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Writer and musician from Northeast Pennsylvania. Currently in the completion stage of my first novel manuscript, HERE IS THE WONDERLAND, and woodshedding like a bastard with a new guitar between now and my wedding date of 6.26.10
ARTIST: Lynyrd Skynyrd
OVERPLAYED SONG: "Sweet Home Alabama"
ORIGINAL SOURCE: Second Helping LP, MCA, 1975
OTHER SOURCES: Any of the many compilations of Skynyrd material released by MCA/Geffen since 1980.
Let's be honest. As half-decent a band they were, Lynyrd Skynyrd were basically a mid-sized cult act at best, with at least 95% of their following based below the Mason-Dixon line, until a private plane they were riding in went down, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines. (According to Aerosmith's collective autobiography Walk This Way, the plane Skynyrd went down in almost ended up being Aerosmith's, until one of their staff saw the pilots passing a joint and a bottle of whiskey back and forth between each other in the cockpit, and threatened to quit on the spot if Aerosmith's management insisted on hiring the plane.) Ironically, three days prior to their plane crash, they had released their Street Survivors album.
Their only actual hit single, "Sweet Home Alabama" (most of their other better known songs are primarily album tracks anthologized time and time again by MCA [now Geffen] Records), was conceived as a response to the Neil Young song "Southern Man". Unfortunately for Lynyrd Skynyrd, their big-upping of Alabama – in spite of the fact that they did some early recordings at the state's legendary Muscle Shoals Recording Studio – makes little sense when you consider the fact that the band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida. Perhaps they were too busy wanting to attack Neil Young to consider this lapse in geography? In reality, no – the band had met some people in the area that had a strong dislike of racism and segregation, and were a shade miffed at Neil's comments. Ironically, the members of Skynyrd happened to be Neil Young fans, and Ronnie Van Zant was known to wear Neil Young shirts onstage. Does that make them a neutral party? Probably. For what it's worth [no pun intended] – and providing yet another irony in Skynyrd history – Young went on record first by admitting to liking the band's song, and then offered his songs "Sedan Delivery" and "Powderfinger" to the group for a future album. The group either turned them down or never got around to incorporating them into their set list (the latter is more likely), and Young proceeded to play them the way they are meant to be played, with Crazy Horse, on the Rust Never Sleeps album [Reprise, 1978])
Since their plane crash, the once semi-obscure group immediately became overrated by death, and for the next 30 years plus, many a working cover band or struggling/new rock group – especially on the Northern side of the Mason-Dixon Line – is tormented by some fat fuck with a rebel flag T-shirt and a longneck in his paw, hollering "Hey! Play some fuckin' Skynyrd!" every time the band launches into a song that sounds nothing like this tune, "Free Bird", "Call Me The Breeze", or "Gimmie Three Steps" (three other equally overplayed Skynryd songs).
If you must play a Skynyrd song – and quite honestly, it's not that mandatory – scan one of the many compilations that MCA/Geffen/Universal has released since the band's initial disbanding and subsequent reunion for a more appropriate number other than "Sweet Home" or the other aforementioned songs. We'd recommend their pro-gun-control (!) anthem "Saturday Night Special" or the horn-driven tour-spiel "What's Your Name?". The only problem is, you're going to open a bigger can of worms and still get requests for their more overplayed material. Is it really worth that risk?
If you want to avoid Skynyrd tunes entirely – and I don't blame you, because that may be the better bet in this day and age – Neil Young's "Southern Man", the song that "inspired" "Sweet Home" in the first place, would be a nice comeback to the fat drunken heckler who keeps calling for the Ronnie Van Zandt imitation that you never did in the first place.
A few months ago, I posted this article where a club's Facebook posting of a generic bar band's equally generic set list got deservedly ripped apart for being so, well, generic.
Almost a decade ago, I experimented with a blog devoted strictly to how bad those overplayed songs were. It was an interesting experiment that lasted a few weeks or so, but in the wake of that article's feedback, and with an opportunity to revisit that old material at hand, I think it's worth reviving as part of this blog's ongoing reactivation.
Of course, there's always going to be detractors to this series out there who will maintain that these are the songs that get people dancing. However, in the past several years, that's been the case less and less. I've seen it happen from both sides of the stage.
A lot of times, you can hear how bored the bands are with some of these songs. Maybe that's part of the problem. How are you going to inspire people to get on the dance floor if you sound too goddamn bored to care about the song you're performing anymore? (Those few people who are already so shitfaced that they don't know the difference, they'll just stumble over and dance very half-assedly until the rest of the alcohol in their system takes over and wipes out most of the rest of their motor-coordination skills – they don't count.) How hard is it for everyone in your group to bring in a song idea or two per person, work on those songs, bring them onstage, and play your hearts out? If it's that hard to get your band into rehearsals again, perhaps a little housecleaning is in order – not just with your set list but with the people you're associated with to bring it to life.
With that in mind, behold, one post from now, the official debut on The Groove Music Life of the semi-regular series, "Stop Playing These Songs!"
A fellow scribe has fallen, which always sucks, but this one sucks even more because in a small way, his kind nod helped make the publication of my first book a reality. Science fiction/fantasy/steampunk author Jay Lake ("Mainspring", "Green", and so many other great books) passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer.
I never had an opportunity to meet Jay in person, but I did get to talk with him on occasion via social media, going all the way back to LiveJournal times. Not only was his fine writing a positive creative spark in the creation of my own work (even though I don't write scifi myself), but Jay was kind enough to pass on a link to the Kickstarter campaign for "Resonant Blue" via his website during his daily "link salad" postings, for which I am forever grateful. I thanked him in the "Just Because" section of "Resonant Blue"'s acknowledgements, and I meant to send a copy his way after it was released in further gratitude, but because of airheadedness on my part, that never happened.
My sincerest condolences go to his companion Lisa, his daughter Bronwyn, and his family and fans on their loss.
– CJ Marsicano
With their long-craved-for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame coming in less than two weeks, their first-ever Rolling Stone front cover happening after forty years, a Paul Stanley autobiography also set for the middle of next month, and a lot of he-said/she-said going on between Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley on one side, and founding former members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss on the other side… well, let's face it. Is it really worth it?
Watch this footage from last October in Tokyo, and you tell me:
Before we go on, it should be noted that Gene and Paul wanted their performance to happen with their "current" lineup of Simmons's longtime lackey Tommy Thayer cosplaying in Ace Frehley's makeup (which Ace reveals himself in the Rolling Stone feature to still be the owner of, only licensing the character for a time period that is set to send soon) and the band's third drummer, Eric Singer, wearing Peter Criss's facepaint, with Ace and Peter only "sitting in and sharing the stage" with their cosplaying doppelgangers. Not surprisingly, as many of you may already know, Kiss fans, along with Ace and Peter, cried fowl, so Gene and Paul took their ball and chose to lock it away back home and only hang out by the playground like a couple of hoodlums.
It's a good thing that Gene and Paul pulled out, judging from the video footage above. Paul Stanley's voice is shot. In the aftermath of a throat operation, the band has had to tune down their guitars an extra half-step to compensate for this. Unfortunately, Paul's voice is still not what it should be even after the operation and and even after having to transpose their current repertoire into lower keys. The rest of the band is doing very little to make up for this – Gene is phoning in his performance (not much different from how he's phoned in most of his songwriting since Dynasty), and the two professional cosplayers behind them are following along in lockstep.
Unfortunately for posterity, the above footage captures them in a Japanese venue. Normally, the Japanese are the most enthusiastic audience on the planet. But when a Japanese audience is just sitting there with their jaws dropping because they're watching Paul Stanley's inability to sing an acapella intro he used to flawlessly for the entire time "Heaven's On Fire" was part of the Kiss set list, followed by a pretty much phoned-in, by-the-numbers performance from the entire band, well… that speaks volumes.
They haven't been better in the studio lately, either: Both 2009's Sonic Boom and 2012's "Monster" were basically just Paul Stanley solo albums interrupted by three other people. The sales were there initially, but the music wasn't.
This just reinforces what I said a couple of years ago when I posted about how Kiss didn't deserve to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a group. In fact, I stand by it.
I also stand by this statement: KISS is officially toast, folks. Don't believe me, even after seeing that footage? Should I point out how the past few times they've done American tours, they've had to co-headline with acts like Motley Crue and, this summer, Def Leppard, just to get asses in seats? Have you noticed how hard Groupon has been pushing discounted tickets to this farce? Apparently, countless longtime Kiss fans know better than to spend money what's been passing for their once-favorite band since 2003, so the band is doing anything they can do deceive casual fans into spending their hard-earned money on that they think is the 100% real deal.
In the same Rolling Stone article, Simmons admits that he's got "three tours" left in him – "[maybe] two, if I have a life change of some kind." Gene, don't even bother. Just quit now and take Paul with you. Kiss has been like a fish out of water for the past decade, flopping around and gasping desperately for breath.
If you're sick of all the "hype" over the 50th anniversary of the Beatles's American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, shame on you.
You obviously don't need a blog like mine to tell you how crucial the Beatles are to contemporary music, but there's still some people out there who, out of sheer ignorance and nothing but, don't seem to get it.
If you don't think the Beatles's influence extended to the punk generation, tell that to the Ramones, who openly acknowledged the Fab Four as an influence. In fact, also try telling that to Mission of Burma, the legendary post-punk group from Boston. Recently, the band added both sides of an iconic Beatles single, "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" to their set as an encore on their current tour – doing so not as acknowledgement of the then-forthcoming anniversary celebrations but just as cool cover versions and a salute to their – and all of our – fourefathers.
