Friday, January 31, 2014

Funny Exchange

On a regular basis, I send out prayer requests for a Christian Experience Weekend community. I recently set up a gmail.com account specifically for doing so instead of my 'normal' email account. I sent out a prayer request today and got a reply back from a contact that shouldn't have gotten the email in the first place. He did because I had imported my list of contacts from my other account and then manually remove personal contacts from the contacts for the CEW community. He shouldn't get any more emails.

My contact sends out a newsletter about parenting and personal responsibility. I followed up the explanation for why he received it in the first place with this story:

The whole idea about kids being held responsible resonates. A few years back, there was a kid on a middle school basketball team. He got called for a foul during the game and the coach took him out. As he sat down on the bench, he was visibly upset. From the stands, some spectator called out "That's okay <name of kid>, it was a bad call anyway." Now, the same kid plays for the varsity basketball team as a freshman. He actually is a fantastic player. Just last week, his team played an away game. He got called for a foul and slammed the ball down and got a technical foul so, very quickly, he fouled out of the game. What did "that's okay..., it was a bad call anyway" teach this kid? That all refs are evil? That comment never should have been made. It taught the kid it is okay to disrespect the ref. Oh, and in the same high school game that I mentioned, a second player got a foul called on him. The coach protested and argued and guess what? He got a technical foul as well! How does that coach then say to the player, "Don't let the bad calls get under your skin?" <grin>

BTW, the kid is the son of a basketball coach in the Big Ten. His father was called for two quick technical fouls in January and then suspended for a game. Did the kid look to his father for anger management advice?

He wrote back:

Great story. Man, lots in there: Modeling, blame, immaturity, victim thinking, not teaching youth the right values …. I could go on and on!

But I won’t. :-)
Thanks for sharing it!!!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Decisions to be Made

Motley Crue is the band I have mixed feelings about.

On one hand, I rank "Shout at the Devil" as one of my favorite releases. 

On the other hand, I have been to two of their concerts and walked out of the show disappointed. Whitesnake blew them away in 1987. The show in 1997 sucked.

Now, they are embarking on a farewell tour. Do I go?

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Just the Facts...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/01/29/wapo-factchecker-rips-obamas-jobs-enrollment-falsehoods

Game Report

As far as the Iowa v. MSU game that Megan and I saw?

In the past I have ranted on Facebook about two things that drive me nuts at Carver-Hawkeye Arena (CHA): fans leaving before there are all zeroes on the clock and fans telling other fans to "sit down."

Well, both happened last night. How can you leave a basketball game with 1:30 in overtime? How can you tell another fan to sit down in a sold out arena? I don't get it.

Look, traffic around CHA is bad. It will always be bad. There wasn't a parking spot so I parked behind another vehicle that wasn't in a spot. I am happy I wasn't towed. It is what it is. It's the same thing with Kinnick Stadium. If you really think leaving the game with 1:30 left in OT is going to get you that far ahead of the traffic, then you are stupid. Blunt, but true. If you are that concerned about traffic, stay home. The game was sold out and also on television. Stay home & give your tickets away.

And sit down? Really? You want to go to a sold out basketball game against a ranked top 5 team and instead of cheering and making my presence known, you want me to sit down? Do you really think this is an opera? You sit down at an opera. Do you think MSU fans *sit* at their basketball games? Do you think Wisconsin fans *sit* at their basketball games? What about North Carolina, Arizona, Duke, and Syracuse? What about Michigan, Indiana, and Kansas State? Do their fans *sit* when they go to a basketball game? Am I comparing apples and oranges, that Iowa men's basketball will never be mentioned in the same breath as those other teams? How can fans complain about being excluded from being mentioned with those great programs and, in the same breath, tell fellow fans to sit down?

