i finally got to get out in kansas city. other than last friday, my pizza night, and not even really then because i only walked like two blocks from the hotel, i haven't really gotten out in kansas city. my dad had told me about this place that he had eaten at like thirty years ago and i looked it up and it's still there. not only is it still there, it's actually won a lot of awards and is super highly regarded as a great place to get pan-friend chicken. so that's what i got. and it was a lot. mashed potatoes and these amazing cinnamon rolls they give you after you eat. it was awesome. that's the extent of my trip so far. my morning jacket is wednesday. i'll have pictures from that too. see that big piece in the back, i'm going to eat that one tomorrow for lunch. and i have two cinnamon rolls too.
"fool me once, strike one, fool me twice.........strike three." from the office. that was just on tv. great.
hunter pence is a philly. we've traded lidge, oswalt and now pence to the phillies. we were snookered on the lidge deal and the oswalt deal. we'll see how this one pans out. bourn, wandy and lee need to go now. and then we need to bring back tony eusabio. that guy could hit.
we're having a potluck thing on monday and the kicker is, as part of a team building experience, we have to give an interesting fact about ourselves that the others didn't know.
i was talking to demitria and i said my interesting fact is that i used to be a baby. i don't think i've ever said anything as funny as that before in my life. i am still laughing about that.
another thing that's funny. tanner and i used to have this routine where we would quote lyrics from mungo jerry's "in the summertime" and how inappropriate some of the lyrics are. "if her daddy's rich, take her out for meal, if her daddy's poor, just do what you feel." and we were like what is that? "do what you feel" because she's poor. that's suggestive.
anyway, it was great fun. so i'm watching jimmy fallon last night, a very underrated late-night talk show, and he was doing the same thing with "splish splash". he's like, "what's going on here? this guy is taking a bath and has no idea there is a party going on?" it was awesome.
is anybody else getting the feeling that obama really wants to cut entitlement programs and is using this situation as a means to get the cuts while blaming the republicans for it who have always wanted it? i'm not on the side of the republicans, don't misread that. i just wonder who really wants what.
or are we seriously trying to default on purpose under the guise of some sort of back and forth ideological argument that doesn't really exist? i mean, the two parties are the same. both are bankrolled by the same global corporations. is there an advantage to defaulting? i mean, is this a response to all the money printing of QE1 and QE2 that didn't work? defaulting will make interest rates go up by the natural downgrade of our debt courtesy of the rating agencies. is this a means of forcing rates up by blaming the ratings agencies? i don't know. but something seems off here. ignore the rhetoric. ignore the back and forth. people, they're on the same team. what do they have to gain by a default? i guess we'll wait and find out.
there is an update to the most memorable moment in KC. it seems as though my morning jacket is playing here in two weeks. and there are still tickets available. interesting.......
i've had two moments in my life when true genius struck. there's probably been more, but i only remember two. they both involve food. that's probably why i remember them.
one night i was hanging out with pete and tanner and we went to the house of pies. i was really, really hungry that night. when our food came, i ate mine so fast that everybody else still had about 95% of their food left. for some reason, i put my plate on the table behind us. i have no idea why i did this. the waitress, who i noticed did not bring our food, came over to ask us how we were doing. i looked around and made a play. i told her that everybody else had received there food and my order didn't come. she said she was sorry and brought me another sandwich. i ate two sandwiches that night for the price of one. awesome move.
last night was another stroke of genius. as some of you know, i'm in kansas city. i had been out that evening and came back to my room, just laying around the room, watching television some time around 11 or midnight. my next door neighbors were being really loud. i thought about calling downstairs to the lobby or writing them a note telling them to shut the hell up. i thought there had to be a better way to get back at them. i had overheard them ordering a pizza on the phone. i thought, how awesome would it be if i jacked their pizza? that would teach them.
so i waited outside my room, by the elevators ready to intercept their pizza. i was pretty sure they had prepaid for it and all i had to do was pick it up. my wife called and i told her what i was doing. she did not agree with it, but she said i might as well do it right. she told me to go the lobby and meet the guy there. that way he would be glad not to have to come up to the room, we would not be close to the room if for some reason he needed to get in and it provided me with an escape if it backfired and they hadn't prepaid. so i did. i went downstairs and right as i was walking out of the elevator, the guy gets there. i hang up with my wife and approach him. i told him that miguel had called, which was the dude's name next door because i heard him say it, and that i was there to pick it for him. i tipped the guy and he gave me the pizza. i went back to my room and ate half of it laughing the whole time. i didn't hear them order another one, but someone did come to the room late, about forty-five minutes later. might have been another pizza, i'm not sure.
