My birthday, I have to say, was pretty awesome. It was everything that I wanted it to be, which to some might sound boring; but to me was nearly perfect. The only way it would have been better is if Holly hadn’t been so sick.

As it stands, we traded horrible illnesses on eachother’s birthdays this year. I had a four day bout of stomach flu for her birthday, and I don’t know for sure what she has right now but it is really terrible. I fear for my life if I catch it, because she hardly ever gets sick.

The whole birthday experience has really been extended into more of a season this year. It started in August while we were in New Brunswick to visit my family and go to a wedding. And it will end on November 24th, when we go to see the Detroit Red Wings annihilate the Vancouver Canucks. I’m thinking 5-2.

I really can’t wait to go. I have never had a chance to see the Red Wings play live. Hank, Pavel, Nick, Ozzie; it’s going to be a great time. Even if I am the only one in the arena cheering for the Wings.

To top it all off, in all of 3D Realms’ infinite wisdom, Duke Nukem 3D came out on Xbox Live Arcade on my birthday as well. I downloaded it and jumped right in. Within a couple of minutes I was laughing and flat out loving it. I’ve missed Duke. Any time you take lines from old Sam Raimi and John Carpenter movies, and throw them into a world being invaded by aliens… it’s just magic. Why Sam or John haven’t made a Duke Nukem movie, I’ll never know.

Tonight there will be some Duke Nukem happening for Friendly Fire Friday. I always look forward to FFFs, but I’m really looking forward to this one. I expect the universe will step in and cause the internet to implode so that it can’t happen.

I think I’m going to start adding some tracks of the day to my posts.

Tracks of the Day
Kids by MGMT from Oracular Spectacular
Big Casino by Jimmy Eat World from Chasing the Light

We went to see a concert a few weeks ago. Alanis Morrisette opened up for Matchbox 20. We happen to be fans of both. At least we were. I realized that I only liked Alanis’ Jagged Little Pill album.

Matchbox 20 put on a pretty good show. They played most of their faster paced songs and made an effort to get the fans up and dancing a few times. The video and light show was interesting as well. They were a little weak between songs though. There was a lot of dead air as they setup for the next song each time.

The true gem of the show was the opening opening act, Mute Math. The most adequate way I can describe Mute Math is by saying that they are more enjoyable to watch than to listen too. They really put on a wild show.

The drummer for Mute Math was unlike any other drummer I had ever seen. His style was clearly influenced by Animal from the muppets. Where most drummers use a lot of wrist and forearm power and movement to drum, this guy drummed with wide, energetic swings. He seemed to have almost limitless energy.

Initially when the started playing you would never expect to see the show turn into what it eventually does. They move a little and play enthusiastically, as any band starting out does; but then it just goes crazy.

The lead singer was running all over the stage, spring boarding over the piano, slamming himself into the keys making a perfect sound for the song. Over and over he just three himself into the keys on the piano, and it all sounded right.

After that things calmed down a bit until the end of the final song they played. At that point, the show went berserk. The drummer ran around drumming on everything in sight until his sticks broke, then he’d pull out another set and go drum on something else. At one point he stacked the drum on top of the piano, then climbed onto the drum and started clapping his hands. The place went nuts!

Then he hopped down and ran back to the drumset, dumped some water on the drums, and drummed away as the lights strobed. It was a fantastic effect. I’m not sure if their part of the show ended because they ran out of time, or because they had broken all of their instruments, either way; it was great!

As soon as their set ended, Holly ran out and bought the album