2010/05/31

Memorial Day Tribute

DaGoddess @ 14:44


target=”_blank”>Memorial Day Tribute Arlington Cemetary

2010/05/30

Goodbye, Dennis Hopper

DaGoddess @ 05:01

May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010

I loved Hopper. He was smart, funny, and altogether human. His artistic expression reached far beyond acting. He was a photographer, painter, sculptor, poet, writer, and director.

He was a wonderful guest on the Late Late Show — he and Craig Ferguson shared a birthday. They also shared a love of art and humor. He comes in right around the one minute mark in this video.

Dennis Hopper died of complications related to prostate cancer.

Sleep well, Mr. Hopper. You will be missed.

Oh, Jackie, Oh

DaGoddess @ 04:00

Jackie Greene at Doheny Blues Festival

“…baby don’t mistake me for someone who doesn’t ache
I’m the same as you
With a different reaction” ~ Jackie Greene, “Animal”

2010/05/29

I Heart Sam

DaGoddess @ 04:00

2010/05/28

Memorial Day

DaGoddess @ 16:28

This is the first time in years that Little Dude and I won’t be walking amongst heroes at Ft. Rosecrans over Memorial Day weekend. This causes my heart a good deal of pain. Not only is it tradition, but it’s something that means a great deal to both of us.

LD won’t be there. His dad opted to send him camping. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but then again I realize it’s not my decision. Also, as LD and I have discussed, only one of us at Ft. Rosecrans placing flags isn’t quite the same without the other.

Still, it hurts my heart to know that neither of us will be there. I can’t seem to find anything in Vegas that would give me the opportunity to do something similar. But I continue to look.

So, Memorial Day. Dare I even try to write anything new? I don’t think I can write anything better that what I’ve in the past. Yet, I don’t feel right not saying anything.

I’ve said this many times before: I’m unabashedly patriotic. I don’t think we are a perfect nation by any means, but I do believe we offer more than any other country and I believe we are an incredible example of what democracy and liberty are all about. We are a great country and this country was borne of the efforts and from the blood of those who have dedicated themselves to protecting our freedoms. We can never take that for granted, nor should we ever forget. It is the one duty to which we are tasked. That is our piece of the puzzle.

And so it will be that this weekend I will find a way to do my part, to remember, to share, and to wave my flag. I hope, in between barbeques and beers, others do the same. I know you, gentle readers, will be doing your part. I know this because I know the quality of your character and I know the kind of heart that beats within you.

Photos from 2008:

Deadliest Catch – I Finally Catch Up

DaGoddess @ 00:46

I just finished watching four episodes and am now caught up. We saw the end of king crab season and jumped into opilio with an ass kicking storm. Major foreshadowing with the intro as the cameras caught some footage in the graveyard.

This season of Deadliest Catch has not been an easy one to watch. Each week that goes by, it’s another episode closer to the final episode with Phil Harris. But it’s not just that. It seems the weather has battered everyone. Tempers flare, fishing hasn’t been consistent, some have had a great deal of turnover in the crew area.

If you haven’t watched any of Season 6 so far, leave me a comment and I’ll catch you up.

In the meantime, for everyone who has been watching, what do you think we’ll see next week? The ice is bad — worse than we’ve seen for the beginning of opie season in a long time. Some of the crews are green. The seas are rough. It seems inevitable that there will be a few close calls. The only question becomes who approaches the danger zone first?

2010/05/26

I’m So Glad

DaGoddess @ 05:28

In the words of Skip James, I’m so glad(!)…just to be home and back in my own bed.

Doheny was a lot of fun.

Friday, we check into the hotel and within a couple minutes there came a knock upon our door. Birthday treats! Yummy chocolate and ice cream and a brownie. The three of us (my friend M and my new friend J and I) got changed and headed out to the Renaissance in Dana Point. There, we got our drink on (I had two Beam & Cokes and a couple sips of wine, which was probably the best red wine I’ve ever tasted), had some dinner, and we even managed to find a way to dance (if you want to call it that) on the very crowded dance floor. Steve Copeland & Raging Sun are a band you gotta see if you’re in SoCal. Just sayin’. There was more birthday dessert goodness at some point, but one of the true highlights for me was meeting the owners of the place. Y’see, I walked over to their table, which was right in front of ours, and had to comment on the Blue Star Flag laminate the one gentleman had in his shirt pocket. One man has a son in Iraq, the other (who is also a vet…they both may be, but I distinctly recall the one in particular) has a son in Afghanistan. They were quite glad that I noticed the Blue Star and were happy to talk about their amazing kids. That really was a “moment” for me. Yes, everything else was fun and delicious and delightful, but that…it was special, y’know? My evening ended on a high note.

