Arsenal Highlight Series: Poetry

w/ the international break almost over & the Premier League ready to start up again, here's a little video that was posted on the Arsenal site this afternoon. Highlights from the season so far... w/ piles of amazing goals... be sure to check out the last two (around the 4 minute mark).

Gettin' Older... Everybody's Gonna Wanna Doze

Stephanie & I first saw Deep Space Six in the spring of 1996. They were playing @ some bar in Novi that was called The Library Pub or some such thing. If I remember correctly, they had a lot of books around. Not good books, necessarily, not the kind of books one would actually want to read, I'm sure they were garage sale rejects & romance novels from library sales. None-the-less, it's a good thing we went because, as you know, we went on to see them a couple more times over the last 15 years.

Back in college though, when we were seeing them along w/ all sorts of other bands all the time, we could get totally wasted, go to the show & I would be able to recite the entire set-list in order the next morning. Perhaps I was just more concerned w/ that kind of thing then, but that's just something I could never do these days. I'm afraid it's an age thing. Maybe it's a concentration thing, but it scares me a bit. I remember coming home from Phish shows, Blues Traveler shows, even whole festivals & reconstructing the entire show from song to song.

Deep Space Six played a new bar on Cross Street last night (more about the bar in a minute), but my ability to remember the songs, not to mention the order, just isn't here anymore. Here's my take on the setlist:
Set I
Queen Jane
Catfish John
We Can Run
Black Peter
It Hurts Me Too
??????????
Set II
China>
Rider
Uncle John's
Eyes of the World

There was a Mighty Quinn in there somewhere & they must have played other stuff too. It's not that it was unimpressive or anything like that. In fact, over the last 15 years, they've gotten a lot better. They were really tight last night, but some of the songs are just gone from my memory. perhaps they didn't play as many because they had an opening act (Jim's other band, F.U.B.A.R, who was really fun & played 60's pop covers), but there had to be more than 4 in the second set. Maybe someday things will start coming back to me again, but I guess this can help me to live in the moment. I suppose I should pick up a Thich Nhat Han book tomorrow while I'm @ Nicola's so I can start honing my "in-the-moment spirit. Nah. I can't see that happening.

As far as the bar goes. It's nice to have another place for live music, but it was a little odd. It's really compact & there isn't much on tap. It seems like they're going to have to decide if they want to be a live-music bar or a frat bar because trying both @ the same time doesn't seem to be working. It's new though, & I'm sure they'll settle into a more consistent atmosphere. I just hope that when it happens, I'll be able to remember it.

RIP: Liz and Ralph

Of course, you're aware that Liz Taylor died the other day. I never really understood people's fascination w/ her until I saw Suddenly, Last Summer. Damn, she was good. Perhaps all I'd seen before that was National Velvet, Giant, and Cleopatra. Giant is good, but I would say that her work in those Tennessee Williams movies is what really stands out. of course, let's not forget the work she did for AIDs research too. Not too shabby at all. The other shout out for this weeks' deaths goes to Ralph Mooney. What's that? you don't know who Ralph Mooney was? You best watch these videos then ("Little Red Wagon" and then "Rainy Day Woman")! He played in Merle Haggard's band for a while... that's his pedal steel lead on Mama Tried. He then joined the Waylors and played w/ Waylon for a long time. He was definitely one of the best.

2 Films & 1 Book

I watched a couple movies the other night, movies that had been sitting by the TV for a few weeks before I finally got around to them. I kept thinking I should return them to Netflix but I knew I wanted to see them so I held on to them until I finally gave them a go. First up was Shutter Island. As far as Scorsese goes, it's no Goodfellas, but maybe that's an unfair bar. It was definitely a strange one, like Lost meets Dashiell Hammett. I sort of enjoyed it but was never really able to get into it enough to care about the outcome. That may be why I think I need to see it again before I say for sure that it doesn't completely work. There seem to be some pretty big holes in the plot, but I could definitely be wrong. I'll have to rewatch to be sure one way or the other.The other film I watched the other night is You Will Meet a tall, Dark Stranger. It's the newest Woody Allen movie, &, surprise surprise, it's pretty much like most of his other movies. It's no Annie Hall though. I do like it, but then again, I'm pretty willing to accept almost everything he does. It had the magic of Mighty Aphrodite mixed w/ the nihilism of Husbands & Wives... but it was no Husbands & Wives. i realized that Woody Allen is similar to George Lucas & Walt Whitman in that they all have this weird drive to remake the same thing over & over again. It's like they get these basic ideas but are never satisfied w/ the outcomes. I like that determination & drive.The book I'm reading right now is Kindred by Octavia Butler. One student said it seemed like a Twilight Zone episode (the other students had never seen that show). I thought basically the same thing. It's fun weird & political w/o too much effort. Another student suggested it's sort of like The Time Traveler's Wife. I think she's right too. Except in this case, rather than going back to previous events in the spouse's life, the narrator goes back to events in an ancestor's life on a plantation in 1819 Maryland. It's fun, it has a cool reworking of slavery from a late 20th Century perspective, & it deals nicely w/ the basic time-travel paradox. I think I'm gonna have to watch Back to the Future soon.

