Stephanie and I had the rarest of occasions this past Wednesday – 24 hours of free time together. As you may be experiencing yourselves, depending on who is reading this, a period of 24 hours of completely free time happens about as often as Tom Cruise actually being in a movie that is good.
Planning in advance for these things, of course, is useless. We tried to plan two weeks before, but the only day it could possibly work was a day when I had jury duty. The following day would work as well, but how can you book a room at a hotel or plan anything when you’re not sure if you’re going to get called back for a second day of jury duty? Then there was the time we planned an overnight in NYC – and we went! Ah, but there was that little problem of me laying in the bed whole time with the flu. Theres nothing like laying bed having soup for a day or two in nyc. See? Planning these things is useless.
So we rolled the dice and assumed that something would be available the day before or even the day of. I wasn’t as worried about a hotel as Steph was, but then again, Stephanie’s personality is one where she is only truly comfortable when everything is known and planned. That is the way everyone should be, actually, but I’m not wired that way, which probably drives her nuts, the poor thing. I always think that last minute is possible and for hotels at least, we’ve been ok.
But when you get one of these free periods of time, you can sympathize with wanting to make sure everything is planned and happening. I get that.
Anyway, we found a great little hotel called The Copley Square Hotel and other than our absolutely tremendous meal at Stella in the South End, that’s where hunkered down until about 11:30 the next day. We did nothing. NOTHING. Steph slept until 10! I read! We ate. That is about it. I’m not sure we’ve done that since the stork showed up. What a time!
When we checked out, we then visited Flour Bakery, sticking to the South End, and we were not disappointed at all, most especially when we were stuffing our faces with their spectacularly delicious sticky buns. After that it was off to the movies! Are you kidding me? A movie too? We headed off to the Kendall Square Cinema, a place we used to visit quite often when we lived just outside of Davis Square and it was a different world.
The movie of choice was called Please Give, a Katherine Keener, Oliver Platt and Amanda Peet movie about middle age and grasping for reason and satisfaction. It was very very good, much like the remainder of our respite.
By the way, back to Stella – if you’re remotely interested in food, Stella is your place. They put a grilled Halibut over corn/onion/potato salad entree in front of me that hasn’t been equalled anywhere else in years. Seriously. I don’t think I’ve had a better meal in years. So go there.
1. I hope ESPN realizes they have completely jumped the shark now. In the past few years, SportsCenter has become utterly unwatchable, as the sportscasters now focus the show entirely on themselves and how stupid they can make themselves sound. They all think they’re so funny. You ever been to a comedy club in a small city or seen a stand-up comedy show at 1am on some random, shitty cable tv channel? That’s SportsCenter now. Tripe. Why do they all have to be so desperate to be the next Patrick-Olberman phenomenon? This LeBron James business just cements it for them – shark. jumped.
2. Laurel Canyon. The book by this name is the first book I’ve read on the IPad. I am undecided if I will read another one in this. I think it’s awesome for short burst reading like magazines, but maybe not for books. That said, the book itself was a fun read, detailing the wondrous time in the 60s and 70s for that part of California. The stories about Joni Mitchell, CSNY, Jackson Browne, Frank Zappa and so many others who were neighbors there carries the book. If you’re a music and pop culture fan, well worth the read and it won’t take you long.
3. Contact lenses. Last night I played in a hockey game with two contact lenses in my left eye. Why? Because I flubbed installation and it got stuck way up in my eyeball. Due to the never stop nature of my life right now, i simply didn’t have time to try and fish it out, just like I don’t have time to go back and capitalize that “I” back there. I keep thinking I am so ready to just say the hell with it and just get lasik but then I remember – it’s surgery. On. My. Eyeballs. That shit freaks me out man! By the way, the lens presented itself this morning after my shower. Slept with it.
4. It’s getting to be time for very interesting questions from the boys. Tonight I got three doozies: “where did you buy me?” “how come doggies don’t pee out of their tails?” and “how did you make me.” gonna be a fun year.
