Click the photo for the GQ interview…

AND, I really want to see his latest film, Get Low.

I was talking to my running partner, Vandroid, tonight and she mentioned having a feeling of nostalgia or deja vu recently about something from her childhood. I can relate because summer is that season that makes me think of all sorts of things like that. A certain way the air feels when a rare and welcome cool breeze blows through. The feeling you get from walking into an air conditioned house after mowing the lawn on a hot day. These are not very special things, but they are things that always remind me of earlier experiences.

My list is not necessarily full of just those types of things. Some of them are quite tangible and I’m sure very relatable for most. So, here goes. My Top 10 List for Summertime.

10. Tomatoes.

Anyone who appreciates a good tomato knows exactly what I’m talking about. Heck, I may as well throw in all fresh vegetables here, but tomatoes are the ones that seem to be the most popular and most talked about during summer. After picking through nearly impenetrable, baseball-hard, poor excuses for tomatoes for most of the year at the local grocery store, it’s a very wonderful thing to go to the farmer’s market and buy a few huge tomatoes that have been grown and picked less than 20 miles away from where you’ll be ingesting them.

It’s a tomato that tastes like a tomato. It’s red. Yes, it’s actually RED. Not a sickly looking near-pink or faded red. It’s red on the outside and red on the inside. I slice one up, drizzle a bit of olive oil over it, add a bit of shredded parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper and you almost have a fancy hors d’oeuvre. And then sometimes, I just slice it up and eat it as is. That’s the great thing about summertime tomatoes. They’re always good no matter what you do with them.

9. Frogs

I was driving home the other night and I had my windows down. I am normally listening to music in the car, but for some reason had it turned down or completely off for that matter. I stopped at a stop sign in a residential area and noticed a loud, but not too loud, chorus of frogs singing through the night. Living in a city, you don’t get to hear that very often. So when I do, I am taken back to my childhood when every summer night sounded like that. I used to keep my window to my bedroom open so I could hear the frogs through the screen and possibly the rain if a storm brewed overnight. The frogs singing is a beautiful sound that I don’t think I’ll ever get over in my lifetime.

8. Floating the river (with beer).

I did this once completely sober. It was still fun, but not like in the past. I can have a great time without drinking, but… I don’t know. There’s just something about floating the river with your friends and a 30-pack that just makes summer for me. I haven’t gotten to go yet this year, but I’m working on it. By the way, if you haven’t done this, you’re missing out and you need to look into it. Soon.

7. Fresh cut grass.

Not much to say about this one except that it looks, feels and smells completely awesome.

6. A cold beer.

Ok, I mentioned beer above with the river thing. I promise. I’m not an alcoholic. I just really like beer. A lot. And although there are some fantastic beers that are more suited for colder months, nothing beats a good, ice cold wheat beer on a hot day after work. I also would suggest trying a shandy (originally a ginger flavored beer) if you never have. Kilkinney’s mixes up a good one with Sprite and a Smithwick’s. Leinenkugel’s makes a very lemony flavored one that I tend to gravitate toward every year. The first version of the shandy I ever tasted was made for me by Mike at the Soundpony a few years ago. He used Sprite and Fosters. It was delicious and I’ve been a fan of them ever since.

5. Running.

I know. WTF, right? It’s hot, why would you prefer running in the summer over cooler months? Something about the warmer weather makes me want to get outside more (real original, I know) and be active. It can be 95 degrees and I’m still up for a run. Sure, it sucks until you’re used to it, but you feel great afterward and you sweat a lot more.

4. Swimming.

This one’s a given. Let’s move on.

3. Summer movies.

Yeah, yeah. The summers at the cineplex ain’t what she used to be. Movies pretty much suck these days and very few are actually good. However, it’s been a tradition of mine (as with many) over the summers to go see some movies on those hot days or nights. It seemed back in the day that the summer would yield a handful of good/great movies between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day. Nowadays, we’re lucky if we get two. In the last few years, here are the ones that have made my summers a little better.

District 9

Moon

Star Trek (2009)

Iron Man

The Dark Knight

And this year, Inception.

(Predators was pretty fun too.)

2. Shorts and flip-flops.

I try to avoid the frat-boy look as much as possible, but sometimes shorts and flip-flops are just exactly where it’s at and they just say summer to me. At least I’m not throwing a visor on my head, bro.

