I pulled into the parking lot with my brother and Pandy in tow. We all grabbed our bags, water bottles and cleats and piled out of the car. We headed across the footbridge through the cool night air toward the dusty diamond. The overhead lights shone brightly on the grassy outfield and chalky outlines. Tonight was our first game. We were to be the feature game on opening night. Kicking off a league of 160+ players and showing em’ how it’s done.

It was opening night for Denver’s premiere kickball league and I was a team captain who, of course, was running a bit late.

My team was waiting patiently outside of the dugout for their uniforms (t-shirts) and my game plan. Thankfully somebody brought a pitcher full of Mai-tais and a case of beer and many on the team had since forgotten my tardiness. Minutes later I was in the dug out getting swarmed by friends asking what position they should play. Having been ill prepared, my instructions consisted of something to the order of “You, you, you, play somewhere in the outfield. You, you, and you pick a base. Freedom will pitch. If you don’t like your position, switch with someone.” I sat the first couple of innings out to make sure things were running relatively smoothly, posted the batting order, changed into my cleats and slugged a beer.

We played a heck of a game, and held a solid lead for the until the bottom of the seventh inning (the last inning in kickball) during which time our opponents switched their batting order and putting several heavy kickers up to plate in a row. This strategy worked, as two of the kickers were able to round their bases ending the game in a tie. As our opponents moped off the field we ran around giving each other high-fives, cheering, jumping and yelling. The stands also erupted in celebration with us, realizing our accomplishment. See, we lost every single game last season. And this year we started of by not losing. No matter how you look at it, we had already improved. A cause for celebration indeed.

I’m looking forward to another beautiful spring competing in America’s favorite playground pastime.

I can’t remember how I stumbled upon Hammers Of Misfortune, but I sure am glad I did. As far as purely creative metal goes, these guys (and gals) got it. I’m not quite sure how to define them – black metal, heavy goth, prog rock, theatrical fantasy, dark opera, celtic metal. Really, they are a little bit of all of these mixed and played in a way that creates a genre of its own. Mostly they are just pure unadultrated metal. These are incredibly talented musicians that buck convention and create a sound that is fresh and exciting in the world of metal. The band consist of five members: John Cobbett (also of Ludicra), Chewy Marzolo, Mike Scalzi, Jamie Myers (ex-Like Flies on Flesh, South Mouth), Sigrid Sheie (ex-Menstrual Tramps). Jamie and Sigrid are not only incredibly hot, they also provide instrumental prowess and the female vocals which really round out their sound. Plus, we all know I’m a sucker for female voice. Fans of exclusively polished and commercial melodic metal should avoid this like the plague. This shit is the real deal and KHUBS radio has some for you. The first six songs are currently out of print. They off of Hammer Of Misfortune’s first album, “The Bastard”, a concept album in which a different member in the band sings each character. The next two songs are from H.O.M.’s most recent album called “The August Engine”. Before they were called Hammers Of Misfortune, they were called Unholy Cadaver. Unholy Cadaver released one three-song album called “Demo #1”, the song “Unsheathe The Sword Of Blasphemy” is off of that album, which I believe is no longer in print as wel. The last song is an extremely really hard to find one; it’s a song called “Galactic Police” by Thunderchimp, which was the seed for Unholy Cadaver which then became Hammers Of Misfortune. Anyway, screw the history lesson and go listen to the music. Enjoy.

Eight things I didn’t know before watching The Passion Of The Christ last night:

1. Jesus had a brother. I can’t beleive I didn’t know this.
2. The devil is a woman. I guess I kinda already knew this.
3. Somebody helped Jesus carry the cross.
4. Jesus stopped more than three times while carrying the cross to Mt. Golgotha.
5. It was Jesus of Nazareth who first said, “those who live by the sword will die by the sword”
6. Judas hung himself after his betrayal.
7. Jesus invented the chair.
8. Kit Kats bites are delicious.

 I’ve been having serious computer problems at work for the last six months or so. This has seriously hampered my work efficiency. The main computer dudes are coming in to wipe out my entire hard drive. Tonight, after accidentally erasing an entire folder of personal crap, I’m trying to burn seven years worth non-work related junk off my hard drive so I don’t lose it all. Even more purging than before.

 Ray wants me to go to Bali with her and her massage therapist friends for a weeklong surfing lesson. Am I crazy for not really wanting to go?

 From my free table the other night I got a kickass Peavey amplifier with a 12 inch speaker and enough bells and whistles to make my acoustic sound like Slayer (too bad I can’t play like Jeff Hanneman). Well, close anyway. The neighbors are gonna be pissed.

