Hey! Yeah, I meant to post after last weekend, REALLY!
I played in a softball tournament last Saturday. It was my first tournament, and was a lot of fun. We took 2nd place. After that was done, I met up with Andy and we took off for the Jefferson County fair to check out Styx! After doing a quick lap through the fairgrounds, we took hold of our places about 7 people from the stage. I brought my cam with, I figured I’d get a few pictures, but being that close, I went a little nuts, and with the changing lighting conditions, I had some fun with the manual settings on my camera, and trying to take pictures in the dark without the flash. So, here, look at the best 50 or so pictures that I took!
Let’s see, the rest of the week, um, was pretty normal. Radio show, softball on Tues and Thurs. Lost both games. Really sucked, and Friday night, went to the Capitol Brewery to meet up with my Dad and Lisa to hang out and sorta celebrate their birthdays. Afterwards, a friend called and was going to Waunafest, so, we went there!
Yesterday was WJJO’s Band Camp. Lots of “solid rock” bands, and it was just cool to go and check it out, and see a lot of the concert regular types there. After that, Andy followed me home and we checked out Cherry Pie at Waunafest. So, yup, today was a day of veggin’! I watched a few movies, Days of Thunder, Bowling for Columbine and In & Out, all on cable.
Then, of course, my new little habit, I go to the Internet Movie Database and look up the movies I see, and read the trivia on the movie, goofs, etc. It’s kinda neat!
Here’s a recap of some of the events outside the ordinary since my last post…
Attempted to go to Rhythm and Booms on July 3rd, (my sister’s b-day) a friend from the “metal gang” of friends lives near the park and had a party, but man, it just rained and rained and rained, and Rhythm and Booms was called off, so we just had a good time at the house. Some people had fireworks, and one crazy guy was blowing lighter fluid out his mouth on fire. The best was when he set up a few packs of bottle rockets and lit them with a ball of fire that he breathed on it! Crazy!
Flash forward to the 4th. Another guy from the same gang, Tyson, bass player from Mirror Black had a gathering at his house in Rio. We hung out for while there, someone brought a roll of 8,000 firecrackers and we lit it off. For about 10 minutes it was constant fire cracker noise! It got darker so a few of us headed to Columbus for their firework display. Fireball guy from the night before was one of the people that was setting off the big aereals. (with a flare this time I assume). I haven’t been to a small town fireworks thing for a while, and I was pretty impressed. While there weren’t a lot of aereals, the creativity and power of the ground pyrotechics was great! It was back home after that, time for some rest!
Monday, the 5th, my Mom’s 60th B-day, I was off from work. Got to sleep in, got all my metal show stuff done and picked up Mike and headed to the rain-postponed Rhythm and Booms. Got there early enough and I strategically planned the parking place so we could make a quick exit to get down the WORT by 11pm for the radio show. Great fireworks again, the F16 flyby was awesome and we made it back to WORT just in time. Gotta like it when a plan comes together!
My friend Cindy from L.A. was in town for the week, so on Wed the 7th, we got to hang out, and we saw Dodgeball and watched her bro play fast pitch softball. Wow, fast pitch is a TOTALLY different game! I’d be too scared.
Thursday, I had to bow out of our softball game. If you recall a few weeks ago, the band Kittie was in the studio, and a few weeks before that, we explored The Rave in Milwaukee with the band 36 Crazyfists. Well, the are on tour together and were in Milwaukee on July 8th. So, Mike and I headed over there to check out the show. We met up with the 36 CF guys again, and then went to explore the Rave again. They had some of the cool areas we found last time all locked up, but we got to see the pool room again. We feel like tour guides now, people will come downstairs, and we’ll say; “Hey, are you looking for the pool? yeah? okay, it’s over here…” 
funny. Kittie played, they were good, and Mike and I went to the Pinecone on the way home to wrap up the late night. UGH.
Friday night, an 80’s hard rock cover band was up from Chicago. My bud Harley said that I HAD to go. I had worked a little with the promoter to plug the show on the air, so I guess it’s a good idea to “be seen,” plus, bands like this are a lot of fun, even if I drank water all night! That was another late night.
Saturday morning, I had to take Torrie to the vet. Her eye has been bothering her. 
She has an ulcer and her 2nd eyelid is not looking good. The Vet gave me some anti-biotic to put in for a week. She’s all winky, and damn, she’s hard to catch! But it’s a good workout, and I hope she gets better!
After getting Torrie home, I went up and picked up Tim. After the normal stop at McDonald’s. Hey, I like that crap too, we came home and hung out for a bit, I broke out the walkie talkies, we went to the park, the store, I made some dinner, we watched a movie and it was bed time. Sunday, more playin’, and over to gramma and Marv’s house, then to Mini-Golf and Go-Carts! Fun fun fun! Back to granny’s for some dinner. Mmmmm cheeseburgers. Tim sure can eat!! WOW. Then back to Horicon for the lil guy. In a couple weeks we’re going up north with Lisa and Grampa MO for a week. That will be fun!
Monday night, July 12th. I got most of my metal stuff done later on Sunday night. I headed down to the Annex on Monday night for a show. Innatrance (I’m an aquantance with the guitar player) was opening for big time active rock band Breaking Benjamin. It was a cheapo show courtesy of the big rock station in town, and they sold the place out. Super hot and crowded. It was a decent show, they are all good at what they do, just not as heavy as I normally like, but still, a good show! You gotta respect a band that can get that many people going! I had to bow out a little early to make it to my radio show in time.
After being at WORT for about an hour, Lucas, er um, Meatwad as he’s known as now called in and said he could make it down for his shift of 2-5am. He was having issues with his recent wisdom tooth removal. He asked if we could stay til 5am! UGH. We did the normal 11-2 show, then just had fun playing stuff we like from 2-5. It was great! But damn, tired. I emailed into work, and was only an hour late.
