BreakMusicBlog

Recording

2009-11-27T21:56:00.003-05:00

Been attempting multi track recordings of our songs. So far it's been just okay at best, but getting some good advice from friends. I'm using Cakewalk 7, and bought thge UA-G interface with it since it's make by Cakewalk\Roland. The big problem with this device is that you can only record one instrument at a time. But the price was right, and I figured that I would be able to record the drums through the VS880, and import the wav in Cakewalk, then record the rest of the band. That really didn't work very well. I found myself wanting to turn up parts of the drums, but not possible as the drum were all on one track. So that made me head back up to Guitar Center to shop for my next IO interface. I ended up with the Presonus FireStudio Project. I some research prior, and felt that for the money, this was the best fit for what we needed. I can now record 8 instruments at one time, so that takes care of the issue with the drums. I can also get a headphone amplifier with multiple inputs to let everyone here their own mix. So far so good!! Got an awesome recording last week of Drums, Bass, and Guitar. I also did some recording at home with guitar and vox using my condenser mic that requires Phantom Power. The FireStudio has built in Phantom Power with XLR only, and a separate preamp for each input. Can't wait to record again...

No new name yet, but lots of ideas for songs

2009-05-05T08:45:00.002-04:00

We have tons of ideas these days, but not enough time to put then all together since we only practice once a week. It's better than not having any ideas... we've been there before. New singer, new warehouse. Things are looking up. The new singer is really working out for us. He adds a different sound to the band that we never had before. A bit more southern rock style. We'll be finishing up a few songs, then a friend is going to record a few songs for us at no charge.

The end of Black Habit, the beginning of?

2008-11-21T10:04:00.004-05:00

June 27th was the last show. We played at Holly and Dolly's in Casselberry, and kicked ass. Definitely our best show to date. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, Matt quite the band the next day. Thankfully, I recorded every single one of our songs two weeks prior using my Tascam DR1 (best band investment yet). Wish I had recordings like this of some of the older bands I've been in. So now at least we have something to show for it... it's been three years in the works, and it's now gone. We were able to find a singer last month and have been working our asses off to try to get back to where we were. Adding new covers, writing some new stuff and rehearsing for our debut on the 18th of December... a private Christmas party... I vote we think of a new name.

What Pandora thinks I like - not off by much

2008-08-01T11:04:00.001-04:00

Hard rock roots
Blues influences
Repetitive melodic phrasing
Extensive vamping
Minor key tonality
Dirty electric guitar riffs
A gravelly male vocalist
An aggressive male vocalist
An unintelligible vocal delivery

Once again, we search for a Singer...

2008-07-26T10:01:00.005-04:00

Our Singer has decided to move on for various reasons. It is for the best... For now I'll be filling in, but ultimately, I would like to find a replacement. So it's still Bryan, Eric, and I. We will continue regardless if we ever play out again or not... I feel that we will... We've been bit by the bug. Last show at Holly and Dolly's was one of our best, and it was video taped by my lovley Wife ;) I'll be posting the video at www.myspace.com/blackhabitband and at my new site I created for myself: www.myspace.com/banishbands I'll be putting some of everything up there: Black Cats, LLB, Breakneck, Black Habit...

Band update

2008-04-04T20:49:00.004-04:00

We played the Copper Rocket in late December, I think it was the 27th, and at the Peacock Room April 3rd. Some video from the Copper Rocket can be seen at: http://www.myspace.com/blackhabitband

One more name change as you can see. We are now blackhabit. We discovered that there was another band in town named Black Rabbit, so we slightly changed ours. Oddly enough, we played with Black Rabbit when we played at the Peacock Room. That show seemed like it was going to be kind of a bummer because of the whole Tuesday night thing, but ended up being one of our best shows so far. Not a whole lot of people, but still really fun and we played really well. The owners were very nice as was the other band. We went on first since we're still kind of a new band to the area in this format anyway. We realized that we really should have headlined this thing when most people left after we got done playing. Also, the other band ended up being a bunch of younger kids, the Bass player a 15 year old girl who's parents were there waiting for them to get on and play... it's a school night! We felt really bad that it was so late, and that most people left, so we gave them all of the money for the night to make it worth their while. So we made nothing, but played well.

We are working on some new stuff, and considering our recording options for a good quality demo. We really want to play out a bit more, and do have some cool stuff in the works. I'll keep everyone posted.

First show

2007-04-25T08:27:00.000-04:00

We played our first show on March 31st at a place in Leesburg called Steve's Redhouse. Not a bad place to play. There were a lot of people there to see the other bands, but we got lucky and went on third, so there were still a lot of people around. When we got there there was a band on stage already, and it was pretty metal. Next band same thing, but a little heavier... getting nervous since we're really more of a Rock n Roll band. Opened with Child of the Wires, a somewhat heavy rock tune... excellent response from the crowd. At the last song the sound guy told us that we needed to wrap up. We were actually worried that we did have enough songs to fill the 45 minutes, so that worked out. So the first show was a success. We didn't make any major mistakes, just a few little things here and there. The sound was pretty bad. I was only able to hear the vocals and Drums. No Bass or Guitar... Not easy to play when you cant hear yourself. But that's just how it is when your a local band that doesn't have its own sound man. We finally decided to call the band Black Rabbit. I have mixed feelings on the new name, but can deal with it. Names really hard to come up with. New Myspace: www.myspace.com/blackrabbitband

Lunch time!!

2007-03-30T13:34:00.000-04:00

I've been so busy with house work, and work work that I haven’t posted anything in a while.

So we're getting the master bathroom fix\ remodeled. Looking good so far... I'm using a guy that a friend of mine recommended. And oddly enough, I think I may have met this guy before many years ago in Sanford. He grew up not very far away from Pinecrest, which is where I spent much of my teenage years... I need to post before and after pics once it's finished.

First show: The band is playing at Steve's Redhouse in Leesburg Fl... We're going on at 9 and should play for about 40 minutes. Apparently there's some sort of music fest or something going on that night. So there's like 5 bands or something. We're not really ready, but then again you never are. So I'll update this with pics and stuff on Monday.

DOT

2006-09-19T08:56:00.000-04:00

I got this at Guitar Center in Winter Park for $425 new. I've been looking for a few months for a semi-hollow body, and was going to get an Epiphone Sheraton II, but went for this one because of the price. The Dot is $200 less than the Sheraton, and not much different. All cosmetic... I played them side by side, and actually liked this one better because of the way it was setup. Really low action, and perfect intonation. I'm really impressed.

We recorded again last week. Drums, Bass, and vocals. Going to try to do the Guitar tracks tonight, and practice on Wednesday. I think everything sounds better on this one. Found a really nice compression setting for the drums, and another vocal preset that Matt is happy with. We also played with the settings on the condenser mic that I think played a major role in the sound. Another thing that we did this time that helped is that Bryan and I did the Bass and Drums together without anything else. Doing the Guitar and vocals later is the best bet. On the last recording, there's a strange over tone that I cant get rid of. I think it's becuase the Drum mics were picking up the Guitar in the backround. Anyway, I'll post it to our myspace as soon as I'm done mixing it...

We recorded again last week. Drums, Bass, and vocals. Going to try to do the Guitar tracks tonight, and practice on Wednesday. I think everything sounds better on this one. Found a really nice compression setting for the drums, and another vocal preset that Matt is happy with. We also played with the settings on the condenser mic that I think played a major role in the sound. Another thing that we did this time that helped is that Bryan and I did the Bass and Drums together without anything else. Doing the Guitar and vocals later is the best bet. On the last recording, there's a strange overtone that I cant get rid of. I think it's because the Drum mics were picking up the Guitar in the background. Anyway, I'll post it to our myspace as soon as I'm done mixing it...

Got the new Mastodon, and the new Mars Volta. Both are excellent!!

It's been a long time

2006-09-01T08:39:00.000-04:00

Man, lots of things have happened since my last post. The band has a new name, new songs, and a new myspace site

Finally got the VS880 working, and got a couple of good recordings. The first song on our myspace site is the latest song that we finished. I have another one that I'll put up there once I'm done mixing down. The big problem with recording is the room... oh and the noise from the other bands playing while we're trying to record. It's loud at times.. Not the worst situation I guess. At least we are able to get a half way decent recordings now.

