Troops in airport

Does anybody remember this Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl? The one with the troops walking through the airport and everyone applauding?

http://www.budweiser.com/agecheck.asp?section=entertainment&subSection=tv_commercials&commSelect=9

Well I saw that twice while I was sitting in the Atlanta airport for two hours today and each time I just had to put everything down and watch. All of the soldiers were assembling in Atlanta before heading off to Iraq...they assembled on the second level and then paraded through the terminal in groups (I'm assuming on the way to their airplane). They walked through the main area where all the restaurants are and everyone cheered and clapped, and I thought that was super awesome. A lot of thoughts went through my head...about a lot of those troops being my age, what they were headed to, why they were going, and hoping they all would come back...totally crazy stuff.

If you can't view the commercial on the link, you can browse to it from the Bud site.

Things I Love/Miss about NYC

(In no particular order)

1. Family/friends
2. Being within a walk/subway ride of anything I want to do
3. Best pizza in the world (specifically Amore's Pizza in Flushing)
4. Bagels are pretty daggone good too
5. The music scene
6. The ethnic and cultural diversity (and the acceptance of it among the population)
7. The NY Mets!!
8. The city is always alive...places to eat and things to do 24 hours a day
9. The fast-pace and challenges of living here make it an awesome life-learning experience
10. Because everyone is so different, everything is cool, nothing is uncool
11. It's a liberal city
12. Aggressive, fast drivers

Feel free to add to the list by making comments

Games That Will Kill Your Work Productivity: Q

Discovered this game today. I must be an idiot because I can't even get past level 3 yet. More games to follow...

Q: http://lightforce.freestuff.gr/q.php

Pictures of the Week: NYC Winter's Eve

After a bite to eat at Boston Market in the city, my friend Mike (who has turned into a total New Yorker) and I went down to Lincoln Center where there was all sorts of action surrounding the tree lighting ceremony. I guess this is the 6th year that they've done this Winter's Eve celebration in the Lincoln Center/Columbus Circle area, where they have free music and entertainment, in-store promotions and dessert tastings, and samplings from local restaurants. In a way, it's like a kick-off to the December holiday season (it seems too early!!) One of our family friends produced a 15 minute version of A Christmas Carol so I met Che, Doug, and our friends Nancy and Danny for that.

These aren't the greatest pics of NYC, but it gives you a little flavor of the action up here.

The Christmas tree lighting at Lincoln Center. (This isn't THE Christmas tree...that one is at Rockefeller Center and will be lit on Wednesday.) That building on the left is where my high school graduation took place.

Some dude doing some ice sculpting. He's got a Santa going on here...he also had a snowman and a sleigh that was already finished.

The abbreviated version of A Christmas Carol being performed at the base of the Christopher Columbus statue in Columbus Circle.

Movie Review: Kill Bill, Vol. 2

Vol. 2 just gives closure to Vol. 1 with much of the same style...lots of fighting and killing in a graphic manner as The Bride attempts to take revenge on Bill (David Carradine). I actually liked Vol. 1 better although my brother and some others have said they like Vol. 2 more. Vol. 2 brings closure to the whole story as The Bride takes on Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle (Daryl Hannah) before making her way to Bill. Vol. 2 moved a little slower to me than Vol. 1, and there was one eye-popping scene that I didn't really enjoy.

If you watch Vol. 1, you really don't have much of a choice but to watch Vol. 2 if you want to see how it all plays out.

Thanksgiving bowling action

The Mark sibs got to show off our bowling skills at a fundraiser that our aunt invited us to. So much fun! I love bowling! (Only when I bowl good, that is.) Luckily, the good bowling Russell showed up at least for a little while. Besides our aunt and uncle, our cousin Karyn and her cousins were there too, so that was real fun seeing them. Always a good time. (What does a cousin's cousin make someone to me?)

My scores: 130, 138, 68
Cheryl's scores: 104, 72, 91
Doug's scores: 72 (finished with 5 straight gutter balls), 107,64 (hit 2 pins in last 3 frames)

Yeah...I dropped off a bit on that last game. The fatigue factor kicked in.

Me, Che, and Doug post-bowling

Chrissy, Karyn, me, Doug (looking away)

Movie Review: War of the Worlds

Um...this really didn't do it for me at all. We saw it on DVD at a friend's house in NJ, and someone said you had to see it in the theater with the surround sound and all to get the full effect...but that didn't change the fact that I thought the movie was still kinda lame dude. Mariejo really liked it a lot after she saw it in the theater so who knows (maybe she likes crappy movies).

Tom Cruise plays an irresponsible jerk dad who goes on a journey in order to save his kids from aliens that are invading the planet which ends up redefining his relationship with his kids. blah blah blah. Basically, Tom and kids keep running and aliens keep attacking. I kept thinking, "Where is this going?" and at one point Che said, "How is this going to end??" Exactly.

