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

The Run of Runs

July 7th 2013 Miguel Alva and I ran with the bulls in Pamplona Spain.  After the craziest party on the planet for the opening ceremonies we weren't exactly sure what to expect.  Four minutes after it started we were finished and Mikee said it best "Screw those guys that run a 5k and say it's hard, this is the real shit".

We left our hotel to head to the square; the bus was packed with people from 18- 50 getting off to go home from the previous days activities at 5:30am.  It was obvious they had been drinking all day and night but the majority were not drunk or visibly intoxicated.  The majority of the Spanish drink differently than we (Americans) do.  I have to chalk that up to a cultural difference.  In the states we treat alcohol as a necessary evil but also as a milestone reward.  At 16 you can drive, at 18 you are considered an adult worthy of making life changing decisions such as joining the military or voting on the candidate you think should run our country.  BUT, you can't drink alcohol until the magical age of 21.  The Spanish, and most European countries, consider wine and drink a part of their culture.  Local and regional vineyards are proud of their vintages and children are brought up with that connection to wine from a young age.  I think this integration with alcohol as part of their life instead of a glorified taboo puts them in a significantly better position to handle drinking on every scale.
 
Arriving at the specified corner next to Hemingway's bar where we were to meet Jeff and Richard at 6:00am the realization on how difficult this could be crept in.  Plastic bottles, broken glass from dropped 40oz of San Miguel, paper strewn about from food vendors, and worn red scarves dotted the streets of the old town.  The streets were covered in trash and wet.  The city square and subsequent area was still partying from the previous day. When I first viewed the course online I thought an 825 meter run wasn't going to pose a challenge.  Playing competitive soccer 3 nights a week and having some decent sprinting speed I was more worried about the people in front and around me falling.  Having been in a few riots here and there your biggest challenge in avoiding injury is someone falling in front of you and dragging you down.  With the mixture of ages, sobriety levels, and experience I knew this was the x factor I was most concerned about.  The morning of the run we were presented with another challenge.  In addition to the to the uphill uneven terrain the street was soaked.   To clean the route Pamplona uses mini zamboni like street cleaners that push all of the trash to the side and spray water to wash away the spilled beer, sangria, and urine.  We looked at the route from the top with standing puddles of water now in our path.  Make sure that another spectator didn't take us out or we didn't slip ourselves was now added to the equation.  The morning had been long due to some other complications, checking out of our hotel and the lack of sleep was mixed in with all of this while Mikee and I talked pre-run strategy.

Mikee and I started up a conversation with 2 Englishman and an Irishman who were standing near us.  Jeff and Rodger aren't here and we can't seem to find them.  As the police came they started blocking off the side streets while the expectation grew.  This made the event real.  No matter what happened from then on out I would be able to say that I ran with the bulls in Pamplona Spain.

While the police were blocking off the side sections they were also tossing people off the course that were too drunk or had cameras out taking pictures.  Camera's are not allowed during the run and I found out why later.  Regardless, my camera was in my pocket and I had planned to snap a few during the run.  The police then started blocking off the the course section by section to clean it while pushing us towards the finish point.  As this was happening we eventually were forced out of the course.  A moment of panic set in- we had to find a way back into the course to run.  No way in hell was I going to plan the trip, get there, be so close, and then miss out at the last second.  There was a huge train of people as our group ran down the streets to left and hit each blockade of police trying to sneak in.  Run to blockade, 10 or 15 would squeeze through then the police would block it, run to the next one and the same thing.  Finally, right after dead man's curve, we found an opening and snuck in.  Relief

Dead man's curve & the TV Cameras

They packed everyone in a very tight area so the TV crew could get some good shots of us. Nut to butt, we heard "make a hole" (or the Spanish equivalent) and a priest with the mayor of pamplona passed through us as the police pushed us against each other, making an already crowded area unbearable. Hot, sweating, frustrated, and angry for being packed so tight for so long an Aussie guy pulls out a rocket he had hidden.  The crowd moves away frightened as he threatens to light the wick.  He does this for 5 or 10 seconds.  Everyone is freaking out- this drunk guy has a 1 foot tall by 4" diameter rocket that he's going to light in a crowd of packed people who can't get away from it.  He lights the fuse;  it makes a small pop and confetti goes everywhere. Up until that moment the tension of being packed and the fear of being trampled was showing on everyone's face.  I doubt he knew it at the time but that Aussie calmed the collective, in the instant the rocket bust with confetti the tension was gone and people looked around at each smiling and laughing in unison.

The police opened the gates ahead of us for the crowd to move along to their spot in the course to start the run.  Mikee and I had been separated in the group earlier and I was next to a large group of black guys from Houston that were Aggies, proudly wearing Texas A&M bandana's.  It was strange and beautiful that of all the people I could be walking next to it was a group of Texans.  We passed a balcony that had a Texas flag hung where a family was set up to watch the run.  In true Texas fashion the father had a camo hat on while one of the kids wore a Tyler's sporting good shirt.  Our groups cheered and waived to each other as the mother yelled with a large smile "Good luck boys, and God Bless" while the father echoed her statement with another smile as he raised his glass of beer to us.  The kids cheered and yelled "Go TEXAS!"

