Archive for category Lifestyle

Vinyl Obsession

So for the past year I have been on a vinyl kick.  Problem is I had no money to buy them.  That has changed a little since I have a job now.  I just made a large pickup.  Listening to a Vinyl is really quite fun and different then an mp3.  I put an LP on and just sit and listen.  No skipping of songs, none of that.  I listen to the whole LP.  It’s really organic and awesome.  On top of that, it’s something tangible.  I can lose my whole music collection in a second.  That’s depressing because if it happened, I would most likely forget to re download some of my favorites and I might forget about them forever.  I decided to change that a little.  I want tangible LP’s for some of my favorite records so I can remember what I liked when I was young and so I can pass them on to my kids.  I wish my dad had a record collection that he could pass onto me, but he doesn’t :-( .

Here are my Pickups:

1. Piacresque – The Decemberists

2. Castaways and Cutouts – The Decemberists

3. The Hazards of Love – The Decemberists

4. The Crane Wife – The Decemberists

5. Oracular Spectacular – MGMT

6. Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

7. Salute Your Salution 7′ single – The Raconteurs

8. Furr – Blitzen Trapper

9. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix

10. Fantasies – Metric

11. Broken Boy Soldiers – The Raconteurs

12. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Those are solid additions to my collection which consists of

1. Horehound – The Dead Weather

2. Continuum – John Mayer

3. Day and Age – The Killers

4. Hot Fuss – The Killers

5. In Rainbows – Radiohead

6. Try! – John Mayer Trio

7. Assorted singles.

Paying for music is hard on the wallet, but I’m not paying for the music.  I’m paying for something tangible to accompany the music which happens to sound better than any other format.

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My Lollapalooza News

This just in! I’m not going… And this isn’t some social protest about the lineup or how the festival has become commercially overrun with radio fans, its comes down to one very simple fact. I’m poor. Piss poor to be exact. I suddenly realizing what its like to be drowning in my own credit card debt due to purchases and concerts that were “must haves”. Meanwhile, I lack the complete ability to plan or conserve resources for when the true fun arises. To add onto this horrible, horrible realization, I’ve been discovering or coming upon bands that I like very much and would be interested to see in a live setting. So naturally, in this wonderful age of transparency and information, I travel through the interwebs to their respective MySpace pages to check for local touring dates…and to my surprise, Grant Park, Chicago August 7-9. It appears that nearly all of them will be attending and performing in the festival.
But enough with my crippling depression and horrible self-realizations, lets talk about you!  If you’re going to Lolla, I would love to see the pictures, watch the videos, and hear the stories of the most raging weekend in Chicago since the Great Fire.  Send me an email at mrferrel@gmail.com with the files attached and I’ll put them up on the blog to share with everyone.  Hope you all have fun, I’ll be wallowing at a cottage on Walloon Lake (insert sarcasm).

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Dead Weather – 7/24/09 @ The Fillmore

So The Dead Weather are probably the coolest band I’ve ever known. OH MY GAWD! WHAT A WICKED ACCUSATION FROM THE MUSIC WHORE HIMSELF! Basically…but this time I think someone by the name of Matt Ferrel will agree.

So as you may have read on the blog last week, I won early entry to this show via The Vault (All Things Jack White Fan Club thing). I was pretty excited to say the least. Matt was pretty pumped as well, perhaps even more than me seeing as he was already crushing hardcore on Alison Mosshart (Little did I know, I soon would be as well.) Matt and I headed downtown and arrived sometime around 6. We headed to The Hockey Town Cafe where Matt had a couple of Magic Hat #9’s. At about 6:35 we headed over to the venue where we met some cool people who also won early entry. We were then escorted into the Venue at about 7pm. I took a quick look at the merch table to see if they had anyone of the super rare vinyls that sell for $250+ on ebay, but alas, no tri color vinyl. When I headed to the stage, Matt had already secured a front row center spot up against the railing. The railing was touching the stage…I shit my pants at how close we were.

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I could easily touch the stage. Matt gave up his spot to go grab some beer. He then proceeded to share stories that shouldn’t be told to strangers with Drew Sullivan and some random kids. The Screaming Females came on at about 7:40. They were awesome! The lead singer is a chick that looks 15 and wore a grandma’s dress, but man can she shred.

The good stuff. The Dead Weather were amazing! The backdrop was a Rob Jones designed piece that is also the artwork on the Vinyl version of Horehound. It then had a blue light flashed upon it which made Jack White stand out even more.
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They also used some sweet strobe lights which made it even more awesome. I was asked beforehand how much I was gonna eyefuck Jack White…I answered 1/2 the time which is super gay to the max, but hey, it’s a man crush. Fortunately, I developed a crush on the lead signer Alison Mosshart…God Damn! Matt summed it up best by asking one of our girl friends if she could be “the hardcore bitch that he needs in his life” in order to fill the void left in his heart after leaving the concert.
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She can just flat out rock and she does it in such a seductive manner it’s sick. I totally got spit on by her and it was hot…and then I touched her like a total creep, but I hear it’s all the rage!
My boy Jackie White was only seen at the front of the stage twice all night. Once during a cover of “You Just Can’t Win” and he strapped the guitar on for the slow blues jam “Will There Be Enough Water?”. The latter being my favorite moment of the night…It made me miss the Stripes, until I got to see Alison again…then I was all set on the Stripes.
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They didn’t put on the best concert I have ever seen (That still goes to the White Stripes), but it was BY FAR the coolest concert experience I have ever had!

Other random photos:
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Rating: 8.5/10

P.S.
(Let’s just forget I gave Green Day a 9.2…Deal? Damn…)

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WishList Edition – Canon EOS Rebel T1i

This camera is crazy awesome.  15.1 MP, 20fps 1080p video, 30 fps 720p…$850!!!

t1iT1iBack

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Nice little 17 Million Dollar House

Click Me. This house is very cool, set up the way I would eventually want my house to look.  Minus about 16,500,000 dollars.

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Detroit Lofts

I showed this to Alex and Dom, but I’m seriously considering living in Detroit if I can get a good job and find a nice area. These apartments are exactly what I’m looking for, and with many of them starting at 550 with water included, it seems like the perfect opportunity to reinvest in Detroit and the future of Michigan.

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