Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Some treats for Halloween

New Bono interview at RollingStone.com Check it out here.

New Ryan Adams interview at Paste Magazine. Check it out here.

I unfortunately missed the Ryan Adams show at the Murat last week. It apparently was phenomenal. If you're interested, check out a recording of it at The Internet Archive. Great sound quality on this recording. 29 songs, 3+ hours. He did 8+ minute versions of Off Broadway, Easy Plateau, Magnolia Mountain, Cold Roses, Goodnight Rose, and Peaceful Valley. Maybe I'll catch him the next time he rolls through town.



You can look forward to Halloween pictures of Parker for tomorrow, hopefully. In the mean time, check out this online Jack-o-lantern simulator.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Monday, October 22, 2007

Google gadgets

Google has a bunch or really cool "gadgets" available for web sites, blogs, MySpace pages, etc. These are all short scripts that can run on another web site and some of which take advantage of RSS or the existing, extensive Google databases, or other on-line data. You might see some of these pop up on the Roach Family Blog soon. Check them out here.





Dumbledore gay?

OK, I didn't see that one coming. Apparently, this past Friday, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reveled to an audience at Carnegie Hall that former Hogwarts headmaster, and Harry's mentor, Albus Dumbledore was gay. She told that audience that he had once been in love with the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. This will likely just give even more ammunition to those wishing to see these amazing books banned.

From the AP:

"Neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald ever seems to have referred to this brief boyhood friendship in later life,'" Rowling writes. "However, there can be no doubt that Dumbledore delayed, for some five years of turmoil, fatalities, and disappearances, his attack upon Gellert Grindelwald. Was it lingering affection for the man or fear of exposure as his once best friend that caused Dumbledore to hesitate?"

As a young man, Dumbledore, brilliant and powerful, had been forced to return home to look after his mentally ill younger sister and younger brother. It was a task he admits to Harry that he resented, because it derailed the bright future he had been looking forward to.

Then Grindelwald, described by Rowling as "golden-haired, merry-faced," arrived after having been expelled from his own school. Grindelwald's aunt, Bathilda Bagshot, says of their meeting: "The boys took to each other at once." In a letter to Grindelwald, Dumbledore discusses their plans for gaining wizard dominance: "'(I)f you had not been expelled we would never have met.'"


Here's a transcript from The Leaky Cauldron:

QUESTION: Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how I always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

Thursday, October 18, 2007

New Poll!

After a long absence, we have a new poll on the Roach Family Blog. Check it out to the right. Vote early, vote often.

Chillin'

Chillin'
Chillin',
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Here's Parker looking all grown up with his cheesy smile!


Hay Ride

Hay Ride
Hay Ride,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Cathy and Parker on the hay ride at the pumpkin patch.


Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch
Pumpkin Patch,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

Parker at the Freeman Family Farms pumpkin patch. We got to take a hay ride, pick out our own pumpkin and feed some goats.


New music

Some cool new music coming out in the next few weeks. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals have a new EP coming out next week called "Follow the Lights." It comes out the day before their scheduled show at the Murat in Indy. Man, I wish I was going to that! Here's the track listing:

  • Follow The Lights (new)
  • My Love For You Is Real (new)
  • Blue Hotel (new recording of a song Ryan wrote for Willie Nelson and appeared on his Songbird album)
  • Down In A Hole (Alice in Chains cover)
  • This Is It (new recording of a Rock N Roll track)
  • If I Am A Stranger (new recording of a Cold Roses track)
  • Dear John (new recording of a Jacksonville City night track)
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of "The Joshua Tree," U2 is releasing an expanded anniversary edition. The Limited Edition version will contain the remastered album (hopefully with the annoying tracking problem between One Tree Hill and Exit fixed) a bonus disc of b-sides and rarities and a DVD of a show recorded in Paris on 7-4-1987. Here's the track listing for the bonus disc:
  1. Luminous Times (Hold On To Love) [b-side]
  2. Walk To The Water [b-side]
  3. Spanish Eyes [b-side]
  4. Deep In The Heart [b-side]
  5. Silver And Gold [b-side]
  6. Sweetest Thing [b-side]
  7. Race Against Time [b-side]
  8. Where The Streets Have No Name [Single Edit]
  9. Silver And Gold [Sun City album version]
  10. Beautiful Ghost / Introduction To Songs Of Experience [released as part of the "digital box set" in 2004]
  11. Wave Of Sorrow (Birdland) [previously unreleased]
  12. Desert Of Our Love [previously unreleased]
  13. Rise Up [previously unreleased]
  14. Drunk Chicken / America [previously unreleased]
I know what will be on my Christmas list!

George's trip to Tijuana


My brother George led a group from his church to Tijuana, Mexico, last week. They spent 4 days building houses in the city. Check out his blog post, or his roommate's web site for more pictures.

Friday, October 05, 2007

New eBay feature

This is a test post of a new eBay feature, eBay To Go. Use to post interesting auction finds on your blog or web site.