Playing Catch with Zombies

How on earth did I fall prey to the Worst movies of 2008

2009-01-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

I like to think of myself as someone who seeks art in all of its form. Whether its an entertaining novel, like jPod, or a novel that requires a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an English professor like say, Infinite Jest. (Which I still haven't finished).

So when it comes to movies, I have great resources here in town to catch a deep, well layered foreign film, or just some full on popcorn thriller. Unfortunately I encountered two movies this past year that gives me pause on my movie selection process.

My first encounter was with the movie The Happening. It was by far one of thee worst movies of 2008. I was really looking forward to do this, I really like "end of the world" scenario movies. Usually a bad movie is bad because of a couple faults that lie in the script, the acting, the editing, music selection, or the premise. But The Happening failed on every level.

The Script - M. Night Shyamalan put this together based on a couple of movies from the 70's. He claimed this was his "B-movie". This felt more like a D though Z movie.
The Acting - A cast featuring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, and John Leguizamo should at best be considered a decent acting base. They have all performed well in various other movies. But their performances, both collective AND individual, were an abomination upon the very craft they are paid to do.
The editing - This was a total hack job. Scene transitions were abrupt and awkward. But they fit with Shyamalan's "B-movie" theme.
Music selection - There was no music that would have helped create the mood and atmosphere. They may have been better off with no sound all together.
The Premise - (SPOILER ALERT) okay so the idea of something causing people to kill themselves is interesting enough. But when you find out its because of (SPOILER) the plants, well the whole movie is finished for you half way through it.

I really wanted this movie to be good, BUT it did the exact opposite for me. The only reason I stayed was because I had already invested the $6.50 and the fact that I wanted to see how it ended.

Though if you were one of the few who did see it, a Columbia, MO-based group did a fantastic re-enactment called "The Crappening". Well see for yourself:

Now I wish someone would do a spoof for my second worst movie of 2008, The Spirit. This would be in the category of "Holy-Shit-This-is-so-fucking-bad-my-future-children-are-mad!" Visually speaking fine, especially if you enjoyed 300 or Sin City. But Frank Miller dropped a big ol' egg with this one. Sometimes you can tell where the effort is going in a movie. Obviously it was the visuals. But what destroyed this movie was the acting and the storyboard. In fact it looked like the just cut in live shots of the storyboard, complete with the frames.

Look I know this is based on the graphic novel, BUT I'm sure there is more to the story than what was put on the silver screen. And to have it portrayed by loud and stale performances by Samuel L. Jackson AND Scarlett Johanssen. There is even a performance by Dan Lauria, who we all know as "Kevin's dad" from The Wonder Years. But that guy is just fucked no matter what. I don't care if he plays Queen Elizabeth on some BBC special presentation, he will ALWAYS be Kevin Arnold's dad. ALWAYS. Sorry Dan Lauria.

I attended this movie with my pal, Justin, and forty five minutes into the movie, he and I just looked at each other as if to say "What the fuck are we watching?" We talked about leaving for another half hour, and we decided to stick it out and see how this ridiculous trainwreck of a cinema was going to end. And you guessed, they left room for a sequel. God forbid you should see this movie in the first place let alone its sequel.

For now I'm going to keep a distance from the theater. Unless anybody has any better choices, and they want to take me out... I ain't payin' for awhile.

From last year to this...

2009-01-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

So I have found my original intent in blogging was too discuss matters near and dear to my heart. Whether it be love, music, movies, politics, etc. But what happens when some of those things are way too involved, way too complicated, way too personal? Do you write about it in such a personal forum?

I chose to shut down instead. But maintained a proactive soul search outside of the interwebs. Lots of transitions, lots of love gained, some lost, some lingers...

So I shall return to this blogging, but direct the energies a little differently. Its true you don't need to poor you inner most secrets, but you should keep a bit of yourself in this. So I will try my best to do this.

My friend Zac told me to just keep writing everyday. I will take this advice and try to make this part of my routine.

No promises...

Four Days left...

2008-10-31T07:35:00.000-07:00

I am going to bypass the whole "Where the hell I have been" part of this blog, seeing that my last post was April 30, 2008. So let me just dig in here...

Last night I experienced an Obama Speech. I use the term "experienced" because his rally and speech have the weight of a huge event. Not a spectacle, like a Flaming Lips show, but something that is more of a movement.

I attended the speech with my friends, Justin Nardy and Justin McCrady. We started our journey in downtown area of Columbia. McCrady met this guy Marquis, while walking up tenth street. Marquis joined us for the speech. McCrady had never met him before, but to give you a bit of a description here, Marquis had bandages on both arms from either selling plasma or getting some intense medical testing done. He was a friendly enough fella, but it was just odd to have someone join the crew from literally out of nowhere.

We got in the Obama line on University Ave. And followed this nearly mile long line all the way to the center of campus. Our highlight was watching the Obama motorcade drive by. I of course was too busy trying to get a picture that I missed Mr. Obama waving as he rode by. By this point we lost Marquis.

As you can see the iPhone + Me + fast moving motorcade = that stellar looking pic. So after an hour and half in line Justin, Justin, and I made it to the check in point, just as Mr. Obama spoke. We stood in the very darkened back of the quad 50 feet behind this huge sign that said "Missouri for Change" watching his speech on a huge video screen. Again this wasn't about getting the best seat in the house, it was really about being present for a once in a generation type of event.
Now the speech he gave is the same one he has been giving, so I was already familiar with some of his talking points, "Socialist? because I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich in kindergarten" and "McCain was riding shotgun with Bush on the economy" etc. But again to be present for it, minus the pundits, minus the news logo on the bottom right screen, minus the ticker, was actually inspiring. And I am not using that word in an over dramatic fashion. They are estimating that 40,000 people were there to see him speak. And not to sound too much like a Sensitive New Age Guy, but there was a positive energy surrounding this rally. I just hope that these people show up to the polls and vote.

As we get closer to the day of the election, my anxiety is on high. So I am going to do my best to stay away from television news, website news, news news, etc. Just put my head down and run full speed to Tuesday.

And knowing is half the battle...

2008-04-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

This past summer we received the first in what I predict will be many 80's-based cartoons turned movies. Transformers came to us thanks to Steven Spielberg (producer) and Michael Bay (god awful director/producer). This movie satisfied the eight year old in me, but as a 30 year old I left with a lot of thoughts:

- I don't remember that much product placement in the cartoon.

- bumblebee is a mustang?

- was the storyline always this bad?

- I don't know about you, but if i am making out with my girlfriend it certainly won't be on top of a car that I would deem "alive", nor would we be out in plain view of four curious robots.

The other night I received an email from my friend Zac with a short message that read: I know you are into this... He provided a link to a website that had pictures for what I will now refer to as the movie of the year in 2009:

G.I. Joe

Ladies and Gentleman I present to you the cast of characters for this live action cinematic spectatcular:

Dennis Quaid as General Hawk. I would have liked to have seen a bearded George Clooney, but this will work for me. I loved Innerspace, and the Rookie makes me cry everytime when i watch the scene where Quaid's character calls his wife to bring his blue suit to the ballpark. That gets me every fucking time.

Channing Tatum as Duke. Thought maybe Owen Wilson might be a good fit for this, but then you have to try to deal with the fact that you are watching Owen Wilson pretend to be Duke, and I just want to be absorbed into the character.

Rachel Nichols as Scarlett. Yes this works. I know there are ten other actresses, but again these characters should be the characters, not Jessica Alba playing a character.

Marlon Wayans as Ripcord... Um... really? i mean... really? for some reason i am not sure about this casting...

Byung Hun-Lee - Storm Shadow and Sienna Miller as The Baroness. Works for both. Yes!

I was unable to find a picture of Cobra Commander but he will be played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Again I am making plans already to camp outside of what ever movie theater I will be near. Now if someone could please get going on Voltron my childhood will be restored, which of course was robbed by the Kansas City Royals and Don Denkinger in the 1985 World Series...

Megaboose

2008-04-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to some heavy handed touring, meaning we toured with my minivan dragging a 3' X 5' trailer around the Eastern half of the United States, i have a day to day vehicle that is relegated to local-only travel. So in my haste in trying to find adequate transport to and from chicago, i looked at all of the deals possible:

- Southwest Airlines (STL) - $230 + driving - $50 = $280

- Southwest Airlines (KC) - $219 + driving - $50 = $269

- SW Express Amtrak Train (La Plata) - $168 + driving - $40 = $208

- SW Express Amtrak Train (Jeff City) - $140 + driving - $35 = $175

- Megabus (Columbia) - $90

so being the financial whiz kid that i am, i chose the Megabus.

this transport is ridiculously convenient, i walked from my house to the Wabash Bus Station and boarded a double decker bus lined with airline style seating. the bus made two stops, one in st. louis and one in normal, il. all told i spent 8 and a half hours on the bus.

on the way there they showed the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" (yes with the "y") featuring Will Smith and his son. honestly not a bad movie to watch on the Megabus.

the trick to the Megabus is getting your tickets early. supposedly you can get can get tickets for as low as $3 roundtrip, but you have to book it WAY WAY far in advance.

they have routes that are expanding across the midwest, and have additional routes on the east and west coast. so if you can handle the long rides, you can make it to any of these places in a pretty affordable fashion...

i have made my second booking for chicago for $45 roundtrip. now if they can figure out how to get me to the west coast, with all of my band equipment and my band members that would be great...

Chicago: Pancreatitis/The Marrying Kind/Gordon Matta-Clark

2008-04-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Columbia North also referred to as Chicago. I visited a friend who was battling pancreatitis, stayed with some friends i will be marrying in august, and had my perspective on art destroyed by one Gordon Matta-Clark...

Pancreatitis

Not familiar with this? I will give you a brief description: Its an inflammation of the Pancreas. Man, I should have been a doctor, look at me pullin' out them five cent words! On the serious, this is very very painful. The person dealing with this cannot digest anything. Fluids are given through an IV, and the pain medication dries your mouth. so you have to use a sponge to keep your mouth from drying out. Again pancreatitis is very difficult to get through.

My friend, was released from the hospital and was looking really good for a week long hospital stay, in fact i had seen her go through this several times. i stayed with her in the hospital the first time she had a bout with this. (This most recent fight was number four) But it amazes me what the body can endure and still progress. She has to make some big diet restrictions, but all in all, she is rebounding very nicely.

The Marrying Kind

So I am ordained. And I will performing my first wedding ceremony (most likely my last) for two of my friends in August. I stayed with them on this trip, and I have to say that I am a bit nervous about this ceremony. Not because of the bride and groom, but because of the sheer magnitude of this event. 200 people, Chicago, etc. etc. I want this to go as smoothly as possible. So i sat down with the bride-and-groom-to-be about how they wanted the ceremony to go.

Bottom line: short and sweet. so i won't be able to employ my signature four-hour mass that accompanies the nuptials. If anybody would like that version of my wedding ceremony let me know. But I have come a long way since my original stance of marriage being a forced component of society. But over the years i have matured (sort of) and came to understand that marriage doesn't have to be a state or religious sanctioned requirement. in the most basic of contexts it is two people publicly declaring their lifelong partnership with their loved ones. my friends in this case know they don't HAVE to be married, they want to, and i am honored that they would have me as their officiant.

not bad for a pathetically single thirtysomething.

Gordon Matta-Clark

I did manage to get a couple of hours in at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) on Saturday. My original intention was to go around and take in a number of different installations as the MCA has a very well put together building and history. After making my way into the first installation, i was locked in. i spent the next two hours in the works of Gordon Matta-Clark.

I am the first to admit that I know very little when it comes to the art world, but i don't let that lack of knowledge keep me from discovering artists. i don't have the background to walk in and go, "oh i see they are influenced by this, this, and this." however i know what peeks my interest. and Matta-Clark did in a big way.

In the 70's he was known for his series of "building cuts" where he challenged the modernist architectural approach. he would cut up houses and buildings and provide new perspective on space and light. some of you may already be familiar with his work, but i never took an art or architecture class, so i found all of this fascinating.

i picked up a book at the museum and have read through his history as an artist. now of course i want to dig through the rest of his work and his influences. I found his perspective and approach to be mindblowing, and honestly it is making me look differently at how i perceive and create my own art.

unfortunately matta-clark died in 1978 from pancreatic cancer, so we will never know the where the extent of his work could have reached, but we know that the work he did leave us has influenced many artists and architects over the years.

