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25
Wednesday Jul 27, 2005 - Link to Entry
My Birthday
25 on the 25th arrived just 25 hours after 24 in 24 ended. This birthday certainly got more attention than any in recent memory. I got a ton of cards, even more calls, and quite a few gifts. It was the first time I’ve ever had to work a full day on my b-day and to celebrate aspect got me a cake (half of which ended up on my shirt).
And it was just one of two cakes. Yeah I was a bit spoiled this year, but you only have one golden birthday, right? Unless 125 counts. Odds are I won’t find out.
Amongst all of the greetings I received, the cleverest came from my childhood friend Dave. He and I used to play a call and answer game. If he said Club I said Bub. If I said Bubba he said Jub. If he said hub I said cap. And if I said Bub he would say city. It was a way to keep ourselves from going crazy at football practice. We were kids, what do you want from me?
Anyway, he sent this, which I simply loved:
Birthday Haiku:
You are very old!
But now renting car is cheap.
Bubbajub club bub.
Nice.
To finish up the 24 in 24 postings. Down the stretch Gabe and I went ahead and binged the episodes. To start the marathon block we ran around my block, which ended our physical activities between shows.
Pictures to follow soon.
Well thank you one and all for all of the birthday wishes. I felt very loved and had a wonderful day as a result. Now that the birthday and 24 are behind us we can get back to business.
Back from the Break into the Thunder
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
After a wonderful journey to Nichole's pad and some delicious Carl's Jr. Jr. we are back at the 7320 ready for mo'.
9 episodes remain as we head into our sixth block, The Thunderdome. Dressed in our apocolyptic garb we are ready to enter the thunderdome. In this block creative songs and poetry will be written, lefthandedness will be attempted, and we will become pirates for an hour.
Y'arrrrr.
Prison Break
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
We're on our way out of here... as Jack and his family break loose from the grips of evil we too are breaking free. Off to Nichole's, Sam's, and CJJ's.
Either get busy livin' or get busy dyin'.
Gabe and Jeremy were here....
Still On Schedule
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
The End is in Sight. We're just about half way there as we finish the 12th episode. Our nap was glorious and we woke up still on time. I think we may really pull this off. Only time will tell. A tick tick tick tick tick.
Gettin' Lazy
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
We have powered through several episodes and find ourselves at the 9am, at just 7:24am. We're like Armstrong in the mountains... virtually unbeatable.
An hour ago we broke into the pool in my building. It doesn't open until 9:30am, but the 6ft fence was no match for our superior secret agent skills.
The beach block is over and we have moved onto lazy saturdays where we sport old and comfortable clothes. I finally found a use for my Rosen's Been Chosen Bachelor Party Yellow Hat!
Show continues to get more and more insane, but we are loving it all the while. Gabe has a great knack for knowing whats coming.
Beach Party
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
We've picked up a ton of steam and time plowing episode after episode in to try to get some nap time picked up for mid morning.
24 has been a lot of fun! The plot line has been a little bit more than a stretch, but with suspended disbelief, this is a great program.
For our Beach Party Block Gabe and I are sporting audacious Hawaiian shirts and swim trunks. After episode 7am we'll be taking a 2 hour nap, and then we'll jump in the pool and march on!
Nite Club Block and 4 and 5 are in....
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
Dressed in our night club best (Gabe in khakis and a starvin' arvin's polo and I'm wearing khaki shorts and a silver button down) we have enjoyed two more episodes in rapid succession.
Between episodes Gabe has gone pee every single hour. He has this to say, "Jack sure gets out of trouble easily. It must be his boyish goodlooks. And at this rate on his cell phone he's gonna get the brain cancer."
I had this to say, "He must be out of minutes!"
In short... women, keep the hair long (keep it long ladies).
Wez at da club.
Two and Three are in the Books
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
Okay...If you're running away from kidnappers or dealing with terrorists, use your head kids. I mean people are just making horrible choices. Most of these people have been female characters. I'm not saying, I'm just saying.
Also when did North Hollywood become such a horrible place?
Props to our first visitors: Josh, J.D. and Sam. Thanks for the love kids.
Also Props to fox for trying to imply a character is untrustworthy by showing him sipping from his cubs mug.
One down, 23 to go
Saturday Jul 23, 2005 - Link to Entry
Gabe says: Jack uses the phone proudly. Hurray short phone calls.
Its true. The man doesn't say goodbye. He says what he needs and ends the call.
