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!

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.

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.

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!

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!!

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!

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.

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

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

A chimp in overalls. Segways. Japanese television. 

Clip found on EW.com’s PopWatch Blog.