jmoiron.net

Palomar played tonight at Mercury Lounge with Hockey Night and some 2 piece that I didn't stick around to see. The playfulness and joy that Palomar show when they're playing is totally infectious; Randy told me that they were going to be playing in New Brunswick next week and I am really looking forward to bumming a ride from someone and catching that show. Their new album is coming out "Sometime..."

Hockey Night also impressed with their 70's feel. When they really got into a groove (3 of their 8 song set), they were really enjoyable. I hadn't heard them previously, but they seemed to be at their best when they were incorperating some disco into their stuff. Although it wasn't quite the same feeling as Palomar before them, these guys had fun while playing, and they played tight.

One thing that I've noticed about Japanese bands is that they never seem to be having fun on stage. The ones that live here (and sing in Japanese) probably have trouble getting record deals and keeping down jobs that are flexible enough to make the band work out without friction. Those that are visiting must feel somewhat alienated or intimidated, especially when their English is poor. Note that the Pillows were an exception to this, as were the unfortunately named Doodoos. The reason I bring this up is that I missed out on a chance to see the most solemn of them all, MONO, this past tuesday.

I've been somewhat delaying the announcement publically, partly because there were some people I still needed to tell in person and also because I seem to cry wolf on this kinda thing quite often, but I'll be moving from my current apartment to one in Hoboken on June 1st. Also on June 1st, I start levels 3 & 4 of Japanese (with Minamoto-sensei again) at the Japan Society. If I can read it by next year reasonably well I will be extremely pround of myself. There's actually something else happening at the beginning of June that I'm really excited about, but I don't know if its a secret or not so I won't mention it aloud for now! So now, If anyone (who knows me, or is cute) wants to get together for some drinks sometime in Hoboken, I'm all over it. Part of the reason for the move is so that I can do what I want (hang out and meet people) without constantly wondering how I'm going to get home.

Every few months I claim that I am writing some brand new system to host this site. In my mind it's going to do about two hundred thousand different things each more awesome than the last, everyone will love it, and my backend software will thrust me to the forefront of the literati. In reality, I never get past ugly proofs of concept rife with glaring bugs. I am not sure what this means; am I a horrible programmer, a horrible system architect, do I not have the time or the patience or even the mental stamina to work on a project and not abandon it?

Well, this iteration of the cycle, I decided to learn something that seems like it's really starting to hit critical mass: Django. Django is a python web framework "for perfectionists with deadlines", and somewhat follows the model-view-controller method of development. Of course, every framework these days is loaded with buzzwords that all say "I'll let you separate your data from your logic and your logic from your presentation" (even the ones that I've attempted to construct myself), but the loose coupling always feels like it gets torn around the edges.

Django not only does a good job at maintaining the loose coupling of the system, but also (somewhat more importantly) comes with tools to do the things that are boring and repetitive quick and elegantly. The documentation that exists is quite good, especially their 4 part tutorial, but once you start to leave this scope you are pretty much on your own. #django@irc.freenode.net is a decent source of information to answer quick questions, and the people there (even the Django developers) are very open to ideas on how some things might be done differently.

One last note. Due to massive comments spam (2500!) I've silently disabled the comments. They'll be re-enabled with the next version of the site (HEH) launches sometime early June. Sometime!