blog seven / christmas songs

first of all ... let me just say.

I can't stand christmas songs. really.

not only are they played WAY too often, over and over and fucking over again.

BUT, they start getting played earlier and earlier each year.

it makes stupid christmas shopping even more painful.

but that being said. my list of my favourite christmas songs.

or the ones that I can bear to listen to ... on occasion.

in no particular order:

"christmas (baby, please come home)" / great intro. I dig the U2 version best.

"blue christmas" / elvis presely. the best christmas song ever. especially since I live this song every christmas I spend apart from my little girl : (

"frosty the snowman" / harry connick, jr. does a nice rendition of a silly classic.

"little drummer boy" / david bowie + bing crosby. unlikely duo. great version. check out the video. classic.

"jolly old saint nicholas" / only because my daughter learned this on the piano and I dig her version.

"silent night" / you cant ever go wrong with this version on a cold christmas eve night with a choir singing ... comes off the list if any contemporary singer records it or tries "to make it their own" ... or stupid instrumental versions.

honorable mention:

"hark! the herald angels sing" / dont ask me why, always liked this one. especially singing it during mass.

"holly jolly christmas" / both equally enjoyable and infuriating.

and merryfucking christmas to all those radio stations that ONLY play christmas songs during this time of year.

: )

blog six / empire state of mind

"...shit, I made the yankee hat more famous than a yankee can..."

- jay-z / "empire state of mind"

yeah, its my current favourite song.

maybe, its because the first time I heard it was before game 2 of this year's world series.

in new yankee stadium.

before my beloved yankees beat the phillies on their way to their 27th world series title.

because jay-z rocked full yankees gear [unlike other artists at big game events wearing neutral colors, being political and not taking sides] ... no, not jay. yankee hat. yankee bomber jacket. nice.

because alicia keyes sounds good singing the hook. [unlike rihanna's annoying vocals on "run this town"]

because derek jeter was bopping his head to the track.

and joba chamberlin, too.

because its a really, really good song.

because jay-z writes smart. sharp.

and because jay-z rocks.

I love LA. but I heart NY.

blog five /

happy birthday to my girl.

five years old!

<3

blog four / my day at the LA Triathlon

sunday, october the fourth. 2009

and here we ... ... go.

as you can see in the images above / I participated in the swim leg of the LA TRI [presented by herbalife].

when I arrived at venice beach early sunday morning / the first thing I noticed was the massive waves crashing on the beach, the huge white caps and the buoys and boats bobbing way up and way down.

first thought: "oh, fuck."

and with my stomach already a bit nervous, and then after seeing the bobbing up and down, I started feeling a little seasick.

but that's ok, maybe it just "looks" rough ... 

but after going down to the beach and watching the professional / olympic triathletes swim the course, I realized a few things.

1. the waves are even bigger.

2. the water even rougher.

3. I'm in waaaaaaaaay over my head.

4. I really dont like big waves.

5. I'm fucked.

and there was still a little something in my head that was still thinking: "oh, I can do this. I'm going to finish in at least the top 10 of my group..." lol.

bridget, who was photo-ing the day's festivities / and being very supportive and drove me to the event [which turns out could be driving me to my drowning death...], was laughing at my predictions and was trying to talk reason to me by saying, "just take it easy. don't try to do too much..." you know, stuff like that.

geesh, those waves are huge. six to fucking eight feet. if I saw wavs this size on a normal day, I wouldnt go near the water.

then, it didnt help when you could hear over the loudspeaker that some of the olympic athletes were being pulled from the water by lifeguards. now, these are REAL triathletes. who train. like, all year for this.

awesome.

so / lots of waiting around before the group I'm in, makes its start.

wave 16. sprint relay teams. we all have white caps on.

the group of sprint individuals before us wear purple caps.

the group before them, bright green caps.

the waves are getting bigger.

and stronger.

