Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Auld Lang Syne, My Friends

It's easy to look back on a year like 2008 and reflect it wasn't a good year. When I compare where I was last year on NYE and where I am now, it's easy to see things have not worked out the way I thought it would. My projection was certainly different than where things ended up. Still it was a good year.

It was good because good things happened this year. A certain Hawaiian was elected President, I shed 50 pounds of unneeded weight and I took a fully-funded trip out West. I saw both AL and NL baseball games, pro basketball games and my favorite band Radiohead with my brother at the south end of Grant Park as fireworks exploded in the panorama behind them. I also walked away unscathed from a car crash which could've easily killed me and I met a lot of new people I can see being good friends in the years to come.

There were bad things to happen too and I won't reflect on them here. The truth is they, like this year, are now in the past. As a friend told me once by paraphrasing someone else, "Everything I've done has lead me to here. And I am better for it."

Happy 2008 everyone and I'll see you again soon in 2009.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Oh, Eight Songs

I was combing through the last year in music and I'm going to do something a little different. The thing to do usually is to make a list of the year's best albums. But let's be honest. Not only are you unlikely to go out and buy those albums, most people don't even consume music via the album anymore. It's all about single songs.

So these are eight songs I chose to represent the music which turned me on in the last year. These were bands and/or songs a regular person wouldn't have stumbled into just by listening to the radio. (Sorry Kanye and Coldplay.) At the same time I also wanted to highlight music that most people could enjoy too. (Sorry Battles and TV On The Radio.) Most of all though these were eight songs I listed to often during the year. When I think back on 2008, these songs will be the soundtrack.

And just for added difficulty, let's make them appear in the same slot as they do on the album from which they come (our first song is first on its respective album, the second song comes second on its album, etc.) and do it in under thirty minutes.

1.) Colin Meloy "Devil's Elbow" - When I think of 2008, I will think of being in Chicago. When I think of being in Chicago, I will think of three things. The first one is obvious. The second is the good times. The third will be riding the train. I rode the CTA everywhere and on the nights when I didn't have a companion I was plugged into my MP3 player.

Colin Meloy's live solo album got a lot of spins on my way to work, going to baseball games, going out to shows and most often when I was going home. I will hear this song or any from this album and forever think of the Clark and Division stop, the stretch between Sheridan and Howard and standing at Main in the morning. Add in that it's a great song and "Devil's Elbow" spells 2008.

2.) Vampire Weekend "Oxford Comma" - Have you ever heard a buzz band that everyone seems to love and they really are that great? It's not hype. It's actually music journalism fulfilling its purpose and bringing good music to light. I had a few of those this year.

Vampire Weekend was one of them. Maybe it's because all of my musical taste is calibrated to The Clash but I always love music that isn't familiar. I like weird sounds and sounds that are presented in a different way than I've heard. Being able to do that within a three minute pop song though is a real feat.

There's something that sounds very close to Jamaican reggae about Vampire Weekend's music. Their influences are actually West African and I think that's something Joe Strummer would be way into if he were still alive. I think that because it's stuff I'm way into myself.

3.) Kings of Leon "Sex On Fire" - One of the great quotes I like to pull from my life is by Gregg Allman. He was talking about the term "Southern rock." He said (and I'm paraphrasing) "All rock comes from The South. So saying 'Southern rock' is a little bit like saying 'rock rock'." Normally when we think of music that rocks, we think of the music which followed and drew influence Led Zepplin with shredding guitars, bombastic drums and soaring vocals. Allman is right though. Even the almighty Zepplin sound draws its roots in The South.

That would mean the purest form of rock made today is the "rock rock" being made by bands like My Morning Jacket and Kings of Leon. I mean what's more sex and drugs and rock and roll than a song called "Sex on Fire"? All the more to the point when you dive into the lyrics about the visceral and raw elements of making sweet love. Wrap it all up in a melody and a beat that makes you want to drive very fast down the open road and you'll be wrapping yourself in the American flag in no time.

4.) MGMT "Electric Feel" - MGMT was another buzz band that lived up to their billing. A lot of music played on synthesizers ends up sounding like its been run through a computer and filtered into bleak dystopia. It's just what happened because Bowie and Eno and their ilk were the first guys to get there and start using these new tools and that's the type of music they make.

What makes MGMT so weird and interesting is they make music about a psychedelic world without technology. They present a conundrum when they use a syntesizer to sound like a "4000 year old Peruvian flute" as Andrew VanWyngarden says in the behind the scenes video to this song. For forever the idea of more authentic and earthy music is that which is played on instruments made of wood. (See: any coffee shop this Friday or Saturday) Yet here are these two guys working with The Flaming Lips' producer to make a song about a girl from The Amazon who can create electricity from her hands. It's the type of music which appeals to your head, your heart and of course your ears.

5.) Broken Social Scene "Churches Under The Stairs" - When I think about concerts I saw this last year I'll think of the peak performances. From Pitchfork Music Festival to Lollapalooza to Rocktober to a set of shows on either side of Snelling on University to a few more great shows at First Ave, I saw a lot of really great live music this year.

Broken Social Scene contributed a large part of that great live music. I saw them not once, not twice but three times this year and each time my love for them deepened even further. Each concert was like a date. On the first date at Lollapalooza I got a quick brush-up on their sound and an introduction to some of the songs I didn't know. The second date later that evening at The Metro was confirmation that first blush wasn't a misread on my part. Then by the excellent concert of a third date at First Ave during Rocktober I had made my decision and I was wearing my good underwear. I fell for this band the way you're supposed to; by seeing them in their peak moment and being rewarded as you do.

6.) Flobots "Handlebars" - This song gives me an opportunity to give shoutouts and for wildly different reasons. First I have to shoutout Willibuster, Ghost and Emily Osby. When I was visiting home during August, we were hanging out with one of Will's high school friends and the night devolved into what most parties usually do with all of us sitting around looking up stuff on YouTube. It was even Will himself who pulled up the video for this song and every time I hear this song or watch the video I think of chilling with those three.

The other person I get to shoutout is K10. Eight years younger than me and full of opinions, K10 is more than willing to tell me my musical taste sucks and that I've gone soft in my older age. Which is exactly the thing I love about him. Ever said that if you had the opportunity to talk to yourself at a younger age you'd probably just argue about stuff? I don't have to imagine what that would be like to argue music with my younger self because of this guy. Except my younger self really likes The Flobots. "As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens his friend."

Additional shoutouts for additional and different reasons to Dan, Patrick, Noha, Luke, Pete, Peder, Jim, Abby, Stensby, Christian, Nicky, SayRock Brian, Ed, TK and all the people that were at Doomtree Blowout. Thanks for making "going to shows" the new black in '08. Let's go get them swimming pools in '09.

7.) The Black Kids "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend To Dance With You" - Guess "What?". Yet another buzz band that lived up to their billing was The Black Kids. I got this CD during the month I was subletting in Evanston and it was just a matter of having heard about them a lot on the periphery and finally taking the whole CD plunge. It really is amazing doing that worked out so well for me this year.

Okay, what do The Black Kids sound like? It's like The Cure was brought to the 21st Century and decided to write in the "Just Like Heaven" mode. That mournful quality is still there as are the crazy good synth lines. The difference is Robert Smith is playing with The Revolution and that means really danceable sped-up songs underneath the heartache and loss. It literally is the type of music which can be called 1980s retro and not have that be a derisive term.

8.) The Hold Steady "Stay Positive" - Is there any greater summation of the year of Our Lord two thousand and eight than "You gotta stay positive!"? Yeah, things went into the trash this year. At the same time a new era is dawning. Things are always darkest before the dawn and sometimes things are so bad the only place we have to go is up. In 2008, we all had to stay positive or else we'd lose our minds. But by staying positive we'll see ourselves through.

