I picked up John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album this week. It’s an album I have never paid any attention to — probably because of my aversion to most things "Ono" — and I wish that weren’t so! It’s a great album, with some killer songs. "Well Well Well," ""Do the Oz," and "I Found Out" just rock, plain and simple, while "Working Class Hero" is a well-known classic. I love this album and immediately began listening to it repeatedly after buying it.
When You Get a Brick Layer for a Dealer
Ever play in one of those poker tournaments where the dealer gets up and a brick layer sits down every time you get a card? Yeah, yeah, we all have.
I played in Cadillac Poker‘s private "Anything But Holdem" (ABH) tourney last night — it was Razz this week — at PokerStars, and I am serious when I say that 97% of my hands were in the bottom 20%. That’s just harsh.
I’m a Gonna Gonna Get You Drunk
I have a few issues with Alanis Morissette — For one thing she had the misfortune of singing about giving blowjobs in a theatre at the same time that Poe was singing about blowing you…away. Frankly, Alanis just seemed lame in comparison, but is it really her fault that Poe is a goddess among mortals?
Be that as it may, she then went on to list a score or two of things she labeled as "ironic," but ironically, none of them were really ironic. And, while she conceded this point herself when asked in an interview, I have found it difficult to believe that she was being ironic when naming rain on your wedding day ironic.
Aha! But now she’s redeemed herself, at least in my eyes, and I am well aware of how important it was to her to do so. She’s covered Fergie’s "My Humps," and done so brilliantly. This was, as I understand it, an April Fool’s Day joke, but I think it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s not only well executed, it’s GREAT! I happen to enjoy the original in its proper context, but Alanis’ plaintive treatment of this tune is beautiful, even while it’s ironic.
Jamming With the All Stars
Jamming With the All Stars
It’s that time again. Macworld starts this week, and that means it’s another gig with the Macworld All Stars (we rehearse once a year, whether or not we need it…). Being able to play with these guys has been not only an amazing pleasure, it’s been a huge learning opportunity over the years, and I will forever be grateful to everyone in the band for letting me be a part of it.
In the meanwhile, I think the rehearsal went pretty well, but not well enough to make the show night suck. We have a tradition of playing better during the party when the rehearsal was rough, but I think this one will be a fun performance. We’ve introduced several new toons, including at least one toon that was released this century!
::GASP!!::
And all the other songs are good ones, too. Well, except for "Taking Care of Business," but A.) I don’t play on it, and B.) Chuck sings it really well and the band makes even that song sound fun. :)
Oh, and Bob? When did he learn how to sing? Man, he sounded great. Night and day from years gone by, and I saw w00t!
Back From the Chapel…
Huh…I’m married. w00t!
A Not So Hard Days Night with the Beatles
The Beatles have had a sort of weird place in mind when it comes to covering them. Early stuff like "You Can’t Do That" (etc.) is pretty straight forward, and the hard part of it comes in not from the complexity, but rather from the deceptively-simple sounding, but not at all straight forward (Think "Close Your Eyes"), chords they worked into those tunes.
Their later stuff sounds so damned good — even after all these years — that I’ve had some kind of "I surely can’t play that because it must be hard" roadblock, even though much of it is even more straight forward than some of their early tunes.
Analyzing a Poker Hand
I’ve been really focusing on the mental and player side of poker lately, and am really enjoying doing so. On Friday, I made a great read on a player and then played that read accordingly, and I have to tell you it felt great.
The hand:
I’m in the BB with the stellar holding of 9d5c.
Three people limp, the SB calls, and I check.
The flop is Ah 5s 2d
I check, two others check, and the hijack bets. The SB folds, and I think about the hand.
Crack
Crack shall be a multipurpose word for this post. Really, I should make that cracked. I’ve had aces eight times in the last 14 hours of poker play, and they’ve been cracked like a dried out bone six of those times (I did win the blinds twice, so yippee-fucking-kai-yah-yay for that).
One Week?
What the heck? I’m getting married in a week?
::blink::
It’s been such a long time coming, and I can’t wait. It’s truly amazing to think that Darla and I could manage to meet from halfway around the world, fall in love, be together, and then stay together for five years, yet here we are.
My Biggest Leak
I’ll be the first to jump up and admit that I am a far, far better poker player today than I was a few years ago, but my biggest leak has simply got to be my temper (second biggest leak is calling when I know I’m beaten, and a distant third is not playing back against a pre-flop raiser with a marginal holding when I know I am ahead).
I’ve been working on it, to be sure, and I’ve certainly improved this aspect of my game. For instance, I’ve weaned myself off of (almost all) smartass comments when someone pulls a suckout, but just this past week I had two situations where I allowed myself to get tense at the poker table.