Cool music tonight and a chance to vote for Sunspot

Coupla things, #1 - click here to help us win $1000 in a local band video contest, we threw in our video for Sweet Relief. It'll take less than two minutes and we'd really appreciate the support.

#2 - There's a couple of good shows going on tonight. I'll be at the Brink helping out Clownboy for his big birthday party (here's some more on that show) and Uncle Tim's back at The Frequency with his new band, Eddie Ate Dynamite.

So, support local music tonight and have a great Labor Day weekend!

Government Zero at The Frequency tonight!

If you're looking for something fun to do tonight, stop down at The Frequency tonight and check out Government Zero! I've never seen the other bands (YLAB, They Live, and Sorry About Your Couch), but Government Zero definitely kicks ass, and the show is guaranteed to be a good time at one of Madison's newest rock venues.

I'll be there and I will also have tickets available for the next Madison Sunspot show, happening at The Frequency September 13th!

RIP Lord Bowler

I loved Julius Carry in Doctor, Doctor and Brisco County, Jr. Man, bummer day.

Free Gorki!

Here's a "Free somebody" movement that I can get behind. Gorki Aguila is a Cuban musician who's about to be put on trial for "social dangerousness". Is "dangerousness" a real word?

Monday Geek Reviews

This week: Rollercoasters
When I was 14, I thought Great America was the balls. I have to say, after being at Cedar Point this week, that they have some things to learn from these Ohio folks. Take, for example, the picture of me in front of the 420 foot tall 120 mph Top Thrill Dragster that is the second highest and fastest coaster in the universe. I waited less than 60 minutes for this ride that is twice as high and 70 percent faster than anything in Gurnee. I also highly recommend Millenium Force that is in the top five in the world for height, speed, and length. Crazy smooth and right on Sandusky Bay, too. I waited 30 minutes. My favorite ride might be Maverick, though. It has a crazy fast first climb and a 95 degree drop. Both Maverick and Magnum were super enjoyable because of the surprises that occur on the ride (I won't spoil it for you, just go to the park.)
Now, I'm not saying that Great America doesn't have its strong suits. The Superman is unique, but the could have done a lot more with it after the first drop and inverted loop. I like Batman over Raptor for hanging coasters, Demon over Corkscrew, and Giant Drop over Power Tower (for thrill, not versatility.) Great America is also designed better for tons of people. Simple stuff like a separate entrance AND exit to the bathrooms. Cedar Point has a better grounds layout, though.
Cedar Point's standing coaster, Mantis, and wooden coaster Gemini are smoother than Great America's and the Millenium and Magnum are more thrilling than the Raging Bull. I do have a special place in my heart for the Eagle, though. You might be thinking, what about Vertical Velocity? That ride is awesome. They have one of those too, called the Wicked Twister.
All in all, Great America has some great rides. I just think they took out their best ones: Shockwave and Deja Vu. And at the end of the night, when you are thinking of the three rides that actually THRILLED you, you could go to Cedar Point and reflect on six instead. If you love only the highest, fastest, most terrifying, unique coasters like I do, it's worth the drive. If you go, site D10 in the East Harbor State Park is the only tent side worth having in the whole area of the state. These folks could take some notes from the Wisconsin State Parks. For refreshments, ask for Amy at Cabana Jack's in downtown Sandusky. They have every kind of Great Lakes Brewing Co. beer (Cleveland, OH).

Sneak preview of next month's song

Sneak preview of next month's song
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

HERE IT IS!

A hilarious comic

of a rock show crowd.

WebDAV Server

Has anyone set one up before and knows a good tutorial out there? My
initial Googling proved fruitless unfortunately.

Now that's a big pussy!

Blame It On Cain

Rocking Riverwest

Blame It On Cain

Blame It On Cain
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

These guys are starting the night off right with some riffy rock & roll!

