video « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

video

cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
30
Sep 24

Who needs focus?

As we wrap up September we’re always really gearing up for October. By the end of this month, the only thing there is to miss is summer, but you have to give that up eventually anyway, so you may as well look ahead. Indeed, this evening, I spun around the front porch sign. The “Hello Summer” side is hidden. The much more nuanced “Welcome” is now on display.

To see that sign you have to walk between two oversized shrub trees. And in that greenery there live some artists. I am hesitant to ask them to leave, because they do some beautiful work.

And they keep the bugs at a manageable level. Or at least they’re supposed to. Who knows. Right now it’s gnat season and the arachnid artists must surely be either full or overwhelmed.

I got in 85 miles on the bike this weekend, and I’ve also realized this weekend that I’m behind on sharing these incredibly high value videos I’ve shot recently. Here’s one that, I think, you haven’t seen yet. I was on a new-to=me road, open fields on either side, and these birds were relaxing on a power line. At least until I went by. The road ended in a T-intersection with a busier road, so I just doubled back. The birds had just enough time to re-settle, until …

The good news, I guess, is that I have several videos to use here in the next several days.

Here’s a road I rode down today.

When I got to the end of that road I turned to the right, and that new road sent me right across this picturesque view.

From there it was more woods, and then back into the farmland. The evidence of people wrapping up another season’s work. This farmer has five of these little trailers parked on the edge of this field, a little non-moving parade.

I had a quick meeting on campus this evening. I made it in time, but then couldn’t find a parking space — a problem on campuses everywhere since cars were allowed on campus. When that was over, and I headed home, I ran across this great big tractor.

It was of such a great size that I couldn’t even get what it was hauling. This, on a U.S. highway. Because there are fields down that road that need to be worked, too.

He must have driven down that road a good way. There’s nothing but the university, suburbs and a wildlife management area over the next several miles. I wonder if he’s got a good horn on board.

That’s how we’ll wrap up September. Sixty-five photos, five videos, four weeks of classes, nine swims and 19 bike rides and one day trip out of town. And probably some other stuff, because none of that seems like a lot. We’ll have to work on that for next month.

You know what next month brings, right? Right? If you don’t know, watch this space.

cycling / football / Thursday / video — Comments Off
26
Sep 24

I also wrote something for somewhere else

This has been the strangest week. It has disappeared I know not where. Even as I make an accounting of what I’ve done, and not done, each day, there are big blocks of time that seemed to have evaporated. When I look back upon it, this will be a frustrating week, as it has been mysterious and strange. More could have gotten done, but that would have required … I don’t know what it would have required. Like I said, it has been a mystery.

I did write this, this week.

It was 4th and 4 and the quarterback was scrambling for a red zone first down. His team was down three scores, but Tua Tagovailoa was trying to keep his Dolphins in the game. Tagovailoa’s collision with Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin knocked him out of the game, and perhaps changed his team’s fortunes. Tagovailoa was diagnosed with his third confirmed concussion.

Sports fans who aren’t neuroscientists saw that awkward posture of his arms and fingers, commonly called fencing, and knew he wasn’t well. His doctors would use that fencing response as one part of their diagnosis. Fencing, if you’ll allow a simplistic medical explanation, is a reaction that occurs when a blow impacts the brainstem.

Later, the piece gets into Kylen Granson’s Guardian Cap, and a hot-off-the-presses survey of retired NFL football players that has some powerful implications.

I might write a lot there, if I can think of enough things to write about.

This evening I settled on a nice new 10-mile loop of roads I ride all the time. But two circuits makes … wait a minute … I’ve got enough toes for this … 20 miles.

You pass some horses on that circuit.

And if you do the 20 mile version you pass them a second time.

They also don’t know where this week has gone.

adventures / cycling / NYC / photo / swimming / video — Comments Off
23
Sep 24

We went to the city and got a new mailbox

Happy Monday, where the points are made up and the lines don’t matter, because it is Monday, and we walked into it, again. We have choices. We make them all the time, and yet, once again, we wind up right back here. Monday.

We’re good at choosing things, or so we tell ourselves, but Monday’s always tell the tale.

Here’s a followup to last Thursday’s story about the mailbox. To recap, a guy got distracted by a wasp or bee in his car, ran off the road a bit, took out our mailbox and cracked his windshield. Fortunately he was OK. His son lives in the neighborhood, he wanted to do the right thing, so he tracked us down, because no one was home. And then he came by that evening, deeply embarrassed, and offered to replace it. Friday morning he was out there putting the new one in.

We might have gotten an upgrade.

Best part is, no bills have come to this mailbox in the three days now that it has been operational.

