ShineDown Opening

Conversion Status - 8/29/13

60929 File(s) 498,401,864,933 bytes

How did it Go?

I didn't write about the gig on Saturday. We ended up playing these songs:

1. Lonely Boy
2. Big River
3. Stuck
4. Key
5. American Girl
6. FWIW
7. Cheap Shades
8. Dead Flowers
9. This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide
10. Sweet Jane
11. Sunshine of your Love
12. Rockin' In The Free World
13. What I Like About You
14. Foghat
15. Gimme Three Steps
16. Saturday night
17. Basket Case
18. Clarksville
19. Roadhouse Blues
20. Breakup Song

While my drums were set up under shade, Brian Guitar, Matthew, and Joe had to deal with the sun. Both Joe and Brian Guitar had some early technical issues with their equipment, but once those were ironed out, the gig went well. We only did one verse of "Sunshine" instead of the way we've always played it. "American Girl" sounded the best I've ever played it and I made it through "Basket Case" without messing up terribly bad. I've watched the video and I liked what I heard.

I plan to put some videos on the "Videos of Me Playing Drums" page in the near future.

Jealous

When did I start reading Meg's blog? How did I discover this person that lives in New York City? I can only speculate that one day, I clicked "Next Blog" and arrived on it. I have no reason to read her blog. We have never met. I find it fascinating to read her words about living in New York City, a place I've never been.She writes about day-to-day things and I return to read her posts every so often. When I read her blog, I try to internalize her visuals. Her choices are luxurious if comparing it to my visuals. She chooses artsy fonts, using a script font to write on her pictures. Her 'what I'm listening to now' posts introduce me to bands and artists I would not discover on my own..She strings words together and I instantly wish I had her talent. She has a voice and she uses her blog to shout as well as whisper.

Quoted on Wikipedia

As I was going through my MP3 collection through Windows Media Player (WMP), I came across "About You Now", a 5 song EP by Disney pop star Miranda Cosgrove. Within WMP, the titles for each song simply said "Track 1", "Track 2", etc, instead of the actual song title. I went to Wikipedia to learn the titles of the songs. On the page, there was a heading that said "Critical Reception" and I was blown away by what I read - they were my words! MY WORDS... on Wikipedia! I'm a source!

I thought, "Daily Vault"? That's the site I write for. When I checked the footnote, it had a link to my review of that release:

Conversion Status - 8/27/13

When Karen's family came to our house on Sunday, Alex and my nephew, Adam, played XBox in the basement. One of my other nephews, Danny, looked bored out of his skull as he watched them play. I gave him a stack of CDs and told him that when a CD ejected itself, to take one from the 'to do' stack and slip it in. Because of his effort and because I was in the basement, writing my Carnival of Madness concert review while watching WWE, I can now say, I have only 181 to go to hit 61,000 as my official count, per the MS DOS batch file, is
60819 File(s) 501,245,658,277 bytes
How awesome is that.

I Missed It

I had zero time to write yesterday. On August 25, 1989, the Metallica album "And Justice for All" was released. Below is what I posted on Facebook and I stand by it. When I am asked the (stupid) "If you were trapped on a desert island with only five releases, which ones would you have to have with you", this release is the first one out of my mouth.

Lou says we need to rock

Unless something changes at rehearsal today, these are the songs we're playing tomorrow at the Courage Ride.

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1. Mary Had A Little Lamb
2. Stone
3. Foghat
4. Sheriff
5. Gimme Three Steps
6. Saturday night
7. Hey Joe
8. Willie and the Hand Jive
9. Basket Case
10. Clarksville
11. Roadhouse Blues
12. Breakup Song

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13. Lonely Boy
14. Big River
15. Stuck
16. Key
17. American Girl
18. FWIW
19. Cheap Shades
20. Dead Flowers
21. This Beat Goes On/Switchin' To Glide
22. Sweet Jane
23. Sunshine of your Love
24. Rockin' In The Free World
25. What I Like About You

Conversion Status - 8/23/13

60527 File(s) 500,600,287,225 bytes

Warms my Heart

From my Favorite Mother-in-Law:
I hope you have a great Saturday night playing with Lou's Classic Ride- Knock their socks off and Enjoy

Schedule

I am really excited about this weekend. Lou's Classic Ride plays on Saturday from 2-4, then 5:30 Mass in Riverside, then Euchre night at St. Thomas More.

