Guitar Zeros

Next time I'm out in California I'm going to try to find these guys where they are playing. The band is called Guitar Zeros and they make music, real music using their Guitar Hero guitars hooked up to their computers. Looks pretty cool. If you want to try your hand at making some beautiful music they share their secrets here.

Here's an intro video about the band and what they do:

Endless Winter

Had a fun weekend in Michigan. Met up with some friends from college, here's the recap: The night started out with a private viewing of an art gallery at DePree. One of Steve's art professors had his works on display so we got to meet him and he told us all about his art. Seemed like a very cool guy. If you are in the area go check out the exhibit, there is some cool stuff there. Sorry I didn't take any pictures wasn't sure if that was acceptable and didn't want to embarrass Steve with my lack of art etiquette.
We then headed to the Brewery for Dinner, didn't have to wait long for a table which was nice. Enjoyed dinner in the company of Steve and Tom, Darren joined us later, also a cameo appearance by DWhite. Overheard at dinner : "Steve you still can't grow facial hair can you?" We were sitting upstairs, where we noticed a Little Devo award perched up on a ledge:
After dinner we stopped by Butch's where we ran into the second cameo by DWhite, this time accompanied by Sumo and their dates. We also ran into Betka (or Boss if that's your style)who was getting off her shift. She joined us for a drink and for the rest of the night. Elizabeth also joined up with us at this point. Again no pictures at Butch's. Tom did his best Bos impression by knowing and talking to just about everyone there.

While at Butch's we heard about a new hotel/restaurant/bar in the downtown Holland area that served wine on tap, so we had to check it out. That became our next stop.
The place was pretty swanky for Holland standards a cool looking bar on the main floor but we heard all the action was on a different floor. Tom put on his best anti-game and asked the front desk chick what was the quickest way to get to the second floor. She was puzzled, it turns out it was the elevator, oh and we didn't want the second floor all the action was on the fifth.
We got a table and checked out their impressive wine on tap collection, we ordered up some food while enjoying the magical Holland city view from the fifth floor of the building. Food and atmosphere was good, they also have the longest silverwear I've seen, very good for stealing food off a neighboring plate.We then returned to the Brewpub where we met up with Dunn and his cousin Jonas. We spent the rest of the night there enjoying some good conversation. The only thing that would have made this night better (besides a large cast of characters that was missing) would be a good game of photo hunt.
I went light on pictures for the rest of the weekend so I'll do a quick recap. Saturday Steve, Darren and I met up after lunch and did a little hiking at the dunes. Darren brought his dog Grizz, to the dunes for the first time, it was fun to see him run around, he has a lot of energy. We tried our luck on the dunes with a snow skate, but there was just too much snow, I went overboard many times, landing right on my face. Fun times. When we got back from our hike we went to Fricano's for some pizza with a few other guys, again good conversation and good food. After dinner we ended up a the brewery again where we played some pool and enjoyed each other's company.
Spent the rest of the time with Elizabeth's family, we tried out a new restaurant on sunday for lunch, very good food, and cool location right on the water. All in all it was a very fun weekend.

Sun

Yesterday was the first time in a long time when it was sunny when I left work, not just light out but really sunny. It sure felt nice - well it was still 9 degrees out but felt nice just the same.

Record Player

IMG_1595, originally uploaded by 9nineteen.

