"And joining me on the accordian, a topless Miley Cyrus!"

After an extreme Passover Break for Maya's daycare (TWO WEEKS!), we're back in the regular groove as of yesterday. So I'll catch up with y'all by offering a few quickies.

We saw Dan Zanes and Friends over the weekend perform at the Moore Theatre downtown. Maya's been excited for months to soak in a live show yet again. But once we got inside, she wasn't able to deal with the noise and essentially forced Sarah to do laps around various corridors until the show ended. Which gave me some time for a few observations. In no particular order.
1. White women still continue to dance considerably better than white men, even after childbirth.
2. Aging male musicians cannot not surround themselves with increasingly younger, hotter female bandmates, no matter the genre.
3. The soundman for Dan Zanes and Friends should be sacked immediately for gross negligence (even kids can tell you generally how to mike a tap dancer or guest vocalist with a set of bongos).
4. If 3/4ths of the African Americans at the show are on-stage, and the other one is sitting across the aisle from you - you're not exactly seeing a cross-over act.
5. Concert t-shirts are cool. Dood.

On an entirely different level, I'd be remiss if I didn't pile on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright media tour of the last few days. What. A. Trainwreck. If Barack Obama had done what everyone expected and thrown Wright under the bus many many weeks ago, it would have been ugly. Instead, Obama gave what I still believe to be his greatest speech in choosing not to do so. But then the media poked and prodded this obviously egomaniacal Pastor like a caged tiger ad hominem. The result? Ladies and Gentlemen - meet this election's Willie Horton. I watched the Bill Moyers interview and went to bed thinking Rev. Wright was trying to be dignified and still help out one of his past parishioners. Then I saw the NAACP speech. Then the DC Press Club speech. Oy vey. So I must now say that I was wrong. Throw this baggage under the bus. If Obama can't bring himself to do so, he'll end up carrying this distraction around for months and months.

Hope your own baggage is surprisingly light today. Rock on.

And then he tried to peck the wallet out of my shorts...

For those that are sick of the political that I realize I've focused on far too often recently, I offer the following.

Earlier today we took Maya to her 2nd lifetime concert. Justin Roberts @ the Moore Theatre where she saw Dan Zanes last Spring. Justin isn't especially overwhelming. He'd never be called the Rolling Stones in contrast to the Beatles for kids tag that might be applied to Dan Zanes. But he can play quirky songs with a rockin' edge. The half-filled Moore was largely entertained for the 75-minute set. Maya was be jammin'. But, in the most telling moment of the entire show - when Justin Roberts and his entirely fun supporting cast of "Not Ready for Naptime Players" came back out for a single-song encore...Maya asked when Dan Zanes was going to play. Getting compared to a different artist is never fair. Gawd knows I've heard it far too often whenever Brett Favre gets brought up in reference to my high school football career. Regardless, I've give Justin Roberts a solid B rating for the show. Now if only Dan Zanes would come through Seattle before next April.

There are plenty more Maya stories that might be of interest, but I'm still fixated on one freakish moment yesterday when I was prepping to run around Green Lake. For those that don't know of what I speak, Green Lake is an urban oasis for Seattlites that all of us occasionally run/walk/bike around. Yesterday was a particularly clear yet brisk Fall morning. With a full moon sinking over the Western horizon. I dropped Maya off for her morning session with the Lutherans early with the not entirely unitentional motive of getting a run in around the Lake before things got busy. Everything was going according to plan - I parked in the half-filled lot that's usually the busiest, stretched, and got the iPod set with a few fresh distractions. And then I walked toward the trail. And got dive-bombed by a rogue crow that "cawed!" loudly as he/she hit me just below the chin. No blood. No rabies (hopefully). But how screwy is that? Who, I ask you, has ever been more of a defender of the birds? Well, maybe Robert Kennedy Jr. Or pirates. Still, I haven't been able to look at our feathered "friends" the same way since. I hate to be alarmist. But be afraid, America. We've done something wrong and "they" know it. Remember, you heard it here first.

Hope your own conspiracies deal entirely with college football today. Rock on.

Dick Cheney - a truly "ridiculous notion"

Dick Cheney on "Face the Nation" yesterday chilled me to the bone. His creepy saccharine "oh, back in the day" glad handing of Bob Shieffer only worsened the tone. For all the minions of conservative dooshbags trolling blogs to flame on...I'm just saying he's an entirely frightening man with far, far too much power. Watch the interview. Tell everyone you know to also do so. The future he envisions for this country is deeply disturbing. Beeyatch.

For those "Sopranos" fans to which I'm sorta associated know what I mean, I must weigh in with a moment of deep appreciation. Little Carmine is for me a favorite. His fancy-pantsy flourishes can smell a bit too much like "ACTING!" But the scene in last night's episode at the golf course with Tony - undeniably wonderful. Ray Abruzzo is hereby cast in my next movie. Babe.

We lost our camera recently. Or rather, I lost our camera. But let's not play the blame game. Nonetheless, dang. So it might be bit before everyone sees how frickin' cute Maya is these days. Aunties Becca and Katie were in town for a family fest this weekend and Maya had ridiculous amounts o' fun. Maya's went to her first concert - "Dan Zanes and Friends" at the Moore Theatre Saturday afternoon. Dinner at Carmelita on Phinney Ridge Saturday - big veggiehead ratings somewhere between a B and an A from everyone. My rating - solid B. Partly undeservedly harsh since the wait we encountered was merely due to the fact that vegetarians are obviously painful table lingerers. Know what I mean? Great people, but MAN can they veg out after a meal.

Hope your own darkest visions for the world are limited to massive amounts of chocolate today. Rock on.