Planet GFMorris

I have always wanted to be a part of a WordCamp, and an unconference seems like fun, too. Add to it that it’s the weekend before my [30th!] birthday, and I’m strongly thinking about hitting the first South by Deep South. Any other takers [by which I mean, "Stephen, can I con you into this less than a month after Dragon*Con"] amongst the locals?

Again, another week without dates last week! And just one new one…

• AO in Nashville on 24 May.

I pose this question to my loyal readership: Do you have a GPS unit? If so, would you recommend one like it to me?

Let me explain my expected use case so you can use that to tinge your suggestion: I wish to have geodata for content generation, largely photography. I’m not really so concerned with GPS directions for driving, really, because I typically have a good sense of direction [unless I'm on a date, and then it goes to hell ... no, really] and also have an iPhone, so I’m good when it comes to directions, mainly.

That posted … suggest away.

• Deb Talan’s Sincerely, a live album that’s only available these days as a digital download.
  
• City and Colour’s Bring Me Your Love, which I was introduced to by Adam.
  
• 4 Sep 1967 [West Hollywood, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Cream. 1967-09-04: Whiskey A Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 1) and 1967-09-04: Whiskey A Go-Go, West Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 27 Aug 2005 [Cincinnati, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-08-27: Moonlite Gardens, Coney Island, Cincinnati, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2005-08-27: Moonlite Gardens, Coney Island, Cincinnati, OH, USA (disc 2).
• 4 Feb 2006 [Malmö, Sweden] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. 2006-02-04: Kulturbolaget, Malmö, SWE.
• 26 Mar 2008 [Melbourne, Australia] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2008-03-26: Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Australia (disc 1) and 2008-03-26: Palace Theatre, Melbourne, Australia (disc 2).
• 9 Apr 2008 [Louisville, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Son Volt. 2008-04-09: Headliners Music Hall, Louisville, KY, USA (disc 1) and 2008-04-09: Headliners Music Hall, Louisville, KY, USA (disc 2).

Last week:

• The Weepies’ Hideaway. This one did not grab me the way that Say I Am You did, but I’ve also not given it car/road trip time. I will be correcting that this weekend. Three-and-a-half stars, and I expect that’ll rise.
  
• Carole King’s Tapestry (Legacy Edition). This was a bit of an impulse buy, although it was well-regarded in last month’s Paste. Very much worth my money. Four stars.
  
• 18 Feb 1997 [Ottawa, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Wilco. It’s hard to believe that this was recorded onto tape, at least for me. It sounds quite good! Three-and-a-half stars.
• 26 Aug 2005 [Lexington, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. Oh my holy heck. This is a fine, fine, fine recording. If you like Ohio and Drunkard’s Prayer, GRAB IT. Four-and-a-half stars.
• 15 Mar 2008 [Austin, TX, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward and Jim James. Sadly, during Matt’s solo stuff, the recording is very distant sounding, which is surprising for Church Audio cardioids; must’ve been a hard room to record. I give it three stars.
  
• 4 Apr 2008 [Dyersburg, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb. I’m happy with how this one came out; I’m giving it four stars only because the songs off of The Ringing Bell really deserve to have a band behind them. I understand why that didn’t happen on this tour, but man … if Derek had been able to have Todd, Garett, Jeff, Josh, and Andrew backing him on these songs … that would have been awesome. Anyhow, some folks would probably like more of the SBD in this mix, but I’m a fan of how a recording actually sounds in a room. For those people, I’ve seeded the SBD and AUD recordings in their uncut forms on IndieRiver; they can do with it what they like.
  
• 4 Apr 2008 [Dyersburg, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Caedmon’s Call. The longer I think about this, the more I think about re-mastering it. It just could be better. That said, it’s decent. Three-and-a-half stars, mainly because of Andy O’s two killer guitar solos. That kid really can shred.
  

