Are We Still Cool? » culture

Cool Night Out: Eisley at Bowery Ballroom [video]

Cool Dad — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:29:59 +0000

People of the metro areas of Philadelphia, Boston, Niagara Falls, Detroit, Nashville, Houston, Austin, and Dallas: We can make your lives cooler! Just follow these simple steps:

Visit the Eisley Tour Dates page and click on the TICKETS link for the performance closest to your city.
Buy tickets.
Listen to Eisley’s albums, especially their latest full-length, The Valley (which we gave away almost a year ago now).
Attend aforementioned performance.

We completed Step 4 last night, and instead of my ears ringing, the spectacle left my mind singing. Eisley was sublime – crisp, energetic, engaging, and pitch-perfect. It was the best show I’d seen since Coldplay in Hartford, CT in 2009. The scary thing was Cool Mum and I almost didn’t experience this Cool Night Out together.

As per an unwritten rule (or is it State Law?), when parents go out on the town, they should arrange for someone to take care of the kids. We had a hard time securing a babysitter, so we were thinking that I would go by myself, since I was the more ardent Eisley fan. Thankfully, CM found a friend to watch the Cool Bros, and we left the West Village apartment hand-in-hand with our customary exclamation: “WE’RE FREE!”

For dinner, we settled upon a quaint Mexican grill – in the popular Noho neighborhood – called Chipotle. Okay, so it’s not a trendy NYC establishment, but Chipotle is moderately exclusive. Just ask the residents of Nome.

I’m not a concert reviewer, so I won’t attempt the erudite yet inordinate adjectives. Just the play-by-play:

We had just missed Say Chance, a female trio from both coasts with an interesting backstory.
Christie and Collin DuPree, younger siblings of the Eisley crew, took the stage as their project, Merriment. There is no shortage of talent in the DuPree clan. Good things ahead.
Tallhart, out of Tampa, was next. They rocked tight and loud, and won the crowd over.
Eisley ruled.

Here’s a clip of “Golly Sandra,” a favorite from their first full-length, Room Noises.

After the show, we ducked into the restaurant next door for much-needed beverages and a quick bite. As we were leaving, we ran into some familiar faces.

We talked for a few minutes about the Cool Bros, homeschooling, and doing what you love for a living. Pretty deep stuff for 5 minutes. And I had to geek out and ask for a picture, of course.

We sneaked in at 1:30AM and sneaked back out at 4:45AM when Newbie woke up for the day. At least we got 30 more minutes sleep than we did for the School of Seven Bells show!

We go to some extreme lengths for Cool Nights Out, but for a show as good as last night’s, it’s a no-brainer. Now, go buy those Eisley tickets!

A Brief Look at Whitney Houston in My Life

Cool Dad — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:06:57 +0000

Like many Gen Xers and older, my introduction to Whitney Houston was her paint-splattered, phone cord-twisting music video for “How Will I Know.” I was an MTV junkie in those days, 1986 if I read Wikipedia correctly. Whitney was fresh-faced with a strong yet comforting voice. She was cute.

My latest memory of Whitney was when we attended a dance party and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” came on. The crowd cheered, and we boogied away to the carefree tune. The DJ, probably sensing that he was playing too mainstream, changed it to Skrillex or something. (The dance floor emptied.)

The Queen of Pop has joined its king as one who’s gone too soon. Though I didn’t follow her closely, she seemed to me to be a natural star: blessed with talent, stage presence, and a bevy of songs that intimately connected with her fans. Her tragic death is another reminder that life is precious and fragile, and that all of the trappings the world can offer – success, in a generic sense – is no real source of joy and security.

I hope that, at some point in her remarkable life, Whitney felt the love that she sang so powerfully about when I first saw her.

Cool Concert: Andrea Bocelli in Central Park [photos, video]

Cool Dad — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:37:24 +0000

Thanks to Cool Mum attending Casa Barilla at the right time, we had 2 VIP tickets to the Andrea Bocelli concert in Central Park on Thursday. However, we were in a bind. The concert was starting at 7:00pm, which is conveniently the Cool Boys’ bedtime.

