Denver trippin’

Headed to Denver with my friend Brad to visit our friend Jeff and check out The Killers and M83 concert at Magness Arena this past weekend and it was a blast! It was my 2nd time seeing The Killers and the boys did not disappoint. Thanks to Brad and Jeff for a great weekend and especially to Jeff for hosting us in his apartment and carting us all over the place!!

Here’s a few pics from the weekend. 

 

Mr. B. Flowers getting ready to close out an awesome show.

 

Last time I saw them was at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa. They've certainly graduated to the arena show.

 

M83 = Amazing!

Good times with the boys in downtown Denver.

And here’s a video i found on YouTube from the same performance. This was the closing of the show (pre-encore). The vocals don’t sound that great since it’s a cam-job, but let me assure you, they sounded very good. I was impressed. If you are planning on catching them on tour and don’t want to see the cool thing they do at the end of this song, then don’t watch. I had to post it though. It’s my absolute favorite Killers tune. Enjoy!

Just a heads-up. My birthday is only 5 months away…

Ahem… and I enjoy cake as well. Just puttin’ that out there.

This is a cake.

Thanks to the wonderful boingboing.net for the lead on this. Click here for the the original post.

Good advice for a new year (and the rest of your life).

My boss passed out copies of Harvey Mackay’s latest syndicated column today in a staff meeting. I occasionally read Mackay’s column and I have to say, it’s never cheesy, silly or patronizing. It’s a lot of common sense actually. He has a way of just breaking it all down. 

I thought this latest column was worth noting. It’s good advice and I just wanted to share. 

How to stay young as the years go by

By Harvey Mackay

Youth, it has been said, is wasted on the young. That would be a travesty if it were true. Fortunately, youth is not only a time of life; it’s also a state of mind. I stopped counting after my 39th birthday, but I still consider myself young. And I intend to stay that way!

Having a youthful outlook and attitude is possible at any age, just as being an old fogey can start at a very young age. As I said, I choose youth!

Want to stay young at heart? Here are some ideas to help you:

Keep only cheerful, positive friends. You can pick your friends, and I like to choose those who are positive and people who challenge me. They make me feel good. They don’t drag me down or make me angry at the world. Negative people see the difficulty in every opportunity, while positive people see the opportunity in every difficulty.

 Keep learning. I think Henry Ford put it best when he said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” I’ve always said that you should be in school all your life—never stop learning.

Enjoy the simple things. Don’t forget to take time to enjoy the things that you like to do—go for a walk or to the movies, read a good book, watch a favorite TV show, spend time with your family. You have to have a good balance in life.

Laugh often. Starting your day with a good laugh, or at least a big smile, is as beneficial to your health as it is to your mood. Scientific studies at Northwestern University and Fordham University concluded that laughter benefits the heart, lungs, stomach and other organs. It relaxes tensions, changes attitude, and increases the body’s natural painkillers. And it has no harmful side effects.

Stay in shape. Exercise is good for your mind as well as your body. Studies show that healthy employees have decreased absenteeism, better performance and improved morale. I’ve always felt that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. The human body is the only machine that wears out faster if it is not used.

Cherish your health. There is nothing more important than your health. Stay in shape so you can improve your chance for good health. If you’re healthy, do what you can to preserve it. It your health is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

Be happy. You are responsible for your own happiness. We sometimes convince ourselves that life will be better after we get a better job, make more money, get married, have a baby, buy a bigger house and so on. Yet the accomplishment of any of those events may not make any difference at all. There is no magic secret to happiness. Happiness starts in your head.

Don’t stress out. You can’t escape stress, but you can avoid creating unnecessary stress. You just need to find a stress reliever. Mine is sports—going to a sporting event, playing golf, swimming or jogging. If the stress just won’t go away, then you have to make some changes in your life that might be more stressful in the short-term but healthier in the long run.

Don’t take guilt trips. Rather, take a trip to some location or maybe it’s just the mall, but escape occasionally. I remember a story about the worry tree. At night an accountant would go home from work and place all his worries on a tree in his front yard. The next morning he would pick up those worries on his way to work, but surprisingly, they weren’t as heavy the next day.

