beep...beep...beep

that's the sound of the big ass truck i drove over jeremy roenick with backing up. turns out that i was misled by the heads at espn.com. if the players can blame the media, so can the fans, right?

i'm a big boy, i can handle the apologies. here's the rest of the story (in best paul harvey voice)

this was quoted in an espn article & sportscenter piece:

"We're going to try to make it better for everybody, period, end of subject. And if you don't realize that, then don't come...We don't want you at the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey..." (note: he also said words that got bleeped a few times, but it was more or less just like this)

but...he spent the better part of the interview saying that everything they were doing had to be focused on making the game better and getting fans back. the above comment came after someone asked what he thought about people who blamed players. espn chose to only show the "blow up."

so i take it back, j.r.. you're not a flippin' a-hole. you're not a moron (your hockey team is full of sissies and you do suck, but it's the off-season so we'll let that go). you should've known better than to pop off in a press conference, even if you were goaded into it and spent the first portion talking about your love of the game, etc., but i'll let it go for now.

now how 'bout you get back to playin' hockey, my man? pr ain't your gig.

only a fool

i can't figure out who's the bigger fool tonite:

me, for periodically yelling at the tv between 7&8 central

-or-

president bush, the subject of my yelling. what a speech...


once the transcripts hit the web tomorrow (or later tonite), i might post some quotes and my replies. not that anyone's listening.

speaking of hockey

this has to be a good sign...

we're getting a new cba soon, i can FEEL it.

we're gonna have a little more of this action right here.

moron

note to jeremy roenick: you were WAY cooler when were kicking ass in nhlpa 93 on my sega genesis.

what the hell were you thinking? that hockey puck to the jaw a couple of years ago must've done more damage than doctors initially thought. the nhl, your league, is finally moving towards resolving the labor dispute (read:lockout) that cancelled the 2004 season. you guys are coming out of a pr nightmare, getting ready to put the pieces back together and you pop off with this shit? what's the matter with you?

i don't want to beat you up too badly (i'll leave that to these guys in a few months). i've got an idea to help you clean this up better than a new zamboni.

call a press conference. read the following statement:

thanks for coming. as most of you know, i made some pretty harsh statements recently that i shouldn't have. i'm sorry. i know that you guys miss watching hockey as much, or more, as i miss playing it. the past few months have been very frustrating for me and for the other guys. it's not an excuse, but i lost my cool. again, i'm sorry. we want all of the hockey fans to come back. we need you guys to come back. we'll be back on the ice soon. and we're gonna play our asses off for you. we're going to prove to you that it was worth the wait. thanks again. if anyone has any questions...

answer all the questions, smile like you mean it, thanks the reporters for coming out, walk off stage and then shut the hell up until you guys play hockey again (i've heard the cba will be done in 3 weeks...could it be?!?!?).

it's picture page, it's picture page...

yippee yeehaw! so my friendly hosts at blogspot have finally made it easy to post pictures to my blog. it's about time, dammit. now what to post as my first picture?

this one seems about right.

happy 27th, babies.

(photo courtesy of my damn self who was bright enough to take a picture of locker 27 at the shedd aquarium in lovely chicago, il)

me & the boss

hold the phones, boys & girls. exactly 30 days from today, july 23rd to be exact, i'll be in the same room as bruce springsteen. granted, we'll be joined by 20,000 other people, but that's not important now. what's important is that for the first time ever, i'm gonna see the boss.

hot damn, sam.

what the f@*k?!?!?!?!?!?

i'm so pissed that i can't even formulate a complete thought. wanna know why?

local governments are now being felt up by developers all across the country like the pretty girl at the middle school dance.

the fifth amendment wasn't even offered the common courtesy of a reach around.

this sucks.

ketchup

that's what i've been playing all week. so, just so i don't get my ass kicked by the lady(ies) of she said what for poor blogmanship, i'm going to attempt to bring everyone up to speed. in the words of inigo montoya:

"lemme 'splain...no, there is too much. lemme sum up."

