Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbiden

Every spring I call a couple buddies and hit the course for a round of 18. At some point during the day the following conversation inevitably occurs:

Me: ya know, I think this summer I'm gonna take a couple lessons. I think if
I had someone to make minor adjustments to help me be more consistent I could
feel confident enough to play more often and on some better courses

Golfing Buddy: Yeah, it's a great idea. Some minor adjustments can go a long
way.

Then spring turns to summer and summer to fall -- now, here I sit having golfed a grand total of once this season and having taken a grand total of no lessons. I enjoy the game, but more than that I enjoy the camaraderie. There's little out there better than three or four guys all sucking more or less equally at the game and sharing stories of women, booze or women and booze. Yeah sure, there's the goal of getting a respectable score too but more than that is the opportunity to be with the guys somewhere other than a bar or in front of a widescreen tv (both of which are great places to hang out mind you).

So next year, in addition to taking a lesson or two I'm just going to get out there more.

Radiohate no more?

Radiohead has been a band that I have wanted to like for a long time. An odd turn of phrase, yes, but I have listened to plenty of their stuff and save for "Creep" and "High and Dry" I just never seem to be able to get into them. I WANT to like them. I'm a connoisseur of good music and I feel like I'm not on board an important musical train when it comes to this band. Part of it always had to do with Thom Yorke's voice (Thom with an "h"?? Really??). It was so odd it distracted me from enjoying the music behind him (which is admittedly amazing!) It's the same reason I want to find the A&R that signed Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and punch him in the face.

This brings me to last evening. I decided, since it wasn't going to cost me a dime, to download the new Radiohead album, "In Rainbows." The band is "selling" their album on their website for whatever you'd like to pay -- $0, $100, or anything in between. Normally I would support such an idea by paying $5-$10 for the download. I thought in this instance, for a band I don't particularly enjoy I would download it for free (yeah, I'm "that guy"). What I found was particularly enjoyable. Yorke's voice is a bit more normalized and the music behind him is as brilliant as ever. I also found that perhaps I was listening wrong all this time. Radiohead isn't about rousing rock anthems that you sing along to, it's about ambient music that complements your surroundings. Ok, Ok, yes that sounded really trite, but it's also true. I walked all over DC this afternoon with my white ear buds firmly in place and really enjoyed the album as a kind of background for the world.

I doubt you'll find me singing along to the at times indiscernible lyrics but you'll definitely find me listening again -- and I may even go back and tackle the older albums with my new listening theory.

Back in Black

I wonder how many times I can reinvent this blog without losing my credibility. Too late you say? Probably. Thanks in large part to http://mike-nagel.blogspot.com I've been inspired to put finger to key and get writing again. My environs seem to have changed since we last one-way spoke. I now sit in one of my favorite places in the city. The thing is that the city has changed. The Eastern market neighborhood of Washington DC was recently listed in the top ten most desirable neighborhoods list compiled by some authority on such matters. It's only a few short blocks from my kick-ass apartment on Capitol Hill and I have been lazy (read: cheap) lately so I come here to Port Java coffee house to get onto the internet for the low price of a tall chai latte.

So the land of white marble monuments may not be able to compare the city of steel and ambition but our nation's capital has its charms. Come visit and I'll show you what I mean.

For now, sit back an enjoy what will be a steady stream of posts until I get bored again.