November's music

Because my life is so unexciting right now (no more spills in the kayak), I have nothing interesting to write about except my albums I picked up last month.

Coldplay Prospekts March Since it's original release earlier this year, I've been listening a lot to Coldplay's Vivi La Vida. It gets better with every listen. This month, Coldplay released a bonus ep of songs that didn't make Viva La Vida . With Coldplay, it's hard to go wrong. Most of the songs here are as good or better than the main album songs such as "Glass of Water", which could have easily have been a single. What Prospekts March did was add to my appreciation of the work that Coldplay has done for the Viva La Vida sessions. Only a duet with rapper Jay'Z hits a low point. Still, I admire the effort to reach out to different genres of music.
http://www.myspace.com/coldplay


Longwave Secrets are Sinister A band recommended to me from itunes was a good new find. Longwave has been on the indie scene for a while, but only now caught my attention. Longwave takes some of the elements of shoegaze (such as the waves of guitar)and mixes it with current indie rock melodies. More atmospheric than most indie bands out there, but it works well for me.
http://www.myspace.com/longwaveofficial

Travis Ode To J.Smith Another big release this month was from one of my favorite Scottish bands-- Travis. Once compared to Radiohead, Travis have remained dedicated to melodic brit pop that Radiohead left behind years ago. Travis has written some of the finest guitar driven songs over the last decade. On this one, Travis tries to be a little harder edge, but comes back often to their melodic sounds that have worked so well for them. Pretty good results.

http://www.myspace.com/travis

Rosie Thomas A Very Rosie Christmas I have never cared for traditional Christmas albums. I have never liked Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, or Johnny Mathis. Their music doesn't bring to mind warm Christmas memories, or move me to roasting marshmellows. To me, it sounds out of time (I understand not everyone feels the same way). Worst of all, it's everywhere. When a song is played repeatedly over the loud speakers at Wal Mart, it just loses that personal feeling. There's a lot of contemporary albums played repeatedly over the holidays that I can't stand either. However, when one of my favorite indie artist makes a stab at a Christmas album, I'll take notice and play it over and over again through the Christmas season. This year, my favorite songbird, Rosie Thomas made a warm and heart felt Christmas album as only she can do. Some are traditional covers, others are new songs. Works for me and puts me in a holiday mood.

Oct. Music

Oct was a great month for music. 9 new albums! Kind of made up for all those months of nothing.

Snow Patrol A Hundred Million Suns My favorite new album this month comes from Snow Patrol. A couple of years ago, they released a great album Eyes Open which was my favorite of that year. I thought that would be a hard album for them to top, but turns out they did with this release. Recorded out in the remote Irish country side and in downtown Berlin, the album blends the two worlds together nicely, by offering both deep thought and chaos. Lots of "ready for radio" tunes that fans from their past couple of albums will love.
http://www.myspace.com/snowpatrol

Jesus and Mary Chain The Power of Negative Thinking I love that title. Jesus and Mary Chain were one of the coolest bands ever. They practically invented "noise rock"
and turned pure feedback into song. Best of all was their "I don't give a crap attitude." They eventually broke up about a decade ago and have slowly begun to reemerge. The 88 songs here are all B-sides and outtakes from their years together. Some of the songs are unnecessary and can be found on some of their imports, other songs are just crap and should remain unheard. The third disc here has most of the unreleased gems that I haven't heard before and are worth owning. Mary Chain fans would love it.
http://www.blogger.com/www.myspace.com/thejesusampmarychain

Starflyer 59 Dial M Another great album this month was from Jason "Can't fail" Martin. Jason has been on a roll lately putting out great album after great album. Dial M continues to blow away expectations. Most of the songs here have been on his "vinyl only" Ghost of the Future series, but more polished up. After listening, it's hard to believe that Starflyer isn't selling out stadiums.
http://www.myspace.com/starflyer59

Keane Perfect Symmetry Like Snow Patrol, Keane has often been called a "knock off" Coldplay band, but the two bands are moving in different directions lately. The songs here are a little retro 80's sounding. Keane really knows how to write some catchy tunes which they continue, just with a more retro sound. Still very grand sounding like most of Keane's albums, just a little different direction.

