Jeweler?

Two [correction: two days later, I'm now up to three...] near strangers in the last week have asked me if I'm a jeweler. You see, if you google my name, I'm not the first "Chhaya Kapadia" that comes up. The first is the founder and designer of Maya Jewels. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but are there really that many people out there that get an email from my work email account, google me, think I'm a jeweler, and then wonder what the jewelry has to do with music?

A crazy week of work travel is coming up. I'm heading to Philly on Monday and then I'm taking another run through upstate New York on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday where I'll be visiting Buffalo, Rochester and Albany (in that order). Oy. Not so bad though in that I love taking the train. After booking all those trains I'm convinced that Amtrak subsidizes all the rest of their routes by marking up the cost of the Northeast Corridor since it costs peanuts to travel the full width of New York but it's cheaper to fly DC-Boston.

I didn't get to see Wilco last week since tickets sold out within hours. What a great bill, too with the always awesome John Doe (of X and The Knitters) opening. Lucky for me, NPR has the whole show online.

On the techie front, I got to see Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) this week while working on my boss' new laptop and I think I have a gadget crush. I'm considering upgrading since the reviews look stellar. That and I've been looking into Office 2008. I'd be willing to pay a lot if Entourage (the red-headed, country bumpkin, Mac-based stepchild of Outlook for you Windows folks) worked better. Alas reviews are mixed.

DC News

The US Mint doesn't want to print "Taxation Without Representation" on the new DC quarter. Silly me. No doubt it's not necessary since our history-obsessed citizenry is fully aware that DC residents don't have a vote in Congress. Obnoxious.

In addition to lacking a vote in Congress, DC is also without many places to dig through music for us non-turntable-owning types. DCist runs through the music retailer landscape.

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It seems 11 hours at the office, no dinner, three Chimays and staying up till 4 talking didn't result in my feeling the best this morning. Ya think? Greasy breakfasts fix many a problem though.

Pop Culture Gaps

As some of you already know, I have some rather noticeable gaps in my knowledge of pop culture, especially with movies. So I've been catching up on my movie watching lately. Send me your top ten lists if you feel inspired and I'll add them to my Netflix queue.

Most recently seen:

Lost in Translation: nice to know that hype is sometimes warranted.

Eastern Promises: does Viggo Mortensen do anything badly? I even got my geek on and watched the featurette on Russian mafia tattoos.

Once: great music in a sweet little film though knowing that the 37 year old guy was dating the 19 year old girl in real life was a little weird. I wish I'd caught the two of them when they came through town last year.

Match Point: I didn't really buy the ending and it seemed to drag. That said, it certainly added to the mini-Scarlett Johansson fest.

I even tried to go see There Will Be Blood last weekend, but the film broke (broke? really?) and so no movie. Since then I've moved on to television featuring women who kick ass while living in the midst of extensive mythologies. No, not Buffy this time around, but Alias.

I think I'd have a lot more books if I had an apartment like this. But No Depression won't be on bookshelves anymore.

Digital Audio Insider considers the new music equation.

I didn't know that Wilco has webcasts of live shows on their website.

If Friday's weather holds, I'm off to Syracuse. If not, I may try to see Jason Isbell (ex-Drive-By Truckers) at the 930 Club.