I shaved my beard off...

I look like a complete douchebag. I went from a 23 year old who looked 28 to a 23 year old who looks 18. I'm growing this bitch back asap.

If I was all cool & computer savvy, I'd post a picture of clean-shaven sharkey, but I'm not. Plus I don't really want you seeing me in this naked state.

The ultimate proof that I look stupid like this? My mom said she likes the beard better! When a mother admits that, you know it's got to be grown back.

Who Misses Bonnaroooooooooooooo?

This fucking guy does!

Another great Bonnaroo has come & gone. Lots of alcohol, lots of "other stuff," lots of great music, and no sleep. Except for the 45 power naps I took during sets. Here is my shorthand Reviewaroo.

Thursday:
Temperature- Hot As Balls

Got in line around noon, got to our camp around 2:30. CAMP YAO! Our setup was glorious. We had 6 or 7 tents right along a chainlink fence right on top of a lake. A nice swift breeze once every 4 hours really helped cool things down. In the middle of the tents was 3 shade tents & a tarp which gave us the most rocking setup ever. We also had a foam Yao Ming head on a makeshift flagpole about 25 feet in the air, that was glorious.

Saw three bands.

Cat Empire - Top 5 show of the weekend. Just fun upbeat jam/dance music, highly recommended.

Devotchka - I fell asleep like 8 minutes into this set. Best sleeping music ever.

Toubab Krewe - Also a Top 5 show of the weekend. Purely instrumental, these guys rocked plain & simple. Ended the set with an 11 minute drum solo.

Friday:
Temperature - Hotter than balls!

Woke up 830ish on Friday. Hung around camp for a few hours, headed to centeroo about 130ish. Not many non-musical highlights on this day.

Saw five bands.

Ben Folds - Disappointment. Not sure if he just doesn't go over well in front of huge festival crowds, or if it was the fact that I was about 8700 yards from the stage, or if it was the fact that the temperature was floating somewhere around 150 degrees at this point, but I didn't enjoy this set.

Nickel Creek - Kristen & I were dying of heat at this point, so we found a nice little patch of shade behind a portapotty row and layed down for this set. Sounded fantastic though. Great cover of Britney Spear's "Toxic" was the highlight of the set. I'm pretty sure I took a nap during this set.

Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Met up with my friend Reg from college during this set. RRFB never disappoints, and they kept that streak going here. Played a bunch of new stuff of their fall release, which I'm stoked for. G Love come out for like 30 minutes, which was sweet. G Love was the stagewhore of the weekend.

American Minor - I had pumped these guys up to the people I was camping with the previous two days, and they were kind of a letdown. I am still absolutely in love with their CD, but their live show leaves a lot to be desired.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Best set of the weekend far & away. Finally got a chance to see this man, and he did not disappoint. Played all the classics. Played the yardbirds. Played the Traveling Wilburys. Brought Steve Nicks on stage for a Fleetwood Mac song, and she stayed on stage for like a half hour. Ended with a fantastic double-encore performance of American Girl. All in all, just amazing.

Saturday:
Temperature - damn near perfect

Woke up bright & early again on this day, all pumped for the USA-Italy soccer match. Hung around camp for a few hours before Chris, Pat & I met Doozer in line to get into the cinema tent to watch the game. Unfortunately we waited in line for 2 hours only to be told when we were 40 feet from the entrance that they were letting no one else in. Bullshit if you ask me, we got screwed. Oh well. Was still able to catch some of the game.

After SuperJam, Pat, Chris, Kristen & I pull what was basically an all nighter playing 4cup & beer pong. Good times.

Saw three bands.

Rusted Root - Finally got to see these guys, good shit. Only caught the 2nd half of the set, but was definitely not disappointed.

Blues Traveler - This was the Holy Shit set of the weekend. Definitely #2 behind only Petty. I knew this set would be good, but I never thought it would blow me away. So freakin' good. G Love came out for a SIC cover of The Joker. Ended the set with a fantastic medley of Run Around > Crash Burn > Shout > Hook. Wow. Simply wow.

Superjam - I was half asleep for this set, but it was pretty damn ridiculous.

Sunday:
Temperature - Not quite hot as balls, but pretty freakin' humid

Went to bed at like 630 Sunday morning, woke up at like 11. Packed up camp a bit, then headed back for one last hurrah at Centeroo.

Saw four bands.

Soulive - Disappointment. Have seen & loved this guys before, they just didn't bring it this weekend.

Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - Great set. #3 of the weekend for sure. Their cover of Come Together was my favorite cover of the weekend.

Matisyahu - I think I'm losing interest in him, he was a disappointment.

moe. - Good shit. Glad I finally got to see these guys. Will definitely go see them next time they're around.