New truck

2006-05-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

Actually used, but new to me... My truck was pretty much falling apart, so it was time to get something else. I've been looking for 3 or 4 months without any luck until now. I was taking a drive through Sanford on Saturday morning checking out all the car lots from the road. I spotted a silver Jeep Cherokee at Gibson’s that looked real clean. Took it for a test drive, and decided that I better jump on it... They wanted $8000 for it, and wanted to give me $3000 for my Tahoe as a trade in. I ended up talking them down to $7600 for the Jeep and giving me $3200 for the Tahoe. I though that was a good deal. The Jeep is a 2001 with 80k, 2 wheel drive, okay stereo it, cd player no mp3's though, but I can always change it out later... Much better on gas!

Merle Haggard – Bob Dylan

2006-05-10T09:49:00.000-04:00

Bill and I went to see Bob Dylan at the TD Waterhouse Center last night. Before the show we eat at the Roadhouse in Altamonte, had a few beers… Bill got the Rodie, and was very impressed as I though he would be. I got a burger with the works. Very good as well… We were a little late for the show. Merle was already on stage when we got there. His band was very good... awesome Guitar player… Lots of red necks on the audience!! We must have missed Okie From Muskogee. More Beer, walked around the arena during intermission.

Old Bob Dylan takes the stage. He opens with Maggie’s Farm. Could not even recognize it. He’s change the old stuff so much that they just sound like different songs. If he’s tried of playing the old stuff, just write new songs, and let us know that you wont be playing the old stuff anymore… Mr. Tambourine Man was equally bad. William Shatners version sounds more like the original than this one... This was one of the worst shows I have ever seen… His voice was way to loud in the mix, he didn’t play guitar at all. He sat in the middle of the band and pretended to play the keyboard.

Overall, not a bad night. We had a good dinner, and drink lots of Beer. Oh, and lots of hot chicks at the show…

New recordings

2006-04-21T17:02:00.000-04:00

I was able to do a couple of test recordings with the new mic. It did make a huge difference. I would love to post them to our myspace site, we just made too many mistakes while playing. We will do some real recording next week... multi track and all. I think I'm going to use the new mixer for the drums - two SM57's, one 58, and the condenser should work. And thankfully the board is equipped with phantom power for the new mic. I'll use a 57 for the Bass, and the condenser for the Guitars and vocals. I really hope it works out. It should be a good demo at the least...

NEW!!! AudioTechnica AT3035 Condenser Mic

2006-04-12T14:28:00.000-04:00

It's on its way according to UPS: OUT FOR DELIVERY... I should be able to check it out tonight. I really hope this improves the quality of our recordings on the 8track. Also, my friend Bill is coming out tonight to take some pictures of us, so that should be fun. I grabbed a myspace site for Heavy High. I figured that I would call the band that until we find something else which probably won’t happen. I hate not having a name... Anyway, I'll make it a band account once we get a good recording and some pictures.

New Yamaha mixer

2006-04-10T09:56:00.001-04:00

Matt bought the mixer that we were looking at last week. So we are finally replacing the Entertainer. The Entertainer has actually been pretty good to us. We've had it for over 10 years, and have not really had many problems with it except that it's just not powerful enough at 100 watts. The Yamaha is 600 watts which is plenty for vocals and acoustic guitars.

Matt and I worked on some really cool acoustic stuff on Sunday. We'll try to finish em up on Wednesday…

I'm looking at getting a condenser mic. This one seems to be versatile. It can be used for room recording, cabinets, and vocals: Condenser Mic

I'm hoping to start recording this week. A band name is needed... I still like Heavy High.

Ice Age II

2006-04-03T14:45:00.000-04:00

The meltdown wasn’t really that great. I had its funny moments though. The Squirrel was hysterical. Not one that you have to catch on the big screen unless you have kids. We took our kids and one of our neighbors kids to see it Sunday. It cost me around $70 for a trip to the movies. That's ridiculous! What a rip off...

New Mixer?
I think we may own a new mixer for the warehouse. Matt was looking at a Yamaha powered mixer on Saturday. We really need a new one. The Entertainer is not cutting it. for real that is the name of our current mixer. EV's The Entertainer. I'm guessing 1980's with that name. So I'm hoping that it's on its way out the door. We really need something more dependable now since Eric bought a new Breedlove acoustic last week. We want to do some acoustic stuff, but need the PA to handle it well. And the Entertainer doesn't cut it.

WBreakneck

2006-03-28T16:20:00.000-05:00

In front of the old warehouse on Parramore and Amelia downtown. Those were the days.... I really miss our old room in that place. The owner (Dave) was a pretty strange, and sometimes funny dude. He would yell WHERES MY MONEY whenever he saw Doug. He would have Doug do work for him to pay off backrent. We would show up for practice and Doug would be mopping the floors or cleaning the bathrooms... The owner purchased this place for a really decent price, then rented it out to bands, and made porno's there with pregnant chicks.... There were some very interesting characters there. Fat Jay was this huge black dude that liked to rap. He sold smokes and candy out of the room that he rented from Dave. He was like 400 lbs or something… He talked Bryan, Bob, Dale and I into jamming with him a couple of times. He would get so out of breath while rapping that we thought he was going to have a heart attack. And there was the guy with the short arms that could play the guitar like Yngwie... Very fond memories indeed :)

Doug, Jeff, Eric, Bryan

And inside:

Sea Monkey's and stuff

2006-03-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

Sea Monkey update:
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that we only had 1 Sea monkey left. Now out of nowhere, there are 5 or so small ones in the tank along with the one gigantic mother of the sea monkey or the queen. These things are real survivors…

Band:
We finally finished up Untitled song, started another one and almost finished it. I wrote an Ian Hill style Bass line to it that everyone really likes… The songs are definitely getting better. I’m going to try to get a really good recording on the 8 track soon. We’ll have to do it when we’re going through a slump or something… give us something to do when we don’t have anything good to work on. Hope that never happens... I’d like to use it as a demo for getting shows for this summer… hopefully.

I’ll have to get a real Myspace site going once we find a name and start posting this stuff. Wow, coming up with a name is really hard, we haven’t found many that we like yet.

Heavy High (cycle on Matt’s clothes dryer)
Villain (too 80’s metal sounding) I still like it.
The Drag Delirium or just Drag Delirium (the word Drag can be misleading)

And many others that I can’t remember right now.

New cabinet

2006-02-27T10:21:00.000-05:00

I picked up this Trace Elliot cabinet this weekend. I originally bought a Hartke 2x15 cab, but had to return it due to some weird cackling sound it was making. I wanted to exchange it, but they didn't have anymore in stock, so they had me try this one. I blows the Hartke away... Great low end, and clear... Sounds great with the GK. Can't wait to try it along with the 4x10 Hartke.

My Space

2006-02-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

Just testing it out. I posted a couple of tunes... bad recordings, but you can get an idea of what we sound like.

http://www.myspace.com/junkmusic

Update

2006-02-10T10:25:00.000-05:00

We went from not having enough ideas to having too many. We have quite a few unfinished songs right now... Not bringing anymore new stuff to the warehouse until we finish this stuff up. The hardest part now is just putting stuff together, making smooth transitions...not very easy. I feel that this is the best material that we've come up with yet. Although it does seem a lot harder than it used to be back in the old days. Life is a lot different now then it was 10 years ago...

Our once a week practice needs to be fun, after all it is getting us out of the house, but at the same time it needs to be productive because it is only once a week. Satisfaction needs to replace fun, and that's ok. We still sit around drink beer and BS when we're done playing for the night...

Goal:
10 to 12 songs
Record 5 best for a demo

Then I guess we can start playing out a bit. That'll be weird. I cant wait to here what this stuff is going to sound like in the studio!

Ok, enough of that crap. I'm looking at getting rid of the Tahoe, and replacing it with a Cherokee. Been looking around. Went to a few car lots, not fun at all. I really hate car salesman... They're so full of shit!! So I've decided that I'll look for a private seller. There are quite a few on http://www.autotrader.com/ for very reasonable prices. I'm going to buy one first, then sell my truck to pay myself back. I just want to make sure it's really what I want before getting rid of the Tahoe. The big problem with the Tahoe is that it's a 2 door. A big pain in the ass if you have kids. Dropping them off to school is not fun at all...

Rain this weekend

2006-02-03T13:17:00.000-05:00

We really need it, but I was supposed to take Tera and a friend to the Lil' 500 go-kart track on Saturday. She'll be pissed if we end up not going... I'll have to make a backup plan in case it does end up raining all weekend. Movies or something.

