bleerzog

phish, alpine valley, 4/21 2009, VDub.

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:54:21 -0500

saw Phish at Alpine Valley last Sunday. it had been a while, no doubt. it was awesome. the weekend started out with a trip to my grandparents farm (still call it grandparents when it's just my grandma's these days) for the family reunion. brought my buddy bill down with me in order to go straight to Decorah to pick up another buddy and head to Alpine Valley from there. The reunion was great. a bit interesting this year, no doubt. 3 of my 4 aunts decided not to go because they said grandma didn't want to have it and we were forcing the issue on her in her old age. well, she was out of sorts saying they were going to surprise us and show up. yep, the three aunts and their families total over 60 people. they were going to show up and surprise us. they didn't. i felt so bad for her. she was getting around just fine, taking breaks when she needed them, heading out on the porch for a beer and a smoke occasionally. hilarious. my buddy bill got such a kick out of having a smoke with my grandma. so my family excluding one brother making for four of us and my buddy bill and my one other aunt who was there, who also lives there with my uncle..., and their one daughter of two and my uncles parents and grandma. made for about 10 people and my buddy bill. I thought it was great because I got to spend some unheard of quality time with my grandma talking about how she makes her vegetable soup. AWESOME. left at about 4pm only to remember that I FORGOT THE TICKETS AT HOME! OUCH! drive the 2.5 hours home, grab the tix, drive to Decorah for an outside party, meet up with Arne in Decorah. the party was awesome. badminton, glow in the dark frisbee, the hurricane vaporizer, drum circle, beer, and a cutie with a sundress on that I pretty much got up the nerve to say, "hi, my name's pat". :D

sleep in the rig.

drive to pick up another buddy, wulffie, on the way to the show somewhere outside Madison. and from there cruisin to East Troy for the Show! I've always wanted to be one of those guys with a pop-top VW at a Phish Show! It was my turn! we just hung out in the parking lot with the other 45000 people eating drinking catching the vibe and listening to Phish on my new stereo and speakers! yeah, bitch! ha ha ha.

the four of us were having so much fun chillin in the VDub that at one point I stopped talking and got out only to notice that we were the only ones left in the parking lot! heheehaha!! hilarious! so we missed about half of the first song, brother. oh well. enjoyed the show. didn't enjoy paying $9.50/beer. oh well.

here's the set list:

Set I: Brother, Wolfman’s Brother, Funky Bitch, The Divided Sky, Joy, Back on the Train, Taste, Poor Heart, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenue Malkenu > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Time Turns Elastic

Set II: Crosseyed & Painless -> Down with Disease, Bug, Piper, Wading in a Velvet Sea, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: Grind, Frankenstein

have to say Slave to the Traffic Light and Silent in the Morning were my favorite, totally awesome tunes. boogie on reggae woman and frankenstein covers were over the top as well. phenomenal. of course.

from there we drove back to a campground, Bong State Park, hung out around the fire for a bit, drank some brew, had a smoke or two and crashed in the camper! all four of us fit just fine! AWESOME WEEKEND!

here's a shot of the new member of my family, dubbed the VDub. I'm now a proud owner of a 1995 Volkswagen Eurovan pop-top and full Camper. if you look close, you can see the refrigerator. above that there's a two burner stove and to the left of that there's a sink with drinkable water. the back also has a spray spigot for showering/cleaning. this picture was taken two weekends ago after a wedding in southern minnesota. we were able to walk back to the rig, have a campfire, some beer, some smokes, and crash in it right after the reception! perfect. and a damn good nights rest, at that. I'm super excited to have this thing! and it runs like a top so far. and the little rust that was on it I sanded, treated, primed, and painted so it looks sharp with no dents. YEAH!!!!

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my poor little fish buddy.

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Mon, 11 May 2009 00:53:00 -0500

bummer news about my "family". one of my fish died today. he was 6 years old. take a quick peak.

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I was looking for a funny Michelle Bachmann quote and ran into this...

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:20:13 -0500

I'm lauging to tears, man to tears!!! this has gotta be one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

News reader cannot stop laughing at model falling over!

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piste and off piste

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:12:22 -0500

So I made a little excursion to the Canadian Rockies for the first time in my life. it's a wonder how sometimes you wish you would've done something sooner, can't believe you didn't, can't believe it wasn't in the cards sooner be it with friends or family...can't believe some people have lived it their entire lives not knowing much different. There are some places in the world that people flock to...or should I write, to which people flock. we've all heard about them. I'm of the opinion that we should try to get to as many as we can while we can...at least that's what I've been told by wise humans on the barstool to my right...and left...many times drunkards who have and are now lonely drunkards. maybe that's why people are not as enthralled by the whole idea. 'cause they see where it has led these oh so wise people. most often, it's simply that type of person who randomly enters into the lives of others during every day hum-drum making it seem as though a life of adventure has ill-fated consequences. but, lo and behold, there really are people whose lives are oozing with fulfillment while in the midst of these adventures that can actually be a lifestyle rather than the people whose lives are oozing with envious enchantment looking back at the good old days while gazing at the bottom of an empty pint in the midst of the every day hum-drum. here I go again, not having the patience with myself and the english language to make better sense of my thoughts.

