No love lost

In Boston there wasn't the massive protests against Manny Ramirez
being traded--especially after Bay's winning performances these past
two games. While in Rockport, Sam and I came across evidence of the
collective sigh of relief that followed Thursday's trade.

Bruuuce!

It's 3am and we just got back from seeing Bruce Springsteen at
Foxboro. Great concert, one of the best I've seen. Time for bed!

Seaside Rocks

Sam and I had a very relaxing evening at Halibut Point state park in
Rockport. The weather was just beautiful and there was hardly anyone
on the shore. Sam enjoyed the kelp and other sea vegetation on these
rocks, which was showing really well because it was low tide.

Heli-hiking lodge view

Lake Champlain before the wedding

Holy shit!

Wowie! I'm now a married man and loving every part of it.

Puppy!

Sam wants a puppy! But not this one.

The Chuppah

A sign of how many days we have left until the wedding (13!). Tim and
I put together a sturdy chuppah that will make this wedding right.
Thanks for the help, Tim! And thanks for breaking the pot we had
previously chosen for the base of the pole. No kidding! These boxes
work a lot better.

Suggested Reading: China Earthquake Strips

Coco Wang, a Chinese graphic novelist and animator, has been producing an amazing series of strips about the aftermath of the earthquakes in China on 5/12/08. Some of the stories are on the verge of urban legends but you want to believe they're true because the tragedy was of such epic proportions. Definitely suggested reading, it's been blowing my mind.

My AM Walk

The Boston Community Gardens lies along my path between campuses, so I
walk along it about four times a week. This is one of my favorite
parts of my job. My colleagues say it must be a pain to walk between
campuses so often--the joke's on them.

Update: The Big Race

Sam got first place for her age group--yay Sam! Krista came in third
in hers, and so did their friend Lisa. You go girls!

The Big Race

Sam and Krista are doing their first five mile race today. They were a
bundle of nerves before starting but I'm sure that by now they're not
thinking about anything but putting more road behind them.

Update: Leif

I was walking by the Leif Erikson statue today and noticed the Guy
Fawkes mask was no longer there. Knowing it had been a windy and
stormy last night, I poked around the plants at the base of the statue
and, ok and behold, the mask was among them. My suspicion that the
"Anonymous" Scientology protesters were behind it was correct: inside
the mask was written their website--http://whyweprotest.net. Now my
cubicle is jazzed up with the addition of the mask and my decorating
is complete!

Update: McCain in Boston

Apparently John McCain is doing some fundraising, according to this
article below:

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=82564

Mike

McCain in Boston?

While walking over the Mass Pike today I saw The Straighttalk Express,
McCain's campaign bus, driving into downtown Boston. Didn't hear that
he was visiting today--maybe making a call on Ted Kennedy?

Leif

This statue stands outside of my work on Commonwealth Ave. and
something caught my eye today. Leif Erikson had a Guy Fawkes mask in
his hand. Maybe the protesters working against Scientology? Time will tell.

what the flim-flam flannigan?

oh my, words can't express my joy at seeing this. apparently it's a finnish band, backed up by the red army, singing "sweet home alabama"--awesome!

why did I ever take a Sunday job?

Woke up this morning, Sam and I did our usual Sunday morning tradition--a good breakfast, drinking coffee while reading the paper, afterwards settling down to catch up on whatever reading we didn't get to over the week. A quiet time, well spent. It's times like these I can't believe I got a Sunday job.

I've had the first week at my new job as the Library Assistant at the Simmons School of Management. The most demanding part of my job so far? Getting to know everyone by name; remembering names is something I've always struggled with (when I was younger I even had trouble keeping my aunt's & uncle's names straight) but I'm getting better at it. Have no idea how Sam remembers the names of all the children she teaches--imagine, she has two schools full of children, from first to fifth grade, whose names she remembers. Amazing!

