Loud. Really loud. I enjoy the feedback/fuzz as much as anyone, probably more than most, but this was even more than I could have imagined. The first sign that it might be louder than I was expecting was the kid handing out ear plugs at the door. No, seriously.

I had a great time even though I don’t know every note in the My Bloody Valentine catalog. The songs I knew sounded like they were supposed to live: everything turned up to 11 but within the structure of the song. They ended the night with 12-minutes of distorted feedback that started loud and ended as jet noise. You could literally raise your hand and feel the sound. It was just crazy.

The National is such a great place to see a show. Good job getting this gig, RVA.

Mike posted a link in the comments to some video from the show. Awesome:

As an unabashed Jack White fan and a late-in-life fan of Led Zeppelin, It Might Get Loud is right in my wheelhouse.

Mercy.

Saturday, August 8, 2009 – 8 p.m. Starts and ends at Sports Backers Stadium. Its a night time ride for families. They offer a 2 ride lengths, 8- and 17-miles, and I Emma and I are definitely going to do it. I don’t know if she has 17 miles in her today, but she might by then.

Here’s the signup link.

Overall, I have to say my first triathlon experience was good.

Since the start was a pool swim you had to submit an estimated swim time for 100 meters. I had no idea what to put so I just guessed at 2:30. That meant I started back where the poor swimmers were so I ended up passing 7-8 people in the pool. I probably could have listed my time as 2:00 and been okay. There were also some hangups in the pool just from people stopping and walking in the middle (the water was only 5 feet deep) but it all seemed to go off pretty smoothly.

Got to the first transition okay but was just slow getting into my bike gear. I didn’t really have a plan, just a neat pile of my stuff, and I was pretty slow as a result.

Once I got on the bike I felt really good. I passed a bunch of folks that I should have passed and the folks that passed me were all clearly very strong cyclists (and apparently poor swimmers). I was moving pretty good but lost a little steam at the end because I ran out of water on the ride.

I had a much smoother 2nd transition since there were fewer moving parts but I was pretty gassed. I tried to make up my hydration deficit on the way out of the transition area. This plan backfired since I ended up with a lot of water in my stomach right at the beginning of the run. It got pretty sloshy which isn’t a good thing.

My left calf was threatening to cramp out on every step for the first 50 yards of the run so I had to stop and stretch it out on the curb for a full 30 seconds. My calf was much better after that but my tank was on E. I’m not a very accomplished runner and I don’t particularly enjoy it. I probably got passed by 25 people (and that’s a conservative guess) on the run portion. With some serious running training I would have been much better on the 3rd leg but I just won’t get out there and mash the miles. I walked a lot.

Things to work on for the next one:

* timed swimming training. I didn’t really do any serious training outside of biking so I will definitely do some real swimming so I start where I belong.
* T1 practice. I could get 1:30 back with a tight, well-rehearsed plan for T1. T2 is just changing shoes. I can change my shoes.
* running miles and miles. If I could go the whole 5k without any walking I’d be 10 minutes faster
* electrolyte consumption. I hit my Gu marks well and felt the boost from them, but I ended up dehydrated and it killed me in the 2nd half of the race.

I finished last in my group (Novice Male) but not last on the Male side. I think there was a really old guy I beat, and maybe a couple of other people who were just slower. I also beat some non-finishers. I wasn’t the last guy on the course, which was really my only goal.

I hit home for a quick shower and then we went to Millie’s for brunch. Then I took a 2-hour nap. It was a good day.

Huck Gee does all kinds of crazy, crazy custom work off of the Dunny template. This might be the best of his that I’ve seen. 10 Pieces at $800 per puts them way, way out of my league. It’s cool to look at, though.

[via Vinyl Pulse, the source]

I’m going to try a triathlon next weekend, the 2009 3Sports Triathlon. A buddy pitched this particular event as a way to try out a triathlon since it has a super-short pool swim (just 300m), as opposed to an open water swim or something in the 600m pool swim range.

I’ve been riding my bike a lot since last summer and I have been meeting folks who ride in bike races and who race in triathlons. I’m no racer but the idea of completing a triathlon, of any length, is especially intriguing. It turns out that I have spent 2009 doing things I’ve never done, so now I’m all signed up and ready to go do a triathlon. I’m a decent swimmer and I am okay on the bike. I’m not much a runner, though, so that’s the bit of the day I am anxious about.

If this goes well, and I really expect it to be fun and exhausting, I’m going to try something with an open-water swim soon after. We have a full triathlon calendar here in the Richmond area. It’s pretty cool.

Cool Hunting has the interview. It’s short, but it’s not like they need to sell me on it. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

Actually, the “interview” sucks. Let’s just call this a reminder that the DVD set comes out next week.

Just sick. No word on when they’re on sale but I will pass it along as soon as I hear anything.

Here it is, LARGE.

[you know I got the tip from OMGposters, Mitch sees all!]

Go here to listen to a couple of songs. You can find tour dates for the Fall there as well. Sounds pretty good to me.

The album is due September 29th.

They have a new video coming out in a couple of weeks directed by Jonathan Glazer. I like these.