I guess what I'm getting at is that whatever is in the back of your mind for what you think is so intriguing in life that you think it will probably never happen to you, just might happen...and if there's something you feel fits you just right but is in the cards for future plans rather than plans of today, well then, you'll only regret not doing them sooner if you finally get around to doing them.

for me, seeing the Canadian Rockies is a perfect example of what I've been told to do for years and for some reason didn't get to it. I remember the first time I had ever heard of Banff 10 years ago. A couple friends of mine drove there and elsewhere in the Canadian Rockies (Canmore, Jasper, Revelstoke, Vancouver) for their honeymoon. I was so envious of my buddy (good friend of a friend) who found a girl as cute as she is who would want to do that for their honeymoon...although, these days they're kickin it in Cambridge Minnesota which I tend not to envy all that much. They talked about it like it was some Garden-of-Eden type of mountain atmosphere. I believed them whole-heartedly as they talked about it, but as the years have progressed and my experiences have varied considerably, I thought it was my naivete at the time that heard them describe this place, Banff...how could it be THAT cool, I have thought over the last several years.

well...it is.

and the deeper into the Canadian Rockies you go, the cooler it gets...all the way to the Pacific so I'm told. For the most part, from what I saw on my meager 2 hour drive further into the hills from Banff (on my way to some hot springs), these hills are pretty much not accessible. Banff, Canmore, and Jasper are on the far eastern edge. Makes me wonder what the 'San Juans' of the Canadian Rockies is...although I was just checking out this website of Revelstoke, what the locals hold in the highest regard for resort skiing (which says a whole hell of a lot) and maybe they're onto something in this little town. click on photo gallery/web cam/video, then click on the video. enjoy. this place is kickin' a vertical mile of resort skiing.

my little excursion consisted of staying at a friend's place in Canmore, hangin' out and skiing in Banff and Lake Louise, soakin' in Radium Hot Springs, ice climbing at haffner creek, a flat tire out of cell phone range in need of a sledge hammer, and a long long flat drive to and fro.

no real issues on the way to Banff except for a couple minor setbacks. 1) being a bit shy of the -50 degree wind chill in Minot F'n North Dakota heading for the Canadian Border...a super remote part of the country...not knowing where the next gas station was going to be so I had to shack up on a couch at a truck stop. no big deal, warm, free. 2) getting totally searched at the border where the Canadians thought I was such a threat to their safety that they had to empty everything out of my f'n car...I guess the dude took it easy on my, though. there was only one of them who actually went through my things.

the resorts I hit when I was there were Sun Shine (the local favorite resort for Banff dwellers) and Lake Louise Ski Resort. these two resorts were fantastic. The first night I had my virgin taste of a Wild Boar Burger! it was tasty!

The first day I headed up the hill with a couple ski bunnies, Kate and Anne Marit, super hot and super holding their own on the hill! lucky me...lucky me. Anne Marit the norwegian Kate the brit and Patrick the american...met up with a girl from France on the hill as well who had lived in Chamonix for a spell but now had the arduous task as a full time employmee mon-thurs, of coordinating the arts for the community of banff at the Banff Center For The Arts, the organization that puts the Banff Mountain Film Festival together which I was lucky enough to see while it was on tour here in Minneapolis this year! rough set up she's got going on. a three day weekend every week in Banff...making enough dough to live comfortably...wow.

these photos are of goat's eye. if you look closely at the first photo here, you'll see a big outcropping of rock on the top right of the mountain. just below that there are a couple runs that we're looking down upon in the second photo...nice. very nice.

The second day we headed out to Radium Hot Springs via a nice drive through the amazing Kootenay National Park on the Banff-Windermere Highway.

Day three was an awesome day of powder at Lake Louise Ski Resort. The off-piste runs at this place were phenomenal. I like using the terms piste and off-piste. so much cooler than groomed and not groomed. There was a button chair that takes the skiers up a super steep run opening up an entire area that involved up to a 30 minute hike further up...all still in bounds. so cool.

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LOOK CLOSELY at the middle photo. you'll see the Lake Louise Resort. If I ever end up married, that's where it will be...winter, spring, fall, summer...I don't really care. that was the view from the top of the back bowl called "the wall" and other OFF PISTE runs.

woohoo!

then we went and had some drinks and the most amazing fruit and cheese plate that I've ever had at The Lake Louise Resort.

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The fourth day we dealt a bit with my alpine touring ski set-up at the shop...I was really pumped to get my AT set-up going in time to use it on my last day of skiing. Then we went into the hills again hiking up Haffner Creek for some ice climbing among some insane mixed ice climbing routes.

