My top 100 songs of all time (10-1)

We're finally here -- THE TOP 10!!!

Here's the key:

Rank, song, band, album, year.
Boldface denotes I’ve seen the song performed live.

10. “Sympathy for the Devil,” Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet (1968)
9. “Immortality,” Pearl Jam, Vitalogy (1994)
8. “Sherry Fraser,” Marcy Playground, Marcy Playground (1997)
7. “How to Disappear Completely,” Radiohead, Kid A (2000)
6. “The Day I Tried to Live,” Soundgarden, Superunknown (1994)
5. “Black,” Pearl Jam, Ten (1991)
4. “Fire Maple Song,” Everclear, World of Noise (1993)
3. “High Fivin’ MF,” Local H, As Good As Dead (1996)
2. “Lucky,” Radiohead, OK Computer (1997)
1. “Blue Bayou,” Roy Orbison, In Dreams (1963)

At the gift shop

Evey's found some junk... Sold. (courtesy of Papi.)

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The home of whataburger

Apparently whataburger started here in corpus christi. I'm told the first whata has been torn down, and this building is one of the oldest in the franchise (the cashier seemed mildly confident in her whata history). Pretty cool, too, we sat upstairs and enjoyed the view of the water.

We were up at 630 today... Went down early to the beach, then the pool... Then a few trips to the very cool play area.

I broke my camera already. It lasted almost 6 days. It's not totally broken, as it will still take a photo on occasion. But i'm having really bad camera luck lately.

Loading up soon. Next stop is san antonio, or, as i like to call it, "the place where ku won the 2008 national championship (.......and home of the Alamo)!"

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Getting friendly

With your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

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Emphasis on beach casual

@ south padre island

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Second what-a-burger

Just outside Dallas in Waxahachie. Breakfast burritos. Excellent. I'm giving them a 10, Adro says a 9. Adro mentioned Subway breakfast.... If this was compared to a Subway breakfast, it'd score more like a 30, on a 10-point scale.

Special shout-out to Judy, thanks for watching our casa for us while we're outta town!

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First What-a-Burger visit!

In Sapulpa, Okla.! Adro gives it an 8 out of 10... I'll give it a 7. We both ordered poorly, plus the burger wasn't very hot. Evey loved her cheeseburger, though, and called it "the greatest place ever."

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My top 100 songs of all time (20-11)

Here's the key:

Rank, song, band, album, year.
Boldface denotes I’ve seen the song performed live.

20. “Renegades of Funk,” Rage Against the Machine, Renegades (2000)
19. “Where is My Mind?” Pixies, Surfer Rosa (1988)
18. “Sink to the Bottom,” Fountains of Wayne, Fountains of Wayne (1996)
17. “Memory Lane,” Elliott Smith, From a Basement on the Hill (2004)
16. “Ramble On,” Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II (1969)
15. “Going Back to Cali,” L.L. Cool J, Walking With a Panther (1989)
14. “Tyler,” Toadies, Rubberneck (1994)
13. “Opium,” Marcy Playground, Marcy Playground (1997)
12. “Kiss Off,” Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes (1983)
11. “Fruit Fly,” Nada Surf, Let Go (2002)

The Taste!

This is an experiment to see if i can post photos from my phone to the blog... Adro took me to peking taste today, oh yeah!

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On turning 33

I turned 33 on April 26th, almost a month ago already.

I’m not having a crisis, but… I do think that, despite the years of gray hair and looking old, I might actually be getting old.

(Not “older,” I’m obviously getting older, I do so everyday. I’m specifically referring to the phenomenon of becoming “old.”)

And again, I did not get depressed, angry, disconnected, or anything. So don’t worry about me. But hear me out.

There are a few factors that make me think I’m getting old.

A few years ago… maybe six or seven years ago… I wrote an essay for Pulp Legacy about the uniqueness of my age, and the perspective of being 26 or 27. In that essay, I wrote that I knew what it meant to be an adult (car payment, work, etc.) but still remembered what it felt like to be a kid. Specifically, I wrote that I remembered that it was indeed a pain in the ass to brush your teeth before bed (the kid’s point of view) but knew that it was important (adult’s point of view). I also mentioned that I knew how much fun it was to stay up late (kid’s point of view) but that I also recognized the value of a good night’s sleep (adult’s point of view).

