Garbage Chevy Volcano Wine.

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Opala.

I did an internet search for that word. The reason will be explained later.

The first hit is the one that made the most sense to me. Being from Hawai'i, Opala has always meant "garbage". So why not have the domain name: opala.org? Since "Don't Mess With Texas" is taken, we get "Don't dump on Hawai'i. Sort it out."

This also means that any result on the internet search after this will result in snicker, because now everything is just "garbage".

Second on the hit list was the Chevrolet Opala (*snicker*). Guess this car was only sold in Brazil and never in America. And especially not in Hawai'i. The only Opala vehicles in Hawai'i pick up the Opala.

Third is Opala, a Stratovolcano located in southern Russia (*chortle*). Can you imagine an Opala volcano spouting Opala?

The fourth hit was a site under construction for some Australian Shepard dog. I couldn't figure out if the dog's name was "Opala" or the breeders were "Opala". Either way, they probably won't sell many dogs in Hawai'i. Even with the relaxed quarantine rules for animals.

Which brings me to why I did the internet search to begin with. A couple of weeks ago, Whole Foods was running a sale/pushing an item, that I just had to buy. Yep, it's Opala, the wine (*tee hee!*). It's a white. No, I didn't fill the bottle with water to make it look like there's something in it. It really is a very clear white wine. We finally popped it open a couple of days ago. I'm very happy to see Nicole branching out and trying white wines. She really is a fan of reds and the only stipulation she makes about whites is, "not too sweet, dry is better."

Whole Foods was advertising it as a "dry crisp white", so for 6 bucks, why not. Here's what we discovered. The bouquet of the wine is very lightly floral (which begs the question, was it because of white wine, the "smell" of the wine is referred to as the "bouquet" since most whites smell floral?). The first tastes of this clear white wine were just that, clear. There was no initial taste. It was like drinking water. After the wine rolled back there was finally some semblance of sweetness.

That's about it. I don't know what else to say. I'm no sommelier. I did like the wine. Although I don't know that I'd purchase it again.

It is, after all, "Opala" wine.

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It's July 27th. Now What Do I Do?

I've got my post Superbowl blues at the end of July.

They always make fun of football fans after the Superbowl, and to a lesser extent the Pro Bowl, are finished. People walking around aimlessly, wondering what to do with themselves until the start of the football season in the fall. Blank stares.

My Superbowl was the Tour de France. It's over. My man Contador won this year, despite the in-fighting on his team. Now I'm wondering what to do with myself until next July. Blank stares.

So to combat this, I decided to do a camera dump and get all the pictures off my... cell phone. Yep. pulled all the pictures that's I've taken over the last, 4 years maybe? Here's the highlights. I don't think the pictures are in any particular order, that's just how they showed up in the file.Here is Ipolani and our heater dish. The funny thing is, on the box that the heater came in, there's pretty much a picture exactly like this.I'll stick with the cold theme for now. Here's a shot outside our hotel in... Texas. Yep. Snow in Texas. It was snowing so hard that we had a hell of a time getting to the hotel. Granted, this is Northern Texas, in the pan handle. So maybe it snows there all the time. I don't know. All I know is, it's cold.This I found humorous. At a WalMart on the border of Oregon and Washington state, we stopped to pick up some shotgun shells for our Sporting Clays outing. And what did I find stacked next to the Remington 12 gauge sporting loads?Ah, first class. I don't know why I took this picture. It's either to illustrate the drink you get while boarding is happening, or the fact that the armrests are so wide, you can rest your drink on it.This picture is for my Mother-in-Law. I hope she finds it funny.This was quite a hard photo to take considering I'm driving my truck while I'm taking it. I don't remember where I was going, but I know it was in Los Angeles. There is a lot of crap on the freeways in Los Angeles. Plastic bags and lots of other road debris are always being kicked up and floating around while you whizz by at 70 miles per hour. Amazingly, the tip, and I mean tip of my antenna caught this piece of plastic wrap as it floated towards my car. How often will you see something that amazing happen?Here's Kolohe finding a comfortable spot to lie down.This is Nani Cat. I named her as such, because, well, I don't know why. She was a feral cat at the venue in Istanbul, Turkey where Shakira played. She was, as you can see, very friendly. I felt bad for her because she'd go up to some people who I guess didn't like cats, and they'd swat at her or chase her away. She just wanted to be pet.Also in Turkey. I guess they have square butts.At the airport in Nice, France, they have an area with a bicycle repair stand that you can build your bike when you land. How cool is that?A while ago, I was told that my cholesterol "elevated" it wasn't out of the normal range, and I didn't have high cholesterol, but the doctor told me I should watch what I eat. So for a while on tour, I tried to be good, and this was my typical breakfast. It sucked. THIS is what breakfast should look like. Loco Moco at the Kuhio grill in Hilo.On my first outing to try Sporting Clays at the Sandanona club in upstate New York, we stopped at the Orange County Choppers store to look at the goods. Here's the custom ride they built for Lance Armstrong.Me at my 20th high school reunion trying to get liquored up on gin and tonics. Too bad it was a cash bar and I didn't bring much cash.Here's my brother Matt at his bachelor party dinner at the Moroccan restaurant in Kailua. We hired the belly dancer. And she got him up to dance. And let me tell you that boy can shake his hips. They certainly don't lie.And finally, the catheter they put in my arm the first time I tried to get a CT Scan. It was never used. Installed, but never used. Removed 2 hours later.