Let's-go Base-ball! (clap,clap, clap-clap-clap)

2008-04-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

i don't mix words when it comes for my love of baseball.

i'm a total nerd about

"your honor, the prosecution would like to enter State's evidence A and B:"

- State's Evidence exhibit A: one fantasy baseball team at yahoo.com
- State's Evidence exhibit B: one fantasy baseball team at espn.com

"if the defense has no objections i will allow"

now just because i have these two fantasy baseball teams doesn't mean i'm up to par with every stat of every second or third year player in the league, but i am getting myself back into the mode of watching a nine-inning game on television. tough stuff to do when my mind is overanalyzing every part of my life. here are some examples of my thoughts during my participation of a televised baseball game:

- man i really love this Grillers Prime veggie burger. i might like it more than Boca burgers.
- i wish i could find two socks that match, not that there isn't a charm to having one grey sock and one beige sock, but c'mon i should keep at least one thing in my life consistent.
- do you think she like-likes me or just likes me? man i hope its that first one, because i am tired of that second one, not that i mind being just friends, but man can i get something to fall my way a bit?! oh i'm such a loser...
- where did the remote go?
- when is heroes going to start up again? i felt cheated last season, but my love for the show is unconditional.
- i miss apple fruit rollups
- i really hate purse dogs

so again, when given the opportunity my mind will wander around in some of the farthest regions of my head. (yes that does make sense)

this year my team, the st. louis cardinals have exceeded expectations. honestly this year is still considered to be a building year, but the team that is taking the field has gelled nicely. rick ankiel continues to make one of the greatest comebacks in major league history, pujols is continuing to look like his elbow is healthy, and the starting pitching is performing well.

the problems are in the late inning action. the middle relief staff is struggling and it is making the games a little more exciting than they need to be. additionally they don't have a whole lot of depth on the bench. the cardinals need some more consistency to protect leads late in the game.

as you can see i have some idea of what is going on in baseball. and this has been a constant in my life. when i was eight i used to tape myself doing play by play of the cardinals broadcasts. i would turn down the volume on the television set and do the entire play-by-play. i realized later that my voice never changed its pitch after age nine. so instead, i sing and get mistaken for a woman when i order food at the drive through... go figure.

so as april wraps up i look forward to torturing myself with the up and down season the cardinals will provide for me for the rest of the summer.

anybody want to play catch!?

SCORE! part two: Home Run Derby Results from Sunday April, 20, 2008

2008-04-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

so not only was sunday "4/20" day, "dudes", but it was the annual earth day celebration in down town columbia. part of elm, eighth, and seventh street are closed off for the crowds this events attracts.

i saw some predatory birds at the raptor rehab booth, i ran into my friend zac at the prism booth, and was embarrassed by friend barb at the MU Extension Office booth (she asked a colleague of hers if she had any single friends who would be interested in me. could i not appear more desperate?)

after that exchange i moved on to look around at the rest of the festival. i really like walking through this event solo, it grounds me with columbia again. it reminds me that there is a really great community outside of the three-headed university system that calls this town their home as well...

with the day being picture perfect, another round of Home Run Derby had to happen, and well... the following statistics are completely accurate:

Billy (3-0) - 58

Justin McCrady (0-3) - 29

Luke Buffaloe (0-1) - 17

Jason McCrady (0-1) - 6*

Justin Nardy (0-3) - 2

* Jason left after the fourth inning for work...

so i was in the zone the entire game averaging just under 7 home runs per inning, and pretty much clinching the win by the fifth inning. McCrady kept it real close until the third inning, he had about three consecutive innings of one or two home runs early. there wasn't much trash talking here, especially not when i'm doubling up the score... Buffaloe (5/8 Dr. Buffaloe) was our first purebred southpaw, and got somewhat of a slow start, but towards the last few innings he found his rhythm and made us rethink how we are going to set up the ball park. as it stands the the fence and what not faces the righty who pulls the ball. jason mccrady, had to leave early, but his at bats were quality ones, you could project that he would out hit his brother justin had he stayed in the game. okay i don't know that for sure, but he would have been contending for that second spot. just nardy enjoyed tying his season high of two. well i don't know if he enjoyed it, but i enjoyed it atleast.

SCORE! part one: Records and Live Performances

2008-04-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

part one...

Friday:

I have officially hit the age where i notice a pretty large age gap when i attend some rock and/or roll shows. not that i feel weird about it, but it is now a spot-on observation. this was the case when i attended the minus the bear show at the blue note. my friend daryle slid me into the show as his plus one, and from the get go, i felt out of place. there sidewalk was littered with kids who looked like first-time smokers. they had experimented with it long enough and were now ready to move on to a public venue for their new found vice.

inside i was surprised to see how packed the show was. not that i didn't think minus the bear could draw anyone in, but i guess i didn't expect to see such an energetic crowd, again most of them probably had a parent picking them up after the show. okay so after being mildly drawn into the big sleep set (they had some nice material, though i am curious to hear the recorded version, the atmosphere of the show and the live set were not enough to draw me in completely).

i have to admit by the time minus the bear hits the stage i want nothing to do with a live show. i'm tired, i am music-ed out(sometimes it is possible for me to take in an overload of music), and in sensory overload with the crowd. so honestly they never had a chance to grab my attention.
but i did stay for the first few songs, and i can see that they play their instruments well, they know how to put a song together, yet they weren't my cup of tea. furthermore i don't know how people could be so into this band. i mean the floor was packed with folks who knew words to all of the songs, where the big dramatic chorus, but i wasn't engaged. so after song three, i high-fived (yes hi-fived) a few folks and departed.

Saturday:

National Record Store Day...

i ended up with the following from purchases i made at Slackers (a.m) and Vintage Vinyl (p.m)

- Caribou - Andorra (vinyl)
- Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel (vinyl)
- George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (vinyl)

additional freebies
- Sub Pop compilation (cd)
- Vice Records compilation (cd)
- MGMT (7")
- Destroyer (7")

after spending a pleasant ride to st. louis with my pals david and zac, we took in the sale an at vintage vinyl, grabbed a quick bite at delmar lounge, and then headed to the pageant for one of them rock and/or roll shows featuring... the new pornographers and okkervil river...

as mentioned in earlier postings i finally came around to okkervil river with the album the stage names. so i was ready for this show. and the gentleman did not disappoint. though i have a couple of points i would like to pick on...

1) the suits - look my band was guilty of the whole suit thing as well, but have we moved past this presentation yet. maybe its charming, but i'm just past it personally, so isn't it just like me to feel like its over for everyone else? yes, of course. i'm a jerk
2) will sheff's movements - okay he is tall (check), he is lanky (check), and he is the lead singer for a very good band (check). so does this give him full merit to contort his body around the stage as if he is drunk? (he might be) he uses the mic stand to show the dramatic stage pose just as much to use for support. but again i am looking at this from a jerk's perspective. the show as a whole works, i'm just not sure if i like all of the gesturing...

other than that they were a band of tambourines. i spotted four at one time used on one song. they also had other perucussive devices that helped the audience clap along to. but this was a show after all, not a cd listening party, so for all of the points i complained about, it was just me trying to find points to critique, overall it was a great set and for that alone was worth my time and money.

the new pornographers moved their set along with the energy of a train.

my friends had two different perspectives on the show:

Zac

Annie

for this i will have to lean towards Zac's perspective (minus the Yao Ming reference, i am not a rockets fan, in fact i'm much more partial to college basketball. but for the sake of the NBA i will say that their comeback in set was reminiscent of Willis Reed and the New York Knicks), but i will give it to annie, with the Mac/Keyboardist reference. he did look bored to pieces, especially when he played bass on a song. look if you hate playing live shows move along... plus he got double minus points for just playing the macintosh on a couple of songs.

other than that the team pulled ahead and hit a set worthy of okkervil river's opening set. i was worried there would be a lull but A.C. Neuman and crew hit it right with My Rights versus Yours (this song's vocal melodies are owning me right now) and Myriad Harbour. Overall i was really happy with how the show went, but i have to admit, my tiredness set in and i was ready for the trip back to columbia.

National Record Store Day set for Saturday April 19

2008-04-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

i know what some of you may be thinking: "Billy, what the shit is this?" if you are unaware of this day, perhaps a brief introduction is in order.

Record Store Day

many moons ago most consumers were able to purchase albums at locally owned shops. these shops would have a wonderful system of cataloging not only national and regional releases, but the local releases as well. the independent record store has been and still is an important piece to the puzzle for the emerging artist. often viewed as a bastion for the most pretentious of music listener, the store acts as an informational guide for music that is not forced down the throat of listeners via top 40 or AAA format radio.

with the rise of electronic store chains, the mom and pop stores were being undersold. best buy is infamous for this tactic. the store will undersell the cd price. meaning the company will lose a profit to distributors for selling cheap cds in an effort to lure younger consumers to buy other overpriced items in their store. the problem here is that it puts the independents out of business.

so for one day out of the year all independents stores unite to bring attention to their neck of the woods. with the increase of a digital music market, we are seeing a slow extinction of this familiar shop. the ones that survive are finding new niches to fill, whether it providing an exclusive line of import vinyl (god bless vinyl) or providing vintage clothing or even an art installation .

for columbia, we saw the end of some dear friends:

Salt of the Earth: this store closed in 2001 after being open for 23 years. former owner eddie boster can still be seen at shows and still in the very fabric of the columbia music scene that he help establish many years ago. the shop also boasted a large selection of skateboards. but after a recession and an increase in rent, the store closed its doors permanently. i remember picking up elliott smith's "either/or" album there. it is still missed almost a decade later.

Whizz Records: After being considered the top of the record store food chain in the 90's, this retired shop called itself home on north 10th st. where the old rag tag cinemacafe used to be. easily the best selection in town, and had access to all of the best imports, exports, reports, portports, etc. the owners moved to north carolina selling the leftover stock and name to a different owner. whizz remained opened in columbia, but it was not the same. some said the old owners took the good half of the selection, and left the rest for columbia.

Kevin's World: we all knew that kevin walsh's store had a short life span, but he was able to extend it well past its lease. kevin's goal was to have a place that would help people usher in the new digital world by providing customers to bring in vinyl and cd and he would help make the digital transfers to a source of their choice. additionally he had a great collection of albums from new and emerging artists.

columbia really doesn't have a consistent record store. slacker's has a really good selection of newer vinyl selections, but their main fair is the video game selection.

for those visiting other cities, or living there, i recommend some of my favorites:
APOP (St. Louis - former Columbia residents)
Vintage Vinyl (St. Louis)
Euclid Records (St. Louis)
Permanent Records (Chicago - former Columbia residents)
Sonic Boom (Seattle - big ol' KEXP party)

speaking of records, PCWZ's pal In-Misery had an interesting post on break up records today, and it got me thinking about a conversation i had with a former girlfriend of mine a long time ago regarding what kind of music you listen to when you are down. angela was the girlfriend that taught me about music, women, and life in general. i still hold her in the highest regards to this day. so up until this conversation i was in the boat of "when you're sad you listen to happy music". angela was in the "when you're sad you listen to music you can relate to." she couldn't have been more right. listening to upbeat tempo pop does not help ease the pain of a heart break. the album i turn to in my darkest of times is Cat Power's Moon Pix. If Metal Heart doesn't hit the right chord with your broken heart strings then you are more machine than human...

Analytics of the Blog and who the fuck reads this?!

2008-04-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

okay i'm going to use this short post to geek out a bit on technology and google. well i guess i geek out on other topics on here as well, BUT this will definitely cause me to push up my nerd glasses.

my job is set dead center in the middle of web development. recently i have taken it upon myself to learn some of the finer features that blogs have to offer. so in an effort to keep an eye on traffic statistics i have applied Google Analytics to my site. don't worry you don't get any thing if you visit the site. but i am blown away by how specific the statistics are. GA shows you not only how many people visit your site, but where exactly they are coming from, meaning from what sites they are referred from and in what country they are located.

if you are interested click here

and to learn how to apply it to your Blogger site go here

it can be a slightly complicated process, but once you get everything set you have a great, free way to keep an eye on your traffic. though i have to say the reality of PCWZ's statistics are pretty sad.

i know there might be some grumbling that this is another way for google to keep tabs on us, and that they have a top secret lair near the arctic circle where they are planning to implant google chips in our brains, that will allow them to collect and categorize our deepest darkest secrets. but let me assure you, they are not there yet, so you won't be giving up too much by adding this feature.

if this post wasn't exciting enough, this should make you feel better.

Home Run Derby Results from Tuesday April 15, 2008

2008-04-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

With a clear sky and a temp in the 60s, another round of Home Run Derby had to happen. This time our match grew from three to five people, and eventually a sixth (person) and seventh (dog) joined in the later innings of the game.

Results:

Billy -16

Justin McCrady - 15

Daniel Stegall -9

Justin Nardy -2

Marita Karl - 0

(Colin Webb - 1)

(Aeros - 6*)

* amount of wiffle balls eaten

This was a rather exciting game, and even though McCrady dropped his season record to me to 0-2, he actually put on the better performance. In that he hit five homeruns from the left side of the plate, and kept a lead until the bottom of the ninth. This is where my poise and experience came into play. My early rounds were marred by a strained upper back (which i did by simply swinging the bat. i know, i know pathetic). In the first inning I got zero home runs, by the second inning i had one, and then after that i found my stroke again and launched several over the fence. i can blame the back as to why i didn't launch more, but the entire field had to deal with a swirling wind that was keeping a number of would-be home runs from making their destination over the fence. Stegall was a first time player to our game and immediately launched into six home runs. the thing about daniel is that he loves the game. not as in baseball, but as in fun-oriented competition. and the reason why... he wins. all of the time, every time. whether its video, card, or other he wins. and the other thing here, is that daniel is an absolute saint. in all of the years we played music together, not ONCE did he raise his voice or did we even disagree on anything. so for him this competition is completely recreational. as for me, i take it to heart and i play for keeps!

so as the game progressed, nardy improved his home run season total to two, he would have had atleast five more if the wind hadn't knocked a couple back. despite her self-deprecating humor regarding her ability to play, marita made solid contact with the ball. it wasn't like she was swinging and missing, she was making solid bat on the ball contact that usually resulted in line drives. unfortunately for her, this is a game of home run, so consistent and steady contact only got her as far as 10 outs per inning.

in the final inning mccrady was holding on to 14 to 12 lead over me, he popped one more over the fence for what he thought would be insurance. i quickly assured him that it wasn't going to be enough. so with the score 15-12-9-2-0, i stepped up to the plate, and launch the first two pitches for home runs. down by only one home run i smack a couple shy of the fence before i sent another over the fence for the tie. as mccrady was picking up my home runs, he asked if it was tied, nardy gave him the glorious news, and mccrady just said "fuck you, schuh". around that same time i launched number 16 over the fence for a home run. i couldn't have scripted that better.

i should note that during the final two innings our group was joined by our friend colin webb and his dog Aeros. colin took a couple of post game swats and launched one over the fence, while Aeros took turns gnawing on the wiffle balls and his rubber frisbee.

