Jun
28
2010

I Think We Should Fake Our Deaths And Move To Tokyo!

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, June 28, 2010 - 04:56:17 pm
(Posted Under: Rants)
Fuck today has been a frustrating waste. It started out looking good, but has just turned into a lot of going nowhere. I really can't stand days like this. I think PH Naffah said it best when they went to court with Mercury Records: "I just wanna rock". That speaks to me (and always has) on such a deep level. I'm fine when I'm rocking. When I can't, especially when I want to, man talk about such a palpable feeling of skin crawling frustration, and intense desire to claw my fucking eyes out!

With that said, I got my submissions for The Music Matters Project off before, so I guess that's something.
Now Playing: Reign Kings - Step Back
Jun
24
2010

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, June 24, 2010 - 04:47:10 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Now Playing: The Refreshments - Interstate
Jun
24
2010

Would You Like To Know The Sound Of The Ocean?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, June 24, 2010 - 03:20:25 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
I thought this earlier today, it's not just because Parts Of Yesterday came on - I'm missing the beach right now. It's the one downside of Arizona. I'd like to declare a road trip to Puerto Peñasco (the closest beach town from Phoenix) this weekend. All the violence going on in Mexico is disheartening, because gee it'd be fun. Just not enough fun to risk behind shot or beheaded. [smile]
Now Playing: Mark Zubia - Parts Of Yesterday
Jun
23
2010

Get Strange Young Things On The KISS Tour

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 12:37:28 am
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music)
Via Strange Young Thing's myspace page. I'd love to see these guys open for Kiss!




It's cool to see that the tour looks like it's going to happen. Though I notice that the out of space gig has been pushed back somewhat. [lol]
Now Playing: Sugar High - Genevelyn
Jun
21
2010

And...It's Summer

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, June 21, 2010 - 11:37:26 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
It's about time! It's officially summer. It's been hot enough to be called summer for at least a month, but thankfully today I can actually say it is.

And it's probably just going to get worse from here. [smile]
Jun
20
2010

Stick A Fork In Me Jerry

New Bookcase

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 10:55:14 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
We had a look at book cases today, briefly looking at Target, before deciding to compare what Ikea had. As such, we were pretty sold on a Expedit bookcase they had in the as is section for $66, down from $99. Initially it looked like it wasn't really damaged, but we did in the end notice the damage, which just wasn't that visible. So we decided to go with the purchase. And hence also come up with the new life rule "no new furniture 'til after summer". Dealing with big furniture items in Arizona's summer - no fun at all.

Photobox ImageWe got the thing disassembled, loaded into the car, and then unloaded upstairs. And then came the fun of putting the son of a bitch back together. It was reasonable easy to take apart, and was initially pretty easy to put back together. To a point. [smile] Then it was just painful. Though after several hours, and having the thing standing out EVERY one of it's corners, we had the thing assembled.

But by close to midnight, we were at the "stick a fork in me Jerry, I'm done!" stage. So much for trying it in different places. It was going in the lounge room, and that's where it's staying. At least for now!

We really like it, but god it turned into an ordeal! [smile]
Jun
19
2010

Ghetto Cowgirl, Black Moods & Tramps

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 11:47:00 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Fun rock n' roll night tonight, once that has you running all over town.

We started out at Yucca to see Ghetto Cowgirl acoustic. I wasn't expecting it, but it was 3 out of the 4 guys, including Serifini. Kinda a cool change from just Marc & Thomas.

After their performance, it was off to 910 Live for the Black Moods show. Annoyingly, the band had been moved from the 11:00pm to 11:45pm slot, which meant we'd probably miss Tramps and Yucca. And that we had to wait for the band to go on.

A really fun show. I was admittedly surprised by the lack of old tunes in the set. With the exception of Tall, It's A Drug and Sweet Virgina at the end. Much like the last time we saw them, the first song seemed like it was going to be Shut Up And Dance. Which would be a complaint with the new stuff, a number of the songs do seem very similarly to other songs.

About 3/4 of the way through, Josh called Bobby Scott up to the stage. Which was both awesome, and potentially not the smartest move. Because, while I was thoroughly enjoying myself, the moment Bobby got on stage, the lack of stage presence leading up to that point was painfully clear, if it hadn't been up until that point.

