Best of 2004, Part II (TV)

The Best TV of 2004
I don’t watch a lot of TV, so a show has to be good to get my attention. Here’s what got me to sit in front of the tube this year:

Arrested Development
There is invariably one scene in every episode that makes me laugh so hard I either a) pull a muscle in my stomach b) fall off the couch c) snort and hope the neighbors didn’t hear. For those of you who “don’t get" this show, I'm sorry. You probably never will.

Lost
Cool on a lot of levels, but mostly that it’s a show about a desert island that doesn’t involve Jeff Probst. Every episode is something different, and it keeps me coming back each week for more.

Scrubs
I didn’t start watching this until I saw Garden State, and I wish they’d hurry up and get Season 1 out on DVD so that I can see what I’ve missed. Thankfully, I made it in time for Heather Graham’s guest run, but the entire cast has a great chemistry, and the random humor is right up my alley. Long live the squirrel army!

Entourage
I figured HBO would be a waste of money once The Sopranos ended this year, but after two episodes of this show, I was hooked. Insider Hollywood jokes, fantastic cameos, and Jeremy Piven chewing scenery as a sleazeball agent combine to make this worth ponying up for the premium channels.

R.I.P.: Angel
The writing got better, the plotlines got more interesting, and the ratings went up, so the WB cancelled the show. I’ll never understand L.A.

Oh yeah. Reality TV still sucks, and it's only getting worse.

Best of 2004 Awards (Music)

I'm waiting on a couple of movies that I'm going to try to see this weekend before I make any final judgments on those, so the movie list will probably appear after the first of the year. However, I've listened to all the music I can handle for one year, so here are my musical "Bests" for 2004.

The Best Albums released in 2004 (in no order):
U2, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Somebody slips a copy of War to The Edge and reminds him that he’s a great guitarist. Bono combines lyrics about God, his father’s death, and the state of the world into some great songs. There’s too many mid-tempo soundalikes for this to be a truly classic album, but it’s not a stretch to say that this is their best work since Achtung Baby.

Secret Machines, Now Here Is Nowhere
Pink Floyd with John Bonham on drums, by way of Texas. I don’t know why it works, but it does. This was the disc that came the closest to blowing out my speakers this year.

Michael Giacchino, The Incredibles soundtrack
Come on, people! Everything about this movie kicks ass, plain and simple. Think 60’s James Bond scores, and you’re pretty close on this one. Lots of brass and xylophone, and some of the best recurring themes since Star Wars.

The Killers, Hot Fuss
OK, so they dress like Duran Duran. And kind of look like them. And maybe sound like them, just a little bit. The songs are still damn catchy.

Keane, Hopes and Fears
Coldplay - guitars + a slightly more uplifting worldview = gorgeous.

Jem, Finally Woken
Ah, Jem. So beautiful AND so talented. When will you make up that cancelled Indianapolis show so that we can fall in love and run off to Wales together? Until then, I'll just keep listening to your truly excellent album of hip-hop-influenced Brit pop.

Franz Ferdinand, (self-titled)
They’re Scottish. They dress well. We get it. How about the fact that they mixed new wave and disco and made a kick-ass album of fresh-sounding dance-rock?

DJ Danger Mouse, The Grey Album
Danger Mouse lays Jay-Z’s Black Album rhymes over samples from The Beatles’ White Album and pushes music forward 10 years in one step. Too bad it will never get a legal release. Silly short-sighted music industry.

Chris Thile, Deceiver
Nickel Creek’s wünderkind mandolinist goes solo and shows off on a few more instruments... 25 more to be exact. Rock, pop, jazz, bluegrass; Thile does it all (often in the same song) and does it well.

Green Day, American Idiot
Aren’t concept albums what punks were rebelling against in the first place? You’d think this would be a disaster, but instead it’s Green Day’s most mature and powerful disc yet.

The Best Albums I Discovered in 2004
Jay-Z, The Black Album
The Postal Service, Give Up
Spoon, Girls Can Tell
Teitur, Poetry & Aeroplanes
Abandoned Pools, Humanistic
Snow Patrol, Final Straw
Elefant, Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid
Coheed & Cambria, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3
Sean Watkins, 26 Miles
Paste Magazine's sampler discs (included with each issue)

Song of the Year: "Take Me Out", Franz Ferdinand. Overplayed? Yes. Overhyped? Absolutely. But take a break for a month or two, then go back and listen again. That tempo shift at the 0:56 mark will get your booty shakin' every time.
Runner-up: “American Idiot”, Green Day.

Ubiquitous Singer: Ben Gibbard. Between the O.C., Garden State previews, and an near-perfect guest turn on Styrofoam's "Couches in Alleys", the voice of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service was the world’s most-heard alt-rocker of 2004. Seth Cohen must be so pleased.

Hot Singer: Jem Griffiths. Not only did she put out one of the best albums of the year (see above), her Willow Rosenberg-meets-hip-hop-star looks had me cutting out magazine pictures and hanging them on my wall like I was 12 years old again. The best-looking thing to come out of Wales since, uh... Tom Jones? Ryan Giggs? Ioan Gryffud?

Best technological innovation: iTunes Music store. OK, so it's been around since last year, but it really became a force this year, with some music magazines even adding the top downloads to their list of charts. Also winner of the "Worst Thing To Happen To My Credit Cards In 2004" award.

Most welcome comeback of the year: Pearl Jam. Yeah, I know they didn't go anywhere, but I stopped listening a few years back. I bought Rearviewmirror, their 2-disc greatest hits set on a total impulse buy a few weeks ago, and listened to the entire thing twice as soon as I got home. I had forgotten how many great songs they have.

Most annoying comeback of the year: "Last Christmas". I've had this damn song in my head for 5 straight weeks now. I don't know whether I heard the original Wham version or Jimmy Eat World's remake first, but it got stuck in there and will not come out.

My apologies

To the 3 or 4 of you out there who actually read this thing on a regular basis, work deadlines and the holidays have combined to severely curtail my blogging time. But have no fear: I'm in the process of compiling some year-end lists which should appear sometime between Christmas and New Year's. Happy Holidays, and thanks for caring enough to read my babble.