An approach and structure to the craft

2008-04-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

As I have been submerged in the world of the next Foundry record, i have been obsessing with the ideas of approach and structure in regards to song. however all of this could apply to a variety of crafts (painting, poetry, sculpting, etc.) since most of my friends are fellow songsmiths (yes, songsmiths) and artists it has been really helpful to bounce ideas off of each other without ego or pretension.

recently i talked with greg roberts and jamie levinson from white rabbits regarding pop structure. the interest of most people now a days seems to be a much darker path as far as feel of song and lyrics go, while trying to avoid the verse, verse, chorus structure. when greg gets time to sit down again to write, he wants to move that direction. eric enger from gentleman auction house seconded the motion when he and i talked about getting out of a certain comfort zone in writing. currently he has a batch of songs that are already recorded and will need to be played for the next year or so, but that hasn't stopped him from writing new material that may in fact be a departure from GAH.

typically my approach is to write by myself. acoustic guitar and vocals. create the structure and the parts, and bring in the troops to fill out the rest. so far the approach has worked fairly well, however with my current batch of songs finished, i would like to experiment more and start from a different point. perhaps collaborate and create something totally different. but i know that my time is limited and i need to focus on building up a road team, saving money, getting a van, creating tour merch, and finishing the album.

but this conversation has drifted to my friend caleb johnson, who is a filmmaker based in new york (well to be honest he lives in jersey, but i think he can claim nyc) anyway, we were recently discussing bon iver's album and the idea of environment effecting the art. the story goes that justin vernon spent four months in a cabin and came back with "For Emma, Forever Ago". this album sounds exactly like the feel and mood you would get from a cabin in wisconsin in the winter. strong vocal presentation over sparse whatever-was-available instrumentation, beautiful/haunting.

so what happens when you hit a creative block? for me the answer is change your environment. at every place i have lived over the past six years, i have found a writing spot. not a set up with a desk and computer. i mean like a physical spot where i play. typically its my bedroom, but there will actually be a specific spot that i will stand or sit and write. call it OCD, call it fucking weird, regardless its a place where i go to write. though it wasn't until recently that i started adding to my work. i was really stuck for awhile, with the transition of becky, daniel, and benjamin (my loves) moving on, it took me awhile to reset. i think i have found my spot again, but we'll see where the next batch goes.

My role as father (and murderer?)

2008-04-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Two words:

Spirit Gum

I got my first introduction to this wonderful substance over the weekend as i portrayed a father wrongly accused(?) of murder in the Gentleman Auction House(GAH) video for the song "book of matches". before i move on here, i want to say that the fine folks at Living Nightmare make a substance that is both a disgusting and reliable adhesive. word to the wise: if you need to apply spirit gum to your face for... say a mustache. remove ALL hair before the application. i left some stubble and thought "oh it will be fine". after i took the mustache off the spirit gum was locked into the stubble, and washing was not enough. i had to shave it off. not fun, not fun...

A month ago, keyboardist, trumpeter, and off-the-market fiance Steve Kozel asked me to be in the video for his band. let me preface this by saying i love every member of GAH. I travelled down to SxSW with them in march and they are like family to me. they are nice, considerate, down to earth, dedicated to the craft of music making, and a have realistic understanding of how the cesspool of the music industry works. so when steve asked me i thought,"sure why not?"

my expectations were, well... low, as far as production went. nothing on steve for this, its just that in the past four video shoots, i have either been in or a part of there has been a couple of hand held camcorders and then some high level editing software involved. but when i arrived at 5207 Berthold in St. Louis Saturday morning, i was floored by the set up.

- director
- director of photography
- audio personnel
- video personnel
- stage techs
- make up artist
- cast and crew of 25
- three days of setup, choreography, and filming
- three projectors
- two confetti air cannons
- 100 sparklers
- 13 25 X 5 projection screens
- two smoke machines
- staging on wheels

this is just a sample of all that went into the production of a three and a half minute video. it easily cost somewhere in the thousands. so again i was blown away.

my role as it stood was that i was being sought after for the murders of some unknown amount of people and children. as you can see in the picture above was sported with a fake mustache and a shirt covered in blood splatter. my character was arrested by a mob, broken out by my own "children" and then re-arrested by the same mob, put on the stand and then pulled the old switch-a-roo with lead singer eric enger. he got to go to the gallows, while i got to play and sing with the band. (this is how i became the lead singer of the foundry... poor poor Dennis)

Anyway, the last time I acted in anything was in high school. Back in those days i played the comedy relief of whatever play i was in. in this setting i had to keep up a tired and broken character but use oversized props like the handcuffs (which left some nice bruising, see pic below). after a few walk-throughs and several rehearsals, the stage was set for filming. oh i should mention that this video is one continuous shot, soooo... not only did all of the cast have to be marked and choreographed, but the cameraman, projectionist, and stage techs had to be marked and choreographed as well. OH AND i should mention that the song was sped up, so that when they play it back in normal time they can make the movements more herky and jerky a la silent film era production. needless to say everything was executed perfectly.

my only complaint is that i HATE being in front of the camera. i hate the way i look, and it makes me wonder how people can stand me in real life. i can think of four off the bat that actually hate my presence, which is fine that's their deal, however the majority of the lovely people in my life want to deal with me and i just can't understand their visual perspective of me. (okay enough self-deprecation here, but you understand where i'm coming from).

overall it was a really positive experience, and i can't wait to see the final product. though knowing how much went into the shooting, i can only imagine how long the editing will take. at this point i expect nothing less from the GAH video team...

A benefit this eve...

2008-04-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

I have discussed on this platform before regarding my involvement in resource groups that provide information and support to survivors of rape and sexual assault. The reasons for my involvement are simple, I have had too many friends who have been either raped, sexually assaulted, or abused. My involvement started in 1995 following a year in which both a friend and my girlfriend were raped. Nothing stops your adolescent world like information like this. Even though I wasn't the victim (or survivor) of these attacks, it effected me in ways I never thought possible. I became more angry than I have ever been in my life, and had to carry around this hatred for the final semester of my senior year in high school. I honestly didn't know what to do with the information I was given. I conceived of every possible way to get revenge on those responsible for those attacks. But I never stepped over that line. And I'm glad I didn't. I turned that horrible energy into a positive and worked at the Women's Center at the University of Missouri, where I gave programs to various men's groups, in the dorms, at fraternities and the MU football team.

After four years of working programs with the Women Center, I stepped away. Work like that is very difficult, because every time I would tell my story, I would be reliving that time period. Of course it got easier with every program, but nevertheless it was difficult. So after a few years of very little involvement I am happy to be back in the effort to help the community serving on the Men as Allies Committee, a satellite board of the Shelter. The Shelter provides resources, support, and facilities to women and children who are victims and survivors of domestic abuse or sexual assault. For years the Shelter has been trying to reach out to men in the community to help educate men's groups in hopes of ending violence against women.

This evening The Blue Note will be hosting a benefit concert for the Shelter featuring The Record Collector and Videology. This concert is one of the many events taking place in the community as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Both the Shelter and the MU Women's Center have programs and events to help raise awareness and educate the public on rape and sexual assault in our community. The statistics are staggering (1 in 4 women will report being sexually assaulted in their life time). 100% of the ticket sales will go to The Shelter and the many programs and services they provide our community.

The Record Collector is considered a "Soul Revue" band, meaning they cover songs in the key of soul from the 60's and 70's. The 12-piece puts on a spectacular show with spot on covers and very high energy, with the additional visuals from Videology this show is easily worth the price of admission.

Running/Good Movie/Bad Beer

2008-04-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Running

So as of late I have been dedicating my body to running two miles in the morning. I have been on this health kick for a little over nine months now, and I wanted to continue this trend by adding some safe early morning cardio.

For awhile I tried:
- chasing squirrels in my back yard, but apparently the cats in my neighborhood own the rights to chasing and eating them.
- running perpendicular to the the traffic lanes on old 63, or what I refer to as "survival sprints". but apparently there are laws against running through traffic.
- sparring with the crossing guard at benton elementary. apparently she was one of the first female boxers in boone county, so i wanted to move away from early morning beat downs. i mean i could still run, but running with two swollen eyes and a nostril full of blood becomes more challenging than necessary.

so after all of those failed i am attempting this version of work out. so far i have to say i like it. i dread it five minutes before i run, but once i get a half mile into it, i get this feeling like i could run five more miles, how ever my legs and back tell me otherwise, and for now two miles will do.

Good Movie

after my cool down, i grabbed a quick bite to eat and some water and stretched out while watching some TV. Encore always plays the strangest selection of movie at 7:30 am. Today I was treated to what I will refer to as a good movie, also known as Remo Williams: The Adverture Begins. This was a movie that was supposed to be made into a franchise. A couple of sequels perhaps a prequel, but after one movie they were done. Though there was an attempt at a TV series a couple years after its release. But this begs the question: Why don't I own this movie?! This has to be one of the most spectacular action flicks of the 80's. it has martial arts, guns, revenge, random explosions, and stereotypes galore!

Bad Beer

moving along...
before arriving to work i stopped off at the gas station to get some coffee. sometimes gas station coffee works better than just about anything. as i was in line i noticed a sale on Leininkugel Sunset Wheat. (sigh) this beer is terrible, and towards the end of my drinking days i came across this monstrosity of a beer. imagine if a brewer made a beer and crammed a box of smarties, sweet tarts, and nerds candy with the hops, yeast, etc. i'm not big on fruit-flavored beers, and this is exactly why. the reason it is on sale is to get it off the shelves and keep it off. rumor has it that if you let it sit long enough the beer will eat through the bottle. okay that's not true, but it sure tastes like an agent that would.

The Return of Quiet - Bon Iver

2008-04-08T07:45:00.001-07:00

Justin Vernon addresses the audience in a low baritone of a voice. Not too low, but it remains at a level that is in stark contrast to his high rising vocal melody lines he thrusts above a bed of minimal instrumentation. though the presentation is spare in its parts the whole is a beautiful summation that is not only full but completely engaging. vernon's project bon iver (pronounced bohn eevair), has been hailed in the highest regards among critics and fans. his show did not disappoint, accompanied by a drummer and a second guitar player, vernon played through songs from his latest release, on the JagJaguwar label, "For Emma, Forever Ago".

My worry for this show was that no one would show up and the entire room would be talking. but columbia showed its softer side and attended with a force unseen on a dreary monday night. the crowd was more than half capacity and they were quiet. a friend of mine came up to me and commented on the fact that you really could have heard a pin drop as vernon and crew hit the quietest of points in song.

Bon Iver will be making a bigger mark soon enough as they head out on tour with Black Mountain.

Home Run Derby Results from Sunday April 6, 2008

2008-04-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

As is customary with friends who cannot decide what to do on a BEAUTIFUL sunday afternoon the options flew around and fell flat on the floor.

me: You wanna play basketball?

them: um i don't know... who else are we going to get? plus we don't have a basketball.

me: wanna go running?

them: ha! next

me: wanna play catch?

them: oh i don't have my glove. dude its just going to be a lazy sunday afternoon.

me: okay wanna have a home run derby?

them: oh yeah i will do that!

why wouldn't you do that? it is the best of the lazy sports. three people minimum required, six wiffleballs, a wiffleball bat, a chair and a fence to hit the ball over. little movement, fresh air, and ego boosts galore. it is perhaps the best handcrafted lazy sport out there.

so here is the set up: three people rotate from pitcher to batter to shagger (somebody has to go collect all of the home runs i hit). 9 innings, 10 outs per inning. any swing of the bat that is not a home run is an out. if the pitch hits the chair it is also an out. so with the rules being known here were the final results

Billy - 38 Home Runs

Justin McCrady - 18 Home Runs

Justin Nardy - 0 Home Runs

I should point out that I am very, very good, and that my competition was not. well i guess i don't need to point that out as the results speak for themselves.

On this Blessed Day... part 2

2008-04-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

I was asked: How was your birthday party?

my answer:

i didn't have one
no committee chairperson for the "re-elect billy for another year of life" party
i wrote my own script. so here is what i did:

april 5, 2008

It is no secret that I love baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals. So after getting a last minute rescue ride from a friend to st. louis friday night, i was ready to go roll with my opening birthday activity a Cardinals vs. Nationals game at Busch Stadium. After getting a quick breakfast in, I made it to the stadium a good 45 minutes before the first pitch. I am completely OCD about catching the first pitch. my sweetheart friends got to the stadium a minute before the first pitch, they opted for the environmentally friendly Metro train, and that stop at Busch is infamous for its traffic volume overload during the baseball season. well during my wait in line for my now standard jumbo hot dog and lemonade, the first pitch made its way for a strike across the plate. unphased by missing the first pitch and the first batter, i triumphed by enjoying a very solid outing from Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright and some key hitting by Yadier Molina. In the end i was rewarded with a Cardinals' 5-4 victory, along with a masterful eating performance by me:
- Hot Dog
- Lemonade
- Pretzel
- 1/2 of a Snocone
- Ice Cream in a baseball helmet
All in all, a great day at the ball park.