Looking for a Hamer Daytona Strat copy for Eric. He's been wanting a Strat for a while, and heard some really good things about these guitars. I found a few on Ebay, watching one now, and may bid on it if it stays under $600. Sunburst with seymour duncan pickups. Cant have enough guitars! This would be a nice addition to his collection. I think it's good for the band as well. We need change every now and then.

Catching up

2006-01-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

SEAMONKEYS
We got the kids Sea Monkeys for Christmas this year, and they're still kicking... I don't really know how long they'll last, but they seem like they're doing great... They're huge! I'm in charge of feeding them because the kids would forget and I'm sure Tracy doesn't want anything to do with them. I think she's secretly afraid of them. They are kind of creepy...

NEW KORN
Driving into work this morning I heard the new Korn song, not sure how new, but it's the latest one that they've been playing on the radio. What happened to them? I was never a huge fan, haven't really heard a whole lot of their stuff. The new stuff is way over produce, and has a real pop element to it. Man it really sucks!

BAND UPDATE:
Working our asses off the last few weeks. Two new songs that need vocals - Matt is sick and hasn't been able to work on anything due to a really sore throat. He showed up last night to tape the new stuff, but still couldn't sing. I'm pretty happy with our progress. I really need to change the strings on the J bass this weekend. Starting to sound like crap. Nothing like a new set of strings...

Weekend

2006-01-16T12:56:00.000-05:00

Started off Friday moving the PS2 into the living room, and moved the DVD player from my bedroom into the kids playroom\living room. The kids really dent use the PS2, and I wanted to start playing games more. Worked out pretty good. I rented Burnout III, and bought a used copy of Final Fantasy X.

I was supposed to wash the cars and rake the leaves in the yard on Saturday, but it was really cold and windy. Like 50 mph gusts... Sunday was warmer, but I was busy watching the kids while Tracy went shopping with her friend. She Ended up getting something for every one including me! She surprised me God of War for the PS2. What an awesome game! Everything about it is great... looks great on the big screen, better than the others that I own... cant wait to play it again.

Oh, and I got to watch my favorite team, the Magic get beat by portlend on the road. Now they're talking about a trade again. Francis to the Timberwolves for Wally Szczerbiak and Trent Hassell. That may not be bad. Stats on Wally S are better than Frances. I dont the Timberwolves would go for that... I would be a good move for us though.

Practice last night

2006-01-12T09:55:00.000-05:00

Finished another song. That's still only 6, but getting there. Our goal is 8 before we start picking them apart and really practicing them a lot. We'll get there sooner or later. It's slow going... only getting one day a week. We're going to try to pick up a Saturday night once a month. The good news is that the songs are getting better! We should be able to play out sometime this spring\summer.

Making Bread

2006-01-05T16:25:00.000-05:00

I plan on trying a Challah Recipe compliments of Josh. I'm going to get the kids to help me to give them something to do. Tracy's going to some art exhibit tonight in Orlando. Perfect way to entertain the kids.

Wow, I made some beef short ribs with tomato sauce the other day. Browned them, then let them cook for 4 hours in the sauce, and served them with pasta. I came out great... very tender.

New Years: I don't really remember anything after doing a shot of 160 proof bourbon with Eric, Rob and Bryan... I was glad to hear that I wasn't the only one that doesn't remember much after that. There are some other interesting stories that I shouldn't share:) Overall a good time.

Christmas and stuff

2005-12-28T16:25:00.000-05:00

Had a pretty good Christmas. Got a bunch of cool stuff... Mars Volta shirt, DVD's, gift cards... The kids liked everything Santa got them. Still need to go through the old stuff to make room for the new in their rooms.

I got a movie called Serenity on DVD. Awesome flick! I highly recommend it to any one who is a fan of science fiction or the show Firefly (it's based on this show) Kind of a more mature version of Star Wars... No goofy creatures... I also got 40 year old virgin and Fire in the Sky. Tracy got a bunch also so we have a lot of movie watching to do.

I ended up having the entire week off with the kids which was good. They behaved for the most part. The usual issues with them fighting and not listening... Just have to keep telling myself patience and consistency!!! Easier to yell and give them what they want so they'll shut up. But we're pretty good about it most of the time. As far as our kids go, I've seen worse.

Almost pulled it off

2005-12-17T16:56:00.000-05:00

The Magic actually played a very close game against the 3rd best in the league, the Dallas Mavs. Went into overtime and got killed by Dirk... Good game though.

Going to a Christmas party at my sisters tonight. The kids will get their first gifts of the season. Yes, they end up having Christmas 3 times with all the different family we have to see. The big one of course is on Christmas here at the house. I fell we did pretty good this year. We didn't spoil them too much... Almost done with shopping. I still have to take the kids shopping for Mom, and I'm done.

Magic losing streak - Recording the band

2005-12-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

Magic lose their fifth consecutive game. This time is was to the Bulls. A better team than the Magic without Grant Hill. SteveO was back but didn't do much... Howard had 17 points and 17 rebounds!! This guy is going to be good... We went to the Spurs Magic game on Monday, and they another loss as I predicted, but we did have a good time. The kids really enjoyed it. It was a pretty close game for the first three quarters, but Tim Duncan killed us in the 4th.

Last night we were able to finish the latest song we've been working on, and do a little recording. I setup mics around the room, and at the snare and bass drum. I really need to go direct from my amp and hook Eric up with a 57 directional. Other than that, the recordings came out decent. We were able to get through 2 of 3 songs without any major mistakes. One really good thing that came out of this is that I figured out why the PA was sounding like shit for the past few weeks. A few weeks ago we connected a CD player to the PA so we can listen to music after practice while we BS and drink a few beers... The CD player sounds great going through the PA, but the vocals were muddy and low volume. Last night I disconnected the CD player while we were recording. The vocals were loud and clear. The CD player must have been drawing power from the amp. Nice to know... So I finally have a good recording with vocals that we can hear.

This is really cool: Pandora

You can create your own radio station. Just type in a band or song you like, based on this it will start playing songs that are similar to what you typed in. It works great... I've discovered tons of new music this way. If it plays a song you don't like, just click on it and select "I don't like it" it's pretty amazing...

Free Saturday

2005-12-05T13:13:00.000-05:00

The kids ended up spending the night at their Grandparents house on Saturday night, so Tracy and I had a night off. We went to Mimis for dinner, and caught a movie, the Ice Harvest afterward. Mimis is a really good place for dinner or breakfast. It's always pretty crowded. I got the Pasta Jambalaya, and Tracy got the Chicken Pot Pie. Both were very good... Made the movie just in time for the previews. The movie was pretty funny. You have to enjoy dark comedy's to like this one. I'd give it 3 out of 5.

Tonight we're taking the kids to the Magic game. They're playing the Spurs (lat years champs) and the Magic may be missing a few key players due to injuries, so it will more than likely be a loss. Should still be fun...

B-day

2005-12-01T15:50:00.000-05:00

Cant believe I'm 38! We had a pretty good night last night. Went to the Outback for dinner, then just hung out at the house and drank Beer... Eric bought me a 6 of Shipyards Pumkinhead which was very good as expected. Got a decent steak at the Outback along with a couple of Fosters. I'm convinced that the Outback in Altamonte is WAY better than the one in Sanford that cant even cook at med rare steak properly. Everytime we've gone there they've screwed up my steak, and you don't want them taking it back because you'll have to wait another half hour to get your dinner. Anyway, it was a good experience this time. Tracy got me Orlando Magic tix for the game on Monday against the Spurs. The whole family's going. We're sitting in the lower section of the area which is really cool. And she got tickets for the Magic vs the Nuggets of our anniversary... My Wife is awesome!!!

Thanksgiving

2005-11-28T14:04:00.000-05:00

Made my first Turkey... I cooked it until the breast was 170, and the dark meat 180. The breast meat was done fist so I took it out and carved it, popped the rest back in for a few more minutes. The biggest mistake that people make is overcooking the breast meat. It's going to be dry if it gets over 180 unless you brine it overnight before cooking. Next time that's what I'll do. 1/2 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of brown sugar per gallon of water.

Had a nice 4 day weekend, got to watch some good basketball games. The Magic have won 3 in a row!! They beat the Miami Heat on Saturday. The Heat is comprised of mostly all-starts this year, that makes this win better than the others this season. The Magic were not supposed to win this one. We should have a pretty decent team when Grant comes back...

This just in: Naked prowler shot in genitals with Taser by deputies near Fort Myers Beach!!