My thoughts so far... Men and women seem to have engaged in some sort of gender battle. Men were dominating until that weird chick boned the dude in the bathroom and then blew up the plane after parachuting safely away. So I'd say Men and Women are tied at 3-3.
Oh its time for the wave. GAME ON!
24 in 24 Begins... Block I
Friday Jul 22, 2005 - Link to Entry
Game On! Block One begins. A pizza, a fridge full of delicious beverages (including coke, redbull, gatorade, smart water, and champaign) and snacks have been purchased. In just mere moments the marathon will commence.
Yes starting at midnight, Gabe and I, as well as random guests as they come to and fro, will be watching the first season of 24 in 24 hours. We will begin every episode on the hour that corresponds with the episode's title (ie 3:00am will be viewed at, yep you guessed it, 3am). We have several small tasks, adventures, costumes, etc. planned to keep us excited about the event.
Our first theme is Game on! For this block we'll be wearing sports apparel and... well thats about it.
Because our first block is sports themed, as we wear our favorite teams gear we would like you to contemplate what you believe the best name for a new NFL Franchise in Los Angeles would be. Gabe and I came up with the following:
-The LA Riot
-The LA Bandwagon Jumpers
-The LA Diablos
-The LA Traffic
-The LA Comebackers
-The LA Industry
-The LA Coyotes (a nod to the illegal population of Los Angeles...think man pulling up chain link fence with his bare hand and gesturing to illegals to crawl underneath)
Send your ideas in to jeremy@jeremyround.com and we will post the best one sometime between 6 and 9pm tomorrow.
Wish us luck as we embark on our adventure of strange idiocy. Go Jack Bauer and Go White Sox (and Mariner Cats says Gabe).
Inland Empire 66'ers
Wednesday Jul 20, 2005 - Link to Entry
Single A ball in the middle of nowhere. Now that's America!
Gabe and I drove off the map as we dared to venture into the Inland Empire. Though seemingly not much of an Empire we dare not taunt it for fear of a hostile take over of our less organized/unified ocean front anti-empire sprawl.
So instead of causing civil warfare we payed homage to this great Mariners minor league squad against the hated Lake Elsinor Storm. Turns out Tuesday night is two for one ticket and pizza night. Yes for a total of $16 Gabe and I both had two pizzas and sets in the third row behind home plate (1 ticket and two pizzas=$8, for you math gurus).
Were we the only people who drove more than 10 miles to attend this game...? Probably.
Did the foul pole's advertise Sharon's Corn with a seven-digit number there following so one could order from the ball park? Would I make that up?
Did I get a ball? You bet your ass I did!
All and all the game was HIGHLY entertaining. It was incredibly quiet and relaxing, you could easily razzle the players by being noisy, and singing "Sweet Caroline" while acting the song out with song gestures much to the delight (dismay) of Gabe and the other 66'ers fan will go on my personal highlight reel.
As I said to Gabe, "Let's make a memory." And we did...
Completely unrelated is a short story I began work on the other day... Here is the beginning:
Table for One
"He could stand to use a shower," I thought as I watched him pass through the window. He didn't pass through the window, it was the window through which I watched. He passed, I watched, the window between us. I hope that clears things up.
I don't often dine alone. I always see old men eating alone at restaurants. They usually don't wear wedding rings. I wonder if they were ever married. I mean if you never marry and you work hard all your life you can afford to eat every meal out. But then again if you marry and your spouse dies, often their life insurance and estate will be a boost to your income also allowing for you to afford to dine in restaurants regularly.
Today I was dining alone. I was in a strange town where I only knew one fella and he wasn't answering his phone. People don't answer their phones these days. Why do we even bother having them everywhere if people are still unreachable? Maybe to feel like we're not living alone. Well for this moment, I was choosing to live and dine alone.
About 10 minutes ago I turned my phone off as I entered an off-beat restaurant. They claimed to have the best BBQ and jamaican food this side of the Missisippi. I felt that this was a strong claim what with Kansas City and all of Texas to compete with, but perhaps they were claiming that they were the best combo restaurant this side of the mighty river. Well that may very well be true. I have never seen a BBQ and Jamaican combo restaurant before.
At first I thought I might get carry out but I thought better of it. Sandwiches and salads are just fine to take home, but BBQ will lose a little something if thrown into a container and driven for half an hour back to the big city. Besides the waitress had a nice smile and a curious but unthreatening tattoo on the back of her neck that seemed to exude a friendly and slightly sexual aura. I work with someone named Aura. Those thoughts remain virtually unrelated.