I remember after submitting the piece to Pulp Legacy, the reaction from one colleague, John “Mr. Vacation” Gerdes, was “Great piece of writing… hold on to that young perspective as long as you can.” And when I read that, I thought to myself, “Dude… I never plan on losing this perspective.”

I’m losing that perspective.

I think Evey needs to brush her teeth before bed, and stop making a stink about it. I can’t relate anymore to the fuss she makes. It’s juvenile, and I’m not sensitive to her whining.

I also think that if I go out on a weeknight and stay up late, the ensuing tiredness the next day totally sucks… and that I should just get to bed on time. I’m forgetting how much fun it used to be to have a drunken pool battle with one of my drinking buddies… and instead focusing on how I’ll feel better at work the next day if I get around 8 hours of sleep.

I’m getting old.

Another factor of me feeling old: the death of my Father.

Let’s face it, you don’t have to be a scientist to know that we come from the same genes of our parents, and the children get both the good and the bad genes their parents pass on to them.

I’m not saying that brain cancer is going to strike me down at age 62. For all I know I’ll get hit by a bus tomorrow, or I might live to be the oldest man on the planet.

But…

There aren’t many Joneses left anymore. I have a great-uncle Alan still in Wheatfield, and my Dad’s older sister is also alive (albeit non-existent to my family). The rest of the Jones family mostly died off at a relatively young age. I never even met my Dad’s father, Cotton Top (legally Boyd Sr., but everyone called him Cotton Top or just Top, because he was white-headed from such a young age. Do you think that white hair was an indicator of an accelerated lifespan?).

It is arguable that these Jones genes in my body – while great for sarcasm and charm – are piss-poor for longevity.

If I last as long as my Dad… and again, I’ll count that as lucky because who knows if there’s a plane crash with my name on it down the road – but if I last as long as my Dad… that means I’m over halfway done with my life on this plane of existence. (And I write that last sentence with only two… maybe three… beers consumed this evening.)

If I last as long as my Dad did, that means I reached my halfway point two years ago.

Spooky.

Last thing making me feel old, and it’s light hearted, especially compared to that last one:

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. This was a comic book that was largely text, little art, giving the origin story of all the characters in the Marvel Universe. No matter how small or large, from Spider-Man to Frog-Man, their origin was in those comics.

Along with their origin was their secret identity, known aliases (I loved that part), known vulnerabilities, known super powers (super-strength, flight, laser-vision, etc.), height, weight, eye color, hair color and age.

You know how old most of the characters were in the Marvel Universe? Thirty-Two. Captain America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Batroc the Leaper… they were all 32.

In my mind, age 32 must be the peak physical age for males. That’s why the Marvel comics writers always went with that age, right?

Well, now I’m 33. I’m no longer Captain America’s age. Now, I’m the Red Skull’s age. I’m Dr. Doom. I’m Mole Man.

It sucks getting old.

Anyway, I could go on... but I don't want to stay up much later. It'll hurt tomorrow morning.

Do the Bat-Dance!

I love this picture... I really do.

It was taken with Evey's crappy camera. It's currently my only functional camera since I left that Kodak out in the rain.

I went and bought a new camera -- a FujiFilm Z70 -- at Best Buy this afternoon. $160 camera on sale for $120. I bought the extended 4-year warranty because it dawned on me that I've been through three cameras in less than three years... and this warranty covers drops (which took out two cameras) and leaving outside in the rain (which took out the last camera). So, yeah, Evey might not know better than coloring on the walls, yet she is able to take better care of her digital camera than I can.

***

I am in a really good mood right now, and I've been in a really good mood for a while now. But I must warn you that last week I wrote an essay about turning 33 and feeling old. It's not a downer, and I wasn't depressed as I wrote it, but I was a little tipsy at the time, and it may have ended up being around 1,000 words. I'll post it tomorrow. Once I can find the appropriate photo of me looking old.

Oh, wait, that's all of them.

***

Bought a couple new CDs today -- Broken Bells, Vampire Weekend, Black Keys and Prince's "Purple Rain." Looking forward to jamming some new (and new to me) music!

***

Evey likes to do this thing whenever she wants to show you something... she tells you to close your eyes. Then she counts down from 5. "5... 4... 3... 2... 1... OPEN THEM!" You open your eyes and she's holding, like, a dirty spoon or something.

