ocean breathes salty

alan chang caught this crab in the waters of galveston, texas. the crab is now driving a bus in houston.

wrap your trouble in dreams

i have a cici's pizza shirt hanging in the window of my hilton hotel room. that, my friends, is class.

kansas city

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.

the beehive state

fooling around the house this morning and this song came on the stereo. wait for the end. harry singing with himself is better than a butter shave.

Quantitative Easing Explained

velvet underground game cont.

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.

inside job

i've seen it twice now. everyone should take some time and watch this documentary. and eat some cheetos while you're doing it. i love cheetos.

my drunk kitchen

as someone who likes to drink, this might be the greatest idea/video i've ever seen.

the vampire squid continues

rolling stone's matt taibbi continues to amaze me with his sharp pen/keyboard. the dude eviscerates andrew ross sorkin's take on goldman's massive short. check it out.

halcyon digest

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.

tangled up in blue

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?

bob, what are you talking about?

the whole love

wilco's new album is called 'the whole love' and it is due to come out on sept. 27. check out the first single in a non-live format.

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.