little st. nick

you notice bear sitting next to the tree down there? we tried to hang him as an ornament and he wasn't having any of it. the wrights have decorated for the holiday season and i have to say, it was a major success. the tree is awesome. the fireplace is awesome. we were listening to the beach boys christmas. we heard little st. nick about forty times that night. but we enjoyed it. i hope you guys are getting into the holiday spirit. also, if you're wondering what's up with the one stocking on the fireplace, it's demitria's. she's the only one getting a stocking stuffer this year apparently. greedy. we'll see about that.

happy thanksgiving

so as promised, here are some of the best shots from iceland. happy thanksgiving.

oh baby, houston

we have recently stepped into the 20th century. we're not quite in 21th century yet, give us some more time. but we have a functioning computer and a printer/scanner. and also, like i posted earlier, i found a place to print my black/white photos here in denver. these three are from houston taken around 2008/2009. i drove around the 59 area, on the other side of the ballpark and took the photo of the train tracks. that area was pretty fascinating because right next to new, state-of-the-art condos, was piled up garbage and old railroad tracks. the chairs were sitting out front of a goodwill type place close to the star of hope, which is also downtown. and you might recognize those guys at the top. the huge beatles statues were behind a target off of i-10, behind a locked gate. pete and i got as close as we could and i snapped that photo. so now that i have a scanner, i'm going to scan some of our iceland photos and upload those soon as well.

take a load off your feet

we haven't been hiking in a few weeks. but the weather is still holding up. these are from our previous hike to roxborough.

in other news, are the mets trying to prove that they are one of the dumbest baseball franchises? terry collins? you hire terry collins to manage your team? really? that guy has sucked everywhere he's been. he's a quitter. you had all this time, all these resources and you hire terry collins. wow.

the holy man

dennis wilson- the holy man

untitled #1

greatest video of all time.

bear and candles

the candles were lit. the cat was in his bed. and as we layed together, cuddling, whispering words and purrs of love to each other, i thought, is this wrong? is my love misplaced?

no. no. it is not wrong. our love is not wrong. our love is eternal. and although current legislation makes our love wrong in the eyes of society, i say we shun society. we make our love known and to hell with the world! we will find a way for man and cat to be one.

bad cover version

i was listening to pulp the other day, which i do from time to time and i came across the song "bad cover version."

there were some lyrics in particular that struck me:

"aah, sing your song about all the sad imitations that got it so wrong,
it's like a later 'tom and jerry' when the two of them could talk,
like the stones since the eighties, like the last days of southfork,
like 'planet of the apes' on tv, the second side of 'til the band comes in',
like an own-brand box of cornflakes: he's going to let you down my friend."

i actually heard those lyrics and stopped mid-motion and laughed. because that will be me one day. and it won't be long.

the sun ain't gonna shine anymore

i've recently become obsessed with the music of scott walker. i first heard him doing this song as part of the walker brothers. but it's his solo albums that are freaking me out. plus, i stumbled upon a documentary about him called 30th century man. his solo albums are orchestrated heavily, but they are dark, a little detached and unnervingly beautiful. i haven't seen the documentary yet, but i'm looking forward to it. here is one of my favorite songs on his first solo record called montague terrace (in blue). here is another amazing song from his fourth solo album called on your own again.

there's also the harry nilsson documentary i haven't seen yet.

and the magnetic fields documentary i haven't seen yet. falling behind.

computer blue

i've been having major computer problems for the past two weeks. today, they are solved. evidently, dell will sell you a computer with basically no RAM. so i bought some RAM and my computer is now lightening quick. checkmate kevin.

there is a record store in town called twist and shout. they are supplying me with endless amounts of quality music. scott walker, richard and linda thompson, echo and the bunnymen, galaxie 500, ladybug transistor, the love language, the fresh and onlys, john cale and todd rundgren. ample good stuff. totally love the store. anybody who comes to visit, we will be going there.

i also found a shop here that will develop all my black and white photos. i just got some back of pictures i took in iceland. incredible. i forgot all these shots i had taken. awesome stuff.

i want to see the bright lights tonight

we haven't taken many pictures lately. lots of stuff happening. hopefully we'll get out this weekend and hangout and shoot some cool stuff. in the mean time, check out the cats, well sofie at least.

the day the squirrel went berserk

this little guy has been the subject of much discussion lately. we had two pumpkins sitting out on our patio for halloween. they started to develop little patches where the outside layer was barely picked off. i attributed it to the pumpkins falling off the rail of the patio, which they had done several times. demitria thought it was a bird. well, it turns out we were both wrong. it was this guy. the corner of the patio is a mess with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin extract because this dude went to town on our pumpkins. both of them have massive holes in them. i was standing inside watching him from our front door peep window. we thought about turning them around to fool him, but ultimately, we threw them away. i guess all the apples in the backyard weren't enough.

snowstorm

we experienced our first snow of the year on tuesday. me, demitria and the two cats sat in front of the window and watched it snow. it wasn't a real thick snow, but it did stick for a while. and it snowed last night as well. but we had a snow party that night and listened to the beach boys to stay warm.

i remember you were wild

for my birthday this year, we decided to do the opposite of what we usually do, and that was to get up early and go hiking. what is the opposite of that, i wonder? get up late and go spelunking? i have no idea. but it felt opposite. check out this sign for spelunking.