My son, Sean Patrick. What a cutie. This picture wasn't taken by my cell phone. But I had to put it in anyway.

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Takin' Care Of Da 'Hood.

Last week I found this in my yard. It came from here. Now why would this come that came from here end up in my yard? Well because this came from the tree in my yard. So when the guys came to make this do this, they must have cut this out of the way and put it in my yard.

And I'm glad they did. This street light which is across the street from our house has not been working properly for over two years I would guess. It used to come on for a second, then shut off, then warm up and pop on again, then shut off. It kind of sucked. It took me a while to do anything about it because, well, up until last summer, I wasn't home a lot (damn touring).

Since last summer, I've called a couple of times to different telephone numbers to get the street light fixed. There was a number in the phone book in the government section, and when I'd call that, it went to some guys voicemail. Then at the beginning of this year, we always get a booklet for the Altadena community, next to the sheriff's numbers was another phone number for street light repair. I called that one and actually spoke to a person who took down all the information, but never sent anyone out.

So a while back, the power went out in our house so I called Southern California Edison to find out what was going on. Among the myriad of choices was, "To report a streetlight out, press 6", I didn't because I wanted to figure out what was wrong with the power.

About a week ago, I finally sat at the computer and went to the SoCal Edison website to see if there was a place to report a broken streetlight. There was, so I entered all the information and clicked, "Report". The next day I got an email from SoCal Edison saying thank you for the report and they'll send someone out when they can. I took this to mean, "Some time this century, we'll get to it."

But lo and behold the very next day the street light was fixed.

Just takin' care of the 'hood.

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Negative.

Thought you all might want to know the results of my CT Scan. The blog title tells it all. Well, not really. I shouldn't say it was "negative", since we weren't really looking for a "positive". I guess saying, "all is normal" would be better. But then again, it's me, what's normal about me?

I also had more blood work done at the request of my doctor, that also came out normal. She was testing for, a few things:

Lactate Dehydrogenase
Creatinine, Serum
Blood Urea Nitrogen, Serum

I don't know what any of that is, but if I go onto the Kaiser website and look up my test results, I can link to it and find out. All I know is, the levels of each are normal so nothing to worry about.

As for the CT Scan... It took a while to get the results, which to me meant there was nothing wrong. If there was, I'm sure the doctors would have alerted me sooner than this. As it is, my doctor just sent me an email (via my Kaiser account) to say that everything is back to normal, the "lymph nodes" that were present during the first CT Scan are gone, so she's guessing it all pointed to a viral infection of some sort.

There. Now you're all caught up.

...

On a different note, I went to the gym today. I try to go at least three times a week, once with my trainer. I bring this up because I'm beginning to think I have a locker buddy and may be able to work out a schedule with them, without ever seeing them.

