Bleh
Current mood: phlegmish

I like cats, I really do. But when I'm around them, sometimes I turn into my alter ego, The Incredible Phlegm.

This is why I can never be in a serious relationship with a girl that has cats:

00:23 - 3 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

Best Wedding Dance EVER

Sorry for the hiatus. Non-MySpace life intruded. Hopefully today's entry will make up for it.

But I must warn you! The following link contains music and laughter. A lot of laughter.

I wish I'd had the guts to do this!

Love and pasta, and busting moves,
John

15:44 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

About Voting

(side note: I spent over three hours writing and editing a post about Shannon Scott's death and what it stirred up inside me. Myspace promptly ate it whole, dammit! I guess the most important thing is that I got those thoughts out of my head and expressed onto some medium, but I still feel that I should write something. I will - again - as soon as my thoughts compose themselves again.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blog entry:)

Voter apathy is something that amazes me. Maybe it's because I was glued to the TV set while the 2000 election results were being hashed out, maybe it's simply because I'm more aware of the limited amount of future that's available to me and I want it to be a good one. I dunno.

But I can't let statement like this one pass by without comment:

I'd still probably vote, because you're voting for more than the President, of course, but I'm not going to pretend that my millionth-of-a-percentage-point or whatever is really making a difference.

To win the election, a candidate must have 270 electoral votes. In 2000, Bush won with 271 votes.

In Florida, the difference between the two candidates was 537 votes out of more than 5800000 votes cast. As a result, 25 electoral votes went to Bush.

Missouri's margin of victory in 2000 was 3.34%, so our 11 electoral votes went to Bush.

Think your vote doesn't count? Think again.

13:17 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Personalized Service

Lemme tell you, having a borderline high-grade fever* is no fun. I've lived through the last 48 hours on tea, pasta, and some chocolate for fat and sugar.

I'll justify any way I wish, thank you. Bite me.

Anyway, after 48 hours I knew that some kind of meat was in order, preferably something that could be delivered - and even better would be something from my favorite eating establishment.

So I placed an order with the local "you buy it, we'll fly it" outfit and listened to my stomach growl.

Imagine my surprise when I found this note placed with my order:

20:11 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Last Night At The Blue Room

Three bands: Phases, EWag3, and Funkee Noosa.

My first impression of Phases was good: a nice clean, sparse sound with 311 influence. Vocals meshed well with guitar work, and the rhythm section was solid - then they cranked the "chops" knob up to 11 and left my jaw on the floor. I could have listened to these guys all night, and hope to be able to see them again soon.

EWag3 played what might have been our best set to date. Normally my on-stage movement oscillates between "none" and "very damned little", but last night found me jitterbugging all over the place. I was also moving around a lot on (and off!) the stage at our Lindberg's show Wednesday night, so maybe I'm finally starting to get comfortable with expressing myself through motion - something that's entirely new to me. It's kinda fun.

Funkee Noosa really nailed putting the cap on an amazing evening, with funky melodic get-your-ass-on-the-floor songs that had the audience screaming for more - MUCH more! - when they finished. So far, David has resisted my efforts to lure him to the dark side of six string bassdom, but I'll keep trying.

Because we play a more traditional rock and roll than the other bands, I was worried that we wouldn't fit in; that the audience would hate us. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. The audience was appreciative, and members of all three bands expressed interest in performing together again.

There was some kind of magic in the air last night. I don't know if it's something that can be repeated, but I'm willing to give it a shot, and I don't think you should miss it.

Love and pasta,
John

15:43 - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Tonight - EWag3 At Lindbergs!

That's right, we'll be playing our first gig at the newly-reopened Lindbergs at Campbell and Commercial, which should be a historical landmark if it isn't already.

We'll be playing from 9:00pm until 1:00am, or as long as the crowd lasts. The cover charge hasn't been determined at this point, but surely it won't more than a few bucks. Let me tell you, you're gonna get a big dose of blues-n-roll for your buck tonight. For our regulars, we've got all your favorites plus a couple of new songs you haven't heard yet.

For those of you too young to remember (and that'll be most of you punks!), Lindbergs was widely known as THE place to catch live music in an intimate setting downtown. Now that Commercial Street is experiencing an upswing in cultural awareness again, I bet that Lindbergs is once again going to be the place where you want to see your favorite bands play. I know that I can't wait to get on that nice big stage!

Lindbergs http://www.myspace.com/Lindbergs
318 W Commercial
Springfield, MO 65803
(417) 862-3747

11:52 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

What’s New With You?

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted anything that wasn't a survey or gig announcement... sorry about that. This time of year usually sees me a little more withdrawn than usual for a number of different reasons that I won't go into here.