We debated leaving them with friends, but decided not to. We didn’t want Cool Baby to miss out on an only-in-New-York kind of cultural experience, and Cool Mum was confident that she could keep Newbie happy. With that problem settled, we only had to deal with a cold, rainy forecast.

We settled into the VIP line into the park amidst a light rain around 4:00pm. There was a good chance that the concert would be canceled if the weather didn’t improve, so the organizers waited an hour before letting people in. I was already thankful for our VIPness. I’d passed the general admission entrances on both sides of the park, and they were each at least 10 blocks (half-a-mile) long.

Once inside, we saw how blessed we were to have these tickets. The concert was on the Great Lawn, which clever readers will deduce is a big grassy area. General admission attenders set up beach towels on patches of wet grass. We had chairs in the area in front of the stage. Our seats weren’t that close, but we were thankful that they were seats.

A big perk: free food! Barilla gave us large bamboo bento boxes with pasta salad, prosciutto, chunks of hard cheese, salad, balsamic sauce, and a pack of cookies. Plus, they handed out drinks, rotini, prosciutto-mozzarella-tomato panini, and chocolate wafer cookies. Barilla has effectively secured my pasta-buying loyalty in perpetuity.

The food made the time before the show fly by. The New York Philharmonic took the stage, the lights came on, and the show started. So did the rain.

For me, the first hour was a test of patience, set to the one of the finest musical experiences in the world. As Bocelli and his golden-voiced friends sang, I grunted while wrestling with the umbrella to keep the boys dry as the rain came and went. Being sensitive to the listening pleasure of people around us, I winced every time Newbie belted out a ‘DADA!’ Even worse were the women behind us who would not stop talking about how so-and-so would love to be there and the exciting uses of the bamboo bento box.

A 20-minute intermission was announced, and the audience groaned. Like many people, we weren’t sure if we could put up with another hour of this. Some of the rows around us emptied. We decided to stick it out, and we’re glad that we did.

CB crawled into the stroller and fell asleep under the protection of the rain cover. I moved to another row away from our chatty neighbors. And most importantly, the skies cleared, and a nearly full moon shone through the clouds over Manhattan.

The 2nd hour of music was loaded with treats: songs in English, guest spots by Celine Dion and Tony Bennett, and Andrea’s trademark hit, “Time to Say Goodbye.” It made the prior five hours of waiting and wet weather worth it.

And on the long walk back to the car, there was only one way CM and I could cap off such a rendezvous with high culture:

Here are some clips from the concert, which will air on PBS in December.

Cool Baby sings Justin Bieber to Cool Newbie [video]

Cool Dad — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 13:39:59 +0000

Instead of giving our apartment the cleaning it desperately needed, we shot a music video this Saturday morning.

Don’t expect to see me in a meat dress for Halloween

Cool Dad — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:44:51 +0000

We didn’t watch the MTV Video Music Awards [-2 cool points]. We don’t get MTV, which is too bad because we’re missing some popular show about a Christian youth group from the New Jersey Shore or something like that.

On various headlines, I keep seeing pictures of Lady Gaga wearing a dress of raw meat. Is that cool? Hopefully the meat wasn’t sitting out, otherwise she would have been in a “rare” situation. Ha. I hope she didn’t show too much of her “rump” either. Ha ha. Boy, these puns are jerky. ANYWAY, I bet she performed her latest hit song with the haunting chorus, “Don’t call my name, don’t call my name… Carne Asada.”

You were probably wondering, but I would not wear a dress of raw meat. Yuck.

A gown of Chick fil-A fried cutlets? Maybe.

As long as they’re not right out of the fryer. Ouch.

There’s new life in the Cool Duplex!