There's a locker room at the gym (obviously) and everyone just shares the lockers. If there's an open one, you throw your stuff in and lock it while you workout. As a nod to the "Monk" in me (Tony Shalhoub, not beer making Trapists), I always like to use the same locker, and if I don't get that same locker, I actually get a little flustered. There's been times when I start a workout in a different locker and when I finish, my usual locker is open, so I move all my stuff in there and go take a shower. How very "Monkish" of me.

I used go to the gym at about 10 AM in the morning, and for about the last month or so, my locker has been in use 90% of the time. But lately, I've been going a little later, arriving closer to 11 AM and my locker has been open. I may have to adjust my workout time to permanently start at or near 11 AM and whomever is in my locker is out by then.

It's crazy, I know, but I also use the same shower in the locker room every time. And when my shower is in use, I get flustered. It actually sucked for a couple of weeks because they had closed off the wing I shower in for remodeling. You have no idea how bad that was, having the shower door on the wrong side and the shower head in the wrong place.

"You see, here's the thing... I always use that shower..."

If you're a Monk fan, you'll get the reference.

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Let's Make That "Extended Staying At Home"

Guess I'm not "extended gigging" for a while.




I hope he feels better.

Not good, but not bad either. I was really worried about missing my family.

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For Manny.

Apologies for the poor video quality.

For those who don't know... Manny is a good friend and fellow cyclist who, for some unexplained reason, despises Alberto Contador's victory salute. So... I guess I have to wind him up about it.

Need I say more?

Kisses.

...

My Run In With The Yellow Jersey

All these photos taken at the Tour of California this year.





That guy blowing by me in the blue and white AG2R jersey is Rinaldo Nocentini. The current wearer of the yellow jersey at the Tour de France. He's leading Contador by 6 seconds, and Armstrong by 8. He's not gonna last until the end.

Nocentini went on to win this stage of the Tour of California.

Chasing behind him is George Hincapie, one of the most respected cyclist in the world. He also makes a great line of cycling clothes. If you feel the need to own a pair of bib shorts, I'd recommend his brand.

Following Hincapie is a motorcycle that nearly ran me over. Scared Nicole anyway.

Oh, and I have a 2007 AG2R jersey hanging in my closet. I love Decathlon.

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Addendum To The Barium

I just want you all to know, I really like Kaiser, and I really like my personal doctor. In my last post, it seemed as if I was complaining. I wasn't really. I was mad that I had to spend 5 hours away from Nicole and Sean Patrick and have it result in nothing. But I also realize that, well, sh*t happens and we deal with it.

For me Kaiser is a great hospital and a great health care provider. For most of my life (except for that time when I thought I was invincible and didn't need health insurance, let's call it late 20's to early 30's), I've been a member of Kaiser, even in Hawai'i. I've heard Kaiser getting a bad rap lately for being an HMO, or something, and when I first started going back to the doctor, the Kaiser facilities in Hollywood were not top notch.

But now, I have a doctor I like, it does take me a while to get a non-urgent appointment with her (sometimes two months), but Nicole, who's on a PPO, seems to be having the same problem. She has an appointment with a new doctor today.

We had an appointment yesterday for Sean Patrick's 9 month check up. Of all the doctor visits we've had with him, this one was probably the shortest, but we still had to wait for long periods of time.

I remember hearing once on TV, when some commentator (was it Dan Rather Reports, again?) was talking about President Obama's sweeping health care reform, he need look no further than Kaiser Permanente for an outline of how to do it. That makes me happy to hear.

C'mon Mr. President, push through that health care reform. We need it.

And just to end on a humorous note...

The ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher was giving final oral exams to her students when she called up Luis Telebang, a recent arrival from the Philippines answer a few questions.

"Okay Luis, use the following words in a sentence- Tennis shoes."

Luis thought for a minute, "De Shahrk was bery tennis shoes when eating de pish."

"Uhm... okay," replied the teacher, "How about this, use 'barium' in a sentence."

Luis thought for a minute, "We pound a dead body by de riber, so we barium."

I don't remember the rest of the joke, and this only really works if you read it out loud, so never mind.

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Barium - What You Do With A Dead Body.

A little bit of an adventure last week.

