John Rogers

This past Saturday night we threw a big party here at our place to celebrate my 41st birthday and man was it ever a blast! I mean, if you can have a big bash for your 40th, why not for your 41st, right? At least that's the way I see it. Luckily, it was a beautiful, sunny, warm day, and starting from 5 PM our backyard slowly filled up with about 90 guests, the last of whom didn't leave until after 2 AM. A bit earlier than the 5 AM finish we had announced beforehand, but a damn good 9 hours nonetheless. This was a party that had just about everything. Well, almost... if only Johnny hadn't let me down so badly.

They said it couldn't be done, they said there was just no way we could ever top last year's Todd Snider show down in Bellingham, they said that after a show - and a night - THAT good there was simply no point in even trying, but "they" obviously don't know Todd Snider... or my friend Johnny "The Flash-er" Rogers.

Ok, so about 34 hours ago I wrote you about my great anticipation and excitement concerning the imminent release of Bob Dylan's new CD "Modern Times" and I sent along that 5-out-of-5-stars review/rave from Rolling Stone Magazine. Well, yesterday I picked up the CD while out running around for the day. Unbelievably, it wasn't until later that evening that I got home and finally was able to listen to the bloody thing. I sat down for my first two listens together with a couple of nice cold Pilsner Urquells (the original Pilsner from the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic). The perfect combination: A brand new Bob CD and a couple of cold beers... and my son, Kaishan, dancing all around the room to the sound of the new music.