Cool Dad — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:55:04 +0000

There is much joy in the Cool Duplex. It’s a time for new sights and smells. New dishes to be done. New mornings and evenings, new life.

After several weeks of anticipation and rough mornings, it’s here. Little Proctor Silex is here – 4 lbs, 2 ounces, 12.5 inches, and white as snow. Our brand spanking new… coffeemaker.

Honestly, Cool Mum and I are not coffee drinkers [-3 cool points]. We never picked it up, even though coffee was a staple in our households growing up. But the Cool Roomies are thrilled and unpacked their new coffeemaker tonight with glee and relief.

CM and I are uncool for not being java junkies, but at least the Cool Duplex will smell cool every morning. I wonder how Cool Baby will react: “What’s that smell, daddy? May I have a jumbo large iced venti, daddy?” (and that’s probably not even a drink, which goes to show how much I actually know about coffee).

The best part of waking up…is seeing a happy Cool Roomie with their coffee cup.

Are you a coffee lover? Or have you resisted the lure of Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Stumptown et al?

Our dinner with fashion queens; I’m a pauper

Cool Dad — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:20:12 +0000

The other night, we hosted our friend Polina (aka Truly Cool Parent), who was in town for New York Fashion Week. She came to dinner with her wardrobe stylist-slash-art director Nikki. We dined on coconut chicken curry and the finest durn cupcakes in New York City (my apologies for rocking the worlds of Magnolia and Billy’s advocates).

Polina and Nikki are the queens of fashion photography in Indianapolis, so Cool Mum and I quizzed them on their line of work because the only thing we are more clueless about than parenting is fashion. We loved hearing stories as micro as working out details for a shoot and as grand as effecting cultural change in Indianapolis.

Since we moved up here, fashion has occupied more space in my consciousness. Not that it ever occupied much. (What do you mean Hypercolor shirts went out of style? You press the shirts, AND THEY CHANGE COLOR! These are shirts of the future, if anything.)

I even went on an online clothes shopping binge towards the end of last year. Winter was coming, and I didn’t want to alternate the same two sweaters that I did during our first winter here. Thanks to Slickdeals, I picked up better-fitting jeans, Merino wool sweaters, two corduroy blazers, a wool pea coat, and a crate of slightly irregular purple Z. Cavariccis (no i didn’t).

Despite my shopping spree, I still feel fashionably inadequate; my clothes just aren’t cool enough. It doesn’t help that a lot of friends here work in fashion and design and always look swank. And it especially doesn’t help that after dinner with Polina and Nikki, Cool Mum asked me if I think that my hairstyle is outdated. Apparently, she does because this is not a typical after-dinner cleanup question.

Even when I have decent clothes, my fashion sense is bankrupt. I could be the all-time champion of Project Run-away. One day I went to work sporting a nicer shirt (that happened to be striped) and my cool new pinstripe dress pants. CM pointed out (after work, of course) that I shouldn’t wear striped tops and bottoms together. I checked online, and one commenter on a forum called the combination “horrific.” That makes me long for the days when CM called my clothes choices “not bad.”

How’s your fashion sense: Fetching or retching?

Have you ever been on TV?

Cool Dad — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:28:31 +0000

Despite all of the neat things that God has let me do over the years, I’ve never made it to the small screen, meaning I’ve never been on TV. Well, there was the one time when the local news posted a 5-second sound bite for an event that I planned while they listed all of the important details wrong.

Cool Mum was on that beloved, controversy-free late night program The Tonight Show with Jay Leno a few years back. During a band trip to California, she met up with a good friend and they attended a taping. The two young ladies made it to the platform where Jay did his monologue, so she was front and center when Jay high-fived the crowd at the start of the show.

My best chance of being on TV is moving back to Florida and raising a shirtless ruckus when the COPS film crew is at the local precinct. I also wholeheartedly believe that ‘Shirtless Ruckus’ is a stunning name for a band.

Have you ever been on TV?

No related posts.

