A Very Good Week
November 3rd, 2007Some weeks are a blur. Too much work, too little time and such. But this was a very good week. For starters, all of my projects at work are going reasonably well. I’ve restructured a few things about how we work together as a team on projects, and so far, things are going swimmingly. For one, I’ve freed up a bit of my days to spend more time on the work that I love. Second, I’m created more opportunities to collaborate with folks. Weeks like this remind me what a difference it makes in life to have a job you enjoy. Faith used to comment how I would come home from WH with a look of utter defeat. Thankfully, those days are long gone.
We also had a bit of fun at work this week for Halloween. We make a very big deal out of Halloween at work – we dress up, we watch movies, we go out for lunch and then spend the afternoon doing something fun together. This year’s activity was a bus tour of haunted sites in Naperville, complete with a session of ghost hunting at the end. Sadly, the ghost hunt was a bit of a bust. We walked around the Naperville trainyard with small EMF detectors, but mine detected nothing spectacular or spectral. Such is life.
Also this week, I was able to catch a few live shows at the Empty Bottle. On Tuesday, Castanets and Tunng played a pair of great sets. Surprisingly, I was happier with the Castanets set, despite having wanted to see Tunng for years. The Castanets set had a lot more emotional intensity to it, and they played both of my favorite songs of theirs – “You Are the Light” and “Good Friend, Yr Hunger”. They also did a surprising cover of “You Got Lucky” by Tom Petty.
By contrast, Tunng’s set was also entertaining but felt lightweight. Maybe they were nervous, but their performance felt forced and disingenuous. However, I’m positive I’m reading too much into that.
The next evening I caught Mobius Band with Doug at the Empty Bottle again. I just don’t understand why Mobius Band isn’t a bigger draw. They have all the same laprock qualities of The Postal Service, with the exception that they’re more prolific (three albums instead of just the one). This is my second time seeing them, and both shows have been excellent. I had the good fortune to pick up their latest album on eMusic last week, and as usual, it does not disappoint.