Category: Friday Fives

Posted on

Friday Fives

1. What would you do if you won a million dollars.
Buy a house, pay off mom’s ranch and invest in stocks. At these prices, how can you not?
2. How about 5 million?
At 5 mil I could quit my job and live the good live, move to the beach and write my book.
3. How about one hundred million?
I would change my name to Kennedy, drink more and crash a car off a bridge.

4. how about the babe lottery? Angelina Jolie or Jenn Aniston?
I have a thing for Jennifer. She is one of my Friends.

5. really?
Really – I have never been to Florida.

Posted on

The Friday Fives

1. Do you like the look of your country’s currency (bills and coins)?
I like where it is beginning to go – the new redesign that has some color and different portraits. Damn, I wish I had a head of hair like Old Hickory on the $20.00 bill.

2. Regardless of their actual value, do you like bills or coins better?
Bills – coins weigh me down. That said, I do have an affection for the $1.00 coin. Generally worthless, as most vending machines won’t take them, but I think they are cool looking – and I don’t know why.

strong>3. What is your favorite foreign currency? And why?
The Peso is pretty cool looking. So is the Rupe. I like the Deutsche Mark as well. I am not a fan of the Euro – it looks to EuroMod or something.

4. Do you collect coins or bills? Elaborate.
I don’t collect coins. My dad did and I think mom still has all his coins. He used to work the mail clerk window at the post office and he would come across lots of cool coins along the way. I had a stamp collection as a kid – I guess part of that post office thing. Dad would by entire pages of stamps that included their lot number on the side and as a result the collection, now about 40 years old, is worth some dough.

5. Do you think human society could make do completely without money? Explain.
We will always have money and a world centered around commerce. I don’t think some sort of Star Trek world where money is no longer necessary will ever exist.

Posted on

Friday Fives

This week’s Fives come from Lono:

“Lazy style: Grab your mp3 player and put it on full random. Tell us the first 5 – 8 songs. Riff on them, and what they/ the artist is doing on your iPod/ in your life. I found it easy and fun, so my five quickly stretched to about 8.”

So, let’s go. (If you have no mp3 player handy, go with the radio and last five songs.)

1. Wilco/Ashes of American Flags/Yankee Foxtrot Hotel. There is a soundscape throughout this entire album that plays like a black and white travel movie in my head. Tweedy has tremendous pathos in his voice and in his lyrics and yet, behind the cloudy anxiety of the Wilco sound, there is a glimmer of hope in every song.

2. Nils Lofgren/Little on Up/Live Acoustic. I stumbled on this album accidentally and find it to be a great driving album. Nils is one of Springsteen’s guitar players, as well as one of Jackson Browns and one of Neil Young’s. He has been around the business for years and yet his solo work, which is solid and complex, gets little play anywhere. This song is a nice ditty about fatherhood and his relationship to his child and builds in energy as he realizes what the child has given him in life, a liitle bit at a time.

3.Robbie Fulks/I Never Did Like Planes/ Live at Double Door 1/16/04. Robbie has a great country voice and a great way with workds. He is not what you would call traditional country and hardly close the rot that comes out of Nashville and Los Angeles – but he does a great job in recreating the late 60s early 70s country and western sound while singing about modern events.

4. Johnny Cash/Get Rhythm/His 30 Greatest Hits. Johnny. Not a lot has to be said. He is great and an innovator of so much of the modern music scene. This song, covered by a ton of folks has a very early Rock and Roll beat to it. It is considered a country tune now, but it is closer to rockabilly or even early rock and roll.

5. rickie Lee Jones/Beat Angel/ Duchess of Cool. This is from a huge greatest compedium from Rickie Lee. One of my boner girls – that is, girls singers who make me hot and horny. Rickie has such a sexy, jazzy voice. She, Niko Case, Allison Krause and Emmy Lou Harris are my musical-hotness muses.

6. Elvis Presley/O Come All Ye Faithful/ If Every Day Was Like Christmas I don’t have to defend this. It is the holiday season. No, I won’t explain how it got on my M3 player.

Posted on

Friday Fives

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you read each of these prompts:

1.What was stolen? my youth like curiousity. Last seen 9/10/2008. If found return to the big box of rainbows and unicorns outside my garage – around back.

2. On the blacktop . . a big Leer jet revs its engines beginning the take off. The great thing about my office is it is right next to an airport runway for small corporate jets and small prop air craft and there is a take off about every 10 minutes or so.

3. I have two enemies – Lono, of course and empty calories in such delights as Gummy Bears and Red Vines.

4. Autumn purple . . . leaves are falling on my car.
The wind, moist with rain.
Crap, now I have to wash the thing again.

5. Ice in a shaker.
Gin, a small dash of Vermouth.
A Martini.
Summer is over.

Posted on

Friday Fives

1. Could you live without your phone for 1 week for $500?
Easily. I only use about 300 minutes a month on my cell phone and I have ditched the land line.

2. Whom do you talk to on the phone the most?
Probalby my mother. A weekly hour long call to catch up on the comings and goings on at the ranch. The day to day chatter of Baggs, Wy is precious.

3. Whom do you no longer talk to on the phone but wish you still did?
I had an Army roommate whom I spoke with frequently once I got out of the Army. while in college the two of us was talk on the phone about art, books, music and politics. That friendship has faded over time and I kind of miss the chats.
4. If you could get a hold of one celebrity phone number, whose digits would you want?
Adam Carolla. He is a chatter and laways has somiehting to say. We are the same age, born just days a part and he generally has a similar insight on the world. Of late, through the magic of podcasting, he has become my latest Man Crush.

5. Do you talk on the phone more or less than you used to?
Less. A lot less. I don’t know what drives that. I don’t know if it is because I no longer care what others have to say or whether I no longer have something to say. But either way, I am not usually on the phone.

Posted on

Friday Fives

You’re stranded on an island.

Not a completely desolate island. More along the lines that the boat delivering supplies only comes once every six months and will never, ever take you home. Decide what you’ll bring!

One celebrity: (I think I have asked this question before – but times change) This time around – Bob Dylan. He can sing songs, write poems and tell stories.

Two books: Huck Finn and Infinite Jest. Huck because it has the worlds wisdom. IJ because it is really, really, really long and funny.

Three edibles: Raspberries, Chicken and Bib lettuce. (I don’t so much care for bib lettuce, but bib is a funny word. I like saying bib. Bib, bib, bib.)

Four films: “It’s a Wonderful Life”; “Casablanca”; “The Great Escape”; “Miller’s Crossing”;

Five music albums: [Sprintsteen] Born to Run; [Bob Dylan] Blood on the Tracks; [Jerry Garcia and David Grisman] Shady Grove; [Elvis Costello] Greatest Hits; [Van Morrison] Moondance

Posted on

Friday Fives

1. What did you want to be when you grew up and why?
I had a phase when I wanted to be an architect. I used to go to the library and check architect books. I took a drafting class in high school. It was a good dream. Except I am not very good at math and I have limited drawing skills. Alas.

2. Who was your favorite person to do things with (excluding your parents)?
As a child, I hung out with Tony T in high school and several of my boy scout friends as we ravaged the surroundings on hikes, making forts, riding bikes and exploring the economy.

3. Did you love school or did you hate it? Why? Did that change as you got older?
I enjoyed school. I had good relationships with my teachers.However I went to college woefully unprepared for college.

4. Was your family close? What were your favorite family traditions?
I come from a very close family. An Idyllic and pastoral childhood and lots of love and compassion. then I became an adult and had to face the world. Wow, everyone isn’t as nice as mother. Heck, I should give her a call.

5. Did you think that being an adult would be cool?
I was always ready to be an adult and leave my idyllic hometown, because I knew it wasn’t a real representation of the world. Having seen the world a bit, I look at my hometown with a bit of sad nostalgia.

Posted on

Friday Fives

1. What is the one most important thing by your side right now?
Probably my cell phone. I work for a cell phone company and we communicate, mostly via cell phone. And my text paging equates to a lifeline to the outside world.

2. Why is it so important?
I bought a new phone this week “The Instinct” and it is fully and pretty gadgetry goodness. It is important because it has my email an contact information for the many millions of my my loving admirers. It also has a nice we b browser that makes long dumps in the john go by with some reading material.

3. Can you live without it?
Certainly. I lived 37 years with out a cell phone. But really, it is just a box that makes calls in the end.

4. What is the one thing you can’t live without?
Internet access. I am an information junkie and I need to have the ability to look up the smallest detail. As a child I was always encouraged to look up stuff i
n the encyclopedia and now, as a grouwn up, I transfer that skill to wikipedia or other more varied internet outlets.

5. Who is the one person you can’t live without?
Chuck Norris. He is God.

Posted on

Friday Fives

1. What’s your favorite “road food” when traveling?
Beef Jerky. Roadside beef jerky is the best, home made and usually really spicy.

2. What is your favorite Ethnic cuisine?
Either Tex Mex or Vietnamese. I vacillate between the two.

3. What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
I have the bottle cap opener that Ed or Julie bought me at the Great American Beer Festival. It pops the bottle cap right off. IT is fun and easy and makes me want to drink more beer (Like I need an excuse.)

4. What is your favorite television snack?
Lately it is peanuts in the shell. Crack a few open and you are hooked. Pistachios too, bur right now I am on a peanut kick.

5. What is your favorite cooking ingredient:? (Salt and Pepper don’t count.)

Roasted Anaheim/Hatch green chili peppers. They can go in anything. Eggs, stew, green chili, obviously. stir in some with tomatoes, and zucchini or green beans. mmmmmm.

Posted on

Friday Fives

1. Who is your favorite author?
With a degree in English Lit, this question is a bit unfair. However, if I pick a number of authors, here is my list:

Twain, Mark
Vonnegut, Kurt
Whitman, Walt
Trillin, Calvin
Murakami, Haraku

Each is deep, humorous and inspiring in their ability to twist a sentence.

2. What is your favorite book/series?
Jasper Fford’s “Thursday Next” series. It is like a child’s book written for adults, taking place in a great world of books.

3. Who is a book hero you most wish to be like?
Ian Fleming’s James Bond. D’uh!
Okay, there is also Atticus Finch from “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

4. Who is a book character that you envy?
Huck Finn. How can you not admire Finn’s innocence, his outlook on life, his wit and his ability to grow as a person.

5. Which book do you wished you lived in?
Sure it is dirty, smoky and disease ridden, but I have always wanted to live in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Victorian London.