Judging from the video, drummer Peter Prescott is doing the lead singing on "Paperback Writer", while guitarist Roger Miller is handling the lead vocals for "Rain". Roger posted on his Facebook page with regard to this clip: "We learned Paperback Writer and Rain for these east coast shows. We started learning them in December and had no idea that there was a 50th Anniversary thing coming up. And it wasn't until last week we realized that RAIN had the first use of backwards vocals by the Beatles – pretty much one of our "things." This video has about half of each song – probably a good thing only half!" I would actually disagree with that assesment, Mr. Miller… if anyone has a complete video clip of both songs in their entirely, cough it up!
One of the things that kept me from posting here on the regular for all of 2013 and much of the previous year was being involved with live music again… which would have been well and good except for some things that are best left expounded upon in a longer series of posts – and I intend to do so at random points over the next several months.
Earlier this evening, a local club posted on their Facebook page the set list of a cover band that is booked to play there this weekend. Say what you will about the mere idea of posting someone's set list in advance (the post has since been removed from their Facebook), but I can safely say for sure that if I saw a set list like this, I wouldn't bother going to see the band (click the image to see the full-size image):
Out of 38 songs, at least 35 of them are songs that every other fucking bar band in the country is playing – to death, and with little or no conviction, it seems. The band – who unless they got their collective handle from the nickname bestowed on Kaori Iida during her early Morning Musume days by the hosts of Utaban, has a typically stupid cover band name – apparently didn't spend too long in rehearsal, maybe a month or so, hashed together a list of songs that most of them already knew, rented a PA and maybe a few can lights, and figures they'll make a good chunk of extra money for very little work. That's the private reason behind such a cloney set list. The typical public excuse for playing these songs is always some minor variation on "That's what people want to hear."
I have a news flash for the people who peddle this sorry excuse for cloning the set list of 20 other bar bands in the area: THERE IS LITTLE OR NO TRUTH TO THAT CLAIM. I was in a working cover band for several months between the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2013. We played a lot of these same songs and, outside of some golf clap applause, we got no reaction to whatever standards we played. We might as well have been a jukebox in the corner of the bar. We had a better reaction when we played the Sex Pistols's "Anarchy In The U.K." and Husker Du's "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely", and that was our first clue that we should have been doing more of that kind of material. You know, stuff that isn't PLAYED TO FUCKING DEATH. But a variety of other issues – mostly internal – interfered with that game plan, to the band's eternal, and eventually fatal, detriment. (Much of the sordid details are to be referenced in future postings, but I will point out that I'd been gone from that scene for several months when I got news of the band's long-overdue collapse.)
When I made a comment not dissimilar to my "cover bands shouldn't play the same 30 songs as 30 other cover bands" statement, someone told me that I should go to a bar and pay attention to what is played on the jukebox. I don't go to corner bars to begin with – Until I got sick of cover bands, my policy was that I never went to a bar if there wasn't a live band playing. (And trust me, you do not want me anywhere near a jukebox, especially if it's a TouchTunes jokebox, because I damn sure will break the monotony by booting up the TouchTones app on my iPhone and queue up some songs guaranteed to break the monotony.) Getting a random idea for a song or two from a jukebox play or radio broadcast is fine. Basing your whole band's set list on it is a lazy mistake.
What is the solution to eliminating the Attack of the Cover Band Clones? It's pretty fucking simple: DON'T BE A FUCKING CLONE BAND. A set list like the one above should be the B-list or even the C-list of a band's repertoire. As suggested above, it seems obvious that the set list came together out of mutual "Well, we played these songs in other bands before, we all know them, let's stick to those"-ism, did them in a month of rehearsals, and assumed the best. If I were the manager of this band, and I saw what was on their set list, I wouldn't let them play any shows unless they learned 30 other songs that aren't played to death, PLUS, I'd make them add at least two songs a week to their set list. If they weren't willing to do that, I wouldn't keep them as a client anymore. Because, you know what? I'm willing to bet that, if this band with the dick-joke name even lasts six months, they're never going to change much of this set list, for the same reason of sheer laziness and the delusional "these are the songs that people want to hear" fallacy that are out and out giving cover bands in general a bad name. (At least this band doesn't do any fucking Lynyrd Skynyrd covers, although the presence of "Brown Eyed Girl" in the set makes me want to do to Van Morrison what Varg Vikernes did to Euronymous.)
Bands like this make me wish I had some sort of Kitchen Nightmares-styled TV program – even if it was just on YouTube, for Chrissakes – where I could go Gordon Ramsey on some of these bands. Believe me, I've seen enough lame cover bands in my lifetime where I could have easily done such a thing with confidence. Otherwise, and until then, there's always postings like this where I, through my own experiences as both musician and observer, can point out the faults and mistakes most cover bands make.
Nothing like waiting until the last minute? More like nothing like debating what was going to make the cut until pretty much the last minute. Quite a few times I wrote out every album that stuck with me, rearrange the list seemingly every five or ten minutes, end up remembering three or four more albums that I'd forgotten about, and started all over. Some stood out more than others, and for the first time in a year-end countdown there ISN'T a Morning Musume album in the list (but only on a technicality – their current long-player The Best Updated is essentially a remix/rerecorded album of some of their past hits rather than a full new studio album, and I don't count best-of releases in my year-end lists). After way too much revision and re-contemplation, and admitting that this year I had to do a Top Twenty rather than a Top Ten, and with less than an hour until 2014 starts as I post this (talk about cutting it way fucking close!), here's the end result:
We The Common
Is it folk? Is it rock? Is it soul? It seems to be all of the above and then some. Grab it.
What The…
Barring all of the controversies that surrounded the band's reformation and existence (not to mention how the band's tour ended on the very last date in Australia), one thing is for certain: Despite some quibbles about Greg Ginn's production/mixing tastes and some much-ado-about-nothing internet whining about Ron Reyes's rather goofy cover art, this is still an album worthy of the Black Flag name.
Night Time, My Time
Imagine Suicide fronted by a 20-something young woman and you won't be far off the mark.
Ready To Die
(Fat Possum)
Still going strong and not giving a fuck what the naysayers think.
(Def Jam)
50 minutes of proof as to why the artist isn't wrong in believing his own hype.
In The Minds Of Evil
(Century Media)
Having been on a roll since Glen Benton and Steve Ashiem ditched the Hoffman Brothers after Scars of the Crucifix, the band's revitalization continues with a new guitarist (on-off touring guitarist Kevin Quinlan finally making his studio debut after three albums with talented but troubled axeman Ralph Santolla) and an album that blows away even classics like Legion and Once Upon The Cross.
Random Access Memories
More believable hype. If you only knew the singles, delve into the album – especially on vinyl if you can – post haste. Worth the price just for the epic "Giorgio By Moroder".
If this had come out, say, during the summer, this would have gotten a higher ranking. The seemingly more topical lyrics of Born This Way aren't anywhere to be found, but Gaga's songwriting skills are still present and accounted for.
Still going strong, business as usual, the rest is gravy.
(Universal Republic)
Forget the "B.C." part temporarily forced upon them after their first album (the band considers that part to be 'silent' anyway). Forget the mystery of the band's nameless (save for lead singer Papa Emeritus II) musicians. What matters is what's in the grooves – great throwback 70's hard rock with touches both familiar and new.
The World Is Well Lost
(Warm Ratio/Burger)
A shoegaze/indie rock trio from Tel Aviv, Israel(!), singing in their native Hebrew, the inflections and accents of which seem to add an extra layer of depth to the band's sound.
Nanda Collection
The Lene Lovich of J-Pop continues to improve and expand, being a guilty pleasure that no one needs to be guilty about in any way, shape, or form.
(Warner Japan)
Erepyon has come a long way from being the pre-teen wonder who made her debut with AKB48 back in 2006. A couple of years removed from the band and now a mature young adult, she's reinvented herself as a pop/rock singer (and songwriter – much of the album has originated from her own pen) – with fine results.
Freedom Is A Lie
I saw and heard this this band for the first time live back in March (review of the show here) and would have bought this album that very night if it had existed. This Wilkes-Barre quartet takes metal, punk, grunge, funk, and industrial influences, throws them into a blender, and pours out their own sound.
I Got A Boy
There's nothing like starting off 2013 literally on day one by dropping their most solid studio album ever, and unofficially closing it out by winning the inaugural YouTube Video Music Award for Video Of The Year for the album's title track. Well done, ladies. Onward to 2014!
The Argument
Grant Hart hasn't been as prolific a recording artist as his fellow ex-Husker Du partner Bob Mould, but when he drops a new studio album, all bets are off. And with this album being a double album inspired by an unreleased William Burroughs reworking of Milton's Paradise Lost, the ante's been upped and Grant has walked away with a jackpot.
Dead To Rise
(Threatpoint Music)
A certain, recently-ended sitcom may have put Scranton, PA on the cultural map, but this quartet that bills itself as "Electric City Groove Metal" is bent on keeping the city there for a heavier and more potent reason.
LoVendoR Cover The Rock
(Up-Front Works)
Former Morning Musume member Reina Tanaka is well within her element in her new rock outfit. The album is all cover versions (including one from her mentor Tsunku's old band Sharan Q) but the potential is well in evidence, and if recent postings to their YouTube channel are of any indication, their 2014 forays into original material are going to be killer.
Shine Your Light
Essentially a one-man band (in the studio), Gabriel Fulvimar writes and records pop songs that literally straddle the line between 60's Beatle pop and 80's New Wave.
Out Of View
(Marshall Teller)
I said at the beginning of the year on my radio show that this band was liable to be the Artist of the Year . Upon reflection, I was right. Dreamy, fuzzy, poppy and upbeat all at once – a perfect combination.
