Saturday, March 31, 2007

Papa Sparky! laps the DI field

In an upset of gargantuan scale, Papa Sparky went from worst to first to win the 2007 Dolberry Invitational. Given his accuracy this year, you can pretty much take FL over OSU to the back Monday night. I think he'll be in the top 1% in the ESPN picks. That's the last time I taunt anyone who finishes last in the DI. Be thankful, Chubby.

Congratulations PS! Your gift card is on the way ... ("on the way" is defined loosely).

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Baaaaaaa, part 2

Figured DCV readers would want an update on the Apex sheep story. Here's my favorite part of the whole deal (from a different N & O article)

District Court Judge Jane Gray walked into her courtroom after lunch to see a gaggle of television cameras. "Oh God," she said to the media. "The sheepman?"

Watts' attorney, Josh Hansen, asked the judge to release Watts pending trial. Gray refused but reduced Watts' bail from $30,000 to $12,000. He posted the lesser bond and was released. As Watts was led from the courtroom, another inmate awaiting a turn before the judge loudly bleated like a sheep, earning Gray's ire.

Classic.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Baaaaaaa!

Hey, the Peak of Good Living has made the national news for the 2nd time in less than a year. Pretty much right in downtown Apex a guy was keeping 80 sheep in his house as pets. I guess it wasn't against any ordinances until they got loose yesterday & started grazing on the floral arrangements in the town cemetery.

Who knows what will turn up next in Apex? We've had a toxic waste recycling center and now a houseflock of sheep. My money says Michael Jackson will be involved.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

DCV Top Bands of the 80's: 25-21

#25 Blondie:
I guess Blondie was one of the first "new wave" type bands to find success in the U.S. in the late seventies / early eighties, in the dying days of disco. They started out as NYC underground punk rockers before finding success in England in the late 70's. They hit it big w/ "Heart of Glass" worldwide in 1978. I remember listening to this song (along w/ the Knack's "My Sharona") while playing Dungeons and Dragons (and Risk) w/ Topher Walther & neighborhood friends. I always thought "Heart of Glass" had a bad word in it & remembered having to be careful when singing it, but a google scan of lyrics reveals "gas" and "glass", but not the term I remember. In these scandalous days of 2007, when people post right out in the open about "butt darts", the whole thing lingers pleasantly like the sweet innocent haze of youth.

Best Songs: Heart of Glass, Call Me
Worst Song: The Tide is High

#24 Rush
I admit to being initially underwhelmed and not properly appreciative of the ultimate Canadian power trio. In high school I was familiar w/ Rush via "Tom Sawyer" and knew of people who enjoyed their 2112 album. I think the reason why I wasn't too enamored w/ 'em in high school is captured by this wikipedia description of the theme behind the "2112" album ... "in the year 2062, a galaxy-wide war results in the union of all planets under the rule of the Red Star of the Solar Federation." .... O .... K ... Let us know how that all ends up Rush. Also, it takes about 10 years to get used to Geddy Lee's high-pitched voice. But once you do, how can you not enjoy such great tunes as "Limelight", "Spirit of Radio", "Subdivisions"? Kevin Evars (an extremely cool guy) turned me on to them most. "The Big Money" was a big hit at SLU. Rush had lots of good lines "Conform or be cast out", or "Even if you don't decide, you have still made a choice." Good stuff. They're still making new music, I believe which you got to respect.

Best Songs: "Limelight", "Subdivisions", "Spirit of Radio"
Worst Song: "New World Man" (their only US top 40 hit)

23: Cheap Trick
All right, now we're getting into the good bands. Rush and now the pride of Rockford IL (typically one of the lowest rated cities whenever they rate 'em), Cheap Trick. This group took an unusual route to stardom, becoming big in Japan first then establishing a foothold on U.S. rock radio via a live album recorded in Japan, At Budokan. The Trick had a distinctive video presence as well, w/ the chain-smoking drummer, a long-haired crooner, an anonymous bass player, and the guitarist who could make goofy faces and played goofy looking guitars. Their song "She's Tight" was a big hit amongst the SLU crew. I believe Ron & Dolberry covered it at one point. I think we recorded it on someone else's cassette. We weren't always real considerate.

Best Songs: I Want You To Want Me, Surrender, Dream Police
Worst Song: The Flame (their only #1 single)

#22 Duran Duran
It's impossible to overstate the importance of cable TV and especially MTV on the lives of American teenagers in the early 80's. I don't think it's an exaggeration to state that the day we got MTV was pretty close to what it must have been like for people to get TV at all in the '50s. This despite the fact that MTV played only like 12 videos over and over when we got it. You had the "video killed the radio star" one, then you'd get that Wall of Voodoo one where the guy's face emerged from a bowl of beans, there was a cool Peter Gabriel video for "Shock the Monkey" and then you had two Duran Duran songs: "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio". And where the other videos looked like they been shot on a budget consisting of coins found under the couch, "HLTW" and "Rio" looked like major Hollywood productions. You had your Simon LeBon looking all handsome in all sorts of picturesque settings, surrounded by pretty girls, and in one famous case ... a conspiring-with-the-enemy monkey. None of it made any sense and the music was considerably iffy after the first two singles, but double D was one of the bigger bands of the 80's. Go figure.

