leftovers

I'm so excited because in less than a week I will be in Kansas City meeting my brand new baby niece, Eva Rho Joyner, who is my sister Adrienne's daughter with her husband Drew.  She is the first member of the next generation of our family and I am so excited to see her, to see my sister as a mother for the first time, and to see my parents as grandparents! It's a busy time of year and I will have been out-of-town for three consecutive weekends.  Last weekend, Dylan and I went to Long Beach on Saturday to spend some time with friends down there for Long Beach Gay Pride, and the next day I traveled by train to San Diego with my co-workers for the West Coast Urban District Forum, a collaboration between IDA (International Downtown Association) and CDA (California Downtown Association), which we are members of both organizations.  It was a great conference, fun to see the city through the lens of business improvement districts, and to be reunited with our friend Carlee who ...

I'm addicted to my smart phone.  I'll be the first to admit it, and how embarrassed I am by that fact.  I remember when there were artists, and there was an audience.  Now, everyone is the artist.  Everyone wants their own audience, and have developed the ability to imagine that audience exists when it doesn't.  We take photos of ourselves constantly.  Even when someone else is nearby who could take a better photo, we'd prefer to take our own photo.  It's not enough to just be in the photo, we want to shoot the photo also.  Then we want people to "like" it. I remember when there was an exciting intersection between art and commerce.  An artist would create a work, and then a company would market that work to the people they hoped it would appeal to.  Collections of songs were sold as albums.  Scenes, written on paper, were acted out and filmed, and turned into movies.  Now, everyone wants their "reality" to be considered ar...

I've always been curious about the LA Marathon, and admired those who commit to running that entire distance through LA's beautiful neighborhoods - but I have to admit that, until this year, I had never even actually seen the race.  That is mainly due to the fact that it happens really early on a weekend, and I usually sleep in on weekends.  However, this year, my band was selected to perform at Mile 5 (approximately), at Echo Park Lake, so I finally got to be a part of it - and I didn't even have to run.  Leading up to the event, there were several things I had to do to prepare.  First, I decided upon a set list that contained all up-beat songs, and lots of cover songs, because I know people like to hear songs they are already familiar with.  So in addition to some tunes we had already played, we worked up a brand new cover, "I Ran," by Flock of Seagulls, to tie in with the whole running theme. I also wanted to make sure the runners and spectators could eas...

2013 has been a weird year for me.  It's been a dry year, meaning I haven't drank any alcohol, which is, in and of itself, very different from most any other year in recent memories.  Did I gain a sense of clarity, or a sense of detoxification?  Not really, I just realized that there have definitely been times where I have drank too much when I didn't need to.  But that's beside the point, as the point is the top 10 songs of the year!  In the absence of many new releases from my old favorites, there are a lot of new artists represented in this year's list. First - Honorable mentions: "Back Together" - Annie; "Broken Record" - Little Boots; "For Once in My Life" - Mel B (although it was a huge bummer when we went to see her promoting this new single by simply 'appearing' at a nightclub without actually performing or doing a meet-and-greet or anything else that would have made standing around waiting for hours seem worth it); ...

Hays Has It. It's Happening in Hays. Those were slogans for the city of Hays, Kansas, that I remember from my childhood.  We used to make fun of them a lot, but when I was really young, I did think that Hays had "it," whatever it was.  I think the first thing I remember about Hays is that once upon a time I actually couldn't distinguish it from Russell, Kansas.  Both were cities off of I-70, where my parents used to take us to shop or run errands, and I just knew they both were what I considered "big towns" but I couldn't tell them apart.  That must have been when I was 4 or so, because soon I realized many of the differences between the two.  Hays was much larger, had a college, a mall, a Wal-Mart - basically all the exciting things I grew to love throughout my childhood. My earliest memories of Hays were of being impressed by the size of it.  I spent most of my time on our farm, and when I was lucky enough to "go to town," it was...

