http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ en-us aaron@etchouse.com 2007-12-10T12:52:00-06:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001480.html A couple of friends' new band, the Dan Andreas Fault, will play their first show next Tuesday at the King Club. They're opening for the Attack Ponies, showtime is at 10:00. They're supposedly kind of Wilco-ish, though obviously I haven't heard them yet. Still, I'll be there and you should too. 1480@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2007-12-10T12:52:00-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/001475.html So we went to see what was billed as a live Dethklok show on Wednesday, but didn't really have any idea what it would actually be -- the promotion was unclear, and various claims found online all differed on key points. Still, the show was free, ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead were opening, so what's not to like? Well, the Majestic Theatre, for one thing. This was my first show there -- I'd been there for a dance club night years ago -- and I was really unimpressed. The acoustics are horrible. The only place in the balcony where you can see the stage is right on the railing. The fucking house lights were on throughout the Trail of Dead set and partially during the Dethklok set, despite the stunning lack of stage lights. From my perspective it's the worst venue in Madison, and it's not even close. The show itself was much different than the other sponsored free shows we've gone to lately. There wasn't much brand-pushing from the stage -- just a Guitar Hero III contest-winner thing at the intermission -- but there was a screen hanging down at the front of the stage with ads playing on it. This was fine, I thought -- totally ignorable, not a big deal, except they kept the screen in place during the Trail of Dead set, obscuring most of what little view we had from the balcony. It wasn't running ads, just cycling through Trail of Dead album art. That, plus the awful lighting, plus the muddy acoustics, plus the huge security presence, meant it made little sense to try to record anything. However, Trail of Dead were really great. I saw them two years ago on a frigid Party in the Park afternoon and they were really bad; it must have just been the weather, because they put on a tight, fun set and reminded me of why I liked Worlds Apart so much. So then, Dethklok. The music was played by Brendon Small and a live band, with an ongoing story -- essentially a new episode interspersed with music videos -- playing on the screen above them. It was pretty good stuff, and I'd expect it will get released on DVD at some point (there was a notice indicating as much when we walked in the door). The bit for "Murmaider" was probably the best of what we saw -- three gorey, hand-to-hand murderfests between mermaids and some other undersea creatures -- but we left probably halfway through because it was a touch repetitious and we were a touch tired. As much fun as the show is, even in DVD marathon form, it doesn't have the kind of stories that hold up for more than 10 minutes or so. 1475@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Music 2007-11-18T17:12:46-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000711.html We just got back from seeing Karmella's Game at the Annex, and I unfortunately won't have any footage of it to post next week. Despite the fact that I seemed to have fully charged my camera this afternoon, it wouldn't turn on when we got there, but was fine when I put it back on the charger at home; it now claims to be charging again, but we'll see. I hope it will be fine for the SoCo™ Music™ Experience™ next weekend. The last time I saw Karmella's Game I also couldn't record them, coincidentally, because it was in the darkened Corral Room and my old camera couldn't handle the low light. At that show the room was packed, which was not quite the case tonight. As far as I could tell, Emily and I were the only civilians there. Del Monte Carlo of Mad Trucker Gone Mad was there with his ladyfriend, and during the set a few other people went in and out, but I think they may also have been from other bands on the bill. Supposedly the word had gone out that the show started at 10:00, not 9:30, although 9:30 was all I'd heard. When we walked in at about ten after 9:00, all the house lights were on and there was nobody at the door. For about fifteen minutes, we sat in the fully lit main room of the Annex wondering if we were secretly an hour early. Their set was pretty hot, especially considering they were playing for four people and I was the only one who knew their material. Most of what they played was new, apart from one of my favorites from their debut LP and maybe one of the tracks I skip on the album. The new stuff sounded excellent, and I hope they're on track to release it soon. In other tech trouble news, some crazy shenanigans happened while recording the German Art Students last week, and I only have complete audio for one of the three songs I recorded. These are the hazards of shooting without a monitor, extra batteries and the other comforts of legitimate recording, I guess. 