Taking care of business

Ahh, new lust....

2008-08-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

So, years ago when I got my Schecter Stiletto Studio 5-string bass I said to myself "Self! Wouldn't it be hot if this body style came in an electric guitar too!?!" Well, I must be a genius because the fine folks at Schecter seem to have agreed. I was browsing through the Schecter website and found that the stiletto is in fact available as a guitar, and it IS HOT!!!

It has the real wood look that caught my eye on the bass, and it comes in this tasty dark finish, oh my! there are other options, a lighter wood finish, a less expensive model, but this is the one that grabbed my attention...

I could do without a locking trem system, I could do without any trem to be honest... but my tech could lock that down quickly enough....

SO here I am drooling, yet again.. Maybe I'll go to Guitar Center and see if I can check one out, I might even make that the first article on Pubrocker. Then I'll have to write up a stage clothes how-to (as only someone as cool as I could write, right?!?!?!)

New Horizon: How my 'other side' got a chance to come out and play

2008-08-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

So, Last night was the annual 'National Night Out' event hosted in North Las Vegas (NLV) by the North Las Vegas Police Department, it's a cool event that, through my work with the Mobile stage and audio work with the City of North Las Vegas Special Events Department I was introduced to two years ago. Last year Nasty Habits ended up playing a set with about 12 hours notice, the event coordinator called us the day before to see if we'd fill in a spot that had been left open by a band backing out... I had given her my card (for the music/band stuff) the year before while I was running the City's sound system for the evening... The event in NLV is held in a sports park and takes up the entire track area and then some, and draws a pretty good crowd each year (this year being really well attended if you ask me).....

My band, Nasty Habits was scheduled to play, like we did last year, and I was looking forward to it. In the middle of the day Yesterday I got a message that my drummer was not going to be able to make it, and subsequently my guitar player opted out as well.... Now, though I was looking forward to jamming with my mates and was disappointed that at the last minute we had to back out, I came up with a contingency plan...... I had my lovely wife take my bass gear home and grab my acoustic guitar ( I was, after all running sound for the event....) and I told the event coordinator that I would be able to cover the time that we were going to occupy as a band by playing a solo acoustic act... I've not done this in a professional setting before, just at parties, and on my couch at home, in front of my wife, and our cat....

I knew the keyboard player from the band that was scheduled to play before us and knew that they had a full band, so I asked if they would switch time-slots with me, and told them ( and the sound guy who was filling in while I was playing) that they could save a bunch of time if they went ahead and set up while I was playing, as I only needed a small patch of the stage... so there I was, my Garrison acoustic (G-50E) and a mic, I sat on a little folding chair and made my way through 30 minutes of stuff, started off with 'Sittin' on the dock of the bay' and then did some Delbert McClinton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Mayer, Marvin Gaye, Eagles and some more Delbert. It went really well and the crowd was really attentive, I actually had a full crowd that really seemed to enjoy my music! Yay me! I figured a nice 30 minute acoustic set would not be the best end-of-the-event type of thing, so I had the other group with the full band finish the night, and it worked out very well!

So now I think my time on the couch might be occupied with adding more songs and getting them down-pat so I can start looking for a few evening gigs here and there as an acoustic solo act, it's a cool different kind of release and may help spark my inspiration to write/create, which seems to have been on hiatus for the last several years!

Check it out, my name is even on the web page for it!!

Changes in Latitude..... Or Changes in this blogs focus

2008-06-16T21:39:00.001-07:00

So, if anyone still checks in on this blog (I don't blame anyone who's given up) I am alive and well!! I have recently began a new project that hasn't actually launched yet, and so I've been keeping busy getting ideas rolling for that, but let me get you all caught up on me!!

Since my last post in November (Oh crap, has it been that long?) I've found work (at times more than I could have hoped for) and been just generally pretty busy, which is much better than the last part of last year. By November I had started working some evenings at TOny N TIna's Wedding at the Rio, I got to the point that I was working 5 nights a week and having a lot of fun! I recommend the show to anyone visiting Vegas if a good romp is what you are looking for....

In January I started working at Zappos.com in the Customer Loyalty Department. For anyone who has worked in a call center (like my three years at the almost-a-scam hard sell merchant credit card place) I've got to say, this is the polar opposite of any other call center environment that I've ever seen. With 4 weeks of training and a pretty good starting pay, it's got to be the most rewarding job I've ever had not including my volunteering as a worship leader. The call center is covered in decorations, some have a theme from parties that were thrown in the past, some are just the CLT reps way of making their cube 'theirs' but all in all, it has a really home-y feeling and the core value of 'Build a positive Team and Family Spirit' is definitely felt among the folks there. Speaking of Core Values, Zappos has ten, and they really 'mean it' with all ten, from the way they deal with vendors all the way to customers and even all the way to employees!! I look forward to many years with Zappos, and the sky really is the limit there, so watch out Zappos, here I come!!

The Audio shop (Syntonic Design Group)I worked at last year called me back for my two off days from Zappos (Thurs and Fri) to repair gear and help out, so I'm working 7 days a week...

I continue to work for the City of North Las Vegas Special Events Dept doing sound and working with the City's Mobile Stage, which is still loads of fun (We've hired 3 new guys, so this year is looking to be nicely staffed!!!)

So for a few months I was working at Zappos or Syntonic during the day and Tony N Tina's at night, with on-call work for the City and still doing Nasty Habits gigs, I was getting a little burned out, so I've scaled back to just working during the days mostly (quit the show)

So now I've got my evenings back, K and I can actually spend some time together, and I'm going to be doing a website/blog about/for cover bands, I'm going to (hopefully) get some forums going and see if I can't have a little fun and keep my mind sharp, so look out in the future for Pubrocker.com (No content up yet) I've already bought the domain name, now I just need to get the hosting set up and I'll be ready to Rock and Roll!

For the time being I am going to start posting articles here that might be of interest to cover band type folks, along with more updates on ME ME ME!!!!

Saying Goodbye........... well not yet.....

2007-11-15T15:02:00.000-08:00

So I've decided that my Gibson Les Paul that sits in the corner collecting dust just needs to go, or I like to think that it will be finding a better home where it will be played and appreciated a little more......... I *made* the decision about three weeks ago, I MADE the decision (complete with craigslist post) today. I have posted it for a fair price and listed its condidtion honestly, so I should have no problem selling it. I will miss it, but I really don't play it that much, and haven't been the guitar player in a band since I played at Christ United Methodist Church years ago. She has been good to me, and I will always remember my first Real guitar....

I feel a little better about selling her after I heard that Gibson bought out Garrison Guitars, the make of my very nice acoustic guitar that I got for Christmas last year and are not honoring Garrison's lifetime warranty... Nothing makes you lose faith in a mega-corp like Gibson faster than knowing that the hard-earned money that was spent on something that was advertised as having a great warranty was now hard-earned money spent on a guitar with no warranty..... so I'm not selling it to spit in their faces, although I doubt if I'll ever buy another Gibson guitar..... There are plenty of options that sound great and feel great that cost much less, so that's probably what I'll look at next.

I really enjoy my Schecter bass, it is still blowing me away every time I play it, so I'll most likely look into one of their guitars when it comes time for a replacement.

Speaking of my Schecter bass, it is my main axe, and so I've also decided to sell my Fender Jazz bass deluxe 5 string that I had modified with my favorite pickups... it too was listed today. I have it listed for a fair price as well, it was my church bass, but even then I was missing my Schecter's thin neck.... so long Fender......

when either of these will sell I don't kow, I can only hope it is soon.

General ranting... it's been a while....

2007-11-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

So I'd like to do a Craigslist style rant to start off.....

To the lady in the green Camry in front of me this afternoon, the one with the mobility scooter dangling on the hitch platform that barely supports it. I see you have a huge oxygen tank on your scooter, must be pretty serious because that thing is huge... I wanted to honk my horn and flash my lights to get your attention because I could swear that I saw smoke coming form your car window, surely your car must be on fire because I swear that you have an oxygen tank on your scooter, or is that a massive Nitro tank? You must race that bad boy against the other aging tuners in town, my bad, I'll let you go n your merry way, now get out of the left lane, or at least speed up to the speed limit...............

Cool, I;m back.... let me just say that you know you've been away from something too long when it takes you 20 minutes to get the correct username and password combination,......

So if you check out Nasty Habits Myspace you can see our new promo video, I have received very good reviews from peers and I think it looks and sounds pretty good!
So it's time to hit the streets again and pitch th band to more venues. I think we have a good enough product to try for some better rooms and may have a few contacts I can use!!! If I have my way we'll have a loaded schedule again soon!

So here's what is new with me.....

Still no full-time day work, I do have an opportunity to test again for the correction job, so I'll be training my butt off for the next month....... I have started working as a production assistant/audio tech at Tony N tina's wedding, a dinner show at the Rio Hotel, it is a fun show! I get to see it 4-5 nights a week, and I get dinner there too.... I am really enjoying it and I thinkit will make for a good mark on my resume (seeing as it is in a major hotel/casino....) .

Besides that I'm down by 4 pounds from 2 months ago, I had a cool trip back east to surprise my twin brother for our 30th birthday, and my migraines have made a little comeback.... hurray for coworkers keeping large amounts of ibuprofen with them at all times... imagine going to wwork with a migraine that you've had all day when you job is to mix the sound and do the lights, two things that you try to avoid when you are having a migraine.....

The worship band from Gracepoint has been pretty busy, playing a lot of things outside of churh services, we've played several youh gatherings and played at the Nevada Baptist Conference, and the 2th of this month we;ll be playing center ice after a las Vegas Wranglers hockey game for 'faith and family night' I'm looking forward to tat, as we'll probably get to watch the game!!!

SO just a quick catch-up, I'll be back here more often!!! stay tuned.

Date night interrupted.

2007-03-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

so as K and I were getting ready to go out to see Spamalot (see previous post) when my phone rang.... Wojo (GP worship leader) called to ask if I was available to run sound at a local Rock club.... He didn't have all the info handy, but gave me the number of the guy in charge, so I called and it was aparent that I would have time after the show (Spamalot) to take K home and get myself down to the club...

The mixer was a Mackie TT24 (digital mixing console) that I have not worked on before... I downloaded the manual and looked over the basics, seemed easy enough. The sound system is installed, so I knew it couldn't be too hard to run.. Sure enough, the staff got me into the sound booth and into the closet that holds the microphones and cables, and I was ready to rock!

Two bands on the bill, local original bands, I was expecting heavy metal screamers (there are a lot of them in Vegas) but was pleasantly suprised by the two bands. A good mix of jam-band stuff and rock and blues, both bands were pretty good!
The first band was doing grat, then the bass player broke a string... no backup bass and no extra strings.... so it was the guitar player/vocalist and drummer jamming out some tunes.... people were leaving, the MOD gave them the 'last song' and it was back to the house music and stage swap...

Second band used the same drumset and bass rig, so the larger half of the swap was already done. These guys were jamming! I can't say enough about how good these guys were, everybody knew their part, good interaction between the guitar and the keyboard, and the vocalist knew how to work the crowd!!

I got a lot of compliments from the bands and their friends/family but the least expected came near the end of the second bands set.... the sound booth at the Rainbow is a little room a full-sized door with a window on the top half ..... so this cute girl knocks on the window, I wasn't sure what she wanted/needed and the band was a little on the loud side, so I leaned in her direction (ear first) she said 'Thanks for doing a great job" and kissed me on the cheek.... Happy St. Patty's Day!!!! I'm not sure if I was being hit on... didn't realy occur to me at the time, I said 'thank you, happy St Patricks day." and went back to my little stifling box (it was really hot in the booth)...

All in all I'd say it was a good night. It was good to get behind the board again, and to know that I can walk into a foreign situation and handle it like a pro, had I not told the bands that it was my first night ever working this room, they probably wouldn't have known, and that's my goal, to be as professional as I can no matter what is thrown my way.

My mix was awesome (in my not-so humble opinion)

Spamalot!!!! Good Show!!!

2007-03-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

K and I decided that we needed to go out, really do a date night in Vegas.... we chose Monty Python's Spamalot and dessert out. We got the show part, dessert was interrupted....

So take a Monty Python movie (or parts from many), put it (them) to music, add dance scenes, and voila! a great 90 minute show filled with all the best parts of Monty Python bits! You knew what was coming, the whole crowd recited the lines along with the actors, and the laughs were loud and many!

Now.... add J O'Hurley in the lead role (he was J peterman on Seinfeld and won on Dancing with te stars), absolutley hillarious. What a nice touch, to have O'Hurley's dry delivery and timing along with a good cast, it really made for a great night.

The scenery was top-notch small theatre stuff, really good us of props and scenery, it was kind of like waching a high school musical that had a really big budget. Good use of modern projection technology, without making it the focus of the show (ala Celine....)