http://www.myspace.com/keane

Mowgai The Hawk Is Howling Yes, that is a eagle on the cover, not a hawk. I have to admit, that after seeing them live a few years ago, I've kind of lost interest in this post rock band. Their latest album, peaked my interest in them again. This is a vast improvement from their last album, Mr. Beast. Like all Mogwai albums, this is filled with songs that spiral upwards, before exploding at the climax of the composition, before droning out with a guitar. Like always, cool names for songs: "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead" and "I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School".

http://www.myspace.com/mogwai

The New Frontiers Mending Bought this album on a whim, when I heard some of it on Facebook. Sort of an appealing middle America- post Coldplay band would best describe them. Unfortunately, there will be no follow up, since the band just quit.

/http://www.myspace.com/thenewfrontiers

The Cure 4:13 Dream It is always a big deal to me when the Cure put out a new album. The Cure were one of the first bands I ever got into, and are probably in my top 5 favorite bands of all time. After a long break, the Cure returned this year with a new marketing tactic- releasing a new song every month for half a year. I found this tactic kind of annoying by teasing the fan with samples of the album way before it's release. This is more up tempo than anything they have ever done. The songs are there, but over all it is not as focused as their best albums.

www.myspace.com/thecureofficialsite

Oasis Dig Out Your Soul I really don't know why I still get their albums. Oasis is way past their heyday, and frankly, they are a bunch of jerks. I guess I'm still living in the past, when Oasis were a bunch of jerks, but they at least had really good music. Oasis doesn't do anything new on Dig Out Your Soul but they at least revisit some of their finest moments on a couple of the songs here. It is better than I expected.
http://www.myspace.com/oasis

The Radio Dept. Lesser Matters A few months ago, I really started to get into this band, and find their lo-fi, fuzzed out, brand of indie rock genius. Not very popular around the states, so I've had to resort to buying everything off itunes. This is their first album. Really relaxing to listen to.

http://www.myspace.com/officialradiodept

Sept.'s Music

It would appear as if the economy has effected my music shopping habits. Only 4 new albums this month. Unlike the economy however, I'm optimistic that Oct will be pretty good with new albums from the Cure and Keane on the way. As if anyone cared, here is my albums of Sept:


Rilo Kiley Under the Blacklight Yes, the band that opened for Coldplay all those years ago put out this album last year, and I finally got around to listening to it. It's not too bad. Surprisingly, it has a real 70's disco vibe to it that works surprisingly well. Many of the band's core following didn't really care for this last effort, but I enjoyed it more than watching them play before Coldplay.

http://www.myspace.com/rilokiley

Camera Obscura Let's Get Out of This Country My big discovery this month was this band from Scotland often associated with Belle and Sebastian. The songs are amazingly tender ballads that can break your heart with the slightest twist or vocal harmony. Has a nice old "girl group" harmony going on here that brings you back to the 60's. Simply enchanting.

http://www.myspace.com/cameraobscuraband

Bell X-1 Flock Having been out several years in Ireland, it took this album another three years to hit the states. That's the problem with liking music from other parts of the world. Pretty good debut, but nothing earth shattering. I would draw comparisons to Snow Patrol (which isn't bad, it's just no Radiohead or Coldplay ) Supposedly they are one of the biggest bands to come out of Ireland in a while.

http://www.myspace.com/bellx1

Radio Dept. Pulling Our Weight EP My favorite new band lately is Radio Dept. coming also from Scotland. Not a true "shoegazer" band, but definitely influenced by the sound. Mixing light and airy vocals to shoegazer distortion turned down a few notches. The result is not as hard on the ears as a real shoegazer album. Radio Dept. only has released a couple of albums over a decade, but have put out a handful of EPs . Pulling Our Weight is a good mix of their pop sensibilities and their creativeness.
http://www.myspace.com/officialradiodept

August Music

In case nobody checks out my music on Facebook, here's a closer look at what I got this month.

