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Scott H. Biram at the Double Door

2012-02-04T16:10:00.001-05:00

The other night I had a real nice experience at the Double Door. A singer/songwriter Scott H. Biram played a show. I discovered him just in the last few months and was hoping he would come through. His new album called Bad Ingredients is truly great. The song Broke Ass is a song about dating a stripper that Mike Cooley wishes he had written.

Biram is hard to describe. You can call it rock and roll, country, blues, shit kicking metal or all of that at once. He did all these with an honesty, ferocity, knowledge and skill that was impressive. He reminds me of Mojo Nixon, Bog Log and the Drive-by Truckers. He mixed it up a lot. He covered a Wood Guthrie song. He played I be's Troubled by Muddy Waters which is one of Muddy's first recordings. He played some Jimmie Rodgers. He bullshitted his way halfway through two Butthole Surfers songs that someone was bugging him for. That was fun for me when I finally figured out what he was playing. He closed the show by playing the full Am I Evil by Diamondhead, which was amazing. He also played a slew of his own material, all of it of very high quality. I was wondering if he could pull Victory Song off live and he nailed it.

One thing he does real well is drive a song. He can get that stomp board going and he can put an intensity into a song that is infectious. This was one of the few shows at the Double Door I have been to where the audience crowded the stage and really became part of the show. Biram fed off the intimacy and we all got sweaty and enjoyed the groove.

Biram has a bit of a reputation as a hell raiser and a few of the younger attendees were, well, drunken fuckwads. It was interesting to see Biram play this brilliant set of music and see several of these kids pound PBRs and generally act like asses. The songs he writes and the music he plays are so much more than that. The majority of the crowd was into what Biram was laying down and were with him but the idiot fucks were a distraction. After the show one of them was in the parking lot puking his guts out. It's the little things sometimes that make life fun. As this kid, who was wearing a jean jacket vest with a patch on the back that said "Wooly Wood," was hurling a friend of his hollered at him to go find a corner to hurl in. He said, "It's OK, (spew!), I'm almost done." This rocket scientist also spent a lot of the evening punching himself in the face in time with the beat. He also got tossed out.

Scott H. Biram at the Double Door by me.

A better photographer than me was there and you can view her pictures of the night here. She doesn't allow embedding so I can't post them. I don't understand why some photographers choose not to allow embedding. Do you not want people to see your work? Oh well.

Glen the Car Guy

2012-02-04T11:07:00.002-05:00

I happened to glance out the window at work the other day and saw Glen the Car Guy pushing his bike on the sidewalk. I grabbed my camera and caught him right after he had climbed back on his bike and was coasting down a hill. It's like seeing bigfoot.

NYPL's moving 3D gifs

2012-01-30T18:41:00.000-05:00

A blogger at his site called Cursive Buildings has been publishing animated gifs of old photographs from the New York Public Library's online collection. He even inspired me to make a few of my own.

I saw today that the NYPL was also inspired by him and created a webpage where you can make your own animated gifs from the stereographs in their collection. What a great way for a library to use the internet to play with and share their physical collection.

I made a few myself today.

Horse race in Poughkeepsie, NY in the 1890s

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Baseball game in 1880 in Rochester

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

The Perkins Institution and Mass. School for the Blind. 1862?-1885?

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

Wednesday Flicker Wowzers

2012-01-18T18:35:00.001-05:00

Some dude went to Iceland

Some dude saw another dude mouth breathing

When I was a twenty-year-old dude I loved me some Okinawa Yakisoba

At 3am all the young drunk dudes loved their yakitori off the cart

This dude posted a panorama of an Okinawan sunset

HDR Camera

2012-01-10T15:40:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I downloaded an app to my phone called HDR Camera. I got the free version just to give it a test drive. I don't know how familiar you are with HDR photography, essentially it's a process of combining three different exposures so you can have a photograph that is more balanced. Rather than having a bright sky and a dark foreground and vice versa, with HDR you can have a foreground and background with nominal exposures. I have seen some HDR on Flickr that are pretty impressive and some that are way overdone. I tried it out the front window here at lunch today and I am impressed by the result.

Camera reading off the sky

Camera reading off the foreground

Photo taken using HDR Camera

As you can see the HDR photograph has a much better balance. I wish I could have a setting for this on my Canon. That would be incredibly useful.

Jupiter

2012-01-05T18:07:00.003-05:00

In September of 2010 Jupiter was really close and bright so I pointed my 200mm lens at it to see what would show. I was surprised to find I could see not only Jupiter as a distinct globe but you can see the Galilean moons. This is heavily cropped but it is what it is.

Foul Ball

2012-01-04T13:00:00.001-05:00

I saw this video of a woman snatching a baseball out of a little girl's hands for the first time today. All's fair in love, war and souvenir baseballs but..c'mon.

It reminded me of a time I went to a Charlotte Knights game with my little brother Cody in the early 90s. He was a timid kid and not too fast on his feet so when it came to a scrum for a foul ball he wasn't going to have a good chance. We had talked about getting a foul ball and he really wanted one. We were sitting almost behind home plate and we had a ball and pretty close to us. I went for it and got the ball, beating out a couple of kids. I survived the foul ball wars at the softball field in Bellaire, MI in the seventies. Back then you got a fee bag of popcorn for retrieving a foul ball. It was a blood sport. Those kids at Knights Stadium never had a chance.

After I secured the foul ball I hear an adult say, "Awww, give it to a kid!"

I replied, "I am," and I turned and handed the ball to my overjoyed brother.

Check out that Form!

2012-01-03T13:50:00.000-05:00

Is this good form or bad? I can't tell. I think this is me hitting my 5i hybrid. If this is the shot I am thinking of it was a doozy.

Stuff I liked in 2011

2012-01-01T18:31:00.001-05:00

It's funny, back in the early days of this blog I used to make a top ten album list every year and when everyone seemed to make a list I kinda stopped. This list is stuff I enjoyed over the year. And...in no particular order.

Podcast!

Greg Proops Podcast

Or, as he calls it, Proopcast. Back in October of last year Greg Proops began podcasting. Rather than sit in a room and essentially do a radio show and talk or talk and play music Greg Proops sips vodka in front of a live audience in whatever town he is currently performing. I first noticed Greg Proops on the original English version of Whose Line is it Anyway? and something about his wit just really grabbed me. His podcast is fun because he's had a long career and has traveled the globe and seems to have spent a lot time reading history books and watching French films. His stream on consciousness musings can go all over the map and at some point, and I will paraphrase a paraphrase he did on his podcast of a review he read, "He is an aging hipster who will eventually shit on something you love." He did, in fact, insult one of my favorite movies, Little Miss Sunshine. Damn you, Proops! And he loves Satchel Paige and tries to work in a Paige reference in every podcast. For that alone he is worthy of note. This summer when we were closed on Tuesdays and Fridays I passed the time shelving books laughing with Greg Proops.

Reading!

The novel I enjoyed the most this year was a science fiction novel published in 1987. It's called Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks. It's a big, beautiful galaxy spanning space opera with huge set pieces and fantastic characters. I can't wait to explore this particular series more and I can't believe this is the first time I have read any Iain Banks.

A nice long intelligent magazine article can be a joy to read and John Jeremiah Sullivan's collection called Pulphead is full of such articles. His opening story on attending a Christian rock festival is by itself worth picking up this book.

The novel Embassytown by China Mieville was amazing. It's a bit hard to get into because he thinks exposition is for pussies but once you get immersed in this amazing world you are in for a great ride.

Music!

Southern Culture on the Skids released their album Kudzu Ranch back in September of last year but I didn't buy it until this spring. Two songs really stood out immediately, My Neighbor Burns Trash and Busy Road. They are instant SCOTS classics, melodic, intelligent and funny. Like all their best songs.

The new Gillian Welch album called The Harrow & the Harvest is another spectacular collection of music. I can't get over how amazing the harmonies she and David Rawlings create. A fine example of is the version of A Dark Turn of Mind from UK television. It sounds just like the album version.

The album I listened to the most this year was Bad Ingredients by Scott H. Biram. I just loved it. It's one man band stuff with rock and blues. It's honest and alcohol fueled, angry and vulnerable. The official video of his song I Want my Mojo Back is a nice introduction. The song Broke Ass is my favorite. It's a song Mike Cooley from the Drive by Truckers would have been proud to call his own.

The new Beastie Boys called Hot Sauce Committee was also in my heavy rotation. They sound like they are having a fun and the Beastie Boys have fun is good fun for the rest of the world. The opening track Make Some Noise really sets the mood. Best opening song I heard all year.

The new Tom Waits called Bad as Me has been worth listening to. The song Last Leaf that has a harmony with Keith Richards is worth a listen.

I almost forgot to add the Rolling Stones concert release called A Brussels Afair. It's from the fall of 1973 and if you ever wondered why the Stones are called The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in World a listen of this show will answer that question. It really is unbelievable how good they sound. It's so good you'll even listen to Angie all the way through.

Movies!

Melanie and I watched the movie RED at least three times this year. I love a good action movie and this is one of the best. It's funny with great dialog, it has a stellar cast and some nice action sequences. Bruce Willis is by far my favorite action hero, he limps when injured better than anybody else.

You know what movie I've watched most in the last year? Probably the Star Trek reboot. We bought it around Christmas last year and it is approaching Big Lebowski and Shaun of the Dead status as one of those movies you can throw in anytime and enjoy a fun movie.

Television!

The one TV show I really make time for consistently is Big Bang Theory. I really like how the characters are consistent and you can tell the cast is having a lot of fun. I love catching a show like that when it's clicking. Top Gear was also a good bet, as usual. Mike and Molly has been enjoyable although it has the tendency to float into Coach territory because Mike sometimes learns the same listens more than once.

Blogs!

The sportswriter Joe Posnanski's blog is a blog I check almost daily. He will grab on aspect of sports (often baseball) and write and write and write about it. If he is writing about something you are interested it can be a joy to read. If not, well then it's just long. But, hey, you don't have tot read it. I really recommend his book The Machine. It's about the 1975 Cincinnati Reds.

Science fiction writer John Scalzi's blog has been around for several years and is a good place to see what's what in the science fiction world or just see a picture of a sunset or a cat. He's smart and funny and he even lends space to other writers to promote their work. A good guy.

Gaming!

I bought Tiger Woods for the first time in a while this year. It's the only decent golf game on the market so I'm stuck buying that if I want to play golf on my television. This year's game had some pretty good reviews and it featured Augusta for the first time. I gave it a shot. It looks great and you can tweak the difficulty pretty liberally make it as challenging as you want. Some of the hole placements are utter bullshit and when you are playing a tournament in the career mode the wind and competition get tougher as the weekend progresses. That is bullshit also. Sometimes EA Sports just does dumb shit.

Rather than go the route of Call of Duty this year I went ahead and purchased Battlefield 3. I like the pacing of the Battlefield series more, it's not all run and gun. You have to work with your teammates to do well, especially in modes like Conquest. The addition of Team Deathmatch was a nice touch. These are shorter, more intense matches that can satisfy that runnin' and gunnin' craving you get.

The game I looked forward to the most the L.A. Noire. I thought it would be hard to go wrong with a game set in L.A. in during the postwar years made by Rockstar. I was wrong. The story was good, good dialog and characters but it wasn't a good game. It was really close but didn't quite pull it together. Plus, the open world of L.A. looks great but doesn't feel alive like Liberty City in the last Grand Theft Auto.

