Not sure that it’s something I can blame on the economic downturn (though money is definitely one reason I’ve got so much going on…), but it’s like all of my time is more or less booked.

Gotta make time for what’s important, right?

Think I’ll go have dinner with my wife and figure out how to spend the rest of tonight!

Hope you are all well.

Check out a couple of these face-melters below:

Levi

The Cucumber

See, the city is re-doing the street, replacing old storm sewer pipes, running new copper water pipes up to each house, etc. As part of this, they’ve also decided to re-do all of the worn-out sidewalks, including ours.

And ever since we bought this house last summer, we’ve noticed that when the sump pump drains water from our basement, the drainage hose still causes the water to pool on our driveway (or worse, in the grass next to the driveway, which due to a weird angle, we drive over with our cars). Because it never drains down to the curb, we believe much of this water makes it way back into the sump, causing the pump to overwork due to recirculating this same drainage water.

So we realized once they started tearing up the street and sidewalks that this would be our chance to really do something about it.

The trencher made some nice deep cuts in the lawn, and we successfully lobbied the city for a PVC tube through the new curb, so we were able to drop in nearly 60 feet of 2″ tubing (with a few 90 and 45 degree couplings), and after I spent last night filling in the trenches (and stealing all the dirt and sod I could find to fill in that driveway-edge basin), we now have a nice way to run all of our sump water directly into the pipe, and down to the street. And with any luck, the sod in the basin will take root, and we won’t have water pooling there any more.

Boring, right? Not what you came for? Nope, me either. But this blog is supposed to be about my life, and that’s what has been going on lately.

But the truth is, their music has never once moved me.

In fact, when they first broke onto the music scene, I kept asking everyone if this was the new U2 album, or was it somebody who just really, REALLY wanted to sound like them. (And from the bits I’ve heard in the years since then, it’s definitely the latter. In fact, I just noticed that they had Brian Eno, producer or co-producer on several U2 albums, serving as producer on this new record. How better to emulate the sound of U2, right?)

I’ve never really found any of the songs very interesting; most seem to be repetitive and/or derivative, and for God’s sake, somebody should tell Chris Martin to blow his nose once in awhile…only country singers are allowed to sing through their noses. I actually had sinus surgery back in 2001 to fix a “massively-deviated septum” (the doc’s words, not mine), and at my worst, I never sounded as nasal as he does.

And the final straw was something I noticed today; Coldplay is being sued by some indie band in New York who think Martin might’ve swiped part of one of their songs. I’ve now listened to both, and to be fair, I really only hear similarities in a couple of transitional parts…nothing too big, and definitely not some outright ripoff of a killer lick that really makes the song happen. I DID find it kinda funny that the song they’re accused of stealing from is called “The Songs I Didn’t Write” (read more about it here).

And honestly, I think Martin’s gotten a bit too precious as well. Read here about how he flaked out during a BBC Radio 4 interview, and tell me exactly how the interviewer “journalistically twist[ed him] into saying something [he didn't] really mean.” I mean, if asking someone if they agree with you is ‘putting words into someone’s mouth’, well…either your life doesn’t include enough people saying “no” to you, or you’ve forgotten that by saying “I wouldn’t agree with you there at all” (as Martin did, before the “twisting” accusation) should sufficiently express your disagreement.

Funnier still that further into the interview, he quit for a few minutes and per the article, “stormed out”, saying “I’m not really enjoying this. Can I have two minutes? I just don’t really like having to talk about things.” Yeah, that’s why you’re being interviewed on radio? I mean, they didn’t kidnap you and take you there, right? You did KNOW you were going to talk on the radio? Having done lots of radio interviews myself, I CAN attest that few announcers enjoy interviewing someone who clearly doesn’t want to talk, so why even go? I’m sure a big, powerful musician with a lot of clout in England and EMI both (hell, Coldplay is probably keeping the label afloat at this point) could get someone else in the band to do it instead. But no, he came and acted like a flippin’ child. And he sounded like it, too.

