As Dreamers We'd Scream All the Songs, Break in the Windows, Burn All the Documents

A blog a day keeps the demons away. A free form blog today, we'll see where it goes.

Lots of Ed Harcourt references today, he's surfaced amongst my friends, as the Joshmeister asks me where I can get a copy of the Snug album. I said damn that's a tough one, I got it from a friend who's friends with the bass player's brother.

30 -- I'll be turning the big 30 in September, and I insist we do something meaningful and off the beaten path for my 30 year old balls. So Ashley suggests camping out, and I'm like, that sounds like a great idea, and I also have to paint a picture of how I feel at age 30, Ash is gonna hook that up. I got to pick where we camp and it's looking like this place Apache Pass is home to a biker get together on my birthday weekend, with a performance from Rick Derringer. That's some entertainment! hahaha -- If you look at the venue, you will be standing in the water in front of the stage, should be interesting.

Constant Cognition -- I'm reading about this sh*t and I think its something I'm 'blessed' with. Means basically you can't turn your mind off, you think a lot of random stuff, and you're not able to really excel at any one thing. Well the mind is alway churnin', but its like Timmy's big 4x4 truck in 4-Low spinnin' in a big hole. Inspiration will eventually pull all this randomness together I think.

Lots of friends are getting Married these days, congrats to all you folks. I'll take a piece from Love Actually, my favorite chick flick of all time, that says, love doesn't really make the headlines, but it's everywhere all the time, and its significant to those who are living it. I've decided to find a bride here, that one chick on the left looks really hot.

The pickle says it best in the picture in my inbox this morning. I'd put a link to his blog, but he's lazy and doesn't blog anymore. Turdboy didn't even call me from the Flaming Lips / Ween show on Saturday to give me a listen to Baby Bitch or Mr Would You Please Help My Pony. O well. Just send Condi over to take care of it tweedle dee and tweedle dumb say.

Quotes, about the two things most searched for on the Internet, sex and UFO's --- and the words that generate most ad revenue......college loans...


“Don't have sex man. It leads to kissing and pretty soon you have to start talking to them.”
--Steve Martin

“That's an act, that's a frying pan, that's a stove, you're an alcoholic! Dude, I'm tripping right now, and I still see that that's a fucking egg, alright? I see the UFO's around it, but that's a goddamn egg in the middle. There's a hobbit eating it, but goddammit that hobbit's eating a fucking egg! He's on a unicorn. But, no, th-th-th-that's a fucking egg. How dare you have a wino tell me not to do drugs!”
--Bill Hicks

“Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant”
-- PT Barnum

-----------------------------------
As dreamers we'd scream all the songs
That we'd known all our lives off the roofs of the city bankers
Break in the windows, burn all the documents
Rich daddy's boys...
Rich daddy's boys!

Excerpt from 'You Only Call Me When You're Drunk' -- Ed H.

See Jim Light His Management, And Watch Dan Lose His Tournament

The morning of what just happened here turned into a day of sleeping till 6pm, whew haven't done that in a long while.

Body can't handle hanging out with youngsters anymore, someone said that when you're around 30 you can't take being 'hardcore' anymore, I'm going to have to tend to agree, however this old pops can outlast most of these young souls on a night of 'partying.'

Problem is, you don't get too much out of it, if you hang out with people who speak their mind, conversation is free flow already, but I can see how the booze gets the typical happy hour crews going.....this never ceases to blow my mind.

Yea, I got loaded, no I got more loaded, man I drank this this and this....O yea, well I drank this and this too!

It gets you in trouble too, crazy things happen ...as AJ would say 'Under the Influence,' things that you can't take back, things that aren't status quo (more often than not a bad connotation), and sometimes you just have a look around and if you in the 'right place' and go golly, it's not what the world has come to, but rather, I'm too old for this sh*t.

Enough rambling about booze, the typical pub, good people good banter is where it's at, but drinking for the sake of drinking and getting drunk, damn it's pretty passe.

