Weekend wrapup

Another good weekend. Friday was kinda light – we saw Mary Ann Redmond at the Kennedy Center: Millennium Stage. All the shows there are an hour, so she didn’t get a lot of time, but she drew a good crowd. It was a little weird, because the last time I saw her she was at a bar in Sterling (The Barefoot Pelican), with a crowd of about 5 people.

Saturday, we went skiing at Whitetail (the closest resort to us) with Dave and Melissa, and Dave’s friends John and Pete. Jill stuck to the green trails and eventually ran into Melissa. I headed over to the blues, then the blacks on the other side, where I ran into Dave and his friends. We had 4 hour lift tickets, and I skiied until my time was up. I’m still a little sore – I need to get in skiing shape before we go to Whistler next month.

Sunday, I did some volunteer work with Holly, who’s running the Herndon Festival, then watched some of the Pats/Colts game before we went to dinner at Neyla in Georgetown with Dave (another Dave), Hannah, Shannon & Kim. As part of Restaurant Week, they were offering fixed price dinners for $30.04 (lunch was $20.04). They offered Mediterranean cuisine; I had a Lebanese sampler, the Mixed Grill, and an apple tarte. Everything was very good (except for Jill’s dessert that had pistachio in it – I like pistachios, but not that way).

When we got back, we watched a little of the Eagles/Panthers mismatch before Alias. Another good ep, I particularly liked the use of Sloane, and the creative way they avoided having to show Syd’s mom (since Lena Olin won’t come back). I’m surprised they’re not airing a new one next week, because they’re not going to air opposite the Superbowl or the Grammys, so they won’t be back until February 15th.

DVN not obscene!

So Da Vinci’s Notebook, my favorite acapella comedy band, has a song entitled “Enormous Penis”. According to this story, Canada has declared the song not obscene.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council was reacting to a complaint from a Calgary radio listener to lyrics like: “I’ve got the cure for all of my blues/I take a look at my enormous penis/And my troubles start a-meltin’ away.”

The listener’s complaint that the song was obscene fell flat before the council’s members, who said on Friday the item did not break its code of ethics.

“The discussion of penis size is not in and of itself sufficiently unequivocally a sexual matter that it can be said to be in breach of the code,” the council said.

I just hope they never try to play their new song, “F*ck You”, on the radio.

Good humour

Got this from a mailing list I’m on:
There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra than on Alzheimer’s research.

This means that by 2020, there should be a large elderly population with
perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do
with them.

And from the Washington Post review of Torque:
At this point in “Torque,” the only thing that kept me from drifting off to sleep was the infernal noise of gunning engines and the recurring chant of “bullsh*t!” coming from a nearby audience member with impeccable taste and judgment.

Office Space

For some reason, I’m thinking of “Office Space” – T.P.S. reports, anyone? I also found an “Office Space” version of the Redskins’ past season. I’ve been hoping for a special edition DVD, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen soon – a producer at Fox said “I think there is a strong chance you’ll see the sequel before you see the Special Edition”.

“Office Space” quotes & sounds here. One that’s not there:
Peter Gibbons: So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.
Therapist: What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Therapist: Wow, that’s messed up!

Weekend shows

So, two shows this past weekend – one better than I expected, one worse.

Saturday, John Jennings was billed as John Jennings and Friends, but no friends ever showed – no one played the baby grand they had on stage. I like his music, but don’t think I want an evening of just him again. On the bright side, Tracy Grammer was fabulous. She played a short set, but it was good. She switched from guitar to mandolin to violin (“I asked to borrow a violin, and they sent me one worth $10000”). She was accompanied by Jim Henry, who I thought was much better than Donnie Wright (who was accompaning her when we saw her at Falcon Ridge last summer).

Friday, I had asked Todd from emmet to make sure I could videotape. When we got to the 9:30 club, they had VIP passes waiting for us so we could sit in the reserved seating section below the top bar. In 3 years of working at record stores, I had plenty of free shows at the 9:30, but never a VIP pass. It meant we could sit on bar stools the whole show – very cool. The opener was Don Dixon and friends, pretty good, but I didn’t know any of their music (Kerry’s concert rule #1 – The better you know the music, the better the show is).

The emmet swimming show was amazing. Part of it was the guests. Dave Connelly from Ebo played percussion during “Hey Jesse” (and did a fabulous 80s dance during “Sunblock”, including doing “The Worm’ across the stage), while Don Dixon sang backup during “Birdman Of Columbia” (from the album he produced), but the surprise of the night was Todd Baker from Cravin’ Dogs. He added amazing texture to the 7 songs he sat in on. The show ended at 2AM, but I wasn’t ready for it to end.

3 Hour Delay

So I got a call this morning from Stuart. He told me the line of people to take the bus to the Metro at the parking garage I park at was about a half mile long, and not even think about coming in for a while. I took his advice, cleaned off my car and Jill’s space, and started working from home. I went in 3 hours late (I need my T1 fix).

Favorite comment (from ABC-7’s site with news about a sports utility vehicle that drove off Interstate 66, went through a fence and overturned on the tracks): Instead of complaining about Metro Officials this time, perhaps all of the Orange Line Commuters should be given an opportunity to beat the snot out of the SUV driver.

Breaking news

So happy Coach Gibbs is back where he belongs. I know Snyder has tried a lot of things, but this is the best move he’s made since he’s been here.

My software company has been purchased by a Canadian software company (eh?). It had to be done soon – being owned by one of the “Big 5” consulting companies was hurting us under new SEC rules. It remains to be seen how this affects me and my coworkers; most of our stock options (that weren’t underwater) will be transferred, but they weren’t due to vest for a while.

I’ve also updated my home page.