Friday, September 10, 2010
Friday, September 4, 2009
10,000 Days
Today is the 10,000th day of my life. I'll have to celebrate. These are the days in life to remember.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King
Today the 7th major label studio album from the Dave Matthews Band was released. As a hardcore fan since 1999, I can attest that it has been a rocky decade for the band. While the live shows (which are still powered by their hits from the 1990s) have never lacked the "magic," I feel that the 21st Century version of the band has never quite regained the midas touch that seemed to come so easily for them during the years when their records were produced by Steve Lillywhite.
Today is a red letter day for DMB. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is a bold statement, a rebirth. The music sounds very little like the band I grew up with, but I am as enamored with the sound as much as I was when my ears fell in love with Arcade Fire's Funeral or Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run.
I can't begin to compare it to the Big 3 (Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash, and Before These Crowded Streets) because to do so would be comparing apples to oranges. No, apples to mangos. But I believe that when music historians organize the music that defined this band, it will be the Big 3 & Big Whiskey.
I have found my first "wow" record of 2009. This band is one of a kind. And after ten years of memorable music, it's why I am still here dancin' with the GrooGrux Kings.
Today is a red letter day for DMB. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King is a bold statement, a rebirth. The music sounds very little like the band I grew up with, but I am as enamored with the sound as much as I was when my ears fell in love with Arcade Fire's Funeral or Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run.
I can't begin to compare it to the Big 3 (Under the Table and Dreaming, Crash, and Before These Crowded Streets) because to do so would be comparing apples to oranges. No, apples to mangos. But I believe that when music historians organize the music that defined this band, it will be the Big 3 & Big Whiskey.
I have found my first "wow" record of 2009. This band is one of a kind. And after ten years of memorable music, it's why I am still here dancin' with the GrooGrux Kings.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
The Jet Stole Home
I think the thing that makes sports so exciting and magical for many people is that there is an abundance of "amazing" things to be witnessed. Amazing plays, amazing comebacks, amazing shots. SportsCenter was built on collecting the daily "amazings" so that even if you don't witness it live, you can still feel the thrill of what made the public chime in a collective "wow."
But the feats themselves aren't necessarily impossible things to accomplish. What sports can do is take an ordinary thing and launch it into the realm of extroardinary by providing context. Take for example last night's Phillies game, where Jayson Werth stole four bases in one game, including home plate. I had only seen this on the Sandlot. While running 90 feet on a sprint is something we can all do, the history of Major League Baseball provides the context that signals to us that stealing your way to home is next to impossible. But I wonder if Jayson Werth thought that as he was doing it. I imagine he thought more about sprinting 90 feet.
Another example was the Kentucky Derby this year. 50-1 shot Mine that Bird went from dead last by several lengths near the start of the race to winning the race by several lengths. The jockey guided the horse to the win by passing the pack on the inside -- along the rail -- which is something you almost never see because the window to do so is too tight if it is even tere at all. But riding a horse around a dirt track at top speed is not by itself amazing. It is amazing because of the context. Because this was a horse that was given no chance. Because it was the 2nd biggest longshot to win the derby in 135 years.
Sports remind us that there are many things in our own lives that seem challenging or next to impossible, perhaps because of history or context. But like the stars we watch on the highlights, we must learn to deconstruct those challenges into the often ordinary and attainable tasks that they are. I guess this is a long winded way of saying "mind over matter," but I encourage you to try it and see what "amazing" achievements will come from adjusting your paradigms.
You may be surprised what in your life becomes sprinting 90 feet to home plate.
But the feats themselves aren't necessarily impossible things to accomplish. What sports can do is take an ordinary thing and launch it into the realm of extroardinary by providing context. Take for example last night's Phillies game, where Jayson Werth stole four bases in one game, including home plate. I had only seen this on the Sandlot. While running 90 feet on a sprint is something we can all do, the history of Major League Baseball provides the context that signals to us that stealing your way to home is next to impossible. But I wonder if Jayson Werth thought that as he was doing it. I imagine he thought more about sprinting 90 feet.
Another example was the Kentucky Derby this year. 50-1 shot Mine that Bird went from dead last by several lengths near the start of the race to winning the race by several lengths. The jockey guided the horse to the win by passing the pack on the inside -- along the rail -- which is something you almost never see because the window to do so is too tight if it is even tere at all. But riding a horse around a dirt track at top speed is not by itself amazing. It is amazing because of the context. Because this was a horse that was given no chance. Because it was the 2nd biggest longshot to win the derby in 135 years.
Sports remind us that there are many things in our own lives that seem challenging or next to impossible, perhaps because of history or context. But like the stars we watch on the highlights, we must learn to deconstruct those challenges into the often ordinary and attainable tasks that they are. I guess this is a long winded way of saying "mind over matter," but I encourage you to try it and see what "amazing" achievements will come from adjusting your paradigms.
You may be surprised what in your life becomes sprinting 90 feet to home plate.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Dog Days of Spring
The heat came out of nowhere a few days ago. From a spell of 40 degree weather we shot into the 80s and 90s for the the last 4-5 days. It never ceases to amaze me how sporadic New York City weather can be. The weather man predicted a return to the 60s tomorrow. Today's flip flops will have to return to the closet I suppose.
I will be travelling to Ohio later this week and weekend. On deck is the bridal shower and lots of final wedding planning. I finally competed burning all of the "wedding album" CDs that will be a part of the gift baskets for our wedding guests in their hotel rooms. Highlights include "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds (the song Gretchen and I will dance to), "Fate Is Kind" a song by my brother that he was 'kind' enough to let me use, and "In My Life" by the Beatles (which Gretchen and her dad will dance to).
It will be an exciting handful of weeks. The bar exam results will come out in 2-3 weeks. I am looking forward to the first DMB album in four years (comes out June 2). Bridal Shower. Wedding. Relatives. Celebration. Honeymoon. Oh, and did I mention we are likely moving to a new unit in our apartment building.
Changes like the weather in this sporadic little world.
I will be travelling to Ohio later this week and weekend. On deck is the bridal shower and lots of final wedding planning. I finally competed burning all of the "wedding album" CDs that will be a part of the gift baskets for our wedding guests in their hotel rooms. Highlights include "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds (the song Gretchen and I will dance to), "Fate Is Kind" a song by my brother that he was 'kind' enough to let me use, and "In My Life" by the Beatles (which Gretchen and her dad will dance to).
It will be an exciting handful of weeks. The bar exam results will come out in 2-3 weeks. I am looking forward to the first DMB album in four years (comes out June 2). Bridal Shower. Wedding. Relatives. Celebration. Honeymoon. Oh, and did I mention we are likely moving to a new unit in our apartment building.
Changes like the weather in this sporadic little world.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Three Days Down
Today is Good Friday. I am not an overly or outwardly religious person. But I have a sacred space within. I tend to visit it most on Good Friday - more so than Christmas or Easter. It is that moment of uncertainty right after losing something or someone so important or indefinite, that captures the essence of faith. That one minute when you feel like something is gone that you can't bear to imagine living without. It is alarmingly and scary. But then you bring it back to life inside you -- the memories, a deeper understanding, a realization that we are living a series of dying moments, but that every minute we live changes the world forever.
It is the subtle honesty that measure of our mortality, no matter how minuscule we appear before the infinite timescape that greets us, is recorded, is kept, an becomes everlasting.
Funny the way it is.
It is the subtle honesty that measure of our mortality, no matter how minuscule we appear before the infinite timescape that greets us, is recorded, is kept, an becomes everlasting.
Funny the way it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
