For Science!

Concert season is starting to come to a close. Apparently bands don’t want to come to New England in the winter! Last weekend, Rae and I went to see Radical Face at The Sinclair in Cambridge. This is the kind of group that is way too obscure for me to have ever heard of, so I rely on Rae to tell me about them because she is much cooler than me.  They have one quasi-known song (I think it was on a TV show?) that everyone should listen to because it’s amazing! And then go buy all the other songs, because they’re all just as good.

The opening act was a guy named Jonny Rodgers. His set was pretty awesome in a lot of ways — his main instrument was the water glasses! He would electronically loop them along with a keyboard, drum machine, and his own voice to make some really cool mixes. And yet everyone in the crowd around me couldn’t stop talking about how much they hated him! I think the problem was that he was extremely earnest in the between-song banter about his life and art… and living on a farm in Oregon. And then he would sing these extremely earnest songs with an earnest facial expression. I thought he was majorly talented… but it was a little much for us cynical New Englanders. I’ll probably still buy his songs on Bandcamp, though.

Radical Face is a band that is really only one guy — Ben Cooper — but on this occasion he brought along a few friends to help him with the other instruments. Drums, bass, piano… clapping solo… ambient sound recordings. The usual!

The songs were just as amazing as expected. Radical Face’s recordings have a lot of aspects that would never translate to a concert, so hearing their songs live was hearing them in a whole new way — a very cool experience.

http://instagram.com/p/fbrZ55QSZz/

The interaction of the band with the audience between songs, though, was completely not what I expected! I’ve seen a fair number of small bands play, and most of them act like rock stars when they’re up on stage. These guys acted like they were a little embarrassed that a packed house had come to see them play — Ben at one point asked for a show of hands to see how many people were dragged to the show by their friends! No need to be so shy, dudes! Everyone around me was super excited to be there!

Before each song, Ben would explain the meaning behind the lyrics. This led to some semi-awkward moments since, frankly, his songs are almost universally super-depressing and about death and stuff. So he would explain, and then the audience would inappropriately laugh at these depressing situations! I may have been among those awkwardly laughing, but it was actually pretty interesting to hear the backstory of the lyrics. I never realized that he has a trilogy of albums that follow characters of different generations through their (super-depressing) lives. Very cool!

I will leave you with this piece of wackiness. Clearly a multitalented bunch!

http://instagram.com/p/fbr5rDQSaf/

Over Labor Day weekend, I decided to visit some friends in the greater Binghamton, NY area where I went to grad school. It had been a really long time since I’d visited and the timing was good, since nearly all of my friends are teachers who are now back at school!

My friend Erin won tickets to the Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, NY, so we started the weekend there. I’d been to Corning several times (the museum of glass is very cool) and had always assumed that the Rockwell Museum had something to do with Norman Rockwell. Not so, as it turns out! The name comes from Robert and Hertha Rockwell who owned a local department store and amassed a large collection of Western art.

The collection was interesting, and not something I would normally go out to see. Most of the permanent collection was made up of paintings and sculptures done by early travelers out west, though there was also some very cool art by contemporary Native American artists. I was pleased to see some discussion (like in this gallery) about white artists of the time and how they have some responsibility for a lot of negative stereotypes that exist about Native Americans. After the first few galleries of late 19th century painters I was more than a little worried that the curators were going to gloss over any negative criticism of how the artists were representing Native Americans.

But on the positive side — there was a whole room full of buffalo!

http://instagram.com/p/dsC3DTwSWL/

After returning to Binghamton, we went to the one place where I must stop every time I visit: Crepe Heaven! I used to live upstairs from this restaurant so I ate there at least once every week — often more than that. The owners still recognize us when we stop by even though it’s been two years since I moved away. Miss that place!

It’s always so hard to decide what flavor to get!

The next day, we went over to our friends’ family’s lake house. But not before stopping at my second favorite place in Binghamton.

http://instagram.com/p/duRWNhQST-/

The first of September is the day all the pumpkin stuff comes out! Yuuum!!! I might have to visit the closest Wegmans to me (which is 45 minutes away in Northborough, MA… booo!).