711@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2007-08-31T23:42:23-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000668.html Just a brief announcement: I'll be on a panel discussing local music blogging at High Noon Saloon, tonight at 5:30. Should be a hell of a time. 668@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2007-06-27T10:21:21-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000614.html We went to see a free OK Go event at the High Noon last night, put on by Jack Daniel's. This is the second or third such event they've put on in Madison -- they did one with the New Pornographers last year, and there was a Spoon show in 2005 that might've been them too. It was a good show, but I'll have more to say on that when the videos go up next week. What really intrigues me is this: How can this possibly be a profitable marketing strategy for Jack Daniel's? Allow me to describe the extravagance of the evening. The High Noon holds 400 people -- including staff and roughly 100 VIPs, Jack Daniel's and Isthmus, the local sponsor, had 250 tickets to give away by random drawing. We won two sets of two, but that's probably not a good indicator of how many people's contact info they got for future spamming. We also opted out of future spam, as I imagine most entrants would have. In exchange for gathering these e-mail addresses, Jack Daniel's paid (in whole or in part) for: rental of the High Noon with full staff and with only Jack drinks available at the bar (and only Jack bottles on display), two free drink tickets for everybody in the building, OK Go to play a show with no gate and only a tiny merch area, local act Cats Not Dogs to open, a Peavey guitar as a door prize, an assload of t-shirts with all the dates on the Jack Daniel's tour on the back (about 30, with ours listed as "Madison, IN"), a smaller pile of t-shirts with "Madison" and "March 13" specifically on them, a huge pile of hors d'oeurves, tons of Jack-branded 1" buttons (some with "Madison" on), tons of Jack-branded guitar picks, many sets of Jack-branded drumsticks, Jack-branded regular pens, Jack-branded light-up pens, a searchlight and air-compressor-powered inflatable Jack bottle outside, and the loathsome "Jack Daniel's girls." Probably also some other giveaway trinkets that I'm forgetting. Also, custom Polaroid film, such as that seen above, which I imagine is the only way Polaroid can sell film anymore. The Jack Daniel's marketing team I'm sure has a good explanation for all of this: They're trying to cement brand loyalty among young consumers and become the liquor of choice among, if not hipsters, than at least yupsters. They also have a couple new malt beverages to push (which, FYI, are horrible), so putting some freebies in the hands of the cool kids might be a good idea, assuming they have confidence in their product. Looking around the room, though, you'd be hard pressed to find the kind of people they wanted. If there's a market out there looking to get hooked on the PBR of whiskeys, it's not going to show up at an OK Go show at the High Noon Saloon. More likely, the real reason this event happened (and why it will happen again, presumably) is that the marketing industry is a house of cards, which everyone's actions dependent on nothing so much as their perceptions of their competitor's actions. They may not actually gain anything in terms of sales or market share following this spending spree, but sweet Christ, think of what might've happened if they hadn't done this! Maker's Mark would be eating them alive! 614@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Music 2007-03-14T13:57:06-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000589.html Ghost cats! 589@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2007-01-29T16:38:02-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000540.html A couple weeks ago, Isthmus put on a live showcase for its Madison Music Project, featuring four local acts at the High Noon Saloon, and hired me to produce some online videos of the show. The first, featuring Sean Michael Dargan and his band, is up today at thedailypage.com and the others will be rolled out on Wednesdays to come. 540@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Music 2006-11-01T14:03:28-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000414.html 414@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2006-04-23T19:20:41-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000401.html Well, it's been a long three years, but the troops are finally coming home. The policy-making power of 24,000 Madisonians has done what Scott Ritter, Joe Wilson, Pope Jizzy Pizzy, the Democratic Congressional Caucus and tens of millions of protesters couldn't -- forced the Bush Administration to end its long-term treasure hunt in the Middle East. Wait, that's not the case? So the non-binding resolution to bring the troops home that attracted a whopping 15% of Madison voters yesterday has no binding effect? Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? I voted yes on the referendum yesterday, but I steadfastly refused to sign petitions for it last year when people were trying to get it on the ballot. Why? Because a 69/31 win for this referendum, in Madison, was a foregone conclusion. It tells no one anything that they didn't already know. How much time, money and effort went into this whole thing? How much of that could've been spent on candidates who could've actually effected policy change? "Winning" this resolution carries with it no benefit. Losing would've been disastrous (frankly, I think winning with only 69% is pretty close). How much did all those lawn signs cost? All the lit drops? How much more beneficial would Democratic control of the 110th Congress be? 401@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Politics 2006-04-05T15:39:33-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000346.html 346@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2006-01-13T22:00:06-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000344.html Madison is under attack by what appears to be a serial bomber. Authorities are investigating three suspicious items found around downtown Madison on Wednesday. Police said that two suspicious items removed from Madison's sewer system aren't related to an investigation into a string of pipe bombs found in a parking ramp in recent weeks. At a late afternoon press conference, police spokesman Mike Hanson said that two of the items were uncovered by a bomb squad in the sewer system about a block from the state Capitol. The objects were removed at the intersection of Webster and Main streets. These two objects were described as resembling piping, WISC-TV reported. So, there's that. 344@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2006-01-11T17:59:44-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000329.html We're going to the Saturday game of this year's Tech at Wisconsin series. So what happens in the Friday game? The top-ranked Badgers had talked all week about avoiding a letdown. But talking isn’t playing and No. 1 Wisconsin was upset 4-2 by Michigan Tech in front of 12,718 at the Kohl Center Friday night. UW started off on the wrong foot and never recovered as the Huskies used three special teams goals—including two short-handed tallies—and an empty-netter en route to the victory. “We lost the battle of human nature,” UW head coach Mike Eaves said. “It’s tough when people are patting you on the back. It happens at every level—it’s tough to battle human nature.” Just two minutes into the game Chris Conner, Tech’s sparkplug, jump-started the Huskies with a short-handed goal that knocked the wind out of the Badger crowd. Tech always plays way above themselves in Madison, though, so maybe they'll be able to get it done again tonight. 329@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Sporting Events 2005-12-10T14:34:40-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000321.html We went out into the shopping madness this morning for a couple hours, looking for two things. One, a secret present for Emily, they still had at Circuit City. The other, a 200GB hard drive for $30 at Staples, had been sold out since they opened. Apparently 200 people were lined up at 6:00 AM to buy as many as they could. Meanwhile, Pricewatch lists the same thing for as low as $73, so I'm not that broken up about it. 321@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-11-25T12:22:06-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000304.html Last night's New Pornographers show at the Barrymore Theatre got "postponed" right at the last minute. I am very sorry to report but after last nights show in Chicago for the New Pornographers, John Collins, the bass player, suffered from an appendix attack. He ended up having to have it taken out and the band will be canceling their last two shows in Madison tonight and Minneapolis tomorrow. The band has been racking their brain to figure out a way that they can play without him but they have exhausted all possibilities. This is a postponement. The date will be replayed as soon as possible. Ticket holders should hold on to their tickets. Tickets can not be refunded until a rescheduled date has been announced. Check our website (www.barrymorelive.com) over the next few days for more information and updates as they become available. We apologize for any inconvenience, and hope to see you at the rescheduled show. Along with last summer's Head Automatica "postponement," due to an attack of Crohn's, that's two shows I really wanted to see that are probably lost to the ages; presumably there's a third coming. 304@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Music 2005-10-22T14:05:02-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000299.html We saw Mates of State last night at the Annex; it's our fourth time seeing them, including the show at which we first met. Before their set, Emily went up to the stage to tell Kori, the keyboardist/singer, how we'd met and ask if they would dedicate a song to us -- and she did! Emily picked "Whiner's Bio", and it was the fourth or so song of their set. When they talked about us, they asked us to point ourselves out, and then had us come up on stage and dance during the song. This was OK, except I kind of wanted to digicam that song, and I couldn't really do it while dancing. I did get her intro, though -- 10MB MPEG video here. Later on, everybody kept asking us if we were the two that met at the show, and some guy wanted to buy us beers. So now we're famous. 299@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Music 2005-09-30T12:42:31-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000295.html Here's what happened. Emily called me this morning from the Wednesday market in Milwaukee. She said there was a flock of pigeons poking around some old popcorn and that one of the pigeons was, in fact, a yellow and green parakeet. A few hours later she called me again to tell me we had a new bird; some lady had managed to toss a sweater over the bird, which then squirmed out and flew up to Emily's arm. It looks pretty young to me, and/or a little beat up. I can't tell if it's male or female, but it seems pretty OK around people and the other birds. We have named it Pigeon. 