Road Rules: West Africa

My former roommate Jay is currently halfway though a Peace Corps stint in Pama, Burkina Faso. On his MySpace blog, he posts an account of the trials and tribulations involved trying to vacation in Ghana via Togo. It’s a captivating read, illustrating the ease which one adapts to regular bribery and how the Bush administration is still managing to screw with him all the way over there. Check it out.

(I accidentally deleted this post earlier. My apologies.)

 

Also: Pope Catholic

Via Skeptico, I see that Dinesh D’Souza is still a complete moron.  Is anyone really shocked that he has no idea what the logical fallacies are?

I’m a bad fan

This has been a bad year for me and live music.  I haven’t really seen anyone at all, save for the many Frustrations shows I’ve gone to since leaving the band, and the Hello Tokyo show I ran sound at this summer.   Part of this can be explained by lack of follow through on my part.  I’d often notice a band I like is coming to town in few weeks, then promptly forget about it until a week after the show transpired, at which point I’d utter “d’oh”.

Additionally, I tend to have fairly eclectic tastes in comparison to the rest of my friends, leading to difficulties getting even one person to join me at any show I’d want to attend.  If I want to see, say, a ska band, the Dave Matthews Band, the Killers, or some obscure rock band from Brooklyn, I’d have no problem getting a crowd together.  If I want to see the Brand New Heavies, I’m most likely going alone (this is exactly what I did in 2006).

So as my not-quite-New-Year’s resolution, I plan on redoubling my efforts to attend live music.  The criteria are only that I enjoy the band (obviously) and that they’re playing at a club in the DC area (I abhor arena and festival shows).  Tops of the  list for desirability right now is the above lady, Corinne Bailey Rae, although it doesn’t look like she’s coming to town anytime soon.  Amy Winehouse would also be spectacular, but her show would probably violate the “no arena” rule.  After that, I start drawing a blank.  I turn to you, dear readers, even if you hate me:  what artists kick ass live and should be on my list?  No, DJs do not count as live artists (how on earth do you go to a Fatboy Slim show?).