Change will not happen until there is a culture shift. Move the fans down next to the court if the fans want to sit and watch. Fran McCafery's freshman class are now seniors. This is a team of talented players. They have an 11 man rotation. Any of those 11 could start - the talent is on that team. This is a new era. Dismiss the being outplayed history that has happened in CHA. I've been there.

Unless Kinnick and/or CHA are relocated to another part of campus, there will always be traffic issues on game days. Deal with it. No one would consider moving Kinnick to another part of campus even though it is now shoehorned into its current location by UIHC. Looking down the road at the future of Iowa athletics, I don't see a lot of good times coming. Recruits are going to see arenas and stadiums where the capacity crowd doesn't leave a game that has 1:30 left in OT.

Pleading for a Change

Megan and I didn't end up going to Best Buy to purchase "Through the Never" because I drove home I-380 instead of through Coralville, like I had intended.

In the sense that I got to spend time with Megan, the game was fun. We had hot dogs and Cokes for supper in the first half and an ice cream cone in the second half. I enjoy spending time with Megan. She really reminds me of myself when I was younger. She is trying to stretch her wings and fly and not always sure it is the right thing or the thing she can succeed at doing. I know she is starting to think about college and I am too. She is a junior in high school and that means, frankly, the sands in the hourglass are falling quickly. If her final day of high school would be June 1, 2015, she has 488 days as a high school student. She turns 19 in 562 days and then, shortly thereafter, she will be a college student at UNI, if plans do not change between now and then. I really need to take into account that she is turning into an adult before my eyes. She is at the point where she struggles with setting aside things that were important to her as a child in order to become a mature citizen of the world. I need to continue to pray for her. The next 562 days are going to go by very quickly.

I have more time with Alex - 1219 days until June 1, 2017, but I have no doubt that time will go by quickly as well. He called us last night after the game to ask about getting black ink put into the printer in the den so he could print an assignment. Despite some attitude, he was able to put in the new cartridge. He figured out how to print his brochure on both sides of the paper by manually inserting the sheet of paper into the printer the second time. I was impressed.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Through the Never

I was at Best Buy one day early. Metallica's "Through the Never" comes out on DVD today. My plan is that on the way home from going to the Iowa Hawkeyes v. MSU men's basketball game with Megan (game starts at 6), I will swing through Best Buy and pick up the DVD. I get really excited when I talk or write or think about Metallica. I really enjoy the riffs and the drumming and some of the lyrics simply make me turn into goo inside.

I will probably never forget that when I saw "Through the Never" in the theater, it was on a Monday night in October. I drove from North Liberty to the Cedar Rapids theater. I was the only one in the theater. I played my air drums and no one, except maybe the employees, saw me in my glory. It was totally fitting to be in the theater alone. Karen wouldn't go with me - and I don't blame her. I wouldn't want her to sit through something I love just to hate it. Even though it was rated R, Karen didn't approve of the idea of taking 17 year-old Megan to see it. Alex was eliminated from contention because he is 15.

Last night, WWE Raw was interesting. Read the results if you want. Coming off of the Royal Rumble the night before, I expected a great show. And, to me, it was.

  • The Internet is buzzing that John Cena is going to fight the Wyatts at Wrestlemania XXX. Judging by the way the show ended, I think that is true.
  • Golddust / Cody Rhodes got their rematch v. The New Age Outlaws. It ended with Brock Lesnar coming out and slamming each of the Rhodes brothers with a steel chair. I don't know, for sure, if that means Lesnar is going to feud with them or not. I do think Lesnar's mouthpiece, Paul Heyman, is one of the greatest heel managers of all time.
  • Even the main event was good, though it has been done before. The heel team (The Shield) fighting three faces who don't have a lot to do with each other except that they are crowd favorites. Thus, when the Shield took on John Cena / Sheamus (who returned to action at the Royal Rumble) / Daniel Bryan. Bryan, it felt like a repeat. All the crowd favorites have to do is fight. 