--was in the stu-stu-studio all weekend working with my buddy neilson hubbard on some new songs. pleased as punch. i think i'll get the mixes today or tomorrow. i just wish i had the dough to make another cd (and sell it), 'cause i think the last 6 songs we've done are wicked good. anyone got any ideas? i know some of you all have marketing degrees or something. put 'em to work.

--went to see my friend cary brothers and aqualung sunday nite @ 3rd & lindsley on the lightning 100 show. i'd heard cary and was really curious to see how he did live (we're always checking the competition, musicians). the wife was more interested in aqualung. cary did really well and i was impressed by his songs and musicianship. aqualung (pronounced with a short "a" if you want to say it like the band), on the other hand, blew me away. the songs were gorgeous and sad and beautiful, the band was immensely talented, and matt (the singer/pianist/writer) is quite funny. they even played "god only knows," one of my fave beach boys tunes from one of the best f'ing albums of all f'ing time. in the words of david brent, "brilliant."

--watched the afi top 100 movie quotes last nite. funny to note how i knew quotes from movies that i didn't know existed. in other news, my netflix queue grew by roughly 20 films around 11p last nite.

--found out this morning that my stepdad is getting remarried in a couple of months. i guess technically he's not my stepdad anymore since he's technically not married to my mother since she's technically not alive, but he's still my stepdad and it's still just a little weird to think about him moving on. don't get me wrong. i'm absolutely delighted that this wonderful man, who shaped my life in more ways than i can imagine, is in love and is happy. he deserves it and every other happiness in the world. it's just still kinda weird, y'know?

i can't wait to have a few minutes to share my thoughts on things of a deeper nature, like that pesky downing street memo and how the pres might be feeling the political swimming pool turning into a hot tub.

union station @ sunset

--------
union station's hindquarters at sunset. go see the new art nashville exhibit at the frist. very, very cool. also check out photos by this guy and this exhibit.

birds...

note to mama bird who has been dive bombing anyone walking near my front door for the past two weeks: i love animals and all, and i'm curious about your baby birds but i will beat your ass if i get hit one more frickin' time just walking past the nest you made in the privot hedge!

(please note that the above picture was taken AFTER baby birds had flown the coop, not before. i'm pissed, but i'm not a monster)

wacko, but innocent

i can't wait to hear michael jackson's next single, now that he's been found innocent on everything he was indicted on.

yippee frickin' yahoo. can we talk about some real news now?

get your ears lowered

holy itchy neck, batkids! i pulled the trigger this afternoon and got LOTS of my hair cut off. i haven't seen the back of my neck in 2 years, so this is a little weird. what's also weird is that my fingers are sticking to the keyboard because i keep fooling with my hair and all the goop i put in it.

gross.

wanna see the haircut? you'll have a chance tomorrow nite at the basement. 9p. free.

come for the haircut, stay for the music.

rockin' the suburbs

so, last nite i played in birming-hood, al. actually, to be geographically accurate, i played in vestavia, a suburb of birmingham. the show was pretty good, even though the crowd was a little bit undersized. the venue, moonlight music cafe, has some good things going for it. i noticed while i was there that radney foster will be playing next week and that shawn mullins played there not too long ago. i was fortunate enough to share the bill with the rachel leyco ("lake-oh") band from richmond, va. since i had to make my back to nashville last nite (how else to work for the man today?), i wasn't able to catch her whole set, but you should check her out. very cool folks.

so we got home around 1.30 last nite and i'm dragging just a little this afternoon, but i think i'll get by. i've got to get ready to move my piano into my recording room (it's not fancy enough yet to be called a studio. that'd be like calling a cubicle an office) tonite and then move that bitty tomorrow. i'm so very very excited to finally get my piano near my microphones! now if i can just figure out how to get it in the back of the sammy, the saturn wagon.