Tonight in Milwaukee

Thanks to the awesome crowd that showed up for the Sweet Relief release party last night. I'll be posting the drummercam a little later... but in the meantime, I just wanted to remind you that we'll be in Milwaukee tonight with Blame it on Cain at Riverwest Commons. This is a venue we have not previously played, and it's always fun visiting a place for the first time. Hope to see YOU there!

Coolest Livejournal Ever

Oh, and I made it back in the house.

*SPOILER WARNING*
for those that haven't seen the last episode of Doctor Who Season Four.
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.
.
.
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A livejournal by the Clone Doctor and his new life with Rose! There's a ton of entries and it's really, really good. I haven't read any fan fiction in a long time, but I couldn't resist because it's Doctor Who and I was hooked by the end of the second entry. It's a great way for all us cubicle slaves to finish up Friday. You weren't going to do any work anyway, were you?

I locked myself out

Of my own house. Bullshit.

Sweet Relief Happy Hour Tonight

Just a reminder that we're having a house concert tonight to celebrate the release of the "Sweet Relief" single at Sunspot Headquarters. We'll have beer and snacks. If you need directions, feel free to send an email. The happy hour starts at 6 and we perform at 7, hope to see you there!

Who do ya know wants to buy a condo?

Well, the paint is still drying, but it's finally ready to sell.
http://tinyurl.com/6ghcl6

(EDIT FROM MIKE after TinyURLing that monster Google mobile link)

SyncLive

Has anyone tried SyncLive yet for broadcasting live on the net? It looks pretty cool and it uses a Flash media encoder that looks like a decent setup.

We haven't done a Road Mania in awhile because my video camera's currently broken, but this would let us do some live stuff right from my MacBook (or I could hook up my video camera to it live because the real issue is that my cassette deck is screwed up on the camera).

Anyway, I'm thinking about setting it up tomorrow just to see if it works and we'd probably do some of these for the house concerts for fun. I was just wondering if anybody's done any live broadcasting over the net yet and had any comments or tips for newbies like us.

It was all a damned lie!

These Bigfoot bastards broke my heart and made cryptozoology-enthusiasts everywhere look like assholes.

I hope they burn in Hell.

Monday Geek Reviews

This week: construction equipment.

I rented a Bil-Jax 40 foot boom lift on Friday from A to Z. I had tried 3 different gutter repair places and they all gave me the runaround for weeks on end. One of them showed up without giving me an estimate, did half the work and then billed me. So, I still had to take matters into my own hands. I spent like 6 hours just trying to find level ground to put the thing on, so I had to call the next morning and get an extension on the hours. The guy said, "sure," so I figured I was good, but when I got to the counter, they tried to charge me an extra $80. They finally let it go, but the guy was a prick with ears about it. Anyway, here are some pictures of me on the lift and the view from way up there. It was cool to be able to see over trees - I felt kind of like the hobbits riding on the giant tree people. Anyway, I think from now on I'll stick to driving skid steers and forklifts (thanks, Dave!)

Only in Malaysia

is Avril Lavigne too sexy for anything.

Isn't she still like 15? Or is she all growed up now and I missed something? The guy from Sum 41 just fucked her so he could tell jokes about it on the tour bus, right?

There hasn't been a really sexy female pop/rock musician for awhile (don't get me started on Kitty [barf]). There's plenty of schoolgirl pedophile fantasies, but nobody that confident and sexy. I used to think Liz Phair was hot until she went all slut and Karen O from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs has a cute act but I'll think she'll be a lot sexier if their next album is better than their second one (but I haven't listened to Is Is yet.)

Speaking of sexy, I listened to "All The Things She Said" by t.a.T.u. this morning at the gym today and I hadn't heard that song in two years. Russian underage lesbians - now that's dirty shit, music created to be listened to with one hand.

Anyway, I digress, I hope that article makes you feel for the Malaysians, if they think Avril Lavigne is sexy, I'd knock em dead ;)

So, What's Wrong With Gillette?