And, in general, there has been a lot of backlash because he wasn't put into the Royal Rumble match the night before. The storyline is that HHH and Stephanie McMahon didn't want to make him have two matches in the same night, even though he's done that before. Batista won the Royal Rumble, but it was Roman Reigns that has emerged as the real winner. He eliminated more WWE wrestlers than anyone else in a RR match. The tease is that the Shield are going to deteriorate into nothingness, but that wasn't really played up in the main event, which ended when the Wyatt Family attacked John Cena and caused a disqualification for the Shield. That means Cena / Sheamus / Bryan are in the Elimination Chamber match at the next PPV in a month. I fully expected the Shield to go after the Wyatts at the end of Raw, but they didn't.

For as tired as I was from suffering through the movie "Frozen" at 4:10, I was somewhat captivated by the storylines and how they advanced.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Time Has Come

I am truly getting excited about the new Bayside release "Cult" that comes out on 2/18/14. I wouldn't be surprised if Megan or I buy it on the day of release.



Oh, by the way, the new plan is to go see "Frozen" with Alex and Karen at 4:10 at the Coral Ridge Mall. Megan works at 6 and has seen the movie. This would be completed prior to watching WWE Raw and ripping Spindle #10.

White PVC Pipes Point Up and other Observations

It turns out that while Megan and I were at 11 AM Mass yesterday, our furnace guy, Doug, came over. Apparently, turning the PVC pipe to let the water drain was incorrect. He cleaned a part and, ever since, the furnace has purred like a stroked cat.

Another observation I have is the 2014 edition of the Grammy's was on last night. Metallica played "One" with a Chinese pianist. I posted on Facebook:

Divided. Glad to hear metal on network TV, but not sold on playing "One" *again. So what if it is the 25th anniversary of playing it. I wonder how many people think that is their only good song? So many great songs they could have selected.

Judge for yourself.

Editor's Note - the video in question was removed from youtube.com so it is no longer available for your viewing pleasure.

In other news, the CD reconversion continues. I have finished Spindle #9 and will begin Spindle #10 tonight. School was cancelled today because of the cold temperature and so that means I should be able to watch WWE Raw tonight. Alex's basketball game at Cedar Rapids Washington was postponed because the Cedar Rapids Community School District does not have school either. That translates into digging into Spindle #10. I ran the DOS batch file this morning and my count is 15394 File(s). I copied a large number of data CDs to my external hard drive and finished the "secret project". I am now making a copy of the "secret project" files so that I can integrate an additional 2250 File(s) files into the music_shell folder. I had previously kept the files not integrated because I didn't want to not be able to quickly locate the "secret project" files. The secret project is being integrated into the "reconversion" sub-folder but it's kind of misleading. These are CDs that were never previously in my collection.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Never

I don't have a lot of requests that I make on my behalf to God but, after last night, I have one. Please God, when I feel prideful and confident, keep me in check. Don't let my mind overtake my actions, if that makes sense.

After I wrote about how great my life was in my last post, I had humility slap me in the face. We came home from 5:15 Mass and the furnace was set to 72, but it was 70 in the house. Fudge. I went downstairs and flipped the furnace switch. Then, later, the furnace would not kick in. Frustration. Helplessness. Of course, Karen asked me to call Doug, our furnace guy, and, of course, on a Saturday night at 9 PM, he didn't answer. I don't know if I would answer.

What I did notice when I looked at the furnace is that the white PVC pipe that drains water was full of water. I turned the pipe so it could drain. I don't really know if that was the right thing to do, but it was really about the only thing I could see that looked weird.

With no contact with Doug, my instructions were to go get a new furnace filter. I drove to Wal-Mart and back within 30 minutes. While I was gone, the furnace kicked in. Was it because I had taken the existing furnace filter out? Was it because I turned the PVC pipe and drained the water?

I don't know. All I know is that it's 8:20 AM on a Sunday morning and I'm in a warm house. Karen told me that she checked the furnace a couple of times during the night and it wsa functioning properly.

