Our latest ultrasound.......

Like The Corners Of My Mind

Steph and I recently watched one of those "making of" documentaries about Nirvana's groundbreaking "Nevermind" album. The end of the documentary had some live footage of the band doing "Breed" and just making a mess of the stage, their instruments and themselves. It immediately brought me back to Halloween night, 1993. Three college friends and I made the 20 minute drive south from Kent State to the James A. Rhodes Arena on the campus of The University of Akron to see Nirvana on their "In Utero" tour.

It was a pretty terrific show, teetering the line between hard rock and PUNK rock. I have a bootleg of a Nirvana show from around this time, recorded in Italy - it is full on, straight up, balls out punk. I don't remember which particular songs were best on that night in Akron, but I do remember being full of beer. And I clearly remember two particular events of that night.

• On the ride down I mused out loud that the band HAD to be up to something since it was Halloween night. I was correct. Kurt Cobain came out for the first song dressed in a large Barney the Dinosaur costume. I tell you what, it's hard to not to really laugh when you see Barney the Dinosaur ripping off a guitar solo! Second guitar player Pat Smear was dressed as Slash (from Guns 'N' Roses). At the end of the song, the two wrestled and Barney ended up beating Slash about the head with his guitar (pictured right).

• During one song, somebody threw a shoe at Cobain and hit him. After the song, he grabbed the show, pissed in it, and threw it back out in the audience.

As I sit here 13-and-a-half years later, I'm somewhat stunned, but not at all surprised that I have the internet to keep those memories alive for me - the set list is here, just scroll down to October 31, 1993 - those two events are even mentioned in the summary. I remembered those two particular events because, well, there's just some rock moments you don't forget. But it's really cool to be able to see that set list and even a bunch of pictures from that very fun night, as I was approaching graduation and a much different life.

I still have the ticket stub, too. I have HUNDREDS of stubs from concerts going back to 1987, in fact. More on those some other time.

It's Gonna Touch Your Tummy

My wife and I recently bought some Honey Nut Cheerios. Whenever these end up in our house, it is inevitable that the commercial jingle they had years ago ends up stuck in my head for hours......I'm sure you know the jingle if you're over, say, 25 years old. Now we have a running bet, though, and we're going to rely on my reader(s) to settle it. I contend that the line in the jingle is "it's a honey of an OAT," while my wife thinks it "it's a honey of an O." Who do you think is right? Can anyone find proof?

UPDATE: I lose:

Why Blogging Is Good, Part One Million

I sound like a broken record, but I'm going to say it again. At least once a week, Bob Lefsetz writes something that really hits home for me. Yesterday's post about the death of Denny Doherty (The Mama's & The Papa's) was a heartfelt look back at the Lefsetz's life in the 1960s, but it was the last paragraph of the post that shows what a good writer Lefsetz is:

Freedom. Choice. These are two of the main tenets of the sixties philosophy. Life is about possibilities. I’m not telling you to drop out of college, or get a divorce. Education and commitment are important. But you mustn’t sacrifice your inner spark. You’ve got to take chances. You’ve got to break the rules. You’ve got to listen to your heart, do more of what you WANT to do than what you SHOULD do. That’s the road to happiness. And, if you ever become confused, unsure if you’ve taken the right direction, fearful of the future, just put on some Mamas & the Papas music, it will inspire you, it will get you through. Hell, it helped birth an entire GENERATION of truth and joy seekers. And truth and joy are a whole hell of a lot more important to the core of man than the uptight bellicose practices of those in power today.

Lefsetz has an uncanny ability to take things that I can't really identify with ('60s idealism, for instance) and make me understand it and feel it. In addition to that, he can take generational musings and apply them to life today. Now if I could only employ those things......often times I feel like I'm not taking chances and then I think I should. Then I realize I have a good job, a stable life, so what's the pull? It's a tug of war and I can only assume we all go through it. These two did.

Other authors have that rare ability to make you really experience life in another time. David McCullough did it with the Truman book. Vincent Bugliosi did it with Helter Skelter (still the scariest book I've ever read). It takes a special class of writer to be able to do something like that, and the fact that I can read Lefsetz almost every day is starting to feel like a true privilege.

