Jay Gerland's The Black Dog

Might as well come follow me on Twitter, About.me, LinkedIn or find me on Facebook.

What a week it has been. The storm was truly something to witness. I just posted a few pics on Flickr, shown to the right. It’s day 6, still no power in Kenmore – many of the streets around us do as of 6pm tonight. Hopefully tomorrow? We’ve been at my parent’s house for 3 days after 3 days in the cold and dark at home. Thank God they got power when they did.

Jack’s a trooper, Jen’s a rock and grandparents are the best hosts to have.

Some links for you…

YouTube: Sleepy Kitty (aaawwwwwww)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsfUX0md_GM

Pathetic Fallacy on Buffalo Hardcore
http://buffalohardcore.wordpress.com/2006/10/18/pathetic-fallacy-demo/

Fantastic hosting at Media Temple – think I might make the switch from Godaddy.com for Wnymusic. Double the money but 5 gazillion times the features (SSH!)
http://www.mediatemple.net/webhosting/gs/

Jeremy Enigk has a new album out – World Waits – AMG hates it
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Ao1jqea184xs7

Firefox 2.0 RC3 is out. Using it now. The tabs look pretty but built-in spell checking for from textareas is where it’s at
http://en-us.www.mozilla.comen-US/firefox/2.0/releasenotes/

Mike Watt – legendary bass player with the Minutemen, among other things, now playing bass for the reformed The Stooges (first album since 1974′s Raw Power)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Watt

Back in the mid-80′s I joined my first band, Pathetic Fallacy. We were a punk/hardcore/skate band with a lead singer, his positive message and 3 skate punks who could barely play the bass, guitar and drums.

Bandwagon
Expect To Fail
Results
Little Things
Gotta Be Heard
Contradictions
Instrumental
Make A Division
Spark Of Life

Coolest thing about this demo was that it was recorded by Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls in their practice space and features Johnny Reznik playing the opening to one of the songs (see if you can pick it out – he really used to be a decent solo guitarist). I played on George’s drumset and was nervous as all hell.

Thanks to Derek Daniels for sending me these mp3s 20 years later – I really appreciate it!

I’m still in shock about this and I’m not even sure I believe it yet but apparently, The Good Doctor has taken his own life over the weekend. He was 67.

I’ve never been much of a reader, but thanks to a couple of very good friends (Jason and Geoff, who don’t know each other but both share a fondness for Hunter) have kept me in supply of Thompson books. I consider myself lucky to list books like Hells Angels, The Great Shark Hunt, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and his only purely fictional novel, The Rum Diaries as books I’ve finished all the way through ;^). I loved all of the books as well as the random Rolling Stone articles and his missives for ESPN.com’s Page 2.

I really liked Terry Gilliam’s take on “Fear and Loathing” (Depp was incredible as usual) but what I remember first was Bill Murray’s take on the man in “Where the Buffalo Roam.” At the time, I didn’t know this was supposed to be HST or that any of those accounts were real (or based on unreal stories), but I loved the movie. Someone once told me that HST wanted Murray dead for making a mockery out of him (a list that also included Gary Trudeau), but if you read his last Hey Rube! entry over at espn.com, I would say they were able to patch things up. If I remember correctly, the movie ends with him doing a lecture at some university, well a couple of years ago I came across a bootleg of a recording of him doing the same lecture in 1977. It’s very cool to listen to him and hear him interact with the students. He was as gonzo as his writings made himself out to be.

The old version of this site, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, featured a logo from the same writing used in many of Thompson’s work by the artist Ralph Steadman. [update: I had to bring it back.] Christ, I even bought Flying Dog Beer because it had the same artwork as his books.

I just can’t believe he took his own life, what a shitty way to go, especially after all the effort he put in to his life. But he will be missed by a lot of people, mostly guys I’m sure who loved to read about drugs, sports, gambling, crooked politicians, and ner-do-well thugs. Count me in that group.

Some early obits:

ESPN | MSNBC | CNN | New York Times

“Those bastards at Rolling Stone” haven’t bothered to get off their asses to pay a little homage to one of their most significant writers in their questionable, journalistic history. How much do you want to bet that he doesn’t get the next cover either?

So, Buffalo is 5th most ‘stressed city’ according to this Business First article. Factors like stabilty, poverty, unemployment, insufficient eduction and housing helped determine this study.

None of these things affect me personally but when you add things like the constant barrage of budget talks, losing sport teams (wide right, no goal, etc.) and the exodus of the city’s population to the ‘burbs, you can’t help but understand why everyone is so stressed. Just yesterday alone our NHL season was canceled and our football team got rid of its big name Quarterback.

But we’ve got some prospects… Bass Pro is moving forward, looking to set up shop in the old Auditorium, which should be nice. Maybe it can kick-start some waterfront development and we’ll have somewhere to take the boy when the weathers nice.

Regardless, if you’re stressed, just DON’T PANIC!

Won’t even beat around the bush, WE’RE PREGNANT!!! Well, I’m not but Jen is and folks, we couldn’t be happier!

As of today, we’re starting week 16 and everyone’s healthy and happy. The due date is November 21, 2003 so we’ve still got a few months to go before the big day.

If you know me, then you probably already know the BIG news so Jen and I would like to say thanks to everyone that called and sent cards and gifts. Thank you!

It’s pretty wild to have onesies, rattles and bibs around the house already. In the first few months, not a whole lot goes on and the whole thing about having a child is sort of abstract so having these things around is an eye opener, to say the least.

I’m adding a countdown ticker to the page as well as a voting system so you can cast your vote as to the sex of the baby. And if you haven’t noticed already, there are two new icons to the top-left for changing the background color of this page. Enjoy! And stay tuned!!

I suppose an explanation is in order for my little bobbing friend you see below. Recently, my favorite sister-in-law Lorraine went to Japan on a business trip and brought Jen and I back a few gifts. Jen got a beautiful bowl, barring some structural deficiencies, and I got Fisher and my very own Domo Kun! The Domo Kun is a dream come true but there’s something about Fisher that is so intriguing and relaxing. People at work have been talking about it and a few people have seen the movie below and asked what the heck it is. Fisher is a “Cherry” Hidamari No Tami (trans: “Sunny People”), solar powered, enjoys fishing with his little yellow buddy and will dutifully hold your business card in place. Turn off the lights and Fisher goes to sleep. He’s a well mannered, pink, smiling piece of Japanese technology and he’s here to stay. Thanks Lorraine.