The day the music died.

Back in 2002 while I was working at Connecticut Telephone I got a 4gig Ipod mini for Christmas from the CTO - Mike Feld. The battery became mostly useless about a year or two later. Since then it has been in my car providing me music while plugged into the power outlet in my VW. Last month I checked to see how much replacement batterries were for it. Almost everywhere had them for $15, so I picked one up and replaced the battery. Well, this week my ipod died for good. What terrible timing! It won't turn on at all, no matter what I do. Looks like it is time for a new one. I hope the next one lasts 6 years too.

I am feeling like I am in high school again. Back to where "musicgreg" really came from! Last week I went to see a fantastic local band called The Iso Principle. They were absolutely fantastic! Their sound was powerful and unique. The lead singer (EJ) has an incredible voice that to me sounds like a cross between Dar Williams and Hello Saferide with a twist of Sarah McLachlan. The lead guitarist has incredible talent, belting out fantastic riffs, and also keeping the audience aurally entertained between songs. I have not seen fingers move so fast in a long time. Although from where I was sitting I could not see the bass player, he was certainly audible, and really brought it all together. Last, but certainly not least, was their drummer. I think his name was Josh, but I am not positive. He had a fantastic taste for tempo, and also changed witht he band as they requested. He has been playing with the band for only two weeks, but you wouldn't have known it. Although I have a lot of praise for their music, there were a few downsides. I bought the CD after the show and brought it home to listen. The live performance blew away the CD. There was much more energy in the music at the show, and it also sounded more full (even though the sound guy could have done us all a favor and helped out the vocals a bit with a little more volume!) The only other dissappointment to note was that one or two of the songs had such an extremely long buildup. You could feel the drums and guitar ready to explode and it ever so slowly ramped up. They could have gone with a sooner climax, slow transition, and back to an explosive finish. That way the slowness would have been more evenly distributed throughout the song, and I really think it would have worked well. It's not my music thoug, so not really my call on how they play it hehe.

Wednesday I am going to see Stone Temple Pilots. I am pretty excited about this concert. I don't think they have been together for about 7 years. I got a fantastic deal on 8 tickets for about $15 each, so there will be several of my friends coming along.

In August I will be going to see Jack Johnson. The last time I saw Jack was several years ago with Rhonda and Kirimi when he played with G Love and special sauce, and Dovovan Frankenwrighter (which I am sure I spelled wrong). That will be a hard show to measure up to.

I have been tryign to make some HDR photos lately and I am failing miserably, so if anyone has some tips on making them please let me know. I have some awesome photos in RAW format that I would like to work with.

The title: Don McLean - American Pie