Travel

Oh, the Places I’ve Been!

Since it has been over a month since my last post, I guess there had better be a good reason for it, eh?  How does a two week trip to Rome and Paris sound?  Whaddya think about that punk?

I’ll try to recap the trip the best I can, not only for those who are interested, but also for my own posterity, as this was a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime trip, on many different levels.  But first, some background: the trip was originally planned to attend the ordination our friend, Jonathan (aka "Jono") at St. Peter’s in Rome.  So we went to Rome for a week, and then Paris for about four days.

The trip began on Saturday afternoon on a flight from Boston to Paris, with a connecting flight to Rome.   Before we even left Boston, we had a bit of adventure as a passenger on the plane had apparently decided to make sure he would sleep on the flight by washing down a couple of sleeping pills with a few glasses of wine.  Keep in mind that he weighed about 110 lbs…  We actually got to hear a flight attendant ask "If there are any doctors on board, would you please press your call button" – straight out of the movies, particularly Airplane!  Luckily there were several doctors and nurses on board (good to know…) and after a quick trip to the bathroom, the passenger was all set and we were on our way.

Even though our plane was fairly crowded and quite warm, I have to say the flight went a lot faster than I thought it would.  AirFrance has some nice features, including your own small LCD screen that has a remote control that allows you to watch movies, play games and listen to music.

Now – my first time on a new continent.  It was 6 a.m., still dark out, and quite chilly.  We also entered the airport just behind a plane from Kenya, and this caused issues at immigration, as they were closely examining their passports and detaining some people.

Charles de Gaulle airport is one of the most beautiful airports you’ll ever be in.  I think about 90% of the gate areas are glass.  From the outside, they resemble the space frigates in Star Wars.

Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Fiumicino airport, on the other hand, is kind of dated and dirty.  And crowded.  And I got a taste of the (in)famous "Italian coffee break" as soon as we trying to get our luggage.  It took about 10 minutes for luggage to come out, and then a bunch came along, but only our garment bag came out.  The carousel kept going for another 10-15 minutes, with nothing coming out, and then all of a sudden, all the rest of the luggage came out, much to the relief of everyone.

After a screwy and scary drive into Rome (par for the course in Rome), we got to our hotel around 1 p.m.   Hotel Joli is a small little hotel not far from the Vatican and on a major thoroughfare with a bus stop right in front.  It isn’t fancy, but it was clean, comfortable and having a room with a ceiling fan was a blessing during a very warm week filled with lots of walking. 

Our first meal in Rome was at la Soffitta, a great little place that we stumbled upon.  I enjoyed my first suppli, an appetizer that I am AMAZED isn’t more popular here in the states.  It is brilliant in its simplicity and absolutely deliciously cheesy and crunchy.  And of course wine, something that I would come to learn is in plentiful supply and surprisingly cheap.  Whereas here in the states ordering a bottle of wine makes a meal special, a meal simply isn’t complete without wine in Italy.

After eating and unpacking, we walked over to St. Peters, my first taste of a Roman landmark.  First impression: this is a heck of a lot bigger than it seems on TV and in photos.  "Shoulda brought a wider angle lens for my camera" was my second thought.  However, going through St. Peter’s was simply a stop on the way to the NAC – short for the Pontifical North American College.  They call it "The NAC" however, probably because "The Pee-NAC" doesn’t sound nearly as good.

We met up with Jonathan there and attended Sunday mass at their chapel.  Sorry – their "chapel."  Yes, it is a chapel, but it is the biggest and nicest chapel I’ve seen.  As Jono said "You’ve heard of its not much, but its what we call home? well, this is Its a lot and its what we call home" and he wasn’t kidding!   With beautiful murals and paintings and huge multiple story tall ceiling, it is bigger and more striking than many churches.  The mass itself lived up to its surroundings, with the entire group of priests, bishops, Monsignors, and other clergy there for the ordination week celebrating the mass and the full NAC choir giving me quite a start as I heard the loudest, most in-tune singing I’ve heard at a mass.