After I left my toiletry bag at the Princeton Club last week and while it showed up in the Lost & Found, my Mach 3 Turbo and ridiculously expensive cartridges (I still had five left) were gone. So, in a rush to shave, I went to Walgreen's and bought the Gillette Fusion Phantom Power. I tried it this morning.

Unfuckingblievable.

It was like Jesus was shaving me, lathering up and caressing my face as the blades smoothly moved against my skin. I was simultaneously excited and surprised, I didn't want to stop shaving, I wanted my facial hair to grow faster so I could keep going. I almost started shaving the rest of my body, but I would have been ejected from the locker room.

My neck gets irritated as fuck after I shave and I've been using Bump Patrol for the past year and it's helped a little. The Mach 3 was the first razor where I didn't look like a Friday the 13th victim when I was done shaving. But this Fusion business? I love it, I'd be in an ad for Gillette if they wanted me to. Which means there's probably something wrong with the company that I don't know about. Animal testing? Child-worker raping? This shaver is too magical, there must be some deal with the Devil to make it work so wonderfully. I'm too lazy now to check, but what does Gillette do wrong that should make me hate them? I'm about to ask this razor if it wants to go steady.

I know some people swear by the old-fashioned razors and shaving brushes and what not, and that's cool, but is that any good for guys that get severe razor burn (ie, me?) I'd like to try it sometime, but at $11, I wanna get my money's worth out of the Fusion first before I start lathering myself up and risking my life with a 70-year old razor.

In the land of the Typhoon Ferri

In the land of the Typhoon Ferri
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

Here's some hard evidence that I am in the hometown of our rockin SXSW pals, Typhoon Ferri! This lamp post was on a bridge over the Charles River in Boston. Too bad they are playing out of town this weekend!

Bigfoot Found?

Am I the only guy around here that's crapping his pants over the fact that the new Bigfoot finding might really prove it?

I'll believe it when I see it and if this is another hoax like that Montauk Monster probably was, I'll be disappointed. But the Bigfoot photos are at least promising. It better not be a publicity stunt for a fricking movie.

Who's got a 3G iPhone?

I'm looking at life post-Palm, I love my 700p (although not quite as much as the 650 unfortunately) and I'm not willing to compromise and go to a Centro or spend money on a not-really-an-upgrade-just-missing-the-antenna 755p AND I'd like to make the switch to GSM so I don't have to buy a new phone next time I go on a trip (even though the Mobal global phone had almost unfailing reception and was a better deal than I expected.)

I'm willing to wait a few months for Palm to come out with their new operating system but there hasn't been any significant changes in years. Anyway, but now that Omnifocus (the best Mac GTD app, hands down, and I know I've tried them all) has an iPhone app and so does Quicken (which I'll be honest, isn't as good as MS Money, but don't tell anyone that I think a Microsoft product is superior), and there's a Slingplayer and TomTom for the iPhone too, so I've got all the apps I use all the time on the Palm covered.

But is it worth the $175 it'll cost me to leave Verizon (even though the AT&T plan is a lot cheaper than the ridiculous amount I pay for data and tethering on Verizon)? I'm not looking for a toy, I would actually use the thing as an assistant (and I'd probably try to have sex with it, just like I would a human secretary), so if anyone's had any experience with heavy iPhone usage and has any suggestions (battery life, apps, etc...) that'd be great. I'm still gonna use my 700p for a couple of months, but it's starting to get a little long in the tooth from heavy use and abuse for the past two years.

Guitar time!

Guitar time!
Originally uploaded by Wendy Lynn

Mike finished his vocals and now it's Ben's turn to shred.

wendy

And her 7 ft tall friend, thistle.

Monday Geek Reviews

This week: Glow in the dark food
http://www.unesco.org/bpi/science/content/press/anglo/print.htm

"Sweet Relief" MP3 now available for FREE download

If you enjoyed the video and the live performances of "Sweet Relief", now you can download the song and add it to your MP3 library for FREE!

