Tales of a Concert Junkie From Poulsbo

I wish I had taken screenshots last week of my Comcast bandwidth meter. Then I’d have actual visual proof that I didn’t plan on going over my montlhy allotment of 250 gigs. It would also be nice if there was a way that I could see daily usage on Comcast’s site to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating when following the bandwidth meter last week. Going over by 5-10 gigs isn’t bad (IMHO), but I had no intention of going over by 36 gigs.

As you can see I went over by quite a bit this month. You’ll notice when looking at the other months that I’m right around 250 or slightly more/less than that. I’m not trying to lose the family’s Internet account. Neither am I trying to play games with Comcast. I use their bandwidth meter as my guide for how much I download per month.

Am I a heavy user? You bet! Am I the type that has torrents running 24/7? Nope. Do I run my newsgroup leeching software at full bore 24/7? Nope.

I do use those tools though. and I’m not going to lie to you about it. I use torrents on Dime to get concerts taped by other folk around the world, torrents are used to download the Japanese/Korean shows I like to watch (with subtitles graciously provided by fansubbing groups). I use Newsleecher with SuperSearch to find Asian anime/TV shows that I want to watch. I also prefer 720p/1080 caps. I generally choose the 720p versions since most Korean 1080 caps area bout 8 gigs an episode. I can’t afford that on a monthly basis.

Last week, I knew that I was going to be gone for the holiday weekend. According to the bandwidth meter I had ample room to download some of the Japanese/Korean shows I’d been on the fence about (I check the bandwidth meter several times a week, if not daily). I downloaded them and when I left for Oregon on Friday, the bandwidth meter had me pegged at 241 gigs. Plenty of breathing room for the month. Last night, I got home and the meter showed 283 gigs! Wow.

I remembered turning off all my computers before I left, so I logged into my router flashed with Tomato and checked the bandwidth logs. Essentially my router logged almost zero wan traffic during the time we were gone. So, what happened?

My best guess after analyzing my router bandwidth was that the Comcast bandwidth meter was not accurately reflecting what I was using. I know that Actual usage shown is not real-time and could be delayed up to 3 hours. But mine seems to have been delayed by days and now I’m over the amount.

You may ask why I’m relying on the Comcast bandwidth meter instead of my router (which is much more accurate). Well, Comcast bases their information on their data and not what my router is logging. So, I follow their bandwidth meter instead of what Tomato is logging. Of course, I did flash my router with a new version of Tomato and lost my data for the month on my router. I have to figure out how to save that data and then get it back in. Another thing to work on.

So, I will wait for my call (which I hope doesn’t happen) and carry on making sure my usuage stays under 250 gigs a month. Thanks a bunch Comcast.

6-2-11 Edit
It sounds like I’m not the only one that experienced this anomaly. On the DSLreports.com forums, a few other members had the same issue I did. Several posts talk about their bandwidth meters being frozen and then suddenly a few days later, their bandwidth is much higher than they expected.

I find this irritating because how can users trust a tool that has not worked as described on more than one occasion. Some users have experirenced their meters being frozen and nothing ever comes out of it, but others than find out they used much more than expected.

In reality, Comcast does not need a data cap. I really don’t believe they do. They want to throttle the heaviest users out their. If a user is determined to be affecting other users adversely, than I don’t mind some sort of intervention. But in reality, this is just a ploy for Comcast to keep us from streaming more and more shows/movies online to the point that users decide they won’t need cable services to watch all these programs that are often available freely (or at a drastically reduced price than what users pay for their cable TV premiums each month).

When I first started blogging a few years ago, I actually enjoyed it. Then life got super busy or I got lazier and I stopped blogging (if you know me well enough, I’m sure you can figure out which category I’d fall into). For the last six to 12 months, I keep telling myself that I’m going to start blogging again, but I don’t. I actually want to. I think it would be interesting to jot down my thoughts again. Not that I’m famous for my thoughts or have anythign remotely interesting for the rest of the world, but at least I’d let the world know what I think. Instead I either get home fall asleep or continually look for new records to buy, items to spend money on, or foreign TV shows to follow (not to mention the PPV shows like Spartacus and Game of Thrones that I’m following righ tnow). It is a never ending battle with me. Time and lack of it (or laziness). Not to mention that this lacrosse season is kicking my butt. I guess that’s what being president of the local lacrosse organization does for me.

Summer Cats played a show in Seattle this past summer. What a shame that more people didn’t know about it since it was such a good show in an incredibly hot house. Unfortunately for the Summer Cats, KEXP started playing the heck out of their latest release after their Seattle appearance. Then maybe more people would have shown up, a bigger venue announced, a longer set played…who knows?

