Posted by Chris Walbert on December 17th, 2008 and has no comments.
Flight of the Conchords is one of my favorite shows and I have almost not been able to wait for season 2 to drop. Well friends, Flight of the Conchords, HBO and Funny or Die have joined forced to allow us all to watch the season 2 premiere online.
I was so pumped when I saw this that I haven’t even watched the episode yet. I wanted to get it up here as soon as possible.
So here it is. The season 2 premiere of Conchords, in it’s entirety.
Posted by Chris Walbert on December 15th, 2008 and has no comments.
Last night, Wilco graced Baltimore’s Lyric Opera House with their amazing rock n’ roll show. I had heard many times how great Wilco is live and my expectations were quite high going into Sunday evening.
We arrived close to the scheduled start time of 7:30 to find the lobby area quite full of people milling around drinking beer, wine or coffee. I actually didn’t even realize the opening band was on until we walked up and tried to get to our seats. I say tried because there is a no cup rule in the theatre which forced us to finish our coffees before checking out opener Benjy Ferree. Benjy and his band were pretty good, even though they played to a less than half-full audience.
From the first note, it was obvious why Wilco is as heralded and respected as they are. Their huge sound filled up the opera house in a way that few bands could hope to. From Jeff Tweedy’s signature voice to Nels Cline’s face-melting guitar solos, Wilco has crafted their sound to one that is perfectly suited for an amazing live show.
Posted by Chris Walbert on November 7th, 2008 and has 4 comments.
My grandmother, Mary Smiraglia, passed away this Wednesday at the age of 85 after a bout with liver cancer. Each of the grandchildren were asked to write a letter to or about her. This is mine.
From my earliest memories, my grandparent’s house was always filled with what seemed like a thousand people. Whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, or just someone’s birthday, my entire huge family was always there. I looked forward to these events so much because I knew how fun they would be.
As a kid, I thought everyone had a large family that they were really close with. The older I got, the more I realized that this was something very special and a thing to be cherished. Despite having 7 children, 18 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren, my grandmother always made time for each of us. I remember her coming to my elementary school for ‘grandparents’ day’ and bragging about having 18 grandchildren and how amazing they all were. They would ask all of the grandparents to stay standing until their number of grandchildren was called. My grandmother was always the last one standing.
Sometimes you don’t understand how strong a person is until they have to deal with tragedy. My grandfather passed away rather suddenly when I was 10-years-old. This was a very tough time for my family and something that I know devastated my grandmother. Some people would have been defeated by the loss of their true love, what must have been an overwhelming experience. My grandmother, however, dealt with the loss by bringing the family even closer together.
Posted by Chris Walbert on November 5th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
November 4, 2008 was a historic day in America. It was a day that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. Forty-five years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, the United States of America has elected Barack Obama, our first African American president. This is a major accomplishment and one for which I feel extreme pride.
We also have many other things to celebrate today. A huge number of new voters came out yesterday. People who previously couldn’t care less about politics were bursting with pride and passion for this candidate and becoming involved in the political process. Countries around the world are looking at America once again as a place where anyone can rise to the top.
President-Elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night was absolutely amazing. He spoke with much honor, thankfulness and hope. One of the most powerful moments came when he told the story of the 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper who voted yesterday. He talked of all that America has accomplished in the last 100 years and all that we hope to accomplish in the next century.
Posted by Chris Walbert on November 4th, 2008 and has no comments.
I am proud to have exercised my right as an American citizen and voted this morning. I arrived at my polling location at 7:10 am to find a line of approximately 200 people already there. This is much larger than the line I stood in during the 2004 election, maybe even twice the size.
I have spent a lot of time researching the candidates, watching debates, and talking with people on both sides. There are so many huge issues to deal with in America and around the world. From the economy, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to what I believe is the most critical issue, energy independence, and many more. With all of these issues to consider, the decision for me came down to who I believe is best equipped to lead the United States in the right direction.
For these reasons, this morning I cast my vote for Barack Obama. I believe Mr. Obama has the vision and leadership ability to unite our country and move it in the right direction.
We should not, however, expect immediate change. The problems with the US and global economies were not created overnight and will take time to correct. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will need to be handled properly in order to ensure victory and peace in those countries after we leave. And the issue of energy independence needs a well thought-out, long-term solution.
While we cannot expect immediate change, what we can expect with Barack Obama is a president of high integrity who will motivate and inspire Americans to reach for something better. We can expect a president who looks out for the middle class and not the most wealthy Americans. And we can expect a president who deeply cares about our country and will bring in the best team possible to help get America back on track.
Regardless of who you are voting for today, I encourage you to get to the polls and make your voice heard. We all have a chance to be a part of history today and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
Posted by Chris Walbert on October 15th, 2008 and has no comments.
