Well, I never thought I'd actually do it, but I ended up going to the Alanis concert. I really expected to wuss out at some point, but luckily, it really wasn't much louder than parts of a Steve Jobs keynote. Just in case things got too loud, we actually rigged up a flashlight that I could activate with a switch, so that I could signal my brother in case he couldn't hear me. It was like the Bat Signal, but with a gimpy twist. I'd never been to any sort of concert, so I had no idea what to expect. The venue wasn't huge and Alanis isn't death metal, so I figured things wouldn't get too crazy. The opener was really dull, Jason somebody, or as I called him, Dave Matthews Jr. The girls really dug Dave Jr. though. We brought a friend with us who kept standing up to shriek gleefully during his guitar solos. That was one of those things that's funny and annoying all at once. Anyway, the guy went on for what seemed like 3 hours, but was probably 45 minutes, which we took as the perfect opportunity to go buy concert gear. I got a stylish purple Alanis hat and a copy of Jagged Little Pill Unplugged. Then came the 30+ minute intermission, which seemed like an hour. It was crazy, we got there at around 7 PM, but Alanis didn't actually go on until almost 10.
So, Alanis is really awesome live. Some people sound totally different without the help of a studio, but I think Alanis actually sounds better live. Alanis' voice is flat out spectacular all by itself. I've seen her live once before, when she made her U.S. TV debut on the Late Show (I was there to photograph Dave), so I knew the concert wouldn't suck... and it sooooo didn't! I was still kind of uneasy for the first half of the show, but once she played Wake Up, I really started getting into things. It's one of my favorite songs off of Jagged Little Pill. Obviously, she played You Oughta Know, which was great. One of my favorite parts was when, in unison, the entire crowd shouted, "did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity? I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner, but it was a slap in the face how quickly I was replaced and are you thinkin' of me when you fuck her?" That was pretty freaking cool. At any rate, I'm now no longer a concert n00b, which is a good thing. Anybody bored enough can check out some not so great photos here. No, I didn't take them. If I had, I'd have used my Nikon D100 and they'd have been good. Next time I won't be so nervous and I'll do my own photography.
Alright, in about 2 hours, I'll be smack in the middle of an Alanis concert. Now, I'm excited, but also a tad uneasy. Normally, I avoid crowds and loudness like the plague, but tonight I'm going straight to it on purpose. So, we'll see how it goes.
So, the thing about Mr. & Mrs. Smith is that it's not so much good as it is really really long. I wanted to like it, but the complete lack of witty dialogue and stylish violence just kept getting in the way. I felt like Millhouse, ardently waiting for Itchy & Scratchy to get to the fireworks factory, but alas, the wait was futile. Just like Itchy & Scratchy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith languored down the highway. The movie was basically Grosse Pointe Blank, minus everything that made Grosse Pointe Blank great. Sure, Angelina Jolie is astoundingly hot, but it wasn't enough to make me regret throwing down my $10 and 2 hours.
So, I've been playing The Sims 2 for my impending IMG review. I find it both amusing and a tad depressing that my Sim, Theon, is already far more productive in the area of the amour than me. The chicks dig him hardcore, it's pretty funny. It's fitting though, as he's named after Theon Greyjoy from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. It's an absolutely amazing series of dark fantasy novels that, in my mind, rivals The Lord of the Rings in grandeur.
Anyway, Theon's one of my favorite characters. He's an utterly arrogant bastard and a womanizer, yet no matter how much I hate some of the things he does, for some reason, I want him to avoid his oh so deserved comeuppance. We'll see how he fairs in the upcoming fourth book.
As for my Sim Theon, we'll see how he fairs through my review.
I just saw Paul Anka cover Nirvana's Smalls Like Teen Spirit on Letterman... There's really nothing left, I've seen everything. I guess I could start walking and buy a Dell just to round things out.
So, Apple announced that they're moving to Intel based Macs, which has many people nervous or upset. Now, I don't really feel like writing about why this is a brilliant move and why it's not the death of our platform, as there are plenty of other folks already doing that. I will simply say that Steve Jobs didn't make this decision while prank calling Mike Dell in a drunken stooper. He knows EXACTLY what he's doing. The move from OS 9 to OS X was huge, but it happened and we're all better off for it. Thus will be the case with this transition.
Peter Tamte sums things up nicely:
We think Apple's move to Intel is great. For one thing, it demonstrates that Apple is really serious about giving Windows-based computing head-to-head competition. For another, it lays the groundwork for the future of personal computing in a digitally connected home. And, for another, it's going to narrow the gap between the release of a game on Windows and the release on Mac -- maybe to zero.