The slightly drunk birthday boy got up, strutted and postured, and pretty much gave a good example of why I was destined to be a Bobby Scott fan. [smile] And why he was born to be in a hair metal cover band. The guy rocks. They did three covers with Bobby, including I Need To Know and Billy Jean, which was a lot of fun, and really had the audience fired up. It was however sad that half the room exited when Bobby exited the stage. I've got to be honest, I don't understand the mentality behind paying a cover and sitting outside while the band is playing. Maybe it's just me.

The Moods finished up with Sweet Virgina, and for us it was time to hit the road, back to Yucca. Thankfully we still got to catch a decent slice of Tramps & Thieves when we got back there - and some of our favorite tunes. Emmett was visibly happy to see us when he did spot us. And there was certainly a party atmosphere going on at Yucca, with so many people dancing and what not. Although we would have like it if the Black Moods had played at 11 and we hadn't missed any of Tramps, but all in all it was a pretty successful night of rock n' roll!
Jun
19
2010

Strange Young Things @ Martini Ranch

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 11:45:41 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Fun with the Strange Young Things boys tonight. We would have liked to catch the Love Me Nots, but unfortunately Katie's work schedule did not permit. We did see about a song once we got to Martini Ranch, which was furthered the point that we probably would have enjoyed the whole thing.

Strange Young Things' set was great. It was a shame that not many stuck around for it. A lot of destruction happened on stage, Corey trashing his mic stand, then Pats, ending the show using Adams. [smile] Player of the week I think has to go to Pat, who was rocking up a storm the whole time.

With that said, Dan blows me away behind the drum kit. I know I've said it many times before, but it's awesome to watch him play. The amount of energy that dude has is amazing. And all this combined goes to what I always say - best band ever. [smile]

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say - I hate Scottsdale. [smile]
Jun
16
2010

Who Hired Martin Cizmar?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - 05:12:19 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Rant, Phoenix New Times)
Okay, that's it - who the fuck gave Martin Cizmar the job of Music Editor at the Phoenix New Times? Seriously, fess up!

This weeks feature music article is How Frankie Muniz's Girlfriend Elycia Marie Became My Internet Nemesis. No, that's not some smart article title for a piece on some band that played in town this week. That's right, it's literally a piece on Martin and Malcom In The Middle's girlfriend's online bitch fight. In all it's page and a half glory in the "Music" section of the New Times.

Congratulations to the Phoenix New Times for yet another Music feature which has absolutely fuck all to do with music and everything to do with the Phoenix New Times' staff and their bloated sense of personal self importance. With a glance at the online comments, it's easy to see I'm not alone in this.

Could someone please get Martin a personal blog* (and I mean personal blog, not Up On The Sun). Oh, and the New Times a real Music Editor. Ta!

* I'm not a sadist, Martin should be able to get out his PMS'ing somewhere, clearly he needs to. It just has to be far, far away from the pages of the New Times.
Jun
15
2010

Vampires Sleep Til Dust Mouth Rains

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - 04:38:59 am
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life, Web Development)
But not tonight. It's 4:30 and about 76 degrees (or 25 celsius) and I can't sleep. Well, that's the temperature outside (which sitting out here, is quite nice), inside it's well over that. After hours of tossing and turning I've given up on the sleep idea and opted to sit outside and catch up on some blogging. It's at least nice out here. I guess to some degree I'm getting used to the climate, because 75 actually feels quite mild! Which poses the question, am I going to turn into one of those people that bitch about how could it is when it's under 75? Y'know, the people otherwise known as Phoenicians? [smile]

This is probably the first time the climate has gotten me a bit crazy. Which on one hand is kinda cool, I've been living out here for 8 months now. On the other hand, it's not even technically summer yet. [smile] While it's nice at this hour, we're heading for 104 today. Maybe this is karma for all my bragging about the weather over the winter months! Ahhh, the Phoenix winter months... [smile]

In any case, I made some changes to Photobox recently to make it easy to copy and paste photo HTML tags into my blog, rather than construct them manually while blogging. It's the first time I've really put the functionalty to use, and I've got to say it's a god sent! I can't believe I hadn't coded that sort of functionality years ago, it certainly makes adding photos to blog entries a breeze.
Jun
14
2010

Watching Rockwiz From Tivo

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, June 14, 2010 - 06:27:21 pm
(Posted Under: TV, Geek)
Well, it's time to get on top of watching Rockwiz again, we've been pretty lax with that this year (which is fine, I think it's been in repeats over the past few months).

