Bob Weir and The Allman Brothers

Jodi and I had the opportunity to see one of the main volcalists from the Grateful Dead yesterday. We went with our friends Jay and Amy and had a great time. Bobby was great and played some of the songs that the Dead has been known for, for decades. He eneded the set with Ripple which has always been one of my favorites.

Before the show and after we made grilled cheese sandwiches and sold them. We made $70. I had a great time and enjoyed my 8th anniversary with a woman I fell in love with 9 years ago.

The Allman Brothers were good too, but we spent a lot of the time walking around and talking because Jodi wasn't feeling very well. She had had quite a bit of acid and... just kidding. She wasn't feeling well because she is 8 months prego. Mo's first concert was Neil Young, Wilco, DMB, Arlo Guthrie, Widespread Panic and a few others. Gretchen' s first show was Umphree's Magee. Baron #3 will be told about this show for a long long time.

King of Kong- Fistful of Quarters

Did anybody else see this documentary? I watched it last week and have thought about it often. I really identify with the "good" character (the teacher) because I used to cry a lot. Now I'm jaded and too cynical to cry or really care much about anything.

Here is a short list of the best video games of all time.

1. Double Dribble

2. Tecmo Bowl (Original Nintendo)

3. Bond - Golden Eye (AKA Prximity Mines)

4. Mario Kart

5. Contra

6. Star Wars Battlefront II

7. Super Mario Brothers

8. Pitfall

9. 1913

10. RBI Baseball

Any that I missed? The movie was great. Kind of emotional and silly and depressinhg all at the same time.

The Dark Knight

I saw this movie today. I'd like to start out by saying that Heath Ledger was brilliant. He was terrifying actually. This made the movie frightening and wonderful to be a part of. This blog entry will be pretty political because I was thinking politics the whole time and want to point some things out that may have already been obvious to the smart readers of this blog. There will be some spoilers.

1. Much of the movie was a philosophical discussion about doing evil for the overall good of humanity. The Joker spent most of the movie trying to make people embrace the warrior within. He wanted people to act out of anger and to use power to bring about the each man's desire. He tried to prove that all men and women will really forfeit their ideals in the heat of the moment. This was ironic timing in my life as I'm trying to figure out the bounds of pacifism and loving thy neighbor.

2. Batman supports the Jokers notions of giving up on ones ideals if it is justified. This is a pretty complicated notion too. At one point Batman uses everybody's phone in Gothem City to spy on the residents and create some kind of sophisticated sonar map. He gets into an argument with Morgan Freeman about the ethics of this. Batman... being smarter than all of Gotham City... decided it was best for its' people for him to use this illegal phone tapping for the overall good. Does that sound familiar? Later on Batman accepts the blame for the deaths of some of Gotham City's finest in order to try to save the city from falling apart. He feels that if the city knows the truth, it will make poor decisions and fall prey to anarchy. Big Brother is out there watching over us.

Both of these examples describe what could happen to any man/woman who has too much power. It's bad news when any one person has the power to decide what is best for the masses. In some ways I think this is where the good ole USofA has it right. We do strive to make decisions as a nation by voting. We don't want one "cowboy" doing what he thinks is best for us.

The movie also touches on what I think is the deeper root of this situation: human nature. Will we make good decisions when nobody is around? Will we abandon our ideals when it will cost us a great deal? Are we willing to let people make poor decisions and handle the fallout of those choices alongside them?

One last thing I noticed. Heath Ledger once played a cowboy in a movie. I used the word "cowboy" in this blog describing "W". He also is from Texas and kind of embraces the cowboy way. The Joker is a psychopathic killer with no conscience and wheres lipstick. Coincidence? I think not.