LSU 45 Miss State 0

Thats 1-0 for the Tigers. Miss State put up a good battle in the first half showing the SEC is tough top to bottom. LSU has some things to work on before next week against #9 VT. That will be the first real test of the #2 ranking, a make or break game.

So it begins...

College football!!

LSU at Mississippi State tonight at 7 on ESPN.

Geaux Tigers!!

Finally got around to watching some of the Austin City Limits shows the DVR has captured:

Modest Mouse / Guided by Voices
Franz Ferdinand / What Made Milwaukee Famous
Ryan Adams / Tift Merritt
James Blunt / James McMurtry
Blues Traveler / Cafe Tacuba
Death Cab for Cutie / My Morning Jacket
The Raconteurs / Cat Power
Corinne Bailey Rae / KT Tunstall

Very nice, all good music! You got to love ACL.

We Won't Get Fooled Again

I've meet a only a few male friends in my life that I would say I had a deep connection with. In fact there are three, Phil, Ken and Todd. I'm not sure why there haven't been more. I suppose this is something that isn't too uncommon with men. Lots of acquaintances but few true connections. Seriously this is something I wish I could change but don't see it changing anytime soon...

Anybody who knows me knows that one of the few things I hate is Ohio. Mainly its the victim of circumstance but you know its hard to get excited about corn fields and pig farms.

In the summer of 1981, I moved to Beavercreek, Ohio. This was another move courtesy of the Air Force. Only two years before I had moved from California to Phoenix. Warm climates for a warm blooded southern boy. But Ohio had no similarities. What was significant about this move though was that in 1981, I would start my senior year of high school. Beavercreek High School would be my third high school. Think about moving during high school. Then think about moving during high school AGAIN for your SENIOR year?!?!

After a few waits at the bus stop in the dark in sub freezing temps I noticed a '69 blue chevelle rumbling by the bus stop on the way to school. Turns out this was a kid living down the street who was also a senior. He had lived in the neighborhood all his life. His parents had divorced a couple of years before and he lived in the house with his mom. He was an only child. The divorce had been rough on him and similar to me he was a teen caught in a situation that tweaks the angst beyond what should be. Todd and I would become inseparable for the next 2 years.

The chevelle had transmission problems so getting to school was always an adventure but anything beat the bus.

Escaping the parking lot at lunch to go to Burger Chef was a daily chess game. Beavercreek H.S. was a closed campus and the vice principal was sure to be lurking. Burger Chef, or Burger Death as we called it, was just down the road a mile. You could get cheap burgers there and they had a salad bar like setup to fix your burger. So you took a 99 cent burger and piled it up with a ton of fixings.

John Bryant park outside of town had a rock gorge in it. Todd and I learned to repel in that gorge. We had a friend Obee that knew how. First time I walked off the cliff backwards I was petrified but exhilarated! I busted my glasses on that first trip though :-( Slipped on a rock and they fell off of my face to the bottom of the gorge.

More rocks and rock climbing was found an hour south of town. Old Man's Cave was an awesome gorge and huge cave. We would spend an entire day there playing in nature.

You find out that ever town in the Midwest has two things. The first is suicide hill. Suicide hill was the death defying hill in town, in this case in Dayton, that we would ride tubes down piled high with people. By the time you got to the bottom there would be people strewn from top to bottom and everyone was bumped, bruised and grinning ear to ear.

The second thing is the 100+ lane bowling alley. The second I despise is bowling. I got roped into playing the winter season. 36 weeks of bowling while the world is gray, cold and dark. Its not fun but there isn't anything else to do.

Todd taught me that full service gas is worth the extra money. We would drive up to the Sonoco when it was well below freezing. Pull up to the full service and crack the window 1/4 of inch, yell out $10 worth please and slip the $10 through the crack to the poor kid pumping your gas in the cold.

Todd showed me the tunnels under Wright State University. This is a college in North East Dayton (Fairborn actually) near Wright Patterson Air Force Base. It is a decent size campus with numerous large buildings like any college. But these buildings are all interconnected by tunnels. The tunnels are wide, 15 feet, are ramped for wheel chairs (no stairs) and have smooth polished floors. This was how people moved between buildings when it was really cold or snowy out. But the tunnels were open 24 hours. And I having lived in California only a few years before had skateboards. We would spend all night long skateboarding the tunnels when no one else was around.

Todd and I went to the Who farewell concert in Louisville, KY. That was a road trip. The Who would continue to have farewell tours that are still going on to this day :-O We went to lot of shows at Cinci, Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton. Once we mail ordered for Yes tickets for Columbus the day the offering opened. The money order was return rejected. We called the radio station and complained. Turned out the main DJ answered our call and he gave us 2 seats on the bus the radio station was taking to Toledo to see the tour. Tickets were amazing.

