This is art too, dang it!

Since I went to college and started pretending to be a decent guitar player, I've been infatuated with music. I loved music before that, but once I had the inclination and the opportunity to make my own, I became infatuated. I find it hard to answer the question, "What kind of music do you like?" because honestly, as long as it doesn't suck, I like it all. From country to rap, pop to heavy metal… I can appreciate some of all of it. I even enjoy a good gospel song now and then, and I think at this point we've established that I'm not a religious guy. It's the emotion and the inspiration that I respect and enjoy.

I always wanted to learn to play piano but never got around to taking lessons. I gave up playing guitar about a year ago, maybe more. I just got to the point where I felt like I was doing a little bit of everything, and I needed to cut back on the things that I didn't enjoy and/or wasn't good at. I never practiced playing guitar because I never enjoyed practicing. I never enjoyed practicing because I felt stagnant. And I was stagnant because I never practiced. It's a vicious circle.

I just read Liz's (Liz'?) post about watching a high school student cover a Yellowcard song as a piano piece, which she said was beautiful; and it reminded me of all of the times I heard covers of familiar old songs that I obsessed over because of their new luster. Shinedown playing "Simple Man" is still one of my favorites.

It made me think of all of the different creative things I've tried to do. Everyone wants to be famous, right? Even just a little? So I tried to play guitar. I even tried making techno music with some of the best computer programs used at the time. I tried drawing. I played little league baseball. (Damn you, coach! This is another story all together…) I tried skateboarding and roller blading. I still snowboard, but I wouldn't call myself "good" by any stretch of the imagination.

And then I realized that what I do is an art. Writing code takes creative thinking and abstraction, and the trained mind can distinguish between crummy code and beautiful elegant code. It's just not something that can be appreciated by the average American. Just like any other artistic skill, in order to gain notoriety I will have to work hard and hope for a big break — but even then, only geeks will get it.

That's kind of a depressing thought.

The search for a dive bar that doesn't suck…

Something we're really lacking around here is a dive bar that doesn't suck. I know that sounds contradictory, but if you look hard enough you can always seem to find a dive bar that fits your style pretty well. We've not had any luck near home so far. The Blarney Stone is good example of a dive bar in Philly that doesn't suck, while Cavanaugh's (a couple of blocks away) isn't, because it sucks. The easiest way to tell is to go there while it's empty. If you're content hanging out in a bar that has a grand total of 10 people in it, including the bartender and your friends, congratulations… you found a good bar.

Now, there are a few bars close by that we're not all that interested in checking out. You might say that they're "in the ghetto" — but that would be rude and insensitive of you. Jerk. All it really means is that they are in downtown Coatesville and there isn't anywhere near them that I would feel comfortable parking my car.

We've tried T.G.I. Friday's and Applebees, but they aren't divey enough. We went to one place in Thorndale on a secret mission to check out the bar under the guise of just having lunch, but were not impressed.

We tried a place just west of here called the Somewhere Tavern or Saloon or something like that, (you know, "It's always 5:00 somewhere…") and as hard as it may be to imagine, it seemed a bit rednecky, even for us.

So in our ongoing search for a dive bar that doesn't suck, I'm adding a new post tag called Finding a dive bar that doesn't suck. My friend Oscar and I (and probably the Missus) will be checking out a place called "The Landing Strip" (which is only acceptable as a name when it's in the vicinity of an airport, which it is) in the next couple of weeks, depending on free time, and I will report back. Unless "The Landing Strip" turns out to be a great bar, this may turn out to be an interesting ongoing thing.

We always do cool stuff for Erin's Birthday…

Last year we went to some Indian restaurant. ("Cassablanca"?) This year we went to Pod, and a couple of nearby bars. Of course, there are pictures up on our flickr page.

We don't know where yet, but we're going to come up with something really good for our birthday celebration this year. The best I've got so far is Chuck E. Cheese. We have to share our birthday celebration because we're only four days apart. (And a year, don't forget that she's three-HUNDRED and sixty NINE days older than me!) So if you have any suggestions for neat things to do in the greater Philly area, I'm all ears.

It was a busy weekend. Friday night we went over and had dinner with Sue, Ed, Cora, and David, and Sunday I drove to Salisbury for my fraternity's Alumni Lunch and then to Easton to visit my family.

After I finally got home and relaxed a bit I crocheted some more (I haven't forgotten!), but there wasn't significant enough progress to take pictures of. I will try to do a good amount tonight and get some pictures. I've finally settled on a pattern for the whole thing so now it's just a matter of getting it done. Then I will own the best scarf ever.