I've been out for golf twice now.  Last week Greg and I got it started at Bay Path.  I hit a 60 on nine up there and didn't lose my ball.  Very good for my first time out.  Nicky and I played Hemlock in Sturbridge today, and I played a 59 (with cheating).  I only hit two bunkers, but I lost a couple of balls along the way.  That's pretty good for a course I've never been to, let alone a course like this one... a lot of hills to climb.  Hemlock is like Nick's backyard, so he was capable of a 47, and that's early in the season. 

Lemme tell you about a TV show that I've been watching for the last few weeks.  It's called Little People, Big World, and it's about dwarves.  I love little people, it ain't no secret.  That's the reason I started watching.  "Hey, there's a show about dwarves, I can't miss this!"  It follows the lives of the Roloffs, a family headed by Matt and Amy, who live on a big ranch in Oregon.  Matt and Amy are little people, and they've got four kids.  Three of them are average height, and the fourth is small, but the crazy thing is that the small one is actually twins with one of the others.  The great thing about this show is that you forget about the fact that you're watching little people after about one or two episodes.  I watch the show now to tune in and see how the Roloff family is doing.  It's just another normal American family, basically, and they're lots of fun to watch.  Fran said during the latest episode, "The great thing about this show is that it's normalized me with dwarves," and it's true.  I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but there's a little guy who works at the Wal Mart in Sturbridge and I didn't think twice about it when I ran in last week.  But like I said, you forget about it when you're watching the show, and now you find yourself caring about whether or not Zach is going to pass his written driver's exam more than most other television during the week.

Well, not as much as The Sopranos.  I've been reading reviews from the New York papers that say this season has been disappointing, which I think is absurd.  This week's episode was straight-up hilarious.  Any episode that deals with the steady decline of Artie Bucco's mental state is good for a laugh.

• As foretold in dreams, one of the lightpoles in the store parking lot got hit by a milk truck and came crashing down to the ground.  I missed the excitement, and by the time I got there to take pictures of it, a work crew had already showed up to clean up. 
• "Danger" Dave has taken over as the store manager and he's already doing well by all of us.  Rumor has it, he might have a wrestling match in Shrewsbury next weekend... I'm feeling a trip to White City coming on. 
• Softball game in a couple of weeks, something I've been trying to get done for two or three years.  There's a football game in a couple of hours, but I think I twisted my ankle this morning looking for a copy of the New York Times somewhere in this town, so I may be sidelined today.
• Everyone should keep an ear out for Matisyahu.  He's a Hassidic reggae artist.  That's not an oxymoron.  He's also pretty damn good... I've always liked reggae, and his brand is great, as well as inspirational. 

Baseball is back... Red Sox fans and Yankee fans can bicker all we want, the Mets are still better than everyone.  It's been 20 years since they last won the Series... I wonder if they're ready to go back?   I know my brothers would be happy about that.

Keep an eye out for a new video this week...  as long as Greg's around, it should be going down on Wednesday.  Maybe golf, too. 

Fran had her senior class play last weekend, which I taped for Channel 11.  The show was done with no budget, but they put a lot into it and had a lot of fun, which is what it's all about, really.  The show should be running right now on Channel 11, probably at noon, six, and ten.  Just keep watching, it'll come on eventually.

Nick Zinner, Brian Chase, and Karen O in 'happier times'

Also last week, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new album, Show Your Bones, finally came out.  I'd been waiting some time to hear it, and it was worth it.  I knew it wouldn't be a whole lot like the first album, Fever to Tell, so I didn't sit around with expectations that it would be more of the same (unlike a few reviews I've read from critics who don't know any better).  With that in mind, I didn't feel "disappointed" at all.  It's a great album on its own, but it leads you to wonder where YYYs are going as a band.  That feeling was helped along by the SPIN cover story that profiled them (only fair, as it was a cover story two years ago that got me into them).  After Karen O moved to L.A., she seemed to take a new stance on life, music, etc.  Meanwhile, Brian Chase and Nick Zinner stayed in New York.  By the time they'd gotten back into the studio, Karen mellowed out and started a solo project while Brian and Nick worked with other projects of theirs.  So with Karen spending time in the sun and Nick and Brian remaining hopeful of retaining the gritty New York sound, a lot of those elements that made Fever to Tell so visceral and... well, just plain awesome, were sacrificed.  You see, I hate to use the word "awesome" in writing, but to be honest, it's really one of the best ways to describe that first CD. 

Still, what they came out with is a great sophomore album.  The debut album (and the "Master" EP) possessed the feeling of live, passionate performance.  Show Your Bones is a real studio album.  And where FTT's songs may have been much louder, they still contained some catchy hooks beneath all of Nick's fuzz and Karen's screams.  SYB is cleaner and more bare, but there's still moments of true YYY greatness... Nick's classic guitar styles emerge triumphant on "Phenomena" and Karen goes nuts at the end of a White Stripes-ey sounding "Mysteries," making me smile.  "Cheated Hearts" is a radio-friendly tune that serves as a good companion to FTT's "Maps."  But it's the acoustic-based final three tracks that truly make this album ("Warrior," especially), and where the name Show Your Bones truly applies.  These guys might be going through a rough patch right now, but that kind of thing can sometimes give you a CD that truly defines your band.  Yeah Yeah Yeahs were bound to make an album like this eventually.  I'm glad that they decided to do it sooner rather than later.