i'm feeling hella good...

ah, the rockers lost a heartbreaker in ot to the houston comets...
they started strong in the first half, but couldn't hold on for the win.

penny taylor had 24 for the game.


tina thompson's strong game and 26 points proved too much.

but a great time was had by us all, and ultimately that's what matters. we had courtside seats which makes it a whole different game. you can see the physicality of the players as well as how the plays develop. plus people take your food orders and bring it right to you! the only pro basketball game i've had this good of seats for was an early nineties cavaliers/mavericks game - scratch that - i said PRO basketball game. i feel spoiled now - not sure i want to see a game in regular seats. also it was good to see rebecca lobo back in uniform, though she didn't play much.

someone, please, explain eminem's critical acclaim

first of all, eminem's lyrics are reprehensible. and i don't buy the "just portraying a character" bs for one second.

as far as his chart popularity - well, quality rarely is a prerequisite for a top 40 record. what i really don't get though is why slim shady gets the critical approval he does - grammy nominations, etc...for example here is veteran rock critic lisa robinson in this month's vanity fair "..lyrics worthy of lenny bruce on the verses, and singing like early mick jagger on the catchy choruses."

HUH!

is this the case? yeah, and sir mix-a-lot's "babies' got back" is as touching a poem as anything shakespeare wrote. i believe myself to be open minded and listen to a wide range of music - dare i say wider than most - but i just don't see these qualities here. and lisa robinson's article is not the only time i've heard statements like this.
gentle, reader - what am i missing here? it's not as though i think all new music is bad. it's not as though i think all hip-hop is bad. it's not as though i am a prude. my personal theory is that extablished critics want to still appear "with it" and fear that blasting eminem will make them appear out of date and irrelevant. the emperor has no clothes.

on the brighter side, on the cover of vanity fair is reese witherspoon. i LOVED her in election ("PICK FLICK"), which was overall as funny of a movie as i've seen in recent memory - well, she certainly has become, ahem, all grown up since then...

have courtside seats to see the cleveland rockers play the houston comets in wnba action. should be fun. i've been a casual wnba fan since it's inception, but this is the first game i've attended.

more linkage:
tunde
sharon
furnace

craig charles' funk show on bbc6 (yes, lister from red dwarf) is having a poll now - name the funkiest dead person - i cast my vote for miles davis

just ordered tickets for the jeep world outside festival : a musical celebration of the outside active lifestyle - in detroit featuring sheryl crow, ziggy marley, etc... along with rock climbing, mountain biking, etc

should be fun...

oh yeah and barcode king

added some links to large hearted boy and kellyanne


if you get a chance, gentle reader, please sign my guestmap

there have been many things in my life that i have feared and dreaded that, when they occur, prove to be not quite as bad as i thought. for example, cutting the grass. if you read my guest blog post on techfluid, you will see an hour or so ago i was dreading cutting the grass. now that i just sucked it up, went out and did it, it really wasn't that bad.


it is my experience that this often holds true for less trivial things as well. for example, i was laid off last fall. it was something i totally dreaded and feared for a while. other than health issues, losing one's job is among the wost things that can happen. and true, aspects of it WERE bad (oddly enough, not necessarily the aspects i anticipated would be), but i sucked it up, made it through it and in retrospect, it might have been a blessing - forcing my hand a bit to make a career change i had often thought about - which in reality, i needed to make. and life goes on...


given experiences such as this, i wonder if this might not hold true also for the ultimate dread - the ultimate pink slip - death. once i reached a certain age, death has become something i think about a lot and no longer are those woody allen movies where he obsesses about death quite as funny as they were before. but you know, what if it is like many other things - really not so bad. what if when it comes it is like one writer described it (forget who) "as welcome as a long, peaceful slumber after a hard day of work." and lifes goes on...

snoop dogg pleads no contest to marijuana charges from his oct. 2k1 arrest in the town in which i live!

