Unheard Music

Word up. Just hanging here in New England, where everyone's reeling from the Red Sox' collective choke job against the Yankees over the weekend. They lost FIVE STRAIGHT to the Bronx Bombers and now sit 6.5 out of first. I can laugh because I'm a Blue Jays fan and they already did their choking a few weeks ago. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on sports talk radio after the fifth game today (making up for an earlier rainout). I was rooting for the Sox, too. But the first three games exposed their lack of pitching depth. Curt Schilling turned in a gutsy performance last night and I went to bed at midnight with the Sox leading 5-3 going into the eighth, but they ended up blowing it in the ninth and then losing in the 10th. Today, David Wells pitched a hell of a game but the Sox bats fell silent and they lost 2-1. Technically, they're still alive, but this was a brutal showing at a crucial time.

They're ruining my summah:

• The X-Rollins Band show Saturday was truly a great experience. It was definitely the blue plate special: the first band came on at 6:30. Usually when they say a show starts at 6:30, the first band doesn't come out until at least 7. We got to Avalon at 7:30 and Rollins was already into his third song. The band--guitarist Chris Haskett, bassist Melvin Gibbs and drummer Sim Cain--was immense, just like I remembered them. I saw them in '94 and '97 at the same venue, and they were awesome then, too. They churn out massive, roiling riffs that are a perfect counterpoint to Rollins' shout-singing; more Sabbath than Black Flag, really. Except for his hair now being much more gray (I can relate), Rollins was also just as I remembered: jacked, sweaty, clad in nothing but tats and black shorts, and putting all his primal energy into belting out his songs. The band played songs from their three mid-90s albums--The End of Silence, Weight, and Come In and Burn, but primarily from Weight. It was great stuff and it was cool see Haskett and Gibbs hanging out in the crowd after their set to watch X's show. Speaking of X, I was not overly familiar with their catalog, but I have to say I was damn impressed by their set. The original lineup--John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, and DJ Bonebrake--were back together and they really sounded incredible. Doe and Cervenka sounded great as their vocals intertwined and Zoom, Doe and Bonebreak sounded like they'd never split up as they played their revved-up brand of punkabilly. The club only gave them 80 minutes or so (they were done by 9:50) because on weekend nights, it turns into a dance club that probably brings in a lot more money than rock shows. So X just ripped through a ton of their old classics, and even though I only knew a couple of songs, I really dug them. I'm definitely going to pick up some of their albums now.
• One of the players on the Saudi Arabian Little League World Series team is 6' 8", 256 pounds--at the age of 13. How would you like to be a 12-year-old pipsqueak pitching to this monster? Hell, I wouldn't want to do it as the 38-year-old pipsqueak I am.
• HBO's Deadwood is wrapping up season three--and damn, is it an incredible ride. Very dense, hard to follow at times, and satisfying, much like another great HBO show, The Wire. Not for the faint of heart, what with all the 10- and 12-letter words getting thrown around, but the writing is damn well near Shakespearean. If you haven't watched it before, I recommend renting the Season 1 DVD and starting there.

I See Through

Happy Friday. Man, August is flying by. Unlike last month, the weather has been pretty pleasant for the most part. It makes those longer runs that much more bearable. I get a bit of a reprieve this week, with a 13-mile run planned for tomorrow. After last week's 20-miler, 13 is a treat. Sick, huh?

The girls had a blast at the Wiggles concert today. I took advantage of the quiet house after I got home from work to record Episode 3 of Completely Conspicuous. You can download it here (remember, right click and hit "save as").

Hells, yes:

• Big five-games series this weekend between the Red Sox and Yankees. The Sox got off to a bad start by losing the first game 12-4 this afternoon. The Jays traded Eric Hinske to the Sox this week and in his first game, he was 3-4 with three doubles.
• I'm psyched for the Rollins Band-X show at Avalon tomorrow (although X are the headliners). Should be an intensely loud good time.
• A new study is out saying that people who spend time at work concentrating on their fantasy football cost employers more than $1 billion a week in lost productivity. Imagine what it the total is if you add in fantasy baseball. Not that I would ever do such a thing. Ahem.
• The cable news channels are all JonBenet Ramsey all the time. There is much speculation as to the veracity of the suspect's confession. All I know is, he's one messed-up dude.
• Paging Judge Pat McGroin: Reportedly, this guy's defense was, "I don't even know what this is. This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby!"