I can only shrug my shoulders.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Future

When I think about my future, I'm hesitant to boast about how good my life is at this precise moment. It just seems like the stars in my life are aligned in the right way.
  • Tentatively, I'm optimistic that the van issues are resolved. The van stalled when Karen was driving home on Wednesday night so I took it to Brian at Dodge Street Tire in Iowa City. We hoped that the $400 in work that was done to the van (oil change / engine tune-up) on Thursday would resolve the issue. It did not. On Friday morning, the van started reeally rough and so I had to return to Brian. Brian cleaned out a gunky thing and so, this morning, there wasn't an issue with it starting. Cautiously, it seems to have resolved the van issues.
  • Alex won his game last night against Cedar Rapids Washington in the 5th quarter, but the team lost the first four quarters. I guess you could say the "game that counts." Alex scored 4 points.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Project

What I want to do this weekend is convert the single WAV file from Uncle Rico rehearsal to 19 individual tracks. When I have time, I hope this video will help me:



Alex has a busy schedule:
  • Basketball Games
    • today (Friday)
    • tomorrow (Saturday)
    • Monday
    • Thursday
  • Early AM practice on Wednesday at 6 AM
I have a busy schedule as well:
  • Tuesday, Megan and I are going to the men's Iowa v. MSU game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 6 PM.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Ideal Bands 4 - 2014

Who knew that when I wrote Ideal Band that I would be a member of not one, but TWO, bands in 2014 because, in addition to being the drummer for Lou's Classic Ride, I am also the drummer in Uncle Rico. I say "both" because I'm not quitting LCR - we haven't rehearsed since 11/13/13 and no practices are scheduled.

More details about Uncle Rico. The members are:
Gary - guitar / vocals
Greg - bass / vocals
Scott - guitar / vocals
Me - drums

At Gary's house in Cedar Rapids, I started my recorder prior to beginning the first song. When I stopped the recorder, the length of the recording was 1:54. I liked that we were able to simply plow through the following list of songs (in this order):
  1. Blister in the Sun -- Violent Femmes
  2. What I Like About You -- The Romantics
  3. Basket Case -- Green Day
  4. Rock and Roll All Nite -- Kiss
  5. Fight For Your Right -- Beastie Boys
  6. Paranoid -- Black Sabbath
  7. Rockin' in the Free World -- Neil Young
  8. Santa Monica - Everclear
  9. Jet Airliner -- Steve Miller
  10. Johnny B Goode -- Chuck Berry
  11. I Saw Her Standing There -- Beatles
  12. Interstate Love Song -- Stone Temple Pilots
  13. You May Be Right -- Billy Joel
  14. Folsom Prison Blues -- Johnny Cash
  15. Ring of Fire -- Social Distortion (Johnny Cash)
  16. Lola -- Kinks
  17. She -- Green Day
  18. I Melt With You -- Modern English
  19. Mony Mony -- Billy Idol
Did I play perfectly? No, of course not. I felt good about how I played. Using the MP3s from Gary, I have created a playlist in Windows Media Player that I will listen to in order to internalize them. Obviously, there are some that LCR plays that are on the list above so that is good.

In

I am in Uncle Rico. We played 2 hours.  I used my phone to record it. I am really excited to be in the band. The best part is that the vision of the members isn't to play every weekend.  It's not a job.  It is about having fun.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Insane Tour Schedule!

I know I've complained about bands that circle around Iowa, but that's normally if they have a couple of days (or at least one!) off and could have played in Iowa. That's not the case for WAXAHATCHEE, who have a completely INSANE schedule of playing 10 days in a row. Good luck to them!


