A heart in DUMBO. This is one of the many pieces of "art" that we run into daily. We found this while walking through DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Overpass) with Colby and Sadna. The "overpasses" are the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.
It’s been a labor of love and after last year’s album, we decided to give a little more info on each song on this year’s album. People last year would ask us what song was what, what artist and what album each song was on (we can’t get the damn tracks to automatically populate with that info). Well this year, to get those answers and more, all you have to do is go to our website. Without further ado, here’s the info. We hope that it’s helpful and we encourage you to post a comment below about the music.
And, oh yeah, that’s me spray painting each and everyone of your CDs. To see more of me unleashing aerosol paint in a confined space, click here.
THIS POST IS STILL IN PROGRESS. I'M UPDATING IT STILL BECAUSE IT'S A TON OF WORK TO FINISH...BUT WORTH IT.
(Song / Artist / Album)
1. Dancing Shoes / Arctic Monkeys / Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I’m Not
Not only the most-hyped band of early 2006, Sheffield, England's Arctic Monkeys (led by 19-year-old Alex Turner) managed to accomplish what the likes of Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines couldn't do before them: set the UK record for fastest-selling debut album of all time.
Review on MusicOmh.com
Arctic Monkeys Homepage
Buy the CD Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I’m Not Not
2. La Familia / Mirah (Guy Sigsworth) / Joyride: Remixes
Mirah’s original album, Joyrides, was remixed and this album was born. Overall, I really enjoyed the album, but had to pick one song to share with everyone. Here it is. Mix a fun and upbeat musical track with a chorus that repeats, “If we sleep together would it make it any better? If we sleep together would you be my friend forever?” Indeed, I wonder how many people ask those same questions in their everyday life.
Click here if you’d like to read more about Mirah.
Click here if you’d like to buy her album.
One more thing. Mirah is from Olympia, Washington. Gotta love that NW connection.
3. Opie's Funeral Song / Sufjan Stevens / Mews TWO An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation
Sufjan Stevens is a favorite of ours and this year is no different. Opie’s Funeral Song starts out with the lyrics, “You make it beautiful my friend, you make it worth it to the end. You put a hole in my head, just like you put a fire in the tree.” The words come out of his mouth and linger. This is a beautiful song that gets better after each repeat listen. Yes, by the way, Sufjan is "influenced by the Lord" so to speak. We do not judge.
Click here if you’d like to read more about Sufjan.
Click here if you’d like to buy his album.
4. Night Knuckles / Clark / Body Riddle
No words. No voices. Just an instrument that sounds like a toy bell or a one of those kids’ xylophones that we all grew up with. This song reminds me of our days: fast, staccato and ever moving.
Click here if you’d like to read a review of the album.
Click here if you’d like to buy the album.
5. The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead / Final Fantasy / Has A Good Home
The person behind Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett is the string arranger for the Arcade Fire, guitarist/vocalist from Les Mouches, and member of Internet, Picastro, The Jim Gutherie Band, Hidden Cameras and King Tut) is a violinist, but his music won’t remind you of any violinist you’ve ever heard before. This song is up-tempo, interesting and filled with a steady violin beat that steers your towards your listening sweet spot.
Click here if you’d like to read the album review.
Click here if you’d like to buy the album.
6. Wet and Rusting / Menomena / Friend and Foe
Menomena is a Portland band and they’ve put out one of my favorite albums. The song Wet and Rusting from the album Friend and Foe made the final cut for our helloPortland 2006 album, but I could have easily picked four others. They’ve been called art rock by critics before, but I’ll just say that they make my ears happy.
Click here if you’d like to read more about Menomena.
The album isn't out yet, but it will be in early 2007. When it finally comes out you'll be able to get it here.
7. Savane / Ali Farka Touré / Savane
Ali Farka Touré is a legend, period. The man has been singing about the plight of his people for over 30 years. He is recognized as the originator and master practitioner of African Blues. Simply put, if B.B. King were born and raised in Africa, this is what his music would sound like. Sadly, Ali Farka Touré died this year. This is an amazing album and I highly recommend it. Savane has been universally recognized by the critics as one of the, if not the best album of the year. Enjoy.
Click here if you’d like to read more about Ali Farka Touré.
8. Lonesome Side / DJ Rupture (Featuring Lily) / Special Gunpowder
I’ve had this song for maybe three years, but I finally broke down and bought the album this year. Good album, not great, but this song has lasted the test of time. It’s got an infectious raggea beat overlaid with some beautiful female vocals. Enjoy.
