I'm sitting in Florida in my parents' living room writing this on a laptop. I'm not a big fan of laptops, but it is nice to be able to sit online without going into the back room. I can keep up on my 6 billion internet things, and still be social and spend time with the family.

Anyway, I picked up a couple of new DVDs the other day, which I will discuss later, as I just lost my whole post (containing half a review of one of the discs), which I'm not about to re-type right now. Instead, I'm off for more cheese.


- posted by Johnny B @ 2:14 PM (0) comments

 
The site has moved to http://www.nineninjas.com/. More later.
- posted by Johnny B @ 6:34 PM (0) comments

 
Tonight I attended my first basketball game. We got some comp tickets from someone who couldn't use them, and Pat thought it would be a good way to keep from having to go home, so we headed to the Dome to see the Orangemen beat the Manhatten Jaspers (what the hell is a jasper?) 69-63. I'm not a basketball fan, but it was a good bit of fun. I'm not sure I'd pay to go again, but if any more free tickets come my way, I'd probably grab them.

If I had more interesting thoughts in my head this week, these entries wouldn't be so dull.

- posted by Johnny B @ 11:04 PM (0) comments

 
My head hurts. I've been reading stuff on copyright registration and music publishing all morning. I think I've got it mostly sorted now. Business is just not fun, kids.

Nothing much else going on. Trying to finish some masters. So why am I posting? Who knows?
- posted by Johnny B @ 1:12 PM (0) comments

 
Some day I'll remember why it is I'm not supposed to drink. Suffice it to say that less than a six-pack did me in last night. You know, alcohol poisoning really isn't a lot of fun. Especially when you have to have to car pulled over on the Thruway so you can puke. Not that there was really much of that, seeing as what I hadn't eaten for like 11 hours. Yeah. Anyway, up until I hit the too far point, last night was really amazingly cool. James and I went to see the Red Wings beat up on the Sabres. It was a really close game up until the second half of the third period when Ryan Miller turned into a sieve. The final score was 7-2. I also scored one of the old-school Flyers road jerseys in the shop in the arena. It must have been kicking around there for a couple of years, because they haven't used that one for at least three or four seasons. Going to Canada probably wasn't such a great idea, either. It killed a couple of hours that should have been spent driving home and now I've got a bunch of Canadian money in my pocket that I can't really use for anything.
- posted by Johnny B @ 12:29 AM (0) comments

 
The semester is over. I took my last final exam yesterday. I did absolutely no preparation for it, past stumbling my way through the final two unread chapters over the weekend. I managed to stay awake all of the way through the last chapter on Sunday, which is better than I did for a few of them, including the one I read on Saturday. There was a definite pattern of read a few pages, fall asleep for five to ten minutes, read a few pages... Somehow I managed to stumble through the exam and actually answer all of the questions. Whether or not I answered them correctly is another matter entirely... I don't generally advocate this sort of approach, but basically I knew there was no way I was going to be prepared for the thing, so I spent my time this weekend attending to other things and getting a decent amount of sleep, which I knew would put me in a better frame of mind than some late-night studying would have.

On the other hand, I definitely should have done some studying for that reference final. That got ugly. I did the midterm in 35 minutes and got a 96. This one took me more than 2 hours and I'm not sure I want to see the grade. I didn't worry about it because I didn't have any problems with the first one. Well, I didn't realize how skewed toward the middle of the class it was going to be. There were hardly any questions on the stuff we covered more recently. I definitely should have done some revision covering the weeks right after the midterm. What's done is done, however, and I'm sure my class grades will be fine.

Show review
Phish - Pepsi Arena, Albany, NY Dec 2, 2003
For some reason, Phish never seems to tour at anything approximating a good time. If one were to look back at the years I've been going to see them, one would probably find that there were as many shows that I missed because they were at a bad time as ones that I managed to see. This one falls in between. The show itself was the third night of the four-date 20th Anniversary Tour. It was a Monday night, which is the night of my database class. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem and I'd be able to duck out early. Of course, this being the last class, presentations were that night, which meant I would have a more difficult time getting away. So, I tried to get tickets to the Saturday night show in Philly just because it was a more convenient night. This, of course, didn't happen, as my browser decided to freeze up while in the Ticketmaster queue. So, I grabbed a pair for Albany and hoped I'd think of something.

My plan came down to asking if my group could go first, then I would bail early, meet Liz outside and get on the road. Hopefully, we wouldn't miss much of the first set, or maybe would even barely make it on time. This was a great plan, especially since the bit about asking to go first worked beautifully. However, there were a few things that the plan did not take into account.