Our first day in Rome concluded with a meal at Sor’eva, the perfect prototypical trattoria.  I had excellent veal saltimbocca and Meghan had fantastic amatriciana, yet another dish I had never heard of and couldn’t understand why.  Basically a variation on pasta carbornara, but with tomatoes.

By the end of that first day we were EXHAUSTED.  Just a few hours of fitful napping on the plane in over 36 hours and we were struggling not to end up face down in the pasta.   We slept well that night and awoke refreshed and nearly jet-lag free to start the second day in Rome… 

Music

Thoughts In Concert

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As indicated by my previous post, I recently saw Ryan Adams and the Cardinals perform live.  That same weekend I also saw another favorite band: Aerosmith.  While both rock concerts, they are vastly different styles and what made up the setlist for each band represented an interesting conflict of what to play in concert when it comes to established acts. 

Aerosmith has been around for much longer than Adams, so they have a larger catalog of songs to choose from, but with his prodigious output, Ryan Adams is no slacker either.

As a long time avid (one might say "hard-core") Aerosmith fan, I participate in the Aeroforce One fan club forums from time to time, and one of the on-going debates is about "deep tracks" vs "the popular stuff."  Those of us who are long time fans and have seen Aerosmith perform many times (I’ve lost track at this point – 11 or 12 I believe) would like to see them pull out a few deep tracks from a great album like Rocks or Toys in the Attic or Draw the Line, and not play songs like "Pink" or "Livin’ the the Edge" or "Cryin" (or "Crazy")… and just about any Aerosmith fan worth his Aero-wings would rather hear ANYTHING than "Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing." 

However, last year, Aerosmith cut their classic song "Dream On" from a night or two of the tour and a virtual brouhaha broke out.  Many of those who had heard the song performed live dozens of times were ambivalent at best about about it, many others who had seen Aerosmith for the first time felt disappointed and let down that they didn’t hear that classic song.  They may as well have left out "Walk This Way" and/or "Sweet Emotion." 

Then  you have Ryan Adams, who performed a set list two nights later that consisted of a few well-known songs (at least to his fans) but shunned other, more popular songs like "New York, New York" (his "breakthrough hit," if you will) and "Let It Ride," the first single off of his highly successful double album "Cold Roses."  As my first time seeing Ryan Adams live, I would have liked to hear those songs, along with a few others that are his "hits."  I have no complaints about the set list, but if you were a casual fan, you may have been a bit lost.

(Disclaimer: I’m not sure if there’s such as thing as a casual Ryan Adams fan.  The people in the audience were having some serious music geek conversations from what I heard, with people comparing their favorite songs and albums, Ryan or otherwise.)

On the other hand, I may have actually traded out "Sweet Emotion" at the Friday night Aerosmith show in order to hear "Kings and Queens" or "Combination" instead.  And I LOVE "Sweet Emotion" – it may be one of the most "essential" songs to hear performed live at least once in your life (along with "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "Jessica" by the Allman Brothers, "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple and "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n’ Roses), but dammit, I’ve heard it performed live a dozen times, and there’s over 15 albums worth of material for them to choose from – break something a little deeper out.  Joe Perry and Steven Tyler launched into a slightly abbreviated and acoustic version of "Hangman Jury" from the Permanent Vacation tour that was phenomenal to hear for a change. 

At the same time, I can understand where  casual and/or first time Aerosmith concert attendee would be upset if they didn’t heard "Sweet Emotion," "Walk This Way," "Dream On" etc. etc. 

There probably isn’t a right answer to this – other than that bands with a big back catalog should satisfy the majority of the audience but throw at least a little bone to the long-time, hard-core fans that make up their most loyal following.  It could be considered a matter of artistic integrity, but just because a song is popular doesn’t make it bad, and just because it is a deep track doesn’t mean that it good – might be interesting to hear Aerosmith play "Cheese Cake" live, but I could live without it, thanks.

What’s the right mix of "popular" vs. "deep tracks"?  Is it dependent on the band?  Do younger, more contemporary acts have more of a right to perform deep tracks since they don’t have as many hits, or should older acts play more deep tracks since it is more likely that people have heard the hits many times over already?  And what about the hometown crowd factor?  I saw Aerosmith on their Boston "hometown" stop and they only difference between that show and any others so far on the tour was the addition of "Hangman," which wasn’t even a complete song.   Should bands play deeper songs from their catalog just because they are on home turf where you many have people who have been following them since the beginning?

