Vacation

(Dammit. I have to type this all over again. I was almost done, too.)

OK. So I am on vacation. Work can bite my shiny metal ass for a week. “Are you going anywhere?” I heard that all last week. The answer is “no”. This is a mental break vacation. I haven’t had any significant time off since I was in Florida (1, 2) last year.

I am going to be quite busy this vacation, though. Along with playing poker and World of Warcraft, I am going to be filling up the iPod for Da_Pickl’s road trip to a wedding in Texas, burning Dead shows for Caleb, and cleaning my apartment.

Da_Pickl volunteered me for a bar poker tournament Wednesday night. That day will be a sober one for me (but not a sober night) as I have to drive to Castle Rock during rush hour. Still, it is always a good time, and I get to sleep in the next morning.

And, I get to go to visit Roger in Boulder Thursday or Friday. The plan is to have a couple of beers at the bar patio of Roger’s choice, shoot the shit, and ogle hotties.

I had also planned to do one practical task a day – to seem a bit productive. So far I am failing. Perhaps I’ll do a load of laundry.

So I decided to check Dr. Pauly’s poker blog this morning. Pauly had been on a blogging hiatus due to burnout, but with his 2nd place finish last night (which is the best he’s done in a tourney in a ling time), I figured he would post something about it. In his entry he had a link to the WPBT POY standings (that means World Poker Blogger Tour Player Of the Year, Roger). I clicked on it to see the list and this is what I found:



Yup. That is me in 6th place. It came as quite a surprise. I had heard about the WPBT POY through Pauly’ blog and other blogs I read. I thought you had to sign up. I didn’t because the tournaments included games I don’t play, such as HORSE and Omaha. Plus, I really don’t have a poker blog. So, I guess that the two tournaments I entered that were part of the race entered me. (Did you notice that? TWO tournaments and I am in 6th. Did you notice? Did ya?) I’ll be dropping as more tourneys are played, but it is cool to capture the moment.

Speaking yet again of Dr. Pauly, I have a new “job”. You’ll dig this, Roger. He asked me to contribute to his Phish blog : Coventry: A Phish Blog. All I did was tell him that I posted a review of Galactic (he is a Galactic fan). I don’t know if he read that review, but he did read my Keller Williams review. I guess that did it. I am tasked to write concert reviews and music musings. I am excited and nervous about this. It is one thing to write a review for Roger (and the other .25 people that read this blog). It is completely different writing for the Dr. Pauly blogging empire. I just hope that I can contribute in a positive way. In will still try to be me, don’t worry.

Here is a hottie picture for Roger - aka Anonymous: The Picky One:

WOW!!!

Not only did I win this tourney (and help a good cause), I was heads up with Dr. Pauly!

I got lucky very early on, and was chip leader for 95% of the tournament. Then I was down to 3rd or 4th. But I made the final table, and I was happy to see Pauly there. I thought, "How cool would it be if I was in the last two and Pauly was the other one?" And sure enough, it happened. I screen captured the two of us at the table, but open Photoworks instead of Paint Shop Pro. So when I drunkenly couldn't paste the image, I screen captured the sreen you are seeing now. Then I realized I was in the wrong program. I am such a dumbass.



This is my 2nd win on Full Tilt in two days. I won a satellite to the $200,000 weekly last night, but blew it because Da_Pickl was over giving me my new iPod. I was distracted. Enough said.

Anyway, I am really diggin' the Full Tilt Poker site. You don't get nearly as many brutal suckouts there.

And here is Roger's hottie pic:

Keller Williams Concert

OK. Enough goofing off. Time for a post.

Last Saturday Da-Pickl and I went to the Keller Williams show at the Fillmore. Actually, while Keller is cool, the real reason for going was to see Grateful Grass (Jeff Austin from Yonder Mountain String Band, Keith Moseley from String Cheese Incident, and Keller Williams) play bluegrass versions of Dead songs. Here is the setlist:

One More Saturday Night
Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo
Eyes Of The World >
Resume Man (SCI)
Candyman
Loose Lucy
Black Peter
St. Stephen
Casey Jones
Brown Eyed Women
New Horizons (YMSB)
Bird Song
Crater In The Backyard (KW)
Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain

The set was on fire. These guys should tour.

A bonus I wasn't expecting was Jerry Joseph & Dave Schools. They opened the show. Here is that setlist:

Suppers Ready, Jacobs Ladder, White Dirt, Henry*> Lick The Tears*, North*

* w/ Keller Williams (percussion)

With just the guitar and bass, you could really hear Schools' riffs. And Jerry Joseph sounded great. His voice reminds me of Jake Schroeder's from Opie Gone Bad.

I only saw a few songs from Keller's set. Da_Pickl had gone outside to puke his guts out, and I stuck it out for about three or four songs. And really, when you hear Mr. one-man-band play a few songs, you have heard them all.

I don't know who is in charge of the Fillmore now (OK, I do know - it's Clear Channel - I meant the manager making all the decisions) but he or she or whoever is ruining the place. For my thousand of readers who have never been to the Fillmore in Denver, I will describe the place.

The Denver Fillmore is an old roller skating rink from the early 1900's. Clear Channel bought the place in the 90's and converted it into a nice concert hall based on the Fillmore in San Francisco (including the purple chandelliers and the apples by the door.) The Denver Fillmore is a much bigger venue, though. The large wood floor down the steps from the entrance. On the right side, as you face the stage, is a large area where all the pictures of bands that have played the Fillmore are displayed. This is also the main area where you could sit down. They had chairs and tables about three deep all along the right side. On the narrower left side there bar stool like chairs along the railing. To get a seat, you had to get to the venue early.

This has now changed since Roger was last there a couple of months ago. Now there are now tables or chairs. The only seating available is now in the newly built VIP section or in the balcony in the far back of the room. I asked one of the staff dudes standing by the entrance to the VIP section why there were no tables and chairs. He said that they sold them all. "They want to make it more like the Fillmore in San Diego." Yes, he said San Diego.

Of course this pisses me off. That was one of the beauties of the place - it was much bigger than the one in San Francisco. That was why they could put the tables and chairs on the side for us old folks who have bad backs. Now the only recourse is to sit WAY in the back on the steps of the balcony, or suck some cock and get VIP seats. Bastards!

(There are other changes I don't like, but I won't go into them here. For an idea what it used to be like, check here.

We also got to see our buddy Jerry and his wife Jen. Da_Pickl had gone out for a smoke, and it suddenly occurred to me that they might be at the show. I gave Jerry a call, and after trying to tell him where I was, he mentioned to me he was in VIP. I turned my head, looked up, and there he was, right above me. They wandered down and shot the shit with us during setbreak. I got a nice hug from Jen (she is such a cutie - how the hell did JERRY get her?)

(If you are a reader who retains information, you may be wondering why I mentioned Jerry and Jen sitting in VIP when I had just mentioned the seats in relation to sucking cock. I am in no way implying that Jerry or Jen had to suck cock to sit up there. Jerry is in the ticket biz, and he knows a lot of people. The guy who invited him to sit there is probably the one who sucked the cock.)

And now a hottie picture for Roger (click to enlarge, in case you forgot):