Visualize yourself as youthful and with endless energy. I learned years ago that visualization is the most powerful means of attaining personal goals. Visionary people can achieve whatever they want by determining a plan to attain it and expecting positive results. It doesn’t do the planning and it doesn’t anticipate the obstacles. It gives you a real idea of what is possible, if only you want it bad enough. Vision is not so much what you think as how you think. If you can visualize it, you can make it happen.

Mackay’s Moral: If you want to stay youthful, stay useful.

From Mackay’s website.

New Year’s Eve 2008

It was a blast. I’d seen the Flaming Lips in Tulsa at our D-Fest music festival in summer of ‘07. This show was better. Mostly because I was a lot closer and well, it was New Year’s Eve!!  Definitely glad I made the drive to OKC on Wed night.

Behold the fun!

2009 is a go. And so am I.

The last family get-together of the holidays was this afternoon at my parents’ house. Consumption of bad-for-me food is done. The holidays are done. I’m finally taking down my Christmas tree tomorrow. Yes, I’m one of those schmaltzy types that leaves it up through New Years (and then some).

So, the bad food is over. The holiday partying and drinking is over. The snacking “because it’s the holidays” is over.

I’m starting back to a regular workout regimen and I’m going to get back to running regularly when weather permits. I haven’t been regularly running since mid-Oct. I think I’ve been running between then and now about three times. Yikes.

So, it’s on.  I found some old pics of myself the other day and although I was 6 years younger in them, I was way thinner and in better shape. It’s time to get back to that. The better in shape you are the younger you’ll look. and more importantly, feel.

Here we go. Happy 2009 everyone!!

holidays…

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and all that. I got a few nice items from family members including a much needed laptop lap thingy to set my laptop on instead of using my legs or a pillow. It also does a little to help cool it. Got some clothes which I can add to my work apparel. I can always use more khakis and button-up shirts for my corporate whore outfit. 

An actual highlight besides the laptop holder is the Sound of the Smiths CD which my sister gave me. Now, I have most of these songs on other albums, but I never had them re-mastered to sound so lovely. 

Now, it’s on to New Year’s Eve! I’m quite excited about this one! Headed to OKC and hopefully this will be the imagery I’ll be privy to that evening.

I’ll be sure to take some of my own pictures and have them up on Facebook and blog ASAP afterwards!

R.I.P. Majel Barrett-Roddenberry

The original “Number One” (LONG before Riker), Nurse Christine Chapel, voice of the Enterprise’s computer for virtually every incarnation of Star Trek and Deanna Troi’s hot-to-trot Betazoid mother, Lxwanna Troi, on The Next Generation — these are the roles that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry played in the Trek-verse. Not to mention her real life role as wife of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry. 

Barrett-Roddenberry passed away yesterday after suffering from Leukemia. She was 76. More info and a couple of clips at EW.com. 

Here was a great clip of Spock hitting on Nurse Chapel (in his oh-so-Vulcan way) from the original series. Gawd, I loved the original series.

My favorite albums of 2008 [Updated]

I didn’t buy every album that I wanted to this year. Therefore, I may have only listened to certain tracks from albums I never heard in their entirety. I wanted to list all of my favorite songs from this past year, but I don’t really have time. My favorite albums list will have to do for now.

So, here is the list of top 10 favorites (in no particular order) from this past year. Video bits provided!!

M83 – Saturdays = Youth /  Just discovered this band this year and I’m really liking them a lot. I may get to see them in Denver next month! Here’s the video for the single “Kim & Jessie”.

R.E.M. – Accelerate / Wow. After two self-admittedly underwhelming last albums, Michael, Peter and Mike are back in form with an album that sounds more like, well, R.E.M.   Here is “Supernatural Superserious”:

Santogold - self-titled /  I LOVE this album. It’s an amalgam of rock, new wave, dancehall, hip-hop and several other sub-genres. Definitely one to put on at a party. Here is the single “L.E.S. Artistes”.

Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends /  I gotta hand it to Coldplay. They always deliver. This time with the help of producer Brian Eno. Here is the alternate version video for single “Viva La Vida” directed by Anton Corbjn. He also directed a certain Depeche Mode video that it bares a striking similarity to. Nice touch.

Rilo Kiley – Under the Blacklight /  I’ll be honest. I would have preferred another Jenny Lewis and Watson Twins album this year. Oh well. We can’t have everything. This album seemed to meld the best of Rilo Kiley with lead singer Jenny Lewis’ best moments from Rabbit Fur Coat album with the Watsons. Here is one of my favorite throwback tracks from the album, “Silver Lining”.

