aa’s Neighborhood

At the start of the day I thought I knew what today's "Note From The Universe" meant and I laughed out loud at its perfect timing and choice of words.

Thinking brand new thoughts that you've never thought before, Patty, is wildly more conducive to creating big life changes than just thinking different varieties of the same old thoughts. Think about it -     The Universe

p.s. Like, where will you be at this time next year, Patty? Who will you be playing elephant polo with? And what will you be dreaming of after you get your sense of integrity?

However, at the end of this day, I am less certain what it means than when the day started.

But it is Friday the 13th and perhaps it's time to think some entirely new thoughts.

The Universe is looking out for me. I just need to keep listening. 

  

First, I want to state that I have this lofty goal to eliminate my credit card dependency. However, my compulsion to support certain 'why-are-these-people-still-under-the-radar?' musicians @ established music venues makes it quite difficult.

Tuesday night when I saw Ari Hest play at the Hotel Cafe I knew the online ticket purchase was worth it-- as are all my purchases, of course. The opener from Ireland, Declan O'Rourke, told the audience that this was his first time playing (or first tour playing?) in America. He had a great sound and one novelty song stands out. It's about an old black crow and it was highly entertaining because there was a fun song introduction and then part of the chorus was him cawing. Not counting that particular song, to me, live, his style was like an Irish version of Ari's so it shouldn't be too surprising if he gains a large following here fairly quickly.

"I can make you move against your will. Don’t it make you sad to lose control?" Broken Voices by Ari Hest

Ari was fantastic with his band, and played a bunch of songs from his early material and CD The Break In, plus newer songs from his project, 52, which included my favorite song, Broken Voices. At some point Amy Kuney came up to sing Cranberry Lake which she co-wrote and sang in a duet with Ari. That was great because I've been wanting to see her live for a while now too.

Ari's vocal ability is amazing. His tone ranges in his songs from baritone to falsetto with impressively flawless lung control. It bowls me over me every time I see him live.

I ran into @KristinJuel during the evening which is always refreshing. Sitting with her I discovered my new favorite bass player, Rob Calder, who has an interesting way of dancing to the beat while he plays.  Very entertaining to watch!

The only downer of the night is that there's a rule that non-flash photography is allowed in Hotel Cafe, but video recording is not. Kristin got busted for taking video with her digi cam at some point. That was too bad but at least they didn't confiscate her camera. She had also taken a bunch of still photos. Overall, it was a good night for live music.

"You're the song that I sing that I don't need to practice." from In the Creases by Amber Rubarth.
Tomorrow is Amber Rubarth's show @ The Mint-- http://themintla.com is their site. I refuse to hyperlink to it because it has music that auto-plays and defaults to the loudest volume setting. Way to facilitate an obnoxious user experience.

I love Amber's lyrical ambition and like Ari, she is now based in NY so I try to see her whenever she's playing here. Can't wait to hear her new songs and old ones again that I like. A lot.

Warning: Adult content...

Today at work, I was working on a new feature where the user can enter text into a free text field.  We want to block people from using inappropriate language, so I had to find a list of dirty words and spec out an error message for those who use them.

So I wanted to check a couple sites to see what kind of error messages they were giving in that situation.

I went to Match.com and tried to create a new account using a bad word for a username, figuring I'd get an error message.  Wrong.

The username "fucker" had been taken already.  So they suggested close alternatives I could use.

Please enjoy (the 2nd suggestion):

 

Mom and son are healthy, hungry and happy. We're getting to know him before we give him a name.

Details for people who track these things:
8lbs 7oz
20 inches
11/11/09 at 1:24pm

Photos

Aha! I think we've got one!

Videos

Video at 11. Welcome, boy.