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
Super Superbowl
Oh to win! Even if it was close it was still a win. “What is this” you say “since when do you care about football?” I reply “when it gets me 3 weeks of complaint free cleaning.” Yes Yacko in his over confident way chose the higher rated team and did enough bragging about a final score. I made him put his money where his mouth was and bet 3 weeks of cleaning. I admit there was that tense moment after the Pats scored but Manning came though for me. I have to go now and get my list started.
February 3rd, 2008 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments
The annual music-of-the-year post
What would a year of sparse posting on this blog be without my year-end list of music? My listening habits are kind of crap lately, so I don’t have much of a system anymore except to look at other people’s year-end lists and say “oh yeah, I liked that one.” But for what it’s worth, here it is. To save space, I’ll put the top 2 above the fold. Click through for 3-10.
The National - Boxer
I’d like to think that my musical tastes have grown up with me. Smarter (or at least more wily), with a more mature wit, and less acerbic without being any less rocking. So I heard Boxer and i said to myself, “Oh, I get it. This is kinda like me.”
Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
Political / socially conscious music is hard to find these days, and when you do they’re often preachy and uninteresting, like Tom Morello. These problems are magnified in hip hop because there’s such an emphasis on materialism and thugishness. But Ali finds just the right mix of authentic rage and confessional candor. He talks about his personal demons in a way that makes you believe him. His outlook might be angry, but you see quickly that it’s directed anger.
(more…)
December 26th, 2007 - Posted in Music | | 0 Comments
Incoming
Welcome, readers of our Christmas letter. Our New Year’s resolution is to blog more. Please note that it is not the new year yet, however.
More regular contributions are on the way. I’d also say “a redesign is on the way,” but the Internetz are littered with sites boasting “new update coming July 12, 1998″ and such. I don’t want to even set my foot down close to that hole…
December 18th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments
Whacko’s book reading
Take a look. Please leave a comment below if you see it, so he can tell his class how many people viewed it.
updated: it’s been up there long enough. I’m sure there will be more, so you’ll just have to stay tuned.
September 17th, 2007 - Posted in Homelife | | 12 Comments
“Life doesn’t get any better than this”
…said the sign hanging on the door of the dumpy apartment in the rundown part of town, the kind of place where they used metal pipes instead of railings, and not as a design choice. I saw the sign and it occurred to me that I couldn’t tell if it was meant out of happiness or despair.
September 15th, 2007 - Posted in Pizza | | 0 Comments
Songs In My Head - Early 90s positive rapper edition
Pu’ Sho Hands 2Getha - Me Phi Me
August 27th, 2007 - Posted in songsinmyhead | | 0 Comments
Playground John Wayne
On Saturday, Whacko almost got into a fight with a kid on the playground over his sister’s honor.
Two kids who were a little older than Whacko were playing some kind of game. They’d get close to Dot and say “Ahhhhh, monster!” and run away from her. Not a particularly nice thing to do, but nothing that was going to harm her. This didn’t stop Dot from taking offense. As she was holding forth to me about how mad those boys were making her, Whacko came up and listened quietly.
After a moment he says, “I’ll handle this.”
He marches up behind the bigger of the two kids, probably a foot taller than he is. He follows the kid all the way around the equipment and up the ladder towards the slides, giving him the 1000-yard stare the whole time.
When the kid stops, Whacko puts on his best Aanakin-is-about-to-murder-the-Separatist-leaders demeanor and says “Stop calling my sister a monster.” Of course, it’s Whacko, so it sounds more like, “stop calling my sistow a monstow.”
By this point, they’re about 20 feet away, and I don’t hear any more of the conversation until I hear Whacko say “I know Tae Kwon Do” and the other kid kicks the air to show that he at least thinks he knows it, too.
Part of me wanted to see what would develop, but I formed a quick mental image of someone tumbling off the playground equipment and instead took the opportunity to say, “Time to go home, guys.”
On our way back to the van, I told him that I knew he was a good kid, but did he remember the first rule of Tae Kwon Do? (The first thing they teach the kids in the younger classes is never to use Tae Kwon Do to cause trouble or hurt others). He grins and says, “I know, Dad. I was just doin’ psychs.”
August 16th, 2007 - Posted in Parentgeekness | | 0 Comments
An adventure
Our adventure to Lincoln unexpectedly got split into two separate adventures.
First, the TaeKwonDo tournament. We travelled to Lincoln, NE for the Midwest regional championships, and the boys did us proud.
Yakko got first in his group in both forms and “sparring” (sparring, for yellow belts, consists of doing their one-step exercises back and forth, with the one the judges decide did a better job moving on face the next kid).
Whacko got third in his form. The lasting lesson we’ve learned now is “don’t send the 5-year-old out onto the floor with a full water bottle.” He spent nearly half an hour sitting in his group, and we could see from the stands that he was drinking every few minutes. He got through his form admirably, and then had to sit (and drink) while they went over the sparring rules, and then sit (and drink) while getting his pads on. This was all too much, however, and we think that by the time he actually faced an opponent, he was thinking more about a potty break than he was about getting a strike in. Thus, sadly, he was dispatched in short order in his first round of sparring. He almost immediately talked to the lead judge, and had to be accompanied off the floor to the restrooms.
That aside, though, we had plenty to be proud of. They both did a great job, and they both had some hardware to show off to the grandparents. Our biggest worry going into this was that one would do well and one wouldn’t. We didn’t want it to become yet another thing for them to fight about. As I noted to Yakko in hopes that he wouldn’t gloat, Whacko’s green belt means more is expected of him, he’s younger, and actual sparring is obviously more difficult than trading one-steps. Both kids were good sports about it, though, and there wasn’t too much rivalry.
The second half of our trip wasn’t quite as smooth.
We were on pace for a completely successful trip, headed back from Lincoln and passing north of Omaha, when we suddenly lost power steering in the van. We managed to pull off into a gas station parking lot, but it was apparent as soon as I got out that we weren’t going any farther. So after a few phone calls made it apparent that no help was coming on a saturday afternoon, we got Grandma and Grandpa to come get us. Grandpa and I came back monday and got the thing towed to a nearby service shop. Here’s where something–luck, or providence, or synchronicity, or whatever you want to call it–kicked in.
It just happened that the nearest place (nearest who answered their phone at 9 AM) was a transmission shop. It just happened that they looked at the transmission as well as the water pump that had gone out. He showed us the problem spot while it was on the rack, and it left little doubt: If the water pump hadn’t made us stop, there were some serious problems with the transmission casing (and a differential, which might mean more to you than it does to me) that would have essentially wrecked our poor van completely during the long, desolate run from Omaha to Sioux City.
So here’s the endorsement: if you need to give your custom to gas station or service station on the northern end of Omaha, I’d heartily recommend the helpful folks at the Cubby’s on Mormon Bridge Road or the AAMCO transmission shop on 72nd.
June 26th, 2007 - Posted in Homelife, Parentgeekness | | 0 Comments
Who says baseball is boring?
The counter-argument to “NASCAR is boring” is, of course, that when you get a good crash it makes it all worthwhile. Similarly, even people who are bored with baseball can appreciate when–once a year or so–a manager completely and utterly loses his mind chewing out the umpires.
Phillip Wellman, the manager of the AA Mississippi farm team of my beloved Braves, had that moment tonight. It really is a classic.
June 2nd, 2007 - Posted in baseball | | 0 Comments
