Ben Folds stole the show!

I went to the John Mayer show last night in VA Beach. I saw JM a couple years back when he played in Richmond. He has since improved his vocals--about time. He must have also improved either his guitar solos or increased the size of his ego. That boy played the hell out of some solos! At least 2 every song--some good, some not as good. The guy occasionally let one of the other two guitarists chime in for half of a lead, but he never gave the drummer, the pianist, or the bassist the opportunity to show off their chops. It was a great performance and a great show, but it was at times rather blah...

Now, Ben Folds, the supporting act and real reason I went to the show, was anything but blah. I was completely blown away by his show. I would pay to see Mayer again just to see Folds. In fact, I thought about leaving after Folds played, but I figured at this point it was a free Mayer concert. Maybe I just wasn't that thrilled with Mayer's performance because I had seen him, but in my opinion Ben Folds stole the show. Ben was accompanied by just a bassist and a drummer. If you know Folds, three piece is his style. The harmonies were spot on, especially for just three vocals. Mr. Folds was rocking out so hard he broke a string in his piano. At the end of the show he threw his stool at his piano hitting the rock-outro perfectly! I want to see him again, soon.

My new bike is UGLY

My recently purchased bike is an eye sore. The frame is off-white, which is neat, but it has an ugly green water bottle and white/blue/purple camo handlebar wraps. Yuck. Its so ugly I love it!
Picture pending.

Buttermilk Trail:1 Daniel: 0

This morning I ventured off to the James River Park System on my bike. I headed East on the North Bank trail from the Boulevard bridge to Belle Isle. Along the way I snapped this picture on my cameraphone, of Texas Beach. I took another picture of Hollywood Cemetery's view of the river while I took a brief break. I crossed Belle Isle and went West along the access road on the South Bank.

Once I hit the Reedy Creek parking lot, I went East again along the Buttermilk trail. I went as far along East as possible and then turned around and headed back. On my way back, I decided to straddle-walk my bike down one steep section that appeared beyond my cycling skill; it turned out to be beyond my straddle-walking skills too. I went over the handlebars and tumbled down the steep hill. The aftermath is depicted in the other picture. After that, I finished the short bit back to Reedy Creek's parking section and opted for Riverside Drive (road) over Buttermilk Heights (trail) to take me home.

In other cycling news, I am buying a 12-speed Bianchi Strada LX tonight for only $100. I don't even know what it looks like, nor do I care. As long as it takes from from home to work, I'm happy. Wikipedia tells me that Bianchi is a good brand, too.

Monday, I'll be seeing an old favorite of mine, John Mayer, and the icing on the cake is that Ben Folds is opening! John Mayer is a wicked good guitarist, better than he plays on his albums. I regretfully missed an opportunity to see Ben Folds a few years back, so this fill that void.

Sunday I'm racing, but this time without the owner of the car. That concerns me as he's my safety net when it comes to car prep/sanity/etc. Whenever I forget something, he usually picks up the slack. I'll have to be on my toes this weekend.

Movies

I'm getting back into wanting to watch movies. Last night I watched The Illusionist, and I loved it. While watching movies, I try not to think ahead and figure out the end, instead I let the end just happen--I guess I liked to be surprised. Looking back, this one may have been predictable to most folks, but not me. Next up I have Zodiac and when I'm in the mood for a thriller, Silent Hill.

The weekend was quite fun. My co-worker's girlfriend thew him a surprise birthday dinner at Capital Ale House in the West End. I was very fond of the beer selection and enjoyed a sweet Doppelbock followed by a nice bitter IPA. I coaxed the birthday boy into ordering a bottle of Dogfish Head's 120-minute IPA so I could sip it--very nice. It's 12 fl oz, 20% alcohol, 450 calories, and $18! For you hopheads, they will have it on tap at Capital Ale House in the West End early fall, truly an epic event as Dogfish Head will only release it 3 times in 2007. I excitedly emailed the guy who turned me onto this beer, Adrian.

I went into work on Sunday to catch up, so there's nothing interesting in that.

This week has been pretty uneventful except some exceptionally nice dinners. I guess since I just went shopping Sunday, there's plenty of good food to eat.

Uneventful, or so I thought

I thought about creating an entry earlier today, but didn't think I had anything to write about. Then it hit me.

Yesterday I took DiscoverRichmond.com's RICHMOND QUIZ #12: How much do you know?. I didn't do so well overall, but Question 7 was as follows:

7. This Richmond theater, which opened in 1938, was one of the first theaters outfitted for sound motion pictures and includes a Wurlitzer organ that is a mainstay of the theater's current weekly entertainment.

