elvis' super group

check out this cool ad for the bbc

rademacher changes

so, i was listening to a podcast today and it was talking about the fine line between journalism, blogs and the personal connections to the people being talked about. how much does your knowledge of a person jade or change what you may or may not say about a person or team or thing.

as i listened, i thought about my relationship as a blogger and friend to the band rademacher, as well as a few other fresno bands. and, i'm not trying to say i'm bff with any of these people, but i do sit and talk with many of them. we trade text messages. they've been to my house, i've been in some of theirs. i hear things from bands, or people in bands about what's going on in their lives, both private and public. as i blogger/citizen journalist/gossip, i want to immediately write stuff. as a friend/person/good human being i want to handle material with appropriate sensitivity and timeliness. so when i hear potential bombshells, i run a bunch of filters and decide what to say about these people and bands.

a little while back, i heard that eli would be rejoining the band. shoot, i heard he was first leaving the band and had to wait to talk about it because i wanted to do it right, to get the band's perspective, to get eli's perspective, and to write it well. so, when i heard he was coming back i didn't mind waiting a few days to be able to write about it here and be respectful to the band and to my friends.

recently, i heard that greer was leaving rademacher. she was going to do a final few tour stops, and then was moving on, both from the band and in life. she had some gigs lined up with a band she toured with last year and was moving from fresno. now, i must admit that at this point i haven't talked to greer about this. i've heard it from several reliable sources, and the news of this has been circling fresno long enough that i felt that it might be okay to talk about here (even without talking to her or the band specifically about it).

i wish greer all the best in her future endeavors. i've enjoyed the few times she's come on the podcast and i definitely enjoyed her music. she's a tremendous bass player, a great musician, and an all around cool human being. and i loved her on the tiny tots piano. i'm sure she will do well in her next things.

so, what does this all mean for rademacher? well, that's up in the air from what i've hear. malcom may play bass and bring in another guitar player. maybe they'll find a bass player here in fresno that is tour ready, although fresno seems scarce of those. maybe eli can play bass and drums? or maybe they'll go as a two piece.

will this hurt rademacher's chance of making it big? well, only time will tell. i know that as they went out on tour a little bit back with airborne toxic event and henry clay people i really felt that they were about to get huge. then they didn't play sxsw and have made changes. who knows?

finally, will this stop bands from talking to bloggers? i highly doubt it. my blog is far from grandiose enough to make that happen, and i doubt i'm really stepping on any toes.

monday haiku

computer is down
resolve server issues now
stupid techie life



spring bringing change
sprouting life, fields in bloom
need to mow lawn soon

thrower 4x400m

sometimes, as a track coach, you let your athletes do silly things. they wanted to run a 4x100m race, but we said no, as there is a potential of them pulling a muscle trying to sprint. but, should they want to run a 4x400m, we were alright with that. so, as the day wound down, and the 4x400's were coming up, we put together a team that consisted of a decathlete, two throwers, and another guy that is a bit of a guy that we use wherever. here's what ensued:



not to bad. i thought they might run 5:15, and they ran 4:06 (i think that was the final time). nice work fellas.

hardcore scooter driver

saw this american badass today in traffic and had to snap some photos



here's a closer shot. hey, i'm all for safety, so the full face helmet is fine. but you cut off your sleeves. the sleeves on your black button up shirt. tough guy.



here's a shot from the other side. you are a bad muthaeffer, with your yellow helmet and blue scooter. you rule the road.



sadly, i couldn't get a pick of the dude after i passed him. he had his top couple of buttons on his shirt undone, as if to say, "hey ladies, come and get some of this." at least he didn't have a tribal tattoo.

flashback feature pulp fiction

say what again!



yes indeedy. tonight, @ edward's theater pulp fiction is showing. 9 pm, $5. i think this will be the 4th time i've seen this movie in the theater, but whatever. this will take me back to my freshman year of college.

and to get us all ready for the film, enjoy pulp muppets

random tuesday night post

so, a few thoughts as i end my tuesday:
-watched a discovery show about wild boars. i'm not a hunter, but i do have an inclination to go boar hunting. not sure why.

-the english have this term pants, which basically means something sucks or is crap. like, manchester united was pants in that last
match (which they were). i love the phrase and will be working it into my terms, like I did local.

monday haiku

i almost forgot
to write hiaku once again
routine hard to make



basketball on tv
saturday and sunday too
break only for derby

rademacher news

i don't think i'm betraying any confidences, but rademacher keeps ch cha changing. and, it's at the usual drummer position. sadly, the band stayed home from sxsw for undisclosed reasons. in the wake of it all, drummer eden davis is no longer with the band.

the new drummer...eli reyes. yessir, your friend and mine, drummer of the fay wrays, a guy i've said reminded me of animal from the muppets, eli reyes is back in rademacher. and, he's about to go out on tour with the band as they do a few more dates with airborne toxic event.

harmonica beatbox

ah, i love musical oddities. things like the theremin, bass guitars made form rubber bands, even a bit of ukulele. with that, check out yuri lane doing some harmonica beatbox:

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=14878403


frickin cool.

thanks again, neatorama.

