End of the Trail

It's the end of the trail for this blog. My time is soon to become more limited, so I'm consolidating my blogs from three to two. The Old Goat Trail will come to an end while A Family Runs Through It will become a new and improved outlet for my thoughts on family, kids, music, humor, and North Idaho. And don't forget my warm-weather travel blog, Tall Trees. I have fun with these two blogs. I hope you get something out of them too. Fellow bloggers, please change your bookmarks... Thanks!

• A Family Runs Through It
  
• Tall Trees
  

P.S. If you link to me and I haven't added a link to you, please let me know so I can get you on my blogrolls.

A Trail Tune About Nothing

In honor of the upcoming DVD release of its fourth season, here's the theme song from the classic TV comedy Seinfeld:

Theme from Seinfeld

Seinfeld really started hitting on all cylinders during the fourth season, with episodes like The Outing, The Contest, and The Bubble Boy.

This is the season that introduced phrases such as "Not that there's anything wrong with that," "That is one angry clown," "It's about nothing," and "Are you Master of your Domain?"

Buy Seinfeld Season 4 at Amazon.com

BONUS MP3's!

A few Beatles covers for you Fab Four fans:

Anne Sofie Von Otter - "For No One" (Buy her CDs here)
Eytan Mirsky - "Don't Bother Me" (Buy his CDs here)
Jeff Jones - "I've Just Seen A Face" (Buy his song here)
The King's Singers - "Can't Buy Me Love" (Buy their CDs here)

And I'll leave you with that.

Spring!

I love these trees that line the sidewalk by Jenny Stokes Field on Kathleen Avenue. No idea what they are... Can someone educate me?

#33 For Bob Curtis

Bob Curtis, legendary sportscaster for the University of Idaho, was honored with his 33rd Idaho Sportscaster of the Year Award by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association this past weekend in North Carolina.

Salisbury Post columnist Mike Landon wrote a really nice column today about Curtis and his career. Read it here.

Weekly Trail Tune - Spirit of the Beatles

A double dose of music in honor of the first day of May. This week I bring you two bands honoring the spirit of The Beatles. These musicians decided to make an entire collection of songs as if they were sharing studio space with John, Paul, George and Ringo at Abbey Road Studios (with George Martin producing, of course).

First up, from 1980, it's Todd Rundgren's Utopia:

Utopia - "All Smiles"

Buy Utopia's Deface The Music CD at Amazon.com

Next, something more recent... From 2002, the Vinyl Kings are a group of journeyman studio musicians who decided to band together and pay tribute to their heroes, the Fab Four. Their first CD was so popular, they released another one last year.

Vinyl Kings - "Dreams"

Buy Vinyl Kings CDs at Amazon.com

Green Acres

I spent the day on the Palouse, where the fields of young wheat are transforming the rolling hills into a green spring wonderland. If you've never made the 90-minute drive south from Coeur d'Alene to Moscow, now is a great time to do it.

Destiny's Vandals

Kelly Rowland (photo obviously not by me)

Great crowd of 3500 at the annual Silver & Gold Game last night in Moscow. Senior QB Michael Harrington looked good enough to keep his job next fall.

Also looking good, and causing heads to turn, were Solange Knowles and her guest Kelly Rowland (of Destiny's Child). Solange's hubby Daniel Smith is a wide receiver for the Vandals.

More celebrity sightings expected in the Kibbie Dome this fall.

Pipe Dreams

Photo by me

This truck had an interesting time turning from Appleway onto Hwy 95 yesterday.

That is one big pipe!

Chatcolet Bridge

Photo by me

I'm dusting off my warm-weather photo blog with a post about Chatcolet Bridge on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. A wonderful afternoon hike for all ages.

Pictures and more at Tall Trees.

Weekly Trail Tune - The Postal Service

Have you ever suffered from an earworm? That's a song that is stuck in your head, usually an annoying one. I was afflicted for several months by a horrendous Journey song, Open Arms, after hearing someone sing it on American Idol. I've hated Journey since it was the band of choice for all the cool kids in my high school.

I was finally able to rid myself of this malady by listening repeatedly for seven hours to The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, which is a completely different kind of earworm that I actually don't mind having in my head. All together now: "In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea..."

Another song I don't want out of my head is this week's Old Goat Trail Tune:

The Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"

This is a near-perfect pop song co-written by Seattle's Ben Gibbard. It's breezy, happy, foot-tapping music that sounds great on a leisurely weekend drive through the tall trees of North Idaho. Their entire 2003 album is filled with memorable melodies and thoughtful lyrics, and I highly recommend it. Years from now it will be considered a classic of this era.

Click here for The Postal Service CDs at Amazon.com

Poor Broncos

Boise State University was the only Top 25 college football team to not have any players selected in this weekend's NFL draft. That's the second year in a row the Broncos were shut out of the draft.

The Eagles On Tour

"The Eagles are back on tour. They're a little older, though. The Hotel California is now an assisted-living facility."
- Jay Leno

Vandals in Post Falls

Photos by Larry Johnson

Get to know this year's Idaho Vandal football team through this excellent spring drills report at VandalVenue.com. Players to watch in 2005 include (above, left to right) Daniel Smith, Jayson Bird, and Ashanti Hicks.

