why am I so moody?  I've been in a reasonably good mood most of this week.  Today, while going grocery shopping it turned markedly down.  nothing in particular happened either, I guess just the general flow of my own thoughts.  thinking how inefficient it is to just cook for myself.  and how much i'd enjoy having someone there to go shopping with me and enjoy whatever I'm going to cook.  and before long I was just thinking, life just seems so pointless.  so much effort and for what?

but perhaps that is the fundamental nature of life, ups and downs.  maybe i should just enjoy it.  maybe it means more nights of watching movies and playing video games.  i haven't played any video games for a few weeks, just lost interest.  maybe it's time for a new gaming phase.

recently I've been paying a lot more attention to movies, music, and tv shows that inspire me.  There is some amazing artistry in all these formats.  Yesterday I was at Best Buy, and one of their blu-ray demo disks had a cut from a live Dave Matthews show.  The second I saw it, I had that sense of "this is amazing, and I want to get it."

I did find it, and it is quite incredible.  It's very well recorded, both visually and auditorially.  It is recorded at the Radio City Music Hall, and the second you see it, it gives the impression of size, openness and grandeur.  I can see why it is nicknamed the "Showplace of the Nation."  The camera work is professional and the recording is high resolution and looks excellent on a high-def display, a welcome change from those live DVDs that look like someone recorded it with a handheld camera and then digitized it into a low res mpeg movie before transferring it to DVD.  The audio portion of the recording is clean, with no distortion, and captures the guitar work and vocals excellently, as well as some of the noise from the audience (very important to give you a sense of the energy of the live performance).

The music is simply incredible.  Dave Matthews and Time Reynolds sound like they jam and practice together every day.  Not only are they awesome musicians, but they play together so well.  They sound polished and professional (a far cry from those bands that are so drugged they can't even remember the lyrics to their own songs), and like they truly enjoy what they are doing and love the music they are making.  Every live music DVD should be this good.