Wow, just out of the gate with the new blog and I’m sure not doing much with it, am I? Well there’s been a lot going on in my life lately so writing this blog that barely anyone reads has not exactly been at the top of my to-do list. I still don’t even know what the focus of this blog is yet. I’m not sure if I really have any kind of passion for writing reviews of shows that I watch. I have gotten some very positive comments, vaguely praising my brilliant commentary on various vaguely mentioned subject matter from people running sites about online poker and viagra. Yet there’s some kind of je ne sais quoi that rings hollow with that.

I should probably blog about myself because who wouldn’t want to read all the exciting exploits of a late 30’s guy with a wife and a kid and a job and a band that may or may not be a midlife crisis?  So at least for this post, here goes…

For one, I’m getting extremely musically frustrated. It’s been almost a month since I’ve been to band practice. We’ve had to cancel or I’ve had to bail for a while, then I went on vacation (more on that vacation later), then my drummer and singer went on vacation. My keyboardist is having all sorts of trouble with his living situation (leaving an apartment with a spun out meth dealing neighbor who keeps him up at all hours – and then couch surfing until he can find something more stable) which may lead to him missing more practices which really sucks because he’s the musical genius glue that holds us all together.

When I don’t have the outlet of playing music, I get a little nuts. I’ve had this disastrous trip home where various parts of my family did not get along and I got stuck in the middle of all the high drama. There was very little time to recover from this trip as I had to get right back to work and caught up on a bunch of things that needed to be done there while my wife did the same at home… until she fell down in the parking lot of her doctor’s office and was all sorts of out of commission for almost a week. Add a kid who rages against sleep almost every night on top of all this and a supporting cast of wacky neighbors and their wackier pets and you’ve got a situation without a whole lot of enjoyable moments to offset the stress. Ordinarily knowing that I’d have at least a few hours in the week to play some loud rock and roll will get me through times like these. Having a new job that I don’t dread going into every day certainly helps, but it does not scratch the itch like music does.

The other negative effect of not having my usual creative outlet is that I start thinking about politics. I am a recovering political blogger. No good can come from blogging about politics. It just made me angrier and angrier. Today’s political landscape is making angry people take it to the next level. You’ve got Americans flying planes into IRS buildings, shooting at guards at the Pentagon, hanging nooses around college campuses, going to these “tea parties” and engaging in all sorts of asshattery, douchebaggery and wingnuttery. You’ve got blogs, talk radio and a certain ideologically driven cable network masquerading as news stoking the fires of the crazy and I am not going to be part of that anymore. I once believed that there could be good done through politics. I no longer believe that. I’m probably going to stop voting. Why bother? There is no point participating in this system that is broken beyond repair.

So what do you do when your county is circling the bowl and there’s not a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it? You make music and try to enjoy yourself. Play the fiddle while Rome burns. It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!

This was one badass episode of Big Love! While last week was somewhat of a Three’s Company-esque mild comedy of misunderstanding regarding Ben and whether Bill banished him from the house or just wanted him to take off for a few days, ending up with Ben and his wacky compound grandparents in Mexico trying to smuggle exotic birds but winding up in the clutches of the Greens. Spoilers abound after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, there hasn’t been much blog activity here in the last week. I’ve been on the road. But I thought I’d check in with a new Music Monday post, this one packed with a whole lot o’ Shatner-riffic-ness!

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. Rules are simple. Leave ONLY the actual post link here and grab the code below and place it at your blog entry. You can grab this code at LadyJava’s Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

Powered by MckLinky

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

I’ve chosen this song for 2 reasons. The first is that tomorrow afternoon we should be touching down in a very snowy New York City and then driving upstate to see my family. The second is that I’ve been attempting to sing this song for a few weeks. My band has been trying to do this song for a while, and a few practices ago, we realized that I was the only one not to try singing it, so I gave it a whirl and we decided that would be mine to sing live. I really have difficulty singing and playing bass at the same time, and this one is even harder than usual since it’s in an odd meter and the bass really has to hold down the 7/8 with the drums. Luckily, our singer also plays bass, so we’re going to switch for this one. Aggressively hitting those Peter Gabriel highs is no easy task, but it’s a lot of fun trying.

I’ll post a few different versions of it. First is a snippet of Genesis doing it live in 1975 from a rare video from their Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour:

Here’s Tony Levin and his band doing it:

And here’s the Genesis tribute band, the Musical Box, recreating the original stage show:

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LadyJava’s Lounge Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

Powered by MckLinky

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

It’s funny how a local music scene can start. Mine started as a bunch of dads who got together with our kids and acoustic guitars once a week, evolved into an open jam session, and has given birth to 4 different bands including my own. One of those bands is Alligator, a fun mix of pop, indie-rock and blues. I shot this video of them at Bobby G’s Pizza in Berkeley a few weeks ago.

I’m still not quite sure I really like this show. It’s hard to think about it without thinking of Battlestar Galactica, and I wonder if it would really hold up independently. But I suppose I’ll keep watching it and since I have this new blog I might as well keep writing about it. Don’t go past the jump if you don’t want spoilers.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I read an article somewhere (and I gave up searching for it after a few minutes) about how there were a whole bunch of premium cable shows that were pushing the envelope in the sex and violence departments. The article mentioned Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a show on Starz full of swords, sandals, buckets of bright blood spraying in 300-style slo-mo and all the ancient Roman sexual depravity of Caligula. The one act of sexual depravity that the article went into detail about featured Lucy Lawless of Xena and Battlestar Galactica fame and her ancient Roman TV husband about to do the deed, using their slaves as fluffers. So of course I had to check that out, right?

And yeah, there’s a bunch of slo-mo blood sprayage, and plenty of naked body parts that were far more surgically enhanced than possible in ancient Rome. It became obvious early on that the main intent of this show is to be brutally shocking. These ancient Romans sure do like talking about genitals and bodily functions in graphic and ugly detail. And it’s not like I’m getting prudish here. I enjoy that kind of material when it serves a purpose other than to gratuitously show how shocking you can be. But this is like Deadwood without the benefit of good writing.

So like the lord of the gladiator ring, I give this show one big thumbs down. Off with it’s head! But not before every geek out there has had a chance to pause their TiVo on Xena’s naked boobies.

Yep, I’m back. Nothing to see here yet. I’m still not quite sure what to do with a new blog, but my old stuff was just sitting there getting stale and I couldn’t have that.

The only agenda I have is to try something new. I’m just going to start by playing around a bit, throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. I’m not getting any younger, so the old angry snarky profane political thing doesn’t really suit me so much anymore.

Of course, I am open to suggestions. What do you, all 3 people who might know about this, want to see here?