…With the help of some friends at The Indie Authority (where I'm currently the station's music director), I've been able to redesign the blog, a long overdue event. There's still going to be tweaks here and there, so ignore the sawdust over the next few days while we do what has to be done. I'll … Continue reading If You Just Tuned In…
When Black Flag announced their reformation earlier this year, with the frontline of guitarist/founding member Greg Ginn and Jealous Again-era vocalist Ron Reyes (credited on all Black Flag releases from that period by the moniker Chavo Pederast), there was a lot of skepticism over the whole thing. After all, reunions of classic bands are always a risk. Some have been beyond successful: The Stooges and Mission of Burma have extended their legacies well and been consistent live draws. The New York Dolls were right behind them until they dropped their fifth and quite frankly, worst studio album Dancing Backwards In High Heels a few years ago (a rather 'meh' review of the album here at TGML led to Sylvain Sylvain deleting your humble writer from his Facebook page). The Sex Pistols's reunion didn't result in any new music, just some short, hard-hitting reunion tours.
And then there's what happens when reunions go wrong: The Velvet Underground's reunion tanked before it could hit Stateside shores thanks to unresolved tensions between Lou Reed and John Cale. Cream's reunion several years ago was already doomed because Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker have hated each others guts since before Cream was even formed.
And then we have Black Flag, who have had a rather interesting first year back, to say the least. No sooner had the return of the Jealous Again-era Ginn/Reyes frontline (with longtime Ginn collaborator Gregory Moore behind the drum kit and, at least in a live setting, ex-Screeching Weasel bassist Dave Klein [Ginn played bass parts on the forthcoming Black Flag album What The… under his Dale Nixon alter-ego]) been announced, than former members Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson and Dez Cadena had gotten together with Stevenson's Descendents/ALL bandmate Stephen Egerton handling the lead guitar duties, under the moniker FLAG. To be fair, both formations were a long time in gestating and completely independent of each other. The seeds for Ginn and Reyes making music together again under the four-bars banner had been sown when Reyes invited Ginn to participate in a 50th birthday concert in Vancouver in 2010, while the FLAG lineup stemmed from when the members, minus Cadena, had done a semi-impromptu appearance at the Goldenvoice 30th anniversary show in Santa Monica where, after being introduced as Black Flag, they played the entire Nervous Breakdown EP from beginning to end.
Then things got really interesting. Black Flag dropped their first new single since 1986, "Down In The Dirt", as a free download (coincidentally on the day Slayer's Jeff Hanneman passed away). Keith Morris, having already cut a promo on Ginn in the OFF! song "I've Got News For You", dismissed the Black Flag reunion as [paraphrasing] "Greg and hired hands playing along to a tape loop of Greg playing Chuck's bass lines". Ginn fired back, semi-anonymously, on the band's website by accusing the FLAG party of "mailing in" their performances.
Thanks to social media, though, people started to make up their minds. If there were any bad reviews of the FLAG performances, I didn't see any. Reviews of Black Flag's performances were mixed, to say the least. There were good notices like that of an Austin performance where the reviewer was critical of the soundman having Ginn's guitar sound too low and Ginn being a bit too fond of his Theremin (an instrument he'd already been using to good effect on his electronica project Greg Ginn And The Royal We, and for no reason other than he wanted to with his other rock band Good For You with former skater Mike Vallely on vocals) for some liking… and others where there had been reports of sloppy playing (some of the blame being lobbied at the Moore/Klein rhythm section, some at Ginn himself), too much Theremin, and dismayed fans walking out of shows.
And then the descent, in retrospect, seemed to have started. Ginn and his label, SST, sued not only the participants in FLAG, but former longtime vocalist and best known member Henry Rollins, for trademark infringement and related charges, including filing a trademark application for the Black Flag name and logo. Probably the most shocking thing about this lawsuit was the fact that Ginn had never bothered to trademark the band's iconic four-bars logo, despite the fact that the band's back catalog and merchandise had been steady sellers worldwide. Even more damaging to Ginn would be the fact that a judge refused to issue a temporary restraining order preventing FLAG from performing with any variation of the Black Flag logo whatsoever – the FLAG partnership had basically managed to cover their asses by openly emphasizing that the band consisted of classic members playing the songs of Black Flag; Ginn's only "witness" in his case was one person who had naively asked Ginn at a Black Flag show if he'd be playing with the FLAG lineup later that year.
Probably not helping matters, at least in the eyes of people who wanted to shit on the Black Flag reformation just because they wanted to, was the release of the cover art to the long-awaited reformation album, What The… … which raised a lot of eyebrows for being the most unlikely bit of artwork to grace a Black Flag album, ever. Ron Reyes, who had done the artwork, ended up defending it on his Facebook page thusly:
"Well, I gotta admit that I was the one who designed this. I submitted several designs, all of which I liked much better. But this is the one that stuck. Originally it was black and white but then I was asked to add some color. I was aiming for something kinda fun and not serious like some early Descendents art. I fully expected that some folks would hate it. I guess I was right. Does that make me prophetic? Lol. Lighten up folks, geesh, it's only rock 'n roll."
Through all this, both bands continued to play, with FLAG capping off their 2013 tour in late September (Dez Cadena was already slated to return to his main gig with the Misfits after that), and Black Flag playing their first ever shows in Puerto Rico (a visit that had to have some personal significance to Ron Reyes, who is of Puerto Rican heritage) and in Australia. The whole time Black Flag were touring, Ginn's other band Good For You were the openers. The only actual difference between Black Flag and Good For You were the vocalists, and Ginn's performing history is rife with instances where he would play multiple sets with different acts in the same evening, going back at least to the time when he would play bass with Tom Trocolli's Dog at the start of a show and then play guitar with Black Flag to close things off.
So far in Black Flag's history since their reformation, the only publicly visible bump in the road (not counting fan criticisms) was that of the release date for What The… originally being set for early November digitally, only for the release to be pushed back to next Tuesday, December 5th, to coincide with the physical release. Then a few rumblings started to manifest after the closing date of the Australian tour on November 24th.
Ron Reyes would take to his Facebook account to explain everything:
On November 24th, 2013, the last night of the Australian Hits and Pits tour, with two songs left in the set, Mike V comes on stage, stares me down, takes my mic and says "You're done, party's over, get off, it's over…" He said something else to me but it was a lie so I won't repeat it here. So with a sense of great relief that it was finally over I left the stage and walked to the hotel room. They finished the set with Mike V on vocals.
There is much more that can and perhaps should be said. But for now, I will spare you the gory details. The writing was on the wall since before we played our first show. So many things went wrong from the start. I was into things like having a good drummer, rehearsing and spending time on things like beginnings and endings of songs, being a little less distracted with tour life, and a little more on the ball. You know, things that would make our efforts worthy of the name Black Flag… Yes, it is my opinion that we fell very short indeed, and the diminishing ticket sales and crowds are a testament to that. However, it was made clear to me that raising these issues was tantamount to a blasphemous stab in the back to Greg. How could I question him, his efforts and hard work? How could I dare be a fan of OFF! and/or be friends and a fan of FLAG? I was told that I had to choose sides. But I refuse to treat someone like an infallible Pope figure. No guitarist deserves such unquestioning blind devotion. And so, I have been excommunicated in a very strange fashion.
I truly feel sorry for anyone who had to witness the infantile behaviour and the relentless provocation I was subjected to both on and off the stage. I regret that under such fierce provocation and taunting I sometimes responded in manners bellow my standard. I am grateful for the opportunities Greg gave me. There were some magical moments at first. I was naive enough to believe in the promise of potential. But in the end, the good was no match for the overwhelming bad. It am proud of my contributions including the new album and it's cover. Come on, folks, it's only rock n roll.
I would not be surprised if Mike V becomes the new singer for Black Flag. It is my opinion that they have been planning this for some time. I wish them well. Mike is a true disciple of Greg and so they have a good working relationship, and ironically the tension over the last weeks has brought out some of Greg's best playing. So, it could be interesting. I will miss playing with Dave Klein. He is a great kid and truly an outstanding bass player. Dave was an anchor that kept me from losing my place on a nightly basis. Trust me, that was no easy task for either of us.
I truly apologize for being in or more accurately "appearing" to be in competition with FLAG. They know my heart on this matter. From the beginning, I was happy for them and fully supported and understood why they would want to rock those songs and have a good time with friends and family. Yes, I questioned their use of the name and logo but in no way questioned their motivation or right to do their thing. I envy them for they have succeeded in ways that were never possible with Black Flag. And once again, for the record, I agreed to do Black Flag before I knew there was a Flag. I mean no malice towards Greg or Mike although they will most likely see things very differently. I wish them luck and prosperity. I have learned many valuable lessons this year. And these lessons will enrich my personal and musical endeavours.
Ron Reyes.
In a way, some of this is business as usual for Black Flag. This will not be the first time a lineup change occurred right before the release of a record featuring a previous lineup. Bill Stevenson had quit Black Flag in 1985 right before Loose Nut came out, and Kira Roessler would be similarly parted company with at the end of that year's touring, even though an entire album's worth of material with the Stevenson/Kira rhythm section, tracked at the same time as Loose Nut but not completed until later, was in the can. (The album in question, In My head, came out later in 1985.)
Does the split between Ron and Black Flag color my perspective on the album coming out next week? Well, I've been awaiting the album since the reformation was announced, and given Black Flag's history it doesn't matter. I'll still give the album its due. Whether there will still be a Black Flag in 2014 is up for grabs – if Ginn puts Mike V in the Black Flag vocalist spot after doing two albums worth of material with him under the Good For You moniker, it's guaranteed that the move will alienate fans.
Not like Ginn has ever given a shit – he's always recorded the music he's wanted to make, whether or not it fit his Black Flag image.
Ron Reyes will go back to his family and his own main band, Piggy (who already have a fine 12″ EP out). Ginn will still make music whether it has that four-bars logo on it. And the world will still turn.
(This was just posted by me on Facebook. A quick summary of what this is referring to: Last month, a family's home im McAdoo caught fire while the father figure, who runs a local internet radio station devoted to the region's independent music scene, was away on a gig. His youngest daughter perished as a result of the fire, definitely the biggest loss in an incident where the family lost everything.
