Sufjan at the Tower Theater

One year ago (to the day in fact) I missed Sufjan when he stopped in Philly. I was on a plane at the time, coming back from Japan, so I had a decent excuse. Last night I finally got a chance to see this guy live. It was easily one of the best shows that I’ve seen in a while. The band consisted of ten on brass and strings and another four bouncing around between guitar, bass, drums, banjo, piano, toy piano, etc. The set list was a good mix of the Michigan and Illinois albums (as expected), but they also played a healthy sampling from Seven Swans. He also treated us to some new material in Majesty Snowbird. He prefaced the tune as potentially “clumsy,” but it was probably one of the most powerful songs of the night. If this was any indication of what a purported “bird album” will sound like, then I’m sure the album will be in heavy rotation on my little white and chrome music computer machine soon.

I hope this is what Heaven is like!

Thanks to James for providing a good three minutes of entertainment for today.

Hi, I’m Branden

…and this is my blog. I post here from time to time. Sometimes I even put pictures on the internet using a digital camera and my Apple Macintosh® computer. You may remember me from such posts as “Fixin’ da Nursery,” “It’s Busy up in here,” and the Tokyo photo series. A lot of people (three actually – and one was my mom) have been asking me what I’ve been up to lately. Well I’ve been busy stuffing my head with worries and adding project upon project to my home renovation list. I never intended to alienate my faithful viewers. I just haven’t had anything post-worthy lately. If you still feel as though you may have missed something, here are some highlights/lowlights:

• Spent last week standing on my roof painting my windows
• Next weekend I’ll be hanging out of a window on the third floor painting, more windows
• In two weeks I’ll ripping apart my back porch in prep for new windows, door, and siding
• I’ve been selling stuff to try and squirrel away enough money to get a DSLR
• Shot another roll of film in my 35mm pinhole (yet to be developed)
• Ate an ice cream cone
• Getting more and more anxious about the Wii (but will I have time to play it?)
• Lost starts next month – only time in recent memory I’ve anticipated a TV season
• Mowed my lawn – discovered a lost civilization
• The Science of Sleep starts on Friday – must, must, must make time for this
• Growing my hair – I’ll be going under hat soon because I’m looking a bit unkempt
• Visiting the chiropractor 2-3 times a week (in an attempt to drain my bank account)
• Pooped twice

Tokyo – Day 3

Sept. 22 will be the one-year anniversary of this trip, and I’m still in the process of touching, retouching and compiling these photos. Day three was doozie, and therefore, had the most photos. We took the train to Mitaka and spent the day at the Ghibli Museum. This little suburb of Tokyo was charming, and I still struggle to explain the museum to Heather. They didn’t allow photos inside, but it doesn’t really matter, because they wouldn’t have captured the atmosphere accurately. The whole place is light and motion, and little Japanese kids running around with their parents chasing them. It really has to be seen to be believed, and hopefully I’ll be able to see it again one day.

As if that place wasn’t enough to fill the day, we made a quick trip back to Shibuya that evening for a Minikon show. And not just a Minikon show, but the first Minikon show ever. The room was hot and crowded, but the people were amazing (as usual). An excited teenager spilled beer all over my lap as he welcomed us to Japan with great enthusiasm, people brought gifts and candy for James, the crowd jumped to the ceiling and screamed when each new song started. It was really something special to be a part of.

Here’s the Flickr set.

(unfortunately Yahoo! Maps has terrible support for the world outside of the US, so I won’t be geotagging these photos. If that makes you cry then this should be able to make you smile again.)

Wii: $249, Nov. 19

Nintendo has finally given gamers those crucial tidbits that we were all waiting for; price and release date. $249 will get you a white Wii (single launch color) with one controller and an analog stick attachment. You’ll also get Wii Sports as a pack-in game, which is just the bee’s knees as far as I’m concerned. The whole shabbaz drops on Nov. 19. That’s just in time for me to neglect my family through the holidays as I struggle to finish Twilight Princess before my son is born and I have to put on my responsible hat.

What’s that you say? That’s enough good Nintendo news to last you for weeks? Well, not so fast my friend, because there’s more. They also released new videos showing some aspects of the system’s UI. I must say that I got so caught up in the excitement for the games that I was completely broad-sided by the coolness of the Wii Channels. I wasn’t expecting to be excited about the interface, but that’s what Nintendo does best. Pleasant surprises.

There’s also this video showing some more footage of Wii launch titles. If you haven’t done so already, now would be the time to go ahead and get excited about this system.

Nursery done, moving on.

The bulk of the work is done, so I’ve sealed the deal with a photo set. I know this photo doesn’t give you any idea of what the room looks like, but it does give you an idea of what the working conditions were like while pulling the old ceiling down. As you can see, I can always make time to get my lounge on.

Out-of-doors

I took a much needed break from home rennovations last Sunday in order to spend some time outside. The weather was perfect, so we took some food to Valley Forge Park and just sat under a tree and got our peaceful on. I also got my dog wrastle on. I created a Flikr photo set to remember these fleeting moments of freedom from the indoors. Flickr finally added geotagging to their offerings, so you can also see the picnic location on this map. Ain’t the internets sah-weet?!

Consider yourself updated!