• This is the week that was

    Date: 2010.07.02 | Category: Books, Movies, Music | Tags:

    What I have been up to during the past week, instead of blogging…

    Pavement: The glorious reunion concert by my favorite band, which I have spent years wishing for. (See, “The Secret” does work!) Yes, it was the greatest night of my life, thank you very much. Stephen Malkmus is still doing OK, but drummer Bob Nastanovich needed help paying off gambling debts. Is it wrong of me to hope he keeps playing the ponies so they have to reunite again in another 10 years?

    “Toy Story 3″: Pixar’s “pretty good” is anybody else’s “great,” and if “TS3″ wasn’t quite as brilliant as “Up,” “Ratatouille” and “The Incredibles,” it’s still very much worth seeing. We shouldn’t take their brilliance for granted. Incidentally, we saw it in 2D, and that was fine — especially since 3D glasses can kill you! Perhaps eventually filmgoers will opt to own their own pairs, the way regular bowlers buy their own shoes.

    Susan Shea: A very nice local author, Susan recently published her debut mystery, Murder in the Abstract, which I haven’t read yet — but blog posts like this one prove that the woman can write. She also did an excellent job of introducing her book; a lot of new authors are terrible public speakers, but Susan has polish and panache.

    Project: Pimento: The world’s only theremin lounge band, Project: Pimento celebrated its 10th birthday! For a taste of the P:P sound, check out their swingin’ cover of the theme from “Star Trek.” Fun fact: “Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry wrote the cheesy lyrics (“Beyond the rim of the starlight, my love is wandering in starflight…”) in order to claim 50% of the song’s performance royalties. The composer, Alexander Courage, was understandably pissed off and refused to do any more scoring for the show.

    The Corner Laughers: Joe is really into this cute power pop band, which we first saw open for our pal Anton Barbeau in Sacramento last year. At that gig, I noticed that there were several people who appeared to be in their 50s & 60s, whom I took to be the band members’ parents, photographing and filming the show, which I thought was sort of adorable. And then last night, at Berkeley’s Starry Plough, there they were again, snapping away. It occurred to me that if I ever start a band, I’m never inviting anybody’s parents to come to shows unless they agree to check their cameras at the door. Fun fact: guitarist Angela Silletto is about to move to Grand Rapids.

    Jeff Oster: How cool is it that our financial adviser is also an award winning new age musician? He & his ensemble did a live gig at the New Zealander pub, which recently reopened under new management. I always felt the place had great ambience but mediocre food, and was very pleased at how much it’s improved. Oh, and since it was July 1, I ended my sugar fast by sharing some sticky toffee pudding with Joe. Good times!

    On top of that, I also read William Kent Krueger‘s excellent new book Vermilion Drift in ARC form (it’ll be out in September), as a prelude to swearing off mysteries for the month of July.