Golden

May 31, 2007 | Filed Under Main, Writing | No Comments

My most recent short story. Under Written Works.

You guys are reading this stuff – right??

Added to iPod

May 29, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments

Robert Fripp – “Love Cannot Bear:Soundscapes Live” From his 2005 club tour.
Three Dog Night – “The Complete Hit Singles” And you know them all. They were the first rock concert I ever saw – at the late New Haven Coliseum. Opening for TDN was the Souther/Hillman/Furay band. We had no idea who they were at the time.
Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Chronicle” Their greatest hits collection. Surprised I didn’t have it on already.

And the thing about greatest hits collections – especially with bands like these – is that they were primarily singles bands. Sure the hits were on albums, but most of the other songs were just filler and not worth remembering. And back in the late 60’s/early 70’s – I was a singles kind of guy. Loved the 45 rpm disc. The iPod has brought back the single (and only $0.99!) and I for one am ecstatic.

Heroes finale

May 27, 2007 | Filed Under Main | No Comments

It was everything you could hope it would be! You couldn’t guess how it would end – how they would come together? Who would win? How would they go on from this point? And I think the writers and director did a great job of making it all work. Not an easy job. The networks – particularly the last two years – have littered the aisles with dead SciFi programming (Invasion? Surface? Nightstalker?) But this one is pretty strong – thanks to the creative crew and that cast. Can’t wait for next year!

long week…

May 27, 2007 | Filed Under Main, Theater | No Comments

I think most people don’t take a full vacation because of how long it takes to catch up when you come back. After five days in Vegas, that is where I found myself last week. And I had my leg iron (my Treo) with me so I could respond to ALL of my email. Since I had nearly 30 emails a day, imagine if I didn’t have that leg up on the situation. The mind boggles…

(As for Vegas – see it once. Otherwise, I can think of better things to do on vacation. Thank god I WASN’T on vacation…)

Then ever night was filled so I was only home once – Monday – and that was to do a bit of re-financing (and watch the Heroes finale – which rocked!) Tuesday was off to my second job. Wednesday I had an audition for this amazing play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh called The Pillowman (which I didn’t get). Thursday was my boss’s 70th Birthday party with the principals and associates. And Friday was the A.H. PBA Ball – what my wife calls our local prom. Everyone dresses up, drinks a bit, dances to a wedding band and just hangs out together for a while. Then we all get involved in a fun “Chinese auction” (and, of course, the obligatory 50-50). It’s actually a lot of fun and the money goes to a different cause each year. And we get to dress up and get drunk together as a town. Why not?

So now we are at the holiday weekend and now – Sunday – I am free to sit on my ass and watch whatever DVD I want for a few hours. Late last night, I finally got to my NetFlix movie, Stranger Than Fiction – which has sat undisturbed on the table for about three weeks. Pretty good. Not a world beater but charming and I appreciated Will Ferrell’s very understated work in the picture. Plus the music is by Spoon! Plus Maggie Gyllenhaal – who is always just adorable.

On to horror movies!

Gearwhore

May 20, 2007 | Filed Under Music | 1 Comment

gearwhore.jpg

Another of my favorite “one and done” records.

Gearwhore is a guy. A DJ (I think) named Brian Natonski. In 1998, Astralwerks released his only CD (that I can find) and it was called Drive. Drive is what this record does. I’m not sure if it really falls under the ‘big beat” tag of techno music, but the style is perfect. It moves seamlessly for all ten songs (and a bonus mix at the end). One groove picks up on another. It gets hotwired into your brain. Use it for your work out. Ride with it. Have sex to it. It is hot and passionate and DOES NOT STOP. “Passion” is a key track, but my favorite is “Love”. A beautiful, minor key piano line anchors the tune, allowing the scratching and funky bass to pull the song through its paces while bringing it back to earth at the end and instilling the whole song with a bit of melancholy. Not bad for something you can dance to. Trying to find an album as cohesive as Drive has been impossible. And if I am listening to this while walking through NYC – it’s best to stay out of my way.

Love

May 18, 2007 | Filed Under Main, Music, Theater | No Comments

Okay – I finally won some money. About $100 on one of those video poker machines. In the Irish casino no less. (Coincidence?) I am now ahead. Still think that kind of gambling is dumb.