i heard them talking today. they're here for a wedding. so it's probably going to be a louder, later night than last night. if they order another item, i might go for it.
sheer genius. and the pizza was good too. really good. and big. that will probably be my highlight from my time in kansas city.
i used to work late nights sometimes in huntsville, texas. i used to work at a video production company called EVN, that stood for educational video network. we'd make horrible, horrible videos about not doing drugs and not using credit cards and making young people feel okay with who they were. but if they watched our videos, they'd probably be less okay with who they were and less okay with whoever, me, made these ridiculous videos. dave made great videos. i actually sought out his videos to watch. he would turn the ridiculous material into something visually stimulating and entertaining. i wonder what dave is doing now. no matter.
so i would work late, as indicated earlier in this post. working late at a young age has a way of detaching you with reality. i'm not sure why. now, it brings in reality. makes it more real. back then, it did the opposite. maybe i couldn't wrap my head around working that late. and i'm only talking about 9 or 10. it would dark of course. sometimes i'd take a break and sit outside in the dark. everybody was gone. most of us had class the next day, me included. but class was easy in huntsville, so i could do what i wanted. so i would. i would sit in my tiny office and blast sigur ros. blast it. i could hear it in every corner of that building. i would watch the videos too.
this was one of those videos. obviously the music grabbed my attention. it's an amazing, beautiful song. totally captivating you at every turn and twist. but the visuals were amazing. i was graduating with a degree in radio/tv so visuals were what i was about. i was also developing a keen photographer eye.
but i wondered. was this the story of the fallen titans? did their hubris finally get the best of them? did they wonder what it would be like to finally tag the other? the music was hopeful, while the visuals told of happiness staunched with patient trepidation. masks. ash. a playground. was this something i would experience? would my children? was fortune transformed to fleeting moments chasing normality?
the song has always leveled me. every time i hear it. i heard this band live. in houston, texas, of all places.
houston, texas. my old grounds.
if you have time, seek out other sigur ros videos. you won't be disappointed. i wish i knew the future. but what would i do with this information? saddled right on my back? were things really easier back then? probably not. it sure felt like it.
we are halfway, HALFWAY, through 2011. hasn't it been something so far? i know right. the previews did not do it justice. things have been good in the music field.
you've got some great albums this year. here are some:
elbow- build a rocket boys kurt vile- smoke ring for my halo the strokes- angles fleet foxes- helplessness blues bon iver- bon iver my morning jacket- circuital radiohead- king of limbs pains of being pure at heart- belong wye oak- civilian tennis- cape dory cut copy- zonoscope peter bjorn and john- gimme some the dodos- no color black lips- arabia mountain panda bear- tomboy the low anthem- smart flesh
two albums i missed somehow: cults- cults wu lyf- go tell fire to the mountain
two best albums so far: destroyer- kaputt thurston moore- demolished thoughts
that's the year so far. i know we have an album from wilco on the way. i think we might have an album from girls coming. good year. good year.
and how about those new ape movies? looking pretty wild!
kansas city is hot. and humid. and that was at 7:33 as i was walking to work. i have to walk about four blocks north and then four blocks west. i was soaking wet when i got to work. soaking. yuck.
i haven't done anything right now besides work and try to sleep. i'm having a hard time sleeping in a hotel again. in atlanta, i was miserable. i slept about 3-4 hours a night. i'm not sure why. if i missed my wife? my cat? my bed? or was worried/nervous? i have no idea. maybe just the bed sucked, which it did. last night i fell asleep quick, but woke up at four in the morning for some reason.
they do have a nice menu here. i had these awesome lumpy crabby spring rolls last night. and i'll have them again tonight. that's right. two nights in a row.
i wish i could be done with cpa. it won't let me go. it's my own fault. i've done as little as i can to pass and it shows. i guess that speaks to something to say that i've done so little and come so close. i know people who sequestered themselves for months. literally. and they passed. i didn't do that. now i'm doing that. in KC. i'm sequestered. and i'm going to study. and eat lumpy crabby spring rolls. and i'm going to pass. and be done. it's going to take longer than i thought, but i'm going to finish it.
i was able to connect the beach boys to the velvet underground. however, it took many steps:
1. follow the same path i made to get to the beatles in a previous blog 2. john lennon played in the beatles with george harrison 3. harry nilsson's 'pussycats' was produced by john lennon 4. van dyke parks collorated with harry nilsson on the 'popeye' soundtrack 5. brian wilson/the beach boys collaborated with van dyke on 'smile'
so that's more like 12/13 steps. but i was able to do it. it was a great moment. i was in atlanta at training and when i did it, i wanted to show everyone in the room. show them my handy work. but i was confident/complete sure that everyone in the room had no idea who the velvet underground are. pretty sure.