Click here to read and album review.
Click here to buy the album.
9. The Inkwell / Blue Scholars / The Blue Scholars LP
The Seattle based hip-hop rap group lays down infectious beats with a conscious. Imagine the intelligent and socially active Chicago rap artist Common crossed with the laid-back coffee, beer, rain and eco-centric leanings of the Northwest and you’ll start to get an idea of what the Blue Scholars sound like. This album was given to us by Gabe and Sarah (yep, the recently betrothed couple), which is quite fitting considering this records mixture of music and meaning. Hip hop with a message…that sounds oh-so-good. If you like Jurassic 5 or Blackalicious or any of their ilk, you’ll dig this album.
Click here to visit the Blue Scholars website.
Click here to read an interesting arcticle about the Blue Scholars.
Click here to buy the album, Blue Scholars: The EP.
10. Gold Lion / Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Show Your Bones
Nothing says "run like hell" like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on your iPod. I love listening to punk while I run or whenever I need a little blast of adrenaline. (by, michelle)
Click here to read a review
Click here to buy the album.
11. All Fires / Swan Lake / Beast Moans
"Canada once again keeps rock’s supergroup tradition alive and well with Swan Lake, featuring Dan Bejar (Destroyer, New Pornographers), Spencer Krugman (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown) and Carey Mercer (Frog Eyes). With Beast Moans, the band has created an eerie album of catchy layerings, melodious screeches and striking drones. Loosely packaged around a consumable pop format, Beast Moans features unwinding tracks spilling insight into each member’s songwriting prowess. They all draw from numerous sonically diverse projects, but with Swan Lake these paths cross in a promising fashion." (from the web)
Click here to read a review of the album.
Click here to buy the album.
12. Melt Your Heart / Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins / Rabbit Furcoat
Nothing is ever as good as it was
And what's good for your soul
Will be bad on your nerves if you reverse it
It's bound to melt your heart
One way or another
It's bound to melt your heart
For good or for bad
It's like a valentine
From your mother
It's bound to melt your heart
And with those lyrics we’re entered into Melt Your Heart, a beautiful Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins song off the equally beautiful album, Rabbit Furcoat. Miss Lewis’s voice will melt your heart. It slides over your existence and coats you with a warm feeling of comfort. Fans and critics alike have lauded this album and many have named it as one of the best CDs of the year. Michelle and I debated about putting any of the album’s songs onto our year-end album, helloPortland 2006, because we felt so many people had already heard them. But in the end, as we were listening to hundreds upon hundreds of different songs, deciding what would make the final album and what wouldn’t, we just couldn’t keep Melt Your Heart off of the album. We hope it does the same for your heart as it has for ours.
Click here to visit the artist’s webpage.
Click here to read a reviews of the album Rabbit Furcoat.
Click here to buy the album.
13. Hunting For Witches / Bloc Party / A Weekend In The City
The British band Bloc Party strikes again. The new album, Weekend in the City, comes out February 6, 2007, but one of the songs from the album made it onto the helloPORTLAND 2006 compilation. Lucky you! The song, Hunting for Witches, begins, “I’m sitting on the porch of my house with a shotgun and a 6-pack of beer.” Could he be in Estacada? Or maybe Gresham? It’s definitely a possibility. This is an up-tempo song that just keeps driving the beat forward, moving you along in time and space as your heads bounces to the music. The, album, by the way, is pretty good. If you liked Bloc Party before, you’ll really enjoy Weekend in the City.
To read more about Bloc Party, click here.
To check out the Bloc Party website, click here.
To pre-order the album, click here.
14. Sicily / Youth Group / Casino Twilight Dogs
Hands down my (michelle) favorite album of the year. The toughest part about it, we've been listening to the newest set from this Austrailian band since July but we haven't yet seen the actual CD. It won't be released in the states until January 2007. I can't wait . . . You can bet, tearing off that celophane wrapper will feel like Christmas all over again. I honestly can't get enough of this band.
Go to Youth Group's own website from here.
If you can't wait, purchase the import (ships from Austrailia) here.