Now pour that over the type of big anthemic hooks that Springsteen and U2 only stumble upon anymore and you have a song you actually can listen to and come out feeling positive and part of something larger. The song isn't suggesting that we stay positive and then leaving us to figure out how to do that. It is infused with the raw energy and mass needed to sustain and to even see the way through to thriving. It doesn't move you in the usual way of touching your heart. It should swell in you the defiant walking-into-the-wind attitude needed to tough things out. Because, as I said before, this year more than ever you gotta stay positive.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Take It Off And Keep It Off

This time last year I weighed over 300 pounds. Not a lot over but over. I was having difficulty with my back and my feet. Even climbing the three flights of stairs into our apartment would wind me. Want some photographic evidence? Okay, here's me on NYE last year.



Now compare to this picture taken at my sister's wedding in September. Much better right?



When I stepped on the scale today I weighed 260 pounds and I've been as low as 252. That means in the last year I've lost 40-some pounds and more importantly have been able to keep it off. My back and feet are feeling better, I can feel the additional muscle I've picked up (the key to weight loss) and I don't get winded anymore. Even when I'm on the treadmill at the gym I'm chugging along breathing naturally.

The key to my plan is pretty simple. I plan to do much more than I need to do. Then when I do it is in excess and does even more good than I need it to and when I don't do as much as I planned I still have done enough to do what I need to do. If I plan to go five times a week and I only go three times, it isn't the end of the world nor do I lose ground.

The most important element though is getting to brag about losing a lot of weight. Listen, I'm probably never going to summit Everest or hit a major league curveball and chances are neither are you. That's just life. It's the little challenges you take upon yourself to complete which end up defining your life. Being able to tell people you took on something like this and triumphed makes its own gravy. It becomes a loop of success and praise which reinforces itself over and over.

The easy way out on my personal health would be to do what I did for most of my twenties and just act like it didn't matter. What did I give a fuck for? It's the little challenges though and succeeding on something like this can only pay off in other situations down the line. All in all, it's about changing your ethic. Once you do that you can make bigger changes in your life, changes that will make losing 40 pounds into no big deal.

Monday, December 1, 2008

The Life of Pi

I often refer to Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" as the best book I ever read. My favorite novel is F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" while the most difficult book I've read is "The Sound and The Fury" by William Faulkner. (It only took me three tries.) Still I consider "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" the best book because of what it stirred in me.

It was more than just a simple appreciation for the method by which the author told the story or an affinity for the characters. It was a deep connection between myself and the ideas of the book on a spiritual level. I found it encapsulated not only the world I lived in or the world I wanted to live in but both at the same time.

Since I finished "Unbearable Lightness" at the end of summer 2003, I've read a lot of really good books like "Ender's Game", "Good Omens" and "A Long Way Down." But there have only been two books which approached the incredibly high level of "Unbearable Lightness."

The first was a Spanish book called "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Set in Barcelona during the years after the war, it tells a Gothic story of a young boy whose father owns a used bookstore. His father takes him to The Cemetary of Forgotten Books where he discovers a book by Julian Carax. However when he goes searching for other works by Carax, he finds that someone has been systematically destroying all copies of Carax's work. It enthralled me to the point that I was very upset when I went to Amazon and found Zafon had not written any other books.

The other book up to "Unbearable Lightness" standards is the one I just finished, "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. Telling the story of a young Indian boy who finds him tossed from the proverbial pan of a shipwreck into the fire of a lifeboat inhabited by a Bengal tiger, it's more a novel about the place of Man in the world.

When the action is taking place in Pondicherry, India the emphasis is on the relation of God to Man. It specifically explores religious pluralism as the main character simultaneously adopts Christianity and Islam while retaining his Hindu beliefs. Multiculturalism is still a relatively new idea so it's interesting to watch it seep from the Ivory Tower of academia into the mainstream via books like "Life of Pi."

Still the hook of the book is the section taking place in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As great as it is to read about this kid following many paths to the top of the same mountain, my constant thought was "This was really great AND there's a part coming up involving this boy and a tiger in a lifeboat." It's interesting to watch the story slide quickly down Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Where the Indian boy was interested in God and self-actualization in the first section, his focus slides quickly into pure survival. Man's place in the world is re-framed as he has to take on a direct (the tiger) and indirect (the sea) threat to his life from Nature.

Finally the way it all wraps up is beautiful. Like its predecessors before it, the ending was everything I could've expected while reading the book. It encapsulates the ideas I have as well as the ideas I'm moving towards and that meant the book carried a lot of weight for me. It's definitely a book which requires a lot of consideration and that's the best thing you can say about a book. Quite simply put it's the best book I've read since at least "The Shadow of the Wind" and maybe even "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Going To California - Day Five - Bakersfield To San Francisco

Departure Bakersfield - 54 degrees and clear
Arrival San Francisco - 59 degrees and cloudy

Sundown - 4:55 pm
Miles Traveled - 253 miles
States Visited - 1
Major Cities - San Jose, CA; San Francisco, CA
Average Speed - 62 mph




Can you know a city by staying there one night? No, it would be impossible to know the geography let alone the heart and the spirit of a city in an evening.

Can you try to see an entire city in one night? Yes, if you have the proper guides and a willingness to stay up until 4:00 am on your internal clock.

When I knew that my trip was going to be ending in San Francisco it pleased me greatly. It was one of the five Great American Cities I hadn't visited yet and, as someone who had always though himself a little Beat and Boho, it was like the mothership calling me home. Add on the number of Beat/Boho friends I have who are already on the mothership and it was going to be on like Genghis Khan.

The tricky thing is I only had one night. I knew I wasn't going to see everything or even everything I wanted to see. With the right priorities I could get a good taste of San Francisco.

So I got into town, took the BART into the city, met Schwa, saw the circus, had some drinks, met Meg, we all got picked up by Viv, the four of us went to the sushi place, I ate a prawn head in the most digusting way possible, was met by Will, rode over to City Lights, said "Bye" to Meg and Viv, went into the Poetry Room, got my picture taken on the stairs, got drinks at Vesuvio, walked up Russian Hill (to the TOP!), got in the car, talked to Boston, rode to the Golden Gate Bridge, took some blurry photos, rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, took some blurry video, rode to Haight-Ashbury, got my picture in front of the street signs, met up with Jamie, had a beer, walked into Golden Gate Park, saw the outside of a museum I'll need to go into next time, stood and BS-ed in an amphitheater, walked back to the car, dropped off Jamie and Schwa and was dropped at my hotel by Will.

The only thing I know is I need to come back.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Going To California - Day 4 - Flagstaff to Bakersfield

Departure Flagstaff - 35 degrees and clear
Arrival Bakersfield - 82 degrees and clear

Sundown - 4:48 pm
Miles Traveled - 482 miles
States Visited - 2
Major Cities - Ummmm...
Average speed - 70 mph

A Sampling of Gas Prices
$2.11 Kingman, AZ
$3.29 Bullhead City, CA
$2.25 Junction of Hwys. 395 & 58
$1.99 Bakersfield, CA




One of the things that's both neat and frightening about growing up is you start to deal with your parents as adults. Rather you're dealing with them for the first time as an adult yourself. In fact it may be the first time you get to talk with them about grown up stuff at all.

Since thirty is just up around the bend for me I'm actively working on redefining my individual relationships with my parents. I want to reset the structure of our realtionships to accomodate two adults instead of one adult and one "child." More importantly I want to actually know my parents. Neither of them are particularly old and we'll have at least another thirty to forty years together. Up until now they've had to be models from which I might base my behavior. But now that I'm pretty much a fully-formed adult I can look and see them as they are.

More importantly, if your family was nuclear like mine, these are the two people who have ostensibly known you for the longest. They were the ones who can tell you the most about who you were before you remembered and even tell you a lot about the stuff you do remember except from an adult's perspective. They really are the mirror of your experiences and if they are honest and respectful of you they can tell you more about yourself than any other person not walking around in your skin.

