the revolution will not be televised

five seconds

so the smart guys at the bluebird wouldn't let me take in my new awesome camera for the concert last weekend. i had to revert back to the phone camera. the show was great. twin shadow's first album was one i listened to endlessly when i first moved to denver and didn't have a job. so i would drive around town and pick up stuff from target or home depot we needed and listen to it. the second album is better than the first, which is a good sign for an artist.

in other news, pete's in town and we're going to hit up some mountain towns today. i'm taking my real camera, so look for pictures to come.

start me up

today is opening sunday. football is back. wednesday's game is like the opening of baseball in japan a week before the start of the real season. today is the real opener, so i still have time to make predictions. the predictions are easy this year. for the super bowl finale, they went like this:

houston vs. san fransisco
houston vs. new orleans
houston vs. chicago
houston vs. green bay

and thats's where it settled. the houston texans will play the green bay packers in the super bowl. i've been watching football since about 1986 and i've never seen a houston football team in the super bowl. i've seen us blow leads to denver (vance johnson), buffalo (frank reich) and kansas city (joe freakin! montana). the run and shoot brought me nothing but misery. warren moon, drew hill, lorenzo white, ernest givens. those guys didn't make it happen. video game wise they were amazing. the houston oilers won about a dozen tecmo super bowl championships. for some reason, those aren't as celebrated as real super bowls victories.

schaub, johnson, foster. these are the names that will bring us a real super bowl. go ahead and print the hats, the shirts, the sweatpants, the oversized jackets. it's time for houston to make their first super bowl appearance. 

golden light, pt. 2

golden light

seven year ache

the holiday weekend was one of travel, music and beer. saturday we hit up a "chili" festival, thinking we'd have sumptuous cups of chili to taste and eat. however, the folks in castle rock take their peppers seriously and the chili/chile festival was one only highlighting different types of peppers. cool right? but we were expecting chili as well. so we left pretty hungry.

the next day we took off for copper mountain. those are the pictures above with the exception of sofie sleeping in my workout bag and the blue moon we saw last week.  roseanne cash and the mavericks played at copper mountain. it was really a great show and the temperature was like 50 degrees or something. it was chilly. and fantastic. we had so much fun. our road trips into the mountains are probably going to get slim as we head into winter, so we were really overjoyed to get back out to the mountains. i had never known of the mavericks, but they put on a great show. it was energetic and cheerful. roseanne cash played a couple johnny cash songs, which was nice.

overall we had a great weekend. twin shadow is coming to the bluebird this friday. i'm going to try and get some awesome shots of the show. stay tuned!

sing another song, boys

i'm always fascinated at what makes some things popular and some fade away into obscurity. turbo graphics 16 didn't cut it. nintendo did. beta didn't cut it. vhs did. hd dvd is out. blu ray is in.

but these are all examples of technology. why is big star not bigger than three dog night? why is brian eno only mentioned when discussing u2? but we talk ad nauseum about elton john who never wrote a single lyric. scott walker? never a mention.

and this guy. leonard cohen. when are we all going to stand up together and nominate leonard cohen to be added to the mount rushmore of rock along with bobby dylan, lou reed and brian wilson? (the beatles have their own rock formation across the street).

this is his official nomination. leonard, i've stood by too long. there are artists that fade into my past and others that grow with me, marching slowly with me to my constantly unwinding clock. and leonard, i appreciate it.

settled down like rain

these are some of the early returns of the new camera. there are some pretty cool effects settings that i was messing around with this weekend. it's pretty obvious which of the pictures above are the effects ones. i was shocked at how much i could zoom in and see the moon. the camera has a 42X optimal zoom which is incredible. i like to zoom in which is evident from the above shots. hopefully i'll keep getting better and taking more and more interesting shots. mountains and huge landscapes puzzle me though. i have no idea how to do the scene justice in the camera. i need to work on that a lot. anyway, check them out.

the circle of death

wednesday night was the denver cruisers night. the denver cruisers are several groups of bike riders that start at various spots in the city and converge on the same park, civic center park, in downtown denver. we met up with a couple friends of ours and proceeded to head to our starting spot: brooklyns which is by the pepsi center. but first we had to get there. the ride there was nice, it was all downhill. but i kept thinking about the ride home. that was going to be all uphill. but we'll get to that.