Cut/Copy – self-titled In Ghost Colours /  All I’m gonna say is this CD stayed in the CR-V’s CD changer all summer and then some. Video for “Hearts on Fire”.

Crystal Castles - self-titled /  GREAT alt dance album!!! Here’s the video for “Courtship Dating”.

TV On The Radio – Dear Science /  I was introduced to TVOTR through their last album, Return to Cookie Mountain. So far, I’m liking this album better. The songs are faster and tighter and overall I think they’re onto something better. Here’s “Golden Age”.

Headlights – Some Racing, Some Stopping /  What a great discovery! I really love this band a lot. Can’t wait to hear more from them soon! Please come to Tulsa soon!! Here is the video for “Cherry Tulips”, one of my favorite songs of the year as well.

Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us /  Ok, this one is definitely my favorite for the the year that was!  Much like Bring It Back, I can’t get enough of this album. It’s another CD that played almost endlessly in my car’s CD changer this year. Here’s “My Only Offer”. This one also made it onto a couple of my run mixes.

UPDATE:

Honorable Mention: New Pornographers – Challengers (To be honest, I completely forgot to put this in the top 10 where it belongs. What can I say? I’m not a professional music critic. I have some semblance of a life.)  AND Hot Chip – Made in the Dark. LOVE IT!

I wanted to list a few of my favorite songs from 2008…

T.I. – Whatever You Like

Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

MGMT – Electric Feel (album technically was released in ‘07, but I do believe that the single was released in ‘08. So sue me if I’m wrong. The song got noticed this year!)

Estelle w/Kanye – American Boy

Kanye West – Flashing Lights (I know. 2007 album.)

R.E.M. – Hollow Man

Santogold – Lights On

New Pornographers - Challengers

Cool Kids – Delivery Man

Duffy – Warwick Ave

Worst rapper names of all time.

Andrew sent me this and I had to put it on the blog. Simply, hilarious.

69 Boyz, Lil’ Scrappy, Bubba Sparxxx! They’re all here. Enjoy!

From Cracked.com.

Chamillionaire

 

Bubba Sparxxx

Three things I’m thankful for this year.

A chimp in overalls. Segways. Japanese television. 

 

Clip found on EW.com’s PopWatch Blog.

Grocery e-list

I saw this on Apple.com today. It’s a new app for the iPhone called Grocery IQ and it enables you to easily do an organized electronic grocery list. Just another wonderful function that is helping me ruin my penmanship. Yea, technology!

 

Just another reason to be on your phone ALL THE TIME!

VEEP BINGO just in time for tonight!

From the HOW Design Blog. This is pretty funny! I can’t believe “PTA” isn’t on there!

Veep Bingo

The presidential LINGO debate cards proved so popular that illustrator Bob Staake created a new set of cards for the vice presidential debate tomorrow.  

Posted by Megan

Nick & Norah is too cute and too hip and I loved it.

This was probably one of the funniest and sweetest films I’d seen in a while. I loved it. I loved the actors, the music, the location (L.E.S. music scene in NYC!), the faux queercore band – The Jerk-Offs, and the pumpkin colored Yugo. I already bought the soundtrack too. The score is by former Devo member, Mark Mothersbaugh who has scored Rushmore, The Royal Tenembaums and countless other things. The songs are by Vampire Weekend, Shout Out Louds, Band of Horses, Rogue Wave, Devendra Banhart, The Submarines and many others. It’s all good stuff too.

Check it out. It’s a great and fun little film. 

Kat Dennings and Michael Cera do the star-crossed lovers thing.

My Drive Thru (I heart this video)

My Drive Thru by Santogold, N.E.R.D. and Casablancas

Oh. Snap.

Palin/Fey. Fey/Palin. Possible insanity at SNL very soon!

CLICK HERE! for some MSNBC scoopage.

It would be great if they can keep this under wraps until the big reveal.

Peggy and her geigh.

JEZEBEL.COM put up a post about last Sunday’s GREAT episode of Mad Men. This show is SO GOOD! If you’re not watching it, get out there and rent season one and get back to me! I can’t rave enough about it.

Anyway, I just wanted to repost the post. LINK!

EW’s Inside Scoop on the new “Trek”

Ok, I know the world of Trek involves special FX, but this Photoshopping is out of control!