Afterwards, i made my way over to the delmar loop and picked up tickets for the New Pornographers and Okkervil River show at The Pageant. Thanks to the likes of Ticketmaster these tickets could have been loaded with various fees (Convenience, Shipping, Marinating, Printing, Friendship, etc.) BUT because i chose to actually drive to the box office AND pay in cash i was able to receive the privilege of purchasing the tickets at face value. WOW! face value ticket prices, what a concept!! I am looking forward to that show, i totally fell in love with okkervil river's "stage names" album.

Okay so i stayed in st. louis and after being incredibly cranky with my family. i was just tired and full from crappy (yet delicious) ballpark food, we settled on a sushi bar for an early dinner, and they drove me back in time to catch Bald Eagle's set opening for Cursive.

In years past, I would get, as the kids call it, "ripped" on my birthday. I mean terrificly drunk. To put it in context on my 30th birthday, i had to sleep in a closet in the hallway of my apartment building, because i gave my car keys to a friend for safe keeping but did not have them with me when i arrived to my apartment door. tired, cold and stupid, i slept off my birthday in the hallway closet. i know, i know... stupid.

so this year with sobriety being my centerpiece, i found my friends to be at a loss as to what to get me for my birthday.
"uh i would get you a bar tab, but you're not drinking. so um yeah."
that's fair, and i'm not looking for presents by any means. but there are several alternatives of acknowledgement besides alcohol. but here was my score for my birthday:

- money. always good
- the sweetest of lunches at cafe berlin
- case of smart water
- case of clif bars
- breakfast at ernie's
- twenty text messages
- ten phone calls
- five myspace messages
- two email messages
- several hugs
- several gropes

the only thing missing from my day of days was a late night round of baseball catch, but i was given a rain check on that.

On this Blessed Day... part 1

2008-04-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Me
born: April 5, 1977
location: New York, NY
hospital: The New York Hospital

I share a birthday wtih Pharrell Williams (35), Pat Green (36), Paula Cole (40), Mike McCready (42), Agnetha Faltskog (58), Jane Asher (62), and Gale Storm (86)...

My 31st Year of life Outlook:

"For every action, there is a reaction. Your life this year could be a study in this very theory. You could make waves. Claim your power, alloing many more opportunities to head in your direction. Realize when you have had enough of a siutuain, and walk away from it gracefully. If you are single, your magntetism remains high, creating quite a portfolio of admirers. If you are attached, be slightly less me-oriented. A fellow Aries reads you cold."

My horoscope for today:

"You are a power among your immediate friends right now. Act like one, and you might be amazed at what you can bypass. Tonight: As you like."

I got my outlook and horoscope from today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I have to say I'm feeling my "power" growing, but I have some problems with my outlook. For example what the fuck does "a fellow Aries reads you cold" mean? Will a fellow Aries be coming after me? If that's the case I better get ready for whoever you are!

My last day as a 30 year old

2008-04-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

So a long time ago, I played the role of evil oldest brother. Mind you I was never one to punch or hit my brothers or sister (they were all taller than me by the time i reached the six year old mark) . In fact we didn't do much punching of any kind, we all had this unwritten rule of no punches to the face. So I would like to drop psychological "punches" on them.

One of these involved going into my brother's room around bed time the day before his birthday and telling him "Well. Say good bye to be 8 years old. That's right you will never be 8 again. Yep that's real sad." When my brother realized that he would be turning 9 and losing that title of 8 years old, it made him cry. I would return to my room with a chuckle, and part of his birthday was ruined because I decided to bring reality to his day of days. Yes I was (and most still consider me to be) an asshole.

Now the tables have turned. I'm 30 heading into the 31, and I am going through these thoughts of holy shit! i'm not going to be 30 anymore. I really want to be that person who ages with grace and confidence, but right now i'm in this mode where i look back and say what the fuck have i done? i know that all of my work over the past seven years has been a building process for long term sustainability. so at this point i have all of this "potential" but nothing concrete. and now i can hear my brothers and sister collectively saying:

"well billy, say goodbye to 30! you will never be 30 again! yep, that's real sad!"

so i'm going to try and make this next year of my life a lot more productive and positive. i have had enough change in my life for the past two years to last me a decade. so now its time to dig in. (isn't that the same thought process that someone just getting out of college goes through? i'm a really late bloomer i guess.)

oh well for my birthday, i have no clue what i'm doing. there is no chairperson of the "billy is getting old" committee, so i'm sort of writing my own script.

ideally i want to go see the cardinals tomorrow at 12:15 pm and then return to columbia for the bald eagle show at mojo's. and then just take it easy. this will also be my first sober b-day in "well over" a decade... (twelve years)

other than that, i had my first post-foundry foundry show. i think it went rather well considering two practices and a different presentation of material. joe schaefer on drums and jenn johanning on cello were the perfect accompaniment for this style of presentation. they are both incredibly talented and above all nice! that is a dynamic that i will miss dearly with becky, daniel, and benjamin. those three are like family to me, and it is so hard to replace the chemistry we had. but i feel that they have also given me the template of requirements for people i work with in the future.

Ralph Macchio Syndrome

2008-03-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

i guess i have been gone awhile. things have certainly changed A LOT in my life:
- i am slowly trudging through the murky waters of love and loss. in fact i'm drying off.
- started a whole new supporting cast for the foundry field recordings and began recording the next album.
- started a new job. more money, less stress. yes they do exist.
- and i have been battling anxiety attacks. i have finally learned to slow down a bit and not put too much on my plate. thanks to the drugs... okay i'm kidding, but i am still not drinking

woo hoo! as i approach my 31st year on this planet i am not sure how to approach it. part of me greets it with a smile and says "bring on the mid-life crisis", the other part of me doesn't notice and neither do other people. sans beard i look like i could pass for my early 20s. this is because i suffer from a rare disease called Ralph Macchio Syndrome. This is when you look younger than you actually are.

Upside:
- Blend in at college parties (this is still creepy)
- My deemed "innocent look" allows me to get away with a variety of crimes

Downside:
- Carded at Rated R movies
- Double carded at Adult Novelty stores

the anatomy of shaving off your beard (picture form)

2007-11-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

1. Start with a beard. your beard does not have to be as "powerful" as mine, but you need to start with a beard in order to complete this. it also may be a good idea to do this to your own face.

2. Trim your beard down. this is important, because if you are like me you have a "powerful" beard and you will need to be careful when you are using the razor for the first time in say a year or so...

3.Shower and Shave. Wash your face, preferably in shower form, and then shave immediately.

4.If its halloween, be an asshole and use the 'stache! I took full advantage of this and you can see the result. BOSS.

5. After using the 'stache to your advantage, shave it! Especially if you teach children like me. Moustache+minivan+working with children = creepy. So i had to take the remainder of my facial hair off.

the anatomy of shaving off your beard (short written form)

2007-11-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

i will soon have photos up of the breakdown of this momentous occasion. right now my face is cold, smooth, but cold... this will take some time to get used to for my friends and especially for me.

the moustache was pretty boss, but with my current day job, i would come off way creepy.

pictures up soon...

for now sleep.

to the sleep deprived... thoughts on the death of my beard... hey, i'm going to need your i.d. for those...

2007-10-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

i think everyone has ancient routines that they go through everyday that have followed them since childhood... i notice mine more when i can't sleep. this happens occasionally on days where i'm highly stressed or cannot shake anxiety-ridden thoughts. so i may pace a bit, i may grab my guitar (much to my roommates' dismay), pick up a book, or listen to some music with my head phones. but the one thing i always make sure to do is close my closet door. i admit that is a bit on the OCD side of things, but when i'm at my highest level of "can't sleep" that seems like a necessary thing.

i remember doing that when i was younger because i didn't want my closet monsters peering at me as i slept. i would even make sure the closet door was sealed tight so there was no way any creature could get out and get my brother and i. now that i'm 30 do i still worry about the monster? yes. yes i do. okay that's not true, but its just an old habit that has not left me. maybe its a coping thing to sleep. i don't know.

so as i wrestle with insomnia here, i wonder what other's think as they try to sleep and shrug off their worries. or how they do that to begin with. how do you stop giving a shit about every minute detail? i think my problem is i'm a night person living in a day job world. i'm not sure if that means i need to adjust to the day job world or if i need to embrace my night person world.

either way i should probably rest my head and move on to tomorrow. which includes shaving my beard off. not a popular idea among my friends who can't grow a beard, but one my mom will be happy with. i'm not doing this to spite my friends or make my mom happy. i'm just kinda of tired with it for now. i'll probably start growing it back as the colder winter months approach. i just feel like starting new. but how to take this sucker down is another thought process. do i keep the "stache" for little while? do i shave a cool design in the beard first and sport that around? do i keep the sideburns? so many different paths.

regardless i will lose ten years on my face by doing this and well i will most likely get carded for everything. alcohol, condoms, and rated r movies.

well alcohol i'm still off of, but i have been asked for i.d. for the last two.

quickly and then some zzzzzzz's.

so when i was a freshman in college i was home in st. louis and went out and got condoms. i was very responsible with my lady at the time. the thing was i could never just go in and get condoms, i had to be purchasing other items and do the ol' "yeah just this and some (yawn) condoms." (they kept them behind the counter at the time.)

this one particular time i went to a 7-eleven and noticed this parent with her two kids fresh from a soccer game milling around the slurpee machine. i thought, okay i'll just get my cherry coke, get in line and ask for the condoms and get out. well i get my cherry coke and sprint (sort of) to the counter. right before i get there this very old man cuts in line and asks for "benson and hedges 100s in a box" well the cashier is looking all over and can't find it. the man settles on a soft pack and at this point starts counting out his change. FUCKING A! the cashier has to end up spotting him 5 cents. i was close to just buying them for him. so after he gets his pack, i push my cherry coke on the counter and it rolls off on the side of the cashier. he digs it out from his side and asks "will there be anything else my man?" (now at this point everything feels like slow motion). i said, "oh and a pack of the trojans. the light blue box." (i didn't know the varieties, i just knew what i got last time i was there). at this point the cashier looks at me and says "can i see some I.D.?"

i stared at him as if he had just asked me for an I.D. for condoms. oh wait, he did. so i'm speechless and waiting for him to say just kidding or get out or something, instead he just stares waiting for my action. i look around the store for a comforting face, but all i get is that parent with her two kids who are now directly behind me watching all of this unfold, along with three other people. look folks i was nineteen and being responsible, yet i felt like i was just caught shoplifting. alot of tsking came from the line.

i looked back at the cashier, who now has a big toothy grin and says, "naw man i'm just playin'. i'm just glad yer usin' these." he hands me my package of condoms and continues to compliment my high standards of personal responsiblity. i could feel my face heat up from the apparent red color i was beaming to the rest of the store. fucking ridiculous.

i pay for everything and as i walk out he yells, "goo' luhk, man!" while the mother of the two soccer players scowls and shakes her head at me.

i thought, "whatever lady, i'm going to get laid and i wasn't going to be having any lame soccer offspring."

okay enough tangents for one night...

Holy (Trinity) Shit!

