A Great Day in Pittsburgh

I spent most of the day today visiting with my mom and stepdad in honor of his 60th birthday. I watched the Browns kick Baltimore’s ass, which was really nice, then drove back to my hotel here in the Steel City and watched the end of the Stillers loss to the Buzzsaw that is the Arizona Cardinals.

Really, my heart is singing. I know you can’t hear it, but believe me — it is.

It’s always going to be tough to be a Browns fan in Pittsburgh, but it’s especially tough when the Stillers win and my team loses. And since we only play games once-a-week, I get to enjoy this one the full seven days. Just like last week when I had to listen to how awesome the Stillers were after beating San Francisco (no, really) and the Browns lost to Oakland.

Other accomplishments this weekend:

- reloaded supply of clean, pressed work shirts
- raided basement bookshelf for lefty literature to fill empty shelves in office and score some cheap Red-cred (“No, Howard Zinn didn’t stop writing after People’s History!”)
- treated my wife to two (2) celebratory meals on Saturday to commemorate six years of wedded bliss (Yes, to me …)
- serenaded her after dinner for about an hour on guitar, which I then packed and brought with me
- managed compliments from two toll booth operators in two separate states on my musical selections today (Clash’s “Train in Vain” in Ohio this morning and Nick Cave’s “Bring it On” in Penn. this evening)
- predicted in a blog post Friday night that I would delete the entry Saturday morning and did
- started a list of “10 Moments that Shaped/Changed My Life” on a whim, quit after list reached thirty — may blog it later this week if nothing else comes up
- caught up on most of the TV shows my wife thoughtfully Tivo’d for me this week (Office, Earl, Grey’s, Sunny in Philly, Boston Legal)
- managed a whopping eleven hours of sleep between Friday and Today, not counting a short (1/2 hour) nap Saturday before dinner — in my suit pants

Finally, HUGE shout out to Kelly Pavlik from Y-town (aka MY town) for being the baddest middleweight in the world and proving it in Atlantic City. I wasn’t able to watch the fight, but when I saw he got knocked down early in the fight and came back after re-establishing himself to knock Taylor out in the seventh, it reminded me again how proud I am to be from Youngstown and why.

Folks can talk all the shit in the world about what a miserable place Youngstown is and make jokes about car bombs, Jim Traficant and the decline of the Steel Industry, but MY town never quits.

Fuck with us and get your taste, suckers.

Wreck of the Old 97 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wreck of the Old 97 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The “Old 97″, a Southern Railway train officially known as the Fast Mail, was en route from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina when it left the track at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia on September 27, 1903. The wreck inspired a famous railroad ballad, which was the focus of a convoluted copyright lawsuit.

“Spectacular” 1913 Train Collision – YouTube

Trains wrecked on purpose …

YouTube – Spectacular 1913 Train Collision

Mellow Gold

Beck, 1994. Yeah, I love Beck.

Here’s the story of my introduction to the man’s music. This is a little bit of a guilty pleasure for me, and because I’m feelin’ it right now, I figured I’d write about it instead of some lame ass bullshit about my progress in Pittsburgh, which is going great. Thanks for asking.

Back in 1993, I was finishing my first year at YSU and had the world by the cogliones, only I didn’t know it yet.

See, my first year at college was pretty much a disaster. Ask anybody. I had a real hard time when my high school girlfriend broke up with me during finals week of my first quarter of college. I remember walking over to the convenience store across the street from campus and buying a couple 40′s of Budweiser and a few MoonPies, pounding the beers and damning myself over the idiot bitch that I was fairly sure fucked up my life forever.

Now, after those two 40′s I called the new boyfriend at his parents’ house and “invited” him to come get a pair of panties and some Polaroids that I no longer had any use for … and, well, he declined my invitation but my point was made, nonetheless.

By the time 1994 rolled around, the girl had come running back, and all was right with the world and the three other girls I’d moved onto simultaneously since our original breakup. Really, I couldn’t have been stopped. Not by anybody at that time, at least.

I was working two full-time jobs, keeping up a full schedule of classes and fucking everything that moved — including the bitch that broke my heart in the first place. And let’s face it, when you’re a 20 years old in Youngstown, it really doesn’t get any better than that.

One night, I dropped the malignant bitch off at her mom’s house after a few hours of dirty VHS-recorded sex at my apartment and went to a party with some of my newer friends. The hostess, another girl I didn’t have time for, smoked a ton of pot and wouldn’t/couldn’t get Beck’s Mellow Gold out of her CD player.

I remember that night I was heavily into a Blues Brothers phase and brought a couple bottles of Night Train with me. I drank both of them, and spent most of the later part of the evening puking in the parking lot outside her apartment building. I finally passed out on a reclining chair, the grooves of Mellow Gold the only constant until morning.

To this day, every time I hear a Beck song, new or old, I can’t help but get nostalgic for those days and that night in particular. I don’t know what that makes me now, but I can’t say I’m sorry anymore. I had fun. And I needed to.

I met some really cool folks that night too. There was this other guy named Joe puking in the parking lot at the same time I was, who ended up killing himself a few years later but was a fantastic poet then. The hostess, a girl named Amy (wish I could remember her last name) was the editor of our literary magazine and her brother ended up working for the Clinton administration in some capacity, if I remember correctly.

I’m sure they’re both doing great things these days. I wish I’d kept in touch.