Last time we were in Michigan, my in-laws gave me all their old records, three boxes of them. There was a handful of good stuff and the rest was older bands and artists that I really didn't know. I still have to go through them all and select which ones I will keep. So I had these cool records that I know I wanted to listen to but nothing to play them on. So I hit up ebay. Found some cool old record players, most going for around $20, but another $20 for shipping so I could expect to pay around $40 but a cool, old record player. I decided to stop by a local thrift store on the way home from work, to see if they had anything and I did find one of those portables I had been looking at on ebay for $3. I was pretty pumped about the find, the problem was that I only had $3 in my wallet and I would have to cover the tax as well. I walked up to the front to check if they accepted credit cards, they did so I was back on track. When I went to retrieve the record player it was gone. I could not believe someone grabbed it in the the 2 minutes I had made my way to the front of the store. I spent about 20 minutes walking around the store to see if I could see someone with it or if someone had set it down somewhere else - but to no avail. Defeated, I made my way towards the front again and towards the exit, and then I saw the box behind the counter. I guess they keep their nicer items up there, a lot of electronics and such. The box said Crosley, I recognized the name only because I had seen so many of those one ebay earlier. There are a lot of these on ebay because they are modern record players, with cd players, radio, and tape decks, some of them even have cd burners so you can transfer your vinyl to a digital format - pretty cool stuff, anyway these were selling on ebay anywhere from $120 - $250. The thrift store had it for $50. That was more than I expected to spend at a thrift store for sure, but it happened to be brand new. It had all the packaging and tape in the right places. Not sure why it was returned, but I tested it there and everything worked fine. I bought it and have enjoyed it very much so far. We've used it everyday and we've been listening to records while we cook dinner, and clean up afterwards. Now I need to work on my collection. You can see it there on the picture above, tags still on it, and yes that is the Beatles White Album spinning on there.

Worship

I had a busy weekend churchwise, I was involved in three different services. I already talked about Saturday night, so here are the worship sets for the two Sunday services:

Morning at Lombard CRC
-Holy Holy - Nathan Fellingham
-Revelation Song - Jennie Lee Riddle
-None but Jesus - Brooke Fraser
-Your Love Oh Lord - Mac Powell
-When I Think About the Lord - James Huey

Sojourn Led Celebration Service at CCOB
Oh Praise Him - David Crowder
The Color Song - David Crowder
Sweet Mercies - David Ruis
Let Us Worship - Sojourn
All I Can Say - David Crowder
Clap Your Hands 2.3 - New Tune by Tommy O
How Great Is Our God - Chris Tomlin

A little Green in our step

IMG_1590
Originally uploaded by 9nineteen

The last couple of trips to the grocery store, we've managed to come home without a single plastic bag, which is a big plus. Ever since the "I'm not a plastic bag" phenomena alternatives to plastic have sprung up everywhere. All the grocery stores in the area have them and are selling for around $1. We first bought some bags at Jewel (Albertson's), but gave those to Elizabeth's mom and picked up more at Dominck's (Safeway) since they were bigger then the Jewel ones. My dad also brought us one from a grocery store in Brasil. That's the colorful green one in the picture. We always take them with when we go grocery shopping and try to keep one in the car just in case.

Radius

My friend Kevin and I led worship at the Radius tonight. It was my first time there, Kevin has led there a couple times before. It was a good night, they are doing a series based on the book UnChristian which has been blogged about a lot recently by a lot of the blogs I read. They had a good time of discussion which went a bit long, so we had to cut our set short, which was fine because we definitely did not want to hinder the excellent discussion that was going on. They put up podcasts every week on their site, so you can check out the message although they don't have the questions/discussion segment on there, still a good talk to listen to .

The set was:
Wholly Yours - David Crowder
You Have Redeemed My Soul > I Could Run Away - Enter the Worship Circle
You Said - Shane and Shane

We both played guitars, which is something we haven't done in a long time, but it was nice to get back to a simpler set(we usually play with a full band). Anyway the Radius community was a very cool and I'm sure we'll be back there soon.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Original Photo @ nzsheep

As a tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary, everyone go climb Everest - or at least get outside for a little bit this weekend.

World Golf Tour

Last night I tried out this new game called World Golf Tour. As you can see from the picture it has pretty good graphics. It's still in its early stages, its supposed to go into its beta phase soon, but for now you can try it out. It promises to be an addicting and productivity killing game since you'll be able to play against your friends online. I think this game might lure in some folks who have managed to steer clear of WOW or Second Life or some other online time sucking machine. I don't really play computer games but I did enjoy my time with this game. I could see some of my friends getting hooked though.

