athlete vs. musician
it's a classic debate, maybe even a class struggle, that begins in middle school--are you a jock or a rocker? (or perhaps a jocker?) generally in your formative years, in addition to chicks and 'good times' you persue music arts or sports. there are those rare exceptions of crossover musicians who are also athletes, or vice versa, but i question where there hearts lie. for me, the decision was made for me by a gang tackle gone awry that left me with several torn back muscles and an addiction to muscle relaxants at age 16. an aptly placed helmet to my lower back shattered my hopes of sacking neil lomax in the nfl and led to my turning that summer's farm wages into a bass and amp.
so this weekend i was reminded of the intersection of the diverging art and sports worlds when i ran the nike-sponsored
'run hit wonder'. i have started running again, probably due to the fact that since marrying mrs. b. rickland, i have gained about 3-4 lbs a year. so running seems like a good way to tear up my knee ligaments while continuing to gain weight. so i have ran a few 5k runs and found that i am slower then most runners in their 70s. go me. something about running a mile-per-minute pace that most races categorize as 'walking' makes you feel fairly athletic. so reese and i decided to run it together, which was great because we could use each other as an excuse to slow down and stop periodically. the trip with the run hit wonder is that there are bands along the course at every mile or so. so reese and i ran and had no problem running right past the donnas and randy jackson. we slowed down for some r&b singer nina something, but we kept our pace.
the athlete vs. musician conundrum arose as we approached fountains of wayne. so did i stick to my commitment for health and wellness and continue the race? or did i stop and give in to the music? naturally i stopped and checked out 3 songs or so. so much for my sick 9 minute miles! we finally took off again when chris collingwood mugged that "i can't help but notice that none of you are running... it's more of a stand-in than a race." well said chris, so on we went until we came up to chingy's stage that is. once again we stopped pace be damned and enjoyed us a little of the flow unstoppable. oh well, i guess i was fooling myself with the pipe dreams of being an athlete. i may have run a 15 minute mile pace, but at least i got to take in some music. besides i'll be able to play music into my 80s--we'll have to see about the running.
5 star rating
i recently took some flack from
sloop and j.crash about my passing out 5 star ratings like bad pickup lines at a karaoke bar. so i just checked with netflix and i realized that i may have been a little loose with my 5 stars. i'll admit that spaceballs may have been five stars when i was 11 years old, but i'd probably have to turn it off if i watched it again today. and yes spaceballs had earned a 5 star rating, but before you commence with laughter, i just removed 5 stars from more than 20 movies so i am left with less than 50 5 star movies as of this minute. so i'll let you be the judge, here's a sampling of my 5 star films. while not comprehensive, it should give you an idea. so flame away:
one flew over the cuckoo's nest
12 angry men (the original of course)
citizen kane
a clockwork orange
the 400 blows
do the right thing
brain candy
the life aquatic with steve zissou
chinatown
i could go on... it does beg an interesting question though: what standard should you use to rate films. should a 5-star film from childhood or adolescence stand as a 5-star in adulthood? what about a film that speaks to a specific audience at a set period of time (read: do the right thing)? i don't know, but i am holding my stars a little closer to the vest these days. sorry spaceballs ("...ooooh, that's gonna leave a mark")
the word on the street
my summer job has found me working on a new bank downtown at 6th and oak, so i have been taking advantage of the opportunity to people watch. and by people watch i mean eavesdrop on people as i take breaks to feed the meter and myself. today's highlights include two spiritual experiences with none other than 'deebis cries' himself...
two women walking past me:
woman one: so i just sat up and i told him...
woman two: thank you deebis!
woman one: i knew that....
woman two: thank you! thank you!
woman one: i just knew that...,
woman two: thank you deebis!
if woman two would have stopped thanking deebis i may have been able to hear more of woman one. oh well, opportunity struck just around the corner.
man: that's why you just have to trust him you know.
woman: i know what you're sayin but do you know what i'm sayin?
man: just trust HIM only HIM (again i assume that they are referrring to debis who has been getting all of this thanks lately)
woman: but what about those big questions, ya know like we're here in the milky way...
man: uh huh.
woman: ...and the milky way is just on the corner of the universe...