I was pleased to see that the show uses a real band, tucked away somewhere under the stage.

So my final word on Spamalot...... COME OUT TO VEGAS AND WE'LL GO SEE IT!!! I could easily recommend this show to anyone and everyone!!!

My first Vegas Implosion, pretty cool stuff!!

2007-03-13T03:49:00.000-07:00

So this is what the Stardust looked like, with MR. Las Vegas headlining in his own showroom and a fireworks show going off (probably from it's official opening..) It was a neat older casino, with a lot of smoke hanging in the air, and a cool oldschool vibe. I only went a few times to see some bands play in the lounge or while I was walking around aimlessly (which I used to do a lot when I got off work early...) It's been closed, they've auctioned offeverything they could and stripped the building to a shell. Ready to go.

The implosion was reported as after 1:00 AM before 5:00 AM, I guess they gave themselves a big window for wind conditions or smething (don't want to screw around when you'r loading dynamite......) I got there at 1:00 AM (on a little back story, I ate dinner and hit the sack at 6:30 PM so I wouldn't be too fried.......) I found a nice spot across from the doomed structure and set up my tripod withmy SLR camera on it and hung my digital from the tripod so it would be handy. I heard a worker say 2:30, so I knew I had some time to hang out and get comfortable. people kept piling in to the area I was in , it was pretty cool, they were shining colored lights on the building, the streets were blocked off from traffic, there was definite tension in the air. I snapped a few pictures with my SLR and forgot to look at the photo count, so I only got some B&W pics before the fireworks/implosion.... I'm really glad I brought the digital.

The fireworks were pretty good, many people around me were saying they were better than New Years Eve of last year.... Fireworks mounted on the side of the building made for a cool vision, and then the fireworks made big numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 (you get the picture...) a series of booms and nothing.... another set of booms, and down she came, in around ten seconds the tower cam crashing down, a cloud of dust filled the air (and sent the crowd running, those of us who were smart enough to see how slow it was moving too our time getting back to our cars...)

Traffic was backed up getting out ofthere, but I'm gad I went, it was pretty cool.... a lot of staning around and waiting, but worth every second of it!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY FLICKR PHOTOSET

For some reason the Flickr uploader puts these in bacwards order, so start from the end and work your way back if seeing them in chronological order is important to you....

A Dare, A Tat, A Beer and a pound of chocolate cake.....

2007-01-29T18:05:00.000-08:00

That about sums up my afternoon yesterday.

At Gracepoint Church, we do things a little differently, the pastor, Devin, does his messages as a 'series' so for three weeks, six weeks, or a similar amount of time, he will use a them and discuss the Bible. He has done such series' as: CSI (Crusafiction Scene Investigator) where he took an evidence trail to find out 'who crusified Jesus' (it turns out to be all of us, he died for all of us!!) and other great themes to get the word out. The next series we are going into is called 'Tattoo' and it is going to discuss what 'marks' us as people, I'm not exactly sure what angle(s) he is going to come at it, but knowing Devin, it will be good! Let's just say we are going to really step outside of the box for the series!!

My loving wife, K, made some excited comments about someone who is going to be getting a tattoo and I asked her when I was going to get mine (it's something I've wanted for quite some time) well, lets just say that she pretty much dared me, and said 'Get one tonight!' I said 'O.K., I will!'

After church we went to have lunch with Wojo and Jean, friends from GP, and the discussion came up, K mentioned a tattoo parlor we had heard good things about and the next thing we know, Wojo has his laptop out, has found the phone number, and is calling the place to make an appointment.... K and I went to the place early and looked at designs, chose lettering and waited (a busy tattoo parlor must be a good sign!) .. and waited. we spent the entire afternoon there and finally I was called in! The artist had been drawing up what I wanted, so I felt like a schmuck for having felt put-off by the time that it took to get to me.... Back east the artist would have taken the design and told me to come back in a couple of days when he had it all drawn up, this guy drew it freeehand and put the lettering on it freehand and it was ready to go!!! The guy looked a little intimidating, with a Slipknot shirt on and a bit of a brooding approach.... Again, I should smack myself for letting first impressions get to my thoughts, he was a really nice guy, was extremely easy on me, we talked about bass and motorcycles and stuff the whole time! An hour and a half after go time and he was done with the outline. I got a Celtic cross, so there was a lot of detail in the rope-work. I was stoked, it looked really good! We took a break so I could go to the bathroom and so he could get some fresh air (I bet staring at peoples arms/legs.backs could make your eyes go buggy after a while.) so another hour and a half later, it was finished. The fill-in work and shading wasn't on he original drawing, that would have taken a really long time, it looked even better than I could have hoped! Jay is certainly a pro! I will strongly recommend him to anyone who wants a tattoo (and has thought about the permanent nature of the art, and has made sure they aren't getting something they will regret... all improtant things to keep in mind)

I was touched the most by K's show of support, and the way that she showed me she cares. I was trying to think of what I had come up with (months ago) that I wanted to get wit my cross (I've known for a while that I wanted a cross to be my first tat) and at lunch she called it out like I had just told her what I wanted 'Lord Reign in Me' so an extra note of thanks and appreciation goes out to the LOML, thank you for listening to my silly ideas (some day they may become reality....)

I chose this phrase "Lord rign in me" because I have vises, we all do, and I've been trying for a long time (I've been leading worship to some degree for years and years) to get my mind in the right place, to remember that while I keep my words straight Sunday at church, I also need to keep them straight every day of my life. as a leader in the church, with any possibility that my actions might reflect negatively on my church life, I need to live my life for God, with God, and to live EVERY DAY like I do on Sunday. I can't help looking at this tatoo and singing the chorus to the song I got it from:

Lord reign in me, reign in Your power
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won't You reign in me again

Wojo (the worship leader at GP) had just discussed a similar concept in our morning band meeting, and I just think it all came together for me. I need to get my temper under wraps, I need not sound like a sailor on shore leave when I'm out at bars, I need to focus my energy on me. I need to make sure I am living the way I should be, then I can truly feel better about my part in leading others in church. Thanks to God that he accepts all kinds and knows the meaning of the word forgiveness, only he knows how much I've been abusing that gift lately. Who knows, maybe my tattoo will start a conversation that leads someone to turn to God in their life. I can only pray that it will.

So there are tons of pictures from my experience!!!!

Love,Love, Love

2007-01-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

Advertisers in Las Vegas do a good job of hyping things before they are even an option, so by the time The beatles Love ( the new Cirque show in town) was open, I was already sick of it. I know that sounds a bit drastic, but really, I had heard so much about the show and seen the billboards for so long, it was no big deal that there was a new show in town... Now, I've got to go on a bit of a rant...

I understand the Beatles were one of the biggest innovators that pop music has ever seen.. I know that they did for music what, at the time, no one else could do... I understand that they are Giants... Why in the world can't the show have a band playing the music.... It's not like we haven't made even more leas and bounds in the industry, and a full band wih a couple of competant keyboard players could nail those tunes just as effectively. I can almost see having the vocal tracks cued in, but even then you could find some convincing vocalists to copy the vocal parts effectively.

That said....K got me the soundtrack for LOVE th other day, and all I can say is WOW... George and Giles Martin took original recordings and mixed them up a bit. they took song parts and put them on top of other songs, took outro's and made them intros.... Giles re-mixed the Beatles... What a dream job, for a guy to follow in his father's footsteps and work with the Beatles' music... The only parts added in the now would be strings to go with George Harrison singing 'While my guitar gently wheeps', and not only a great song, an old recording of it, just G ond his Guitar. Seeing as George Martin wrote the scores to a few other beatles songs, I wouldn't even say that it is too much of a departure, and the part is true to the old Beatles sound. I can ony imagine how great this must sound in the theatre, with a full-on sound system going on '10'......

K and I loved Mystere, it's a great show that leaves you almost breathless... I can't imagine the training and physical ability that is needed to do the acrobatic movements that these frogs are doing... and the original music was cool (I must add that we got tickets comped to us by the guitar player from Mystere who comes out to see us play and jams with us.....) I can't imagine that anoy other Cirque show could capture my imagination like that one did... even with great music... Not to mention that the tickets are wicked expensive... to no have a band to pay, I can't imagine why they might be so high...

My opinion is this... get the CD... it is a great teatment of some great songs... I have to say that I have enjoyed all 26 tracks several times already...

A nice addition to anybody's collection, LOVE makes the Beatles a little more modern in production quality and has a lot of fun too!

A little punk for your holiday!!!

2006-12-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon a couple of felllows from LMG, an audio-visual event technology company in Vegas who we rent items to and from, dropped off a Christmas basket filled with goodies (chocolates and cookies and chees and crackers....) and we got to talking about playing in a band. One of the guys said that he just did a show with his band JinglePunx and explained that they were a punk rock band that did christmas songs, pretty obvious from the name... cool idea.. check out the like in their name, it's pretty well done stuff!! He was quite funny, he said he screamed in key and wouldn't even pretend to call it singing... I'd have to agree, but he really does have a lot of enthusiasm!! So have some fun listening to these guys.. click on the link that says flash music player...

MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmm chocolate and cookies......

DJ Big Red in tha House!!!!

2006-12-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

Nasty Habits has the weekend off, well, most of the band does... TOmmy D asked me if I'd be interested in DJ'ing his company Christmas Party, and being the outgoing person I am, I said Yes. So Tonight I am DJ'ing a party. I've got my tunes ready, I'm going over to TOmmy D's before hand to get his PA (how cool is that, all I need to bring is my music and my personality).. Actually I've got some re-arranging to do in the equipment racks, but anywho, I'm just bringing one rack with a CD player in it and my MP3 player....

I have drawn a blank as to any games to do or anything, I don't even know what the owner of the business is expecting, I'm kinda flying blnd and going by what I feel is right, I think it will be good! I've found some very cool Christmas tunes and some rap/dance stuff and then a lot of classic and modern rock (I'm guessing the age range will be from 24 to 50+ so I've got a lot of both kinds, older and newer music) Party gets started at 7:30 and goes to about 12, should be fun!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday items are here!!

2006-11-06T22:33:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all who sent cards on my birthday!! (Oct 8)... I had a hard time deciding what to get for my B-day, and decided to go with some gear I have needed/wanted for a while. I got a pedalboard, which is a peice of wood that is covered with carpet and you put Velcro hook tape on the pedals so they won't go anywhere. The one I got has a built in power supply so I can use it to get power to 6 pedals, whic is great because it means no more wall-wart power supplys or outlet strips, one wall wart is all it takes to get everything working!! I also got a pedalboard cable making kit, a great invention that lets you make the cables in lengths that you need, so I've got a new pedalboard with power for my pedals and custom length cables!! It's really going to make my setup time a lot shorter!!!!

I also found a cool jacket, like a real jacket (suit style, but for more casual look with jeans) that is the right size and made for short people!! So I'll be looking good for some of our Christmas parties we are playing!! I've been looking for a jacket like this for over a year, they all seem to be way too long and look dumpy. This one is just right!!

Thanks again for all who sent cards and/or called me on my B-day! I've been really busy working and the band is playing a lot, so I'm sorry it's been a while since I blogged, I'll keep updates coming, I promise!!!!!!

Hot Weekends in Vegas!

2006-10-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

So here is another shameless plug for my band, Nasty Habits... We've been waiting for the bookings that we've been working for to come (most bars book three+ months ahead) and they are finally here!! We are a pretty tight band as it is, but this string of back to back working weekends is going to really make us a force to reckon with!!! Here is a little picture of me Rockin' out! and as always, you can find pictures of most of our gigs that are taken by our drummers wife Mel.

If you look at our schedule on the website, or our MYSPACE page you can see that this next few months will be pretty busy, and we've got christmas parties and New Years Eve to look forward to as well!!!

I've got two huge blisters on my index and middle fingers (from banging away on the upright)..... ouch!

We had a youth service at Gracepoint, it was pretty cool, check out K's Blog for more info....

I've put my resume to two sound companies (going to get back into working full-time, just going to try to keep with the theme of audio) so we'll see what comes of that.....

Funniest thing I've seen in a while!!!

2006-09-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

While browsing the Harmony-Central Froums, I came across a link to this video that someone has made of John Petrucci, It's pretty funny! HE can really shred, I am not putting him down at all, I just thought it was sooo funny!!! 'This controls how many people die around the world...' That's too funny.

Half way through!!!

2006-09-26T20:16:00.000-07:00

So the craziness continues!! Let me get you caught up on my crazy week(s)....

