May
30
2011

My Next Guitar Will Be A Les Paul

Or Not. Or Well, It Will.

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, May 30, 2011 - 05:18:29 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
We've been saying it for years. I was convinced of it. You just have to look at my list of favorite guitar players these days, and the choice is obvious.

Or so you would think. We spent most of yesterday (literally) at Guitar Center. The trip was really about basses for Katie in light of the Memorial Day sales. But y'know, the second fret on my Squire is all but shot these days. I guess you get that with 15 years of jamming away on it. So it couldn't hurt to look at new ones.

So I started out looking at some Epiphone Les Pauls. Never let it said that I'm not a realist. It would have been fun to try out the Gibsons, but let's face it, buying one just wasn't going to happen unless we stumbled across a truck filled with cash.

I was never into the Les Paul look growing up, but that has certainly changed over the years. In the store I started out playing a Standard. My initial thought? "This is the most uncomfortable slab of wood I've ever held!". Over the years I may have come around to the look. The feel I certainly have not it would seem. It wasn't just slightly uncomfortable, it was completely foreign feeling, to a degree that is hard to believe I could ever get used to. I tried the Studio model next. It was a little better, but not by much.

Absolutely everything about the thing felt weird. The shape of the body, the fatness of the neck, the pickup switch (getting in the way of my strumming), the raised pick guard (also getting in the way of my strumming). The only thing I didn't mind was the bridge. So, years of dreaming of owning a Les Paul were shattered pretty quickly. I don't think I could ever get used to an uncomfortable slab of wood like that, as sacrilegious as that might be to say.

For fun I played an American Standard Tele - now that was a sweet guitar. And I've mildly considered a Tele, because after two Strats, I would like to branch out if I'm going to fork out cash for another guitar. Of course, with that said, there was no way I was going to be getting the American Standard with the $1,400 price tag. Sweet ass guitar and awesome to play though. I also had a crack at a few American Standard Strats. Again, sweet plays. Though if anything I'd be looking at the Mexican Straits in reality. Still, it was fun to give them a try and see what all the fuss is about.

While testing out an effects board that I was looking at getting in addition to Katie's bass, I tried out a Musicman. I thought it'd probably be an awful experience like the Les Paul. But it wasn't, it was a joy to play. Further putting a nail in that whole Les Paul dream.

Despite spending all day there (and visiting the Tempe, Scottsdale and Phoenix stores) we walked out not spending a cent. That was being saved for today. We went out to the Tempe store so Katie could try a Fender P-Bass one more time before making a final decision. While browsing I spotted a sunburst Les Paul, that just looked sweet ass. Which I'd later showed Katie, only to say "it's a shame they're not meant for me, because that one looks sweet". She happened to notice the green tag (Memorial Day sale) on it and suggested that I should play it. What the hell? It'd take 5 minutes to hold another uncomfortable slab of wood, and I could at least see what I'd look like with a such a sweet guitar, if we lived in a different world where I were born to play a Les Paul.

And well, on sitting down and plugging this puppy in, I would have to say that it was love at first touch. I was amazed, but this was completely a different experience to the Les Pauls I played yesterday. I almost immediately knew this had to be my guitar. Part of what visually attracted me to it was the lack of a pick guard. That also made it to play and more comfortable. As did, even more so, the Slim Taper "D" neck. And unlike the ones I played yesterday, this sounded like a Les Paul. It sounded super sweet. I don't know if it was the amps or the guitars yesterday, but there was nothing impressive sounding about what I played. I know that Katie was disappointed that I didn't find my dream guitar yesterday (and probably even moreso that I had such a negative reaction to Les Pauls), but all that changed the moment I picked this baby up.

It was one of those potentially dangerous guitar store experiences, as it was slightly more than I was thinking of spending, but no self restraint or logic could overcome the fact that this had to be mine. [smile] Well, within reason, it was of course a green tag sale item after all, and that did make it easier to give in to. But I did walk into the store figuring I need to give finding a new guitar more time and wasn't expecting this at all.