2007-10-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

i like sports. i'm not going to apologize for this. i know way too much about current and past players, strategies, offenses, defenses, and mascots of teams from all sports. when i came to columbia, mo for the univ. of missouri's j-school (pardon me "journalism" school) i wanted to be a sports writer. combining two passions of mine into one, an easy choice. after my first round of j-school classes i realized i hated the format of writing in journalism as was taught at the time.

so this morning i'm doing my usual internet check in and i find a video of a last second play in a football game between NCAA division III schools Trinity University and Millsaps that most likely will end up on a number of top ten plays of the year in the media.

for those not familiar with the intricate rules of football, just know that there is only two seconds left in the game and the only option Trinity has here is to score a touch down. in this case in order to keep the ball moving forward they have to either throw one big pass in the endzone or continuously lateral the ball to keep moving towards the endzone. trinity obviously chooses the latter:

as far as lateral circuses go this comes a close second to the Cal and Stanford game, in that game the marching band offers the perfect touch of last second dramatics.

a disclaimer: this blog is not about halloween... but this post does mention the dreaded holiday

2007-10-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

just putting this out here. yes "zombies" are featured in the title, but i have to say that i'm not all that big on halloween. its funny as a person with a background in elementary and early childhood education, halloween and valentine's day are my least favorite holidays.

if i had to rank the major holidays as they pertain to a teacher from favorite to hated (yes hated) they would go:

1.christmas/hannukah/kwanzaa - no matter what you celebrate you will receive gifts/candy/alcohol/movie certificates/etc. teachers often refer to this as "the score"
2.new year's day - essentially this recognizes that all staff and parents are human and take advantage of a day of nursing hangovers. i think the hangover part of this holiday should be a bigger part of the celebration. like maybe say a parade full of napping and passed out people on floats made by those same sleeping people the night before when they were drunk. i imagine floats with deflated tires, flowers and paper mache pasted to the side of hungover faces, and small fires in random spots on the displays as they crawl through intersections and over street corners knocking down fire hydrants, road signs,etc...
3. president's day - the day off, thanks to our founding fathers.
4. halloween - the candy and such is a plus, but as a teacher you have to manage a classroom that is essentially in crazy mode all day long (sometimes that is not too far from a normal day). unfortunately parents' attempt to get their kids into a cute costume that will eventually hang on their wall in picture form (which will eventually embarrass them when they bring home their first significant other) and they forget about feasibility. parts of the costume have to be retied, repinned, readjusted, and of course these are little guys so they have to go to the bathroom every 20 minutes, so the costume better have a quick escape hatch. if not, well let's just say it will be an unhappy day for that trick-or-treater.
5. valentine's day - okay here is my "bah, hum bug" moment. i really hate this holiday. not because i am single, i hate this holiday when i'm in LOVE with someone. i could site the whole "it's a corporate holiday" thing, but let me tell you, it is the least creative of the holidays. every thing is packaged perfectly (i use that term loosely) in pink, red, lace, shiny, silk, balloon, teddy bear, and heart forms. and what happens with all of that shit? you throw it out. okay you throw everything out after all holidays, but this is the one where you get rid of everything. how many people actually say, "oh and this is my teddy bear with the 'i wuv you' balloon that josh got me fifteen years ago. isn't it sweet? oh and this is the heart pillow that plays bryan adams' 'everything i do, i do for you', that josh gave me in 2000." by the way if you are dating someone like that, break up with them now, unless you enjoy the unattached mind. now as a teacher, there is something cute about 20 handcrafted cards that say happy valentine's day spelled in scarwling crayon reading "hSVda5*/g". but i guess its how adults interact with each other on this particular day. "honey i love you so much, and thank god there is a holiday that reminds me to tell you this. so here is a precious moments statuette that says exactly what i am supposed to tell you." wow i'm a cynical asshole. but why is feb. 14 more meaningful than feb. 15? oh because the card i just gave you says so...

for a couple of months i have been wanting to shave my beard, but i wanted to use the remaining moustache as a costume prop for halloween. but being an early childhood instructor and having a moustache raises the creep flag. so the costumes that have been pondered are:

- police man - too village people-ish
- fire man - see police man
- news anchor - students would get this
- freddie mercury - see police man, fire man, and news anchor

so as it turns out the one that makes the most sense with enough kitsch value is being...

a nascar driver. the problems with this are one) due to the suprising rise of popularity, nascar gear is expensive. two) this outfit will work with school, but what about my time between school and an eventual appearance at a party? i look ridiculous in just a moustache. i mean i look like a bad ass, but seriously this is something i can keep for less than five minutes without a costume.

the other issue is that the beard makes me look closer to my age of 30. if i shave it off i lose at least ten years, maybe more and i will have to go through showing six forms of i.d. to see a rated r movie.

the good kinda of find... and more discussions from the playground...

2007-10-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

i mentioned many moons ago that i would use this space for a variety of things, and not to add to the already cluttered world of music blogs and the excess buzz they leave on the internet, but last week during my visit to CMJ i attended the
Fader Magazine party, where i discovered yeasayer. Let me rephrase "discovered", because no one really discovers say a fire truck with all of its lights speeding down the street. so i had heard about yeasayer with all of the typical fanfare of the next up and coming thing. which when you hear and read about a band before hearing it for yourself you tend to overhype the band in your head. but as i stood amongst A & R jerks, backpack journalists, and various model and band types i found a moment of clarity. i was able to shove aside all fanfare and the hippest of the hippest crowd and observe the band. it was great from the get go. the band opened up with "2080" and i was hooked from there. live they take full advantage of the pedals and multi-part vocals. as a show they look like four guys that don't belong in the same band. i can't go into much more description you have to see the show to get it. regardless their approach to music can be similar to that of other brooklyn-based bands like say TV on the Radio. anyway, there was something endearing about this band that kept your attention.

you will certainly hear more from this band as they make their way around the typical "up and coming" circuit. as could be predicted pitchfork has a glowing review up. regardless i think the music is great and is worth looking into.

so now that i'm back at work with the kiddos they of course provide some pretty funny interactions which is a pleasant change from my previous week filled with overserious self conscious music folks in williamsburg. here is another situation. again the student's name is changed for the sake of privacy.

i am called to a situation at the geo-dome (for those unfamiliar with this apparatus, it is basically a climbing structure that looks like half of a soccer ball). there are six students climbing on the top and one child is below on the ground sitting in the dirt.

me: amanda you need help? you should move out of the way so that your other friends can get down without hurting you.

amanda: i can't

me: why?

amanda: because

me: (now sensing a conversational pattern that is typical with 3 to 5 year olds) because why?

amanda: because i can't (kids at this age are notorious for answering in circles)

me: why can't you move? if your friends drop down they will hurt you.

amanda: because i'm in the toilet.

me: you're in the toilet?

amanda: yeah we are playing toilet bowl and i just got flushed.

really it is hard to re-direct students when answers like this are said with such a serious tone and expression.

billy: you are playing toilet bowl?

amanda: yeah i'm in the water now, and they are all next.

its situations like these where i think back to my childhood and try and recall crazy made-up games like this. i don't think the toilet bowl ever crossed my mind as a premise for a game. oh well at least they weren't playing this in an actual toilet. that clean up is perhaps the worst part of the job.

After the trip, the things that need to go...

2007-10-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

On my last night in New York city, I settled in at a bar in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) with some friends. Those in the know and dressed in the know covered the tables and walls of a room filled with velvet underground, black rebel motorcycle club, and other drone oriented pop rock pumping from the speakers. This was to be a low key night because the drive home was starting at 8 am. So we escaped the noise and clutter of the bar room with the cooler climate of the outdoor bench area to talk. It was a nice coherent line of conversation for about an hour. We decided to make it to another bar across the street in a much quieter setting and to see a friend I hadn’t seen all trip. We sat down and talked about Columbia: new/old/etc. and were quickly joined by a woman from Australia. She immediately cut in about life and what the purpose of everything was. Now I came to new York to find purpose and direction for my life. After meeting with a good portion of the music industry I felt I had a good grip on what I needed to do, but I still wasn’t feeling a summation of it all. Sometime life’s messages come in the oddest of vessels… I told her that her points were interesting and she told me to Fuck Off. She quickly apologized for the outburst, but here is how the rest of our conversation went:

Kate – No, no. I’m sorry. Look do you know what your choices are?
Billy – no
Kate – (licking her finger and drawing a circle on the table.) Look I can draw this for you. (she completes the circle with a smiley face). The only choice you have is to exist.
Billy – uh huh.
Kate – And we need to be happy. You need to believe that. You need to be happy and do what you need to do. Because without that, there is no point in existing.
Billy – Hmm.
Kate - and existing is why we are here in the first place.
Billy – Thank you so much. (I extend my hand and try to show my sincerity. She looks at it and squares her eyes at me) Well I have to go, but thank you so much. You are right (my hand is still extended at this point, her eyes become more focused as she attempts to read sarcasm in my efforts). Okay well you can leave it.
Kate – no, no (she grips my hand) you have to understand that is why we are here. And I don’t care I am not moving to California.
Billy – well kate thank you so much for your words. I have to go.
I extend a hug to her and she hugs back. In fact she won’t let go and she whispers, “stay passionate about what you are doing. Keep doing what keeps you happy.”

I begin my trip trying to figure out if I’m doing the right thing. Sacrificing financial stability, relationships, etc. for longevity in a creative field known for short life spans. And in the final hour, no final minute, I get a pep talk that has rivaled any halftime coach speech from a drunk lady from Australia. It gets me thinking about things. I have to cut the negatives and keep pushing and pursuing. Its almost where I want it to be.

A list of things that can go from my life now, to begin cleaning house, some of these are simple observations, some are more in-depth and personal….

Simple Observations:

• People with backpacks at crowded shows. – This is incredibly annoying on a variety of levels. Being a person of shorter stature I have found it difficult to see over the head and shoulders of my fellow concert attendees. This is something that I have grown accustomed to and usually expect out of my live shows. A factor you deal with at crowded shows is some asshole with a larger than small dog bag. I understand that when you travel by subway or bus and you will not be home for awhile that you will inevitably need a few things. But it’s the things THEY need, not me, so for the sake of those standing on tippy toes to see over your head and shoulders please please please leave the bad at the door. I’m not saying you’re an asshole if you’re carrying a bag through the door, but you are.

• Women (and men) with “purse” dogs – I understand the need to have something cuddly and cute and compassionate in your life. But dogs are NOT accessories. They aren’t supposed to “go with” your shoes, skirt, and sunglasses. If it breathes or needs water and food, it does not belong on the same shelf as your jewelry. I hate celebrities for okaying this function in society.

• The over exaggerated outfit. – This outfit is a constant in Williamsburg. In a sense there is this great “come as you are” feel to everything. But when you fucking show up in too tight shorts, an ironic v-neck t-shirt, oversized sun glasses and striped socks pulled all the way up to your knees with off color nike sneakers, you have gone from keeping your body clothed to becoming a clown. I have no problem with pushing fashion and style trends, but there is literally no difference in the amount of time put into an outfit like that and A guy getting ready for work with an Armani suit. That suit takes the same amount of time as those with the overexaggerated outfit. Making sure the half-shaved mullet fits perfectly inside and outside of your side-cocked neon “I love New York” hat. Making sure that the v-neck shirt doesn’t match your shorts, BUT does in fact match your socks. Look I know I’m being petty. And if you ever stop off the L train at Bedford you will only find one or two people like this in a crowd of a hundred. Still these people could go from my life.

Okay now for some of the more personal insights of things that need to go from my life:

• Other people's emotional baggage. – okay this sounds horribly selfish. And it is for the most part. notice i said "baggage". I’m 30. I have said that before. I will try not to beat this into the ground, but in my search for love (sometimes high/sometimes low) and path of life I have encountered too many people who will not take care of their shits. I being one of them. Many moons ago (in high school) my girlfriend was sexually assaulted. Her security and my trust in people were turned upside down. I never addressed it. I thought I did by working as an informational counselor on rape and sexual assault. I just worked over it. In a sense it’s like a bump in the road, but instead opening the road up and removing the bump I have laid down road upon road upon road over it. The bump still exists and now it has gotten to the point where I worry about EVERYTHING. This is something I have to address on my own, and I’m doing that now. So in my efforts to right my path of life (stress reduction, sobriety, celibacy. Okay that last one is NOT voluntary) I have found that my patience for the overdramatic problems that people have don’t fit in my life. And this really isn’t all that selfish, I mean I have taken three people in my life to Mid-Missouri Mental Health Ward because they either A) attempted suicide B) said they were going to do it that day. That is three too many in my lifetime. And that is hard when you go through that with a friend, because at that point you have gone from friend to therapist, and your relationship is never the same again. Not saying I can’t be there for a person who is going through a rough time, but when you make it a consistent issue that is when the problem arrives. Folks we only live once and you should make the best of it. I know I’m trying my best to cope with things in my past.

• My lack of confidence in myself. – in my constant worrying about everything I have lost my confidence in myself. Things I want to do now:

- Pick up music theory, understand the chords and notes i am playing. I know the primordial basics of what I’m doing, but I can learn more.

- Pick up the drums. It is a complicated instrument, but nothing that can’t be understood with some practice and technique.

- Get out on the dating scene. Notice I said “dating” not “relationship” scene. Not that I’m opposed to having a consistent somebody, but it would take someone uber-special to make me think otherwise.

- Travel more. Christ this planet is too big to be sitting in a smaller town treading water. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Columbia, but I need to be able to see beyond its borders.

- Have some sort of intermediate long term goals. I have overall objectives I want to complete, but nothing concrete.

- More money. I am not saving anything, well I shouldn’t say that. I have an IRA, but really I need to pay down some debt in a major way.

• Short sleep times – Those in my inner circle know I am always working. I’m on my phone, computer, out of the house, out of my mind, etc. I need to get my body and mind rested. I am ALWAYS tired.
I think I have a better foundation for the things that need to change and improve in my life. Right now I have to resist a move to new York city and get cracking on a new album.

L to the V to the 2 to the R

2007-10-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

if you ever move to new york, you will know with in five hours that you don't need a car. it's too much to worry about parking, insurance, and just plain driving sometimes. so subway it is. and the occasional cab.

yesterday it was all about mass trans. ryan has never been to nyc so after i got done with some band/label work we went to central park and the metropolitan museum of modern art, and later went to the world trade center site. hmmm. this is sounding like a date.

anyway, the night concluded with our label showcase at the knitting factory featuring witch's hat and bald eagle. both put on great shows to a nice size audience. the knitting factory's old office is like a cave with a bar. this played well for the antics of witch's hat, and provided a megaphone blast for bald eagle. if it weren't for the napkins i stuffed in my ears i would have no hearing for the rest of the trip. which sucks because this is of course a music festival.

anyway, time for rest on some couch cushions. more observations to come

12 hours in the Car = my ten year old version...

