The Shape is in a Trance

Man, this week flew by. I got back into a regular running routine, doing three 5-milers. I also played hockey Wednesday night for the first time in three weeks. Unfortunately, it was also game 1 of the World Series, so most of the guys stayed home. We ended up with four-on-four with no subs the whole night; I was dying out there. Good skate, though. I had a goal and four assists, although I think I had six or seven breakaways that were foiled.

Yesterday, my company held its annual Halloween event for employees' kids, so the girls were able to break out their costumes early and brought home a ton of candy. I believe for the first time in the 10 years or so that I've been there, I didn't wear a costume. I tried to think of something at the last minute, but nothing really jumped out at me. Driving to work this morning, I decided on a whim to go cold turkey on the candy and soda for a while. I certainly picked a tough time of year to do that, especially with all the candy floating around at work and in the house today. But I managed to survive for one day, anyway.

Another crazy thing I decided to do was participate in the National Novel Writing Month, which challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel from November 1-30. One reason it's nuts for me to attempt is that I haven't done any real fiction writing since college; another is I have hardly any time as it is to fit all my interests in. I fully expect not to get 50,000 words (the equivalent of 175 pages) done next month, but I'm gonna try, dammit. The coolest part of NaNoWriMo is it forces you to just write; the organizers really stress quantity, not quality. So we'll see what happens. I already have the bare bones of an idea that I started working up several months ago, so I'll try to set aside some time every day to plug away at it. I don't have any grand designs other than to write something; I may be the only person who ever reads it. But that's okay with me.

I added a new collection of links (La Musica de la Rock) in the righthand column for bands/artists I know and love, so check 'em out. Included is the new Myspace page I created for Bea Arthur's Revenge, a band that was formed to play a single gig at my buddy Bob's house back in early 1999. There are also links for Doobs, who recently posted some great new music he recorded on his own; The Toastmen, Briggy's old Keene State College band that has been rehearsing for a few reunion shows in the hopefully near future; Me and Boris the Bull, which is the musical alter ego of Mark Campbell; and The Molenes, my friend Andrew's excellent alt-country act out of Portsmouth. Dig it!

Cross Bones Style
Sunday is usually my long run day. I was fully prepared to run 10 miles this afternoon and the weather was perfect (for mid-February, anyway). But we went to a birthday party for one of the girls' friends and I made the ill-advised decision to eat two slices of pizza and some cake. Sat in my gut like a lead weight and I waited to hopefully digest it, but ultimately I skipped the run. So now I'm planning to run tomorrow morning, but it's going to be bitterly cold out. Lovely.

Last night was fun. I went to the UNH-BU hockey game at Agganis Arena in Boston, courtesy of my buddy Rick, who has BU season tickets. I found out my former Webnoize cohort Lee was also going, and sure enough I bumped into him and his son in the beer line. During the first intermission, I was heading over to visit him and ran into my old college friend Marc, former drummer of Bea Arthur's Revenge and one of the funniest people I know. The game was good, with UNH racing out to a 3-0 lead only to have BU tie it up. The Wildcats fired 46 shots but BU goalie John Curry was impressive. UNH dominated the OT but couldn't score, so it ended up 3-3.

After the game, I drove over to Porter Square in Cambridge to check out my friend Andrew Russell's band The Molenes. They played at Toad, a cool little hole in the wall that could barely hold 50 people; the stage was so small that guitarist-organist Tom Ferry had to play sitting on a bench in front of the stage. Andrew and I worked together briefly at the Salem News before I left back in the mid-90s; he's now an editor at the Portland Press-Herald. He also is a talented musician; I've seen a couple of his bands over the years, the Neds and WOW. He joined the Portsmouth-based Molenes along with former WOW drummer Andy; they gave me a shout-out from the stage after I showed up. I had heard a couple of MP3s of the band, but I was really impressed with their live show. The band plays a hard-driving brand of alt-country in the vein of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt and is fronted by Dave Hunter, an excellent guitarist who also freelances as a journalist for pubs like Guitar Player. He's also written some pretty cool guitar books and he told me he was once a reporter for Foster's Daily Democrat out of Dover, NH. Andrew sang lead on a cover of R.E.M.'s "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" and the crowd seemed to be into the music. The band played three sets from 10 to 1:30 a.m., I left around midnight so I could get home before 1. But I truly dug the band and hope to see them again; Tom Ferry mentioned he'd like to book them at Dodge Street Grill in Salem, which would be awesome. I picked up their new CD, This Car Is Big, which is excellent.

After I got home, I watched the Leafs-Oilers game, which was preceded by a ceremony honoring the 1967 Cup-winning Maple Leaf team, the last to win it all. Yep, it's been 40 years. It was especially cool to see Dave Keon in attendance; he was the playoff MVP that year and went on to captain the Leafs, but had cut off ties with the team after he left for the WHA in 1975. I was too young to see him play much, but I remember my dad being a huge fan of his. Even better, the current-day Leafs kept their winning ways going with a 4-3 win led by current captain Mats Sundin, who had two nice goals. They currently sit in the eighth and final playoff spot, but there's a lot of hockey to be played and a lot of teams vying for position. Which means I'll be doing a lot of swearing at the TV for the next six weeks or so, and hopefully more if they make the playoffs.