Mute Math -- Almost

Left work early -- at 5 -- to meet friends for dinner and go see Mute Math. Food was very good, but service was slow. The concert started at 7:30, meaning about 8, right? Well, we got there (two blocks from the restaurant), and the venue was already sold out. Small place + large crowd = not much chance of getting in unless one had purchased tickets early.

So, sadly, I've only seen Mute Math once this year. Which is one more than two of my friends who went tonight. I was looking forward to hearing Mae. Not being at all familiar with them but having heard good things about them, I felt their show would be good. Apparently, many others felt the same. Next time, we buy tickets in advance.

So, instead, we went walking around downtown. Lots to see, but only bars were open. That was kind of disappointing. And we won't talk about the massively over-commercialized Toyota Center (Toyota Tundra Parking Garage? give me a huge break!). Sure, they're building downtown to look nifty, but they're quite a ways away from actually being able to entice people to want to come down there on a regular basis, or anything other than a special event.

I rode the light rail for the first time. It was nice, but kind of pointless. It is only in the area of town already well-served by Metro buses. Serving the tens of thousands of people commuting back and forth from West Houston? No, not a chance. More than hourly service to the Galleria area, where almost as many people work as are downtown? "Well, we're considering whether it's feasible to provide that kind of service." Gosh, it seems that Metro is really only interested in developing routes along land that is owned by members of the board who control Metro. I wonder how that happened. But enough of that.