i bought the halcyon digest album by deerhunter some time ago. i was living in denver, so it wasn't too long ago. i bought it with a couple scott walker albums and maybe a used lou reed record. for a while, i never really listened to it, just off and on. i have finally been listening to it regularly and it is a fantastic record. the lyrics are obscure, but simple and somewhat related to each other it seems. there is melancholy, but the music surrounding it is beautiful. the music is incredible. i highly suggest listening to helicopter, probably my favorite song on the album. this record will stay with you. it's a great late night record, as most of the great ones are. check it out.
btw, happy fourth of july. we planted petunias and bought a new mattress. great day! i also ate cheesesticks from sonic. they don't have them in the immediate city, but we drove out to a different home depot at 34th and quebec and there is one out there. oh yes.
what in the world is bob talking about in this song? he changes from first person storytelling to third person halfway through. in the original version, he makes references to living with "them" and watching how things fell through and how he became "withdrawn" because of these personal accounts and this is right after running into what the listener believes is his long lost love.
i always thought this song captured the lost love of two people trying hard to make life work, but work took over their lives/spirits, and they ended up losing love in the process. they go their separate ways. they continue working jobs that require all their spirit/attention again and when the singer leaves his job, he travels down south and runs into his lost love. but then after smoking a pipe with her, the story seems to change and suddenly we're talking about someone else. "i lived with them on montague street." who is "them"? how have the number of people in this song expanded to three or more? the next few lines deal with "he" and "she" and finally "i became withdrawn." what is happening there? who is "he" and who is "she"?
then the next stanza deals with "getting back to her." i thought he was with her! where is he? who's he hanging out with at this critical juncture?
everyone is familiar with the game 'six degrees of kevin bacon'. i have a new game, 'six degrees of the velvet underground'. i have a theory that i can connect every major act through the velvet underground. the rules are as such: you have to have played in a band with someone you wish to connect, produced them or collaborated with them in some way. here is an example. i can connect the beatles to the velvet underground.
1. nico- original member of the VU (she was!) 2. jacksonbrowne- wrote several songs for nico on her debut album 3. don henley- jacksonbrowne wrote songs for the eagles as well 4. stevie nicks- had a duet with don henley 5. tom petty- had a duet with stevie nicks 6. travelling wilbury's- tom petty was in the band with georgeharrison who was in the beatles
that last step is probably more like two steps. so this game might be called 'seven degrees of the velvet underground' instead. we'll see. i'm trying to connect the beach boys and i'm having a hard time. did lindseybuckingham ever work with dennis or brianwilson? if so, i have them nailed. i wonder if i can connect them through john stamos? he might be the key.
i volunteered for habitat for humanity today. i dug out a place for a sidewalk, then cut the frame and then nailed/screwed it into place. i used a circular saw and performed something called a "drop-cut". for those of you who don't know what that is, you pull the guard up on the saw as you drop it down into the wood, turning on the blade as you go. it was a exciting and extremely scary. one drop cut got away from me and the saw took off in a strange circle move, cutting a useless pattern through the wood. we were still able to salvage the piece, which was nice. i also drank more water and gatorade than i have in some time. it was hot today. lots of sun. needless to say, i'm pretty tired.
my mom arrives for her visit tomorrow. i'm pretty excited. we're going to do a lot of tourist stuff, which i tend to like more than most people. we're supposed to have great weather too. it's going to be a blast.
in other news, yesterday was the five year anniversary of the day i proposed to demitria. five years man! in that time, we got married, moved to colorado, i graduated from college again, got three jobs and we have a new cat.
(intermission)
i just got called upstairs to see a blue jay in our herb box. he was not there. i think either my wife is hallucinating or is messing with me. and the blue jay may be in on it.
if the astros move to the AL west as part of the new realignment talk, it will be 20 years before they win the division. i'm certain of it. this team cannot survive in the american league. plus, not playing the cubs/cardinals/reds? and instead playing the mariners/angels/athletics? that's terrible. just terrible. i do not like it and i will not stand for it.
so when i used to work at fox sports on the overnight shift, i couldn't turn my sleeping schedule around, so i often stayed up all night on my days off. and when your days off are tuesdays and wednesdays, you spent a lot of time alone at night. and i remember i used to sit outside on my patio at my apartment at greenway gardens listening to this song on vinyl because i didn't own the cd at four in the morning. it was often nice deep in the night. and i felt like i was the only person awake in the world. i mean there cars moving all around me. but it was dark. and this song made the night move slower. i also love that harry uses the word 'crap' in such a beautiful song. that always made me laugh. i would just sit there. sometimes i'd write. sometimes i'd dance around the apartment. but it was always pleasant.
