I would Love this... Had I seen it years ago... :<(

My brother-in-law Mark and I went to Guitar Center on Wednesday night (11/23) and drove by Slumberland. We are in the market for a corner entertainment center and there has been one advertised @ Slumberland for $199. I wanted to check it out. I found what I would love to have, if I had $500 laying around (rest assured, I do, but it's not for what I found).

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How beautiful is that! I would love to actually have two of them. I might be able to fit all my CDs into them. However, I do not think it is really worth purchasing because I am converting from CD to MP3s on my external hard drive.

Jojo or JoJo... I don't Care - He is Amazing!

Digging up the Past - SRV

I was thinking about one of my friends Ken. It is kind of weird to call him "friend" because he moved from the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area years ago. The last I knew, he lived in Dubuque. He was a guitarist - we spent many hours in my parent's basement. We went through a metal phase, in the summer of 1989, then a blues phase, in the summer of 1990, and by the summer of 1991, we managed to get through "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. The legend goes that we cranked that out in the basement, then talked to our friend James, who had also gone through the metal and blues phases with us. He had been jamming with two others: John and Stoff. John sang while Stoff played guitar. The idea was hatched for the five of us to play "Enter Sandman" at my college's talent show. We also put together an original that John and Stoff had written called "Bullfrog Blues," a song I still adore.

The talent show was two nights. The first night was not as good as the second night. I remember watching the video of the first night immediately after we played. During Ken's solo during "Enter Sandman," John paced in front of Ken. I told him not to do that the second night so he ran down the center aisle during Ken's solo the second night. My drum solo the first night was pathetic. The second night was a lot better. I also looked like a geek the first night and had 'cooler' clothes the second night. My roommate Brian Rock ran the lights and on the second night, he made it not as dark on stage. Overall, I don't like watching the first night.

Which leads me to Ken. Ken married Carrie in the summer of 1990. I got really drunk and had a good time. Fast forward to 1994 and Ken and Carrie were getting divorced. He was going to move to Dubuque to be closer to his family, who lived in Sherrill. Ken was working at the Spring House as a cook, but his passion, at the time, was guitar and art. He was a big SRV fan. I found the following cover song of a band. Youtube is amazing in that they are called Schroeder's Ghost. The video is from a live gig on 5/29/10 at JD's Place in Farmingdale, NY. The band members are Joe Sanfillippo (guitar), Frank Bisceglia (bass), Keith Taylor (keys), Tommy von Stiegler (drums) and Pam Dixon (vox and other miscellaneous items). I wish they'd come to eastern Iowa!

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Hello World!

Lots going on. One of the things is that Metallica and Lou Reed released "Lulu" and I reviewed it on Dailyvault.com. I gave it an F. I hated it. I don't think I will ever listen to that horrible release ever again. It reminded me of Gene Simmons' "Asshole" release, which was also simply awful. Still, the two entities are trying their best to ignore that the release only sold 13,000 copies the first week. "Lulu" is a commercial flop.

23

The magic number, it would appear, is 23. That is the number of songs that Jim (guitar), Keith (bass), Len (guitar), and I (drums) ran through last night in my basement. These are also the musicians that I regularly play with at 5:15 Mass. Last night, we played at Mass a nearly perfect warmup including "On Eagle's Wings" and "Sing of the Lord's Goodness" (that awesome 5/4 tune that sounds a lot like Dave Brubeck's "Take Five"). After Mass, we set up our instruments in my basement. I am not going to say each of the following 23 songs sounded perfect - they did not, a fact no one would dispute that listened to us playing. So these are the songs we went through with varying degrees of success.

1. All My Lovin'
2. Let It Be
3. Norwegian Wood
4. Can't You See She's Mine
5. Patience
6. Mighty Mississippi
7. Summer of 69
8. Field of Gold
9. Hey Jude
10. Love Me Tender
11. Nowhere Man
12. Stand by Me
13. Every Breath You Take
14. Dust in the Wind
15. Maggie May
16. Imagine
17. I Get Around
18. Walk Don't Run
19. It was a Very Good Year
20. Sweeter than Wine
21. Lay Down Sally
22. Runnin' Down a Dream
23. Wake Up Little Susie