In June is probably my favorite song released last year. Yeah, I know. I like lots of songs and bands, but for an officially released song from 2009, In June might have to be it (favorite undiscovered song I heard last year was They’re There by Cosgrove that was released in 1997 on a compilation CD–Is this the only Cosgrove song in existence?). I could listen to this song over and over and over again. Actually, their whole CD is fab. If you want to listen to an incredibly wonderful CD, pick up Songs For Tuesdays. You won’t be disappointed.

I decided to get back into the world of blogging tonight. Actually, I’ve had blog posts in my mid for the last six months, but they never come out on here. I’m simply not a writer. What am I you may ask? Actually, I’m not to sure of that myself. You think that after 38 years on this globe I’d have a better answer for you. Well, I don’t. I do consider myself lucky though with the people that involved or have involved me in there lives.

This wasn’t mean to be some corny post, so I won’t go there. Suffice it to say, I’m going to give this blogging thing another go. Plus, wordpress has this cool (albeit expenisve) videopress upgrade that may do my videos for me like I have been wanting. So, we shall see.

Tonight though didn’t go as smoothly as I thought it would. WordPress wanted to upgrade my site from 2.8.6 to 2.9.1. That didn’t go the way I wanted. Finally, I surfed the web for some handholding and used this site to help me: http://www.expand2web.com/blog/wordpress-2-9-upgrade-mysql/. Thanks to him, I was able to upgrade and here I am.

My other post will go on hold until I have more time.

I found out about this band playing The Comet in Seattle tonight. I was interested as soon as I saw references to 80′s Discord bands and even mentioned Fugazi. My concert buddy is unavailable tonight, so I’d have to drive over by myself and right now, I’m simply not feeling it. Does this mean I’m getting old?

No way! I thought this day would never come. Everwood Season 2 comes out on DVD next week. I am so there.

Season 1 came out with a bit of a whimper. How else can you explain the wait we’ve had for this season. I think I’ve read online that it took five years for this release to come out. I really hope that we don’t have to wait another five years for Season 3 and then another 5 years for Season 4.

I absolutely loved this show and was gutted when the WB decided to cancel it to bring back Seventh Heaven after Seventh Heaven had been cancelled. Huge mistake and Seventh Heaven had run its course the season before. I have no idea what Movie/TV companies think when they have their meetings about which shows to cancel, extend, or pilot.

I knew that Placebo had a new CD coming out (last week in the UK) and I really didn’t expect a US release for another month or so. Imagine my surprise when I was checking out the Best Buy ad today and saw that not only is the CD being released in the States this week, but Best Buy has it on sale this week for $7.99. You can’t beat that price.

Honestly, I’ve already listened to the CD and think it is quite good. I also heard their concert from Rock Am Ring from last week and so I’m on a bit of a Placebo kick right now.

Maybe all it takes to get me blogging again is a new Placebo Cd release. Who knows. I’ve had all sorts of blogging ideas in the past two months with no desire to actually log on and blog.

You should buy the new CD. I think you might like it. Also, when did Placebo get a new drummer?

I can’t remember when the Coachella Music and Arts Festival started, but it’s been going on for at least 8-9 years. Maybe longer, I just don’t know and I’m to lazy to look up a wiki to find out that answer. I do know that Coachella has become quite a popular festival over this time and many bands come from far away to play. While I’ve never been to Coachella and really and don’t ever plan on going (this is the second time The Cure has played), the effects of Coachella are felt far away in Seattle.

Just looking at the main acts you can see that this festival has a lot going on and gets some good bands. Although this year with Paul McCartney on the bill, I think it loses some cred, but that is just me. Now if it was the rest of the Beatles, that would be something different, but Paul doesn’t strike me as the type of guy that would be playing Coachella since when he does tour he charges an arm, a leg, and your first newborn to see him–OK, maybe not the newborn, that honor would probably go to Barbara Streistand or something, but I think you catch my drift.

Since all these bands are coming out to California in April, inevitably that leads to a west coast our if not a full blown tour of the US for many of the acts and this is where the Coachella effect hits me in the Pacific Northwest–too many bands play during the month of April. If it was spread out a bit more, that would be super, but it isn’t.

Last week, I was at four different shows. Four great shows, but they all add up. Of course, one of the shows wasn’t really Coachella related and I’m not sure Travis is playing Coachella at all, but still because of Coachella I’m left scrambling trying to decide what shows to attend and which shows to skip.

Take for example, this week.
Tonight I’m going to Glasvegas with Brian (and I could just as easilly be doing Franz Ferdinand or Turbonegro–Andreas and Anna really like them–but I had by Glasvegas ticket before the others were announced. Glasvegas is a good band that isn’t really doing anything all that new, but I like them. They played the Chop Suey back in January and are now back in Seattle for a larger gig–although I don’t think tonight’s show is a sell out or anything.

