July 30, 2005
July 22, 2005
From the "If only I had . . . " department
Dammit! IF ONLY I had decided on this particular evening that I needed a taco like no one's business, I might have wandered down the street into Pancho Villa and caught Beck strumming his guitar in the back of the damn restaurant. Just blocks from my house! Beck! Aiiiiiii! That's what I get for eating leftovers. Sigh.
July 19, 2005
Le Tigre + Beck = totally rad
Forgive my 80s speak, but Le Tigre brings it out. Caught the Le Tigre/Beck show last night at the Civic Auditorium, which I am irritated to report is a far from ideal concert venue. Beck played for nearly two hours, which made me feel better about the $91 I spent on two tickets, including $19 in service charges to TicketBastard. It appears so many people fill out their BizRate survey complaining about fees that they've had to write one of their survey questions to read something like (from addled memory): "OTHER than services charges, are there any other issues you encountered with our site?"
I'm not the hugest fan of Le Tigre's latest album, but they're such fun to watch on stage; last night we moved up pretty close, and they looked like they were having a great time as they executed dance routines to their synth-heavy pop-punk. Plus, it's exhilarating singing along to feminist screeds with an audience full of youngsters who aren't exactly the Lilith Fair set (last night it looked as if the suburbs had unleashed their trendy teenage masses upon San Francisco). I'm hopeful that some of them understand the lyrics.
Beck was a bit lukewarm to start but heated up towards the end. New songs from Guero were intermixed throughout, which was nice; it's always uncomfortable when a show starts with all the new material that the audience hasn't yet memorized. He played a great four-song, Vegas-style medley (yes, I'm lame, I can't remember what the songs were), of course played "Loser," and played two of my three must-haves: "Debra" (acoustic, which was great), and "Where It's At," during which a giant 80s-style boom box was lowered from the ceiling over the stage. Cool.
Last year's show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley I think beat this one in terms of venue (the Greek is always fun in the summer), energy, and material (Guero is growing on me, but only in bits). But both acts together sold it for me, though I was hoping for a Kathleen Hanna/Beck duo. I also wish Beck would do some covers - I've yet to see any at any show I've attended. He also spent about twenty minutes with a guitar (while the band sat behind him and ate dinner on stage) where he played the aforementioned "Debra" along with a few songs from Sea Change and Mutations (don't ask me which ones, the era of iPods have ruined my memory for song titles).
Deneb, my merry co-conspirator, at one point remarked on the youthfulness of the audience, which is interesting - "Loser" came out in 1994, on Mellow Gold. It's still the song that garners the most screams at his shows, but looking around, I'd have to guess that most of kids around me were ten - twelve, maybe? - back then, maybe younger. Then again, if Led Zepplin played a reunion tour today (god forbid), half the attendees would probably be metalhead pre-teens, but somehow I didn't think Beck would continue to have youth appeal. This is only one reason why I don't work for MTV.
July 15, 2005
I leave Yahoo!, Yahoo! comes to me
Guess leaving Y! for Berkeley was a prescient move - we announced today that SIMS formed a research lab with Y! here at Berkeley. I think it's a great match - we're doing lots of relevant work in search, mobile, and photos that should benefit Y!, and we really need a usability testing lab. Plus, it's time to stop letting the Google/Stanford team dominate the web research world.
July 13, 2005
London Eyewitness Account
Here's a first-hand account of the bombings in London from a friend and former Yahoo!. So glad you are OK Todd!
July 08, 2005
July 05, 2005
Two Defeats - and a Silver Lining
The Free Expression Policy Project offers a good summary of the recent Grokster and BrandX decisions and their consequences. With BrandX in particular, look for less competition among Internet service providers and higher rates. Not directly related but sort of: be on the look-out for legislation in the future both nationally and locally that looks to outlaw open wireless networks.