..::RB Blog::..

Sunday, May 01, 2005

Live Long and Prosper

To end the weekend, I was trying to teach my neices and nephews to do the vulcan sign of peace, so Mr Spock would be happy, and maybe Leonard Nemoy will comment on my blog one day?

Grant found it very difficult --

Shannon and Meagan got it figured out pretty good after Meagan practiced for a bit--

Then it became good family fun, except Debra was too 'cool' to participate.

Finally the solution for Grant was to just tape his fingers together -- if he only had pointy ears, he'd look just like a vulcan!

The weekend was a blast -- Now off to kick Brandon's a$$ in tennis, and then the long trek back to Austin.

YIPPIE!!

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Loud Cuban Band Crucifying John Lennon

Just when I thought Saturday was over, I get a text message from Orlando, a great bud that lives downtown San Antonio, so I decided to join them at this posh birthday party in a posh hotel. So posh, I felt just a tad bit insecure rollin up in there with my crusty old navy shirt on. At the door, the guest list guy said 'can I help you sir,' and I just said I'm with Catalina (Orlando's lovely wife, who was looking wonderful), and I just scampered in right after her. At any rate, got a few top shelf bourbon drinks for free, was introduced to the birthday boy and gave him best wishes.

After the party, we went to a slightly upscale bar downtown, cocktails were $6 bucks each, but luckily Orlando was loaded and he was buying my drinks! Thanks dude! There was a cuban band playing as Catalina explained to me the finer points of dancing salsa. The just came back from Buenos Aires, said it was a wonderful trip.

At any rate, here's a few pics, Orlando and Catalina tearing up the dancefloor, and Orlando and I, me flashing the "ATX" gang sign, don't know if you can tell.

What a long night!

The Black Keys / The Hentchmen -- Fat Cats HTX

Hey Folks, got to catch a bada$$ gig last night at Fat Cat's in Houston. The venue was on Washington street, a pretty dodgy party of town. Talking to a local, he said there is like 3-4 places in all of Houston to catch good music. No offense to you Houstonites, but a city as good for culture and art is lacking BIG TIME when it comes to 'good' music. Anyway, the venue was 'Fat Cats'. As I rolled up to the gig, SOLD OUT, I was like damn. Then I look at the van in front of the gig, and amazingly enough the Black Keys were roosting in there. After talking to the drummer for about 10 minutes, he said, yea buddy, I'll get you in. So I was put on the 'guest list', so I didn't have to pay a penny to get in either! YIPPIE.

The Hentchmen opened, an amazing performance from this 3 piece, kinda like Spoon but with much more guitar action. The lead singer / dual keyboard player had a bass keyboard and a regular keyboard -- pretty awesome stuff. It also swiveled and rolled around which was interesting.

Then it was time for the black keys, and my god what an energetic show. To dog out houston and the all ages audience, come on 16 yr olds, don't start freakin moshing for the sake of moshing. If I could have cracked some skulls without getting in trouble, I certainly would have done it that night.

Really don't know what else to say about these dudes except it was exceptional, made the 45 minute drive from sis's house to Fat Cat's definately worth it. I'll leave you with a 30 second avi that gives this band absolutely no justice. Do yourself a favor and go see them.

http://www.divineguitar.com/blog/blackkeys.avi

Funky!

Little League Baseball

Saturday went to my nephew Grant's baseball game. Man that little dude can hit I tell you. It wasn't since the days of playing on The Mints, The Nailers, and then for the dreaded Shiner Comanches was I thinking "Big Whiffer" and other baseball jargon.

Grant is 6, and his baseball swing is already pretty damn perfect. Here's a small avi of him blasting a single down the 3rd base line, an 'opposite field hit' as baseball geeks call it, which again is pretty damn impressive. http://www.divineguitar.com/blog/grant.avi

However, he did have some problems paying attention out in the field at times. As the cliche goes, you could say he was out there watching the dandelions grow.

Was a good time had by all, Gavin, another nephew gets into everything, sometimes a bit tough to keep up with.

I'm also experimenting with camera settings this week, hence all the black and white photos.

Friday, April 29, 2005

Waterwall and Downtown Houston

Friday was a night of excitement as we ventured to a pub for some Billards and Boddington's. I had the best pub food I've ever had in my life! The music in the pub actually recycled in the pub, that was craziness, totally meant it was time to go!

Down near Westheimer (sp?) and the Galleria is the dreaded Waterwall, I love that thing, even though it makes me have to pee everytime I see it.

