Last night one of my friends grilled me on a variety of topics. I told him I had no problem with it. One of the things that came up is that I have to be less passive when I meet ladies. What I have been doing is basically just presenting myself and letting them decide whether they want to be with me or not - even when they gave me their phone numbers!

He said what I have to do is have the attitude that I'm doing it to benefit them since I have some good qualities to offer, the most tangible being that I can make them laugh! Let's see how that works out...

So... if beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I can see beauty in everyone and everything* then I am beautiful inside, man! And I don't need anyone else's opinion to know that this is so.


* well, most of the time.

Among the "endeavours" of a Bodhisattva the "endeavour" about the perfection of wisdom is declared to be the highest, the best, the choicest, the most excellent, the utmost, the unsurpassed, the peerless, the unequalled, the most sublime.

From The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom, Conze.

I just love the choice of words!

What can I say? I like my live music. And my DMB apparently.

2009.05.05	The Dead	Allstate Arena
2008.08.09	Dave Matthews Band, The Black Crowes	Alpine Valley
2008.07.25	The Police, Elvis Costello	Marcus Amphitheatre
2008.06.27	Rush	Summerfest
2007.11.03	Tori Amos	Riverside Theatre
2007.10.26	Planet Drum	Overture Center
2007.08.25	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
2007.07.04	Tool	Summerfest
2006.09.15	Dave Matthews Band	Tinley Park, IL
2006.07.01	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
2006.03.22	George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic	Madison, Orpheum
2005.11.29	Dave Matthews Band	Madison Kohl Center
2005.07.24	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
2004.10.05	Dave Matthews Band / Ben Harper / Jurassic Five	Madison, Kohl Center
2004.08.07	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
2004.07.20	Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph	Milwaukee, Bradley Center
2003.08.23	Jeff Beck, BB King	Madison Blues Festival
2003.07.30	Bela Fleck	Madison, Orpheum
2003.04.20	Rusted Root	Madison, Orpheum
2002.12.02	The Other Ones	Chicago, Allstate Arena
2002.10.20	Los Lobos	Madison, Orpheum
2002.10.18	Rat Dog	Madison, Orpheum
2002.10.16	The Wailers	Madison, Memorial Union
2002.09.17	Mickey Hart	Madison, Barrymore
2002.09.04	George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic	Madison, Orpheum
2002.09.02	Tool, Tomahawk	Green Bay, Resch Center
2002.09.01	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
2002.08.24	Santana, Rusted Root	Milwaukee, Marcus
2002.08.04	The Other Ones	Alpine Valley
2002.08.03	The Other Ones	Alpine Valley
2002.07.02	Jewel	Summferfest
2002.06.28	Phil Lesh, Allman Brothers**	Summerfest
2001.09.07	Tool	Madison
2001.08.31	Johnny Lang	Madison Blues Festival
2001.04.06	The Big Wu	Madison, Barrymore
2001.07.14	Phil Lesh	Alpine Valley
2001.07.31	Deborah Coleman	Madison
2000.10.29	Bob Dylan	Madison, Kohl Center
2000.08.26	BB King, Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi	Madison Blues Festival
2000.08.25	Allman Brothers	Madison Blues Festival
2000.08.20	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
2000.06.23	Dave Matthews Band	Indiana, Deer Creek
1999.08.28	Buddy Guy	Madison Blues Festival
1999.08.27	Ray Charles	Madison Blues Festival
1999.07.24	Phish	Alpine Valley
1999.06.27	Dave Matthews Band	Alpine Valley
1999.04.17	Dark Star Orchestra	Madison Barrymore
1997.07.11	Ben Harper	Madison, Barrymore
1997.06.05	John Mayall, Clyde Subblefield	Madison Barrymore
1996.09.07	Johnny Lang	Madison
1996.06.29	Furthur Festival	Alpine Valley
1994.07.03	Pink Floyd	Madison, Camp Randall
1992.06.25	Grateful Dead	Soldier Field
1992	Furthur Festival	Alpine Valley
1992	Phish	Alpine Valley
1992	Los Lobos	Summerfest
1992	Violent Femmes	Summerfest
1992	Steve Miller Band
1992	Heart	Summerfest
1992?	Jimmy Buffet	Summerfest
1992	Rush
1991.11.23	Jerry Garcia Band	Milwaukee
1991.08.17	Lynyrd Skynyrd '91	Alpine Valley
1991.07.12	Steve Miller Band, Bad Company, Eric Johnson, Damn Yankees	Alpine Valley
1991.06.28	AC/DC	Alpine Valley
1991.05.25	Guns 'n Roses	Alpine Valley
1991.04.05	Scorpions	Milwaukee, Mecca Arena
1990.07.28	Robert Plant	Alpine Valley
1990.07.22	Grateful Dead	Tinley Park
1990.06.29	Fleetwood Mac	Summferfest
1990.06.16	Rush, Mr. Big	Alpine Valley
1990.06.09	Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman	Alpine Valley
1990.06.02	Steve Miller Band, Lou Gramm	Alpine Valley
1989.07.21	The Who	Alpine Valley
1989.03.06	Violent Femmes	Whitewater
1988.09.17	Eric Clapton	Alpine Valley
1988.04.05	Rush	Milwaukee, Mecca Arena
1988.05.20	Pink Floyd	Madison, Camp Randall
1987.04.14	Cheap Trick	Whitewater, Williams Center
1987.09.30	Pink Floyd	Milwaukee, County Stadium
1987.05.17	Deep Purple, Bad Company	Alpine Valley
1986.??.??	Bad Boy	Whitewater
1982.09.03	Rush, Moxxie Roxx	Green Bay, Veteran's

