In Other Music News…

I got an email from Elisabeth Esselink (aka Solex) via her newsletter saying that a new album (“The Laughing Stock of Indie Rock”) is forthcoming, and she might, maybe, possibly, play in Pittsburgh. I hope she does make it here — we wussed out on a road to Cleveland to see her several years ago. […]

A Shared History

I came across this history of rock music today, and after reading through the history of the 1990s, I found that while the author was tracing the patterns of indie music, I was tracing my past, as defined by the music I listened to. I’ve always thought that life would be better with a soundtrack, […]

The Olympics

Best observation about the Summer Olympics? Look to Salon’s King Kaufman: What a day for Ahmed Almaktoum, who routed the field to win the gold in the men’s double trap final, thus becoming the first person from the United Arab Emerates ever to win a medal. I did a double-take when I saw him celebrating […]

Flying Babies

There’s been much talk lately on the internet about flying with children (I really wanted to include a Mimi Smartypants entry, but her archives titles aren’t exactly descriptive of their content). I’ve talked briefly about Seb’s behavior on our trip to Bishop last year. My only additional comment is — why didn’t we think to […]

Sickness, Again

What is it about this year? I’m sick, again. This time, I think this is thanks to a co-worker. It hit me Sunday night — fever, aches, pains, the works. I stayed home and in bed yesterday. Today I managed to drag myself out of bed and to work, which meant I had to take […]

Rain

I really don’t mind riding to work in the rain, especially if it hasn’t been raining consistently. Like this morning. It was actually quite pleasant — it was cool enough that I could comfortably wear a rain jacket, but not so cool that it was miserable. It was one of those mornings when Things Were […]

More Music

I’ve been listening to the latest New Year quite a bit lately. I like it, and initially, I liked it more than their first release, but not as much as what the Kadane brothers did with Bedhead. But my opinion is changing a bit. My biggest problem with the record is Bubba Kadane’s tendency to […]

No, I Don’t Rent Apartments…

It has come to our attention that someone has put our phone number on an apartment for rent sign (by mistake, I hope). We’ve gotten a handful of messages on our machine (since we have the basic “Hi, leave a message” message), but tonight I actually spoke to someone about, uh, our apartment… *Ring* “Hello?” […]

Idiots on the Street

We all assume that there will be a certain percentage of drivers that are, simply put, idiots. It’s just a fact of life. And I assumed this applied to cyclists as well, but I also thought that the commute to downtown Pittsburgh might filter them a bit more, since downtown isn’t exactly the most bike-friendly […]

Game Over, Among Other Things

As expected, Lance Armstrong put the finishing touches on his sixth TdF win today on the slopes of L’Alpe D’Huez. How fast was Lance? Ivan Basso, the closest contender in the GC, started the time trial two minutes ahead of Armstrong, but was still passed by Lance in the closing kilometers. Barring catastrophe, Lance should […]