Best Songs: Rio, Hungry Like the Wolf, Save a Prayer
Worst Song: The Reflex

#21 Genesis
These guys were like the bizarro world version of Rush. I really liked them in high school, then grew to loathe them in college. Matt Jung showed me the light. He viewed (views?) Phil Collins as the devil incarnate. (I'd always pegged the devil as a guitarist, not a drummer.) This band went through musical styles faster than Tennessee can lose a 20 point lead. Their playing aligned w/ my musical listening preferences for a relatively short period in the early 80's. From 1981's Abacab to 1986's Invisible Touch, Genesis churned out the most radio-friendly pop-rock around. My favorite album was the eponymous Genesis which had on its cover a baby toy which presumably evoked happy memories.

Best Songs: Taking It All to Hard, Abacab, That's All
Worst Song: anything by Phil Collins solo

Update

Hope the end of the weekend (or whenever you're reading this) finds everyone well ...

In Dolberry Invitational news, congrats to Papa Sparky for successfully copying off of Dolberry's typically astute picks. PS is in the 97th percentile which (while seeming mathmatically impossible) is 123% higher than his picks from last year. It looks to me as if PS wins if Florida repeats, Dolberry! wins if UCLA wins, & the Hellraiser wins if the Hoyas prevail. If Ohio St wins, it's either Sparky or Dolberry depeding upon who they play. Thanks to the rest of you for participating. Maybe next year.

In remodeling news, Chuck put a tile floor down in our kitchen this weekend. It looks really sweet! It was his birthday present to the beautiful KMD. A lot of hard work, for sure. Dolberry! stayed out of the way.

In little league news, the tryouts & drafts went well. We were very happy to get our neighbor, but we just missed out on one of our old machine pitch players who we would've loved to get. First practice is Wednesday.

In work news, my paper for a conference in Portugal got accepted, but now if looks like travel funds are unavailable. I'm not that broken up. Dolberry is proud of his streak of never having left the fruited plains of America.

In blog news, despite pressures from the bean counters, I'm not going to have a "butt darts" post in a shameless attempt to increase traffic. The DCV has standards, people.

First softball game is this Friday. Rotisserie draft is this Sunday. My Diamond Mind league starts this week. Ay carumba. Between work, church, blog, baseball, & softball, I'll be lucky to survive the next 5 months.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Weekend Update

Having PC/Internet problems at home. Not fun. Think our ethernet card is fried as the wireless network is still ok. Hopefully will be resolving this evening.

Baseball tryouts / draft got rained out last Saturday & were reset to this weekend. Kind of a bummer since our first practice was supposed to be this week.

I did my first triathlon of the year on Sunday. Results are here. I did it about 3:30 faster than last year, which probably isn't too surprising given last year I wasn't really going all out (just trying to finish). I finished 18 of 33 in my age group, which was short of my top 50% goal. It was very cold. I should have worn gloves. 39 degrees at race start w/ a nice wind. Standing there in my thin tri-shorts, dripping wet, hopping on a bike, & then drying off thru ventilation via cold, dry air ... I wondered if this is what living in Alaska feels like. I imagine AK is even worse.

The highlight of the weekend was then going to a practice softball game on Sunday afternoon where I went 4 for 4. It's always good to get all your hits out of the way before the season starts.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Dolberry Invitational

Join the DCV brackets challenge. Borders gift card to the winner. Go to this web page to sign up.

Password: billikens

Spring Training Trip


Great trip as always ... some highlights.

Wed 3/7: Traffic was rough getting down to our Orlando stopover. Two separate stretches where we either came to a complete stop or crawled for 45 minutes. We listened to three of the four MAC tournament games on radio. Living the high life! We got to Orlando too late to do both Giordano's and putt putt, so we opted for hotel pizza (ugh) & putt putt. After 11 hours in the car, worrying about whether we'd get to putt putt in time, Alex drained his very first putt. Mental preparation will get you everywhere. He ended up beating me on the first 18, which was quite surprising. Great day.

