Ride it, my pony

Sometimes the literary geniuses of my company's communication department find a website gem and share it with the masses.  Today is one of those days with Dancing Alone to the Pony.  It's a simple concept; people dancing alone to the greatest sex anthem of 1996.

The title of this site says it all: "Dedicated to the solitary soldiers keeping the grind alive."

I picked this one, because of Connie's hilarious attempt to keep it sexy in the wilderness.  Crack kills, Connie. 

Book Worm

I am a total book worm.  Started small with Berenstain Bears, hated Amelia Bedilia but that's another story, worked my way up Baby-sitters Club, fell in love with literature again with Harry Potter ("Snape Kills Dumbledore!") and, now that I'm away from textbooks, am back in a hodge podge of literature.  To this day, I still wish my reading made me legible for Book It!

In the celebration of THAT, wanted to share WhatShouldIReadNext.com.  Simply type in the name of your most recently read or favorite book and go.  Some silly algorithm tells you just what book you should read next, providing you links to Amazon to discover more or buy.  Clever site name...simple and wonderful.  That's it.

"Let's All Raise a Glass to The Man"

With all this St. Louis Cardinals/Albert Pujols/$30 million at age 40 talk I'm honestly just rolling my eyes.  Athletes are just people and after watching LeBron's over-zealous, blown out decision last year I decided I don't give a shit about the hype of celebrity. At least with Albert there's no over the top, primetime press conference; it's a stalemate so we can all get back to baseball and figure it out from there. I'm cool with that.  Diva athletes, superstars, whatever can take their millions and roll around in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck for all I care.  (Click Scrooge McDuck for a fantastic RetroJunk clip.)

While everyone was getting caught up over Albert Watch 2k11 I was logging my time reading about Stan "The Man" Musial's day.  A 24-time All Star, a three-time World Series winner, a nearly 20-year Cardinal.  I was fortunate to see Musial at the 2009 All-Star Game at Busch Stadium; my brother and I practically fell over ourselves cheering during his standing ovation.  He was 88 at the time but, as he encircled the field on a red cart, showed all the light and fire of someone in his prime.

Yesterday he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House and the experience, as described by the media and his own careful words, were the "greatest day in my [his] life."  It's hard to imagine how many "greatest days" Stan has had to this date.  This article by Bernie Miklasz, for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, moved me to tears and reminded me of the goodness and appreciativeness of others.  As much as I would love to transcribe these feelings I will let one of my favorite movie quotes do it for me.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time...it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again."
- Field of Dreams

Congrats to one of my heroes.  You the man, Stan.

February 15, 2011 flight back to St. Louis from Washington D.C. (via StanTheManInc)

 During Stan's standing O, 2009 All-Star Game.

First meeting with Barack, 2009 All-Star Game. 

Yep, I was there.

iPod Shuffle

I rarely ever judge a person on his or her musical tastes.  Variety is the spice of life and if I want to listen to Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Rhianna and B.o.B. on the Monday after the Grammys than that's my prerogative.  The only exception to this rule is Nickelback; thanks for nothing Canada.  Music transcends geography, age and class as an art form without a pinpointed historical beginning and without a likely end.

My fascination with music as a performing art is likely the result of the fact that I have little of my own skills in this department.  Outside of air drumming and the the "look-I'm-holding-an-invisible-microphone-in-a-bar-while-singing" mannerisms this is sadly a side of me I haven't discovered...yet.  I'm holding onto that hope.

So here are my short takeaways from last night all of which were said by me, out loud, during last night's awards.  Most to another person.

• Lady Gaga's prosthetic "shoulders" reminded me of the aliens in Independence Day and in the worst way possible
• After the Mumford & Sons performance, the lead singer dropped back two steps and threw a 60-yard pass into the side of Dr. Dre's face thereby proving that he is Tim Tebow
• Jury is still out on the relevancy of showing Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman between each commercial break
• Gwenyth Paltrow should only sing on Glee, with her best friend "auto tune"
• Bob Dylan is a legend.  There is no other excuse for that performance
• Was Mick Jagger wearing Skecher's Shape Ups?
• I waited for Eminem's shout out to Brisk Iced Tea during his acceptance speech.  If you're going to sell out, go big
• Katy Perry's best asset?  Boobs.
• Finally, I hope we can all agree that the real winnre of the night was the Jim Henson Company for "The Song Otherwise Known as 'Forget You'"  Cee-Lo looked like he ate Big Bird
• Arcade Fire.  Woop.

Daddy's Girl

I was talking to a friend the other day about our favorite Super Bowl commercials in the last few years and immediately thought of the Google commercial, "Parisian Love." Throughout all the commotion of the game, I was overwhelmed by the subtle romance held in the patient construction of words with a light musical overlay. Today I searched for the commercial and came across Google Search Stories, a hub for users to generate their own stories.  These serve as small reminders of how technology improves our lives and changes our relationships with others. I stumbled across this little gem and dedicate to my papa, who is holed up in an airport hotel in St. Louis braving out the snowpocalypse.  Although we didn't have gchat and laptop cameras, when I was a tot brushing my teeth in Little Mermaid PJs, this video still takes me back.

Love you Dad!



"I've watched this video like 3 times, then I wrote about it.  That's what I do with things that I don't want to disappear." Thanks Ryan for calling this one out!