(no subject)

[badlydrawnben]

My parents recently offered me a very generous birthday-related donation to be put toward the purchase of a brand new iPod. I was a bit surprised to find they're only making the 20 and 40 GB ones now, but since the price has dropped significantly for both I can hardly complain. It dawned on me that there ought be a number of iPod competitors now that it's been around for a while. Nearly every article I read still gave the iPod pretty high marks (largely based on ease of use), but a number of others ranked better, namely the iRiver and the Rio Karma. Both have longer batteries and boast better sound quality. The iRiver can also record from an audio-in source like a mic or a soundboard and can be used as a portable hard-drive on any computer without installing software. I'm edging towards the iRiver right now, but I'm curious as to whether or not any of you have any experience with any non-iPod mp3 players. The only reason I'm still considering an iPod is largely because of Apple's great customer service record.

Even though I'll probably only see a small fraction of these shows, I love being reminded why the fuck I moved here in the first place. Here's 23 more:

9/2 Electrelane
9/15 Fly Pan Am
9/17 Hayden
9/20 Trashcan Sinatras
9/22 Ghost
9/22 Sixtoo
9/26 Metric
9/30 Supergrass
10/1 Wilco
10/3 Mates of States
10/5 Rilo Kiley
10/8 The Stills
10/9 Solex, On!Air!Library!
10/10 Mountain Goats
10/12 The Faint, TV on the Radio
10/13 Juana Molina
10/16 Camper van Beethoven
10/21 And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
10/25 Mouse on Mars
10/27 Rasputina
11/1 KMFDM (I'm normally not intested in these guys, but they're playing at a venue about 1/10th the size of one they'd normally play here...)
11/14 Sufjan Stevens
11/17 Delgados