Another Way I Could Do It

Hey, winter's finally here. No snow yet, but it's bone-chillingly cold out there. It got down to the low teens last night. Of course, I was out in the middle of it, because I was in the People's Republic of Cambridge to see the mighty Sloan play at the Middle East. I got there toward the end of the first act and got to talking to Sloan's merch guy, who turned out to be Mike Nelson, their road manager. Nice guy. We hung out and drank a couple of beers and talked about the band, who are on a quick five-city jaunt of northeastern/midwest U.S. cities (the others include NYC, Buffalo, Detroit and Cleveland). Their excellent new album, Never Hear the End of It, just came out in the U.S. on Yep Roc last week; of course, I ordered it last fall through MapleMusic and reviewed it for the fine Clicky Clicky establishment. Reviews have been almost uniformly positive (New York Times, Billboard, Associated Press, Boston Herald, etc.).

The band is taking time off after the end of the month because guitarist Patrick Pentland's about to become a father for the second time. The touring starts up again in March with an appearance at the South by Southwest festival in Austin.

Last night, the show was a typically great power pop-tastic event. I made my way up front and planted myself in front of bassist Chris Murphy and guitarist Jay Ferguson. The band ripped through a 90-minute set, filled mainly with material from their 30-song new release, but peppered with classics like "Penpals," "Money City Maniacs," and "The Good in Everyone." Highlights from the new album included "Ill-Placed Trust," "Living with the Masses," "Fading Into Obscurity" and "Right or Wrong." All four members write and sing their own material, and they switched instruments from time to time as drummer Andrew Scott stepped up to sing and play guitar on some of his songs, while Murphy did his spastic Keith Moon impression on drums. They had a keyboard player with them, which was the first time I've seen them with someone else; usually, they share keyboard duties. I've always enjoyed Pentland's AC/DC-influenced rock riffage, but last night the low-key Ferguson really impressed with his guitarwork. Murphy hammed it up as usual with his high-kicks while Scott pounded the crap out of his little drum set.

The crowd was definitely subdued (despite the club being three-quarters full, which is not bad for a Tuesday night in January), which might have been a combination of unfamiliarity with the new stuff and it being a midweek show. At one point early on, Pentland asked, "Is it a worknight?" By the end, though, the place was rockin' (at least near the stage anyway). Even though I was dragging ass today at work and will probably skip hockey tonight so I'm not doing the same tomorrow, I'm glad I went. And now, I'm off to visit the couch.

Good for You's Good for Me

Checking in on a chilly afternoon in New England. We're supposed to be heading into our first prolonged stretch of winter weather this season. It was raining for most of yesterday into this morning, but now the temps are dropping into the 30s and the rain is starting to freeze. Tomorrow we're supposed to get a winter storm with sleet/ice/snow coming down most of the day, and after that it's supposed to be in the 20s for several days.

I'm getting psyched for the Pats-Chargers game at 4:30. The Chargers are favored and had the best record in the league, but I've got a good feeling about the Pats. I've got plenty of chili, lime Tostitos and beer, so I don't need to go anywhere.

I drove the Sedona for the first time yesterday. Pretty sweet ride for a minivan. I was just happy to have the Maxima at my disposal all week. As for the Olds, I donated it to the Crohn's and Colitis Society of New England, and a tow truck is coming for it sometime early next week. Fare thee well, my pimpadelic friend.

Mike and Ikes:

• The deal to bring David Beckham to LA to play in the MLS is rumored at $250 million. But is Becks really worth as much as A-Rod while playing in a sport that will probably never be embraced by America? Granted, A-Rod's not worth that money, either, but Beckham presents some interesting opportunities for the LA Galaxy and the MLS, not the least of which is more exposure. And they'll probably sell boatloads of Beckham jerseys internationally. I'm guessing it'll have a similar impact to the 1988 trade that brought Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings; initial interest will be great, people will watch the game that never have before, and plenty of endorsement deals will be made. But in the long run, it probably won't translate into significant growth for the MLS.
• How about the splash made by Tadd Fujikawa, the 16-year-old kid who made the cut at the Sony Open in Honolulu this weekend? He's the youngest player in 50 years to make the cut at a PGA event, he's only 5' 1", and he drives the ball 285 yards. Damn!
• Although I'm not doing any marathons in the spring, I signed up a few weeks ago to run the Great Bay Half-Marathon up in Newmarket, NH, my old stomping grounds from my college days. The race is on April 1 and the beauty is I don't have to do much more running than I'm already doing to train for it.