Thing 1: Due to longer than normal security lines at Norfolk Airport, Liz missed her 7:30AM flight and spent a good portion of the day waiting for a different flight out. She made it to Syracuse around 8:00 or 9:00PM. I, of course, could not find anyone to take her ticket at the last minute, as everyone I knew who was interested already had tickets.

Thing 2: Professor Crowston wanted the class to evaluate the presentations. He handed a bunch of forms out, and we had to do one for each presentation. We didn't have to put our names on, though, and I rather stupidly was guilted into staying for all of the presentations, then skipping out of the final review. This was a very bad idea, for a couple of reasons. First, the presentations were, for the most part, awful. Especially the last couple. For another...

Thing 3: The weather. A big storm blew in suring the day and there was a nice bunch of lake effect that drifted in, right over my route to Albany. So, while it was clear in Albany and clear in Syracuse, there was a humongous whiteout from about Vernon to Herkimer.

About 5:15, I blasted out of class, ran to my car and zipped home. I came inside, checked the directions to the arena (bad move, I should have done this the night before) and grabbed a couple of CDs (ditto). I changed cars because I thought the front-wheel drive Lebaron would be better in the snow. What I didn't realize was that the headlight is screwed up and the nice brand new bulb I put in four days earlier was now destroyed. I also forget the propensity for the headlights on that car to ice up in a snowstorm. I filled the tank and hit the road. By this time it was just before 6:00. If the weather had been clear, I probably could have gotten in before the show started. Unfortunately, the snow started outside Vernon and quickly got so bad I had to slow down to about 40. By the Oneida rest stop, there was several inches of snow on the road and about no visibility. I pulled in and went inside to see if I could get any information on the weather. A group of about seven or eight of us watched the Weather Channel for about ten minutes waiting to see an actual weather report. We caught a quick glimpse of the radar and deduced that it was small enough to drive through, but it wasn't ending any time soon. So, I hit the road again, along with a few others.

I spent another good hour driving in the snow, with my visibility getting worse due to the chunk of ice encasing the one working headlight I had. I finally realized that's why I couldn't see anything at all and pulled on to an exit ramp to clean it off. Eventually, I managed to get though it, but by then it was well after 8:00. I got to Albany as quickly as I could and made my way to the arena. I missed the exit and ended up driving through the Empire Plaza parking garage. If I had been on time, I probably would have parked there, but the walk is too long if you're late. I got off the highway and got going the wrong direction. I got turned around and back down by the arena. A quick map check later and I finally realized where I was. I parked a few blocks away and hiked back. I got to the doors at 9:30, in just enough time to have completely missed the first set.

I went in, took a quick look at the merch booth and went to find my seats. Given that I was in the front of the section in the back of the arena, naturally my seats were taken. I claimed them and sat down to calm down from the journey. This would have been easier had I not been surrounded by drunk high school kids. It's sad that the whole back section in that arena ends up being overrun by idiots because there's no security back there, because the seats are really good. It's one of the few places in that building where the sound is good and the view of the lights from that section is fantastic. However, since there's no one checking tickets at the entranceway, all of the people who don't like their seats or want somewhere to congregate head back there. Most of the people near me were cool enough, but to my immediate left was some kid who'd smoked himself stupid. Past him was some other guy who thought he owned the row and could order everyone else to different seats so some girl who was with some other girl he knew could stand on the end of the row. Fuck you. I paid for the aisle seat. You don't like the empty seat you're squatting in this row, go to your own seat in whatever section it's in. I have news for you. Your "right" to have a good time doesn't supersede that of anyone else.

Eventually, the band came out for the second set. Trey ripped into Tweezer and the morons all got settled (mostly in the aisle). The band was full of energy. At this point I had no idea what had already been played (I found out later that they'd played the Chalkdust opener I'd called and the elusive Stash that I still have yet to see), so had no idea what else to expect. The Tweezer went along at a nice clip for a while, then settled down and the band moved into a quiet jam reminiscent of the last time I saw Tweezer in this room (12/12/1997), but more focused. All too soon, like the last time, they abandoned the jam, only instead of Trey starting Train Song, Fish kicked in with a disco beat. They started getting funky and the 2001 theme emerged. The 2001 was over pretty quickly. Much more quickly than I'm used to, but it was long enough for the guy next to me to have passed out.