We kid more than we know about “real life.” I always laugh when I see sitcoms, dramas, or movies on TV where there’s a couple in bed, the sun is starting to peek in because its morning and the couple is wrapped together in a slumbering embrace. They awaken, happy and glorious, staring all googly-eyed at each other. Now, I don’t know about you, but my wife and I can’t last more than two minutes doing this. Sleeping for HOURS in an embrace? I’d be sweating and unbearably hot even with the AC at full tilt. It’s just not possible. And what of comfort? There is, inevitably, a stray arm that is either so numb or in such an uncomfortable position that you’d rather stand in line at the supermarket deli. Real life is this – we don’t face each other when we sleep. No idea why.
We bought a king bed because we figured it was inevitable that the kids, from either sickness or fear of the dark, would be coming into the room. We thought we needed the space. Funny thing happened on the way to bed, though – our kids hate our bed. We should be happy they’re not coming in every night, right? But now we find ourselves talking about how cute it would be if we all slept together! The grass is always greener! Real life.
I haven’t set an alarm for months now. I don’t need to. I have two human alarms that go off just before 6 every day, and lately an internal clock going off at 5 sharp. If I fall back asleep, gravy. But it only happens once every week, if that.
I wonder if there has ever truly been a show or any form of media that depicts sleeping in any real, remotely accurate way?
I’ve learned to accept that some days are shitty. Today, for example. Not a total disaster, but overall not one to put into the archives as a keeper. I gave a presentation at work this morning and I pretty much knew before I uttered the first word that most of the people didn’t care. It’s ok, though. You hope they care, but nobody bats 1.000 giving presentations. Just the way it is. People are just gonna stare and poke at their phones sometimes. Some people were most certainly tuned in, others just weren’t. So it goes. The highlight of the day? I walked into a store playing a Broken Bells song! Now that’s a pick me up, man! Really cool new band, cool new album.
So Wednesdays’s are hockey nights for me. Always good to go get a workout, take my mind off everything for a bit, play hockey, have a beer and a few laughs. The only problem was that the ice was like a pool. Seriously. After the game, I actually was able to wring my socks out - not my hockey socks, my SOCKS that I was wearing under my skates. Shit! Hopefully those skates dry out quickly. Those are the kind of games you just want to pack up your stuff early and pop a beer. Skating in that is like skating in wet cement. After the game my legs literally hurt. Rinks should be fined for that crap.
But you know what? That’s the way it is. I got to wake up with my kids and put them to bed. I got to see the look of joy on their faces when I picked ‘em up at school. And I laughed as we sang “Daddy Sang Bass” at the top of our lungs on the car ride home. There’s your trump card. Nothing better. Makes a shitty day totally acceptable.
I mentioned on Facebook a few weeks back about how I’m really digging this Gaslight Anthem album. The thing is, I can’t figure out if it’s really the second coming of the E-Street Band or one of those terrible ’90s bands like Vertical Horizon. It truly feels like it could go either way. I have some hope – the album is strong and loaded with hooks! And yes, while some of it feels derivative, there’s a feeling in me that it’s real. I know they have a couple of other albums, so I’ll have to check them out, but this album is really full of large sounding, um, anthems. I really really like it.
Listen here.
Took a lot of brooms and washcloths to clean things out around here. Also took a $699 payout when I recently got this here Ipad. Now, I honestly have no idea if this is going to spur more blogging out of me. No matter what medium I type on, I still have far less time since I now drive to work. That hour and a half every day was quality blogging time – now it’s quality time spent with hundreds of other motorists, moving like sheep through the pavement ribbon of central Massachusetts.
But the IPad gives me hope for more blogging. It also gives me hope for magazines I used to read that I don’t read anymore. When I was a kid, I was subscribed to Sports Illustrated for years. Every Friday it would come in the mail – amazing color pictures and great sportswriting, back in a day when you simply didn’t have…….options. It was either The Boston Globe or SI. Yes, we were spoiled with the Globe but that was for local stuff. So Sports Illustrated really was the gold standard – everyone else was third tier.
Then came the Internet. Game over. Sports Illustrated survives, but who wants to read the magazine 7 days after the event? Espescially when you can login to ESPN.com 14 seconds after the game for quotes and reaction? Or to sbnation for quality blog reaction. The immediacy of everything rendered SI into the third tier, like, overnight.
But the IPad changes the game again. For me, I’m not planning on moving my computing life to it. I still think email works better on my IPhone. Web browsing is beautiful and better than on any phone but I still love my 23-incher. But blogging is easier with this insanely great Wordpress ipad app.
