The Video Boy Troubles and Upcoming Shenanigans

And.......when we left our boy last week......wait, that was two weeks ago.....yes, well.....

I was writing about a crash my Mac had, just as I was about to finish a promotional video for the Hickoids. Said video project had to be reconstituted on a PC laptop (the one I'm typing on now), using the editor in Movie Studio Platinum (an offshoot of Vegas). The editor turned out to be okay, although it's missing one crucial feature for anyone editing anything over a minute in length - the ability to set up individual sequences. Since the total time of the video ended up being 1:42, it wasn't super necessary, but still a bit painful to navigate around. The previous one built in Premiere was several sequences of a few seconds in length each.

Within a week, I had it done, and it came out.....okay.

Got a bluish tinge going on in some of the shots which comes from the residue of removing green screen, but I'm not sure why blue. If anyone asks me, I'll just say there was a blue light in the dungeon. That makes sense, dunnit?

Continuing along with computer woes, or more accurately, fixes.....

In the last entry, I stated I was done with Macs, and I'm sticking to that. I ran into my friend Larry Stern a couple of weeks ago (he got me the Mac system several years ago), and he thought it was fixable, although perhaps at some cost. I politely declined. I'm still done with Macs. There's just something I don't like about the Apple company in general, and hey, if I'm going to get political about it....Bill and Melinda Gates have my vote. So, back to a Microsoft operating system.

I chose a Lenovo tower that is set up for gaming, which means it'll be fine for my non-gaming, yet sometimes video-involved self. I decided on this one after much shopping around, and so far, so good. The OS is on a separate SSD drive and boots up really quickly. I haven't done a lot with it so far - still deciding on what video editor I should use - and as I'm about to leave town for awhile, it'll be some time before I really get down to serious usage. But that'll also give me time to decide on software I want to put on it. And, since this laptop I'm using has Windows 10, I'm fairly familiar with it as an OS.

This recent purchase inspired me to get a hard drive enclosure and do some "house cleaning." I pulled all the hard drives from towers I'm declaring dead (two from the Mac, and two from previous PCs), and I've been able to read the data from the two Mac drives - with the help of cross-platform software - and one of the PC drives. The oldest PC drive is an IDE drive, and my enclosure is only suited for SATA drives. Frankly, I'm sure I didn't need anything off a drive inactive for ten years, so I'll just destroy that one. I was able to donate the PC towers to Goodwill, and I'll figure out a home for the Mac tower. It might go back to Larry! Cleaning house!

I mentioned leaving town for awhile...and the video gives that away....yes, the Hickoids are about to embark on an 18-day tour, going west. At the halfway point, we'll be in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, which will be my first foray into Canada. We're not going far into Canada, but still, it's Canada. It's a bit like going to Reynosa and saying you've "been to Mexico." Still, I'm looking forward to a bit cooler weather. Hopefully, we won't run into any of the awful blazes going on in California right now. Jeeziz, those poor folks dealing with that.

On this tour, I'll have responsibilities exceeding drumming and occasional yodeling; the sampler's coming with, and the tour will be documented on digital video. We have folks lined up to shoot the video, so thankfully, I won't have to do that. A really nice fella named Carl is coming with up to Canada. He's a native San Antonian who now lives in Victoria, BC. He was down for a couple of months visiting family, and so he's riding back home with us. He'll be shooting our misadventures, etc. I'll give him a quick tutorial on the camera, and hopefully he'll get some good stuff. We're so photogenic.

We'll leave Carl in Victoria, and Patrick (Harvey McLaughlin) is joining us in Seatlle for the trip back. He'll, of course, be playing his piano on stage with us, but in the van, he'll be cinematographer. There might be more interesting stuff in the second half, I'm thinking. Sleep deprivation is a big cause of tour hijinks, let's say. Although, our significant others are meeting us at different points on the west coast....so that might cause us to behave, if only for a bit.

The sampler is coming as a sort of "audio enhancement" for the stage show. There's an intro, recorded by Jeff, for the show. There's a version of "O Canada" to preface our wonderfully awful "Canadian Medley." And, there's Plastic Patrick's "Hickoid Massacre," to play as an outro. Easy stuff, but I think I'll add a few more things to keep it lively. The sampler's a pain in the ass to set up but worth it, if you have a soundman willing to play ball. I'll elaborate more later.

