It Might Get Loud

We did see It Might Get Loud, and it was very good. It very earnestly tracks the careers and development of Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. They also share some insights into their creative processes and get in some killer playing.

It did leave me with a few thoughts/questions:

1) Why has Jimmy Page's output since Zeppelin been so poor?

2) It confirmed for me that The Edge is more about sound than guitar playing. He could have been just as creative as a keyboard player as a guitar player.

3) How did a white kid from Detroit get so damned good at playing the blues? I always thought White's playing sounded like he was taming a wild animal. As it turns out, he feels the same way about it.

My brother and the wife really dug the movie, as I thought they would. The HB faded at the mid-point then rallied at the end. I got him to give me the OK to put some more cool guitar music on his iPod, so that was somewhat of a victory. It was hard to provide him an analogy of how popular Zeppelin was in the day.

Given the quality of the film, and the popularity of the subject, I'm sure it'll get nominated for an Oscar in the best documentary category.

Tomorrow starts getting back to normal. The HB's at my parents for the night and tomorrow, so both the wife and I both get a full day at work. Tuesday we'll probably split things up, then he's back at school on Wednesday. Whew...

Guitar Playin'

I went with my brother and a friend of his to see Jack White's latest band The Dead Weather on Thursday night at a club about an hour from here. I would have seen them closer, but I had other scheduling issues. It's been hot here (as I'm sure you've heard from the fires) and even with fans in this place everyone was sweating.

The songs were great (they only played tunes from the CD) and they played them well. I kinda felt bad for Dean Fertita (the guitar player) in that on the two songs when Jack White put on a guitar (me mostly played drums) the crowd went nuts and for good reason as White's solos were much more smokin'. Alison Mossheart has a good stage presence, but not a lot of range.

All and all it was awesome to see them in a such a small venue (about 250 people).

Speaking of guitars, the wife and I are going to take the HB and my brother to see It Might Get Loud this afternoon. When it comes to rock and roll, I would rather hear a good guitar player than a good singer any time, so I've been dying to see the film. It'll get us out of the heat and provide some great guitar licks as well.

PARTY and Teddy

The big 5-0 party went off without a hitch. It was a beautiful day and I think all 103 guests who RSVP'd came. My dad's cousin, who was the best man at my parents' wedding, gave a HILARIOUS toast and several other people made very nice ones.

My mom had a hard time getting around to just enjoying things. Even though she was involved in approving all of the big plans, she told a friend of my brother's that she was in the dark about everything. We surprised her with a slide-show of pictures, which I obtained one weekend when they were out of town. Her response? "If you would have asked I would have given them to you." But, she liked the M&M's with a picture of her and my dad from their engagement party. They came out surprisingly good.

I'll make the obligatory Ted Kennedy comment. The wife and I were in Boston when Romney ran against him for the senate in 1994. During the summer Romney spent a ton of money on ads, etc and appeared to be relatively close in the polls. Then, after Labor Day, Kennedy returned to Massachusetts as Santa Claus with federal money for a new jobs center here, road repair there, etc. He went to a GE plant in Lynn (north of Boston) where they make fighter jet engines. Basically he said, "Yeah, most of you guys probably don't like my social policies. But, as long as I'm chair of the armed services committee, you have job. Will you vote for me again?"

He didn't campaign as battler for liberal causes, fighting for the little guy, or any of that shit, though he busted a little bit of that out in the debates. Rather, he ran using all of our money to buy votes. Comforting, huh?

Bad Blogger

Holy shit, it's been a week? My apologies. I'll try to make up for it.

Why the delay? Well, primarily because I've been crazy busy at work. I have a deadline next week with a client, but spent most of the week pestering them to get the RIGHT data from them. Very stressful Thursday/Friday. However, another big job came through yesterday, so that should keep me comfortably busy for a while.

My parents 50th party is tomorrow. Everything seems to be in place. We're gonna have about 100 people there. My parents are out of their skulls about it. BTW--the customized M&M's that you can get pictures on are da bomb. They came out far better than I would have imagined.

The party's gonna make next week crazy as well as my aunt/uncle and brother are staying through the week. So, a bunch of us (including the HB) are going to Catalina Island for the day on Monday, the Pageant of the Masters on Tuesday and The Dead Weather on Thursday. At least the HB goes back to school the weekend after that.

Umb, Jen, what size for the Purple #4 jersey? I cannot fucking believe the Vikes signed Favre after 3 weeks ago he said...oh, never mind, what Favre says regarding his retirement doesn't mean shit. Minny's gamble here is that he is the missing piece between them and the Super Bowl. If not, they've blown $10-12 mil and have ruined their relationships with Rosenfels and Jackson (one of whom they'll probably trade).

Regardless, I'm getting psyched for football season. I have tickets for two games: UCLA vs. San Diego State at the Rose Bowl and UCLA vs. Tennessee at Neyland Stadium (where I'll see Lynn and some other K'town friends) and promised to take the HB to another (and probably the NZS2). My fantasy football team needs some attention as well as we draft Labor Day weekend. At least it's a keeper league, so the first three rounds are essentially taken care of.

No update promises, except that it won't be a week plus before I update again.

Back Home, NZS2 and Mike Vick

The KC trip was a success. The flight in was quite the adventure (an e-ticket ride, for those of you old enough to remember). After having a 90-second meeting with the new VP, I went to my hotel to chill, get in some exercise and a bite to eat. Fortunately, there's a local place within walking distance with local fare and beers on tap.