Color Me Impressed

Back in the saddle again after nearly a week. I've really enjoyed the weather the last few weeks: temps in the 70s and 80s, cool nights, low humidity. My midday runs have been pretty sweaty, but I had a nice cool morning Sunday for my 20-miler. I played hockey last night for the first time in a few weeks; looks like the Tuesday night skate is in jeopardy. We're having a hard time getting enough guys to commit to playing full time in the fall and winter. It's a bummer because I've skated with this crew (or variations on it) for eight-plus years.

What you gonna play now?

• There's a new documentary out about the teen movies of the '80s and how they're so much better than the ones today. One of the key points is that The Breakfast Club accurately portrayed teen life much better than modern films. While I enjoyed that movie and Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I've always felt that John Hughes movies were anything but realistic. Funny and cute, yes, but hardly realistic. Sure, there were jocks and dorks and princesses and burnouts and weird chicks in my high school, but what about dorky jocks of East Indian descent who hung out with burnouts? Where's the movie about them? Huh? Yeah, that's what I thought. I guess the closest we got was Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
• So they finally arrested a suspect in the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Can't believe it's been 10 years since that happened. What a mess of a case. Hopefully, the authorities in Colorado got the right guy and won't screw things up now.
• What the world doesn't need now: an album from Paris Hilton. Good grief. I think I'd rather listen to K-Fed's magnum opus.

Truly Great Thing

Greetings from the Bay State. It has been a busy week, for work and otherwise. Deb's been filling in for a colleague doing some summer school teaching for the week. I've got another work deadline that I'm up against today, so this will be quick.

I cranked out another episode last night of Completely Conspicuous, my new podcast. It's a little longer than the first one, thanks to the addition of a couple of songs, coming in at just over 20 minutes. Thanks to those of you who listened to the first show and gave me your feedback. It all helps, believe me. Here's the direct link to the second episode (right click and "save as"). Give it a listen, and remember, this show is a work in progress. Listening to it now, it sounds like I still need to work on pumping up the volume.

Breathing a sigh of relief because for a while, it looked like I would have to go to a Wiggles concert in Worcester with Deb and the girls. I love my family, but that would been two hours of hell right there. Fortunately, Deb's mom was able to switch shifts at work so she could accompany the girls.

Gimme indie rock:

• There's some scary shiite going on in the world, after British authorities busted up a terrorist plot to blow up as many as 10 U.S.-bound airplanes with liquid explosives smuggled aboard in soda bottles. As a result, airports in the U.K. and here in the U.S. have been on high security alert, imposing stricter security measures and causing major delays. Whatever it takes to make things safer, but I'm hoping things streamline a little by the time we take the girls on their first flight ever in a few weeks. We're heading down to Jacksonville for the wedding of Deb's cousin. Looks like we'll have to plan on some additional time in the airport.
• The Red Sox are struggling, losing three straight to the lowly Royals. We'll see if they can turn it around this weekend; Deb and I will be at Sunday's game against Baltimore.

Triggers and Trash Heaps

Hola, muchachos. Got back from New Jersey late last night. It was quite a weekend. The River to Sea Relay was a blast, exhausting, frustrating, rewarding, and infuriating all at once. We got down to my bro-in-law Matt's place Friday afternoon, hung out for a few hours, and then Matt and I drove down to Clinton (about 20 minutes from the race start in Milford), where we checked in to the Holiday Inn Select. Our four teammates (my other buddy Matt, Rick, Jon and his wife Kerry) showed up a little while later and we went out to dinner for some Italian food and a few beers. We went back to the hotel and decided to have a final beer in the hotel bar, where we were told DJ Joel would be spinning the hot rock tunage. Turns out this particular Holiday Inn Select bar had a bouncer and a dress code; at first we were told we couldn't go in because we all were wearing t-shirts and shorts, but the bouncer relented, although he warned us if the manager showed up, we might get kicked out. We decided to live on the edge and take our chances. As you can imagine, it was pretty uneventful, despite the presence of a wedding party; a woman on hand to shill for Jack Daniels was disappointed because the group was Christian and didn't drink. Of course, we didn't partake in the JD, either, but we were drinking beer. We called it a night around 11.

