What a Treat

During these slower dog days of summer, we have had a chance to catch up with a some good friends:

1. We cruised down to D.C. with the boys, and hung with some very good friends before they leave the area. Everyone had a great time, and I'd like to introduce you to the two honorable senators from Pennsylvania circa 2040 AD:





2. This past weekend, we went to a great wedding in NYC. It was awesome to see two people we really like get married, and we had a blast hanging with old friends after the reception. Our parents took care of the boys, and we cranked Counting Crows' "Saturday nights, and Sunday mornings" all the way up the Jersey Turnpike to Queens.

We arrived early, and found a Dunkin Donuts and got coffee and donuts and hung out in a busy park where we were the only non-Asians. Good, Good times....

Child Labor

Our boy J starts school in two months, and I decided to use his final days of freedom to put him to work doing some advertising. Here he is hard at work at a recent fair here in the town in which our office is located:

A couple of thoughts

Two things are running through my head on this fine Summer morning.

- The first: it seems to me that "The Sopranos" finished their final season about one year ago with a still thought-provoking final episode. I miss Tony.

- The second: my morning Philadelphia Inquirer contained a front-page story about the controversy at Westminster Seminary. You can read the article here

I'd like to connect these two unrelated thoughts by encouraging the Board of Westminster Seminary with the words of Journey which were employed in the amazing final scene of "The Sopranos." To the Board at Westminster, I say Don't Stop Believin'.

Good Soccer Times in Switzerland

Occasionally the global obsession with soccer proves to be quite enjoyable from a distance. Check out this warning regarding the Euro 2008 match between Germany and Turkey later today:



Diplomats particularly cautioned against public viewing areas in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.

"At a minimum, post-game celebrations will likely result in traffic congestion in larger cities," read the embassy statement. "Crowds celebrating previous German and/or Turkish victories have blocked streets and rocked vehicles attempting to pass through them."

In other words, stay on your toes, or you could get rocked.



"Beer: the cause of and the solution to all of life's problems" -- H. Simpson




The embassy's statement makes downtown Berlin sound a bit like Falluja or the Gaza Strip, but DW-WORLD has learned the potential threats run far deeper.

Many of the viewers at the so-called fan miles, it turns out, are hopped up on a liquid intoxicant known as "beer."

This substance has been known to lead to outbreaks of mirth, loss of equilibrium and unintended and later regretted coupling among users.

Concerts are good - part 3

As you may now suspect, I went on a bit of a concert ticket buying rampage a few months ago. I do have reasoning for this because after nearly every concert I attend, I leave asking myself "Why don't we do this more often?" Thus, we attended two shows in four days' time.

Wednesday night held a show of: The National, Modest Mouse, and R.E.M. I appreciate some of R.E.M's stuff, but I mostly wanted to see The National and Modest Mouse. R.E.M. was ok, as the first half of their concert was mostly a performance of their new album and a bunch of Michael Stipe's rantings against George W. Bush. However, they interacted with the crowd a bit more and played a wider variety of stuff in the second half of the show. As I had hoped, The National was very good. I highly recommend their new album "Boxer," they have a full sound that is, at the risk of sounding like a fugazi music critic, "grand."

With that said, I must admit some tension in my recommendation of The National (not just because most recommendations come around to bite me because they end up offending folks, or are sometimes simply lousy recommendations) because the band has been around a while and the only stuff I know is their newest album. I like tracking a band, and seeing their progression. So there is my "I'm a bandwagon jumper" disclaimer.

Ok, enough with the rambling post. Here is a picture of an unexpected highlight of the show, when Eddie Vedder randomly joined R.E.M. for a final song:

Concerts are good - Part 2

A and I hit up our second concert of the summer on Saturday night. Our Jimmy Buffett concert was slightly delayed by an apocalyptic thunderstorm, but fun began once the rain passed. The concert was at Citizen's Bank Park, where the Phillies play ball. Here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment:

This is a small slice of the parking lots, and the partying therein. We had an hour to kill before the show and cruised around and made some friends:



The revelry above creates long lines for the bathrooms, as seen over the shoulder of the (two) lovely parrotheads below:




We had an additional treat, as G. Love and Special Sauce were the opening act. Good times all around, in the words of Jimmy Buffett:

Stay in touch with my insanity really is the only way
Its a jungle out there kiddies
Have a very fruitful day

A Ballpark Full of Frauds

I have a fun opportunity to go with a friend to see the Phillies game tonight. The only bummer is that they Phils are playing the Red Sox. Aside from the silliness of interleague play, I am also a bit bummed that I'll have to put up with a bunch of frauds known as "Red Sox Nation."

These folks claim that they have been life-long Sox fans, even though neither they, nor any of their relatives, have ever set foot in New England. They know nothing about pre-1986 Red Sox history - if that. Additionally, I feel they take away from the true tortured Sox fans (like my friends Kevin and Rob) who walk around still shaking their head in disbelief about what happened in 2004 - let alone the numerous other championships that have come to Boston.

