Top 5, Bottom 5

Top 4 Christmas Movies

1. Bad(er) Santa- It has to be the unrated directors cut.  Without the unrated director's cut version so much is left out.  It's a great movie; the kids name is Herman Merman, John Ritter's last movie, Bernie Mac, the dynamic of Marcus and his Asian Wife, the Grandmother wanting to always make sandwiches for everyone, and then the Gilmore Girls chick Jewish/ Christmas issues.  A true Classic if there ever was one.
2. Gremlins- A perfect 80's movie.  Gizmo and Scar are the perfect Yin and Tang.  Everyone in the world wanted a mugwai after watching Gremlins.  Everyone that I knew even threw water on their stuffed Gizmo after getting it for Christmas and then swore they made Gremlins.  Awesome Flick.
3. Love Actually- 5 different stories converge into one.  Keira Knightly is at her every hottest, there is a cranky (casually skanky) brunette with a bob like cut that is also very appealing and add to that the subtle British humor and varying plot lines that don't all end up wrapped with a pretty bow at the end.
4. Die Hard- Bruce Willis in his prime!  The famous line "Yippie Kay Yay Motherfuck" delivered by Alan Rickman in his best Hanz Gruber accent, Run DMC's 'Christmas in Hollis', a ginger lead female, and Family Matters Carl as Earl the donut driving cop are all awesome.  Die Hard is one of the best action 80's movies ever.  It's right up there with Road House, Conan, Predator, and the American Ninja series.

Worst 8 Vegetables

1. Brussel Sprouts- steaming balls of baby spinach brains that reak.  Nope!
2. Beets- When I was in the 4rd grade my dad took me to Steak and Ale for the first time.  In addition to whatever steak I ordered They had a salad bar that was 10 feet long with every vegetable known to man.  Hating all of these I prepared to make my normal "salad" with croutons, bacon bits, shredded cheddar cheese, and ranch dressing.  At the end of the bar laid some beets.  I thought these were the jellied cranberry that I love so much at Thanksgiving and piled them on high, sat down and took a huge bit and then dry heaved and spit as I bolted to the bathroom.  Beets suck.  
3. Green beans- no one likes these.  If you have to add bacon to something to make it taste good it's a shitty food.  Bacon makes everything great, but it still can't had the horrible taste and bad texture of green beans.
4. Cauliflower- another food that tries to mask itself with awesome toppings like melted cheese.  Throw some nacho cheese on them and they look almost edible.  One bite in and you realize this freaking thing tricked you.
5. Spinach- tree leaves, nope!
6. Okra- Fake ass french fries.  Oh we're deep frying veggies now to make them edible?
7. Peas- crushed mashed green baby shit
8. Kale- My friend Tae tried to convince me make kale shakes as a way to get veggies in.  So I went to Central market and bough some kale.  I went home and chopped it up- threw in some chocolate protein powder, a banana, some strawberries, and blended it up.  One sip in and I swear a cat snuck into my apartment and ninja back flipped over me while simultaneously shitting in my mouth.  Kale can suck it.

Unknown Comedian Review

Working for a quasi-government company has numerous perks, one being off on Veteran's day.  Being a Veteran myself I appreciate this.  More so because I love having days off than some sort of loyalty to a company that recognizes the sacrifice veterans make.  What did I do on a free Sunday night?  I watched the Cowboys get annihilated by the Saints, I gave Maily a bunch of shit Via txt for watching some DVR WB show instead of watching the Cowboys, I saw an Awesome Pun about T-Rex (Tea Rex w a bowler hat and a cup of Earl Grey), and I watched some shitty comedy from a super hot chick.

After getting kicked in the nuts from the Cowboys game I needed some laughter to make me smile.  I took a chance on a comedian I had never heard of.  It was a huge gamble because 1) It was a women 2) I have never heard of her.  I'm not in the group that thinks women aren't funny; Iliza Shlesinger, Amy Schumer, Nikki Glasser, and Sarah Tiana crack me up all day long.  I took a chance on Anjelah Johnson and hoped for the best.  It started slow.  About 15 minutes in I realized if she wasn't a 8 I would have turned it off.  She wasn't bad, but she wasn't good.  The jokes were the same level my friends make, just a little chuckle laugh.  BUT she's a freaking 10 when you add in her personality.  Let's check the hot boxes: Former Raiderette- check the cheerleader box, Part latin and part native american- check off the bi-racial box, good dancer check off the can you do awesome hip action box, casual clothing dress- check, not cunty- check.  Besides that she hit my trifecta of dark longish hair, hoop earrings, and Nike Dunks (seriously).  As a person, as a girl she would be the perfect catch.  She's beautiful and she sees humor in every day situations.  As a stand up it seemed about open mic level.  There was a lot of basic crowd pleasing lines "Where's my Latins at", "Who here goes to church", "Whose flown on a plane before" but the observational stuff and loop around jokes just weren't there.  You can see she has a passion for it, but to have an hour special on NetFlix already seems premature.  I kept hoping there was more to it and it never became more than an opener trying to work things out.  Iliza's cpecial, which is also on NetFlix, blows it out of the water.  If you want to see a female comedian who does it like a Pro should then watch her special.  Amy Schummer's is also on Comedy Central on Demand so if you don't have NF watch that one.

I'm still craving some comedy so I'm going to Listen to the Joe Rogan Podcast with Joey Diaz and Duncan Trussell.  Trusted Road comics with off collar, low brow humor.... that's where it's at.

Regretful Purchases

Like most normal adults I've done some drunk late night eBaying.  When the packages get delivered a few days later it's better than Christmas.  Wonderful things like a Day of the Dead coffee set, 4 packs of 1973 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, chocolate covered bacon, Melinda's Naga Jolokia hot sauce, a $35 DVD of Gleaming the Cube starring Christian Slater from 1989, or maybe it's something practical and useful like an Obey fanny pack.  None of these are purchases I regret, these are fantastic amazing items that would make Tom Haverford say "Treat Yo Self'.  I do have numerous things I regret buying.  In fact I've re-gifted numerous gifts that were meant for previous ex's when the relationship ended prior to me giving it to them.  The majority of these things go to Julie and she distributes the "Break Up Swag" as she see's fit.  She kept the Mark Jacobs Sunglasses, gave away some jewelry and donated some clothing to good will.
Side note- A wasp just came in my sliding glass doors.  I didn't give him permission to buzz the tower so I did what uninvited guests wishing to kill me by the most painful death ever should receive; a spritz of wood polish from the swifter to confuse him then a smash against the wall with the removable dust pad.  Team Humans Bitch!

Here we go-

The iTunes purchase of the video of 'Hotel California' by Emerson Nogueira-  At some point one night around 2:20am I really wanted to hear Hotel California from The Eagles.  I was trying to explain how amazing it is on the live version of 'Hell Freezes Over' to a Euro friend of mine who didn't believe me.  I did the 20 second preview but Rumple takes away your ability to.. well, to know anything correctly.  The next day I checked and yup, Emmerson Nogueira is definitely not The Eagles.  Also Euro's can't tell a Mexican from Don Henley either with Rumple infused thoughts.  Total Damage- $1.99

Don Henley

Not Don Henley

Every portable CD player ever- The first "good one" and the last one I purchased are probably the ones I remember the best.  In 1995 I paid somewhere around $170 for a yellow Sony sports discman.  It had anti-skip, shuffle all, repeat 1, repeat all, and was water resistant.  The anti skipping mechanism was absolute crap.  I was so psyched the first time I took it out to run.  I had such high aspirations.  My previous Memorex CD player skipped all the time.  It worked decently when I would lay perfectly still and wrap it in a cocoon of blankets and then secure it in an earthquake proof bumper.  I put the new Sony in an Sony approved CD player fanny pack designed for running (another $55) and started my jog.  It was just as crappy as the old one.  This pattern finally stopped with the $155 Kenwood Exceleon I purchased in 1998.  Yes, it still skipped and sucked horribly so I was fed up and gave it to my sisters.  Thankfully my friend Tor heard about this magical new device called an MP3 Player that we could put all of the music we had downloaded from Napster on.  We went halfsies on a 16mb Rio mp3 player and my world was changed. Total Damage- $125,639.28

Magazine Subscriptions- Every year rag tag groups of meth addicted teens would show up randomly  at my apartment begging me to spend money on subscriptions to FHM, Maxim, and GQ.  I fell for the deal one time because I had just been paid and the chick was hot.  About as hot as a meth addicted chick with a neck tattoo could be.  Somehow the bill for 2 different magazines for a 2 year subscription was something around $145.  After a few months I hadn't received a single issue.  I called the company and they said it was 3-6 months for processing and if I didn't receive an issue by then to call them back.  I received my first 3 issues and then my lease was up and I moved.  Each year the same process would continue and I would shoot them down.  I still have buyers remorse from that summer in 2004.