Forza 3 was a nice used purchase. It's a big improvement over Forza 2. This time the AI drivers actually race you and that makes a whole different and more enjoyable game.I finally bought a used copy of Fallout: New Vegas and i am enjoying this one more than Fallout 3. The first few hours of Fallout 3 were amazing when you had no idea what the hell was going on but the whole story didn't quite hold together for me. New Vegas feels bigger and you have more freedom of choice in the story. I have paused in my playing of it but I am sure I'll go back to it.

Ebert on Going to the Movies

2011-12-30T15:45:00.001-05:00

Roger Ebert has posted his thoughts on why movies are losing money. I heartily agree with #4, refreshment prices. At the theater we go to in Charlotte it costs $12 for a medium soda and medium popcorn. I understand there will be some markup whenever you attend a concert or a movie but, Jesus Christ, $12 for a frickin' soda and some popcorn?!?!? It's not even good popcorn, they don't pop it there, they poor it out of a goddamn plastic bag. C'mon, meet us halfway here. I'll pay you $6 for a soda and some popcorn. I am going to start sneaking food in again.

He has a good point on #5. My big TV and surround sound system at home give us a pretty good show when we have a movie night. 40 inches of LCD goodness augmented by 200 watts from five large speakers? My home theater kicks it. My favorite new advertisement at the theater now is shown right before the trailers start. This new add starts out showing big loud action scenes at high volume. The screen slowly shrinks in size while the audio also loses quality. The screen morphs down into a flat screen TV and the text, "Go big or go home" appears on the screen. Yeah, that's good marketing, insult my home theater system while I am sitting in your theater. Screw you, hippy, my home theater kicks it, as I said just a second ago.

One thing about going to the movies Ebert didn't mention was the trailers. I like trailers as much as anybody, I even watch them on demand on my TV at home but when a movie is advertised as starting at 1:20 and doesn't start until 1:40 we have a problem. I find it insulting that I am essentially forced to watch 20 minutes of advertisements before I see the feature I paid to see. I am a paying customer and more than three or four trailers is an abuse by the company I contracted with to entertain me. The same thing happens when you purchase a DVD. When you buy a DVD you have to skip through several commercials. It's a big "Up yours" by the manufacturer of the DVD. "Hey," they say, "you paid $24.99 for this new Bluray DVD? Well, before you can watch what you paid to watch here's twenty minutes of shit you could give two shits about." It's insulting. You know what happens when you steal a movie off the internet? You can watch as soon as you fire it up. How about that, bootleggers treat their clients with more politeness than the movie industry.

It's good to see someone with the prestige of Roger Ebert come out and contradict the nonsense we here from the industry concerning pirating of movies. Their numbers are inflated and their attempts to push through heavy-handed legislation just because they are struggling to compete in a digital world are unfair to their customers.

A Nemesis Gives me a Break

2011-12-27T17:51:00.000-05:00

Golf in the winter! What says living in the Carolinas more succinctly than "golf in the winter?" Of course in the summer nothing says living in the Carolinas more succinctly than "unable to golf after noon or you'll die of heat stroke" but you take the good with the bad.Hole #16 at Renaissance Golf Course here in Charlotte is a par 5. You can see of rough view of it here. 16 is a good driving hole since you hit off an elevated tee. Who doesn't enjoy hitting off an elevated tee? If you get a decent tee shot your next shot is going to be a layup on this hole. You will be around 200 yards from the green and unless you're paid to play golf you aren't going to drop a ball on that green because it has a creek running in front of it. If you don't get a decent drive you'll have trees on your right, between you and the drop area. If that is the case you'll be playing for bogey. After a decent second shot you will have around 50 to 100 yards to the hole. This shot isn't too hard but that creek in the front and the swamp beyond the hole make the green look mighty small. There are a couple of bunkers on the back side of the green that can save a long shot if it's not coming in too hot.

Yesterday I parred this hole for the first time. If you know my game, my parring a hole anywhere at any time is a bit of a miracle. This hole has especially been a beast. The drop area in front of the green is essentially a narrow peninsula and you have little room for error. As my friend Jon says, "It takes three good shots" to get off this hole without sacrificing a few strokes. That is what makes this hole so tough. When you know your margin for error is very small then the golf shots just get harder. That is the beauty of the game, the easiest shot in the world is the hardest if you absolutely have to hit it like you always do and know you can. Four foot putts with no break for par are the worst.

The white tees were about 20 yards ahead of where they were located the last time I played there and that helped me a lot on my drive. I also got lucky with my drive. I had been driving the ball better than usual, I have found that slowing that back swing down to a crawl really helps me get the club face closed when I swing. My usual slice from hell was lurking there but I kept it at bay for most of the day. This drive the ball did slice some but the fairway has a hill on the left side and the ball rode that back down to the fairway. This put me on the left side of the fairway, just short of the bunkers. I took a healthy cut with my 8 iron and found my self on the left side of the drop area around 100 yards from the hole. My pitching wedge is money with a full swing from 110 yards but I was afraid to take anything off the swing. I decided I'd rather go long into the bunkers beyond the green rather than land in the creek. I took a full swing and took a lot of turf with me. "Shit!" I said, thinking I had chunked the ball. But, I hadn't chunked. I caught enough of the ball it went up like it should and dropped about 15 feet to the right of the hole. I lagged the ball up to about three and tapped it in. A bloody miracle. I am sure the next time I go back #16 will have me for lunch again but until then I am victorious. It is such a good feeling to walk off a green with a good score, it'll keep you coming back. You could be ass all day up to that point and ass the place up for the rest of the day afterward but, as long as you get that one string of good shots, you'll be back.

This is one reason I am really starting to enjoy playing at Renaissance. Sunset Hills is essentially a learning course. You don't really have to think too much about your shots and errant shots aren't punished too badly. When you are preparing for a day at Sunset there aren't too many holes you think about as you go in. The par 3 over a pond is the only hole I really anticipate. With Renaissance there are several holes on my mind. Some I love and some I dread. The new Revolution has that potential but right now the fairways are still too immature to give consistent challenging play. Renaissance has some issues also. The greens are pretty rough overall and there is trouble with drainage (which may be something they'll never be able to control since the course is built on a landfill) and the $40 green fee is too high considering (we played for $25 with a online deal).

Charlotte Landmarks

2011-12-15T13:38:00.000-05:00

The Mexican restaurant that used to be a seafood restaurant. Located at the intersection of Archdale and Nations Ford Rd.
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The Bojangles Coliseum. It opened in 1955 and for a while it was considered quite an engineering marvel. People used to drive to town from around the local area just to see it. Great place to see a concert. Until 1957 it was the largest dome in the world.
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The place I get my car fixed. Autoready. Owned by A.J. He's good and he's honest.
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Open Mouth, Insert Foot

2011-12-08T18:00:00.001-05:00

A friend recently posted on her Tumblr a description of an incident where a friend of hers says something unfortunate in front of another good friend of hers who is gay. She posted she was going to cut him some slack because he had been drinking and isn’t homophobic, he just let something slip that would have gone unnoticed at a sports bar with his buddies. Timing is everything.

After reading that I immediately thought of the two times I did the same thing. At least the two times that I remember. I am sure there are other times I have said something awkward or insensitive that I didn’t even notice. I may have done it today. I am not counting the times I intentionally said something inappropriate.

The first incident that came to mind happened while I was stationed on Okinawa while in the Marines. This was in the first couple of months of my tour there while during the first year of my four year stint. I remember sitting in a room with a mixed group of Marines watching wrestling. One of the wrestlers was black and he was at the point of the match where he had been getting beat up and he was now getting his second wind and going through the standard wrestling comeback. My observation announced to the room was, “He’s big, he’s black and he’s pissed.” No one laughed or even looked at me. After about two seconds I realized why and I could have died. I remember not rushing out of the room. I think the tensioned eased after a while and I made a dignified exit as soon as I could.

The other happened a few years ago with a library employee and friend who is Jewish. I was describing him this character that comes into my library a lot. The library user is a short adult autistic who even without the autism and the black rimmed glasses would at best be described as nerdy. I was searching for a word to describe this guy and the word I was looking for was nebbish. I just couldn’t find the word in my head so how did I describe this guy to Jewish friend? I said, “He’s a short kinda Jewish lookin’ guy.” How dumb am I? Really? Jewish lookin’ guy? Am I Mel Gibson? My friend, to his credit, let it slide.

At least I haven’t had an incident similar to what happened to Randy in that Southpark episode.

A Christmas Eve

2011-12-07T19:41:00.001-05:00

Back around 1994 I was attending UNC-Charlotte, working on that coveted Bachelor’s in English, and renting a room from a co-worker. The whole thing didn’t go well and I only lasted there about nine months before I got my first real apartment at the now condominiumized Colonial Park.

It’s Christmas eve and my family had just moved back to Michigan in July or August. At this point I still didn’t know a lot of people in Charlotte and I was spending Christmas essentially alone. It wasn’t really a big deal to me. The four years I spent in the Marines I only came home for the holidays once and that was during the first six months of my enlistment and only because the communications school I was attending shut down for the Christmas holiday. After that I spent two Christmases in Okinawa and one in California. I wasn’t even 22 at that point and being alone a long way from home, even during the holidays, was exciting.

In December of 1994 I would have been 26 and all my family is in Michigan and I am alone for the holidays and I’m cool with it. I’ve got books, television, cigarettes and beer. Sure, I’d prefer to be with my family but you can’t dwell on it or you’ll end up depressed and who in the hell wants to be depressed? Not me.

The person I am renting the room from cannot fathom, at all, how I could deal with being alone on the holidays so well. She hits me with a barrage like this, “Don’t you miss your family? You don’t seem to miss your family. I know I would miss my family if I couldn’t see them at Christmas. You don’t seem to. Don’t you miss your family?” Over and over and over. After about an hour of this I did start to miss my family and decided the best thing I could do is get the hell out of that condo. When I tell this story I sometimes say that I said to her when she asked if I missed my family, “I didn’t but I do now!” Let’s pretend I did say that.

But it’s Christmas eve in the bible belt, where the hell can you go? Everything is closed. Everything. Except...Smokey Joe’s. I’m not sure that evening when I remembered that Smokey Joe’s was open 365 days a year but once I did I was out the door.

For a few years Smokey Joe’s on Monroe Rd in Charlotte was the place my friends and I hung out. We liked it because it was real bar kinda bar. It’s not the place you went to watch the big game or do the singles scene. You went to Smokey Joe’s to drink with your friends. That story about the five stages of drinking that Larry Miller told? He may have been sitting at Smokey Joe’s in the early 90s. We loved it. It had a dart board that wasn’t too crowded, you could play ping pong, it had a good jukebox, a nice wooden bar, it was dark and you could get twelve ounce cups of Budweiser for fifty cents. It also had a nice mix of older and younger people there. We went so much that we got to know the bartender and other regular customers. And it was safe place. The only fight I ever saw there was between two women. It was the place we took new friends to once they were in our inner circle.

I remember it being (obviously) a slow night that Christmas eve. It wasn’t dead, it just felt like a slow day at the bar. Since I wasn’t the only person there I could pretend it wasn’t Christmas eve and enjoy myself and forget the reminder that I did miss my family. Who doesn’t miss their family when you’re alone on Christmas eve?

