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Well I’ve been swimming in live music the past several days.

Last week I caught The Smashing Pumpkins at the Orpheum Theatre with Thomas & Garfield. Billy Corgan, he’s talented, but man, his new Pumpkins album is the suck. He did play a long show though, which I must love him for, plus he played many a good song. Set The Ray To Jerry made my night, thanks Corgan.

The next night I grabbed some dinner with the Chows in Chinatown and then we headed to The Roxy to catch Spoon in action. My first time at the Roxy and I gotta tell ya, I like that venue. The stage is a bit low, but it’s cozier and cleaner than The Avalon. Spoon performed their magic, but some tall douche-bag in front of us annoyed the junk outta us. Tall people should be required to stay in the back, dorks.

Saturday night I headed to Great Scott with a buddy and caught a few bands: The Octopus Project, Enon, Ho-Ag, and So Many Dynamos. The Octopus Project were the headliners, they’re an instrumental band and their gimmick? One of the performers rocks at playing the theremin. Yeah, the first (only?) musical instrument that can played without touching it. They were surprisingly lively and good musicians, plus they didn’t overdo the theremin playing, which was a plus.

So Many Dynamos were probably my number one pick for openers. They’re stage talkers, which I always enjoy, love the on stage banter. So apparently David Arquette is a fan of theirs since he jumped on stage at one of their shows, thus they dedicate a song to him at every show. Also, they were at the Keene, NH Pumpkin Festival that weekend as well and they wanted to perform. So they apparently talked somebody into letting them perform on stage. The stage? Jesus Is Lord Tour. What they said about that?… “We sold three CDs after the show, those people are in for a surprise”.

Last night we went to see The New Pornographers, again at The Roxy. I almost didn’t make it, I hadn’t received the tickets and there was a “no exceptions” rule to tickets being giving out again without a weeks notice. Luckily they made an exception (not talking about Ticketmaster) and canceled my ticket barcodes and put me on the will-call list. Whew.

The show was perfect (almost…freaking tall people). Neko and Dan were both there, which was stupendous. They’ve been missing some shows, Neko because of her solo tour and Dan because…he’s lazy? They played everything I wanted EXCEPT Letter From An Occupant, alas. But it’s OK, I made up for it by falling in love with Kathryn Calder. A “new” New Pornographer, but a great addition I think. Randomly met up with a couple friends there, didn’t realize they were going to be at that show. Talked with em for a few afterward, that was a bonus.

Grabbed some ice-cream a bit before midnight (gotta love J.P. Licks late night) and then headed home.

This past Sunday I grabbed some sushi at Minado and a flick at the IMAX with a couple friends. Both co-workers, one of them a new intern from Austria that I’m “officially” mentoring. Yeah, I’m kinda sorta in charge of this 23 year old grad student for about 8 months, gotta show him the ropes in Bioinformatics. Good thing unofficially it isn’t that big of a deal and he’s totally cool and another guy is helping me out, so at least now he’s both our responsibility.

So onto the movie. Transformers, only one of the greatest animated shows in existence, uber nostalgia here. The movie? Hit the right spots in action and Shia LaBeouf is a dork so he’s extra cool in my book (he was Even Stevens people!). What was wrong with the movie?…

• Effing Michael Bay…EVERY girl is a hottie. Nice to look at, but honestly, why why why?
• A bit too “kid like” in some scenes (the garden scene).
• Action was too up close, a bit tough to make out what was going on.
• Even the geeky NSA chick was super hot…and with an Australian accent…with a sexy neck tattoo! Effing Michael Bay.
• Some parts were just absurd, not the “sciency” parts, common sense stuff (I’m not writing any spoilers, so no examples here).

It was a good action non-thinking nostalgic flick. A perfect popcorn movie if you will, more emotional obviously than a mental exercise, which is fine by me. I’d watch it again.

What a weekend, and it isn’t even over yet.

Didn’t get much sleep Thursday night, was hyped up cause I saw Tool in concert at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield. First of all the traffic…the drive to Mansfield is the devil. But I’d drive through the Sun’s corona to see Maynard perform.

His performance was phenomenal, obviously. His electric wails on stage could wake a thousand eternal slumbers. They didn’t play anything from their first album, Opiate, they never do, but that’s OK, because all their other albums are stunning. I wish he spoke more on stage though, but they were on the last leg of the tour, which stinks, I’m sure bands lose some of their fire near the end (except for their last show, obviously). So we got back kinda late, I went to bed around 2am then woke up at 7am for work. Tough day at work…especially since I left work early again, had to see Tool perform AGAIN that night in Portland!

