Jai Ho!

I almost forgot to post this! I work with these peeps. I'm in the dance scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIBP4NwHTxk

Billy's 1st Half Marathon

I didn't train. Smart. I slept three hours the night before. Smarter. I didn't eat too much that morning. Smartest.

Regardless, I ran my first half marathon, as part of the Mountains to Sound relay. I was on the 103.7 The Mountain team, with on-air personalities and other sales reps. I did well, 13.1 miles in 1 hour 38 minutes, but I nearly passed out a couple times.

Best part, I've got the Rock n Roll half marathon this coming weekend. Not smart.

Whew.

Last Sunday, my band was played on the radio. Crazy. We only have one song completed, the first song we've made. And that gets radio play. Nuts. 1077 The End has a locals only show. I was stoked, to say the least.

Hey! Let's go to Portland!

Kyle Sinner, long time friend and former tennis doubles partner, is lucky to live in one of my favorite cities, Portland, OR. Having a free Saturday, I decided to buzz down there and experience a day in the life of Kyle. Tal Swindall played my travelling companion, and we headed out with really no planning whatsoever. We ended up spending about 24 hours in Stumptown, but it felt more like a week.

As soon as we rolled up to Sinner's (48 sq ft) apartment, we dropped off the bags and headed to a friend's BBQ up in the hills. Oh yeah, we picked up Kyle's buddy Tad. He's very Irish, but somehow cool. The weather (all weekend) could not have been any better, averaging around 79 degrees. The four of us made sure to bring about 300 beers and absolutely no food, which resulted in us drinking our dinner.... and dessert... The hostess, Kristen Rutherford, is staying at a family-owned home on a big piece of land with awesome territorial views and lush landscaping. I was a realtor, so excuse the adjectives. The whole group of people was warm and welcoming, and within no time we were all laughing dancing and drinking together. Pac NW peeps are generally pretty laid back like that. We played beer pong, my first time, we played with lawn darts, and we even made s'mores by the fire pit! I could eat those like Rosie O'Donnel eats whole turkeys. After several hours of bonding into the night, the 4 of us decided to move the party back into the city. I think Tad drove, but from this point on, my memory's a little fuzzy.



We swung by Kyle's to change into our evening wear, and went out to a place whose name escapes me (surprise surprise). The bartender was just gorgeous, and served us shots and one giant margarita that we all shared. She could've poured me a glass of flaming nails and broken glass and I would've gladly thrown it back.Tal met a couple of girls with accents and left with them somewhere. The 3 remaining soldiers took the battle to Muu Muu's and met up with Micah, a mutual buddy of mine and Kyle's who was also down for the weekend. The drinking continued, and I became more and more like Bernie Lomax (wearing shades, posing as though I was a part of the world around me, but actually unconscious). We went to a couple more places, met some interesting people and ended up at some breakfast joint around 4am. I think we were joined by a couple black strippers, no joke, and ended up taking them home in my car somehow. I don't remember much of that. Got back to Kyle's around 5am and crashed.

We woke up a few hours later, because that makes sense, and slowly but surely got ready for the day. Part of this process for me was stripping to my black bikini briefs, putting on a motorcycle helmet, sunglasses and snowboarding boots and walking around the neighborhood. Once that incident was over, we headed over to Tad's. Tadpole hooked us up with mimosas and sausage breakfast on the roof of his building. The view was spectacular and the company was mediocre. You gotta play with the cards life deals you. :)

For the final leg of the marathon, Kyle, Tal and I headed out to Sauvie Island to chill on 'the beach' with a few girlfriends of Kyle. I hit on a married lady, flexed with the guys and watched Tal get beat up by a rollergirl. All of this while solidifying my 'red man' status. "It'll turn into a tan". My new mantra.

To make the drive home more interesting, Tal and I grabbed a bite at Hooters in Tacoma, which sucked. Bad service, a waitress without hooters and gross food. I made it to band practice around 9 and was outta there by midnight. Another weekend for the books. Which books?...no clue.

Banding Together: Slowly But Surely

Finally, a lifetime of waiting has come to an end... I'm in a band. Technically, more than one person is considered a band, so we're a band, okay?!? Singer/Songwriter/On-Air DJ/Koala-Rights-Activist Jordin Silver and I have been jamming for a few months now. How we met may be the best part of the story. It's the classic "We met online". I responded to a classified ad she posted in the Stranger. The post's heading was "Do you like oldies, but you're not old?". I guess even with that heading, a bunch of people 40 years and older replied. After my initial reply, there was a back-and-forth of about 15 emails, exchanging pictures, personal info, mp3 samples, musical tastes etc. We met up at Boom Noodle in Capitol Hill for the first time right before Halloween '08. Weird. It seems like a couple months ago, but I guess we've known each other for over 6 months! Anyways, Jordin DJ's for an alternative rock radio station in Seattle in the evenings. This means two things: Finding time to get together and practice has been tough (from 10pm-1am during the week) however, we do get to use really nice studio equipment. Fair trade, I say.

Thus far, we've managed to complete one song. That's it. But I like it, and that's very important to me. I feel like I would spend 8 months if it meant a song I could stand behind. We've got about 4 or 5 others in the works, and I'm sure we'll have them all done within a couple months. The fun/challenging part is that we're still discovering 'our sound' and identity. I kinda just let Jordin take the reigns and weigh in during the recording and production process. I LOVE the whole process of making music. Writing, recording, editing, re-editing etc... It's all so fun and creatively stimulating. I'm so glad I'm a part of this thing. It's the outlet I need. I've tried acting, which can be fun, but the time committment is ridiculous. I'm digging the band. We're gonna have a lot of fun with this project.

