Thursday, January 21, 2010

1-21-10

Today my website launched: http://www.jasonfladager.com

Check it out.

I'm sorry to Marie and the three other people who read up on my blog, but seriously this month is sooo busy between working at the theatre and working with Vega, trying to be a good stay at home Dad, and balance it all with a full time job. I need some serious organization. Missed a couple appointments and had to reschedule this week. Must slow this ride down!

I am looking forward to the Dogsled trip to Camp Menogyn in the BWCA. Leaving a week from Sunday for four days. Need to hit the reset button and get geared up for all the work in February.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

1-12-10

Casey is beginning to figure out how to grasp things and "feel" things now.

My mind has been in overdrive today. Marie told me that I have been a straight slacker on the blog and at the gym.

Unfortunately she's right. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's mid January and we're in the peak of bleak. Funny, I don't feel bleak.

Quite the contrary actually, I think I feel so good about things in general that I often choose to forget to do that things that help me enjoy this ride a little more. Namely, the gym...the diet.

Also, I just got off a great 2010 trip to Lusten with Casey and Kristi. If we could have just had the girls come along it would have been perfect.

I love bands. Bands have life and dynamic. A band seems like an old fashioned idea. The dynamic that occurs between a few unique individuals representing various tones on a scale and what they are able to collectively join forces in creative process. These days you can make a band in your basement on your laptop with a few tracks. Couple days later you have an album that you played every instrument on and you sang every harmony on and played every bass line. Constructive yes. (this actually may be a worthwhile project....Spend one month in the basement writing an entire album of music playing every part. Seeing what happens. Maybe get people all riled up about the band "CAT BATON". Have it come time for the CD release and it's just me on my computer. Do it.)

Hey it's January in Minnesota. It's time eat hotdish and stay indoors where its warum doncha know.

Had an interesting concept for reducing overtime at our organization. Something about flex schedules.

The girls came over tonight and we had steak fajitas. Man they are getting big. We stopped at the store for sour cream, lettuce, and black olives and they just ran in, got the items and came back to the car. Amazing they grow up and can do that all by themselves. I guess I must be easily amazed.

Without a doubt.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

1-10-10

01-10-10

Casey woke up to 4 months old on the shores of Lake Superior.

We spent the last three days relaxing at Bluefin Bay, getting massages, playing rockshows, and eating and drinking merrily. We have gone to Lusten every year for years and years now and we always have a great time. This year I chose no skiing and instead hung close to the fire and the family. We got in several hours of "TPIR" on Wii. Watched some football. Ate some fabulous Soup.

Destiny Rock makes the best soup in all the land. I swear by it. Mrs. Rock's Soups of Destiny.com will be around soon enough. This year she made a nice Minnestrone. The carrots just perfect and the broth not spicy at all. Before she has made Tortilla Lime soup that was awesome.

Good to be back home.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

"I'm selfish, impatient, and insecure. I am out of control sometimes, hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best!" -Marilyn Monroe

Love that quote. So true.

Well we are about to embark (I love the word embark) on the annual Lusten getaway and man...I'm ready. Ready for four days of nothing but relaxing and spending time on the shores, in the hot tubs, by the fires, and on the stage. Did some rehersing with Tim last night and the other guys last week. Yeah...good times. Wish Jimmy could join us but he is still recovering from this condition in his forearms/hands.

Wow, so many things are happening right now I don't know where to begin.

Met with Steve McClellen (former talent buyer at First Avenue for 25 years) at Dulano's the other day. Brought Casey along. Steve did most of the talking so Casey was just starin at him and laughing. Just getting some advice on how to run a successful venue.

Anyway, vacation is calling. Must....wax.....skis.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

1-04-09

Chopin "Nocturne No. 8 in D-Flat. Op.27 No.2

I love Casey. I haven't been keeping up with my blog. Isn't that how it always works? You get all hyped up and rarin' to go and then you lilt.

No more lilting in 2010.

Casey prefers me to walk around the house while he eats. Usually we sit down in the comfy chair and he messes with the nipple on the bottle and fusses and so on...so we get up and walk around and then he eats fine.

When we are walking around I imagine myself the big ape with a little chimp. Probably feels safer to keep moving.

Casey is getting very good at taking naps in his bassinette. We used to have to rock him to sleep for a while, but now we lay him down when groggy and he relaxes...and sleeps.

...and keeping moving we are.

Last night I watched a Nostrodomos special on History channel about 2012 predictions. They talked about how there will be "galactic alignment" in which the sun and the center of the universe will line up exactly with Earth. Apparently....never mind I'll just clip the entire definition of what it is:

Galactic alignment
In the mid-1990s, John Major Jenkins asserted that the ancient Maya intended to tie the end of their calendar to the winter solstice in 2012, which falls on December 21. This date was in line with an idea he terms the galactic alignment.[42]
In the Solar System, the planets and the Sun share roughly the same plane of orbit, known as the plane of the ecliptic. From our perspective on Earth, the Zodiacal constellations move along or near the ecliptic, and over time, appear to recede counterclockwise by one degree every 72 years. This movement is attributed to a slight wobble in the Earth's axis as it spins.[43] As a result, approximately every 2160 years, the constellation visible on the early morning of the spring equinox changes. In Western astrological traditions, this signals the end of one astrological age (currently the Age of Pisces) and the beginning of another (Age of Aquarius). Over the course of 26,000 years, the precession of the equinoxes makes one full circuit around the ecliptic.[43]
Just as the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere is currently in the constellation of Pisces, so the winter solstice is currently in the constellation of Sagittarius, which happens to be the constellation intersected by the galactic equator.[44] Every year for the last 1000 years or so, on the winter solstice, the Earth, Sun and the galactic equator come into alignment, and every year, precession pushes the Sun's position a little way further through the Milky Way's band.

The Milky Way near Cygnus showing the lane of the Dark Rift, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or "Black Road"
Jenkins suggests that the Maya based their calendar on observations of the Great Rift, a band of dark dust clouds in the Milky Way, which the Maya called the Xibalba be or "Black Road."[45] Jenkins claims that the Maya were aware of where the ecliptic intersected the Black Road and gave this position in the sky a special significance in their cosmology.[3] According to the hypothesis, the Sun precisely aligns with this intersection point at the winter solstice of 2012.[3] Jenkins claimed that the classical Mayans anticipated this conjunction and celebrated it as the harbinger of a profound spiritual transition for mankind.[46] New Age proponents of the galactic alignment hypothesis argue that, just as astrology uses the positions of stars and planets to make claims of future events, the Mayans plotted their calendars with the objective of preparing for significant world events.[47] Jenkins attributes the insights of ancient Maya shamans about the galactic center to their use of psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive toads, and other psychedelics.[48] Jenkins also associates the Xibalba be with a "world tree", drawing on studies of contemporary (not ancient) Maya cosmology.[8]
The alignment in question is not exclusive to 2012 but takes place over a 36-year period, corresponding to the diameter of the Sun, with the most precise convergence having already occurred in 1998.[49] Also, Jenkins himself notes that there is no concrete evidence that the Maya were aware of precession.[42] While some Mayan scholars, such as Barbara MacLeod, have suggested that some Mayan holy dates were timed to precessional cycles, scholarly opinion on the subject is divided.[22] There is also little evidence, archaeological or historical, that the Maya placed any importance on solstices or equinoxes.[22][50]


Wow. How about that for mystical speculations?

Looking forward to the annual ski trip to Lutsen. Will be fun to get away for a few days and leave the world behind.