The Vandals will be scrimmaging next Saturday at Post Falls High School, starting at 11 a.m. The scrimmage is free; the barbecue following is $10.

I See Red

Photo by me

Patrons of the downtown Coeur d'Alene post office were seeing red this afternoon when some idiot parked his red truck behind another car, blocking access to the front parking lot and pinning in more than a few cars. The driver of the truck was inside the building for at least ten minutes while other customers were left inconvenienced. Where do people get the nerve to do things like this?

Goat Trail Tunes - Steve Ward

This week have a listen to a guy from Pennsylvania who sings of "Idaho, dressed in silver and gold"... Great stuff for driving the goat trail.

Steve Ward - "Idaho" MP3

It's a bouncy little song from 2003 that has an alt-country feel to it. With his hushed Art Garfunkel voice and snappy Beatlesque melodies, Ward writes pretty acoustic pop similiar to Michael Penn, Aimee Mann, and Elliott Smith. He has two solo CDs available, and one with his band Cherry Twister. Check them out... You won't be disappointed.

Click here for Steve Ward CDs at Amazon.com

Organizing Photos

About two months ago I downloaded Picasa 2, Google's free photo organizing software. In that time, Picasa has become so natural and integral to my life that I don't know what I'd do without it.

Basically, it's the best free software I've ever used.

The first thing that happens after installation is Picasa searches your entire hard drive for every kind of picture file. It found photos that I had accidentally moved into miscellaneous folders and hadn't seen in years. Once the photos are accumulated, it's up to you to consolidate and organize them as you see fit. Within the graphic environment of Picasa you simply drag and drop the thumbnails into the folders of your choice. Once there, it's easy to tag and caption your photos.

But the best thing about Picasa is that you can easily manipulate your files without permanently changing them. You can crop, adjust tint and contrast, fix red-eye, straighten the horizon, and apply special effects such as black and white or sepia. Any changes you make to an image will stay with the photo in Picasa, but the changes will not affect the master file. No accidental "saves" that wipe out a beloved portrait. If you want to save the changes you make, the software always makes you save the file as a copy.

Picasa also allows you to quickly email copies of your photos (at any pre-set size) to friends and family through your own email application. You can create slide shows (with music) and mail those to people too. There are several other fun and creatives aspects to Picasa, including a button that lets you publish photos to your blog through Google's free Hello service.

I highly recommend Picasa 2 to anyone who has digital photos piling up on their PC. Along with Firefox and iTunes, I consider it essential free software.

5,000

KREM-TV News did a story tonight about Kootenai County's phenomenal growth last year -- at 4 percent, making it Idaho's fastest growing county. One eye-opening statistic from the story:

5,000 new residents are expected to arrive in Kootenai County over the next twelve months.

They're coming... Get ready!

Costco Etiquette

Like everyone else, whenever I'm shopping at Costco I like to partake of the numerous free food samples being passed out all over the store. You can practically take the whole family out for a free lunch there. But I am afflicted with this strange politeness that forces me, at every single sample table, to pretend that I'm interested in the product. So, while I'm scarfing down a chicken enchilada nugget or a mini pizza bagel, I always study the product packaging, ask where it's located, comment on the taste and texture, and even compliment the cook! And then the server and I exchange knowing glances - that he knows I'm not going to buy it, and that I know he knows that I'm just there for the free lunch, but still I play the game and pretend I'm headed off to the shelf where the item is located to stock up on a month's worth of the stuff.

Am I the only one who does this? Or do the rest of you just cruise through the aisles grabbing samples like it's an all-you-can-eat competition?

McEuen Field Changes

Photo by me

I blinked and it was gone... We went for a hike on Tubbs Hill this weekend and discovered that all the ancient play equipment at McEuen Field has been removed. Some of those relics were becoming dangerous, so I'm glad to see them go.

Will they be replaced? From looking at this map of the McEuen Playfield Redevelopment, you can see that new kids' play equipment will be installed further east, closer to where the new library will be built.

Weekly Goat Trail Travel Tune

I'm starting a new weekly feature on this blog... When you're driving the old goat trail in North Idaho, your choice of radio stations is limited. So you'll have to bring your own music in the car. To start you off on your journey, here's the first weekly download for your evaluation and entertainment:

The BusBoys - "Minimum Wage" MP3

It goes without saying, of course, that this is the Hagadone Hospitality Employees' Theme Song...



This tune is from the 1980 major label debut of The BusBoys, the L.A. rock and roots band that seemed poised for superstardom in the early 80's. After Eddie Murphy became friends with the band, he placed them on-screen in his hit movie 48 Hours. The song they performed, "The Boys Are Back In Town," has since become a sports stadium staple. The BusBoys also had a huge hit with "Cleanin' Up The Town" from the film Ghostbusters. By the late 80's, however, things quieted down for the band. They continued performing live, and even recorded music for commercials and the occasional film soundtrack. Last January they were the halftime show at the Iowa-LSU Capital One Bowl. According to their web site, The BusBoys are currently in the studio recording a new album for release in early 2006.

Click here for BusBoys CDs at Amazon.com