Tone Parsons

This weekend was musical in nature.

My son drove me around on Saturday (it’s good to have a boy with a learner’s permit when you’re not able to drive yourself… damn drugs!). He wanted a copy of Half-Life 2 and I wanted some music.

4 stores and 2 hours later, I had most of what I was looking for: (you can click on any thumbnail to open that cd at amazon and then listen to some samples)

This is the first time I’ve purchased music from any of these artits. After giving them a listen, here’s my take (each link below goes to the artists web site):

Tracy Bonham: (Blink the Brightest, Down Here) Hands down, she’s now my new most favorite female vocalist! For the longest time, Poe had that distinction (sorry baby but you’re now #2). With intelegent lyrics and powerful vocals, Tracy won my heart… fo’ sho’!

Venus Hum: (Big Beautiful Sky, The Colors in the Wheel) First and foremost…. this band was damn hard to find! I found one album at Hastings (Big Beautiful Sky), and had to order the other one from Barnes & Noble (it’ll be here on the 15th). The music is stimulating, and the lead singers voice and quirky sing style stuck a cord with me. These are must have albums.

Gorillaz: (Demon Days – Special Edition) What can I say… they’re the Grolliaz. My son really wanted this, and I’ve been pondering this band for a bit. The special edition version I got also came with a DVD (extra tracks and their one of a kind videos). I haven’t had much chance to listen to this yet, as my son stole it from me.

So… there you go. Give each link a try and listen to some music (they all open in a new window, so you can close it and come back here for another one). Who knows…. you might find something you really like!

Ok… I’ve swapped out the theme for the website once again (yes, I know… I’m never happy).

This one is much cleaner, but I’m torn on it.

Tell me…. what do you think?

UPDATE
Well… the votes were tallied, and it was pretty much unanimously decided that the new theme didn’t make people happy… so it’s back to the old one. In case you missed it… this was it.

I took a mini-vacation this week.

Ok.. so I only took 3 days off (I’m back at work now), but when you combine that with the weekend, it was a glorious 5 days off… and that makes all the difference.

My wife took the same days off as I did and is probably walking into the same mess that I did this morning: email up the wazzu, voice mails, etc.. What part of “I’m not in the office” do people not get? I set up my voicemail, my out of office message in Outlook, and hung a sign in my cube. I’m sure your problem was urgent, but bejesus people, I’m not the only person who works here… find someone else!

In other news: We went to see the Blue Man Group last tuesday (hence, the mini vacation).

We started the evening by doing something we nearly never do…. we went out for dinner. We went to the downtown Chili’s restaurant because we had a gift card. To say it was horrible would be far too polite. Seriously, avoid that place like the plague!!

Our waitress was either new or could care less because it took forever bring us our drinks, and when the food finally came, it was cold (which means the kitchen got it out quickly but she didn’t pick it up for quite a while). Sadly, we only had about 10 minutes to eat before we had to leave to catch the show, and didn’t have time to send it back. I ate my luke warm steak, passed on the cold potatoes (the cheese in my wife’s steak quesadilla had gone from warm melty goodness to a cold and not so tasty solid).

Suffice it to say, bad waitress… no tip!

We did make it to the concert on time (well, mostly). We missed part of the opening act because I was in line to get t-shirts and my wife was in line to get beer (which is important, damn it!).

The show was very damn good! I’ve seen the Blue Man group once before (when I was in Boston about a year ago), but this was a totally different show. While they did some of the things I had seen previously, there was a lot of new material. They did have a couple of technical problems, but Blue Man is a highly technical show. The only thing I didn’t care for was the sound setup. It was very hard to hear the lead female vocalist, Adrian Hartley (she replaced Tracy Bonham, who left the tour in November). When they covered The Who’s “Teenage Wasteland”, you could barely hear her voice.

Overall though… the show was visually incredible, highly entertaining, and worth every penny! If you ever get the chance to see Blue Man Group… do it!

It’s already been a long day.

In the mornings, my wife drives me downtown to catch the bus. We’re always in a rush to get me there before it leaves the last stop (around 7:15) before getting on the freeway and heading out to Liberty Lake (the town I work in). Today, we missed it by about 30 seconds.

No problem, I can just hang out at the corner and catch the next one. There are several other buses that stop at the same corner, so while I wait, I wave them off (no point in stopping if I’m not going to get on). Unfortunately, after waiting 30 minutes for my bus, when it arrived I misread the number on it and waved it off.

Shit.

Now I have to wait another 30 minutes or so.

Of course, it was only about 22° (-6° c), so waiting outside for an hour pretty much sucked.

And that’s why I hate the damn drugs. They make me confused, rather unsteady on me feet, and for the most part, make me feel like total shit. Better living through chemistry, my ass! I did look up the side effects of the drug that’s kicking my butt. They are as follows:

drowsiness, tiredness or weakness, dizziness, headache, shaking of a part of your body that you cannot control, double or blurred vision, unsteadiness, anxiety, memory problems, strange or unusual thoughts, unwanted eye, movements, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, diarrhea, dry mouth, constipation, weight gain, swelling of the hands, feet, ankles, or lower legs, back or joint pain, fever, runny nose, sneezing, cough, sore throat, or flu-like symptoms, ear pain, red, itchy eyes (sometimes with swelling or discharge).

“Strange or unusual thoughts”? Hell, that’s me without the drugs!

This, of course, will pass… hopefully. The drug I’m on is for long term use so I’m stuck with it indefinitely (or until my Doctor decides to put me on something else). And I can’t just stop taking it…. that can cause seizures (and those aren’t fun!).

So… until I can drive my car again… if you’re in the downtown Spokane area around 7:10 am and happen to drive by Riverside and Brown, give me a wave… I’ll be standing in front of Praga (the Argentinean cafe on the corner).