Now Every Once In a While, There's a Crack in my Smile, Dark Voices are Talkin' to me, Dark Voices they Tell me the Way

A strange evening, started with watching Permanent Record, A Violent Femmes concert and music video collection, pick it up if you have some extra money laying around and you won't be disappointed! I remember Bevis and Butthead loved the 'Breakin' Up' video, and I'm right there lovin' it with them.

Beast, Neeka, Crystal and I stay up hardcore boozin' till the wee morning hours. You see these days with trips to Germany and 600 dollar tests, I'm broke, I'm drinkin' what's available, so this means kegorator beer with the nephew, then to mixed drinks with friends, then to wine with some oldies, then back to some beast Captain Morgan.

Somewhere in there we went to Moulton Jamboree, saw some crazy redneck sh*t, I recall dancing and getting too dizy and had to quit, then back to beasts place. Nights ends somewhere in the vicinity of 5am, beast passes out on the floor, Neeka in the recliner, and I left and forgot to bring my shoes, beast would wake up the next morning and say "What the hell happenend last night....I remember watching Ben Folds, and that was it" --- whew

Not for the weak at heart, a video of 'Country Death Song', by them Femmes.

One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This

A nice evening downtown Austin, first in a long time, Rolando comes from LA, and we meet up with Ashley and the crew.

Ashley and her friend, doing their part to keep Austin weird, by hula hooping in the middle of the street and wearing some crazy stuff.

Roland is now becoming a steady here in Austin it seems, as his tradition is to land at the airport, send a text that says 'whateva austin' --- and then on his departure the text is 'whateva austin -- lata.'

You Tube surfing continues, listen to this man's voice, simply amazing.

Use Every Chance You've Been Given

Round One goes to PMI --- Yea, no ego crusher, I just underestimated the difficulty of the test. What's another 400 bucks to retake in a few months, in the perspective of it all.

Worse part about failing a test like that is everything in the past few years that has troubled you comes bubbling up to the surface, bad friend episodes, bad love episodes, bad decisions you've made in life, you know, all that sorta stuff.

Head back to the house, sis and are are GLUED to the TV, as 'The Notebook' (Google search link #1), a chick flick some teeny bopper told me to check out a few years back, and I scoffed at the idea, but the premise of the movie is spectacular, especially if you've ever dealt with similiar circumstances.

Anyway, heavy rotation of Sondre Lerche and the faces down quartet, no use crying over spilled milk, the new album is wonderful, its jazzy, but not that jazzy, more like pop jazz or something like that, that's what I expect out of jazz until I'm old and mature enough to appreciate more of the 'real thing'.

Just Talk and Make Plans in the Dark, Or Make Haste with Ideas that Can't Help But Creep Good People Out

Hopefully I'll get a nod or wink from the Gods. If I don't pass, I'll know why, I know what I'm weak on, If I pass, I'll be at Crown and Anchor tomorrow night getting blitzed.

Let's talk about what's conventional....Study for months and months, a balanced concerted effort, phased learning and all that jazz. Let's talk about Robert study methods, f*ck off for the six months during class, slackin' not putting in the due diligence, taking two 4 hour practice tests back to back two days before the test, and not a day of rest before the test, but rather giving the first good look at the ITTO's for the nine knowledge areas. You see, there's about 1,200 ITTO's, well I remember the cliff notes version eloquently knowns as 'Ritas Process Chart.' So we'll see if that will work. If I'm to pass, its due to my skill in calculating earned value, standard deviation, cost and schedule variances (I'm good at that sh*t).

So I'm sitting here, watching Armageddon with my sis, (who's seen it about a thousand times and quoting what Steve Buschemi says before he says it), my 'down time.' It's like the athlete before the 'big game,' I've got a puckered b*tthole, nervous as all hell, etc....but hey when it all comes down to it, its a mere 400 bucks to retest.

