Archive for April, 2008

Pet adoption and activism events

Published by Tristan on April 21, 2008 in AdoptAnAnimal.org, activism, animals, education and pets. 0 Comments

Adopt An Animal logoThough AdoptAnAnimal.org is still in its infancy, my calendar is gradually filling up with related happenings, and I’m realizing that this non-job is a lot of work!

On Saturday, my wife and I attended the North Shore Animal League’s “Tour for Life” at the Indianapolis Animal Care and Control center. (Before I forget, check out Shakie to the right, one of the adoptable dogs at IACC. He looks very similar to my dogs Aja and Diva, and it’s so tempting to rescue him… but I can’t, so maybe you should! Click his pic to go to his Petfinder page, or visit IACC to see him and take him for a walk.)(Updated on 4/29/08: Shakie is no longer available: he was adopted!) NSAL purports to be the world’s largest no-kill shelter. I don’t know if this is true, but either way, I didn’t find out at Saturday’s event. It was great to see a lot of no-kill animal rescue organizations represented at the event, but besides a small hand-written poster board and an NSAL pamphlet at one of the booths, I didn’t see any presence of the League at all (and their blog currently doesn’t have an Indy entry, so perhaps something happened and they couldn’t show up.)Shakie - adoptable from IACC

At any rate, I met some great people representing some worthwhile animal activism groups, adoption shelters and rescue organizations. I talked to Warren Patitz, president and founder of Move to Act, which has been one of the Humane Society of Indianapolis’s most vocal critics (though critics of HSI aren’t hard to find, especially after their decision to stop taking in stray animals - read this Nuvo article for the full story.) He told me some more about an upcoming No Kill seminar with author/activist Nathan Winograd, which should be quite interesting (I listened to Winograd’s podcast, based on this blog post today; it definitely makes me rethink the comment I left on Nuvo’s site in which I mentioned that even if HSI is making a mistake by not taking strays, at least their end goal of finding homes for pets is a noble one. I hope they’re doing all they can to adopt out every animal.)

So in addition to the Tour for Life and the No Kill seminar, I’ll also be attending the HSI Mutt Strut this Sunday with Aja, Diva, Pixie (my dogs), my wife and my parents (and their dog.) I’m sure my dogs don’t really care what HSI is doing as long as they get to be around hundreds of other excited, panting dogs.

Speaking of dogs, I found it interesting that, at the NSAL event this past Saturday, my wife wanted to take home the smallest dog, Honeybunch (a beautiful little boxer-type mix from Rescue Farm), and I wanted to take home the largest (Titan, a gorgeous malamute from Indy Homes for Huskies, who arguably had the liveliest bunch of dogs available for adoption.) If only we had acres and acres of farmland so we could take in more dogs…

When asked why he spent so much time and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men, George Angell (founder of the Massachusetts SPCA in 1868) replied, “I am working at the roots. When human beings finally learn to honor the spirit of all beings most of the world’s problems will be solved.”

Minus the Bear live concert MP3; review of show at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana
April 15, 2008

Published by Tristan on April 16, 2008 in Indiana, concerts, downloads and music. 0 Comments

Minus the Bear live effects pedals<<UPDATE :: 4/17/08 :: I’ve just uploaded a slightly more refined version of the MP3 I put up yesterday. I added some compression to help the overall volume levels and adjusted the EQ so it doesn’t sound so muffled. Hopefully it’s more listenable.>>

Seattle band Minus the Bear played a concert on their Spring 2008 tour at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana last night. They put on a solid show, which you can listen to above or download (sound quality is so-so. Listenable, though.) They started their set with one of my favorite tracks, “Knights”, and played a lot of songs off their latest (and in my opinion, greatest) album, Planet of Ice. If you haven’t heard of Minus the Bear, this is definitely the album to start with. And if you have a set list from last night’s show, let us know!

I’ve only been listening to Minus the Bear for the past year or so and don’t know much about the band, but with their collared dress shirts, they fit in with the IU college crowd quite well and looked like they could be teaching assistants for an IU business school stats class. Musicianship and vocals sounded great, though I haven’t listened to the recording yet (and sorry for not naming the MtB guys - go to Wikipedia or leave a comment below if you want to name them). The drummer kept a terrific pace most of the night with a bin full of spare sticks to replenish those that accidentally flew loose during rapid-fire snare hits, and the lead guitarist had some kind of motion-sensor effects pedal(s) (Korg Kaoss pad, perhaps? I couldn’t see it) that mimicked Planet of Ice’s strange guitar effects perfectly as he spazzed out to some of the songs, moving at times like one of the drunken, screaming sorority girls at the front of the stage. The vocalist/guitarist sounded good but a bit drowned out by everything else, and the bassist kept terrific lock-step with the drummer and keyboardist/programmer (who used a MacBook Pro in addition to other hardware.)