So when I was having dinner with my mom last night, we just talked like I normally would with any other adult in my life. We talked about the election, we talked about my sister's wedding, we talked about my upcoming job prospects. But mostly we talked about each other and ourselves. That is to say we talked as adults.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Going To California - Day 3 - Amarillo To Flagstaff

Departure Amarillo - 47 degrees and clear
Arrival Flagstaff - 55 degrees and clear

Sundown - 5:15 pm
Miles Traveled - 608 miles
States Visited - 3
Major cities - Albuquerque, NM
Average speed - 66 mph

A Sampling of Gas Prices
$1.97 San Jon, NM
$2.15 Santa Rosa, NM
$1.95 Albuquerque, NM
$2.99 Allentown, AZ
$2.69 Flagstaff, AZ

Five Words Young Jeezy Shouts In The Background of "Put On"
Aye
Ha Ha
Hey
Whoooo
Yeah (pron. J-eah)




If it isn't completely obvious and exactly what eveyone else is thinking, I'm sure I could do this "driving across the country" thing all the time. There is something deep in my soul that loves the Kerouac idea of just having the open road in front of you. Going, as Sir Edmund Hillary would say, because it's there.

However I don't think I'd want to do it professionally. Putting on this many miles in a day because you have to is hard. I need to keep driving for that next stop on the map, the next spot where I have a hotel reservation. I probably would've made the same stops as scheduled except I would've done them with a little more generous allowances for stopping and seeing the countryside.

As it is, I'm enjoying watching these United States roll by my windshield. I've seen both purple mountains majesty and amber waves of grain. The amazing thing about our country is people spread out all the way across this diverse continent feel they are all involved in the same great thing going forward. As the man himself said, "There are no red states. There are no blue states. There is only the United States." And what's more American than getting out at seeing this country we love.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Going To California - Day 2 - Emporia To Amarillo

Departure Emporia - 37 degrees and clear
Arrival Amarillo - 73 degrees and clear

Sundown - 5:40 pm
Miles Traveled - 495 miles
States Visited - 3
Major Cities - Wichita, Kansas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Average speed - 63 mph

A Sampling of Gas Prices

$1.95 Wichita
$1.57 Oklahoma City (W00T!)
$1.85 Amarillo, Texas




On April 19, 1995 at 9:02 am domestic terrorists detonated a fertilizer bomb in front of The Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma destroying one third of the building and killing 168 people including 19 children. Two and a half years later in October of 1997 The Oklahoma City National Memorial was established and put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. The memorial was dedicated by then-President Clinton on the fifth anniversary of the bombing, April 19th, 2000. I visited the memorial on my way through Oklahoma City today.

See the photos of my visit at this link.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Going to California - Day 1 - Minneapolis to Emporia

Departure Minneapolis - 32 degrees and overcast.
Arrival Emporia - 42 degrees and dark.

Miles traveled - 546
States traveled through - 4
Major cities - Minneapolis, MN; Des Moines, IA; Kansas City, KS/MO
Avg. speed - 61 MPH

A sample of gas prices

Minneapolis, MN - $1.97
Des Moines, IA - $1.92
Converse, MO - $1.73
Kansas City, KS - $ $1.76
Emporia, KS - $1.85




When I was young, my dad and I were much closer than we are now. I was the oldest of my siblings and as such I could go do things that the other kids couldn't. It's just one of the many perks of being first. Mostly it was just a bunch of sporting events that we got to see together including a lot of Twins games from very close. But the crown jewel of father-son time for my dad and I were our roadtrips.

The very first one was just a jaunt down to Lake City when I was about six to see my great-grandmother O'Hara. She was very old and I was very young. It stands out though because it's the only real memory I have of her. She seemed so frail and small. My dad has told me since then his memory of that trip is how she was so happy to spend time with her grandson and her great-grandson.

Most often though we'd base our roadtrips around sports. One year we drove to all of the NFL training camps in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Another we drove to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. We even flew one time to Kansas City so we could take a car across Missouri to a Cardinals game in St. Louis.

However the very first roadtrip we took out-of-state was to Kansas City for one of my dad's co-worker's wedding. It was 1990 and I was ten while Erica was 8 and Dan only 6. If my dad was going to take Mom to the wedding, they'd have to find someone to take care of us for the whole weekend. So, sensing an opportunity in a problem, Dad just took me instead of Mom.

There are three really great memories of that roadtrip. First, we stayed at a hotel with two trees involved which had a pool where you could swim between the indoors and outdoors. Second, it was the first time I saw two of the greatest television shows ever; "Saturday Night Live" and "American Gladiators." I can very vividly remember watching The Eliminator on "AG" and watching a "Twin Peaks" parody sketch on "SNL." (Which means Kyle McLachlen was hosting with musical guest... Sinead O'Connor.) The third memory requires a little set-up. At the time Dad had a BMW 3 series with 5-speed manual transmission and an overdrive. Basically, the car was meant to go really fast and it could.

We were peaking over a hill in Iowa already doing north of 80 when Dad noticed there were no other cars visible, there were no police officers sitting in the ditch and, hell, there was this long straight downhill stretch of open road in front of us. So he turns to me and says, "Your mom doesn't need to know about this." He dropped the car into the overdrive and it took off. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill we were doing 120.

I thought about that road trip as I was driving through Kansas City today. I got a chance to think back to when Dad and I would take roadtrips together. I got a chance to think back to when Dad and I were closer. I thought about how things have changed and how things have not. Mostly I got to think about when we would just get in the car and drive.

Friday, November 14, 2008

A List of Items

One winter jacket, red
One sweatshirt, grey (printed)

One gymbag/suitcase, black

-contains-

One swimsuit, black
Two pair shorts, one red/white and other tan khaki
Four t-shirts, two blue (printed) and two white (one printed, one not)
Four pair underwear, patterned
Four pair socks, two pair navy calf cut and two pair white ankle cut
One pair sunglasses, black
One toothpaste tube, half full
One toothbrush, could be replaced
One can bodyspray, full
One stick anti-perspirant, half consumed
One can shaving cream, half consumed
Two safety razors, unused
One phone charger
One package to mail to a friend
Two books to return to a different friend

One green backpack w/ "What Would Elvis Do?" patch

-contains-

One winter hat, navy w/ forest green
One pair winter gloves, navy
One scarf, tan/grey
"Downtown Owl" by Chuck Klosterman
Batman collection "War Drums"
Free Darko's "The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac"
Four DVDs

-"Lost In Translation"
-"Serenity"
-"Live Free or Die Hard: Unrated"
-"Gigantic: A Story of Two Johns" to return to a third friend

Six music CDs

-Catch 22 "Keasby Nights"
-LCD Soundsystem "45:33"
-Aesop Rock "None Shall Pass"
-Bad Religion "New Maps of Hell"
-Of Montreal "Skeletal Lamping", packaging difficult to open
-Atmosphere "When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold"

One Audiobook

-"The Day the Universe Changed" by James Burke

One digital camera, borrowed
One mp3 player w/ headphones
One cellphone, company-provided
One notebook with directions
One composition book, "Story Arcs" written on cover
One laptop (pending deposit in bag)

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Today Was A Good Day

Four years ago, the day after the election, I wrote the following blog post on my old blog Captain Handsome.

Election Results
Today I feel both disappointed and relieved.

I feel disappointed because John Kerry and John Edwards didn't win. It's a little like cheering for your favorite sports team if your favorite sports team directed the economy, the military and the governance of law.

A lot of people like cheering for the Yankees because the Yankees win. If you had to choose your favorite team based on how they played, how they treated their fans, etc., the distribution would be more even. Or people just wouldn't care which is what happens more often in politics.

When John Kerry and John Edwards didn't win, it doesn't mean I won't vote for Democrats two years from now. I'll still be back cheering for the same team because the same things will be important to me then and it will be the same team which will be able to deliver them to me.

As I've expressed elsewhere, this one in particular would've been nice to win.

I'm relieved because it came down to votes. There was no last minute surprise "Hey, we have Osama bin Laden," or "Holy shit, President Bush raped a bear. And that bear was my father!" shit. I think that's the stuff which really turns people off to politics and makes them think their vote doesn't count. This election really was about courting the voters, talking about issues and who is the better man for the job.

