I've got Friday on my mind

A fresh Forgotten Disc Friday segment is up.

The top one is yet another great review from emeticsage

The second is from yours truly.*
*as a little side bar this cd is SOLELY responsible for me meeting Dim back almost 10 years ago now. (she-it bro its been that long?!). That is a story for another day.

Feel free to post comments, make suggestions, or even contribute. As always thanks for stopping over.
-march

This proves many things.

First and foremost that Johnny Cash rules.



I found a site that has a SLEW of Sesame Street links (to YouTube) but you'd be amazed what is on there. You can see for yerself here
I love Furry Happy Monsters by REM..i watched it 3 times last night w/the little marches.

La La is working out!

So last night I finally got my starter pack from La La (scroll down and read my "YES" entry).

From the moment I had set up I agreed to send a cd so I was waiting for the first set of stuff to send. One great thing I know now is that regarding the "sending" you only have to send when you agree to do so. So my advice, don't agree to send until you have your first wave of mailers!

I got my first 5 packets as well as my first "trade". What is cool is once you say you got it, the cd goes right on to your "Have List". You can remove it so folks won't request it of course.

I opened my starter pack, went to the PC and quickly filled 5 cd requests. There it was...done. I then noticed I have ANOTHER cd coming to me! YEEEES!!

Lars left a comment back under my intro to La La post and had a "backdoor link". Last night I played hockey with my brother and he said he used that link and got right in. Another recent subscriber isRoad to the Isles. I already requested another set of mailing stuff but was told I had to wait to "trade more" since I am brand new I am held at "5 open trades" until I build up Karma points (prolly like positive ratings in ebay).

I swear I had something else today..but La La took up my a.m. post time!

Oh I still don't have any invites but if you do get in we can add each others a "friends".

Clever or just to drive me nuts?

Have you seen the new commercials for VW? You know, the ones where you have no idea what is going on because its a car full of 20 somethings yammering on and on and all of a sudden there are skids and air bag deployments. What the HELL?! That ad scares the piss out of me every time (I think I have seen 2 of them?). I can watch hours of car crashes during a Nascar race and I even rubber neck on a highway (yep blame me) but man this is freakin me out. Now if you are trying to tell me you have a safe car I guess I have to believe you. If you are showing me that accidents happen in a split second you also accomplished that. Never before have I wanted an ad to warn me that I am about to stain my jockey shorts.

Dwight Bobble head update

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!! Order it here

Quick rant.

Its not even as bad as the government expects yet everyone has their panties in a bunch about gas prices. Its driving me nuts. Not even the price of gas has me sick of this story. The issue I have is that nobody seems to be working on alternatives. There is no commission put together to look at other options, or making hybrids even more appealing buy dropping taxes etc on them.

I heard last week on the radio that Honda is slowing production on the Accord Hybrid due to "slower than expected sales".

Uggh. What are the alternatives? I am not even sure myself but bitching that you have to pay 35.00 at the pump to fill up is not helping. On the news today they said "folks are starting to call washington d.c. to see what can be done". That makes sense...well done you fools. You are probably CEO's too. asshats.

alos..if you want an "IN" for La La..read the comment section..Lars provided a link that might get you onboard faster if you want. Thanks LARS!

Well its Friday..

a fresh Forgotten Disc Friday segment is up. Feel free to post comments, make suggestions, or even contribute!

something else later I am sure.
-march

YES!

So I lucked out. My brother knew someone with a La La invite and sure enough I got hooked late Wednesday with the link.

A few hours in and I am hooked. It is wonderful.

Basically its a way of trading legit cds with other people that want that cd. Its legal and you "own" the cd in theory when you get it. The thing is, the more you 'trade' the more you can get traded back to you. It even comes w/pre-paid envelopes like Netflix. Let me explain a bit more.

Once you get in you see a massive inventory. I put in bands like The Turing Machine and got hits and this is still and "invite only" site. Granted nobody had the Turing Machine but its at least in the database.

Under each image of a cd it says "have" or "want". If you click "Want" it goes on to your want list. So I added a few things, then I decided I'd put in a "have". I added a "have" and moments later I got a request for it. Basically someone wants it..and since I can send something I can get something. Five minutes in I had a message saying a cd was being sent to me.

I raced home and picked out about a dozen cds I felt I could trade. The idea is rather than pay 99 cents for a song, here is the whole cd for 1.00. You can rip and add to your "have list" or you can keep the cd.

The best BEST part is the artists are getting 20%!!

