tunes on friday

Lately I've been on some group emails that have links to tons of music, so I thought I'd share the wealth some. I've posted some stuff on sendspace.com, and all you do is follow my links here to the page where you can download the albums. If you dont wanna download and maybe not like the stuff, listen to it on the itunes store first, then download if you like it. Simple as that. I also will add that my musical tastes range all over the place, as represented here, but I've been experimenting with all sorts of stuff lately. I guess you could call me a somewhat fickle music fan, as I find myself wearing something out and then hunting for something new, something fresh, something different. Gone are those days where I only listen to a few bands incessantly (ahem, phish and wsp), and now I'm finding there's all sorts of stuff in all sorts of genres I like..stuff I woulda written off before b/c it didn't have 5 minute jams in every song. Funny what you find you actually like if you just open your mind.

Here's a few random things I've been enjoying, maybe you will, too:

The Black Seeds, On the Sun: If any of you have enjoyed Fight of the Conchords, the short guy, Brett, was in this band before conchords. This band is a bunch of New Zealanders who bring their own brand of funk and reggae to the table. I enjoy it.

Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga.:I guess this is considered Alternative rock, but it's more like plain old rock to me. Simple grooving rock. I really like "Don't you Evah", "The Underdog" and "Finer Feelings"

Various Artists, ESL Records remixed: If you like funky, downtempo electronic grooves, you'll dig this. It's got tracks from Thievery Corporation, Fort Knox Five and other groove wizards. Great f0r biking to work.

Fujiya & Miyagi, Transparent Things: I'm not sure how to describe this exactly...kinda like futuristic Talking Heads with an electro twist. You'll recognise "Collarbone" from some car commercial on TV.

My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges: I bet a lot of folks have this one already, but I thought I'd put it up anyway. This album is kinda strange, esp for them, but it's still oddly interesting. I really really am liking the track "I'm Amazed". These guys RULE live. You wouldn't guess it, but they have TONS of energy as they work into a frenzy each song.

Fort Knox Five, Reminted: These DJs are pretty much some of the funkiest around. If you listen to this and aren't at least nodding your head, then I'd guess you are without rhythm. I mean, the first track is a funky remix of Tito Puente. Enough said. Great for working out and running.

Galactic, From the Corner to the Block: These funkmiesters from The Big Easy have changed their tune a bit on this album. Instead of their typical funky jazz album with the "Houseman" singing, they've opted to go with hip hop artists for vocals instead. Almost every track has vocals, and a lot of the good underground hip hop artists are represented (chali 2na from J5, Blackalicious, etc). All in all, a good listen, as Galactic still brings the funk, even with the hip hop flavor.

Arrested Development, Since the Last Time: Man, it's been so long since we all overplayed "Tennessee" and all the great hits off their last album. Years since these guys have made an album, this one brings hip hop, funk, jazz and R&B back with that unmistakable style they have, and of course, Speech's great, conscious lyrics.

Cold War Kids: I really like this guys voice. He gots pipes.


OK- more to come soon...

Good day.

So, I first wanna say that I was lucky. Most folks lose all their hair during chemo, and mine just thinned a bunch (esp on top) and got all thin textured (like a baby's). When you're totally bald from chemo it's really obvious. It doesn't look like you shaved your head bald..it looks like you are real sick. When you are cancer bald, you enter every situation with everyone immediately knowing you're sick. It was real nice not to have that stigma. I felt blessed. People who didn't already know me had no idea. Of course I could tell, tho. But, I have gotten used to seeing my head thru my hair, and am ok having no eyelashes (i never noticed them before, but mere claims they were long and luscious). And, at this point i pretty much just accepted I may end up looking like this forever....

Guess what?! I SEE HAIR GROWING!!! Today driving I glanced in the rear view. Usually sun is streaming thru the sunroof and reflecting off my scalp, which I of course notice (can you say 'glare'?). Today, I glanced in there and thought..."huh, didn't seem as shiny today". Upon closer inspection, I noticed super duper small stubble up in there. It's kinda hard to see b/c the remaining hairs are a good bit longer, but I swear I saw it! Holy crap did I almost drive off the road examining my head and just smiling and smiling. And smiling. Man, one more milestone passed. Now, if I could just ditch these damn numb hands and feet. Guess it's one thing at a time.