4/18 - Indio, CA @ Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
4/19 - Las Vegas, NV @ Eagle Hall @
4/20 - Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom @ #
4/21 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sister @
4/22 - Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater @
4/23 - Kansas City, KS @ Czar @
4/24 - Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room $
4/25 - Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock $
4/26 - Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle $ %
4/27 - Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups %

@ = w/ Dogbreth
# = w/ Future Islands
$ = w/ Carbonleak
% = w/ All Dogs

Politics

I don't know what it's like to be non-White. I can never really, truly, know.
  • I can watch the movie "42" that was about the struggle baseball great Jackie Robinson went through. 
  • I can listen to the "I Have a Dream" speech. 
  • I can even read accounts of slavery in umpteen zillion books. 
I can do all of those actions, but I will never be non-White. I can't do anything about it. So, from this article, I quote the following:
In a lengthy interview with New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick the president tells him, "There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president. Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president."

I really like the way Wayne Allyn Root dissects the premise that race causes Americans to disagree with policies. I agree with Root's assertions and, for me, here are my sticking points:
  • I disagree with the way the Benghazi situation has been handled. If it was a terrorist attack, then it's a terrorist attack. Blaming a video is politics.
  • I disagree with the way the IRS situation has been handled. If specific groups were targeted by the IRS because their beliefs are different from the president's beliefs, I believe that is wrong.
  • I disagree with the way the Affordable Health Care Act has been handled. If the fact that people cannot afford health care, then set up a system for them. Don't make the elderly get maternity insurance.
And, sure, Republicans are not perfect.
  • Does Rand Paul plagiarize his speeches? 
  • Did Chris Christie really close a bridge because of politics? 
  • Why can't the internal business of the Republican party remain internal and not fodder for MSNBC to trot out the lack of a cohesive message about women, immigration, and abortion within the Republican party?
At the end of the day, politics brings out the worst in people. I'm ready for it to bring out the best.

This post sponsored by the Society to Eliminate Bulleted Lists in Blog Posts.

Milestone

When I ran the DOS batch file yesterday @ 6:51ish AM, my count in the music_shell\reconversion folder was: 8678 File(s) 34,743,202,433 bytes

When I ran the DOS batch file just now @ 6:08ish AM, my count in the music_shell\reconversion folder is: 10702 File(s) 45,171,844,807 bytes.

In one day, I added 2024 files and finished converting Spindle #8. Another thing that happened is I began Spindle #9, which includes a lot of data CDs. I fully expect my numbers to continue to climb as I work my way through the data CDs. I can have as many as 12 albums of 12 songs each on a single CD. Eventually, I'm sure that spike will level off.

And, just for the record, the above numbers do not include the 1528 File(s) in my secret project folder. I am 4/5ths complete with that project and clearly on target for my self-imposed deadline.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Audition

Updated the list of songs we're going to try tonight:

I have an audition in Cedar Rapids for Uncle Rico the Band on Wednesday, 1/22/2014. I hope it goes well. We are going through the following song:
  1. Basket Case -- Green Day
  2. Fight For Your Right -- Beastie Boys
  3. Paranoid -- Black Sabbath
  4. Rock and Roll All Nite -- Kiss
  5. Rockin' in the Free World -- Neil Young
  6. What I Like About You – Romantics
  7. Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes
  8. Lonely Boy -- Black Keys - not going to try
  9. An American Girl -- Tom Petty - not going to try
  10. Break Up Song -- Greg Kihn - not going to try
  11. Seven Nation Army -- White Stripes - not going to try
Since "American Girl" was eliminated, that meant I focused on "Basket Case" and "What I Like About You" when I hit the Yamaha set and hammered away for awhile.

Basketball & Grammy's

Alex had a basketball game in Mount Pleasant on Saturday. He left his jersey in the locker room. Karen and I drove down yesterday - 104 miles roundtrip - to pick it up. He had a game last night, Iowa City West was defeated in the freshman game, but victorious in the 5th quarter. Alex had a couple of nice rebounds and played well. I was happy for him.