The Verve Fourth This month's big new release came from The Verve. Over a decade ago, they released their last album Urban Hymns containing the song "Bittersweet Symphony" which got them a lot of attention. Urban Hymns is often regarded as one of the best albums of the 90's. But the band members have never got along very well, and following their commercial success, they broke up. Now they released Fourth which is a fair effort, but doesn't come close to achieving what the Verve did on Urban Hymns. Without a doubt, it does have some good tunes, but a lot of the songs drag out to over 8 mins. Too long for a brit pop band. Still, it is good to have The Verve back.

Hem Home Again, Home Again EP I've been interested in Hem for a while now, but haven't been able to get into any of their albums. The lead singer has a beautiful voice and borders on the same gentle sounds of the Innocence Mission, but a little too folksy sometimes. This EP is a pretty good introduction to the band. The lead song "The Part Where You Let Go" is beautifully delivered. The rest of the EP is pretty manageable being only 6 songs.

http://www.myspace.com/hem

The High Violets To Where You Are My only shoegazer album this month comes from this local Portland band. They are the biggest shoegazer band in the area. Of course, they might be the only shoegazer band in the area. Best of all, they prove that Portland has got some serious talent outside of the Shins. Very ambient and pop sounding.

http://www.myspace.com/thehighviolets

Glen Hansard and Marketa Erglova The Swell Season I recently saw the movie "Once" after several people highly recommended it to me. It's a low budget indie flick, staring Glen Hansard (former lead singer of the Frames ) as a vacuum repair man who also is a street performer who meets Marketa Erglova and discover that they musically are a kindred spirit. The movie goes on to show them start to develop a more personal relationship (which ultimately doesn't work) and the struggles of putting a record together. Personally, I liked the movie and the way it showed how artist pour their soul into their music. After watching the movie, I immediately went out and got the soundtrack. It's gorgeous and heart aching all at the same time. Marketa has a beautiful and sweet voice that enhances Glen's arching emotional lyrics.
http://www.myspace.com/theswellseason

Elbow Leaders of the Free World After hearing Elbow's latest album The Seldom Seen Kid I decided to go out and check out more from this band. Leaders of the Free World came out a few years ago, and isn't as good as the one before (Cast Of Thousands) or their latest. Elbow tries to get out their political views, but it just doesn't work as well for them as other bands.

http://www.myspace.com/elbowmusic

Camping and other updates

Like Dust, I've jumped off the bridge. As most of everyone knows by now, I'm on Facebook. Please bare with me while I try and figure out all that Facebook offers. I must say that I was pretty surprised to see nearly everyone I know on it. Friends in Iowa, Kansas, and Oregon are all on it. Everyone I know seems to have "jumped off the bridge."
I guess I like "user friendliness" of blogger, but Facebook offers a lot more. I particularly like the music section "social tunes." What a great way to talk to others about music and rate your albums.

In other news, I turned in my two weeks at Trillium today. It was a tough decision. I usually haven't been given much of a choice on leaving a job. Either I'm told to leave or I have to relocate. I really can't understand why some people job hop so much. So in two weeks, I'll start at Albetina Kerr as a Foster Care Case Manager----wow.

Last weekend was our big camping trip with our home group from church. I guess everyone knows by now, that I'm not a big camper. In fact, my camping trip with Dash, Dust, Dar, and A Forest was my first camping trip. This last camping trip had it's ups and downs however.
First off, the camp site was a 1/4 of a mile away from the cars. I arrived late when it was dark and wandered through the woods for a while until I found it. Anyway, being far from the car made dragging the gear a real pain.
My second problem was that the site had a no camp fire sign. How can you camp without a camp fire?
For Wah-Wah's early birthday present, I brought her a inflatable kayak. Unfortunately, we didn't have a pump that would work on it (one minor mistake). Luckily, Wah-Wah found a guy with the kind of pump we needed and we were able to inflate the kayak.
Here's some pictures of our camping weekend:



This was our camp site at Oxbow Park, just 15 minutes outside of Portland. The bigger tent on the right is ours. It was suppose to be a 4 person tent, but it was awfully tight. I guess it could hold 4 really small people or 4 regular people if they slept on top of each other.
Here is a picture of the Sandy River where we camped at. I think Wah-Wah took this picture since no one else was up this early. I spent Saturday afternoon just laying and relaxing in the river. Sure it was cold, but very refreshing.
Here are some of our fellow campers playing in the river.

