Flaming Lips in San Antonio

Last night Carri and I drove to San Antonio to catch the Flaming Lips at Lonestar Pavilion. We wanted to see the band tonight in Austin but they are playing La Zona Rosa and tickets were gone in a nanosecond. If you have never seen the Flaming Lips you are truly missing out as they are one of the best live bands around. They do not just sit up there staring at their shoes while they play their album note for note. No they have confetti guns, huge balloons, video boards with strange effects, dancing Santas, aliens, Wayne pouring fake blood on himself, etc. Last nights show was a little wide ranging for my taste and Wayne was very verbose. This is my sixth time to see the Lips but the first when they were headlining a non-festival setting. I like their shows to be a little tighter.

Overall it was a great time with only one major complaint: The Lips kind of rail against George Bush and his policies, and they are anti-war, even going so far as to play Taps in their set. Now I am completely for this stance, as my personal feelings for Bush and war are in line with theirs. However, I find it a bit hypocritical that this tour is sponsored by Camel cigarettes. It seems strange that you would lament those killed in a bogus war yet take money from those that kill over 440,000 Americans a year with cigarettes.

Diet

Well after a really rough weekend of eating poorly and drinking every beer within arm's reach Carri and I have both decided to try to drop a few pounds. We have both been saying this for the last month or so but I hope this time it will stick. I found a calorie counting website and looking at the diet as simple math should help me stick to it. Our goal is lose some weight before our one year anniversary in early November. Now if I can simply stay away from my evil arch nemesis...beer. Wish us luck.

ACL Festival Recap

Friday: Got to the fest at about 1:45 and headed over to see Del MCoury. Nice and mellow but still had early fest excitement and wanted to move along after a song or so. Next it was over to Bela Fleck for some of his set. After this we headed to the merch tent, and noticed the fire in the background. Carri and I headed over a little closer, and caught a big whiff of the acidic smelling smoke. Next it was time for Peter Bjorn and John. Caught about half their set and then went to look for a hat for Carri. Unfortunately about this time I started to feel a little sick, no biggy I just thought I was hot. Caught the end of PB and J, then over to Wamu to meet up with Jon for Big Sam's Funky Nation. This is when I stated to feel really sick, I think I must have been hit by the heat as I felt like I could not cool myself, I was sweating profusely, was light-headed, etc. Luckily we got in the shade and I put ice all over myself. This certainly helped but I was still feeling sub-par. Thankfully Carri was there with me and really helped me out when I was thinking I was gonna pass out. Love you babe. Anyway I finally got cooled off, drank a ton of really cold water (I had already had 3 nalgenes earlier, but must have sweated those out), took some endurolytes, and ate a protein bar. After this we decided it was best to just call it a day. As we were leaving we did see a bit of LCD Soundsystem from a hill across the street from the park. So unfortunately we missed QOTSA, Gotan Project, and Bjork.

Saturday: Got a late start to try to stay out of the heat as much as possible. Caught Damien Rice who was really interesting with some really slow songs but then some rocking ones as well. A few songs of Cross Canadian followed and then it was over to see Muse. Muse by far was my favorite band of the festival. They put on an amazing show and I would certainly see them the next time they come to Austin.

Sunday: Another late start because of my yearly conflict with the NFL and the fest on Sunday. Really only saw My Morning Jacket, the end of Wilco's set, and the beginning of GLO. All in all I liked all the music I saw on Sunday.

Overall besides getting sick it was another fun ACL, even though I feel the middle level talent was a little weak and was not good enough to draw me out of the air conditioning house to see them in the middle of the day.

Ravens Blow It

Hello Monday Night Football...do you remember us? We are the Baltimore Ravens, we had the second best record in the AFC last year at 13-3, we laid an egg against the Colts in the playoffs, we had 6 turnovers in tonight's game, we got hosed on a tying TD catch by Todd Heap, we then put the ball right between the 8 and the 6 on Heap's jersey and he does not catch it, our quarterback not only got hurt but looked like he was playing JV ball, Ray Lewis ripped his tricep the third play of the game. Yeah that's us the Baltimore Ravens, I am bummed that you lost...but you are still my favorite team.

Are you ready for some football?

