OK-lahoma!

C and I are in Oklahoma for our yearly visit to Bubba's place. Since we got in last night, we have already:

• Hit Walmart for food, drinks, a whiffle ball set and a soccer ball and goal set that cost $5
• Hit Sam's Club for chicken
• Hit Braum's for ice cream and eggs
• Fed the cows - they're free range, until they get to the feeding pens. I checked for those interested.
• Hit the fire station and got C decked out in fire gear
• Visited Granny at senior's day at the local church
• Hit the cemetary and saw where Uncle Fred is buried
• Rode the 4 wheeler 4x.

So thanks to cap'n Lenac, I was able to get some tickets to see the sold out MIA / LCD Soundsystem show at the El Rey - thanks, man. I owe you. I invited Scotty Boy, Berton, Shamal and Simone to come to the show with me - hurray! Since these two artists have completely different styles, I really have to write them up as different gigs:


MIA: Wow, you really do know an artist is too big when Courtney Love shows up for a gig. Yeehaw. Needless to say, MIA blew the place up. She certainly has a stage presence as Shamal was saying. Probably the last time to see her in a place like the El Rey. She even encored - as the opening act. Good times.

LCD Soundsystem: Was worried that most people would leave after MIA, in fact 4/6 of our party did. They missed out. Scotty Boy and I stuck around and heard these guys light it up. Definitely not the same swagger as MIA, but any band that covers Siouxsie and Banshees is alright with me. Still one of my current favs on the Dell DJ.

For those of you, who don't know, the last two years of my life has been spent working on a music product called the Yahoo! Music Engine - a combination on-demand service and music download store.

I have to say, that this it is by far, the most complex single product that Yahoo! has ever done. Not only does it have all the wonderful quirks of a Music Player, but it also has two premium services - with different billing models for each. I left Messenger to work on this product back in Fall of 2003. In that time, I have learned in depth how our login servers work, how our billing systems work, how DRM licensing works, how CD buring works, how CD ripping works. I've learned what Janus means. I've learned what an Octiv plugin might mean...

In that same time period, there was also this small little acquisition of an establish music player named Musicmatch... And those guys are great. So many people on that team have just immediately pitched in and helped with YME - instead of taking an understandably defensive position. It's a great feeling to watch the on-demand part of the music team really gel into a serious product team. We've got a lot more work to do, but we're on our way.

(In typical Music fashion, I have to give my own shoutouts...)

Much love goes out to all my engineers that I worked with on this thing: Ian, Steve, Dave, Regis, Robert, Haynie, Hala, Christa, Cliff, Joeslyn, Mike, Scott, Pierre, Raj, Daniel, Bkaull, Dallas (in Atlanta) and finally old man TV.

To my product folks: Karin, Tami, Todd, Chebert, Spiegelmen, Ference, Doug, Damian, Geller - I feel like I've been in meetings with you guys for the last 10 years of my life. Sorry if I was my normal self a little too much sometimes... Image

I know there were more, but you guys had to deal with the worst of me. Thanks.

Now, go download: Yahoo Music Engine

So thanks to a email snafu on my part, I ended up taking C to an Angels game on Mother's day... here's what happened... I am signed up for this service called Goldstar Events and they send you emails when they have deals on events that you are interested in. One day I get an email that there are $6 Angel tickets on a Sunday! I'm thinking sweet! I can take C and if he biffs early, I can bail out with low cost investment... so I just buy the tickets... it's only when I check the date that I realize the mistake... oops. Anyway, it all worked out well and everybody got plenty of mother's day time. I even went by Target the night before and loaded us up with some Angel swag to wear to the game. Too bad the Angels didn't bother to show up for the game. They were awful, they lost 10-1. Christopher managed to last 6 2/3 innings which was longer than 2 of the Angel pitchers... Brutal