#148 "Get a job where I tell all of my accounts of someone else."

I first heard about the Get Up Kids through a single that one of my brother's friends had sent to him. I was immediately hooked on the song and went out to get the CD.

The song was "My Apology" off of their Something to Write Home About album. The song's about writing songs about real people and situations and how awkward that can be. I pretty much wore out that CD when I was younger. I was such a big fan of theirs. I also was hooked on the side projects that came out of band such as Reggie and The Full Effect and The New Amsterdams. Reggie and the Full Effect is a solo project from the Get Up Kids' keyboardist that is part powerpop and part parody band. Within Reggie there are a few separate "bands" that perform songs in their respective styles be it Educational Euro-Metal (Common Denominator) or 80s Boy Band Dance Club Lovesongs (Fluxuation). The New Amsterdams is a solo project from the Get Up Kids' frontman and it's an alt-country band (that was a much less complicated explanation).

Here's a New Amsterdam's track. It's one of my favorite songs of all time.

Here's a song by Reggie as Fluxuation:

And here's one of their straight songs which happens to have my favorite music video of all time:

I mean it's got peanut butter and jelly falling in love. What's not to like?

#144 Go Broncos! Wait, what?

This is a shirt commemorating Super Bowl 21 which was apparently held at the Rose Bowl in 1987. I picked this up at a vintage store called Swellagant in Balboa when a couple of friends blindfolded me and took me there as a surprise, knowing I'd love looking through all of the funky merchandise.

The people reading this blog probably already know this, but I love football. It's so much fun to watch. The big plays, the interceptions, the massive hits, all fun stuff. I don't really follow it much, but I at least make it a point to watch the Super Bowl each year. The commercials, the half-time show, the after-bowl episodes, the 7 hour long pre-show, the unhealthy food; it's an American institution. This year I'm getting a dose of femininity with my masculinity since Fox is airing Glee after the game. So it'll be GRAAHHHH! FOOOTBALL! folllowed by SQUEE!!! GLEE!!

As I said I don't follow football at all, but I'll watch it eagerly when it's on. I really don't know anything about The Packers or The Steelers this year (other than something happened with The Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger?) so my completely uneducated and seemingly random pick to win is The Steelers. However, the way I usually pick a side is that I'll watch the first quarter of the game and pick a favorite team after seeing how they're sizing up. Pretty much the reason why I lean toward the Steelers right now is that their mascot's name is Steely McBeam, who is apparently a big jaundiced construction worker who carries an I-Beam with him at all times. As I learned from Conan O'Brien, The Packers disavow knowledge of ever having had a mascot (basically he's the Star Wars Christmas Special of the Packers franchise), but once upon a time it was a character named Packy Pack Packer a fat guy in a helmet holding a bunch of linked sausages. This is one of those times where each element of truth that I've added to the statement makes it sound more ridiculous and false.

Mother Folk-er

This is another shirt from the grab bag that I got in 200?. I generally don't go for orange shirts. It's probably my least favorite color. Well maybe it's not as bad as like safety green or anything, but I'm still not a fan. This shirt's still kind of neat though. It makes me think of Flight of the Conchords (the fourth most popular folk-comedy duo from New Zealand). I feel they would appreciate it. I don't wear it much because a) it's orange and b) it's kind of big on me.

Fun fact about my day yesterday. I met Kobe Bryant. Background: Yesterday around lunchtime I got an email from Eric our band director that the band was just invited to a Q and A with Kobe Bryant that was being held for the UCI Athletics Department. So it was all of the student athletes and then me, Brandon, Adam, and Orville. Orville was flipping out a little bit. It was adorable. We were seated behind the women's soccer team who were pretty friendly. They were like, "We don't recognize you, what do you play?", and our response was like, "uh...drums."

Kobe was pretty cool. Learned some fun facts about him. For example the one that stands out is that he's apparently really good friends with Hilary Swank (actress from Boys Don't Cry and the seminal Next Karate Kid). We got to take a photo with him at the end and afterward I shook his hand. My immediate thought was that his hand is both surprisingly and understandably gigantic. So yeah that was pretty interesting.