Wow. It’s been a while. Again. So here we go.

As usual, most of this is just a compilation of everything that’s gone on bookface or the tweeters. But we like to have it all put together in one place.

Let’s start off with the NO PARKING signs in our neighborhood that needed some sprucing up. Sadly, there was never any mention of it in our monthly neighborhood newsletter.

I worked with Munck Mix at Wanee again.

And then my parents came to visit us for Easter.

And we went to Disneyworld with them, thanks to Nate and Nanci. It was their first time there in FOREVER.

Then it was time for Jazz Fest again, again working with Munck Mix. Flava Flav played drums for a little while during Public Enemy’s set.

Jim McCormick and beatinpath with Susan Cowsill and John Gros.

Rodriguez, of Searching for Sugar Man fame.

Justin Butts follows the command of the sign (“Butts here please”) at the Threadhead Patry.

The return of the Lonesome Travelers – Stage It performance.

Christina Aguilera had a couch that no one else was allowed to sit on.

This wheelchair guy is really in a hurry.

And Nate became the newest member of the Rebirth Brass Band. If I’m not mistaken, it’s actually him featured on the Rebirth beer cans and taps.

Fast forward to June, and it was time for Rose to take her neurology boards in Nashville. I hung out with the Dukes of Hazzard while she took her test.

Then we met some creatures you’d expect to meet only in Nashville.

For my birthday we were going to see Kurt Braunohler as the last stop on his “Jet Ski for Goats” trip (you can read more about that, and until September 12 contribute to it, here). But the day before I planned to leave Nashville for NOLA, I saw that they were gonna be stopping at a place in Tennessee, and it happened to kinda be on the way home, so I stopped and saw the show there too, because it also featured Kyle Kinane, who wasn’t going to be at the New Orleans show.

Then for my birthday we saw Kurt and Kristen Schaal at One Eyed Jacks, and then went to the Plus One Show at the Hi Ho.

A few weeks later it was time again for Isle of Palms. I hadn’t been in like 3 years, and a handful of people were going, then more people were going, so it became a thing. A very fun thing.

This surprised turtle was on the wall behind me in the restaurant we ate at on our last day there. I decided to take a picture with it, with almost as much shock as he had.

Here’s the big ol’ group of us before we all left to go out separate ways like journey.

This house seriously looked like a crab.

Well. That about catches us up through most of June. I’ll post sooner next time, as a summary of the big trip we’re currently on.

So I didn’t make it before the end of the year. Mainly because Carrollton Station will still be Carrollton Station, and I will still be there. We’ll have a different sound system, so we’ll see how that goes, but at least it will still exist. The new owners, Mike and Colleen Miller seem pretty nice, so it should be a good transition. Read the story here.

But let’s get this thing finished up anyway. There WILL be a part 5 because I’m feeling lazy-ish right now.

Another note: This didn’t get done sooner also because WordPress 3.5 has somehow screwed up the ability to add photos (and a few other things). They didn’t take the functionality away…it just doesn’t work for a lot of people. Some have found work-arounds. For others, like us, none of those work-arounds worked. So, I downgraded back to 3.4.2. And I see that silly WordPress 3.5 is available! Please update now! link at the top of the screen, and I just give it the ol’, “Ohh, one of these days, WordPress, one of these days….POW! Right in the kissa” stare.

Anyway, as you may already know, Carrollton Station was bought by new owners and they plan to keep the music. And me, so it seems. It’s a new sound system, and since we left before newstation opened, I don’t really know what the system will be. It was gonna be one thing, then another, then back to the one thing, so I really won’t know the deal til at least sunday night or monday. But, for now, let’s finish up these pictures.

The best show ever at Carrollton Station, our rehearsal party!

Not sure when this was. Don’t think it was 2010, but that’s the date on the picture. This coulda been Mommas and Papas, but not sure. Paul, Pete, Susan, Jimmy, Jansen, Johnny Sansone, Russ.

