Summer IV: Lips, Tomatoes and Dreams

Last week Dan and I drove out to Lewiston, NY to see my absolute favorite rock band of all time THE FLAMING LIPS! Lewiston and Youngstown are in a beautiful part of the state, right on the Niagara River below the falls. We got there, ahem, substantially early, ahem ahem, (I may have perhaps over estimated our time needs just a tad) so with 4+ hours to kill before the gates opened, we decided to visit Fort NiagaraTurns out visiting Fort Niagara is REALLY expensive. Like $28 just to get in and walk around. And history is lame anyway. So we went back to the Artpark and watched tour boats going up and down the riverThe Lips put on an awesome show. Wayne has always been and will always be my personal hero. They played a decent mix of stuff from their most recent couple albums. I like the tracks from Embryonic much better live but I kind of expected that. Confetti cannons, crowd-surfing space balloon, giant mirror balls. Best moment of the show for me was a beautiful and pretty emotional rendition of In the Morning of the Magicians, my favorite song off of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Certainly one of the best shows I've ever seen...So then we all went to Falcon Ridge, had a great time, hung out with friends, played with the A&N Band and GRD, danced to Notorious, sat in with an extra expanded 11-piece Clayfoot Strutters, pioneered new personal highs of grossness in both the mud and sweat departments. Noah, Rachel and Kailyn went on to Ashokan. Dan and I made it home Sunday night. Sarah had yesterday off from work so we actually got to spend some time together which was truly wonderful. Weeded the garden, went to the bank, got caught up on stuff at home. Lunch was especially noteworthy...That's an heirloom striped-German tomato with mozzarella and fresh local basil on Sarah's homemade whole wheat bread, sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. WHOAH! Then in the afternoon we had another totally mind-bending experience...

What a movie! Christopher Nolan is a frickin genius. Dreams within dreams within dreams. Everything about this movie is amazing. I can't wait to see it a hundred more times. We capped off our big day by visiting Sarah's family. Anna just got back from her internship in California. Becky, Gretchen and Alan just got back from scuba diving in Bonaire. And Grandma and Grandpa are visiting for a couple weeks. We shared stories, looked at pictures and had a great dinner (with delicious fresh-out-of-the-garden roasted potatoes). Yum

So to sum things up...

Things are good :-)