Good grief -The Lime Bomber?

Are you a music nerd? (Note: this is different from a "band fag")

It's that time of year again - The Onion's Least Essential Albums of 2003. Funny stuff.

Finally, a Nor'Easter that lived up to its billing (yes, this links to pics). I'm still shoveling the driveway!

This article makes a very good case for getting your flu shot. Of course, as someone who makes vaccines for a living, I may be biased.

Ann and I were excited to catch the 20th Anniversary of Phish show last night at the FleetCenter. It was a great show, especially the video retrospective of Phish's career. Ten years ago this month I saw my first Phish show. The anniversaries put me into a reflective mood before the show and I thought of all that has happened to me since:

• I graduated High School, got into College and graduated College
  
• I took the PSAT, the SAT, 3 SAT-IIs and the GRE
  
• I've drank beers ranging from <1$ a can to $125 Sam Adams Utopias
  
• I've had 4 different cars to call my own
  
• I've had 7 different jobs
  
• I've bought 100 CDs, nearly all of them because of some close or not-so-close relationship to Phish
  
• I've seen 44 Phish shows
  
• I collected about 300 Phish tapes, and about 75 CDs
  
• I went from hoping and praying that my latest post would get into the r.m.p. digest, to being the person who decides what posts go in the digest
  
• And most importantly, I met Ann, got engaged, and got married
  

The first words that Ann ever said to me were "Whose Phish sticker is that?" noticing the classic green Phish logo sticker on my freshman dormroom door. Phish was already an obsession; after all that has followed those five words from Ann, Phish will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you Trey, Mike, Page and Jon.

Ann and I went out with Scott Friday night to the Skellig in Waltham. There was a great cover band playing called "The Swinging Johnsons." Wags tried to get them to play "Pour Some Sugar on Me" but they wouldn't do it - they stuck mostly to the classic cheese of the 70s/early 80s (i.e. Don't Stop Believin'). I find it funny that if they play at your wedding, they will call themselves The Johnson Brothers.

Normally I don't much like when bands sell out and have their song as the soundtrack to a commercial. But something about Ween's "Ocean Man" being in that Honda Civic ad makes me smile. Perhaps it makes me think of "Where'd the Cheese Go?"

I really hope this doesn't happen to me.

In a bigger upset than Virginia Tech beating Miami, yesterday Ann and I saw Dartmouth take down undefeated Harvard 30-16 yesterday, spoiling the 100th birthday of Harvard stadium. Among other great plays, Dartmouth's kicker made a 50 yard field goal, by far the longest I've ever seen in Ivy League football. The weather was great, as well - 70 degrees on November first - thank you ExxonMobil!

Last night we finally saw School of Rock. It was maybe the funniest movie since Happy Gilmore - definitely funnier than Old School, which was my previous pick for the 21st century. I just hope Jack Black stays off the coke so he doesn't end up like his chubby comedic predecessors.

Marketing is getting a lot more evil. For the record, I picked Coke in the Pepsi challenge.

5 outs away. Why must you torture us, Red Sox?

Jerry Remy doesn't know what to say.

The Sports Guy says it was the most painful loss ever.

The Red Sox have loss 1 and 1a on ESPN's most painful losses ever list. I might even say that this is worse than 86.

Everyone in Boston is walking around with a glazed look on the face, and you can see in their eyes that they are reliving the game, trying to put together what went wrong. 5 outs.

I guess all we can say, all we can ever say, is: wait till next year. And go Pats!

Cowboy up Boston!

Bob Dylan's thoughts on Johnny Cash.

Happy Birthday Ann!

Am I a nerd because this made me really excited? Or is the blog enough?

My company made the BBC! (Of course, they don't mention the name) Don't you love how the Brits use "jab" for "injection"?

Teen Girl Squad...issue 4!

Also, I think Ann's students will be tackling this book tomorrow.

Ahh...The Onion. Why must you turn your satirical barbs toward my beleaguered industry? Looks like I have some new cubicle wallpaper.