Last Saturday there was a benefit concert to raise money for the family. At least $3000 (perhaps even $3500-$4000) was stolen by some scumfuck at the end of the night. I was shocked and sicked when the news broke early Sunday morning. Some friends of mine that I had been in a country-rock band with played their second show ever at the benefit and they were beyond disgusted by this incident, too.
I wanted to do something but wasn't completely sure what or how until tonight. That's when I posted the letter below on Facebook. The rest of the story unfolds below:)
In the wake of Jerry Fisher Jr and the Hazleton Our Town Radio family having their benefit money in their late daughter's name stolen by some scumbag the other night, I have decided to help in my own way.
As many of you may or may not know, last year I released my first novel, "Resonant Blue", on my own book label, TGML Press. The easiest and cheapest way to get it is as an e-book via the usual suspects (Kindle, iBookstore, Nook, and Smashwords). The book in this form is only $2.99. All you have to do to find it is search for either the book title or my name.
Between now and August 1st, I will donate $1 from every sale of the ebook from any of the above stores. I'll know of sales from Smashwords almost immediately. Getting reports of sales from the big three ebook retailers takes a while longer, so if you forward a copy of the email receipt to me at email@example.com, I'll add that sale to the tally. I don't expect to make up for the three grand lost to some greedy prick's heartless anti-gesture, but it is something I can easily and happily do to help.
Feel free to share this with all of your friends. Do it for good karma. Do it to give the finger to the assclown who stole the money. Do it in the honor of a little girl who lost her life way too soon. But just do it!
CJ Marsicano
To make a long story short:
Friday afternoon, ex-Romeo Void singer Debora Iyall had discovered my overview of It's a Condition at Music Is Like Oxygen and posted the link to it on her Facebook page. Since I've been Facebook friends with her for awhile and had participated in her Kickstarter campaign for her new EP, I knew about it because she had linked to my personal Facebook page in her status update about the post. I hadn't told her about the post (I didn't want to be spamming her page or whatnot) so I was happy that she had found it and was giving me props right back for giving her old band props.
For whatever reason (a bit of ego, maybe?), I went to click through the link on my iPhone (I was at dinner with my mother at the time) and found myself getting rerouted to a .ru page that was basically dead. What?
Thinking it was some odd Facebook quirk, once I got home I got on my computer and checked the link. Through Chrome, I got the same dead page. Through Firefox, I got a fake virus scan site that (thankfully) Norton had cockblocked before any damage could be done.
Yep – some fuckers — probably Russian hackers — had somehow gotten into the account that holds all of my music blogs (The Groove Music Life, Music Is Like Oxygen, my Reina Tanaka worship blog So Hot She Shits Fire) as well as the blog for Resonant Blue and a blog for a friend's charitable work (Sounds For Scoliosis, a series of benefit shows in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area booked and promoted by my friend Lucia Peregrim). Going directly to the main sites was fine… but anyone clicking through a link from just about anywhere (Google, Bing, Facebook, whatever) was getting redirected to some Russian pecker's malware festival instead – and making me look bad. So bad that one of Debora Iyall's friend had gotten hit with that shit, forcing the link to be removed.
So, after a few phone calls to my hosting provider, here's what happened – the hackers had gotten into a file called .htaccess that, in the case of these blogs, works within WordPress installations and makes sure whoever visits one of my blogs is seeing one of my blogs. The hackers had replaced it with their own version that, within its hardly-complicated code, tricks links from search engines and social networking sites into taking people's browsers into the Russian assholes's virus playground instead.
Thankfully, a little Google research – a few seconds worth, more than most Tea Party members do – turned up how to fix this shit, using only Notepad and an FTP program. But I had to do it for every WordPress installation on my account – a minor pain in the ass, but it had to be done. Now all links should be fine.
Now, I don't know if this kind of thing can affect the "free" WordPress blogs hosted on their own server farm, but if you're independently hosting your own WordPress blog elsewhere, here's what you should do to make sure these hacker motherfuckers aren't messing with your hard work. With your FTP program (like Filezilla), check the size of the .htaccess file on your server. If it's a little more than 200 bytes, you're fine. If it's bigger than that – the hacker's version was over three thousand bytes – delete it immediately, Google for ".htaccess wordpress" and you'll find a proper code to get your blog back to normal. Boot up Notepad, cut and paste (or type it up) it exact, and use your FTP program to upload it to your server. Note that you can't simply just upload the clean version over the dirtied one – some of their code in the dirtied one prevents that, so you have to delete just that file.
My apologies to anyone who had been affect by visiting one of my blogs – in fact, at the time of this writing there was still a malware alert for So Hot She Shits Fire, which I've already applied for a correction on with Google. (Right now a direct search in Google warns that the site might harm people's computers, especially if they don't have something like Norton installed.) Everything on all of my blogs should be safe.
If you're wonder what the hell is going on here, I'll explain very briefly:
For one thing, I thought this place was long overdue for a theme overhaul. I was running on the same theme pretty much since this site opened, with a theme that essential brother Ray Mescallado helped modify not long afterward. However, I couldn't decide on one.
Then, for the second time this year, some scumbags had snuck spam links for illicit pharmecuticals and the like into this site's HTML, and it was coming up in the reader options on my iPad's browser – and no doubt on other tablets and maybe even on the RSS feed as well. I was certainly not amused by this development. So, I switched to a new theme that I hope is not spambot friendly and just in case, passwords had to be altered as well. I'm not taking any fucking chances, folks.
At some point I'll restore the little browser icon Ray made for this blog, but in the meantime, I did what I had to do to keep this blog free of bullshit. If anyone catches any other problems or has a better theme idea that we can use, please do not hesitate to e-mail me.
And so, Reina Tanaka, aka Her Royal Hotness, aka The Wonkylicious One, begins her 22nd trip around the sun today. (Yeah, I know that technically, she's already been celebrating it for at least the past 12 hours as this is being posted, but since this blog is based in the Eastern Time Zone of the USA, we'll go with this writer's location chronologically.) And the 4th Anniversary of this worship blog is today as well. Did I ever think I'd be doing this blog or even my music blog for this long? Quite honestly, I'm glad I am – Reina and her band are one of the reasons this blog and the mothership The Groove Music Life exist in the first place. I am forever in my debt to them.
reina_t_1111: OK, Ceej, level with me here.
minimoniotaku: Oh, you saw what Langdon posted today at YODC?
reina_t_1111: Yeah, nice Photoshop job… NOT!
minimoniotaku: Hey, he's entitled to his sense of humor.
reina_t_1111: True, but part of him is entitled to something else as well…
minimoniotaku: And that part would be?
reina_t_1111: The part where we have to remind him of a certain legal document from 2008
minimoniotaku: Ouch!
reina_t_1111: Hey, there's still Risa and Sayumi for him to chase…
Warmups/Exercises/Drills;: All from <em>The Guitar Grimoire Exercise Book</em>.
Pick Motions: Alternate picking, economy/cross picking.
Inspiration: Robert Fripp
Guitar: Dean Michael Angelo Batio Signature Model MAB3
Tuning: Concert pitch
Picks: Dunlop Jazz III black, Dunlop Max Grip 1.14mm
day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event
day 01 ★ your favorite song / day 02 ★ your least favorite song / day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy / day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad / day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone / day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere / day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event / day 08 ★ a song that you know all the words to / day 09 ★ a song that you can dance to / day 10 ★ a song that makes you fall asleep / day 11 ★ a song from your favorite band / day 12 ★ a song from a band you hate / day 13 ★ a song that is a guilty pleasure / day 14 ★ a song that no one would expect you to love / day 15 ★ a song that describes you / day 16 ★ a song that you used to love but now hate / day 17 ★ a song that you hear often on the radio / day 18 ★ a song that you wish you heard on the radio / day 19 ★ a song from your favorite album / day 22 ★ a song that you listen to when you're sad / day 23 ★ a song that you want to play at your wedding / day 24 ★ a song that you want to play at your funeral / day 25 ★ a song that makes you laugh / day 26 ★ a song that you can play on an instrument / day 27 ★ a song that you wish you could play / day 28 ★ a song that makes you feel guilty / day 29 ★ a song from your childhood / day 30 ★ your favorite song at this time last year
day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere
day 01 ★ your favorite song / day 02 ★ your least favorite song / day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy / day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad / day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone / day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere / day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event / day 08 ★ a song that you know all the words to / day 09 ★ a song that you can dance to / day 10 ★ a song that makes you fall asleep / day 11 ★ a song from your favorite band / day 12 ★ a song from a band you hate / day 13 ★ a song that is a guilty pleasure / day 14 ★ a song that no one would expect you to love / day 15 ★ a song that describes you / day 16 ★ a song that you used to love but now hate / day 17 ★ a song that you hear often on the radio / day 18 ★ a song that you wish you heard on the radio / day 19 ★ a song from your favorite album / day 22 ★ a song that you listen to when you're sad / day 23 ★ a song that you want to play at your wedding / day 24 ★ a song that you want to play at your funeral / day 25 ★ a song that makes you laugh / day 26 ★ a song that you can play on an instrument / day 27 ★ a song that you wish you could play / day 28 ★ a song that makes you feel guilty / day 29 ★ a song from your childhood / day 30 ★ your favorite song at this time last year
day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone
day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad
day 01 ★ your favorite song / day 02 ★ your least favorite song / day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy / day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad / day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone / day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere / day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event / day 08 ★ a song that you know all the words to / day 09 ★ a song that you can dance to / day 10 ★ a song that makes you fall asleep / day 11 ★ a song from your favorite band / day 12 ★ a song from a band you hate / day 13 ★ a song that is a guilty pleasure / day 14 ★ a song that no one would expect you to love / day 15 ★ a song that describes you / day 16 ★ a song that you used to love but now hate / day 17 ★ a song that you hear often on the radio / day 18 ★ a song that you wish you heard on the radio / day 19 ★ a song from your favorite album / day 22 ★ a song that you listen to when you're sad / day 23 ★ a song that you want to play at your wedding / day 24 ★ a song that you want to play at your funeral / day 25 ★ a song that makes you laugh / day 26 ★ a song that you can play on an instrument / day 27 ★ a song that you wish you could play / day 28 ★ a song that makes you feel guilty / day 29 ★ a song from your childhood / day 30 ★ your favorite song at this time last year
day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy
day 01 ★ your favorite song / day 02 ★ your least favorite song / day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy / day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad / day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone / day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere / day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event / day 08 ★ a song that you know all the words to / day 09 ★ a song that you can dance to / day 10 ★ a song that makes you fall asleep / day 11 ★ a song from your favorite band / day 12 ★ a song from a band you hate / day 13 ★ a song that is a guilty pleasure / day 14 ★ a song that no one would expect you to love / day 15 ★ a song that describes you / day 16 ★ a song that you used to love but now hate / day 17 ★ a song that you hear often on the radio / day 18 ★ a song that you wish you heard on the radio / day 19 ★ a song from your favorite album / day 22 ★ a song that you listen to when you're sad / day 23 ★ a song that you want to play at your wedding / day 24 ★ a song that you want to play at your funeral / day 25 ★ a song that makes you laugh / day 26 ★ a song that you can play on an instrument / day 27 ★ a song that you wish you could play / day 28 ★ a song that makes you feel guilty / day 29 ★ a song from your childhood / day 30 ★ your favorite song at this time last year
The bane of every cover band musician's life. I hated playing this song in the last cover band I was in, and I cringe every time I hear it. The DJ happened to play it at our wedding, and I remember not only cringing, but having a discussion with my cousin John about how much I hated this song. He agreed.