I have one other concert-related rant that I would like to close with.  This has nothing to do with set lists or song selection, but rather with audience behavior.  The Ryan Adams show was a pretty mellow event, with most of the audience sitting and enjoying the music.  It’s not like it was proper like a classical concert, but it was very mellow.  By contrast, Aerosmith, as would be expected, was a high-energy show with much higher production values, both in the personal performances and the stage production. 

However, when it comes to whether to sit and listen or stand up and move to the music (dance, headbang, play air guitar, whatever), you need to follow the crowd.  There’s been a few times where I’ve been frustrated that I can stand and rock out to a favorite song from a band.  There have also been a few times where I’ve led the charge in a section to get up and rock out when a particularly great song is played.  But if I was faced with fellow audience members who didn’t want to stand, I’d take my lumps and sit down.  Friday night, every single person in the audience was sitting except for these four absolutely obnoxious people who insisted on standing.  And they weren’t even moving that much – they were occasionally playing some slight air guitar or swaying a bit, but other than that, the only thing they were accomplishing was blocking the view of the people behind them. 

When a fellow concertgoer (and fan presumably) asked them politely to sit down they responded with "no" which made me want to get up and slap them.  They weren’t affecting me directly, but it made me angry.  I want everyone to enjoy the show as I was, and for these four selfish individuals to just stand there, screwing it up for others, was brining inconsiderateness to a new level.

The rule is: you sit down when EVERYONE ELSE is sitting and you stand when EVERYONE ELSE is standing and if you really like a particular song, feel free to stand for a song, but be considerate… move off to the side if you can.  Everyone is there for the same purpose: to enjoy the concert.  Don’t be a jerk and do it at the expense of others.

Music

Ryan Adams at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, MA

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This review started to write itself before even leaving the venue – one of those times where there are so many moments of inspiration, the difficulty is not in coming up with something to write about, but rather, picking the right things to concentrate on.

Ryan Adams has been marked alternatively as a genius, nutcase and rip-off at varying times in his career.  I hesitate at the word "genius" as I believe that title can only bestowed with the vantage of elapsed time, but I will defend my opinion that he is one of the most talented singer/songwriters out there today, and one of the best to come along in a while.  I’m not a country music fan, but have become enamored with the alternative country rock that Adams often personifies. 

After following his career in recordings only, this past weekend afforded me the opportunity to see him live, in the cozy setting of the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, MA.  He went on about 40 minutes after the posted start time, but made up for it with a fantastic set consisting of both popular songs and deep tracks:

1. Goodnight Rose
2. Peaceful Valley
3. What Sin
4. Beautiful Sorta
5. Freeway To The Canyon
6. Mockingbird
7. Cold Roses
8. Off Broadway
9. I See Monsters
10. Wildflowers
11. Rescue Blues
12. Dear Chicago
13. Please Do Not Let Me Go
14. A Kiss Before I Go
15. Games
16. Dear John
17. Easy Plateau
18. Sweet Lil’ Gal (solo) (aborted)
19. Magnolia Mountain
20. Nightbirds
21. The End

Adam’s styles begs comparisons to many other artists, and I can’t resist the temptation – listening to his songs brings up a variety of similar sounding artists, from Bob Dylan to Jeff Buckley.  However, seeing him live, the most appropriate comparison would be Neil Young – not surprising given his country influences and emphasis on strong songwriting – but also the Grateful Dead, an association which I would NOT have made prior to the concert.

During songs like "Cold Roses," "Easy Plateau," and especially "Magnolia Mountain," the performances got stretched out into extended jams, often straying completely from the original melody, developing into new tunes.  Some of them – as in the case of "Magnolia Mountain" – went into a spacey, downright trippy vein, complete with a giant mirror ball reflecting specks of colored light as notes bounced around with equally energy.

