Ahh, new lust....

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

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

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.....

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....

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.

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!!!

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!!

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....

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

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

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!!!

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......