Featured Music - Explosions In The Sky

So I still suck at blogging, but I stopped caring a long time ago because I haven't had much to say. All the big news (like new babies) and pics end up getting shared in person or facebook, and I haven't had the time lately to even think about creativity, let alone pursue it. However, I have been meaning to throw a featured music post up on Band Of Horses - I've been digging on them for quite a while... but before I could get around to it, I stumbled upon Explosions In The Sky - and they have pretty much dominated all my musical inclinations since.

*Note: you probably should start one of the songs I link to below now - they're all pretty long. But don't worry, they're worth it. Don't get impatient - you'll miss out. Just crank them up while/if you read this and as you go about your biz. Then, repeat.*

Explosions In The Sky have been around for the better part of a decade - I know I've actually heard them before, just never in-depth. They hail from west Texas, and are absolute masters of their brand of instrumental post-rock. That's right - instrumental. No vocals, no lyrics, but probably more meaning and passion than 98% of the music you'll hear on the radio. And that's the beauty of instrumental music... it definitely means something specific to the creator, but to the listener, that meaning has freedom to evolve. I can tell you that most of my favorite songs from 10 years ago are definitely not my favorite songs now - but only some of that is due to their musical style. It's mostly just that life marches on and things that were relevant to me then are not relevant to me now. But quality music is always relevant. This song from 2003's The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place is already one of my all time favorites - it's called "The Only Moment We Were Alone":



Their songs may be long, but they're certainly lacking the repetitive jam-band quality you would expect at that length. In fact, one of the first things I noticed is the almost classical style of their music. Most of their songs have at least 2 or 3 distinct parts, with an AB format and extensive motifs - or some even seem through-composed. There's never so much repetition that you grow tired of it - they're restrained. They leave you wanting more. This is possible my second favorite of theirs - it's called "First Breath After Coma":



The thing about instrumental music is it often takes more work to appreciate it. I keep getting pieces of these songs stuck in my head, but sometimes I'll have no idea which song it is. Like I said, each one has at least a couple distinct parts, and there are no lyrics for a frame of reference. That's why you have to keep listening. The more you listen, the more you appreciate it. This is a great live version of "The Birth And Death Of The Day" off of their newest album All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone:



The band probably gained their biggest exposure by writing the soundtrack to the movie "Friday Night Lights" back in 2004. This song was on The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, but was also reprised and adapted for the movie. It's called "Your Hand In Mine":



Their overall sound doesn't vary that much, due to their consistent, guitar driven instrumentation. But it's a good sound. And it's worth noting that all those intertwined melodies and layered guitar solos sound just as fabulous live as recorded. Very tight. This is "Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean":



And just to prove they can still rock out, this is "Greet Death" from 2001's Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever:



Finally - just to underscore my point about having to give them more than one listen - I'll bring it full circle to the first song I posted. Here's a simply amazing live version of "The Only Moment We Were Alone":



There you go - Explosions In The Sky. Go buy their albums. Since the songs are long and painstakingly crafted, there's just not that many on an album. And on Amazon music, short albums = cheap albums. For example, I just featured most of The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place because that's the only one I own at the moment; It's about 45 minutes long, has only 5 songs, and cost me $4.95. Best 5 bucks I've spent in a long time.

Featured Music - Ray LaMontagne

So I kind of suck at blogging... mostly because I spend about 8 hours a day on a computer at work, and it's the last thing I feel like doing when I get home. But anywho...

In the second installment of Featured Music, we move from one bearded troubadour to another: Ladies and Gentlemen.... Ray LaMontagne. (lah-mon-tain)

LaMontagne took a rather unlikely journey to his musical career - he was already in his late 20s before he started playing music. At the time, he was a loner working in a shoe factory, who - as a result of a somewhat sketchy upbringing and a lot of moving around - had barely graduated highschool. But after being inspired by a Stephen Stills song on the radio, he picked up the guitar and started writing music. Now he has three albums out - Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black and the newly released Gossip in the Grain. As a performer, introverts such as myself can relate well to LaMontagne. He is rather reclusive, almost painfully shy, and rarely gives interviews. He's admitted he sometimes has to force himself to leave his hotel room while on tour, and has been known to perform shows in the dark to separate himself from the crowd.