The fifth day we headed back to Sun Shine and ended up getting a priceless guided day at the resort from Ed, Kate's boyfriend...lucky guy. but this guy was fantastic. fun to eat, drink, and be merry with, a kick ass skier, and a world class kayaker having guided in Norway, Peru, New Zealand, and Nepal over the past year and a half or so. one classic run that we did involved a bit of a trek up a fairly steep slope with the skis on while the tips were hanging off of a 30 foot rocky ledge and the tails of the skis were scraping the rocky ledge behind us. not sure I would've done it had ed not shown us the way since the drop in around the other side of the rocky ledge below us was a bit blind. f'n amazing stuff!

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and these photos are of the exit to banff off of the transcanadian highway...

then I drove home leaving that evening at about 5pm...and arriving home at about 9pm the next day. I was able to sleep about 5 hours on the way and, lucky me, I was totally searched at the border again! but this time it was dealing with the u.s. customs. f'n dorks. it took 8 of them, yep! 8! to search my car inside and out this time. assholes. could not believe the hassle. they didn't believe one word I said. don't even know why they even asked me any questions. throwing my gear around like a rag doll. I asked them to be careful. you can imagine how much they entertained me interrupting them having to stick my head out of the one way mirrored room in the vehicle checkpoint garage. freaks. so much $$ in gear...really pissed me off. and it took a f'n hour this time. seriously. if I was going to smuggle shit in to this country, do you think I'd be as much of a stinky, hairy, gear entwined, rusty hot-rod driving dude as I was? no. no one would. way too obvious.

yep! got home, went to bed, woke up for work at 6am!

all in all a safe and exciting adventure! I'm ready for more! although, the civic was getting a bit cramped. we'll see if it's worth doing something about that over the next 6 months or so. depends on how much $$ I spend doing other things, i guess!

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a couple tunes I've been stuck on for a couple days.

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:05:34 -0600

'cause I've been told lately that my music selection is old. well, hopefully a little effort of finding new music can be appreciated by some friends as well as myself. although, I know who of you will disagree, so comments from you guys are really not necessary.

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visual communication

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 09:34:29 -0600

crazy how much easier it is to use photos to communicate. with few exceptions, posting/blogging has become a photo album/comparison. remember when we used to put photos actually in a photo album. then, whoever came over could randomly stroll through the photos at their leisure. no pressure, no passwords, no slow internet. no opinions on which was better or worse. just an unconditional photo album...such a refreshing idea.

today, I'm gonna make a photo album. it won't be cheap. but, I won some pretty good dough at brog's playing hold 'em last night. a great crew. one I haven't seen in a while. and of the 9 guys who were there, only 3 are on facebook, none are on a match.com-like website, hell, a couple of them still pay for each text message seperately!

refreshing, really. they say they don't have time. no doubt I have more time than they do...I really have a lot of time on my hands these days, fer sure. that's a fricken appreciated deal, no doubt.

I'm definitely more visual...

random thoughts.

here's a couple photos from the holidays...

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wow. it's been a while.

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:07:56 -0600

this is the first time I've completely missed an entire month...

did some more skiing this weekend! woohoo! that makes it 10 days of being on skis for me so far this winter. 3 cross country, 7 downhill. nice. k. that's it for now, I guess. I need to quit with the whole facebook. it's doing me little to no good...my vox has been neglected...

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mumbai.

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:07:58 -0600

just thinking about and so hoping for the safety of the people in Mumbai especially dear lightchaser from this point forward after hearing about the awful attack.

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I'm watching "who killed the electric car?"

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:49:36 -0600

ON THE EVE OF A STIMULUS PACKAGE FOR THE AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY...

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE...CRACKHEADS.

THEIR CRACK IS OIL, THEY DON'T DESERVE TO BE BAILED OUT BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGAIN.

they have had their chances to change with the future. from illegally pulling electric street cars off the road across the country in cities like san francisco and minneapolis 60 or so years ago to build their industrial powerhouse in Detroit, they've been scammed by the oil industry over the years all the way to flirting with their own funeral today.

believable. who would've thought that oil, internal combustion, and the u.s. auto makers would be intertwined with ulterior motive to keep each other in business? gee! apparently the u.s. consumer is only beginning to figure this one out.

just a couple random thoughts during the film:

just as the EV, the electric car, was literally pulled off the road by GM they bought Hummer.

fuel cell is the mechanical rabbit.

if you haven't seen this film, you need to. we all need to.

fuel cell uses three to four times more energy than electric.

hydrogen is a much tougher alternative fuel than any other fuel used...it will be 15 years before hydrogen cells will be used...

I'm probably the only one who hadn't yet seen this film.

I'll stop now...otherwise I'd be spending all afternoon explaining what you already know.

Who killed the EV

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just a great song.

nobody@vox.com(patrick) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:00:14 -0600

03 Fearless

Pink Floyd

You say the hill's too steep to climb
chiding
You say you'd like to see me try
Climbing
You pick the place and I'll choose the time
And I'll climb
The hill in my own way
Just wait a while for the right day
And as I rise above the tree lines and the clouds
I look down
Hear the sound of the things you said today

Fearlessly, the idiot faced the crowd
Smiling
Merciless, the magistrate turns 'round
Frowning
And who's the fool who wears the crown?
And go down in your own way
And every day is the right day
And as you rise above the fear-lines in his brow
You look down
Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd

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