Tomorrow, 10.30 AM I'll be sitting in some crusty testing center, probably with some crusty headphones on, Red Bull and Skor bar, and hopefully when the battle is over and the dust settles, I'll click the 'finish' button, it'll say I pass and I'm certified, and I can be a happy dude and then focus efforts on finding the job of my dreams.

No guts no glory, balls to the wall, Carpe Diem, however you want to see it.......or...tomorrow is another day. Regardless, send good vibes my way, the entropy may help me get a question or two more right.

my predictions
65% -- Pass
35% -- Fail

-------------------------------------
"Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe Dimaggio

Acronym overload, can't memorize anymore, my feeble little brain is about to explode. All you pray'ers out there, let the praying begin.

One of those boring pictureless posts, but hey, everything lately has been slipping by the wayside in preparation for the test Thursday. I covered my bad points this weekend and worked on my 'brain dump,' which is the material you frantically write down during your brief tutorial on how to take the test. As it stands in my head now, I feel there is a 70% chance I'll pass it, a 30% chance I'll be pissed off and go back to the drawing board.

There has been a lot of interesting stuff going on as of late, just don't know how to present it on the blogosphere, but rest assured, if I pass the test on Thursday, I'll be posting pictures of me blitzed in some pub with buddies in celebration.

As I drove back to Austin today, I realize I have the hillbilly / slop-och gene in me, as I walked into the convenient store with dress shoes on, no socks, swimming trunks, and some crusty old shirt I'd worn the majority of the weekend. Call me Mr. Casual I suppose.

Topics I've not blogged about because I don't have time to really think them thru, but have been the topic of conversation with friends lately is.....How selfish and lazy people are these days, especially the youth, seems as if parents have raised kids good, now they are lazy in return, the topic of socialized and privatized medicine has come up many times on the basketball court while playing horse in the burbs......of course the Iraq stuff I think about a lot, and how it seems very hard to find identity in this country, democrats don't seem to have the figurative 'balls' to stand up for anything, Newt could be the next PUSA (President of the USA)>> --- Maybe its good that I don't blog about heavy stuff, just keep that shit light and fluffy.

Job hunting will hopefully aggressively commence Friday with the passing of the exam. My inner self is still telling me something big and bold is on the horizon, and I'm looking forward to a change of pace whatever it is. I believe that to be the motivating factor in my life. I've always wanted to learn German, if I move over there, fall in love with a German chick, that's the ultimate motivating factor for learning the language I suppose.

If I do get a fat raise at a new job, I've vouched to send my mamma and brother on a cruise of some sorts. I really don't want to go, for I'd be sitting in the 'boat Internet cafe' the entire time. Man but if they party below deck, as depicted in the Titanic, shit I'd be game for that.

Hometown stuff.....well our new high school looks like a showbarn for livestock, I saw back to back beautiful sunsets, Bob and I rode about 13 miles on the bikes (we are planning on doing the BASH next year if our big asses can get into shape.

The Austin Family, Jeannie Rob Collin and Kyle head to Disney (the one in Florida) and I'm going to have a checklist of things to do, and I'm nervous about it. Nothing hard, but just logistical / overhead of life type stuff that I'm horrible at...... i.e. watering plants, watering grass, feeding cat, paying house cleaning woman, ummm, making sure the place doesn't burn down, etc. Hopefully I can keep things together! I recall the the last time we went for a family gathering in Cali Disney, what an experience with the other reproducing faction of the family. A 15 passenger van full of people and the 5 in Los Angeles traffic, WHEW!.

In the meantime, tomorrow I'm using any and every study method possible, and a light day of studying on Wednesday. I'm a retard, I even recorded myself and made a CD of myself spurtin out sigma rules, risk mitigation strategies, cost performance index formulas, and other general shit that I have down in a common sensical way, too bad it HAS to be proven on paper. It's amazing how lisp-y I am when I talk, and amazing that no one has ever really pointed that out to me, damn I must sound drunk the majority the time I'm talking to people.