anyway, enough about spelunking. saturday we woke up and headed to roxborough state park. the hikes were pretty mild, as far as difficulty, but we saw several squirrels and some deer and a pretty little bluebird who kept ahead of us one trail. that was cool. they also had a nice bathroom and a coke machine. the top two pictures are from roxborough.

sunday, we got up and went to evergreen, which a little town west of denver. we hiked around mount falcon for what seemed like half the day. from the list on the link for mount falcon, you can see the parmalee trail details. that's the trail we took. we were only two of four hikers we saw on the trail all day. the rest were bikers. at one point, we were beginning to think about looking for berries and maybe creating a fire, because we weren't sure where we were on the trail and it was close to getting dark. but we made it out alive. the bottom three pictures are from there and the pictures don't do justice to the amazing view we saw on top of that mount. it was incredible. mass amounts of green trees rolling every direction.

so i had a great birthday in denver. also got some pajama pants and a tie rack! and a new jacket! score!

yer birthday

so today is my birthday. i don't any magical/words of wisdom. some things taste better. some things taste worse. sometimes i want to sleep a lot. sometimes i want to get up early and drink coffee. sometimes i want to drink and hang out all night. most of the time, i don't. i still love music. i still love baseball. i sure do like driving with the windows down.

check for pics soon of our hike to mount falcon.

here is your space

a few weekends ago, we hoofed it up to red rocks and walked away and hiked the area. it's truly an amazing sight. i can't wait to see a show there. just getting to the theater is a course in some heavy walking. but we made it and then hiked around the whole area. it wasn't too far from denver. just maybe 25 minutes. on the way back, we ate in golden. i put the one picture of denver in the distance because i thought it was cool to see the city in the far off spot it was.

spooky

since i didn't have the internet during halloween, i thought i'd upload our pictures from that night. we decided to dress as old people and hand out candy. as you can see, the old is a little close to dead, so when the kids came to the door, i don't think they knew who they were looking at: old people or dead people. but we had a few visitors that night, probably about five groups of kids. when we didn't, we made candied apples and watched sweeney todd. you can see our house in the bottom picture. the grass is dead and there are a lot more leaves on the ground right now. the funny thing is, i was dressing as an old dude and the only new thing i had to buy was the glasses! the rest was mine and i still wear it all!

pinecone, oh yes, pinecone

last night, or possibly tonight when you read this, i met kelley stoltz. i've only been in denver a few weeks and i've seen sonny and the sunsets, best coast and i met kelley stoltz.

what a night. pinecone is the best song i've heard all year. hit the sideways triangle and listen. it's amazing.

what a night. i met kelley stoltz and listened to sonny and the sunsets and best coast. sonny actually took the picture you see of me and kelley. i talked with kelley about fifteen minutes about music and such. really cool guy. he gave his new album for free! free! amazing.

sometimes i think dennis wilson is one of the greatest artists of all time. i love brian wilson, but when i listen to pacific ocean blue, i wonder sometimes. and these tracks from the unreleased bambu, under the moonlight, love remember me, and he's a bum. plus, holy man. i'm hurtin' when i hear these songs. if anybody is wondering where i found these songs, go here. it's the best thing i've heard since brian gave it a go with the beach boys love you.

that says a lot. what is king sooper? it's everywhere in denver. i'm going to get free popcorn from the holiday inn up the road.

facts from mile high

internet is finally up and running. i feel born again. not really, but maybe awakened from a mild nap. that's more like it. so, i've been here all of a few weeks now. here is what i've learned:

1. deodorant is optional. it's fantastic. the weather is so smooth and the humidity so little, you don't walk around all day acquiring odor and moistened funk. i've probably worn deodorant maybe four times since we've been here. awesome.

2. the dryness. you wake up everyday thirsting for water. you have to drink water all day. the old days of drinking coffee and diet soda all day are over. if you did that, you would shrivel up and crust over in a matter of days. lots and lots of water needed.

3. the dryness, continued. your body needs moisturizer like crazy. take a shower, put it on. wash your hands, put it on. lots of it. otherwise, your hands will look like mine, cracked and aged after three weeks.

4. the personalities. people in this town don't have outgoing personalities. i have not met one person who has said something witty or interesting yet. lots of blandness and banalness thus far. is banalness a word?

5. good music groups come here. hopefully i'm going to see sonny and the sunsets and best coast tomorrow night at a place called the bluebird on colfax. the morning benders were here last week. the national, the week before. good stuff.

6. lots of suburus.

7. leaves are everywhere. leaves are in the road. they're on the sidewalk. they're everywhere. and they're every color imaginable. except blue. or purple, otherwise known as grape.

8. driving down alameda going to the gym or to target, you can see the snow on the tops of the mountains, plain as day. it's an amazing sight.

i'll have pictures and more stuff later.

colorado

i'm sitting in a starbucks surfing the internet. there is a guy at the table in front of me writing very frantically. i wonder what is so important. probably everything.

the trees are all shades of yellow, red, orange and brown. it's amazing. the seasons really hit here. there is talk of snow on the range. i have no idea where that is. it sounds like an advancing army. i'm nervous about the snow. but i'm sure i'll adapt quick. i bought a huge coat today. it's not made of gortex, but it will do. actually, it might be. i need to check that.

i rode my bike to city park the other day. it was beautiful. the days have been nothing short of painting i've seen before. the cats are adjusting just fine. my skin is super dry, but i'm still productive.

i'll probably have an internet connection by the end of the month. so keep checking in. i'll be posting lots of pictures once i get it up and running.

i lied

one more post. here is my big moment with the national. look for the guy with a blue wristband and a maturing bald spot in the lower left hand corner. that guy is me.

leaving this town, pt. 3

the time is coming. fast. this will be my last post from houston. probably going to break down the computer tonight. how i'm going to live without a computer for a half a week, i don' know. i haven't had to do that since those dark ages before the internet back when we had massive shelves of encyclopedias with way outdated information. i remember the ones we had at my house stopped with reagan being president. i was using these when i was 9-18. way outdated.