Back in April, I had a bit of a health thing happening. For some unexplained reason, I had a really sharp pain in my abdomen. I went to the Kaiser urgent care twice in one week. The first time, the doctor thought I was constipated because the X-ray she had done seemed to show a little bit of "blockage". She sent me home with a stool softener and told me to come back in three days if the pain didn't get any better.

It didn't get any better. The second time (and second doctor) recommended an abdominal CT scan. He didn't see anything wrong on the CT and thought it might be muscle strain and that I should take it easy (and take ibuprofen).

A few days after the CT scan, I felt fine, but I had already set an appointment with my regular doctor, and went to consult with her. Although the CT scan showed nothing that would contribute to my abdominal pain, the doctor who "read" the CT scan (this would be a 4th doctor), found an anomaly, I had excessive "nodes" in my abdomen. My doctor explained that it could just be a result of what ever it was that was causing the pain, it could just be something my body just has, or it could be a sign of something greater. She ordered a second CT scan be done 2 months later. If the nodes shrunk, or disappeared, it was due to what ever caused the abdominal pain, if the number and size stay the same, it's probably just me, and if the number or size increase, there could be something else.

Flash forward to last week Thursday. I had my second CT scan set up. I check in with reception. After a few minutes a nice male nurse took me back to the triage room to "prep" me by putting in a catheter and and making me drink this: Barium Sulfate to act as contrast for the CT scan. I had to drink two bottles in 15 minutes (I know there's four bottles in the picture, you'll find out why in a minute), and then wait an hour for the Barium to run it's course through my system. So I went out into the waiting room and drank my Scan-C (it tasted like a watered down vanilla shake). When I sat down I noticed this: What the hell, man? Blood on my nice German desert flectarn camouflage pants? I don't normally look when they poke me with a needle, but I also don't normally bleed out onto my pants. Either I have great blood pressure, or the nurse was a little slow in capping the leak.

An hour later, another nurse called me back to the triage room, had me strip down to my underwear, put on 2 hospital gowns, and wait in the CT scan waiting area. Why two hospital gowns? I like this method actually. You put one on backwards and the other on forwards and you are completely covered up. Even a fat guy like me.

Soon the CT tech came and brought me into the scanning room. For those of you who've never had a CT scan done in your life, the scanning machine is this huge thing with a hole in the middle. It sort of looks like this: Except the hole is smaller and you are lying down. While you are lying down, they pass you back and forth a few times through the hole to take the "scan".

When I got into the room, the tech started doing her final checks. She informed me that they were going to inject me (through my bloody IV) with iodine to act as another contrast for my circulatory system. She then asked me if I had an allergic reaction to the iodine from the last CT scan I had. I replied that my skin got a little flushed, like a sunburn that day, but by the next morning it had gone. She scrunched up her nose and said, "That doesn't sound good. Did you report it?" I told her no, because it had gone away the next day. She wanted to be sure so she called in a doctor to consult (my 5th doctor of this tale).

He told me that because I hadn't reported it, they weren't sure what caused the reaction and that I needed to take a series of pills (I think low dose steroids) a day before I have a CT scan. Which means I cannot have a CT scan today and must reschedule and come back.

What? I just bled all over my pants, can't we just do this and I can go home? Negative come back on Saturday. But this time to a different radiology department. The one in the actual Kaiser hospital, they're open on Saturday. Doctor number 5 then called my regular doctor and had her write the prescription for pills and I could pick it up and any Kaiser pharmacy.

The nearest pharmacy was across the street so I went there. The prescription hadn't been turned in yet, but if I just had a seat, I'd be called when it was ready. An hour and a half later, I had a big bottle with 15, small 10mg pills in it, and a small bottle with 50, large 50mg pills in it. I had to take the 15 small pills over a 13 hour period before my CT scan, and then one, and only one of the large pills one hour before the scan. Explain to me again why I had to buy a bottle of 50 pills?

All this fun in 5 hours.

So on Saturday, I came prepared for a long day, I brought a sudoku book and was ready to sit and wait.

