"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity"

If you read Top Five over the weekend you probably realized I mis-placed a post that was meant for The Backbeat (damn you Blogger Dashboard!). So I'll re-cap my weekend trip for you. Saturday we flew to Washington state for a one-off concert in a small town called Yakima which was about a 2.5 hr. drive from Seattle. (My mom tells me today that I have a relative from Yakima, crazy right?). Let me tell you the drive through rural Washington really is beautiful; gorgeous mountains, evergreens everywhere, waterfalls and rivers. Drives like that make you think about moving out of the big city and retreating to a scenic country town and getting away from everything. I then realize how bored I would get at the end of one week and snap out of the dream rather quickly, but its a nice daydream nonetheless.

The gig was fun and quick. I was home by Sunday evening.

Tomorrow morning I leave for 6 days in the Bay Area; two days in Oakland, four days in San Fransisco. After having a few friends and a sister-in-law move away from up north I now realize I don't really know anybody in San Fran anymore. Odd. We were trying to plan for Carrie and Milo to come visit but since gasoline (i.e. "Cheney's retirement fund") is so expensive and a we'd have to board the dog it just didn't seem economical. It should still be a fine tour anyway. We are playing what I believe to be the best jazz club in the country, Yoshi's. It is in Oakland but the owners have recently opened another Yoshi's in San Fransisco, this will be my first time playing that one. If it is as nice as the Oakland property then NoCal could have the market on spectacular jazz clubs cornered.

It looks like some justice might finally be coming for some Chinese Muslims who have been improperly detained at Guantanamo Bay for over six years. If you ever heard the Peabody Award-winning episode of "This American Live" called "Habeas Shmabeas" then you've heard part of their story. They were held prisoner for years and years without the basic human right to plead their case for anyone until now. Best of luck to them.

Carrie and I saw 'The Incredible Hulk' today. It was fun, nowhere near as clever or effective as 'Iron Man', but fun. And the ending is great. If you didn't know the plan is to now release a Captain America movie, a Thor movie, an Iron Man sequel, then an Avengers movie in 2012 featuring all of the heroes teamed-up. I think its a great idea. Sequels usually get progressively watered-down so it will be much more interesting to see the different heroes interract with each other.

And why were we at the movies today? We were celebrating our EIGHTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Can you believe I've been married that long? Can you believe anyone would stay married to me that long?! I'm quite proud of my wife and our marriage, each year gets better and better. Eight years from now I will be 40 and undoubtedly going through one hell of a midlife crisis ... yikes! I'm sure the awesome marriage will help with that.

The title of this post is another homage to George Carlin. I'm still digesting his passing and putting his place in history and in my life in perspective. It is a sad loss but we are much happier because of him.

See you in San Fran.