To Do

I have part IV of the Ric Burns’ ‘New York’ documentary series paused in my DVD player, so forgive me my brevity. Thing is, I’ve been staring at a monitor for, like, 12 hours or more, and I’m pretty tired of typing. But there’s lotsa’ fun and funny and interesting stuff goin’ on here in my little singer/songwriter/middle manager/triathlete world. But since I suck, and really want to blend myself a smoothie, watch the flick and get some sleep, I’m gonna’ bullet point it all:

Sunday’s NYC Triathlon has been downsized to a duathlon — 5k run + 25m ride + 10k run — which is pretty disappointing. Ends up the water quality of the Hudson has been compromised by all the rain. So no swimming in the river. Which most people would be psyched to hear, but not me. I was looking forward to it.
Chris and Jen met me at the Tri race briefing this afternoon with young Ethan in tow. I held him for most of the pre-race meeting, and he was quiet as a mouse, except for a few moist farts that were — only because they’re his — adorable.
I’m ‘supposed’ to be in Iowa this weekend for my Grandma Wagner’s 80th birthday, but begged off due to the race. Instead, we gathered at Chris and Jen’s earlier this week and sang into the DV camera. Chris, being an editor at Sony and all, put that and some footage of the baby together with music and burned it to a sweet 6 minute DVD. Pretty cool.
Kevin and I are back into the studio next Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. We’re going to make some serious headway on the album. We’re start Monday night running through the basic tracks and discussing instrumentation, then begin tackling the parts one instrument at a time.
I’ve been thinking a lot about doing a video for this record. I won’t tell you the song or the concept yet, but I’ll tell you that I’ll be in it (duh!), but the City will be the star. I’d like to release it concurrent to the CD release this fall with some bonus goodies (demos? outtakes?).
Work is insane with planning for the Video Music Awards, and the back-to-school initiatives that will follow. Not to mention the ‘business as usual,’ which is a lot of business. My team is producing a ton of awesome stuff these days. We continue to dominate music news, have colonized movie news, are moving further into fashion, and have our eyes on gaming. I’m really lucky; I love my job. I think it’s fun. Sometimes it feels like a million dollar high school paper.
I’ve finally convinced the power(s) that be that our correspondents should be blogging. Look for it to launch in 10 days or so.
Did I mention that phase one of my monster dental reconstruction project will soon be complete? I mean, I mentioned that I still need to come up with $3500 previously, but did I mention that I’ll have a complete set of teeth! (I know, I sound 80.) I can smile again! I can laugh without covering my mouth! I won’t look like (what one ex once called) ‘trailer trash’! Then comes phase two: the whitening. I’ll have an Affleck smile if it bankrupts me. (But don’t worry, I won’t start wearing makeup or dating movie stars. I’m still Benny from the block.)

Unfortunately, the work, the record, the athletics and all hasn’t left me much time to tackle my ‘To Do’ list. ‘Lil help maybe?

See ‘Step Into Liquid’ at Angelika
See ‘Winged Migration’ at AMC 25
See ‘Chinatown’ at Film Forum
Buy navy blue Chuck’s
Buy Sam Roberts CD
Buy ACK plane tix
Do laundry