If you want a better alien invading movie, try Signs with Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix. At least it had a lot more depth and emotion to the story. If you want a better movie where the whole world is panicking, try 28 Days Later with Cillian Murphy. That definitely might freak you out a bit though.

Movie Review: Kill Bill, Vol. 1

Whew! Talk about some violence! I really dug this one though. There's a ton of ridiculous, comic book type violence in here (limbs/heads being chopped off, blood spewing all over the place, even an eyeball being ripped out), so if you're up for an entertaining action flick and you can stomach all that stuff, this is a winner. It's not really a dark and gory violence where you're left in suspense and shock and ready to puke (at least not for me)...it's like cool martial arts, Matrix-type stuff but with lots of blood...lots of it. (Or maybe I'm conditioned to all of the violence and it doesn't quite affect me much.) Quentin does a real good job making this film very visually stimulating and interesting, the music to the movie is awesome for keeping the mood, and I'm psyched to watch Vol. 2 later this week (maybe tonight).

And there's a story to this violence too. The movie starts with "the Bride" (Uma Thuman) all bloodied and left for dead at her wedding, and from there, it details her revenge on the people who dealt her punishment. She goes after characters played by Vivica A. Fox and Lucy Liu, so this movie is basically all about chicks who can kick major ass.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I'm still full from last night.

It's cold out...12 degrees outside with the windchill!! But yet we're still going to play football now...

Concert review: Rhett Miller / Jennifer Glass

Let me say that NYC rules. I love being back here. I love being on the subway, the freedom to move around, and most of all, I love the people and the culture that embodies New York. Go away from this place after being here all of your life, and you will truly appreciate what it means to be a New Yorker...that there is no single meaning. Everyone is different, everyone has their own unique story about who they are, where they're from, how they got here...and it makes this place super exciting just to be here and walk around. The most important thing about the diversity here is that everyone respects it.

And even with 7 million people here, I feel more likely to run into someone I know than in csprings (with all 500k people there). I already ran into my friend Meghan on the subway this afternoon! (granted, I had to wait at a subway stop for her for a few minutes, but still.) There's definitely no place like it.

So anyway...onto the review...

The show was at Joe's Pub, a venue that my sister always raves about but I've never been. It definitely lives up to the hype. It's a super cozy place that's basically a small restaurant/bar with a stage in the corner. There's room for you and maybe 100-150 of your friends to sit down at a table or at the bar and enjoy the show.

Jennifer Glass opened up the show with a few songs and her super sweet, incredible voice. Her voice reminded me of Michelle Branch / Vanessa Carlton, but she's too old to be teeny-bopper pop music, so that's kind of appealing. I'd buy it.

Rhett Miller, the lead singer of the Old 97's, put on an awesome show. He's real animated and lively on stage (definitely worked up a huge sweat) and just had a lot of energy that got the whole crowd into it. The highlight for me was a duet with Jennifer Glass during his first (of two) encores. On his upcoming solo album due out in February, he does a duet with my girl Rachael Yamagata called "Fireflies", and that's the song he did with Jennifer. Totally awesome. The two of them were so great singing together. I really love musical duets/collaborations...hip-hop artists do it all the time...why can't other artists do it? At my last John Mayer show, his duet with Joss Stone was my fave part too. Anyway, Rhett was great. You should check him out.

Joe's Pub: http://web.joespub.com/web_joes/
Jennifer Glass: http://www.jenniferglass.net/home.php
Rhett Miller: http://www.rhettmiller.com
the Old 97's: http://www.old97s.com/

Drink Wendy's for free flights

This is the best fast food promotion ever. Even better than when Happy Meals had Chicken McNugget toys. With 32 medium drinks from Wendy's, you get a free one-way flight on AirTran. With 64 med drinks, you get a free roundtrip. You just have to cut out the proof-of-purchase on the cup and join AirTran's rewards program. That's it! You have until 12/31/05 to collect your cups.

Here's the link to the official rules: http://www.airtran.com/wendys_offer.aspx

A free flight for less than $100 worth of drinks! I wouldn't blame you if you're like my nameless friend here who went digging for a cup :)

Pictures of the Week: Keystone Snowboarding

Who would think that we could have such a great weekend of boarding/skiing the week before Thanksgiving?? It was awesome. Great weather and good snow. There wasn't a lot open on the backside of the mountain, but it was way less crowded which was real good esp since it was real bumpy (which means wipeouts for me).