There you have it, nothing of substance, nothing really thought out, nothing really cohesive. I promise to be back to my normal perky writing style next week, If I pass, If I don't pass, I'll be pissed off for a few weeks, memorize a few hundred more ITTO's and take that bizzo again.

Hanging in the small town lately makes me think about the gradual decline of the small town, and a Radiohead song 'Banana Co,' a song about a love / hate relationship with the local factory. I suppose this rings true with Shiner, too.

Have a lovely day everyone, look forward to rejoining the ranks of 'normal' life soon.

---------------------------
Oh, banana co.
We really love you and we need you
And oh, banana co.
We'd really love to believe you, but
Everything's underground
We gotta dig it up somehow
Yeah yeah

Oh, she said no go
She said she'd like to
She's seen you
But no, no-ho go
She says if you die then we all do
Everything's burning down
We gotta dig it up somehow
Yeah yeah

Everything's burning down
We gotta put it out somehow
Yeah yeah

I Try to Focus, I'm Starin' At the Screen, Pretending what I know what All These Little Flashing Lights Mean

A bit disheartening when you sit there for 4+ hours taking a practice test and all you can muster is a 60.57, you need 61 to pass, wonder if they round up? The questions are intimidating, misleading, and downright shitty at times.

Reading all this project manager is omnipotent jazz and trying to figure out all this stuff makes me think that I'm going to live a life doomed to hell if I actually do this 'correctly' in the working world, I better get a gold plated Ferrari! -- hahaha

The last 8 or so months has equated into what can be comperable to your hardest college class. However, the benefit is not that you just memorize a bunch of shit to be forgotten, but some practical life skills in organization and management can be derived from these 'knowledge areas.'

No use spending 600 bones to take the test until I can consistently score in the 70's on this biatch. Two more practice tests, if I score over 70, I'll take GOSH DARN (politically correct way of saying something far more potent) test next Thursday, if not, I'm going to postpone a few weeks in order to have MORE 'brown bag lunches' with more 'SME's.'

As Dr. Smith from Lost in Space would say "O the Pain, O the Pain."

Knowledge Area No	Knowledge Area	% Correct
1	Project Management Framework (15 questions)	73 %
2	Project Integration Management (14 questions)	42 %
3	Project Scope Management (19 questions)	68 %
4	Project Time Management (23 questions)	65 %
5	Project Cost Management (17 questions)	47 %
6	Project Quality Management (17 questions)	64 %
7	Project Human Resource Management (15 questions)	46 %
8	Project Communications Management (13 questions)	69 %
9	Project Risk Management (15 questions)	46 %
10	Project Procurement Management (14 questions)	57 %
11	Project Professional Responsibility (13 questions)	84 %

To Find Your Heart I Had to Lose My Mind

Phil Morris used to live right next to me, no, not the Phil Morris who sells sticks, Miller Light and cheese noodles, but the lively bass player in the 'Ricky Stein Band,' or something like this. The have a gig every Saturday night at The Hole in the Wall.

For the last 6 months, Mr. Phil has texted me every Sunday, and I FINALLY made it out to a gig. Well the music was pretty good, and the PMan plays some very tasty basslines. There's a good chance I'll head back one of these days, wheneva I'm in the area.

Black Joe Lewis opened, and he was a treat too --

Workin' Double Time on The Seduction Line, She Was One of a Kind, She's Just Mine All Mine

Trainwreck, a cover band that plays out in the burbs was the tunes we listened to at the venue 'The Roadhouse', a place that has the same atmosphere as my hometown. The brothers in law and I 'painted the town,' so to say. It's crazy, I used to have Crown and Anchor as my local pub, now I have the Roadhouse, not a step down, rather a step off the cliff. Regardless, a fellow accountant of my brother in law 'Big Rob' was the drummer, and his brother was the guitar / singer who was rippin' that strat up all night.