No, we can't pull out of Iraq now and spend the money elsewhere. But I was amazed at just how much $87 billion dollars was in relation to some of the other things the federal government spends money on (and some things it doesn't).

I love reading reviews of shitty beer. Here's a great one for Black Label (taken verbatim from BeerAdvocate):

One of my housemates jokingly said bring him back some back label when I asked what kind of beer I should get, and at 5.00 for a 12 pack I figured it was worth the novelty to try it. Wow, was I wrong after pouring my first one and realizing this is one of the sadest looking beers around with a yellow fizzy and thin white head this is the most boring beer I have seen. Aroma is full of cooked vegetables and smells like the burp after drinking a shitty beer, and when it comes to taste it had some sweetness there but it also had this unbearable harsh finish to it just horrible nothing good or positive to say about it. Weak carbonation thin body this beer sucks, and the drinkability you would think at least you could get drunk off of this one right??? Well, I only had a couple of 'em, however my friend who requested drank about five or six and he said he had a mild buzz but he threw in the towel because he said it felt like someone hit him in the head.

It "felt like someone hit him in the head." Priceless.

Reviews of new food. I'm particularly intrigued by the taco pizza rolls.

France Pics! We have more that we took with our film camera, but I haven't scanned them yet - maybe later. (BTW, the bridge labeled the Pont du Neuf is actually the Pont du Gard. It was amazing no matter what you call it!)

I love the nerdy things that Google comes up with. Now you can type a mathematical function in the search area and it will give you the results. It does conversions as well!

I've just put up a ton of pictures of IT. My review will follow later if I have time to type it up.

Greetings from The House of Live Phish at IT!

Top this, Jake.

Teen Girl Squad - Volume 3!

North Korea is scary.

Ann and I just got back from our 4th of July weekend in NYC/CT. We went down on the 3rd and saw a hilarious musical - "Urinetown." The premise is that some time in the distant future, water has become so scarce that you need to pay to pee (and shit for that matter). What made it so funny, however, was the fact that it was so self-referential and basically a parody of other musicals. It was a musical for the musical-haters out there. The coolest part was that the bartender from Northern Exposure was in the cast - I used to love that show.

Anyway, on the Fourth itself, Ann and I did a bunch of fun stuff. We went down to Battery Park and wandered around for a bit. It was wicked hot, so we looked around for someplace to cool off. Where we ended up was the National Museum of the American Indian. They had a great exhibit on modern day Mexican Indians that really used multimedia to great effect - there were artifacts, video interviews and photgraphs that melded nicely as a whole exhibition. If you've seen "Y Tu Mama Tambien," these Indians live in the area that the two boys and the woman are travelling to at the end of the movie. If you haven't seen it (the movie), you should!

After the museum, we decided to check out Ellis Island. We bought ferry tickets, and then proceeded to wait in a 45 minute line in the 95 degree heat to get on the boat. The boat stopped first at the Statue of Liberty (which you can't climb up anymore becase of terrorism concerns) and then at Ellis Island. The building at Ellis Island was amazing - just like in the Godfather Part II. The museum inside had several different exhibitions - my favorite was the one where you walked through the various rooms where the examined the immigrants for health, criminal past and ability to become a contributing member of society. Ann liked the "Treasures from Home" exhibit, which displayed all the different things that the immigrants found important enough to bring with them.

When we got off the ferry, we were back in Battery Park in time to catch the second half of the free Ryan Adams show. We couldn't get onto the lawn because it was "full" but we sat behind a chain link fence heard well enough. For some odd reason, it now seems to be legal in NYC to drink in the park - there was a snack bar selling Brooklyn Pilsner and Lager for 3.25 a cup - what a great deal! We both had a couple, got a good buzz on and chilled out to the alt-country stylings of Mr. Adams. As if there was ever any doubt, his "New York, New York" was the final encore.

After that we caught the fireworks, which were not quite the spectacle of Boston, but also much less chaotic crowdwise. Then we marched uptown until we couldn't make it any further, hailed a cab, and went to my new favorite bar in NYC - d.b.a. Of course, they didn't have any of my first choices from their beer list (Rogue Old Crustacean, Hair of the Dog Tripel and New Glarus Frombozen) but they had good substitutes at the ready.

