I've been seeing more live music lately. I feel like I'm finally coming closer to appreciating the live music scene that Madison has to offer, which is cool. What is not cool is that there are a lot of bands out there that suck. But there are some bands that are perfectly competent but that I'd still never want to listen to again. And there are, every now and then, bands that are just friggin' amazing. With these thoughts in mind, I decided that it might be helpful to have a semi-objective way of rating live acts. A simple star or number system is way too boring, so I came up with something simpler and more direct.

Basically, bands are ranked on a continuum of interest. From low to high, it goes like this: You'd leave a venue where they were playing, you wouldn't leave a venue where they were playing, you would actively go to a venue where they were playing, and you would pay $10 for their CD. I think it's a convenient and quick way to convey how highly or lowly you regard the band.

Now watch as I apply that rating system to some bands I've recently seen.

I recently went to a show at Mickey's where the lineup was Sylvia Beach, The Honey Slides, and The Apologists. Sylvia Beach wasn't particularly impressive. Their singer sang too high and his pants were too skinny. But their drummer was good, and they weren't bad. I wouldn't seek them out, but I wouldn't leave just because they were playing.

The Honey Slides were my favorite act of the evening. They were energetic, they knew how to play their instruments, and their songs were pretty decent. I would seek them out, and I would even consider buying their CD.

The Apologists were a big pile of fail. As far as I could tell, they only did covers, and they were all in the same key. They weren't particularly good. Although the fact that it was late and I was tired contributed to it, the fact that they'd started playing was a huge contributing factor to the fact that I left three songs into their set. Overall, I'd probably leave even if it was the beginning of the evening.

Posted by Ismael Tapia II at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)| Filed under Existential Nonsense , Reviews

They have, in fact, been greatly exaggerated. Sure, I took a bit of an extended break there, but I never intended it to be a full-blown departure. It's just that things were busy and I didn't have a lot of stuff to write about that I felt like sharing. I'm back now, though, and--while I can't promise daily updates like in the olden days--I won't go a month and a half between updates again.

So what have I been up to? Well, kind of a lot, actually. For starters, today marks two important anniversaries.

First, this is the two-year anniversary of Mr. Vice and I opening up our little law office. It's really surprising how quickly these two years have passed. And it's just as surprising to think about all that we've accomplished in these two years. When we started, we were really worried that we wouldn't even be able to feed ourselves. But we're doing OK for ourselves, I think. We're not wealthy yet, but we can pay our bills and, occasionally, we can buy fancy things we don't really need. In an economy where I can think of several people I know without any jobs at all, I'm extra thankful for the fact that I have a fun job that I love where my coworkers are awesome that pays me enough to live and save and do the things I want.

I remember the day when Mr. Vice and I sat in my old living room and signed our partnership agreement. Two years later, I couldn't be more happy with the way things have gone, and I couldn't be more excited about the things that lay ahead.

Second, this is the first anniversary of me and chelsadilla making things official in a middle-school sort of way. As long-time readers of the blog might know, that's sort of a big deal. Seeing as how this relationship exceeded the length of any of my previous relationships after about the first week, this is sort of a big deal. It's also sort of a big deal because, you know, it's awesome and it's been a year.

It might be the case that no relationship is perfect, and ours certainly isn't, but I'm still happy every morning that I wake up next to her, and I don't see that stopping any time soon.

I had suggested that we go out for dinner. I really wanted to go to Samba. But chelsadilla wanted me to cook something, so that's what we did. So for dinner tonight we had home-made ravioli, by which I mean that we made the pasta and filling from scratch and then cut out little circles which we turned into ravioli. We filled the ravioli with ricotta, Parmesan, and bleu cheeses. Yes, bleu cheese. The filling was tasting a little bland, so I thought I'd add something with some kick. It was yummy. Anyway, I made a shallot-garlic alfredo sauce and drenched the ravioli in that. It was delicious, although I definitely think I can make some improvements for next time.

For dessert, I made a liquid-center chocolate torte with home-made caramel sauce and bruleed bananas. It was rich and fucking delicious.

It was a pretty ambitious meal, but it was easy to make with chelsadilla helping out. Now, we're just sort of sitting on the couch hanging out.

So, yeah, we've been together for a year and I sort of love her. And that's the end of the cuteness.

The other big, exciting thing that's been going on is that my band, now officially called Money or Candy, has been working on original material. Several of our songs are very close to being performable, while others are still a little rough and in need of final touches, if by "final touches" you mean "lyrics." Still, I think we're gelling as a band fairly well. What's most important, of course, is that everyone have fun, and I think that's a guarantee.

You can (and definitely should) be our fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Anyway, I promise not to be a stranger.

Posted by Ismael Tapia II at 11:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)| Filed under Existential Nonsense , General Remarks , The Law Firm