Glasvegas builds a wall of sound that fills your body with music, then you find yourself singing along to their chorus, and by the end of the song wanting even more. To me they have some classic songs and while their album is good, some songs work better than others. Personally, I hope they play there two bonus tracks included on the US release of their CD as I find them quite good. I doubt that will happen and I don’t think this show will last longer than an hour, but that is alright with me especially if I can catch that 12:15 ferry home. I love it when I can catch that early ferry. Here’s The Stranger weighing in on Tonights show:

Glasvegas, Von Iva

(Neumos) Glasvegas’s excellent self-titled debut is full of big, soaring, cathartically slushy rock songs that beg to be sung along to—at the band’s live shows (which are also excellent), in the shower, while jogging (“Go Square Go” will cause you to run too fast and break your ankle, but it will be worth it). Singer/guitarist/former footballer James Allan sings with a Scottish accent and a terrifically overblown sense of melancholy that are, in combination, totally swoonworthy (also, I am somehow completely charmed rather than put off by the band’s silly greaser aesthetic and Allan’s pomaded shelf of hair). And the band bathes his songs in walls of sound and washes of reverb that should make Phil Spector and the Jesus and Mary Chain proud. Of their many fine songs, I’m currently most taken with the anthemic, airborne single “Geraldine.” ERIC GRANDY”

Tomorrow night in town is another British buzz band called Late of the Pier. I’d really like to see them, but not sure I can pull it off. I’ll probably try, but let’s look at shows for the rest of the week as well, to put this into perspective of why the Coachella effect is bad for me.

Thursday night El Ten Eleven rolls through town and they aren’t playing Coachella, but since the Coachella effect is in place, it makes hitting smaller or local bands hard to hit. Last week, I missed Wavves (a band I just found out about) and Born Anchor (a Seattle band that I just found out about as well). If I wasn’t trying to figure out how to get to the Coachella bands running through town, I may have found out about those other bands playing sooner or at least before they played their show in Seattle!

Late of the Pier plays tomorrow and while the local press has mentioned the opening band The Whips more than Late of the Pier, I find Late of the Pier to be the superior band. But what do I know?

Here’s what the Seattle Weekly says:
The Whip ~ Tuesday, April 14
On their debut disc, X Marks Destination (released March 3), UK-based dance/rock quartet the Whip emphasizes instrument-fueled musicianship as much as machine-powered mechanization. It’s a combo that makes for potent, refreshing listening, reflecting lead singer/guitarist Bruce Carter and keyboardist Danny Saville’s background in the band Nylon Pylon, as well as their previous lives as club promoters. Think Fleetwood Mac meets Felix da Housecat. Rave-rock opener “Trash” loops fuzz and bass around a teenage anthem-style hook that proclaims “I wanna be trash!” More dance-centric jams include “Fire,” a blazing inferno of feedback and metallic pulsation, and “Sister Siam,” a sonorous electro-fied reconfiguration of a Nylon Pylon tune. The Whip aren’t the next big thing, but they’ll make you pine for some E. With Late of the Pier. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St., 324-8000. 8 p.m. $12.50 adv./$14 DOS. ” And again, not only does Seattle Weekly concentrate on The Whip, but so does the Stranger:
Tuesday 4/14
Late of the Pier, the Whip
(Chop Suey) First of all, let’s take a moment to remember Jared Warren, Joe Preston, and Scott Jernigan’s excellent band the Whip (RIP). This is not that band. Rather, this Whip are a foursome from Manchester, England, that carry that city’s legacy of meshing vocal rock and electronic dance music on to pleasant but not always remarkable ends—certainly good enough to get a dance floor moving at peak hour, but maybe a little hard to recall all that well through the next morning’s hangover. Depending on what dance floors you frequent (and, I suppose, the severity of your hangovers), you may know the Whip from their breakout 2006 single “Trash” (or its many remixes), a catchy, would-be-sing-along (“I wanna be trash” would be the sing-along part, not “And I have become the trigger for your gun”), which opens their hit-and-miss new album, X Marks Destination. ERIC GRANDY

So, it could be a good show. I may just have to go. You only live once and I can Sleep When I’m Dead as I recently told Brian.

Yes, in the world of keeping a blog up-to-date, I suck. I just noticed that I haven’t posted in almost a month (two days shy it appears). I’ve had several things I was going to “blog” about, but never got around to it. I’ll try to be better about this and get some of my ideas down on the blog instead of thoughts floating around my brain as I drive or fall asleep at night. It seems my best ideas are when I’m not motivated to sit at the computer or when I can’t be at the computer. Now, if I could just be connected to the Internet 24/7 and have my thoughts transferred to my blog, I’d be a happy camper, but I don’t think we’ve come that far yet.

We are going to watch the M’s play today in Peoria. I never thought I’d catch a spring training game, but here I am. It also appears that King Felix will be starting and pitching the first few innings. I’m excited to see the team this close to the season starting. I think they have their first game of the season on the 6th so that is right around the corner. I wonder who we will see today?