Ann and I went to see Medeski Martin and Wood at the Orpheum Friday night. They are probably the most consistantly spectacular band playing today. Their sound has changed a lot over the years - I'm listening to their first album as I write this (which was all acoustic) and it's hard to believe that they are the same band we just saw, with 7 keyboards, 3 bass guitars and a nearly infinite amount of percussion. Watching them play really gives me chills - it's like watching Jackson Pollock paint - controlled chaos.

Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without a bunch of drunk idiots screaming at the top of their lungs and attempting to clap to the beat - this was especially welcome during the acuostic encore. We even saw a girl doing some liquid acid in the aisle next to us. I guess great music can't remain a secret forever. Maybe I'm just getting old and ornery.

Google has done it again. Their new Google News page has news from every source imaginable and with no annoying ads! It's like the internet used to be! Yes, in case you are wondering, I am a nerd.

Our president is smart:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once, shame on—shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again."
—George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (as bad as this is, the audio is even worse)

If he fools us twice and is elected again, shame on us.

Want more Bushisms?

In a further attempt to copy everything that Jake does with his blog, I've added a comment system to this page. This means if you have anything to say about any of these messages, click the comment link at the bottom of each post.

Hope you all enjoy the links to your left. Of course, they are probably more useful for me than you.

ObA&DC: We watched The Royal Tenenbaums tonight - it was pretty good. Can't say I loved it, but it beat whatever else was on TV tonight, and Bill Murray always makes me laugh. Directed by Wes Anderson, but not as good as his previous movie, Rushmore. It followed the same formula as Rushmore - introduce some quirky but lovable characters, tear them down and then build them back up. If you've seen neither movie, you should definitely check out Rushmore first - it's a modern day classic. And you cheap bastards out there who don't want to rent a movie can probably catch it on Comedy Central sometime.

Ann and I had a pretty eventful Friday night. We pretty much did everything Arlington had to offer. We started off with a dinner at Punjab, an Indian restaurant in Arlington Center. Then we headed over to the fireworks at Spy Pond, part of Arlington's town day celebration. The fireworks were pretty good, and in fact the whole experience reminded me of the 4th of July fireworks in Concord, NH where I grew up. This shouldn't have surprised me too much - both towns have about the same population and probably about the same fireworks budget. Before the fireworks Ann and I saw an amazing display of pubescent hormones - it seemed every middle school student in town had a can of shaving cream and they were all smearing it on one another, with particular attention being paid to the opposite sex. From a purely sociological standpoint, it was downright primal. The smell of shaving cream filled the air for at least a 200 yard radius around the kids. Crazy stuff. Ann also saw some of the first graders from her school - they had a great look on their face that said "What are you doing here? You don't live in the school?" - it truly freaked them out to see her in that context.

After the fireworks we went to the Boston-area premier of the movie "I am trying to break your heart" at the Regent Theatre - a movie about the band Wilco. Wilco is a band that Ann and I have been really digging lately - we've bought up all of their albums except one in the past couple of months. They're genre is called alt.country. If that doesn't really help you figure out what Wilco is all about, think of them as a country Pavement. Anyway, the movie was great - it chronicled the making of their latest album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot," (which has won acclaim from critics all over the place) and the fact that their label dropped them after they gave them the album. Bad idea - it later debuted at #13 on the Billboard charts. Anyway, I think the sign of a great documentary is if you come away from it saying "I didn't know...but now I do." If you want to really lose respect for the corporations running pretty much all of the American media see this movie.

Okay, sorry we haven't updated our blog in a month, but our lives have been pretty boring. We only got married and went on a honeymoon.

Actually, our wedding was probably the best day of our lives, and I've never been happier than I was on that day. When Ann and I were holding hands on the altar I could truly feel our hearts beating as one and I knew that our life together would bring us lots of happiness. If you are planning a wedding, all of the headaches and discussions will definitely pay off in the end. And I will definitely have a much greater appreciation for other weddings after living through almost two years of planning our own. As soon as I get on the ball, I will scan in more pictures. For now you'll have to be happy with one of our favorite pictures in the bunch.

While I am handing out unsolicited advice/wisdom, everyone who is looking for a place to go in the Caribbean should go to St. John. It is an amazingly beautiful place and two thirds of the island is completely undeveloped in the Virgin Islands National Park. The year-round population is only 5000 - compare that to neighboring St. Thomas at 50,000 - which would you choose? As you can probably imagine, the beaches weren't too crowded. The National Park was great - there was a 1 mile trail that left right from town past some creepy cacti to a secluded beach at which Ann and I made up 50% of the sunbathers. On our way back we set the camera timer and took our picture at the overlook above Cruz Bay. As you can see from the picture, we were hot, sweaty and in love - which makes for a great honeymoon!

So we get home from Logan Airport on August 19th and find this in our e-mail boxes! The hiatus is over! And I just found out yesterday that my mail order was fufilled for the New Years Eve show! Sure, we are in section 418 (which stands for the approximate number of feet above the stage we are), but as I said to Ann, we're in the building! Everything's coming up Millhouse!

And we shouldn't forget to mention Ann's new job as a first grade reading specialist at the Brackett School. It's only a ten minute walk from our house and she'sloving it. That's all for now...more later.