A month or two ago, I bought a few concert tickets. First, tickets for the MMRBQ, then for Paramore at the Trump Taj Mahal. Stone Temple Pilots waits until the end of May, but the Paramore concert was this past Friday night.

We made what seem like convoluted arrangements for the kids to be picked up by my mom, so that they could stay over Friday night while we were out at the concert. I left the house early to pick up Berta at her office for the ride to Atlantic City, which would take about an hour and a half, giving us just enough time with a dinner stop to get there before the concert started. Yeah, that didn't quite work out as expected.

With traffic on various roads, we were two hours late. I didn't expect there to be opening bands, and I didn't expect the Taj to be a huge venue - after all, the last concert we saw in Atlantic City was in a smallish room at the Borgata - so I was sure that we missed the thing entirely. So we checked into the hotel first, then made our way over to the arena. As it turns out, two hours was exactly enough time to miss only the opening acts and none of Paramore. Win!

One disappointing thing about the venue is that it wasn't exactly clear where our "seats" were. I had paid the cheapest price, expecting to get general admission tickets, in my mind "standing in an open space in front of the band." As it turns out, the tickets I thought I was buying were more expensive than the tickets I got, which were bleacher seating. This was wholly disappointing. Oh, well.

The band was great. There was some concern that any Paramore concert would be ruined by teenage Twilight fans, and sure, there were quite a few of those in the audience (the smell of teenage girl - that weird too-much-hair-product and girlie perfume odor), but... Everyone was having a good time. It would be one thing if the fans only swooned over the songs that they used in the movie (I don't even know which), and left the rest, but it wasn't like that at all. This was the same energetic crowd that I've seen at many other concerts, enthusiastic about a band that they've grown to love, regardless of the method in which they've discovered them.

The band put on a good show. Not only are the musicians talented - Hayley Williams' vocals are what initially drew me into the band - but they're entertaining on stage. At one point during the performance, he bassist, Jeremy David, did a back-flip over Taylor York, the rhythm guitarist, while they were both (presumably) playing their guitars. Pretty crazy.

There were a few interesting audience interaction moments during the show. During one song, Hayley made this hand gesture and the music came to an abrupt and awesome halt. She started saying something like, "I don't know how you can fight at a Paramore concert. There's these two girls fist-fighting here in the middle of the crowd. How can you do that?" The fight wasn't really of interest to me, but the idea that they could stop the show so quickly like that, and then with just a few taps on the high-hat, the last few bars of the same song finished up. Pretty crazy.

There was some girl holding up a sign saying it was her birthday, and Hayley made a point of saying how great it was that someone would come to one of their shows for their birthday, and had the whole crowd sing happy birthday to her. That's gotta be pretty neat. And then at the end of the concert, they played Misery Business, which is one of their more popular tracks (featured on either Rock Band or Guitar Hero, I forget), and they had some girl come up on stage to sing with them. Apparently, she had been holding up a sign in the back the whole time saying that she wanted to do it, and they just called her up on stage. That's pretty crazy.

There were a couple of guys sitting behind us who seemed to have been to a few Paramore concerts before, saying how "she always says that". I expect that there are a lot of shows like that. Like when we saw Imogen Heap in December, Imogen basically gave word-for-word the same story about Aha! that I had seen on YouTube from her Montreal show. No big deal. It must be tough to come up with something to say between tracks in the first place. It makes me wonder how much of the "special events" they pre-planned for hype purposes. Who plans a fight in the middle of their concert?

They didn't play the song I was hoping to hear. This always happens to me. I come to know a band by a certain song that I discover first, I grow to love the song and identify the band by it, but it's not one that they're known for, so they don't play it in concert. I guess I'm doomed to disappointment there. Here's the song, in case you were wondering.

After the concert was over, Berta and I funneled out into the casino, and headed over to the Hard Rock cafe for a late snack. I messed with Foursquare a bit, and ended up ordering more beer than I had expected to.

Saturday morning, we wandered around on the Boardwalk, got some taffy for the kids, played with Foursquare some more. I didn't manage to unseat the mayor of the Taj Mahal. Still working on the logistics of how mayorship works. I've checked in there more times than the mayor, so I'm not sure what the deal is. As I noted in one my tweets over the weekend, having been to both places in person, the Trump Taj Mahal doesn't look anything like the real Taj Mahal in the slightest bit.

We decided to hit the road before too late in the afternoon, since the traffic was uncharacteristically bad on the trip in. But it was a fun overnight trip and another great concert in the books.

On days when Riley needs to get up for school, I have a playlist of music that I play to get the kids moving in the morning. The kids say they hate it, because it wakes them up, but I secretly suspect that they enjoy the music that I play at 100% volume out of the sterero connected to my computer.