When I sat down I was not only dining alone at my table, I was the only one dining in the place.
Ramblings and Musings
Sunday Jul 17, 2005 - Link to Entry
Get caught up with me bullet point style. Consider this a highlights reel of the past week.
- 'The Summer of Gabe' as it was to be known, halted before it ever got a chance to really take off due to sever party injuries sustained from a drunken fall. But a couple months later Gabe has come back to life and the 'Summer of Gabe amended' as begun. To celebrate we will be attending a minor league baseball game on Tuesday night (2 for 1 pizza and ticket night) in San Bernadino to cheer on Mariners' single A affiliate "The Inland Empire 66er's" against the hated Padres' A club, the Storm.
After Tuesday's strange adventure we will be finally partaking in what has been discussed for almost a year, 24 in 24. In the time honored tradition of Dance Marathon, we will test our minds and bodies by watching 24 straight episodes of 24 starting each one on the hour. The 24 hour project will begin at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning and will end at approximately 11:46pm Saturday night.
Though these 24 hours we will do tons of crazy things that will be posted here as they happen from the live 24 in 24 coverage (created to rival Cardplayer.com's coverage of the WSOP). Wish us luck and feel free to participate if you so desire.
- Speaking of Poker, poker was very very good to me just before and during my Chicago trip. During that time I parlayed a simple $50 into at its peak $5,000. Since then I have been on a nasty losing streak involving live play in tournaments at local card rooms but haven't even come close to giving it back, so no worries.
Want to know the secret? Patience, a lack of fear, careful reads, and LUCK!
- Band is progressing nicely. Craig and I are really enjoying working on music together and some songs are sounding really tight (a word used by musicians to mean well put together. This is unlike the common vernacular usage of the term, "Yo', that's tight dude."). We are beginning to book some acoustic shows and once we have a solid two to three hour repertoire polished we will begin to look for a drummer and perhaps other musicians as well.
-I got this email from a friend this week and thought it needed to be shared:
"My friends, I contact you now with the heaviest of hearts. At some
mysterious hour last night, my cell phone disappeared from my
possession, and I have not seen it since. All attempts at recovery
eventually proved futile and so today, choked with grief, I made my
way to my friendly local telecom vendor and bought myself a new one.
Of course, no new-fangled multi-media device could ever replace the
noble simplicity of my original phone... yet I am left with little
choice. But take heart, friends, in knowing that I'm giving this
phone a chance, at least begrudgingly. We're getting to know each
other -- how to turn each other on, how to make it loud or quiet, etc.
Soon I'm sure I'll be spilling my deepest secrets into it.
Unfortunately, equally irreplaceable are all the phone numbers I had
in it. As of now, I am effectively on communication blackout until
you guys send me your numbers. Please do so with all due speed and
immediacy, for as of right now my new phone is just sitting there,
chilly and removed, and I have nothing to say to it.
Let's all pull together in this difficult time.
Mike"
Funny stuff.
-Last Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of my Mom. Even though the memories fade more and more with each passing year, the pain of the day doesn't seem to lessen... Thank you everyone for all your love and support during the difficult time!
Well that seems like a great update for now... I'll catch you up on all the fun movies and restaurants I have been enjoying in this week's What I've Seen (and Eaten). T-minus 7 days and 4 hours till the big 25! Can you feel it?
The Good Hurt
Monday Jul 11, 2005 - Link to Entry
And it really was a good hurt. Playing my first live show in awhile was for the most part exhilarating. I didn’t know the music as well as I like to, but Craig is a very strong song leader and between that and the chords I had strewn across the stage I felt comfortable throughout.
The set ended up being 9 tunes (8 Craig Bender originals and Plush by STP). I played my Takamine acoustic guitar and sang back up vox. Unfortunately the mix wasn’t ideal and a lot of my sound was lost to the audience, but I felt like I was able to play rhythm in the pocket well and then come out and add to melody when the lead vocals weren’t present.
The band was a four piece, Alexandraj on drums, Gary on sax, and Craig on vocals and keys. The venue was great. Large stage, decent sound system, ample neighborhood parking, pool tables, friendly staff. Gabe and April made it out and seemed to like the place too. I believe cover was only $5 which isn’t bad for 3 or 4 bands.
From here Craig and I are planning on mastering each other’s music, writing some new collaborative tunes, working on some covers, and really start playing regularly. I plan to play both guitar and bass in the project and to get my writing going again.
Look for more shows and new music/recordings coming soon!