The ballon festival was a resounding success!! The new speakers by D.A.S. that the City of North Las Vegas got are awesome! With very little tweaking I had a great sounding system at my hands. The childrens stage was a blessing, the performers were all great! they kept the kids into the music, and of course, had great messages for the kids. I even got to meet and do sound for Debi Derryberry ( the voice of Jimmy Neutron) along with David Chicken (he did at least one show every day of the event, and was a pleasure to work with!), Amy Lowe, and Zak Morgan. They may have been easy as far as the channels settings go, but I'd really have to say that they were just an easy gig all around, not a complaints or grumblings at all, from any of them or me!! (musicians can be a huge pain in the you-know-what when it comes to a soundman they've never worked with before...). Besides the long hours and constant sun, I had a blast, and I really think that the Special Events department made a very good impression ( the event was a huge success....... if I hadn't mentioned it yet..)

Thursday night I played with Straightaway, we had a good gig, for a first gig. I'd have to say that they (the guys in the band) really worked hard and got a good show out of it ( it was after all their first gig as this band) I had fun and wasn't worried about my performance (I guess that sounds a little cockey, but I worked ont the tunes myself so I knew I had them down). We even et the drummer and bass player from Alice in Chains, which was really cool because we had played of their songs in our set!!

Indian Springs with Nasty Habits was cool, the first week in a long run of gigs (finally), My voice ws shot becase of the long days outside in the wind and dust.... We (read: Cory) got to fire up the new equipment and record the sets, I can't wait to hear the fifth or sixth weeks, as we are already pretty tight, just need to get a little more polished...... My lovely wife trecked up the road with me so she could drive me home and let me get a little sleep on the ride (which I needed, Did I mention they were long days).....

This week I'm working a convention, doing good honest work, stocking materials for the attendees, a lot of walking, lifting 20-60 pound boxes, and more walking. It's kind of funny to think that after three years working at the call center, I can do this kind of work for the same amount of money...... I'm really enjoying walking around with my MP3 player on, just doing my thing.... and I sure could use the exercise.... the balloon thing had me standing or walking within a very small area all week............ I'm doing this all week, so I'll be back to my sexy slim self in no time!!!!

Nasty habits is back at Spanky's Pub this weekend, our favorite little neighbourhood joint! I'm working another convention next week too. I'll keep you informed...

Slow week, next week will be a killer!

2006-09-14T15:54:00.001-07:00

I've been working this week, doing some work at a conference with about 150 attendees, nothing difficult... I did see a woman from a nother convention fall (she tripped on and edge where the carpet ends and meets the tile floor) and the people from her convention made a big deal about it (and ultimately tried to blame the hotel, of course) when it couldn't have possibly been the flip-flops she was wearing, or the fact that she was talking to her freind and her head was turned and she wasn't looking where she was going, or that she was trying to reach into her bag with her good arm (that's right, her right arm was in a cast already)......... Drama, and so early in the morning.... One of the folks who was at the conference I was working said he is pretty sure he saw her at the Black Jack table that morning before the incident, chances are she was enjoying some of the fine comped drinks as well???!!!!

Did more training with the City of North Las Vegas, each of the crew members has set up and taken down the mobile stage by themselves now, so we should be able to get it up and down with no snags and in very little time!! We were training on driving the stage around, it's a 26' trailer/5th wheel, so it took a bit of getting used to backing it up, but after a few times through, I think I've got it!!! We have a big balloon festival called balloonapalooza that is next weekend, but we will be working from wednesday through sunday, it's going to be a lot of fun, and I'm going to get to work with the city's new D.A.S. speakers!!!

I've been practicing with straightaway, a local hard rock/metal band this week, I'm subbing in with them next thursday at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, that should be fun!! then Nasty habits is playing Friday and Saturday in Indian Springs. I'm going to be busier than a half-armed paper hanger, but It's what I've been needing, to get to work and keep myself busy!!

Standing in the Shadows... actually I'm sitting on the couch...

2006-09-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

While K has been visiting family back on the east coast, I've been sitting at home, not really sure what I want to do. A friend called me up yesterday (probably because he knew I'd be bored and lonely) and asked if I wanted to hang out with him and his wife, I met them at Wal mart (they were doing some shopping there, otherwise I wouldn't have been there....) and started my day that way. One of the fellow posters on the music forums that I frequent had posted about a movie called Standing In the Shadows of Motown being in the $5.50 bin, so I grabbed it while I was there (I had seen parts of it on PBS a few years back and really wanted to get it for myself..)

I've been watching it and it's special features all afternoon! It's great to see the 'Funk Brothers' and hear their side of the story. I would highly recommend this DVD (2 actually) to anyone who is remotely into music and especially to those who love motown!

One could only hope that in their life they would be a part of something so huge... THese guys lived it, and now they tell their story...

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a 2002 documentary film about the story of The Funk Brothers, Motown Records' primary studio band from 1959 to 1972. It is also the title of a 1989 book (from which the film derived) by Allan Slutsky focusing on bassist James Jamerson,.
The film covers the career of this band with interviews with band alumni and dramatic recreations of specific episodes. It also outlines the disheartening fact that the band was responsible for more #1 hits than any other, yet they were generally unknown - overlooked in favor of the vocalists who sang over their music. In addition, footage from a reunion concert in Detroit, Michigan with the surviving members of the band is included featuring several music performances of major Funk Brothers hits sung by major current R&B, pop, and soul musicians, including Gerald Levert, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Joan Osborne, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Chaka Khan, and Montell Jordan.

TOG MARKS FOR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-08-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

In reading The opposite of speechless post about 'your own pop culture' I was reminded of a phrase that I came up with the other day.... it has to do with those white window stickers you see on the back windows of vehicles as they pass... have you ever seen a guy driving a car with paw prints or turtles on the back window? Ever wondered if that meant the guy was a little on the fruity side or if he had a girlfreind or wife who may have inspired/requested the stickers. I'm calling those stickers TOG marks because they make you wonder if the guy is taken or gay..... so that has become the new made up thing in our little world, thought I would share it with everyone.

Big Red when He was not so big, and not so red.....

2006-08-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

Here is an old picture I love! Can you say pre-determined vocation? I know I can!!!

More Pictures on Flickr

2006-08-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

I took some pictures of my friends' band this weekend!! Check them out!
Go to the side bar way down the page and click on the flickr badge!!!

Yay!! Happy Amazon Dance!!

2006-08-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

My loving wife very kindly ordered two sound reinforcement books that I have wanted for quite some time, the Yamaha Sound reinforcement Handbook and the Yamaha Guide to Sound Systems for worship. When I was at CHrist United Methodist Church in Salisbury we had a copy of the S-R handbook in the tech booth. This is the best live sound book there is, period. I have and enjoy another book, The Live Sound Manual that I lend out to freinds who are interested in learning or boning up their knowledge of audio, but it is only a minor blip on the radar compared to the Yammie book.. THe S-R handbook has lots of information about pretty much anything you may encounter in the world of audio equipment, it tells you what things do and how to get them to do those things, it even has mathmatical equations (ugh) that are used to determine certain things in the audio world. No other book comes close to this one... I'll be busy reading it any chance I get next week.

The Guide...dor worship is great too, for a different reason, instead of dummying everything down (which may be necessary given the volunteer status of many church 'soundguys') to almost childish, it really explains everything from designing a sound system (or hiring a company to design one) to running and troubleshooting. A good middle ground is Church Sound Systems, a book I picked up to a couple of years ago to help the folks at a different church (who left it in the choir room collecting dust, so I repoed it)...

I'm doing a couple of workshops tomorrow for a church (or three) up the road from Las Vegas who are looking for information on contemporary worship. I'm doing one about Bass Guitar and it's place in a worship band, and one on running sound. I'm super excited, I get to use my training experience, and talk about two things I love!! I've been compiling info and trying to decide what to include (I've got a three page handout that I've put together for the audio workshop)...

For the bass workshop, I'm probably going to go over a few inportant things like: Play what the song needs, not always what you want.....etc... I do have a few advanced books to recommend, Encyclopedia of scales and modes for bass and Walking Jazz Lines for Bass...

I'll post to let you know how it goes!!!

Booking the band

2006-08-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

So I've discovered over the last few months that bar managers are not very easy to contact. I mean, you can call them, leave a mesage, but they don't call back.. You can go into their establishment to see about open dates, and they'll inform you that their calendar is in the office somehwere else.. Bars that we have done very well at, even, are hard to get in contact with, and the managers have even told me to call them 'next week' so we can get some more dates inked...

I must say that the manager at one bar in particular is awesome to deal with, he actaully seems to be interested in having entertainment! It's a nice thing to call him and talk business because you don't ever feel like you are a pain in his behind....

Just ranting here as I do another round of call-backs to another (or the same) group of managers who seem to never be around.....

If you are interested in booking us, check out our website our Myspace or comment on this post, it'll get e-mailed to me!

BFT and me... our trip to a movie set!!

2006-08-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

SO I like to search on Craigslist (pretty much every day) to look for freelance job opportunities or good deals, and I came across a post looking for musicinas to be extras in a movie... It is a film students thesis film... I responded to the post to inquire about what style of music they need people to mime and some other details... The response I got was 'Elvis style and some modern stuff' so I said 'Great, I'll bring my upright!!' I took BFT to Jerry's Nugget, a small locals casino on Las Vegas BLVD in North Las Vegas.... THe setting was the lounge, I was wearing black slacks and a white button-up shirt, they gave me a red bow-tie to wear and popped on the song, a boppin' birthday song in the style of Elvis (obvious licensing issues with using a real Elvis song) and it was really easy to learn (not that we needed to play the actual song, I'm just a bit of a perfectionist, I guess. Everybody was impressed with BFT, said that it was just what the shot needed and also that it was just pretty cool in general, so that is a good indicator of the general public's reaction (I leave BFT propped up in the middle of the stage when we are done playing, so anyone coming to the venue will see it and maybe they'll be interested enough to check us out that night...) so we played the song a bunch of times, about 4 different camera angles, multiple takes, but it was cool. then we got on our normal clothes for the other song, a modern singer-songwriter tune.... it goes along with the storyline somehow.. and jammed along with that track a bunch of times. It was a fun experience!

I also had the opportunity to talk to the lounge manager about my band, Nasty habits... I 'just happened' to have a packet with me and I approached her with it after I was done all of the shots the band was in... We went right back into her office and she popped the CD in, I wento over sets and song lists with her, so hopefully we can get some work out of that contact! It is a neat little lounge, very 'Old Vegas' style! We'll see!!!!

and yet more proof

2006-07-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

Am I cool or uncool? [CLICK]

You are Cool!

You're pretty cool! People look at you and think.. 'wow.. that person is cool!' Congratulations. Use your position wisely and teach the dorks below you a thing or two. There's nothing like recruiting a cool person.

Cool quizzes at Go-Quiz.com

Ever search for "your name" on Google????

2006-07-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

Funny thing happened tonight, I was bored, nothing but silly girl movies on the boob tube, hey wait a minute, maybe that's why they call it the BOOB tube...... anywho.... so I typed in my name and searched, nothing out of the ordinary. I went to Google Images and typed in 'wolske' and I found a picture of my older brother, a picture of someone I think is my Uncle, and this great picture of my Dad. That's right folks, Ned Flanders was REAL....

But seriously folks, This is my Dad in 1894, Funny what you may find if you Google yourself....

Workin' For the Weekend.... or the first three days of the week......

2006-07-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

Had a busy three days working with the City of North Las Vegas' mobile stage. Monday, Northtown (City of North Las Vegas) had it's independance day jubilee. THey have it a day early so that people can go to other fireworks shows on the 4th, at least that's my guess.. We picked up the Mobile Stage at it's resting place, and hauled it to Seastrand Park in the North-west. After a very smooth and quick setup we were available to help other parts of the Park and Rec dept, setting up tents, moving cases and cases of water...

SHowtime, at least 15,000 people filled the park, literally fillled every corner of it. Sticky Fingers, a tribute to the Roling Stones played two one hour sets, and let me tell you, they've got the Stones down, it was a very tight band, very convincing Mick, Keith-like guitar moves, great show!! THe fireworks were pretty big, and although I am not impressed with fireworks, it was a decent show...

Audio struck their gear, and it was time to take down the stage, again very smooth and quick.
16 hours from the time we got to the stage to the time we had it loaded and ready to go.....

Tuesday morning, met the other stage guys at the stage and took it down to Henderson for their Independance day festivities, got the stage set up quickly and got out of there, not our show like last night... Went home and tried to get a nap, went to Cory's for Barbeque, met his freinds and family, had a good time, went home and got a 45 minute nap, back to Henderson to take down the stage... Late night....
Wed, cleaning up the POD that the Special Events department had used to take all of their supplies to the park on Monday (office was closed yesterday) took back some traffic signs, nice and easy day.. tomorrow I sleep.

if you were going to see an acoustic act, what songs would you like to hear???

2006-06-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Here's what i've been working on.....

