John’s Crawlspace

I’m sure this won’t come as a big surprise to anyone, but I neglected to make a Christmas post this year. As some of you may know, I’m currently living and working in Los Angeles. I flew back east to spend the holidays with my family and friends. I did have a computer with me (my MacBook from work), but I was trying to spend as much time away from the screen as possible while I was home… Especially since I doubt I will make it home again anytime soon.

As expected, it’s tough to get into the holiday spirit while living in Los Angeles. The main thing is the weather; a lack of snow (and cold weather in general) contributes to the lack of a ‘holiday spirit’ feeling. Some people decorate their homes, but it still isn’t the same.

When my flight arrived in Philly (on the 22nd), there was snow on the ground, leftover from what some people were calling “the storm of the century” a day or two before. So that helped. It didn’t snow at all while I was home, but decorating the tree with my family, shopping, wrapping gifts, etc was nice, and helped me catch up on getting into the holiday groove, if that makes any sense.

I had a lot of fun while home. I got to check out The Disco Biscuits in Times Square (at The Nokia Theater) and they put on a ridiculously good show. We stayed at Hotel Carter (located like a block from the venue) which was one of the worst hotels I’ve ever been in. I didn’t really mind since I had a bed to sleep in, but this place was pretty ridiculous. The dresser was missing multiple drawers, the sheets were stained, and there was no ventilation in the room at all. Anyway, unnecessary details… I had a blast. Security at The Nokia was no joke; I saw drug arrests happening left and right. The band is playing 5 nights, leading up to (and including) New Year’s eve.

I’m back in LA now. My roommates and I are having some people over to our place tonight, so I need to start getting things setup. It’s nice and warm today in LA, 65 degrees… 30 in Philly. Happy New Years everyone!

Oh yeah, this video is the best 60 seconds (ok, 61 seconds) I’ve wasted in a long time.

I have 17 more invites to Google Wave. Post your email addresses here and they’re yours, though it doesn’t seem like they are too hard to come by anymore.

I hate to encourage sensationalized news articles that appeal to the lowest common denominator… But I’m about to do exactly that: Language teachers Alini Brito, Cindy Mauro caught by janitor having naked romp in HS classroom.

While we’re on news… What the hell is this? More good pictures and video of this mystery light display here.

…Somewhat related – What would the Earth look like if it had rings, like Saturn? This video is pretty cool.

The Golden Age of Video – This is pretty awesome. It’s like Girl Talk, but for movies and television.

I’d love to keep going here, but I’m gonna spend the rest of my day playing 1D tetris.

I went to see Baroness last night at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.

I’ve wanted to see these guys ever since I heard the “Red Album” a year or so ago.

They put on a great show. I took a few awesome pictures (including the one above), and had a chance to get some video too. I’m not gonna embed the videos that I took in the post… But you can check them out here:

Baroness – Isak > The Birthing

Baroness – Grad

You’ll notice I don’t normally include images in posts. The CSS is screwy and I don’t have time to mess with the stylesheet, so the alignment of the image is a little annoying, but you’ll have to live with it for now.

Here is Baroness’s “Red Album” (my personal favorite) and the newer “Blue Record”. The latter was released a month or two ago and is also an awesome album, but I’ve listened to the former many more times… Check them both out if you have time.

Today is my burfday, so I’m gonna be pretty worthless this weekend. I’m training for a half marathon, and the schedule calls for 10 miles tomorrow, so I have no idea how that’s going to work (if tonight pans out the way I think it will) but I suppose we’ll see. I’m an old man now…

I was invited to Google Wave a few weeks ago, but didn’t really sit down and try to use it much. I logged in this morning to give it a shot, and realized that I had 8 invites. I now have 5… So if you’d like a Google Wave invite, get in touch with me, or leave your email address in a comment here.