Are blurry pictures of subway trains taken as the train blows past you in the station officially a photography cliche yet?
If not, I’m doing my best to make it one.
Hipstamatic actually captured these faster than I thought they would. If you scroll through the five pics quickly, does it look like the train is moving?
I took three short videos of the waves at Hampton Beach today. Nothing special, but I figured I’d share them.
I love the iSuper 8 video app. Unfortunately it usually doesn’t work. I was lucky today.
So The Book of Mormon didn’t actually happen. We got to the Opera House, found our seats, sat down and began feeling miserable. There was a feeling of claustrophobia combined with an upset stomach combined with being extremely tall and sitting in a seat designed for someone who is not even a little bit tall. It was just a bad feeling from the word go. We ended up getting up and going to the lobby just before the show started and then we left after the first song. Maybe we’ll try again another time if we can guarantee an aisle seat. We shall see.
The Boston Opera house is beautiful, if not tall person friendly.
How’s this for the bathroom lobby?
I didn’t buy a souvenir, but if I had I would have had a tough time choosing between the stuffed magical aids frog, and the Hasadeega Eebowai shirt.
We ended up heading toward home. When we got close Jen, my amazing wife whom I love with all my heart and all my soul, asked if maybe we could extend the Date Day by aimlessly driving toward the ocean. That works for me!
We got to the ocean at Salisbury Beach in Salisbury, MA and then headed North. When we got to Hampton Beach in Hampton Beach, NH we had our first really clear view of the Atlantic. It was furious. I’ve never seen waves even close to as huge and angry as I saw today. It almost looked like the Pacific. Just North of the public beach the waves were crashing into the rocks and splashing up over the retaining wall onto the road. We stopped to admire the view. I took a few pictures using Hipstamatic. I took a few short videos too. Those will be posted later.
We weren’t the only ones watching the waves. Just about everyone who drove by stopped for a look.
And obviously, this is my favorite of all pictures.
We went up North as far as Portsmouth, NH and then turned around. We ended up going to dinner at a new Indian restaurant in Andover, MA. Turns out the manager on duty was actually from our usual favorite Indian restaurant, Kashmir in Salem, NH. We might have an alternate go-to place now.
So we didn’t do what we had initially set out to do, but we still had a date day that was wonderful for the simple fact that the love of my life and I spent the day together. I am so insanely in love with her.
He started playing, “here comes the bride” but he was just messing with everyone.
The Orange line didn’t have countdown clocks back when I rode it every day.
I’m not a theater type of guy. Especially musical theater. The entire genre basically does nothing for me.
I remember back in high school when Pete Townshend staged a musical version of Tommy, most of my friends couldn’t wait to see it. I couldn’t have cared less. As an adult I can only think of three times that I’ve seen a theatrical production.
In 2007 we took my step daughter to see The Nut Cracker. A couple of years ago we were in New York and went to see Wicked. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t exactly rock my world. The reason we went had more to do with just being able to say we saw a show on Broadway than anything else. Back in 2008 or so, Jen and I went to see Spamalot in Boston. That was different. That was a Monty Python production. I’d do almost anything to see a Python show, even one that doesn’t actually have the members of Monty Python acting in it. I’d face down the vicious chicken of Bristol, the Judean People’s Front, and an army of wafer thin mints to see a real Python show.
So when I heard that South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone had launched a Broadway musical called The Book of Mormon, my first thought was to wish them good luck but continue to save up for Team America World Police part deux. I’ve seen just about everything they’ve done. All of South Park, Team America, Orgazmo, Cannibal the Musical. Hell, I’ve probably seen Baseketball 100 times! These guys can do no wrong in my book. But a musical on stage? Well, have fun with that, gentlemen. I’ll catch the next thing you do. At least until…
My wife. My beautiful wife. My amazing, genius, brilliant wife bought the original cast recording on iTunes.
She told me I had to listen to it.
We sat in the living room and listened to it together.
The recording only includes the songs, and they are out of context, and none of the stage production is even hinted at… But it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. I told my wife that we had to see the show. It’s imperative that we see the whole show. We looked into going to New York to see it, but it never happened.
Fast forward to last weekend.
As we were driving to Keene for the state geography bee, tickets for Paul McCartney at Fenway Park went on sale. While I drove, my wife and her mother both tried to get tickets. The Fenway site was sold out before they got out of the virtual waiting room so they both started surfing reseller sites. Jen was in the front seat next to me and after looking for McCartney for a little while she whispers, “want to go see The Book of Mormon next weekend?” And she bought two tickets. Hell yes!
Fast forward another week, and the love of my life and I are going to see the Boston production of The Book of Mormon tonight. For only the second time ever, I’m really excited about going to see some musical theater.
I started watching Game of Thrones this week.
Does it start slow? I’m three episodes in and I’ve yet to find myself caught up in it. I know I’ve barely started, but really… I expected more. I’m trying to decide if I want to watch the 4th episode tonight or re-watch another Walking Dead.
DISASTER AVERTED!
…….and by “disaster”, I mean me workin’ late on a Friday.
It’s the weekend, babie!
I don’t know how this bad news slipped past me, but Peter Banks died last week.
If you’re a prog rock fan, you know who Peter Banks is. No, he wasn’t the keyboard player in Genesis. That’s Tony Banks. Peter was a founding member of Yes. He was the guitar player on their first two records.
Much like ex-Rush drummer John Rutsey, Banks has the misfortune of having his abilities rated not so much on his own playing, but by the guy who replaced him. Rutsey was replaced by arguably the greatest drummer in the history of recorded music, Neil Peart. Peter Banks was replaced by one of the most staggeringly talented guitarists ever, Steve Howe.
Don’t let the comparisons distract you though, Peter Banks could flat out play. The guy was awesome. This Birds cover from the first album is probably my favorite example of his playing…
When I was in High School I turned into a Yes fanatic. Unfortunately for me, Steve Howe’s playing was way beyond me. I could play a phrase or a riff here and there, but there were very few songs I could survive all the way through. Well… I could play a bunch of Asia songs, but there weren’t many Yes songs I could survive. I could fudge through Roundabout, and big chunks of Perpetual Change. Thanks to a very productive guitar lesson I could get through Siberian Khatru, but I had to hack through my own solo. Howe was just too fast for me. Thankfully, I had the first Yes record on vinyl, and I could get through pretty much all of that one. I played along with Peter Banks on that album about a billion times. Granted he left me in the dust every time, but I loved every second of it.
Rest in Peace Peter Banks. Gone but not forgotten.
Inside the Red Head's Head 