Arthur J. Ravenal Jr. Bridge

2011-12-02T23:24:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday Melanie and I drove down to Charleston for a two night stay in our favorite little getaway. For those of you that don't know, Charleston is on a small peninsula between two rivers and the Cooper river on the east side has an amazing bridge that connects Charleston to the mainland. It's called the Arthur J. Ravenal Jr. Bridge. Horrible name, beautiful bridge. It reminds me of the Golden Gate Bridge because it dominates the city's skyline. You can see if from almost anywhere in the area. I wonder what name the Golden Gate Bridge would have if it was built today? The Joe Whogivesashit isn't as catchy as Golden Gate. Below are a few pictures of the bridge I found on Flickr.

This is an aerial from the south, looking north.

This shows you how Charleston is really just a spit of land. You can see how the bridge towers over everything.

This is taken from the visitor's center across the river from Charleston

A night shot. Next time I am taking my tripod and getting a night shot.

I took this one at sunset.

This view makes me think of San Francisco. I took those at the Battery Park area, at the southern tip of the peninsula of Charleston. The bridge lurks over the city.

New Music

2011-11-28T19:00:00.001-05:00

I work with a guy named Greg. He lives in Rock Hill, SC and he has a rock band called Motel Glory. They just recorded four new songs and they're really good. You can hear them here.

This is Greg. He owns an extensive collection of v-neck t-shirts.

Savannah Picture

2011-11-28T13:05:00.001-05:00

In the first year Chris lived me we drove to Savannah, GA and Gainsville, FL during a spring break. This must have been around 1995 or 1996. The night we spent in Savannah I had some fun with my tripod at night down on the river. This is Chris descending the plank from the surface to a floating dock. I had to really touch this photo up because there were a lot of scratches and dust on it. GIMP is a wonderful piece of software and the clone tool is invaluable.

Muppets Movie

2011-11-26T10:21:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Melanie, Wendell and I road our bikes to the Phillips Place Theater down the street from us. We had been discussing doing that for a while and we finally hit the road with our bikes to see a movie. The theater even has a bike rack. We had to search for it but we found it. It's nice they have a bike rack because the Morrocroft Harris Teeter doesn't have one and I have written them twice about that. The first time they said they would look into it and the second time they ignored me. I just wrote them another email requesting a bike rack. We'll see how it goes this time.

This movie feels really familiar. It could have been called The Muppet Movie 2 because the 1979 Muppet Movie is this movie's direct inspiration. There were a lot of kids in line before the employees opened up the room to us and as the movie went on I didn't hear a lot of reaction from the children in attendance. I did hear a lot of laughter from their parents. This isn't a children's movie, though I am sure it was enjoyed by the kids there, it's more of a trip down memory lane for those of us that grew up watching the Muppet show on television. It's pretty obvious since two the main characters grow up watching the show together. First on video tape and then each successive format thereafter.

Like the original Muppet movie it's self referential, self aware and full of great cameos. There are nods to the audience and an acknowledgement that the plot is almost unnecessary. It's full of the kind of nonsense and fun that made the Naked Gun movies and everything the Marx Brothers did so successful. What do you do with an act that doesn't transfer to a traditional movie? Don't make a traditional movie, just link a bunch of fun gags together with a thin story about trying to save the Muppet Studios from a silly bad guy. The emotional depth of the movie was created over 30 years ago by Jim Henson so it must almost write itself. The hard part has been done already, these guys just got to have fun with it.

They did have fun with the characters and, for the most part, it works. There is a little too much plucking of our heart strings at times but when they do it right the the emotional scenes come off beautifully and it is consistently funny and a few times it is downright hilarious. Some of the biggest laughs come from Jack Black who, unsurprisingly, fits perfectly into the Muppet universe. It's a movie that hits all its proper Muppet marks and was similar to the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie in that it was made by people that know and love their subject. As a Muppet movie it's satisfying.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

2011-11-22T14:16:00.001-05:00

Everyone else has done one...

Some Flickr Finds

2011-11-15T23:37:00.001-05:00

Facebook and Tumblr are killing my blog. And Google+, I guess. Now I just post photographs from my phone there rather than here.

Fuck it, how about some photos I've found on Flicker recently?

Venice is putting up advertisements to pay for restorations

Flying over the Mackinac Bridge

A statue recovered from the sea at Alexandria

The Swaffords standing in a creek at Valle Crucis, NC

The Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales

Tumblr

2011-11-13T10:50:00.001-05:00

I don't know if I have mentioned it her before or not but I have a Tumblr page which I use to post pictures taken with my telephone. I use an app called Vignette that I am really happy with.

Another Panorama

2011-11-02T10:40:00.001-04:00

This Sunday at the Panthers game I took a panorama from my upper deck seat.

Panthers Vs. Vikings

2011-10-31T16:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to the Panther game with my old friend Granville. I hadn't been out to the stadium in a couple of years and I got two tickets way up in the sky on sale through a promotion I found via the team's Twitter feed. I was unaware that upper deck tickets are now $57 if you include the Ticketmaster ass spelunking. I got mine for $32 each which is a reasonable price. Maybe there would be fewer empty seats in the upper deck if the tickets didn't cost almost $60 each. That just seems like a lot to me.

As you can see, we are way up high

It was fun as any trip to the stadium is for an NFL game. NFL games are always fun for me. They feel like an event. Early on I did have a nice chuckle watching the defensive unit players each do their individual dance as they came out of the inflatable tunnel. Maybe it would have been less silly if the stadium was more than half full and we were able to make a bunch of noise. Nothing rocks quite like an NFL stadium when the stands are full of pumped up fans. We aren't there yet with this current roster. The Panthers will make a playoff run someday with Cam Newton at the helm and I can't wait to be there for a couple of those games.

One unique thing about this trip to Bank of Ameria Stadium was the ending. The Panthers set the kicker, Mare, up for pretty much a chip shot of a field goal that would have likely sent the game into overtime. He missed it. He is catching a lot of heat for it but if you've played golf sometimes the chip shots are the hardest. I've always had a special sympathy for kickers. First the jocks in the broadcast booths and at the studios laugh at them and don't think they are real players. Those guys are dicks. Secondly, what other player in sports essentially comes on the field only when points are on the line? Not even goalies have that much pressure so leave these fucking guys alone.

When Mare missed that kick you could feel the energy leave that stadium. Before the drive that put the team into a chance at overtime the crowd was getting kind of ugly. You could hear drunk guys getting angry and people who weren't drunk and angry began scanning the crowd, looking for the potential fights (there weren't any). Then a couple of excellent plays put the Panthers back in the game and then elation took over which was then quickly supplanted by grief and denial when that kick sailed wide left.

The same view as before but only different

Las Vegas Indy Crash

2011-10-25T18:29:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite Youtube activities is searching for good amateur footage shot at NASCAR races. This weekend's Talladega footage from the stands was as boring as the race. After coming up snake eyes with Talladega I thought I would search for amateur footage of the fatal Indy car crash. I did find a couple.

This one is long so I linked around the wreck started.

Mark Twain Prize

2011-10-24T17:18:00.003-04:00

I don't get it. Last night Will Ferrell received the 14th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Last year it was won by Tina Fey. The first twelve recipients of the prize included giants like Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin and George Carlin. And Bill Cosby. I just don't see where Tina Fey and Will Ferrell fit on this list. They are both in their 40s. Seems to me if you are going to give someone a hall of fame type of award you should have a lifetime of work to consider.

It's not that Ferrell and Fey aren't funny and ground breaking (at least Tina Fey is ground breaking). They may eventually put together 30 or 40 years of work that would then qualify them for the Mark Twain Award. Since they seem to give the award to living funny people I think once they give this award to Mel Brooks, The Smothers Brothers, Albert Brooks, Woody Allen, Harry Shearer, Robert Klein and Robin Williams then we can consider comedians like Ferrell and Fey.

Playing with Layers

2011-10-20T19:42:00.000-04:00

I have been using for a while now an image manipulation program called Gimp. This son of a bitch has been using layers for a while now and I finally grabbed a book about digital photography and gave layers a whirl. I really like how you can take two layers, change one and tweak the opacity to blend them together. Very useful I have found when adjusting the sky in scenic shots. The two pictures below I darkened the sky and adjusted its contrast to bring the clouds out more.

Torch Lake before manipulation

Torch Lake after manipulation

The view from Empire Bluffs before manipulation

The view from Empire Bluffs after manipulation

I Hate when Games Bullshit

2011-10-13T15:59:00.001-04:00

I first saw this while playing NBA Jam on the old Sega Genesis gaming system. My friends Chris and Granville played that game head to head a lot and found that if one player pulled too far ahead then his opponent could pretty much sink shots at will for a few minutes until the game equalized. When this happened you could tell because one of them would should how the game "is bullshittin!" The scoring rubber band wasn't a game killer because it kept the games close and didn't seem to come into play at the end. We had a lot of fun with that game for a while at the old apartment. We started allowing ourselves one created player per team and eventually try to see who could come up with the most offensive name for his player. Big Fucker was a favorite along with Bearded Whitemon. I won with a wonderful name that still to this day offends the uninitiated.

Recently I have been playing the most recent Tiger Woods game. Two problems with it have killed the career mode for me. First is the hole placements. For some reason the hole on some greens will be on the severe slope of a green. So, if you lag the ball up and it stops rolling a few inches from the hole, which is what you are trying to do most of the time on a longer putt, the ball then rolls back down to your feet or goes on past the hole and rolls off the green. I true difficult pin placement will put the hole right next to a ridge that will punish a bad putt. You are not supposed to punish a good putt. I have seen this problem addressed on the Game FAQs message board so I know it's not just me.

I am not sure if the hole placement is the game bullshitting or a glitch. What is bullshit is the scoring on Sunday by AI opponents. Recently while leading going into Sunday I have watched my lead evaporate to an AI player who is having his best day of the tournament on Sunday. I'm not saying this never happens but it should not be the norm. You can see what I am talking about when you look at the leaderboard of the Players Championship from May. No one had a real big day on Sunday. So, what happens in the Tiger Woods game is that with the most difficult pin placement of the tournament where I am having to really play well to just score and maintain my lead a couple of players shoot a Thursday type score and I end up in the top five. It's frustrating because in a real golf match when you go into Sunday with a lead you are generally playing to maintain your already established lead. But in Tiger Woods you're forced into taking chances and playing aggressive golf because you have to score just to catch back up. What happens when you take chances with difficult Sunday pin placements? That's right, you play bogey golf. It's bullshit.

So, pretty much all this Tiger Woods is good for is head to head play with friends. I do that like once a every few months.

Is he Serious?

2011-10-10T13:25:00.002-04:00

I had to share this. Only on eBay would someone attempt to sell an outdated broken digital camera for $30.00.

2011-09-27T20:37:00.000-04:00

Failed Baseball PlayerMelanie and I went and saw the movie Moneyball during our staycation last week. We both enjoyed the film. The question that seems to arise about every baseball film is where does it measure against the rest of the baseball films out there. It's no Bull Durham but it definitely hurdles over the silly of Field of Dreams. I don't like Field of Dreams because it doesn't play fair. The reason it doesn't play fair is brought up in the recent episode of Bob Costas' show on the Major League Basebal Network, it's all about men wanting to play catch with their fathers. It couldn't be more manipulative.

