born alone/dawned on me

wilco's got two new songs filtering through their live shows. check them out here: and here.

scenes from the suburbs- watch it!

go check it out!

6 degrees of the VU

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. jackson browne- wrote several songs for nico on her debut album
3. don henley- jackson browne 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 george harrison 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 lindsey buckingham ever work with dennis or brian wilson? if so, i have them nailed. i wonder if i can connect them through john stamos? he might be the key.

when it's sleepy time down south

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.

moving on up

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.

moonbeam song

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.

harry n. or h. nilsson

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.

so happy belated birthday harry.

pink glove, things are things, right?

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.

making me tempered.

whatever. listen to do you remember the first time?

i was once interesting. but time. i mean. come on. time. jeez.

airline to heaven

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 el dorado 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.

holding onto black metal pt. 2

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.

for a few dollars more

fistful of dollars

the good, the bad and the ugly

the outlaw josey wales

unforgiven (still to come)

holding onto black metal

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.

fake empire

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.

Scenes from the Suburbs - trailer

fore!

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.

we don't need no education pt. 2

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.

stay tuned for the outcome.

who taught you to live like that?

is the sloan best band that nobody's heard of?

before today

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 josef megele who was working with the russians. how crazy is that?!?! check out the full interview here.

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.

we don't need no education

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!

the video is finally about to start.

savage night at the opera

it's beautiful outside. i'm laying on the couch studying. wondering why did i ever want to take the cpa test? what is wrong with me?

"let's face it, old souls like us are being born to die."

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.

"it's not a war til someone loses an eye."

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.

"yes, i'm familiar with your scene. some would say shockingly uptight."

in the long run, this will only help my career. i know that. but what am i missing in the meantime? weekends pass me by. weeknights pass me by.

"you'll never guess just where i've been, a life abandoned midstream."

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.

the fix is in

so what is america without a middle class? it's these facts. and if things don't turn around, there will only be a few haves and everyone else.