We had a couple of warm-up shows this weekend, one in Austin, one in San Antonio. The Austin one was a fun, but hot, affair. We played after the Beaumonts, which might not have been the right call. The Beaumonts had a huge crowd that diminished somewhat by the time we took the stage. Still, we put on a pretty good show, although it felt like it was petering out toward the end - probably the heat. The best thing about it was we had Wade Driver in attendance, and he jumped up and played guitar on a couple of songs. He's recovering from a stroke currently, but the energy was there, for sure. It was great to have him on stage. I tried to get him to come up and drum with me on "Back in the Truck," but he didn't seem to want to. No matter. He was a major drum inspiration to me back in the bad ol' days, so I was just honored to share the stage with him. We also stumbled through the Canadian Medley, although it needs work. We're not far off, though.

Last night's show was, as some of my friends like to say, "tits." Fred Greene told me he thought it was one of the best shows he'd ever seen us play, and he's certainly seen enough. The stage at Bang Bang Bar in San Antonio is pretty tiny, but somehow we all got up there. I thought for sure Patrick would have to set up on the floor, but no, he didn't - although he was hidden by a speaker main. Cody was somewhat hidden by the other one, as well. Basically, if you like looking at Jeff, Tom, and Rice only, this show was for you. Jeff didn't want to do the Canadian Medley, so we didn't. It does need a little tightening, still. The only issue I had was getting the soundman to actually put the sampler into the speakers. He seemed a little, shall we say, slow on the draw. He didn't understand that we were using it as a pre- and post-show entertainment, as well as occasionally through the show. After finally getting him to turn it on before we started, he just turned off the channel for the rest of the show. When I quizzed him about it later, he seemed....not really uncaring, but not really cognizant of it, either....I think chemicals were involved. But really, all this is my fault. I realize I'm going to have to have a chat with every soundman on this tour to explain what I need for the sampler to be worth bringing out. It's not much, but it'll need to be said.

I'll try to chronicle along what happens on the tour, although I may just do it in one big chunk after getting back...sort of like I did with the 2013 Euro Tour. We'll see. Until then......stay cool, friends. Your working drummer boy loves ya.

Hot Corn and Epic Failure

The Dog Days of Summer. A Don Henley favorite. Or something like that.

Damn, it's been hot lately. The Austin area has hit the over-100-degree days, and they don't show a sign of letting up. Not much breeze these days, either, making being outdoors pretty unbearable. Fair amount of humidity, too. It all adds up to staying indoors when at all possible.

On Thursday night, I finished installing the corn kernel wraps (received on Tuesday) on my Sonor kit. I had had a question concerning the depth of my bass drum when ordering the wraps, and the company never answered said question, not even after repeated emails and a Facebook message. The wrap turned out to be pretty close to the right size....I think if I would have ordered an inch more, I might've had to trim the wrap. There's a small gap between the edge of the wrap and the back head of the bass drum but not enough to be seen at any distance; you'd have to really be looking for it. It's about 3/8". If it really starts to bother me (the existing cover for the drums is a light tan color), I'll just pull the back head off and slap a little golden rod paint on that strip. For now, I'm leaving it.

The rest of the wraps fit perfectly, and the process was pretty simple but one of the most tedious things I've ever done. On the Friday before receiving the wraps (once I knew they were shipped), I removed all the hardware from the drums and placed it all in individual marked bags. The shells and bags sat in the living room a few days awaiting their dressing up. The wraps were received on the same day, a Tuesday, that the Hickoids had a video shoot planned (something I have to do most of the work for), so I couldn't really do much that day. The following day, in between video editing chunks, I began wrapping the drums. I started with the 12" tom, the drum I use least (I favor a four-piece kit, normally), figuring if I goofed the first wrapping job, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Turned out I wrapped it pretty well, following a really informative video on the wrap company's website. So, I did the snare drum Wednesday night as well. Thursday night, I wrapped the 13" and 16" toms and the bass drum.

Now, these wraps are designed as "no-glue." There is an adhesive strip at the end of each wrap. So what you do is wrap the drum as snugly to the shell as possible, using clamps to hold the wrap and then massaging the wrap upward around the shell to get any play out of the wrap. Once you've done that a few times, and you have the seam positioned where you want it on the drum, you pull back the end, strip off the protective paper, and press the adhesive side down. Then comes the fun. Leaving the clamps on in strategic places, you take a small X-acto knife and cut the holes where the hardware goes, matching the holes in the shells. You start by poking outward from the inside of the shell, and then looking at the cuts from the outside, you can start reaming the holes out (that didn't sound nice). The aforementioned video suggested doing the hardware a piece at a time, so as I would create the holes for a piece, I'd subsequently affix that piece. After a couple of nights of this process, I had plastic shavings all over the living room and a callous on my right forefinger in a place I've never had one from 40-odd years of drumming. Still, it was worth it. The drums look great.