It's cute, but I really need to teach my daughter to be a better showman.

***

Bat-Dance... KEEP BUSTIN'!

En fuego

Several thoughts on this Sunday evening:

1. I finally hurt Evey with a suplex, sadly. She bit her tongue. Enough to cry, but also enough to tell us that "cartoonies" would make her feel better. Hmm... regardless, looks like we'll be taking a break from suplexes for a long while.

2. I'm almost caught up on Flash Forward, and this show is almost unwatchable. I want to see how it ends, but it's just remarkable how the writers have portrayed the FBI as so incompetent. If I were a writer on this show, I'd look over my shoulder for 24-hour surveillance, just expecting the Feds to get me back some.

3. I broke my camera recently. Not happy about it, yet I wonder if I didn't do it intentionally. It was a Kodak EasyShare camera, and I was regularly disappointed in my out-of-focus photos. I'll probably pull the trigger quickly on something from Best Buy. I left my camera outside in the rain, btw. The second I set it down outside, I told myself, "Don't forget it here." Of course, it rained that night.

4. Happy birthday to Brent Fry, Bart Littlejohn and Randy Mushrush today!

5. Had a good day on the basketball court this morning, hitting a lot of 3-pointers. Adro and Evey got home and Adro asked me how b-ball went, I told her, "Feel my hand."

She gave my hand a panicked look. "Did you jam your fingers?"

"No... just feel my hand."

"What happened?!? What did you do???"

"Nothing! Just feel my hand!"

She nervously looked at my hand.

"Just touch my hand!" I shouted.

She finally, nervously, touched it.

"Does it still feel hot?" I asked.

"Yes!" Adro responded nervously. "Why?"

"Because I was on FIRE today!"

My wife, appropriately annoyed, rolled her eyes and walked away as I cackled "Fire!" a few more times.

Ahh, I'm so clever.

My top 100 songs of all time (30-21)

Here's the key:

Rank, song, band, album, year.
Boldface denotes I’ve seen the song performed live.

30. “Forty Six & 2,” Tool, Aenima (1996)
29. “Mr. Mastodon Farm,” Cake, Motorcade of Generosity (1994)
28. “You Got That Look,” Prince, Sign o’ the Times (1987)
27. “Stellar,” Incubus, Make Yourself (1999)
26. “In My Tree,” Pearl Jam, No Code (1996)
25. “Paranoid Android,” Radiohead, OK Computer (1997)
24. “99 Problems,” Jay-Z, The Black Album (2003)
23. “Narcoleptic,” People in Planes, As Far As the Eye Can See (2006)
22. “Pass the Mic,” Beastie Boys, Ill Communications (1994)
21. “Tennessee,” Arrested Development, 10 years… (1992)

Four days in the Dominican Republic

You might remember that back in 2008, I visited the Dominican Republic for a few days – the Roco Ki Resort, where my friend Damon (second photo) used to be the superintendent (he's now at a different resort in Puerto Rico).

Well, while I was there, Damon was kind enough to introduce me to all the superintendents in the area. We all met up at Soles, a beach bar within 200 feet of Damon’s apartment.

One of the people I met that evening was a gentlemen by the name of Julio Diaz. Julio is the superintendent of the largest golf operation on the island of Hispaniola, the Punta Cana Resort. I could go into detail about the operation, but needless to say, it’s big, and includes the world’s largest privately owned airport.

Me and Julio became friends, and would catch up at the Golf Industry Show and via email on occasion. I did a short feature about Julio’s turf nursery in the magazine. I asked him to keep me updated on his construction project, a Tom Fazio course called Corales, because I thought it might be newsworthy down the road. Photos from Corales follow.

(Shot of me hitting my drive on No. 18 here... hit a beautiful drive over the bay and had a nice par here to close my round.)

Fast forward to this most recent Golf Industry Show in San Diego. I bumped into Julio. He told me he brought a gift back from the Dominican (“Brugal! The rum you like!”) We made plans for lunch that week. At lunch, he told me he wanted me to return to the DR, for the grand opening of Corales.