I love the Orlando Sentinel...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

2005-11-23T09:17:00.000-05:00

I took my Daughter and her friend to see the new Harry Potter film last night. Some friends of mine that saw the movie said that they didn't like the scene transitions. One review I read says that the Director "jams sequences together like bricks of LEGO" I didn't really notice it. Maybe that's because I didn't read the book. Not sure... This movies is definitely the most mature of the bunch, and way more intense than any of the others. Way scarier... The Dragon was awesome!! I recommend seeing this in the theater is possible.

Thanksgiving at my place this year. Got about 12 people coming over, got an 18 lb Turkey. I hope that's going to be big enough... Should be fun. I figure that I'll do a lot of drinking and eating, watch some Football... after cooking of course.

Magic play the CAVS tonight

2005-11-18T09:52:00.000-05:00

Fran Vazquez over Sean May was not a great move by the Magic. Now some say that Fran may never play in the NBA due to his contract with his team in Spain. Sean May would have greatly improved this team. Really bad decision, but there's nothing anyone can do to correct it. So tonight they play in Cleveland against one of the better teams in the NBA. They almost beat em here in Orlando the last time they played so they have a chance...

De-Loused in the Comatorium

2005-11-15T13:23:00.000-05:00

Eric made me a copy of this last week, I haven't stopped listening to it since.(I will buy this one) This is an amazing record, as good as Frances the Mute... Flea on Bass is a bonus... The music is pretty complicated, but still has emotion, not just a bunch of robots or mindless showoffs. They play with lots of soul. This is modern day Progressive Rock at its best. You can hear Yes, crimson, Pink Floyd(sound effects), Rush, Santana, Zep... But they definitely have their own style that sets them apart.

Also been listening to the Cream BBC sessions. We're going to do a cover of Outside Woman Blues. Cant wait to jam on that. We'll surely try to add our own touch... Man, these guy really knew how to jam. I'm really impressed with the performances on this CD. Jack Bruce rules! The announcer on the CD is pretty funny: Now get ready all you crazy groovy cats out there... It's THE CREAM!!

Band update: Been working hard at getting songs written. We have 4 done, and at least another 4 in the works. I will be recording us for demo purposes within a couple of weeks. So, I should be able to email the mp3's out to friends or post them here somehow. I would like to see what people think of it. Band name of the week: Heavy High!! Too stoner rock sounding? It's actually a setting on Matt's clothes dryer. He thought it sounded cool. I'm ok with it... I really don't care as long as it's not something completely retarded like W.Breakneck...

Magic now 2-3

2005-11-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

What a sloppy game last night... I think they turned the ball over 20 times or more... It's amazing they were able to pull it off. I really like that they're focusing on defense this year. Holding teams under 85 points per game. This is the way to go when you only have a few players that can score consistently. Frances and Howard are doing great although I'd like to see Howard grow up a bit, stop smiling so much, get more aggressive... So at this point we're missing a few key players. We need a GOOD veteran center\power forward to teach Howard. He really dosen't have a good mentor on the team to go to for advice. Overall, I'm much happier with the team we have this season. I don't know how far they'll go, but at least they have the drive to win games, and keep other teams from scoring easily against them.

TMac is out again with back spasms!! This makes the trade that we made a year ago look really good.

Introducing Audio Hole!!

2005-11-03T17:27:00.000-05:00

This was taken at a Halloween party at my place last weekend. Chris added the background. I'll post more pics from the party later.

Allen Iverson talks about the new NBA dress code

2005-10-21T10:06:00.000-04:00

When he heard last week that a dress code was imminent, he told the Philadelphia Daily News: "It sends a bad message to kids. If you don't have a suit on when you go to school, is the teacher going to think you're a bad kid?"

Wilma: Strongest Atlantic storm ever recorded

2005-10-19T09:17:00.000-04:00

Yikes!! Ok, so I never got the Generator that Tracy said we should get and I don't think I'm going to run out and get one now. Just have to hope that this one doesn't do what Charley did. This is the same path they said it would take, it took a turn to the north and ended up hitting us... hope that cold front doesn't stall...

Messed around with the Drum samples last night, and did a little recording with Sonar. I have to play with it a lot more to get it down. The levels are all over the place for some reason, but so far I like it more than I thought I would. I really should be using a better machine to do this stuff.

First practice with the Jazz Bass

2005-10-14T09:05:00.000-04:00

I used the Jazz Bass last nigh at practice, sounds awesome through the GK and 410… The 2-15 cab is down right now, not sure what the hell is wrong with it, but I’ll need to get that worked on soon. We worked on something new as soon as we get there last night. That seems to work well. I think going through the set first burns us out, and we’re less likely to work on new stuff later in the evening. We completed it and are just waiting for Matt to lay down some vocals. Pretty rockin tune…

In a couple of weeks I’m going to record our stuff and try to post it. My neighbor does web hosting, and I think he’d be willing to give me some space for mp3’s of the band. The weather was really nice last night, we didn’t sweat our asses off for the first time in a while. It’s supposed to cool down significantly this weekend. I’m ready for it…

It was one year ago today...

2005-10-13T09:06:00.000-04:00

I started my blog on Oct 13th 2004. First post was Orlando Magic pre-season Basketball... It's that time again and they're winning this time! No games on TV just like last year, no synchronized horse swimming either...

Looking though my old posts, memories good and bad: Sold a house, homeless for a couple of months, bought another one finally, MELVINS join with Jello Biafra, HOW TO TELL IF YOUR PROSTITUTE IS AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL, Bigfoot video (sucked), I'm keeping your poop!!! James gets a roach stuck in his ear and has to have it removed by a Dr at the ER, pictures of food, fishing trip, new amp, new Bass Guitar...

Best picture goes to:

Discovered some good music in the past year old and new: Mastodon, High on Fire, Clutch, Dandy Warhols, Elliott Smith, Orange Goblin, Lamb of God...

Special thanks to the 5 people that actually read this crap sometimes: Geoff, Jamie, Chris, Billy, and my Wife...Oh and the Go to this site MAKE MONEY NOW guy, and Bill T...

Finally!!!

2005-10-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

Went down to Sam Ash last night after work, and bought the J Bass. Same price as on-line except I had to pay tax on it. No big deal. I compared it to the American Standard, and the Geddy Lee. Didn’t like the Geddy Lee much, but the American played nice. I went back and forth with the American and Mexican, and couldn’t really tell the difference... Asked the salesman’s opinion: do you want a Bass that was made in Mexico by Mexicans or do you want a Bass made in the USA by Mexicans? HAHA!! He has both at home and he says that he cant tell the difference either. There are some differences after reading the specs. The American has a Graphite Reinforced Neck, different Pickups and Bridge (Strings-Thru-Body) That’s pretty much it. Same wood, I can always swap out the Bridge and Pickup later when I have the money.

Cancelled order

2005-10-10T13:44:00.000-04:00

Got another email on Saturday stating that the J Bass will be there by the 23rd. This is the 3rd time they changed it on me so I told them to forget it... Going down to Sam Ash after work to check our one that they're holding for me. Same price, just have to add tax, but dont have to pay shipping or wait for it.

J Bass on order

2005-10-04T16:30:00.000-04:00

The pickguard came yesterday... Alright Ezra-music!! but no J-Bass from music123. So I emailed them again. First time they said that it would be in from Fender before the 1st. Now they're saying it's going to be there by the 13th. Bull Shit man!! I called the Sales team today instead of customer server, and that pretty much said that this happens sometimes, and that they are at the mercy of Fender, whenever they send the next shipment is when they'll get it... So he check with Fender who was waiting for a shipment as well. They just got a big shipment in, and they'll be sending the stuff out soon. So I have at least another week unless they decided to send it overnight because I had to wait so long. Dont think so... No biggie, I have two others to choose from.

FOOD!!!

2005-10-01T17:53:00.000-04:00

Yes I take pictures of food sometimes, Tracy thinks it's funny...

Still eating the fish leftover from the deep sea trip. I did this with a Beer batter and deep fried it:

BBQ Chicken and Zucchini:

Elixir Acoustic Giutar strings with Polyweb coating

2005-09-29T09:22:00.000-04:00

Where the hell have I been?? I never hear of these things until last week when I went to Sam Ash looking for strings for the Acoustic. I went with 10's, but should have gone a little heavier. But man these things are smooth sound great... I was so inspired that I wrote a song, lyrics and all. I'll try to record it this weekend. Oh, I watched the Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan Monday, No Direction Home. Missed part two on Tuesday... I think a friend of mine recorded it. I ripped a copy of the Essential Bob Dylan from a friend but it doesnt have a lot of stuff off the first two records for some reason... That's some of his best stuff in my opinion.

