Tag Archives: music

Live Music Venues in San Diego

San Diego’s music scene is often overshadowed by the giant glitz and glam music industry of its sister city, Los Angeles. But don’t mistake the two at all — San Diego’s got its own unique musical identity: an eclectic mix of styles, ranging from the delicate to the drastic, indie rock to experimental. As a musician myself who has been privy to play in local venues, I’ve found that San Diego is a tight-knit community of genuine and talented individuals who truly love the music, and you can hear it in the musical synergy of live performances in the area.

So, if you ever find yourself here, I invite you to set some time in your schedule to duck in, grab a beer, and enjoy the sounds and vibe of some of these local venues:

Bar Pink

bar-pink

Photo from www.barpink.com

Adorned with portraits of pink elephants and bubbles on its walls, this hipster cocktail bar can be found in North Park, the urban neighborhood north east of downtown San Diego. DJs spin and bands perform electronic, pop, rock, among other genres on an elevated stage right in the center of the place. In this intimate environment with vibrant acoustics,  you’re guaranteed to be tapping your toes and bobbing your head by the end of the night. Local and visiting bands perform nearly every day of the week, so be sure to check out the schedule on the Bar Pink website.

The Tiki House

accidentals-band-tiki-house-san-diego

The Tiki House is a classic dive bar set right in the heart of Pacific Beach, San Diego’s beach party town of twenty-somethings. The bar showcases local musicians six days a week and is one of the only exclusively live-music bars in the area. I’ve had the privilege to play here regularly as an in-house musician with my band, The Accidentals, and I’ve seen the place go from mellow and acoustic or blues in the early evening to completely raucous rock music by the late hours of the night. Dave, the bar owner, will take good care of you with a great selection of cold beers on tap. Oh, and if you’re dropping in on a weekend, get ready to dance!

The Loft

The Loft is one of La Jolla’s newest hot spots, and is part of the University of San Diego, California (UCSD) campus, on the second level of the new student center. If you’ve never found yourself quite set on any one category or genre of music, then you’ll be intrigued by the co-mingling of pop-culture and exploration of boundaries found in this venue. From classical string quartets to experimental postmodern ensembles, performances feature a wide variety of styles, many which will challenge your very understanding of music. The finger foods and comfortable lounge chairs are not bad, either.

Of course, this list is just a handful of a long list of really great places to check out. Some others include:

  • The Onyx Room (Gaslamp) – Jazz on Tuesday nights
  • Winstons (Ocean Beach) – Reggae, Jam Bands, Blues
  • Whistle Stop (South Park) – Hip-Hop, Rap, DJs
  • The Casbah (Middletown) – Rock, Metal, Electronic, Indie Rock
  • Soda Bar (Normal Heights) – Funk, Blues, Dance, Hip-Hop

Any other ones I’m not listing here? Feel free to chip in!

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Tinatin Shurgaia: Budding Georgian Songstress

I went back to Tbilisi, Georgia in December to teach a digital journalism class, and while I was there I had the opportunity to meet a remarkable young woman named Tinatin Shurgaia. Tinatin — or Tika, as she likes to be called — is just at the beginning of what will likely be an exciting career as a singer-songwriter.

Tinatin originally left Georgia to study journalism at Louisiana State University, but after meeting with several well-known music instructors in Tbilisi who were impressed by her natural singing voice, decided to switch majors and study music instead. Although Tinatin always harbored a passion for music, she had no formal training prior to her “discovery,” making her story all the more remarkable. After gaining a solid foundation in classical music, Tinatin then decided to focus on contemporary music and pop. She is currently back in Tbilisi studying music theory and preparing for her next big move to London, where she will continue studying voice and composition.

Tinatin ShurgaiaTinatin’s music is haunting and evocative, characterized by her operatic voice, which soars over lush electronic soundcapes. She has of late been collaborating with her partner, an established musician in his own right, who arranged the richly-layered beats in her most recent recordings. (You can hear more of his solo work on Soundcloud.) Their music incoporates elements of electronica, trip-hop, and ambient music and brings to mind groups like Cut Copy, Thievery Corporation, and Massive Attack. Tinatin’s big voice, an obvious product of her classical training, is reminiscent of indie singer-songwriters like Florence Welch, Leslie Feist, and, at times, even Alanis Alanis Morissette. Her work has already received acclaim from music critics in Georgia.

Here are a couple of my favorite tracks by Tika. Enjoy!

AM cravings

Woods

Find Tinatin on Facebook and Soundcloud

*Photo by Tinatin Shurgaia

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10 Things I Saw Today: And Actually Stopped to See

A few months ago, I sat down at my computer in a rare fit of inspiration and wrote myself a  manifesto of sorts. At that time, I was entering to a season of life in a new city, a season where I’d be enrolled in both an intensive Chinese language course as well as a regular undergrad course load. Add that to tutoring, and family obligations, and so. The days seemed to be rushing by, and I seemed to be rushing by– with nothing to distinguish today from the next day, and the next. I was missing the details.

And so I wrote, in stern reminder to myself, some rules.

Put a spring in your step & feel the breeze along your face when you’re walking to class. Look at the people you pass on the street. Even when you’re in a hurry. In fact, especially when you’re in a hurry.

Stop & admire the flower pattern on your coffee cup in the cafe you’re whiling away the afternoon at; at the vibrant color of the mint spring decorating your dessert. Take a photo or two, or sit back in your chair and just look for a minute, without saying anything at all. Slow down. Don’t worry about your friends thinking you’re weird–after all, they’ll understand. 