Here's Wah-Wah bringing in her kayak after it's maiden voyage down the river. She took Nibbles down the river about a 1/4 of a mile. Apparently Nibbles hated it and screamed the whole time. I guess the kids will sit out on our next kayak adventure. We had to carry that kayak all the way back to the campsite so others could use it. Without a pump, we couldn't deflate it to carry it. I got to go down the river finally at the end of the day.

After getting back from camping, I went to go see Neil Halstead at the Doug Fir. Neil is a great singer song writer whose warm (yet often humorous lyrics) sounded nicely in the "log cabin" atmosphere of the Doug Fir. Neil's sound was pretty stripped down to just the basics. He even played a few tunes from his band- Mojave 3.

July's Music

I guess you could say it was slow month for music, with not as many good releases as in the last few months. I took the opportunity to get some stuff I put off for a while.

Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid This month I rediscovered the critically acclaimed band: Elbow. I say "rediscovered" because I bought their album Cast Of Thousands a few years ago and had a hard time taking it in. It was one of those "hard to listen" albums that isn't immediately accessible. The Seldom Seen Kid (their latest) is a little more "listener friendly" and pulled me right in. With strange musical textures and with some immediate pop song chorus, this is a pretty big sounding album and deserves a listen. Great art mope rock. I also reconnected with Cast Of Thousands and began to appreciate it more. I guess some music, you just can't give up on.

http://www.myspace.com/elbowmusic

Neil Halstead Oh! Mighty Engine The only new release this month that I found was the second solo album from the lead singer of Mojave 3. Neil Halstead is a excellent song writer and the last Mojave 3 album Puzzles Like You, was a excellent (and surprisingly upbeat) album. Here, he works pretty much by himself and strips the sound down even farther. Even though he's not backed by much of a band, his songs still have the great hooks that makes Neil's music so great. He will be in Portland in a few weeks.

http://www.myspace.com/neilhalsteadofficial

The Charlatans UK Wonderland I have always kind of liked the The Charlatans since I bought their first album back in 1990. The problem with these britpop survivors are their albums are pretty inconsistent. Sometimes they are OK, other times they stink. Wonderland was probably their best effort since the early days. They just released a new album and ended up giving it away on their website. I didn't find it worth my time.

Panda Riot She Dares All Things Another "indie shoegazer" band recommended to me from itunes. Sounds like a lot of the other shoegazer bands that sound like My Bloody Valentine. A fairly young band that uses the "fuzzed out" guitars with the breathy female and a drum machine. We'll see what the future holds for them.

http://www.myspace.com/pandariot

The Daysleepers Drowned In a Sea Of Sound You guess it, another "indie shoegazer" band from itunes. I think at this point, I'll take a little break from the shoegazer sound-- perhaps a couple of weeks. Anyway, these guys have the endorsement of "shoegazer founder"- Robin Guthie (Cocteau Twins), as well as Neil Halstead (Slowdive) and that has got to count for something. This NY band knows their influences and have a pretty impressive debut.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=105845710

June's Music

I got a little carried away, but there was so much good music I got this month. So much good stuff to listen to, so little time.

Coldplay Viva La Vida The big news this month was the long awaited release of the new Coldplay. Despite a few critics, I absolutely loved Coldplay's last album, 2005's X&Y and was wondering how they were going to top that. On this album, Coldplay enlisted the help of famed U2 producer Brian Eno and tried reinventing themselves and their sound. The results are definitely taking their sound somewhere different, much like U2 did back in the 90's. Where as X&Y has it's woolly imagery of planets and oceans, sounded like it was recorded in a immaculate space station, Viva La Vida sounds very terrestrial in it's origins. Splashes of middle eastern strings and Afro beats are more apparent on this album. Still, the songs have that Coldplay punch and are just as warm and uplifting as their previous works.
http://www.myspace.com/coldplay

Sigur Ros Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust roughly translates to "With a Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly" I always have a hard time describing a Sigur Ros album, probably because there are few words that can describe them. I guess the cover art could best describe this album as being summer with the coming to a new horizon. Like all their most recent work, this is so full of life and pushes you mind and soul and gently challenges your ears. No other band on the planet sounds like Sigur Ros. They will be here in Portland in October. One of the best live bands that I have ever seen.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4685333