Comedy Central Roasts

I watched the Donald Trump Roast last night on Comedy Central. It sucked. And I say that w/ a real sense of disappointment. I've always loved the roasts. B-List celebrities getting together to make fun of someone many of them don't even know is pretty awesome. I've seen almost all of the roasts since the Hugh Hefner one in 2001. Perhaps you remember that one; the one when (3 weeks after the world Trade Center attacks) Gilbert Godfried said he had intended to catch a plane, but couldn't get a direct flight because "they said they have to connect with the Empire State Building first." A bold, though somewhat tasteless move. It was at the Shatner roast in 2006 where Nichelle Nichols told Shatner to kiss has black ass. Of course, hilarity ensued @ the Pamela Anderson one in 2005 when Courtney Love could barely stand upright on the ground. Unfortunately, nothing so fantastic happened @ the Trump roast. what did happen was as follows. For some inexplicable reason, Marlee Matlin was there. She was kind of funny, but I don't know what she has to do w/ Trump... maybe she's on Celebrity Apprentice or something. I don't know of anyone who has ever watched that show, so wee may never know for sure. I could look it up, but I don't really care either way. We'll just assume she is. Snoop Dogg was there too. He was the butt of many ridiculously offensive racist jokes which were all pretty good... I'm not going to repeat them here, which is part of the interesting thing w/ the ridiculously racist joke. It's great when he's sitting there laughing @ it, but in hind-sight, it's hard to discuss. The person who really puzzles me, though, is The Situation. His hair & waxed eyebrows are the least of my worries when it comes to this guy. He's someone who didn't even deserve a literal 15 minutes much less the figurative one he's been experiences lately. His jokes were poorly timed & often just didn't make sense, & really, what kind of name is "The Situation?" It's like a really bad pro-wrestler.The only roasts that have been aired on comedy Central that I haven't seen are the Rob Reiner one, the Joan Rivers one and the Bob Saget one. Well, maybe I saw the Saget one, but I don't recall it. I bet they're pretty freaking funny though. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for them so I can begin to purge my brain of any after-effects of having watched the Situation for 3 minutes.

Verde FC & Team USA

The team is coming along nicely. Your local football club should be playing a pre-season friendly against Detroit FC in a few weeks. Be sure to come out and cheer us on and remember to order your fancy replica kit soon. The campaign will start at the end of April and run through June at which point we'll take a couple months off and then finish the remainder of the season from August to October. We'll also be playing in the state tournament and a tournament on Belle Isle in July. Here's to hoping we can improve on last year's rather shocking record.In other soccer news, we scored our tix for the Gold Cup matches @ Ford Field in June. I'll be taking Aiden down w/ Liz, Dan, & my dad. It's a double header; the first match is Panama v Guadeloupe followed by USA v Canada. It'll be Aiden's 1st international, & I think he'll have a great time. Perhaps a good showing from the fans will help convince the MLS that we need a team in this area. If they perform like they did @ the World Cup last year, it'll be hard figuring out which squad (Verde or USA) puts up a more embarrassing summer... hopefully neither will be embarrassing... cross your fingers.

Arsenal Highlight Series: Bendtner Got a Hat-Trick?

After a problematic 1-1 draw @ Leyton Orient, the replay @ the Emirates was much more straight forward. This 5-0 win send Arsenal through to the Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup. Of course, they have to play Man U @ Man U in the next round, but I have a feeling they're actually focusing on Sunderland this weekend & Barcelona next week. The Quarter-Finals are a long way off yet. I have a feeling Arsenal will be able to get past Man U, but then again, I had a feeling they would get past Birmingham in the Carling Cup finals & they blew that so who knows. Enjoy Chamakh's 1st since November, Bendtner's hat-trick & Clichy's 2nd Arsenal goal ever... that's 2 in 8 years... some 250 or so appearances.