While cleaning/cooking or doing other manly things around the house couple of weeks I decided to play some sweet talking heads: 77  lp. Well that was short lived i put the record on and nothing happens. With direct drives there is not that much to check if the platter is not spinning. You can check the fuses and that’s pretty much  it without starting to bust of voltage meter (which i don’t have at home).   When I bought my first technics sl d2 like 15 years ago  it was not big deal to get a) needles b) parts  c) you could buy one since little hipsters were not buying them out like crazy… I guess 15 years is a good  millage for record player I believe i changed two needles in that time.

It was time to get something else, who knew that prices of turntables skyrocketed like those gold commercials on am radio. Not only that no one in Omaha was selling one on craigslist. Damm it eBay would have to suffice.   After two weeks i finally managed to get  my new record player. Technics sl 220 a bit of step back from the direct drive but allegedly it worked, minus missing belt.   No biggie you can get those for like 8$ online.  The box come looking like it has been through CIA interrogation, I’m surprised nothing broke. Belt installation was pretty easy 20 second job. Now to listening records… well not so fast. The stylus was all jacked up I could zero in the tone arm but any tracking force adjustment resulted in skidding.    I should of known that bastard had old stylus ( it took me 2 days to figure that out for sure).  Eventually I took my diamond stylus from the old record play and was able to set balance and tracking force in 5 minutes.    This was the reward. “Don’t Fade On Me” never sounded so good.

p.s. st. vincent at slowdown tonight 10$ she’s really good and easy on the eyes

So Miss Megan an I decided to visit my brother in Tucson, AZ before he moves to Chicago. The timing of the trip couldn’t be any better… It was crappy and raining in good old Omaha. I got to see what the whole deicing of the plane, weird stuff. The plan for Arizona was simple go see my brother, hike and drink some good beer show Megan around wonderful town of Tucson. Coolest thing about Tucson bike lanes and trails everywhere and people actually using them. Tucson from cycling point of view would be pretty good you get good elevation gains you have single track, people drive slow. Megan has never been to this town she has never hugged Saguaro Cactus either, well now she can say she did one of those things. On first day we just kind of hung out this whole getting up early business sure can ruin your day. We checked out Dessert Museum it was good except on of the Ursus disappear.  From then on the rest of the week was spend on hiking and baseball.  Tucson has something close to 23 thousand hikes ( well not quite) but  having 3 mountain ranges gives you some option. If I was to rock climbing Tucson would be a great place to go I would assume.. The Seven Falls and Romero Pools hikes were sweet. The cacti and wild flowers were blooming, the weather was nice traffic was down.   The libation department was great as well from great beer (Greenflash’s La Freak might have to be my new fave)  and pizza to sweet Vietnamese and mexican cooking.  Wednesday Megan and I went to Arizona Diamondback game, the game was not a good one first pitch line drive HR but the stadium is nice.  West Coast people have diffrent idea about the baseball games for them I believe it’s place to relax and to get worked up quite different from Midwest/east coast teams…

We made it back home after nice couple of days off, to top off the mini vacation we headed to Waiting room for some Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy action. Place was busy but not packed the show was great I do love me some alt country fiddling. Older crowd for sure all the kiddies must of been at slowdown for some Oberst action.

Biking in to work I realized how windy it really is in Omaha.

I’ve been to Stir twice once for Flaming Lips another for MMJ last night. Couple of observations:

a) Stir is weird place (it’s a the casino, its on the hill , there are tons of security guards everywhere)

b) A lot of people from lincoln apperantly love MMJ (accually that is not that suprising)

c) Jim James has two acts accoustic and electric it’s kind of like Bruce Springsteen ( totally two diffrent bands)

d) Jim James’ humor borders on funny/ his vampire cape does not

e) the new MMJ album is horrible the only played couple of songs ( thank god)

f) I can’t wait until the bridge is ready it might quicer to walk to my work then to drive home

Tranquility tonight for all you crazy people who want to join us…

Yes yes it’s true  David Byrne is coming to Omaha.  If you never been to one of his shows and you love Talking Heads you must go it’s probably one of the better live shows you can see it’s at the holland performing art center which makes it even better since the sound at that place is just amazing…  I was told that David dance pretty awkwardly for white guy ( whatever i don’t care anyhow)

Last night i hit up Swanson for some single track action, i ran in to Jeff from goatheads. It was perfect conditions for riding i only did half of lap my chain snapped  and I had no chain tool ( the irony continues i had power link  but no tool to take out the old link) Snap…. Got to get ready for the wedding Friday.

Last weekend, Megan an I piled on to the california zephyr and headed towards the  windy city.  The Amtrak is pretty nice if you are not in the hurry to get anywhere and if not planning on eating their food. My advice for anyone considering the train; plan in advance, allow 3-4 hours of leeway and bring as much food as you can carry and if you like beer or something stronger bring that as well unless you want to pay airplane prices. The main reason for the trip was lollapalooza . With two great bands playing two nights Radiohead and Rage it was hard not too go… Another reason was free lodging at my friend leah’s house in Ukrainian village… I must admit some of the friends of our family used to live there in 1990′s and that place looked a lot different than it does now.. It was a lot more Ukrainian and less hipster… but i digress… I think hipster neighborhood are pretty funny… in way it’s like one trying to keep up with the jones’  in coolness… ironic you say? yes it is but that’s the point…

Leah took us to couple good places including the  Map Room, some sushi place which was B.Y.O.B…, the food was pretty good from what i remember but it’s not like you can have bad sushi…

Thursday we went to check out Shed Aquarium and Field Natural History Museum for some culture… Both I highly recommend if you never been worth the price of admission…

The festival was pretty awesome for most part the parts that sucked were normal list of complains at the festivals such as:

• hot weather
• lines
• toilets
• long walks between stages

Here the list of the shows/artist that we did get to chance to see…They were all pretty good except Black keys (technical issue of sound delay on some of the speakers made us leave halfway through the set)

• Day 1

• Radiohead (Great)
• Black Keys ( Technical Issues otherwise good set)
• Gogol Bordello ( energy packed show –> great)
• Yeasayer ( good as always)
• Cat Power (mellow set)
• CSS (Crazy dancing music okay)
• Grizzly Bear ( good set as always)

• Day 2

• Devotchka ( pro’s like always)
• Okkervil River ( i didn’t know they can play big)
• Explosion in the Sky ( instrumental bliss)
• Battles ( math “stoner” music)
• Toddies ( i don’t  know why people like them)
• Rage ( craziness ensued)

• Day 3

• Brazilian Girls (pretty good dance music annoying lead singer)
• Chromeo ( holly crap 80′s are coming back)
• Black Kids ( i don’t know what to say… indie pop)
• Iron and Wine ( groovy man)
• Gnarls Barkley ( good set nice costumes)
• National (pretty good)
• Kanye West ( not my thing but pretty good)

This last weekend was pretty slow for most part a lot of work around a house a trip to films streams for “son of rambow“. Saturday was spend riding up north in the morning, watching some of the DNC rules committee on cnn and some IPA drinking at night. For those of you who don’t know Omaha should be pretty much smoke free starting July 1st.

In other news, Megan and I will be taking the California Zephyr to Chicago for lollapalooza end of July. It turned out that Amtrak was the cheapest mode of travel costing us only 240$ for round-trip reservation. This should be pretty fun experience as I have never been on Amtrak and Megan has never traveled via train.