Konnichiwa!

How are you all doing? Well, I'm doing great! It's Friday and I'm getting out of town again. Last weekend was definitely a success as far as camping is concerned. We went out to Payson, which is North East of Phoenix, for you non-locals. It got a little dark, so we had to camp it out in a pay site, which is not bad, but I guess is also not 'real' camping, or 'quasi-camping, as my better half would put it. Something about having toilets and running water didn't make it seem like 100% camping. Both Abbey, the golden mutt, and the Land Rover did a good job and seemed right at home camping.

The day after, thanks to some locals, we found our way to a place where we could do real camping!!! It was by a creek, a little bit away from town, but due to fire restrictions we decided not to stay. Camping without fire is sucky, but at least Abbs got to play in the water a little. We will be back there, oh yes!! Hopefully within the month.

Ladies and Gentlemen, what's up?

I've had a lot going on these days. I think it can be said that it's official, Shari and I are having another baby. She would probably say that I am not having anything but it is my fault.  So, whichever works for you! Estimated time of arrival will be around thanksgiving. Early Christmas present, you say? Yes, I think so. I hope I can start to get some sleep by new years. I'm tired just thinking of all the sleep we will lose. I should start to practice power-napping.

I have been super swamped at work, but I've been working on new songs and on my comic book story and artwork. What? You didn't know I was a super-nerd? I will post more about this later. I posted up lyrics for some of the new songs. I'll post some links:

Are You Here With Me

Nadine

Shadow

More songs to come later.

What else? Let's see...got a new vehicle. A '94 Land Rover Discovery (Disco for short). My first 4wd vehicle! Needs a bit of work and parts are expensive! On the plus side, now I have something to cart two kids around and musical equipment all at the tune of 15mpg. I think it will also come in handy when I have to tow my 240sx, which I'm sure has a blown headgasket. Trying to get a turbo engine for it now. *fingers crossed*

Haven't seen a ton of movies lately. Mostly just been watching DVDs at home as time permits. Last movie I saw at the theater was Run Fatboy Run, which was great. Then again, I'm a big Shaun of the Dead fan so I may be biased. Really looking forward to Iron Man. See? More of the nerd showing there!

This weekend, Shari and I will be going camping for her birthday. Drop us a note if you want to come join us! Should be great fun.

Tons going on in my life these days (yeah, that means I think nothing happens in yours). Been really busy and haven't had a chance to post in a while, but here's...something!

P.F. Chang's Rock Marathon:

What can I say. This is some of the most fun I have playing. It's great playing for so many people even if they're just running away. Get to have tons of interaction and it's easy to see how much people dig the music! We also played with a great classic rock band: Third Rock. Great sound and very very nice guys!! We had a great stage manager, too. Overall, it was one of the best Marathon gigs we've done so far.

Recent movies I've seen:

Cloverfield - Very good characters and action but I felt like I was gonna puke 10 minutes into it and about 30 minutes after it was done. Mikie saw it too and a girl at his showing did puke!! The cameraman had parkinson's I swear!! Shari didn't like it and I can understand that. I was let down by all the hype but I had to see it and I can accept it for what it was.

No Country for Old Men - MAN! This movie was great. I liked everything about it. I knew nothing except for some of the actors that are in it and I just didn't expect it to be so good. I'm more familiar with the Cohen brother's satires but they're really really good at a serious movie. Very satisfying! Josh Brolin is one of my new favorite actors.

Alien vs Predator Requiem - This was a good 'guy movie'. Nothing special but still enjoyable. Had good special effects and a decent story. Explosions, chest bursts and a random "get to the chopper" in there for good measure.

Some questions to ponder: Why is it so hard to get a '96 Maxima to pass emissions? Why do kids spin around in circles? Will the Mexican government ever get anything right (I'm Mexican so I can say that)?? Why do fools fall in love? If an alien bursts out of your chest in the forest and no one is around to see it, is it still as cool??

