Van Morrison - Moondance

It is hard to pick one Van Morrison record, as he has over 20 records to his credit, but I think Moondance just sneaks ahead of Astral Weeks. Most critics would disagree with this as Astral Weeks is in almost every top 100 list, but I don't think Moondance's commercial success should be held against it.

Moondance features the great title cut as well as "Crazy Love" and one of my all time favorites "Into the Mystic," pretty hard to beat. Of course you could take the easy way out and go for one of the greatest hits records, but you'll miss out on the deeper cuts "And It Stoned Me" and "These Dreams of You," a couple of gems.

The Blind Leading the Blind

I know this is going to sound bad, but today I literally saw, "the blind leading the blind." It made me laugh a little because my Mom and Grandmothers always used to say this when I was trying to show my brother how to do something and neither one of us knew what we were doing. I thought this saying came from the bible and sure enough I looked it up and Matthew 15:14 says, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." But there was also an older quote listed from the Hindu treatises, which suggests Matthew may have not originated the thought, "Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind."

So back to the bus. Two blind guys get on, one with a dog and one with just a cane and I have to tell you neither seemed like they knew what they were doing. There are a lot of blind people that ride the bus and the few that I see regularly seem super confident. They come right on the bus and immediately take the first seat so the bus driver can call out their stop. One time a bus driver forgot to tell a blind guy about his stop and when he finally realised it, we were way passed the stop, that was one pissed off blind guy. Anyway, these guys were really struggling to find a seat and were bouncing around a lot. The guy with the dog was trying to help the other guy, but it was not going too well. When they got off I was not confident that they knew were they were going, but the quickest way to piss off a blind person is to try to help them with directions, so I let the blind lead the blind.

Baby Guy Update

I know I have talked about this guy before, but today I got a closer look at him and his "baby." To refresh your memory that is not a real baby he is carrying around, it is a strange, life size doll that he drapes over his shoulder everywhere he goes. Today was the first time I actually saw him talking to it. I also got a closer look at the baby and it's pretty gross, it doesn't look like its been cleaned for a few years. So the update is, he doesn't just carry this thing around as a security blanket, we now know he communicates with it.

One Shinning Moment

If you are at all familiar with the NCAA men's basketball championship, you know that they have a footage montage at the end of the final game set to the sappy song, "One Shinning Moment." It features all the best plays and buzzer beating shots of the tournament as well as the winning team cutting down the nets. I have never thought it was worth waiting through all the commercials to watch, but it is funny to think that some poor guy is trying to put the finishing touches on this thing in about 15 minutes. I suppose if Baylor or UT ever wins the tournament I will feel some real love and sing along. This year UT went out in the second round and despite a great run Baylor didn't even make the tourney, although they did make it to the championship round of the NIT. So despite the teams close to my heart not doing well, I did have a shinning moment this year. I won the office pool! I know I said I was out of it last week, but it turns out I was wrong. Michigan State getting to the final knocked enough people out that I was back on top if UNC beat them and they did handily. In fact it was a cake walk for UNC the entire way. They only trailed for a few minutes in any one game and they won all of them by double digits. I ended up winning 50 out of a possible 63 games in all my brackets. I also ended up in the top 3% of the brackets on ESPN's Tournament Challenge, number 142,643 out of 5 million. Now the hard part, I have to actually collect the money.

Bombay Cricket Club

The Bombay Cricket Club is one of our favorite restaurants and the best Indian restaurant in Portland. We have been going there for several years now and it has up and down over that time, but it is up again now. Located on lower SE Hawthorne Blvd., it is a small space with two TVs playing non-stop cricket highlights. The owner Karim is usually there to greet you when you walk in and get you started with a must have mango margarita. You should also get an order of poppadoms while you check out the menu. There are a lot of great curries and Indian favorites as well as some Middle Eastern dishes that I have not tried. Our favorite entrees are the Buttered Chicken Curry and the Coconut Prawn Curry. There are also several amazing vegetarian options. Of course you have to add an order of garlic nan bread to suck up all the great sauces. Usually medium is pretty spicy, but last night we thought it was more like a mild. If you still have room, the mango cheesecake is a great way to finish off the meal. There are a lot of mediocre (or worse) Indian restaurants in Portland, if you want to try a really great one, I would highly recommend the Bombay Cricket Club.

The Bombay Cricket Club
1925 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Portland, OR 97214

(503) 231-0740

Rolling Stones - Some Girls

I know I have tried to steer clear of the obvious records, but every now and then you just have to admit that the biggest bands in the world got there because they made some good records. And we all know there is no band bigger than The Rolling Stones. So which record to choose, Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers? I am going to go with Some Girls. I hate to say this, but this is the last good record the Stones made and it is still my favorite. I remember buying this record and playing it over and over. Then one day I was in the record store and there was there was a strange new cover on Some Girls that said, "this record is under construction." Turns out they were getting sued for a crude sexual reference they made about African American girls. So of course I had to buy that version too.

Apart from the great title track this record also include "Beast of Burden," "When the Whip Comes Down," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" and the strange countyeske "Far Away Eyes." Song for song, I would put this up against any Stones record.

Jesse rocks Founders Day

Wieden+Kennedy was founded on April Fool's day 27 years ago. So, every year on April 1st, we close down for the afternoon and have an employee only party. This year we brought back the talent show. There were some great performances and some not so great. My man, Jesse Johnson took sixth place with his awesome rendition of "I'm a player" that brought the house down. I think he deserved better, but he won a $20 gift certificate for Burgerville. A girl I had never met before did an amazing version of the dance scene from Little Miss Sunshine, one of the funniest things I have ever seen. After the show, the party moved over to a night club on the east side with a live band and DJ. I cut out early, but I heard the band wasn't too good so most people retreated to the basement for karaoke. The highlight of the basement was watching one guy trying to cook hamburgers for 250 people.