Pencil Thin Moustache - Jimmy Buffet
Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffet
Run Around- Blues Traveler
No Matter What - Goldfinger
Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young
Country Roads - John Denver
Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton
Pink Houses - Mellencamp
Cat's in the Cradle - harry Chapin
Poison Whiskey - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Last Rebell - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Good Luck/Bad luck - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Hotel california - the Eagles I tune down a half step, so yes, I can sing this song!!!!)
You've got to hide your love away - The Beatles
What's Goin on - marvin Gaye
Brown Eyed Girl
Lots of blues tunes..........

Comment away please!!! i really want to add another 20 good songs so I can even think about marketing myself for acoustic shows.....

Best $100 Mr D ever spent......

2006-06-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

Tommy D, the guitar player in Nasty Habits, just got a computer, seriously, he just got his first computer.... So he's completely new to this whole world of instant-gratification called the internet. Shortly before Mr D got this new joy, I did some searching for him on Ebay, for cheap Japanese guitars called Teisco. I found a guitar that fit his needs (a headstock with the tuners arranged 4 on top and two on the bottom) and proceded to bid. Three days later, I won the auction, for a grand total of $97 dollars after shipping, Mr D was getting a neat old Japanese Teisco. When it arrived, I quickly tuned and stretched the stings (the seller had put new strings on it....) and IMHO it was a pretty decent axe, especially considering it was probably fom the 60's and cost less than $70... Tommy D loved the look of the guitar, and he has a great guitar tech at Thermal Relief who did a complete overhaul (including re-fretting the neck and taking off the old tremolo bridge) with a new hard-tail stop-tailpeice and some work on the electronics, the guitar sings!! Tommy is using the axe for his open tuned guitar for songs like Jealous by the Black Crowes, and Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones.

All in all the guitar ended up costing more than $100, but that was the initial cost and that's what matters to me!! Look for new pics of Tommy D and his Teisco ET-300 from our upcoming gigs!!

lazy days of summer.... OR How I spent my day today

2006-06-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

So I'm working on a project for a friend, a recording project. I'm doing a lot of guitar tracks, bass tracks and such here at home with the Casio keyboard as my metronome and my microphone taht came with our computer, it actually does a pretty good job (can't wait to get a proper analogue to digital interface, though, so I can really get pro results....) I've been playing all day.. not that I'm complaining, as a matter of fact, it's probably the first day that I've spent almost the whole day playing. I got a lot done, too.. About 5 songs our ot 8 or nine are ready for critiqing and approval, most of them are songs I already knew, now it's just recording them and overdubbing other tracks (one song has three guitar tracks on it, and two bass tracks)

I decided to get away from the glow of the computer monitor so I went and sat at the pool for an hour, what a beautiful day.... the sun is out, there is a nice breeze, the pool was empty...

anywho, just thought I'd tell you how my day is, seems like noone is bloggin these days..... lazy days of summer.......

NH promo pics

2006-06-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Richard Faverty at Beckett Studios, We are certainly pleased with these photos! We ended up with more than 200 pictures (including individual shots) and we now have plenty of work ahead of us putting together new Promo Packs...

me looking cool

2006-06-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Here is my new personal headshot. Love it, all of you, for it is beautiful!! Also I will post some new promo pictures. we just did a shoot yesterday!!

Pictures and video up on website!!

2006-06-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

Nasty Habits had a few gigs this weekend, and we brought along Mel, our staff photographer (and the drummers wife) with her camera(s). She does such a great job snapping shots of the band!!! we even have a few videos on the website!!!

So check out our pics here!!!!
and our Video here!!!!

A couple of things...

2006-06-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

I'm not one to put down a brand, I know that some equipment/products made by a brand may be faulty, or misstreated and therefore will not be the example to judge a whole company by, but I've got to speak against a brand this time... I Hate Mackie equipment. Hate is a strong word, and I mean it! The gear I have used in the past has been functional, but usually not as well appointed as most, and it costs a lot more (my mixer, which has the features of a $1000 mackie, only cost me $300 and it's still 100% working today!!). Again, I've not tested every single peice of ear that Mackie has made, but the gear I have used has been, For the most part, crap! The mixer at church is a Mackie ( I was not running sound when the gear was purchased... that's for sure!) and we've noticed a really bad amount of crosstalk ( when a signal {one of the microphone inputs} can be heard through the routing path of another/other channels. ) THis is usually a problem you find on really cheapo crappy boards, and even then, it's not usually that bad. All the channels were behaving this way, and I even went back to the board to look at things (we have a new soundguy at church) and couldn't figure it out... We had a microphone turned off, no signal was being sent anywhere from that mic channel, yet we could hear it (faintly) through the speakers. What kind of Crap is that? Macklie crap. Daniel, the young man who is running the sound now (moved here a few weeks ago ) agrees with me, Mackie is a no-no, I guess we'll have to deal with it for now, but I just had to say something to someone.....
added 06/20/06...Now to fix my adsense bar...It is advertising for those mixers I just spoke out against.... Behringer has always been good to me, I love my Behringer mixer. I use a Yamaha Mixer with Nasty Habits, it is a little limiting, but I really like my Behringer. My brother bought a Behringer for his church and he loves it!! certainly does the job!! I've even used Allen and Heath boards, they are great!! Eventually I'd like to get some experience on a Midas or SSL or Neve (studio) board. I can't imagine the possibilities with a pro mixer (allen and heath, ssl, neve, midas) and Saw Studio software, that would be killer!! add on some Joe Meek processing and MOTU interfaces, life would be golden!! Behringer rocks!!!

Are auto manufacturers forgetting about national security?

2006-06-16T10:07:00.000-07:00

Nifty idea, really, put multiple storage bins in the floor area where seats will fold down in a vehicle. I must admit, from a consumer standpoint this looks like a grat idea, and makes the horrible memories of moving a bulky bench seat in and out of a minivan go away! But there is another side to this new trend that I'm not sure people may be aware of. national security. that's right, our general safety is being put at risk by these 'convenient' designs in vehicles. I have no articles to back this up, it just occured to me the other day.

K and I were sitting in line at the Bellagio Self Park entrance (going to dinner) , where the security guards were checking out the vehicles that were entering (which they have donbe at that property since 9-11). THe guards even went as far as to open the trunk of one of the cars ahead of us, very thourough. K an I had no problem driving in, as our back seats are folded down so I can get all of my gear into the Jeep for the weeked. It occured to me, however, that anyone could have anything hidden in the floor bins of their minivan and as long as they don't look 'too suspicious' could then get away with some very disturbing items in their car....

I strongly doubt that, with Las Vegas being both a tourist destination adna business/convention destination, a vehicle with four middle aged men would bring any suspicion, it would be easy to say you were here on business. A vehicle with four 20 somethings or 30 somethings could just say they were having a boy's(or girl's) weekend in Vegas. So the fact that those four 'businessmen' may be driving a vehicle that looks 'ordinary' and none of their cargo is out of the ordinary doesn't mean a thing, what if they have bricks of C-5 stashed in the bins? How safe is any city with these vehicles on the road.

No don't get me wrong, I'm far from a conspiracy theorist (I actually have never made it all the way through that movie from start to finish) and I have no intentions of using my brainstorm for evil, but don't you think that something has got to be done? Forget wire tapping, most of the time they do it, they won't find anything useful, and you'll never know they did it (unless you say something incriminating, then you shouldn't be doing whatever it is you are doing, and you certainly shouldn't be talking about it over the phone, duh, they're tapping the phones now...)

Again, I think that these design ideas will make life a lot easier for those who are minivan bound (although I find the commercial with the wife stuffing all of her shopping bags in the floor so her husband can't see them mildly offensive as it projects the image of men as bumbling once again on the small screen, Come on ladies, like he won't see the credit card bills, please) I must submit that there are dangers to be warned about with this new trend.

If you are a terrorist, Plese disregard this blog post, as there are no ideas for you here..........

My wife is mildly obsessed with another womans tatas................

2006-06-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

If you aren't from Salisbury, Maryland, you may not know who Berry Tilghman is, she is the mayor, and apparently got a little nippy at a meeting, there are pictures on some guys blog....

I would not usually have any problem with someone's lack of preparation when it comes to wardrobe, but the fact that my wife has made a few comments on the blog and she can't stop talking about it is causing me to worry. Last night we even had a short discussion about 'T-shirt Bras" and how they are supposed to stop this from happening.....

I guess I could take a picture of myself on a cold day, maybe that would really float her boat, never knew my wife had this strange infatuation.........

To all woman, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE WEARING THE APPROPRIATE GARMENTS FOR YOUR SITUATION, OR MY WIFE MAY DEVELOPE A DANGEROUS INFATUATION WITH YOUR BREASTS TOO!!!!

My Public Service Announcement for this month

2006-06-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Men Beware : New Date Rape Drug : Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer."The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several beers, men will often succumb to the desires to sleep with horrific looking women whom they would never normally be attracted.After drinking beer, men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that "something bad" occurred. At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life's savings, in a familiar scam known as "a relationship."In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage." Men are much more susceptible to this scam after beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females.Please! Forward this warning to every male you know.If you fall victim to this "Beer" scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimized men.For the support group nearest you, just look up Golf Courses" in the phone book.

My Wife's Hitman Name.....

2006-06-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

Ruphas the Terrible

http://www.biovox.com/generators/hitman.asp">%20border="0"%20src="

People Iced:	Thirty Nine
Car Bombs Planted:	Fifteen
Favorite Weapon	Stilletto
Arms Broken:	Seventeen
Eyes Gouged:	Seven
Tongues Cut Off:	Thirteen
Biggest Enemy:	Mickey Z
Your HITMAN Name

THis is Kelly's Hitman Name, My Name was Knee Bender....

Ahhhhhh, guess I'm finally getting used to the temps out here.....

2006-06-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

You know 93 degrees, right? If you are in Maryland, you know that 93 degrees is usually accompanied by high humidity and lots of tourists... we get them here too, just not so much humidity....
The other day I was getting into the Jeep to pick Kelly up from work and I thought to myself 'Self, it's a beautiful day, I don't even need to use the AC in the car.' I started the car up and looked at the temperature, 93. now you know that 93 degrees is hot, yet it has been so much hotter already that it really felt great!! I cruised down CHeyenne to the highway and through the little backroads to her work (which they have finally filled in the potholes, yay!!) without even breaking a sweat.. I mean, really, compared to the days last week... It wasw awesome!!

Today was another great day, in most spots the temp was 95 or so, with 97 and 98 on the busy highway and in the heat of the day. Obviously we will have more scorchers in store, we haven't even hit July yet, or August (pretty bad temps in those months last year) but so far this summer has been pretty agreeable!

Anyone who doesn't believe the difference between humid/hot and dry/hot aught to come for a week here, you'll notice how amazing the difference is!!

Adrenaline, pros and cons

2006-06-05T07:46:00.001-07:00

You know that feeling you get when you are playing a great game of your favorite sport, your team is on fire, you are pumping out energy you didn't even know you had, you take a hit into the boards and it doesn't phase you, you are intent on giving 125% as long as your body seems to be willing.... I get that feeling from a good gig! When everything is together, the crowd response is good, I just get this great boost. THis weekend was awesome, we had a good crowd on Friday night, albeit small, and Saturday night the place was hopping and the folks kept dancing all night long.. one problem with getting this adrenaline rush, what's going to happen when it goes away.... Let me set up the scene for you:

We video taped our gig in Indian springs and watched the video last week (several times) to get a good idea of those things that needed work. I noticed instantly that I was not nearly as animated as I thought I was, mostly kicking back and letting the groove flow without looking like I was into it (at least not looking like I was Really into it). THe vocals needed work, but Saturday night in Indian Springs we wre all kinda hosed. When I talk to the audience, I tend to talk really fast, not so fast that you can't understand, just fast enough for it to sound too fast. So I put it into my head that I needed to go back to the more animated, rockstar stance (you know, legs bent at teh knee, axe slung right in front of you, rockin to the rhythm and moving the axe on big hits...) that I used to always play with, and I needed to slow down and focus on diction when talking and singing. THese tips seemed to help, the

Special thanks to my bandmates, Corey, Bruce, Tommy D. WIthout these guys, I would not have the opportunity to get that rush, and to know that I was in a project that was more than just another bar band!! More thanks to Mel, our 'staff photographer', she comes out to gigs with Corey (her hubby) and takes great pictures for us!!!!

Wow, economy freight.....

2006-06-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to me that a music store in San Diego would send an upright bass economy freight. I'm still waiting for the upright bass that was ordered a week and a half ago and when I called the shipping comany, they said the scheduled delivery date was June 5th.... June 5th... that is nuts. I can see when it came into Las Vegas, it is here in the depot, it has not been scanned into the system yet, and God only knows if is in in an air conditioned area or not.