Ray's signature sound is his raspy voice - often drawing comparisons to Joe Cocker among others. Except LaMontagne manages to enunciate everything beautifully. He milks the emotion from every syllable, but without making it feel overdone. Musically, he's been compared to a host of people - Van Morrison, Tim Buckley, etc. For some reason he reminds me the most of Jim Croce. I'm not going to claim that everything he does is magic. Some of his songs make me go "Meh, that was ok." But some of them are pure gold. Here's the song that first caught my attention - from Trouble, this is "Jolene":


Ray gained a bit of popularity when a couple of American Idols covered songs off his first album - Taylor Hicks performed the title track "Trouble", and Kelly Clarkson performed "Shelter". I have to admit I discovered LaMontagne first and found out about that afterwards. But anyway, here's an old, rough, extended version of Ray singing "Trouble" followed by a great version of "Shelter":




I know I'm practically linking to his entire first album, but what the heck - here's the last track, a beautiful ballad called "All the Wild Horses":


And in case you think he can't rock out, here's a song from his second album, Till the Sun Turns Black. It's called "Three More Days":


And for the pacifist in all of us, this is "Within You":


I haven't had much of a chance to acquaint myself with his newest album, Gossip in the Grain, but here are a couple good ones - "You Are the Best Thing", and "Let it Be Me":




So there you go, Ray LaMontagne. Check him out.

The WBC

I'm sure everyone has been following the World Baseball Classic with rapt attention... Well, last Tuesday, I got a chance to check it out personally as Round 2 came through San Diego. Mom and I braved a very busy and drunk St. Patrick's day crowd down town for some dinner, then headed to Petco to watch Japan take on Korea...


















We had killer seats in row 17, just to the left of home plate.
The crowd was relatively small, but extremely loud and surprisingly coordinated - especially the Koreans. They were also very...interesting.










































Pitching for Japan was young phenom Yu Darvish - 22 years old with a consistent fastball @ 94mph, a good 2-seamer, a cutter, a wicked curve, and an unhittable slider coming in around 72mph. Crazy good. He had a rough first inning and gave up a few runs, but then he settled down and just cruised. Here's a clip of him striking out former Mariner Shin-Soo Choo.

Unfortunately, team Japan just couldn't get anything going. Here's Ichiro reaching on a fielder's choice... but that was about as good of a night as he would have.


And here's Akinora Iwamura striking out for the final out, as Korea won to advance to the finals in LA. The WBC definitely has some flaws - I'd love to see some format changes before next time around - but it was a sweet experience, and I'm glad I got to check it out.

Welcome Back, Junior

Of course this is old news now, but after weeks of speculation and conflicting reports, Ken Griffey Jr. has officially returned to the Mariners.

Last weekend, I caught up with life-long baseball fan Cohen Allen to get his reaction:

ME: "Hey Cohen, did you hear the news?"














COHEN: "What news? You're finally gonna change my diaper?"
ME: "No, your mom can do that. But the Mariners just signed Junior!"














COHEN: "Oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH! Are you serious?!?"
ME: "Yeah! It's a one year, 2 million deal. The press conference is on in a few minutes!"














COHEN: "I'm so excited and I just can't hide it!"

A FEW MINUTES LATER, WATCHING THE PRESS CONFERENCE...

ME: "What's the matter, Co? I thought this would be a happy moment!"














COHEN: "Oh it is. It is. It's just...so emotional.... I'm getting a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves..."

After the presser was over, and he had a chance to collect himself, Cohen summed up his thoughts on the signing...














COHEN: "Strictly from a baseball sense, I know this isn't the greatest signing, and likely has minimal impact on the team. Griffey is nowhere near the player he was when he left the M's, and doesn't really have that much left to contribute. However, contingent upon the Mariners utilizing him properly, it's not a bad move either. He should be platooned against leftys, and should definitely stay out of the outfield, but he can still rake against rightys, and thus has value as a DH. From an emotional standpoint, it's a slam dunk for all involved. If there were ever a year to bring Griffey back, this was it. While they do have a long-shot at contention this year in a weakend AL West, realistically, this is a building year while they wait for some bloated contracts to come off the books. I'm looking at you, Washburn. Anyway, new General Manager Jack Zduriencik has had a tremendous off-season so far, and even if you view this signing as a concession to nostalgia, it will buy him immense amounts of goodwill from the local writers and casual fanbase - potentially giving him greater leeway to further improve the team in 2010. For me, personally, I'm afraid Junior transcends all reason and logic. And seeing #24 in a Mariners uni again for the first time...It might be the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me in my whole life. Well, you know, other than being born a few months ago. But you catch my drift."

Yes we do, Cohen. Yes we do. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Spring training is in full swing, the season starts in about a month, and the Mariners organization has done a complete 180... For the first time in years, there's reason to be excited about the future of baseball in Seattle.