When we arrived at the lake house, I finally got to see my friends who I hadn’t met up with since their son was in utero. He was such a cutie! He spent about 30 minutes gumming away at my fingers until they were all pruney.

Most of the afternoon was spent lounging around and chatting with various friends and visitors to the lake house and eating a bunch of tasty food. Then we capped it off with a big bonfire and some lakeside fireworks. A very relaxing way to spend the weekend!

http://instagram.com/p/dvQrYbwSfT/

Like every year, my sister Rae’s birthday was coming up and I had no idea what to get her. In the past, I’ve avoided the whole issue by buying tickets for a concert or show, but this year nothing very interesting was on the horizon. Instead of ordering some item I wasn’t sure she’d like, I designed a birthday choose-your-own-adventure weekend. It was choose-your-own-adventure in the sense that Rae would pick how many of my preselected activities she wanted to do. I had a little fear that I would be forcing her into a weekend full of activity when all she wanted to do was relax after her trip to Europe. Luckily for me, she chose to do all the things! And so we left bright and early on Saturday, headed 2.5 hours west to:

Mt. Greylock (or, as we kept calling it, Mt. Greyjoy. We are Game of Thrones fans!)

I had been paying attention lately when Rae had been lamenting that she hadn’t been on a hike all summer. I decided to go big and bring her to the highest peak in Massachusetts! It’s apparently a grueling 10 mile hike to the top, but since I’m definitely not fit enough to do that, we opted to drive to the top.

Along the way we stopped to hike a short loop trail.

We saw some views.

And ate some wild blueberries.

The top was different than what I’d seen on other mountains (probably because you can’t drive to the summit of most of them!). It was a lot more like a pretty park that ends in a steep cliff than what I’m used to from growing up in the Adirondacks.

There were a whole group of paragliders waiting for the winds to change so they could jump off the edge with their parachutes. We waited around to watch them, but after half an hour or so it was clear that the wind was not cooperating and they were going to be waiting for a long time!

We headed down the other side of the mountain toward North Adams, where the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is located. North Adams, MA isn’t exactly known for its night life, so I bought tickets for what was pretty much the only game in town — a self-proclaimed “circus-punk marching band” playing as part of the Mass MoCA’s concert series. The band was called Mucca Pazza and they were AMAZING! I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but the whole thing was really fun.

http://instagram.com/p/dIkNCBwSZo/

We started by following them as they marched (actually, they RAN) around the campus. At one point they had us form a circle around them as they played only to then break through our circle and trap us in the middle while they played all around us. It was pretty exciting but also a little anxiety-inducing as I usually don’t expect to interact with the band when I go to a show! Eventually we made it back to the stage where they put on a crazily energetic show — jumping all over the place and doing dance moves as they played their various instruments. They are definitely worth a listen, and you should totally see them if they come to a place near you.

The next morning, we saw many of the band members in the cafe where we had breakfast. Then we headed to the Mass MoCA again, but to see the museum this time.

Even though it’s in the middle of nowhere, I love this museum! I went last year, but this visit it felt like the exhibits were almost completely new. They had some amazing installations in their industrial galleries. The highlight was the huge phoenixes by Xu Bing. They were so large that I couldn’t really get a photo, so you’ll have to go see them yourself.

Giant phoenix head.

I pretty much want to paint my walls in Sol LeWitt sytle!

Unfortunately, George does not approve of Candy Land-style wall coverings!

The last stop on our trip was Natural Bridge State Park, a small state park featuring a natural marble bridge. We drove by it on the way out of town, so we figured it was worth a look.

The water used to power a mill.

In order to see under the bridge, you have to walk out onto suspended platforms that feel like they are ready to collapse at any time. Scary!!!

Standing on top of the bridge.

