Dave's Den

World's Shortest Fairy Tale

Dave — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:47:12 GMT

Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl 'Will you marry me?' The girl said, 'NO!', and the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank beer and scotch and had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.

The End.

The Decemberists: Hazards of Love Review

Dave — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:18:03 GMT

The Decemberists are hard to classify. If I had to put a label on them, they'd fall somewhere in the "hyperliterate-epic-prog-folk-maritime-medieval-fairy tale" category. Their last two major releases, Picaresque and The Crane Wife, have built upon each other, and that progression has led naturally to their latest release, The Hazards of Love. Whereas The Crane Wife was a loose collection of songs held together by a 3 song concept suite, Hazards of Love is a 60 minute, full-on concept rock opera from start to finish.

The narrative can be a bit obtuse and open for interpretation, so I'm not even going to attempt an explanation here. Suffice to say, it's a love story involving a shape-shifter, infanticide, and the promising of one's life to the waters. In the end though it does hang together and start to make sense upon repeated listenings. As for the music, there aren't a lot of memorable hooks here as on some of their previous works, but the hooks have been replaced with interesting, varied music that best serves the story. There are moments of pure 70's prog rock in the Jethro Tull/Yes vein, to quiet acoustic interludes.

The standout track here is the closer, Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned). It's a beautiful, heartbreaking song about the two lovers, William and Margaret, and their last moments as their ship sinks beneath the waves. It's my favorite song of the year thus far, and is going to be hard to knock off that pedestal. The album as a whole is The Decemberists most ambitious work, one that's highly satisfying and grows on you with each listening. It's that rare gem that's meant to be heard as a complete work, in a quiet room, from start to finish. For my money, this is the most interesting and inventive band around these days. I can't wait to see where they go from here.

Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

Live version of Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

Streaming audio of The Decemberists debuting Hazards of Love in its entirety at SXSW

Tribute To My Grandfather

Dave — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:32:06 GMT

Below is a link to a slideshow I created as a tribute to the life of my late grandfather, Joe Twardovski. You may need to download a browser plugin to view it:

Tribute to my Grandfather

25 Random Things About Me

Dave — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:35:07 GMT

The latest internet fad seems to be creating a list of 25 random facts about yourself. Seems rather self-indulgent to me, but I guess if you have a blog you're self-indulgent to begin with. I'm not above the masses, so I may as well throw my hat in the ring:

In 1980, I lost the tip of my right index finger to a meat slicer.
I'm much more introverted than I used to be.
I'm happiest when I'm far away from the city, preferably camping.
Being late to anything drives me absolutely crazy.
I can be a condescending smart-ass.
I miss my grandfather every day.
I want to do more traveling.
If I could do it all over again, I'd take a lot more chances.
I started losing my hair when I was 18.
I wish I was good enough to make a living at photography.
I have a sappy, sentimental side I keep to myself.
Chocolate is the food of the gods.
I'm organized, and I expect it from others as well.
I love being a dad.
I'm a dog person (but not the little yippy ones).
The glass is half full.
I lost 80+ pounds in 2007.
I've learned more about myself in the last 5 years than all previous years combined.
Procrastination annoys the hell out of me.
I still love playing video games, especially with the kids.
I've been keeping a private journal since October 2007.
Sad music comforts me.
The first big concert I ever attended was Boston in March 1979.
I often have to remind myself that I'm a good person. Not flawless, but good.
I've found forgiveness to be a great cleanser for the soul.

Water Park Weekend

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:33:43 GMT

We all spent last weekend at the Grand Rios water park. We experienced a number of annoyances, such as issues with our room, noisy neighbors, and a general lack of parental supervision in the water park, but for the most part we were able to roll with the punches and not let the problems ruin our weekend.

The park itself was nice enough, but we definitely got a better value for your money when we went to the Great Wolf in the Wisconsin Dells a couple of years ago. Also, there were roving bands of unsupervised kids running around, cutting in front of people in lines, and showing a general lack of respect for the rules. While one little boy was putting his tube in the lazy river, one of these hoodlums came by and grabbed it right out of his hands- nice. Unfortunately, all of these thugs were of the same ethnic persuasion, so it didn't do much to boost our impression of them.

We tried to explain to our kids that no matter what other people are doing, we should still be kind to others and follow the rules. Thankfully, they were completely oblivious, and had a wonderful time.

The biggest issue we had was Julie hitting her head on a slide just before we left on Sunday. It was hard enough to give her a concussion, and she's missed a couple days of work. They were going to keep her in the hospital overnight for observation, but it turned out not to be warranted.

So, although it doesn't sound that great on the surface, I think all in all it was a great weekend. I think we'd definitely do it again, but probably not at the Grand Rios.

Water Park Weekend Photos