I showed up at the hospital 15 minutes before my appointment time, I was immediately escorted back to the CT scan waiting room, drank my 2 bottles of Scan-C (that's why I have 4 bottles), waited exactly an hour, changed into my double robes, went to the scan room, had a scan, and was sent home after changing back into my street clothes. I wore woodland CADPAT pants this time.

Done in an hour and a half.

Now I just wait for the results. I'll let you know what happens.

Oh, and here's a real CT scanning machine. Although the one I was in was made by General Electric and not Phillips. I'm just to lazy to find a real picture on the interwebs.And if you don't get the title of this blog, "Barium - What You Do With A Dead Body", try this, "Bury Them - What You Do With A Dead Body". Not as funny.

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When Did We Become The French?

This blog is for you Manny. You'll probably be the only one to have a rebuttal.

So, when did we become the French? The tables have turned. If you know your history - 1986, Bernard Hinault (Fra) vs. Greg LeMond (USA). Hinault - 5 time winner of the Tour de France. LeMond - Young up and coming rider, who helped a very broken Hinault win his 5th Tour de France, tying an age old record (until Armstrong won 7). Both on the La Vie Claire cycling team, managed by Bernard Tapie

2009, Lance Armstrong (USA) vs. Alberto Contador (Spa). Armstrong - current record holder for most wins of the Tour de France, 7. Contador - Young up and coming rider who has won all three major tours (Vuelta, Giro, and Tour de France). Both on the Astana cycling team, managed by Johan Bruyneel.

In 1986, the American cycling community cheered for our underdog LeMond who had to spend literally mountains of energy to over come his own teammate, Hinault to win. The French media (and possibly some of the fans) jeered LeMond calling him a "non-team player" and not working for (and being thankful for it) Hinault. Manager Bernard Tapie, openly admits to supporting Hinault. LeMond, just doesn't understand how he cannot be supported when all this was promised to him. The La Vie Claire team was divided.

First Mountain stage of the 2009 Tour de France, Alberto Contador, breaks away from his teammates on Astana on the final climb toward the finish, leaving Armstrong. At the finish, Armstrong's states in an interview that Contador's break was, "Not according to plan." The next day the American media (and frankly, MOST of it's fans) are all over Contador, calling him a "non-team player" and not working for (and being thankful for it) Armstrong. Manager Johan Bruyneel, while being very cagey and not openly supporting Armstrong, definitely shows a certain amount of favoritism to him (i.e. team selection for the Tour). Is the Astana team divided?

I think Contador had to break. I think he saw the writing on the wall and while the Astana boys keep saying, "We don't know who the leader of this team is... yet," there is an elephant in the room that no one will admit too... Everyone wants Armstrong to win - The U.S. Media (I'm talking about you Bob Roll and Craig Hummer), MOST of the American cycling fans, and 80% of the Astana tour team (Contador, and Sergio Paulihno being the opposing 20%).

While admittedly, it would be a great story, Armstrong comes back from retirement to win a record 8th time. A man so gifted at his chosen sport that at the ripe old age of 37 (funny to say when I'm almost 40, I must be rotten) he can be among the best again. Dominance is pretty cool, but even I grew to dislike the Detroit Red Wings.

But you know what would make a better story? Armstrong gracefully passes the torch to the younger generation, the ones who will lead us in the future of cycling. He recognizes the gifts in Contador and supports his teammate to the end.

You decide.

And what prompted all of this ranting? Craig Hummer and Bob Roll, the "Fox New Channel" for cycling. Is it not obvious when you watch that they are supporting Armstrong for the win? Chastising Contador for yesterdays break. You want unbiased reporting? Look to our British friends, Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett. They might be supporting Armstrong in their hearts, but you never hear them say it. The give you all sides of the story and let you decide.

I don't hide the fact that I support Contador. I like Lance, but I don't like his subversive tactics this year. It feels two faced when he says, "We're going for a win on the team, strongest man will be in yellow," when he really means, "I'm going for a win for me, damn everyone else."

Besides, when he announced his comeback last August, didn't he say he was doing if for cancer awareness?

Step off soapbox. Exit stage right.

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Extended Gigging.

Some of you know, some of you don't. It looks like I'm leaving town again for work. I don't want to say, "I'm touring", because every time I do, someone freaks out. So I'm not saying that I'm going on tour, I'm going to say, I'm going for an "extended gig".