But it gets better. Ironically yesterday I had mentioned to Katie how one of my aversions to Les Pauls as a kid was the lack of a tremelo bridge. And while that's not an issue for me anymore (I don't remember the last time I've even had a tremelo arm screwed in - it's been years), looking at buying a Les Paul is kinda strange that you're giving up that, whether or not you use it. The clincher with this puppy that I was holding - it's equip with a Floyd Rose Locking tremelo bridge. Well, that absolutely does it. Not only does the thing look amazing, play comfortable and sound awesome, it negated any possible of doubt in the future that I could have instead gone with an Ibenez or B.C Rich with a Floyd Rose that I desperately wanted as a kid. I'm not likely to need it for what I play, but it absolutely made it easier to quickly say this is the guitar for me!

So this whole Les Paul thing has really come full circle. We went up to Scottsdale and picked up the other stuff, and then came back to Tempe for my baby when they didn't have any in stock up there. And as such closes out the chapter of our ridiculous Memorial Day Weekend at Guitar Center.

And I've finally come good on that promise that my next guitar would be a Les Paul. I could not be happier.

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May
22
2011

Hummingbirds

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, May 22, 2011 - 03:16:07 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
So we picked up a hummingbird feeder within the last month, which had sat around for a couple of weeks before we got to putting it up. Initially it didn't see much action. But recently we saw one hummingbird come by once or twice.

Over the past week the hummingbirds have become quite the gluttons, making the purchase a smashing success I would say. While sitting out there this afternoon there were many visits to it. I grabbed the camera and got ready, and we sat out there for a bit longer. And it wasn't too long before I was able to snap these.

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Spending that $1 on the hummingbird feeder was a good investment. [smile] As was the extra money I spent to get that 200mm camera lens. [wink]
May
21
2011

Planking In North Scottsdale

And The Persuaders

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, May 21, 2011 - 11:59:03 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
So it was The Persuaders tonight at O'Donoghue's. It would have been an easy one to skip, since everyone in that band by now is probably sick of seeing our faces in front of them when they play [wink], plus the gig was in North Scottsdale.

Of course, I'm such a sucker for that band, and without anything more compelling happening on a Saturday night, I knew forewell in the back of my mind that I was going to break and go. Honestly, who are we trying to kid here? [smile] At 6 o'clock when Emmett was added as the opener when Joe Pena had to pull out our minds were made up.

Photobox ImageO'Donoghue's was a very cool joint. Another Irish pub (two in two nights for us), with the band area in and open air area, which was quite cool. Em saw us as soon as we walked in, and we had to face the music about abandoning him and the rest of Tramps last night. [smile] ha! Despite how often we've seen Emmett acoustic with either Scotty or Mark, tonight was the first time we've gotten to see him solo, so that was cool and in itself worth the trip up to North Scottsdale.

After his set, I went out for a smoke, and Lawrence joined me, confirming "you're Australian, right?" and proceeded to mention that there were a bunch of Australians there trying to get the band to drink. We had a good old chat about that and a bunch of other stuff, before wandering back inside. No sooner had I relayed to Katie that there were other Aussies here, but outside I noticed what I've heard about via Facebook - planking!. There was no doubt at that point that there were Australians at the bar! I explained the "craze" to Emmett, who at this point was sitting with us having something to eat. Crazy shit. I must say, this whole "planking" thing totally perpetuates some ridiculous image of the country that I originate from - however, there was something cool about witnessing it. It continued throughout the night, with that party "planking" on everything they could, including a Jeep parked outside. Clearly I was meant to come out to this show, if for nothing to else, to witness my fellow countrymen bring this ridiculous crazy across the ocean to North Scottsdale.

Photobox ImageOf course, witnessing planking first hand wasn't the only thing that confirmed that we were supposed to come out to tonight's show. While I'd expected about an hour's worth a music from The Persuaders, they actually played for near on 2 hours and 45 minutes. In addition to the usual Persuader's songs, both sets were opened up with a bunch of N.A.P.P tunes, as well as older Feedbags tunes getting thrown in as well. Got to love that.

