It is Friday the 20th and the award for daddy of the year goes to Alec Baldwin.

If you're at all curious about my musical tastes, then check out my playlist here. It isn't the end all- be all of my musical tastes, but just a quick sample of some songs I've liked lately. It is always subject to change.

They don’t make ‘em like they use to.



What a touching story of a man that survived so much and was willing to give his own life to save others. In that split second decision who knows how many he probably saved?

This story will continue to unfold and will no doubt develop as the days go on. I’m sure somewhere there is a student at VT who also lived through Columbine. Now that will be the person who has a story to tell. Apparently schools across the country are plagued with bomb threats and other stupid bull$hit today from the scum of the earth.

If you can arrest two guys for putting Light Brights around Boston, you can surely throw the book at these idiots.

I love youtube.

Just about the time I give up on humanity, I can drop by the website and remind myself there were better days and they’ll likely be better days ahead. I remember pretending to hate pop music like Coolio but I wouldn’t change the channel when he came on the radio or MTV.



It is exactly that reason I will pull up an old cheesy video off youtube. It reminds me of a simpler time when my biggest challenge was earning enough money for some gas, food and smokes. It was a time when you looked forward to going to college. Back then you didn’t have to worry about getting shot in class, because it just didn’t happen. At least not at college.

Sure the world wasn’t perfect. It never has been. It just seems like ever year brings a little more violence, the ends get a little harder to make meet, the world becomes a little less stable and the culture moves on leaving us teens of the 90s in the dust. MTV is chocked full of awful reality shows and the music on pop radio is mostly some guy grunting about what a stud he is over some Pro Tools generated beat. At least our rapper’s sample real actual music.

I’ll stop waxing nostalgic for now, but I do sometimes miss those days. They’ll never come back. Maybe that is the curse of youth. You don’t realize what a good time you’re having until it is too late. In a dozen years some guy will probably look back fondly on Nickelback and “The Fairly Oddparents”, but I doubt it.

I'm always one to admit when I'm wrong. The Bloc Party ablum has grown on me.

I’m listening to KEXP online and “Rebellion (Lies)” is playing. Amid all the Arcade Fire hype, I refused to buy their music. Call me a snob, but the minute somebody becomes the critic’s darlings, I run screaming. Yet admittedly, this is one of my favorite songs ever. So maybe now that the buzz has died down, I’ll buy one of their albums.


Speaking of critical hype, I bought the new “Bloc Party” cd. The best thing I can say about it is it was on sale at Target. Ok, honestly it may grow on me, but I fail to see what the big deal is. Ditto “TV On the Radio” and “She Wants Revenge.”


I don’t know what my real point was blogging today, other than I’ve been slack about it lately. I saw something today that both frightened and amused me. Like most cities, mine has jumped on that band wagon of making some poor person stand along the road with ads on signs. Normally I ignore them on principle, but this one caught my eye.

It said “Condo-A-Palooza”

I worry about where the world is heading. We’ll make great pets.

So Kurt Vonnegut has passed. Last time I checked in on him he was still chain-smoking and flipping off all branches of government. He was in his mid 80s. We should all get to die with such dignity. So for what effort I could summon to write something deep and profound, it would be in vain. Vonnegut was the type of writer who polarized everyone. You either loathed him based on something you were force fed in school or you decided based on something you were force fed in school that he was worth getting to know.

If anything, I’m sure he’d like the world to know once and for all that famous “speech” he gave at MIT was not him at all.

Last night I caught a very moving film. I didn’t see the entire movie, but what I caught was very inspiring. “So Much, Sa Fast” is a documentary of the final years of a 29 year old man diagnosed with ALS.

The very same disease took my grandfather way before his time. It was so long ago I barely remember him and definitely don’t remember him healthy. I suppose what moved me about the film, other than that personal connection, was the way his family rallied around the young man profiled in the movie. They all became hell bent on curing this disease.

What is peculiar about ALS is how little is known about it and how quickly it deteriorates those stricken with it. Some last months and others, like Stephen Hawking, can live years with the disease. Nobody knows if it is genetic or environmental. For what it is worth, the man in the movie was an Engineer. So too was my grandfather. Maybe there is a relation, although I doubt everyone researching it has failed to make that connection.


So for myself and my family, we all have the very real possibility that any one of us could come down with this disease. There’s no cure and medical science generally writes you off. This is likely due to the fact that long term survival is virtually non-existent and the nature of the disease is all but unknown. Things like this always gets me thinking of how briefly we are all here and how precious each healthy day is.

If nothing else, I just hope they play “Untitled” by the Cure at my funeral.