I've never been a big "car person."  Some people LOVE cars, love driving them, fixing them, learning about them, talking about them, etc... not me.  Growing up in the place and time that I did, cars have been an important part of our culture, but for the most part I've never given too much thought to what I was driving, as long as it got me from point A to point B.  However, I do appreciate a nice car and at times in my life I've been pretty happy with my wheels.  I recently made a major purchase and bought a new (to me) car, a bright red Kia Soul +!  It got me thinking about all my past cars and what they have meant to me.  I want to say right off the bat that I am grateful that I can even say I've been able to drive and own a car since I was in high school, which truly is a blessing.  And thank you to my parents, who have gone WAY above and beyond in helping me with the costs of the vehicles over the years.  Without further ado, here are the car...

At my brother's suggestion, I've decided to write a blog about "Out in the Sandpile," which was a game (of sorts) that my siblings and I would play out in the yard east of our house on the farm.  It was sort of like a 3D version of "Monopoly" with army guys, barbie dolls, houses, cars, and "money."  Apparently, I was somewhat of a dictator and often threatened my siblings with physical violence if they did not play for a long enough period of time.  Suffice to say, I was very into this game! THE EARLY YEARS In the beginning, the game started in our actual sandpile, hence the name.  My dad had made us a small sandbox, probably about 6'x6', with four big wooden planks set out in a square, filled about 6" deep with sand.  The first two "characters" were Kitty Kiffeneigh (my guy), and John Chesney (Brandon's guy).  We had toy horse trailers that we flipped upside down for our "houses."  Aside from the fact tha...

The title of this blog entry is borrowed from the band Swing Out Sister, it was the title of their album which contained their biggest hit, "Break Out."  I often think of that title because it is so true.  It is so much better to travel! With that in mind I wanted to mention that I just got back from a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  I had never been before, and I love going to new places!  I will blog about that trip, but for now, I wanted to post this map highlighting all my travels.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to let you enter every city you've been to, but maybe I just need to explore the site some more.

Since the beginning of the new year, I've been doing a great job taking care of myself and making my health, both physical and mental, a priority.  To this effect, I haven't drank any alcohol, I've abstained from fast food and "junk food," and I've been working out almost every day, whether that be running or doing a "boot camp" style work out to a record.  On the weekends, Dylan has joined me for some hikes. This Sunday, our day was wide open, so I decided to surprise Dylan by taking him to Culver City park for a little hike.  It turned out to be quite serendipitous, because in addition to the regular park, there was now a whole new section of trails open adjoining the main park, with a huge staircase leading up to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. We had a great hike and enjoyed the beautiful view all the way from the ocean up to the mountains. But what hit me the most was my own memories of 12 years ago, when I worked down the street from the ...

Check out my 2012 in Review over on my other blog, It's Never the Way You Imagine It.

General Delivery by mannifredlacroix

It's time again for my annual countdown of the top ten songs that worked their way into my ears this past year.  2012 was an interesting year, as unlike past years, there were not a lot of new albums by my old standbys.  So much of the songs on this list are by new artists, or artists I've just discovered.  Even though I love nothing more than one of my longtime favorite bands putting out new music, I also recognize that I should make a conscious effort to embrace new music, and I think I've done a lot of that this year. 10. "Live While We're Young" - One Direction I think I first saw One Direction on Saturday Night Live and I thought they were pretty good.  I've always had a soft spot for boy bands, although none of them have ever really entered my upper echelon as far as favorite bands go.  I like 1D's sound, style and look, but it wasn't until I went to England this fall that I really started to appreciate them.  Their single "Live Whil...

What a time it is to be me!  The past couple of months have been a crazy whirlwind.  Let's start with October. Last year, Dylan and I agreed that we were tired of going to the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval.  For those who don't know, it's a huge street festival that takes place just about a mile west of where we live.  Hundreds of thousands of people show up for it, many of them (although seemingly less each year) arrive in costume.  There are stages with performances, food vendors, and it's a lot of fun although it's also kind of a hassle and can be really irritating since there are so many people there.  It's easy to lose your friends in the crowd, and cell phones usually don't work because of the sheer number of people trying to use them.  We had a great time there in 2011, though, and we had tentatively planned on not living in West Hollywood by the time Halloween rolled around in 2012.  We did look around for a new place, but ended up s...