The two hour drive on Friday (and Thursday, if you count the traffic) wasn’t bad, no sleep in me, but it was OK, I was going to see Tool perform their magic once more. This time we had General Admission seats, we got there about 30 minutes before they got on stage so it was pretty packed. Got some seats on the left side of the stage, BUT they were so close, I could see the fire in his eyes! I could see Danny Carey’s feet (both of them!) going ape on the drums. I could see the sweat on the brow of everybody on stage. The minus side? Same set list, but who cares, it was religious.

I took some dangerously horrible pictures on my cell phone, I’ll put them up another day, but you should’ve been there. Half way through their set, the entire band just sits on the stage right next to each other just talking for about five minutes which the crew sets up the stage again. A band member holds up his lighter, and I swear, you wouldn’t need lighting in the arena, the entire place is aglow from the specks of everybody’s hand. Awe. Inspiring. And then the laser show starts on the next song…

Well, I haven’t really been major busy with something, it’s just the little things that need to get done end up taking a lot of time everyday. By the time I can sit down and relax…time to get ready for bed. I’m actually typing this past-midnight, even with work tomorrow. My past few posts have been about recaps, well, this is another one.

So last Saturday I went to Kimball Farm in Westford, MA. The large location with a driving range and water tubing and mini-golf and other junk. Why’d we go there? The ice-cream obviously. Let me tell you, this place has the MOST creamiest and …”ice-cream tasting” ice-cream ever. Oh, and the “small” size is HUGE. Good thing I got the large, I’m an animal. I gotta go back there. Plus I was the only one to finish all his ice-cream too. Woof.

That night a couple of us went to see Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End. Much much better than the sequel, but not quite as good as the original. But then again, it was a “let’s make more money” type of trilogy anyhow. I love Geoffery Rush…and Johnny Depp…and Keira Knightly, gawd she’s amazing.

Sunday I grabbed some lunch with Lyds at Toscanini’s. We both got the Fried Egg Sandwich with rouille (spicy mayonnaise) and some fresh squeezed orange juice. The OJ was a bit tangy, but the sandwich, wow, a must eat, try it out, the spicy mayo was perfect. Had a pretty good lemony scone and ice cream too, but the sandwich…ouch. After that I got Lyds to try her first Ferrero Rocher. I honestly can’t believe she’s never had it before, what a freaking weirdo. And here I thought the Chow sisters had tried all the amazing foods in the world. I was sadly mistaken.

Oh btw, other than the waking up early, I’m still loving every day at work. Seriously, I can’t believe they’re paying me for this job, I would be perfectly content being an unpaid intern there…don’t tell them that though.

And what the hell is up with the freaking hot weather yesterday and today? Seriously Ra, get your act together.

I have been eating out all the time, it’s great, especially since I’m such a lazy cook.

So yesterday I went to Blue Fin Sushi in Porter Exchange with Larkin and Manz. Finally huh? It’s only a 5 minute walk from my place for a great sushi place. Oh the memories…especially the SVU (inside joke, I spit out water…twice).

Today the six of us went over to Ole Mexican Grill, this place is amazing. Honestly, if you get a hankering for some good Mexican food, head over to this restaurant. I got the Tacos de Cangrejo (bite size crab meat tacos) as an appetizer, which were long, crispy, crab meat filled taco-type cigars on a bed of beans. Nothing like crab rangoons if you’re thinking that. For the entree I went with the Robalo Asado (pan seared sea bass). I can honestly say that this was the best sea bass I have ever had, it was essentially perfectly made on top of a small bed of polenta. Supposedly they have stupendous margaritas, but I can’t vouch for that personally.

After dinner I drove over with Thomas and Garfield to Toscanini’s in Central Square. Unlike last time when I had the kulfee ice-cream, I opted for the malted chocolate and burnt caramel this time. I just wish this place was closer to the T, ah well, whenever I’m in the neighborhood this is the place to stop for ice-cream. Shame the one in Harvard Square closed down (at least I think it did).

Went to bed kinda late last night. Well, not really late, but “late” if you have to work the next morning (booo). So where was I? The Middle East, yes, that’s right. Went there for a concert with Thomas, plus we grabbed some real nice Chinese food at Mary Chung’s right next door. Seriously though, she totally goes crazy with the spices.