I woke up around 5:30 and my mind started racing about all the logistical elements of the relay that were about to unfold. We drove to the start and picked up our bib numbers in preparation for our 8:45 start time; the first groups started at 6 a.m. Looking around, we quickly realized we were given the wrong start time; the slower groups went first, and we were no match for the many high school and college track teams that surrounded us. Our first runner, Jon, left and we got ready to get on the road. We had two support vehicles; one would support the runner by driving a little ahead of him or her and providing and directions where needed while the other would take the next runner to the next stage and wait. There were 14 stages and 92 miles total, with the route starting at the Delaware River and making its way southwest toward the ocean in Manasquan. It quickly grew hot and sunny out. The closer we got to noon, the harder the running got. I was the last of the six of us to run, starting just after 1, so it was scorching hot by then. I had a hilly 8-mile run and I saw five or six young runners pass me, but I felt okay; Matt had the stage before me and I only found out afterward that he got sick after he ran. The same thing happened to Jon later on. It was a tough day to run, but especially tough to be running hard and more than once. We switched up our planned stages to give people more rest. We discovered after a while that we were one of the last groups, which was disheartening; there was some discussion after the ninth stage about quitting because of the heat, but thankfully, we decided to keep going. I ran again a little after 6:30; right before my run, one of the organizers came up and asked if we wanted to stop because we were going to come in after 8:30, when police support would no longer be provided. I told him we would finish; it was their screw-up that had us starting later than we should have, and we didn't pay the fee and drive all that way to quit early. By this time, the heat had lessened and my 6.55 mile stage was a lot flatter and straight; I ran harder than before and finished with 7:47 splits; our final two runners were even faster. We finished up around 8:35 in the dark, with a total time of 11:52. The race party was over just before we got there, which sucked, but we were glad to be done. As it turned out, our time put us 59th out of 101 teams; we ran 7:45 splits, which was pretty good. Of course, the winning team finished in 8:30, with 5:33 splits, which is just amazing. We went out to eat in Manasquan, which is quite the hopping little beach town, before Matt and I drove the two hours back to his house, getting in at 1 a.m. During the relay, I swore I had no interest in doing another, but now I'm thinking that was pretty fun. Matt and I had to rally on Sunday for his son Danny's fifth birthday bash, which featured a knight theme and had a working water-balloon catapult, in addition to the 30 or so kids running around. I was pretty wiped last night, to say the least.

That's it for now.

Completely Conspicuous

It's so nice to be sitting here and not sweating. After a brutal H&H stretch where temps ventured into the 100s, we finally have some relief tonight. It's a comfortable 75 right now. It was so hot that I actually brought the AC unit up from the basement and set it up in our guest room; we hadn't used that thing since the summer of '02, when Hannah was a baby. We actually slept in the guest room the last two nights because it was unbearable in our bedroom upstairs on the third floor of our house.

I took tomorrow off from work so we can drive back down to New Jersey. The River to Sea Relay is Saturday; we're heading to my bro-in-law Matt's place in northern Jersey, and then he and I will drive down to Clinton, where we'll meet our four teammates and stay in a hotel. The start of the 92-mile race is in nearby Milford. The race is for seven-person teams, but our seventh (and fastest) runner had to bail because of a family obligation, so two of our runners will run three stages. I checked the forecast today and it's supposed to be in the mid- to high 80s and sunny, but it shouldn't be as humid as it has been, so that will help a little. The longest stage is 9.65 miles; I'll be doing runs of 8 and 5.4 miles. Wish us luck. Full report next week when we get back.