The next day — the first day of the festival — was spent running from one stage to the next. It was too much. I didn’t get to see a single artist perform their entire show. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing. I got to see all but one act and I got photos of all but two (I think). I missed James Intveld completely as I stood mesmerized by Taj Mahal. I only caught a minute or so of Big Sam’s Funky Nation, but man oh man, they were good! They had people stacking and moving chairs so they could all dance! Let’s see, what else? I had a very nice lunch of some good Cajun catfish and fries, chased with an ice cold lemonade. I got to see a lot of San Diego friends, catching up with them, and mostly just enjoying the music together. It was a long day, but the best kind of long day you can have.

The bands were all fantastic, but the headliner? The Black Crowes…hmmm…the crowd…I had a select group of five people around me who were cool. Otherwise the crowd sucked. Aggressive, rude, pushy, and generally not feeling the whole “peace, love” vibe the Crowes are supposed to be about. Chris Robinson is still rockin’ his Jesus look. I got a few good photos and then walked away without regret by the third song. The beer shower was NOT appreciated. Never heard a single song I recognized anyway. Instead of the Crowes, I got 2000 LBS of Blues on the Backporch Stage and loved it.

One of my roommates for the weekend and I walked back to the hotel, threw on our suits, and hit the hot tub. Later, we caught up with another friend or two, grabbed some Jack in the Box (hey, we were totally burned out at that point), and headed back to the room. Along the way, we ran into one of the gals who was running sound on the Backporch and invited her to the room for a drink and maybe some JITB tacos. She was a delight and we all had a good time sharing stories.

Day two of the festival was a lot more relaxed. I’d decided to hang out at the Backporch Stage as much as possible. Taj Mahal, Jackie Greene, and Duke Robillard were all back there and I could always go wander about between acts, which is exactly what I did. Mostly. I missed the first couple songs Jackie did because I really wanted to see a little Bettye Lavette. Ha! A little is right. She’s a tiny thang. Anyway, I caught three songs, enjoyed it, and then went over to see Jackie. I had to pry my way through the crowd to get to the stage. It’s not usually that crowded over there, but Jackie Greene has a very devoted following and it was packed tight. Got to the front of the stage and sat on the ground, crawled back and forth when necessary, and managed to (mostly) avoid the overzealous security guy (he took his job way too seriously and was strung tighter than a tennis racquet). I think he was still pissed because earlier, when Taj was on stage, Taj had encouraged everyone to stand up and join in the fun. Mr. Security couldn’t fight The Man, could he? No way.

Finally got some BBQ in me. Lunch was a calm affair. I got my food, sat down and relaxed. My pace was definitely slower and more deliberate. I never got to the front of the stage for Booker T or John Nemeth or even for Otis Taylor and I really didn’t care. If I managed to get a photo from back further, I was glad, but I didn’t feel like trying to push through any more crowds. Instead, I ambled about. I went back to the kids’ stage and talked with a couple guys from 2000 LBS of Blues (they were hosting the stage), visited with people along the way, took in all the sights and sounds, and generally found myself to be much happier. I caught up with my weekend roomies, enjoyed a beer with them, and it was off to camp out in front of the main stage for Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Backstage, David Crosby took a tumble and the paramedics were brought over to tend to him. He wasn’t terribly injured so the show went on as scheduled. I got about two and a half songs in when Security came over and said, “I’m sorry, ma’am, but no professional photography allowed.” I tried to give the lame, “oh, but my camera isn’t ‘professional’, it’s only an XTi,” but that didn’t work. So I took no more photos and decided to exit the crowd, allowing the kind people around me to squish together and get closer to the action. It took me a full song to extract myself from the throng of fans. It took another few minutes to get to the front gate and start off toward the hotel. I stopped to call and try to get her a quick listen of CSN. Of course, she can’t really hear anything, but at least I tried.

As soon as we hung up, I started my walk to the hotel again and I hear the strains of “Ruby Tuesday” coming from CSN. WTF? Turns out it wasn’t the only odd choice of the evening. They included a Who tune, too. I didn’t hear it, but I heard about it, if that makes sense. All I knew is that I was on a mission to get back to the hotel and get into the hot tub. And I made it!

By Monday morning, I was suitably worn out and ready to head home. A trip down to San Diego with a stop at the Fish Market in Del Mar for lunch made me happy, as did the birthday strawberries dipped in three kinds of chocolate and dusted with cinnamon. Then there was an impromptu photo session with some lovely flowers. We stopped at my friend M’s house since we had time before my flight. She showed me a few of her prized souvenirs from her travels and we talked websites and charities and about how much fun the weekend was.

I managed to secure a ride home from the airport from one of my photography buddies (thanks, B!) and got home just after 9pm. Yesterday was spent recuperating from the comfort of my bed. And there was good news from my attorney — we’re filing a motion to force the insurance company into approving my doctor (as they were ordered to do two months ago), so I should be in to see a doctor sometime before Halloween.

