I've Got Title-Writer's Block

I went to see Hamell On Trial tonight at Beachland Ballroom here in the Cleve. Good stuff as always.

Although I have to say it brings up a lot of NYC memories. The brain really gets a chance to get a bit bonkers when sitting there at the bar by myself listening to songs I knew years ago. Hamell was always a sure thing for an entertaining night out of the apartment and I went to see him a bunch when I was in NYC -- alone, with my wife, with friends. Anyway, I've moved and I still get a taste which is nice. Maybe not as frequently, but perhaps that makes it all the sweeter.

I also find my thinking a bit funny that on my way to the show I found me saying to myself, "What a pain in my ass to have to drive to see a show. It was so much easier in NYC when I'd just walk or subway to a show and then whip back home." Well on the way back from the show I actually took note of the clock in my car and it took me 12 minutes to get from the venue to my driveway. 12 minutes! That shit couldn't happen in NYC no matter how I opted to travel.

So all in all it was a good night.  I just wish I didn't have so much past in my head. I feel old.  And a little crazy.

Brite and Snowy

Heading to the Brite Winter Festival in a little while. Conveniently Mother Nature is being wintery as fuck right now. 31 degrees and snowing like crazy. This should be fun. A little defience of winter is always good. Especially in Cleveland where the trend is to hibernate until May.

The American Way

I usually get a quick dose of what's going on in the world of Cleveland on Cleveland.com in the morning and sometimes a peak or two during the day. Most of the comments on the stories are in typical Cleveland fashion, complaining about Cleveland. While it seems like most people here will defend Cleveland to the bitter end, they also love to complain in a this-place-is-broken-and-I-have-a-bunch-of-genius-ideas-of-how-to-fix-it-but-instead-of-doing-something-I'll-just-bitch-on-Cleveland.com-and-leave-it-up-to-everyone-else-while-I-sit-around-and-get-fat(er) sort of way. People mock and complain about the politicians, murders, college students, construction, etc. I even saw complaining about how dumb the Cleveland marathon is. Really? People exercising and bringing money into the town is bad? Idiots.

Anyway, today I'm on Cleveland.com for voting information. Reading about the candidates and issues so I can at least vote with a purpose. There were the neutral (generally) sort of stories as well as editorials. And there were some sensible comments from the peanut gallery too.

Now, I know Americans aren't real big on voting, but I personally find it difficult to complain about how things are going if I didn't vote. Don't like the mayor? Tough shit, but really tough shit if you didn't vote. That said, I would think with all of the complaining and local political insight that everyone has in the comment sections all year, they'd be all over the political/voting info articles on election day. An election day with big issues like casinos and new local government structures and tax shifts. Not to mention a nasty rapist/murder situation. But come on, that's back burner stuff. Sports are where it's at, no?

Good work, Cleveland.

Sports are the important thing, you're right! I bet if the Browns won the Super Bowl unemployment would be a thing of the past.

Priorities, Cleveland. Priorities.

Left: the current list of stories on Cleveland.com with the most comments -- all Browns related (click for larger view).

Prepare to be Boarded

Pirates on Lake Erie!: http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=124268

Awesome.

Many Leagues Under

I was just walking a few doors down from my apartment and saw this sticker on a traffic light control box.

It made me laugh.

Then I looked it up on the internets and come to discover that it's a band. 100,000 Leagues Under My Nutsack. That is a good one. That goes on my list of favorite band names for sure.

Perhaps now I will need to look into witnessing them live. If nothing else, perhaps they have some great T-shirts.

Non-Human Sights

This is going to seem like it's from out of nowhere as I haven't posted anything in so long, but sometimes I enjoy Cleveland for its nature. Nature? Well, there isn't a ton right where I live, but it's certainly way more than when I lived in Manhattan. Or Brooklyn.

Tonight I was rowing (I've been rowing again) on the Cuyahoga and in the two hours I was out there I saw two rabbits, seagulls, one great blue heron, one woodchuck, sparrows, and a couple of fish (alive even). I'm sure all of those are around NYC, but I never saw them. Well maybe the sparrows and seagulls, but whatever. Don't rain on my parade. Anyway, the point is I like seeing non-human life. Especially along a river that has been written off as a burning joke for so long.

Keep making your come back, Crooked River.

I Do Stuff and Don't Write Ever

Hmmmm, maybe I should post something. God, this blog really is lame. Honestly it's sort of a sham even trying to call it a blog.

The sad thing is, I've actually done some stuff. I mean nothing making for a great story, but at least something to document for my own enjoyment. Anyway, what to report ...

I went to see Kottonmouth Kings at House of Blues. Nothing great, but it was enjoyable enough. Worth the cost of admission I'd say. KMKs obsession with weed sometimes gets a little tired, but that's their thing so I roll with it. And the kids seem to love it. The crowd was a pretty awful collection of trash. But entertaining, stoned as fuck trash so who am I to complain? Also cool was one of the openers, La Coka Nostra. Pretty much House of Pain with two extras doing all gangsta-themed tunes. Sometimes a bit corny with the toughguy act, but still so much better than all to so-called rap/hip-hop that is out today. As a nostalgia bonus, they even did three House of Pain songs. Dare I say timeless?

Also I went down to Pittsburgh to see the Penguins vs. Rangers. Pretty sweet. Good seats, a close game, some fights, some laughs. I like that Pittsburgh. It's a fun little city. Sort of what Cleveland should be but isn't. Damn this Cleveland.