So what bands did I see? Black Moth Super Rainbow and Santogold opened for my favorite Australian band…Architecture In Helsinki. But then again, do I even know any other Australian bands? I would’ve guessed they were Finnish, but I would’ve been wrong.

Black Moth Super Rainbow was an instrumental band, they apparently really REALLY love Richard Simmons. The highlight of their performance (other than their absolutely amazing fat chick drummer) was their David Lynch-esque animated videos they had playing on stage. Pretty freaky. They started out on stage pretty strong, Mogwai-ish even, but their later songs congealed into similar sounding instrumental orgasms. I truly was impressed with their drummer.

Santogold put on a lively performance. I would love to see them perform again, but I doubt I’d pick up their album, it’s just that kind of music to me. A mix of Yeah Yeah Yeahs (especially in some aspects of the female lead singer’s voice) and M.I.A.. Good act.

And now Architecture In Helsinki. Wow. I loved seeing them on stage, why? They were having FUN. All of them, think eight band members or so. They weren’t just putting on a show for the audience or just talking into the mic, “Oh this audience is great, blah blah blah”, they were alive and you could feel it. In their songs and their smiles. Strangely enough their songs encompass indie rock, pop music, and electronic rock nicely. Kellie Sutherland has the voice of a hardcore pop rock goddess who had too much sugar. Best backup vocalist you’ll ever encounter.

Eventful day today, which was great because there is some shit in my head and I needed distractions pretty bad.

Woke up, took care of some errands that had piled up, then met up with Daisy and we trekked over to the new Cambridge location of Capone Foods, which is about 2 blocks from my place. Picked up three types of chocolate there, tried 2 of them already.

After that our stop was Boston Tea Stop in Harvard Square. Why? Well I was dying to try out their supposed Yakult flavored tea. The closest thing they had (that we could find) was some yogurt tea, so I got that, because the dude at the register didn’t know what the hell Yakult was (what an ignorant, everybody should worship Yakult). Well that yogurt tea did not taste like Yakult at all. I blame it on Jennifer, what a freaking liar, totally said they had Yakult tea there. At least I got some boba in me, that was overdue.

Headed over to the Harvard Square location of Newbury Comics next and picked up Arcade Fire - Neon Bible and Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha. Freaking finally, now I can get rid of the MP3s I’ve got.

Was gonna pick up Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City, but it was overpriced I thought (strange, isn’t Newbury supposed to have CDs priced lower than the idiotic Best Buy’s of the world?). No biggie though, I’ll just order it online one of these days, no hurries, it’s a good album, but not amazing, disappointing compared to their first release.

I completely COMPLETELY forgot to pick up the new Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero, I’m a freaking idiot. Oh well, next time then. I gotta stop by a used CD store too, get some Pixies albums, I’m a total Pixies whore now, I can’t believe I didn’t worship them earlier. At least I got to see them with Deeds and Letters a few years back at Music Midtown.

Now for the chocolate…

1. Modicana Chocolate from Casa Don Puglisi, Vanilla flavored.
   • Imported from Italy and handmade in the Aztec tradition. Shame it wasn’t really my kinda chocolate. First of all, it was a bit strong, 45% minimum cocoa according to the label. I don’t like dark chocolate at all. Second, it was more brittle than creamy/melty, which isn’t bad since it had vanilla beans or some such in there, but again, too dark. I won’t be getting this again unless I’m in the mood for hot chocolate, the card that came with the thing has a pretty nice hot chocolate recipe.
2. Vintage Plantations
   • Processed at the plantation in Ecuador. Pure 38% Milk Chocolate, couldn’t find anything milkier. This had a regular chocolate texture to it and a nice chocolatey tone when it melts on your tongue. Definitely better than a Hershey’s chocolate bar and a unique chocolate taste that you don’t come across often, I assume that’s the Ecuadorian cocoa. I’d eat this again, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy it. It did taste fresh though, but then again, my taste buds aren’t really aficionados, so try it for yourself if you can and let me know.
3. Icoa White Chocolate from El Rey
   • Venezuelan chocolate named after the Indian goddess with a white soul. Haven’t tried this one yet, but White Chocolate…its won me over already. It’s really hard to mess up white chocolate, it’s miles away from dark chocolate, so tastes are more level across the board…I hope.

Now Daisy can vouch for this, but why is there dark chocolate everywhere these days? Capone Foods itself had a 90% dark chocolate selection. Why? Why? Why? I liked it better when milk chocolate was more popular. I’ll take Milk and White Chocolate any day, thanks. Dark Chocolate is for hippies and losers.