Supagroup, Mardi Gras 2010:

CiV: CSN&Y and CCR. Lots of Guests. Long night. You’ll see how long. Jazz Fest 2011:

Vox and the Hound, September 2011:

This next one is interesting. (Not that the rest aren’t.) Andie McDowell’s daughter, Rainey, was in town shooting something, and wanted to do a show. So they put together a band and did it, in October 2011.

Eric Lindell, Jazz Fest 2012:

CiV: The White Album, Jazz Fest 2012:

Well that about does it. You can find more in our various photobucket albums, so really no need to repost here. Now it’s time to look forward to what the new owners, Mike and Colleen Miller, will do with the place, and hopefully keep it’s awesome sound and gigs intact. You can believe that I’ll be reporting on that as soon as I can. Now, I must go cook dinner, and get ready for the Disney Half Marathon we’re doing Saturday. Yup. More on that later too.

Ok, let’s hurry up and finish this. Gonna mostly speed thru 2007 since there’s a ton of pictures. And one from 2008. You’ll get more of an update on the status of Carrollton Station with the next update.

The City Life. They’re on our wedding cd. Awesome band. No longer together. Leo, the lead singer, has a new band that just released their first full-length cd. The band is called Vox and The Hound. You should check them out sometime.

January 21, 2007. Saints vs. Bears. Yeah. Bears. NFC title game. Coulda been our first trip to the Super Bowl. Alas, it was not meant to me. Add this game to the San Fran playoff game last season, and that cements the fact that I shouldn’t watch Saints playoff games at Carrollton Station. (For the record, the only other game I’ve watched there is the Dolphins game of our Superbowl season, where we it looked like we were gonna lose for the first time that season, but instead we rallied, recovered from 3 interceptions and 5 sacks, to score 22 unanswered points in the 4th quarter.) Moral of the story: regular season games ok at Station, post season games not.

I had to reserve my seat so people wouldn’t take it when I got up to get a drink.

Sonia Tetlow singing “Summertime” while friends and family play musical chairs:

Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show:

Putting up the new speakers (new on the left, old on the right):

The following pictures are from August 24-25. August 24 was the New Orleans Musician’s Relief Fund show, and August 25 was Paul Sanchez. That’s me with Mike Mills from R.E.M., and then a bunch of pictures of a bunch of drunk people. 😉 SHOTS!

Next up, Nathalie’s annual birthday party, which happened to fall the same weekend as Halloween. I was Doc Brown. Paris Hilton and Austin Powers were there.

Dash Rip Rock with Michelle from Live Band Karaoke. In a nuthsell, well, if you don’t know…I’m not even gonna try to explain. Just see here or here. Click at your own risk. Thank you Bobby! Ahhh, good times.

Paul and Shamarr show people how to second line, and the Susan Cowsill Band covers Sly and The Family Stone. I don’t play drums, but I can sit behind them and look like I do.

Christmas 2007. Mark Miller, Anders Osborn, Karen and Chris Bailey, Jim McCormick, Rob Savoy, and Ron Hotstream.

Well, that does it for 2007. And that wasn’t too bad, so I’m gonna roll right into 2008 and 2009, since there’s only a few pictures from then. Here we go!

Mocksey… which was basically half of Motorway plus Jimmy Robinson and Chris Bailey.

Dash Rip Rock‘s annual Mardi Gras show, plus Chris Lee from Supagroup. This was 2 days before I proposed to Rose.

Jazz Fest 2009:

Paul’s between Jazz Fest weekends show:

Rose making a rare appearance:

Mark Broussard, John Gros, Anders Osborn:

Continental Drifters Reunion, then Susan Cowsill Band Covered In Vinyl: Sgt. Pepper featuring…well, a ton of people.

And finally, for now anyway, the Tom’s House reunion show.

Whew. Just one CS post left. I’m gonna combine 2010-2012 cuz honestly I just didn’t choose that many pictures for those years. So, it looks like I *will* finish this thing before the year’s over…..