Always Assume the Worst

...and you'll never be disappointed. In discussing Lycos' anti-spam screensaver with my dad, I mentioned that someone would probably hack it before too long. Well, at 3:01 am today, this appeared:

An anonymous reader writes "Lycos, shortly after producing a screen saver to fight spammers using a DoS-style attack appears to have been hacked. Attempting to download the screen saver from lycos results in this message 'Yes, attacking spammers is wrong, you know this, you shouldn't be doing it. Your IP address and request have been logged and will be reported to your ISP for further action.' Or maybe it's just a joke -- can you ever tell?"

Make Love Not Spam

My dad sent me an interesting article about Lycos Europe coming up with a way to strike back at spammers. You can download it here.

There are some lines you shouldn't cross

In all the discussions about Friday's Pacers-Pistons-punk-ass Detroit fans brawl and resulting suspensions, there's been a lot of talk about lines that shouldn't be crossed (in this case, players entering the stands).

Well, here's another line that didn't need to be crossed. Traffic Games of Scotland has created a video game that puts you Lee Harvey Oswald's shoes, making you the shooter in a recreation of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. No matter how much the people at Traffic insist they have the utmost respect for JFK, I find it hard to believe that the world just couldn't live without this game. Knowing how deeply JFK's death affected my parents' generation, I'm sure they'd be disgusted by this game. And so am I.

Break up the champions

Take a good look at this photo because sadly, this will be the last time many of these players wear a DC United uniform. MLS is expanding for the 2005 season, and tomorrow the expansion teams get a chance to pick through the rosters of the existing teams to start building their squads. Also, United is losing Earnie Stewart to Holland and Ryan Nelsen, the linchpin of their defense to England, so they will have some building of their own to do before beginning the defense of their title next April. Sad.

On the other hand, I'm having fun with the newly-discovered ability to link photos into my blog posts. :)

United from L to R: Ryan Nelsen, Eliseo Quintinilla, Mike Petke, Ben Olsen, Tim Lawson, Jaime Moreno, Freddy Adu, Earnie Stewart

An excellent book

I don't get to read as often as I used to, but it's rare lately that any book interests me enough to make me want to stop the rest of my life to read it. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is such a book. It's well-written, fresh and interesting, and keeps the reader involved throughout its close to 800 pages. Susannah Clarke has the rare gift of making her reader believe that they are reading a history of something that really happened. There is a richness and depth to her story that makes it both believable and interesting, as well as easily accessible. For a first novel, that is quite an achievement, and one that I highly recommend.

Also, as a design nerd, I was particularly happy to see that this book was released with two covers, one as you see at left, and the second, which I own, that has the black & white reversed. In an age where multiple covers are usually part of some cheap marketing campaign to sell more copies to collectors, it's nice to see something like this done because it relates to the story (I won't spoil the reason for any potential readers).

Back where it belongs

The Alan I. Rothenberg trophy, that is. DC United are champions of MLS once again, beating the Kansas City Wizards 3-2 yesterday to win their fourth title in nine years. The Washington Post has some excellent coverage here and here and here. MLSNet.com has even more coverage here and here and here and here. The world feels a little more normal today.

Want to be REALLY scared about the next four years?

Read Bob Jones III's congratulatory letter to President Bush.

Here's an influential voice from Bush's strongest group of supporters. I'm not getting much in the way of Christian tolerance and charity from this letter. Instead, there's sentiments like this one:

"Pull out all the stops and make a difference. If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them. Conservative Americans would love to see one president who doesn't care whether he is liked, but cares infinitely that he does right."

Great idea. Let's get rid of all those "weaklings". If we had followed that line of thinking, the world would still be stuck in the Dark Ages, since most of the greatest people of the past 500 years probably wouldn't have "shared biblical values" with W. And if there's anything Bush has shown in his first term, it's that he doesn't care about being liked. After all, why should it matter what anybody else thinks? We're America, dammit!!!

I hope God has a particularly nasty section of Hell set aside for those people who use their "Christian faith" as an excuse to push their agenda of closed-mindedness and intolerance.

So much better than the squeaky bone

Are you a dog owner? Got an axe to grind with a particular politician or world leader? Then the folks over at Political Pet Toys have just the thing for you. For the price of a CD, you can watch your dog gnaw on Saddam's head (or, at least, a rubber chew toy that marginally resembles him). Just in case you've got nothing better to do with your money.

Damn you, George Lucas!

Why, why, why can't you make a movie like The Incredibles? A seamless blend of CGI, adrenaline-heavy action sequences, and (most importantly) a great story. What a fantastic movie! I went in not expecting much, and was blown away by what turned out to be the best action movie I've seen in years. The second act of the film had supervillains and secret hideaways as good as any of the Connery-era James Bond flicks, and the climactic battle was action-packed without containing too many obvious cliches. Another home run from Pixar (a company which Lucas used to own at one point).

And getting back to old George, the teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode III ran before The Incredibles. After being so disappointed by Episodes I and II, I promised myself I wasn't going to get excited about this one. But when the theme music kicks in, the screen goes black and the ominous mechanical breathing starts, it's impossible not to go all fanboy. Follow that up with rapid fire cuts to lightsaber duels, the dulcet tones of James Earl Jones, Natalie Portman looking lovely as ever, and more Wookies than you can shake a stick at, and it's a done deal that Lucasfilm is getting my money again. Check it out the trailer at starwars.com

Ending the week on a better note

Well, I've recovered enough from the election to be able to look back and get some perspective, and I've decided I'm not as mad that Bush won as I am mad at both parties for not giving us better candidates to vote for. There's so much wrong with the system that the really good people will never run, and there's plenty that needs fixing. Jason Kottke has managed to already put a lot of my thoughts into words, so see what he has to say. I wish somebody like Karl Rove didn't have to exist, but since he does, I sure wish the Democrats had somebody like him. And speaking of spin, I love how much we've heard in recent days that Bush winning 51% of the vote is an "overwhelming mandate", and "unquestionable mandate", and a "resounding victory". Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but 51% is not a resounding victory any way you cut it. That means just slightly less than half of the people voted against you. It was a victory no doubt, but he squeaked through. Hardly the landslide you'd think it was from reading the papers. Well, Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher agrees with me, and he's taken the media to task for allowing the Republican spin-meisters to force-feed them this line.

Meanwhile, back in real life, exciting things are happening in the sports world. DC United is going to the MLS Cup Final, next Sunday at 3:30 on ABC. After beating New England last night in a 6-goal thriller that needed 30 minutes of overtime and 6 rounds of penalty kicks to decide a winner, United advances to meet the Kansas City Wizards for the title. Freddy Adu could get a championship ring in his first season.

And speaking of championships, is it too soon to start talking about the Steelers? Ben Roethlisberger (a fellow alum of Miami University) has led them to 6 straight wins as a starter, including beating the Patriots and Eagles, the top two teams in the NFL, in the last two weeks. With a good running game and a strong defense, Big Ben may be the final piece the Steelers need to be a contender.

The Day After (is hi-larious)

Except when it's not. I'm still sick to my stomach, angry, sad, digusted, depressed, and alternately feel like breaking things and curling into a fetal ball. Luckily, I've been numbing the pain with sugary snacks and mindless consumerism just like any good American (nothing like the healing power of a trip to the mall), so I've begun to adjust to the idea of four more years of Bush. But just because slightly more than half of this country has decided to live up to the global stereotype of Americans and give the collective finger to the rest of the world, that doesn't mean I have to like it. Therefore, I am hereby announcing my half-assed intention to become a protest singer. Stay tuned for lots of anti-administration power ballads. I'm already growing my Neil Young-style muttonchops.

Election Day fun

If you're like me and plan on being totally worthless at work tomorrow while you try to predict the outcome by staring at a bunch of brightly colored maps of electoral vote scenarios, MSNBC has put together a fun site just for you, The Horserace. It's like 7th grade Social Studies online! You have to suffer through a video clip of Chris Matthews to get to the good stuff, but the maps and political cartoons are fun, and you can customize each panel to get the information you're looking for. You can even play a pick game, where you predict how the undecided states will go. See kids? Politics CAN be fun!

Almost there

On the eve of Election Day, there's plenty to talk about. So many things are already happening, both exciting and disheartening, but most importantly, for the first time in my lifetime, I think we may see more than 60% of the population show up to vote. No matter who you cast your ballot for, please make sure your voice is heard. I'm afraid we won't know a clear-cut winner for several days or even weeks, but it's good to know that so many Americans are invested in this election.

Is the election over yet?

What with all the grey days and leaves falling off the trees around here lately, it's been pretty gross and depressing, so I've been looking for election-related humor to make me laugh. Thanks to my friend Jenny for this one: It's a short MPEG entitled "Mother in park". Some of my Republican friends (*cough*Todd*cough cough*) didn't find it quite as funny as I did, but I think this lady speaks aloud what most of us on the Kerry side of the fence have thought at one time or another.

This Modern World

**WARNING: Political Rant Ahead**

One of the local weekly papers in Indianapolis publishes a great comic strip, This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow. Click here to see the latest strip, a unfortunately all-too-true jab at the Bush administration's spin machine at work.

Through the This Modern World website, I've discovered Bob Harris's blog. It's sort of a Drudge Report for Democrats, a sometimes funny, sometimes snarky, and sometimes cutthroat look at the news. Harris spends most of his time punching holes in the Bush Admin.'s smokescreen of lies (while never missing an opportunity to bash a conservative pundit), but also links to disturbing articles such as this look at the fictional reality which Bush supporters have created for themselves. The more I read as this election approaches, the more I fear for the direction this country is headed. It's depressing to think about how many Americans are choosing to live with their heads buried in the Iraqi sand.

Things To Look Forward To

I spent a refreshing long weekend visiting my family last week. My dad's side of the family had a mini-reunion on Saturday, and it was a good chance to catch up with various aunts and uncles and cousins that I don't get to see too often. This was a trip I was getting excited about for a month or so before it happened, and on the flight back, I started thinking about other things I'm looking forward to as the year draws to a close:

The MLS Playoffs, starting Friday night. DC United had a string finish to the season, winning 5 of their last 6, and given the parity of the league this year, the playoffs should be wide open. I'm planning to go to Columbus for the Eastern Conference Finals, and hopefully I'll be seeing DC there.

A World Series with no Yankees. Hopefully the Sox can break the curse tonight. I'm no Sox fan, but anybody who can beat the Yankees gets my support.

U2's new CD. If you've heard the first single, "Vertigo" (or caught the iTunes ad), you know it sounds like the boys from Dublin are making a return to their early sound. Bono has described this as "an angry record, fueled by a guitarist who's sick to death of seeing his lead singer shaking hands with world leaders". If that's the case, the Edge should get mad more often.

Ocean's 12. It took me a long time to get past the big name movie-starness of Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack classic, but now I appreciate it for what it is: a slick, smart, funny love letter to Las Vegas. This time, the entire cast of the original (plus Bruce Willis) get turned loose in Europe. Should be a good time.

Beautiful music

Tonight, I traveled to Bloomington, IN to see one of my favorite bands, Nickel Creek. They played at the Indiana University Auditorium on campus, and were sharing a double bill with Howie Day, an artist I didn't really know much about. A guy named Patrick Davis opened the show. Both he and Howie Day played solo acoustic, and both did some interesting things with looping pedals. Basically, they would record a backing track by drumming on their guitars, playing a bass line or melody line, or strumming some basic chords. They could then activate these different loops by pressing pedals with their feet, which left their hands free to play their guitars. It was a pretty interesting way to create the effect of a band without having to drag all those extra people and instruments around with you.

Both of those guys were talented, but the highlight of the night for me was Nickel Creek. I had seen them four years ago in New York when they were touring in support of their first album. What a difference four years makes. In that time, they released a second record and toured extensively, collaborated with a wide variety of artists, and Chris Thile and Sean Watkins have even found time to release two solo albums a piece. All of that experience made for a much-improved live show. The first time I saw them, they played their songs pretty much note-for-note from the album. Tonight, they messed with arrangements, debuted some new songs, jammed older songs out to double their normal length, and even worked a few clever covers into a medley. Part of the appeal of this band for me has always been their ability to mix different genres, but it's still pretty amazing to hear them go from traditional bluegrass to jazz-pop to an Irish fiddle tune to a spot-on cover of Beck's "Where It's At" without noticeably switching gears. And once again, I was reminded of why I think Sara Watkins is one of the world's most beautiful singers. I could listen to her voice for hours on end. I'm anxiously awaiting her first solo album. The trip to Bloomington took about an hour, but it was worth it. After this show, I'd drive a lot farther to see Nickel Creek again.

Season's end

Sadly, my first coaching experience has come to an end. The Blast lost in the semifinal game of the playoffs this morning, 2-0. They had advanced to the semis by winning their first-round game on Thursday night. I missed the game due to work, but I understand it was a tightly fought 1-0 affair. Today's game was a little more wide open, and the coaches were very proud of our guys despite the loss. They played the best game I've seen out of them all season. They defended well and passed well, but just couldn't get the ball in the back of the net.

Their opponents today were the Bulldogs, who had totally overwhelmed our guys in the last regular season game. Today was a different story, and except for the two early goals and a couple of very questionable refereeing decisions, it was a very even game. It was amazing how much better the boys played when they knew the game meant something. No problem getting them to focus today.

After the game ended, Fred, our head coach, gave medals to all the boys and then we said our goodbyes. One guy even started crying, although we couldn't figure out if he was sad that the season was over or just upset that the team lost today. Either way, it was kind of cute and very touching. I'm glad I got a chance to be involved with this team, and I'll take away some good knowledge to apply to the next time I coach.

Something old, and nothing new

Work has been kicking my butt lately, so there hasn't been much to talk about. In my spare moments, I just finished reading Homer's The Odyssey. If you've never read it (or it's precursor, The Iliad), I highly recommend checking it out. I read the Barnes & Noble Classics version, and as translations of ancient Greek go, it was pretty accessible and surprisingly enjoyable for a 3,000+ year old piece of literature.

The post-debate analysis

As expected, the news today is pretty much a deluge of analysis and wrap-up of last night's debate. I had thought about gathering a bunch of links, but luckily, Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post has done the work already. Here's a link to his article, containing a pretty comprehensive collection of articles from the Post, the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and various wire services. For a quick highlight, check out the fact-checking links about halfway down the page.

The presidential debate, part 2

I do have to mention my favorite part of the debate. It was when President Bush referred to Putin as "Vladimir". It was almost like he wanted to show off that he and Putin are totally buds, and way cooler than Kerry, who's probably never even done vodka shots in the Kremlin.

I figure it was either that, or else Bush was just afraid he'd mispronounce Putin.

The presidential debate

After months and months of slinging rhetoric and campaign commercials, it was good to finally see the two candidates go face-to-face tonight. In the next day or so, there will be plenty of analysis of tonight's debate to wade through, but my first impression is this: Kerry seemed calm, collected, and answered most of the president's charges. Bush, on the other hand, seemed to ramble a little bit and had some uncomfortably long pauses. He also had some good responses and explained some of his arguments in simple terms (always one of his strengths). I don't think Bush hurt himself tonight, but I'd say Kerry definitely helped himself. At first blush, I'd predict a bump in the polls for Kerry. Now we'll have to see what the talking heads have to say.

Two of the coolest movies you'll never see

I'm always impressed to see people using their work experience to create something they love. When it also happens to be something I love, even better. If you read my post about the trailer for Garden State, you'll know about my fascination with movie previews. Well, thanks to Maxim (I know, I'm surprised I read it too), I've discovered a great site, collorastudios.com. Sandy Collora used to be a creature designer for Stan Winston Studios, a special effects house that has created groundbreaking work for films like the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park movies, the Alien series, both Predator movies, and a host of others, but has since gone on to form his own production company. Like a lot of film and comic book fans, Collora grew tired of listening to a variety of wild rumors about Batman and Superman movies and wished the movies could just get made, and made well. Unlike most fans, however, he actually had the budget and experience at his disposal to do something about it. Last year, he created an amazing short film, Batman: Dead End. I won't spoil the climax for you, but I will say this: Collora does more with the "stars" of a certain lame summer movie in 5 minutes than the studio managed to do with 2 hours and a multi-million dollar budget.

Now, Collora has created a preview for another movie, World's Finest. This one takes its title from the DC comic book of the same name, a monthly team-up of Superman and Batman that has them battling the evil plans of Lex Luthor, now president of the United States. Sadly, we'll likely never get to see this one fleshed out into an actual movie, but if fanboys everywhere had their wish, this movie would be in production already. Over the past couple of years, I've seen a slew of fan-produced trailers for movies that will never be made popping up on the web, but I guarantee you won't find one much better than this.

Strange Days Indeed

Have you ever had one of those days when you just stop and laugh at the completely absurd situation you're in? This afternoon, I found myself driving around town with a wedding dress, an autographed Peyton Manning jersey, and a 3-foot blue spruce tree crammed into my car. I felt like I should have been in a Volkswagen commercial advocating the spaciousness and versatility of the Jetta. And considering the combined worth of the contents of my car were roughly equal to the value of the car itself, I was driving very carefully. I'm sure it looked pretty odd to people who passed me.

I've got two freelance jobs keeping me busy this week, so not much to post about again. The Blast tied 1-1 this weekend, but they played really well and enjoyed themselves, so we were pretty happy with the result. I'm really enjoying coaching, and look forward to doing it again sometime. I definitely think I inherited my dad's interest in coaching. Hopefully, I inherited his talent and patience as well. The biggest challenge most times is getting the boys to focus on soccer and stop wrestling, punching each other, climbing trees, or kicking someone else's ball down the field. Two hours a week with 14 nine-year-old boys is a pretty good form of birth control. (Exaggerating, but you get my point. Besides, "birth control" would mean a lot more if I actually had a girlfriend.) We've got a scrimmage this Thursday, and then only three more games before the playoffs. It seems like this season just started.

Quiet week

Not much worth posting about this week. Much to my chagrin, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things at work. Alaska is fading into memory. Luckily, I just received CDs of Tom and Todd's photos and got my film developed, so wading through all of those images has been fun. Hopefully I can put something together in the next few days for everyone to see.

In between sorting through photos and going running (something which I've done a lot more frequently since my return from Alaska), I've been listening to a CD by a band called The Secret Machines. The disc is called Now Here Is Nowhere. It's a pretty ambitious mix of 70's prog rock and early 90's alternative. They're going to be playing in Indy on October 2nd at The Patio in Broad Ripple, so I'm going to try to spread the love and get some co-workers to join me.

Shatner's Back!

OK, who else thinks it's cool that William Shatner's got a prime-time gig again? C'mon, you can admit it. Seeing all those promos for Boston Legal, David E. Kelley's reworking of The Practice, during tonight's NFL opener brought a smile to your face. Without a doubt, the guy is a first-class ham, but he's slowly become one of those ironicly cool icons of yesteryear. Good to see him getting regular work again.

And no, rooting for Shatner does not mean I'm a Trekkie. :)

Instant karma's gonna get ya

Talk about getting what you deserve. Here's a ridiculous story that's been all over the news today about a guy who was overwhelmed when his dog gave birth to seven puppies. This is a good reminder of why your parents taught you not to be cruel to animals. There's also a javascript link on the page to let you see video of the survivors.

Seriously, what kind of jackass do you have to be to want to shoot a puppy, much less seven of them? As my friend Cynthia said, it's just too bad the puppy didn't have better aim.

Readjusting

It's definitely been hard staying focused since my return from Alaska. Sitting in a chair in front of my computer is a lot less interesting than remembering all the amazing things I got to do last week. My friend Todd has also posted his memories of the trip on his blog. He's also got some great pictures posted.

As it turns out, by leaving Seward on Friday, we just missed an incredible rescue. Just 24 hours later, the same boat we had taken for our whale-watching/glacier cruise was just outside of Resurrection Bay when they came upon several people floating in the water. They were able to pull three survivors from the water and resuscitate them. Here's the Anchorage Daily News' account of the events. As beautiful as Alaska is, this was another sobering reminder of just how dangerous it can be as well.

Day 7 and home

FRI 9/3: We get up around 6:30 and go to the entrance to the Army resort, where we meet a shuttle bus that takes us to Seward's harbor area. Seward is much larger than Whittier, and has lots of permanent residences. The harbor is on Resurrection Bay, and has lots of fishing boats, a dock for cruise ships, and a little shopping district on the shore. We get our boarding passes and board our ship, the Coastal Explorer. We're taking a glacier cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours into the Kenai Fjords National Park, which is mostly a marine park. There is a good possibility of seeing whales (both killer and humpback), although we're a little late in the season. Nikki and Tom have both seen whales on previous tours with this company, but Tom says he has never seen both types on one trip. I keep my fingers crossed for orcas (killer whales). I always loved Shamu.

We set out into Resurrection Bay, keeping near to one shoreline. We see several bald eagles, as well as some puffins. They're cool, but birds are not what I'm here for. We head out into more open water. I'm a little nervous because I know my dad gets seasick, and I've never been out on the ocean like this before, but once I adjust to the rolling of the boat, I'm fine. It also helps that I spend a lot of time out on the deck breathing the cold fresh air. We head out towards a small group of rocky islands, the Chiswells. On the sides of the islands there are some birds roosting: more puffins and things called common murres. They look like penguins but aren't.

Our captain, who is also the tour guide and has a bad habit of promising too much, tells us to watch around the far side of the island as he sometimes sees a whale out here. Unfortunately, there are only about thirty Stellar's sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Normally, they would be pretty exciting, but after being promised a whale, they're a bit of a let down. Luckily, we head around the back side of the island and hit the jackpot. We're in an area between three islands when someone spots a humpback blowing air at the surface. Off to one side is a group of birds "working a bait ball" as our guide describes it, which means they fly in a circle around a school of fish to trap them in one area, then dive in to eat them. We're told to keep an eye on this spot because the whale is likely headed there to feed. Then we see another whale blow in a different area, so now there are two humpbacks in our vicinity. We pull up near the bait ball to sit and wait, and finally the whales appear. They begin to surface near the food, and suddenly two of them surface together, breathing in tandem. According to our guide this is very rare, and probably means those two are a mother and calf. So now we've got four humpbacks around us. Unfortunately, it's hard to photograph them, because by the time we spot them, they're already back under the water. None of them do a "fluke dive", where they raise their tails straight up before diving, so eventually we move off. I'm a little bummed, because based on Tom's previous experience, this likely means no killer whales.

We head up Aialik Bay to get a close look at Holgate Glacier. Just before reaching it, we pass a rocky cliff, and there is a mountain goat near the bottom. He looks like a large shaggy white dog, and hops up the cliff for the benefit of many cameras on the boat. The glacier is huge, and a river of melt comes rushing out at the bottom. We get to see it calve, but it's not as impressive as when we were kayaking, probably because the sound of the engine drowns out some of the thunder. We get a few pictures and then head back out of the bay. On the way out, we pass another boat from Kenai Fjords Tours. Their captain must have been in radio contact with our captain, because he announces that he's changing course and that we're in for something very special. Based on his previous track record, I don't get my hopes up.

We head for an island and pull into a horseshoe shaped cove, idling in the water. After a few minutes, we begin to see large black dorsal fins carving out of the water off the one side of the horseshoe. Orcas are headed our way. As they enter the cove, our guide tells us there are seven to nine whales, most of whom are part of the same pod. There are a couple of males he doesn't recognize, and they appear to be along to mate with the young females in the pod. There is also a mother and a baby, and which is amusing itself by skidding over the top of her when she surfaces for air. The whales are curious about our boat, and come nearer and nearer, finishing with the mother and baby passing right beneath the boat for a "hull inspection". It's kind of scary to see something that large just beneath the surface of the water passing under your boat. Meanwhile, the young females, trying to attract the attention of the young males, are doing something very curious. They surface on their backs with their white bellies pointed towards the sky and flap their tails against the surface of the water. I assume this is some sort of breeding signal, but it also makes for an amazing picture. I shoot an entire roll of film in about two minutes. The whales continue to play around the boat, and their dorsal fins, some as tall as five feet, surface all around us. Finally, our guide has to take us back since we're already running late, and the boat has to make another trip that day. It's hard to leave that cove.

Heading back into Resurrection Bay, we have the wind at our back and are "surfing" the waves, meaning we're going in the same direction as the breaks. Less bouncing and faster speeds. I sit right at the front of the boat with the wind in my face, happy as a clam. No thoughts of seasickness are crossing my mind now. Just before we dock, we pass a couple of sea otters who are struggling with the choppiness of the water. Normally, they like to lay on their backs, but it's difficult to do because of the size of the waves. Once we disembark, we do a little shopping in Seward, then head back to Anchorage.

In Anchorage, we stop at the REI store. Tom and I walk through the kayak section and discuss what exactly I would need to get started. All the kayaks are on sale for Labor Day, and it's very tempting to buy one. Might be kind of tough to get it on the plane, though. We head back to Tom and Nikki's and while I pack up my stuff, Tom grills steaks and Nikki and P.I. make a delicious salad. I stuff myself, and then it's time to head to the airport. Todd and Cynthia are there for one more day, and P.I. for two, so I'm the first to leave. It's very difficult to go. I'm hoping that they will ask for volunteers to get bumped from my flight, but no such luck. I spend six hours on the way to Dallas getting kicked in the leg by a sleeping two-year-old, then spend my entire two hour flight from Dallas to Chicago in an unconscious state. I'm so tired, I barely register the hot girl in the seat behind me. I drive back to Indy in a daze, force myself to stay up until 10 pm, and then pass out for close to fifteen hours. Back to real life.

I am 99.9% positive I will go back to Alaska. I had an incredible experience there, and I'm so happy I got to share it with friends. We owe Tom and Nikki so much for all the planning, guidance, and preparation. But even with everything we did, we barely scratched the surface. I'm overwhelmed by the wild beauty of the place, and living in a state where it seems like every available inch of farmland is being turned into a subdivision, it nice to know there's still so much land that has never been touched by human feet. I can't wait to see it again.

Day 6

THU 9/2: I wake up around 7:30 to heavy rain. Our tent has stayed pretty dry, thankfully. I get dressed and walk down to the other side of the beach. I see Nikki, who joins me with some interesting news. Sometime after we went to bed, a lone kayaker landed at our beach and set up his tent under our tarp. To do this, however, he had to move all of our stuff out from under the tarp into the rain. All of our food is soaked. When Tom got up at 6:30 to start breakfast and discovered this, he was not too happy. The kayaker was asked to leave, and did so. What a jackass. After dealing with him, Tom, P.I., and Nikki head off up the hill to collect blueberries for breakfast. I return to the tents to find that Todd and Cynthia's tent appears to be floating in a puddle, and they are soaked inside. While Cynthia puts on her remaining dry clothes, Todd and I go over to the tarp. We see three otters swimming along the shore. They climb out on to some rocks and chase each other all over the beach. They look a little smaller than the sea otters from the day before, and have longer tails. Tom later tells me that these must have been river otters, because sea otters almost never come to shore. We have pancakes with fresh blueberries for breakfast. Nikki bravely sacrifices her body to bring us these berries, taking a spill on the way back. After breakfast, Tom, Nikki, P.I. and I strike camp. Todd and Cynthia stay dry. The rain is pouring down now, and there is a cold wind coming from the direction of the glaciers. We stay huddled under the tarp waiting for the boat, which arrives about 45 minutes late. I am damp and chilly, but not even close to miserable. It would have been nearly impossible to ruin this trip for me after the day we had on Wednesday.

When the boat does arrive, we load it in near record time, and then most of us promptly fall asleep on the return trip. We unload at the dock and chat with Pete and Pete for a little while, then head to a small cafe for lunch. I have a fried halibut sandwich made from a fish probably caught the day before. I don't think I've ever had a better fish sandwich. We stop by the kayak place for some quick merchandise purchases, and then pile into the car and head to Seward. We go back through the tunnel, then continue down the Seward highway. Because of the rain, some views are obscured, but it's still a gorgeous drive.

We're staying at a townhouse in the Army's resort in Seward, so we get checked in and head in for another much-needed shower. Todd, Cynthia and I walk down to the lodge to dry some wet clothes and play a few games on the foosball table in the laundry room. After cleaning up, we head over to Exit Glacier, just outside of Seward. The rain has let up, but there is a bitingly cold wind coming off the glacier. We take a few photos, but don't stay too long. We eat dinner at the Resurrection Roadhouse at the Seward Windsong Lodge. I have seafood chowder, a blackened chicken salad, way too much bread, and two pints of Alaskan Amber (Amber beers are incredibly good up here). Needless to say, I sleep very well.

Day 5

WED 9/1: We get up at 5:15 to a misty rain, load Tom and Nikki's kayaks and all of our gear and head south in two cars to Whittier. We take the Seward Highway along the Turnagain Arm, but just before reaching the point where the road turns towards Seward, we get off. Ahead is a railroad tunnel. In 2000, they converted it so that cars could pass through, but only in one direction at a time. If you miss your window, you end up sitting and waiting for up to an hour, thus the reason for our early departure. We have a boat to catch. We drive through the tunnel, which is not your average tunnel. Instead of concrete and fluorescent lights, we are surrounded by raw rock and a few electric lanterns for two miles. Pretty intimidating. We leave the tunnel and arrive in Whittier, where Tom tells us, "the weather is always shittier". This proves true, as it is rainy and chilly. I barely register this, since I am enthralled by the view. Whittier is a harbor town on Prince William Sound, surrounded by mountains topped by ice fields, with glaciers descending in various spots. The town is so small that everyone who lives there lives in a single apartment building, which looks more like a large hotel. It's also a port for cruise ships. We head to the docks and go to Alaska Sea Kayakers, where we receive our boots and life jackets, paddles and kayaks. We get two double kayaks, one for Todd and Cynthia, and one for P.I. and I.

We carry all of this gear down a ramp to the water, where it is loaded on to our charter boat. The kayak place partners with Honey Charters, owned by a guy named Pete Heddell. He is our captain for the trip, and once we're all loaded, we shove off for our campsite. We head east into the Sound, and eventually turn back to the southwest into Blackstone Bay, where our campsite and kayaking area is located. We land on Willard Island, at a spot called The Eagle's Nest, rather appropriately named because some bald eagles have a nest in a tree just off the beach. When we land, another Pete is waiting for us. This Pete owns Alaska Sea Kayakers, and has two guys with him who he's been guiding on a trip. We switch places with them, unloading our gear on to the stony beach and setting up a tarp to protect it from the rain. After loading the other guys, the boat leaves, and we are alone in the most remote place I've ever been. It's likely that there is no one else within 20 miles of us.

We get our gear squared away, then explore the area to pick our campsite. The beach extends off to our right, stony and flat, dotted with a few patches of grass and dead tree stumps. To our left a rocky hill rises sharply away from the beach into a forest of evergreens. I would not want to have to carry our gear up that slope. Luckily, we don't. Straight ahead, a path leads us in under a stand of trees about 50 yards off the beach, and it's here that we set up our tents in three small clearings. The path winds in a circle among gnarled, moss-covered trees and large evergreens, up and down over tree roots and fallen logs. It looks the way that I've always imagined Peter Pan's Neverland would look. The only sounds we hear are a roar that sounds like a highway with steady traffic, and what seems to be not-too-distant thunder. The traffic noise turns out to be rushing water. The melt from the ice fields on the mountains across the bay rushes down to the bay in torrential waterfalls, and we hear it in the background all day. The thunder, it turns out, is calving glaciers. Large chunks of ice break off the face of the glacier and fall into the bay, creating this noise. To give you an idea of how tremendous this is, the nearest calving glacier is about six and a half miles away.