Shannon, my other brother in law would yell, 'Give it up for the Train Wreck dancers!' at the top of his lungs after dancing to 'Play that funky music white boy' (video) . Highlight of the evening is when the band sang 'the beer song,' in which the lyrics were simple 'Beer, Yea, Yea, Yea,' and they did that in about 5 different languages, it rocked!

My brother in law Shannon is in rare form on the evening, as him and Ashley do 'the pretzel', a move he does with his daughter, who is about as tall as Ashley. It was funny, Ashley is the shortest in the club, and Shannon by far is the tallest in the building. Check out the hysterical video, Ashley couldn't stop laughing, as she was getting jerked all over the place. Here's the country version of you shook me all night long.

Finally its great to have a local pub where you can see denim like this! Two lovely ladies even let us watch a 'butt wiggling' contest!

Just don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think it'd understand and if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, he might blow up and kill this man.

Ooo

Here They Come Again and They Got You On The Ground, Tastin' Blood Again, At Least It's Your Own

Blogging is fun, and a nice with Mike P always gives me inspiration to write something up, even though he's one sick and twisted individual. hahaha

I'm still coming off cloud 9 from the gig at the Hollywood Bowl. Often I call people in the middle of gigs, when a song reminds me of someone, I'll ring them up, and give them a listen, when Belle and Sebastian played Lord Anthony (Video) , I couldn't help think about Mike P.

You see, Lord Anthony is a song about a smart kid, a smart kid that got beat up by jocks, he was misunderstood growing up, and due to this damage as a young lad, he grows up to be a transvestite, or cross dresser, or something like this. Mahon says he relates to this song, a smart kid, perhaps misunderstood as a kid, but thank God he didn't do what Anthony did, he's still relatively 'sane.'

I woke up one morning, and this was in my inbox. It was funny as hell, he's a whiz with photoshop, he had to take about 3 different pictures of me to make my eyes appear as they were looking at his a$$. Well I got a laugh out of it, even the names have changed.

------------------------
"Tony, you're a bit of a mess;
Melted Tolberone under your dress
If the kids could see you they would pass you right by
Blue mascara running over your eye"

It Was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times, The Age of Wisdom, The Age of Foolishness

Wow --- sometimes life just knocks the wind out of you. A hero of mine would say, "it's hard to know right from wrong, when all objectivity's gone, but you still carry on," man and it's really tricky for an identity blogger to blog about things that vexes them, especially when it comes to 'protecting' the innocent and bashing the 'guilty.' Everyone has reasons for self preservation and self actualization, but isn't it strange that the people who are truly closer to this in life are the ones that often can't sleep at night (yea I'm an idealist, shoot me).

But --- why complain? Most things are great, living out in the burbs is great. I'm just waiting for my nephew to pop his head up one day and say "Why is my loser uncle sleeping in my bed." hahaha, o wait, that's not funny.

Another perk of the burbs is reconnecting with friends that live in the area. My great high school buddy Brandon come to find out lives about a mile down the road from me, and tonight we shot some hoops. Back in college we used to play with some good basketball players, and Brandon was actually good, they called him 'Bird.'

Well I had the pleasure to be in 'Bird's' wedding some time back, and here's a picture of Bird and his lovely wife Becky.

Tomorrow is my information dump session for the PMP exam, I've taken a practice test, It was VERY f'in hard, I didn't pass, but after I take two more hopefully I'll get that average up.

This weekend is Collin T's birthday, and we got the dual party thing going on, first with all the kids on Saturday, which I'll try to avoid, for as the Grinch would say, "O the Noise, Noise, Noise." Sunday is the family party, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, giving people massive bear hugs, and maybe a dog pile or two is in order.

This weekend I'm also sending out about 1,000,000,000 resumes, does anyone want to buy me this?

I'm Lookin' In On the Good Life I Might Be Doomed Never to Find

The Shins, Belle and Sebastian with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, an AMAZING evening. I arrive in LA around noon on Thursday, and would be leaving at 6.30 am the next morning, the slingshot trip proved to be worth it and then some, as expected.

