Tag / MDM

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2024: The Year In Live Performances

2024 was an exceptionally slow year for live performances, as I managed to get out just a single time to see a play.

At the end of February, Michael cashed in his Christmas present, and we headed into the city to see Golden Girls: The Laughs Continue, my first trip to the theater since seeing Clue in 2022.  It was, unbeknownst to me when I bought the tickets, a drag show, with gay men taking the parts of all of the characters.  It ended up being a tad bit raunchier than the source material and it gave Michael and I a chance to hang together, something we haven’t been able to do much of since he got sick.

Here’s hoping 2025 has more opportunities for me to experience the live arts.

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2025 Calendar

Now that Christmas has come and gone, we can unveil the cover to this year’s calendar gift, given annually to my mom and sister, and made up of pictures I have taken throughout the year.  I imagine this will be the final edition, with both Angelina and Danny out in the workforce and Michael away at school despite still being mostly homebound.  As in year’s past. the calendar was produced by the good folks at Shutterfly and we will unveil each month’s photo(s) on the first day of the month throughout 2025.

This year’s cover features all three kids posing prior to Danny’s graduation dinner at Fair Oaks Farms in Fair Oaks, Indiana, with both Angelina and Danny in their respective caps and gowns.

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Ballpark Tour: Twins

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head north to the Twin Cities for a look at the Minnesota Twins. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history with Target Field.

Stadium Name: Target Field

Years in Service: 2010 – Present

Visits: 2

After 28 seasons of indoor baseball at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, the Twins moved back outside starting with the 2010 season when they opened Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. The first regular season game took place on April 12, 2010, with the Twins defeating the Red Sox. In 2014, Target Field hosted the All-Star Game, the first in Minnesota since 1985.

I took the long drive up to Minneapolis in the weeks after that All-Star Game, along with Danny and Michael, to see the White Sox take on the Twins. We picked two good games to see, as the White Sox offense came to life and they managed to win both games we attended against the Twinkies. We sat down on the first level, between home plate and third base behind the White Sox dugout for both games, so I didn’t get to sample the different areas of the ballpark, but I certainly liked what I saw. The one thing I didn’t like about the park was the configuration of most of the outfield. Between the large hitting background in center field and the high walls in left and right, there is a lot of dead space in the outfield that seems to put the fans far away from the action. Besides that, though, a good time was had by all, and I certainly wouldn’t mind returning one day.

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Ballpark Tour: Nationals

With the offseason in full swing, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we head to our nation’s capital for a look at latest home of the Washington Nationals. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my history, such as it is, with Nationals Park.

Stadium Name: Nationals Park

Years in Service: 2008 – Present

Visits: 1

After playing their first three seasons at RFK Stadium following their move from Montreal, the Washington Nationals moved into their new home for the 2008 season, starting with an 3-2 walk-off victory against the Braves on March 30th.  On January 1, 2015, the park hosted its first hockey game, as the Capitals defeated the Blackhawks in the Winter Classic.  The All-Star Game returned to Washington in 2018 for the first time since 1969, and, this past season, the park hosted the first World Series games in Washington since 1933.

I made my one trip to Nationals Park in June of 2019, part of an overall trip to DC celebrating Michael’s grammar school graduation.  The Nationals defeated the visiting White Sox 6-4 on a beautiful afternoon, despite the result caused by some bad bullpen outcomes.

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Ballpark Tour: Red Sox

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we look at the Boston Red Sox, owners of the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my one game history with Fenway Park.

Stadium Name: Fenway Park

Years in Service: 1912 – Present

Visits: 1

In 1911, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor purchased the land bordered by Brookline Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street and developed it into a larger baseball stadium, which he named after the Fenway neighborhood where it was located.  The first game was played April 20, 1912, as the Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders, who would become the Yankees the following year, 7-6 in 11 innings.

