Milling About

Saturday, my friend Jake had his annual party at his house. Jake is the guy who runs the comic book shop I go to, and we get along great. It is one of the few parties that I am guaranteed to get wasted at, as Jake and his girlfriend are kind enough to let me sleep over. Anyways, pretty much the who point of this post was watching this one guy hit on this one girl, and the crap he was saying.

He was saying stuff like this:
"That movie had some of the best cinematography I have ever seen."
"My favorite composer is doing the score of that movie."
"I like that scarf on you, it makes you look like an aviator."

I just wanted to jump up and tell him, "Dude, you are so full of sh*t!" I didn't though. I held my tongue. I was pretty proud of myself. A few years ago I probably would have ripped him.

Other highlights:
A dude picking up an acoustic guitar and doing a very neat version of Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again". I thought it was funny.
Talking to a kid who used to play college football at Utah State. He quit fairly early, because even at rinky-dink Utah State it was "no longer a game. It was a career."

The absolute lowlight was when I finally left Sunday morning. Apparently it was the day of the White Rock Lake marathon. I drove around for 45 minutes before I finally found a way out, and escaped. I tried north first, and then west. I knew east would be no good as that was the direction of White Rock Lake. I finally got headed south, and kept going south, while constantly looking to the west, and seeing I was still hemmed in. I finally made it to a highway and got home. It was not a fun drive. A fun night though.

The Right Decision

Pretty much all season long, and especially since Wade Phillips has been fired the talk around DFW is not if, or when, but which Super Bowl winning coach should the Cowboys hire to replace him. Sure Jason Garrett won his first game, but nothign would make the populace happier than getting John Gruden or Bill Cowher. Maybe even Brian Billick. It is something I've been thinking about as well. The question is, is it worth it?

The short is answer in the history of the NFL (Super Bowl era at least) is no.

We can delve into the longer answer. Basically only Bill Parcells and Mike Holmgren really got close. Winning one with one team, and they both took another team to championship. Two others lost the big game, and then went on to win (Dick Vermeil, and Don Shula). Vince Lombardi won at Green Bay and never did much with the Redskins. Hank Stram won at Kansas City and then only posted 7 wins as the head coach at New Orleans. So basically just don't go too crazy about signing that big name coach with a Super Bowl win under his belt. It hasn't worked yet, but then again maybe they are due.

World Series...who? Me?

Well boys and girls I actually got to go see Game 5 of the World Series on Monday. How did I get to go? Well, back during Game 1 me and some buddies were watching the game, and the they asked me then if I wanted go in with some tickets with them. I had just gotten four new tires, an alignment, and brake pads installed on my car, so spending almost $500 for a World Series ticket wasn't in the cards for me. I regretfully declined. Monday rolls around and my boss, who had bought a ticket wasn't feeling well. About 1:30-2:00 in the afternoon he just asks,"If I don't go to the game, do you want my ticket? It's already paid for." Of course I would, so that is how I got to go. Or as I said at the time, "I just fell ass backwards into a ticket."

The actual game? I don't know what I can really say about it. It was an awesome experience. Charlie Pride sang the national anthem, with fireworks and a fly over. I don't care how old you are, the fly over is cool. Another really neat thing was having the the upper part of the stadium chant "Texas!" and the bottom part "Rangers!" and it sounded great in the stadium, and people have told me it sounded like an international soccer game on the TV.

Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum both pitched great games. Lee had one bad inning, and according to Benjie Molina it was because Lee didn't want to pitch around Renteria to get to Rowand who could barely get on the field. Lincecum was just phenomenal. One of my friends just looked at me as the Rangers went down in short order, and I said,"Yeah, Lincecum is still good."

I had a whole slew of Giants' fans in front and to the right of me. They weren't annoying or anything, and were pretty cool. One even shook my hand and wished me good luck during the ninth. The Rangers lost of course, and the fans around me all just got in a group hug and jumped up and down. In the end it was a great season, and the Rangers overachieved this season. I do realize it is possible this was a once in a lifetime possibility, so I just wanted to enjoy the moment. There are no guarantees in sports, and especially baseball. The Rangers may never get back in my lifetime, and I am so glad I got to go.

P.S. I am now 0-3 at post-season games.

P.P.S. A picture from my other blog where you can see me at the game. That blog gets updated more often as it is less text intensive.

Concert 2 and 3?

Just a few short days after the Sharon Jones concert I went to another concert. This time it was with a group of about 10 people, a much bigger venue (the Superpages center by Fair Park), and a much more well known act: Rush. My biggest complaint it just that we were really far away, but then again closer tickets would have cost an arm and a leg.