Beyond the rare tunes, it was another great show. Sitting there it was obvious how ridiculous even remotely considering skipping this one was. I think we've probably seen the band at least once every weekend for the last two months, and it's just not possible to get sick of seeing them play.
May
20
2011

Busy Night

Pirates, Tramps & Strange Young Things

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, May 20, 2011 - 11:39:35 pm
(Posted Under: Movie, Tempe, Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene)
Well, it's been a fairly non stop night. We started out heading over to Arizona Mills to see Pirates Of The Caribbean 4. The previews before the movie for both the Transformers movie and Green Hornet confirmed why I rarely go out to see a movie - the absolute shit that comes out of Hollywood is astounding.

Of course, Pirates was fantastic. There really isn't any aspect of those movies that isn't custom built for Katie or myself. [smile] I was also ready to say "Penelope Cruz is no Keira Knightley". And I guess while that is still technically true, I didn't feel the need to say it after the movie as I expected. [wink]

After the movie, we had some time to kill before Strange Young Things. And a hunger to kill also, since we hadn't had time to eat. So we headed over to Flanny's to grab some food and chow down while watching Tramps & Thieves. The plan worked well, despite the fact that I'm sure we're going to get in trouble for leaving the show. I think we slipped it to the night fairly stealthily, but... It was great to see the turn out that Tramps got, and given that it was lucky that we showed up when we did, otherwise I doubt we would have gotten a table.

We split at 10, and headed down to Robbie Fox for Strange Young Things. Fun times, though it was hot as hell in there, the techno music between sets was hard to take, and well - the place was absolutely packed with college kids. Actually, it was a freak show in that regard. It was good to see the band in front of them, though the majority were outside with the techno music. Y'know, the sea of college kids does raise the point that all our venues being off Mill these days isn't all bad. [wink] We hung out for three sets, before taking off since Katie has to do another healthy cooking gig tomorrow morning. While it was somewhat of a relief to get out of that cluster fuck, it was unfortunate that it meant that we missed out on some great tunes including Tripped and Fuck You.
Now Playing: The Slingbacks - Whorehouse Priest
May
20
2011

Firefox 4

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, May 20, 2011 - 04:44:07 pm
(Posted Under: Firefox Firefox)
I upgraded to Firefox 4 today, something I've been avoiding, despite the quite persistent reminders from Firefox. Y'know, "remind me later" in my book means "much later". My delay in upgrading really should come as no shock at all. It's how I roll. And from the changes I've read about, it's somewhat surprising that I've taken the leap (not on my main machine) this quick, since it's only been about a month and a half since it came out. Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 didn't fare as well. If my memory serves, I don't think I upgraded to either of those until I absolutely had no choice.

I wasn't immediately pleased, not surprisingly for the same reason why I've put off upgrading - "Tabs on Top". Ugh. The fact that the Mozilla website boasts this as "making it easier to focus on the content of the sites you visit" astounds me. Did you do any studies on this, and if so, what was the proportion of Internet Explorer users in this study? The fact of the matter is that in the day and age of tabbed browsing, switching between tabs is a much more frequent activity than doing anything with the "Awesome Bar". I mean, honestly, who types in a URL for anything these days? It's not 1996 anymore guys. And QI don't think it's just familiarity on my part. Tabs are where it's at, and the extra distance to continually scroll over bookmarks and the Awesome Bar is nothing short of annoying.

But thank god that there is an option to replace the tabs at the more appropriate location above the content canvas. So we're still cool Mozilla - that's a relief. For a second there I thought the honeymoon might have been over.

This doesn't affect me, since I don't run anything later than XP, but the whole "Firefox Button" also boasted about on the Mozilla website also blows my mind. Microsoft have made some worthwhile user interface advancements over the years (the Start Bar introduced in Windows 95 is the only one coming to mind though), but the whole "all menu items are to be accessed through a single button" isn't one of them. It makes sense for the Start Menu, but absolutely makes no sense for applications. And in no way saves any vertical space. So I'm shocked that Mozilla has updated their UI to this stupid Microsoft-ism.

