Off for the weekend.

February 25, 2005


I love going on vacation, even if it’s only to Minneapolis.

Hopefully, though, I won’t have to hear the obligatory “I’d never go back to Sioux Falls” crap. I like this town. I grew up here. It’s part of me. I’m not a Minnesotan, and I never felt like one even in the 4 years I spent there. I’m always first and formost a South Dakota kid, no matter how ridiculous that sounds.

(And, yes, that sounds ridiculous.)

But, I guess, there’s a lot to be said about being comfortable. Like Rob’s quote in High Fidelity, Sioux Falls isn’t boring. But it isn’t spectacular either. It’s just- good. Very good.

———-

On a more tragic note, it appears that Hunter S. Thompson was talking to his wife, Anita, on the phone when he shot himself.

That’s fucked up.

I can’t even say anything about that, except how horrible that must have been when she figured out what had happened.

The story is here.

Mahalo.

Tags: Travel |

2 Comments

Can’t blame me for trying.

February 24, 2005


I just picked up Roy Blount Jr.’s Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans, the newest book in the Crown Journey’s series. I had been anticipating this release for a year or more — ever since I knew he was writing it — for a few reasons. More than just wanting to read it (and loving New Orleans, I wanted to read it), I wanted to compare myself to Blount. I wanted to see how my written account of our honeymoon stacked up to an accomplished author — someone who actually gets paid to do what I enjoy doing for nothing.

Yes, the cat’s out of the bag. The real reason behind starting this blog is to get my required “writing for the day” time, just as Anne Lamott told me to do in Bird by Bird, her “how-to” guide on becoming a writer. This is my outlet for any musings I currently have on my mind, and I have to make an effort to write something every day. If not, then I’m not doing enough to make any of my dreams come true.

For those who know me well, they know that received a degree in biology education, worked as a substitute teacher part time (and applied/interviewed/got turned down for teaching positions full time), and within two years realized that I never really fit well in the profession I had chosen. I do still believe in the importance of education, and would probably have been content with teaching for a few more years, but I just don’t have the type of personality to be beaten down by students, faculty, and the grind and pressure involved with teaching.

Therefore, I became lower management at a non-profit call center.

This is not where I’ll stop. This is just a means of getting comfortable while I strive to become what I really want to be — a writer, a journalist, an author. And that’s where this practice comes in. I never intend to be the next Umberto Eco – I can’t write flowing lovely prose that brings the young maidens to tears and leaves non-scholarly people wondering. But I can learn to write well. And with that, hopefully, I can learn to trust my talent, and appreciate that I’m not expected to be perfect in order to enjoy writing. Nobody can be Umberto Eco. With a name like that, who would want to?

Well, from what I’ve read of Blount’s book, I’ve got a long way to go. I describe what we do, what we saw, and the people we met. He describes all this as well, but he also captures the feeling of the Big Easy — the heat and the sweat, the debauchery and the sin, the craziness and the coziness — and he makes the reader feel as if, yes, there you are, right in the heart of New Orleans, sipping on your own Mint Julep, thinking about the city and it’s history. It’s all very humbling.

And, while I know it’s healthy to be humbled, to have something to look up to, I still feel unqualified, as if I’m required to take four years of school in order to truly become a “writer,” just like I needed four years of school to officially become a “teacher.” This is what I need to learn more than anything – to get it through my head that there’s no need for a diploma, or a published work, for me to think of myself as a writer.

That’s hard for me to do. I’m a creature of science – I need the facts and theories to be written out and followed, with no grey area to be considered for discussion.

I will soon post my version of New Orleans, as soon as I can figure out how to put files on this site, for everyone to read, critique, enjoy (or skim, if you like).

And until then, I’ll still be trying to figure out what it takes to be a writer.

Tags: Books, Career, Travel, Vilhauer, Writing |

1 Comment

“Yeah, we sold out… we sold out every show, every night.”

February 23, 2005


How did Modest Mouse sell out?

Maybe I’m just being too sensitive, but here’s something I don’t understand. I’ve never gotten the idea of trashing a band because they’ve gotten big, because they’ve become popular, just for that sake. I’ve never really figured out the reasoning behind this – maybe I never will.

I bring this up primarily because I like to gripe about things, and now, with this new fancy electronic medium I have at my disposal, I can gripe to more people than just Kerrie, who’s really probably tired of it anyway.

Anyway, this weekend we are going to Minneapolis to see Modest Mouse, a band that initially was an underground novelty which blossomed into indie-rock darlings, and now, after 5 years of buzz, has broken into the mainstream, if only for a little while. Their newest album, which is their second major-label release, is consistently on sale at Best Buy, is referenced by all of the major “independent” sources (Spin, AP, and commercial “indie-rock” radio), and, for a while, was a major force in the MTV Buzz Bin genre. Everybody who was everybody listed Good News For People Who Love Bad News as one of the top ten albums of the year, and, hell, they’re selling out two shows per city in the larger clubs.