twitter sucks

that's right, i said it. i don't care about twitter. i don't care if you tweet. get over it. let me help, here's a video from our pals @ current tv.



this is how our generation communicates now, with detached, byte sized yippity yap.

notown roller derby vs battle born derby demons

last night was the inaugural match for smog city. well, sort of. many of the team members were on smog city, a team i loved to go and watch. would notown measure up? i had to go and see.

along with the team change, there was also a venue change. smog city had played it's last couple of seasons at valdez hall downtown, and now they were playing over @ the fairgrounds. location wise this wasn't a big deal. building wise it turned out to be. the commerce hall @ the fairground sucks. really sucks. the building is all sorts of angles inside, so you don't get as good of a crowd feel because it's very broken up. and, the angles and low ceiling contribute to crappy sound. so, the "announcer" was unintelligible. which honestly wasn't bad because the reverend, as he goes by on the radio, was just babbling useless crap all night long. to all that bad sound, throw in a dj who is playing loud music, and you just had a sound mess. another issue with this new venue was that they had less bleacher seats than before. this meant more people were sitting @ floor level, trying to look through other people. which actually meant i spent the second and third periods standing up to really watch the match. not terrible, and there was only one row of people behind me and they were also standing. finally, and this isn't actually a venue issue, but the numbers they were using for the scoreboard were highly stylized and very difficult to read. here's a suggestion: use numbers that are easy to read at a distance so people know what the score is. fans want to know what the score is.

okay, i've got those venue gripes out of the way, onto the match. the good thing about the match was that there wasn't a huge drop off between smog city and notown. the notown girls need some work, especially in their blockers, but overall they were still very good. some of the people that weren't that great when they played for smog city had really stepped up their game and played great last night. some of the newer players were good additions to the team. and notown needed it last night because battle born derby demons, hailing from reno, came to scrap. it was a very aggressive match with a lot of people hitting the floor. hard. their blockers were well organized and they had their own little star jammer named short fuse who seemed to just fly through the crowd with ease. battle born was tough, but they just couldn't keep up in the long run. notown skated to the victory, and i think the final score was 105 to 87. i'm not sure, because the numbers were hard to read (just kidding, i forgot the final score).

one other difference between notown and smog city is that the girls seemed to interact with the crowd a whole lot more. in the past, they did some stuff, and worked to get the crowd fired up. many of these same girls were now really working their butts off to get the crowd involved. they're dancing, they're skating with props during the introductions, they're getting cheers started for players. some of this may have happened before, but it really stood out last night. and betty rocker, already a star to fresno dergy enthusiasts, was really working the crowd. a couple of times as she was jamming after whipping through the other team she signaled to the crowd as if to ask, "should i call off the jam. no, don't call it? i should whip through them again? okay. done and done." really good showmanship.

for me, there was no let down between notown and smog city. i'll be back. specifically, may 30th for their next home match.

this is why you're fat

this a blog post for my friend kasey. she likes to exercise and talk about nutrition, diet, and all that sort of stuff. read her blog for like 3 days and you'll find at least one post about these topics. so much that she's even been called obsessive about it.

so when i saw this website i figured i needed to post it for her. this is why you're fat.

deep fried guacamole anyone?



or how about the porkgasm?



i feel a little ill.


(hmac from the beehive posted this site a while back but i forgot and stumbled on it today.)

no town roller derby 3/21

this is where it's at this weekend. get your tickets early.



ALL-FEMALE ROLLER DERBY

NOtown Roller Derby presents:

The Good, The Bad, and THE DERBY
A NOtown Production

NOtown Roller Derby vs.
Battle Born Derby Demons
The ULTIMATE Derby battle for the West!

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Doors open @ 6 PM
Bout starts @ 7 PM

Advance Tickets - $10
Door Tickets - $12
Kids 10 and under Free!

Fresno Fair Grounds - Commerce Building
1121 S. Chance Ave.

Fresno, CA 93702

FREE PARKING!

Tickets available @

LA LUNA LOCA TATTOO (1306 N.
Wishon Avenue; (559) 268-LUNA),

SACRED HEART CLOTHING (101 W. Olive Ave.
; (559) 681-2205),

www.brownpapertickets.com/event/52227 or

FROM ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE ROLLER GIRLS!

NOtown Roller Derby is teaming up with the Poverello House to conduct a FOOD DRIVE! For EVERY can of food/non-perishable item you bring, you will receive ONE RAFFLE TICKET!!!

Great Raffle Prizes, including:

Gift Baskets, Gift Certificates, AND MORE!


honestly, i'm intrigued to see how these girls stack up versus my memory of the smog city roller girls. i know that they have many of the same people, but there has also been a fair amount that left. mix in some new players and it could be very interesting, or terrrible. (nothing in between.) i'm also curious about the fair grounds as a venue. i know smog city played there for a bit, but i never went to any of those games.

flashback feature 3/19: top gun

here's what i'm doing tonight



i'm hoping my timing is good enough to shout out, "where's the plaque for the alternates?"

"the plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room."


so, the tagline for this movie in the u.k. was this:
From the Producers of Beverly Hills Cop and Flashdance

now that's funny isht.


