Strawberry report

No harvest Saturday, due to inclement weather.

Paid for that today, with a much worsened rot/ripe ratio. Still got most of a quart of good ones, but with a lot more effort than usual.

JoCo Concert

kestrell and I went to see Jonathan Coulton on Friday night. Overall a good time, though with some definite down sides.

Down side #1: The Paradise has remodeled since the last time we were there. They removed most of the old seating. Now, the only remaining seating options are benches at the back of the balcony. You cannot both sit and actually see the stage. Makes me reluctant to go back there again.

Down side #2: The opening act (NOT Paul & Storm) was an acoustic guitarist who was pretty awful. Whiny repetitive songs, with 'clever' musical structures that made them neither catchy nor dance-able. Also, in his 'banter' he seemed to neither understand nor be comfortable with either women or geeks. JoCo claimed to be a big fan of his, but I guess there's no accounting for taste.

Once JoCo actually came on, the energy in the hall ratcheted up a LOT. He's clearly enjoying having a band to do the rock star thing. For the opening number, JoCo was playing some odd sampling device which alternately produced 8-bit chiptune notes and sampled bits of Skullcrusher Mountain. Weird, but cool. Many classic songs, and a few from the new album, plus the new song he wrote for John Scalzi, "Redshirt". Kes and I had great fun singing along (or, occasionally, counter to) the music. We headed out during the start of the encore, so as to beat the rush home.