give up the ghost

yeppers

morning mr. magpie

i am listening to king of limbs right now.

when i listen to radiohead, i feel like anything is possible. it's a good feeling.

king of limbs

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.

the grammys

the grammys are on tonight. i can't help but think of one of my favorite simpson's quotes:

"tonight on wings.....ah, who cares."

libraries

the love language is playing at the hi-dive next wednesday night. i am freakin' out.

i'm actually trying to get home in time to change and go to the hi-dive tonight to check out tennis and the shady babes.

get a haircut

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?

sad and beautiful world

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.

shu ba du ba loo ba

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.

someone great, pt. 2

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.

i got mine

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.

that is all.

black sheep boy

we lost another voice of reason. keith olbermann has left msnbc.

is there room for reason anymore on the airwaves? i'm starting to wonder. at least bill maher is still out there stirring it up.

maher on reilly.

bodysnatchers

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.

crazy for you, but not that crazy

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.

rocky mountain high

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.

guster fever

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.

for benjamin, our bear

benjamin, our bear, pt. 2

benjamin, you were one of a kind. i love you buddy. i miss you.

benjamin, our bear

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.

2010 football wrap-up

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.