Friday, May 28, 2010

Friday Night For a Long Weekend

Way short on time so here we go!

Kayak Fishing
Obviously I did not drown! That is a good start.

It was really fun. I had a bit more trouble getting the boat on top of the wife's (you did not think I was going to load a kayak on my G35X did you!??) Toyota RAV-4 was harder than I thought. I think I may have pulled my back out a little. I will just ignore it.

The boat was easy to use and very stable. The fish were in a biting mood and I caught some bluegills, a chain pickerel, and the biggest black crappie I have ever seen up here. 8 inches from nose to tail! I switched from shallow flats to deeper water old river channel fishing in the mill pond and I hit some really big largemouth bass. Two were easily over 4 pounds which is pretty good up here. No issue in getting them to the boat. All fish released unharmed, I even use pliers to push the barbs on the hooks down to help the fish.

I will be doing this much more.

Friday Night Entertainment
When in doubt, lay it out!

Random Stuff
Anything goes!

Just in case you wanted to know:
How to Make a 46,000 Calorie Kit Kat Bar
I'd be on that like a rat on a cheeto!
Thanks Ran!

I know I missed this in the film "Back to the Future" and I think you may have too:

Twin Pines Mall becomes Lone Pine Mall! Awesome!

Fun with Pictures
Visual aids for your perusal.

Not quite the film "Vision Quest":

Nasty!

I should not have this one up considering I just started kayak fishing:

I only do freshwater, for obvious reasons.

Poor thing:
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
It will grow back little lion!

I feel the same way about the "Twilight" fanatics:
funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Yup.

Rock Blogging
Unleash the wave of sound!

Leading of is a request from my friend in Michigan, Fleetwood Mac and "Rhiannon":

You knew I would find a live performance.

Fitting in with the horrific graduation Cambridge traffic this week is Lurker's request for "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper:

Nice!

Gawains wanted some Rolling Stones and I had never heard "Shine a Light" and it is a really wonderful tune:

I like it.

The fall of Guns N' Roses was really a bad loss. The newer album Chinese Democracy was pretty bad. One song had some promise but missed by just a little bit. Best song from that album was "Better":

I think 60% of that song is great, but that other 40%....

A band that has very few (any?) bad songs is The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Try out "Californication" for example:

"The sun may rise in the east, at least, it settles in a final location"....NICE!

Two more, what to play, what to play.....

So I like Bryan Adams music, sue me! My favorite is "Run to You":

That one is really good.

Last call! Anyone with a back that still works can you please grab me a beer??? Please????????!???!?

The last time I played this song was last summer. In that post I offered a writing sample based on a Depeche Mode concert I attended. Feedback was good to not so good (thanks Illargi!) but I have indeed been writing a short to maybe long story based on something I drew (with colored pencils) out of thin air as a young kid. Not much more to add at this point, but say extreme emotions can imprint a "memory" whether it be electron spins, residual changes in substance molecular makeup, or just the latticework of the extreme feelings pouring out. Well, what if there was a "device" that could tune into this history? How useful would that be, say in solving crimes? Other applications? Enough teasing, I am working on it.

One of EconomicDisconnect's favorite songs, "Karma Police" by Radiohead:

Just beautiful.

Added
Added by a reader, nice live performance of REM and "Losing My Religion":


Have a good night.

10 comments:

GawainsGhost said...

Exile on Main Street really is the Rolling Stones' best album; it is also their most underappreciated.

Their first and only double-lp, it was the second album recorded with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, on the French Riviera. (The first incidentally was Sticky Fingers, recorded after the near breakup of the band, following the unexpected death of guitarist Brian Jones during the recording of Let It Bleed. Mick Taylor eventually replaced him, and the band became tax exiles and fled Britain. Sticky Fingers was also the first album to employ the now famous tongue logo.)

But Exile remains the band's greatest achievement. It is musically complex and conceptually brilliant, and as nasty as rock and roll can get. With songs like "Rocks Off," "Tumbling Dice," "Sweet Virginia," "Loving Cup," "Happy," "All Down the Line," and "Shine a Light," it spans the gamut of genres, from country to rhythm and blues to rock to ballads. I'd put it up against any album recorded by any band; it's that good.

