Mika My Day

My brother and his wife currently live in Melbourne, AUS. It's fun to talk with them because you gain some perspective from the other side of the globe. In one such conversation this week, he and I were talking about pop sensation Mika. Just today I came across some amazing visuals created for one of Mika's live shows by Paris-based animation house Naked Cie. Beautiful work. Apparently Mika is huge everywhere but here in the States so I hadn't had very many opportunities to hear his vocal stylings or see his kick-ass white pants. But all that has changed now. Warning: This song will stick in your head instantly and cause you to inadvertently go skipping down the street.

Credit to motionographer for the original post.

Mika Relax (Live NRJ Music Awards 2008)
by Ambroise_biz

?uestlove

Ahmir Khalib Thompson is a guy I've been a fan of for a while. You may or may not know him by his professional name ?uestlove (Questlove) but if you follow the hip hop music scene you are most likely familiar with his image. He has one of the sickest internal metronomes I've ever known. The man lays down the beats in the band The Roots and is rock-steady. So, in honor of The Roots' new album release "Rising Down" I pay tribute to a master of the sticks and cans, ?uestlove. Who are your favorite bombastic beat-makers?

Re-Kicking It Off

It's time to get back to the blogging. I've been away for FAR too long, and for that I apologize. :)

I have come to realize that I am cutting edge at almost nothing. I don't have inside scoops or exclusives on pop culture, music or film. But what I DO have is a viewpoint. So, the best that I can hope for is to take stock of the world around me and begin to share my own Kail perspective. It will be odd. It could be mildly interesting, but mostly it's just a chance to put some good karma out there - doing it with style.

Job Opening : Marathon Planner

Just a word of caution to marathon event planners: If you're organizing a future race, jot down the amount of fluids you think you'll need to have available at water stations and then multiply it by 100... thousand. My brother and his wife ran the Melbourne (AUS) marathon this past weekend and by now we've all heard about the Chicago marathan craziness. In both cases, there were high temps and not enough fluids. Made for rough races. So lets modify the race plans and pull some tanker trucks up to the courses. Might help avoid a nasty public relations mess and runner casualties.

Capitols

My wife Rachel and I have developed a "travel goal". I think it's great to put a symbolic carrot out there to encourage travel and new experiences. We've committed to seeing every state capitol in the US. The rules are, we have to be together, we have to take at least one photo of us in front of the capitol as proof, and we must tour the building and surrounding city. Just recently we added Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and our nation's capitol in DC. What are your travel goals?

Average Jane - Fall Style

Fellow blogger Average Jane cooks up some seriously fantastic recipes for my favorite season: Fall. When it comes to the sights, sounds and smells of the season, nothing beats fall in Missouri. Add in a batch of the Kail's hot spiced apple juice, and it's a little bit-o-heaven.

Interbike

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of cycling. My ride of choice is a Rans V-Rex recumbent. For comfort and pure enjoyment the recumbents are where it's at, and they get big time points for style in my book. Interbike, the biggest bike show in the US is taking place this week, introducing the latest and greatest available from the some of the best bike manufacturers. I've been following a great blog on recumbents (www.recumbentblog.com) for a while and they put up some great pics of the new releases. You can also find some recent comments here.