2007-10-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

so as some of you may know, i am in new york city. this trip was a long one. 20 hours by car (more with traffic stops, starts, and stops). i am accompanied by my friend of longstanding, ryan reed. ryan is an honorary Schuh in my family. we get along great for a variety of reasons, but one that holds out the most, is the ability to just plain get along. it is really hard to find people you can actually travel with. ryan is just one of them fellers.

another thing about ryan is that we act like ten year olds when we are together. most of the conversation is laughing. usually about dumb shit we thought of or various sexual innuendos. it's all petty and immature, but funny. most of our sentences start out with YEAH! or CHECK THIS OUT! or No, Dude... again petty, but very needed. ryan and i both turned 30 and have had A LOT of changes in our lives. this trip is exactly what we needed. hopefully we will find what we are looking for besides pizza, falafel and taxis...

so our trip to new york was, as i mentioned, loooooong. our first stretch was from st. louis to columbus. that was cake. it was today's drive that was draining. started at 8:30 am and ended at 9:15 pm. okay for those mathemagicians out there that is more than 12 hours. but ryan and i came upon an accident in which two tractor-trailers collided to create what a witness described as "hell on earth". the two vehicles exploded and burned down to their frames. the wreckage was intense, but in order to see it you had to travel 7 miles for TWO hours.... slow doesn't even begin to describe the traffic pace.

anyway, we arrive in brooklyn and meet up with my friends in the band Witch's Hat. i had secured them and the band Bald Eagle a place to stay for the week of the CMJ festival, but like clockwork, something fell through. a roommate of one of the people they are staying with was unaware, and was not cool with four unknowns grabbing floor space. in the end it worked out fine, everyone has found cozy dwellings in williamsburg, brooklyn, but we will see how the shuffle for floor space will go for the next couple of days.

i am really looking forward to seeing some friends and meeting some new people with whom the label and band will be working with. also i will have dinner with my grandma (who apparently is sticking around this lifetime long enough to see me get married.... we'll see about that). so all in all i expect good things, but i need some rest. i slept on a hard wood floor last night and tonight i will be on a loveseat, so my back is going to be in all sorts of compromising positions... (insert your own joke here)

100 days of sobriety (also equals 100 days of celibacy)

2007-10-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

So in the past couple of months i have dealt with a variety of dizzy spells and disorientations. My doctor recommended i let go of the bottle for a month. i did. i felt a little better, and after some blood tests, my electrolites and such improved. but it was recommended that i continue to stay on the sobriety train. so after fifteen more days, i got an implied challenge from friend josh. most people know him as pants, but he is currently riding 160 plus days without solid food. he has lost over 200 pounds and looks GREAT! i'm really proud of him. anyway, josh and i were talking. i was complaining about something, and he turns to me and says, "look schuh, when you have been off alcohol for a hundred days like i have been without food, then you can complain." thus the idea for 100 days of sobriety was born. what an idea, NO alcohol for 100 days. the last time that happened was years ago after i came down with a virus that kept me from walking. (a story for another time).

so here i am my 100th day of sobriety and i'm feeling great. do i sound like an alcoholic? well i certainly drank too much, but i think the issue was the fact that i was unable to maintain a balance of moderation and my body pretty much told me "that's it i'm shutting down." if you don't take care of your body it will do something about it. mine did. so in my off time from drinking i started exercising and eating better! what a fucking concept! so i feel better, though the dizzy spells still exist. MRI results showed i was normal(ish). no tumors and such. so what is my deal. i have done everything the doctors asked and well here i am still searching for an answer. damn i need a drink...

well the other biproduct is celibacy. now i'm not saying throw me a pity party, but the thing about not drinking and hanging out with people late into the evening you are aware of EVERY movement and word. you can't just cross off a one night stand to having too much cranberry juice. so i find myself overanalyzing words, movements and feelings. it doesn't leave much room for stupid lines and moves...

regardless, i feel okay with all of that. i have met some really nice women (which is hard to find in a college town) but nothing to write home about... yet. all in all i'm going to quietly celebrate this small feat with some sleep. alone. (pity party time!)

Ascension into the Kingdom of Salt Lake City

2007-06-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

It’s been awhile since I updated my blog, but I have been incredibly busy preparing, packing and planning my trip out to the west coast. This is a broken tour of sorts eleven shows during a three week span, so part vacation, part introducing our music to a segment of the world that may have heard us in mp3 form…
To catch you up to speed, we played Denver our first night. The show went well, the staff at the hi-dive was incredible, but at the end of the night there was a discrepancy on the guarantee. Basically we were given $100 less than what we were told we would get, and in the day of the rising gas price, this was not a good conclusion. On top of that our merch case was run over by this drunk asshole. The picture is on the foundry’s myspace site. No one was hurt, but 14 cd’s met their end that night.
Everything about that show was great until the last 45 minutes. The plus in all of this was I met my cousin for the first time ever. I have been on this planet for 30 years and met a cousin I sort of knew existed but we were never in the same area. He was really nice and I found it odd that we had several things in common. He is a sports journalist and has a healthy to unhealthy obsession with sharks. Very similar wavelengths here.
The next day found us camping at Rifle Falls, Colorado campground. The back drop of the mountains and streams were jaw dropping. We got camped under a canopy of clouds, stars, and trees, all to the soundtrack of the waterfalls just 200 yards from our alcoholic induced slumbers. It was so peaceful, and I discovered I really enjoy camping. I have always liked camping, but my family wasn’t a camping family. A tent and a solid sleeping bag are my next purchases. Not saying I’m going to live off the grid, but perhaps I will camp more often, or I’d like to…
When the camp was cleaned up and the van was packed we headed to our next tour spot in Salt Lake City. I couldn’t get over how beautiful this part of the country is. The mountains, the mountains, the mountains. This was consistent with Utah, and as we entered salt lake city we found this huge city nestled in between the mountains. My friend tyrone davies helped us set up a show there, and like most salt lake city residents he is mormon. I only point this out as an aside, because I think there is an immediate prejudice when you label someone who is mormon-first. In speaking terms it would come across like this: “So this mormon guy comes up to me and hands me this book.” In tyrone’s case the mormon part is a PART of him, not his central being. I met Tyrone back in college in Columbia, and he has since moved on to salt lake city, then san Francisco, then back to salt lake city, where he is currently doing a variety of video projects and is awaiting a son or daughter from his expecting wife.
I always thought tyrone was a bit of an anomaly when it came to people practicing mormon faith. He was into a lot of different art and media, that wouldn’t typically be associated with the Mormon mainstream. In high school, the students who were mormon were clean cut, liked clean family sitcoms, and were always the happiest people on Monday mornings. In high school I thought they came across as a little delusional. But that was a hasty judgment coming from a kid who was dealing with puberty and losing the dream of becoming a professional baseball player.
I met tyrone’s group of friends, most to my knowledge were also practicing the tenants of the mormon doctrine. This was ignorance on my half, but I was really struck with how much everyone (the band and tyrone’s friends) had in common. We would have never guessed each other’s background, until at the end of the night we were asked if were LDS? I kindly replied no, and the subject went elsewhere. No one try to hand us a book of mormon, it was understood and respected.
So after the show we hung out with Tyrone, his friends, and some of the staff of Kilby Court (which incidentally is a great all ages venue in SLC). Afterwards it was decided that a friend Tyrone’s would be housing the band at his parent’s condo. Tyrone was moving so he had an empty house to offer us. His friend had actual beds (a luxury on the road if you can find it!) so we follow this gentleman named Blair. He and Tyrone work on a zine in SLC. So as our tightly packed ford windstar minivan followed Blair’s red sedan through the downtown area, we realize how wide the streets are. The amount of traffic does not equal the need for these incredibly wide streets. I came to find out that when Brigham Young settled the area he wanted streets wide enough for a horse and buggy to make u-turns wherever they liked.
We continued to make our way past the fading lights of the downtown area into the hills by the capitol. And went up, up, up, and up. When we got to the top we were met by a gated condo community. Blair punched in the code and went into what can only be described as a semi-exclusive community. After finally parking the car, we were well above SLC and saw the grid of streets and lights, it was actually breathtaking. Blair explained to us that the house used to be rented out to various people, but his family now used it primarily for family gatherings.
The interior had all of the earmarks of a mormon house hold. A painting of jesus, a timeline of Mormon history in poster form, neatly organized furniture made popular two decades ago, and bookcases of various books about the Mormon history and religion. It felt a bit alien to be in the house, but like the doormat said, we were Welcome.
Blair was a gracious host and got us towels for that other road luxury, showers! Oh i used that shower to its fullest capability. When Benjamin was done with his shower, he said he used all of his toiletries. Sometimes when you get caught in a bind and have to move to the next city or destination showers have to be quick, but seeing that we had plenty of time you could use all twenty of your shampoos! Okay it may not be twenty, but you get the point…
This visit to SLC comes as I finished Andrew Beaujon’s look at the Christian Music Industry in his book, Body Piercings Saved My Life. I am not a religious being by any means, but I have not been able to tackle the idea of the afterlife in a very constructive way. Basically it is a series of abstract thoughts that drift in and out of my head. After reading this book I think I have better perspective on the variety of groups that reign in God’s kingdom under the heading of Christianity. Some people are guided by the organized corporate churches and others maintain a personal relationship that remains just that, personal.
Well I’m going to nap now, as we head up I-15 to Boise… over-n-out…

Catch up time/ josh hancock/ me vs. my mom in wii-land

2007-04-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

i am trying to think of where i should begin with this one...

i mean for real, this was one rollercoaster of a weekend. i guess the most logical thing to do would be to start from the beginning...

so we played a show in davenport, iowa. this was a five and a half hour drive that followed my day of parent teacher conferences. so exhausted and slightly under the influence we make it to the Red Stone Room. this was an upscale bar that was pretty new and littered with a mix of people. it seemed weird to have live music, especially the kind we play, but we did it anyway. you really thought waiters would be coming out to serve dinner. it had nice wood everything three huge video screens and a fancy club-like bar. you know the kind where the surface is so shiny you can see your drunk mug lookin' back at ya'?

so we play the show, some people seem into it, others hear it as background to their conversations. after we get done we are approached by a guy who was really complimentary of the set, but critical of my friend becky's movement as a bass player. "your bass parts were great, but you didn't move." of course this didn't sit well with me, because i bought this asshole a shot. so i told becky he should kick him in the nuts. she held back, and i proceeded to get weird on him. this was a tactic i used to get out the way of the bully. this guy was much taller than me and i was provoking him so i left him with this very strange reply, after he mentioned something about Burger King:

"Burger King? Burger King? Where I am from we don't have Burger King, we have Princess Land! What you call a Whopper, we call BEDTIME!" boo yah!

so yeah i couldn't believe was still able to stand. i had one and half hours of sleep, seven and half hours of work (two dedicated to parent/teacher conferences) and the limit of alcohol my body could take. so yeah mission accomplished, billy! seriously "BEDTIME!" ugh i'm an idiot. luckily nothing happened, and we proceeded to hit the towns of Davenport and Rock Island.

The next day I was TIRED!

somehow still made it in time to clean up the bar at Eastside... after bartending i caught up with some friends at a party, and then i got magically called away to a late night wiffleball game where i pitched up a homerun to my pal benjamin, he knocked the hell out of it, later i wandered the streets with a pleasant transient soul...

Sunday i am awoken to my friend jarrett telling me the cardinals and cubs game we were to attend was cancelled after the sudden death of relief pitcher Josh Hancock. Josh had pitched against the Cubs the night he was killed in a car accident. His car was heading down Highway 40 when smashed into the back of a tow truck that had been in the left hand lane helping another motorist. he was 29.

So with the game being appropriately cancelled i decided at the very last minute that i was going to go visit my family for dinner. good idea on my part. we had a nice dinner, watched some episodes of entourage, and then discovered the greatest piece of technology since the toaster. simply put, Wii.

holy shit! this is the most amazing piece of hardware. it is wireless and deals with all directional movement. if you are playing a golf game, you swing the controller like a golf club. if you are playing a baseball game you swing the controller like a bat. so my mom and i played a bowling game. it was like the real deal, complete with sweeping gutterballs and shattering strikes, my mom was responsible for the latter. she beat me three times in a row. i kept having to say i had to go, but Wii just pulls you back in for three or four more games. it is as addicting as my need for diet coke...

all in all a good weekend, but this week leaves me with a lot of work to do... what am i doing to myself?

I am playing the Mean Girl

2007-04-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

Often I think my friends get tired of stories about my students. but man kids say the darnedest things... okay that was bad... but here is an exchange with one of my students today (names have been changed for the sake of privacy). I find Lisa digging in the sand by herself away from her friends. Keep in mind Lisa is 3 years old:

Billy: (okay this name isn't changed) Hey Lisa what are you doing?

Lisa: I am the mean girl.

Billy: Why are you the mean girl?

Lisa: Well... I am playing the mean girl.

Billy: Why can't you play the nice girl?

Lisa: Because I have to be the mean girl until I die in green. And then after that I will be born the nice girl.

Billy: Okay...

