Primus covering Bangkok

Youtube. Primus was far and away the best band at Outside Lands. Jack Johnson is lame with a capital L. Radiohead and Beck had bad sets. Remember how awesome Pablo Honey and Mellow Gold were? Those days are long gone. I'm only picking on these bands because I don't understand why they're so popular.

It was a good time overall, but about twice as expensive as it should have been. $80 a day is a little steep, considering nobody got to play a full show. I would reformat it so that each band gets about twice as much time as they did. Giving bands like Primus only one hour is criminal.

And whoever picked Radiohead, Tom Petty, and Jack Johnson to anchor the main stage in each successive night was an idiot. I've always liked Tom Petty, and I'm glad he basically played his greatest hits album, but he lacks a certain oomph. Jack Johnson's popularity saddens me for the state of American culture. Radiohead left me wondering wtf? They sucked. The homeless guy plucking a violin at the BART station was better.

The lineup guy might have been an idiot, but he's still a genius compared to the sound people. The sound cut out multiple times for just about every band I saw. And when it wasn't cutting out, it was of poor quality, fading in and out. It sounded like a hoard of untrained monkeys were messing around with the soundboard. We deserve some of our ticket money back, but I doubt the organizers will do the right thing (and I'm too lazy to bitch at them directly).

I had a great weekend in San Francisco seeing old friends. But Outside Lands gets a C-. Subpar all around. That doesn't mean I definitely won't go back next year, but I wouldn't go with the same enthusiasm.




In other news, I've created a new blog. I'll email all 3 readers the link sometime when it's got actual content.

Officials are all pretty much the same

I'm sure you've heard about the underage Chinese gymnasts by now. There's also something about some fellow named "Felpy", who did something noteworthy that's slipping my mind right now.

Well anyway. I found the Chinese official reaction the most entertaining part of them getting caught:

"We already explained this very clearly. There's no need to discuss this thing again."

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has said repeatedly that a passport is the "accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility," and that He and China's other gymnasts have presented ones that show they are age eligible.

This reminds me of a status meeting I was in at my old job. Some task was checked off the Excel sheet as being done, but I had recently noticed a bug in it.

When I pointed out that it needed to be factored into the time needed to complete the project, I was told that it was already done. See, look at the spreadsheet. Right here. Checked. Done.

I can show you it's not done right now. Walk 30 feet to my desk and I'll show you how it's not working.

No need for that, silly! We already know it's done because the spreadsheet says so.

And so on.

America

Go. Just go.

George Orwell's Diaries

He started his diaries for real in August 1938. His entries are being recreated in blog form 70 years later to the day. Haven't read any of it yet, but it should be interesting.

Lightning in slow motion

This is really frickin' cool.

Rush on Colbert Report

link