Openers Portugal the Man and Brooklyn’s Big Sleep set a decent stage. Portugal the Man were a brilliant surprise: I’d never heard them, and though their name leaves much to be desired (sounds like a little kid’s’ interpretation of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man … or something), they let loose with a riff-heavy set that at many times echoed Black Sabbath, the Mars Volta, and… um… Wolfmother? (who at many times echo Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, etc. Sorry if this sounds like an insult if you’re reading this, PtM guys, but it’s meant to be a compliment.)

Anyway, Portugal the Man played like Led Zeppelin at their best compared to the next group, the Big Sleep, who made me want to take a big sleep. The trio for the most part sounded like a beginning band at practice, except for the drummer, who did a good job at keeping the guitarist/vocalist and keyboardist/bassist?/vocalist in line. I haven’t heard any of the band’s recorded stuff, but my wife said she felt like she was in high school again listening to a friend’s band play a basement party. I felt like I was in high school again trying to navigate my way through the slew of teen-angst-grunge bands riding the Nirvana/Soundgarden/Seattle wave. Thanks for coming to the wonderful corn-fed state of Indiana, guys, but really, Brooklyn’s probably a much cooler place to learn how to play guitar.

And thank you, Minus the Bear (please don’t sue me for recording your concert and putting it online — I swear it’s a simple act of spreading the good word about you to those who haven’t heard!) for visiting the land of corn and Colts. And ditto to Portugal the Man: though your EP was sold out by the time my wife went to grab a copy, you’ve definitely earned yourselves a few new fans, so please swing back through Indiana again soon - and be sure to bring more copies of your albums.

I’m looking for photos from the show to post with this, so if you have some (or better yet, video!), let me know, and enjoy the show!

 
icon for podpress  Minus the Bear live in Bloomington, IN, 4-16-08: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

More pictures from Whistler ski vacation

Published by Tristan on April 9, 2008 in family, photos and travel. 0 Comments

Several weeks back I said I’d put some more photos from my ski trip to Whistler, B.C. online. I finally got the film photos back, as well as some digital shots from my parents, so you can check them all out here (though I apologize that they aren’t in any particular order — coming from three sources, I didn’t take the time to name and organize them all accordingly.)

Angie’s List blog; new dogs for adoption; mixing with Ableton Live

Published by Tristan on April 4, 2008 in AdoptAnAnimal.org, Angie's List, Indiana, animals, energy, environment, music and podcast. 0 Comments

This post isn’t as focused as those previous, but read on, kind sirs and madams:

A big week for me at Angie’s List and for Adopt An Animal. At Angie’s List, I set up our magazine department’s blog and released List-en up!’s first true video podcast. I say “true” video because previous episodes were in what was technically a video format, but were basically a still-image slideshow with pictures to accompanying the audio. This time, though, I actually followed a home energy auditor and videotaped the house-inspection process. After watching the video, I hope you have an audit performed on your home to find out how much money you can save through some simple energy-efficient upgrades.

Blue House Blog logoAs for the blog, you’ll notice that its design is basically the same as the Angie’s List podcast site. For the “Blue House Blog,” as we’re calling it (thanks to Brandon Smith, Angie’s List magazine artist and Goldfish Don’t Bounce bandmember, for the awesome logo!), I used the same Wordpress content management system, and the same theme, K2, simply because it works well. It looks good on its own, but is easily customizable and functions quite well for the most part. And though I have little PHP-programming experience, going into the code and fiddling with certain things isn’t too difficult. And there’s a tremendous network of free plugins, forums, and bloggers that serve as terrific resources for any Wordpress-related problem.

On a Wordpress-related note, I’ve posted some more dogs for adoption in Indianapolis at my Wordpress-based Adopt An Animal site. Please check them out (an adult female German Shepherd and adult male Pit-bull mix) and let me know if you or someone you know is interested.

Finally, I hope to install Ableton Live this weekend and create my first digital mix of some songs I’ve been really into lately. If you have any experience with Live and have tips to offer, please let me know. Thanks!