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Monthly Archives: January 2010
#087; it’s a small world after all…
At Limbo is back in the District tonight! I’ve much awesome to write about, including a trip to the legendary Bitter End in NYC with BP (photographer extraordinaire) and Adrian Hardkor (who played while we were up there tonight).
First up soon will surely be a recap of my week with Mickey & friends and a review of the Drunk Tigers, who have an album coming out in a few weeks.
Hope your week has been a great one, and I’ll catch you all again as I finish catching up on real life!
#086; it’s been a few fridays since I’ve been in love
I’ve skipped nearly a month’s worth of Friday I’m in Love entries! Blog Fail, I know. But I’m back with possibly the best Friday I’m in Love ever. Wanna know why? Because people are charitable and awesome, and I’m going to The Happiest Place on Earth.
First up… IOTA‘s Haiti Benefit for the Red Cross. This showcase include performances by 15+ local artists (some of my favorites are on the bill!), and IOTA’s asking for donations with all proceeds going to the Red Cross for the rescue and clean up efforts in Haiti. I’ve been looking forward to this event all week and have been pestering everyone I know to come on down to Clarendon for the night. Artists ranging from Rene Moffatt to Helo, Tom McBride to Brother Shamus, Derek Evry to No Second Troy – you really, really don’t want to miss out tonight. Show starts at 8pm and your donation is your entrance fee (so even the smallest amount you can give will help!). The “full” list (because they’ve been adding all week and knowing this group someone will pop up and join in out of nowhere!) of artists can be found at IOTA’s website.
Second, and a bit of a warning in itself, is that I’m winging it to Disney World Sunday morning! As my family finally celebrates the holidays with our annual get together, we will be showing my young nephews (6yrs & 8yrs) the big Mouse house for the first time. And so, I probably won’t be around much until the end of the month/beginning of next month.
However! I am so excited about February! Some great shows (Drunk Tigers & New Rock Church of Fire @ IOTA springs immediately to mind, but No Second Troy’ll be at the 9:30 Club, too!), some fun stuff here (did I mention me and my boy BP are having a photo shoot on Saturday?! If you’re a musician/into the scene in the area and want to join us, get in touch via email!), and I’ll be (finally) starting my guitar lessons so there will be much in the way of “OMG WHAT WAS I THINKING?! I WRITE ABOUT MUSIC, I DON’T PLAY IT!” posts to amuse you.
Have a great end of January, folks, hope that 2010 is living up to all the expectations you’ve had so far!
#085; to blip or not to blip?
I’ve been doing some research into the best ways to cut down on my bad habits (spending, drinking, smoking Marlboros…) and today I came across a CNN article about a site (invested in part by Evan Williams, whom I can only assume is the same Ev of Twitter) called Blippy. I’ve started looking into the service and I think that – used properly, of course – it could be a good way to publicly keep my spending (and thus drinking and smoking) habits in check.
No matter how open I am online (personally, including constantly Tweeting what shows I’m at and the like), I’m skittish.
While I never truly live beyond my means (I keep within a tight budget every month and pay my bills on time no matter what else gets sacrificed in the process. Grocery shopping? Bah. Ramen works!), I hate feeling so stretched so often. I’d love to work on this in 2010. I’d also love to quit smoking and cut back on the amount of money I spend on bar food and cocktails. Budgeting hasn’t worked because I always stay within my budget but I’d like to see how much further I can go. Something about the public-watching aspect of Blippy makes me think it might be the push I need in the right direction. To know what somewhere in the cosmos, someone’s checking up on me. (True, one of the joys of being on your own in your mid-20′s is the fact that no one’s checking up on you but for some things, you have to admit, it’s a great incentive).
Blippy’s gotten a bit of good press now, with Pete Cashmore of Mashable covering it for CNN as well, and the Washington Post hitting on it just a couple of days ago. As far as I can tell the media picked up on it about a month and a half ago and most of the coverage has been positive. All signs seem to be pointing to this as a fun, easy way to keep track of my spending and allow others their opinion while I’m at it.
But there’s still that skittish-ness.
What are your thoughts? How do you go about saving money? What styles of budgeting to you lean on? Are there other sites out there that you’d suggest? And of course, are you Blipping?