Old Ties, New Digs

So obviously I'm way behind at keeping up with this blog, and people in general... What can I say? I've been busy. The weekend after we got back from our snowy trip to Idaho, Jesse and Sarah came through San Diego and we got to spend some time with them. They were going to Mexico to do some cross-cultural training in preparation for joining Sacred Road ministries in Yakima, and we were able to have them stay with us on both ends of the trip. It was really awesome to see them - it had been a while and we had a really good visit. We just spent some time relaxing - walked around the beach at La Jolla, and had a BBQ over at Mom and Bill's with Grandma and Grandpa and Adam and Shonna. Good times.











































Then shortly after they left, we ended up moving to a new apartment. It's in the same complex we were already in - but it's a 2 bedroom! I know! We're moving up in the world. No more moving Cohen's playpen in and out of the living room twice a day - he has his own room! I absolutely hate moving, but we're pretty settled now and it's a very nice change.

So now it's just work that I'm pretty much swamped with... But I'm hoping things will calm down there soon and I can get back to being a better friend/family member/blogger. Although baseball is starting though, so we'll see... :)

In "Honor" of Tomorrow's Inauguration...

This, from America's finest "news" source.


p.s. I like using quotation "marks."


Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Have It All

Have It All - Ace Troubleshooter

Counting down, expecting latest, greatest

Newest model maybe, hope

Wishing, hoping, praying to outdo the Joneses

Heaven tomorrow

Heaven, my chance to have it all

Squalor, impulse, crowding, 'tis the season

Do the days turn just for these

Savior born in manger, please forgive us born in the inn

Heaven tomorrow

Heaven, skies open, pour out hope

See all my glimmering weakness

Here's my world, come on, will You come in

Brought to my knees

Child I'll play for you

Child enters in this world, it's broken

Angels sing and men sleep the night

Though it's brazen and defiant, please be born in my heart

Heaven tomorrow
Heaven, my chance to have it all

See all my glimmering weakness
Here's my world, come on, will You come in
Brought to my knees
Child I'll play for you

Featured Music - Iron & Wine

Ok, so here's the first installment of "Music That Jerry's Been Digging On Lately And That You Should Try Too"... For lack of a better method, I'll be featuring songs via YouTube, which means that several of them won't even be official videos, but just random user videos. So for the most part, ignore the visual, and concentrate on the audio. Though there will be a few that I feel enhance the music, so I'll be sure to point those out. Also, while I won't be posting any songs with questionable content, if you run across some by an artist I'm featuring, I can't be held liable.

With that out of the way, first up is Iron & Wine.

For the most part, Iron & Wine is the stage name for a bearded, soft-spoken Floridian named Sam Beam. He does tour and record with a band these days, but he'd been doing the solo gig under that name for long before that. Any self-respecting indie kid worth his tight jeans knows I&W well, but I just got turned on about a year ago, and I've been on a major kick as of late. His music (particularly his early work) is the lushest lo-fi you will ever hear. His voice is often a hushed wisper, layered with tight harmonies; and when combined with mellow guitars, lap steel, banjo, and other assorted instruments, it's the most relaxing musical experience ever.

Here are a few songs from his first album, "The Creek Drank the Cradle"

"Faded From The Winter"


"Lion's Mane"


This is just a beautiful song - one of my all-time favorites, "Upward Over The Mountain"


Another absolute favorite from this album is called "Muddy Hymnal" - but there wasn't a great quality video around to post. His second album, "Our Endless Numbered Days," was more of a studio effort, but still retained most of his lo-fi sound.

Here's the official video for "Naked As We Came" (This is a video I enjoy.)


"Free Until They Cut Me Down"


"Each Coming Night"


His latest album is called "The Shepherd's Dog." It's rather large departure from his previous work - utilizing electric guitars and a full band. I'd say it's my least favorite of the three, but it still has some good stuff.

"Pagan Angel And A Borrowed Car"


"Flightless Bird"


"Boy With A Coin" (Another great video.)


In addition to those three full length albums, I&W has put out numerous EPs and singles. Most notably, he covered "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service for the "Garden State" soundtrack. And pretty much every song on the 6 track "Woman King" EP is just excellent. Here's one of them,

"Jezebel"


So there you have it. You can find more on YouTube, the official site for Iron & Wine, or at Sub Pop Records. Check it out.

Catching Up

Obviously I've been neglecting this blog for a while, so I figured it was time for an update. Not that anyone's been missing much...