There are still votes to be counted and the television networks don't choose the president. It would be great if Bush were ushered out the same way he was ushered in. However, I'm waking up to an America in which George W Bush is the President and I can finally react to that.

The nation selected George W Bush. They elected a foreign policy where the United States actively uses its military might, a domestic policy which supports businesses who are then responsible for supporting their employees and a moral policy which is very conservative. They also selected leaving things as they are over how things could be.

And I'm not sure I fit with that. I don't fit with the Bush Administration's interpretations for sure. Yet a lot of voters looked past the pragmatic and went on the basis of values. While I can relate to those values, they aren't mine.

Atleast I know where I stand. And I can start setting my course from there.

Whether that is me following through on my festering urge to move out of the US or just into a deeper blue state or the exact opposite by going into a red state and helping to bridge the gap, I don't know.

Today is a brand new day. Today my relief is to be starting.


Now it's four years later and I can tell you what happened.

After getting over the initial shock, I decided to commit myself to work and spent the next term floating astray and trying to fit into the corporate world I found odd. For three of those years, I had the support of a wonderful and caring woman and she did more than her part to help me see the cheer in my life and why I should continue on. But the stress of our relationship pushed us apart and this summer things fell apart. I moved home from Chicago and looked around at my options.

There are two realizations I've come to in the last two months. I've found I'm back where I was four years ago and my old burning is coming back. I never really forgot that feeling and anyone who was there will tell you volunteering was the part of my Chicago job I enjoyed the most. It's no coincidence that I'd supported a community organizer for President. Then last night that community organizer won.

Yesterday the nation selected Barack Obama. They elected a foreign policy where the United States uses its military might judiciously, a domestic policy which asks people to make sacrifices for the greater good and a moral policy which is open and liberal. They left behind things as they are and want to see how things could be. And I fit with that. I can relate to those values because they are mine too.

So, with the economy in the tank and the corporate world a suit that fit poorly to begin, I'm going to look into making service my full-time occupation. I don't know if that's going to be foreign service, the Peace Corps, Americorps, some form of government job, some form of non-profit or non-governmental organization, etc. All of that is to be determined. The point is I woke up this morning in an America that needs help and I plan to do my part in helping.



In 2008, Yes We Can!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

I Make It Rain

I had a friend who posted an article on his Facebook about the American tax system explained through beer. Here it is and then my comments follow...

Tax System explained in Beer

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten guys comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers'' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers?

How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,' declared the sixth man.

He pointed to the tenth man, 'but he got $10!'

''Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I'

''That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

''Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.


I think there's a falacy in the logic of this article. It assumes that all of people's needs (the beer) are met by the bartender (the government). But that's not the economic model used in the capitalistic, free market United States. That's actually large-C Communism.

This article is actually a pretty sound illustration of why a tax break doesn't benefit the middle class. Despite paying taxes on a percentage basis, real world costs (food, housing, clothing, gas) are on a dollar for dollar basis. And the tax cut you describe gives the tenth man ten times the actual dollar for dollar benefit as the fifth man and provides no benefit for the first through fourth men.

Take college tuition for example. That is a flat cost. If you go to the University of Minnesota and are from Minnesota, you pay the same rate regardless of your ability to pay. So a middle class family who makes too much to qualify for financial aid has a penalty in sending their children to college. They have to choose on a dollar for dollar basis where their money would be better spent.

In my opinion, the great flaw in conservative fiscal policy is not giving tax breaks to the rich. Freeing money from the grandstanding whims of politicians (who gave $700B to Treasury to "I dunno. Fix the economy or somethin'," without oversight) is a good idea. Taxes can only benefit the people who are paying in, the citizens of the country. Investment capital can benefit anyone anywhere, especially in areas that are poised for rapid growth in the globalized economy aka The Third World. It is that the money doesn't end up being put in investments that benefit everyone.

The money is ending up emphasizing the investments over the capital. People are buying dot.com stock and mortgage-backed securities to get a healthy return for their portfolios because investing in government projects (in the form of bonds) have been money losers in the conservative fiscal world. There's no reason in the profit motive to do something that's altruistic.

Merck, for example, isn't going to do a whole lot of R&D on a new tuberculosis treatment in order to share that research with its competitors. It would be foolish to expect people to work hard, get ahead and then flush that advantage down the drain. But the Centers For Disease Control would.

So if you're saying that there should be tax breaks to free investment capital for use in the world economy, then I agree with you especially if that money is bringing basic needs to developing nations.

If you're saying that a tax break is a way to create wealth, I still need to be sold because it seems to me to be just moving water out of one bucket and into another.

If you're saying that the rich are going to take their ball and go home, I encourage you to tell me a better economy for the wealthy than the one we've got. You know that liberals have been waiting 40 years to say this...

Love it or leave it.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

What's Up Goat?

In the wake of dropping the journo-style and not yet ready to start talking about the really personal stuff, I was racking my brains trying to come up with an interesting topic. I was standing at the mirror brushing my teeth when I saw the perfect topic staring right back at me.

One of the things that I've done a pretty good job avoiding in my lifetime [1] is making questionable choices with my appearance. I've adopted a very Lutheran "don't do anything at all to keep from sinning" approach to long or dyed hair, piercings, tattoos, etc. I even dress conservatively to keep from getting singled out. My philosophy is this. I'd rather not be labelled as a freak based upon my appearance. I'd rather that someone has to get to know me before they figure out that I'm a weirdo.

The one weak spot in my plan [2] is facial hair. I will wear the shit out of a beard. I'd like to say it's because I subscribe to an earlier model of masculinity which endorsed facial hair. That wouldn't be truthful. [3] It's more that sometimes I go a few days without shaving and I just kind of keep on going not shaving. Sometimes it becomes a really sweet beard, sometimes it becomes an excellent Sunday Stache. [4]

So with my current office-less employment and the early hour I have to be "there", I had a full palate of facial hair to work with last Sunday. First I cut off the underside. Then I went long the jawline. Finally I cut the cheeks because they always get itchy. Then I stopped. What it left me with is a goatee. [5]

Now there's really only one reason to wear facial hair that still requires the maintenance of regular shaving. You want to look cool. Which isn't always the case. When it's done right, it's very right. When it's done wrong, it's very wrong. There is no middle ground. You either look awesome or like a total tool. [6] But, like I said, my current employment is office-less so my Sunday Goatee became a Why Not All Week? Goatee.

Now I have two lengths of facial hair. There is the goatee which is now two weeks old and the rest covering the cheeks and jawline which is a week old. [7] I'm thinking I'll keep it for now and let it grow. It's going to turn cold here in Minnesota soon and having a beard is a good thing in the winter. Also all of my friends are sporting beards and this will give me a lead on Grow-vember. I mean, growing a beard is normally what people do while rededicating their lives, right? You're damn right. [8]

[1] Along with low door frames and tiger attack.
[2] Save for an earring I had for a year and then forgot about.
[3] Actually my model of being a man is more like this.
[4] When you don't shave for a whole week and then make hilarious shapes in your facial hair as you shave it on Sunday, especially when you wear it that way all day to be funny.
[5] Which is actually a Van Dyke. Like the word "irony", the dictionary definition of "goatee" differs from its real world application.
[6] Dumas, Ariel. "Don't Grow a Goatee, Mike." (1998)
[7] Still shaving the neck. Ladies, if you think in-grown hairs suck on your legs, imagine them on your throat.
[8] You should see the html of this entry. It's a little busy.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A Challenge From A Friend

A friend recently challenged me to give up the journo-style of writing I've used writing this blog and the last one. Part of the reason I used that style is because I can generate a lot of it really easily. (Just being honest.) More importantly I used it because I wanted to write about what I thought about things that were happening in the world instead of talking about what's happening with me.

Usually things that are happening with me fall into two categories. Either they're stuff that is too personal to talk about (I have about three of those things right now) or they're things which aren't really that interesting. I think that makes sense and is probably the case with most people. So even when I do talk about my own life, it's because I participate in it. I present it like a reporter who wanted to make sure all of the facts were right over talking about the experience of being there.

