Do you like penguins?

My wife and I spent Sunday evening catching up with our friend Elisa on the southside of Broad Ripple. We spent a good deal of our time together taking advantage of the beautiful Spring weather while talking about ice cream, enjoying ice cream and talking about enjoying ice cream all before I passed out on Elisa's couch... not from the ice cream, mind you, but from the sheer lack of sleep the previous night before opening up shop at the S*Bux that morning.

While chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool with the girls outside the Dairy Queen, Elisa shared a story with us about a trip that the school her sister teaches at took to the aquarium in Chicago. When the class was through with their visit and boarded the bus to return to school, several students began giggling at a young teenage boy with autism as his ever-present backpack began sloshing back and forth. Upon hearing the commotion from the back of the bus, one of the teachers apprehended the backpack to investigate. What do you suppose this teacher found in the boys backpack? Nothing but a small penguin. I don't know what I was expecting to be in that backpack, but I'll tell you a penguin wasn't even in my top five guesses. All I can say is 'bravo!' I've never heard of a young boy with autism kidnapping a penguin from an aquarium before. Maybe I just don't get out much. Anyways, it just goes to show that people are mad about penguins. I suspect that the young lad was trying to rescue the tiny penguin in hopes that he might return to his arctic homeland and lead his brethren in a dance what might restore peace and harmony to the planet earth.

Speaking of penguins, I saw this parody of Dora the Explorer on Saturday Night Live again on Saturday evening. If you've ever been subjected to numerous episodes of Miss Dora, you'll no doubt find this cartoon as hilarious as my wife and I did.

Funkin' up the bean cup

On Saturday night, Flying J & The Pilots performed with two thirds of Shirtless Biddles at The Bean Cup Coffee Shop in Indianapolis. This was the first time the Biddles and Pilots shared a venue and we are looking forward to this collision of acoustic musical acts happening often in the future. For those of you who missed it, your next chance to catch the Pilots and Biddles together will be at The Strange Brew Coffee Shop in Greenwood, Indiana on June 29th, 2007. Be thar!

Pilots, beans and biddles

Another night of booty-shakin' soul-awakin' musical frivolity is on the horizon. Flying J & the Pilots will be joining Shirtless Biddles at The Bean Cup (8908 South Saint Peter Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46227) this Saturday, April 28th at 7pm. The Bean Cup is a new coffee shop just north of the Greenwood Park Mall off of County Line Road. Saint Peter Street sits right between the Sparkling Image car wash and the building previously occupied by Guitars & More.

If you happen to be in the area, hop on over and support some local musicians and a new locally owned coffee house.

Download
MP3: Flying J & the Pilots :: Thru and Thru
MP3: Shirtless Biddles :: Mamie

An aural supplement, episode 4

Running Time: 1:00:41 | File Size 56 MB
Download: .mp3
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Flowin' like a harpoon daily and nightly is expected around the Rockey home. This week your host takes you on a tour with the super ghetto british spy pimp on a quest for revenge across the spaghetti midwest at the end of the summer of love. Stare into the eyes of the Diamond and lose yourself. Grrrrowl.

1. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass “Casino Royale Theme”
2. Neil Diamond “We”
3. The Avett Brothers “Will You Return?”
4. Brandi Carlile “The Story”
5. Neil Young “A Man Needs a Maid/Heart of Gold Suite”
6. Gob Iron “Silicosis Blues”
7. James Brown “Down and Out in New York City”
8. T.Rex “Planet Queen (Acoustic Version)”
9. 16 Horsepower “Single Girl”
10. Bill Mallonee “After All This Dust Settles Down”
11. Ben Kweller “Penny on a Train Track”
12. Ben Harper “Show Me a Little Shame”
13. Steve Martin “Hostages”
14. Charlie Feathers “Can't Hardly Stand It”
15. Ani DiFranco “Subconscious”
16. The Kingston Trio “Greenback Dollar”
17. The Greenhornes w/ Holly Golightly “There is an End”

It started with a bean

It started with young boy and his dream to take Karate... not from the Y, but from a good school. That boy was Daniel LaRusso, his school was a small Okinawan named Miyagi and it is the greatest music sharing club ever known. My brother Jeremy and I--along with every other 2o-something/ 30-something man--have often found common ground in recalling the tales of these and other underdog characters from the films of our childhood. When off-hand phrases such as "Don't know, first time," and "Look at the chicken, he's wild!" are spoken among those who know of their original context, a bond is shared between the parties which unfamiliar bystanders simply cannot understand.

The songs of these films are an important piece of this tapestry of nostalgia. Though often horribly trite, these songs are enjoyed endlessly by those who recall their visual counterparts from these moments in cinematic mediocrity. They have become a shared piece of history among those who have found themselves on the edge of their seat and fighting back tears as they root for Daniel LaRusso, Rocky Balboa and Scott Howard for the thirty-second time as if it were the first. Here's to the underdog!

Many of these songs have spawned a music sharing club affectionately referred to as "If Awesome Were a Compact Disc" among my Starbucks brethren. We have found a commonality beyond the coffee bean which employs us in the music of our past. It has come to serve as a shared thread linking us to one anothers' histories. And to think, it all started with a bean. The coffee bean, you may ponder? Perhaps. Or was it rather Joe 'Bean' Esposito?