Next week off

2005-09-28T11:23:00.000-04:00

I had to take next week off because the kids don't have school and all the day cares are full or really expensive. So I was trying to think of stuff we can do during the week. Movies!! We can go see Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit!! Shit, it doesn't open here until the 7th. Started looking on movies.com for other kids movies that are playing. The only one is that Penguin movie. Most reviews are pretty good, a couple of mixed.

One mixed review from the The Village Voice:

The Central Park Zoo is cheaper, you can walk away from the penguins after 10 minutes, and it has snow monkeys and beer.

Get a flight to NY, stay for the week, take the kids to look at snow monkeys and drink beer. Not a bad idea at all. Not going to happen, but it would be fun to take them up there this time of the year. I'm thinking Science Center, Movie?, Park, Fishing, pizza, video games. That should take care of a couple of days anyway.

Rediscovering Maiden...

2005-09-27T13:25:00.000-04:00

Steve Harris was one of my biggest influences as a kid. I really think it shows in my style today, not that I'm even close to this guy as far as talent goes... This and Piece of Mind are the two best Maiden records with Bruce. I really don't care for anything after Powerslave at all. And of course the first two studio records are classics.

The day is dragging

2005-09-22T15:06:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's only 3:00 seems like it should be at least 5:00 Another killer storm out in the gulf is heading towards TX this time and tons of people have been in traffic jams for hours without any movement at all. I really feel bad for them. That would really suck having to leave your home and most of your things behind...Better than staying behind though. These type types of disasters really show how unprepared we are to Handel these sorts of things. But then again, is there a better way to handle something as unpredictable as a hurricane? Don't know...

I'm practicing for the first time tonight with the new amp. This is the real test to see how it keeps up with the Rectifier and the pounding drums... Man, It's taking forever to write this, it's 4:00 now!! Busy working on important stuff. I have to remind myself that WHAT I DO MATTERS. Anyway, the status is still Processing for the Jazz Bass. Maybe a couple of weeks because it has to come from Fender. Think I may have found the Pickguard that I wanted for it on ebay. 24$ Not a bad price. Got to get going.

My amp should come today!!

2005-09-20T10:40:00.000-04:00

It's on a truck in Orlando. After work I'm taking it up to the warehouse to check it out with the Ric. I'm sure it will sound great...

The Jazz Bass is on order from Fender and may take a couple of weeks to get here. That gives me some time to find the Tortoise Shell Pickguard that I want.

Bass Pod

2005-09-14T09:14:00.000-04:00

Picked up a Bass Pod at Sam Ash yesterday for $299.00. Messed around with it for a while last night. This is primarily for practicing at home, but I've discovered some uses for it at practice with the band as well. The amp modeling is really cool. Here's a list of amps cabinets and effects:

Amps Based On*:
Acoustic 360
Aguilar DB750
Alembic F-2B
Ampeg SVT
Ampeg B-15
Eden Traveller WT-300
Fender Bassman Combo
Fender Bassman Head
Fender Dual Showman
GK 800 RB
Hiwatt DR-103
Hiwatt 200DR
Marshall Major
Marshall Super Bass
Mesa Boogie Bass 400+
Polytone Minibrute
Sunn Coliseum
SWR SM-500
Versatone Pan-O-Flex
Vox AC100
Line 6 Sub Dub
...and more!

Cabs Based On*:
1x12 Euphonics CXL-112L
1x12 Versatone Pan-O-Flex
1x15 Ampeg B-15
1x15 SWR Big Ben
1x15 Polytone Minibrute
1x18 Acoustic 360
1x18 Mesa Boogie
1x18+12 Sunn Coliseum
2x10 Ashdown ABM 210T
2x15 Fender Dual Showman D130F
2x15 Mesa Boogie
2x15 Vox
4x10 Bassman Combo w/ new spkrs
4x10 Fender Bassman Combo
4x10 Eden David
4x10 Hartke 410
4x10+Horn SWR Goliath
4x12 Hiwatt Bass Cab
4x12 Marshall Basketweave
4x12 Marshall Basketweave 2
4x15 Marshall Major
8x10 Ampeg SVT

Effects Based On*:
Mu-Tron III
Arbiter Fuzz Face
Big Muff Pi
Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer
ProCo Rat
Tycobrahe Octavia
MXR Dynacomp
Boss CS-1
Boss CE-1
A/DA Flanger
MXR Phase 90
Uni-Vibe
Fender amp tremolo
Vox amp tremolo
Fender Vibratone
Boss DM-2
EH Deluxe Memory Man
Maestro EP-1
Roland RE-101 Space Echo
...and more!

All the amps and cabs have pretty different sounds. I was messing with the syth effects as well. Pretty fun, but nothing I would use. I dont think...

When connected to a PC it becomes a selectable audio device from within the software you're using. Recording with this thing is going to be awesome.

Going with a GK again

2005-09-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

The RB400 lasted 15 plus years, so I figure I can't go wrong. Over 400 watts!!

GK 700RB-II Bass Head

Bass Pod, new Bass, new Guitar on hold...

2005-09-09T08:49:00.000-04:00

Half way through a song last night my amp started working at about 50%, after changing cables, moving things around, I finally got it back, but not for long. Looks like I'll be shopping for an amp. This will set me back on all other spending for about a year. I may still look into a Pod XT if I can get one cheap enough, but the guitars are out of the question. It really sucks, but there's not a whole lot I can do. I will be upgrading as well, so it's not so bad. At least my sound will improve. NEED MORE POWER.... The GK has been good to me, but for the past couple of years it has been problematic. I think I've had it for close to 15 years. Time for a change. The challenge is what to buy. What will go good with my Hartke 4-10, and Acoustic 2-15?? I'll definitely check out Ampeg, SWR, and GK for sure. Maybe Saturday...

Haunted Sushi

2005-09-08T16:51:00.000-04:00

These people are crazy! They can make a fortune off this place.
Haunted Sushi story

Ernie Ball Super Slinky

2005-09-07T09:22:00.000-04:00

Got to remember this. These strings are perfect for the Ric: Ernie Ball Super Slinky size 45 65 80 100. Hell of a lot brighter than the flats I had before and easier to play. Now I'll actually use the damn thing. I'm watching a couple of ebay auctions, looking for a Bass Pod XT. This would be great for practicing at home with head phones, and I can use it as an effects processor at practice. The USB I/O is a plus also. Not that I would use a lot of effects, but the EQ and modeling may be useful. I'm hoping to can get a used one for around $200. The Musicman is next, need to change the battery, re-string it, and fix the jack again...

Elliott Smith

2005-08-31T12:35:00.000-04:00

Been listening to From a Basement on the Hill recently. I've had a copy for a while, but didn't listen to it a lot at first, now I can't stop playing it. Why are all the good writers dead? Anyway, this is a very good record. The production was a problem on some of his early releases, but it is perfect on this one. Favorites: Kings Crossing, Pretty (Ugly Before) and Memory Lane. My favorite Smith song is still Clementine off the first one. I don't think there's a bad song on this CD... Although some took a couple of listens to catch on. You can really hear the Beatles influence on this one. Lots of good mellow acoustic stuff, and a good amount of wall of sound guitar tunes.

Need some more new stuff to listen to. Any suggestions?

Roach in ear

2005-08-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine told me that he woke up at about 3am this morning screaming. A roach crawled into his ear, and would not come out. He tried to pull it out with his fingers, but it just kept going deeper and deeper into his ear. He tried water, tweezers, nothing worked. He had his roommate take him to the ER, the Dr removed it without any major problems. The Dr told him that this happens a lot. He's remove about 50 bugs from peoples ears. I called my wife and told her about it. Her response: "That's not supposed to happen"

Hurricane Katrina

2005-08-29T09:52:00.000-04:00

I would hate to live in New Orleans right now. It's really hard to say how bad it will be for them because the media always hypes stuff, but I imagine it's going to be pretty serious. This thing has the strength of Charley, but larger... It's much better watching from a distance. I really need to purchase a generator just in case we end up getting another one.

Anyway, this weekend we took a bunch of stuff over to Tracy's Moms house for a Garage sale. Selling one of the kids beds, a dresser, and a bunch of toys... I had to make several trips to get everything over there. 15 miles one way...