Check it out at www.sunspotmusic.com!

Wendy's DrummerCam: Friday 8/8/08 @ Elkhorn Saloon, Elkhorn, WI

Back in the studio

I'm a little wiped out today and my fingers are fairly blistered, but I'm gonna give it a shot.

North Carolina High School Ghostly Footage

Surveillance video from August 1st in the middle of the night certainly shows a shadow figure moving around the school late at night. Who knows what it is, but it's creepy.

Shadow people. I thought one explanation might be random synapse firings that trigger human form images in our minds (kinda like how we've evolved see faces in everything, ie, The Face of Elvis in a Used Bar of Soap) but there's no mind here to trigger the image, that's a shadow moving around the school hallway, and except for the teacher who's way too convinced it's a ghost (but I know how TV news crews are, so she was probably just playing the role that cute reporter wanted to see), it's a cool video.

RSC Hamlet Intercontinental Sci-Fi Explosion

as Capt. Picard and Doctor Who did Shakespeare. It's nice of CNN to give us sci-fi geeks who actually crossed continents for this one some love. I guess this article contains spoilers if you've never seen or read Hamlet.

Patrick Stewart's shorter than you'd think and David Tennant (here's pics from the play, not mine, though, no cameras allowed and I wasn't going to do ANYTHING to get me kicked out!) is even skinnier than you imagine him to be. The guy that plays Polonius is the guy that says "This can only mean one thing... invasion." in The Phantom Menace and he's awesome in the role.

Patrick Stewart owned the stage whenever he was on it and his voice is boomy and majestic live. Maybe it's just because I've heard him so many times in my life, but there was a real familiar comfort to it, like a baby that recognizes his mother's voice when it leaves the womb. I almost stood up at attention a couple of times inadvertently (well, when I finally picked my jaw up from the floor at our sixth row seats and cleaned my underoos after the first time I saw them both onstage together.) His Claudius was more penitent than most(but the kneeling confession always gets me and turns my sentiment towards Claudius and away from Hamlet at that point) but he makes the switch to conniver believable. After all, he really gives Hamlet a million chances before he tries to have him murdered, you can see where he reaches the end of his rope.

David Tennant was almost as manic as Hamlet as he is as The Doctor. Since he's used to running down corridors, it was no surprise to see a lot of running back and forth from the wings (and the pathway they used was so close to my seat, I could have tripped him!) He even did the head move once that he always does when he says, "Well..." But his portrayal was a great mix of angst and regret. The fight scene with Laertes was well done and for an actor that's so likeable, it was definitely a feat when he became so unlikeable when he confronts his mother and murders Polonius (which I think is the most important part of the play, where you stop feeling sorry for the son of a murdered father and watch Hamlet's rashness lead to the loss of the kingdom his father earned.) So, in the end, I didn't feel the tragedy of his death as much as I felt relief that something had finally been done! He could have gotten his father's vengeance right away (in the aforementioned kneeling scene) but instead he wants to send Claudius to Hell, and in that fury, gets hoisted by his own pitard (am I allowed to use that when I refer to a different part than its source?) Tennant isn't as sympathetic as much as he holds a seething ferocity that slowly boils over and his self-doubt at what he has to do (kill his uncle / step-father because of the commands of a ghost/demon?) is what creates his version's inaction. Well, that's what I saw anyway, and I thought he did a good job of it. There was a little bit of his face-twisting (or gurning, which he can overdo sometimes) but not enough to bother me.

Alright, I'm fawning a little now and am rambling with thoughts on the performance. It took about five minutes for me to stop being starstruck, but once that happened, they made the roles their own and I even forgot who their other characters were (mostly, but when you see Captain Picard (as the ghost) in a suit of armor with a fog machine hidden in his costume bellowing at The Doctor to remember, it's hard not to realize that this is probably the closest thing I'll ever get to a Who-Trek crossover. Fake fog hidden in a costume- it even has Classic Doctor Who special effects!) Anyway, these guys are the real deal and even if you can't get over their other roles (which cast a huge shadow, but they overcome it), it's still a completely unbelievable experience to see two of my favorite actors performing doing some of the best dialogue ever written in person.

