ARRRRRRR, Bono the pirate?

A strange one for today. Apparently, Bono is getting in touch with this inner pirate. And not just Bono; Sting, Nick Cave, Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Bill Frisell & Rufus Wainwright, to name a few. "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Gore Verbinski has put together a 2-disc set of 43 tracks of pirate songs. Ah, OK. I haven't seen the films, so maybe it works. The album is called "Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys" and is scheduled for release on Anti- Records on August 22nd.

Check out a sample of Bono's rendition of "A Dying Sailor to His Shipmates" at TMZ.com.

Carrie Newcomer in the park

The Roaches are going to see Carrie Newcomer perform a free concert tonight in Bloomington's 3rd Street Park. This might be Parker's first concert! Cathy and I recently rediscovered Carrie's music after seeing her in the park last year and our church's band performing some of her songs.

Here we are all in one place, the wants and wounds of the human race
Despair and hope sit face to face when you come in from the cold
Let her fill your cup with something kind, eggs and toast like bread and wine
She'’s heard it all but she don'’t mind.
- from "Betty's Diner"

I remember first hearing her perform in "The Spoke" at DePauw my Freshman year, Fall of 1993. The Spoke was a short lived coffee shop/hang-out/performance venue in the basement of the Union Building. It was connected to "The Hub" dining hall. Clever naming to connect to the Little 5 bike race. The Hub is no more, removed as part of the extensive UB remodeling in 1997. The space is now filled with mail boxes for students.

Carrie Newcomer inspires me. Her music tells stories of real life that teach spiritual truths. - Jim Wallis, Sojourners

She's a little country, a little folk and a lot of heart and energy. Her record label says that she is " one of the definitive voices of the Heartland, the Indiana native sings of the small joys and pains in life, emphasizing the little moments that are often taken for granted." For her current tour, Carrie is donating a portion of her album sales to Second Harvest, the nation's largest food bank network.

Blast from the past

Wat Pho,
Originally uploaded by aronlamerson.

Well, after like 4 years with no word from Aron Lamerson, he suddenly showed up on Flickr. Here's a picture of him and his wife Wilma in Bangkok. Still no idea where exactly he's living, but it's good to see some pictures of him on his travels. Aron, if you read this, drop off a comment to let the world know what's been going on!

Stormtrooper Day Care

Stormtrooper Day Care,
Originally uploaded by THX 1981.

Found on Flickr. What a great web service. My questions is, was the baby born or cloned?

Parker Photo Update

529080713107_0_BG,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Here's the big guy. The guy with 8 teeth and a need to walk and who just learned to clap.

Springfield, USA

Here's a great web find I stumbled across yesterday. It's an online map of the hometown of the Simpsons, Springfield! It's rather entertaining. It reminds me of the old Chamber of Commerce city map/posters with enlarged building in their rough location and a small advertisement of the business. Not accurate enough to use t to drive by, but still visually appealing. From the web site:

Although we'd like our map to be as accurate as a map to any imaginary place can be, our main intent is to preserve the comic spirit of Springfield, document its unique identity, and to have some fun at the same time.

If you have trouble locating the Simpson's house, like I did, it's in quad 2, north of downtown. Evergreen Terrace is located in Pressboard Estates addition.

At the Drive-in

Over the weekend, Cathy and I went to our first movie in a theater since before Parker was born. And we didn't even have to get a babysitter, because we went to the drive-in! There are two drive-ins near Bloomington; Starlight Drive-in off of Old SR37 and Cinema 67 off of SR67 near Spencer. We left for the Starlight after Parker went to sleep and he slept all the way through the first show, Pixar's Cars. There wouldn't have been a better movie for a drive-in, especially considering its theme of car culture, vanishing small towns and lost Americana. It's always a double feature at Starlight. On Friday the second movie was X-Men III: The Last Stand, which I had been wanting to see for a while. Unfortunately, because of Daylight Saving Time, Cars didn't start until 9:30 and X-Men didn't start till 11:30. We left at intermission to get Parker home and in bed.

I remember always going to the drive-in when I was a kid. I remember wearing my pajamas in the car, playing on the rusty old swing set in front of the screen before the movie, the big metal speaker box that you hung from the car door window and always falling asleep before the second movie started. The old Sky-View Drive-in in Lebanon is now a residential subdivision. We saw ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back there. I sometimes wonder if people living in those homes are ever digging in their yards and find a long forgotten JuJuBe or Ring Pop.

Drive-ins are a vanishing part of Americana. Get out and enjoy a movie under the stars now while you still can! Hopefully there will still be some around for when Parker is old enough to enjoy them.

Here's some good resources:

• Driveinmovie.com
• Drive-ins.com
• Drive-in Movie Memories
• Drive-in theater at Wikipedia
  
• Drive-in, an essay by Wes Modes about Starlight Drive-in

Father's Day

Father's Day 3,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker got to see his Grandpa Roach over father's day weekend. His grandpa and grandma were just thrilled to show him off to all the Roach relatives. And Parker learned how to "give five" while we were with them. This kid doesn't stop! It's something new every day.

