My partners Ryan and Jason are playing a gig with their band, Soul Patch, June 21^st at Redfish Brewhouse in Boulder.  They start at 930pm – sharp.  It’s a onetime event, as the band resides in Boulder, San Francisco and Los Angeles.  They’ll also be releasing their new album.

I told them that I’d pimp their gig on my blog as payment for missing it.  I’m taking my awesome wife to Duluth, Minnesota to run Grandma’s Marathon for our wedding anniversary.  I’ll be running it and she’ll be cheering me on.  I don’t know how I managed to convince her that this was an appropriate thing to do for our anniversary, but I’ll take it.

Please come and rock the redfish with Ryan and Jason.

While Soul Patch’s new album Sooner or Later is not yet on the Billboard Top 10, I believe it is #1 on the VC Rock Album Chart so far this year.  My partner Ryan McIntyre explains the history of the band.  Learn more by joining the Soul Patch Facebook group and look for scandalous photos of Ryan and Jason Mendelson in the upcoming issues of Variety and People Magazine.

Even VC’s need groupies.  Please help.

There was much Guitar Hero playing last night.  Those who were there know who they are and should now bow before a real master.  475,402 and a 425 note streak (hang in there until minute 7 if you want to see some amazing stuff.)

I bet this dude is really good at Tempest.  Of course, I’m not the master – I’m frustratingly stuck on medium and still get excited when I break 50,000.  Yeah – I know it’s kind of weird to be watching Youtube videos of people playing Guiter Hero – Alex and Eran are giggling.

Amy and I love to sit around and make up names for bands.  Etiquette of Suicide was tonight’s band name.  It’s not our all time best, but I expect it to show up as a band name on MySpace any day now.

I had my second opera experience last night at Opera Colorado’s Season Opening Gala performance of The Magic Flute.  I was blown away by my first opera experience in May and had high expectations for last night.  Even though I was completely exhausted from the week, I had a great time.

We arrived at about 5:30 with my folks, Dave Jilk and Maureen Amundson, Wendy Lea and Chris Byrne.  Wendy and Chris have become major opera fanatics in the past year (e.g. weekend in NY where they saw four operas in 30 hours), Dave and Maureen lost their opera virginity with us in May, and my dad will use any excuse to wear his tuxedo (“Brad – can I wear my tux to the basketball game?”)  Entertainingly, both Chris and I had brand new tuxes for the event which just happened to be exactly the same make and cut.

The pre-opera event – which included dinner and lasted until 8:15 – was magnificently done.  It was definitely a Denver crowd – and a beautiful one at that.  The food was excellent and the setting “magical.”

When we sat down to watch the opera, I quickly tried to read the synopsis (I hadn’t read the libretto in advance – bad me.)  It was incomprehensible to me – I couldn’t decide if it was me (I was too tired) or Mozart.  I decided to just settle in and roll with it. 

The production was superb.  The Ellie Caulkins Opera House is an excellent theater – extremely comfortable – and our seats were front and center (12 rows back – exactly in the middle.)  The Magic Flute is one of Mozart’s most well known operas and was completed near the end of his life, so it’s the culmination of a lot of his genius. I once again found myself entranced by the combination of things going on – the acting, singing, choreography, language (German), translation (subtitles on the seat backs), character development, and plot which – while relatively simple – requires some thought when it’s unfolding in another language as all the other things are going on simultaneously.

I was really tired from the week (note to self – opera late on Friday night is a challenge) so I found myself drifting near the end of the first act, especially during the slower segments.  A diet coke at intermission pepped me back up and I stayed engaged all the way through the second act (no snoring from me) which ended at 11:30.  Thankfully Amy drove home, so I slept in the car on the drive back from Denver.

Once again Opera Colorado did a great job.  I look forward to my next opera experience.

I’m becoming addicted to Eminem.  I had a huge breakthrough when I started thinking of it as poetry instead of music, at which point I started liking the tunes. It helped to have a little Dido tossed in for good measure. I haven’t decided yet whether or not this new addiction is a good thing.

I heard there was a performance by a legendary band called Full Ratchet in Atherton last week.  Can you identify the members of the band?

