Category: Lifestyle

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Rollin’ with Wifey

Despite the middle age cliche, I have been thinking about getting a bike for some time now. So a few weeks back I purchased a set of introductory lessons offered by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) for my wife and I. The course was purchased via one of those Groupon type sites to which I have become addicted. I could tell that wife was a bit nervous about me climbing on one of those, as my mother calls them, “two wheeled death machines”. And while my girl would never outwardly say anything to try to prevent me from doing something I really wanted to pursue, I thought that reducing her anxiety as much as possible would be a nice thing to do . So I signed her up to take the class with me so that she could see that motorcycles can be relatively safe when operated properly.

Surprisingly enough, the wife had a blast. Me on the other hand, I struggled all day with the tiny little bike they had us riding. I stand 6’2″ and a half of all legs and weigh around 220lbs. The miniature Suzuki 250cc cruisers had my knees up by my head. I could barely move my legs enough to switch gears. The instructor then got slightly pissed at me for sitting way back on the passenger seat in order to fit more comfortably on the bike.

My first time on a motorcycle in 25 years and I kinda sucked at it.
Midlife crisis – 1. James – 0.

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To ink or not to ink…. that is the question!

As another birthday has passed I am finding myself increasing attracted to “extreme” activities like shooting, archery, motorcycle riding, mixed martial arts, and body ink.  The body ink has been especially foremost in my thoughts. I had an in depth discussion with my kids over dinner about the benefit of waiting until you are much older before deciding whether or not to get inked. My argument was basically a tale of how silly it would be for me today if I had gotten the tattoo that I wanted at 15. I would now be stuck with a full chest Iron Fist dragon tattoo instead of the far more sensible full chest Batman emblem that I am considering at 47.

I really think I am having a minor midlife crisis.

 

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Midlife Changes

A2Z-midlife-crisis

It takes me at least a month to feel “right” again every year after I come back from visiting family and friends in Scandinavia. However this year I feel especially off center after returning. I am not sure whether I am in the midst of a full blown midlife crisis or is it just the fact that once you see how other people live outside of the US, and outside of NYC, your perspective changes on what constitutes “quality of life”. Plus, the whole final year before tenure review can’t be helping.

However, right now, I am leaning towards my midlife crisis theory.

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The Land of Fire and Ice

I was very sad when our last day in Oslo came around. We had a great time in Norway and I was not looking forward to going back to NYC, or more specifically, going back to work. The only upside to leaving Norway was that the wife had planned a little side trip for the family a few months back. She had always wanted to visit Iceland and thus set up a stop off for us in Reykjavik before heading home. I had never been spent anytime in Iceland beyond having a short layover in the Reykjavik airport so I was anxious to finally experience another Nordic country.

We we first arrived I have to admit that I wasn’t really impressed with Iceland. The trip in from the airport had us traveling past a rocky and barren landscape that went on for miles. It reminded me of the pictures that we got back from the Mars rover. As we got closer to the city the terrain began to soften somewhat. What shocked me was that it was still August and the locals were already wearing down coats. We stayed at what I was told was the tallest building in Iceland, the Grand Hotel. The fact that the hotel was only about 15 stories tall gave me a genuine chuckle. We then checked into our hotel and went for an early dinner.

The restaurant that we ate at, Veitingahusio Italia, had some of the best Italian food I had eaten in years believe it or not. Luckily had the early meal because by 11pm everything was pretty much closed down. And this was on a Friday night. I cannot imagine how it must be in the winter.

Day two in Iceland was much better, but it was still pretty cold. The wife took us to the Blue Lagoon outdoor hot springs to combat the chill in the air. I am not kidding when I say that is was the hot springs were the most relaxing experience that I can remember. I went in thinking I would stay for about 30 mins to get my money’s worth and I ended up staying in the warm mineral water for close to six hours. I looked like one of the California raisin

Continue reading “The Land of Fire and Ice”

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Weekend in Sweden

Last weekend I went with the family to Sweden for a retreat with some of our scandinavian peeps. This was the first of a soon to be annual event held at the Björneröds Ridcenter. The wife and kids have been going to horseback riding camp at Björneröds for a few years now and this was a good time for us to socialize with good friends.

And to top it off, my crazy wife was covered in a local Swedish newspaper for participating in an annual swimming race across the Fjords. The water she swam in was freezing too. We were having a mini triathlon with some friends that weekend and with the exception of one other person, my wife was the only one of us to opt in for the swimming part of the competition. I on the other hand stuck to the biking portion of the competition because black people don’t like participating in freezing ass water sports.

 

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A dark night indeed

As long as I can remember I have had a special place in my heart for the comic book character known as Batman. More than any other fictional character, and if I am really honest, more than any real life person as well, Batman has helped to define my own personal and moral code. My mother, who is a fairly religious person, has lamented over the fact that I have never in my life asked myself “what would Jesus do”, but have on more than one occasion chosen a course of action based upon “what would Batman do”. With that said, as I sit here on my vacation Norway I  have been thinking about the recent shooting in Colorado during the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” and the Norwegian shooter from last summer quite a bit.

Anyone familiar with the Batman mythos will know that Bruce Wayne’s (aka Batman) parents were senselessly murdered in front of him while on their way home from watching “The Mark of Zorro”. Their murder marks a critical turning point in the life of the young Bruce Wayne. I keep thinking Continue reading “A dark night indeed”

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……does whatever a spider can!

It was a pretty good day for me. I had a couple of really productive meetings followed by an opportunity to reconnect with an old passion of mine that I have neglected for far too long, podcasting. Thanks to a good friend of mine I was asked to participate in a podcast about the new Spider-man movie with the guys over at NewYorkCine. I was brought in for my expertise on all things related to Spider-man and comic nerdism/geekdom. Plus I was one of the few people on the panel that actually loved the new Spider-man reboot more than the Sam Raimi versions.

Big up to my boy Thomas Edward Seymour for the invite. I had a blast. Here is to hoping they ask me back to help review the new Chris Nolan Batman flick, The Dark Knight Rises, later this month.

The Spider-man podcast with my commentary can be found here:

If your browser does not support the audio element. Please access the podcast at:
http://newyorkcine.podbean.com/2012/07/10/new-york-cine-not-so-amazing-spider-man-27/

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More light please!!


With the summer fully in swing I am making full use of my break from teaching to spend some time to study new things. A few months back I took a workshop on shooting video with HDSLR cameras at Studentfilmmakers. I enjoyed the workshop a great deal and have wanted to sample some of their other seminars. Since then I have taken two other workshops at StudentFilmmakers on “Lighting for Mood” and “Directing for Video”. I am hoping that have been wanting to jump into the DLSR video waters for awhile. My lovely wife bought Continue reading “More light please!!”

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Graduation day for the kids!

Congratulations to my beautiful daughter and son on their graduation day! Their graduation ceremonies were held on the same day, and at the same time. As a result, the wife and I couldn’t go to both. So we threw our names in a hat and the the kids picked which one of us would go with them. My daughter picked my wife’s name and my son picked mine outta the hat. The only solace was that I had enough video cameras for us to tape both events. I can’t believe they are graduating. As cliched as it may sound, it really seems that it was just yesterday they were starting school. And for the record, I have video of my daughter’s graduation as well. She just won’t let me post it. I believe her words were “Dad, stop being such a nerd”.