Today is finally here. Pearl Jam live at Summerfest. Been waiting for months. Starting the day off skiing with friends, ending it with more friends at Summerfest. More details to follow…
Oh yea, tickets curtesy of the Ten Club. They should be great seats.
One last thing, for those not in the know, Pearl Jam will be on VH1 Storytellers on Saturday night. Check your local listing for details…
…and many people think I’m a little nutz, but these guys make me look down right normal. Besides the way they treat the boat (dropping it in through the ice and driving it through the ice), it is their skiing and driving that is just down right scary. You’d think if they were this die hard, they’d be better. You’d also think they would have a good driver. Nothing like gunning it when there is 10 feet left before the rope comes tight. The guy wearing the heavy red flannel shirt, no way would I ski behind him based on what I’ve seen in this video.
I may have posted a link to this once before, but I couldn’t find it, so here goes…
BTW, they have one good point… There are no jet skis in November.
Now this is no where near waterskiing or movie related, but every once in a while I’ll post something a little off the wall. A friend sent me a link to a great article over at espn.com by Bill Simmons titled The YouTube Hall of Fame. I haven’t made it through all the videos in the article yet, but one that jumped out was the Journey video “Seperate Ways”. Made me remember all of the other really bad videos from the 80s. Lots of pointless things happened in those videos and they all look like they were shot with my dads camcorder. Anyway, you can see the video below. The lead singer really gets into his performance. Gota love that. Plus, I’ve seen many people play air guitar and pretend to be playing the drums, but the air keyboardist player is my favorite part of the video. Like the lead singer, he is into his performance. Now, on to the show…
BTW, you can catch Journey at the Marcus Amphitheatre in Milwaukee on September 9, 2006.
Remember those big splashes from the other day? Well, they had repercussions.
I go to the chiropractor this afternoon because my back has been sore since I woke up on Tuesday. Today it was even worse. First off, he can see my hips aren’t square. Next, just looking at my back he can see a vertebra isn’t lined up right. He’s a little surprised I’m moving around as well as I am. He contorts me a bit, I feel a large pop in my back, brief moment of “AHH!” then “ahhhhhhhh”. Then he pulls out the massager and notices a few other spots on my back. A few more pops and I feel even better.
Not 100% yet, but much closer than I was.
As you can see, I did some more jumping last night. If my feet were a little closer together, I think this would actually be pretty good form. But with my feet spread apart like that, it leaves ample room for my butt to hit the water when I land, and when my butt hits the water, it acts like a giant anchor, and you can see the end result of that in the next picture. That and I need to stop relaxing in the air. I need to think “resist the water” so my butt doesn’t get the opportunity to act like an anchor…
Anyway, enjoy the one good picture of me in the air and the one picture of me crashing into the water. And one last thing, my body rebelled this morning from the jumping, completely and totally sore. Knees and back were the worst. Walking up and down stairs was a challenge until lunch time when they finally started to feel a bit better.
Saw this over at Pointless Waste of Time… They have a caption contest for the photo of the day. The caption winners are usually pretty funny, but this one had some great captions… I especially like the caption’s by Raoul and a1kemi.
As of the writing of this, we had a tie for yesterday’s craption winner:
The enemy had to admit, it was the best surrender they’d ever seen.
-by Caption Man
‘Crotchburn Carlos’ had the special role of applying the brakes.
-by Raoul
Not bad. Though I’ve always had a special affection for captioners who pick out something way in the blurry background of the picture and make that the basis of the joke:
Sergent Punjabi turned to take a piss on the fence. Nothing interesting ever happened on road patrol. -by a1kemi
Today I finally accomplished a barefoot trick I’ve been working on for a while now. Nothing major, but it is something I wanted to get done. I’ve been doing one-foots for a while now where I lift up my right foot. And I’ve been doing them pretty successfully and easily, conditions permitting. I’ve been working on lifting my left foot up since the beginning of summer and just haven’t been able to bring myself to lift it off the water. I shift all my weight onto my right foot, but when I tell my muscles to lift that foot, they don’t respond.
I couple weeks ago while skiing with Dale, I borrowed his barefoot trainers and tried a few one-foots lifting the left foot they worked out OK, but when I tried them on my feet again, it just wasn’t happening.
Today, it finally did. Skiing by the weeds off Olin Point on Lake Monona I finally got over the mental block and lifted my left foot of the water. Wasn’t comfortable, but was a definite solid one-foot. 20 minutes in the bay I replicated it and felt a lot more comfortable doing it too. Next, one foots on the wrong side of the wake (lift the left foot when in the right curl and lift the right foot in the left curl).
I put some pictures up below showing me doing both variations of the one foot, left and right.
This is the foot I’ve been good at for a while, lifting my right foot. Looks pretty good right in front the Madison sky line. To bad my camera sucks, otherwise this would have been a great picture.
Now we’re in Monona Bay (still lots of weeds in here) and this is a good shot of a one-foot on my normal foot again. We’re making use of a narrow path that cuts through the weeds across the middle of the bay that is about 30 feet wide, maybe.
Still in the bay amongst the weeds, but here is a good picture of me doing a goofy one foot, lifting my left foot, and actually feeling comfortable doing it. In my opinion I’m also on the wrong side of the wake (I really like the driver side curl), but that is another habit I need to break.
Now begins Hell Week Part II… Today marks the one year anniversary of what I’ve taken to calling my Hell week. Basically, the Saturday before the Mercury Open I took some foot runs in the morning, injured my shoulder (it is still sore to this day), still did 4-high pyramids corning at practice, got stranded on a highway by a broken down truck in extreme heat and humidity, stayed up half the night getting the music ready for the tournament show the next day, and that was just day one.
Rest of the week was just as busy. Lots of skiing, lots of fun.
This year it is looking like I’m doing the same to myself. Kicked off Hell week early by closing down the Come Back In last Sunday night and going to Pat McCurdy on Tuesday. We had practice this morning at 7am, but I still went skiing on my own before that at 530a to get some good runs in on good calm water. Tonight I’m prepping for the tournament tomorrow. Will try to go skiing multiple times a day multiple times this week, Pearl Jam Concert on Friday, Rhythm and Booms on Saturday. More skiing. I love Hell weeks!!!
Good part is I didn’t start the week off with an injury! And the funny part, this is just the busiest week of summer, but not by much. The rest of it is nearly as busy and just as fun.
Caught Click last night starring Mr. Adam Sandler. Having seen the previews I went in thinking it was a comedy and it actually starts out that way as well. Then about 1/3 of the way through it changes from a comedy to a drama. To sum up the movie, its message is simple.
Live life for every moment, and savor every minute of it.
It got me thinking a little about my life and I’d like to think that I try to follow that motto, but at times it is difficult because there are times that one needs to relax a little as well.
Anyway, back to the movie… As a movie it is pretty good, but as a comedy you’re not going to like it. It just isn’t a comedy to write home about. Sandler does a good job with his dramatic role and Henry Winkler (aka Fonzie) as his dad is great. The other guest stars are well cast as well. There are some allusions to his other movies, specifically, his neighbors. I liked the movie, but be warned, it isn’t a comedy. And one last thing, next time I go to Bed, Bath & Beyond (yea, I do go there once in a while) I’m going to look for the Beyond section.
“Chicks must really dig astronauts because it says here that astronauts get all the Tang they want.”
-Kelso, That 70’s Show
Mad-City Wedge 