I’m fried. Literally and figuratively.

I went up to Winter Park for a ski/cook out. Spring skiing is the best for this. I had friends that reserved parking spots at the base of the mountain so we can ski down to our bbq spot. When I arrived a cop was guarding the “full-lot barricade” making sure nobody else tries to park there.

“Hey buddy, mind if I pull in real quick and drop off some bbq supplies to my friends. They got here earlier and I just want to dump some stuff off to them,” I said. He looked at me, trying to read my face and then over to his partner as if to say, “Should I let this punk get away with his bullshit?” The he steps back and eyes my car up and down, noticing the cracked bumper, both broken tail lights, and web of cracks along the windshield.
“What are you driving?” he asks.
“Oh this. This is just a Mazda Protégé. A ’91,” I reply knowing the there is no way he could be impressed with this.
“Come on in. You’ve been expected.” He says without smiling while lifting up the road block barricade.

I felt like some sort of VIP pulling up to our cookout. About 15-20 good friends. A couple of portable grills and enough hamburgers, hotdogs, beans, pickles, beer and rice crispy treats to feed an army. Sunny, 60 degree weather, and lots of sun screen. Slushy snow, t-shirts and bumps all morning long. It was a great day and left me tired and sunburnt.

That night, after napping for an hour or two I went over to Lebers for more cookout and a bunch of Lebers perfectly created Mai Tais. The I went over another friends and crashed the after perfect circle party they were having. I ended up staying way too late again.

Sunday I spent getting more sunburnt and lazing the day away.

Back in highschool, me and my friend Les would often stand in the hallway near our lockers during passing period and stare out the door. We wouldn’t talk to each other. We were too busy listening and didn’t want to interrupt what we were hearing: the sound of 400 students gossiping, spilling books, taunting, laughing, slamming lockers, eating snacks, chasing each other, smacking gum, copying homework, making out, tearing pages out of notebooks, etc. When we didn’t focus on one sound at a time but the on whole sound: a low penetrating, ominous, rumble would emerge. It was a hum you would hear only if you knew it was there. Soon, we noticed this could be done almost anywhere. It fascinated us, how this sound seemed to stand on its own, beyond the individuals creating it. Les was the only one I had ever told about my listening to this sound. I think because I thought he would be one of the few I knew who could appreciate it. To this day I could walk up behind Les and hum, and he’d know exactly what I was referring to: white noise.

As a close friend of pop culture, it’s very surprising that I thought Don DeLillo’s White Noise was, in a word, boring. At least mostly boring. The novel held some appealing wit. The scene with like the “Most Photographed Barn In America”, the near plane crash, and some of Jack Gladney’s conversations with his family I found really amusing in DeLillo’s dark and dry way. And though at times the novel produced a disturbed chuckle from me, I wouldn’t say that it was hilarious or even funny, really. In fact much of the time it was annoying and tedious. Yes, this novel was clever, but despite having many facets, it was not fascinating.

It’s true that the meat of DeLillo’s White Noise is is held in its observations, not in it’s plot. But the story held almost no plot. The main character in White Noise tells us that all plots move deathward. Is it a valid reason for Delillo not to include a plot in this novel? I don’t think so.

It could very well be that that I have become so accustomed to the torrent of information, often useless, swirling around me that I don’t think that the racket that it creates is worthy of a novel itself. Let alone bothering to read that novel. White Noise seems to be just more white noise. It’s not lost on me that that may be exactly what DeLillo had intended.

I did enjoy the cultural themes presented in the novel. DeLillo reveals to us how we as participants in American culture are often more interested in the copy than in the original. We as a culture reject the real event in favor of the simulation. Representation supercedes experience. I also enjoyed the idea that death seems to be the only concept that can equal our society’s white noise in sheer force. And despite popular culture using glitz, packaging, and showiness in an attempt to hide death beneath the surface, death is in the end, inevitable. Despite what DeLillo is trying to portray, I don’t think death has dissappeared from american culture, my death clock is testimony to that. Maybe I’m missing something. On the other hand, maybe I get it.

Is Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise high end art? Maybe. Enjoyable? Maybe not.

The last few days have been a bit of a bore. Mostly I’ve been trying to get rid of this nasty cold by lying on the couch, getting to bed early, and drinking lots of orange juice. It seems to be working and I think I’m rounding the corner to wellness. This week has been weird cause I had a couple of plans with a couple of people for going out and getting drinks at the beginning of the week that were cancelled on me. Tonight I cancelled on a work related basketball game, pool tournament, and cigar smoking session that I’m sure would have made me bust a lung. I also cancelled on our work related “senior ditch day” of skiing tomorrow cause I got some work I need to finish in the office and I think it would be good to rest one more day. So lots of cancelled plans lately. I did go out with Soph and MonkeyMan last night. That was a pleasant surprise cause I’ve never got a phone call from them to go out before. It was a real mellow, enjoyable evening that consisted mostly of conversation and pool at the January Replacement bar. I was home before 11:00 which was nice because St. Paddy’s Day, much like New Years Eve is amateur night; things can get real annoying real fast.