So by 9pm or so I had 15 items in "have list" and already 7 of them have requests. Now you can deny the request, decide you don't want to send etc. If you commit to send you have to, but you are asked "Do you want to send this cd to XXXXX".

All I need at this point is the envelopes!

How much you are prolly asking (this is from the FAQ)
Pay only $1 for a CD!
Once you decide to start trading, you only pay for CDs received from your Want List. There are no hidden costs or monthly fees. Every CD you receive costs only $1 plus a standard shipping charge of $0.49. The number of CDs you receive will depend on how many CDs you ship to other members.

Not bad and it deducts off a credit card.

Non cd buyers will probably find this tedious and lame so call me both. (can you call someone tedious?) They ask you send the cds in good shape and NO copies.

I think what I am gonna do is get the stuff and rip to the ipod then add it right back on to my have list. I'll be honest, most of my "wants" are stuff that I am not sure I'd ever buy but I like a single song, plus its a perfect chance to get those guilty pleasure cds!

Under my name on the site it asks me if I have "shipped" XXX or received XXX and then I am sure I get my karma points and it lets the person know stuff has arrived or is sent.

It says you don't send the art work but you can add it if you toss on a stamp to the envelope. I'd prolly send it, cuz if you decided to keep the cd..why not have it..and I don't have the cd any more..okay I am rambling.

According to the main site it launches in July but you can put in a request for an invite. I am not sure if and when I'd get any invites (I am sure I need to trade some cds and build up what they call 'karma' to be given the chance to invite.

Lars said he wanted an invite, but if this sounds cool to you it may be quicker to get on the "request list" I'll update anything I get about an invite and fire a note to the first taker(s) and I'll be adding more to the blog about my experiences. I am all ready giddy though!

boring for some but important to me

Congrats go to former Boston Bruin and now San Jose Shark Joe Thornton.

Last night was the end of the regular NHL Season and Joe won the scoring title. Joe amassed 125 points this season. He also lead the league in assists with 96. (Jason Spezza of Ottawa was second w/71).

Thornton's 125 points included a mad 20-72-92 run in 58 games after he joined the Sharks in early December.

Hoping its just the start of something even bigger!

Three things today

First updating you on the Hoyts. The completed the marathon yesterday
With a time of 3:43:27 and they finished 9526th. Amazing.

second:
Congrats to the Flaming Lips for having their album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots be their first and only album so far to be certified gold in American (500K units). Keeping up with the trend the Current LP At War With The Mystics was released last week to global critical praise, landing their highest U.S. chart debut of their 23 year history, entering at #11 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. Get both, you can thank me later.

Finally:
I was reading an issue of Newsweek and there was a section on what is next for the world wide web (you know after you tube and flickr etc).

They mentioned this music service called La La (no link) and here is what it said (in a nutshell).

Take myspace social network, slice of iTunes and 1/2 a cup of netflix, blend it together in a stock rich with vintage Napster peer to peer sharing. The result is la la a music-discovery site that lets you find new music and connect with people who share your taste. Then you ask them to send you their used cds, a gift that costs you only a dollar each. You qualify for that bargain by sending one of YOUR cds to someone else (la la provides you with shipping materials). It goes on to say after you rip you remove from iTunes since you 'don't own the cd anymore etc. La La kicks 20% back to the artist as well.

Its invite only right now..anyone know a link or anything to check out? More curious than anything. If you can..INVITE ME!!

Just Amazing

If you live in Massachusetts today its three things.

-Patriots Day
-A Red Sox late morning game
-The 110th Running of the Boston Marathon.

For kids of school age its also "April Vacation". I recall as a young lad heading a few miles from my home to watch the Boston Marathon in nearby Ashland MA, (about 6 miles in I think). You'd see the elite runners go past then over the next 1hr+ you'd see sea after sea of people. Every marathoner has a story, or a reason for doing so but one set of runner(s) that have really stood our are these two.



That is Dick and Rick Hoyt.

Today Dick will push son Rick the 26.2 miles for the 25th time.

Rick was born with Cerebral Pasly and the two have made over 950 race appearances.

Now, to make you feel even more of "couch potato" lets have a look at the Dad.

-He is 65 years old.
-He ran his first marathon ever at age 40 and he pushed Rick.
- After their 5th marathon they decided to try Triatholon. (You know 2+ miles swim 100+ miles on a bile then a full 26.2) before they could do that Dick had to learn to swim. After the first try with Rick in a rubber raft they modified things. Now when they do the Triatholon Dick pulls Rick via a harness strapped to his chest..all the while pulling a nine foot Boston Whaler.