The concert was basically broken up into three parts, and had video interludes through out. The first part was just an opening set with song from the past, some newer stuff, and a song or two from an upcoming album. The second part was the main reason I was there. They did the entire Moving Pictures album, and that was awesome. Song which include Tom Sawyer, Limelight, and YYZ. I loved it, it was great. The third part started off with Neal Peart's drum solo. That was worth the price of admission alone. It too was broken into three parts: a rock solo, then he played on an electronic drum set that was programmed with different sound effects and such, and the final part was a jazz solo. They also played the song 2112 in it entirety, all 20+ minutes.

Then I started running out of steam on the guys. They played quite a bit more after that, and it was over 3 hours or so. That is more than I can really take of any one band. I had had a enough really. Last thing on the concert: musically the guys sounded great and I really liked it, the problem was that Geddy Lee was having a hard time hitting those high notes on some of the older songs,a nd he tried to over compensate by screaming. That made his voice warble quite a bit.

3rd Concert? Well not quite. A few days after the Rush concert the original lineup of Guided By Voices was playing in downtown Dallas. After two trips to downtown in just a few days, I couldn't get my dander up to make a third one. Especially having to work the next day. I kind of regret not going, as after the concert there was an after party with the band. Plus, I missed Tim DeLaughter (lead singer of the Polyphonic Spree) getting kicked out. Oh well.

It's Just Banter

This is a local radio guy who Zach Galifianakis'd Zach Galifianakis. He said he wasn't sure if he was going to go this way with the interview, until when he first met him he hit his head on the overhead mike. Then he decided to just go for it. Good stuff.

First Concert (of the year)

#1: I believe it was three weeks ago that on a spur of the moment decision I went to the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert. I didn't even know they were playing until the night before, and made my decision to go about 2 hours before showtime. I called one friend who I thought would be interested, but he was unable to go due to a prior commitment. No worries, I'm not afraid to fly solo. The show was at the Palladium Showroom. The Palladium has two different places for shows: the Ballroom and the Showroom. This one was at the Palladium Showroom which is the smaller of the two.

The show was supposed to "start" at 7:30. Now I'm not naïve enough to actually think the concert will start then, but I do expect the doors to be open. They weren't, and the doors to the place are down a long 4 foot wide tunnel surrounded by brick walls. Brick walls that had been taking the Texas sun all day. It was almost a 30 minute wait to get inside and the heat was brutal.

The actual concert though was absolutely fantastic. The opening act was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They were a great band that seems to cross several genres in their music, and Grace Potter is quite the honey. They were throwing down an unusual look. Grace was wearing a Tina Turner like outfit, and the Nocturnals looked like a '70s garage band.

Now I had never seen a picture of Binky Griptite of the Dap-Kings, but once I saw this dude come out in a maroon suit with a fedora cocked on the side of his head, I knew exactly who it was. I was right. The Dap-Kings sang a few songs by themselves before Sharon Jones came out.

Binky played up to the crowd a bit with,"You know I've been in Texas for two days now, and I ain't heard no one say 'yee-ha', so how is everyone out here tonight?" With the crowd giving a resounding "YEE-HA!" Including me.

Once Sharon Jones did come out the energy just amped up. She is just so enthusiastic. I told one of my friends that I hope to have her energy when I am her age, but I don't even have that level now. During a couple of different songs she brought people up on the stage with her. I was literally 3 feet from the stage, and it was electric. Smaller venues like that really do it for me.

PS Within 5 seconds of Sharon Jones appearing on the stage I could smell the weed.

so long...

Well, over the Labor Day Weekend, my former boss, Kazy passed away. I still don't think I have fully processed it yet. He was found in the store laying on the counch after 11 AM last Tuesday, which meant they employees were working there for over and hour before they discovered the body. They went looking for him, because he hadn't called them yet, and they were concerned.

So, there was a bunch of madness on Tuesday. That evening I was fielding phone calls, texts, and messages on Facebook while trying to draft a team in Fantasy Football.

We always had a volatile relationship. Seeing as how my tenure at the store didn't end well (I ended up being fired). I did work there for 12 years though including the entirety of my 20s and I always loved and respected the man. So, I felt I should at least pay my last respect by going to his funeral.

One at the funeral it was packed, and I was running a bit behind. I did meet an old co-worker there, and everyone else was to nervous (scared?) to walk by everyone to sit in the overflow seating, so I led that group over there. The actual ceremony was unlike one I have been to before. The minister only said a few words, while butchering all of the Japanese names, and then opened up the podium for some eulogies. We got 4 pretty solid ones from people who knew Kazy from different times or interests.

Afterwards there was the social gathering in the back which was another surreal time for me. Sure, it was sad, but it was also neat seeing a bunch of people I hadn't seen in literally years. Old co-workers, customers, and friends. I felt like I was running for office I shook so many hands and hugged so many people. I was surprised that his daughter seemed to be handling it better than his son. He was understandably pretty out of it.

Anyways, rest in peace Kazy. You definitely deserve it.