All in all, Bonnaroo fucking rocked. What else would you expect from the 4 greatest days of the year? God I can't wait for 2007!

World Cup

I'm insanely stoked for the World Cup to start in 90 minutes. There really is no event in sports that compares to a World Cup. None. If you've never watched a match, sit down at some point this weekend and just watch one. You'll be blown away by the intensity, I guarantee it.

Germany-Croatia at noon.
Poland-someone at three.

Not the greatest schedule to kick things off, but I'm excited. I'm ridiculously excited for USA-Czech at noon on Monday.

The World Cup!

The next month at a glance...

...it shall rock, and it shall rock hard.

June 5-9: work
June 10-11: weekend
June 12: USA-Czech republic world cup opener
June 13: weeba arrives at night for bonnarooooooooooooooooo
June 14: Drive from NJ-Cookeville, TN for bonnaroooooooooooooooooo
June 15-18: bonnarooooooooooooooooooooooooo
June 17: USA-Italy at Bonnarooooooooooooooooo
June 19: Drive from bonnaroooooooooo to DC for a bbq at the DCP
June 20: Drive home from bonnarooooooooooooooo
June 21: Random day off
June 22: USA-Ghana, back to work
June 23: miss bonnaroooooooooooooooo, mas work
June 24-27: Round of 16 at world cup, work
June 28: work & miss bonnarooooooooooooo
June 29-30: World Cup quarterfinals, work
July 1-9: no work
July 4-5: 4th of July bbqs, moms birthday, world cup semifinals
July 7-9: cincinnati, oh for mike perkins, pigfest & the world cup finals
July 10: My world returns to normal

The Big Toes

April 2002. Playing catch barefoot. Rip the toenail off my left big toe clean off. Fucking hurt. Had like 3 weeks worth of vicodin. Worst pain ever.

Memorial Day 2006. Playing kickball barefoot. Rip half the toenail off my right big toe. Hairline fracture to the toe. About a weeks worth of weakass vicodin, and a band-aid on the toe. Hurts like a bitch.

Moral of the story. I need to learn to start wearing shoes when playing sports. Or just in life in general.

And I need more vicodin.

Lost season 2 finale

Warning: Don't read this if you haven't watched the season 2 lost finale and plan on watching it. If you've already seen it, or don't watch the show regularly, read away.

Lingering questions from tonight's finale that I will think about thru the entire summer (in somewhat chronological order):

1. How does Desmond have a never-ending supply of liquor?
2. How did Calvin, Sayid's-teaching-in-torture, get to the island?
3. Will they ever reveal what Libby was doing in the nuthouse with Hurley, or is that a lost (no pun intended) storyling?
4. Now that we kind of know what "the monster" is, does that mean it'll just completely stop appearing for the rest of this series? I liked the monster.
5. What happened to the 3rd stick of dynamite in the sack that Eko grabbed (there were definitely two sack's of 3 in last years finale. One sack blown up, the other hidden where we just found it)?
6. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT GINOROUS FOUR-TOED FOOT STATUE?
7. How did Eko & Charlie survive that fireball?
8. Where are Michael & Walt going that they are about to be saved?
9. Why is Henry Gale in charge? He's a dickwad. And why was he so upset that "Tom" wasn't wearing his beard?
10. Why did they want Sawyer, Kate & Jack as their 3 prisoners?
10a. Why did they choose Hurley as the representative to report back to camp?
10b. Where exactly are they taking Sawyer, Kate & Jack?
11. What happened at the hatch, exactly?
11a. Did Locke or Eko survive?
11b. Will they show us some flastback at some point next season to let us know what happened at the hatch?
12. Why did the electromagnet thing cause the entire sky to go brightwhite like that and give everyone a splitting headache?
13. Who were those Portuguese-Siberian guys, how exactly did Penny (Desmond's loverladyfriend) know to look for electromagnetic anomalies, and why oh why did Matthew Fox (Jack) play one of the two Portuguese-Siberians?
14. When is the season 3 premiere?

Corn on the Cob

Sitting at a traffic light in Matawan on the way home from the Da Vinci Code (good flick!) with Logan today, when I happen to glance at the driver of the car next to us. Don't we all do that like 80 times a day? Yup. Does anyone see what we saw today? Nope.

The guy was eating Corn on a Cob. It was all going on. Corn. On. The. Cob. The works. Butter, salt, pepper, cob. Who does that? To add to this already classic moment, as we're watching, one of the kernels manages to tumble off the cob, out of his mouth, down his chin, and roll right down his shirt.

You can't script this sort of thing. Who eats corn on the cob while driving? Anyone? I'll eat a bagel, or a sandwich. Occassionally fries or chips or something. Usually sunflower seeds. But that's about it. Never even considered corn on the cob. THat's up there with Ribs as things I'll never try while behind the wheel.