AtomJohnson Blog

This has to be one of the more amazing things I’ve ever seen. I’m guessing this is a video of some sort of dance competition. First you will see some hip Asian kid do what I consider a pretty amazing break dance. Next comes out the kid who you’re pretty sure you tried to beat up in middle school, but failed because he turned out to not have bones or joints….he is 100% ligament.

Click the play button below to see some amazing finger breakdancing. Please note, these are not my fingers. I have no idea whose fingers they are…I just found this somewhere on the internet and thought it was amazing.

There are two types of people in the world…those who like Wilco…and crazy people. If you think you might be of the type ‘crazy’, perhaps this Jeff Tweedy solo performance will help you reclaim your sanity. (Thanks to David for sending me the link)

I was torn this morning when I woke up between going to play soccer and staying home to order Pearl Jam tickets. Since soccer was the option most likely to give me the opportunity to wear my new Manchester United soccer socks (thanks Scott!), I chose that option. So, after suiting up in all of my protective gear and support-providing undershorts, I drove into DC for practice….only to find the entire city taken over by marathons and cherry blossom festivals. Come on people….we’ve got some soccer to play here! Unable to find an accessible field, we cancelled soccer and headed home.

Option B: Pearl Jam tickets. At 9:45am, I connected to my neighbor’s wireless network (I usually use mine, but his is faster), opened both browsers to Ticketmaster, and got ready to fight for my place in the virtual ticket line. At 9:58am, I began hitting refresh on my browsers. This went on for exactly 2 minutes, when at 10am, I was faced with the option of purchasing tickets. I realized that I hadn’t thought about how many I wanted. So, I put in 2 tickets on Internet Explorer and 4 tickets on Firefox. I don’t have enough evidence to draw a conclusion, but in this case at least, the 2 ticket option gave me much better seats in less time. So, I dropped my credit card and laid out the $135 for two tickets. We actually have really great seats…center stage in the first set of risers.

Just for kicks, I searched for 2 tickts again at 10:05am to see what would have happened if I had waited just a bit longer. I was pleased to see that this would have taken me from section 106 to section 417. Those folks better bring some tissues…cause there is sure to be some nosebleeds.

Every year for as long as I can remember, my sister has participated in the Relay For Life. The Relay is an overnight relay walk aimed at raising money for Cancer research. This year, Amy is doing the relay through the high school where she teaches Physics.  Their theme is HOPE FLOATS.  (See photo on left…I know….you’re thinking they should have done the photo in a pool.  I thought the same thing.  I’ll ask Amy about it.  Maybe they can take the photo again.)

I don’t know about you, but I am floored at how many people I know who have cancer. It is a vicious disease that does not seem to discriminate. This year I made a donation in honor of my friend, Michelle Cervi, who is fighting breast cancer right now. If you have any money to give at all, it is a very worthy cause.

You can donate online to support my sister and her team. Good luck in your relay Amy, and thank you to everyone for your support!

Did you ever walk into a room and think, ‘Thank God I’m wearing pants!’…only to realize that you look like a Lephrecan in a borrowed outfit? This had never happened to me either until last night.

You see, Nat and I were supposed to head over to George’s house for a ‘few beers’ on St. Patty’s day. Honestly, we’d done so much this week, that we were planning on taking it a bit easy. Well, we strode up to the door, knocked, walked in…and there was practically everyone that I knew. You guessed it….a surprise birthday party.

I’ve never been on the receiving end of a surprise birthday party. Let me tell you, it is an awesome feeling. It took a bit to understand what was going on and why everyone that I knew was at George’s house….most of whom did not know George. It took even longer to figure out why everyone had on wigs and fake mustaches. The receipt from BestWigOutlet.com at least helped explain that one.

The night was incredibly fun…more fun than I’d had in a long time. Nat did an amazing job with the food, the cake, the decorations, the wigs. Most amazingly though, she kept it a secret. You see, Nat is not the best at keeping secrets. I don’t think she means to give them away, she just does. For instance, most of my gifts were left in the back of her car, so when I saw a six pack of Coopers and commented on it, she says, ‘Shoot! You weren’t supposed to see that till your birthday’….no longer a secret, you see.

