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Marlins vs. The Braves

Last night we took the Sentry interns (well, some of them) to see the Marlins play the Atlanta Braves.  Marlins tickets can always be had for relatively cheap right up to the game starting, and even though many complain about sharing the stadium with the Dolphins, I think the upper deck seats behind home plate give you a pretty incredible view.  This was our second Intern Excursion of the summer, the first being a deep sea fishing trip chartered and captained by Sentry’s own Keith Collins, and since most of our interns are from the Midwest, this usually fits into the “can’t get it back home” category.

The last Marlins game The Wife and I attended this season was Halladay’s perfect game on Memorial Day weekend.  Yesterday’s game saw the Marlins ahead by a comfortable margin of 5-2 until the eighth inning when the Braves ignited for eight straight runs.  Not as good as a perfect game, but definitely something I hadn’t seen before.  I also experienced something else I hadn’t seen before: being asked by a woman in front of me to keep the conversation related to baseball.  No, we weren’t using any language, no we weren’t talking about any offensive topic, no we weren’t being loud, we kind of were just minding our own business.  I’m as annoyed as anyone and often turn around to tell people to be quiet when people are loud in a theater or some other venue, but at a sporting event?  I had people kicking my chair, yelling, spilling stuff on me, and that’s just part of the fun.  Oh well.  My seatmate immediately announced “if we stop talking the terrorists win” and we commenced on a game of seeing just how well we could relate every single comment back to baseball.  A couple times I caught a bit of a grin from the lady’s husband who had somehow imported around eight Publix subs, a pound bag of peanuts, and other miscellaneous snacks without being intercepted at the gate.

The third thing I’d never seen before was a post-game concert by Diddy, formerly Puff Daddy, formerly P. Diddy.  Every Saturday night game the Marlins provide post-game fireworks and a concert by some no-name (usually from Latin America) washed up musician.  It’s rarely in English.  Somehow, Diddy’s agent answered the Nigerian email scam like invitation from the Marlins and agreed to “heat it up in Miami”.  The Marlin’s in-game deejay could barely contain himself as he reeled off accomplishment after accomplishment and asked us repeatedly to “do better than that” for Diddy.  Did we ever.  DJ Vertigo was very pleased with our performance, and as the music kicked off, the rapping started ricocheting across the stadium into a sludge of “uhhs” and other unintelligible syllables.  We left along with the would-be censor shortly after.

Three things I’d never seen before on a hot night in Miami.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.

Thoughts on Concerts

Last night The Wife and I went to see Johnny Lang perform in Fort Lauderdale for the second time.  Lang is an amazing performer and I really enjoyed it, just like the first time.  Unlike the first time we saw him (same venue, a year earlier), he had an opening act: Alex Band from the Calling.

I have never seen a more arrogant performer in my life.  This includes performances by Creed, Slayer, Trapt, Godsmack, and pretty much a whole host of hard rock/heavy metal/etc. with stratospheric egos.  The bands I just listed were my previous top 4, but Band is now spots 1-5 on the arrogant chart.

• Before every song that was remotely popular, he would list the awards, Billboard charting, and any other radio charting statistics that the song had garnered.
• He repeatedly threw how his age when describing when he wrote the songs: “I wrote this when I was 15″.
• He spent significant time whining about his label and how they screwed him on his record deal and how everyone else screwed him by stealing music (downloading).
• He then played a cover song which I’m sure he paid no royalties for (stealing, in his terms).
• He went on and on about a bracelet music purchase system he’s invented, where you could buy it, how much more convenient and better it was than downloading the songs or buying the single, then confessed you have to take a code from a the bracelet, enter it on his website, and uhhh, download the song!

I just sat there cringing and wishing he would get off the stage.  He also had this horrible opera-like deep vocal tendency and the entire thing was a shame because he was obviously talented and had a good voice.

Johnny Lang got out on stage later, an infinitely more talented and creative musician and mentioned “Give it up for Alex Band” to anemic applause.  Then reminded everyone “Hope you enjoyed all those number 1 hits.  We have no number one hits.  But we have people who love us.”

Words to live by.

The Georgia (Atlanta) Aquarium

This week we traveled to Atlanta for the HIMSS2010 conference. HIMSS is the largest healthcare technology tradeshow in the world, and Sentry has been exhibitor for the past two years. I usually go a day early to assist in any way I can, but The Wife and I were able to steal away for a few hours to visit the Georgia Aquarium, located just a block or two away from the Omni Hotel at the CNN Center, where we stayed.

The Wife and I are big fans of the Chatanooga Aquarium (the worlds largest prior to the completion of the Atlanta aquarium), and still the world’s largest freshwater marine exhibit. Overall, we felt like the Tennessee Aquarium was probably superior in its aesthetics and the variety of marine life you could see, along with the design of the exhibits. The Georgia aquarium is much more kid friendly, with the exhibits all looping back to a main room in case you need food, restrooms, or a rest, but some of the exhibits don’t really give you a good view of the animals, or are small, or are positioned so that it’s hard to fight your way through a large crowd. The pod-style design of the Atlanta floorplan also means crowds aren’t linear like they are on the “River Walk” style of the Chatanooga exhibits, so you can feel very claustrophobic at times. Full disclosure: we went on a Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, and I think we visited on a Friday during the day in Chatanooga.

But.

The Atlanta Aquarium has a “Behind the Scene Tour” which lets you pay 40 bucks to get a tour behind all the exhibits and it was phenomenal.  The guided tour takes roughly an hour, and you’re in a small group that walks backstage and sees the medical facilities, kitchens for preparing fish food, the generators and pumps that help regulate water chemicals and cleanse the tanks, and topside of the world’s largest saltwater tank, home to several whales harks and a manta ray.  You also can see how a lot of the exhibits are put together and view the top of the coral reef display.  Pictures are allowed, and this opportunity really moves the Atlanta aquarium ahead of Chatanooga in my view.

These are some iPhone pictures that I managed to take while on the tour – enjoy!