Thurs 3/8: Met Mom & Dad in Tampa, then drove down to Sarasota to see the Reds v. Tigers. Adam Dunn hit an HR which was cool. Josh Hamilton got a few hits & made a diving catch pretty much right in front of us (we were in the first row). However, the Reds suffered their first loss of the Grapefruit League season 9-7. Got to see Angela & the cousins for dinner & watch Louisville's OT win vs. WVU. Stephen called w/ Billikens updates on their surprising quarterfinal A10 win. Great day!



Fri 3/9: Played golf in the morning. Dolberry shot an amazing (for him) 99. First time breaking 100 at Oakford. The key, apparently, is to not care too much. I shot a 45 on the front, then started paying attention to my score, at which point I reverted to usual play. Closed w/ a par 4 on a tough hole, draining a 12 footer to save my double-digit round. Saw the Reds lose again, versus the Indians. We got to see the best Reds prospect since Eric Davis, Homer Bailey pitch (ahem) one-third of an inning, giving up (ahem) 5 runs, (ahem) all earned. After that we swam in the glacial waters of the Sleep Inn pool & then had dinner w/ Keith, Angela, & the cousins at a restaurant on a bay. Was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Another great day.

Sat 3/10: Got some breakfast & spent some time at the beach w/ the Baker-Fitzgeralds. Beautiful morning. Temps ranged from 60-83 our whole time there w/ seldom a cloud. Then got in the car for a very long ride to Winter Haven FL to see the Reds play the Indians. Chain O' Lakes Park (winter home of the Tribe) is nice enough once you're in your seat w/ your drink and dog, but everything else about it is problematic (traffic, location, parking, generally claustrophobia inducing nature). This is their 2nd to last year before moving to AZ. I imagine the Indians cannot wait. Heading back to Tampa for the evening, we got run off the road going 60 mph by a Floridian driver (an entirely unpredictable breed) which was fun as far as that goes. Listened to the Louisiana Derby w/ Carrie (via cell phone). I like Circular Quay in the Derby. Swam in a heated pool w/ APD while Mom & Dad held down the fort at the Bahama Breeze where there was a 60 minute wait. APD practically fell asleep at the restaurant. Great day, though too much time in the car for a vacation day.



Sun 3/11: More swimming w/ Gpa & APD. Headed over to Clearwater for a Phillies-Tigers tilt. Gpa and Gma tried unsuccessfully to rob a CVS, but we escaped & arrived at the stadium in time for several savory cheesesteaks and other baseball-related fun. Tigers won 5-3. Dropped Mom & Dad off at the airport & headed home. Trip home was much easier. Listened to 7 hours of debate about why Syracuse did not get in the NCAA, which isn't as exciting as it sounds. In order to not make it seem so late, we just stayed on standard time. We got home at 1:45a EST. Great day.



Hard to put into words how super this vacation is. The baseball, weather, & other activities were awesome, but of course it's the people who make this week so special. Thanks Mom, Dad, K, A, & KACB. Only 360 days until next year's trip.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Top Bands of the 2000's

Um, it's not finished but Relient K has clinched the top spot. Their new album (Five Score and Seven Years Ago) came out today and it is awesome. I recommend you all buy it. If you buy it & don't like it, I'll buy it off you.

My favorites: 1) Devastation and Reform, 2) I Need You, 3) Up and Up, 4) Forgiven, 5) Deathbed.

They were on Conan O'Brien last Friday. I realize that doesn't help you much at this point.

Report from Chicago Trip

Let's see ... way behind on my blogging. My trip to Chicago was great. Really uplifting conference & a lot of good ideas re: leading a youth group. The Willow Creek church in S. Barrington is pretty impressive. It has a 3-story waterfall & seats about 8,000, I'd guess. For their midweek service, I sat in the 200 level figuring they were the equivalent of the skybox seats. For free, thank you.

After the conference ended, I had about an hour to kill before heading back to O'Hare, so I drove by the hospital APD was born in, plus the apartment Kristy & I lived in in Hoffman Estates. Doing so, was flooded w/ so many happy memories, it may me cry realizing how blessed I've been. Thanks to all you guys for being so great. Did you know ... they renamed the hospital Alex was born in after him now. It's true .... see here.

Chicago's weather also made me cry, for different reasons. I think it was glad to see me again & has held a grudge for my long-distance mocking. I got the wind-whipped snow pellets and the ground blizzard. Silly me, I wore my "footies" (socks) which are fine for an NC winter, but don't work so well in places where there is snow on the ground.

The highlight of the trip was getting to see C-Lo and the lovely Annette. Opus was glad to see me and expressed it in a entirely inappropriate way. They live in a cool condo w/ some fancy painting. It was very cool to hear that C-Lo recently earned a promotion and is now Management. Also nice to catch up on the status of all the Lowrys. C-Lo treated Dolberry to the deep dish pizza which was very nice & very delicious. Things I miss about Chicago: C-Lo, baseball, pizza. Things I don't miss: weather, road conditions/traffic, lack of trees, O'Hare.

