Author Archives: dave

Maybe it’s because I’m obligated to be a fan.  Or maybe it’s just because I like watercolors.  Either way I’m loving this robot junior painted.

I just stayed up watching Michael Beasley drop 42 on the Kings. You read that correctly.

His career high total helped lead the Wolves to their first road win in 260 days. Holy cow 260 days without winning a game on the road. That’s 17 straight road game loses. I’m sure you read all that correctly, too, but maybe read it again, just in case you didn’t say “ha” and “wow” and “ouch” the first time.

I’m kind of invested this year for some reason. I’m not sure what’s up with that. I’m going to the game on Friday. I’ll see you there.

Oh look, a new DVD.

I never posted a review of the Apline show that Maldo and I trekked over to Wisconsin to see last August.  We only made it to the Saturday night show.  We have jobs and kids and bad backs and obligations and while we often comment after trips like this that we should have stayed for both nights, we’re both at peace with just seeing the one. Maybe next year, though?  Sure, maybe.

We stayed in a Holiday Inn and we wore comfortable shoes.  We drove an Accord.  We did the usual nostalgia act grilled cheese bit in the parking lot for a few hours before the show.  This year I remembered the grill but forgot the griddle to cook them on so we begged an empty aluminum pan off a dude selling pot brownies and smashed it flat to use instead.  It worked fine, tho it felt oddly scandalous in a ridiculous way.  I asked for $1 suggested donation for sandwiches.  I gave a lot away.  We basically broke even.  The sun was out.

I didn’t really take any pics of the show.  The one I did is posted below.  It’s from our insanely great seats 20 rows up in arguably the sweetest of sight and sound sweet spots.  Other than this pic, I just kinda went “in the moment”.  More nostalgia?  Perhaps, I guess, but I know this much: when something as great as the second set ‘Down With Disease -> What’s The Use’ comes thundering out of frickin’ nowhere, there is no better place to be on the planet than right there In The Moment.  Because when that wall comes tumbling down, you don’t want to be playing catchup.  Seriously.  Like I hesitate to use the word ‘special’ in the context of a concert.  It sounds breathless and silly and always seems a bit of a stretch.  But yeah, I filed this one under ‘special’.

On whole the show was solid.  Duh.  The first set was a bit low key, but in a late-summer kinda way that wasn’t uncomfortable or out of place or lame.  They encored a Quinn The Eskimo which was fun.  And yeah, the DWD-WTU combo platter in the second set pretty much made the whole trip worthwhile times a million.  I have no idea how it’ll translate to DVD, but it might be worth checking out if face melting is something you’re in to.  Just sayin’.

I’m already looking forward to next year. See you there.

I keep these two rocks on my desk.  To the best of my knowledge they have never weighted paper.  They are purely ornamental.  They are from my days as a geologist.

When I say “days as a geologist” I really mean “those years in college when I got my degree in geology”.  I never actually practiced geology “professionally”, though I did get a couple of pretty bitchin’ job offers that would have allowed me to continue.  Continue in Houston, sure, but continue none the less.  I took a pass.  The economy was way way different then and there was something about working for Big Oil that I found distasteful despite their insane huge flat screen monitors and sincere interest in basin analysis.

The one on the right is a weathered chunk of basalt from Hawaii.  I got in on a huge long “field trip” I took where my class and I studied the volcanoes and slept in tents on the beach and swam in the ocean every day.  Up until the trip, we had spent an entire semester studying the area and tuning our compasses and readying our rock hammers and raising the needed funds to buy the tickets that would fly us to the edge of the great caldera.  On the ground we clamored thru caves and over endless acres of pahoehoe and we were instructed clearly and repeatedly to take very careful field notes that would be reviewed and scrutinized and graded and factored in and taken into account and whatnot.  The weather was awesome.  The volcano was awesome.  The caves were awesome.  There was this beach covered in green sand with these perfect swimming waves that I dove into over and over again and I maybe didn’t take a lot of good notes every single day.  I remember thinking I didn’t really care.  I was learning.  I was plugged in.  I was having fun.  I was gonna relax and let this one just kinda happen.  I totally became friends with some guy who I just sorta knew from class and after that trip I’m not sure we even ever talked again.  I don’t even remember his name.  He probably doesn’t remember mine, either.

Anyway, it dawned on me tonight when I saw them that I no longer remember where the other one even came from.  I thought that was kind of a trip.  It’s sedimentary, so I’m guessing probably Montana.  And just to be clear, I have a lot of these random rocks around.  I finally just moved a bunch of them into my garden a few years ago.  I didn’t remember the stories behind many of them, either.  But these desk rocks seemed like I should for some reason.  Sorry, random rock.

I’m gonna share this with you guys. I keep it on my desktop for when I need a pick-me-up.

This is my guy Maldo – fresh from Pittsburgh Blue or Crave or something, I’m sure – backstage with Bee at the Target Center. Sometimes I like to close my eyes and pretend that after this picture was taken she turned to him and asked if he knew which way it was to the gun show. Or maybe they just talked about hair products or the Badgers or Glee or something, who cares, it’s surreal and it’s awesome and you’re welcome.

Also this: he swears up and down it was an amazing show, despite the apparent lack of a glowstick war.

Sweet fancy ray moses I think it’s maybe working again.

So the whole thing crashed and I lost a bunch of posts and a few comments and I installed a new [vintage] hard drive and got my music server back operational and then no offense dear reader but my autumn priorities remained outside in the sun and the leaves and lakes and seriously how much fun is it to spend a lazy sunday afternoon sweeping the garage while listening to the Vikings postgame show, right? Right. But now a few nights of rebuilding and reinstalling and stripping down something called a “theme” and it probably won’t get any prettier than this so you better be here for the content.

Am I the only one who wonders why the portions at Sea Salt seem to have gotten smaller all summer?