Precip & Pig & Postcards

The rain.  The rain.  The rain.

 Will it ever end?

 Apparently, no.

Despite the rain, Bobaloo and I went to a party last Saturday.

There was a pig roast.  I'm a vegetarian and tried to avoid eye contact.

 

Aside from the pig there was music, bubbles, tye-dye, and plenty of tom-foolery.  We had a good time.  Pikes Peak is in the picture below but you can't see it because of the weather.

I started Postcrossing again and forgot how much I missed it.  I got my first postcard with the Eiffel Tower on it yesterday.

À la prochaine!

December 11

The blog-a-thon topic for the day is Weepy Wednesday. 

That's a tough one.  I am not a very weepy person.  If there are tears, I am very, very upset.  Like, the sky-is-falling upset.

I wrote this blog post over the summer about an episode of The Simpsons that gets the tears going.

Also, one of my favorite Roy songs is about this very topic:
 

Terrific Lady Day (part deux)

Last Sunday the Bears weren't playing so I took the opportunity to find some cheapy matinee tickets.  This time we went to a different Fox Theatre in Aurora.

 

Bobaloo and I took in some culture and saw Avenue Q.  It's a musical.  There was puppet sex and a song about internet porn.  We're a classy bunch, I tell ya. 

 

 

The theatre was small and very cool.  The actor/puppeteers sounded great as did the band.  Here's a picture of the set...

 

 

We stopped and had a couple of cocktails before heading home.  And that is the conclusion of Terrific Lady Day (weekend).

Past and Present

One of my favorite things in life is sitting on the porch and listening to tunes.  Add a couple of beers on a nice evening and you've got yourself a happy camper.

 

When I was a kid, these folks were my favorites.

 

Petula Clark, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Tiffany, Guns'n'Roses, Soundtrack to Follow that Bird

My favorites of all time.

 

Neil Young, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Widespread Panic, and Big Wu

and it goes with out saying, but these fellas....

 

 

Here's some stuff I have been enjoying lately.

 

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic 0s, Regina Spektor, Wilco, Wishbone Ash, The Lumineers

So...

 

listenin' to any good tunes lately?

 

Friday

Friday evening was pretty mellow, I just sat on the patio with Nik and finished my book.

 

Saturday

Bobaloo and I took the lightrail to Larimer Square in Denver to see the Chalk Art festival.  It was a beautiful day out and the artwork was spectacular.  I wish I would have gone back yesterday to see the finished pieces, but here are some pictures of the works in progress:

I love the Bob Ross on the right.

Later that evening I went over to my buddy Aaron's house for a rousing game of Monopoly that of course, went unfinished.  Has anyone in the history of Monopoly ever finished a whole game?

 

Sunday

Sunday started as kind of a lazy day around the house.  My EFT class ended up being cancelled, so I listened to some Dolly and Willie records and took Nik for a long walk. We also had a new flower pop up.  Anyone have any idea what kind it is?

 

I had been looking forward to yesterday evening for a while because I got to see my first show of the season at Red Rocks.  Bobaloo, Aaron, and I went to go see Alabama Shakes and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

Alabama Shakes

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

 

 

We had so much fun in the parking lot and at the show.  Both bands had a lot of energy and we sure did do some dancing.  If you ever get to Colorado, go see a show at Red Rocks.  It's life-changing, I promise.

 

I hope the weekend was well to all of you!

 

  

Don't Let Me Down

When I was a teenager I used to form an opinion of how I felt about a person by what their favorite band was or which musician was their favorite. That was really shallow. I just thought it would sum up enough about the person for me to proceed however with the acquaintanceship, friendship, relationship, or whatever. I don’t know if that makes sense. Kind of snobby I suppose.

Some of my best friends listen to really crappy music. I still love them.

The night I met Bobaloo we had an exchange about Neil Young. If you like or love or appreciate Neil Young I will be devoted to you forever. If you don’t, that’s okay. Bobaloo and I had our conversation about the song Sugar Mountain almost nine years ago.

There’s a fun game I like to play (usually at happy hour). I love happy hour. It’s just so darn happy.

Sometime in my late teenage years I heard or read something (let me know if you know if you’ve heard this too.) about your favorite Beatles song and your personality. Basically, you can tell a lot about a person’s qualities by what their favorite Beatles song is.

Someone who loves Nowhere Man is going to have a totally different spirit than someone whose favorite is Blackbird or Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds or Help! or Strawberry Fields Forever and so on and so on. Well, hopefully you get the idea.