So I haven't posted all week because I've been working on something: a podcast. Yep, after talking and thinking about it for more than a year, I finally just did it. The show is called Completely Conspicuous and will be a weekly (hopefully, if I can get my act together) discussion of things that interest me in news, music, pop culture and sports. I actually structured the show with different segments and spent a few days writing it, so it's not like I just sat in front of the microphone and talked off the top of my head. I used Castblaster software and published it through the Podshow Delivery Network, which provides free hosting and other tools. The first episode is 15 minutes long and is not perfect by any means, but I wanted to get it out this week before I left just to prove I could do it. I had hoped to add music from the Podsafe Music Network, but I didn't quite master the process so I went without this week. But I expect to have a few songs mixed in next week. Do me a favor and download it if you have the time and/or inclination, and let me know what you think. It was recorded last night in 90 degree heat; I had to close the window to reduce traffic noise and the door to not pick up Deb on the phone in the living room. I probably need to project a little better. I probably need to do a lot of things better. But it's a start.

Mind the gap:

• Another year, another Blue Jays third place finish. They've been within striking distance of the Sox and Yankees all season, getting as close as 2.5 games out a few weeks ago. But they went into Yankee Stadium this week and got swept, putting them 8.5 behind the division-leading Yanks. The starting pitching has been abysmal; after perennial Cy Young candidate Roy Halladay, nobody else has stepped up. Big-bucks free agent signing A.J. Burnett has been woefully inconsistent, with only two wins on the season. Urgh.
• It was good see the ol' Webnoize crew at Dr. Doobs' house out in Shrewsbury. The kids and the adults all had a good time. In an email exchange after the fact, we noted that none of us gets together with a certain group of friends more than the five of us do. I guess working for a failed dotcom was worth it, after all.

Hit It and Quit It

Word. Checking in on a wild and crazy Saturday night. Deb's out at a 40th birthday bash for a friend of ours, while I'm home with the kids baking brownies. Actually, they're asleep, but I really did bake brownies. Now why on earth would I be cranking up the oven when it's 90 degrees out? We're bringing a dessert item to the annual Webnoize summer bash being held tomorrow at the Shrewsbury abode of Dr. Doobs, and since Deb was going out tonight, it fell upon me to come up with said dessert item. Fortunately, I am able to read and follow instructions, so the box of Duncan Hines fudge chunk brownies was not a major challenge. Haven't tried them yet, but they sure smell good.

Earlier in the day, we went up to visit my mom, who moved back to New Hampshire from Toronto a few weekends ago while we were on our way to New Jersey for our vacation. She's got a pretty sweet condo in Hampton, not far from I-95. Unfortunately, we timed our visit poorly because I forgot how traffic backs up at the Hampton tolls on a Saturday morning; we were crawling for about four miles before we got to our exit. Whatever the case, the kids were excited to see their grandmother and we hung for a few hours. When we left, there was still a crapload of traffic at the tolls going north, but fortunately it was smooth sailing in the other direction.

The kids are alright:

• I went to the Bloc Party/Secret Machines/Mew concert last night at the Bank of America Pavilion, a tent-covered venue on the water in South Boston. The ticket was courtesy of my good buddy OJ, who scored a free pair. Again with the good timing, I arrived at the pavilion with a serious thunderstorm literally following me down the street. We got inside and I managed to buy a couple of slices of pizza and a beer before the torrential downpour, thunder and lightning began. It ended after half an hour and the Copenhagen-based Mew, who sounded like a combination of Coldplay and Rush, only 10 times wussier than Coldplay. They played for about a half hour and only played four or five songs; some seemed to run into others and it was all very similar sounding to me. It didn't take OJ and I long to start mock chanting "Mewwwwwwww!!!!" every couple of minutes or so; in fact, it continued throughout the night. I don't know, we thought it was funny. Secret Machines were markedly better, although they too seemed to embrace the jam. The singer had a voice reminiscent of Bauhaus' Peter Murphy, which is certainly not a bad thing. But Bloc Party ruled the night, and we had the good fortune of moving up into the sixth row or so for their set. I already had their excellent first album Silent Alarm, which came out a few years ago, but this was the first time I'd seen them live. They're only playing a few U.S. dates because their second album isn't out yet, so most of the stuff they played last night was familiar. The band was pretty tight and singer Kele Okereke is a confident frontman who had the crowd eating out of his hands. The new songs sounded pretty good and the 75-minute set was lean, mean and well-received.
• So I was flipping channels tonight and found that VH1 Classic was reairing MTV's first hour in honor of the latter's 25th anniversary, which is Tuesday. Turns out VH1 Classic will actually recreate the entire first day starting Tuesday at midnight, but this was a preview. How telling is it that frickin' MTV won't even air this stuff (and yes, I know that VH1 Classic is run by MTV)? MTV totally sucks ass these days, but I dug watching the first hour because I didn't live in a town that got MTV until 1985. Actually, when the channel launched in August 1981, I was still living in Toronto (we moved to the U.S. a few months later). But I was no stranger to watching videos because there was a cool show on CityTV called The New Music that featured them; one of the hosts was a guy named J.D. Roberts who these days makes his living as John Roberts, the chief national correspondent at CNN and former White House correspondent for CBS. I watched that show all the time, so when MTV launched, I knew it would be cool. At any rate, here's a rundown of the videos that aired in that fateful first hour hosted by Mark Goodman. Everybody knows the first one, but I was interested to see what the rest were:

>>Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles: Fairly cheesy video first released in 1979. The band was made up of Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn, who both joined Yes after Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman left in 1980. They were on the Yes album Drama, which I actually owned at one time. Downes went on to be one of the original members of the godawful Asia (which is actually touring again with all four charter members) while Horn became a prominent producer in the 1980s.

>>You Better Run by Pat Benatar: The hard rockin' pop pixie made a ton of videos for her early albums, mostly performance stuff like this one.

>>She Won't Dance by Rod Stewart: Another performer who had a lot of videos on in the early days of MTV simply because he made a lot of them and they need stuff to fill the airtime, because back they literally just showed videos 24 hours a day (what a concept). A fairly generic rocker from Stewart, which must have come between his disco phase and his pop piffle phase, but well before his schlocky standards singing phase.

>>You Better You Bet by The Who: This was the big hit from the 1981 Face Dances album, which I owned. It didn't rock like Who classics of old, and indeed sounded a lot like Pete Townshend's solo stuff that came later in the '80s. A decent pop song, but a far cry from Live at Leeds and Quadrophenia.

>>Little Susie's on the Up by PhD: When I saw this, I was wondering who the hell they were, but sure enough, I remembering hearing the song on the radio back in the day.

>>We Don't Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard: Richard has a zillion hits in England but is pretty much unknown stateside, but this song was a hit in Toronto circa 1980. The video is classic early '80s, all crappy video effects and such.

>>Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders: Classic song by the classic lineup of this band. This video is one of the few that moves away from performance to tell a story. Chrissie Hynde is a waitress in a diner and when the rest of the band comes in, she tries to get their attention.

>>Time Heals by Todd Rundgren: Wasn't familiar with this song, but it sounds like Rundgren and Utopia back in those days. Catchy pop with good guitar.

>>Take It On the Run by REO Speedwagon: One of the big hits from REO's ridiculously immense Hi Infidelity album of '81, performed live by Kevin Cronin and the band. Nothing says 1981 like REO Speedwagon. Not sure if that's a good thing.

>>Rockin' the Paradise by Styx: One of the harder rocking songs off 1980's Paradise Theater album, which was one of the first records I ever bought. Dennis DeYoung is rocking the red nut-huggers and cheesy 'stache while Tommy Shaw and James Young are respendent in their jumpsuits. This was three years before the awesome awesomeness of Mr. Roboto.

>>When Things Go Wrong by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters: I had never seen the video, but I had heard the song before. Robin Lane was from the Boston area and was supposed to be the Next Big female singer back in the early '80s, but it never happened. Too bad, because she was pretty talented.

