Last Friday we went to Copper Mountain ski resort to volunteer at a 3 day bicycle tour called the Courage Classic. Each day, Saturday through Monday, around 2000 cyclists ride 50ish road miles through scenic mountain terrain. Individuals and teams in the tour make a required donation and raise money which supports the Children's Hospital. Our job as volunteers was to man an aid station, where cyclists stopped and filled up on Gatorade, water, fruit, and other sundry snacks. It required early rising on our part, which has not been a part of our summer routine: Saturday - 4:30 am, Sunday - 6:00 am, Monday - 5:15 am. Despite being awake for twice as long per day as I'm used to, the weekend was a lot of fun. We met some fun people and got an all expense paid 3 day weekend in the mountains. I also learned that if you are hanging around me, I 100% prefer you to not be wearing bicycle shorts. Those things flatter no one. NO ONE!

In store for this coming weekend is something I've been looking forward to all summer: THE FLAMING LIPS at Red Rocks! Woo hoo! And we already have tickets, so we are definitely going to this one.

Related to concert news, voice your opinion in our new poll. I got tickets to see a screening of Little Miss Sunshine on August 2nd. I also won tickets to see The Futureheads and Tapes 'n Tapes in concert the same night. I've heard neither band before but read good things. There may be one problem though: I won the tickets through kingblind.com. I previously won a cd, so they said, but I never got it. Jerks! Anyway, I'm supposed to be on the guestlist for the show. Which should we attend? (No promises, as evidenced by the last poll).

There's something about white, middle-class male geeks that makes us want to make public the things that entertain us. Fortunately, there seems to be a growing number of websites designed to help us do just that.

If you want to know what music I've been listening to, go here.

If you want to know which of the IMDB's top 250 movies I've seen, go here.

If you want to know how I rate those movies and just about every other film I've ever seen, go here.

That's right, screw the spine center! I had the most unsympathetic doctor in the world who refused to actually validate that I felt significant pain. I think he gave me epidurals to pacify me but truly didn't think the pain was that bad. Yesterday I had my follow-up appointment with him, where he said there wasn't much else he could do for me besides recommend me for surgery, which both of us agreed was a step too far for now. I asked about going to a chiropractor, and he said to go ahead and try that or even acupuncture. I'm jumping at the opportunity because it means I don't have to deal with him anymore, for a while, at least.

There's a Christian chiropractor near the university that apparently almost everyone on staff here seems to go to, so I am going to call them up to see if my insurance does anything for me there. Even if it doesn't, I think Ric and I are ready for me to try something new anyway. I've had great encouragement from a girl here in my office who has similar back problems and has had vast improvement not just with her back but with other physical ailments that were related to her back troubles. So there's hope.

Besides that I'm just getting back into the swing of things at work after having seven work days off spread out through three weeks this month. Things are relatively busy, but good. I've been really into watching movies in the past few weeks, so sorry for the slew of posts for those of you who aren't too interested in the reviews!

Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man basically consists of footage from a Cohen tribute concert in which many famous artists play Cohen's music and the poet/musician himself talking about his history and writing process. There are also a few interviews with the musicians and their perspectives on Cohen's work.

The artists include Nick Cave, U2, Rufus & Martha Wainwright, Antony, Beth Orton, and Jarvis Cocker, off the top of my head.

Being sadly unfamiliar with pretty much anything but the song "Hallelujah" I think I'm ill-equipped to write much about Cohen's music.

The musical performances get better as the movie goes on, and there are some genuinely beautiful moments of music. The parts with Cohen are honest and interesting. I only wish there had been more footage of him--more commentary from him. While the performances are great, it almost feels like they are the main focus, and I almost wanted there to be two separate movies, or a longer movie. The movie ends with Cohen singing with U2 as his backup band. That truly was an awesome moment.

Jarvis Cocker and Nick Cave's names drew me in, but Cohen's songs won me over. Great stuff.