"we need encyclopedias that don't refer to the burgeoning civil rights movement as 'trouble ahead.'" i'm not sure if that quote is exact, but it's still funny.

i was going to make a list of things i would miss about houston, but i'm not going to. there are too many and many of them are selected memories of mine that won't make sense to anyone else. the way a day was in my head, or the way a tree looked and how everyone was smiling and how big everything was and clean and septembers and early mornings with breakfast. there are many ghosts in this town. and i'll miss them, but i have to go. i think they'll understand. plus if they're really ghosts, they should be able to travel with me. that's the advantage of being a ghost.

remember that astros game?
remember that night in my car?
remember that terrible storm?
remember our first dog?
remember the movies we snuck into?
remember graduation?
remember swinging at the church?
remember all the sweet girls?
remember laughing our heads off?

anyone for tennis?

the bachelor party was cool. not at all crazy, but fun nonetheless. the best part was the concert. the national were something to witness. through the course of the show, the area i was standing in was slowly filling with people, so i got further and further from the guys i was standing with. during the last song, i found myself standing alone basically and the lead singer got off the stage and started walking and singing in the crowd. i made a beeline for the action and was standing next to him singing vanderlylle, crybaby, cry. it was totally awesome. i was singing loud too, which i found out the next day, i was singing the wrong words!! ha! i wonder if anybody else noticed. probably not. the line is "someday i'll explain it to the geeks." well i was singing, "someday i'll explain it to the geese." fail!

but either way, either words, it was fun.

new band on the scene: tennis. they're actually from colorado, so i'm ready to get to know this band. go to the hype machine and search them. pretty sweet tunes.

10 miles stereo

beach house was amazing last night. teen dream is such a fascinating, scintillating record. it doesn't build to anything tremendous, but it keeps you at that perfect level the whole record. the female vocals voice is incredible. her energy was tremendous.

vampire weekend was full of it too. they were on top of their game. the songs were quick, crisp and a total blast. i dig them even more after seeing them live. vampire weekend's lyrics sometimes are a little harder to figure out, not what they mean, but the hell they are talking about. my friend found the vampire weekend dictionary. here it is. it certainly helps.

the national is tonight. we'll see how that holds up to last night. my concert in houston. hopefully it's the cat's meow. what? where did that come from?

four!

golf is totally boring and makes no sense to me. but this has to be one of the coolest pictures i've ever seen. it was a total missed shot by tiger and it went right at this guy's camera. amazing photograph.

here comes change

mitch hurwitz talks about the blessing and the curse that is being the creator of arrested development.

great new series at the avclub about the 90's music scene. one of the things i loved about the article was the idea that it took real effort to be an underground music fan growing up in the 90's. there was no internet for the most of us, no close independent music stores and the only way we heard about bands was through magazines and late night videos. we had to really try and almost earn the music. now, we google it and read about it until we've had too much. i saw "just" by radiohead at about 2 in the morning on mtv and was blown away. i bought the album the next day, probably at a circuit city. i bought "being there" by wilco because it was 9.99 at best buy. i'd never heard a wilco song before in my life. but there it was, on display and on sale. both were extremely lucky finds.

i'm currently listening to brian wilson sing "let's go to heaven in my car." it's another ridiculous, brilliant song by the greatest pop writer of all time.

uptight

i have had that song in my head for a better part of the day and i have no idea why. i really don't like it that much and i don't know half the words. just "baby, everything is alright, uptight, out of sight." that's it. just swirling and swirling in my head. enough little stevie!!


the going away party was a great success. seems like most people enjoyed themselves. i know i did. it was great seeing everybody. plus some people brought gifts, which i didn't expect. i got gifts for leaving!! maybe if i come back one day, i'll get gifts for that. i wonder.


so it's on to massive packing and massive moving headaches. bring them on! i should probably eat first. i'm a little famished. can you be a little famished? i'm only moderately extremely excited. what?

the wanderer

so i put together a compilation album for our party. i think it's good. it's pretty straight forward. hits a lot of the common groups i've loved for decades.

i ate two vietnamese sandwiches today. and i plan to eat one tomorrow. i'm looking forward to it. they are quite good.

currently watching our brand is crisis.

leaving this town, pt. 2

i'm back from denver. we left early thursday morning and returned late last night. it wouldn't have been so late, but we had some engine failure before we left, which is exactly the kind of thing you want to hear before you take off into the air for two hours.

we rented a chevy aveo. now, i loved the gas mileage on that car. but wow. i never felt so not in control of a car in my life. once it got to 55, it literally was rattling and on the cusp of disintegration. but we maintained. we had appointments all day thursday with apartment complexs. we saw like six or seven that day. all horrible. horrible. i can't go back to apartment living. there's no way. the rooms were too small. the rent was too high. the place was too run down. all of them. thursday was a major day of defeat. but we regrouped.