So far down! :[

On our way home, we took the back roads through the Berkshire mountains. There were so many cute, quaint shops that I would have explored if we hadn’t been so exhausted! We did eventually stop for a snack:

Presenting my “Mass Mocha” ice cream! I knew someone, somewhere had to be using that pun!!!

Last night, Rae, Katie and I went to see Jimmy Eat World at the House of Blues in Boston. I’ve been listening to them since 2001 (Bleed American is a top five desert island album for sure!), but this was my first time seeing them live since I went to college in the middle of nowhere.

As usual, the crowd was skewed heavily toward college students. Katie’s young cousin was talking to me about the wide appeal of Jimmy Eat World — how even people who are 40 might listen to them! I felt the need to point out that people around 40 are kind of the target audience, since the members of the band themselves are nearly 40! What was odd to me was how many teenagers were there. I kind of expected a repeat of last month’s Barenaked Ladies concert — lots of 30-somethings getting in touch with their late 90s/early 00s selves!

For once in my concert-going history, I arrived early enough to get a spot in the front (I hate butting in front of people — I’m tall). The opening band was called Royal Bangs and they were pretty good, I think. When you’re listening to something you’ve never heard before at an extremely high volume, a bit of the nuance gets lost. They did have a very interesting stage setup, however — glowing orbs and a LASER!

http://instagram.com/p/cptzg8QSds/

The first time the laser came on, I thought it was some kind of projectile coming toward me!

I guess I’d been taking for granted how many great albums JEW had come out with over the years, because I was actually kind of surprised how amazing the show was. I’m not completely sure why, but this was probably the best show I’ve been to since I moved to Boston — and that’s including some other groups that I LOVE. Part of it was because I love the House of Blues (SO much better than the Bank of America Pavilion). And part of it was that we managed to get a good spot close to the stage (but far from people’s lame attempts at crowd surfing).

But mostly I was just super excited to finally see a band that’s been a consistent favorite for over a decade. I danced like a madwoman to my favorite song (A Praise Chorus!) and even got a little teary during the acoustic solo version of For Me This is Heaven. My inner emo college student would approve!

The song from backstage, on the band’s Instagram.

Ever since last summer I’ve been seeing advertisements for various races where volunteers throw handfuls of colorful powder into your face while you simultaneously try to run 5K. I figure the idea is borrowed from the Hindu holiday of Holi, which seems to be gaining a lot of popularity among non-Hindu people who don’t understand the religious significance, but are attracted to bright colors.

It took me a whole year to decide whether getting colored cornstarch thrown at me sounded more fun or scary, but I finally signed up for Color Me Rad in Boston (and convinced Rae to run it too!). Now that the race is over, I can confirm that it was a bit more fun than scary, although the first time I ran through a thick, purple cloud it was a bit disconcerting!

Me, Katie, and Rae looking so clean in our white T-shirts.

Our heat was starting at 1:00, which was the first race of the second part of the day. What little time we had before the race (traffic was really bad!) we spent listening to the MC on the main stage who was trying to get everyone pumped by throwing color on them and encouraging them to dance along with a Zumba instructor. We had a hard time getting pumped, as we were confused about where we were supposed to go to start the race. No one was hanging out at the big starting line!

Turns out we didn’t have to worry, everything was just extremely casual. Eventually the MC directed us all to gather at the starting line, and we were off!

We had a colorful Smart Car as the pace car (also a guy dressed as a bunny).

And they’re off!

The only other race I’ve done is the Boilermaker, which is pretty intense. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone was treating this race very casually. There were no timing chips in our bibs (though the MC did claim to have a sundial to tell time) and there were lots of people who walked nearly the entire course. I guess no one expects to set a PR while being pelted by cornstarch!

Running through a hazy, pink cloud. Trust me — that stuff did not taste good!

In the end, my friends and I (team VOxNT!) did about half running and half walking. I thought that was pretty good considering we hadn’t trained at all and it was about 90 degrees out.

After. I’m still cleaning green dye out of my ear!