The next moring we went up to Connecticut to meet Ann's family, watched the Sox beat the piss out of Roger, had some great steaks on the grill and rode a couple rides at a travelling carnival. Fun times...

Ann and I watched The Ring last night. It was one of the scariest movies we've ever seen - Ann slept with a flashlight. Highly recommended.

It isn't A Walk in the Woods, but here's a pretty funny account of a "hike" along the strip malls in Warwick, RI.

At least one branch of our government got something right. Here's an excellent excerpt from the ruling that applies to so much more than just sodomy:

"Liberty protects the person from unwarranted government intrusions into a dwelling or other private places. In our tradition, the State is not omnipresent in the home. And there are other spheres of our lives and existence, outside the home, where the State should not be a dominant presence. Freedom extends beyond spatial bounds. Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate conduct"

In my view, the country I love could probably survive another four years of Bush. But not if he gets to appoint two new justices to the supreme court like Scalia or Thomas who dissented with this opinion.

Can I move to another country? Because this is just scary.

Here are the top 20 greatest songs of the last 25 years according to VH1:

20 You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
19 Fight The Power - Public Enemy
18 Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
17 Photograph - Def Leppard
16 Don't Speak - No Doubt
15 Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) - Pink Floyd
14 Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinéad O'Connor
13 Waterfalls - TLC
12 You Oughta Know - Alanis Morissette
11 Jump - Van Halen
10 Like A Virgin - Madonna
9 Every Breath You Take - The Police
8 I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
7 When Doves Cry - Prince
6 Walk This Way - (with Steven Tyler/Joe Perry) Run-D.M.C.
5 One - U2
4 Lose Yourself - Eminem
3 Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
2 Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
1 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

Now, I know I'm never going to agree with one of these lists, but "Lose Yourself" by Eminem at number 4? I can think of several better Eminem songs, for God's sake. Am I just getting old?

I think I might have to vote for John Kerry. Any candidate who made it onto Nixon's enemies list is good enough for me.

I beat Ann at Scrabble! 258 to 164. Click on the image for a bigger view and try to guess which words were mine and which were Ann's.

Man was it fun watching Roger choke yesterday. Bill Simmons has a great article about Clemens on ESPN.com. My favorite line: "...Roger Clemens is the only modern-day superstar who doesn't belong to a single city. That's why he became a hired gun. That's why his Hall Of Fame plaque should feature him wearing a a cap with a dollar sign on it."

On Saturday, Ann, Kristin, Doug and I went to yet another beer festival. This one was called "The Art of Beer Festival". The twist for this festival was that it had seminars - it was mecca for beer geekdom. The highlight for me was hearing Sam Calagione (president of Dogfish Head) do a rap about hooking up with an Anheuser-Busch sales girl. Truly hilarious. Oh yeah - the beer was good too.

I love the Daily Show. Go to this page and click on Bush vs. Bush - it's one of the funniest things I have ever seen. (I've fixed this link - it should work now)

Ann and I just got back from the Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks show at the Paradise. It was our second time seeing them and they were as great as ever. The highlight was definitely "Stupid Jenny" as Malkmus called it - a really slow version of "Jenny & the S Dog" in which Malkmus crooned sans guitar, his drummer put a towel on his back like a cape and pulled a tom tom out of his set to the middle of the stage and the bassist played what remained of the drum set. He even altered the lyrics a bit, saying "the guitarist from the band Phish" after the "dog she named Trey" line. This only just scratches the surface of the antics during the song. I love a band that doesn't take themselves too seriously.

By now everyone nows the horrible news about the Old Man of the Mountain. Ann and I were really kind of sad when we heard. I know it was just a pile of rocks, but it was really one of my favorite things abut New Hampshire. It never got old looking at him.

When Ann and I were coming home from our vacation a couple week ago I drove us out of our way in a downpour so we could go through the notch and see him. The clouds opened at exactly the right moment for us to catch a glimpse... we didn't know that it would be our last. As Ann said to me after we heard the news: "I always thought we would bring our kids to see him."