Where it will really shine for me though, is magazines. I will read more of them, just like I used to. I’m pretty sure SI will have an app soon. Every other magazine better get one too, or they’ll be toast, because THIS is the way it’s moving. The screen is too beautiful and opportunity for interaction too juicy. Magazine will rise again. Trust me on this. If you haven’t seen the Wired IPad app yet, you probably don’t believe me yet. But when you do see it, you’ll be in the boat.
Come sail away. L
Well, folks, this is about the going rate I suspect we’ll see here on the blog going forward. In April, I have posted four times to the blog, an average of once per week. That is a record low in the almost ten years I’ve been doing this. That’s what happens when your commuting time is taken up by, um, actually commuting. I did try the Dragon Diction app on my IPhone that someone recommended (thanks Chris), but it’s of limited use because when the phone does its auto shut-off thing to save the battery, the app shuts down as well (or stops recording). As mentioned before, it seems small bursts are about all I can do right now given how busy the new job is. Find me on Twitter and Facebook if you really care that much about keeping up with me more often. I’m not that exciting, though, really.
The job is going quite swell. It’s so different than my tenure at Ask, but it’s very good for me to get out of the comfort zone I was in for nine years. In some respects, I have to use my brain in ways I haven’t used it for years, so that has been a real awakening and an adjustment as well. There are most definitely times when I’m kicking myself and saying “five years ago you would have KNOWN that, dude!” But I know this – I’m doing more creative stuff via the marketing and it’s a blast to see something I’ve done be successful, even if it’s little victories. For example, I started little micro-blogs for each one of the stores we’re opening soon - and they actually get traffic! In the big picture, these don’t drive huge sales of course. I mean, I can’t see any direct correlation between two little blogs and the ring of a cash register, and I know a blog isn’t necessarily intended as a revenue driver. But the good thing about online is that numbers don’t lie - people are engaging with us more because of stuff I’m doing, and well, that feels good. Have a look at Pure Hockey Facebook activity since I started in early March:
This is, of course, a small part of a much larger intiative to completely re-launch the face and voice of two brands, but it shows that some of the stuff we’re doing online is working. The stripping down and bombing of two websites inevitably will affect any business in the short term, but I’m really excited, challenged and so ready to tackle the much bigger obstacles that lay in front of us. There is so much opportunity in the big picture and long run. It is a really exciting thing to be thinking about constantly.
So while it’s fun to riff on Facebook and Twitter about hockey and our business, the real work – and what I am judged and compensated on – is still to come. Re-launching two new sites and creating a voice in a noisy market is no easy task. We have two huge competitors, for example (Hmmm…..sounds a lot like working at Ask, doesn’t it) in a market that is arguably and relatively finite. There is so much to think about. So much to do. And I’m so jazzed to do it. To put up my best against their best. With some of the ideas we have, I think our best will be something to see. It’s all coming soon.
But enough about work for now. I just got my New Pornographers tickets. I know I can listen to the stream of the new album on NPR right now, but I’m holding off. Same goes for Band of Horses. I’m going old-school on these two album releases. I’ve heard bits and pieces here and there, but I’m doing this ’80s and ’90s style and waiting for the album release date. I won’t get to hold a CD and unwrap it with tremendous anticipation like I used to because I don’t buy CD’s anymore, but I will still get the thrill of buying and hearing a new set of music from bands I love. There is almost nothing better.
I also got my Bruins tickets for the upcoming second round. The buzz around here is deafening – and eerily similar to last year. I’m kind of glad the Bruins got challenged in that first round vs. Buffalo, because last year when they swept Montreal in the first round I think they might have subconsciously thought they were the bees knees. Today, they must know that they are actually less of a threat than they were last season. I truly believe this team only will succeed if they are challenged, i.e., by being an underdog, or falling behind or whatnot. Look no further than the egg they laid in Game 5 of the Buffalo series. Hell, look no further than the entire regular season, where they played so uninspired. They’ve clearly woken up. Very exciting! So while I do want as easy a road as possible (I’ll happily take a series with Philadelphia), part of me kind of wants to see Pittsburgh. You want a challenge? That is a challenge.
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