there weren't many people at brooklyns when we arrived. we were kind of early. so we hung around and watched the people gather. there are theme nights for each week. this week the theme was angels and devils. not a ton of people dressed up, but that wasn't the most interesting part. people decorated their bikes in crazy lights and soundsystems that beat out my home stereo. at around 8:30, a guy wearing a clown mask told us to mount up and we were leaving in five minutes.

we started out on our journey following the guy with the loudest boombox. it was seriously loud. we rode through different areas of denver that i didn't recognize. but we stayed together and finally made it to civic center park. that was when the circle of death started. the circle of death is when people start riding in a circle, usually with people standing in the middle. the circle is small, but you're trying to ride as fast as you can. the pictures above are of the circle of death. it was raining that night, so there weren't a ton of people, but the circle of death was still going good. then they started the counterflow. the counterflow is the circle of death with people riding in the opposite direction. that was when i got out of the circle of death. that was too much for me.

the ride home wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be, but it was still bad. the hills were pretty steep at midnight. but we made it. all parts intact. it was a ton of fun and i hope we get to do it again before the season ends. next week might be the last week to ride. the town is starting to cutoff summer activities as winter will be here soon. that's an odd feeling. the formal cutoff of summer. i'm going to miss summertime, but i'm ready for the winter and cooler temperatures and jackets. i love jackets.

like ice cream

hey sports fans. things have been up and down here lately. lots and lots of work. that's the down part. the up parts have been pretty good. i haven't traveled in like three weeks! i've been home hanging out in the backyard, going for cool night walks and checking out the local scene in denver.

i ordered a pretty sweet digital camera, my first real digital camera. i've had the point and shoot kind, but now it's time for a serious upgrade. so stay tuned for lots of awesome colorado pictures.

i also ordered the new flaming lips album and the new twin shadow album. twin shadow will actually be here in september playing at the bluebird. i will be there.

what else? i'm almost done with moneyball, the book. i have another book lined up, a fiction book. something about humanity curing disease, but now we have to figure out ways to provide shelter, food and facilities for people. sounds awesome.

brad mills was fired. that's too bad. can't win with that talent, if you want to call the astros players talent. hopefully with the call-ups in september, we'll get to see some of the prospects of the future play.

aside from all these things, times have been normal. the temperature is cooling down and the days feel amazing. i can't wait to be able to open up the house during the day and get a sweet, autumn breeze. those days aren't far away.

the fool on the hill

i received an email today noting that my CPA application was approved and it will be presented to the Board of Accountancy this Friday. they had declined it over some missing paperwork and one question about a class i took at UHD. but i resolved those issues and now it seems the long, arduous process is coming to an end. i started school in june 2006. i will receive my license in probably september 2012. how about that for a timeline!!

money for nothing

the times they are a-changin', pt. 3

now this is what i'm talking about!! trading chris johnson, a marginal big league player for two prime prospects from the arizona diamondbacks. this is outstanding. if you are a houston astros fan and you did not get up and rejoice when hearing about this deal, do it now. because this is brilliance. this is what we've been waiting for. someone at the helm who is willing to make the tough decisions. and this wasn't even a tough decision!! chris johnson kind of sucks. he's older and he has no real future. and we were able to trade him for two prime prospects. i mean, i keep saying it over and over, but i don't believe it. this is how you succeed in baseball. you trade when hot and move on. look at the oakland athletics. look at the season they are having and look at how they were put together. on the cheap. trading talent right before you pay them the big bucks for young, hungry, cheap talent. now i'm not saying we'll always have to do this. we're houston. they're oakland. we're a bigger market and should act like it. but the philosophy oakland uses is perfect for where we are right now.

however, i'm sure some of you will say: but kevin, oakland hasn't been to the playoffs in ages!! why would we want to be like them?? because you should check your internet before making outrageous claims. the last time the a's were in the playoffs? 2006. the last time the astros made the playoffs? 2005. now they have a chance to make it again in 2012. do we? not even close. we'll be picking number one again for having the worst record in baseball. which is fine with me. that's how you get better. 

i just hope we keep this going. see what we can get for jordan schaefer. see what we can get for matt downs. see what we can get for jose altuve. jed lowrie. trade them all!!! load up on prospects!! i feel it!! trade the announcers!!! trade the bench coach!! let's keep this going!! i've been waiting for this for so long!!! i don't know what to say i'm so full of joy!!!

the times they are a-changin', pt. 2

man am i good!