june 15th was harry nilsson's birthday. besides brian wilson, jeff tweedy and thom yorke, i think harry nilsson has shaped a huge part of my love for music.
i'm not going to joke with you. i could. and it would be easy. i find it easy. that's probably why i'm not successful. because it's easy. joking that is. world finance, not so much. no matter how much i read. futures. swaps. offs. forwards. they are difficult contracts. are they even contracts? i mean, who is dictating these terms of words and constraints? who? are you? i'm not! but if i had a massive amount of assets behind me, could i move the market in my favor? potentially. maybe.
but those things are counter to this album. this is an album of desperate people. people who are young and have no future. people who are fun and opportunist. i love it. people moving together and then bouncing off other people and quickly regrouping to re-position themselves. in front. always in front.
i'll take it home. i'll make it mine. and you'll be improved. and i'll have make-shift wood furniture and a fence. and lines of electric wire. and phone wire. things improving my life. by leaps and bounds. making me invisible. making me isolated.
so last weekend, or the weekend before that actually, we took a little trip, took a little trip, took a little trip hiking. we headed north towards boulder, but turned off west and went hiking in eldorado canyon. this place was awesome. we had to drive through this little town, and i mean little town. the only thing separating the houses was a dirt road with tons of potholes. i had to drive about five miles an hour. you had to pay to get in because it's actually a state park.
the park was awesome. for the first mile or so, it's straight up. you can see in the bottom shot demitria sitting down. we had some water there and i took that shot of her and tried to show how far up we were. even at that point, we had higher to go. we continued up the trail and took a few more shots. there was this giant boulder up there sitting on top of this other giant boulder. so demitria and i climbed up there and took shots of us holding it up.
finally when we were down and came all the way back down the mountain, we sat by the stream and ate some horrible sandwiches we packed. we were pretty exhausted by that point.
the top picture is the night wolf. i've been telling a few people about the night wolf. he's actually a fox and he hangs out in our neighborhood. he mostly sits in one dude's front yard. that's where he's at in the picture. he'll just sit there and hang out. the dude who owns the house said he has no idea why the night wolf hangs out there because he doesn't feed him or anything. but we get a huge kick out of seeing him. we love/fear the night wolf.
there is a series going on that is tremendously worth reading. it is a five part series. and four parts are out. they take their titles from clint eastwood movies.
we had a great memorial day weekend. i have some pictures to post soon. saturday i took my FAR test and we cleaned and mowed and cleaned and got ready for sunday. we grilled out on sunday and had a few people over. it was fun. too much fun. i had to hang around the house most of monday.
and then a weird thing happened. i couldn't sleep. i slept about three hours monday night and then four hours on tuesday night. i laid in bed tuesday night from 9:30 to one in the morning and i couldn't fall asleep. you ever have sleep deprevation? the world gets real slow. and work takes a long time. i hope i have some serious sleep tonight. i need some rem sleep. i went into the basement and slept last night. i'm going to try that again. it's pretty depressing not to fall asleep when you want to. you feel powerless.
the heat beat the bulls last night to set up a rematch against the dallas mavericks. i don't really care about basketball until it gets to the finals. but what's interesting is that since 1984, only a select number of teams have won the nba championship.
1) the lakers (8) 2) the celtics (3) 3) the bulls (6) 4) the pistons (3) 5) the rockets (2) 6) the spurs (4) 7) the heat (1)
that adds up to 27. so in 27 years, we've had seven different champs. that's it. maybe the mavericks will make 8. but if you notice, those teams have come and gone and come back again, well mostly the lakers, pistons and celtics. who knows about the rest. maybe it's time for another 27 years of a different set of eight champs. maybe it's time for the warriors, the hawks, the bucks and the thunder. probably not.
yes, that is a huey lewis reference. and if i'm lucky, it won't be the last one. most of my life, i've been pretty good at sports. baseball, football, basketball, tennis. i wasn't great, but i wasn't horrible. i was never the last kid picked. well, if we were playing golf, i would be the last person picked. on earth. and earth is pretty big. with a lot of people that's how terrible i am. i couldn't even hit the ball down the fairway. i hit it left. i hit it right. i hit it on the ground. most of the time, the ball never even went in the air. sad. but i don't really enjoy the game. i don't think i'll be playing again any time soon. apparently, the nine minute video i watched last night did not do the trick. maybe i should have watched the ten minute video.
two weeks ago i was an amateur fourth grade teacher for charity. tomorrow, i will be an amateur golfer for charity. sounds fun? can anyone guess how many times i've played golf in my life? the answer after the break....