When I called the customer service number to inquire about the status of the item, I was told that it was shipped economy freight and is not scheduled to be delivered until June 5, I asked the representative about the area the item is located, she didn't know if it was air conditioned or not, I advised her that this was big and expensive and very sensative to temperature extremes, no response, I told her that if upon inspection the item was damaged because of their shipping/holding procedures that I would have no problem, I would simply send it back to the reatiler that sent it to me, but her company would have a very big problem, nothing, no respone, it's like she was a mindless 19 year old, reading only two sentances from her computer 'it shows here that it was shipped economy and is scheduled to be delivered on June 5th'...... I just love when people care, don't you?!

Did auto manufacturers stop putting tunr signals on cars??

2006-05-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

I was driving down the I-15, one of the major highways that gets you around the Las Vegas Valley, to pick Kelly up at the airport last night, and given the increased traffic due to the holiday weekend I was not suprised at how busy the roadway wass, I was blown away by something else: It seems like No one (except me) was using their turn signals. A four lane highway (plus on/offramps) loaded to the limit with cars that were just changing lanes and exiting/entering the highway with no indication of their intent. If there is one thing I make sure I do that was in the handbook, it's use my signals.. I want you to know that I am turning, so you won;t hit me.... THere was a bad accident at Sahara, no doubt the result of someone not using their signals.... I exited and saw a lot of flashing yellow arrows, road work at Las Vegas BLVD and Sahara on Memorial day, must have been emergency work, Yet another headache caused by non-signal users???? as the signs indicated, I got over two lanes to the left and the lane I was in was clear, except that now all of the people who had their heads up their arses were then coming over into this lane with no signal, so back to bumper-to-bumper for a bit. How hard is is to look ahead when you are driving, and to follow the instructions that are posted, a lot of our taxes go towards those fancy orange and yellow signs....As I was getting closer to the intersection, and the cones were closing off the other lanes completely, a guy in a white Jeep Grand Cherokee starts to come into my lane, nearly making contact, and not flashing a signal or anything. My window was open, his window was open, so I yelled " If you had your turn signal on I would have stopped for you, but if you think you can just come over, forget it" or somehting like that... blows me away, and the airport is no different. Let me set up the scenario for you, driving up to passenger pickup, there are a LOT of people on the right side of the road, and a few on the left, so how many times did I get cutt of by people suddenly realizing that they needed to pull over to my lane to pick up their family?? Three, one of which used his/her signal.. thank you sir/ma'am in the Lexus Why Bother SUV...

Just a rant.

That and I'm still waiting to hear when my upright bass will be delivered, arrrrrrghhhhh!

What can I say? Nasty Habits Rocks!!

2006-05-27T02:37:00.000-07:00

So we had a bit of a lineup change in Nasty Habits, Steve Dixon, a good friend of all of us and our guitar player/singer has been very busy with work (he is an audio guy) and taking care of many different things in his life and we as a band wanted him to know that it's O.K. to handle his business, even if it meant he couldn't give 100% to the band. We didn't fire him and he didn't quit, it's a mutual feeling (I think) and we've made the split without harning our friendship (obviously some hurt is going to be felt).

We had a gig tonight at Indian Springs Casino and man, I really think we can pull this off as a four peice (although looking into another member is not totally out of the question, I think we need to hone our skills with the talented people we have so that we have a better product to sell). It means that I am singing about 2/3rds of the material and I don't think I did a bad job considering. we had 'Uncle' sean jamming too (it was actually his gig that he brought us on...long story) but even without a second guitar I think we will be a force to be wreckend with.

My upright bass is in the depot here in Vegas, but untill the shipping/receiving guy scans it into his system (right now it is there, just marked 'arrived' by the driver) I can't call and schedule to pick it up (and therefore I will have to wait until Tuesday thanks to the Holiday weekend...). I'm s excited about the bass, not only does it mean that I will have another schtick, the band is going to have a cool image peice on stage, it is really going to be memorable!!

Anywho, I just wanted to post about our gig, my voice lasted through the night (even with rehearsal last night) and I think it will be fine tomorrow with the church picnic/summer bash/jam and a nap tomorrow afternoon. We added a second subwoofer to our P.A. and tonight was the first time using it, it sounds awesome (the P.A>) and I can only look forward to the gigs that are coming in the future with great anticipation and a smile!! Good night, I'm going to try to get a few hours of zZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's in while I can!!!

So, would you remember a band that had an upright bass with flames on it? Lets hope many other would too!

2006-05-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Tommy D, the guitar player in Nasty Habits, called me with an idea, as a way to make more of a show out of our sets, he was thinking that people would go nuts over a band that had an upright bass, so if he got one with flames on it, that would be a definite eye-catcher and thing to remember. He was interested to know if I would play one, to which I informed him that I had one for years, so it would not be something I was going into blindly, and he asked me to look into finding one that was not too expensive (King brand uprights go for around $4000). I was at the computer anyway and pulled one up on Ebay that was much less than a grand and already had a cool flame-over-black color scheme on it. He ordered it. Soon I will be back to having chops on the upright again, it's going to be soo much fun!!

The next step for our/my stage image is a kilt ( I already have mutliple pairs of plaid pants, so this would take that one step farther!! Imagine me with my porkpie hat, club shirt and a kilt, how cool would that be?! Definitely have to find a MacKenzie plaid (or stewart, because the clan MacKenzie was VERY loyal to the stewarts).......... More to come in the future!!

Beer can chicken!

2006-05-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

My father in law makes one heck of a good chicken on the barbeque, so we thought we'd give it a try for ourselves, the process involves shoving a half-full can of beer up the unsuspecting fowl's rear end. If you plan to try this, I would advise that you buy a bird prepared at the store (the live ones tend to peck at you when you try to get the can near their tushes... Just kidding, they love it!....

I took the 'stuff' out of the birds cavity, rinsed the bird with cold water inside and out and applied some salt, pepper, poultry seasonng and rosemary to the outside of the bird (and a little inside) then I drank half of the beer . I put a few seasonings in with the beer just in case that might help ad flavour. Then I put the beer can into this rack and crammed the bird over the can, it was hard work... Most recipes call for a 3-4 pund bird, this one was 4.5 punds, and I can't imagine getting a can into a smaller bird... I fired up the grill, pre-heated it, and got the bird situated. 10 minutes later I went to scheck on it and there was no propane left (having only used the grill one other time before this I was confused, but the incompetant folks at the gas station or who fill up the tanks must have missed one....) So I fired up the oven and let er rip. THe bird was done right before I had to go to band practice, so I didn't get a chance to try it yet, but you can bet it'll be my lunch today!!

Ahhh, Summer......

2006-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Last week showed us that Vegas is going to be hotter than ever, and I don't meen more popular!
Wew had several days that were right under or jusr over 100 degrees, this is easily 15 degrees above the normal temps this time of year. We are going to get a nice break starting SUnday, it is only going to be in the 90's, and they've even shown some days to be in the 80's.
I sat out by th pool for a while on THursday, and man I am still red! I used SPF 50 on my head and face (there's nothing worse than the thought of skin cancer on your nugget) and did not use any sunblock on the rest of me. I learned my lesson, though, and will make sure that some kind of sunscreen is applied. I might actually get a tan this year, and not just on my arms/shoulders....

A couple of tunes

2006-05-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple of tunes that are O.K. and I have put them on the internet. Keep in mind I recorded these with a microphone from a headset/earbud thing we have for the webcam and until I get more work coming in I won't be able to do much better (I need an interface to get the guitar/mic signal to digital so I can get better quality) THey are in Windows media format, I think, so if you can't hear them, sorry. They are available at:

Sincitywolskes.com/Jam

Sincitywolskes.com/goodluck

Much to my suprise.....

2006-05-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

Last Night Kelly came home from work about 35 minutes later than I expected. Now I'm not one of those husbands who thinks that my wife needs to be at my very beck and call (which she usually is, because she's a great wife!) but anything over 25 minutes late constitutes worry... I was getting to the point that I was hurt by the lack of a phone call before she left if she new she was going to be running late, and almost to the point of wondering if she had been in an accident when she came home. I was outside when she was backing the Jeep into the parking space, odd, she usually doesn't bother to back in... She popped open the lift gate and asked me if I could help get this thing inside, it was a grill! a real grill! ( at our old apartment I had a little charcoal burning piece of you-know-what) We got the unit upstairs and then I had to go to band practise. Kelly put the grill together, it looks awesome! It is stainless steel on the outside (Insert Tim the Toolman noises here) and has a cast Iron grille, a side burner and everything! We don't have a tank for it yet, but you can bet that as soon as we do, I'm doin' some grillin'!

So I have to appaulogize to Kelly, I was not very enthusiastic about the grill last night, I was pressed for time before band practise and I was worried about her safety. Now I can breathe easy and tell her how much I love the new Grill!! Thanks, Babe!!

Just don't want to see a blog sitting...

2006-05-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

So I've been kind of lazy in the last week. Let me tell you how much Kelly and I are enjoying our new place...

First off, there's a pool, a hot tub, cabanas, a fitness room, all within 50 yards of our unit. We throw on our suits and grab our towels and just outside our front door (and down the stairs) is the pool area, great!! It's in the high 90's and about to hit the 100's (actually today was 102 per the sensor in the Jeep....)

Secondly, there is a shopping center that is a 10 minute walk from our front door that has an Albertsons Grocery Store, a Pub, a chinese place, lots of options nice and close ( our old place it was a 10 minute drive to a dumpy older grocery store and no other shopping options)

Third, we have lakes, not huge lakes like the ones I'm used to in Canada, but lakes non-the-less... THere are 4 man-made lakes which are spring fed (so they are 'Real' water, not theme-park water. In these lakes there are Fish, I've seen a few big ones, and Turtles, aren't they cute?! THere is a Beach CLub that has a lagoon (a much smaller area that allows swimming and has a beach with palm trees and hammocks and beach volleyball court....) A tour on foot of the neighborhood is a nice 1 hour walk (with stops to look at fish and turtles) and on a nice day last week I did the walk and looked around.

Fourth, Band practice is a lot closer. I used to leave our place 45 minutes before rehearsal, now I leave 15 minutes before rehearsal.

Fifth, mmmmm, afifth would be good right now (we have no liquor in the house as of yet)

Sixth, the GYm is closer, RedRock Canyon is closer, haven't seen any shady charactors lurking around, walls seem to be thick (the neighbour appologized about his dog barking to which I had to respond "O.K., I haven't heard any barking..." they really are that quiet!

So anywho, there are a few of the things that we are enjoying about the new place! Rock On!!!!

Joe Cocker -- Artist of the Week

2006-05-11T14:29:00.000-07:00

That's right, Faboulous Joe Cocker, check it out, you might learn something

Artist of the Week link is on right side of screen with other links.

Artist of the Week moved

2006-05-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

Due to errors that windows was experiencing I have moved the AOTW page to a NEW HOME. I hope you enjoy it, if not, let me know that you don't go there and I will stop putting them up...

Wonder why we are overweight?

2006-05-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

I was at the Las Vegas Athletic Club this morning, as I am every morning, and as I walked out to my car, I was nearly run over by a Blue Ford Explorer. Myself and two ladies all stopped before actually getting into the parking lot and made our comments like 'yeah, when driving in a parking lot you shouldn't pay any attention to the pedestrians at the zebra crossing.' The lady was rushing to get a parking spot that had just opened up in the first row of cars, at the gym....

I don't try too hard to park close to anything, it seems to be more headaches and hassles than it is worth, but at the gym, come on. At the hotels in town the parking is always congested in the 'easy' areas and it is really not worth having to deal with tourists in a parking garage, let me tell you... At the mall, everybody knows what kind of crap you go through at ANY mall, so I don't need to expand on that one.

The gym I go to has a Zebra crossing that goes through the middle of the parking, right to the entrance, so even parking 6 or 7 rows away, there is very easy access. My goal when I go to the gym is to sweat, not to just show up and hope my fat will get scared and run away, that just doesn't happen. I think the gym should make all of the first three rows Handicapped parking, to prove a point. Anybody who is spending $21 a month (great deal, eh!?) to have access to these facilities should understand why they bother to pay money to the gym, for fitness, not for a nice little card that looks good on the kitchen counter where everyone who may visit can see it....

So I think that this proves one thing, we are LAZY, Americans, apparently we are even less fit than the brits now, and that's saying something! PARK FARTHER AWAY, IT WILL DO YOU SOME GOOD!

As for me, I'm going to keep doing my hour+ every morning and make sure I eat right (Lots of protein and fiber, moderate carb and fat intake) in hopes of leaving the 'average'... BTW I am down from 202.5 (in December) to 188, slowly but surely wins the race my friends.

Moron Immigration, I mean more on....