Last night, I saw the only show I signed up for – Love by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage. All I really knew about Cirque was that they did acrobatics and went from a strange circus act to a McDonalds franchise all over the world. Then I heard they had “remixed” a bunch of Beatles tunes for the show. None of this really sounded hopeful. But someone gave me the CD of the music (remixed by George Martin and son) for my birthday and I loved it! It all works. What is more interesting is that the music maintains a reverence while making everything sound fresh. in essence, it rescued some of these old Beatles songs from history and made them sound alive again. So I thought – let’s give it a shot.

wow

I was totally blown away. The show is Theater and dance and aerial work and rock and spectacle. Don’t bother waiting for the DVD to come out. It won’t work and you won’t get it. The show moves all around you and over you. The sets, lighting and special effects were the best. There were characters and storlines and recurring themes throughout. It was about the Beatles and about the times (though some numbers were just about the song – “Octopuses Garden” for one). There were also a couple of revolving storylines that just pertained to the show itself.

And – of course – the music. It is a Beatles’ fan wet-dream. But even if you only vaguely know the music, the entertainment value of the show is immense. I know I was in tears a couple of times and it really was all about how the stage picture and the music melded. Hard to describe really. But an amazing experience.

What with seeing Coast of Utopia and Love, I have been blessed with seeing – in six months – the best theater I think I have seen in decades. Not bad….

Lost Wages

May 17, 2007 | Filed Under Main | No Comments

Conference in full swing out here in the desert – informative, boring, lame food, many accountants… We are in the Hotel Venetian, which is beautiful but the show “Phantom of the Opera” is housed here so that song about the “music of the night” is everywhere! Nice place otherwise. I hear it is in the 90’s outside. But I haven’t made it outside yet. This afternoon I will walk around a bit. Skipping classes.

BTW – These gambling video machines are boring. Just my opinion…

Added to iPod

May 12, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments

Quick stuff. Getting ready for Vegas!

Radiohead – “OK Computer”. Why wasn’t this there before?
Emerson Lake & Palmer – “Trilogy”. My favorite of theirs.
Guided By Voices – “Mag Earwhig”
Hoodoo Gurus – “Electric Soup” A singles collection.
Steve Hackett – “Unauthorized Biography” Another Best of.
Southside Johnny and the Jukes – “The Best of…” Another best of!

That should cover me. This brings us to (drum roll…) 6,320 songs or 19.1 days of music. Think of that…

Added to iPod

May 11, 2007 | Filed Under Music | No Comments

A visit to Boston!

Kristin Hersh – “Learn To Sing Like A Star”. Of the band Throwing Muses, but she’s been solo a long time. Her voice is sounding a bit worse for wear, but her songs are still strong and edgy. There are fewer quiet numbers than I’m used to but that’s a good thing. Songs like Sugar Baby and Under The Gun rock out.

Tanya Donelly – “This Hungry Life”. Also of Throwing Muses and Belly. Now HER voice is in great shape! Supposedly this CD was recorded live in the lobby of a hotel in Vermont in the summer (?). Whatever – this is a solid set of songs. The band and Ms. Donelly totally nail it. Each of her records has at least one perfect single on there. For this record, it’s “Kundalini Slide”.

Treat Her Right – “What’s Good for You”. I didn’t even know they put out a record! This was the late Mark Sandman’s band – another three piece – before the birth of Morphine. Saw them once at the Brendan Behan pub in Jamaica Plain. Does anyone remember?

Lightning In A Bottle

May 10, 2007 | Filed Under Theater, Writing | No Comments

This was my first play. It’s an extended one act about the life of the American actress Jean Seberg, paralleled with the rise and fall of Joan of Arc. A “two hander” as they are called – two actresses only.

If anyone’s in the city, I am having a staged reading of the play at the Dramatists Guild tomorrow (friday the 11th) at 7PM. The Guild is at 1501 Broadway, 7th floor. Come if you can.

Illegal Search and Seizure

May 9, 2007 | Filed Under Main, Politics | No Comments

Another softball game Monday and I had two singles, two RBI’s and a lot less pain than last week. Yea! Chris also scored his first goal in lacrosse. Yea!

Okay – so I have to go deal with local government tonight. Back to the Town Council chambers, hopefully with a number of other irate citizens. See – our Borough government is trying to pass a law proposed by our local police department. This law is aimed at stopping underage drinking. A commendable goal, of course. However, rather than curbing all advertisement and products aimed at teenagers and college students, they have taken this tack: If the Police become AWARE of a group of teenagers in a private home and they SUSPECT those teenagers MIGHT be drinking, then the Police can come to the door of your house and if they PERCEIVE that there is no adult at the home, then they can walk right in and issue tickets and make arrests. Also – while they are in the home, ANYTHING in plain view can be used as evidence to formulate a charge against either your child or the homeowner. All of this with no warrant required.