Because that's what it really is. When I say "touring", I think of being gone for long periods of time, 6 weeks, 2 months, 2 years, with little or no time off. Blue Man Group was usually 3 months non-stop.

No, I'm extended gigging. In two weeks, I'm gone for two weeks, but then I'm home for a month, then I'm gone 6 weeks, but I'll see my wife and son in the middle of that, so it won't be too bad.

I wouldn't have taken this extended gig if there was more local work. I get enough gigs every month to pay the bills, but nothing beyond that. It's been tight, but it's also been nice to see my son everyday.

I'll still take work between extended gigs. I don't want to loose any ground gained with the local work. And frankly, if an extended gig of local work shows up (think weekly TV show), I'm on that like white on rice.

So for now, I'm going back out for a while. I've got dates into the new year, broken up nicely with lots of time off.

The gig? Beastie Boys. See some of you out there.

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The Simple Things In Life

Another day at Mun2. Another chance to post on the ol' blog.

I went to the gym early this morning to fit in a training session before I came here to see if I can put my butt to sleep yet again on this chair (it's sooooooo uncomfortable). One would think after years of getting up early and training on my bike, getting to the gym at 9AM shouldn't be a big deal. I guess it really wasn't a big deal, but I had to preface this blog with something.

I have a ritual of sorts that I do after my gym visits. I stop at the AM/PM on the way home and get a 32oz. drink packed with "crunch" ice and a Sobe citrus drink. Probably not the best idea to grab a high calorie sugary drink after a workout. But it's not about the liquid, it's about the ice. "Crunch" ice, if you didn't know, are little tiny cubes of ice that are great for chewing. A bad habit I've had for years. The tour manager on Blue Man Group had the same bad habit and her cure was to have the bus driver stop at the local Sonic Burger before they got to the gig and get her a couple of large cups of this "Crunch" ice. So if you have ever been to a Sonic Burger, you know what type of ice I'm talking about.

Another ritual I have, involves the drive to Mun2, well, any gig really, if I can pull it off. In the case of Mun2, there's a 7-Eleven just after the freeway off ramp that I stop at and get a Slurpee and bag of sunflower seeds. I used to get only the Coca Cola flavored Slurpee, but lately I've been branching out. The Coke flavor got a little too sweet for me. As for the sunflower seed thing, I think that started in Spain on the Shakira tour a few years back.

Spain has this chain of stores that sells candy in bulk. You've seen similar things in malls across America. You get the plastic bag and pack it full of different candies you like and then pay by the pound. At the stores in Spain they have a whole section of nuts too. On the one day off in Zaragoza, where Shakira was rehearsing, I got a bag of sunflower seeds. I have to say, it was the best, most flavorful sunflower seeds I've ever had. And they were big seeds too. Not like the tiny seeds you get in the U.S.. If I'm ever back in Spain, I'm packing an extra suitcase just for the sunflower seeds.

Today is a good day for my rituals. Not only did I get my crunch ice after the gym, I got my Slurpee and sunflower seeds on the way to Mun2. Crunch ice almost gone... on to the Slurpee. I got the Mango - Passion Fruit flavor today. It's a little tangy and doesn't taste at all like a mango or a passion fruit, two flavors this Hawai'i boy is familiar with. I'm going to drink it anyway, then the Slurpee cup is my "spittoon" for the sunflower seed shells.

Simple things in life make me happy.

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Who's That For?

When I go to the gym, I park my car across the street in the parking structure. On the top floor is a pedestrian bridge that crosses over to the gym. But I always park one floor down because the top floor is open and it's been really hot lately. At least I can park in the shade on the next level down. I may have to park a little further, and walk up a flight of stairs to get to the bridge, but I just call it my "pre-workout" workout.

By the stairwell is a couple of billboards. When I started going to the gym (May?), they still had a billboard up for the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" Which came out, months before. As a matter of fact, I think the movie was already on pay-per-view, in May.

A couple of weeks ago, they finally replaced it with another movie poster, "My Sisters Keeper". Finally.

Then today, I noticed, they replaced it again. This time with this poster:Rather strange to go from movie posters to this public service announcement. There must be a reason.