Bon Voyage Lies Jason Martin creates genius again, this time with his side band fronted by his wife, Julie. The past couple of Bon Voyage albums were pretty heavy on guitars that mixed well with Julie's ethereal child like voice. Lies instead ditches the heavy guitars and relies on a lot of synth with 60's style motown hooks. The results are the best Bon Voyage album yet. I just picked up this one a few days ago and can't stop listening to it. Even a Smith's song "Girlfriend In a Coma" was given proper justice here. Jason is as good with synth as he is with guitars.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=202524874

Joy Electric My Grandfather the Cubist The other side of the Martin family offered up this new one. Ronnie Martin usually releases an album a year, and this year's album is his finest in a long time. Ronnie loves to educate his listeners in history and what has been forgotten in recent years such as the telephone booth. Ronnie also performs songs about artist MC Escher, and Copernicus (two subjects that I have never heard covered in song before). Some of my favorite tracks here like "Whether By Horse or Horseless" recall the sound of his first album Melody.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4360407

The Radio Dept. Pet Grief Another brilliant recommendation from itunes this month. Radio Dept is the perfect blend of post shoe gaze and with some electro glithces. This Swedish indie band can probably draw comparisons to M83's new album in my eyes. Another great album that brings to mind lazy days of summer. Breathy vocals with harder guitars and with enough sun drenched synth creates a sunny and bright atmosphere on this album.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=182955090

Airiel The Battle of Sealand A pretty impressive debut full length album from these Chicago shoegazers. Airiel follows a lot of the shoegazer formula of loud guitars and vocals that cannot be understood. There intentions here are to create aural majesty that occasionally turns to industrial noise. Beautiful album if you love shoegazing.

http://www.myspace.com/airiel

Lassie Foundation Through and Through Another one of my favorite "shoegazer" type bands released this album some time ago. Unfortunately, the first part of this album is all previously material, leaving around 7 songs on the second half that were all unreleased. Not too long ago, Through and Through appeared on itunes and I was able to buy the 7 songs I needed. The previously unreleased songs are pretty typical sounding Lassie Foundation songs that are a must for their fans (there aren't too many of us out there).

http://www.myspace.com/thelassiefoundation

Pedro the Lion Tour EP '04 It seems like forever since we last heard anything new from David Bazan. Lately, I've been a little hungry for so new tunes. I found this disc in the budget rack for a nice $3. Worth owning for David's cover of Radiohead's "Let Down."

May's Music

I'm really excited about some new music coming in June, including new ones by Coldplay, Sigur Ros, and Bon Voyage. May was still pretty productive too. Here's what I picked up:



Starflyer 59 Ghosts Of the Future For months, Jason Martin has been taunting some of his fans by releasing new songs on vinyl only. A fan must subscribe and get mailed a new song on vinyl every month. This doesn't do a lot of good if you don't have a record player. Fortunately, Forest gave me a secret code that you can use to download the songs digitally. The album I downloaded has got to be SF 59' s best. It's one of those albums that are flawless. I even like the way it breaks SF 59's usual format by offering 20 tracks instead of the usual 10 tracks Jason releases every year. Even a great Smiths cover is thrown into the mix.

Death Cab For Cutie Narrow Stairs I really liked DC's last album Plans. That was the album that broke them into the mainstream,yet they were able to maintain their indie credibility. Expectations were pretty high coming into this album. I got pretty excited when I read that Ben Gibbard was reading a lot of Jack Kerouac and writing in rustic Big Sur, California. Unfortunately, the album doesn't quite reach expectations in my opinion. It's not bad, but it is no Plans. Not a lot of brilliant melodies that made Plans the great album it was.

Garbage Special Collection I've always been a Shirley Manson fan since she was in Angelfish . She is one of my favorite female artists. This is a not a regular release, and in truth, I stumbled upon it on the Internet. It is a collection of B-sides through out Garbage's career. It is actually a pretty massive collection of about 30 songs never released. Garbage does do pretty good b-sides that are worth owning if you are a fan. Most notable on here, is Garbage's James Bond theme "The World Is Not Enough."

