Songs For Your Halloween Party

Halloween falls on a Friday this year! So, many of you may be partying. And what does any good party need? Music.

While I am sure I'm missing some obvious ones, below is a list of "scary" songs culled from my iTunes library that I'll be putting on at our house this year...

• Hells Bells - AC/DC
• Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
• Foul Owl - Quincy Jones
• Archives of Pain - Manic Street Preachers
• Enter Sandman - Metallica
• Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
• Teenagers from Mars - Green Day
• Graveyard - Public Image Limited
• The Witch - The Sonics
• Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
• The Road To Hell - Chris Rea
• The Devil in Ms. Jones - Mike Ness
• Knives Out - Radiohead
• Wave of Mutilation - Pixies
• Frankenstein - New York Dolls
• Ouija Board, Ouija Board - Morrissey
• Right Next Door to Hell - Guns N' Roses
• Heeby-Jeebies - Little Richard
• Abra Cadaver - The Hives 
• Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
• Witchy Woman - Eagles
• I'm Gonna Get Stabbed - Glasvegas
• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
• Highway to Hell - AC/DC
• Used to Love Her - Guns N' Roses

Hawaii 4-0, Part 4 - A Birthday to Remember

You don’t turn 40 very often. And when you do…if you are fortunate…you will be able to celebrate with friends and do so in a fun and exotic place. If you’re really lucky, you’ll be able to have an excellent birthday dinner on top of everything else.

Well, count me fortunate and lucky because that all is exactly what came to pass on my own 40th birthday. Diane and I knew we would go to Maui for my four-decade-a-palooza, but we were very fortunate that a number of friends joined us on our Hawaiian trip. Many of our friends who we would have loved to have been there couldn’t make it for one reason or another, and certainly asking people to do something other than visit with their families over the Thanksgiving holiday limits who is willing and able to participate. So, we were super pleased that 11 of them could make it to Maui.

However, we wanted to avoid daily "group think," so mostly people in our group did their own thing while there – beach, pool, shop, snorkel, surf, eat out, etc. The one thing we all did together was my birthday dinner on November 26…also Thanksgiving Day.

Here’s how it unfolded…

Pre-Func
A good party deserves a “prefunc.” And so it was for my birthday. Meeting at the upper bar of the Westin pool deck area, our group kicked off festivities with a round of cocktails as the sun went down over the horizon and a friendly Hawaiian played a ukulele for the gathered. Somebody must have tipped him off that it was my birthday because he suddenly broke into the birthday song for me. As the group sang along, I have to say that this was as unique a birthday serenade as I’ve ever had. At right is a picture of Diane and me at the bar where this all happened.

Party on Wheels
The restaurant where we were to have our dinner was an hour drive from the hotel, and so with great foresight Diane arranged for a van – more of a bus – to take our entire group there together. A stroke of genius. Another stroke of genius was bringing some very nice champagne with us to keep the party going as we traveled to the restaurant. The only thing was, the bus company would not let us bring glass bottles on board. Hmmm. What to do? Third stroke of genius…put the champagne in plastic pitchers and give everyone a plastic champagne glass. Perfect. Carefully planning our exit from the hotel so the Westin “police” wouldn’t see us dispensing our first round on their property, we covertly assembled our drinks on the back bumper of one of our vehicles. See picture below.

From there it was over to the bus with plenty of bubbly in reserve in those pitchers and off to our dinner. Dark outside now, we were on the road with a driver who knew where he was going and so we continued the festivities all the way…all the way to Mama’s Fish House.

The Main Event
Pulling into the parking lot of Mama’s near the town of Paia, we now realized it was raining. This was kind of a bummer, but it was still a good 75 degrees outside so we quickly dashed from the bus to the safety of the undercover greeting station at the top of the hill above the main restaurant. Securing some complementary umbrellas, we made our way down the steps, across the beach side lawn and over to check our group in.