As such, I started screwing around with ffmpeg, and came up with a way to convert episodes and the put them on Tivo. This is excellent, we can now get our Rockwiz fix every week, but not have to watch it on a computer / laptop screen (or hook a laptop up to the TV).

This is a great technical development in the life of Mark & Katie. [lol]
Jun
12
2010

Desert Botanical Gardens

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, June 12, 2010 - 07:04:39 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
So our plan for today had been to take advantage of the cooler weather and go out to the Desert Botanical Gardens early.

Though, of course, being out until 4:30 and awake until well after 5am made that a little bit unfeasible. [smile] However, with that said, when we did wake up, at around 11, we decided to still go out there. I won't lie, it wouldn't have been hard to back out and say we'd do it tomorrow, or next weekend instead.

But some how we mustered the will power to do it today, and once out there, we were really glad we did. It was a perfect day for it. While initially it seemed quite hot, and hotter than we'd expected, throughout the afternoon it became clear to me that it's be a lot hotter other times we've gone.

Photobox ImageIt was relatively quiet out there in terms of people, which meant there was wild life galore. Rabbits, lizards, skinks, ground squirrels. We saw plenty of all of them. Katie was almost taken out by two lizards chasing each other down the path. But our favorite critter of the day would have to have been the little dude pictured to the left. I would swear that we kept running into him all day, but I'm willing to accept that we probably saw multiple little ground squirrels throughout the day that all looked the same. But this dude let us walk right up to him in the middle of the path - that is until I slipped in a hole and he got a little startled. And ran under some bushes, where I was able to really get up close and get some awesome photos. The best of which in my mind is the one to the left.

Photobox ImageI would swear that he was poses for photos at some point, not seeming fussed by my presence or photo taking. Maybe he was when he spread out against the ground, but again I think he was posing more than camouflaging himself.

It was a cool day for taking photos, I got some great ones in general. And since we were a little tired, it was nice being able to take the gardens and a slow pace. Which is the nice thing about having a membership and having gone so many times - you don't need to rush around to fit everything in. That was certainly appreciated today. Of course, with that said, we did a fair bit of walking, and my feet were killing me once we got done. [smile]

Anyways, some more of my favorite photos from today...

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Jun
11
2010

Ghetto Cowgirl, Dead Hot Workshop and Strange Young Things

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosFriday, June 11, 2010 - 11:28:24 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Awesome night of music tonight.

We rocked up at Teakwoods a little after 8 to eat which was awesome in itself, as always. And the house music tonight really wasn't half bad, I very much approved. [smile]

Photobox ImageFirst up tonight was Ghetto Cowgirl. And that is, the return of Ghetto Cowgirl. Their first full band gig together in years. And was probably a last minute billing. The last time I've seen them play was a little bit over 5 years ago. Back then I didn't overly know them, and was completely blown away by their performance, so there was much fan fair about the show tonight. A nice crowd out at Teakwoods tonight, I'm sure in now small part because of the Ghetto Cowgirl factor. And the performance was obvious rock-tastic. And Norm-tastic for that matter! [smile] Everything that you'd expect from a Ghetto show - loud crunchy guitars, Thomas being accused of being a volume hog and Norm questioning at what point "the wheels were going to fall off". Much to my surprise, they pulled out Born To Bleed which wasn't something I was expecting on the set list. I'd taken the camera to record the show, unfortunately it was being a pain in the ass again, which marred my recording plans.

Photobox ImageThe rock continued with Dead Hot. As expected, they did Push Luck Shove with Norm on vocals. Actually, it was a flurry of activity on stage one Brent put out the call for Norman. Thomas switched from bass to guitar, with Serifini taking over on bass - while Kylie and Curtis remained in their usual Dead Hot roles. So it was really a Dead Hot Cowgirl type of affair, rather than just Norm guest vocaling on it. Even Bobby Scott got up, which was probably the most amount of people I have ever seen on the Teakwoods stage at one time. Fun times. There was another guest performance on Choad, which went off perfectly. Towards the end of the night I went out for smoke, having to cut it short when Bobby got up to sing Ray, which was really cool.

Thankfully for us, Dead Hot finished just after 12. Bobby came up and said bye, and commented on how we know everyone's songs out here (I guess our singing was probably a bit enthusiastic during the night), and after a quick chat to Thomas we high tailed it to the car to get back to Tempe, headed for Yucca - pretty much reeling over how fun the night had already been.

