It's All Gonna Break

Happy 2006. As we wait with bated breath for VH1 to roll out "I Love the Early '00s"--it's never too soon to get all nostalgic about crap that just happened-- let's talk resolutions. I never get too profound with mine, and often they're pretty similar year after year. A constant one is learning to play my guitar again; I've been making that resolution for umpteen years now. I'll get into it for a little while every year, break out all the guitar books and the tuner, and start practicing chords and scales and stuff on my sweet Gibson L6S while watching TV; then gradually, things will come up and eventually I stop playing altogether. It's especially difficult to find time now that I have kids, but I always found something else to do when I didn't have kids, too. Anyhoo, I guess the guitar is pretty rare; it was endorsed by Carlos Santana in the mid-70s but wasn't produced for very long. My mom picked up this one for me as a Christmas or birthday gift in 1984 from Daddy's Junky Music in New Hampshire; she got it for $250. I was taking guitar lessons back then, but they only last a year or two; my instructor's husband died in a horrible DWI accident right down the road from my house and she just wasn't into it after that. I had an acoustic, too, which I stupidly sold when I graduated from college. At any rate, my eternal hope is to start playing again and actually get decent at it. Maybe this is the year.

I also want to run two marathons this year, and make some progress on some nonwork-related writing projects I've been working on sporadically. It's all about time management, something I can always do better with.

Wiggity wiggity:

• So David Lee Roth made his debut this week as Howard Stern's replacement in several markets, including New York and Boston, and received mostly negative reviews. I've listened in to bits and pieces and have to say, I like his show. He's nothing like Stern. He's hammy, off the cuff, and he laughs at his own jokes constantly. But I like his schtick; I always have. A big part of Stern's success was the cast of characters he surrounded himself with; that's an area DLR will have to work on. But I've found him generally interesting.
• Stern makes his debut on Sirius satellite radio next Monday. I won't be listening, not because I don't like him but because I'm not a Stern fanatic like many others. And while I think Sirius and XM have cool products, I'm not in the car enough to make paying a monthly fee worthwile. But I did notice while I was working out this week that my gym has now got Sirius. This morning, the 90s hard rock channel was on, which was kind of funny since the majority of folks working out at the Beverly Y in the early morning hours are over the age of 50. I had to crack up when I heard Soundgarden's "Sealth," which is about at heavy a song as you'll ever hear on the radio at 7:30 a.m. Those old geezers must have wondered what the hell was going on. Several years ago, I was working out on a quiet Sunday afternoon and the kid working had WBCN on. After Danzig's "Mother" played, an older guy I knew came up to me, visibly upset and asked, "What the hell is this crap? It sucks! It sucks!" Guess he wasn't a Misfits fan.
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in dire straits after suffering a massive stroke, so leave it to our favorite wacko TV evangelist to say something stupid. No doubt he said it while making a serious prayer face like this.
• A few weeks ago, the Leafs were in rough shape after getting whupped again by the Senators by an 8-2 score. Things didn't look like they could get much worse. Since then, they've won seven of their last eight games, including their last six straight. And in classic Leaf fashion of the last several years, they've done it with much of their lineup injured (Eric Lindros, Jason Allison, and Nik Antropov have all missed games). They're out west for a tough road trip against Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, so they're unlikely to keep the streak going. But you never know...