On Sunday, I think I'm playing drums with the youth group at 11, then heading up to Cedar Rapids for the show, which has this schedule:

Doors: 4:00pm

5:00 – 5:20pm We As Human

5:40pm - 6:15pm In This Moment

6:40pm – 7:35pm Papa Roach

8:05pm – 9:00pm Skillet

9:30pm – 11:00pm Shinedown

Staind's "It's Been Awhile" *STILL* Rocks...

After dropping Karen off at UIHC, I had the radio on. I know this song came out in 2001 - maybe it's considered "classic" but wow, I really love this song. Instead of the 25 songs for Saturday in my ears, I'm thinking I need some Staind in my ears.

Conversion Status - 8/19/13

Ran the DOS batch file and it says this: 60586 File(s) 500,481,485,382 bytes

Sinking And Swimming On Long Island - Bayside

I had Bayside on the MP3 player the other day and, wow, I really, truly, hope they play this song in Des Moines, IA, on Monday, October 14, 2013.

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This place is dragging me down
A hamster wheel, I thought I'd be done by now
Now that all my allies are gone
I realize advancing could hold you back

My good intentions just keep sliding by the wayside
But it's high tide and they get washed away with time
Till everything's gone, till everything's gone

All's fine along the Long Island Sound
But fine's polite I'd rather things more profound
I've become a rock these days and I swim like one
Alone again, barely surviving the tidal wave

My good intentions just keep sliding by the wayside
But it's high tide and they get washed away with time
Till everything's gone, till everything's gone

I swear, damn it all to hell, damn it all to hell

I think I finally found the way to go to heaven
Without dying, so I'm on my way
The harder you work, the harder you fall
You wake up one day with nothing at all

My good intentions just keep sliding by the wayside
But it's high tide and they get washed away with time
Till everything's gone, till everything's gone
Till everything's gone, till everything's gone
I swear, damn it all to hell

Prayer

Lord, please let me always look like I am having as much fun when I play drums as this guy.

Metallica ROCKS China!

Conversion Update - 8/14/13

I sat on the living room couch and verified that a stack of 35 CDs had all been converted to my external hard drive. All but 2 had been. Thus, my number is 60310 File(s) 499,533,893,179 bytes.

Sammy Hagar / James Hetfield Collaboration Falls Through

I'm not a super-duper huge Sammy Hagar fan, but he wins me over when he says, "If a Metallica fan would’ve heard this album and bought it because he was on there, they would be pissed off.”

Read the entire article here: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/james-hetfield-sammy-hagar-no-duet/

Bayside Concert News

Good News / Bad News: Good news - Bayside plays in Iowa City but I am not going as the kids have a band concert. Why is that good news? Because I can still go see *one of my favorite bands* in Des Moines two days earlier in Des Moines. Megan thinks she should go.

I did make contact with Bayside's manager and he said to hit him up a week before the show to line up two passes so I can write a review for dailyvault.com - which reminded me that I truly need to get back on the horse and resume writing music reviews! Maybe tonight.

Too Much

I spent too much time working on removing 3 plants from the front of our house. I worked and worked and worked. When I came in, I was hot, sweaty, and tingly. I could barely move.

I need to eat better & drink more water.

Chris Matthews needs to shut his mouth

So... MSNBC is not pro-Obama because he has never been on the network. Does that make Fox News "pro-Obama" because he was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly?!? Good gravy.

BB ROCKS!

I was slow to get on the "Breaking Bad" bandwagon. Be that as it may, the final 8 episodes began to air last night. HOLY COW!!! It was awesome! I watched "Bad Blood" twice!

Quick Conversion Status

As of now, the MS DOS batch file says I have 60426 File(s)

In an email discussion with Fred Meyer, I sent him the graphic below. I'm glad I did because it reminded me that the 3 year anniversary of creating this folder is coming up on Monday, August 19, 2013. I'll include another graphic on that day.

Anniversary

It was our 20 year wedding anniversary yesterday. We were married in Balltown, Iowa, on Saturday, August 7, 1993, and like yesterday's weather, it was a gorgeous day. I'm looking forward to the next zillion years with Karen.

