A Long-Expected Journey

Well, with a potentially disastrous start to the day taken care of (my refrigerator was spraying water out of the back when I woke up), I can now finally leave for Alaska. After planning this trip for over six months, it's finally here, and I couldn't be more excited. It's going to be wild, no doubt, but there is now potential for even more excitement, thanks to recent activity in Mount Spurr, a volcano outside of Anchorage. The Alaskan Volcano Observatory has been tracking the activity with daily updates. There doesn't seem to be any imminent danger of an eruption, but it's still kind of cool to think that I might be able to witness something like that (from a safe distance, of course). One of the things I loved about my last trip to Alaska was how even in the city, the wildness of the place forces you to respect the power of nature, and a volcano eruption would only add to that effect.

I'll be back soon, hopefully with lots of cool pictures. Se revoir.

High expectations

I just got back from seeing Garden State. As I've said before, the trailer for this movie could be the perfect movie preview, not to mention it was named for and shot in the state of my birth, so this film had a lot to live up to before I even got into the theater. Well, I'm happy to report, I was not disappointed. It was alternately quirky, sad, haunting, silly, and beautiful. The cinematography was gorgeous (and if you can make New Jersey look beautful, that's saying something) and the soundtrack was excellent. And I am totally in love with Natalie Portman. She's a pretty talented actress, although you'd never know by the way she gets misused in big budget films (*cough*Attack of the Clones*cough*). There's a scene where she and Zach Braff are just getting to know each other and are sitting on the bed in her room that is one of the most realistic things I've ever seen in a film. The awkward anticipation of two people who have just met but are already attracted to each other is dead on. The only thing that felt a little forced to me was Zach Braff's relationship with his father (Ian Holm), and the film's resolution. But that wasn't enough to keep me from enjoying it. I'd recommend it, I'd go see it again, and I'll buy the DVD. Good stuff.

Entourage

As I've mentioned before, my new favorite show is HBO's Entourage. The series follows an up-and-coming actor named Vincent Chase and his group of friends as they adjust to life in Hollywood. It's funny and smart, has a fantastic cast and a great soundtrack, and provides an opportunity for my favorite character actor, Jeremy Piven, to chew some scenery as Vince's complete scumbag agent. Because it's set in Hollywood, there are plenty of opportunities for cameos. In the past two weeks, we've been treated to smart turns from Val Kilmer as a drug-dealing Sherpa and Gary Busey, who has apparently has assumed the mantle of Hollywood's most eccentric actor now that Brando has passed on, as himself. If you have HBO and you're not watching this show, you're really missing out on something special.

After each episode, I find myself wishing that they would run music credits at the end of the show so that I could find various songs. Well, clearly, HBO has been reading my mind, becasue they've just updated the official Entourage website with an episode guide that lists all the music in each episode by scene. As a list, it sometime appears to be a strange mix, but usually tends to work with the scenes pretty well.

The Hoosier syndrome

There are lots of things that I like about living in Indy, but there are also some things I just can't get over about this state. One of these is the prevailing Hoosier attitude that if you're not married and pumping out kids by the time you're 24, you're clearly some kind of freak. The panic on the faces of single women nearing their 25th birthdays is a sight to behold. Because of this, I tend to meet a lot of people here who are married to their high school sweethearts or the first person they dated in college (IU or Purdue, of course—nobody seems to go anywhere else). Some, I must admit, are quite happy. The others make me realize why this country's divorce rate hovers around 50%.

Only in a state where this type of thinking is the norm would you find an article like this one be the front page story on the Indiana Living section of the Indianapolis Star. Now, no one would ever expect the Star to challenge the New York Times or Washington Post in terms of quality, but you would think they could do better than the bombshell that maintaining a long-distance relationship with your high school sweetheart is difficult when you choose different colleges. Thank goodness we have a daily paper that can give us shocking revelations such as that. To most normal Americans, this is common sense, and your high school sweetheart remains that forever—a nice memory from your teenage years. But in Indiana, when college is just a way to kill time until your wedding, this is a big issue. Big enough to be front page news, apparently.

When is it too early to start packing?