The selection of music varies. I added music that is good for an energetic morning, but there are all different artists and flavors, as well as different ages of music. There's one Miley Sirus song (Party in the USA), which they enjoy, and I have also included some Perfect Circle (Weak and Powerless), which I like even if they don't.

I've also included some of the soundtrack of Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (My Eyes), and Muse's Uprising, which Berta likes to hear in the morning. The standard Wlaking on Sunshine is in the list somewhere (haven't heard it on shuffle in a long time) and so is a remix of Boom, Shake the Room, one of the Fresh Prince's (before he was Will Smith again) better tunes, but with an updated sound. I haven't listed a wide variety of music here, but there is quite a bit of diversity for what we can all stand to listen to at this early hour.

I should probably add more classic rock, but in the morning I'm curious about what would get the kids motivated to get to school more than giving a full music education. I hope that when they're older they appreciate the exposure.

Today at Woot they're selling a 30GB Zune for $99, so when the clock flipped last night, I bought one. At some point in that process the whole MP3/radio idea mix leaked into my consciousness, and I ended up dreaming about it. When I woke up this morning, I was asking myself, "Is radio dead?"

One of the significant contributors to this thought is the release of Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows. It's not about the album itself - I don't have it, and am wondering if I even want to bother given that my thoughts about Radiohead deserve a full post of their own - but another question I had asked myself about it: Is the album getting radio airtime?

Radiohead is a reasonably big name in music. Will radio stations play the album they've released online outside of the traditional distribution chain? The model for radio is usually to be courted by the music industry to play new music, especially of bands that people may want to hear on the air. The purpose is to generate money in advertising because people will not tune away from the ads between songs if they think a song they will want to hear comes next. So will radio stations play In Rainbows?

Another thing to consider is the music industry's reaction to a station that does play In Rainbows. Traditional distribution channels may balk at stations that subvert the usual supply chain. In other words, they won't give their new music to stations that play "freed" music, and so stations (because they want to be able to play that music to support their advertising) won't play the freed music so that they keep getting more top 40 from the record labels.

I wonder if there are statistics about how many people use MP3 players in their cars rather than listen to the radio. With the support in many new cars for accessory ports, I think the number may be climbing significantly. I recall hearing bad things about the adoption rate of HD radio, something that could potentially attract listeners to the medium. Stations in my area have it. But why listen to ads when you can listen to pre-recorded, personalized content? Perhaps radio should have done something different with the HD technology than digitally rebroadcasting the same stuff they do on their regular stations.

I listen to radio all the time in the car. I listen to the AM news station. And when I don't listen to that, it's the MP3 player in my phone or CDs that I have burned of my own music.

I'm reminded that not everyone is so technically savvy. I recall a humorous memory of riding in someone's car where the car radio had a warning label "Anti-Theft Device" very prominently displayed next to the tape deck.

What's with all of these people playing Mario?

Surely you've played, seen, or at least know about Nintendo's flagship game, Super Mario? Would you recognize the music if you heard it? Well, I would. As a matter of fact, I think it's probably one of the most recognizable pieces of video game music. There are few other video games that have produced music as memorable as Mario.

The only other games I can think of at the moment whose music I remember are Tetris, Crazy Taxi, Xenon 2, and The Killing Game Show. I'm sure there are more, but none of the ones off the top of my head come close to the recognizability that Mario receives.

Why am I bothering with all of this? Ok. Here's a short list of places where I have found the Mario theme being played that are not in the Mario video game itself.

London Symphony Orchestra
Redefined's Acapella from the University of Wisconsin
Impending Neskimos nu-metal release of Super Mario Bros. 3
Zombie Posessor's Video Game Covers
Blindfolded piano Mario
Guitar Mario (Good sound effects)
More Mario piano (no blindfold)
Amazing acoustic guitar Mario

Find any more Mario performances online? Leave a comment!

A meme? Here? What is the world coming to?

Well, I thought I would write a couple of "Entertainment" posts, and this seemed as good a start as any. I've got another one in the pipe for currently popular movies, so if you're into that, stop back later.

I grabbed this meme from Daria. It goes like this:

List the top 100 songs from the year that you graduated high school (you can find the lists at musicoutfitters.com). Bold the ones you actually like. Pick a favorite. Underline that favorite. And strikethrough the ones you loathe. Italicize the ones you consider to be guilty pleasures.

I graduated high school in 1991. What I would like to see is a chart of blogger age against memes completed. I'm sure that I'm not in the middle of the bell.

Interestingly, and embarassingly, this crossing-out and underlining might have been much different had I done it in 1991. Ugh.