I take deep breaths.

as we finally make our start, people run down the beach, towards the water.

some trot. some jog. very few sprint.

by the time we hit the water, there are STILL purple caps and green caps left, trying to make it past the bombardment of big waves ... not very encouraging.

I see a handful of swimmers get to their waist, take a look at the waves coming in hard, turn around and be done.

I see others attempt to go under the waves, only to eventually be hit by another wave and sent backwards.

I see a handful of strong swimmers power through the waves and make it to the first buoy.

and then I see swimmers getting saved by lifeguards and pulled out.

oh boy.

so I move forward.

trying to time jumping over or diving under the waves.

but they're coming so fast.

and I keep getting caught and pushed back.

I do make it past the first set of three / only to be enveloped by the first biggie of the following set.

and then I'm back near where I started.

so / again, I push forward.

get to the same spot.

and get pushed back again.

and again.

and again.

I just dont have enough breath or strength to push through after getting past the first set.

I make it out pretty far after really pushing / but its so quick when pushed back. starts to get frustrating.

and I'm getting tired.

fighting the waves AND the riptide is really exhausting.

I look around and there's mot many swimmers left.

apparently, a large group gave up and got out.

I just kept going.

but I knew I reallly didnt have much left.

and if I somehow made it past the waves, I didnt think I had any energy left to stay afloat, let alone, swim the course.

so after getting swallowed by yet, another BIG FAT wave, getting rolled and tumbled and spit out ...

I stood up for a sec, only to get clobbered by another wave ...

finally standing up / a fellow competitor who had just gotten rolled as well said to me: "you know, with that last wave, the ocean just said: fuck you! get out!!"

it made me laugh.

and I had to agree.

I turned around and saw bridget on the beach motioning for me to get out / shouting at me that a lot of others had already quit.

and for a quick sec, my ego said, "c'mon, dont stop" ...

but then the rest of me said "fuck you, you heard what the ocean is telling us."

and I was done.

I gave it a good go.

and I didnt have to be rescued by the lifeguards.

and I lasted a lot longer than others who properly trained for this event.

and about two-thirds of wave 16 did not finish.

congratulations to all that finished. very impressive.

blog three / swim

three days to go before the LA TRI and I begin my official ocean swim training.

[please note: I have been training in the pool ... see photo]

anyway / it became pretty obvious, very fast, that training in the pool is NOTHING like training in the ocean. 

of course I knew this. 

and was warned about this.

and so, I made my first foray into the icy waters at cabrillo beach wearing not a wetsuit [those are for sissies] but instead, team herbalife tri-shorts. [which are not unlike bike shorts] and a pair of new supercool goggles.

firstly / water was BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-fucking cold.

it was at that particular moment that I thought to myself, "should've worn a wetsuit!" but, hey "shoulda / coulda / woulda" ... 

so, up to my knees I turned around and came back out of the water.

but then I turned around and ventured forth ... waist-deep, I dove under ...

refreshing? kinda. 

but more like really fucking cold.

then / I started to swim.

and it was a little bit freaky to actually be able to see the ocean floor below.

and the waves and current really made it quite difficult for me to keep a steady line and NOT feel like I was getting pushed over or when I would breathe to the side, it would feel like a wave would be pouring into my mouth each time.

so, I kept going for what I thought was a good amount of time.

felt like I was making some headway ... stopped to take a look at y whereabouts and realized I'd maybe gone about 10 yards or so ... nice. real nice. and I was already a bit winded. [from both the exertion AND the cold]

next immediate thought: "what have I got myself into?"

but / I kept going.

and I actually started to feel, not bad.

it was pretty difficult to deal with the waves. 

the current. 

the cold. 

the blinding sun.

the mouthfuls of salt water.

and then I was done.

swam. then walked back to the beach.

tired. no, exhausted. still cold.

but, I completed my training for the day.

all 17 minutes of it.

and now, I'm closer to being ready for the LA TRI.

of course, I also need to factor in the fact that there will be at least a hundred other swimmers on sunday and that I have to be ready to not only battle the cold ocean, waves, current, BUT all the other swimmers kicking and running and splashing along side ... awesome. 

wish me luck : )

blog two / wal-mart vs. target

so / the other day, I made my first trip to wal-mart. and survived.

it wasn't that bad. or maybe, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I was actually pretty proud of the fact that I never had been to a wal-mart.

never had the need to go to wal-mart. 

or the desire. there was always the better alternative [target].