Total Damage- $145

Juve the Great CD from Juvenile- Yeah, it had 'Slow Motion' on it but besides that it was fucking horrible.  I ripped the song on my computer and then used the CD in the apartment frisbee derby of 2003.  Total Damage- $14.99- fun level from watching it hit Earl right between the eyes on an "errant" throw- $25

Bridesmaids DVD rented at Red Box- I tried to like it, I really did.  I sat through it up to the point where they are on the bus going to some place.  I didn't think it was funny at all and I never got into it.  It seemed like they took the exact same script written for a group of guys and then plugged in females in an attempt to make it work without any re-writes.  Take a clue from 'The Sweetest Thing', that was a girl focused comedy that was hilarious.  Bridesmaids is that girl at the mall that has on Coach shoes, a Louis V purse, True religion's, and John Deere shirt.  Your're trying so hard but it doesn't work and something just isn't right..... Total Damage- $1.59

Sunglasses- I've lost and left more pairs of sunglasses than most people ever buy.  The most recent pair were some Oakley Dispatch II's with green lenses I bought in the O'Hare airport Specifically for St. Patty's day.  They lasted from Wed- Saturday and then at some point on Saturday night I lost them.  I managed to keep track of them until that last bar, but from the bar to The James (Maybe 200 Feet) they walked off.  I also had an awesome pair of all black Dior's that looked like Loc's.  Those just disappeared one day too.  Then there was the clear Oakley Jupiter's with purple lenses, numerous pairs of Spy and Von Zipper's and every pair of sunglasses I bought from 1995- 2004.  I even gave away a pair of Dior's to my friend Shawn one night back in 2010, I saw him not too long ago and he managed to still have them.  The only pair I know exactly was happened to them was in 2002.  Some friends and I were on Gator's Nautique and watching Randy Harris throw re-mixes when a pair of red Spy MC's committed suicide by jumping ot their death and drowning in the lake.  Randy saw it happen, grabbed a pair of Black Fly's he had from being sponsored by them and gave them to me.  Coolest thing ever and I actually won on that deal.  The oldest pair I currently have are some Dolce & Gabbana prescription sunglasses I bought with my HSA account in 2004.  But to be fair to them I did leave them in Jen's car where they lived a nice safe life in Houston until 2012.  I thought I left a pair of Tom Ford shades at Kenny's during a recent trip but thankfully I did not.  I'm horrible with keeping track of them.  You would think by now I would stick with Target shades.  I can't do it.  I still love Von Zipper, Spy, or the ridiculously expensive but amazingly designed Tom Ford shades.  I've been jocking those Oliver People's Micheal Wesson wears on Burn Notice for a few years but eeeek are they expensive.  Plus I'm sure Randy would punch me in the dick when I lose them.

Blockbuster Video Late Fee's- NetFlix has my support for life.  How much of a pain in the ass was it to rent videos?  If you wanted to see something semi-new you paid more than you do now for On Demand movies.  Blockbuster has finally died and I'm happy.  A business plan that revolves around raping you daily on late fees by teenage assholes was bound to fail (take note Yellow Cab, #DallasNeedsUber).  Think about it, back then people made less money and companies, in general, cared about customer service.  Except Blockbuster.  They charged something like $5.99 a day for late fees and $3.99 to rewind the VHS.  If you were unlucky enough to have a late fee some Junior in high school would berate and shame you in front of everyone else until he felt you were one insult away from playing in traffic.  I remember in high school going to rent a movie with a date and there was a $49 late charge from who knows when on there. My choices were pay the $49, which I didn't have or drive across town to the dirtball rental place, Movie Time.  The bulk of their tapes were BetaMax, which hadn't been around in 7 or years and the VHS tapes they did have were either Disney or 3 stooges re-runs.  There was a two week period in Austin when Stephanie and I fell into a pattern of waking up between 1 and 2 pm, then go to blockbuster to "rent" some movies from a guy she knew.  She would smoke him out and then we'd take 3 or 4 movies to watch that afternoon.  We would grab Taco Hell or Jack in the Crack and a 12 pack of Coors light.  After the movies and pre-pre-drinking we'd hit up Bennigans for Pre-drinking and then downtown Austin.  After 2 straight weeks of this the guy got fired and I was lucky enough to keep 'Head of State', 'Chasing Amy', 'Rescue Rangers: Down Under', 'Willow', and 'Half Baked'.  Purely out of principle I kept these 5 movies about 3 years after I got rid of my VHS player.  Total Damage- $3.5 Million in late fees

I'm sure there's a lot more stuff that I can't think of right now.  I know Randy and Julie still won't go to Ruth Chris based on a Bday night we had there one night.  Meal wise, I'm a fat kid and I think almost every meal was worth it.  Wine, nah.  Most of the wine I get is great.  The Neyer Cab wasn't worth the price but at least that's a fun process.  I think right now the best value item I've ever purchased is my swiffer.  Not only does it clean hardwood floors but it's the Patriot Missile of killing wasps.  

A Few Things I Like and a Few Things I don't Understand

Lists are fun, everyone like lists.  For most people a list gives them a hierarchy they accept and feel comfortable with.  Part of my job entails ranking things and devising metrics to determine quality and SLA for the better part of a day.  Right now developing and analyzing scorecards is taking up the majority of my day which means I'm going to make a list of things that don't correlate or have necessarily have anything in common but scoring this is on my mind.  I present to you a list of things that I like along with some things that I either don't like or understand.

Like/ Love/ Appreciate

Ramen- It's still fantastic.  I got hooked as a kid since it was cheap and we didn't have a lot of money growing up.  I learned to trick it up really quickly by adding chili powder, cooked chicken, maybe some cilantro and garlic powder, just about anything to make it the same but slightly different.  It's also the best $0.20 you will ever spend in your life.  When those save the kids in Africa commercials come on and tell you that you can feed a child for $0.40 a day, she's buying those kids 2 packs of beef ramen with your donation.  If there was a Mr. & Mrs. Ramen and they had a daughter I would track her down and marry her to be heir to the Ramen kingdom.  All the Ramen I could ever eat sounds magical.  Then I could get those special ramen flavors like chili lime that are hard to find to give as stocking stuffers to my friends that I like and I'd give away all the creamy chicken flavor to people as white elephant gifts or to people I don't care for.  Creamy chicken sucks, I hate that flavor.  Not even Melinda's Naga Ghost sauce can make it edible.

Red Wine that's not Merlot- Cab, Pinot, Chianti, Rioja, Tempranillo, Port, Red Blends, Syrah, and just about anything else besides Merlot is wonderful.  I'm really digging the Spanish reds right now.  Specifically this 2008 Vina Eguia from Spain.  I have 3 bottles of it in wine fridge and I keep buying more of it; I'm afraid the place where I get it from will run out soon.  It's not even an expensive wine, I just love it!  I have this hope that at some point I'll date an introspective chick who will like to come over to discuss life as we drink some red wine with Portishead playing in the back ground.  For this imaginary chick I'll break out the Vina Eguia, until then I'm giving you the bottle of cupcake Merlot Sadah brought over that's sitting at the bottom of the wine fridge to drink when you come over....

Tall Places- I like being up high (not being high).  The view from the Signature bar at The Hancock building in Chicago is one of my favorite places in the world to go for drinks.  I love climbing mountains, sky diving, looking out the window of a plane, and I think that's why I live on the 14th floor.  It's nice to sit on my balcony and hear the city while watching the view below.  

My friend's wife is deathly afraid of heights.  I'll send her pictures of people rockclimbing or on a high wire and she gets nervous.  The weird thing is she loves to ride roller coasters- her husband is deathly afraid of roller coasters but has no fear of heights.  I guess Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat were right, opposites do attract.