on friday, we took to the streets. i drove one corner of denver all day. we stopped and called every sign we saw for rent, no matter what the place looked like, because even if it was a mansion, maybe someone was seriously in need of renters. we hit three possibles. one was amazing and affordable. one was small and affordable. one was huge and not-affordable, but the owner said if it wasn't rented by sunday, the day we were leaving, he'd consider working with us on rent.

the amazing one was already in the process of being rented, by that i mean, the application was sent, but who knows? maybe the guy would disappear. so we held out hope. the small one was dirty and we didn't know why. it had been empty for three weeks. why show it dirty? weird. so we sat and waited.

sunday came. we met the guy at what we were calling the apple house because it has an apple tree in the backyard. we met the guy and walked all the through the house. great house. great basement. apple tree. amazing. garage. everything. he gave us his price and we couldn't do it. but for some reason, he wanted to show us his sister's house, which was very similar to the one we were looking at. so we went over there. while we were there, i got a call from the amazing house. dude's application was accepted and we were out. so i was feeling pretty low at that point. finally the guys asks us again if we want it. and we tell him we can't afford it. so lowers it again. and we take it. we got the apple house. i am going to eat so many mcintosh apples i'm going to be diabetic in a month.

four days driving in a chevy aveo with just me and my wife. we're a great team. i was really proud of her. she was stressed and so was i, but she held firm. so now, let's have our party. and we'll be out of here.

leaving this town

i'm back from illinois. vacations can be stressful. when you're taking a vacation for a funeral, it's even more stressful. there are so many small towns in southern illinois. you wouldn't even know the difference if it wasn't for a sign or a water tower. that's the only way you know.

there isn't much ewok influenced music out there. the ewoks played some solid tunes at the end of return of the jedi. george lucas made the choice to change the music on the re-releases. but if you watch the original, there is a song i called "jub jub" that is fantastic. good beat, good use of rhythm. the ewoks were solid musically.

someone great

we lost two great ones back to back. my great aunt passed away on thursday. and my wife's grandmother passed away yesterday.

the thing i admired most about my great aunt was her attitude. she was resilient. her humor and her good-naturedness radiated from her. she loved life by loving all the simple things. and she made you know she loved you too. she actually bought me a pair of star wars roller-skates. yes, they actually made those. it had darth vader on the side. i'll miss her.

my wife's grandmother was remarkable. she spoke her mind no matter the situation and generally when she spoke, we all stopped and listened. we watched many seinfeld reruns together. last time i saw her was when she, my wife and i watched the college national championship together this year. she started almost every sentence with, "oh, honey....". man, she was funny. we'll miss her too.

black bubblegum

excellent article, and starter for a series dealing with the subject, on income inequality in the united states; how much of a problem it is and where we stand in comparison with other countries.

stevie nicks fajita round-up

i don't know why, but i've brought this up in conversation a lot lately. so i had to see it.

the final countdown

the nfl season starts soon. last year, i picked a new orleans-san diego super bowl. i was confident the whole time in my nfc pick, the saints, but never in the chargers.

this year, i'm confident in my afc pick the baltimore ravens. my nfc pick is mostly a judgment based on last year's performance and that i just don't have a better pick. and that is the green bay packers.

next year's super bowl: the baltimore ravens versus the green bay packers.

on the home front, i think it's going to be a bad year. the texans will slip back to the pack and go 7-9. the schedule is too tough and we can't win the big games. hopefully they prove me wrong.

fitter, happier

my dad was heading out to target or k-mart one night, i've now forgotten which one, ultimately not pressing to the outcome of the story, but if i remember somewhat correctly, k-mart had already been overrun and returned to the emptiness of it's original state... anyway, my dad was heading to a super-store of goods and materials and popped his head in to ask me if i needed anything in the form of super-goods. i told him, "radiohead's ok computer." he gave me a weird look and left. ok computer had just come out that week. i had been a huge fan of the bends. a huge fan. i thought it was one of the best albums i'd ever heard. i lived and died from tracks two through seven and was reborn in street spirit. he returned with ok computer that night. somehow a) he found it and b) target and/or k-mart sold it. i played about fifteen times that night. i was only seventeen and had never logged onto the great expansion of the internet. but i heard the future. it was made of car crashes, buzzing noises, yuppies networking, politiking, suffocation, plane crashes and tourists moving too fast. from time to time, i come back to that album. i still can't get over it. don't lose your nerve.

snowstorm

i sold roxanne. i had that car for 12 years. i was a senior in high school when i got it.

i cannot get over this galaxie 500 album. this thing is simply rotten good. it seems like it doesn't go anywhere, but it does. the subtlety of the album is tremendous. and the cover of george harrison's "isn't it a pity" is crazy good.

i've started going to a kickboxing class twice a week. my hand is swollen from punching the bag. i haven't punched anything this much in my whole life. my hand is not used to this level of punching. lots and lots of punching. there was kicking too. but my foot was okay with that.

this class only makes me appreciate the man that is rocky balboa even more. every time i was tired, i thought, "rocky balboa wouldn't quit." so i didn't quit.

sugar cube

in my stereo right now, i have the following combination:

1. galaxie 500- on fire
2. sonny and the sunsets- tomorrow
3. teenage fanclub- songs from northern britain
4. band of horses- infinite arms
5. television- adventure

now, this weekend i had these albums in heavy rotation. last night, while cooking dinner with my wife, she said to me, "what are we listening to?" and i said, "at the moment, it's band of horses." and she said, "i like it. i like all these albums. they all go together really well." i don't think i'd ever been happier in my life.