So I debuted the "corn kit" last night at the Empire Control Room in Austin. I used the full kit, due to wanting to show off the work a bit. Of course, that meant switching the position of a couple of my cymbals, causing a couple of probably-unnoticeable-to-anyone-but-me gaffes in my performance. Fun show, too. Jeff introduced us as "Lance Farley's Drum Kit and The Hickoids." Mustn't upstage the singer!

It can't all be good news, right?

So, I mentioned a video shoot earlier. The video shoot itself went great. Jeff got Ruby (from the "Cool Arrow" video) to dress up in her dominatrix stuff and beat us a bit while we wore corn-on-the-cob gags. It's hilarious stuff, and I cannot wait to finish the video. Unfortunately....

I began editing the video on Wednesday, and a large portion of the video was shot using a green screen (actually, all of it, now that I think of it). My Mac has Adobe CS5 Creative Suite on it, and there was a special bug CS5 has concerning the eyedropper tool when running the software on OS X Lion. The eyedropper just doesn't work. In the past, I've reverted my machine to its other hard drive which has Snow Leopard on it, in order to do this work. Trying to remove a green screen without the eyedropper tool is like, well, it's just very difficult. Anyway, everything was going smoothly, and by late Friday night, I had maybe an hour and a half of work left. I went to bed intending to finish Saturday. When I woke up Saturday morning, my Mac monitor was heavily pixellated, and I couldn't select anything on the screen. Thinking everything froze for some reason (the Snow Leopard hard drive was not online), I rebooted but could immediately tell there was something else wrong. After some Googling and repeated reboots, I believe the logic board has an issue. Much work lost.

So, for now, I've moved the files to my Windows 10 PC, which I'd purchased the Vegas suite for last year but haven't really used yet. And I'm starting over. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, when I write in this here blog next week, I'll have a finished version of the video to post. That's my intention, anyway. Since I had done one version, recreating the video won't be bad from a concept standpoint, it's just that I don't know this software very well. Hopefully ,everything will fall into place quickly.

And for now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do hardware-wise, but I believe I'm done with Macs. That was my only foray into the Mac world, hooked up by a friend in 2011. And it served fine...and to be honest, the reason I purchased the Vegas suite for my laptop PC had to do with knowing this day was coming, although I thought it would be because of obsolescence, rather than failure....but I'm headed back to Microsoft. I may buy a nice desktop, I may not. Maybe a souped-up laptop, I don't know. I do know I want a better external monitor. Ah...the joys of technology ownership. I also hold out a slight bit of hope that the machine will just boot up correctly eventually. I've seen more than one machine do that. Sometimes just a time-out will fix things. Very weird, but it does happen. Not that that fixes the "need the video done" situation.

Guess I'll go home and start work again....if you're in the South, friends, stay cool.

This Cooking Fetish and Life

If there's one thing I never could have predicted in my own life, it's my sudden fascination with cooking. Maybe I just needed a new frontier, Jim, and I've found it. I'm enjoying cooking almost more than anything else these days, and I feel like I'm improving with each item made. I didn't see this coming. The Hickoids are heading out on tour next month, and already I'm thinking "I'll bet I'll long to come home and cook something." Not that I'm not excited about the tour, but this cooking thing.....jeez, I can't stop thinking about it!

It started with these meal kit delivery services: first Blue Apron, then Hello Fresh. We've been using these for almost a year now. We used Blue Apron for about three months, then switched to Hello Fresh, largely due to more separation of the meal components. Michelle won't eat most vegetables, and the vast majority of Blue Apron's meals consisted of a lightly-seasoned meat on a pile of "stuff." Hello Fresh's meals tend to be more separated, so I can eat the vegetables, while Michelle gorges on the starch side. Last night's was an exception, though....mainly because we hadn't cased the weekly menu....a sort of chicken sausage casserole that she even liked. I'm off-target....

After a few months of preparing these out-of-the-box things, I made my first spaghetti from scratch. No pre-made sauce. It turned out fine, and I realized I was starting to get a small feel for what spice will effect what flavor. Now, I'm not going to start tooting the old horn yet; I still have a long way to go.....just amazed that I'm even trying to do this stuff. It's like the old adage (old, because I saw it first in "Oh, God!") that shaving can make you feel normal again. Cooking is doing that for me. I can turn on music or a podcast, and I'm in my own world. Dig it. Not sure what my next from-scratch endeavor will be....maybe pizza. Or some sort of casserole. Not tuna.

I got out the food processor that we got as a wedding present in 2003 and had never used. It was even missing a part that I picked up cheaply on eBay. And it still had the plastic protector on the wall plug. I've now used that to make hummus, chocolate-banana ice cream, and an Oreo-crust pie. Onward and upward. I'll have to ride the bike more to make up for this (and I am), or maybe making things freshly will mean less crap going into the old body. We'll see. Incidentally, I have lost a few pounds since beginning the work/riding the bike combination. Plenty more to go, but it's a start.

