happy thanksgiving!

in the spirit of thanksgiving, i thought i would post a clip that perfectly encapsulates the current state of our spirited economy. and for that, we should give thanks.

what's happening brother?

i think when marvin gaye sings, "and tell me friend, how in the world have you been?", it's one of the sincerest moments in music history. it's just saturated with empathy and a kind of tiredness that only someone who has traveled that long road can feel.

i just love it.

written in the snow, pt. 1

i have winterized the music choices in the living room. out with the summer and sunshine, in with the cold and lonesome. here is what is currently in rotation:

1. the autumn defense- circles
2. van morrison- astral weeks
3. neil young- after the gold rush
4. frank sinatra- in the wee small hours of the morning
5. marvin gaye- what's going on

lots of singer-songwriter type stuff. there's more down there. as noted in the blog title, i will be revisiting my winter music rotation throughout the season. please try to keep your excitement in check. any emails asking for advance notice will be rebuffed. harshly.

the abandoned hospital ship

my surgery is scheduled for december 1st. that's a week after thanksgiving to the day. i received two opinions telling me the same thing: torn acl, partially torn mcl, surgery on the acl, no surgery on the mcl. that was good news. if one guy said torn acl and the other said bananas, we would have an issue.

the surgery will take one hour. i will have a new acl put together with a clamp and two screws. i think one of the screws is more of a bolt. not sure on that. i get to hang around the hospital for a couple hours and then they send me home. that will be it. in the morning i have a bad knee and in the evening i have a bad knee with the potential to be good in several weeks.

"we can rebuild him. we have the technology."

in other news, i went to physical therapy last week and got some tips on how to strengthen my knee in the meantime. it was a big help. i can already feel my leg getting stronger. basically he said my quad has shutdown and i have to get blood flowing back in there. i've been trying to do that in the gym, but i haven't been successful. now i can feel a difference. it's funny how i'm doing all this work to get it better right before surgery, then i have surgery and then i have to do all the same work again to get it functioning after surgery. lots of work. for volleyball.

in other, other news, we're getting ready for thanksgiving. we had a feast year and we said we weren't going to that again but it sounds like we're going to do it again. i enjoyed it. i helped with a lot of the cooking last year. it was really fun. the only thing that would make it great is if it snowed. it hasn't snowed since before my birthday.

i went nuts at twist and shout the other day. i spent my birthday gift cards. bought the following:

1. lou reed- berlin
2. spiritualized- live royal albert hall
3. real estate- (new album)
4. m83- hurry up, we're dreaming
5. warren zevon- excitable boy
6. super furry animals- phantom power
7. sparklehorse- good morning spider

i think that's it. i have a soft spot for the super furry animals. good stuff. and i think sparklehorse is one of the most underrated bands of all time. so good.