Here's what's going through my mind these days:

- I'm looking forward to playing with EW3 and FOL this month. In particular, FOL has picked up some new songs that should be fun to play in front of folks. Some of the backing vocals might require yours truly to wear vice grips, so things might get painful for me and/or the audience.

- The upcoming election is gonna be interesting. I enjoy this site quite a bit, lots of good information there.

- A friend is currently on a yacht in the Caribbean, and I'm jealous as hell. I miss sailing! Sometime I'll post about that subject here.

- Another friend of mine died suddenly very recently. He went to the doctor sometime in December and got some news that he didn't share with anyone, and left this world last week. How a guy of German descent got the nickname "Pablo" I'll never know, and now I'll maybe never find out.

Life's short, folks. Love who you can as much as you can, 'cause they might not be here tomorrow.

And I'm really damned late for FOL practice. SHIT!

22:20 - 3 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Gigs This Month

Yup, I'll be pushing air in public not once, not twice, but three times this month. I've had a long dry spell and I'm looking forward to getting out in front of people again. Come see me, won't you? Please note that the times I post are sometimes when I need to get there to load in, so please call the venue or visit their web page to confirm door time.

With EWag3:

EWag3 @ Lindberg's Wednesday Night 1/16!
510 E McDaniel St
Springfield, MO 65806
(417) 831-2383
$? cover
8:00pm - ?
Our first gig at the newly-reopened historic Lindbergs!

EWag3 @ Billiards Saturday Night 1/19!
541 Saint Louis St.
Springfield, MO 65806
417-866-4319
$4 cover
8:30pm - ?
Phases, E Wag 3, and Funkee Noosa are all back at it again! It's going to be a great night full of great music, so come hang out with us! Funkee Noosa will have demo's for sale for $4.00!

With Friends Of Lynn:

Friends Of Lynn @ Magic Bean Friday Night 1/25!
940 S National Ave
Springfield, MO 65804
(417) 869-1968
$? cover
8pm - ?pm
We will be playing a show with Tony Mekown this particular night, with more acoustic shows to come at the Bean. Hope to see y'all there=)

02:00 - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

News Year’s Eve: EW3 at Nathan P. Murphy’s / Wes Jeans!

This is some good news.

Wes Jeans is playing Nathan P. Murphy's for New Year's Eve, and EW3 is the opener!

If you don't understand how cool it is, go read what I wrote from the last time we opened for him. This is one guy I can't say enough good things about.

You know, I think I'd rather open for Wes than play a headlining date, if only for the chance to be around the guy. He's that cool.

11:39 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

EWag3 - A New Direction?

Go take a look at the original blog entry that Kyle wrote. I wanted to write about it here rather than leave a comment there, so that there could be no doubt that I'm writing as John as an individual, rather than John writing with the authority of EWag3... if that makes sense.

Differences of opinion exist any time two people get together. Hell, who am I fooling? There's plenty of times when I have trouble determining the best solution to a problem all by myself. I certainly didn't have an answer for the main topic of discussion wednesday night. On the other hand, it was really good for the band as a group to talk about something this important, realize that there was no quick fix for it, and not get any feathers ruffled. For the record, I think my feathers are more easily ruffled than anyone's. :)

The dilemma that EW3 faces now is one that I really don't know how to fix. Maybe you guys can help me explore possible solutions or think in different ways about it.

For those that didn't click the link above, here it is in a nutshell: We're good musicians (one of us is an excellent musician). We play a mix of covers and originals. Our originals don't suck. We're tired of playing our hearts out for meager pay and/or audience reaction/attendance. Let me rephrase that: I know that I'm tired of it, it's not my intention to speak for the other guys, but I'm pretty sure they'd be happier with more recognition either financially or emotionally. Or both. :)

Playing on stage, which should be an energizing experience, is instead a demoralizing one. At the end of the night, clutching the money in your hand, you realize that you just played your ass off for a bunch of people that don't care, and you could've made about the same amount of cash flipping burgers - even counting the booze and food that the bar provided. Except you didn't need to practice a lot and buy a lot of gear to flip burgers.

Obviously, this wouldn't be a problem if more people came to our shows. I've tried blogging about upcoming shows here, but my readers that live in town usually aren't able to come to shows for good reasons, and I understand that. I've also tried advertising via bulletins, but that doesn't seem to have an impact either, so I just don't do it any more. The only form of advertising, I'm convinced, is word of mouth.

Of course, that doesn't do any damned good if no people come to your show in the first place.

Okay, I've gotten a little bitter as i've put this post together over the past hour or so. Please come to our next show before I slit my wrists. It's December 8th at Lindberg's, with Ebb & Flow, who never seems to have a problem drawing a crowd, the bastards.

Love and pasta, even if I'm hating the world right now,
John

17:30 - 4 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment