First Ride

B learned to ride a 2 wheeler today. First video, courtesy of J below.

Summer Pix 2

Dee on American Girl on Kojo

D.Miasma made the Kojo Nnamdi show today, pointing out the irony of Hillary Clinton using Tom Petty's "American Girl," in her campaign. The link to today's show is here (Dee's comments are discussed with about 25 minutes to go in the show.)

Dee's email to Kojo:

Hey Kojo,
Love the show.

On the subject of listening to the chorus but overlooking the lines, I noted that one of Hillary's rally songs was Tom Petty's "American Girl," which seems inspiring until it gets to this line: "God it's so painful when something that's so close is still so far out of reach..."

Summer Pic 1: Tired Yet?

Happy birthday Jean & Joan

Brother G sends this birthday video.

Stay Positive

After searching Craigslist to no avail (all buyers, no sellers), waiting outside with other scalpees with not so much as a nibble, and giving up and walking half way back to our rental house, I was pretty sure I was not going to see the Hold Steady in Austin last night. So when D. Miasma picked me up, and I said, "let's swing by one more time to see if the scene has changed," it was really really blind hope.

Met by blind luck. I asked two women near the line if they had tickets to sell, and one stuffed one in my hand and then rushed off. Providence, I tell you. Stay positive.

And wow. My review: I was not worthy. They blew me away. The energy is unbelievable. Frontman Craig Finn doesn't really sing, doesn't really scream, but froths up the crowd with dark or compelling or delirious stories. (NPR/WXPN called it "lyrically dense storytelling.") Problem is that if you stand up close (thanks, Dave) and you don't know the stories, you don't get all the expressiveness and frothmaking. I'm definitely going back to buy the rest of their discography to get ready for the next show.