Brian Alvey

Yep, that is the question.

We’re on a family vacation in Colorado where Jack is going to learn to ski. He’ll be four in a few weeks and we felt we were running out of time to get him started on his Olympic training. The trip involves both skiing and tubing, so Niki got Jack prepped for the activities by showing him YouTube videos of people skiing and tubing so he’d know what it was all about.

Showing a kid videos of “how you tube” on YouTube is just hilarious to me. I know the founders weren’t thinking anyone would mistake them for a snow sports site when they named it YouTube, but it did the trick for us. Jack had no trouble hitting the slopes. He has little fear and lots of balance.

Niki’s training videos were a great idea. Since I used to ski a long time ago but never tubed, Jack explained to me that I would show him how to ski and he would teach me tubing. It’s great that in his head he has already visualized doing these things and has lots of confidence. That’s way better than him arriving here cold (so to speak) and being afraid of the mountain, snow and all the gear.

I had an odd dream with Jason in it last night. An appearance like that doesn’t happen as often as you’d think it does.

I was in a supermarket and he kept sending me a shopping list to my BlackBerry, complete with photos of sushi he wanted me to buy.

At one point in the dream he had taken my son to a Disney character breakfast where animated cartoon bugs wearing armor fly at you and you swat them around the room and they bounce off of the walls. I was watching the pictures of it on our camera and Niki asked why it takes longer to download pictures of Jason from our camera than pictures of us. I explained that it had to do with the broadband at the hotel and Jason being on the west coast, but then I realized that all pictures should download from the camera at the same speed — whether Jason is in them or not.

Later on Jason was telling me about the event he’s hosting in L.A. that he wanted me to attend even though I’d be missing my son’s birthday. The event was called True Clear. So in this dream he had become a Scientologist, not a member of the Kabbalah as I had always expected he would.

Their loss.

He’d be great in the Kabbalah, don’t you think? Kabbalahster.com is still available.

I’m just saying…

When Weblogs became part of AOL Jason and I had been equal partners, but someone had the bright idea to have me report to him. So my reporting structure at AOL looked like this:

Brian Alvey > Jason Calacanis > Tina Sharkey > Jim Bankoff > Ted Leonsis > Jon Miller.

Earlier this week, that chain looked like:

Brian Alvey > gone > gone > Jim Bankoff > gone > gone.

Today, Jim Bankoff and three other top AOL execs resigned.

Brian Alvey > gone > gone > gone > gone > gone.

I get that people are supposed to die, but slow it down already!

Earlier this week Martin Nodell, the creator of Green Lantern, passed away at 91. A few weeks ago we lost Dave Cockrum (co-creator of X-Men characters like Colossus, Storm and Nightcrawler) to diabetes.

My sister once bought me a t-shirt that had one of his X-Men covers on it where Cyclops battles Havoc. It was titled “My Brother, My Enemy” — nice.

I still wear that shirt.

In sports, we lost Lamar Hunt yesterday. When Zeldman and I did the Chiefs site three or four years ago, we visited Arrowhead Stadium and their offices and I learned all sorts of Chiefs history and trivia as well as how much of the NFL’s history had to do with Lamar Hunt. He led the creation of the AFC and coined the term “Super Bowl” among other things.

In entertainment, we lost Peter Boyle. I knew him solely as the monster in Young Frankenstein when he became the dad on Everybody Loves Raymond. I loved how they had him dress up as the monster for Halloween and how his character was named “Frank.”

I was at the season opening Knicks game on October 31, 2001, sitting on an aisle, and he was walking up the stairs coming right at me. I recognized him and said “Happy Halloween” and he smiled. I thought that was the coolest thing, saying Happy Halloween to Young Frankenstein’s monster.

Damn.

Thus ends the “happiness and light” era of my blog.

I found out from his obituary (below) that Michael was one of the founders of a charity called Take the Lead which is “dedicated to provide direct services, support and care for all qualified participants in the sport of dogs who suffer from the devastating realities of life-threatening or terminal illnesses.” In keeping with this week’s “It’s a Small World” theme, the current chairman of it turns out to be one of my old deans from TCU, who I now recall was involved in judging dog shows.

LARIZZA, MICHAEL DEAN

Michael Larizza, 47, of Port Chester, passed away on November 27, 2006, at his home, from a massive heart attack. He was the beloved son of Louis Larizza and Arlene Amigron, born on August 21, 1959. He is survived by his companion, Rob Sloop, his siblings, Louis, Gina, Renee, and Mark. He also left behind his five nieces, two nephews, sisters-in-law, Nella, Tricia, and stepmother, Kathy. For the past 30 years, Michael was the devoted owner of Stonybrook Kennels in White Plains, NY.

He had an undeniable passion for his dogs. Michael traveled to various shows where his dogs often won Best in Show. He also had the privilege of judging at Madison Square Garden’s Westminster Dog Show. Michael was also one of the founders of Take the Lead. This is a nonprofit organization dedicated to provide direct services, support and care for those suffering the devastating affects of AIDS. In lieu of flowers, please donate to, Take the Lead, PO Box 6353, Watertown, NY 13601.

