Heather sent me this bad boy.

Freaking brilliant.

I’ve added some new quotes to the quotes database. Since they only appear randomly here they are for those who care.

“When you’re young you believe a well placed riot can change the world. When you get to be my age you just want to riot off your lawn. – Craig Fergeson

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad. – George Bernard Shaw

Never knock on death’s door. Ring the doorbell and run away. Death really hates that. – Dr. Mike Stratford in Doctor, Doctor

Tonight I was thinking about Empire Records; specifically about the blinds in Joe’s office. When closed they had a message in big, bold letters; “Work”. That got me thinking about Empire Records in general. I can’t believe the Internet hasn’t agreed on a specific day to be Rex Manning Day?

I’m a sucker for dogs acting like dogs and people and animals running into walls and windows. This has both.

In observance of the upcoming atrocity that is Earth Day…

Source: xkcd.com

Tonight was the first concert of the season for Sundown in the City and what a concert it was!  The opening act was the native Knoxville band Dishwater Blonde. They’re a very interesting mix of hip-hop, funk, rock and even a bit of raggae for good measure. What I didn’t know about them was that the band members are unapologetic Christians, weaving hymns into their original compositions. I didn’t have high hopes for them as they ran through their sound track but I was more than pleasantly surprised; enough that I’m going to pick up at least one of their albums if not the trio.

But that was just the opening act. The headliner (ha!) was my all time favorite band Arrested Development!  I arrived early and got a great spot right up against the rail, just left of center stage, only fifteen feet from the band.They played old favorites like Tennessee, Mr. Wendell, People Everyday and Africa’s Inside Me plus one of my top two favorites of all time, Fishin’ for Religion.

Some seventeen years after the release of “3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of…” they have three original members left, Speech of course is still there, otherwise it wouldn’t be AD. The other two remaining members are Eshe and Baba Oje. Joining them are turntableist 1 Love, bass player Zaz, guitarist JJ and vocalist Tasha.

Arrested Development doesn’t have concerts; they have what they call Celebrations of Life, Liberty and the Struggles of Our Ancestors. You can only describe them as that. The show started with Baba walking out and getting the crowd screaming just by being there. The man is seventy-four next month and I expected him to spend most of his time in the rocking chair that had been brought on stage. He in fact spent very little time in it. Once he was joined by Eshe, dancing what could only be described as a “tribal” dance he began to perk up and really get the crowd going. Speech, from off stage, announced the beginning of the celebration.

They played for an hour and forty-five minutes covering both new material and old. 1 Love did a few raps in the middle of a few songs and of course Eshe and Tasha each had parts. When they performed Tennessee they started with a long introduction, getting the crowd to chant “Tennessee” before finally launching into those oh so familiar lyrics.

I went by myself but was found by a co-worker (the owner of the post-it noted office, actually) and her friend. The was also a woman whose name I didn’t ask right behind me. She was a lot of fun and I was glad to share the experience with her. There was another woman who stood on the other side of my friend from work who I walked with a bit on the way back to the parking garage after the show; I was glad to be able to speak to her as well.

Man…I really love that band.

Arrested Development
Dishwater Blonde
Speech
Sundown in the City

The Tennessee State Legislature voted this week to make milk the official state beverage of Tennessee.

Really? Milk?

Now I have nothing against milk (it makes my cereal even tastier after all) but I really don’t see how milk is supposed to represent Tennessee.  I suppose the law makers are trying their hands at some relatively benign social engineering but I for one would like to see an official state product truly represent the people of the state.

So, to that end, in no particular order, I give you my five picks, each of them better than milk, for the Official State Drink of Tennessee:

• Coke (which is defined as any carbonated beverage regardless of flavor, brand or copyright.)
• Moonshine
• Jack Daniels
• Sweet Tea
• Mt. Dew

While we’re at it I have some other gripes about my beloved home state’s ‘official’  bric-a-brac.  In most circles Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State, a reference to the disproportionate number of volunteers Tennessee sent to the War of 1812. Up until WWI we were more commonly known as the Hog and Hominy State, a title I suggest we return to.

We have a lot of official state songs and interestingly, none of them are the Tennessee Wig Walk which is totally unacceptable.

I used to hate math but the older I get the more I see the attraction of a system of rules and logic that make for predictable solutions. My job has forced me to embrace math in ways I’d never imagined possible. I’m responsible for making sure all the numbers line up; financials, performance indicators and staffing all rest on my shoulders and all boil down to equations in a spreadsheet. Maybe I should say I heart Excel….

My improved relationship with the mathematics has influenced my sense of humor as well. I actually get some of the math jokes in XKCD comics, I used a math joke in my Facebook status update the other day (Jeremy is thinking of a number between Absolute 0 and the square root of -1) and, though not really math, I think Craig Damrauer’s New Math site is one of the funniest websites I’ve ever seen.

Selected favorites:

Layed off = It’s not you, it’s me + Job
Nepotism = Who’s your daddy / Ability
Brunch = Breakfast + Lunch + Cantaloupe
Good Dog = Bark / Bite
Bad Dog = Bite / Bark
Uncle = Dad + Fun
Credit Card = I can’t afford it – I can’t afford it
Good Meeting = (Time Saved / Time Wasted) + Snacks
Bad Meeting = (Time Wasted / Time Saved) + Snacks
Car Jacking = Can I borrow your car? – No you can’t
Life Insurance = God Forbid + Jackpot!

Apart from five years in Cleveland, two in Florida and three months in Texas I’ve lived in the greater Knoxville area my entire life. From Claxton, to Louisville and finally here in Oak Ridge my footprints have generally fallen in a thirty mile radius centered right in the middle of the Tennessee Valley.

As a native I thought I knew most of what there was to know about my beloved home. I was mistaken.

Here are some recently discovered items about my part of the world:

• Prior to 1942 the area known as Oak Ridge was made up of seven communities, all of which were destroyed during the development of Clinton Engineering Works and later The Manhattan Project. Until this week I’d assumed the destruction had been complete. While reading wikipedia articles Tuesday night I discovered that there is still a church in what was the Wheat Community that was standing prior to 1942. The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church was founding in 1901. I’m planning a visit and will post photos.
• Rocky Top is a real place. Located on the Appalachian Trail and one of the peaks of Thunderhead Mountain, Rocky Top is the lowest of the three peaks at 5400 feet.  I will be checking this out as well.

That’s it. Have a good week kids.

So I’ve been somewhat muted lately; I’ve barely made a peep since the new year. I was toying with the idea of taking the sites down, both the main site and the music site, but I just got hit with my annual hosting and domain fees so I guess I’m going to keep going for at least another year.

The music site was updated this morning with a new post. Check it out if you’re interested in what I’m listening to these days. Check back later today for a increasingly rare Sunday Sampler.

Later folks.