Greg Knauss, among others, has written about his experiences in contributing to Things I Learned About My Dad (In Therapy), a book by parents about the experiences of fatherhood. I got my copy earlier this week and plowed through it in mostly two quick sessions [which is good; I have been in a serious reading funk, something I should address elsewhere]. Knauss’s comments pretty squarely reflect his essay:

It goes on from there, documenting everything Child Protective Services is going to need to put me away for a long time.

Reading the book, I’m astonished at the quality of every essay that wasn’t written by me. Some are sweet, some are heartbreaking, all are funny — it’s a wonderful book, and it truly is an honor to be included. I’m now forever squatting squarely next to some of the best writers on the Web, and they can’t do anything about it, ha ha ha ha.

Told you I was kind of an asshole.

Yeah, well, he is. But he’s an endearing one [at least to me].

Being single myself, you might wonder what attraction a book like this has for me. Well, several of my friends have kids now, and they write about them. It’s fun, because I can go back and look at entries they’ve written and have good memories, even if I’m just barely a part of these kids’ lives—being as, you know, I’m just some dude that’s friends with their parents that comes over from time to time and takes attention away from the star of the show [them] because–GASP!–I want to talk to the parental units. Heh.

Heather Armstrong, Dooce herself, edited the essays and contributed two of her own. As I’ve read the monthly newsletters that she’s written her daughter, Leta, I’ve felt a lot of emotions—most of all, jealousy. In this month’s letter, Heather talks about the stresses of criticism of people writing about their kids and all the obvious critiques that come of it:

But I guess there are some people who are very uncomfortable with the fact that I and many other women are writing about our children on our websites. How dare we violate your privacy like this, how dare we endanger you like this, we obviously care more about ad revenue than what this is going to do to your adolescence. And I have been asked countless times if I am at all worried that you will totally resent me for the details I have shared here. Of course you will you resent me. I have no doubt that you will spend years of your life resenting me and being embarrassed that we have the same last name, despite the fact that I have and will spend years of my life writing love letters to you on the Internet. Despite the fact that I have declared to millions of people that you are the most amazing thing that has ever happened to my life.

You will resent me for your curfew and the fact that I will not let you leave the house in that mini-skirt. You will resent me for showing up to your school in my pajama bottoms and for raising my hand in a PTA meeting when I hadn’t brushed my hair. You will text message your friends to tell them that I am the most horrible person on the planet because I’m forcing you to study for your exam in the morning. You are going to think that I cannot possibly understand what you are going through, and you will slam the door in my face.

Will you resent me for this website? Absolutely. And I have spent hours and days and months of my life considering this, weighing your resentment against the good that can come from being open and honest about what it’s like to be your mother, the good for you, the good for me, and the good for other women who read what I write here and walk away feeling less alone. And I have every reason to believe that one day you will look at the thousands of pages I have written about my love for you, the thousands of pages other women have written about their own children, and you’re going to be so proud that we were brave enough to do this. We are an army of educated mothers who have finally stood up and said pay attention, this is important work, this is hard, frustrating work and we’re not going to sit around on our hands waiting for permission to do so. We have declared that our voices matter.

Let me be honest: if we’d have had the Internet in the early 1980s, my mother would have blogged the shit out of me and my older brother. You would’ve read all sorts of interesting, hilarious, and terrifying stories about us.

I don’t want to get too much into our family dynamics here, but suffice it to say that, growing up, my older brother wasn’t classically gifted in academic ways, and I was. He hated school; I loved it. He was [and still largely is] an introvert; I, well, I never frickin’ shut up. If you read all the bunk of the birth order folks, you’d think we were born out of order—but hell, no, people. Doug and I are who we are because of the sum of our experiences, as varied as they are. Because of the spread between us [five years, ten months] and the fact that Dad was Air Force [meaning we moved every four years, most of the time], we never went through the same stages in life in the same places. We never had the same teachers; only once, when I was in kindergarten and he in sixth grade, did we attend the same school. We are, functionally, two only children who happen to have the same parents. Doesn’t mean that I don’t love him, ’cause I do. We’re just … startlingly different.