As I sit here relaxing in Rogers, AR at the Krupka Family reunion, knowing that it’s way better than being in NOLA right now a)because I’m with Rose and b)because my condo still doesn’t have power, I decided to kill some time by putting up part two.

I think I’ve decided that I’ll do the rest of these by year. So let’s see. That leaves… 2007, 2008 and 2009 together, 2010, 2011 and 2012 together, so, 6 parts altogether. I wonder how long this will take.

Here’s the first Covered in Vinyl after Katrina: Band on the Run…

…and Eric playing with Susan at an unplugged show.

Theresa Andersson when she was still doing the band thing and not the one-woman-band thing (with Cassandra on bass, who is now the …um, I lost count… ‘th bass player for Buckaroo Piehole The Right Side Cowboy Mouth).

Now THIS was epic. A moment that will live in Carrollton Station infamy history. The one and only Chris Wyble, former Carrollton Station “chef” and awesome bacon ranch fries maker, and his brother playing at open mic night. Yep. Dude’s playing a box. And it was awesome. And sounded better than some of the kick drums that have come through there. 😉

The next 3 pictures are from Nathalie’s Motorway reunion birthday show in 2006, with special guest Kevin George from the Bag of Donuts singing, if I remember right, “You Suck.”

The next 6 pictures are from Halloween / Voodoo Fest weekend 2006. They include such classics as El Dasho Rip Rocko, Frylock mixing, a rare appearance at the Station by the NC crew (krewe), and Sandy chilling on the pew.

And now, it’s time to end Part 2 the same way I ended Part 1 – with New Year’s Freeve 2006.

2007 will take a while. It’s A LOT of pictures. See ya then!

So as some of you have heard, and many of you have not, Carrollton Station, the place I have called my “soundguy” home for the past 6+ years, and the place I’ve been watching and / or recording for 5 or 6 years before that, may be no more after this year. Eric, the owner (ok, leaser) for the past 10 years, has decided not to renew. Is someone else going to buy it out and keep it as Carrollton Station? Will it continue as something else? Will it shut its doors as a bar and music venue forever? That’s yet to be seen. So, I’ve been inspired to post a pictorial memory on this blog. After going through tons of pictures, I managed to narrow it down to a mere…oh, 90 or so. I was unsure how I was gonna post them. No way was I gonna do 90ish at once. But I couldn’t decide how many at a time. Then I started to upload, and I realized that I’m going to let the pictures, and when they were taken, decide how many I do at a time. And, of course, they will all be chronological.

Now, while I started to go there around 2000-2001, most of my pictures from then were in printed form. And while I still have those pictures, I’m not gonna go through the trouble of scanning them, when I already have so many from 2004 on. So, that said, I give you some of my Carrollton Station memories.

Mark Hebert was the drummer and one of the singers from Tom’s House, a local band that was always on the verge of making it big. He had to quit for a while because he developed “Steve Perry nodules,” but they were repaired and he did some solo work before joining another local (all cover) band that he still plays with, the Chee Weez. Here he’s performing a song that he wrote with Paul Sanchez.

John Thomas Griffith, of Cowboy Mouth, and Paul Sanchez, formerly of Cowboy Mouth, had a side project called The Lonesome Travelers. Actor MC Gainey is a friend, who always attends Jazz Fest unless he’s filming something. Here he is singing with Paul and Griff.

Same show, Jazz Fest 2004, Paul and Griff with another former Cowboy Mouth member, Rob Savoy.

Jazz Fest 2005 – The last Jazz Fest before “the thing.” The last Jazz Fest before things we took for granted started to mean more than we’d ever know. The Lonesome Travelers opening for Susan Cowsill. Hey, Rob/Paul, if either of you are reading this… we should really get Gideon Pickett on an album somewhere…ahem.

Then, 4 months later, it happened. Then, about 2 months after that, Carrollton Station, thankfully spared (despite a couple of minor leaks and some spoiled food), opened for music again. Temporary music system yes, but damn it felt good to be open. As terrible as Katrina was…there was NOTHING like the feeling of being back to things that were as they were before the storm…mostly, anyway. I have never been, and probably never will be, so happy to have the only 2 choices on any menu in the city be “burgers” and “chicken tenders.”