Also, I had two high school friends visit. Both for one day only and separately. One on Thursday and then another on Monday. One was passing through town and then the other was in town for work. We did some site seeing (such as it is in the Cleve), eating, drinking and had some good laughs. Visitors are always fun.

This weekend Cleveland should be pretty active for once. It's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction. I'm not going because I am an idiot (or maybe smart, I'm not sure) but good for Cleveland. And for Metallica and Run DMC and the rest of the inductees.

That's it. I have to go shower, pay some bills and make some lunch for tomorrow. See you again soon at some point.

Those Cows Are Tasty

Last night I, along with two of my co-workers (and former NYCers) took our boss out for a late Christmas present of Morton's Steakhouse. That is some tasty (and pricey) Christmasing.

I had some awesome bread, Jumbo Lump Crab Cake, Cajun Ribeye Steak and Hot Upside-Down Apple Pie. And of course, some cocktails. All tasty as hell and a great waiter and staff in general.

We followed that up with some beers at Harry Buffalo, where we experienced the worst waitstaff on the planet. I've never had a problem there before, so I don't want to say to avoid the place or anything but last night was pretty awful. The bartender was fine -- quick and friendly -- but the guy that should have been serving our table, didn't. He asked if we'd be eating when we first got there and that was it. His only return visit was to remove our forks/knives and to take the napkin/condiment organizer back to the kitchen. He was useless. Not that we really cared. We are fully capable of walking to the bar and ordering for ourselves, but it just seemed beyond unhelpful to his wallet and the wallets of the bar owners. End rant.

So today I'm going to go try to run off some of that eating, then watch some playoff football ... and pray for some Ravens choking.

The Year That Was

So I used to have a blog here, but I packed that up for various reasons. Really because I had other things to worry about/focus on. Now I'm back to give this another try.

Perhaps I'll give a little update on the last year of my life so maybe more of this will make sense (or not) ...

2007 was sort of a mixed bag of experiences, activities and life in general. Highs, lows, unexpected realizations, stress, cursing and pretty much a total change in what my life was.

Looking back over the year, I managed to do a lot of crap -- concerts (mc chris, Slayer, Unearth, Peeping Tom, Frontline Assembly, Incubus, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers, Kid Rock), baseball games (at Fenway Park, Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium & Jacobs Field), a bunch of running (over 400 miles worth), trips (Cleveland, Pennsylvania, Western New York State, Cedar Point, Seattle, Vancouver/Whistler, B.C.), drinking, eating, PR classes, etc. However, the thing that made this all less than my norm was the fact that my traditionally stable employment situation as well as my traditionally stable home situation both became exactly the opposite.

My job was supposed to end at the end of March. There was a consolidation at the company I had been at for nine plus years and I had the choice of moving to Cleveland, OH or Albuquerque, NM or being unemployed. I had opted to be unemployed. But right before the end I was asked to stay on for a little while longer. The revised end date was the end of May. As that approached I had another opportunity to stay, this time filling in a spot in a different department, temporarily vacated by someone out on maternity leave. That kept me employed at least until after Thanksgiving.

While all this unemployed/employed again business was going on I also got separated from my wife. I won't go into all the details, but it wasn't all that fun. We had been together almost 12 years and married for the last three plus. That resulted in me feeling rather confused, guilty, angry, lonely, embarrassed, and on and on. Not so great, really. Actually it was and still is full-on sucky.

So with that I found myself packing my stuff and moving. I moved out of my nice "luxury" place in Manhattan and moved to a place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (far from "luxury"). The apartment and the guy I lived with, I found on craigslist. It was going to be me, him and his girlfriend, but his girlfriend was off in Europe for school until February. The neighborhood was less than awesome, but sometimes I like less than awesome so that wasn't that much of a concern. My roommate was a cool guy. He worked a lot, never stole any of my shit, shared whatever he had in the fridge and never cared about who I had over or what I was doing. Oddly, about a month after moving in with him, I come to find out that this same roommate who seemed so cool and mellow was a former gang member. He used to be in the Latin Kings. He had once shot someone even. My street cred was on the rise. This didn't really bother me as he was very honest about the whole thing and seemed to really be out and out for good. He did however have a love for smoking pot, occasional coke use and not much issue with calling escorts over for an evening of coked up, naked fun. Even that didn't really concern me as he kept the bulk of that activity confined to his room, however it was certainly not the life I was used to.

After the bulk of the year had gone with no sign of my separation getting back to unseparated and after it became clear that work was really going to end (finally) I made a decision to move yet again. I opted to move to Cleveland, OH.

Yes, Cleveland.

So, the very end of December I packed up my possessions, put my goldfish in a Gatorade bottle, got everything in a big truck, yelled "So long, Stinktown" out the window and drove out to The Cleve.

So here I sit. In Cleveland.

We'll have to see what happens next.

I am guessing my blog will be even less awesome out here (not that it was awesome to begin with) as the interactions and the sights aren't really as newsworthy (aka retarded) as they were in NYC, but I guess if I am going to blog, technically there's no rule about excitement or newsworthiness, so I'm not going to sweat it.

So that's it I guess. That was my year. And this is my new place (at least for now) to complain and comment and document whatever else comes to mind. In the words of Dr. Tobias Funke, "Let the great experiment begin!” Or something like that.