I’m sure that Mom would’ve written a couple hundred things that would’ve mortified me when I read them at 14, but she also would’ve written a thousand more that would make me smile, laugh, cry, and appreciate what they went through that much more. And I admit … I would love to have those stories now as I near 30. Well, I do have them, but you don’t have them, Internet. And while it’s narcissistic to want you to read them, I am a blogger.

Anyhow, if you want to read engaging essays on fatherhood, Things I Learned About My Father (In Therapy) is terribly good and worth your time. [And for my friends who are parents and are broke because they're buying diapers, I'll let you borrow my copy as long as your kids don't gnaw on it. 'kay?]

Eric posted an interview done with him back at one of the two Huntsville Behold the Lamb of God shows last year [note: not the one I attended, so the interviewer isn't me]. The highlight for me:

You play churches, and you play regular venues, and you play coffeehouses. I want to know, do you change as a performer? How do you transition from place to place?

That’s a great question.

Because you can’t say curse words in church … unless you’re Derek [Webb].

Yeah, maybe he can get away with it.

Man, that’s a great question. I definitely don’t change necessarily what I say; I change how I say it. I don’t ever know what people think of my music. But I suspect that if they hear song and read the lyrical content, they know where I’m coming from. And my big thing as a writer is to never be obnoxious about what I’m talking about. My thing is just to tell my story and to lay it out there with no strings attached and just to let it be and for people to hear it and do what they will with it.

It’s funny because I don’t really feel comfortable in any setting. If I’m in a club, which is not often, but when I play a club, I don’t feel cool enough to be there.

But are any of us cool enough to be there? Probably not.

I took some time at lunch and watched/listened to Clay Shirky’s talk about the cognitive surplus, which I’d seen linked a lot of places, but today by Jeremy Zawodny.

I was reminded of a pledge to use time-shifting for awesome. I then sent myself to the penalty box for a ten-minute misconduct.

Okay, off to watch some Law & Order. :sigh:

Until the speedier iMacs became available this morning, I was pretty well set on going for a Mac notebook—either a Macbook Pro or a Macbook Air. But I tell you … that top-end iMac, buttressed with 4GB of RAM [that I'd buy third-party, natch], that’s hard to pass up. Why?

1. If I’m honest with myself, I don’t use a laptop that much. My iBook gets some use around my house, and some use when I leave the house, but I don’t seriously attempt to work from it, unless I’m on the road with work. Which leads me to …
2. The fact that I’m about to have a work laptop [sadly, a Windows machine], which obviates any “need” [being such a relative term when we're talking about $2000 machines while people starve on far less per year in Africa; yes, I want cheese with my white whine] for having a personal laptop for quasi-work purposes. Here I ask myself: on a business trip, am I going to carry two laptops, one for work and one for personal use? The answer is, of course, no.
3. I don’t yet merit a Mac Pro, although I want one. My budget for this endeavor is largely the $2500 biennial computer purchase money I get from corporate [you'd do this, too, if you got the money interest-free]; the only machine I could see myself outspending this for is a Macbook Air with a solid-state drive, which I’d get based off of Alex’s experiences with his MBA. The top-end iMac fits in my budget, although I’ll have to be the one paying for the RAM [which is fine; I'll just get some software I'd buy otherwise pre-installed to offset that cost].

That said, I’m gonna go until at least the end of the week on this decision, because I don’t wish to act rashly just because Apple put out a new play-pretty today. [Lunch break over, back to the salt mines.]

Now, before anyone asks: no, we don’t have any information as to whether or not Derek will be at these shows. We know that it’s been discussed, and we’re not ruling it in or out either way. What we would advise is that you expect that he won’t be there until the dates show up on his Web site or we tell you here [which we will when we know]. But it’s also important to remember that, like, there’s still a lot of people on stage if Derek’s not there. We just know that you’re going to ask about it. :)

Here are the dates we’ve seen for the summer so far:

• 18 May in Sewell, NJ
• 1 Jun in Charleston, SC
• 7 Jun in Merrillville, IN
• 26 Jul in Midland, MI
• 21 Aug in Harford, PA
• 23 Aug in San Angelo, TX
• 29 Aug in Manchester, KY

Only one new recording to point you to this week:

• Derek Webb - 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA (FLAC - SBD-AUD Matrix)

[In case you're curious, the Caedmon's Call set is also available.]