"The last member of the Astros’ 2005 World Series team is on his way out of town as Wandy Rodriguez was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. In exchange for Rodriguez, the Astros acquired lefthanded pitchers Rudy Owens (Class AAA) and Colton Cain (high Class A) and Class AA outfielder Robbie Grossman, a Cy-Fair alum."

the overhaul continues!! astros in 2020!!!

the times they are a-changin'

i have been preaching for years, 2007 to be exact, that the astros needed to change course. and they have finally heard me. look at the deals from this year:

- July 4, 2012 Acquired INF Matt Dominguez and LHP Rob Rasmussen from Miami for 1B Carlos Lee. Assigned Rasmussen to Corpus Christi (Texas)

- July 20, 2012 Acquired RHP Francisco Cordero, OF Ben Francisco, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP Asher Wojciechowski, LHP David Rollins, C Carlos Perez and a player to be named for RHP Brandon Lyon, LHP J.A. Happ and RHP David Carpenter from Toronto

- July 22, 2012 Traded RHP Brett Myers to the Chicago White Sox for RHP Matthew Heidenreich and LHP Blair Walters 

- December 14, 2011 Acquired INF Jed Lowrie and RHP Kyle Weiland from Boston for RHP Mark Melancon. Designated INF Brian Bixler for assignment

wandy rodriguez is next. but look what they got for what you could call 'mediocre to poor talent'. these guys we traded had no business playing for the astros anymore. they were part of an attempt to keep from sliding off the mountain. but the quicker we slid off the mountain, the quicker we could begin to climb it again. whatever that means.

i have no idea if any of these new players will turn into anything. the players we received for lance berkman and roy oswalt haven't turned into much. jimmy paredes still has a shot. actually we traded mark melancon, who we received as part of the lance berkman deal, for jed lowrie, which i have now added to the list above. that was also a good deal after a busted deal. the roy oswalt deal netted us brett wallace who has done very little and j.a. happ, who was dealt as part of the blue jays deal. now it should be noted that the berkman and oswalt deals were still part of the ed wade era, an era that could not have ended soon enough.

the point is acceptance. it's time to break down the franchise in every way. bud norris should be dealt as well. trade jed lowrie and jose altuve for more prospects. if these prospects turn out, this team won't be ready to contend for another three to four years. so in that time, if someone pops up like lowrie or altuve that has value, they should go too. that's how you start over.

i have faith in this administration. the astros haven't had a competent front office since gerry hunsicker departed in 2004. it's been a few dark years. but hope is on the horizon. hope for a successful team in 2020!!! let's go astros in 2020!!! world series!!!

brief interruption

i'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows that i'm in new york and i was not at the movie theater in aurora last night. demitria was not there either. we're both fine. i've never been to this theater, but the area has a reputation for being unsafe so we stay away.

demitria is coming to see me in nyc today. we're going to craft restaurant tonight. it's the restaurant run by tom colicchio from top chef. it's going to be awesome. tomorrow, we're going to hit up some museums and go to a broadway show.

however, it is raining again. being in denver, i forgot that it does rain in other parts of the US. bummer.

heartbreaker

i saw my first new york celebrity!!! this guy!!! carson something!! i mean, wait... the queer eye guy!!! carson something!!!

the moment was incredible. we sat and drank coffee and our conversation was majestic. we discussed music, art and the like. we were old friends. it was kismet. i can't believe i ever existed anywhere else on earth. the gates of heaven. they are overrated when speaking with carson something. i mean, i try not to blush.

this is all true. except for the gates of heaven stuff. i went for a massive walk today. i took the subway to the village because i wanted to go to bleeker street records. but i got off too late and i ended up in chinatown. so i asked a guy, 'hey buddy, how i do i get to this place?' and he said, 'walk this way' for like twenty minutes. so i walked. and i walked. i walked through chinatown. i was so lost it was sad. i walked and walked until i found trendy coffee shops and the like. i wish i was not fat from surgery. otherwise, i would have been the most beautiful creature in town. but these folks, they dress like everyday is a catwalk. there are lights and cameras on every intersection.

i found other music. and it was awesome. all the bands i knew, the up and comers. and they were way over priced. i could get them for about five dollars less online. i'm sure new yorkers knew that. i mean, they are the smartest folks in america.

i kept walking. i walked through new york university. i walked all the way to bleecker street records. again, nothing amazing.

