Jun

30

By Bash

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IndyCar Series News and Views

A Rare Racing Post: As you may have read, Tony George stepped down today as CEO of all the Hulman-George businesses (ever hear of Clabber Girl Baking Powder?), including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. George will shift his focus to his IndyCar team, Vision Racing.

Taking over his responsibilities is the team of Curt Brighton and Jeffrey Belskus. For starters, this now means we’ll have have to ask “Which Curt?” now that Flirty Curty Cavin (nod to pressdog for the nickname) isn’t the only one you’ll be hearing about/from on a regular basis. But serious questions loom – what does this mean for IMS and especially the Indy Racing League? And how are fans, the media and bloggers reacting to the news? Here’s a roundup:

Personally, I am a bit saddened that we’ll be spending the speedway’s Centennial Era pondering the fate of the league and of the 500 itself. We should all hope that the potential new deal with Apex Brasil comes to fruition – the deal is believed to bring the series closer to profitability, which may buy the new management team a little extra time from the Sisters George and their demands. But who can say what the long term might hold? And will this uncertainty affect the involvement of new manufacturers and the timing of the new spec, which many are hoping will breathe new life into the sport in on many levels? We live in interesting times…

Jun

30

By Bash

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Your Daily Dose of Delicious

Jun

30

By Bash

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Colossal!

First U2 Gig!: The stage (“The Claw”) is amazing! Apparently, things rotate/move, and the conical screen above the stage actually expands and can change shape. Geeeeeking out over this thing! Check it out!

At night, with show lights and amazing screen

During the show, they had an actual satellite hookup with the International Space Station to talk with the astronauts – only U2 could pull that off… :)

Here’s The Claw in its various states:

smallclaw1
That rainbow thing is a video screen! The screen shows patterns or it shows the performance to help everyone see…the band looks like ants!

The screen MOVES! It can stretch down almost to the tops of the band’s heads!
Here’s what it’s like during a show:
stage2
Those two gray things at the top that have 6 rows each are actually speaker banks! The whole Stage can be a bunch of different colors, or all one shade.
stage4
stage3
extendedscreen
extendedscreen2
clawred

Jun

28

By Bash

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Yumzorz!

Dashing: Mr. Clayton, again. It should be illegal to be this delicious, but I’m glad it’s not…

smadam360

Jun

25

By Bash

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Madam, I’m Adam

Hot DAMN!: More Clayton eye candy…

adam1

Jun

25

By Bash

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Michael Jackson

RIP: A hugely talented and hugely troubled human being has left the building…

Jun

24

By Bash

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Scandalous!

Baaaad Bashie: So I shoot the Fixx and end up between Jamie West-Oram’s legs..

photo by mrbill666

photo by mrbill666

Photo by mrbill666 – see his great Fixx shots on Flickr!

Jun

23

By Bash

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Quippy Mints

Let’s Get Fresh!: Saw a selection of California license plate mint boxes today, with sayings such as “Daddy’s Girl,” “Queen,” “I’m Taken,” and “Fun Girl” on them. Since the gentlemen who show an interest in me tend to be a bit older, I picked up this one as a joke:

cougar

Jun

23

By Bash

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Aging Rock Stars

Mmmmmm: They can age like Mick Jagger, or they can be delicious like this:

U2 bassist Adam Clayton - (c)John Spellman / Retna Ltd.

U2 bassist Adam Clayton - (c)John Spellman / Retna Ltd.

Jun

21

By Bash

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Stay Tuned…

Photos: I’ve decided to create my own domain for photos and have selected gallery software to power it. I need to set it up and decide on templates and layouts so I know what size to make the Fixx photos.  (They will be the first up on the new domain.) Getting all my concert, racing and critter photos up will take some time – medical leave has ended and I’m going back to work tomorrow, but watch this space for more details…

Energy: Or lack thereof…man, I’m wiped out! My energy has been low all week, so the chores haven’t all been done, plus I brought back all the leftover booze from Santa Cruz and it’s in bags all over my apartment until I find a place for it all in my crowded kitchen. Looks like a tornado hit a liquor store and then hit my place. :)

Writing: Trying to figure out when I’ll have time to resume personal writing projects – the type of writing I do at work is very focused and specific and I’d like to stretch my muscles in other areas again. I wrote a brief bit for pressdog leading into his race notes for the Texas race and discovered just how rusty I am. (Not to mention my usual style doesn’t blend so easily with pdog’s snappy tone. :)   ) I need to give myself  a few assignments and knock off some rust.

Jun

19

By Bash

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Santa Cruz Sound Check

Cy Curnin

Cy Curnin

The Incomparable Dan K. Brown

The Incomparable Dan K. Brown

Rupert Greenall

Rupert Greenall

The only madman you'll ever need, Adam Woods

The only madman you'll ever need, Adam Woods

Chimey (err, Jamie) West-Oram

Chimey (err, Jamie) West-Oram

Jun

15

By Bash

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Stuck in My Head

The Fly

It’s no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
It’s no secret that our world is in darkness tonight
They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon
You know I don’t see you when she walks in the room

It’s no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help
It’s no secret that a liar won’t believe anyone else
They say a secret is something you tell one other person
So I’m telling you, child

Love…we shine like a
Burning star
We’re falling from the sky
Tonight
A man will beg
A man will crawl
On the sheer face of love
Like a fly on a wall
It’s no secret at all

It’s no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest
It’s no secret ambition bites the nails of success
Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration and sing about their grief

Over love… we shine like a
Burning star
We’re falling from the sky
Tonight
A man will rise
A man will fall
From the sheer face of love
Like a fly from a wall
It’s no secret at all

