It's pretty rare for me as an active user of foursquare to earn two badges in one day. But I did just that this past Saturday while in Washington D.C. I was there to go to the soccer match between Manchester United and FC Barcelona at FedEx Field. My brothers' Tim and Mike were with me, along with my two sons' Brian and Michael.
The first one I earned was when I checked into Pizzeria Paradiso in Georgetown. My brother Tim recommended this place. Great pizza and one of the best beer selections I have ever seen. Turns out this was the 20th different pizza place I have checked into since becoming a foursquare fanatic:
Pizzaiolo
This badge is reserved only for the true pizza connoisseur: slices from 20 different pizza places. Well done!
My son Brian's favorite author is David Foster Wallace. His novel, Infinite Jest, is considered a modern classic, and is Brian's favorite.
I will have to admit. Looking at the size of the book (1104 pages), and knowing how long it took Brian (a voracious reader) to read it, I am pretty intimidated by Infinite Jest. But I wanted to learn more about David Foster Wallace, and sample his writing.
Consider The Lobster was a perfect entree into David Foster Wallace's writing. It is a collection of ten of his essays originally published in magazine's such as Harper's and Rolling Stone.
Each essay could be considered a sampling of American culture. The title essay, Consider The Lobster, was originally published in Gourmet Magazine, and describes the annual Maine Lobster Fest. The most intriguing part of this writing is Mr. Wallace's discussion of the ethics of boiling lobsters alive, and whether they actually feel pain or not. It definitely forces the reader to become introspective as it relates to the preparation of one of the World's favorite delicacies.
My favorite essay of the ten in this book is Mr. Wallace's review of the late 1970's, early 1980's tennis star Tracy Austin's autobiography. Entitled "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart", this essay is not so much a criticism of Ms. Austin's book (of which Mr. Wallace gives a very poor review) but rather an overall indictment of the fluff sports biography genre.
I would have like to meet David Foster Wallace, but sadly he hung himself to death in September of 2008 at the age of 46. Apparently Mr. Wallace suffered from severe depression. I found myself connecting with Mr. Wallace ideologically as I read this book.
There are plenty of other published works by Mr. Wallace for me to read, and I plan on doing just that. And yes, I am going to read Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace's seminal work.
I credit both my Dad's perserverance and the wonderful care he is getting from the Ohio State University Medical Center for my optimism and for his long term prognosis.
I knew Dad would be OK when at one point this week the nurses asked him if he knew where he was. His answer? Ann Arbor! (Dad is a Michigan grad.)
So I can celebrate Father's Day. Dad will be OK. My daughter Mallory is attending her first National Athletic Trainers' Association Meeting as a certified Athletic Trainer fresh out of Ohio State. My son Brian has moved to New York City, has a job and is close to finding a permanent place to reside there. And my youngest son Michael has just finished his junior year in high school.
Everyone is happy!
Oh, not to mention my wife Tammy and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in 3 1/2 months.
Every once in a while I like to drop a sample of my son Brian's writing. He is in New York City right now, so I thought I would post this small piece that he wrote for a New York University writing course he took in the Winter of 2010. What do you think?
Eating Alone
Eating alone is an intimidating idea.
By eating alone, I guess what I really mean is dining out alone. Not just eating alone, everyone does that once in a while in their homes and cars.
Walking into a restaurant alone, sitting down alone, ordering alone, eating alone, paying alone and leaving alone is not an attractive idea.
By restaurant, I guess what I really mean is a real eating establishment. One with menus, servers, a wait time, appetizers, desserts and a check. Not just the local fast food “restaurant.”
It is understandable why most people would not want to do this. Eating brings people together. It is something we do with people we love, people we want to love and people we fake that we love. Having to sit down in a nice restaurant to a meal alone means no conversation, no small talk. The only dialogue is the mind’s silent racing.
By most people, I guess what I really mean is me.
Alone in New York, so much to do, so much to see and so many restaurants that must be visited before I leave.
Yet, I am alone in New York.
That means, if I want to visit the foodie places I have to go to every time I’m in New York, I have to do it alone.
Mallory, Brian, Tammy, Michael and Me at Pho Lang Thang
I know Mother's Day was last Sunday, but thought I would post this picture from that day. My three kids (Mallory, Brian and Michael) and I took Tammy, my wife (and yes, their Mother), to lunch at Pho Lang Thang, a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant located at Findlay Market in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The subject of this short piece might be familiar to the 40-50 somethings who grew up in Cincinnati, or went to University of Cincinnati. Written by my son Brian.
