Taekwondo Test
We didn’t get any pictures, but Whacko, Yakko, went through our Taekwondo testing today.
Assuming we passed (no one told us we didn’t), Yakko, will be a senior blue belt and Whacko and I will be brown belts.
I wound up sparring kids again. Mr. K never lets me play with the grown-ups, which I’ll have to tease him about. But I’ll live.
Whacko got scolded a little for trying to kick his opponent after he’d fallen over. No more UFC viewing for him, I guess.
update 4/3: We did all get our belts last night at the ceremony. There were supposed to be pictures, but nobody could hold still long enough to get one.
March 31st, 2008 - Posted in Homelife | | 0 Comments
Live Dylan: Harvard 2004
date: 2004-11-21
location: Gordon Track and Tennis Center, Harvard University
boblink: http://boblinks.com/dates22.html#1121
opener: Rainy Day Women
personal favorites played: High Water (For Charlie Patton), John Brown
Bob factor: This was the last show of 2004, and Bob seems to be in a good mood. He gets the audience to sing along with Rainy Day Women, and while he mumbles and rushes the lyrics more than I’d like, he does pick out some nice melodies to offset the more annoying quirks of the evening. (more…)
March 25th, 2008 - Posted in Live Dylan | | 0 Comments
Braves thoughts
Despite my lifelong love of baseball, I have a hard time writing about it. The logical positivist part of my brain tells me that it’s pointless to talk about what hasn’t happened yet. No one knows what’s going to happen this season, and the people who are considered “experts” at knowing it are really just as clueless–if more shrill–than the rest. This theory, in case you hadn’t noticed, invalidates about 90% of sports yakking and is why I’ve taken the liberating step of not listening to much of it anymore.
So what’s a rational being to do? Ask the same unanswerable questions everyone else is asking? It seems like a bad idea, and yet what else do we talk about? To make myself feel better, I’ll avoid phrasing them in the form of a question. So here, in a declarative fashion, are the points I’m thinking about as the season ramps up. (more…)
March 19th, 2008 - Posted in baseball | | 0 Comments
Tom Jones FAQ
Q: What happened to your face?!
A: It got rocked off.
Q: Really? That sounds terrible.
A: Not so much. Happened at a Tom Jones concert.
Q: You went to Tom Jones. On purpose?
A: Yeah, we went with the company. Had a blast. Tom Jones rules.
Q: Why does Tom Jones rule? I thought he was just old.
A: The dude is almost 70, and he’s still an amazing performer. I was expecting an old man on a stool. But he had a great band, completely modern arrangements, and he put on a much better show than a lot artists half his age.
Q: How was the sound? It was probably terrible.
A: No, actually, the Mystic Lake casino has a really modern room. Found out afterwards that it holds about 2100 people, and it’s a really well-groomed room. The bass wasn’t overpowering, and the mix was nice even though they kept the volume low for the mostly over-50 audience.
Q: So he wasn’t boring?
A: Not at all. He had this great rapport with the audience. Always talking, always dancing. He kind of rolled his eyes every once in a while when he knew a line in the song or a bit of banter was cheesy, but it just gave you the feeling that he was letting you in on the joke. Pretty sure he shouted out to “Michigan” rather than “Minnesota” at the beginning, but whattayagonnado?
Q: Good setlist?
A: The guy obviously knows which side his bread is buttered on. Saved the 1-2-3 punch of “She’s A Lady,” “Not Unusual,” and “Sexbomb” until near the end of the show, and closed the encore with Prince’s Kiss, the first time most people in my generation had ever heard of the guy. He might have been pandering to middle America a little by doing country ballads by both George Jones and Merle Haggard, but I didn’t mind.
Q: Check you out. You sound like a fanboy.
A: Yeah, I guess I kind of am. If I wasn’t before last weekend, I sure am now.
Q: Oh my… you… You threw your underwear on the stage, didn’t you?
A: No, but even if I had it wouldn’t have been as good a moment as when one lady got pushed down in her wheelchair so she could throw hers.
March 18th, 2008 - Posted in Homelife, Music | | 1 Comments
Live Dylan: Sweden 2003
date: 2003-10-15
location: Göteborg, Sweden
boblink: http://boblinks.com/101503s.html
opener: Tombstone Blues
setlist oddities: five songs from Highway 61 Revisited
Bob factor: Bob was in good voice for most of 2003, as I recall. Here, his voice is a little rough, but he makes up for it well. He sings rather than barks, picks out melodies rather than deadpanning, and seems quite into the performance. (more…)
March 11th, 2008 - Posted in Live Dylan | | 0 Comments
Live Dylan: something to talk about
Write what you know, they say. I’ve collected Bob Dylan live recordings in one format or another for 16 years. These days, my box of cassettes sits unused while most of my collection is in MP3 format. A quick glance through my music folder shows me I have over 40 live shows or sets of live shows, and there are probably more tucked away in other places.
So I’m going to start listening to them and maybe, in the process, start to filter some out that I don’t really need anymore.
March 11th, 2008 - Posted in Live Dylan | | 0 Comments