To sum up, we live in a neighborhood where people are good to one another, take responsibility for their actions, and even put numbers on your mailbox for you.

Seem like this was a good choice.

I had a few nice bike rides today and this weekend. Here’s a video from Saturday, after I got dropped by lovely bride and decided to try a new road.

She took this photo on Friday evening. I bought her a new Garmin Varia radar, and this was the test ride.

The Varia sits on the back of the bike, it has a bright light and emits a radar signal (or something like it) and detects oncoming traffic. When something is behind her, the Varia sends a signal to the bike computer in the cockpit. She gets a loud beep and some visual dots.

It’s a nice safety feature. She already loves it. Good present, go me.

On that same ride she went back home before I did, so I added up some extra miles to enjoy the sunset and the neighbors.

Often I turn up this road, and ordinarily you should probably just ride toward the setting sun, just for the magic of it, but I went straight on for this ride.

A few turns later, and heading back in, I was well rewarded for my patience.

There’s something awfully peaceful about being out at that hour — blinking and flashing like a chaotic Christmas try, but my lights are behind me, and these views are peaceful and lonely and full of the imagination.

And, this time of year, gnats. Full of gnats.

Also Saturday, I did an early evening swim. I might have gone faster if only because I didn’t think I would finish my 1,720 yards before it got too dark to see the walls. For about 10 minutes I kept redoing the math, trying to decide where would be a satisfactory place to wrap it up.

But my arms kept moving and sometimes my feet kicked and I got it all in. And now that’s something I want to do more of, swimming in the evening, around my evening rides, I guess. How to manage, how to choose.

Sunday, we caught a train and went into the city. Felt like a rom-com setup for supporting characters in a Billy Chrystal film. We met my in-laws at a restaurant for a terrific meal — more on that tomorrow. And then we walked down to Madison Square Garden to see Sebastian Maniscalco and friends. He’d been filling up the Garden all week. This was his last show there. At the end, he brought his father on stage.

They’re shooting a documentary together, he said. I think Maniscalco is trying to make his dad a star. Isn’t that what Instagram and TikTok are for? I was a sweet moment. For us, this was a Christmas present for the in-laws. The headliner, feature and opening acts all had great acts in the round, and my father-in-law laughed at every joke. I think my mother-in-law did, too.

And then, just like in the movies, we parted ways outside the Garden. Them to their car and back to Connecticut. Us to the train station and a ride back home.

No one at the restaurant, which we will talk about tomorrow, offered me pepper for my paprikash.

markers / music / Rowan / video / We Learn Wednesdays / Wednesday — Comments Off
18
Sep 24

Briefly typing around meetings

A quick follow-up to yesterday’s hasty Re-Listening project. Prior to our last installment there was a self-made disc, I called it Mixed Vegetables. It was just a random assortment of songs. Probably I was trying to use up a stack of CDs or something, but I put one standout tune on there.

This is The Pistoleros, a brother band from Tempe, Arizona — and they sound like it. They sound like the Chimeras and the Refreshments and Dead Hot Workshop and Gin Blossoms. I wish I could remember how I even found this song. Maybe it was on a sampler, or something I downloaded, back when that was a thing you did, but I don’t know. It’s great from the first bass riff throughout the tempo, the mariachi brass and distortion at the end.

That’s my lovely bride’s ringtone.

We went to campus for a faculty meeting today. Before that, I had a smaller one-on-one meeting. Before that we went to look for new office desks and bookshelves. That was a brief, but successful errand. The guy that manages the office furniture for the campus (I guess that’s his job, which seems like a big one when you think about it) said he’s always juggling stuff as various buildings get moved or built or renovated. The library is about to undergo some improvements, and some of them people who have offices there will be temporarily moved during that process. That could mean more office chairs, desk, and bookshelves. He told me to check back in if we needed some more.

I have a lot of books.

My one-on-one meeting was helpful and productive. It was one-part lay of the land, and one part sorting out my schedule for the spring term. I’ll be designing a new course, and also running a class I have right now. And, perhaps the best part, I know what’s ahead four whole months in advance.

Immediately following that, there was a faculty meeting. We decided we were faculty, somehow overestimating me in that assessment, and then commenced the business of the meeting, which was impressively kept on schedule. Department items were discussed, a good time was had by all.

We return once again to We Learn Wednesdays, the feature which finds me riding my bike around the county, hunting for historical markers. This is the 48th installment, and the 80th marker in the We Learn Wednesdays series. (That’s a lot of markers!)

And there’s not a lot to this one that I’ve been able to uncover so far. This is 117 Broadway, and the classic national plaque.