Completely Conspicuous Episode 18: Send in the Clones

Damn, I'd been working on this for almost a week. Just been busy, I guess. You can download it directly here (right click and save as, dude). Anyhoo, here be the show notes:

Topics:
- The pros and cons of cloning
- The endless parade of award shows
- Rock supergroups
- Personal training
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- Built to Spill - Revolution
- John Vanderslice - Exodus Damage

Completely Conspicuous is now available through the iTunes and Podcast Pickle podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!

Download "Revolution" (mp3)
from "Ultimate Alternative Wavers"
by Built To Spill
C/Z

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic

Find out more about John Vanderslice at http://www.johnvanderslice.com/. Find out more about the Podsafe Music Network at http://podshow.com/music.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at http://jbreitling.blogspot.com/. And the incidental music used in the show was "Clibopb (Fosco Groove)" by Me and Boris the Bull. Find out more about Me and Boris the Bull at http://www.macidol.com/jamroom/bands/497/.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Happy New Year!

Don't Get Me Down (Come On Over Here)

The Run to Work era is over. We bought a new vehicle over the weekend. Actually, we officially buy it tomorrow, but on Saturday we test-drove and got a great deal on a Kia Sedona minivan. We finish up the paperwork and pick it up tomorrow. I was all set to run to work today, but the wind was blowing the rain sideways, so I opted for a ride from Deb instead. I would have been completely drenched by about 10 minutes into the 70-minute run. I'm not THAT crazy.

This will be the first new car I've bought since 1992, when I got my Hyundai Elantra. I had that car for eight years, until its untimely demise after a 500-pound tree branch fell on it and totalled it. Yeah, I haven't had good luck with cars in this millennium.

Dirty Whirlwind

Word up. Just relaxing after watching the Leafs totally destroy the Bruins, 10-2, at the TD Banknorth Fleet Shawmut Garden Center Thingy. I had planned on going to the game, but couldn't find anyone to go with, so I ended up just watching it here. After they dominated Boston 5-1 on Monday night in Toronto, I figured the Leafs might be in for a letdown and sure enough, they had a lackluster first period and trailed 2-1 going into the second. But they came out fired up and scored early and often, including three goals in a 42-second span. The best part was much of the scoring was done by second-year players Alex Steen (3 goals, 2 assists) and Matt Stajan (2-2), who have both struggled this year. Of course, after the last two times the Leafs blew out opponents, they went on prolonged losing streaks, so I'm a little concerned.

So I ran to work again yesterday, a shorter run of 5 miles as planned, but what wasn't planned was tripping on one of Marblehead's many crappy sidewalks and scraping my knee. You wouldn't think a community that affluent would have shitty sidewalks, but they're uniformly lousy, all bumpy and uneven thanks to frost heaves and tree roots. I played hockey last night, so I wisely chose to get a ride to work today. I'll get another ride tomorrow, but I'll get a run in at lunch.

As for the car situation, we're planning to test drive a Kia Sedona minivan this weekend. We've read good things about the Sedona in terms of safety ratings, and it's less expensive than the Honda Odyssey, so we're going to check it out. I remember years ago thinking I would never be caught dead driving a minivan, but that was well before I had kids and realized how much crap you have to haul around on a family trip. Plus you can fit a keg quite nicely in the back of a minivan. Not that I ever buy kegs anymore, but it's nice to know.

What the dealio?

• Of course, as we're looking at new cars, it's comforting to hear that Consumer Reports found that most child car seats flunked crash tests. Our kids ride in those things every damn day. Guess we'd better start duct-taping them as an added precaution.
• Here's a disturbing case that raises a lot of interesting issues: the parents of a severely mentally and physically disabled 9-year-old had surgery performed to keep the girl from growing to her full height to keep her care more manageable. On the one hand, it's freaky to imagine parents doing that to their own child; on the other, it must be incredibly difficult to raise such a child.
• Lily started preschool today, moving up from daycare. It's amazing how quickly the girls are growing. A co-worker brought her newborn into the office yesterday and it was hard to remember Lily or Hannah being that small, even though it was only a few years ago. Hannah starts kindergarten in the fall; she's starting to learn how to write a lot of words. Weird, wild stuff.
• A group of workers at O'Hare Aiport in Chicago, including some pilots, claim they saw a UFO hovering over the airport in November. The FAA is blowing it off, but these folks say it can't be explained away as a weather phenomenon. Hey, it could have been Kang and Kodos checking in on us.
• In between showing NHL games and rodeo events, Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network) aired Rocky IV last night and I watched most of it in all its craptastic glory. I saw it in the theaters when I was home for Christmas break from my freshman year at UNH (yeah, yeah, I'm friggin' old). The movie's unabashed jingoism and classic David vs. Goliath story were just the things I needed to take my mind off the horrendous first semester I had just completed (the short version: I started as a chemical engineer and nearly flunked out before wising up and switching to English). Stallone was absolutely jacked in this flick, as he worked out in the wilds of the Soviet Union, pulling wagons, lifting rocks and running through ankle-deep snow. This was contrasted (see the montage) by villainous Russkie fighter Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren in the role he was born to play, baby!) training on the finest treadmills and getting injected with steroids while then-hot Brigitte Nilsson kept an eye on things. The whole thing climaxed with Rocky winning in a knockout and then giving a lunkheaded speech about everybody changing...of course, the entire arena is cheering for him by the end. Classic.
• Speaking of great mid-80s movies, here's a great chase scene from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, featuring Godzilla, dancing gingerbread men, a beach party scene, and Twisted Sister. Don't get much better than that.