I like target. love target. target is cool.

wal-mart is not cool.

but yesterday, the need to shop for inexpensive food items [to make my own lunch] was absolutley neccessary and since there was not a target nearby / it was time to go to the nearby wal-mart. yay.

wal-mart vs. target /

its interesting just how different the two are / you'd think they would be more similar because the basic target audience is sort of the same / they offer low-prices on everyday items / BUT the type of people that shop at each place is SO different.

target seems vastly superior and more sophisticated than wal-mart.

not only in the shopping experience but in the branding.

there is a certain level of sophistication that goes into the target brand. into its advertising. into the environment.

into the product displays. and yet, it still also retains a certain level of "friendliness" in the shopping experience.

there is really absolutely nothing sophisticated about wal-mart.

although, there is something to be said about their new marketing campaign ... a little more universal.

but the thing is ... wal-mart seems to be very secure in the idea of just who their target audience is ...

they do not seem to be interested in attracting a wider range / they seem pretty happy at the type of shoppers that shop there.

target, on the other hand is more of a melting pot / a nice mix of different classes.

young, old, affluent, students, poor, middle-class, families, singles, etcetera.

a lot can be said by just comparing their logos /

target: clean. minimal.

wal-mart: clunky and "horse-y" [and the recent re-design did not help.]

I found the selection of soups at wal-mart to be sub-par.

in both the brands available and the way they were displayed.

at target, the campbell's soup collection is in a pretty cool plastic dispensor case / the whole lot of flavours / sub-brands / traditional cans and microwavable versions ...

at wal-mart / the five different brands of soup were all thrown on a couple of shelves / mismatched [that is except for the top ramen and cup o' noodles, which were all neatly stacked along the bottom shelves in boxes] ...

and finally / the last comparison between the two ...

the smells when first walking in.

wal-mart /

"warehouse-y" ... like things in storage. a little bit stale and cold. 

and the smell of mcdonalds.

target /

sterile. department store-y. starbuck's coffee. and popcorn.

target wins.

but, wal-mart isnt that bad. I did get a big bag of fritos for only $1.77 ... great deal : )

blog one / 23

ok.
my first blog.
the premiere issue. my maiden voyage per se.
so, after flying the jolly roger and weighing anchor ...
away we go.

why all the hate on michael jordan and his hall of fame speech?
I thought it was really, really good.
very honest. funny. he allowed us all a glimpse into the real mike.
and its ironic, that after all the years of his critics, media and other jordan-haters asking him to be more "open" / to take a "stand on issues" / to not be so safe or so "vanilla" ... that when he does hold no punches and is honest, he gets criticized for that ...

I found his speech to be moving and funny and revealing.
I loved that he called people out and talked trash and provided reasons for his competitive nature and all the things said or questioned of him, that helped fuel the fire from within.

I love magic johnson and both he and larry bird may have saved the NBA when they made their mark in the 80's but MJ revolutionized the game of basketball. R E V O L U T I O N I Z E D. not only the way the game is played but marketed ... and how the game is viewed.
and B R A N D E D.

the "jumpman" jordan logo ... one of my all-time favourites.
its nearly perfect in its visual strength and messaging and in its beautiful simplicity.
and all the amazing wieden-kennedy commercials ...
and the shoes ... "its gotta be the shoes..."

but besides the basketball and the branding /
the thing about MJ that inspired me the most was his passion. his will. his work ethic. and the high-expectations he had of himself and those he worked/played with.

so ... all you jordan-haters, please stop calling him arrogant and save that for another guy from chicago, an a**hole named kanye.