Some of you may recognize one of the guys in the following pictures as Pete, the best man in my wedding. The only thing that makes these otherwise joyful memories not so joyful, is that Pete’s former band member, Colin, in some of these pictures, was taken from us last year. But oh what a joyful night this was.

Next up, the first Covered In Vinyl after Katrina. For those of you who don’t know, Covered In Vinyl was a monthly series that the Susan Cowsill Band performed at the Station where they would take a classic album and cover it from start to finish. In Susan’s song Crescent City Snow (which I’m currently listening to a version I’ve titled the “undefeated version,” performed at the U2 CiV in November 2006, drew breeeeeees!”, talk about emotional), there is a line that says, “…singing Joni at the Carrollton Station.” This is because September 3, 2005, the first Saturday, which is usually when CIV took place, was supposed to be Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark.” Needless to say, that didn’t happen. Eventually they did sing Joni at the Carrollton Station (in 2006). This CIV, however, was appropriately chosen: Band on the Run.

And yes, that’s Russ on guitar. You can’t see it, but Susan’s on drums. They both have the reNew Orleans shirt on. 🙂

I don’t have much to say about this one…I’ll say more about this band in a little bit. I just wanted to include it because it’s from an angle you (and even I) don’t get to see that often. Beatinpath (they’re included on our wedding cd, btw).

I just like this picture. Susan and Russ. Thanksgiving 2005

Me and Fred Leblanc of Cowboy Mouth, Christmas 2005.

Remember how I said that I was gonna say more about beatinpath in a minute? Well here we go.

On New Year’s Eve 2005, beatinpath and Carrollton Station had what we called New Year’s Freeve. Freeve, because it was Free. And my God man. Seeing all those people together again, some we hadn’t seen since before the thing, was freakin cathartic. I had to look up cathartic to see if it meant what I thought it meant. It was so cathartic that I knew it was cathartic without even knowing what it meant. That’s how freakin cathartic it was.

Well, I think that’s enough for installment one. Stay tuned for the rest. There’s a long way to go.

What have I been doing this month? Thanks for asking!

First off though, here’s what I wanted to post last month, on our two-year rehearsal anniversary, but it was in FL and I wasn’t:

Our wedding song, unbeknownst to Paul, performed at our wedding rehearsal. Neato. And no, I don’t know what’s up with that green line. Reminds me of an old school turn-the-dial-to-change-the-channel tv we used to have. It’s not on the dvd, it’s not on the ripped video from the dvd…so um? Yeah.

And, I was debating on whether or not I was gonna post this, since it’s for us, but then again, so is this site. Plus she put it up on the wall at work, so I figure I can put it up on the wall on the web.

Anniversary Card

After Covered in Vinyl on June 9, I left for Florida. Literally. I was gonna go home and nap for a few hours and get an early start, but I wasn’t tired at all, so I went home around 2am, packed, etc, and left at 3. Took an hour and a half nap around 4:30 at a rest stop, and then headed the rest of the way there.

Tuesday was the reason I picked to visit this week instead of my actual birthday. Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, was performing at Hard Rock Live, and I had to be there. I would follow that band, 2006-style, if I were still in my band-following days. Here are a couple of videos from the show, not taken by me. Don’t watch if you don’t like rock/rap or the occasional dirty word. :-Þ

Thursday we went for a walk, and ran into this interesting creature:

Later we went to the Swamphead Brewery and had a few beers. Someone wrote this on the bathroom chalk wall (wasn’t me) and drew my typical thing that I draw when I draw things random places (was me).

Friday the cats snuggled on our giant bean bag chair while Rose made a chocolate dinosaur cake for my and our neighbor’s combined birthday get-together. She and her son came over, as did one of Rose’s co-workers, for pizza and cake.