Todd and I rode the Beast at King's Island when it had just opened. It was the biggest coaster in the world at the time.

And we talked a lot about technology. Todd was set on becoming an electrical engineer before I met him. He showed me the world of engineering. He and I could go deep in math, science, and technology. He was committed to going to Ohio Institute of Technology in Columbus. I would end up following him there.

Todd and I started at OIT in the summer of '82. We were freshman roommates. Within a week we had our first RA write up. Todd had gotten a new Hitachi integrated amp and Cerwin Vega speakers. The inaugural blasting was the Who, "We Don't Get Fooled Again". It was at 11, we were jamming, Daltrey was screaming. We found out a little later that the RA was pounding on our door for at least the last half of the song and we never heard it!! Welcome to college.

Todd and I moved from the dorm to an apartment the next semester. This brought on two more roommates we had met first semester. As people dropped roommates consolidated. Me, Todd, Scott from Detroit, and Faren from upper Michigan holed up on the east side of Columbus.

Todd got us all into fish. Tropical fish. That semester we had 5 tanks going including lots of cichlids and even a piranha tank. Todd was always getting into new stuff.

That semester Todd's Dad died unexpectedly. It changed him, he took it hard. Not unexpected. At the end of that semester we all went home for the break. When we came back Todd had moved out. The roommates knew about it before the end of the last semester, but Todd couldn't tell me.

Todd enrolled in Wright State, he would eventually graduate from there in Electrical Engineering. We saw each other ever now and then after that. But it was done. I graduated in '85 and moved to Tucson, AZ to thaw out. I haven't seen Todd since.

There were a lot of mad cap adventures in that 2 years. We were tight. Maybe by then the moves had conditioned me to find these connections of a few years and then move on. Maybe that's just the way life is.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

In 1973, my parents were going out one night. They had gotten the usual babysitter. She was a teenage girl from down the street. We lived in Hampton, Virginia at the time. The folks were going out to see a movie, maybe M*A*S*H or the Exorcist or the Godfather.

The babysitter arrived as usual and my brother and I were eating TV diners. This was a big thing back then. A complete diner in a foil tray that you just pop out of a box and into the oven. It always had one corner covered in foil that the veggies were under and it had chocolate pudding in the middle top. Potato something or other was on the top right and the main dish was something like Salisbury steak (hamburger in gravy). The pudding usually was pretty nasty, baked hard on top. And who eats veggies as a kid when the babysitter is over? Peas and carrots, yuck. (For the record none of my kids have ever had a TV diner)

The after diner activity was typically some sort of TV. And TV back then was very different then it is today. You had 4 stations to choose from, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. That's it buddy! Well actually you could get a couple of more maybe if you put the TV on the UHF setting and then turn the outer dial in a hunt for a station in the snow. These stations were important for Star Trek reruns. On top of this limited selection there was no remote either, you had a dial with 2 - 13 on it and you got up and dialed in your stations! A 100 stations with nothing on was yet to come.

So prime time TV was a big deal, 3 stations effectively to chose from. PBS was only good for the Electric Company and that wasn't prime time that I can remember. So this particular night the babysitter is excited because Elvis is going to be on TV tonight. It was to be live via satellite from Hawaii, wow! Here we are 15 years past the king's prime, 5 years past the comeback special and yet Elvis commands 1/3 of the nation's TV watching at prime time. I was 9, my brother 11 and we watched the king of rock and roll come out. He had the white full body suit with cape. Black hair and sideburns. We knew about Elvis, who didn't. Everyone knew Hound Dog. Me and my brother used to sing that song and do the Elvis. Anyway, we watched Elvis from Hawaii. We saw the ladies oo and aa just like our babysitter. And we watched American lore and legend live via satellite.

I wonder why we knew so much about Elvis then. Our parents did get into Elvis when they were teenagers in the 50s but they weren't Elvis fanatics now. Our family didn't even own any Elvis records. I think its because Elvis as an icon touched the entire country at a crossroads of ages. He was from poor southern roots, Mississippi, with a mix of southern gospel, Robert Johnson and pure energy of youth. He cut across white and black but he was white. Something Ray Charles and Chuck Berry could not be. And most of all he flaunted it. His pelvis spoke volumes and brought out the teenage lust, angst, rebellion and freedom. And Elvis single handedly put it on the map. It pails to us now, all these years later with a totally different perspective of shock. And Elvis' bad demise and subsequent mockery doesn't help. But in the day he was the king of rock and roll and you could feel it when you watched.