HELP

Last month a new edition of the Beatles movie, Help was released. I don't think anyone can deny the Beatles place in rock and roll history. A lot of the younger generations hear about the Beatles from their parents or other friends in college. This movie was my first exposure to the Beatles. My dad is a big Beatles fan, one day well over a decade ago he brought home this vhs from the library. We watched it and really enjoyed it, in fact it became one of our favorites. We watched it several times that week. This movie was made early in the Beatles career so I was exposed to those early melodic tunes, which were good. It wasn't till I was in college that I was exposed to their later, more psychedelic works. Anyway I can pinpoint my Beatles exposure to that movie thanks to my dad. I think that's pretty cool. I ended up getting that dvd for my dad for Christmas. I hope it reminds him of those times like it did for me.

Guitar Shopping

I've been doing some guitar shopping lately. I've been reading up on different brands and models while trying to figure out which guitar I would get next. While doing all this research I came across an interesting piece of guitar history. The way Takamine made their guitars in the late 70's was just about an exact replica of the much more expensive Martin guitars. They even had the same lettering on the logo, which made the guitars look that much more like Martins. Martin threatened to sue Takamine and as a result Takamine changed the way they designed their guitars. These lawsuit Takamines, as they are known, are supposed to be very good, quality guitars. They aren't as valuable as those Martin's from the 70's but if you come across one that is in good condition it should be a very good buy and a cool piece of guitar history for your collection. The same day I learned about these lawsuit Taks there was one on Craigslist for $175. I was very close to buying it, but I knew that I would be buying a guitar soon (not just a collectible but one I would play in church) so I couldn't justify the purchase. That evening I also saw one at Sam Ash selling for $450. I didn't end up getting one of these classics, but I will keep my eye open for one, I think it'd be cool to have one of those in my collection.

Takamine F340

Martin D28

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a fun and safe new year's celebration. We had a good time hanging out with some friends and playing some wii games. My parents and little sisters are in Chile for the holidays spending time with family there I'm sure they are enjoying their time there. Luckily Elizabeth's family was able to spend some time here with us for Christmas so we weren't alone. We had a great time hanging out for a few days before they made their way down to Florida.

I was listening to a podcast from Spain talking about traditions - new year's traditions specifically and it reminded me of the way we used to celebrate these holidays with my family in Chile. Much like my parents must be doing these days. The podcast explained how a normal new year's eve dinner consists of lentels, an Italian tradition that's supposed to bring prosperity in the new year. A Spanish tradition is to eat 12 grapes at midnight one for each month of the new year, if the grapes are sweet you'll have a good month, sour grapes represent bad months. Both those european traditions are part of the new year's traditions in Chile. I was trying to think of any traditions we did here in the states but couldn't come up with anything. As a family we don't follow those traditions anymore but when I heard about them on the podcast it did remind me of being together with lots of family during this time of year.

Merry Chirstmas

Enjoy some Christmas songs:



I saw this on another blog and enjoyed it very much, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Just in Time for the Holidays

HandBell Hero

Play it on your computer and remember the good ol days with the handbell choir. Notice how upset the ringers look, that's because I was missing a lot of notes, they get happier as you ring in correctly.

Enjoy

Marushka

A few weeks ago I received an email telling me that Richard Sweet died. Richard Sweet was an art teacher from Grand Haven, MI who started the company that produced many, many Marushka silk screens that were very popular in the 70's especially in West Michigan.

