The Mother and Child Reunion

Last night at band practice my friend Jeff was talking about how he wrote and sang a song for his grandfather's funeral last week. He said that the previous funeral he sang for was his aunt's. Jeff's voice is in turns warm, lonesome, fragile, reassuring, and is perfect for a song like this one from Paul Simon. He sang this song and strummed his guitar as the mourners gathered outside the vault that held the remains of his aunt's mother. Everyone cried.

Then they placed the remains of his aunt's body alongside those of her mother and sealed them away.

Eggo

So why is there an Eggo shortage?
Number one, there is no egg shortage.
And there is no "O" shortage.
See here? oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

There's plenty more where those came from too.

Friday I'm in Love

I really enjoy David Gray and this cover of The Cure's classic is really great. Enjoy your Friday! If you're listening at work, he drops the F-bomb at about 2:30. Just FYI.

This is Sportscenter

I love ESPN. I love it like those people who rock Tony Stewart (or whoever the hell) flags in front of their house love NASCAR. One of the great things about ESPN are their commercials for Sportcenter. They typically feature a noteworthy athlete at ESPN studios doing something either ridiculous or mundane. And it's usually awesome.

This one features Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.

Nightswimming/Find the River

R.E.M. released Automatic For The People shortly after I graduated high school. I was moody and melancholy and fell in love with it right away; it really seemed to fit me. As I became less moody and melancholy, my affection for this record hasn't waned; it's still in my top five, maybe even still numero uno. I've been loving it for a long time.

A great record should have a great closing song. I like them to be just as strong as the beginning of the record, but in a different way. I like for the styles, the tempo, and the delivery to all be different. This record has two great closers. The first song is the hug from that person you had the crush on. The person's touch that you looked forward to because you weren't sure if you were ever going to get the kiss you really wanted. You always lingered with that one at the end of the night. It was just a hug, but still a bit euphoric. Now imagine there's a kiss that comes after. Surprising and a bit overwhelming, but damn if that wasn't the greatest moment of your life. That's song two.

I've really built both of these songs up, and maybe you're imagining me needing a cigarette every time I come to the end of this album. However, I assure you that time spent listening to these tracks is time well spent. The first is called "Nightswimming," and the video below is the one that I found that wasn't live and had the best audio. The slide show isn't bad and isn't great but doesn't distract from the listening experience.


The second is called "Find the River." The video I found is from a live performance, but is of fairly good quality. I hope you enjoy both!

Yay Beerorkid!

We're a Nielsen family!

So it looks like Steve and I will both be Nielsen households in the next month. That means we'll be indirectly influencing what you'll be watching in the future.

Mwahahahahahahaha!

Iowa State 9, Nebraska 7, Me Tarzan, You Jane

Sometimes I think things through for a while before opening my mouth. This ain't really one of those times.

After watching the Huskers play Iowa State yesterday, I really don't have an opinion about whether Lee should be starting or whether Shawn Watson should be running the Maryland I. However, I do think that if you're going to be as unwatchable as they were yesterday, someone really needs to condense the broadcast down to five or so minutes. Check out the youtube highlights of the game below:



Isn't that a lot better than having to sit around for THREE HOURS in order to find out we had eight turnovers?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-turnover. Heck, a couple of the turnovers yesterday were downright innovative. If grant funding happens to be available to study new ways of turning the ball over in horrible spots on the field, I think our grant application speaks for itself.

Happy Friday

Texas Tech's players take a leak after taking it to the house.

Via Bootleggersports.com

White Noise

We started off having Mena listen to a white noise CD when she was sleeping. After that, she graduated to a CD of lullabies. This album was perfectly fine. My wife brought home a new-agey CD from the daycare where she works, which was acceptable also. It was a mixture of music and nature sounds. Naturally, our five-month-old daughter woke each day ready to camp or shoot wolves from a helicopter as it was making her pretty outdoorsy. At least, I am imagining it was.

A couple of days ago the CD player in her bedroom started making an ack-ack-ack noise and wouldn't read discs. Had it not been a CD player but a '73 Dodge Duster instead, I'd have blamed the solenoid, the starter, or both.

It was then that I decided to try the local NPR affiliate. It works just fine for her to sleep to, and I'm actually more than a little happy in a nerdy sort of way. While other people's kids are listening to dumbass children's music, my kid is listening to classical fucking music all night long and getting caught up on current events when Morning Edition comes on.

Hell yeah.

Why don't you poke me sometime?

Funny!

I for one welcome our robot overlords

Courtesy of Punkerinos!

I love this song - Enjoy

Allison Moorer "A Soft Place to Fall"