It's paraphrased in nearly every article about the collapse, but I really like the full quote by Daniel Webster about the Old Man:

"Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

Should they rebuild him? I don't think so. Nature put him there, nature took him away. Ann's idea was to rebuild him on the ground, so people can see what he looked like, but to leave the mountain alone. I think that's a good compromise, considering that the Old man was probably one of New Hampshire's biggest tourist attractions.

One last thing - Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a pretty good story inspired by the Old Man if you are interested.

Lolly and I agree - this is the best music video ever. You need Real Player if you want to watch it.

Ann and I were going to go see Adaptation tonight, but while we were in Davis Sq. eating at Anna's Taqueria (Ann's favorite restaurant) we decided to go to NERAX (the New England Real Ale Exhibition for those of you who may not know). It was a mob scene, so we only got to try a few beers, but it is a cash bar, so you don't feel to bad when you only have a few. Cask conditioned beers are so good...

The mainstream media has caught on - PBR is the hippest cheap beer.

Do those kids look a little bit drunk?

Beth, Ann and Kristin were very sad that you couldn't be there. Jake too.

I had to save this for posterity - it's a list of the songs Jake and I were listening to (drunk) after the Beer Summit.

Dear Jenny,


We're drunk, but you're still cool.


Love,
Dan

We're looking forward to seeing the kid on the right tomorrow.

These pictures of ice are really damn cool (pun definitely intended). Be sure to click on "close" and "closer" at the bottom - amazing.

Now that I've broken my silence on the war, everyone must check out The Onion this week. Pure genius.

I've been trying to refrain from mentioning the war on our blog, but these posters are great.

It's gettin hot in herrrre...

Last night Ann and I met Doug at the Skellig for dinner and then went to see Old School with Scott, Russ and Russ' fiance. That movie was the funniest movie I have seen in a long time. We all loved it - I think it has a lot to do with the fact that all of us would rather be back in college.

Today Ann and I went to my cousin Kate's condo in Southie to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was a blast - all of my little cousins that were in the wedding were there and there were wild as usual. The best part was when the cops standing in front of us got yelled at by their supervisor for letting us drink on the street - we just put our beers down until that killjoy moved on and the cops didn't bother us again. Later some firefighters came up (mid-parade) to Kate's condo to refuel with some Guinness and Harp - it was one of those days that makes you proud to be half Irish.

Ann and I went to see Christian McBride tonight at the Regattabar. I heard an interview with him today on WERS - it's always nice to have a solution to the eternal question - "what the hell are we doing tonight?" I just picked up The Philadelphia Experiment (on which McBride plays with the drummer from The Roots and some white guy on keys) last weekend, so I was happy to see that he was in town. We hit Charlie's Kitchen for some double cheeseburgers, onion rings and some Corsendonk (Ann got a Bass).

Christian McBride is a damn good bass player - we had a great view of his hands and I always find it amazing to watch someone so good at his instrument. During the radio interview, he promised that his sax player would use some electronic effects, and he didn't disappoint. To paraphrase Otto from the Hullabalooza episode: "hey, his sax was talking!" (BTW, I find it very lame that they cut that scene out of the syndicated Simpsons). If only I had some pedals and an amp in high school! Ann and I were very impressed with the show. Medeski Martin and Wood still reigns supreme as far as jazz acts go, but I think it's harder for a band to stay within the confines of what the general public considers to be jazz and yet still innovate. MMW just decided they weren't going to play that game - but McBride's group was very entertaining and managed to cover new ground in that sometimes restrictive space.

Some random things (since Lolly wanted me to update the blog):

Someone is a little too obsessed with Strong Bad Email.

I'm really digging this application that puts the current weather in my menu bar, since I'm too lazy to go outside.

Are you as excited as I am for "the wearin' o' the green and the reinforcin' o' the stereotypes"?

Hmmm....what is the war against Iraq really about?

Finally, check out the poll on this page. I think we can all agree on the answer (it'll probably only be there for a day or so).