Some kids say cute, funny things like "calapitter" instead of catepillar. others blurt out things their parents say when they get angry like "god damn it!" (with perfect intonation). while a few, like Lisa, create fantastical worlds where they are one character then die, only to be reborn as another characther. their minds are complex and they see things we don't, like ghosts...

i have had students have full conversations with bathroom stalls, corners of rooms, and hallways... this phenomena is similar to a dog barking at nothing, or a cat staring for hours at nothing... so kids in general are cute, imaginative and creepy...

another recent development with my students, is that they are slowly catching on to the fact that my last name is schuh (shoe) and indeed that is funny, but they have decided to change my name to funnier, sometimes rhyming, words. here is a brief list:

Billy:
- Boo
- Poo
- Poop
- Silly
- Silly head (this one actually hurts my feelings)
- Pencilface
- School
- (fart sound)
- Goo Goo Gaa Gaa (my favorite)

Now granted these names haven't stuck, but i have been going through this my whole life, and i have yet to hear any original material... this might be a challenge for somebody...

a mix-mesh of the undercurrent

2007-04-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

so there are floods of doubt and confusion coursing through my life right now, so the next few lines won't be coherent chronologically, but to me it will be a linear line of thought...

sometimes no matter how arresting the person next to you on a carved surface is, you must maintain your position...

maybe these dizzy spells and body aches are the sign of the end to be. which would be very disappointing, because i think i'm just starting to get my life in order...

sober conversations may alter perceptions, but atleast they are worth looking forward to...

even as the walls close in i know this is the right path, one step at a time, one step at a time...

...

his name was patrick

2007-03-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

the other night a former student of mine invited me to a candle light for the anniversary of his brother's death. as you may or may not know i teach 3 to 5 year olds so this story is all the more tragic. my former student was five and his brother nearly a year old when he passed away. needless to say i was already close to this family, but after this tragedy took place i would become a little closer.

a year ago, i got the news from the head of school in the early evening. she told me simply that patrick had passed away and that the family was going to need a lot of support. i was in shock because the baby was in my class that day. he was crawling around full of energy, full of life. by that afternoon he had died. it was said that SIDS was the cause, and i cannot see how that reason could give any parent understanding. sudden infant death syndrome. that is just an acronym, not a cause of death...

regardless the family had an incredible year trying to move on, trying to wake up, trying to put one shoe on at a time, trying to put their clothes on and get going with a day that no one else in their lives would experience. constant reminders through out the house in toys, clothes, spaces, and pictures. patrick was only on the planet for a short time, but his impact was immense.

it is said that one of the greatest tragedies for a parent is to see their child die. i believe it. the following days afterward, patrick's father would make his way over to the school, exhausted from lack of sleep and overwrought with emotion. he would come over and sign his son (my student at the time) in and out. just getting back to a routine. trying to keep some part of his life consistent.

both parents were incredible through this whole situation. they did everything they could to make sure their five year old was going to make it through all of this. michael was a bright student and emotionally was very aware of his surroundings. which i think helped him cope better with his brother's death.

the vigil was beautiful, a small tree was planted in the front yard and several candles were placed around the young trunk. about twenty people from around the neighborhood attended, and each talked about the young boy known as patrick. some spoke about the parents, and others commented on the support of the neighborhood. which i think is the big picture of this event.

columbia over the past ten years has torn up huge segments of earth to make way for upscale homes and shopping centers. these new developments may attract families, but they won't attract entire neighborhoods like the one on Anderson Ave. (where patrick's family resides). this neighborhood pulled together and helped out the family. brought dinner over, bought clothes for the family for the funeral, mowed the lawn, took michael out, and provided a solid foundation for support.

this family would not have healed over this past year without those people, and the vigil was there way of saying thank you. it really makes you take a step back from your own life and realize what is important, what is necessary, and in the grand scheme of things how small we really are...

Mastodon...Megazilla...For Fuck's sake save your Blog entry...

2007-03-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

okay so i wrote out this HUGE!!! blog about my experience at the Mastodon show, and wouldn't you know it, i messed up on one of the tags, and when i went back to plug in the entry it erased everything... it has taken me two days to recover, so i will try this again, and hopefully with the same energy, here it goes:

The other night I went to see Mastodon, Priestess, Mouth of the Architect, and Megazilla at the blue note.

when writing out concert reviews there is a simple set of guidelines one must follow:
1) Who you saw
2) Where you went
3) Try to avoid introducing a band as "my friend's band" when you do this it immediately puts that band on a grading curve. For example:

Last night i went to see my friend's band Toxic Waste Dump. They were pretty good. "Pretty good = horrible" sorry that is how it works. Also if you describe a band as "really nice people" first, also not a good band.

with all of this said.

The first band of the evening was Megazilla. i have seen this band numberous times but not on a sound system as big as The Blue Note. the duo has played in smaller venues, basements, art spaces, etc. but they certainly took advantage of the modest 1000 person capacity Blue Note. Did i mention these guys happen to be friends of mine. But lets take them off of the "Friend's band" grading curve. it would be unfair, because their perfomance was loud and they were tight. Corey "MegaCoCo" Cottrell explains that Megazilla is basically "a kick drum and amps" and he is right. Joey "MegaJoJo" Hook, plays the kit with six arms and a driving kick that layers very well with Cottrell's eight string bass. The songs are heavy but precise. The two have great chemistry, most likely because the two are off-stage lovers. okay that part is not true, but the two had previously played in a five piece called Grand Canyon, which, like most Columbia bands, met a premature end.

The most impressive thing about Megazilla's performance was the amount of people who were captivated by their show. during the quiet parts of songs there was not a single voice. All eyes were on these two creating a great warm up for the eventual headliners Mastodon.

Mastodon, has had lofty and genuine comparisons to Metallica. i have never seen metallica, but good christ the music is there. i am not a stranger to metal, but i'm not season ticket holder to the genre either, but this was a fantastic performance. these guys treat metal as an actual art form. there are no silly poses, or overdone costumes. these four just step up to their instruments and play. this is what other metal bands should strive for. yes the subject matter of their songs are considered "dark" and "heavy" but they don't need to look, dress or act that way.

i have returned... with what exactly...

2007-03-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

so i went to austin, texas with my band, and it was hella fun... we played some good shows and saw some good shows. we spent time with friends and drank with them.

i had some very good meetings and got some great advice from new and old friends who own fantastic labels...

i think what i came back with is a fresh perspective on everything i am doing. i was really down on myself for coming off too business like sometimes, but after meeting some of the people i met, i am nowhere near that level. i am simply trying to get columbia on the map, and help bands i love get their music out to as many people as possible. it would be nice if this was my full time job, but it is not... not right now. i don't think this is a foolish pursuit... but time will be the best judge.

so after travelling 14 hours in the minivan with five other people (austin to columbia), i had to get up and motivate myself to face the onslaught of 20+ children and their needs at 8 am... it was a lot today, mondays are always difficult, they are out of routine, out of sync, and of course not feeling well... so after 8 and half hours i came home and fixed my computer, had some dinner and worked out for the first time in a week. austin was fun, but i paid for it... i think i am still recovering from friday night's partying...

i'll have a SxSW tour diary in MOVE magazine in the next couple of weeks...

i recently read a very good book called Attention. Deficit. Disorder. by Brad Listi. Brad contacted the band's myspace site and we traded his LA times Bestselling book for our cd... i read it in the van to and from austin, and normally this isn't the type of book i would read cover to cover, but i kept identifying with the main character. anyway i am going to write him a letter at my earliest convenience. the main character goes through so much personal tragedy, i'm curious to know how much of Mr. Listi's own personal demons are intertwined in the character. i know that sometimes the songs i write have very cryptic lyrics, but they are always connected to me somehow... anyway i highly recommend the book.

it is time to rest my head full of worry... good night to you all as well...

okay okay i now have a computer...

2007-03-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

so now i don't have any excuse to update this...

here is what i know... as of the past couple months i have contemplated many changes in my life. we are talking big time transitions. i am not renewing my lease, i don't know where i'm going to live, but i know that i am looking for a month-to-month thing. so that should cause an ample amount of stress on my life on top of the other things...

but to counteract all of that i am working out on a daily basis (well 5 out of 7 days to be exact), and i am addicted to it. that's not necessarily a good thing but it gives me a routine, and i feel a whole lot better.

i will say lately my patience has run out on a lot of things. i realize i live in a community that i absolutely adore, but the members are all in transition in their lives. which of course effects everyone else. i have sort of isolated myself because i have issues i am trying to deal with. i think the big part of all of this, is that i feel like there are certain expectations of me that shouldn't be put on anyone. in my position i feel like there is no room for error, people just expect you to continue being this person that met five years ago, five months ago, or five minutes ago. and sometimes its just too much. i think the goal of anyone living here is to try to make the positive changes for yourself without hurting other people...

with that said i have hurt people in trying to continue on this path of music. i feel horrible about that, especially when you see that individual in public and there is this nonexistent look in their eyes. i can quickly dismiss that as eighth grade behavior, but that's not it all (and i have had to convince myself of this) it is much deeper than that. (i guess you all know who i am referring to at this point) but even though i know that the decision to leave a great relationship was for the best, the imprint is still there. the feelings take a long time to heal. i wish i could say something that would heal, but everything has already been said, and you have to move on...

which i have, and i maintain my singlehood for good reason. its just not my time to have a very involved relationship, other than the whole label and band thing...

speaking of... i will be in austin all next week for sxsw. i am excited and nauseated at the same time. i have had so much advice about going down there and having a plan of action. i already do, and i just want to take my time and soak in the festivities. the band has four activities:

- wed. 3/14 - IODA opening day bash with black angels, apostle of hustle, etc...
- wed. 3/14 - that night we are doing a daytrotter session.
- thur. 3/15 - we are playing right after the texas rollergirls. roller derby, texas style!
- fri. 3/16 - we will sit down with XM radio for an acoustic session...

on top of this i have various meetings with distributors and other labels. so i will be busy.

well i have vented enough, and i hope to get back to a more noteworthy installment in the next day or so...

The Shift of the Room....

2007-02-01T05:20:00.000-08:00

So for the past month I have been battling a sense of vertigo. It comes in the form of a light head, a shift in vision, or complete unbalance. I looked to many possibilities: stress, a tumor, an irregular heart, low blood sugar, and possibly the need for corrective vision.

Stress - This to me was an all to likely candidate. I have a lot going on in my life, which in the past has caused me to break off good relationships, quit jobs, and acquire some very unlikely viruses and illnesses. So with this go around of dizzy spells I thought maybe this could be it. Currently at two jobs, own a label, and play in a band, this to me would be the recipe for disaster. No time for a relationship, some time for immediate friends, and some time for myself. I have concentrated on myself trying to work out more often (which I have), eat healthier (which I have), and get more sleep (which I have). I have also cut down considerably on alcohol and caffeine. But my stress still remains.... so here is where I think the dizzy spells come in. For this theory I may only be partly right.

Tumor - Now this of course is what many people in my family also freak out about. We have very little history of cancer in my family (we are a family of meat and potatoes and cigarette heart attacks) and of course this would be the big Cosmic joke that once I start leading a healthier life the Universe would deal a tumor to stand in my way. The doctor did a number of neurological tests. Not the kind with a brain scan and wires attached to my head, the basic physical exam. They check to make sure you can feel you hands and feet and face, you are reacting to light and dark normally, and just making sure all of your senses are in its right place (does food taste funny, do you smell odd scents, etc?) After letting them know that I could feel, smell, taste, hear, and see fine, I was good to go.

Irregular Heart - This same doctor gave me the okay on my heart as well. I thought that maybe I was having problems after having one dizzy spell during a work out. But my blood pressure and pulse were tip top, and my heart beat was regular... so I'm good there.

Low Blood Sugar - This to me would a realistic one. I have not cut back on eating, but I have cut a TON of sugar out of my diet. Moderation is key. I eat a good variety of fruit, veggies and meat through out the day. If I drink soda its a diet or caffiene free diet version of it. But the doctors said that with the food that I am eating I am getting enough of the sugar one needs to maintain oneself. Okay doc...

Corrective Vision - I have a pretty weak prescription. I am farsided and have been in need for glasses and contacts for a couple of years, but I haven't really needed them. I was able to read fine, drive fine and see fine. Recently I noticed things were not going as well as they had, and my vision blurred when reading small upclose print. But I pushed it aside arrogantly. Well my physician said it would be a good idea to have the professional eye doctor take a look at what is going on. My eyes have indeed worsened in the past couple of years. I have an astigmatism, different powers in each eye, and overall jaded perception of life. okay that last part was a bit of an exaggeration, but its true...

we'll see how this all gets sorted out. (sigh)

Bumbleebee, Jazz, Starscream and Beckham. If you know who the first three are you are officially a Nerd.

2007-01-13T10:03:00.001-08:00

Okay before I begin I need to take a deep breath... I don't know how you do that in cyberspace. Regardless, I have uncovered, thanks to a friend of mine, a trailer, but not just any trailer, thee trailer that will own me until july 4, 2007. When I first heard about this movie my interest was drawn. Then I found out that Michael Bay was directing it and I completely forgot about it. So after a night of cards, a friend of mine showed me this trailer...

I have plans on July 4, 2007.

So the quality is a not as good, and in fact I would go to Yahoo.com and select the HD version of the trailer. It takes some time to download, but it is worth it.

I believe the Steven Spielberg involvement cancels out the Michael Bay involvement. Now I can truly enjoy this movie. I don't know who continues to let Michael Bay direct films, but please make him stop! Perhaps, Mr. Bay will turn it around here. Honestly it won't take much to turn it around from The Island.

When I was young(er) I loved the hell out of the Transformers. Bumblebee was my favorite (he was a VW bug) and Jazz was second (a sports car). But this new live action film has taken my clunky toys and poorly drawn cartoon and launched Transformers into a sleak and terrifying sci-fi picture. The Decepticons were bad guys in the 80s, but now they are MENACING. In this movie version they outnumber the Autobots (the "good" guys) and don't seem to care for life on this planet. A new addition to the movie is that both sides have two different forms. One form for Cybertron (their home planet, duh) and one for Earth.

