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Classic Refused song from The Shape of Punk to Come (if you don’t know the band but the song sounds familiar, you may be recognizing it from the movie Friday Night Lights).
Just good for a little kick is the ass to get you going today, if you need it.
A little dose of Spiritualized for you:
Probably one of my favorite bands. I would have given anything to have seen one of their orchestral shows back in 2001 or 02 or whenever it was they were touring in support of Let It Come Down. Which is the album the above video comes from.
It’s just pure beauty. The sentiment is nice, too.
Today is the birthday of a friend of mine. In case they are reading this blog anytime soon, they certainly deserve a shout out…. yellow and white cake with green writing and pink candles should do the trick.
Happy Birthday, M! I was sending you good vibes all day, whether you needed them or not.
Update: Damn, broken image link. I’ll have to find another. Hope you visited before it went down.
This is hilarious.
Live From Congress: Rep. Ingersoll’s Murder of a Hobo
One of my lifelong best friends lives in the SC-04 district. God love the Onion, though I haven’t read it regularly in years.
I ate at the International Dynasty buffet in Cranberry the other day. And I liked my fortune enough to save it.
When the moment comes, take the top one.
I have an idea what it might mean, but instead I’m going to just stick it in my wallet to remind me when the time arrives.
Did you know that your fortune won’t come true unless someone else hands you your cookie? If you grab it on your own, it loses all of its mojo.
(9/6) Update: Well, this is an interesting twist. I just had lunch today at the Mandarin Gourmet with an old friend and the fortune I got in my cookie was “When the moment comes, take the last one.”
I was never much of an amateur astronomer (I usually impress myself when I’m able to do something basic, like find Mars or Jupiter), but even I have to admit this seems pretty damn cool.
I’m going to have to check it out when I get home.
Most of my family made it out to San Francisco in early August to visit my grandmother for her 89th birthday. Here are some of the photos from the trip. I wish I could have been there.
Everyone. Front row: My second cousin Ana, my cousin’s wife Celeste, my aunt Jean, Nancy
Back row: My cousin Mark (Jean’s son), my uncle Ed (Jean’s husband), my uncle Paul, my grandmother Ruth, my dad Robert and his cousin Marylou.
My uncle sent me this:
Pretty cool for fans of Rube Goldberg. According to the Youtube comments and snopes.com, it took over 600 tries to get the shot and cost something like $13,000,000.
It does what advertising is supposed to though: sticks in your memory.
Finally, it looks like we may be getting a few halfway decent shows coming to Pittsburgh, instead of them all skipping us in favor of Cleveland, like they usually do.
8/28: Meat Puppets @ Mr. Small’s
9/05: Bill Callahan (of Smog fame) w/ Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls) @ the Andy Warhol Museum
9/11: Aesop Rock @ the Rex
9/13: Feist @ the Carnegie Music Hall (one of my favorite albums released this year is The Reminder).
9/27: Mountain Goats @ the Rex
9/30: The Mekons @ New Hazlett Theater
10/2: Andrew Bird @ Carnegie Music Hall. (I’ll be in Denver)
10/9: Smashing Pumpkins. (I’m not sure I can muster up enough nostalgia for them to pay the $65 or whatever outrageous price they’ll likely charge).
Callahan, Feist and the Mekons would seem to be the clear top priorities. Now that I think about it, I might have to go to a conference in Williamsport overnight on the 13th. Fuck.
(Of course, Cleveland still beats us with: Modest Mouse, Mose Allison, the Black Lips, John Vanderslice, The Flaming Lips, Do Make Say Think, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Henry Rollins, Wolf Eyes, The Drive-by Truckers, Caribou, Lewis Black, Sharon Jones, Lucero, the Raveonettes and Tony Bennett, all between now and the end of the year.)
This letter from John Lignelli appeared in today’s Valley Independent. Excerpts:
Mr. Carlock you did not do your homework when you ask what Mayor Lignelli ever did for Donora. I must say I am ashamed of your lack of knowledge that you have about your hometown of Donora.
…
Donora is no different from other towns that have lost major industries. But at this point I would like to challenge you when you become retirement age, which will not be too far away.Come back to the town that you ran away from with your experience and your leadership skills and do something for the town where you were raised. Open a major food chain, a Super Target Store or a gas station.
In closing, Mr. Carlock, if you were mayor or a member of council, I would give you 30 years and you would never do what I have done for Donora and its people.
This is a great challenge for you, Mr. Carlock, just do 10 percent of what I have done.
John Lignelli
Mayor of Donora
John seems to take things pretty personally.