I've been swamped at work - basically just scrambling every day and resigning myself to the fact that I will never actually get caught up. Which is depressing, since my goal was to get ahead before I took a bunch of vacation time for Christmas. We will be up in Idaho from the 17th of December until the 5th of January, so that's a pretty good chunk of time and I'm looking forward to it.

Other than work, I haven't been doing much. Mostly just hanging around the house and trying to keep up with Cohen...he keeps us both pretty busy. Sure, I have lots I should be doing. For example my car's not really running right now (Vivian, not the Olds) so I should work on her, but by the time the weekend rolls around, I always just feel like I need to recover from the week and I never get very motivated.

I've been having a really good time watching the Ray's kick tail all the way to the World Series. I'm definitely a bandwagon fan, but I'm okay with that. I'm glad I can have an AL team to root for this year, instead of just whatever team happens to be playing against New York or Boston. It's just nice to see a well run, young, small market team turn it around so quickly and have success. They are an extremely well built organization, and are easy to pull for. It gives me hope. In related news, the M's announced their new GM pick this week, Jack Zduriencik. He's not the complete new approach I was hoping for, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. And I figure they can only improve from here.

I've been meaning for a while to start a semi-regular series of posts highlighting all the great music that I've been listening to. Seems like I'm always getting turned on to something new via Pandora, or just recommendations from friends - I thought I'd just pick some of my favorites and share them. So perhaps I'll get the first one up later today... But until then, I have a poopy diaper to go change.

(Cohen's, not mine.)

Happy Birthday, Cohen!

Well of course it's old news now, but yes, Cohen finally made his appearance on August 14th - thus effectively putting to rest my theory that Jess was just faking the pregnancy so she could quit working and get fat. :)



Things have pretty much been a blur around here since... I just took Julie and John back to the airport this morning, and Tricia just got in Wednesday night. I was only able to take a few days completely off of work right after he was born, so now I'm making up for that by taking a couple more days off in addition to the long holiday weekend. I'm on day 2 of 5 days in a row and I'm loving it. Still not getting any sleep, but glad I'm not going to work on top of it... Coffee can only take you so far. And it makes my eyes twitch.

Naturally Jess updated her blog/myspace etc. way before me and already has lots of pics up, so I won't bother duplicating her efforts. But it's quite obvious that he's the cutest baby in the world. What can I say...he gets it from his mom. :)

Major Holidays Of The Western World

I'm speaking of our anniversary, of course. Yes, a couple of weeks ago we celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Sure has been an eventful two years...seems like much longer than that - but in a good way, of course. There were no extra days off and fun trips to the Palm Springs this year. No sir - just a nice dinner at quaint little Italian place at La Jolla Shores. The food was incredible though - I had this stuffed chicken dish with mushrooms that just melted in my mouth. We even managed to stay awake through the meal. Funny how having kids can change things before you even have them.

One of the other holidays you might have noticed recently was the 4th of July. We enjoyed the long weekend, but didn't really do much. Jess and I just sat at home and relaxed most of the day, then barbecued burgers and made homemade ice cream. We did end up going out that evening with Adam and Shonna to watch fireworks down in Pacific Beach. And for whatever reason, it's tradition in PB to follow the fireworks show with a gigantic marshmallow fight. Picture thousands of people all over the beach and adjacent streets just hucking marshmallows at each other like crazy. People just bring bags and bags of them to the beach. They even had these huge, jumbo marshmallows that can apparently be found at Costco. It was entertaining, to say the least. Here's a (rather poor) clip of the show...

And here's some of the marshmallow action happening at one of the bonfires...

Although, by all accounts, it was pretty tame this year since they recently enacted the hotly contested "booze ban" at all the public beaches.

Anyway, not much else going on...My wife is officially "retired" now from both of her jobs - we're both pretty stoked about that. Her friend Jessica Porto came down for a visit last weekend, and some of her other friends down here threw her a baby shower. I cooked burgers for them before splitting to catch the Padres-Braves game with Mom and Aunt Kathy. Today is our last Sunday volunteering in the nursery at church. In other words, everything is just winding down in preparation for the big day...And you can now follow all the exciting baby action on my wife's new blog, started expressly for that purpose. Check it out! Cheers.

Cohen's First Game...

And I've got the pictures to prove it! Oh, and we were there too, of course. Although the gentleman over my left shoulder does not seem very approving our presence.
