Now that I've finally finished my shopping for Alaska, it's time to pack. I'll be with my friends Todd, Cynthia, P.I., and our gracious hosts Nikki and Tom (thanks so much, you two). We've been talking about this trip for what seems like a year, and planning it almost that long. Now that it's almost here, I am so ready to go. I've already got everything sorted out into piles, just waiting to be packed. This is going to be a tough week of work. Staying focused is going to be difficult, knowing that in just a few days I'll be on my way to a week's worth of camping, kayaking, and some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. Having only gotten a brief taste of Anchorage and Seward on my last trip, I'm itching to get back and spend some more time there. And if my pictures turn out as well this time as they did the last time, I'll have some great stuff to share when I get back.

A good start

Well, good stuff from the Blast today. After a shaky 1st quarter, they came back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to win 4-2. They played really well once they settled down, and I'm continually surprised at what a talented group of boys we've got on our team. I'd love for the coaches to be able to take all the credit, but we really can't. There are still a couple of guys who look uncomfortable on the field, and I think the challenge for us is going to be to make sure that they're having fun and not getting left behind by the really good kids. Overall, it was a lot of fun, and I felt surprisingly proud to see them play so well (and win).

I'm off for a run. I got drafted into being a sideline ref at the game today, and after running up and down the field for 48 minutes, I realized I need to get back to running more often. Plus, with my Alaska trip coming up next week, I don't want to run out of breath when I'm running away from the bears.

New music and the Coach

I did get to Best Buy yesterday to pick up Metallica's Black Album. That disc has aged really well. But I also picked up a disc by a new band that has me really excited. The band is called Coheed & Cambria, and the disc is called In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3. If you think the title sounds kind of like prententious prog rock from the 70's, you're on the right track. These guys sound like Rush, if Rush was just starting out now and had been raised on a steady diet of Metallica and punk. It's almost like if Geddy Lee was the lead singer of Hoobastank. I know that description probably turns off just about everybody who will read this, but that's OK. C&C is one of the 75 bands on this summer's Warped Tour, so they'll win some new fans on their own.

So I'm off to the first game of the year for the Blast (the team that I'm helping to coach). After raining all day yesterday, it's gorgeous today. Hopefully, the boys play well, but as long as they enjoy themselves, that's all that's important. I'll have a report later today on how the game goes.

Metallica Loves Me

Perhaps you've seen or are at least familiar with the movie "Some Kind of Monster", a documentary about Metallica's sessions with a therapist and lead singer James Hetfield's stint in rehab. Well, it seems old James is buying into his 12-step program a little too enthusiastically, and so those of us in the audience at tonight's show were constantly reminded that Metallica loves and appreciates its fans, and they were so happy to see us there tonight. Well, you know what? The kinder, gentler approach might have bothered me, but not only do Metallica still rock, they rock!!! With three exclamation points!!! My friend Andy and I dropped $57 on these tickets, and they were worth every penny. The show turned out to be in the round, so the 12th row meant that there were times where one of the band members would stop right in front of us, just a little below our eye level. It wasn't perfect by any means, but the band pretty much stuck to old favorites, did two encores, and played for over 2 hours. I'm going to have to buy the Black Album tomorrow. I forgot how much good stuff is on there. I think Metallica will have to hang it up before too long, though. They're starting to show their age a little bit, and pretty soon, it's going to be hard to take those guys seriously when they're in their 50s and pudgy.

On a side note, you haven't lived until you've been to a metal show in Indiana. The sheer number of mullets, acid-wash jeans, straggly goatees, sleeveless t-shirts, and devil signs flashed could easily overwhelm a person of lesser constitution. We weren't even inside Conseco for 5 minutes before some dude behind us in the beer line was trying to pick a fight by calling another guy a "fucking faggot". It brought back so many fond memories of high school.

Music therapy

I'm off to see Metallica in about 15 minutes, courtesy of some unused (but not free) tickets from work. This will be my second Metallica show. The first was back in '91, when they were touring with Guns 'n Roses and hadn't cut their hair yet. Now they've had makeovers, gone through therapy, changed bassists, and are supposedly much happier with themselves. But can they still rock? If their last album was any indication, no. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until I see this show. Last time, I was at the far end of RFK Stadium. Tonight, I'm in the 12th row. Let's see if it makes any difference.

Lunchtime quickie

Since I've started blogging, I've been reading a lot more about other people's blogs. Here's a very interesting story, which is a perfect example of why I'll be sticking to movies and music and not writing about my dates.

