUN!!!

Posted by Jamie at 11:49 AM | Comments (2)

February 11, 2007

Positive Thinking

Hmmm . . . something just occured to me. Having countless real-life examples that have demonstrated the validity of self-fulfilling prophecy, I realized that this concept might very well be a plague upon our beloved Houston music scene. I thought about Lomax's recent article on the subject and also engaged in discussion about Houston and music with some out-of-town friends and I came to a new and horrifying realization: *I* have been guilty of contributing to the less than glowing views of Houston's music scene. Not that I typically go around badmouthing Houston or anything, not at all, but I have been known to whine about how there seems to be a lack of support for our local musicians and I've even suggested that we need to do something to "fix it". It suddenly occured to me that this projects a huge negative message.

Why would I do that?

Therefore I've decided that starting today I, for one, am not going to contribute to the negativity and disdain that has sadly enshrouded this city's music scene anymore. Telling the rest of the world that things are bad here is only accomplishing one thing: keeping things bad here. I believe that life is almost entirely based on perceptions. The reality most likely is that things are pretty average here and I'd really be interested to see what might happen with a lot more positive thinking and a lot less whining. I realize that I am just one insignificant person, but now that it has become clear to me how pointlessly damaging it is to reinforce negativity on something I would like to be associated with positive connotations, I must make a change. I just wanted to state it here (somewhat publicly) to attempt to make-up for other publicly damaging things I may have said in the past - you know, another one of those perceptions that becomes true upon my belief that it is true ... :P

There. I feel better now ... time for some blueberry scones with orange glaze and some Italian Roast coffee.

HOUSTON RAWKS!!!

Posted by Jamie at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)

Tasty Funk

Friday night I went to one of my most favorite places in the world, Revolution in Bryan. Gnappy was playing there and I've really wanted to see them live for quite some time, having heard great things about them from friends and also having listened to some of their music online. What a fantastic show - going to Revolution to take in that show was one of the greatest ideas I've had in a long time. :) Not only is Revolution so great because of Rola and the gang, but also the music is always to die for.

Saturday they went back home to Austin to play at the Elephant Room, one of my other most favorite places to hear music.

The guys from Gnappy are super cool and I was glad I had the opportunity to meet them. I picked up their latest CD called Unloaded and I've been listening to it non-stop ever since. The title track has a version with vocals and an instrumental version - I LOVE LOVE this song (both versions), it is one of those songs that I wish would go on for days without stopping. Soooo gooooood. ::siiiiiiiiiigh::

Posted by Jamie at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2007

First Glance - SxSW 2007

Preliminary SXSW Musical Festival Lineup Announced

It's weird. I'm looking over the alphabetical mass of 1300 band names and hometowns to get a feel for the event this year. I've noticed a few things ...

1. More than ever it has occured to me that I do not know about a LOT of Houston music. I think it has to do with the fact that they pick a lot of hip hop from here and I am not really a follower of The Hip and The Hop. There are actually more bands I have NOT heard of from Houston on this list than ones I HAVE heard of. For example, I found one band called Peekaboo Theory - Their MySpace says that they are "Electro / Progressive / Experimental". Never heard of them. I listened and they seem to me like some sort of spacey R&B. Cool.

2. I love using nothing more than band names to help me determine who I am going to look into further to help me make a list of bands I want to put on my SxSW schedule.

Bands I need to look into just because they have a cool name:


3. I'm excited about many of the surprises I found on the list:

Bands I KNOW I want to see:


4. Lots of familiar names:

Interesting names we all know:


Posted by Jamie at 10:23 AM | Comments (2)

February 02, 2007

Spiral Brain


Hiromi is going be at SxSW. I'm only a little excited.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Jamie at 04:28 PM | Comments (3)