Injury report: Thankfully, nothing major to report on this end. There were some huge hills to jump off of that I am too stupid to resist (since I'm really not good enough to do that stuff). I should have learned my lesson trying it on Saturday, but I tried again on Sunday and bent my fingers back when I screwed the landing. Hurts a little, but at least that's all I've got to report.

I'm also not good enough to be taking pictures while I ride, but of course I do it anyway because taking pics on the mountain is way fun.

Che, Brady, and me on the lift

Check out Che schooling this little kid on the slopes

Some nightskiing action

Annie tearin' it up

Brady and Annie w. Lake Dillon in the background

Does your phone number spell anything?

Mine doesn't :(

http://www.phonespell.org/

Airport traffic accident

So we're sitting on the airplane in Denver waiting to leave for Austin, when there's an announcement saying that we have to deboard...because a luggage cart ran into the right engine!!! So they had to find us a new plane. That's some poor driving. Here's a pic.

Picture of the Week

NYC baby. I took this pic of the skyline last summer from the top of Arthur Ashe Stadium when my bro and I went to the US Open after I got back from the Olympics. I don't think I could get tired of that view. And it was even better with the Twin Towers...

New Music: Scott Mallone

Before the movie, we saw a trailer for Bee Season. The song playing in the background throughout the trailer sounded pretty cool...my type of song - a dude singing a powerful and mellow ballad. I googled it when I got home, and apparently a lot of people have been doing the same because I found out what it was through a site that had received a lot of hits recently due to the same search. The song is "What We Are Made Of" performed by Scott Mallone. You can actually download the mp3 of the song off of his site. The song's actually just alright. Maybe a little too slow for me. It's solid, I guess.

Scott Mallone: http://www.scottmallone.com
What We Are Made Of mp3: http://www.scottmallone.com/mp3/whatwearemadeof.mp3

Movie Review: Good Night, and Good Luck.

I enjoyed this one. However, this movie probably isn't going to knock your socks off or really move you or anything like that.

It basically details CBS broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow's TV segments that called out Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's. During a time in US history where there was widespread paranoia about communism penetrating our country and the goverment, people were afraid to speak up against McCarthy for fear of being accused of communist ties themselves. Murrow and his team had the courage to question McCarthy's tactics and accusations.

So in a way, this movie is a documentary without any kind of high drama, suspense, or action. I felt it was well done and did a good job of telling the story of Murrow and his production team (not that I know much background info on them). The movie's in black-and-white, but I felt it just added more realism to the film because it also incorporated actual footage of McCarthy (which is in b&w). The film has it's funny moments in there. Personally, I thought it was kidn of humorous that everybody and their mom smoked cigarettes all the time.

Picture of the Week

Love Rocky Mountain National Park. This picture is from my first trip there...a camping trip with Deb, Copper, Hinds, and Woodruff. We did a short hike to Mills Lake where we sat in awe of the tranquil lake against the backdrop of the rugged mountains. After a while, being a person that can't sit still for very long, I had the urge to go to the other side of the lake. There wasn't a short way to get there unless you crossed the lakes outlet stream, and that wasn't easy. I ended up doing a daring (aka stupid) jump across. Ryan ended up walking across a bunch of logs that were at the mouth of the lake (maybe just a little less foolish in my mind). On the way back, Ryan snapped this picture of me jumping back across. Perfect picture. Not the perfect jump though...one of my feet slipped off the rock and into the water, so I hiked back to camp with a wet shoe.

CSprings dating

I remembered this web article when I was at breakfast with Dharma this morning. I thought it was a crock when I first saw it more than a year ago, and guess what? It still is.

America's Best (and Worst) Cities for Dating

High winds in CSprings

It was ridiculously windy here in CSprings on Thursday morning. Every now and then it gets like this...where it sounds like my house is going to be blown away. Brady was driving me to the airport that morning (he said that in the middle of the night he woke up to retrieve his waders from the front yard after it at blown off the patio), and just on the drive down the street, there were mailboxes and trash cans blown all over the place, and a huge tree on Bijou had fallen over. So we stop at a red light about to turn onto the highway, when a telephone pole blows over right in front of us, onto the spot where we were about to turn. Just a little freaky. Actually, I think they were power lines since the traffic lights went out and that area lost power...but nothing was stopping us from getting to the airport...so Brady just drove over the lines and around the fallen pole. Not sure if that was the smartest thing to do, but hey, it all worked out.

Full House

Last month, this crazy Arkansas family had their 16th kid. What?!?? I'm not even sure what to say about this. The dad's name is Jim Bob. The couple have been married since they were 17...and 22 years later, they have 16 kids. That's a lot of pregnancy going on there. And they're open to having more kids too! Oh, and all of their kids names start with the letter "J". Brady asks: Do you think they're home-schooled?

The family website: http://www.jimbob.info/
An article after their 16th kid: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9680098