After setting up the tents, we head back to the beach and gear up for kayaking. I wear long underwear top and bottom, a short-sleeved shirt, a fleece jacket, waterproof jacket and pants, and a wool hat. Over all of that I wear a life jacket. Tom gives us a brief lesson and a warning that the water is between 38 and 42 degrees, so if we fall in it's an instant emergency situation. He has a radio tuned to the Coast Guard frequency, but there's no guarantee that anyone will hear it. It's not powerful enough to reach the nearest Coast Guard station, so unless another boat is in the area to relay the message, we're on our own. With that in mind, we push off from the beach. I'm in the back seat of our kayak, which means I control the rudder with foot pedals. After a few moments of rockiness, P.I. and I settle right in. Your butt is actually below water level in the seat, so it's a totally new experience for me. We've barely begun to practice paddling when a harbor seal pops up nearby. Tom says it's acting strangely, as it doesn't seem to care much about us being so close to it. It's either sick, injured, or giving birth, but we can't figure out which. We head off into the bay. I begin to feel like this may be the coolest thing I've ever done. We begin to pass chunks of ice right away, evidence that we are headed towards the calving glaciers. As we travel, several more harbor seals pop up to investigate us, including a pair who had been chasing each other but decide we're more interesting. These guys are all more active and inquisitive than the first seal we encountered. As we head closer to the glaciers, the chunks of ice get larger, and we can see sea otters in the distance, some on top of the ice. Towards the end of the bay, a spit of land reaches towards us, dividing the water into two areas. There is a glacier on either side, and it is Beloit Glacier on the left that's been doing most of the calving. As we get nearer, we see some gigantic ice chunks fall into the water. We land on the beach on the spit of land. There is a small low area of grass and trees, but soon tree-covered hills shoot up away from the beach towards the glaciers. Todd remarks that if you took out the glaciers, the landscape would look like Jurassic Park. It feels that wild.

We make freeze-dried Mexican food by adding hot water to the bags, which is much better than it sounds, not least of which because we're starving. I soon christen our landing spot "Bug Beach", because there are small swarming black flies that won't leave us alone. They don't bite often, but when they do you know it. Several of us leave with large bumps on our faces. We refill our water bottles with filtered water from a stream that runs down from the hills, then get back in the kayaks. Nikki has gotten tired from paddling her own kayak (we've gone about 4 miles at this point), so she and I switch places. She's in the back of the double with P.I., and I take the single. We paddle closer to Beloit Glacier and take pictures. Then we go back past our lunch spot to the glacier on the other side, Blackstone. The wind is coming heavily off the glacier here, and rain has begun to fall, so the water gets a little choppy. We turn and head back, seeing a few otters along the way. They are by far the cutest animals we've seen. I'm enjoying the single kayak. It feels good to test myself at something new, and to exercise with a reason for expending the energy. At one point on the return trip, we come out of the choppy water into a calm, glassy area and stop paddling, just drifting along. The rain lets up, and there is mist ahead of us. Todd & Cynthia are coasting along ahead of me, and there's no noise other than the rushing water. I am so at peace in that moment. I am now convinced that this is the coolest thing I've ever done. I start calculating how soon I can afford a kayak.

After pausing for Tom to take a few pictures of birds sitting on ice chunks that look like they're walking on water, we land back at our campsite. We've gone just about 9-1/2 miles. Sitting under the tarp to get out of the rain, we play some euchre and make quesadillas for dinner. It begins to get dark, and the rain gets heavier, so we head off to bed. I sleep very well listening to the sound of the raindrops on the tent's rain fly.

Day 4

TUE 8/31: I wake up before everyone else and walk down to the Teklanika to take pictures. I see what appears to be a bear in the distance but later am not so sure. Tom & Todd join me, and we hike north along the river bed to a rocky hill that rises above the river. We climb to the top and are treated to a commanding view of the river valley just as the sun comes over the eastern mountains, bathing everything in a golden glow. My bear appears to have been a stump from this view. We go back to the RV, have some french toast and spend 20 minutes rehashing the previous night's events. This is the beginning of what will become a running joke throughout the trip. I seem to have freaked P.I. out with my flailing, and rightly so. I can't ever remember doing anything like that before.

We pack up and head back towards the park entrance. Along the way, we see some cars pulled over taking pictures of a large bull moose off to the right of the road. We get out as well. The moose gets closer and closer to the road, and eventually when everyone gives him enough room, crosses the road right in front of us, probably 15-20 feet away. He is HUGE, and surprisingly majestic for a creature that is so often portrayed as goofy and awkward. My adrenaline is pumping. Back in the RV, we continue the ride. Much of the smoke has blown out during the night, so we get better views in this direction, and the colors are fantastic.

Back in Anchorage, we clean out the RV and take our first showers in three days. Glorious. After returning the RV and doing some laundry, we eat dinner at a place called The Bear's Tooth Grill, which is owned by the same people who own The Moose's Tooth Pub, where Tom and Nikki took me on my first visit to Anchorage. I have Yucatan Lime soup, a pizza, and get my first taste of my new favorite beer, Northern Light Amber, a house beer from the Moose's Tooth Brewing Company. I'm not holding out much hope for finding it in Indianapolis. After dinner, we quickly crash before another early morning.

Day 3

MON 8/30: We get up around 6:30 to catch a park bus just outside our campsite. We'll take this bus all the way to Wonder Lake (mile 85) and back, about a 7-1/2 hour trip. The bus is basically a glorified school bus, and the road is a bumpy dirt path that winds along the edge of the mountains, but no one's worried about comfort. We're all too eager to catch a glimpse of the animals that you're expected to see on this ride, and we are not disappointed. By the time the day is over, we'll have seen a moose, two Dall sheep, 3 caribou and 14 grizzlies. We stop at Polychrome Overlook and Eielson Visitor Center on the way in, but the smoke is still heavy and visibility is not so great. There are still some amazing views, which makes me wonder how incredible it must be when it's clear.