Which, of course, means they sold out as a band as well.

This is what I don’t get, how a band suddenly changes when they are exposed to the larger populace, as if they have some sort of appendage that sprouts from their waists whenever they reach a fan base of 4 million people. Sometimes this is true. Some bands go the Filter/Jimmy Eat World route, where they become progressively more and more pussy as their careers progress, like they’re entering the “twilight” years of their recording catalog. But most bands don’t – this is just an indie-myth. Four extra tracks in the recording studio and flashy new packaging does not change most bands, in fact, most of these bands continue to produce the same music and flounder because of it… suddenly they are NOT the next big thing, suddenly they are that “quirky band that MTV loved for a few months.” Ask The Killers, or Bright Eyes. They’re riding the same wave that Modest Mouse rode just six months ago, and that Beck, Ween, Blur, and other various “legends” rode in the years before that.

I mean… come on! Listen to me… rambling on and on about the independent sanctity of a Seattle band that nobody used to care about. Everyone has a favorite obscure band…sometimes that obscure band is their favorite band… and everyone wants to see that band succeed. Everyone tells their friends about that favorite band, and everyone is pretty excited and kind of shocked when that favorite band hits the mainstream for the first, if not the only, time. And everyone secretly wants their favorite band to stick it in the craw of those other established bands. I want to see bands like Bright Eyes, Interpol and Modest Mouse standing alongside U2 and Metallica, basking in the glory of their new-found popularity while flipping the bird to the established acts in the process. Hell, those small bands will be ground down again soon enough, so I say good for them while it lasts.

I hate to sound so “un-punk-rock” about this, but I don’t really see any problem with a band doing well on a national stage, as long as they do it their way. Modest Mouse is still playing the same quirky, non-radio friendly music they have in the past, it’s just that the radio culture seems to be enjoying something the rest of us enjoyed years ago.

I’m glad that Modest Mouse is making money doing what they like to do. And I’ll be glad when they put out their next album to little praise, and to no fanfare, and they have to go back to selling out just one First Ave. show, instead of four in seven months.

Then, maybe, it will be cool for us to admit we like them again.

Tags: Concerts, Music |

5 Comments

A baseball article, just this once.

February 22, 2005


Friends, don’t think I’m suddenly sweet on baseball now.

Can you believe what a shitstorm Jose Canseco has brewed up in the world of baseball? First, he comes out with a blistering expose of steroid use in Major League Baseball, a book that indicts everyone from media darling Mark McGwire to former teammate Jason Giambi, but fails to convincingly promote his book in a way that would make it credible in any way. Case in point: Canseco goes on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace; Wallace brings up a quote on how Canseco injected McGwire “often.”

MIKE WALLACE: “What we did more times than I can count was go into a bathroom stall together, shoot up steroids”-that’s right. “After batting practice or right before the game, Mark and I would duck into a stall in the men’s room, load up our syringes and inject ourselves. I would often inject Mark.”

JOSE CANSECO: I injected him probably twice. But it wasn’t like-I mean we would just walk in and-a lot of times they were pill form. A lot of times, you know, you would just-a quick injection of whatever and that’s it. It was-

MIKE WALLACE: I’m just repeating what you say-

JOSE CANSECO: Right.

MIKE WALLACE: in the book. And if we’re to believe what you say in the book. I would often”-often. Not twice. “Inject Mark.”

JOSE CANSECO: Well I think it was more inject ourselves. I think I injected him-I mean this is a long time ago. Once or twice for sure. I didn’t keep track but…

Well, Jose, that certainly is convincing. No wonder most people are publicly blasting this book and your credibility. Now, while I think it’s positive that, in the wake of a leaked grand jury testimony by Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield, steroids have finally become an issue in baseball, this book seems like nothing more than a way for Canseco to actually make money by revealing how he cheated throughout his entire career… to bring in some extra cash by admitting what he had done to fool all of his fans, and all of baseball’s fans, for 10 years.

Additionally, he comes off as someone who is spiteful and jealous of Mark McGwire, his former teammate, and the attention and accolades McGwire received while Canseco himself was busy jumping from team to team and, in the mean time, according to Wallace on 60 Minutes, being arrested for carrying a loaded semi-automatic pistol in his car, then charged with aggravated battery for ramming his then-wife’s BMW with his Porsche, then arrested again and jailed for allegedly smacking his estranged bride, and finally in 2001, arrested with his brother after a Halloween fight where they attacked two tourists, leaving one with a broken nose and the other with twenty stitches in his lip.

Well, the best is just showing its head. Now, Canseco, who reportedly is in a little bit of tax trouble, is selling his “treasured” MLB hardware – his 2000 World Series Ring (from his 37 games and one World Series at bat with the Yankees), his 1988 American League MVP Trophy (which runner-up one-year-wonder Mike Greenwell is clambering to have, now that Canseco has admitted cheating), and various signed items of importance, such as jerseys and copies of his book. Prove even more, according to former teammate Dave Stewart, that “he never really liked the game.”

