Going to Shows

Did the Hold Steady show last weekend and was told I had a lot of fun. I lost my status as designated driver that night and took advantage of it. Think I liked the first show earlier this year, but I think it is just because I remember it better. One cool thing happened at this show, though. A couple of my friends met and have been spending some time together since. I work with her. She is incredibly witty and fun to hang with. And for the guy, don't know him well, but he got us back stage passes to the first HS show and is extremely smart and funny. Hopefully, their hooking up will mean I get to see more of both of them. It is impossible to have too many cool friends.

Sorry I haven't been keeping this blog thing up too well lately. I have had a lot of really important things going on. Kind of like my next big project, going to Van Halen next Friday with my friend Dan. I remember the first time I heard them. Scott Wik and I were in 8th grade, driving around with some upper classmen who impressed us by playing "Beautiful Girls" at full volume.

General Thoughts

I have a lot of stuff I have been thinking about lately, but little time to write. So rather than wait until I can do the ideas justice, I will just jot them down before I forget them:

Saw Into The Wild a couple of weeks ago. I thought it stayed fairly true to the book. Then again, I read it ten years ago and have a crappy memory. I could be wrong. I did really like it’s underlying themes, though: the importance of forgiveness and Tolstoy’s definition of happiness. When we don’t forgive someone, we only hurt ourself. And true happiness can only be achieved in the presence of others (family/friends). If you haven’t seen it, it is a bit long, but worth the price of admission. (And yes, Randy, just like the movie Gandhi, he dies in the end. I hope I didn't spoil it for you.)

We also saw Dan in Real Life. I am a huge Office fan, so it was hard not to like something with Steve Carroll in it. It is more “situational funny” than “ha-ha funny”, though.

My friend Steph has me listening to the new Bruce Springsteen album, Magic. I am not a huge Boss fan, but I think this may be my favorite of his.

Speaking of music, I am going to see The Hold Steady for the second time this year with my friend Kip next week. Last time, he scored us backstage passes. We got a chance to chat with lead singer Craig Finn about Twins baseball and Paul Westerberg. The band is stationed out of New York now, but two of the guys are originally from Minnesota and refer to it frequently in their lyrics.

Stuck Between Stations video

After a bit of a drought, I have finally made new contact with my old friends Vincent (Chinese with an American nickname), Ming (American with a Chinese nickname) and Joan (American with no nickname), and I hope to stay in better touch with them from here on out. I have also been trying to get Brad to start writing another movie script. He said that if I write something, he will consider it. I started this blog, in part, to fulfill that commitment.

And I see Scott has finally made comments to some of my posts, so I expect this blog will get a bit more interesting. Feel free to chime in whenever. It’s kind of fun hearing from everyone. I know some of you don’t know who the heck some of these other people are, but even foreigners from Grygla are welcome here.

And, finally, for those of you who may have missed the Halloween e-mail that was floating around yesterday, here is a shot that was circulating. I figured it was post worthy. Looks like Randy was enjoying his costume more than Logan. (It’s also obvious that son gets his good looks from his mother’s side.)