Obama at the Xcel

I am very thankful I had the opportunity to attend the Obama rally last night at the Xcel Energy Center. My friend Jeff and I got downtown at 6 p.m. and had a 30 minute walk to the end of the line. At the time I was estimating that there was little chance we'd get in, as we walked well over 15 city blocks. Regardless, I was happy to see the throng of highly enthusiastic people waiting on the historic night.

The line did get moving, albeit slowly, and after 8 p.m. I thought for sure that the Xcel had filled up, but had not heard anything. The line moved faster, and before we knew it, we were outside just a few feet away from the entrance. Jeff and I made it in just a couple of minutes before Barack took the stage.

I am still processing the evening. I am filled with a huge amount of respect for him, but also for the voters as a whole who came out to vote. Despite that racism is still a problem we as a society need to grapple with, I am very proud of our country having moved from the violence and chaos of the civil rights movement to nominating an African-American to be a Presidential candidate. It does speak positive volumes about how we have grown as a country!

I'm sure I'll have more to say in the next few days, but I wanted to share my initial set of thoughts about last evening, and to say thanks again to Jeff for getting me out to the rally! You are a great friend!

The closing of the Warfield

I'm thankful for Irenie keeping up on all things Bob Weir related. She posted a news item Monday regarding the last nights of the Warfield Theater. Bob joined Phil Lesh for the last night of the five show run. Phil had a very unique way of closing this out. Check out the set lists!

I'm downloading these shows off of bt.etree to listen to later. I'm psyched to listen to these and even more excited to see Phil and Friends at 10,000 Lakes Festival this summer!

We saw Juno last night...

Thanks to the grandparents, Melissa and I went out last night to see Juno for the first time. I thought it encompassed so much: it was beautiful, sad, funny, and thoughtful. Thanks to Diablo Cody for such a great film!!!

Dread maintenance

I wanted to give Stefanie at Maude thanks again for the very nice maintenance work she did on my dreads. I haven't seen her for a couple of years, but by chance, I ran into her recently. She always did good work on my dreads in the past. If you need dread work done by a stylist with a great attitude, check her out!

A very nice weekend!

My sister-in-law flew in this weekend to visit us. Our son turned four on Friday! We had a very nice time with his aunt and with other family members and friends. We had a party for him at the Children's Museum yesterday. Lots of kids running around, while we adults talked politics, sustainable development, careers, etc. Good times!!!.

Busy evening ahead! Chess AND music

I've got the last round of the Twin Cities Chess League this evening followed by a show at First Avenue. They are having a benefit concert for the music department of Lyndale Elementary. To be frank, I'm more excited about the music than the chess (I'm 0-6 in the League), but I'll play a good game regardless.

Spring is here!

I took this picture yesterday afternoon. I made a 311 call to the city to take care of the ice and flooding water in the alley behind our home. Thanks to the hard work of a couple of workers and a copious amount of calcium chloride, they finally opened the sewer. It was covered with roughly four inches of ice! (The picture is a result of my fascination with running water since I was a kid.)

"I lost some rounds so the prize wasn't anything...

...a Knight in the back, and more of the same."

Obama!

I was both a bit surprised, but entirely pleased, that three of the four remaining members of the Grateful Dead got together on Monday night to play a show for Barack Obama. They have played many benefits before, but never for a political candidate.

One of my web buddies, Irenie, has more details about the event over at her blog.

The show is available over at bt.etree.

Bobby Fischer

In the last week since Bobby Fischer's death, I realized that I probably would not have gotten into chess if not for him. My dad was enthusiastic about chess in 1972, and in either that year or the next, he taught me the royal game.

"The Bobby" as I like to refer to him was probably the greatest chess player ever, and it is sad that he went into obscurity and mental illness. In my chess lessons this morning, some of the students asked about chess, but two asked about "bad things he said about the United States." I explained to them that Bobby suffered from mental illness later in his life.

On a very positive note, I used the Game of the Century to demonstrate the two key goals in the opening--1) develop your minor pieces and a few pawns to control the center and 2) protect your King by castling. In the game, both Donald Byrne and Fischer followed the first rule, but Bobby punished Byrne for not castling! Bobby was 12 at the time, just a few years older than the students I teach.

I am thankful for chess for Bobby's countless contributions to it! Thank you and rest in peace!

Michael Joseph Erjavec

April 17, 1970 - January 16, 2004.

Still miss you, Bro!

Love,

Joe

Happy New Year

It has been one month since I wrote anything here. I had such a busy month I did not have time!

In addition to my chess teaching, I started working for Kelly Services doing temporary work at an area foundation to help them get through their year-end gift processing. It has been gratifying to see how generous people can be!

Our friends Jeff and Tiffany held the annual holiday party in mid-December that was great! As many of our group are busy with little children, we seldom get much time to get together as a group. I always look forward to the good times and cheer with this group of friends!

We had a good family vacation visiting Melissa's family in Alabama. I haven't been to her mom's home before, so it was good to finally visit there. On the tail end of the trip, we spent a couple of wonderful days of eating, drinking, listening to music, and generally absorbing the good energy of the great folks of New Orleans! I loved visiting there, and I would love to go back.

I am making forward progress on my Master's degree with my recent visit with my advisor. I am looking forward to completing this.

I wish all the reader's of my blog a happy new year! Cheers and good blessings to you!

Particle at the Cabooze

The snow that fell earlier in the day didn't keep a few hundred people from enjoying Particle's Saturday night show at the Cabooze. I had a great time, and remarkably I wasn't too tired on Sunday, despite getting home late!

Setlist (from The Breeze Board):

12.01.07 Cabooze - Minneapolis, MN (w/ Josh Clark of TLG)

I: Triple Threat, Young Lust*, Six Long Weeks, Hot Dog**,W*** > Launchpad

II: Battle Without Honor or Humanity#, Wet Spot, Truth Don Die***, Silver Lining > Children's Story > 7th Gear > Find a Way, Denmark

encore: Jam > 7 Minutes till Radio Darkness

*w/ Eminence Front tease
** TGL song first time played
***w/ billie jean tease for 25th anniversary of Thriller
#w/ Baby Please Don't Go tease

Pakistan: Cricket star Khan freed

Imram Khan, the Pakistani cricket star who started a hunger strike Monday to protest the state of emergency imposed in Pakistan, was freed with hundreds of other political prisoners!

From the Seattle Post-Intellingencer: Dissent starts with a YouTube clip.

Mark Trahant, editor of the Seattle Post-Intellingencer editorial page, wrote an opinion piece on Pakistan, dissent, and YouTube. Please check out the article here.

Holy f'in Meat Puppets!!!!!

Two mornings after the Meat Puppets' Saturday night show at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, I am still on the floor!

First off, the Varsity is a very nice venue. It is carpeted, warm, clean, with tables on both sides and above the main floor. It has the ambiance of a jazz-dinner club, which was inviting and frankly, quite a bit better on the feet than standing on the hardened floor of most other venues. As part of the now 40+ club, it was great walking into the Varsity and not fee like the normally out-of-place, maturing, male rock fan, aka "the creepy old guy," (ala Greg Behrendt). Part of my tribe now includes other aging hipsters, and we weathered and peppered-haired individuals were a majority on Saturday!

Ha Ha Tonka, a band from the Ozarks, opened. They played the typical 30 or so minutes, and they had enough diversity and energy to keep me engaged the entire time. Two songs in particular stick out. They performed an a cappella piece, later followed by Black Betty. They closed their set with a country-flavored morsel that was a good appetizer before the Puppets came on.

It has been 19 years since I saw them in the Cleveland Flats at Peabody's Down Under. My head at the time was filled with both Grateful Dead and many punk songs. I was wondering how they would sound after a long break filled with personal struggles. (The Onion did a good interview with them.)

Curt came out, followed by Ted, followed by Cris. I was fortunate to get a space right in front of Cris. They warmed up with a couple bars, then we were Attacked by Monsters for the opener!

Cris was wiry and on fire as he beat on his bass, while Curt played fluidly. Ted Marcus, although not the original drummer, played well with the Kirkwoods throughout the set, which included Up On the Sun, Plateau, Looking at the Rain, Lost, and The Whistling Song.

As they were nearing the end of the show, they pulled out their ferocious jams, a mixture between very fast punk rhythm and psychedelic jams. Those couple of interludes amazed me, and I felt they played even stronger when I saw them years ago!

They wrapped up an encore of Climbing, Maiden's Milk, and Backwater. The latter was their only hit song, but one that many in the audience were excited to hear.

I was gratified to see them play again and with so much intensity!

Conference on the Grateful Dead

Weirophile Irenie, at Weir Freaking, wrote a post partially about the upcoming conference, Unbroken Chain: The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory at the University of Massachusetts. As noted in the comments section, Steve Gimbel will be blogging about the conference at his blog, Philosophers' Playground.

Interesting lecture last night by Fred Pearce

Last evening I went to Macalester College for Fred Pearce's lecture based on his book When the Rivers Run Dry. The main premise is that the downside of the Green Revolution, which prevented even more widespread hunger, is that there are now water shortages in different parts of the world. These shortages may be responsible for conflicts in the future.

Many crops that we enjoy, such as cotton, alfalfa, and coffee, require huge amounts of water for their growth. The amount of "virtual water" that gets traded in the forms of goods is enormous; there is no feasible way to move that amount of actual water around the globe.

As dire as some of this talk was, he highlighted the use of different technologies, such as drip irrigation, that made efficient use of water for crops in some countries.

Reasonable and just water usage is something that we as a human family need to examine carefully.

Game One, Joe v Dad

Here's the first game I played with my father. I realized 29. g5 was a mistake, and I held my breath while he looked at a different part of the position.

Much too busy lately...

...although it has all been rather good. I just had my parents in town to celebrate a big birthday with me (a hint: it begins with a 4.) It was great, as I haven't had a birthday with them since I moved to Minnesota. We had a relatively quiet Friday, the day of my birthday, and a busy Saturday, with a party at Buca's in St. Paul.

They got me a special present of a set of wooden chess pieces. I have only used it twice now, and those two games were with my dad. I greatly appreciate that surprise present--it was over and above the gift of their presence in town!

This weekend I co-ran the computer work for Minneapolis Public School's Check It Out tournament. It was great to see so many students, from beginner to well skilled, play.

Yesterday we had a pleasant day working in the yard. It was very nice, as today it is blustery!