It's always cool in philadelphia

The Boss decided to set up shop and give a free concert in support of Obama here on Saturday. Between free concerts, a lousy football team, and a baseball team in the NLCS, there is always an adventure to be enjoyed here in town.

This is cheating

The Fightin' Phils won the NL East and are on their way to the playoffs. I've noticed a disturbing trend in sports celebrations, pictured here:




The recent trend is to wear eye goggles when participating in the traditional champagne celebration. Being somewhat of a traditionalist, I believe it's important to feel the burn of the bubbly and reject the Michael Phelps look.

These are the things I think about instead of the current financial markets. I'm also currently listening to these talks, and I can strongly recommend Ferguson's talk.

More Catch-Up

Time to play catch-up now that I've been away for a while. Here's an attempt:

1. A and I are now school parents. We drive to school, pick up, receive frequent fund-raising requests, etc. Yes, J began kindergarten last week, and we all lived through the first three days. He declared his first day of school to be "the best day of school ever." We also observed he and B playing home-school and overhead J teaching B some Spanish words he had learned. So those are a few highlights. Being an optimist, I'll save all the low-lights for some cold, rainy winter day....

2. Speaking of winter, it seems summer has slipped away and now there are Halloween and Christmas decorations in all the stores. I've made about 4 trips to HD/Lowe's the last few days as A and I wrestle a new pedestal sink into our bathroom, so I know that those home repair stores are all about the holiday decorations.

Well instead of kicking against the change of seasons, I think I'll just continue to listen to Jon Foreman's "Fall" album which is the best of his 4 "season" albums.

3. Although the pace of life of our family has picked up speed with the start of school, I've still had time to enjoy the joys of having baseball and football season overlap.

Seasons Change

Well, the transition from summer vacation to fall happened quickly. I don't like fall much because it means winter is coming soon. On the other hand, fall also brings this:

Back

Was away on two weeks of vacation at the Jersey shore. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Outstanding

A and I and the boys went out after church yesterday to watch the basketball game between the U.S. and China.

I saw this commercial, and it immediately became an all-time favorite - and the TV at the restaurant didn't even have sound. Amazing rendition of the anthem (from the '83 NBA allstar game in LA). Amazing footage of the U.S. team. Please go enjoy it here.

08.08.08

Beginning tonight, the world focuses on China. Naturally, the run-up to the Olympics brings all kinds of news specials, articles, pictures, etc. I find most of these to be incorrect/unfair in some way, but I roll with it. However, yesterday I read this beauty on the front page of the sports section of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"A walk through the Forbidden City was a hike in a sauna, tears occasionally streaming from irritated eyes. If a middle-aged tourist walking around with a camera felt this kind of oppressive discomfort, what would it be like for a marathon runner?

Leigh Fitzgerald, a former Haverford College track athlete, had the answer. Living and working here as a trader of carbon credits (a business invented entirely thanks to pollution), the 24-year-old has all but given up running outdoors.

"My brother is a runner," Fitzgerald said. "He went out and did a 10-mile run while he was here. He came back and he was coughing up blood. He didn't run again."

Fitzgerald runs indoors on a treadmill. On the rare occasion when she can see a small range of mountains from her window, she'll take a run outside. It doesn't happen often."


My only response is:





Is there any other reason to write these urban legends other than to "show up" China? I'm no doctor, but I don't think a run in unclean air causes one to cough up blood. Well, I guess if the air is laden with sharp metal and broken glass...

An added pic

Here's a picture of the crew mentioned in number 2 of the post below. We just got done knocking down some Thai food:

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...