I certainly am. Last night kicked off the start of the college football season with a slew of games. And in a few hours I am gonna board a plane headed for Atlanta for this weekend's OSU vs Georgia football game. But as much as I like college football, I am in love with the NFL. I cannot wait until next Thursday for the Colts vs the Saints. Add to that I just completed my second of three fantasy football drafts and you can consider me a junkie.

Fantasy football has completely changed the way I watch NFL games and also changed my allegiance from the college game to the pros. Since I have been playing fantasy about 10 years now I know so much more about the NFL, its teams, its players, etc. Sadly I can probably name at least 3-5 players off each NFL team, but barely know any players from my alma mater, OSU.

The End of Duathlon Season

This weekend marked the end of my duathlon season. Now it is time to focus on riding and getting ready for the LIVESTRONG Challenge in October. For the next two weeks I think I am just going to ride exclusively and give the running legs a rest. This rest will be short lived as half marathon training begins the first of September. So for about a month or so it will seem like du training with riding and running several times weekly. Oh well. Here are some of my most recent du results:

2007 Protest Du: First run pace - 8:34/mile, Bike - 20.2 mph, Second run pace - 9:04/ mile, Total time - 1:49:46.95

2007 Darnd'st Du: First run pace - 8:54/mile, Bike - 20.5 mph, Second run pace - 9:11/mile, Total time - 1:55:15.95

2006 Darnd'st Du: First run pace - 8:56/mile, Bike - 20.2 mph, Second run pace - 9:30/mile, Total time - 1:55:48.1

So my takeaways from this is my bike is amazingly consistent, my running certainly has improved over last year, especially the second run, and it was immensely more fun training for these events with a group than on my own.

Have a great day.

Movie Reviews

Generally my blogs have dealt with races, riding, or other active events, but that is not what life is all about. Life is about so much more. So moving forward I am going to try to expand my blogs to other things going on in the life of a 35 year old male in Austin, TX. Tonight I am going to give brief reviews of recently watched movies.

First run movies -

The Simpsons- Pretty much what I expected. Short sweet and to the point. Pretty darn, funny and a good way to beat the heat. If you live in Austin you have to see it at the Alamo. Not only do they have Simpson shorts before the movie but you can get Duff beer.

Sunshine- This is the latest movie by Danny Boyle the man behind 28 Days Later, Trainspotting, and the often overlooked but fabulous Shallow Grave. This movie is a Sci-Fi flick but it just fell flat for me. The premise was very cool and there are some interesting concepts but no real pay off. Kind of a let down.

The Bourne Ultimatum- This is the third Bourne movie and I liked the previous two, so I had high hopes for this one. I think it was a pretty good movie, but did not really play up the strengths of the previous two. Usually Bourne relies heavily on multiple car chase scenes, this one had only one. Also the fight scenes in this movie seemed too staged. Overall I was a little disappointed, but still thought it was better than most modern action films.

Rentals:

The Premonition-Let me preface this by saying that I have much greater movie knowledge than Carri and I usually pick the movies we see. This was one of hers that we did not catch in the theaters so we rented it this weekend. Let me just say that Carri and I both have a Premonition...Sandy's movie career has gone in the shitter ever since Speed (besides Crash which was an ensemble cast), and we hope that she has a future in her restaurant. This movie was so bad. Do they not have people that watch these movies before release? Maybe that could be my new job. "Excuse me your movie sucks and you are going to lose money", that will be $50,000 please.

Maxed Out- This was a doc about how Americans spend so much money on credit. Kind of scary, but it did not really have the punch of some of the better docs I have seen.

The Descent- We had seen this one before in the theater but it is such an amazing movie we had to get it again. If you are claustrophobic, this movie will scare the pants off of you. Also it is just a great horror film. It was nice to see the original ending. I highly recommend this movie.

The Number 23- Seriously you think the twist at the end can make up for the hour and a half of garbage you just force fed me. Pppppplllllllease.

Zodiac- My uncle worked for the SFPD just after the Zodiac case so I had additional interest in this movie. Couple that with the fact that it was by David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) and you had me hooked. I thought the movie was a little long but other than that it was a great crime film. I would certainly recommend this film as well.

So to wrap up, this is my first in hopefully a semi-regular segment of movie reviews. My recommendations are check out the Simpsons at the Alamo, see the Bourne Ultimatum if you have seen the first two, get a good scare by The Descent, and catch Zodiac even thought the SFPD were never able to.

Enjoy and pass the popcorn.