Which really makes me wonder… is he doing this for the money? Is he doing this to get back at Mark McGwire? Or is he doing this to get back at a sport that has left him a laughing stock, a person who is incredibly unbelievable, a sad reminder of the era where drugs, booze, and juice made men legends, while at the same time bringing them crashing down when their baseball careers were over.

Maybe Canseco is just trying to get back at baseball.

Tags: Baseball, Journalism, Sports |

4 Comments

Politics, lightly.

February 22, 2005


This guy we have in charge of our country really makes me laugh sometimes.

Bush flies to Europe to try to build up his burned bridges again, and starts his trip by dining with French President Jacques Chirac – before anything else – because he wants everyone to know how much France’s opinion means to him.

In fact, according to Bush himself (and CNN.com), this initial dinner is essentially to show…

“how important” his relationship with Chirac is “for me personally … and for my country.”

“Every time I meet with Jacques, he’s got good advice,” Bush said, turning to Chirac. “I’m looking forward to listening to you.”

I’m looking forward to listening to you? Where was this talk two years ago, when France thought maybe a war in Iraq wasn’t such a great idea? Why wasn’t Chirac’s advice so good then? I’m curious to see what Bush has to say when he lands in Germany and Slovakia to meet with the other major powers who worked against the war in Iraq. I can’t wait to hear what wonderful advice they had that was so crucial that Bush openly fought against it, as if reeling off his immortal line “either you’re with us, or you’re against us” was good enough to get everyone in line.

Anyway, enough about politics. I hate talking that stuff – I’m ill equipped to think logically about it, so I don’t bother to enter the field.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not apathetic about what drives our country. I just don’t care much for getting fired up about something that a lot of people get fired up more effectively about.

Or something like that.

On a side note, did you hear that Bush smoked pot and hates gays? Rumors all, but still, interesting to think about. Why this guy would pass up millions of dollars and give all these ‘secret tapes’ to Bush himself is beyond me. He’s on TV, talking talking talking, and then all of a sudden, he’s clamming up and saying “I don’t want this to be a distraction, I’d better just give these to Bush!” I wonder what ideas got into HIS head.

In other news, Paris Hilton was hacked. Thank you, CNN Money.

Tags: Politics, Random Links |

3 Comments

Hunter’s legacy.

February 21, 2005


There’s a great tribute to Hunter S. Thompson on ESPN.com’s Page 2.

In case you didn’t know, Thompson had a column every once in a while through ESPN.com, where he would ramble on about life and sports (gambling). Very entertaining stuff, and my favorite Thompson topic.

Go here for the tribute: ESPN Page 2

Tags: Journalism, Random Links, Writers |

Comment

A retraction about NBA Action

February 21, 2005


Okay, I apologize.

I’ve only watched the first half of the All-Star game (taped, to be viewed later). And even though I ranted just yesterday on the downfall of basketball and the All-Star game’s contribution to the end of team dynamics, I have to admit, the All-Star game this year was, well, pretty damn good.

I think we’re seeing a sort of renaissance in the NBA. For ten years, we were subjected to a defense battle every game, where teams like the Heat and Knicks, and later on, the Nets and Spurs, would play a slow down game, dragging every possession out and forcing the opposing team to win with jump shots and free throws, daring them to come inside where they would, ultimately, get pounded. Teams like the 2001-2 Mavs were hard to find, and when you could find them, you would see them get bounced in the first round of the playoffs, unable to compete with the defense that had become the leagues hallmark.

Now, however, we have teams that can score, the game has been opened up, and the “team” concept is back. The Phoenix Suns and Seattle Sonics, and even the aforementioned Miami Heat, are playing a wide open game. Even Jeff Van Gundy, former Knicks coach and current Houston Rockets leader has had to reform his game plan to compete a league that is based on, of all things, scoring.

I think, for whatever reason, I’m a little slow in realizing how much better the NBA game has become. When I watched the All-Star game last night, or at least the first half of it, I saw players, like Allen Iverson and Shawn Marion, who I had previously seen as overrated and selfish, playing some great team basketball with people they have rarely played with before. This All-Star game celebrated the “team,” rewarding some great all-time team players with spots on the team – Manu Ginobli, Antawn Jamison, Rashard Lewis, and, perhaps, the greatest team player, in my eyes, Steve Nash.

All in all, I was surprised and incredibly optimistic about the NBA’s future when I watched the game last night. I even liked Vince Carter, a player who admittedly dogged it while in Toronto, but now is playing as if he’s 5 years younger in New Jersey.

It seems as if the NBA has finally taken the actions needed to finally bring it’s desire for individual superstars and it’s dependency on fast-break team play together. In fact, since the Malice at Auburn Hills (which is a pretty sore subject in my Pacers-driven mind) I think basketball is on par with that 1988 All-Star game I had eluded to yesterday.

Jeez… I might even be able to say… basketball is fun to watch again.

Tags: Basketball, Sports |

4 Comments

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