More New Yorker Wit

I like this passage from a review of a new Grace Kelly bio . The review is by Anthony Lane who is my favorite movie critic. He can be quite savage and quite funny . This passage made me chuckle quite a bit as I read it on the train last night.










Indeed it is.

Fela

I really enjoyed Fela. It was so good I would go see it again. There are two leads who play Fela so I'd want to see the other one in the role. We saw Kevin Mambo who was very good. The NY reviewer mentions the other lead as being excellent . I don't know whether it is because he was the only one he saw. I liked it so much because the music is great, unlike most Broadway music which sounds all the same to me. I highly recommend it if it is still running next spring in NY. It was a full house and even the cheap seats in the back row of the balcony were good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

maybe not "newly hardcore" :-)

Great Blog for 80s Music

For all sorts of tastes. Even has Depeche Mode. :-)

80s on Speed

Veterans' Day Humor

In case the Some Ecards update ended up in the Spam folder....

Funny Onion Video

Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck

Phillies Win Game 1 !

You know things are going your way when this happens

reading a book

Called Shantaram about a man's adventures in Mumbai." The past reflects eternally between two mirrors -- the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn't do or say." I am through 50 pages of 930. I hope I finish it.

Miscellany

The end of a kind of non-productive week. The highlight of yesterday was downloading all 20 volumes of Didn't It Blow Your Mind: Soul Hits of the 70s which contains some good songs but also a lot of bad ones too. My favorite and the reason why I looked originally was Strawberry Letter 23 which I thought might be a good song for my group to do as long as I don't sing it. I also like I can't stand the Rain which would be good for Kim to sing. We have another date at the Mermaid on September 4. I am thinking I am at the end of the line with them. Musical differences .

An obit from the Times which caught my eye. Never heard of the person but he led a interesting life.

I am waiting to see this movie.

30 more Brainsharks to do by Wednesday.

Cool Exhibit

At the Des Moines Art Center. As per my "artist's gimmick" theory of modern art, here is a particularly clever and well executed one by Tara Donovan In addition to admiring the patience it took to create the pieces(e.g. assembling 1 million drinking straws) they are very appealing visually. The museum has a very nice collection of modern art with lots of recognizable names. It was worth the trip.

India Cricket Kit

Here is my Father's day gift from Rachel, purchased in India. I will be wearing in Miami if appropriate. :-)








Back in training for another half marathon. I ran 8 miles this morning. My old age is catching up to me: as I run I get a different ache or pain which makes its way around my body. My knee hurts then it is my Achilles tendon, then it is my arms from holding a position for so long.

A new challenge for me: cryptics crosswords. I have yet to figure one out but maybe I will get the hang of it some day. It is a fallacy that crosswords prevent Alzheimers. It is new and different brain activity which does. So doing crosswords all of the time doesn't qualify as new and different. Or at least that is what I heard on a radio talk show. :-)

July 6

I am reading a biography of Brian Eno, given to me by Jimmy for Father's day.I didn't know that Eno was hit by a taxi cab in London in 1975 and seriously hurt. The book designated the location of the accident so I went to Google Maps to see where it occurred. As usually happens when I go to Google Maps, I explore. I decided to look for where my dad was hit. The image below is the corner where it happened . He was in the street to the left of where the motor cycles are. If you rotate through the view you will see where the pedestrian crossing is and why my brother and I were so mystified as to why he was in the street at that point.


View Larger Map


View Larger Map

My sister Patti is on her way to Iraq now. Her family came out to Ft Lewis to visit her before she left. They spent the weekend relaxing in a cabin near Leavenworth which looks like a cute town at least on Google Maps. I saw that is on Rt. 2 which starts in Everett WA and wends its way east to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. I think that would be an interesting road trip to take some time.

July 4th performance

This guy may be playing drums behind us at our gig on July 4th. It is at a picnic at an art center run by his mother . Kids do pottery and make tie-dyed shirts while the adults drink beer, eat and listen to music.

Interesting story in the NYT yesterday.

Yet Another Song

The drums make this sound good, in my opinion.Guitar solo needs a little work.

Video from the gig

Not especially good but then not especially bad either. :-)The lead singer is flat at certain points in the song and the guitar is too loud.

When Rod Stewart was actually good....

Nipples and all.:-)

My New Favorite Band

Art Brut http://www.artbrut.org.uk/index.php

Very Amusing video

Pentagon Reports Army Mascot 'Liberty' Killed in Iraq

Done

The paper is done. It is not particularly good but I am happy I at least finished it.

My Goddamned Paper

I have spent the better part of two week ends working on this thing. It is still miserably bad. My topic is to evaluate music museums according to the principles discussed in the class. So I decided to focus on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame as I had been to both and am interested in the topic. My professor thought it was a good idea too. The problem is that I am bereft of ideas. I have 7 pages of not so good content written. It has to be 12-15 pages. The paper is due on Monday, May 11 so I still have time. I will probably spend all next weekend doing it too. I am reconsidering this idea of a master's degree. :-( I am determined to get this thing done and will probably turn anything in just to have it done. I just don't want to screw up the class. I have two A- on my papers so far so I could get a respectable grade if I did well on the final paper.

My band mates want to practice next weekend in advance of our show on May 16 but I may have to pass. We played with a drummer and bassist last Tuesday, sounding reasonably good.

It was miserably rainy today.

I saw The Soloist. It was good but not great. The homeless scenes were sort of terrifying. I saw a preview that someone might like: My Life In Ruins

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809945090/trailer

Nice Gesture

I had a nice surprise from my custom boss: a thank you note for my work this year with a $25 AmEx gift card included. It is nice to work for someone who is not overly with concerned with advancing his career at the expense of those who work for him.

Listening to some good music now: Lucinda Williams "West".
Link to some nice Lucinda

Good luck with the Morton's event.

