Sterzing Italy - Fantasy or Reality

Taking another trip down memory lane, Sterzing is a beautiful place. Manuel and I signed up for the trip, not knowing it was a trip for german senior citizens. We stayed at a beautiful lodge, amazing views all around, the stars were brighter than I've ever seen. As seen in this picture, we were literally higher than the clouds. Kinda reminded me of 'heaven' I suppose?

When you have Under Seige II on the tele with Steven Segal speaking in Italian, and surrounded by the marvals of nature, and looking at your best buddy, it's great bonding, but lonely in many ways, especially if you are one with romantic dreams.

Well me and Manuel ventured to downtown Sterzing and saw lots of nuns walking to church, as they were probably thinking 'damn tourists.'

Then we hiked on this big mountain and took a picture up there. One thing I remeber clearly was sitting down up there drinking a coke and eating a pretzel and hearing Macy Grey's 'I Try' on the radio. Guess you can't escape the American Pop anywhere you go!

The place was awesome, from here we took a train to Venice, which I'll blog about one of these days. Lots of funny commentary from that trip.

Its amazing thing, the senses, I was using Irish Springs Sport soap in the mountains, and now whenever I use that soap I think of the mountains of Italy. So, take some good smelling soap with you next time you are in Italy, and you can be wisked back to the mountains every morning in the shower.

"Well I've seen the power of the lightning storm,
I've seen the endless ears of corn,
I've seen the lakes at the break of day,
And that shit takes my breath away"
Neil Hannon - Freedom Road

The Hottest Tennis Match Ever

Well as I browse thru the ol archive of pictures and decide what to post today, I couldn't help but notice this old tennis picture taken in 2000.

The place is Speisen / Elversburg Germany, which is about 20 minutes from the French border. The participants are Manuelabor and I, our German friend Andrea and her friend. Andrea's friend, who's name escapes me, is the hottest girl I've ever had to pleasure of playing doubles with. The german language is very literal and sloppy, but she made it sound very elegant! She was in some kinda big beauty pagent or something, don't really know for sure.

Anyway, we the beauty queen and I beat Manuelabor and Andrea in straight sets, here we are posing with the Bitburger Logo in the back 'Bitte Ein Bitte' -- the Budweiser of Germany. Drink 10 pints at 'keller' temperature, you'll love it!

This was taken right before Manuel nearly killed us by whipping a U-turn in the middle of oncoming traffic in D's VW Rabbit. Whew.

Great Times --

"Walk on with hope in your heart and you'll never walk alone" -- Die Toten Hosen (The Dead Pants)

Poo On Shoe

Quick show of hands, and be honest now, how many of you has this happened to? Yea, we've all been there, the tedious process of washing the poo off your shoe, maybe with an old toothbrush to get the poo out of the crack, or simply just trying to rub it off in the grass.

Nevertheless, it's a pain, especially on people with weak stomachs. Here is a picture of my poor Reebox. I remeber the day clearly, the day of our geek team picture, a dog must have left a nice ripe steamer there waiting for me to step on it, and YES, I did! Yee Haw! The funniest part of the episode, I had to ride the elevator up to the third floor to clean the shoe off in the sink, much to the dismay of my elevator companion.

Could I be running out of things to blog about.......naw, just what was on my mind today as I dodged some 'yard pickles' coming back from the evening stroll. I'll leave you with the nice sentiments of this man who seems to be pretty smart.

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I walked on toward Ploughwright, thinking about feces. What a lot we had found out about the prehistoric past from the study of fossilized dung of long-vanished animals. A miraculous thing, really; a recovery from the past from what was carelessly rejected. And in the Middle Ages, how concerned people who lived close to the world of nature were with the feces of animals. And what a variety of names they had for them: the Crotels of a Hare, the Friants of a Boar, the Spraints of an Otter, the Werderobe of a Badger, the Waggying of a Fox, the Fumets of a Deer. Surely there might be some words for the material so near to the heart of Ozy Froats [an academic studying feces] than shit? What about the Problems of a President, the Backward Passes of a Footballer, the Deferrals of a Dean, the Odd Volumes of a Librarian, the Footnotes of a Ph.D., the Low Grades of a Freshman, the Anxieties of an Untenured Professor? -- Robertson Davies, "The Rebel Angels"

The Viper Room Has Fried Our Brains

Funny story of Last time in Los Angeles -- The protagonists in the story are Blair, Mike D, Roland and I. To make a long story short, hung out with stars and stuff at this posh party at the Pacific Design Center -- wanted to go home afterwards but Blair was like "O NO - We are going to the Viper Room." As per his request we went there, and he paid for our $12 cocktails. Saw a few great bands, sat there and bickered about SQL Server vs. Oracle databases.

After all the excitement we listened to Belle and Sebastian's 'Your Cover's Blown' for the 1 zillionth time on the trip in our rented Ford SUV thingy.
Blair kept wanting to play peek-a-boo that night, very strange man he is.
He also professes his love for Chad Kroger via text message on drunken nights.
At any rate we jammed pretty hard on the way home.

The Moral of the Story:

• When You go to the Viper Room, Go with a friend who wants to go bad, and
  committ to going only if he buys the drinks


• Check Out Whisky-A-Go-Go Right Across the street


• Experience Freakin' Traffic on Sunset at 2:30 am on the drive home


• Catch an all chick used to be U2 cover band called 'Exit Band' -- You won't be disappointed -- The lead singer was spectacular!

Hair Today / Gone Tomorrow

Many of you know, but here's the details. Last month was the first treatment of my professional laser hair removal surgery. A wise old friend of mine, Jenny I, said and I quote "If you are insecure about it, and you can afford it," get the hair lasered off.

That being said, I suppose I can be shaved and tapered for the swimming lessons Ashley is giving me. The only thing I'm going to be sad about is losing my farmers tan, and the 'shave Robert' ritual over Easter weekend in Shinertown. O well, I suppose there are other things to shave?

Before the treatments, I have to shave (the hair grows back for a while, I have to get six treatments). This is a sign of true friendship, Jenny shaving my back and the hard to reach areas. Even as the wind was blowing the freshly shaven hair into her mouth and nose, she perservered.



I'm going to try to lose that gut one of these days too. Perhaps I should start drinking light beer, no beer, or something like that. Fried food is gone from my life!



So, to recap, here's the facts in a nutshell

1. 6 treatments, 2 months apart, lasting close to one year
2. Minimal exposure to the sun, therefore my swimming lessons are in the evening or indoors
3. They say its like a gentle pulse of heat, its more light 'O F*ck', and you leave the center feeling like you just got out of a prize fight, or grandpa was pissed and decided to put his cigar out on you a few times
4. Back / Chest / Stomach -- approx $2,700 USD -- Man o Man, the price of vanity. They at least break it out into 2 years of interest free payments
5. Hair is guaranteed not to grow back, and you get a 2 year guaranteed
6. A 'hot' girl is usually the one giving the treatment

Shannon, I think you are next old buddy, that back is pretty repulsive -- Don't know if I want to be on your team when we play water volleyball, I'd rather be on that old dudes team, you know the one with the purple speedo's.

OK - enough of this -

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!!

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.

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.

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 ;)

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!

.

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

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!

Digestable Quotations

Digestable Quatations:
--------------------------
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
--------------------------
"I need to take an emotional breath, step back and remind myself who's actually in charge of my life."
Knowlton, Judith
--------------------------
"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
--------------------------
"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
--------------------------
"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
--------------------------

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

Gomez

Kings of Leon

Yo La Tengo