well, we're back. the answer is: zero. zero times. i have gone to a driving range once. when i was seventeen. or sixteen. i can't remember because that's how long ago it was. i think the golf outing will be more terrifying than teaching fourth graders for me.
my teaching day at the elementary school was awesome!!! i taught fourth graders about money and resources and gains and losses. i had lunch with them, but we were too rowdy and we couldn't talk for the last five minutes of lunch. i think i was a bad influence on the kids. i really dug it. they called me mr. wright and kept asking me to come back the next day. i had a blast.
i just heard the most amazing interview on npr. the author of a book about area 51 was talking about a source she had that claimed that the aliens that landed in new mexico were not aliens. they were genetically/surgically altered human beings by josefmegele who was working with the russians. how crazy is that?!?! check out the full interviewhere.
the astros were sold this week. i don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. i hope that new management brings in smart baseball people who can identify young talent. i think they need to make a play for the young blokes in tampa bay. one of them is from houston.
speaking of baseball, i went to my first rockies game last night. they won 7-4. we had a good time. my company paid for it. that made it even nicer.
i'm currently watching a video (a 42 minute video, i should add) that is going to train me on my junior achievement training because tomorrow i'm going to an elementary school to teach them about money or something. i think about banking. i'm going to start with fractional reserve lending and then move into the audicity of the federal reserve. and right about then, i should be getting kicked out.
but i'm actually looking forward to it. i think it will be exciting and a welcome break from the day to day. of course, i do have to wake up super early. like being back in school. except no bus. i have to drive. and no recess. i do, however, get a lunch. i hope they still those large, flaky rolls i used to like so much. and steak fingers!
my eyes are crossed. my brain is mush. i cannot decipher common rules and applications. i still haven't gotten REG back and i won't until june. so i can't use that as a motivator anyway.
i know losing AUD and BEC won't be the end of the world, but man, if i lose those credits and have to start completely over studying, i'm not sure what i'm going to do.
and i can't stop listening to destroyer. but i did go to the furry scurry this morning. and i did have a great lunch. and i'm about to study outside. so life isn't horrible. it's just mildly disappointing. it's amazing. the luck i've had. working in big four in denver. how did that happen? if only my luck could be extended to standardized tests.
i am probably in a very small minority, but i think that phantom planet is a very underrated band. i mean, raise the dead, is a pretty solid album. it's not going to change the world, but i dig it. also, the self-titled album is pretty good too. i know that the lead singer used to be or still is an actor or something and that jason schwartzman was the drummer for a while, but even his band coconut records isn't bad. i mean eddie murphy was and i guess still is an actor, but "party all the time" is an anthem. i mean, they're not on the level of underrated as elbow is, but they're in the ballpark. probably a big ballpark, but still.
ryan adams has emerged as general sunday morning listening fare for me. the dude confounds me. he's got all this talent and puts out half-great, half-banal albums, but if you turn down the voices in your head, even the jejune can be smile-inducing. whatever that means.
zerohedge has a letter to congress. there's a line in the song "the gloaming" by radiohead that has a line that repeats several times at the end. "your alarm bells, your alarm bells, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing, they should be ringing."
paste magazine has ranked the 30 best wilco songs. i'll let you guess which one they ranked as #1. plus, jeff opens up about the new album coming out this year.
there have been six rocky movies. i'm guessing the sixth one is probably the last one. but what if there was a seventh rocky movie. what would happen in that movie? i think it would have to involve the passing of the torch to rocky's son. we'll call it rocky 7: bad son rising. rocky's son will rise from the bottom ranks of the boxing legion to ferociously beat his competition and gain the attention of the boxing/world community. along the way, rocky teaches him how to earn the respect of the those around him. he becomes a spiritual hero in his community/world. his son meets a new love, someone who acts and looks a little like adrian. in the end, he loses the big fight that would have landed him the championship fight, but he marries his new love, which sets up perfectly for an eighth movie. sounds corny? you know you want to see this movie. i do.
hey everybody. have a great easter today. it's cloudy and a little chilly in denver today, but we're going to go out in the backyard and plant our herbs and berry plants today. i'm trying to develop a green thumb in the brown landscape here. so far, so good.
i finally did it. i don't know what took me so long. i finally watched cool hand luke last night. now, i know. what the hell right? my dad loves that movie and has watched it probably 100 times. if not more. i just never sat down to watch it. but i did last night. and so many jokes from the simpsons and his jokes and jokes in general finally make sense. plus the intro to guns and roses "civil war" makes total sense now. any man who doesn't post to his blog, spends a night in the box.