2006-05-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting article about a town in Maryland that is having a debate over whether or not they should have a day labor center, interesting that governments want to get in on the action of assisting those without the proper paperwork to assist themselves. My suggestion would be this: Someone of questionable background should open a swap meet, there they can supply all of the real American Social Security Numbers to Illegals, and when he gets caught, someone else can take over in a different swap meet, that would at least be building a legacy, something for their people to be er, proud of..... How about finding them fair wages and then making sure they are properly paying taxes.... That would be novel, but I bet that part would slip between the dirty river, I mean cracks..... If you are here legally and need assistance there are more than enough job placement centers that can help you, if you are trying to get daywork because you have no paperwork, GET OUT OF THIS COUNTRY. As for those of you who like to point out that we are not a Police State, we should be, because soon enough you will be the one feeling the crunch from the mass border crossings we are seeing and will continue to see if we don't close our borders.

gRACEPOINT roCKS THE hOUSE OF gOD!!!

2006-05-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

Man did we have a great day at church yesterday! THe band was kickin'! the chairs were full ( and I do mean full) 20+ peoiple were baptised! It couldn't have been a cooler morning!

The GP KIDS helped us lead worship with singing and motions to two of the songs, they were great! THe service was great!

Eric, the guitar player, (forgive me for not knowing his last name.....) was among those who commited themselves to Christ recently and took the plunge, in a 12 foot round pool that was about 3 feet deep! While some people came through a little wet, the rest of us came through it with a great feeling of God's love as the energy was just jumping off the stage! If I haven't said it yet to anyone at Gracepoint, THank You for letting me be a part of Gracepoint!!

Bit the bullet, went to union hall again...

2006-05-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well, having a slump in gigs, I decided to look into working for the union guys again... This time I had my resume in hand and filled out their application, so we'll see... Part of me is really glad to have opened a door that may help me get work (and if it doesn't, I'll be very quick to demand that the contract/application is null and void, which it advised me to do in writing...) the other part of me is kind of scared about getting tied into an organization like this. I've never been a part of a union, never actually thought about it before, and now it is a real thing I've signed up for, I just don't know if it is good or bad. I guess that I can't make that assumption just yet, that it'll be either, really. I'll certainly enjoy working, anything within my field will be better than working in an office (which I did for two and a half years) and will certainly lead me to experience and contacts, at the very least.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the City of North Las Vegas about my background check, I can't believe that anything would slow that down, it's not like I've done anything except work and play gigs, no time in Sing-Sing for me....

I worked an event this past weekend!! It wasn't an audio gig, it was setup/work booth/tear down gog for Quilted Northern Ultra (Yes I did get some TP) and it was at the Race for the cure, so it was a fun day for a good cause. I went DOwntown to the Fremont Street Experience at 1:00 in the morning (after carefully planned naps the day before) and we set up a huge tent with a Plink styled game and a Team Photo station, then I spent the majority of the morning walking through the thousands of attendees taking pictures with a digital camera, we were giving participants a chance to have their pictures taken for free, they'll just have to go online to download their pictures, then we had to strile everything, load the truck and we were done, all in all a good day!! I found the gig on Craigslist, so I'll keep checking there everyday for more opportunities!!

So I was pretty beat the rest of the day Saturday and fighting off a headache because I didn't pay attention to the amount of sun my shaved nugget was getting.....

Who does it really hurt when you take a day off?

2006-05-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

SO yesterday a bunch of immigrants walked the streets to prove how powerful they are as a segment of our population... TO reiterate my point from yesterday,:

SO WHAT? You are going to be short by 8 hours on your paycheck, and you're probably busting your ass today to make up for the work that didn't get done, who has the last laugh now, chico? Be happy if your employer brings you Gatorade in stead of making you get it yourself, because you've just slapped him in the face and he should only give you the required 10 minute break every 4 hours, shows you who has the power, keep digging. You want to see where the power is? What if all of the businesses decided to not open for a few days? then you'd complain because you (through some great power and overly kind government) have some rights and don't want to see the income you rely on going away. It's the same thing you just did to them, and they don't have questionable paperwork....

So a handful of Mexican restaurants didn't open yesterday (because the owner and all of the illegals that work there are Mexican) who did that hurt? Not me, I certainly didn't suffer from a lack of jalapeno's in my diet yesterday, and I bet there is other cost incured, such as food that can't sit for two days, so they shot themselves in the foot, that's really smart, shows me a lot about your people and your 'power'...

The casinos put out big petitions showing support for the 'needed reform' for their employees to sign, that's a smart way to keep everyone at work and piss on the fire if you ask me. THe immigrants feel that they are cared for and the casinos don't have a glitch in their customer service, I would have just told you flat out you were fired if you didn't show, that should be all the encouragement anyone needs to show up to work... I would have announced your name on the overhead P.A. too, so everyone would know that you got yourself fired for what? to prove a point that doesn't exhist?

The architectural precast place that my wife works at had no men to work in the yard, so the owners and other educated people who work there had to put in a little elbow greese, no big issue there. THe owner was even willing to give a little bonus to anybody who showed up, he was actually willing to pay you more than he needs to to show you he appreciates you, but you didn't cripple his business, and like I said, who's busting their asses today? not the owners, that's your job.

You want to come to my country, you wnat to have your peice of the american dream, you want me to hand you everything on a shiny silver platter, kiss my ass, learn my language, go to an immigration lawyer and do what YOU have to do to enter this country... I'd like to sneak in the back door of your home and sit on the couch watching TV and demand that YOU give me the keys to the front door and a cold beer, Ain't gonna happen, is it? Be lucky that there weren't large groups of violent americans looking to hook you up in a chain gang and walk your ass back across the border. LUCKY.

Employers should make themselves aware of INS documentation and should be allowed to doubt it's validity until it can be proved (social security cards have a three digit number that indicates the state that it was issued, and only one person has that SSN, take a look at credit reports or other info that can only be known to the true holder of that SSN.

Take a look at this story and tell me if you want this kind of lying sh*t in your country.

Obviously I speak to the illegals mostly, but to those of you who are here legitimately, Don't force anything on America. We've been here a long time, and we're not going anywhere. It's just sad when the people who live here legally and speak the english language are the ones who are being pushed around by those who have invaded and are trying to make it easier for more people like them to come and destroy our country. COme to America, Live like Americans, Leave your country's CRAP back home. Most lease agreements indicate no more than two or three adults can live in a home/apartment (depending on size) so just in the argument that living 10 to a house is not american, it's also illegal (a lease is a contract, a legally binding agreement, if you could read english you'd know that.)

I rather enjoyed the day without immigrants, and would like to request that we get a few of those days a month.

Protest Day?! THis is why I love ROck and Roll

2006-05-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'd rather not take a day off work (which I'm not going to get paid for) to drink cervesa and 'Protest' the government. I've been driving around Vegas to get a few last things done to finalize our move and I've seen countless cars full of Mexicans who aren't going to work. Wal mart (which I never go to because of the crowds and store policy) was very pleasant. I walked freely through the store and did not once have to ball my fist up and get ready to throw down, it was amazing! I breezed through the aisles and the checkout with no problems whatsoever... I went to The commy store to spend some money because if the immigrant population is trying to prove a point and hurt the business end of America, I'll do my little part to not make it hurt so much, but I do have a theory....

You lose a day of pay and you'll have to work twice as hard tomorrow, who's getting the raw end of the deal, Mane?! Certainly a lot of you will be looking for jobs tomorrow because Nevada is a Right to Work state and the company only needs to want to fire you, great, you really proved a lot by losing your job, now little juan pablo is going to have to really step up his junk peddling at the swap meet, nice guy. You bought extra beer and stuff yesterday so you wouldn't spend any money today, and that hurt who? Didn't have the tortillas that you needed in the fridge, you'll go and get them tomorrow. If you want to feel unappreciated, join the rest of us. I have my freedom and that is all I want (Publishers Clearing house people, that is not a withdrawal of my entry) from this country. I pay them what I need to as a Citizen, and I enjoy my country. If today was this great for me, imagine if we could heard you guys up and take you back to your country, I might like to shop at the mall again....

I also wondered, what if I went to the rally and pretended to be from Ireland, stowed away on a ship or something, would they hold me inte same position as themselves, or would they look at my white skin and hate me. I think a lot of this hatred and anger has to do with their own racism and my fix for that is REAL simple... If you don't like the American people and the way they think, don't invade their country.

Maybe we should mandate military service to imigrants, two years in the feild and then give them consideration.... Train them to overthrow the government they ran away from. Once we get enough of an army made up of gringo's we can just drop them from a C-5 and let them do what they should be doing. then charge the new government for all the training and equipment we put in, carry the two, add interest, we could make a killing, and we could even convinve Arnie to let them have the NAME California, we'd just come up with a new name for that state and change our maps....

All this typing is making me tired, I think I'll grab a Modelo Negra and take a Ciesta by the pool, which was cleaned this morning by a white guy, like always.

Quote of the week --- C. Frey on imigrant protest day --- We'll start to cut our own grass again, I don't see what the big deal is...

See, it works, my adsense bar is much better!

2006-04-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

By posting that big poitless list of things realted to music I successfully made the adsense match my liking, isn't that cool!

Moved In!!!!

2006-04-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Yup, all the nick-nacks and DOO-Dads have been carefully toted across the city and are resting in our new apartment. THe cat is freaked out ( she won't come out from under the covers in our bed) but she'll be O.K. Just need to get over to the old place and run the vacuum and do an idiot check, that should be easy! I really want to take this opportunity to thank Corey Frey, a good friend of mine who helped me move all the big items (sofa, beds......) and pulled a horse trailer with his pickup truck to haul the stuff too!

Now onto the good stuff. You should see the size of the tub in the master bathroom, I can stand facing the shower head with my arms straight out bent 90' at the elbows and neither one of my arms will be touching the wall or curtain, and facing the broad wall I can stand with my arms extended bent at the wrist (up) and not touch either wall. Pretty spiffy! Not to mention the place is a lot bigger than our old place, and has a better layout (it doesn't seem so much like a typical apartment) and better amenities (pools, fitness area, man-made lakes to swim/fish/boat on) Look for pictures of the new place soon at www.sincitywolskes.com

Nasty Habits ROcks!!!

2006-04-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Not that this wasn't already known to me, but it was totally confirmed this weekend. We had our first official gig as Nasty Habits at the Indian Springs casino about 45 minutes north of Las Vegas. It is a small casino with a pretty big bar and a great dance floor. THe crowd was a little thin Friday night, but the place was hopping on Saturday night! THe Overall vibe pouring off the stage was great! THere was communication between players, wicked licks being traded by our two guitar players and Uncle Sean, our buddy who actually got us the gig and sat in with us both nights. THe sound was good, the playing was good, the crowd loved it, and we got more dates at Indian Springs!! Check out our Myspace or Website to see our current bookings.

Friday night I couldn't sleep, partly because it was our first night in the new place, and partly because the gig went so well (when I was 18 I used to get a lot of adrenaline during gigs and could not go to sleep right after a gig, but it's been probably 8 years since I last experienced that rush!).

Look for more news about Nasty Habits as we progress.

Big stuff moved in! Almost completely moved!!

2006-04-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

We took a horse trailer full of big houshold items to the new place, including the computer, and wer are almost ready to rock and Roll!! I've got to take a nap because I've got a gig up the road tonight.

Rock and Roll

2006-04-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

Just trying to make the adsense banner not focus on a subject that I don't like. so here is a random listing of things that have to do with music.

Did you know that Guitar Center and Musicians friend are the same company?! That's why the Guitars and Basses or Pro Audio Gear or Drums in the catalog and in the music store are always the same price!

Sam Ash is not affiliated with either, Nor are any of them affiliated with Ed Romans, the worlds largest guitar store (it says so on the billboards).

Most players still use Fenders or Gibsons, however a strong and loyal following sticks with Peavey and Ibanez, and the most discerning players (me) have gone to Schecter guitars.

One of my favorite bands is Lynyrd Skynyrd who are still touring to this day, and are my artist of the week..

I personally believe that every kid should have a guitar when they turn 12, if they don't like it they can always learn a lesson in selling items on Ebay which has become a work at home, get rich type of thing nowadays. and more parents should consider the bass guitar for their kids, after all it got me where I am today...Disregard the last part.........

My twin brother Matt inspired me to do a bunch of links and they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. We used to play in a band called Mourning Stone, all original hard rockin' music with some friends, and before that our first band was Seuss. Since the demise of Mourning Stone I have played in Across the Tracks, the Trisha Benton Band and Betty and the Liars.

Recently I was making a MYSPACE account for Nasty Habits when I stumbled across some of my old friend in Salisbury Maryland and their bands. There is Dash Eight, Dr. Jones, and Trisha Benton on there along with countless other rockin' bands from back east.

To continue with the list of things musical there is:
Pro Sound News
Carvin
www.behringer.com
Dbx
Allen and Heath
Yorkville
Hartke
Yamaha
Shure
Sensaphonics

Cool, so that should give the page more respectable things to advertise for. Rock and Roll.