Check out our song, "Mates of Souls", here: http://www.myspace.com/theeastend

Tough Breaks

Where to begin?... I suppose I'll go at this chronologically. Saturday night was fun. Very fun. I was in usual BTHOMP form, dancing up a storm, taking tons of pictures etc. Ended up falling asleep, finally, at around 5am on Sunday. At about 7:30 I was awakened by some girls who needed a ride back to their apartment, so that was the start to my day. 2.5 hrs of sleep is hardly enough to keep a machine like me going at full capacity. I had enough time to go home, change, grab my boarding gear and get over to the Eastside to Tal's house. We then headed up to Alpental at Snoqualmie. Neither of us had much sleep, and we weren't too excited for a full day of boarding. What was exciting was the fact that we had both borrowed passes, so it was free. That's always cool because you don't feel pressured to board the whole mountain, and if you only get in a few runs, you didn't waste any money.

Well, about 2 hours into it, Tal and I were boarding down to the lodge to grab lunch. He got a bit more speed than me, so I yelled that I meet him down there. Not too long thereafter, I was speeding over this crest, when all of the sudden, my board caught this mogul and I flipped right onto my head and shoulder. I heard a crack, but I thought that was just the sound of my body slamming onto the ice. I've fallen pretty hard a few times, so I was surprised when I 'came to' that my shoulder didn't seem to be attached. I felt a sudden rush of nausea and began to sweat profusely. Though I've never before been injured, I was convinced that I had dislocated my shoulder, and proceeded to snowboard to the base of the mountain cradling my right arm. My muscles tightened and became all wobbly. Just boarding nice and easy was very difficult for me, and I fell once more...on the same shoulder. Yeah, I know.

So, I eventually reached the base of the mountain, pale as a ghost, and luckily Tal was there to meet me. After helping me unstrap, we walked to the First Aid room and they sprung into action. There was a whole team of volunteer doctors attending to me, though one of them was clearly the boss. Dr. Strafford. They helped get off my gloves and jacket and laid me out on a medic bed. I was boarding under my buddy David Plutko's pass, so they kept calling me David. They even asked "What kind of name is Plutko?” which confused me. "Italian..." I painfully mumbled in response. The doctor determined I had indeed dislocated my shoulder, and started systematically wrapping sheets around my arms. What none of us knew at this point was that I had not only done that, but I had broken my collar bone in three places. THAT explains why the pulling and pushing of my arm back into the socket was so painful. Once my shoulder seemed to be back in its right place, the scene calmed down, and I was then attended to by two people. The whole time I was going back and forth between swearing and cracking jokes. They all said that I handled myself better than most patients they've seen. I was advised to go into Issaquah and get X Rays at Urgent Care to assess any further damage.

Tal was really helpful and patient, taxiing me from place to place all day. After the X Ray, it was clear I had fractured my clavicle, and the question was now "Will he need surgery?". A few pain pills and episodes of Family Guy later, I passed out on Tal's couch. The sling they gave me really prohibits movement and even without it I've been having a very difficult time performing simple tasks, like changing my shirt, typing or applying deodorant. I found out this morning that I most likely will not need surgery, which is good, but I'll still need as much as two months to recover. That sucks. Summer is my time of the year, where I really come into full BTHOMP. It's gonna be rough.

As if all this wasn't enough, my car was broken into last night. Yes, I live in the hood, and yes I leave my valuables in plain sight, but still... I was walking to my car this morning, and noticed papers spread all over the floor mats. Then noticed that my ipod and $300 sunglasses were gone. Upon closer inspection, I found the giant slash in my convertible soft top that they used as an entry point. They took everything. Money, 5 pairs of designer sunglasses I had collected over the past few years, my beloved iPod, CDs, a nice pocketknife, my 3 pairs of expensive driving gloves and who knows what else. I filed a police report and an insurance claim, and now I have to deal with all of that crap.

When it rains, it pours. In this case, it will literally pour into my car and all over me and my cloth seats due to the huge "vent" I'm sporting now. Mama Mia!...Do I really deserve all of this? I didn't think so, but now I'm beginning to wonder...

Franz Ferdinand Started A War

The immediate origins of The Great War lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during the July Crisis of 1914, the spark (or 'casus belli') for which was the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Gavrilo Princip, an irredentist Serb. Decades after his assasination, "The Duke" as friends called him, went on to form a polka cover band in Michigan. Franz and The Great Lakes toured relentlessly across the U.S. playing the hell out of Frankie Yankovic tunes such as "Who Stole The Kishka?" and "Pennsylvania Polka". While on the road, The Duke became acquainted with a family of travelling jugglers from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. These three brothers, along with unparalelled knife juggling skills, could play drums, guitar and keyboards as well as any band on any major label. Franz parlayed this random meeting into a series of garage rehearsals, which in a few years spawned the self-named project Franz Ferdinand. Incorporating heavy polka riffs and knife juggling into their live performances, the band has climbed up the international rock and pop charts and into the hearts of music fans worldwide. The Duke has recently released an official apology for starting World War 1 with his assassination, and "hopes (his) music will make up for the 15 million deaths that were the result of something that was ultimately out of (his) control". Apology accepted, Duke.