The hill across the street was most likely manmade. Stone walls cut into the facing side at different levels and depths, their own faces now covered with amateur graffiti. Shaved flat at the top, it now was a mess of stones and dirt. Weeds and a few small tufts of grass battled for their lives in a pointless fight. Three impressively tall piles of bricks were gathered in one corner. The bricks flowed off their piles across most of the area, spilling down the side of the hill.
A few small walls did still stand, doing their best “roman ruin.” One corner of the previous structure looked fairly sturdy. The bricks standing strong and proud for their fallen brothers, sticking together as long as possible. It was a picture into the past. A past that stretched out from the hill, claimed great by stories told through the generations who’ve stayed. “A different place,” they’d say. The one’s who kept with the times used semi-current slang to support their fight. “It was off-the-chain, man. No joke, dude. The place was killer. Every night was raging.”
The picture blurred. The ruins, now an eyesore. The slightly-off slang convinced none of the young. Every year fewer believed the stories they barely bared to listen to. It was wasted space. Former members jumped ship.
“Who needs ‘em!”
A time forgotten by the majority, overrun by years. “Wipe it,” they say, stripping everything for nothing, no trade-backs. Memories sold into a parking lot.
The nest of a past culture, left to waste in a drawn-out death. Obsolete times drawing painful final breaths, waiting to be suffocated under a layer of tar.
Today marked my one year anniversary of using foursquare! My son Brian turned me on to this last year (Obviously 365 days ago, duh!). Of course I'm hooked. Brian always let's me in on the latest cool stuff.
There's something simple and elegant about foursquare. (http://foursquare.com/) Basically you check into the places you visit using an app on your phone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android), whether it is a restaurant, a store, a sports venue or just a favorite spot. You get points for every check-in, badges for special events, and you can even become Mayor of a location if you check into it more times than anyone else over a rolling 60 day period. You can have foursquare friends, and follow people, brands and companies to earn special discounts when you check in to particular spots. foursquare currently is reporting over 7 million users worldwide!
I like it because I get to keep score.
PA Groundhog Day Badge
So to celebrate my 365th day on foursquare:
- I have checked into 1,952 places in the last year.
You Say It's Your Birthday Na Na Na Na NaNa NaNa! (think Beatles)
Today is my Birthday! I'm 48 years old...
I won't dwell on getting older, but I'll use the opportunity to list the things I wish to happen for my Birthday:
I want my Daughter Mallory to have a successful academic career at University of Pittsburgh now that she has been accepted to graduate school there. Oh, and I'm very proud of her getting her Athletic Training degree at The Ohio State University this Spring!
I want to figure out how to get my son Brian to New York City! His dream is to live and work there...we're going to figure out how to get it done!
And soon my youngest son Michael will graduate from High School! I want him to find a college that fits his interest and makes him happy!
On a much less serious note...
I want a 2011 National League Pennant for the Cincinnati Reds!
And a 2011 Supporters Shield for The Columbus Crew!
Best Actress: This is a big guess, as I didn't see any of the actresses this year, so going with Natalie Portman, Black Swan based on my son Brian's review
Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network (tough pick over Colin Firth in The King's Speech and Jeff Bridges in True Grit)
Best Picture: The Social Network (True Grit is my second pick)
Rooting for Aaron Sorkin to win for Adapted Screenplay, The Social Network.
Finally, it would be very cool if Exit Through The Gift Shop would win for Best Documentary. One of the most original concepts for a documentary film I have ever seen. He has been invited to the ceremony, and as I understand it, can show up masked to keep his identity a secret.
I picked my head up and opened my eyes at that too familiar sound. The reaction to a text tone is sort of Pavlovian, an immediate learned reaction to that certain personal sound of a personal message received. The anticipation of another’s immediate thought, response or proposition, sent in the moment, rarely left to simmer. The specific reaction may change but there is always the quick jerk and thought, the shift of focus, an excitement or dread, sadness or salivation. Even wasted.
I looked around whatever room I was in, my head and eyes weighed down by too much to remember. Everything was slow and heavy, the night had taken its toll.
I didn’t see my phone anywhere in my blacked-out vicinity. Three bodies I couldn’t identify were on the floor to the left of the too-uncomfortable chair I guessed I had passed out in. Two of the bodies embraced.