shows

i've been terrible about sending out updates about shows and everything and i've been equally bad about updating my "real" website. so here it is:

i'm playing jun 14 at the basement. free show. 9 pm. my friend dawson will be playing as well. it's gonna be a hoe-down. also, if you happen to be in birmingham this thursday (jun 9), please come by the moonlight music cafe and see my set. it's my first official show in the city and i'm trying to make a good impression.

that's all for now.

wait, no it's not. i am a myspace loser. the type of loser who people unfriend. so if you're on myspace, look me up and help me not be a loser anymore.

www.myspace.com/newtondominey

that's really all. i'm late getting back from lunch. the man's gonna have my ass...

planes, trucks and barf

oh my crap. what a stinkin' weekend, literally. so thursday i flew to corpus christi, hereafter referred to as the hottest f'in place in the world, h.f.p.i.t.w. for short, to help my dad move halfway across the state. because i'm a good son. and apparently as penance for making his hair prematurely gray.

things got off to a bang thursday morning when my brother, hereafter referred to as "the tool", called me to tell me he'd changed his mind and wouldn't be flying down with me to help, thanks all the same. then, i found out that my stepbrother, the one able bodied person that was now helping, wasn't coming down either. sweet. to top it all off, just before i went to the gate to catch my plane (delta...go figure), dad calls to tell me that the only truck uhaul has available doesn't have any air conditioning. un-stinkin-believable. so i'm pretty much loading this truck by myself and then driving it 9 hours in 90 degree heat without air conditioning. (note to self: being a bad son isn't so bad, after all).

cut to sunday morning. the truck was loaded friday with nary a hitch. i drove it across texas saturday without a) turning it over or b) passing out or c) putting cigarettes out on my arm to stay awake. we even got it unloaded saturday nite, thanks to the help of the stepwife's son-in-law and his brother. anyway, sunday...i'm sitting on the airplane (continental...yeah!!), just as we're taking off when the dude in front of me barfs all over himself and the side of the plane. i don't mean a little bit of upset stomach in a doggie bag. we're talking "chunk throwing fake puke over the balcony of the movie theatre" goonies style type action. in the next 2.5 hours he lost it once more all over himself and the plane and at least twice more into a bag. needless to say, it wasn't a very fun flight. all i could picture was this guy turning around to apologize to me and the lady i was sitting next to only to barf in our faces. this, of course, would've triggered a barf-a-rama reminiscent of stand by me. no kidding, it's all i could think about: lardass davey hogan shooting blueberry pie all over the place.

so in light of all my recent travel mishaps, i'm curious as to what people think is worse: losing your luggage or having some guy lose his lunch on your flight?

stopping

the body of emmett till was exhumed today in order for medical examiners to perform an autopsy on the body of the 14 year old chicago native. till was murdered by roy bryant and j.w. milam on august 28th, 1955 for allegedly for whistling at a white woman. bryant and milam were acquitted by an all-white jury but later confessed to the crime in a magazine interview. the new interest in the case is due, to a large degree, to a documentary by keith beauchamp called the untold story of emmett louis till that uncovered new evidence in the case. a trailer for the film can be found here. more information about the film and about beauchamp is available here. pbs has also produced a film about the killing called the murder of emmett till. apparently it's based in part on research done by beauchamp.

i have a very hard time NOT hating bryant and milam. i have a very hard time NOT hoping that they will rot in hell. i have a very hard time extending them the grace and forgiveness that has been extended to me (i believe with all of my heart in God and His grace...more on that later). but i can't hate them (or their ilk). i can't look at them the same way they looked at emmett till that august nite. as something less than human, something not worthy of life. if i give in to my gut instinct, i'm no better than they are. hatred doesn't go away. nothing is accomplished by the death of an innocent teenager who didn't know what "southern hospitality" really meant.

stopping has to start with me.

~~~~~~~

(sorry to be so heavy and serious...i promise something lite, shallow or sarcastic tomorrow)