GOOD STUFF: The scene where Polonius gets shot makes you jump and the way they do it is unexpected (great for theater.) The Yorick scene is the best I've ever seen it staged (even better than the Hamlet films, I think.)

WEIRD STUFF: They move the "to be or not to be" speech to much earlier in the play, and while I wasn't expecting it, but it works almost better where they put it.

BAD STUFF: It ended and without the TARDIS groan!

If You Know Anyone Who's Doing Drive-By Paintballing in Madison...

...let me know. Some knucklehead in a white 4-door (maybe an older Buick), nailed my girlfriend with a paintball last night outside Jade Garden (and it splashed on Ben's wife.) There's no permanent physical damage, but I'd love to drop a deuce in their car or at least put a slice of bologna on their paint job.

So I've Been Gone For A Month and Everybody Just Wants To Talk About Brett Favre?

Did I miss something or is there still a war on and a presidential election and gas price buttfuckery?

It's August (which always feels like the slowest month) and I support the Packers as much as the next guy, but do we really need to have opinion polls on how much people like Brett Favre? And in other absurdity, the Packers hire former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer to help them with the media? Yeah, that's a super idea, his great work helped make W the Homecoming King. (Well, to be fair, his ratings didn't really tank until the past couple of years.)

And Favre's not "in the right mindset to play for The Packers" because his fricking feelings are hurt? Do Bob and Brian still do All My Packers? Can someone call Tom Hanks about this? Brett's too sad that The Pack didn't want him as their Prom date after he already said he wasn't going? This is supposed to be football, right? Populated by strong stoic men who aren't led around by their tiny fragile hearts?

I understand why The Packers passed on Favre (even though he's still one of the best quarterbacks around) and it's better for the team not to wait around for him to pick the petals off the "I'm retiring, I'm retiring not" daisy. I love Brett Favre like the brother my mother wishes that I turned out to be, but I'm tired of it and the Packers need to worry about the future.

In a world where Paris Hilton enters political discourse however, it's about time I retire from reading the news. I thought I'd catch up on everything I missed, but it turns out that the only thing I miss is not reading the news.



I've paid too much attention and for far too long.

So let's have some good news: We've got a new single coming out for download this week, we've got a video for it already up, we're having another private concert for it next week (keep an eye out here for detailia), and we've got a ton of cool stuff coming your way (including going back into the studio starting tonight!)

And, I've got some awesome stories and pics from my trip that I'll share in the next few days.

PS - Anyone hear Eau Claire Wolf Radio favorite, Chad Lewis, on Coast To Coast on Monday? He talks about "legend tripping", which is what half my trip consisted of! More on that later.

Wausau

Let's do it again at the Fillmore on September 5th! Mike will have to remember to wear his Dad's underwear (at least for the first half of the show).

Monday Geek Reviews

This week: Mario Kart for the Wii.
I could'nt buy this game anywhere in town (because of the same b.s. retail store scam that prohibited me from buying a Wii before Christmas last year) so I rented it. I almost kept it too because Blockbuster just bills your credit card for the sale price. But, being an honest fellow, I returned it. I can't say I like it as much as Double Dash because I prefer two player coop games and I found it frustrating that you can't ride in the same cart or even unlock anything on two player coop mode. The graphics and level designs are oustanding, though, and it is so neat to play a lot of the retro boards with souped up graphics. I might buy it used from Preplayed. They've always been good about putting out show handbills for Sunspot. Yay local!

Sweet Relief

The free MP3 will be available on our web site later... for now check out our new video for "Sweet Relief":