Wow! Last night I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band’s show in Milwaukee. Of course I was anticipating songs from Springsteen’s back catalog the most (“She’s The One” was a real treat), but my favorite song of the night turned out to be “The Fuse” from his current album. I was wondering how some of the more somber material from The Rising would turn out in concert, but Bruce and the band pulled it off like the seasoned professionals they are. Surprisingly, while the old classics were great, I enjoyed hearing a lot the new songs more than the older ones.
All posts by Jonathan
Barstool Sportsmen
This week I unveiled my latest web creation, Barstool Sportsmen which is now up and running live.
Thanks to Mike (one of the Barstool Sportsmen) the idea has been planted in my brain to set up a web site for my free lance web design work. Hopefully that’ll be up in the next few months.
Condo paperwork
So, my offer for the condominium has been accepted and the wheels are in motion for me to be thirty years in debt very soon. What’s funny is, I haven’t actually bought anything yet and I am hip deep in paperwork. Tonight I filled out the particulars of a loan application, which requires copies upon copies of bank statements, tax returns, check stubs, etc. I remember reading something several years ago that this modern computer era was supposed to bring us a paper-less society. If I have any money left after I’m thirty years in debt, I think maybe I’ll invest in a paper company.
Condo offer accepted
Lately I’ve been shopping around for a condo. I’ve had more than enough of apartment living (do you have to explain to someone that it’s not the best idea to play their stereo at 2am so loud that the dishes rattle in their neighbor’s apartment??). Anyway, I found a nice place that I liked a lot and had an offer prepared. After gnashing my teeth all day while second-guessing my offer, I got a call from my realtor this evening. The seller accepted my offer! Woo hoo!! I suppose I’d better start practicing my signature. I hear all those closing forms are a real bear.
September 11th
I feel a little obligated to post something today, although I certainly don’t want to be part of the media onslaught of disturbing accounts and images from one year ago.
I suppose each of us must remember, mourn, contemplate, and pray in our own way. That’s what I choose to do. My father told me that he will do things today that feed his soul and touch his heart. Good advice. I’ve always found solace in music and I’ll be listening to a lot of it today. Here’s a quote from a song I know I’ll be listening to:
Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.
Imagine all the people, living life in peace…You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.– John Lennon, Imagine
Election ads
Next week we have a primary election in Wisconsin. In today’s mail I got two separate flyers for my congressman, urging me to vote for him. On my answering machine was a message from a campaign worker, telling my why I should vote for my congressman and urging me to go to the polls to vote for him. While watching the evening news tonight, I saw two advertisements explaining why my congressman is so good for our area and that we should go vote for him.
I swear if a politician would come out and say, “I’ve decided to donate all the money I raised for my campaign to a worthy charity and I will not waste it all on ads” I would kiss them on the lips. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t actually do that. Unless they were female, available, a good looker, and wanted to kiss me back of course. But I digress.
I get a little amused when politicians go on about wasted government spending and then they turn around and spend millions of dollars saturating their constituents with ads, direct mailings and answering machine messages. By the way Mr. Congressman, if you really think I was going to sit there and listen to that message on my answering machine, you aren’t smart enough to be re-elected.
No e-mail address
Well, it’s come to this. I’ve officially removed all traces of my personal e-mail address from this web site. For a while I had the actual address posted on the e-mail page for everyone to see. I have been getting a few unsolicited e-mail advertisements and paranoia has forced me to take it off so scum-sucking spammers won’t be able to harvest my address. For my e-mail page, I also found a secure, form processing script that lets you hard code your address in the script, so it’s not listed anywhere in the form.
It’s pretty sad when you have to do things like this just to keep the annoying ads from entering your mail box. The worst part of it is, the spammers can send millions of messages at little cost, yet our Internet service providers have to purchase more mail servers to keep up with ever increasing volume of unsolicited e-mail ads that are coming through. Who do you think is paying for that?
Those X-Cleavers
What is it about the music of your youth that makes it the best you’ve ever heard? Is it because when you hear the soundtrack of those years it floods your brain with memories (most people look back quite fondly on those times). For me it was my early twenties. I think that’s when I did the most “growing up” and considered myself an adult.
The other day in a used record store, I discovered a CD from my favorite local Milwaukee band from that time (the early 1980’s), Those X-Cleavers. When I got it home and popped it into the CD player, I couldn’t believe how good it sounded. If I close my eyes when it’s playing, I’m at those old hangouts with all of my friends from that time. It almost makes me wish I could time travel. The music of Those X-Cleavers has a new wave / punk feel to it. The compact disc I bought includes two albums: Those X-Cleavers, The Waiting Game and also a few bonus singles from that time. I don’t think it’s available new anymore (no, I won’t sell mine) but if you can find this CD, you too can hear such excellent songs as Silence The Critics, 18 (And Unprotected), Skip A Beat, Nice Legs (Shame About The Face) and Do The Confusion.
Waswagoning
One more entry related to my camping trip. Learning about Native American culture has been a fascination of mine for quite some time. While I was in northern Wisconsin, I visited Waswagoning, a recreated Ojibwe Indian village. They’ve got things set up there as the Ojibwe lived before the Europeans came to this area. The tour guides (from the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe tribe) do an excellent job of showing you how their people lived during that time. The folktales they told also made their culture come alive as the tour progressed. Definitely an excellent place to stop while you’re traveling through the north woods.
Camping with Loons
One of the best things about being in this area of Wisconsin are hearing the loons calling at night. There’s nothing like falling asleep while listening to that haunting wail they make. One night I woke up about 3am (my bladder was calling me). After I finished my urgent business I must have stayed awake 20 minutes or so listening to the loons. No, they weren’t keeping me awake, I wanted to just lay in my sleeping bag and listen.