man: yes it is,
woman: i don't know it's like in 'men in black' (men in black--that's right an abundant source of philosophical wisdom--will smith and tommy lee jones in a film that is not afraid to tackle the metaphysical. in fact, wasn't it aristotle that penned the original treatment of the script?)
man: the movie?
woman: yeah, it's like we're on the edge of a universe that has billions of stars and that's inside another universe and another until it's really just a ball on the necklace of a cat...
at this point i was rounding the corner and unable to continue the quest to find our place in the unending universes chained to a cat's neck. but if this deebis is able to answer these deep questions, i guess i should check him out.
for independence day, kazu decided to get her doting caretakers a present. what can a dog get her owners you may wonder? well a $350 emergency vet bill of course!
all last week we noticed that kazu was losing some hair on her right ear. no problem dogs lose hair on their ears all the time, right? our justification continued all week as we figured that the new dog craze included that sheik blotchy hair look. and who am i to get in the way of my dog following a trend? so we kept saying, 'after the 4th we'll take her in.' that was until yesterday when kazu decided that rather than the hypo allergenic food that we pay way too much for, she would begin to eat her feet. not just one foot or two, but all four, why discriminate? so in less than 24 hours, kazu had
chewed most of the hair off, happy 4th of july to you too.
of her paws which had swollen into the size of boxing gloves. so now we own a dog who can catch a soccer ball in her mouth while running around on hairless oven mits for feet.
we tried putting hank's old cone on kazu but little miss houdini can escape from anything. so why not prolong our BBQ plans and run our self-canibalizing dog into the pet hospital?
the vet tried her best not to 'tsk tsk tsk' too loudly as she thought 'what kind of soulless pet owners are these people?' between gasps of horror, she explained several possibilities for kazu's newfound self mutilation, all of which sounded expensive. this was confirmed when after swabbing kazu's ears, the vet slyly mentioned that she would be back with our 'estimate.' anytime a vet bill involves an estimate you are in deep dogdoo (in more ways than one). so the everloving lulu of it all was the $350 bill accompanied by several oral and topical medications that have left me feeling masochistic after the first application.
thanks
kazu, happy 4th of july to you too.
thor's hammer
so
L Mix R's demo sessions have been going smashingly. last night i helped sloop by offering moral support and scratch bass tracks. he is the man and hit all his tracks in four hours!
so today sloop offered the moral support and i laid down the tracks. all went well and i had my parts committed to digital media in two hours. if the rhythm section is an indicator, these cut will be most boss indeed. stay tuned to our
myspace page for the results (shameless tease I know).
stars and stripes forever
i have never been a huge fan of the 4th of july. when i was a kid, we didn't have much money, certainly not enough to watch it "go up in smoke" so we never bought much more than a few sparklers o. that and in the redneck backwoods wof my childhood, shotgun shells were interchangable with roman candles or more 'mainstream' fireworks. needless to say, the 4th has always been more about BBQ and watermelon than wanything else.
so driving around today, not thinking much about the impending holiday, i had the following conversation with a coworker (who is a pretty big fan of the 4th of July):
coworker: so do you have any big plans for the 4th?
me: no. not really.
coworker: no? no BBQ, get together, rodeo, nothin like that?
me: no not really. i don't have any set plans yet. i think i'm doing some recording...
coworker: huh. so you're just gonna be a homebody.
me: i guess. maybe finish a little honeydo items
coworker: that's too bad. you sure you're not gonna set off anything illegal?
me: no last year i almost set my house on fire with a roman candle. i think i scared my neighbors.do you have any plans?
coworker: oh yeah we've got the BBQ on monday and tell you the truth i think we'll do it on sunday too.
me: and then there's the rodeo...
coworker: oh yeah, got the rodeo every year, we do the rodeo. but not on saturday, that's my laundry day... you know the day to clean up and do the dishes. maybe even watch cartoons.
me: they still have saturday morning cartoons?
coworker: oh yeah. to tell you the truth they're not that good.
me: really?
coworker: yeah they're pretty bad. they look like they were made in China or something. you know like they speak Japanese.
me: really? Chinese cartoons that speak Japanese.? that doesn't sound good at all.
well happy 4th of july everyone. i'll try and do something interesting, maybe i'll just watch some Chinese cartoons in Japanese...
