another time around the sun

another birthday has come and gone...

...everyone asks if I feel older but I don't feel any different than yesterday or last week or a couple months ago. It not that I am all about the "age isn't a number but how you feel" kind of thing.

To me age is something that creeps up on you until one day there it is looking back at you in the mirror or telling you it's a better idea to stay home and watch a movie on Friday night.

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Liane gave me a flip video ultra for my birthday and the weekend was filled with lots of good food. We went to Cafe Twenty-Eight with my mom on Friday and Liane & I went to Masa on Saturday.

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I got a couple of decent rides in this past week en route to my second best week of riding. If I didn't have the NVGP coming up which is going to eat into my riding time next week, I think I might make up the mileage I'm down from the bad weather this spring.

Weekly Total - 68
Season Total - 388
Miles to Goal - 1112

I want my MTV

So this is probably a stupid question in a country where more households have TVs than indoor bathrooms, but is TV really that important?

Is TV a "right"? It seems that our government thinks so and there's even a government agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, that is going to make sure that nothing interupts out zombie nation.

In an article that ran in the NY Times today about the end of analog TV signals and the digital converters that will be needed for those of us that don't have either cable or satellite TV and instead use that wonderfully archaic technology known as bunny ears there were a couple of just fabulous nuggets of wisdom:

"Consumer groups, however, have expressed concern that some families will have neither the means to buy the converters nor the awareness to successfully obtain the vouchers".

“Our No. 1 goal,” said Shermaze Ingram, a spokeswoman for the broadcasters’ association, “is that no one loses TV reception because of a lack of information.”

Yes this is the most pressing issue facing families in the US today. If America can't watch Survivor or Age of Love life might come to a standstill.

I'm not trying to be all high and mighty because I admittedly watch TV, but I would rather not have the means to watch it and have the government actually putting resources towards something a little more meaningful.

This type of stuff is why they hate us.

A Flood of Memories

Wow!! Someone posted a video of the live performance by Daft Punk at Even Further '96.

This was Daft Punk's first appearance of any kind in the US and I was in the audience, so this brought back a ton of memories.

At this point in my life I was barely making ends meet, while trying to kick start a DJ career that was stalled. I was friends with a lot of promoters and had even thrown a couple raves, but I was never very good at the schmoozing so I never seemed to be able to make it happen. I as in this weird on again off again relationship with someone who is now my best friend (she was even my best "man" in my wedding) but at this point was just messing with my head.

Enter Even Further '96.

I had missed the inaugural Further in '94, but had been there for the torrential downpour that was Even Further the next year, so there was no way I was missing the '96 addition. I had a bunch of friends coming into town to play and these Daft Punk guys were going to be there. At this point I had only heard the Da Funk/Rollin and Scratching single so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Friday kicked off with some incredible set from my boys Speedy and Hugge and the next day I got a chance to throw down at a couple of mini soundsystems so that was cool. Saturday night however was THE NIGHT. Daft Punk were incredible and then I took a break during Frankie Bones to get some air and made it back in time to hear Scott Hardkiss play one of the most amazing sets I have ever heard him play.

All in all a fab weekend. Great music, way too many people, illicit substances causing someone to jump all over the top of my friends RV, good times all around.

Needless to say all of this and so much more came flooding back upon watching the tinny-sounding, grainy video of Daft Punk's performance.