Going Mobile . . . Once Again

I'll be in Houston visiting my parents this weekend. I have various things to attend to, but I hope to see this exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I saw their Star Wars exhibit back in 2001 and was blown away. I hope for the same experience.

For non-Texas folk, Houston is probably not the greatest place to visit this time of year because of its heat and humidity. Interestingly, I never really noticed how bad the heat was when I lived there. I endured three years of summer marching band practices out in the heat with very little problems. Sure, we practiced in the morning, but it was still hot.

Now that I'm out of school and won't be visiting a band practice field any time soon, I don't complain about the heat. Instead of complaining about it, I choose to work with it. I rarely go outside for a long time during the day and take walks after 8:30pm during the week. We play kickball at 7pm on Sundays right as the sun is going down. The AC works and if it stops working, I'll get a fan.

Shall be a good time this weekend.

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks. (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do. J

2023 Update

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