George very kindly took photos for us and sat in a Dunkin’ Donuts while we were out racing. By the end, he was entirely covered in a thin layer of pink powder from the finish line. Luckily no one mistook him as a runner and threw powder at him, since he was wearing his usual white T-shirt!

Before going in the house, we attempted to clean off in the kids’ play fountain in the park down the street. Pretty sure we freaked out some families!

Eventually the novelty of being all colorful started to wear off and I started to wonder how difficult it was going to be to wash this stuff off. I was a little concerned that I was going to have to go to work with a big green splotch on my face and hair full of pink and blue. And don’t even get me started on how much color had somehow gotten under my clothes!

Yikes!

Luckily, all the color came off relatively easily in the shower. All the blue liquid swirling down the drain kind of made it looked like a Smurf recreating the shower murder scene from Psycho, but it eventually started running clear. My shoes, however, might be a lost cause — glad I didn’t wear my nice ones!

Overall, I’d definitely run in another colorful race! Much more exciting than a regular 5K!

November is going to be a busy travel month at work, and I started off with a trip to Nashville/southern Kentucky for my first ever product demo. My main takeaway from this trip is that there is no cell service in southern Kentucky! None whatsoever! I will not be moving there any time soon.

The demo was at a metal manufacturing plant, and it went well (I had an experienced bus. dev. guy with me, so that much was expected). What I didn’t expect were all the rules you have to follow and precautions you have to take when visiting a manufacturing plant.

Coming over the hill out of Middle of Nowhere, KY, we spotted the HUGE plant in the distance. It was easily big enough to fit my high school building inside it three or four times. It had its own railroad! Comparatively, the parking lot was pretty small for such a huge building. I guess those cranes and melting furnaces take up most of the space.

When we arrived at the visitors’ entrance at, we presented ID, filled out visitor forms, and watched a 30 minute (!!) safety video about walking around the plant (the gist of which was that cranes/forklifts/automated metal-carrying train robots/golf carts/bikes all have the right of way over people. After the video, we got our gear which consisted of a neon yellow safety vest (in case we missed that part about all vehicles having the right of way), safety glasses, earplugs, and rubber steel-toed outershoes that went over our regular shoes and made ever step sound like it was being taken by a shod horse. Very stylish over my business casual clothes! I figured it would rather unprofessional to take a photo of myself, as much as I wanted to. It was all standard manufacturing gear, so it’s likely not the last time I’ll be dressed that way.

As for Nashville, I didn’t see much of it aside from the inside of this restaurant (Merchants). At least it was a nice restaurant!

JI have been to WAY more concerts since moving to Cambridge than I ever saw before moving here. In fact, I’ve been to more shows since arriving in the summer of 2011 than I went to during the whole six years I lived in Binghamton, NY. Not only do more groups come to this area (instead of having to drive for hours to get to Albany/Buffalo/NYC), but I now have willing concert-going partners in Rae and George. No more dragging people to see weird bands they’ve never heard of!

Recently Rae and I saw one of our favorite groups: Ben Folds Five. The tickets were my birthday present to her and, luckily for me, she didn’t decide to take someone else!

Ben Folds is one of our top favorite musicians, but we’d never managed to catch him in concert before now. It was also pretty cool to see the whole group together, as they haven’t put out an album as a full band in years. Embarrassingly, I had forgotten to pick up their new album before the show, but they played plenty of old songs from their previous albums (all of which are 10+ years old — eek!). I loved the new songs too and now their new album is on constant rotation. The only thing they didn’t play were any of Ben Folds’ solo material. I guess I’ll have to go to one of his solo shows when he’s next in town!

Later in the same week (and also at the same venue) we saw The Mountain Goats.

The Mountain Goats is one of those bands that I like a lot even though I have only heard a handful of their songs. It might seem a little strange to go to a concert where I only recognized about three songs in the entire set, but their music is good enough that it didn’t seem to matter that I was hearing it for the first time. The only downside was that some of John Darnielle’s songs are seriously depressing!  I felt like I needed a hug when the show was over!