1. Radishes!!!!!!

Ok, I kid. It’s not radishes. Sorry radish lovers. Actually, there really isn’t much point to a number one because these aren’t really in a particular order or anything. But, my number one is going to have to be…

Yes! Slip n’ Slide. Thank you, Wham-O. Although I haven’t been on one in years, this is chosen based on pure nostalgia alone. I remember when we got this as kids and slid on it nonstop. We even put dish soap on it (and I’m sure a lot of kids did that). We slid on it in our clothes, in our swimsuits, in the nude. We didn’t care. We were kids, darn it. Some of the best of my summer days were spent playing on a Slip n’ Slide. And then we left it out one night and our dogs chewed it up. Oh well.

Happy summertime, everybody!

PS: Big props to air conditioning too. We couldn’t do it without you, AC!

And here is Up In The Air‘s opening sequence

In trying to get this blog back up and running, I figured I’d write about the finale I’m still reeling a bit from since Sunday night. Stop reading now if you don’t care. You’ve been warned.

First of all, I liked the finale episode titled “The End”. I say “liked” because that’s exactly what it was upon first viewing. Also, I was a little confused by it. That’s what happens when I’ve had a few Dharma beers and “secret Island punch” (made by a fellow LOSTie) during the show. I don’t mean I was inebriated. I was just trying to take it all in and sometimes I’m just better watching LOST completely by myself and without a drink or five. Not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy watching the show with my friends over the years. It’s been a super-rad experience doing that. I always tend to glean a bit more from an episode when I re-watch it alone.

And that’s exactly what I did last night. I had the house to myself for a few hours, so I sat back and watched last week’s episode “What They Died For” as a primer (Good sweet Jesus, I love DVR technology) and then moved immediately onto the finale. All of this while doing three loads of laundry, mind you.

I can now say that I loved the final episode of this crazy-ass TV show that mixed action-adventure, mysticism, science fiction, religious ideas and seldom ever solved mysteries. The fact that many mysteries of the show that have been opened on the show over the last six seasons, were not answered is pretty annoying to me when you consider the amount of energy put into some of them by the writers. However, when all was said and done, I “let go” and just went with it. At first I felt a little cheated. I think this was because I didn’t entirely get it upon first viewing. Then, after talking about it with a couple of friends and analyzing a bit more, I realized that there was not another way it could have ended (for me anyway) that would have been as satisfying on the emotional level.

A lead anchor on Good Morning America (why I watch morning news shows I do not know. It’s a habit from a very young age) started yapping about LOST in an “Around the Water Cooler” segment and she just flat out said, “and they were all in Purgatory…”  This was coming from a woman who works for the parent company (ABC) which produces LOST. So, it was evident that many people may not have gotten the gist of the ending of the last episode and not realized the sideways universe we’d seen all season was actually the Purgatory-like timeless realm where our departed characters had hung out in limbo until moving on to the real afterlife.

This brings me to the elements of the finale that packed the greatest punch. No, we didn’t get a lot of answers to much of anything. No more information about the Dharma Initiative. Nothing more about Walt. Why can’t the smoke monster travel past those force field pylons? Ugh, there are too many to list. What we did get was some great moments of enlightenment where our characters in the sideways universe finally became blissfully aware of their Island lives by being reunited with those they’d loved then. It all sounds silly and it is a little bit, but by golly, it worked and I loved it.

When Jack goes into the church to view his dead father’s body and discovers he is not in the coffin, we hear Christian Shephard’s voice behind him and definitely realize something is up and that Jack is now dead. He tells him that he is indeed dead and that many have died long before him and many after him. They are in a place beyond space and time. There is no time here. The sideways universe was seemingly formed from the collective subconsciousness of the Island’s castaways (and some others) who all interacted with Jack. He was told he needed them and they needed him. They were part of the most important part of his life. Everything that happened there did indeed happen. We didn’t get a “it was all a dream” or “the Island was a spaceship” BS cop-out. Some fans probably find this ending a cop-out, but I didn’t. I thought it was pretty much perfect.

The final scenes were pretty much the finest LOST has ever produced. It took us back to the bamboo forest where we were first introduced to Jack Shephard (and Vincent the dog). As Jack lay dying on the ground, he looked up into the sky to see the remaining castaways (those who chose to leave), fly away on the Ajira flight that emergency landed (crashed sort of) in season 5. Vincent runs up, licks him on the face and lays down beside him like a good dog does. At this point, I have become a blubbering idiot, by the way. Jack smiles and we get a close-up of his eye (an iconic LOST staple). The eye closes and we jump-cut to black. The End, indeed.

This show has been my absolute favorite for the last six years and I can’t wait to start it over and watch it all unfold again with a very hindsight 20/20 perspective. It’s my new Star Trek. So many great and wonderful things about it. I’m going to miss it, but very glad it’s done.

This is a cake.

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

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.

Behold the fun!

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!

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.

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