I will most likely see Transformers atleast two times starting on July 4, and maybe a third, fourth, or fifth time if Michael Bay does not incorporate horrible music through out the film.

During my Transformer infatuation years, I was also a dedicated soccer player. I loved soccer I played Indoor and Outdoor. My favorite team was of course, the St. Louis Steamers. So it should be a strange cosmic connection that the day I learn about the Transformers movie trailer, we are all introduced to David Beckham as a memeber of the L.A. Galaxy. In the world of soccer, his name is huge. His ability has been on a downward slope. So is the U.S. the Florida Retirement Home version of Soccer stars past their prime? We'll see.

But I think there is something to be said when Soccer is one of the most popular recreational sports for children in the United States, but in the mainstream appeal it falls short, well short, of sports like Football, Baseball, and Basketball. Soccer has been trying for years to tweak and adjust it's commercial appeal, but they continue to pull in these circus tricks like the 13 year old soccer phenom Freddy Adu signing a multiyear contract with the MLS. U.S. soccer has a history with bringing in big names. Does anyone remember Pele playing for the New York Cosmos?

I really hope soccer succeeds in the U.S. but it is not going to be pulled up by a guy who is married to Posh Spice. (God Bless Ali G.)

You may be Marshall, but You are NOT going to make me Cry!

2006-12-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

A week ago I attended the film, We Are Marshall. The true story based on the 1970 Marshall University football team that perished in a plane crash after playing a game against East Carolina University. The victims included almost all of the football staff and members of the athletic director's office. If a football team were to be started again they would have to start with four players and a receivers coach (played by Matthew Fox). The school hires Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) as head coach to pick up the pieces and begin the program again.

This movie was nicely laid out, but I felt the director McG (yes just three letters, one name) was trying to make the audience cry. I decided I was not going to cry no matter what was thrown at me. There is the plane crash, very abrupt and it is always sad to see the end of the incredible potential in the human element. It pulls at the heart strings, BUT I'm not going to cry. Then there are those that were left behind, fathers, mothers, teammates, and fiances and there struggle to cope with the sudden loss. Really pulling at the heart, BUT I'm not going to cry. Then there is the first home game with the brand new team made up of mostly freshmen (which were allowed to play thanks to an NCAA exemption) that pulled out a victory against Xavier, BUT again I'm not going to cry. After the celebration is over, McG pulls out one last stop to get the audience to cry. After the team has cleaned up and left the locker room. Coach Red (Fox) is left in the room by himself. He sits down and cries. Not just any cry, but a sincere overly emotional venting cry. This was a man who decided to let another coach get on the plane so he could catch his granddaughter's piano recital, which ultimately saved his life. This was also a man who only committed to one year of coaching after the crash and found redemption. He had finally found a cathartic release in this team's win. It was a very deep and moving last scene, but... I DID NOT CRY! Screw you, McG! I won. I held it together very well, but my friends did not fair so well. They let loose a towel's worth of tissue after we left the theater.

Folks its a football movie. Not Steel Magnolias. Sheesh!

Rocky Balboa: a true testament to Hollywood's patience for Sylvester Stallone

2006-12-26T00:38:00.000-08:00

So today I took in the movie Rocky Balboa. I went in to this movie fully intending to hate it, but I also had a bit of nostalgia in my coat pocket for this character. Christ! my favorite training scene is in Rocky IV. This movie resembled the first and second Rocky movies. There was a sentimental pull for Rocky as a person, as Adrian has now since passed, and Rocky is left to keep up the restaurant, appropriately named "Adrian's". But as Rocky makes his way through Philadelphia on the anniversary of Adrian's death, he is reminded of his past. A past that apparently contains a beast within, and is looking for redemption.

Enter ESPN and a video game simulation between the movie's current champion Mason "The Line" Dixon. I cannot make that up, that really is the name of the character. When it turns out that virtual Rocky defeats virtual Mason, some sneaky-as-snake promoters come to present Rocky with an offer he does not refuse. You can guess what happens, and I have to say it was decently constructed. It by no means captures the essence of Rocky in chapters one and two (and hell even four for that matter). The movie ends with an epic battle of supremacy where the will of Rocky must go toe-to-toe with the speed and quickness of Dixon. I won't ruin it for you, but there is a winner at the end of the bout.

This movie overall was worth seeing, it closed up all of the loose ends created by Rocky V, and even III for that matter. The only thing that would have sold me completely on this movie would be to have Ivan Drago return to fight the winner, for christ sake Drago was able to level a man with punch measuring 2000 PSI. That my friends is a punch that "Rocky Balboa" lacks. I would give this movie 40 PSI. Which is exactly the amount of air needed in the tires of my Ford Windstar minivan.

R.I.P. James Brown and other last minute Christmas Gift ideas...

2006-12-25T00:10:00.000-08:00

So I learned a few minutes ago that James Brown has passed on. One man's day of birth is another man's day of expiration.

Before I found out this round of news, I had been wrapping my family's xmas presents and playing pool with my dad (the old man got the best of me 2-1). actually as i write this my parents are putting the presents underneath the tree... i'm still pissed about the revelation of the true identity of Santa.

Speaking of, Columbia's own NASCAR driver has started a record label in Columbia, MO. So now among Emergency Umbrella, Co-Opt, and Cat Jams, we can now add Back 40 Records. According to the site Carl and his pal Aaron have a number of artists that range from Hip Hop to Rock. The claim here is that they will help talented Columbia artists get into the national spotlight. they have a studio somewhere in columbia and are ready to get everything up and running. i have emailed carl or aaron to say hi from EU and that i would geniunely like to meet them and see the studio. their roster of artists are not my cup of tea, but we'll see what their contribution will be to the community.

I also made some time to buy some guitar strings at Guitar Center. I absolutely hate going into BIG guitar and instrument shops. There is always a sales associate wailing on some $2000 guitar (distortion, hard rock scales complete with squeals, and almost always sporting a pony tail). There is also a customer trying out a bass amp, playing the same notes over and over and over and over. After a couple of measures they should get the idea. And then there is of course a Nirvana song they have blaring over the speakers in the store. Go to one of these shops and I promise within 30 minutes you will hear Nirvana. Look I like Nirvana just as much as the next person, but if I were working at that store, I would use my shitty health insurance to have doctors remove my hearing.

Well I'm off to sleep and wake up to a tree full of tightly wrapped presents, though i got my big present already a 14 month membership as my main present... god i need to get back in shape...

anyway, i hope everyone gets what they want under their tree... as for me i hope my 22 year old sister doesn't wake me up at 6 am (she still hasn't outgrown the excitement of christmas morning).

A trip to the refrigerator leads me to the St. Louis Blues game with my Mother

2006-12-24T01:45:00.000-08:00

wow what a creative title for my first blog post in a long time. so last night we played a show for our friend colin's graduation party at Eastside Tavern. we had a great time, played some new songs (there seemed to be a nice reception to the new material) and than partied until the very very wee wee wee hours of the morning. my phone was filled with drunk messages and a very self-loathing text message (i still haven't replied, its so stupid that its not worthy of further comment). so i was hungover and met a new friend. i'm proud to say that she is a new friend, she is so funny and cool, benjamin and i had lunch with her. its nice to have people like that in columbia. so after a lunch full of conversation and discovery, i made my way back to st. louis, i talked to my brother and my friend ryan reed for awhile, and than traded my time with AM radio. i don't like listening to music on the radio, so i grabbed some talk radio...

so i get home and immediately go to the refrigerator. 1. because my parents have food, and 2. my parents have food. so on the door i found four tickets to the Blues game for tonight vs. the Buffalo Sabres. the face value read $100 per ticket! so even though i was tired and hungover, i could not stand that these tickets did not have a person to use them, so my mom and i went.

it was great. the blues won 3-2 in overtime, but more importantly i had a pretty chill evening with my mom. i admit i'm a mama's boy, i talk to my mom quite a bit, but it was nice going on this impromptu trip. she went with me, because i couldn't find anyone to go in time for the game, but she really liked the game. plus the seats were in the Club section, which meant we had a wait staff attend to our every hot dog and beer need we had.

later, i caught up with some friends from columbia, which included my friend rich, who is by far my funniest friend. he makes me laugh so hard i actually tear up, but then again i'll tear up several times during steel magnolias. okay that is only partly true. but still he is one funny fella, and is a welcomed part of company. i also saw my friend jenni, john, dan, and stephanie. none of them know each other, but they do now, and it was a nice evening of beer and talk at one of st. louis' worst restaurants "krieger's". it is as trite as applebees or ruby tuesdays.

all in all it was a nice day, but i have to get some fucking sleep already.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

expect more transmissions now that i have a computer to work on for the next three days.

happy holidays y'all...

computer availability = consistent blog updates

2006-12-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well this is what I get for starting a blog over Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Only to return to Columbia and not have a computer at home, so of course it has been ages since my return to my battle station.

So as we know this is the time of year that I go completely broke before the holiday season. So if anybody is expecting any gifts from me, think twice, think three times, and then think, wait what did I get last year from Billy? So not to dwell on my financial situation much longer, but I was supposed to go to Chicago, but I was not able to afford to go. Even though I found one of the most affordable means of transport. I am still looking for the catch, but regardless, Chicago will have to wait until next month.

I caught The Hold Steady. They have a very energetic live show and a cult following to boot, but it isn't for me. My friend commented "I guess I'm just not into rock and roll anymore." I guess I haven't made up my mind about them yet, but my friend may be on to something here. Where is rock and roll heading? I'm not sure. Though the bands that produce that anthem-style rock will always have an audience, as long as there is beer...

the quiet devastation of the Ace/King...

2006-11-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

I am still reeling from a beat last night. it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. for those in the know of poker here is what i had:

Ace/Three

the flop:

Ace Jack Three

okay so i had two pair

I bet half the pot, the other player calls

the turn:

Jack

at this point i go all in

my opponent calls.

she has ace as well, but she has a king kicker, i only have a three kicker.

so we both have two pair Aces Jacks. but her kicker is better than mine...

the river is a five and what once was the lead was now nothing... i said good night to everyone and pouted for a good seven hours... i even pouted in my sleep...

but i got to leave work early today! and headed back to st. louis. my friend pete accompanied me. we talked about music, venues, future jobs, local bands, labels, etc. and we also went on the the McDonald's McRib Farewell Tour II. I had never had a McRib before, so we stopped off in Kingdom City to get what was supposed to be this amazing sandwich. I'm not the biggest fan of McDonald's (except for McGriddles... that should be made illegal) but I felt the need to try this sandwich. Essentially it sucks. Its messy, it doesn't taste that good, and by all accounts I can't really tell if it is actual meat. It looks like it, but it doesn't taste like it.

So after trying to digest this sandwich... I got the chance to hear the new M. Ward album. It's really nice and mellow. Not to sell it short that its just some basic guitar and sleepy vocals, it fits many moods perfectly. He really has a nice arrangement of melodies and breaks up the pop song formula. There is this AM gold type of quality to the recording. It's warm and comforting.

Well I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving... mine will be filled with food, sleep movies, and football... my version of a yearly hibernation. I might just turn my cell phone off. (that'll be the day...)

i'm glad i hitched my apple wagon to your star...

2006-11-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

So as I mentioned before I teach 3-5 year olds at a Montessori school. Today was the yearly Thanksgiving Day Luncheon. So pretty much 18 students with about 18 extra family members. I always envision this scene of chaos and destruction, but it actually ran pretty smooth. The kids were great, and the parents were too... I have to start giving them more credit on days like this.

So I have been having trouble getting The Boy Least Likely To song "I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon to your Star" out of my head. It is pure sugar. I mean like the good kind. If I were ten I would make this my marching anthem.

Hey we got a nice write up from our local paper, The Columbia Daily Tribune. It was a tour journal about our trip up to CMJ and back.

A warm and cold greeting...

2006-11-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why I am starting this. I mean I do, but I don't. Does this make sense? Probably not.

After months of going over various sites like Brooklyn Vegan and Gorilla Vs. Bear and even locally grown ones like Cool Dry Place, so I thought I would put my thoughts down to internet.

Let me first introduce myself and say hi.

So hi, my name is Billy Schuh and I have started a blog called "Playing Catch with Zombies". Why the strange name? I actually don't know, it just popped in my head and wouldn't leave. Okay I lied I know what it means, it combines something that terrifies me as well as something I enjoy. I like to bridge the gaps between different sides. Call it diplomacy (or stupidity) but I have had some pretty harsh seperations (a couple pretty recently) and I use this analogy or imagery as a way to describe two sides meeting half way on something. I believe 99% of conflicts can be resolved in three sentences. That 1% is honestly not worth my breath nor time. Still not making sense. Ah fuck it, let's move on.

I have a pretty hectic life: I am a member of The Foundry Field Recordings, I co-own and work with artist relations for Emergency Umbrella, I teach at Columbia Montessori School, and I sometimes bartend at Eastside Tavern. Somewhere I find times for friends, loved ones, and sleeping.

I am not sure what this space will become, I'll throw variety of thoughts on music, love, sports, love for music and love for sports, politics, pretty much anything my brain is processing... which it is always doing.

So again welcome and I hope you come back, or not really this for me, and you just happened to be peeking in over the fence.

Cheers,

Billy Schuh