Housecleaning....

• I'm such a sucker for signing up and trying new internet sites. In the last month, I signed up for and use Twitter somewhat regularly. You wouldn't think a website where you simply tell people what you are doing would be so addictive, yet it is. I'm not sure why. The latest one I've been using is Geni, a new website where you can map out your family tree in a very Web 2.0, Ajaxy kind of way. It's painfully easy to use and if widely adopted, will be a fascinating website.

• I make no bones about the fact that I'm a fairweather football fan. I pretty much watch the Patriots if they make the playoffs. I might catch 1-2 regular season games. Last night's AFC Championship was a hell of a game, even though the locals lost. There wasn't one big play that decided the game, really, although Reche Caldwell had a HUGE drop in the 4th quarter that would have given the Patriots 38 points instead of 34 (he had another one in the 3rd quarter, but the Pats scored a TD anyway). Or, as my cousin Jenny just wrote me, "they definitely should have won. That dude with the bug-eyes couldn't catch crap if it slapped him in the forehead! Our defense sucked too!" Either way, it was just one of those wild, memorable shootouts that are so fun to watch.

• I opened the newspaper this morning to find out that President Bush will address global warming in his State of the Union address this week and that his initiatives will go slightly further than he has in the past. I'm curious to see where this goes, but my optimism is guarded at best. One thing to consider: when Bush speaks about weaning the U.S. off of foreign oil, alternative energy stocks usually see a nice bump. You may want to think about moving some money into some of those alt.energy companies if you have any to play with. I am NOT a skilled stock picker, so take it with a grain of salt. Just a hunch.

• It has become painfully obvious to me that there are little-to-no resources out there for fathers-to-be on how pregnancy changes the man psychologically. There are PLENTY of resources out there in regards to things like the physical changes you and your wife might be experiencing, supporting your wife, actual childcare and how to help out around the house and stuf, but there's nothing at all at any extensive level that explores what the father-to-be is feeling. Interesting.
  

Ten Years Gone

When you're a kid, ten years is an eternity. When you're 10 years old, 20 feels like it's two lifetimes away. When you're an adult, ten years is like snapping your fingers a couple of times. Bang. Gone. Just like that. Ten years ago I was working for Rounder Records, making something like $7.50 an hour and just getting Tar Hut Records off the ground. I lived with three other dudes at 107 Summer Street, just outside of Davis Square in Somerville, MA. I occasionally used to see the wonderful person who is now my wife walking near the square and I would think "I wonder what she's doing these days." Now we live and share everything together and have twins on the way - on a different Summer St. A different life.

Funny thing is, I have these pictures in my mind from those years like it was yesterday. One day I was standing at the ATM at Central Bank in Davis Square, undoubtedly hoping I even had $20 in my account to take out. And in walks Shannon Farrell, a girl I knew in high school who I probably hadn't seen since high school. We struck up a conversation and a week later she told me she was having a party at her house nearby and that I should come. I thought "why not" and I went. There were many old high school classmates there who must have looked at me and been like "what woodwork did this dude come from?" My wife was probably one of them (she was there)! None of them had really seen me since the spring of 1989 and I, um, looked a little different than they probably remembered. I will never forgot walking out of the party with Mary Lee York, another person I hadn't seen in forever. We both just happened to be leaving at the same time and after some quick small talk, she complimented me on my sideburns and went our seperate ways. That still makes me laugh today - the high school prom queen walking out of a party with a shaggy, boozed up, slightly shy, awkward kid in a flannel shirt.

I remember being thoroughly wierded out about the whole thing, suddenly being thrown into this different world. I attended a couple more of those parties and that feeling never waned. Fast forward ten years later - I still see Mary Lee and Shannon occasionally because Stephanie is friends with them. There are guys on our hockey team now who were also at these parties - I didn't even know them at the time. Just odd how ten years later it's all there. I would have never predicted it.

What were you doing 10 years ago?