PJR and GCB

PJR and GCB,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker got his first "taste" of the nearly world famous Marvin's Garlic Cheeseburger this weekend. We were in Greencastle for a wedding and stopped by the Depauw University landmark restaurant. Cathy had visions of future "Parents Weekends" while we were eating. No pressure though, Parker!

7 years of memories

Today is Cathy and my 7th wedding anniversary. It seems like just yesterday that we were a couple young kids walking down that aisle. Before we got married I had a bunch of grumpy old married men try to talk me out of it because they hated their marriages. Well, 7 years later and I don't regret a day of it. My life is many times over better married than it ever was before. So, let's recap the last few years of our life, since June 19th, 1999:

• The day after our wedding we moved to Bloomington
• We've lived in two apartments before moving into our first home in June 2004
• Cathy's had three jobs and I've had two
• I finally finished my Masters degree and was admitted into the American Institute of Certified Planners
• We adopted two cats, but unfortunately had to find a new home for one of them this year
• We've said goodbye to friends and family, including Cathy's Grandma Hiland
• We've welcomed three new nieces and nephews into the family and lots of children of friends
• We've lost track of some old friends but we've made many new ones
• We launched the Roach Family Blog in the Fall of 2004
• We both turned 30
  
• And last but not least, we welcomed Parker into our family 9 months ago

Let's hope the next 7 years are even more memorable.

Parker in Washtub

Parker in Washtub,
Originally uploaded by chmcelwee.

We just had to get some more studio pictures of Parker looking all cute before he doesn't look like a baby anymore. If we had waited much longer, pictures like this would have been a little creepy.

Parker Update

It's been a big week for our Parker. Over the last week he's

• Begun standing unassisted from sitting, usually when he's got something in his hands like a ball or a shoe for some odd reason.


• Taken one step. He was at Grandma and Grandpa Roach's house at the time. They got a big kick out of that.


• Started eating finger foods like Cheerios and graham crackers.


• Wished his big cousin Tim Herschell "Bon Voyage" as he left for the U.S. Navy

The months are flying by. He'll be 9 months old next week!

Industrial waste for toddlers

I stumbled across this page today. It's Superfund for Kids, a web site about the EPA's Superfund contaminated land clean-up program. Just what every kid wants to learn about! It even includes coloring book pages: "a polluted town, a worker removing contaminated material, a truck that is removing barrels of waste, and the same town cleaned up." You can't spell Superfund without "fun"!

U2 BY U2

I just saw this listed on Amazon.com, "U2 BY U2" is 352 pages, in large format, schedule for publication in September of 2006. From the Harper Collins web site: "U2 by U2 is the definitive history of the world's biggest and best rock band, in their own words. For the first time, the band themselves provide the inside track on the U2 story so far." and "U2 by U2, in the words of Bono, Adam, Larry and Edge promises to be the ultimate personal behind-the-scenes narrative on the life and times of their legendary band." Will we see Bono and the Edge on book signing tours at the local Borders? Wait and see!

Auto-B-Good

Parker and I (Ok, just me) have been watching "Auto-B-Good" on PBS on weekend mornings. Has anyone else seen this show? It's really cute with talking cars living in a town of cars....... wait a minute, this sounds a lot like a certain Cars movie out in the theaters right now. Hum?!?

"Auto-B-Good" is produced by "Wet Cement Productions" whose motto is "Children are like wet cement, there's so little time to leave a lasting impression." How great is that? The shows teach important life lessons with each mini episode revolving around a theme. Some past themes have included punctuality, responsibility, self-control, politeness, honesty, generosity, patience, cooperation, tolerance, uniqueness, initiative, self-reliance, and confidence. Some web research I did stated that this show teaches "Christian" values, but the episodes I watched didn't have any kind of religious underpinning. And if it did, it wasn't anything like "Veggie Tales" that makes a clear connection between the story and a Biblical message. And since when do Christians have a monopoly on values like honesty, generosity and tolerance? According to their web site, "Auto-B-Good has Premium Grade Values and Full-Throttle Fun!"

Beards

Quote for the day, from Wikipedia.

"There are two kinds of people in this world that go around beardless — boys and women, and I am neither one."
—Greek saying

I don't care if I ever get back

Baseball Game 3,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Cathy and me taking in the end of the game and the fireworks. Notice the grey beard hair.

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks

Baseball Game 1,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker chewing on Cathy's necklace. I much prefer the hot dogs and frozen malted shakes myself.

Take me out to the ball game

Baseball Game 2,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker and Cathy at Parker's first ever baseball game. The Indianapolis Indians beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons 3-1.