What I did like a lot about Moneyball was mentioned by Billy Beane during the Studio 42 show. He though it really captured the feel of the clubhouse of a major league baseball team. I was happy to hear that because when I was watching the movie it felt realistic to me. As someone watching a movie like that where what you are seeing feels real you never really know if what you are watching is a hell of a good fake or a close representation. It's nice to have a gut feeling ratified by someone who has been there. Michael Lewis, the author of the book Moneyball, which is the basis of the movie, mentioned that about Bull Durham. I think it was Lewis that said this. There were four panel members: Brad Pitt, Michael Lewis, Billy Beane and Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill, who I like, was really out of his element as a member of his panel. He looked a lot like a student trying to pass a test when Costas asked him baseball related questions. Maybe he was just nervous, there were some heavy hitters in that room.

During the interview Costas said something about Billy Beane that I thought was unfair. He called Billy Beane a failed ballplayer. I would say anyone who can make a major league roster for six consecutive seasons is not a failed ballplayer. His major league career could be seen as a failure but if you are good enough to make a squad, even if in three of those seasons you have 10 or fewer at bats, you are not a failed ballplayer. He made the show six times. How many of us would give a testicle to put on a major league uniform once? Someone like Beane is in a unique position when compared to those of us that never played competitive baseball after they were 21, he ws in the game as a player and after his career as a player ended he found a way to stay in it. Sure, his playing career didn't pan out but he is still in the game and that is all most of those want who have baseball dreams, just to be around the game. He even had at least one great game. On April 29th, 1986 Billy Bean went five for five, hit a home run and drove in four runs. Three of those hits came off the great Ron Guidry. Not putting together a long major league career is not a failure. I'm sure Beane still thinks about what could have been all the time. Shit, I still daydream about the last game I played in high school. If I had just gotten under that last ball that was a single down the line... At least Beane went five for five against the Yankees once. He's soared a lot higher than millions of us.

2011-09-16T18:22:00.000-04:00

Today Dad and I went driving around Antrim County again just to see what we could see. We had discussed going up to the Central Lake area and then heading over to see the view from Dead Man's Hill. Instead we got a little turned around and ended up south ofLake Charlevoix. I noticed a sign advertising a ferry up the road. I was completely unaware a ferry still was running in this part of the world. It's called the Ironton Ferry. It costs $3.50 to cross. I had never ridden on a car ferry before. That made the day worthwhile by itself. I think ferries were pretty common up here for a while. There is an old ferry site on Clam Lake right down the street from my Dad's land. Now both points are lake public access sites.

Once we were headed northwest towards Charlevoix I saw a state park that might afford us a nice view of Lake Michigan and hopefully the tip of Leelanau County to the west. The park is called Fisherman's Island State Park. Turns out we didn't have to enter the park in order to get down to the beach. This part of the shoreline was covered with slate and you could see where slate had been carved out for use in construction, maybe? Like I know what the hell you would use slate for. According to Wikipedia it has been used for roofing shingles Sounds good to me. This area was beautiful. The lake was very shallow here. It appeared to me you could walk about a hundred yards out before you would be forced to swim.

Our next stop was a small burg called Norwood which gave us a nice view of the north tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. Further down we stopped at Barnes Park in Eastport which offered a another grand view of the tip of Leelanau County and also the Old Mission Peninsula.

Pictures!!

Lake Charlevoix

From 2011 Michigan

Ironton Ferry

From 2011 Michigan

The view near Fisherman's Island State Park. This is my favorite picture from today You can see the slate under the water near the shore.

From 2011 Michigan

The tip of Leelanau Country from Norwood

From 2011 Michigan

Empire Bluffs

2011-09-13T17:50:00.001-04:00

Today Kevin and Tina took me on another tour of the sites of Leelanau County. We've done this three times since I first came back up here after a ten year absence back in 2007. The first stop was a place I have been to before the Treat Family Farm. It's an old farm that has been purchased by the government and is now part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. You walk across a field and up a bluff and find yourself a couple hundred feet above Lake Michigan. It's a stunning view. Our next stop was the Empire Bluff. I had never been to it before. You are even up higher and the view of dunes is even more impressive. I really liked the light coming through the clouds today I took a picture that a gazillion other people have but to me it looks like a painting. I am digging it.

Strawberry Fields Forever, Take One

2011-09-09T06:58:00.000-04:00

This is probably my favorite bootleg track. It's different in over presentation but it's still recognizable when compared final version of the song. When John Lennon brought song to the studio it was essentially finished, all the lyrics and melody were there. As the recording process went on they played with the structure and added all the crazy shit. I don't prefer take one to the finished version but I think it stands nicely on its own because it's just the four boys and George Martin playing a song. Straw Take One by zzazazz

Cottonseed

2011-09-07T16:08:00.003-04:00

In November of 2005 the Drive by Truckers played at the Tremont Music Hall and did one of the better openings I have ever witnessed. They opened with a Mike Cooley song called Cottonseed which is part of a three-song mini opera about Buford Pusser of Walking Tall fame. The mini opera is on the album The Dirty South. The song Cottonseed is the first person story, told while in prison, by a particularly scary member of the gang that Buford went to war with. It has this piece of poetry in it: "Stories of corruption, crime and killing, yes it's true. Greed and fixed elections, guns and drugs and whores and booze."

The album version of the song Cottonseed is acoustic, it's sparse and it's spooky. It's not the sort of song you would think you might open up a two hour rock show with. But if you plug the song in, put some Jason Isbell slide guitar behind it, have the drummer use his heavy hands and throw in some Patterson Hood backing vocals then you have a seven minute slow burn that brings the crowd to a boil. It was masterful. It's the kind of moment that only bands like the Drive by Truckers can pull off because they have an audience that appreciates a reinvention of a song like this. You can tell as this goes on that the audience knows they are hearing something familiar again for the first time and they respond.

About 2/3 of the way through the volume jumps up. The recorder must have adjusted his levels.

Drive-By Truckers - Live at Tremont 1105 Cottonseed by zzazazz

Over the Falls

2011-09-05T08:40:00.002-04:00

An album by Primus that I liked a lot was the Brown Album. It had an organic or old fashioned feel to me. In fact in retrospect some of it reminds me of the Decemberists with it's eye on the past. The song Over the Falls along with Fisticuffs are my two favorite songs on the album. To me they had a Victorian feel to them. Over the Falls is about going over a waterfall in a barrel and Fisticuffs is about old boxers who die due to the beating they take while practicing their profession. I found a bootleg on Dime a Dozen from a show in Berlin in July where they play both those songs.

I am posting Over the Falls because I think it shows a lot of what is great about Primus. It shows that they are not just My Name is Mud and guys in skull caps bouncing into each other and displays the great rhythm Les Claypool and the drummer Tim Alexander can lay down. It is a nice example of the absurd poetry of Les Claypool's lyrics. It also displays the unique guitar soloing of Larry LaLonde. I love his solos.

The song ends around the 6:06 mark. I neglected to edit it down before posting it.

Primus 2011-07-05 Over the Falls by zzazazz

Mike Goodson

2011-09-03T16:35:00.000-04:00

Here's hoping Mike Goodson has a chance to get some carries this year. He's been looking good again returning kickoffs and he's not afraid to bring the ball out of the end zone. He is active on Twitter, you can find him herePicture borrowed from Yahoo! News

Heads Up Fans

2011-09-01T16:06:00.002-04:00

Last night in the bottom of the sixth of the Yankees/Red Sox game the Red Sox were down 5-4 and had a runner on first. Jason Varitek, the switch hitting catcher, was batting left handed. They ran a hit and run and he hit a ground ball down the third base line which rolled all the wall to the corner in left field. Reddick, the runner on first scored easily and Varitek ended up on second. What was remarkable about the play was the behavior of the Red Sox fans. You could see them all consciously pull back as the ball hit the wall near them. Not out of fear, because it wasn't hit very hard at all, but to be sure they did not interfere with the play and thereby turn the hit into a ground rule double which would have left the run that scored on third base. I love stuff like that. You can bet, as Curt Schilling said while calling the game, that if that ball had been hit by a Yankee batter that someone would have caught or at least touched the ball to make sure than run didn't score.

You can see this in the TV screenshot I took. The ball is right next to the fan in the white shirt with blue horizontal stripes. You can see they are taking care to not touch the ball.

2011-08-28T16:57:00.007-04:00

Speeding on Pit Road

In 1990 in Atlanta a pit crew man died when he was crushed between two cars on pit road. Since then NASCAR has had a speed limit on pit road. A good idea. Of course, typical of NASCAR they didn't make a necessary change until someone was badly hurt or killed.

NASCAR used to keep track of pit road speeds by stopwatch, now it's automated. Unfortunately drivers have figured out how to game the system. Essentially, if a driver pits in the middle of the last segment where their time is clocked the 12 to 13 seconds spent having their tires changed and fuel added is part of the time calculated. This allows those drivers to floor it after their pitstop is completed until they reach the last timing line. This puts drivers pitting further back at an unfair disadvantage. Not only that, since the racecar is speeding it is putting pit crew members in danger which then defeats the purpose of having a pit road speed limit.

Brad Keselowski used this loophole to his advantage at the Bristol race Saturday during his last pitstop. I do hope NASCAR finds a way to close this loophole before an over-the-wall guy is either hurt or killed by a speeding racecar. Since all the cars have GPS in them now and the speed of each car at anytime is available why not track pit road speeds that way? Why even bother with timing lines?

2011-08-25T17:58:00.002-04:00

Baseball Story

I love baseball stories. Scroll down to the story Scott McGregor tells about playing golf with George Brett

2011-08-21T22:06:00.001-04:00

Photography 101, Part 383

The upside down trees and sky in the water trick

2011-08-20T12:03:00.002-04:00

Carolina Panthers and Can Newton

Last night the Panthers got slapped around a good bit by the Miami Dolphins. I only watched the first half and our offense didn't do anything and our defense couldn't stop Reggie Bush. It wasn't that big of a deal, a team coming off a couple of really bad seasons with a rookie quarterback and a new coach with several starters on the bench playing in the heat of Miami in the middle of August has a chance of falling on it's face.

I did see two things I liked. First was Thomas Davis. He looked good and really stepped up in that goal line stand where Miami scored on a 4th down run. In a regular season game that would have been a field goal try.

Second, Cam Newton looks really good with the ball in his hand. His fake handoffs on play action look great and on actual handoffs he does a good job after the handoff in faking that he still has the ball. Each time he does that I can see the opposing defense pause and verify who has the ball before attacking. A quarterback who is willing to do put an effort into misguidance with the ball gives a play an extra step on the defense and in the NFL that makes a lot of difference. One big advantage Newton has over Clausen, besides a rocket launcher for an arm, is that he is a threat to run the ball and when he pretends to hid the ball on his thigh last night on handoffs I could see the Miami defensive ends unable to crash on the running back because they had to be sure it wasn't in Cam's hands. Advantage us. One of my big criticisms of Jake Delhomme was how lazy he was on play action. He wasn't fooling anybody.

I want to see the best performer on the field at quarterback when the season starts but it sure is hard not to get excited when you think about Cam Newton behind center

2011-08-17T17:05:00.003-04:00

Ouch

What is best about the internet? You may think it's the racist right wing comments on the Charlotte Obsever's website, I say it's watching amateur videos of NASCAR wrecks. Monday's big wreck caused by Boris Said that sent David Ragan into David Reutimann was a scary one. The configuration of those walls should be reconsidered, those are some dangerous angles for as fast as those cars are going.

