NonCOMMbustication

To round out the Memorial Day weekend, we went to New Jersey (again) to have dinner with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle who live in Smithville (which is kinda near Atlantic City)…we had dinner in this fish/seafood place which had nautical decor all over…

Day 286 - May 26th, 2007

After the elongated weekend, I headed back to XPN on Tuesday to find that there wasn’t really much work for me to do…I spent some time sprucing up the Y-Rock MySpace page with some new PhotoShop effects that I learned over the weekend…there are a few sites that offer tutorials on how to do various PhotoShop effects, things like how to make a photo look like Pop Art, how to make things look old and grainy, and a few more complicated things…one effect, in particular, caught my fancy, both for the effect itself and the sample picture used in the tutorial…the “Circuit Board” effect…

Day 287 - May 27th, 2008

On Wednesday, I stayed at home and straightened up my room a bit…I also received what might be my favorite album of the year so far, and I haven’t even listened to it all the way through yet…

Day 288 - May 28th, 2008

Erin and I watched “I’m Not There”, as well as part of a documentary about the making of the terrific soundtrack…unfortunately, they didn’t talk to Stephen Malkmus at all (they did, however talk to Lee Ranaldo, who doesn’t look anything like you’d expect the guy behind “Mote” and “Karen Revisited” to look like)…

On Thursday, Dad and I went to Willow Grove Mall, where Dad got his hair cut and colored Josh Pincus Red…as he was getting that done, I wandered around the mall, finding that it is slowly getting more and more sucky…so many stores are either closed or closing, and the ones that are still open aren’t very great…even the Disney Store is closing in accordance to the recent reacquisition of the stores by the Disney Company…I did, however, bump into my friend and fellow XPN’er Valerie (the Philly Local intern), which was a pleasant surprise…

Dad and I went to the supermarket on Wednesday as well, and got something so genius, I had to wait until Thursday to try since I needed to prepare myself mentally for this occasion…

Day 289 - May 29th, 2008

Yesterday was the second day of the 8th annual NonCOMMvention, sort of like NERFA, only better and not creepy…the convention is a gathering of Triple A radio people from all over the country…this year, it was hosted by XPN, and took place at a few different places in the Philadelphia area…last night, the events were at World Cafe Live…I volunteered to help load the bands’ gear in and out, which also granted me access to the performances that were going on all night (and I do mean all night)…of course, I was at XPN anyway for my Y-Rock shift (which went very well) and other assorted work…after all of that, I registered and got my NonCOMM badge (yes, I kinda did need a stinkin’ badge)…though not part of the convention, the first performance I saw was from Forro In The Dark, who happened to have a gig upstairs that night…you may remember that I saw them when they came here last year, and was incredibly impressed…the same goes for this time, and I may have even turned a few more XPN people on to the Brazilian group’s sound…

The first performance of the convention that I saw was by Ani DiFranco (who I held the XPN office door open for earlier in the day)…while I was never really a fan of hers, I was still happy to see if only to say that I have seen her…I know that there are many people I know who would be very jealous to hear that I was so close to the stage and to Ani during her set (it really wasn’t as crowded as I would have expected, so it wasn’t all that hard to get right up front)…during her set, I noticed a few members of other bands that would be performing later, namely the lead singer of Carney and the keyboard player from The Hold Steady were standing right next to me…

The load-in work wasn’t a big deal at all…the two bands that had to be helped out didn’t have that much stuff, and we had a lot of people (including the members of the bands) helping out…those bands were Back Door Slam and the aforementioned Carney, but more on those two later…

One performance I was particularly looking forward to was from Dr. John…for as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of his music…while his more recent albums haven’t really been as strong as his classic records, it’s kinda hard to make anything better than some of his records, no matter who you are…he did a lot of songs from his upcoming new album, The City That Care Forgot…for the title song, he invited Ani DiFranco onstage to sing with him…it’s moments like that that make me want to go to more events like this…

Day 290 - May 30th, 2008

After Dr. John’s set, I went back upstairs to catch up-and-coming group Carney…while their songs derive a lot from gritty blues, they have a very theatrical edge to them as well, mostly seen in lead singer Reeve Carney’s Plant-ian wail…they did material from their new Nothing Without You EP, as well as a fantastic version of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”…I’m hoping that these guys get the attention they deserve, because they put on a great show (despite the fact that it was around midnight!)…the other band, Back Door Slam, is the latest object of XPN’s affection…while I am not really a fan, I can tell that they are going to be a hit at the Festival this summer…by the end of the night, our ears were shot, and we (the volunteers) were being bothered by an inebriated Chris Parsons, formerly the drummer of Polak a Britpop grop formed from the ashes of ’80s-inflected shoegazers Adorable…it was interesting for a while, but became old fast…Back Door Slam weren’t in any rush to leave, so most of us left before they had loaded out, though there were still plenty of people who could lend a hand (at least that’s what we were told by the band’s manager)…

After last night, it’s a wonder I woke up at all today…when I did wake up and make breakfast, I ended up falling asleep again…when I woke up again, I found that Mom and Dad had brought dinner from Peace A Pizza, which was delightfully unexpected…

Day 291 - May 31st, 2008

Tomorrow is Arts In The Park, or more accurately, Dogs In The Mud…

E.

Lyric of the Time:
A lot of words but no one talking
I don’t want no part of that
Something real is what I’m seeking
One clear voice in the wilderness

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