Puma Golf Clothes- Ricky Fowler has a good pulse of what the younger generation likes to wear.  Even on solid color items he does it right. A flat bill hat, good stripe combos, plaids that are a little crazy, a bottle opener on the belt, you name and he did it.  I smile when I see an old man rocking it on the course; he's getting shit from his fellow WWII soldiers as he has on a pink and purple argyle shirt with teal pants trying to convince his khaki clad friends he's hip.

The Speed round:

Crime (with Kendrick Lamar) by Mayer Hawethorne- Listen to it

Casio G-Shock Watches

Tomato soup w a Brie/ Munster grilled cheese

The color green.  Yes, the color

South Park

Goofy girls

Tacos

Puns

Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) Art

my Day of the Dead skeleton wine opener

Anything flat black murdered out

The Chive

Marmut jackets

Soup

Laffy Taffy Jokes

Girls in beanies (it's starting to get cold after all)

Working from home

(whispers)... Rumple.... shhhh... I should probably do a few entries titled The Rumple Diaries about all the crazy things I've done or that have happened when Rumple was in play.  

Hate/ Confused about/ Not for me

Facial Hair- Definitely not for me.  I'm blonde and I've always thought blonde people with facial hair look like pedophiles.  It's an uncomfortable sight to see that much blonde hair on someone, auto pedo alert.  Some people can make it look really good and do it year round.  A friend of mine can look like a hipster conquistador in no time flat along with another who pulls off Wyatt Earp with ease.  They both look good and it works on them. Me, not so much.....

McDonalds- They don't have good food.  In fact they take an item that's good at the place you would normally go and suck the flavor out.  I think the board room pitch for their latest menu offering went something like this: 

"OK everyone likes wings, right?  Well, we know Wing Stop, Pluckers, and even that sub par shit Buffalo Wild Wings is putting out is making a killing.  So we're going to offer the more expensive elementary school cafeteria made version of wings. BUT, BUT, BUT we're going to call them mighty wings and pay Alex Kapernick a shit load of money to act like they're edible.  

No way, it won't work.

Yes it will.  Remember that shit sandwich we called the Southern Chicken Sandwich after Chick-Fil-a's way better version?  People still eat that and it's fucking hoooooorible.

(everyone nods their heads, applause roars, board meeting over)"  Ladies and Gentlemen, Mighty Wings

Non-stop rain-  It could be raining for 8,000 straight days and some jerk is going to say "well, we definitely need the rain".  Do we, do we really?  I don't own a house so all it does it make it so I can't go outside when the weather is nice because of the hordes of mosquitoes attacking my legs.  If I wanted to live in a grey sky world I'd move to Seattle or the Mid West.  Until then give me back my dry climate.  Also, to all those climate change deniers- um... I think it's pretty evident our climate is changing from our actions.  Go take that "climate is cyclical" argument Bill Jones and his DeVry Phd approved study to Rick Perry's dumb ass.

Family stick figure stickers- Can this go the way of the Baby on Board sign?  Wow- you can procreate, and adopt a pet.  I'm super proud of you random Tahoe driver lady.  What's that, you have 4 kids a wife and 3 pets, looks like that Nissan Versa is a little too small and you're going to need to get another set of stickers when you join Tahoe lady up there... sigh.... I know there is a lack of originality in most people, hell one of my best friends named his dog Frisco after the city he lives in, but come one.  

The word Blessed- Can't stand it.  How many Creaster's (a term for people that only go to church on Christmas and Easter) out there have started dropping that word on a daily basis.  It fits with people over the age of 65, but anyone else sounds uncomfortable in the usage of it.  Even they know it.  They say "Yesterday Tommy got an A in finger painting for kindergarten.  We're blessed to have such a bright child" while looking at you in that re-assuring manner to see of they used the term properly.  Well guess what, the definition is 'Made holy, consecrated, or of a sacred nature.  Having a kid is not holy and that kid being able to dunk it's booger diggers into paint and smear it is something  a dog can do So no, you did not.  Nor did you use it correctly when you said we were blessed to receive free shots from the bartender.  

The Speed Round:

Giant luggage style purses on women

Kiss FM

People who live in Kansas

Kale

Doing things just because it's tradition

Sepp Blatter

People that care about Miley Cyrus who aren't her family

Raising Cane's

Aeropostle Clothing- I don't have a good reason for this one, I just don't like it.

Wilco

It's bed time for me and I'm going to read some more of 2666 by Roberto Bolano before I hit the hay.  Ski ya guys later.

iTunes Shuffle All Live Blog Challenge pt2

The second installment of iTunes Shuffle all challenge.  I've added another 30 or 40 songs since the last time bringing the overall total of possible tracks to 4,860.  I also decided to rate the songs on a 1- 10 scale to gauge them.

Death of a Martian- Red Hot Chili Peppers.  I don't think I've heard this song before, but it sounds boorishly familiar.  Sadly a lot of the slower songs on this album sound a lot a like.  It reminds me of the early 2000's punk pop that sounded so much alike.  It's not a bad song, but it's also not a good song nor does it do anything to distinguish  itself from the other lame songs on this album.  Anthony Kedis and the guys wrote way better music when they were addicted to herion, but I guess it's kind of selfish to hope for a relapse.  I'll just go listen to Mother's Milk later instead.  Very Meh. 4

Your Home- Jimmy Eat World.  I like this song.  It has a catchy beat and I used to play the whole CD on drives from Austin to Dallas.  If I were to hear it for the first time now I probably wouldn't have the same reaction but I still like it.  It starts to pick up in the 3rd section where he breaks the melody like chorus that was part of the first two sections of the song.  Average 5

Enemy of The World- Four Year Strong.  The most brittle viking in the world, Austin Erikson, gave me this CD.  I loved it right when I heard it.  Kind of like Comeback Kid and the whole Victory records scene around 2004, they sing fast and loud but you can understand the lyrics pretty well so it isn't too Scream-O.  It's a nice pick me up from the other two slow songs.  Also a good showing from a more obscure band that most people won't know.  It makes me want to go bomb down some trails on my mountain bike or start skating again. 6

Kill Yourself- Timbaland.  I think shuffle played this one last time (checked).  Yup.  What the hell iTunes,4,860 songs in my library and you play the same one I listened to last time on shuffle all.  I'm not sure how I felt about it last time but right now I'm over it.  The creepy opera style in the back ground works since it's All Hallow's Eve (as horror movies call it) but right now it just isn't doing it for me. 4

It's All Good- DMX.  Hell Yes, I love this song.  I was in the Army when "Flesh of my Flesh" came out and we wore it out in the barracks.  So many good tracks; 'Damien' with Marilyn Manson, 'Ain't No Way', and 'Slipping'.  Not really a lot to it but I do like it, not the best one on the CD but I have good memories or riding around with Sanders listening to this. Ah DMX, too bad he's sitting in jail in Arizona now for stealing a kit kat or something else stupid.  Poor Earl.... 6

Blind- The Getaway People.  This was one of Yulie's CD's she gave me when they burned everything to an external hard drive.  I added about 15 hispanic CD's, this one, and a few other random CD's that I figured why not.  Hearing it for the first time I guess it's alright.  I don't really know what to think about it.  Maybe like Jamiroquai or something like that when the white dudes were trying to sound Jamaican and do a flow kind of rap and light rock sound but not really do or say anything?  I don't know really how to explain it.  Yup, there is a Jamaican singing right now, I knew it would happen.  I bet this dude grew up in the upper middle class suburnd of his state state and said "Mon" a lot while wearing a reggae beanie with a Bob Marley shirt.  It's just boring enough to still play on Jack FM. 3

Snapbacks and Tattoos- Drizzy Graham.  Ya, a good song!  Such a killer club song.  Nemo and I used to jam this a couple summers ago when it came out.  I never heard anything else he put out but this one was tight.  Tattoo's I like, snapback hats aren't that cool.  Bringing back an inferior product isn't something I really care for.  I'll still play this and shake the shoulders when I hear it come on.  "Nice whips, fly chicks, all that cause cash rules.  Show off your hats, show off your tats".  Listening now I'm pretty sure the bass was the sole reason I received a noise complaint the second night I moved in during pants off dance off time. 7

Her Voice Resides- Bullet For My Valentine.  Scream-O makes it's first appearance on the list.  Tears don't Cry was a favorite of mine in 2009.  Now it's good as a novelty when I'm in certain moods or SAS is driving me cra.  Next.... 6

Pennyroyal Tea (Live)- Nirvana.  Nirvana was another band that I had to come back around to.  I saw them in the 5th grade live and then BOOM everyone went from MC Hammer to Nirvana.  I didn't like that, I liked it better when there were a few of us that loved Soundgarden, Pear Jam, Primus, and Nirvana.  Then everyone in the world fell in love with everything out of the Seattle scene.  Smells Like Teen Spirit is still on my shit list for being on everyone else's "best of" list.  It was groundbreaking but I also liked so many of their other songs (Rape Me, Lithium) better.  This unplugged album is fantastic, my favorite song is the cover of 'The Man Who Sold The World'.  Eventually I'm sure I will be able to listen to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', but right now its sitting at table 9 with Pearl Jam's 'Jeremy' and 'Black Hole Sun' from Soundgarden.