IPodding:
Belle & Sebastian - You Don't Send Me
Chris Cornell - Seasons
Josh Ritter - In The Dark
Bread - Make It With You
Bob Dylan - To Be Alone With You
Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash - Good Old Mountain Dew
The Kinks - Hot Potatoes
Hem - The Cuckoo
The Byrds - Eight Miles High
Varnaline - Blackbird Fields

......Not On A Plane

Last night I had a dream that I woke up and there were three gigantic snakes. One was under the bed, but could be seen, two were just outside the bedroom door. Anyone want to take a stab at what it means?

You're Strange, But Don't Change....

Over the weekend I finished Shakey, the 738 page Neil Young biopic, written by author Jimmy McDonough. Other than the fact that the author is clearly in (man) love with his subject, it was a fascinating read. A few things of interest that I learned:

• The guy is kind of an ass. Genius, but insane and ass-like.
• Insane geniuses make for a GREAT read.
  
• Stephen Stills is just plain crazy.
• Young went through a Devo phase!
  

Evidence of the Devo phase can be found here, a must-see video which was shot for a movie Young worked on called Human Highway which barely saw the light of day. Devo were in their Booji Boy phase here, and the boy takes lead vocals (in a crib, mind you) on a coked-up version of "Hey Hey, My My" while Young jams along with them. It must be seen in its entirety to be believed. It is both insane and genius, just like Young himself. I emailed the video to a friend of mine and his response was that he was going to have nightmares for a long time after having seen it.

Latest Performance

Latest Performance
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

It's been a while since I reported anything on the two stocks I bought 16 months ago. As a quick reminder, the two companies whose stock I purchased:

MEMC: a leading global supplier of wafers to the semiconductor industry. These wafers are the fundamental building block on which nearly all microelectronic applications are made. MEMC does a lot of business in the world of computers (hence, semiconductors), but the reason I bought it is because they are in a terrific position to take advantage in the emerging field of renewable energy, specifically solar technologies. It has, evidenced by the graphic at the right, paid off handsomely for me, with a 119% return on investment.

Evergreen Solar: Evergreen Solar is a developer and manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules - the engines of solar electric systems - used in remote power and emerging grid-connected markets. Again, I bought into a company who is in position to be a leader in the solar market. This one hasn't worked out as well thus far, as I've lost 7%, but I'm still long on it. I haven't had a single day when I've thought of selling it, in fact. I think their upside is tremendous and the drop in their stock price might be attributed to the folks who plow money in and out of these technologies in tandem with oil prices. I'm sticking with this.

All told, the gains I've seen in MEMC have greatly subsidized the losses in Evergreen. Total sum: a 54.7% return on my investment, which I'll take any day of the week. It's lower than last time I posted, but who would ever complain about a 54% ROI?

Sad music news this morning, as expert steel player "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow has died. Not many people know the name, but his presence in the hugely influential Flying Burrito Brothers was, to say the least, an important one. His proficiency on his instrument earned him additional work with the likes of The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, Ringo Starr, Jackson Browne , and Linda Ronstadt. Not bad. I was shocked, however, to learn of another side of Kleinow's life which I never even knew existed: a career in special effects and film animation. Some of his special effects work can be found in movies like "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Terminator," and "Gremlins."

Now THAT is a full life! RIP, Sneaky.

Finally, I've been talking to a LOT of people lately about the business of music. I keep telling people repeatedly that it is only a matter of time before a major artist takes all their business and sucks it entirely into their own website or company, completely cutting out the record label. Mark my words: this is going to happen. An article in today's Wall Street Journal details a similar plan for the New York City based band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The band released their first album on their own and sold 122,000 copies of it and are on the verge of releasing their second album next week in much the same manner. They are not the major artist I predicted, but they're big enough where it warrants attention. Marketing might be a problem for them, but it wouldn't be for someone like, say, Bruce Springsteen. It's coming. Someday soon, a budding entrepreneur is going to come up with a new model in the music business that works. And just like Smartfood, I'll say to myself "why the HELL didn't I think of that?"

It's All Over Now......

