"I Ain't Wasting No More Time on What You Did, Or What You Didn't"

Today's song lyric comes from Emerson Hart's "If You're Gonna Leave." Most people don't recognize his name, but this guy has been making incredible music for years. Emerson is the former frontman for the band Tonic, who, of course, made the uber-rock song "If You Could Only See" in mid-90's. If you only know Tonic from that song, do yourself a favor and pick up some CD's. "Lemon Parade," which contains the aforementioned track, is an amazing record. Their follow-up, "Sugar," is kick ass. The title song is one of the best songs I've ever heard, along with "Waltz With Me." Their third, "Head On Straight," was Grammy-nominated for the song "Take Me As I Am," which, again, is incredible. I've seen Tonic play live once, around 12 years or so ago, and it was amazing. I'm looking forward to seeing Emerson tour behind his new record.

Speaking of music, I have a couple concerts lined up over the next couple of months. A triple-bill of Counting Crows, Collective Soul and Live will be playing up in Frederick next month. I'm looking forward to that. I've seen Counting Crows and Live before and they put on a good show. My old band used to cover a Collective Soul song (come to think of it, we covered songs from all of those bands), so I know I'll have a good time. Late next month it's the Pat McGee Band playing at the Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach, DE. I haven't been out that way in awhile and I'm missing it. The Bottle & Cork is a cool place to see a band play live, and the Pat McGee Band just rocks. I can't wait.

In addition to the music stuff coming up, I also have a comedy show coming up on the 18th, which promises to be a great time. Frank Caliendo at the DC Improv. If you don't know who Frank is, you're missing out. He does an ass-load of impressions and he does them all VERY well. He's the only guy I know who can imitate John Madden and then go right into Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Rome and Scooby Doo. Usually, after the shows at the Improv, you can meet the comedians in the lobby to get autographs, etc. I'm looking forward to meeting Frank.

So it seems I have some cool stuff coming up, but not really much happening now. I just finished working the weekend and I'm enjoying a day off. I have a court appearance tomorrow morning, then I work again on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm looking forward to having this weekend off. Should be a good time.

Ciao!

Forgive The Urgency, But Hurry Up And Wait

"Look After You" - the Fray

I figured I'd throw a line from one of their songs on here today as I just saw their show last week up in Columbia. Good time. The Fray really puts on a good show and I'm happy I went, despite the fact that I had a cold for most of last week. Hell, a few $9 beers at the pavillion will make you forget all about illness.

So NHL free agency began on Sunday. And lots of players landing on new teams. I was surprised to see some, not so surprised about others. I really didn't expect that Drury AND Briere would have left Buffalo. I figured one or the other, but not both. The Rangers did well to sign Drury and Scott Gomez from New Jersey. But I still hate that team. Let's talk about Washington's moves....

The first two to be announced were Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov. Both are decent pick ups. I was more jazzed with picking up Poti, since everyone knows that the Caps are really hurting for blue line help, than I was about Kozlov. Kozlov is good, but not stellar. But I really didn't expect to see Washington bring in any superstar names. I think they'll definitely be good additions to the roster.

Now, I couldn't be happier about the signing of Michael Nylander to a 4 year deal. I liked him when he played here before and I hated to see him go in the trade to Boston a few years back. I was hoping that we'd pick a playmaking center during the off season and damn if the front office didn't grant my wish! Although today I read that the Edmonton Oilers are upset over Nylander signing in Washington because, according to Edmonton, they felt they already had a deal in place to add him to their club. A complaint was filed with the league and I forsee some kind of legal action behind this. If this somehow works out that Nylander's contract with the Capitals is void and he has to report to Edmonton, I'm gonna be pissed. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this plays out.

I don't really have much in the way of a wish list in terms of "I'd like to see the Caps pick up (fill in high profile name here)." Sure, there were some big names hitting the free agent market this year, but I really didn't expect that we'd land the likes of Gomez, Drury, Kariya, etc. If nothing else, I'm realistic. I had only hoped that the management would land some hard working players that would add some experience to what's been a pretty young team for the past couple of years. And they seemed to have done that. I hope they don't just look good on paper when October rolls around.

So I caved in to all the hype last week. Friday night I wandered out to the Apple store up in Columbia and picked up an iPhone. Let me tell you folks, believe the hype. This is one of the coolest things I've ever bought. I was already an AT&T customer, so it was easy to just go get one and have the service switched from my old phone to the new one. I know some people who have Verizon and Sprint phones that wanted the iPhone, but couldn't get out of their existing contracts without paying out the ass. What a drag. I can say that despite how much I love this thing, I still don't know that I would've camped out and waited in insanely long lines when they went on sale at 6PM like so many people did. I went to the Apple store shortly after 9 that night, walked right in, swaggered up to the counter and bought one without any hassle. I only had to wait the 10 or 15 seconds it took for my credit card to be approved. Screw waiting!

Anyhow, time to go out and play some ball with Murphy who's been patiently waiting here for Dad to finish typing. I hope everyone has a good 4th of July. Adios muchachos!