Surprisingly, I was able to hold out on listening to The Weepies’ new record until this week, despite having it Tuesday. Discipline, or something.

• The Weepies’ Hideaway.
  
• Carole King’s Tapestry (Legacy Edition). You can blame this one on me watching lots of Gilmore Girls episodes.
  
• 18 Feb 1997 [Ottawa, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Wilco. 1997-02-18: The Cave, Ottawa, ON, Canada (disc 1) and 1997-02-18: The Cave, Ottawa, ON, Canada (disc 2).
• 26 Aug 2005 [Lexington, KY, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-08-26: The Dame, Lexington, KY, USA (disc 1) and 2005-08-26: The Dame, Lexington, KY, USA (disc 2).
• 15 Mar 2008 [Austin, TX, USA] concert bootleg of M. Ward and Jim James. 2008-03-15: St. David's Church, Austin, TX, USA and 2008-03-15: St. David's Church, Austin, TX, USA.
  
• 4 Apr 2008 [Dyersburg, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Derek Webb. Really happy with the ability to do SBD-AUD matrixes now. 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA.
  
• 4 Apr 2008 [Dyersburg, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Caedmon’s Call. This one took a lot of work, because my feeds got slightly out of sync from time to time during the set, so I continually had to monitor for sync issues. Worth doing, though. I’ve got some ideas of how I’ll do that better next time. Could’ve spent more time mastering it, too. Ah well. 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA (disc 1) and 2008-04-04: Dyersburg State Community College, Dyersburg, TN, USA (disc 2).
  

Last week was good in the studio spots, meh otherwise:

• Deb Talan’s Something Burning. Unlike with her husband, I liked her sophomore release much better. This is good, but the melody is better on the next record. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• Deb Talan’s A Bird Flies Out. Lots and lots of fun here. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 11 Jan 1997 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Jeff Tweedy. Pretty standard Tweedy solo fare of that era; nothing special. Two-and-a-half stars. The fun bit for me is the cover of “Thirteen”, which I’m used to hearing Elliott Smith do.
  
• 7 Jul 1999 [Stuttgart, Germany] concert bootleg of Wilco. Very meh. Two stars.
  
• 12 Aug 2002 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Coldplay. Sounds thin and reedy. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Jun 2005 [Chicago, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. Good mics, well-implemented. Feels sluggish, but that’s because the performance is slow and muted. Sometimes when OtR goes this way, it’s really cool, like listening to jazz with a good glass of $alcohol [I'd say wine, but I don't drink wine], and sometimes, it’s like this, just a tad too mellow. Three-and-a-half stars.
• 17 Apr 2006 [Toronto, ON, Canada] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. Sadly, an audience rig not up to the task. Two stars.

So, you might’ve heard that Scott Munroe stopped 65 of 67 shots and Jared Ross scored the Philadelphia Phantoms’ two regulation goals in the AHL record-setting 5OT Calder Cup playoff game against Albany. But have you heard Scott’s postgame comments?

As Will said, the same ol’ humble kid we knew in Huntsville. Way to go, Scotty, and Roscoe … you couldn’t dent the twine in OT and give Muny a break, huh? Slacker.

Hey, we do right by you. We bring you the goods. Want to hear what the band sounded like in Dyersburg, Tennessee? We have a great recording of it for you.

Wanna know what made me the happiest today?

question!

You’ve been doing such a fab photog job at shows, I was wondering what settings you were using? I’m giving it a shot at D+S’s show tonight.

call if you can.

– Michaela, whose photos I love (and use for desktop backgrounds)

We saw no new dates last week! Here’s the only new listing this week:

• EP in Baton Rouge, LA on 8 Jun