back to skool

So today was my first day of school at UNT in Denton...I've taken some night classes over my years in the Air Force, but this is the first time in almost 15 years I've gone to school full-time during the day with the kids.

So my alarm clock goes off at 6am. Smack alarm clock viciously. Stagger around house looking for coffee. Wander into closet before remembering the key fact that the coffee machine is actually in the kitchen. Make coffee and eat some cereal. Take shower (remember to wash between toes). Put clothes on. Remember that using towel BEFORE putting on clothes is a really good idea. Walk out to car. It's raining, of course. Drive to UNT. Wander around aimlessly until time for first class at 8am, political science. It's a freshman-level class, and although I'm almost a senior, I've never taken a second political science class like Texas universities require. Plop in seat with coffee. Notice that the people sitting to my right and left could almost be my kids, age-wise. Stare off into space while instructor bounces around cheerfully (I have dubbed her Satan already). Class is over, whee. I have to read 30 pages tonight, yay!

Really raining out now. Could take my umbrella out of my backpack, but remember if I can survive ice storms in Bosnia and the Middle East, who needs an umbrella. Stomp through several puddles as I am wearing rubber flip flops and I don't care. Second class is Physics II. Professor resembles what you would imagine a middle-aged physics professor with a combover to be. Contemplate the ceiling tiles for a while. Finish coffee. Scribble some notes about Coulomb's Law. Did you know that the Chinese discovered magnetism in approximately 2000 B.C. (Before Chris)? File that info away for future use in Jeopardy. Discover the neato tidbit that there are 6.25 x 10 to the 18th power protons in a Coulomb. Write this out in my notebook...that is 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 protons. Holy shit, what are those protons doing, humping like bunnies? Class is over. Go out wrong side of building and walk a block before I realize I'm going awaaaay from my car. Day 1 complete!

So tomorrow is History and German...I will have to refrain from using our new language we invented in a heat-induced delirium on the way back from Wichita Falls this past weekend, Sperman. I'm sure the teacher will frown on me asking cute girls, "Willst du meine grande Pipi sehen?" Would be funny but not good-grade conducive, haha.

Wish me luck. I'm outta here.

re-butt-al

Okay, Christian Rawkk, you got me on that one. And I do know that Colin gets all smiley when you wear your rawker jeans that have holes in the butt, haha.

But think of it this way....imagine one of our beautiful fans who admire a picture of us (or at least pretended to) staring at a picture longingly before they drift off to sleep, or better yet, before they take a shower (complete with heated detachable massage wand). Would they rather see a pic of smooth, suave Chris(tian) - or The Oz, Colin, or myself, whatever their flavor is, haha - or a pic of goofy Chris(tian) with his fingers jammed up his nose???

Let's use this famous pic for example....do you think that Ginger went home that night and dreamt about: me, giving her a big monkeyhug, or you with your finger jammed three knuckles deep in your ear? ha!
Then again, different strokes for different folks.

Time to rock it out this weekend, my fellow monkeydudes, enough with this studio noise!

Don't worry Oz, I got your back

It seems that our favorite Oz has been called out because of his so-called antics when being photographed and blowing photo ops with his goofiness. This struck me as kind of odd, 'cause I sure do seem to remember someone else in the band blowing more photo ops than anyone else...

let's see....
yep...one bald guy in white sticking his finger in his ear like a retard (my apologies to any retards besides me who are viewing this)

next....wow this is so gay, I can't even describe it.ok...that one shook me up. Next we have...yep, you guessed it...
Leave it Chris(tian) to botch a shot with the beautiful ladies in it...although Oz looks like Colin may be giving him "The Shocker" behind the scenes.

So Oz buddy, I got your back. Don't let the Pasty Baldy call you out! Now you got ammo to fight back!!!

tasty

Ok kids, as you may have gleaned, we have been in the studio lately...we're almost done with the recording, except some harmony vocals and some minor but EXTREMELY IMPORTANT (of course) bass and drum stuff on a secret song that will remain nameless but will knock your little bobby socks off. Anyway, I digress. I have a copy of a rough mix (not that's it rough, just not mxed and mastered) first cut...popped it into my car CD player the other day, and...

frigging wow.

As previously discussed, we are a live band...obviously we can do the studio, because we sound pimptasticular on CDs, haha...but we love the live shows, as evidenced by recent shows in Tyler, Temple, the Firewater here in Dallas, and can't forget the Falls.

But this CD, even in rough form, smokes some of the older finished ones we've done. I'm all tingly at just thinking about how good this is gonna sound when it's all said and finished.

All four of us dislike the studio atmosphere because it's so nerve-wracking, literally. But once it all comes together, like this one is starting to...well, you won't be disappointed. Some kickass new songs, and two 'classics' that will knock your jaw right to the floor when you hear them!

so I'm off to bed, to dream of our next CD release show.....

emissions whaaaaat?

Ok, so I discovered inadvertently (and the hard way) about emissions testing on cars in the Dallas area. I got my car registration renewal in the mail about 6 weeks ago when I still lived in Temple, but yes, I was lazy, and told myself, "I'll just wait until I move to Dallas and do it there" as I have to change my address and get a new driver's license anyway.

