Jay Gerland's The Black Dog

18 years after the first time I saw the Circle Jerks in concert (1985 at Buffalo State College), I saw them again and eventhough they played pretty well, I was left unimpressed by their political rants and basic attitude towards the audience. We were half way into this Iraqi conflict and you really got the impression that the people at the show just wanted to rock out and support the troops. And NOT stand around bashing them.

I was actually more impressed by GBH who opened the show. If they have any original members that would be amazing. They may have had more than 1, I’m not really sure, but the energy was there and they just wanted to be PFR. And they were.

Fast forward to tonight when I check out OnDemand on the ole’ cable box. I was thinking about it this afternoon and how every once in a while something good pops up. A couple of months back there was a REALLY great Doves live concert FOR FREE. Can’t beat that.

But what did I find tonight? You guessed it, a live concert of the Circle Jerks playing at some House Of Blues for $9.95. And maybe that’s not a bad thing, I’m not accusing them of of selling or anything, they deserve to be paid for entertaining people – I just wished they had entertained me last time. Apparently this is in support of a new DVD they have out.
You can also get Iggy & The Stooges for $10 or get some real entertainment with the Drive By Truckers for $4. Spend your money wiselfy (yet foolishly).

I’m currently waiting for my 3rd iPod cover to come in the mail and I’m already not happy with it. First we bought the iSkin Duo, which I love but turned out to be too bulky when I got my iTrip for broadcasting to radio. It has 2 skins that hold a plastic cover for the click wheel and screen between them – having something protect the screen is very important. I stripped it down to the inside skin which is very thin and doesn’t protect the screen but is sufficient to protect the rest of the body. I think it was $40 from the Apple store.

Then I found Nano Crystal Clear Film Screen for $5 and gave that a shot. It was really hard to work with since it’s basically a stiff, clear sticker that you adhere to the front and back of the iPod. It’s really hard to keep the iPod and the sticker clean enough to get it on straight and it drove me nuts. And the separate round stickers for the click wheel and button didn’t even fit. I didn’t want them anyway. So I got the stickers on and put the inside Duo skin over that and I’m pretty happy. It’s not very attractive since the inside duo skin isn’t really meant for real world viewing but it works.

Now, I have a standard, snow white silicon skin coming in the mail. It was $10 and should have that finished look and work well with the film covers on there now.

Then I find the Nano iKeyChain form A1 Quality Products (you know it’s good with a name like that, right?) and this looks very, very cool. I like the key chain idea and it looks like you could drive over it. In fact, I think there’s a pic of just that scenario. I might give it a shot, maybe not that color but I’ll let you know how it works out.

One thing is for sure, the Nano has no scratches yet and I want to keep it that way. And if you’re a student or an educator, ALWAYS take advantage of Apple’s educational discount. We’ve used it for the Nano and iBook now and saved some bucks.