The National The Virginia EP Riding high on the success of their critically acclaimed masterpiece Boxer, The National released a EP of b-sides, demos, and live cuts. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying close enough attention and got just the audio tracks from itunes and didn't realize that there was a film that accompanied the disc. Well, I don't watch music movies that often anyway. The songs on the EP are pretty great and makes a great companion to Boxer.

M83 Summer=Youth When I was in KC, Forest was pushing this album pretty hard, so I decided to take a listen. I was sold after listening to a few snippets of it. M83 combines elements of shoegaze and techno into some pretty impressive pop songs. Unfortunately, the album kind of fizzles in the end with a rather long ending track that is so boring it puts you in a trance.

Portishead Third It literally took me 7 listens to this album before I started to like it. I've never been a big Portishead fan despite that they are one of those "Critically Acclaimed" bands that I usually like. I found their sound too icy with trip hop effects and a "spy theme" mood. No "spy theme" mood on this album, just eclectic music. This is one of those albums like Radiohead's Kid A, that at first listen, you don't know weather it is crap or genius. Albums like Kid A and Third make the listener work and think. The pay off is worth it when you begin to see the genius work of art that it is.

Foxtail Somersault Fault I've been really into shoegazer lately and been snatching up everything I can find that fits into the shoegazer genre. This 5 track EP fits into my current tastes. Promising band, can't wait to see what else they will do.
Trembling Blue Stars The Last Holy Writer Quite and melancholy, with airy evocative guitar soundscapes, Trembling Blue Stars are not exactly exciting, but not all good albums explode in excitement. Rather downbeat lyrics, but a occasional female ethereal voice makes it's way into some of the tunes, making it a nice "chill out" album.

Kansas Vacation 2008

It was great to see everyone during our Kansas vacation this year. I must say that I really miss the place. I never would have thought that our old home could be such a great vacation destination that everyone here enjoyed. Here's a recap of the last week:

Thursday 5/15
- we woke up at 4am to catch a 5:30am flight. Wah-Wah usually gets up at this time, but she was actually up earlier. I guess she was excited. Anyway, after the horrible experience last year (being stranded in Denver over night), we had no problems and arrived at KCI in the early afternoon. Uncle Lovey (that's what he is called) picked us up and took us to Aunt Kim's house. That night, the kids and Wah-Wah went to visit Wah-Wah's dad, who was in town and staying at the Holiday Inn. The kids went swimming while I went to Homers to meet with A Forrest and Dust.

Friday 5/16
I rented a Toyota Prius and drove up to Iowa to see my old college friends, Dave and Doug. I enjoyed the drive in the Prius (and the gas mileage). That night, we had a couple of beers at one of our favorite places in Des Moines- the Royal Mile. It's a old style British pub that has as much charm as it's enormous beer selection.
Wah-Wah and the kids went to her older sister's Angie's house for a family reunion of sorts. Our kids really love Angie's home in Randoul. It is in the middle of nowhere, but has over a dozen horses roaming around. Woogy and Nibbles love spending time with their cousins. Woogy got to spend the night over there.

Saturday 5/17
-Dave and I went to the Des Moines Farmer's market which is every Saturday morning. I didn't actually see a lot of fresh produce, it was more like a lot of ethnic food and crafts for sale. Every time I'm in Des Moines, I can't believe how much it has grown. When I first moved their 18 years ago, it was a dump. It is actually turning into a pretty happening place. After breakfast at the Farmer's Market, I headed back out on the rode to visit my sister in Harlen IA.



(Aunt Angie, Wah-Wah, Nibbles, Aunt Kim, and cousin Jesse)

While I was driving around Iowa, Wah-Wah and Aunt Kim decided to take all the kids to World's Of Fun on Saturday. They went after 4pm and saved a couple of bucks. The kids had a blast (or so I'm told) at Camp Snoopy.

Here's all that went : Cheyanne, Woogy, Cody, Dusty, Aunt Kim, and Jessie (Nibbles isn't looking at the camera).