So we freaked a little over meeting ‘Jim Halpert’

Cool Dad — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:07:51 +0000

Concerned with the economic slowdown and the rising cost of paper and office supplies, we contacted Dunder Mifflin to see if they could beat our current supplier’s pricing and OK enough with the fake story. Yes, that’s us posing with John Krasinski, aka Jim Halpert of The Office. The non-profit that I work for had its annual benefit gala last night, and Mr. K was there to support his girlfriend Emily Blunt, who was honored at the event.

It was exciting and nerve-wracking to be around celebrities. I mean, just ask what John thought about his photo op with Cool Mum and Cool Dad!

Back on earth, I try to downplay being a fan, but when we saw people that we’ve seen on TV and film for years, we lost our cool. Since last night, I’ve been thinking about being starstruck. What is it about celebrities that made me so badly want a picture with them?

If given the chance, I would love to hang out with a celeb that I like, but this wasn’t even hanging out with John K. This was tag-teaming with another couple that wanted a picture with him and ambushing the poor guy when he tried to make for a food table. We exchanged approximately 1.37 sentences, the deed was done, and John was high-tailing it to the finger foods, relieved that we didn’t ask him to sign a body part.

I am reminded of something that Dave Trottier says in his book The Screenwriter’s Bible. When advising on how to sell a screenplay, he says not to be intimidated by Hollywood players. They’re people just like us lowly screenwriters except with different jobs. Well, big-time actors just have a different job than me – one that makes them millions of fans and dollars, but it’s still just their job.

As much as I want to love my job and do what I love to do, I don’t want to be solely defined as a person by it. I’d want to be remembered as loving and God-fearing first and then by my accomplishments second. So, I shouldn’t let someone else’s job totally embody who they are, especially to the point where I bum-rush their access to the California rolls.

Who are some famous people that you’ve met? How did you act around them?

Viva la road trips with friends to see Coldplay

Cool Dad — Sat, 23 May 2009 14:00:44 +0000

It’s Friday night as I write this, and ‘Lovers in Japan’ is cranked on my cheap headphones, which is fitting because tomorrow night, we’re going to see Coldplay in Hartford, CT!

We all know due to common sense and also some very sweet commercials from Johnson & Johnson last year or so that a baby changes everything. Just two years ago, we went to whatever lengths we wished to see a good show. Like driving 5 hours to see U2 in Miami. Or picking up last-minute tickets to see Keane in a half-empty Hard Rock Live. Or waiting all day in the sun for front-rail spots for U2 again in Tampa.

But figuring out this Coldplay in Connecticut thing has been a ride that’s been all sorts of stressful. As we’ve said over the last year, Coldplay’s latest album Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends has been in constant play in our household since it came out – mainly because it was the only CD in the house after we cleared it out before moving to New York. It’s by far Cool Baby’s favorite album and just last night, he started saying ‘Coldplay’ when he sees the iTunes window open on our laptop.

Well, Coldplay played NYC before we got here and played Orlando after left Florida. Songs like ‘Life in Technicolor’ and ‘Viva La Vida’ will be forever linked to these unforgettable months of our lives, so we felt crummy for not being able to catch them during this tour.

Then in March, they announced another US leg of the tour, and we just had to jump on. The only feasible show we could catch was in Hartford.

We got the tickets, convincing ourselves that we had a couple of months to train the boy to wear headphones to protect his hearing. He wasn’t having it. He dislikes wearing anything on his head, and he made it clear that he wasn’t wearing bulky headphones for 3 hours. Uh-oh.

Fortunately, a couple from church agreed to road-trip to CT with us and will watch CB while CM and I rock out to CP performing their latest CD. Incidentally, the girl is from CA.

My poor-planning self didn’t realize that every rental car in New York City would be taken for Memorial Day, so I was disheartened to find that out in the middle of this week. By God’s grace, the perfect car came available against all odds, and the trip was finally set.

If you would, wish us safe travels, good times with friends, and a sweet rock show!