Wednesday night… A few local area bands opened for the band Misery Signals (who are #1 on my chart this week) at a bar downtown called the Klinic. 1) I’ve never been to the Klinic and 2), Its always cool to have a good show in town and not Milwaukee (which had a couple other good bands playing, Himsa and Byzantine). So, Begin the End and Fallen to Ashes were the opening bands, they were pretty damn good, was a decent place to see a show and Linderman (Andy) was there to hang out with. Hell, even Meatwad was in the house. I got to talk to the bass player from Misery Signals after the show, he put me on the list I guess through their record label) and it was all good. Time to go home.
Softball recap? Been frustrating, and I’m such a dick! We pissed away our game on Tuesday by giving up dumb errors. (I had a home run, and was like 4 for 4), Tonight, we did the same, I felt like putting a bow on the scorecard and giving it to the other team. Last Tuesday we actually played well and won the game, I had a homer that night and one the Thursday before. We are really not that bad of a team, either co-ed or men’s, it’s just a matter of playing smart! This weekend, I was asked to play in a small tournament, and hopefully we have the right team playing! Then I plan on heading over to Jefferson County to catch Styx at the county fair! YAY STYX!!!
And as for posting? I know, I just don’t and don’t, and it gets easier to not post then it does TO post. I guess I need to get in the habit!
leave some commentage, so I know you are still there!
Last night was the annual trek over to Summerfest. Mike, Andy and I headed over. A lot was going on. I really wanted to see Styx. It’s been a long time since i’ve seen them live, and I’ve never seen them since Dennis DeYoung left. Also, the band Thornley was playing on the big Marcus Ampitheater stage opening for Nickelback and 3 Doors Down. My friends over at Roadrunner records were kind enough to make it possible for me to have a pair of tickets. After going back the 3rd time, and then asking the person a 3rd time if they are SURE my name or tickets aren’t there. OH! LOOK, there they are! IRK. So, that was just in time. Mike and I went in, and set up a time to meet back up with Andy. We got to our seats, which were pretty decent, row BB on the side section, but as I really was there for Thornley and the REALLY good seats were still open, we moved to about row 10 center for the opener. 
Thornley is basically the main guy (Ian Thornley) from the old band Big Wreck, wth a new band and a new label, sort of a similar sound. It’s great good ol Rock n Roll. So, yeah all you metal haters out there, it’s not metal!
After that show was done, we saw the main guy from Thornley driving a lil mini motorcycle around the bus/semi area. Some people next to us were yelling to him holding up some Big Wreck shirts. So he decided to find a way to get up there and say hi. So, we had to go meet Andy near the big drum set at 8:30, and Ian is coming in the gate just as we were leaving. He was ready to sign stuff, but, nothing to sign, I was just happy to shake his hand and say hi.
So, we met up with Andy by the big drumset. At the entrance of the Marcus Ampitheater there is a giant group of musical instruments, a guitar, piano, drumset, etc. Mike being the crazy bastard that he is and aspiring drummer wanted a picture of him ON the drumset! Of course, as you can see with the photos in this post anyways, I’m having fun with the new camera phone. It doesn’t take the best pictures, but damn, it’s better than nothing, and it’s a lot of fun. So, yup, Mike on the drumset. Fun stuff I tell ya.
The plan for the evening… It seemed to have been 80’s night or something. All at the same time (10pm) on different stages were Kool & The Gang, Gin Blossoms, Pat Benatar, Loverboy, The Fixx, Tesla and Styx. As I already mentioned, I really wanted to see Styx, and maybe some Tesla, then figured I could maybe catch some of the other bands. Tesla and Styx were on the complete opposite ends of the grounds from one another. Mike was all about Tesla, so we all just went to catch Tesla, I figured I was good for a song or two, then book it to the other end to see Styx. That’s how it happened. Tesla started, saw a couple songs (some newer one, and “Modern Day Cowboy”) and took off to see Styx. Saw a minute of the Fixx, just caught Benatar walking by then cut over to catch Styx, on probably their 3rd song or so, “Too Much Time on My Hands,” they then did something new as Andy and I tried to position ourselves a little better to see and hear the stage! Mike stayed for Tesla, as we already set up a meeting place for after the shows.
Styx did a huge medley (18 diff. songs) then ripped through some classics like “Light Up,” “Renegade,” “Come Sail Away,” “Miss America” and some others I can’t recall off the top of my head. The drummer was just going crazy, well the whole band did. It’s awesome to see them still playing at such a high level! Can’t wait to see them again! They were done by 11:20, which was fairly early yet as far as 10pm bands go at Summerfest. So that gave Andy and I time to take our time back through some of the other stages. We caught Kool and the Gang in time to see them do “Celebration!” then got to see Loverboy do their big medley of classic rock songs inside of their hit “Lovin’ Every Minute of It” (i’m pretty sure that’s which one it was) After they were done, we met back up with Mike and found the shuttle bus back to Waukesha for our ride home. I ended up with a few blisters on my feet. Not sure if it was bad socks or I didn’t have my shoes tight enough for what, but all in all, it was a great summerfest, and it was especially cool to see all those bands pretty much as I had hoped and planned out! In the words of the immortal Colonel “Hannibal” Smith…”Gotta like it when a plan comes together!”
Other than the summerfest deal… Some softball games this week. We won on Tuesday (mens), and again tonight (co-ed). I finally got my home run power back, after it went away a month ago or something. It’s nice to be winnin’ again! Before the game on Tuesday, I had some time to kill, so I went and saw Dodgeball, and damn, that’s a funny movie! If you haven’t gone to see it, you really should. Oh yeah, I saw Shrek 2 and Around the World in 80 Days recently as well. Shrek 2 was really good!
