East Brady/Phish Vacation

Here are a few pics and tales from our East Brady and Phish tour vacation.

Em's Grandma lives in East Brady, which is a very small town seated along the Allegheny River in eastern Pennsylvania. This is a shot from The Narrows; a popular overlook high above the town and the river.

Em and Grandma Lois at The Narrows.

We spent two nights in East Brady. We mostly just chilled with Emily's grandma, aunt, uncle and two cousins. We ate amazing food that only a grandma can cook, and visited the local (and only) bar on the second night. "All-Stars" was fully stocked with interesting characters and every piece of Steelers gear that you could imagine. Clearly, I avoided any and all sports conversation.

After a couple of nights at Grandma's, it was time for some some Phish. We left East Brady and headed west. Our first show was at Deer Creek Amphitheater in Noblesville, Indiana (just north of Indy).

We arrived at our campsite the day before the first show. We set up camp, made some drinks, threw some Frisbee and played some Cornhole with a couple of guys from the 'Nati camped next to us. The "campground" was basically a field, a little patch of woods, a few port-a-potties and some booths of "vendors" selling glass jewelry and pot cookies.

The show at Deer Creek was amazing. We made our way the 2.5 miles to the venue via hitchhiking. We made it to the parking lot around 3:30. The parking lot at a Phish show is an impossible thing to describe. Phish tour is basically a traveling society/economy. There are thousands of people buying and selling any and everything that you could imagine. This is exactly where you want to be if you happen to be looking for extra tickets/burritos/cold beer/grilled cheese/t-shirts/any drug under the sun/jewelry/various glass pieces/skirts/stickers.....the list could go on and on.

Moving on to the weather. IT WAS HOT! I feel like it had to be teetering on 100 degrees that afternoon. After a few hours of hanging out in the lot, everyone was pretty much sun-kissed and fired up for some Phish. We got in to the venue ahead of the crowd and secured a pretty nice spot on the lawn. Phish came out and played an awesome first set (including a personal favorite, Fluffhead) under a lightning filled sky. Huge bolts filled the sky, flashing horizontally over the the crowd and invoking cheers and screams. The band seemed to feed off of the nervous energy and play harder. The crowd fed off of the band and screamed louder. It was a perfect example of the reciprocal energy that make a Phish show so amazing.

After the first set, Page (the pianist) addressed the crowd. He said that the lightning storm should pass by 11:00 pm, so they were going to take a break until then. He gave instructions to stay put if you were seated in the pavilion and to go wait in your car if you were in the lawn. Unfortunately, Em and I didn't have a car there, so we just bunkered down and waited. The lawn cleared out quite a bit, and I figured that a lot of people wouldn't come back. I was wrong. when 11:00 rolled around, the lawn was packed with thousands of people who took the opportunity to go back to their car and slam a bunch of their own beers and do whatever else. Not to mention, there was no way to check people's tickets upon re-entry, so tons of ticketless people outside took the opportunity to head in a catch the second set.

By the time the band came back out, the crowd seemed rabid with anticipation. They played an awesome second set as the rain began to get nuts. By the time the show was over, it was coming down in in sheets. It wasn't worth even attempting to stay dry. We made it back to the lot, grabbed a couple of grillies and headed back to camp. Instead of catching the shuttle, we decided to hoof it. It was a long, wet walk, but, for some reason, we didn't seem to care. By the time we made it back, we were soaked to the bone. I couldn't have been more wet if I had swam in my clothes. Our tent underwent minimal water damage, so we cleaned things up and crashed. We woke up around 7:00 am the next day, packed up and headed north.

Next stop, Alpine Valley Amphitheater in East Troy, Wisconsin. We had a bag full of wet clothes, minor head aches and two more shows to go.

This post is long enough, so I'll continue later.