295@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-09-15T00:07:23-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000273.html [Video here, 19.7MB Quicktime.] 273@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-06-01T20:50:59-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000269.html I became a Master on Friday and saw "Revenge of the Sith" on Saturday, so it's been a good weekend. After I've had a chance to see it again I'll comment more on how it completes the puzzle, but I will say that it's probably the best film that could've been expected. It not only sets up "A New Hope" terrifically, but it subtly complements "Return of the Jedi" in ways that I suspect Lucas won't get much credit for. 269@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-05-22T13:00:16-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000268.html Tomorrow afternoon I defend my thesis and (hopefully) turn into a PhD candidate. The paper is called "Sound and Fury: Discovering Empty Language in Political Communication" and you can download it here if you so desire. 268@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-05-19T12:22:52-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000262.html It snowed a little bit today, which is odd, because the same thing happened exactly 52 weeks ago. I can't figure out why the weather here should be so much odder than it is in, say, Green Bay. [UPDATE: Early evening brought hail. Hail? WTF?!?] 262@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-05-01T13:44:24-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000251.html 251@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-04-03T22:30:06-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000242.html Well, only about a third of the class was there (because it's the Friday before spring break and we had a blizzard last night) but they seemed to like the lecture. One student even came up at the end and said she really enjoyed it and found it easy to follow and understand. If, for some reason, you want to learn about political PR and new media, you can check out the slides here. 242@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-03-18T11:27:14-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000241.html I've giving my first lecture tomorrow. It's on political PR and new media. Hooray! 241@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-03-17T18:46:45-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000216.html Well, the story ran tonight, and it was pretty weak. In fact, the anchor's cutesy alliterative introduction was almost as long as the story itself. "'Blog' was the word of the year! Look what they're doing in the modern university!" So, I'm not going to digitize it -- I was only on screen for one sentence (the same as the professor and student who were interviewed at the same time). However, you can read the text version here -- if you like watching very low quality commercials for US Cellular you can also watch the piece in lo-fi, streaming Windows Media. This episode puts me in mind of this metapost on the nature of blogging, which I don't believe I've ever posted here, but which struck at the time (and still does) as a good starting point for a real discussion on what blogging means. I found it while writing a short paper on the difficulties in conceptualizing "Internet use" (it's actually a revised version of an academic conference presentation). In that paper, I wrote that the Internet "is as much a media infrastructure as it is a medium," and I think blogging is our first clear evidence of that. Given the infrastructure, a handful of people came up with similar tools to exploit that infrastructure, and a new set of communication standards and practices arose to exploit those tools. This local TV report (the third recent local media report on this exact subject, for the record) does not begin to discuss what blogging means for education in the future, whether it requires different skills of students than other teaching and learning methods or even what a blog is -- Greg Downey, the professor in question, is given exactly 16 words on-screen to describe what a blog is. Those 16 words are correct, but the many other words that were cut out are the ones that really tell you what blogs do. Not surprisingly, while I watched the reporter set up his camera and tell his interviewees to focus on an imaginary point on the wall, I found myself thinking the same thing I thought during my interview last spring: I knew there was a reason I never had any interest at all in broadcast journalism. 216@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-01-30T23:52:17-06:00 http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/archives/000215.html I'm being interviewed for a local news piece about blogging tomorrow -- not so much because I'm a hip, happening blogger, but because I'm a hip, happening mass communication researcher. It's the same station that interviewed me last spring as the TA strike was about to start, and I guess I impressed them enough for a callback (well, that, and one of our faculty recommended me). 215@http://www.etchouse.com/cpd/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 22:58:59 -06:00 Around Madison 2005-01-29T16:35:48-06:00