Of the four Grateful Dead shows, I was straight at two of them. Two of the four were some of the nicest experiences in my life. To be around 100,000 nice people all dancing, digging cool music... Ahhh. The other two were "OK."* Too bad Jerry died, the Dead were one of the reasons I wanted to be a high school teacher. At one time my dream girl was a "vegetarian, philosophically-inclined, stoner, Dead chick."

I'm inclined to think that Tool has insights into the Ultimate Nature of Reality that I don't.

Eric Clapton was the most solid performance I have seen, just tremendous. I think I cried.

I thought that George Clinton, 9/4/2002, kicked both Dave's and Tool's asses. This was my first show where it looked like 100% of the crowd was dancing... had the funk. I know I did!

After ten Dave shows I'm still wondering if I will see an ugly girl there. I like Dave so much if I had a girlfriend and she and he wanted to spend time alone... I'd think about it. I'll probably try to see him at least once a year until I die. There's no doubt in my mind that he loves pretty ladies and good music as much as I do.

Tom Waits, Dave with Tim Reynolds acoustic, and Anna Nalick are the shows I would really like to see next. I am very interested to see if Anna is as beautiful in person as she is in her videos and pictures. She rocks my world. She makes me get dangerously close to making selfish wishes.

Mickey Heart with Bembe Orisha is the band I would like to play at my live music, funeral party. Their music is good for the soul.

Johnny Lang took ALL of the single, pretty girls backstage with him after his '96 show :(

Jewel has unrealized potential. My hypothesis is that she needs to get her heart crushed to get some of those creative juices flowing seriously.

I don't think I understood a single word Bob Dylan sang at the '90 show.

For a while, I was convinced Steve Miller was following me.

People at the John Mayall show took their Blues too seriously.

I was so excited to see Santana but was somewhat disappointed. The fact that I really like girl vibes and Rusted Root had girl singers made his music seem somewhat empty.

BB King should retire.
Update 4/14/2007 One of my friends saw him recently and said he was great.

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* Maybe there is something to the joke "What did the one Deadhead tell the other Deadhead when they ran out of pot?" ... "Man this music sucks." :)
** I had also absentmindedly bought tickets for Etta James. Strong prior commitments dictated I sell my Etta tickets.
2007.08.25 Special thanks to beautiful Jeanie for making this one my most fun concerts ever. We got to dance all the way down to the 12th row!
2008.06.27 Rush... What a "sausage party". I counted approximately seven males to every female.

Earlier, I explained my view as to the nature of reality, or how things came to be. I have found that there is almost no remaining belief in me of a creator God as was taught to me growing up. I am, however, open to the possibility however unlikely.

I am aware that the definition of every word is different for each person and that is probably especially true for "God." One of my friends from college (twenty-two years ago) has, too, seeked answers as to the mysteries of life. I was under the impression that he believed in a variation of a creator god - and that we would never agree on anything that he would call "God". Well, we did find common ground!

There is probably "something" which may or may not be a thing such that it points to a "higher truth" than what we perceive.

I told him as soon as he started creating sentences about "God", I was probably done agreeing.

I work by the capitol of the state of Wisconsin, USA. Each day on the way to work and on the way home I see beautiful young ladies, who I surmise are interns, go in and out of the capitol. Instantly my mind thinks of lots and lots of things to do with cigars. Gee, thanks Bill.

Even though I have a bachelors degree in Physics from a state university, I wasn't sure if I was. I mean... I don't work in a field directly related to physics or science in general. What exactly is a scientist anyway? Is it someone that adds to science as a body of knowledge or is it someone that uses the scientific method throughout their everyday life? No need to dwell on it so much. Merriam-Webster online says:

Scientist
1: a person learned in science and especially natural science : a scientific investigator

2: capitalized : christian scientist

Yes, I would say I'm learned in science. What's with the Christian Scientists in these two Merriam Webster entries? Personally, I find Christianity and Science to be mutually exclusive. How could a rational thinker believe something about which there is absolutely no evidence at all whatsoever? It boggles my mind. But then again, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard did prove you can start a religion from scratch and acquire followers, didn't he!

Science
1: the state of knowing : knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding

2 a: a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study b: something (as a sport or technique) that may be studied or learned like systematized knowledge

3 a: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena : natural science

4: a system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws

5: capitalized : christian science