15. Jenny Again / Tunng / Comments of the Inner
"The half-breed form known as "folktronica" is a sort of musical cyborg that many have unsuccessfully tried to master, from Momus - who invented the term - to more recent exponents on the fringes of the nu-folk movement. The best of these is surely Tunng, who here have balanced the bricolage of glitchy clicks, electronic tones, typewriter taps and sampled sounds with a phantasmagorical, fairy-tale songwriting approach that accentuates the music's folksy roots." (from the web)
The song, Jenny Again, tells a tale about a lover who is so into Jenny that he kills his main competition (perhaps that competition is his best friend). It's intriguing in its mixture of sweet, beautiful music and brutal poetry. Do we love so much that we would kill (maybe even kill someone else that we also love)? I can’t answer that, but I can say that this song made me stop, listen, re-listen and listen again to the lyrics. It’s a beautiful sounding song and an interesting exploratory into what the human animal would do for love.
Click here to check out the Tunng website.
Click here to read a review of the Tunng album Comments of the Inner.
Click here to buy the album. Unfortunately this album isn't being sold in the USA yet, so you've got to pick up the import version if your itching to hear the whole album. Personally I think it’s a good album, but I don’t know if it’s a spend-import-type-extra-cash-on-it album. That’s just my I've-listened-to-the-whole-album two cents.
16. The Funeral / Band Of Horses / Everything All The Time
This is another Northwest band. Biased? Maybe. Deserved? Definitely. Earlier this year I was listening to a podcast of the NPR show All Song Considered (great show by the way) and the host, Bob Boilen, said that Portland was the hottest place in the country for new, great music. Brooklyn has a lot of new good music too and I would say the whole Northwest is hopp’in.
That being said, Band of Horses is a great band and Funeral is just one of many songs we could have chosen off the album Everything All the Time. This album made many peoples 2006 top ten lists. I highly recommend getting a hold of it, plugging yourself into some headphones and spending an hour letting the music take you away.
Click here to check out the Band of Horses website.
Click here to read more about Band of Horses.
Click here to read a review of the album.
Click here to buy the album.
17. Punkrocker / Teddybears (Feat. Iggy Pop) / Soft Machine
Fresh, funky with just a touch of punk and Iggy Pop singing "Cause I'm a punkrocker yes I am!" over addictive synth hooks. "Punkrocker" is the best thing Iggy has done in years. Teddybears have created Iggy's next big hit using his iconic, punk-god status to its full as his deep, earthy voice belts out the completely appropriate lyrics "I listen to the music with no fear. You can hear it too if you're sincere. Cause I'm a punkrocker yes I am." (from the web)
Read more about the Teddybears.Read a review on the album Soft Machine.
Click here to buy the album.
18. Alienation / Lali Puna / Faking The Books
19. You Can't Win / Dolorean / You Can't Win (Advanced Copy)
20. The Quiz / Hello Saferide / Would You Let Me Play This EP 10 Times A Day?
21. Smells Like Content / The Books / Lost And Safe
Look who dropped into Brooklyn. Non other than the born-in-NYC-but-calls-the-NW-home Evan. Enjoy that Chimay on tap, Evan. I doubt very much that you'll be able to find another $9 beer anywhere near Portland, Oregon.
Click here to see more.
This is my latest needle-wielding accomplishment; a hat and bootie set for our friends Amy and Steve who's little bundle of joy is soon to arrive. I was so proud of the booties and then was delighted with the little hearts I made in the hat. This was the most challenging project I've ever attempted, and to tell you the truth, I obviously haven't been challenging myself enough, this project really wasn't that hard. I'm working on some hats that I've been commissioned to make by customers at the wine shop then maybe I'll finish that blanket... After that, I hope to start my first sweater.
Knit on!
30. 35 mph. Maybe faster. And I’m right next to Michelle clicking away and trying to keep up with her. Up next? A hill. Gotta keep peddling. Keep up the momentum, because if we don’t, then we’ll be hurting. These are a few of the lessons that biking has already taught us. Other lessons? Don’t drop the camera, bring food and bugs are a lot more comfortable when they splatter on your sunglasses instead of your eyeballs.
Colby, Sadna and I found this advertisement in Nolita. It's an ad that says, "Come to Brazil," defaced with the spray painted sentence, "Turistas Go Home." Sweet.
Here are a couple more shots we got on that walk.
UPDATE: Full discloser. I just figured out that I was duped (we were all duped in fact) by the Turistas Go Home ads. They, in fact, were not defaced, but designed to look defaced. I think the ads are actually for a movie (a lame horror flick). I debated if I would just pull this post off or leave it up. I guess, right now, I'm deciding to keep it up because it's a good example of how all of us can get taken by advertising, even advertisers. If I'd never of found that this was an ad, I would have thought it was such a cool find, but now that I've found out that it is an ad I feel ripped off. Instead of having real value it's made me walk away from the communication feeling like it was just a cheap trick. A cheap trick that didn't, in the long run, create a good feeling in me for the product (lame horror movie) they were selling. But then again, I'm blogging about the movie so now you know about it. It's just that advertisers need to create ads that don’t just create product awareness, but rather they leave the viewer interested or endeared to the product, not cheated and made to feel like they are gullible idiots. In the end, because of this fact, this is a bad ad campaign.