but i wanted something amazing. so i had to create it. i was at 6th and fourth. my hotel was at 6th and 40th. i knew what i had to do.

so i walked all the way to my hotel. that's right. i walked through the new york crowds in my flimsy shoes. i felt muscle pangs. i ignored them. i was hungry. i didn't care. i had to keep going. i had to walk the distance on 6th avenue. i had to prove i could do it. it wasn't about fitting in. it was about attrition. this channelview boy was going to walk all the way and soak up every instance and every breath and every foul stench and every sound and every billboard and every scaffold and every stop shop and every bit of new york on his way back to his hotel. he had to do it because he knew he was never coming back. he was going to feel every inch of the concrete and trip and fall and get laughed at and step in potholes and take the wrong way because this was it. he was not going to feel it again.

and i made it. i stripped out of my soaked, sweaty clothes and started again. i walked to a sushi restaurant and on the way saw carson what's his name. he was on the phone. i assume he was talking to the vice president. i had some sushi and then hung out at the hotel bar and talked to the cool asian bartender all of the night. she was a big arrested development fan. much respect.

demitria's coming tomorrow. new york will be restaurants and broadway shows. and it will be fun.

but i can't wait to be back to the mountains. the passes. the trees.

it's going to be a good weekend.

new york state of mind

my first day of training was interesting. if you recall my previous post, i had a hard time getting things going on my trip to new york. the next morning was no different, but this one was completely on me. i woke up, got directions to the pwc building and headed off. i found the building, no problem. i had to stand in line and get a security badge for the week. there were lots of other people there for training, so the line was long. i got my badge and headed up. i asked the receptionist where the training was. she had no idea what i was talking about. i thought this was a bad sign. so i opened up my computer and scanned the email about training and i noticed that i was supposed to be at a hotel across times square. i started laughing because nothing had changed from the previous night. i hailed a cab and told the guy where i was going. i looked up the email again and gave him the exact address. before i could finish he goes, "i know where it is." i appreciated that. this picture above is when training was over and i was heading back to the hotel. i stopped and snapped this shot of times square.

this is what i see when i look out my window. if you notice the green trees in the distance, that is bryant park. they show movies there outdoors during the summer.

this is the debt clock. i always imagined it in a more prominent place. i just happened to look down the street and see it. i'm not sure this is the same one that everyone shows on the news. i think there might be two of them because this one was very hid. update: there are not two of them. it's been moved. and the one i saw was the real debt clock. how cool is that? i wasn't even looking for it! it's like it called me!

radio city music hall. i don't know much about it, but i saw that bon iver would be playing there in the next week or two. now when i was out, i was involved in a classic new york scam. i was walking down 6th, which is called the avenue of the americas. this guy hands me a cd and starts talking. but i don't stop walking. he's talking, i'm walking. he wanted money for the cd for charity but i told him i would not be giving him any money and handed him back the cd. i escaped unscathed from the new york scam. now that got me thinking about scams. i came back to the hotel and searched common new york scams. that was one of them! except my houston smarts paid off. because it said that usually people stop walking and others surround them and ask them for money. also it said that the person will shake your hand and not let go. that didn't happen to me. the rest of the scams were interesting. one involved bumping into someone and blaming them for breaking their glasses. they tell you you owe them like 300 dollars and they settle on 50, so you feel bad and you think you're getting a deal, so you pay them 50 for glasses they dropped and broke on purpose that probably cost 10 bucks. nice.

nbc! seinfeld! cosby! friends! liz lemon! i was on the lookout for tina fey. i was thinking really hard of what i would say to her if i bumped into her that totally encapsulate my humor and make her think that i needed to be a writer on 30 rock. i did not run into her and that's a good think because i couldn't think of anything that was funny. that might have been the funny thing to say. look at her with sadness and say, 'i have nothing funny to say to you."

this is what my hotel room window looks like right now. the rain was intense about twenty minutes ago. it's still coming down and lightening. today we got out early and i was going to go for a long new york in central park. not going to happen.

new york, new york, pt. 2

yesterday was my travel day to new york. i had no idea that was exactly what it was going to be: an entire day of travel.

