Everybody Wants To Be a DJ...

Hey Guys.
So first, I have a new love. You need to hear this band.
Just like I need to listen to the album in its entirety at least 2x a day.


The Head and the Heart - Lost in My Mind

And, surprisingly, this is a good lead in to my post tonight. It's good to be a DJ. And it's even better to have friends that give you the hookup. Thanks to our great friend Tracy in Missoula, my man and I are going to see these guys next month at their sold out show in Portland opening for Iron & Wine. This deal had very little to do with DJ and a BIG bunch having a thoughtful and sweet friend calling in a favor.

This is obviously not the first time this friend has done this sort of amazing and musically related type thing for me. Um, YEAH -  that is Taj Mahal.
My poor man got stopped at the door - apparently Taj only likes to meet the ladies.

Thank you Tracy.

The other night I really pulled the DJ card/street-team card. If any of you follow this blog on FB (which I wish you all would, because I am feeling a little lonely on there), then you know that Saturday was my man's birthday and we had a potential roadblock to our big celebration plans. I'll get to it.

I got him a mandolin. He already learned to play Keep the Car Runnin'. I love my husband. Speaking of keeping the car running, the theme of the show this weekend is RUN. Because the marathon is next Sunday. Wish him luck!

So before I get to the weekend, I need to share that my ears have been ringing since Wednesday. We went to Daedelus show, who is a "steam punk DJ" that plays a "monome," a couple days earlier and it was LOUD. And visually loud. I recommend checking out the video - it's quite a show. (You know what though? If you are enjoying the Head and the Heart right now you should wait a few minutes and finish listening to it then wait a couple more - I don't want you to get too shaken up. Maybe grab a beer too). The light show was downright hypnotizing. And he's a nice guy too - manning the merch table when we came in, shaking our hands and introducing himself as Alfred.

So moving on to the weekend - We had big plans to go see the Devil Makes Three after our radio show. Well, I went to get the tickets on Monday and they had sold out, which was quite upsetting. Seeing as I had been planning to take F to celebrate, PLUS I like the band so much I was on the street team, which means that I was hopping around town with a staple gun and a roll of tape putting up posters like a college freshman. Plus promoting the show every Better Than Sleep episode for the past two months.

After trying to get the special treatment (to which I felt very entitled) from the station, the venue (WOW) and the actual band, no luck. I even tried to scalp some tickets, but they weren't even available that way.

Anyway, at 10:05pm on F's bday we decided to push our luck and go over and plead our case in person. I promised him that I would not let it ruin my night when we ultimately got turned away, possibly even angrily. We played their version of Statesboro Blues during the "three show" and I got a little upset at the idea that they would be playing four blocks from our house and we weren't going to be there.

But, guess what? Between the awesome merch guy for the band and the understanding people at WOW, we got in! And they were great. The band is always a blast, this is the third time we have seen them together and everytime the crowd seems more into it then the last. Also, the banjo man's beard is reaching full blown hillybilly length which made me feel like it had been way too long since we've seen them.

Thanks DM3 and WOW, you made our night. And thanks to the guys from my journalism class for those Patron shots afterwards... it's so rare for us to see someone we know out and about in Eugene. I forget that Patron and tequila are really two different ballgames.

And thanks KWVA and the universe for our show. Love the show.
Tune in on Saturday!

Have you ever felt superior to those around you?

Are you guys interested in movies/music/website/TV/book reviews of a rambling type? Not necessarily new (or even new to me)? Because today I think that I am introducing a new category for your reading pleasure. Pigeon Judges. And today my victim is Boys From Brazil. 

I met a professor at a conference who told me he was really into movies and I asked for a recommendation and this is what he gave me. I thought we might be on the same page because I asked him what his favorite movie of the year was and he said AND I QUOTE "Well - It wasn't the King's Speech." Although the recommender seemed to be offended when I said it was an old movie after he told me that it starred Gregory Peck. So it's from the 70s... is that really offensive?

It had Steve Guttenberg in it. SPOILER ALERT - the good thing is he died 10 minutes in. Good, classic flick. Definitely a little slow at first, but well worth the investment. 

So the movie is about Dr. Mengele (nazi dr) who has well ... I don't think I should spoil it anymore than I did with the Guttenberg fate. 

Let's just say that Archer episode made a lot more sense after this movie. 

I am working on a really nice rating system for you guys. Any suggestions? I am thinking maybe fries. Pigeons love french fries. Or am I thinking of seagulls?

Before I move on can I just comment on the "boy" from Brazil. Were they not able to find a child actor that really had blue eyes? Because if you have seen it you'll understand that was pretty integral to the plot and, really, this was a weird looking fellow. I wonder if he has done any other work. HOLD - checking IMDB...  That would be a no.

Also - not worthy of its own post, but I MUST COMMENT on Love & Other Drugs. Worst. Movie. Ever. I suspected from the opening credit notes of Two Princes by the Spin Doctors (which I incidentally had hoped I would never hear again) that I would not make it through this movie. I lasted about 15 minutes until Ann showed her boob in the room then freaked out on Jake. I repeat - Worst. Movie. Ever. And I see a lot of movies. ZERO fries. 