This first one is the best

2011-08-17T10:28:00.001-04:00

Thome and Steroids

Someone, who I won't name, mentioned that Jim Thome was "on the juice." I think these charts below that compare Thome to Willie Mays and Barry Bonds show that Thome's career home run seasonal totals mirror that of Mays and not the steroid ridden monster known as Barry Bonds.

2011-08-14T23:52:00.003-04:00

House Fire in the Neighborhood

A few blocks down Saturday a house caught fire and all the firetrucks in the world showed up. As we were coming back from the store we saw the smoke. A short while later I strolled down to rubberneck and take a few pictures. All I saw was the remains of the garage that burned and the exhausted firefighters lounging around the front yard of the house looking the Union army bivouacked at a plantation they just burned to the ground.

I know it's for safety but those firefighters where some heavy ass clothes. They all looked pretty beat.

Strike a pose

Fifty pounds of clothes in ninety degrees

2011-08-09T17:22:00.004-04:00

Dave Alvin Live

One of the highlights of the recent Dave Alvin show at the Visulite here in Charlotte was the extended version of the title track of his 2004 album Ashgrove. The song is a tribute top a club he and his brother Phil frequented when they were teens. At this club they saw several of the old legendary bluesmen and heard the music that inspired them to create The Blasters, a band that many credit as helping create the Americana sound.

The song below is the version of the song Ashgrove from his appearance in Austin, TX on July 16th, 2011. I like how he has changed the song and has used it as a way to address the crowd and expand on what he says on the album version. He is essentially saying the same thing but here he really expands on what he is saying. The intensity approaches Springsteen's and it exemplifies one of my favorite things about Dave, his ability to express deep emotion without being over sentimental. Initially I was going to say that he means it when he plays this song but all artists mean what they say but only a few are able to say it as well as Dave.

Davealvin 2011-07-16 Ashgrove by zzazazz

2011-08-01T17:17:00.003-04:00

Captain America and Sammy Davis Jr.

(Warning, slight spoiler for Captain America movie)

I was talking to Charlie today and he was telling me about the television show called General Electric Theater. In particular an episode called The Patsy This episode features Sammy Davis Jr. as an army recruit who is picked on by his fellow recruits. Charlie described a moment in the show where a dummy grenade is tossed into a group of the recruits and Davis' character jumps on the grenade while everyone else looks on. When he told me this I immediately recalled a similar incident in the Captain America film. Instead of being the prank of a bully this time it's done by someone attempting to show who in a platoon of soldiers is the most brave. Can you guess which character was willing to sacrifice himself for his comrades? I am not the only person to to see the similarity.

A quick search shows that a similar event was used in a MASH episode in a prank Rizzo attempted to pull in Winchester. And, more sobering, a brave Marine sacrificed himself by covering a grenade with his body in Iraq in 2004. A real life Captain America.

2011-08-01T12:28:00.004-04:00

Incident with a Mountain Dweller

This weekend was the annual Rhodo softball tournament/drunk fest in Valle Crucis, NC. Chris and I went up on Friday and we had a good fun. This year the band played at the campground rather than the apple barn up the street. I was told that whoever books the apple barn for the band booked it on the wrong weekend and playing at the campground was not their first choice. Personally, I prefer it when they play at the campground but the band makes less money because there is no door to set a table to collect an entrance fee.

Sunday morning my buddy Chris didn't want to leave so I went for a short walk. The owner of the campground and some of his buddies had spent the weekend at a trailer by the restroom. I had to walk past them in order to get to the street and the Mast General Store. I had been walking past them all weekend and didn't even really notice them as I went by. About halfway do the store one of the owner's buddies came flying down the road toward me on one of those four wheel offroad death machines. I could hear him coming and I could tell he had crossed the center line and was coming toward me so I stopped and turned to look. He pulled up right next to me. He had a cigarette in his mouth, his left shoulder had a huge healing scrape wound and and his arm was in a sling. I can only assume he dumped the ATV while drunk sometime recently.

He slurred to me, "Takin' pictures?!?!"

I had my camera bag over my shoulder but had not removed the camera yet. I was completely confused by his question and say, "Huh?"

I could see he was agitated and I'm was getting concerned. Again he said, "Takin' pictures?!?!"

"I'm camping," I said.

He looked at me like he'd never heard the word camping before and said, "Campin'?"

I said, "Yeah, I'm with the softball people. I'm camping." Then I wave toward the campground.

Then he said, "What's yer name?"

Even more confused I went ahead and told him my name is Ed. He grunted and then turned the ATV around and drove back to the campground. Maybe he put my name on his personal shit list.

After spending a short time at a local art show next to the store I headed back to camp. When I reached their site I looked in toward the owner and his buds and they all waved nice and friendly like and I waved back. Except for my inquisitor, he didn't wave. He just glared. Really, what the hell was that all about? What is going on at the campsite that the thought that someone may document what you are doing would cause you to behave like that?

2011-07-18T11:58:00.002-04:00

Body Count

Just for the hell of it this is a picture I took of Ice-T fronting his band Body Count at the club Rocky's in Charlotte, NC. This was in December 1992. It's still one of my favorites. It really should get stolen more.

2011-07-14T13:53:00.003-04:00

An Old Motel and the Mackinac Bridge

I love the architecture of classic old motels and this one is a nice example. It was taken in 1966 and it's likely a hotel in Northern lower Michigan. The vintage metal lawn chairs are a nice touch. This is from a set of vacation slides from some family's trip to Michigan in 1966.

This shot of the Mackinac Bridge was likely taken on a ferry taking our vacationers to Mackinac Island. I think. I'm not sure.

2011-07-10T23:14:00.001-04:00

Sunset

Today Melanie and I visited her mother and as we were leaving around 8pm we were treated to these nice sunbeams shooting out from behind the evening cloud cover. Pretty cool. I had to stitch two photos together to get the whole view.

2011-07-04T23:43:00.008-04:00

Highland Walk Golf Course at Victoria Bryant

This weekend Melanie and I traveled down to northeast Georgia to visit with her brother in law's brother and his wife. We traveled down with her sister and brother in law. This is the third time that Jon (Mel's brother in law) and I have taken advantage of a family outing to play a round of golf. In fact, two years ago when I played with him and his church group in Winston-Salem at Pudding Ridge my bad playing inspired me to put some real effort into not sucking.

This time Jon's brother joined us and he hadn't played in six years. He struggled early but started getting his groove back halfway through the first nine holes. We started at 8am this last Saturday morning and at 8am in early July in Georgia it's already pushing 80. It was really hot by 10am. I drank a lot of water and sweated like crazy. But we made it through all 18 holes. I was really feeling the heat at the turn but I chugged a lot of water over the next three holes and was feeling a lot better for the last five holes. Playing 18 holes of golf is like watching the Coca Cola 600 NASCAR. It feels like you go through about three or four stages of play as the day passes and your game fluctuates.

The course, which is known officially as Highland Walk Golf Course at Victoria Bryant impressed all three of us as soon as we stepped out of the car. It's in high country and from the clubhouse area you have a good view of the surrounding countryside. Our reservation had been made in advance over the internet by Jon's brother Mike and we paid $40 each to play 18 holes with a cart. I thought that was a great deal once I saw the great condition of the course and the course design.

There are three things to really know about this course: elevation change, doglegs and challenging greens.

A great example of elevation change and doglegs is hole #3. We played the white tees and this hole was 391 yards from there. There is little margin for error on this hole. If you go right you are a mile away from the green, if you go left you are in the woods and if you don't get a good long drive you are facing a tough uphill lie with woods between you and the green and if you aren't careful you can end up on the woods with your long second shot because the fairway pulls hard right to left almost until you get up to the green. Also, the course doesn't use doglegs to artificially add a stroke to a short hole. The holes take to their turn far enough down the fairway to reward a good drive and punish a short one.

This picture below shows a good example of what I mean. This is the view from the tee at hole #5.

You have to hit over a valley onto a relatively small landing area. I had one of my better drives here and had a nice look at the green. Of course, I hit my 4 iron right into the woods to the left of the green. Below is a graphic provided by the golf course.

Another doozy is #12. This one reminded me of the old #9 at Revolution in Charlotte, NC. You have to hit through a tunnel of trees onto an elevated fairway. In honor of the old #9 at Revolution I went ahead and hit my tee shot directly into the woods. Jon, who you see standing below in the panorama nailed his tee shot to about where you can see the golf cart. If you get a good tee shot you are looking at an elevated green about 150 yards away. Par here is as good as a birdie.

The 17th hole is their signature hole and you are way, way above the fairway when you tee off. Your ball just flies and flies and flies. If you hit it straight you will be about 100 yards from the green.

I have to mention the greens. The greens are really tough. They are hard as hell to read and they are super fast. I've never misread to many puts before. Jon said he thinks it's because courses in Georgia are inspired/compete with Augusta. That may be true because two putting here consistently is extremely difficult.

I would love to play at this course again. I would go there in a second. For a public course on a state park it blows away all of the public state owned courses in Charlotte. The design and condition is as good or better than Emerald Lakes in Matthews, NC. Renaissance in Charlotte has a design on par with Highland Walk but it's not nearly as well maintained. I can't imagine playing a better course for a mere $40. It's perfect.

2011-07-04T14:07:00.003-04:00

Bottle Rockets

What would the 4th of July be without a couple of pictures of bottle rocket trails?

This one isn't really a bottle rocket. It's pyramidal shaped spinner that we like.

2011-07-02T19:06:00.001-04:00

Lake Hartwell Panorama

Today we are in Lavonia, GA at a house on Lake Hartwell. This is the view off our friends' dock.

From 201102

2011-06-30T15:56:00.005-04:00

The Okinawan Sky

One thing about Okinawa that keeps coming back to me is the clouds. Being on Okinawa is like being in the middle of the ocean. I may be wrong but Okinawa has to be too small to really effect the clouds so what I saw was like floating in the middle of the ocean. It mesmerized me. Essentially, all day, almost every day, low cumulus would pass over and pile up over the island. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. Well, you know, it's not like I am a globetrotter or anything but I know what I like. Here's a few recent shots from around Okinawa showcasing the clouds.

This one is my favorite

This guy Le Monde Bleu has a bunch of nice photos.

A sunset by Ralph Doria. Okinawan sunsets were out of this world.

This is me enjoying a sunset around 1988 in Okinawa.

2011-06-29T13:46:00.003-04:00

Mackinac and the Father Marquette Statue

I recently purchased a set of Michigan vacation slides from 1966. I came across a nice shot of Fort Mackinac and the Father Marquette statue. I went of Flickr to see if I could find a recent shot from a similar angle. I couldn't find an exact match but I came close.

1966

2006

2011-06-25T14:49:00.004-04:00

Getting Old in Sports

I've been thinking a lot about this New York Times article about Derek Jeter and the aging athlete. I was especially struck about a comment he made about Willie Mays. Mays' late care is often seen through the, as the writer put it, his "sad last years with (the New York) Mets." Mays really did have an pretty effective post 30 career. For players 30 and over he is sixth all time in total home runs (third if you don't count steroid ridden monsters). But if you look at achievements you really can see that once even baseball players hit 30 their truly great years are mostly behind them and at 35 you are over the hill unless, of course, you are a steroid ridden monster.