I also wanted to share this quote with everyone. As our president, the man who the rest of the world sees as the face of this country, was signing the latest $417 billion defense-spending bill, he had this to say:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Seriously, does W. ever think about what he's saying before he opens his mouth? I can't help reading this and hearing Will Ferrell's voice. It is a testament to the monumental mediocrity of John Kerry that he's not crushing Bush in the polls.

I saw the update of The Manchurian Candidate with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, and all I can say is, save your money. Rent the original on DVD, because there's nothing better about the new one.

Fresh air

After my marathon couch-fest yesterday, I needed to get out and enjoy the weather today, and damn if it wasn’t a perfect day. 74 degrees and sunny with high clouds. I played tennis for a couple of hours, and then decided to take a drive. I ended up about an hour south and west of Indy. There’s some beautiful country out there. I followed a road I had taken for a photo shoot a few months back, and ended up finding a hiking trail that led to a waterfall and covered bridge. I had a sketchbook with me, but mostly, I just sat back and enjoyed nature.

Before I left, I picked up two new CDs at Best Buy for the drive: The Beastie Boys To the 5 Boroughs and The Cure’s new eponymously-titled disc. I haven’t dipped into the Cure yet, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the Beasties. The rhymes are pretty standard fare (and sometimes just plain silly), but the beats have more of an edge than I’ve ever heard on one of their discs, and the Boys are definitely fired up about the current administration. As much damage as W. has done in the past four years, I do have to thank him for one thing. By being such a polarizing force to just about everyone in this country, he has inspired an incredible creative outburst from artists on both sides of the fence (as well as his own administration— who can forget John Ashcroft’s aural assault, “Let the Eagle Soar”?) . If your tastes run to flag-waving, jingoistic, furriner-hatin’ country music, well, Toby Keith and Charlie Daniels have got you covered. On the other hand, after recently descending into punk-pop adolescent silliness (you heard me, Blink-182), punk rockers have something to be angry about again! The common wish for regime change has spawned several great songs and albums in recent months, including two excellent collections of punk under the title Rock Against Bush (Vols. 1 and 2), Bad Religion’s new disc The Empire Strikes First, and Green Day’s new politically-charged single, “American Idiot,” probably their best song in 10 years. Most of these artists are doing their best to register young voters and encourage them to use that right this fall through groups like Punk Voter. Hopefully, it will have an effect on this election (like actually getting the guy who gets the most votes into the White House this time).

Well, enough of that. Time for my new favorite show, Entourage. I hope that the rumors are true and that cable companies are seriously considering a la carte cable, because I would be fine with just HBO, VH1, Comedy Central and Fox Sports World. It just doesn't seem like it makes business sense for them, so I'll believe when I get a pile of junk mail about it.

Missed chances

OK, my day of TV watching is done. After watching DC United blow a lead in the last 5 minutes of the game, I can’t watch any more soccer today. Time to get out of the apartment.

All in all, it sounds like it was a good day for American footballers. The US women beat Brazil in the Olympics, and almost all the Americans in Europe helped earn points for their teams. The best day seems to have been had by DaMarcus Beasley, scoring on his debut in the Dutch Eredivisie for PSV Eindhoven in their 5-2 win. I know my friend Cynthia will be excited by the news, since she's a HUGE DMB fan. ;)

Denting the couch

Today’s theme: soccer overload. I’m just finishing hour seven, and so far, I’ve watched 2 1/2 games on TV and coached an hour’s worth of practice for the 9 and 10-year-old boys team I’m helping out with. I started the day with a rather lackluster 1-1 draw between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool. Liverpool didn't seem to miss their former star Michael Owen, but it looked like they should take some of the money from his sale and buy a defense.

Next it was off to practice. We’ve got a great group of kids, about half of whom decided to skip practice today. So, we ran a few drills and then scrimmaged with another team in the same age group. This was my first chance to see my guys in a game setting, and they were pretty impressive. They have such a better understanding of the game than I remember having at that age. These guys realize that it’s OK to pass backwards to get out of trouble, and they’ve already started to figure out passing into space and running on to the ball, concepts that I wasn’t sure they were ready for.