I'm currently awaiting some drum wrap material to cover my Sonor kit in a corn kernel pattern. Should look pretty cool, and I'm expecting the wraps tomorrow or Tuesday. It was a pain getting these, as the drum wrap company I used had an apparently abandoned order system still up on their website, and they had no idea I had ordered for a couple of weeks. They were not good at communication in general; my emails went unanswered. I still have one concern about the bass drum, but we'll see what I get in the mail. If I need to reorder the bass drum wrap, I will, but they also should have answered my email question. I think I can make it all work regardless. I spent a night and a half stripping the shells down to get ready for this, and they're all sitting in the living room now, asking me for their new fancy clothes. X-acto knife and clamps are at the ready.

Tuesday, the Hickoids will be shooting a promo video for the upcoming tour, entitled Rode Hard. More accurately, yours truly will be doing most of the work. I'll post it in this blog when it's done. I think it'll be pretty damn funny. The initial idea is great, and I think everybody will pitch in with good ideas. So, all in all, next week should be a busy one. It wraps with a gig at the Empire Control Room in Austin on Saturday, with Pinata Protest and Cunto.

Pocket FishRmen had a band (and wives', sans Jason's) dinner last Thursday, rather than rehearsing. I think it was a good thing we got together and just hung out a bit at a neutral place. We don't do that enough, and these things are always good for band morale. There was a little band business to discuss, but it was mostly laughing and eating.

I still want to start another band at some point, if only for some laughs and whatnot. It's just tough finding people who want to do at least a similar thing to what you want. At this stage of my musical life, I know enough people but maybe not enough of the right people for what I have in mind. It's a tough one. If it happens, it happens. I'm not going to force it. Two bands are fine for right now, even if I don't really have much creative involvement in them.

On the watching front, let's see...."I, Madman," "Who Can Kill a Child?" (fancy new Blu-ray edition), "Manhandled," "Cry Terror!," and the first episode of "Sharp Objects" (HBO series). (Speaking of HBO series, I've been going through "The Wire" for the seventh time. Don't ask. I'll write about it when I'm done.) "I, Madman" is a horror flick from 1989, a bit blah but okay. Jenny Wright is in it, so that alone makes it okay by me. (Look her up.) "Who Can Kill a Child?" I wrote about back on September 4, 2014. "Manhandled" is a Gloria Swanson comedy from 1924, or what's left of it, anyway. The movie seemed pretty complete, although a couple of scenes seemed to come out of nowhere. The packaging kept talking about how this was the most complete version of the film available, but I haven't found details on what exactly is missing. Still entertaining. "Cry Terror!" was a sort of hostage drama with Rod Steiger as the master criminal. A tense one - very well made, although it had a couple of needless voice-overs. And "Sharp Objects" seems promising, although I do think this current Golden Age of Television has become a Golden Age of Television, Although You've Seen It By Now. There's a definite "True Detective" vibe to this show. I'll keep watching it, though.

Oh wait, one more thing. I finished "Sunshine Cleaning." It wasn't completely predictable but pretty close. Not something I'd rewatch or even recommend, really.

Let's close out this week's writing on a high note....

A Refreshing Wedding and "The 'Burbs"

Yesterday was what I'd call a refreshing day. Refreshing in that, I stayed away from the news (except for the occasional peek into the Thai soccer team cave situation), and we went to a wedding and watched a couple of movies - one and a half, actually.

The news has been so dire lately, that I've gotten to the point of shutting the noise out. I'll take a quick peek at headlines to make sure we're not at war with a former ally yet and then close the page. It's amazing what's happened to the notion of what leadership in this country should be and how that notion is supported by a growing minority of Americans. A seismic shift is happening, that's for sure. But I'm tired of the noise from it.

So we went to a wedding. Nothing can pick you up faster than seeing two folks exchange their vows and being surrounded by a lot of other happy folks. I may start looking for random weddings to go to. Yesterday's wedding was nothing short of a reunion of Emo's folks from the early to mid-90s. Great to see everyone; truly heartwarming. And the couple had everyone fed at Opie's BBQ afterward. What a great touch; a filling one, too. Michelle and I had planned to go to the second party celebrating the wedding, but we just couldn't make it there. We did make it out of the house with about an hour to go but ended up driving back home. We were both tired from earlier, and she had gotten home from work at about four in the morning, so it just wasn't in the cards. Time to stay home and grow into the couch a bit. We watched a couple of movies - one we finished, one we didn't.

The first movie ("Sunshine Cleaning") I can't comment on much, as we didn't finish it. I think I'll probably finish it at some point, but it seemed fairly predictable what was going to happen. Maybe I'll be surprised later. I think Michelle's done with it, though.