I attended my first (and, so far, only) game at Fenway Park in August of 2017, cashing in my birthday gift from the year before.  The hope was that Angelina would be moving into Boston University around that time, but her gap year put a kibosh on that.  The ballpark was… a little underwhelming.  From the outside, you could barely tell that it was a stadium.  Michael even asked where it was as we were standing outside it.

The game went about as you would expect.  With James Shields on the mound, the White Sox did not put up much of a fight.  We were sitting down the left field line, with a good view of the Green Monster.  The seats, which may or may not date back to the stadium’s opening in 1912, were not really designed for people well over 6 feet tall, so there was a lot of uncomfortable shifting as Danny and my knees were smooshed into the seats in front of us.

I would have added an additional game or two in 2020, as the plan was to take Michael to Boston for his birthday and enjoy the monster seats, but a little global pandemic got in that way of that.  Now that Angelina is done with school and working full time in Boston, there is still an opportunity to increase my number of visits in the years to come.

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Fifty Years Of Music – 2005

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 2005, the year Michael was born, I went to Europe for the first time, I celebrated my 31st birthday, and the White Sox won the World Series.  22 of these songs remain familiar to me today, with just nine of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#77: Ludacris – Get Back
iTunes stats: 36 plays

Featured as the ending theme to Tropic Thunder, the song peaked at #13 in January.

#68: Foo Fighters – Best of You
iTunes stats: 31 plays

Topping the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart for four weeks and the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks, it was their highest charting single on the Hot 100, reaching #18.

#46: Green Day – Wake Me Up When September Ends
iTunes stats: 31 plays

Written about the death of frontman Billy Joe Armstrong’s father when he was 10, it went to #6 and remains their final top ten hit.

#43: Nickelback – Photograph
iTunes stats: N/A

The lead single from their fifth studio album, it became the band’s third top ten hit, going to #2.

#39: Green Day – Holiday
iTunes stats: 26 plays

Topping both the Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts, it peaked at #19 on the Hot 100.

#35: DHT featuring Edmee – Listen to Your Heart
iTunes stats: 21 plays

This cover of the Roxette hit reached #8.

#32: Black Eyed Peas – My Humps
iTunes stats: 26 plays

The 2007 Grammy winner for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, it topped out at #3.

#31: Gwen Stefani featuring Eve – Rich Girl
iTunes stats: 11 plays

Produced by Dr. Dre, it spent more than six months on the Hot 100, going as high as #7.

#23: Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell – Drop It Like It’s Hot
iTunes stats: 27 plays

Featuring on the year-end chart for the second time, it spent three weeks at #1.

#20: Weezer – Beverly Hills
iTunes stats: 18 plays

The band’s most successful single on the Hot 100, it peaked at #10 and was their first charting track since 1994.

#16: The Killers – Mr. Brightside
iTunes stats: 35 plays

First released in 2003, it was re-released in 2004, where it went to #10.

#13: Black Eyed Peas – Don’t Phunk with My Heart
iTunes stats: 26 plays

The 2007 Grammy winner for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, it topped out at #3.

#9: The Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes – Don’t Cha
iTunes stats: 26 plays

The track spent three weeks at #2 and remains the group’s highest-charting song.

#7: Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams
iTunes stats: 20 plays

Peaking at #2, it is still the highest-charting sone of the band’s career.

#6: Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger
iTunes stats: 26 plays

The Grammy winner for Best Rap Solo Performance, it spent ten weeks at #1 in the fall of 2005.

#4: Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone
iTunes stats: 35 plays

The lead single from the American Idol winner’s sophomore effort, it topped out at #2 while spending 20 weeks in the top ten.

#2: Gwen Stefani – Hollaback Girl
iTunes stats: 24 plays

Nominated for the two Grammys, the song spent four weeks atop the Hot 100 in the spring.

 

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19 Again

No, this is not the same picture we used to kick off the month, but the theme is the same.  Unfortunately, due to illness, we don’t have a lot of choices for Michael pictures these days.  So, we celebrate Michael’s 19th birthday with another shot prior to his high school graduation last May.