Saturday we went zip lining. AWESOME. I’d definitely do that again. We had the 1pm slot, but got there right before noon, and were allowed to go with that group. Which was good cuz we didn’t have to waste an hour and because they were fun. They too were there for a birthday, except, unlike mine, it was actually the birthday. There were 9 lines total, not counting the practice line. They increased in length and speed from one to the next. The last one ended with a repel down to the ground. One of the two guides called us Mr. and Mrs. Smith since we did so well. 😀

I left Monday morning and went straight to work. Booo. Tuesday my computer died. Boooooooo. I was hoping it was related to the NVIDIA recall that has never caused me problems, so it would be fixed for free. Brought it to the Apple Store, and found out that it’s more than 4 years old and they only pay for it if caused by the recall if less than 4. But, that’s probably not the problem anyway. So right now it’s in the computer hospital and hopefully it will be out of its coma by next week. Wonderful.

Anyway, I will see Rose again in the middle of July when I visit her in Athens, GA for “Brain Camp.” In the meantime I have a few gigs here in addition to my regular job. And, Saturday night, I’m 99% sure I’ll be going to see The Dan Band. 😀

…but I’ll spare you from any April Fool’s Day jokes or pranks. There will be none of that from me! Hm. 😉

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since this thing was updated! Ok, yes I can. There was Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick’s Day, and St. Joseph’s Day….the parades kept going 2 weeks after Mardi Gras was over. Gotta love it!

Rose and I had a great time hanging out during Mardi Gras with our families. Sure the weather sucked for Endymion, but we partied anyway, that’s to Gwen and Dennis, my parents’ neighbors, and Martin Insurance, as well as Johnny and Abbey Sanchez, and our Bikeus friends, who even made it on the news for having a party even tho there was no parade. You can watch that here. And Sunday we got a good spot for Bacchus and Endymion even though we didn’t get out there til about 3pm, so that was most excellent as well.

You can read more about Mardi Gras Day and the Krewe of Bikeus 2011 here. Be sure to go to the pictures page and click on 2011. You can find more of our mardi gras pictures in our photobucket.

Rose was supposed to leave on Wednesday, but because of weather delays she would’ve missed her connecting flight, so she got to stay an extra day. Woohoo! So instead of flying out of Gulfport, she flew out of Baton Rouge. 😛

Of course that weekend I went to both the Irish Channel parade on Saturday and the Metairie Road parade on Sunday, and even made the Irish-Italian parade the following Sunday. Then I crashed. 🙂

This past Wednesday, I worked with Carrollton Station and The Susan Cowsill Band for a scene on Treme.

So, what i ended up doing was basically about 20 minutes of work, setting up the stage, getting susan’s guitar set up, and telling the guys doing the actual mixing what to give them as far as monitors goes. Which, basically, was pretty limited.

We used our stands, mics, and cables. Ran them into Treme’s snake, which went directly into their board. They gave me one channel to send to all the monitors, which meant everyone had all the same stuff in their monitors. Then they sent their “main mix” back to our main board, which we played through the house, for their boom mic, which you’ll see in the pictures on photobucket, to pick up.

Other than that, it was a bunch of shoots of just believe it, then dialogue with steve and lucia, (apparently “annie” had written a song and susan wants annie to play it but it wasn’t “ready yet”) and so they go into crescent city snow. Which was always cut right during the line “singing joanie at the Carrollton Station.” not sure why.

Anyway, there were extras there as an audience, but not very many for most of the shoots, b/c the camera track was set up even with where the wall ends to go over to that side corner, so whatever could fit in front of that, including a very bobble-headed Paul, was the crowd. There was that camera and one hand-held, which shot mostly from the carrollton side, and a handful of times from the monitor board side, and once or twice from behind the monitor board. Then they later did a longer-range shot, so they brought in more “crowd,” and tiffany the bartender got to be a “waitress,” carrying burgers around. We didn’t get to see those shots cuz of where the cameras were.

