Ok, so where was I? I was meaning to talk about F1. For like 4 days now. And now I actually will. Because I'm super bored at work.
So F1 was pretty great. Greater than I expected, actually. I've never really watched it, but my friend Rich loves it and was planning to come down from Beijing for the Grand Prix and he asked me to go. So I figured, why not? And then he asked how much I was willing to spend on it, because he wanted really expensive tickets, and I figured if I'm probably only ever gonna do it once in my life, I might as well do it right. And so we bought expensive tickets, and that was absolutely the right choice.
We ended up with great seats in the Grandstand, in the high section pretty much on the finish line. This meant that we could see not only see the straightaway and the start and finish of the race, but also the pit, and we were high enough to see other sections of the track as well. So I never had to get bored because if there wasn't something happening right in front of me (which was uncommon, the cars go so fast and get so spread out across the track as the race progresses that you never go longer than about 20 seconds without someone racing past you). So it was hard to get bored, because if I didn't have something to watch right in front of me, all I had to do was look left or right or out a little further, and voila! more entertainment. And if that wasn't enough, Rich also bought a program so I ended up trying to pick out the drivers and learn the teams and drivers and keep track of who was where and how they were doing. And I think I picked a favorite team. I think I like the Lotus Team, although the Scuderia team was also really good. I like that both of them weren't ranked way at the top, but managed to do quite well. Plus the Lotus team had an Ecuadorian guy, which is pretty cool. And the Lotus team also really impressed me with their pit crew. Granted, everyone's pit crew really impressed me, but Lotus was right in front of us and I thought they ran the smoothest.
The only disappointing part about the whole weekend was the fact that Rich didn't really get to meet all my friends. Some were busy, some were out of town, but some were just flaky. That seems to be the nature of people here in Shanghai, flakier than not, which I hate, but it was especially disappointing that some of them didn't really make an effort to come and meet one of my best friends, when they've been hearing about him as long as they've known me, and have known he'd be here for a couple of months. But, he did meet some of my favorites, and we did have a great weekend all around, so I can't really complain.
And now you know about F1. And maybe you'll know more about it next year. You also know about LCD Soundsystem, both because I wrote about them yesterday and because they are not new news at all. But I write about them again because I've been listening to them pretty much non-stop for the last couple of days. Particularly the album Sound of Silver. I just found another band called Boxed In (who I'll be writing about soon) that kind of reminded me of LCD Soundsystem, so I decided to go and listen to LCD Soundsystem again. And it was one of those moments when you listen to a song/album after not having listened to it in a while, and you finally get it. I love that, it's one of my favorite things. It often happens with songs, but rarely with albums. But it happened with Sound of Silver. All of the tracks on that album are great. That album is stupendous. I also went and relistened to their newest/final album, This is Happening, and also a much better album than I initially realized. I also listened to their eponymous first album, which I'd never heard, and it's probably my least favorite of the three, but still, great album. Way to go LCD Soundsystem.
So if I haven't made it clear yesterday and today, Sound of Silver is a great album. I always knew that All My Friends was like my favorite song on the album, and my favorite song by the band, but as of yesterday I'm having second thoughts. Yesterday I shared North American Scum, another fantastic track off that album. Then there's Us V Them. And maybe my new favorite track by them, Get Innocuous!. It's the opening track, and it's a beast of a song. It would definitely make it onto that mix of the best opening tracks on albums that I've talked about before (actually now that I mention it, what with Spotify and all these other tools at my disposal, I really should finally make that playlist...). I hope you agree.
So F1 was pretty great. Greater than I expected, actually. I've never really watched it, but my friend Rich loves it and was planning to come down from Beijing for the Grand Prix and he asked me to go. So I figured, why not? And then he asked how much I was willing to spend on it, because he wanted really expensive tickets, and I figured if I'm probably only ever gonna do it once in my life, I might as well do it right. And so we bought expensive tickets, and that was absolutely the right choice.
We ended up with great seats in the Grandstand, in the high section pretty much on the finish line. This meant that we could see not only see the straightaway and the start and finish of the race, but also the pit, and we were high enough to see other sections of the track as well. So I never had to get bored because if there wasn't something happening right in front of me (which was uncommon, the cars go so fast and get so spread out across the track as the race progresses that you never go longer than about 20 seconds without someone racing past you). So it was hard to get bored, because if I didn't have something to watch right in front of me, all I had to do was look left or right or out a little further, and voila! more entertainment. And if that wasn't enough, Rich also bought a program so I ended up trying to pick out the drivers and learn the teams and drivers and keep track of who was where and how they were doing. And I think I picked a favorite team. I think I like the Lotus Team, although the Scuderia team was also really good. I like that both of them weren't ranked way at the top, but managed to do quite well. Plus the Lotus team had an Ecuadorian guy, which is pretty cool. And the Lotus team also really impressed me with their pit crew. Granted, everyone's pit crew really impressed me, but Lotus was right in front of us and I thought they ran the smoothest.
The only disappointing part about the whole weekend was the fact that Rich didn't really get to meet all my friends. Some were busy, some were out of town, but some were just flaky. That seems to be the nature of people here in Shanghai, flakier than not, which I hate, but it was especially disappointing that some of them didn't really make an effort to come and meet one of my best friends, when they've been hearing about him as long as they've known me, and have known he'd be here for a couple of months. But, he did meet some of my favorites, and we did have a great weekend all around, so I can't really complain.
And now you know about F1. And maybe you'll know more about it next year. You also know about LCD Soundsystem, both because I wrote about them yesterday and because they are not new news at all. But I write about them again because I've been listening to them pretty much non-stop for the last couple of days. Particularly the album Sound of Silver. I just found another band called Boxed In (who I'll be writing about soon) that kind of reminded me of LCD Soundsystem, so I decided to go and listen to LCD Soundsystem again. And it was one of those moments when you listen to a song/album after not having listened to it in a while, and you finally get it. I love that, it's one of my favorite things. It often happens with songs, but rarely with albums. But it happened with Sound of Silver. All of the tracks on that album are great. That album is stupendous. I also went and relistened to their newest/final album, This is Happening, and also a much better album than I initially realized. I also listened to their eponymous first album, which I'd never heard, and it's probably my least favorite of the three, but still, great album. Way to go LCD Soundsystem.
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| Our seats in the Grandstand at the start of the race |
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