the new job is going great so far for anyone interested to know. for the first 90 days i am considered a contract employee so i am not getting any taxes taken out of my pay. which means an extra few hundred per paycheck for the next couple months! :D once i finish catching up on my bills i may even get to start paying them down for a change. it also means that i can finally go to see some live music again without worrying about whether or not it will leave me enough money to eat. and speaking of music….

i went to see a band that i had met before i saw them play live. i was a little ambivalent about the recordings that i heard but thought they might have a good live show because they seem like pretty animated people. well, i finally got to see them live and i have to say that i am very disappointed in the performance. maybe they were having a bad night but i got the distinct impression that music is not the career they should be in. well, the guitarist was very good but the singer was barely adequate. she had no range and the lyrics were all the same for the most part, with different rhythms behind them. i’m not going to name this band here but i haven’t been this let down by a show in a long long time.

but i *did* get to see some great music not too long ago for a friend’s going away party. this was a band she was friends with and wanted to see one last time before she moved away and i’m glad i went because i would have never found this band on my own. they are called the elevaters and they are a blend of hip hop, funk and soul and they were the most amazing band i have seen in months! they had a great vibe and were just an all around fun band to see. i’m not sure i can do justice to the type of show they put on, but i will say that it was great to see so many people dancing around to the music. and such a diverse crowd too! this is the kind of event that makes me glad to live in a city which has the music industry centered here. where else can you find such a great range of acts without having to go too far away? :)