I recently was able to upgrade on the relative cheap to a new IPod. As you might imagine, this isn't a menial task. It means I have to scroll through the 6,797 songs currently in my library to build an entirely new set of songs for my new Ipod - with the goal being to never have to skip a song when it's on shuffle. Yes, I'm insane.

The final tally: 1,075 songs.

As I scrolled through the library and added song after song to the big unit, I started wondering what song occured most frequently in my library. To put it another way - how many different versions of the same song do I have? The winner was "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," which appears five times in my ITunes library. The rundown:

Bob Dylan, from "Bringing It All Back Home"
Bob Dylan, from the live Rolling Thunder Revue album (1975)
The Byrds, from "Turn! Turn! Turn!"
Them (featuring Van Morrison)
Bob Dylan, from the '66 Royal Albert Hall show

My favorite version is the one by Them, featuring a very young Van Morrison before he was Van Morrison. It's a fairly creepy version, but excellent nonetheless.

As usual, Murphy's Law applies - I got this last Thursday, just 4 days before the IPhone announcement. So I'm not entirely sure what I'll do with this new one, but I'll probably keep it.

The Extra Step

In addition to carrying things, you know what else bothers me? When I have to wash a pan in order to use it. This little personality trait makes no sense at all. Occasionally, Steph and I will just run out of pans. In other words, all of our nonstick's will be in the sink and the normal pans will be in the dishwasher. Then I want to cook something. So in order to accomplish that, I have to wash one to use one - an extra step. That totally sucks, because I know that a short time later, it will just be dirty again and need to be washed. Of course, the easy solution is to turn on the dishwasher, right? Oh no it isn't. Because the dishwasher might not be full yet, and Stephanie can tell you all about my aversion to running a dishwasher that isn't nearly overflowing with stuff.

So like I said, this makes no sense. What does it matter how much time passes between washing it and using it? Eventually you're going to use it. What does it matter if it's five minutes or five days after washing? I dunno. But it matters. I guess when I want to make some food, I don't want to have to go through the extra time and effort it takes to have to wash a pan. Of course, I don't get mad or anything, I just roll my eyes and mutter and whine. The whole thing is silly. Hey, I guess it's "stuff Jeff doesn't like week!"

So tonight Stephanie and I were watching the "7 News on Channel 56" (don't ask) and a story comes on about two "security scares " in Miami. One is about a suspicious package that was found as part of cargo on a cruise ship. That package was detonated and found to be some sprinkler parts. Then the news went on to explain yesterday's story about the 3 Middle Eastern men who were detained at a Miami port, only the guy reading the news had a total idiot-attack and said "....and three Middle Eastern men were detonated in the back of a truck...." Well, we just couldn't stop laughing at that one. Detonated. He probably won't hear the end of that one.

Keep It Down, Now

Personality traits crack me up - and I'm mostly referring to my own. This weekend I thought about how much I hate carrying things. I don't mean task-based things like carrying groceries or goods back-and-forth from the car to the house, I mean general stuff. For example, I dislike having too much stuff in my pockets. It makes my pants too heavy. God forbid I can't fit something into my pocket, either - a camera, a coat, etc. I really dislike having to carry stuff around in my hands for extended periods of time. I need complete freedom. Just ask my poor wife, who is almost always tasked with carrying keys, cameras, phones, etc just so I can be minimal. Of course, she does it largely without complaint because she's a saint (rhymed!), but I know inside she's laughing at me and saying "I married someone who is certifiably insane."

This is one thing that probably doesn't bode well for me with the impending arrival of twins in June. I am going to have to get over this one - and fast! I am more than sure I'll have no problem carrying/holding my own children, of course! It's all the "other stuff" that I'm going to have to get used to.

It's such a silly little personality tick......anyone want to share theirs?

Through The Past Darkly

Whenever I don't know what to write, I can always rely on the Robot archives. Today's installment in my series recalling some of my favorite posts over the last five years is my favorite moment from the Item Five series. In case you're new to the site, Item Five is a series of interviews I do on occasion with musicians, authors or whomever. You can see the full list of victims here.