They were joined (or maybe they joined) Thomas Dolby who has been practicing ferociously for his upcoming tour.  Have you been Blinded by Science lately?

I love the Beatles.  I love Brian Ibbott’s Coverville podcast.  I love running.  I set out to do 60 minutes in Atherton early this morning and started listening to Coverville 149: The 2nd Annual Beatles Thanksgiving Double Shot on my iPod Shuffle.  90 minutes later I had one of my best runs of the year.  I was late to my first meeting (sorry Greg) but it was worth it.  If you are a Beatles fan, don’t miss this one.

It’s a beautiful morning in New York and my brother Daniel started it off with an email to me about Mahna Mahna.  His daughter Sabrina was eating a banana this morning and he started singing Bahna Mahna to her after I managed to get Mahna Mahna stuck in his head a few weeks ago at his birthday party.

This all started on Coverville which played the awesome Cake version of it on Episode 90.  Daniel dug up an original Sesame Street Mahna Mahna and a Dr. Pepper Mahna Mahna commercial (go to the Media Gallery).  I dare you to play them and then try to get this out of your head.

The question is “what is a Mahna Mahna?”  The question is “who cares?”

Chris Wand forwarded me DJ RX’s mashup of George Bush Singing U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday.  Newsweek has more on DJ RX in case you care.  Beautifully done.

No – this isn’t going to be a screed on the crazy shit (at ridiculous prices) some of my early stage compatriots are doing these days.  On my run today while listening to Brian Ibbott’s awesome Coverville podcast I heard Authority Zero cover Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo (from the Call of the West album).  I was instantly transported back 15 years and sang along as my tempo picked up.  There are definitely days that I wish I was in Tiajuana eating barbecued iguana.

Two people suggested Pandora to me in the past 24 hours.  It’s from the creators of the Music Genome Project.  You create a radio station based on things that you like (e.g. I’m listening to the Pink Floyd Station right now) and it find music you’ll like.  You give it feedback, and it adjusts its recommendations.  It harkens back to Agents Inc (Firefly) from the mid-1990’s, but in addition to recommendations, actually streams the music and lets you buy the song from iTunes or the album from Amazon.  Very cool.

I just had a run where I used up 100% of what I had. I had a great run yesterday (1:15) in Anchorage on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.  I decided to go 1:30 today on The Homer Spit and ended up going 1:45.  I was DONE when I was done.  I came home, took a shower, and laid down in bed.  Two hours later I got up.  My eyes are puffy.  I feel completely zoned out.  It’s a wonderful thing.  Highly recommended.

During the aforementioned run, I listened to a couple of Coverville podcasts (my current favorite show – fortunately there’s 125 or so out so I’ve got plenty to catch up on) on my iPod Shuffle. I was about 4 miles into my run when an incredibly haunting version the Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” came on.  This is Tori Amos at her absolute best, singing one of my favorite songs, in a way that makes you feel like you were almost there when 16 year old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on an elementary school across the street from her San Diego house in 1979 (ok – maybe it was that I was 4 miles into a run that – well – cooked my brain.)

Bonus tracks on this podcast include Lyle Lovett covering the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” and Alanis Morissette covering the Police’s “King of Pain.” For those of you that want to sing along, here are the lyrics.

The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload.
And nobody’s gonna go to school today,
She’s going to make them stay at home.
And daddy doesn’t understand it,
He always said she was as good as gold.
And he can see no reason
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
I want to shoot the whole day down.

The telex machine is kept so clean
As it types to a waiting world.
And mother feels so shocked,
Father’s world is rocked,
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl.
Sweet 16 ain’t so peachy keen,
No, it ain’t so neat to admit defeat.
They can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?

Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
I want to shoot the whole day down.

All the playing’s stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while.
And school’s out early and soon we’ll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die.
And then the bullhorn crackles,
And the captain crackles,
With the problems and the how’s and why’s.
And he can see no reasons
‘Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die?

Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
Tell me why?  I don’t like Mondays.
I want to shoot the whole day down.

In the “I’m going to go hide under my bed now” category, Ben Casnocha pointed me to the British Royal Black Squadron’s rendition of “Is This The Way To Armadillo (sic)”.