Hall(elu)Yeah!

OK, I know I complain about this every year, but this year, there appears to be hope.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the nominees for this year's class and they FINALLY have a great one.
Metallica.
Although they were eligible last year (when MADONNA got in), the hall realized they should throw a bone to actual rock and put the Bay Area boys on the nominee list.
So, thank you, "music experts" for giving us that one.
Now for the complaints (or in other words, the other nominees):

• Run-D.M.C. (I'm not a fan of rap but I will actually concede this one. This group opened doors and eyes and also crossed genres with rock when few others would admit to sampling ... yes, Vanilla Ice I'm talking to you).
• The Stooges ... Iggy Pop certainly is an icon. Don't know much of The Stooges. Hard to think of them as HOF material.
• Jeff Beck ... he's not in already? This should get cleared up.
• Wanda Jackson ... huh?
• Little Anthony and the Imperials ... huh (part 2)?
• War ... one-hit wonders are not HOF
• Bobby Womack ... seriously, did they just pick names out of the phone book
• Chic ... I have a hard time putting disco in the HOF. They were huge for about a year or two. Not HOF.

I know what you're saying: "That's it? That's all?" Yup, those are the choices. The top five vote-getters get in. If Metallica doesn't make it, I just might blow a gasket.

In case you are wondering, here are some of the artists still not in the Hall (or even been nominated):

• KISS ... this is a travesty to the point of being ridiculous. What do these people want? Great music? Check. Influencial? Name a band today that doesn't owe at least something to them. Longevity? Duh! Hit records? How about dozens plus the No. 1 song in the country and a Grammy for "Beth."
• The Moody Blues ... yup, not in.
• Rush ... just a travesty
• Alice Cooper ... should go in the year after KISS
• Stevie Ray Vaughn ... see how stupid this is?
• Deep Purple
• Yes
• Bad Company (if only Bobby Womack had been the lead singer, huh?)
• Neil Diamond (c'mon, admit it ...)
• Cheap Trick
• Judas Priest
• Iron Maiden
• Journey
• Peter Gabriel (for his videos alone, he should be in)
• Bon Jovi (eligible for the first time this year and they should get in sometime ... although Runaway is still their best song IMHO)

At least if Metallica makes it, the show will be worth watching. Fortunately Jethro Tull isn't on the nominee list so we don't have a Grammy screw-up AGAIN!

Martin and Frank

So, this weekend started on Friday as I got some tix from a friend for Martin Short (of SNL and SCTV fame) at the Union Colony Civic Center. Dono, Dan and I met up for dinner and more than a few drinks beforehand. Good show. Not great, but definitely had some laughs.

Saturday we had our second soccer game of the year. Got creamed but my guys made one of the best goals I've ever seen in little kid ball, so I'll call it a wash.

That night, Tracy and I decided to get all dressed up as we had tickets to see Frank Sinatra Jr. at the UCCC. I'm a huge fan of Sr. but I didn't have my hopes to high for Jr. I was mistaken. Along with a 30-plus-piece orchestra, Jr. went through a ton of his dad's tunes. His voice isn't even close to Sr. but his phrasing and timing were perfect. The big band sound was so sweet. "I've got the World on a String" was definitely a highlight. Missed some of my favs such as "I get a kick out of you" and "Chicago" but it was still fun. Met Andy and Christi for drinks at the new Kress Theater after.

Here's a pic my friend Andy took:

The other big thing from the weekend was that the boys, for some reason, got on a kick to play racquetball. We played Saturday day at the Greeley Rec Center and they had so much fun, they made me take them again on Sunday and they both loved it. This was a pure joy moment for me as racquetball is one of my favorite things to do. The boys seem to have found my excitement in the game and they are surprisingly quick learners. I sure hope this continues.

Check it out

Check out the home of Pretty Like Deer.
This is the brainchild of Allyson Byerly, a designer I work with at Aims. In her spare time, she designs non-Aims stuff for greeting cards, invitations and t-shirts, with a strange obsessive focus on cruiser bikes.
She's extremely talented and very funny. She's even shooting her whiteboard in her office that she frequently updates with stuff that she finds amusing.

A sad day

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-EU-Britain-Pink-Floyd.html?_r=3&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

I've seen Pink Floyd five times in concert and Richard Wright was always amazing. Dude's super talented and a class act. I'll listen to WYWH tonight in his honor.

Burn(ed)

A couple reviews from the weekend:
1776: Stampede Theater Group's version was very fun. My buddy, Andy, was in it and it was great to see him on stage (normally he's a director). Kids even liked it (except for the sex jokes!) Pic is Andy with the boys.

Metallica: New album is sweet. I loved St. Anger but I understand why many people didn't. It was like Kill 'Em All and this newest one is like Master of Puppets which is a little more accessible. The lone bummer: The Guitar Hero play is only for XBox 360 (grrrrr).

Burn After Reading: When EVERY single funny moment is in the previews, you know there's a problem. I thought the previews looked great and I thought we might have another Raising Arizona but instead it was more like The Ladykillers. Pitt and Malkovich were awesome but that's about it.

Rockies: They suck but Sunday's game was fun to watch.

Broncos: Haven't paid much attention but I watched the second half Sunday (after the Rox) and it was a great ending even though we should have lost.

Weird weekend

We celebrated Tracy's birthday on Friday with an awesome trout BBQ at Ruth's ... that's not the weird part.
On Saturday, we had Andy's first soccer game of the season ... I'm still hoarse from coaching but that's not the weird part.
Saturday night, we saw "Bottle Shock" with Andy and Christi Segal (excellent flick with major flashbacks for those of us in Northern California in those days!) ... still not the weird part.
On Sunday, I took little Andy to the Rockies (Alex has no interest) and we had good seats in the club level (nice Wells Fargo 2for1 thing!). I love going to game with just him because we really get to enjoy the game and just have fun together. By coincidence, the Segals were also there but up in the third level seats. A couple innings in, I got a call that Andy Segal was being taken to the hospital. So, I went up to their seats and sent Christi to the hospital while I watched their kids and took them home. Fortunately, everything was OK with Andy and my Andy had a good time hanging out with Nick as the pictures below show. But it was a strange day. The only thing that was normal was that the Rox lost ... ugh.


Andy and Nick liked that we were near the purple row so they wanted a pic.

Rally caps and rally towels couldn't help.


But they didn't care!

Long weekend

Nice to have three days off again.
Started off well Friday as Andy and I played Highland Hills (actually shot well) and then went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then saw "Traitor" (it was OK, but I'll admit I was tired and I'm pretty sure I dozed off in parts ... not a great sign).
Saturday, we took the boys to the grand opening of the new Toys R Us in Fort Collins. They had tons of characters in costume. Alex and Andy only cared about the Star Wars ones...


That night, Tracy and I went to dinner at Biaggi's (great Gluten-free menu) and then saw "Vicky Christina Barcelona" (the new Woody Allen flick). Very good movie. Great characters and dialogue.

Sunday was set aside for cleaning the entire garage and it sucked. But I'm glad it's all done now (I still had Christmas decorations in there to put away).

Monday was the last day at the pool and they had a nice potluck lunch. Kids swam for six hours and were exhausted (so was I).

Also, I finished Veronica Mars. They definitely need a movie to wrap it all up. It was an impressive series. Not sure I'd agree with Kevin Smith that it's one of the best shows ever but it's really good.

Now I'm starting "Rescue Me" from Season 1. Heard so much about this and NetFlix is a great way to catch up on these shows. The 45-minute shows are perfect for timing my stationary bike rides.