Thursday, October 20, 2011

Thursday video - Bob Dylan

A VERY quick one.  Busy day/evening at the HillcrestBlogger abode.

Dylan.  His best.


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tuesday video - The White Stripes

Seems like not-so-long ago that The White Stripes were one of my favorite "new" bands.  That they've been on my radar now for over ten years is more than a little shocking.  This was one of my favorites from White Blood Cells:


I think my favorite White Stripes album was Elephant, when their monster sound really came together with some exceptionally tight songwriting.


And then there's this one, which I like so much because it just sounds like some sort of frenetic sludge (in a very good way):


An ode to this awesome weather

Not very often are you going to hear a person get excited about 53 degrees with wind and rain, but you are going to hear exactly that from me today.

After months of humid*, oppressive heat, AUTUMN** is finally here. So, bring on the rain and let the leaves drop from the trees, just in time for Halloween season.  Here here!  THIS is truly what is known as "football" weather, as opposed to the mid- to upper-80's we've been seeing.  And, when it eventually gets here, like it did during the overnight hours last night, Arkansas does "football weather" about as good as anywhere.


*  But hardly any rain.
**  My favorite season, by far.  And, I've decided to start using the term "autumn" instead of "fall."  It sounds more...refined ;)

Monday, October 17, 2011

Monday video - Weezer

Let's hit up a little Weezer this Monday evening why don't we?  And, like the Nirvana "Teen Spirit" video, I am going to slightly deviate from my live-music-only aim for music postings and have Weezer's first offering be the fantastic early 90's, Spike Jonze-directed vid for "Buddy Holly" in all of its Fonzie-ness glory:


The Blue Album is so very much my senior year at the UA.  While "Buddy Holly" was likely Weezer's biggest hit off the album, this song was my favorite:


After the Blue Album, Weezer released Pinkerton, which I liked, but it didn't get near the attention it deserved until years later when the emo generation offered it as a prime influence.  Then, the band took a long hiatus before releasing the Green Album, which was fantastic and featured this song:


For the last clip, I'm going to offer up a song the band recorded in honor of and in support of the United States Men's National Team as it prepared for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  This song was reportedly playing in the locker room after Landon Donovan's stunning extra-time goal that propelled the team to the Round of 16.  Still thinking about that moment and watching this video still gives me chills.


Multiple updates from the HillcrestBlogger

Sorry the blog has been largely content-free for the last week (aside from the abbreviated music video postings).  My wife ended up not delivering last week, but was instead put on bed rest and is scheduled to deliver next Monday.  Which means that I get to not only be excited about the prospect of my soon-to-be-newborn son for another week but I also get to shoulder double the chores- and kid-load for another week since my wife cannot physically exert herself.  Now, before you think I'm whining -- I'm not!  I understand its part of the job and know that my wife will be assuming a much greater job in giving birth and being mommy to another cute kid.  But man...It. Is.  Exhausting.

Update #2 is that, after reverting back to an all-protein diet one week ago, I finally moved off the weight-loss plateau I've been on for the last several weeks and now have a new weight-loss low since June 20, when I decided to lose the weight.  I'm now down 21.8 pounds!  Hit the twenty mark!  Now, I'd like to hit the thirty mark by Thanksgiving.  I think that's a doable goal.

Update #3 is that I continue to kick ass in my fantasy football leagues.  I'm in four of them.  In two of them I'm 5-1.  In another I'm 4-2.  The other I am only 3-3, but have won three straight.  I think it is a very real possibility that I'll be in the playoffs for all of my leagues.  Sure, that's a super-dork thing to be excited about, but I'm excited nonetheless.

Update #4 is that my soccer team finally put together a good, solid half of play yesterday.  We still lost, but we were a discombobulated mess for the first half yesterday, which was par for the course so far this season (which, it should be said, has been highlighted more for injuries sustained to top players than anything else).  However, a couple of minor halftime tweaks and we outscored our opponents in the second half yesterday, 3-2.  Like I said, we still lost the match, as we have all season long, but maybe we finally will have turned the corner.

How about a little switch-up?

Do you like the new layout?  I thought I'd give it a whirl.  There are several interesting templates offered up by Blogger so I figure I'll go through a couple over the next couple of weeks to see which one I want to stick with for a while.  Feel free to let me know if you have a preference.