House Training.

Walking Maddie tonight, I realized that my parents' neighborhood is full of well designed, gorgeous houses - houses so nice that I couldn't even realistically daydream about Jess and I owning houses like any of them (a common occurrence for me when walking through a neighborhood) without including Jess somehow curing cancer in the next few years in it.

We do want a house, though. The dog needs a yard to run in, and we'd love something that we can really customize. We'll get there when we move next - I guess not wanting to think about the next move too much means not thinking about prospective houses yet, either.

Give Thanks.

Working a half day today is dull, but not dull like a full day on December 23rd will be. I stopped in to a local coffee joint for a pumpkin pie latte as a booster shot of Thanksgiving spirit, and the barista immediately offered to put a shot of something in it "if you really want to feel good."

Thanksgiving is going to be odd this year. I'm missing the big family event, and Jess and I aren't even really sure what we're doing as she's got work at six. I'll tell you this: we're not going to be the big Golden Corral Thanksgiving special.

What's So Great About the Barrier Reef?

Post-UVa demolition of Rider last night:

Girl: (looks at policeman directing traffic with his light-wand thing) Those things are so cool. I want one.
Girl's Mom: C'mon, it's just a flashlight with some plastic on it.
Girl: Do you have to ruin everything?
Me: (cracks up)
Girl's Mom: (looks mortified) Uh, it's like one of those things from Star Wars, only miniature!

thirty seconds later, I'm walking at a brisk pace to get to my car in time to hear the postgame interviews...

Dude Who is Also Hustling: Man, you're wasting your time - it's almost nine. The liquor store'll close before we get there.

Flaming Lips Indeed.

If you opened your internet browser this morning with the thought "damn, I hope there's a Flaming Lips video out there that is full of nudity and seems vaguely analogous to unprotected sex," well, I've got the video for you.

You might want to stop it before you see Wayne Coyne's dong.

Let Me Tell You a Story.

The Hold Steady's Craig Finn waxes on the soon-to-be-released Lifter Puller book.

Finn says:

If you go on the internet, there's not a ton of information. So rather than having us interviewed in the book, I came up with the concept of interviewing a bunch of people that were around us at the time, printing what they had to say about the band. I wanted there to be some half-truths and some mis-truths in there because I think that that's one of the glorious things about rock'n'roll. Not to be a Luddite or an old man, but I think that the internet has stamped out some of the beauty of the rumors and innuendos and half-truths. So rather than tell the exact right story, we interviewed a bunch of people who were around at different times, often late nights and hazy mornings, and just tried to piece the story together there.

I love this idea. I can't say I'd find it more interesting than the average encyclopedic recap of a band's every move in the studio and on the road (I geek out on that stuff), but it's an apples and oranges situation - and this seems like it'll have much more entertainment value. Even if a lot of it is bullshit and half-remembered stories, it's the bullshit and half-remembered stories that make rock'n'roll fun.

Working for a Living.

We're in the thick of residency interviews again, only this time instead of being without Jess for weeks at a time and uncertain of my living/working situation for the next year, I'm shamelessly freeloading free dinners every Tuesday night and attempting to soothe the nerves of any interviewee significant others who show up scared that they're about to lose their partner for the next three years.

Talking to Anthony, the boyfriend of another intern in Jess's class (let me digress for a sec: it's so confusing how they're still called "classes," even though they've graduated from Med School and are actual doctors with actual paychecks now. can we call it something else? I was even deliberately obtuse in the beginning, asking "med school or residency?" every time Jess mentioned her class), we decided it'd be hilarious if someone from the Virginia program was walking around with either a detailed list of symptoms or an actual picture of something unhealthy to shove in unsuspecting interviewee's faces mid-bite for a sudden pop quiz style evaluation. It'd probably make up in comedic value what it lost in relaxation. The interns, unsurprisingly, were not fans.

Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Away.

Hi there. I've got a convenient excuse for the lack of posting - my UVa athletics blog has been taking up all of my writing bandwidth, plus additional posting duties for Raycom Sports have taken up any of the time I'd budgeted for this site. Don't worry - I'm going to try to work this back into the mix, even if it means I do less work at the job I'm paid for.

It's so hard to get back into the swing of things, though - once you stop posting for a while, things to post about start building up until you have a backlog, can't decide what to write about, and just say fuck it, it can wait.