After practice, it was back home for a much more exciting 1-1 game, this time between Fulham and Manchester City. This game featured three Americans, all of whom played well, especially Claudio Reyna, who was dangerous in midfield and created a lot of chances for City. This is good news for US fans, since Reyna will be an important part of Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifier against Jamaica. After struggling with injuries for so much of the past few years, it’s good to see Claudio healthy and playing well again. During the second half, I started flipping back and forth between this game and San Jose-Kansas City in MLS, which currently stands at 1-0 on a Landon Donovan goal.

Coming up later tonight, my DC United take on the New England Revolution in a big conference match. The standing are so tight right now that the winner of this game would move into 2nd place, while the loser will fall into last. Maybe Freddy Adu can score another beautiful goal like the one he scored Wednesday night. And after that game’s over, I plan to catch a replay of the Middlesborough-Newcastle match from earlier today.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll get off the couch, but maybe not. Everton-Arsenal is on at 1:00.

Selling the drama

I see a lot of movies, and I hate to get to the theater late, because I love the previews. I’m always interested to see how movie studios choose to market their films. Even if I skip all the other special features on a DVD, I will always watch the trailer to see who the studio thought their target audience was. It always interests me to see if they give away too much of the movie (as in the case of most comedies or movies marketed at teens), or not enough, which usually ends up confusing people and tends to hurt the chances of a wide audience seeing the film. After paying attention to this for so many years, I think I may have found the perfect movie preview. The movie is Garden State, a small critically acclaimed film from Zach Braff, who you may recognize as the lead from the TV show Scrubs. I’ve seen this preview three or four times now in the theater, and as all good previews should, it has gotten me very excited about seeing the movie. What’s so great about it is that the editors of this preview have created a hauntingly beautiful 60-second film that leaves me wanting more every time, without using a single word of dialogue. It basically amounts to a short music video, but the choice of music is perfect. In this short amount of time, the amount of information the preview conveys about the film is amazing. I’ll warn you, it does tend to lose some of its effect when viewed on your computer screen, but here’s the link.

Choose the Teaser Trailer, and lose yourself for a minute. Then watch the regular trailer and compare the two experiences. I’m still interested after seeing the second one, but it doesn’t come close to moving me in the same way as the teaser.

Title-ist

You may have noticed I changed the title of my blog after only two days. Well, get used to it. This probably won’t be the last time that happens. As with all self-critical creative types, I always assume I could have done things better. If I can edit something, I will.

Soccer haters, pay attention. You might learn something.

With the NFL season fast approaching and preseason games in full swing, I’d like to take a moment to make everyone aware that football everywhere is kicking off. Leagues all across Europe are beginning their soccer seasons this month, and this weekend marks the beginning of the English Premiership campaign, which means I’ll be parked in front of Fox Sports World during most of my free weekend hours. Seven Americans now ply their trade in what is arguably the world’s top league: Tim Howard and Jonathan Spector at Manchester United; Claudio Reyna at Manchester City; Brad Friedel at Blackburn Rovers; Kasey Keller at Tottenham Hotspurs; and Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra at Fulham. There are also Americans (Yanks Abroad, as they’re known to soccer geeks) playing in the English First Division (which is actually the 2nd tier of English football), the German Bundesliga, the Dutch Eredivisie, the French First Division, and leagues in Belgium, Denmark, and Norway. Fox Sports World covers a lot of these leagues, and they tend to gear their coverage towards a game involving at least one American player.

I’ve played soccer since I was five years old, but it wasn’t really until college that I became a fan and started watching it on TV. One of my favorite sportswriters, Jeff Bradley, writes columns for Major League Soccer and ESPN about American soccer, and this week's column for MLSNet.com particularly pleased me. He writes about individual performances in World Cup Qualifiers, and his #1 moment, a goal by Tab Ramos in 1997, was the exact moment that I realized my true passion for sports could be found in the fortunes of the Men’s National Team. It was an important moment for the Nats, as Ramos’ goal kept them alive in qualifying for the 1998 World Cup in France. As it turned out, the team may have wished they had failed to qualify, since they had a disastrous run in France, bowing out after three miserable games that included a loss to Iran. But, indirectly, that led to their success in the 2002 World Cup, since the coach at the ’98 World Cup, Steve Sampson, was fired, and new head coach Bruce Arena was brought in to replace him. Arena had previously achieved success at the University of Virginia and with my beloved DC United in MLS (who won their game against the Colorado Rapids tonight, 3-1), winning 3 titles in 4 years. He rebuilt the National Team with younger players, turning their fortunes around and leading them to an excellent showing at World Cup 2002 and a current world ranking of #7. At the moment, Arena has the Nats playing extremely well as they prepare to go to Jamaica for the next game of World Cup Qualifying for 2006.