The video below is of one of the classic Red Sox of all time. This guy is even crazier than he appears in the video, and he is funny. I'm currently reading his book. He broke his shoulder in a fight with Graig Nettles of the Yankees (another fact for those fraud sox fans: the Sox/Yankees rivalry has been around much longer than 5 years).

Lastly: if you think these are just the jealous, "hater" rantings of a bitter Philadelphia sports fan, there is a slight chance you may be correct...

Back Around

It's been a while. We've been off having a great week with friends at the beach, and then A and the boys went to TX for a week while I came back home and worked and started regrettable projects on our house. But now we are back at home with our new house guest, named "stifling heat." We've had really hot weather, and our thermostat in our third floor bedroom read 92 degrees yesterday. Our first floor read 88 at 9pm last night. In spite of all this, I still believe that central air is overrated. A, however, has quite an affinity for that beloved 65-75 degree range known as "room temperature."

Lastly, I would like to call attention to a comment in a previous post where an anonymous poster noted that Rocky's defeat of Ivan Drago was significant in ending the Cold War. This is a very good point, so I sent my family off to pay homage to the man who, along with Ronald Wilson Reagan, helped save the world from Communism:

Well Said

This commentary is a bit over-the-top, but not too far gone:

A lifetime of rooting for teams that always let you down has taught many Philly natives how to lose, itself an important life lesson. Fans have been conditioned for failure. They expect defeat. Compound this trend with the city's historical inferiority complex and you've got something worse than fatalism: It's the perverse sense deep down that we don't even deserve it


We've gone 25 years (100 seasons) since I watched the Sixers win our city's last championship on a little black and white TV in my parent's house. I was seven.

I love this kind of stuff

My favorite morning radio guy (Michael Smerconish on 1210am) interviewed a guy today who put together a book of six word memoirs. Here is a short introduction:

Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”) and hilarious (“I like big butts, can’t lie”).


So now my brain has a little bit of a challenge to try to come up with a six word personal memoir that doesn't sound like one of those cheesy "always love, always dance, always live" hallmark life mantra statements. Oh, in my opinion no one will ever top the Hemingway story.

Concerts are good

A and I (along with my brother and sister in law, J and J) went to see a Switchfoot show last night in Ocean City, NJ:



We were very much on the older side, as the average age of the attendee was about 13.6 years old. That's ok, we're still happy:



I got an ice cream from this place before the show. Oh, by the way, the lonely and dark dude in the picture below is lead singer Jon Foreman buying a large chocolate cone about 20 minutes before they went on stage:

Not Wise

Dear Montreal Canadiens Fan,

This is a bad idea:




Love,
Joey Broadstreet


P.S. This is a much cooler picture, capturing the essence of the Kate Smith/Lauren Hart duet of "God Bless America."

Dude, We're Famous

Most folks I've met have never heard of my collegiate alma mater. But not anymore baby, because we are now a pipeline of NFL talent:



Mackenzy Bernadeau OG 6'4" 298 Bentley
Pick Analysis:Bernadeau worked out at Boston College's Pro Day and got a great deal of exposure there. He had a decent workout and projects to be a guard. He might be valuable on kickoff and punt return coverage.


To provide perspective, this dude was drafted a full round after the Eagles took a kid from Wheaton College. I will, however, continue to view my alma mater as "The U" of Waltham, MA.

All Politic-ed Up

Philly is all geared up for politics. I pass by the National Constitution Center every morning on the way to work, which is the site of tonight's Democratic debate. There were a bunch of news broadcasters out front this morning, along with some cool looking buses parked out back.

Anyway, I am looking forward to this political season being over. Every commercial break during my Phillies and Flyers games has Obama talking to a bunch of Pennsylvania blue-collared workers about how government has let them down. These billboards are on every corner bus stop:





There was a knock at my door on Saturday night, and I answered to see a guy holding a clipboard. His question: "Are you a registered Democrat?" My answer: "No, I am actually registered with the opposition party." His response: "Oh, well good luck with your candidate." I inquired: "Am I the only one?" He quipped: "You moved to the wrong neighborhood."

Tough Town

In my 6+ months of living in Philly, I have often thought how it is a tough town. I thought this as I was standing in the check cashing place waiting to buy bus tokens and listened to two tattooed and scarred men share their stories of when/where they were handed counterfeit bills - fascinating. I thought this when I read about the Saturday city clean-up efforts where one of the volunteers found a dead body as they were cleaning the banks of the river.

But it all became so clear when A and B observed an event in our own backyard:



This truly is a rough town, especially if you are the pigeon that became that hawk/falcon's breakfast....((it's right in the middle of the picture, but well camouflaged against the tree - click on the picture for a larger (and more bloody) image. the pic was taken out our dining room window))