Sunday: Busy day for me. Tracy went out the night before and didn't get home until reallly late, so I knew she would be sleeping in the next day. I had to mow the yard, go to the grocery store, grill for the little get together we were planning, all in 4 hours time... and I did. Got everything done with plenty of time to spare. I did chicken and veggies on the grill, had a few beers, and relaxed the rest of the evening. Tracy did most of the cleanup, the part I hate the most.

Starting to get some rain and wind

2005-08-25T12:54:00.000-04:00

Really bad weather right now. They're expecting up to 12 inches of rain in the central Fl area over the next couple of days. Better than a direct hit.

Giant Monkey Ghost Kills 3rd Victim

2005-08-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

A few hundred miles to the north east, a maniacal monkey man continues to terrorize the Indian capital, New Delhi.

This week the Associated Press reported, "Mass hysteria is sweeping across India's capital after reports of a super-powered monkey man, with hairy body and sharp metal claws, attacking people as they sleep on their roofs in the sweltering heat."

Over 100 people claim to have been injured by this elusive phantom (50 of them last Monday night during a power outage), some claiming that the beast has the ability to turn invisible and leap six stories in a single bound.

"It has three buttons on its chest. One makes it turn into a monkey, the second gives it extra strength, the third makes it invisible," said Kumari, a housemaid. "But he is afraid of the light."

Witnesses descriptions vary absurdly, but most agree that the attacker about 4 ft. tall, with a dark face and large eyes, sharp, metal claws, a humanoid body, and he wears a helmet or a mask. Others claim they saw it jumping down several stories after the attacks.

In the frenzy, three people have died, the latest being Ram Prakash of Shakurpur who jumped from the roof of his home yesterday screaming, "The monkey has come!"

Vigilantes in the streets, who often mistake wild monkeys, dogs and anything that moves for the ironclad supermonster, accidentally beat two people returning home late at night.

The authorities, are struggling to maintain order amid the hysteria and have dispatched approximately 1,000 police officers into the streets, to calm the citizens' fears.

Been busy

2005-08-22T15:52:00.000-04:00

Haven't been blogging a lot. Too much going on at home and work. Had a busy weekend as usual. Yard work, and cleaning out the Garage. Tracy went out shopping with a friend of hers on Sunday, and I recruited the kids to help me with the Garage. They were surprisingly happy to help. They lost interest about a half hour into it as expected. But I finished itÂ you can actually pull a car in now!! Next project is TeraÂs room. WeÂre having furniture delivered in a couple of weeks, so I need to get in there and take her bed apart to get rid of it. Fun...

Good band practice last week. Got a couple of new ideas that we've been working on. I hope to get seven songs or so done by October. That's my goal, and I think we can do it. We've been getting back in the flow of things as far as song writing goes so I think it's possible.

Chris went to Winn Dixie to check out the big sale!!!

2005-08-18T17:19:00.000-04:00

http://www.livejournal.com/users/nimicohgr/23253.html

Searching for Rob on goggle

2005-08-09T10:37:00.000-04:00

He either works for Access Control Technologies in Orlando or owns the Lucky Lure Cricket Farm in Leesburg.

Pieces of Pieces

2005-08-09T10:12:00.000-04:00

Going through the CD's that Geoff sent. Dating all the way back to 1985... Pieces of Pieces is kind of a greatest hits of all the old stuff we used to play in our band Pieces. Geoff, Rob, and I had a blast, but never played out anywhere. Frogskin Condom, punk version of American Girl, Super cool jams and more... I keep forgetting to bring the CD's to work so I can go through them all on head phones while I work. I listened to some stuff that Geoff and I recorded back when we were like 17 maybe. I had a strong NY accent, and higher pitch. My Wife and I cracking up! Geoff’s radio show question "What kind of a person would buy a brown car"

Birthay party and Beach

2005-08-08T10:47:00.000-04:00

Saturday was Kaley's B-day party. Made lots of food, have lots of leftovers. John and his family came over. We didn't get a chance to listen to the old LLB stuff the Geoff sent. He'll get his copy soon I'm sure. I only invited the family to this one. My family is so big that I wouldn’t have room for them and friends. Drank a few beers and let the kids run around. John's hot dog sauce or Greek sauce or Bruce sauce, whatever you want to call it is really good. He's going to serve it at the sub shop they open. I'm sure people will go crazy over it. We ate it with Bratwurst.

We went to the Beach on Sunday with Bryan, and his wife Laura and kid. We tried fishing, but the kids were too distracting. So we ended up entertaining them most of the time which was fun. The Wives did their part as well. So it was a pretty full weekend.

I am going to try to get a good copy of some of the new stuff we've been doing in the band. I'm going to bring some extra mic’s so we can use the 8 track, and maybe keep it hooked up if we can get a burner for the warehouse. Next this is web space to share this stuff. Working on something now. I'll let everyone know if it comes together.

Got some time to kill?

2005-08-05T17:47:00.000-04:00

http://justcurio.us/

Birthday Bear and Sabbath.

2005-08-04T13:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Kaley’s B-day so we went to the Mall after work to take her to Build A Bear. She decided to build a bunny. She got to pick from 20 or so animals to stuff (you stuff yourself) pick out a outfit, shoes… She had a great time, and it was under 50$. She named her bunny Kayla ??? Having the official party on Saturday. Bruce is brining is famous hotdog sauce, Percy will be there too.

I’m listening to Wheels of Confusion off Vol4, at the “Lost in the wheels of confusion” part. I remember listening this when I was like 9 or 10. My friend Billy and I used to walk around the neighborhood cranking this stuff all the time... The good old days.

Bill T sent this to me today - Amazon reviews

2005-08-03T11:43:00.000-04:00

Funny Amazon reviews

School traffic really sucks

2005-08-02T11:02:00.000-04:00

We went to pick up our kids from school yesterday and waited in a line for an hour! This morning when I dropped them off it wasn’t that bad, but it still took 30 minutes. I think I got the easy job of dropping them off, Tracy has to pick them up each afternoon, hopefully it will get better. They told us that the first week of school is always really bad.

I really need a 4 door truck, this 2 door crap isn’t working for me. It’s a real pain for the kids to get in and out. I’m thinking about trading my Tahoe in for a newer model Jeep Cherokee or something similar. Maybe I'll stop at Carmax one of these days to see what kind of trade in value my truck has.

2005-07-28T12:08:00.000-04:00

BCBR show. Cleaning out my closet...

Woman sues video game manufacturer

2005-07-28T10:15:00.000-04:00

Guess it’s okay for this woman’s 14 year old to go around shooting people, killing police officers, selling drugs, stealing cars…but God forbid he sees SEX! What the hell is wrong with these people! Who the hell in their right mind would buy this game for their teenager? I'm thinking that sex should be the least of her worries.

Wal-Mart, Target Best Buy, and Circuit City have pulled the game from their shelves. In other words they feel that killing is okay, but sex is BAD!! What the fuck is this world coming to?

Go get em Hillary!!

City of Sanford Grounds Maintenance dept.

2005-07-27T15:27:00.000-04:00

Picture of me and the guys on the crew. Early 90's?

Megajerk

2005-07-26T12:58:00.000-04:00

David Mustaine sues for use of name without permission

Fishing trip 7-23-05

2005-07-26T09:55:00.000-04:00

Friday night, Bryan and Steve crashed at my place. Drank a few beers, caught a buzz off the Dramamine. Got up at 4:00 am, and drove out to Ponce Inlet, and of course the exit we were supposed to get off on was closed, we had to call the guy that hooked us up with the trip for alternate directions. Got there just after 6:00a am. Very nice Boat, the Captain built it himself!

We took off and went to a spot where we caught bait (small mackerel) Bryan got a hook through his finger, they had to push it through and cut it. He was ok, wish I took a picture of that. 2 hour and 20 min boat ride to the fishing spot. A 50 mile trip I think… We started off drawing number from a hat since there were six of us fishing, and max of 4 could fish at a time, but even that would be pushing it. So we started off with 2 at first. Bryan was 1, Steve was 3 and I was 5. Bryan hooked the 1st of his 4 right away, a huge Leather Jack!(Amber Jack) As you can see from the pics below, it isn’t an easy task. Then Steve got his 1st of 3 fish, another Leather Jack… my turn, I missed a few, then they stop biting… We go to another spot, and I finally get my 1st fish of 2, another Leather Jack. We stayed there for a while taking turns catching mostly Leather Jack, Mike the Snap-On tool guy caught a huge one that damn near killed him! He was wiped out after that one. Then Steve hooked into something real big, took at long time to real it in, it ended up being the catch of the day. A 38 pound Red Snapper! Awesome fish! I’ve never seen anything like that in person. I want one… We then went to another spot, caught a couple of Scamp Grouper(I think) and that was pretty much the day. 14 fish total - 310 pounds!!