I held some trepidation going into the concert – a friend whom I introduced to Ryan Adams in the last year recently saw him live and was left disappointed, seeing only a short set and very little interaction with the audience.  However, that was clearly an off night, as Adams was downright jovial, even though he was performing with the flu, something that became a running joke throughout the night ("this is the first time I’ve had the flu while sober – its cool" he quipped at one point), along with poking fun at his own temperament and trading jibes with the audience and band members.  In fact, at several points, Adams called for the audience to be a bit quieter ("less audience!") but kept his cool throughout, even when a fan replied with "less whining!"

However, the in-between song banter was secondary to the music, which was tight but exploratory, and most importantly, extremely satisfying.  There were a ton of songs that I wish he had played, but I also have no problem with what was played – there were songs that I love ("Nightbirds" and "Rescue Blues") but would have considered too much of a "deep track" to be played live.  But more on that in my next post… 

Sports

Championship Tennis

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In the last year I’ve been fortunate to get into tennis, learning to play and enjoy the game.  A little over a year ago I had never even touched a racquet or watched a whole match of tennis, never mind played one.  Now I’ve taken three rounds of lessons, love to play, and seen some of the legends play tennis….  Jim Courier, Pat Cash, Todd Martin, and Pete Sampras.  Living close to Newport, RI gives me the opportunity to not only visit the Tennis Hall of Fame, and for this weekend, see the  Outback Champions Series Tennis.

I was amazed that the place wasn’t 100% sold out – this is a chance to see legends of the sports play great, competitive tennis.  This isn’t an old-timer’s league where things are slow and easy – they play hard, fast and smart, with a lot of good, old-fashioned serve and volley, with smart play and fast rallies.

It is probably one of the best values in professional sports out there – thirty bucks to see great players playing great tennis. 

Sports

Take Me Out to Ye Olde Base Ball Game

Sometimes you vaguely hear about a trend happening – just know that it is out there – and then you get a chance to experience it first hand.   I’ve heard of teams who play "vintage base ball" (space intentional, as that’s how they do it), but got chance to see it this weekend – at the Vintage Base Ball Federation World Series. 

This is more than just a baseball game – it is part theater as well, with people dressed up in period (1860-1870) costumes playing various roles: hecklers, entertainers, women’s suffrage movement activists (a particularly clever way to get people to register vote I thought), and the programs being sold by old-timey looking newspaper boys and girls.

The baseball is played well enough to be interesting and the differences spice it up: 7 balls for a walk; a hit batter only gets a called ball, not a first base; there’s one ump who can appeal to the players and/or crowd for help on a call; if a ball is caught in foul territory on one bounce, it is an out.  That is probably a good rule, since the players can’t wear modern baseball  gloves, which means that catching is hard.  And hard on the hands.  No one dives for a line drive here and it makes you appreciate how important defense is (the game we saw had over 25 runs scored) to modern day baseball. 

The event in Westfield is unique, with a combination of local groups selling items as a fundraiser, only $5 admission, and a beer garden with good local beer overlooking the field and the hand-painted, hand-operated (by four guys…) scoreboard.  It is a relaxing, comfortable atmosphere, and one that almost seems more focused on the game at times than professional Major League Baseball, even though technically it is meant more as entertainment than MLB.  Gone are the 50+ signs always visible at even a small park like Fenway, the grandstanding players, the high-fiving and kissing of jewelry (actually forbidden according to their rules of conduct) and quite possibly best of all: even though representative of a more chaste, religious time, the post-game speeches bear absolutely no mention of "I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus" when we all know that the power(s) that be have far more important things to do than making sure a long ball goes to the right side of a foul pole.

To be fair, there is another group out there called the Vintage Base Ball Association (as opposed to Federation).  The Federation is a for-profit group that bends a few of the historical accuracies to make for a better albeit less historically accurate game, while the Association is a non-profit group of clubs who are dedicated to playing games that are only extremely historically accurate.  However, as is often the case, the volunteers started it, the corporation is monetizing and popularizing it, and hopefully the non-profit will benefit from that in the long-run, regardless of any animosity between them now.

I’m sure that the couple hundred people who experienced the games on Sunday will tell people about it and next year there will be a few hundred more people and soon after that, I’ll be looking back, grateful I made it to the first World Series!    