On Sunday, January 26, 2014, Metallica is returning to the Grammy's, an awards show they have not performed on since 1989, when they performed "One" and then lost the Grammy for Best Metal Band to Jethro Tull. It was such a big deal because, frankly, the fact that Metallica had created a video for "One" was controversial. Fans wanted Metallica to remain their secret, for some reason. Then, performing on the Grammy's happened and everyone went nuts.

For me, I had not really started my love affair with Lars in January 1989. It took seeing them 6 months later in June 1989 at the Five Seasons Center before I really got into them. I think. Maybe I got into them prior to that. I kind of remember having a poster of them in my dorm room from the first day of school. Now I want to go look through my photo albums and see if I can find a picture.

In 2014, they are again going to play "One" but this time with a violist named Lang Lang. Guitarist Kirk Hammett has been quoted as saying the version of the song they are rehearsing is going to be "insane." Here's to hoping it is as awesome as the way they played the song in 1989!


Monday, January 20, 2014

Hmmmm

There's an ad on the Cedar Rapids Craigslist that says a band called "Uncle Rico the band" needs a drummer. They play around 6 gigs a year. These are the songs they play:
Song Name -- Artist (original artist)
  1. All These Things That I've Done -- Killers
  2. Bad Case of Loving You -- Robert Palmer
  3. Basket Case -- Green Day
  4. Blister in the Sun -- Violent Femmes
  5. Blitzkreig Bop -- Ramones
  6. Brown Eyed Girl -- Van Morrison
  7. Brown Sugar -- Rolling Stones
  8. Closing Time -- Semisonic
  9. Come Monday -- Jimmy Buffet
  10. Dancing Queen -- Yayhoos (ABBA)
  11. Dancing With Myself -- Billy Idol
  12. Don't Change -- INXS
  13. Fight For Your Right -- Beastie Boys
  14. Folsom Prison Blues -- Johnny Cash
  15. Hey Jealousy -- Gin Blossoms
  16. Hot Stuff -- Cockroach (Donna Summer)
  17. I Melt With You -- Modern English
  18. I Ran -- A Flock of Seagulls
  19. I Saw Her Standing There -- Beatles
  20. I Wanna Be Sedated -- Ramones
  21. I Will Survive -- Shout (Gloria Gaynor)
  22. I'm a Believer -- Smash Mouth (Monkeys)
  23. I'm Gonna Be, 500 Miles -- Proclaimers
  24. Interstate Love Song -- Stone Temple Pilots
  25. Iron Man -- Black Sabbath
  26. It's the End of the World -- REM
  27. I've Been Everywhere -- Johnny Cash
  28. Jenny / 867-5309 -- Tommy Tutone
  29. Jet Airliner -- Steve Miller
  30. Johnny B Goode -- Chuck Berry
  31. Just Like Heaven -- Cure
  32. Living in Fast Forward -- Kenny Chesney
  33. Lola -- Kinks
  34. Lonely Boy -- Black Keys
  35. Love Her Madly -- The Doors
  36. Margaritaville -- Jimmy Buffet
  37. Mony Mony -- Billy Idol
  38. Oh Boy -- Crickets (Buddy Holly)
  39. Paranoid -- Black Sabbath
  40. Pump It Up -- Elvis Costello
  41. Ring of Fire -- Social Distortion (Johnny Cash)
  42. Rock and Roll All Nite -- Kiss
  43. Rockin' in the Free World -- Neil Young
  44. Rock'n Me -- Steve Miller
  45. Santa Monica -- Everclear
  46. She -- Green Day