We headed back, drank lots of beer and talked on the trip back to the dock. The Captain cleaned the fish when we got back, we separated it, and headed home. I cooked up some of the Leather Jack, came out great. I Fried some on Sunday night, and cooked some on the grill last night. I never had it before, great tasting fish.

Fishing trip:

2005-07-23T21:18:00.000-04:00

Great day today. We got lots of Amber Jack, two Red Snapper, one of them was 38 pounds! As seen in the pic above, two Grouper... 14 fish, a total of 310 pounds of fish.

Getting better!

2005-07-22T16:28:00.000-04:00

EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA COASTAL WATERS FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
414 PM EDT FRI JUL 22 2005

SOUTHWEST WINDS 5 TO 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET.
INTRACOASTAL WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH THE DAY.

Let's see if this changes later in the day - hope not.

2005-07-22T13:15:00.000-04:00

There's a Tropical storm out there, hard to believe that it wont have an affect on our trip.

EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA COASTAL WATERS FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
431 AM EDT FRI JUL 22 2005

Saturday:

Southwest winds 5 knots becoming onshore 5 to 10 knots in the afternoon. Seas 3 feet mainly in an east swell. Intracoastal waters a light chop. Scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Fishing trip this weekend...

2005-07-22T08:45:00.000-04:00

Fishing trip planned for this weekend. Hopefully this one wont get cancelled. So far everything looks good. We have a tropical depression out in the Atlantic, but it looks like it will pretty far away from us. We’re heading out of Ponce Inlet around 50 miles I think… They told me to check out the 20 mile buoy forecast to see what the weather and seas will be. Looks like 2 to 3. if that’s correct, we should have an awesome day. Hopefully I’ll have lots of pictures to post on Sunday or Monday.

Tom Cruise kills Oprah!

2005-07-19T15:29:00.000-04:00

tom cruise.mov

BCBR 1992?

2005-07-19T10:47:00.000-04:00

Looking through old pictures last night. I only have two BCBR pics of live stuff. This is from the Afghan Whigs show at the Beach Club, I think... Oh, and our singer does have two arms.

From left: Joe Fitzpatrick, Joe Turse, Me, John Citrone.

eat mowing wash clean

2005-07-18T15:31:00.000-04:00

Loads of fun this weekend. Cut the grass on Saturday. What a pain in the ass. Very wet and high. I didn't get started until 11:00 or so. because Chris and I want to an all you can eat breakfast bar, bad idea... Temp in the 90's. I can normally cut the front, and back without stopping. Not this time. I felt like I was going to pass out by the time I reached the back yard. I stopped for about 20 minutes to catch my breath and lower my body temp. That helped a lot, 10 minutes later I was in the same boat... and the temp was climbing. I'm sure we ended up in the upper 90's in the shade. You gotta love Fla!! We finished watching Friday the 13th later that day. It's been so long since I've seen it that I really didn't remember how it ended. Oh, and Kevin Bacon gets it in the throat.

Sunday - we got up eat breakfast, got in our bathing suites and washed the cars with Kaley. We made it fun for her. She didn't want to stop. OK the car is really clean Kaley... Made some burgers on the grill, drank a few beers. Miller Lite, nothing fancy this time. Oh, not sure if I blogged about this yet, but I tried the Dogfish Import Ale. Yuk! Not good at all. Had a weird oak smoked & vanilla flavor to it. Way too sweet for me. I drank the whole thing, but forced myself to do it. It did get slightly better as it sat, maybe around 57 degrees. My friend Steve agrees. I’ve had Dogfish before, and it was great. It’s just the Import Ale that I don’t like.

It's Frday

2005-07-15T08:11:00.000-04:00

Friday!!

Can’t wait to get the weekend started. No plans or anything just can’t wait to get away from work for a couple of days. We’ve been really busy which is good, but stressful. The one thing that I have to do this weekend is cut the grass. I'ts been two weeks since I cut it last. I can't catch a break from the rain. Everyday in the afternoon, last weekend it rained off and on both days. Needless to say, it's pretty high.

We practiced last night. Started off with the originals, then went through all the covers. Everything sounded great. Things are really coming along. My finger was fine the entire time we were playing. I guess I just needed to work it out, and some of these tunes are pretty challenging, that helps. So I’m guessing it’s not arthritis, maybe tendonitis? It isn’t really bothering me now.

ROCK STAR: INXS
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/rock_star/

Has anyone seen this crap yet? What a freaking joke!! ROCK? These are the people that were too old to get on American Idol. They should just called it POP STAR. And INXS is not a band I think of when I hear the word Rock… do these people really want to be the lead sing for INXS? What has INXS been doing the last 6 years? And what the hell is Dave Navarro doing there? I have lots of questions. You have to be pretty desperate to get out there on national TV and kiss the ass of a washed up band. I’ve been playing and writing music for a long time now, ever since I was a kid. I think I reached a point in my life around the age of 28, where making it big (whatever that may be) was not as important as playing the music you really love… at this stage in the game, there’s no way I would compromise. I’d rather be playing in a warehouse sweating my ass off playing and making music that I love with my friends than play some crap to impress a record co rep. I guess it’s got a lot to do with what kind of music you like. If you like the stuff they’re playing on the radio today, then go for it. Since I hate most popular music, not all of it, but most, I could never get a record contract with a major label without making some big changes to what we’re doing. Enough of that.

NO Shuttle launch

2005-07-13T15:37:00.000-04:00

And I was looking forward to it. Not that it had anything to do with it, but you have to wonder why they picked 3:30 for launch time. This is Florida and that it prime time for T storms.

Been emailing back and forth will my friend Billy. He picked up the Guitar, and is almost back to where he was about 10 years ago. Not bad for just a few months of playing. He says that he’s been jamming on old Beatles stuff (not that there’s any new Beatles stuff) and practicing every night. I’m really glad to hear that. He and I grew up together and started playing at the same time. He was good back then, and I’m sure he’ll just get better from here on.

I got a meeting to attend :(

Headphones

2005-07-12T10:32:00.000-04:00

You can listen to the entire CD here: http://www.purevolume.com/headphones

I think I like this... No Guitars :( all synth with live drums... but good.

Eggplant rules!

2005-07-12T08:55:00.000-04:00

Made some Eggplant parm last night. Came out awesome!! My first time making it. Even the kids liked it... I used the bottled sauce, Prego. I prefer my home made, but don’t have the time to make it. I used the Vigo Italian style bread crumbs with Romano cheese, and fried them in olive oil. So easy to make. I’m going to start posting recipes up here soon, a good way of keeping track of em.

Did some shrimp on the grill on Sunday. The only thing I would do differently is NOT put salt in the marinade… maybe do a little oil and some spices next time.

Been having a hard time playing bass. I think I’m developing Arthritis in my index finger… kind of comes and goes thankfully. I’m going to try lighter strings next time. It makes playing the Rick almost impossible... I’ve been using the Musicman when playing with the band… speaking of the band, I need to get some of last weeks tunes converted to mp3 for Bryan. We want to try recording ideas at practice then I would email the recordings to the others so we can at least hear them during the week, and try to work them out in our heads. But this requires me to do a little extra work…I keep forgetting to do it.

The St Bernardus Experience

2005-07-09T10:18:00.000-04:00

I figured out why the monk on the bottle looks so happy. HE’S SMASHED OUT OF HIS FUCKING MIND!! This stuff will mess you up for real. There was a review I read somewhere warning you to set a side a few hours if you’re planning on trying this beer. There’s a good reason for that. It really makes you drunk. You’ll end up doing stupid stuff like taking pictures of your beer...

So they say that you should drink it around 52 to 56 degrees. I would say that it was best around 58. When I poured the fist glass, it was around 49, and had a very bitter, alcohol taste to it, but very clean. as it warmed up, the taste was much smoother, and still very clean. I think the clean finish is due to the alcohol content...10% Oh, and The first glass is mostly foam. This happened to Bill also, so I'm assuming that's normal. This beer can also help you get through bad movies, and actually enjoy them. Johnny English was hysterical!! I laughed my ass off!!