So I'm using this post as a declaration of dropping the journo-style and with it the detached subject matter. If you want to know what I thought of the Broken Social Scene show last night or the Presidential election, you'll have to ask me directly. I'm going to migrate into a different style for a while and see what's over there. This will no longer be a blog of ideas. It will be a blog of Mike Herman.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Thoughts Before A Debate

The general consensus this election cycle is the Obama campaign needs to be careful about not being a bully, especially towards Sarah Palin. Let's set aside general politicking for a minute. I find it more interesting that bullying is considered the natural order of the Obama campaign if not politics in general.



It's odd to me because what one side perceives as bullying is often just criticism by the other side. Since the two-party system works best when the two sides are collaborating (because then it really is the will of the people and not just the ruling party), the necessary first step is to collect the consensus of the other party. Part of this consensus-building is defining and then mediating the differences between your viewpoint and that of your collaborator.

What has changed in America in the last 15 years is things have gotten really tight, really negative and really focused on winning. There is so much at stake in each race because of the former that candidates are willing to do the middle to because they are the latter. More and more candidates are doing it and will continue to do it because it works. People respond to clear, simplified black and white more enthusiastically than muddled greys.



Which flies completely in the face of the necessary first step of collaboration and actually harms American politics. Everything is so amped up and focused on ripping out the other guy's jugular what's lost that governance is really supposed to be about moving the whole country together into prosperity. That comes with making some sacrifices especially in the "always needing to be right" arena.

You need to slow things down, think about the three fingers pointing back when you point one away and use your reasoning to criticise yourself. If you were going to fight to the death, would this be the issue? Is this really something that you really want to be your legacy, the thing people think of when they think of you?



Each of the candidates for President this year are promising change. Obama has been known as a man who focuses on change since he gave the keynote address at the Democratic convention four years ago and John McCain's allure to voters on both sides of the aisle since 2000 springs from his deserved reputation as a bipartisan worker. I hope whomever wins in November stays true to his roots and he knows the way to really create change is through grace.

Our country has endured bullying as the modis operandi of politics for too long, almost a whole generation. It's time to begin collaborating again, not berating the other side into deep-held anger. The necessary first step in collaboration is to collect the consensus of the other party. Our focus should be on how we're the same and how we all can get better and not how we can win by pointing out the other side is wrong.

So that's why I was really saddened by the news this week. For all of the talk of change and maverick reformers by these two men I deeply respect, it's going to be politics as usual in the last month before the election. And that hurts even more than if it had just been another two Ivy League-educated, wealthy white men duking it out.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

My Five Favorite Time-Travel Movies of All-Time

Travel through time is suprisingly a common plot device in movies. Army of Darkness, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and of course the Back to the Future trilogy are all movies where the plot centers around a character or characters moving through time. However in each of the cited cases, the time travel is not as important as the characters being a fish out of water. The movie is not about time travel as much as time travel is a mechanism to create the plot.

I like movies that are centered on time travel itself. The time travel needs to be integral to the plot with the additional treat of questions of causality woven into it. The central metaphor is then not a fish out of water but a fish in the current of a river. The current may normally push the fish in a specific direction. But the fish is able to swim in many directions and not just where the current takes them. Since I like these types of movies, I've seen quite a few and these are my favorite five.



Groundhog Day

Probably the most popular movie on this list, it's the one which is 100% centered on time travel and it does it in a very innovative way. The idea is causality is not being something fluid where small changes have large impacts. Instead causality is something that you repeat over and over until you get it "right", a kind of destiny forcing your hand. Free will is out the door but except in your capacity to learn.

Add on to its uniqueness that this story could only have been a movie. If you tried to tell "Groundhog Day" as a short story, it would've been almost unreadable. The consistent hiccups in the The medium of film and the audience's familiarity with film editing makes this movie not only possible but also very enjoyable.



12 Monkeys

I liked this movie because it posits that everything that will happen will happen. It's not just regardless of the involvement of time travelers either but in some cases because of those time travelers. It puts a different spin on causality than the normal "butterfly effect."

According to 12 Monkeys, you can't go back in time and kill your grandfather because you didn't already. At the same time, there are things that happened in the past that are better understood from the perspective of the time-traveler. Once you know X precedes Z but follows Y, the entire story is changed. The time travelers' role is no longer God-like with a prescient knowledge but as a cog in the machine that serves a role in advancing history to where it was going all along anyhow.



Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is largely indecipherable on its own. Richard Kelly's strength is what is in his head, not putting what's in his head onto the movie screen. Which is why a quick plunge into the extra material on the DVD is important to understanding this movie. This is especially useful if you get your hands on the director's cut.

Once you find out about the tangent universes, artifacts and the living receiver stuff, the movie makes a great deal of sense. One of the assumptions of most time-travel movies is that there is one true time stream and we can make tangential changes in it by traveling through it to another point. This movie is different by positing that making a tangent universe is actually a bad thing.



Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Okay, this movie is on here for two reasons really. First, it was a movie I watched as much as any other when I was an adolescent. My mom figured out how to use our video camera to play videotapes we rented from the videostore through the VCR and dub them. So I had a copy of this movie before owning your favorite movies was common.

Second, it's a goofy movie. It's not a heavy-handed "Going back to kill your own grandfather" time travel story. They can and do come both with and without existential dread. Bill and Ted are traveling through time to collect historical figures to come speak at the final history presentation of the school year. Even Camus would've cracked a smile at something as absurd as that.



Primer

There was a brief couple of months in early 2005 where this movie made me lose my mind. I rented it from CinemaRevolution, watched it by myself and then promptly showed it to anyone who I could get to watch it with me. It's not a movie that you can really figure out in the first time through and also gets better with repeated viewings. I was so enthralled I literally watched the movie like an addict.

It was addicting because it has the most believable mechanism for time-travel in any movie I'd seen. Normally it's a device like a flux capacitor and we're asked to suspend our disbelief that this device is the reason time travel is possible. "Primer" used a version of realistic physics to explain how time travel could actually be possible in real physics. Seeing "Primer" was, for me, like having a dream that you wake from and are convinced that it was real.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Twins Win!!!

I just got home from the second best baseball game I ever attended. I feel so high right now that I didn't even send taunting text messages to my Chicago friends who are White Sox fans. It was a hell of a way to pull into first place.

The Twins came into their three game series against the White Sox with two fewer wins and three more losses. To get back into contention they would need to win all three games and thus also hand the White Sox three more loses too. So their goal was simple. Win all three games and they controlled their destiny. All they had to do was just keep winning.



On Tuesday night the Twins ran up the score 9-3 backing up Scott Baker's brilliant pitching performance. Then on Wednesday night the bullpen held an early lead and the Twins edged the Sox 3-2. Now Thursday night's game was the single most important game of the season. Win and they would be in first place. Lose and they would be counting on the Indians to do their work for them.

My friend Brian and I agreed that while riding bikes would be fun, going to the Twins game was just that much more essential. As I was preparing for the game, Nicky sent me a text message. It was a prayer to Kirby Puckett to "guide us in our quest to win the division", that "our hits may be guided through the gap", that "our fielding be strong" and "our pitching be accurate." It's basically what the Twins needed to do. Play strong fundamental baseball and get just a little assistance from luck. I loaned Brian my Santana home jersey and I wore my Mauer home alternate jersey and we were off.



The Twins began the game well. Mauer poked a ground rule double over the center field fence to score Denard Span from second and Kevin Slowey pitched three perfect nine up, nine down innings to give the impression this would be a small ball victory. Hell, I was even excited about the prospect that I might finally see a no-hitter.

Then came the inning that almost undid the entire Twins season. In the top of the fourth the second batter for the White Sox, Orlando Cabrera, hit a one-out barely-homerun into the second row in left field. Then Jermaine Dye singled. Then Jim Thome doubled advancing Dye to third. Then Dye scored and Thome took third on a Konerko fielder's choice. Then Ken Griffey walked. Then Alexi Ramirez singled with Thome scoring and Griffey being forced to second. Then A.J. Pierzynski ended a long at bat by being hit by the eighth pitch he saw.