Love…we shine like a
Burning star
We’re falling from the sky
Tonight
A man will rise
A man will fall
From the sheer face of love
Like a fly from a wall
It’s no secret at all

It’s no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
The universe exploded ’cause of one man’s lie
Look, I gotta go, yeah I’m running outta change
There’s a lot of things if I could I’d rearrange…

—————- Bono

Jun

13

By Bash

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Den Mom Likes Blue Moon Ale

Den Mom Lives!: In the past, I’ve organized parties at Santa Cruz when The Fixx played on the beach there. We’ve even been lucky enough to have the band join us as our special guests at these parties. They haven’t played that venue in three years, but will be back on the beach Friday night and suddenly I find myself in charge of planning the party.  (I love doing this sort of thing!) Somewhere along the way, I earned the nickname Den Mom, and it’s nice to step back into that role.

I’m bringing my entire (meager)  liquor cabinet and delegating purchases and contributions to other attendees, and I’ve found a whole mess of basic drink recipes to try on folks. (We usually have our fabulous bartender Ms. Pippi with us, but she’s traveling to Michigan on a family emergency. Love you, my sister…miss you so much…) I’ve built a checklist to make sure we end up having another great gathering. No guarantee the guys will join us this time – it always depends on their travel schedules – but we’ll have a great time, either way. Gotta rest up a lot this week so I can stay up a little later on Friday…  :)

Blue Moon: A friend of mine tried to order a Blue Moon last weekend when we had lunch at Esparza’s in Grapevine. (They didn’t have it.) I’d never heard of it to that point, but in the last week, I’ve had two others recommend it and read a few references to it. I’m not a huge beer drinker and like my lagers on the light side, so I picked up some Blue Moon this evening and I really enjoyed it. Add that to Boddington’s and Asahi as a beer I will be happy to drink.

Jun

12

By Bash

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Wiped Out

Taking It Slow: Rested most of today and got out for a brief walk and some errands. Really feeling it now – I think this will be one of those nights I fall asleep during Giants baseball on the radio.  Need to walk more over the weekend and start building  up my stamina a bit more – only one more week before I go back to work. Won’t be able to rely on an afternoon nap then.

Jun

11

By Bash

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Texas IndyCar Photos

Day 1 – Practice: I arrived mid-afternoon for my first race at Texas, checked in and headed to Texas Motor Speedway at about 5:30 p.m., where The International Superstar Shane Rogers (TISSR) was waiting with a credential voucher for me. Pit, Infield and Race Mode access…nice!  Prowled the pits and garage with TISSR, snapping photos of evening-time practice. Was awed and amazed by the speedway – a huge, impressively-maintained facility. You can see some shots here:

Day 1 Photos

Day 2 – Practice/Quals: More photos during a sweltering practice and qualifying session. FINALLY met Crash Gladys and Kenny Sargent from SpeedFreaks-Crash snuck me into the Media Center where we sat in the empty auditorium and chatted up a storm in air-conditioned comfort. Really needed that break – I wasn’t doing to well from the afternoon heat. After quals were complete, I hung out with TISSR, Paul Dalbey and Marc Bever while the NASCAR truck race started. Took off a bit after the race got going – I was only one month-post surgery and really needed to rest. Photos:

Day 2 Photos

Day 3 – Race: Had lunch with a friend at Esparza’s in Grapevine. THE best chips and salsa I’ve had. More, please! Met Crash at the track, where she hooked me up with the Victory Circle access sticker that the SpeedFreaks got.  Since they didn’t have a photographer with them, they let me use it. So cool. Crash and I spent the whole race together, during which she surprised me with a visit to the Live 105.3 suite in turn 4. Had a blast up there!  The racing wasn’t spectacular, but seeing the cars under the lights on that amazing track was thrilling. Left the suite just in time to hit Victory Circle and Helio’s celebration. Photos:

Day 3 Photos

A big thanks to everyone for making my visit to TMS  most enjoyable. I’ll be back – this place is just too awesome to miss!

Jun

8

By Bash

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Connections

Shutterbug Rediscovered: I sorta put my camera down for a while late last year. Used it extensively this past weekend and really enjoyed reconnecting with my inner shutterbug. Look for photos in the next day or so.

Finally Together!: After emailing each other all through Helio Castroneves’ run on Dancing with the Stars and staying in touch since, commiserating over the loss of pets and the declining level of competition in our IndyCar series, I FINALLY met Crash Gladys of SpeedFreaks in person this weekend. She is a doll – full of energy and sass and just plain adorable! Kenny Sargent was there as well, with that bad-ass exterior over sweetheart interior. It was great to meet them both.

More Reconnecting: Spent a little more time catching up with the person I disconnected with last fall. I could be wrong, but I think this person may believe I disappeared last year because of  something small, green and shiny. I’m really not petty like that – it was actually some intensely self-focused behavior and a general negative vibe that caused my exit. Hopefully, things will be okay going forward…

Social Butterfly: This week I’m going to meet with a friend and some co-workers I haven’t seen since my surgery. So far I’m booked through Wednesday with one more date to set. This is good for me – I need to build towards being active all day – and it’ll be great to see everyone! Tomorrow I’m finally getting to try GFC – Good Frickin’ Chicken! Nope, not southern fried with a biscuit on the side…this is Mediterranean fare. Shawerma, kebabs, falafel and hummus, etc. Yum!!!

Jun

8

By Bash

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Whoa…

Behemoth!: Check out the stage for the new U2 tour!

claw32

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