I just saw a Victoria's Secret commercial featuring a clip from Love Sick by Bob Dylan. I'm really kind of shaken up about it - I just want to believe that it didn't happen.

In one of the most amazing upsets in the history of sports, Johnny Spillane won the gold medal in the nordic combined at the world championships. It was the first ever gold medal in a nordic event for an American at a world championship or Olympics. USA! USA!

Friday night Ann and I went to the Middle East to see Sex Mob. We ended up getting more than we bargained for - 3 opening acts. First up was this guy (or host for the evening) called Evan O'Television. His act was talking to a videotaped version of himself. I'm sure he was trying to make some sort of point about TV and our society, but he was too damn annoying to get that point across. The most impressive part of his act came late in the night when people (myself included) started booing him - and his pre-recorded alter ego knew he would be getting booed at that point. And no, we weren't saying "Bu-urns."

The first musical act was this group called the Dresden Dolls. Kind of a punk/goth/pomo act with costumes from 1930s Germany. If you've seen the musical "Cabaret" that should give you some idea of how they were dressed. A strange choice of opening act for an avant garde jazz group It seemed like half the audience was there solely for them given their interesting attire/hairstyles/piercings and the fact that they left soon afterward. Jake, you'll be happy to know that the male member of the group is a Heineken fan

Next up was Beat Science. They were damn good, and since they were actually a jazz group, made sense as an opening act. They had a couple interesting quirks a banjo instead of a guitar player and a tuba (not a sousaphone!) instead of a bass. That guy was probably the best tuba player I've ever seen. They had the added bonus of having a sax player who periodically put down his horn and played two clarinets at once. Just goes to show you that sax is twice as hard to play as clarinet.

Finally, at about 12:30, Sex Mob came out. They were the tightest new school jazz outfit I've seen (Not to slight MMW, but I think it's harder for 5 guys to keep the avant garde jazz coherent than 3). They played a couple of Bond songs, and their leader (David Bernstein) on slide trumpet was one of the most energetic musicians I've seen on stage - he was running around more than Van Halen in their "Jump" video. They had a great groove going and I had a huge grin on my face while I did the self-conscious white jazz fan head bob dance. To great nights of music two days apart - that's the kind of thing that makes me happy to be alive. And it didn't even bother me that much that I had to go to work at 8AM on Saturday.

Ann, Doug, Lolly, Lolly's boyfriend James and I went to see Phish last night at the Worcester Centrum. As you can probably tell by the setlist, it was an awesome show. Much better musically than New Years' Eve, although MSG is a much nicer place to see a show. I really expected them to play songs from their solo acts at NYE, but better late than never. Highlights included YEM, Moma, Stash, Ghost - well, basically the entire second set. Even Fuckerpants was good - I think wearing the shirt made me enjoy it even more. I'll definitely be picking up a copy from LivePhish Downloads.

Mmmmmm...Vinnie's.

Here are some pictures of the aftermath of the blizzard.

Doug and I went skiing today at Gunstock I tried telemarking for the first time - it was incredibly fun. I feel like I've reached a plateau with my alpine skiing, so it was great to have a new challenge. My hamstrings are killing me!

We are in the midst of Blizzard '03 or the Birthday Blizzard or the Holiday Blizzard, depending on what trashy local news station you watch. It's snowing as hard as I've ever seen - and harder than Ann's ever seen. Luckily we were able to hunker down with some Stone Old Guardian, my Dad's Chex Mix and a little Joe Millionaire.

Teen Girl Squad - the sequel. This one is funny too.

This picture might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Yesterday I took Ann cross country skiing in Weston. She did pretty good for only her second time out. It's been a very long time since I've skied on waxless skis - I can't say I loved it, but since I broke my classic racing skis in college (going over a jump trying to impress Reggie) I didn't have much choice. The conditions were excellent, since we got about a foot of powdery snow Friday (following a prediction by the idiot meteorologists that we were going to get 1-3 inches).

On a lighter note:

Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant By Signing Every Player In Baseball. So funny because it's true. The Lord of the Rings article is damn funny too.