Colby has a better digital camera than I do. It’s got detachable lenses and big megapixles and things. And it just flat out takes better pictures. Better pictures no matter who’s behind the viewfinder or pressing the buttons. In fact, Colby and Sadna came into town and we took the camera out this weekend and didn’t even look through the viewfinder before shooting many shots. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge, spent time in DUMBO, ate at the “best pizza place in NYC” (I think my homemade pizza is better), visited Soho, Nolita, Noho and a host of other places and made our way to the Brooklyn museum. We snapped away the whole time and the final verdict is in—Colby has a better camera than I do.
OK, as I watch the news, read the papers, look at the snow reports, check out snow covered pictures on flickr (picture of skibowl above was taken Nov. 25, 2006) and wear a t-shirt outside on November 29 in New York City, I start to realize global warming is real and it’s fucking with my happiness. Come on! This just isn’t cool. While my former home (well it will always be my real home) is getting snowed on day in and day out, I’m breaking out the sunscreen. Mid-sixty degree weather after thanksgiving just isn’t right. It’s downright freaky. I didn’t know that when I took this job in New York City that New York City was in Arizona. I need to be closer to the mountains and the snow! Seriously!!!
It’s amazing. You’ll see New Yorkers wrapped in wool coats, scarves, Gortex jackets, big boots and any other set of winter clothes they can find. Store windows are full of Patagonia gear, fake snow and a general nod to a climate that doesn’t seem to exist here anymore—or at least this year. And it’s like New Yorkers can’t comprehend this fact. They’re on autopilot. They’ve always worn winter clothes this time of year, and damnit,, they’re going to wear them now…no matter the amount of sweat they find themselves covered in. Bye god, the calendar says it’s winter. Break out the out the wool-fleece-down-parka-beanie-boots-thingy.
Now I don’t mind riding my bike around in this weather and I love going for hikes in it, but I love doing that in the spring or the fall, not less than a month away from Christmas. This weather is ridiculous. It’s crazy. It’s not winter. I don’t know what else to say.
Gotta go. I’ve got some hot cider and chestnuts calling my name.
I've got to be honest, I'm not that into New York Pizza. So here's a picture of the best pizza in NY... homemade by Michelle and I. Yum. Yum. And need I say, yum!
Political Nascar. I've got nothing else to say.
My transcontinental sister dropped in on us last weekend (ok, it was last last weekend. I know I should have updated the blog earlier) and lived like a New Yorker. She stayed up late, shopped, drank wine, had a sushi dinner delivered to the apartment and put about 45 miles on her walking shoes. She also took advantage of Michelle’s wine discount. She left with 7 bottles of fine wine (no wine coolers or Two Buck Chuck) and one overstuffed duffle bag. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get 7 bottles of wine and MY SISTER’S five-day-wardrobe into a medium sized duffle bag?!! Tough/busted zipper/I’m sitting on it already to say the least. I’m glad to report that all of the wine made it back to the Northwest unscathed, but I can’t vouch for that stuffed-sausage-on-steroids looking duffle bag.
We loved her company. It wasn’t one of those “I want to be a NY tourists” visits (which we don’t mind either). It was more of a “I just want to hang out” visit. And Autumn is really fun to hang out with. Michelle and I just have one question. Who’s next?
OK. I know. It’s been how long since the last time I posted and this is what I post about. We’ve had the election, Autumn visited, Rumsfield got fired…ahhhh, I mean quit and I write and post pictures about a ski trip I had with Evan and Gabe in February of 2005. I can’t help it. It’s what’s on my mind. Not that trip, but the snow. SNOW. Beautiful snow. Michelle and I will be in P-town on Dec. 24th and quickly after that I’d wager a guess that we’ll be on the mountain, in the snow, sliding down the beautiful Northwest and it’s outdoor winter playground. Bachelor is opening, Timeberline is opening, Meadows wants to open and Whistler is cranking up the lifts. Winter, how I love the. All the while, it’s in the mid-60’s here in NYC. You may ask yourself why this is the first thing I write about in a long time. If you know me at all, no need to ask.
