Tuesday, April 22, 2003

with aplomb, I plumb

I spent my Patriot's Day installing a new kitchen faucet. Most of that time was actually spent uninstalling the old one, which pretty much sucked. No leverage, a banyan tree of pipes under the sink due to the disposal, and whoever installed the old one was putty-crazy. But once it was removed, the rest of the operation went smoothly.



Saw A Mighty Wind Monday night. It's the weakest of the Chris Guest mockumentaries, but still has its moments. Tuesday during lunch I headed over to Wherehouse, which is in its final death throes -- 60-80 percent off what's left now. Still managed to pick up some not-altogether-useless stuff:



Big Hits of Mid-America: The Soma Records Story -- this was a small Minneapolis label in the mid-60s that gave the world The Trashmen ("Surfin' Bird") and The Castaways ("Liar Liar").



The Orgazmo sountrack, which features the only Smashmouth song worth a damn, and "Jesus and I Love You" by the crushworthy April March.



A racing game for the Playstation 1 (I don't think I mentioned; in a colossal moment of weakness I bought a used PS2 last weak. Big mistake.)



All for $10 and change. not bad.
If you're not partaking in Craig's latest music tournament, you should be. He posted a full list of bands, but it was in alphabetical order. So to decode what's to come, I arranged them into seed order by region. Hard to see much past the Round of 8 because I don't know how the regional champs will face off, but I firmly believe that U2 was awarded the cushiest trip to the round of 8. But take my predicitons with a big fat salt lick. The last time I comleted any sort of tournament bracket, I finished dead last -- well behind a pick based on Scrabble tile values.

Thursday, April 17, 2003

Miracle on Ice 2?



Team USA -- representing Illinois at Nationals -- are 2003 women's world curling champions, edging out Canada in the finals, 5-3. The hugeosity of this cannot be overstated. Minus the Cold War aspect, this is every bit as big a step forward as was hockey in Lake Placid.



NBC is running highlights this Sunday at 1 CT. You should check it out.



Tuesday, April 15, 2003

So, hey, TRASHionals -- the big reason I was so quiet there for a month -- came and went this weekend, and what few public comments there are thus far are positive. So yay us. Nice to see everyone again. I did get to compete in Dave Murphy's audio-covers theme round, which played to my strengths. I brought home an Elvis 5-disc boxset for my troubles. I would have liked to have played a few more theme rounds, but dinner awaited...



This long weekend (Thur.-Mon.) was also late Christmas; this being the trip that was rescheduled when my back decided it wanted a quiet holiday at home and a bunch of drugs. So that was okay. I'm a little peevish about the travel burden always falling on us when it comes to this side of the fam, but it was fine.



A couple of observations:

Flying to Boston is now an 8-hour venture, what with getting ourselves to and from each airport. About the same as driving to Minneapolis, only without a stop for tasty pie.



I seem to have lost most of any nostalgic feelings I had for Boston. I had a great time there in school, but now...meh. This is probably due to the places I went this time -- I was in a BU classroom building all day Saturday and part of Sunday. Friday night I went to the TRASH welcoming party across from Fenway. It had rained all day, and the home opener was delayed, then quickly called off, so Landsdowne Street was pretty much a sea of puddles and pulped newspapers. Don't get me started on Braintree. FWIW, the suburb my mom has relocated to is about 5 times worse, but she harbors no illusions about it, and at least it's laid out in something resembling a grid.



Coming from where I came from, Boston was appealing. Coming from where I am now, I can see why much of the luster is gone. Ironically, this was an open-house weekend at BU. I wonder if the deal was cinched for any of those high-schoolers when they wandered over to Nuggets and found some rare vinyl they'd been seeking for a few years...

Monday, April 7, 2003

Hmmm...something must have happened in the month I didn't bother blogging. Didn't bother here, anyway, though countless other blogs were tarnished by my "thoughts."



The curling season ended last week. In my last official game -- a game with playoff ramifications -- I played as if I started a month ago. Just horrible. I didn't singlehandedly keep us out of the finals, but I certainly did my part.



On the whole, though, I did get much better. I aspired to, and achieved -- mediocrity. Whoo! More next year, most likely. Now I have to find something to do with myself 3-4 nights a week.



Oscars: My night was made ten minutes in, when Spirited Away deservingly won Best Animated Feature.



Speaking of animation, I just about had a damn stroke watching Rejected on Sunday.