My meeting the next day was in the afternoon, so I got a reasonable amount of sleep and had some time to get some other work done, including getting this client's data in order. I gotta tell you, there are lots of things I enjoy doing in my work, but there are few that I enjoy more than digging into a data set. It's funny because I'm pretty average at math. But statistics? That's another story. I can visualize the relationships between numbers well and I love discovering their secrets. I wish I had more projects that let me do that.

The afternoon went well and the trip home was uneventful. Even got home in time to put the HB to bed.

The NZS2 came over for dinner tonight. He's settling in well with the second host family. They're empty nesters with a pretty busy life. I think he misses the regular home life of dinner most night's etc. The HB was pretty happy to see him as well. I'm sure we'll have him over again soon.

I saw today that the Eagles signed Mike Vick. I figured someone would relatively soon. I didn't spend too much time thinking about which team would/wouldn't sign him, so I wasn't affected much when I heard it was the Eagles. The only thing that was a bit surprising is that that the Eagle fans are not exactly the most forgiving. Of course, they stick up for their own, at least for a little while. I think what it really says is that they aren't happy with their QB of the future (Kolb) who they drafted a couple of years ago. Whether Vick will wait around for McNabb to retire is a completely different story.

There are those who don't think Vick should have signed with anyone. As I wrote a while ago, the man did the crime and the time. Let him work at what he does best.

Kansas City, Here I Come

So, Friday's call went well. The project sponsor pretty much bitched out those who were late with their shit, even though they are higher on the totem pole than she is. This means we're back on schedule and I'm going to KC tomorrow--with better flight times than I had for the previous week!

Yesterday the HB and I hung out at the beach with some friends from out of town (the people who hosted us at their lake house last summer) and some other families. I guess the wife wasn't feeling too social, so she took a pass. It was a great day at the beach and the body surfing was pretty fun. We went to dinner, took the kids to an arcade, etc. I don't think that the HB and I got home until around midnight.

Today we're off to my parents for lunch and talk a few more details about their party. We'll also pick up some stuff they want to have on the greeting tables (framed invitation from the wedding, etc.). We're getting to the short strokes on this, which is very good.

Tonight, my Rotary Club is hosting a progressive dinner to support the Y. The good thing about it is rather than going from house to house, we're hitting 4 of the local hotels. Each year they try to out-do each other in food and drink, so it's a very good time. I'm not sure that all the money it raises (~$10,000) should go to the Y, but at least it's going towards a good cause.

Working, Working, Working...

So, to continue from the last post, the wife woke up at about 11:15. She was perturbed that I didn't wake her up. I don't like waking ANYONE up...why else would they be sleeping. We went across the street to hear a local cover band. I think they were all engineers from Vandenburg Air Force base. They were fine. The obligatory drunk woman in the too short dress looking for servicemen was there. We went back to the room after a bit and watched a movie.

Sunday we got going a little on the early side so that we could meet up with a florist for my parents party and take care of a few of those details. My wife and her sibs still can't give up on their parents' house, so we hung out there for a bit. Thank fucking goodness it's going to close next week.

Work's been busy with proposals. I usually don't write them, but some are for an existing client, so I'm only competing with their budget, as opposed to another vendor. Another is for a company that I won a bid for last year, so I figure I can get some more work with them. The former ones are very vague so I spend a bunch of time getting them to say what they really want. I should here back on some other projects next week as well.

The one project that got going is stalled. That's because some of the folks at the client site dropped the ball while the sponsor was on vacation last week. We have a call about it tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get it back on track. I really would like to get some KC bbq sometime soon.

Of course, Murphy's Law of consulting is that all of this stuff is going to hit the weeks surrounding the party. Good thing I don't follow that law.

The HB's loving his troupe's next production and making great friendships. In fact, he's hanging with a couple of the kids (a boy and a girl his age) this afternoon. Great time for the wife and I to knock it out, right? Umb, no. She'd rather work late. I'm going to Happy Hour.

Vacation Weekend

Yes, the wife and I are having a vacation (out of town w/o the HB) weekend. I think it's the first one we've had since the NZS.

We decided to head up the Central Coast of CA for some wine tasting. We're staying at a historic hotel in one of the towns. Between her not sleeping well in general, and the grape, she's been snoozing. Since about 5:30pm. It's about 10:15 now. So much for a night on the town...sigh.

I think I'll head down to the bar for a beer.

Feels Like the First Time

I had lunch the other day with the woman I lost my virginity to (1, 2, 3...awwww). We've stayed in touch over the years and managed to hook-up a few times, though, obviously, not in a long time. She's divorced, has two kids (both older than the HB), and lives outside of Denver.

Whenever we talk/chat, I'm always reminded of why I was fond of her in the first place. She's independent, practically smart and has a good head on her shoulders. She's still pretty. I'm not sure if the strapless sundress was for my benefit or not, but she looked good in it.

We chit-chatted and got caught up, mostly about our kids. It's been so long that we don't talk about the old days much, which is good. When I run into people from my past, about 5 minutes of what went on X years ago is all I can take.

After lunch (I picked up the bill) we hugged, again, and exchanged chaste kisses. It was 90 minutes well spent.