posted by Travis at 5:47 PM

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

With my impending fatherhood looming ahead of me, I find that I worry a little more about my well-being. Not to be morbid or anything, but I want to make sure that I'm around so that I can give my son the tools he will need to be a Meacham. It occurred to me that I could write some things down for him, but no child wants to read a lifetime of wisdom in prose form. With that in mind, I tried to distill it a bit. First, I thought of the teachings of Pacino. While useful, they may not be all that applicable outside of the life of the cinema. Things like,

"Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,"

and

"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women."

It's good advice, but not what he needs. Besides, he will learn those lessons as all men do. I reviewed some philosophy, but it didn't cover what I had in mind. Forget Sun Tzu and Machiavelli and all that, what I needed was something with my stamp on it. So I just started writing things down; knowledge I wanted to pass down to him. As you can imagine, that list became kind of long, so I picked out, what I thought, were the top 10.

1. Never gamble with a guy who has the same first name as a city.
2. Never borrow money from a guy with his shirt off.
3. Never get into a dark elevator.
4. Woo the mother and the daughter will follow.
5. When the time comes choose dogs not cats, Ryu not Ken, Roth not Hagar, and Kirk not Picard.
6. Listen. Do not wait to talk.
7. Steaks are medium rare.
8. Work to live. Do not live to work.
9. Spend your money.
10. For all the rest, trust in yourself and listen to your mother.

posted by Travis at 5:00 PM

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Monday, July 10, 2006

"Don't mean to push, but I'm being shoved,
I'm just like you, think we've had enough,
I can't believe 'em when they want us to,
We've all got scars, they should have 'em to."

When I think back to the great concerts I've been to, there are several that come to mind: Soundgarden and Skid Row in Nashville, Alice in Chains and Primus headlining Lollapalooza in Indianapolis, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden with Ministry and Red Hot Chili Peppers at Lollapalooza in Cincinnati, Pearl Jam in Louisville, Alice in Chains and Van Halen in Nashville, Audioslave at the Palladium in LA, Tenacious D at the Roxy, Rage Against the Machine and the Wu Tang Clan in Indianapolis all come to mind. I can also think of several specific moments from concerts that stayed with me. I remember standing up on an aisle and looking out over the general admission grass section when Ministry was playing Thieves and thinking, "My God, people must be dying out there." I remember the exact moment it occurred to me that I was in a fist fight during Rage Against the Machine, and that the feeling didn't leave me for the remaining two hours of the concert (the music became just background noise driving the violence of young men). But one of my favorite moments was when Pearl Jam played their set at Lollapalooza in 1992 at the height of the heat of the day. I was in the grass section and was just enjoying the rush of my first successful bout at crowd surfing and was heading back into the pit when I saw Eddie Vedder run off the stage, down the aisle, and into the grass where he scaled one of the structures holding up the roof over the seats. When he reached the top of this 25 to 30 foot pillar (the band playing all the while) he scanned over the crowd in the grass, pointed at us, and dove. It was really quite amazing.

All this is just prelude for me to talk about Kim and I seeing Pearl Jam on Sunday night at The Forum. This was the third time I've seen Pearl Jam play and it's always a great show. No one wields a mic stand like Eddie Vedder. It's almost an instrument in his hands. Some highlights of the show were Matt Cameron (ex-drummer for the now defunct Soundgarden) phasing into the drum rhythm for Jesus Christ Pose during his solo on Even Flow, the cover of Mother Love Bone's Crown of Thorns, Pearl Jam playing The Who's Baba O'Riley and Yellow Ledbetter with all the house lights up, and, of course, Alive. They always nail Alive.

I was, however, overly alert because of my very pregnant wife attending. I kept having visions of 300 pound drunk fat guys flying down from above me and crushing us both. I'm always uncomfortable around strangers and large crowds. Mix that in with alcohol, darkness, and loud music and I'm right up to DEFCON 5.

posted by Travis at 3:30 PM

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Monday, July 03, 2006

This weekend my sister Kelly got married to Rafael Lorenzo in Glasgow, Kentucky. Her wedding was somewhat different from mine; I would say more traditional. She did it in the Catholic church in Glasgow where my parents live, and there was a reception afterwards. I got to see a lot of people I have not seen in probably 15 years or so, and a lot of parents of friends of mine from high school. Her wedding went perfectly, although the heat and humidity almost bested us.

Here are some pictures I took while home for the weekend. They also include pictures of entertaining family at the Meacham compound in Glasgow. Every time I go back there I consider asking my Dad if I can just buy some of the backyard and build a house there. It was kind of depressing coming home to concrete, yellow air, and newly drawn graffiti on my garage. I see the luster of California fading.

posted by Travis at 7:04 PM

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