A Decade Under the Influence (Live from Bamboozle)- Taking Back Sunday.  Probably my favorite band of all time.  I have every album and I've seen them in concert more than anyone else.  "To hell with you and all your friends.... I've got a bad feeling about this.... Close your eyes, just settle, settle."  Mustache Andrew and I went to the show a few years back at the Palladium Ballroom with Amberlin opening and All American Rejects headlining, as always, Adam (the lead singer) put on a great show for the local fans.  I took Riki and she wore gloves that said "Talk Shit" on the right hand and "Get Hit" on the left hand.  She also had 4 shots of Jack and 4 beers before Amberlin was finished opening and throwing up before TBS came on stage.  I think we all had a great time ;)  9

Counterfeit- Limp Bizkit.  I have a confession.  I still listen to Limp Bizkit on a weekly basis.  'My Generation' and 'Break Shit' are on my running playlist.  Early in the year my friends David, Nathan, and I went to the concert at House of Blues as well.  I had zero expectations going into the show but LOVED every minute of it.  Fred must be close to 300 lbs right now, he was wearing a hoody, pants, MX gloves, and a Red Texas Rangers Hat.  Wes was painted all in black with an LED mardi gras mask but still had his guitar skills.  They played this song and the crowd was going wild.  I think they only played one or two songs from albums after the Chocolate Starfish and they covered Rage Against the Machine's 'Killing in The Name of'.  What can say, I'm still a closeted Limp Bizkit fan.  9

Goodnight Elizabeth- Counting Crows.  In the early 2000's I saw Counting Crows and Live at the Bronco Bowl on my birthday.  The company was perfect and the show was great; things came together magically.  That's what I feel when I hear Counting Crows.  'Angels of the Silences' is probably my favorite song of theirs followed closely by 'Walkaways', 'Colorblind' from Cruel Intentions is also a very intimate favorite of mine.  Definitely an underrated band thanks to their horrible 'Big Yellow Taxi' cover, those stupid dreadlocks, and 'Mr. Jones' being over played a thousand times.  7

Numerate- Circle Traps.  Ummmm.... I don't know how this got on my computer but it's just kind of basic Electronica.  Not too UNTZ, UNTZ, UNTZ.  More of the background to a scene with cars racing in the city or multiple shots in fast forward.in a Bourne Movie.  Still better than some of the stuff that's been queued. 6

And with that I think I'm done for the night.  I just downloaded some songs from The Glitch Mob off their Drink the Sea release and I'm going to listen to them as I put up laundry.  By the way, when the hell is my dryer from the Jetsons coming that folds or hangs my clothes right from the start arriving?  I want that!  We can synthesize the human genome but we can't make a dryer that does the word chore ever for you?  If any one wants to do this for me I'll do your ironing, I don't mind ironing, but putting up clothes is the Bane of my existence.  Never mind, I'm not going to put up laundry, I'm going to watch Vice TV.  You're my hero Shane Smith!

Random "Best of" List

I have confusing interests.  I also have love to review and test things while secretly rating items that are so subjective you can't have a definitive opinion about them.  The List of Random 'Best of"...

Best place to get a great bottle of wine cheap- World Market
After travelling to Spain this past summer I've come to love Spanish wine as much or better than Napa Cabs or the Willamette Valley Pinot's.  World Market carries some great wines in the $8- $12 range, they also have Catena Vineyards Malbec, a few nice pinots from the Russian Valley, and the typical Napa Valley Cab's.  They also win the award for Best Halloween Hello Kitty Selection, Most flavors of Gnocchi, Best Affordable Chocolate Selection, Most likely to find hot recovering hippies working the cash register and best place to find a day of the dead wine opener.

Best fast Mexican food- Pollo Regio
Depending on who's working the register a basic knowledge of the Spanish language is needed.  If you don't know Spanish then point at the picture or just say "Numero Dos por favor" and you will be set.  Also winning the award for Best green sauce that might kill you, best orange sauce that will kill you,  most likely to eat with day laborers award and most likely to have a Spanish dubbed 90's movie playing award.

Best place to find a dark corner while having an impressive beer selection- Londoner Addison.
It's definitely not cheap to drink here.  But the dark pub with a great beer selection allows you to find a table off to the side and order Chimay Blue, Lakewood Punkel, or Peticolas Rye with your fish and chips.  They have a jukebox, but the music is never overpowering, sit back and talk to whoever you bring and enjoy their company.  Best Fish and Chips, and Best place to watch soccer too, unless you like the stupid stupid ticos- then go someplace else.

Best Samich- Jimmy's Food Store
When you order the samich directly from the butcher you automatically win.  They grind and case their sausage in house, they cut their steaks in house and they make their meatballs on site.  All their bread, cheese, and veggies come from local producers so you know they are fresh.  By far the best samich I've had in a long time.  They also carry fresh and recently flash frozen pastas.  Seafood Cannoli, lobster ravioli, 4 cheese, meat stuffed, all of this looks wonderful and the prices aren't crazy.  Also Best Olive Oil selection, Best place for Eucalyptus Honey, Best place to find pasta sauce made with real cream and butter, and best reason to go to the hood.

Best Happy Hour- Like I'd tell you, I don't want people going to my spot.  Go some place like Sherlocks or any spot in Uptown where I won't be.  Keep paying $4.25 for your coor light and $6 for a well vodka tonic because people tell you the place is a cool spot.  While you're doing that I'll have a $4 20oz draft of St. Arnolds, Rouge, Sam Addams, or Dos Equis at my spot.  Suck it!

Best Razor- Dollar Shave Club
It's anywhere from $1- $9 depending on what kind of blade you use, I was paying $25/ month for that freaking Gillette Fusion Power but now I pay $9 with their razor that has the same amount of blades and arrives on the 3rd of the month like clockwork in the mail.  They have disposables for $1/ month if you just need that- either way your saving a ton of cash and the sticker shock pain each time Gillette or Schick decide to raise their prices.  Best wet wipes too, called One Wipe Charlies- get em!

Best cable service- uhhh... none.  They all suck and they all cost too much for a bunch of crap no one watches.  If I could get a package with only sports and HBO I'd be in heaven.  I don't even want those other channels available or displayed.  10- 15 channels and I'm set.  Sadly it's not an option and you're stuck with turd warner or Att Usuck.  Easiest place to be put on hold for an hour plus, easiest place to be transferred 4 times without ever actually accomplishing anything, and best place to find a guy lying about his name.  Rajiet, we know your name isn't Micheal, just say Rajiet because no one cares.

Best place to Find Douche Bags in addison- Sherlocks
Sadly, Duke's and Blackfinn closed.  When the douche trifecta was open all the cool bars had the right amount of people, never had DJ's playing untz, untz, untz music with lasers and people knew their spots.  With the closing of two of these places in such a short amount of time the 30K millionaire's of Addison were confused.  They didn't know where to go to over pay for Heineken and Corona, or where to lines in the bathroom, or hit on large groups of "Woo girls" with a lick their lips lear.  For the love of humanity will someone please open these bars back up!!!  Wins best place to find a women past her prime hitting on a young guy next to a guy in his 50's wearing Affliction and True Religion jeans talking to a young girl.  Best Place to see Jager Bombs every 5 minutes, Best place to see fights breaking out, and Best place to fake a conversation with a band who thinks they are great playing way to loud as both the women past her prime and Affliction 50's guy sing Foreigner in unison.

Observation as the Muse

There are very few moments in the day that we aren't bombarded by sight and sound.  TV, radio, commercials, billboards, everything geared to make you feel or want something someone decides you need and don't already have.  It's rare I hear an advertisement, a new song, or even a movie that makes me feel anything but melancholy.  Doesn't it seem strange that with all of the stimulation of our senses that, for the most part, we don't really notice the details in everyday life any more?  We aren't inspired to do anything.  You hear a song and you like the beat but you don't pay attention to the lyrics, you like a movie because it made you laugh or smile but did it do anything except kill the last hour and a half for you so you wouldn't have to fold those three loads of laundry sitting in the clean pile on your floor?

