I'm liking that fact that live cds/albums are getting a little demythologized. It used to be that you'd see some dude at the Super Flea on Walden peddling live recordings at stupidly high prices. With downloading and whatnot, some bands are letting loose with concert tapes and making some good things readily available. That's pretty cool as I'm getting a little too old to be collecting concert t-shirts. Dave Matthews and U2 both have sanctioned sites where you can grab most shows for your IPOD which has made my IPOD happy. There are a couple of live recording site that peak my curiousity now and again, but what had got me going are a couple of official band sites.

For example, spur of the moment I drove out to Darien Lake for the Ratdog/Allman Brothers show, mostly to see the guitarists in the current version of the Allmans go at it. Warren Haynes and Butch Trucks can play just about anything, from acoustic to blues to rock to jam. Both guys are great and if you are a fan of such stuff (as I am), it's a treat to watch. It was a great show and thanks to the Allman Bros official site, it's on my IPOD as of a few minutes ago.

Sometimes it's the little things than can change the temper of your outlook.

"Going to the concert, baby don't you wanna go?"

Got to order this...

Some observations whilst stumbling through another meandering workweek.

My younger sister is getting married in October and that's fine. She made a big pronouncement about an unconventional service, which has rapidly descended into a run of the mill ceremony. That in and of itself is no big deal, but it's easy to pay the price of her decision making consequences. She's involved in NYC theater so the family tends to get treated as an audience member a lot. The ceremony is in Fishkill, NY on this resort/country club. She is having a dinner the night before with an esoteric menu. I made the suggestion that maybe she might want to ditch the pork entree and do a chicken thing instead. I was thinking of my own kids who have never eaten red meat and ain't about to dig into eggplant parm. She wanted the pork thing for our older brother, who is autistic and developmentally disabled. He also travels pretty well though so we've tried to tell her that she doesn't need to deal with caterers on that level since it will only mean a greater expense.

The hell do I know...

Got rejected from a job I interviewed for a weeks back. In the grand scheme, I really didn't want the gig. It had the salient virtue of being back downtown and 8 to 5 and such, but the actual task wasn't all that appealing. What made the whole exercise remarkable was the rejection came via email. That for me was a first. I used to have a mosaic that I made of all the letterhead that intially told me to fuck off post college.

Onward and upward...

Went to see Superbad on Monday and laughed my fool head off. I should be beyond that stuff, but sadly it still tickles me.

Whined to my boss at the Bills games for a change of assignment so I can see more of the game and its goings on. Guess you're never too old to successfully pout.

Banked a couple hundred dollars in commissions for July and it's going to pretty much disolve into school supplies for the youngins.

Got passed over by a woman who was turned off by the fact I had kids. What the fuck? That is a guy thing to do. I don't understand what the world anymore. No second date there. Her loss.

The chocolate dipped strawberry blizzard at Dairy Queen can cure what ails you. Trust me.

Finagled a trip to NYC proper in mid september. My elder sister's firm is getting taken over by Upper Deck (the card company). The previous owner is divesting the rest of his season tickets to the Yankees and hooked my sibling with Yankee Red Sox seats. The game takes on an event like nature and I'm scraping together the funds to go. You don't even need to be a baseball fan to savor all that goes into Yankee Red Sox meeting in the Bronx. We also get to bitch and moan about the wedding nonsense at the same time, so it's one of those rare win, win situations.

My current hours are messing with me. Just came home tired last night and had milk and 3 brownies for dinner. Probably shouldn't do that very often, but they were damn good brownies.

Tired about people whining to me that they didn't get their cable bill. It's the cable company for fucksake, you really think it would miss a chance to collect?

I "love" my job.

I resumed my moonlighting with the Buffalo Bills on Friday night. While it was fun, it was a reminder that summer is almost done for all intensive purposes. Ran into a few acquaintances and enjoyed both a little hilarity and a little boredom as preseason football is less exciting than watching paint dry. It's fun to be involved as you get to watch the full time Bills folk freak about having things ready for incoming fans. You'd think they be little more accustomed to the rigamarole.

Nice way to make some extra cash. Anyhoo, from my perch in section 125, you could feel the crazy wind that made shivering a realistic possibility. But it was a nice end to a day away from the Time Warner nonesense. Slept in, carbed up at Betty's, did my bit at the game and was drinking on my deck by 11:30. Only thing missing was company.

Rested in Saturday and strolled over to take number one son to Tae Kwon Do and would up with the whole lot chomping on Chicken, Cheddar and Broccoli pizza watching Forrest Gump for the umpteenth time.

Got a little more industrious today and got up and actually did laundry before catching up with the ex and kids for dinner. A good weekend, I think it was an omen when the kids and I spent an hour watching Family Guy reruns on Thursday.

Back to being a cable apologist tomorrow, but the Zoo is looking for someone with my talents so I'm working on a package as to why I should be the guy.

Bring on the week.

Wrapped my only significant vacation on Sunday with a bang. Number One Son and I took off for Woodlawn Beach and I was very surprised in a good way. Bennett Beach is beautiful and the county is wrecking it so along with the lack of the pool, I was remembering (e:terry) 's journal about swimming. My boy went to a day camp earlier this summer that spent a day at Woodlawn and he was pining to go back. Got to tell you, it was awesome to get out and wave hop the afternoon away.

I'll post photos soon. But you pay seven bucks to park and for use of the park. The beach was spacious so it never felt crowded on either water or sand. There are reasonably clean locker & changing rooms. It felt great. When I got something out of my truck today and a little remaining sand came out, you couldn't help but laugh a little.

Would head back this weekend if it wasn't threatening to be September weatherwise.

In other news, I'm going to moonlight for the Buffalo Bills again this season and it was nice to get a raise to do it and a special little pack of parking passes. Did my morale good and made me wish the fulltime employer would take note.

Other morale booster, was doing some cable related business with a very attractive woman bout my age and when we shook hands, my colleagues swear she was checking my ring finger. Methinks they are yanking my chain, but hell I'll take being checked out if that is the case. Put a spring in my step for the rest of the shift. Omen of things to come I hope.

Here's the view from my beach chair


Perhaps (e:strip) should collectively jump in the lake before the end of the season.

Last one in blogs for Buffalo Rising