Whooo Hooo Christmas!!!! New Years!!! Holidays and Time off! I hope all of my friends and friends of friends had a great time in .07!! I can honestly say it has been one of the most unique years in the story of my life… seriously, some years just seemed to repeat a few times… maybe that was just the booze… but seriously, some years just seemed to repeat a few times… or maybe that was just the booze… seriously though, some years just seemed to repeat a few times… but maybe that was just the booze…  Speaking of booze and New Years! If y’all tuned in to my last blog I had issued a challenge to anyone and everyone.  Yes, that’s right, the first “Mikie’s Annual Best NYE Story Contest” it had to be backed up by a picture or video as evidence. We have a winner! … however, the idea was for a story that I could share with everyone here… but since this is still a family show, (teetering on an R rating) I, unfortunately, cannot replicate the story, reveal its participants, or display the pornogra…er, p-h-o-to-graphic forensics, so as not to incriminate the parties involved, thus potentially creating bias and possible hardships for said parties… trust me though, it was gooood!! You know who you are… well, maybe one or two of you don’t… Muhahah!!

My New Year’s resolutions? I think I’ll save them for next year and see how this one plays out… maybe it will play out like this one…or maybe that’s just the booze…

How was everyone's New Year's? Mine was pretty good!

I had to work the morning of New Year's Eve. Fortunately, we all got off an hour early here at work so I had plenty of time to go home, get ready and go to the practice pad to load my gear for the show at Insight's Fiesta Bowl Tempe Block Party. My dad had the day off and he helped me load some stuff. We also had another helper; see picture 1.

Unloading all the equipment and getting it to our stage went very smoothly. Entertainment Solutions did a great job planning so there were no problems at all there.

The band before us was really good. They were called Tribal Soul and had a very cool sound. Their guitar player was awesome and they did some really good Peter Frampton.

Very cool moment of the night for me was meeting Ed from Barenaked Ladies. I even had my picture taken with him and I got to shake his hand. Sweet! Barenaked Ladies has been one of my favorite bands for about 10 years and it was exciting meeting one of them. Dude was freakishly tall. Maybe I'm just short.

Out of all the guys in Radiobox, I think I was the only one that didn't have the flu or a fever that night! There were some concerns about how well we would be able to pull off our set with Mikie having a sore throat and Jim a temperature of 102 degrees. However, when it was our turn to play, We gave it our all and put on a really great show. What I saw on stage from my bandmates was nothing short of a brute display of willpower. All of our recent practice and hard work definitely paid off as well. I had a great time playing with a wireless setup that allowed me to go around the whole stage without worrying about an instrument cable and it was really easy to appreciate just how tight we sound as a band from all sides. Our sound guy did an excellent job at mixing us as well. Throughout the whole show he was modulating and tweaking. Our manager, Shari, said he looked like "Beethoven with a soundboard." By the end of our set we had a pretty good crowd, we'd given away a ton of t-shirts and made new friends and new fans.

Loading the equipment was just as painless as unloading and then we were free to roam for the rest of the night. I caught a little of the set of the band after us. They were Flight to London and they had a pretty good pop/emo sound.

Getting alcohol that night was definitely hard. The beer garden by our stage was so full that there was a line of about 100 people waiting to get in and no one could get in since they were at full capacity already. We finally decided to go to Taco Del Mar off Mill Ave since they had beer there. We promptly drank our beer, some of us double-fisting, so that we could make it to the Barenaked Ladies show on time. The show was half a mile away but we made it right as they were starting their first song.

Barenaked Ladies put on a great concert. The show had everything: Jokes, very strong harmonies, and red underwear. They're always very impressive onstage with their sharp improvisation, great sense of humor and good repertoire of songs to which I knew all the lyrics (mostly). They also have tons of energy onstage. So much so, that their singer Steve Paige ripped his pants halfway through the show. No worries, he made fun of himself for it later. This is the 4th time I've seen Barenaked Ladies and it was just as good if not better than the other times.

All in all, the night went pretty good. No mishaps and no drama for the most part. Hope this next year is even better than the last. My resolution: to really concentrate on the people and things that matter. What's your resolution?