i need to amend an earlier post. the stanley hotel is not where they filmed the shining. it's where stephen king stayed and was inspired to write the shining. the exterior shots were shot in oregon, while the interior was on a soundstage in london. so the hotel looked a little different then we expected. but it was cool nonetheless. they play the shining all day and all night on one of the channels in your room. we watched most of it. however, our room was not haunted. we stayed on the most "active" floor, but no ghosts or ghouls for us that night. the next day we took off from estes park and headed to the rocky mountain national forest. we hiked around sprague lake, where it was still pretty snowy. we tried to go up further in the mountains, but the weather turned on us and we headed back down. estes park was great. i bought that red hat for $10! and it's immediately the best hat i own. we found a local brewery there and talked to the owner for a while. they have a big party in june we're going to be going to. we had a fantastic time. and we're really happy enjoying our new state. by the way, we tried to go to a rockies game on sunday. it was snowed out! can you believe it?!
there is a real possibility i'm going to be staying in the hotel where they shot the shining this weekend. it's called the stanley hotel and it's up in estes park. if i see those crazy twin girls or that suggestive bartender, i'm punching them in the kneecap.
friday is opening day. the best day of the year. after my birthday. and elvis's birthday. i think last year with the giants beating the rangers in the world series, anything is possible. everyone's got the phillies. but i just don't see it. they have no offense behind great pitching. some things are obvious. i think the red sox were the most improved team in the offseason and i think they're going to the world series. on the national league side, i have to go with the colorado rockies. that's right. my new home town will be in the world series this year. for divisions, check it out: nl central: brewers nl east: braves nl west: rockies nl wild card: phillies al central: twins al east: red sox al west: rangers al wild card: yankees and all that will end with the rockies losing the red sox in the world series, just like 2007. except this time not a sweep. and this time i will care.
i watched the pixies documentary loudQUIETloud late last night. i've never been a huge pixies fan. i've always liked them, but never really loved them. that hasn't changed after watching the documentary. but it was still a really good documentary. it was based on their reunion that occurred a few years ago.
if i were to wake up tomorrow and my cat could suddenly talk, i really would be anxious as to pick a topic for conversation. but it would probably become quickly apparent that even though she could talk, she probably wouldn't be that smart. so we'd have to talk about stupid stuff. probably cat stuff. and i'd quickly wish for the day when it couldn't talk.
i didn't pass FAR. i missed it by one point. one point. now, i've lost the month of may. instead of being outside in the funny, sunny denver fun sun, i'll be inside studying. every weekend.
i take REG a week from friday. let's hope i pass that one. if i don't, there's potentially big trouble.
yesterday was a productive day. finally worked out for the first time in like two weeks. it's hard to find time to do that when you're working 14 hour days.
i also finally watched the flaming lips documentary fearless freaks. i highly suggest watching it if you dig the flaming lips or even if you don't. it's a great story and it made me like wayne cohen ever more. and it really made me admire steven drodz. i had an idea of how important he was to the band, but after watching the documentary, it made it abundantly clear the flaming lips are greatly driven by steven's ideas of melody and his musicianship. check it out!
also we finally found a restaurant in town that had some taste. it's a small greek place in a shopping center and it was great. lots of places here in town taste bland to us, i'm not sure if it's because we're from the south and everything there tastes great, especially the international cuisine. but here, most of the food tastes pretty bland. but this place was awesome. if you're in town, we'll take you there. but you'll pay.
apparently it's been about ten years since i heard what i still think is one, if not the best, rock and roll record i've ever heard. the strokes is this it was it. it was awesome. i've written about it before, so i'll spare you to hear it again.
well, like i said, it's been ten years. and we're now four albums in. the first one: historic. the second one: great. the third: mostly meh. the fourth: we'll see. it's out next week.
there's a great story on the history of the strokes. check it out here.
go here for the video of under the cover darkness.
last night we saw the elephant six orchestra at the larimer lounge. the elephant six orchestra is a hodge-podge of people from the elephant six recording company.neutral milk hotel, apples in stereo and olivia tremor control are the main bands i listen to that are part of the elephant six recording company. i guess i listen to beulah sometimes too. anyway, a lot of those bands don't exist anymore and so some of the characters from those groups are touring as the orchestra. it was a great show. the guy i'm standing with up there is not tim robbins, although he does look like tim robbins. his name is pete and he was a member of olivia tremor control. cool dude. also, i didn't realize it at the time until i saw the picture, but that jacket makes me look huge. i haven't moved to colorado and gained fifty pounds. that is not the case. so we had a good time. seeing shows in denver is pretty sweet. i'm really digging the music scene here. i'm hoping to see phosphorescent at the larimer lounge in april. we'll see how that goes.