Strong Bad Email?!? - thanks to Liz Kane for this one.

This article sums up a lot of the feelings I had while watching the coverage of the Columbia tragedy. It was really painful to watch all of the coverage and have that old wound opened up again.

Just in case any of you haven't seen this:

Don't Stop Believin'

These cartoons are really funny. Especially "Confessions of a Serial President Hater."

Last night Ann and I attended a Burns' Night dinner at our friends Amy and Dave's apartment. Dave read the first three stanzas of Address to a Haggis and Amy cut it open. I could only manage one small bit, but Ann was able to eat more. I stuck to the "tatties" (mashed potatoes) and sausage roll with HP Curry Sauce. I enjoyed the single malt whisky much more than the haggis. Maybe a little too much...

Ann and I think it would be funny if someone walked into their American Idol audition and announced "I'll be singing 'Piss Up a Rope' by Ween." Actually a lot of Ween songs would be great.

Bush on North Korea: "We Must Invade Iraq"

I like beers that have stuff like this on the bottle.

Copying Jake again - click on recent tunes to the left to see what music I've been listening to at my computer lately.

Happy Birthday Jake!

Is this the greatest song ever?

Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves:
Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds:
You laughed as I covered you over with leaves, face, breast, hips and thighs,
You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes.

Rosin smells and turpentine smells from eucalyptus and pine
Bitter tastes of twigs we chewed where tangled woodvines twine
Trees held us in on all four sides so thick we could not see
I could not see any wrong in you, and you saw none in me.

Your arm was brown against the ground, your cheeks part of the sky,
As your fingers played with grassy moss, and limber did you lie:
Your stomach moved beneath your shirt and your knees were in the air
Your feet played games with mountain roots as you lay thinking there.

Below us the trees grew clumps of trees, raised families of trees, and they
As proud as we tossed their heads in the wind and flung good seeds away:
The sun was hot and the sun was bright down in the valley below
Where people starved and hungry for life so empty come and go.

There in the shade and hid from the sun we freed our minds and learned
Our greatest reason for being here, our bodies moved and burned
There on our mountain bed of leaves we learned life's reason why
The People laugh and love and dream, they fight, they hate to die.

The smell of your hair I know is still there, if most of our leaves are blown,
Our words still ring in the brush and the trees where singing seeds are sown
Your shape and form is dim, but plain, there on our mountain bed
I see my life was brightest where you laughed and laid your head...

I learned the reason why man must work and how to dream big dreams,
To conquer time and space and fight the rivers and the seas
I stand here filled with my emptiness now and look at city and land
And I know why farms and cities are built by hot, warm, nervous hands.

I crossed many states just to stand here now, my face all hot with tears,
I crossed city, and valley, desert, and stream, to bring my body here:
My history and future blaze bright in me and all my joy and pain
Go through my head on our mountain bed where I smell your hair again.

All this day long I linger here and on in through the night
My greeds, desires, my cravings, hopes, my dreams inside me fight:
My loneliness healed, my emptiness filled, I walk above all pain
Back to the breasts of my woman and child to scatter my seeds again.

Woody Guthrie (1944)

Go buy Mermaid Avenue Vol. II by Billy Bragg & Wilco if you want to hear it. Heartbreakingly good.

Did you buy at least one CD between January 1, 1995 and December 22, 2000? If so you are entitled to a cash settlement of $5 from a price fixing class action lawsuit. Go to this web page to file a claim. You don't even need a reciept!

If you didn't buy a CD during that time period you are officially lame.

I just bought this:

WorldWide Stout is the world's strongest dark beer. It is brewed using six different yeast strains over seven months and then aged for half a year. Dark, rich, roasty, and complex, World Wide Stout has more in common with a fine port than a can of cheap, mass-marketed beer (released November 1 each year...very limited availability). Bottled in 12 oz. bottles (because that's about as much as most of us could handle!) 

23.04 % ABV for 2002!!!!!

It's chilling now.

Wookies! Next time you are listening to some Phish, check out that page for the full concert experience.