The second one was "The 'Burbs," a movie both of us had heard good things about. Man......oh, man.....it's a mess. We were determined to finish it, though, and we did. There's something about studio movies produced in the 80s that just rubs me the wrong way, and this one was no exception. As I have commented to others, there's a reason I've only seen "Gremlins" once. Joe Dante is a guy who I find fairly invaluable to movie preservation, and his comments on the Trailers from Hell site and other forums are always welcome. He's a fountain of information and coming up through the Corman finishing school, as he did, he knows what he's talking about. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of a lot of his output....at least his "hey, I have a budget!" output. I dig "Piranha" and love his two Masters of Horror episodes, but his 80s output after "The Howling" leaves me, not just cold, but kind of pissed off. (Come to think of it, I'd better watch "The Howling" soon, it's been awhile. Maybe I'll have a different take? Yeesh.)

I'm a lot easier on movies than a lot of folks I know, but this flick sucks. Period. Tom Hanks can't even save it, and he's his usual charming self. Carrie Fisher, as his wife, has nothing to do. Nothing. His neighbor, played by Rick Ducommon, and the plot driver, is annoying, and not in any sort of interesting way. Bruce Dern plays the crazy (surprise!) veteran neighbor with a young, hot wife. Corey Feldman lives in one house with.....nobody else? I wasn't clear on that. He's sort of the Greek chorus for the film, I've been informed, and I think that's true, but he has almost no function even if he is a Greek chorus. Except to have bad "Hollywood Rock n Roll" hair and clothes.

I think the problem with this movie is this: the stem of it is a good idea....almost a "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" riff.....but then too many not-so-good and just flat out ill-informed ideas (Feldman)  are shoved into it, to the point that the whole isn't remotely believable. And, if you don't have a believable base to start with, what's the point of having fantastic happenings? So, there's that, and......aah, the whole fucking thing ended up annoying me. There was a point about 30 minutes into the movie that I thought things were looking up, and then you have a scene that is a figurative brick wall for the movie. It stops cold for ten minutes, at least. You can see the intent of tension on the screen, but it just does not work. Period. And the movie's all downhill from there. I kept thinking maybe Carrie Fisher's character might expand toward the end. Nope. Not a bit. Joe, I look forward to seeing you more on Trailers from Hell.

Wait, I said I was refreshed yesterday! Well, I was....even if a movie was bad (ha ha!)....maybe the end of "Sunshine Cleaning" will surprise me.

The Heat Is On - "Anguish"/"Autopsy"/"He Ran All The Way"

Ah, summer in Texas. Or pretty much summer anywhere, probably. These days, anyway. We've hit the 100-degrees-every-day mark, and it shows no signs of subsiding soon. In some ways, I'm happy about it, because I'd like to lose some weight. 20 pounds, at least. But then I'm using the verb "like," instead of something more demanding....my health is reasonably fine these days. It's just that I'm a bit of a chunk, and it'd be nice to not worry about how jowly I look at times. Not that I'm going to work out in the heat, nothing like that....but I have taken some steps.

One is purchasing a recumbent bike/working desk combination. (I think I've mentioned this here previously). So far, so good. I tend to bike anywhere from two to four hours during a work day at home, occasionally even a bit more. I've lost a couple of pounds over the last few weeks, so I'm thinking that the pedaling must be working a bit; my diet certainly hasn't changed. Project work has dried up for the moment, so I'll have to be more conscious of keeping to the riding while I'm working on whatever time-killing grunt work I get. Or just riding while watching a movie - there's that, too.

Last night, the Hickoids played a truly fun one in San Marcos, outside at the Buzz Mill. Hot? You bet. Maybe I lost a couple of pounds last night, as well. We hadn't played a show in a little over a month, and we were on fire. The band before us was largely made up of JaKs skateboard team guys, who were having a reunion in the San Marcos area but currently live in Victoria, BC. They were a really fun punk rock band, keeping the tempos lively, which inspired me for sure. I think I drove all our tempos at least 10-20 BPM faster than normal after seeing them. Didn't hurt.....kept the crowd in it. The night (and our set) ended with our rendition of "Brontosaurus" where, at the end, we throw in the marching snare-driven guitar solo of "Free Bird." About that time, I realized some guys had gotten into a full-on brawl by the front of the stage. For a while, I was certain they would crash back into the drums.....but it didn't happen. They were thrown out right as we were wrapping the song (and set) up. Hilarious way to close it.