Trey looked around at the rest of the band and launched into a quick You Enjoy Myself. The opening was really fast and bouncy, and altogether tighter than most of the ones I've seen. The first jam segment was very aggressive. Trey was all over the place and Mike was right there with him. The tramps came out and Trey almost lost his balance getting on. The tramp routine was a little sloppy, but once it was done, Trey started ripping it up again. This is the best I've heard him sound at a Phish show since the string of shows I saw Fall '97. In the Summer it was definitely Fish who was the standout, but for this show at least, it was Trey. YEM wound down and the lights went off. I was trying to figure out what was going on. I caught a glimpse of someone carrying a guitar and realized they were bringing on a guest.

Trey made a quick announcement, "We'd like to bring up a friend of ours who we haven't played with in about 15 years. This is Jeff Holdsworth..." This is one of those things that I probably should have seen coming, but then again, as far as anyone in the public has known, the band hasn't had any contact with him for years. Anyway, as everyone knows by now, they brought Jeff out for the rest of the set, first to play the two songs he wrote for the band and then to play some more stuff that they played when he was in the band. I would just like to say now that I think the harsh criticism I've seen of this part of the show is unfounded. The show was part of a 20th Anniversary run and everyone should have expected some retrospective bits (bringing out the Dude, playing lots of old songs, etc.) They decided to pay tribute to someone who left the band a long time ago, but who was important to the band when it was starting. I think that was a pretty classy move. Obviously, he was going to be a bit overwhelmed playing for such a large crowd. He's not a professional musician and people should cut him a little slack. That said, I think that the dividing line between people who liked this part of the show and those who slammed the band for it is the ago of the oldest Phish tapes they've actively listened to.

The first song they played with Jeff was Camel Walk. They played it the old-style way, with Jeff singing and with some bits in the middle they don't play anymore. It was a little hard to hear Jeff's vocals because he kept pulling away from the mic too soon, but otherwise it was good, and faithful to the old style. Next up was Possum, which was more of the same. Trey turned up Jeff's amp a bit, so his solo cut right through everything. This has never been one of my favorite songs, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Following this was something that had to have been decided on during the setbreak: the first version of Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress since their second or third show back in 1983. And it sounded it. This was pretty sloppy. So bad that Trey seemed to be having a hard time not laughing. After what seemed like a good long time deciding what to play next, Trey started Antelope. Antelope was on the slow side, and it was hard to hear Jeff (Trey turned him down when he started feeding back after Possum), but he was playing some pretty cool stuff alongside what Trey was playing. It's more audible on the CD than it was in the venue. I'm not sure if they played this when he was in the band or not, but it sounded good. Tom Marshall came out for the "Marco Esquandolas" bit, and the song ended the set.

I was a little surprised when they brought Jeff back out for the encore, but not too surprised when they ripped into "Fire," it being another nod to their early shows. It made for a nice high-energy closer. The lights came up, and some girl was half passed out on the stairs, making it difficult for the section to empty. I climbed under the railing and bolted out, back to my car and in search of dinner.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. The highlights were sitting in a Wendys parking lot eating dinner listening to the BBC World Service and a quick nap at a Thruway rest stop. In short, I thought this was an excellent (half) show. The Tweezer and YEM are the best I've seen live to this point, and it was really cool to see Jeff do a couple with the guys, particularly Camel Walk, which I dig. An interesting note: every song in the second set, except for Long Cool Woman and Possum, was played in the show on 12/12/1997. Camel Walk, Tweezer and 2001 in the first set, Antelope in the encore.



- posted by Johnny B @ 11:54 PM (0) comments

 
It's been a long week. I shall try to summarize important events.

Restaurant Review
Danzer's Bavarian Restaurant - Ainsley Dr., Syracuse, NY
Danzer's is a German-style restaurant located off of Brighton Ave. on the south side of Syracuse. It's pretty out of the way. Quickest access from most locations is from exit 17A (Brighton Ave., South Saline St.) on I-81 or Exit 1 on I-481. It's on the edge of our neighborhood, so we used local streets.

I've been wanting to check the place out for a while now, but we never made it there until last night. The decor is kind of homey, but filled with German stuff or styled decorations. The curtains out in the back dining are decorated with the logo of one of their German beer vendors, Franziskaner. There are two dining rooms. The smaller, front room also features a small bar in the front. We were happy to find that although the restaurant was quite busy, the crowd was relatively low-key. There was none of the drunk crowd at the bar or loud music that has taken over many restaurants on Friday nights. As more restaurants try to serve up a bar atmosphere on weekend nights, it becomes increasingly difficult to find a decent restaurant on, say, a Friday night that isn't filled with either families with obnoxious kids or with obnoxious drunks. That wasn't the case here and we were quite pleased.

