What was your favorite Super Bowl halftime show?

The question of the day: What was your favorite Super Bowl halftime show? 

Please visit this LINK to cast your VOTE  

Here, from ABC News Radio, is a list of all 26 modern era Super Bowl halftime show performers, in chronological order:

1991 — New Kids on the Block
1992 — Gloria Estefan
1993 — Michael Jackson, performing with 3,500 children
1994 — Country stars Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, Wynonna, and Naomi Judd
1995 — Patti Labelle, Miami Sound Machine & Tony Bennett
1996 — Diana Ross
1997 — ZZ Top, James Brown, the Blues Brothers featuring Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman and James Belushi
1998 — Boyz II Men, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, the Temptations, Queen Latifah
1999 — Stevie Wonder, Gloria Estefan, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
2000 — Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton
2001 — Aerosmith, 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Nelly, Mary J. Blige
2002 — U2
2003 — Shania Twain, No Doubt, Sting
2004 — Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, Kid Rock, P. Diddy
2005 — Paul McCartney
2006 — The Rolling Stones
2007 — Prince
2008 — Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
2009 — Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
2010 — The Who
2011 — Black Eyed Peas
2012 — Madonna
2013 — Beyonce (and Destiny's Child, briefly)
2014 — Bruno Mars feat. Red Hot Chili Peppers
2015 — Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz & Missy Elliott
2016 — Coldplay, Beyonce and guests

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

Please visit this LINK to cast your VOTE  

A Slow, Slurring Sonnet

I get so sad and melancholy when I hear a Leonard Cohen song. Cohen's art is so full of longing and regret that it often evokes a melancholy mood on its own--but that is not the sole reason for my reaction.

Cohen writes songs like the one featured here, Love Itself, and when performing invokes the words as if he were having an intimate conversation with an old friend. I often feel like an eavesdropper when listening to a Cohen song. And it makes me feel sad because Cohen has somehow figured out how to express deep human emotions in an effortless, off-hand manner.

But the casual conversation so effortlessly tossed out for any ear is often just exactly what my soul is struggling so hard to say. My own emotions are so difficult for me to express. How is it that Cohen can so easily expose the human heart? How is that possible? How is it fair? I try so hard and nothing happens. Cohen talks with anybody or nobody over a cup of coffee and the wisdom of the ages is revealed in a slow, slurring sonnet.

Not fair.

Ring the Bells that Still Can Ring

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

I love the poster.

I recognized one of my favorite Cohen quotes.

Searching the PhilosFX archive, 

I found this old post 

with a similar quote from the Sufi mystic, Rumi. 

Was Cohen channeling Rumi? 

Or are the two just kindred souls? 

A universal Truth awaits those who seek it.

UPDATED: A Reference for Beer Lovers in the Washington, DC Area

Time to update the old web mix!

Two years ago (January, 2014), I created and shared a Symbaloo web mix called "DC Brewers." You can search for it in the Symbaloo Web Mix Gallery. I use this handy reference to plan my "Support Local Brewers" tours when friends come to town. The old blog post boasted of 55 (and counting!) brewers. With this recent update, we are up to 72.



Added the following

• Adventure, Stafford
• Caboose, Vienna
• Denizens. Silver Spring
• Fair Winds, Lorton 
• Maltese, Fredericksburg
• Ocelot, Dulles
• Old Ox, Ashburn
• Ornery, Woodbridge
• Pro Re Nata, Crozet 
• Spencer Devon, Fredericksburg
• Tin Cannon, Gainesville

Retired the following

• Chocolate City, closed Dec 31, 2014
• The Beer Joint, formerly Vintage 50, closed 2015

The breweries are shown in alphabetical order. I am mainly following currently "open, local, craft" brewers. I define "local" as those within 100 miles (2 hours) of the US Capitol Building. Once the frame of 76 tiles is full, I'll trim the content by removing breweries furthest from the US Capitol Building. 

Beer brewed locally by non-locally owned chains, e.g., Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom, Chophouse, etc., is not included here. Neither are "tied house" retail outlets such as the Dogfish Head Ale Houses.

The only exceptions I have made to the above "open, local, craft" rule are 

• Pro Re Nata ("As Needed") from Crozet (130 miles, 2.5 hours). They came up to collaborate with a total of 20 area brewers to brew Kerri's Cure. For this, I deem them worthy; and 
• Portner Brewhouse and Craft Brew Test Kitchen. They are not quite open yet (coming to Alexandria's west end in June 2016!) Perhaps I am merely offering some positive energy to a venture I truly believe in. 

>> Questions or updates are welcome in the Comments section. << 

The Ride

The only thing worse than outliving your retirement fund is...

I spent last Christmas season on deadline and swore I would never let that happen again. But I have one child in college and another who will start next fall. And so here I am. And so work I must. 

After I get my kids through school maybe I'll have just enough energy left to actually save some money for retirement (as long as I don't live too long).

Conventional wisdom says outliving your retirement fund is...

• A fate worse than death 
• Likely since the demise of the defined benefit pension 
• An illusion even with a million-dollar retirement fund 
• Inevitable since we are living longer 
• Likely since none of us can do the withdrawal rate math properly 
• A question of dignity versus survival 

So much for conventional wisdom. Here at PhilosFX, we offer unconventional wisdom.

"The only thing worse than outliving your retirement fund is... not outliving your retirement fund." 

I just made that up. 

Money is just little bits of paper. 

Connect to what matters! 

Remembering Rumi

Ahmad Wali - Dost (Sufi Music)

I love my friends neither with my heart nor with my mind. 

Just in case…

Heart might stop. Mind can forget.

I love them with my soul.

Soul never stops or forgets.

Rumi

Three countries, all part of the former Persian Empire, claim Rumi as their poet: Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey. Though he died 742 years ago, his wisdom continues to enlighten and inspire. Along with being a wonderful poet, Rumi was also a proponent of dance as a means of connecting with the Divine.

I lived in Turkey for a year in the mid-80s and heard a lot about Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes he inspired. Later, I became even more aware of Rumi's poetry through my reading of Mark Nepo. Nepo cites Rumi and many other mystics and poets in his book, Awakening. 

The Mevlâna Festival takes place annually from December 10th to the 17th in the Anatolian city of Konya, where Rumi died at the age of 66 on December 17, 1273. 

Some say Rumi was a Sufi but I believe that Rumi himself would have resisted any such labels. To read Rumi's poems is to recognize a beautiful soul.

May this post inspire you to welcome a little Rumi into your life!