And some of the lyrics piss me off, too. First, there's the question in the second version, "Whatever happened to Tuesday and So Slow?". I don't know about Tuesday, but So Slow's problem is pretty fucking obvious. Then, there's the part in the third verse where the narrator/protagonist looks at the title character and remarks after not seeing her in several months, "My, how you've grown." Given what the two of them were up two through the earlier bits of the song, I'm presuming that her growing happened around the middle of her body.
Sadly, most every cover band I've heard over the past 15-plus years thinks they have to cover this song (as well as "Sweet Home Alabama") when they play out. Not true. Definitely won't be happening when I get into another band, and with my guitar skills getting a major upgrade over the past several months, that's more than likely. (And yes, the song from Day 1 would definitely be part of the set list!)
day 01 ★ your favorite song / day 02 ★ your least favorite song / day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy / day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad / day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone / day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere / day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event / day 08 ★ a song that you know all the words to / day 09 ★ a song that you can dance to / day 10 ★ a song that makes you fall asleep / day 11 ★ a song from your favorite band / day 12 ★ a song from a band you hate / day 13 ★ a song that is a guilty pleasure / day 14 ★ a song that no one would expect you to love / day 15 ★ a song that describes you / day 16 ★ a song that you used to love but now hate / day 17 ★ a song that you hear often on the radio / day 18 ★ a song that you wish you heard on the radio / day 19 ★ a song from your favorite album / day 22 ★ a song that you listen to when you're sad / day 23 ★ a song that you want to play at your wedding / day 24 ★ a song that you want to play at your funeral / day 25 ★ a song that makes you laugh / day 26 ★ a song that you can play on an instrument / day 27 ★ a song that you wish you could play / day 28 ★ a song that makes you feel guilty / day 29 ★ a song from your childhood / day 30 ★ your favorite song at this time last year
day 01 ★ your favorite song
I could cop out a bit and just say the entire Morning Fucking Musume discography, but since at least a few of their songs will probably wind up amongst the choices in this meme, I'm going straight to this lifetime favorite tune, which has gained even more meaning ever since I got Tara to dance with me to it at our wedding! (A month ago today, woot!)
day 01 ★ your favorite song / day 02 ★ your least favorite song / day 03 ★ a song that makes you happy / day 04 ★ a song that makes you sad / day 05 ★ a song that reminds you of someone / day 06 ★ a song that reminds you of somewhere / day 07 ★ a song that reminds you of a certain event / day 08 ★ a song that you know all the words to / day 09 ★ a song that you can dance to / day 10 ★ a song that makes you fall asleep / day 11 ★ a song from your favorite band / day 12 ★ a song from a band you hate / day 13 ★ a song that is a guilty pleasure / day 14 ★ a song that no one would expect you to love / day 15 ★ a song that describes you / day 16 ★ a song that you used to love but now hate / day 17 ★ a song that you hear often on the radio / day 18 ★ a song that you wish you heard on the radio / day 19 ★ a song from your favorite album / day 22 ★ a song that you listen to when you're sad / day 23 ★ a song that you want to play at your wedding / day 24 ★ a song that you want to play at your funeral / day 25 ★ a song that makes you laugh / day 26 ★ a song that you can play on an instrument / day 27 ★ a song that you wish you could play / day 28 ★ a song that makes you feel guilty / day 29 ★ a song from your childhood / day 30 ★ your favorite song at this time last year
Tonight there was the interesting diversion of attending a newly-reactivated Writer's Cafe (creative writing group) at Barnes & Noble, which went very nicely today. About a dozen people attended. One guy read a couple of his rather amusing poems, another woman read the first couple of pages of a short story, a third woman read a Celtic-inspired poem she wrote, and another read a couple of poems her late daughter, who died of cancer recently, wrote. I read one of my shorter stories, "Twist and Spiel". Everyone had a lot of nice compliments on it, especially where the descriptive language was concerned. There's a couple of "motherfuckers" in the piece, which actually drew some laughs. This is an open-minded, not easily offended bunch! Holly, the woman who coordinated the Writers Cafe there, said my piece reminded her of Neil Gaiman's work, which I found amusing since I never read him! She told me later to check out his book American Gods. I just might have to do that.
I had found out about this group yesterday because my mother and I had stopped over at Barnes for the first time in a while (for her anyway - I try to stop over a little more often). I had picked up a small literary journal that I thought would make an interesting place to submit one of my works and after reading a little bit of it this afternoon, figured that "Twist and Spiel" would make a good submission to this particular periodical. More on that if and when I hear back from them, so until something's set in stone I won't divulge the name of the publication.Tomorrow I get to meet the cable people at my soon-to-be-new apartment as we're getting wired for cable. Last week when I met up with the cable guy there, who I'd known from going to the now-defunct Hazleton Downtown Athletic Club and who - by coincidence - is also a friend of my fiancee Tara's father, we found out that the cable wiring in our apartment building has been there since the place was built in the seventies - and wasn't exactly state of the art then! Shockingly, this is the first cable company in the world we are dealing with, here - you'd think they'd be on the cutting edge of things every day! These cables wouldn't have supported normal digital cable, let alone Hi Def, so that's got to be swapped out and quick! On that note, this little black duck is conking out...
Last night, I picked up my guitar for the first time in a few days and played. I had to. The skills are coming back together nicely and I am figuring out songs I've always wanted to know how to play (starting with Stooges songs, of course), as opposed to songs I was supposed to learn to play them in a band. (For the record, there's also the difference in that in the latter, I was just learning the bass parts). I also came to the conclusion the other day that in addition to wanting to learn these songs, I have to, because Ron Asheton isn't here anymore to do it. Also, if I were to get into a band again - mind you, there's no plans to speak of, this is just me thinking out loud - I'd have to be the one to play these kind of things properly because I don't know if I could trust some Steve Vai or Joe Satriani wannabe to play those kinds of solos correctly. That, I think, would actually be a good test to find the right guitar player. There's too many guys who could try to out-shred Michael Angelo Batio or play Eddie Van Halen solos note for note, but could they improvise a less frantic solo over a standard blues progression or the chord changes to "No Fun" or "1970"?
I've also been trying to get the writing back up to speed. With the writing, its not much different to me than the guitar playing - it's something I want to do AND have to do, because its a skill I can trade upon! I want to see if I can finish this draft of novel in the next few weeks AND get some entries for TGML in as well. With everything going on in the process of getting the apartment together, I'd been running out of energy a little too much. (It didn't help matters that Thursday night/Friday morning, I got up around five AM to pee, went right back to bed, fell asleep, and woke up at 7:30ish feeling like I'd only gotten the two hours plus of sleep between 5 and 7:30, not the other four or five I'd had beforehand!) Vee and I got together on a collaboration for her blog but it's not finished yet - it came out of a random comment she made on Twitter and we just took the ball and started to run with it. I hammered out my ideas for it the other night and sent them to her. I'll let everyone know through Twitter and Facebook when it's up and finished.
Yesterday (Saturday - note that I don't really consider it to be Monday until I wake up that morning) was a day I looked forward to for two reasons. One was the 3rd annual Record Store Day. The second was, Tara and I got ourselves the first pieces of furniture for our apartment.
I'll mention the latter first: We got this matching couch and love seat from Ashley Furniture. Tara had seen it a week or so earlier with her mother but we waited until the four of us (ourselves and our mothers) had a chance to check it out before we made a decision. Suffice to say that I liked it. The love seat has a little middle section with drink holders and storage, but more importantly, the things are comfortable. LVP (my mother) paid for the furniture as part of a wedding gift. After dinner we stopped at Big Lots to further investigate the bed, mattress and dresser we are eyeing - and happened to get waited on by Tara's ex-boyfriend. Oops. Tara had been reluctant to go there the last time or two because he works there, fearing that things would be awkward, but they weren't. He was a very nice guy; things were so non-awkward that when we asked what nights he worked, he came right out and said that he didn't get any commission for what he sold. That's lame - considering how hard and how well he was helping us with questions and such, he deserves one. Then again, it's Big Lots - not some fancy furniture store. We'll be going back there for these pieces, I think. I also checked out some stuff there to furnish my home office - didn't make a final decision yet, just got some ideas. I do know that I'll most likely be getting some bookshelves and a media rack there. We'll see. I did buy something at Big Lots before we left - a storage bin, with the intention of clearing out the corner of LVP's den where I had a lot of stuff (mostly books, CDs and DVDs piled up.