Still in a Bar Band, Baby.

Busker On the Mall: Yo man, what's your shirt say?
Me: The Hold Steady almost killed me.
BOTM: Oh yeah man, me too. I got 18 stitches still from that.
Guy Nearby: It's true. He does.

Nothing But Mammals.

I worked Fall Foxfield for Cerberus two weeks ago. It was pretty uneventful - especially compared to the wasted UVa undergrads and Charlottesville townies/pinks and pastels dominated Spring races.

In lieu of fights between drunken frat guys, we got to see several animals break free from the race area and head our way: one terrier (I shit you not) and two horses. The terrier broke from the finish area after the dog races started the day, raced past our ticketing outpost and leapt into the back of a waiting limo, where he downed a bottle of Cristal hid under the driver's seat until his owners could catch up and collect him.

The first horse took off over the fence that ran along the track and ran for the main road. Everyone around us was screaming at the security guards to close the gate and prevent the horse from sprinting down Barracks Road into Charlottesville proper, but I guess the message got lost in all the yelling, because they just stood there, chin in hand, and just barely reacted in time to make the save.

The second horse bucked his rider, and headed over the fence toward a nearby cluster of trees, but was quickly commandeered.

Show Nuff.

I've seen the Decemberists, U2 and local favorites Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun since my last update.

The Decemberists were a lot better live than I expected them to be. I tend to run hot and cold with their studio stuff, as sometimes their jaunty nautically themed tunes take the leap from novel and interesting to lame as hell. It doesn't help that Colin Meloy's voice is a bit of an acquired taste.

Live, they rocked a lot more than I expected. We only stayed through the first set - a complete performance of their newest disc, Hazards of Love - and left before the encore of assorted old stuff, but I was impressed enough to pick up Hazards when I got home. Yeah, I said it - impressed enough that it got me to buy music. Some accomplishment!

A week later, U2 landed their giant space crab in Scott Stadium. It was the first show at Scott since the traffic, power and bomb-threat marred Rolling Stones show in 2005.

There are two ways to look at this show. First, if you take away the pageantry and bluster and look past the elaborate production, U2 is a pretty killer band that still puts on a captivating live show. Second, sometimes that aforementioned production teams up with the size of the venue to make it feel more like you're seeing some kind of multimedia U2 revue than the actual band.

The show was a bit bloated - we didn't need No Line on the Horizon dud "Moment of Surrender" as a second encore, and could have lost thirty minutes somewhere and still been satisfied - but overall, they're still a band to see.

I left the show a pretty big fan of The Edge, whose ability to generate a guitar sound that fills an entire stadium as the lone lead instrument in a three piece band really impressed me - much like Andy Summers did when the Police came to town.

Finally, my friends Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun (who are the house band for Jess and I's wedding next year) released their new CD on Tuesday and accompanied it with a release party at the Live Arts space downtown. They played a roughly 90 minute set showcasing a lot of the new material and featuring a lot of their friends from the local scene, and I felt like it went over very well. Highlights were "Machine Gun," the heartfelt tributes "A-Tip" and "One Moore Farewell," "Live Wire," and finally the funky and unique sound generated by guitar, electric, violin, accordion, upright bass, drums and vocals on the single "B-Loose."

Saturday Night at the Movies.

Uh, hi. It's really easy to stop writing in this once you get in a habit of not doing so. Anyway, I refuse to let it die, so I'm back with another spurt of posts for you to catch up with.

What have I been doing instead, you might ask? Writing this , which resulted in yet more writing for this.

I'm going to try to do better here, but sometimes there's only so much typing a man can do.

I Had to Share This.

Disclaimer: this is not from my own Facebook feed.

Make You Forget.

As those of you who still read regularly know, I don't like rain. Taking the dog out in the rain is particularly unpleasant, because the rain doesn't bother her, and it makes her take more time sniffing out her bathroom spots. Today, she upped the ante by rolling in some unknown mass of disgusting in the courtyard outside of our apartment.

I've had Maddie for almost two years, and I'd yet to see her show the slightest interest in rolling in something until this morning, so I guess whatever it was must have been pretty special - or particularly gross. I hope it was at least worth the immediate scolding and trip to the bathtub.