The reload button being on the right of the Awesome Bar is another example of "can we stop trying to be Internet Explorer". How unintuitive! Maybe that's through having used Mozilla products for browsing for the last, oh, I don't know, 15 years (since Netscape 3). Let's keep "reload" over by the forward and backwards buttons, thank you very much. Of course, thankful that too is configurable. It's kinda weird that the Home button is also off to the right, but I hardly use that these days, so...

Right off the bat, I'd have to say that my biggest pet peeve with Firefox 4 is that the context menu for tabs no longer has "New Tab". I'm the sort of person that will naturally combine the most tasks as possible with the input device I am currently using. If I'm doing something on the keyboard, then I'll hit Ctrl+T for a new tab. But if I'm navigation with the mouse and want a new tab, I'll right click on the current tab and select "New Tab". It's obvious that I do that a fair bit (more than I realize) given the amount of times I've already been frustrated by that being gone. I definitely need to find an add-on or something that brings that back. And here it is: Firefox 4 UI Fixer.

But now the good. App Tabs. Single most important feature added probably. I always have Gmail, Facebook and Twitter open, and App Tabs are something we've all wanted for such a long time.

Sync - Sync is probably really cool, though unless setting up a server becomes a little less convoluted, I'm going to be sticking with Xmarks for the time being. But still, the inbuilt functionality is in theory really cool.

Now Playing: Jimmy Eat World - nothingwrong
May
15
2011

A Moody Sunday Night

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSunday, May 15, 2011 - 11:28:53 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
Photobox ImageWell, when it comes to rock 'n roll this weekend, we've been pretty spoilt, with great music on Friday night, Saturday night and then again on Sunday night with The Black Moods at Martini Ranch. So it's been a damn good weekend if I was say so myself.
May
14
2011

Jerome

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosPhotosSaturday, May 14, 2011 - 11:08:56 pm
(Posted Under: Travel, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Live Shows, Music Music)
We headed up to Jerome this afternoon. Our initial plan was to head up early and hit Wildlife Park Zoo and then continue on to Jerome, until Katie remembered she had to work this morning.

However, it worked out and we still got to Jerome while it was still light and with plenty of time to check out the town. I've known about Jerome for music related reasons for years, but was quite surprised when we were approaching the town limits and saw that the entire town is built into a mountain. That was completely not what I expected. The other notable part about the drive up to Jerome was being able to see Sedona in the distance.

Photobox ImageJerome was very cool and unique. Almost immediately the narrow streets with buildings virtually built right on them made me think of what London seems like it'd be like. Or at least a more hilly version thereof. Which goes to the diversity of Arizona, with Jerome being worlds away from what you see in Phoenix or Tucson (which in themselves are quite different cities). Having just watched the Mill Ave Inc / The Avenue movies last night, you couldn't help but think about the fact that Jerome isn't in any fear of a corporate take over.

Photobox ImageIn addition to the coolness of the town itself, the views from up there out over the Verde Valley towards Sedona are amazing. The steepness of the roads around the whole town would make living there a pain no doubt, but you really can't beat the picturesqueness of the town and the amazing views from it, that's for sure.

We found a car park and decided to get out and explore the town on foot, rather than trying to navigate the narrow roads in the car. As luck would have it, we parked a few shops fronts away from where the Spirit Room is. That was pretty convenient, I don't think we could have planned it better if we tried.

Photobox ImageThere were no shortage of great photo opportunities, and what I particularly loved was that there were so many ruins of buildings that haven't been torn down. As far as great photos go, this was definitely my favorite.

Photobox ImageOf course, that was just down the street from the remains of this building, which with the backdrop of Verde Valley behind it certainly made for my second favorite photo of the afternoon.

Photobox ImageAt some point during our adventuring through the streets, a sherrif cut off the road into town. We couldn't at all work out why. But soon a local shop owner explained the predicament to us. A semi had begun to drive through town and had got stuck down one of the narrow streets and about 2pm this afternoon. It was now almost 6pm and they were finally getting it out of town. Apparently driving trucks through Jerome is illegal, and the driver was going to also get a $500 violation as a souvenir.

