Friday, March 30, 2007

Time to re-brand

I was going to post about this last week when I saw that they were showing a double feature of "Cild's Play & "Child's Play 2" (the Chucky movies).

But when I saw tonight that they were showing "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" enough was enough.

How does American Movie Classics show "The Fly 2" back to back with "Stagecoach?"

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Ah, grammar...

Today I bought a toddler bed on Craig's List for Grace. Upon bringing it in the house in pieces, Grace clearly got very amped up. She volunteered to help me put it together, wielding a phillips head to no effect.

As I began to put it together, she charged into her room and loudly & breathlessly exclaimed, "I'm so exciting!!!"

Indeed you are.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Survivor - County Fair Edition

If you have ever been in a band, the idea of going on the road has always been sort of the ultimate fantasy. Tour buses with cool airbrushing on the side, groupies, adoring crowds, bowls of specially prepared m&m's, tossing your guitar to a waiting roadie when a string breaks, trashing hotel rooms, and of course, groupies.

Well that was then, but unfortunately this is now. My band was offered (well, perhaps it was merely floated as an idea, but whatever, that would be splitting hairs) to do a month and a half tour this summer in support of another band, one with an actual history of one sort of hit in the 80's. Not sure if it was for Rocky 2, 3 or 4, but the band is Survivor, and the "hit" was "Eye of the Tiger."

I caught some shit from my bandmates when I sort of pooh poohed the idea because of the obvious notion of how bad a band do you have to be to open for those guys. I think we know the answer. But then I started rethinking what a few of them said: it would be a blast to live out our teenage fantasy of rock stardom, minus the adoring fans, groupies (all of us are happily married & besides, we'd be inheriting the groupies that Survivor rejected, a truly horrifying visual image), & trashing hotels. So what if we would be playing lousy venues in obscure regional theme parks & county fairs. We would be able to check off one of the most important boxes on the rock band checklist.

In the end, our real lives, jobs, & families have won out and the Loaded Tour 07 was killed before it was even a gleam in this guitarist's eye.

Ladies & gentlemen, please welcome Epic Recording Artists, Survivor!

The Shins Big Night

Went to see The Shins the other night at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden, which is like the "mini-Garden." They several times said that they were excited to be playing Madison Square Garden. My frind Harry leaned over each time and gently added the term "junior." We had a laugh ove that. But it was clear they were having one of the greatest times of their lives that night, junior or not. I was happy for them.

54 blocks uptown my friend was also having one of the best days of his life, which is ironic as he has an 8 inch incision in his belly and 1 2/3 less internal organs than he had a week prior. But that day, his doctors declared him cancer free. Biopsies of all of his innards turned up nothing and he was celebrating as only a guy recovering from major surgery can: very gingerly.

It was really lovely to see people having such wonderful days for such different reasons. And for me, I enjoyed the Shins show all the more because I too was having one of the best days of my life.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Gators

#1 Seed.

Things can only get worse.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Heros

I have not written about my dear friend's cancer to honor his privacy, and the reality is that most of you who actually check in know him. That said, he is recovering from surgery this week and the current signs are hopeful. But his is not a post about him.

When we have dealings with surgeons, we always tend to hold them in reverence, as they clearly do something that we can't and not only that, they are literally saving peoples' lives, which adds to the aura. It's a wonder more of them aren't raging egomaniacs.

My friend's surgeon seems to be a rare bird: delicate hands along with a gentle, yet playful bedside manner. I did a bit of research on him before the surgery and was extremely impressed. Today by chance I got to meet him and it was not what he said to my friend the patient that impressed me, but what he said to my other friend, his wife. He made a casual joke about her not crying today and to my ears it landed in exactly the right way. It showed me that he was taking in everything: not only his patient, but also his patient's loved ones and their tender emotions, which are a crucial part of recovery. That sort of stuff is not taught in medical school.

It was truly wonderful to see my friend, his wife & his parents in good spirits today. That is due in no small part to the surgeon who gave us the opportunity to hope for a better future with his hands and his heart.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Cute Kid Shit Alert!

A couple of things:

I read tonight that apparently people on the "left blogosphere" curse more than those on the right blogosphere, so I added a gratuitous word on the post title.


Today at Grace's Studio Creative Play (that is a mouthful - basically it is one of those "cool Brooklyn" kind of things) class the theme was "opposites."

The teacher, Khatee, would say a word and ask the kids for the opposite.

Did you know that the ooposite of chocolate is... HOT! At least in Grace's brain.