I have all these posts I want to write about hanging out with my old college friend Chris and his family at Disney and my family and my Blogsmith dev team (who is staying at a nicer hotel here than we are), but I’m still in shock.

I was listening to the big band station on my music service a few months ago and heard a clever little Guy Lombardo song from 1949 called “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)” that seemed to be speaking directly to me. It came up again a few weeks ago and just seems appropriate given that Michael was a workaholic.

You work and work for years and years, you’re always on the go.
You never take a minute off, too busy makin’ dough.
Someday, you say, you’ll have your fun when you’re a millionaire.
Imagine all the fun you’ll have in your old rockin’ chair.

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think!
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink.
The years go by, as quickly as a wink.
Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

You’re gonna take that ocean trip, no matter, come what may.
You’ve got your reservations made, but you just can’t get away.
Next year, for sure, you’ll see the world, you’ll really get around,
But how far can you travel when you’re six-feet under ground?

Your heart of hearts, your dream of dreams, your ravishing brunette,
She’s left you and she’s now become somebody else’s pet.
Lay down that gun don’t try my friend to reach the great beyond,
You’ll have more fun reaching for a redhead or a blond.

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think!
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink.
The years go by, as quickly as a wink.
Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

You never go to nightclubs and you just don’t care to dance.
You don’t have time for silly things like moonlight and romance.
You only think of dollar bills tied neatly in a stack,
But when you kiss a dollar bill it doesn’t kiss you back.

Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think!
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink.
The years go by, as quickly as a wink.
Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself. It’s later than you think.

Niki and our favorite kennel owner Michael were extremely close. When she called the kennel this afternoon to check on our dogs, his assistant Alex said he had some really bad news. We never would have guessed that the news was that Michael died of a heart attack three days ago and that his funeral is tomorrow.

I’m in shock.

He used to watch our dog Duncan when we’d go away and Niki fell in love with the cute King Charles Cavalier Spaniels he bred, but he wouldn’t sell them to just anyone. When we tried to get one, somehow I failed his “good dog owner” test and we had to wait until his next litter to try again. I had a ton of respect for him. He was super direct, very blunt. I loved him.

A heart attack, damn. His dogs were his life. He worked all day long every day of the week. When other people were on vacation, he was there watching dogs. He spent decades as a trainer and groomer and had walls full of Westminster and other dog show ribbons.

On the outer edges of town, his kennel is probably the closest business to our house. Almost every time we drive in and out of our neighborhood we pass his kennel, which Jack calls “Michael’s house.”

He had no partners in his business. It will surely close its doors and we’re going to drive past it every day and be reminded of this great guy who died in his late forties, early fifties at age 47 who never took a break.

At least he loved the dogs he spent every waking minute with.

UPDATE: Although Michael was the sole owner of Stonybrook Kennels, Michael’s family and Alex — who worked with Michael for 22 of those 30 years, effectively his partner — are keeping Stonybrook going. That’s fantastic news because Stonybrook is popular and a lot of people had booked holiday boarding for their dogs way in advance.

“Drove downtown in the rain — nine-thirty on a Tuesday night, just to check out the late-night record shop. Call it impulsive. Call it compulsive. Call it insane. But when I’m surrounded I just can’t stop.”

I love the Barenaked Ladies’ song Brian Wilson. It’s a song about suffering from a mental block of giant proportions — about feeling like Wilson must have felt after a breakdown and a couple of years of seclusion. The cool thing about it is that Brian Wilson started touring again a few years ago and even opened with that song a couple of times.

My mom’s anniversary was last week, so I got her tickets to see Brian Wilson this Wednesday at the Beacon Theater.

Niki and I just saw Cheap Trick there on Thursday with Sarah from Blogging Stocks. Soul Asylum and Fastball opened for them. We missed all but Fastball’s last song, but I’ve seen them before and I’m a huge fan so I will definitely see them again in the future.

I’ve got the television on, playing Flight 26. I’m switching between blogging, IMs with Niki about Celly’s vacuum cleaner, catching up on email, managing Google calendar and doing some accounting work. I can do any one of those things plus listen to Flight 26 at the same time since everything but listening to the radio station is done on the same laptop screen.

One of the blogs I just visited that wasn’t about vacuum cleaners says that multi-tasking only works when the things you’re switching between are from different sources. Another point it makes is that larger screens let you do more things side-by-side so you get more done. I have a giant flat-screen monitor, but I don’t spend my day hooked up to it.

Maybe I should.

Joe Girardi won baseball’s National League manager of the year award six weeks after he was fired.

Since he’s an ex-Yankee (catcher, broadcaster and then bench coach) Niki and I were rooting for him as a manager. When he was let go, he reportedly called one of his mentors who comforted him by basically saying “welcome to the world of MLB managers” — like you haven’t really been a baseball manger until you’ve been canned.

I’ve thought about Joe Girardi a lot this week and how someone can look at a guy as effective and someone else can tell the same guy he’s ineffective and fire him.

And you wonder why I’m cynical.