You Can't Touch the Untouchable

Today was Day 1 of the Run to Work commute and it went pretty well. I timed the whole thing out down to the minute: I left at 6:30 and basically followed my same 8-mile route to work, from Beverly through Salem and to the office in Marblehead. Got there at 7:45 (including stopping to pick up a newspaper); the run took 1:12. Went into the office, picked up my gym bag, went to the gym next door and stretched and showered, and got back to the office by 8:30. Pretty sweet. I got a ride home from a co-worker. Tomorrow, Deb's going to drop me off about three miles into the route, so I'll only have to run five miles. Should save some wear and tear on the ol' legs. Thursday and Friday, I'll get rides to work.

More later...

Something to Look Forward To

Egads, we actually got a little snow yesterday. Granted, it was only about an inch or so, but at least it looks like winter around here today. Who'd have thought our first snowfall of the winter would come on December 30? It was kind of fitting that we watched An Inconvenient Truth. The climate changes we've been undergoing are truly scary, and there's no denying them, although there are plenty of folks who do just that.

As for me, I'm doing my part for the environment by taking alternative means of transportation to work while I don't have a car. We decided the bike option was probably not the safest because of the traffic and darkness on the way home, so instead I'm actually going to run to work two or three times a week and get rides the other days. It's an eight-mile run, which isn't bad, and if I leave the house by 6:30, I can get to Marblehead by 7:45 and have time to shower and change at the gym next to my office. Then I can either get a ride home or have Deb pick me up. We looked into getting a new car now, but it just doesn't make sense for us. So I'll use my feet for now. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it.

We're forgoing our normal New Year's ritual of lobsters and a movie rental to go to the house of our friends Tammy and Steve and their kids for the evening. We'll stay there and come back in the a.m. when all the drunks are passed out, hopefully in their own homes.

And now, because absolutely nobody asked, here's my top 10 albums of 2006:

1. The Hold Steady--Boys and Girls in America
2. Sloan--Never Hear the End of It
3. Mission of Burma--The Obliterati
4. TV on the Radio--Return to Cookie Mountain
5. The Twilight Singers--Powder Burns/A Stitch in Time EP
6. Sonic Youth--Rather Ripped
7. Drive-by Truckers--A Blessing and a Curse
8. Mastodon--Blood Mountain
9. Yo La Tengo--I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
10. The Tragically Hip--World Container

Honorable mention: The Raconteurs--Broken Boy Soldiers; The Minus 5--(The Gun Album); Pearl Jam--self-titled; Iron Maiden--A Matter of Life and Death; Destroyer--Destroyer's Rubies; Eagles of Death Metal--Death By Sexy; Shearwater--Palo Santo; The Lemonheads--self-titled; Tapes 'n Tapes--The Loon; Sebadoh III reissue; Pavement--Wowee Zowee reissue.

Seeya next year!

Completely Conspicuous Episode 17: All Apologies

Just in time for New Year's Eve, I got the last podcast of 2006 done under the wire. If you're not subscribed to the show, you can download it directly here (right click and save as).

Here be the show notes:

Topics:
- Resolving to make New Year's resolutions
- 2006: Year of the mea culpa
- A tribute to James Brown
- The value of all-star games
- Pinhead of the Week

Music:
- Tom Vek - I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes
- James Brown - Gutbucket

Completely Conspicuous is now available through the iTunes, Podcast Pickle, and Yahoo podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!
Find out more about Tom Vek here. Find out more about James Brown here. Find out more about the Podsafe Music Network here.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling at his Internet home page. And the incidental music used in the show was "Clibopb (Fosco Groove)" by Me and Boris the Bull. Find out more about Me and Boris the Bull here.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Happy New Year!