Let it snow baby. Let it snow.
I've never had a Halloween costume get as much attention. Well, there was that year I was Poison Ivy while I waited tables at Kell's... Anyway, not this kind of attention.
Cas and I went to a party in Manhattan on Saturday where, as soon as I walked out the door of my apartment, I had people staring and smiling in recognition. When we got to the city, we nearly got hit by a driver turning the corner while we crossed the street; he drove by starring with his mouth agape. Everywhere, people were saying "It's Frida!"
On Tuesday, at the wine shop, where I work, people were coming in off the street, not to get candy, (no a thousand kids were taking care of that. More on the Park Slope Halloween madness later.) but to comment on my costume and ask to take my picture with their child. I was like Snow White at Disneyland! It was crazy! I was actually surprised how many children recognized Frida.
Park Slope A.K.A. "The Hatchery" really comes alive on Halloween. There is a parade where people dance in the street and children show off their costume. It's utter chaos in the neighborhood. At the wine shop we had two wine case boxes filled to the brim of candy. We gave away every single piece. Absolute insanity, I tell you. I saw more kids in that one night than I have seen in my whole life put together. Needless to say, we didn't have a lot of wine business that night; anyone who goes out without a kid is either naive or have a strong desire to be mauled by mini Pirates and Sponge Bob Square Pants.
Caspian dressed up too. To go with the beard he's been growing to help him survive the bitter winter northeastern winds, and to feed the jokes of his coworkers on how "crunchy" he is, Caspian dressed up in corduroy and hemp and passed out granola. He even made his own t-shirt (actually designed, printed and ironed on his design.) Making it clear exactly what he was. (In case anyone mistook him as one of my boyfriends from college.)
All in all, although we pined for a Calderone/Gummere Halloween Bash, we had a great time.
(Please click on the picture to view more, and feel free to comment!)
There's music everywhere you look (and listen) in New York.
Yes.
This Sunday, we visited one of our favorite galleries—the streets of Manhattan.
This is Keith Hernandez. It’s a poster of him I found in Manhattan this weekend. He’s an old school, legendary Met. And in 1986 he won a World Series ring when the Mets beat the Boston Redsox. His poster is also a brutal reminder of what happened to me last week.
Here it is. I’ll make it short and sweet. Last week the Mets played the Cardinals for the right to go to the World Series. On Thursday starting at 8pm, they played the final and deciding game in NY. It was a great game and I watched it at home, in HDTV, on my couch. Here-in lies the issue, and what makes this a story. A brutal story. At around 7pm Thursday night my phone rang…and I didn’t pick it up. The next day, Friday, an office mate walks up to me, asked why I didn’t answer my phone, and then tells me he called to give me a free ticket to the game. Let me repeat. A free ticket to the 7th game of the National League Championship Series. That’s it. The end. This story is now over.
Keith Hernandez you and your Sunday afternoon poster suck.
Blah, blah, blah. I know, I keep blogging about our bike rides. But I've got pictures. And they're good pictures. And we're having a great time. So if you care to check out the ride we did this weekend, click on the clicky title or picture and enjoy. We were in the Catskills somewhere between New Paltz and Woodstock (yeah, that woodstock).
This morning we woke up to a nice, Oregon-like rain. Over night, the tree outside our window slipped into fall. DJ Scratch loves our big window and appreciates the tree for all of the birds it serves as a rest stop. Today I think she just wanted to be in the picture.
After snapping this pic, Cas and I went for a run around the park. This weekend we hope to visit friends in DC and ride our bikes around that part of the country. We're just waiting to hear back from them!
Enjoy fall!
When I got to the client and present work, this is the view from the conference room.
For those of you who haven't been lucky enough to visit upstate NY in the fall, here's a tempting few pictures to show you what you've been missing. Enjoy. Michelle and I did.
Michelle does yoga and sometimes does it on our roof. On one of those special days I snuck up the ladder with my camera and started snapping away. Scratch saw me on the ladder and wished that, she too, could do some yoga (or napping) on the roof. Click the picture to see more photos.
We live next to a cool bar and know it. We know it. It is damn cool. We talk about. We agree that it’s a great place. Friends agree. And we never go to it. What’s up with that? I don’t know, but I do know we visited last night. There’s always live music there and in Brooklyn, that normally means good music. Every single person with a guitar and a dream goes to L.A., Nashville or Brooklyn.
Popped a tire.
Fixed it on the road.
Finished the bike ride.
Went and had a beer.