Further down the road, someone honked at us and we turned around to see Josh waving hearty the car. It was our hope that they were playing early, so we could get an early start of the trek back home, and so seeing Josh at 6pm gave us hope for that. As did hearing Stephen sound checking as we continued walking around the town a little later. But more on that later.

We were both starved, and ended up opting for the Haunted Hamburger. Great food, a cool little place, which actually reminded me a little bit of an Aussie pub. We got a seat by the window at the back of the haunted building, and got to have dinner overlooking the amazing views of the Verde Valley.

Photobox ImageThe timing of dinner worked out great, giving us something to do until show time and placing us perfectly to wander back down to the Spirit Room right before the show. The Spirit Room was really cool, and certainly seemed like walking into a bar from the Wild West. Again, there doesn't seem much fear of Jerome loosing it's identity. The show started a little after 8, with no opener and Stephen taking the stage right from the get go. Which seemed to indicate we might get back to Phoenix at a reasonable time. Y'know, his Martini Ranch shows are always decent sets, but surely we'd be back on the road after 10pn. Right? Well, y'know, the "8 til midnight" show time was no lie. And there was no other bands. It was Stephen Ashbrook the whole time - 3 sets and virtually four hours. Now that's what I call getting your $15 worth for a show.

Photobox ImageIn addition to the sheer length of the show, it was a different experience to the Martini Ranch shows I'm used to. Stephen started out by himself, kicking things of with Kansas City and a few others before bring the rest of the band up. So it was a completely different experience to the shows I normally see Stephen do. While our going to this show was initially just because we weren't able to make Friday's Martini Ranch show, it certainly turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I would have to say that you haven't really seen Stephen Ashbrook until you've seen him in Jerome. I certainly loved the variety in songs we got, including a lot of stuff from older live shows I've grown up on (I'm On Fire, All Along The Watch Tower, Houston).

While the party was going to continue down the street when the show finished at midnight, it was time for us to hit the road, and said our goodbyes and headed back down to the highway towards Phoenix, making it back by 2:15, which by all accounts wasn't bad!
May
13
2011

Tempe vs. Tucson

Mill Ave Inc & The Avenue Screenings

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosFriday, May 13, 2011 - 11:44:01 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
A really fun night tonight. I met Katie down at the Sail Inn around 6. Walt Richardson's introduction performance was nothing short of relevant, inspiring and incredibly fitting.

Both the Persuaders and Ghetto rocked. Y'know, an outdoor gig while the sun was still out was damn fun. And I'm not just saying that because it made for excellent photo shooting conditions.
May
10
2011

Let's Get Lost On Down The Highway

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - 04:38:59 pm
(Posted Under: No Category)
Once again, despite plenty of weekends with nothing going on over the past few months, this Friday night is proving to be a frustration of double bookings.

Months ago we'd decided that we were going to go up north and see Tramps & Thieves and follow that up with Stephen Ashbrook in Jerome. However, we somehow forgot about that, and decided to see Stephen Ashbrook on Friday at Martini Ranch. Maybe we didn't forget as much as decide that we should reign back on the budget, especially given the ridiculousness of gas prices.

So then the "Tempe vs. Tucson" Mill Avenue Inc and The Avenue double screening was booked for this Friday. On top of that, The Persuaders have a gig at Tempe Tavern after their one at the Sail Inn. Now, that's more or less fine, we don't need to be ridiculous and see them twice in one night, however I want to check out Tempe Tavern, and doing that while seeing the Persuaders would have been cool.

The decision was made to go to the Tempe vs. Tucson show, and to that end I promised Nico we'd be there on the weekend. We've missed too many Ashbrook shows of recent times, but we were happy to say "we'll do the next one", yet again. But today I was reminded of the fact that it's not just another Ashbrook show, it's his new CD release show. I flat out don't want to miss that. I briefly weighed up the ridiculous idea of trying to go from the Sail Inn to Martini Ranch and catch it. Aside the fact that I know that'd turn into another Toad The Wet Sprocket/Black Moods disaster, where we drive around Scottsdale for half an hour like chumps looking for a park and miss the show, it's not even possible to attempt, since Ashbrook plays at the same time The Avenue is screening. This one kinda stings.