Admittedly, I am kind of a nerd. Ok, maybe more than kind of. I’ve loved this series since childhood and have pretty much always been into anything sci-fi, weird, fantasy, etc. I’ve blogged about this before, but now I feel like I have something worth posting on it. Entertainment Weekly has posted a new article about the new Star Trek movie from JJ Abrams. These are the first real photos released that are stills from the film or are actual publicity shots. And they look GRAND! I can’t wait to see the actual interior of the ship and finally, we get to see a shot of the uniforms! I like love it! See, I told you I was a nerd. 

Here are a few pics I pulled from the article. You can view it in its entirety + more pics HERE.

Kirk is the only one who’s a Mac Genius (because he’s wearing black!)

“I got your Vulcan death-grip right here!”

Is that an escape pod?

AWESOME!

Run, Runner!

I have steadily upgraded my run challenge to 10k for each outing and it’s going really, really well. Hopefully, in a month I’ll be at 15k. As the weather is getting cooler, it gets a little easier and a little tougher depending on how “cool” it actually is. Plus, I may have to start running in the mornings. I like to run in my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods, but it’s starting to get darker earlier. Last night I had a couple of drivers not see me and I thought I was going to get hit. This was about two blocks from my house in a relatively quiet and low-traffic residential area. 

So, mornings may be a better option. It’s just tougher to get going at 5:30 AM. 

Fortunately, I have one of the greatest motivational tools I’ve ever come across (thanks to Adam). It’s the Nike+ for iPod. I don’t want to sound like a commercial here, but I love this thing. It keeps you going when you may want to quit and you can log all of your runs on the Nike+ site. Also, another relatively new function is the Nike+ Mini-you which lets you create a cool avatar and load to your Facebook profile. Once you update your run info onto the Nike+ site, it automatically updates your Facebook the next time you log-in. Here the link to my avatar. Yeah, I know. He’s cute.

I’m a winner.

I went to the second Art Directors Club of Tulsa meeting last night to hear designer Michael Osborne speak. What a great guy. His company, MOD, in San Francisco, not only includes clients like Target’s Archer Farms, but also tons of wine companies for which he and his designers get to design wonderful labels. He also started a non-profit which does pro bono design for other non-profits related to children’s health issues. 

If I could do that sort of work and still support myself, I would do it in a heartbeat. I told him that too when I met him. 

Now to the part where I’m a winner. They had a drawing and I won a $100 Apple Store gift card! Woo hoo! I’m now $100 closer to my new toy!

The NEW Macbook Pro. Yum.

“Mad Men” third season will happen!

It’s a go! Go Don! Go Betty! Go Peggy! Go a$$hole… uh, I mean Pete! Go Sal!

From Variety.com

 

How can you not love Don?

Quote of the day (from David Sedaris!)

Picked this gem up from Gawker today. Leave it to author David Sedaris (a personal hero of mine) to give some clear perspective on undecided voters in the upcoming Presidential election.

“To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. ‘Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it.’” — Humorist David Sedaris on supposedly ‘undecided’ voters. [The New Yorker via Cynical C]

Here’s a link for more quotes.

It is a sad mutha-f*ckin’ day.

RIP Dolemite (link to Gawker story).

Just in time for Fall, something to jump-start that Winter weight gain.

Alright foodies, I’ve got your item of the day. How good does this look? I love cheesecake and I like pumpkin pie. Put them together and it’s one of the better Autumn / holiday desserts. Click the image to go to recipe!

 

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 Thanks to JoyOfBaking.com for the recipe!

Funny item of the day: Dream vacay with AC360!

Oh my! This is funny. And kind of pathetic. But it’s more funny than pathetic. And actually, in a weird way, I kind of admire this guy a little. A little.

From Gawker.

Heading to New York City

It’s 5:40am and I would rather be sleeping. I can do that on the plane. I have a connection at DFW that I will unfortunately have to make a mad dash for since it leaves from another gate and there’s not much of a window.

I’m excited about my trip though! I can’t wait to see Anita, Sandy, Carolyn, Kate, Erin, Heather and Joey! Hopefully there’s time to see everyone.

I may or may not be updating much the rest of this week/weekend.

Hope everyone has a good one!

I know this picture is BAD, but I did mention it’s an ungodly hour.