Again this year, I’m proud to participate in Blog Action Day. Last year’s topic was the environment, and tons of high-profile blogs participated to raise awareness. This year, Blog Action Day is focused on a very important issue that is close to my heart, Poverty.
Now, I myself have never been poor or experienced anything close to poverty. However, anyone who lives in this world and has their eyes open notices poverty, how it affects people, and how difficult it can be for people to pull themselves out of it.
The problem is that most people don’t have their eyes open.
Even living in a major American city like Baltimore, which has pockets of severe poverty, it is so easy to ignore the problem. That’s because poverty doesn’t always infiltrate our neighborhoods and daily lives. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t have a responsibility to confront the issue of poverty and do something about it.
Posted by Chris Walbert on October 7th, 2008 and has 1 comment.
Even as I sit to write this post, I’ve been distracted from starting by emails, IMs, Twitter, coworkers’ questions and a ringing telephone. As vital as all of these means of communication are, they often keep me from truly ruminating on a thought, problem, or idea long enough to come up with a stance or solution. Lately I’ve even started becoming frustrated with myself and my increasing lack of focus.
As is usually the case though, I don’t believe the tools are to blame, but the user of these tools. My main question for myself and any readers is, ‘How do I balance my need to be connected with my desire to think through and find answers to complex questions?’
Some of these questions deal with work and the best solution for clients. But in today’s world there are so many other questions that I feel the need to be educated on. Should the government have gone for the $700B bailed out? I don’t know. What should be the focus of US foreign policy? Umm, not sure. Wait, did anyone reply to my last Twitter update?
Now, it’s not like anyone is waiting for me to come up with these answers. It’s not like G.W. is calling me in the morning for my final decision. But lately I’ve just felt the need to step outside of myself and my daily routine and think about some bigger issues. And more important, not just think about them for 30 seconds, but actually take the time to learn enough about a topic and think about it enough to form a full opinion.
So I guess I’m really just looking for suggestions. With the distractions that surround us every day, what do you do when you need to think about a question long enough to come up with an answer?
Posted by Chris Walbert on September 17th, 2008 and has no comments.
I’ve been wanting to visit Woodberry Kitchen ever since it opened almost a year ago. The premise of the restaurant is to use local and organic ingredients in all of their dishes, many of which are seasonal. This past Saturday I finally had the chance to enjoy the food and atmosphere at Woodberry Kitchen for the first time.
My first impression when calling them to make a reservation was realizing how busy they are. Almost a full week in advance, the only openings for a dinner reservation for 2 were between 5-6 and after 8:30. When we pulled up at the front door I understood why they are so busy. I was struck by the beautiful building that houses Woodberry Kitchen. They have done an amazing job restoring this old building in Clipper Mill and reusing the original structure.
Upon entering, we were immediately escorted to our upstairs table which overlooked the main dining room. Our table was set a bit close to our neighbors and at times I found it a bit distracting. Regardless, the ambiance was really nice upstairs and much more private and quiet than the downstairs dining area. Our waitress was very knowledgeable and helpful, if a bit slow.
Posted by Chris Walbert on September 9th, 2008 and has no comments.
This past weekend was the Virginia Beach Half Marathon. As I mentioned in my last post, I trained for about 6 weeks for this one. By race day I felt good and confident that I had trained properly.
First, Virginia Beach on Labor Day weekend is a very interesting place. I had never been there before, so I’m speaking purely from this one experience. I’m not going to bash VA Beach, but I will say that the clientele was not of the highest regard. There were also signs posted all over asking people to refrain from activities that no self-respecting person would participate in in a public setting.
After a long, often traffic-filled, 6-hour drive, we finally arrived in VA Beach. About halfway through our trip the clouds broke and the sun came out and didn’t leave us for the rest of the weekend. The weather was great and the water was nice, despite the seaweed.
Now, on to the race. The half marathon began at 7:00 am and at that early hour it was already incredibly humid. There were a few points in the race, specifically between miles 6 and 9 where I wanted to stop, but at that point it’s a long walk back to the finish line. Luckily my perfectly-executed playlist kept me going until I hit the finish line during the final song.
Posted by Chris Walbert on August 27th, 2008 and has 2 comments.
That’s right. This Sunday, August 31 is the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. This will be my second Half after running the Baltimore one this past October. This course is supposed to be much flatter and faster than the monstrously hilly Baltimore course.
I’ve been training for the past 6 weeks or so and feel quite good about where I am in my preparation. I’ve started to have some pain in my shins and knees lately, but don’t foresee that being much of a problem on race day.
This Friday morning I’ll be driving down with Lauren and Andrea and meeting up with their friends at VA Beach. Hopefully we’ll have some sun for the weekend and not feel the wrath of Gustav.