The menu (which can be found on their web site) is reasonably-sized. Any non-vegetarians should be able to find something of interest. Vegans should not even bother. Since neither of us had eaten much of a proper meal yesterday, we opted for a kind of large meal. We each went for a beer (Saranac Black Forest in my case, and Franziskaner Dunkel Weissbier for Liz) and split a basket of the "English Chips" and an order of the "Reuben Egg Rolls." I got fooled by the chips. I was expecting what in England would be called "chips "(some nice, big steak fries as they're called here), but they were what the Americans call "chips." That said, they were excellent fresh potato chips, and went well with the meal. The Reuben Egg Rolls are one of those things I had to try. They're essentially what one would expect: ham, saurkraut, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese rolled up like a large egg roll and fried, served with a sweet mustard on the side. They were excellent. All the taste of a reuben, without having to eat an enormous sandwich. The main course for both of us was the "Bavarian Sampler," which consists of three sausages: frankfurter, knackwurst and bratwurst. All three were quite good. I was less impressed with the frankfurter than the others. The bratwurst was my favorite of the three, while Liz prefered the knackwurst. The entree also came with German hot potato salad, which was quite good. I must give warning, though, it tasted like they put a serious amount of the juice from the saurkraut in it. The saurkraut was also very good. Salad was included with the dinner, and in an unusual twist, I had the salad and Liz substituted soup. The soup, a beef barley, was good and rather chunky. The salad was nothing special, I thought, but was reasonable.

After a bit of debate, we ordered dessert. I was thinking some kind of dark cake-like thing until I saw apple fritters on the menu. The fritters were absolutely brilliant, possibly the best I've ever had. Usually when I've had them, the apples were chunked up and mixed with batter. In this case, they used one apple, cored it, sliced it in three, then beer battered and fried the pieces. They were then covered with a cinnamon-sugar mixture. The result was less of a batter and more of a baked apple taste.

In short, I will definitely be back for more. The atmosphere is pleasant, the service good and the food excellent. If one is less than thrilled with the propect of more traditional German fare, Danzer's also serves up omelettes, a decent selection of sandwiches and some more traditional U.S. dishes (roast beef, New York strip steak, etc.).

Food: ****
Atmosphere: &&&&
Price:$$$$
(meal for two, with appetizers, dessert and 1 beer each: $40)

More later.
- posted by Johnny B @ 10:10 AM (0) comments

 
My brain hurts. It's been another long day. I was up entirely too late on Monday evening. I went to the Phish show in Albany, which is its own whole long story. Tomorrow, I'll put that up. The point is, I got in at 4:00 and I had to be up for work around 9:00. Once I got home, I had to answer my last question for class at the Virtual Reference Desk. The question I picked was a bit difficult. It involved a lot of juggling between government information websites. There's an amazing amount of information to be found on U.S. Government websites, but it can be very difficult to find the useful bits that you need. Especially if you don't know exactly what you're looking for and if you're unsure of exactly which tools to use. I need to work on that. I'll have to poke around more and keep some kind of list of what is available where and where the best tool is to find a particular type of information.

We ended up ordering out for dinner, because we don't really have any food and I had no time for cooking. We tried out the No 1 Kitchen down in Nottingham Plaza. There are several Chinese take out places in our neighborhood and all serve rather different food. I think No 1 is my favorite of the bunch so far. The dumplings are quite good and there was a decent amount of vegetables in both the beef with mushrooms and the chicken with garlic sauce. The spring rolls were standard. Liz is rather unimpressed with their hot and sour soup, though.

This morning I had to be in at 8:30. I had a very tiring and trying day. I can't even stand to go into that place some days, and those days are happening more frequently as of late. We had the big faculty/staff shopping thing tonight, as well, so Liz came down and we had some of the free food and spent too much money buying books. I picked up a couple of children's classics for my sister, brother-in-law and the baby. 'Green Eggs and Ham' and 'The Giving Tree' were what I managed to round up. I can't believe the store didn't have a hardcover copy of 'Where the Wild Things Are.' I also picked up the new Monty Python autobiography, the Onion A.V. Club book and the latest edition (5th) of Elizabeth Castro's Visual Quickstart HTML book, as my 3rd is rather outdated now. Some day, I hope to have enough time to actually read them.

The only problem with all of this is that I had to finish the fifth and final Dialog searching assignment for my reference class. OK, start. I finished the searching and planning and one of the follow-up questions. I have two questions to go and my brain is fried. So why aren't I passed out yet? I don't know. Maybe it was because I wanted to hear that "Camel Walk" again. Maybe it's because I'm too tired to stand.

More later.


- posted by Johnny B @ 11:37 PM (0) comments