also, i stumbled across this yo la tengo video for sugar cube. it's really great.

on my way back home

the "fairwell tour" was a great success. all participants were extremely generous with their time/couches/sodas/towels. it felt great. it felt good to go somewhere and just be myself and not worry about jobs/homes/moves.

i swam at hamilton pool, which was like discovering a new layer of earth.

i swam at barton springs pool.

i found television's adventure, galaxie 500's on fire and grinderman at waterloo records.

i climbed a giant hill and threw rocks at this bridge at four in the morning.

i ate at alamo springs.

i chose band of horse's laredo as the theme song of the trip.

i saw many friends. i saw my dad. i saw deer. i had weird dreams about my car getting jacked.

it was the final adventure/trip before the exodus. it lived up to it's billing. now back to studying/packing and making coffee.

coffee and TV

the whole blur vs. oasis battle of the early to mid 90's made me hate both bands. i thought they were both bands full of copy-cat talentless hacks who used personality to mask the fact they were terrible to mediocre pop songwriters. i believe this still holds true for oasis.

but blur is changing my mind. especially with this album: 13. this album boasts styles galour and music ranging from pseudo-soul to grunge-ish songs to simple melodic confessionals. and of course coffee and TV is basically a perfect pop song.

i liked parklife and i liked the S/T album. but 13 is worth your time.

when you dance you can really love

i passed BEC. that's half of my tests. i have now until august of 2011 to pass FAR, which i'm taking sunday, and REG. half way there.

"you see, you see...he's not a machine. he's a man."

divine comedy

stephen colbert two nights ago:

"news flash: there is no news flash."

still laughing about that.

watched capitalism: a love story yesterday.

today, currently watching maxed out.

our car club

if anyone is interested in a 1998 chevy camaro, let me know. i have one. totally clean and still moving like a champ.

benjamin is currently mashed in between my fortress of albums, two boxes and a trash can. that is cracking me up. i don't even know how he got back there.

i've been listening to bob dylan all morning. his vitriol from albums like highway 61 revisited and, to a lesser extent, blonde on blonde is sprayed across the landscape. the targets are wide ranging and varied between people and establishments. with blood on the tracks, it's totally directed at one person. now, whether that one person is actually one person or a combination of many persons together that form one target is debatable. but i love the directness of the album. he is scorned, confused, angry and somewhat embarrassed and trying to hide behind these emotions. i have a version of tangled up in blue that will make your mind melt. what am i talking about? this is the internet. here it is. look for the version called demo. listen for the buttons on his coat hitting the guitar. it's amazing. the whole tone is different. this one is sarcastic almost, covered in an apathetic nature. completely dispassionate and indifferent. i love it.

there goes the sun

is there a market crash coming? will we feel the september blues again this year? the WSJ is contemplating as i am typing this right now!

i ate two donuts this morning. which proved to be two too many.

here is a ben bernanke action figure.

evolution really failed us by not giving us gills.

the great secret of our times: celebrity lives are actually quite boring says joe alasky.

summer mood

this might not be the best album of the year, but it might be the most fun. look at that cat!!

modern man

the guys at the burning platform and the ultimate chinese bubble.

excellent quick video on the circumstances surrounding japanese deflation in the 1990's and the contrasts with the current u.s. situation.

matthew simmons died yesterday. i've quoted him several times on the blog regarding peak oil production. i saw him speak one time at the museum of fine arts after a video. he was poignant and matter-of-fact and his point landed with me. too bad he's gone.

i need to fix my printer. who fixes printers? i can't print. it's quite vexing.

the suburbs

i've listened to it about six or seven times now. i find it overbearing, suffocating and utterly humorless. and i love it. i absolutely love it!

barstool blues

i played volleyball yesterday for the first time in about fifteen years. think about that. that's half my life i went without playing volleyball. that was a good streak that ended yesterday. the only other streak i had similar to that was a vomit-less streak from 1993 to 2000. i vomited the morning of the epic oilers loss to the bills in the playoffs. i vomited before the game, as most people vomited after the game. then in 2000, i randomly got some stomach thing and ate a spicy chicken sandwich from wendy's and that was it man. the streak was over.

random streak:
1) volleyball-less 1995-2010
2) vomit-less 1993-2000
3) james bond-less... my whole life

that's right. i have never, ever seen a james bond movie. never. that's the new streak.

i saw leatherbag play this weekend. twice. i tried to get as many people as i could to the saturday show. i succeeded in bringing one. i even titled the email i sent to everyone "super karate monkey death car." i received a lot of confused responses. marketing is not my thing. i would consider just bringing one person a major accomplishment seeing as how i really only hang out with my wife and a cat. the shows were great though.

the astros traded roy oswalt and lance berkman this past weekend. it's kind of a big deal because the last time they traded a veteran at their peak-ish was glenn davis in 1991. i was 11. so it's been a while. i hope they can rebuild and get back to the world series. i don't want to be one of those people telling other people that so-and-so died without ever seeing the astros get the world series. because all that person has to do is say, "so did everyone else in the history of you the world, you ass!" and they would be completely correct in their assessment.

thank you for making me beg

now that i've got all the time in the world, i decided to embark on a maddening journey into out of print records. it didn't start that way. it started with an interest in bands like game theory and the apartments. but it quickly evolved when i found out that both bands have zero records currently in print.

maybe i should just get a couple badfinger records.....

on another note, the current record for most grapes i can fit in my mouth is 17.