I have a wide range of musical tastes, it covers the wide spectrum of everything you can imagine.  Some of it has meaning which takes me back to special times in my life, others sound beautiful, and a few are just fun to listen to.  When I find a song that I've never heard or skipped past that comes on right at the time when I'm in a comparable mood to the lyrics and melody when the song was written it's very special to me.  I'll wear a song out in a week  as the music correlates to my mood.   I believe in her (music) like I believe in literature and art; it's an interpretation and it's my interpretation.  She calms me, she motivates me, she knows me. Four people can listen to the same song and come away having completely different feelings.  I might listen to a song like Living Legends 'Nothing Less' with an eerily calm smile reflecting about my mistakes in life.  Listening to +44's 'No it Isn't' today felt right to me when I was thinking about a recent multi-faceted relationship situation.  I made plans earlier in the week to have lunch with a friend of mine today at an amazing Italian market and meat store in Dallas.  The day was kind of overcast but in the low to mid 70's- for Dallas that means the yuppies break out their The North Face vests to complement their Sperry boat shoes- On the twenty minute drive to Jimmy's Food Store I played two songs on repeat as I thought about the week's revelations.  I downloaded (ripped using an Mp3 Converter, potato, Pa-tato) both today and both were by +44.  The previously mentioned 'No it Isn't' and 'Make You Smile'.  We ordered our food, sat outside and people watched for about 30 minutes.  Afterwards we ended up in Preston Center sitting on a bench people watching while dissecting their lives from their clothing, cars, and demeanor.  A mother in her mid 50's and a daughter in her mid 20's; both wearing recently purchased raw denim jeans, almost identical new Tory Burch shoes, the same Louis Vuitton handbags and brightly colored shirts.  Older women in groups of three from old Dallas money with chico's-esq attire adorned with antique Cartier and recently purchased David Yurman jewelry worth more than my car.  We watched and speculated about recent divorcees, women obviously frightened about losing their youthful looks at the same time discussing what was going on in our lives.  I continued to listen to the same two songs after we parted ways on the drive home.  The sun was partially out and I needed to figure some things out.  I threw on the 'Dummy' Album from Portishead, went outside and watched the city from above while getting lost in my mind.  A thunderstorm came in, the rain stated, lightning was crashing and I couldn't be happier.  I hit pause on Beth Gibbons mesmerizing voice and ingested the night with a glass of Tempranillo; alone with my thoughts in between lightning flashes.

In last couple years there have only been three movies that motivated me to evaluate myself and the themes of the movie for days after watching them.  Don't get me wrong, I've seen a lot of great movies the past few years but these three stuck with me.  Silver Linings Playbook, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Skyfall.  Two of the movies share a focus on mental health while the third is an action movie.

I watched Silver Linings Playbook on a flight from Barcelona to Philly.  I was about 2 beers in and a 1/2 bottle of Rijoa into the long haul when I decided that I would lay my seat "near flat" and either relax to the movie or sleep as my traveling partner was sound asleep and providing zero entertainment for me.  Ten minutes in I raised the seat up to a more vertical position and had my glass refilled.  This was the first movie I had seen that dealt with Mental health issues in a very realistic form.  Most movies portray a character suffering from bi-polar disease as a killer who forgets that he just chopped up a slew of prostitutes or blew up a post office for Satan the Dog.  David O Russell captured the lead character of Pat perfectly.  His everyday struggles, the tension it creates in his life, how his friends and family deal with it were all done in the most realistic fashion that I've ever seen.  There was no magic pill to fix it, no "AH-HA" moment where one thing corrects his imbalanced brain forever, there was just his life ruled by his pendulum swinging emotions and the inability to effectively control them.  I came away with so much from it.  Most of all was that I wanted to write more on here.  Not for anyone else's benefit but for myself.  Similar to music, writing calms me while providing me with a level head and quiet balance that is next to impossible to find outside of my other vices of music and literature.  And red wine.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower has so many elements of 'Catcher in the Rye' in it without being Catcher in the Rye.  I loved the book the first time I read it in Junior high and I still love it.  In fact I own a copy given to me from an old friend that has basset hound chew marks I refuse to give up.  I don't even know if she knows I took it from her, but I'm never giving it back ;)  I don't relate to it in the way that I do Silver Linings Playbook.  I didn't have a hard time in highschool, I was never the outcast or ate lunch alone with no friends.  The reason I like it so much has to do with the characters and the line I hear over and over again from the movie: "We accept the love we think we deserve".  When I heard those words spoken I believed it 1000%.  The scope of friends I've had or known, including myself, where this applies is significant.  When Paul Rudd's character utters the words Stephen Chbosky wrote faces instantly appear and previous relationships flash through my head.  Current friends with failed marriages, friends in relationships just going through the motions afraid to admit they made a mistake and are unhappy, all of this flooded my brain.

Skyfall- I know, I lost all (if I had any to begin with) credibility when I included Skyfall with the above two pictures.  It takes a stronger worded explanation than I can give as opposed to the feeling Skyfall gives me.  It's hard to explain without watching it as a trilogy.  The dynamic between James and M, the amount of non-verbal communication involved in the film, and the reflection of a soldier's life make it amazing.  It has layers of depth that exceed Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy by not voicing them or wrapping the ending up in a nice tidy studio bow; aging, self doubt, failure, closure, consequences, and finality are all demonstrated by facial expressions or silence.  If it were a song it would be Miles Davis' 'Autumn Leaves'.  It's beautiful, it's fast, it's raw, most people won't understand the beauty of it without being told of it's genius.  It moves with purpose and intent that can be loved at face value but the depth puts it on a different plane than what the masses are used to in an action movie.  Now go watch it.  Watch Casio Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall like you would the Dark Knight Trilogy and revel in it.

The Muse.  She was art, dance, theatre, and literature in ancient Greece.  She was the motivation and inspiration.  Not all entertainment inspires us but I choose to believe that if we look hard enough.  If we dive a little deeper into every day things that we see and listen to I feel it will help to inspire us.  Maybe she'll give you that different view to see the project at work from a different angle, maybe she'll have you pull up some music on YouTube that you normally wouldn't have, or maybe she'll have you buy Munster cheese instead of American for your sandwich this week as a different kind of artist.

*Random note:
A few things I'm currently wearing out on my playlist:

• No It Isn't- +44, When Your Heart Stops Bleeding
• Crime (with Kendrick Lamar)- Mayer Hawthorne, Where does this door go
• Furthest Thing- Drake, Nothing was the Same
• Showtime- Nelly Furtado, Loose
• She Needs Me- Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid MAD City
• Saving Grace (Live Acoustic)- Everlast, More songs of the Ungrateful Living
• Sweet Misery- Amel Larrieux, Infinite Possibilites
• Mysterious- Portishead, Dummy

Things I'm Too Old for but Still Like

In a random conversation at work today with The Giant Hello Kitty (GHK) we were discussing a tweet she posted.
"Things I'm too old for but still like: Shots, Forever 21, dance music, dancing while drunk, hello kitty, the desire to wear crop tops"

That got me thinking.  There are a lot things that I definitely like and I'm much too old for.