>>History Never Repeats by Split Enz: I wasn't familar with this song, but knew the band from its huge hit I Got You in 1980, which hit number one in Canada, but was a minor hit here. Singer Neil Finn went on to form the much more successful Crowded House a few years later.

>>Hold On Loosely by.38 Special: This was another big AOR rock hit in the early '80s. Very catchy pop chorus combined with lots of guitar (hell, the band had three guitarists), but the video provided clear evidence that some bands were better heard and not seen.

So that was the first hour. Apparently, the second hour wasn't bad, including April Wine's Just Between You and Me (a personal cheese favorite, as Briggy will attest) and Iron Maiden's eponymous classic. Awright, enough already!

Who Taught You to Live Like That

We are in the midst of some serious face-melting heat, mang. It's the kind of weather that makes you verrrrrry sleeeeeepy. Yep.

So I was excited to stumble upon the fact that one of my favorite bands, the mighty Sloan, has released a new single. They're streaming Who Taught You to Live Like That on their Myspace yert; you can also find an MP3 of it at the fine Culture Bully blog. The band plans to release its new album, Never Hear the End of It, on September 19; hopefully, it'll be released in the U.S. at the same it is in Canada. Often their records come out elsewhere before they do here. The single itself is a classic Jay Ferguson composition, but a little more anthemic than we're used to hearing from him. Good stuff.

But I don't want any SPAM:

• I was disappointed to read today that Tour de France champ Floyd Landis flunked a drug test taken after stage 17 of the race, but it didn't really come as a shock. Let's face it, cycling is as dirty a sport there is when it comes to blood doping. Of course, he may still be exonerated if the "B" sample contradicts the original results; if found guilty, he'll be stripped of his Tour title. Here's hoping it was a false positive and he was clean, after all.
• I'm a big fan of Chris Cornell and his work in Soundgarden, not so much his recent stuff with Audioslave. The first album was okay and I only heard the second one once and wasn't bowled over. But I have to admit I'm curious to hear what he does with the theme song to the next James Bond movie. Still, I'll take Badmotorfinger any day of the week over anything he's done in the last 10 years.
• Metallica, another band whose early work was frickin' amazing, has finally relented and agreed to make its catalog available on iTunes. They added two live tracks to each of the first four albums. Funny, I just picked up a used copy of Kill 'Em All for $8 a few weeks ago at the Strawberries (yeah, they're still in business) here in town. Other big-name bands who still haven't allowed their music to be sold on iTunes include Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Radiohead (you can only buy their music digitally to benefit the War Child charity).
• I'd be happier if it was actually picked up by another network to continue airing new episodes, but the hi-larious Arrested Development will live on in syndication on MSN.com and cable channels HDNet and G4, all of which will air the show through 2009. Cool news, but I'll pick up the shows on DVD.
• It makes you feel good about the people making big decisions for us when you hear Senator Ted Stevens talk about how the Internet is made up of a bunch of tubes. Yeah, I know this is a few weeks old, but I'd be remiss if I didn't make fun of this geezer. I mean, you've gotta watch Jon Stewart skewering the old coot:

Jams Run Free

Back to work today and it was not easy. Just the whole "first day back from vacation" drag. It was hard just getting out of bed this morning. Whatevah.

So as I was writing in this space on Saturday about going out for a long run, it started raining pretty hard out, so I bagged the run and went to the gym instead. Yesterday, I headed out at noon despite the possibility of rain and managed to finish 15 miles with nary a drop. It was about 75 out and cloudy with a slight breeze the whole time; you won't find much better running conditions this time of year in New England.

Speaking of running, the River to Sea Relay is coming up quick...a week from Saturday. As I've mentioned before, this is a 14-stage, 92-mile relay for seven-person teams that starts in Milford, NJ, and ends in seaside Manasquan, NJ. Each of us will run two of the legs, which vary in distance and difficulty. Each team has two support vehicles. There are 100 teams entered in the event this year. I just got a pile of information on the route and the rules of the race, so I need to boil all that stuff down and get everyone on the team on the same page before we head down there. Should be insane in the membrane, but in a good way.