Unfortunately, despite having reservations for our group for about eight months in advance, the restaurant could not seat us at our reservation time of 7:45 p.m. All told, the made us wait for about an hour. But, at least if you have to wait an hour for your table at Mama’s you can do so in a really cool South Pacific and Hawaiian themed bar. Equal parts tiki tacky and upscale modern (really, it’s both) the bar and restaurant as a whole deploys a very unique and enjoyable ambiance. They also deploy a mean mai thai…which most of us quickly ordered upon entering the bar.

As we looked around the bar, we realized that the restaurant structure wasn’t really a building in the four-walls-and-a-ceiling sense of it. Rather, the roof line appeared to be cobbled together in pieces with drainage pipes placed strategically to catch and distribute rainwater elsewhere. Also, there were not too many solid external walls – especially on the sides of the restaurant facing the ocean. Perfectly dry and warm the whole night through, I thought this was a pretty neat feature of the restaurant. Seated at one big table in the middle of the restaurant, our group got down the serious business of ordering and eating.

Lei
One of the first things brought to our table after another round of mai thais was a beautiful, colorful and fresh Hawaiian lei – for me! At left is a picture of Diane and me, and I'm wearing the lei.

Aps
The table started out with a round of shrimp won tons, ono and ahi in coconut, wasabi crusted calamari and probably a few things I'm now forgetting. But suffice it to say that the flavors really lit up our mouths!

Entres
I ordered a savory piece of mahi mahi stuffed with lobser, crab and Maui onions and cooked with a macadamian nut glaze. Wow. Diane had the Opah fish with Maui onions and avocado.

NOTE: You can see the Mama's menu by clicking...here.

Gifts
Just having friends along to celebrate is a gift enough, and certainly nobody needed to or was asked to bring me any gifts. However, generous as our crew is, I did receive some nice presents and cards. Thank you to everyone who gave me something.

Cake
Like the lei, unbeknownst to me, Diane had arranged for a delightful birthday cake for me and the table to cap off the meal. Below is a picture of it. She knows I’m a chocolate cake man, and this cake did not disappoint!

A Silent Return
As the very last diners to leave the restaurant this night, we hefted ourselves back up the stairs to the waiting bus. Once aboard, our driver got us going back toward home. Not more than 10 minutes when by and our whole group slipped into a post-dinner, post-cocktails, long-day, its-dark-in-the-bus silence that wasn’t broken until we arrived back at the Westin. As we glided along the coastal highway, I noticed how pretty the Hawaiian moon shone off the Pacific ocean and bounced up to catch the silhouette of the palm trees lining the shore. A very calm and beautiful last vision for my birthday.

Approaching midnight, our bus pulled back into the Westin parking lot and our friends all bid adieu for the evening.

Back at our condo, as Diane and I climbed into our bed I noticed that the clock in our room read 12 midnight. I said, “Well, it’s not my 40th birthday anymore.” Diane quickly replied, “Yep, you’re just another 40 year old dude now.” I laughed because, well, it was true. Too true. But what a way to enter my fourth decade!

A very special thank you to my wife Diane for arranging the party bus, the diner reservations, the champagne, the lei, the cake, and…putting up with me for the last 12+ years. I love you!

Tea-Baggers: Hypocites, Rubes or Both?

Gatherings of like-minded anti-tax citizens earned wide media coverage this week as part of a conservative-sponsored "Tea-Bagging" day. The meetups were to protest the notion that Americans pay too much tax and that we should not be pleased by emergency government investment in certain sectors to help save key industries like banking, lending, auto manufacturing and real estate.

The tea reference alludes to the Boston Tea Party in which wealthy white aristocrats dressed up as Native Americans and went "tea-bagging." In the parlance of the times, this means they dumped bags of British tea into Boston Harbor in protest over the notion that American colonist should not be forced to pay a tax on tea by a government in which they had no representation. That, and, the tax in question was also part of the larger Tea Tax law that actually made British tea cheaper overall...cheaper than the previously low price Dutch tea that many in the Americas bought from smugglers. That had something to do with it too, but you don't hear much about that.