Despite bad weather, my flight was only about a half-hour delayed which isn't that bad. All in all, a really nice trip.

Sunday, March 04, 2007

DCV Top Bands of the 80's: 30-26

#30: The Connells
It's kind of funny as the Connells are from Raleigh, but I started liking them prior to moving to the Triangle. I vividly remember cranking one of their best tunes 'Stone Cold Yesterday' on a bus trip ("riding the dog" may be a Life Episode some time) back to Chicago from visiting SLU friends ... musical help in a time of displacement. It's sort of odd that a band as popular as R.E.M. wouldn't have any direct imitators, and I don't think the Connells were either, but their first album Boylan Heights certainly has the feel of R.E.M's glory days. Most of the time they were straight ahead rock, especially the 1993 release Ring. Like another American band that we'll see in the Top 5, they were far more popular in Europe than here. Check 'em out.

Best Songs: Slackjawed, Stone Cold Yesterday, Disappointed, Scotty's Lament
Worst Songs: 74-75

#29: Simple Minds
For whatever reason, Dolberry liked all things Scottish in his formative years. Let's see ... I had a crush on Sheena Easton, I liked bagpipe music, I liked wearing plaid, I entered road races under the pseudonym Stuart Adamson (late leader of Big Country), my favorite cross country race was always the Highland Fling at Joe Creason Park ... shoot I even have a brother-in-law named Scott. All that said, I never really liked Simple Minds' music as much as I felt like I should have given their Scottish intangibles, height-challenged nature of their lead singer (Jim Kerr), & their tendency to shoot their videos on picturesque looking cliffs. It probably stemmed from the uber-success of "Don't You Forget About Me" from the Breakfast Club movie. I didn't really like Breakfast Club all that much. It seems like the writers went out of their way to present several high school student stereotypes: the rich girl, the oddball, the jock, the brainy nerd, and the delinquent ... but none of them really spoke to the young Dolberry (i.e., charismatically-charged superhero and friend to all ... who dabbled in countdowns sure ... yes & hung out w/ some brainy nerds ... and ran track ... but still ... hey Molly Ringwald was hot back then.)

Best Songs: Sanctify Yourself, Alive and Kicking
Worst Songs: Don't You Forget About Me (for how often it gets played to this day)

#28 Billy Joel:
This is kind of ironic, because Billy Joel was just in Raleigh last night & our good friends the Jensens went & had a good time. Eyewitness accounts (Seriously, do any other of my rival blogs offer this? Of course, not.) indicate that he now introduces himself at shows as "Billy Joel's father". That's a pretty good line. Kristy & I saw him in the 80's w/ our SLU friends. He put on a good show. I do remember when I quit liking Billy Joel though ... it was when he released that song "Storm Front". If I have anything resembling a pet peeve, it's when people refer to weather in terms of a "storm front". There's simply no such thing.

Best Songs: You May Be Right, Allentown, A Matter of Trust
Worst Songs: Uptown Girl, Storm Front

#27 Hooters:
I've seen 8 of these Top 40 bands in concert. This is the 2nd in a row. Stephen & I saw them open up for Bryan Adams sometime in the 80s. We were there to see the Hooters, not Bryan Adams. I remember it was the day their One Way Home album was released. The Hooters were famous among our SLU crew from a radio station interview with Loverboy in which the interviewer kept questioning Loverboy about the Hooters (who were opening for them at the time). The Loverboy dude kept saying they were a "good band" w/ little emotion other than exasperation about the third time they were brought up.

Best Songs: Day by Day, All You Zombies, And We Danced, South Ferry Road
Worst Songs: Probably something from their Zig Zag album.

#26 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers:
Tom Petty has been an amazingly consistent artist for a long time. I think my favorite period of his was during the Southern Accents album, but TP and the HBs were solid from Damn the Torpedoes through the solo-effort Full Moon Fever. One of the earliest complements, the lovely Mrs. Dolberry ever gave me was that I did a good Tom Petty impersonation. At least I think it was a compliment.

Best Songs: The Waiting, Running Down a Dream, Southern Accents, Rebels
Worst Songs: Jammin Me

Thursday, March 01, 2007

C-Lo Visit

Hey ... a regular feature of the DCV will be what we call "Blogger Visits". It'll be a venue in which Dolberry reaches out to his readership community by visiting their home. The purpose of these visits is to suggest improvements in the readers lives that will make them more like Dolberry (i.e., on the path to greatness).

I'm doing my hardest one first, C-Lo. T-minus 4 hours. Wish me well. A full recounting of any grievances will be aired on Friday (or Saturday)

On other note, am enjoying my conference. I wish I could go to conferences every week, but that K & A would come w/ me.