Absolutely brilliant…Phoenix teamed up with La Blogotheque for a few impromptu songs on the streets of Paris as part of their Take-Away Shows series. The band kept things simple using only acoustic guitars and a synthesizer, and Mars's only microphone was the one on the video camera. There's a lot to be said for watching Phoenix perform "1901" at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, but I'll let the videos speak for themselves.

I had been itching to do a large-scale pixel art project for a while, needing only to decide on a subject and a medium before launching into it full-bore. I considered using mini-canvases, or painting on small squares of plywood, or using cardboard swatches, but I settled on foam-core for the lower cost and overall simplicity. Picking a subject was a little trickier, but once I saw the foam board colors available at Michael's I knew that a giant metroid would be perfect.

The backing is actually two layers, six 30"x20" panels of black mounted to six panels of white, but with the rear panels rotated so I could split the entire surface into two interlocking pieces for ease of transportation (you can see the seam above stretching right down the center). The colored squares are each 2"x2" (more or less) and are cut from the same kind of Elmer's foam-core that constitutes the backing. In the end, the monstrosity measures five feet to a side making it far and away the largest art project I've taken on.

A few earlier projects appeared on my old site, and I may just have to rephotograph them for an update here. In the meantime, I have three other projects in the pipeline that will make an appearance here before long.

This will be a little on the short side considering the Thanksgiving holiday and all, but two weeks ago I caught Devo before a loud, boisterous crowd at The Vic. The band is playing double shows in a few cities in support of the reissues of their two best albums, Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice. They play through the first record one night and the second the next, tossing in a some bonus encore songs to mix things up a bit. I LOVE Freedom of Choice, so picking a show was a piece of cake.

I took my usual memory card full of photos, plus made a point to take video of my three favorite songs. My dinky little camera never ceases to amaze me, though admittedly I was quite a few rows further back this time than for the Sunny Day show.

Easy setlist, right? Freedom of Choice plus two. Booji Boy's appearance for Beautiful World was absolutely priceless.

Devo // Chicago, IL // November 13, 2009

1. Girl U Want
2. It's Not Right
3. Whip It
4. Snowball
5. Ton Of Love
6. Freedom of Choice
7. Gates of Steel
8. Cold War
9. Don't You Know
10. That's Pep
11. Mr. B's Ballroom
12. Planet Earth
13. Be Stiff
14. Beautiful World

Congratulations Yankees on their twenty-seventh world championship!!!

I've gone to a lot of concerts lately, and to a one they've been fantastic, euphoric experiences. Still, only very rarely can I say that a show has been a special, legendary, once-in-a-lifetime event - the kind of show that Sunny Day Real Estate put on at the Paramount Theater in Seattle back on October 16. The Paramount concert was the last of a relatively short reunion tour, and setting it in their hometown made for something really special, for both the band and their fans.

The reunion coincides with the re-release of Sunny Day's first two albums, both recorded by the original lineup of Jeremy Enigk, William Goldsmith, Dan Hoerner, and Nate Mendel. The last and only time I had seen Sunny Day live was in Pittsburgh back in 2000 during the Rising Tide tour, after Nate had already left the band, so I was extremely excited to see the original crew all together. I picked up one of every shirt at the merch booth, most of which were reprints of the original tour gear, and pushed my way to the front of the crowd.

There isn't much I can say about the actual performance that could possibly convey the kind of emotion and energy pervading every inch of that place for the next two hours. Sunny Day soared and plummeted through nearly every song from their first two albums, veering away only momentarily for a welcome rendition of "Guitar and Video Games" about halfway through the set, and then an entirely new song shortly before the break. "New Song" definitely has the spirit of the early material, but with some of the sentimentality of the later stuff. This is the best recording I could find:

During the break I resolved to record video for whatever song they began the encore with, figuring that I had at least a gig or two left on my card; and really, how much could a little video take up anyway? It was really hard to suppress the urge to jump around during "In Circles", one of my favorite songs, but I managed to record the whole thing. And that little video? Turns out my itsy bitsy camera records in 720p =):

See? How great was that? Besides the video, eight of the best still shots from the night are below and up on Flickr, all of them great memories from an amazing show.

Sunny Day Real Estate // Seattle, WA // October 16, 2009

1. Friday
2. 7
3. Shadows
4. Song About An Angel
5. Grendel
6. Guitar And Video Games
7. Iscarabaid
8. Theo B
9. 47
10. 5/4
11. New Song
12. Spade
13. Sometimes
14. In Circles
15. 48
16. J'Nuh