Here's to a good day. A day I won't soon forget. I know it's just cosmetic, but I have to admit I sure missed the hair.

Temporary tatt-do

This is really funny. The best part is I think it's really a product. So, the first thing I'd write on my to-do tattoo is to buy a to-do list pad. Right? I already am smelling an ink poisoning lawsuit here.

It's the lastest and greatest brought to you by World Wide Fred. Their entire line of products are all entertaining gimmicks..

Sweet skate

Instead of painting the graphics on these boards, the art is laser cut into the wood...it's actually pretty cool.

I think it's over.

Paid what I believe to be my very last medical bill today. Feels really good to be done with it all (the out of pocket max will reset next Jan 1 and I'll have to pay again) for now. I think my bills, all together, so far are somewhere in the 'hood of 200k. I think we've paid around 7 or 8K. I am very grateful for insurance. Otherwise, we'd have been in financial trouble.

Operation bacon salt.

Thx sully for heads up on this. Now even my rasin bran will have the delicate flavor of fried pork bellies...

http://www.baconsalt.com/

Stereotypical Panic fans.

Jennie sent this to me this AM and I got a chuckle out of a few of them. As an aging ex-pseudo hippy who has seen too many concerts from this band in my time, as others of you have, you will chortle at the hippy/WSP fan bashing you will read here.

Mems day.

Man, what a time for a three day weekend. Work has been really busy getting out our summer campaigns (links to come of work soon), and I've been here at the office a lot lately, out on shoots, working hard. I've not even been to my own blog in a week or so. Weak Sauce.

Anyway, hope to put a few things up here this weekend, but just wanted to wish everyone a fantastic long weekend. The weather is finally sweet here and I'm pumped to golf, bike, skate, hang, socialize and grill the weekend away.

Oh, and those of you down south that have been battling tornadoes, well, we had one here yesterday. A big one. It was up north where Mere works and apparently she got to do the ol' tornado drill that you learn in elementary school. She, and her workplace, are fine.

Enjoy the friday action folks.

"Sun is shining, weather is sweet.."

I just have to talk about how good it feels to receive good news.

As I already spoke about, my stepdad was diagnosed only 5 short days after I finished chemo with prostate cancer. 70% of men over 70 get it (1 in 4 men alive!), so it seemed pretty treatable initially. But, it's been hard for Mere and I to really feel like this cancer thing is "done" when someone else in your family immediately is diagnosed as you finish. To be honest, I've actually been a little ticked off about it: I can't understand how it could happen so soon. I mean, I've not even grown my hair back or gotten feeling back in my limbs and this occurs. It's just not fair for my mom and mike....and all of us who care about him, for that matter.

Anyway, after getting over all those feelings, we were just hoping for the best and trying to remain positive. When he got his CAT scan they found "spots" in his pancreas, on his kidney and in his knee (?). Of course we all freaked out. I know I did. I would never have told my mom or mere or ash what I was thinking, but I've heard bad stories about pancreatic cancer (Houser) and was trying to prepare myself for the worst, which was scary, and made my heart feel like a tomato in a vice grip.

Well, they finally saw the prostate and pancreatic docs two days ago and the news could not have been better. Everything was unrelated, the kidney stuff was normal for a guy his age, the affected lymph nodes were from an old infection, the pancreatic growth is unrelated, and caught super duper early, and maybe even benign (tests next week). The prostate cancer is only stage 1 (mine was stage 3) and will be treated w/ seed therapy which has a REALLY high success rate and is non-invasive. Wow, what a load off our backs. And, my mom and I share a birthday, which was yesterday, and man, what a birthday gift that was. I have never felt so much like laughing, crying, dancing, hooting, hollering and all that at once. I finally was able to be excited about finishing my ordeal and really savor the fact that I've been to hell and back and now I'm all done. You don't know how good it feels. Hell, I feel good again. I forgot what it's like and it's real sweet.

So, in conclusion, good news is the best. My family has learned how to deal with bad news this last year, b/c at every turn, it seemed like something bad would happen. I know Mike has some tough stuff too get thru, but he's gonna do just that: get thru it. And we'll all be there standing by him for it. I always heard God doesn't give you what you can't handle, but thank you to him for finally throwing us a bone. It's about time.

no amt of beer would get me to do this

watch the video of these drunk yahoos here. thx to mike copps for the heads up on this...

Pass? nope, fail.

This blog is really funny. It's the failblog. Shots of people/things failing at whatever. I enjoyed cruising the pages while chuckling. You might too.

Inspiration:

I found this on deadspin.com, and they pulled it from the Pittsburgh Gazette. This kid, Jason Challis, is dying of terminal cancer. He managed to pull off one of his last wishes, to actually bat at game for his high school...and he miraculously cracked a single and even ran to first despite a cancer ridden pelvis. I highly recommend reading the story- this kid is inspirational and I dare you to try and read it with a dry eye. It's people like him that remind us how lucky we all are....things can always be worse. I've had to remind myself of this plenty, and find it to be a good 'come to your senses' thought whenever I am feeling sorry for myself.

Jason's message: it's not about how many breaths you have in your life, it's about what you do with those breaths.

Amen, brother.

There's no kissing in boxing.

My dad just sent me a pretty funny clip, and I found it on youtube.

ummm, it's really crowded in China.

"uh, hi. I'm applying for the guy-who-shoves-in-passengers job.."

MMJ on SNL

Tivo'd Saturday Night Live last night, as I knew My Morning Jacket were the musical guest. Watched the performances this AM and they were really good. If you haven't seen this band, go do it- their brand of mellow psychadelic rock gets super good live.

huh.

So, work has been nuts for both Mere and I lately, and I'm finally feeling good and trying to catch up on my freelance work and life in general. It's funny how you don't realize how bad you felt for the last half year until you finally feel good again. That being said, the thing to focus on here is that I'm finally feeling good again. 'Bout time- I had no idea how hard this was all going to be. Looking at it in retrospect, it was much harder than I ever thought it would be, mentally, emotionally and physically. Glad that sh*# is in the rear view.

Anyway, I haven't had time to say much here lately, but I thought everyone would enjoy seeing a frohat. If nothing else, dude has the most unique hairstyle I've ever seen.

Hawks!

I can't believe they forced the game 7 last night.....so great to see. In my whole life, I can't remember ever being excited by the Hawks, so this is quite refreshing. I've been pulling for both the Nugs and the Hawks since the playoffs started, but since the Nugs got worked, I'm all Hawks now.

On another side note- I was caught in traffic with Allen Iverson the other day. A SMOOTH Mercedes Maybach (costs close to a half mill) pulled up next to me and as I gawked driving by, my vision fuzzy from the bass the car was emitting, I looked inside the car and locked eyes w/ AI. Of course all I could muster was "nice ride", to which he gave the head nod. In retrospect I woulda got more respect had I said "dope whip, yo". Ha ha ha.

Another milestone passed...

My farewell photo to my chest catheter. I will not miss it in the least. Super strange to have it removed while awake and talking to the surgeon. Freaky stuff.

Not again.

So, we just found out my Stepdad, Mike, has prostate cancer. I swear, when it rains it pours. My poor mom finally gets finished worrying about me, and literally two weeks later, she's now gotta go thru this all again. Not fair. Just not freaking fair.

The tests for what the stage is, what treatment will be, etc are all next week (a good sign they didn't rush him in), so we really don't know the details yet, but please everyone say a prayer or send positive vibes or whatever it is you do- please do it for Mike. He's one of the greatest guys ever and sure doesn't deserve this.

It's funny b/c I continually asked my parents not to worry about me thru all the stuff I went thru- but knew they were still always worrying. Now, Mike is asking for us to not worry and I finally understand how they felt b/c I can't stop worrying about him. Strange how irony can hit you when you least expect it.

I'm over here pulling like heck for you Mike. I know you will get thru this like I did, and we will one day be looking back on this, drinking a cold beer, and laughing about how much tougher it made us. Love you, big guy.