Also took a drive in the downtown area, I LOVE looking at the tall buildings and such. They filmed Reality Bites down there somewhere, or at least the skyscraper part. Damn I wonder how many IT Professionals it takes to run all the computers down there. It has to be like 500,000 or something like that.

Here's a killer green picture of me downtown wired with some big bldgs behind me that you can't really see. This was in a pretty dodgy part of downtown, hopped out quick, snapped picture quick, hopped back in the car.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Burritos and Congressmen

Tonight Jenny II, Ashley, John and I were gluttons for freebirds burritos. The new one on South Congress is really sweet, got a huge mural of the great SRV on the wall. The hot sauce is extremely potent, I'm sure I will feel it later tonight.

Being from small town Texas, we had to take american football pictures, so Jenny and I decided to re-live the glory days and take a football-esque picture on the steps of the state capital.

Ashley and I took a picture facing down congress, a really cool view, it was pretty fun just sitting there watching good ol congressmen go by, and wondering if the Capital Police were going to spray us with mace. At any rate, Ashley lives 1000 miles in the distance and soon after that, we drudged back.

O damn how the legs hurt again. Thanks for coming out Jenny -- Even though I had to postpone my swimming lesson ;)

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Chris Rivera Wedding

Just unloaded the camera from Chris Rivera's wedding. The wedding was in Shiner, reception was in Hallettsville. Whew the Barcadi 151 that night, craziness. At any rate, here's a pic of the wonderful bride and groom (nice hat Chris), congrats to both of you wonderful people, and also a picture of Manuelabor and I.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

SOCO and Bats

Don't know if y'all know, but Austin has the largest Urban Population of bats in the world. About 4 million of those little suckers live in the South Congress Bridge. At dusk, all these people come out and watch the bats come out to dine of all the pesky little insects of ATX. I suppose that's why we don't have a problem with all the flies and such, especially at town lake.

http://www.batcon.org/discover/congress.html

At any rate, Jenny and I had a marathon walk, and got to pleasure to see the bats come out right as we were heading out. It's a pretty neat site, I recommend it to anyone, the waiting is annoying though.

Thanks for the walk Jenny, sorry for getting us lost on the East Side Trail -- time to go to bed, my legs are killing me!

Ciao, Robert

Thursday, April 21, 2005

The Fearless Freaks

Went and saw a killer documentary on the Flaming Lips last night. I never knew anyone could have that much fun in Oklahoma. Wayne, the lead singer in my opinion is an amazing / balanced person for having such a bizarre mind.

High Points Include:

Numerous shots around Austin including Stubbs, the parking lot gig, Austin City Limits
Watching and hearing in detail how Steve the drummer does heroin, made me grimace
Listening to Wayne's account of his fathers death, I have many parallel thoughts
Watching Wayne roll around in his gigantic bubble over the crowd at Glastonbury
Seeing how they mixed sports, drugs and music as young lads -- very interesting!

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Digestable Quotations

Digestable Quatations:
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To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.
Stevenson, Robert Louis
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"I need to take an emotional breath, step back and remind myself who's actually in charge of my life."
Knowlton, Judith
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"Once we make our decision, all things will come to us. Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation. They are a response. Deng Ming-Dao
To be nobody-but-yourself--in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everbody else--means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."
E.E. Cummings
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"Bitter, twisted unless you stay strong and you carry on -- It's hard but you know its worth the fight, you have the truth on your side when the accusations fly, hold tight -- Don't be afraid of what they say, who cares what cowards think anyway, they will understand one day, one day" -
-- Neil Hannon -- The Divine Comedy
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"Your own words are the bricks and mortar of the dreams you want to realize. Your words are the greatest power you have. The words you choose and the use establish the life you experience."
Croquette Sonia
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Monday, April 18, 2005

Audioslave - Austin Music Hall

Went to Audioslave last night, it was a killer show, Chris Cornell is such a beautiful person, damn! The high points of the night are as follows:

Opener - Set It Off
Acoustic Version of Black Hole Sun for encore
Played 'Killing in the Name' -- great old school rage
Show Me How to Live -- Chris Cornell hitting his voice box to make that weird sound

Lots of fun, Thanks for the company Nate-Dogg, Alissa, Ron, Brad -- Maggie hope you feel better!

Shiner Trip - Toshi and I

On Saturday Toshi and I went down to Shiner, had a jolly good time, rode around in the convertible, and took some retarded pictures in the flowers. Check out this extremely dorky picture of me in the red blankets.

If I ever put out an album for 'The Love Band' -- This is definately going to be the album cover!

http://www.divineguitar.com/blog/109_0944.jpg

More pictures can be seen at:

http://community.webshots.com/album/323902558kRaNzc