Another bit of news: I have ordered the "corn wrap" for my Sonor drum kit. I sent the hi-rez image I found to the company, Bum Wrap, and they said "order away." The end result should be that my plain-Jane Sonor drums will look like corn cobbettes. The only thing that has me a bit nervous is that I have a question concerning the size of the bass drum wrap, and they have not answered my question, even after I sent the question twice. Hopefully, they're just not checking email for a bit, as I received the response to my image submission within 30 minutes. Still, I've already ordered and paid. Answer me, y'all!

One thing I haven't done in awhile is write about movies watched. There have been several, but I'll pick two that have been on my "gonna watch" pile for a bit but just hadn't gotten to. Both were released on DVD by Blue Underground, and both begin with "A." How's that?

"Anguish," from 1987, is something I've read both positive and negative about for quite some time. The plot is nothing too special, although the execution is. For the first 25 minutes or so, you witness a rather meek and nervous optician's assistant who is dominated by his mother. Mom drives him to kill ladies and take their eyeballs. Grisly stuff. Then....out of nowhere....the camera pulls back, and you realize that we have a "movie within a movie"; there's an audience watching this story in a theater. And there's a serial killer in the theater, influenced by the movie he's watching. Other reviewers think the premise for this movie is great but not developed very well.....I disagree. I think the director did a fine job in keepin' it creepy. You never get to know much about the characters, but I do think you develop an affinity for them and even root for, well, the two young ladies, anyway. The inner movie has Michael Lerner (you probably know him from Coen brother movies) as the optician's assistant and Zelda Rubenstein ("Poltergeist"s medium) as his wacky mother. The other cast members are pretty much unknowns (the movie was a Spanish production). I give it an "A."

"Autopsy," from 1975, well.....that's something else, entirely. This is an Italian production, shot in Rome primarily, starring Mimsy Farmer as a doctor dealing with......oh, boy, where to start? Apparently, due to solar flares, people are committing suicide at an alarming rate. When one death comes into the morgue and is examined, the method of death leads Farmer to realize it was a murder and not a suicide. Turns out the dead woman was a mistress of her father, etc. (I think that's true; there are still things about this movie that baffle me.) Farmer also sees visions of dead bodies in the morgue coming to life and laughing at her. The amount of nudity in the first 20 minutes of this movie (and really the whole thing) becomes laughable quickly. But, if you stick with it, the movie gets better in the second half...and becomes a more regular giallo. Still, I'd never heard of the director (and I've watched many a giallo); there might be a reason for that. The cast is pretty good, though, particularly Farmer, Barry Primus as a is-he-a-priest-or-isn't-he, and Ray Lovelock as Ray Lovelock. There is some great location shooting. Michelle and I are hitting Rome in October, so I enjoyed all of that, even if it is Rome 43 years ago. I'll give this one a "C."

I also, after obtaining a rather obscene number of Warner Archive and Kino Lorber titles from the library, watched "He Ran All The Way." This one, from 1951, has the distinction of being John Garfield's last film. Garfield plays a fellow from not-too-good stock, who goes in with one of his crime buddies on a robbery...and that goes wrong, leaving Garfield on the run, and eventually in the house of female lead Shelley Winters and her parents and young brother. He holds the family hostage, and.....well, it goes from there. Good film. Very clearly defined characters, maybe almost too much so, but the movie isn't very long; no time is wasted. At first, it seems Winters is too old to play this role (she was 31 at the time), but as the movie goes on, you realize how perfect she is for the part. I always thought Shelley Winters was an underrated actress, even if she did have two Oscars. Garfield is great in it. I'm still sort of a Garfield newbie; the only other film of his I've seen is "The Postman Always Rings Twice." "He Ran All The Way" rates a "B."

Don't have much else to write today. Feeling pretty drained after last night, but it's good to get "something down." Until next time.....

It's Been a Long Time Since I Wrote and Rolled

Yes, it's been a long while. Three weeks. Has much happened? Perhaps; depends on how you look at it. I believe I wrote about fish and the blues last time. I'll mostly avoid that this time.

Two weeks ago, the Pocket FishRmen played a benefit at C-Boy's for the employees of Casino el Camino downtown, which suffered a fire earlier in the year. Of course, the building itself had insurance, etc., but the employees needed a hand making bills while said reconstruction was going on. So, the PF pitched in. Very fun show, including some acts we would almost never play with, at a place we would probably never play. (On a side note, this concludes each of my bands playing C-Boy's. Interesting.) The show was backlined, making everything easy, and Michelle was working later, so she saw us play, then skedaddled upstairs to work. Some of us hung out afterwards. It was nice. (This is now sounding like every other boring blog post you read.)