Now I know this isn’t an exact science to getting to know someone. It is fun though and even people who aren’t super into music have a favorite Beatles song (it’s usually Let it Be). The more booze, the better the analysis.

I have been playing this game for a decade now. My favorites get swapped as I get older and my life changes. When I was really little I loved Hey Jude, fifteen years ago my favorite was In My Life, ten years ago I would have said Blackbird, eight years ago Revolution 9. For a long time, I stuck with Here Comes the Sun.

The songs changed when my life changed. The songs changed my life and my life changed the songs. What?

These days, Don’t Let Me Down is the one.

Some people find the song to be kind of sorrowful; I find it sweet and sentimental which is how I am feeling these days I guess.

Go ahead, find your favorite. What does it say about you?

Welcome back to that same old place that you laughed about

Bobaloo, some friends, and I were trying to think of awesome TV theme songs the other night. Well, it started off as a reversed version of “Name That Tune.” We would give Bobaloo a theme song and he would have to hum or sing it. He is surprisingly good at this game. He doesn’t know just the first line or two; he knows every word to a lot of songs. Tickle me impressed.

This game morphed into a debate about what the best TV theme song ever is.

Personal favorites of mine are as follows:

Welcome Back Kotter (all-time favorite) Cheers Laverne and Shirley The Simpsons The Facts of Life Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Married… with Children The Wonder Years

This got me ruminating (I’m deep). They sure don’t write theme songs like they used to. Seriously, I have been trying to think of some really good ones from 1990 forward and all that comes to mind is That 70’s Show, Frasier, Friends, and Fresh Prince (how’s that for alliteration?). Are there obvious ones I am missing? Maybe this is the excuse I need to get cable.

The End of an A-Ha Era

I read some troubling news on Friday. A-Ha is breaking up after one last tour. I am devastated and overcome with both grief and uncertainty. Now don’t get me wrong, I cannot name any of their songs besides “Take on me,” but I feel that song helped shape me as a person in some way.

When I was a child I was transfixed by the music video longing to live in a world where morphing into a comic book character in a world of illustration was possible. Their catchy chorus was easy enough for my youthful brain to wrap around. The happy beat infected the heart of my soul and I would dance.

As I got older, “Take on me” became, well, kind of a guilty pleasure. If I was in the car alone, I would rock out while singing the lyrics without inhibition. There's just something about the tune that gives me absolute joy. If I was amongst my friends, I might have just hummed along calmly.

These days I sing it loud and proud. I car-dance to the melody if I need to. The song is in my iPod putting a skip in my step when it comes on and I am walking home from the bus stop. I can say it goes down as one of my top ten favorite songs in pop history.

So A-Ha, as you retire to enter the next stage of your lives please know you have been in the background for every stage in mine.

Thanks.

I have always been on search to be more in tune with the universe, a way to live a happier and more meaningful life. I am always looking for different ways to “tune in,” like there is something out there that I am not a part of that I need to find. Transcendence, maybe? Recently I have experienced two new things to grow from.

There is a Shambhala Center in Denver that I had always wanted to check out so I recruited Bobaloo and our friend Sam to come with me. We went there for an introduction to meditation. I was excited and nervous and happy to finally have the opportunity to go. The center was very welcoming. Shoes came off before entering and we sat in a circle along with the others who were curious.

We spoke for a while of who we were and why we were there. After a break we entered a small room where we sat on cushions and were taught the beginnings of meditation. At one point the instructor said something along the lines, “let go of your thoughts in the same way as you’d pop a balloon with a feather.” That thought resonated with me and when a thought would enter my head I would visualize a feather popping a balloon. It was a great exercise and I think all three of us learned something from being there.

The second event took place a couple of nights ago. Bobaloo and I were happy hour-ing at one of favorite joints listening to music out on the patio and enjoying the beautiful weather. If you know Bobaloo, you know he chats a lot with people. He went inside to get a pitcher and ran into a gentleman putting on a drum circle that evening. The drum circle dude invited us to join them and take a listen.

We went inside to the separate space where the drum circle was being held and were met with beats from an assortment of drums. The beats were infectious and the drummers were dialed into their sound. There were a handful of dancers inside the circle whirling, thrashing, and stamping. The whole scene was without airs and genuinely a harmonious occasion.

Now I am not someone who professes to have a lot of rhythm so I would choose one drummer to focus in on and listen carefully to. I mimicked the hand motions on my lap and created my own pitter-patter of sound. Someone gave Bobaloo a tambourine to make a cadence with. We enjoyed ourselves hugely. I would like to go back on another Monday with our own noisemakers to join in on this weekly drum-fest and possibly do some dancing.