Earlier in the day, I went to Gallery of Sound for Record Store Day. In addition to the usual stack of samplers (CD and vinyl), I bought thick vinyl repressings of Sonic Youth's Hits Are For Squares and The Sex Pistols' The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle, a blue vinyl repress of R.E.M.'s Chronic Town EP, a "mystery" white label Beastie Boys 12" (no song information on either side label, just the band's name), and a John Lennon singles pack. I tried to locate the Muse special release that was out for this Record Store Day for Vee from Pink Wota (her nearest indy record store, which wasn't so near to her hometown, wasn't carrying it), but my store didn't have it either. Damn. Sorry, Veronica! They'd also sold out of a blue-vinyl Devo 12" that I didn't even know was coming out. After I checked out, they handed me something else - an authentic Devo hat! This version is actually blue, as opposed to the old-school red of the original Energy Domes from 1980, but that's because it's tying in with the promo campaign behind their next album. Very nice, and I actually have the hat on the rack with my other hats - at least until I officially move into Casa del CJ & Tara in June, where I'll be putting it on one of my bookshelves in my office (where it'll sit next to my Koda Kumi bear - my twin worlds of punk rock and J-pop meet again!!
Today was mostly a veg day. I got started on the pile in the corner of the den, and quickly ran out of room while doing so! Oops! Fortunately, I had plenty of time to run back to Big Lots and buy two more storage bins to take care of things (at five bucks apiece - can't beat that!) I stashed the bins in my closed-off back patio for now, and only left in the basket that I already have in the corner my guitar books and DVDs, my writers' books, and my Reina Tanaka books!
Having accomplished quite a bit, I think it's time to finally conk out now. Work tomorrow, bleh!
I don't know where all the time goes, but when I came home from work and dinner with LVP, I went to my couch to watch a guitar video before logging on, and ended up conking out for two hours. Oh well, it happens.
The other day Tara and I went out to dinner at Grotto Pizza (random choice), and then I asked her if she minded taking a ride while I went to Guitar Center. I'd gotten a ten dollar gift card in the mail last week for taking a customer survey (I'd forgotten I'd taken the survey until I found the card in my P.O. Box) and figured I'd get either a new music book or guitar DVD with it, or some strings and picks. Ended up getting the latter because I couldn't decide on any of the books or DVDs. No biggie. It worked out very well because I ended up getting three packs of strings (Ernie Ball Super Slinkys) for the price of two! Good thing, too, because when I hit the checkout counter they made the announcement that they we getting ready to close. What? Weird. It was only close to 8PM, too, I think. Hm.
Tried to get some writing done last night but didn't completely succeed. I hate when that happens. I need to get a lot of it under my belt in the next several weeks, even with everything else going on. Tomorrow night I get to try to clean my house for the first time in a month. Saturday is Record Store Day so I'll be heading to Gallery of Sound with Tara, and then we go looking at furniture afterward.
I'm trying to give my eating habits a serious turn-around. I had red meat-based dishes three times in a row this past weekend, so I've been eating everything but at meals, and I've cut down big time on the soda consumption as well - I think I only had Coke three times this week.
Musically, I've been enjoying the new Nels Cline and Ayumi Hamasaki albums and the reissue of the original David Bowie mix of The Stooges's <em>Raw Power</em> this week. Iggy's 1999 remix still packs a better sonic punch that the songs deserve, but it's cool to have a better sounding copy of the original mix.
Today (Sunday - I'm writing/posting this after midnight) was Tara's bridal shower. Since I had the pleasure of schlepping LVP's gifts from the house to where the shower was being held, and then schlepping those gifts and many more to Tara's sister Tiffany's house, I had to be there before and after. I don't know how we managed to get all those gifts into mine, Tara's and Tiff's SUVs plus my cousin Ashley's car, but we did. The only thing remotely close to a disaster that happened was when Tara's mother got her finger caught in the trunk latch. No bones or skin broken though, but it was a bit scary for a moment.
Yesterday LVP decided to get the microwave off of the one registry it was on for the shower, because Tara was worried that she wouldn't get it. Only thing was, we didn't let on that we were getting it. Right after I'd put the damn thing in the back of LVP's car, Tara texted me and asked where I was. Guess who's been stalking the registries online? I quickly claimed that we were just leaving the house because this was supposed to be a surprise. Fortunately, Tara believed me until she unwrapped it today and saw the card -- and of course, immediately called me and razzed me for fibbing to her.
Another surprise, her cousin Sharon surprised us with a flatscreen HD TV. LVP had told me that I would need to hang out at the hall until Sharon arrived with this item, only she didn't tell me what it was. I had a vague suspicion that it was going to be something along those lines, but found out exactly what it was beforehand only when Sharon saw me helping someone else and said, "CJ, could you come get this TV for me?"
We schlepped the haul to Tiffany's house only because we can't do anything at the new apartment until the 20th (the fact that Tiff has the room in her place helps, of course). Shit's getting closer... Speaking of close, it's close to the time I should be crashing out. I sure need it.
* This is a bit late in being posted in my end, but Tara and I secured a nice apartment a couple of weeks ago. The rent is quite reasonable and everything but cable, power and phone are included. We've been looking at furniture whenever we can since then.
* I'm still working on my writing (how could I not?). While I work on the novel, I've also taken the plunge into ScriptFrenzy, and I've already got over half the required minimum pages done for it; the source material is a currently-unfinished short story (I already know how the damn story's going to end anyway).
* Day Job has been dull. Bossman is still an idiot.
* Those of you that follow my music blog already know how I feel about the new Morning Musume album. ;) I need to bang a couple more reviews out of the way this week and get ready for my 4th blogging anniversary on the 11th.
* It looks like it's going to be a bastard of an allergy season this year, compared to last year when I got through pretty much unscathed. I had to cave in and get a box of Claritin-D today (something I didn't have to do last year until May) and between you and me, I hate having to go through all the hurdles that state and federal law makes one go through just to get a box of OTC medicine that actually fucking works!
* My uncle Joe, who is going to be my best man at the wedding, is in the hospital right now and has been since last Thursday night, after he'd taken three mini-strokes. Joseph Marsicano is a tough mofo - he still went to work at his office after that first mini-stroke! He rarely if ever gets ill, but when he does... oy vey! He's got an infection of his mitral valve (a seemingly genetic condition amongst his side of the family, as my mother had to have a valve replacement in 2003 and my grandmother [their mother] had one twenty-some years before.) The extent of the treatment isn't entirely known yet - most likely some sort of surgery - but since the rest of his ticker is fine we can all breathe easy a little. Complicating all of this, though, is an infection on his elbow that he's been dealing with for awhile and they need to take care of that first, and the doctors at the hospital were also looking to So, he won't be getting that valve taken care of right away, but it won't kill him and I'm thinking that he might postpone the operation until after my wedding. We shall see.
* Guitar practice: I'm trying not to slack off on the instrument. I kinda switched back to the Dunlop nylon 1mm picks. The Dunlop Jazz III's, which with their sharper pointed tips are great for intricate lead/solo picking, aren't that good for the way I play rhythm because of their smaller size, even though they're thicker and stiffer than the nylon 1mm's. Supposedly Dunlop has a larger variant of the Jazz III which is a more standard pick size, but I haven't located them yet outside of maybe Dunlop's own website.
How many total songs?
28876 items, 80.2 days worth of music
Sort by Song Title - first and last?
"~おはよう~" - Morning Musume
"+-" - Sonic Youth
Sort by Time - first and last?
"Fuck In A" - Gang Green (0:02)
"The copywrong Show" - Negativland (3:01:44)
Sort by Album - first and last?
"☆☆☆ (みつぼし)" - Koharu Kusumi
"8th AL "UNIVERSE"" - Koda Kumi
Top Ten Played Songs:
"女が目立って なぜイケナイ" = Morning Musume
"Fire to Burn" - Ratos De Porão
"Morning Coffee (2002 version)" - Morning Musume
"What's on Your Mind?" - Ace Frehley
"Top Secret" - HANGRY & ANGRY
"Tramp" - Somaya Reece
"泣き出すかもしれないよ" - Morning Musume
"Foxy & Free" - Ace Frehley
"New York Groove" - Ace Frehley
"Fractured Mirror" - Ace Frehley
(Between a forced change in laptops and a more recent iTunes crash, this is a far from true representation of how my listening habits have been over the past years)
Top Ten Recently Played:
"Kanashimi Twilight" - Morning Musume
"Kira Kira Fuyu No Shiny G" - Reina Tanaka
"Koko Ni Iruzee!" - Morning Musume
"Unconditional" - Will Ackerman
"Barbara'S Song" - Will Ackerman
"Hawk Circle" - Will Ackerman
"Pictures" - Will Ackerman
"The Impending Death of the Virgin Spirit" - Will Ackeman
"Anne's Song" - Will Ackerman
"The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter" - Will Ackerman
Find "sex", how many songs show up? 58
Find "death", how many songs show up? 77
Find "love", how many songs show up? 910
Find "peace". how many songs show up? 45
Find "rock", how many songs show up? 234
I would like to be more detailed but I cannot think of much to recall about the past several weeks except for the following:
* Wedding plans: Tara and I have gotten registered at three different places. We registered ourselves at Bed Bath & Beyond and Wal-Mart. Today my mother and her mother went to Boscov's to register us there as well. Neither of us were there for that - they just took printouts of the first two registries and came up with some ideas. Hey, an outside opinion can't hurt and I think they found a few things that we missed, which is a good thing.