Step aside, sir:

• While I was down in Jersey last week, I caught some of the World Series of Darts on the TV in the hotel gym. ESPN carried the event, which was held at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The "athletes" walked in with models on their arms and the announcers got overly excited like they would at any pseudo-sporting event. It was hilarious. ESPN won't air NHL games, but they're all over this? WTF?
• Poor Dick Hatch. He won the first Survivor for being a master tactician, but he has proven himself a serial dumbass for just about everything he's done since. A judge just sentenced him to a year in jail for not paying taxes on his $1 million winnings. Did he think nobody would notice?
• PBS Kids last year rebranded itself as PBS Kids Sprout, airing clips of its kids' shows such as "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and "Dragon Tales" and introducing perky hosts such as Melanie Martinez. Well, it turns out Melanie was a little too perky before she came to PBS Kids, appearing in a series of sex spoof videos, and now she's been fired by PBS. Here's the official statement from the network. The videos were done several years ago for a radio station, spoofing public service announcements urging teens to preserve their virginity; you can watch one here (no nudity, but not safe for work; pretty funny, though). Apparently she found out that it had been posted online and alerted the network, which promptly canned her. PBS officials say Melanie's videos "undermine her character's credibility with our audience," but really, are two-year-olds out there searching Google Video? And as some online have noted, PBS doesn't seem to have a problem with George Carlin and Alec Baldwin narrating episodes of "Thomas the Tank Engine," and they've been in, gosh, R-rated movies! What a bunch of reactionary pinheads.
• Sad to hear Tina Fey is leaving Saturday Night Live, but I have high hopes for her new NBC primetime show, 30 Rock. She'll be writing, producing, and starring in the show, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at a late-night comedy show. Wonder where she'll get her ideas from?
• Found out about some messed-up shiznitt going on at the Santa Barbara (CA) News-Press from a friend of mine who works there. Apparently, several editors have resigned in recent weeks, claiming the paper's owner pushed for favorable coverage for friends and refused to publish certain articles, among other offenses. It has caused quite the controversy in the community. My friend has been looking for a new job for a while, and now I understand why. I worked for some crappy editors in my days in community journalism (as well as some pretty great ones), but I can honestly say I never experienced this level of craptitude. Newspapers have enough working against them these days without resorting to this BS.

Natural Tan

What up? We're back from our vacation none the worse for wear. A little sunburned, but not much. Sorry for the lack of posts. I had expected to check in once or twice from the Shore because I had access to my bro-in-law's laptop, but turns out it's a work machine and I didn't want to veer too far off the beaten path with my InterWeb ramblings.

Our car woes continued as we drove down to the Shore last Saturday when we heard a whining noise from the front wheels. We stopped at a garage and it turns out the front brakes needed to be replaced; of course, we had just had the rear brakes done a few days earlier. Why the guy never bothered to check on the front brakes, I'll never know. We drove down and had the work done on Wednesday and the drive back was uneventful, aside from hitting every torrential thunderstorm on the East Coast. The week was fun and tiring, what with eight kids running rampant the whole time (our two girls, Matt and Tricia's two boys, and Tricia's sister's four kids). Other than the regular crying jags from the three 2-year-olds, the kids were actually really well behaved for the most part. We went to Brigantine Beach a few times and spent a lot of time out by the pool at the golf resort we stayed at. It was scorchingly hot the whole week, hitting 100 once or twice. It was a pretty mellow week for the most part, which is fine by me.

Matt and I got three runs in, including some speedwork at the local high school. I wasn't able to get a long run in last weekend (it was supposed to be 15 miles), so I'm just shooting to do that total today; I've been kind of dragging and lazy all day, so I'm hoping to head out in an hour or two. It's cloudy and a little cooler today, so it shouldn't be too awful.