I am probably the last to see this but...

Very creative video and use of auto tune.

I never heard that one before

I am trying to figure out how to do this. :-)


More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

Posted Results

The results are posted. I met both my goals: a faster time and finishing in the top of half of my age group.

http://www.eliteracingsystems.com/2009_roadraces_results/2009_jsrchm.html

Race Resullts

I am happy to say that I beat my goal by just under 3 minutes. I came in at 1:49:14. I am not sure where I was in my age group as official results aren't posted on line yet. It was a perfect day for running. The temp was about 60 and sunny at the the start with a nice ocean breeze. The route we took was was along the board walk from Asbury Park to Sea Girt and back. There were actually two routes to choose from. The other was three loops of 4.35 miles each. The reason was the long route that Jimmy and I took had the prospect of a drawbridge opening which would have killed both the time and momentum. The serious racers did the loop, I think. I was planning to do the loop too but Jimmy said as we were approaching the turnaround that we should do the long one. I am glad we did as it would have been tedious running the same loop 3 times.

This was a qualifier for the NYC marathon. I was 9 minutes over qualification time for my age group so I have quite a bit of work to do if I want to achieve that. I would have to train much harder and focus on speed instead of endurance. I will see. Now I will train for Philly in September. I am not sure if a full marathon is in my future but if it is, it would be Steamtown in Scranton, PA. It is all downhill: the elevation at the finish is 975 feet lower than the start.

Race Tomorrow

The Asbury Park Half marathon is tomorrow. My goal is to beat my Philly time of 1.59.34. I am hoping for 1.52. I have been sub 9 minute miles in all of my training runs so I think it is possible. It is a flat course and the weather is supposed to be nice. I also bought new shoes for the race: New Balance 993

Here is the route.

Duplicity Film review

I really liked Duplicity. I never thought of myself as a Julia Roberts fan but she was very good in this. I like films with intricate and suspenseful plots. This reminds me somewhat of Michael Clayton in that regard. I also liked the relationship between Roberts and Clive Owen. I don't the lack of trust they had for each other, but their compatibility intellectually and sexually. I'd recommend it.

Post script. It resembles Michael Clayton because the same director, Tony Gilroy, did both.

Song we are doing

We actually have a performance scheduled for 5/19 for a parents function at Matt's and Kim's kids' school. We have to do some danceable stuff so we are trying this one.

Wryly funny excerpt from The New Yorker

From Shouts and Murmurs March 09, 2009









Full article available here

Nothing in particular

Canceled New York date: Due to unforeseen circumstances we regret to announce the cancellation of the New York show on the Thursday 12th March at Roseland Ballroom. All tickets bought for the Thursday show will be honoured for the Saturday 14th March show at the same venue. We are sorry for any inconvenienced caused. More information about refunds and/or exchanges is here.

The question is will Brad still go? He is in NYC for the weekend after meeting me on Thursday, ostensibly to do something with his brother. Coincidentally, Michelle from FLA now lives in NYC. Well I wonder. If not, my cousin Jim is interested along with Jimmy and a friend.

Two Vegas songs

Live from Crossroads Coffee House

Not really but it is how we sounded when we did an open mike last night. Crossroads

We did this one too



We also did this song with Matt singing.



In all it was fun. We were by no means the worst; in fact we might have been the best. We were certainly the oldest :-)

Painfully funny

if this wasn't true.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

BTW I don't know anyone from Sweden. :-)

Song we are trying to do

We are talking of doing an open mike this Thursday. I am for it but Kim seems like she is getting stagefright. She nixed a bunch of songs where she sings lead.

I like this song very much especially the two part harmony. I sing the lower part.

Louvin Brothers

BTW I have no idea who Coffee is

Jeff Bezos on the Kindle

What an annoying laugh!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jeff Bezos

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

Metaphor for Life

I really like this song Woods It repeats the verse getting more complex and varied. And aren't we just trying to slow down time?

Nostalgia

A year ago tonight was a wonderful dinner in a perfect setting at North Pond. Last night was Coco Pozzi with the waitress who tried to fool us by bringing back the same wine after we sent it back. Two years ago was gladly missing the Superbowl in Charlotte and having room service instead and watching Goodbye Columbus.

Travel article of note from Friday Click here

Movie to miss. The Prestige Got it on NetFlix. I didn't like it.

New Music I like Bon Iver OK I admit it: I only discovered by reading the New Yorker. I am not all that hip. It would be fun to go to All Tomorrow's parties, which is a good Velvet Underground song.

Training for another half marathon so I am running 6 miles today in the cold. I really don't like the treadmill or the track at the gym.

Inauguration Day

It is a very happy day. I was actually teary eyes at points during the ceremony though not during the speech. I was somewhat offended by Rick Warren's invocation and all of the Christianity he injected into.Okay I know he is Christian but did he have to talk about Jesus as his personal savior? I don't care if he used the Hebrew name for Jesus, he could have been more non-denominational. I was happy to hear Barack mention "non-believers" but will Jews be offended that he paired Christian and Muslims, then Jews and Hindus? Lowery was better at the end but somewhat less than politically correct when he called Indians "red" and Asians "yellow."

Worth a visit when traveling to NY http://www.chelseamarket.com/ It is in the Meat Packing district where there are lots of good restaurants

Other interesting articles Escapes
OpEd

Interesting email from my boss

What ever happen to?

Private investors backed out of their buying three lists and all they were left with was an intro to Chinese book that N. told them sold $3 million worth of business when it was really like 7000 units. They were all let go this week without severance. Joel and Laura were treated very badly – but he is OK and has another job lined up – N. wanted them to keep going with just this one book, but Joel and Laura decided to pull the plug because it made no sense to carry on a business for this one book.