in defense of the accordion

the accordion is perhaps the most unjustly maligned of all musical instruments. gary larson has poked fun of it in at least two cartoons. perhaps it is because of it's association with polka music, but hey, as i am approx. 75% polish, i feel obligated to defend the music of my ancestors. let's analyze polka music - loud, kinda obnoxious, simple driving beat with simple melodies and chord changes - lyrics about beer, chasin' women, falling in love, getting your heart broke, being invaded by the cossacks, etc... - accompanied by frentic dancing and beer swilling - what we basically have here is kielbasa-flavored rock and roll. for the position of musical royalty, instead of elvis, i'd choose frankie yankovic, america's polka king


this seemingly random rant was brought on by my listening to ry cooder's chicken skin music (music so good it gives you goose bumps, get it?) in which ry, as is his style, explores different genres - r&b, hawaiian slack key and tex-mex. the accordionist is flaco jimenez - known as the jimi hendrix of the accordion (no shit). check out his accompaniment, commentary on ry's singing on that old chestnut "he's got to go" - chillingly beautiful - and if this ain't enough, the cd cover is one of the most off the wall i've ever seen - took me a while to realize what it was....


for a more progressive, less rootsy accordion classic, try guy klucevsek's work on bill frisell's have a little faith which features great american songs across genres (aaron copeland to madonna to muddy waters to john hiatt to sonny rollind to steven foster to john philip sousa to dylan). my favorite is the psycho guitar, clarinet, accordion, bass and drums version of sousa's "washington post's march"


recently accordions have been making a bit of a revival, i've heard them on records by aerosmith, fellow 40 something yoga enthusiast sheryl crow, bnl, etc



so, scoff if you want, but accordions rule!

god bless the onion

hey, i dissed bowie on bbc6 (via email) today. read my guest blog entry on techfluid for the details...

kristiv, since i can't comment on your site and i lost your email addy - have to say, love the new look!

hey, kristiv? why can't i post comments to your journal?

well, i decided to fight the mood and i'm glad i did. as a recovering couch potato, i want to make sure if i commit any of the seven deadlies, it is not sloth....so i headed to the park...i have vowed to try one new sport/outdoor activity each season... in the past few years that has meant yoga, ice skating, inline skating, bicycling and swimming. career turmoil prevented me to try anything new this winter, but this summer i wanted to try trail running or trail biking or both...so today i got my feet wet (literally) in trail running - well, i'm not ready for the eco-challenge yet, but it was a fun run/hike - got very dirty and muddy


afterwards, i decided to put the skates on - this is the park where i left half my left buttock last year doing an intentional baseball slide on the path to avoid hitting a wodden bridge - i was just going to do a a few laps around the parking lot - well that got old quick, so i decided to see if i've improved enough in a year - well, i am here to say that i have - i have mastered the heel brake (if you skate and you don't heel brake well, learn to do so as it will save your ass (literally) - i took a private lesson and read about technique on liz miller's site) - so anyhow, i conquered all the parks hills - feel like superman - with a worn out heel brake (anyone know where i can get one for salomon x-trainers?)

i am "no-ambition boy" today. could/should be doing any number of things, but, blech - just feel like being a slug - not sure whether to fight this mood or run with it (crawl with it?) for a while - oh well...

i am guest blogging this week at techfluid for chari, who is on vacation. i really enjoy reading her journal. i will try to maintain her high standard of writing. perhaps in her honor, i will recount a reminiscence of my own school days, given that her posts on this subject were what first really caught my attention and got me hooked on her blog. that is, if i can remember that far back...

bought elvis costello's landmark my aim is true at my local used record store...

have not spent a better $6.35 USD (incl tax) in my life

ps - oh yeah, just got back from a long weekend, so i don't need a free vacation

after thinking about the absurd amount of spam i received over the past few days (see post below - and that doesn't even count the stuff that got filtered out) i have decided to post a few facts about myself, in case any spammers can read and might want to save some postage
;-)

i do not want to work out of my home. while not debt-free, my debt is at a manageable level. i have recently re-financed my house so i do not need to do that. my vegetarian diet has allowed me to lose weight at a reasonable rate, and i am quite satisfied with my progress. i am quite happy, in all other ways, with my body and how it works - therefore i do not need any "herbal supplements". i don't want to burn my own dvd's - wouldn't that be copyright infringement? i am not going bald. i am not interested in how your "new web cam" works.


hmmm, that just about covers it...

3 days gone, 91 emails in the inbox, none worth reading

on the brighter side, there is a trading spaces marathon on tlc!!!

well, back after a wonderful weekend away...you'd think i'd have more to say after being gone for a few days, but i don't - least not right now. had a wonderful time. was ready to come home. shaved my beard.