Is that Freedom Rock? Well, turn it up, man:

• Crazy shite going on with the Blue Jays, what with Shea Hillenbrand getting himself traded out of town after stirring up his patented brand of team dissension. He came into the season unhappy because the Jays picked up third baseman Troy Glaus and first baseman Lyle Overbay, which meant Hillenbrand would primarily be a DH. Never shy to voice his opinion, the Shea Hey Kid allegedly wrote "This is a sinking ship" on a board in the clubhouse, which led manager John Gibbons to challenge him to a fight before throwing him off the team. This is nothing new, since he did the same thing when he was with the Red Sox in 2003. Ultimately, he made the wise choice of calling Sox GM Theo Epstein a "faggot" during a radio interview and was dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks; he was replaced at third base by Bill Mueller and his trade also created a full-time spot for David Ortiz. We all know how that deal turned out: Mueller won the AL batting title, Ortiz became one of the most dominant power hitters in baseball and the Sox won the World Series the next year. As for the Jays, they've managed to ignore the turmoil and take the first two games of their huge four-game set with the Yankees, keeping them in the AL East and Wild Card hunt. Hopefully, they can keep their eyes on the prize and keep on winning.
• Although I've been out of touch in this venue, I've been keeping up on my sports news and the latest craziness out of Long Island is unbelievable. The Islanders, who in early June had named former Rangers GM Neil Smith as their new general manager, last week abruptly fired Smith and named backup goalie Garth Snow as his replacement. This once-proud franchise had dominated the NHL in the early '80s but had fallen on hard times lately, as former GM Mike Milbury made some of the dumbest trades imaginable and fired coach after coach. Team owner Charles Wang cleaned house and installed Smith as GM and Ted Nolan as the team's new coach, along with former Isles greats Pat Lafontaine and Bryan Trottier as part of the braintrust. Apparently, Wang and Smith didn't see eye to eye and Wang fired him, which I suppose is understandable, but to then make a guy who has zero managerial experience in any capacity (and who was preparing to start the new season as a goalie) the head of your team just makes no sense whatsoever. Wow.

The Enthusiast

Word up. Just got down to NJ; we're more than halfway to our vacation spot on the Joisey Shore. Tonight, we're staying at my bro-in-law Matt's place and then tomorrow we drive down to Absecon to spend the next week sunning and splashing and whatnot. We had some not-so-fun times on the way down when our car (not my Olds Pimpbot 3000, but our '01 Maxima) starting making some weird noises not long after we got on the road. This is after we plunked down nearly $800 yesterday to have the brakes repaired and the car tuned up in general. At first, we thought it was stuff bumping around in the trunk, but then realized it was coming from the rear wheels. We found a service station in Connecticut and the guy figured out that the left rear wheel was loose; apparently our mechanic yesterday forgot to properly tighten the lug nuts. Nice. After that, the drive was much less stressful, but we will make sure to rip the mechanic a new one.

Fame and fortune is a stupid game:

• Last night, after I spent the day wrapping up stuff at the office, I headed into Boston to check out the always awesome Mission of Burma at the Paradise. A bunch of co-workers and my good buddy OJ of Clicky Clicky fame were also in attendance. I caught the end of Neptune's opening set, which was weird and cool, what with the homemade instruments and the nizzoize. Then I managed to worm my way right up to the stage, right in front of Burma guitarist-singer Roger Miller. Holeeee crap, was that loud. He just had one ratty old Marshall hooked up, but it was immediately in front of me to the left and it was farkin' blasting. As a result, I couldn't hear the vocals too clearly, although OJ told me afterwards that the mix wasn't great from his vantage point in the balcony, either. That said, it was a great show. This was one of several small dates the band was playing since its new album The Obliterati came out, and they were in fine form. They played two 45-minute sets with most of the new album, five cuts from their 2004 album OnOffOn, and several of their classics. Miller eschewed his trademark industrial headphones (the band originally broke up in '83 because of his struggles with tinnitis) for some newfangled earplugs. Bassist-singer Clint Conley was having a ball watching Miller wail away, and drummer-singer Peter Prescott made many wisecracks between songs, including "We're the Arctic Clap Your Hands Arcade Monkeys." The show sold out earlier in the evening, a mix of aging rock nerds from the band's first incarnation, younger hipsters, and the rest of us dorks. Good times.

All right, I'll check in later in the week.