“She Kicks Ass” – Carl Newman on Neko Case – YouTube

If you don’t know already, the New Pornographers are the best damn indie rock band in the land. And Neko Case rocks my world. For reals, yo!

YouTube – THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS AND THE CASE OF NEKO

JD

JD is a guy I look up to. He is a brilliant writer with excellent PR instincts. When I started this job in 1999 as an English and professional writing graduate with no experience outside my uncle’s bar, I got the sense right away that JD was different.

My first assignment was to shadow him for a few days and assist him with whatever “communications” tasks came our way.

It was very clear from day one that all the work was going to be done by me.

“Tony, draft a handbill. Tony, draft a press release. Tony, draft this letter …”

I would, of course without any further direction,  do exactly what I was asked and e-mail the results to JD, who would offer some generic compliments and then return my work several days later completely rewritten in Microsoft Word’s unmistakable redline/strikeout format.

Those first few projects were tough, but it was certainly clear that JD was an excellent editor. His suggestions were always welcome, and as time passed, I adapted to his style, meaning fewer edits every time out.

Beyond that first assignment, I only worked with him sporadically. Every once in a while, somebody would call me in a panic with a similar story.

“Tony, we’ve been waiting for JD to finish drafting this [handbill, release, billboard design, letter, etc.], and we’re on deadline today and can’t get him on the phone. Can you draft something real quick?”

Now, JD has an MA in writing and has always been and will always be a better writer than I am. No doubt about it.

Apparently, however, JD had a hard time with deadlines, and showing up for work on time, if at all, was something of a problem for him. In fact, he missed more deadlines than he made, which is especially problematic if you’re the kind of person whose job depends on your ability to deliver content on time.

It led to his departure from our mutual employer about a year ago, which is a shame because JD is such an amazingly talented guy. He blames adult ADD, and I’m not in any position to argue with his doctor.

That said, he got away with a lot of stuff over the course of the last seven years I worked with him. More precisely, he got away with doing just about nothing most of the time.

One time, as was his habit, he answered a call on the speakerphone.

“Mr. JD, this is the Allegheny County Coroner’s office calling. There’s a dead body on your couch.”

“Oh, man,” he said, “I guess I better get home then, huh?”

One of his son’s friends O.D.’d during an overnight stay. I wish I could say that was the beginning of the end, but it wasn’t. It was just another day in the life of JD.

When I arrived for work on Monday with my Timbuk2 laptop bag and very little else, the person who’d taken over JD’s office literally jumped up and volunteered to move to another floor in our building to clear the space for me.

Now, I didn’t realize at the time that I would inherit his telephone extension too. For whatever reason, I was too freaked out this afternoon after I’d moved my very few belongings into my new digs to even set up my own voicemail, so I had the secretary do it.

Tonight, I called my wife and gave her my new work number, along with the history of who it belonged to before me, and she laughed.

“That’s the guy who came to our house a few years ago for a news conference on Thursday and didn’t leave until Monday!”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s him.”

Lion Brewery | Wilkes Barre, PA

Lion Brewery | Wilkes Barre, PA

With a proud brewing heritage dating back to 1905, The Lion Brewery merges rustic architecture with state-of-the-art brewing technology, a contrast typified by the gleaming stainless steel aging tanks that sit alongside the traditional copper brew kettle. Our brewing process utilizes the traditional English method of upward infusion mashing in our combination mash/lauter tun to create lagers and ales inspired by old world values, but with modern quality and consistency.

Pedro Almodóvar – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pedro Almodóvar – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Almodóvar is the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular songs, irreverent humor, strong colors and glossy décor. He never judges his character’s actions, whatever they do, but he presents them as they are in all their complexity. Desire, passion, family and identity are the director’s favorite themes.

BlackBerry 8820® Smartphone

How do I snag one of these without the missus getting the bill …? Hmmm. I’m thinking eBay, money order and having it shipped to the office.

BlackBerry 8820® Smartphone

The BlackBerry® 8820 smartphone is the stylish way to get things done. With powerful capabilities, yet incredibly compact and slim, it combines a stylish design with a premium finish. Elegant and performance-driven, this is a smartphone you’ll always want to show off.

The BlackBerry 8820 is packed with incredible new features, such as built-in GPS, Wi-Fi support¹, BlackBerry® Maps, a multi-media player, expandable memory, Voice-Activated Dialing and trackball navigation. It doesn’t compromise on core BlackBerry® functionality though. It also offers email and text messaging (SMS and MMS), instant messaging, organizer, web browser and advanced phone features.

One in the Books

I started a new job today.

Actually, it’s the same job I’ve been doing, except for a few things:

1) The building is a lot bigger.

2) The folks I work with here don’t generally hang around after work and get drunk (though I think I can fix that).

3)  It’s not Cleveland anymore. It’s the other place. And I live in a hotel suite.

I’ve been working with most of these folks for years, only by phone and e-mail, so it’s not exactly like I’m the “new guy,” which is nice because I’ve still got the “new guy” novelty without the pressure to “prove” myself.

I did manage to find a beer & beverage distributor, pick up a case of Lion’s Head Light (they were out of Stegmeier 1857 but will get a delivery on Friday) and wind my way through the hills to a Circuit City, where I found a 320 Gig Maxtor external HD for $89(!).

Can you say “hello bittorrent” to all the great TV that I can’t record on my Tivo (which is still in Cleveland)?