Here is a little blurb from this story about one race.

In 1999 Rick and Dick completed one of the most grueling tests of endurance in the world of sports—the Ironman Triathlon. In 1999 they returned to Hawaii to compete again. Along with 1,500 athletes, Rick and his father set out to complete the 2.4-mile swim, the 112-mile bike ride, and the 26.2-mile run.
The first leg of the competition went without a hitch as Dick swam the course, towing Rick behind him in a raft. Fifty miles into the bike race, however, island tradewinds hampered their efforts, and their 15-year-old bicycle broke down. Rick was determined to finish the race. After a costly delay, the two athletes arrived at the bike-to-run transition 90 minutes past the cut-off time. Dick buckled Rick in the bicycle seat and they were off again. Undeterred by exhaustion and the torturous up-hill course, father and son pressed on and crossed over the final finish line 45 minutes under the 17-hour limit.

Dick has said that 25 years ago they were viewed as a freak show not a runner, not a wheelchair competitor, now its hard to even imagine seeing the race without them

All you need to do is put in Dick Hoyt in to google and read the hundreds of stories about this amazing team. In this day and age where pro athletes are paid sky high salaries and seem to be put out by helping those less fortunate its so refreshing to see the adoration these two get, for just doing what they love

I effing love blogs

First an Easter Image.



Second - I love blogging. I do. I suck at it..but its a fun outlet. Anyhow every now and then you take a chance at you click that "next blog" in the upper right hand side. Now if your luck is like mine you scroll thru 10-12 that are some advertisements, a few totally in a foreign language, **PORN**, some religious freak(s) and what have you.

but every now and then you strike effing GOLD. Yesterday I did the old next blog until I came upon this one and since then I have emailed about 15 of his links to other people. This guy is flat out funny as hell. Read some of his 'best ofs' but don't worry about the subject popping up some massive phallus or what have you. Its all text and 99% of it is laugh out loud.

So for every 15 or 20 you scan past you sometimes land on gold..and that is how I found JennyG. I read it, liked it and bookmarked, then after 2-3 really good posts I shot a message saying "I love your stuff". The rest as they say is history!

So thanks to you folks that blog that I check out daily and take a moment and click "next blog" now and then..you never know what goods lie out there.

double your fun

Well it is friday. Not one but TWO cds today as part of Forgotten Disc Friday. Check it out here if you so desire. The usual crap from me to follow.

odd

This is a silly topic but for some reason I was thinking about it today.

You ever see someone with the same article of clothing that you own? Its so weird. Think about all the people, and all the stores, but suddenly you see the exact same shirt on someone. I am not talking like seeing a Red Sox Jersey on someone at a game either. Just out, random, someone has the same shirt that you have. Its even more awkward when you are wearing the same thing, but what I am getting at is when you just see "your shirt" on someone else. You wonder if you left your place unlocked, this person came in and said "AWESOME" (cuz I only wear awesome) and they took it and left.

The other night when I was the Sword show I saw a guy with the same fleece that I have. What makes it odd is that it is a British Royal Mail Fleece jacket. It has certain logos in certain places, rain proof shoulders etc. What makes it even more bizzare is that I ordered it out of this random catalog I get. It sells unused state and federal employee clothing, as well as unused military goods. Blankets, storage crates etc. Its a cool "look over" but this fleece was pretty slick and it was 6.00 so I jumped on it.

I should have checked my closet this morning to make sure that guy brought it back.

Five senses

I took this from Dreams of Genevieve
Looks like I need to list 5 per. Not gonna tag anyone since most of you ignored me the last time (barring you JennyG. This Jen tagged me for that one.

Sight:
- work clock telling me its time for the weekend.
- the 2 little march kids doing virtually everything.
- the discovery channel in HD.
- live concerts
- that 20 minutes before "dusk" on a partially cloudy day.

Smell:
- coffee
- when it first starts to rain
- Eternity for women by Calvin Klein
- beach air
-cinnamon rolls.

Taste:
- cinnamon rolls
- Newcastle brown ale
- a well cooked steak
- baked potato w/butter and salt
- Caesar salad

Hear:
- the first 20 minutes after the march kids go to bed the sound of safety..ahh
- birds in the morning
- the sounds of a hockey game
- a live FM Sigur Ros broadcast...goose bumps EVERYWHERE!
- little voices telling you "i love you"

Touch:
- Mrs March
- the little marches (don't be a pig you bastards)
- new socks/underwear/t-shirts
- a 12 inch record (not the middle..the sides the sides!)
- golf greens

The Sword with Torche (and others)

The Sword
w/Torche, Seamless, AKG and Tarantula AD
The Living Room, Providence RI
Saturday April 8, 2006

File this under you win some and you lose some.