Now it’s back to the editing booth as it were. I have photos and stories and all sorts of things to get done. Hopefully I’ll still be singing the songs I heard this weekend while I edit.

2010/05/25

Two-fer Tuesday

DaGoddess @ 04:00

Goin’ back, baby. Way back.

No portents of doom today. Just a kick ass song. (Sorry, Dan*)

And just to prove that it’s all good**:

P.S. The best version of ” Coming” is unavailable for embedding. Go check it out.

* Dan Rydell from Sports Night. Season 1, episode 13.

** Unless you watch Lost, in which case even the best moments and songs turn to shit because something ominous always lies in wait. I don’t believe that for a second though, mostly because I’m not a survivor on some spooky, crazy island. (And mainly because I stopped watching last year when ABC decided to put the show on against a bunch of other shows I was watching. Seriously, what’s up with that? I figure I’ll catch last season and this final season in the future. Or is it the past?) Instead, I tend to think of Shambala in terms of Tippi Hedren. And yes, working there would be amongst my fondest dreams.

2010/05/24

Travel Day

DaGoddess @ 06:00

I’m recovering from all the fun and getting on a plane this evening. Thankfully, WordPress has this nifty feature which has allowed me to create entries long in advance so that you don’t have to sit here looking at an old post, waiting desperately for my return. That’s what you were doing, weren’t you? Yeah, thought so.

May you enjoy. (And if you care, you’ll have Abba Zabbas waiting for me at home. The small ones, please.)

In case you don’t recognize James Intveld — he was the voice for Johnny Depp in the movie Cry Baby.

2010/05/23

Sunday Sweetness

DaGoddess @ 08:00

Booker T. Jones is on the agenda today. Sadly, I doubt Steve Cropper will be there. I know, I know, the tears will do me no good.

And more fun on deck:

2010/05/22

Weekend Headliners

DaGoddess @ 06:00

Headliners for the weekend:

Crosby, Stills & Nash
Black Crowes

Yes, at a blues festival. I’m cool with it. Hoping the crowd is big and polite. Polite is good. Are you green with envy yet? Don’t be. Next year we can plan to meet there and we’ll enjoy it all together. Deal? Good.

2010/05/21

Friday Fun

DaGoddess @ 08:00

Are you having a good time? I know I am. Tonight it’s dinner with friends up in Dana Point. Tomorrow, we begin the craziness that is Doheny.

Here are a couple more bands I’ll be checking out this weekend.

Honestly, I had to restrain myself from posting videos of Kim Wilson with hair. It’s a curiosity, that’s for sure. I prefer him without. Then again, I like bald men.

2010/05/20

Three-fer Thursday

DaGoddess @ 04:00

Goin’ with a little Taj Mahal since I’ll be seeing him this weekend.

2010/05/19

Wonderful Wednesday

DaGoddess @ 08:00

I’ll be seeing both acts this weekend. You may begin the envy now.

This last video is for Mr. Eric Czar who’s celebrating his birthday today. (May my birthday buddy be having a kick ass day!)

Suck This, Avant!

DaGoddess @ 05:21

Normally Avant browser is awesome. Or should I do this in Cartman mode and say “mostly”. Because, mostly it is. Except for some weird shit that happened around 3am.

The browser went haywire. I had to close everything down. Fine. I went to reopen it and I get a whole new browser with none of my settings saved.

Well, that totally sucked and it took me about two hours to fix everything. TWO FUCKING HOURS. That’s WITH me trying to sign into my account and retrieve all my saved settings. (It wouldn’t connect to Avant’s server.) That’s unacceptable. And for some reason, Avant never ever seems to want to make it easy to change search engines (the default is Avant/Bing). It also doesn’t want to remember what my last damn skin setting was. Like I can remember?

I really didn’t need this crap this morning as I was trying to unwind and go to bed.

Don’t hijack my browser and update it automatically. I have my preferences set so that’s not supposed to happen. And if you’re going to save my preferences and all that rot, make it easy for me to do so. I don’t want to spend two hours trying to get everything back that I’ve spent six years putting into place.

So, to sum this up into a nice, tidy package, in the immortal words of Eric Cartman: Avant, you may “suck my balls” (if I had them).

Other pet peeve today? RedRoom sends out an email with this title: “Please blog about your favorite popular music song”. Uh, is that music and/or song? Or have we now begun to define every song as a music song? Because I think that’s totally unnecessary.

Yikes, I’m cranky today. Not enough sleep. Seriously, I woke up after three hours of sleep thinking I’d slept for 10 hours and well, that was wrong. Can’t get back to sleep yet. Oh well.