The Realization of My Life Long Dream
Current mood: pirate
Category: Music
As the title of this blog indicates, I am marrying a strong, kind, beautiful woman on August 23.
Additionally, I recently put out a compilation CD. Several amazing people helped me do this.
If you are reading this blog, please buy several copies now so I don't have to sell my children on the black market. All you have to do is click the link below and order through CDBaby.com.
ORDER NOW!! Sounds from the Seattle Underground CD
So the girls are on their annual sojourn to the Midwest for extra time with Sybil's extended family. This year's trip is extra special cause her sis threw a bridal shower for her today.
I just had to post this picture of Eloise looking totally at home in Wisconsin. Note not only the cheesehead, but the cart. Sybil actually broke down and went to a frickin' Wal-Mart. Sheesh.
I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to The Holy Matrimonies, an all-star rock band I've assembled to perform at our wedding.
We are fortunate to know many talented musicians. We are even more fortunate to know a few talented musicians who have become good friends to our family. And we are the-TOTALLY-most-fortunate-est that these talented friends have agreed to learn a bunch of new songs to play at our wedding.
This, of course, is about the coolest thing of all time.
THE BAND
The core of the Holy Matrimonies is the band otherwise known as At the Spine: Chris Croft, Richie Parish, Doug Starcevich and our good friend Mike Toschi. The image above is the penultimate picture of Mr. Toschi doing what he does best - pogo around the stage slaying his guitar.
Joining them will be the estimable Aaron Semer of The Plains and Chris Klepac, formerly of Hex County and Junkmail.
Aaron is in the picture below and to the right. He's the guy in the middle. He writes smart, catchy songs with a sort of underlying bite and nervous energy that reminds me Elvis Costello.
Chris is pictured at the very bottom of this post. He writes very honest, hard-luck tales, drunken love songs and upbeat country rockers, among other things. He has the dubious honor of performing at the ceremony and the reception; he'll play Sybil down the aisle to "Sea of Love" and the newly-married couple out to the Fruit Bat's "When You Love Somebody."
THE SONGS The guys asked us to put together a list of cover songs they can choose from. Here are some of our suggestions, as well as originals from Mike, Aaron and Chris' catalogues. Chances are good we'll hear many of these as well as some other surprises.
The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba Pixies - TBD The Clash - London Calling, White Riot or London's Burning The Old 97s - Time Bomb or Rollerskate Skinny The Replacements - Favorite Thing, Bastards of Young, Satisfied Bobby Bare Jr. - Valentine Neil Young - My My Hey Hey The Cars - Since You're Gone or Just What I Needed Tom Petty - American Girl Hole - Boys on the Radio Social Distortion - Dear Lover The Stones - Beast of Burden or Paint it Black Cheap Trick - Surrender The Talking Heads - Wild Life or Psycho Killer The Cure - Just Like Heaven The Plains - At a Party The Plains - Bomb in my Hand The Plains - Silverlake The Plains - Firefly Hex County - 24 Junkmail - Night Won't Stay Night Junkmail - Beelzebub's Tale to his Grandson At the Spine - Meteorite At the Spine - Kiss & Remember At the Spine - Another Day At the Spine - Sand in Your Teeth
The girls are home in Seattle with their mother and grandmother while their Daddy explores rainy New Orleans. My trusty T-Mobile sidekick Anthony and I arrived yesterday morning on the red eye just in time for a T-Mobile Huddle Up event at a local elementary school. Huddle Up is our corporate philanthropy program that I've been a part of since its 2005 inception. We do a variety of events to help after-school age children in high needs areas. This week there are several events involving T-Mobile and the NBA in conjunction with this weekend's All Star game.
Yesterday morning I worked with 60 T-Mobile employees from New Orleans and across the country to sort, package and distribute school supplies to schools in the New Orleans Disaster Recovery district. I was able to set aside my inherent skepticism of corporate philanthropy and enjoy meeting people who live in this area and doing something good for others. Our very flashy and very powerful Chief Operating Officer (recently ranked one of the 25 most powerful women in America) was there participating, usually with a trail of news and company-funded camera crews following her around.
After the event the kids gave us some thank you Valentine's they made and seemed genuinely appreciative of our support.
After Huddle Up, we toured the city on a private bus. Our driver/guide was fantastic - a long-time New Orleans resident and driver who told tales of running his bus for four days straight to help transport people to safety during the storms. There are parts of the city that have clearly been rebuilt; other parts look as if the storm waters just receded yesterday. Entire neighborhoods are vacated, exposed foundations where there used to be houses, and water marks 20 feet up the side of buildings. Most of the lower 9th ward looks like a post-apocalyptic ghost-town. Every couple blocks you'll see someone sorting through the wreckage on their plot of land. There's an acre of abandoned propertythat turned in to an automobile cemetery - a couple hundred cars rendered useless by the storm, a majority of them police cars, sit there unattended. In some places folks are rebuilding their homes atop 8-10 ft raised foundations. Those will less money are building on top of cement blocks - almost if they are building their new homes on stilts.
Anthony and I had dinner at NOLA's, one of Emeril's three New Orleans restaurants. The BBQ shrimp, baked beans and pasta were fantastic, but my braised ribs were uncompelling. (The catfish in cream sauce I had for a 1/4 of the price today at the bar across the street from my hotel was better.)
After dinner we walked around the French quarter for a bit. I demanded we leave Bourbon Street after only 8 blocks as it is clearly a place riddled with temptation for someone who is abstaining from alcohol (see picture below for some context on this point.)
Instead we headed over to the legendary Cafe Du Monde, a French coffee and doughnut stand that's been operating since 1870s. The place has an outdoor, covered seating area that overlooks a city square type area. Their simple menu consists of deep fried French doughnuts called beignets and Cafe Au Lait (coffee/expresso mix) and not much more. The beignets come three to an order with a pile of powdered sugar and were the highlight of the day.
Aside from lunch today, I've been relegated to my hotel room working on the five upcoming Q1 Kick Off meetings I am planning/executing across the country next month, and trying to unbury myself from the mountain of e-mail that accumulated yesterday while I was "unconnected." Tonight we are headed out for some crawfish etouffee before heading over to the first of three nights of NBA All-Star action. At the rookie/sophomore challenge tonight, our aforementioned COO will present a check for $200K to the disaster recovery school district. $150K of that comes from our handset recycling program, which Anthony manages and I am in charge of promoting. We increased the amount of phones and accessories coming in to the program by 65 percent in 2007, and the main reason I am down here is to capture pictures, quotes and a story we can use to duplicate that growth in 2008.
I'm also our roving reporter for the whole weekend...covering affairs for our internal website. My first story - about yesterday's event - posted to our intranet this a.m.
Quick NBA player and celebrity sighting report: - Sonics rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Smith were on Anthony's flight and at the baggage claim area in New Orleans airport. - Reggie Miller signed a commemorative ball we got for Anthony's boss, who fought to get us tickets to the Sat/Sun events.
Currently
listening
:
1965
By
The Afghan Whigs
Release date: 27 October, 1998
After weeks of requests, I've finally conceded and agreed to put last year's version of the "Matt Ashworth Annual Xmas Sweater Picture" up on the blog again. You're welcome.
Currently
listening
:
Horny Holidays!
By
Mojo Nixon & The Toadliquors
Release date: 22 September, 1992
blissful
accomplished
Instead we headed over to the legendary 