Thank god I didn't make it to this part. I have been pretty tolerant with Jake up until now. Donnie Darko bought him a lot of leeway with me. I tried to forget that I saw Moonlight Mile and that Prince of Egypt trailer.

But now it is OVER.

 

Gimme Little Drink...

This post is kind of about a drink. Well, it's gonna start out that way, who knows where it'll get to by the end, BUT that gives me a great excuse to share this treasure with you:

I absolutely love this video - it is so cool to see Jack White with that huge grin on his face, getting totally starstruck by the Stones. I don't think I've even seen him crack a hint of a smile before or since. It's a clip from Shine a Light, which is a great watch in its entirety, but this was really the highlight for me. Enjoy. 

How can it be, that at 31 years of age, I get the opportunity TWICE in one month for a fishbowl? For the uninitiated (and reading this blog that is probably only momma bird, though I may have told her already about at least one of these incidents), a fishbowl is a big bowl full of various liquors. If you actually see this being "mixed" it's even scarier. The Ritz used to put swedish fish in the bottom, quite a nice touch I think. Thanks Stacia). 

I have not even seen a fishbowl in about 10 years at least, but now, two times in row. In different states. 

This is what 20+ academics at marketing symposium in Nebraska do afterhours. Who would have thought it? Sorry for the poor photo quality, having only my Blackberry. I wasn't expecting such a photo op to present itself that night. I have never been to a marketing symposium/conference/consortium/etc and I may write more about it another time, but for today all I have to say is this was surprising.
And I was there! But, my friends, this was the second time.

Sidetrack: The first was in Hood River on the previously mentioned ski trip. Somehow I forgot to tell you all that we went out *a bit* after skiing. There is a fantastic brewery there Double Mountain, but it closed pretty early. We went down to "Jack's" (I put this in quotes because there was no name on the outside and no one seemed sure that was the real name) - Chinese restaurant by day, club (?) by night. They had a variation of the fishbowl never before seen which was two size choices (what?! large and extra large) served in those huge chinese family style soup bowls. And they didn't call them fishbowls, they called them Scorpions. A stranger we met tried to get us to share one with him. We politely declined. Several times.

The symposium was a great experience, but the flight back was epic (bad way). We flew from Lincoln to CHICAGO to SAN FRANCISCO to EUGENE... We had been flying for about 5 hours already when I looked to that lovely little screen that must be meant for hypnosis only because who ever looks at the progress of the plane and thinks "wow, that's further than I thought!" and we were flying RIGHT OVER LINCOLN. Thanks travel agent. And I am serious, this flight had to be booked through a travel agent. It's shocking with the value that these people add that they are in obsolescence, isn't it? Oh, and the 5 hour layover in SF was a nice touch.

I also wanted to mention that spring is in the air back in Eugene.

My massive magnolia in FULL BLOOM. Missed it last year because I was in FL.

Spring means

1) Baseball.

For the first year in forever I get to PLAY softball. I used to love to play when I was in high school, but that was a while ago. Yeah. I'm a little nervous because it's been a long time and I am playing on an established team that is a group of people who passionately and intensely work out together so we'll see how I stack up. I did have the best batting average on my team. In 1995. 

My man and I got some gloves. I couldn't believe he found his (lefty) at Goodwill. I'm pretty sure that mine belonged to a young boy in its past life. 

And just because I am talking about baseball does not mean I want to talk about the Sox and their 0-6 record. Or the Rays and their acquisition of Johnny Damon, Manny or even the returning, AK47-toting Longoria. 

Now all I can think of is It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube. Let's hope Evan never has to use his A.K.

2) Spring means winter quarter is over. The evaluations are in and I did not win any popularity contests. I don't want to go off on too much of a rant here, but can we just do away with student evaluations? In the words of a sage advisor, you can't let twenty year-olds affect your self-esteem. Evals really are just not helpful. Case in point (these are real word-for-word "feedback" I get from students):

Good: 

"I really enjoyed taking Cat's class. Her teaching style was really great for me. She is definitely very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject."

Or not so good: 

"Her expectations were completely unachievable. Although Cat's in-class teaching was somewhat satisfactory, her out of class techniques and methods were completely unfair and unable to be met" 

(This student also called me "completely irrational" which I can almost take as that she learned something about consumer behavior since I show the Dan Ariely talk Predictably Irrational. Great video, great book btw. If you have an extra 20, check it out. If not just finish up here. In fact, if she had just said predictably rather than completely as her adverb here I would have been able to laugh about it sooner.) I would like to mention to the readers that the average final grade of the class was an 84, highest I've ever given and highest allowed by the business school grade scale guidelines. 

How about this?

Cat was awesome and fun, really enjoyed the class!

Counterpoint:

She didn't seem very friendly either.

These two comments are FROM THE SAME STUDENT:

"Just an overall dissatisfaction with the professor" and "Good class and relevant material"

So are these two (different student):

"lectures can get boring" and "interesting material"

At least this quarter no one mentioned their wish that I brought donuts more often like a previous student had used his evaluation to let me know.

I have never brought donuts. 

Maybe I should?