A few sudden vibrations shook my leg and another tone rang out, much more clearly from around my groin this time. A closely following second tone is usually attached to much stronger feelings, good or bad, but I couldn’t remember which way I was supposed to feel. What was I talking about?
I felt around on my thighs where the pockets of my jeans would be. I bumped into the candybar bulge of my phone on my left leg. It took every ounce of concentration and strength, plus an audible groan, to shift my weight and reach into my pocket. As I grabbed my phone, I could feel the quick succession of short vibrations leading up to a third tone.
“Fuck,” I mumbled to myself, fighting the urge to vomit from just speaking. As my phone emitted another of its twinkling tones, I wriggled it from my jeans, pockets tight. I was either in some deep shit or doing something cute, or funny, or just right in some way. And all on auto-pilot. I hoped for anything close to the latter but expected the former as I tapped the power button on the top edge of the phone to turn on the screen. Who was I even talking to?
My mind knew it should’ve felt more nervous, or anticipated at least, but it didn’t care, staying tucked in its warm blanket of intoxicants. The screen flicked on and my finger automatically glided in the pattern to get past the lock screen.
I opened up the string of messages and attempted to read but could barely understand anything I was seeing. The first sentence was only half a sentence. I could read words separately but couldn’t comprehend full sentences. I skipped over words entirely and forgot others as soon as I read them. Feeling frustrated and illiterate, my attempt at reading turned into a skimming, catching words sporadically. There were numerous words in all-caps, a few “love”s, more “hate”s, every explicative I could think of and a disconcerting lack of emoticons.
I stopped and took a breath, slowing down and reminding myself that this was serious and no time for skimming. Triple-tone. I started to reread the first sentence which was still unusually cut-off at the beginning. I realized I had been attempting to read the thread in reverse order, the truncated first sentence being the continuation of the message before. I flicked up to the top and gathered myself to start reading once again, this time in the right position. But before I could get past the first “I”, my phone vibrated again, letting out another tone that lost impact every time I heard it. A notification popped down from the top of the screen and quickly disappeared.
The sound, vibration and what I thought was a quick glance in attempt to catch the dropping notification threw me off balance again. I looked back at the messages and noticed I had been bumped down to that most recent text in the thread. I hadn’t even thought to check who I was talking to. I was quickly snapped out of all intoxication when I saw who it was.
The newest message was much shorter than the others, and much easier to comprehend.
I've done my best to try to see all the movies that have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year, but I'm not going to make it. I have The Kids Are All Right DVD is sitting on the counter via my Netflix subscription and I might get a chance to watch it before tomorrow night's Oscar broadcast, but I did recently watch Toy Story 3, so a review is in order.
Andy has turned 18 and is headed off to college. The Toys are accidentally donated to a day care center as Andy is cleaning out his room as he prepares to leave home. Woody, Buzz and the gang run into a gang of rogue toys at the day care center led by Lotso, a stuffed bear who accidentally was lost by his former owner and is jaded by the experience.
Typical of the Toy Story franchise, #3 is has a great screenplay, with very smart dialog between the characters. For those of us who have seen all three of the Toy Story movies, the ending is bittersweet, but ultimately works well as is typical of a Disney/Pixar production.
My son Brian is 20 and grew up with the Toy Story movies. Anyone with a son in the 17-20 age group will find this movie to have real significance as they have watched their sons grow up.
My son Brian turned me on to the street artist Banksy a couple of years ago. His work is amazing.
He is well known for satirical street art with a purpose (social and political commentary). His work has shown up all over the World.
A book highlighting his work was published in 2007. Aptly named Wall and Piece, it highlights Banksy's work over the years. As you can imagine, much of his work doesn't survive, either having been painted over or washed off within hours of it appearing.
Exit Through The Gift Shop is a documentary film released this past summer (2010) that was meant to be a look at the street art culture through the eyes of Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash) a Frenchman living in Los Angeles. He befriends many of the World's most famous street artists including Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and Banksy himself. They let him follow them as they create their art. Most of the time these are covert operations done under cover of darkness.
Ultimately the tables get turned when Banksy realizes that Mr. Guetta has no idea how to take all the footage he has filmed and put it into a cohesive story.
I missed Exit Through The Gift Shop when it was released this past summer. The film wasn't shown in mainstream theaters, but luckily it is now streaming on Netflix.
One of my favorite Banksy works!