On the eighth day of March it was, some people say,
That Saint Pathrick at midnight he first saw the day;
While others declare ’twas the ninth he was born,
And ’twas all a mistake between midnight and morn;
For mistakes will occur in a hurry and shock,
And some blam’d the babby—and some blam’d the clock—
Till with all their cross-questions sure no one could know
If the child was too fast—or the clock was too slow.
Now the first faction fight in owld Ireland, they say,
Was all on account of Saint Pathrick’s birthday;
Some fought for the eighth—for the ninth more would die,
And who wouldn’t see right, sure they blacken’d his eye!
At last both the factions so positive grew,
That each kept a birthday, so Pat then had two,
Till Father Mulcahy, who showed them their sins,
Said, “No one could have two birthdays, but a twins.”
Says he, “Boys, don’t be fightin’ for eight or for nine,
Don’t be always dividin’—but sometimes combine;
Combine eight with nine, and seventeen is the mark,
So let that be his birthday.” “Amen,” says the clerk.
“If he wasn’t a twins, sure our hist’ry will show
That, at least, he’s worth any two saints that we know!”
Then they all got blind dhrunk—which complated their bliss,
And we keep up the practice from that day to this.

Today I feel like complete ass. Head cold, tired, plugged up and runny at the same time. You know, The Goomba.

I felt it coming on Friday. But the cold didn’t bother me too much then. I was at work till about 8:30 Friday night due to computer malfunctions in the morning. So after work, I went to the local 7-11, got a gas station burrito. Went home and ate said burrito, then quickly fell asleep. No time to deal with colds.

I woke up early on Saturday and headed up in to the mountains as soon as I could. I met Leber and his wife at Winter Park for a day of skiing. It was another perfect spring ski day and the conditions were great. Tons of sunshine and not enough sunscreen. No burn fortunately. The snow was hard in the morning and slushed up real nice by about noon. It was a hard day though because Leber’s lady wanted to ski the bumps all day. Were not sure what got into her but she was tearing it up. We stopped at the bar afterwards to wind down and drink a few beers. We then headed to their condo in Granby. After relaxing and cleaning up a little, Lebers father in law took us all out to dinner and Deno’s Mountain Bistro were I had an absolutely terrible Chicken Cordon Bleu (however, I’ve eaten here before and had some great meals so all is not yet lost for this place). Afterward we went back to Leber’s and watched Shcool Of Rock which was surprisingly enjoyable. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to handle two hours of Jack Black but it all turned out ok because the movie was only an hour and forty eight minutes long.

On Sunday I woke up early and drove back into Denver. When I got home it was time for me to pick up my brother and head over to my dad’s. From my dad’s we went to “cousin” Liz’s. Liz isn’t really my cousin but everyone in my family calls her that. However, we went over there to visit my actual cousin Kim and her kiddies. They were taking a break in town while moving from washington to oklahoma. Most of the time we went to the park and played with Kim’s 6 yr old, Owie, and 2 year old, Piece. It was tons of fun. I haven’t spent a spring day playing in the park in a real long time.

After visiting with Kim for a few hours we all went to dinner at Jax Fish House witch was wonderful despite having to cancel our order of oysters.

It was a really nice weekend filled with friends, family, food, sport and play. And it made me sick.

I haven’t been to sleep before midnight in at least a week. I was up till 12:30 the night before last and last night I was up till 2:00 just wandering around my apartment putting different objects in different places. I’ve been busting my ass all week at work. I was in the office till 8:00 pm last night and had 7:30 meetings again this morning. They are unrelated, the sleep and the work. I almost never loose sleep over work. That’s one thing I really love about my job. Surprisingly I’m not too worn out yet but it’s bound to catch up to me pretty soon. I went out to lunch with Sabrina today. We went to La Fiesta. Last time I was there was with her, way back when. The hubs burrito is still there though. And it’s still delicious. Tonight I think I might go grab a few beers. That might put me to sleep at a decent hour. Or not.

