2 for Tuesday part 2

Ok, so I promised 2 in the title but that doesn’t mean I have that much to say. My head is swimmy as I am detoxing from my daytime meds and I won’t have a refill until Thursday afternoon. So you’ll have to excuse any rambling. I was thinking I might do a new music post as new music is released on Tuesday but this weeks offerings are not at all impressive. I like Gavin DeGraw, but I’ll wait for the stripped version as that was better the last time he released a record. So far, this one is not as impressive. New music from Augustana came out last week, and the previews on iTunes sound great but I haven’t bought it yet. Yes, I do buy music.

My almost 4 year old is now finally fully potty trained. She decided a week ago to start and I would say she has earned a grade of an A in the process. No mishaps, backwards progress or anything else. Just perfection. Now our two year old desperately wants to join the potty party and Mrs. Hockeyman will have a GREAT story about just how desperate. I won’t steal that from you dear so you better deliver the goods.

OK, off to bed with my laptop setup next to my bed so I can watch the Mets play the Dodgers in LA.

It’s Over & Other Crap

Tonight officially ended my NY Islanders season. We ended on a high note by beating those piece of shits sometimes called the Rangers in a shootout. I truly hate that team even though my uncle works for them. Perhaps I was bred that way, but so be it. I hate losing to them more than any other team in professional sports.

In case you missed it, look at this wicked wreck. This video is slowed down, but that first impact was at about 189 mph. Don’t worry, he survives. Kudos to the technology geniuses who designed the safer walls and safer race cars.

For a working Dad, Fridays are very exciting. Not only to I get to leave my work behind for a couple days but I get to spend 2 full days with my girls. Rain is in the forecast for both days, but I don’t care. We’ll make the most of it I’m sure. Go fish and Uno are certainly in my near future. Oh yeah, and Mrs Hockeyman will be there too.

I get to play hockey tomorrow night but not until 10:00 PM. That time may sound bad, but after a discussion with the league director today I learned it was either a 10:00 PM Saturday start or an 11:30 PM Wednesday night start. I’ll take Saturday…

Next Friday night I get to see Iron & Wine. If you don’t know him, I provided a link. The music is definately not for everyone and is severly on the mellow side. However, it is beautifully crafted acoustic art that I find highly entertaining.

Why can’t ALL kids movies be as good for adults as Pixar movies are? I know there are a couple but overall Pixar flicks beats them all. Hands down.

Videos online with my girls and sometimes myself and my wife now available for consumption.

Good news, the Office comes back this week. If you cannot relate to at least one character in this show, please tell me where you work and how I can apply…

On behalf of the anniversary of the official formation of Microsoft, I love Apple and the products they make. They simply work and work extremely well. Oh yeah, they look pretty nice and are sometimes thought of as innovative. Gates may have started the whole personal computer revolution, but Apple certainly made it better. Vista??? HA!

Off to bed, please oh please let my girls sleep in for me tomorrow as they did for their mother the past 2 days…that would be nice.

Grammy Night

If you are not currently watching the Grammy’s, change the damn channel! I generally despise award shows and all the crap that is on them. When it comes to the music genre of shows, they usually are the best. I don’t like the AMA’s because the awards are based on sales and radio play. Not to mention winners are notified in advance. In the past, MTV has always put on the best shows with great performances and what not, but this years version was pure crap. The highlight was Justin Timberlake calling out MTV and asking to show more videos. Damn skippy JT! “Pop Culture” television can no longer call themselves “Music” television. If you like performance, as I do, the Grammy’s have been the best I have seen overall in several years. The music has been fantastic, the audio mix has been perfect, no lip synching, and very few award acceptance speeches. Kanye got dissed by the producers during his speech, but he fought back and he won to the ovation of myself on my couch and the audience in the Staples center. He got rushed with music and called them out on the air. In my opinion, if you’re going to give someone an award on TV, let them have their moment and ramble on as long as they want. Don’t hand out an award if your on a time crunch. I don’t remember anyone rushing the Giants during Lombardi trophy acceptances.

The highlight of the night, for me at least, will be the performance of the Beatles songs by the Cirque show Love and Across the Universe soundtrack performers. I had chills… A close second so far was Kanye West’s performance. It was innovational, entertaining, and impressive. However every performance so far has sounded just perfect. Except Fergie, she was off and pushed that song too hard vocally. Also, please learn to annunciate! Aretha looked awful, but even her gospel music performance impressed me. It’s not over yet, but I’ll actually stay up to watch until the end this year.

The Grammy’s this year did it right, it’s all about the performances. No host and the usual 100 costume changes with campy jokes, and not many stupid presenters with HIGHLY awful jokes. I look forward to hopefully buying some of them on iTunes in the near future. This is the template any music awards show should follow in the future.

What a Show!

Mutemath + Alanis Morisette + matchbox twenty = 4.5 hours of a rocking show! Yes, I said 4.5 hours.

First, mutemath. If you don’t know who they are and you like good rock music, you should check them out. They are an incredibly talented group of musicians who love to perform live and their comfort level on stage shows it. Although the set was short, the impression was enough to hear people all around me asking who that was.

Alanis came on next and made a lasting impression on me I will not soon forget. It is odd to me that she would be an opening act in the first place, let’s not forget she opened the door for all female rock songwriters in the early 90’s. She played all our favorites and mixed in some new stuff that was quite up to par with her sound and my expectations. What I did not expect was the passion and emotion she puts into her performances. She completely gives her soul to every song she sings on stage and you see it in her sometimes erratic body movements. We all knew she has talent, but somehow she connects with you on a different level when you watch her perform.

Matchbox Twenty was the headline of the show and did they ever perform a monster set. 22 songs filled out their set list and everyone in the place sang along with all of them over the 2 hours it took to perform them. This band gives everything they have every time they perform and this show was no different. Rob Thomas belts out the songs you love with all the passion and emotion you hear in the studio version and he never disappoints. He truly is one of the greatest songwriters of this generation as well as performer. The stage setup was amazing with 4 screens that could become transparent and move all around the stage.

How I know the set contained 22 songs was due to the best souvenir you could ever ask for at a concert. The concert itself. I pre-purchased mine online but you could naturally also buy one at the show. What it is is a wristband that contains a USB drive loaded with the MP3 version of the concert you just saw. For about the same price of a shirt, you get to hear the actual performance you just saw forever. What a great idea!

Matchbox Twenty

Tonight I am going to see matchbox twenty with Alanis Morrisette and Mutemath in Tampa, Florida. I am expecting a fantastic show as all 3 performers are excellent at what they do.