I saw a lot of shows in '07 and '08.. so I updated the list I posted on here a long time ago. And I'm including any band of any size. Pretty shocking that I did almost nothing in 2005 and 2006. Wilderness years?

- Beach Boys, Ferrell Ctr, Waco. April 1991.
- KLTY Celebrate Freedom, Southfork Ranch, Plano/Allen/Whatever. July 1997.
- Prince, Smirnoff Music Ctr, Dallas. August 1997.
- John Mellencamp/Son Volt, Smirnoff Music Ctr, Dallas. July 1999.
- Live/Cibo Matto, Rudder Auditorium, College Station. October 1999.
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (guest Joe Ely), Frank Erwin Ctr, Austin. April 2000.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers/Foo Fighters/Bicycle Thief, Frank Erwin Ctr, Austin. May 2000.
- Matchbox 20/Jayhawks, Reed Arena, College Station. October 2000.
- Prince, Dallas Convention Ctr, Dallas. December 2000.
- Indigenous/Chris Duarte Group, La Zona Rosa, Austin. December 2000.
- John Mellencamp/Wallflowers, American Airlines Ctr, Dallas. August 2001.
- U2/No Doubt, Frank Erwin Ctr, Austin. November 2001.
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (guest Don Henley), American Airlines Ctr, Dallas. November 2002.
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (guest Joe Ely), Frank Erwin Ctr, Austin. March 2003.
- Carlos Washington & the Amazing Giant People, The Mangy Moose, Teton Village, WY. March 2003.
- The Gourds, Gypsy Tea Room, Dallas. June 2003.
- Eagles, American Airlines Ctr, Dallas. June 2003.
- Jonny Lang/Jason Mraz, Nokia Live, Grand Prarie. October 2003.
- Josh Turner, Gilley's, Dallas. January 2004.
- Mike Doughty/Jesse Malin, Trees, Dallas. March 2004.
- Prince, American Airlines Ctr, Dalas. June 2004.
- Old 97's, Gypsy Tea Room, Dallas. July 2004.
- Bruce Springsteen (guest Jimmy LaFave), Nokia Live, Grand Prarie. April 2005.
- Hootie & The Blowfish, Taste of Addison, Addison. May 2006.
- Jerry Lee Lewis, Nokia Live, Grand Prarie. April 2007.
- Spazmatics, 8.0, Fort Worth. May 2007.
- Indigenous, House of Blues, Dallas. July 2007.
- Spazmatics, 8.0, Fort Worth. September 2007.
- Austin City Limits Festival, Zilker Park, Austin. September 2007.
- Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, McFarlin Auditorium, Dallas. October 2007.
- Polyphonic Spree, Lakewood Theatre, Dallas. December 2007.
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (guest Jon Bon Jovi), American Airlines Center. April 2008.
- Black Crowes, Taste of Addison, Addison. May 2008.
- Hootie & the Blowfish, Billy Bob's, Fort Worth. June 2008.
- The Time, The Flamingo, Las Vegas, NV. July 2008.
- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/Steve Winwood, American Airlines Center, Dallas, August 2008.
- Eagles, American Airlines Center, Dallas. September 2008.
- Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, Nokia Live, Grand Prairie. October 2008.
- Eagles, American Airlines Center, Dallas. November 2008.
- Old 97's/The Drams/The O's, House of Blues, Dallas. December 2008.
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Frank Erwin Center. April 2009.
- Aerosmith / ZZ Top, Superpages.com Center, Dallas. July 2009
- Paul McCartney, Cowboys Stadium, Dallas. August 2009.
- Old 97's, Bass Hall, Fort Worth. August 2009.
- Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, United Center, Chicago, IL. September 2009.
- U2, Cowboys Stadium, Dallas. October 2009.

I'm going to start blogging again.

Here's why...

..I had a bunch of random comments floating around in my head the other night. I thought, "I should blog those." But I was in bed and didn't feel like getting up. Now I forgot them.

..I decided to see what all the fuss was about tonight and checked out twitter. Kinda cool. Another one of those things that'll have me wondering why I didn't think of it first. But there's a 140 character limit, which isn't going to always sit well with my wit. Also, how do I get people following me without being a shameless self-promoter. See my previous post on smrt people, below. At least right now, Twittering on a personal level is primarily the realm of celebrities and smrt self-promoters. I'm not gonna sit there and talk about all the cool, awesome, groundbreaking, superspecial, jealousy-inducing things I'm working on at work.. because I'M BUSY WORKING ON THEM! But it's cool to check up on your friends, old friends, people you work with, whatever.

..No other reasons why I decided to start blogging again. This shouldn't have been in list form.

My site looks like crap in Google Chrome. I apologize, I know it. It also looks like crap in Safari, but I lived with that a couple years ago when I re-designed the site.

Maybe I should just go with a simpler look that doesn't rely on anything fancy. But it still looks good in IE and Firefox. I'm so tired of every new set of nerds thinking that their way is the best way, and that they are the first set of dudes to think of whatever it is that they're thinking of. Why can't we all just render in harmony?

Oh yeah! Another reason why I decided to post on the blog - an updated concert list. It's on a different computer. Coming soon.

I guess I'm done.

No... more thoughts.

- - - Everybody used to blog like crazy. 2004, 2005, 2006.. it was the shiz. Now, not so much. That's part of what got me curious about Twitter. Did they start Twittering? Not really. But Twitter needs better recommendations for who to follow. It needs to collect a little bit more profile information and suggest ppeople you might know, a-la LinkedIn.com. I have had more luck finding random people that I haven't talked to in ages via LinkedIn than anywhere else.

Anyway, they're all Facebookin' it now. I still say I'm ineligible for that since I remember Michael Jackson being black. Means I'm too old. But I said that about myspace as well.. which I never even log onto. I was just shocked at the "everyman" aspect of myspace. EVERYBODY is on that piece.

- - - Michael Phelps. One of the things I thought of the other night. Who gives a shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite? I honestly, really, truly, seriously, no lie, am sick of having to hear things I don't care about concerning people I don't care about. Not that I don't care about Phelps - that guy was money in Beijing. But I think I am officially over Marijuana. Let's just let people smoke it. Everybody who wants to already does, anyway.

- - - TiVo. Tivo, I love you. But you're going to lose a customer on account of your standing with DirecTV. Or, more generally, with satellite integration, period. Unless you can get FiOS, the only HD solution that isn't a complete raping of one's pride is satellite. I'm sorry, but cable offers awful HD packages for similar prices to satellite. Their DVRs are even worse, but at least people have the option (typically) of using a TiVo HD box. Diskh and DirecTV have supposedly better DVR options

The bottom line on this is that I'm so technologically apt, advanced, whatever.. we have like 9 devices in this house connecting to the internet at any given time.. and I'm like the last guy I know to make the jump to HD. The only HDTV I'm getting in the house is on a little 20" TV and a $30 indoor antenna I borrowed from Mark. Why? Because DirecTV is the only option that makes sense for me where I live, and I was holding out for TiVo to integrate with them in 2009. But since I'm already hearing about delays - and know full well how big companies can suck the life out of a good software project - I'm done. I'm starting small with a new TV for the bedroom, gonna cut it over to HD (along with that little TV that I stuck in the kitchen for kicks) and then plan out the ordeal of cutting over the living room.

So, TiVo, you lose.

- - - Old Age. I'll be 29 in three weeks. We started playing basketball in the Grapevine Rec League in Spring 2006, and we're still playing.

At that time, I had a pretty slow job (you know, being in a position to be sold off will do that to you), so I would go to the gym and play pickup three days a week at least. So maybe 4 hours of basketball a week. I was okay but not as good as where I was in late 2003/early 2004 before the ball incident sidelined me for 6 weeks and I never got back on track. And back in 2003, when I was also playing about 4 hours a week, I would observe that I was not as good as where I was in 2001/2002 when I was still in college and playing about 6-8 hours a week.

And now, I have less time than ever, and I'm looking back at 2006 when I was playing 3-4 hours a week, and think, man, I was really scoring the ball back then, compared to now. So just guess where I am now.

On top of this, the last few months I have sore knees after playing, which have translated to just generally sore knees. This is the old age phenomenon of which I speak.

- - - DFW Sports. Are at their worst point, ever, in my lifetime. The only time the Mavs and Cowboys were at this level simultaneously, 1988 - 1990, the Rangers were exciting and promising, if not necessarily successful. And hell, I'll take that back, the 1988 Mavs are better than the 2007-present Mavs. Low. Depressing.

Now, I'm done.

"This is an emergency crisis we're in. The entertainment media is affecting everything on the planet in a very negative way. I'm only interested in rock 'n' roll. Rock 'n' roll is a music that represents truth. Your TV channel has taken the word "rock" and knocked the "roll" off the end. You made rock this umbrella term for everything. That's wrong. Shakira isn't rock. These country artists with fur coats aren't rock - or country. I offered a video to VH1 of my band playing in the studio and they don't want to air it because it had musicians playing in it. They want some babe walking on the beach or whatever. I got turned onto this music by watching the Beatles and the Rolling Stones actually on TV playing their guitars. It completely took me over. When you can't see musicians playing any more, I'm not interested any more." - To VH1

In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to a defective exhaust, triggering a forest fire that burnt down half of Los Padres National Forest in California. When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said in his characteristically flippant style of the time, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead so you can't question it."

The fire destroyed 508 acres, burning the foliage off three mountains, and killing 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors. Cash was unrepentant -- "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards."

The federal government sued him and was awarded $125,127. Johnny eventually settled the case and paid $82,000. In his autobiography, Johnny Cash said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.

So, now institutions of higher education don't want to compete for academic standing? They're in a race to see who can show the most "economic diversity?" Say WHAT?

Along these same lines, college football and basketball programs should probably stop awarding merit scholarships, too. I've noticed that they tend to attract only the best athletes. I think they should strive for a higher degree of "physical diversity."

How freakin' ironic is it that this place is in a city named Clinton.

College eliminates merit scholarships

CLINTON, N.Y. - Hamilton College said Thursday it will stop offering merit scholarships to incoming students in 2008 and use the money instead to provide more need-based assistance to low-and middle-income families.

The move won praise from educators who said they hope it will inspire other colleges to follow suit.

The decision by the small liberal arts college would affect only a few dozen students. But it comes at a time when colleges have been criticized for using their resources to lure high-achieving students — many of whom don't need the money to attend college — thereby improving a school's academic standing at the expense of its economic diversity.

"This is a true act of leadership ... and hopefully it will begin to restore the system to a more sensible one," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers.

Hamilton, a 195-year-old liberal arts college in upstate New York with about 1,800 students, has awarded a limited number of merit scholarships since 1997. On average, 15 to 20 students out of a first-year class of 470 have received merit scholarships of up to half tuition.

Approximately 5 percent of Hamilton's $21 million financial aid budget is spent on merit aid, according to Monica Inzer, dean of admission and financial aid. The new policy will reallocate about $1 million each year for additional need-based aid, she said.

Inzer said demographers predict a college student population with greater financial need in the coming decade, and colleges and universities must prepare for that reality.

Currently, more than half of all Hamilton students receive need-based financial aid. The average financial aid package (grant, work-study, loan) for those students exceeds $26,000, Inzer said. It costs $43,890 a year to attend Hamilton.

"Everyone is saying it would be great to slow this merit aid trend down, but no schools have been willing to do it," said Sandy Baum, senior policy analyst for The College Board and professor of economics at Skidmore College.

While a few schools across the country — among them George Washington and Dickinson College — have reduced the amount of merit aid they give out or the number of students who receive it, Hamilton is believed to be the first school to entirely abandon its merit scholarship program, she said.

Some highly selective schools, which have plenty of applicants to choose from, award aid only on the basis of need. But many schools spend millions on merit aid to lure more accomplished students.

My theme for 2007 is "because I can."

I've actually been living by this, but I didn't coin the phrase until I went to Guitar Center yesterday to see what the real story was about no-interest financing on a President's Day Sale, and walked out with a shiny new black sunburst Fender Jazz Bass.

I always wanted a bass to noodle around on, even before I had a guitar. So I got one. As I'm buying this thing, I'm thinking, why am I getting this? I mean, why am I REALLY getting it? Because I can.

Doesn't hurt that I don't have to pay for a year, but still. Because I can.

This applies retroactively to my new Nintendo. I bought an NES in 1988 with $107 that took me like 47 years to accumulate. I was never a big time video game player, but I had my moments. I never had a ton of games, because I always had to buy them myself or wait for Christmas or something. I picked up rocks in our backyard for $5/5 gallon bucket, until I had $50 for Super Mario Bros 3. I remember my mom calling over to Toys R Us in Waco, and they only had 7 copies, so they held one back for me.

So I decided over Christmas that I would get a Wii. The new controllers and the ability to download old games on the cheap were the selling points. I figured I'd go pick one up.

Then I realized you can't find them anywhere. I realized the only way to get one was to be an 11 year old kid with nothing better to do than try and get one.

So I got determined. I ended up sitting outside Best Buy for 3 hours one morning, to get one, then driving around every Target, Circuit City and Best Buy within 20 miles to get all the controllers.

Why? Because I can.

I just feel sick for the dude.

Y'all don't all be talking bad about Tony, it would've been the Falcons or Panthers playing the Seahawks if not for him.

I just want to say, if you're not THE Jimmy Johnson (the former Cowboys' coach), you shouldn't be named Jimmy Johnson.

There is a NASCAR driver named Jimmie Johnson, and he needs to go by Jim. Or James, or something.

If you're not Jimmy Johnson, don't call yourself Jimmy Johnson. It's just not right.

You probably didn't know that November 20th is Mexican Revolution Day. I do, thanks to every hotel in the valley being booked up last night.

No matter who you like to vote for, see "Breaking News" below for an explanation of what's wrong with America!

Y'all dig it at /radio.

Fosho.

Did you know you apply it directly to the forehead?

Just wanted to go ahead and roll that one out there for the greater public good.

1. The news just told me that it's now been 50 years since the movie Giant was made. You know, Giant? The big Texas movie about oil and stuff? James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, etc, etc... anyway, the only reason this is important to me is because Giant is the only old movie that I like. Period. I first saw it in high school, and you know, I didn't even fall asleep during it.

2. My parents visited this weekend, so my mom made me watch Grey's Anatomy on Thursday night. Ugh. I've come to realize that there are some things that I flat out don't care about on TV, especially if they're fiction - Lawyers, Doctors, and Crime. I don't understand why people like to watch people solve make believe crimes, or fight make believe court cases, or run around being horny and sleeping around while tending to ER patients.

On the aforementioned hit show the other night, there were 5 separate characters who were unfaithful to their wives/husbands/girlfriends/boyfriends in the first 32 minutes - and this is an hour show! I just don't give a crap about hospitals, or courtrooms, or make believe crimes. Especially if it's full of a bunch of adults acting like 7th graders. Do you want to go to the ER and risk that all the doctors there are just trying to get each other in bed? Myself, I'd much rather they focus on making sure I don't die or whatever.

Anyway, the Doctor Show/Lawyer Show/Crime Show triumvirate is all over TV. Not a shred of it appeals to me. My thinking is, if somebody did something bad, I hope you find 'em and lock 'em up. If somebody got hurt and came to the hospital, I hope you fix them up and they don't die. If you gotta go to court, I hope you win. If you're the good guys. Whatever! I'm just not interested. Stop all that jibba jabba and show me some Mr. T.

3. I carted around 3544 lbs worth of cement mix this weekend. 44 bags. Not only am I sick of lifting them, but I can seriously say that if I didn't have a truck, my life would just cease. You can't get anything done if you don't have a truck - you gotta pay people to do everything for you. Get a truck.

4. #3 refers to pouring a footing for a new fence. My dad did most of it but actually had enough faith in Mark and me to let us pour the last part while he was welding some stuff. I don't usually get to do this stuff because my dad is the expert. I'm usually reduced to a supporting role. I'm like the guy on the Cowboys who barely made the team and only gets to cover punts. You only see him when he has ADD and runs past the punt returner instead of hitting him. Or he lets the ball roll into the end zone. Anyway, on the concrete pouring, amazingly, we did okay. Much like we said in our Amazing Race video entry - we get things done.

Most of you are probably aware that the Dallas Cowboys have employed Brad Sham as their radio broadcaster for a long time. I don't remember who came before him.

There's also a Dallas Cowboys postgame show that comes on channel 11 at 11:30 every Sunday, hosted by Sham.

I watch this every week. Always have. Well, except for the dark days of 1998 - 2002 where I was without local Dallas/Fort Worth channels.

The last two weeks, Brad Sham has talked about players "getting props."

Uhhhh...

...why is it that goldfish will eat themselves to death?

I mean, really. They must be the stupidest of the stupid, even more stupid than yippy dogs that bark at nothing and lick the toes of flip-flop wearing visitors.

Every living thing knows when it's full... except a goldfish.

Nick at Nite used to be the Ultimate.

They had a nice balance of Cosby Show, Cheers, Coach and Family Ties. At one point, Coach replaced all of Family Ties and it was the triple-C classic lineup of Cosby, Cheers and Coach.

I survived the onslaught of Wings, followed by the Who's The Boss attacks.

I came through relatively unscathed. In the interim, Roseanne appeared. Coach and Cheers were replaced by Fresh Prince.

That's okay. I can roll with that.

A few months ago, A Different World showed up on the scene. I was thinking this would be a good addition. After all, it was a Cosby spinoff and I used to watch it a lot when I was a kid. Anyway, it turned out to be a turd. A big, patronizing turd parade of early 90's "issues" that look vain and out of place on a sitcom.

Anyway, in spite of this, I can still get with A Different World because of D'Wayne, Ron, Oak and Mr. Gaines. Especially Mr. Gaines. That man should have his own talk show.

It's been tough, but I've stuck with Nick at Nite through good times and bad.

Now, they're showing Designing Women.

Designing Women.

I don't know if I'ma make it through this one.

It occurs to me that the point of blogs for most people is to show the world how smrt they think they are.

smrt. I don't know where that comes from. Do y'all? smrt. It's like, smart, but not so smart.

I think I'm going to use smrt as the word to describe people who are more interested in looking smart and feeling smart than actually being smart. I hereby declare myself the final arbiter of who is smrt and who isn't smrt.

That's another question. If you're not smrt, does that make you dumb, or are you actually smart? Like me, I'm not smrt, but I'm smart. A smrt person can be dumb, but most smrt people aren't dumb. I think.

Anyway...... Lots of people use blogs for showing off smrtness. You know, like this:

- a list of hippie books I read recently that talk about stupid crap like making toilets not flush very much water.
- a photo journal of my trip to Europe in college where I went to every museum in the universe and took pictures of places & things that I fell asleep watching movies about when I was in high school.
- a sampling of my favorite recipes with crap in them like goat cheese, or balsamic something, or organic wheat germ tofu meatless barbecue sandwiches.
- a story about some weird behavior by a professor, the likes of which would never be tolerated in any normal social or professional setting, but like me, this professor is extremely smrt, so he gets a pass.
- short poems, demonstrating my high levels of sensitivity and how attuned to the suffering of the world i am. written by me, because i'm smrt.
- rants about the unteachable ignorance of people who couldn't possibly understand how I see the world, as I am a prisoner of my own smrtness.

Hey, smrt people - stop it!

I love Sunday NFL Countdown. It's one of the highlights of my life.

10 - 15 years ago, when it was NFL Gameday, I loved NFL Gameday.

It's awesome. That's all I really have to say.

Well, now that the website is finally redone, I got around to editing the poor effort that we put in on July 14 - yes, nine weeks ago - and we got together last night to kick off the second year of Texas Select.

Hop over to /radio to hear it.

It wasn't our best, but even our less-than-best is better than nothing, right?

In other news... It really disturbs me that Pink is singing a theme song for NBC's Sunday Night NFL broadcast. I can't handle it. It's weird. I didn't like her before, and I really don't like her now. Her name is Pink.

In other other news... Weinberger's has about 6 new sandwiches on the menu. That's fine livin'.

All you nerds out there are going to hate this one. I'm sorry, but it has to be said.

Firefox sucks. It's dumb.

I have been working to get my blog ported over to my new site (as may be evident)... what I've learned is that Firefox doesn't understand the concepts of padding or vertical alignment. I did find a workaround for the padding issue, though.

Dig it...

vertical-align: middle;

Okay, what would you say that means? Even if you don't know anything about creating web sites, you can probably guess. And yeah, "dumb" Microsoft gets it. Cool, hip, hot stuff nerd know-it-alls using Firefox have to miss out on the novel concept of vertical alignment in CSS.

Firefox, you're stupid! You owe me lots of my life back.

On the other hand.. enjoy my new site. One of these days I'll have more here than just my blog and the radio show. The radio show segments download WAY faster now that they're not hosted on a computer under my desk, though.