The band consisted of susan, russ, mary, jack craft on keyboard, sam craft on violin, steve earle on acoustic, and lucia micarelli on violin. Yes, a 7-piece.

When dressing the set in the morning, they had originally put amber twinkle lights all over the place (b/c “every bar in new orleans has amber twinkle lights” in treme), but later changed them to blue b/c it looks better blue. they also put a clip light on the monitor board. i was up there when they did it, and the guy doing it said, yeah, this guy’s important, he gets a clip light….but wait (grabs another one and puts it on)… he’s REALLY important. he gets TWO clip lights.” knowing “that guy” was basically gonna be me, and without him knowing that, i said, “aw c’mon, nobody’s THAT important.” “oh no. this guy is.” 🙂

Tim, who is a “decorator” on treme, who got me the job with chess, whose main job is to decorate but also to un-decorate…take all the 2011 out…said that they had been filming a bunch of “bounce” scenes, and even when they go to the most ghetto of places, they still use their systems, b/c they want it to be “real.”

And aaron, who got me the union pay for chess, also does sound stuff for treme, so it was good to see him again.

Before they did the long-range shot, someone came up to me and asked if i worked there, and if i wanted to be an extra. i said well i’m already kinda doing something, and he asked don’t we have a bartender here, yes, and if she wanted to. So i brought him to tiffany, and that’s how she got set up with the waitress gig. So i asked him who i had to talk to about signing paperwork and getting paid and all that. He referred me to one person, who asked me what i was doing, and i said basically i’m with the band (b/c really, i didn’t know what to tell her, since this was only arranged the day before, over text, with russ), so she said talk to so and so, who eventually said talk to so and so, and then i found and asked russ, who said talk to so and so or so and so, so i found so and so number 2 first, talked to her, figured out that i was the band’s tech, then she talked to so and so number 1 that russ had been coordinating with all week, he said yes, then she gave me the paperwork to fill out, and russ got all their paperwork to fill out, and everything was set. Then they did the long range shot a couple of times and by 630 or so they started to pack up and go to their next location.

We all hung out at the bar waiting for bartender lillian to get it all set up so we could have a drink. because the drinks the extras had were non-alcoholic beers in real beer bottles… so by 730 or so eric bought us all (the band, minus steve and lucia, and plus jack’s fiance lindsey and sam’s girlfriend alexis, plus me) a drink.

The “kids” left soon after. russ, susan, mary and i went to basil leaf for dinner, where they ran into 2 couples that they knew, who didnt even come out for the shoot…random. Mary ordered a malbec, and susan told her that she’s “jim and franning.” lol. And susan called her mix of soy sauce and a ton of wasabi “pudding,” and i said it looked like the fairgrounds during jazz fest on a rainy day. yeah. it was like that.

Then i left, took the dogs out, and immediately crashed. fun day, but i couldnt make a career out of it.

Don’t worry. These next few weeks will have more blogs. I’m not gonna leave you hanging that long again. 😉

I don’t really know what encouraged me to do so. Whenever artists offer full stems of their songs, or even partial stems, or just a capellas, I’ll usually jump on it and download it, thinking that one day maybe I’ll play with it and see if I can come up with anything creative. I did it a few years ago for a song Barenaked Ladies released the bass, drums, guitars, and vocals tracks for, and still haven’t done anything with it. So a few months back (Septemeber, maybe?) when Minus the Bear released the full stems for “My Time” for a remix contest they were doing, I downloaded it. Not with any intention of entering the contest, but just to mess around with it. Recently, Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino released a few a capellas off of his Culdesac album, I snatched those up too. One day…

Well, I decided to see if I could make one of the Culdesac songs work with My Time. Not in a million years imagining that I would spend so much time on it, and not in two million years imagining that I would actually create something. Cuz I’m not a dj. Or a producer. I’m just a guy who loves music and has some software and 2 ears. So, this ain’t perfect. But I’m finally satisfied enough with it to let other people hear it. If you want the original versions of either of these songs, “My Time” is on OMNI, and “Let Me Dope You” is on Culdesac. Follow the links above, or any google search, and you shouldn’t have a problem finding them. And, as always, the disclaimer, if you don’t like cursing, yada yada yada, don’t click. 😛

To go along with the audio mashup, I made this visual mashup while catching up on stuff on DVR (as well as the great Twin Peaks re-watch now that I’m old enough to even try to “get it”).