* Writing: Way too slow going on the novel until late tonight when I hit an epiphany on how to approach it. I'll concentrate on that more this week. I also blame recent weather; when you shovel your sidewalk and garage stalls a few times in a 48 hour period, and your back is on the verge of screaming bloody fucking murder, you don't have much else in the way of choice but to take two Advil, lie down on the couch and reluctantly channel surf. Trying to sit up and type was not an option. My back has been like this since an incident when I was on the wrestling team in 6th grade: Some dumbfuck I was sparring with proceeded to inadvertently turn a fireman's carry into a bodyslam, and if I do something very repetitious/strenuous like shoveling snow, I pay for it.
* Guitar: Didn't touch it for two weeks until today - big mistake. Spent a lot of time warming up to try to compensate - mistake corrected. Should keep up with the guitar at least a little bit every day or so.
That's me in condensed form; What's everyone else been up to?
In memory of family and friends who have lost the battle with cancer; and in support of the ones who continue to conquer it! Post this on your LJ if you know someone who has or had cancer. 93% won't copy and paste this. Will you?
This is going to be fun, trying to remember all the shit that happened the last few days. But guess what? I probably can't.
( New Year's Fun )
Thinking about last year... part of it, quite frankly sucked! I wanted to be out of the jewelry store by the end of the year (didn't happen), wanted to get the manuscript for Here Is The Wonderland finished (I didn't, but I almost am), didn't get any other writing other than stuff for TGML finished, and I missed out on seeing Morning Musume's American debut performance! Considering that the year pretty much started with Ron Asheton dying, that should have been a sign right there!
This year, on top of the forthcoming nuptials, I have the following goals:
I've either been dead tired or dead busy, thus no posting from me lately (I tried to concentrate those energies on The Groove Music Life last week) so I'll get the Xmas gets out of the way first. I'm probably going to miss one or two things as I'm going from memory.
From Tara: A Guitar Hero T-shirt and sleep pants set, Rock Band shorts, a coffee table book about Iggy Pop & The Stooges, a copy of The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists (Handsome Dick Manitoba from The Dictators is one of the co-writers of the book), an Underdog T-shirt where he's decked out like an Ultimate Fighter, a yellow/green Animal (The Muppets) T-shirt, an Axe gift set, some disposable razors (handy stocking stuffer - I usually take at least one of these with us when we go somewhere overnight, which we'll be doing on New Year's Eve), a Nintendo DS cooking game with Jamie Oliver, a Sonic Tennis game for the Xbox (which I actually already have as it came with the Xbox I got last year), and a book called The Clinton Tapes. I'd gotten her a Blu-Ray player (she'd been wanting one for a couple of years), Blu-Ray discs of The Proposal and Night At The Museum II, a Vera Bradley purse and matching accessories (I'm the nut that got her into those purses not long after we started dating, as I'd gotten her one for her birthday in 2005), and an ornament.
From Tara's mother: A gift certificate for Gallery of Sound. I get those every birthday and Christmas from her.
From LVP: An Epiphone Les Paul guitar (same one I'd been considering buying at Guitar Center for awhile now - I'd told her about it but didn't think she'd surprise me with it), a Blu-Ray player (which I kinda knew I'd be getting - heck of a way to increase the surprise of getting the guitar!), a copy of This Is Spinal Tap on Blu-Ray (Knowing that I'd be getting a Blu-Ray, I got myself discs of Star Trek and Disney Earth when I ordered one of Tara's movies from Amazon), and a whole bunch of clothes. The guitar is pretty much the last major gift of my bachelorhood from my mother. Today I picked up a little Line 6 Micro Spider guitar amp for it - very diverse little amp with a built-in tuner, headphone jack, and a line-in for plugging in a CD player or iPod.
Most of my other relatives got me money. I still need to meet up with my Dad and do the exchange with him. The weather wasn't exactly too kind Christmas night and Boxing Day so I couldn't do anything then, and the excitement of getting the new practice amp overtook this evening.
Christmas night I went into my laundry room to discover that we were starting to get in some overflowing water via the drain behind our laundry room. First thing we did the next morning was call Roto-Rooter. A different gentleman than the guy we had the last three times this shit happened came, he took care of everything, and when I asked him if there was any kind of chemical or treatment that would prevent this from happening again he actually told me what to get it (their own brand of enzyme), where to get it (Lowes), and how to use it! A far change from the other guy we had, who was more concerned with having us make an appointment to get a certain machine brought over to "do the job" (on our finances, no doubt). With that out of the way, I just hung out the rest of the day (party thanks to the shitty weather) and watched a couple of Blu-Ray discs.
Today while LVP and I were in Wilkes-Barre and leaving Cracker Barrel (where we'd just had dinner), Tara messaged me and told me that she had a surprise for me, was there a place we could meet quick so she could give it to me? I said sure since we were going to Wegman's to grab some apple juice we'd meet there. She said give her ten minutes or so as she was across town so we stopped at Starbucks for drinks to go. I get to Wegman's, grab the apple juice, and come out a minute before Tara pulls into the parking lot. She hands me this humongous beef jerky she thought was calling my name (the CD and water bottle are there for size comparisons).
Five years ago on this day, I took a young woman named Tara Welsh out on our first date together. We went to see National Treasure.
I had first discovered her as the result of a bored-during-lunch-at-work search through LiveJournal for people in my area and my own age there in October of that year, communicated with her through Yahoo! Messenger for awhile, and first saw her face to face at the KMart photo lab she worked at on Black Friday. What is funny is, I had discovered the day before via one of her LJ posts that she lived three blocks down a side street from me.
Three years later, on Christmas Eve 2007, I proposed to her. In less than seven months, on June 26, 2010, we finally tie the knot.
Looking back to our first date itself, much of it resembled the lyrics of a certain Tanpopo song from what I consider to be their true classic lineup of Kaori Iida, Mari Yaguchi, Ai Kago and Rika Ishikawa or as I call it after close to six years of following Morning Musume [Tanpopo was one of many side projects involving Morning Musume members, for those of you not tuned into Japanese pop], the Johnson/Marippe/Aibon/Charmy lineup (derived from each members' nicknames). Tara is not a fan of J-pop by any stretch, but when I showed her the lyrics a little later on, she too was amused at how much the song's storyline resembled our first night out. So, in honor of a night five years ago that altered both of our lives for the better, here's that particular Tanpopo song, their classic "Koi Wo Shichaimashita" ("I Fell In Love")
I love you, Tara. <3
I have not posted a substantial update on here in quite some time. Things have been rather busy/hectic/tiring depending on the day, and with the holiday season in full swing, I don't see that changing much for the better before the year is out.
I have been spending a lot of time trying to get the novel finished but up until the other day, for a couple of weeks I was dealing with writer's constipation (not writer's block - that's totally different). It's frustrating though, because I was hoping I'd have this manuscript FINISHED by now. I can't believe it's been through three computers since I started it. In a way, that's depressing.
More time flying, thanks to ongoing wedding preparations: Tara's wedding dress was ordered on a Saturday and arrived on a Wednesday in record time! Friday, Tara stopped into the jewelry store where I work and we picked out our bands. Well, mine is put aside anyway - the one she wanted we had to order. Less than seven months of bachelorhood left! We're going with white gold to match Tara's engagement ring. I went with a basic white gold band; Tara wants diamonds in hers, which surprised me a little because she said she didn't want a fancy engagement ring.
Speaking of Tara's dress: No, I haven't seen it. No, I don't want to see it until the actual wedding. And no, I don't think it's the groom's business to know or help pick out the dress. I happened to see part of an episode of Say Yes To The Dress on TV a few weeks ago (thanks to LVP) where the bride-to-be actually had her fiance there in the room with her to see the dresses. What the fuck, buddy, trying to jinx your own wedding? Good lord! Yes, in some ways, I'm that old school!
Now that I'm warmed up with this journal entry I'm going to hack at the novel some more. I would have done that sooner, but with my DVR being bitchy I actually had to sit down and watch the Sons of Anarchy season finale as it was broadcast, rather than time-shift. Damn cliffhangers.


text:
Classes of 2009 - 2016
College Acceptances
There were 255 students in the first seven graduating classes of Carrollwood Day School.
100% of the graduates in all classes were accepted to a college or university.
|Class of 2010
21 graduates
|Class of 2011
19 graduates
|Class of 2012
31 graduates
|Class of 2013
45 graduates
|Class of 2014
68 graduates
|Class of 2015
60 graduates
CDS graduates have been offered admission to the colleges and universities listed below.
Class of 2016 acceptances are in bold.
