Touché

This morning I put on a hand-me-down shirt that says "One Georgia Center Health Club" on the front of it. At breakfast, as I'm eating my Cap'n Crunch, Ben asks the following question.

Ben: "Daddy? Does your cereal have a lot of sugar in it?"
Me: "Yeah, buddy, it does."
Ben: "Then why are you wearing a shirt that says 'Health Club?'"

The Gambler

Yes, the long rumored third installment of the "Pop-Up-Video minus the video" videos is available on YouTube now. Like the others before, it took much longer to complete than I had estimated. This time the difficulty was not in assembling the frames of video but obtaining the data. Well, watch it and you will understand.

Just click here.

Dunkin Donuts = TMBG = Accordions = Decemberists = The Who Sell Out

Well that connection is obvious isn't it?

As anyone who knows me knows (is there anyone else really reading?) my mind tends to wander. Recently I re-discovered the They Might Be Giants website after seeing a Dunkin Donuts commercial that I thought they sang the song on. I found a site with all of the commercials and mp3's of the songs but it has since been shut down by They Might Be Giants. Anyone not familiar with the band should know (for the purpose of understanding this drivel) that they use the accordian a lot, along with a smattering of other non-traditional instruments for a "rock" band. (While on their site check out the Venues videos. Being a huge fan of two of Yes' albums, my personal favorite is the first one titled "Dallas.")

Anyway I got to thinking about the accordion. I mean about learning to play one. Why not? I mean it's totally eclectic. And unlike my failed Theremin, there is no way I could build one. But I didn't really know alot about them so I went right to the Wikipedia article and started reading. Turns out there are a few different kinds and a lot of information about the instrument. Kind of discouraging.

But in the article they mention some popular bands of today that are still using accordions, one of which was The Decemberists. So I found their website and really liked the music. (If you have iTunes check out the sample of the song 16 Military Wives. It rules.)

As you can read on their website, when the Decemberists toured in support of their album Picaresque they had an additional musician with them named Petra Haden. She plays violin, sings, and comes from a musical family. She plays with a lot of other bands like Decemberists; even the Foo Fighters and Beck. But she also releases her own stuff occasionally.

Well she just released an interpretation of The Who Sell Out album. The whole thing is accapella and she has even included the advertisements between songs. Pete Townshend said of the record, ''I heard the music as if for the first time. I listened all the way through in one sitting and was struck by how beautiful a lot of the music was. Petra's approach is so tender and generous. I adore it.''

Anyway, that's often how my mind works. Good thing the internet works that way too.

Why?

Joy Behar of The View (the "jolly, fiesty, red-headed" one) has just put out a children's book about a dog. The name of the book is: Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog. Now if you read the book description it says the dog in the book is named "Max." Therefore, I can only assume that the title is just a "clever" way to plaster the word "sh*t" three times across the cover of a book in the Children's section of the store. Maybe you're thinking the children won't latch onto the title and repeat it endlessly because they don't know what it means? Now, that's a load of crap.

The End Of Wisteria

Recent "improvements" to Rockbridge Road have necessitated the cutting down of THE Wisteria Tree. I stress "the" because wisteria can be cultivated to grow freestanding or it grows on things, as in the picture to the right. In this instance, it had grown on a seventy foot tall pine tree and completely taken it over. It was, in my experience, the only wisteria tree of this tremendous size.

The wisteria vines at the base of the tree were easily a foot in diameter and almost complelety encircled it. And in the spring it looked like the picture at the right except seventy feet tall and about thirty wide. It really was amazing and I would find myself going out of my way to see it during the two weeks that it was in full bloom.

But Rockbridge Road needed to be widened. So the tree came down. The wisteria would eventually have killed the pine tree and consequently possibly killed itself. But I think it had a few more good years had it been left alone.

Now people will be able to drive by even faster and not notice what they didn't notice before.

My New Favorite Radio Station

You can listen to my new favorite radio station here. It will stream through your windows media player.

For those of you expatriates of the Atlanta area that may not have heard, 96ROCK is no more. To be fair I didn't listen to it and apparently nobody else did either. It was around for at least 25 years but.....

So radio stations have moved and changed a little and 105.3 FM, which used to be The Buzz is now El Patron.

The music sounds very Bavarian. Like a Latin American Bavarian Oompah Band. All of the songs feature a tuba and accordian. And there are no commercials. Oh, and it's in espanol.

Sounds like heaven right? Well I haven't even gotten to the best part. The pre-recorded announcer who says the name of the station is soooo awesome. He says, "Cien Cinco PUNTO Tres.....El Patron." There are a few different versions but the best is the one where he says it really deep and excited.

Give it a listen.

What I Thought I Knew

I thought I knew a lot, but I never really knew fear until they took you out of your mother and you were a horrible blue from lack of oxygen. I never felt so protective until I held you close. I never really knew how angry I could get until you wrote on the new iMac screen in permanent marker. I never laughed so deep until you told your first knock-knock joke. I never knew how hard it would be to get through Nemo without crying until I had you. I only thought I knew happiness until I heard you say "daddy" for the first time. I never felt as helpless as when you were so sick with fever that your hands radiated heat. I never knew the depth to which I could worry, until I began to fear you might grow up like me. I only thought I knew love until you squeezed my neck for the first time. I never felt so proud as every day for the last six years.

Thank you, son, for teaching me. Happy Birthday.