1. Shots- I definitely agree with GHK on this one.  Shots are the gift and the curse of the night.  They take the night and turn it up a few notches.  My poison of choice in this wonderful nectar is either a Vegas bomb (which in itself, any shot with the word bomb in it and red bull should be a sign that I'm too old) and Rumple.  Ahhh... Rumple.  Another good quote from GHK regarding Rumple : "No one over 23 should ever drink Rumple".  That's gospel when it comes to Rumple.  Never to be taken lightly Rumple manages to work it's whoreish spell on the unexpecting virgin and whisper sweet nothings of the blackout nature.
2. Dick and Fart jokes- it's still hilarious to me when it's quiet at work and you hear someone trying to sneak one out and the trumpet goes up a notch.  It also cracks me up when you see someone crop dust an area of a local bar and the results unfold on the unsuspecting patrons.  Along those same lines when you're in a serious meeting and the presenter calls up "John Cocksly" to discuss the synergy of team development.  hehehe- Cocksly, Butkiss....
3. Chili Cheese French Fries- Burger house preferably, but there are a few places places that can almost compare heir chili cheese fries.  My day brightens up when I plop my fat ass right in front of some freshly fried fries, add some nacho cheese and then some chili topped with tabasco or cholula.  
4. Pac Sun- I shouldn't shop here.  The target age is about half what my drivers license says yet I'm still drawn to DC, Monster, Fox, and Volcom.  It could be the bright colors and trying to relive the days out on the lake in Austin but throwing on a DC hoodie with jeans or some checked Vans and shorts is one of those guilty pleasures in my life.
5. Hats- Pretty similar to above I love wearing hats.  New Era made a great business decision a few years ago by tricking up the standard colors of the MLB.  Adding a grey and black Texas Rangers hat, a baby blue Pirates and similar color schemes have me constantly looking to see what's been released lately.
6. Toys-  As a man gets older his toys become more expensive and vast.  I don't know where I heard that line but it's true.  I'm not a complete gadget nerd like some people but I keep up with the various reviews on CNET; I have a 70" LED 3D TV wall mounted in the living room, a 50" plasma in the bedroom, a couple laptops, a few ipods, an iPad, and more headphones than a Bestbuy.  Toys are nice and gadgets are fun.  I like to justify most of the items with an ease of convenience but we all know they are just big kid toys.
7. Doing Dangerous things, Just because-  I've broken the same arm 3 times.  I've torn a muscle in each calf muscle, cracked a few ribs, broken a collarbone, and gone through at least 3 concussions.  This summer I still ran with the bulls and have aspirations to base jump and wing suit while mountain biking on a semi-regular basis.  The rush of adrenaline combined with the new experience has always fascinated me

I'm solely Responsible for the Ranger's Collapse. And the Longhorns. And the Cowboys. and my FF Team

To say I'm sports superstitious would be an understatement.  If one of the teams I love loses then I can never wear that exact combination of sports paraphernalia again.  I recently took a trip to LA for the Rangers Vs Angels series in Cali.  The weekend was also Yulie's Birthday.  Normally when the three of us are on vacation we drink like it's St. Patty's day, but this time we were adults.  No shots, no debauchery (expect Randy's horribly bad driving that almost killed us multiple times), and I don't think we even got legally drunk during the course of trip.  We drank, but never to excessive measures.  This is where we failed all teams Texas and one from across the pond.  There hasn't been a birthday pass where a Vegas bomb isn't consumed to celebrate another year passing by the three of us.  Until this one.  By ignoring both the vacation and birthday themes the sports Gods were angered.  Not just angered but piiiiiiiiiissed.  The sports Gods don't take kindly to broken traditions and we broke two in one trip.  And on a sports trip.

Since that weekend the Cowboys are 2-2, the Longhorns have loses to BYU and Ole Miss, Man U looks on par with the regulated QPR, both Randy and my fantasy football teams are about to be 1-3 as Drew Brees choses to toss touchdowns to everyone but Marques Colston, and then we have the Rangers....  Playing for a wildcard spot and a trip to bean town, yet they forgot to show up.

With the annual Texas OU weekend approaching fast I'm scared.  Last year was bad.  Very, very, bad.  This year Texas hasn't looked anywhere near as the team that got whooped and OU is looking better.  Based on these facts I should take a vacation ASAP and fix this.  I told Randy that we should correct this by finding the smallest, town outside of SA that has a Motel 6 and a bar and knockdown Vegas bombs until the Gods are pleased.  Something needs to get fixed fast- I'm feeling like a Bengals fan and I don't like it.  On a side note the Browns won last weekend, Kansas City is undefeated, Arsenal is tops in the EPL, and the Rangers are losing 5-2 to the Tampa freaking Bay Rays.....

If You do This I don't Trust You

There are numerous things I don't understand in life, but I do believe that we see keys or qualifiers to let us not not to trust certain people.  I was discussing this with Drew on Sunday and then again with a friend from work and here's a list of things we can (mostly) agree on.

• Their Go-to footwear for everyday activities is finger shoes.  I've heard about the benefits numerous times of running barefoot or going to minimalist footwear and I have no issue with folks that use those shoes to work out and weight train.  The problem is they take it too far.  It starts with throwing them on to run short grocery errands and then quickly manifests to being paired with jeans or a sundress on a nice saturday night.  If you're losing your sense of reality in your 30's just go ahead and wave the white flag while making the move to white tube socks and all black/ white velcro shoes- it'll save you about $80 over those stupid finger shoes.
  
• Girls that don't have girl friends.  This only occurs in nature for two reasons: 1) The had sex with all of their girlfriends' previous boyfriends and then proceeded to do it again or 2) they were just born and have yet to meet any.
  
• You add an ice cube to your red wine.  You're just a savage, die!
  
• Every time you go to a foreign country you "magically" adopt that accent, then claim it's not forced.  We all probably came across this person first in elementary or middle school after they took a 10 day trip to England with their parents. The problem is they are now in their 30's taking 3 day trips to Sweden.  Stop it, just stop it.  No one believes that you actually have that accent when you can't even speak Swedish.  You might as well throw on that Ed Hardy hat and Affliction shirt, it's just as sad.
  
• You one up EVERYONE.  The friend that has always done or knows someone who has or knows X that's sooo much better than what you just did.  You got lucky and sat next to Micheal Jordan on the flight in first class, he/ she flew in Micheal Jordan's private plane and then sat in his personal suite with him for a Bulls Game.  You just bought a new C-Class, he/she used to have or has a friend that has 2 SLS.  Just thinking about it wears me out...
  
  
  
• Heeeelllllllooooo FAD dieter.  The new celery cleanse you are on will have you losing 15 pounds a day, which is way better than your raw, vegan, catch and eat what you kill diet which was also better than the one where you had to snort chili pepper and drink only concentrated lemon juice.  And all 3 diets lasted a combined 15 days.  People are always looking for a fad diet that completely changes their life in one gigantic starvation induced move, yet they never seem to lose any weight and refuse to exercise.  You want a diet that will change everything and make you skinny, do Meth.  I've never seen a fat Meth head.  AND it's so addictive you won't be able to quit it like the 295 other diets you've tried this year.  On the plus side when you do quit you'll be skinny and way too broke to buy food.
  
• You are staunchly opposed to gay marriage.  The religious nuts that campaign against it with signs, march on the state capital, and claim their God will have gay people burning in hell for all eternity for this transgression look exactly like the same people that used the same bible verses and logic to try and keep slavery legal and women from voting.  If you really think gay marriage degrades the sanctity of marriage why aren't you campaigning for tougher divorce laws.  Last I checked the divorced rate was something like 50% and gay people couldn't marry then.  Maybe, just maybe, if you don't believe in gay marriage you probably shouldn't marry a gay person.  Or maybe you secretly think dicks are delicious like the minister Ted Haggard.
  
  
  
• They tuck their shirt in and don't wear a belt.  How do you do this and not realize this is horrible?  The belt loops are there for a reason; both functional and appealing to the eyes to separate the top half of our bodies from the lower half it doesn't make sense to do this.  I see this most common with dad's with a way too tight sports jersey tucked into their jeans on casual friday.  I don't know if it's give up on life but anytime you wear a jersey you wear that bitch untucked.  
• You recently purchased a hybrid and make sure to inject that sentence in every conversation you have.  For the next 4 years.

  

  I Just don't understand.

  
  
• Your favorite baseball team is the yankees, your favorite basketball team is the lakers, your favorite football team is the packers/ patriots and you've never lived in those cities.  Sports are soap operas for men. They have more drama play out in front of you than any horribly written tv or movie could ever make up.  The emotional investment in watching your team win and lose makes up who you are and the number of ridiculous superstitions you adhere to before a game.  If you're just going to hop on the latest winner you definitely won't have my back and will probably throw me under the bus at the slightest hint or trouble.
• You don't know how to swim.  So you could die if you fell in any body of water five foot deep or if you were reeeeallly tied near a puddle and there was a heavy rain the previous day.  The earth is covered by water and you are fucked because you are too lazy to learn how to swim.  What if something happens and you have an accident where you fall in a lake or the ocean.  What do you do when you go the beach, wear floaties?
  
• The 40 year old pothead.  Are you really trying to sneak weed on a plane while explaining to your wife over the phone that you made sure to drop your daughter off at the in-laws?
  
