Thunderbolt

And now I must stop. No more Huffington Post, no more Andrew Sullivan, no more Slate Magazine until after Tuesday. The tension is too much for me. I know who I am voting for and I know who I think you should be voting for. The next four and a half days will be a barrage of ads and "gotchas" from both sides and frankly, I'm done. I wish I could vote tomorrow.

Riding into work this morning I heard "Lies" by the Thompson Twins, which immediately made me think of a high school girlfriend who loved, LOVED the Thompson Twins. In fact, she broke up with me after I was unable to attend the Thompson Twins/Corey Hart concert. Mind you, I would have gone to see the Thompson Twins/Corey Hart concert, but I didn't have the permission of the parental units. Perhaps she thought that because I couldn't stand up to my parents and demand that I be allowed to see the authors of pop classics like "Hold Me Now" and "Doctor! Doctor!" (not to mention that "Never Surrender" dude) I wasn't rebellious enough to be a Thompson Twins fan and therefore not good enough to be her boyfriend. Ah, the foibles of youth.

In case you missed it, the most anticlimactic World Series ended yesterday afternoon when the Phillies beat the Rays. Now I know why Fox was praying for a Red Sox/Dodgers or Phillies match up. I at least expected the Rays to play a little tougher. Sure, they played okay, but the Phillies just seemed to have more confidence going into the championship. What the Rays reminded me of was the Rockies last year- a young team a little starstruck in the big game. I hope that the Rays don't completely fall apart like Colorado did this past season. Now, we go into the off season. The wait for baseball won't be as long, though. Major League Baseball will launch their new cable channel in January. THAT will be cool.

Birthday wishes: I’ve never given much credence to the old “make a wish and blow out the candles” bit simply because most of my wishes, my birthday wishes, never came true. I don’t hold a grudge against the almighty birthday gods or fairies or whomever grants these silent pleas — it’s just that I’ve never felt their power touch me. My whole life I’ve felt pretty blessed. I was raised by two strong, independently thinking, sometimes stubborn parents who protected me from the harms of the world they could control. A roof over my head, food in my belly, good schools and support in what I wanted to do with my life, they were there for me. They were not perfect, but I believe they did their best. Whatever grudges I held as a young adult have faded now; what’s the point in being bitter. From childhood to the day Julie and I loaded the U-Haul and drove to Los Angeles, they were my shelter, that’s for sure. To be blunt, I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t decided to have a child number thr...

It's hard to believe that within a week there will be a new President. In years past I have been anxious, following the campaigns almost like a game. This year, I know where my votes will be cast. Now we wait.

Sorry there wasn't a new basement song entry this week. It's been an incredibly stressful four days and trying to dig up something proved a little too difficult. That said, I'd like to share song with y'all. Maybe you've heard it before. It's Frankie Goes to Hollywood covering Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." I believe the measure of a great/classic song is whether you can hand it over to the most unlikeliest of artists to cover it and see whether the song holds up. Such is the case with Frankie's cover of possible the one song Springsteen is most associated with. What impresses me so much about this version is that producer, Trevor Horn, chose to just let the band play and didn't add too much frill to the production. Indeed, the only time the song feels "produced" is during the bridge when some keyboards and electronic bongos were added to create the sort of Jersey shore atmosphere Springsteen originally wrote about. Ot...

Tonight, after sitting through another hour of "Grey's Anatomy," I glanced at a picture of Jacob from two years ago when we went to Disneyland. I suddenly teared up and nearly broke down crying. Sometimes just catching myself off guard like that makes the uncertainties of the future unbearable. God I love those kids and my wife.