So off I go yesterday to get the safety inspection we Texans all know and love...When they tell me my inspection is gonna be $39, I was kind of shocked. It's only $12 every time I did it in Temple. Ohhh, there's "emissions testing". Ok, no worries I think. My car is in pretty good shape and runs fine. But then guess what? I fail. Because my computer on my car says something like "Error Code 14401: Transmogrification Splenetic Bypass Auxiliary Injector Muffin Valve faulty."

WHAT?

So off I go to a service center to get it fixed. After a $90 diagnostic test in which they told me "hey your computer says "Error Code 14401: Transmogrification Splenetic Bypass Auxiliary Injector Muffin Valve faulty", so it must be bad" - gee thanks guys I already knew that - and then $75 in labor and then $107 for a part that probably cost Audi $9.95 to make...and then like 30 bucks in taxes (because the state isn't happy enough with getting $39 for a safety inspection from me). Grand Totale? $303.47. Ow.

So I'm out $300 but hey my car's Muffin Valve is A-OK. Sorry Oz, I was going to whisk you away on a Vegas weekend getaway, but not anymore. You can thank the state of Texas and some bad muffins.

black and white

...not as in the po-lice are after us, but a tale of two stages, so to speak.

Saturday we were in the studio all day, and Colin and I laid down all the drum and bass tracks for our new CD. Playing in the studio is completely and utterly different than playing live....playing live, you feed off the crowd's energy, the lights, the sound /PA system, the adrenaline....in the studio, none of that is there. All it is, is you, your guitar/drums/microphone, headphones, and a recording device that is unforgiving. Every single mis-fret, mistake, out-of-tune note...all gets caught. You have to be dead-on perfect as you can be...like the first song Colin and I recorded is a song we know extremely well. We must have played it in practice or live a few hundred times. And yet there I was, heart racing and saying to myself "ohgodpleasedon'tbotchthis" as we recorded. And you know what? I totally screwed up in the same spot three times in a row. Fantastic! So then you have to go back and record it again and again to get it right. And then when you do finally get it right, it's almost this sense of relief, like "holy @#$% I'm glad that's over, take that you stupid microphone!"



And then we turned around, after a full day of studio work and rock out like madmonkeys at the Firewater Saturday night....it was just a really cool vibe, with all the different bands that were there, the fashion show, and then getting to play. We just went nuts playing and put on our sparkly shiny rockstar shoes (we beat up some of the models and stole their shoes) and tore it up. The crowd was great and stuck around late into the evening to see and hang out with us....much props to everyone who came out, or drove all the way from various places (like the FALLS!) to come see us, you rock. Good times alllllll around.

But it was just kinda odd or funny to go from one extreme, as far as playing atmosphere, to the other back-to-back. I definitely like playing live better, and I think the other guys would agree...not to mention drinking Jaeger in the studio is probably not a good thing, haha, so the live playing definitely has a leg up in that department...

so another weekend down, many more to go....someone better warn Click's in Tyler to restock on their Jaeger, 'cause we are a-coming to town....

Studio 54

...As in, we're back in the studio (sweet), and the number of pics Chuckliff did NOT take yesterday, due to him pulling an Ashlee Simpson (read: space braining) and leaving his camera on Baldilocks' kitchen table.

So we packed up Run Run the Magic Bus with all of our gear and hauled off to our favorite studio last night, Deep Ellum Studios. Now I must mention the ride down to the studio yesterday. Time? 5:30pm on a Friday in Dallas rush-hour traffic. Temperature outside? About 102. Run Run's air conditioning status? Barely functional. Temperature inside of Run Run? About 120. Holy crap, by the time we took Chris' shortcut to get off the jam-packed freeway and rolled sweating buckets up to the studio, we were all about to die. We dove into Craig's studio and blessedly cold A/C and unloaded our gear....whew. Barely made it.

But man, once we get in there, we all immediately get stoked..it's like there's something in the air once you get into a studio...we all get jazzed about laying down our songs onto disc, and this one is gonna be a good one....you will not be disappointed, we can tell already, when we're all done. I'll update as often as I can on the trials, tribulations, good times, goofiness, and eating habits of your favorite monkeyboys in the studio...

I'm out for now....but before I go, here's a pic of Colin's drums all set up and miked for the upcoming work...sorry to steal your camera thunder Cliff, but at least one of us had a camera, hahahahaha.

On the road again

Well, we finally nailed Colin and Oz down in one spot long enough to play a gig, after a nearly three week hiatus, and we had a ball. We learned some important facts at our gig in Temple:

1. Chris can swear at people if they didn't like us, and no one will leave.
2. Oz giggles like a school girl after having three JaegerBombs in about 15 minutes.
3. So do I.
4. Chris will always laugh if you yell "buddyyyy!!!!" at him in the middle of a song on stage.
5. And he will try to mess with me during my little solo riff in 'Blister In The Sun'.
6. The longer we play, the better we sound. Maybe it's the JaegerBombs mentioned in #2.
7. Colin will become Vanilla C and throw down some mean raps.
8. I will get molested by the audience during 'Blister'. Very tragic.
9. I'm drawing a blank here.
10. The people that come to see us at Bum's are some of the best damn fans out there...always a pleasure. When's the next time we play there again?

For some strange reason that will remain nameless, as we are a family-oriented band, I slept the entire next day...it mighta had something to do with not getting back to Dallas until 6 am....but it might not have. If you have heard one of our newer songs we've played a few times, you *might* just know why!

I'm off to go look for some Chili Cheese Fritos....