Last weekend, I went to visit Mom in San Angelo. Usually, I dread these visits for reasons I won't go into here, but this one was a bit different. I had a good time overall. We watched a lot of baseball (College World Series and a good Mariners-Red Sox matchup), a movie ("The Ox-Bow Incident," which I'd never seen), and some interesting TV shows, including one profiling the Dublin bottling plant in mid-north Texas. The drives weren't bad; I'm finding podcasts are the best thing to put on for a long drive - even better than music....for some reason, the time moves faster that way.

This week has been busy. Each band rehearsed, and the Pocket FishRmen played last night at the Lost Well for the Free Range Bastards' 20th anniversary show. Kind of funny for the PF to be hitting a 32nd anniversary soon and playing someone else's 20th anniversary.

It was a great show, though, and I finally got to play the electric green drum kit with the matching snare drum fixed up. Travis Garaffa got the right lugs to put it all back together. I had to pick up another snare throw-off for it, but all seems to be working properly now. I still need to work on the sound of the drum. There's no internal muffler on it, which works to a bit of a disadvantage for how I like the snare to sound. At least for the PF, I want that snare to crack, with very little overtone. I'm thinking I might have to use a head with a dampening ring, or even a bit of moon gel....which I've never used in a live setting. Nice to have the full kit together, though.

And speaking of drum kits, I finally made the big move and ordered the drum wraps to convert the Sonor kit into a "corn cobbette" kit for the Hickoids. It'll be my first drum kit to wrap, so it should be an experience. The type wraps I'm getting are ones where you merely lay the wrap on the existing finish and the end of the wrap has some adhesive you press down at the end. The company I ordered from has a video of a guy wrapping a tom to show how it's done, and it does look pretty simple. Other than needing some clamps to hold the wrap while you work, and an X-acto knife to cut holes for hardware, it should be a simple process. Time-consuming, but simple. I'm thinking it'll take me a full day to do it all. Actually, I'm mulling over stripping the shells down while I wait for the wraps. I can use my Vistalite kit for the upcoming San Marcos show, and the July 4th benefit should be backlined. Well, I hope it is. After that, my next gig is July 21st at the Empire Showroom downtown (ugh), but maybe that will the debut of "full drum corn."

Work (I still have a full time job) has been, well, interesting lately. And that's saying something. I've flown under the radar for so long at work (for various reasons) that it's nice to be a bit "back in the light." We have a new process for building our elearning modules, and I'm down with it. One of our programmers bascially saved the federal government a couple of million building this, and I hope he's rewarded justly. It's, dare I write it, fun to work on something in a new fashion. So, there's that. Plus....

I've been using my combination recumbent bike/desk for work at home, and I'm seeing (really, feeling) the results. My right leg is almost without pain now. I haven't seen the physical therapist in two and a half weeks and may not need to again. We'll see. But this pedaling while working seems to be paying off. I'm a bit surprised, but the therapist thought this would help. Seems he's right. I'm kind of astonished, but don't want to celebrate too much.....yet. I haven't mowed the yard in a while....that will be a serious test.

Let's see.....what else? This post feels like a keyboard diarrhea attack.

I still feel in the middle of a "music renaissance," although I have to confess to getting back into the movie game a bit. I've watched several things lately, running the gamut from a popcorn thriller like "Jurassic World," to a W. C. Fields silent, "It's the Old Army Game" (with Louise Brooks!). Watched a sort of dull but sort of interesting sci-fi-er from 1962 titled "The Day Mars Invaded Earth." And, maybe due to recent political events or simple masochism, re-watched "The Final Solution," from the "World at War" set. It's the most interesting documentary on the holocaust I've seen (and yes, I've watched all of "Shoah"), taking it from the roots of the persecution through to the end. In general, anything from the "World at War" series is gold, largely due to its being produced 30 years after the war ended giving it both perspective and loads of witnesses still being alive.

I feel like I've spilled it. Michelle and I are heading to Wimberley later for a Sunday fun day. We discovered a place out there that has great food and atmosphere, so we'll hit that. I need to get back to movie reviews sometime....

Fish Was Fried and Lance Gets Into the Blues A Bit More

Yesterday, fish was fried, rock was played, friends cavorted, merriment was had. It was the 10th Pocket FishRmen Fish Fry, and was it ever a success. After this many Frys, I think we're getting it down to more of a science. The Fry is primarily hosted by guitarist Cris Burns and his wife Kelly Davis-Burns. Cris books the band, sets up the schedule, etc. Kelly organizes the silent auction and does the promotion for it; the Fish Fry benefits the Bill Hicks Wildlife Foundation. So, there are people who work wildlife rescue there, as well as some furry friends hanging out. Brant Bingamon, singer, is in charge of the cooking, and usually has some fine help...although this was the first year without Lawrence Heads. His absence was felt.