We'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day tonight, since I'll be in class tomorrow evening, so that means I have to get around to making the beef stew before I go to my job in a few hours. But it also means I'll have a great stew and a couple of pints waiting for me when I get home.

the wedding looms large

Sam and I are prepping for our upcoming wedding and one (large) part of it is selecting our "favorites" from the endless stream of music out there. For someone like me, that's a hell of a thing because there's no favorites, and half the music I pick is vetoed because it's not dance-worthy. Well, who can blame me when I can't dance?!? Like I'd know what people will dance to.

I'm going through my ipod in order to see what I like. Maybe that's the problem, I get stuck on songs that are sentimental for me, but when you're all boozy with emotions you're not thinking about people dancing--you're crying in your beer. I just need to surf the web and see what suggested lists are out there, I guess, because this whole process is getting the better for me and all I'm doing is finding music to put on my gym play list. And by the way, why the hell is there a lot of Elton John on the play list? Should I even mention that in public? Think I'll have to balance that with some Misfits . . . .

So now it's only 4 short months before the wedding. And then, the honeymoon! We'll be vacationing in the Canadian Rockies, with the centerpiece of our trip being a heli-hiking adventure for three days. Can't wait.

Music being on my mind, I want to post this song for my friend, Jess, who's got some questions of his own on the subject. Enjoy!

it ain't all that (but it may be a piece of apple pie)

Oh God, if only our politicians were as honest as Phillipe

oh no!

my friend ashley turned me on to the online comic (or webcomic, for you nerds out there!) achewood. it was listed as number one in time magazine's top ten graphic novels of 2007, but we won't mention the many ways in which it isn't a graphic novel--rather, i'll show you how awesome it is by posting my (so far) favorite stip! you lucky dog, you . . . but you will have to put up with blogger cutting off the edge (don't worry, you don't miss anything).

plug

After writing that last post I listened to the tracks Quinn has up on his MySpace site. I'd highly suggest checking them out by linking here. And listen to them all, there's not a bad one. There's never a bad one, just ones that go by the wayside. Quinn, when are we going to have another "Cousins & Friends" release? Just because this song was so good . . .

mario mind

Just wanted to post quickly to let everyone know that I've posted pics from our vacation to Indiana over Christmas, as well as some pics we took of our First Night experience in Boston. It was a lot of fun, saw a really odd band called Uncle Monsterface. The band caught my eye because of the blurb in the First Night events booklet:

Come and see a sock puppet rock band featuring songs about lobsters and outer space, giant projections for every song including enormous prairie dogs playing guitars, a dance contest between humanity and monster-kind, and a cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. Yes, the sock puppets are in the band.They play instruments, make telephone calls, and teach the world to love again. And they dance dance dance. Totally.

How could you pass up a chance to see that? Well, it was all that and a can of beans, I tell you what! They covered "Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo and it got all the prepubescent girls out of their seats and dancing in front of the stage for the rest of the night. The show climaxed with "Lobster Building," with the audience invited onto the stage for a fitful orgy of leg-kicking and fist-pumping. It rocked. Check out the YouTube video of it below.

The whole thing reminded me of another off-the-wall show I saw, which my friend Quinn Walker opened for. For a time, Quinn was opening for a family that integrated slideshows (presumably found in the trash or bought at garage sales) into their musical act. Ever heard of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players? No? Big surprise, you're probably so uncool that you haven't heard of Uncle Monsterface either. Oh, you have? Then enjoy this, my friend!

To tell you the truth, the whole thing was a little creepy. The mother had made dolls that resembled her daughter, which she sold at the shows. The kid looked so bored you'd think she was doped up on lithium. But it was campy and that sold for a time in NYC.

And last, but certainly not least, what the heck does the title for this post mean? Mario mind?!? Well, it was a phrase coined by my very best friend, James Fegley, when we first got our Nintendo Entertainment System. James had been playing Super Mario Brothers at my house so much that he began to think of his environment in terms of the landscape in the game, which he then dubbed "mario mind." It plagued him in his sleep, it tormented him while he was awake. So now he doesn't play mario anymore. But I still do, and I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy nonstop on my wii. It rocks, but not as much as Uncle Monsterface!