Ty Cobb won the American League batting title eleven times. His last was in 1919 when he was 32. In 1922 he did bat .401 and came second to the 29 year old George Sisler who batted .420. Yeah, Ty Cobb hit .401 the year he turned 35. That's just ridiculous.

Cobb never stole more than 50 bases the year after he stole 55 in 1917, the year he turned 30.

Reggie Jackson was really durable. I had no idea he played 132 games in 1986, the year he turned 40. He was strickly a DH and had the best year of his career for percentage of atbats that produced walks, 17.8%. This was his fifth and final year with the California Angels and he he also had his lowest strikeout percentage at 22.2% since he left the Yankees in 1981.

Detroit Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell had his caereer year at 29 in 1987 when he had 207 hits and batted .343 After the age of 35 he never played more than 76 games in his final three years.

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, who hit 512 homeruns, didn't lead his league in any offensive category after he entered his 30s.

After the age of 32 the only offensive category Willie McCovey led the National League in was intentional walks when he was 35 in 1973.

Jim Thome is playing right now at the age of 40. The last year he hit more than 40 homeruns and had more than 100 RBIs was in 2006 when he was 35.

The last year Craig Biggio led the National League in doubles was in 1999 when he was 33 years old.

Brooks Robinson had 100 RBIs twice in his career. Both of those seasons were when he was in his 20s.

With all these numbers out there I'm surprised the Yankees didn't bargain harder with Derek Jeter. He's 37, he's never going to his .300 again and he'll never have another season where he'll score 100 runs. That he hit .334 and had 212 hits in 2006 at the age of 35 is pretty impressive but from now on he'll be average at best.

2011-06-24T20:45:00.005-04:00

S.S. Vacationland

I finished up the first batch of slides I purchased off eBay last year. A nice surprise was one of the first I scanned in today. It's a picture of several beautiful old cars lined up to catch a ferry across the straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan in 1952. The Mackinac Bridge didn't open until 1957 so in 1952 if you wanted to get from Michigan's lower peninsula to the upper peninsula you had to drive your car onto a big boat. It also looks like you had to wait in line for a while. The Ferry is the S.S. Vacationland.

2011-06-16T12:58:00.004-04:00

Fancy a Bit of Rock and Roll?

Last night at the Visulite (one of my favorite venues) I went and saw Dave Alvin and his band The Guilty Ones. It was Dave playing the rock and roll show so, naturally, it was totally awesome. He's become one of my favorite artists over the years. His output since his 1994 album King of California has been at the varsity level. He played four songs off his new album and they were all well received. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one there last night that had listened to the streaming version of it online.

Two of the songs from the new album were about two of his recently departed friends/collaborators. Black Rose of Texas which he wrote about Amy Farris was slow and sweet and Run Conejo Run about his best friend, Chris Gaffney was furious. The slide guitar by Chris Miller on Black Rose of Texas was amazing. I'm not sure what he did but, I swear, I thought I heard voices.

The biggest surprise of the evening was the drummer, Lisa Pankratz, who is a total bad ass. Incredible drummer. Dave even called her his favorite drummer to play with. I would love to see her play again.

I took a few pictures. I was more into watching the show that popping off a few hundred pictures. It's harder for me to photograph live shows now because EVERYBODY is now photographing shows. The only negative last night was the two loudmouths standing to the left of the stage who talked loudly almost the whole evening. Even during Black Rose of Texas. I remember thinking at the end of the song, "Why are you applauding? You didn't hear the song."

Dave in his classic bent knee pose

Dave telling a joke

Chris Miller

The Bad Ass Lisa Pankratz

2011-06-11T15:55:00.004-04:00

Trumped!

I sent Michael a chat message telling him to view my Call of Duty: Black Ops blind grenade double kill, which you can view below. He replied, "See your double and raise you a triple" and he linked to the second video below. Bastard.

My video

Bastard Michael's video

2011-06-10T13:41:00.005-04:00

The Book Sale

One of the little perks of working at the library is book donations. People will donate just about any book to their local library. Most donations are your standard popular fiction. Those types of donations we stick immediately on our book sale shelves. Another large section of donations is old books covered in mold which we immediately put in our recycling dumpster. It's still shocking after all these years at the library to see some of the absolute garbage people think we could use. A PC user manual from the early 90s? No thanks! A box of moldy fiction that was popular in 1973? No, thank you! Part of it, I think is that people cannot admit their book collection is worthless. You know, sometimes it is. I'm sure when I die and my large collection of Robert Heinlein paperbacks shows up at some library a worker there will look at that box and say, "WTF?"

Sometimes you come across a nice little find though. The other day I noticed a book printed in 1944 called "Battle Report: Pearl Harbor to Coral Sea." Its pages have browned over the years and it's falling apart but, as I was flipping through it, I saw a note accompanied by a drawing on the front page. It's a message from someone named Walter to Charlie and Margaret Tompkins. Walter is thanking Charlie for being instrumental in getting him into the navy. Upon closer reading I noticed that writer of the note is Walter Karig, one of the authors of the book. So, I took it home and scanned it. It's one of those slices of Americana that I love.

2011-06-08T17:42:00.002-04:00

Fun with the Photobooth

At Robin and Walker's wedding reception there was a phone booth. It was pretty popular with the guests. Each group that went in would pose for four pictures. After a short wait the four pictures would print. From what I understand, the happy couple will get to see the photos also. Cool idea. Melanie and I hard a lot of fun posing. Sunday I scanned in our small copies of the photos. I think I look a little too much like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski.

2011-06-05T14:55:00.003-04:00

The Georgia Peach

While watching the sitcom Mike & Molly a few weeks ago something caught my eye. Mike and his partner were sitting in that restaurant that gives them free food when to the right of Mike's head I saw a photograph of Ty Cobb. It has to be this photo which is a shot of a very young Ty Cobb. Possibly taken during his first season in 1905. Funny how something like that will jump out at you.

2011-05-30T08:58:00.002-04:00

Walt Whitman

Deanna Campbell just posted onto Soundcloud the song Walt Whitman that she recorded with her old band that was first called Second Skin and then Violet Strange. This song was released on the album Stray when they were know as Violet Strange but I always think of them as Second Skin. This song was, I think the last song on the album, and she included the hidden track, Across America, in this post.

Walt Whitman by DeannaLynnCampbell

2011-05-26T18:50:00.004-04:00

Consistency

Home Runs per season by Hank Aaron

Hits per Season by Hank Aaron

2011-05-24T13:45:00.005-04:00

Fun with Camera Apps

One of the first things I did when I got my new smart phone was to download the photography app called Vignette. It's a pretty powerful tool and below are some of the fun things I've done with it so far.

I love the feature that allows you to take photos that look like faded prints. You can choose which color emphasize. This one of Kevin's bachelor party at Whiskey River at the Epicentre in downtown Charlotte is faded to red. Quick review of Whiskey River: It's a club, it plays loud music.

My favorite setting so far is platinotype. This setting mimics the old platinum print photographs from the middle to late 1800s. It will make anything look cool.

Platinotype of the fairway of the 4th hole at Renaissance Golf Course in Charlotte.

Platinotype night shot of downtown Charlotte

The setting called Technicolor recreates the old film style.

The Oversaturate setting.

I'm really pleased with how this panning shot in Oversaturate came out.

This is another faded print style, this time faded to emphasize green. Depending on the setting picking the right color to fade to makes a big difference.

2011-05-23T15:24:00.002-04:00

Terry Labonte and Earnhardt at Bristol

The one race you always hear about is the race at Bristol where Earnhardt wrecked Terry Labonte on the last lap and went on to win. I like this ending better. Earnhardt wrecked Labonte here in 1995 also but with a different result.

2011-05-23T00:47:00.005-04:00

The All Star Race

It's hard for me to admit but I was disappointed by Saturday's NASCAR All Star race. It wasn't a bad race like you consistently get at restrictor plate races. It was merely a good race. At the All Star race good racin' just isn't good enough. We have come to expect fireworks, partly because this race has given us fireworks in the past and partly because NASCAR's marketing promises us the fireworks every year. But sometimes you just don't get it. Carl Edwards drove off during the final ten lap segment on Saturday night, no one wrecked behind him to bring the field together and that was all she wrote. It wasn't a bad race but it wasn't spectacular and when the All Star isn't spectacular it's disappointing.

2011-05-14T16:22:00.001-04:00

Get off me, you bastard!

2011-05-08T21:42:00.005-04:00

Southern 500 at Darlington, SC

Another May has come around and this weekend I met Jeff down at Darlington for the Southern 500.

Jeff noticed the people across from us at our campground were having hard time inflating an air mattress. He suggested I loan them my air pump. I did and shortly after one of the guys gave us a mason jar full of moonshine. The jar had cherries in it and it was delicious. We took it easy on the 'shine but we definitely gave it a go.

We took a trek over to the souvenir area to people watch and browse the offerings. We lucked into witnessing a couple of driver autograph sessions.

Joey Logano

Kurt Busch

Hey look! Vince Neil was there!

These guys perfectly demonstrate the respect that the average fan has for Danica Patrick

People watching at Darlington is the best.

This guy was flipping off Jeff Gordon every time Gordon drove by

Fun with shutter speed (Turn 4)

Fun with shutter speed (Turn 3)

I'm pretty happy with this panning shot of Mark Martin

Kurt Busch had a rough night and his car displayed an excellent example of the Darlington Strip

It's hard to catch wrecking at night from the stands but this late wreck on the front stretch that caused the postrace altercation between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick turned out OK. That is Clint Bowyer bouncing off the inner wall and you can see Kevin Harvic spinning up in turn one.

Here is the run in between Harvick and Busch. We had a great view from our seats in turn four and, as you can hear, the crowd loved it (including me).

Heck of a job by first-time winner Regan Smith on that last restart. He drove his ass off and did not back into that first win. Well done. It's not often you get to seen a driver get his first win and see an altercation that has the potential to become iconic on the same night. Darlington is a wonderful place.

2011-05-04T21:11:00.002-04:00

Today's Pro-Am at Quail Hollow

I'll write more about it later but I thought I would share this picture of Phil Mickelson's second shot out of the first cut of rough on the 18th hole. He is using a fairway iron, I think, and he's around 200 yards from the elevated green. He absolutely smoked this ball and put it on the left side of the green. It was a stunning golf shot. Several spectators around me made "holy gee whitaker" sounds after he smote the ball.

2011-04-29T09:28:00.006-04:00

Is That a Bass Guitar I Hear?

Yup, it is a bass guitar you can hear prominently on this March 19th, 1975 recording of the song Rock and Roll. It was recorded in Vancouver at the Pacific Coliseum and the cost for a ticket was $7.75 (including the service charge). Often in these soundboard recordings the bass guitar is almost nonexistent. This one has the bass up front and, no surprise, Jon Paul Jones' playing is rock solid and melodic. Not many people know this but the drum solo at the end is tapping out a Morse code message. It says, "What are you hiding? Show us the certificate of live birth!" Crazy, wild stuff.

This is the opening song of the night and it cuts out abruptly because the next song starts immediately and whoever broke the tracks up didn't time it quite right.