And in spite of the M's best efforts, (Silva pitching, Vidro in the lineup, etc.) they actually won! 4-2! And thus continues my streak of never having attended a game that they lost. This all happened a couple weekends ago - we went with Mom and Bill and Adam and Shonna. Petco really is a nice park, it was a beautiful day, I had hotdogs and beer, and the M's won. What more can you ask for in life? Here are a few more pics...

Jeremy Reed getting to know some Padres fans...
("Hey, death-metal-tshirt-dude...nice to meet you.")

















Ichiro sizing up the pitcher...
(who just happened to be Unnecessary Mariners Castoff Cha Sung Baek)

















Adrian Beltre - probably getting ready to do something totally awesome, as usual...
(While JR casually checks out his butt - "Yeah, he must work out!")

















And for the sake of my wife, her favorite old bald guy, Rauuuuuuul.
(He's checking in for the signs, which probably included something along the lines of "Just try to hit a home run. Cause, you know, Vidro's batting behind you...Sooo it doesn't really matter if you get on base.")

















So there you have it - Fun times at Petco Park. I'm sure Cohen will cherish the memory.

















DISCLAIMER: I know this is retarded, but I'm kind of anal about these things... My Mac has a 17" widescreen, so when I post pictures within text on my blog, I can either format it so it looks right on my computer, but will have extra long gaps between the pics and text on regular monitors; or I can post it as is, and on a widescreen monitor, the text will wrap the pics in funny places and generally look funky and wrong. Either way bothers me, but should you encounter one of these views, know that it is not because I'm an idiot. (Not for that reason, at least.) ALSO, because I still don't have Photoshop at home, and because I'm too lazy to learn any other program right now, the pics I post are straight from my camera, and generally semi-large files. So when you click on one for a bigger view...well, you really get a bigger view. Again, not stupidity in this case, just laziness. Please forgive me, and enjoy nonetheless.

I Own a Stroller.

And a carseat. An entire travel system, as I understand they're called. And it's a nice one too, let me tell you - a Graco Quattro Tour Dee-luxe. But nonetheless, I am slightly weirded out by the fact that it's all sitting in my living room. And I own it.

Anyway, so Jess had her 21st birthday a couple weeks ago. (I'm pretty stoked that she can buy me beer at the grocery store now, and I don't have to make an extra trip!) We went to Seaworld again to celebrate, and we took the "sky-ride" lift around the bay while we were there. Then we hit Olive Garden for dinner. Oh, and I made her a cake.








































So other than that excitement, we're just busy little bees. We're both working alot, I'm studying for my Series 24 securities license for work, and we're taking a birthing class every week, while attempting to get things sorted out before the big day arrives. Only 7 1/2 weeks to go. Yikes.

While going through my phone pics for the ones above, I found a couple more I might as well share...The first one is a pic I took forever ago of the seals down at La Jolla Cove. And the second is a recent sunset as seen from our office windows. I have a whole bunch of San Diego pics that I've taken with my real camera, I should upload some of those some time. But not now....I'm going to bed.












































P.S. Yes, the Mariners fired Bill Bavasi. Yes, I was surprised it happened this early. And yes, I'm very excited, although only cautiously optimistic about who they will land on for his replacement.

Roll Out The Barrels...

"Playing on this team and seeing what is happening around me, I feel that something is beginning to fall apart,” Ichiro said, through a translator. “But, if I was not in this situation, and I was objectively watching what just happened this week, I would probably be drinking a lot of beers and booing."

I heart Ichiro. Seriously, the guy is one of the most amazing players in the game, and one of the funniest. At any rate, it's good to know I've already been following Ichiro's prescribed method of being a Mariners fan in 2008. The M's season was done weeks ago (if not before it started.) No, this is not a "good team playing bad baseball" - this is a "bad team playing horrible baseball." Although I continue to watch with morbid fascination - as though watching footage of a most gruesome train wreck. My only hope is that 2008 serves as reason enough for a major Front Office purging - and soon. Of course I want McLaren gone too, but I don't really care if that happens mid-season or not. It's not like he could do much damage now. I had high hopes for Johnny-Mac, thinking that perhaps all those years with Sweet Lou would have rubbed off on him. But unfortunately, he's made it painfully obvious that he has no business managing a Major League team. I'd probably be disappointed if he were managing my son's little league. Bavasi, on the other hand, needs to go before the season is over. I'm way too nervous that he's going to make some last minute desperation moves and further decimate our farm system by bringing in some more gritty, washed up veterans to help "turn the season around." But he's definitely not going to get canned before the draft, so we'll see that happens. I'm also hoping beyond hope that Pres. Chuck Armstrong disappears, and that whoever they get to replace all these guys has at least a basic understanding of how to evaluate players and build a good team. A boy can dream right?