Hot Pants, Pts. 1 & 2

So the great the Pimpmobile experiment is now officially over. Since I had a couple of days off after Christmas, I took my 1992 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight in for a general overhaul/damage assessment. I've had the car for more than two years now and things have been gradually falling apart and wearing down, so I figured it would cost several hundred bucks to fix everything. Then I got the call from the mechanic that the brakes were completely shot, it needed four new tires, various lines and hoses were rotted and leaking, the right rear shock was blown. The cost to repair all this? $2,300! The cost to just have it pass inspection was about $1,800. Yikes. It didn't take long for us to decide not to do all this. It just wasn't worth it. We just paid off our '01 Maxima last month and wanted to have about six months without payments so we could save up a downpayment on a new vehicle. I was hoping the Ninety-Eight would last me until next summer, but the mechanic recommended I not drive it anymore. So we're retiring it; hey, we got our money's worth, considering we got it for free. Of course, that still leaves me with the dilemma of how to get to work for the next few months. We can't afford to get a new vehicle (which we're thinking will be a minivan), so I may be bumming rides from co-workers for a while. I thought about getting a bike and riding the 16 miles to work and back; the only problem is it's pretty dark on the return commute, so I would need some sort of lights on the bike so people don't hit me. Might be a little risky on some of the more crowded parts of the commute. So needless to say, we're still trying to figure out what we're going to do.

Make it funky:

• Just hanging out while the girls play with their cousins. We had a good Christmas. My mom came down Christmas eve, we had dinner, went to church. The girls dug their eight zillion presents--various princess accessories and toys. I got some cool clothes, running gear, CDs and a book, and an iTunes gift card. I've had a couple of days off from work, although I did have to do some work from home.
• Sad to hear of the passing of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, on Christmas Day. He was 73. As messed up as he was in the last umpteen years, JB was a true innovator back in the day and left behind some ridiculously good music.
• Former President Gerald Ford died yesterday. He was most notable for not being elected to either the president or the vice presidency; in both cases, he was appointed to replace other people. Most notably, he stepped in as president after Richard Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal. Of course, my favorite Gerry Ford moment had to be his "appearance" on the Simpsons.

Merchandise

Hope you have all your holiday shopping done by now. I don't. I have to pick up a few things this afternoon. Fortunately, I know what I need to get, so that should help. Still, I'm not looking forward to the insanity of it all. Normally, I'm done by now, but this year, I've just been too busy. Even this weekend, I have to do some work.

No white Christmas for us on the North Shore of Boston. It's 50 degrees and raining right now. Unlike Denver, which got slammed by a couple of feet of snow this week, we're supposed to get sun.

Ho ho huh?:

• The Seinfeld-created holiday of Festivus is taking on a life of its own, as people actually are choosing to celebrate Frank Costanza's holiday instead of Christmas. I've heard of people throwing Festivus parties, but I've never attended one. If you want to get your celebration going, a Milwaukee company is selling aluminum Festivus poles.
• One woman, two wombs, three babies. Yowsa!
• Stephen Colbert has had a hell of a year, with many highlights (including meeting me), but he went out with a bang Wednesday night. He staged a guest star-filled guitar duel with Chris Funk of the Decemberists; check out the highlights here.

Completely Conspicuous Episode 16: The Heartwarming Holiday Show

Fresh out of the podcast oven, with no audio drops or coughing fits. Booyah! Download the show directly here (right click and save as).

Show notes:

Topics:

• Handicapping the '08 Presidential race
• Pop culture phenomena
• Embracing year-end lists
• Exercise addiction (thanks to Phedippidations Episode 70 for the idea)
• Pinhead of the Week

Music:

• Tom Waits - How's It Gonna End?
• Twisted Sister - O Come All Ye Faithful
  

Completely Conspicuous is now available through the iTunes, Podcast Pickle, and Yahoo podcast directories. Subscribe and write a review!

Find out more about Tom Waits here. Find out more about Twisted Sister here. Find out more about the Podsafe Music Network here.

The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Find out more about Senor Breitling here. And the incidental music used in the show was "Clibopb (Fosco Groove)" by Me and Boris the Bull. Find out more about Me and Boris the Bull here.

Completely Conspicuous is a Tan God Production. Happy holidays!