This year, I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a job at the Fry. I did transport the rental drum kit (which weighed a ton!) to the Hole in the Wall, but that was my official duty. So, I had talked to Cris earlier on about doing announcements at the Fry, mainly so I'd have something to do. He asked me to go ahead and introduce each band. And I did that, excepting Free Range Bastards, who have Fonte introduce them. It was nice to have a purpose, along with thumping for the FishRmen, of course. Jason, bassist, became the de facto stage manager and kept the schedule on time. Yay, the rhythm section had jobs!

This Fish Fry went the way of the last few; great bands playing all the way through, but the momentum sagged toward the end. No fault of the people playing; I just think the heat had taken its toll on everyone. Once we had played, I think many people bailed. Hell, many had bailed before we played, but several had gotten there later in the day. Pretty typical of a Fish Fry, and I like that. People come in, people go out. As long as there's a steady crowd. The end was a bit of a whimper for Utley 3, but I stayed and enjoyed their set (after I'd packed up the big stage's rental kit).

But so many highlights yesterday. All Monsters Attack set the tone with a roaring set in the back. Dicky Wayne Vice country-rocked the front stage and set a bit of an intimate tone for bands up there. I love the English Muffin Divers; fun with a capital "F." The Free Range Bastards put on possibly the best show I've seen them do, and I've seen them plenty. G.O.M.E.Z., wow....there were some issues with Chepo's bass, including some classic Chepo response, but I loved the set and seeing Ron Chandler and Ryan McDaniel play again. Jesus Christ Superfly rocked the front with their own career "retrospective." Mary and the Scaredies was basically Scary Mary in a new configuration, with Chris from Uglor on guitar. Great line-up. Grant Dorian, for one, if I may quote R. Lee Ermey from "Full Metal Jacket" is definitely "born again hard." Man, did he slam. Suckling played the inside stage, which might have not been the best place for them, but that didn't matter. I think they might have been many people's favorite yesterday. And then, the Oklahomos on the back stage. Don, where have you been? Wow. Just wow. So much fun. Plastique brought back the intimacy to the front stage, and then your hosts, the Pocket FishRmen tore up the back stage. I ran back to introduce Richy Vegas on the front stage after we were done. He held a nice-size crowd up there. Then it was the Rood Papa Band, with Marcus Trejo on drums, following on the back stage; I got to say a nice tribute to Marcus creating my PF position while introducing them. Monkeyshines then played the front stage and rocked thoroughly....still a little rough in the new line-up, but when you have musicians of that caliber playing......they'll find their way out. Nice job, indeed. Ten Foot Rooster took the back; by then, folks had drifted out, but TFR had their own fans there, too. A fun set. I loved the one about "kicking all my girlfriends' husbands' asses." Oh, man. And then Utley 3, closed it out up front. Cordy's guitar has the most interesting tone, and it's always great to see Steve Chapman play. Killer line-up, lovely playing, fun time. I'm beaming today. And maybe a little red from the sun.

And now, on to personal writing. I've been having a bit of a musical renaissance lately. A bit of "feeling like a kid" again, and it feels nice. Might've written this here before, but for a few years I haven't really been into music. Movies took over a certain section of my brain....and while I'm still quite the movie fan, I find myself back to discovering music I've not really dived into before....and it feels good. Lately, I've started investigating the blues more than ever before. I recently purchased a Muddy Waters Chess box set and will probably pick up the Willie Dixon one soon enough. I've looked into some Howlin' Wolf releases but haven't decide on that yet. Might just spring for the Chess Box there, too. The blues is a nice balance to my extensive progging and jazzing.

Before jumping into these muddy waters (I crack myself up), the only blues I'd really heard was either the Robert Johnson (now, that's rawness) or the White Imitation variety. Listening to this Muddy Waters stuff was pretty revelatory. Before hearing this, I did have and periodically listen to, the Electric Mud album, but that album is almost a genre unto itself. The Waters Chess box has all kinds of Muddy classics, several of which were made into other songs by American and British groups of the 60s and 70s. "Rollin' and Tumblin'" sticks out, in particular, because being a Captain Beefheart fan, I was stunned that "Sure 'Nuff 'n' Yes I Do" is a complete rip of "Rollin' and Tumblin'." I mean, the guitar rhythm, the vocal melody, everything. I had heard some versions of these songs by later musicians, but I didn't realize that some were completely purloined. It's not even questionable. The lyrics to "You Need Love" are the lyrics to "Whole Lotta Love," etc. I knew all this stuff from reading about it, but to finally hear it.....wow. Granted, these blues musicians back then were ripping each other off all the time, so it's hard to say who exactly originated what, but yes, what they say about the white groups taking these songs, sometimes wholesale, is true.

I think I'm sunburned from yesterday. I need cooling, and woman, I ain't fooling. See you soon.