Stopped at Smith’s Olde Bar

Stopped at Smith’s Olde Bar yesterday for a couple of beverages. The band of the evening had arrived and when they finished unloading they sat at the bar and had some wine. Turns out they were from Montreal. They were called The Stills. Hmm….that rang a bell, I think I had read something very positive about them. He said they were due to play around 11:00 pm so I told him I might go.

Once I got home I did some research and found that they’re sorta the “next big thing.” Generally compared to Interpol, but considered better. I emailed Steven so see if he thought I should go. Of course he said I should because they’re from Canada. So I went.

The opening band was Red Letter Agent very slick brit-pop, but something didn’t seem right. They didn’t seem terribly sincere – like they were pretending to be rock stars rather than getting into their music. Then it hit me. I don’t own any Coldplay CDs, I generally like what I’ve heard, but now I felt like they were playing in front of me. These guys were just like Coldplay. I hate to pan a local band but it was kinda sad. They do attract a lot of attractive women though.

Now out come The Stills. Well this was much different. Turns out that the guy I was speaking to at the bar was Dave Hamelin, the drummer. Very animated performance – these guys were definitely not doing much posing. Maybe a bit too much hunching over while guitar playing, but in general it was a very good show. Apparently they’re gonna be on Conan O’Brien next week (December 26th). I have a feeling I was pretty lucky to see them in the intimate setting of Smith’s upstairs room.

By the way, I filled

By the way, I filled in a write-in ballot for JP Vigier in the NHL All-Star poll.

Ahh…the pressure is easing. Into

Ahh…the pressure is easing. Into holiday mode. Watching the Thrashers versus the Devils, fairly inebriated. Pasi Nurminen (goalie) is outstanding. Dafoe is good but Nurminen blows the socks off of him.

Joyce goes to Florida tomorrow for a Jarema sisters gathering. Always good for them to get together. My plans? Well I’ll probably stop in to see Calu at Smith’s Olde Bar. I want to find out if the logo I converted for her is working out. I may pick up some Pao de Queijo for her as a Christmas present since she’s half Brasilian and I’ve been late on everything I’ve done for her. If I get a check in the mail, which is unlikely, I may splurge for MF Sushi Bar.

I delivered three CDs this week, all authored in Director. Macromedia has definitely given priority to Flash over Director and I must admit it is much more interesting working with Flash than Director at this point, especially with the introduction of ActionScript 2.0 (why overloading was not included is beyond me though). The same progress would be great and certainly possible with Lingo, but again, the priorities have changed. If only Macromedia would acknowledge the need of the higher bandwidth needs of CD-ROM and address the issues of video and streaming from CD with Flash (rather than loading to a temp directory on the hard drive which is a serious problem.).

Speaking of delivering three CDs, I’ve learned a lot about delivering cross-platform CDs recently. Before OS X it wasn’t too tough, but with the introduction of OS X on the Macintosh a whole nuther situation arises. I figured it out the whole Windows/OS Classic/OS X hybrid thing, including the elimination of the nasty looking “Desktop Folder” issue on OS X, and hiding all but the essential files on Mac and Windows, so if you want to hear about it feel free to contact me (www.darbymedia.com).

Thrashers can’ seem to buy a goal tonight.

My oh my! Where have

My oh my! Where have I been? Slammed. Completely. Thoroughly.

Had a good Thanksgiving. Joyce’s sister and her family came up from Tampa and we took them to Ru San’s the first night and then to Agnes and Muriel’s on Thanksgiving.

As usual, Ru San’s is ok, but it’s certainly no MF Sushi Bar or Nakato. One good thing is that Toy, a Thai sushi chef that doesn’t eat sushi that I’ve known for nearly 10 years, treats us very nicely with extras and whatnot.

I had only been to Agnes and Muriel’s on time many, many years ago and for some reason I don’t recall it as being very remarkable. We chose it mainly because of the price which I think was something like $25 per person – very reasonable for a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. The food was excellent. Definitely homestyle cooking. But there were two negatives. They were overbooked so we had to wait an hour outside in cold and rainy weather. Once inside, they had so many tables packed in there that we could barely move around. Pretty annoying, but very tasty. You make the call.

The next day, Friday, I flew up to Flint to help my Dad (and Nicki the Pekingese) drive down to Atlanta on Saturday. He and my step-mother, Mary spend four months in Florida during the Winter. I expected to take two days for the trip, stopping in Knoxville, but we ended up going all the way. It took 12.5 hours. This was cool because we, me, Joyce, and my sister Lisa, could spend some time with him.

We took him to Pura Vida for tapas which was nice because I was ready for some lighter fare compared to all of the eating I did over 24 hours in Flint (Coneys for lunch and Walleye Picatta at The Speakeasy for dinner). I’ve been to Pura Vida four times. Three were good, including this night, and one was just fair.

The next day we picked up Mary at the airport and checked them into their hotel. They stayed at the Red Roof Inn on North Druid Hills. I picked it for the proximity to the expressway for their departure in the morning and the fact that they allow small dogs without hassle or fee. For dinner we headed to Fogo de Chao for Dad’s birthday gift. They really enjoyed it. The service there is truly remarkable. It ain’t cheap but I find that it’s worth the money every time. After my third visit, I think that I’ve learned to eat there without getting that beef tallow feeling in my stomach.

Old friend and fellow freak Paul Toth, mentioned below, has just had his first book, Fizz, published by Bleak House Books. You can buy the book here, and check out his bio here. I haven’t read it yet, but the reviews look pretty good.