As they say at the end of the game: Hip! Hip! Huzzah! 

Culture, Religion, Science, Web/Tech

Fun With Hyperlinking

You gotta love the way that the Web works, especially the joy that is Wikipedia.

This afternoon at lunch I was doing my usual reading of comics online and The Comics Curmudgeon, when I read this post from Sunday.  In the discussion of the Curtis comic, a link to Omphalos theory was provided.  I had to follow it, since I had never heard of it, and felt… well…. stupid.

Turns out it is a pretty heavy duty theology theory that can be basically boiled down to the question of "did Adam and Eve have belly buttons or not?"  What really caught my eye was in the "See Also" section of the article however, which provided a link to an article on the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which turns out to not be a reject from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but a brilliant and hilarious religious parody.

However, I am clearly a little late to the game (though probably still ahead of most people), since there is already a Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and, of course its own web site. 

The best part about this?  It lead me to a "scientific" report on Pirates vs. Ninjas.

Culture

Doctor, Doctor, Find Me a Cure!

So I’m trying to find a new doctor since my current done drives me nuts.  I hate going there because he always asks me the same stupid, and sometime scary questions.  He has my entire medical history in front of me and proceeds to ask my date of birth.  And every time I’m there he asks if I’m still working at a job I haven’t worked at in over two years.  I’m far from one to be racist, but he’s Filipino, and I find it hard to understand him, he basically yells everything and answers most questions with "HUH!?!?" at first.  I also hate the way he says my name.  He manages to trill the "r" in "Derek."  I can’t even do it.  And his receptionist isn’t much better – I can usually hardly understand her. 

The last time I called for a prescription refill he told me he couldn’t call it into the pharmacy directly because it was a refill and that I had to come pick up the prescription. Since I couldn’t get the time to do that, I had someone go for me, and when they got there, they said that they had already called it into the pharmacy. 

I injured my right foot last year and he sent me to the hospital to get xrays and nearly sent me with a sheet to have them xray the wrong foot.

Every time I go there, I’m the only one in the waiting room, but it always takes at least 20 minute to see him, most of the time because I can hear him chatting (remember he shouts, not talks) with either a drug rep and/or an attractive female patient.  If it is an attractive female drug rep, I hunker down with the entire stack of outdated magazines from the waiting room.

Basically, the only thing I’m confident about with him is that he may be a moron, which isn’t the thing that you want to be confident about in a doctor!

So today I started looking online for a new doctor.  I figured that at this point there must be tons of places to search for doctors and get current patient’s feedback on them. 

Wrong!

You see, apparently you can look up the for the 105 reviews for the new White Stripes album or the nearly 1000 reviews of Tuscan Dairy Farms milk, but you can’t really find many reviews of doctors online.  Oh yes, there are sites that supposedly offer reviews, but there aren’t many actual reviews – they are just left blank.  I guess it is more important to review pencil sharpeners than it is to review doctors. 

Music

Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band by Beatallica

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I wrote about Beatallica before, and have been anxiously awaiting the release of their first album ever since seeing them live in Chicago last spring.   I was able to get my copy yesterday, and encourage you to do the same. The name of the album is Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band and I can guarantee you a good time if you’re a music fan with varied tastes, a sense of humor and an appreciation for good muscianship.

That is what makes me so excited about the album – it isn’t just a novelty band or a big joke: these guys can play.  Play really well.  They are managing to combine the Beatles and Metallica, two bands that many musicians would be nervous to cover straight up, never mind mashing them up to create a new song.  The Beatles wrote incredibly catchy pop and rock songs with amazing melodies; Metallica wrote some of the most fast and complex heavy metal ever written.  Combining the two would seem difficult but the four guys in Beatallica – Jaymz Lennfield, Grg Hammetson, Kliff McBurtney, and Ringo Larz – make it seem easy, and dare I say, perfectly natural.

After just a day, I’m already enjoying the CD as a collection of original music, not as a novelty act that you share with friends and then let collect dust until you uncover it years later and say "what was I thinking!?!?"  This is seriously good music that doesn’t take itself too seriously.