Dead Weather Advisory

Admittedly, I am a Jack White fan. Thoroughly enjoy the White Stripes and love the Raconteurs. His newest venture is a little band called The Dead Weather. They came to Houston this weekend at the House of Blues (my new favorite venue to see a show). I was a little skeptical at first, especially once I heard Jack was the drummer, but that quickly changed. That night I saw the greatest concert of my life.



Read that last line again, and know that I'm dead serious. Anyone dubious of my credentials or curious as to what weight to give such a bold statement here's a short list of the acts I've seen. Aerosmith, Beck, Counting Crows, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, Kiss, Fuel, The Bravery, Crash Kings, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant, Flogging Molly, Simon and Garfunkel, Better than Ezra, Everclear, Cowboy Mouth, Rush, Run DMC, Pearl Jam, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bruce Springsteen, The Kings of Leon, and plenty of other less heralded but no less talented musicians. All of the shows I've seen were good, but only a few of them approached what happened Saturday night. I suppose now I'll throw together a short top five of concerts I've been to.



5. James Taylor - I don't remember if there was an opening act for this show, but I do know JT didn't need one. Rain fell for nearly the entire set but the waterlogged faithful had enough enthusiasm to coax Jimmy out for 3 encores causing him to wonder aloud, " I don't know if I should love you, or be afraid of you".



4. Cheap Trick opens for Tom Petty - Standing 14 rows from the stage would help the ratings of just about any act, but I would've loved this show from the nose bleeds. Cheap Trick was great, and the Heart breakers were on fire. Something magic was in the air that night that made sure all of us had fun, my little brother described it as "cigarettes and burning leaves" which isn't too far off.



3. Robert Plant opens for The Who - This show had potential to be the best I would ever see it doesn't get better than this I can die in peace type concert except for one thing. Robert Plant. To say he disappointed that night is an understatement. He played a few Led Zeppelin songs between his own mindless drivel, but he was so out of it no one recognized the tunes until they were nearly finished. To this day I doubt he remembers the show, because though he knew he was in Central Pennsylvania he didn't seem to know where. The Who, however, were the cure to Robert Plant's wails. They were phenomenal, especially considering John Entwhistle had died only a few weeks before the show. A touching video memorial, and an inspired performances by Daltry and Townshend were a fantastic tribute to John, and made for a truly remarkable night.



2. Beck opens for The Rolling Stones - Worth the price of admission. This show easily quadrupled the cost of any show I had been to previously, and stretched the budget of a college student, but I couldn't in good conscience miss the Stones. So I bit the bullet, got in line, got decent seats, and waited. Beck was great, though nobody in Hershey seemed to care, and I left the concert that night knowing two things. 1) Beck is great, 2) Age is a number. The Stones were on all night. Rocking hard through the entire set and quickly dispelling any thoughts I had about them being too old to blow me away. The songs were great, the stage was cool, the show was awesome, and despite being close to 300 years old (in rock star years) Mic, Keith, and company showed everyone that "senior citizens despite being slow and dangerous behind the wheel, are still good for something."



1. The Ettes open for The Dead Weather - You've probably never heard of The Ettes, but they played an opener that was good enough to headline most shows... just not this one. As for The Dead Weather show I have never been completely transfixed by a band for an entire show. Moving or really doing anything other than watching slack-jawed and stupefied was out of the question. The music was great but the performance as a whole was mind-blowing. I would not shell out the money to see the Stones again, even after 4 years. I would shell out three times as much money to see The Dead Weather again tomorrow, in a heartbeat.



They fall into a short list of shows I will drop almost anything I'm currently doing to get to no matter the inconvenience along with Bob Schneider, and Rebirth Brass Band. Check all of them out, but seriously check out The Dead Weather. Awesome.



Oh yeah I've been training too.

Miles Covered so far:

Running: 220.56

Biking: 697.96

Swimming: 44

March Madness

I used to like March, it was a pretty good month. Swimming normally wound up finishing at the end of February (giving me an obscene amount of free time), St. Patrick's day has been one of my favorite days of the year even before I began drinking, and March Madness continues to be my favorite sporting event in the world. Then I moved to Houston, and now I freaking love March. Everything that was good about March got better. Swimming ended with college, St. Patrick's day is still in March only now I can spend it drinking on a patio in 72 degree weather in shorts and a t-shirt or poolside getting a tan, March Madness is still around and Houston routinely gets to host one of the regional's and may stand to get the final four in the next couple of years. March in Houston is an awesome time to be outside, and should be a great month for training.



In an unrelated note, I saw Shutter Island this past weekend. It was pretty good, a little over the top (visually) from the beginning, but a great story, fantastic acting, and a killer ending. Checking it out in the theaters isn't really necessary (translation: there aren't fantastical landscapes, awesome shoot-outs/explosions/ car chases/ kung-fu battles where you'll miss something by not seeing it in the theaters) but check out the movie.



Miles Covered so far:

Biking: 338.8

Running: 132.95

Swimming: 31.5

Of Puppets, Bad Movies, and Actors

I found myself watching "The International" the other night, I stumbled across it mid-way through and decided to watch it On Demand from the beginning. The movie was not that great, the writing was poor and the acting seemed forced. The shots were often really beautiful, lots of cool locations to shoot in, and that's what really kept me tuned in. I began to think about how terrible a job the actors did, I mean very few of the emotions were believable, the lines were delivered over the top or way way under the top (if that makes sense), but then I wondered if it was their fault. The dialogue was atrocious (cliché, cliché, cliché, predictable response, cliché), the plot wasn't really that great either, and actors are really not much more than puppets, needing a master puppeteer (great director) to get the best out of them. Some actors are better than others (See Daniel Day-Lewis), able to adapt to different roles and make you forget that they are Joe Hollywood making millions of dollars and not the starving artist/drug addict trying to care for his two children with music and bread stealing as he wins the heart of a beautiful heiress to a fortune (etc. etc.). Matched up against Paris Hilton, this is no contest, though to be fair I think Paris is only rarely considered an actor. In the same way some puppets are better than others. Take off your sock, insert hand, draw eyes, boom goes the dynamite you've got the Paris Hilton of Puppets. With some great direction and incredible lines your sock puppet can probably captivate an audience of a few kindergarteners for a while, but no adult is going to forget that you are merely a wierd, possible perverted, man with his sock on his hand and only one shoe on standing a little to close to their child. On the other end of the spectrum are the Muppets. Watch a Muppet's Christmas Carol sometime. Shortly into the film you begin to forget that Kermit is a puppet, the dude is articulate, shows feeling, and moves fluidly. Keep watching and you begin to forget that he's a walking talking frog married to a walking talking pig, he's Bob Cratchit and Michael Caine turns in his greatest acting performance of all time working and interacting with these puppets. Is this because Kermit is a great actor, no he's a great puppet, but the people pulling the string are some of the best in the world, and the adaptation of Charles Dickens's masterpiece is a masterpiece in itself. So I'll put the blame on the writers and the director for The International, for now.



Got in a good ride last weekend as the weather finally turned for the better, and found a nice little loop to ride on. I have been critical of riding in the city of Houston (the drivers are dangerous, the roads are awful, the bike lanes are narrow and laughably maintained) but biking in the Heights is pretty awesome. The 2.5 mile stretch of road on Heights Boulevard between Washington and 20th street, is lovely, and then from 20th back to Washington on Studewood/mont is also a treat. This loop is only about 5.75 miles, but it's the most enjoyable 5.75 miles I've biked in Houston yet.



Miles Covered So Far:



Biking: 303.7
Running: 84.85
Swimming: 23.2