Exit Through The Gift Shop is very entertaining, not only for it's revealing look into the street art culture, but also for the story of Thierry Guetta and his ineptitude as a filmmaker. It has been nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Feature Documentary.
A closing thought. Banksy's actual identity is not known. It struck me as I was watching the film that it was a hoax, and that Thierry Guetta was actually Banksy himself. Quite a bit of speculation on this matter has been published on the Internet. Makes the film itself even more interesting!
Our new puppy came home today. We decided to name her Gracie. Not an original idea. Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has two dogs named (and very appropriately I might add) Scarlett and Gracie.
Isn't she cute?
Had to add this. We were at the Magic Kingdom at 2am on December 31st. They had a big dance party going on in front of Cinderella's Castle. My son Michael decided to partake!
My family and I just returned from a six day vacation to Disney World this morning. It was our third family trip there, in addition to random visits when we have had soccer tournaments in Tampa or Orlando.
I have been wanting to go back for a while now. My daughter, Mallory, who will graduate from The Ohio State University this Spring, and I were talking about a graduation present a couple of months ago. She mentioned wanting to go back to Disney World, and we decided to go over the Christmas Holidays as the summer would be very difficult to go with every one's schedules being so hard to coordinate.
For those of you with older children, you probably already know that when the kids reach college age, getting time to go on family vacations becomes more and more difficult. Mallory is 22, Brian is 20 and Michael is 17. If you can go with your kids when they are older, it ends up being a very special time. For my wife Tammy and I, this week was great!
We stayed at the Polynesian. Great room with enough beds for all of us. We visited all the parks and spent New Year's Eve at Hollywood Studios. We took advantage of the Extra Magic Hours, staying at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday and Hollywood Studios on Friday until 3am!
Our favorite ride-Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios. Brian had the high score amongst us, over 200,000!
The kids rode Everest in the Wild Kingdom and The Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios several times, but once was enough for Tammy and I. We also rode Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion several times
We had a chance to dine at several of the Disney World Restaurants. Our favorites were Artist's Point at the Wilderness Lodge, Tusker House at the Animal Kingdom and the Biergarten at the German village at Epcot.
We are so happy we could do this vacation as a family. These opportunities are going to become rarer and rarer as the kids get older. It's a special experience when we vacation together!
Just got back from the theater after seeing True Grit with my Dad, my two sons and a friend of theirs. I'm a big Coen Brothers fan (Raising Arizona, Fargo, No Country For Old Men), and was really looking forward to seeing their new work.
I haven't seen the original True Grit (but I DVR'd it tonight on TCM), nor have I read the book. I knew a little about the plot going in.
Typical for the Coen Brothers, the screenplay was outstanding. There is definitely action in this movie, but it is the dialog that is the highlight. In addition, Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn and Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper are outstanding in their roles. The best performance has to go to Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Mattie Ross, the girl intent on avenging the death of her father.
I learned something in True Grit by the way. When camping and sleeping outdoors, surround yourself with a rope. Snakes won't cross a rope!
I use Flixster to rate movies, and I gave True Grit 4 out of 5 stars! Go see it.
A couple of weeks ago we were looking for a good place to go to a family dinner for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We would have 8 people, my wife, our children (ages 22, 20 and 17), my father and my brother and sister-in-law. We live North of Cincinnati, in Liberty Township, Ohio.
8 is a tough number to go to dinner with during the holiday season. We wanted a place that took reservations, and would be a treat for everyone. My wife had heard about the Wildflower Cafe & Coffee House located in Mason, Ohio, so we decided to give it a try on Saturday night, November 27th, 2010.
What a great place. It is very small (located in a former private home). They took reservations. It has a very quaint and casual feel about it, with the menu posted on chalk boards.
Wildflower boasts a great selection of wines and craft beers. What is most unique about this place is that they strive to use locally sourced and/or organic ingredients in all of their dishes.
With 8 people we were able to try multiple dishes. We started with the Organic Cheese Board (cheeses, olive medley etc.) and the Shrimp Fonduta, served with crusty grilled bread. Both were absolutely delicious.
Two of us had the soup of the day, a white bean and cilantro soup which we enjoyed very much.