Of course, the solution to this dilemma is to revisit our initial plan. Drive up to Jerome for Stephen's Saturday night show. Which I think is what we're going to do. I'm sure Road Trip Songs and in particular Wastin' My Time will be spinning on the drive.

In a few weeks, when there is not a single damn thing to do in this here, town on a Friday night, and it will happen [wink], I will bitch a blue streak.

Edit: Actually, I neglected to mention that Bret Michaels is also playing at the Scottsdale Water Front this Friday night. Sure, I think I've contributed enough to the Bret Michaels fund recently (of course, the Water Front show is actually for charity) with the upcoming Poison tickets and wasn't necessarily planning on going to this, but it does further the point that everything is happening in the valley this Friday night!
Now Playing: The Persuaders - Drove It All Away
May
07
2011

Save The Boobs 5

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, May 7, 2011 - 11:59:14 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
How much fun was had tonight? Ridiculous amounts. Is that surprising? No, not in the slightest.

Photobox ImageYes, it was Save The Boobs 5 (or Rock For The Cure if you're being politically correct) at Teakwoods tonight. Rocked up at 8 - or a little bit past 8 - we're hopeless and grabbed some grub while The Bellwethers and Audra played inside. Lance's two charity event / shows are always awesome, and tonight was no different. The venue choice was certainly exciting to us, and totally proved to make this the best Save The Boobs yet, even if the acoustic sets on the patio were a little on the packed side. Seeing Teakwoods so crawling with people was great. Early on in the night I ventured out there to snap some photos, but otherwise stayed inside.

Photobox ImageAs tends to happen to me at Teakwoods on occasions, I found myself having a jalapeno incident. Though, I must say, this was the worst by far. My fajitas were otherwise on the very mild side (spice wise), however towards the end bit into a jalapeno straight from the fiery depths of hell! Maybe it wasn't a jalapeno. I don't know, but it was hot as hell. And I'm a guy who is all about jalapenos. I'm not sure I've ever chugged down a glass of water faster than tonight. [smile] Fun times. But the fajita's were awesome and I was glad to get to try what is I believe a relatively new (and welcomed) addition to the Teakwoods menu. And y'know, I must say - both during dinner and throughout the night, the $1.50 PBR pints went down very easy. Yaay for PBR drink specials. $1.50 for a pint, you can't beat that.

Photobox ImageI spoke to Josh after eating, who informed me that they had switched with Ghetto Cowgirl. Having seen Ghetto plenty lately (unlike the moods), that came as great news to me. You know, best case scenario would have seen them both as full band, but given the choice I'd definitely rather see the Moods electric tonight. When Josh confirmed they were going to be doing a full band rock set I approved tell him "that's how I liked it". He was in agreement. [wink] They were on soon after that conversation and tore it up. It's been quite a while since Katie and I have seen them (at least as a full band). And I can't even remember the last time we saw them play at Teakwoods, so their set was one of the best of the night for us.

The other cool Black Moods related part of tonight was their merch stand with new t-shirts. I've wanted a Moods t-shirt for years. So there was no question about shelling out more dough tonight for those. Sweet ass. I've been berated from stage [wink] many times at Violet Wild and Black Moods shows for sporting Gloden's face on my t-shirt. Clearly it's now time to even the score by wearing Josh's face to Corey's shows. hahaha. Beratement from stage is probably the least I need to worry about in that instance.

Photobox ImageUp next were Ghetto Cowgirl, or at least the healthy half of them. [wink] So we ventured out to patio for their set. Since Lance always has these on a tight schedule, there was some concern that we wouldn't get back inside before The Persuaders started - until remembering that their guitarist extraordinary was performing in front of us. [smile]