Set-list. June 19, 2009

Set One
Backwards Down the Number Line
AC/DC Bag
Limb By Limb
The Moma Dance
Water In The Sky
Split Open and Melt
Lawn Boy
The Wedge
Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan
The Connection
Ocelot
Fluffhead

Set Two
A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing >
Drowned >
Twist
Let Me Lie
Tweezer >
2001 >
Suzy Greenberg >
Possum

Encore
Sleeping Monkey >
Tweezer Reprise

An action packed couple of weeks

To the thousands (or five) of my faithful readers, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts lately. In the midst of a pretty hectic last couple of weeks of school, Emily and I had the pleasure of hosting a young man from Colombia for about two and a half weeks. When I wasn't studying and writing papers, I was doing my best to entertain him. For those who didn't get to meet him, Gabe is a sixteen year old who recently graduated from high school and is traveling the U.S. (on his own), visiting friends and family. I met Gabe and his mom when I was spending last summer in Colombia, and it was an honor to accommodate him. We did our best to show him all that the 'Nati has to offer, including a sweet Reds/Cubs game with a bunch of friends and family.

On top of all that, Em and I took Gabe to the Red River Gorge with a few other friends. We took him to some of our favorite spots and spent some quality time sitting around the camp fire chatting and playing Catch-Phrase.

A Few days ago, Emily and I joined some of our closest friends (Brad, Leah, Jana, Justin, Liz and Fuller) on a brief trip to Rocky Fork Lake. We had a great time chillin' in the Shaw (Brad Wise's Family) lake house. We played some mind-blowing games of Texas Horseshoes, drank some beers and cruised around the lake on the pontoon boat.

Tomorrow, Em and I are hitting the road once again. We are going to East Brady, Pennsylvania to visit her grandma, then we are heading to Deer Creek and Alpine Valley to hit a few Phish shows. Going to Phish shows has long been one of my favorite things to do, and I can't wait for Em to experience it with me.

I promise some sweet pictures and stories from the shows when we get back next week.

Until then, I will be out of the office. Gone Phishin'. I hope everyone is doing great, and I'll talk to you soon.

Shin Kicking

I was listening to The Jim Rome Show the other day when he started going off about shin kicking contests. Apparently, these are pretty big in the U.K. Rumor has it that wealthy land owners used to settle disputes by kicking each other in the shins. The first one to fall down lost. Now, it has evolved in to a, uh, dare I say, sport? I'm pretty sure that these days the competitions are pretty much just huge drunk-fests where guys can blow off a little steam, get loaded and kick each other. Sounds sweet, as long as you make sure to stuff your pants with the an ample amount of protective straw. Oh yeah, and you have to wear a lab coat.

Total Eclipse

My buddy Bosken showed this video to me last night. It gets kind of dumb around the 3 minute mark, but hang in there. It finishes strong.

Peace out, Jay

Did anyone catch Jay Leno's final episode last night? Conan takes his place on The Tonight Show starting Monday.

I remember when I was a kid and Johnny Carson handed over the show to Jay. It seemed like such a big deal. I remember everyone talking about it. My whole family even hung out and watched the final episode. I'm wondering if that was really a bigger deal than Jay leaving, if it just seemed like it to me because my dad was a huge Johnny fan or if Jay leaving actually is a big deal but I just haven't been paying attention.

Personally, I'm pretty excited for the switch. It's not like I can't stand Jay Leno, but I'm not a big fan. Conan, on the other hand, cracks me up. Some people claim that The Late Show will loose a lot of older viewers because they wont get Conan's humor. I think more people will watch now that Conan is in the earlier spot. I know I'll tune in a lot more. I rarely watch Jay, and I'm usually in bed before Conan comes on.

Anyway, I'm wondering how you guys feel about it. Happy? Sad? Couldn't care less?

I tried to find a good Leno video to put up here as a bit of a farewell tribute, but I honestly couldn't find anything that I thought was funny. Sorry.

The losing streak is finally over

A few days ago, Professor Fuller wrote a blog post titled Connected. It was about the small decisions (or fluke accidents) we make in life that lead to something much bigger. For example, a few years ago, I accidentally signed up for the wrong church small group on a website, ended up at a new church, met a bunch of new friends and even the woman who would later become my wife. That one mistake completely changed my life forever.

Fuller, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to expand on that thought a little bit today to explain what events may have occurred to stop my Red's game losing streak.