i woke up not really ready to go to new york. i wanted to enjoy my sunday morning. i had my coffee. i goofed out with demitria. i petted sofie. it was the typical awesome, relaxing great sunday morning. but i momentarily forgot how to tell time and if it wasn't for demitria, i would have been super late to my flight. i was nowhere near ready to go when we realized we should have left ten minutes ago. i grabbed my bag, grabbed my computer and we started to drive to the airport. but when i was driving, i was going through my mental list of things i was going to need in nyc. there was something missing from that list. my phone. we had to head back to the house because i forgot my phone. i knew that had sealed my fate. i was certain i was going to miss my flight.

but i didn't. i got to the airport and went to print my ticket but the system could not find me. it kept saying there was an error. i didn't have time for errors. the line to get to the service desk was a mile long. but i was allowed to jump to a shorter line to find out what was happening. apparently my reservation was deleted. i have no idea why or how. i was certain at this point i was going to miss my plane.

but i didn't. i went through security, got to the gate and found out my flight was running 45 minutes late. ha! i hadn't missed my flight. i was going to make it. i got something to eat and got on the plane. i was ready to head to new york. this was 1 o'clock mountain time. we didn't leave the denver airport until close to 3:30 mountain time.

why? storms in new york. so the decision was made to take another route, hitting up atlanta and coming up the east coast. fine. that sounds good. but we had to add fuel because the flight was now going to be an hour longer because of this new route. so we had to get people off the plane. they asked for volunteers. people got off. they also took off all the luggage. this didn't affect me because i didn't check a bag. but the people around me, they were mad. and i had no way of getting away from them. the woman next to me went through every scenario possible of how she and her cousin (on a separate flight) were going to get to germany. time and again i heard the same concerns, the same answers and the same desperation and aggravation. i put in my headphones. and she still would say things outloud and look around as if she was talking in on particular direction in the hopes that someone, somewhere would participate in this unhappiness.

but we did make it into the air. the flight was pretty smooth except getting out of denver, but that's par for the course. we landed safely in new york at about 9:30 eastern time. i didn't get off the plane until close to 11p.m.

why? because the storms and lightening had gotten so bad that they shut down the outbound planes and we had no gate to park at. so we sat. and sat. and i heard people complain. and moan. the only highlight was the older woman next to me, probably in her late sixties. she was nice and i spoke to her a few times during the flight. i asked her how far we were from the city and she said about an hour. by this time, i was starving because there was no real food on the plane and i had anticipated having an awesome new york meal, but that wasn't going to happen. she gave me some packaged breadsticks and a peanut butter brownie because i was so hungry. i thanked her about ten times. she was the highlight of my day.

so we finally got off the plane. i got into a cab and headed for the city. it was huge. there were buildings everywhere. we drove by times square and it was the brightest and grossest thing i had ever seen. the hotel was very close to times square so once i checked in i was going to head out and take some light night pictures. i went to check in. they couldn't find my reservation.

why? i was at the wrong hotel. i had given the cabbie the wrong information because i looked it up in a fit on the plane because i couldn't find the email that gave the hotel's address. so i went back out and grabbed another cab and headed to the right hotel.

it was 12:30a.m. eastern time when i got to the right hotel.

i arrived at the airport in denver at 11 a.m. mountain time. i went to bed shortly after 1a.m. eastern time.

it was, without a doubt, the craziest travel day i've ever experienced in my life.

more to come from nyc.

new york, new york

i'm heading to the big apple tomorrow. did you guys know they call new york the big apple? i did. that's how down i am with new york. me and new york are tight. one week there. training and then hanging with the wife in new york. we're to a top chef restaurant and we're going to see a play on broadway. probably do some sightseeing in central park and other touristy spots. i'll make sure to take lots of high quality shots and post them when i get back. my goals while in new york:

1. get on the today show; this might be hard because i'll be in training but i still want to list it because maybe the today show will down to our training and do a segment on awesome improvements in audit quality
2. yell at a new york cab driver and have them yell back at me
3. high five conan o brien or jimmy fallon
4. party at studio 54 with mick jagger, i might need a time machine for this one, so....
5. rent time machine
6. ride a horse through downtown new york
7. star in an off-off-off-off broadway play
8. eat a new york hot dog from a stand and yell at the guy and have him yell at me
9. wag my finger at wall street
10. tell the story of the night wolf to people in new york and yell at them and have them yell at me

that's it. i don't think it's too much to ask. i think i should be able to accomplish about 90% of my goals there.

anyway, catch you guys when i get back to the rocky mountains.