Hollywood Bowl, well the game has changed for me in terms of live music venues. It's got a natural slope, the weather is (or was) amazing, you could see the Hollywood sign from the venue, everyone (all sold out 18,000+) had a seat, and the acoustics in the amphitheatre were amazing!

Everyone has eaten some shitty nachos and drank an 8 dollar Miller Light plastic bottle at your local Amphitheatre, not at the bowl. I had a 25 Dollar bottle of Merlot (despite the thoughts of that dude on Sideways), and the chick beside me was eating some tasty lookin' shrimp, and the people in front of me had sushi, all bought at the 'market' inside the venue. That's pretty classy shit.

Now on to the show, The Shins, automatically I'm a bit biased as they are a band I go back to all the time, a solid 4 piece outfit, wonderful lyrics, great sound. If I could have seen the Playtones stuff in the 60's, I would see The Shins as something much like this, something like on 'That Thing You Do,' a very tight, clean band. The band came out in matching green shirts, straps on their respective instruments, and rocks the house as the sun goes down. They start out with the classics, they added about 4 new song amazing songs, they played some 'dark' stuff towards the end, and by the time they were warmed up, it was time for them to make way for Belle and Sebastian. The performance was stellar!

Well since my puter is still dead, I had to rip some pictures off from flickr. We were on the other side, but you can see the amazing aesthetics of this venue, once my puter is back online, I'll post some stellar videos.

Belle and Sebastian played to the biggest crowd in the history of the band. For the opener, Stevie Jackson came out and played his harmonica piece 'Fuck this Shit' with the full backing of the 72 piece orchestra. The minute that orchestra struck, an amazing sound vibrated from the venue, and we all knew we were in for a treat. Later Stevie would say it was the best night in his professional career.

Stuart Murdoch came out next, in my opinion noticeably nervous (considering you are playing for a musically refined packed house, it would be hard to find Hoobastank fans in this mix), and played 'I Fought in a War', and for those of you who know the studio cut, the live version was dead on! I've never been off fighting in a war, but I would like to think that this song captures the essence of war better than most songs of that nature.

I'm Waking Up to Us was played, and Stuart expressed some angst for an ex member of the band, but was sure to clarify that the band has no ill will, etc. Great banter through the evening, a perfect mix between old and new, and the most 'orchestrated' songs were obviously chosen. The back to back treat of 'If She Wants Me' and 'Lord Anthony' were, ummm, for lack of better terminology...... heavenly (or maybe that was that 25 dollar bottle of wine that I had almost downed was at that point), or a combination of both.

I could go on forever and ever, but the crowd was certainly into the show, thru the last songs, I would say at least 100's, maybe 1,000 or so people were jumping down to the bottom levels where the rich fucks were eating in VIP and started dancing in front of stage. The last song, The Boy with the Arab Strap, the band experienced a stage rush, at least 50 people hopped on stage and was just goin' to town with the band. The coolest scene of the night was this chick giving Stevie a massive hug.

This picture captures the literally out of control crowd during The Boy with the Arab Strap, as many people told me there is usually a very conservative crowd at the bowl.

To sum it up, I sat at some VERY SHITTY SOLD OUT CONCERTS while working at my local amphitheatre, and thinking, this sucks. I'm usually hanging out at small indie bands, up to 2,000 people, with true music fans, with people whom music still matters. Point is, it was refreshing to see a sold out venue that huge, with a 'musical' audience, which made the event magical.

Thanks for the experience Belle and Sebastian and friends, I'm enlightened.

setlist was .....