last night we watched a movie called primer. it very well could be the most brilliant movie i've ever seen. i absolutely beg anyone who reads this to watch it. it was shot on $7K and made in dallas, texas. it is brilliant.
the illustration above is supposed to help the watcher understand how the box works. here is a discussion of people who have seen the film and they comment on what they think happened. i realize i'm a little late to the party, since the movie first appeared in 2004, but better late than never.
i love change. i almost seek it out. i don't want things to stay the same. if they stay the same, i feel like i'm not advancing. or learning. or improving. every few years, i will probably throw everything back up into the air and see what i catch and what i miss. and what i miss, i obviously don't need anymore because i didn't try to catch it.
one thing i'll always catch is certain people. special people. and to those special people, one in particular who never ceases to surprise me and bring me back to thinking of great times in my life when i was the rain king, i say: thank you.
got the new low anthem in the mail today. listening to it right now. i saw them live in houston. one of the best shows i ever saw. they played with blind pilot in a small room with half the people listening. it was great. hopefully they'll roll through denver this year.
phospherescent is coming. so is john vanderslice. i might go see both.
i think tonight we're going to watch the harry nilsson documentary. tonight has potential.
i went to the show last night. totally awesome. the love language were great. i didn't think their sound would translate well to that small of an arena, but they sounded great. the opener was good too. kind a cross between my bloody valentine and the dandy warhols. the second was so terrible i wanted to punch myself in the face repeatedly. so all in all, it was a good night. a late night. totally dragging today.
the hi-dive was pretty sweet. a little dive bar as indicated in the title. i would see a show there again. for sure.
radiohead's new album comes out this saturday. by download only.
i'm having an internal struggle. i have grown my hair out for three months. and i like the way it looks. but, i have a growing bald spot in the back. and it's not going away. so the longer it gets, the more the bald spot stands out. i never thought i'd be losing my hair at 31. should i shave it? and leave it shaved forever? it's kind of embarrassing to have a full head of hair and a white spot shining through. i'm not sure what i'm going to do. maybe just paint it red. red-ish.
i just listened to the new strokes song. and i'm sorry. but it sucked. that first album of theirs was probably the best album of the 00's. maybe better than yankee hotel foxtrot, which would be number 2. you listen to that first album of theirs now and it's still crisp and full of attitude. pure rock chops right out of the gate. and then it just got worse and worse. kind of like what happened to julian lennon. valotte anyone?
so i'm back from houston. when i left denver, it was snowing and below 20 degrees. my normal commute to work took an hour and a half. i drove 10 miles an hour the whole way there. i had to shovel the driveway twice to get the car out to get to the airport. but, we made it.
i get to houston and i'm sweating very heavily because i'm wearing two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, three shirts, a jacket and a wool hat. but the sweating didn't last long. it soon got very cold. so cold in fact, there were rolling blackouts across the state. rolling blackouts? hasn't it been this cold before? isn't it hot during the summer? don't we all work our A/C's like crazy in the heat? i didn't understand the rolling blackouts and i wonder what the real story is behind that. remember enron anyone? manipulating energy prices? who knows.
but the cold and blackouts did in fact inhibit my grandmother's funeral. the pipes burst at the funeral home the night before the funeral. we had no toilets, no water. only coffee. but the more coffee i drank, the more i wished the pipes were working. so i stopped. the lights went out ten minutes before the funeral started. so we started the funeral in the dark. it was actually somewhat serene. it was quiet. it was dark. there was only candlelight. it was very peaceful. the lights did come back on though. we didn't go long without them, probably 15 minutes.
the gravesite was brutal. it was freezing cold. and that was it. my grandmother was buried and we left. actually we left before that. my flight back home to denver was one of only three flights from houston that got out to denver that day. flights were cancelled before and after mine. my flight was coming from amsterdam, so they didn't have any problems getting to houston before the freeze. and i have to say, it was pretty funny to watch the city basically stop because it was going to freeze and possibly, not probably, but possibly snow. as i am typing, there is half a foot of snow outside right now. after i took my FAR test today, i drove home in the pouring snow. it was coming down so hard, i couldn't see my lane. but i made it home. and the city kept going. it's what you're used to. and i'm getting used to the snow.
so i'm back in denver after my three day trip to houston. i don't miss houston. i miss the people. but i don't miss the city. i'll probably never move back to texas. i love it. and i'll always cherish it. i'm a texan. i was born a texan. but i'll never move back.
it was a tough january. i won't lie. we lost bear. we lost my grandmother. the strong, tough older women that i've known all my life are finally leaving to join their men. i hope they're all together. i hope they're all in peace.
as far as tomorrow, go packers. my preseason pick. make me a genius.