Of the entrees we had as a group, the consensus was that the hamburger (served on a pretzel bun and rated #1 in Cincinnati by Cincinnati Magazine) lived up to it's billing. In addition, the quiche served with homemade potato salad and crusty bread with a raspberry jam and the spinach and walnut ravioli were excellent. I very much enjoyed the grilled chicken breast with walnuts and a champagne sauce served over risotto. My father had the Apple Pork chops with potatoes and sauteed vegetables, which he would recommend. My sister-in-law had the Gourmet Grilled Cheese, which for her tasted just ok. My brother had the short rib special, which he enjoyed very much.
Service was very good. They have a very nice patio in the back of the restaurant which I imagine would be very nice to dine at in the summer.
I highly recommend the Wildflower Cafe & Coffee house. You can go and enjoy a very casual sandwich and soup, or try one of their higher-end entree's. My experience on this particular evening is that both are excellent. I look forward to a return visit very soon!
I haven't blogged in a while, but have been making notes on some random thoughts I wanted to comment on:
Ohio Elite's graduating seniors-The season is over for Ohio Elite's US Soccer Development Academy teams. Most of the U18 team has graduated and are moving along to college. These young men should be very proud of their accomplishments and Ohio Elite should be proud of the development of these players. I'm looking forward to watching these players in college. Go to http://www.ohioelite.com/ and check out the team page for U18 Development Academy for a list of where these young men will be going to school.
By the way, also check out the team pages for the Ohio Elite U18 Girls Academy and U18 Girls' Gold for a listing of the graduating Ohio Elite girls who will be playing college soccer-amazing! Congratulations to the entire coaching staff and the players. http://www.ohioelite.com
US Soccer Development Academy-As a charter member, Ohio Elite just completed it's second season as a member of the US Soccer Development Academy. Player development is the goal of this program, and if one measure of development is the number of players continuing their careers in college, than Ohio Elite's 2nd year in the program would have to be considered a resounding success. And despite other clubs' in the Cincinnati area spreading misinformation about Ohio Elite (see Ohio Elite's coaches' blog), tryouts have been a resounding success, with more players than ever before coming out to play in the program. In addition, Ohio Elite continues to add to the best coaching staff in Southern Ohio, as Dave Schureck, Head men's soccer coach at Xavier University in Cincinnati and Director of Advanced Youth at Northern Warren County Alliance Soccer Club has been added as the head coach of next year's U15/U16 Development Academy team. The young men will now take their summer breaks, and join their high school teams for the Fall. I am anticipating another great season in the Development Academy next year.
I still love Twitter-If you are on twitter, and you are a soccer fan, follow these tweeters: DallasCup, ussoccer, topdrawersoccer, tweetmls, thesoccerdon, americanoutlaws, mlsinsider, mlsrumors. My favorite tweeter is obxlaw, just random tweets from a pretty funny guy. Also check out celebrity tweeters like the_real_shaq, johncmayer, miacarruthers, rainnwilson, pennjillette, andersoncooper. Oh, and don't forget to follow me, jiresell and my son, brianjsell.
Stanley Cup-Pens Win! Wow, and on Hockey Town's home ice!
Finally, my middle son (son #1) graduated high school last weekend. Congratulations! He is a writer, music lover and technology fan. He has decided to travel to Europe by himself this summer, backpack and Eurail pass in hand. I think we are going to see a Jack Kerouac "On the Road" style book come of this adventure!
Eyes wide open, walking through life, observing....and then writing about it! Restaurants, books, news, soccer, baseball! Short stories! Whatever pops into my head and makes it to the blog!
A classic mystery/crime novel that ultimately succeeds as a morality story. My full review: http://jiresell.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-maltese-falcon-1930-by.html
Sexy, freaky, funny, nutty, erotic, shameful, weird...just a few words I would use to describe the book House of Holes, by Nicholson Baker. A very original and good book. My full review: http://jiresell.blogspot.com/2011/09/book-review-h...
What makes Paying For It different than traditional graphic novels (what I call comic books in long form) is that the story of the author's internal angst over paying for sex, the debates with his friends over this lifestyle and his opin...
Make no mistake. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter isn't going to wow you with some heavy-duty, thought provoking prose. But what it will do is provide the reader a hell of a lot of enjoyment as the author, Seth Grahame-Smith weaves a vamp...
I decided to stretch myself a bit and read some poetry-a great collection to start with? My full review: http://jiresell.blogspot.com/2011/08/book-review-road-not-taken-and-other.html
A great sampling of David Foster Wallace's work-I am now going to attack Infinite Jest! My full review:
http://jiresell.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-review-consider-lobster-and-other.html
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