John Mayer - I’m On Fire (Battle Studies bonus track)

I’m enjoying the new John Mayer album including this bonus track, which is a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song.

I bought the following new music over the past couple of weeks:
* John Mayer - Battle Studies [Maybe I’m a sap, but I enjoy John Mayer.  This new album sounds similar to the last one to me.  I’m digging it so far.]
* Dashboard Confessional - Alter The Ending [I bought the deluxe version of the album which contains acoustic versions of all the songs on the regular album.  I’m not sure which versions I like better, but both sound pretty good.  I’ll have to see if this grows on me like the last couple of albums did.]
* John K. Samson - City Route 85 [John K. Samson is the lead singer and guitarist for The Weakerthans.  These songs sound like stripped down Weakerthans songs.  I’m still waiting for this to really grab me.]
* Mat Kearney - Daytrotter Session [I think the latest Mat Kearney album (City Of Black And White) is really catchy.  This session sounds a little more raw, but it is cool to hear a different approach to these songs.  You can download it for free here.]
* Gary Jules - Daytrotter Session [I haven’t heard that much from Gary Jules, but I have enjoyed all the stuff I’ve heard.  This is really simple and really good.  You can download it for free here.]

Here we go again:

On Friday night, my girlfriend and I went to the first Pitt basketball game of the season.  We got season tickets again this year.  Pitt won in a very close game and while it was exciting, it was a harsh reminder that this team is so much younger and less experienced than the team that went to the Elite 8 last year.  I hope they have a good season, but I’m trying to keep my expectations down.

On Saturday, I went to the Pitt football game against Notre Dame (after a few hours of tailgating).  Pitt won 27-22 and they are now 9-1 on the season.  They have a chance to play in a BCS game which is exciting.  While the game had no bearing on the Big East standings, it is always nice to beat Notre Dame.

On Sunday, after watching the Steelers lose to the Bengals, my girlfriend and I went to see Thrice, The Deer Hunter, and Polar Bear Club play at Diesel.  I first heard of Polar Bear Club a few months ago, but I have since bought all of their stuff and I really like it.  They sound similar to Hot Water Music.  I really enjoyed their set.  I had never heard The Deer Hunter, but they played a good set.  I’m not sure how to describe their sound, but it was cool (part Fleet Foxes, part Mars Volta, part Appleseed Cast?).  Thrice played a really strong set.  They played material from the last few albums (back to The Artist In The Ambulance).  That was the third time I’d seen them and they always put on a good show.

Here’s what I did last weekend:

On Saturday afternoon, I went with some friends to the Pitt football game against Syracuse.  The Panthers won convincingly 37-10.  They are now 8-1.  This has definitely been Dave Wannstedt’s best season as the Pitt head coach, but the toughest part of the schedule is yet to come.  The final 4 games are Notre Dame at home, at West Virgina, Cincinnati at home and then a bowl game.  I hope they can keep playing well.

On Saturday night, my friend Troy came to Pittsburgh for The Get Up Kids concert.  We went to Pizza Sola for a slice of pizza before the show and it was delicious.  Then we went to the show.  The Life And Times played first and I really enjoyed their set.  Their space-rock sound reminded me of Failure at points.  Kevin Devine played next and I thought his set was pretty good.  I’m not familiar with his new album, but I was glad that he played Just Stay from Put Your Ghost To Rest.  Then The Get Up Kids played and I was so excited to finally get to see them live.  They played a great set that worked through their entire catalog and included a couple of new songs.

On Sunday morning, my girlfriend and I went down to the Strip District.  We went to Peace, Love, and Little Donuts which recently opened.  We got a sampler with 10 or 15 different little donuts and they were really good.  Then we walked along Penn and stopped at a couple of places.  Jess got a t-shirt (it says ‘On Ice Or Grass, We’ll Kick Your Ass’, celebrating the fact that the Steelers and Penguins are the reigning champions of their leagues).  I got a package of homemade corn tortillas for later (they were delicious).  After that we went to Primanti’s for a sandwich.  Primanti’s is a Pittsburgh tradition, and while I don’t eat there very often, I always really enjoy it when I do.

