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Sopranos, Podcasts, & Ice Cream Sandwiches for Breakfast

You have those days when you mind has 400 different thoughts.  Today is that day for me.

1.  Have you had one of those amazing surprises when someone reaches out to you after years of radio silence?  Had two people from my past contact me in the last couple of weeks.  One of them told me that I should blog more often and that she enjoyed my writing.  Who am I to deny a gal a good read?

2. Listen to Roy Orbison's "You Got It".  And then the YouTube channel give you some Traveling Wilburys and you realize how amazing that group was.  And how sad it is that most of them are no longer with us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb6luT4NNJU

3. It takes a good holiday celebrating Mexico's defeat of the French at the battle of Puebla in 1862 for me to remember that a Corona with a fresh squeeze of lime is a delicious and refreshing beverage.  Below is the History Channel's Cinco De Mayo recap.  It doesn't talk about Corona.

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/cinco-de-mayo

4.  Liz Phair is 100% one of the best performers in the last 20 years and I sincerely hope she tours soon.

5. We have gotten 488 inches of rain in the last 6 weeks here in the Greater Portland Maine area.  That's a lot of rain.  Thinking about buying a kayak or a duck boat because this is just silly.  I am taking Vitamin D pills for the first time in my life.  Gonna be honest......I have no barometer for if they are working or not.  None.  How am I supposed to know if this tiny pill is having any for of positive effect on my mood, bones, or health in general?

6. Driving down the highway the other day, going the speed limit, both hands on the wheel, it's 10 AM and a big huge, pickup truck with several stickers that had the messages of "I have a gun in this vehicle" swerves directly at the van I am driving for work.  Aggressive, stunt type of driving.  At first I looked to make sure I hadn't done anything wrong and looked over at the pickup to make sure the driver was OK ( People have strokes while driving).  Nope, passing a pipe back and forth with the FOUR other passengers in the vehicle.  His next adventure down the road was a cement truck that he nearly clipped.  I'm no cement truck expert, but I think that pickup would have lost that dust up.
Anyhow there are several things that I do before 10 AM that may not land me in the Men's Health Hall of Fame.  Here let me list a few of them:

1. Eating an ice cream sandwich
2. Putting sugar in my coffee
3. Skipping my morning pushups

At no point have I woke up and thought, "You know what would be an excellent life choice this morning.....  Meth."

7.  Are podcasts the new news magazine?  I have a job where I have time to listen to podcasts.  Among my favorite's.

The Bill Simmons podcast.  Yes, he is a Boston homer, but he has good sports takes and does a good job with having pop culture folks on the show.  The creators of South Park/The Book of Mormom were on last week and their perspective on how to write shows in the age where everyone has a cell phone was useful.  I struggle with writing about people who are on their phones.  How to write text messaging into dialogue and their view on what South Park would look like if they wrote cell phones into the show was entertaining.

Pod Save America/Pod Save the World.  Four guys from the Obama administration started a media company.  They lean ALLLLL the way to the left which can get a tad tiring, but they have very intimate knowledge of government in general.

1947.  The Meet the Press podcast.  Chuck Todd is great.  Love that guy.  He gets outside of his political shell and talks about broader topics.  By all means an intellectually curious pod.

The Ringer.  A Bill Simmons product that covers pop culture and sports.  There is this guy Mike Lombardi who worked with several NFL teams (among them the Patriots, Raiders, Browns) and he is a treasure of knowledge.

Crime Town.  A chronicle of Providence, RI and the government, their mayor in the 80's (Buddy.  How can you not love a corrupt mayor named Buddy?), and organized crime.  It is AWESOME and so well done.

Up and Vanished.  Not as well done, but a story that started with some regular dude deciding he wanted to investigate a missing person (Of course he chose a beauty queen from Georgia).  I thought it would be a fun listen, but here's the thing.  They end up arresting someone because of the podcast.  It is fucking nuts.

I listened to S-Town. I didn't understand why I was listening to it by episode 4.  Frankly, it was a waste of my very precious time on this earth and if I wanted to listen to someone who was too smart for his own good and a little nuts, I would go to a family reunion.

Planet Money.  I have yet to be disappointed in an episode from that show.  It is outstanding, usually around 20 minutes, and I always learn something new.

Where am I now?  8.  I have been rewatching The Sopranos.  OHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  You with the drama!!!!!!
What an epic show.  I forgot how deep it is.  The exploration of the meaning of life and how fleeting it is.  
Unfortunately I have found myself eating more pasta and saying "There he is" when greeting people.

9.  I have officially given up on my dream of one day dunking a basketball.  Yup, retiring the dream.  On that note, I think I am also retiring my dream of bench pressing 300 pounds.  The new dream is to shoot par on 18 holes.  I am going to lump that under "Things you can still do in your 30's without injury."

10.  The new Chipotle ad campaign is perfect for what they are trying to accomplish.  Very happy for that team. (As someone who used to work with them)  I truly wish they had gone in this direction just a bit sooner, but good things come to those who wait.   That company will be just fine, their food is too delicious.
https://www.chipotle.com/realcampaign







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