Donora was where my grandparents’ bakery was, growing up. My mother spent her entire childhood there. My parents are coming up for a planned visit on August 23rd, and staying for five days. One of the things my dad said they wanted to do was spend a lot of time kicking around the old Mon Valley. I am sure we’ll visit the cemetery, our old neighborhoods, maybe even stroll around downtown a little bit or get Detorre’s Pizza and take it to the Aquatorium. I really hope we can get out to Mingo Creek County Park. It should be a lot of fun.
I no longer have any real objectives for their visit myself. Just to get them some quality time with the boy. I warned them that their grandson is now practically adult human-sized so they should be ready for the shock after not having seen him in over two years.
I got a brief visit to my future office location. We’re not moving for four weeks and the whole interior is still a gigantic mess of construction, but I did get a chance to snap a quick photo of the view out my window.
(clicky go big)
Not too bad. Only seven offices have a river view. Makes me feel a little happier about work being so terrible lately. I still plan to keep the door closed and a bottle of whiskey in the desk drawer.
Update (8/20): The receptionist called to ask if I still wanted to have cable TV run to my office. I still can’t believe they seem to be going along with this request, which I never expected to see filled.
This is probably my favorite song of the year right now. I am really starting to love the Black Lips (very late to them, I know). They seem to capture that loose, drunken, stupid Replacements vibe without seeming too calculating about it.
I just found this cool site called 43things.com. It’s a goal-setting and tracking site where you can share goals with other people, encourage yourself and others and organize all your priorities with tags and rankings. All overlaid with a light layer of Web 2.0-style social networking. Apparently, it’s a well-known site and gets reviewed periodically. The sister sites (all part of a suite) are cool, too: 43places.com, 43people.com, listsofbests.com
I am using the hell out of this right now.
No, not for office. My past is far too checkered and shady for that.
For my health. And to clear my head, become a better person, evolve, shed some stress, etc.
I remembered that my friend Ephraim lowered his blood pressure about 15 points just by running several times a week. I have needed to do something about my high bp for some time now. Time to put up or shut up.
So, I’m running. On Wednesday I ran 1.5 miles. First exercise aside from tennis I’ve done in months. And the first time I’ve ran since probably 1997. It was excruciating. I definitely felt it the next day in my shins, my knees and calves and thighs. My muscles were in full revolt. They must have been like WTF is this bullshit?!
This morning I woke up at 5:30 am and ran another 1.5 miles. My plan is to run 4x a week, with a day off in between. Now, when I say “run” I really mean run for a bit, walk for a bit, run again. Alternating, like the experts say to do when you’re not a young pup anymore and you are starting up a new strenuous activity after years of inactivity.
The route is great…I’m going past the farm near my house and then down a shady country lane. Very picturesque. The only problem is the shoulders of the road are a little narrow in some stretches. And the road is hard. It would definitely be better on a track. If my knees wind up taking too much of a beating, I will switch to a track surface though. You have to think long-term, too. No sense getting into shape if I destroy my knees in the process.
The short-term goal is to lose 10-15 pounds. And to lower the bp. Just losing the weight is good for the bp in itself, but exercise helps it too. The long term goal is to get myself to my college “fightin’ weight”, and just become more self-confident in general.
I started at 197. I usually am right at 200 pounds. This morning I weighed in at 194 after the run, but I doubt all three pounds was due to the two jogs alone. I haven’t been eating a lot, and what I have has been more sensible (no fried foods for lunch, only rice cakes and water for snacks when home). On the off days, I’m going to do some situps and stomach crunches just so I don’t lose the progress I gain from running. I want to avoid having to join a gym, because I simply don’t like the sterility of the places and the macho preening. I have no qualms about running in bad weather (we’ll see if I feel the same come mid-January).
Updates on this activity/goal will probably be posted here at the bottom of this entry rather than in new ones.
(8/20): On my 8th run this morning…. almost made it to two miles!!! Holding at 193. Most surprising to me is the fact that I am getting up regularly at 5:30-6:00 a.m. with no trouble.
(8/25): Made a mile without a break. Overall distance still increasing each time out.
(8/28): Another mile uninterrupted. Shaved ~15-20 sec. off my time, which is still far above the average of 10:07.
(8/29): Weighed in at 189 today….before my afternoon run.
(8/31): 187. Ten pound goal is achieved. Woot!
(9/2): Made a mile and a half without pausing. Two miles overall with only a short break of less than a quarter mile. If I can get to three without stopping, I’ll be able to enter a 5K maybe.
(9/3): Ditto.
(9/8): Still maxxed out at 2 miles total with one short break after a mile+. 186 today. Only four pounds to go! Next time out I am going to try for 3 miles.
(9/23): Finally made two miles without a break. Hovering around 185. I’ve been eating worse lately though (blaming sports). My average time is not improving, but I’ve giving up on that — I’ve always been very slow, even as a kid.
Goddamn, these little critters are cute.