By the time we reach Wonder Lake, we've already seen the sheep (which are mountainous and live high up in the rocks), and 6 grizzlies. It's the time of year when the bears are eating berries,so most are on the grassy slopes of the mountains just above the road. They are doing something called "the berry bob", where they lower their head as they strip the berries from the bush with their mouths, then lift their heads to eat them. Also, we see a young male chasing a ground squirrel. He has no problem running down the slope as he gives chase, which explodes P.I.'s belief that if a bear chases you, you should run downhill. When we get to Wonder Lake, we see the caribou grazing near a pond. We leave the bus and wander around on the tundra. It's very soft and springy, and walking around on it is a strange experience. It's almost like one of those inflatable moonwalk things at the fair. We get back on the bus and look at the caribou some more, then start our journey back towards the campground.

After another stop at Eielson and a new stop at the Toklat River, we decide to leave the bus and hike along the road. At this point, the hill to the right of the road drops sharply away 500-700 feet to the valley below. Looking down, we see a mother bear and her two cubs traveling along the river below. Watching the cubs is amazing. They wrestle, chase each other, chase their mother, attack some caribou antlers that they find, and splash in and out of the water. At one point, their mother gets ahead of them around a bend, and the cubs start to panic. Eventually, their mother comes back to track them down, so they stick closer to her after that. We hike up to Polychrome and catch a different bus, from which we see several more bears. About a mile from our campsite, we leave the bus again and hike the rest of the way. We have pasta with a homemade sauce for dinner, and watch "Rat Race" on the RV's DVD player before falling asleep. And that's when the craziness begins.

MON/TUE: At some point around 3:30 am, Todd climbs out of his bed, apparently sleepwalking. He steps wrong and falls down the stairwell to the door, causing the door to make a loud bang as if it had slammed. P.I., who is next to me in the RV, sits up and screams. I am still halfway in a disturbing dream about the RV being attacked by wolves, and become convinced that a wolf has gotten in the door and is attacking P.I., so I attempt to save her by trying to push it off of her, shouting for help all the while. P.I. is also shouting, I assume because she's being attacked. Meanwhile, Cynthia is shouting because Todd is not in bed next to her, Nikki is screaming, Tom is trying to figure out what's happening, and Todd can't figure out why he's out of bed. After about 10 seconds of pure chaos that feel like 30 minutes, P.I. makes me realize that she is in fact being attacked, but only by me. I stop pushing, but am still confused. A rather loud conversation catches everyone up to what is happening (and probably wakes up everyone else in the campground), and some sort of calm is restored. Once assured that everyone is OK, the men go right back to sleep. The women, however, barely sleep the rest of the night because, as Nikki said, "my heart was beating so fast, I thought I was having a heart attack".

Days 1 & 2

This is the beginning of my recap of the Alaska trip. I'll be posting them in installments, usually broken up by day:

SAT 8/28: After a long, cramped flight from Chicago, I get into Anchorage at 10:45 Saturday night. The approach to the Anchorage airport brings us in over the water, and there's a scary moment when we are descending and I can't see anything but water. Nikki, Cynthia, and P.I. pick me up, because Tom and Todd are getting the RV ready for the next day. We hit the grocery store on the way back to Tom and Nikki's, then pretty much go straight to bed for the first in a series of early mornings.

SUN 8/29: We get up around 6:45 (Alaska is 4 hrs. behind Eastern Time) to start loading all of our gear into the RV. It was plenty big enough for six people, although I can say that because I got to sleep on the big bed. I don't know how the ones on the tiny beds would feel about that statement. Leave Tom & Nikki's around 8:00 and start the 3-hour drive to Denali National Park. A lot of the drive is just your average highway... with gigantic mountains all around. The closer we get to Denali, the more the colors start to change. Autumn has arrived in Alaska.

We arrive at the park, greeted by a national park sign which is usually framed by a breathtaking view. Unfortunately, due to smoke from the wildfires raging across Alaska, much of the scenery is obscured. No chance at seeing Mt. McKinley today. Tom tells us the fires have already burned an area the size of the state of Massachusetts. We stop by the visitor's center to get our camping permits and pick up some maps, then head down the road towards our campsite. There is only one 89-mile-long road in and out of the park. At mile 15, there is a checkpoint beyond which only RVs and park buses are allowed to continue, and once we reach our campsite at mile 29, only the park buses can travel the rest of the road.

We stop at the checkpoint, because there is a nice hike along the Savage River that gives us a chance to stretch our legs, and to eat lunch. It's pretty chilly, but the fresh air makes the food taste incredibly good. We climb up to a rock formation above the road, and see a pika in the rocks. I thought it looked like a rabbit with small ears, but someone else described it as an oversized mouse. We descend from the rocks and hike the loop trail along the Savage River, where we see a few ground squirrels. They look a lot like prairie dogs, only with longer tails. After taking a few pictures, we climb back in the RV, and head for the campsite. Along the way, Tom spots a couple of caribou grazing on a hillside.

Our campsite is a rather rugged RV park on the bank of the Teklanika River. In the center of the campground there is a bathroom with a flush toilet and a spigot for fresh water, but that's the extent of the amenities. We pick our spot and settle in, then walk down to the river and hike south along the bed. Because it's a glacially-fed river, there is a lot of silt in the water that creates lots of small islands in the bed (called braiding), so it's not hard for us to find a path. We find a set of caribou antlers with part of the skull still attached. We hope it was killed far away and washed there by the river. After thinking we see an animal moving on the bed ahead of us, we climb up to the road above and walk back to camp for a dinner of brats and potato salad. No problems sleeping tonight.

Back in town

Well, I'm back. Alaska was incredible, and no matter what words I use to describe it, they will never do it justice. I'm going to make an attempt, and will be posting it in installments, since it's rather wordy. I'm just checking a few facts with my fellow travelers, and then I'll begin posting.

Before I do, though, I want to give a huge thank you to Tom and Nikki Ulmer, our hosts on this trip. They did so much planning and preparation before the rest of us arrived that we would have been lost without them. Tom acted as our tour guide, photographer, cook, and even camp policeman. His experience was totally invaluable, and it would not have been the same trip without him. To get a taste of what we saw, check out Tom's photography. There's already some stuff up from our trip. He's extremely talented, and his stuff is for sale at very reasonable prices, so buy something already. And thanks to Nikki for being our reason to go to Alaska. Without a friend to visit, none of the rest of us probably would have ever made it Alaska, and definitely never had the experience we had last week.

Also, another thank you to Todd, Cynthia, and P.I. (a.k.a. Engine No. 1). They were also a big part of the trip, and I'm glad to have been able to share my experiences with them (and save them from imaginary wolf attacks). Readjusting to life in Indianapolis is going to be tough after the week we just had.

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.