They did. And so I present: the 10 marvelous things I saw today, and actually slowed down to relish.

One of the things I like best about living in Taipei is the contrast of the sleek and modern with the traditional, such as the “wet” markets that still spring up in alleys all over Taipei. This particular one is a street away from where I live.

From the wet market on Taishun St, it’s only a hop and a skip over to National Taiwan Normal University, where I take Chinese classes each morning. It’s a bit of a challenge at times to wake up knowing that 50+ new complicated characters await you at 10am, but one can’t be gloomy when there’s pink-colored cookies to much on while learning them.

And what is this mouthwatering array of deliciousness, you ask? A world-class buffet spread? Hardly. It’s the bian dang (Chinese lunch box) place right across from my house. A box of kong shing cai (a delicious Chinese veggie), roasted eggplants with garlic, tea-boiled eggs, and soy-sauce simmered fish will ring up a satisfying 55 NT (less than $2 USD).

Being enrolled in two schools’ programs at once, coupled with a roster of differing daily events, cuts my time at home down to rather less than I would like. But a half-hour home at the kitchen table, eating my bian dang and garnering some much-needed snuggles from my cats, Peter and Peanut, never fails to give me the energy to tackle the afternoon.

I’m not enrolled in classes this particular afternoon; and as I had a bit of time before I had to tutor, I took a quick stroll around the Xinyi shopping area of Taipei: a glitzy, sleek contrast to my morning wet market. I simply adore the floors of the Eslite Bookstore in Taipei–look at those colors!

Spent my tutoring session, as always, holed up in the corner of a cafe with my tutoree and helping her improve her English conversation. It’s so interesting to hear the perspective and thoughts of an elementary school student in the Taiwanese schooling system, which is radically different from that in the US. I know her day is very strict, so I like to lighten the mood up a bit by always bringing in some interesting topics Although I do think we talk rather too much about food….

And speaking of food, I know it seems rather impossible, but you can’t always have Chinese (or Taiwanese, as the case may be). A little alley off of the famous foodie street Yongkang Jie provides the perfect almost-summer dinner (Taiwan’s famous humidity is setting in already), washed down with a can of coconut water, my favorite hot-weather drink.

Now look at that sky, at that horizon (Taipei, 7:30pm)–and tell me you don’t feel perhaps a bit smaller, but a little more happier, and a lot more hopeful.

Ended the day at Revolver, a bar/art house/music venue with my favorite Swede, Sandra. Every month they host an open-mic acoustic-set night (in contrast to their usual raging, DJ-led parties). Oh, and to go along with the music, red wine for 50 NT per glass (around $1.50 USD). Tonight we met to celebrate Sandra’s graduation, but also to just celebrate life: the strange, the charming, the fascinating things we encounter in the cracks and crevices of our routine lives when we slow down and try to find that which makes each day uniquely marvelous. 

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Why Spotify Works for me

Music is powerful in a special way that it calms our mind and body. With the trend of keeping everything in the cloud nowadays, our media library is changing this way as well. There are a variety of online radios or streaming sites such as Pandora, Rhapsody, Rdio, GrooveShark, and Last.Fm. All provide different purposes and work well in their own ways.

I have used all of the above but always returned to Google Music (which is basically my iTunes library in the cloud) due to different reasons: limited libraries (for how much it costs), unintuitive user experience, etc. When Spotify became available in the USA, I received an invitation and thought, “Oh, another music site that I’ll sign up for and never use…”

However, I have become hooked. While I do not claim to be a critic, nor am I an expert in design or usability, I hope to share why Spotify works for me from the perspective of both a technology enthusiast and a musician.

Music Selection:
First, I love Spotify’s library! I listen to music for both enjoyment and studies. Since I don’t exactly listen to main stream music, I have had a difficult time finding various interpretations of specific sonatas, etudes, or concertos on other services. With Spotify, being able to find Martha Argerich’s Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1 in an instant is perfect for me.

Intuitive Design:
Users need to download a desktop client. Initially I cringed at the idea of downloading yet another application (which I probably wouldn’t use for long, I thought.) Now I have to admit that I do like its simple music player design. It is intuitive – Spotify lays out the main functions on the left column with the library displayed on the right side. I like being able to search for a specific piece, decide on a particular artist from the list, and add it to my “queue.” Sure, that probably is a common thing for streaming media sites. Sometimes I find the exact album I’m looking for, and I add the entire album to either the playing queue or to my playlists. The playlist function is intuitive and useful for when I’m researching on music, and it serves almost like a bookmark when I need to go back to it.

The other day, I was selecting a J.S. Bach Toccata for my new repertoire. Since I had trouble deciding between three (e minor, g minor, and D major), I found a CD by Durran on all Bach’s Toccatas and added the album to my playlist. As soon as I did this, Spotify automatically pinned the album on the left column under “playlists” with the artist and album name, so I could easily go back and make my choice later on.

Social:
Users may share the music they are currently listening to via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. This links to a direct URL of the piece you are listening to, so users can be directed to the song or piece.

. . .

For me, the wide selection of music is my favorite part of Spotify. I have been able to find just about every piece or song I search for. I leave the application open in the background, or I find particular pieces for studying and analyzing purpose near the piano.

Do you prefer using an online music library service like Spotify, or an online music radio? What works for you?

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