if anyone would like the opportunity to contribute to the making of what is going to be an awesome record, go here and check it out.
you don't get the opportunity to contribute to the making of an artistic moment very often and i highly suggest getting behind this guy. aside from the fact that he's a stand-up dude, the man's got talent. this is a song from leatherbag's previous album.
we lost another great woman. my grandmother passed away last night. she was 87 years old. she was a remarkable woman. we will truly miss her.
i had project back in the old radio/tv days that involved finding someone who was around when television was first introduced and interview them, get their feelings on the subject. how did it change your life? how did it change the family structure? that sort of thing. so i interviewed my grandmother. she was so proud to sit and talk to me for hours on the subject. and after we were done, she'd bring it back up again when i'd see her. "remember how we were talking about television...." and she'd tell me something new about the subject. she was very happy to have connected with me on that. and so was i.
for the second year in a row, i have amazingly predicted, prior to the start of the season, the nfc super bowl representative. thank you. thank you. i know you are proud of me. but, you cannot be as proud of me as i am of myself. yes, i am amazing. amazing and mentally gifted. those statements are true. and accurate.
although i whiffed on my afc super bowl pick, i did come within two games of being right both years, san diego last year and baltimore this year. well, i hope you enjoyed my greatness as much i did. stay tuned for my predictions in golf, swimming, archery and aerial ballet.
tonight is my last night in slc. we went out and got a steak. a big slab of meat. bleeding with butter and salt and pepper and other spices from far away shores. there was also broccoli, which i will write less about. wine was flowing and so were stories of seinfeld jokes and "hey is that the guy from perfect strangers" jokes. but eventually we spilled into the streets of slc. we stumbled upon a garden party with free vino and beer. we listened to covers of bob dylan and the band with mandolins and rhythm guitars. there were ice sculptures, but more importantly there was free vino and beer.
i have found a new love. grooveshark. that's right. i am a fickle free music online lover. if only i could figure it out. i think we would be perfick!
but i did kind of figure it out. i'm listening to scott walker "big louise" right now.
and eventually, i am taking the robes. and soaps. and maybe the lamp. you'll know if i did based on your x-mas gifts for next year.
"happy x-mas. here is a guest services directory. would you like a linguine pomodoro or maybe a greek piadine from 11 months ago? or maybe a complementary wall street journal from january? how about this bar of wrapped soap? it has mulberries in it. i'm sure of it." if only you were that lucky.
i've already fallen out of love with pandora. i entered like over 20 bands and they don't a single song by those bands, but a bunch of unknown crap. what is that? enough. play what i entered mr./mrs. pandora.
i've been in salt lake city for only a week and a half. i am more than ready to go back to denver. we've only been there a few months, but it is starting to feel like home. i still have to catch myself when people ask me where i'm from, because they don't mean where i was born, they mean where am i from right now. i also still write houston a lot when i'm filling things out. but i'm getting better (that was weird, i almost wrote 'houston' instead of 'better'). that's probably due to a lack of sleep. we have cable in the hotel and i've been staying up way too late watching garbage. i can't wait to hang out with demitria and sofie. listen to music in my office. or run to einstein brothers and drink coffee on colorado.
i was just informed about a thing called pandora online radio. i've already discovered new bands including the idyllists, velour, the wooden birds, discovery and noah and the whale. gotta have fun at work. if you can.
saw a band called guster in salt lake city last night. sketch place, totally awesome. never heard the band before, but everyone in that joint had guster fever.
they came back out for the encore and played "under the bridge" with the drummer awkwardly doing the vocals. it was pretty cool. the band seemed to be having a blast, which made it a kind of a fun atmosphere. but man, guster fever, sweeping salt lake city. look out america.
we had to part with our little bear today. his body was failing him and we couldn't let him suffer anymore. i miss him so much already. i have so much to say about him, but i just can't make my brain work right now.
the houston texans finish the season 6-10. i had them going 7-9. one more game kubiak, you couldn't win one more game?!?
both of my super bowls teams are the in playoffs: the baltimore ravens and the green bay packers. the packers squeak in with a win over the bears. i didn't think they were going to make it in, but it looks like they wanted it more than me. and i didn't really want it that bad.
all in all, it was a pretty craptacular season for my former city and current city. but, denver definitely has a tebowner. this town loves that kid. we'll see what happens.
not sure if i posted this yet or not. it's a jeff tweedy interview with cbs this morning. very nicely done. look for the drummer glenn kotche. i actually met him outside of a sushi bar in houston before a show. i totally fanned it up!
i'm a struggling business novice who is fascinated by a life of bicycles, transparency, ice cream, baseball and pretentious music.
if you're here, you probably know that already.
