Today in Milwaukee

We live in Milwaukee because it combines all of my major interests: beer and Harleys. Today there's a parade of thousands and thousands of Harleys that goes past our window. We couldn't cross the street if we wanted to. For those who don't know, Harley-Davidson is based here, just built a big museum and is celebrating an anniversary; over 200,000 cyclists, I'm told, are participating today. I'm kind of trapped in my apartment. Maybe I'll record some mus.... no, that doesn't work with thousands of motorcycles riding by for an entire day. Maybe I'll watch a DV.... well, I could watch it close-captioned. Oh, and I'm missing a Bruce Springsteen concert being held for the cyclists.

I'll go do the dishes.

Second review for my book

Retrocrush.com, a cool website, got around to reviewing my book briefly.

Here's what they had to say:
LIFE: A USER'S MANUAL
I'm all for giving up and coming humorists a hand, and Steve's sometimes satirical and often dead on look on how to succeed in life is a lot funnier than you'd think it'd be. The artwork, though sparse, looks like something from an '80s era Macintosh videogame, but it's full of laughs. Advice ranging from running for President to creative dating tips abound.

Short, but he didn't have to review it at all, so I'm happy. I wasn't as successful at selling this book as I would have liked, despite the generosity of friends and family. If anyone knows whom else I might persuade to review my book, please let me know.

George Bush is Batman (Spoiler Alert)

Seriously. 'The Dark Knight' is a good film, and you should not read further if you do not want to have important plot points, such as the fact that Dubya and The Dark Knight are one and the same, given away.

Let me summarize the film and its major themes:

There are some people whose cruelty is not reasoned, who, as Alfred notes, "just want to see the world burn." These men can do a lot with simple gasoline and gun powder.  In order to defeat such people, you need to break the rules; you can't be an unblemished hero. Among those dirty things you may need to do are: use illegal surveillance on the populace, reach outside of your borders to capture criminals, and torture suspects while in captivity. The public may come to hate you for what you do, but it's in the best interests of those same people.

Dubya is not the hero we need, but the hero we deserve.

Seriously. We elected him twice.

Hitchhiker's Thumb

I just finished Neil Gaiman's 'Don't Panic', an out-of-date biography of Douglas Adams and history of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to which I owe a great deal of my personality (for better or worse). It was an enjoyable read. I need to replace our oversized hardcover of the series (which lacks the last novel anyway) with some nice paperbacks and then reread the series.

In other news, I managed to burn each thumb in separate cooking incidents this week. Each time, within hours, I found myself trying to shuffle cards. I'm kind of a genius.

By the way, if you read this, please post a comment or let me know that you read this blog. It would only take a few people reading it to make it worthwhile, as it's goal is only to keep my friends informed.

Summer's Over

This week I went back to work. We don't have students yet, but summer vacation is definitely done. I don't really know what to expect this year. We have a new principal. I'm going to be working almost exclusively with deaf and hard of hearing students. These changes may make this a better year than those that have recently preceded it. We'll see.

But, before the school year truly gets under way, I hope to write and record some more music. This week I recorded a song that contained two firsts: politics and slide guitar. Nifty. If anyone has suggestions for song topics, I'm all ears. 

I'm also going to play poker with some friends, tennis with another friend, and attend a birthday party. It's good to have my friends back in town.

P.S. - That's my model of guitar in the picture. It's pretty sweet.

Back From Adventures

So I just got back from visiting friends and family in Minnesota, where I had much fun. This blog's primary function is to help you guys know how I'm doing and what I'm doing; and I just told most of you in person. To quickly run down some of the highlights of my little trip:
- Ate at my favorite restaurant, Little T's, TWICE!
- Saw my first Saints game in a long time.
- Saw the new Mummy movie (even though it's not good).
- Took a short road trip to Iowa, towing a trailer behind a car that was not up to the task. We got about 9 miles a gallon.- Played miniature golf at the Walker Art Center (where I found a Chuck Close shirt that I will, inevitably, ruin the first time I wear it).
- Played a horrible computer game called 'Darkness Within'. Most of the game is spent reading books and underlining things that may be important; it was like school work with ominous music.
- A friend introduced me to 'Drunk History'.
- When hanging with some good friends I got to hold their swell baby a lot.
- Recorded my sister-in-law's vocals for a song.
- Got to ride home with my brother-in-law instead of a bus full of ne'er-do-wells.

This trip came very shortly on the heels of visiting family near Cincinnati, which was also very nice. My cousin and uncle's families are doing a good job of looking after my grandparents there, for which I'm grateful.

Now I'm back in Milwaukee. Over the last couple of weeks I've only had a couple of days with Lisa, but we've caught the State Fair and the Milwaukee Zoo's ala' Carte Day. My local friends are starting to come back into town. Good times.

Back to work this week, though!

This Is What You Get

So I saw Radiohead tonight with my friends Melinda and David. Radiohead is very very good. They played a longish set and played it well. I think I'd underestimated the instrumental cops of Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke; of course, I hadn't seen them since 1994 or so. The sound quality at the venue (Verizon Wireless Center in Indianapolis) was excellent.

Two thoughts about the concert experience:

1) The t-shirts were $40, expensive even by concert t-shirt standards. Apparently, they're made, in part, from recycled plastic bottles. I read a website that detailed the relative positive environmental impact of this approach; I think each shirt you buy saves like, seven dolphins. Now, I'm a little hipster, but I'm not $40 artsily-puncuated-and-spaced dolphin-saving Radiohead shirt hipster.

2) Every time they played a quieter song, everyone around me took the opportunity to chat to each other or on their cell phones. Forgetting any arguments that they should be more considerate of others, were not these people there to see Radiohead as well? I was relieved that they didn't play 'Fake Plastic Trees', and that's kinda' wrong.

Anyway, a grand time was had by all in attendance.