9pm
edward's theater
$5

the fay wrays @ starline

looking for something to do this evening? want to re-aggravate your post st. paddy's headache? well i've got something for you: fay wrays @ starline.

they're playing tonight as a part of the regular show that aesop fables puts on over there. should be nice. fun. loud.

firing etiquette

so, i received this email today @ work:

"This is sent to let everyone know that (name redacted) no longer works for (business name redacted). If this creates any problems for anyone, please see (h.r. person redacted) or myself about your concerns. Thanks."

obviously, i took out names to avoid any issue, to embarrass anyone, or to expose my employer. this isn't the first such email i've received, but they've always struck me as odd and callous. i understand that they need to notify the rest of the staff that a particular employee is no longer there, but is this the best way to go about it? what do you think?

when someone has left there under good circumstances, or their own accord, they have often sent out an email about their leaving. or not at all. i'm not sure how they would handle it if it was a layoff. it seems these emails go out when someone gets fired.

st. patrick's day tie

i chose this tie this morning for several reasons:
1. it has both green and orange. this could symbolize the need for unity between catholics (green) and protestants (orange) in ireland
2. it is super funky
3. i bought it at a thrift store
4. one day, i was wearing the tie and wrote a line from a nofx song on the back of it
5. i'm a dork and didn't just want to wear a green tie
6. i got dressed in the dark. well, this is true, but it really has nothing to do with why i chose the tie. that was all about #'s 1-5.

living on $67 a week

how much do you spend on food & drink in a week? is it less than $72? that is essentially the amount of money that a family of two receives in food stamps in california. the l.a. times had an article, that seemed like it could be very interesting, about living/eating for less. i say that it seemed like it would be because it really wasn't all that interesting or helpful. the husband and wife team manage to cut back to $67 a week, but reveal little about what they actually consumed over the two months that they tried the experiment.

a couple of quotes that really stood out for me from the article:
"It wasn't as easy as we thought. For a couple who grow their own tomatoes and have olive oils for different occasions, it was hard to find a balance between eating affordably and healthfully, much less deliciously."

"The first step was a trip to Costco. (I later discovered that Costco doesn't accept food stamps, a reminder that although we were trying to live as if we were receiving government assistance, we were enjoying options that the truly impoverished don't have.)"

you know what, people living off smaller incomes generally aren't worried about "delicious." they often are worried about "eating." really, you can buy a whole hell of a lot of mac n cheese, top ramen, instant rice, and even ground beef (the fattier ground beef). i know this because when i was in college and funds were more limited, i got by on around 30 something dollars a week, if not less. now, this doesn't mean that people shouldn't care about eating healthy and inexpensively. it does bring up the fact that the healthiest foods are often the most expensive. want really nutrient dense bread, it's going to cost you and the loaf is small. want cheap bread? rainbow and other crap bread like that is cheap, but it's so processed and stripped of nutrients that it's of little nutritional value. the same goes for just about every thing at the market. vegetables seem like an area where this changes, but not really. fresh vegetables cost more than frozen which cost more than canned. i grew up eating canned corn and carried this on through college. when i got married my wife introduced me to frozen corn. much better tasting, and healthier, too. and a little more costly. now, in season fresh corn can be pretty cheap. but out of season, not so much.

i'm glad that they admit that they had advantages, like costco, that poorer people don't have. but, there are warehouse stores (foodmaxx, foods co) that do sell in bulk and are on the less expensive side of markets. shoot, i still try and keep our food cost lower by shopping at foodmaxx. the benefit of these stores may be limited by access to them. many lower income neighborhoods don't have supermarkets, let alone large discount supermarkets. shoot, some neighborhoods barely even have anything beyond convenience or mini marts.

it's not my intention to just dissect the article. rather, i do want to acknowledge the article as a part of my continuing thought process on how we all live, and what choices we're making. as i write this i also am co-authoring an article for the undercurrent that deals with the issue of going without things and what that means. i wonder if my wife and i could live off of $72 a week for food cost and how that would change our lives. what choices would we have to make? could we do it?

what do you think? could you do it? are you doing it? if so, how and what choices have you had to make?

ron paul is for earmarks

ron paul is fighting for earmarks. wait, what? ron paul is for earmarks? the republican/libertarian is for government spending. he has more earmarks in the $410 billion bill than any other republican. well, that's very libertarian of him.

paul, to his libertarian credit, voted against the spending bill. however, that didn't stop him from having his hand out tor receive the benefits of it. so, it's wrong to tax people, it's wrong for the government to spend money, but it's alright for ron paul's district to get money from the government.

i like that his defense is like, well if they're giving it i'm taking it even if i don't agree with it. his exact quote, "I don't think the federal government should be doing it. But if they're going to allot the money, I have a responsibility to represent my people." it's true, you were elected to represent your district. and there is no reason that your district shouldn't benefit from the plans that will hopefully pull our country out of this recession. ideas like infrastructure building programs & social programs. the sort of programs that helped pull the u.s. out of the great depression (combined with our ramp up to ww2).

you go ron paul. help us all get out of this mess.