In other news, Manny Ramirez is back playing baseball with the Dodgers. I don't know if it was big news outside of L.A., but Manny was suspended for 50 games for steroid use.

Did I mention Manny Ramirez works out at my gym?

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Ha Ha, You Funny.

I worked on another Comedy Central special yesterday. Check your TV guide for the after hours special of Aziz Ansari in the near future. Couldn't tell you when, but it'll be on there, with full swearing. I highly recommend seeing it if you can. He was very funny. He reminded me a bit of Chris Rock with his mannerisms. He's not political/current events like Chris Rock. He's more of a cross between Chris Rock and Kathy Griffith. Chris Rock mannerisms, Kathy Griffith gossip/ true stories. If you see the special, the bit about Kanye West, is a gas.

I like doing the comedy specials. The work is pretty easy, and the LD, gaffer, and best boy are great people. The only real problem we had was interfacing our DMX with their house system. We brought in a bunch of moving lights and just tapped into their existing snake, but there was confusion about which DMX line was which. Took a while to sort out, but we were mostly ready for rehearsals that afternoon. It was a pretty easy show. We wrote two looks, one for each half of the show. Here's the first look. And a close up of the stage. Sorry, the white balance on my camera phone is non-existent.

It seems lately, there have been physical challenges for me to program around. For B.E.T., it was the damn wall, for this Comedy special it was the damn ceiling. I pretty much had to sit down on a high stool (hee hee, I said "stool"), for the entire day because if I stood up and shifted to my right a step, I'd smack my head on the acoustic tile.

At one point the house electrician came up to me to warn me that it gets really cold up here because of the A/C vent directly ahead. I assured her that I'm half polar bear and it wouldn't be a problem. Ask Nicole she'll tell you. I'm basically a walking radiator and if I had my druthers, I'd be living in a much cooler climate than where I am now. That's why if we moved to Hawai'i, my ideal place is wet side Waimea on the Big Island. Always cool, and always wet. Anyway, it never got so cold I had to put on a jacket. It was actually rather refreshing after a couple of high 90 degree days in Altadena.

All and all, an easy day. Karma gave me that one for the last show I did.

Karma still owes me one. B.E.T. was two days.

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TdF Starts Saturday!

Yes, it's that time of year again. The Tour de France starts this Friday in the Principality of Monaco. Should be a good race this year. Lots of possible winners, and a good controversy brewing on one team.

I'm sure we're all aware of the fun that's happening in the Astana camp. With 4 possible winners on their roster, Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden, and Lance Armstrong, it would be really shocking if the winner wasn't from the ranks.

But perhaps not that shocking. This could be a re-hash of the 1986 Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond battle.

Lance Armstrong pledged his loyalty (sort of) to Alberto Contador this year. The team manager, Johan Bruyneel has said Contador is the team leader. But everyone always qualifies their statements with, "But we will ride for the strongest rider." As if to leave the door open for intramural attacks on within the Astana team.

In 1986, I was cheering for Greg LeMond. In 1985, he put aside his ambitions to help a broken and battered Hinault win his 5th Tour. It was then that Hinault pledged his loyalty to LeMond and help him to secure his first win the following year. But when the time came, Hinault went against his word and attacked, saying that if LeMond wanted to win he had to prove he was the strongest.

What kind of crap is that? If you say, you are here to help someone, you help them. It just struck me at selfish and dare I say, very French.

I'm wrong about the French part, because this year could be developing with an American replacing Hinault and a Spaniard replacing LeMond.

I don't blame Contador for being worried. Armstrong is a good strong rider. But the contention I've held since Armstrong announced his return, it's time for the kids to get a chance. In my opinion, Armstrong should have taken a page from Micheal Jordan's book and stayed retired. Jordan came back and was half the player he was. While Armstrong continues to impress with great results in all the races he competes in this year, it's selfish to come back and essentially divide the Astana team into two camps. Those loyal to Contador and those loyal to Armstrong. I'm sure Armstrong will have the greater number of supporters when it comes down to it. But can half a team win the Tour? And for that matter, which half?

Should make for an interesting July.

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