While everyone else was having a great time at Worlds of Fun, I was spending a quite afternoon with my sister. It was a pleasant visit and I got to see my baby nephew. My sister talked with me a lot about our mom's deteriorating health. That was kind of a downer, so on the long drive back to KC, I listened to Rosie Thomas's When We Were Small album. The album was a perfect back drop to the summer sunset driving across Missouri. I think Rosie has one of the warmest voices in music with some very introspective lyrics. I found myself being so retrospective listening to this album, that I had to hear it twice.

Sunday 5/18

On Sunday, we got up and went to Church. Overland Park really feels like a church home to me. I like were we are now, but Overland Park is were my faith really began. I missed most of Pastor's Phil's sermon since I ended up talking with someone about my job and foster care in general. Afterwards we went to Chuck E. Cheese with A Forest and his kids.

After Chuck E. Cheese, we went to A Forest's cousin's graduation party at Shawnee Mission Park. Here is a picture of A Forest shredding it up on a kind of a skate board. I have a nice video of this, but I can't seem to download videos on my blog for some reason.

Monday 5/19
On Monday, we went to Deanna Rose Petting Zoo. I use to go to this place all the time with the kids, but I've really come to miss it. We have nothing like this in Portland. You really begin to appreciate something when you no longer have it. We ended up running into our old doctor. I didn't want to bother him, but I did go up and tell him "thank you" for taking care of our family when we lived in KC. I think he appreciated it, and told me that he quit his practice a year ago. I told him I thought he was a good doctor despite acting very bored on some of my appointments. I reminded him of the time he gave me a spinal tap because he thought I had meningitis. I asked him to pose for a picture with Nibbles since he delivered her. I thought it might be neat someday to show Nibbles a picture of the man who delivered her.

After Deanna Rose, I met up with A Forest to go see the Cure at Starlight. We picked up some dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world-- Oklahoma Joes.

Sadly, I'm down to one Z-man a year (my arteries are grateful for that). The Z-man is the best sandwich I ever had. Nothing else compares. The fries are pretty good too.

After a delicious meal at Oklahoma Joe's, A Forest and I headed to Starlight to see the Cure. The Cure is one of my "pillar" bands. Meaning, I got into them when I first started listening to music back in the 80's and they have shaped my taste in music like U2, the Smiths, and REM. Starlight is a great for a summer night concert, and it was pretty crowded for a Monday night. Shows like this are great for people watching, but the Cure's audience is getting older (like me) so I wouldn't say we saw a lot of people "gothed up." The Cure played a lot hits from their massive catalogue and few new ones from their forth coming double album. All the new tunes sounded pretty good. However, it was clear that lead singer Robert Smith wasn't feeling so well and was having pretty bad voice problems. Unlike some singers (Depeche Mode 2 years ago), Robert Smith pushed on for almost three hours. By the end of the set, he could hardly sing the chorus of his songs. I've always thought he was one of the coolest singers ever.

Tuesday 5/20

On Tuesday, we spent the afternoon at Hillsdale Lake with Aunt Kim and Uncle Lovey. Lovey has a speed boat and was kind enough to take us all out on it for some tubing. Lovey and Kim even had some wet suits that fit us. I have never been dragged across a lake at 30mph. I think I would have enjoyed it a little more if Lovey would have slowed down a little.

Here's Wah-Wah in tow. Wah-Wah impressed everyone with how long she stayed on. Nibbles got a little upset when Wah-Wah fell off. She thought we were leaving Wah-Wah stranded out in the middle of the lake.

After a afternoon at the lake, we went out to the T.Rex Cafe with Dust and Golden. T.Rex seemed like a good idea if the kids started acting up. My thanks again for Dust for rescuing Woogy when he got trapped between a wall and a table.

Weds 5/21

On Weds, we spent the day at Aunt Angie's again. Nibbles picked up some new cowgirl boots and rode a rather stubborn pony.

While Woogy and Nibbles played with their cousins, I broke my own personal record for the "most amount of time on a horse" by riding for three hours. I found that there was something romantic about being on a horse. The hero always rides horse after all. Here I am on a horse named "Easy." I rode around the pasture for a while he did nothing but eat the grass.