Feedback, and the Dark Knight

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments so far. I’ll try to keep things interesting. I’d like to give a special shout out to my friend Todd for inspiration and advice. Check out his blog, MyFlightBlog, to see a better example of how these things are supposed to be done.

So a movie that’s already generating a lot of buzz despite not being released until next summer is Batman Begins, the new movie starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. The ridiculous tone of the last few Batman movies has thankfully been dropped, and this one seems to be a lot darker. It takes place early in Bruce Wayne’s life and deals with how he decides to become Batman. You can watch the trailer here, and if you don’t mind spoilers, you can see a clip of the Batmobile in action here. Seeing this thing rolling around makes me wonder if there’s going to be some CGI work done to the Batmobile before we see it on the big screen.

Pimpin’ ain’t easy

One of the reasons I wanted to do a blog is to talk some smack about music, movies, and books. So from time to time, I’ll be pimping some stuff that I’m currently enjoying.

Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of movies on DVD, courtesy of Netflix, a great rental service that works through the Internet and the mail. I’ve had a great experience with them and highly recommend a membership to anyone who watches more than 4 movies a month. This week, I’ve watched The Producers, King of New York, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Of the three, King of New York was the one that impressed me the most. It’s hard to go wrong with Christopher Walken, but the cast also includes Laurence Fishburne, David Caruso, Wesley Snipes, and Steve Buscemi (in a minor role). It was an excellent flick, improved by some old-school rap on the soundtrack, but what impressed me most was the cinematography. This movie was beautifully shot, and the picture quality on the DVD was stunning. I usually skip over the technical part of DVD reviews when they start discussing the picture transfer, but I couldn’t help but notice how well-done this DVD was. For a movie made in 1990, King of New York looks terrific.

In between watching movies, I’ve been reading Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series of novels. The sequence begins with The Eyre Affair, continues with Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, and the just-released Something Rotten. Thursday Next is a literary detective who lives in an alternate Britain where Wales is an independent republic, the Germans occupied Britain during WWII, time travel is an everyday occurrence, and literary characters can leave their books and enter other stories or the real world. Thursday gets involved in a series of misadventures that lead her through various books, but what I enjoy is the absurd, Monty Python-esque humor, obscure literary references, and inordinate amounts of bad puns.

As for music, I’ve had two CDs in heavy rotation lately. First is “It Still Moves” by My Morning Jacket. I’m getting to these guys a little late, but I finally understand why so many people love this disc. There'’s been plenty of talk about them for the past 15 months or so, but they’ve got a great southern rock meets Neil Young sound that sounds very lived-in and comfortable. Great music for driving on country roads after dark with your windows rolled down. The second disc that I’ve been giving a lot of play to lately is “Hot Fuss” by the Killers. I keep reading reviews that compare them to Duran Duran, but I feel like they’ve got a bigger sound than Messrs. LeBon and company. I see why everyone wants to go there, because the Killers are clearly 80’s-inspired and there’s synth all over this album, and even though they’re from Vegas, they sound British. It’s interesting to me that bands from both sides of the Atlantic are making danceable rock. No one would accuse the Killers of ripping off Franz Ferdinand, but there’s definitely some similarities.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of old U2 lately, mostly War and The Unforgettable Fire. Sometimes, you just have to be reminded that they’ve always been a great band.

Come on in. Don't be frightened.

For those of you just joining us, welcome to our live coverage of MLS Cup ’97 from RFK Stadium. I’ve decided to start a blog. I know a lot of people tend to tie their blogs to some kind of major event in their lives, but I’m doing mine as a way to let my family and friends keep up with my life, whether they live in Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, DC, Michigan, New York, or anywhere else around the globe.

Upcoming events that will be covered on this page include: my first attempt at coaching youth soccer, the ongoing saga of redesigning Indianapolis Monthly (the magazine that pays my bills), my current obsession with Will Ferrell’s impersonation of President Bush, and my upcoming week in Alaska. Enjoy.