When this show was first announced and up until show time Miami band Torche was listed as the headliner. That didn't phase me much since i wanted to see the sword more and an early set meant earlier for me to see a band and head home. 5 bands, doors at 8 show at 9...fair enough.

I arrived to the club at about 20 after 10 and the band AKG was saying there "hello's". Oh crap..just now?! Sure enough stuff was running late and this was only the second band to hit the stage. Its gonna be a long night.

The good news is KP was there so we could at least rock out, drink a beer and chat between bands. KP is a good concert partner. He doesn't talk at all during the bands playing (granted its too loud) but he takes it all in and flat out likes being at a rock show. I think the only thing I asked him was during the band Seamless if they were "really freaking loud". KP gave the look and nod. The trickle of blood coming from his ears should have told me. (i kid).

AKG was okay. KP liked them more than I. Seamless was next and they had a "lead singer". Uggh. He just screamed his flipping head off. It was getting late and it could not have ended sooner IMO.

Torche was up next..but it was getting to be midnight. Ears hurt as well as legs (and bladder). I was not familiar w/Torche at all until Friday afternoon when I checked out their myspace page. I liked the 3 songs they had posted and noted they were going to be coming back to Boston to open for Mogwai. I love me some good instrumental heavy stuff. The band was not out and out bad, but a very muddy mix made me somewhat ehh on them. I wanted to grab their cd before the show started but by the end I ended up saving my money. KP saw a member of the band Cave In and chatted w/him for a moment. Cave In had played with Torche in TN and the guy said that Torche just blew them away. I said to KP later that I thought Torche was a better studio sounding band. Oh well.

Finally around 1am The Sword took the stage. One of the nice parts of this long night was the fact the bands turned over the stage in about 15 minutes. 1am is just flat out Effing late. After a quick hello the band launched into it and all was forgiven. I am pretty new to the band but was a big believer after the first tune. The bands sound is a mix between Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age first record. Its heavy, its swampy its noisy as hell, and it flat out rocks. I wanted to see the bricks start falling off the wall and the ceiling come down. The band was firing on all cylinders. Sometimes its amazing how four people can make that much noise, but it was "structured". The vocals were a little buried in them mix but the absolute riffage just won me over. My head bobbed, my arms swayed and in a mere 40 minutes I felt I had seen and heard something special. Rolling Stone had them listed as one of the 10 bands to watch in 2006 and reports from the South By Southwest Festival had them as one of the top 10 live sets. I could be on to something.

Barring the late night why do people still think moshing is cool? I am all for having music move you but being a complete idiot saddens me. Jump up and down, sing along, pump your fist, air jam..whatever..just running in a circle and shadowboxing fueled on 6.00 domestic beers??! come on..

If the band gets on the right tour, or gets some bigger distribution deal I see them getting to only be bigger. They won me over and I'll be seeing them again.

Weekend

Well back to work today. Somewhat of a busy weekend but it is all good.

Friday night Mrs March and I watched Brokeback Mountain. I have to admit that during the film I thought it was "ehh". It wasn't horrible and the scenery is stunning. About 1hr after the movie was over I have to admit "i got it". Its a wonderful film. If you haven't seen it you should. Most folks want to see it out of curiosity anyhow, but its a well done film. I can go further with that but I don't want to spoil it if you have it on your list of films to see.

Saturday was running errands getting the littlest march to the doctor to see what the deal was with his cough, dinner out and then the mrs. and I unwound with
The Squid and the Whale. Wow..this movie was excellent. Talk about taboo and twisted plot lines (for a drama). The littlest dude in the film is messed up. I'd say this movies is on that good/bizarre level of Happiness and Kids. Both good for what they are but not stuff you'd put on to impress a date. Check out Squid and Whale though, very good film.

After the movie was over I decided to head to providence to catch some live music. The two bands (of 5) that I wanted to see The Sword and Torche. Torche was listed as the headliner but the Sword is the band I wanted to see more. When I got there the sword was moved to the headlining slot. Good news. Bad news..I got there after 10 and the second of the five bands JUST went on stage. The Sword went on stage at 1am.....

A review on that is forth coming.

Baseball comics..