I think I might have gone overboard with the strikethroughs, but man, was music from the early 90's the crap left over from the 80's or what?? Note that my loose criteria for "loathe" is "if it came on the radio, I would likely change the channel." I thought it might be hard to pick a favorite from what's left, but I think my favorite was an easy choice. Anyway, here goes:

1. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, Bryan Adams
2. I Wanna Sex You Up, Color Me Badd
3. Gonna Make You Sweat, C+C Music Factory
4. Rush Rush, Paula Abdul
5. One More Try, Timmy T
6. Unbelievable, EMF
7. More Than Words, Extreme
8. I Like The Way (The Kissing Game), Hi-Five
9. The First Time, Surface
10. Baby, Baby, Amy Grant
11. Motownphilly, Boyz II Men
12. Because I Love You (The Postman Song), Stevie B
13. Someday, Mariah Carey
14. High Enough, Damn Yankees
15. From A Distance, Liette Midler
16. All The Man That I Need, Whitney Houston
17. Right Here, Right Now, Jesus Jones
18. I Adore Mi Amor, Color Me Badd
19. Love Will Never Do (Without You), Janet Jackson
20. Good Vibrations, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch Featuring Loleatta Holloway
21. Justify My Love, Madonna
22. Emotions, Mariah Carey
23. Joyride, Roxette
24. Romantic, Karyn White
25. I Don't Wanna Cry, Mariah Carey
26. Hold You Tight, Tara Kemp
27. You're In Love, Wilson Phillips
28. Every Heartbeat, Amy Grant
29. Sensitivity, Ralph Tresvant
30. Touch Me (All Night Long), Cathy Dennis
31. I've Been Thinking About You, Londonbeat
32. Do Anything, Natural Selection
33. Losing My Religion, R.E.M.
34. Coming Out Of The Dark. Gloria Estefan
35. Here We Go. C+C Music Factory
36. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over, Lenny Kravitz
37. Where Does My Heart Beat Now, Celine Dion
38. Summertime, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince
39. Wind Of Change, Scorpions
40. P.A.S.S.I.O.N., Rhythm Syndicate
41. The Promise Of A New Day, Paula Abdul
42. I'm Your Baby Tonight, Whitney Houston
43. Love Of A Lifetime, Firehouse
44. Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave), Roxette
45. This House, Tracie Spencer
46. Hole Hearted, Extreme
47. Power Of Love-Love Power, Luther Vandross
48. Impulsive, Wilson Phillips
49. Love Is A Wonderful Thing, Michael Bolton
50. Rhythm Of My Heart, Rod Stewart
51. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm..., C+C Music Factory
52. I Touch Myself, Divinyls
53. Tom's Diner, DMA
54. Iesha, Another Bad Creation
55. Something To Talk About, Bonnie Raitt
56. After The Rain, Nelson
57. Play That Funky Music, Vanilla Ice
58. Temptation, Corina
59. Can't Stop This Thing We Started, Bryan Adams
60. I Can't Wait Another Minute, Hi-Five
61. 3 A.M. Eternal, The KLF
62. Time, Love and Tenderness, Michael Bolton
63. Saideness Part I, Enigrna
64. Around The Way Girl, LL Cool J
65. I'll Be There, Escape Club
66. Cream, Prince and The N.P.G.
67. Now That We Found Love, Heavy D. and The Boyz
68. Show Me The Way, Styx
69. Love Takes Time, Mariah Carey
70. Cry For Help, Rick Astley
71. The Way You Do The Things You Do, UB40
72. Here I Am (Come and Take Me), UB40
73. Signs, Tesla
74. Too Many Walls, Cathy Dennis
75. Crazy, Seal
76. I'll Give All My Love To You, Keith Sweat
77. Place In This World, Michael W. Smith
78. Something To Believe In, Poison
79. Wicked Game, Chris Issak
80. Get Here, Oleta Adams
81. Round and Round, Tevin Campbell
82. Silent Lucidity, Queensryche
83. I'm Not In Love, Will To Power
84. Piece Of My Heart, Tara Kemp
85. Real Real Real, Jesus Jones
87. Just Another Dream, Cathy Dennis
88. Everybody Plays The Fool, Aaron Neville
88. Strike It Up, Black Box
89. Rico Suave, Gerardo
90. Disappear, INXS
91. Groove Is In The Heart, Deee-Lite
92. All This Time, Sting
93. The One and Only, Chesney Hawkes
94. O.P.P., Naughty By Nature
95. Freedom 90, George Michael
96. I Saw Red, Warrent
97. Miles Away, Winger
98. Do You Want Me, Salt-N-Pepa
99. The Motown Song, Rod Stewart
100. Shiny Happy People, R.E.M.