the wedding march

i just put together a wedding mix for my friend tanner that begins with yo la tengo's "our way to fall" and ends with a version of "only with you" sung by dennis wilson instead of carl wilson, who sung the album version. and there's all sorts of goodies in between.

harry nilsson dvd "who is harry nilsson (and why is everybody talkin' about him?)" is finally coming out later this year.

all my friends

"houston, i love you, but you're bringing me down."

i was laid off on friday. five minutes before five.

the reason: i was under the age of 72 and my last name didn't begin with certain letters that were more important than a W.

come in, letter W, your time is up.

the point of the post is that i will be removing myself from frequent posting. i am still alive and my lungs are working better than ever. all the newly acquired vast amounts of time will be put to good use as we start to plan the beginning stages of our exit/exodus.

here's to tomorrow. your time begins.......now.

meet me in the basement

re: meet me in the basement.

down is the new up

this guy. this guy is something else. he is the epitome of failing upward. he screws up, he gets promoted. he oversees the biggest wall street fallout, let's put him in the white house. he has nine lives. and now he wants to block the wonderful and beautiful elizabeth warren from heading the new consumer agency. hopefully, this will be his last mistake and he will be cut loose, as he should have been months ago. look at this guy. elizabeth, it's going to be okay. if you want to give me a call, please do. i would love to talk to you and have coffee and gently caress your hand and stroke your hair and maybe, just maybe, tell you i love you.

sting o' luv

wow. just when i thought our banks couldn't get anymore immoral, they go and do this.

here is a quick discussion on the future of finance.

this is a great article from the web of debt on how brokers became bookies.

a roosevelt moment for the biggest banks?

young adult fiction

today is bastille day! it celebrates the great french race around the world that began in france and ended in france and in between went through really, really interesting places. what a race it was. this is all true.

i got a spicy chicken sandwich from chick-fil-a today. this may be the best day of my life.

also, i received seasons 1 and 2 of newsradio in the mail today. didn't even order them. they just showed up! actually i did order them and they didn't show up, they went to the post office and i had to go get them. but i'm still thrilled. the first two seasons are not the best. the characters are not yet zany. most shows get terrible when the characters begin to get zany and lose all notion of reality. but newsradio got better when this happened. way better. phil hartman was incredible.

in other news, the epa says rivers shouldn't smell like shit...

evil urges

anyone who reads this blog knows one thing about me: i love me some arrested development. i think it's the greatest show on television ever. there will probably never be an arrested development movie and i think, we as a human race, are the worst for it.

but check out this trailer for an action arrested development movie. it's freakin' awesome.

i read this article today and nearly started hitting my head on the desk as hard as possible, but then i realized that wouldn't solve anything. so i asked someone else to do it. basically, the premise of the article is: what if the BP oil spill is the beginning of a chain reaction of events that will cause mass extinction of human life? wild? weird? wikely? i mean, likely? who knows.

i'm going to out on a major limb here and say the american league wins the all-star game. again. they've won every game since i was like 12 years old, so i think we're good on this bet.

"i nailed it! i hibbled that bibble like jibble on a dribble!"

tenth leaving train

i've been hearing a lot lately about austerity, haven't you? yes, that's what i thought as well.

so what is austerity? well, it's when a government reduces its spending and/or increases fees and taxes to pay back its creditors. that is straight from wikipedia. the page was last modified monday at 10:48, so the definition could have been different then.

but back to austerity, well, that's what it is. so when you use it next, you'll know.

this is a pretty good article from the nyt regarding the changing structure of the american dream. were the boomers the last prosperous generation of americans? that might end up being the case.

i have my lebron james prediction ready. he will play for the washington senators who will finally beat those pesky globetrotters!!! go senators!! go!!!

finish your collapse and stay for breakfast

i had another dream last night that i wish to share with the masses. it's short on details, but long on emotion.

dwight schrute and i are working on a road project. basically, we're standing on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere shoveling some chemical on the shoulder. in addition to the two of us, there are two tigers hanging out watching us work. that's right: TWO TIGERS!! we pay them no attention and neither one of us show any regard for them being there. behind me as i'm shoveling are a stack of boxes that form a kind of domino highrise. it's not too tall, only about as tall as me.

as i'm shoveling, one of the tigers gets up and walks up that ramp and jumps on my back. i am terrified and screaming for help. dwight, who has now turned into michael scott, runs away in terror to get back to the car, which is now a truck. when he gets to the car, which is now a truck, there is a man there waiting for him who begins to beat him with one of our shovels. that might be the weirdest part of the dream. why did he get the crap beat out of him? and who was this mystery man? i have no explanation for that one.

who knows. at this point, i have a tiger on my back. he is slightly gnawing on my arm, just playfully. he loosens his mouth just enough for me to pull my arm out and i begin to run like the wind. the tiger begins this wild pouncing motion. he jumps high into the air and comes down hard, only to quickly bounce back up into the air so he can pounce me into the ground. he is no longer playing with me. i reach the car, which is now actually a truck, and i'm having a hard time getting up the side of the truck so the tiger can't get me.

then i wake up. i have had tons of dreams in my life. lots of them where i get killed or i'm about to get killed, either by gangs, or wars or whatever. this was the most terrifying dream i've ever had. the idea of being eaten alive is utterly horrific. i woke up and could not go back to sleep.