John Lennon said there would have been no Beatles without Elvis Presley. Bono was changed by watching Elvis' '68 comeback special at the age of 8. Endless musicians who transformed the 50s rock to today's music talk of their first record being an Elvis record. And those that followed were influenced by those influenced by Elvis.

I was born in 1964... technically a baby boomer by the last year and a gen x by the first year. Born way after Elvis' heyday, heck born after JFK went down and during the year the Beatles arrived. So a tweener I suppose. I own only one Elvis record, his Christmas record that is part of the Christmas album collection I get out once a year. My generation ranges across the rock of the late sixties to the hard rock 70s and was part of the launch of MTV (graduated high school in 82) and into the 90s.

But I know Elvis and he is the king of rock and roll forever. "You ain't nothing but a hound dog, rockin' all the time...."

Live Music

I love live music. Every show I go to I savor. And I would go often if I could. One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to see at least one live show per quarter this year. Hmm, well I'm 0-2. I was going to go see moe. in 1Q and subdudes in 2Q... missed them. Hopefully I will score this quarter and I do have a plan but more on that later.

You see the problem is nobody my age wants to see live music anymore. They don't want to go all the way downtown to Deep Ellum or Lower Greenville. And they don't want to stay out late. Doing this is a huge commitment and they really just don't care a lot about seeing live music. To each their own.

Dallas has even answered this to some degree by building a big fancy House of Blues in the new shwanky part of Dallas life. There is a band there every night practically. Sad but true, I have not been their yet.

About the only way I've really been able to satisfy the need in recent years is to run away to festivals. The wife and I used to go to the New Orleans Jazz Fest . Great festival, all types of music, and food to die for. But Katrina put that on hold. I ran away to Bonnaroo for a few years but the one and only person who would go with me said he had had enough. So the nearest festival to escape to is the ACL . A friend and I went down for this a couple of years ago. But since then it keeps getting scheduled on his daughter's birthday. Its a conspiracy I tell you!

What are you going to do? If you can't get anyone to join you then your beat. And beat I am I suppose. So I've moved to the middle aged man's social activity which is golf. But that is a whole different story.

So here you go, the answer. If you haven't seen any live music lately, don't want to stay out late and don't want to spend any money I have just the thing. And if all goes well I'll be there at least once! The city of Lewisville hosts the summer musical series. They put on FREE shows in the EARLY evening. In the old days it was put on at the vista ridge amphitheater (and Memories catered, remember them?). Now its split into two series, summer and fall . Summer is still at Vista Ridge but fall is at the new town hall lawn. And the fall series will start up next month. Its FREE and music is from 6:30 to 8:30, you'll be home before bed time. Go see some live music!!! Heck they will have Brave Combo there, everybody loves them so take your family and just go. I will be there getting my live music craving satisfied for the year!



And along these lines RIP Elvis, 30 years gone today :-( The king of rock and roll forever and what a live show that would have been.

God's Creation

Daughter number 3 has decided she wants to go off to college in Colorado. This is somewhat strange in that we had never taken her there. She really has never been around mountains. But this has been a strong draw for her in picking a college (nevermind the academics!). And she has been insistant about it. Its almost like Richard Dryfus in Close Encounters...

A couple of weeks ago she went off to Durango with a freind's family. When she came back she pretty much had confirmed her desire to be in the mountains.


So it makes me wonder why? Why would she be so insistant on this?

Some of it I'm sure is just leaving the nest. If your parents have always done certain things then you naturally want to go off in a different direction and set your own way. She isn't the adventurous type though so I would have never expected this from her. But I'm suprised by her everyday as she is changing into an adult before my eyes.


But still its a mystery why she is being drawn to the mountains so strongly. I can only assume this is her calling and that God is directing her there. And that she is awed and inspired by God's creation in such a beautiful place. And therefore she may not know exactly herself why but just knows that its what she must do.

Jerome John 'Jerry' Garcia
Aug 1, 1942 - Aug 9, 1995

"There's no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. I don't think eulogizing will do him justice. He was that great - much more than a superb musician with an uncanny ear and dexterity. He is the very spirit personified of whatever is muddy river country at its core and screams up into the spheres. He really had no equal. To me he wasn't only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he'll ever know. There are a lot of spaces and advances between the Carter Family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school. His playing was moody, awesome, sophisticated, hypnotic and subtle. There's no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep." - Bob Dylan

Violated

Today started off really great. Our church has been without a senior pastor for almost a year now and today a new candidate was speaking! He is someone with a lot of available materials to review so we have been listening and getting excited all week.