• Any guy/girl that has only had sex with one person and that's the person they are married too.  "Awe but that's sweet", "that shows true love".  NOPE.... That's retarded.  No matter how much people try to deny it sex is a very important part of marriage.  If you all can't get along in the bedroom that will lead to more fights.  Women measure love by compliments and men measure it by the number and frequency of how many times you let us have sex with you.  True Story.
  
• If you don't own luggage.  So you haven't ever been anywhere and you aren't planning on going anywhere.  That's what your telling me?  Let me guess when you do finally plan on taking that 7 day cruise to Mexico and the Cayman's you'll  overload those 3 duffel bags you've had since jr.high... gotcha...
  
• If you've never owned a pair of Chucks or Vans.  Self Explanatory
  

And we'll end on a Joke... "How can you tell if someone is a Vegan?  They'll tell you, OH THEY WILL TELL YOU"

iTunes Shuffle All Live Blog Challenge

I'm partially cleaning my kitchen while trying to figure out what all I need to have ready for the Italian dinner tomorrow night some friends and I are putting on.  Since I have complete brain fry from attempting to figure out a code block that isn't conforming to either Max(value) or row() partition I needed to get out of my head onto something a little more creative.  Just shy of 5,000 songs in my iTunes collection, I wondered "Who ever uses shuffle all?"  I use a huge collection of playlists to compile my moods and activities so the shuffle all doesn't appeal to me.  Then it came to me- I'll do a shuffle all and see what comes up.  The rules were simple, no skipping, just write about the song until it ends.

Songs:

1. 'Baby One More Time'- Bowling for Soup.  It's funny the first song on shuffle all happens to be a cover of a song.  While Britney Spears is a lot hotter than Jared and the guys I think they still do an admirable rendition.  The best covers I can think of are Rufio's 'Like a Prayer', GodSmack with 'Rocky Mountain Way' and Alien Antfarm just killed the Micheal Jackson Classic 'Smooth Criminal'.  Not a bad start, I'll have to add some Rufio and Alien Antfarm to my workout mix.  What ever happened to Bowling for Soup, I like the comedy rock and I feel like I've seen them at Taste of Addison or Richardson Wildflower Festival, or some other local event.  If I recall they put on a great show, then again it could have been third eye blind, I wasn't really paying attention.

2. 'Int'l Player's Anthem'- OutKast with UGK.  A great song about Andre falling in love with a bass line that hits soooo hard.  "My partner yelling too soon, reconsider, read some literature. Keep your heart 3 stacks, keep your heart, play your part 3 stacks".  It reminds me of when I had a system in my explorer and Josh and I would hit up every bar in Addison on a thursday night.  The song still holds true.  The singing melody works great with the lazy flow of the ATL and Houston kings.  Still love the southern rap, speaking of southern rap... Where's Mike Jones (who) been?

3. 'Tunnel Vision'- Justin Timberlake.  A pretty middle of the road song for Timberlake.  Timberland does the beat and has the backing vocals.  It seems like they would do a techno re-mix of it that would be a lot more popular.  It's a radio song, I don't really have any opinion on it.

4. 'Since I've been Loving You'- Led Zeppelin.  One of my favorite songs from their catalogue.  I have to be in a certain mood for Zepplin but this song is great.  I bet the Black Keys could do an amazing cover.  'Little Black Submarines' has elements of it, the voice though, Jimmy Page wails like no other.  Controlled chaos, his tone matches exactly with the ups and downs of his emotional state while writing the lyrics.  I wasn't always a Led Zeppelin fan, but this was one of the songs that drove me to others and really listen to them.  Probably top 5 of my Zepplin favs; 'Hey, Hey, What can I do' is number one followed by 'Babe I'm going to Leave You', 'Going to California', and 'Rock and Roll'.  John Marshall and I used to crank this up as we left Cory's lake house and headed downtown to party. 

5. 'My Best Friend' Tim McGraw.  Huh.  Meh, very, very Meh.  Sometimes I think iTunes throws some karma stuff in your download.  "What was that, you just downloaded 100 rap songs that say "bitch" 58 times, "fuck" 92, and reference Killing a white person 1,015 times- You sir, now have a complete Tim McGraw album in your collection.  No need to thank us, we're just the musical halls of Justice..."

6. 'Kill Yourself'- Timbaland.  Timbaland's second appearance on the shuffle.  This time it's a track from his own album.  When shockwave first came out I really liked it, this was song that was just alright on it.  Nothing too great but not horrible.  I like the Red Queen from Resident Evil starting out; personally I think the song would be a lot better without the lyrics.  It would make for a great underwater exploration track or the scene from Prometheus where the Engineer is standing next to the waterfall.  But without the lyrics, no lyrics. 

7.'White' -Odd Future/ Frank Ocean.  Tough to put into a box.  Frank Ocean has a great voice and lyrically it's very good.  I like how it's different from most everything that comes out these days.  The sound and lyrics aren't trying to be different for the sake of being different.  It's just how and what Frank feels.  That's a nice change of pace iTunes.

8.'Letters to God'- Boxcar Racer.  Blink that's not really Blink.  When Mark and Tom couldn't get along anymore they split and formed about 20 different bands; Travis played in all of them.  Boxcar Racer was the most successful and my personal favorite of the Blink off shoots.  Jacob and I would crank it up during drives to the lake house or to Dallas, Lani and I would listen to it when we'd head to Bennigan's to drink and Neil and I would sing it loud at her parents place.  'Letters to God' reminds me of all of those great times, man I miss 2002 in Austin.  

9. 'Superstar'- Lauryn Hill.  Remember when you couldn't turn on the radio without hearing Lauryn Hill?  I always thought 'Superstar' was vastly underrated on the Miseducation album.  She sings, she raps, there is a harp, and it's got a one, one, two beat that you can tap your foot too.  "Come on baby light my fire, everything you drop is so tired. Music is supposed to inspire, how come we ain't getting no higher".  I'm guessing it's lack of popularity could be in direct correlation to how horrible the grammar is, but what do I know...  I still dig it.

10. 'Joker' -Steve Miller Band.  Shoot me now.  Besides Jimmy Buffett I don't think there's a more generic 70's song lacking of creativity.  Maybe it was good when it first came out, now it just makes my ears bleed. I picture a bunch of sorority girls floating the river with $6 straw cowboy hats from the convenience store drinking Bud light with Coach purses sealed in a $95 clear waterproof bag from REI.  No. Thank. You.

11. 'I am Mine'- Pearl Jam.  One of my claims to fame is going to the first Lollapalooza with Matt Duran in the 4th grade.  Back then the Edge was 94.5, Pearl Jam was unknown, and you had to line your quarters up on the arcade ledge to have "next" at Street Fighter II.  At some point along the way I couldn't stand Pearl Jam.  I guess it was one of those idiotic thoughts a teen has about how a band was "yours" and then you hear them on top 40 stations right after 'Red, Red, Wine'.  Something like that drove me from them.  I never would have come back around for them if it weren't for Randy.  He threw all his music on a SSD and then gave me the hardcopy CD's.  A similar night like this happened and 'Immortality' came on.  Ever since then I've little by little come back around on them.  Eddie Vedder did the soundtrack for 'Into the Wild', after watching it I downloaded the whole thing.  It's taking me longer than I would have thought but Pearl Jam and I have made up.

12. 'Addiction'- Kanye West.  Kanye.  Like most people I despise Kanye as a person.  His tracks on the other hand are, for the most part, awesome.  "Why everything that 'posed to be bad make me feel so good" (see Lauryn, Kanye can jack up grammar like it's nobody's business and score a hit, why couldn't you?).  I guess graduation was the last lyricists album he did, pretty much everything after that was made for the club or hits with some flashes of brilliance.  Ana turned me onto 'Street Lights' from the 808 album and I still like it, but it's his older stuff that I love.  Kanye, why do you have to be such a tool?  Northwest?  Really?  Number one in confidence, number 1,000,000 in intelligence.... sigh...

13. 'Zero Dark Thirty'- Aesop Rock.  Not Aesop Rocky, Aesop Rock.  A jewish hip hop MC along the lines of Evidence, Dilated Peoples, Del, and the like.  He's part of the lyricst groups that have a good beat but what they say is more important.  It's intellectual hip hop.  While Rick Ross talks about eating 24/7 these guys use references from 19th century literature and Stanley Kubrick Movies instead of rapping about weed and cars for the 8,000 time.