Photobox ImageThe other "best set" of the night award has to go to The Persuaders. Lawrence just brought it tonight. Not to imply his performance isn't always amazing, because it is, but tonight - man, those Lawrence Zubia vocals were like a freight train. I don't know if it was Teakwoods, or the crowd, or a combination of other things, but holy shit that set rocked. It seemed that it was going to be a short set (never surprising with 9 bands on a bill) after a couple of songs where Lawrence thanked everyone for coming. But no, it was just a random early set shout out, and the guys proceeded to rock Teakwoods for just under an hour. We even got One Soul (sans Lawrence) which was unexpected given the tight schedule. I continue to like that song more and more. And of course, this is completely redundant, but in addition to Lawrence, Phil's drumming completely blew our minds...and ear drums. Again. The guy is amazing behind the kit. Actually, seeing Chico and then Phil virtually back to back made for some of the best drummers in town being in the house tonight. Y'know, if Dan Petrosino had been there, it would have made the trifecta. [smile]

Photobox ImageFollowing The Persuaders, it was back outside for Glodie. Given the time, the patio had cleared out a little bit making it easy to get a comfy spot for Corey's set. It's been ridiculously long since we've seen him and was good to catch up with him about what's been going on in the Strange Young Things camp. And of course, he delivered one hell of an entertaining and fun set. It's Corey Gloden, of course that's what he delivered.

Photobox ImageLast up was the ever fashionable Andrew Brown with The Dirty Rascals. During their set they did a speed up version of I Want To Be A Bird. Well, actually, it became a sped up version. Possibly Garvin was responsible for that. I'm not sure how Andrew felt about it, but holy shit, I loved it. It's one of my favorite Andrew Brown songs anyway, and with the tempo raised somewhat it was amazing. Other favorites like All That You Need and Midnight Radio also were broken out during the set, making me a happy camper.

When everything was said and done, it was about 1:45am when the Dirty Rascals got finished and we got ready to go. Which could be latest we've ever been a Teakwoods. What a real awesome night.
Now Playing: Gin Blossoms - Follow You Down
May
04
2011

Out With The Dell Theme

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - 11:08:58 am
(Posted Under: Photography)
When you consider how into photography I am, combined with the fact that I live in my favorite location for photo subjects, I have to ask myself the following questions - after 5 years of owning this laptop, why is my background still set to the Dell installed default?

Well, consider that oversight sorted...

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Now that is sweet. I do have two other alternatives. I tried out the second due to the fact that in XP it's not possible (at least easily) change the colors of a theme when using XP widgets. Something I just learned after using XP for, oh, I don't know, the last ten odd years. Microsoft is so stupid.

Anyways, I thought the blue might work better, being stuck with a blue taskbar and window titles. But I don't know, I like them all.

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Of course, I have a great photo of San Xaiver Mission on our desktop machine. All I need now is to come up with one for my netbook. I'm not thinking that's going to be too hard. [wink]
Now Playing: Dead Hot Workshop - A
May
01
2011

Is Prince REALLY A Tool?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, May 1, 2011 - 02:22:22 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
So I read something last week about Prince wanting to make it illegal to cover his songs. Actually, it was in the Phoenix New Times: Cover Songs of Prince To Become Illegal?.

The article kinda calls him out as being a tool as a result. And do I disagree? Not at all. He wrote some killer pop songs in the 80's and early 90's, but come on, this is the usual Prince weird douchebaggery which is the only thing that gets him media coverage since.

Or is it?

Today at lunch, during a slab of terrible music (my only complaint with Macayo's) what should grace my ears? A techno cover, complete with horrible auto tune, of Temple Of The Dog's Hunger Strike. No, really. I kid you not. I cringe at dance re-do's of Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue and Nirvana songs. But hearing this was a whole new level of sickening which made it hard to keep my beef taco down.

Based on that, I have to reconsider the Prince thing. He might be being a douchebag, but isn't there some validity to what he's trying to do? After what I heard today, I would have to say "yes". [smile]
May
01
2011

Tempranos Cinco De Mayo

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSunday, May 1, 2011 - 01:57:17 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
Photobox ImageWith such a beautiful Sunday in Tempe, and Macayo's starting their Cinco De Mayo specials todays, there was no better way to spend lunch. A little early sure, but with Cinco being on Thursday, today was more convenient and the weather perfect for it.

And y'know, I'll take any excuse to have a Macayo's Snake Bite margarita!

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