Nice workout today

Had a very solid workout today. Did 30 minutes of cardio and had my heart rate up there.

This is in prep for a climb the stairs fundraiser I'm doing in Philly in two months.

2008 Climb the Stairs fundraiser

I sussed out the stair machine at the gym. I may take that sucker on soon.

Listening to some jazz on vinyl this afternoon and working on some super secret projects.

My new fave Web site is meebo.com.

Kabobs and vinyl

I was in Philly over the weekend.

My pal Shash took me to a great restaurant, Kabobeesh. It’s an authentic middle eastern food joint with a blend of Afghan, Pakistani, Turkish, Indian, Iranian and Bengali foods.

I had the Chicken Resham Kabob, which is spiced with their house seasoning. It came with a side of veggies and the biggest piece of naan I’ve ever laid eyes on. Price is right too – about $10 per person for an overly generous portion. I’m a fan!

I stopped by Tequila Sunrise records to trade in some vinyl I had collecting dust in the attic. Got a nice $25 store credit, which I put towards an original pressing of Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew.” Also picked up Miles’ “Get Up With It” on vinyl as well as The Urinals’ “Negative Capability … Check it Out” on CD.

I hadn’t traded in vinyl in quite some time, as usually I can eBay the stuff. But this was a lot of records that didn’t sell on eBay, but wasn’t exactly dollar-a-record fare either. I really like the clean design and sparse layout of Tequila Sunrise. It reminds me of the Philadelphia Record Exchange during its glory days.

Only thing Tequila Sunrise could use is a rack for select new releases, but other than that, it’s a great store with a small, but quality stock of new and used vintage punk, electronic, avant, jazz and super weird out-there music. I’ll be headed back there soon.

UPDATE: Heard back from Anthony at Tequila Sunrise with the following info:

"i still have to build more record bins, which will tighten the place up a
bit, but should enable me to have a proper new arrivals section/selection.

i try to direct customers to check the my space updates for new arrivals when possible (which usually go out thursday night/friday morning, but also on tuesdays mornings as of late) before coming in. i try to give a pretty good run down of new titles in stock with descriptions, albeit terse in
many cases, but i've been expanding them."

Nice!

McG's pet therapy on hiatus

I'm currently taking a break from doing pet therapy at Tilton Terrace and Hillside in Wilmington.

After a year, I felt like I needed a break. Plus I'll be pulling my hair out until the end of May, writing about American Idol.

Here's a nice article about the Faithful Friends 'Just Fur You' pet therapy program that I participate in along with Jazz, Augie, Kitty and of course, Kelly.

delawareonline.com: Meet Leo, the therapy dog

Beautiful day

The weather in Wilmington, Delaware was inexplicably beautiful today - 70 degrees and sunny.

Which is weird since it's January and Winter!

Hit the Farmer's Market this morning and found the following jazz LPs:

Miles Davis - On the Corner
Sonny Stitt - Sonny's Blues
Coleman Hawkins - The Hawk Swings
Eddie Harris - The Electrifying Eddie Harris

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on a Web site for a friend.

There's a microwave pizza with my name on it in the freezer.

Gonna watch a movie tonight with Kelly - probably "Children of Men."

McG's farmer's market scores

Was very mild weather here for late December (50 degrees and kinda sunny), so I headed out to the farmer's market. Here's what I found:

John Fahey - Old Fashioned Love LP
Billie Holiday - A Rare Live Recording LP
Yusef Lateef - Psychicemotus LP
Miles Davis - Friday Night in Person at the Blackhawk, SF Vol. 1 LP
J.J. Johnson - Trombone and Voices LP
Sonny Rollins - East Broadway Run Down LP
Jimmy Smith - Bashin' LP
Pete Shelley - On Your Own 12"

plus...

Henry Miller - Opus Pistorum (book)