So the bases were loaded when Juan Uribe hit a line drive right back at Slowey. The ball glanced off of Slowey's pitching wrist and when he went to throw the ball to first everything went haywire. Morneau couldn't dig the throw out of the dirt and Griffey, Ramirez and Pierzynski all scored to make the game 6-3 in favor of the visitors. This single play could've been the Twins 2008 season going down the drain. But the Twins kept on clawing back. Casilla scored in the 6th to cut the margin to two runs.



Then came the inning that saved the entire Twins season. Brendan Harris began the inning by doubling and scored when Carlos Gomez took a single off of Chicago closer Bobby Jenks. It was at this point I turned to Brian. "Do you think Gomez can score from first?" I asked. "I mean, I'd certainly like to see him try." The next batter Denard Span was up to the task. His groundball to the rightside of the infield slipped under Paul Konerko's glove and Gomez got on his horse. As he crossed home plate the crowd reached ThunderDome levels. All 43,601 fans in attendance were jumping up and down, screaming and giving each other high fives.

The game ended up going to extra innings and that's were the Twins closed the deal. Joe Nathan pitched two perfect innings, often falling behind in the count during the tenth only to get the guy out anyhow. The bottom half of the inning was even more dramatic. Nick Punto walked, took second on a fielder's choice and then stole third on a wild pitch. After Span was intentionally walked, Alexi Casilla came to the plate.

Casilla had previously had an opportunity to win the game in the eighth following Denard Span's RBI triple. He tried to drop down a suicide squeeze bunt and missed. On the very next pitch he struck out waving at the pitch as it went by. The inning ended when Mauer grounded out to first. Now, two innings later, Casilla had the chance to win the game again.

He looked at the first pitch at the belt for a strike and then blooped the second pitch at his knees into centerfield scoring Punto to win the game.



From the drama of coming back from being down by four to the playoff like atmosphere in the crowd, this game eclipsed all but one other that I've ever attended in my lifetime. The Twins squeezed out a must-win victory over a hated division rival at a time when they could assert themselves as the better team. They used sound baseball fundamentals to outmanuever their opponent and to do so as a team. Even when they were down by four I thought to myself, "There's some way they're going to back into it and win this game." Then when they did, it was that much sweeter. As the line from the new Conor Oberst song goes, "Victory is sweet/Even deep in the cheap seats."

Now there just need to be a combination of Twins wins and White Sox losses that equal four and the post-season is ours. So this weekend say your Hail Kirbys as Francisco Liriano, Glen Perkins and Scott Baker take the hill. As I said to Nicky when we saw a game earlier this month, "To be a Twins fan is to know how to succeed by wit, cunning and advancing the runner."

P.S. The greatest game I ever attended? Well, y'know...

Sunday, September 14, 2008

I Am Still Here



Sorry for the brief absence. I'm writing a post which melts down a lot of the personal feelings I'm experiencing. It's been my nemesis for about a week and a half now for one simple reason. I don't like to talk about me unless it's in a frank manner to someone close to me. Thus I'm having difficulty talking about it in a general manner to anyone who wants to know. I'll be working on it the rest of the night and hopefully will have it up by tomorrow morning.

Update

Gah, fuck it. I can't do it. Can't get over the hump and into the backside of the argument. Please instead watch this clip from "Waking Life" which encompasses about half of what I wanted to say.

Monday, August 25, 2008

USA BASKETBALL WINS GOLD!!!



I didn't comment on this yesterday when it was new news despite watching the end of the game online. But I'm glad that the USA Mens National Basketball Team won the gold medal in Beijing and winning all of their games can go back to being no news. Is it time for the NBA season yet?

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Tropic Thunder

Hollywood is obsessed with itself. I mean that beyond the obvious narcissism involved in its relentless promotion of stars and starlets who have this movie they just happen to be starring in opening this Labor Day weekend. It's just a part of the marketing to make an actor talk about what a character (written by someone else) means to them. Of course that's going to be very self-referential.



I'm referring more to when Hollywood decides that seeing a movie isn't enough. What audiences really thirst for is a movie about making a movie. It's not a few and far between occurence either. On IMDB there are 164 "Film Within a Film" movies, 366 "Film In Film" and 558 "Breaking the Fourth Wall" movies. Not all of them have been on par with Fellini's "8 1/2" either.

Tonight I went to see the latest incarnation of this phenomenon. Except "Tropic Thunder" is a film-within-a-film but also a BIG SUMMER ACTION MOVIE!!! So the intent is to make a bunch of inside jokes and observations about filmmaking that will be relateable to as many people as possible. Just beginning from that point while making a satire will doom you to taking limp cliches and calling them jokes. Which is exactly what "Thunder" does.

If fighting cliche with cliche is allowable, then my quick review is you see all of the best parts in the trailer. By the time Steve Coogan makes his "exit" from the film, the majority of the jokes have already been made once if not twice and they're coming back multiple times over the next hour and a half. "Thunder" plods along making points that a Pat Proft movie could've made a lot more efficiently and inexpensively while it also reminds us over and over how clever it's being. It's not a commentary about Hollywood as much as a bunch of ideas of what that might look like and the shadow versions were disappointing through and through.



The truth is I suspected "Thunder" would be a bad movie going in. Although he has made a bunch of really hilarious movies in the past, you can see in the trailer when Ben Stiller is going to be on auto-pilot and it looked like this was going to be one of those movies. However the movie was getting a lot of really good reviews and I felt it necessary to give it a chance in case my barometer was off. Sometimes its necessary to absorb a bad movie to know your sense is still accurate.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

A Week At Home - Last Weekend

(Sorry about the delay getting this last Minnesota trip post up. Returning to your everyday life will do that.)

Friday morning I woke up early as a man on a mission. Involved in the bumming around the city I did on Thursday was searching for an apartment. Specifically I was searching in the Loring Park area. I felt like I'd lived in Uptown for three years and I wanted to not simply return there. Loring Park is, like Uptown, very close to the city and populated by my peers. It seemed like the logical place to live when I moved back.

The place I found is a beautiful studio apartment on the east side of Loring Park on Spruce Place. Pete was nice enough to drive me there on Thursday night after we had pizza and upon seeing the place I was sold. Here are some of the photos from the Craig's List ad.



Bedroom and living room



Living room close-up



Kitchen



Bathroom

There was another girl who had taken an application too and so my mission was to be the first to get the application in. I got up really early to be at the rental office first thing in the morning and arrived just after they had opened which meant I was the first person to apply. I spent the rest of the day looking at other apartments in the area too just to make sure I was making the right choice and also to have some options in case things didn't work out. It was all unnecessary hedging though since I did get the apartment and just signed my lease this Friday.

I spent a lot of time in coffee shops during the day and after work Brian Bell came over to the Dunn Brothers where I was sitting and we went for a walk to chat. After we parted I went downtown to the Block E movie theater and saw two movies I'd previously missed back-to-back.

The first was "Hancock" and I thought it was alright for what it was, a "smart" summer blockbuster. You'll notice smart is in quotes. "Step Brothers" was not as great as "Anchorman" but also didn't feel as stilted as "Talladega Nights." It had a loose energy that worked at times and didn't at others. I did love Adam Scott who is always great at playing smarmy.

That evening I met up with an old family friend Nick and his new wife Lauren at their apartment in Loring Park. Nick's parents were in kindergarten together with my dad so you can imagine how far back our families go. They showed me photos of their wedding at the Grand Canyon, I told them about my reasons for moving back to Minnesota and we finished a bottle of wine. Later Dan and Hillary came over to hang out and then they took me home.

On Saturday morning Dan and I watched the USA-Spain with our step-cousin Nick. Well, it was more like Nick and I watched the US treat Spain like a red-headed stepchild while Dan checked out the back of his eyelids.