I went to college in West Michigan and any college student will tell you that thrift stores are good places to find decorations for your dorm/house. It was very common to find a Marushka at a thrift store and some are actually pretty cool. My fraternity had a house that was called Marushka's and the walls were covered with hundreds of those paintings. Every time someone found a Marushka it would eventually end up there. I found one at a thrift store in Illinois the summer before my senior year. It was a sailboat with a big sun in orange in blue (school colors), pretty cool. I paid $2 for it and decided to take it up to my house at school (I did not live at Marushka's). I left it there after I graduated, although now I wish I hadn't. Eventually it ended up at Marushka's.

Anyway I thought I'd pay some tribute to Mr. Sweet, whose mass produced art became a part of my formative years, just the name Marushka's floods my mind with good memories, and I bet many of my friends could tell you lots of stories of their own, if you bring up Marushka's. The fraternity doesn't have that house any more. I wonder what became of all those Marushkas.

Music in 07

At this time of year every music magazine, blog, tv show, website puts up a list of the 10, 50, 100 best albums of the year. They're pretty easy to find. You can agree with the lists or disagree (they are usually pretty similar). I think it's a matter of opinion and personal preference, if you happen to think Kevin Federline's contribution is the best then that is your right (I know KFed's cd came out in 2006 but I couldn't think of such an undisputed 2007 equivalent). So I won't make such a list. What I will do is tell you which 5 albums I voted for on NPR's Music website. They have a large list and you can pick your five favorite. They obviously don't have every cd that came out this year, in fact NPR music is kind of elitist so they might not even have all the ones you like, I had to write one in. It's possible I may have overlooked some cd but I still think my 5 is a good representation of what I enjoyed this year. You only have a few more days so go rock the vote.

Here are my picks:

1. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

2. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

3. Spoon - GaGaGaGaGa

4. John Butler Trio - Grand National

5. The National - Boxer

Wish List

If you have a wishlist from Amazon and have recently moved, make sure you change your mailing address on your wishlist. My brother in law, David, recently sent me a gift off of the wishlist and I hadn't changed the address on the list and had to scramble to figure out where the package was sent. Luckily (and inexplicably) it was sent to my parents house, so no worries there, I was preparing my self with having to get it from my old apartment building. Like I said it all worked out in the end and my wishlist is currently updated - just in time for the holdays. Thanks Dave.***


*** Consider this your thank you note.

Slash

Photo @ Sarahinvegas

Last night I stopped by Borders in Oak Brook after work to pick up a book we needed. The parking lot seem to be filling up fast, but I didn't think much of it. When I walked in I realized why, there was a book signing going on. The lines were just about to start forming and soon lots of fans would get to meet Slash and have their books autographed (after purchasing said book of course). So I thought about picking up a book and getting in line but I opted against it. Mainly because I wasn't feeling very well I was developing a cold and had been pretty miserable at work all day. Ten years ago it wouldn't have been a question I probably would have stayed there all night to have Slash mumble something to me while signing my book. Instead I opted to head home, crawl in bed early and watch Ratatouille. Wow that's even more lame now that I read it - did I mention I was sick?

tech

I like to think I'm pretty tech savvy and I try to keep up with the new technology, but for a guy that likes gadgets so much I don't really make the best use of the technology at hand. Last night I got a text message from a friend asking for another friend's phone number. I try not to use text messages, especially while driving, either way this request was complicating things. I had to look up the number and remember it while I either texted back or called. I said to myself they should make it easy to send phone numbers over text. Sure enough some engineer several years ago had thought of this already because that feature is readily available on my phone which is nearing two years old. This just as big as when I discovered that I could search my phone book while on the phone - for when someone calls me asking me for someone else's number. I've sent phone numbers over bluetooth before, so I'm sure I've seen this option before, but it never really registered with me. I just used it for the first time last night. I'm sure I'll use it again in the future.

Ctrl V

Paste magazine is following in Radiohead's footsteps and allowing you to name the price. They are selling one year subscriptions for whatever you want over $1. A year is normally $20, which is still a good deal considering you get a cd filled with cool songs every issue. If you already subscribe you can also renew a year for any price. If you like music go get this deal.