There are a lot of people here. There are a lot of cars here and a lot of concrete. And, lucky for us, there are a ton of farmer markets. Fresh fruit, fresh bread, fresh eggs, fresh cheese, fresh as much as we can get. One of those farmer markets is open on Saturday in Prospect Park. So pretty much every Saturday morning we find ourselves mingling with the locals, clothe bags in hand, picking up as much local food for the week as we can. It’s become kind of a weekend ritual for us. We get up and go for a jog (we drove today) to the farmers market and pick up what eventually becomes our weekly meals.
Yesterday was exactly five years after our wedding date. It’s been a great, interesting journey so far. Thanks for being a part of it.
So Bush is town for a big shindig at the United Nations. The city is under a cloud of security. Roads are shut down and gridlock ensues, and this city doesn’t deal well with gridlock (unleash the horns). On my way to work yesterday I walked through Madison Park and had to weave my way across
I’m hanging out on my couch (futon) watching the new Monday Night Football game on ESPN (so far I think it was better as the old Monday Night Football on ABC) and trying to decide what I’m going to write about last weeks Labor Day trip up North.
This is what I’ve got to say—Vermont is spartan but awesome. New Hampshire sells liquor at its highway rest stops. Rhode Island is small, I mean really small. Massachusetts is a New England movie set. Connecticut needs to get rid of that Republican light Senator. And New York loves toll roads. Along the way we ran into Paul Reveres’s grave, some micro-brewed Vermont beer and the beginnings of the fall season. Michelle had to stop at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company, just because it would be so un-cool to stop at the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. We went for a bike ride along Lake Champlain and one through Massachusetts into the historic town of Concord. And to top it all off we found an REI in Boston. It was awesome.
Let humidity hang out somewhere down south. Michelle and I don’t want it. And on Sunday, we didn’t have it. It was an absolutely beautiful September Sunday, full of great weather, clear skies and humidity levels that someone from the northwest could appreciate. It was also the perfect day to take our new bikes on a long, long ride.
Some of you may know that we just purchased road bikes (two Trek 2100's) and we are learning the wonders of wheel sets, cranks, carbon forks, saddles, saddle soreness and the like. Yesterday we took our bikes on the North County Trailway, a 22.1 mile paved bike trail just north of New York City, and rode for 35 miles. It was the longest ride we’ve had in the 2 week period we’ve both had bikes. Neither one of us had any problem with the distance and I’m happy to say, I love blowing past those runners on the path.
I don’t see any Tour ‘de Frances in our future, but I can see many long rides together. Of course, Michelle is already talking about “our first 100 mile day”. She can’t wait until we have one, while I’m just happy to be on the bikes together. We’ll see what happens. All I know is that this biking thing has got a future. We can’t wait to do some miles on some of the beautiful Oregon roads.
It’s SWVETTTY. I have come to understand the phenomena of hiking inside a sauna. Needless to say, wicking materials in your clothes are a godsend. Unfortunately my underwear contained no such materials on this day. A day that we decided to climb 2,000 feet straight up for 3 constant, non-stop, moisture inducing miles. It was good workout. My sweat glands work. Thank god I put an extra shirt in the car for after the hike.
Me: “So what does the hike look like?”
Michelle: “It goes up.”
Me: “Up huh. How up?”
Michelle: “Straight up. I’d call it a steady incline.”
Me: “Nice.”
Once finished with the hike, we took the scenic route to our favorite hangout in New Paltz, the Gilded Otter Brew Pub. I’m sure they were glad to see us. We ordered some food, a couple beers and listened to a local band as they brutalized a bunch of mid 90’s indie rock tunes. It was great. We couldn’t have been happier. And the music got much better after we had a couple of beers. Or was it after they had a couple of beers.
So the weekend of the 10th we ended up in Loveladies on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. There is this unfair belief that Jersey, well, sucks. And in a lot of ways Jersey, well, sucks. But, it doesn’t all suck. Pete and Gen (not J E N but pronounced the same) have a family place on the beach in Loveladies. And truth be told, it is, by far, the nicest beach that Michelle and I have come across since landing on the East Coast. It is a real beach (we’ve had a diffucult time finding beaches that are free of boardwalks, gravel, annoying merchants—think Rose Festival—and real, soft, lovely sand). It’s not too populated this time of year and the weather was absolutely perfect. We laid out on the sand, went for a jog, laid on the sand some more, ate, laid on the sand some more, juggled, played catch and laid on the sand some more. It was, fucking awesome.