After the game I went to hang out with Will, Gerry and Emily. Will normally lives in San Francisco but was home to visit his parents. Gerry and Emily decided that just having him in the same time-zone was reason enough to drive to the Twin Cities. They came to pick me up and we went to St. Paul to have a barbeque with some of Will's high school friends. The rest of the night was spent kicking back beverages, bullshitting and watching videos on YouTube.

I was flying home on Sunday evening. So after we spent the morning like we had the day before with Dan catching some Zs and me watching the Olympics, he and I went for brunch at Zumbro Cafe with Hillary and then went to the pool until it was time to go to the airport.

The week home was energizing. It was both blissful because I got to see people I hadn't seen in a while and reassuring to know I was coming home to an entire network of friends. It's just two short weeks from today until I'll be home and I'm looking forward to enjoying the time here in Chicago as best I can and then enjoying being back home for keeps.

Friday, August 15, 2008

A Week At Home - Midweek Report

(I had this all typed up on Wednesday but the Internetz ated it. Take two.)

After the stick throwing and all of Saturday, Sunday was my first day to settle in here. Our original plan was to get up, have some breakfast and go watch the USA Mens Basketball team play China. Well, after getting up once the game was already over, the plan changed a bit. What was still on was some breakfast and we went to Victor's 1959.

Victor's 1959 Cuban Cafe is south of Uptown at 38th and Grand. They serve traditional breakfast food which is fine if you're not feeling adventurous. But the reason to go to Victor's is because they do Cuban breakfast. My bro had mango pancakes for example. I had the dia y noche (day and night) which is black beans in white rice with a side of roasted plantains and toast with guava jelly. There's a word for what it is and it's yum.

Afterwards we went to Dreamhaven Comics which is closing at its current location in Uptown. Thus there are a lot of deals and I wasn't prepared at all. I could've easily gone inside and left giggling madly with an arm full of comics. Restraint was the name of the game and I was able to practice it. I left with only five comics and a wedding gift for some friends. I'd say what the gift is except I know they read my blog. (Hi CJ and Elaine!) Then we went back to Dan's place to read our recently acquired material.

We ended the night with dinner at my dad's place. He was grilling out and made us burgers. My dad also gave my brother, my step-cousin and I all watches. It's a really nice watch and I'll be able to wear it with work clothes. Normally I just use my cell phone as a clock. But in this case, it really is the thought that counts.

The rest of the week has been a lot more straight-forward. Just about everybody I know has work so I've been taking it easy. That doesn't mean I've been bored. The order of the day for Monday through Thursday was catching up with friends and going to Twins games.

On Monday I hung out with Nicky. I met her new pomeranian, we went to Plan B Coffee and then went to Cheapo for a massive CD purchase. I bought six CDs including Massive Attack "Blue Lines", Murs "3:16" and the Jarvis Cocker solo album. She dropped me back at my bro's place, I watched a little "Lost" and waited for Todd to pick me up for the Twins game.

The Twins game itself was excellent. Todd and I sat in the left field bleachers with his friends Rob and Anthony, Adam Everett hit a "Really? Adam Everett?" homerun into the stands in front of us and Glen Perkins pitched eight innings of shutout baseball. Even better, because the White Sox lost, the Twins took a small half game lead in the division.

Tuesday was similar but doubled. I got up in the morning, took a bus out to Longfellow and had brunch with SayRock. We went to the Longfellow Grill for breakfast and catching up. The best quote of the day (and I'm paraphrasing) was "I exude a certain granola-ness. But you look like the sort of person who does eat beef." After brunch I immediately ran back to the light-rail and took the train downtown to have lunch with Brian. We had Thai food from the Sawatdee Express and got a chance to catch up.

On Tuesday night, a large group including my brother, my cousin and my step-cousin and I went to the Twins game and sat in the upper deck in front of the Hrbek banner. Mike Mussina pitched a good game for the Yankees and the Twins were down three runs when we left in the middle of the eighth inning. The new rule of thumb is that we aren't leaving any game early if it's a save situation and the Twins are coming to bat. Mike Redmond started the inning with a double, Randy Ruiz hit a one out single and we were turning on the radio in the car in time to hear the fans who stayed cheering for Delmon Young's three-run homer. The Yankees did win in the 13th inning but it would've been thrilling to be there when Delmon hit a homer.

I know because he hit another three-run homer on Wednesday. Todd came by early and we drove out to the Twins Pro Shop at Ridgedale for another splurge purchase. I got a 2006 Division Champs shirt on sale, a home Santana jersey also on sale, a Morneau t-shirt jersey and a Mauer alternate home jersey if for no other reason than he's dreamy. We were on a rocket to get back down to the Dome in time to meet Ellen O who procured excellent seats behind home plate on the Twins dugout side and twenty rows up in Section 127. Kevin Slowey gave up only one run in six innings, Brian "I'll Get You A Hit Only With Runners In Scoring Position" Buscher hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Mauer and Delmon hit the aforementioned three-run homer to send us home having witnessed another Twins victory.

Wednesday night I went to Galactic Pizza with Patrick, Don and SayRock. We had the Paul Bunyan which is made of all local Minnesota ingredients on top of being very yummy. I didn't have a hemp brownie this time around though they really are worth it. We instead went for Sonny's ice cream at Crema Cafe.

Yesterday, without a Twins game to attend, I slept in and then bummed around the city. My high school friend Pete came to pick me up from my brother's and we went to my home-away-from-home, Leaning Tower of Pizza. I may be exagerating a bit. But I do want it noted that they stopped carding me five years ago even when they card everyone else at the table.

Today I'm again bumming around the city and may end up at the Twins game tonight. Francisco Liriano IS pitching. Six days down, Three to go.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

A Week At Home - Day 1

Yesterday was my first day back home for nine days in Minnesota and, since my ten year high school reunion next weekend was cancelled for lack of interest, the motivating factor in coming home right now. My friends Don and Sarah lived in Boston until recently and they got married there this March. The three people in attendance were Don, Sarah and the priest. So they decided to have the reception today in a park in St. Paul. Thus I was in a cab and on my way to O'Hare at 8:00 am yesterday morning for my 10:50 flight.

The actual reception was very chilled out. It was just a summer barbeque except at one point two of the people cut a cake together. I saw Don and Sarah for the first time in two years or so and I also saw other people I hadn't seen in almost as long like Holly, Marcos and Jamie. It was also good to get a little time with Patrick and Morgan Mae as we were riding in the car to the park. It's good to get back on radar back here in Minneapolis.

The highlight of the day was The Viking game. No, I'm not talking about the professional football team who play their home games at the Metrodome. This game involved sticks, blocks and a metaphorical viking. If your interest is piqued, here are the rules.

Set four posts to set the boundaries of the field. You can set the posts wide or close together based upon your skill level. These posts were about ten feet apart at the ends and fifteen to twenty feet apart lengthwise.

Along the end lines set five to seven woodblocks again based upon your level of skill. It will be your goal to knock down these woodblocks from the opposite end line. To knock them down you use six closet dowel rod sections about six inches long.

Finally set a much more sturdy wood block in the middle. This is The Viking and in the game I played it was an old coffee table leg. This serves as the metaphorical eight ball in that once you've knocked down the rest of the wood blocks your objective is to knock over The Viking. The catch is you have to do it facing backwards and through your legs.

You start by throwing the dowels at the blocks from your end line. All the throws have to be underhand and end-over-end. No overhand, no sidearm, no bowling it, etc. I was accused of (and may've done) a few of those manuevers so I know they're out. Once you knock over a block, the other team throws it to your side on their next turn. They then have to knock over that block as well as the rest of your original blocks.

Here's the catch. If they don't knock over the newly set block, you can advance as far forward as that block to make your throws. So there is a mix of strategy between throwing it close enough that they can hit it easily on their turn throwing dowels (which follows the block tossing) and not so close that you're too close throwing dowels at their blocks. The extra wrinkle is that if you throw a block and it strikes another block, those two blocks are stacked and easier to tip over.

So it's a game a little like bocce ball except more complex. We played a whole game and it took us an hour. But unlike bocce ball there were teams and therefore it wasn't every man for himself.