‘Fuck This Shit’
‘I Fought In A War’
‘La Pastie De La Bourgeoisie’
‘The Model’
‘Sukie In The Graveyard’
‘Don’t Leave The Light On Baby’
‘I’m Waking Up To Us’
‘Jonathan David’
‘If She Wants Me’
‘Lord Anthony’
‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’
‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’
‘You’re Cover’s Blown’
‘Dirty Dream Number Two’
‘I’m A Cuckoo’
‘The Wrong Girl’
‘If You Find Yourself Caught In Love’
‘Sleep The Clock Around’
‘The State I Am In’
‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’

bill maher, Amazon Fishbowl

We attended an Amazon Fishbowl recording on July 6th with Bill Maher, my bosses favorite person on the planet!

I haven't rewatched the July 6th episode, but I could potentially be on TV, it was a great experience, Rolando you are the ambassador, thanks for the experience, I know it must have been hard sitting thru that for you.

Over the Ramparts You Tossed, The Scent of Your Skin and Some Foreign Flowers

A quick trip up to Los Angeles to see the Shins open for Belle and Sebastian and the L.A. Philharmonic (or however you spell that). Thanks for the generosity Rolando and Mike D.

Full writeup on Saturday ---

Some People Looked Strange, Some People Looked Deranged, Some People are Just Looking Through You

What can you say about Apples in Stereo, I love em' -- hooked on them all weekend. Well here's this weeks installment of content for a pretty effin' weak blog. Nothing much, and everything much going on in life these days, here's some content for the page.

I paid for (well my Visa Card paid for) and scheduled my PMP exam, 27th of July somewhere off Ben White in south Austin. I'm pretty confident I'll at least pass. Currently I'm memorizing 'Rita's Chart', which is page 39 of a book, I don't know why, but Rita said to memorize it for the test. Also I'm memorizing the 44 high level 'PMBOK Process.' The 44 processes have over 1,200 ITTO's (Inputs Tools Techniques and Outputs), If I have to memorize all those, I'm f*cked.

What's in the cd player, well I'm hovering with My Morning Jacket, Sondre Lerche, Mando Diao, and The Sadies' 'Favorite Colors' Album (which is amazing.) Also making the list, I am Kloot, Gods and Monsters (an album that is big time growing on me), and Phantom Planet, don't ask me why.

Tomorrow I watch Deutschland play world cup, and head back to the big city and probably catch a fireworks display or something like that.

Have a nice day internet friends!

Between the Idea and The Reality, Between the Motion and the Act, Falls the Shadow

July 4th weekend brings me to where else?..... Good Ol Shiner Texas for the Half Moon Holidays festivities. Pretty status quo when it comes to 'hometown festivals.' Here's a bunch of random stuff, getting sloppy with cataloging this stuff, but hopefully my 'blog second wind' will come soon.

First there's Dave, my cousin who's 'Mr. BBQ.' This year he took the prize for 3rd place brisket, out of about 40 entries.

Then there's the college roommates / great buddies Marty and Ryan. We sat there on the bank of Boggy (sp?) Creek and watched the fireworks while Lee Greenwood says how proud he is to be American. I'm proud but one day I'm going to find that PA system unplug it and throw it in the creek. Playing Lee Greenwood every 4th of July is like that 'dude' on the wedding singer singing 'Do you Really Want to Hurt Me' over and over.

This contraption is what I believe is called a 'kegorator,' where there's a beer tap on the fridge itself, and a keg inside, and the beer is constantly fresh and ice cold. This is my nephew Timmy's doing. Notice the Japanese below the tap, courtesy of Yasu, it reads something like 'Timmy's Beer Factory.'

That's a horrible picture of yours truly, yea, it looks pretty gay.

Yasu has his one beer of the day, in the backwoods of Shiner.

It literally 'rained on the parade' today, ''play drum slap'' -- Everyone took shelter under the porch, but I braved the elements and watched the chicks do the parade wave up close and personal.

Finally how many times are we going to go to this shithole bar to realize its an unusual form of torture. Well there's shorty Ashley in the bottom left, me in the middle, and big Bob on the end, he's nice to have around, especially when rednecks start getting feisty.