Have you guys seen Holes? It was kinda cute. I wouldn’t watch it again but it was pretty good for a childrens movie from Disney. I don’t normally like much of the stuff Disney puts out, particularly the animation (excluding Pixar’s films of course). But that is what I watched on Friday. Afterwards I was feeling bored and restless and didn’t want to spend the night with Walt so I went out to the January Replacement bar and sat on a stool talking to strangers all night. I began with one woman whom I talked about Chicago with. Later I talked with Mardi and a couple film buffs. There is no shortage of supply of film buffs at this bar which always makes it interesting. Seems to be quite a few writers and other creative types which makes it that much better. Towards the end of the night some guy bought me shots for quoting lines from True Romance. This was too much and I went home shortly after.

On Saturday night I went over to my brothers for tacos. We went to Barracuda’s afterwards. I always thought it was a gaybar but I guess it’s not. However, it is open all night till breakfast on Sunday when a large after hours crowd supposedly comes in for a late night/early morning meal. We ended up drinking too much to stay all night for that. Thank God.

Instead we opted for the Bump & Grind Cafe’s Petticoat Bruncheon on Sunday morning. It’s a fun time in which all the staff are on the TG bend and “every order comes with a side of fruit”. I got the roast beef sandwhich which was, for a lack of better words, fabulous. Pandy got the Asian tofu which was also really good. I can’t believe this place has been around the corner from me and I never had brunch there. It was always dozens, well not anymore. Afterwards we all headed our separate ways and I went home and slept on the couch till about five in the pm. Then my brother and Pandy picked my up and we headed off to my mom’s for Sunday dinner. She fixed mexican casserole which I think is delish. We also watched SLC Punk which was pretty good “search for identity” type of movie. Because when it comes down to it, we’re all just a bunch of fucking posers anyway.

I saw Azure Ray for the first time by mistake. A few years Ago I was going went to see Bright Eyes play at the Paramount and Azure Ray opened up for them. I was so pleasently surprised by them that I ended up enjoying their performance more than the one I bought the ticket for. I bought the self-titled CD that night from Maria Taylor as she was working the merch table. I was pleasently surprised to find out they sounded better live than on the CD (despite Conor Oberst’s crazy vibrato mucking things up in the background on a couple of songs). The women of Azure Ray have those sweet whispery female vocals that I’m a complete sucker for. And although ther voices are breathy and sexy, their songs are so goddamn sad it feels like a punch in the gut. On KHUBS Radio I put Azure Ray’s entire first self-titled full length album (songs #01-11), the entire November EP (songs #12-17), one song (#18) off of the Burn And Shiver Album, and two songs (#19-20) off the most recent Hold On Love album. Enjoy.

Either somebody around here is eating Taco Bell or I have some terrible B.O. Last night a bunch of the guys (Bear, Leber, Jimbo, Canta. All of them being mentioned someone along the line) met out at the College Inn for the Av’s game. The game was ok. There was lots of back and forth scoring which made it interesting, but no win. The talk of the night revolved mainly around skiing, our waitress, and making fun of Leber for wanting a minivan despite not having any kids (and well basically everything else), along with the typical meaningless banter. Just my type of evening. The College Inn has some of the best green chile in town in addition to last night being tacos & tanks night. On the way over I realized that the last time I went to the College Inn was when I was dating Adri, around three years ago. That night held some funny/fond memories. I haven’t had a guys night out for no reason since I can remember so basically last night was just really enjoyable. I stopped by the local haunt on the way back home and the bartender threw me four tickets to his bands show on saturday at the Cricket but somehow I doubt I’ll go.

Last night I watched My Life Without Me (trailer can be found here). What a tearjerker that was. I was a sniffling mess for a while there. I can’t remember who recommend this movie to me, but they said my Big List reminded them of it. Anyway, thanks whoeveryouare, it was really enjoyable. I thought it was a great movie, if not a bit depressing and a little manipulative, it really moved me. There are plenty of bad reviews out there for this movie, this isn’t one of them. I thought Sarah Polley did an incredible job. The stylization was just up my alley and the soundtrack was great to boot. The selfishness of the main character was lost on me till I started reading some negative views.

I also really enjoyed it because it correlated with the book I’m reading right: now White Noise by Don DeLillo. Both stories (the movie and the book) deal with the ever looming spectre of death, specifically terminal illness. They both deal with how we act when our time on earth becomes specifically finite. Neither of the characters (in both the movie and the book) choose to tell their spouses or their children. Is that OK to do? Are we obliged to tell our loved ones if we are going to die in two months? Are we saving them any suffering if we don’t? In addition, both main characters deal with issues of infidelity which draws even more parallels between the two stories. Anyway, I totally recommend the movie (as long as you don’t mind a good cry) and I’ll let you know about the book when I finish it.