Oh yeah. There are two versions. The “b” version is pretty much the same, I just included a little bit of the “My Time” chorus into it. Didn’t spend very much time on that. It was pretty much just an afterthought. Don’t hold it against me.

So, with that, and my apologies to Minus the Bear and Childish Gambino fans everywhere, I give you,

Dope Time

Dope Time “b”

Why is it that people, mainly people in charge, tend to listen to the people who THINK they know what they’re talking about, instead of the people who actually do? Why is it that they’ll back up some random person instead of their own employee? Why is it that they’ll listen to a flat out lie, instead of cold hard facts, just because of the liar’s position in the archdiocese organization, even though they know that person’s been sketchy and contradictory and game-playing before, and that the employee, the person with the cold hard facts, the person who has actually done the research for a project, only has the church’s employer’s best interest in mind? And why is it, even after all this is aired out, facts explained, etc, that they will STILL waste money on doing something that is absolutely unnecessary?

Why? Because, in many instances, people suck. I promise, that if I’m even in a position of “power,” that I will never suck like this.

Need further example of idiots in power? Check this bs out.

Now, to balance out my negatoriousness, some positudinousness:

You should check out Donald Glover’s site (yes, that’s Troy from NBC’s Community), and, if you’re into hip hop, download his Culdesac album. It’s free, and lyrically awesome! But it does have language, so it’s not for the kids. 🙂

Now, a clip from Mardi Gras.

Finally, don’t forget that I’m walking for diabetes this Saturday! Click here to give my team money!! 🙂

I bet no one knows what that subject is a reference to. 90 batrillion points to whoever can answer it.

My original subject was gonna be way more obvious and easy to name that reference. Here it is, in case you were wondering:

It’s been a long time. I shouldn’t have left you…without a dope beat to step to, step to, step to, step to, step to, step to, frikky frikky…

Yeah, easy, I know. What a sad loss. But on to happier topics. I forgot Jet Li was in that video.

Ok back to the blog. i just got distracted and watched a bunch of Aaliyah videos. Who can forget Are You That Somebody, with the “ah-AH-ah” baby sample. Heh.

Annnnyway, it wasn’t my intention to get derailed by Aaliyah. The point was to post a new blog, mainly about some fun stuff at work, to introduce you to some pictures, and, strangely enough, some musical reminiscing. This blog will take me a while to put together, I think. Longer than I intended. It’s gonna be typed in bits and pieces at different times. It’s currently 2:27 am (227…heh….Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaary – catch THAT reference) Saturday morning, October 16. So let’s see how long I actually take to put this together.

Now it’s Saturday night. Waiting for Big History, High in One Eye, and Native America to start. Should be a good show. HiOE is a guitar-drums combo who sings through their amp. So, in other words, I’ll be taking the second set easy. They wanna play on the flloor though. Should be interesting. I’m feeling old though. These are all college “kids” and recent graduates. When did I get old?? Which is a perfect segue to my next 2 paragraphs! Which one do I wanna take a segway into first? Hm.

Old. I went to see Paul Sanchez last night (October 15) at Chickie Wah Wah. I haven’t seen him play in a while, not every week like I used to. Sitting there listening made me remember all the shows I’ve been to over the years. I used to road trip like a mad man! I mean I’d drive 10-15 hours away and catch bands in multiple states night after night. Edwin McCain, MuteMath/Earthsuit, Cowboy Mouth, David Ryan Harris…and it’s not that I wouldn’t do that again. But most days when they’re somewhere I can drive to, I’m working. Which is a good thing, yes. Plus I guess they don’t tour as much anymore? I dunno. Guess we’re all getting older. 😉 And I don’t feel like “working myself in” with some new band. I just don’t have the “Almost Famous” inspiration anymore. I’d just as soon stay home and make money than get on the road and spend it…I wouldn’t mind following Minus the Bear around, but they don’t really play anywhere close. Hopefully Susan makes another trip to SXSW next year and I can go along again. 🙂 But seeing Paul really made me wanna go back and mix some of those recorded shows I never got to. Anybody got a time-freeze machine? Or at least a teleportation device.