** Indicates scholarships offered.
** Academy of Musical and Dramatic Arts
** Agnes Scott College
Alabama State University
** Allegheny College
American University
Appalachian State University
Arcadia University
**Assumption College
** Auburn University
**Ave Maria University
Averett University
** Baldwin Wallace University
Barnard College
Bates College
Belhaven University
** Bennington College
Berklee College of Music
** Berry College
Bethune Cookman University
** Birmingham Southern College
Boston University
** Bryn Mawr College
** Butler University
Butte College
California Polytechnic State University - Pomona
California State University
** Case Western Reserve University
** Catawba College
** Catholic University of America
Centre College
Chestnut Hill College
The Citadel
** Clark University
**Clemson University
College of Charleston
** College of the Holy Cross
Columbia College Chicago
** Concordia University
** Creighton University
** Dakota State University
Denison University
** DePaul University
**Dixie State University
** Drexel University
** Earlham College
East Carolina University
Eastern Michigan University
** Eckerd College
** Elon University
**Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Emerson College
** Emmanuel College
Emory University
** Fisher College
Flagler College
Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University
** Florida Atlantic University
Florida College
** Florida Gulf Coast University
** Florida Institute of Technology
Florida International University
Florida Memorial University
**Florida Polytechnic University
** Florida Southern College
** Florida State University
** Fordham University
Franklin College
** Furman University
Geneva College
George Mason University
** George Washington University
Georgia Institute of Technology
** Georgia Southern University
Georgia State University
Grambling State University
**Guilford College
Gustavous Adolphus College
** Hampshire College
** Hampton University
Harding University
** High Point University
Hillsborough County Community College
** Hofstra University
Howard University
Hult International Business School
** Indiana University
** Ithaca College
Jacksonville State University
** Jacksonville University
** James Madison University
** John Carroll University
** Johnson and Wales University
** Juniata College
Kentucky Christian University
King's College
Lafayette College
** Lees-McRae College
Lehigh University
** Louisiana State University
** Loyola University of Chicago
** Loyola University of Maryland
Loyola University New Orleans
** Lynn University
** Manhattan College
** Marquette University
Marymount Manhattan College
Maryville College
** Mercer University
Methodist University
** Miami University
Michigan State University
** Millsaps College
** Mississippi State University
** Monmouth University
** Montana State University
**Montreat College
** Mount Union College
** New College of Florida
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
** Nichols College
North Carolina State University
** North Park University
** Northeastern University
** Nova Southeastern University
[Dual B.S./D.O. Program]
** Oglethorpe University
** Ohio Dominican University
** The Ohio State University
** Ohio Wesleyan University
** Pace University
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Pasco Hernando Community College
Pennsylvania State University
Point Park University
** Presbyterian College
Principia College
** Providence College
Purdue University
** Quincy University
Randolph-Macon College
Reed College
** Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
** Ringling College of Art and Design
** Rollins College
Rutgers, State University of New Jersey
** St. John's University
** Saint Leo University
St. Petersburg College
** Salem College
** Samford University
Savannah College of Art and Design
School of Visual Arts
** Sewanee: The University of the South
Skidmore College
Smith College
** Southeastern University
** Southern Methodist University
** Southern Utah University
** Southwest Baptist University
** Spring Hill College
State University of New York - Buffalo
State University of New York - Stony Brook
** Stetson University
** Stony Brook University
Suffolk University
Syracuse University
Tallahassee Community College
Temple University
Tennessee State University
Tennessee Temple University
Texas A & M University
** Texas Christian University
** Tiffin University
Trinity College
** Trinity University
** Tulane University
** United States Coast Guard Academy
** The University of Alabama
** University of Arizona
University of California - Riverside
** University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
University of Cincinnati
University of Colorado - Boulder
University of Connecticut
** University of Dallas
** University of Dayton
University of Denver
** University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Hawaii
** University of Iowa
University of Kentucky
University of Maryland
University of Memphis
** University of Miami
University of Michigan
** University of Minnesota
The University of Mississippi
** University of Missouri
University of Nevada - Las Vegas
University of New Mexico
University of North Carolina
** University of North Florida
University of Northern Colorado
University of Oregon
University of San Diego
University of South Alabama
** University of South Carolina
** University of South Florida
University of South Florida
** University of Tampa
** University of Tennessee
University of Utah
University of Vermont
University of West Florida
University of Wisconsin
University of Wyoming
Valparaiso University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Wake Forest University
** Wartburg College
** Washington and Jefferson College
Washington College
Washington State University
Webber International University
Wellesley College
West Chester University
Western Carolina University
Western Kentucky University
Western New England University
** Westminster College
** Widener University
** Wilkes University
Wittenberg University
Queen Mary University of London
University of the Arts London
University of London, Goldsmith's College
University of Edinburgh
University of Northern British Columbia

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Attenuation of runoff and chemical loads in grass filter strips at two cattle feedlots, Minnesota, 1995-98
Water-Resources Investigations Report 2003-4036
- By:
- Stephen Charles Komor and Donald S. Hansen
- More information: USGS Index Page (html)
- Download citation as: RIS
AbstractAttenuation of cattle feedlot runoff in two grass-covered filter strips in Minnesota was estimated by measuring chemical loads into and out of the strips. Filter strips of the Bock and Sanborn sites were 60-m long and 20-m wide and received runoff from cattle feedlots that supported 35 and 225 cattle, respectively. Feedlot and filter-strip runoff were measured using flumes with stage sensors. Water samples were collected using automated samplers. Attenuation values were calculated from four storm-runoff events. Ground water sampled beneath and outside the filter strips indicated some infiltration losses of sulfate, chloride, and nitrogen at the Bock site where soil permeability was greater than at the Sanborn site. Chemical constituents in filter-strip runoff, and their corresponding ranges of attenuation were as follows: chemical oxygen demand, 30?81 percent; dissolved chloride, 6?79 percent; dissolved sulfate, -3?82 percent; dissolved ammonia nitrogen, 33?80 percent; suspended ammonia plus organic nitrogen, 29?85 percent; dissolved organic nitrogen, 14?75 percent; suspended phosphorus, 24?82 percent; dissolved phosphorus, 14?72 percent; and fecal coliform bacteria, 18?79 percent. The ranges seem to be affected by barriers of direct contact of the runoff water with the soil. This varies seasonally by coverage of the soil by ice in winter and vegetation in summer months. Greater attenuation values occurred in October and May when mats of wilted, flat-lying grass covered the filter strips; attenuation values were less during the summer when tall growing grass covered the filter strip
Additional publication details
- Publication type:
- Report
- Publication Subtype:
- USGS Numbered Series
- Title:
- Attenuation of runoff and chemical loads in grass filter strips at two cattle feedlots, Minnesota, 1995-98
- Series title:
- Water-Resources Investigations Report
- Series number:
- 2003-4036
- Edition:
- -
- Year Published:
- 2003
- Language:
- Description:
- iii, 15 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.


text: This special opportunity is for local U.Va. alumni, parents and friends. The Lifetime Learning Program and the Alumni Association collaborate to offer a unique educational experience during Black Alumni Weekend and Reunions Weekend. Selected Reunions Seminars are free and open for you to attend. Seminars are held in Charlottesville on the University's Grounds.


text:
NCAA Games Online For Free - CBI, Not So Much
I can sense your excitement for the inaugural College Basketball Invitational from all the way over here, so please, tone it down a bit. There are children present. The Final Four (second regression) of Virginia, Tulsa, Houston, and Bradley is indeed more excitement than a non-exploding skull can handle.
(CBI isn't free, it costs more than a buck oh-five.)
Moreover, you're feenin' to catch those games online. Surely a fledgling tourney wants to get their product out to the masses as easy as possible, much like the NCAA tournament does with their free streaming games online … or, you know, the CBI could also charge $7 per game for buffering goodness. Either way works. Read more…


text:
Now in its ninth edition, iPod & iTunes For Dummies is the ultimate beginner's guide for getting started with the iPod and Apple's iTunes service. Bestselling veteran author Tony Bove helps you get comfortable with using the iPod as more than just a digital music player. You'll learn to record videos and take pictures, video chat with FaceTime, surf the web, rent movies, buy songs, send and receive e-mail, get directions, and much more. Completely revised throughout, this fun and friendly book walks you through using iTunes to import music, videos, apps, books, and podcasts as well as burn CDs, sync with iPod, and play music through your home stereo.
Tune in! iPod and iTunes For Dummies, 9th Edition, guides you through all the latest updates and enhancements so that you can start enjoying iTunes and your iPod today!
eBookMall is a recognized leader in eBooks. eBook downloads in PDF and ePub formats. Choose from 600,000+ eBooks and get a Free eBook download now!
Copyright © 2000-2016 eBookMall.com This website is subject to copyright laws and may be covered by other intellectual property.All rights reserved.


text:
Created entirely from the aromatic Moscato grape, Pellegrino Passito di Pantelleria offers an elegant, complex nose of apricot, fig and candied citrus fruit which leads to a sweet, beautifully balanced palate bursting with rich, intense fruit. Delicate hints of wild herb, flowers and minerals complement the lingering finish.
Vito Curatolo Arini Marsala Superiore Riserva is composed of carefully selected Grillo, Cataratto and Inzolia grapes, and has been aged in Slavonian oak casks for at least ten years. An intense nose of bitter almonds, dates and vanilla leads to a dry, full bodied palate with elegant fruit notes accented by hints of spice.
Welcome to DrinkUpNY - the ultimate online wine store! Our extensive selection of wine and spirits includes a variety of artisanal domestic brands, as well as acclaimed international imports. Buy wine online and have it shipped to your home or office, just in time for a dinner party or holiday celebration! Buying wine online is easy - browse our wide variety of wine and spirits and add your desired selection to your shopping cart. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have and to take advantage of our extensive knowledge of wine and spirits.


text:
As Clouds Emerge by AtomicBrownieWatch
©2011-2016 AtomicBrownie
Then make it as your wallpaper now.
Oh man... mind if I use this as my desktop wallpaper? It's gorgeous
Sure, go ahead (: Sorry for the late reply xD
I have always wanted to take a picture of this just like this...but my cameras were always too generic to take such a crisp clean picture while in motionI am so jealous, but in a good way
Sorry to hear that, I've had that experience countless times too...especially when trying to photograph a nice landscape while in a car ): But keep at it! It's bound to come out well someday (:
Makes me wanna fly again
I always tried to fly as a kid by flapping my arms, never worked. xD
Whoa... awesome!
simply phenomenal
Simply amazing! Can't believe the view! Great work. Keep it up! c:
taken out of an airplane? amazing
that is totally awesome!!!!!
Great view of the sky.
yay...cool...did i smoke too much ??? hell no...
that is so cool!


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it's a sam's club behind home depot
Costco is still looking
First of all, I know Brian and he is a fine lawyer. He is not an" ambulance chasing attorney" but maybe that term hit a nerve....
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text: Shout Out on 6: Morning-After Pill Results on the 11 p.m. news View Comments () | Email | Print NEWSLETTERS Receive the latest local updates in your inbox Privacy policy | More Newsletters Shout Out on 6 Should girls as young as 15 be able to buy the morning-after pill? To vote, call or text 305-600-5161 or vote on NBC 6 South Florida's Facebook and Twitter accounts. Published at 7:33 PM EDT on Apr 30, 2013