DISCLAIMER: As much as this team sucks, we do have some great players. Felix is phenomenal (he's young - give him time.) Ichiro is amazing. Beltre is awesome, and highly underrated. Our middle infield really isn't that bad - I like what I've seen offensively from Lopez so far, and I'm hoping that he and Betancourt are young enough to still develop their game on the field. Ibanez is a good hitter - he just needs to get his slow butt of the field and DH. Bedard is awesome when he's healthy, we might as well keep him. And Putz (also when healthy) is still one of the best closers in the game. There, I'm being positive.

Well, the M's are starting their game against the Yanks (their rear-ends no doubt still smarting from the spanking they received last night) and looking at the lineup Mac has put together, I'm not sure if I want to laugh or cry. I think I'll go with "laugh" and read some more Ichiro quotes...

After being asked what kind of beer he would drink (see quote above):

"Usually, I enjoy Japanese beer, but given the situation, I wouldn't care if it was Japanese beer, American beer or beer from Papua New Guinea."

And on going 0-4 in last night's game with two highly disputed 3rd strike calls (they were bad calls - Ichi rarely argues, and McLaren got ejected from the game over it):

"If you consider those at-bats strikeouts, then what you say [0-for-4] is true," Ichiro said. "They were non-existent to me."

Classic.

So Long Scooter, Hello Vivian

So in other major world news, I sold my beloved scooter so I could purchase a car. A 1975 Mercedes 280 named Vivian, to be precise. She also goes by "The Benz." A lady at my work was going to sell this off cheap, and I couldn't resist. So as much as I loved my scooter, I decided this was a slightly more practical commuter solution. I can drive it in the rain and do other useful things such as picking up my shirts from the cleaners. It definitely wouldn't be a dependable long-commuter car, but for tooling around the greater La Jolla/UTC area, she will suit me just fine. For a 1975, it's a pretty smooth running ride. Here she is in all her glory...



























The interior is a little more rough than the exterior, but still not in bad shape. And the seat covers alone make up for that. Also, as you can see, it apparently comes with an inherited membership in the St. Jude Travel Club, so, you know, that's pretty cool.

More Cohen Pics...

I know, I'm behind the times. But better late than never, right? Here's the handsome profile...


















Here's his foot... (it took the nurse like 5 minutes to get this shot because he was moving around so much)


















And here he is doing a mime routine... (He's in a glass box - No wait! A uterus!!!)


















Once again, I'll resist posting the gender shots, though I have to say they were pretty dang hilarious looking.

Say Hello to Cohen Ray! (And some other stuff too)

So we found out we're having a boy!!! (Yeah, I know it's old news for most...but what can I say, I suck at blogging. So whatever, man. Get off my back. Geez.) Here's a couple pics - I'm not going to post the one's that show the necessary evidence for gender determination...that just seems a little weird. But we went to one of those 3d ultrasound places, and while these pictures aren't all that clear, the video was pretty cool. I think Jess has more on her myspace.









And since I'm posting old, outdated news, I might as well fill you in on our Valentine's day...a month ago. First of all, the night before, my wife somehow managed to "borrow" my keys, lift my building access card from my briefcase, hide decorations in a "bag of thrift store stuff", and totally sell me on a "going to the store" story. The end result was that I showed up to work the next morning to find my desk looking like this:














Quite frankly, Jess generally sucks at being sneaky, so needless to say I was very impressed. (And the whistling monkey and balloon are still on my desk.) As for dinner plans, Jess unfortunately had to work that night, and she didn't know when she would be off, so reservations were out of the question. So I decided it would be best to do dinner at home. (on a side note, Jess has a new job now at Kindercare that she totally loves, and she works M-F 8-6:30....Glory Hallelujah and Amen.) But anyway, I was running late due to large crowds at the grocery store, and we didn't end up eating till after 10:00 - but I think I pulled it off....




First things first, you have to set the mood with some music...







Here's my lovely wife perusing the night's menu. (And yes, that's only sparkling cider on the table for prego.)











What was on the menu? Well, the appetizer was mashed potatoes with herbs, and sauteed garlic asparagus.






The entree was a dish called "Halibut Olympia" - a totally unhealthy yet delicious way to eat halibut with a sour cream and breaded topping mixture.