So in mid-April I took a 4-day trip to the DR to see Corales, as a guest of Grupo Puntacana. Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias are part-owners of Corales, hence the photo with Oscar. The journalists in attendance at the grand opening (about 15 of us) were invited to a cocktail party at his house on the first night we were there.

A nice guy, Oscar. Beautiful home, as you'd expect. Right on the ocean, open air, giant walls of books on both sides of the main room... and a wait staff with plenty of drinks ready. I chatted with him briefly, nothing of consequence, but a gracious man for sure.

I played 36 holes of golf while I was there, and I also got a nice (exclusive) story for my magazine. I stayed in a villa at the Punta Cana Resort... awesome room with a great view of the Caribbean. I had a "villa manager," who is like a personal assistant. He showed me the room, showed me how everything worked, and then he said, "Most important! Here is your cell phone. Dial 2 if you need anything."

I look at the land-line phone on the desk and ask, "So... I use this cell phone if I want room service?"

"No! Use the regular phone if you want room service."

"So what do I use the cell phone for?"

"If you need anything."

"Like what?"

"I don't know... to set up a round of tennis, an appointment at the spa..."

"..."

"The cell phone calls my cell phone, sir."

"Ohhh."

I never called the guy. By day two, he left another cell phone for me in the room, as if my first cell phone wasn't working properly.


Here's a photo taken of the outside of Oscar's house. I could have snapped some photos inside, but that would have seemed tacky, so I didn't do that. Instead, I privately took this photo as I wandered around outside.

Here's a photo of my caddie teeing one up on # 18 at La Cana. He topped it into the beach.

Here's a photo of me and my playing partner for both rounds, Henrique, a Brazilian golf journalist.

Oh, crap, I forgot to mention the President of the DR. He was there at the grand opening too. Nice, but I barely spoke with him. There was a large group of us, and a bunch of security guards. My favorite thing about the prez? They brought him his own chair, like a throne, and whenever he stood up to clap, one of the guards would pull his chair out and then push it back in for him. Very sweet.

Anyway, that's my DR story. Thanks for reading, hope I didn't bore you!

Climbing up the walls

In San Diego @ the Children's Museum

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I think we did a pretty good job for the mother of my child on this Mother's Day... I can for sure tell you she got an awesome custom-made purse, and had a darn good day at the casino on Saturday (the purse is not only cool, but lucky, apparently). Evey's got a great mom, that's for sure. Both Evey and I tell her this often, I hope, because it's true.

****

Haven't seen Iron Man 2 yet (didn't seem like much of a mother's day weekend thing to do) but Travis told me that when I do see it, be sure to stay for the end of the credits...

More soon. Sorry I neglected the blog last week, my friend Marlan was in town and it was a pretty busy week, what with Eddie Vedder stopping by Kansas City and all. I've been in a writing mood lately, so hopefully I can post some stuff soon here, like "the worst board games of all time," "how dumb are the Feds in FlashForward?" and "why did Jones meet Oscar de la Renta, is he into dress making now?"

Which piece should I start off with? I'll let you decide. Vote on the poll, to the right... you have 48 hours...

My top 100 songs of all time (40-31)

Here's the key:

Rank, song, band, album, year.
Boldface denotes I’ve seen the song performed live.

40. “Loser,” Beck, Mellow Gold (1994)
39. “Possum Kingdom,” Toadies, Rubberneck (1994)
38. “Son of Sam,” Elliott Smith, Figure 8 (2000)
37. “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” Radiohead, OK Computer (1997)
36. “All the Lights Went Out,” Marcy Playground, Shapeshifter (1999)
35. “Would?” Alice in Chains, Singles Soundtrack (1992)
34. “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun,” Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique (1989)
33. “Triangle,” Dredg, El Cielo (2002)
32. “Wish You Were Here,” Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here (1975)
31. “Say It Ain’t So,” Weezer, (Blue Album) (1994)

PJ... tonight

Photo is of me drinking from a coconut in the DR. Seriously, I don't like coconut to begin with, the ingredients of this drink were coconut milk, sugar and rum... all served at warmer than room temp.! But you know what? I don't ever say no to the local cuisine, and I drank this drink like it was the best, most refreshing drink EVER. That's the way I get down, baby.

Did I mention Pearl Jam is TONIGHT??? First time I've seen them in SEVEN YEARS....

Hail, hail to the lucky ones....