But really, I think the bigger issue here in my dislike for the band is that they sound similar to so many other things because their music isn’t really all that original; in fact, I’d go further, and say that their music seems written to appeal to the radio, and to the masses, and while that’s not a sin, it is one of the things that makes it hard for me to respect their entire thing. They just seem to me like one of those “success at any cost, who-do-you-want-me-to-sound-like?” bands who don’t already have a feel or a sound…they’re willing to learn one, though, once you let them know what’ll make them popular.

This isn’t the first case of me disliking music that’s popular in my lifetime…while I can usually suffer through one play of “Margaritaville”, I start getting hives upon the second play, and so on. See, I also don’t much care for Jimmy Buffett’s music, either. And I have also never been into Springsteen’s stuff. But in these cases, I do have a personal respect for the artists, their songwriting, and the life experience that went into their writing. I mean, in both cases here, I realize that it’s something that IS valid, and that I just don’t get it. I’m okay with that; I realize there are things that are valid that still simply don’t appeal to me.

So is this the case with Coldplay? Well, maybe. Trust me, I’m wrong often enough that I don’t discount the very possibility.

But for this to happen, he’ll have to blow his nose (or get the surgery…Chris, call me if you want a recommendation…my doctor was great!), write some better stuff, and quit acting like a spoiled brat.

Because lots of us are already tired of you. And I’ll bet more people are on the verge of getting that way.

UPDATE June 18, 2008 12:32pm CDT: Just ran across this hilarious article after yesterday’s Coldplay post…straight outta the singer’s mouth, Chris Martin says Coldplay “[is] one of the world’s worst – but most enthusiastic – plagiarists as a band. We’ll try and copy anything but tend to fail, so we come up with something…that sounds like us – only through trying to sound like somebody else.”

Game, set and match.

We want to thank all of you who came or otherwise gave us your support, and we’d like you all to know how much we appreciate the sacrifice of time, money and effort that you put forth.

So what’s next? Well…life! We are now looking forward to just living our lives and being happy, and hope that you’ll join us in trying to make the world a better place. It all starts from within.

My friends and family are coming into town this week for the wedding; the first ones start arriving tomorrow around lunchtime. We’re excited to have everyone here, but are still struggling to nail down every detail. I’m sure we’ll forget something, and hopefully it won’t be anything big.

But I know I’ll be sleeping pretty well Sunday night…that’s for damn sure.

I was married once, a long time ago, and it went south pretty quickly. So I wasn’t all that eager to jump right back up on the matrimonial bandwagon.

And then I met her. And over time, I realized that if I were ever even going to consider marriage again, it could only be to someone like her. So I asked her folks, and they seemed okay with the idea. Then I asked her, and she seemed okay with it, too.

So we went about planning an April 2008 wedding. Last September, we found out that my grandfather’s health is failing, and while I’m pleased to report that he’s still doing fairly well today, we had several discussions about how he might not be able to attend our wedding in April. (You see, I have all four of my grandparents still, for which I am very thankful.) This begat a larger discussion of possibly holding a ceremony in Illinois over Thanksgiving 2007, so that we could have a wedding that all four grandparents could attend. (My girl’s grandparents have all passed away, and she has said many times that she hopes to “borrow” mine as long as she can.)

So we did it! We had a great little ceremony in Champaign on November 22, 2007, and as a result, we are now legally married.

But of course, we had already been planning a Fargo wedding for April, and had already put down money on a reception hall, etc. Plus, most of our friends where we live weren’t at the Illinois wedding, and we really wanted to have them with us to celebrate.

Therefore, we’re pressing on with the April wedding (on the 26th!), and now dealing with all of the stress and minutiae that entails. But it’ll be a fun day, and we are definitely looking forward to it very much.

So, in a way, this will be my third marriage. But I’m more fortunate than most country singers with a similar lament.

I’ve only got ONE ex-wife!

Here, you can expect to see postings on a variety of topics. You won’t always agree with them.  Then again, you might. Either way, you can feel free to comment. But don’t think this means we’ve got some sort of democracy going…oh, no. This blog is strictly a dictatorship. Don’t like it? Get yer own!