Led Zeppelin Rock and Roll 1975/03/19 by zzazazz

2011-04-27T15:15:00.004-04:00

Still Hungry

On April 27th, 1969 Led Zeppelin played the final show of a four night stand at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Of all the bootleg recordings I've collected this is by far the one I have listened to the most. A close second being the demo recordings George Harrison made for All Things Must Pass. You can see flyers for the Zeppelin show here.

This song is a version of Killin' Floor which they later stole, put it on their second album and called "The Lemon Song." That song also borrows a line from Robert Johnson. I guess if you are going to steal, steal from the best. What I like about this song is that it is a good example of "tight but loose." It starts out nice and structured, it has an improvised middle and is brought back home nicely. They were a jam band before being a jam band was cool. Early in the song there is about 90 seconds where the sound quality gets pretty bad. Most of this bootleg is from a soundboard recording that is incomplete. Some collector somewhere out there took an audience recording plugged the holes in the soundboard recording. Those segments can be distracting if you're not ready them. That's what I love about the internet, you can profit from the obsessions of others. Whoever did do this did a fantastic job editing the parts together.

I love concert recordings of Led Zeppelin from the late 60s and 1970, right before they got real big and still play a lot of old blues songs. They are almost a different band on these earlier recording. They are just a hot blues rock band and not gods yet and it comes through in the performances. I guess everybody has more urgency about what they do when they are clawing to the top.

Another nice little tidbit this song offers is the very end. Listen to the crowd, it sounds like there is no one there. Can you imagine seeing that band in an intimate venue with a small crowd? Good god.

Led Zeppelin - Killing Floor 4/27/1969 by zzazazz

Howlin' Wolf performing Killin' Floor

Hendrix set this song on fire at Monterey

2011-04-27T07:51:00.006-04:00

Let's Make Royalty More Fun

Because I am not blind and deaf and regularly watch the cable network BBC America I am aware that the second in line to the British throne is getting married on Friday. I think it's pretty cool with all the pageantry and tradition. If I was English I'd probably be one of the blokes standing in the street cheering. But, I do think, as was shone brilliantly in the movie The Queen, that the European royalty are way behind the times. They need to catch up and get more interesting. I have a solution. They should be legally allowed to assassinate each other. You know, bring back the good old days (as Stephanie pointed out).

Of course, you can't have the royals running around wantonly slaughtering each other like Americans do when we have a minor gas shortage. There has to be rules.

1) You may only assassinate another rival for the actual throne of England. If your father is an earl and you want to control his vineyards you cannot whack him.

2) You have to be at least the tenth in line for the throne. If you are eleventh you cannot take out number 4 just so you can move up. But, if Number 5 slashes the throat of Number 2 and you then move from 11 to 10, you are in the game.

3) You may opt out but if you do you abdicate all claims to the throne, you pussy.

4) You have to do the deed yourself, you cannot contract out your murder.

5)No firearms or poison. You are required to assassinate your rivals by knife, bow and arrow or by hand. Unless, of course, you can arrange a "hunting accident." If that is the case then firearms are allowed.

6) You may not assassinate those below you except for the one directly behind you since he may be gunning for you anyway. If you are number 4 and you really hate number 6 it is considered bad form to kill number 5 to get to number 6 but we won't stop you.

7) It is encouraged that these assassinations take place in public. This will make it easier for the judges to determine that the rules have been followed.

8) Alliances are also encouraged, the media will eat that up.

9) If you inherit the throne peacefully you may step down if the heat gets to be too much and the next in line inherits. But, if at some point you took out someone on your way to the throne you are there for life, however long that may be.

10) Anyone who inherits the throne violently is untouchable for a period of one year. Its nice to have some stability. After that, he is fair game.

That's all I have for now. I think this is a start and should be considered.

2011-04-26T22:21:00.001-04:00

Cool Cloud Over Downtown Charlotte

2011-04-25T22:20:00.002-04:00

Stairway to Heaven

Over the years I have put together a pretty good selection of Led Zeppelin bootlegs. I concentrate on soundboard recordings. This is the earliest recording I have of Stairway to Heaven. This performance took place two months before the album came out. It starts out tentative but really smokes near the end.

Stairway to Heaven by zzazazz

2011-04-22T10:27:00.001-04:00

Giant Buddhas

Who knew there were so many?

2011-04-21T14:40:00.004-04:00

Tiger Woods 12: The Masters

I bought this a couple of weeks ago and it's the first Tiger Woods game I have played that I've actually enjoyed. The overall gameplay is excellent. There is one glitch, however, that can pop up and really mess up a good round. That is pin placement. Sometimes the hole location on a green will be almost unplayable. I'm all for difficult pin positions. Putting the pin in the back corner of a green on a ridge near the slope is fine. If you miss the slope on your approach shot or putt too far past the hole the ball is going to roll over the ledge and down the slope ten to twenty feet past the hole. That is just the way golf works. But when the pin is appearing on a slope and no matter what you do you cannot put the ball close because any miss at all rolls back down the the hill, that is bad programming. Too often that has been happening in career mode on the last day of play when tougher pin positions usually show up. I had a hole placement on the St. Andrews Old Course that shot my hole tournament in the behind. Any missed put rolled away 20 feet. This glitch is almost a game killer.

2011-04-14T18:21:00.006-04:00

Gmail Theme

For a while now you have been able to use themes in Gmail to personalize the appearance of your inbox. I've been using one called "Silver Lining" for a while now. Today I changed it to what you see below. I saw on Lifehacker today that Gmail now allows you to use your own image in the background. I jumped at that. The first picture I tried didn't work because I didn't know until I saw the finished product that the only part of your image that can been seen is the left border and the upper border. I finally found this photograph I took of Lake Michigan back in 2009. It works for me. I think I'll have to tweak it some more but it's a nice start. You can do this yourself if you click on the option icon in the upper right corner of your Gmail screen and from there choose "Mail Settings" and from there click on "Themes."

2011-04-11T17:28:00.003-04:00

World Traveler

Found this guys collection of photos and videos via the great Metafilter.

London Bobbies from 1966

His full collection of photos can be viewed here.

His Youtube videos are here.

Yesterday's Masters tournament was stellar. I've never watched anything like it. I felt bad for McIlroy but it looks like there are no hard feelings toward Schwartzel on his part.

2011-04-10T16:44:00.002-04:00

The Garden

A couple of years ago Kate noticed that there were raised beds outside the entrance of our library. With all the budget cuts and staff shuffling Kate has moved on to another branch and Charlie has taken up the role as Staff Gardener. He enlisted the help of a friend of his to create raised beds in the shape of open books and those two spent an evening putting the beds down. They spent hours doing this because they decided to make the sure the beds were level. The front area is sloped so they had a big task.

This last Friday Charlie brought in the members of his garden club and they piled dirt and mulch into the beds. Soon they will be bursting with herbs and flowers.

Charlie and the raised beds. You can see the open book design well here.

The Morrison Garden Club

This is Charlie's friend who did the wood working on the beds

2011-04-07T18:09:00.001-04:00

Otomo No Tabito
(665-731)

To sit silent
and look wise
is not to be compared with
drinking sake
and making riotous shouting

2011-04-07T12:41:00.004-04:00

Motorcycles

A musician I am friends with on Facebook posted one of those watch-out-for-motorcycles announcements and it got me thinking about the time a few months ago I almost took a motorcycle out in the parking of the Restore. I was turning left from the parking area onto the drive in front of the store and a motorcycle was coming from my right. I'm a careful driver and I stopped and looked to my right and pulled out slowly because the road was clear. I didn't see the motorcycle coming because the rider and the bike were both blocked from my view by the frame of my car's windshield. As I pull out he's also moving so the frame and the bike were moving together. I might have hit him if Melanie didn't see him coming through the passenger window. She warned me and I stopped. As the biker drove by he gave me a nasty look and that pissed me off. Here I am being careful and the guy foolish enough to drive a vehicle small enough to be blocked by a window frame gives me attitude. Whatevs, get a convertible car if you like to feel the wind, brah.

A similar thing happened on our road trip to Michigan in 2008. North of Chicago we hit some nasty traffic due to roadwork and I thought I did a pretty good job of not splattering a couple of bikers all over the highway when things got hairy. Did they appreciate my darn good defensive drive? Nope. A couple of hand gestures made it obvious the close call was my fault and them not having left most of the skin on the pavement had nothing to do with me paying attention. I think bikers are so used to not being seen that anything close is the fault of the driver, maybe? I don't know. I do know that I am very aware of bikes because my Dad had a serious accident when I was 14 that he has never fully recovered from. I think if you are riding a motorcycle and I almost hit you then you should be thankful I was driving because someone else would have driven over you and probably not stopped to see if you were still alive.

2011-04-06T18:28:00.004-04:00

The World's Easiest Book Purchase

I don't know how it works on the Kindle but purchasing a book and reading it on your Nook couldn't be easier. First, you log into Barnes and Noble's website, find the Nook area and then find a book you want and purchase it. Purchasing is easy, it's just like Amazon.

Once you have purchased the book you want fire up your Nook and make sure you are hooked up to a wireless internet connection. Open up your library and open up your B&N Library. Then you choose "Check for new B&N content." Your new purchase will then appear. Read it.

It couldn't be easier. I thought of this today when I read a Neil Gaiman quote on ebooks, quoted by Michael Swanwick on his blog. According to Swanwick he said ebooks are "inferior to any book but superior to any library." I assume he is referring to a personal library rather than a public library.

2011-04-04T09:19:00.003-04:00

Downtown Panorama (A post 4 years in the making!!)

Three from almost the same spot.

April 2011

December 2009

October 2006

2011-04-02T06:25:00.011-04:00

Tiger Woods 12: The Masters

I've been playing this game a lot since it came out on Tuesday and it's pretty incredible. It's the third version of the Tiger Woods series I have purchased and it's the only one I have enjoyed. The graphics are great, the gameplay is challenging (at least it is on the Tour Pro setting I am using), the career mode so far has been addictive, and to be able to play a round at Augusta is just about the coolest thing ever.

I do have one complaint and it's about the downloadable content. For the first time EA has incorporated the downloadable courses into the career mode. That is a great idea for those willing to purchase new courses. However, I noticed that if you skip a tournament that requires a downloadable course the nonplayer characters still play that round and gain points toward the Nationwide Cup while you lose ground to them. Essentially, you are being penalized for not purchasing the downloadable content. I don't know if it's oversight or if it's a strategy to force people to spend more money on the game. Knowing EA, it could be either. It's too bad because there are 16 courses included with the game which is pretty generous. One complaint I have heard is that one of the achievements requires you to purchase DLC. To me, that is a legitimate way to entice you to purchase DLC because it doesn't interfere with the core of the game.

Another minor quibble is the announcers. You would figure that by now with all the years of incorporating announcers into sports games they would get to the point where they aren't just plain bad. Links 2004 had better announcing in the game. At least there was some humor in that announcing. They excelled at condemning with faint praise. There have been a couple of unexpected chuckles so far in this game but mostly I hear the same few phrases over and over. In game announcing doesn't make or break a game for me but this just feels phoned in and it's a little distracting.

Also, I have noticed that the game doesn't take into account whether or not your created golfer is left handed when you check the lie of your ball. When you check your lie you are told if the ball is above or below your feet. If your golfer is left handed the information you are given is the opposite of how the ball is actually situated. If you aren't careful you can compensate for the wrong lie and hit a shot that will go very much the wrong direction.