Now, here is what the Bill of Rights says:”The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Sound constitutional? Of course not. No one has a right to come into my house unless they actually know a real crime (there are various levels legally) is being committed. Beyond that – why not just make all teenagers felons? They enter high school and all receive ankle bracelets. That is how the law is judging them these days. Which is great from police officers who you know darn well drank before they reached 21! Imagine – at 18 you can leave home, sign loan documents, be tried as an adult, vote and go off to war to kill and be killed around the globe. BUT WE MUST PROTECT THEM FROM A COORS LIGHT!!! Stupid.

Look. These are tough years – granted. As a parent, I know I am being tested everyday. He’s going to make mistakes. I am going to make mistakes. That is how you grow up. And if he gets caught, he pays the penalties. But I do not agree with this “nanny society” we are living in. And I do not need the police pushing their way into my house on a whim. It is hard enough raising a teenager in this world. Because they know how hypocritical everything you tell them is. They see in on TV. They know your history. They watch our leaders lie at every opportunity. They may act like idiots some days, but they are not stupid.

I will add that one local municipality already passed this law. Another municipality made it a crime to smoke a cigarette in a car if there is a child present. If we are going to make bad parenting a crime, I going to start making my list of laws I would like to see….

Rise Up With Fists!

May 5, 2007 | Filed Under Music | 1 Comment

This is a great song by Jenny Lewis, recorded for the “Rabbit Fur Coat” LP with the Watson Twins. Jenny is an indie-diva formerly with the band Rilo Kiley (formerly or is the band lurking out there someplace?). She is gorgeous, has a beautiful voice and writes these caustic little tunes. That’s kind of the key – read the lyrics and imagine it being sung by angelic voices to a country twang. Trust me – it works.

What are you changing?
Who do you think you’re changing?
You can’t change things, we’re all stuck in our ways
It’s like trying to clean the ocean
What do you think you can drain it?
Well it was poison and dry long before you came

But you can wake up younger under the knife
And you can wake up sounder if you get analyzed
And I better wake up
There but for the grace of God, go I

It’s hard to believe your prophets
When they’re asking you to change things
But with their suspect lives we look the other way
Are you really that pure, Sir?
Thought I saw you in Vegas
It was not pretty – but she was

But she will wake up wealthy
And you will wake up 45
And she will wake up with babies
There but for the grace of God, go I

What am I fighting for?
The cops are at the front door
I can’t escape that way, the windows are in flames
And what’s that on your ankle?
You say they’re not coming for you
But house arrest is really just the same

Like when you wake up behind the bar
Trying to remember where you are
Having crushed all the pretty things
There but for the grace of God, go I

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists
And I will take what’s mine mine mine
There but for the grace of God, go I
There but for the grace of God, go I

Vegas

May 4, 2007 | Filed Under Main | 3 Comments

On May 15th, I am going to Vegas. For work. I have to go to a conference about accounting software. What better place than Vegas?

Now – I have never been to Vegas before. I don’t even watch the TV shows about it (isn’t James Caan on one of them?). Plus I am not the gambling type. Actually, I MAY be the gambling type, but I know I’m not the winning type. My people don’t win games of chance. We don’t win raffles or scratch tickets or 50-50’s or lotteries or horse races. However – my Mom does pretty well with the horses. Every Derby season, she and my aunts bet on the ponies. And Mom has a very simple system – she bets on any horse that has the word “cat” in its name. My guess is that she does better than most professionals. There’s a “cat” horse running in this weekend’s Derby – “Cowtown Cat”. I bet she could make some money if she bet more than $2.00. She also won during her stint on Jeopardy many years ago…

Be that as it may, I will not be hanging around the one-armed bandits being suffocated by smoke and horrified by humanity. I have a ticket to see one show – Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show “Love”. And my wife wants me to check out the Liberace Museum (I’m supposed to bring back fabulous baubles…). Other than that – I have no plans. I am staying at the Venetian which has fake canals and fake gondolas. There is much that is fake about Vegas.

BUT I am open to suggestions – the good and the bad. I can’t spend my entire time actually going to seminars, now can I?

The Bio #2

May 4, 2007 | Filed Under Main | No Comments

It’s up!

See – didn’t I promise?

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