14. 'New Wave'- Against Me.  I've never heard this song before in my life.  oh, wait... yup, yup I have.  I knew the band from the song 'Trash Unreal' which describes in detail the kinds of girls I usually date.  I like this song.  It's nothing groundbreaking but it has a nice chorus and a simple 3 chord melody.  I'd have more of a connection with it if it came out in 2002.  I think they were just a little late in getting their record deal.

15. 'I'm not your Boyfriend Baby'- 3Oh3.  ah 30h3.  They always remind me of Linzie, she loved them so much.  When I was hanging out with Melanie and Heather a lot they told me this story about an incident at Vernon's where Heather got into it with a girl who then threw a schooner at her since the guys with her were holding her back from charging Heather.  The story soundeded... well, crazy as hell.  About a week later I met Linzie at Logan's and we hit it off.  A week goes by and we are both at Logan's as Melanie comes in to meet me.  She instantly recognized Linze as the girl that threw the schooner.  The moral of this story is that I have Awesome friends; 2 separate girlfriends that will fight at the drop of a hat and throw a giant beer schooner, if necessary.

16. 'Showerhead'- Eve6.  I loved, love, Eve 6.  I think I listened to their whole first album on repeat as I drove from Dallas to Kansas one December in 1999.  It seems like every so often they would creep up and have another song that everyone would love ('Think Twice' and 'Here's to the Night' come to mind) and then disappear again.  I guess Fallout Boy learned from them and having a ginger lead singer leads to immediate downfall with no staying power on the charts.  Fallout did smart move to have Pete Wentz as the frontman, the music industry has no love for the ginger.

This was pretty fun, I'll have to do it again.  Maybe tomorrow night for the dinner I'll do it and record what everyone says about some of the songs, that could be fun. 

España- Barcelona and Love

Barcelona from our hotel rooftop

Barcelona.  You know when you hear a song and it brings you back to a memory that forces you to smile because of how much that memory means to you?  When I hear the word "Barcelona" my body radiates with happiness.  Before going to Spain everyone that had travelled to Spain told me I would fall in love with Madrid and think Barcelona was just alright.  I had the opposite experience and from talking with my travel partners they did as well.  Maybe all of the mitigating factors possible fell into place at one time.  Similar to a dinner where the combination of the food, the wine, and the company can make the experience better than any Michelin starred restaurant on it's best day, Barcelona was more than I ever hoped for.

The hotel was perfect.  We stayed at the Eurostars BCN Design (http://www.eurostarsbcndesign.com/en/hotel.html) and from the moment we arrived the staff was friendly and welcoming.  Our previous hotels had treated us with indifference, this was a nice change.  Everyone was exhausted from the day's events.  A long stressful morning followed by Mikee and I running with the bulls in Pamplona and all of us being neck to neck for so long was wearing on us emotionally.  Going to our respective rooms the first order of business was showering.  Maily and I unpacked,  I poured some wine, and then I was jumping in the shower to clean up.  After we were all clean we walked around the neighborhood to see what was there.  Barcelona was the first part of the trip that didn't have a set schedule.  Everything could be off the cuff which allowed us to do whatever we wanted.  The first night we were there we bought some beer, wine, and liquor hoped on the roof of our hotel to take in the events so far.

Staying in Passeig de Gracia has it's advantages; the Casa Batllo and Gaudi Museum are both located on it, numerous restaurants, the Metro stop is across the street, and for those that love to shop you have every store in site.  It also has it's disadvantages.  Fine dining comes at a premium and charge an additional 20% to your bill if you want to sit outside.  The views are amazing and the temperature begs you to sit outside so it's hard to resist.  Some of those restaurants have horrible service; they know it's a tourist or ritzy section so they can treat you like shit.  We had the worst dinning experience at Navarra where our waiter actually took off down the street to eat dinner leaving us wondering.  The supermarkets and vendors also charge more since they are flanked by the likes of Hermes, Chanel, Blvgari, and Cartier.  I think it's one of the best places to stay while visiting Barcelona, but you have to be aware of the above.

Barcelona has so much to do.  My favorite attraction we saw was Sagrada Familia.  The basilica is incomplete and started development in 1882 by Antoni Gaudi.  I wondered how something started so long ago could still remain unfinished, but once you're there you understand the level of detail.  For anyone planning on going- buy your tickets online.  We did the day of and when we arrived the line to get in was well past 3hrs.  Purchasing them online means you walk right up and hand them your ticket and walk in.  No one should wait 3 hrs+, don't be an idiota.

Sagrada Familia is one of the few places that you could go back to every week and catch something new each time.  The attention to detail is unreal.  Everywhere you look something new sticks out to you.  The outside of the church is in stark contrast to the the inside structure whose design was based in things Gaudi saw in nature.  It has an oddly refreshing feel for a 100 year old church.
Outside has some of the most intricate stone carvings depicting various Christian themes.  Inside.... Inside feels warm.  Insides does feel like nature, but it also makes you feel something special within yourself.  It was interesting to walk around and hear other people discuss it.  Some didn't think it looked how a church should look while others were able to see it's beauty.  Not being a religious person, I appreciate it for what it was; a beautiful vision designed to showcase the love Gaudi felt towards God.

Neither my words nor the pictures could ever do it justice.  You have to see it in person to fully grasp it's magnificence.

After spending a few hours taking everything in we split up for a few hours.  I took off to see Camp Nou, the home of Messi, and my friends went to shop for souvenirs.  Once we met back up we went to the Arc d'Triumph.  The park where it is located is very nice.  People of all sorts were running, walking their dogs, rollerblading, and just hanging out.  We bought an assortment of beer as we took in another beautiful architectural delight.  The day was complete with a very nice dinner where we all went to a spot Maily and I had previously found by accident, Pirineus.  The night Felica and Mikee had their romantic couples dinner Maily and I took off on the metro to the Gothico section of the city in search of a tapas bar recommended by a stranger.  We never found it, but we found Pirineus instead (about a block from metro stop Joanic).  The food was made with love and the service was family.  A neighborhood restaurant founded in 1935 where they mange to do everything right.  The first night we tried about 5 different items including an octopus entree.

The night we took Felica and Mikee we must have ordered triple the number of items from our first night.  Chorizo, boquerones en vinagre, croquettes, iberian ham, and a hundred other things lined the table.  Rioja wine was plentiful and lemon beer was served.  I'm pretty sure everything we saw at the aquarium a few days before was now being served to us here.  The meal was topped off with creme brulee ice cream and a healthy dose of Cutty Sark was splashed on top.










Due to a scheduling snafu Felica and Mikee were off to Madrid to catch their flight while Maily and I had another day to kill in Barcelona.  This day was more of a rest and recoup day.  I had a monster blister on my hobbit feet and was drained from my lack of sleep so we took it easy.  We moved hotels closer to the airport in a central neighbor where huge apartment complexes dominated the sky line with parks placed in the center.  We found a great little bistro to have dinner out on a street corner.  At one point a few showers started and those of us without umbrellas above our heads scooted our tables to share with those that did.  It was a perfect ending to the trip.

Looking back on it now I have a lot of different thoughts and emotions about certain events than I had at that time.  Everything is more positive and less stressful.  Spain is many things to me and each region has developed it's own uniqe character.  The first two words that come to mind are romance and beauty.  The architecture is romantic, the beach is beautiful.  The people are beautiful and the countryside is romantic. I guess they go hand in hand, but not necessarily in the traditional sense.  I relate most experiences to songs but there isn't one that encompasses all that Spain was to me.  When I was on the plane to Spain the song that I kept listening to was 'Rising Up' from the Roots but that was pre-trip and for some reason it doesn't make me think of Spain at all.  It was one part 'Ancora' by Ludovico Einaudi.  It was also 'Just One Yesterday' from Fall Out Boy, it had elements of Vicente Fernandez 'Me Voy A Quitar De En Medio' with equal parts Angels and Airwaves 'Everything is Magic' and a small part of 'My Last' from Big Sean.  I think of happiness when remembering the local girl in Pamplona dancing without regard to the street musicians, joy when we were walking in San Sebastian and the city opened up to the Bay of Biscay, serenity when I toured the city solo and ended up with the beach on one side of me and people practicing hard flips on the other while I drank a lemon beer, amazement at Sagrada Familia, and love for the country when I left.

The Video I made on YouTube of Spain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKmTFrxm158