Probably the most fun that Beckie and I have with our new computer is Photo Booth. You can take pictures of yourself using an array of colors and effects. The results are quite funny sometimes. I love just trying to come up with the craziest thing possible. Here are some of the them.
In less than two weeks, Beckie and I will be in San Francisco to visit some family and to see a city neither of us have seen before. One thing I'm especially excited about is Amoeba Music, the largest independent music store in the US. The first thing I'm going to buy is the new National album, Boxer. I fell in love with their music after their last album, Alligator. I especially love Matt Berninger's vocals. Here is a video of their first single off their new album and a second video of them on the Letterman show. I don't particularly like Letterman, but he definately has some great musical guests.
The Simpsons Movie, after many years, has finally arrived in theaters this friday. But Why am I not that excited to see it? The Simpsons was always one of my favorite shows. But, something happened. Right around the 12 or 13th season, it became less funny. I haven't watched a new Simpsons episode in a very long time. They aren't as funny as they used to be. When I was a kid I could watch it twice a day on tv during the weekdays and 3 times on sundays. Sadly, I did this often. I probably will go see the new Simpsons movie because, well, it's the Simpsons. But, I'm not expecting much from it.
This will be my last blog on soccer for awhile. Unfortunately, the Argentine National team lost to Brazil in the finals of the Copa America. But, to help us forget this, Argentina won the U-20 World Cup, beating the Czech Republic in the final. Sergio Aguero was the player of the tournament scoring 6 goals. We now have something to be happy about.
Aguero's goals against Poland. Incredible!
One of the best goals of the tournament. Aguero free kick against South Korea.
Last night Argentina played Mexico in the semifinals of the Copa America, the largest tournament in South America between nations. Argentina came in the favorite of the tournament and has proved to be so. Last night Beckie and I, along with the Gallegos' watched the game on a large screen at Beckie's work. Argentina started slow but came out and dominated the second half highlighted by this incredible goal by Leo Messi. It's much more difficult than it looks. The other goals scored by Gabriel Heinze and Riquelme were brilliant as well. We play Brazil on Sunday for the final.
I always check out what is going on in Argentina concerning futbol, politics, and even weather. I checked Clarin, one of the largest newspapers in Argentina, when I came across this cover. It's snow in Buenos Aires! It hasn't snowed in nearly 90 years in Argentina's largest city. I wish I could have been there and seen the amazement on their faces and the fun they had playing in it.
This time of year isn't the busy season at work. I spend a lot of time at the computer making orders and occasionally making some products. I listen to a lot of podcasts, mostly from espn but decided I wanted to try something different. Why not listen to a book while at work. So, the first book I decided to get was the the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, which I've never read previously. I'm enjoying a lot and it makes my days go a little quicker.
Yes, I love Argentine Soccer. Boca Juniors won the Copa Libertadores (South American Club Championship) Wednesday in Porto Alegre, Brazil beating Gremio 2-0. Riquelme scored both goals and will be sorely missed. Here is the headline of the biggest argentine sports newspaper and a video of all of Boca's goals in the tournament. Riquelme had 8 in the tournament.
Beckie and I are very relieved that the weekend is over. Sunday was the Clark's day at church as Beckie and I both spoke in sacrament meeting and both taught, beckie, relief society and I, elder's quorum. Beckie even said a prayer in Sunday school. And for the icing on the cake, I met with the bishop after church and received two callings, ward mission leader and elder's quorum instructor (3rd sunday). The crazy weekend is over and we are ready for a new week and looking forward to getting our new computer, going to the temple, and going camping.
Boca Juniors, my favorite soccer club in Argentina, is in the final of the Copa Libertadores, which is the biggest club tournament in South America. They have a great history in the tournament and it looks like this year is no different. They beat Gremio of Porte Alegre, Brazil last night in the first leg of the championship. Here is the cover of Ole with Riquelme, the star midfielder of Boca.
I love all types of art. Everything from architecture to photography, painting and sculpture. I would say my tastes are pretty eclectic. I love classic artists such as Vermeer but also more modern artists like William de Kooning and Mark Rothko. But, there is one type of art that I especially enjoy. It is often overlooked. It is the concert poster. There are many good and bad posters but the good ones are great art pieces. Here are a couple of my favorites.
When Beckie and I got back from New York, I came back with a renewed desire to find new and interesting music. I have done this in the past but am trying to expand my tastes. One day I stumbled across a review for an album called Mirrored by a band named Battles. The review was quite positive and I soon found this album with a great rating on metacritic.com (a site that averages reviews from various magazine and websites to come to an overall consensus of good music, books, and movies). Anyway, this album was described in one review as "a mix of over-the-top whimsy, extreme rhythms, vise-tight musicianship, and a 21st century man-machine interface between live and laptop." I don't suppose myself an expert when it comes to music but I think this album deserves the praise. It's very interesting, loud, and quite fun. Oh yeah, and it's math rock.
Today is the 40th Anniversary of one of the greatest albums in history. I'm not going to give a history of the Beatles or this album. Let's just say that the Beatles paved the way for nearly every musician that followed. Thanks Paul, John, George and Ringo.
For a couple of years now, I've known about some of the treasures of the Orem library. I started renting foreign and film noir movies for fun and for school. I'm amazed at their collection of dvd's and vhs's in every genre. Their foreign and criterion film collections are especially impressive. Well, Beckie and I went the other day and while I rented a documentary about the Buena Vista Social Club (a group of musicians from Cuba), Beckie found the CD's. I always knew they had quite a few of them but wasn't aware of how diverse their collection was. We went back this past Saturday just to check out some CD's. I was amazed at the collection they had. It included several indie bands that you wouldn't expect to find along with some rock classics like R.E.M. and The Smiths. We're excited to go back and find even more music that we enjoy.
Last night I went to an Animal Collective concert in SLC. Animal Collective is 'band', I use that word loosely, originally from Baltimore but now residing in NYC. They are on of the most innovative, creative and important acts in music. Look them up on Wikipedia and you can understand more of what their sound is really like. Anyway, the concert last night was excellent. 3 of the 4 members played to a packed house. I was right in front and was amazed at the sound that they could make from a few machines, drums, and vocals. No guitars. They are so original. I posted a couple of videos of them here. The first one is a live show and the song "leaf house". It's not the best video so I posted another with the same song where the audio is much better. The live video is really similar to what I experienced. Any questions about the band just ask me. Oh, and I almost forgot to say that on my current list of best albums now, the Panda Bear cd is a solo release by one of the members of Animal Collective. It's great. His voice reminds me of Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys.
Beckie and I came back from New York City on Sunday and are glad to be back. We love our vacation there but were pretty tired of all of the walking and the crowded sidewalks. Here's a list of my five favorite things we did in NYC 1. The Manhattan Temple 2. The Museum of Modern Art 3. Cruise around Manhattan and the statue of liberty 4. Greenwich Village 5. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Here are a few pictures from these places.(Beckie has a lot more on her blog)
Beckie and I went to Las Vegas a couple of weekends ago. Here are a couple of pictures. We didn't get as many pictures as we wanted because got really hot very quickly. And when I mean "it" I mean the weather, of course.