There were two times that I was the person lined up to knock down The Viking and both times I missed. The first time I was the last person in our rotation and just missed it high. The second time I was the next to last person, I overcompensated, skipped it about two or three feet behind me and missed even more egregiously.

Up stepped Holly. Despite wearing a skirt and having to throw between her legs, she was a dead aim on her first try. She clipped the top of The Viking and our team won the game. Everyone cheered. I was kind of bummed because I'd had two chances to win the game and blown it each time.

Sarah's mom Karen had the best words of consolation. I told her, "Man, I could've won the game twice and I missed both times." She told me, "And wasn't it gracious of you to leave that honor for Holly." Touche, Karen. Touche.

After the sun went down all of the kids went to Merlin's Rest in the Longfellow neighborhood where we had drinks outside and enjoyed the wonderful night air. My brother, Hillary and Charlie all came by and joined the party too. After the 11:00 curfew on outdoor food and beverages, Dan, Hillary and I came back here to Dan's place and played a quick game of Scrabble. I may've scored the least points but I'd like to think I also did the best work for expanding the board.

Day 1 down, 8 more to go.

Update: My friend Kate says The Viking game is also called Kubb. Here's the Wikipedia link.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Changing Body Math III: The Return of the Update

A little less than three months has passed since I made my last post about the weight I've lost and that means I'm due for another post containing the math of it all.

In the past nine months I've lost 53 pounds dropping my weight from 305 to 252. I've also reduced my body fat composition from 30% to 24%. As I mentioned in the last post about my weight loss, the goals for no longer being obese are 263 pounds and 25% body fat. So you can see that I am healthily under the bar for both metrics.

Multiply those numbers together and I've lost 31 pounds of body fat and 22 pounds of water weight. If 4.5% of the 6% of body mass change is new muscle then I've also added about 11 pound of muscle too. So add 505 calories burned each day just for that new muscle existing meaning I can netting out a pound of fat less every 6.4 days without lifting a weight or spending any time on the elliptical.

Having lost 50 pounds and no longer being obese, I've basically achieved my goals in wanting to lose weight. Now the goal is to maintain my weight, lower my body fat even further and not have to think about the numbers anymore. I'll keep going to the gym three to five times a week and I'm sure I'll keep losing weight for a while. It just won't be as necessary to quantify it which is a good feeling to have.

Monday, August 4, 2008

FIRST PLACE!!!



Back on the 6th of June, I attended a Twins-White Sox game here in Chicago and it was a drubbing. The final score was 10-6 but that's misleading. I was so upset after Minnesota gave up 6 runs in the 5th inning that my friend and I actually left before the game was over. Just a half game out of first place on the 2nd of June, the Twins would fall to 6.5 games back after the series. Times were tough for a soldier deep in enemy territory.

Fast forward through two months of the season and the Twins nipping at the heels of the White Sox but being all gums when it came time to bite. The Twins took 3 of 4 games from the Sox at The Metrodome and were again only a half game back. After a try on Friday night (both teams won) and on Saturday night (both teams lost), the Twins finally took first place as they cruised to victory (6-2 over Cleveland) while the White Sox lost in embarrassing fashion (14-3 to Kansas City!). With Chicago off tonight, the Twins will either lead the division by a full game after tonight's contest in Seattle or be tied for first place with the White Sox.

This is very important because, after a week of games in Seattle and Kansas City, the New York Yankees are coming to Minnesota for three games. And, oh what a coincidence, it just happens to fall when I'll be home in Minnesota. Already I have plans to see the game on Monday with former "Youngest Person I Know That I'm Not Related To" Todd Turner and then see the game on Tuesday night with my brother Dan. (Wednesday's day game is open if you don't have a day job or want to take the day off.) These are going to be important games for the Twins and may decide whether they stay in the catbird seat or if they give the division back to Chicago with a bow. Like a good fan, I will be there to cheer my team to victory.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. For a team that was supposed to finish last or next to last in the division, being in first place (even by a half game) this late in the season is a big deal. They aren't doing it with smoke, mirrors and veterans either. This is a team built for the long haul and one that may achieve their ultimate goal for the season; being in first place on the last day of the season too.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Lollapalooza 2008

Since Lollapalooza starts midday tomorrow (Half Day At Work!) and goes into the night I won't have time to update until maybe Monday. But if I do, it will be right here on this post.

For those of you going to the show, look for me at these band's sets which I will not miss for the world.

Friday
2:15-3:15 - The Go Team
4:15-5:15 - Gogol Bordello
5:15-6:15 - Mates of State
7:15-8:00 - Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks (Sorry CSS)
8:00-10:00 - Radiohead

Saturday
1:30-2:30 - Mason Jennings
3:30-4:30 - DeVotchKa
4:30-5:30 - Explosions In the Sky
6:30-7:30 - Broken Social Scene
8:30-10:00 - Wilco (Sorry reunited Rage Against the Machine)
11:00-??? - Broken Social Scene - Afterparty at The Metro

Sunday
3:00pm - Roll out of bed
5:15-6:15 - Flogging Molly
6:30-7:30 - Girl Talk (Sorry Gnarls Barkley)
8:15-10:00 - Nine Inch Nails unless I really want to see Kanye West

Otherwise I'll be bouncing around from set-to-set trying to catch as much as possible.

Update (12:22 am Saturday): I knew the moment of the night was probably going to come during the Radiohead set and it did. The band was playing at the southmost stage with the backdrop of the South Loop and the Field Museum behind them. There was a glow from Soldier's Field where, I know now, the Bears were holding a fan family night and I commented on it between songs.

At the end of the family night, there was a fireworks display. Radiohead kicked into "Fake Plastic Trees" from The Bends and I watched as the colors exploded in the sky and how they reflected off the building. It wasn't intentional and you'd have to be several degrees beyond stoned to believe the song and display synced up. Still it was a really beautiful moment and one which I'll treasure forever.

Alright, I'm too tired from the sweltering heat to stay awake much longer. Tomorrow is going to be a long day including an afterparty. I'll update at the end of the day if I'm still awake enough to be coherent.

Update (9:10 am Sunday) Sometimes in life you have to take the good with the bad, the better with the bitter. So when you take a frisbee to the face at Lollapalooza, try to remember it was at Lollapalooza that you blocked a frisbee with your face. Call the guy a fucking asshole and move one with it.

There are too many bands to see to waste your time on some piece of human trash (Seriously, this guy was a total dick. No "Sorry"s, just laughing.) and you were on your way to see Broken Social Scene. Which Dan and I did see. For the first of two times. As the sun was setting behind the Chicago skyline. Which was awesome.

The second time was later that evening at the Metro. After an ordeal with the doors not opening until when the opening band Yeasayer was supposed to be on stage, BSS hit the stage around 12:30 in the morning and played straight until 2:15. There wasn't a lot of duplication between their set earlier in the day and they actually played my favorite song, "Lovers Spit." Dan and I caught a cab home after the show and climbed into bed at 3 am.

Update (10:39 am Monday)

I'm back at work today and, despite having the worst dry-mouth ever last night, I woke this morning without Lil Wayne voice. I'll have to try even harder next year.

My brother wasn't able to stay for yesterday's festivities. All of the bands he wanted to see started after 5:00 and he had a 7 hour drive back to Minnesota to tackle. We went to brunch out in Bucktown with one of his friends, we said our goodbyes (all the way until this upcoming Saturday) and he drove home.

He does get a million points at life though because he figured out a way to take off his wrist band and get it onto my other friend's wrist. Since he has a big wrist and her wrist is small, he cut his band close to the clasp and then she and I stitched it onto her wrist with a needle and thread. We tightened the clasp so it covered the stitches and it looked like it had been on her wrist all along.

While there we saw three different acts and all three were an absolute jam. Flogging Molly is always great, Girl Talk was off-the-hook and then Mr. Kanye West brought his manic energy to the people. Overall Lollapalooza was great and I'm glad my bro was there to share it with me.

P.S. The new Ghostface and Raekwon?