Birds in the Subway

People will tell you this is bullshit. I know they will cause I've been accused of it. But it happened.

There is a culture of birds living in the subway tunnels. (There is also a family of sparrows living in the Delta international terminal at JFK airport... but that's another story) Sparrows are allways flying around at 59th st. But one day I was on the 6 trail headed downtown. This was when I still lived on 92nd and I was headed down to Union Square. There was a pidgeon who got on the subway at 86th st. It walked onto the mostly subway car like a bored comuter. The doors shut behind it, then the pidgeon turned around and faced the door like it was ready to get out. The pidgeon stood still, I could imagine it tapping it's foot in impatient anticipation. The subway came to a stop at 77th st. The doors opened and the pidgeon looked to the left and the right. then just stood there. Obviously this was not the pidgeon's stop. The doors shut again and the pidgeon just stood there. At 68th st the doors opened and the pidgeon walked out. I was dumbfounded.

Tired: Camera Obscura

So I saw Camera Obscura last night. They seemed tired. They seemed bored. The mix wasn't good. The keyboard was wrong.

To top all of this off, 90% of a set list was from an album that hasn't come out yet. What the hell were they thinking. You don't come all the way to New York and play a bunch of songs no one knows to a packed house. If your album hasn't come out yet, and your not monstrously popular allready, you can only play 4 songs from your forthcoming album before your try the crowds patience.

Also there was crowd participation, a 2-3 clapping beat for an entire song. Needless to say it turned into unrythmatic clapping mayhem.

Belle and Sebastian

Category: Music

Saw Belle and Sebastian last Friday. They played a venue I hadn't been too, the Nokia Theater. It's in time's square, which sucks. But the sound was pretty good, and I got to sit down. Which I enjoy these days... getting older I guess.

The openers The New Pornographers were unimpressive, but that was more to do with a bad mix. I'm not a huge fan of their recorded work, but I can tell they were better than they sounded.

Belle and Sebastian were great. The band was smaller than the previous times I saw them, but it didn't matter. They have a sense for what makes a good pop tune. Much of the newest album I was lukewarm on when I heard it recorded, but live it took on a much more fan friendly form. The old stuff, well tunes like Women's Realm, Get me a Way From Here I'm Dieing and Electronic are just fantastic songs.

(I think Jack Bauer is about to cry)

Well anyway, the croud was a little obnoxious, about 20 people insisted on yelling they're favorite songs over and over. Though one guy loudly caawing like a raven over the idiots yelling made me laugh.

bill

Mental blocks for people living in Manhattan

What is up with Manhattan people who won't go to the outter burroughs? I live in Long Island City... one stop outside of the city. It takes like 25 minutes to get from the upper west side to my apartment. I can get downtown in 15 minutes. And when I tell people where I live they go "Ohhhh, what's it like to live in Long Island." I'm across the East river from the goddamn UN for christ sakes. I don't live in Alabama.
bill