Unfortunately, just before it was released, the Stones' former manager, who was miffed they didn't retain his services after Let It Bleed, put out Hot Rocks, a double-lp complilation of their earlier hits. (He still owned the rights to the songs.) The success of that album overshadowed Exile on Main Street, and so it never got the attention it richly deserves.

You really should get a copy of that CD, GYC. You won't be disappointed.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Gawains,
how about in the off season you write a music blog/real estate observation blog? I know I would book mark it! Geez, the stuff you know and have seen....
Thanks for the visit my man.

Jake said...

well done with the selection of videos!

enjoy the long weekend.

-jake

GawainsGhost said...

Yes, well, you want to hear something really funny? One of the directors called my mother today and said that at their meeting she moved to table the decision to fire the officers. It passed overwhelmingly.

It amazes me really, what a couple of emails from my mother can accomplish. I told her, look, you have power, real power. These people fear and respect you.

"Why do they fear me?"

Because you list and sell more houses in a month than they can collectively in a year. When you talk, they listen.

She just shrugged and said, "Meh." She could care less about getting involved in board politics.

I'm the same way. I've never been to a board meeting. That stuff just bores me. However, last year, when the directors decided to hire some stupid company to take phone calls and arrange appointments for realtors, and charge us a mandatory fee for their service, I sent out a one sentece reply to all the directors and every board member. "I need to pay someone to make appointments for me like I need to pay for referrals on the internet."

Well, that pretty much killed that idea. It was overwhelmingly voted down shortly after my email, although some companies decided to voluntarily pay for the service. Oh, and how many houses do they sell? Not very many.

It's just like I told the secretary the other day. She's a sweet girl and I like here, and I could tell she was really freaked out. "If this nonsense continues, I'm going to come to a meeting and speak my mind. These people do not want to hear what I have to say. They certainly don't want to hear what my mother has to say. So, don't worry. I got your back."

One phone call. Two emails. The next day, problem solved. Wasn't it Mel Brooks who said, "It's good to be the king"? But I do all my work behind the scene. Doesn't mean I can't get things done. It's just that I happen to know the right people personally, and all I have to do is mention in an off-handed way, "Hey, you know what . . ."

By the way, here's what I'm working on now, if you want some more inside real estate nonsense. A historical price opinion on a duplex. They're questioning the appraisal at the time of sale.

Well, according to the county records, the original loan was for $126,000 in Dec. 06. That would be for the purchase of the lot and construction. The deed of trust was for $133,200 in July 07. That would be the sales price, although there is no record of it in MLS.

Want to know what this property sold for on the courthouse steps in July 09? $54,000. I suppose that is what you would call a haircut.

On MLS, this duplex last sold in Jan 10 for $107,900. It is currently listed as active for lease for $750/mo per unit.

Now the problem is that the historical price opinion is for the twelve months prior to the as of date, 08-01-07. But there was only one duplex sold in the entire county during that period! And it isn't comparable. All the other sales were fourplexes.

So I'm going to have to pick the nearest, most comparable fourplex, figure out the price per unit, then adjust for the sales price, to estimate a price opinion for a duplex. For all this work I get paid . . . wait for it . . . $55. That should pay my gas for about a week.

This is life in the wonderful world of real estate. It sucks, but it doesn't suck as much as being a board director right about now.

Exile On Main Street. Check it out, buddy. That is pure rock and roll at its finest.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Jake,
Holy moley we had a Econompic comment! What a treat!

Gawains,
you and your mom scare me!

GawainsGhost said...

Yes, well,

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

au soleil levant said...

What, no Rhianna? Haha.

Nice choice of songs, and I particularly liked the set of pics from Back to the Future. Very cool!

EconomicDisconnect said...

yeah, no Rhianna! I was a tad confused.

GawainsGhost said...

GYC, I'm glad you didn't drown on your fishing trip. I'm also glad you didn't get kidnapped by pirates. This is what is going on down here.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100528/D9G02PU80.html

Pirates on Falcon Lake? That's about 50 miles from here. How long till they move to Padre Island? Northern Mexico is completely out of control and becoming increasingly more dangerous. And it's only going to get worse, because Congress lacks the political will to do anything about it.

By the way, there's an interesting debate going on between Gordon Gekko at Clusterstock and Karl Denninger at Market Ticker on gold.

GawainsGhost said...

Oops, sorry, Gordon Gekko is at Zero Hedge.