Archive for May, 2009
The Decemberists in Milwaukee
Below are two photos from The Decemberists concert in Milwaukee on May, 29, 2009. The show was simply incredible. They performed their new album, The Hazards of Love, in it’s entirety with no breaks. They then took an intermission and came back out to play a selection of hits from their other albums.
The first picture is of the full band playing a selection from The Hazards of Love. The second picture is of the final song of the night, “Sons & Daughters”. Colin Meloy invited members of the audience up on stage to join him for the sing-along chorus. As you can see, he had a few people take him up on the offer.
Turtle Power!
Walking around the Disney complex this morning, I stumbled upon a turtle trying to cross my path. The second picture is of Felix (I named him) hiding in his shell as I moved a little too close to him to take the picture. The first picture is of Felix feeling safe again and returning to his own walk.
Return to Atlantis?
Yesterday, I finished reading “Hearts in Atlantis” by Stephen King. That’s not really a big deal for most people. It’s not really that long of a book. It really shouldn’t be a big deal for me either. I don’t read tons, but I read quite a bit. Yet, this book has been sitting on my coffee table since January. I just could not get through it. I’ve read plenty of other things in the 5 months since I started “Hearts in Atlantis”, but I just could not finish it in a timely manner.
The larger story is broken into four smaller stories that are all related by their characters. The second of the smaller stories is the longest of the four. It was also the one I struggled to get through. I found it so incredibly boring. I would read ten pages or so and then not pick it up again for a week or two. I really enjoy Stephen King’s writing, but this story just did not appeal to me. Once I finished it, I flew through the remaining two stories. Those were entertaining and kept my interest.
After finishing the book, I put it away feeling happy to finally be done with it. I vowed not to return to “Hearts in Atlantis” ever again. Later that evening, my girlfriend mentioned that she thought there was a movie based on the book. A quick check of IMDB proved her to be correct. And it has Anthony Hopkins in it. Now I want to see it. Maybe I’m not quite done with Atlantis, yet.
A Tall, Metal Tree
Today’s portion of my drive to Florida included my first visit to Alabama. NASA has a space center in Huntsville, Alabama, so one of the real rockets from the past is on display at the Welcome Center along I-65. It’s an amazing sight and you can see it from miles away in Tennessee. I was excited to get closer to it and even more excited when my father decided to pull into the Welcome Center for a bathroom break.
As we drove past the rocket to get to the parking spaces, I discovered that I didn’t need to be as excited as I was, because I wasn’t going to get to see much of the rocket. The thing is, it’s buried in a big patch of trees so that people don’t get too close to it. Or if there was a way to get close to it, I didn’t find it. Disappointed, I took a picture of the huge metal “tree” poking up out of the mini-forest.
Traveling Companions
I’m currently on a 3-day “cross-country” drive from Wisconsin to Florida. While I’m not technically traveling alone as there are two vehicles making the trip, I am alone in the car. Well, not totally alone. I took a picture of the passenger seat to show who my companions are.
There’s my water bottle, my iPod, my work cell phone, my backpack, some Cool Ranch Doritos, and a cooler. Except for the iPod, they are all very quiet passengers. That’s probably for the best. I’ve probably been on the road for too long if anything else on the passenger seat starts singing to me.
The Twittering of @jrswantz
Archives
Categories
- Around the Web (4)
- Blogging (7)
- Comics (4)
- Gut Reaction Reviews (2)
- Haikus (11)
- ICKYWMB (1)
- Life (7)
- Observations (8)
- Photos (22)
- Pop Culture (32)
- Random (13)