This question is wrong, technically. Perhaps it is because this Richmond theater is less than 2 blocks away, but I spotted an error. The only theater that I know was the first theater build with sound and has a Wurlitizer organ, and is in Richmond was, in fact build in 1928, not 1938.

So I took the liberty to email the correction to the editor. He responded with a "I'll look into it" and today the text reads 1928, Ha! I felt smart. Oh and if you don't know, the answer is the Byrd Theater.

Richmond's Heat

It's been wicked hot for the past few days in Richmond. Rather than sit in the AC and complain, I've become active and it feels nice and healthy. As I mentioned before, I cycle to work. I haven't mentioned that I'm a cheapskate and I cycle on a bike I bought from the thrift store. I put more money into the new brake and shift levers and cables than I did on the entire bike! Its not a city bike, but it gets me to and from.

Well this morning I decided I would not cycle into work because I hate walking into work dripping sweat, but instead go for a ride to the river. I went down to the James River Park system and rode part of the Buttermilk Heights trail, across the maintenance path to Belle Isle and back. It wasn't more advanced than I can handle, but I sure had to dismount and walk a time or two.

Throughout all my life in greater Richmond (17 years this month), I've been to the river less than a half-a-dozen times. About three times for fishing when I was younger and about three times for fun. Now that I live close enough to walk to the river I'm glad I finally discovered it. I hope to now spend leisurely weekends there, lounging and cycling with friends, and maybe even kayak down some rapids. So I guess I'm a born-again Richmonder; I love my city life.

Weekend

Well this past weekend was my first bloggable weekend, and quite an eventful one, too.

Saturday I attended a party after having worked all day. I don't know where the hosts got those sugar cookies, but I was certainly hooked oh them. This one guy that attended was the ass of the party. He was a major creep, and apparently has a open relationship with his wife. He used to work for a photography company that takes school pictures and used this in his game. He used other party-goers to dig up info on a girl he thought was pretty, and on his way out he really laid down his A-game: He points at her and says "Tucker High School, right? I photographed you." Then gave this really stupid half-smile/half-headnod. The look on her face was absolutely priceless!

Sunday was autocross day. Since this is is my first autocross related blog, allow me to explain. Autocrossing is best described as time trials in a parking lot around a course outlined with cones. Its awesome for any motoring enthusiast. It's safe, low speed, and anyone can do it. There are many different levels of participation: some people pull up in grandma's Volvo and just race, some people trailer their race cars there to compete--I'm closer to the latter. My good friend Adrian has built a Spec Miata that I co-drive. It is so much fun to drive! There will certainly be more on this in future posts. So the race yesterday was very very hot. At one point the pavement's temp was 150 degrees. The course was very challenging, but I managed to obtain my time goal by the end of the day. I felt very satisfied.

I had plans to go to the Byrd to see Blades of Glory Sunday evening, but I fell fast asleep--I had been out in the sun all day, so I turned in early and caught up on my sleep.

I'm back online

It seems that I've lost my online presence. I blame work. The last place I worked provided me enough free time to create webpages, buy domains and hosting and have an online presence. I was quickly learning HTML and CSS, but all that stopped when I got what I call a 'real job'. Since joining the law firm (no, I'm not a lawyer--I'm in IT), I was much to busy to have the internet as my hobby. That said--I'm back, but probably not "better than ever."

Back when I was on, blogs were call journals, which shows the learning curve I must climb. Another reason I haven't created a blog was because I realize both my grammar and spelling is far less than perfect. When I read other peoples' blogs, I think about how well educated they must be based on their text. Well, I don't want to be considered un-educated because of poor grammar. Hell, if my grandfather of 78 can blog why can't I? Maybe because he's a true wordsmith... My problem is proofing what I publish. So my goal to not sound/look stupid is to proof-read everything.

Lots of things have happened in my life since my last web presence, all of which will be covered in future posts. I'm moving the rivercityminis.org site to my personal hosting. I went to Italy and Greece. I bought a house. I'm racing a Miata instead of my MINI this autocross season. I'm autocrossing now. I bought a bicycle. I ride the bicycle to work for exercise because I've gained weight. I started a new job (in 2005). I got promoted (in 2007). I just got back from vacation.

There's more to be said, but I'm actually busy. Maybe this blogging thing won't work out in the end. We'll see.