Anyway, the phrase "tea-bagging" that protesters initially used for their actions this week has a more modern sexual connotation. So, it's kinda funny for a bunch of conservatives to openly be participating in "tea-bagging." But, there's been plenty to chuckling over that already. So, lets set that aside.

Lets also set aside for the moment that overall, income tax rates are lower today than they were when Republicans ran things in the Regan era...and certainly lower than the Eisenhower or Nixon administrations.

Lets set aside the fact that one of the key contributing factors to the economic crisis our nation now faces is exactly the supply-side, deregulation/small government, deference to corporate America, tax cutting economic religion that conservatives so love to talk about.

And finally, lets set aside the fact that unlike Colonial tea partiers, today's Americans do elect their government representatives.

No, instead, to measure the credibility of these modern day tax protesters, lets do a little experiment. Lets look at the front page a newspaper from a city in a conservative area - one that has covered the tea-partyers festivities recently. Lets look at the Charleston Post & Courier from April 16.

From their featured story, you can see that there was quite a turnout in Charleston, SC to "protest" taxation overall and government investment to save or salvage key industries. OK, now, lets see how many other stories on that front page include or relate to services provided by public tax money. There are a lot actually, but here are just four:

• There's a story here about a student arrested for trying to stab his teacher. Do tax protesters like the fact that there were police who could intervene here and arrest the suspect? How about the fact that there was a school in the first place, not to mention roads for the teacher, students and police to get to and from the property?

• And oh, over here there's another story about a chili cook off to raise funds so a local middle school can afford computers for its classrooms. So....right. Don't tax me, but why is it that I have to throw a chili cook off to make sure my kid can learn some computer skills in school?

• And, here's one about the state senate having to cut $202 million from the budget - a move that will mean significantly cutting police, social services and environmental and economic development programs. And why? The governor won't accept Federal stimulus money.

• And, perhaps most telling, here is this story about a Charleston high school student who has filed a lawsuit in attempts to force the governor of South Carolina to accept $700 million in Federal stimulus funds to help keep government services, most importantly schools, up and running during the financial crisis. Parents are holding chili cook offs to raise money for computers in their kids' classrooms while the state government contemplates gutting major social services...and the governor is un-accepting of Federal funds to help in all of these areas because of some conservative small government belief that the Feds shouldn't be spending money on states' matters? Wow.

You get my point? These people out protesting "too much taxation" in an era of relatively low taxation or "socialist government" in an crisis instigated by unfettered capitalism can only be doing so if they are purposefully trying to be hypocritical for short term political gain...or because they are, well, stupid. Yes, stupid rubes being used as pawns by wealthy conservatives who don't have any interest in their lives, but can gin them up on the notion that "the liberals" are jacking them around with taxes and "socialism." How else can you explain how reality so diametrically opposes the anti-tax rhetoric?

In either of these cases - the protest is fake. It's not real. If followed through upon it would mean more financial ruin for the very people holding up the signs and shouting out the slogans at rallies this week...but also spectacular wealth for a very, very few people and corporations.

Look, I don't like taxes just as much as the next person, and yes I know there are certain taxes that could be done away with that would make our lives a little better. No argument. But, I think many people - and certainly the media - is missing the boat here. These protests are manufactured events created to try and generate a perception that Americans are over taxed and don't want the government "interfering" with anything. The truth is, we're not over-taxed compared to our history or to the rest of the world today.

Another truth is that, just like the original "tea-baggers" of 1776, the rallies this week were orchestrated by a bunch of wealth aristocrats and business owners who don't want to pay taxes - and who don't like the way the government now is trying to bring back some sanity and equity to society.

Party Time in Spain - April Fair One Week Away

Every year, a number of Spanish cities hold a bash called April Fair or, in Spanish, La Feria de Abril. This year's festival starts next week on April 12.