LOST season 5

I know I’m a little late out of the gate on this one. Apparently, this promo started running last week. Well, I’ve been busy. I just got back from my New York City trip and I’m a little behind on things. Anyway, even though they don’t show a whole lot (what a rare thing for Lost, heh), it does elicit some excitement from me for sure. It’s just about three months until my obsession shall start again. Boy, will I have things to blog about. I wish I could give EW’s Jeff “Doc” Jensen a run for his money, but who has that sort of time? Plus, he gets PAID to theorize and write about Lost. I AM IN THE WRONG BUSINESS. 

Anyway, here’s the promo:

Looks like everyone’s locked and loaded and ready to go!

My new toy!

I took the plunge and bought the “old” Macbook Pro (15″ model). I wanted the new one, but just couldn’t justify the price for what I wanted. Instead, I got a great laptop with the speed I want and storage capacity I need for considerably less than the brand new model. So, I’ve pretty much been playing on it nonstop since I got home from Best Buy.

Election Day 2008

 

 

 

I trust everyone else did too.

Oh what a night!

Grant Park, Chicago. Nov 4, 2008 (photo from Gawker.com)

I don’t care what your politics are. Dem. GOP. Ron Paul lover. Whatever. You can’t deny that yesterday and last night weren’t something grand. I’ll admit, I wasn’t onboard with either candidate for a long time. I didn’t wait until the last minute to make up my mind, but I was never completely “at ease” with my choice. I never drank either of their batches of Kool-Aid, but I did want to down a whole pitcher of Obama’s at one point. I’m always that way with candidates though. It’s just how I am. I don’t trust them. I want to trust them. Badly.

Anyway, I wish I could’ve been in Grant Park last night. Absolutely amazing. Gawker sums up the longing to be part of a crowd on a rare occasion such as this. 

Well America, here we go. It’s a new day and the beginning of a new political era. Let’s watch our politicians closely and make sure they try to stay at least somewhat true to their words. 

R.I.P. Mr. Crichton

The man single-handedly reinvigorated my love of dinosaurs when I read Jurassic Park in the early 90s. Then, the film version made me feel like a kid again (with some help from Spielberg and Co). Other books were very interesting, but didn’t translate well to film. Nonetheless, you’ll be missed, Michael Crichton. I think I’m going to go rent Westworld.

Bound for Austin, TX.

On Friday, I’m loading up with Libby and heading to FunFunFunFest in Austin, TX! Monika, Tony, Katy and Jack are also heading down from Tulsey Town. It should be a great time. There are lots of bands I want to see and it’ll be tough to make decisions since it seems they’ve scheduled a lot of them at the same time on different stages. Ugh!

I’m definitely going to catch The National and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!  Oh, and Girl In A Coma is playing one of the after-parties at Mohawk! Woo hoo!!

Also on the list are Bad Brains, The Dead Milkmen (in what is supposedly their last show – and I will TRY to get a Milkmen t-shirt for you, Andy), Atmosphere and many, many other indie and punk bands. I’m tired of putting links in this post. If you want to know more about those bands, you know how to use Google.

Are we human? Or are we dancer?

I couldn’t resist. I got Killers tickets for a show in Denver. And the plane tickets are so cheap! Really!

Can’t wait! I saw them in 2005 at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Wonderful show. I’m getting a little obsessed with live shows. I may need help soon. 

Sorry.

Found this on the HOW Blog: 

The creative geniuses at Aesthetic Apparatus recently released a series of posters inspired by OPEN/CLOSED signs. Hang one of these in your window and see what happens.

What began as a never-produced poster idea has propagated itself into a series of 9 mock OPEN/CLOSED signs. Double-sided yet possibly commercially-useless, these signs will relay to passers-by and potential customers that you’re not really into categorizing your availability in such limited definitions like “open” or “closed.”

I think my favorite one is “Sorry, we’re erect”. Ah, if I had a nickel…

 

 

 

 

 

Sexy Trekkin’

The second trailer is finally here and it’s better, prettier and (shock!) sexier than I ever expected. I’m impressed thus far and can’t wait for May 2009. Click the pic for a link to the Quicktime HD trailers for the revisionist treatment of Star Trek.

Thanksgiving is next week…

Spend it with those you love.

One of them is the gay cousin who moved to Coruscant and never looked back!*

 

*Yeah, it’s a decidedly nerdy Star Wars reference.