now here is my explanation for this dream, not exciting, but i believe true. once i had woken up, i got up and went to the bathroom. while i was there, i noticed that benjamin, our cat, had knocked over his cup of water, either he did or my wife did at some point in the night. so i imagine he got thirsty and was meowing and walking over me, which has been known to happen. so what started as an innocent "dwight schrute and me" dream, turned into a tiger mauling nightmare because my cat did not have his water.

as far as michael scott getting bludgeoned with a shovel, i have no idea.

hang onto yourself

every once and a while, i'll watch a movie and get weepy. not weepy like, life is horrible and i can't take it or a small puppy is crushed by a bigger puppy. but more like, the grandness of life feels overwhelming. and it's absolute beauty is achieved and offered in 90 minutes of quickly moving frames.

the most recent movie to do that was "once." its story is simple. the shots are simple. the leads, however, are not simple. not by some undefinable characteristic, but by simply being confused, optimistic human beings. but what makes the film, is the songs. the songs carry this movie and they create amazing interludes that tell us more about these people than any conversation could. they tell us where they've been, they tell us where they would like to go and they tell us if they will get there or not.

i highly recommend this movie. listen to the songs two or three times. apparently, this duo in the movie is now a duo in real life in a band called the swell season. check them out too.

now i have to get back to elmntng vwls frm my vrdydy cnvrstn.

the show must go on

in 10 hours, i square off with BEC again.

i'm imagining a rocky II ending rather than a rocky I ending.

actually, rocky III would work too.

lessons learned from rocky I to rocky III.

tracy hide

it's a lively saturday here at the household. i'm studying all day. currently taking a break, wearing a hat and going through my wondermints albums, of which i have four. you read that currently. i have four wondermints albums. why? i don't know.

the s/t first album, bali and mind if we make love to you. i also downloaded an import of theirs, years ago, called the wonderful world of the wondermints. that's probably their best album. it's an album of covers including brian wilson (via glen campbell) the monkees and others. it's really, really good.

the rest are okay. some songs are amazing. some are pretty lackluster.

wow. see. i just stumbled across a song that sounds a lot like trader by the beach boys.

convinced of the hex

financial regulation reform passed last night. what does it mean? well, it means nothing. the bill contained nothing. no real regulation. no real change. it was as if your parents grounded you, but you still could do whatever the hell you wanted. "be home at midnight, unless it's a day of the week between monday and sunday, with monday being the beginning of the week and sunday being the end of the week, with all days considered to exist in between."

here is tyler durden at zero hedge. every word is true:

"as if anyone thought otherwise, the final shape of financial regulation has now been formalized and as Shanien Nasiripour at the Huffington Post notes, "many of the measures that offered the greatest chances to fundamentally reshape how the Street conducts business have been struck out, weakened or rendered irrelevant." congrats, middle class, once again you get raped by Wall Street, which is off to the races to yet again rapidly blow itself up courtesy of 30X leverage, unlimited discount window usage, trillions in excess reserves, quadrillions in unregulated derivatives, a TBTF framework that has been untouched and will need a rescue in under a year, non-existent accounting rules, a culture of unmitigated greed and all of Congress and Senate on its payroll. and sorry, you can't even vote some of the idiots that passed this garbage out: after all there is a retiring lame duck in charge of it all. we can only hope his annual Wall Street (i.e., taxpayer funded) annuity will satisfy his conscience for destroying any hope America could have of a credible financial system."

the debate is settled

in the 80's there were two types of men: men without hats and men at work. both had their unique characteristics.

one band of men made songs about safety. the other, made songs about coming from down under. both were unforgettable. both were equally strange.

so, who was the better man in the 80's? the men at work? or the men without hats?

i got the hots, pt. 2

those guys over at the burning platform, you got to love them. they're filled with more righteous indignation than any human being should be and bless them for it.

they watched gasland last night. and they were not happy with what they saw. i mentioned the documentary in yesterday's posting, "i got the hots." which is a great song from underwater moonlight by the soft boys.

did anybody else watch it? i do not have hbo. i only have channels a-g. from h-z, i got nuffin, with the exception of m. somehow that one comes in.

in other news, eons of darwinian evolution somehow produce mitch.

i got the hots

haven't we heard that natural gas is going to lead way into the future? cure us of our addition to oil? foreign oil? well it might all be true. and in the process, it might just ruin us all.

what? what you say? you did say what, didn't you? outloud. or under your breath. or into a coffee cup. but you said it.

fracking. that might be an issue going forward. fracking is also known as hydraulic fracturing. basically, they shoot a bunch of water, chemicals and stuffs into a hole to help get the stuffs out.

but that stuffs they're shooting in there, it ain't no good. it's made of some bad stuff.

and why are we doing this? for shale gas. it's going to power the world some day. which is a shame, because i shorted shale gas and went long on love.

but see, there's this town of damascus, where people are getting sick. their water is bursting into flames. i mean, that sounds fun, but i like soft water.

and if you don't like reading, which who really does, check out this film/trailer for a documentary called gasland.

jigsaw falling into place

radiohead has a new album coming out this year. that's what mr. ed o'brien is saying at least. i liked in rainbows, but i had issues with it. wilco got tons of flack for releasing an album that seemed to be made up of various phases in their collection of sounds. i gave them flack for that.

but wasn't in rainbows the same thing? listen to it again in that context and you hear the various sounds of their career. there's over-edited, cut-up tracks recalling kid a/amnesiac. there's melodic, soothing, soaring songs recalling o.k. computer. there are straightforward-ish songs recalling hail to the thief. i liked the album. but radiohead received praise where wilco received derision. they made the same album. neither one of them was horrible. but neither one of them was groundbreaking.