Photobox ImageOur timing was impeccable, as we had a smoke and walked in right before Strange Young Things started their set. Well, not before Glodie made a big song and dance (almost literally [wink] ) about a bathroom break before starting. There was a really nice crowd at Yucca, which normally things out when our boys close out the night, however that wasn't the case tonight which was awesome. And the band had them eating from the palm of their hands, it was great. That combined with the performance probably makes it the best Strange Young Things show to date. And one of the many times Corey was off stage roaming the crowd, he worked in a "Mark Ord shout out", which is always appreciated. [smile] ha. The guys also mentioned us later on, and went into Tripped, which once again sounded fucking awesome, even if they were a little critical of the performance afterwards. We still loved it. Killer show, and it wasn't long before a whole bunch of people were even dancing!

Photobox ImageThe highlight of the night (and proof the Strange Young Things shows just can't get old, no matter how often you see them) is that for the last song, Corey jumped off stage, sat on the floor and proceeded to instruct everyone to sit in a circle around him. Pretty much John Lennon style. The thing that made it amazing is that most of the bar did so, and Adam and Pat sat on the edge of the stage. Corey then proceeded to tell Katie to come closer, gave her the mic and had her hold it for him while he started to play The Bitch Has Got Problems, legs crossed, on Yucca's floor. It was absolutely something, even when the mic died (or the sound guy cut him off) towards the end of the song - by which point most people had gotten down the very fun to sing chorus ("all I know is the bitch has got problems") so it didn't matter all that much. [smile]

Certainly by the end of that, there was hardly anyone in the bar that wasn't captivated by what had just unfolded before their eyes. The guys had a merch table set up (probably because it was a big show), and it looked like they were doing great business. The also had a new shirt (basically, one without Corey flipping the bird [wink] ), which made Katie happy since she has wanted a tee, but doesn't embrace the offense t-shirts the way I seem too. [smile] So she was glad to pick that up, and at mates rates no less. We had a chat to Pat, who invited us back to his place for the after party, which sounded like fun...

....Which lead to the whole debacle of trying to buy a six pack of beer at 3am. Which is apparently something that is easy to do. In a college town. On a Friday night! You really wouldn't imagine it to be that hard! Is Tempe like a dry county after 2am?!? We had the brilliant idea of hitting up Jerry's Drive Thru Liquors, and not even that was open! We gave up and just headed over to Pats - it was really nice to chill our and hang with those guys until about 4:30, when we decided to head home. An in doing so I learned that 4:30 is about the time the sun rises in the summer here in Phoenix. Good to know.

I didn't think that anything this week was going to be as fun as Josh's birthday on Tuesday. But tonight quickly proved me wrong. Rock n' roll!
Jun
11
2010

Cool Change

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, June 11, 2010 - 04:19:23 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
It's 95 degrees (or 35), which for this week constitutes a cool change. I can't say that I'm not enjoying it. [smile]
Jun
03
2010

Robin Wilson @ Teakwoods

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosThursday, June 3, 2010 - 11:38:20 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Robin's benefit show for the Love, Hope, Strength Foundation tonight was a lot of fun.

Surprisingly tonight there wasn't as many people at Teakwoods as the last time Robin played. It was quite impressive how long he played for, about 2 and a half hours, with three sets. We were tired and looking forward to getting home (not that we weren't looking forward to the show), but being out later than we expected was completely fine by us.

Photobox ImageRobin was in fine form tonight, he was quite talkative and just...really upbeat. One of his best anecdotes was telling a story of when Bill once suggested that he should write a song as poignant as "The Times Are A Changin'", to which Robin responded "go fuck yourself". [lol] Gold. The first and last sets were the Wilson classic sets. For the middle set he was joined by Scotty, for a mini Gin Blossoms set (Until I Fall Away, Allison Road, 'Til I Hear It From You, Hey Jealousy, Follow You Down), which was very cool.

Throughout the night Robin had refused certain requests. But after having finished, left the stage and had started to pack up , out of nowhere he was back on stage - a group of guys had offered to donate $200 if he did Nothing At All. There was much scrambling around the stage when he seemed keen, but did not remember how the song started. Katie had just come back from the bathroom, and I gave her the rundown of what had transpired and sent her up there to help Robin out. And once she did, the situation was resolved and Robin launched into the song. It's funny, after all these years, it tonight was the first time I've thought about the opening line of the song, and how cool it is, and how cool it is in relation to the song - "I'll get drunk and you can drive...". Kinda amazing that I've never given much thought to that line before. Obviously that as a closer was a crowd pleaser.

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