Another quirk that is more amusing than anything else is the animation after your hit your shot. Your golfer starts walking toward the spot where your shot landed. It doesn't matter what is in front of you. A lake? No problem he's striding confidently toward the water. Whatever obstacle is between your golfer and the ball doesn't matter, he is heading toward it. He doesn't get there, the view shifts to the new lie right after your golfer takes a few steps but, if you are paying attention it can be humorous.

2011-04-01T17:53:00.001-04:00

Half Man

This is a character known to those who frequent downtown Charlotte. He is called Half Man. I think you can tell why.

2011-03-28T18:35:00.002-04:00

England Landscape

Just plain ole "Wow."

Found this guy via Warren Ellis. You can view his photos here. Pure magic in his landscapes.

2011-03-18T22:19:00.004-04:00

Real Life Crime Drama

Today, around 1030, the Charlotte Mecklenburg police department set up a license checkpoint literally at the entrance of our drive way. I went out to rubber neck and found myself getting some needed yard work and car cleaning done. I saw them exchange pleasantries with citizens and pass out a few citations. They even arrested one guy right before they packed up and went to lunch. It was a Hispanic gentleman driving a pickup truck. I wish I could show this photograph I took from my office window to the right wing commenters on the Charlotte Observer's website and get their opinion on it.

About half an hour after I took this photo his family showed up and before they could remove the truck they had to change the driver's side front tire because it had gone flat. One of them came to my front door asking to borrow my jack. I let them use it, of course. I did feel a little weird interacting with the family of the man who I just laughed at as he was arrested.

2011-03-17T18:33:00.007-04:00

Ed and Chris go to Darlington

Last Saturday night by buddy Chris and I drove down do Darlington to see NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series race 200 miles at Darlington Raceway. I love Darlington, it feels like an old baseball park to me. They've been racing there since the early 50s, it's in the middle of nowhere and doesn't have the crushing crowd like at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It's also rednecky as hell.

Chris at our campsite

We had good seats. That is another nice thing about the truck series. We paid $25 for seats that would cost around $100 for a cup series race. We had a real nice view of the racecars coming out of turn 2 and a good view of Kim Lopez, the chief starter and/or flag waver. You can see her here telling the field they got one more parade lap before they go green.

People watching at Darlington is the best. This guy was toasted and was fun to watch all evening.

I'm still shocked by how many kids I see at these races without ear plugs.

The best seat in the house, where the spotters stand.

Chris and I in our seats. Pro tip: rather than purchase your race tickets online, call the race track and talk to a ticket seller. You get better seats that way. I got aisle seats via the nice lady I talked to on the phone. Thank you, nice lady.

Generic fans-in-the-sunset picture

Drunk Chris made friends with the drunk couple next to us. They were fun. I always meet fun and interesting people at the track. This is one of our new friends popping out of her seat when I was taking a picture.

Cute kid (no earplugs)

Johanna Long and Ricky Carmichael had the only wreck I saw where it appeared there was a pretty big hit. Carmichael spun out and Long plowed into him. Video here.

I'm pretty happy how this pit road action shot turned out. That's Ron Hornaday in the #33 vehicle.

Naturally, I took a panorama shot. I need to remember to use the manual setting on my camera so I get a more even distribution of light across the sky. Those vertical bands you can see where the two photos overlap are distracting.

Thanks, Darlington. See you in May.

2011-03-10T19:18:00.002-05:00

Radical Islam and U.S.

May I present a rational view of this by Josh Marshall.

2011-03-09T13:52:00.007-05:00

Why so Mean?

Last night Melanie and I watched the Christian Bale/Marky Mark movie, The Fighter. Quick review: Surprisingly sad early on and builds to a nice satisfying ending. Watching that movie caused me to think of another boxing movie that features an older boxer making a comeback, Cinderella Man. I really enjoyed that movie too but I was disappointed later to find out that the film portrayed the boxer, Max Baer incorrectly as a total bastard. He's actually a sympathetic character if you read about him. Killing opponents in the ring almost destroyed the man's career. Like any decent person.

After I discovered that fact the scenes concerning Max Baer almost kill the movie for me. I guess they decided they needed a villain. I don't see any reason that Max Baer couldn't have been displayed has a tough and dangerous fighter. The nature of the fight game is that if you are good at what you do you are a potential danger to your opponent. You are, after all, attempting to punch them as hard as you can at spots on their body that will cause them the most pain and debilitation. A 144 minute movie could certainly create a heavy that is more than merely a two dimensional villain.

2011-03-09T08:24:00.000-05:00

Funko Purple Haze Figurine

Awesome

2011-03-07T22:57:00.000-05:00

Hey Warden, Lemme out

2011-03-02T18:20:00.011-05:00

Me and Charlie Sheen
Updated 3/3/11

In order to cash in on the recent interest in Charlie Sheen I thought I would tell the story of my one encounter with the man. Several of my friends have heard this story before. If you have, move along, nothing new to see here.

During my two years in, mostly, Okinawa, I spent around three months at a camp on the mainland of Japan called Camp Fuji. The camp was at the base of Mt. Fuji. Everyday for three months I saw Mt. Fuji. Seeing Mt. Fuji turn pink at sunrise while the rest of the world was dark is still one of the most beautiful sights I have seen. This would have been, I guess, spring of 1988.

While there we were offered a chance to spend a weekend in Tokyo. I jumped at the chance along with several others in our company. We stayed at a nice hotel in the middle of the city that was owned by the Department of Defense. We saw the sites and stayed out late and got drunk. Our base of operations, for some reason, was the Tokyo Hard Rock Cafe. What I remember most about that place was the King Kong thingy hanging off the side of the building.

I met Charlie Sheen during the last night of our two day stay. The night before my friend Roger and I had met a couple of girls and we were supposed to call them to meet up again the following night. While we were out site seeing the maid service had thrown away the paper with the numbers on it. We were devastated and I ended up getting royally pissed that evening on the whiskey I bought in the hotel's package store. Like David Cross says in his "answer your telephone" routine, I'm not bragging about getting blind in Tokyo but that fact is necessary to know for this story to work.

I am at the Hard Rock Cafe completely blotto. So blotto was I that not too long after I arrived at the bar I went outside to hurl. As I was going out the door a corporal from my company saw me and said, "McDonald, where are you going?"

I said, "I am going outside and throw up." I let loose in some bushes and went back inside. From then on this corporal called me Drunk Boy. Nicknames must be earned.

A while after that this meathead sergeant came down from the small bar upstairs and he's pissed off. He comes up to me and says, "Hey McDonald, you know what? Charlie Sheen is at the upstairs bar and that guy is a dick. He won't talk to Marines." This sergeant was one of those Marines with the high and tight haircut who was all about being a Marine. Loved the Corps, it was his life. Nothing wrong with that, the Corps needs barrel chested motor pool sergeants with big square heads. Why would he leave an encounter with Charlie Sheen all pissed off, I thought. Then it hit me, I just knew that sergeant was up there bugging Charlie Sheen about the movie Platoon. Platoon was a big movie in the barracks. Guys loved it, it was realistic in its portrayal of basic military life. And it was violent.

I went up to where Charlie Sheen was sitting and walked up and said, "Charlie Sheen, oh man, it's awesome to see you here. Dude, you were in that movie and it changed my life and helped make me what I am today."

He shrugged and said, "You mean Platoon?"

I said, "No man, Ferris Bueller's Day Off!" He laughed and invited me to sit down. That is all I remember.

The next morning we are on the bus waiting to head back to Camp Fuji and I'm in the back holding my head. A couple of the guys boarded the bus saw me and said, "Hey McDonald, you were up there talking to Charlie Sheen last night. What's up with that?"

I said, "I talked to Charlie Sheen last night?"

They said, "Yeah, you talked to him for almost an hour."

I thought about it real hard and my pick up line came back to me. "Oh yeah," I said, "I did talk to Charlie Sheen last night."

"What'd y'all talk about?"

"I have no idea."

2011-03-02T14:40:00.004-05:00

A few more recent photographs

The intersection of Sharon and Wendover around sunset

The statue at the Queens University sports complex on Tyvola. Supposedly it's the largest standing lion sculpture in the world

A duck!

The stone bridge at Freedom Park

2011-02-27T17:19:00.002-05:00

Public Display of Affection

This morning while walking at Freedom Park we found this love note written on the sidewalk.

2011-02-26T14:39:00.003-05:00

Robert Plant

I skipped Robert Plant's recent show here in Charlotte. I just have a hard time paying over $40 to see anybody live. Maybe I'm cheap. I downloaded a show Plant played in Nashville on February 11th and I regret not going. I knew I would. I listened to the whole show the other night while reading and it's spectacular. Linked to below is one of the big reasons this show really entertained. It's the opening track, a rearranged version of Black Dog that is just stellar. It sounds like how Tom Waits would have rearranged the song.

Robert Plant - Black Dog

2011-02-25T08:03:00.003-05:00

Sound Cloud

Maybe I'm late to the party but Garrigan posted his remix of a new REM song to the site Sound Cloud and I was curious so I created an account and found the awesome Hendrix remix I posted below. Looks like a fun site to explore.

Starlight Traffic by Fissunix

Here's Jay's REM remix also.
It Happened Today (J.Garrigan Mix) by Garrigan

Disclaimer
This is not theft. Thank you. Nor is it a moral gray area. Thank you.

2011-02-24T08:14:00.003-05:00

The Lovely Bill James

Below is a screenshot of a Twitter post that Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James sent out yesterday. Bless his heart.

2011-02-23T12:41:00.003-05:00

Flickr Finds

Today I searched on Flickr for pictures taken recently in Leelanau County, MI. I was surprised to see how many photographers block the sharing of their pictures. Do they not want people to see their photographs? Odd.

2011-02-19T10:41:00.009-05:00

Some Get it, Some Don't

One problem with books from university presses is the price. Books by these presss don't make money. They aren't expected to so they can be pricey. What would be a way to bring down the prices of these books and to give access to older books that are out of print? Electronic editions, of course. I decided to see what was available out there.

The University of Michigan Press offers this book in a folio edition for $72.50 and the ebook edition they are selling for $67.50. That just don't make no sense. Not only that but they use the Adobe Digital Editions software and limit how you can use your purchased item. To give you an idea of how backwards this is check out what science fiction author Cory Doctorow is doing with his new collection of short stories. You set your price and there are no restrictions to what you can do with it once you get it. Doctorow published a progress report on his project here. Even Barnes and Noble knows you should charge less for an electronic format of a book. They paper edition of Grisham's newest book is retailing for $15.00 and the ebook version you can get for $9.99. I still think they sell older books at a price higher than necessary but at least they are shooting themselves in the foot overall like the university press. At least they offer digital editions.

The University of North Carolina Press offers a lot of the books on the Barnes and Noble website but for some reason they aren't clear about that on their their website. You can buy their books on Google books also but they aren't too clear on how to get to them. Both Barnes and Noble and Google don't give you much of a discount for the ebook format. I didn't see any older out of print editions available. I'd like to see that happen someday.

The Princeton University Press ebook versions through online retailers for a discounted price. That's not bad. I can even go to the Nook Book section of Barnes and Noble's webpage and do a keyword search for Princeton University Press books.

The University of California Press offers ebooks (but not yet for all titles) and they do seem to give a discount. The few books I found in the ebook format were $5 less than the paperback versions offered. They force you to use Adobe Digital Editions also.