Headed out a 8:45 for the usual morning service. Parked in the usual parking spot, a bit out there, 2 spots over from my teaching compadre. Went into the service and the place was packed. This kind of made the wife a bit angry. Fair weather church goers coming out of the woodwork. We couldn't even sit in our usual spot. But that ill feeling didn't last long. The candidate delivered an awesome service that left us feeling very up. He was great and the and we really hope he makes our church his home.

Hung out after service in the cafe, discused what classes we would take this fall. Then headed downstairs to teach the kids during second service (me 5th grade boys, the wife 2nd graders). Finish up and time to go home.

Headed out to the car and the compadre is sitting there in his car waiting for us. I don't see it but the wife spots it right off. We get closer and I see it. The rear passenger window of my car is smashed in. The wife's purse that was tucked under the seat is gone :-( We are very upset.

Walk around in a daze for a bit then call the cops. There is glass all over the interior of the car so we brushed off the seats. Panic for a moment thinking the house key is in the purse along with the address on the drivers license. Did they head to the house? Also the car key to the kids car was in there, did they go to steal the car? The neighbor comes out of church so we tell him to watch the house when he gets back and call us if he sees something.

Finally head home. Called the credit card company. The robbers bought a big screen TV at Walmart and a $100 gift card at Appleby's on the discover card. Shut that off. Put a stop payment on the checks that were left in the checkbook. Cops come by and take pictures then go off to Walmart and Appleby's Realized later that the house key was not in the purse (whew).
We probably won't hear anymore about this from the cops. The wife will have to get a new lisence. We will have to get the glass man to come out and fix the window. The credit card company will take care of the charges. We lost about $60 in cash and another $60 on a gift card for the home school store to by the kids' books. We will spend the week kicking ourselves for being complacent and cursing the robber for having put us through this. Most of all we feel violated. Intruded on in our car while at church.

Coincidence of these two events? I think not. A wake up call, a reminder, that we must depend on Him. And from this he will make our ashes the oil of joy.

Interns

Next week is the last week for my summer interns. They gave their final presentations today summarizing all that they had learned over the summer. I've had a lot of interns over the years and they always impress me. They come in not knowing that they know a lot. They leave knowing more than they knew. The interns are always fast learners and have tremendous talent. Its satifying to be an old guy and help and watch these junior engineers develop. They eagerly await every bit of time given to them, they thrive on the learning, and they are inspired by the creation happening all around them. This is the first time these future engineers get to see the translation from engineering school to actually being an engineer. All are very appreciative. Each one gives me praises for all that they have done over the summer. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to be their mentor. So next week is the sad goodbyes. But both sides will know that these engineers have been set on the path to the future.

Happy Birthday, Jer (Aug 1)

These are the days between for a deadhead. Jerry Garcia was born on Aug. 1, 1942 and died on Aug. 9, 1995. All know him as the leader of the Grateful Dead and a 60s icon. He certainly was that but also so much more.


From a music perspective Jerry played selflessly. He loved to play. For 30 years he led the Dead through music alone. There were over 2600 dead shows documented and add 1000s of Jerry's side project shows to go with. And his sound both on the strings and the vocals is uniquely Jerry. His music stands as its own and its shear volume is overwhelming. Thirty years of endless touring with a mantra to never use set lists, never play any night the same as any other night, to improvise, explore, and to play the songs rooted in Americana. Jerry was the focus, the center, the heart and soul of those thousands of hours we deadheads relish now only on tape. And the tribe is big and is a culture all unto itself. It was Jerry who said once the notes were played they (the fans) could have them when asked about audience taping. Despite what the industry said the dead built a legion of followers and a fortune on their music by first giving it away for free. (hear that RIAA?)


Jerry was more than just the lead guitar and vocalist for the Grateful Dead. He also produced and played on many other artists albums and always had side projects of his own. He played bluegrass, folk, jazz, soul, blues, funk, and good ol' rock and roll. Many don't know that he played the banjo on the highest selling bluegrass album of all time (Old and In the Way). To listen to Jerry was to discover music.

He was also an exceptional artist that many know by his ties. And who doesn't love Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia!

Jerry was the headlight on the North bound train, walked by the black muddy river, traveled so many roads, always had a a touch of the blues, a birdsong, and he was a friend of mine...

The long and strange trip officially ended on August 9, 1995, but the notes left behind will keep Jerry alive. Not fade away.

Check out some free music from the vault: http://dead.net/features/tapers-section