1.) The tighty whities. Back in the fall, I joined Emily, her brothers and her brothers wives on a trip to West Palm Beach for a wedding. The afternoon before the wedding, we all went to the beach and swam in the ocean. I swam in my shorts and underwear. Later, while getting ready for the wedding, I realized that I forgot to pack any clean undies, and my only pair were soaked with salt water. We had to leave for the wedding in only a few minutes, so there was no time to go out for a new pair. I called Em's bro, Chad, in his room and told him the situation. Without haste, he grabbed an extra pair of clean tighty whities form his suit case and hand delivered them to my room. I wore them to the wedding and have never worn them since.

Yesterday, while getting ready for the Red's game, I saw that Chad's underwear were the only pair left in my drawer. I didn't think twice about grabbing them and throwing them on.

Stay with me here. This is where it gets nuts. If Jana hadn't found Fuller's blog from Sean's blog, she wouldn't have found D'vine (our church). If she hadn't have found D'vine, I wouldn't have accidentally started going to her small group, which means I wouldn't have found D'vine. If I hadn't found D'vine, I wouldn't have met Emily, which means I wouldn't have gone to West Palm Beach, which means I would have had absolutely no reason to borrow a pair of tighty whities from her brother.

2.) The Brad. For the first time in history, I went to a Red's game with Brad Wise last night. My lack of Brad might have been my problem all along. Thinking back to all of the things that had to occur in order for me to find this precious lucky charm of mine blows my freaking mind! If Jana hadn't found Fuller's blog from Sean's blog, she wouldn't have found D'vine. If she hadn't have found D'vine, I wouldn't have accidentally started going to her small group, which means I wouldn't have become her friend. Being Jana's friend led to me becoming friends with her boyfriend, Justin. Without Justin, the odds are pretty slim that I would have became friends with his sister & brother in law. Yep, you guessed it. That "brother in law" just happens to be my new rabbits foot, Brad Wise.

3.) The Shoes. It hit me like a brick yesterday that I had an old pair of New Balance that I hadn't worn to a game yet. I threw them on and thought I had finally figured it out. I think I completely owe this one to my feet. If I didn't have my feet, I wouldn't have shoes. Also, if I didn't have feet, I probably wouldn't have been walking around the mall that day, several years back, where I stumbled upon these very shoes on clearance at The Finish Line. Thanks feet. Actually, I'm sure if we all thought really hard about this one, we could somehow tie these shoes back to Sean Michael Murphy, too.

So, that's how it went down. I'm not sure if it was the tighty whities, the Brad or the Shoes. The bottom line is the Reds won!! I'm 1-5, and things are looking up. I will be trying various combinations of these three things to see which one is really the lucky charm. One game, I'll take Brad, wear the undies and go barefoot. Another game, I might wear the shoes, go with Brad all while rockin' out commando style.

Stay tuned for updates, and keep an eye on those Reds. We're 1.5 games out of first and lookin' good.

I love me some Marty

If you know me, you probably know that I love the Reds. You might also know that I HATE the Cubs. The Cubs are my Steelers of the baseball world. The thing is, I have issues with the Cubs and the Steelers for different reasons. When it comes to the Steelers, its the team I don't like. I don't like the players, the coaches or the dirty style of play that they have adopted over the years. I'll even admit that there is probably a little Super Bowl envy sprinkled in there, mixed with memories of seeing Carson's knee bend backwards as a result of a dirty hit by Kimo von Oelhoffen. With the Cubs, on the other hand, it is the fans that make me hate the team. Cubs fans tend to be the most rude and arrogant fans in baseball. They haven't won a World Series in over 100 years (the last one was 1908), but to talk to a Cubs fan you would think that they had won every series since 1908.

As you may know, there is a tradition at Wrigley Field of throwing home run balls back that were hit by the opposing team. I've heard from a few Cubs fans that this tradition is actually tainted. Over the years, fans in the bleacher seats have actually started bringing baseballs to games. They keep them in their pocket and switch out the ball if they catch a home run so that they can keep the real one. WEAK!

Let me get to my point. I was looking around on Youtube and stumbled across an audio clip that cracked me up. I guess at a recent Reds/Cubs game at Wrigley, a bunch of fans thought it would be funny if they all threw their backup baseballs on to the field when a Reds player hit a homer. Apparently, Marty Brennaman wasn't amused. I grew up listening to Marty calling Reds games, and him and Joe Nuxhall will always have a very special place in my heart. Marty was already my favorite announcer in baseball, but, after hearing this, I love him even more.