Best Buy; Kings of Leon; Architecture in Helsinki; Reggae Hut; Girl Talk
Back in Houston now, and taking an extra day off (shh!). I'll try to get a couple posts in.
9/18
Once again to Best Buy to get a little more money back on my TV before the 30-day price matching period was up.
I also checked out their new in-store Magnolia home theater store. It was a definite step up from the current audio experience at Best Buy, which has gotten steadily worse, and is particularly bad in my store where most of the speakers are sort of piled up in a sad little room at the back and not even hooked up.
The Magnolia store was small, though, focused much more on video than audio, and lacked a variety of audio brands. An improvement for Best Buy, but probably nothing that necessitated a sepparate store.
9/19
Cindy and I had been given tickets to a free Kings of Leon show. It was apparently some sort of service industry thing being held at the Meridian, but people who had tickets to give out were having trouble getting rid of them; hence we ended up with them. So we figured we'd check it out.
After eventually finding parking (no sense paying for parking for a free show).
It was fucking packed. Apparently they didn't have that much trouble getting rid of the tickets. And, honestly, the band kind of sucked. Well, maybe they didn't, but the combination of an annoying audience and a band with which I was not faimiliar didn't exactly make us want to stick around.
9/20
The next night was better, featuring Architecture in Helsinki's triumphant return to houston. K Record's The Blow opened up, in alternate solo form rather than as their normal duo. Alternating between charming naivete/indifference and an annoying lack of polish and over-artsiness, I ultimately wasn't impressed with their low-fi spoken word/rap but didn't hate them either.
Architecture in Helsinki came on next and put on a good show, though perhaps lacking some of the magic of their previous show at Walter's. It was enjoyable, though, and their new material had definite potential.
9/23
Our return to Reggae Hut came in the form of takeout, which Cindy picked up. We refined our order, settling on one order of jerk chicken with an extra side of their great veggies, and opting to try out their "empanadas" (they corrected Cindy when ordering, referring to them as "beef patties", which is a little too close to "cow patties" in my mind), which were nicely seasoned. Always a good meal...
9/24
For the Prole's birthday celebration, they had managed to snag indie mashup sensation Girl Talk. Cindy and I went; the usual suspects were there, and Jeff dragged Jim along. Jim looked thoroughly miserable the entire evening, though I'm not really sure why he didn't like the mix 'n match take on the past 20 years or so of pop and rock.
Girl Talk was incredible, but I'm not sure I can explain why as he just reproduced the album live. The thing with laptop music is that he could have just bee plaing it straight off the CD for all we know, but he looked like he was staying busy making the music happen.
I, for my part, got nice and trashed, and Cindy was treated to Dancing Ward, making a rare appearance. Great music + drunkeness = fun.
9/18
Once again to Best Buy to get a little more money back on my TV before the 30-day price matching period was up.
I also checked out their new in-store Magnolia home theater store. It was a definite step up from the current audio experience at Best Buy, which has gotten steadily worse, and is particularly bad in my store where most of the speakers are sort of piled up in a sad little room at the back and not even hooked up.
The Magnolia store was small, though, focused much more on video than audio, and lacked a variety of audio brands. An improvement for Best Buy, but probably nothing that necessitated a sepparate store.
9/19
Cindy and I had been given tickets to a free Kings of Leon show. It was apparently some sort of service industry thing being held at the Meridian, but people who had tickets to give out were having trouble getting rid of them; hence we ended up with them. So we figured we'd check it out.
After eventually finding parking (no sense paying for parking for a free show).
It was fucking packed. Apparently they didn't have that much trouble getting rid of the tickets. And, honestly, the band kind of sucked. Well, maybe they didn't, but the combination of an annoying audience and a band with which I was not faimiliar didn't exactly make us want to stick around.
9/20
The next night was better, featuring Architecture in Helsinki's triumphant return to houston. K Record's The Blow opened up, in alternate solo form rather than as their normal duo. Alternating between charming naivete/indifference and an annoying lack of polish and over-artsiness, I ultimately wasn't impressed with their low-fi spoken word/rap but didn't hate them either.
Architecture in Helsinki came on next and put on a good show, though perhaps lacking some of the magic of their previous show at Walter's. It was enjoyable, though, and their new material had definite potential.
9/23
Our return to Reggae Hut came in the form of takeout, which Cindy picked up. We refined our order, settling on one order of jerk chicken with an extra side of their great veggies, and opting to try out their "empanadas" (they corrected Cindy when ordering, referring to them as "beef patties", which is a little too close to "cow patties" in my mind), which were nicely seasoned. Always a good meal...
9/24
For the Prole's birthday celebration, they had managed to snag indie mashup sensation Girl Talk. Cindy and I went; the usual suspects were there, and Jeff dragged Jim along. Jim looked thoroughly miserable the entire evening, though I'm not really sure why he didn't like the mix 'n match take on the past 20 years or so of pop and rock.
Girl Talk was incredible, but I'm not sure I can explain why as he just reproduced the album live. The thing with laptop music is that he could have just bee plaing it straight off the CD for all we know, but he looked like he was staying busy making the music happen.
I, for my part, got nice and trashed, and Cindy was treated to Dancing Ward, making a rare appearance. Great music + drunkeness = fun.
Labels: bars, concerts, electronics, restaurants, shopping
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 4:09 PM