Band pic

2006-04-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the Band, Nasty Habits from Left to right it's Bruce, Jon, Tommy, Steve, Corey

We have picked up some more dates, and are happily getting our Demo out to the people in Vegas who do bookings for events and such. We are also looking forward to a return engagement at the STARBRIGHT THEATER with LINDA GENTILLE, a fantastic piano player who played with Liberace and keeps his love for a good show going to this very day!! There are even pictures from our last shows with Linda on her website!

Also, anybody here in town, if you are looking for a Rock and Blues band that is not afraid of variety and fun, look no further than us! Nasty Habits is ready to rock your party or event until the sun comes up if necessary! If you have a crowd that likes to dance, and you really want to impress them with this years company party, give us a call, we'll make sure your event is the best yet!!

Tire safety awareness week

2006-04-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I heard on the news that it is National Tire Safety Awareness Week which really helped me out, like I couldn't tell the front right tire is worn to a dangerous level, thanks NHTSA!! Now, what are we going to do about all those People of questionable entry who are driving on bad tires, can we deport them for that? Man I love awareness Weeks, they give me such enthusiasm! I just can't stop thinking about chasing down all those people with bad tires and sending them to Wal Mart (Commie) supercenters to have their tires changed by their Professional tire changing professionals. I'll bet while they are there they can also get their hair professionally done, get some new glasses from the eyeglass professionals(obviously they couldn't see that thir tires were bad) and be pushed out the isle they are shopping in by a Pallet jack equiped shelf stocking professional. and what about the cops? THey could have a little contest to see which Law Enforcement professional can get the most citations for bad tires on our roadways! Plus that would generate more income for the county too! Man, it really seems that this whole Idea of reminding us how bad our tires are is gonna be great for our economy, the stores will be making money, we'll cean up the overall look of the general public (with their new haircuts) and we'll all be a lot safer!! Looks like a winner all around. Know anybody who doesn't like Awareness Days? Follow that there link if you are one!

Signed the lease today!

2006-04-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

So we have the keys, we are going to start moving tomorrow!!
It will be nice to get out of this neighbourhood. It never really occured that this was a really bad part of town, besides the few things we had happen to us in two and a half years, but now as we drive back into this neighbourhood after visiting our new apartment, it really is pretty crummy! Not only is it in somewhat of an undesirable part of town, I never really paid attention to how many suspicious people were always lerking around.. It seems the mexicans will open any oriface of their car to make it look like they have an excuse to be hanging around in the parking lot by the dozens, and the african americans, they've never seemed to need an excuse or a reason, they have nothing better to fo. I actually heard this conversation outside my window the other day (we have one of thos two foot high electrical boxes right outside our window, and certain people seem to think that it's a bench and hang out there all day and night) "Nah, man, if I even WENT to school i'd be doin' better than that nigga." " Fo Sho, I could get a job just as easily as that M#&$#F*#&$R and I ain't gone to no damn school in a year....." lovely isn't it?!

We will send pictures of our new, non sketchy hood once we are moved in!!!

Nasty Habits Music (Demo) Available -- blogger editor not making links....

2006-04-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Corey Frey, the drummer in Nasty Habits mixed our demo and now it is available online to listen!! You can check it out on our WEBSITE (http://nastyhabitslv.com) or you can listen to it from our new MYSPACE account (www.myspace.com/nastyhabitslv)! I figured it's the hottest thing going right now, so we can generate much more traffic, right! We are looking forward to getting some photos so we will have the start of a press pack and can start pounding the pavement for gigs. If you know of anyone in the Las Vegas or surrounding areas who is going to have an event, or knows someone in the industry, please send them our way!! We are pleased with the demo, feel free to sheck it out!! My favourite tune is 'Unchain my Heart' we really gave it our own feel and I think it's quite good! (I may be just slightly biased...)

The move is soon to be underway!

2006-04-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Wanna help? later this week I'll be packing our belongings and hauling them about 25 minutes to our new home. We got an apartment set up in Desert Shores, a nice neighborhood that has four man-made lakes with fishing and swimming and small watercrafts and beach volleyball.... it is a nice area to go for a walk or ride your bike too! Kelly really hates moving, so I am going to try to get most of the moving done during the day while she is at work. I can't say that I love moving, but I had a minivan when I was 18, I got used to moving (you know the bumper sticker 'yes it's my pickup, no I won't help you move' that applies to minivans too, everybody and their mother wants you to haul stuf...) so the only big items we have are the Beds (queen and twin) the sofa and loveseat, so I think I should be able to get away with one trip using a U-Haul flat trailer and the rest in the Jeep.... I'll keep updating with our progress! Keep looking!

Hip Hop = Danger! SO SAYS THE SHERIFF

2006-04-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

Recently, the Sheriff of Las Vegas sent a request to the casinos and concert venues in the valley suggesting that they not book hip hop acts anymore. His reasoning was simple: He's the one who has to clean up the mess after these shows break out into violence. I'm not saying that all hip hop fans are prone to violence, it's just a hazard when that's the attitude pouring off the stage.

You don't hear mainstream rock bands talking about the stuff that these hip hop guys are pushing (Gang membership/Guns/Hookers/Bling/Violence), and keep in mind I said MAINSTREAM. You see the difference between the rock world and the hip hop world is that little bit of bending into the man, not throwing all of the questionable content onto the airwaves and letting the listeners sort out what they want to hear and what they don't. For this, I applaud the Hip Hop community, Embrace your 'ART' and own it, however, in owning it you must be willing to face the consequences.

So I'd like to challenge anyone in the Hip Hop community to this: Look around Vegas, see if there are other venues that feature music with this sort of violent energy, There may be a lot of Metal bands in Vegas (most of our original scene is Heavy Rock), but listen to what they are saying, it's not all 'Kill you Mom and Eat your Dog' music. And the shows don't end up with riots, either. Find me a rock musician or band who has been shot in the studio (there have been a number of murders in Vegas at Hip Hop studios), we tend to take matters into our own hands the same as the Hip Hop guys, only we approach conflict resolution from a professional standpoint. If person A has offended me or my Homies and it is affecting my business, I will resolve the issue with Person A, not shoot Him/Her.

I'd like to add a note about society (how I see it from my part of the world)... If you are sitting in your car with the music blaring and your two year old is in the back seat as you sing along, complete with all of the "M-F'ers" and other bad language, don't be surprised that your son is going to turn out to be a hoodlum. There are 4 and 5 year old kids spouting off words and phrases that I didn't know until I was easily into my preteen years, and they had to have picked it up from somewhere (even if it was not their parents, some other kids may have heard the words from THERE parents....)

So hold your rally (a grand total of about 50 people attended), but step back and look at the business you are in and the history of violence that has come with it and then tell me it is wrong to suggest that the valley would be better off without these shows. If these shows continue or are brought back to Fort Cheyenne casino (three blocks from my apartment) will there be fights and shootings like the last time? And the time before that, and the time before that........ And show me a Rock or Pop or Blues orJazz or Country musician who has shot a cop dead recently...

Anywho, I just think it's a little nuts for these folks to complain because you have to change your industry, your business, in order to earn society's respect and trust again. We didn't stop you from getting booked, you and yours did, nuff said.

opportunities part 2

2006-04-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

So I've been doing the sound at Gracepoint church here in town , and I recently started playing bass with them too! THe worship director, WOJO gave me a phone number for a guy who works for the City of North Las Vegas and said that he was looking for sound engineers for some part time work. I sent off my resume and will be having an interview with him later this week!! Please keep this in your prayers! Thanks!!

Too many fun things to do!!

2006-04-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

So recently I embeded music into the web formatting of my blog, isn't that neat! I'll be changing the featured artist every week, so be sure to check back often!! also be sure to leave your comments, taht's what this is here for... I was really looking forward to hearing your views about the union option, but only received one response... anywho, Keep on blogging!!!

Found Funny Video from a few years back, hope you enjoy it!!

2006-04-11T10:14:00.000-07:00

This is some funny stuff right here!!

Lonely weekend

2006-04-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

Kelly was in Yuma visiting her Mother and Grandmother for the weekend. I guess in the movies, this would be when the husband goes on some great misadventure..... not so for me. Just a lot of rough nights (isn't it strange how you get really used to having your significant other with you at night?...)

I've been looking at apartments (we've been in a very old condo/apartment for 2.5 years, and are looking to get into a better neighbourhood) so Saturday I went and scoped out a few models, some were noticably better than others.... One was smaller than the one we are ion now, took a quick look and got out of there....... One had a geat floorplan, but is a few miles east of our current location (most of what we do outside of home {church, Band practise} is on the north=west side of the valley). THere are a few more (tons more) to look at, so I'll be right to it Monday.

This weekend's meals consisted of a lot of Green Tea (I drink a pot a day) and microwave burritos.... really. I love the ones you get at the grocery store for 5 for $2.00, and as long as you have only one for a meal, it's not going to load you up on fat and calories (they pack a lot of protein and fiber in those things). Today for lunch I nuked a peice of Salmon and put some BBQ sauce on it, toasted some bread and called it lunch! Not sure if I'll do dinner, it's 7:15 and I have to pick Kelly up at the car rental dropoff place soon.

At least she'll be home safe and sound (Yeah!!!) , maybe I'll get some restfull sleep tonight.

THere's something to be said about reading directions......

2006-04-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

"Now, if someone would just show me where the'End' is, we can stop this madness before it foes too far......"

O.K., so that's probably not what my Nephew Brandon is thinking about his new little brother Andrew, but you gota admit, it's kinda funny.....

CONGRATS TO CARLA AND ROB OWENS ON THE BIRTH OF A HEALTHY BABY BOY THIS MORNING, LOVE YOU SIS!!!!!!!!

Resume available online

2006-04-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have posted my tech resume online, anyone interested can take a look.

www.sincitywolskes.com/techresume.odt

New web page for Kelly and Jon Wolske

2006-04-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

We have had the domain name for a while, but check out www.sincitywolskes.com for the web page, it is still a work in progress, but at leat it is up and running!!!

Man leaves cave, enters digital age....

2006-04-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

Command Central before the PC... No offense to the Roland VS880 (pictured to the right of the mixer), I just don't have enough time on it to get good results.....

Getting a band demo is a tedious project, often with many pitfalls and the end result is usual only mildly gratifying.... Most of the time you wind up using an older peice of equipment that is borrowed from a freind, and no matter how savvy you are, you can't get the best results from the unit, so you deal with 'so-so'. Such was the case for the Nasty Habits demo, we had tracks done, they were O.K., we were waiting to get the final touches down, but weren't superly happy with the results. Just recently we decided to restart the demo ( a thought that usually ends up meaning a lot more time, more headaches....) Corey, the drummer, brought over a computer that he had built specifically for recording, using a prgram called Saw Studio. Being an anolog guy , it was tough to look at the computer and take it seriously (especially since the demo version of Saw that I downloaded from the company's site didn't even work), but I figured we'd give it a go... For some history, the only experience that I have had with completely digital recording was a studio project that turned out sounding worse than most of the previously mentioned demos ever did, and it was at a 'professional' studio... Now onto the good stuff... Corey was showing me the ropes, because I sit at 'Command Central' in our rehearsal room, and man did it seem easy! The interface on the screen is set up to look just like a tape machine, but it's all on the computer. We hooked up the signal converter that takes a regular line signal and makes it digital, we patched in a few goodies that we have available and BAM!!! We tracked the drums (thank God for Roland V-drums!!), bass and two guitar tracks live, the result was much better than usual, and it was noticable upon playback, with no extra mixing, so the finished product is going to be superb!!! ( the first version of the demo we played the original CD of the song, laid down the drum part to the CD, then added the other parts seperately, it sounded dead, no energy.... This new demo has more energy than I have ever heard on a demo, and it's not just us playing the songs too fast...) We have to lay down the keyboard tracks and the vocals this week, then it will be time to mix and master, I can't wait!! I've never been so eager to work on a demo before!! I can't wait until we can upload the demo to our website, and I can load it onto my MP3 player and jam out!!! I just can't believe how good it sounds already! We haven't applied any processing to the tracks yet, so we have no other direction to go than up with this demo.

I am a believer, it can be done, great sounding recordings can be done on a computer, there, I said it... I'm not going to throw all my tape players away just yet, but I have certainly seen the light as far as digital recording goes!!

To join a Union, or not to join a union, that is my question.

2006-04-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

When talking to an audio engineer about my current situation ( waiting to hear about gigs), he mentioned looking at the union hall. Not being a member of the union, I had no idea just what he was talking about. I went to the union hall (I.A.T.S.E.), and really you can only go into a front area with the receptionists at the window. I informed her that I was looking for information, having never looked into a union before. Her response was 'If you come back with a resume, we'll forward it to training and see if we can use you." Right away a union member advised me, 'You do audio work? If you had your resume and your 'blacks' (black pants and shirt) today we could put you to work..." so my question is this:

As a freelance audio person, will joining the local union stop me from getting jobs with the crews that I have been working with (who obviously hire non- union people, yet follow all of the union pay guidlines), or will it really be more work and better opportunities?

