Jim Goings

Today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrr! Me only wishes I could afford to get me one of them thar authentic pirate hats or maybe these fancy boots. Alas, me matey’s, there is always next year to pillage the treasure from the corpses of me enemies. Arrr!

On another note, Godzilla has become somewhat of an emotional subject in our house. I don’t understand it, but while channel surfing we stumbled across MechaGodzilla vs. Godzilla. The kids were immediately enthralled although Rebecca and I felt our brain cells rapidly decaying while watching. We turned it off and Miriam started crying because she wanted to watch it. Thinking that it was just too comical that Miriam loved it that much, I put it back on for her. Godzilla was returning to the ocean and the credits started to roll about 5 minutes later. Apparently at some point Monie called Godzilla a “bad guy” which made Miriam cry harder. Then Hannah started crying because Miriam was crying. Sheesh. Those Japanese can sure make an emotional film.

I went to see Cake with Jeff and Gabe on Tuesday night. The concert was great, the venue was ok, and the overall experience was good. I definately prefer the Roseland Theater over the Crystal Ballroom, but it is still a nice venue. Unfortunately, the place was so packed, that there was really nowhere to stand that wasn’t in the direct path of someone just itching to spill their beer on you. Still, the band was awesome to hear live and they had some great moments getting the audience to sing along to “No Phone”. Good times. Oh, the bar we went to before the concert had 50-cent tacos. Can’t beat that.

We went to the Flogging Molly concert at the Roseland tonight. It was, hands down, the best concert I’ve ever been to. The band rocked, the audience rocked, the whole place was on fire. It was an experience of a lifetime to see those guys play live and I would’ve paid a lot more to do it. $18 seems like the band is getting robbed. I will see them every single time they come to Portland.

The first opening band, River City Rebels, was very good. They got the crowd going and were quite talented. The second opening act sucked and sucked hard. They were boring and uninspired. For some reason Flogging Molly though they were cool enough to bring along with them, but they were horrible. Most people at the show agreed with my assessment as well. “You sucked!” was heard between every song with much laughter in our section.

Afterwards, we bought a few T-shirts, one for Farns, and one each for Beck and me. I also bought an album by the River City Rebels from the sax player. I made the mistake of telling him that I thought they should have been right before FM and that the other band sucked. Open mouth, insert foot. The lead singer of the “other” band was right there behind him. Doh! I quietly took the CD and walked away before he kicked my ass or started crying. I really don’t like to insult people, but I just didn’t like that band at all. Oh well. It was still the best concert ever!!!11!

To put this in context, here are the top 10 bands I’ve seen in concert in the order that I liked them.

1 – Flogging Molly
2 – (gap to show just how much FM rocked)
3 – Bare Naked Ladies
4 – Evanescence
5 – Alison Krauss and Union Station
6 – Offspring (could be higher, but there were technical problems with the show)
7 – Blink 182
8 – Cold
9 – No Doubt
10 – Tori Amos

I’m going to see Cake on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see where they place on the list. I predict that they will bump the Offspring down a notch.

The mayor of New Orleans did an interview with someone (I can’t tell who the interviewer was). The interview is raw and has some colorful language, but appears to be a heartfelt, desperate plea for assistance by the Mayor. I can appreciate his desperation and can only hope someone heard this interview before it was censored.

There’s a guy in New Orleans that works for (or owns – I can’t tell) a data center. It just so happens that the data center is in a dry part of the city. We’re talking barely on the dry part of the city… 4 blocks down is flooded. Anyhow, he’s got a blog running that is a terrific read and full of up to the minute information. New Orleans is clearly in a state of utter chaos.

Check out the following before and after pics:

Before Katrina

After Katrina

Google Map location of the above mentioned data center.

There are reports of cops looting Walmarts with stolen SUVs. COPS. What has this world come to? People are shooting at rescue workers. What ever for? I just can’t imagine what drives these people to shoot others and steal Nike’s and TV’s at a time like this.

I would be surprised if the city manages to keep half of its population. No offense to anyone living there, but it just seems like a stupid place to live. Under sea level, near the coast, in a hurricane plagued area. Perhaps I am speaking ignorantly, but it sure seems like inevitability when the only thing preventing disaster is a man made levy. They have to pump the rain water out of the city to prevent flooding. How much sense does that make?!

That said, I know New Orleans is (was) a beautiful city. I’ve been told countless times that it’s a great place to visit with rich history. Still, you won’t see me living on a flood plain near the coast!

God bless everyone affected by this disaster. God bless the rescue workers, military personnel, and the innocent victims of the disaster and the post-disaster riots, looting, and general chaos. My prayers are with you.