Its Friday

So per the norm the weekly version of Forgotten Disc Friday is up.

Let me know if you'd like to write one.

More crap later too I am sure.

ummm words...

Read today that the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown has sold over 500,000 copies in paperback and the publisher has upped the initial pressing up to 6 million (from 5 million). This book has sold 40Million copies world wide. That is just amazing to me..that is Thriller like numbers. Makes you wonder who still needs to buy a copy. Granted I didn't buy mine but I read it. I wish I read more.

Anyhow 40 Million seems impressive to me and it got me wondering what the biggest selling books "ever" are. I know the Bible is first (and I know there are lists for non-fiction, children etc). Well I decided to use the web. Found a very cool site (again if I read more I'd really probably like it). Much like what IMDB has done for movies the The IPL (internet public library) has done for books. Have look if you want. The one that has me is the kids best selling list (heck what I don't read of adult books I all but make up for in multiple readings of kids books) but the Porky Little Puppy is #1? Never heard of it. Green Eggs and Ham is 4th on that list with a mere 8.5 million copies sold..it must be that kids books are just "donated" as they get older..I swear its given to parents when they leave the maternity ward.

Pretty cool.

Ever wonder what a web page looked like before you started going to it?

Web archive Put in a bands web page and hit the way back machine. Pretty cool

Some days you can't win...

the streak seems to be continuing.

Mrs. March had to work this weekend..around 5pm Sunday the littlest March decided it was time to spike fevers. This ran thru last night when he finally decided he was sick of being sick. Mrs March had Monday off so she was the caregiver, loader of video tapes and what have you. Tuesday was my turn. Figured we'd turned the corner...

last night while reading to the not so little march I got "dad my ear hurts". After wake up calls crying in pain at 10:15, 12:45, 2 and finally 3:45 it was decided that an E.R. Run was in the cards.

Mrs March and I get up and start to discuss who is going to do what..you going, am I going who is staying home "sick" with the little marches..

Mrs March had a Continuing Education course today in providence that she paid money for. She needs to have certain credit hours per year etc. I'll go I say..I'll just take another day off (I took tuesday sick for little march) You can't..you missed yesterday and haven't been in the office all week. Well you paid money for a class/credit you NEED.

Mrs March was already dressed and on the way out the door to the E.R. (god bless her).

Later (or earlier this morning) I got up and showered to see what was going on. Mrs March was asleep on the couch and middle march was awake watching tv..nursing an ear infection. Little March barring some dried snot was finally "not hot", so I decided to work on getting him ready for daycare.

So as I get ready to leave middle march is now asleep, little march is yelling at me because mommy and middle are home..why does he have to go anywhere...this wakes up Mrs. March and we start to talk. "Okay final warning I say..i can stay home so you can go to your C/E" You told me you HAD to go to work today. Umm no..the "had" was that if I were to work I'd HAVE to go to the office since i haven't been in all week. Groans, sighs follow and then I get "Well I'll just need to find a C/E on a Saturday or Sunday in the next month".

Its snowing (and its april)
the bruins lost again and are out of the playoffs
I got carpenter ants at my house
I am always hungry
my legs hurt

tomorrow will be better..right?

drat...

some technical difficulties at home today...back to normal tomorrow i hope.

Figured me out...

Yeah my last topic was a joke. I know its not worth reading that much, but I am not ready to be done with it.

I agree Dim I loathe the idea of the jokes. The one saving grace is that it was on a weekend and I don't have the radio or computer on much on the weekends. One that had be confused was a radio station around here.

WBRU which is actually the radio station at Brown University had a week long gag that they were sold and going to be changing formats. As the week came to a close the DJs would say "this is my last show" etc. On the ride home Friday a station know for its "alternative" playlist was playing Aerosmith and Kelly Clarkson and calling itself "Buddy FM". It ended up being a joke thank goodness on many a level.

Rusty...Friday night I went to a daughter dance and they played Pour Some Sugar on Me. Now mind you I was at first shocked that the DJ felt this was a good song to play at a father daughter dance (then again they played Brown Eyed Girl, Sweet Home Alabama and Stacy's Mom???!??!?!). Anyhow..back to Pour Some..I started to laugh and envision your blog entry about going out and rocking out hard to it.

Finally I heard the new Red Hot Chili Peppers song today. Its "okay" it may take a few more listens. Its due May 2nd if you care.

Thanks for caring by the way that I was "done".

i have had enough..

this is my last blog entry..thanks for reading over the last few months.