Built in 1849, it is today owned by a man who is apparently in the art restoration business. A century ago, it was a boarding house.

That’s all I’ve been able to find so far. I imagine it lands on the register because of its size relative to it’s mid 19th century neighbors. Though it feels a bit shopworn today, when t was new it was probably a fine sight after a long day’s toil.

Next week, we’ll try to answer the question, “Why is a post office historic?” If you have missed any markers so far, you can find them all right here.

memories / music / photo / Re-Listening / swimming / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
17
Sep 24

Come for the cats, be pleasantly surprised by something else

I have been asked by the house’s executives to get right to the important part of the day’s activity, which is, of course, the most popular feature on the site. So we will go directly to checking in on the kitties.

Phoebe is usually the driver of this, because she knows she is very photogenic. Just sitting on the landing of the stairs, look at those pretty eyes.

She does not want to share the mail, however. Sometimes she gets mail, but she’s convinced all of it is hers. She sits on it.

Oh, sure, she lets us have the bills, but she keeps the bulk mail, magazines and the like. She’s not supposed to be on the counter, but our cats are jailhouse lawyers, and they’ve figured out that if you’re sitting on a bank mailer, you’re not sitting on the countertop.

Poseidon is no better about countertops. And here he is, different day, same counter, sleeping on a box full of produce.

He’s waiting to see what’s inside. He loves trying to chew on some of our veggies. This summer he discovered corn stalks. Corn stalks are bad for cats, so we have to hide them. And we have to hide them when he’s not paying attention, because he remembers they’re in the fridge, or stored away here or there. He remembers long after they’re gone. He’s probably dreaming about corn there.

And when there is no corn, he might switch between pouting about it, and trying to charm you into getting some for him.

But we, of course, tell him no. He’s never one not to try, though. He’s a persistent little so and so.

The cats, you see, are doing well, and they thank you for your interest.

I had a nice cool swim this afternoon. It was a 1,720 yard swim. They’re getting a little faster of late, but there’s only so much improvement of which I am capable of. I know it, because I can still shave chunks of time off in pretty decent increments. Probably it’s the cooler water.

Also, I’m swimming enough to know when my arms will stop protesting and just do the work. And I’m close to knowing lap lengths just by feel.

But to demonstrate my ability: this is the summer where I’ve finally started to swim in a straight line.

More or less.

Let us return to the Re-Listening project. Here, I am listening to all of my old CDs in the car, and I’m playing them in the order of their acquisition. I’m also writing about them here, because we need the content. These aren’t reviews, because they’d be woefully out of date and I’m no critic. They are, however, sometimes full of memories, and a good excuse to post a few videos. These songs are from 2003, from an album I got in 2006 or so, of the overnight success, Howie Day, who was, in fact, a seven-year overnight success.

“Stop All the World Now” was the second album and, the major label debut, for Day. Critically, it got a lukewarm reception, but it went platinum in 18 or 19 months, and the third single, “Collide,” which you heard on the radio and in TV and movies a lot, was certified gold. And, two-plus decades later, it holds up as a pop-rock record.

And it’s full of hum-along songs, tunes you pick up quickly on the first or second listen and want to come back for a few more times. This is the fifth track on the album, and it fits that bill with an instrumentation that feels simultaneously earthly and ethereal, which seems a feat.

It is also of it’s time. But, there’s a small window on the musical calendar where rock was in an ebb and alt was disappearing and singer-song writers with some indie-pop sensibilities could fill some airspace and some evenings. I don’t really know what that means, except that I do, and it also sounds right.

This was the first single from that record, the first time a broader audience heard him. It was August 2003, and this sounds like that. I don’t remember the first time I heard that song, but I do remember the work I was doing late that summer.

I was doing interviews and producing a documentary on an upcoming tax referendum. (The tax went to a statewide special ballot vote that September, but this is Alabama and so it didn’t just fail, but failed spectacularly. The director of the state Board of Education was in tears on TV that night.) Also, at about that same time I was busy covering Roy Moore being removed from the bench as Alabama’s Supreme Court Chief Justice. Being Alabama, he got another shot at the bench, largely on the same religious rhetoric that got him kicked off the first time.

Probably I picked up on Howie Day a little bit after that. Sharp-eared listeners might have found him on the “I Am Sam” soundtrack, which we featured here a few weeks ago. He covered “Help!”

Day has had a handful of ugly legal trouble of the domestic and chemical varieties, but he’s still out there doing it. Day is touring on the 20th anniversary of this record right now.

Next time in the Re-Listening project, we’ll have a glance at a post-grunge album at it’s most polished and most posty.

Tomorrow, a meeting, and also a meeting!