I would give it an 8 out of 10. It’s a great experience.

Plans for tonight - lets hear it for the Monks!!

2005-07-08T15:35:00.000-04:00

Some St Bernardus and hotdogs... And some Dogfish Import Ale. Not sure about the hotdogs, but I will be drinking some beer. I haven't tried the St Bernardus yet, but my friend Bill says it's awesome. He got it at Big C on University and Dean Rd. They have over 400 imports, and are very knowledgeable.

No Kayaking this weekend due to Dennis. I was supposed to head out to the no motor zone with a friend, but I don't think it's a good idea at this point. They don't expect it to hit us, but it's so large that we will be getting rain and some wind... Some storms could be pretty heavy.

Cheers!!

Good practice again

2005-07-08T09:11:00.000-04:00

Finished a song and added a new one. Needs work, but sounds good so far. The covers sounded really good last night. Guess it helps not playing them for a couple of weeks... I'm anxious to play out again. It's been like 5 years or something, at the rate we're going, it will be another 5 years before we do so again. I hope not. I need to be able to find time at home to write, then just organize it at the warehouse with the guys. Gets harder the older I get with all my other responsiblities. Same with the other guys. As long as it remains fun, I'm okay with whatever.

Lots of drinking and food

2005-07-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

Went to Robs on Sunday, and Timmy's on Monday. Sunday was great for the kids because of the pool. Had some great pork tenderloin, pulled pork, and shrimp grilled with custom marinades made by Rob and Eric. They did a fantastic job... Oh, and lots of beer and stuff. Tracy drove Dave, the kids and I there and back (good thing) Dave had to leave his car at my place, and have someone pick him up:)

Went to Timmy's the next night for more of the same. Food, drinking, and fireworks. mostly Burgers and Dogs, but good. Amazing fireworks, like $1400 worth of stuff. Both my kids still have their fingers. No major casualties unless something happened after we left, very possible. It rained for a little bit, one cop showed up but never got out of the car.

No work til Tuesday!!

2005-07-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

I’m off today, Saturday, Sunday and Monday for the 4th.

Tera and I got up this morning and went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, then Wekiva Springs State Park. The water was very high with all the rain we’ve been getting. It was freezing too... After swimming, we walked down a few trails, didn’t see much wildlife, but it was nice anyway. Beautiful park, and only a 10 minute drive from our house.

Big weekend planned, at least Sunday and Monday. Sunday, a friend of mine is having a pool party \ barbeque. Most of the band should be there. Then Monday my nephew Timmy is having a cookout \ fireworks display. Should be pretty fun. I hope Tracy’s back holds up, she’s been having serious spasms in her lower back, but the Dr thinks that it’s all muscular and not due to the bulging disk. That’s good news. oh and Saturday, mow the yard...

Weekend

2005-06-27T13:10:00.000-04:00

We actually had a baby sitter for Saturday night, so Tracy and I took advantage and went out for the night. We headed down the HOB Orlando for dinner and whatever. The food there is really, really good. I had a burger, and Tracy had a Pizza of all things, both were amazingly good. And the price wasn’t too bad either. With drinks we got out of there for under $40. I wanted to try to see a show while we were there, but it was a punk show of bands I never heard of and all teenagers waiting to get in... Guess I’m getting old. And unfortunately, when I hear punk rock these days, I think of Green Day, Sum 41?, and Blink 182. Not Punk, more like Pop… or are the two the same these days? Anyway we ended up walking around for a while then heading home. The next day we went to pick up the kids at their Grandparents house, went swimming, cooked some stuff on the grill. The kids had a blast in the pool. And they went to see a movie (Madagascar) the night before so they couldn't complain, but they did anyway... spoiled.

Later that day, I decided I needed another grill, and bought a charcoal one this time. Real cheap, under $20, I’m sure will last many years or months for that price. Took forever to assemble… It was a project that was fun for the whole family, and the kids did help. The Chicken came out awesome, real smoky flavor. Then we let the kids roast Marshmallows when we were finished with dinner. I learned that you really need to keep an eye on the Marshmallows, or the kids will just start eating them out of the bag. Kaley could have potentially eaten 10 or more. All that sugar is a bad thing when it gets to be bed time. Overall, a pretty good weekend.

CD from Geoff came in the mail

2005-06-24T09:27:00.002-04:00

Judas Priest
Lamb of God
Love Battery
Mark Sandman
Motorhead
Mudhoney
PJ Havey
Strapping Young Lad
Supersuckers
The Mooney Suzuki

Can only play them in ITunes though, all MPEG-4, but that's okay. I need to mess around with it a little more. Got through one of the Supersuckers, great title: Motherfuckers Be Trippin' and some of the Motorhead. Good stuff. Thanks man!!

Last night

2005-06-23T09:47:00.000-04:00

We went to Bayridge Sushi in Longwood last night before seeing the movie. Bill and Chris got the all you can eat deal for $20. I got the Maki Combo $10. It comes with California roll, tuna roll, and spicy tuna roll I think, anyway it’s plenty of food. I wish I would have gotten the all you can eat for the variety if anything. Some of the stuff Chris, and Bill got looked really good. They said the eel was awesome… We drink a Kirin and a Sapporo both good the Sapporo was better. Not a bad price, and the place was pretty nice inside. This place used to be a Fazoli's back in the day, the bathroom is still painted the colors of the Italian flag.

The movie: Not sure really what to say about it. I think I need to see it again, and not sit so close to the screen, we were in the like the 5th row or something. It seems like they tried to cram a lot of stuff into two hours. There were some great action scenes, and special effects. It was much darker than the previous Batman movies, and true to the comic book, not sure of the League of Shadows part though. I don’t remember that from the books, but it has been a long time since I’ve read them. Overall it was a good movie. The next one should be better now that they got origins stuff out of the way.

Sushi then Batman

2005-06-22T12:02:00.000-04:00

Bill, Chris and I are going out after work to dinner, then going to see the new Batman movie. We're still undecided on where to eat, so far Sushi is winning, but due to diets and stuff, we may need to do something else instead. Right now I’m Listening to Gov't Mule – Dose. What a great CD, I think this may be in my top 10 of all time.

While I’m on the subject:

GOV'T MULE @ JONES BEACH PRE-SALE
Gov't Mule will be playing with Trey Anastasio @ Jones Beach on Saturday August 6th. Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster on Saturday, June 25th, but you can get first shot at great seats on Monday June 20th at 10AM through http://www.muleticketing.musictoday.com

We’re going to be doing a cover of a song off Dose called Larger than Life. Matt really liked this song, and asked that we learn it. Pretty easy song, but fun to play as all of their stuff is. I really want to get these originals down though more than anything.

I sure jump around a lot.

House pics

2005-06-21T10:02:00.000-04:00

Here are some pics of the house that we bought in Altamonte Springs. These pictures were taken when we first moved in. We've done some work to it since then like painting and decorating, but for the most part it not much has changed.

2005-06-21T09:59:00.000-04:00

Family room.

2005-06-21T09:58:00.000-04:00

Family room \ Dining room

2005-06-21T09:57:00.000-04:00

Kitchen

2005-06-21T09:42:00.000-04:00

Living room - used by the kids most of the time. We've done a few things to it since taking this picture, I think it looks much nicer now.

Fathers Day

2005-06-20T16:16:00.000-04:00

Pretty good day. Started with opening a present from my kids and Wife. They got me a cooler with a built in radio. They made it like a treasure hunt, I had to follow instructions on pieces of paper with clues on where to look next until I got to the place where they were hiding the present. Tracy says that it was Tera’s idea. Should be great for fishing \ beach trips. A very original idea. Tera and I made breakfast, then we let Kaley and her friend play in the slip and slide for a while. Sat around the rest of the day and watched TV. Then we went to Bubbalou's Barbeque on 436 in Altamonte. Horrible! I've had it before when they catered a work event and it was bad then, but everyone kept telling me that it's much better when you eat there. They were wrong. Tracy got sick from it... The meat is way too smokey, and the fries are way too salty. The kids liked it because there was a toy train running though the place, the tracks are on the ceiling. It kept Kaley entertained. And the got free snow-cones. We went home after that, I drink a beer, and feel a sleep watching the NBA finals game 5. San Antonio won in overtime! Good game and a good day overall.