  47. Should I Stay or Should I Go -- Clash
  48. Squeeze Box -- Who
  49. Still Rock and Roll to Me -- Billy Joel
  50. Sweet Caroline -- Neil Diamond
  51. Train in Vain (Stand By Me) -- Clash
  52. Two Princes -- Spin Doctors
  53. What I Like About You -- Romantics
  54. When the Sun Goes Down -- Kenny Chesney
  55. Wonderful Tonight -- Eric Clapton
  56. You May Be Right -- Billy Joel
  57. Your Mama Can't Dance -- Poison (Loggins and Messina)
We have also played these songs in past gigs.
  1. A Hard Day's Night -- Beatles
  2. Accidentally In Love -- Counting Crows
  3. All Shook Up -- Elvis
  4. All the Small Things -- Blink 182
  5. An American Girl -- Tom Petty
  6. Angie -- Rolling Stones
  7. Authority Song -- John Mellencamp
  8. Break Up Song -- Greg Kihn
  9. Burning Love -- Elvis
  10. Bus Stop -- Hollies
  11. Cars -- Gary Numan
  12. Come Out and Play -- Offspring
  13. Crazy Little Thing Called Love -- Queen
  14. Crocodile Rock -- Elton John
  15. Day Tripper -- Cheap Trick (Beatles)
  16. Don't Be Cruel -- Elvis
  17. Driver 8 -- REM
  18. Fortunate Son -- Creedence Clearwater Revival
  19. Go All the Way -- Raspberries
  20. Good Girls Don't -- Knack
  21. Hello Mary Lou -- Creedence Clearwater Revival (Ricky Nelson)
  22. I Fought the Law -- Clash (Crickets)
  23. I Love Rock n Roll -- Joan Jett
  24. I Wanna Be With You -- Raspberries
  25. I Want to Hold Your Hand -- Beatles
  26. I'm Yours -- Jason Mraz
  27. It's Not My Time -- 3 Doors Down
  28. Know Your Enemy -- Green Day
  29. Kodachrome -- Paul Simon
  30. La Bamba -- Los Lobos (Ritchie Valens)
  31. Lay Down Sally -- Eric Clapton
  32. Monster Mash -- Bobby "Boris" Pickett
  33. Mrs Robinson -- Lemonheads (Simon/Garfunkel)
  34. Oh Pretty Woman -- Roy Orbison
  35. Photograph -- Ringo Starr
  36. Promises -- Eric Clapton
  37. Puppy Love -- Donny Osmond
  38. Red Solo Cup -- Toby Keith
  39. Rock and Roll Music -- Beatles (Chuck Berry)
  40. ROCK in the USA -- John Mellencamp
  41. Run Rudolph Run -- Bryan Adams (Chuck Berry)
  42. Running Down a Dream -- Tom Petty
  43. Seven Nation Army -- White Stripes
  44. Sex and Candy -- Marcy Playground
  45. Shake Your Booty -- KC & Sunshine Band
  46. Shama Lama Ding Dong -- Lloyd Williams (Animal House)
  47. Somebody to Love -- Jefferson Airplane
  48. Surrender -- Cheap Trick
  49. Suspicious Minds -- Elvis
  50. Teddy Bear -- Elvis
  51. That'll be the Day -- Buddy Holly
  52. The More I Drink -- Blake Shelton
  53. They Say Its Your Birthday -- Beatles
  54. Twist and Shout -- Beatles
  55. Upside Down -- Jack Johnson
  56. Vertigo -- U2
  57. Who Says You Can't Go Home -- Bon Jovi
  58. Wild Child -- Chris Ocasek (Crickets)

Don't Make Me Click You

I have seen a trend that alarms me in our current technology-laced delusional world called "the Internet" and I don't know what I can do about it except bitch and whine and complain. While I really like this article, I don't like that I have to click 10 times to read the article.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Victory! Defeat!