After Paul I tried to go see Kelcy Mae at Clever Wine Bar, but I didn’t make it in time since she, too, was playing an early set. But I did get to talk to them for a while, and I offered BadAndy and Christina a ride home. They live downtown, and across from a bar, so we went there for a little bit. Christina was in the peace corps and lived in Spain for 2.25 years while Andy was still living here, so we have something almost in common. Anyway, after sitting down at the bar, I noticed that i sat in the spot where this was carved:

R + J

Weird huh?

Speaking of pictures, if you look up there on the main navigation menu, hover over “Photos” and click on “Favorites,” you’ll see that there’s a whole bunch of pictures there. I think for the most part they’re in chronological order. Or something else that makes sense when they’re not in chronorder. I’m sure there are more I could add, but I chose those for now, and that’s enough to digest for the time being, so enjoy. I’m missing my pictures from M.C.’s wedding, and the one I took of me and Method Man in Mango Mango. Not sure what the heck happened to those….

There are some awesome pictures from work in there. And by awesome I mean awesome at pointing out some of the ridiculous crap that goes on around there. There are no pictures of what I’m about to say, but that was my segue. A few weeks ago, I received a call from the people who take care of St. John the Baptist. Recently there was a major termite infestation, so Terminix went under the church to set baits or whatever you do for termites. Well, the people doing that work told the people who take care of SJB that there were bones down there, and something about coffins. Knowing that this was a church that is slightly above the ground, I figured it would be the first pastor, or some priests, or whatever, and that disintegrated coffins containing those bones should be handled by some official entity of the Archdiocese, who would know who they were. So I talked to the guy from the building office, who was coming to St. Pat’s the next day anyway, and he told me to contact the archives and the department of cemeteries. The archives had no record of who was down there. We’d have to have an idea to tell them where, year-wise, to look. Department of cemeteries didn’t know either. GREAT. The Terminix workers didn’t get close enough to see if there were any name plates or anything, or so I was told. So i just let it go for a while until we could all get together and go down there and see. After playing phone tag with the department of cemeteries, I was speaking to someone who knows more about these churches than the Archdiocese does, and he knew exactly who was down there. He said there’s 2 cement tombs down there, and the names of the priests are on them, and there’s no way that cemented tombs should have broken down and exposed the remains. So, a week later, he and I took an adventure down under the church, and sure enough, there are the tombs, intact, with the names and years. After not seeing any other bones, I called Terminix and talked to the guy in charge of the project, who told me that those workers basically exaggerated and were spooked out by the fact that there were tombs down there, and got the story out of hand, and to his knowledge there were no human remains. Maybe a cat or a dog or a R.O.U.S….ok, so he didn’t say that last one, that was me…or maybe even something someone brought from the butcher for lunch. Ah, how things get out of hand.

I could go on about things at work getting out of hand, but that’s a whole other topic for a whole other blog…this one’s already long enough.

And, in case you were wondering, the quote that became the subject of today’s blog is from Fighting Gravity. Not the Fighting Gravity from America’s Got Talent, but the original (?) Fighting Gravity from Virginia. How rude of new Fighting Gravity. I got all excited when a search lead me to fightingravity.com, only to find out it was the wrong one. I should’ve noticed that there was only one g….anyway, more on them here.

Have a great rest of the week. I’m sure I’ll be entering the blogworld again soon.

Oh yeah. This was finished at 7:10pm on Tuesday, October 18. Not too bad…;)