And for dessert, chocolate lava cakes (not home made) with vanilla ice cream (not home made) and a strawberry sauce (home made). Although the strawberry sauce thickened up during dinner more than I expected, so when I attempted to drizzle, it kind of just splattered. Looks like a slasher was on the loose in my kitchen during dessert. But it was an excellent sauce nonetheless.



And here's a picture from the end of our dinner - Me with a double chin, and my wife with a new 8G Ipod Nano. What can I say, I'm pretty much the best husband in the world.

Babies and Baseball Broadcasters

So the news this week is that my sis Lani had her baby on Friday - a little girl named Lilah...they should have pictures up on their blog soon I believe, so check them out. They are all doing well, so congrats to them on numero quatro...

The other big news this week was, again, from the baseball world - though of a much more heartening nature than the last piece baseball news I shared. Dave Niehaus, the Mariners broadcaster since their inception in 1977 (31 years now), was finally voted as the Ford C. Frick award recipient this year. For those of you who don't know, [almost everyone] this essentially the highest honor a baseball broadcaster can receive. It means he gets inducted into the Broadcasters Wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY this summer - along with the likes of Mel Allen, Vin Scully, and Harry Caray. The announcement came this Tuesday, on his 73rd birthday. Way to go Dave! This is actually the most excited I have been as a Mariner fan since 2001. To put it simply, Dave Niehaus IS Mariners baseball to me. Having listened to him almost exclusively for all my baseball loving years, I associate his voice with the glory of the game more than anything else. And on a professional level, he truly is as good as they come. I have never heard an announcer who can match his ease, descriptiveness, and professionalism yet. In fact, having been spoiled by Niehaus, most play-by-play announcers make me cringe. He can hold your attention without over-talking/reacting, and can relate the ambiance and feel of the ballpark better than anybody. And although he is the M's biggest cheerleader, he never criticizes the other team (as many announcers do), but is always very complimentary of them. I could go on, but since I'm already risking being called a nerd again, I'll simply encourage you to check out some of these links...If you are a baseball fan you will appreciate them. And if you aren't yet, then perhaps, as he has done for thousands of others, Dave can help you become one.

This is a link to a USSM post regarding Niehaus. The author, Dave Cameron, eloquently states how most M's fans (myself included) feel about the honor...go ahead and read the comments too - you'll find I'm not the only nerd around here.

Here's a link to one of the many articles on the Mariners website and MLB.com. I highly encourage you to click the video link at the top of the article entitled "31 Years of Niehaus." (Stupid MLB.com is pretty stingy with their content. I've never yet found a way to even link directly to their player, much less embed video anywhere.)

And here's an ESPN article about Dave...and found in the middle of it are several audio clips of some of Dave's classic calls. Well worth a listen.

So there you go...all in all a pretty good week.

At Long Last...

