...injured... injured bad...

Good clip - quite slick. Made me chuckle...



Earth: Down with a case of the Humans

(via Digg)

and from the confused silence department...

I seriously don't remember this one... but wow. What a way to get grant money...



He-Man Sexual Harassment PSA

(via Digg)

I want to play the food processor...

Excellent video - worth the watch:

Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers

(Via Jim Bonney/Steven Bryant)

Good Weekend...

Weekends with large, open swaths of trackless time are possibly the greatest boon to this season, when we're blessed with cloudless days that don't yet have the humidity equivalent to breathing melted Velveeta cheese. It's this time of year that Houston is actually an ideal city to live in (once you cast aside the traffic, the cost of gas, and the sprawl).

I spent this better-half-less weekend trying to enjoy all this as much as possible - running Rice after dark on Friday, shooting at things and eating BBQ out of a trailer in the woods with Kate and Robert Eubanks, and making notes on Waller's 2007 marching show sitting in Cafe Artiste today . Ahh the good life.

Also today, I will be attending Univ. of Houston's final Wind Ensemble concert of the year - they're playing Dahl's Sinfonettia (a piece I am very excited to hear), Lincolnshire Posy, Marche Joyeuse, Brahm's Variations on a Theme by Haydn (a piece I am as yet unfamiliar with - but I love Brahms so my interest is piqued) and the 1812 Overture. After that, I hope to head over to Scott Gertner's SkyBar and check out the Civic Jazz Orchestra - Cameron Kubos and Mike Cheripka performing - and then round out the day by picking up Sarah at the airport, fresh back from New York City.

All-in-all, a good weekend. Apologies for the lack of pictures - the camera is currently on Ellis Island, hopefully being put to good use.

Adios!

Grab-bag of Goodness

The past few days have been eventful, but in an entirely random sort of way... let me elaborate:

On Saturday, Sarah and I decided to head up to Cy-Ridge High School to check out the Waller JH Wind Ensemble UIL performance. On our way there, we decided to stop by an oddity local to our neighborhood - Giant-Heads-Of-Past-Presidents-Sitting-In-A-Lot-Behind-Target (said in one breath, very fast) You think I jest but look on, look on:

We put the suburban there for scale. Honest.

Yes, that is King George I, the Gipper... and Gerald Ford behind some pick-up trucks.

... The Beatles?

Yep, The Beatles... though I think Paul's lost his head...

Sarah asks Abe what the hell's up with these ads... and what the beaver is really like in person...

After that fun we got to the contest site with plenty of time, so we decided to run over to Petco and browse the selection. Check out the humorous residents we found... The Junior High Band did great (1s on stage and in sight-reading - Go Bulldogs!) and a good time was had by all.

Sunday, we decided to trek out to College Station, in search of good college-y food. Since Houston is a bastion of commuter campuses and small, exclusive universities that don't require a comfort-food-support-network - the 1.5 hour drive to college station is the next best thing to good old Austin (or Chicago, for that matter). While there we made the rounds to our old favorites, as well as discovered a few surprises along the way:

First stop - Antonio's Pizza (kudos to HRC for introducing me to this originally)

Happiness.

Spicy Chicken Quesedilla Pizza ... I have no words.

Next on the menu - the original Freebirds
(btw, much better than Taco Cabana, Mr. Bryant)

Sarah ordered a half-bird, spinach tortilla, chicken burrito. Yum!

And on the incredibly-unexpected-and-equally-welcome side of things:

Rudy's!!!

While equal to its kin - Salt Lick - it still outshines every other BBQ in the Universe. Yes, Universe.
Take that, Carl Sagan.

Also - a personal favorite from my college days: (especially student teaching - this place saved my life!)

Jimmy John's!!!

The best bread anywhere. Hands down.
Best. Subs. Ever.

So now that we are fat and happy from our sojourn to College Station, it's time to start running again... though Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day today didn't help.

Oh well. Eventually, metabolism wins.

Some parting images:

A nice panorama of the strip that houses Antonio's... a diamond in the rough.

A rather artistic shot from the desk to the fish tank. Stravinsky does enjoy his mood lighting.
Or the fact that I let his light bulb burn out.
I prefer the former.

Well, have a good week, loyal reader(s) - both of you. I have 3 more days of TAKS to deal with.


Yay.

Egg... Salad.

No, that isn't mayo-laden confetti. That's egg salad. It tastes great... just looks a little odd.

If you refer back to this post, you can see from whence the egg salad came. Apparently Paas egg dye is quite potent.

It really does taste great. I promise.

Really.

Birthday!

Yesterday was the birthday of my wonderful better half, Sarah - so we celebrated accordingly: A wonderful dinner and great seats at Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. I thought that I would surprise her with these things, but no, no, no - she is much too wiley for such simple feints. I shall have to try harder next year...

Regardless, here are some pics from the evening:

We ate at Cafe le Jadeite, which is literally 5 minutes away from Sarah's apartment. Despite being Asian/American fusion, nothing on their menu tastes cliched - we especially enjoyed the soups that evening (Sarah had a pumpkin/seafood soup that was quite tasty, and I had an incredible lobster bisque).

For our main course I had a very tasty Alaskan wild-caught salmon with crab meat and two apparently rowdy shrimp (hence the harpoon-like skewer).

Sarah opted for the chef's special: surf and turf - lobster tail and filet mignon. I had never had filet before, so she let me try some. I truly don't think I will ever have better beef, unless I luck into some from Kobe.

For dessert we (intelligently) opted to split a double-chocolate concoction that could best be described as decadent beyond belief. You can see Sarah waiting patiently for me to finish photographing so we can begin devouring. It was quite yummy.

From there it was up to the north side of Houston to see Corteo! After some wrangling with Houston's lovely lack of highway signage (Beltway 8: a desert of information), we arrived.

We took this shot of the scrim in the main tent before we knew that photography wasn't allowed. Oops. We had great seats, and apparently near notable band clinician John Benzer who we saw at intermission. Needless to say, the entire production was gorgeous. Not nearly as over-the-top as I expected, but an amazing show with gorgeous, gorgeous music.

At intermission, we visited the souvenir booth and tried on some interesting hats. I think I bear a striking resemblance to a character from Fiddler on the Roof here... or Witness.

Sarah, on the other hand, would look fabulously at home in The Great Gatsby...

And here we are, in front of the Corteo trailer.

All-in-all, an excellent evening. Sarah's 23rd birthday was quite a fun evening for all involved, and I'm looking forward to actually surprising her next year. Happy Birthday, Sarah!

Frabjous Day...

UIL Concert and Sight-reading is done. Hallelujah. Read on for results...

Waller HS Symphonic Band: Division I (stage), Division II (sight-reading)
Mike Cheripka, director
Program:
Under the Double Eagle March - J.F. Wagner
Suite Diverimento, Mvt. I, II - J. Gilbert
Cumberland Cross - C. Strommen

Waller HS Wind Ensemble: Division I (stage, sight-reading)
Cory Meals, director
Program:
The Big Cage March - K. King
Noisy Wheels of Joy - E. Whitacre
A Longford Legend - R. Sheldon

Now time to start leadership auditions/color guard auditions/spring concert preparation/solo and ensemble/second semester band auditions/band banquet/staffing summer band... and a few other things to boot.

The fun, truly, never does stop.