Alex's game resulted in a victory, Louis and I won 2 out of 3 games of Euchre, and I managed to squeeze in some time on the Yamaha set while Louis & Karen napped and Jean showered for 5:15 Mass. It was important to me that I found some time to drum because of two reasons:
  1. Hopefully, I can round up LCR for a gig at the MDA Walk on Saturday, February 22, 2014, at the Coral Ridge Mall. That's something I'm actively trying to do.
  2. Hopefully, I can play drums tonight at 5:15 Mass. I hadn't drummed since last Sunday at 11 AM Mass. I wanted to loosen up my muscles a bit and get familiar with how to move around the drums again. 
When I played the Yamaha set, I went through some of the songs that LCR does. When I practice, my MP3 player is on shuffle because I don't want to get bored playing the songs in the same order. There was a smile on my face when "Dead Flowers" started because I really like it. "Three Steps" and "Switching to Glide" also came through as well as "Sunshine." In total, I think I drummed for 30 minutes. It felt good. My shoulders are kind of sore, now, but I'd rather be loosened up than to not be loosened up.

Bad Odor = NO Food

We walked into the Hardees in Mount Pleasant and I had to turn around and walk away. It smelled like cow manure! We're going to an Alex basketball game.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Act of God

The ROTR Line-Up for 2014 has been announced - I'm flabbergasted and, of course, I have already found out it is a 9 hour drive from my house to Columbus, OH, and, of course, I have already gone down the list of my friends that I think would want to go with me, and, of course, Alex is thinking he would want to go and, of course, I would love a father / son trip with him.

It is May 16th, 17th & 18th at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.

Band
What I think about them
1.    
Adelitas Way
Awesome Band!
2.    
Alter Bridge
Awesome Band!
3.    
Avenged Sevenfold
Awesome Band!
4.    
Black Label Society
Awesome Band!
5.    
Black Stone Cherry
Awesome Band!
6.    
Chevelle
Awesome Band!
7.    
Down
Awesome Band!
8.    
Exodus
Awesome Band!
9.    
Five Finger Death Punch
Awesome Band!
10.                 
Fozzy
Awesome Band!
11.                 
Fuel
Awesome Band!
12.                 
Gojira
Awesome Band!
13.                 
Guns N Roses
Awesome Band!
14.                 
Kid Rock
Awesome Band!
15.                 
Killswitch Engage
Awesome Band!
16.                 
Mastodon
Awesome Band!
17.                 
Miss May I
Awesome Band!
18.                 
Motorhead
Awesome Band!
19.                 
Pop Evil
Awesome Band!
20.                 
Redlight King
Awesome Band!
21.                 
Rev Theory
Awesome Band!
22.                 
Seether
Awesome Band!
23.                 
Slayer
Awesome Band!
24.                 
Staind
Awesome Band!
25.                 
Suicidal Tendencies
Awesome Band!
26.                 
Texas Hippie Coalition
Awesome Band!
27.                 
Theory of a Deadman
Awesome Band!
28.                 
Trivium
Awesome Band!
29.                 
We As Human
Awesome Band!
30.                 
Bring Me The Horizon
Familiar - don’t have
31.                 
Devour the Day
Familiar - don’t have
32.                 
Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience
Familiar - don’t have
33.                 
Kyng
Familiar - don’t have
34.                 
Of Mice & Men
Familiar - don’t have
35.                 
Pretty Reckless
Familiar - don’t have
36.                 
Reignwolf
Familiar - don’t have
37.                 
Skindred
Familiar - don’t have
38.                 
Thousand Foot Krutch
Familiar - don’t have
39.                 
We Came as Romans
Familiar - don’t have
40.                 
Avatar
Unfamiliar
41.                 
Butcher Babies
Unfamiliar
42.                 
Harlot
Unfamiliar
43.                 
Jim Breuer Band
Unfamiliar
44.                 
King 810
Unfamiliar
45.                 
Kvelertak
Unfamiliar
46.                 
Monster Truck
Unfamiliar
47.                 
Nothing More
Unfamiliar
48.                 
One OK Rock
Unfamiliar
49.                 
Truckfighters
Unfamiliar
50.                 
Twelve Foot Ninja
Unfamiliar
51.                 
Werm
Unfamiliar
52.                 
Wilson
Unfamiliar
It's going to take an act of God, though, to get me to Columbus, OH, that weekend.