I can’t thank everyone enough for coming over last night, bringing gifts, and helping me celebrate the downward spiral towards aching joints and back hair. A special thanks to Andy and Debby for giving me the funniest birthday card I’ve ever read. I seriously laughed until I cried (see below). And a really special thanks to Nat for putting this all together. You sure do know how to make a fellow smile.

If it is not springing, somebody ought to explain that to this flower.

It has certainly been a full week. James Blunt on Monday, Restaurant Eve on Tuesday…and last night, Dwight Yoakam at the 9:30 Club. It is almost starting to seem like too much. It was certainly beginning to seem like too much last night when we were at the show. The first few songs just seemed very rehearsed. It was as if Dwight had planned out that after the chorus on such and such song, he would step to the right, stoop down, shimmy his leg and continue to sing through the applause that was sure to come. I was fearful that I had just dropped $35 and several hours of standing in line and waiting for a show that I prayed would soon end.

After about four or five songs of this rehearsed nonsense, Dwight noticed that there was a soldier in the front row. From my stance up in the balcony, I could barely make out that the soldier had the standard gray Army issue t-shirt. You could more clearly make out his prosthetic right hand and the awkward way that he handled himself. He yelled something up to Dwight about how he was here to honor his buddy who had died in Iraq.

From this point forward, it was a very different show. Dwight continued to play for two and a half full hours and poured every bit of himself into the show. At one point, he stepped down of the stage and leaned over to say a few private words to the soldier. He graciously commented on how moments like this put it all into perspective and thanked the soldier and all GIs for their sacrifices. Amen brother!

You say its your birthday, its my birthday too…..

Seriously though, its my birthday. The big ‘three oh’. The end of youth as I know it. The age where ‘its all going to catch up to me’. Perhaps the age where I can grow a mustache? If nothing else, I can finally run for Congress.

So, I started the (birth)day by taking a little trip with Nat to the National Zoo to see the baby panda. I’m quite sure that all baby pandas are cute enough to want to eat on a biscuit…and this one was no exception. Photo evidence below:

After seeing the cutest thing on Earth…I drove to work. It is a strange transition, but I fell right into the swing of things. Upon arriving at the office, I found a card and balloon tied to my door. Stacey and Kathryn gave me a flower shaped cookie, Richard left me a happy birthay phone message, and everybody else threw around ‘Happy Birthdays’, ‘Way To Gos’, and ‘What the hell are you doing in my office? Is that my wallet in your hand? Security! Security!’

Much of the day I was anticipating my surprise birthday dinner. Nat had hinted that there was some good food waiting for me at the end of the day, and I was secretly hoping that it would be another trip to Restaurant Eve. Well, ‘circle gets a square’, we went to Restaurant Eve. As usual, it was ridiculously good. We worked it out with Ribeye, some pork shoulder, red wine…and topped it off with little chocolate dounuts filled with chocolate truffles.

Some of you may know that Nat and I often have a bit of an ongoing photo competition. I would say that overall we are neck and neck. Well, Nat may have just put herself out of the competition with the amazing gift that she gave me. They say the memory is the first thing to go, so at least I’ll be able to record some beautiful memories in stunning 8 megapixel splendor. Thank you Nat!

My microphone smells like crotch. And not just any crotch….my crotch. You see, I thought it would be best to ’smuggle’ my bootlegging equipment past the 9:30 Club security guards for tonight’s James Blunt show. In my wild (paranoid) imagination, I could see myself getting frisked and rejected at the door for trying to sneak crappy recording equipment into what would prove to be the best show on earth (sorry Wringling Brothers…you had a great run at it for a long time). When I got to the door, I quickly rehearsed my script, opened my bag to expose my Playstation Portable and some binoculars. The bouncer asked if I had a drink or a sandwich…I said ‘no’….he allowed me to pass. Little did he know that I was sporting two pairs of tighty whitties that were stuffed with a minidisc recorder, a preamplifier, a pair of miniature microphones, glasses, a blank minidisc, and lots and lots of wiring.

The show was brilliant! I don’t think I have ever seen such an amazing showman. I also don’t think I’ve ever seen a performer who was so gracious towards his audience. I’m quite certain that he made eye contact at one point with everyone in the audience. The cheeky little b@stard made eye contact with Nat at least seven times. Each time he held it a bit too long. After the encore, rather than running off the stage, they turned up the house lights and just walked around the stage thanking the audience for about five full minutes. They were truly grateful and completely humble.