In Seville, these gatherings date back more than 150 years and have grown from a livestock fair into a post-Easter spectacular that the whole city indulges in. Yes, it's a big "thank God Easter is over" drink-fest and more...and it's uniquely Spanish. This year's fair starts next week on April 12 and runs for a couple weeks. More information here and here.

In 2004, Diane and I went to Spain and built in a stop in Seville for when April Fair was happening. Needless to say, we were very pleased to be in the city at that time.

To give you a flavor of the festival, here is a run-down on typical sights and activities of April Fair, illustrated with some pictures I took at the time:

A fairgrounds packed with private "casetas." Green and white striped party tents called casetas line the alleyways and avenues of the fairgrounds. Families, civic groups, clubs, public institutions and other groups purchase the license to have a tent. Drinking and dancing are pretty much the only activities you'll see people doing in their tents and, not surprisingly, mostly in the late afternoon and evening hours.

Unlike Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany where everyone is invited to participate, at April Fair you can't get into one of the casetas unless you belong to one of sponsoring groups or unless you're invited by them to come in. We didn't know this in advance and were kind of disappointed when we found out. None the less, there are a few (like maybe two) tents open to the public so visitors can enjoy the festival as well. At any rate, we liked being at the fairgrounds in the evening because that's the time when it took on its most impressive look with revellers decked out in their party wear, lights twinkling, music floating around and the constant flow of talking, dancing and drinking. And, there were certainly plenty of bars and restaurants in full April Fair celebration mode right by the fairgrounds to get your fill.

Women and girls in colorful dresses. A hallmark of April Fair is the sight of women and girls dressed up in their colorful "trajes de flamenca" or flamenco dresses.

The festival provides an excuse to show off unique designs and pride in traditional attire.

It's a truly unique sight to see 150 women in bright, Technicolor dresses walking down the street.

Even more impressive is seeing thousands of them together at the fairgrounds. Men dress up too, but lets be honest...it's not that big a deal by comparison.

Bullfighting. Bullfighting happens in Seville at various times during the year. However, it becomes a focus during April Fair with the stadium packed day after day with fans seeking to see first class fighting by top flight matadors.
Clearly, bullfighting is not for everyone and most Americans find it barbaric. I myself cannot condone it. However, we'd never seen it, so we also felt like this was something we had to see for ourselves to really judge it. So, we went ahead and attended a bullfight. Which, by the way, is not just one fight but several with increasingly aggressive bulls and increasingly talented matadors with each fight. Inevitably, the bull lost each bout, but it was extremely interesting to see the spectacle up close and personal. And oh by the way, the stadium was interesting too. It featured bench seating all the way around with only a few isles, so once you sat down...you were locked in for the entire two hours. Also, the facility had concessions too, but unlike here in the U.S. where we sell beer, wine and hot dogs, they sell whisky, rum and...well, no food at all.

Horse carriages. Families or clubs will hire (or have) ornate horse carriages to transport them from home to their tents at the fairgrounds.
You see these around the city during the time of the fair, but mostly you see them at the fairgrounds itself as people arrive and enter their own little party domains.

The fairgrounds gate. This structure welcomes all who enter and is most impressive at night.

Naturally, the streets around the fairgrounds come alive with street vendors, food stalls, rides and all the stuff that comes with a big fair...and all of it is worth checking out.

So what's the big sum up?

Seville is a city well worth visiting any time of year due to its place in Spanish and world history, its wonderful labyrinth of crooked streets lined with delicious tapas bars, a royal Spanish palace (still used), the presence of the largest cathedral in Europe outside of the St. Peter's in the Vatican (also the burial site of Christopher Columbus) and great Andalusian food and drink. All and all, the city is a treat to spend time in. But, if you can get there during April Fair, everything goes up a few notches and makes it the penultimate visit to the city.

You can see a more complete set of pictures I took at April Fair 2004 here.