{"id":686,"date":"2009-08-02T22:09:17","date_gmt":"2009-08-03T02:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/?p=686"},"modified":"2009-08-02T22:09:17","modified_gmt":"2009-08-03T02:09:17","slug":"odds-and-ends-music-friends-family-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/?p=686","title":{"rendered":"Odds and ends – music, friends, family, fun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dream_theater_japan\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Special thanks to el Sturg and his lovely wife for hosting me in the DC metro area.\u00a0 Senor Sturj and I ventured into the wilds of Columbia, MD for Progressive Nation 2009.\u00a0 We got treated to Zappa Plays Zappa, Dream Theater, and even a little Queensryche.\u00a0 It was a great night of music with a dear friend, but I’ll need some time to digest the whole deal.\u00a0 In short, the Zappa set was brilliant, satisfying and very much what I expected.\u00a0 It was a treat to see such extraordinary music played so brilliantly.\u00a0 Dream Theater, quite simply, was an onslaught.\u00a0 Portnoy might be the best in the business behind the drums.\u00a0 I’ve seen him before, but not with HIS band.\u00a0 This show was loud, abnoxious, mighty and awesome.\u00a0 Like I said, more on that later.<\/p>\n

I also received a huge supplement to my music collection via Mr. and Mrs. Sturg.\u00a0 With the former, I have an opportunity to hear every single show Mahavishnu played between 1972 and 1974.\u00a0 Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, etc, etc.\u00a0 That is a deep collection.\u00a0 From the later, I got to continue my education in sounds from around the world, as the Mrs. has traveled widely, speaks fluent Spanish and supplemented her considerable music collection accordingly.\u00a0 I was only able to scratch the surface while being treated to pancakes and fresh fruit this morning, but I still managed to collect many gigs.\u00a0 It was a good haul; just how good, will take some time to fully realize.<\/p>\n

Friday night (still in Philly), my friend Joe had the sense to push me to Johnny Brenda’s, where I always love what I see.\u00a0 In this case, it turned out top be a band I had already seen, but in a much worse venue.\u00a0 I previously reflected on these events over at Fretbuzz, so there’s that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Thursday we wrapped up a great visit with my dear sister and her hell-ish beast-like offspring<\/span> amazingly sweet and hilariously funny kids.\u00a0 Dorothy has some great shots posted at her .mac sight<\/a>.\u00a0 I’ve got a few things to add, although most of my stills are from the Bat Mitzvah<\/a>.\u00a0 This video (warning: unedited!!) gives a good feel of how things progressed:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

With today’s 7-3 drubbing at the hands of the Gigantos<\/a>, the Phillies have now dropped a disturbing number of games on this seven-game west coast trip.\u00a0 I wouldn’t worry so much, seeing as their lead in the atrocious NL East is still pretty comfortable, but they will undoubtedly have to play San Francisco and\/or LA when playoff time comes, provided they get there.<\/p>\n

I guess the last thing worth mentioning is the insane joy I’ve been getting from following Brent Spiner (Star Trek: TNG’s Data; yes, that Brent Spiner) on Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0 He has clearly elevated the art form.<\/p>\n

AND, last but not least, the new Beardfish<\/a> record Destined Solitaire is yet another work of genius.\u00a0 Great music, lyrics, cover art, everything.\u00a0 More on that later too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special thanks to el Sturg and his lovely wife for hosting me in the DC metro area.\u00a0 Senor Sturj and I ventured into the wilds of Columbia, MD for Progressive Nation 2009.\u00a0 We got treated to Zappa Plays Zappa, Dream … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[425,204,23,401,188],"tags":[618,76,640,1490,503,398,643,645,642,1483,644,641],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":689,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mpomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}