Beside

Went to a show last night at B-Side. Finally saw Big Grump. They're really good noise rock. There was a little bit that reminded me of Unsane, mostly because the vocals were clipping and distorted which was probably just how the pa was set up. The music was generally more angular, not as balls-to-the-wall aggressively heavy, but still pretty noisy and pretty heavy. The Pop Ritual was originally set to play, but Scott had some work thing. Colin and Michelle showed up anyway and I talked to Colin for a bit. Also talked to Charlie (of Big Grump a bit). I was a little flattered, 'cuz after I went to the Dixon last, I posted the same sort of stuff on facebook that I posted about here, about the Mary Cassatt painting. After reading that he said he started to pay more attention to it. Said he never had paid much attention to impressionism and kinda never had looked at any of that stuff closely (he works at the Dixon, by the way). So he started paying attention to it as he walked by it and now he's come to appreciate a lot in it. So I'm a little flattered that some words of mine got someone to think about and appreciate art in a way they hadn't before! The other band that played is called Portrayal of Guilt. They're a little grindcore-ish (metalcore?). I'm sure there's some very specific metal genre to detail exactly what they are, but I'm not up to speed on all that. Their style generally isn't my thing but, while they did hit a few metal tropes that I'm not crazy about, overall they were pretty good. They did some interesting stuff with their sound. They also played samples of electronic sounds between songs (I guess today's equivalent of running tape or whatever). It was a good show and it ended pretty early. Today was big room planning at work, though the developers on my team only stayed down there for the opening talks and went upstairs to work when the actual event went underway. I finished reading Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino. It was good. A lot of it was really great thought parts of it did get a little tedious. Came home to a few blu rays from the Criterion sale in the mail: Blue Velvet, The Tree of Life, and The Color of Pomegranates. Ending with an RIP for Toni Morrison.