groundbreaking like this.

not like this.

cut your hair

i've had a lot of things said to me in my life. some positive. some negative. and i think the thing that i would appreciate the most would be for an old man to say this to me:

"what you got there is a solid haircut."

kind of in a hank hill-type voice. i don't know why, but that would make me really proud.

only in dreams

so i had another crazy dream last night. i was at a basketball game, i believe, maybe football, but a game no less. i was sitting there with my wife and a friend, watching the game. so halftime comes along and they start throwing the balls into the crowd for someone to catch and throw it back into the basket, you know how they get crowds to participate and think they're part of the action. so a ball comes our way and my friend and i both catch it somewhat at the same time. i was a little earlier. but i relented and in the spirit of good times, let him throw it. and he made it, which was amazing considering how far back we were from the basket. we celebrate and rejoice his awesome shot and await the return of the game. then things get weird.

before the game restarts, i notice lots of people reading something and turning around and pointing at me. so i grab one of the newspapers and there's a story about me. the story describes the aforementioned ball-into-the-crowd-me-relenting-my-grip saga from above and how gay i am for doing it. and i'm not exaggerating for the story. the article called me gay for doing it. there is was in big headlines, "kevin is gay!" how did they know my name? first of all, i have no idea how a paper was produced that fast. that was amazing. those people were reading about me literally 20 seconds after it happened. and second of all, how is that gay? i was being considerate. so i found a guy passing out the papers and asked him who wrote the story. he said he did and he was some 17 year-old punk calling me out. well, we go back and forth and no one wins and i don't really remember how the rest of the dream went.

my main point is to be careful what you do and say because there will be a special edition printed about your actions and distributed all across the land.

plus he made the shot!!! that should negate the whole thing!! if he threw it like a baby and it hit some old woman in the head causing her to vomit on the family in front of her, then maybe i'll take some blame about not taking the shot.

but he made it!!! i'm suing that paper.

thank you friends

i saw high fidelity last week. greatest movie quote ever:

"what came first, the music or the misery? people worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. did i listen to pop music because i was miserable? or was i miserable because i listened to pop music?"

most depressing album ever: berlin by lou reed. i honestly believe if you listened to this album at the wrong time in your life/day/night, you will find yourself riding your bike downtown at 3 in the morning, slightly intoxicated and wondering where exactly you were going to land.

the WAND

pictures courtesy of tanner.

in the morning of the magicians

so the freepress houstonfest is over. i still prefer the name "the super-happy houston funfest spectacular festival" but this name has yet to catch on. but by either name, it's over.

there are two things i will remember from this year's super-happy funfest. one: my wife and i huddled together under a small black umbrella as her left side was getting soaked and my right side was getting soaked during what was probably a 35-45 minute torrential downpour while sitting on the hill at eleanor tinsley park holding our spot so that we wouldn't lose it for the flaming lips later that evening.

two: the flaming lips. it was one of the most amazing shows i've ever seen. dancing bears, crazy props, walking through a women's legs, megaphones, plastic orbs that floated into the audience. and the sound. the sound of their songs was amazing. absolutely incredible show. i could barely move while they were playing because if i did, i probably would have slipped and fallen into the muddy hill that had become the park, but i was able to shake it enough to inspire the crowd to follow my lead.

backtracking to saturday now....saturday was weak. the sun was behind the clouds, which helped. but i would have rather taken a beating by the sun and gotten better music. ra ra riot was okay. but girl talk was just some dude behind a computer that would take a rock riff and paste it over a hip-hop song. what the hell? i could do that shit in my bedroom if i wanted to while watching reruns of scrubs. i can't help it. i love scrubs. i think i'm a lot like turk. anyway, he was the headliner for saturday! before him was some horrible stuff like medeski, martin and wood and detroit cobras and some rap dude. so that was saturday.

sunday was hot all day. the sun was out. we were preparing for the worst. but when we parked, the wind picked up and could feel it coming. we had no idea how bad it was going to be. we literally sat down and got out the umbrella, and it started pouring on us. and God bless her, my wife sat there with me, crouched together getting soaked in her nice pants and shoes and was happy to be there with me. no one else was there. all of our friends were in their cars staying dry. we held down the spot. she and me. i and her. and i thanked her for that. not many wives would do that. towards the end of the downpour, but still raining, lucero played. they weren't great, but it helped to take our mind off the fact we were getting soaked and having mud flung onto our persons.

the rain finally let up for stars. and i liked that show. i listened to a few tracks beforehand and thought it was a little weak, but i'm going to have to go back and listen again, because live, they were pretty strong. the lead singers (male and female) were engaging. the guy was pretty witty. i like that. wittiness.

then slimthug played(?, he didn't play anything) and we bolted and let everybody else watch our spot for us. but then the lips came on and it was amazing. they played several tracks from their new album embryonic. but they played she don't use jelly and what was cool, they used the screen behind them to have jon stewart, circa 1996, introduce them from his old show. nice.

we got home finally sunday night. with soaked feet. soaked underwater. dirty shoes. dirty blankets. and for a minute, we probably wondered why we did it. but i know why we did it. because i'll never forget that rainy sunday with my wife under the umbrella getting impaled by rain to hold our spot for the flaming lips. that was why.

who is it?

"alien tears will fill for him

pity's long-broken ern,

for his mourners will be outcast men,

and outcasts always mourn."