Lou's Classic Ride Status

It's back to Elkader tonight for golf tomorrow AM, followed by Karen and I going to Prairie Du Chien, WI, for a night of casino, movie, and dinner, followed by returning to Elkader on Saturday in time for 5:30 Mass, followed by J&J Pizza, followed by a campfire. The forecast is cooperating, as of now.

Brian Guitar is on vacation to West Virginia until 8/14-ish so our next Lou's Classic Ride rehearsal is Friday, August 16. Then we'll rehearse Tuesday, 8/20 @ the studio, then Friday, 8/23, and then the gig is the next day. We've narrowed what was an enormous list of songs down to 25 that we think we can play well. This is the playlist I created of these 25 songs and this is the same playlist in Windows Media Player.

I have some work to do with these songs next week prior to our 8/16 rehearsal!

Gene Hoglan RULES!!

Who We Are

http://www.courageride.org/ride_info.html says...

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Lou's Classic Ride plays rock and blues classics ranging from Willie Dixon standards to a 2013 Grammy winner. If it's classic, it's classic and if Lou tells them to turn the volume down they play it louder. So dance, sing along, or just sit back and enjoy the ride. Lou's Classic Ride features Joe Bauer (guitar, vocals) Matt Helmke (bass, vocals) Paul Hanson (drums) and Brian Lehan Mackin (guitar, vocals).

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Back to It

With Alex gone to Balltown for the week and Megan & Karen watching TV upstairs, I went to the basement last night to watch WWE Raw as the march to the Summerslam PPV continues. It was a good show as it brought Randy Orton, one of the winners of the Money in the Bank briefcase at the last PPV, into the feud between John Cena & Daniel Bryan. The main event was John Cena / Randy Orton / Daniel Bryan v. The Shield in 6 man tag. Of course, the Shield won and, not surprising, Randy Orton gave Daniel Bryan & John Cena a RKO (his finisher). It's awesome having Randy Orton in the mix of this feud and I hope it makes Summerslam awesome.

And since I was downstairs, I got out stacks of CDs and continued my audit. I got up to 60241 File(s) when I run my batch file, but I noticed this morning that I have at least 145 files with (2) in the file name which means, unfortunately, I have 144 duplicate files. So, when that gets cleaned up, I'll have 600097 files instead. Still above my 60000 goal for 8/1/13, which I met, but not as impressive as I thought I was marching towards 61000 by the end of August.

Meanwhile, at work, I am finishing what I hope will be an easy project so I can move on to another project that is due 8/15/13 - code name: Peabody Duck. I think I have a status meeting today about Peabody Duck today at 10:30, so, back to work!

Conversion Status - 8/2/13

Last night, I worked on the conversion until 8:30, then went downstairs and played drums until 9. I came upstairs, brushed my teeth, and went to bed before Karen, which is odd for me. I had spent the early part of the evening packing for the college weekend and have the GMC Canyon packed.

This week has been all about busting butt on the conversion project. My first goal was to hit 60,000 in my music folder by 7/31/13 and when I hit that goal, I moved forward and started to whittle down the stacks of CDs I have in the den. I didn't do a good job with writing myself a note or in some other way indicating what the different stacks of CDs in the den mean - which stacks are "done" and which stacks are "not done" - so a lot of last night was putting in a CD, verifying that it had already been ripped, and moving on. The CDs I went through last night are in a plastic bag and I will remember that. I hope.

I just ran the DOS batch file: 60146 File(s)

Lou's Classic Ride rehearsal today from noon-ish until 2:30-ish. We are working on these songs:

1. Gimme 3 Steps
2. Switching to Glide
3. Mary Had a Little Lamb
4. Roadhouse Blues
5. Willie and the Hand Jive
6. I Shot the Sheriff
7. Basket Case

After rehearsal, I am picking up Karen from work by 3:20 and then heading north to Cresco. Busy day, busy weekend, but all fun.

Life Sucking Life Out of People...

• Years ago, when the kids went to Regina, there was a band called Girl Repellant. Sam Buatti was the drummer. I remember watching Girl Repellant and liking the drummer. I know his parents and I coached their other son when he played on Alex's North Dodge basketball league. I am praying for him and for his family during what must be a very difficult situation.
• Meanwhile, in Monona, a 18 month old little girl has been taken off life support while the search for the child's father continues.
• And, because life goes in threes, there is a man who put a dog shock collar on his son and he has now been released from jail.