While it's not my favorite interview overall, my favorite answer to one of my questions came from Brian Henneman, the lead singer and co-songwriter of The Bottle Rockets. The topic was cynicism and how I thought their new album was a tad more cynical than their work of the past. His answer was much like a Bottle Rockets song: straight-forward, intelligent and slightly humorous. Here's the question and answer:

5) The band's new album, called "Zoysia," comes out in a few weeks. The songwriting on this thing is just immense - and that's a compliment. Is it just me or does this set of songs feel a little more.......cynical? Is that a product of the times? Or do you feel more cynical as the years go on?

I think cynisicm is a by-product of old age. I wish I could still look at things with child-like wonder but the more you learn from life, the more easily you can call bullshit. First, the tooth fairy goes, then Santa, next thing you know, you realize rock and roll is dead, your parents are dead, Neil Young looks REALLY old, you can't relate to modern pop culture at all, you know politics are too corrupt to mean anything, and you're thinkin' about how much time you have left on earth. At that point, it's all about figurin' out how to get the most from the time that's left. You stop looking for the meaning of life, and start actually celebrating life. You have no time for bullshit. "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think..." Was this a cynical answer?

ESPN Fantasy Football Champ!

ESPN Fantasy Football Champ!
Originally uploaded by rustedrobot.

I think this is the first time I've ever won a fantasy sports league. Wouldn't you know it - it's football, a sport I know very little about. I knew enough, I guess, because I had LaDanian Tomlinson, Chad Johnson, Marc Bulger and Frank Gore on my team. I think I get some kind of banner from ESPN.

A New Years Revolution

Well, I'm back. I wasn't really planning on taking almost two weeks off from blogging, but being off from work means less use of the computer - and that turned out to be a good thing. Aside from checking email and news, I used the computer very little and blogging suffered. Such is life.

Happy New Year. 2007 ought to be really interesting, to say the least. I mentioned in a previous post that 2006 was a pretty transformative year for me. Well, 2007 is shaping up to be more dramatic. I actually have what I consider to be a good idea for a book (non-fiction). I'm not sure it'll get fully written this year, but the idea is there, it's solid, and I'm trying to figure out how to pursue it, especially since I already have a full-time job that cannot get in the way. I'm not sure it will see the light of day, but my sense is that I'll get the ball rolling.

I'm even considering self-publishing (similar to my friend Brian Coleman, who turned his self-published book into a larger book deal). I get the sense that book publishing will soon move the way of music in the new media world: stay in control of your own destiny and property as much as possible. Look, I'm not heading towards becoming a full-time writer or anything. I don't have an agent and I'm not out looking for book deals. That could be career suicide! I'm still a pretty nasty capitalist when it comes to things like work and income and I doubt that will change anytime soon. It's no secret that writing for a living is rarely a financially rewarding path. But writing is an exercise that helps me and the book thing is something I've wanted to do since sixth grade, when I wrote a painfully embarrassing ripoff of "The A-Team," complete with red and black van. This particular idea doesn't have any timing requirements, either, so I very well might write only one chapter this year. But one way or another, progress will be made. it might come at the expense of blogging, too, but it's going to happen. If I cut blogging time by 50% (30-60 minutes a night), that's a start. I'll post more info here as things progress....if they progress.

Of course, the concept of "having time" will undergo a true revolution this year as my wife is pregnant and expecting in June. Now you're probably saying "well, there's goes ANY time Jeff might have for a book." Maybe you're right. Maybe. But like I said, I'm in no hurry at all.

So this is the year. I had this rattling around in my head for most of the latter half of 2006 and that's that. A post my friend Leo wrote recently made me feel a little better about it. For so long, I've been afraid. Afraid a book won't come out good. Afraid I don't have the talent to accomplish it. Afraid nobody will want to release it. Afraid nobody will READ it! Afraid of the commitment. Afraid of people not liking it. Whatever. It's time to put fear to bed. I want to do this for myself. One way or another, I'm taking more control of my own destiny and preparing for major changes.

Oh, and by the way, that pregnancy thing? It's twins! Of course, more on this later.