I'm not even sure what Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" is doing on it, but shuffle mode followed that up this morning with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's "Urban Spaceman".
Fun. Smiles all around. I was damned impressed by the visuals in "Ratatouille", but this far surpassed them. In fact, some really obvious, welcome inspiration from the good folks who did the special effects for "Firefly" -- the camera jitter, unsteady zooms, finding of focus that made the "Firefly"/"Serenity" CGI work seem so real.
Gets a 10 from me. Almost lost a point due to excessive "Hello Dolly", but gained it back thanks to smart use of Sigourney Weaver.
... despite what my brother suggested in an earlier comment, the truth is that I watch pretty much all of the sports I care to. Now, true, I'm constrained by the fact that we don't have cable or satellite (a decision I'm fully on board with), and that the games I'd care to watch aren't broadcast here in Minnesota the vast majority of the time. But if there happens to be a game on that I want to watch, it's my decision whether to do so or not.
On the other hand, I see way too many chick flicks.
... a very, very brief update on what's been going on in my life lately. Because I just know you care.
At the end of April, I walked across the street to attend the College Bowl national championship tournament, which was hosted at Macalester College. I got to see old friends and teammates Ron Trigueiro and Chris Baxter; both were officiating, and Chris, an events coordinator at Macalester, was handling lots of logistics. Sadly, I see now that College Bowl has officially come to an end. Sad, but I'm glad I got to see another Nationals before it left us.
In May, work sent me to Chicago for three days, for the BEA Participate conference. The main perk, besides three nights on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency, was this sweet thing, an iPod Touch.
(It was, at the time of the photo, piping Jonathan Coulton through some old amplified PC speakers. If you don't know Jonathan Coulton, you should. Well, you should if you like songs about laptops, the Mandelbrot Set, George Plimpton, mad scientists, Ikea, zombies, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, curling, Pluto and Charon, lonely programmers, Leonard Nimoy, and outdoor sex. If you prefer your songs to be about romance 'n stuff, you probably shouldn't bother.)
Also in May, Emma had a ballet recital and a school band concert. She was excited to be able to play her very own Yamaha trombone in the concert, instead of the rental she'd had all year; we picked the Yamaha up, barely used, from eBay. It still had paperwork and a polishing cloth from the music store in Madrid, Spain where it was originally purchased, though the seller was in Arizona.
More later, unless I forget again for a few months.
21 years ago, I was preparing to move back to Los Angeles, where I'd work for a law firm with Laker season tickets, and get to go to a couple of playoff games and watch Magic, Kareem, Byron, James, Coop, A.C. and (of course) Kurt Rambis. But even though they won a championship that first year I was back in L.A., beating Detroit in seven games and the first repeat championship for any franchise since the sixties, it pales in comparison to beating the Celtics in '85 and '87.
These days, I don't follow sports much, but for this I'll make an exception. Kristi and Emma are in Montana, and from there going to California, so Smudge and I are going to have some serious guy-time in front of the big screen: drinking beer, eating chips and cheering Kobe and Derek and Pau. It won't be the same, even though Kurt's still on the bench, and still suited up -- though now he suits up in, well, a suit.
I'm guessing Kevin McHale will be there. Kurt had better watch his back.