So today was the day that you all have been waiting for - Mariners pitchers and catchers reported to Peoria for the first day of Spring Training 2008!!! Baseball is back!!! Now that I live relatively close to AZ, I'm hoping to perhaps make it over there at some point this spring to catch a game or two - money and time permitting. (Though I'm not holding my breath, as I rarely find money and time to be in very permissive moods. They remind me more of the overbearing parents of a teenager. They never let me do what I want.) I must however confess that I would be much more ecstatic about the beginning of this season had the M's GM and front office not gone and made more horrible off-season moves. Anyone who has bothered to read this post this far has probably ascertained that I'm speaking of last week's Bedard-Jones + trade. Bavasi went into the off-season letting everyone in the world know he was desperate for a "#1 type starter." (One can easily assume his job is on the line this season, and he's still trying to recover from last year's Ramirez/Weaver fiasco.) And it's true, they needed pitching. So I give them credit in pursuing Kuroda strongly...If they wanted to sign somebody, I think he was their best bet. There weren't many top-notch arms on the FA market, and (fortunately) they didn't really have enough to buy into the Santana Sweepstakes. But they lost him to the Dodgers. So then, rather than coming to the long over-due conclusion that "maybe-we- should-develop- our-own-young-pitchers- from-within-and- spend-our-money-on-improving- our- defense- and-offense-instead-of-using-it-on-over-priced- free-agents," they signed Carlos Silva for 4 years @ $44 million. Not a great move - his skills aren't a great match for Safeco at all. But hey, he's a decent pitcher, and they didn't have to give anyone up. So it could have been worse. Aaaaaaand then it did get worse. The M's have been grooming Adam Jones for years, and I've been waiting for him to have a permanent spot on their roster for a long time. And with the departure of Guillen, it seemed like this was finally his year. He's a 23 year old solid 5-tool player. Even if he never lives up to his awesome potential, at worst, he will be an above average major leaguer. And at best, he's gonna be a superstar. But no, Bavasi couldn't give up, and decided to mortgage the team's future for his "# 1 starter." He sent Jones, George Sherrill (one of the best lefty specialists in the league,) and 3 good minor league pitching prospects to Baltimore for Erik Bedard. That's 5 for 1, folks. And keep in mind that Jones would belong to the Mariners for 6 years. Bedard is up for free agency in 2. If they don't get an extension worked out soon...well, let's just say I won't be happy. Now don't get me wrong, I think Bedard is a stud. And it's going to be alot of fun to watch him and Felix go back to back. But by filling one hole, they created even more. They had options for filling their rotation, and they really needed to focus on improving their corner defense and power. They could have fielded an amazing, young, division contending team in a couple of years. But they decided to jump the gun and bet the house on Bedard. I hope it works. I'm not saying it's impossible, and I'll obviously still be rooting for them all the way. But I just don't see them beating the Angels with this offense. As a die-hard fan, it's just frustrating when your team's front office seems incapable of making smart baseball decisions. Sure, they have made some good moves over the years (Ichiro, Hernandez, Betancourt, etc.) But it seems like their specialty lies in signing over-paid under-achievers, (Weaver, Ramirez, Vidro, Cairo, etc.) singing the praises of mediocrity, talking big - and finishing in second place. But I guess I'll just look on the bright side. We have two of the best young pitchers in baseball, a young Cuban defensive whiz at short who's alot of fun to watch, the ageless, enigmatic hitting machine known as "Ichiro", and at worst, alot of genuinely nice guys filling out the roster. And hey, it's baseball....anything could happen.

(If you disagree with this assessment, or want more info, the USS Mariner is a good place to start. But be forwarned: those guys are hard-core stat geeks. They analyze this way deeper than I do...compared to them I'm almost a "casual fan"! They're also a bit more pessimistic than I like, though not entirely without reason...)

Songwriters of the Future

Back when I was young, we had these online discussion forums called web boards - what? They still have those? I guess I just haven't used one in a while, since someone told me blogging was the cool thing to do. I'm sure in the near future, it will all be considered antiquated technology. I have no doubt that the very child now growing in my wife's womb will someday look at me in shocked hilarity and exclaim "You used to post on web boards?!? Wow, I didn't know my dad was such a fooblerond." (In the future, of course, they will have new words to describe someone who is hopelessly out of touch.) Then the child will take a 6D holo-video of their embarrassing dad with their Apple i-Robot and send it via telepathy-text to their best friend/virtual classmate in Tokyo. I will probably be put out by this disrespect, and become slightly defensive. "Is it really necessary to make fun of me to your friends?" I will say, "They'll see this all tonight on Reality World anyway." (By this time, you know, the entire world will be a reality tv show. There will be camera crews in every house 24/7, and thousands of channels for each geographical region. But being the self-absorbed people we are, everyone will only watch their own channel to see what happened to themselves and all their friends that day. There will also be, by necessity, a spin-off reality show called "Lives of Reality World Camerapersons" that targets the only demographic not receiving regular exposure on the rest of the Reality World Network.)

Ummm...sorry, I got sidetracked. I was talking about a web board - to be more specific the "Webb Board" located on the website of a wee bald musical genius named Derek Webb. There was a very friendly, intelligent, artistic community there that kept a lively discussion going on a smorgasboard buffet of topics. (Although I now believe that many of them were only covertly looking for spouses...*turns to his cousin and winks*...) Btw, I use past tense when describing this community only because I no longer frequent it - i don't know if it exists still or not. Maybe I should find out. Anyway, there was an ever-present thread going there for songwriters. People would post their latest pieces and get help and critique from the rest of the community - and I remember that it was really a great outlet and encouragement for my feeble attempts at the craft. I started thinking about that now, because I believe I'm finally coming out of a musical dry spell that I was beginning to fear might last forever. I haven't played guitar or written songs in so long...but now...well it seems like the creative juices are at least beginning to trickle. Perhaps if I come up with anything worthwhile in the future, I'll post it here... Writing a truly worthwhile song, however, is the hardest thing for me to do. That's actually what I was going to elaborate on in this post, but now I've already rambled too much. So sometime in the future (before blogs and the internet go out of style) I will post my thoughts on songwriting, and perhaps a few of my favorite lyrics of all time. Cheers.