If the crews that I have been working with are paying union scale, does that mean that they are not 'anti-union'? I'm just really quite confused. I would hate to continue to work in the way that I have if it would conflict with the union, should I choose to join, and I do like the sound of available work (and steady from what I've heard) that the union has available.... Please leave me your thoughts on the matter, they would be greatly appreciated.

OOOOOOhhhhh, Nature!

2006-03-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

I spent this morning at Red Rock, a national park just outside of Las Vegas, there are all sorts of hiking trails and some rock climbing places (not that I am doing that just yet) it is a neat place to get out of the city and really enjoy what God gave us! I met up with a group who hike twice a week, they gladly let me join them and actually took me to the place I wanted to go, the Tanks, where water builds up from rainfall, there are three of them on this hike, it is just so cool to see these pools of water on the top of a mountain!
I got to the park at around 8:00 in the A.M. and was getting out of my car at the trailhead at 8:20, we didn't get back to the parking lot until 1:14, so we did over 4 hours of hiking!!!
My legs are pretty much shot, so tomorrow at the gym I'll have to focus on upper body stuff... Here are some pictures to see, the rocks are all different colours!! It really is a great place to go and have fun!

We could all blog for hours on this one....

2006-03-29T08:40:00.000-08:00

Seems the immigration issue is a hot button.... To clarify, I never said that anyone lives in a 'panacea in our nice little neighborhood ' But I bet you don't have to deal with other 'cultures' like I do, it's certainly not being shoved down your throat, that's all. as for the article you sent me, what was your point exactly?
Nice qoutes, actually... "When you come here, you come to work, not to harm anyone," said Alvaro Soto, 45, who moved to Maryland last month after spending a year in New York. He said he sends money home to his family in Guatemala." ....So taking non taxed american dollars and sending it out of the country so it can never reenter our economy... Fantastic!! That's not hurting anyone....
Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA of Maryland, said his organization is training people to observe and take photos of the Minutemen's members. "If they keep harassing our community, we are going to demonstrate in front of their houses and in front of their workplaces to let the neighborhood know how anti-immigrant they are," he said. "It's going to be a shame for their family.".... Not really, because there is nothing illegal about the Minutemen taking pictures and they (the American citizens) have the rights of this country to show that (unless they plan to sell them for profit or to associate the images with a product or company, don't think that's going to happen)......
As for the few incidents where someone may have pointed a laser pointer, don't look in that direction..... If you weren't standing on the corner trying to get someone to hire you illegally, you wouldnt have been in the way of that laser beam.
The last thing we should do is make anything easier for those people who are breaking the law, why don't we just leave all the bank vaults open, how about that? can't blame the bank robbers that way, for that matter, bank robbers should be let go because most of the time they aren't caught breaking in, so it must not be a crime.... Anything that is bad for our SOCIETY in any way (financially or otherwise) should not be assisted further by the government, it should be regulated as law requires. Wonder what kind of national debt we would have if there wasn't so much of our money going elsewhere or if the government was getting everything they should be getting from all those who live here. ( Some of the workers here live 10 to an apartment, file married {although they are single} and take 4 or 5 deductions, so the most they are paying per check is $5.00, what kind of crap is that? ).
Anyway, this is a discussion that could take years, so lets leave it at this: We live in different places, we have different opinions, and that is one of the joys of being a legal citizen of the United States of America. I'll continue to be 'ignorant' as I'm sure that's what you think, and you can continue to be 'hearts and flowers' for that is certainly what I think.

New opportunities on the way!!

2006-03-28T10:52:00.000-08:00

I played in the backing band for the Jewish Community Center fund raiser 'Viva Oy Vegas' this year, the theme was the '80s, so I got dressed up in appropriately gaudy attire and played some '80s tunes. The drummer, Marty, is working with a new project that includes himself, a lead guitar player and two younger guys who play and sing guitar. The project needed a bass player and Marty asked me if I'd be interested, I said yes. The group has already done an audition for one of Las Vegas' biggest agents, and are lined up to play at Harrah's Carnival court, a great outside bar/club right on the Strip!! It gets better, though, if the entertainment director is pleased, there will be week long engagements at the venue, along with the opportunity to play other venues that the agent books for (there are two main agents in Vegas, this one books for Fremont stree experience which is downtown by all the old casinos, and many strip properties). We have our song list and did our first rehearsal last night. All in all I think we will be more than ready by the May 1 and 2 gigs at Harrah's, and from there the sky is the limit!! I will have to do a lot of figuring with my schedule to see how everything is going to go, but I am really excited about this opportunity!!

Logos

2006-03-28T09:28:00.000-08:00

Here are a few logo ideas I've worked on for the new band project, Nasty Habits, I'm trying to keep them not too risque, but still fun enough to get the point across (It is a ROCK AND ROLL band after all). I spent countless hours looking for pinups that had good outlines, then I had to make the silhouettes, could not find them online. They are very similar to the stickers you can get, but these girls are all mine (with one exception, the block letters have girls on them, they came that way from a font website.)

Wolske on Immigration

2006-03-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

Seems that my brother and I do not share the same feelings on the subject of immigration. Our family moved from Canada (Great White North, eh!) to Maryland in 1991. We went through the countless forms and fees ( to this day I have no idea how much it cost, I was 12), the interviews, the test, and finally, the oath ( I didn't say the part about renouncing other governments, I just let the rest of the room say that one out loud...). Either way, the process is by no means cheap or easy, but they will let you use a translator if need be (Yes, even for the final test...)

Now I don't know if Urban location has anything to do with our outlooks, I live in a neighborhood that is predominantly Black and Hispanic with a Mexican style market less than two blocks away, and my Brother lives in a nice quiet neighborhood in Gaithersburg, you would thing that we would be on the other side of the fence from where we are.

Maybe it is our jobs, I've worked in Manufacturing (Lots of immigrants there), Telemarketing (As long as you can speak english they'll hire you to read their scripts, even with a thick accent), even with Federal laws requiring employers to photocopy identification and SSC I've been around a lot of "undocumented workers".

Not to mention the fact that in Las Vegas you can drive to any Home Depot or Lowes and pick up a handfull of illegals to do your dirty work and pay them beans. (not to make any racial slurs here, that's just the phrase that popped into my head regarding the low cost of these workers). If I were new to this country, I'd head right down to the swap meet (almost all the vendors are mexican) and buy myself the proper paperwork, along with knock off clothes and cheap jewlery, not fair to the companies that are being knocked off, but they do it every day.

The problem, as I see it, and I do mean I see it is the misuse/abuse of our system. If a person (assumed to be legal, sorry ...documented/insert other liberal happy talk here) has gotten themselves on Section 8 assistance they can get a decent apartment for pennies on the dollar compared to what the other tenants pay, the government (state and federal) pick up the slack. That's great for someone who is down on their luck, the problem is this: Once a person is approved for section 8 status and they find themselves a home, there are very few inspections completed which leads to abuse, there may be 4 or 5 (maybe more) people living in this apartment, helping each other with the $60 a month for rent, and splitting the groceries. Sounds like a great roomate situation to me, but it is ILLEGAL. Also, immediate health comcerns cannot be refused at a hospital, what does that mean?? All I have to do is go to the emergency room (some of which have all of their intercom calling in spanish, makes you feel proud to be an American) to get anything fixed or checked out, and they will have to be able to find me to collect what I owe, if I'm undocumented they will never find me, STEALING IS ILLEGAL. also, it is a FELONY to put any other persons Social security number on any documentation, ILLEGAL..... The only way to explain these people is ILLEGAL.

We came to the states and our Father was working, paying taxes, the rest of the family got jobs (as age permitted) and we paid taxes, the home that we lived in was taxed, the state had it's taxes, the Federal governent had it's taxes. We went through a long and drawn out process to become citizens, we didn't run acros some filthy desert and occupy space and abuse the system we had sneaked ourselves into.

You want to talk about crime? There are may latino gangs, some of them have clever little names that gringos don't really know what they mean, some of them just work under the guise of pre-exhisting gangs. There is a small casino not far from my apartment that hosts a number of "Big Name' concerts (not really) and it is there, when the parking lot is full of people waiting in line, that people are getting shot at, or fights are breaking out. You just don't see that at predominantly white (oooh I said it) locations. I'm not going to get into all of society, becase this is about the immigration issue, but it seems like it all comes to parentin really. 'when you make it to America, be sure to make lots of babies, they will be covered by the government and they will have to let you stay' I'm sure that is part of the master plan that is being told throughout the land south of the border.

As for me, I'm with the minutemen. or motion activated turrets........ Come to Fabulous Las Vegas anytime for a dose of reality and I'll show you the problem.

Music is my life

2006-03-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

Since my abrupt career change, it has been really nice to be able to tell people what I do for a living. I say, 'I'm a musician, and I do freelance audio work on the side.' WHat a great feeling to be titled with your dream job!! I have recently started doing sound at GracePoint church here in North Las Vegas, and the music director/worship leader gave me a fellow's phone number regarding a job working as a sound engineer for the city of North Las Vegas, so that should be interesting if I get it! anywho, it's just a nice feeling to know that I can work in the field that I love!! I really have to thank God for these opportunities and My Wife for all of her support. Without those two things, I'd still be training salespeople to do retention at a call center.....

Sloppy Joes, Homemade

2006-03-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

Boy can my wife cook! She came home for lunch today and decided that she wanted sloppy joes. She's never made sloppy joes before, and just made them from scratch!! She took a pound of ground beef, some chili powder, diced dried onions, BBQ sauce and worcester sauce and made killer sloppy joes!! Best part is, there's plenty of the meat left over to have again tomorrow!! Yummy.

pics of my new baby

2006-03-22T15:28:00.000-08:00

My new bass came last week!! Check it out!!

Tourist for a day

2006-03-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

My wife called me and asked if I could be a tourist for a day. What I was actualy asked to do was t get some infirmation and pictures of Las Vegas for a young friend back in Salisbury, MD who is doing a school report of Nevada. I spent a few hours driving through my fair city, snapping shots out the window, then I thought, 'wait, there's more to Vegas tha n the strip' so I went to the edge of the valley and took some pictures of the mountains and the valley to show how small the strip is compared to the city of Las Vegas and the valley as a whole. We have an atomic testing museum, it shows all sorts of neato stuff about all of the testing that has gone on around the desert, lots of neat gadgets!! Some other cool things about our valley and it's surrounding areas are: Lake Mead , Red Rock, The Old Mormon fort (Where Las Vegas started). Come to think of it, our valley is pretty cool!! The strip loses it's appeal after the first three months of living here, but that just opens up your eyes to all the other cool stuff that there is around Las Vegas, or if you want to drive there is always a drive up to AREA 51....

New Project getting off the ground

2006-03-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

My new musical project, Nasty Habits is getting of the ground finally, We are working out the details of our sets, and fully ready to accept bookings! Check us out at http://nastyhabitslv.com

Career change

2006-03-11T11:48:00.001-08:00

Ever have an opportunity come up that is so good, you just can't say no? About two weeks ago I got a call form a friend who does audio work professionally asking if I'd be interested in subbing on a shoot for him. The chance to work in a field that I love!!! I said yes and spent a week at the Arena of the MGM working a confrence. Once we had the cables run and everything checked, it was my job to make sure any audio glitches that were in my control were fixed immediately. Nothing went wrong! We had a week of great days, I got to know some of the crew (who all do this tye of video work professionally. The last night we watched the Steve Miller Band, then we took down all of our equipment and said g'night! It was a great shoot, no problems, perfect for getting my foot in the door. The shoot ended on Thursday, on Friday my friend called me again, this time to see if I could sub in for someone else. That Sunday and Monday I was putting microphones on some of the top Poker players in the country! I made sure that I did the best I could (which I always do) in hopes that someone would notice it, as I am still the new guy in the biz... So far I am waiting to hear from my frined or the powers that be about booking more shoots to work on... So you ask how is this a career change? Well, I wsa working as a trainer at a call center here in Vegas, I liked my job, but it was just kind of a way to pay the bills and soak up a lot of my time... The week that I was away for the shoots, I was not attending that job, and thusly I am no longer employed there... THe best is yet to come, however, as I have been looking at a lot of online resources, it seems that one can do quite nicely in Las Vegas doing odd jobs, or part time promotional work. I'll keep you informed of my progress as I go along, should be fun, eh!?

Me and my life

2006-03-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

I was born in Canada, moved to Maryland when I was 12 and moved to Las Vegas two and a half years ago. Isn't it positively astounding how quickly you can sum it all up? But what about all the stuff in the middle? That would make a great story, maybe later.

Go easy on me, it's my first time...

2006-03-01T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hey world, Jon Wolske here, I've heard so much about blogging that I just thought I'd try it myself. I guess I have something to say, I'll have to figure out what as I go along.