 Mikee and I found each other and he decided he would move farther up in the course closer to the stadium.  I have a weird thing with superstitions and intuitions.  I'm a believer that your mind and body tells you things sometimes and you need to listen.  I had a feeling I should stay right where I was by dead man's corner.  I also know this feeling could have been complete bullshit, brought on my an adrenaline rush of preparing to run from bulls and 4 hours of sleep.  Either way I stayed put.  A guy in his mid 20's was standing next to me from England and we talked a little as we waited.  The anticipation in situations like that is hard to explain.  You have to balance the adrenaline, excitement, and uncertainty while focusing on the objective.  Door knockers, base jumpers, and the like understand this.  The rocket goes off and we wait.  A group of runners comes towards us and he asks "You ready?"
"Not yet, they aren't running from the bulls"
"What do you mean?"
"Look at their faces, they are smiling and happy"  he nods and understands.
We wait as they pass by us.  There aren't any bulls behind them.  The next group of guys comes running towards us.  Their faces scream terror, this group of guys is running for their lives.
"Here we go" I say to the Englishman and we join this group and run.
The bulls are behind us, close enough to hear their hooves on the cobblestones at a frenetic pace.  The clapping hooves against the cobblestone gets louder and I feel people behind me peel off to the left or right to become paper thin against the metal gates of the buildings.  An older guy that had been elbowing other runners in the ribs to get to "his" spot is backhanded directly in the face by the motion of another runner who turns sprinting uphill.  It might have been an accident or karma; the forty year old is on his back nursing a bloody nose.  Franticly crawling to the side not to get trampled by the approaching madness he's in tears.  I can almost feel the bulls breathing behind me as I peel off the group just ahead of the old man.  They pass 6 inches from me as I'm sucking in my chest flat as a board pushing backwards against a metal shop gate.  At this instant a guy about 15 feet in front of me on the opposite side snaps a picture.  Either the flash combined with his movement or dumb luck triggers a reaction by the bulls, they turn right and take out the guy and the group he was with.  I had the same plan as that guy.  His mistake was a great lesson I was able to learn by observation instead of application.
The first group of bulls passes and we start running behind them.  The younger bulls are trailing them.  Not near as fast but equally as dangerous.  You try to sprint, it's difficult though.  Without good traction on the wet uneven street you don't have the leverage to push off with all of your force.  You run like a woman who has never sprinted but is trying to learn it, not fully extending your legs and awkward, faster than a comfortable jog but you keep slipping if you go to fast.  Fear or excitement isn't really a factor at this point.  You just kind of run as fast as you are able, focus on what the people in front and next to you are doing and attempt to anticipate them falling while keeping aware of how close the bulls are in relation to the distance of the closest wall to press against.
I see Mikee and yell his name.  He joins me and we continue to run uphill towards our goal.  We see people fall, a few people get trampled, I see a guy fall and the bull steps on his ankle with 1,000 pounds of force.  Each time this occurs the person screams out while the bull hardly notices and keeps the same pace, barely missing a step.
The younger bulls pass us and we think the run is over so we start jogging.  Then 3 more bulls with handlers running behind wiping them appear.  we let them pass and start walking and talking, completely forgetting about running into the stadium.  As we approach the stadium it hits us and we pick up the pace but it's too late and they have closed the doors.

We walk back to meet to the girls, both of us are covered in sweat.  Smiles a million miles long with heart pumping adrenaline we talk about the run.
We both saw so many different things.  The square isn't as full as it was yesterday it's easy to tell those that ran versus the spectators.  We meet Felicia and Maily at the bus station and as we wait we see some of the injured;  One guy, maybe 19 or 20, is flanked with friends on each side unable to walk by himself.  His sock off, unable to put any pressure on a ankle swollen larger than a softball.  It's broken, he just doesn't know it yet.  Others holding ribs from being crushed against a wall, nursing ankles or quads hit that aren't as bad as the first kid.

Four minutes.  From the rocket fires to our finish only 4 minutes have passed.  After seeing the run first hand I now realize how dangerous it is.  So many things can come into play that are beyond your control.  On the way to Barcelona I know I would definitely do it again.  If I lived in Europe I would make this an annual event, sadly though, the cost of getting there and the vacation time used in the process mean I have to chose other destinations that are still on my list before going back to Spain.  Looking back, I still plan on doing it again.  If I ever get married maybe I could convince my wife to honeymoon in Spain and then, it would just happen to fall during San Fermin and I could run again.  Otherwise I just have to plan the trip and find someone else as nutty as me.