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Musical Ramblings

I find myself in the kitchen, doing dishes and baking cookies if you must know, and I have the iPod spooling through my music collection. Two songs came up consecutively, 'Baba O'Riley' by The Who followed by 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen. Both of these songs are outstanding in their own rights, stand outs from an era (the 70's) that is more remembered for disco and folk rock than anything else. Baba O'Riley has the outstanding electric piano opening, the trademark Daltrey scream, the infamous '...teenage wasteland..." chorus, and Townshends guitar riffs. I know that it was a formative song in my musical education, I played the vinyl version of Who's Next endlessly on that old turntable we had in the basement. I also understand the import of these formative songs and the impressions that they leave in our subconscious. All those things considered, the raw power of that song hit me as a physical presence as I stood in the kitchen. When the opening verse of Bohemian Rhapsody came out of the speakers, you know the one, 'Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?...' and I saw the other side of the raw power of Baba O'Riley. The complexity of the Queen arrangement was something that was really eye-opening to me. I understood rock and roll to be pretty straight forward, verse chorus verse, I didn't know anything about intros and bridges and outros (it could be accurately stated that I still don't) so this song came totally out of the blue. The lyrics add another layer of complexity that I didn't really come to understand until much later in life. Music is such a powerful medium, it carries the power of the olfactory in that a song can transport to a time and place just like smell. Music carries a great emotional weight as we can all remember people, places, happenings, as if they happened yesterday when we hear a given song. I have always placed an inordinate value on music and lyrics in my life, just ask anyone who had to listen to me talk about Pink Floyd in the late 80s, but I think that music has that power to move people like no other medium. Go out today and LISTEN to one of your favorite songs, I mean LISTEN to it, don't just have it on in the background, really listen to it and let it move you.

Random pictures from Pullman

The Space Capsule that Max and his team built during Camp Invention
The kids are ready to ride the Chipman Trail!
Playing with the gorilla pod and long shutter speeds on the 4th

Random thoughts on a Saturday night

Amy and the kids are up at Priest Lake with her family, I would be there except for the small matter of Geology 101 that I am smack dab in the middle of. I am enjoying the heck out of that class. The subject matter is terribly interesting, the prof is engaging, and the labs challenge me in ways that I have not been challenged in many years. I also enjoy my kids asking about my homework and such, it's kind of funny in a way. With the house being mostly empty, I am focused on getting all the stuff for Lopez ready to go. I got half the garage arranged today and now I need to see what we have and (more importantly) do not have. We have a ton of stuff that will be going with us and our three kids, but it will all be worth it (he says right now) when we are sitting on the beach at Odlin watching the sun go down on that first day.

With the kids away I went and saw Hancock tonight. It was entertaining and also quite unexpected for a super hero movie. It was not an earth shattering cinematic masterpiece, but it was a refreshing escape.

Yeah, Microsoft is pretty high on my list these days. Just before I moved to Pullman, the 360 got the infamous Red Ring of Death. They fixed it, for a fee, and got it back quickly. I was reasonably happy, thinking that now that that's happened I should be scot free. This was a reasonable expectation as they announced an extension of the warranty, a refund for all those that got charged for repairs, all for the folks that had the RRoD. Think again wise guy. I got up yesterday morning and went to put a movie in for the kids (Warner Bros. cartoons for a holiday morning) and, hey look at that, the Red Ring of Death had returned. So, what was going to be a week of fun and not kid friendly gaming at night (after home work and house work and all that) gets dashed upon the hard rocks of reality. I have had the Wii since before it (officially) launched and I have not had a single problem with it. Of course, now that I have said that, watch out. I now that they are like apples and oranges and they don't really compare on a pure hardware basis, but the fact is that I have had to send my 360 in for repairs twice, while in the same time frame all four of my Nintendo DSes and my one Wii have worked without fail for similar numbers of gaming hours. I really like the 360 and the games I have for it, but this reliability rate is not the consumers best friend.

Wall-E

This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. I keep half expecting Pixar to release something that does not stand up to the measurement of their catalog. This was not the one. With almost no true dialogue, Wall-E was already setting a fairly high mark to try to keep kids and adults engaged for the 100 minute running time. But what this movie came down to, at the core, was a story about the quest for companionship and someone to share your life with. As a testament to the animators skill, and the skill of Ben Burtt in creating life like sounds for the title character, this movie is a better love story than anything since Field of Dreams. Not only that, but Wall-E is also a broadside against several different areas of society today. From big box retailers, to crass consumerism, to 'social' networks and beyond, Wall-E holds up a mirror to our culture and doesn't skimp on the reflection. But that is all in the sub-text. The driving force of the movie is the relationship that one robot forms with another, and the lengths to which he will go to find that happiness and that joy that comes from sharing your life with someone else. Wall-E does all of this with precious little traditional dialogue and without the need for 'clever' catch phrases or juvenile humor. Wall-E is a great accomplishment for Pixar and Andrew Stanton, it tells a neat story and gives us great characters, all of this in a movie that is made for kids.

Best. Father's Day. EVER. Part II - The Pictures

The view from the KOMO Suite
The kids' teacher, Mrs. Rena Mincks, and the voice of the Mariners, Dave Neihaus
The kids posing with Dave Neihaus and the Washington Dairy Ambassador
The kids doing their cheer on the radio pre-game show with Shannon Drayer.
The Moose came by in the third inning and got crazy.

Zack, Max, and yours truly
Tycho and Olivia looking for Pokemon in the game program, they didn't find any.
We came, we saw, we acted cheesy.
What a day!

Special thanks to Mrs. Mincks and all the great kids in the class that came up with the winning cheer!

Best. Fathers Day. EVER!

Background...Max's class entered a contest for the Washington State Dairy commission and the Seattle Mariners to create a cheer for the M's that included several dairy product mentions...Well, low and behold Max's class was selected as one of two winners! So we got to go to the Mariners game on Father's Day and sit in the KOMO luxury suite. Other than the result, the M's got swept over three games by the Washington Nationals, it was a great experience. The kids got to meet the voice of the Mariners, Dave Neihaus, the Mariner Moose, and do their winning cheer live on the radio during the pre-game show. All the kids had a great time and so did the parents.

Pictures and video will be posted later this week. Right now I am going to bed after driving 600 miles between last night and right now...