It really turned into a nice little weekend.  We were going to go to the Home Depot, but there just wasn’t enough time.

I finished reading the latest book by Chuck Klosterman last week.  It is a book of essays entitled Eating The Dinosaur.  I read his book Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs sometime last year.  While I enjoyed both books, I think I liked the new book more.  There were really interesting essays about Kurt Cobain, ABBA, voyeurism, and the Unabomber.  I’m not all that interested in pop culture, but Klosterman has a way of making things interesting and making an analysis of the Weezer discography somehow quite thought provoking.  I’d recommend checking it out.

With Monday night’s win over the Denver Broncos, the Steelers have now played half of their regular season games and are 6-2.  After a rough 1-2 start, they have won 5 games in a row.  Here are my impressions of the season so far:
* The offensive line and the running game (mainly Rashard Mendenhall) have been much better than last year.
* Ben Roethlisberger is having another really good season.
* The defense looked soft early in the year, but they have looked better lately.

I am hopeful that the Steelers can get into the playoffs and make another run at the Super Bowl, but more than anything, I am happy that they are defending the title better this time around than they did in 2006.  Go Steelers!

My new comics arrived last week, and here are the things that I am most excited to read:
1.  Dark Reign: The List: Avengers, New Avengers #58, Dark Avengers #10 (In honor of the Batman shirt that I am wearing today…WHAP!)
2.  Ultimate Comics Avengers #3, Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #2 (BLAM!)
3.  Amazing Spider-man #609, Web Of Spider-man #1 (KAPOW!)
4.  The Marvels Project #3 (WITH YOUR POWERS COMBINED, I AM CAPTAIN PLANET!…wait a second, that’s not right)

I bought the following new music over the past couple of weeks:
* Headlights - Wildlife (My girlfriend and I saw Headlights open up for Mates Of State last year, and after seeing them, their album ‘Some Racing, Some Stopping’ became one of my favorite albums of the year.  This new album sounds really good and I hope to get the chance to see them in concert again.)
* Flight Of The Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky (The new album contains songs from the second season of the HBO show.  Some songs work better than others, but the whole album is pretty entertaining.)
* The Get Up Kids - Daytrotter Session (I can’t wait to hear all the new songs that The Get Up Kids have written and I can’t wait to see them on November 7th at Mr. Small’s.  This session contains a cover, a new song, and 2 classics.  Download it for free here.)
* Old Canes - Feral Harmonic (Old Canes is the side project from Chris Crisci of The Appleseed Cast.  I won free tickets to their concert at the Brillobox last week and my girlfriend and I really enjoyed the show.  The album is folky and energetic.)
* Minus The Bear - Into The Mirror (This 2 song single is the lead-in to their new album which is coming out in 2010.  I’m looking forward to seeing them on November 20th at Mr. Small’s.)

I spent the evening playing around on my guitar and watching sports.  Here’s what I watched:
* Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Montreal Canadiens - The Pens won 6-1 and Sidney Crosby had his 3rd career hat trick.  The Pens have gotten off to a really good start this year…I hope they can keep it going.  During the commercials I flipped over to…
* San Antonio Spurs vs. New Orleans Hornets - The Spurs won 113-96 and DeJuan Blair made his NBA debut.  I loved DeJuan while he was at Pitt and I was glad to see him get off to a good start with the Spurs (14 points, 11 rebounds).  Once both of these games were over, I changed the channel to…
* Philadelphia Phillies vs. New York Yankees - The Phillies won 6-1, which I was excited about, not because I like the Phillies, but because I hate the Yankees.  All in all, it was a pretty nice little evening.

Bill Simmons appears on the first episode of the new season of Mayne Street.  I don’t know why, but I get such a kick out of seeing Simmons on TV and in videos.  He was recently on Mike & Mike and PTI promoting his new book and he has a few other TV appearances lined up (see here).